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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/29390-8.txt b/29390-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1137365 --- /dev/null +++ b/29390-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,10152 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Astounding Stories of Super-Science April +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 April 1930 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Harry Bates + +Release Date: July 12, 2009 [EBook #29390] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES, APRIL 1930 *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Meredith Bach, 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 + DOUGLAS M. DOLD, Consulting Editor + + +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, WIDE WORLD ADVENTURES, ALL STAR DETECTIVE STORIES, FLYERS, +RANGELAND LOVE STORY MAGAZINE, SKY-HIGH LIBRARY MAGAZINE, WESTERN +ADVENTURES, MISS 1930, _and_ FOREST AND STREAM + +_More Than Two Million Copies Required to Supply the Monthly Demand for +Clayton Magazines._ + + + + + VOL. II, No. 1 CONTENTS APRIL, 1930 + + + COVER DESIGN H. W. WESSOLOWSKI + + _Painted in Water-colors from a Scene in "Monsters of Moyen."_ + + + THE MAN WHO WAS DEAD THOMAS H. KNIGHT 9 + + _As Jerry's Eyes Fell on the Creature's Head, He Shuddered--for the + Face Was Nothing but Bone, with Dull-brown Skin Stretched Taut over It. + A Skeleton That Was Alive!_ + + + MONSTERS OF MOYEN ARTHUR J. BURKS 18 + + _"The Western World Shall be Next!" Was the Dread Ultimatum of the + Half-monster, Half-god Moyen._ + + + VAMPIRES OF VENUS ANTHONY PELCHER 47 + + _Leslie Larner, an Entomologist Borrowed from the Earth, Pits Himself + Against the Night-flying Vampires That Are Ravaging the Inhabitants + of Venus._ + + + BRIGANDS OF THE MOON RAY CUMMINGS 60 + + _Out of Awful Space Tumbled the Space-ship Planetara Towards the + Moon, Her Officers Dead, With Bandits at Her Helm--and the Controls + Out of Order!_ + + + THE SOUL SNATCHER TOM CURRY 101 + + _From Twenty Miles Away Stabbed the "Atom-filtering" Rays to Allen + Baker in His Cell in the Death House._ + + + THE RAY OF MADNESS CAPTAIN S. P. MEEK 112 + + _Dr. Bird Uncovers a Dastardly Plot, Amazing in its Mechanical + Ingenuity, Behind the Apparently Trivial Eye Trouble of the + President._ + + + THE READERS' CORNER ALL OF US 127 + + _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. +Application for entry as second-class mail pending at the Post Office at +New York, 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. + + + + +The Man Who Was Dead + +_By Thomas H. Knight_ + +[Illustration: "_I was dead._"] + + As Jerry's eyes fell on the creature's head, he shuddered--for the + face was nothing but bone, with dull-brown skin stretched taut over + it. A skeleton that was alive! + + +It was a wicked night, the night I met the man who had died. A bitter, +heart-numbing night of weird, shrieking wind and flying snow. A few +black hours I will never forget. + +"Well, Jerry, lad!" my mother said to me as I pushed back from the table +and started for my sheepskin coat and the lantern in the corner of the +room. "Surely you're not going out a night like this? Goodness gracious, +Jerry, it's not fit!" + +"Can't help it, Mother," I replied. "Got to go. You've never seen me +miss a Saturday night yet, have you now?" + +"No. But then I've never seen a night like this for years either. Jerry, +I'm really afraid. You may freeze before you even get as far as--" + +"Ah, come now, Mother," I argued. "They'd guy me to death if I didn't +sit in with the gang to-night. They'd chaff me because it was too cold +for me to get out. But I'm no pampered sissy, you know, and I want to +see--" + +"Yes," she retorted bitingly, "I know. You want to go and bask in that +elegant company. Our stove's just as good as the one down at that dirty +old store," continued my persistent and anxious parent, "and it's +certainly not very flattering to think that you leave us on a night like +this to--Who'll be there, anyway?" + +"Oh, the usual five or six I suppose," I answered as I adjusted the wick +of my lantern, hearing as I did the snarl and cut of the wind through +the evergreens in the yard. + +"That black-whiskered sphinx, Hammersly, will he be there?" + +"Yes, he'll be there, I'm pretty sure." + +"Hm-m!" she exclaimed, her expression now carrying all the contempt for +my judgment and taste she intended it should. "Button your coat up good +around your neck, then, if you must go to see your precious Hammersly +and the rest of them. Have you ever heard that man say anything yet? +Does he speak at all, Jerry?" Then her gentle mind, not at all +accustomed to hard thoughts or contemptuous remarks, quickly changed. +"Funny thing about that fellow," she mused. "He's got something on his +mind. Don't you think so, Jerry?" + +"Y-es, yes I do. And I've often wondered what it could be. He +certainly's a queer stick. Got to admit that. Always brooding. Good +fellow all right, and, for a 'sphinx' as you call him, likable. But I +wonder what is eating him?" + +"What do you suppose it could be, Jerry boy?" questioned Mother +following me to the door, the woman of her now completely forgetting her +recent criticisms and, perhaps, the rough night her son was about to +step into. "Do you suppose the poor chap has a--a--broken heart, or +something like that? A girl somewhere who jilted him? Or maybe he loves +someone he has no right to!" she finished excitedly, the plates in her +hand rattling. + +"Maybe it's worse than that," I ventured. "P'r'aps--I've no right to say +it--but p'r'aps, and I've often thought it, there's a killing he wants +to forget, and can't!" + + * * * * * + +I heard my mother's sharp little "Oh!" as I shut the door behind me and +the warmth and comfort of the room away. Outside it was worse than the +whistle of the wind through the trees had led me to expect. Black as +pitch it was, and as cold as blazes. For the first moment or two, +though, I liked the feel of the challenge of the night and the racing +elements, was even a little glad I had added to the dare of the +blackness the thought of Hammersly and his "killing." But I had not gone +far before I was wishing I did not have to save my face by putting in an +appearance at the store that night. + +Every Saturday night, with the cows comfortable in their warm barn, and +my own supper over, I was in the habit of taking my place on the keg or +box behind the red-hot stove in Pruett's store. To-night all the snow +was being hurled clear of the fields to block the roads full between the +old, zigzag fences. The wind met me in great pushing gusts, and while it +flung itself at me I would hang against it, snow to my knees, until the +blow had gone along, when I could plunge forward again. I was glad when +I saw the lights of the store, glad when I was inside. + +They met me with mock applause for my pluck in facing the night, but for +all their sham flattery I was pleased I had come, proud, I must admit, +that I had been able to plough my heavy way through the drifts to reach +them. I saw at a glance that my friends were all there, and I saw too +that there was a strange man present. + + * * * * * + +A very tall man he was, gaunt and awkward as he leaned into the angle of +the two counters, his back to a dusty show-case. He attracted my +attention at once. Not merely because he appeared so long and pointed +and skinny, but because, of all ridiculous things in that frozen +country, he wore a hard derby hat! If he had not been such a queer +character it would have been laughable, but as it was it was--creepy. +For the man beneath that hard hat was about as queer a looking character +as I have ever seen. I supposed he was a visitor at the store, or a +friend of one of my friends, and that in a little while I would be +introduced. But I was not. + +I took my place in behind the stove, feeling at once, though I am far +from being unsociable usually, that the man was an intruder and would +spoil the evening. But despite his cold, dampening presence we were soon +at it, hammer and tongs, discussing the things that are discussed behind +hospitable stoves in country stores on bad nights. But I could never +lose sight of the fact that the stranger standing there, silent as the +grave, was, to say the least, a queer one. Before long I was sure he was +no friend or guest of anyone there, and that he not only cast a pall +over me but over all of us. I did not like it, nor did I like him. +Perhaps it would have been just as well after all, I thought, had I +heeded my mother and stayed home. + +Jed Counsell was the one who, innocently enough, started the thing that +changed the evening, that had begun so badly, into a nightmare. + +"Jerry," he said, leaning across to me, "thinkin' of you s'afternoon. +Readin' an article about reincarnation. Remember we were arguin' it last +week? Well, this guy, whoever he was I've forgot, believes in it. Says +it's so. That people _do_ come back." With this opening shot Jed sat +back to await my answer. I liked these arguments and I liked to bear my +share in them, but now, instead of immediately answering the challenge, +I looked around to see if any other of our circle were going to answer +Jed. Then, deciding it was up to me, I shrugged off the strange feeling +the man in the corner had cast over me, and prepared to view my +opinions. + +"That's just that fellow's belief, Jed," I said. "And just as he's got +his so have I mine. And on this subject at least I claim my opinion is +as good as anybody's." I was just getting nicely started, and a little +forgetting my distaste for the man in the corner, when the fellow +himself interrupted. He left his leaning place, and came creaking across +the floor to our circle around the store. I say he came "creaking" for +as he came he did creak. "Shoes," I naturally, almost unconsciously +decided, though the crazy notion was in my mind that the cracking I +heard did sound like bones and joints and sinews badly in need of oil. +The stranger sat his groaning self down among us, on a board lying +across a nail keg and an old chair. Only from the corner of my eye did I +see his movement, being friendly enough, despite my dislike, not to +allow too marked notice of his attempt to be sociable seem inhospitable +on my part. I was about to start again with my argument when Seth +Spears, sitting closest to the newcomer, deliberately got up from the +bench and went to the counter, telling Pruett as he went that he had to +have some sugar. It was all a farce, a pretext, I knew. I've known Seth +for years and had never known him before to take upon himself the buying +for his wife's kitchen. Seth simply would not sit beside the man. + + * * * * * + +At that I could keep my eyes from the stranger no longer, and the next +moment I felt my heart turn over within me, then lie still. I have seen +"walking skeletons" in circuses, but never such a man as the one who was +then sitting at my right hand. Those side-show men were just lean in +comparison to the fellow who had invaded our Saturday night club. His +thighs and his legs and his knees, sticking sharply into his trousers, +looked like pieces of inch board. His shoulders and his chest seemed as +flat and as sharp as his legs. The sight of the man shocked me. I sprang +to my feet thoroughly frightened. I could not see much of his face, +sitting there in the dark as he was with his back to the yellow light, +but I could make out enough of it to know that it was in keeping with +the rest of him. + +In a moment or two, realizing my childishness, I had fought down my fear +and, pretending that a scorching of my leg had caused my hurried +movement, I sat down again. None of the others said a word, each waiting +for me to continue and to break the embarrassing silence. Hammersly, +black-whiskered, the "sphinx" as my mother had called him, watched me +closely. Hating myself not a little bit for actually being the sissy I +had boasted I was not, I spoke hurriedly, loudly, to cover my confusion. + +"No sir, Jed!" I said, taking up my argument. "When a man's dead, he's +dead! There's no bringing him back like that highbrow claimed. The old +heart may be only hitting about once in every hundred times, and if they +catch it right at the last stroke they may bring it back then, but once +she's stopped, Jed, she's stopped for good. Once the pulse has gone, and +life has flickered out, it's out. And it doesn't come back in any form +at all, not in this world!" + +I was glad when I had said it, thereby asserting myself and downing my +foolish fear of the man whose eyes I felt burning into me. I did not +turn to look at him but all the while I felt his gimlety eyes digging +into my brain. + +Then he spoke. And though he sat right next to me his voice sounded like +a moan from afar off. It was the first time we had heard this thing that +once may have been a voice and that now sounded like a groan from a +closely nailed coffin. He reached a hand toward my knee to enforce his +words, but I jerked away. + +"So you don't believe a man can come back from the grave, eh?" he +grated. "Believe that once a man's heart is stilled it's stopped for +good, eh? Well, you're all wrong, sonny. All wrong! You believe these +things. I _know_ them!" + + * * * * * + +His interference, his condescension, his whole hatefulness angered me. I +could now no longer control my feeling. "Oh! You _know_, do you?" I +sneered. "On such a subject as this you're entitled to _know_, are you? +Don't make me laugh!" I finished insultingly. I was aroused. And I'm a +big fellow, with no reason to fear ordinary men. + +"Yes, I know!" came back his echoing, scratching voice. + +"How do you know? Maybe you've been--?" + +"Yes, I have!" he answered, his voice breaking to a squeak. "Take a good +look at me, gentlemen. A good look." He knew now that he held the center +of the stage, that the moment was his. Slowly he raised an arm to remove +that ridiculous hat. Again I jumped to my feet. For as his coat sleeve +slipped down his forearm I saw nothing but bone supporting his hand. And +the hand that then bared his head was a skeleton hand! Slowly the hat +was lifted, but as quickly as light six able-bodied men were on their +feet and half way to the door before we realized the cowardliness of it. +We forced ourselves back inside the store very slowly, all of us rather +ashamed of our ridiculous and childlike fear. + +But it was all enough to make the blood curdle, with that live, dead +thing sitting there by our fire. His face and skull were nothing but +bone, the eyes deeply sunk into their sockets, the dull-brown skin like +parchment in its tautness, drawn and shriveled down onto the nose and +jaw. There were no cheeks. Just hollows. The mouth was a sharp slit +beneath the flat nose. He was hideous. + +"Come back and I'll tell you my yarn," he mocked, the slit that was his +mouth opening a little to show us the empty, blackened gums. "I've been +dead once," he went on, getting a lot of satisfaction from the weirdness +of the lie and from our fear, "and _I_ came back. Come and sit down and +I'll explain why I'm this living skeleton." + + * * * * * + +We came back slowly, and as I did I slipped my hand into my outside +pocket where I had a revolver. I put my finger in on the trigger and got +ready to use the vicious little thing. I was on edge and torn to pieces +completely by the sight of the man, and I doubt not that had he made a +move towards me my frayed nerves would have plugged him full of lead. I +eyed my friends. They were in no better way than was I. Fright and +horror stood on each face. Hammersly was worst. His hands were +twitching, his eyes were like bright glass, his face bleached and drawn. + +"I've quite a yarn to tell," went on the skeleton in his awful voice. +"I've had quite a life. A full life. I've taken my fun and my pleasure +wherever I could. Maybe you'll call me selfish and greedy, but I always +used to believe that a man only passed this way once. Just like you +believe," he nodded to me, his neck muscles and jaws creaking. "Six +years ago I came up into this country and got a job on a farm," he went +on, settling into his story. "Just an ordinary job. But I liked it +because the farmer had a pretty little daughter of about sixteen or +seventeen and as easy as could be. You may not believe it, but you can +still find dames green enough to fall for the right story. + +"This one did. I told her I was only out there for a time for my health. +That I was rich back in the city, with a fine home and everything. She +believed me. Little fool!" He chuckled as he said it, and my anger, +mounting with his every devilish word, made the finger on the trigger in +my pocket take a tighter crook to itself. "I asked her to skip with me," +the droning went on, "made her a lot of great promises, and she fell for +it." His dry jaw bones clanked and chattered as if he enjoyed the +beastly recital of his achievement, while we sat gaping at him, +believing either that the man must be mad, or that we were the mad ones, +or dreaming. + +"We slipped away one night," continued the beast. "Went to the city. To +a punk hotel. For three weeks we stayed there. Then one morning I told +her I was going out for a shave. I was. I got the shave. But I hadn't +thought it worth while to tell her I wouldn't be back. Well, she got +back to the farm some way, though I don't know--" + + * * * * * + +"What!" I shouted, springing before him. "What! You mean you left her +there! After you'd taken her, you left her! And here you sit crowing +over it! Gloating! Boasting! Why you--!" I lived in a rough country. +Associated with rough men, heard their vicious language, but seldom used +a strong word myself. But as I stood over that monster, utterly hating +the beastly thing, all the vile oaths and prickly language of the +countryside, no doubt buried in some unused cell in my brain, spilled +from my tongue upon him. When I had lashed him as fiercely as I was able +I cried: "Why don't you come at me? Didn't you hear what I called you? +You beast! I'd like to riddle you!" I shouted, drawing my gun. + +"Aw, sit down!" he jeered, waving his rattling hand at me. "You ain't +heard a thing yet. Let me finish. Well, she got back to the farm some +way or another, and something over a year later I wandered into this +country again too. I never could explain just why I came back. It was +not altogether to see the girl. Her father was a little bit of a man and +I began to remember what a meek and weak sheep he was. I got it into my +head that it'd be fun to go back to his farm and rub it in. So I came. + +"Her father was trying out a new corn planter right at the back door +when I rounded the house and walked towards him. Then I saw, at once, +that I had made a mistake. When he put his eyes on me his face went +white and hard. He came down from the seat of that machine like a flash, +and took hurried steps in the direction of a doublebarrelled gun +leaning against the woodshed. They always were troubled with hawks and +kept a gun handy. But there was an ax nearer to me than the gun was to +him. I had to work fast but I made it all right. I grabbed that ax, +jumped at him as he reached for the gun, and swung--once. His wife, and +the girl too, saw it. Then I turned and ran." + + * * * * * + +The gaunt brute before us slowly crossed one groaning knee above the +other. We were all sitting again now. The perspiration rolled down my +face. I held my gun trained upon him, and, though I now believed he was +totally mad, because of a certain ring of truth in that empty voice, I +sat fascinated. I looked at Seth. His jaw was hanging loose, his eyes +bulging. Hammersly's mouth was set in a tight clenched line, his eyes +like fire in his blue, drawn face. I could not see the others. + +"The telephone caught me," continued our ghastly story-teller, "and in +no time at all I was convicted and the date set for the hanging. When my +time was pretty close a doctor or scientist fellow came to see me who +said, 'Blaggett, you're slated to die. How much will you sell me your +body for?' If he didn't say it that way he meant just that. And I said, +'Nothing. I've no one to leave money to. What do you want with my body?' +And he told me, 'I believe I can bring you back to life and health, +provided they don't snap your neck when they drop you.' 'Oh, you're one +of _those_ guys, are you?' I said then. 'All right, hop to it. If you +can do it I'll be much obliged. Then I can go back on that farm and do a +little more ax swinging!'" Again came his horrible chuckle, again I +mopped my brow. + +"So we made our plans," he went on, pleased with our discomfiture and +our despising of him. "Next day some chap came to see me, pretending he +was my brother. And I carried out my part of it by cursing him at first +and then begging him to give me decent burial. So he went away, and, I +suppose, received permission to get me right after I was cut down. + +"There was a fence built around the scaffold they had ready for me and +the party I was about to fling, and they had some militia there, too. +The crowd seemed quiet enough till they led me out. Then their buzzing +sounded like a hive of bees getting all stirred up. Then a few loud +voices, then shouts. Some rocks came flying at me after that, and it +looked to me as though the hanging would not be so gentle a party after +all. I tell you I was afraid. I wished it was over. + + * * * * * + +"The mob pushed against the fence and flattened it out, coming over it +like waves over a beach. The soldiers fired into the air, but still they +came, and I, I ran--up, onto the scaffold. It was safer!" As he said +this he chuckled loudly. "I'll bet," he laughed, "that's the first time +a guy ever ran into the noose for the safety of it! The mob came only to +the foot of the scaffold though, from where they seemed satisfied to see +the law take its course. The sheriff was nervous. So cut up that he only +made a fling at tying my ankles, just dropped a rope around my wrists. +He was like me, he wanted to get it over, and the crowd on its way. Then +he put the rope around my neck, stepped back and shot the trap. Zamm! No +time for a prayer--or for me to laugh at the offer!--or a last word or +anything. + +"I felt the floor give, felt myself shoot through. Smack! My weight on +the end of the rope hit me behind the ears like a mallet. Everything +went black. Of course it would have been just my luck to get a broken +neck out of it and give the scientist no chance to revive me. But after +a second or two, or a minute, or it could have been an hour, the +blackness went away enough to allow me to know I was hanging on the end +of the rope, kicking, fighting, choking to death. My tongue swelled, my +face and head and heart and body seemed ready to burst. Slowly I went +into a deep mist that I knew then was _the_ mist, then--then--I was off +floating in the air over the heads of the crowd, watching my own +hanging! + +"I saw them give that slowly swinging carcass on the end of its rope +time enough to thoroughly die, then, from my aerial, unseen watching +place, I saw them cut it--me--down. They tried the pulse of the body +that had been mine, they examined my staring eyes. Then I heard them +pronounce me dead. The fools! I had known I was dead for a minute or two +by that time, else how could my spirit have been gone from the shell and +be out floating around over their heads?" + + * * * * * + +He paused here as he asked his question, his head turning on its dry and +creaking neck to include us all in his query. But none of us spoke. We +were dreaming it all, of course, or were mad, we thought. + +"In just a short while," went on the skeleton, "my 'brother' came +driving slowly in for my body. With no special hurry he loaded me onto +his little truck and drove easily away. But once clear of the crowd he +pushed his foot down on the gas and in five more minutes--with me +hovering all the while alongside of him, mind you--floating along as +though I had been a bird all my life--we turned into the driveway of a +summer home. The scientific guy met him. They carried me into the house, +into a fine-fitted laboratory. My dead body was placed on a table, a +huge knife ripped my clothes from me. + +"Quickly the loads from ten or a dozen hypodermic syringes were shot +into different parts of my naked body. Then it was carried across the +room to what looked like a large glass bottle, or vase, with an opening +in the top. Through this door I was lowered, my body being held upright +by straps in there for that purpose. The door to the opening was then +placed in position, and by means of an acetylene torch and some easily +melting glass, the door was sealed tight. + +"So there stood my poor old body. Ready for the experiment to bring it +back to life. And as my new self floated around above the scientist and +his helper I smiled to myself, for I was sure the experiment would prove +a failure, even though I now knew that the sheriff's haste had kept him +from placing the rope right at my throat and had saved me a broken neck. +I was dead. All that was left of me now was my spirit, or soul. And that +was swimming and floating about above their heads with not an +inclination in the world to have a thing to do with the husk of the man +I could clearly see through the glass of the bell. + + * * * * * + +"They turned on a huge battery of ultra-violet rays then," continued the +hollow droning of the man who had been hanged, "which, as the scientist +had explained to me while in prison, acting upon the contents of the +syringes, by that time scattered through my whole body, was to renew the +spark of life within the dead thing hanging there. Through a tube, and +by means of a valve entering the glass vase in the top, the scientist +then admitted a dense white gas. So thick was it that in a moment or two +my body's transparent coffin appeared to be full of a liquid as white as +milk. Electricity then revolved my cage around so that my body was +insured a complete and even exposure to the rays of the green and violet +lamps. And while all this silly stuff was going on, around and around +the laboratory I floated, confident of the complete failure of the whole +thing, yet determined to see it through if for no other reason than to +see the discomfiture and disappointment that this mere man was bound to +experience. You see, I was already looking back upon earthly mortals as +being inferior, and now as I waited for this proof I was all the while +fighting off a new urge to be going elsewhere. Something was calling me, +beckoning me to be coming into the full spirit world. But I wanted to +see this wise earth guy fail. + +"For a little while conditions stayed the same within that glass. So +thick was the liquid gas in there at first that I could see nothing. +Then it began to clear, and I saw to my surprise that the milky gas was +disappearing because it was being forced in by the rays from the lights +in through the pores into the body itself. As though my form was sucking +it in like a sponge. The scientist and his helper were tense and taut +with excitement. And suddenly my comfortable feeling left me. Until then +it had seemed so smooth and velvety and peaceful drifting around over +their heads, as though lying on a soft, fleecy cloud. But now I felt a +sudden squeezing of my spirit body. Then I was in an agony. Before I +knew what I was doing my spirit was clinging to the outside of that +twisting glass bell, clawing to get into the body that was coming back +to life! The glass now was perfectly clear of the gas, though as yet +there was no sign of life in the body inside to hint to the scientist +that he was to be successful. But I knew it. For I fought desperately to +break in through the glass to get back into my discarded shell of a body +again, knowing I must get in or die a worse death than I had before. + +"Then my sharper eyes noted a slight shiver passing over the white thing +before me, and the scientist must have seen it in the next second, for +he sprang forward with a choking cry of delight. Then the lolling head +inside lifted a bit. I--still desperately clinging with my spirit hands +to the outside, and all the time growing weaker and weaker--I saw the +breast of my body rise and fall. The assistant picked up a heavy steel +hammer and stood ready to crash open the glass at the right moment. Then +my once dead eyes opened in there to look around, while I, clinging and +gasping outside, just as I had on the scaffold, went into a deeper, +darker blackness than ever. Just before my spirit life died utterly I +saw the eyes of my body realize completely what was going on, then--from +the inside now--I saw the scientist give the signal that caused the +assistant to crash away the glass shell with one blow of his hammer. + +"They reached in for me then, and I fainted. When I came back to +consciousness I was being carefully, slowly revived, and nursed back to +life by oxygen and a pulmotor." + + * * * * * + +The terrible creature telling us this tale paused again to look around. +My knees were weak, my clothes wet with sweat. + +"Is that all?" I asked in a piping, strange voice, half sarcastic, half +unbelieving, and wholly spellbound. + +"Just about," he answered. "But what do you expect? I left my friend the +scientist at once, even though he did hate to see me go. It had been all +right while he was so keen on the experiment himself and while he only +half believed his ability to bring me back. But now that he'd done it, +it kinda worried him to think what sort of a man he was turning loose of +the world again. I could see how he was figuring, and because I had no +idea of letting him try another experiment on me, p'r'aps of putting me +away again, I beat it in a hurry. + +"That was five years ago. For five years I've lived with only just part +of me here. Whatever it was trying to get back into that glass just +before my body came to life--my spirit, I've been calling it--I've been +without. It never did get back. You see, the scientist brought me back +inside a shell that kept my spirit out. That's why I'm the skeleton you +see I am. Something vital is missing." + +He stood up cracking and creaking before us, buttoning his loose coat +about his angular body. "Well, boys," he asked lightly, "what do you +think of that?" + +"I think you're a liar! A damn liar!" I cried. "And now, if you don't +want me to fill you full of lead, get out of here and get out now! If I +have to do it to you, there's no scientist this time to bring you back. +When you go out you'll stay out!" + +"Don't worry," he grimaced back to me, waving a mass of bones that +should have been a hand contemptuously at me, "I'm going. I'm headed for +Shelton." He stalked the length of the floor and shut the door behind +him. The beast had gone. + +"The dirty liar!" I cried. "I wish--yes--I wish I had an excuse to kill +him. Just think of that being loose, will you? A brute who would think +up such a yarn! Of course it's all absurd. All crazy. All a lie." + +"No. It's not a lie." + + * * * * * + +I turned to see who had spoken. Hammersly's voice was so unfamiliar and +now so torn in addition that I could not have thought he had spoken, had +he not been looking right at me, his glittering eyes challenging my +assertion. Would wonders never cease? I asked myself. First this +outrageous yarn, now Hammersly, the "sphinx," expressing an opinion, +looking for an argument! Of course it must be that his susceptible and +brooding brain had been turned a bit by the evening we had just +experienced. + +"Why Hammersly! You don't believe it?" I asked. + +"I not only believe it, Jerry, but now it's my turn to say, as he did, I +_know_ it! Jerry, old friend," he went on, "that devil told the truth. +He was hanged. He was brought back to life; and Jerry--I was that +scientist!" + +Whew! I fell back to a box again. My knees seemed to forsake me. Then I +heard Hammersly talking to himself. + +"Five years it's been," he muttered. "Five years since I turned him +loose again. Five years of agony for me, wondering what new devilish +crimes he was perpetrating, wondering when he would return to that +little farm to swing his ax again. Five years--five years." + +He came over to me, and without a word of explanation or to ask my +permission he reached his hand into my pocket and drew out my revolver, +and I did not protest. + +"He said he was headed for Shelton," went on Hammersly's spoken +thoughts. "If I slip across the ice I can intercept him at Black's +woods." Buttoning his coat closely, he followed the stranger out into +the night. + + * * * * * + +I was glad the moon had come up for my walk home, glad too when I had +the door locked and propped with a chair behind me. I undressed in the +dark, not wanting any grisly, sunken-eyed monster to be looking in +through the window at me. For maybe, so I thought, maybe he was after +all not headed for Shelton, but perhaps planning on another of his +ghastly tricks. + +But in the morning we knew he had been going toward Shelton. Scientists, +doctors, and learned men of all descriptions came out to our village to +see the thing the papers said Si Waters had stumbled upon when on his +way to the creamery that next morning. + +It was a skeleton, they said, only that it had a dry skin all over it. A +mummy. Could not have been considered capable of containing life only +that the snow around it was lightly blotched with a pale smear that +proved to be blood, that had oozed out from the six bullet holes in the +horrid chest. They never did solve it. + +There were five of us in the store that night. Five of us who know. +Hammersly did what we all wanted to do. Of course his name is not really +Hammersly, but it has done here as well as another. He is +black-whiskered though, and he is still very much of a sphinx, but he'll +never have to answer for having killed the man he once brought back to +life. Hammersly's secret will go into five other graves besides his +own. + + + + +Monsters of Moyen + +_By Arthur J. Burks_ + +[Illustration: "_Now," said Kleig hoarsely, "watch closely, for +God's sake!_"] + + "The Western World shall be next!" was the dread ultimatum of the + half-monster, half-god Moyen! + + +_Foreword_ + + +In 1935 the mighty genius of Moyen gripped the Eastern world like a hand +of steel. In a matter of months he had welded the Orient into an +unbeatable war-machine. He had, through the sheer magnetism of a strange +personality, carried the Eastern world with him on his march to conquest +of the earth, and men followed him with blind faith as men in the past +have followed the banners of the Thaumaturgists. + +A strange name, to the sound of which none could assign nationality. +Some said his father was a Russian refugee, his mother a Mongol woman. +Some said he was the son of a Caucasian woman lost in the Gobi and +rescued by a mad lama of Tibet, who became father of Moyen. Some said +that his mother was a goddess, his father a fiend out of hell. + +[Illustration] + +But this all men knew about him: that he combined within himself the +courage of a Hannibal, the military genius of a Napoleon, the ideals of +a Sun Yat Sen; and that he had sworn to himself he would never rest +until the earth was peopled by a single nation, with Moyen himself in +the seat of the mighty ruler. + +Madagascar was the seat of his government, from which he looked across +into United Africa, the first to join his confederacy. The Orient was a +dependency, even to that forbidden land of the Goloks, where outlanders +sometimes went, but whence they never returned--and to the wild Goloks +he was a god whose will was absolute, to render obedience to whom was a +privilege accorded only to the Chosen. + + * * * * * + +In a short year his confederacy had brought under his might the millions +of Asia, which he had welded into a mighty machine for further conquest. + +And because the Americas saw the handwriting on the wall, they sent out +to see the man Moyen, with orders to penetrate to his very side, as a +spy, their most trusted Secret Agent--Prester Kleig. + +Only the ignorant believed that Moyen was mad. The military and +diplomatic geniuses of the world recognized his genius, and resented it. + +But Prester Kleig, of the Secret Service of the Americas, one of the +_few_ men whose headquarters were in the Secret Room in Washington, had +reached Moyen. + +Now he was coming home. + +He came home to tell his people what Moyen was planning, and to admit +that his investigations had been hampered at every turn by the uncanny +genius of Moyen. Military plans had been guarded with unbelievable +secrecy. War machines he knew to exist, yet had seen only those common +to all the armies of the world. + +And now, twenty-four hours out of New York City, aboard the _S. S. +Stellar_, Prester Kleig was literally willing the steamer to greater +speed--and in far Madagascar the strange man called Moyen had given the +ultimatum: + +"The Western World shall be next!" + + + + +CHAPTER I + +_The Hand of Moyen._ + + +"Who is that man?" asked a young lady passenger of the steward, with the +imperious inflection which tells of riches able to force obedience from +menials who labor for hire. + +She pointed a bejeweled finger at the slender, soldierly figure which +stood in the prow of the liner, like a figurehead, peering into the +storm under the vessel's forefoot. + +"That gentleman, milady?" repeated the steward obsequiously. "That is +Prester Kleig, head of the Secret Agents, Master of the Secret Room, +just now returning from Madagascar, via Europe, after a visit to the +realm of Moyen." + +A gasp of terror burst from the lips of the woman. Her cheeks blanched. + +"Moyen!" She almost whispered it. "Moyen! The half-god of Asia, whom men +call mad!" + +"Not mad, milady. No, Moyen is not mad, save with a lust for power. He +is the conqueror of the ages, already ruling more of the earth's +population than any man has ever done before him--even Alexander!" + +But the young lady was not listening to stewards. Wealthy young ladies +did not, save when asked questions dealing with personal service to +themselves. Her eyes devoured the slender man who stood in the prow of +the _Stellar_, while her lips shaped, over and over again, the dread +name which was on the lips of the people of the world: + +"Moyen! Moyen!" + + * * * * * + +Up in the prow, if Prester Kleig, who carried a dread secret in his +breast, knew of the young lady's regard, he gave no sign. There were +touches of gray at his temples, though he was still under forty. He had +seen more of life, knew more of its terrors, than most men twice his +age--because he had lived harshly in service to his country. + +He was thinking of Moyen, the genius of the misshapen body, the pale +eyes which reflected the fires of a Satanic soul, set deeply in the +midst of the face of an angel; and wondering if he would be able to +arrive in time, sorry that he had not returned home by airplane. + +He had taken the _Stellar_ only because the peacefulness of ocean liner +travel would aid his thoughts, and he required time to marshal them. +Liner travel was now a luxury, as all save the immensely wealthy +traveled by plane across the oceans. Now Prester Kleig was sorry, for +any moment, he felt, Moyen might strike. + +He turned and looked back along the deck of the _Stellar_. His eyes +played over the trimly gowned figure of the woman who questioned the +steward, but did not really see her. And then.... + +"Great God!" The words were a prayer, and they burst from the lips of +Prester Kleig like an explosion. Passengers appeared from the lee of +lifeboats. Officers on the bridge whirled to look at the man who +shouted. Seamen paused in their labors to stare. Aloft in the +crow's-nest the lookout lowered his eyes from scouring the horizon to +stare at Prester Kleig--who was pointing. + +All eyes turned in the direction indicated. + + * * * * * + +Climbing into the sky, a mile off the starboard beam, was an airplane +with a bulbous body and queerly slanted wings. It had neither wheels nor +pontoons, and it traveled with unbelievable speed. It came on +bullet-fast, headed directly for the side of the _Stellar_. + +"Lower the boats!" yelled Kleig. "Lower the boats! For God's sake lower +the boats!" + +For Prester Kleig, in that casual turning, had seen what none aboard the +_Stellar_, even the lookout above, had seen. The airplane, which had +neither wheels nor pontoons, had risen, as Aphrodite is said to have +risen, out of the waves! He had seen the wings come out of the bulbous +body, snap backward into place, and the plane was in full flight the +instant it appeared. + +Prester Kleig had no hope that his warning would be in time, but he +would always feel better for having given it. As the captain debated +with himself as to whether this lunatic should be confined as dangerous, +the strange airplane nosed over and dived down to the sea, a hundred +yards from the side of the _Stellar_. Just before it struck the water, +its wings snapped forward and became part of the bulbous body of the +thing, the whole of which shot like a bullet into the sea. + + * * * * * + +Prester Kleig stood at the rail, peering out at the spot where the plane +had plunged in with scarcely a splash, and his right hand was raised as +though he gave a final, despairing signal. + +Of all aboard the _Stellar_, he only saw that black streak which, ten +feet under water, raced like a bolt of lightning from the nose of the +submerged but visible plane, straight as a die for the side of the +_Stellar_. Just a black streak, no bigger than a small man's arm, from +the nose of the plane to the side of the _Stellar_. + +From the crow's-nest came the startled, terrific voice of the lookout, +in the beginning of a cry that must remain forever inarticulate. + +The world, in that blinding moment, seemed to rock on its foundations; +to shatter itself to bits in a chaotic jumble of sound and of movement, +shot through and through with lurid flames. Kleig felt himself hurled +upward and outward, turned over and over endlessly.... + +He felt the storm-tossed waters close over him, and knew he had struck. +In the moment he knew--oblivion, deep, ebon and impenetrable, blotted +out knowledge. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_The Half-Dream_ + + +A roaring, rushing river of chaotic sound, first. Jumbled sound to which +Prester Kleig could give no adequate name. But as he tried to analyze +its meanings, he was able to differentiate between sounds, and to +discover the identity of some. + +The river of sound he decided to be the sound of a vibrational explosion +of some sort--vibrational because it had that quivery quality which +causes a feeling of uneasiness and fret, that feeling which makes one +turn and look around to find the eyes boring into one's back--yet +multiplied in its intensity an uncounted number of times. + +Other sounds which came through the chaotic river of sound were the +terrified screaming of the men and women who were doomed. Lifeboats were +never lowered, for the reason that with the disintegration of the +_Stellar_, everything inanimate aboard her likewise disintegrated, +dropping men and women, crew and passengers, into the freezing waters of +the Atlantic. + +Prester Kleig dropped with them, only partially unconscious after the +first icy plunge. He knew when he floated on the surface, for he felt +himself lifted and hurled by the waves. In his half-dream he saw men and +women being carried away into wave-shrouded darkness, clawing wildly at +nothingness for support, clawing at one another, locking arms, and going +down together. + + * * * * * + +The _Stellar_, in the merest matter of seconds, had become spoil of the +sea, and her crew and passengers had vanished forever from the sight of +men. Yet Prester Kleig lived on, knew that he lived on, and that there +was an element, too strong to be disbelieved, of reality in his dream. + +There was a vibratory sense, too, as of the near activity of a noiseless +motor. Noiseless motor! Where had he last thought of those two words? +With what recent catastrophe were they associated? No, he could not +recall, though he knew he should be able to do so. + +Then the sense of motion to the front was apparent--an unnumbered sense, +rather than concrete feeling. Motion to front, influenced by the rising +and falling motion of mountainous waves. + +So suddenly as to be a distinct shock, the wave motion ceased, though +the forward motion--and _upward!_--not only continued but increased. + +That airplane of the bulbous body, the queerly slanted wings.... + +But the glimmering of realization vanished as a sickishly sweet odor +assailed his nostrils and sent its swift-moving tentacles upward to wrap +themself soothingly about his brain. But the sense of flight, +unbelievably swift, was present and recognizable, though all else eluded +him. He had the impression, however, that it was intended that all save +the most vagrant, most widely differentiated, impressions elude +him--that he should acquire only half pictures, which would therefore be +all the more terrible in retrospect. + +The only impressions which were real were those of motion to the front, +and upward, and the sense of noiseless machinery, vibrating the whole, +nearby. + +Then a distinct realization of the cessation of the sense of flying, and +a return, though in lesser degree, of the rising and falling of waves. +This latter sensation became less and less, though the feeling of +traveling downward continued. Prester Kleig knew that he was going down +into the sea again, down into it deeply.... Then that odor once more, +and the elusive memory. + +Forward motion at last, in the depths, swift, forward motion, though +Prester Kleig could not even guess at the direction. Just swift motion, +and the mutter of voices, the giving of orders.... + + * * * * * + +Prester Kleig regained consciousness fully on the sands of the shore. He +sat up stiffly, staring out to sea. A storm was raging, and the sea was +an angry waste. No ship showed on the waters; the mad, tumbled sky above +it was either empty of planes or they had climbed to invisibility above +the clouds that raced and churned with the storm. + +Out of the storm, almost at Prester Kleig's feet, dropped a small +airplane. Through the window a familiar face peered at Kleig. A +helmeted, begoggled figure opened the door and stepped out. + +"Kleig, old man," said the flyer, "you gave me the right dope all right, +but I'll swear there isn't a wireless tower within a hundred miles of +this place! How did you manage it?" + +"Kane, you're crazy, or I am, or...." But Prester Kleig could not go on +with the thought which had rushed through his brain with the numbing +impact of a blow. He grasped the hand of Carlos Kane, of the Domestic +Service, and the yellow flimsy Kane held out to him. It read simply: + +"Shipwrecked. Am ashore at--" There followed grid coordinate map +readings. "Come at once, prepared to fly me to Washington." It was +signed "Kleig." + +"Kane," said Kleig, "I did not send this message!" + +What more was there to be said? Horror looked out of the eyes of Prester +Kleig, and was reflected in those of Carlos Kane. Both men turned, +peering out across the tumbled welter of waters. + +Somewhere out there, tight-locked in the gloomy archives of the +Atlantic, was the secret of the message which had brought Carlos Kane to +Prester Kleig--and the agency which had sent it. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_Wings of To-morrow_ + + +As Prester Kleig climbed into the enclosed passenger pit of the +monoplane--a Mayther--his ears seemed literally to be ringing with the +drumming, mighty voice of Moyen. But now that voice, instead of merely +speaking, rang with sardonic laughter. He had never heard the laughter +of Moyen, but he could guess how it would sound. + +That airplane of the slanted wings, the bulbous, almost bulletlike +fuselage, what of it? It was simple, as Kleig looked back at his +memoried glimpse of it. The submarine was a metal fish made with human +hands; the airplane aped the birds. The strange ship which had caused +the destruction of the _Stellar_, was a combination fish and bird--which +merely aped nature a bit further, as anyone who had ever traversed +tropical waters would have instantly recognized. + +But what did it portend? What ghastly terrors of Moyen roamed the deeps +of the Atlantic, of the Pacific, the oceans of the world? How close +were some of these to the United States? + +The pale eyes of Moyen, he was sure, were already turned toward the +West. + + * * * * * + +Prester Kleig sighed as he seated himself beside Carlos Kane. Then Kane +pressed one of the myriad of buttons on the dash, and Kleig lifted his +eyes to peer through the skylight, to where that single press of a +button had set in motion the intricate machinery of the helicopter. + +A four-bladed fan lifted on a slender pedestal, sufficiently high above +the surface of the wing for the vanes to be free of the central +propeller. Then, automatically, the vanes became invisible, and the +Mayther lifted from the sandy beach as lightly, and far more straightly, +than any bird. + +As the ship climbed away for the skies, and through the transparent +floor the beach and the Atlantic fell away below the ship, a sigh of +relief escaped Kleig. This was living! Up here one was free, if only for +a moment, and the swift wind of flight brushed all cobwebs from the +tired human brain. He watched the slender needle of the altimeter, as it +moved around the face of the dial as steadily as the hands of a clock, +around to thirty thousand, thirty-five, forty. + +Then Carlos Kane, every movement as effortless as the flight of the +silvery winged Mayther, thrust forth his hand to the dash again, pressed +another button. Instantly the propellers vanished into a blur as the +vanes of the helicopter dropped down the slender staff and the vanes +themselves fitted snugly into their appointed notches atop the wing. + + * * * * * + +For a second Carlos Kane glanced at the tiny map to the right of the +dash, and set his course. It was a matter of moments only, but while +Kane worked, Prester Kleig studied the instruments on the dash, for it +had been months since he had flown, save for his recent half-dreamlike +experience. There was a button which released the mechanism of the +deadly guns, fired by compressed air, all operated from the noiseless +motor, whose muzzles exactly cleared the tips of Mayther's wings, two +guns to each wing, one on the entering edge, one on the trailing edge, +fitted snugly into the adamant rigging. + +Four guns which could fire to right or left, twin streams of lead, the +number of rounds governed only by the carrying power of the Mayther. +Prester Kleig knew them all: the guns in the wings, the guns which fired +through the three propellers, and the guns set two and two in the +fuselage, to right and left of the pits, which could be fixed either up +or down--all by the mere pressing of buttons. It was marvelous, +miraculous, yet even as Kleig told himself that this was so, he felt, +deep in the heart of him, that Moyen knew all about ships like these, +and regarded them as the toys of children. + +Kane touched Kleig on the shoulder, signaling, indicating that the +atmosphere in the pits had been regulated to their new height, and that +they could remove their helmets and oxygen tanks without danger. + + * * * * * + +With a sigh Prester Kleig sat back, and the two friends turned to face +each other. + +"You certainly look done in, Kleig," said Kane sympathetically. "You +must have been through hell, and then some. Tell me about this Moyen; +that is, if you think you care to talk about him." + +"Talk about him!" repeated Kleig. "Talk about him? It will be a relief! +There has been nothing, and nobody, on my mind save Moyen for weary +months on end. If I don't talk to someone about him, I'll go mad, if I'm +not mad already. Moyen? A monster with the face of an angel! What else +can one say about him? A devil and a saint, a brute whose followers +would go with him into hell's fire, and sing him hosannas as they were +consumed in agony! The greatest mob psychologist the world has ever +seen. He's a genius, Kane, and unless something is done, the Western +world, all the world, is doomed to sit at the feet, listen to the +commands, of Moyen! + +"He isn't an Oriental; he isn't a European; he isn't negroid or Indian; +but there is something about him that makes one thing of all of these, +singly and collectively. His body is twisted and grotesque, and when one +looks at his face, one feels a desire to touch him, to swear eternal +fealty to him--until one looks into his pale eyes, eyes almost milky in +their paleness--and gets the merest hint of the thoughts which actuate +him. If he has a failing I did not find it. He does not drink, +gamble...." + +"And women?" queried Kane, softly. + + * * * * * + +Kleig was madly in love with the sister of Kane, Charmion, and this +thing touched him nearest the heart, because Charmion was one of her +country's most famous beauties, about whom Moyen must already have +heard. + +"Women?" repeated Kleig musingly, his black eyes troubled, haunted. "I +scarcely know. He has no love for women, only because he has no capacity +for any love save self-love. But when I think of him in this connection +I seem to see Moyen, grown to monster proportions, sitting on a mighty +throne, with nude women groveling at his feet, bathed in tears, their +long hair in mantles of sorrow, hiding their shamed faces! That sounds +wild, doesn't it? But it's the picture I get of Moyen when I think of +Moyen and of women. Many women will love him, and have, perhaps. But +while he has taken many, though I am only guessing here, he has given +_himself_ to none. Another thing: His followers--well, he sets no limits +to the lusts of his men, requiring only that every soldier be fit for +duty, with a body strong for hardship. You understand?" + +Kane understood; and his face was very pale. + +"Yes," he said, his voice almost a whisper, "I understand, and as you +speak of this man I seem to see a city in ruins, and hordes of men +marching, bloodstained men entering houses ... from which, immediately +afterward, come the screams of women ... terror-stricken women...." + +He shuddered and could not go on for the very horror of the vision that +had come to him. + +But Kleig stared at him as though he saw a ghost. + +"Great God, Carl!" he gasped. "The same identical picture has been in my +mind, not once but a thousand times! I wonder...." + +Was it an omen of the future for the West? + +Deep in his soul Prester Kleig fancied he could hear the sardonic +laughter of the half-god, Moyen. + + * * * * * + +A tiny bell rang inside the dash, behind the instruments. Kane had set +direction finders, had pressed the button which signaled the +Washington-control Station of the National Radio, thus automatically +indicating the exact spot above land, by grid-coordinates, where the +Mayther should start down for the landing. + +An hour later they landed on the flat roof of the new Capitol Building, +sinking lightly to rest as a feather, nursed to a gentle landing by the +whirring vanes of the helicopter. + +Prester Kleig, surrounded by uniformed guards who tried to shield him +from the gaze of news-gatherers crowded there on the roof-top, hurried +him to the stairway leading into the executive chambers, and through +these to the Secret Chamber which only a few men knew, and into which +not even Carlos Kane could follow Prester Kleig--yet. + +But one man, one news-gatherer, had caught a glimpse of the face of +Kleig, and already he raced for the radio tower of his organization, to +blazon to the Western world the fact that Kleig had come back. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_A Nation Waits in Dread_ + + +As Prester Kleig, looking twice his forty years because of fatigue, and +almost nameless terrors through which he had passed, went to his +rendezvous, the news-gatherer, who shall here remain nameless, raced for +the Broadcasting Tower. + +As Prester Kleig entered the Secret Room and at a signal all the many +doors behind him, along that interminable stairway, swung shut and were +tightly locked, the news-gatherer raced for the microphone and gave the +"priority" signal to the operator. Millions of people would not only +hear the words of the news-gatherer, but would see him, note the +expressions which chased one another across his face. For television was +long since an accomplished, everyday fact. + +"Prester Kleig, of this government's Secret Service, has just returned +to the United Americas! Your informer has just seen him step from the +monoplane of Carlos Kane, atop the Capitol Building, and repair at once +to the Secret Room, closely guarded. But I saw his face, and though he +is under forty, he seems twice that. And you know now what this country +has only guessed at before--that he has seen Moyen. Moyen the half-man, +half-god, the enigma of the ages. What does Prester Kleig think of this +man? He doesn't say, for he dares not speak, yet. But your informer saw +his face, and it is old and twisted with terror! And--" + + * * * * * + +That ended the discourse of the news-gatherer, and it was many hours +before the public really understood. For, with a new sentence but half +completed, the picture of the news-gatherer faded blackly off the +screens in a million homes, and his voice was blotted out by a humming +that mounted to a terrific appalling shriek! Some terrible agency, about +which people who knew their radio could only guess, had drowned out the +words of the news-gatherer, leaving the public stunned and bewildered, +almost groping before a feeling of terror which was all the more +unbearable because none could give it a name. + +And the public had heard but a fraction of the truth--merely that Kleig +had come back. It had been the intention of the government to deny the +public even this knowledge, and it had; but knowledge of the denial +itself was public property, which filled the hearts of men and women all +through the Western Hemisphere with nameless dread. And over all this +abode of countless millions hovered the shadow of Moyen. + +The government tried to correct the impression which the news-gatherer +had given out. + +"Prester Kleig is back," said the radio, while the government speaker +tried, for the benefit of those who could see him, to smile +reassuringly. "But there is nothing to cause anyone the slightest +concern. He has seen Moyen, yes, and has heard him speak, but still +there is nothing to distress anyone, and the whole story will be given +to you as soon as possible. Kleig has gone into the Secret Room, yes, +but every operative of the government, when discussing business +connected with diplomatic relations with foreign powers, is received in +the Secret Room. No cause for worry!" + + * * * * * + +It was so easy to say that, and the speaker realized it, which was why +he could but with difficulty make his smile seem reassuring. + +"Tell us the truth, and tell us quickly," might have been the voiceless +cries of those who listened and saw the face and fidgeting form of the +speaker. But the words were not spoken, because the people sensed a +hovering horror, a dread catastrophe beyond the power of words to +express--and so looked at one another in silence, their eyes wide with +dread, their hearts throbbing to suffocation with nameless foreboding. + +So eyes were horror-haunted, and men walked, flew, and rode in fear and +trembling--while, down in the Secret Room, Prester Kleig and a dozen old +men, men wise in the ways of science and invention, wise in the ways of +men and of beasts, of Nature and the Infinite Outside, decided the fate +of the Nation. + +That Secret Room was closed to every one. Not even the news-gatherers +could reach it; not even the all-seeing eye of the telephotograph +emblazoned to the world its secrets. + +But _was_ it secret? + +Perhaps Moyen, the master mobster, smiled when he heard men say so, men +who knew in their hearts that Moyen regarded other earthlings as +earthlings regard children and their toys. Did the eyes of Moyen gaze +even into the depths of the Secret Room, hundreds of feet below even the +documentary-treasure vaults of the Capitol? + + * * * * * + +No one knew the answer to the question, but the radio, reporting the +return of Kleig, had given the public a distorted vision of an embodied +fear, and in its heart the public answered "Yes!" And what had drowned +out the voice of the radio-reporter? + +No wonder that, for many hours, a nation waited in fear and trembling, +eyes filled with dread that was nameless and absolute, for word from the +Secret Room. Fear mounted and mounted as the hours passed and no word +came. + +In that room Prester Kleig and the twelve old men, one of whom was the +country's President, held counsel with the man who had come back. But +before the spoken counsel had been held, awesome and awe-inspiring +pictures had flashed across the screen, invented by a third of the old +men, from which the world held no secrets, even the secrets of Moyen. + +With this mechanism, guarded at forfeit of the lives of a score of men, +the men of the Secret Room could peer into even the most secret places +of the world. The old men had peered, and had seen things which had +blanched their pale cheeks anew. And when they had finished, and the +terrible pictures had faded out, a voice had spoken suddenly, like an +explosion, in the Secret Room. + +"Well, gentlemen, are you satisfied that resistance is futile?" + +Just the voice; but to one man in the Secret Room, and to the others +when his numbing lips spoke the name, it was far more than enough. For +not even the wisest of the great men could explain how, as they knew, +having just seen him there, a man could be in Madagascar while his voice +spoke aloud in the Secret Room, where even radio was barred! + +The name on the lips of Prester Kleig! + +"Moyen! Moyen!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +_Monsters of the Deep_ + + +"Gentlemen," said Prester Kleig as he entered the Secret Room, where sat +the scientists and inventive geniuses of the Americas, "we haven't much +time, and I shall waste but little of it. Moyen is ready to strike, if +he hasn't already done so, as I believe. We will see in a matter of +seconds. Professor Maniel, we shall need, first of all, your apparatus +for returning the vibratory images of events which have transpired +within the last thirty-six hours. + +"I wish to show those of you who failed to see it the sinking of the +_Stellar_, on which I was a passenger and, I believe, the only +survivor." + +Professor Maniel strangely mouse-like save for the ponderous dome of his +forehead, stepped away from the circular table without a word. He had +invented the machine in question, and he was inordinately proud of it. +Through its use he could pick up the sounds, and the pictures, of events +which had transpired down the past centuries, from the tinkling of the +cymbals of Miriam to all the horror of the conflict men had called the +Great War, simply by drawing back from the ether, as the sounds fled +outward through space, those sounds and vibrations which he needed. + +His science was an exact one, more carefully exact even than the +measurement of the speed of light, taking into consideration the +dispersion of sound and movement, and the element of time. + +The interior of the Secret Room became dark as Maniel labored with his +minute machinery. Only behind the screen on the wall in rear of the +table was there light. + + * * * * * + +The voice of Maniel began to drone as he thought aloud. + +"There is a matter of but a few minutes difference in time between +Washington and the last recorded location of the _Stellar_. The sinking +occurred at ten-thirty last evening you say, Kleig? Ah, yes, I have it! +Watch carefully, gentlemen!" + +So silent were the Secret Agents one could not even have heard the +breathing of one of them, for on the screen, misty at first, but +becoming moment by moment bolder of outline, was the face of a +storm-tossed sea. The liner was slower in forming, and was slightly out +of focus for a second or two. + +"Ah," said Professor Maniel. "There it is!" + +Through the sound apparatus came the roaring and moaning of a storm at +sea. On the screen the _Stellar_ rose high on the waves, dropped into +the trough, while spumes of black smoke spread rearward on the waters +from her spouting funnels. Figures were visible on her decks, figures +which seemed carved in bronze. + +In the prow, every expression on his face plainly visible, stood Prester +Kleig himself, and as his picture appeared he was in the act of turning. + +"Now," said Kleig himself, there in the Secret Room, "look off to the +left, gentlemen, a mile from the _Stellar_!" + +A rustling sound as the scientists shifted in their places. + + * * * * * + +They all saw it, and a gasp burst from their lips as though at a signal. +For, as the _Stellar_ seemed about to plunge off the shadowed screen +into the Secret Room, a flying thing had risen out of the sea--an +airplane with a bulbous body and queerly slanting wings. + +At the same time, out of the mouth of the pictured figure of Prester +Kleig, clear and agonized as the tones of a bell struck in frenzy, the +words: + +"Great God! Lower the boats! Lower the boats! For God's sake lower the +boats!" + +In the Secret Room the real Prester Kleig spoke again. + +"When the black streak leaves the nose of the plane, after it has +submerged, Professor Maniel," said Kleig softly, "slow your mechanism so +that we can see the whole thing in detail." + +There came a grunted affirmative from Professor Maniel. + +The nose of the pictured plane tilted over, diving down for the surface +of the sea. + +"Now!" snapped Kleig. "Don't wait!" + +Instantly the moving pictures on the screen reduced their speed, and the +plane appeared to stop its sudden seaward plunge and to drop down as +lightly as a feather. The wings of the thing moved forward slowly, +folding into the body of the dropping plane. + +"They fold forward," said Kleig quietly, "so that the speed of the plane +in the take-off will snap them _backward_ into position for flying!" + + * * * * * + +No one spoke, because the explanation was so obvious. + +Slowly the airplane went down to the surface of the sea, with scarcely a +plume of spindrift leaping back after she had struck. She dropped to ten +feet below the surface of the water, a hundred yards off the starboard +beam of the _Stellar_, her blunt nose pointing squarely at the side of +the doomed liner. + +"Now," said Kleig hoarsely, "watch closely, for God's sake!" + +The liner rose and fell slowly. Out of the nose of the plane, which had +now become a tiny submarine, started a narrow tube of black, oddly like +the sepia of a giant squid. Straight toward the side of the liner it +went. Above the rail the Secret Agents could see the pictured form of +Prester Kleig, hand upraised. The black streak reached the side of the +_Stellar_. + +It touched the metal plates, spreading upon impact, growing, enlarging, +to right and left, upward and downward, and where it touched the +_Stellar_ the black of it seemed to erase that portion of the ship. In +the slow motion every detail was apparent. At regular speed the blotting +out of the _Stellar_ would have been instantaneous. + +Kleig saw himself rise slowly from the vanished rail, turning over and +over, going down to the sea. He almost closed his eyes, bit his lips to +keep back the cries of terror when he saw the others aboard the liner +rise, turn over and over, and fly in all directions like jackstraws in a +high wind. + + * * * * * + +The ship was erased from beneath passengers and crew, and passengers and +crew fell into the sea. Out of the depths, from all directions, came the +starving denizens of the sea--starving because liners now were so few. + +"That's enough of that, Professor," snapped Kleig. "Now jump ahead +approximately eight hours, and see if you can pick up that aero-sub +after it dropped me on the Jersey Coast." + +The picture faded out quickly, the screaming of doomed human beings, +already hours dead, called back to apparent living by the genius of +Maniel died away, and for a space the screen was blank. + +Then, the sea again, storm-tossed as before, shifting here and there as +Maniel sought in the immensity of sea and sky for the thing he desired. + +"Two hundred miles south by east of New York City," he droned. "There it +is, gentlemen!" + +They all saw it then, in full flight, eight thousand feet above the +surface of the Atlantic, traveling south by east at a dizzy rate of +speed. + +"Note," said Kleig, "that it keeps safely to the low altitudes, in order +to escape the notice of regular air traffic." + +No one answered. + +The eyes of the Secret Agents were on that flashing, bulbous-bodied +plane of the strange wings. It appeared to be heading directly for some +objective which must be reached at top speed. + + * * * * * + +For fifteen minutes the flight continued. Then the plane tilted over and +dived, and at an altitude still of three thousand feet, the wings +slashed forward, clicking into their notches in the sides of the bulbous +body, with a sound like the ratchets on subway turnstiles, and, holding +their breath, the Secret Agents watched it plummet down to the sea. It +was traveling with terrific speed when it struck, yet it entered the +water with scarcely a splash. + +Then, for the first time, an audible gasp, as that of one person, came +from the lips of the Secret Agents. For now they could see the objective +of the aero-sub. A monster shadow in the water, at a depth of five +hundred feet. A shadow which, as Maniel manipulated his instruments, +became a floating underwater fortress, ten times the size of any +submarine known to the Americas. + +Sporting like porpoises about this held-in-suspension fortress were +myriads of other aero-subs, maneuvering by squadrons and flights, +weaving in and out like schools of fish. The plane which had bourne +Prester Kleig churned in between two of the formations, and vanished +into the side of the motionless monster of the deep. + +The striking of a deep sea bell, muted by tons and tons of water, +sounded in the Secret Room. + +"Don't turn it off, Maniel," said Kleig. "There's more yet!" + +And there was, for the sound of the bell was a signal. The aero-subs, +darting outward from the side of the floating fortress like fish darting +out of seaweed, were plunging up toward the surface of the Atlantic. +Breathlessly the Secret Agents watched them. + +They broke water like flying fish, and their wings shot backward from +their notches in the myriad bulbous bodies to click into place in flying +position as the scores of aero-subs took the air above the invisible +hiding places of the mother submarine. + + * * * * * + +At eight thousand feet the aero-subs swung into battle formation and, as +though controlled by word of command, they maneuvered there like one +vast machine of a central control--beautiful as the flight of swallows, +deadly as anything that flew. + +The Secret Agents swept the cold sweat from their brows, and sighs of +terror escaped them all. + +At that moment came the voice, loud in the Secret Room, which Kleig at +least immediately recognized: + +"Well, gentlemen, are you satisfied that resistance is futile?" + +And Kleig whispered the name, over and over again. + +"Moyen! Moyen!" + +It was Prester Kleig, Master of the Secret Room, who was the first to +regain control after the nerve-numbing question which, asked in far +Madagascar, was heard by the Agents in the Secret Room. + +"No!" he shouted. "No! No! Moyen, in the end we will beat you!" + +Only silence answered, but deep in the heart of Prester Kleig sounded a +burst of sardonic laughter--the laughter of Moyen, half-god of Asia. +Then the voice again: + +"The attack is beginning, gentlemen! Within an hour you will have +further evidence of the might of Moyen!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +_Vanishing Ships_ + + +Prester Kleig, ordered to Madagascar from the Secret Room, had been +merely an operative, honored above others in that he had been one of +the few, at that time, ever to visit the Secret Room. Now, however, +because he had walked closer to Moyen than anyone else, he assumed +leadership almost by natural right, and the men who had once deferred to +him took orders from him. + +"Gentlemen," he snapped, while the last words of Moyen still hung in the +air of the Secret Room, "we must fight Moyen from here. The best brains +in the United Americas are gathered here, and if Moyen can be +beaten--_if_ he can be beaten--he will be beaten from the Secret Room!" + +A sigh from the lips of Professor Maniel. The President of the United +Americas nodded his head, as though he too mutely gave authority into +the hands of Prester Kleig. The other Secret Agents shifted slightly, +but said nothing. + +"I have been away a year," said Kleig, "as you know, and many things +have come into regular use since I left. Professor Maniel's machine for +example, upon which he was working when I departed under orders. There +will be further use for it in our struggle with Moyen. Professor, will +you kindly range the ocean, beginning at once, and see how many of these +monsters of Moyen we have to contend with?" + + * * * * * + +Professor Maniel turned back to his instruments, which he fondled with +gentle, loving hands. + +"We have nothing with which to combat the attacking forces of Moyen," +went on Kleig, "save antiquated airplanes, and such obsolete warships as +are available. These will be mere fodder for the guns, or rays, or +whatever it is that Moyen uses in his aero-subs. Thousands, perhaps +millions, of human lives will be lost; but better this than that Moyen +rule the West! Better this than that our women be given into the hands +of this mob as spoils of war!" + +From the Secret Agents a murmur of assent. + +And then, that voice again, startling, clear, with the slightest +suggestion of some Oriental accent, in the Secret Room. + +"Do not depend too much, gentlemen," it said, "upon your antiquated +warships! See, I am merciful, in that I do not allow you to send them +against me loaded with men to be slaughtered or drowned! Professor +Maniel, I would ask you to turn that plaything of yours and gaze upon +the fleet of obsolete ships anchored in Hampton Roads! In passing, +Professor, I venture to guess that the secret of how I am able to talk +with you gentlemen, here in your Secret Room, is no secret at all to +you. Now look!" + +The Secret Agents gasped again, in consternation. + +From the white lips of mouselike Maniel came mumbled words, even as his +hands worked with lightning speed. + +"His machine is simply a variation of my own. And, gentlemen, +compatriots, with it he could as easily project himself, bodily, here +into the room with us!" + + * * * * * + +Something like a suppressed scream from one of the men present. A cold +hand of ice about the heart of Prester Kleig. But the words of Professor +Maniel were limned on the retina of his brain in letters of fire. +Suppose Moyen _were_ to project himself into the Secret Room.... + +But he would not. He was no fool, and even these Secret Agents, most of +whom were old and no longer strong, would have torn him limb from limb. +But those words of Maniel set whirling once more, and in a new +direction, the thoughts of Prester Kleig. + +"Mr. President, gentlemen...." It was the voice of Professor Maniel. + +All eyes turned again to the screen upon which the professor worked his +miracles, which today were commonplaces, which yesterday had been +undreamed of. Every Secret Agent recognized the outlines of Hampton +Roads, with Norfolk and its towering buildings in the background, and +the obsolete warships riding silently at anchor in the roadstead. + +For three years they had been there, while a procrastinating Cabinet, +Congress and Senate had debated their permanent disposal. They +represented millions of dollars in money, and were utterly worthless. +Prester Kleig, looking at them now, could see them putting out to sea, +loaded with brave-visaged men, volunteering to go to sure destruction to +feed the rapacity of Moyen's hordes. Men going out to sea in tubs, +singing.... + +But these ships were silent. No plumes of smoke from their funnels. Like +floating mausoleums, filled with dead hopes, shells of past and departed +glories. + +The beating of waves against their sides could plainly be heard. The +anchor chains squeaked rustily in the hawse-holes. Wind sighed through +regal, towering superstructures, and no man walked the decks of any one +of them. + + * * * * * + +With bated breath the Secret Agents watched. + +Why had Moyen bidden them turn their attention to these shells of +erstwhile naval grandeur? + +This time no gasps broke from the lips of the Secret Agents. Not even +the sound of breathing could be heard. Just the sighing of wind through +the superstructures of a hundred ships, the whispering of waves against +rusted bulkheads. + +Almost imperceptibly at first the towering dreadnought in the foreground +began to move! Slowly, the water swirling about her, she backed away +from her anchor, tightening the curve of the anchor chain! Water +quivered about the point of the chain's contact with the waves! + +Quickly the eyes of the Secret Agents swept along the street of ships. +The same backward motion, of dragging against their anchor chains, was +visible at the bow of each warship! + +With not a soul aboard them, the ships were waking into strange and +awesome life, dragging at their anchors, like hounds pulling at leashes +to be free and away! + +"How are they doing it?" It was almost a whisper from the President. + +"Some electro-magnetic force, sir!" stated Prester Kleig. "Professor +Blaine, that is your province! Please note what is happening, and advise +us at once if you see how they are doing it!" + +A grunt of affirmation from surly, obese Professor Blaine. + + * * * * * + +All eyes turned back again to the miracle of the moving ships. One by +one, with crashes which echoed and re-echoed through the Secret Room, +the anchor chains of the dreadnoughts parted. The ends of them swung +from the prows of the warships, while the severed portions splashed into +the Roads, and the waters hid them from view. + +The great dreadnought in the foreground swung slowly about until her +prow was pointed in the direction of the open sea, and though no sea was +running, no smoke rose from her funnels, she got slowly, ponderously +under way, and started out the Roads. Behind her, in formation, the +other ships swung into line. + +In a matter of seconds, faster than any of these vessels had ever +traveled before, they were racing in column for the open Atlantic. And +from the sound apparatus came wails and shrieks of terror, the +lamentations of men and women frightened as they had never been +frightened before. + +The shores behind the moving column of ships was moment by moment +growing blacker with people--a black sea of people, whose faces were +white as chalk with terror. + +But on, out to sea, moved the column of brave ships. + +A new note entered into the picture, as from all sides airplanes of many +makes swooped in, and swept back and forth over the moving ships, while +hooded heads looked out of pits, and faces of pilots were aghast at +what they saw. + + * * * * * + +A ghost column of ships, moving out to sea, speed increasing moment by +moment unbelievably. Even now, five minutes after the first dreadnought +had started seaward, the wake of each ship spread away on either hand in +the two sides of a watery triangle whose walls were a dozen feet +high--racing for the shores with all the sullen majesty of tidal waves. + +The crowds gave back, and their screams rose into the air in a +frightened roar of appalling sound. + +Even now, so rapidly did the warships travel, many of the planes could +throttle down, so that they flew directly above the heaving decks of the +runaway warships. + +"Get word to them!" cried Prester Kleig suddenly. "Get word to them that +if they follow the ships out to sea not a pilot will escape alive!" + +One of the Secret Agents rose and hurried from the Secret Room, +traveling at top speed for the first of the many doors enroute to the +broadcasting tower from which all the planes could be reached at once. +Prester Kleig turned back to the magic screen of Maniel. + +The warships, water thrown aside by the lifting thrust of their forefeet +in mountains that raced landward with ever-increasing fury, were +clearing the Roads and swinging south by east, heading into the wastes +of the Atlantic. As they cleared the land, and open water for unnumbered +miles lay ahead, the speed of the mighty ships increased to a point +where they rode as high on the water as racing launches, and the +creaking and groaning of their rusty bolts and spars were a continual +paean of protest in the sound apparatus accompanying the showing of the +miracle on the screen. + +"They're heading straight for the spot where that super-submarine lies!" +said the President, and no one answered him. + + * * * * * + +Prester Kleig, watching, was racing over in his mind what he could +recall of his country's armament. Warships were useless, as was being +proved here before his eyes. But there still remained airplanes, in +countless numbers, which could be diverted from ocean travel and from +routine business, to battle this menace of Moyen. + +But.... + +He shuddered as he pictured in his mind's eye the meeting of his +country's flower of flying manhood with the monsters of Moyen. + +His eyes, as he thought, were watching the racing of those ocean +greyhounds, out to sea. They were now out of sight of land, and still +some of the planes followed them. + +A half hour passed, and then.... + +The American pilots, in obedience to the radio signals, turning back +from this strange phenomenon of the ghost column of capital ships. + +Simultaneously, out of the sky dead ahead, dropped the first flight of +Moyen's aero-subs. + +At the same moment the mysterious power which had dragged the ships to +sea was withdrawn, and the warships, with no hands to guide them, swung +whither they willed, and floated in as many directions as there were +ships, under their forward momentum. There were a score of collisions, +and some of the ships were in sinking condition even before the +aero-subs began their labors. + + * * * * * + +The remaining ships floated high out of the water, because they carried +no ballast, and from all sides the aero-subs of Moyen settled to the +task of destruction--destruction which was simply a warning of what was +to come: Moyen's manner of proving to the Americas the fact that he was +all-powerful. + +"God, what fools!" cried Prester Kleig. + +The rearmost of the American aviators had looked back, had seen the +first of the aero-subs drop down among the doomed ships. Instantly he +turned out to sea again, signalling as he did so to the nearest other +planes. And in spite of the radio warning a hundred planes answered that +signal and swept back to investigate this new mystery. + +"They're going to death!" groaned the President. + +"Yes," said Kleig, softly, "but it saves us ordering others to death. +Perhaps we may learn something of value as we watch them die!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +_Golden Oblivion_ + + +"This," said Prester Kleig, as coldly precise as a judge pronouncing +sentence of death, "will precipitate the major engagement with Moyen's +forces. The fools, to rush in like this, when they have been warned! But +even so, they are magnificent!" + +The pilots of the aero-subs must instantly have noticed the return of +the American pilots, for some of the aero-subs which had dropped to the +ocean's surface rose again almost instantly, and swept into battle +formation above the drifting hulks of the warships. + +The Americans were wary. They drew together like frightened chickens +when a hawk hovers above them, and watched the activities of the +aero-subs, every move of each one being at the same time visible and +audible to the Secret Agents in the Capitol's Secret Room. + +The aero-subs which had submerged singled out their particular prey +among the floating ships, and the Secret Agents, trying to see how each +separate act of destruction was accomplished, watched the aero-sub in +the foreground, which happened to be concentrating on the dreadnought +which had led the ghost-march of the warships out to sea. + + * * * * * + +The aero-sub circled the swaying dreadnought as a shark circles a wreck, +and through the walls of the aero-sub the watchers in the Secret Room +could see the four-man crew of the thing. Grim faced men, men of the +Orient they plainly were, coldly concentrating on the work in hand. +Their faces were those of men who are merciless, even brutal, with +neither heart nor compassion of any kind for weaker ones. One man +maneuvered the aero-sub, while the other three concentrated on the +apparatus in the nose of the hybrid vessel. + +"See," spoke Prester Kleig again, "if you can tell what manner of ray +they use, and how it is projected. That's your province, General +Munson!" + +From the particular Secret Agent named, who was expert for war in the +membership of the Secret Room, came a short grunt of affirmation. A few +murmured words. + +"I'll be able to tell more about it when I see how they operate when +they are flying. That black streak under water ... well, I must see it +out of the water, and then...." + +But here General Munson ended, for the aero-sub which they were +especially watching had got into action against the dreadnought. + +The aero-sub was motionless and submerged just off the port bow of the +dreadnought. The three men inside the aero-sub were working swiftly and +efficiently with the complicated but minute machinery in the nose of +their transport. + +"It can be controlled, then, this ray," said Munson, interrupting +himself. "Watch!" + + * * * * * + +From the nose of the aero-sub leaped, like a streak of black lightning, +that ebon agency of death. It struck the prow of the battleship--and the +prow, as far aft as the well-deck, simply vanished from sight, +disintegrated! It was as though it had never been, and for a second, so +swiftly had it happened, the water of the ocean held the impression that +portion of the warship had made--as an explosive leaves a crater in the +soil of earth! + +Then a drumming roar as the sea rushed in to claim its own. The roaring, +as of a Niagara, as the waters claimed the ship, rushing down +passageways into the hold, possessing the warship with all the +invincible, speedy might of the sea. + +Mingled with this roaring was the shivering, vibratory sound which +Prester Kleig had experienced in his half-dream. The sound was so +intense that it fairly rocked the Secret Room to its furthermost cranny. + +For a second the dreadnought, wounded to death, seemed to shudder, to +hesitate, then to move backward as though wincing from her death blow. +It was the pound of the inrushing waters which did it. Then up came the +stern of the mighty ship, as she started her last long plunge into the +depths. + +But attention had swung to another warship, on the starboard beam of +which another aero-sub had taken up position. Again the ebon streak of +death from her blunt nose, smashing in and through the warship, directly +amidships, cutting her in twain as though the black streak had been a +pair of shears, the warship a strip of tissue paper. + +Up went the prow and the stern of this one, and together, the water +separating the two parts as it rushed into the gap, the broken warship +went down to its final resting place. + + * * * * * + +Abruptly Professor Maniel swung back to the American planes which had +come back to investigate the activities of the aero-subs, and on the +screen, in the midst of the battle formation into which the pilots had +swept to hurriedly, the Secret Agents could see the faces of those +pilots.... + +White as chalk with fear, mouths open in gasping unbelief. One man, a +pale-faced youth, was the first to recover. He stared around at his +compatriots, and plainly through the sound apparatus in the Secret Room +came his swift radio signals. + +"Attack! Who will follow me against these people?" + +His signals were very plain. So, too, were the answers of the other +pilots, and the heart of Prester Kleig swelled with pride as he listened +to the answering signals--and counted them, discovered that every last +pilot there present elected to stay with this youngster, to avenge their +country for this contemptuous insult which had been put upon her by the +rape of Hampton Roads. + +Into swift formation they swept, and with these planes--all planes in +use were required by franchise of operating companies to be equipped for +the emergencies of war--swung into an echelon formation, the youthful +pilot leading by mutual consent. + +They swept at full speed toward the warships, four of which had by this +time been sent to destruction--one of which had appeared to vanish +utterly in the space of a single heartbeat, so quickly that for a second +or two the shape of its bilge, the bulge of its keel, was visible in the +face of the deep--and openly challenged the aero-subs. + + * * * * * + +Muzzles of compressed air guns projected from the wing-tips of the +planes. Buttons were pressed which elevated the muzzles of guns arranged +to fire upward from either side the fighting pits, twin guns that were +fired downward from the same central magazine--the only guns in use in +the Americas which fired in opposite directions at the same time. + +But for a few moments the aero-subs refused combat. Their speed was +terrific, dazzling. They eluded the thrusts, the dives and plunges of +the American ships as easily as a swallow eludes the dive of a buzzard. + +It came to Prester Kleig, however, that the aero-subs were merely +playing with the Americans; that when they elected to move, the planes +would be blasted from the sky as easily as the warships were being +erased from the surface of the Atlantic. + +One by one, as methodically as machines, the aero-sub pilots blasted the +warships into nothingness. They had their orders, and they went about +their performance with a rigidity of discipline which astounded the +Secret Agents. They had been ordered to destroy the warships, and they +were doing that first--would go on to completion of this task, no matter +how many American planes buzzed about their ears. + +But one by one as the warships sank, the aero-subs which had either sunk +or erased them made the surface and leaped into space with a snapping +back of wings that was horribly businesslike as to sound, and climbed up +to take part in the fight against the American planes, which must +inevitably come. + + * * * * * + +The last warship, cut squarely in two from stem to stern along her +center, as though split thus by a bolt of lightning, fell apart like +pieces of cake, and splashed down, sinking away while the spume of her +disintegration rolled back from her fallen sides in white-crested waves. + +"It exemplifies the policies of Moyen," said Prester Kleig, "for his +conquest of the world is a conquest of destruction." + +The last aero-sub took to the sky, and the Americans rushed into battle +with fine disregard for what they knew must be certain death. They were +not fools, exactly, and they had seen, but not understood, the manner in +which those gallant old hounds of the sea had been erased from +existence. + +But in they went, plunging squarely into the heart of the aero-subs' +leading formation, which formation consisted of three aero-subs, flying +a wing and wing formation. + +The young American signaled with upraised hand, and the American pilots +made their first move. Every plane started rolling, at dazzling speed, +on the axis of its fuselage, while bullets spewed from the guns that +fired through the propellers. + +Bullets smashed into the leading aero-subs, with no apparent effect, +though for a second it seemed that the central aero-sub of the leading +formation hesitated for a moment in flight. + +Then, swift as had that black streak flashed from the nose of aero-subs +submerged, a streak darted from the nose of the central aero-sub, and +glistened in the sun like molten gold! + + * * * * * + +It touched the youngster who had called for volunteers for his attack +against this strange enemy. It touched his plane--and the plane vanished +instantly, while for a fraction of a second the pilot was visible in his +place, in the posture of sitting, hand on a row of buttons which did not +exist, head forward slightly as he aimed guns that had vanished. + +Then the pilot, still living, apparently unhurt, plunged down eight +thousand feet to the sea. The water geysered up as he struck, then +closed over the spot, and the gallant American youngster had become the +first victim in battle of the monsters of Moyen. + +Victim of a slender lancet of what seemed to be golden lightning. + +"He could have killed the pilot aloft there," came quietly from Munson, +"but he chose to pull his plane away from around him! Their control of +the ray is miraculous!" + +As though to confirm the statement of Munson, the leading aero-sub +struck again, a second plane. The plane vanished, but from the spot +where it had flown, not even a bit of metal or of man sufficiently large +to be seen by the delicate recording instruments of Maniel dropped out +of the sky. + +The ray of gold was a ray of oblivion if the minions of Moyen willed. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +_Charmion_ + + +"Prester Kleig," came suddenly into the Secret Room the voice of far +distant Moyen, "you will at once make a change in your rules regarding +the admission of other than Secret Agents to the Secret Room. You will +at once see that Charmion Kane, sister of your friend, is allowed to +enter!" + +"God Almighty!" A cry of agony from the lips of Prester Kleig. He had +not forgotten Charmion, but simply had had to move so swiftly that he +had put her out of his mind. For a year he had not seen her, and an hour +or two more could not matter greatly. + +"And her brother Carlos," went on the voice, "see that he, too, is +admitted. I wish, for certain reasons, that Charmion come unharmed +through the direct attack I am about to make against your country. I +confess that, save for this ability to speak to you, I am unable to work +any damage to the Secret Room, which is therefore the safest place for +Charmion Kane! Carlos Kane is being spared because he is her brother!" + +There was no mistaking the import of this sinister command from Moyen. +He had singled out Charmion, the best beloved of Prester Kleig, for his +attentions, and that he was sure of the success of his attack against +the United Americas was proved by the calm assurance of his voice, and +the fact that, concentrating on the attack as he must be, he still found +time for a thought of Charmion Kane. + + * * * * * + +The hand of ice which had seldom been absent from the heart of Kleig +since he had first seen and heard the voice of Moyen gripped him anew. +Blood pounded maddeningly in his temples. Cold sweat bathed his body. + +But the rest of the Secret Agents, save to freeze into immobility when +the hated voice spoke, gave no sign. They had worries of their own, for +no instructions had been given that they bring their own loved ones into +the sanctuary of the Secret Room. + +As though answering the thoughts of the others, the hated voice spoke +again. + +"I regret that I cannot arrange for sanctuary for the loved ones of all +of you, for you are gallant antagonists; why save the few, when the many +must perish? For I know you will not surrender, however much I have +proved to you that I am invincible. But Charmion Kane must be saved." + +"God!" whispered Kleig. "God!" + +Then spoke General Munson. + +"I think this ray which the Moyenites use is a variation of the +principle used in the intricate machinery of Professor Maniel, though +how they render it visible I do not know. But it doesn't matter, and may +be only a blind! You'll note that when the black streak, or the golden +ray, strikes anything that thing instantly disintegrates. A certain +pitch of resonance will break a pane of glass. It's a matter of +vibration, solely, wherein the molecules composing any object animate or +inanimate, are hurled in all directions instantaneously. + +"Professor Maniel's apparatus, the Vibration-Retarder, is able to +recapture the vibrations, speeding outward endlessly through space, and +to reconstruct, and _draw back_ to visibility the objects destroyed by +this visible vibratory ray, whatever it is. This problem, then, falls +into the province of Professor Maniel!" + + * * * * * + +Through the heart and soul of Prester Kleig there suddenly flowed a +great surge of hope. + +"General Munson, if you will operate the machinery of the +Vibration-Retarder, I wish to talk with Professor Maniel!" + +Instantly, efficiently, without a word in reply to the eager command of +Prester Kleig, General Munson relieved Professor Maniel at the apparatus +which Maniel called the Vibration-Retarder, his invention which he had +combined with audible teleview to complete this visual miracle of the +Secret Room. Professor Maniel stepped to where Prester Kleig was +sitting. + +Prester Kleig put fingers to his lips for silence, and an expression of +surprise crossed the wrinkled dead-white face of the Professor. + +Before Kleig could speak, however, there came a signal from somewhere +outside the Secret Room, a signal which said that the doors were being +opened and that a personage was coming. The Secret Agents looked at one +another in surprise, for every man who had a right to be inside the +Secret Room was already present. + +"I know," said Kleig, his face a mask of terror. "It is Charmion and +Carlos Kane! Moyen, the devil, has managed to make sure of obedience to +his orders!" + +The Secret Agents turned back to the screen, upon which the view of the +first aerial brush of the American flyers with the minions of Moyen, in +their aero-subs, was drawing to a terrible close. + +For, as the aero-sub commanders had played with the warships, which had +no human beings aboard them, so now did they play with the planes of the +Americas. + + * * * * * + +One American flyer, startled into a frenzy by the fate of his fellows, +put his helicopter into action, and leaped madly out of the midst of the +battle. Instantly an aero-sub zoomed, skyward after him. Again that +golden streak of light from the nose of an aero-sub, and the helicopter +vanes and the slender staff upon whose tip they whirled vanished, shorn +short off above the vane-grooves in the top of the wing! + +The plane dropped away, fluttering like a falling leaf for a moment, +before the aviator started his three propellers again. + +A cheer broke from the lips of Prester Kleig as he watched. The +commander of that particular aero-sub, apparently contemptuous of this +flyer who had tried to cut out of the fight, allowed him to fall away +unmolested--and the American, driven berserk by the casual, contemptuous +treatment accorded him by this strange enemy, zoomed the second his +propellers whirred into top-speed action, and raced up the sky toward +the belly of the aero-sub. + +"If only the aero-sub has a blind spot!" cried Prester Kleig. + + * * * * * + +In that instant a roaring crash sounded in the Secret Room as the +American plane, going full speed, crashed, propellers foremost, into the +belly of the aero-sub. + +And the aero-sub, whose brothers had seemed until this moment +invincible, did not escape the wrath of the American--though the +American went into oblivion with it! + +For, welded together, American plane and aero-sub started the eight +thousand feet plunge downward to the sea! + +"Watch!" shrieked Munson. "Watch!" + +As the aero-sub and the plane plunged down through the formation of +fighters, the aero-sub pilots saw it, and they fled in wild dismay and +at top speed from their falling compatriot. Why? For a moment it was not +apparent. And then it was. + +For out of the body of the doomed aero-subs came sheets of golden flame! +Not the flames of fire, but the golden sheen of that streak which the +aero-subs had used against the American planes already out of the fight! +The American flyer had crashed into the container, whatever it was, that +harnessed the agency through which the minions of Moyen had destroyed +the _Stellar_, and the battleships raped from Hampton Roads! + +"It is liquid, then!" shrieked Munson. + +And it seemed to be. For a second the golden mantle, strange, +awe-inspiring, bathed and rendered invisible the aero-sub and the plane +which had slain her. Then the golden flame vanished utterly, +instantly--and in the air where it had been there was nothing! The +aero-sub was gone, and the plane whose mad charge had erased her. + +"Her own death dealing agency destroyed her!" shrieked Munson. "And the +other aero-subs cut away from the fight to save themselves, because they +too carry death and destruction within them!" + + * * * * * + +Then the inner door of the Secret Room opened and two people entered. +One of them, a dazzling beauty with glorious black hair and the tread of +a princess, a picture of perfection from jeweled sandals to coiffured +hair, was Charmion Kane. Behind her came her brother, whose face was +chalky white. But Charmion, as she crossed to Kleig and kissed him, +while her eyes were luminous with love, held her head proudly high, +imperious. + +"I know," she said softly to Kleig, "and I am not afraid! I know you +will prevent it!" + +Kleig waved the two to chairs and turned again to Professor Maniel. + +On a piece of paper he wrote swiftly, using a mode of shorthand known +only to the Secret Agents. + +"Professor," he wrote feverishly, "can you reverse the process used in +your Vibration-Retarder? Tell me with your eyes, for Moyen may even know +this writing, and I am sure he hears what we say here, may even be able +to see us?" + +Professor Maniel started and stared deeply into the eyes of Prester +Kleig. His face grew thoughtful. He brushed his slender hand over the +massive dome of his brow. Hope burned high in the heart of Prester +Kleig. + + * * * * * + +Then, despite Kleig's instructions to answer merely by the expression in +his eyes, Professor Maniel leaned forward and wrote quickly on the piece +of paper Kleig had used. + +"Two hours!" + +Nothing else, no explanations; but Prester Kleig knew. Maniel believed +he could do it, but he needed two hours in which to perfect his theory +and make it workable. Kleig knew that had he been able to do it in two +years, or two decades, it still would have been in the nature of a +miracle. + +But two hours.... + +And Moyen had said that he was preparing to attack at once. + +In two hours Moyen, unless the Americas fought against him with every +resource at their command, could depopulate half the Western World. +Kleig looked back to the screen. + +There was not a single American plane in the sky above the graveyard of +those vanished warships. And the aero-subs, swift flying as the wind, +were racing back to the mother ship, scores of miles away. + +Munson worked with the Vibration-Retarder, the Sound-and-Vision devices, +ranging the sea off the coast to either side of that huge, suspended +fortress which was the mother submarine of the aero-subs. + +Gasps of terror, though the sight was not unexpected, broke from the +lips of every person in the Secret Room. + +For super-monsters of Moyen were moving to the attack. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +_Flowers of Martyrdom_ + + +For a minute the Secret Agents were appalled by the air of might of the +deep-sea monsters of Moyen, brought bodily, almost into the Secret Room +by the activities of General Munson at the Sound-and-Vision apparatus. + +Off the coast, miles away, yet looming moment by moment larger, +indicating the deceptively swift speed of the monsters, were scores of +the great under-water fortresses, traveling toward the coast of the +United Americas in a far-flung formation, each submarine separated from +its neighbor to right and left by something like a hundred miles, easy +cruising radius for the little aero-subs carried inside the monsters. + +That each submarine did carry such spawn of Satan was plainly seen, for +as the great submarines moved landward, scores of aero-subs sported +gleefully about the mother ships. There was no counting the number of +them. + +Two hours Maniel needed for his labors, which meant that for two hours +the flower of the country's manhood must try to hold in check the mighty +hordes of Moyen. + +"Somewhere there," stated Prester Kleig, "in one or the other of those +monsters, is Moyen himself. I know that since he wished Charmion saved +for his attentions! Do your work with your apparatus, Munson, while I go +out to the radio tower to broadcast an appeal for volunteers. +Charmion--Carlos...." + +But Prester Kleig found that he could not continue. Not that it was +necessary, for Charmion and Carlos knew what was in his mind. Charmion +was a lady of vast intelligence, from whom life's little ironies had not +been hidden--and Kane and Kleig had already discussed the activities of +Moyen where women were concerned. + + * * * * * + +Prester Kleig hurried to the Central Radio Tower, and as he passed +through each of the many doors leading out to the roof of the new +Capitol Building the guards at the doors left to form a guard for him, +at this moment the most precious man in the country, because he knew +best the terrible trials which faced her. + +The country was in turmoil. It seemed almost impossible that a whole day +had passed since Prester Kleig had returned and entered the Secret Room. +In the meantime a fleet of battleships had been drawn by some mysterious +agency out to sea from Hampton Roads, and a fleet of fighting planes +which had followed the ghost column outward had not returned. + +News-gatherers had spread the stories, distorted and garbled, across the +western continents, and throughout the western confederacy men, women +and children lived in the throes of the greatest fear that had ever +gripped them. Fear held them most because they could not give the cause +of their fear a name--save one.... + +Moyen.... And the name was on the lips of everyone, and frenzied woman +stilled their squalling babes with its mention. + +No word yet from the Secret Room, but Prester Kleig had scarcely +appeared from it than someone started the radio signal which informed +the frenzied, waiting world of the west that information, exact if +startling, would now be forthcoming. + +In millions of homes, in thousands of high-flying planes, listeners +tuned in at the clear-all hum. + + * * * * * + +Prester Kleig wasted no time in preliminaries. + +"Prester Kleig speaking. We are threatened by Moyen, with scores of +monster submarines, each a mother ship for scores of aero-subs, +combinations of airplanes and miniature submarines. They are moving up +on our eastern coast, from some secret base which we have not yet +located. They are equipped with death dealing instruments of which we +have but the most fragmentary knowledge, and for two hours I must call +upon all flyers to combat the menace; until the Secret Agents, +especially Professor Maniel, have had opportunity to counteract the +minions of Moyen. + +"Flyers of the United Americas! In the name of our country I ask that +volunteers gather on the eastern coast, each flyer proceeding at once to +the nearest coast-landing, after dropping all passengers. Your +commanders have already been named by your various organizations, as +required by franchise, and orders for the movement of the entire winged +armada will come from this station. However, the orders will simply be +this: Hold Moyen's forces at bay for a period of two hours! And know +that many of you go to certain death, and make your own decisions as to +whether you shall volunteer!" + +This ended, Prester Kleig, excitement mounting high, hurried back to the +Secret Room. + +Now the public knew, and as the American public is given to doing, it +steadied down when it knew the worst. Fear of the unknown had changed +the public into a myriad-souled beast gone berserk. Now that knowledge +was exact men grew calm of face, determined, and women assumed the +supporting role which down the ages has been that of brave women, +mothers of men. + + * * * * * + +A period of silence for a time after Prester Kleig's pronouncement. + +As he entered the first door leading into the Secret Room, Carlos Kane +met and passed him with a smile. + +"You called for winged volunteers, did you not, Kleig?" he asked +quietly. + +Kleig nodded. "You are going?" he said. + +"Yes. It is my duty." + +No other words were necessary, as the men shook hands. Prester Kleig +going on to the Secret Room, Carlos Kane going out to join the mighty +armada which must fight against the minions of Moyen. + +The words of Prester Kleig were heard by the pilots of the sky-lanes. +The passenger pits, equipped with self-opening parachutes which dropped +jumpers in series of long falls in order to acquire swift but accurate +and safe landing--they opened at intervals in long falls of two thousand +feet, stayed the fall, then closed again, so that drops were almost +continuous until the last four hundred feet--and pilots, swiftly making +up their minds, dropped their passengers, banked their planes, and raced +into the east. + + * * * * * + +All over the Americas pilots dropped their passengers and their loads if +their franchises called for the carrying of freight, and banked about to +take part in the first skirmish with the Moyenites. + +Dropping figures almost darkened the sky as passengers plunged downward +after the startling signal from Washington. Flowers, which were the +umbrellas of chutes, opened and closed like breathing winged orchids, +letting their burdens safely to earth. + +And clouds and fleets of airplanes came in from all directions to land, +in rows and rows which were endless, wing and wing, along the eastern +coast. + +Prester Kleig had scarcely entered the Secret Room than the hated voice +of Moyen again broke upon the ears of the machinelike Secret Agents. + +"This is madness, gentlemen! My people will annihilate yours!" + +But, since time for speech had passed, not one of the Secret Agents made +answer or paid the slightest heed to the warning, though deep in the +heart of each and every one was the belief that Moyen spoke no more than +the truth. + +Too, there was a growing respect for the half-god of Asia, in that he +was good enough to warn them of the holocaust which faced their country. + +By hundreds and thousands, wing and wing, airplanes dropped to the +Atlantic coast at the closest point of contact, when the signal reached +them. At high altitudes, planes crossing the Atlantic turned back and +returned at top speed, dropping their passengers as soon as over land. +That Moyen made no move to prevent the return of flyers out over the +ocean, and now coming back, was an ominous circumstance. + +It seemed to show that he held the American flyers, all of them, in +utter contempt. + + * * * * * + +Prester Kleig regarded the time. It had been half an hour since Moyen +had spoken of attack, half an hour since the monsters of the deep had +started the inexorable move toward land. On the screen the submarines +were bulking larger and larger as the moments fled, until it seemed to +the Secret Agents that the great composite shadow of them already was +sweeping inland from the coast. + +As the coast came close ahead of the monster subs the little aero-subs, +to the surprise of the Secret Agents, all vanished into their respective +mother ships. + +"But they have to use them," groaned Munson. "For their submarines are +useless in frontal attack against our shores!" + +"I am not so sure of that," said Prester Kleig. "For I have a suspicion +that those submarines have tractors under their keels, and that they can +come out on land! If this is so the monsters can, guarded by +armour-plate, penetrate to the very heart of our most populated areas +before their aero-subs are released." + +None of the Secret Agents as yet had stopped to ponder how the monsters +had reached their positions, and why Moyen was attacking from the east, +when the Pacific side of the continents would have appeared to be the +obvious point of attack, and would have obviated the necessity of long, +secret under-sea journeys wherein discovery prematurely must have been +one of the many worries of the submarine commanders. + +The mere fact of the presence of the monsters was enough. What had +preceded their presence was unimportant, save that their presence, and +their near approach to the shore undetected, further proved the +executive and planning genius of Moyen. + +Two miles, on an average, off the eastern coast the submarines laid +their eggs--the aero-subs, which darted from the sides of the mother +ships in flights and squadrons, made the surface, and leaped into the +sky. + +Five minutes later and the signal went forth to the phalanx of the +volunteers. + +"Take off! Fly east and engage the enemy, and hold him in check, and the +God of our fathers go with you!" + +One hour had passed since Moyen's ultimatum when the first vanguard of +the American flyers, obeying the peremptory signal, took the air and +darted eastward to meet the winged death-harbingers of Moyen. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +"_They Shall Not Pass!_" + + +Prester Kleig's heartfelt desire, as the American flyers closed with the +first of the aero-subs, was to go out with them and aid them in the +attack against the Moyenites. But he knew, and it was a tacit thing, +that he best served his country from the safe haven of the Secret Room. + +As he watched the scenes unfold on the screen of Maniel's genius, with +occasional glances at the somewhat mysterious but profound and +concentrated labors of Maniel, Charmion Kane rose from her place and +came to his side. + +Wide-eyed as she watched the joining of battle, she stood there, her +tiny hand encased in the tense one of Prester Kleig. + +"You would like to be out there," she murmured. "I know it! But your +country needs you here--and I have already given Carlos!" + +Prester Kleig tightened his grip on her hand. + + * * * * * + +There was deep, silent understanding between these two, and Prester +Kleig, in fighting against the Moyenites, realized, even above his +realization that his labors were primarily for the benefit of his +country, that he really matched wits with Moyen for the sake of +Charmion. Had anyone asked him whether he would have sacrificed her for +the benefit of his country, it would have been a difficult question to +answer. + +He was glad that the question was never asked. + +"Yes, beloved," he whispered, "I would like to be out there, but the +greatest need for me is here." + +But even so he felt as though he was betraying those intrepid flyers he +was sending to sure death. Yet they had volunteered, and it was the only +way. + +Maniel, a gnomelike little man with a Titan's brain, labored with his +calculations, made swiftly concrete his theories, while at the +Sound-and-Vision apparatus excitable General Munson ranged the aerial +battlefield to see how the tide of battle ebbed and flowed. + +That neither side would either ask or give quarter was instantly +apparent, for they rushed head-on to meet each other, those vast +opposing winged armadas, at top speed, and not a single individual +swerved from his course, though at least the Americans knew that death +rode the skyways ahead. + +Then.... + +The battle was joined. Moyen's forces were superior in armament. Their +sky-steeds were faster, more readily maneuverable, though the flying +forces of the Americas in the last five years had made vast strides in +aviation. But what the Americans lacked in power they made up for in +fearless courage. + + * * * * * + +The plan of battle seemed automatically to work itself out. + +The first vanguard of American planes came into contact with the forces +of Moyen, and from the noses of countless aero-subs spurted that golden +streak which the Secret Agents knew and dreaded. + +The first flight of planes, stretching from horizon to horizon, vanished +from the sky with that dreadful surety which had marked the passing of +the _Stellar_, and such of those warships as had felt the full force of +the visible ray. + +From General Munson rose a groan of anguish. These convertible fighting +planes had been the pride of the heart of the old warrior. To do him +credit, however, it was the wanton, so terribly inevitable destruction +of the flyers themselves which affected him. It was so final, so +absolute--and so utterly impossible to combat. + +"Wait!" snapped Prester Kleig. + +For the intrepid flyers behind that vanguard which had vanished had +witnessed the wholesale disintegration of the leading element of the +vast armada, and the pilots realized on the instant that no headlong +rush into the very noses of the aero-subs would avail anything. + +The vast American formation broke into a mad maelstrom of whirling, +darting, diving planes. Every third plane plummeted downward, every +second one climbed, and the remaining ships, even in the face of what +had happened to the vanished first flight, held steadily to the front. + +In this mad, seemingly meaningless formation, they closed on the +aero-subs. Without having seen the fight, the Americans were aping the +action of that one nameless flyer who had charged the aero-sub that had +been destroyed. + + * * * * * + +Kleig remembered. A score of ships had been destroyed utterly above the +graveyard of dreadnoughts, yet only one aero-sub, and that quite by +chance, had been marked off in the casualty column. + +Death rode the heavens as the American flyers went into action. For +head-on fights, flyers went in at top speed, their planes whirling on +the axes of fuselages, all guns going. Planes were armored against their +own bullets, and they were not under the necessity of watching to see +that they did not slay their own friends. + +Even so, bullets were rather ineffective against the aero-subs, whose +apparently flimsy, almost transparent outer covering diverted the +bullets with amazing ease. + +A whirling maelstrom of ships. The monsters of Moyen had drawn first +blood, if the expression may be used in an action where no blood at all +was drawn, but machines and men simply erased from existence. + +Hundreds of planes already gone when the second flight of ships closed +with the aero-subs. Yellow streaks of death flashed from aero-sub +nostrils, but even as aero-sub operators set their rays into motion the +American flyers in head-on charge rolled, dived or zoomed, and kept +their guns going. + +High above the first flight of aero-subs, behind which another flight +was winging swiftly into action, American flyers tilted the noses of +their planes over and dived under full power--to sure death by suicide, +though none knew it there at the moment. + + * * * * * + +These aero-subs could not be driven from the sky by usual means, and +could destroy American ships even before those planes could come to +handgrips; but they, the flyers plainly believed, could be crashed out +of the sky and so, never guessing what besides death in resulting +crashes they faced, the flyers above the aero-subs, even as aero-subs in +rear flashed in to prevent, dived down straight at the backs of the +aero-subs. + +In a hundred places the dives of the Americans worked successfully, and +American planes crashed full and true, full power on, into the backs of +the "flying fish." In some aero-subs the container of the Moyen-dealing +agency apparently remained untouched, and airplanes and aero-subs, +welded together, plunged down the invisible skylanes into the sea. + +Under water, some of the aero-subs were seen to keep in motion, limping +toward the nearest mother submarines. + +"I hope," said Prester Kleig, "the American flyers in such cases are +already dead, for Moyen will be a maniac in his tortures. Munson, do you +hurriedly examine the mother-subs and see if you can locate Moyen." + + * * * * * + +However, only a scattered aero-sub here and there went down without the +strange substance of the yellow ray being released. In most cases, upon +the contact of plane with aero-sub, the aero-subs and planes were +instantly blotted from view by the yellow, golden flames from the heart +of the winged harbingers of Moyen. + +Golden flames, blinding in their brightness, dropping down, mere +shapeless blotches, then fading out to nothingness in a matter of +seconds--with aero-sub and airplane totally erased from action and from +existence. + +The American flyers saw and knew now the manner of death they faced. Yet +all along the battle front not an American tried to evade the issue and +draw out of the fight. A sublime, inspiring exhibition of mass courage +which had not been witnessed down the years since that general +engagement which men of the time had called the Great War. + +Prester Kleig turned to look at Maniel. Drops of perspiration bathed the +cheeks of the master scientist, but his eyes were glowing like coals of +fire. His face was set in a white mask of concentration, and Prester +Kleig knew that Maniel would find the answer to the thing he sought if +such answer could be found. + +Would the American flyers be able to hold off the minions of Moyen until +Maniel was ready? The fight out there above the waters was a terrible +thing, and the Americans fought and died like men inspired, yet +inexorably the winged armada of Moyen, preceded by those licking golden +tongues, was moving landward. + +"Great God!" cried Munson. "Look!" + + * * * * * + +There was really no need for the order, for every Secret Agent saw as +soon as did Munson. Under the sea, just off the coast, the mother-subs +had touched their blunt nose against the upward shelving of the sea +bottom--had touched bottom, and were slowly but surely following the +underwater curve of the land, up toward the surface, like unbelievable +antediluvian monsters out of some nightmare. + +"Yes," said Kleig quietly, "those monsters of Moyen can move on land, +and the aero-subs can operate from them as easily on land as under +water." + +Kleig regarded the time, whirled to look at Professor Maniel. + +One hour and forty minutes had passed since Maniel had begged for two +hours in which to prepare some mode of effectively combatting the might +of Moyen. Twenty minutes to go; yet the mother-subs would be ashore, +dragging their sweating, monstrous sides out of the deep, within ten +minutes! + +Ten minutes ashore and there was no guessing the havoc they could cause +to the United Americas! + +"Hurry, Maniel! Hurry! Hurry!" said Prester Kleig. + +But he spoke the words to himself, though even had he spoken them aloud +Maniel would not have heard. For Maniel, for two hours, had closed his +mind to everything that transpired outside his own thoughts, devoted to +foiling the power of Moyen. + +"I've found him!" snapped Munson. + + * * * * * + +He pointed with a shaking forefinger to one of the mother-subs crawling +up the slant of the ocean bed, twisted one of the little nubs of the +Sound-and-Vision apparatus, and the angelic face and Satanic eyes, the +twisted body, of Moyen came into view. + +The face was calm with dreadful purpose, and Moyen stood in the heart of +one of his monsters, his eyes turned toward the land. With a gasp of +terror, dreadfully afraid for the first time, Prester Kleig turned and +looked into the eyes of Charmion.... + +"No," she said. "It will never happen. I have faith in you!" + +There were still ten minutes of the two hours left when the mother-subs +broke water and started crawling inland, swiftly, surely, without +faltering in the slightest as they changed their element from water to +land. + +As though their appearance had been the signal, the aero-subs in action +against the first line of American planes broke out of the one-sided +fight and dived for their mother ships, while a mere handful of the +American planes started back for home to prepare anew to continue the +struggle. + +Prester Kleig gave the signal to the second monster armada which had +remained in reserve. + +"Do everything in your power to halt the march of Moyen's amphibians!" + +Ten minutes to go, and Professor Maniel still labored like a Titan. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +_Caucasia Falls Silent_ + + +As the scores of amphibian monsters came lumbering forth upon dry land +it became instantly apparent why the aero-subs had returned to the +mother ships. For a few moments, out of the water, the amphibians were +almost helpless, with practically no way of attack or defense--as +helpless as huge turtles turned legs up. + +But as each aero-sub entered its proper slot in the side of the mother +amphibian, it was turned about and the nose thrust back into the +opening, which closed down to fit tightly about the nose of the +aero-sub, so that those flame-breathing monsters protruded from the +sides of the amphibians in many places--transforming the amphibians into +monsters with hundreds of golden, licking tongues! + +As, with each and every aero-sub in place, the amphibians started moving +inland, Professor Maniel made his first move. With the tiny apparatus +upon which he had been working, he stepped to the table before the +Sound-and-Vision apparatus and spoke softly to his compatriots. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "I have finished, and it will work effectively!" + +Though Maniel spoke softly, it was plain to be seen that he was proud of +his accomplishment, which remained only to be attached to start +performance. + +A matter of seconds.... + +Yet during those seconds was the real might, the real power for utter +devastation, of Moyen fully exposed! + + * * * * * + +The amphibians got under way as the airplanes of the Americas swept into +the fight. + +From the sides of the monsters licked out those golden tongues of +flame--and from the front. + +Half a dozen amphibians slipped into New York from the harbor side and +started into the heart of the city. And between the time when Maniel had +said he was ready and the moment when he made his first active move +against Moyen, a half-dozen skyscrapers vanished into nothingness, the +spots where they had stood swept as clear of debris as though the land +had never been reclaimed from Nature! + +None was ever destined to know how many lives were lost in that first +attack of the monsters of the golden, myriad tongues; but the monsters +struck in the midst of a working day when the skyscrapers were filled +with office workers. + +And resolve struck deep into the hearts of the Secret Agents: if Moyen +were turned back, he must be made to pay for the slaughter. + +A matter of seconds.... + + * * * * * + +Then a moment of deathly silence as Munson gave way at the screen for +the gnomelike little Professor Maniel. + +"Now, gentlemen!" snapped Maniel. "If my theory is correct," +manipulating instruments with lightning speed as he talked, "the +reversion of the principle of my Vibration-Retarder--which captures +vibrations speeding outward from the earth and transforms them once +again into sound and pictures audible and visible to the human ear--this +apparatus will disintegrate the monsters as our boats and planes were +disintegrated! + +"In this I have even been compelled to manipulate in the matter of +time! I must not only defeat and annihilate the minions of Moyen, but +must work from a mathematical absurdity, so that at the moment of impact +that moment itself must become part of the past, sufficiently remote to +remove the monsters at such distance from the earth that not even the +mighty genius of Moyen can return them!" + +The whirring, gentle as the whirring of doves' wings. In the center of +the picture on the screen were those half-dozen amphibians laying waste +Manhattan. Maniel set his intricate, delicate machinery into motion. + +Instantly the amphibians there seemed to become misty, shadowy, and to +lift out of Manhattan up above the roof-tops of skyscrapers still +remaining, nebulous and wraithlike as ghost-shrouds--yet swinging +outward from the earth with speed almost too swift for the eye to +detect. + +But where the amphibians had rested there stood, reclined--in all sorts +of postures, surprising and even a bit ridiculous--the men of Moyen who +had operated the monsters of Moyen! + + * * * * * + +From the Central Radio tower went forth a mighty voice of command to the +planes which had been engaging the aero-subs off the coast. + +"Slay! Slay!" + +Down flashed the planes of the Americas, and their guns were blazing, +inaudibly, but none the less deadly of aim and of purpose, straight into +the midst of the men of Moyen who had thus been left marooned and almost +helpless with the vanishing of their amphibians. + +And, noting how they fell in strangled, huddled heaps before the +vengeful fire of the American planes, the Secret Agents sighed, and +Maniel, his face alight with the pride of accomplishment, switched to +another point along the coast. + +And as a new group of the monsters of Moyen came into view, and Maniel +bent to his labors afresh, the hated voice of the master mobster broke +once more in the Secret Room. + +"Enough, Kleig! Enough! We will surrender to save lives! I stipulate +only that my own life be spared!" + +To which Prester Kleig made instant reply. + +"Did you offer us choice of surrender? Did you spare the lives of our +people which, with your control of your golden rays, you could easily +have done? No! Nor will we spare lives, least of all the life of Moyen!" + +The whirring again, as of the whirring of doves' wings. More metal +monsters, even as golden tongues spewed forth from their many sides, +vanished from view, leaping skyward, while the operators of them were +left to the mercies of the remaining airmen of the Americans. + + * * * * * + +Voicelessly the word went forth: + +"Slay! Slay!" + +It was Charmion who begged for mercy for the vanquished as, one by one, +as surely as fate, the monsters with their contained aero-subs were +blotted out, leaving pilots and operators behind them. Down upon these +dropped the airmen of the West, slaying without mercy.... + +"Please, lover!" Charmion whispered. "Spare them!" + +"Even...?" he began, thinking of Moyen, who would have taken Charmion. +He felt her shudder as she read his mind, understood what he would have +asked. + +"There he is!" came softly from Munson. + +An amphibian had just been disintegrated, had just climbed mistily, +swiftly, into invisibility in the skies. And there in the midst of the +conquerors left behind, his angel's face set in a moody mask, his pale +eyes awful with fear, his misshapen body sagging, terrible in its +realization of failure, was Moyen! + +Even as Kleig prepared to give the mercy signal, a plane dived down on +the group about Moyen, and the Secret Agents could see the hand of the +pilot, lifted high, as though he signaled. + +The plane was a Mayther! The pilot was Carlos Kane! + + * * * * * + +Just as Kane went into action, and the noiseless bullets from his ship +crashed into that twisted body, causing it to jump and twitch with the +might of them, Prester Kleig gave the signal. + +Even as the figure of Moyen crashed to the soil and the man's soul +quitted its mortal casement, Kleig commanded: + +"Spare all who surrender! Make them prisoners, to be used to repair the +damage they have done to our country! Guards will be instantly placed +over the amphibians and the aero-subs--for the day may come when we +shall need to know their secrets!" + +And, as men, hands lifted high in token of surrender, quitted the now +motionless amphibians, and flyers dropped down to make them prisoners, +Maniel sighed, pressed various buttons on his apparatus, and the mad +scene of carnage they had witnessed for hours faded slowly out, and +darkness and silence filled the Secret Room. + +But darkness is the joy of lovers, and in the midst of silence that was +almost appalling by contrast, Kleig and Charmion were received into each +other's arms. + + + +---------------------------+ + | Everyone Is Invited | + | _To "Come Over in_ | + | 'THE READERS' CORNER'"! | + +---------------------------+ + + + + +Vampires of Venus + +_By Anthony Pelcher_ + +[Illustration: _He seized a short knife and threw himself forward._] + + Leslie Larner, an entomologist borrowed from the Earth, pits himself + against the night-flying vampires that are ravaging the inhabitants + of Venus. + + +It was as if someone had thrown a bomb into a Quaker meeting, when +adventure suddenly began to crowd itself into the life of the studious +and methodical Leslie Larner, professor of entomology. + +Fame had been his since early manhood, when he began to distinguish +himself in several sciences, but the adventure and thrills he had longed +for had always fallen to the lot of others. + +His father, a college professor, had left him a good working brain and +nothing else. Later his mother died and he was left with no relatives in +the world, so far as he knew. So he gave his life over to study and hard +work. + +Still youthful at twenty-five, he was hoping that fate would "give him +a break." It did. + +He was in charge of a Government department having to do with Oriental +beetles, Hessian flies, boll weevils and such, and it seemed his life +had been just one bug after another. He took creeping, crawling things +seriously and believed that, unless curbed, insects would some day crowd +man off the earth. He sounded an alarm, but humanity was not disturbed. +So Leslie Larner fell back on his microscope and concerned himself with +saving cotton, wheat and other crops. His only diversion was fishing for +the elusive rainbow trout. + +He managed to spend a month each year in the Colorado Rockies angling +for speckled beauties. + +Larner was anything but a clock-watcher, but on a certain bright day in +June he was seated in his laboratory doing just that. + +"Just five minutes to go," he mused. + +It was just 4:25 P. M. He had finished his work, put his affairs in +order, and in five minutes would be free to leave on a much needed and +well earned vacation. His bags were packed and at the station. His +fishing tackle, the pride of his young life, was neatly rolled in oiled +silk and stood near at hand. + +"I'll just fill my calabash, take one more quiet smoke, and then for the +mountains and freedom," he told himself. He settled back with his feet +on his desk. He half closed his eyes in solid comfort. Then the bomb +fell and exploded. + + * * * * * + +B-r-r-r-r! + +The buzzer on his desk buzzed and his feet came off the desk and hit the +floor with a thud. His eyes popped open and the calabash was immediately +laid aside. + +That buzzer usually meant business, and it would be his usual luck to +have trouble crash in on him just as he was on the edge of a rainbow +trout paradise. + +A messenger was ushered into the room by an assistant. The boy handed +him an envelope, said, "No answer," and departed. + +Larner tore open the envelope lazily. He read and then re-read its +contents, while a look of puzzled surprise disturbed his usually placid +countenance. He spread the sheet of paper out on his desk, and for the +tenth time he read: + + Confidential. + + Memorize this address and destroy this paper: + + Tula Bela, 1726 88th Street, West, City of Hesper, Republic of + Pana, Planet Venus. + + Will meet you in the Frying Pan. + +That was all. It was enough. Larner lost his temper. He crumpled the +paper and tossed it in the waste basket. He was not given to profanity, +but he could say "Judas Priest" in a way that sizzled. + +"Judas Priest!" he spluttered. "Anyone who would send a man a crazy +bunch of nonsense like that, at a time like this, ought to be snuffed +out like a beetle! + +"'Meet you in the Frying Pan,'" he quoted. Then he happened to recall +something. "By golly, there is a fishing district in Colorado known as +the Frying Pan. That's not so crazy, but the planet Venus part surely is +cuckoo." + +He fished the paper out of the waste basket, found the envelope, placed +the strange message within and put it in his inside coat pocket. Then he +seized his suitcase and fishing tackle, and, rushing out, hailed a taxi. +Not long after he was on his way west by plane. + + * * * * * + +As the country unrolled under him he retrieved the strange note from his +pocket. He read it again and again. Then he examined the envelope. It +was an ordinary one of good quality, designed for business rather than +social usage. The note paper appeared quite different. It was unruled, +pure white, and of a texture which might be described as pebbly. It was +strongly made, and of a nature unlike any paper Larner had ever seen +before. It appeared to have been made from a fiber rather than a pulp. + +"Wonder who wrote it?" Larner asked himself. "It is beautiful +handwriting, masculine yet artistic. Wonder where he got the Frying Pan +idea? At any rate, I'm not going to the Frying Pan this year--I'm +camping on Tennessee Creek, in Lake County, Colorado. The country there +is more beautiful and restful. + +"But this street address on the planet Venus. Seems to me I read +somewhere that Marconi had received mysterious signals that he believed +came from the planet Venus. Hesper, Hesper ... it sounds familiar, +somehow. Wonder if there could be anything to it?" + +Something impelled him to follow out the instructions in the note. He +spent the next few hours repeating the address over and over again. When +he was satisfied that he had memorized it thoroughly, he tore the +strange paper into bits and sent it fluttering earthward like a tiny +snowstorm. + +Larner was not a gullible individual, but neither was he unimaginative. +He was scientist enough to know that "the impossibilities of to-day are +the accomplishments of to-morrow." So while not convinced that the note +was a serious communication, still his mind was open. + +The weird address insisted on creeping into his mind and driving out +other thoughts, even those of his speckled playfellows, the rainbow +trout. + +"I've a notion to change my plans and go from Denver to the Frying Pan," +he cogitated. Then he thought, "No, I won't take it that seriously." + + * * * * * + +Anyone who knows the Colorado Rockies knows paradise. There is no more +beautiful country on the globe. Lake County, where Larner had chosen +his fishing grounds, has as its seat the old mining camp of Leadville. +It has been visited and settled more for its gold mines than the golden +glow of its sunsets above the clouds, but the gold of the sunsets is +eternal, while the gold of the mines is fading quickly away. + +Leadville, with its 5,000 inhabitants, nestles above the clouds, at an +altitude of more than 10,000 feet. Mount Massive with its three peaks +lies back of the town in panorama and rises to a height of some 14,400 +feet. In the rugged mountains thereabouts are hundreds of lakes fed by +wild streams and bubbling crystal springs. All these lakes are above the +clouds. + +Winter sees the whole picture decorated with bizarre snowdrifts from +twenty to forty feet deep, but spring comes early. The beautiful +columbines and crocuses bloom before the snow is all off the ground in +the valleys. The lands up to 12,000 feet altitude are carpeted with a +light green grass and moss. Giant pines and dainty aspens, with their +silvery bark and pinkish leaves blossom forth and whisper, while the +eternal snows still linger in the higher rocky cliffs and peaks above. + +Indian-paint blooms its blood red in contrast to the milder colorings. +Blackbirds and bluebirds chatter and chipmunks chirp. The gold so hard +to find in the mines glares from the skies. The hills cuddle in banks of +snowy clouds, and above all a pure clear blue sky sweeps. The lakes and +streams abound with rainbow trout, the gamest of any fresh water fish. +It is indeed a paradise for either poet or sportsman. + +In any direction near to Leadville a man can find Heaven and recreation +and rest. + +Finding himself on Harrison Avenue, the main street of the county seat, +Larner, after renewing some old acquaintanceships, started west in a +flivver for Tennessee Creek. The flivver is a modern adjustment. Until +a few years ago the only means of traversing these same hills was by +patient, sure-footed donkeys, which carried the pack while the wayfarer +walked along beside. + + * * * * * + +The first day's fishing was good. Trout seemed to greet him cheerily and +sprang eagerly to the fray. They bit at any sort of silken fly he cast. + +The site chosen by Larner for his camp was in a mossy clearing separated +from the stream by a fringe of willows along the creek. Then came a +border of aspens backed by a forest of silver-tipped firs. + +It was ideal and his eyes swept the scene with satisfaction. Then he +began whittling bacon to grease his pan for frying trout over the open +fire. + +Suddenly he heard a rustle in the aspens, and, looking up, beheld a +picture which made his eyes bulge. A man and a woman, garbed seemingly +in the costumes of another world, walked toward him. Neither were more +than five feet tall but were physically perfect, and marvelously +pleasing to the eye. There was little difference in their dress. + +Both wore helmets studded with what Larner believed to be sapphires. He +learned later they were diamonds. Their clothing consisted of tight +trouserlike garments surmounted by tunics of some white pelt resembling +chamois save for color. A belt studded with precious stones encircled +their waists. Artistic laced sandals graced their small firm feet. + +Their skin was a pinkish white. Their every feature was perfection plus, +and their bodies curved just enough wherever a curve should be. The +woman was daintier and more fully developed, and her features were even +more finely chiseled than the man. Otherwise it would have been +difficult to distinguish their sex. + +Larner took in these details subconsciously, for he was awed beyond +expression. All he could do was to stand seemingly frozen, half bent +over the campfire with his frying pan in his hand. + + * * * * * + +The man spoke. + +"I hope we did not startle you," he said. "I thought my note would +partly prepare you for this meeting. We expected to find you in the +Frying Pan district. When you did not appear there we tuned our radio +locator to your heart beats and in that way located you here. It was +hardly a second's space-flying time from where we were." + +Larner said nothing. He could only stand and gape. + +"I do not wonder that you are surprised," said the strange little man. +"I will explain that I am Nern Bela, of the City of Hesper, on the +planet Venus. This is my sister Tula. We greet you in the interest of +the Republic of Pana, which embraces all of the planet you know as +Venus." + +When Larner recovered his breath, he lost his temper. + +"I don't know what circus you escaped from, but I crave solitude and I +have no time to be bothered with fairy tales," he said with brutal +bruskness. + +Expressions of hurt surprise swept the countenances of his visitors. + +The man spoke again: + +"We are just what we assert we are, and our finding you was made +necessary by a condition which grieves the souls of all the 900,000,000 +inhabitants of Venus. We have come to plead with you to come with us and +use your scientific knowledge to thwart a scourge which threatens the +lives of millions of people." + +There was a quiet dignity about the man and an air of pride about the +woman which made Larner stop and think, or try to. He rubbed his hand +over his brow and looked questioningly at the pair. + +"If you are what you say you are, how did you get here?" he asked. + +"We came in a targo, a space-flying ship, capable of doing 426,000 miles +an hour. This is just 1200 times as fast as 355 miles an hour, the +highest speed known on earth. Come with us and we will show you our +ship." They looked at him appealingly, and both smiled a smile of +wistful friendliness. + +Larner, without a word, threw down his frying pan and followed them +through the aspens. The brother and sister walking ahead of him gave his +eyes a treat. He surveyed the perfect form of the girl. Her perfection +was beyond his ken. + +"They certainly are not of this world," he mused. + + * * * * * + +A few hundred yards farther on there was a beach of pebbles, where the +stream had changed its course. On this plot sat a gigantic spherical +machine of a glasslike material. It was about 300 feet in diameter and +it was tapered on two sides into tees which Larner rightly took to be +lights. + +"This is a targo, our type of space-flyer," said Nern Bela. "It is +capable of making two trips a year between Venus and the earth. We have +visited this planet often, always landing in some mountain or jungle +fastness as heretofore we did not desire earth-dwellers to know of our +presence." + +"Why not?" asked Larner, his mouth agape and his eyes protruding. His +mind was so full of questions that he fairly blurted his first one. + +"Because," said Bela, slowly and frankly, "because our race knows no +sickness and we feared contagion, as your race has not yet learned to +control its being." + +"Oh," said Lamer thoughtfully. He realized that humans of the earth, +whom he had always regarded as God's most perfect beings, were not so +perfect after all. + +"How do you people control your being, as you express it?" he asked. + +"It is simple," was the reply. "For ninety centuries we have ceased to +breed imperfection, crime and disease. We deprived no one of the +pleasures of life, but only the most perfect mental and physical +specimens of our people cared to have children. In other words, while we +make no claim to controlling our sex habits, we do control results." + +"Oh," said Larner again. + +Nern Bela led the way to a door which opened into the side of the +space-flyer near its base. "We have a crew of four men and four women," +he said. "They handle the entire ship, with my sister and I in command, +making six souls aboard in all." + +"Why men and women?" thought Larner. + +As if in answer to his thought Bela said: + +"On the earth the two sexes have struggled for sex supremacy. This has +thrown your civilization out of balance. On Venus we have struggled for +sex equality and have accomplished it. This is a perfect balance. Man +and women engage in all endeavor and share all favors and rewards +alike." + +"In war, too?" asked Larner. + +"There has not been war on Venus for 600,000 years," said Bela. "There +is only the one nation, and the people all live in perfect accord. Our +only trouble in centuries is a dire peril which now threatens our +people, and it is of this that I wish to talk to you more at length." + + * * * * * + +They were standing close to the targo. Larner was struck by the peculiar +material of which it was constructed. There was a question in his eyes, +and Nern Bela answered it: + +"The metal is duranium; it is metalized quartz. It is frictionless, +conducts no current or ray except repulsion and attraction ray NTR69X6 +by which it is propelled. It is practically transparent, lighter than +air and harder than a diamond. It is cast in moulds after being melted +or, rather, fused. + +"We use cold light which we produce by forcing oxygen through air tubes +into a vat filled with the fat of a deep sea fish resembling your whale. +You are aware, of course, that that is exactly how cold light is +produced by the firefly, except for the fact that the firefly uses his +own fat." + +Larner was positively fascinated. He smoothed the metal of the targo in +appreciation of its marvelous construction, but he longed most to see +the curious light giving mechanism, for this was closer to his own line +of entomology. He had always believed that the light giving organs of +fireflys and deep-sea fishes could be reproduced mechanically. + +The interior of the ship resembled in a vague way that of an ocean +liner. It was controlled by an instrument board at which a man and a +girl sat. They did not raise their heads as the three people entered. + +When called by Bela and his sister, who seemed to give commands in +unison, the crew assembled and were presented to the visitor. + +"Earth-dwellers are not the curiosity to us that we seem to be to you," +said Tula Bela, speaking for the first time and smiling sweetly. + +Larner was too engrossed to note the remark further than to nod his +head. He was lost in contemplation of these strange people, all garbed +exactly alike and all surpassingly lovely to look upon. + + * * * * * + +An odor of food wafted from the galley, and Larner remembered he was +hungry, with the hunger of health. He had swung his basket of fish over +his shoulder when he left his campfire, and Tula took it from him. + +"Would you like to have our chef prepare them for you?" she said, as she +caught his hungry glance at his day's catch. This time Larner answered +her. + +"If you will pardon me," he said awkwardly. "Really I am famished." + +"You will not miss your fish dinner," said the girl. + +"I believe there is enough for all of us," said Larner. "I caught twenty +beauties. I never knew fish to bite like that. Why, they--" and he was +off on a voluminous discourse on a favorite subject. + +Those assembled listened sympathetically. Then Tula took the fish, and +soon the aroma of broiling trout mingled with the other entrancing +galley odors. + +After a dinner at which some weird yet satisfying viands were served and +much unusual conversation indulged in, Nern Bela led the way to what +appeared to be the captain's quarters. The crew and their visitor sat +down to discuss a subject which proved to be of such a terrifying nature +as to scar human souls. + +"People on Venus," said Nern, as his eyes took on a worried expression, +"are unable to leave their homes after nightfall due to some strange +nocturnal beast which attacks them and vampirishly drains all blood from +their veins, leaving the dead bodies limp and empty." + +"What? How?" questioned Larner leaning far forward over the conference +table. + +The others nodded their heads, and in the eyes of the women there was +terror. Larner could not but believe this. + +"The beasts, or should I say insects, are as large as your horses and +they fly, actually fly, by night, striking down humans, domestic animals +and all creatures of warm blood. How many there are we have no means of +knowing, and we cannot find their hiding and breeding places. They are +not native to our planet, and where they come from we cannot imagine. +They are actually monstrous flys, or bugs, or some form of insects." + + * * * * * + +Larner was overcome by incredulity and showed it. "Insects as big as +horses?" he questioned and he could hardly suppress a smile. + +"Believe us, in the name of the God of us all," insisted Nern. "They +have a mouth which consists of a large suction disk, in the center of +which is a lancelike tongue. The lance is forced into the body at any +convenient point, and the suction disk drains out the blood. If we only +knew their source! They attack young children and the aged, up to five +hundred years, alike." + +"What! Five hundred years?" exploded Larner again. + +"I should have explained," said Nern, simply, "that Venus dwellers, due +to our advanced knowledge of sanitation and health conversation, live +about 800 years and then die invariably of old age. The only unnatural +cause of death encountered is this giant insect. Accidents do occur, but +they are rare. There are no deliberate killings on Venus." + +Larner did not answer. He only pondered. The more he ran over the +strange happenings of the last week in his mind the more he believed he +was dreaming. His thoughts took a strange turn: "Why do these vain +people go around dressed in jeweled ornaments?" + +Nern again anticipated a question. "Diamonds, gold and many of what you +call precious stones are common on Venus," he volunteered. "Talc and +many other things are more valuable." + +"Talc?" + +"Yes, we use an immense quantity of it. We have a wood that is harder +than your steel. We build machinery with it. We cannot use oil to +lubricate these wooden shafts and bearings as it softens the wood, so +all parts exposed to friction are sprayed constantly by a gust of talc +from a blower. + +"You use talc mostly for toilet purposes. We use it for various +purposes. There is little left on Venus, and it is more valuable to us +than either gold or diamonds. We draw on your planet now for talc. You +dump immense quantities. We just shipped one hundred 1,000-ton globes of +it from the Cripple Creek district, and the district never missed it. We +drew most of it from your mine dumps." + + * * * * * + +Nern tried not to look bored as he explained more in detail: "We brought +100 hollow spheres constructed of duranium. We suspended these over the +Cripple Creek district at an altitude of 10,000 feet above the earth's +surface. Because of the crystal glint of duranium they were invisible to +earth dwellers at that height. Then we used a suction draft at night, +drawing the talc from the earth, filling one drum after another. This is +done by tuning in a certain selective attraction that attracts only +talc. It draws it right out of your ground in tiny particles and +assembles it in the transportation drums as pure talc. On the earth, if +noticed at all, it would have been called a dust storm. + +"The drums, when loaded with talc, are set to attract the proper +planetary force and they go speeding toward Venus at the rate of 426,000 +miles an hour. They are prevented from colliding with meteors by an +automatic magnetic device. This is controlled by magnetic force alone, +and when the targo gets too close to a meteor it changes its course +instantly. The passenger targo we ride in acts similarly. And now may I +return to the subject of the vampires of Venus?" + +"Pardon my ignorance," said Larner, and for the first time in his life +he felt very ignorant indeed. + +"I know little more than I have told you," said Nern, rather hopelessly. +"Our knowledge of your world, your people and your language comes from +our listening in on you and observing you without being observed or +heard. This might seem like taking an advantage of you, were it not for +the fact that we respect confidences, and subjugate all else to science. +We have helped you at times, by telepathically suggesting ideas to your +thinkers. + +"We would have given you all our inventions in this way, gladly, but in +many instances we were unable to find minds attuned to accept such +advanced ideas. We have had the advantage of you because our planet is +so many millions of years older than your own." There was a plaintive +note in Nern's voice as he talked. + + * * * * * + +"But now we are on our knees to you, so to speak. We do not know +everything and, desperately, we need the aid of a man of your caliber. +In behalf of the distraught people of Venus, I am asking you bluntly to +make a great sacrifice. Will you face the dangers of a trip to Venus and +use your knowledge to aid us in exterminating these creatures of hell?" +There was positive pleading in his voice, and in the eyes of his +beautiful sister there were tears. + +"But what would my superiors in the Government Bureau think?" feebly +protested Larner, "I could not explain...." + +"You have no superiors in your line. Our Government needs you at this +time more than any earthly government. Your place here is a fixture. You +can always return to it, should you live. We are asking you to face a +horrible death with us. You can name your own compensation, but I know +you are not interested so much in reward. + +"Now, honestly, my good professor, there is no advantage to be gained by +explanation. Just disappear. In the name of God and in the interests of +science and the salvation of a people who are at your mercy, just drop +out of sight. Drop out of life on this planet. Come with us. The cause +is worthy of the man I believe you to be." + +"I will go," said Larner, and his hosts waited for no more. An instant +later the targo shot out into interstellar space. + +"How do you know what course to follow?" asked Larner after a reasonable +time, when he had recovered from his surprise at the sudden take-off. + +"We do not need to know. Our machine is tuned to be attracted by the +planetary force of Venus alone. We could not go elsewhere. A repulsion +ray finds us as we near Venus and protects us against too violent a +landing. We will land on Venus like a feather about three months from +to-night." + +The time of the journey through outer space was of little moment save +for one incident. Larner and the other travelers were suddenly and +rather rudely jostled about the rapidly flying craft. + +Larner lost his breath but not his speech. "What happened?" he inquired. + +"We just automatically dodged a meteor," explained Nern. + + * * * * * + +Most of the time of the trip was spent by Larner in listening to +explanations of customs and traditions of the people of the brightest +planet in the universe. + +There was a question Larner had desired to ask Nern Bela, yet he +hesitated to do so. Finally one evening during the journey to Venus, +when the travelers had been occupying themselves in a scientific +discussion of comparative evolution on the two planets, Larner saw his +opportunity. + +"Why," he asked rather hesitatingly, "did the people of Venus always +remain so small? Why did you not strive more for height? The Japanese, +who are the shortest in stature of earth people, always wanted to be +tall." + +"Without meaning any offense," replied Nern, "I must say that it is +characteristic of earth dwellers to want something without knowing any +good reason why they want it. It is perfectly all right for you people +to be tall, but for us it is not so fitting. You see, Venus is smaller +than the earth. Size is comparative. You think we are not tall because +you are used to taller people. Comparatively we are tall enough. In +proportion to the size of our planet we are exactly the right size. We +keep our population at 900,000,000, and that is the perfectly exact +number of people who can live comfortably on our planet." + + * * * * * + +Arriving on Venus, Larner was assigned a laboratory and office in one of +the Government buildings. It was a world seemingly made of glass. +Quartz, of rose, white and crystal coloring, Larner found, was the +commonest country rock of the planet. In many cases it was shot full of +splinters of gold which the natives had not taken the trouble to +recover. This quartz was of a terrific hardness and was used in +building, paving, and public works generally. The effect was +bewildering. It was a world of shimmering crystal. + +The atmosphere of Venus had long puzzled Larner. While not an astronomer +in the largest sense of the word, yet he had a keen interest in the +heavens as a giant puzzle picture, and he had given some spare time to +the study. + +He knew that from all indications Venus had a most unusual atmosphere. +He had read that the atmosphere was considerably denser than that of the +earth, and that its presence made observation difficult. The actual +surface of the planet he knew could hardly be seen due, either to this +atmosphere, or seemingly perpetual cloud banks. + +He had read that the presence of atmosphere surrounding Venus is +indicated to earthly astronomers, during the planet's transit, by rings +of light due to the reflection and scattering of collected sunlight by +its atmosphere. + +Astronomers on earth, he knew, had long been satisfied of the presence +of great cloud banks, as rocks and soils could not have such high +reflecting power. He knew that like the moon, Venus, when viewed from +the earth, presents different phases from the crescent to the full or +total stage. + +Looking up at the sky from the quartz streets of Venus, Larner beheld, +in sweeping grandeur, massed cloud banks, many of them apparently rain +clouds. + +Nern noted his skyward gaze, and said: + +"We have accomplished meteorological control. Those clouds were brought +under control when we conquered interplanetary force, and what you call +gravity. We form them and move them at will. They are our rain factory. +We make rain when and where we will. This insures our crops and makes +for health and contentment. + +"The air, you will note, is about the same or a little more moist than +the earth air at sea level. This is due to the planet's position nearer +the sun. + +"We have been striving for centuries to make the air a little drier and +more rare, but we have not succeeded yet. The heavy content of +disintegrated quartz in our soil makes moisture very necessary for our +crops, so our moist atmosphere is evidently a provision of providence. +We are used to breathing this moist air, and when I first visited the +earth I was made uncomfortable by your rarified atmosphere. Now I can +adjust myself to breathing the air of either planet. However, I find +myself drinking a great deal more water on earth than on Venus." + + * * * * * + +In this fairyland which had enjoyed centuries of peace, health and +accord, stark terror now reigned. In some instances the finely-bred, +marvellously intelligent people were in a mental condition bordering on +madness. + +This was especially true in the farming districts, where whole herds of +lats had been wiped out. Lats, Larner gleaned, were a common farm animal +similar to the bovine species on earth, only more wooly. On these +creatures the Venus dwellers depended for their milk and dairy supplies, +and for their warmer clothing, which was made from the skin. The hair +was used for brushes, in the building trades, and a thousand ways in +manufacturing. + +Besides the domestic animals hundreds of people continued to meet death, +and only a few of the flying vampires had been hunted down. The giant +insects were believed to breed slowly as compared to earth insects, +their females producing not more than ten eggs, by estimate, after which +death overtook the adult. In spite of this they were reported to be +increasing. + +In the Government building Larner was placed in touch with all the +Government scientists of Venus. His nearest collaborator was one Zorn +Zada, most profound scientist of the planet. The two men, with a score +of assistants, worked elbow to elbow on the most gigantic scientific +mystery in the history of two planets. + +A specimen of the dread invader was mounted and studied by the +scientists, who were so engrossed in their work that they hardly took +time to eat. As for sleep, there was little of it. Days were spent in +research and nights in hunting the monsters. This hunting was done by +newly recruited soldiers and scientists. The weapons used were a short +ray-gun of high destructive power which disintegrated the bodies of the +enemies by atomic energy blasts. The quarry was wary, however, and +struck at isolated individuals rather than massed fighting lines. + + * * * * * + +Seated at his work-bench Larner asked Zorn Zada what had become of Nern +Bela. In his heart he had a horrible lurking fear that the beautiful +Tula Bela might fall before a swarm of the strange vampires, but he did +not voice this anxiety. + +"Nern and his sister are explorers and navigators," was the reply. "They +have been assigned to carry you anywhere on this or any other planet +where your work may engage you. They await your orders. They are too +valuable as space-navigators to be placed in harm's way." + +Breathing a sigh of relief, Larner bent to his labors. + +"What other wild animals or harmful insects have you on this planet?" he +asked Zorn. + +"I get your thought," replied the first scientist of Venus. "You are +seeking a natural enemy to this deadly flying menace, are you not?" + +"Yes," admitted Larner. + +"All insects left on Venus with this one exception are beneficial," said +Zorn. "There are no wild animals, and no harmful insects. All animals, +insects and birds have been domesticated and are fed by their keepers. +We get fabrics from forms of what you call spiders and other +web-builders and cocoon spinners. All forms of birds, beasts and +crawling and flying things have been brought under the dominion of man. +We will have to seek another way out than by finding an enemy parasite." + +"Where do you think these insect invaders came from?" asked Larner. + +"You have noticed they are unlike anything you have on earth in +anatomical construction," said the savant. "They partake of the general +features of Coleoptera (beetles), in that they wear a sheath of armor, +yet their mouth parts are more on the order of the Diptera (flys). I +regard them more as a fly than a beetle, because most Coleoptera are +helpful to humanity while practically all, if not all, Diptera are +malignant. + +"As to their original habitat, I believe they migrated here from some +other planet." + +"They could not fly through space," said Larner. + +"No, that is the mystery of it," agreed Zorn. "How they got here and +where they breed are the questions that we have to answer." + + * * * * * + +Long days passed on Venus. Long days and sleepless nights. The big +insects were hunted nightly by men armed with ray-guns, and nightly the +blood-sucking monsters took their toll of humanity and animals. + +Finally Larner and Zorn determined to capture one of the insects alive, +muzzle its lance and suction pad, and give it sufficient freedom to find +its way back to its hiding place. By following the shackled monster the +scientists hoped to find the breeding grounds. + +All the provinces of the planet joined in the drive. Men turned out in +automatic vehicles, propelled by energy gathered from the atmosphere. +They came on foot and in aircraft. Mobilization was at given points and, +leading the van, were Zorn and Larner and their confreres in the targo +of Nern and Tula Bela. The great army of Venus carried giant +searchlights and was armed with deadly ray-guns. + + * * * * * + +Headquarters of the vast Army of Offense was in the targo of the Belas. +Larner was in supreme command. Just before the big army set out to scour +the planet to seek the breeding place of the monsters Larner issued a +bulletin that set all Venus by the ears. + +Addressed to President Vole Vesta of the Republic of Pana and the good +people of Venus, it read: + + As is generally known, it has been the habit of the nation's + space-flying merchantmen to visit the sunlit side of the planet + Mercury to obtain certain rare woods and other materials not found + on this planet. + + One side of Mercury, as is known, is always turned from the sun and + is in a condition of perpetual night. In this perpetual darkness + and dampness, where many rivers flow into warm black swamps, the + vampires have bred for centuries. Conditions were ideal for their + growth, and so through the ages they evolved into the monsters we + have encountered lately on Venus. + + During some comparatively recent visit to Mercury the grubs of + these insects have found their way abroad a vegetation-laden targo + left standing near the edge of the black swamps of Mercury. These + grubs were thus transported to Venus and underwent their natural + metamorphosis here. Reaching adult stage, they have found some + place to hide and breed, and thus is explained the origin of the + vampires of Venus. + +This was widely read and discussed and was finally accepted as the means +of the invasion of peaceful, beautiful Venus by a horror that might well +have originated in hell. + +However, this did not reveal the breeding grounds, or remove the +nation-wide scourge of the horrible winged vampires, so the mobilization +of all the forces of the planet continued. + + * * * * * + +As day followed day the hordes of fighting Venus dwellers grew in the +concentration camps. In the targo of the Belas, Larner, brain-weary and +body-racked as he was with overwork, found a grain of happiness in being +in the presence of Nern and his beautiful, petite sister. + +With Zorn, Larner was supervising the construction of a big net of +strongly woven wire mesh, in which it was hoped to catch one of the +vampires. It was decided to bait the trap with a fat female lat. + +Zorn, Larner and the Belas fared forth from the concentration camp +followed by a company of soldiers carrying the big net. Tula with her +own hand led the fat lat heifer. His eyes were filled with commiseration +for the poor animal. + +Thousands of soldiers and citizenry, in fighting array, watched the +departure of the little group. + +In a glade the trap was set and the net arranged to fall over the +monster once it attacked the calf. From a thicket, in utter darkness, +Zorn and Larner and the two Belas waited for the possible catch. The +whole nation stood awaiting the order to advance. + +On the fourth night the vigil was rewarded in a manner frightful to +relate. + +A clumsy flutter of giant wings broke the stillness. + +The four waiting forms in the thicket rejoiced, believing the fat lat +was about to be attacked. + +Onward came the approaching horror. The measured flap, flap of its +armored wings drawing nearer and nearer. Then, horror--horrors! + +A feminine scream rent the air. Cries loud and shrill arose above a +hysterical feminine cry for help. + +The monster had chosen Tula Bela for its prey! + + * * * * * + +Zorn exploded an alarm bomb. A compressed air siren brought the army +forward on the run. Giant floodlights began to light up the scene. The +blood of Larner and Nern froze. + +The monster had borne the girl to the ground. Its frightful lance and +cupper was upraised to strike. Larner was the nearest and the quickest +to act. He grabbed for his ray-gun, swung at his belt. It was gone! In +horror he remembered he had left it at the base. He seized a short knife +and threw himself forward, rolling his body between that of the girl and +the descending lance and cupper. + +As the lance pierced his shoulder Larner, in one wild gesture of frenzy, +drove his knife through the soft, yielding flesh of the vampire's organ +of suction. + +Protected by no bony structure the snout of the monster was amputated. + +The terrible creature had been disarmed of his most formidable weapon, +but he continued to fight. Larner felt the spikes on the monster's legs +tear at his flesh. + +"Don't kill the thing," he shouted. "Bring on the net. For the love of +God bring on the net!" Then he lost consciousness. + +It was daylight when Larner, somewhat weakened from loss of blood, +regained consciousness. + +The beautiful Tula Bela was leaning over him. + +She whispered comforting words to him in a language he did not fully +understand. She whispered happy exclamations in words he did not know +the meaning of, but the tone was unmistakably those of a sweetheart +towards her lover. + +Finally, in answer to a true scientist's question in his eyes, she said +in English: + +"They caught the thing alive. They await your order to advance." + +"Let us be on our way," said Larner, and he started to arise. + +"You are hardly strong enough," said Tula. + +"Believe me, I am all right," insisted Larner, and after several trials +he got to his feet. His constitution was naturally strong and his will +was stronger, so he fought back all feelings of weakness and soon +announced himself ready to go ahead with the project at hand. For speed +was all important, and the young professor found himself unable to +remain inactive. + + * * * * * + +He rejoiced when Zorn told him that the big insect that had attacked +Tula Bela had been captured alive and had been kept well nourished by +lat's blood injected into its stomach. + +With Zorn Larner went to inspect the hideous monstrosity and found it in +leash and straining. It was ready to be used to lead the way back to its +breeding place. + +Its wings shackled, the lumbering insect floundered on its way straight +north. Ponderously and half blindly it crawled as the searchlights' +glare was kept far enough in advance to keep from blinding the monster. + +True to instinct it finally brought up at early dawn under a high cliff +of smoky quartz. Here, in the great crevices, the drove of diabolical +vampires were hiding. + +As the light struck their dens, they attempted clumsily to take wing, +but a interlacing network of devastating disintegrating rays from the +ray-guns shattered their bodies to dust, which was borne away by the +wind. + +The next few months were spent in combing the quartz crags of Venus for +similar infested areas, but only the one breeding nest was found. The +scourge had been conquered in its first and only stronghold. + + * * * * * + +So ended the greatest reign of terror in the history of Venus. + +Leslie Larner was given a vote of thanks, and riches were showered upon +him by the good people of the sky's brightest star. + +His modesty was characteristic, and he insisted that his part in saving +humanity on the planet had been small. + +Passage back to earth was offered him, but Nern and Tula Bela urged him +to say and live his life on Venus. This he finally agreed to do. + +"If I returned," he said, "I would always be tempted to tell my +experiences while away, and there is not a jury in the world which would +account me sane after I had once spoken." + + * * * * * + +That the story of Larner's adventure reached earth dwellers at all is +due to the fact that Nern Bela on a subsequent visit to the earth +narrated it to a Colorado quartz miner. This miner, a bronzed and +bearded prospector for gold, stumbled on the targo in a mountain +fastness, and there was nought to do but make him welcome and pledge him +to secrecy. + +The miner surveyed the crystal targo in rapt wonderment and said: "And +to think I am the only earth man who ever viewed such a craft!" + +"No," answered Nern Bela, "there is one other." And then the stirring +story of Leslie Larner's life on Venus was told. + + + + +SAFE FLYING IN FOGS + +The outstanding development in aviation recently, and one of the most +significant so far in aviation history was the "blind" flight of Lieut. +James H. Doolittle, daredevil of the Army Air Corps, at Mitchel Field, +L. I., which led Harry P. Guggenheim, President of the Daniel Guggenheim +Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics, Inc. to announce that the problem +of fog-flying, one of aviation's greatest bugbears, had been solved at +last. + +There has been "blind flying" done in the past but never before in the +history of aviation has any pilot taken off, circled, crossed, +re-crossed the field, then landed only a short distance away from his +starting point while flying under conditions resembling the densest fog, +as Lieut. "Jimmy" Doolittle has done, in his Wright-motored "Husky" +training-plane. It was something uncanny to contemplate. + +The "dense fog" was produced artificially by the simple device of making +the cabin of the plane entirely light-proof. Once seated inside, the +flyer, with his co-pilot, Lieut. Benjamin Kelsey, also of Mitchel Field, +were completely shut off from any view of the world outside. All they +had to depend on were three new flying instruments, developed during the +past year in experiments conducted over the full-flight laboratory +established by the Fund at Mitchel Field. + +The chief factors contributing to the solution of the problem of blind +flying consist of a new application of the visual radio beacon, the +development of an improved instrument for indicating the longitudinal +and lateral position of an airplane, a new directional gyroscope, and a +sensitive barometric altimeter, so delicate as to measure the altitude +of an airplane within a few feet of the ground. + +Thus, instead of relying on the natural horizon for stability, Lieut. +Doolittle uses an "artificial horizon" on the small instrument which +indicates longitudinal and lateral position in relation to the ground at +all time. He was able to locate the landing field by means of the +direction-finding long-distance radio beacon. In addition, another +smaller radio beacon had been installed, casting a beam fifteen to +twenty miles in either direction, which governs the immediate approach +to the field. + +To locate the landing field the pilot watches two vibrating reeds, tuned +to the radio beacon, on a virtual radio receiver on his instrument +board. If he turns to the right or left of his course the right or left +reed, respectively, begins doing a sort of St. Vitus dance. If the reeds +are in equilibrium the pilot knows it is clear sailing straight to his +field. + +The sensitive altimeter showed Lieut. Doolittle his altitude and made it +possible for him to calculate his landing to a distance of within a few +feet from the ground. + +Probably the strangest device of all that Lieut. Doolittle has been +called upon to test in Mr. Guggenheim's war against fog is a sort of +heat cannon that goes forth to combat like a fire-breathing dragon of +old. Like the enemies of the dragon, the fog is supposed to curl up and +die before the scorching breath of the "hot air artillery" although the +fundamental principle behind the device is a great deal more scientific +than such an explanation sounds. It is, in brief, based on the known +fact that fog forms only in a very narrow temperature zone which lies +between the saturation and precipitation points of the atmosphere. If +the air grows a little colder the fog turns into rain and falls; if it +is warmed very slightly the mist disappears and the air is once more +normally clear, although its humidity is very close to the maximum. + + + + +Brigands of the Moon + +(The Book of Gregg Haljan) + +PART TWO OF A FOUR-PART NOVEL + +_By Ray Cummings_ + +[Illustration: _I turned back to look at the Planetara._] + + Out of awful space tumbled the Space-ship _Planetara_ towards the + Moon, her officers _dead_, with bandits at her helm--and the + controls out of order! + + +My name, Gregg Haljan. My age, twenty-five years. My occupation, at the +time my narrative begins, in 2075, was third officer of the +Interplanetary Space-ship _Planetara_. + +Thus I introduce myself to you. For this is a continuation of the book +of Gregg Haljan, and of necessity I am the chief actor therein. I shall +recapitulate very briefly what has happened so far: + +Unscrupulous Martian brigands were scheming for Johnny Grantline's +secret radium-ore treasure, dug out of the Moon and waiting there to be +picked up by the _Planetara_ on her return trip from Mars. + +The _Planetara_ left, bound for Mars, some ten days away. Suspicious +interplanetary passengers were aboard: Miko and Moa, a brother and a +sister of Mars; Sir Arthur Coniston, a mysterious Englishman; Ob Hahn, a +Venus mystic. And small, effeminate George Prince and his sister, Anita. +Love, I think, was born instantly between Anita and me. I found all too +soon that Miko, the sinister giant from Mars, also desired her. + +[Illustration] + +As we neared the Moon we received Grantline's secret message: "Stop for +ore on your return voyage. Success beyond wildest hopes!" But I soon +discovered that an eavesdropper in an invisible cloak had overheard it! + +Soon afterwards Miko accidentally murdered a person identified as Anita +Prince. + +Then, in the confusion that resulted, Miko struck his great blow. The +crew of the _Planetara_, secretly in his pay, rose up and killed the +captain and all the officers but Snap Dean, the radio-helio operator, +and myself. + +I was besieged in the chart-room. George Prince leaped in upon me--and +put his arms around me. I looked at him closer--only to discover it was +Anita, disguised as her brother! It was her brother, George, who had +been killed! George had been in the brigands' confidence--thus Anita was +able to spy for us. + +Quickly we plotted. I would surrender to her, Anita Prince, whom the +brigands thought was George Prince. Together we might possibly be able, +with Snap's help, to turn the tide, and reclaim the _Planetara_. + +I was taken to my stateroom and locked there until Miko the brigand +leader should come to dispose of me. But I cared not what had +happened--Anita was alive! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +_The Brigand Leader_ + + +The giant Miko stood confronting me. He slid my cubby door closed behind +him. He stood with his head towering close against my ceiling. His cloak +was discarded. In his leather clothes, and with his clanking +sword-ornament, his aspect carried the swagger of a brigand of old. He +was bareheaded; the light from one of my tubes fell upon his grinning, +leering gray face. + +"So, Gregg Haljan? You have come to your senses at last. You do not wish +me to write my name upon your chest? I would not have done that to Dean; +he forced me. Sit back." + +I had been on my bunk. I sank back at the gesture of his huge hairy arm. +His forearm was bare now; the sear of a burn on it was plain to be seen. +He remarked my gaze. + +"True. You did that, Haljan, in Great-New York. But I bear you no +malice. I want to talk to you now." + +He cast about for a seat, and took the little stool which stood by my +desk. His hand held a small cylinder of the Martian paralyzing ray; he +rested it beside him on the desk. + +"Now we can talk." + +I remained silent. Alert. Yet my thoughts were whirling. Anita was +alive. Masquerading now as her brother. And, with the joy of it, came a +shudder. Above everything, Miko must not know. + +"A great adventure we are upon, Haljan." + + * * * * * + +My thoughts came back. Miko was talking with an assumption of friendly +comradeship. "All is well--and we need you, as I have said before. I am +no fool. I have been aware of everything that went on aboard this ship. +You, of all the officers, are most clever at the routine mathematics. Is +that so?" + +"Perhaps," I said. + +"You are modest." He fumbled at a pocket of his jacket, produced a +scroll-sheaf. I recognized it: Blackstone's figures; the calculation +Blackstone roughly made of the elements of the asteroid we had passed. + +"I am interested in these," Miko went on. "I want you to verify them. +And this." He held up another scroll. "This is the calculation of our +present position. And our course. Hahn claims he is a navigator. We have +set the ship's gravity plates--see, like this--" + +He handed me the scrolls; he watched me keenly as I glanced over them. + +"Well?" I said. + +"You are sparing of words, Haljan. By the devils of the airways, I could +make you talk! But I want to be friendly." + + * * * * * + +I handed him back the scrolls. I stood up; I was almost within reach of +his weapon, but with a sweep of his great arm he abruptly knocked me +back to my bunk. + +"You dare?" Then he smiled. "Let us not come to blows!" + +"No," I said. I returned his smile. In truth, physical violence could +get me nothing in dealing with this fellow. I would have to try guile. +And I saw now that his face was flushed and his eyes unnaturally bright. +He had been drinking alcolite; not enough to befuddle him--but enough to +make him triumphantly talkative. + +"Hahn may not be much of a mathematician," I suggested. "But there is +your Sir Arthur Coniston." I managed a sarcastic grin. "Is that his +name?" + +"Almost. Haljan, will you verify these figures?" + +"Yes. But why? Where are we going?" + +He laughed. "You are afraid I will not tell you! Why should I not? This +great adventure of mine is progressing perfectly. A tremendous stake, +Haljan. A hundred millions of dollars in gold-leaf; there will be +fabulous riches for us all, when that radium ore is sold for a hundred +million in gold-leaf." + +"But where are we going?" + +"To that asteroid," he said abruptly. "I must get rid of these +passengers. I am no murderer." + + * * * * * + +With half a dozen killings in the recent fight this was hardly +convincing. But he was obviously wholly serious. He seemed to read my +thoughts. + +"I kill only when necessary. We will land upon the asteroid. A perfect +place to maroon the passengers. Is it not so? I will give them the +necessities of life. They will be able to signal. And in a month or so, +when we are safely finished with our adventure, a police ship no doubt +will rescue them." + +"And then, from the asteroid," I suggested, "we are going--" + +"To the Moon, Haljan. What a clever guesser you are! Coniston and Hahn +are calculating our course. But I have no great confidence in them. And +so I want you." + +"You have me." + +"Yes. I have you. I would have killed you long ago--I am an impulsive +fellow--but my sister restrained me." + +He gazed at me slyly. "Moa seems strangely to like you, Haljan." + +"Thanks," I said. "I'm flattered." + +"She still hopes I may really win you to join us," he went on. +"Gold-leaf is a wonderful thing; there would be plenty for you in this +affair. And to be rich, and have the love of a woman like Moa...." + +He paused. I was trying cautiously to gauge him, to get from him all the +information I could. I said, with another smile, "That is premature, to +talk of Moa. I will help you chart your course. But this venture, as you +call it, is dangerous. A police-ship--" + +"There are not many," he declared. "The chances of us encountering one +is very slim." He grinned at me. "You know that as well as I do. And we +now have those code pass-words--I forced Dean to tell me where he had +hidden them. If we should be challenged, our pass-word answer will +relieve suspicion." + +"The _Planetara_," I objected, "being overdue at Ferrok-Shahn, will +cause alarm. You'll have a covey of patrol-ships after you." + +"That will be two weeks from now," he smiled. "I have a ship of my own +in Ferrok-Shahn. It lies there waiting now, manned and armed. I am +hoping that, with Dean's help, we may be able to flash it a signal. It +will join us on the Moon. Fear not for the danger, Haljan. I have great +interests allied with me in this thing. Plenty of money. We have planned +carefully." + + * * * * * + +He was idly fingering his cylinder; his gaze roved me as I sat docile on +my bunk. "Did you think George Prince was a leader of this? A mere boy. +I engaged him a year ago--his knowledge of ores is valuable." + +My heart was pounding, but I strove not to show it. He went on calmly. + +"I told you I am impulsive. Half a dozen times I have nearly killed +George Prince, and he knows it." He frowned. "I wish I had killed him, +instead of his sister. That was an error." + +There was a note of real concern in his voice. Did he love Anita Prince? +It seemed so. + +He added, "That is done--nothing can change it. George Prince is helpful +to me. Your friend Dean is another. I had trouble with him, but he is +docile now." + +I said abruptly, "I don't know whether your promise means anything or +not, Miko. But George Prince said you would use no more torture." + +"I won't. Not if you and Dean obey me." + +"You tell Dean I have agreed to that. You say he gave you the code-words +we took from Johnson?" + +"Yes. There was a fool! That Johnson! You blame me, Haljan, for the +killing of Captain Carter? You need not. Johnson offered to try and +capture you. Take you alive. He killed Carter because he was angry at +him. A stupid, vengeful fool! He is dead, and I am glad of it." + + * * * * * + +My mind was on Miko's plans. I ventured. "This treasure on the Moon--did +you say it was on the Moon?" + +"Don't be an idiot," he retorted. "I know as much about Grantline as you +do." + +"That's very little." + +"Perhaps." + +"Perhaps you know more, Miko. The Moon is a big place. Where, for +instance, is Grantline located?" + +I held my breath. Would he tell me that? A score of questions--vague +plans--were in my mind. How skilled at mathematics were these brigands? +Miko, Hahn, Coniston--could I fool them? If I could learn Grantline's +location on the Moon, and keep the _Planetara_ away from it. A pretended +error of charting. Time lost--and perhaps Snap could find an opportunity +to signal Earth, get help. + +Miko answered my question as bluntly as I asked it. "I don't know where +Grantline is located. But we will find out. He will not suspect the +_Planetara_. When we get close to the Moon, we will signal and ask him. +We can trick him into telling us. You think I do not know what is on +your mind, Haljan? There is a secret code of signals arranged between +Dean and Grantline. I have forced Dean to confess it. Without torture! +Prince helped me in that. He persuaded Dean not to defy me. A very +persuasive fellow, George Prince. More diplomatic than I am, I give him +credit." + +I strove to hold my voice calm. "If I should join you, Miko--my word, if +I ever gave it, you would find dependable--I would say George Prince is +very valuable to us. You should rein your temper. He is half your +size--you might some time, without intention do him injury." + + * * * * * + +He laughed. "Moa says so. But have no fear--" + +"I was thinking," I persisted, "I'd like to have a talk with George +Prince." + +Ah, my pounding, tumultuous heart! But I was smiling calmly. And I +tried to put into my voice a shrewd note of cupidity. "I really know +very little about this treasure, Miko. If there were a million or two of +gold-leaf in it for me--" + +"Perhaps there would be." + +"I was thinking. Suppose you let me have a talk with Prince? I have some +knowledge of radium ores. His skill and mine--a calculation of what +Grantline's treasure may really be. You don't know; you are only +assuming." + +I paused. Whatever may have been in Miko's mind I cannot say. But +abruptly he stood up. I had left my bunk, but he waved me back. + +"Sit down. I am not like Moa. I would not trust you just because you +protested you would be loyal." He picked up his cylinder. "We will talk +again." He gestured to the scrolls he had left upon my desk. "Work on +those. I will judge you by the results." + +He was no fool, this brigand leader. + +"Yes," I agreed. "You want a true course now to the asteroid?" + +"Yes. I will get rid of these passengers. Then we will plan further. Do +your best, Haljan--no error! By the Gods, I warn you I can check up on +you!" + +I said meekly, "Very well. But you ask Prince if he wants my +calculations of Grantline's ore-body." + +I shot Miko a foxy look as he stood by my door. I added, "You think you +are clever. There is plenty you don't know. Our first night out from the +Earth--Grantline's signals--didn't it ever occur to you that I might +have some figures on his treasure?" + +It startled him. "Where are they?" + +I tapped my forehead. "You don't suppose I was foolish enough to record +them. You ask Prince if he wants to talk to me. A high thorium content +in ore--you ask Prince. A hundred millions, or two hundred. It would +make a big difference, Miko." + +"I will think about it." He backed out and sealed the door upon me once +again. + + * * * * * + +But Anita did not come. I verified Hahn's figures, which were very +nearly correct. I charted a course for the asteroid; it was almost the +one which had been set. + +Coniston came for my results. "I say, we are not so bad as navigators, +are we? I think we're jolly good, considering our inexperience. Not bad +at all, eh?" + +"No." + +I did not think it wise to ask him about Prince. + +"Are you hungry, Haljan?" he demanded. + +"Yes." + +A steward came with a meal. The saturnine Hahn stood at my door with a +weapon upon me while I ate. They were taking no chances--and they were +wise not to. + +The day passed. Day and night, all the same of aspect here in the starry +vault of Space. But with the ship's routine it was day. + +And then another time of sleep. I slept, fitfully, worrying, trying to +plan. Within a few hours we would be nearing the asteroid. + +The time of sleep was nearly passed. My chronometer marked five A. M. of +our original Earth starting time. The seal of my cubby door hissed. The +door slowly, opened. + +Anita! + +She stood there with her cloak around her. A distance away on the +shadowed deck-space Coniston was loitering. + +"Anita!" I whispered it. + +"Gregg, dear!" + +She turned and gestured to the watching brigand. "I will not be long, +Coniston." + +She came in and half closed the door upon us, leaving it open enough so +that we could make sure that Coniston did not advance. + +I stepped back where he could not see us. + +"Anita!" + +She flung herself into my opened arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +_The Masquerader_ + + +A moment when beyond all thought of the nearby brigand--or the +possibility of an eavesdropping ray trained now upon my little cubby--a +moment while Anita and I held each other; and whispered those things +which could mean nothing to the world, but which were all the world to +us. + +Then it was she whose wits brought us back from the shining fairyland of +our love, into the sinister reality of the _Planetara_. + +"Gregg, if they are listening--" + +I pushed her away. This brave little masquerader! Not for my life, or +for all the lives on the ship, would I consciously have endangered her. + +"But the ore," I said aloud. "There was, in Grantline's message--See +here, Prince." + +Coniston was too far away on the deck to hear us. Anita went to my door +again and waved at him reassuringly. I put my ear to the door opening, +and listened at the space across the grid of the ventilator over my +bunk. The hum of a vibration would have been audible at those two +points. But there was nothing. + +"It's all right," I whispered. "Anita--not you who was killed! I can +hardly realize it now. Not you whom they buried yesterday morning." + +We stood and whispered, and she clung to me--so small beside me. With +the black robe thrown aside, it seemed that I could not miss the curves +of her woman's figure. A dangerous game she was playing. Her hair had +been cut short to the base of her neck, in the fashion of her dead +brother. Her eyelashes had been clipped; the line of her brows altered. +And now, in the light of my ray tube as it shone upon her earnest face, +I could remark other changes. Glutz, the little beauty specialist, was +in this secret. With plastic skill he had altered the set of her jaw +with his wax--put masculinity there. + +She was whispering: "It was--was poor George whom Miko shot." + + * * * * * + +I had now the true version of what had occurred. Miko had been forcing +his wooing upon Anita. George Prince was a weakling whose only good +quality was a love for his sister. Some years ago he had fallen into +evil ways. Been arrested, and then discharged from his position with the +Federated Radium Corporation. He had taken up with evil companions in +Great-New York. Mostly Martians. And Miko had met him. His technical +knowledge, his training with the Federated Corporation, made him +valuable to Miko's enterprise. And so Prince had joined the brigands. + +Of all this, Anita had been unaware. She had never liked Miko. Feared +him. And it seemed that the Martian had some hold upon her brother, +which puzzled and frightened Anita. + +Then Miko had fallen in love with her. George had not liked it. And that +night on the _Planetara_, Miko had come and knocked upon Anita's door. +Incautiously she opened it; he forced himself in. And when she repulsed +him, struggled with him, George had been awakened. + +She was whispering to me now. "My room was dark. We were all three +struggling. George was holding me--the shot came--and I screamed." + +And Miko had fled, not knowing whom his shot had hit in the darkness. + +"And when George died, Captain Carter wanted me to impersonate him. We +planned it with Dr. Frank, to try and learn what Miko and the others +were doing. Because I never knew that poor George had fallen into such +evil things." + + * * * * * + +I could only hold her thankfully in my arms. The lost +what-might-have-been seemed coming back to us. + +"And they cut my hair, Gregg, and Glutz altered my face a little, and I +did my best. But there was no time--it came upon us so quickly." + +And she whispered, "But I love you, Gregg. I want to be the first to say +it: I love you--I love you." + +But we had the sanity to try and plan. + +"Anita, when you go back, tell Miko we discussed radium ores. You'll +have to be careful, clever. Don't say too much. Tell him we estimate the +treasure at a hundred and thirty millions." + +I told her what Miko had vouchsafed me of his plans. She knew all that. +And Snap knew it. She had had a few moments alone with Snap. Gave me now +a message from him: + +"We'll pull out of this, Gregg." + +With Snap she had worked out a plan. There were Snap and I; and Shac and +Dud Ardley, upon whom we could doubtless depend. And Dr. Frank. Against +us were Miko and his sister; and Coniston and Hahn. Of course there were +the members of the crew. But we were numerically the stronger when it +came to true leadership. Unarmed and guarded now. But if we could break +loose--recapture the ship.... + +I sat listening to Anita's eager whispers. It seemed feasible. Miko did +not altogether trust George Prince; Anita was now unarmed. + +"But I can make opportunity! I can get one of their ray cylinders, and +an invisible cloak equipment." + +That cloak--it had been hidden in Miko's room when Carter searched for +it in A20--was now in the chart-room by Johnson's body. It had been +repaired now; Anita thought she could get possession of it. + + * * * * * + +We worked out the details of the plan. Anita would arm herself, and come +and release me. Together, with a paralyzing ray, we could creep aboard +the ship, overcome these brigands one by one. There were so few of the +leaders. With them felled, and with us in control of the turret and the +helio-room we could force the crew to stay at their posts. There were, +Anita said, no navigators among Miko's crew. They would not dare oppose +us. + +"But it should be done at once, Anita. In a few hours we will be at the +asteroid." + +"Yes. I will go now--try and get the weapons." + +"Where is Snap?" + +"Still in the helio-room. One of the crew guards him." + +Coniston was roaming the ship; he was still loitering on the deck, +watching our door. Hahn was in the turret. The morning watch of the crew +were at their posts in the hull-corridors; the stewards were preparing a +morning meal. There were nine members of subordinates altogether, Anita +had calculated. Six of them were in Miko's pay; the other three--our own +men who had not been killed in the fighting--had joined the brigands. + +"And Dr. Frank, Anita?" + +He was in the lounge. All the passengers were herded there, with Miko +and Moa alternating on guard. + +"I will arrange it with Venza," Anita whispered swiftly. "She will tell +the others. Dr. Frank knows about it now. He thinks it can be done." + + * * * * * + +The possibility of it swept me anew. The brigands were of necessity +scattered singly about the ship. One by one, creeping under cover of an +invisible cloak, I could fell them, and replace them without alarming +the others. My thoughts leaped to it. We would strike down the guard in +the helio-room. Release Snap. At the turret we could assail Hahn, and +replace him with Snap. + +Coniston's voice outside broke in upon us. "Prince." + +He was coming forward. Anita stood in the doorway. "I have the figures, +Coniston. By God, this Haljan is with us! And clever! We think it will +total a hundred and thirty millions. What a stake!" + +She whispered, "Gregg, dear--I'll be back soon. We can do it--be ready." + +"Anita--be careful of yourself! If they should suspect you...." + +"I'll be careful. In an hour, Gregg, or less, I'll come back. All right, +Coniston. Where is Miko? I want to see him. Stay where you are, Haljan! +All in good time Miko will trust you with your liberty. You'll be rich +like us all, never fear." + +She swaggered out upon the deck, waved at the brigand, and banged my +cubby door in my face. + +I sat upon my bunk. Waiting. Would she come back? Would she be +successful? + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +_In the Blue-lit Corridor_ + + +She came. I suppose it was no more than an hour: it seemed an eternity +of apprehension. There was the slight hissing of the seal of my door. +The panel slid. I had leaped from my bunk where in the darkness I was +lying tense. + +"Prince?" I did not dare say, "Anita." + +"Gregg." + +Her voice. My gaze swept the deck as the panel opened. Neither Coniston +nor anyone else was in sight, save Anita's dark-robed figure which came +into my room. + +"You got it?" I asked her in a low whisper. + +I held her for an instant, kissed her. But she pushed me away with quick +hands. + +"Gregg, dear--" + +She was breathless. My kisses, and the tenseness of what lay before us +were to blame. + +"Gregg, see, I have it. Give us a little light--we must hurry!" + +In the blue dimness I saw that she was holding one of the Martian +cylinders. The smallest size; it would paralyze, but not kill. + +"Only one, Anita?" + +"Yes. I had it before, but Miko took it from me. It was in his room. And +this--" + +The invisible cloak. We laid it on my grid, and I adjusted its +mechanism. A cloak of the reflecting-absorbing variety.[A] + + + [A] The principle of this invisible cloak involves the use of an + electronized fabric. All color is absorbed. The light rays reflected to + the eye of the observer thus show an image of empty blackness. There is + also created about the cloak a magnetic field which by natural laws + bends the rays of light from objects behind it. This principle of the + natural bending of light when passing through a magnetic field was first + recognized by Albert Einstein, a scientist of the Twentieth century. In + the case of this invisible cloak, the bending light rays, by making + visible what was behind the cloak's blackness, thus destroyed its solid + black outline and gave a pseudo-invisibility which was fairly effective + under favorable conditions. + + * * * * * + +I donned it, and drew its hood, and threw on its current. + +"All right, Anita?" + +"Yes." + +"Can you see me?" + +"No." She stepped back a foot or two further. "Not from here. But you +must let no one approach too close." + +Then she came forward, put out her hand, fumbled until she found me. + +It was our plan to have me follow her out. Anyone observing us would see +only the robed figure of the supposed George Prince, and I would escape +notice. + +The situation about the ship was almost unchanged. Anita had secured the +weapon and the cloak and slipped away to my cubby without being +observed. + +"You're sure of that?" + +"I think so, Gregg. I was careful." + +Moa was now in the lounge, guarding the passengers. Hahn was asleep in +the chart-room; Coniston was in the turret. Coniston would be off duty +presently, Anita said, with Hahn taking his place. There were look-outs +in the forward and stern watch-towers, and a guard upon Snap in the +helio-room. + +"Is he inside the room, Anita?" + +"Snap? Yes." + +"No--the guard." + +"No. He was sitting upon the spider bridge at the door." + + * * * * * + +This was unfortunate. That guard could see all the deck clearly. He +might be suspicious of George Prince wandering around; it would be +difficult to get near enough to assail him. This cylinder, I knew, had +an effective range of only some twenty feet. + +Anita and I were swiftly whispering. It was necessary now to decide +exactly what we were to do; once under observation outside, there must +be no hesitation, no fumbling. + +"Coniston is sharpest, Gregg. He will be the hardest to get near." + +The languid-spoken Englishman was the one Anita most feared. His alert +eyes seemed to miss nothing. Perhaps he was suspicious of this George +Prince--Anita thought so. + +"But where is Miko?" I whispered. + +The brigand leader had gone below a few moments ago, down into the +hull-corridor. Anita had seized the opportunity to come to me. + +"We can attack Hahn in the chart-room first," I suggested. "And get the +other weapons. Are they still there?" + +"Yes. But Gregg, the forward deck is very bright." + +We were approaching the asteroid. Already its light like a brilliant +moon was brightening the forward deck-space. It made me realize how much +haste was necessary. + +We decided to go down into the hull-corridors. Locate Miko. Fell him, +and hide him. His non-appearance back on deck would very soon throw the +others into confusion, especially now with our impending landing upon +the asteroid. And under cover of this confusion we would try and release +Snap. + +We had been arguing no more than a minute or two. We were ready. Anita +slid my door wide. She stepped through, with me soundlessly scurrying +after her. The empty, silent deck was alternately dark with +shadow-patches and bright with blobs of starlight. A sheen of the Sun's +corona was mingled with it; and from forward came the radiance of the +asteroid's mellow silver glow. + + * * * * * + +Anita turned to seal my door; within my faintly humming cloak I stood +beside her. Was I invisible in this light? Almost directly over us, +close under the dome, the look-out sat in his little tower. He gazed +down at Anita. + +Amidships, high over the cabin superstructure, the helio-room hung dark +and silent. The guard on its bridge was visible. He, too, looked down. + +A tense instant. Then I breathed again. There was no alarm. The two +guards answered Anita's gesture. + +Anita said aloud into my empty cubby: "Miko will come for you presently, +Haljan. He told me to tell you that he wants you at the turret controls +to land us on the asteroid." + +She finished sealing my door and turned away; started forward along the +deck. I followed. My steps were soundless in my elastic-bottomed shoes. +Anita swaggered with a noisy tread. Near the door of the smoking room a +small incline passage led downward. We went into it. + +The passage was dimly blue-lit. We descended its length, came to the +main corridor, which ran the length of the hull. A vaulted metal +passage, with doors to the control rooms opening from it. Dim lights +showed at intervals. + + * * * * * + +The humming of the ship was more apparent here. It drowned the slight +humming of my cloak. I crept after Anita; my hand under the cloak +clutched the ray weapon. + +A steward passed us. I shrank aside to avoid him. + +Anita spoke to him. "Where is Miko, Ellis?" + +"In the ventilator-room, Mr. Prince. There was difficulty with the air +renewal." + +Anita nodded, and moved on. I could have felled that steward as he +passed me. Oh, if I only had, how different things might have been! + +But it seemed needless. I let him go, and he turned into a nearby door +which led to the galley. + +Anita moved forward. If we could come upon Miko alone. Abruptly she +turned, and whispered, "Gregg, if other men are with him, I'll draw him +away. You watch your chance." + +What little things may overthrow one's careful plans! Anita had not +realized how close to her I was following. And her turning so +unexpectedly caused me to collide with her sharply. + +"Oh!" She exclaimed it involuntarily. Her outflung hand had unwittingly +gripped my wrist, caught the electrode there. The touch burned her, and +close-circuited my robe. There was a hiss. My current burned out the +tiny fuses. + +My invisibility was gone! I stood, a tall black-hooded figure, revealed +to the gaze of anyone who might be near! + +The futile plans of humans! We had planned so carefully! Our +calculations, our hopes of what we could do, came clattering now in a +sudden wreckage around us. + +"Anita, run!" + +If I were seen with her, then her own disguise would probably be +discovered. That above everything would be disaster! + +"Anita, get away from me! I must try it alone!" + + * * * * * + +I could hide somewhere, repair the cloak perhaps. Or, since now I was +armed, why could I not boldly start an assault? + +"Gregg, we must get you back to your cubby!" She was clinging to me in a +panic. + +"No! You run! Get away from me! Don't you understand? George Prince has +no business here with me! They'd kill you!" + +Or worse--- Miko would discover it was Anita, not George Prince. + +"Gregg, let's get back to the deck." + +I pushed at her. Both of us in sudden confusion. + +From behind me there came a shout. That accursed steward! He had +returned, to investigate perhaps what George Prince was doing in this +corridor. He heard our voices; his shout in the silence of the ship +sounded horribly loud. The white-clothed shape of him was in the nearby +doorway. He stood stricken in surprise at seeing me. And then turned to +run. + +I fired my paralyzing cylinder through my cloak. Got him! He fell. I +shoved Anita violently. + +"Run! Tell Miko to come--tell him you heard a shout! He won't suspect +you!" + +"But Gregg--" + +"You mustn't be found out! You're our only hope, Anita! I'll hide, fix +the cloak, or get back to my cubby. We'll try it again." + +It decided her. She scurried down the corridor. I whirled the other way. +The steward's shout might not have been heard. + +Then realization flashed to me. That steward would be revived. He was +one of Miko's men: for two voyages he had been a spy upon the +_Planetara_. He would be revived and tell what he had seen and heard. +Anita's disguise would be revealed. + +A cold-blooded killing I do protest went against me. But it was +necessary. I flung myself upon him. I beat his skull with the metal of +my cylinder. + +I stood up. My hood had fallen back from my head. I wiped my bloody +hands on my useless cloak. I had smashed the cylinder. + +"Haljan!" + + * * * * * + +Anita's voice! A sharp note of horror and warning. I became aware that +in the corridor, forty feet down its dim length, Miko had appeared, with +Anita behind him. His rifle-bullet-projector was leveled. It spat at me. +But Anita had pulled at his arm. + +The explosive report was sharply deafening in the confined space of the +corridor. With a spurt of flame the leaden pellet struck over my head +against the vaulted ceiling. + +Miko was struggling with Anita. "Prince, you idiot!" + +"Miko, don't! It's Haljan! Don't kill him--" + +The turmoil brought members of the crew. From the shadowed oval near me +they came running. I flung the useless cylinder at them. But I was +trapped in the narrow passage. + +I might have fought my way out. Or Miko might have shot me. But there +was the danger that, in her horror, Anita would betray herself. + +I backed against the wall. "Don't kill me! See, I will not fight!" + +I flung up my arms. And the crew, emboldened, and courageous under +Miko's gaze, leaped on me and bore me down. + +The futile plans of humans! Anita and I had planned so carefully, and in +a few brief minutes of action it had come only to this! + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +_A Woman of Mars_ + + +"So, Gregg Haljan, you are not as loyal as you pretend!" + +Miko was livid with suppressed anger. They had stripped the cloak from +me, and flung me back in my cubby. Miko was now confronting me; at the +door Moa stood watching. And Anita was behind her. I sat outwardly +defiant and sullen on my bunk. But I was alert and tense, fearful still +of what Anita's emotion might betray her into doing. + +"Not so loyal," Miko repeated. "And a fool! Do you think I am such a +child you can escape me!" + +He swung around. "How did he get out of here? Prince, you came in here!" + +My heart was wildly thumping. But Anita retorted with a touch of spirit: + +"I came to tell him what you commanded. To check Hahn's latest +figures--and to be ready to take the controls when we go into the +asteroid's atmosphere." + +"Well, how did he get out?" + +"How should I know?" she parried. Little actress! Her spirit helped to +allay my fear. She held her cloak close around her in the fashion they +had come to expect from the George Prince who had just buried his +sister. "How should I know, Miko? I sealed his door." + +"But did you?" + +"Of course he did," Moa put in. + +"Ask your look-outs," said Anita. "They saw me--I waved to them just as +I sealed the door." + +I ventured, "I have been taught to open doors." I managed a sly, +lugubrious smile. "I shall not try it again, Miko." + +Nothing had been said about my killing of the steward. I thanked my +constellations now that he was dead. "I shall not try it again," I +repeated. + +A glance passed between Miko and his sister. Miko said abruptly, "You +seem to realize that it is not my purpose to kill you. And you presume +upon it." + +"I shall not again." I eyed Moa. She was gazing at me steadily. She +said, "Leave me with him, Miko...." She smiled. "Gregg Haljan, we are no +more than twenty thousand miles from the asteroid now. The calculations +for retarding are now in operation." + + * * * * * + +It was what had taken Miko below, that and trouble with the ventilating +system, which was soon rectified. But the retarding of the ship's +velocity when nearing a destination required accurate manipulation. +These brigands were fearful of their own skill. That was obvious. It +gave me confidence. I was really needed. They would not harm me. Except +for Miko's impulsive temper, I was in no danger from them--not now, +certainly. + +Moa was saying, "I think I may make you understand, Gregg. We have +tremendous riches within our grasp." + +"I know it," I added with sudden thought. "But there are many with whom +to divide this treasure...." + +Miko caught my intended implication. "By the infernal, this fellow may +have felt he could seize the treasure for himself! Because he is a +navigator!" + +Moa said vehemently, "Do not be an idiot, Gregg! You could not do it! +There will be fighting with Grantline." + +My purpose was accomplished. They seemed to see me a willing outlaw like +themselves. As though it were a bond between us. And they could win me. + +"Leave me with him," said Moa. + +Miko acquiesced. "For a few minutes only." He proffered a heat-ray +cylinder, but she refused it. + +"I am not afraid of him." + +Miko swung on me. "Within an hour we will be nearing the atmosphere. +Will you take the controls?" + +"Yes." + + * * * * * + +He set his heavy jaw. His eyes bored into me. "You're a strange fellow, +Haljan. I can't make you out. I am not angry now. Do you think, when I +am deadly serious, that I mean what I say?" + +His calm words set a sudden shiver over me. I checked my smile. + +"Yes," I said. + +"Well then, I will tell you this: not for all of Prince's well-meaning +interference, or Moa's liking for you, or my own need of your skill, +will I tolerate more trouble from you. The next time--I will kill you. +Do you believe me?" + +"Yes." + +"That is all I want to say. You kill my men, and my sister says I must +not hurt you. I am not a child to be ruled by a woman!" + +He held his huge fist before my face. "With these fingers I will twist +your neck! Do you believe it?" + +"Yes." I did indeed. + +He swung on his heel. "If Moa wants to try and put sense into your +head--I hope she does. Bring him to the lounge when you are finished, +Moa. Come, Prince--Hahn will need us." He chuckled grimly. "Hahn seems +to fear we will plunge into this asteroid like a wild comet gone +suddenly tangent!" + +Anita moved aside to let him through the door. I caught a glimpse of her +set white face as she followed him down the deck. + +Then Moa's bulk blocked the doorway. She faced me. + +"Sit where you are, Gregg." She turned and closed the door upon us. "I +am not afraid of you. Should I be?" + +"No," I said. + +She came and sat down beside me. "If you should attempt to leave this +room, the stern look-out has orders to bore you through." + +"I have no intention of leaving the room," I retorted. "I do not want to +commit suicide." + +"I thought you did. You seem minded in such a fashion. Gregg, why are +you so foolish?" + + * * * * * + +I remained silent. + +"Why?" she demanded. + +I said carefully, "This treasure--you are many who will divide it. You +have all these men on the _Planetara_. And in Ferrok-Shahn, others, no +doubt." + +I paused. Would she tell me? Could I make her talk of that other brigand +ship which Miko had said was waiting on Mars? I wondered if he had been +able to signal it. The distance from here to Mars was great; yet upon +other voyages Snap's signals had gotten through. My heart sank at the +thought. Our situation here was desperate enough. The passengers soon +would be cast upon the asteroid: there would be left only Snap, Anita +and myself. We might recapture the ship, but I doubted it now. My +thoughts were turning to our arrival upon the Moon. We three might, +perhaps, be able to thwart the attack upon Grantline, hold the brigands +off until help from the Earth might come. + +But with another brigand ship, fully manned and armed, coming from Mars, +the condition would be immeasurably worse. Grantline had some twenty +men, and his camp, I knew, would be reasonably fortified. I knew, too, +that Johnny Grantline would fight to his last man. + +Moa was saying, "I would like to tell you our plans, Gregg." + +Her gaze was on my face. Keen eyes, but they were luminous now--an +emotion in them sweeping her. But outwardly she was calm, stern-lipped. + +"Well, why don't you tell me?" I said. "If I am to help you...." + +"Gregg, I want you with us. Don't you understand? We are not many. My +brother and I are guiding this affair. With your help, I would feel +differently." + +"The ship at Ferrok-Shahn--" + + * * * * * + +My fears were realized. She said, "I think our signals reached it. Dean +tried, and Coniston was checking him." + +"You think the ship is coming?" + +"Yes." + +"Where will it join us?" + +"At the Moon. We will be there in thirty hours. Your figures gave that, +did they not, Gregg?" + +"Yes. And the other ship--how fast is it?" + +"Quite fast. In eight days--or nine, perhaps--it will reach the Moon." + +She seemed willing enough to talk. There was indeed, no particular +reason for reticence; I could not, she naturally felt, turn the +knowledge to account. + +"Manned--" I prompted. + +"About forty men." + +"And armed? Long range projectors?" + +"You ask very avid questions, Gregg!" + +"Why should I not? Don't you suppose I'm interested?" I touched her. +"Moa, did it ever occur to you, if once you and Miko trusted me--which +you don't--I might show more interest in joining you?" + +The look on her face emboldened me. "Did you ever think of that, Moa? +And some arrangement for my share of this treasure? I am not like +Johnson, to be hired for a hundred pounds of gold-leaf." + +"Gregg, I will see that you get your share. Riches, for you--and me." + +"I was thinking, Moa, when we land at the Moon to-morrow--where is our +equipment?" + +The Moon, with its lack of atmosphere, needed special equipment. I had +never heard Carter mention what apparatus the _Planetara_ was carrying. + + * * * * * + +Moa laughed. "We have located air-suits and helmets--a variety of +suitable apparatus, Gregg. But we were not foolish enough to leave +Great-New York on this voyage without our own arrangements. My brother, +and Coniston and Prince--all of us shipped crates of freight consigned +to Ferrok-Shahn--and Rankin had special baggage marked 'theatrical +apparatus.'" + +I understood it now. These brigands had boarded the _Planetara_ with +their own Moon equipment, disguised as freight and personal baggage. +Shipped in bond, to be inspected by the tax officials of Mars. + +"It is on board now. We will open it when we leave the asteroid, Gregg. +We are well equipped." + +She bent toward me. And suddenly her long lean fingers were gripping my +shoulders. + +"Gregg, look at me!" + +I gazed into her eyes. There was passion there; and her voice was +suddenly intense. + +"Gregg, I told you once a Martian girl goes after what she wants. It is +you I want--" + +Not for me to play like a cad upon a woman's emotions! "Moa, you flatter +me." + +"I love you." She held me off, gazing at me. "Gregg--" + +I must have smiled. And abruptly she released me. + +"So you think it amusing?" + +"No. But on Earth--" + +"We are not on the Earth. Nor am I of the Earth!" She was gauging me +keenly. No note of pleading was in her voice; a stern authority; and the +passion was swinging to anger. + +"I am like my brother: I do not understand you, Gregg Haljan. Perhaps +you think you are clever? It seems stupidity, the fatuousness of man!" + +"Perhaps," I said. + + * * * * * + +There was a moment of silence. "Gregg, I said I loved you. Have you no +answer?" + +"No." In truth, I did not know what sort of answer it would be best to +make. Whatever she must have read in my eyes, it stirred her to fury. +Her fingers with the strength of a man in them, dug into my shoulders. +Her gaze searched me. + +"You think you love someone else? Is that it?" + +That was horribly startling; but she did not mean it just that way. She +amended with caustic venom: "That little Anita Prince! You thought you +loved her! Was that it?" + +"No!" + +But I hardly deceived her. "Sacred to her memory! Her ratlike little +face--soft voice like a purring, sniveling cat! Is that what you're +remembering, Gregg Haljan?" she sneered. + +I tried to laugh. "What nonsense!" + +"Is it? Then why are you cold under my touch? Am I--a girl descended +from the Martian flame-workers--impotent now to awaken a man?" + +A woman scorned! In all the Universe there could be no more dangerous an +enemy. An incredible venom shot from her eyes. + +"That miserable mouselike creature! Well for her that my brother killed +her." + +It struck me cold. If Anita was unmasked, beyond all the menace of +Miko's wooing, I knew that the venom of Moa's jealousy was a greater +danger. + +I said sharply, "Don't be simple, Moa!" I shook off her grip. "You +imagine too much. You forget that I am a man of the Earth and you a girl +of Mars." + +"Is that reason why we should not love?" + +"No. But our instincts are different. Men of the Earth are born to the +chase." + + * * * * * + +I was smiling. With thought of Anita's danger I could find it readily in +my heart to dupe this Amazon. + +"Give me time, Moa. You attract me." + +"You lie!" + +"Do you think so?" I gripped her arm with all the power of my fingers. +It must have hurt her, but she gave no sign; her gaze clung to me +steadily. + +"I don't know what to think, Gregg Haljan...." + +I held my grip. "Think what you like. Men of Earth have been known to +kill the thing they love." + +"You want me to fear you?" + +"Perhaps." + +She smiled scornfully. "That is absurd." + +I released her. I said earnestly, "I want you to realize that if you +treat me fairly, I can be of great advantage to this venture. There will +be fighting--I am fearless." + +Her venomous expression was softening. "I think that is true, Gregg." + +"And you need my navigating skill. Even now I should be in the turret." + +I stood up. I half expected she would stop me, but she did not. I added, +"Shall we go?" + +She stood beside me. Her height brought her face level with mine. + +"I think you will cause no more trouble, Gregg?" + +"Of course not. I am not wholly witless." + +"You have been." + +"Well, that is over." I hesitated. Then I added, "A man of Earth does +not yield to love when there is work to do. This treasure--" + +I think that of everything I said, this last most convinced her. + +She interrupted, "That I understand." Her eyes were smoldering. "When it +is over--when we are rich--then I will claim you, Gregg." + + * * * * * + +She turned from me. "Are you ready?" + +"Yes. No! I must get that sheet of Hahn's last figures." + +"Are they checked?" + +"Yes." I picked the sheet up from my desk. "Hahn is fairly accurate, +Moa." + +"A fool nevertheless. An apprehensive fool." + +A comradeship seemed coming between us. It was my purpose to establish +it. + +"Are we going to maroon Dr. Frank with the passengers?" I asked. + +"Yes." + +"But he may be of use to us." I wanted Dr. Frank kept aboard. I still +felt that there was a chance for us to recapture the ship. + +But Moa shook her head decisively. "My brother has decided not. We will +be well rid of Dr. Frank. Are you ready, Gregg?" + +"Yes." + +She opened the door. Her gesture reassured the look-out, who was alertly +watching the stern watch-tower. + +"Come, Gregg." + +I stepped out, and followed her forward along the deck, which now was +bright with the radiance of the nearby asteroid. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +_Marooned on an Asteroid_ + + +A fair little world. I had thought so before; and I thought so now as I +gazed at the asteroid hanging so close before our bow. A huge, thin +crescent, with the Sun off to one side behind it. A silver crescent, +tinged with red. From this near viewpoint, all of the little globe's +disc was visible. The shadowed portion lay dimly red, mysteriously; the +sunlit crescent--widening visibly is we approached--was gleaming silver. +Inky moonlike shadows in the hollows, brilliant light upon the mountain +heights. The seas lay in gray patches. The convexity of the disc was +sharply defined. So small a world! Fair and beautiful, shrouded with +clouded areas. + +"Where is Miko?" + +"In the lounge, Gregg." + +"Can we stop there?" + +Moa turned into the lounge archway. Strange, tense scene. I saw Anita at +once. Her robed figure lurked in an inconspicuous corner; her eyes were +upon me as Moa and I entered, but she did not move. The thirty-odd +passengers were huddled in a group. Solemn, white-faced men, frightened +women. Some of them were sobbing. One Earth-woman--a young widow--sat +holding her little girl, and wailing with uncontrolled hysteria. The +child knew me. As I appeared now, with my gold-laced white coat over my +shoulders, the little child seemed to see in my uniform a mark of +authority. She left her mother and ran to me. + +"You, please--you will help us? My moms is crying." + +I sent her gently back. But there came upon me then a compassion for +these innocent passengers, fated to have embarked upon this ill-starred +voyage. Herded here in this cabin, with brigands like pirates of old +guarding them. Waiting now to be marooned on an uninhabited asteroid +roaming in space. A sense of responsibility swept me. I swung upon Miko. +He stood with a nonchalant grace, lounging against the wall with a +cylinder dangling in his hand. He anticipated me. + +"So, Haljan--she put some sense into your head? No more trouble? Then +get into the turret. Moa, stay there with him. Send Hahn here. Where is +that ass Coniston? We will be in the atmosphere shortly." + +I said, "No more trouble from me, Miko. But these passengers--what +preparation are you making for them on the asteroid?" + + * * * * * + +He stared in surprise. Then he laughed. "I am no murderer. The crew is +preparing food, all we can spare. And tools. They can build themselves +shelter--they will be picked up in a few weeks." + +Dr. Frank was here. I caught his gaze, but he did not speak. On the +lounge couches there still lay the quarter-score bodies. Rankin, who +had been killed by Blackstone in the fight; a man passenger killed; a +woman and a man wounded. + +Miko added, "Dr. Frank will take his medical supplies--he will care for +the wounded. There are other bodies among the crew." His gesture was +deprecating. "I have not buried them. We will put them ashore; easier +that way." + +The passengers were all eyeing me. I said: + +"You have nothing to fear. I will guarantee you the best equipment we +can spare. You will give them apparatus with which to signal?" I +demanded of Miko. + +"Yes. Get to the turret." + +I turned away, with Moa after me. Again the little girl ran forward. + +"Come--speak to my moms! She is crying." + +It was across the cabin from Miko. Coniston had appeared from the deck; +it created a slight diversion. He joined Miko. + +"Wait," I said to Moa. "She is afraid of you. This is humanity." + +I pushed Moa back. I followed the child. I had seen that Venza was +sitting with the child's weeping mother. This was a ruse to get word +with me. + +I stood before the terrified woman while the little girl clung to my +legs. + +I said gently, "Don't be so frightened. Dr. Frank will take care of you. +There is no danger--you will be safer on the asteroid than here on the +ship." + +I leaned down and touched her shoulder. "There is no danger." + + * * * * * + +I was between Venza and the open cabin. Venza whispered swiftly, "When +we are landing, Gregg, I want you to make a commotion--anything--just as +the women passengers go ashore." + +"Why? No, of course you will have food, Mrs. Francis." + +"Never mind! An instant. Just confusion. Go, Gregg--don't speak now!" + +I raised the child. "You take care of mother." I kissed her. + +From across the cabin Miko's sardonic voice made me turn. "Touching +sentimentality, Haljan! Get to your post in the turret!" + +His rasping note of annoyance brooked no delay. I set the child down. I +said, "I will land us in an hour. Depend on it." + +Hahn was at the controls when Moa and I reached the turret. + +"You will land us safely, Haljan?" he demanded anxiously. + +I pushed him away. "Miko wants you in the lounge." + +"You take command here?" + +"Of course, Hahn. I am no more anxious for a crash than you." + +He sighed with relief. "That is true. I am no expert at atmospheric +entry, Haljan--nor Coniston, nor Miko." + +"Have no fear. Sit down, Moa." + +I waved to the look-out in the forward watch-tower, and got his routine +gesture. I rang the corridor bells, and the normal signals came promptly +back. + +"It's correct, Hahn. Get away with you." I called after him. "Tell Miko +that things are all right here." + +Hahn's small dark figure, lithe as a leopard in his tight fitting +trousers and jacket with his robe now discarded, went swiftly down the +spider incline and across the deck. + +"Moa, where is Snap? By the infernal, if he has been injured!--" + + * * * * * + +Up on the helio-room bridge the brigand guard still sat. Then I saw that +Snap was out there sitting with him. I waved from the turret window, and +Snap's cheery gesture answered me. His voice carried down through the +silver moonlight: "Land us safely, Gregg. These weird amateur +navigators!" + +Within the hour I had us dropping into the asteroid's atmosphere. The +ship heated steadily. The pressure went up. It kept me busy with the +instruments and the calculations. But my signals were always promptly +answered from below. The brigand crew did its part efficiently. + +At a hundred and fifty thousand feet I shifted the gravity plates to the +landing combinations, and started the electronic engines. + +"All safe, Gregg?" Moa sat at my elbow; her eyes, with what seemed a +glow of admiration in them, followed my busy routine activities. + +"Yes. The crew works well." + +The electronic streams flowed out like a rocket tail behind us. The +_Planetara_ caught their impetus. In the rarified air, our bow lifted +slightly, like a ship riding a gentle ground swell. At a hundred +thousand feet we sailed gently forward, hull down to the asteroid's +surface, cruising to seek a landing space. + +A little sea was now beneath us. A shadowed sea, deep purple in the +night down there. Occasional green-verdured islands showed, with the +lines of white surf marking them. Beyond the sea, a curving coastline +was visible. Rocky headlines, behind which mountain foothills rose in +serrated, verdured ranks. The sunlight edged the distant mountains; and +presently this rapidly turning little world brought the sunlight +forward. + + * * * * * + +It was day beneath us. We slid gently downward. Thirty thousand feet +now, above a sparkling blue ocean. The coastline was just ahead: green +with a lush, tropical vegetation. Giant trees, huge-leaved. Long +dangling vines; air plants, with giant pods and vivid orchidlike +blossoms. + +I sat at the turret window, staring through my glasses. A fair little +world, yet obviously uninhabited. I could fancy that all this was +newly-sprung vegetation. This asteroid had whirled in from the cold of +the interplanetary space far outside our Solar System. A few years +ago--as time might be measured astronomically, it was no more than +yesterday--this fair landscape was congealed white and bleak, with a +sweep of glacial ice. But the seeds of life miraculously were here. The +miracle of life! Under the warming, germinating sunlight, the verdure +sprung. + +"Can you find landing space, Gregg?" + +Moa's question brought back my wandering fancies. I saw an upland glade, +a level spread of ferns with the forest banked around it. A cliff-height +nearby, frowning down at the sea. + +"Yes. I can land us there." I showed her through the glasses. I rang the +sirens, and we spiraled, descending further. The mountain tops were now +close beneath us. Clouds were overhead, white masses with blue sky +behind them. A day of brilliant sunlight. But soon, with our forward +cruising, it was night. The sunlight dropped beneath the sharply convex +horizon; the sea and the land went purple. + +A night of brilliant stars; the Earth was a blazing blue-red point of +light. The heavens visibly were revolving; in an hour or so it would be +daylight again. + +On the forward deck now Coniston had appeared, commanding half a dozen +of the crew. They were carrying up caskets of food and the equipment +which was to be given the marooned passengers. And making ready the +disembarking incline, loosening the seals of the side-dome windows. + +Sternward on the deck, by the lounge oval, I could see Miko standing. +And occasionally the roar of his voice at the passengers sounded. + + * * * * * + +My vagrant thought flung back into Earth's history. Like this, ancient +travelers of the surface of the sea were herded by pirates to walk the +plank, or put ashore, marooned upon some fair desert island of the +tropic Spanish main. + +Hahn came mounting our turret incline. "All is well, Gregg Haljan?" + +"Get to your work," Moa told him sharply. "We land in an hour-quadrant." + +He retreated, joining the bustle and confusion which now was beginning +on the deck. It struck me--could I turn that confusion to account? Would +it be possible, now at the last moment, to attack these brigands? Snap +still sat outside the helio-room doorway. But his guard was alert, with +upraised projector. And that guard, I saw, in his position high +amidships, commanded all the deck. + +And I saw too, as the passengers now were herded in a line from the +lounge oval, that Miko had roped and bound all of the men. And a +clanking chain connected them. They came like a line of convicts, +marching forward, and stopped on the open deck-space near the base of +the turret. Dr. Frank's grim face gazed up at me. + +Miko ordered the women and children in a group beside the chained men. +His words to them reached me: "You are in no danger. When we land, be +careful. You will find gravity very different--this is a very small +world." + +I flung on the landing lights; the deck glowed with the blue radiance; +the search-beams shot down beside our hull. We hung now a thousand feet +above the forest glade. I cut off the electronic streams. We poised, +with the gravity-plates set at normal, and only a gentle night-breeze to +give us a slight side drift. This I could control with the lateral +propeller rudders. + +For all my busy landing routine, my mind was on other things. Venza's +swift words back there in the lounge. I was to create a commotion while +the passengers were landing. Why? Had she and Dr. Frank, perhaps, some +last minute desperate purposes? + + * * * * * + +I determined I would do what she said. Shout, or mis-order the lights. +That would be easy. But to what advantage? + +I was glad it was night--I had, indeed, calculated our descent so that +the landing would be in darkness. But to what purpose? These brigands +were very alert. There was nothing I could think of to do which would +avail us anything more than a possible swift death under Miko's anger. + +"Well done, Gregg!" said Moa. + +I cut off the last of the propellers. With scarcely a perceptible jar, +the _Planetara_ grounded, rose like a feather and settled to rest in the +glade. The deep purple night with stars overhead was around us. I hissed +out our interior air through the dome and hull-ports, and admitted the +night-air of the asteroid. My calculations--of necessity mere +mathematical approximations--proved fairly accurate. In temperature and +pressure there was no radical change as the dome-windows slid back. + +We had landed. Whatever Venza's purpose, her moment was at hand. I was +tense. But I was aware also, that beside me Moa was very alert. I had +thought her unarmed. She was not. She sat back from me; in her hand was +a small thin knife-blade. + +She murmured tensely, "You have done your part, Gregg. Well and +skillfully done. Now we will sit here quietly and watch them land." + +Snap's guard was standing, keenly watching. The look-outs in the forward +and stern towers were also armed; I could see them both gazing keenly +down at the confusion of the blue-lit deck. + +The incline went over the hull-side and touched the ground. + +"Enough!" Miko roared. "The men first. Hahn, move the women back! +Coniston, pile those caskets to the side. Get out of the way, Prince." + + * * * * * + +Anita was down there. I saw her at the edge of the group of women. Venza +was near her. + +Miko shoved her. "Get out of the way, Prince. You can help Coniston. +Have the things ready to throw off." + +Five of the steward-crew were at the head of the incline. Miko shouted +up at me: + +"Haljan, hold our shipboard gravity normal." + +"Yes," I responded. + +I had done so. Our magnitizers had been adjusted to the shifting +calculations of our landing. They were holding now at intensities, so +that upon the _Planetara_ no change from fairly normal Earth-gravity +was apparent. I rang a tentative inquiry signal; the operator in the +hull-magnetizer control answered that he was at his post. + +The line of men were first to descend. Dr. Frank led them. He flashed a +look of farewell up at me and Snap as he went down the incline with the +chained men passengers after him. + +Motley procession! Twenty odd, dishevelled, half-clothed men of three +worlds. The changing, lightening gravity on the incline caught them. Dr. +Frank bounded up to the rail under the impetus of his step: caught and +held himself, drew himself back. The line swayed. In the dim, blue-lit +glare it seemed unreal, crazy. A grotesque dream of men descending a +plank. + +They reached the forest glade. Stood swaying, afraid at first to move. +The purple night crowded them; they stood gazing at this strange world, +their new prison. + +"Now the women." + +Miko was shoving the women to the head of the incline. I could feel +Moa's steady gaze upon me. Her knife-blade gleamed in the turret light. + +She murmured again, "In a few minutes you can ring us away, Gregg." + + * * * * * + +I felt like an actor awaiting his cue in the wings of some turgid drama +the plot of which he did not know. Venza was near the head of the +incline. Some of the women and children were on it. A woman screamed. +Her child had slipped from her hand, bounded up over the rail, and +fallen. Hardly fallen--floated down to the ground, with flailing arms +and legs, landing in the dark ferns, unharmed. Its terrified wail came +up. + +There was a confusion on the incline. Venza, still on the deck, seemed +to send a look of appeal to the turret. My cue? + +I slid my hand to the light switchboard. It was near my knees. I pulled +a switch. The blue-lit deck beneath the turret went dark. + +I recall an instant of horrible, tense silence, and in the gloom beside +me I was aware of Moa moving. I felt a thrill of instinctive fear--would +she plunge that knife into me? + +The silence of the darkened deck was broken with a confusion of sounds. +A babble of voices; a woman passenger's scream; shuffling of feet; and +above it all, Miko's roar: + +"Stand quiet! Everyone! No movement!" + +On the descending incline there was chaos. The disembarking women were +clinging to the gang-rail; some of them had evidently surged over it and +fallen. Down on the ground in the purple-shadowed starlight I could +vaguely see the chained line of men. They too were in confusion, trying +to shove themselves toward the fallen women. + +Miko roared: + +"Light those tubes! Gregg Haljan! By the Almighty, Moa, are you up +there? What is wrong? The light-tubes--" + +Dark drama of unknown plot! I wonder if I should try and leave the +turret. Where was Anita? She had been down there on the deck when I +flung out the lights. + +I think twenty seconds would have covered it all. I had not moved. I +thought, "Is Snap concerned with this?" + +Moa's knife could have stabbed me. I felt her lunge against me; and +suddenly I was gripping her, twisting her wrist. But she flung the knife +away. Her strength was almost the equal of my own. Her hand went for my +throat, and with the other hand she was fumbling. + + * * * * * + +The deck abruptly sprang into light again. Moa had found the switch and +threw it back. + +"Gregg!" + +She fought me as I tried to reach the switch. I saw down on the deck +Miko gazing up at us. Moa panted, "Gregg--stop! If he--sees you doing +this, he'll kill you--" + +The scene down there was almost unchanged. I had answered my cue. To +what purpose? I saw Anita near Miko. The last of the women were on the +plank. + +I had stopped struggling with Moa. She sat back, panting; and then she +called: "Sorry, Miko. It will not happen again." + +Miko was in a towering rage. But he was too busy to bother with me; his +anger swung on those nearest him. He shoved the last of the women +violently at the incline. She bounded over. Her body, with the +gravity-pull of only a few Earth-pounds, sailed in an arc and dropped to +the sward near the swaying line of men. + +Miko swung back. "Get out of my way!" A sweep of his huge arm knocked +Anita sidewise. "Prince, damn you, help me with those boxes!" + +The frightened stewards were lifting the boxes, square metal +storage-chests each as long as a man, packed with food, tools, and +equipment. + +"Here, get out of my way, all of you!" + +My breath came again; Anita nimbly retreated before Miko's angry rush. +He dashed at the stewards. Three of them held a box. He took it from +them; raised it at the top of the incline. Poised it over his head an +instant, with his massive arms like gray pillars beneath it. And flung +it. The box catapulted, dropped; and then, passing the Planetara's +gravity area, it sailed in a long flat arc over the forest glade and +crashed into the purple underbrush. + +"Give me another!" + + * * * * * + +The stewards pushed another at him. Like an angry Titan, he flung it. +And another. One by one the chests sailed out and crashed. + +"There is your food--go pick it up! Haljan, make ready to ring us away!" + +On the deck lay the dead body of Rance Rankin, which the stewards had +carried out. Miko seized it, flung it. + +"There! Go to your last resting place!" + +And the other bodies. Balch Blackstone, Captain Carter, Johnson--Miko +flung them. And the course masters and those of our crew who had been +killed; the stewards appeared with them; Miko unceremoniously cast them +off. + +The passengers were all on the ground now. It was dim down there. I +tried to distinguish Venza, but could not. I could see Dr. Frank's +figure at the end of the chained line of men. The passengers were gazing +in horror at the bodies hurtling over them. + +"Ready, Haljan?" + +Moa prompted me. "Tell him yes!" + +I called, "Yes!" Had Venza failed in her unknown purpose? It seemed so. +On the helio-room bridge Snap and his guard stood like silent statues in +the blue-lit gloom. + +The disembarkation was over. + +"Close the ports," Miko commanded. + +The incline came folding up with a clatter. The port and dome-windows +slid closed. Moa hissed against my ear: + +"If you want life, Gregg Haljan, you will start your duties!" + +Venza had failed. Whatever it was, it had come to nothing. Down in the +purple forest, disconnected now from the ship, the last of our friends +stood marooned. I could distinguish them through the blur of the closed +dome--only a swaying, huddled group was visible. But my fancy pictured +this last sight of them--Dr. Frank, Venza, Shac and Dud Ardley. + +They were gone. There were left only Snap, Anita, and myself. + + * * * * * + +I was mechanically ringing us away. I heard my sirens sounding down +below, with the answering clangs here in the turret. The _Planetara's_ +respiratory controls started; the pressure equalizers began operating, +and the gravity plates shifted into lifting combinations. + +The ship was hissing and quivering with it, combined with the grating of +the last of the dome ports. And Miko's command: + +"Lift, Haljan." + +Hahn had been mingled with the confusion of the deck, though I had +hardly noticed him; Coniston had remained below, with the crew answering +my signals. Hahn stood now with Miko, gazing down through a deck window. +Anita was alone at another. + +"Lift, Haljan." + +I lifted us gently, bow first, with a repulsion of the bow plates. And +started the central electronic engine. Its thrust from our stern moved +us diagonally over the purple forest trees. + +The glade slid downward and away. I caught a last vague glimpse of the +huddled group of marooned passengers, staring up at us. Left to their +fate, alone on this deserted little world. + +With the three engines going we slid smoothly upward. The forest +dropped, a purple spread of tree-tops, edged with starlight and +Earth-light. The sharply curving horizon seemed following us up. I swung +on all the power. We mounted at a forty degree angle, slowly circling, +with a bank of clouds over us to the side and the shining little sea +beneath. + +"Very good, Gregg." In the turret light Moa's eyes blazed at me. "I do +not know what you meant by darkening the deck-lights." Her fingers dug +at my shoulders. "I will tell my brother it was an error." + +I said, "An error--yes." + +"An error? I don't know what it was. But you have me to deal with now. +You understand? I will tell my brother so. You said, 'On Earth a man may +kill the thing he loves.' A woman of Mars may do that! Beware of me, +Gregg Haljan." + +Her passion-filled eyes bored into me. Love? Hate? The venom of a woman +scorned--a mingling of turgid emotions.... + + * * * * * + +I twisted away from her grip and ignored her; she sat back, silently +watching my busy activities; the calculations of the shifting conditions +of gravity, pressures, temperatures; a checking of the score or more of +instruments on the board before me. + +Mechanical routine. My mind went to Venza, back there on the asteroid. +The wandering little world was already shrinking to a convex surface +beneath us. Venza, with her last unknown play, gone to failure. Had I +failed my cue? Whatever my part, it seemed now that I must have horribly +mis-acted it. + +The crescent Earth was presently swinging over our bow. We rocketed out +of the asteroid's shadow. The glowing, flaming Sun appeared, making a +crescent of the Earth. With the glass I could see our tiny Moon, +visually seeming to hug the limb of its parent Earth. + +We were away upon our course for the Moon. My mind flung ahead. +Grantline with his treasure, unsuspecting this brigand ship. And +suddenly, beyond all thought of Grantline and his treasure, there came +to me a fear for Anita. In God's truth I had been, so far, a very +stumbling inept champion--doomed to failure with everything I tried. It +swept me, so that I cursed my own incapacity. Why had I not contrived to +have Anita desert at the asteroid? Would it not have been far better for +her there? Taking her chance for rescue with Dr. Frank, Venza and the +others? + +But no! I had, like an inept fool, never thought of that! Had left her +here on board at the mercy of these outlaws. + +And I swore now that, beyond everything, I would protect her. + +Futile oath! If I could have seen ahead a few hours! But I sensed the +catastrophe. There was a shudder within me as I sat in that turret, +docilely guiding us out through the asteroid's atmosphere, heading us +upon our course for the Moon. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +_In the Zed-light Glow_ + + +"Try again. By the infernal, Snap Dean, if you do anything to balk us!" + +Miko scanned the apparatus with keen eyes. How much technical knowledge +of signaling instruments did this brigand leader have? I was tense and +cold with apprehension as I sat in a corner of the helio-room, watching +Snap. Could Miko be fooled? Snap, I knew, was trying to fool him. + +The Moon spread close beneath us. My log-chart, computed up to thirty +minutes past, showed us barely some thirty thousand miles over the +Moon's surface. The globe lay in quadrature beneath our bow quarter--a +huge quadrant spreading across the black starry vault of the lower +heavens. A silver quadrant. The sunset caught the Lunar mountains, flung +slanting shadows over the empty Lunar plains. All the disc was plainly +visible. The mellow Earth-light glowed serene and pale to illumine the +Lunar night. + +The _Planetara_ was bathed in silver. A brilliant silver glare swept the +forward deck, clean white and splashed with black shadows. We had partly +circled the Moon, so as now to approach it from the Earthward side. I +had worked with extreme concentration through the last few hours, +plotting the trajectory of our curving sweep, setting the gravity plates +with constantly shifting combinations. And with it a necessity for the +steady retarding of our velocity. + + * * * * * + +Miko for a time was at my elbow in the turret. I had not seen Coniston +and Hahn of recent hours. I had slept, awakened refreshed, and had a +meal. Coniston and Hahn remained below, one or the other of them always +with the crew to execute my sirened orders. Then Coniston came to take +my place in the turret, and I went with Miko to the helio-room. + +"You are skilful, Haljan." A measure of grim approval was in Miko's +voice. "You evidently have no wish to try and fool me in this +navigation." + +I had not, indeed. It is delicate work at best, coping with the +intricacies of celestial mechanics upon a semicircular trajectory with +retarding velocity, and with a make-shift crew we could easily have +come upon real difficulty. + +We hung at last, hull-down, facing the Earthward hemisphere of the Lunar +disc. The giant ball of the Earth lay behind and above us--the Sun over +our stern quarter. With forward velocity almost checked, we poised, and +Snap began his signals to the unsuspecting Grantline. + +My work momentarily was over. I sat watching the helio-room. Moa was +here, close beside me; I felt always her watchful gaze, so that even the +play of my expression needed reining. + +Miko worked with Snap. Anita too was here. To Miko and Moa it was the +somber, taciturn George Prince, shrouded always in his black mourning +cloak, disinclined to talk; sitting alone, brooding and cowardly sullen. + +Miko repeated, "By the infernal, if you try to fool me, Snap Dean!" + +The small metal room, with its grid floor and low-arched ceiling, glared +with moonlight through its windows. The moving figures of Snap and Miko +were aped by the grotesque, misshapen shadows of them on the walls. Miko +gigantic--a great, menacing ogre. Snap small and alert--a trim, pale +figure in his tight-fitting white trousers, broad-flowing belt, and +white shirt open at the throat. His face was pale and drawn from lack of +sleep and the torture to which Miko had subjected him. But he grinned at +the brigand's words, and pushed his straggling hair closer under the red +eyeshade. + +"I'm doing my best, Miko--you can believe it." + + * * * * * + +The room over long periods was deadly silent, with Miko and Snap bending +watchfully at the crowded banks of instruments. A silence in which my +own pounding heart seemed to echo. I did not dare look at Anita, nor she +at me. Snap was trying to signal Earth, not the Moon! His main helios +were set in the reverse. The infra-red waves, flung from the bow +window, were of a frequency which Snap and I believed that Grantline +could not pick up. And over against the wall, close beside me and +seemingly ignored by Snap, there was a tiny ultra-violet sender. Its +faint hum and the quivering of its mirrors had so far passed unnoticed. + +Would some Earth-station pick it up? I prayed so. There was a thumb nail +mirror here which could bring an answer. I prayed that it might swing. + +Would some Earth telescope be able to see us? I doubted it. The pinpoint +of the _Planetara's_ infinitesimal bulk would be beyond them. + +Long silences, broken only by the faint hiss and murmur of Snap's +instruments. + +"Shall I try the 'graphs, Miko?" + +"Yes." + +I helped him with the spectroheliograph. At every level the plates +showed us nothing save the scarred and pitted Moon-surface. We worked +for an hour. There was nothing. Bleak cold night on the Moon here +beneath us. A touch of fading sunlight upon the Apennines. Up near the +South Pole, Tycho with its radiating open rills stood like a grim dark +maw. + +Miko bent over a plate. "Something here? Is there?" + +An abnormality upon the frowning ragged cliffs of Tycho? We thought so. +But then it seemed not. + + * * * * * + +Another hour. No signal came from Earth. If Snap's calls were getting +through we had no evidence of it. Abruptly Miko strode at me from across +the room. I went cold and tense; Moa shifted, alert to my every +movement. But Miko was not interested in me. A sweep of his clenched +fist knocked the ultra-violet sender and its coils and mirrors in a +tinkling crash to the grid at my feet. + +"We don't need that, whatever it is!" + +He rubbed his knuckles where the violet waves had tinged them, and +turned grimly back to Snap. + +"Where are your Gamma ray mirrors? If the treasure is exposed--" + +This Martian's knowledge was far greater than we believed. He grinned +sardonically at Anita. "If our treasure is on this hemisphere, Prince, +we should pick up Gamma rays? Don't you think so? Or is Grantline so +cautious it will all be protected?" + +Anita spoke in a careful, throaty drawl. "The Gamma rays came plain +enough when we passed here on the way out." + +"You should know," grinned Miko. "An expert eavesdropper, Prince--I will +say that for you. Come Dean, try something else. By God, if Grantline +does not signal us, I will be likely to blame you--my patience is +shortening. Shall we go closer, Haljan?" + +"I don't think it would help," I said. + +He nodded. "Perhaps not. Are we checked?" + +"Yes." We were poised, very nearly motionless. "If you wish an advance, +I can ring it. But we need a surface destination now." + +"True, Haljan." He stood thinking. "Would a zed-ray penetrate those +crater-cliffs? Tycho, for instance, at this angle?"[B] + +"It might," Snap agreed. "You think he may be on the Northern inner side +of Tycho?" + +"He may be anywhere," said Miko shortly. + +"If you think that," Snap persisted, "suppose we swing the _Planetara_ +over the South Pole. Tycho, viewed from there--" + +"And take another quarter-day of time?" Miko sneered. "Flash on your +zed-ray; help him hook it up, Haljan." + + + [B] An allusion to the use of the zed-ray light for making + spectro-photographs of what might be behind obscuring rock masses, + similar to the old-style X-ray. + + * * * * * + +I moved to the lens-box of the spectroheliograph. It seemed that Snap +was very strangely reluctant: Was it because he knew that the Grantline +camp lay concealed on the north inner wall of Tycho's giant ring? I +thought so. But Snap flashed a queer look at Anita. She did not see it, +but I did. And I could not understand it. + +My accursed, witless incapacity! If only I had taken warning! + +"Here," commanded Miko. "A score of 'graphs with the zed-ray. I tell you +I will comb this surface if we have to stay here until our ship comes +from Ferrok-Shahn to join us!" + +The Martian brigands were coming. Miko's signals had been answered. In +ten days the other brigand ship, adequately manned and armed, would be +here. + +Snap helped me connect the zed-ray. He did not dare even to whisper to +me, with Moa hovering always so close. And for all Miko's sardonic +smiling, we knew that he would tolerate nothing from us now. He was +fully armed, and so was Moa. + +I recall that Snap several times tried to touch me significantly. Oh, if +only I had taken warning! + +We finished our connecting. The dull gray point of zed-ray gleamed +through the prisms, to mingle with the moonlight entering the main lens. +I stood with the shutter trip. + +"The same interval, Snap?" + +"Yes." + +Beside me, I was aware of a faint reflection of the zed-light--a gray +Cathedral shaft crossing the helio-room and falling upon the opposite +wall. An unreality there, as the zed-light faintly strove to penetrate +the metal room-side. + +I said, "Shall I make the exposure?" + + * * * * * + +Snap nodded. But that 'graph was never made. An exclamation from Moa +made us all turn. The Gamma mirrors were quivering! Grantline had picked +our signals! With what undoubtedly was an intensified receiving +equipment which Snap had not thought Grantline able to use, he had +caught our faint zed-rays, which Snap was sending only to deceive Miko. +And Grantline had recognized the _Planetara_, and had released his +occulting screens surrounding the radium ore. The Gamma rays were here, +unmistakable! + +And upon their heels came Grantline's message. Not in the secret system +he had arranged with Snap, but unsuspectingly in open code. I could read +the swinging mirror, and so could Miko. + +And Miko decoded it triumphantly aloud: + +"_Surprised but pleased your return. Approach Mid-Northern hemisphere, +region of Archimedes, forty thousand toises[C] off nearest Apennine +range._" + +The message broke off. But even its importance was overshadowed. Miko +stood in the center of the helio-room, triumphantly reading the +light-indicator. Its beam swung on the scale, which chanced to be almost +directly over Anita's head. I saw Miko's expression change. A look of +surprise, amazement came to him. + +"Why--" + +He gasped. He stood staring. Almost stupidly staring for an instant. And +as I regarded him with fascinated horror, there came upon his heavy gray +face a look of dawning comprehension. And I heard Snap's startled intake +of breath. He moved to the spectroheliograph, where the zed-ray +connections were still humming. + +But with a leap Miko flung him away. "Off with you! Moa, watch him! +Haljan, don't move!" + + + [C] About fifty miles. + + * * * * * + +Again Miko stood staring. Oh dear God, I saw now that he was staring at +Anita! + +"Why George Prince! How strange you look!" + +Anita did not move. She was stricken with horror: she shrank back +against the wall, huddled in her cloak. Miko's sardonic voice came +again: + +"How strange you look. Prince!" He took a step forward. He was grim and +calm. Horribly calm. Deliberate. Gloating--like a great gray monster in +human form toying with a fascinated, imprisoned bird. + +"Move just a little Prince. Let the zed-ray light fall more fully." + +Anita's head was bare. That pale, Hamletlike face. Dear God, the +zed-light reflection lay gray and penetrating upon it! + +Miko took another step. Peering. Grinning. "How amazing, George Prince! +Why, I can hardly believe it!" + +Moa was armed with an electronic cylinder. For all her amazement--what +turgid emotions sweeping her I can only guess--she never took her eyes +from Snap and me. + +"Back! Don't move, either of you!" She hissed it at us. + +Then Miko leaped at Anita like giant gray leopard pouncing. + +"Away with that cloak, Prince!" + + * * * * * + +I stood cold and numbed. And realization came at last. The faint +zed-light glow had fallen by chance upon Anita's face. Penetrated the +flesh; exposed, faintly glowing, the bone-line of her jaw. Unmasked the +waxen art of Glutz. + +And Miko had seen it. + +"Why George, how surprising! Away with that cloak!" + +He seized her wrist, drew her forward, beyond the shaft of zed-light, +into the brilliant light of the Moon. And ripped her cloak from her. The +gentle curves of her woman's figure were so unmistakable! + +And as Miko gazed at them, all his calm triumph swept away. + +"Why, Anita!" + +I heard Moa mutter: "So that is it?" A venomous flashing look--a shaft +from me to Anita and back again. "So that is it?" + +"Why, _Anita_!" + +Miko's great arms gathered her up as though she were a child. "So I have +you back; from the dead delivered back to me!" + +"Gregg!" Snap's warning, and his grip over my shoulders brought me a +measure of sanity. I had tensed to spring. I stood quivering, and Moa +thrust her weapon against my face. The helio mirrors were swaying again +with another message from Grantline. But it came ignored by us all. + +In the glare of moonlight by the forward window, Miko held Anita, his +great hands pawing her with triumphant possessive caresses. + +"So, little Anita, you are given back to me." + +Against her futile struggles he held her. + +Dear God, if only I had had the wit to have prevented this! + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +_The Grantline Camp_ + + +In the mid-northern hemisphere upon the Earthward side of the Moon, the +giant crater of Archimedes stood brooding in silent majesty. Grim, lofty +walls, broken, pitted and scarred, rising precipitous to the upper +circular rim. Night had just fallen. The sunlight clung to the +crater-heights; it tinged with flame the jagged peaks of the Apennine +Mountains which rose in tiers at the horizon; and it flung great inky +shadows over the intervening lowlands. + +Northward, the Mare Imbrium stretched mysterious and purple, its million +rills and ridges and crater holes flattened by distance and the +gathering darkness into a seeming level surface. The night slowly +deepened. The dead-black vault of the sky blazed with its brilliant +starry gems. The gibbous Earth hung high above the horizon, motionless, +save for the invisible pendulum sway over the tiny arc, of its +libration: widening to quadrature, casting upon the bleak naked Lunar +landscape its mellow Earth-glow. + +Slow, measured process, this coming of the Lunar night! For an Earth-day +the sunset slowly faded on the Apennines; the poised Earth widened a +little further--an Earth-day of time, with the Earth-disc visibly +rotating, the faint tracery of its oceans and continents passing in +slow, majestic review. + +Another Earth-day interval. Then another. And another. Full night now +enveloped Archimedes. Splotches of Earth-light and starlight sheen +slowly shifted as the night advanced. + +Between the great crater and the nearby mountains, the broken, +pseudo-level lowlands lay wan in the Earth-light. A few hundred miles, +as distance would be measured upon Earth. A million million rills were +here. Valleys and ridges, ravines, sharp-walled canyons, cliffs and +crags--tiny craters like pock-marks. + +Naked, gray porous rock everywhere. This denuded landscape! Cracked and +scarred and tumbled, as though some inexorable Titan torch had seared +and crumbled and broken it, left it now congealed like a wind-lashed sea +abruptly frozen into immobility. + + * * * * * + +Moonlight upon Earth so gently shines to make romantic a lover's smile! +But the reality of the Lunar night is cold beyond human rationality. +Cold and darkly silent. Grim desolation. Awesome. Majestic. A frowning +majesty that even to the most intrepid human beholder is inconceivably +forbidding. + +And there were humans here now. On this tumbled plain, between +Archimedes and the mountains, one small crater amid the million of its +fellows was distinguished this night by the presence of humans. The +Grantline camp! It huddled in the deepest purple shadows on the side of +a bowl-like pit, a crudely circular orifice with a scant two miles +across its rippling rim. There was faint light here to mark the presence +of the living intruders. The blue-glow radiance of Morrell tube-lights +under a spread of glassite. + +The Grantline camp stood mid-way up one of the inner cliff-walls of the +little crater. The broken, rock-strewn floor, two miles wide, lay five +hundred feet below the camp. Behind it, the jagged precipitous cliff +rose another five hundred to the heights of the upper rim. A broad +level shelf hung midway up the cliff, and upon it Grantline had built +his little group of glassite dome shelters. Viewed from above there was +the darkly purple crater floor, the upflung circular rim where the +Earth-light tinged the spires and crags with yellow sheen; and on the +shelf, like a huddled group of birds nests, Grantline's domes clung and +gazed down upon the inner valley. + +Intricate task, the building of these glassite shelters! There were +three. The main one stood close at the brink of the ledge. A quadrangle +of glassite walls, a hundred feet in length by half as wide, and a scant +ten feet high to its flat-arched dome roof. Built for this purpose in +Great-New York, Grantline had brought his aluminite girders and braces +and the glassite panels in sections. + + * * * * * + +The air here on the Moon surface was negligible--a scant one +five-thousandth of the atmospheric pressure at the sea-level on Earth. +But within the glassite shelter, a normal Earth-pressure must be +maintained. Rigidly braced double walls to withstand the explosive +tendency, with no external pressure to counteract it. A tremendous +necessity for mechanical equipment had burdened Grantline's small +ship to its capacity. The chemistry of manufactured air, the +pressure equalizers, renewers, respirators, the lighting and +temperature-maintenance systems--all the mechanics of a space-flyer were +here. + +And within the glassite double walls, there was necessity for a constant +circulation of the Erentz temperature insulating system.[D] + +There was this main Grantline building, stretching low and rectangular +along the front edge of the ledge. Within it were living rooms, messroom +and kitchen. Fifty feet behind it, connected by a narrow passage of +glassite, was a similar, though smaller structure. The mechanical +control rooms, with their humming, vibrating mechanisms were here. And +an instrument room with signaling apparatus, senders, receivers, +mirror-grids and audiphones of several varieties; and an +electro-telescope, small but modern, with dome overhead like a little +Earth observatory. + +From this instrument building, beside the connecting pedestrian passage, +wire cables for light, and air-tubes and strings and bundles of +instrument wires ran to the main structure--gray snakes upon the +porous, gray Lunar rock. + +The third building seemed a lean-to banked against the cliff-wall, a +slanting shed-wall of glassite fifty feet high and two hundred in +length. Under it, for months Grantline's borers had dug into the cliff. +Braced tunnels were here, penetrating back and downward into this vein +of radio-active rock. + + + [D] An intricate system of insulation against extremes of temperature, + developed by the Erentz Kinetic Energy Corporation in the twenty-first + century. Within the hollow double shell of a shelter-wall, or an + explorer's helmet-suit, or a space-flyer's hull, an oscillating + semi-vacuum current was maintained--an extremely rarified air, + magnetically charged, and maintained in rapid oscillating motion. Across + this field the outer cold, or heat, as the case might be, could + penetrate only with slow radiation. This Erentz system gave the most + perfect temperature insulation known in its day. Without it, + interplanetary flight would have been impossible. + + And it served a double purpose. Developed at first for temperature + insulation only, the Erentz system surprisingly brought to light one of + the most important discoveries made in the realm of physics of the + century. It was found that any flashing, oscillating current, whether + electronic, or the semi-vacuum of rarified air--or even a thin sheet of + whirling fluid--gave also a pressure-insulation. The kinetic energy of + the rapid movement was found to absorb within itself the latent energy + of the unequal pressure. + + (The intricate postulates and mathematical formulae necessary to + demonstrate the operation of the physical laws involved would be out of + place here.) + + The _Planetara_ was so equipped, against the explosive tendency of its + inner air-pressures when flying in the near-vacuum of space. In the case + of Grantline's glassite shelters, the latent energy of his room interior + air pressure went largely into a kinetic energy which in practical + effect resulted only in the slight acceleration of the vacuum current, + and thus never reached the outer wall. The Erentz engineers claimed for + their system a pressure absorption of 97.4%, leaving, in Grantline's + case, only 2.6% of room pressure to be held by the building's aluminite + bracers. + + It may be interesting to note in this connection that without the Erentz + system as a basis, the great sub-sea developments on Earth and Mars of + the twenty-first century would also have been impossible. Equipped with + a fluid circulation device of the Erentz principle within its double + hull, the first submarine was able to penetrate the great ocean deeps, + withstanding the tremendous ocean pressures at depths of four thousand + fathoms. + + * * * * * + +The work was over now. The borers had been dismantled and packed away. +At one end of the cliff the mining equipment lay piled in a litter. +There was a heap of discarded ore where Grantline had carted and dumped +it after his first crude refining process had yielded it as waste. The +ore-slag lay like gray powder-flakes strewn down the cliff. Tracks and +ore-carts along the ledge stood discarded, mute evidence of the weeks +and months of work these helmeted miners had undergone, struggling upon +this airless, frowning world. + +But now all that was finished. The radio-active ore was sufficiently +concentrated. It lay--this treasure--in a seventy-foot pile behind the +glassite lean-to, with a cage of wires over it and an insulation barrage +guarding its Gamma rays from escaping to mark its presence. + +The ore-shelter was dark; the other two buildings were lighted. And +there were small lights mounted at intervals about the camp and along +the edge of the ledge. A spider ladder, with tiny platforms some twenty +feet one above the other, hung precariously to the cliff-face. It +descended the five hundred feet to the crater floor; and, behind the +camp, it mounted the jagged cliff-face to the upper rim-height, where a +small observatory platform was placed. + + * * * * * + +Such was the outer aspect of the Grantline Treasure Camp near the +beginning of this Lunar night, when, unbeknown to Grantline and his +score of men, the _Planetara_ with its brigands was approaching. The +night was perhaps a sixth advanced. Full night. No breath of cloud to +mar the brilliant starry heavens. The quadrant Earth hung poised like a +giant mellow moon over Grantline's crater. A bright Earth, yet no air +was here on this Lunar surface to spread its light. Only a glow, +mingling with the spots of blue tube-light on the poles along the cliff, +and the radiance from the lighted buildings. + +The crater floor was dimly purple. Beyond the opposite upper rim, from +the camp-height, the towering top of distant Archimedes was visible. + +No evidence of movement showed about the silent camp. Then a pressure +door in an end of the main building opened its tiny series of locks. A +bent figure came out. The lock closed. The figure straightened and gazed +about the camp. Grotesque, bloated semblance of a man! Helmeted, with +rounded dome-hood suggestion of an ancient sea diver, yet goggled and +trunked like a gas-masked fighter of the twentieth century war. + +He stooped presently and disconnected metal weights which were upon his +shoes.[E] + +Then he stood erect again, and with giant strides bounded along the +cliff. Fantastic figure in the blue-lit gloom! A child's dream of crags +and rocks and strange lights with a single monstrous figure in +seven-league boots. + +He went the length of the ledge with his twenty-foot strides, inspected +the lights, and made adjustments. Came back, and climbed with agile, +bounding leaps up the spider ladder to the dome on the crater top. A +light flashed on up there. Then it was extinguished. + +The goggled, bloated figure came leaping down after a moment. +Grantline's exterior watchman making his rounds. He came back to the +main building. Fastened the weights on his shoes. Signaled within. + +The lock opened. The figure went inside. + +It was early evening, after the dinner hour and before the time of +sleep, according to the camp routine Grantline was maintaining. Nine P. +M. of Earth Eastern-American time, recorded now upon his Earth +chronometer. In the living room of the main building Johnny Grantline +sat with a dozen of his men dispersed about the room, whiling away as +best they could the lonesome hours. + + + [E] Within the Grantline buildings it was found more convenient to use a + gravity normal to Earth. This was maintained by the wearing of + metal-weighted shoes and metal-loaded belt. The Moon-gravity is normally + approximately one-sixth the gravity of Earth. + + * * * * * + +"All as usual. This cursed Moon! When I get home--if ever I do get +home--" + +"Say your say, Wilks. But you'll spend your share of the gold-leaf and +thank your constellations that you had your chance!" + +"Let him alone! Come on, Wilks, take a hand here. This game is no good +with three." + +The man who had been outside flung his hissing helmet recklessly to the +floor and unsealed his suit. "Here, get me out of this. No, I won't +play. I can't play your cursed game with nothing at stake!" + +"Commissioner's orders." + +A laugh went up at the sharp look Johnny Grantline flung from where he +sat reading in a corner of the room. + +"Commander's orders. No gambling gold-leafers tolerated here." + +"Play the game, Wilks." Grantline said quietly. "We all know it's +infernal doing nothing." + +"He's been struck by Earth-light," another man laughed. "Commander, I +told you not to let that guy Wilks out at night." + + * * * * * + +A rough but good-natured lot of men. Jolly and raucous by nature in +their leisure hours. But there was too much leisure here now. Their +mirth had a hollow sound. In older times, explorers of the frozen polar +zones had to cope with inactivity, loneliness and despair. But at least +they were on their native world. The grimness of the Moon was eating +into the courage of Grantline's men. An unreality here. A weirdness. +These fantastic crags. The deadly silence. The nights, almost two weeks +of Earth-time in length, congealed by the deadly frigidity of Space. The +days of black sky, blaring stars and flaming Sun, with no atmosphere to +diffuse the daylight. Days of weird blending sheen of illumination with +most of the Sun's heat radiating so swiftly from the naked Lunar surface +that the outer temperature still was cold. And day and night, always the +familiar beloved Earth-disc hanging poised up near the zenith. From +thinnest crescent to full Earth, and then steadily back again to +crescent. + +All so abnormal, irrational, disturbing to human senses. With the mining +work over, an irritability grew upon Grantline's men. And perhaps since +the human mind is so wonderful, elusive a thing, there lay upon these +men an indefinable sense of impending disaster. Johnny Grantline felt +it. He thought about it now as he sat in the room corner watching Wilks +being forced into the plaget-game, and he found it strong within him. +Unreasonable, ominous depression! Barring the accident which had +disabled his little space-ship when they reached this small crater hole, +his expedition had gone well. His instruments, and the information he +had from the former explorers, had picked up the ore-vein with a scant +month of search. + + * * * * * + +The vein had now been exhausted; but the treasure was here. Nothing was +left but to wait for the _Planetara_. The men were talking of that now. + +"She ought to be well mid-way from here to Ferrok-Shahn by now. When do +you figure she'll be back here, and signal us?" + +"Twenty days. Give her another five now to Mars, and five in port. +That's ten. We'll pick her signals in three weeks, mark me." + +"Three weeks! Just give me three weeks of reasonable sunrise and sunset! +This cursed Moon! You mean, Williams, next daylight." + +"Hah! He's inventing a Lunar language. You'll be a Moon-man yet, if you +live here long enough." + +Olaf Swenson, the big blond fellow from the Scandia fiords, came and +flung himself down by Grantline. + +"Ay tank they bane without not enough to do, Commander. If the ore yust +would not give out--" + +"Three weeks--it isn't very long, Ollie." + +"No. Maybe not." + +From across the room somebody was saying, "If the _Comet_ hadn't smashed +on us, damn me but I'd ask the Commander to let some of us take her +back. The discarded equipment could go." + +"Shut up, Billy. She is smashed." + +The little _Comet_, cruising in search of the ore, had come to grief +just as the ore was found. It lay now on the crater floor with its nose +bashed into an upflung spire of rock. Wrecked beyond repair. Save for +the pre-arrangement with the _Planetara_, the Grantline party would have +been helpless here on the Moon. Knowledge of that--although no one ever +suspected but that the _Planetara_ would come safely--served to add to +the men's depression. They were cut off, virtually helpless on a strange +world. Their signalling devices were inadequate even to reach Earth. +Grantline's power batteries were running low.[F] He could not attempt +wide-flung signals without jeopardizing the power necessary for the +routine of his camp in the event of the _Planetara_ being delayed. Nor +was his electro-telescope adequate to pick small objects at any great +distance.[G] + +All of Grantline's effort, in truth, had gone into equipment for the +finding and gathering of the treasure. The safety of the expedition had +to that extent been neglected. + +Swenson was mentioning that now. + +"You all agreed to it," Johnny said shortly. "Every man here voted that, +above everything, what we wanted was to get the radium." + + + [F] The Gravely storage tanks--the power used by the Grantline + expedition--were heavy and bulky affairs. Economy of space on the Comet + allowed but few of them. + + [G] Electro-telescopes of most modern use and power were too large and + used too much power to be available to Grantline. + + * * * * * + +A dynamic little fellow, this Johnny Grantline. Short of temper +sometimes, but always just, and a perfect leader of men. In stature he +was almost as small as Snap. But he was thick-set, with a smooth shaven, +keen-eyed, square-jawed face, and a shock of brown tousled hair. A man +of thirty-five, though the decision of his manner, the quiet dominance +of his voice, mode him seem older. He stood up now, surveying the +blue-lit glassite room with its low ceiling close overhead. He was +bowlegged; in movement he seemed to roll with a stiff-legged gait like +some sea captain of former days on the deck of his swaying ship. +Queer-looking figure! Heavy flannel shirt and trousers, boots heavily +weighted, and bulky metal-loaded belt strapped about his waist. + +He grinned at Swenson. "When we divide this treasure, everyone will be +happy, Ollie." + +The treasure was estimated by Grantline to be the equivalent of ninety +millions in gold-leaf. A hundred and ten millions in the gross as it now +stood, with twenty millions to be deducted by the Federated Refiners for +reducing it to the standard purity of commercial radium. Ninety +millions, with only a million and a half to come off for expedition +expenses, and the _Planetara_ Company's share another million. A nice +little stake. + +Grantline strode across the room with his rolling gait. + +"Cheer up, boys. Who's winning there? I say, you fellows--" + +An audiphone buzzer interrupted him, a call from the duty man in the +instrument room of the nearby building. + +Grantline clicked the receiver. The room fell into silence. Any call was +unusual--nothing ever happened here in the camp. + +The duty man's voice sounded over the room. + +"Signals coming! Not clear. Will you come over, Commander?" + +Signals! + + * * * * * + +It was never Grantline's way to enforce needless discipline. He offered +no objection when every man in the camp rushed through the connecting +passages. They crowded the instrument room where the tense duty man sat +bending over his helio receivers. The mirrors were swaying. + +The duty man looked up and met Grantline's gaze. + +"I ran it up to the highest intensity. Commander. We ought to get +it--not let it pass." + +"Low scale, Peter?" + +"Yes. Weakest infra-red. I'm bringing it up, even though it uses too +much of our power." The duty man was apologetic. + +"Get it," said Grantline shortly. + +"I had a swing a minute ago. I think it's the _Planetara_." + +"_Planetara!_" The crowding group of men chorused it. How could it be +the _Planetara_? + +But it was. The call presently came in clear. Unmistakably the +_Planetara_, turned back now from her course to Ferrok-Shahn. + +"How far away, Peter?" + +The duty man consulted the needles of his dial scale. "Close! Very weak +infra-red. But close. Around thirty thousand miles, maybe. It's Snap +Dean calling." + +The _Planetara_ here within thirty thousand miles! Excitement and +pleasure swept the room. The _Planetara's_ coming had for so long been +awaited so eagerly! + +The excitement communicated to Grantline. It was unlike him to be +incautious; yet now with no thought save that some unforeseen and +pleasing circumstance had brought the _Planetara_ ahead of time; +incautious Grantline certainly was. + +"Raise the ore-barrage." + +"I'll go! My suit is here." + + * * * * * + +A willing volunteer rushed out to the ore-shed. The Gamma rays, which in +the helio-room of the _Planetara_ came so unwelcome to Snap and me, were +loosed. + +"Can you send, Peter?" Grantline demanded. + +"Yes, with more power." + +"Use it." + +Johnny dictated the message of his location which we received. In his +incautious excitement he ignored the secret code. + +An interval passed. The ore was occulted again. No message had come from +us--just Snap's routine signal in the weak infra-red, which we hoped +Grantline would not get. + +The men crowding Grantline's instrument room waited in tense silence. +Then Grantline tried the telescope. Its current weakened the lights with +the drain upon the distributors, and cooled the room with a sudden +deadly chill as the Erentz insulating system slowed down. + +The duty man looked suddenly frightened. "You'll bulge out our walls, +Commander. The internal pressure--" + +"We'll chance it." + +They picked up the image of the _Planetara_! It came from the telescope +and shone clear on the grid--the segment of star-field with a tiny, +cigar-shaped blob. Clear enough to be unmistakable. The _Planetara_! +Here now over the Moon, almost directly overhead, poised at what the +altimeter scale showed to be a fraction under thirty thousand miles. + +The men gazed in awed silence. The _Planetara_ coming.... + +But the altimeter needle was motionless. The _Planetara_ was hanging +poised. + +A sudden gasp went about the room. The men stood with whitening faces, +gazing at the _Planetara's_ image. And at the altimeter needle. It was +moving. The _Planetara_ was descending. But not with an orderly swoop. + +The image showed the ship clearly. The bow tilted up, then dipped down. +But then in a moment it swung up again. The ship turned partly over. +Righted itself. Then swayed again, drunkenly. + +The watching men were stricken into horrified silence. The _Planetara's_ +image momentarily, horribly, grew larger. Swaying. Then turning +completely over, rotating slowly end over end. + +The _Planetara_, out of control, was falling! + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +_The Wreck of the_ Planetara + + +On the _Planetara_, in the helio-room, Snap and I stood with Moa's +weapon upon us. Miko held Anita. Triumphant. Possessive. Then as she +struggled, a gentleness came to this strange Martian giant. Perhaps he +really loved her. Looking back on it, I sometimes think so. + +"Anita, do not fear me." He held her away from him. "I would not harm +you. I want your love." Irony came to him. "And I thought I had killed +you! But it was only your brother." + +He partly turned. I was aware of how alert was his attention. He +grinned. "Hold them, Moa--don't let them do anything foolish. So, Anita, +you were masquerading to spy upon me? That was wrong of you." He was +again ironic. + +Anita had not spoken. She held herself tensely away from Miko; she had +flashed me a look--just one. What horrible mischance to have brought +this catastrophe! + +The completion of Grantline's message had come unnoticed by us all. + +"Look! Grantline again!" Snap said abruptly. + +But the mirrors were steadying. We had no recording-tape apparatus; the +rest of the message was lost. The mirrors pulsed and then steadied. + +No further message came. There was an interval while Miko waited. He +held Anita in the hollow of his great arm. + +"Quiet, little bird. Do not fear me. I have work to do, Anita--this is +our great adventure. We will be rich, you and I. All the luxuries three +worlds can offer, all for us when this is over. Careful, Moa! This +Haljan has no wit." + +Well could he say it! I, who had been so witless to let this come upon +us! Moa's weapon prodded me. Her voice hissed at me with all the venom +of a reptile enraged. "So that was your game, Gregg Haljan! And I was so +graceless to admit love for you!" + + * * * * * + +Snap murmured in my ear, "Don't move, Gregg! She's reckless." + +She heard it. She whirled on him. "We have lost George Prince, it seems. +Well, we will survive without his ore knowledge. And you, Dean--and this +Haljan--mark me, I will kill you both if you cause trouble!" + +Miko was gloating. "Don't kill them yet, Moa. What was it Grantline +said? Near the crater of Archimedes? Ring us down, Haljan! We'll land." + +He signaled the turret. Gave Coniston the Grantline message, and +audiphoned it below to Hahn. The news spread about the ship. The bandits +were jubilant. + +"We'll land now, Haljan. Ring us down. Come, Anita and I will go with +you to the turret." + +I found my voice. "To what destination?" + +"Near Archimedes. The Apennine side. Keep well away from the Grantline +camp. We will probably sight it as we descend." + +There was no trajectory needed. We were almost over Archimedes now. I +could drop us with a visible, instrumental course. My mind was whirling +with a confusion of thoughts. What could we do? What could we dare +attempt to do? I met Snap's gaze. + +"Ring us down, Gregg," he said quietly. + +I nodded. I pushed Moa's weapon away. "You don't need that. I obey +orders." + + * * * * * + +We went to the turret. Moa watched me and Snap, a grim, cold Amazon. She +avoided looking at Anita, whom Miko helped down the ladders with a +strange mixture of courtierlike grace and amused irony. Coniston gazed +at Anita with falling jaw. + +"I say! Not George Prince? The girl--" + +"No time for argument now," Miko commanded. "It's the girl, masquerading +as her brother. Get below, Coniston. Haljan takes us down." + +The astounded Englishman continued gazing at Anita. "I mean to say, +where to on the Moon? Not to encounter Grantline at once, Miko? Our +equipment is not ready." + +"Of course not. We will land well away. He won't be suspicious--we can +signal him again after we land. We will have time to plan, to assemble +the equipment. Get below, I told you." + +The reluctant Coniston left us. I took the controls. Miko, still holding +Anita as though she were a child, sat beside me. "We will watch him, +little Anita. A skilled fellow at this sort of work." + +I rang my signals for the shifting of the gravity plates. The answer +should have come from below within a second or two. But it did not. Miko +regarded me with his great bushy eyebrows upraised. + +"Ring again, Haljan." + +I duplicated. No answer. The silence was frightening. Ominous. + +Miko muttered, "That accursed Hahn. Ring again!" + +I sent the imperative emergency demand. + + * * * * * + +No answer. A second or two. Then all of us in the turret were startled. +Transfixed. From below came a sudden hiss. It sounded in the turret: it +came from shifting-room call-grid. The hissing of the pneumatic valves +of the plate-shifters in the lower control room. The valves were +opening; the plates automatically shifting into neutral, and +disconnecting! + +An instant of startled silence. Miko may have realized the significance +of what had happened. Certainly Snap and I did. The hissing ceased. I +gripped the emergency plate-shifter switch which hung over my head. Its +disc was dead! The plates were dead in neutral. In the positions they +were only placed while in port! And their shifting mechanisms were +imperative! + +I was on my feet. "Snap! Good God, we're in neutral!" + +Miko, if he had not realized it before, was aware if it now. The +Moon-disc moved visibly as the _Planetara_ lurched. The vault of the +heavens was slowly swinging. + +Miko ripped out a heavy oath. "Haljan! What is this?" + +He stood up, still holding Anita. But there was nothing that he could do +in this emergency. "Haljan--what--" + +The heavens turned with a giant swoop. The Moon was over us. It swung in +dizzying arc. Overhead, then back past our stern; under us, then +appearing over our bow. + +The _Planetara_ had turned over. Upending. Rotating, end over end. + +For a moment or two I think all of us in that turret stood and clung. +The Moon-disc, the Earth, Sun and all the stars were swinging past our +windows. So horribly dizzying. The _Planetara_ seemed lurching and +tumbling. But it was an optical effect only. I stared with grim +determination at my feet. The turret seemed to steady. + +Then I looked again. That horrible swoop of all the heavens! And the +Moon, as it went past, seemed expanded. We were falling! Out of control, +with the Moon-gravity pulling us inexorably down! + +"That accursed Hahn--" Miko, stricken with his lack of knowledge of +these controls, was wholly confused. + + * * * * * + +A moment only had passed. My fancy that the Moon-disc was enlarged was +merely the horror of my imagination. We had not fallen far enough yet +for that. + +But we were falling. Unless I could do something, we would crash upon +the Lunar surface. + +Anita, killed in this _Planetara_ turret. The end of everything for us. + +Action came to me. I gasped, "Miko, you stay here! The controls are +dead! You stay here--hold Anita." + +I ignored Moa's weapon which she was still clutching mechanically. Snap +thrust her away. + +"Sit back! Let us alone! We're falling! Don't you understand?" + +This deadly danger, to level us all! No longer were we captors and +captured. Not brigands for this moment. No thought of Grantline's +treasure! Trapped humans only! Leveled by the common, instinct of +self-preservation. Trapped here together, fighting for our lives. + +Miko gasped. "Can you--check us? What happened?" + +"I don't know. I'll try." + +I stood clinging. This dizzying whirl! From the audiphone grid +Coniston's voice sounded. + +"I say, Haljan, something's wrong! Hahn doesn't signal." + +The look-out in the forward tower was clinging to his window. On the +deck below our turret a member of the crew appeared, stood lurching for +a moment, then shouted, and turned and ran, swaying, aimless. From the +lower hull-corridors our grids sounded with the tramping of running +steps. Panic among the crew was spreading over the ship. A chaos below +decks. + + * * * * * + +I pulled at the emergency switch again. Dead.... + +But down below there was the manual controls. + +"Snap, we must get down. The signals." + +"Yes." + +Coniston's voice came like a scream from the grid. "Hahn is dead--the +controls are broken! Hahn is dead!" + +We barely heard him. I shouted, "Miko--hold Anita! Come on, Snap!" + +We clung to the ladders. Snap was behind me. "Careful, Gregg! Good God!" + +This dizzying whirl. I tried not to look. The deck under me was now a +blurred kaleidoscope of swinging patches of moonlight and shadow. + +We reached the deck. Ran, swaying, lurching. + +It seemed that from the turret Anita's voice followed us. "Be careful!" + +Within the ship our senses steadied. With the rotating, reeling, heavens +shut out, there were only the shouts and tramping steps of the +panic-stricken crew to mark that anything was amiss. That, and a +pseudo-sensation of lurching caused by the pulsing of gravity--a pull +when the Moon was beneath our hull to combine its force with our +magnetizers; a lightening when it was overhead. A throbbing, pendulum +lurch--that was all. + +We ran down to the corridor incline. A white-faced member of the crew, +came running up. + +"What's happened? Haljan, what's happened?" + +"We're falling!" I gripped him. "Get below. Come on with us!" + +But he jerked away from me. "Falling?" + +A steward came running. "Falling? My God!" + +Snap swung at them. "Get ahead of us! The manual controls--our only +chance--we need all you men at the compressor pumps!" + +But it was an instinct to try and get on deck, as though here below we +were rats caught in a trap. The men tore away from me and ran. Their +shouts of panic resounded through the dim, blue-lit corridors. + + * * * * * + +Coniston came lurching from the control room. "I say--falling! Haljan, +my God, look at him!" + +Hahn was sprawled at the gravity-plate switchboard. Sprawled, +head-down. Dead. Killed by something? Or a suicide? + +I bent over him. His hands gripped the main switch. He had ripped it +loose. And his left hand had reached and broken the fragile line of +tubes that intensified the current of the pneumatic plate-shifters. A +suicide? With his last frenzy determined to kill us all? + +Then I saw that Hahn had been killed! Not a suicide! In his hand he +gripped a small segment of black fabric, a piece torn from an invisible +cloak? Was it? + +The questions were swept away by the necessity for action. Snap was +rigging the hand-compressors. If he could get the pressure back in the +tanks.... + +I swung on Coniston. "You armed?" + +"Yes." He was white-faced and confused, but not in a panic. He showed me +his heat-ray cylinder. "What do you want me to do?" + +"Round up the crew. Get all you can. Bring them here to man these +pumps." + +He dashed away. Snap shouted after him. "Kill them down if they argue!" + +Miko's voice sounded from the turret call grid: "Falling! Haljan, you +can see it now! Check us!" + +I did not answer that. I pumped with Snap. + +Desperate moments. Or was it an hour? Coniston brought the men. He stood +over them with menacing weapon. + +We had all the pumps going. The pressure rose a little in the tanks. +Enough to shift a bow-plate. I tried it. The plate slowly clicked into a +new combination. A gravity repulsion just in the bow-tip. + + * * * * * + +I signaled Miko. "Have we stopped swinging?" + +"No. But slower." + +I could feel it, that lurch of the gravity. But not steady now. A limp. +The tendency of our bow was to stay up. + +"More pressure, Snap." + +"Yes." + +One of the crew rebelled, tried to bolt from the room. "God, we'll +crash, caught in here!" + +Coniston shot him down. + +I shifted another bow-plate. Then two in the stern. The stern-plates +seemed to move more readily than the others. + +"Run all the stern-plates," Snap advised. + +I tried it. The lurching stopped. Miko called. "We're bow down. +Falling!" + +But not falling free. The Moon-gravity pull upon us was more than half +neutralized. + +"I'll go up, Snap, and try the engines. You don't mind staying down? +Executing my signals?" + +"You idiot!" He gripped my shoulders. His eyes were gleaming, his face +haggard, but his pale lips twitched with a smile. + +"Maybe it's good-by, Gregg. We'll fall--fighting." + +"Yes. Fighting. Coniston, you keep the pressure up." + +With the broken set-tubes it took nearly all the pressure to maintain +the few plates I had shifted. One slipped back to neutral. Then the +pumps gained on it, and it shifted again. + +I dashed up to the deck. Ah, the Moon was so close now! So horribly +close! The deck shadows were still. Through the forward bow windows the +Moon surface glared up at us. + + * * * * * + +I reached the turret. The _Planetara_ was steady. Pitched bow-down, half +falling, half sliding like a rocket downward. The scarred surface of the +Moon spread wide under us. + +These last horrible minutes were a blur. And there was always Anita's +face. She left Miko. Faced with death, he sat clinging. Ignoring her, +Moa, too, sat apart. Staring-- + +And Anita crept to me. "Gregg, dear one. The end...." + +I tried the electronic engines from the stern, setting them in the +reverse. The streams of their light glowed from the stern, forward +along our hull, and flared down from our bow toward the Lunar surface. +But no atmosphere was here to give resistance. Perhaps the electronic +streams checked our fall a little. The pumps gave us pressure, just in +the last minutes, to slide a few of the hull-plates. But our bow stayed +down. We slid, like a spent rocket falling. + +I recall the horror of that expanding Lunar surface. The maw of +Archimedes yawning. A blob. Widening to a great pit. Then I saw it was +to one side. Rushing upward. + +A phantasmagoria of uprushing crags. Black and gray. Spires tinged with +Earth-light. + +"Gregg, dear one--good-by." + +Her gentle arms around me. The end of everything for us. I recall +murmuring, "Not falling free, Anita. Some hull-plates are set." + +My dials showed another plate shifting, checking us a little further. +Good old Snap. + +I calculated the next best plate to shift. I tried it. Slid it over. +Good old Snap.... + +Then everything faded but the feeling of Anita's arms around me. + +"Gregg, dear one--" + +The end of everything for us.... + +There was an up-rush of gray-black rock. + +An impact.... + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +_The Hiss of Death_ + + +I opened my eyes to a dark blur of confusion. My shoulder hurt--a pain +shooting through it. Something lay like a weight on me. I could not seem +to move my left arm. Very queer! Then I moved it, and it hurt. I was +lying twisted: I sat up. And with a rush, memory came. The crash was +over. I am not dead. Anita-- + +She was lying beside me. There was a little light here in this silent +blur--a soft, mellow Earth-light filtering in the window. The weight on +me was Anita. She lay sprawled, her head and shoulders half way across +my lap. + +Not dead! Thank God, not dead! She moved. Her arms went around me, and I +lifted her. The Earth-light glowed on her pale face; but her eyes opened +and she faintly smiled. + +"It's past, Anita! We've struck, and we're still alive." + +I held her as though all life's turgid danger were powerless to touch +us. + +But in the silence my floating senses were brought back to reality by a +faint sound forcing itself upon me. A little hiss. The faintest +murmuring breath like a hiss. Escaping air! + +I cast off her clinging arms. "Anita, this is madness!" + + * * * * * + +For minutes we must have been lying there in the heaven of our embrace. +But air was escaping! The _Planetara's_ dome was broken--or cracked--and +our precious air was hissing out. + +Full reality came to me at last. I was not seriously injured. I found +that I could move freely. I could stand. A twisted shoulder, a limp left +arm, but they were better in a moment. + +And Anita did not seem to be hurt. Blood was upon her. But not her +blood. + +Beside Anita, stretched face down on the turret grid, was the giant +figure of Miko. The blood lay in a small pool against his face. A +widening pool. + +Moa was here. I thought her body twitched; then was still. This +soundless wreckage! In the dim glow of the wrecked turret with its two +motionless, broken human figures, it seemed as though Anita and I were +ghouls prowling. I saw that the turret had fallen over to the +_Planetara's_ deck. It lay dashed against the dome-side. + +The deck was aslant. A litter of wreckage. A broken human figure +showed--one of the crew, who at the last must have come running up. The +forward observation tower was down on the chart-room roof: in its metal +tangle I thought I could see the legs of the tower look-out. + +So this was the end of the brigands' adventure! The _Planetara's_ last +voyage! How small and futile are human struggles! Miko's daring +enterprise--so villainous, inhuman--brought all in a few moments to this +silent tragedy. The _Planetara_ had fallen thirty thousand miles. But +why? What had happened to Hahn? And where was Coniston, down in this +broken hull? + +And Snap. I thought suddenly of Snap. + + * * * * * + +I clutched at my wandering wits. This inactivity was death. The escaping +air hissed in my ears. Our precious air, escaping away into the vacant +desolation of the Lunar emptiness. Through one of the twisted, slanting +dome-windows a rocky spire was visible. The _Planetara_ lay bow-down, +wedged in a jagged cradle of Lunar rock. A miracle that the hull and +dome had held together. + +"Anita, we must get out of here!" + +I thought I was fully alert now. I recalled that the brigands had spoken +of having partly assembled their Moon equipment. If only we could find +suits and helmets! + +"We must get out," I repeated. "Get to Grantline's camp." + +"Their helmets are in the forward storage room, Gregg. I saw them +there." + +She was staring at the fallen Miko and Moa. She shuddered and turned +away and gripped me. "In the forward storage room, by the port of the +emergency lock-exit." + +If only the exit locks would operate! We must get out of here, but find +Snap first. Good old Snap! Would we find him lying dead? + +We climbed from the slanting, fallen turret, over the wreckage of the +littered deck. It was not difficult, a lightness was upon us. The +_Planetara's_ gravity-magnetizers were dead: this was only the light +Moon-gravity pulling us. + +"Careful, Anita. Don't jump too freely." + +We leaped along the deck. The hiss of the escaping pressure was like a +clanging gong of warning to tell us to hurry. The hiss of death so +close! + +"Snap--" I murmured. + +"Oh, Gregg. I pray we may find him alive--!" + +"And get out. We've got to rush it. Get out and find the Grantline +camp." + + * * * * * + +But how far? Which way? I must remember to take food and water. If the +helmets were equipped with admission ports. If we could find Snap. If +the exit locks would work to let us out. + +With a fifteen foot leap we cleared a pile of broken deck chairs. A man +lay groaning near them. I went back with a rush. Not Snap! A steward. He +had been a brigand, but he was a steward to me now. + +"Get up! This is Haljan. Hurry, we must get out of here. The air is +escaping!" + +But he sank back and lay still. No time to find if I could help him: +there were Anita and Snap to save. + +We found a broken entrance to one of the descending passages. I flung +the debris aside and cleared it. Like a giant of strength with only this +Moon-gravity holding me, I raised a broken segment of the superstructure +and heaved it back. + +Anita and I dropped ourselves down the sloping passage. The interior of +the wrecked ship was silent and dim. An occasional passage light was +still burning. The passage and all the rooms lay askew. Wreckage +everywhere: but the double-dome and hull-shell had withstood the shock. +Then I realized that the Erentz system was slowing down. Our heat, like +our air, was escaping, radiating away, a deadly chill settling upon +everything. And our walls were bulging. The silence and the deadly chill +of death would soon be here in these wrecked corridors. The end of the +_Planetara_. I wondered vaguely if the walls would explode. + +We prowled like ghouls. We did not see Coniston. Snap had been by the +shifter-pumps. We found him in the oval doorway. He lay sprawled. Dead? +No, he moved. He sat up before we could get to him. He seemed confused, +but his senses clarified with the movement of our figures over him. + +"Gregg! Why, Anita!" + +"Snap! You're all right? We struck--the air is escaping." + + * * * * * + +He pushed me away. He tried to stand. "I'm all right. I was up a minute +ago. Gregg, it's getting cold. Where is she? I had her here--she wasn't +killed. I spoke to her." + +Irrational! + +"Snap!" I held him, shook him. "Snap, old fellow!" + +He said, normally. "Easy, Gregg. I'm all right now." + +Anita gripped him. "Who, Snap?" + +"She! There she is." + +Another figure was here! On the grid-floor by the door oval. A figure +partly shrouded in a broken invisible cloak and hood. An invisible +cloak! I saw a white face with opened eyes regarding me. The face of a +girl. + +Venza! + +I bent down. "You!" + +Anita cried, "Venza!" + +Venza here? Why--how--my thoughts swept away. Venza here, dying? Her +eyes closed. But she murmured to Anita. "Where is he? I want him." + +Dying? I murmured impulsively, "Here I am, Venza dear." Gently, as one +would speak with gentle sympathy to humor the dying. "Here I am, Venza." + +But it was only the confusion of the shock upon her. And it was upon us +all. She pushed at Anita. "I want him." She saw me. This whimsical Venus +girl! Even here as we gathered, all of us blurred by the shock, confused +in the dim, wrecked ship with the chill of death coming--even here she +could make a jest. Her pale lips smiled. + +"You, Gregg. I'm not hurt--I don't think I'm hurt." She managed to get +herself up on one elbow. "Did you think I wanted you with my dying +breath? Why, what conceit! Not you, Handsome Haljan! I was calling +Snap." + + * * * * * + +He was down to her. "We're all right, Venza. It's over. We must get out +of the ship--the air is escaping." + +We gathered in the oval doorway. We fought the confusion of panic. + +"The exit port is this way." + +Or was it? I answered Snap, "Yes, I think so." + +The ship suddenly seemed a stranger to me. So cold. So vibrationless. +Broken lights. These slanting, wrecked corridors. With the ventilating +fans stilled, the air was turning fetid. Chilling. And thinning, with +escaping pressure, rarifying so that I could feel the grasp of it in my +lungs and the pin-pricks of my burning cheeks. + +We started off. Four of us, still alive in this silent ship of death. My +blurred thoughts tried to cope with it all. Venza here. I recalled how +she had bade me create a diversion when the women passengers were +landing on the asteroid. She had carried out her purpose! In the +confusion she had not gone ashore. A stowaway here. She had secured the +cloak. Prowling, to try and help us, she had come upon Hahn. Had seized +his ray-cylinder and struck him down, and been herself knocked +unconscious by his dying lunge, which also had broken the tubes and +wrecked the _Planetara_. And Venza, unconscious, had been lying here +with the mechanism of her cloak still operating, so that we did not see +her when we came and found why Hahn did not answer my signals. + +"It's here, Gregg." + +Snap and I lifted the pile of Moon equipment. We located four suits and +helmets and the mechanisms to operate them. + +"More are in the chart-room," Anita said. + +But we needed no others. I robed Anita, and showed her the mechanisms. + +"Yes. I understand." + + * * * * * + +Snap was helping Venza. We were all stiff from the cold; but within the +suits and their pulsing currents, the blessed warmth came again. + +The helmets had admission ports through which food and drink could be +taken. I stood with my helmet ready. Anita, Venza and Snap were bloated +and grotesque beside me. We had found food and water here, assembled in +portable cases which the brigands had prepared. Snap lifted them, and +signed to me he was ready. + +My helmet shut out all sounds save my own breathing, my pounding heart, +and the murmur of the mechanism. The blessed warmth and pure air were +good. + +We reached the hull port-locks. They operated! We went through in the +light of the head-lamps over our foreheads. + +I closed the locks after us. An instinct to keep the air in the ship for +the other trapped humans lying there. + +We slid down the sloping side of the _Planetara_. We were unweighted, +irrationally agile with the slight gravity. I fell a dozen feet and +landed with barely a jar. + +We were out on the Lunar surface. A great sloping ramp of crags +stretched down before us. Gray-black rock tinged with Earth-light. The +Earth hung amid the stars in the blackness overhead like a huge section +of glowing yellow ball. + + * * * * * + +This grim, desolate, silent landscape! Beyond the ramp, fifty feet below +us, a tumbled naked plain stretched away into blurred distance. But I +could see mountains off there. Behind us the towering, frowning +rampart-wall of Archimedes loomed against the sky. + +I had turned to look back at the _Planetara_. She lay broken, wedged +between spires of upstanding rock. A few of her lights still gleamed. +The end of the _Planetara_! + +The three grotesque figures of Anita, Venza and Snap had started off. +Hunchback figures with the tanks mounted on their shoulders. I bounded +and caught them. I touched Snap. We made audiphone contact. + +"Which way do you think?" I demanded. + +"I think this way, down the ramp. Away from Archimedes, toward the +mountains. It shouldn't be too far." + +"You run with Venza. I'll hold Anita." + +He nodded. "But we must keep together, Gregg." + +We could soon run freely. Down the ramp, out over the tumbled plain. +Bounding, grotesque leaping strides. The girls were more agile, more +skilful. They were soon leading us. The Earth-shadows of their figures +leaped beside them. The _Planetara_ faded into the distance behind us. +Archimedes stood back there. Ahead, the mountains came closer. + +An hour perhaps. I lost count of time. Occasionally we stopped to rest. +Were we going toward the Grantline camp? Would they see our tiny waving +headlights? + +Another interval. Then far ahead of us on the ragged plain, lights +showed! Moving tiny spots of light! Headlights on helmeted figures! + +We ran, monstrously leaping. A group of figures were off there. +Grantline's party? Snap gripped me. + +"Grantline! We're safe, Gregg! Safe!" + + * * * * * + +He took his bulb-light from his helmet: we stood in a group while he +waved it. A semaphore signal. + +"_Grantline?_" + +And the answer came. "_Yes. You, Dean?_" + +Their personal code. No doubt of this--it was Grantline, who had seen +the _Planetara_ fall and had come to help us. + +I stood then with my hand holding Anita. And I whispered, "It's +Grantline! We're safe, Anita, my darling!" + +Death had been so close! Those horrible last minutes on the _Planetara_ +had shocked us, marked us. + +We stood trembling. And Grantline and his men came bounding up. + +A helmeted figure touched me. I saw through the helmet-pane the visage +of a stern-faced, square-jawed, youngish man. + +"Grantline? Johnny Grantline?" + +"Yes," said his voice at my ear-grid. "I'm Grantline. You're Haljan? +Gregg Haljan?" + +They crowded around us. Gripped us to hear our explanations. + +Brigands! It was amazing to Johnny Grantline. But the menace was over +now, over as soon as Grantline had realized its existence. As though the +wreck of the _Planetara_ were foreordained by an all-wise Providence, +the brigands' adventure had come to tragedy. + +We stood for a time discussing it. Then I drew apart, leaving Snap with +Grantline. And Anita joined me. I held her arm so that we had audiphone +contact. + +"Anita, mine." + +"Gregg, dear one." + +Murmured nothings which mean so much to lovers! + + * * * * * + +As we stood in the fantastic gloom of the Lunar desolation, with the +blessed Earth-light on us, I sent up a prayer of thankfulness. Not that +a hundred millions of treasure were saved. Not that the attack upon +Grantline had been averted. But only that Anita was given back to me. In +moments of greatest emotion the human mind individualizes. To me, there +was only Anita. + +Life is very strange! The gate to the shining garden of our love seemed +swinging wide to let us in. Yet I recall that a vague fear still lay on +me. A premonition? + +I felt a touch on my arm. A bloated helmet visor was thrust near my own. +I saw Snap's face peering at me. + +"Grantline thinks we should return to the _Planetara_. Might find some +of them alive." + +Grantline touched me. "It's only humanity." + +"Yes," I said. + +We went back. Some ten of us--a line of grotesque figures bounding with +slow, easy strides over the jagged, rock-strewn plain. Our lights danced +before us. + +The _Planetara_ came at last into view. My ship. Again that pang swept +me as I saw her. This, her last resting place. She lay here in her open +tomb, shattered, broken, unbreathing. The lights on her were +extinguished. The Erentz system had ceased to pulse--the heart of the +dying ship, for a while beating faintly, but now at rest. + +We left the two girls with some of Grantline's men at the admission +port. Snap, Grantline and I, with three others, went inside. There still +seemed to be air, but not enough so that we dared remove our helmets. + +It was dark inside the wrecked ship. The corridors were black; the hull +control-rooms were dimly illumined with Earth-light straggling through +the windows. + +This littered tomb! Already cold and silent with death. We stumbled over +a fallen figure. A member of the crew. + + * * * * * + +Grantline straightened from examining him. + +"Dead." + +Earth-light fell on the horrible face. Puffed flesh, bloated red from +the blood which had oozed from its pores in the thinning air. I looked +away. + +We prowled further. Hahn lay dead in the pump-room. + +The body of Coniston should have been near here. We did not see it. + +We climbed up to the slanting littered deck. The dome had not exploded, +but the air up here had almost all hissed away. + +Again Grantline touched me. "That the turret?" + +"Yes." + +No wonder he asked! The wreckage was all so formless. + +We climbed after Snap into the broken turret room. We passed the body of +that steward who just at the end had appealed to me and I had left +dying. The legs of the forward look-out still poked grotesquely up from +the wreckage of the observatory tower where it lay smashed down against +the roof of the chart-room. + +We shoved ourselves into the turret. What was this? No bodies here! The +giant Miko was gone! The pool of his blood lay congealed into a frozen +dark splotch on the metal grid. + +And Moa was gone! They had not been dead. Had dragged themselves out of +here, fighting desperately for life. We would find them somewhere around +here. + +But we did not. Nor Coniston. I recalled what Anita had said: other +suits and helmets had been here in the nearby chart-room. The brigands +had taken them, and food and water doubtless, and escaped from the ship, +following us through the lower admission ports only a few minutes after +we had gone out. + + * * * * * + +We made careful search of the entire ship. Eight of the bodies which +should have been here were missing: Miko, Moa, Coniston, and five of the +steward-crew. + +We did not find them outside. They were hiding near here, no doubt, more +willing to take their chances than to yield now to us. But how, in all +this Lunar desolation, could we hope to locate them? + +"No use," said Grantline. "Let them go. If they want death--well, they +deserve it." + +But we were saved. Then, as I stood there, realization leaped at me. +Saved? Were we not indeed fatuous fools? + +In all these emotion-swept moments since we had encountered Grantline, +memory of that brigand ship coming from Mars had never once occurred to +Snap or me! + +I told Grantline now. His eyes through the visor stared at me blankly. + +"What!" + +I told him again. It would be here in eight days. Fully manned and +armed. + +"But Haljan, we have almost no weapons! All my _Comet's_ space was taken +with mining equipment and the mechanisms for my camp. I can't signal +Earth! I was depending on the _Planetara_!" + +It surged upon us. The brigand menace past? We were blindly +congratulating ourselves on our safety! But it would be eight days or +more before in distant Ferrok-Shahn the non-arrival of the _Planetara_ +would cause any real comment. No one was searching for us--no one was +worried over us. + +No wonder the crafty Miko was willing to take his chances out here in +the Lunar wilds! His ship, his reinforcements, his weapons were coming +rapidly! + +And we were helpless. Almost unarmed. Marooned here on the Moon with our +treasure! + +(_To be continued._) + + + +-------------------------------------+ + | ASTOUNDING STORIES | + | _Appears on Newsstands_ | + | THE FIRST THURSDAY IN EACH MONTH. | + +-------------------------------------+ + + + + +The Soul-Snatcher + +_By Tom Curry_ + +[Illustration: _He began to twist and turn, as though torn by some +invisible force._] + + From twenty miles away stabbed the "atom-filtering" rays to Allen + Baker in his cell in the death house. + + +The shrill voice of a woman stabbed the steady hum of the many machines +in the great, semi-darkened laboratory. It was the onslaught of weak +femininity against the ebony shadow of Jared, the silent negro servant +of Professor Ramsey Burr. Not many people were able to get to the famous +man against his wishes; Jared obeyed orders implicitly and was generally +an efficient barrier. + +"I will see him, I will," screamed the middle-aged woman. "I'm Mrs. Mary +Baker, and he--he--it's his fault my son is going to die. His fault. +_Professor! Professor Burr!_" + +Jared was unable to keep her quiet. + +Coming in from the sunlight, her eyes were not yet accustomed to the +strange, subdued haze of the laboratory, an immense chamber crammed full +of equipment, the vista of which seemed like an apartment in hell. +Bizarre shapes stood out from the mass of impedimenta, great stills +which rose full two stories in height, dynamos, immense tubes of colored +liquids, a hundred puzzles to the inexpert eye. + +The small, plump figure of Mrs. Baker was very out of place in this +setting. Her voice was poignant, reedy. A look at her made it evident +that she was a conventional, good woman. She had soft, cloudy golden +eyes and a pathetic mouth, and she seemed on the point of tears. + +"Madam, madam, de doctor is busy," whispered Jared, endeavoring to shoo +her out of the laboratory with his polite hands. He was respectful, but +firm. + +She refused to obey. She stopped when she was within a few feet of the +activity in the laboratory, and stared with fear and horror at the +center of the room, and at its occupant, Professor Burr, whom she had +addressed during her flurried entrance. + +The professor's face, as he peered at her, seemed like a disembodied +stare, for she could see only eyes behind a mask of lavender gray glass +eyeholes, with its flapping ends of dirty, gray-white cloth. + +She drew in a deep breath--and gasped, for the pungent fumes, acrid and +penetrating, of sulphuric and nitric acids, stabbed her lungs. It was +like the breath of hell, to fit the simile, and aptly Professor Burr +seemed the devil himself, manipulating the infernal machines. + + * * * * * + +Acting swiftly, the tall figure stepped over and threw two switches in a +single, sweeping movement. The vermillion light which had lived in a +long row of tubes on a nearby bench abruptly ceased to writhe like so +many tongues of flame, and the embers of hell died out. + +Then the professor flooded the room in harsh gray-green light, and +stopped the high-pitched, humming whine of his dynamos. A shadow picture +writhing on the wall, projected from a lead-glass barrel, disappeared +suddenly, the great color filters and other machines lost their +semblance of horrible life, and a regretful sigh seemed to come from the +metal creatures as they gave up the ghost. + +To the woman, it had been entering the abode of fear. She could not +restrain her shudders. But she bravely confronted the tall figure of +Professor Burr, as he came forth to greet her. + +He was extremely tall and attenuated, with a red, bony mask of a face +pointed at the chin by a sharp little goatee. Feathery blond hair, +silvered and awry, covered his great head. + +"Madam," said Burr in a gentle, disarmingly quiet voice, "your manner of +entrance might have cost you your life. Luckily I was able to deflect +the rays from your person, else you might not now be able to voice your +complaint--for such seems to be your purpose in coming here." He turned +to Jared, who was standing close by. "Very well, Jared. You may go. +After this, it will be as well to throw the bolts, though in this case I +am quite willing to see the visitor." + +Jared slid away, leaving the plump little woman to confront the famous +scientist. + +For a moment, Mrs. Baker stared into the pale gray eyes, the pupils of +which seemed black as coal by contrast. Some, his bitter enemies, +claimed that Professor Ramsey Burr looked cold and bleak as an iceberg, +others that he had a baleful glare. His mouth was grim and determined. + + * * * * * + +Yet, with her woman's eyes, Mrs. Baker, looking at the professor's bony +mask of a face, with the high-bridged, intrepid nose, the passionless +gray eyes, thought that Ramsey Burr would be handsome, if a little less +cadaverous and more human. + +"The experiment which you ruined by your untimely entrance," continued +the professor, "was not a safe one." + +His long white hand waved toward the bunched apparatus, but to her to +the room seemed all glittering metal coils of snakelike wire, ruddy +copper, dull lead, and tubes of all shapes. Hell cauldrons of unknown +chemicals seethed and slowly bubbled, beetle-black bakelite fixtures +reflected the hideous light. + +"Oh," she cried, clasping her hands as though she addressed him in +prayer, "forget your science, Professor Burr, and be a man. Help me. +Three days from now my boy, my son, whom I love above all the world, is +to die." + +"Three days is a long time," said Professor Burr calmly. "Do not lose +hope: I have no intention of allowing your son, Allen Baker, to pay the +price for a deed of mine. I freely confess it was I who was responsible +for the death of--what was the person's name?--Smith, I believe." + +"It was you who made Allen get poor Mr. Smith to agree to the +experiments which killed him, and which the world blamed on my son," she +said. "They called it the deed of a scientific fiend, Professor Burr, +and perhaps they are right. But Allen is innocent." + +"Be quiet," ordered Burr, raising his hand. "Remember, madam, your son +Allen is only a commonplace medical man, and while I taught him a little +from my vast store of knowledge, he was ignorant and of much less value +to science and humanity than myself. Do you not understand, can you not +comprehend, also, that the man Smith was a martyr to science? He was no +loss to mankind, and only sentimentalists could have blamed anyone for +his death. I should have succeeded in the interchange of atoms which we +were working on, and Smith would at this moment be hailed as the first +man to travel through space in invisible form, projected on radio waves, +had it not been for the fact that the alloy which conducts the three +types of sinusoidal failed me and burned out. Yes, it was an error in +calculation, and Smith would now be called the Lindbergh of the Atom but +for that. Yet Smith has not died in vain, for I have finally corrected +this error--science is but trial and correction of error--and all will +be well." + +"But Allen--Allen must not die at all!" she cried. "For weeks he has +been in the death house: it is killing me. The Governor refuses him a +pardon, nor will he commute my son's sentence. In three days he is to +die in the electric chair, for a crime which you admit you alone are +responsible for. Yet you remain in your laboratory, immersed in your +experiments, and do nothing, nothing!" + + * * * * * + +The tears came now, and she sobbed hysterically. It seemed that she was +making an appeal to someone in whom she had only a forlorn hope. + +"Nothing?" repeated Burr, pursing his thin lips. "Nothing? Madam, I have +done everything. I have, as I have told you, perfected the experiment. +It is successful. Your son has not suffered in vain, and Smith's name +will go down with the rest of science's martyrs as one who died for the +sake of humanity. But if you wish to save your son, you must be calm. +You must listen to what I have to say, and you must not fail to carry +out my instructions to the letter. I am ready now." + +Light, the light of hope, sprang in the mother's eyes. She grasped his +arm and stared at him with shining face, through tear-dipped eyelashes. + +"Do--do you mean it? Can you save him? After the Governor has refused +me? What can you do? No influence will snatch Allen from the jaws of the +law: the public is greatly excited and very hostile toward him." + +A quiet smile played at the corners of Burr's thin lips. + +"Come," he said. "Place this cloak about you. Allen wore it when he +assisted me." + +The professor replaced his own mask and conducted the woman into the +interior of the laboratory. + +"I will show you," said Professor Burr. + +She saw before her now, on long metal shelves which appeared to be +delicately poised on fine scales whose balance was registered by +hair-line indicators, two small metal cages. + +Professor Burr stepped over to a row of common cages set along the wall. +There was a small menagerie there, guinea pigs--the martyrs of the +animal kingdom--rabbits, monkeys, and some cats. + + * * * * * + +The man of science reached in and dragged out a mewing cat, placing it +in the right-hand cage on the strange table. He then obtained a small +monkey and put this animal in the left-hand cage, beside the cat. The +cat, on the right, squatted on its haunches, mewing in pique and looking +up at its tormentor. The monkey, after a quick look around, began to +investigate the upper reaches of its new cage. + +Over each of the animals was suspended a fine, curious metallic +armament. For several minutes, while the woman, puzzled at how this +demonstration was to affect the rescue of her condemned son, waited +impatiently, the professor deftly worked at the apparatus, connecting +wires here and there. + +"I am ready now," said Burr. "Watch the two animals carefully." + +"Yes, yes," she replied, faintly, for she was half afraid. + +The great scientist was stooping over, looking at the balances of the +indicators through microscopes. + +She saw him reach for his switches, and then a brusk order caused her to +turn her eyes back to the animals, the cat in the right-hand cage, the +monkey at the left. + +Both animals screamed in fear, and a sympathetic chorus sounded from the +menagerie, as a long purple spark danced from one gray metal pole to the +other, over the cages on the table. + +At first, Mrs. Baker noticed no change. The spark had died, the +professor's voice, unhurried, grave, broke the silence. + +"The first part of the experiment is over," he said. "The ego--" + +"Oh, heavens!" cried the woman. "You've driven the poor creatures mad!" + + * * * * * + +She indicated the cat. That animal was clawing at the top bars of its +cage, uttering a bizarre, chattering sound, somewhat like a monkey. The +cat hung from the bars, swinging itself back and forth as on a trapeze, +then reached up and hung by its hind claws. + +As for the monkey, it was squatting on the floor of its cage, and it +made a strange sound in its throat, almost a mew, and it hissed several +times at the professor. + +"They are not mad," said Burr. "As I was explaining to you, I have +finished the first portion of the experiment. The ego, or personality of +one animal has been taken out and put into the other." + +She was unable to speak. He had mentioned madness: was he, Professor +Ramsey Burr, crazy? It was likely enough. Yet--yet the whole thing, in +these surroundings, seemed plausible. As she hesitated about speaking, +watching with fascinated eyes the out-of-character behavior of the two +beasts, Burr went on. + +"The second part follows at once. Now that the two egos have +interchanged, I will shift the bodies. When it is completed, the monkey +will have taken the place of the cat, and vice versa. Watch." + +He was busy for some time with his levers, and the smell of ozone +reached Mrs. Baker's nostrils as she stared with horrified eyes at the +animals. + +She blinked. The sparks crackled madly, the monkey mewed, the cat +chattered. + +Were her eyes going back on her? She could see neither animal +distinctly: they seemed to be shaking in some cosmic disturbance, and +were but blurs. This illusion--for to her, it seemed it must be +optical--persisted, grew worse, until the quaking forms of the two +unfortunate creatures were like so much ectoplasm in swift motion, +ghosts whirling about in a dark room. + +Yet she could see the cages quite distinctly, and the table and even the +indicators of the scales. She closed her eyes for a moment. The acrid +odors penetrated to her lungs, and she coughed, opening her eyes. + + * * * * * + +Now she could see clearly again. Yes, she could see a monkey, and it was +climbing, quite naturally about its cage; it was excited, but a monkey. +And the cat, while protesting mightily, acted like a cat. + +Then she gasped. Had her mind, in the excitement, betrayed her? She +looked at Professor Burr. On his lean face there was a smile of triumph, +and he seemed to be awaiting her applause. + +She looked again at the two cages. Surely, at first the cat had been in +the right-hand cage, and the monkey in the left! And now, the monkey was +in the place where the cat had been and the cat had been shifted to the +left-hand cage. + +"So it was with Smith, when the alloys burned out," said Burr. "It is +impossible to extract the ego or dissolve the atoms and translate them +into radio waves unless there is a connection with some other ego and +body, for in such a case the translated soul and body would have no +place to go. Luckily, for you, madam, it was the man Smith who was +killed when the alloys failed me. It might have been Allen, for he was +the second pole of the connection." + +"But," she began faintly, "how can this mad experiment have anything to +do with saving my boy?" + +He waved impatiently at her evident denseness. "Do you not understand? +It is so I will save Allen, your son. I shall first switch our egos, or +souls, as you say. Then switch the bodies. It must always take this +sequence; why, I have not ascertained. But it always works thus." + +Mrs. Baker was terrified. What she had just seen, smacked of the +blackest magic--yet a woman in her position must grasp at straws. The +world blamed her son for the murder of Smith, a man Professor Burr had +made use of as he might a guinea pig, and Allen must be snatched from +the death house. + +"Do--do you mean you can bring Allen from the prison here--just by +throwing those switches?" she asked. + +"That is it. But there is more to it than that, for it is not magic, +madam; it is science, you understand, and there must be some physical +connection. But with your help, that can easily be made." + + * * * * * + +Professor Ramsey Burr, she knew, was the greatest electrical engineer +the world had ever known. And he stood high as a physicist. Nothing +hindered him in the pursuit of knowledge, they said. He knew no fear, +and he lived on an intellectual promontory. He was so great that he +almost lost sight of himself. To such a man, nothing was impossible. +Hope, wild hope, sprang in Mary Baker's heart, and she grasped the bony +hand of the professor and kissed it. + +"Oh, I believe, I believe," she cried. "You can do it. You can save +Allen. I will do anything, anything you tell me to." + +"Very well. You visit your son daily at the death house, do you not?" + +She nodded; a shiver of remembrance of that dread spot passed through +her. + +"Then you will tell him the plan and let him agree to see me the night +preceding the electrocution. I will give him final instructions as to +the exchange of bodies. When my life spirit, or ego, is confined in your +son's body in the death house, Allen will be able to perform the feat of +changing the bodies, and your son's flesh will join his soul, which will +have been temporarily inhabiting my own shell. Do you see? When they +find me in the cell where they suppose your son to be, they will be +unable to explain the phenomenon; they can do nothing but release me. +Your son will go here, and can be whisked away to a safe place of +concealment." + +"Yes, yes. What am I to do besides this?" + +Professor Burr pulled out a drawer near at hand, and from it extracted a +folded garment of thin, shiny material. + +"This is metal cloth coated with the new alloy," he said, in a matter of +fact tone. He rummaged further, saying as he did so, "I expected you +would be here to see me, and I have been getting ready for your visit. +All is prepared, save a few odds and ends which I can easily clean up in +the next two days. Here are four cups which Allen must place under each +leg of his bed, and this delicate little director coil you must take +especial pains with. It is to be slipped under your son's tongue at the +time appointed." + + * * * * * + +She was staring at him still, half in fear, half in wonder, yet she +could not feel any doubt of the man's miraculous powers. Somehow, while +he talked to her and rested those cold eyes upon her, she was under the +spell of the great scientist. Her son, before the trouble into which he +had been dragged by the professor, had often hinted at the abilities of +Ramsey Burr, given her the idea that his employer was practically a +necromancer, yet a magician whose advanced scientific knowledge was +correct and explainable in the light of reason. + +Yes, Allen had talked to her often when he was at home, resting from his +labors with Professor Burr. He had spoken of the new electricity +discovered by the famous man, and also told his mother that Burr had +found a method of separating atoms and then transforming them into a +form of radio-electricity so that they could be sent in radio waves, to +designated points. And she now remembered--the swift trial and +conviction of Allen on the charge of murder had occupied her so deeply +that she had forgotten all else for the time being--that her son had +informed her quite seriously that Professor Ramsey Burr would soon be +able to transport human beings by radio. + +"Neither of us will be injured in any way by the change," said Burr +calmly. "It is possible for me now to break up human flesh, send the +atoms by radio-electricity, and reassemble them in their proper form by +these special transformers and atom filters." + +Mrs. Baker took all the apparatus presented her by the professor. She +ventured the thought that it might be better to perform the experiment +at once, instead of waiting until the last minute, but this Professor +Burr waved aside as impossible. He needed the extra time, he said, and +there was no hurry. + +She glanced about the room, and her eye took in the giant switches of +copper with their black handles; there were others of a gray-green metal +she did not recognize. Many dials and meters, strange to her, confronted +the little woman. These things, she felt with a rush of gratitude toward +the inanimate objects, would help to save her son, so they interested +her and she began to feel kindly toward the great machines. + + * * * * * + +Would Professor Burr be able to save Allen as he claimed? Yes, she +thought, he could. She would make Allen consent to the trial of it, even +though her son had cursed the scientist and cried he would never speak +to Ramsey Burr again. + +She was escorted from the home of the professor by Jared, and going out +into the bright, sunlit street, blinked as her eyes adjusted themselves +to the daylight after the queer light of the laboratory. In a bundle she +had a strange suit and the cups; her purse held the tiny coil, wrapped +in cotton. + +How could she get the authorities to consent to her son having the suit? +The cups and the coil she might slip to him herself. She decided that a +mother would be allowed to give her son new underwear. Yes, she would +say it was that. + +She started at once for the prison. Professor Burr's laboratory was but +twenty miles from the cell where her son was incarcerated. + +As she rode on the train, seeing people in everyday attire, commonplace +occurrences going on about her, the spell of Professor Burr faded, and +cold reason stared her in the face. Was it nonsense, this idea of +transporting bodies through the air, in invisible waves? Yet, she was +old-fashioned; the age of miracles had not passed for her. Radio, in +which pictures and voices could be sent on wireless waves, was +unexplainable to her. Perhaps-- + +She sighed, and shook her head. It was hard to believe. It was also hard +to believe that her son was in deadly peril, condemned to death as a +"scientific fiend." + +Here was her station. A taxi took her to the prison, and after a talk +with the warden, finally she stood there, before the screen through +which she could talk to Allen, her son. + +"Mother!" + +Her heart lifted, melted within her. It was always thus when he spoke. +"Allen," she whispered softly. + +They were allowed to talk undisturbed. + +"Professor Burr wishes to help you," she said, in a low voice. + + * * * * * + +Her son, Allen Baker, M. D., turned eyes of misery upon her. His ruddy +hair was awry. This young man was imaginative and could therefore suffer +deeply. He had the gift of turning platitudes into puzzles, and his +hazel eyes were lit with an elfin quality, which, if possible, endeared +him the more to his mother. All his life he had been the greatest thing +in the world to this woman. To see him in such straits tore her very +heart. When he had been a little boy, she had been able to make joy +appear in those eyes by a word and a pat; now that he was a man, the +matter was more difficult, but she had always done her best. + +"I cannot allow Professor Burr to do anything for me," he said dully. +"It is his fault that I am here." + +"But Allen, you must listen, listen carefully. Professor Burr can save +you. He says it was all a mistake, the alloy was wrong. He has not come +forward before, because he knew he would be able to iron out the trouble +if he had time, and thus snatch you from this terrible place." + +She put as much confidence into her voice as she could. She must, to +enhearten her son. Anything to replace that look of suffering with one +of hope. She would believe, she did believe. The bars, the great masses +of stone which enclosed her son would be as nothing. He would pass +through them, unseen, unheard. + +For a time, Allen spoke bitterly of Ramsey Burr, but his mother pleaded +with him, telling him it was his only chance, and that the deviltry +Allen suspected was imaginary. + +"He--he killed Smith in such an experiment," said Allen. "I took the +blame, as you know, though I only followed his instructions. But you say +he claims to have found the correct alloys?" + +"Yes. And this suit, you must put it on. But Professor Burr himself will +be here to see you day after to-morrow, the day preceding the--the--" +She bit her lip, and got out the dreaded word, "the electrocution. But +there won't be any electrocution, Allen; no, there cannot be. You will +be safe, safe in my arms." She had to fight now to hold her belief in +the miracle which Burr had promised. The solid steel and stone dismayed +her brain. + + * * * * * + +The new alloy seemed to interest Allen Baker. His mother told him of the +exchange of the monkey and the cat, and he nodded excitedly, growing +more and more restive, and his eyes began to shine with hope and +curiosity. + +"I have told the warden about the suit, saying it was something I made +for you myself," she said, in a low voice. "You must pretend the coil +and the cups are things you desire for your own amusement. You know, +they have allowed you a great deal of latitude, since you are educated +and need diversion." + +"Yes, yes. There may be some difficulty, but I will overcome that. Tell +Burr to come. I'll talk with him and he can instruct me in the final +details. It is better than waiting here like a rat in a trap. I have +been afraid of going mad, mother, but this buoys me up." + +He smiled at her, and her heart sang in the joy of relief. + +How did the intervening days pass? Mrs. Baker could not sleep, could +scarcely eat, she could do nothing but wait, wait, wait. She watched the +meeting of her son and Ramsey Burr, on the day preceding the date set +for the execution. + +"Well, Baker," said Burr nonchalantly, nodding to his former assistant. +"How are you?" + +"You see how I am," said Allen, coldly. + +"Yes, yes. Well, listen to what I have to say and note it carefully. +There must be no slip. You have the suit, the cups and the director +coil? You must keep the suit on, the cups go under the legs of the cot +you lie on. The director under your tongue." + +The professor spoke further with Allen, instructing him in scientific +terms which the woman scarcely comprehended. + +"To-night, then at eleven-thirty," said Burr, finally. "Be ready." + + * * * * * + +Allen nodded. Mrs. Baker accompanied Burr from the prison. + +"You--you will let me be with you?" she begged. + +"It is hardly necessary," said the professor. + +"But I must. I must see Allen the moment he is free, to make sure he is +all right. Then, I want to be able to take him away. I have a place in +which we can hide, and as soon as he is rescued he must be taken out of +sight." + +"Very well," said Burr, shrugging. "It is immaterial to me, so long as +you do not interfere with the course of the experiment. You must sit +perfectly still, you must not speak until Allen stands before you and +addresses you." + +"Yes, I will obey you," she promised. + +Mrs. Baker watched Professor Ramsey Burr eat his supper. Burr himself +was not in the least perturbed; it was wonderful, she thought, that he +could be so calm. To her, it was the great moment, the moment when her +son would be saved from the jaws of death. + +Jared carried a comfortable chair into the laboratory and she sat in it, +quiet as a mouse, in one corner of the room. + +It was nine o'clock, and Professor Burr was busy with his preparations. +She knew he had been working steadily for the past few days. She gripped +the arms of her chair, and her heart burned within her. + +The professor was making sure of his apparatus. He tested this bulb and +that, and carefully inspected the curious oscillating platform, over +which was suspended a thickly bunched group of gray-green wire, which +was seemingly an antenna. The numerous indicators and implements seemed +to be satisfactory, for at quarter after eleven Burr gave an exclamation +of pleasure and nodded to himself. + +Burr seemed to have forgotten the woman. He spoke aloud occasionally, +but not to her, as he drew forth a suit made of the same metal cloth as +Allen must have on at this moment. + + * * * * * + +The tension was terrific, terrific for the mother, who was awaiting the +culmination of the experiment which would rescue her son from the +electric chair--or would it fail? She shuddered. What if Burr were mad? + +But look at him, she was sure he was sane, as sane as she was. + +"He will succeed," she murmured, digging her nails into the palms of her +hands. "I _know_ he will." + +She pushed aside the picture of what would happen on the morrow, but a +few hours distant, when Allen, her son, was due to be led to a legal +death in the electric chair. + +Professor Burr placed the shiny suit upon his lank form, and she saw him +put a duplicate coil, the same sort of small machine which Allen +possessed, under his tongue. + +The Mephistophelian figure consulted a matter-of-fact watch; at that +moment, Mrs. Baker heard, above the hum of the myriad machines in the +laboratory, the slow chiming of a clock. It was the moment set for the +deed. + +Then, she feared the professor was insane, for he suddenly leaped to the +high bench of the table on which stood one of the oscillating platforms. + +Wires led out from this, and Burr sat gently upon it, a strange figure +in the subdued light. + +Professor Burr, however, she soon saw, was not insane. No, this was part +of it. He was reaching for switches near at hand, and bulbs began to +glow with unpleasant light, needles on indicators swung madly, and at +last, Professor Burr kicked over a giant switch, which seemed to be the +final movement. + +For several seconds the professor did not move. Then his body grew +rigid, and he twisted a few times. His face, though not drawn in pain, +yet twitched galvanically, as though actuated by slight jabs of +electricity. + + * * * * * + +The many tubes fluoresced, flared up in pulsing waves of violet and +pink: there were gray bars of invisibility or areas of air in which +nothing visible showed. There came the faint, crackling hum of machinery +rather like a swarm of wasps in anger. Blue and gray thread of fire spat +across the antenna. The odor of ozone came to Mrs. Baker's nostrils, +and the acid odors burned her lungs. + +She was staring at him, staring at the professor's face. She half rose +from her chair, and uttered a little cry. + +The eyes had changed, no longer were they cold, impersonal, the eyes of +a man who prided himself on the fact that he kept his arteries soft and +his heart hard; they were loving, soft eyes. + +"Allen," she cried. + +Yes, without doubt, the eyes of her son were looking at her out of the +body of Professor Ramsey Burr. + +"Mother," he said gently. "Don't be alarmed. It is successful. I am +here, in Professor Burr's body." + +"Yes," she cried, hysterically. It was too weird to believe. It seemed +dim to her, unearthly. + +"Are you all right, darling?" she asked timidly. + +"Yes. I felt nothing beyond a momentary giddy spell, a bit of nausea and +mental stiffness. It was strange, and I have a slight headache. However, +all is well." + +He grinned at her, laughed with the voice which was not his, yet which +she recognized as directed by her son's spirit. The laugh was cracked +and unlike Allen's whole-hearted mirth, yet she smiled in sympathy. + +"Yes, the first part is a success," said the man. "Our egos have +interchanged. Soon, our bodies will undergo the transformation, and then +I must keep under cover. I dislike Burr--yet he is a great man. He has +saved me. I suppose the slight headache which I feel is one bequeathed +me by Burr. I hope he inherits my shivers and terrors and the neuralgia +for the time being, so he will get some idea of what I have undergone." + +He had got down from the oscillating platform, the spirit of her son in +Ramsey's body. + +"What--what are you doing now?" she asked. + +"I must carry out the rest of it myself," he said. "Burr directed me +when we talked yesterday. It is more difficult when one subject is out +of the laboratory, and the tubes must be checked." + + * * * * * + +He went carefully about his work, and she saw him replacing four of the +tubes with others, new ones, which were ready at hand. Though it was the +body of Ramsey Burr, the movements were different from the slow, precise +work of the professor, and more and more, she realized that her son +inhabited the shell before her. + +For a moment, the mother thought of attempting to dissuade her son from +making the final change; was it not better thus, than to chance the +disintegration of the bodies? Suppose something went wrong, and the +exchange did not take place, and her son, that is, his spirit, went back +to the death house? + +Midnight struck as he worked feverishly at the apparatus, the long face +corrugated as he checked the dials and tubes. He worked swiftly, but +evidently was following a procedure which he had committed to memory, +for he was forced to pause often to make sure of himself. + +"Everything is O. K.," said the strange voice at last. He consulted his +watch. "Twelve-thirty," he said. + +She bit her lip in terror, as he cried, "Now!" and sprang to the table +to take his place on the metallic platform, which oscillated to and fro +under his weight. The delicate grayish metal antenna, which, she knew, +would form a glittering halo of blue and gray threads of fire, rested +quiescent above his head. + +"This is the last thing," he said calmly, as he reached for the big +ebony handled switch. "I'll be myself in a few minutes, mother." + +"Yes, son, yes." + +The switch connected, and Allen Baker, in the form of Ramsey Burr, +suddenly cried out in pain. His mother leaped up to run to his side, but +he waved her away. She stood, wringing her hands, as he began to twist +and turn, as though torn by some invisible force. Eery screams came +from the throat of the man on the platform, and Mrs. Baker's cries of +sympathy mingled with them. + + * * * * * + +The mighty motors hummed in a high-pitched, unnatural whine, and +suddenly Mrs. Baker saw the tortured face before her grow dim. The +countenance of the professor seemed to melt, and then there came a dull, +muffled thud, a burst of white-blue flame, the odor of burning rubber +and the tinkle of broken glass. + +Back to the face came the clarity of outline, and still it was Professor +Ramsey Burr's body she stared at. + +Her son, in the professor's shape, climbed from the platform, and looked +about him as though dazed. An acrid smoke filled the room, and burning +insulation assailed the nostrils. + +Desperately, without looking at her, his lips set in a determined line, +the man went hurriedly over the apparatus again. + +"Have I forgotten, did I do anything wrong?" she heard his anguished +cry. + +Two tubes were burned out, and these he replaced as swiftly as possible. +But he was forced to go all over the wiring, and cut out whatever had +been short-circuited so that it could be hooked up anew with uninjured +wire. + +Before he was ready to resume his seat on the platform, after half an +hour of feverish haste, a knock came on the door. + +The person outside was imperative, and Mrs. Baker ran over and opened +the portal. Jared, the whites of his eyes shining in the dim light, +stood there. "De professah--tell him dat de wahden wishes to talk with +him. It is very important, ma'am." + +The body of Burr, inhabited by Allen's soul, pushed by her, and she +followed falteringly, wringing her hands. She saw the tall figure snatch +at the receiver and listen. + +"Oh, God," he cried. + +At last, he put the receiver back on the hook, automatically, and sank +down in a chair, his face in his hands. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Baker went to him quickly. "What is it, Allen?" she cried. + +"Mother," he said hoarsely, "it was the warden of the prison. He told me +that Allen Baker had gone temporarily insane, and claimed to be +Professor Ramsey Burr in my body." + +"But--but what is the matter?" she asked. "Cannot you finish the +experiment, Allen? Can't you change the two bodies now?" + +He shook his head. "Mother--they electrocuted Ramsey Burr in my body at +twelve forty-five to-night!" + +She screamed. She was faint, but she controlled herself with a great +effort. + +"But the electrocution was not to be until morning," she said. + +Allen shook his head. "They are allowed a certain latitude, about twelve +hours," he said. "Burr protested up to the last moment, and begged for +time." + +"Then--then they must have come for him and dragged him forth to die in +the electric chair while you were attempting the second part of the +change," she said. + +"Yes. That was why it failed. That's why the tubes and wires burned out +and why we couldn't exchange bodies. It began to succeed, then I could +feel something terrible had happened. It was impossible to complete the +Beta circuit, which short-circuited. They took him from the cell, do you +see, while I was starting the exchange of the atoms." + + * * * * * + +For a time, the mother and her boy sat staring at one another. She saw +the tall, eccentric figure of Ramsey Burr before her, yet she saw also +the soul of her son within that form. The eyes were Allen's, the voice +was soft and loving, and his spirit was with her. + +"Come, Allen, my son," she said softly. + +"Burr paid the price," said Allen, shaking his head. "He became a martyr +to science." + +The world has wondered why Professor Ramsey Burr, so much in the +headlines as a great scientist, suddenly gave up all his experiments and +took up the practice of medicine. + +Now that the public furor and indignation over the death of the man +Smith has died down, sentimentalists believe that Ramsey Burr has +reformed and changed his icy nature, for he manifests great affection +and care for Mrs. Mary Baker, the mother of the electrocuted man who had +been his assistant. + + + +--------------------------------------+ + | BY NO MEANS | + | _Miss the Opening Installment of | + | the Extraordinary Four-Part Novel_ | + | MURDER MADNESS | + | _By Murray Leinster_ | + | | + | _Starting In Our Next Issue_ | + +--------------------------------------+ + + + + +The Ray of Madness + +_By Captain S. P. Meek_ + +[Illustration: "_That's the one," he exclaimed. "Hold the glass there +for a moment._"] + + Dr. Bird discovers a dastardly plot, amazing in its mechanical + ingenuity, behind the apparently trivial eye trouble of the + President. + + +A knock sounded at the door of Dr. Bird's private laboratory in the +Bureau of Standards. The famous scientist paid no attention to the +interruption but bent his head lower over the spectroscope with which he +was working. The knock was repeated with a quality of quiet insistence +upon recognition. The Doctor smothered an exclamation of impatience and +strode over to the door and threw it open to the knocker. + +"Oh, hello, Carnes," he exclaimed as he recognized his visitor. "Come in +and sit down and keep your mouth shut for a few minutes. I am busy just +now but I'll be at liberty in a little while." + +[Illustration] + +"There's no hurry, Doctor," replied Operative Carnes of the United +States Secret Service as he entered the room and sat on the edge of the +Doctor's desk. "I haven't got a case up my sleeve this time; I just came +in for a little chat." + +"All right, glad to see you. Read that latest volume of the +_Zeitschrift_ for a while. That article of Von Beyer's has got me +guessing, all right." + +Carnes picked up the indicated volume and settled himself to read. The +Doctor bent over his apparatus. Time and again he made minute +adjustments and gave vent to muttered exclamations of annoyance at the +results he obtained. Half an hour later he rose from his chair with a +sigh and turned to his visitor. + +"What do you think of Von Beyer's alleged discovery?" he asked the +operative. + + * * * * * + +"It's too deep for me, Doctor," replied the operative. "All that I can +make out of it is that he claims to have discovered a new element named +'lunium,' but hasn't been able to isolate it yet. Is there anything +remarkable about that? It seems to me that I have read of other new +elements being discovered from time to time." + +"There is nothing remarkable about the discovery of a new element by the +spectroscopic method," replied Dr. Bird. "We know from Mendeleff's +table that there are a number of elements which we have not discovered +as yet, and several of the ones we know were first detected by the +spectroscope. The thing which puzzles me is that so brilliant a man as +Von Beyer claims to have discovered it in the spectra of the moon. His +name, lunium, is taken from Luna, the moon." + +"Why not the moon? Haven't several elements been first discovered in the +spectra of stars?" + +"Certainly. The classic example is Lockyer's discovery of an orange line +in the spectra of the sun in 1868. No known terrestrial element gave +such a line and he named the new element which he deduced helium, from +Helos, the sun. The element helium was first isolated by Ramsey some +twenty-seven years later. Other elements have been found in the spectra +of stars, but the point I am making is that the sun and the stars are +incandescent bodies and could be logically expected to show the +characteristic lines of their constituent elements in their spectra. But +the moon is a cold body without an atmosphere and is visible only by +reflected light. The element, lunium, may exist in the moon, but the +manifestations which Von Beyer has observed must be, not from the moon, +but from the source of the reflected light which he spectro-analyzed." + + * * * * * + +"You are over my depth, Doctor." + +"I'm over my own. I have tried to follow Von Beyer's reasoning and I +have tried to check his findings. Twice this evening I thought that I +caught a momentary glimpse on the screen of my fluoroscope of the +ultra-violet line which he reports as characteristic of lunium, but I am +not certain. I haven't been able to photograph it yet. He notes in his +article that the line seems to be quite impermanent and fades so rapidly +that an accurate measurement of its wave-length is almost impossible. +However, let's drop the subject. How do you like your new assignment?" + +"Oh, it's all right. I would rather be back on my old work." + +"I haven't seen you since you were assigned to the Presidential detail. +I suppose that you fellows are pretty busy getting ready for Premier +McDougal's visit?" + +"I doubt if he will come," replied Carnes soberly. "Things are not +exactly propitious for a visit of that sort just now." + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird sat back in his chair in surprise. + +"I thought that the whole thing is arranged. The press seems to think +so, at any rate." + +"Everything is arranged, but arrangements may be cancelled. I wouldn't +be surprised to hear that they were." + +"Carnes," replied Dr. Bird gravely, "you have either said too much or +too little. There is something more to this than appears on the surface. +If it is none of my business, don't hesitate to tell me so and I'll +forget what you have said, but if I can help you any, speak up." + +Carnes puffed meditatively at his pipe for a few minutes before +replying. + +"It's really none of your business. Doctor," he said at length, "and yet +I know that a corpse is a chatterbox compared to you when you are told +anything in confidence, and I really need to unload my mind. It has been +kept from the press so far; but I don't know how long it can be kept +muzzled. In strict confidence, the President of the United State acts +as though he were crazy." + +"Quite a section of the press has claimed that for a long time," replied +Dr. Bird, with a twinkle in his eye. + +"I don't mean crazy in that way, Doctor, I mean _really_ crazy. Bugs! +Nuts! Bats in his belfry!" + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird whistled softly. + +"Are you sure, Carnes?" he asked. + +"As sure as may be. Both of his physicians think so. They were +non-committal for a while, especially as the first attack waned and he +seemed to recover, but when his second attack came on more violently +than the first and the President began to act queerly, they had to take +the Presidential detail into their confidence. He has been quietly +examined by some of the greatest psychiatrists in the country, but none +of them have ventured on a positive verdict as to the nature of the +malady. They admit, of course, that it exists, but they won't classify +it. The fact that it is intermittent seems to have them stopped. He was +bad a month ago but he recovered and became, to all appearances, normal +for a time. About a week ago he began to show queer symptoms again and +now he is getting worse daily. If he goes on getting worse for another +week, it will have to be announced so that the Vice-President can take +over the duties of the head of the government." + + * * * * * + +"What are the symptoms?" + +"The first we noticed was a failing of his memory. Coupled with this was +a restlessness and a habit of nocturnal prowling. He tosses continually +on his bed and mutters and at times leaps up and rages back and forth in +his bedchamber, howling and raging. Then he will calm down and compose +himself and go to sleep, only to wake in half an hour and go through the +same performance. It is pretty ghastly for the men on night guard." + +"How does he act in the daytime?" + +"Heavy and lethargic. His memory becomes a complete blank at times and +he talks wildly. Those are the times we must guard against." + +"Overwork?" queried the Doctor. + +"Not according to his physicians. His physical health is splendid and +his appetite unusually keen. He takes his exercise regularly and suffers +no ill health except for a little eye trouble." + +Dr. Bird leaped to his feet. + +"Tell me more about this eye trouble, Carnes," he demanded. + +"Why, I don't know much about it, Doctor. Admiral Clay told me that it +was nothing but a mild opthalmia which should yield readily to +treatment. That was when he told me to see that the shades of the +President's study were partially drawn to keep the direct sunlight out." + + * * * * * + +"Opthalmia be sugared! What do his eyes look like?" + +"They are rather red and swollen and a little bloodshot. He has a +tendency to shut them while he is talking and he avoids light as much as +possible. I hadn't noticed anything peculiar about it." + +"Carnes, did you ever see a case of snow blindness?" + +The operative looked up in surprise. + +"Yes, I have. I had it myself once in Maine. Now that you mention it, +his case does look like snow blindness, but such a thing is absurd in +Washington in August." + +Dr. Bird rummaged in his desk and drew out a book, which he consulted +for a moment. + +"Now, Carnes," he said, "I want some dates from you and I want them +accurately. Don't guess, for a great deal may depend on the accuracy of +your answers. When was this mental disability on the part of the +President first noticed?" + +Carnes drew a pocket diary from his coat and consulted it. + +"The seventeenth of July," he replied. "That is, we are sure, in view +of later developments, that that was the date it first came on. We +didn't realize that anything was wrong until the twentieth. On the night +of the nineteenth the President slept very poorly, getting up and +creating a disturbance twice, and on the twentieth he acted so queerly +that it was necessary to cancel three conferences." + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird checked off the dates on the book before him and nodded. + +"Go on," he said, "and describe the progress of the malady by days." + +"It got progressively worse until the night of the twenty-third. The +twenty-fourth he was no worse, and on the twenty-fifth a slight +improvement was noticed. He got steadily better until, by the third or +fourth of August, he was apparently normal. About the twelfth he began +to show signs of restlessness which have increased daily during the past +week. Last night, the nineteenth, he slept only a few minutes and Brady, +who was on guard, says that his howls were terrible. His memory has been +almost a total blank today and all of his appointments were cancelled, +ostensibly because of his eye trouble. If he gets any worse, it probably +will be necessary to inform the country as to his true condition." + +When Carnes had finished, Dr. Bird sat for a time in concentrated +thought. + +"You did exactly right in coming to me, Carnes," he said presently. "I +don't think that this is a job for a doctor at all--I believe that it +needs a physicist and a chemist and possibly a detective to cure him. +We'll get busy." + +"What do you mean, Doctor?" demanded Carnes. "Do you think that some +exterior force is causing the President's disability?" + + * * * * * + +"I think nothing, Carnes," replied the Doctor grimly, "but I intend to +know something before I am through. Don't ask for explanations: this is +not the time for talk, it is the time for action. Can you get me into +the White House to-night?" + +"I doubt it, Doctor, but I'll try. What excuse shall I give? I am not +supposed to have told you anything about the President's illness." + +"Get Bolton, your chief, on the phone and tell him that you have talked +to me when you shouldn't have. He'll blow up, but after he is through +exploding, tell him that I smell a rat and that I want him down here at +once with _carte blanche_ authority to do as I see fit in the White +House. If he makes any fuss about it, remind him of the fact that he has +considered me crazy several times in the past when events showed that I +was right. If he won't play after that, let me talk to him." + +"All right, Doctor," replied Carnes as he picked up the scientist's +telephone and gave the number of the home of the Chief of the Secret +Service. "I'll try to bully him out of it. He has a good deal of +confidence in your ability." + + * * * * * + +Half an hour later the door of Dr. Bird's laboratory opened suddenly to +admit Bolton. + +"Hello, Doctor," exclaimed the Chief, "what the dickens have you got on +your mind now? I ought to skin Carnes alive for talking out of turn, but +if you really have an idea, I'll forgive him. What do you suspect?" + +"I suspect several things, Bolton, but I haven't time to tell you what +they are. I want to get quietly into the White House as promptly as +possible." + +"That's easy," replied Bolton, "but first I want to know what the object +of the visit is." + +"The object is to see what I can find out. My ideas are entirely too +nebulous to attempt to lay them out before you just now. You've never +worked directly with me on a case before, but Carnes can tell you that I +have my own methods of working and that I won't spill my ideas until I +have something more definite to go on than I have at present." + +"The Doctor is right, Chief," said Carnes. "He has an idea all right, +but wild horses won't drag it out of him until he's ready to talk. +You'll have to take him on faith, as I always do." + +Bolton hesitated a moment and then shrugged his shoulders. + +"Have it your own way, Doctor," he said. "Your reputation, both as a +scientist and as an unraveller of tangled skeins, is too good for me to +boggle about your methods. Tell me what you want and I'll try to get +it." + + * * * * * + +"I want to get into the White House without undue prominence being given +to my movements, and listen outside the President's door for a short +time. Later I will want to examine his sleeping quarters carefully and +to make a few tests. I may be entirely wrong in my assumptions, but I +believe that there is something there that requires my attention." + +"Come along," said Bolton. "I'll get you in and let you listen, but the +rest we'll have to trust to luck on. You may have to wait until +morning." + +"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," replied the Doctor. "I'll +get a little stuff together that we may need." + +In a few moments he had packed some apparatus in a bag and, taking up it +and an instrument case, he followed Bolton and Carnes down the stairs +and out onto the grounds of the Bureau of Standards. + +"It's a beautiful moon, isn't it?" he observed. + +Carnes assented absently to the Doctor's remark, but Bolton paid no +attention to the luminous disc overhead, which was flooding the +landscape with its mellow light. + +"My car is waiting," he announced. + +"All right, old man, but stop for a moment and admire this moon," +protested the Doctor. "Have you ever seen a finer one?" + +"Come on and let the moon alone," snorted Bolton. + +"My dear man, I absolutely refuse to move a step until you pause in your +headlong devotion to duty and pay the homage due to Lady Luna. Don't +you realize, you benighted Christian, that you are gazing upon what has +been held to be a deity, or at least the visible manifestation of deity, +for ages immemorial? Haven't you ever had time to study the history of +the moon-worshipping cults? They are as old as mankind, you know. The +worship of Isis was really only an exalted type of moon worship. The +crescent moon, you may remember, was one of her most sacred emblems." + + * * * * * + +Bolton paused and looked at the Doctor suspiciously. + +"What are you doing--pulling my leg?" he demanded. + +"Not at all, my dear fellow. Carnes, doesn't the sight of the glowing +orb of night influence you to pious meditation upon the frailty of human +life and the insignificance of human ambition?" + +"Not to any very great degree," replied Carnes dryly. + +"Carnesy, old dear, I fear that you are a crass materialist. I am +beginning to despair of ever inculcating in you any respect for the +finer and subtler things of life. I must try Bolton. Bolton, have you +ever seen a finer moon? Remember that I won't move a step until you have +carefully considered the matter and fully answered my question." + +Bolton looked first at the Doctor, then at Carnes, and finally he looked +reluctantly at the moon. + +"It's a fine one," he admitted, "but all full moons look large on clear +nights at this time of the year." + +"Then you _have_ studied the moon?" cried Dr. Bird with delight. "I was +sure--" + + * * * * * + +He broke off his speech suddenly and listened. From a distance came the +mournful howl of a dog. It was answered in a moment by another howl from +a different direction. Dog after dog took up the chorus until the air +was filled with the melancholy wailing of the animals. + +"See, Bolton," remarked the Doctor, "even the dogs feel the chastening +influence of the Lady of Night and repent of the sins of their youth and +the follies of their manhood, or should one say doghood? Come along. I +feel that the call of duty must tear us away from the contemplation of +the beauties of nature." + +He led the way to Bolton's car and got in without further words. A +half-hour later, Bolton led the way into the White House. A word to the +secret service operative on guard at the door admitted him and his +party, and he led the way to the newly constructed solarium where the +President slept. An operative stood outside the door. + +"What word, Brady?" asked Bolton in a whisper. + +"He seems worse, sir. I doubt if he has slept at all. Admiral Clay has +been in several times, but he didn't do much good. There, listen! The +President is getting up again." + + * * * * * + +From behind the closed door which confronted them came sounds of a +person rising from a bed and pacing the floor, slowly at first, and then +more and more rapidly, until it was almost a run. A series of groans +came to the watchers and then a long drawn out howl. Bolton shuddered. + +"Poor devil!" he muttered. + +Dr. Bird shot a quick glance around. + +"Where is Admiral Clay?" he asked. + +"He is sleeping upstairs. Shall I call him?" + +"No. Take me to his room." + +The President's naval physician opened the door in response to Bolton's +knock. + +"Is he worse?" he demanded anxiously. + +"I don't think so, Admiral," replied Bolton. "I want to introduce you to +Dr. Bird of the Bureau of Standards. He wants to talk with you about the +case." + +"I am honored, Doctor," said the physician as he grasped the scientist's +outstretched hand. "Come in. Pardon my appearance, but I was startled +out of a doze when you knocked. Have a chair and tell me how I can serve +you." + +Dr. Bird drew a notebook from his pocket. + +"I have received certain dates in connection with the President's malady +from Operative Carnes," he said, "and I wish you to verify them." + +"Pardon me a moment, Doctor," interrupted the Admiral, "but may I ask +what is your connection with the matter? I was not aware that you were a +physician or surgeon." + + * * * * * + +"Dr. Bird is here by the authority of the secret service," replied +Bolton. "He has no connection with the medical treatment of the +President, but permit me to remind you that the secret service is +responsible for the safety of the President and so have a right to +demand such details about him as are necessary for his proper +protection." + +"I have no intention in obstructing you in the proper performance of +your duties, Mr. Bolton," began the Admiral stiffly. + +"Pardon me, Admiral," broke in Dr. Bird, "it seems to me that we are +getting started wrong. I suspect that certain exterior forces are more +or less concerned in this case and I have communicated my suspicions to +Mr. Bolton. He in turn brought me here in order to request from you your +cooperation in the matter. We have no idea of demanding anything and are +really seeking help which we believe that you can give us." + +"Pardon me, Admiral," said Bolton. "I had no intention of angering you." + +"I am at your service, gentlemen," replied Admiral Clay. "What +information did you wish, Doctor?" + +"At first merely a verification of the history of the case as I have +it." + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird read the notes he had taken down from Carnes and the Admiral +nodded agreement. + +"Those dates are correct," he said. + +"Now, Admiral, there are two further points on which I wish +enlightenment. The first is the opthalmia which is troubling the +patient." + +"It is nothing to be alarmed about as far as symptoms go, Doctor," +replied the Admiral. "It is a rather mild case of irritation, somewhat +analogous to granuloma, but rather stubborn. He had an attack several +weeks ago and while it did not yield to treatment as readily as I could +have wished, it did clear up nicely in a couple of weeks and I was quite +surprised at this recurrent attack. His sight is in no danger." + +"Have you tried to connect this opthalmia with his mental aberrations?" + +"Why no, Doctor, there is no connection." + +"Are you sure?" + +"I am certain. The slight pain which his eyes give him could never have +such an effect upon the mind of so able and energetic a man as he is." + +"Well, we'll let that pass for the moment. The other question is this: +has he any form of skin trouble?" + + * * * * * + +The Admiral looked up in surprise. + +"Yes, he has," he admitted. "I had mentioned it to no one, for it really +amounts to nothing, but he has a slight attack of some obscure form of +dermatitis which I am treating. It is affecting only his face and +hands." + +"Please describe it." + +"It has taken the form of a brown pigmentation on the hands. On the face +it causes a slight itching and subsequent peeling of the affected +areas." + +"In other words, it is acting like sunburn?" + +"Why, yes, somewhat. It is not that, however, for he has been exposed to +the sun very little lately, on account of his eyes." + +"I notice that he is sleeping in the new solarium which was added last +winter to the executive mansion. Can you tell me with what type of glass +it is equipped?" + +"Yes. It is not equipped with glass at all, but with fused quartz." + +"When did he start to sleep there?" + +"As soon as it was completed." + +"And all the time the windows have been of fused quartz?" + +"No. They were glazed at first, but the glass was removed and the fused +quartz substituted at my suggestion about two months ago, just before +this trouble started." + +"Thank you, Admiral. You have given me several things to think about. My +ideas are a little too nebulous to share as yet but I think that I can +give you one piece of very sound advice. The President is spending a +very restless night. If you would remove him from the solarium and get +him to lie down in a room which is glazed with ordinary glass, and pull +down the shades so that he will be in the dark, I think that he will +pass a better night." + + * * * * * + +Admiral Clay looked keenly into the piercing black eyes of the Doctor. + +"I know something of you by reputation, Bird," he said slowly, "and I +will follow your advice. Will you tell me why you make this particular +suggestion?" + +"So that I can work in that solarium to-night without interruption," +replied Dr. Bird. "I have some tests which I wish to carry out while it +is still dark. If my results are negative, forget what I have told you. +If they yield any information, I will be glad to share it with you at +the proper time. Now get the President out of that solarium and tell me +when the coast is clear." + +The Admiral donned a dressing gown and stepped out of the room. He +returned in fifteen minutes. + +"The solarium is at your disposal, Doctor," he announced. "Shall I +accompany you?" + +"If you wish," assented Dr. Bird as he picked up his apparatus and +strode out of the room. + +In the solarium he glanced quickly around, noting the position of each +of the articles of furniture. + +"I presume that the President always sleeps with his head in this +direction?" he remarked, pointing to the pillow on the disturbed bed. + +The Admiral nodded assent. Dr. Bird opened the bag which he had packed +in his laboratory, took out a sheet of cardboard covered with a metallic +looking substance, and placed it on the pillow. He stepped back and +donned a pair of smoked glasses, watching it intently. Without a word he +took off the glasses and handed them to the Admiral. The Admiral donned +them and looked at the pillow. As he did so an exclamation broke from +his lips. + +"That plate seems to glow," he said in an astonished voice. + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird stepped forward and laid his hand on the pillow. He was wearing +a wrist watch with a radiolite dial. The substance suddenly increased +its luminescence and began to glow fiercely, long luminous streamers +seeming to come from the dial. The Doctor took away his hand and +substituted a bottle of liquid for the plate on the pillow. Immediately +the bottle began to glow with a phosphorescent light. + +"What on earth is it?" gasped Carnes. + +"Excitation of a radioactive fluid," replied the Doctor. "The question +is, what is exciting it. Somebody get a stepladder." + +While Bolton was gone after the ladder, the Doctor took from his bag +what looked like an ordinary pane of glass. + +"Take this, Carnes," he directed, "and start holding it over each of +those panes of quartz which you can reach. Stop when I tell you to." + + * * * * * + +The operative held the glass over each of the panes in succession, but +the Doctor, who kept his eyes covered with the smoked glasses and +fastened on the plate which he had replaced on the pillow, said nothing. +When Bolton arrived with the ladder, the process went on. One end and +most of the front of the solarium had been covered before an exclamation +from the Doctor halted the work. + +"That's the one," he exclaimed. "Hold the glass there for a moment." + +Hurriedly he removed the plate from the pillow and replaced the phial of +liquid. There was only a very feeble glow. + +"Good enough," he cried. "Take away the glass, but mark that pane, and +be ready to replace it when I give the word." + +From the instrument case he had brought he took out a spectroscope. He +turned back the mattress and mounted it on the bedstead. + +"Cover that pane," he directed. + +Carnes did so, and the Doctor swung the receiving tube of the instrument +until it pointed at the covered pane. He glanced into the eyepiece, and +then held a tiny flashlight for an instant opposite the third tube. + +"Uncover that pane," he said. + +Carnes took down the glass plate and the Doctor gazed into the +instrument. He made some adjustments. + +"Are you familiar with spectroscopy, Admiral?" he asked. + +"Somewhat." + +"Take a squint in here and tell me what you see." + + * * * * * + +The Admiral applied his eye to the instrument and looked long and +earnestly. + +"There are some lines there, Doctor," he said, "but your instrument is +badly out of adjustment. They are in what should be the ultra-violet +sector, according to your scale." + +"I forgot to tell you that this is a fluoroscopic spectroscope designed +for the detection of ultra-violet lines," replied Dr. Bird. "Those lines +you see are ultra-violet, made visible to the eye by activation of a +radioactive compound whose rays in turn impinge on a zinc blende sheet. +Do you recognize the lines?" + +"No, I don't." + +"Small wonder; I doubt whether there are a dozen people who would. I +have never seen them before, although I recognize them from descriptions +I have read. Bolton, come here. Sight along this instrument and through +that plate of glass which Carnes is holding and tell me what office that +window belongs to." + +Bolton sighted as directed up at the side of the State, War and Navy +Building. + +"I can't tell exactly at this time of night, Doctor," he said, "but I'll +go into the building and find out." + +"Do so. Have you a flashlight?" + +"Yes." + +"Flash it momentarily out of each of the suspected windows in turn until +you get an answering flash from here. When you do, flash it out of each +pane of glass in the window until you get another flash from here. Then +come back and tell me what office it is. Mark the pane so that we can +locate it again in the morning." + + * * * * * + +"It is the office of the Assistant to the Adjutant General of the Army," +reported Bolton ten minutes later. + +"What is there in the room?" + +"Nothing but the usual desks and chairs." + +"I suspected as much. The window is merely a reflector. That is all that +we can do for to-night, gentlemen. Admiral, keep your patient quiet and +in a room with _glass_ windows, preferably with the shades drawn, until +further notice. Bolton, meet me here with Carnes at sunrise. Have a +picked detail of ten men standing by where we can get hold of them in a +hurry. In the mean time, get the Chief of Air Service out of bed and +have him order a plane at Langley Field to be ready to take off at 6 +A. M. He is not to take off, however, until I give him orders to do so. +Do you understand?" + +"Everything will be ready for you, Doctor, but I confess that I don't +know what it is all about." + +"It's the biggest case you ever tackled, old man, and I hope that we can +pull it off successfully. I'd like to go over it with you now, but I'll +be busy at the Bureau for the rest of the night. Drop me off there, will +you?" + +At sunrise the next morning, Bolton met Dr. Bird at the entrance to the +White House grounds. + +"Where is your detail?" he asked. + +"In the State, War and Navy Building." + +"Good. I want to go to the solarium, put a light on the place where the +President's pillow was last night, and mark that pane of quartz we were +looking through. Then we'll join the detail." + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird placed the light and walked with Carnes across the White House +grounds. Bolton's badge secured admission to the State, War and Navy +Building for the party and they made their way to the office of the +Assistant to the Adjutant General. + +"Did you mark the pane of glass through which you flashed your light +last night, Bolton?" asked the Doctor. + +The detective touched one of the panes. + +"Good," exclaimed the Doctor. "I notice that this window has hooks for a +window washer's belt. Get a life belt, will you?" + +When the belt was brought, the Doctor turned to Carnes. + +"Carnes," he said, "hook on this life saver and climb out on the window +ledge. Take this piece of apparatus with you." + +He handed Carnes a piece of apparatus which looked like two telescopes +fastened to a base, with a screw adjustment for altering the angles of +the barrels. + + * * * * * + +Carnes took it and looked at it inquiringly. + +"That is what I was making at the Bureau last night," explained Dr. +Bird. "It is a device which will enable me to locate the source of the +beam which was reflected from this pane of glass onto the President's +pillow. I'll show you how to work it. You know that when light is +reflected the angle of reflection always equals the angle of incidence? +Well, you place these three feet against the pane of glass, thus putting +the base of the instrument in a plane parallel to the pane of glass. By +turning these two knobs, one of which gives lateral and the other +vertical adjustment, you will manipulate the instrument until the first +telescope is pointing directly toward the President's pillow. Now notice +that the two telescope barrels are fastened together and are connected +to the knobs, so that when the knobs are turned, the scopes are turned +in equal and opposite amounts. When one is turned from its present +position five degrees to the west, the other automatically turns five +degrees to the east. When one is elevated, the other is correspondingly +depressed. Thus, when the first tube points toward the pillow, the other +will point toward the source of the reflected beam." + +"Clever!" ejaculated Bolton. + +"It is rather crude and may not be accurate enough to locate the source +exactly, but at least it will give us a pretty good idea of where to +look. Given time, a much more accurate instrument could have been made, +but two telescopic rifle sights and a theodolite base were all the +materials I could find to work with. Climb out, Carnesy, and do your +stuff." + + * * * * * + +Carnes climbed out on the window and fastened the hooks of the life +saver to the rings set in the window casings. He sat the base of the +instrument against the pane of glass and manipulated the telescope knobs +as Dr. Bird signalled from the inside. The scientist was hard to please +with the adjustment, but at last the cross hairs of the first telescope +were centered on the light in the solarium. He changed his position and +stared through the second tube. + +"The angle is too acute and the distance too great for accuracy," he +said with an air of disappointment. "The beam comes from the roof of a +house down along Pennsylvania Avenue, but I can't tell from here which +one it is. Take a look, Bolton." + +The Chief of the Secret Service stared through the telescope. + +"I couldn't be sure, Doctor," he replied. "I can see something on the +roof of one of the houses, but I can't tell what it is and I couldn't +tell the house when I got in front of it." + +"It won't do to make a false move," said the Doctor. "Did you arrange +for that plane?" + +"It is waiting your orders at the field, Doctor." + +"Good. I'll go up to the office of the Chief of Air Service and get in +touch with the pilot over the Chief's private line. There are some +orders that I wish to give him and some signals to be arranged." + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird returned in a few minutes. + +"The plane is taking off now and will be over the city soon," he +announced. "We'll take a stroll down the Avenue until we are in the +vicinity of the house, and then wait for the plane. Carnes will take +five of your men and go down behind the house and the rest of us will go +in front. Which building do you think it is, Bolton?" + +"About the fourth from the corner." + +"All right, the men going down the back will take station behind the +house next to the corner and the rest of us will get in front of the +same building. When the plane comes over, watch it. If you receive no +signal, go to the next house and wait for him to make a loop and come +over you again. Continue this until the pilot throws a white parachute +over. That is the signal that we are covering the right house. When you +get that signal, Carnes, leave two men outside and break in with the +other three. Get that apparatus on the roof and the men who are +operating it. Bolton and I will attack the front door at the same time. +Does everybody understand?" + +Murmurs of assent came from the detail. + +"All right, let's go. Carnes, lead out with your men and go half a block +ahead so that the two parties will arrive in position at about the same +time." + + * * * * * + +Carnes left the building with five of the operatives. Dr. Bird and +Bolton waited for a few minutes and then started down Pennsylvania +Avenue, the five men of their squad following at intervals. For +three-quarters of a mile they sauntered down the street. + +"This should be it, Doctor," said Bolton. + +"I think so, and here comes our plane." + +They watched the swift scout plane from Langley Field swing down low +over the house and then swoop up into the sky again without making a +signal. The party walked down the street one house and paused. Again the +plane swept over them without sign. As they stopped in front of the next +house a white parachute flew from the cockpit of the plane and the +aircraft, its mission accomplished, veered off to the south toward its +hangar. + +"This is the place," cried Bolton. "Haggerty and Johnson, you two cover +the street. Bemis, take the lower door. The rest come with me." + + * * * * * + +Followed closely by Dr. Bird and two operatives, Bolton sprinted across +the street and up the steps leading to the main entrance of the house. +The door was barred, and he hurled his weight against it without result. + +"One side, Bolton," snapped Dr. Bird. + +The diminutive Chief drew aside and Dr. Bird's two hundred pounds of +bone and muscle crashed against the door. The lock gave and the Doctor +barely saved himself from sprawling headlong on the hall floor. A +woman's scream rang out, and the Doctor swore under his breath. + +"Upstairs! To the roof!" he cried. + +Followed by the rest of the party, he sprinted up the stairway which +opened before him. Just as he reached the top his way was barred by an +Amazonian figure in a green bathrobe. + +"Who th' divil arre yer?" demanded an outraged voice. + +"Police," snapped Bolton. "One side!" + +"Wan side, is it?" demanded the fiery haired Amazon. "The divil a stip +ye go until ye till me ye'er bizness. Phwat th' divil arre yer doin' in +th' house uv a rayspictable female at this hour uv th' marnin'?" + +"One side, I tell you!" cried Bolton as he strove to push past the +figure that barred the way. + +"Oh, ye wud, wud yer, little mann?" demanded the Irishwoman as she +grasped Bolton by the collar and shook him as a terrier does a rat. Dr. +Bird stifled his laughter with difficulty and seized her by the arm. +With a heave on Bolton's collar she raised him from the ground and swung +him against the Doctor, knocking him off his feet. + +"Hilp! P'lice! Murther!" she screamed at the top of her voice. + +"Damn it, woman, we're on--" + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird's voice was cut short by the sound of a pistol shot from the +roof, followed by two others. The Irishwoman dropped Bolton and slumped +into a sitting position and screamed lustily. Bolton and Dr. Bird, with +the two operatives at their heels, raced for the roof. Before they +reached it another volley of shots rang out, these sounding from the +rear of the building. They made their way to the upper floor and found a +ladder running to a skylight in the roof. At the foot of the ladder +stood one of Carnes' party. + +"What is it, Williams?" demanded Bolton. + +"I don't know, Chief. Carnes and the other two went up there, and then I +heard shooting. My orders were to let no one come down the ladder." + +As he spoke, Carnes' head appeared at the skylight. + +"It's the right place, all right, Doctor," he called. "Come on up, the +shooting is all over." + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird mounted the ladder and stepped out on the roof. Set on one edge +was a large piece of apparatus, toward which the scientist eagerly +hastened. He bent over it for a few moments and then straightened up. + +"Where is the operator?" he asked. + +Carnes silently led the way to the edge of the roof and pointed down. +Dr. Bird leaned over. At the foot of the fire escape he saw a crumpled +dark heap, with a secret service operative bending over it. + +"Is he dead, Olmstead?" called Carnes. + +"Dead as a mackerel," came the reply. "Richards got him through the head +on his first shot." + +"Good business," said Dr. Bird. "We probably could never have secured a +conviction and the matter is best hushed up anyway. Bolton, have two of +your men help me get this apparatus up to the Bureau. I want to examine +it a little. Have the body taken to the morgue and shut up the press. +Find out which room the chap occupied and search it, and bring all his +papers to me. From a criminal standpoint, this case is settled, but I +want to look into the scientific end of it a little more." + +"I'd like to know what it was all about, Doctor," protested Bolton. "I +have followed your lead blindly, and now I have a housebreaking without +search-warrant and a killing to explain, and still I am about as much in +the dark as I was at the beginning." + +"Excuse me, Bolton," said Dr. Bird contritely; "I didn't mean to slight +you. Admiral Clay wants to know about it and so does Carnes, although he +knows me too well to say so. As soon as I have digested the case I'll +let you know and I'll go over the whole thing with you." + + * * * * * + +A week later Dr. Bird sat in conference with the President in the +executive office of the White House. Beside him sat Admiral Clay, Carnes +and Bolton. + +"I have told the President as much as I know, Doctor," said the Admiral, +"and he would like to hear the details from your lips. He has fully +recovered from his malady and there is no danger of exciting him." + +"I cannot read Russian," said Dr. Bird slowly, "and so was forced to +depend on one of my assistants to translate the papers which Mr. Bolton +found in Stokowsky's room. There is nothing in them to definitely +connect him with the Russian Union of Soviet Republics, but there is +little doubt in my mind that he was a Red agent and that Russia supplied +the money which he spent. It would be disastrous to Russia's plans to +have too close an accord between this country and the British Empire, +and I have no doubt that the coming visit of Premier McDougal was the +underlying cause of the attempt. So much for the reason. + +"As to how I came to suspect what was happening, the explanation is very +simple. When Carnes first told me of your malady, Mr. President, I +happened to be checking Von Beyer's results in the alleged discovery of +a new element, lunium. In the article describing his experiments, Von +Beyer mentions that when he tried to observe the spectra, he encountered +a mild form of opthalmia which was quite stubborn to treatment. He also +mentions a peculiar mental unbalance and intense exhilaration which the +rays seemed to cause both in himself and in his assistants. The analogy +between his observations and your case struck me at once. + + * * * * * + +"For ages the moon has been an object of worship by various religious +sects, and some of the most obscene orgies of which we have record +occurred in the moonlight. The full moon seems to affect dogs to a state +of partial hypnosis with consequent howling and evident pain in the +eyes. Certain feeble minded persons have been known to be adversely +affected by moonlight as well as some cases of complete mental +aberration. In other words, while moonlight has no practical effect on +the normal human in its usual concentration, it does have an adverse +effect on certain types of mentality and, despite the laughter of +medical science, there seems to be something in the theory of 'moon +madness.' This effect Von Beyer attributed to the emanations of lunium, +which element he detected in the spectra of the moon, in the form of a +wide band in the ultra-violet region. + + * * * * * + +"I obtained from Carnes a history of your case, and when I found that +your attacks grew violent with the full moon and subsided with the new +moon, I was sure that I was on the right track, although I had at that +time no way of knowing whether it was from natural or artificial causes +that the effect was being produced. I interviewed Admiral Clay and found +that you were suffering from a form of dermititis resembling sunburn, +and that convinced me that an attack was being made on your sanity, for +an excess of ultra-violet light will always tend to produce sunburn. I +inquired about the windows of your solarium, for ultra-violet light will +not pass through a lead glass. When the Admiral told me that the glass +had been replaced with fused quartz, which is quite permeable to +ultra-violet and that the change had been almost coincident with the +start of your malady, I asked him to get you out of the solarium and let +me examine it. + +"By means of certain fluorescent substances which I used, I found that +your pillow was being bathed in a flood of ultra-violet light, and the +fluoro-spectroscope soon told me that lunium emanations were present in +large quantities. These rays were not coming to you directly from their +source, but one of the windows of the State, War and Navy Building was +being used as a reflector. I located the approximate source of the ray +by means of an improvised apparatus, and we surrounded the place. +Stokowsky was killed while attempting to escape. I guess that is about +all there is to it." + +"Thank you, Doctor," said the President. "I would be interested in a +description of the apparatus which he used to produce this effect." + + * * * * * + +"The apparatus was quite simple, Sir. It was merely a large collector of +moonlight, which was thrown after collection onto a lunium plate. The +resultant emanations were turned into a parallel beam by a parabolic +reflector and focused, through a rock crystal lens with an extremely +long focal length, onto your pillow." + +"Then Stokowsky had isolated Von Beyer's new element?" asked the +President. + +"I am still in doubt whether it is a new element or merely an allotropic +modification of the common element, cadmium. The plate which he used has +a very peculiar property. When moonlight, or any other reflected light +of the same composition falls on it, it acts on the ray much as the +button of a Roentgen tube acts on a cathode ray. As the cathode ray is +absorbed and an entirely new ray, the X-ray, is given off by the button, +just so is the reflected moonlight absorbed and a new ray of +ultra-violet given off. This is the ray which Von Beyer detected. I +thought that I could catch traces of Von Beyer's lines in my +spectroscope, and I think now that it is due to a trace of lunium in the +cadmium plating of the barrels. Von Beyer could have easily made the +same mistake. Von Beyer's work, together with Stokowsky's opens up an +entirely new field of spectroscopic research. I would give a good deal +to go over to Baden and go into the matter with Von Beyer and make some +plans for the exploitation of the new field, but I'm afraid that my +pocketbook wouldn't stand the trip." + +"I think that the United States owes you that trip, Dr. Bird," said the +Chief Executive with a smile. "Make your plans to go as soon as you get +your data together. I think that the Treasury will be able to take care +of the expense without raising the income tax next year." + + + +------------------------------------------------------+ + | | + | _IN THE NEXT ISSUE_ | + | | + | | + | Murder Madness | + | | + | _Beginning an intensely Gripping, Four-Part Novel_ | + | | + | _By_ MURRAY LEINSTER | + | | + | | + | The Atom Smasher | + | | + | _A Thrilling Adventure into Time and Space_ | + | | + | _By_ VICTOR ROUSSEAU | + | | + | | + | Into the Ocean's Depths | + | | + | _A Sequel to_ "_From the Ocean's Depths_" | + | | + | _By_ SEWELL PEASLEE WRIGHT | + | | + | | + | Brigands of the Moon | + | | + | _Part Three of the Amazing Serial_ | + | | + | _By_ RAY CUMMINGS | + | | + | | + | ----_And Others!_ | + | | + +------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + +[Illustration: _The Readers' Corner_ + +_A Meeting Place for Readers of_ +Astounding Stories] + + +_Our Thanks_ + +Three months ago the Clayton Magazines presented to lovers of Science +Fiction everywhere a new magazine with a brand-new policy--Astounding +Stories--and now it is the Editor's great pleasure to announce to our +thousands of friends that this new magazine is enjoying a splendid +success. + +Within twenty-four hours of the time that Astounding Stories was +released for sale, letters of praise began pouring into our office, +and--and this is significant--many of them clearly revealed that their +writers had grasped the essential difference of the new Science Fiction +magazine over the others. + +We cannot better state this difference, this improvement, than by +quoting what the Reader whose letter appears under the caption, "And +Kind to Their Grandmothers," says in his very first paragraph: "And I +was still more pleased, and surprised, to find that the Editor seems to +know that such stories should have real story interest, besides a +scientific idea." It is exactly that. Every story that appears in +Astounding Stories not only must contain some of the forecasted +scientific achievements of To-morrow, but must be told vividly, +excitingly, with all the human interest that goes to make any story +enjoyable To-day. + +The Editor and staff of Astounding Stories express their sincere thanks +to all who have contributed to our splendid start--especially to those +who had the kindness to write in with their helpful criticism. + +Already one of your common suggestions has been taken up and embodied in +our magazine, and so we have this new department, "The Readers' +Corner," which from now on will be an informal meeting place for all +readers of Astounding Stories. We want you never to forget that a +cordial and perpetual invitation is extended to you to write in and talk +over with all of us anything of interest you may have to say in +connection with our magazine. + +If you can toss in a word of praise, that's fine; if only criticism, +we'll welcome that just as much, for we may be able to find from it a +way to improve our magazine. If you have your own private theory of how +airplanes will be run in 2500, or if you think the real Fourth Dimension +is different from what it is sometimes described--write in and share +your views with all of us. + +This department is all yours, and the job of running it and making it +interesting is largely up to you. So "come over in 'The Readers' +Corner'" and have your share in what everyone will be saying. + + --_The Editor._ + + +"_And Kind to Their Grandmothers!_" + + + Dear Editor: + + I received a pleasant surprise a few days ago when I found a new + Science Fiction magazine at the newsstand--Astounding Stories. And + I was still more pleased, and surprised, to find that the Editor + seems to know that such stories should have real story interest, + besides a scientific idea. + + Of course I took with a grain of salt the invitation to write to + the editor and give my preference of the kind of stories I like. I + know that every editor, down in his heart, thinks his magazine is + perfect "as is." In fact, praise is what they want, not + suggestions, judging by the letters they print. + + Well, I can conscientiously give you some praise. If Astounding + Stories keep up to the standard of the first issue it will be all + right. Evidently you can afford to hire the best writers + obtainable. Notice you've signed up some of my favorites, Murray + Leinster, R. F. Starzl, Ray Cummings. I like their stuff because it + has the rare quality rather vaguely described as "distinction," + which make the story remembered for a long time. + + The story "Tanks," by Murray Leinster, is my idea of what such a + story should be. The author does not start out, "Listen, my + children, and you shall hear a story so wonderful you won't believe + it. Only after the death of Professor Bulging Dome do I dare to + make it public to a doubting world." No, he simply proceeds to tell + the story. If I were reading it in the Saturday Evening Post or + Ladies Home Journal it would be all right to prepare me for the + story by explaining that of course the author does not vouch for + the story, it having been told to him by a crazy Eurasian in a + Cottage Grove black-and-tan speakeasy at 3.30 A. M. In Astounding + Stories I expect the story to be unusual, so don't bother telling + me it is so. That criticism applies to "Phantoms of Reality," which + is a story above the average, though, despite its rather flat title + and slow beginning. + + Here's another good point about "Tanks." Its characters are human. + Some authors of stories of the future make their characters all + brains--cold monsters, with no humanity in them. Such a story has + neither human interest nor plausibility. The sky's the limit, I + say, for mechanical or scientific accomplishments, but human + emotions will be the same a thousand years from now. And even + supposing that they will be changed, your readers have present day + emotions. The magazine can not prosper unless those present-day + emotions are aroused and mirrored by thoroughly human characters. + The situation may be just as outre as you like--the more unusual + the better--but it is the response of normal human emotions to most + unusual situations that gives a magazine such as yours its powerful + and unique "kick." + + The response of the two infantrymen in "Tanks" to the strange and + terrifying new warfare of the future exemplifies another point I + would like to make--the fact that no matter what marvels the future + may bring, the people who will live then will take them in a + matter-of-fact way. Their conversation will be cigarettes, + "sag-paste," drinks, women. References to the scientific marvels + around them will be casual and sketchy. How many million words of + an average car owner's conversation would you have to report to + give a visitor from 1700 an idea of internal combustion engines? + The author, if skillful, can convey that information in other ways. + Yet a lot of stories printed have long, stilted conversations in + which the author thinks he is conveying in an entertaining way his + foundation situation. Personally, I like a lot of physical + action--violent action preferred. This is so, probably, because I'm + a school teacher and sedentary in my habits. I have never written a + story in my life, but I'm the most voracious consumer of stories in + Chicago. I like to see the hero get into a devil of a pickle, and + to have him smash his way out. I like 'em big, tough, and kind to + their grandmothers. + + It seems to me that interplanetary stories offer the best vehicle + for all the desirable qualities herein enumerated combined. There + is absolutely no restraint on the imagination, except a few known + astronomical facts--plenty of opportunity for violent and dangerous + adventures, strange and terrestrially impossible monsters. The + human actors, set down in the midst of such terrifying conditions, + which they battle dauntlessly, grinning as they take their blows + and returning them with good will, cannot fail to rouse the + admiration of the reader. And make him buy the next month's issue. + + + But spare us, please the stories in which the hero, arriving on + some other planet, is admitted to the court of the king of the + White race, and leads their battles against the Reds, the Browns, + the Greens, and so on, eventually marrying the king's daughter, who + is always golden-haired, of milky white complexion, and has large + blue eyes. Kindly reject stories of interplanetary travel in which + a member of the party turns against the Earth party and allies + himself with the wormlike Moon men, or what have you. Stories in + which a great inventor gone crazy threatens to hurl the Earth into + the Sun leave me cold and despondent, for the simple reason that + crazy men are never great inventors. Name a great inventor who + wasn't perfectly sane, if you can. The author makes the great + inventor insane to make it plausible that he should want to destroy + the World. Well, if he is a good author he can find some other + motive. + + One more thing. I like to smell, feel, hear and even taste the + action of a story as well as see it. Some authors only let you see + it, and then they don't tell you whether it's in bright or subdued + light. The author of "Tanks" fulfills my requirements in this + respect, at least partially.--Walter Boyle, c/o Mrs. Anna Treitz, + 4751 North Artesian, Chicago, Ill. + + +_A Permanent Reader_ + + + Dear Editor: + + I want to thank you for the very entertaining hours I spent + perusing your new magazine, Astounding Stories. I read one or two + other Science Fiction magazines--it seems that tales of this sort + intrigue me. However, I wish to say that the debut number of your + magazine contained the best stories I ever read. Again thanking you + and assuring you that should the stories continue thus I will be a + permanent reader--Irving E. Ettinger, The Seville, Detroit, Mich. + + +_We're Avoiding Reprints_ + + + Dear Editor: + + I am well pleased with your new magazine and wish to offer you my + congratulations and best wishes. As I am well acquainted with most + of the Science Fiction now being written, I am in a good position + to criticize your magazine. + + First: The cover illustration is good, but the inside drawings + could be greatly improved. + + Second: Holding the magazine together with two staples is a good + idea. + + Third: The paper could be improved. + + Fourth: The price is right. + + Here I classify the stories. Excellent: "The Beetle Horde," and + "Tanks." Very Good: "Cave of Horror," "Invisible Death," and + "Phantoms of Reality." Medium: "Compensation." Poor: "Stolen Mind." + + Please don't reprint any of Poe's, Wells', or Verne's works. My + prejudice to Verne, Wells and Poe is that I have read all their + works in other magazines. + + However, with all my criticizing, I think that your magazine is a + good one.--James Nichols, 1509 19th Street, Bakersfield, + California. + + +_Thanks, Mr. Marks!_ + + + Dear Editor: + + I purchased a copy of "our" new magazine to-day and I think it + excellent. I am glad to see most of my old author friends + contributing for it, but how about looking up E. R. Burroughs, + David H. Keller, M. D., C. P. Wantenbacker and A. Merritt? They are + marvelous writers. I see Wesso did your cover and it is very good. + I have been a reader of four other Science Fiction monthly + magazines and two quarterlies, but I gladly take this one into my + fold and I think I speak for every other Science Fiction lover when + I say this. Which means, if true, that your publication will have + everlasting success. Here's hoping!--P. O. Marks, Jr., 893 York + Avenue, S. W., Atlanta, Ga. + + +_A Fine Letter_ + + + Dear Editor: + + Having read through the first number of Astounding Stories, my + enthusiasm has reached such a pitch that I find it difficult to + express myself adequately. A mere letter such as this can give + scarcely an inkling of the unbounded enjoyment I derive from the + pages of this unique magazine. To use a trite but appropriate + phrase, "It fills a long-felt need." True, there are other + magazines which specialize in Science Fiction; but, to my mind they + are not in a class with Astounding Stories. In most of them the + scientific element is so emphasized that it completely overshadows + all else. In this magazine, happily, such is not the case. Here we + find science subordinated to human interest, which is as it should + be. The love element, too, is present and by no means unwelcome. + + As for the literary quality of the stories, it could not be + improved on. Such craftsmen as Cummings, Leinster and Rousseau + never fail to turn out a vivid, well-written tale. If the stories in + the succeeding issues are on a par with those in the first, the + success of the magazine is assured. + + By the way, your editorial explanation of Astounding Stories was a + gem. So many of us take our marvelous modern inventions for granted + that we never consider how miraculous they would seem to our + forebears. As you say, the only real difference between the + Astounding and the Commonplace is Time. A magazine such as + Astounding Stories enables us to anticipate the wonders of + To-morrow. Through its pages we can peer into the vistas of the + future and behold the world that is to be. Truly, you have given us + a rare treat--Allen Glasser, 931 Forest Ave., New York, N. Y. + + +_The Science Correspondence Club Broadcasts_ + + + Dear Editor: + + The other day I came upon Astounding Stories on our local + newsstand. I immediately procured a copy because Science Fiction + is my favorite pastime, so to speak. I was very much overjoyed that + another good Science Fiction magazine should come out, and a + Clayton Magazine too, which enhances its splendid value still + further. I have read various members of the Clayton family and I + found each of them entertaining. + + After finishing the first issue, I decided to write in and express + my feelings. The stories were all good with the exception of "The + Stolen Mind." Just keep printing stories by Cape, Meek, Ray + Cummings, Murray Leinster, C. V. Tench, Harl Vincent and R. F. + Starzl and I can predict now that your new venture will be a huge + success. + + The main reason of this letter is to ask your help in putting over + Science Fiction Week. This will take place in the early part of + February, the week of the 5th or after. We want your co-operation + in making this a big success. You can help by running the attached + article upon the Science Correspondence Club in your "Readers' + Corner." It will be a big aid. + + I am sure, because you are the Editor of Astounding Stories, that + you will be pleased to help us in this venture. Science Fiction is + our common meeting ground and our common ideal. + + I hope to have a Big Science Fiction Week with your help.--Conrad + H. Ruppert, 113 North Superior Street, Angola, Indiana. + + + To the Readers of Astounding Stories: + + At the present there exists in the United States an organization + the purpose of which is to spread the gospel of Science and Science + Fiction, the Science Correspondence Club. I am writing this to + induce the readers of Astounding Stories to join us. After reading + this pick up your pen or take the cover from your typewriter and + send in an application for membership to our Secretary, Raymond A. + Palmer, 1431-38th St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, or to our President, + Aubrey Clements, 6 South Hillard St., Montgomery, Alabama. They + will forward application blanks to you and you will belong to the + only organization in the world that is like it. + + The Club was formed by twenty young men from all over the U. S. We + have a roll of almost 100, all over the world. Its expressed + purpose has been to help the cause of Science Fiction, and to + increase the knowledge of Science. It also affords the advantage of + being able to express your ideas in all fields. + + The Preamble of the Constitution which we have worked out reads: + "We, the members of this organization, in order to promote the + advancement of Science in general among laymen of the world through + the use of discussion and the creation and exchange of new ideas, + do ordain and establish this organization for the Science + Correspondence Club." + + Article Two reads: "The institution will remain an organization to + establish better co-ordination between the scientifically inclined + laymen of the world, regardless of sex, creed, color, or race. + There will be no restrictions as to age, providing the member can + pass an examination which shall be prepared by the membership + committee." + + The Club will also publish a monthly bulletin, to which members may + contribute. It will also publish clippings, articles, etc., dealing + with science. + + The membership will have no definite limit and the correspondence + will be governed by the wishes of each member. + + Need more be said? + + I almost forgot to say that we have two of the best Science Fiction + authors as active members, and three more who are doing their best, + but because of such work they cannot be active. + + I hope my appeal bears fruit and that we shall hear from you + soon.--Conrad H. Ruppert. + + +_But--Most Everybody Prefers the Smaller Size--and Price!_ + + + Dear Editor: + + Last night I was passing a newsstand and saw your magazine. I + bought it then and there. I do not read any other stories except + the fantastic stories. Astounding Stories looks all right, but may + I make a suggestions? Why not increase the size of the magazine to + that of Miss 1900 or Forest and Stream? It would certainly look + better! You could also raise your price to twenty-five cents. + Please print as many stories as possible by the following authors: + Ray Cummings, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Murray Leinster, Edmond + Hamilton, A. Hyatt Verrill, Stanton A. Coblentz, Ed Earl Repp and + Harl Vincent. + + My favorite type of story is the interplanetary one. I wish you the + best of luck in your new venture.--Stephen Takacs, 303 Eckford + Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. + + +"_First Copy Wonderful_" + + + Dear Editor: + + I have read the first copy of Astounding Stories and think it + wonderful. I am very much interested in science fiction. I prefer + interplanetary stories and would like to see many of them in the + new magazine. Your authors are fine. The ones I like particularly + are Ray Cummings, Captain S. P. Meek, and Murray Leinster. I wonder + if I could subscribe to Astounding Stories? Will you let me know? + Good luck to the new magazine.--Donald Sisler, 3111 Adams Mill + Road, Washington, D. C. + + +_Congratulations_ + + + Dear Editor: + + Allow me to congratulate you upon the starting of your new + magazine, Astounding Stories. Have just finished reading the first + issue and it is fine. While the class of stories that you publish + do not appeal to all, I feel quite sure that there are many like + myself who will welcome your publication and wish it all + success.--R. E. Norton, P. O. Box 226, Ashtabula, Ohio. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Astounding Stories of Super-Science +April 1930, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES, APRIL 1930 *** + +***** This file should be named 29390-8.txt or 29390-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/3/9/29390/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Meredith Bach, 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 April 1930 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Harry Bates + +Release Date: July 12, 2009 [EBook #29390] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES, APRIL 1930 *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Meredith Bach, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="minispace"> </div> +<div class="image"><img src="images/icover.jpg" width="323" height="480" alt="cover" title="" /></div> +<div class="minispace"> </div> + +<h1>ASTOUNDING</h1> +<h2 style="margin-top: -1em;">STORIES<br /> +OF SUPER-SCIENCE<br /> +<small>20¢</small></h2> + +<h3><i>On Sale the First Thursday of Each Month</i></h3> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" summary="toc header" width="90%"> +<tr><td align="left" style="width: 30%;">W. M. CLAYTON, Publisher</td><td align="center">HARRY BATES, Editor</td><td align="right" style="width: 30%;">DOUGLAS M. DOLD, Consulting Editor</td></tr> +</table></div> +<div class="minispace"> </div> + +<div class="u"> </div> +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<div class="illodrop"><img src="images/atoc.png" width="122" height="200" alt="" title="" /></div> +<div class="center" style="font-size: 120%; font-weight: bold;">The Clayton Standard on a Magazine Guarantees:</div> + +<div class="blockquote"> +<p><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></div> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<div class="center"><i>The other Clayton magazines are</i>:<br /> +<br /> +ACE-HIGH MAGAZINE, RANCH ROMANCES, COWBOY STORIES, CLUES, FIVE-NOVELS<br /> +MONTHLY, WIDE WORLD ADVENTURES, ALL STAR DETECTIVE STORIES, FLYERS,<br /> +RANGELAND LOVE STORY MAGAZINE, SKY-HIGH LIBRARY MAGAZINE,<br /> +WESTERN ADVENTURES, MISS 1930, <i>and</i> FOREST AND STREAM</div> + +<div class="center"><br /><i>More Than Two Million Copies Required to Supply the Monthly Demand for Clayton Magazines.</i></div> + +<div class="u" style="margin-top: .75em;"> </div> +<div class="minispace"> </div> + + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table of contents header" width="100%"> +<tr><td align="left">VOL. II, No. 1</td><td align="center" class="ltext">CONTENTS</td><td align="right">APRIL, 1930</td></tr> +</table></div> +<div class="microspace"> </div> + +<div class="center"> +<table border="0" cellpadding="6" cellspacing="4" summary="table of contents" width="100%"> +<tr><td align="left" style="width: 45%;">COVER DESIGN</td><td align="left" style="width: 45%;">H. W. WESSOLOWSKI</td><td style="width: 10%;"></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span style="padding-left: 3em;"><i>Painted in Water-colors from a Scene in "Monsters of Moyen."</i></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE MAN WHO WAS DEAD</td><td align="left">THOMAS H. KNIGHT</td><td align="right"><a href="#The_Man_Who_Was_Dead">9</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span style="padding-left: 3em;"><i>As Jerry's Eyes Fell on the Creature's Head, He Shuddered—for the Face Was Nothing +but Bone, with Dull-brown Skin Stretched Taut over It. A Skeleton That Was Alive!</i></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">MONSTERS OF MOYEN</td><td align="left">ARTHUR J. BURKS</td><td align="right"><a href="#Monsters_of_Moyen">18</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span style="padding-left: 3em;"><i>"The Western World Shall be Next!" Was the Dread Ultimatum of the Half-monster, Half-god Moyen.</i></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">VAMPIRES OF VENUS</td><td align="left">ANTHONY PELCHER</td><td align="right"><a href="#Vampires_of_Venus">47</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span style="padding-left: 3em;"><i>Leslie Larner, an Entomologist Borrowed from the Earth, Pits Himself Against the +Night-flying Vampires That Are Ravaging the Inhabitants of Venus.</i></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">BRIGANDS OF THE MOON</td><td align="left">RAY CUMMINGS</td><td align="right"><a href="#Brigands_of_the_Moon">60</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span style="padding-left: 3em;"><i>Out of Awful Space Tumbled the Space-ship Planetara Towards the Moon, Her +Officers Dead, With Bandits at Her Helm—and the Controls Out of Order!</i></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE SOUL SNATCHER</td><td align="left">TOM CURRY</td><td align="right"><a href="#The_Soul-Snatcher">101</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span style="padding-left: 3em;"><i>From Twenty Miles Away Stabbed the "Atom-filtering" Rays to Allen Baker in His Cell in the Death House.</i></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE RAY OF MADNESS</td><td align="left">CAPTAIN S. P. MEEK</td><td align="right"><a href="#The_Ray_of_Madness">112</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span style="padding-left: 3em;"><i>Dr. Bird Uncovers a Dastardly Plot, Amazing in its Mechanical Ingenuity, Behind +the Apparently Trivial Eye Trouble of the President.</i></span></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">THE READERS' CORNER</td><td align="left">ALL OF US</td><td align="right"><a href="#The_Readers_Corner">127</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left" colspan="2"><span style="padding-left: 3em;"><i>A Meeting Place for Readers of Astounding Stories.</i></span></td></tr> +</table></div> +<div class="u" style="margin-top: .5em;"> </div> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<div class="captionl">Single Copies, 20 Cents (In Canada, 25 Cents)</div> <div class="captionr">Yearly Subscription, $2.00</div> + +<div class="minispace"> </div> +<p>Issued monthly by Publishers' Fiscal Corporation, 80 Lafayette St., New York, N. Y. W. M. Clayton, President; +Nathan Goldmann, Secretary. Application for entry as second-class mail pending at the Post Office at +New York, 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 class="minispace"> </div> +<hr /> + +<h2 class="chapter3"><a name="The_Man_Who_Was_Dead" id="The_Man_Who_Was_Dead"></a>The Man Who<br /> +Was Dead</h2> + +<h2 class="chapter"><i>By Thomas H. Knight</i></h2> + +<div class="image"> +<img src="images/i009.jpg" width="544" height="551" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<h3 class="chapter2"><br /><i>"I was dead."</i></h3> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> + +<div class="sidenote">As Jerry's eyes fell on the creature's head, +he shuddered—for the face was nothing +but bone, with dull-brown skin stretched +taut over it. A skeleton that was alive!</div> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="upper">t</span> was a wicked night, the night I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +met the man who had died. A +bitter, heart-numbing night of +weird, shrieking wind and flying +snow. A few black hours I will never +forget.</p> + +<p>"Well, Jerry, +lad!" my mother +said to me as I +pushed back from +the table and +started for my sheepskin coat and the +lantern in the corner of the room. +"Surely you're not going out a night +like this? Goodness gracious, Jerry, +it's not fit!"</p> + +<p>"Can't help it, Mother," I replied. +"Got to go. You've never seen me miss +a Saturday night yet, have you now?"</p> + +<p>"No. But then I've never seen a night +like this for years either. Jerry, I'm +really afraid. You may freeze before +you even get as far as—"</p> + +<p>"Ah, come now, +Mother," I argued. +"They'd guy +me to death if I +didn't sit in with +the gang to-night. +They'd chaff me because it was too +cold for me to get out. But I'm no +pampered sissy, you know, and I want +to see—"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she retorted bitingly, "I know. +You want to go and bask in that elegant +company. Our stove's just as good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +as the one down at that dirty old +store," continued my persistent and +anxious parent, "and it's certainly not +very flattering to think that you leave +us on a night like this to—Who'll be +there, anyway?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, the usual five or six I suppose," +I answered as I adjusted the wick of +my lantern, hearing as I did the snarl +and cut of the wind through the evergreens +in the yard.</p> + +<p>"That black-whiskered sphinx, Hammersly, +will he be there?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he'll be there, I'm pretty sure."</p> + +<p>"Hm-m!" she exclaimed, her expression +now carrying all the contempt for my +judgment and taste she intended it +should. "Button your coat up good +around your neck, then, if you must go +to see your precious Hammersly and +the rest of them. Have you ever heard +that man say anything yet? Does he +speak at all, Jerry?" Then her gentle +mind, not at all accustomed to hard +thoughts or contemptuous remarks, +quickly changed. "Funny thing about +that fellow," she mused. "He's got +something on his mind. Don't you +think so, Jerry?"</p> + +<p>"Y-es, yes I do. And I've often wondered +what it could be. He certainly's +a queer stick. Got to admit that. Always +brooding. Good fellow all right, +and, for a 'sphinx' as you call him, likable. +But I wonder what is eating +him?"</p> + +<p>"What do you suppose it could be, +Jerry boy?" questioned Mother following +me to the door, the woman of her +now completely forgetting her recent +criticisms and, perhaps, the rough +night her son was about to step into. +"Do you suppose the poor chap has a—a—broken +heart, or something like +that? A girl somewhere who jilted +him? Or maybe he loves someone he +has no right to!" she finished excitedly, +the plates in her hand rattling.</p> + +<p>"Maybe it's worse than that," I ventured. +"P'r'aps—I've no right to say it—but +p'r'aps, and I've often thought it, +there's a killing he wants to forget, +and can't!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">heard</span> my mother's sharp little +"Oh!" as I shut the door behind me +and the warmth and comfort of the +room away. Outside it was worse than +the whistle of the wind through the +trees had led me to expect. Black as +pitch it was, and as cold as blazes. For +the first moment or two, though, I liked +the feel of the challenge of the night +and the racing elements, was even a +little glad I had added to the dare of +the blackness the thought of Hammersly +and his "killing." But I had not +gone far before I was wishing I did +not have to save my face by putting +in an appearance at the store that +night.</p> + +<p>Every Saturday night, with the cows +comfortable in their warm barn, and +my own supper over, I was in the habit +of taking my place on the keg or box +behind the red-hot stove in Pruett's +store. To-night all the snow was being +hurled clear of the fields to block +the roads full between the old, zigzag +fences. The wind met me in great +pushing gusts, and while it flung itself +at me I would hang against it, snow to +my knees, until the blow had gone +along, when I could plunge forward +again. I was glad when I saw the +lights of the store, glad when I was +inside.</p> + +<p>They met me with mock applause for +my pluck in facing the night, but for +all their sham flattery I was pleased I +had come, proud, I must admit, that I +had been able to plough my heavy way +through the drifts to reach them. I +saw at a glance that my friends were +all there, and I saw too that there was +a strange man present.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="upper">very</span> tall man he was, gaunt +and awkward as he leaned into +the angle of the two counters, his back +to a dusty show-case. He attracted my +attention at once. Not merely because +he appeared so long and pointed and +skinny, but because, of all ridiculous +things in that frozen country, he wore +a hard derby hat! If he had not been +such a queer character it would have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +been laughable, but as it was it was—creepy. +For the man beneath that hard +hat was about as queer a looking character +as I have ever seen. I supposed +he was a visitor at the store, or a friend +of one of my friends, and that in a little +while I would be introduced. But +I was not.</p> + +<p>I took my place in behind the stove, +feeling at once, though I am far from +being unsociable usually, that the man +was an intruder and would spoil the +evening. But despite his cold, dampening +presence we were soon at it, +hammer and tongs, discussing the +things that are discussed behind hospitable +stoves in country stores on bad +nights. But I could never lose sight +of the fact that the stranger standing +there, silent as the grave, was, to say +the least, a queer one. Before long I +was sure he was no friend or guest of +anyone there, and that he not only cast +a pall over me but over all of us. I +did not like it, nor did I like him. Perhaps +it would have been just as well +after all, I thought, had I heeded my +mother and stayed home.</p> + +<p>Jed Counsell was the one who, innocently +enough, started the thing that +changed the evening, that had begun +so badly, into a nightmare.</p> + +<p>"Jerry," he said, leaning across to +me, "thinkin' of you s'afternoon. +Readin' an article about reincarnation. +Remember we were arguin' it last +week? Well, this guy, whoever he was +I've forgot, believes in it. Says it's so. +That people <i>do</i> come back." With this +opening shot Jed sat back to await my +answer. I liked these arguments and +I liked to bear my share in them, but +now, instead of immediately answering +the challenge, I looked around to +see if any other of our circle were going +to answer Jed. Then, deciding it +was up to me, I shrugged off the +strange feeling the man in the corner +had cast over me, and prepared to view +my opinions.</p> + +<p>"That's just that fellow's belief, +Jed," I said. "And just as he's got his +so have I mine. And on this subject +at least I claim my opinion is as good +as anybody's." I was just getting +nicely started, and a little forgetting +my distaste for the man in the corner, +when the fellow himself interrupted. +He left his leaning place, and came +creaking across the floor to our circle +around the store. I say he came +"creaking" for as he came he did creak. +"Shoes," I naturally, almost unconsciously +decided, though the crazy notion +was in my mind that the cracking +I heard did sound like bones and joints +and sinews badly in need of oil. The +stranger sat his groaning self down +among us, on a board lying across a +nail keg and an old chair. Only from +the corner of my eye did I see his +movement, being friendly enough, despite +my dislike, not to allow too +marked notice of his attempt to be +sociable seem inhospitable on my part. +I was about to start again with my +argument when Seth Spears, sitting +closest to the newcomer, deliberately +got up from the bench and went to +the counter, telling Pruett as he +went that he had to have some sugar. +It was all a farce, a pretext, I knew. +I've known Seth for years and had +never known him before to take upon +himself the buying for his wife's +kitchen. Seth simply would not sit beside +the man.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">t</span> that I could keep my eyes from +the stranger no longer, and the +next moment I felt my heart turn over +within me, then lie still. I have seen +"walking skeletons" in circuses, but +never such a man as the one who was +then sitting at my right hand. Those +side-show men were just lean in comparison +to the fellow who had invaded +our Saturday night club. His thighs +and his legs and his knees, sticking +sharply into his trousers, looked like +pieces of inch board. His shoulders +and his chest seemed as flat and as +sharp as his legs. The sight of the +man shocked me. I sprang to my feet +thoroughly frightened. I could not +see much of his face, sitting there in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span> +the dark as he was with his back to +the yellow light, but I could make out +enough of it to know that it was in +keeping with the rest of him.</p> + +<p>In a moment or two, realizing my +childishness, I had fought down my +fear and, pretending that a scorching +of my leg had caused my hurried movement, +I sat down again. None of the +others said a word, each waiting for +me to continue and to break the embarrassing +silence. Hammersly, black-whiskered, +the "sphinx" as my mother +had called him, watched me closely. +Hating myself not a little bit for actually +being the sissy I had boasted I +was not, I spoke hurriedly, loudly, to +cover my confusion.</p> + +<p>"No sir, Jed!" I said, taking up my +argument. "When a man's dead, he's +dead! There's no bringing him back +like that highbrow claimed. The old +heart may be only hitting about once +in every hundred times, and if they +catch it right at the last stroke they +may bring it back then, but once she's +stopped, Jed, she's stopped for good. +Once the pulse has gone, and life has +flickered out, it's out. And it doesn't +come back in any form at all, not in +this world!"</p> + +<p>I was glad when I had said it, thereby +asserting myself and downing my +foolish fear of the man whose eyes I +felt burning into me. I did not turn +to look at him but all the while I felt +his gimlety eyes digging into my brain.</p> + +<p>Then he spoke. And though he sat +right next to me his voice sounded like +a moan from afar off. It was the first +time we had heard this thing that once +may have been a voice and that now +sounded like a groan from a closely +nailed coffin. He reached a hand toward +my knee to enforce his words, but +I jerked away.</p> + +<p>"So you don't believe a man can come +back from the grave, eh?" he grated. +"Believe that once a man's heart is +stilled it's stopped for good, eh? Well, +you're all wrong, sonny. All wrong! +You believe these things. I <i>know</i> +them!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="upper">is</span> interference, his condescension, +his whole hatefulness angered +me. I could now no longer control +my feeling. "Oh! You <i>know</i>, +do you?" I sneered. "On such a subject +as this you're entitled to <i>know</i>, are +you? Don't make me laugh!" I finished +insultingly. I was aroused. And +I'm a big fellow, with no reason to +fear ordinary men.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know!" came back his echoing, +scratching voice.</p> + +<p>"How do you know? Maybe you've +been—?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have!" he answered, his voice +breaking to a squeak. "Take a good +look at me, gentlemen. A good look." +He knew now that he held the center +of the stage, that the moment was his. +Slowly he raised an arm to remove that +ridiculous hat. Again I jumped to my +feet. For as his coat sleeve slipped +down his forearm I saw nothing but +bone supporting his hand. And the +hand that then bared his head was a +skeleton hand! Slowly the hat was +lifted, but as quickly as light six able-bodied +men were on their feet and +half way to the door before we realized +the cowardliness of it. We forced +ourselves back inside the store very +slowly, all of us rather ashamed of our +ridiculous and childlike fear.</p> + +<p>But it was all enough to make the +blood curdle, with that live, dead thing +sitting there by our fire. His face and +skull were nothing but bone, the eyes +deeply sunk into their sockets, the dull-brown +skin like parchment in its +tautness, drawn and shriveled down +onto the nose and jaw. There were +no cheeks. Just hollows. The mouth +was a sharp slit beneath the flat nose. +He was hideous.</p> + +<p>"Come back and I'll tell you my +yarn," he mocked, the slit that was his +mouth opening a little to show us the +empty, blackened gums. "I've been +dead once," he went on, getting a lot +of satisfaction from the weirdness of +the lie and from our fear, "and <i>I</i> came +back. Come and sit down and I'll explain +why I'm this living skeleton."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span></p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="upper">e</span> came back slowly, and as I +did I slipped my hand into my +outside pocket where I had a revolver. +I put my finger in on the trigger and +got ready to use the vicious little +thing. I was on edge and torn to +pieces completely by the sight of the +man, and I doubt not that had he made +a move towards me my frayed nerves +would have plugged him full of lead. +I eyed my friends. They were in no +better way than was I. Fright and horror +stood on each face. Hammersly +was worst. His hands were twitching, +his eyes were like bright glass, his face +bleached and drawn.</p> + +<p>"I've quite a yarn to tell," went on +the skeleton in his awful voice. "I've +had quite a life. A full life. I've taken +my fun and my pleasure wherever I +could. Maybe you'll call me selfish +and greedy, but I always used to believe +that a man only passed this way +once. Just like you believe," he nodded +to me, his neck muscles and jaws +creaking. "Six years ago I came up +into this country and got a job on a +farm," he went on, settling into his +story. "Just an ordinary job. But I +liked it because the farmer had a pretty +little daughter of about sixteen or seventeen +and as easy as could be. You +may not believe it, but you can still +find dames green enough to fall for the +right story.</p> + +<p>"This one did. I told her I was only +out there for a time for my health. +That I was rich back in the city, with +a fine home and everything. She believed +me. Little fool!" He chuckled +as he said it, and my anger, mounting +with his every devilish word, made the +finger on the trigger in my pocket take +a tighter crook to itself. "I asked her +to skip with me," the droning went on, +"made her a lot of great promises, and +she fell for it." His dry jaw bones +clanked and chattered as if he enjoyed +the beastly recital of his achievement, +while we sat gaping at him, believing +either that the man must be mad, or +that we were the mad ones, or dreaming.</p> + +<p>"We slipped away one night," continued +the beast. "Went to the city. +To a punk hotel. For three weeks we +stayed there. Then one morning I told +her I was going out for a shave. I was. +I got the shave. But I hadn't thought +it worth while to tell her I wouldn't +be back. Well, she got back to the +farm some way, though I don't +know—"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="upper">hat</span>!" I shouted, springing +before him. "What! You +mean you left her there! After you'd +taken her, you left her! And here you +sit crowing over it! Gloating! Boasting! +Why you—!" I lived in a rough +country. Associated with rough men, +heard their vicious language, but seldom +used a strong word myself. But +as I stood over that monster, utterly +hating the beastly thing, all the vile +oaths and prickly language of the countryside, +no doubt buried in some unused +cell in my brain, spilled from my +tongue upon him. When I had lashed +him as fiercely as I was able I cried: +"Why don't you come at me? Didn't +you hear what I called you? You beast! +I'd like to riddle you!" I shouted, drawing +my gun.</p> + +<p>"Aw, sit down!" he jeered, waving +his rattling hand at me. "You ain't +heard a thing yet. Let me finish. +Well, she got back to the farm some +way or another, and something over a +year later I wandered into this country +again too. I never could explain +just why I came back. It was not altogether +to see the girl. Her father was +a little bit of a man and I began to +remember what a meek and weak sheep +he was. I got it into my head that +it'd be fun to go back to his farm and +rub it in. So I came.</p> + +<p>"Her father was trying out a new +corn planter right at the back door +when I rounded the house and walked +towards him. Then I saw, at once, +that I had made a mistake. When he +put his eyes on me his face went white +and hard. He came down from the seat +of that machine like a flash, and took<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +hurried steps in the direction of a +doublebarrelled gun leaning against +the woodshed. They always were +troubled with hawks and kept a gun +handy. But there was an ax nearer to +me than the gun was to him. I had +to work fast but I made it all right. +I grabbed that ax, jumped at him as +he reached for the gun, and swung—once. +His wife, and the girl too, saw +it. Then I turned and ran."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> gaunt brute before us slowly +crossed one groaning knee above +the other. We were all sitting again +now. The perspiration rolled down my +face. I held my gun trained upon him, +and, though I now believed he was totally +mad, because of a certain ring of +truth in that empty voice, I sat fascinated. +I looked at Seth. His jaw +was hanging loose, his eyes bulging. +Hammersly's mouth was set in a tight +clenched line, his eyes like fire in his +blue, drawn face. I could not see the +others.</p> + +<p>"The telephone caught me," continued +our ghastly story-teller, "and in +no time at all I was convicted and the +date set for the hanging. When my +time was pretty close a doctor or scientist +fellow came to see me who said, +'Blaggett, you're slated to die. How +much will you sell me your body for?' +If he didn't say it that way he meant +just that. And I said, 'Nothing. I've +no one to leave money to. What do +you want with my body?' And he told +me, 'I believe I can bring you back to +life and health, provided they don't +snap your neck when they drop you.' +'Oh, you're one of <i>those</i> guys, are you?' +I said then. 'All right, hop to it. If +you can do it I'll be much obliged. +Then I can go back on that farm and +do a little more ax swinging!'" Again +came his horrible chuckle, again I +mopped my brow.</p> + +<p>"So we made our plans," he went on, +pleased with our discomfiture and our +despising of him. "Next day some +chap came to see me, pretending he +was my brother. And I carried out +my part of it by cursing him at first +and then begging him to give me decent +burial. So he went away, and, I +suppose, received permission to get me +right after I was cut down.</p> + +<p>"There was a fence built around the +scaffold they had ready for me and the +party I was about to fling, and they +had some militia there, too. The crowd +seemed quiet enough till they led me +out. Then their buzzing sounded like +a hive of bees getting all stirred up. +Then a few loud voices, then shouts. +Some rocks came flying at me after +that, and it looked to me as though the +hanging would not be so gentle a party +after all. I tell you I was afraid. I +wished it was over.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> mob pushed against the +fence and flattened it out, coming +over it like waves over a beach. +The soldiers fired into the air, but still +they came, and I, I ran—up, onto the +scaffold. It was safer!" As he said +this he chuckled loudly. "I'll bet," he +laughed, "that's the first time a guy +ever ran into the noose for the safety +of it! The mob came only to the foot +of the scaffold though, from where they +seemed satisfied to see the law take its +course. The sheriff was nervous. So +cut up that he only made a fling at +tying my ankles, just dropped a rope +around my wrists. He was like me, +he wanted to get it over, and the crowd +on its way. Then he put the rope +around my neck, stepped back and shot +the trap. Zamm! No time for a prayer—or +for me to laugh at the offer!—or +a last word or anything.</p> + +<p>"I felt the floor give, felt myself +shoot through. Smack! My weight +on the end of the rope hit me behind +the ears like a mallet. Everything +went black. Of course it would have +been just my luck to get a broken neck +out of it and give the scientist no +chance to revive me. But after a second +or two, or a minute, or it could +have been an hour, the blackness went +away enough to allow me to know I +was hanging on the end of the rope,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +kicking, fighting, choking to death. My +tongue swelled, my face and head +and heart and body seemed ready +to burst. Slowly I went into a deep +mist that I knew then was <i>the</i> mist, +then—then—I was off floating in the +air over the heads of the crowd, watching +my own hanging!</p> + +<p>"I saw them give that slowly swinging +carcass on the end of its rope time +enough to thoroughly die, then, from +my aerial, unseen watching place, I +saw them cut it—me—down. They +tried the pulse of the body that had +been mine, they examined my staring +eyes. Then I heard them pronounce +me dead. The fools! I had known I +was dead for a minute or two by that +time, else how could my spirit have +been gone from the shell and be out +floating around over their heads?"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="upper">e</span> paused here as he asked his +question, his head turning on its +dry and creaking neck to include us +all in his query. But none of us spoke. +We were dreaming it all, of course, or +were mad, we thought.</p> + +<p>"In just a short while," went on the +skeleton, "my 'brother' came driving +slowly in for my body. With no special +hurry he loaded me onto his little +truck and drove easily away. But once +clear of the crowd he pushed his foot +down on the gas and in five more minutes—with +me hovering all the while +alongside of him, mind you—floating +along as though I had been a bird all +my life—we turned into the driveway +of a summer home. The scientific guy +met him. They carried me into the +house, into a fine-fitted laboratory. My +dead body was placed on a table, a +huge knife ripped my clothes from me.</p> + +<p>"Quickly the loads from ten or a +dozen hypodermic syringes were shot +into different parts of my naked body. +Then it was carried across the room +to what looked like a large glass bottle, +or vase, with an opening in the +top. Through this door I was lowered, +my body being held upright by straps +in there for that purpose. The door +to the opening was then placed in +position, and by means of an acetylene +torch and some easily melting glass, +the door was sealed tight.</p> + +<p>"So there stood my poor old body. +Ready for the experiment to bring it +back to life. And as my new self +floated around above the scientist and +his helper I smiled to myself, for I +was sure the experiment would prove +a failure, even though I now knew that +the sheriff's haste had kept him from +placing the rope right at my throat +and had saved me a broken neck. I +was dead. All that was left of me now +was my spirit, or soul. And that was +swimming and floating about above +their heads with not an inclination in +the world to have a thing to do with +the husk of the man I could clearly +see through the glass of the bell.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">hey</span> turned on a huge battery +of ultra-violet rays then," continued +the hollow droning of the man +who had been hanged, "which, as the +scientist had explained to me while in +prison, acting upon the contents of the +syringes, by that time scattered +through my whole body, was to renew +the spark of life within the dead thing +hanging there. Through a tube, and +by means of a valve entering the glass +vase in the top, the scientist then admitted +a dense white gas. So thick +was it that in a moment or two my +body's transparent coffin appeared to +be full of a liquid as white as milk. +Electricity then revolved my cage +around so that my body was insured a +complete and even exposure to the +rays of the green and violet lamps. +And while all this silly stuff was going +on, around and around the laboratory +I floated, confident of the complete +failure of the whole thing, yet determined +to see it through if for no +other reason than to see the discomfiture +and disappointment that this +mere man was bound to experience. You +see, I was already looking back upon +earthly mortals as being inferior, and +now as I waited for this proof I was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span> +all the while fighting off a new urge +to be going elsewhere. Something was +calling me, beckoning me to be coming +into the full spirit world. But I wanted +to see this wise earth guy fail.</p> + +<p>"For a little while conditions stayed +the same within that glass. So thick +was the liquid gas in there at first that +I could see nothing. Then it began +to clear, and I saw to my surprise that +the milky gas was disappearing because +it was being forced in by the rays +from the lights in through the pores into +the body itself. As though my form +was sucking it in like a sponge. The +scientist and his helper were tense and +taut with excitement. And suddenly +my comfortable feeling left me. Until +then it had seemed so smooth and +velvety and peaceful drifting around +over their heads, as though lying on a +soft, fleecy cloud. But now I felt a +sudden squeezing of my spirit body. +Then I was in an agony. Before I +knew what I was doing my spirit was +clinging to the outside of that twisting +glass bell, clawing to get into the +body that was coming back to life! The +glass now was perfectly clear of the +gas, though as yet there was no sign +of life in the body inside to hint to the +scientist that he was to be successful. +But I knew it. For I fought desperately +to break in through the glass +to get back into my discarded shell of +a body again, knowing I must get in +or die a worse death than I had before.</p> + +<p>"Then my sharper eyes noted a +slight shiver passing over the white +thing before me, and the scientist must +have seen it in the next second, for he +sprang forward with a choking cry of +delight. Then the lolling head inside +lifted a bit. I—still desperately clinging +with my spirit hands to the outside, +and all the time growing weaker +and weaker—I saw the breast of my +body rise and fall. The assistant +picked up a heavy steel hammer and +stood ready to crash open the glass at +the right moment. Then my once dead +eyes opened in there to look around, +while I, clinging and gasping outside, +just as I had on the scaffold, went into +a deeper, darker blackness than ever. +Just before my spirit life died utterly +I saw the eyes of my body realize completely +what was going on, then—from +the inside now—I saw the scientist +give the signal that caused the assistant +to crash away the glass shell +with one blow of his hammer.</p> + +<p>"They reached in for me then, and +I fainted. When I came back to consciousness +I was being carefully, +slowly revived, and nursed back to life +by oxygen and a pulmotor."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> terrible creature telling us +this tale paused again to look +around. My knees were weak, my +clothes wet with sweat.</p> + +<p>"Is that all?" I asked in a piping, +strange voice, half sarcastic, half unbelieving, +and wholly spellbound.</p> + +<p>"Just about," he answered. "But +what do you expect? I left my friend +the scientist at once, even though he +did hate to see me go. It had been +all right while he was so keen on the +experiment himself and while he only +half believed his ability to bring me +back. But now that he'd done it, it +kinda worried him to think what sort +of a man he was turning loose of the +world again. I could see how he was +figuring, and because I had no idea of +letting him try another experiment on +me, p'r'aps of putting me away again, +I beat it in a hurry.</p> + +<p>"That was five years ago. For five +years I've lived with only just part of +me here. Whatever it was trying to +get back into that glass just before my +body came to life—my spirit, I've been +calling it—I've been without. It never +did get back. You see, the scientist +brought me back inside a shell that +kept my spirit out. That's why I'm +the skeleton you see I am. Something +vital is missing."</p> + +<p>He stood up cracking and creaking +before us, buttoning his loose coat +about his angular body. "Well, boys," +he asked lightly, "what do you think +of that?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I think you're a liar! A damn +liar!" I cried. "And now, if you don't +want me to fill you full of lead, get +out of here and get out now! If I have +to do it to you, there's no scientist this +time to bring you back. When you go +out you'll stay out!"</p> + +<p>"Don't worry," he grimaced back to +me, waving a mass of bones that should +have been a hand contemptuously at +me, "I'm going. I'm headed for +Shelton." He stalked the length of the +floor and shut the door behind him. +The beast had gone.</p> + +<p>"The dirty liar!" I cried. "I wish—yes—I +wish I had an excuse to kill +him. Just think of that being loose, +will you? A brute who would think +up such a yarn! Of course it's all +absurd. All crazy. All a lie."</p> + +<p>"No. It's not a lie."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">turned</span> to see who had spoken. +Hammersly's voice was so unfamiliar +and now so torn in addition +that I could not have thought he had +spoken, had he not been looking right +at me, his glittering eyes challenging +my assertion. Would wonders never +cease? I asked myself. First this outrageous +yarn, now Hammersly, the +"sphinx," expressing an opinion, looking +for an argument! Of course it +must be that his susceptible and brooding +brain had been turned a bit by the +evening we had just experienced.</p> + +<p>"Why Hammersly! You don't believe +it?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I not only believe it, Jerry, but now +it's my turn to say, as he did, I <i>know</i> +it! Jerry, old friend," he went on, +"that devil told the truth. He was +hanged. He was brought back to life; +and Jerry—I was that scientist!"</p> + +<p>Whew! I fell back to a box again. +My knees seemed to forsake me. Then +I heard Hammersly talking to himself.</p> + +<p>"Five years it's been," he muttered. +"Five years since I turned him loose +again. Five years of agony for me, +wondering what new devilish crimes +he was perpetrating, wondering when +he would return to that little farm to +swing his ax again. Five years—five +years."</p> + +<p>He came over to me, and without a +word of explanation or to ask my permission +he reached his hand into my +pocket and drew out my revolver, and +I did not protest.</p> + +<p>"He said he was headed for Shelton," +went on Hammersly's spoken thoughts. +"If I slip across the ice I can intercept +him at Black's woods." Buttoning his +coat closely, he followed the stranger +out into the night.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">was</span> glad the moon had come up +for my walk home, glad too when +I had the door locked and propped +with a chair behind me. I undressed +in the dark, not wanting any grisly, +sunken-eyed monster to be looking in +through the window at me. For maybe, +so I thought, maybe he was after all +not headed for Shelton, but perhaps +planning on another of his ghastly +tricks.</p> + +<p>But in the morning we knew he had +been going toward Shelton. Scientists, +doctors, and learned men of all descriptions +came out to our village to +see the thing the papers said Si Waters +had stumbled upon when on his +way to the creamery that next morning.</p> + +<p>It was a skeleton, they said, only +that it had a dry skin all over it. +A mummy. Could not have been considered +capable of containing life only +that the snow around it was lightly +blotched with a pale smear that proved +to be blood, that had oozed out from +the six bullet holes in the horrid chest. +They never did solve it.</p> + +<p>There were five of us in the store +that night. Five of us who know. +Hammersly did what we all wanted to +do. Of course his name is not really +Hammersly, but it has done here as +well as another. He is black-whiskered +though, and he is still very much of +a sphinx, but he'll never have to answer +for having killed the man he once +brought back to life. Hammersly's +secret will go into five other graves besides +his own.</p> + + +<hr /> + +<div class="image"> +<img src="images/i018.jpg" width="567" height="600" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>"Now," said Kleig hoarsely,<br /> +"watch closely, for God's sake!"</i></h3> + +<h2 class="chapter3"><a name="Monsters_of_Moyen" id="Monsters_of_Moyen"></a>Monsters of Moyen</h2> + +<h2 class="chapter"><i>By Arthur J. Burks</i></h2> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>Foreword</i></h3> + + +<div class="sidenote">"The Western World shall be next!" was +the dread ultimatum of the half-monster, +half-god Moyen!</div> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="upper">n</span> 1935 the mighty genius of Moyen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +gripped the Eastern world like +a hand of steel. In a matter of +months he had welded the Orient +into an unbeatable war-machine. He +had, through the sheer magnetism of a +strange personality, +carried the +Eastern world +with him on his +march to conquest +of the earth, and men followed +him with blind faith as men in the +past have followed the banners of the +Thaumaturgists.</p> + +<p>A strange name, to the sound of +which none could assign nationality. +Some said his father was a Russian +refugee, his mother a Mongol woman. +Some said he was +the son of a Caucasian +woman lost +in the Gobi and +rescued by a mad<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +lama of Tibet, who became father of +Moyen. Some said that his mother was +a goddess, his father a fiend out of hell.</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<div class="image"> +<img src="images/i019.jpg" width="520" height="594" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<div class="microspace"> </div> + +<p>But this all men knew about him: +that he combined within himself the +courage of a Hannibal, the military +genius of a Napoleon, the ideals of a +Sun Yat Sen; and that he had sworn +to himself he would never rest until +the earth was peopled by a single +nation, with Moyen himself in the seat +of the mighty ruler.</p> + +<p>Madagascar was the seat of his government, +from which he looked across +into United Africa, the first to join +his confederacy. The Orient was a +dependency, even to that forbidden +land of the Goloks, where outlanders +sometimes went, but whence they never +returned—and to the wild Goloks he +was a god whose will was absolute, to +render obedience to whom was a privilege +accorded only to the Chosen.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="upper">n</span> a short year his confederacy had +brought under his might the millions +of Asia, which he had welded +into a mighty machine for further conquest.</p> + +<p>And because the Americas saw the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +handwriting on the wall, they sent out +to see the man Moyen, with orders to +penetrate to his very side, as a spy, +their most trusted Secret Agent—Prester +Kleig.</p> + +<p>Only the ignorant believed that +Moyen was mad. The military and +diplomatic geniuses of the world recognized +his genius, and resented it.</p> + +<p>But Prester Kleig, of the Secret Service +of the Americas, one of the <i>few</i> +men whose headquarters were in the +Secret Room in Washington, had +reached Moyen.</p> + +<p>Now he was coming home.</p> + +<p>He came home to tell his people what +Moyen was planning, and to admit that +his investigations had been hampered +at every turn by the uncanny genius +of Moyen. Military plans had been +guarded with unbelievable secrecy. +War machines he knew to exist, yet +had seen only those common to all the +armies of the world.</p> + +<p>And now, twenty-four hours out of +New York City, aboard the <i>S. S. Stellar</i>, +Prester Kleig was literally willing the +steamer to greater speed—and in far +Madagascar the strange man called +Moyen had given the ultimatum:</p> + +<p>"The Western World shall be next!"</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER I</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>The Hand of Moyen.</i></h3> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="upper">ho</span> is that man?" asked a +young lady passenger of the +steward, with the imperious inflection +which tells of riches able to force +obedience from menials who labor for +hire.</p> + +<p>She pointed a bejeweled finger at the +slender, soldierly figure which stood in +the prow of the liner, like a figurehead, +peering into the storm under the vessel's +forefoot.</p> + +<p>"That gentleman, milady?" repeated +the steward obsequiously. "That is +Prester Kleig, head of the Secret +Agents, Master of the Secret Room, +just now returning from Madagascar, +via Europe, after a visit to the realm +of Moyen."</p> + +<p>A gasp of terror burst from the lips +of the woman. Her cheeks blanched.</p> + +<p>"Moyen!" She almost whispered it. +"Moyen! The half-god of Asia, whom +men call mad!"</p> + +<p>"Not mad, milady. No, Moyen is not +mad, save with a lust for power. He +is the conqueror of the ages, already +ruling more of the earth's population +than any man has ever done before him—even +Alexander!"</p> + +<p>But the young lady was not listening +to stewards. Wealthy young ladies did +not, save when asked questions dealing +with personal service to themselves. +Her eyes devoured the slender man +who stood in the prow of the <i>Stellar</i>, +while her lips shaped, over and over +again, the dread name which was on +the lips of the people of the world:</p> + +<p>"Moyen! Moyen!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">U</span><span class="span">p</span> in the prow, if Prester Kleig, +who carried a dread secret in his +breast, knew of the young lady's regard, +he gave no sign. There were +touches of gray at his temples, though +he was still under forty. He had seen +more of life, knew more of its terrors, +than most men twice his age—because +he had lived harshly in service to his +country.</p> + +<p>He was thinking of Moyen, the +genius of the misshapen body, the pale +eyes which reflected the fires of a +Satanic soul, set deeply in the midst +of the face of an angel; and wondering +if he would be able to arrive in time, +sorry that he had not returned home +by airplane.</p> + +<p>He had taken the <i>Stellar</i> only because +the peacefulness of ocean liner travel +would aid his thoughts, and he required +time to marshal them. Liner +travel was now a luxury, as all save +the immensely wealthy traveled by +plane across the oceans. Now Prester +Kleig was sorry, for any moment, he +felt, Moyen might strike.</p> + +<p>He turned and looked back along the +deck of the <i>Stellar</i>. His eyes played +over the trimly gowned figure of the +woman who questioned the steward,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +but did not really see her. And then....</p> + +<p>"Great God!" The words were a +prayer, and they burst from the lips +of Prester Kleig like an explosion. +Passengers appeared from the lee of +lifeboats. Officers on the bridge +whirled to look at the man who +shouted. Seamen paused in their labors +to stare. Aloft in the crow's-nest the +lookout lowered his eyes from scouring +the horizon to stare at Prester Kleig—who +was pointing.</p> + +<p>All eyes turned in the direction indicated.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span><span class="upper">limbing</span> into the sky, a mile off +the starboard beam, was an airplane +with a bulbous body and queerly +slanted wings. It had neither wheels +nor pontoons, and it traveled with unbelievable +speed. It came on bullet-fast, +headed directly for the side of +the <i>Stellar</i>.</p> + +<p>"Lower the boats!" yelled Kleig. +"Lower the boats! For God's sake lower +the boats!"</p> + +<p>For Prester Kleig, in that casual +turning, had seen what none aboard +the <i>Stellar</i>, even the lookout above, had +seen. The airplane, which had neither +wheels nor pontoons, had risen, as +Aphrodite is said to have risen, out of +the waves! He had seen the wings +come out of the bulbous body, snap +backward into place, and the plane was +in full flight the instant it appeared.</p> + +<p>Prester Kleig had no hope that his +warning would be in time, but he +would always feel better for having +given it. As the captain debated with +himself as to whether this lunatic +should be confined as dangerous, the +strange airplane nosed over and dived +down to the sea, a hundred yards from +the side of the <i>Stellar</i>. Just before it +struck the water, its wings snapped +forward and became part of the bulbous +body of the thing, the whole of which +shot like a bullet into the sea.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">P</span><span class="upper">rester Kleig</span> stood at the +rail, peering out at the spot where +the plane had plunged in with scarcely +a splash, and his right hand was raised +as though he gave a final, despairing +signal.</p> + +<p>Of all aboard the <i>Stellar</i>, he only +saw that black streak which, ten feet +under water, raced like a bolt of lightning +from the nose of the submerged +but visible plane, straight as a die for +the side of the <i>Stellar</i>. Just a black +streak, no bigger than a small man's +arm, from the nose of the plane to the +side of the <i>Stellar</i>.</p> + +<p>From the crow's-nest came the +startled, terrific voice of the lookout, +in the beginning of a cry that must +remain forever inarticulate.</p> + +<p>The world, in that blinding moment, +seemed to rock on its foundations; to +shatter itself to bits in a chaotic jumble +of sound and of movement, shot through +and through with lurid flames. Kleig +felt himself hurled upward and outward, +turned over and over endlessly....</p> + +<p>He felt the storm-tossed waters close +over him, and knew he had struck. In +the moment he knew—oblivion, deep, +ebon and impenetrable, blotted out +knowledge.</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER II</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>The Half-Dream</i></h3> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="upper">roaring</span>, rushing river of chaotic +sound, first. Jumbled sound +to which Prester Kleig could give no +adequate name. But as he tried to +analyze its meanings, he was able to +differentiate between sounds, and to +discover the identity of some.</p> + +<p>The river of sound he decided to be +the sound of a vibrational explosion +of some sort—vibrational because it +had that quivery quality which causes +a feeling of uneasiness and fret, that +feeling which makes one turn and look +around to find the eyes boring into +one's back—yet multiplied in its intensity +an uncounted number of times.</p> + +<p>Other sounds which came through +the chaotic river of sound were the +terrified screaming of the men and +women who were doomed. Lifeboats +were never lowered, for the reason that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +with the disintegration of the <i>Stellar</i>, +everything inanimate aboard her likewise +disintegrated, dropping men and +women, crew and passengers, into the +freezing waters of the Atlantic.</p> + +<p>Prester Kleig dropped with them, +only partially unconscious after the +first icy plunge. He knew when he +floated on the surface, for he felt himself +lifted and hurled by the waves. +In his half-dream he saw men and +women being carried away into wave-shrouded +darkness, clawing wildly at +nothingness for support, clawing at +one another, locking arms, and going +down together.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> <i>Stellar</i>, in the merest matter +of seconds, had become spoil of +the sea, and her crew and passengers +had vanished forever from the sight +of men. Yet Prester Kleig lived on, +knew that he lived on, and that there +was an element, too strong to be disbelieved, +of reality in his dream.</p> + +<p>There was a vibratory sense, too, as +of the near activity of a noiseless +motor. Noiseless motor! Where had +he last thought of those two words? +With what recent catastrophe were +they associated? No, he could not recall, +though he knew he should be able +to do so.</p> + +<p>Then the sense of motion to the +front was apparent—an unnumbered +sense, rather than concrete feeling. +Motion to front, influenced by the rising +and falling motion of mountainous +waves.</p> + +<p>So suddenly as to be a distinct shock, +the wave motion ceased, though the +forward motion—and <i>upward!</i>—not +only continued but increased.</p> + +<p>That airplane of the bulbous body, +the queerly slanted wings....</p> + +<p>But the glimmering of realization +vanished as a sickishly sweet odor assailed +his nostrils and sent its swift-moving +tentacles upward to wrap themself +soothingly about his brain. But the +sense of flight, unbelievably swift, was +present and recognizable, though all +else eluded him. He had the impression, +however, that it was intended that +all save the most vagrant, most widely +differentiated, impressions elude him—that +he should acquire only half pictures, +which would therefore be all the +more terrible in retrospect.</p> + +<p>The only impressions which were +real were those of motion to the front, +and upward, and the sense of noiseless +machinery, vibrating the whole, nearby.</p> + +<p>Then a distinct realization of the +cessation of the sense of flying, and +a return, though in lesser degree, of +the rising and falling of waves. This +latter sensation became less and less, +though the feeling of traveling downward +continued. Prester Kleig knew +that he was going down into the sea +again, down into it deeply.... Then +that odor once more, and the elusive +memory.</p> + +<p>Forward motion at last, in the depths, +swift, forward motion, though Prester +Kleig could not even guess at the +direction. Just swift motion, and the +mutter of voices, the giving of orders....</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">P</span><span class="upper">rester Kleig</span> regained consciousness +fully on the sands of +the shore. He sat up stiffly, staring out +to sea. A storm was raging, and the sea +was an angry waste. No ship showed +on the waters; the mad, tumbled sky +above it was either empty of planes +or they had climbed to invisibility +above the clouds that raced and +churned with the storm.</p> + +<p>Out of the storm, almost at Prester +Kleig's feet, dropped a small airplane. +Through the window a familiar face +peered at Kleig. A helmeted, begoggled +figure opened the door and stepped +out.</p> + +<p>"Kleig, old man," said the flyer, "you +gave me the right dope all right, but +I'll swear there isn't a wireless tower +within a hundred miles of this place! +How did you manage it?"</p> + +<p>"Kane, you're crazy, or I am, or...." +But Prester Kleig could not go on with +the thought which had rushed through +his brain with the numbing impact of +a blow. He grasped the hand of Carlos<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +Kane, of the Domestic Service, and +the yellow flimsy Kane held out to him. +It read simply:</p> + +<p>"Shipwrecked. Am ashore at—" +There followed grid coordinate map +readings. "Come at once, prepared to +fly me to Washington." It was signed +"Kleig."</p> + +<p>"Kane," said Kleig, "I did not send +this message!"</p> + +<p>What more was there to be said? +Horror looked out of the eyes of Prester +Kleig, and was reflected in those +of Carlos Kane. Both men turned, +peering out across the tumbled welter +of waters.</p> + +<p>Somewhere out there, tight-locked in +the gloomy archives of the Atlantic, +was the secret of the message which +had brought Carlos Kane to Prester +Kleig—and the agency which had +sent it.</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER III</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>Wings of To-morrow</i></h3> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">s</span> Prester Kleig climbed into the +enclosed passenger pit of the +monoplane—a Mayther—his ears +seemed literally to be ringing with the +drumming, mighty voice of Moyen. +But now that voice, instead of merely +speaking, rang with sardonic laughter. +He had never heard the laughter of +Moyen, but he could guess how it +would sound.</p> + +<p>That airplane of the slanted wings, +the bulbous, almost bulletlike fuselage, +what of it? It was simple, as Kleig +looked back at his memoried glimpse +of it. The submarine was a metal fish +made with human hands; the airplane +aped the birds. The strange ship which +had caused the destruction of the +<i>Stellar</i>, was a combination fish and +bird—which merely aped nature a bit +further, as anyone who had ever +traversed tropical waters would have +instantly recognized.</p> + +<p>But what did it portend? What +ghastly terrors of Moyen roamed the +deeps of the Atlantic, of the Pacific, +the oceans of the world? How close +were some of these to the United +States?</p> + +<p>The pale eyes of Moyen, he was sure, +were already turned toward the West.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">P</span><span class="upper">rester Kleig</span> sighed as he +seated himself beside Carlos Kane. +Then Kane pressed one of the myriad +of buttons on the dash, and Kleig lifted +his eyes to peer through the skylight, +to where that single press of a button +had set in motion the intricate +machinery of the helicopter.</p> + +<p>A four-bladed fan lifted on a slender +pedestal, sufficiently high above the +surface of the wing for the vanes to +be free of the central propeller. Then, +automatically, the vanes became invisible, +and the Mayther lifted from +the sandy beach as lightly, and far +more straightly, than any bird.</p> + +<p>As the ship climbed away for the +skies, and through the transparent floor +the beach and the Atlantic fell away +below the ship, a sigh of relief escaped +Kleig. This was living! Up here one +was free, if only for a moment, and +the swift wind of flight brushed all +cobwebs from the tired human brain. +He watched the slender needle of the +altimeter, as it moved around the face +of the dial as steadily as the hands of +a clock, around to thirty thousand, +thirty-five, forty.</p> + +<p>Then Carlos Kane, every movement +as effortless as the flight of the silvery +winged Mayther, thrust forth his hand +to the dash again, pressed another button. +Instantly the propellers vanished +into a blur as the vanes of the helicopter +dropped down the slender staff +and the vanes themselves fitted snugly +into their appointed notches atop the +wing.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">F</span><span class="upper">or</span> a second Carlos Kane glanced +at the tiny map to the right of +the dash, and set his course. It was a +matter of moments only, but while +Kane worked, Prester Kleig studied the +instruments on the dash, for it had been +months since he had flown, save for his +recent half-dreamlike experience. There<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +was a button which released the +mechanism of the deadly guns, fired by +compressed air, all operated from the +noiseless motor, whose muzzles exactly +cleared the tips of Mayther's wings, +two guns to each wing, one on the entering +edge, one on the trailing edge, +fitted snugly into the adamant rigging.</p> + +<p>Four guns which could fire to right +or left, twin streams of lead, the number +of rounds governed only by the +carrying power of the Mayther. Prester +Kleig knew them all: the guns in the +wings, the guns which fired through +the three propellers, and the guns set +two and two in the fuselage, to right +and left of the pits, which could be +fixed either up or down—all by the +mere pressing of buttons. It was +marvelous, miraculous, yet even as +Kleig told himself that this was so, he +felt, deep in the heart of him, that +Moyen knew all about ships like these, +and regarded them as the toys of +children.</p> + +<p>Kane touched Kleig on the shoulder, +signaling, indicating that the atmosphere +in the pits had been regulated +to their new height, and that they +could remove their helmets and oxygen +tanks without danger.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="upper">ith</span> a sigh Prester Kleig sat +back, and the two friends +turned to face each other.</p> + +<p>"You certainly look done in, Kleig," +said Kane sympathetically. "You must +have been through hell, and then some. +Tell me about this Moyen; that is, if +you think you care to talk about him."</p> + +<p>"Talk about him!" repeated Kleig. +"Talk about him? It will be a relief! +There has been nothing, and nobody, +on my mind save Moyen for weary +months on end. If I don't talk to someone +about him, I'll go mad, if I'm not +mad already. Moyen? A monster with +the face of an angel! What else can +one say about him? A devil and a +saint, a brute whose followers would go +with him into hell's fire, and sing him +hosannas as they were consumed in +agony! The greatest mob psychologist +the world has ever seen. He's a genius, +Kane, and unless something is done, +the Western world, all the world, is +doomed to sit at the feet, listen to the +commands, of Moyen!</p> + +<p>"He isn't an Oriental; he isn't a +European; he isn't negroid or Indian; +but there is something about him that +makes one thing of all of these, singly +and collectively. His body is twisted +and grotesque, and when one looks at +his face, one feels a desire to touch him, +to swear eternal fealty to him—until +one looks into his pale eyes, eyes almost +milky in their paleness—and gets +the merest hint of the thoughts which +actuate him. If he has a failing I did +not find it. He does not drink, +gamble...."</p> + +<p>"And women?" queried Kane, softly.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">K</span><span class="upper">leig</span> was madly in love with the +sister of Kane, Charmion, and +this thing touched him nearest the +heart, because Charmion was one of +her country's most famous beauties, +about whom Moyen must already have +heard.</p> + +<p>"Women?" repeated Kleig musingly, +his black eyes troubled, haunted. "I +scarcely know. He has no love for +women, only because he has no capacity +for any love save self-love. But when +I think of him in this connection I seem +to see Moyen, grown to monster proportions, +sitting on a mighty throne, +with nude women groveling at his feet, +bathed in tears, their long hair in mantles +of sorrow, hiding their shamed +faces! That sounds wild, doesn't it? +But it's the picture I get of Moyen +when I think of Moyen and of women. +Many women will love him, and have, +perhaps. But while he has taken many, +though I am only guessing here, he has +given <i>himself</i> to none. Another thing: +His followers—well, he sets no limits +to the lusts of his men, requiring only +that every soldier be fit for duty, with +a body strong for hardship. You understand?"</p> + +<p>Kane understood; and his face was +very pale.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes," he said, his voice almost a +whisper, "I understand, and as you +speak of this man I seem to see a city +in ruins, and hordes of men marching, +bloodstained men entering houses ... +from which, immediately afterward, +come the screams of women ... terror-stricken +women...."</p> + +<p>He shuddered and could not go on +for the very horror of the vision that +had come to him.</p> + +<p>But Kleig stared at him as though +he saw a ghost.</p> + +<p>"Great God, Carl!" he gasped. "The +same identical picture has been in my +mind, not once but a thousand times! I +wonder...."</p> + +<p>Was it an omen of the future for the +West?</p> + +<p>Deep in his soul Prester Kleig +fancied he could hear the sardonic +laughter of the half-god, Moyen.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="upper">tiny</span> bell rang inside the dash, +behind the instruments. Kane +had set direction finders, had pressed +the button which signaled the Washington-control +Station of the National +Radio, thus automatically indicating +the exact spot above land, by grid-coordinates, +where the Mayther should +start down for the landing.</p> + +<p>An hour later they landed on the +flat roof of the new Capitol Building, +sinking lightly to rest as a feather, +nursed to a gentle landing by the +whirring vanes of the helicopter.</p> + +<p>Prester Kleig, surrounded by uniformed +guards who tried to shield him +from the gaze of news-gatherers +crowded there on the roof-top, hurried +him to the stairway leading into the +executive chambers, and through these +to the Secret Chamber which only a +few men knew, and into which not even +Carlos Kane could follow Prester +Kleig—yet.</p> + +<p>But one man, one news-gatherer, had +caught a glimpse of the face of Kleig, +and already he raced for the radio +tower of his organization, to blazon to +the Western world the fact that Kleig +had come back.</p> + + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER IV</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>A Nation Waits in Dread</i></h3> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">s</span> Prester Kleig, looking twice his +forty years because of fatigue, +and almost nameless terrors through +which he had passed, went to his rendezvous, +the news-gatherer, who shall +here remain nameless, raced for the +Broadcasting Tower.</p> + +<p>As Prester Kleig entered the Secret +Room and at a signal all the many +doors behind him, along that interminable +stairway, swung shut and were +tightly locked, the news-gatherer raced +for the microphone and gave the "priority" +signal to the operator. Millions +of people would not only hear the +words of the news-gatherer, but would +see him, note the expressions which +chased one another across his face. +For television was long since an accomplished, +everyday fact.</p> + +<p>"Prester Kleig, of this government's +Secret Service, has just returned to the +United Americas! Your informer has +just seen him step from the monoplane +of Carlos Kane, atop the Capitol Building, +and repair at once to the Secret +Room, closely guarded. But I saw his +face, and though he is under forty, +he seems twice that. And you know +now what this country has only +guessed at before—that he has seen +Moyen. Moyen the half-man, half-god, +the enigma of the ages. What does +Prester Kleig think of this man? He +doesn't say, for he dares not speak, yet. +But your informer saw his face, and it +is old and twisted with terror! And—"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">hat</span> ended the discourse of the +news-gatherer, and it was many +hours before the public really understood. +For, with a new sentence but +half completed, the picture of the news-gatherer +faded blackly off the screens +in a million homes, and his voice was +blotted out by a humming that mounted +to a terrific appalling shriek! Some +terrible agency, about which people +who knew their radio could only guess, +had drowned out the words of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +news-gatherer, leaving the public +stunned and bewildered, almost groping +before a feeling of terror which was +all the more unbearable because none +could give it a name.</p> + +<p>And the public had heard but a fraction +of the truth—merely that Kleig +had come back. It had been the intention +of the government to deny the +public even this knowledge, and it had; +but knowledge of the denial itself was +public property, which filled the hearts +of men and women all through the +Western Hemisphere with nameless +dread. And over all this abode of +countless millions hovered the shadow +of Moyen.</p> + +<p>The government tried to correct the +impression which the news-gatherer +had given out.</p> + +<p>"Prester Kleig is back," said the +radio, while the government speaker +tried, for the benefit of those who could +see him, to smile reassuringly. "But +there is nothing to cause anyone the +slightest concern. He has seen Moyen, +yes, and has heard him speak, but still +there is nothing to distress anyone, and +the whole story will be given to you +as soon as possible. Kleig has gone +into the Secret Room, yes, but every +operative of the government, when discussing +business connected with diplomatic +relations with foreign powers, is +received in the Secret Room. No cause +for worry!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="upper">t</span> was so easy to say that, and the +speaker realized it, which was why +he could but with difficulty make his +smile seem reassuring.</p> + +<p>"Tell us the truth, and tell us quickly," +might have been the voiceless cries +of those who listened and saw the face +and fidgeting form of the speaker. +But the words were not spoken, because +the people sensed a hovering horror, a +dread catastrophe beyond the power of +words to express—and so looked at one +another in silence, their eyes wide with +dread, their hearts throbbing to suffocation +with nameless foreboding.</p> + +<p>So eyes were horror-haunted, and +men walked, flew, and rode in fear and +trembling—while, down in the Secret +Room, Prester Kleig and a dozen old +men, men wise in the ways of science +and invention, wise in the ways of men +and of beasts, of Nature and the Infinite +Outside, decided the fate of the +Nation.</p> + +<p>That Secret Room was closed to +every one. Not even the news-gatherers +could reach it; not even the all-seeing +eye of the telephotograph emblazoned +to the world its secrets.</p> + +<p>But <i>was</i> it secret?</p> + +<p>Perhaps Moyen, the master mobster, +smiled when he heard men say so, men +who knew in their hearts that Moyen +regarded other earthlings as earthlings +regard children and their toys. Did +the eyes of Moyen gaze even into the +depths of the Secret Room, hundreds +of feet below even the documentary-treasure +vaults of the Capitol?</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">N</span><span class="upper">o</span> one knew the answer to the +question, but the radio, reporting +the return of Kleig, had given the public +a distorted vision of an embodied +fear, and in its heart the public answered +"Yes!" And what had drowned +out the voice of the radio-reporter?</p> + +<p>No wonder that, for many hours, a +nation waited in fear and trembling, +eyes filled with dread that was nameless +and absolute, for word from the +Secret Room. Fear mounted and +mounted as the hours passed and no +word came.</p> + +<p>In that room Prester Kleig and the +twelve old men, one of whom was the +country's President, held counsel with +the man who had come back. But before +the spoken counsel had been held, +awesome and awe-inspiring pictures +had flashed across the screen, invented +by a third of the old men, from which +the world held no secrets, even the +secrets of Moyen.</p> + +<p>With this mechanism, guarded at +forfeit of the lives of a score of men, +the men of the Secret Room could peer +into even the most secret places of the +world. The old men had peered, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +had seen things which had blanched +their pale cheeks anew. And when +they had finished, and the terrible pictures +had faded out, a voice had spoken +suddenly, like an explosion, in the +Secret Room.</p> + +<p>"Well, gentlemen, are you satisfied +that resistance is futile?"</p> + +<p>Just the voice; but to one man in the +Secret Room, and to the others when +his numbing lips spoke the name, it was +far more than enough. For not even +the wisest of the great men could explain +how, as they knew, having just +seen him there, a man could be in Madagascar +while his voice spoke aloud in +the Secret Room, where even radio was +barred!</p> + +<p>The name on the lips of Prester +Kleig!</p> + +<p>"Moyen! Moyen!"</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER V</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>Monsters of the Deep</i></h3> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">G</span><span class="upper">entlemen</span>," said Prester +Kleig as he entered the Secret +Room, where sat the scientists and inventive +geniuses of the Americas, "we +haven't much time, and I shall waste +but little of it. Moyen is ready to +strike, if he hasn't already done so, as +I believe. We will see in a matter of +seconds. Professor Maniel, we shall +need, first of all, your apparatus for returning +the vibratory images of events +which have transpired within the last +thirty-six hours.</p> + +<p>"I wish to show those of you who +failed to see it the sinking of the <i>Stellar</i>, +on which I was a passenger and, I +believe, the only survivor."</p> + +<p>Professor Maniel strangely mouse-like +save for the ponderous dome of his +forehead, stepped away from the circular +table without a word. He had invented +the machine in question, and he +was inordinately proud of it. Through +its use he could pick up the sounds, +and the pictures, of events which had +transpired down the past centuries, +from the tinkling of the cymbals of +Miriam to all the horror of the conflict +men had called the Great War, simply +by drawing back from the ether, as the +sounds fled outward through space, +those sounds and vibrations which he +needed.</p> + +<p>His science was an exact one, more +carefully exact even than the measurement +of the speed of light, taking into +consideration the dispersion of sound +and movement, and the element of time.</p> + +<p>The interior of the Secret Room became +dark as Maniel labored with his +minute machinery. Only behind the +screen on the wall in rear of the table +was there light.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> voice of Maniel began to drone +as he thought aloud.</p> + +<p>"There is a matter of but a few minutes +difference in time between Washington +and the last recorded location +of the <i>Stellar</i>. The sinking occurred at +ten-thirty last evening you say, Kleig? +Ah, yes, I have it! Watch carefully, +gentlemen!"</p> + +<p>So silent were the Secret Agents one +could not even have heard the breathing +of one of them, for on the screen, +misty at first, but becoming moment by +moment bolder of outline, was the face +of a storm-tossed sea. The liner was +slower in forming, and was slightly out +of focus for a second or two.</p> + +<p>"Ah," said Professor Maniel. "There +it is!"</p> + +<p>Through the sound apparatus came +the roaring and moaning of a storm at +sea. On the screen the <i>Stellar</i> rose +high on the waves, dropped into the +trough, while spumes of black smoke +spread rearward on the waters from her +spouting funnels. Figures were visible +on her decks, figures which seemed +carved in bronze.</p> + +<p>In the prow, every expression on his +face plainly visible, stood Prester +Kleig himself, and as his picture appeared +he was in the act of turning.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Kleig himself, there in +the Secret Room, "look off to the left, +gentlemen, a mile from the <i>Stellar</i>!"</p> + +<p>A rustling sound as the scientists +shifted in their places.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span></p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">hey</span> all saw it, and a gasp burst +from their lips as though at a signal. +For, as the <i>Stellar</i> seemed about +to plunge off the shadowed screen into +the Secret Room, a flying thing had +risen out of the sea—an airplane with +a bulbous body and queerly slanting +wings.</p> + +<p>At the same time, out of the mouth +of the pictured figure of Prester Kleig, +clear and agonized as the tones of a +bell struck in frenzy, the words:</p> + +<p>"Great God! Lower the boats! +Lower the boats! For God's sake lower +the boats!"</p> + +<p>In the Secret Room the real Prester +Kleig spoke again.</p> + +<p>"When the black streak leaves the +nose of the plane, after it has submerged, +Professor Maniel," said Kleig +softly, "slow your mechanism so that +we can see the whole thing in detail."</p> + +<p>There came a grunted affirmative +from Professor Maniel.</p> + +<p>The nose of the pictured plane tilted +over, diving down for the surface of +the sea.</p> + +<p>"Now!" snapped Kleig. "Don't wait!"</p> + +<p>Instantly the moving pictures on the +screen reduced their speed, and the +plane appeared to stop its sudden seaward +plunge and to drop down as lightly +as a feather. The wings of the +thing moved forward slowly, folding +into the body of the dropping plane.</p> + +<p>"They fold forward," said Kleig +quietly, "so that the speed of the plane +in the take-off will snap them <i>backward</i> +into position for flying!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">N</span><span class="upper">o</span> one spoke, because the explanation +was so obvious.</p> + +<p>Slowly the airplane went down to the +surface of the sea, with scarcely a +plume of spindrift leaping back after +she had struck. She dropped to ten +feet below the surface of the water, a +hundred yards off the starboard beam +of the <i>Stellar</i>, her blunt nose pointing +squarely at the side of the doomed +liner.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Kleig hoarsely, "watch +closely, for God's sake!"</p> + +<p>The liner rose and fell slowly. Out +of the nose of the plane, which had +now become a tiny submarine, started +a narrow tube of black, oddly like the +sepia of a giant squid. Straight toward +the side of the liner it went. Above +the rail the Secret Agents could see the +pictured form of Prester Kleig, hand +upraised. The black streak reached the +side of the <i>Stellar</i>.</p> + +<p>It touched the metal plates, spreading +upon impact, growing, enlarging, to +right and left, upward and downward, +and where it touched the <i>Stellar</i> the +black of it seemed to erase that portion +of the ship. In the slow motion every +detail was apparent. At regular speed +the blotting out of the <i>Stellar</i> would +have been instantaneous.</p> + +<p>Kleig saw himself rise slowly from +the vanished rail, turning over and +over, going down to the sea. He almost +closed his eyes, bit his lips to keep back +the cries of terror when he saw the +others aboard the liner rise, turn over +and over, and fly in all directions like +jackstraws in a high wind.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> ship was erased from beneath +passengers and crew, and passengers +and crew fell into the sea. Out of +the depths, from all directions, came +the starving denizens of the sea—starving +because liners now were so few.</p> + +<p>"That's enough of that, Professor," +snapped Kleig. "Now jump ahead approximately +eight hours, and see if you +can pick up that aero-sub after it +dropped me on the Jersey Coast."</p> + +<p>The picture faded out quickly, the +screaming of doomed human beings, already +hours dead, called back to apparent +living by the genius of Maniel died +away, and for a space the screen was +blank.</p> + +<p>Then, the sea again, storm-tossed as +before, shifting here and there as +Maniel sought in the immensity of sea +and sky for the thing he desired.</p> + +<p>"Two hundred miles south by east of +New York City," he droned. "There +it is, gentlemen!"</p> + +<p>They all saw it then, in full flight,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +eight thousand feet above the surface +of the Atlantic, traveling south by east +at a dizzy rate of speed.</p> + +<p>"Note," said Kleig, "that it keeps +safely to the low altitudes, in order to +escape the notice of regular air traffic."</p> + +<p>No one answered.</p> + +<p>The eyes of the Secret Agents were +on that flashing, bulbous-bodied plane +of the strange wings. It appeared to +be heading directly for some objective +which must be reached at top speed.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">F</span><span class="upper">or</span> fifteen minutes the flight continued. +Then the plane tilted +over and dived, and at an altitude still +of three thousand feet, the wings slashed +forward, clicking into their notches +in the sides of the bulbous body, with a +sound like the ratchets on subway turnstiles, +and, holding their breath, the +Secret Agents watched it plummet +down to the sea. It was traveling with +terrific speed when it struck, yet it entered +the water with scarcely a splash.</p> + +<p>Then, for the first time, an audible +gasp, as that of one person, came from +the lips of the Secret Agents. For now +they could see the objective of the aero-sub. +A monster shadow in the water, at +a depth of five hundred feet. A +shadow which, as Maniel manipulated +his instruments, became a floating underwater +fortress, ten times the size of +any submarine known to the Americas.</p> + +<p>Sporting like porpoises about this +held-in-suspension fortress were myriads +of other aero-subs, maneuvering by +squadrons and flights, weaving in and +out like schools of fish. The plane +which had bourne Prester Kleig +churned in between two of the formations, +and vanished into the side of the +motionless monster of the deep.</p> + +<p>The striking of a deep sea bell, muted +by tons and tons of water, sounded in +the Secret Room.</p> + +<p>"Don't turn it off, Maniel," said +Kleig. "There's more yet!"</p> + +<p>And there was, for the sound of the +bell was a signal. The aero-subs, darting +outward from the side of the floating +fortress like fish darting out of seaweed, +were plunging up toward the surface +of the Atlantic. Breathlessly the +Secret Agents watched them.</p> + +<p>They broke water like flying fish, and +their wings shot backward from their +notches in the myriad bulbous bodies +to click into place in flying position as +the scores of aero-subs took the air +above the invisible hiding places of the +mother submarine.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">t</span> eight thousand feet the aero-subs +swung into battle formation +and, as though controlled by word of +command, they maneuvered there like +one vast machine of a central control—beautiful +as the flight of swallows, +deadly as anything that flew.</p> + +<p>The Secret Agents swept the cold +sweat from their brows, and sighs of +terror escaped them all.</p> + +<p>At that moment came the voice, loud +in the Secret Room, which Kleig at +least immediately recognized:</p> + +<p>"Well, gentlemen, are you satisfied +that resistance is futile?"</p> + +<p>And Kleig whispered the name, over +and over again.</p> + +<p>"Moyen! Moyen!"</p> + +<p>It was Prester Kleig, Master of the +Secret Room, who was the first to regain +control after the nerve-numbing +question which, asked in far Madagascar, +was heard by the Agents in the +Secret Room.</p> + +<p>"No!" he shouted. "No! No! Moyen, +in the end we will beat you!"</p> + +<p>Only silence answered, but deep in +the heart of Prester Kleig sounded a +burst of sardonic laughter—the laughter +of Moyen, half-god of Asia. Then +the voice again:</p> + +<p>"The attack is beginning, gentlemen! +Within an hour you will have further +evidence of the might of Moyen!"</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER VI</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>Vanishing Ships</i></h3> + +<p><span class="dropcap">P</span><span class="upper">rester Kleig,</span> ordered to +Madagascar from the Secret +Room, had been merely an operative, +honored above others in that he had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +been one of the few, at that time, ever +to visit the Secret Room. Now, however, +because he had walked closer to +Moyen than anyone else, he assumed +leadership almost by natural right, and +the men who had once deferred to him +took orders from him.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," he snapped, while the +last words of Moyen still hung in the +air of the Secret Room, "we must fight +Moyen from here. The best brains in +the United Americas are gathered here, +and if Moyen can be beaten—<i>if</i> he can +be beaten—he will be beaten from the +Secret Room!"</p> + +<p>A sigh from the lips of Professor +Maniel. The President of the United +Americas nodded his head, as though +he too mutely gave authority into the +hands of Prester Kleig. The other +Secret Agents shifted slightly, but said +nothing.</p> + +<p>"I have been away a year," said Kleig, +"as you know, and many things have +come into regular use since I left. +Professor Maniel's machine for example, +upon which he was working +when I departed under orders. There +will be further use for it in our struggle +with Moyen. Professor, will you +kindly range the ocean, beginning at +once, and see how many of these +monsters of Moyen we have to contend +with?"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">P</span><span class="upper">rofessor Maniel</span> turned +back to his instruments, which +he fondled with gentle, loving hands.</p> + +<p>"We have nothing with which to +combat the attacking forces of Moyen," +went on Kleig, "save antiquated airplanes, +and such obsolete warships as +are available. These will be mere fodder +for the guns, or rays, or whatever +it is that Moyen uses in his aero-subs. +Thousands, perhaps millions, of human +lives will be lost; but better this than +that Moyen rule the West! Better this +than that our women be given into the +hands of this mob as spoils of war!"</p> + +<p>From the Secret Agents a murmur +of assent.</p> + +<p>And then, that voice again, startling, +clear, with the slightest suggestion of +some Oriental accent, in the Secret +Room.</p> + +<p>"Do not depend too much, gentlemen," +it said, "upon your antiquated +warships! See, I am merciful, in that +I do not allow you to send them against +me loaded with men to be slaughtered +or drowned! Professor Maniel, I would +ask you to turn that plaything of yours +and gaze upon the fleet of obsolete +ships anchored in Hampton Roads! In +passing, Professor, I venture to guess +that the secret of how I am able to +talk with you gentlemen, here in your +Secret Room, is no secret at all to you. +Now look!"</p> + +<p>The Secret Agents gasped again, in +consternation.</p> + +<p>From the white lips of mouselike +Maniel came mumbled words, even as +his hands worked with lightning speed.</p> + +<p>"His machine is simply a variation of +my own. And, gentlemen, compatriots, +with it he could as easily project himself, +bodily, here into the room with +us!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="upper">omething</span> like a suppressed +scream from one of the men +present. A cold hand of ice about the +heart of Prester Kleig. But the words +of Professor Maniel were limned on +the retina of his brain in letters of fire. +Suppose Moyen <i>were</i> to project himself +into the Secret Room....</p> + +<p>But he would not. He was no fool, +and even these Secret Agents, most +of whom were old and no longer strong, +would have torn him limb from limb. +But those words of Maniel set whirling +once more, and in a new direction, +the thoughts of Prester Kleig.</p> + +<p>"Mr. President, gentlemen...." It +was the voice of Professor Maniel.</p> + +<p>All eyes turned again to the screen +upon which the professor worked his +miracles, which today were commonplaces, +which yesterday had been undreamed +of. Every Secret Agent recognized +the outlines of Hampton Roads, +with Norfolk and its towering buildings +in the background, and the obsolete<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +warships riding silently at anchor in +the roadstead.</p> + +<p>For three years they had been there, +while a procrastinating Cabinet, Congress +and Senate had debated their +permanent disposal. They represented +millions of dollars in money, and were +utterly worthless. Prester Kleig, looking +at them now, could see them putting +out to sea, loaded with brave-visaged +men, volunteering to go to sure +destruction to feed the rapacity of +Moyen's hordes. Men going out to sea +in tubs, singing....</p> + +<p>But these ships were silent. No +plumes of smoke from their funnels. +Like floating mausoleums, filled with +dead hopes, shells of past and departed +glories.</p> + +<p>The beating of waves against their +sides could plainly be heard. The +anchor chains squeaked rustily in the +hawse-holes. Wind sighed through +regal, towering superstructures, and no +man walked the decks of any one of +them.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="upper">ith</span> bated breath the Secret +Agents watched.</p> + +<p>Why had Moyen bidden them turn +their attention to these shells of erstwhile +naval grandeur?</p> + +<p>This time no gasps broke from the +lips of the Secret Agents. Not even the +sound of breathing could be heard. +Just the sighing of wind through the +superstructures of a hundred ships, the +whispering of waves against rusted +bulkheads.</p> + +<p>Almost imperceptibly at first the +towering dreadnought in the foreground +began to move! Slowly, the +water swirling about her, she backed +away from her anchor, tightening the +curve of the anchor chain! Water +quivered about the point of the chain's +contact with the waves!</p> + +<p>Quickly the eyes of the Secret +Agents swept along the street of ships. +The same backward motion, of dragging +against their anchor chains, was +visible at the bow of each warship!</p> + +<p>With not a soul aboard them, the +ships were waking into strange and +awesome life, dragging at their anchors, +like hounds pulling at leashes to be +free and away!</p> + +<p>"How are they doing it?" It was +almost a whisper from the President.</p> + +<p>"Some electro-magnetic force, sir!" +stated Prester Kleig. "Professor Blaine, +that is your province! Please note what +is happening, and advise us at once if +you see how they are doing it!"</p> + +<p>A grunt of affirmation from surly, +obese Professor Blaine.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">ll</span> eyes turned back again to the +miracle of the moving ships. One +by one, with crashes which echoed and +re-echoed through the Secret Room, +the anchor chains of the dreadnoughts +parted. The ends of them swung from +the prows of the warships, while the +severed portions splashed into the +Roads, and the waters hid them from +view.</p> + +<p>The great dreadnought in the foreground +swung slowly about until her +prow was pointed in the direction of +the open sea, and though no sea was +running, no smoke rose from her funnels, +she got slowly, ponderously under +way, and started out the Roads. Behind +her, in formation, the other ships +swung into line.</p> + +<p>In a matter of seconds, faster than +any of these vessels had ever traveled +before, they were racing in column for +the open Atlantic. And from the sound +apparatus came wails and shrieks of +terror, the lamentations of men and +women frightened as they had never +been frightened before.</p> + +<p>The shores behind the moving column +of ships was moment by moment growing +blacker with people—a black sea +of people, whose faces were white as +chalk with terror.</p> + +<p>But on, out to sea, moved the column +of brave ships.</p> + +<p>A new note entered into the picture, +as from all sides airplanes of many +makes swooped in, and swept back and +forth over the moving ships, while +hooded heads looked out of pits, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +faces of pilots were aghast at what +they saw.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="upper">ghost</span> column of ships, moving +out to sea, speed increasing moment +by moment unbelievably. Even +now, five minutes after the first dreadnought +had started seaward, the wake +of each ship spread away on either +hand in the two sides of a watery triangle +whose walls were a dozen feet +high—racing for the shores with all +the sullen majesty of tidal waves.</p> + +<p>The crowds gave back, and their +screams rose into the air in a frightened +roar of appalling sound.</p> + +<p>Even now, so rapidly did the warships +travel, many of the planes could +throttle down, so that they flew directly +above the heaving decks of the +runaway warships.</p> + +<p>"Get word to them!" cried Prester +Kleig suddenly. "Get word to them +that if they follow the ships out to +sea not a pilot will escape alive!"</p> + +<p>One of the Secret Agents rose and +hurried from the Secret Room, traveling +at top speed for the first of the +many doors enroute to the broadcasting +tower from which all the planes could +be reached at once. Prester Kleig +turned back to the magic screen of +Maniel.</p> + +<p>The warships, water thrown aside by +the lifting thrust of their forefeet in +mountains that raced landward with +ever-increasing fury, were clearing the +Roads and swinging south by east, +heading into the wastes of the Atlantic. +As they cleared the land, and open +water for unnumbered miles lay ahead, +the speed of the mighty ships increased +to a point where they rode as high on +the water as racing launches, and the +creaking and groaning of their rusty +bolts and spars were a continual paean +of protest in the sound apparatus accompanying +the showing of the miracle +on the screen.</p> + +<p>"They're heading straight for the +spot where that super-submarine lies!" +said the President, and no one answered +him.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">P</span><span class="upper">rester Kleig,</span> watching, was +racing over in his mind what he +could recall of his country's armament. +Warships were useless, as was being +proved here before his eyes. But there +still remained airplanes, in countless +numbers, which could be diverted from +ocean travel and from routine business, +to battle this menace of Moyen.</p> + +<p>But....</p> + +<p>He shuddered as he pictured in his +mind's eye the meeting of his country's +flower of flying manhood with the monsters +of Moyen.</p> + +<p>His eyes, as he thought, were watching +the racing of those ocean greyhounds, +out to sea. They were now +out of sight of land, and still some of +the planes followed them.</p> + +<p>A half hour passed, and then....</p> + +<p>The American pilots, in obedience +to the radio signals, turning back from +this strange phenomenon of the ghost +column of capital ships.</p> + +<p>Simultaneously, out of the sky dead +ahead, dropped the first flight of +Moyen's aero-subs.</p> + +<p>At the same moment the mysterious +power which had dragged the ships to +sea was withdrawn, and the warships, +with no hands to guide them, swung +whither they willed, and floated in as +many directions as there were ships, +under their forward momentum. +There were a score of collisions, and +some of the ships were in sinking condition +even before the aero-subs began +their labors.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p>The remaining ships floated high +out of the water, because they +carried no ballast, and from all sides +the aero-subs of Moyen settled to the +task of destruction—destruction which +was simply a warning of what was to +come: Moyen's manner of proving to +the Americas the fact that he was all-powerful.</p> + +<p>"God, what fools!" cried Prester +Kleig.</p> + +<p>The rearmost of the American +aviators had looked back, had seen the +first of the aero-subs drop down among<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[33]</a></span> +the doomed ships. Instantly he turned +out to sea again, signalling as he +did so to the nearest other planes. +And in spite of the radio warning a +hundred planes answered that signal +and swept back to investigate this new +mystery.</p> + +<p>"They're going to death!" groaned +the President.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Kleig, softly, "but it +saves us ordering others to death. +Perhaps we may learn something of +value as we watch them die!"</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER VII</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>Golden Oblivion</i></h3> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">his,"</span> said Prester Kleig, as +coldly precise as a judge pronouncing +sentence of death, "will precipitate +the major engagement with +Moyen's forces. The fools, to rush in +like this, when they have been warned! +But even so, they are magnificent!"</p> + +<p>The pilots of the aero-subs must instantly +have noticed the return of the +American pilots, for some of the aero-subs +which had dropped to the ocean's +surface rose again almost instantly, +and swept into battle formation above +the drifting hulks of the warships.</p> + +<p>The Americans were wary. They +drew together like frightened chickens +when a hawk hovers above them, and +watched the activities of the aero-subs, +every move of each one being at the +same time visible and audible to the +Secret Agents in the Capitol's Secret +Room.</p> + +<p>The aero-subs which had submerged +singled out their particular prey among +the floating ships, and the Secret +Agents, trying to see how each separate +act of destruction was accomplished, +watched the aero-sub in the +foreground, which happened to be concentrating +on the dreadnought which +had led the ghost-march of the warships +out to sea.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> aero-sub circled the swaying +dreadnought as a shark circles +a wreck, and through the walls of the +aero-sub the watchers in the Secret +Room could see the four-man crew of +the thing. Grim faced men, men of +the Orient they plainly were, coldly +concentrating on the work in hand. +Their faces were those of men who are +merciless, even brutal, with neither +heart nor compassion of any kind for +weaker ones. One man maneuvered +the aero-sub, while the other three concentrated +on the apparatus in the nose +of the hybrid vessel.</p> + +<p>"See," spoke Prester Kleig again, "if +you can tell what manner of ray they +use, and how it is projected. That's +your province, General Munson!"</p> + +<p>From the particular Secret Agent +named, who was expert for war in the +membership of the Secret Room, came +a short grunt of affirmation. A few +murmured words.</p> + +<p>"I'll be able to tell more about it +when I see how they operate when they +are flying. That black streak under +water ... well, I must see it out of +the water, and then...."</p> + +<p>But here General Munson ended, for +the aero-sub which they were especially +watching had got into action against +the dreadnought.</p> + +<p>The aero-sub was motionless and +submerged just off the port bow of the +dreadnought. The three men inside +the aero-sub were working swiftly and +efficiently with the complicated but +minute machinery in the nose of their +transport.</p> + +<p>"It can be controlled, then, this ray," +said Munson, interrupting himself. +"Watch!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">F</span><span class="upper">rom</span> the nose of the aero-sub +leaped, like a streak of black +lightning, that ebon agency of death. +It struck the prow of the battleship—and +the prow, as far aft as the well-deck, +simply vanished from sight, disintegrated! +It was as though it had +never been, and for a second, so swiftly +had it happened, the water of the ocean +held the impression that portion of the +warship had made—as an explosive +leaves a crater in the soil of earth!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[34]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then a drumming roar as the sea +rushed in to claim its own. The roaring, +as of a Niagara, as the waters +claimed the ship, rushing down passageways +into the hold, possessing the +warship with all the invincible, speedy +might of the sea.</p> + +<p>Mingled with this roaring was the +shivering, vibratory sound which Prester +Kleig had experienced in his half-dream. +The sound was so intense that +it fairly rocked the Secret Room to its +furthermost cranny.</p> + +<p>For a second the dreadnought, +wounded to death, seemed to shudder, +to hesitate, then to move backward as +though wincing from her death blow. +It was the pound of the inrushing +waters which did it. Then up came +the stern of the mighty ship, as she +started her last long plunge into the +depths.</p> + +<p>But attention had swung to another +warship, on the starboard beam of +which another aero-sub had taken up +position. Again the ebon streak of +death from her blunt nose, smashing in +and through the warship, directly +amidships, cutting her in twain as +though the black streak had been a pair +of shears, the warship a strip of tissue +paper.</p> + +<p>Up went the prow and the stern of +this one, and together, the water separating +the two parts as it rushed into +the gap, the broken warship went down +to its final resting place.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">bruptly</span> Professor Maniel +swung back to the American +planes which had come back to investigate +the activities of the aero-subs, and +on the screen, in the midst of the battle +formation into which the pilots had +swept to hurriedly, the Secret Agents +could see the faces of those pilots....</p> + +<p>White as chalk with fear, mouths +open in gasping unbelief. One man, a +pale-faced youth, was the first to recover. +He stared around at his compatriots, +and plainly through the sound +apparatus in the Secret Room came his +swift radio signals.</p> + +<p>"Attack! Who will follow me +against these people?"</p> + +<p>His signals were very plain. So, +too, were the answers of the other +pilots, and the heart of Prester Kleig +swelled with pride as he listened to the +answering signals—and counted them, +discovered that every last pilot there +present elected to stay with this youngster, +to avenge their country for this +contemptuous insult which had been +put upon her by the rape of Hampton +Roads.</p> + +<p>Into swift formation they swept, and +with these planes—all planes in use +were required by franchise of operating +companies to be equipped for the +emergencies of war—swung into an +echelon formation, the youthful pilot +leading by mutual consent.</p> + +<p>They swept at full speed toward the +warships, four of which had by this +time been sent to destruction—one of +which had appeared to vanish utterly +in the space of a single heartbeat, so +quickly that for a second or two the +shape of its bilge, the bulge of its keel, +was visible in the face of the deep—and +openly challenged the aero-subs.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="upper">uzzles</span> of compressed air guns +projected from the wing-tips of +the planes. Buttons were pressed +which elevated the muzzles of guns arranged +to fire upward from either side +the fighting pits, twin guns that were +fired downward from the same central +magazine—the only guns in use in the +Americas which fired in opposite directions +at the same time.</p> + +<p>But for a few moments the aero-subs +refused combat. Their speed was terrific, +dazzling. They eluded the +thrusts, the dives and plunges of the +American ships as easily as a swallow +eludes the dive of a buzzard.</p> + +<p>It came to Prester Kleig, however, +that the aero-subs were merely playing +with the Americans; that when they +elected to move, the planes would be +blasted from the sky as easily as the +warships were being erased from the +surface of the Atlantic.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[35]</a></span></p> + +<p>One by one, as methodically as machines, +the aero-sub pilots blasted the +warships into nothingness. They had +their orders, and they went about their +performance with a rigidity of discipline +which astounded the Secret +Agents. They had been ordered to +destroy the warships, and they were +doing that first—would go on to completion +of this task, no matter how +many American planes buzzed about +their ears.</p> + +<p>But one by one as the warships sank, +the aero-subs which had either sunk or +erased them made the surface and leaped +into space with a snapping back of +wings that was horribly businesslike +as to sound, and climbed up to take +part in the fight against the American +planes, which must inevitably come.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> last warship, cut squarely in +two from stem to stern along her +center, as though split thus by a bolt +of lightning, fell apart like pieces of +cake, and splashed down, sinking away +while the spume of her disintegration +rolled back from her fallen sides in +white-crested waves.</p> + +<p>"It exemplifies the policies of +Moyen," said Prester Kleig, "for his +conquest of the world is a conquest of +destruction."</p> + +<p>The last aero-sub took to the sky, +and the Americans rushed into battle +with fine disregard for what they knew +must be certain death. They were not +fools, exactly, and they had seen, but +not understood, the manner in which +those gallant old hounds of the sea had +been erased from existence.</p> + +<p>But in they went, plunging squarely +into the heart of the aero-subs' leading +formation, which formation consisted +of three aero-subs, flying a wing and +wing formation.</p> + +<p>The young American signaled with +upraised hand, and the American pilots +made their first move. Every plane +started rolling, at dazzling speed, on +the axis of its fuselage, while bullets +spewed from the guns that fired +through the propellers.</p> + +<p>Bullets smashed into the leading +aero-subs, with no apparent effect, +though for a second it seemed that the +central aero-sub of the leading formation +hesitated for a moment in flight.</p> + +<p>Then, swift as had that black streak +flashed from the nose of aero-subs submerged, +a streak darted from the nose +of the central aero-sub, and glistened +in the sun like molten gold!</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="upper">t</span> touched the youngster who had +called for volunteers for his attack +against this strange enemy. It +touched his plane—and the plane +vanished instantly, while for a fraction +of a second the pilot was visible +in his place, in the posture of sitting, +hand on a row of buttons which did +not exist, head forward slightly as he +aimed guns that had vanished.</p> + +<p>Then the pilot, still living, apparently +unhurt, plunged down eight thousand +feet to the sea. The water geysered +up as he struck, then closed over +the spot, and the gallant American +youngster had become the first victim +in battle of the monsters of Moyen.</p> + +<p>Victim of a slender lancet of what +seemed to be golden lightning.</p> + +<p>"He could have killed the pilot aloft +there," came quietly from Munson, "but +he chose to pull his plane away from +around him! Their control of the ray +is miraculous!"</p> + +<p>As though to confirm the statement +of Munson, the leading aero-sub struck +again, a second plane. The plane +vanished, but from the spot where it +had flown, not even a bit of metal or of +man sufficiently large to be seen by the +delicate recording instruments of +Maniel dropped out of the sky.</p> + +<p>The ray of gold was a ray of +oblivion if the minions of Moyen +willed.</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER VIII</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>Charmion</i></h3> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">P</span><span class="upper">rester Kleig,"</span> came suddenly +into the Secret Room the +voice of far distant Moyen, "you will at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[36]</a></span> +once make a change in your rules regarding +the admission of other than +Secret Agents to the Secret Room. +You will at once see that Charmion +Kane, sister of your friend, is allowed +to enter!"</p> + +<p>"God Almighty!" A cry of agony +from the lips of Prester Kleig. He had +not forgotten Charmion, but simply had +had to move so swiftly that he had put +her out of his mind. For a year he had +not seen her, and an hour or two more +could not matter greatly.</p> + +<p>"And her brother Carlos," went on +the voice, "see that he, too, is admitted. +I wish, for certain reasons, that Charmion +come unharmed through the +direct attack I am about to make +against your country. I confess that, +save for this ability to speak to you, I +am unable to work any damage to the +Secret Room, which is therefore the +safest place for Charmion Kane! +Carlos Kane is being spared because +he is her brother!"</p> + +<p>There was no mistaking the import +of this sinister command from Moyen. +He had singled out Charmion, the best +beloved of Prester Kleig, for his attentions, +and that he was sure of the success +of his attack against the United +Americas was proved by the calm assurance +of his voice, and the fact that, +concentrating on the attack as he must +be, he still found time for a thought of +Charmion Kane.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> hand of ice which had seldom +been absent from the heart of +Kleig since he had first seen and heard +the voice of Moyen gripped him anew. +Blood pounded maddeningly in his +temples. Cold sweat bathed his body.</p> + +<p>But the rest of the Secret Agents, +save to freeze into immobility when the +hated voice spoke, gave no sign. They +had worries of their own, for no instructions +had been given that they +bring their own loved ones into the +sanctuary of the Secret Room.</p> + +<p>As though answering the thoughts +of the others, the hated voice spoke +again.</p> + +<p>"I regret that I cannot arrange for +sanctuary for the loved ones of all of +you, for you are gallant antagonists; +why save the few, when the many must +perish? For I know you will not surrender, +however much I have proved to +you that I am invincible. But Charmion +Kane must be saved."</p> + +<p>"God!" whispered Kleig. "God!"</p> + +<p>Then spoke General Munson.</p> + +<p>"I think this ray which the Moyenites +use is a variation of the principle +used in the intricate machinery of Professor +Maniel, though how they render +it visible I do not know. But it doesn't +matter, and may be only a blind! +You'll note that when the black streak, +or the golden ray, strikes anything that +thing instantly disintegrates. A certain +pitch of resonance will break a +pane of glass. It's a matter of vibration, +solely, wherein the molecules +composing any object animate or inanimate, +are hurled in all directions instantaneously.</p> + +<p>"Professor Maniel's apparatus, the +Vibration-Retarder, is able to recapture +the vibrations, speeding outward endlessly +through space, and to reconstruct, +and <i>draw back</i> to visibility the +objects destroyed by this visible vibratory +ray, whatever it is. This problem, +then, falls into the province of Professor +Maniel!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">hrough</span> the heart and soul of +Prester Kleig there suddenly +flowed a great surge of hope.</p> + +<p>"General Munson, if you will operate +the machinery of the Vibration-Retarder, +I wish to talk with Professor +Maniel!"</p> + +<p>Instantly, efficiently, without a word +in reply to the eager command of Prester +Kleig, General Munson relieved +Professor Maniel at the apparatus +which Maniel called the Vibration-Retarder, +his invention which he had +combined with audible teleview to complete +this visual miracle of the Secret +Room. Professor Maniel stepped to +where Prester Kleig was sitting.</p> + +<p>Prester Kleig put fingers to his lips<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[37]</a></span> +for silence, and an expression of surprise +crossed the wrinkled dead-white +face of the Professor.</p> + +<p>Before Kleig could speak, however, +there came a signal from somewhere +outside the Secret Room, a signal +which said that the doors were being +opened and that a personage was coming. +The Secret Agents looked at one +another in surprise, for every man who +had a right to be inside the Secret +Room was already present.</p> + +<p>"I know," said Kleig, his face a mask +of terror. "It is Charmion and Carlos +Kane! Moyen, the devil, has managed +to make sure of obedience to his +orders!"</p> + +<p>The Secret Agents turned back to +the screen, upon which the view of the +first aerial brush of the American flyers +with the minions of Moyen, in their +aero-subs, was drawing to a terrible +close.</p> + +<p>For, as the aero-sub commanders had +played with the warships, which had +no human beings aboard them, so now +did they play with the planes of the +Americas.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">O</span><span class="upper">ne</span> American flyer, startled into +a frenzy by the fate of his fellows, +put his helicopter into action, +and leaped madly out of the midst of +the battle. Instantly an aero-sub +zoomed, skyward after him. Again +that golden streak of light from the +nose of an aero-sub, and the helicopter +vanes and the slender staff upon whose +tip they whirled vanished, shorn short +off above the vane-grooves in the top of +the wing!</p> + +<p>The plane dropped away, fluttering +like a falling leaf for a moment, before +the aviator started his three propellers +again.</p> + +<p>A cheer broke from the lips of Prester +Kleig as he watched. The commander +of that particular aero-sub, apparently +contemptuous of this flyer +who had tried to cut out of the fight, +allowed him to fall away unmolested—and +the American, driven berserk by +the casual, contemptuous treatment accorded +him by this strange enemy, +zoomed the second his propellers whirred +into top-speed action, and raced up +the sky toward the belly of the aero-sub.</p> + +<p>"If only the aero-sub has a blind +spot!" cried Prester Kleig.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="upper">n</span> that instant a roaring crash +sounded in the Secret Room as the +American plane, going full speed, +crashed, propellers foremost, into the +belly of the aero-sub.</p> + +<p>And the aero-sub, whose brothers +had seemed until this moment invincible, +did not escape the wrath of the +American—though the American went +into oblivion with it!</p> + +<p>For, welded together, American +plane and aero-sub started the eight +thousand feet plunge downward to the +sea!</p> + +<p>"Watch!" shrieked Munson. +"Watch!"</p> + +<p>As the aero-sub and the plane +plunged down through the formation +of fighters, the aero-sub pilots saw it, +and they fled in wild dismay and at top +speed from their falling compatriot. +Why? For a moment it was not apparent. +And then it was.</p> + +<p>For out of the body of the doomed +aero-subs came sheets of golden flame! +Not the flames of fire, but the golden +sheen of that streak which the aero-subs +had used against the American +planes already out of the fight! The +American flyer had crashed into the +container, whatever it was, that harnessed +the agency through which the +minions of Moyen had destroyed the +<i>Stellar</i>, and the battleships raped from +Hampton Roads!</p> + +<p>"It is liquid, then!" shrieked Munson.</p> + +<p>And it seemed to be. For a second +the golden mantle, strange, awe-inspiring, +bathed and rendered invisible +the aero-sub and the plane which had +slain her. Then the golden flame +vanished utterly, instantly—and in the +air where it had been there was nothing! +The aero-sub was gone, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[38]</a></span> +plane whose mad charge had erased +her.</p> + +<p>"Her own death dealing agency +destroyed her!" shrieked Munson. +"And the other aero-subs cut away +from the fight to save themselves, because +they too carry death and destruction +within them!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">hen</span> the inner door of the Secret +Room opened and two people +entered. One of them, a dazzling +beauty with glorious black hair and the +tread of a princess, a picture of perfection +from jeweled sandals to coiffured +hair, was Charmion Kane. Behind +her came her brother, whose face +was chalky white. But Charmion, as +she crossed to Kleig and kissed him, +while her eyes were luminous with +love, held her head proudly high, imperious.</p> + +<p>"I know," she said softly to Kleig, +"and I am not afraid! I know you will +prevent it!"</p> + +<p>Kleig waved the two to chairs and +turned again to Professor Maniel.</p> + +<p>On a piece of paper he wrote swiftly, +using a mode of shorthand known +only to the Secret Agents.</p> + +<p>"Professor," he wrote feverishly, +"can you reverse the process used in +your Vibration-Retarder? Tell me +with your eyes, for Moyen may even +know this writing, and I am sure he +hears what we say here, may even be +able to see us?"</p> + +<p>Professor Maniel started and stared +deeply into the eyes of Prester Kleig. +His face grew thoughtful. He brushed +his slender hand over the massive dome +of his brow. Hope burned high in the +heart of Prester Kleig.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">hen,</span> despite Kleig's instructions +to answer merely by the expression +in his eyes, Professor Maniel leaned +forward and wrote quickly on the +piece of paper Kleig had used.</p> + +<p>"Two hours!"</p> + +<p>Nothing else, no explanations; but +Prester Kleig knew. Maniel believed +he could do it, but he needed two hours +in which to perfect his theory and +make it workable. Kleig knew that +had he been able to do it in two years, +or two decades, it still would have +been in the nature of a miracle.</p> + +<p>But two hours....</p> + +<p>And Moyen had said that he was preparing +to attack at once.</p> + +<p>In two hours Moyen, unless the +Americas fought against him with +every resource at their command, could +depopulate half the Western World. +Kleig looked back to the screen.</p> + +<p>There was not a single American +plane in the sky above the graveyard +of those vanished warships. And the +aero-subs, swift flying as the wind, +were racing back to the mother ship, +scores of miles away.</p> + +<p>Munson worked with the Vibration-Retarder, +the Sound-and-Vision devices, +ranging the sea off the coast to +either side of that huge, suspended +fortress which was the mother submarine +of the aero-subs.</p> + +<p>Gasps of terror, though the sight was +not unexpected, broke from the lips of +every person in the Secret Room.</p> + +<p>For super-monsters of Moyen were +moving to the attack.</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER IX</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>Flowers of Martyrdom</i></h3> + +<p><span class="dropcap">F</span><span class="upper">or</span> a minute the Secret Agents +were appalled by the air of might +of the deep-sea monsters of Moyen, +brought bodily, almost into the Secret +Room by the activities of General Munson +at the Sound-and-Vision apparatus.</p> + +<p>Off the coast, miles away, yet looming +moment by moment larger, indicating +the deceptively swift speed of the +monsters, were scores of the great under-water +fortresses, traveling toward +the coast of the United Americas in a +far-flung formation, each submarine +separated from its neighbor to right +and left by something like a hundred +miles, easy cruising radius for the little +aero-subs carried inside the monsters.</p> + +<p>That each submarine did carry such +spawn of Satan was plainly seen, for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[39]</a></span> +as the great submarines moved landward, +scores of aero-subs sported gleefully +about the mother ships. There +was no counting the number of them.</p> + +<p>Two hours Maniel needed for his +labors, which meant that for two hours +the flower of the country's manhood +must try to hold in check the mighty +hordes of Moyen.</p> + +<p>"Somewhere there," stated Prester +Kleig, "in one or the other of those +monsters, is Moyen himself. I know +that since he wished Charmion saved +for his attentions! Do your work with +your apparatus, Munson, while I go out +to the radio tower to broadcast an appeal +for volunteers. Charmion—Carlos...."</p> + +<p>But Prester Kleig found that he +could not continue. Not that it was +necessary, for Charmion and Carlos +knew what was in his mind. Charmion +was a lady of vast intelligence, from +whom life's little ironies had not been +hidden—and Kane and Kleig had already +discussed the activities of Moyen +where women were concerned.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">P</span><span class="upper">rester Kleig</span> hurried to the +Central Radio Tower, and as he +passed through each of the many doors +leading out to the roof of the new +Capitol Building the guards at the +doors left to form a guard for him, at +this moment the most precious man in +the country, because he knew best the +terrible trials which faced her.</p> + +<p>The country was in turmoil. It +seemed almost impossible that a whole +day had passed since Prester Kleig had +returned and entered the Secret Room. +In the meantime a fleet of battleships +had been drawn by some mysterious +agency out to sea from Hampton +Roads, and a fleet of fighting planes +which had followed the ghost column +outward had not returned.</p> + +<p>News-gatherers had spread the +stories, distorted and garbled, across +the western continents, and throughout +the western confederacy men, women +and children lived in the throes of the +greatest fear that had ever gripped +them. Fear held them most because +they could not give the cause of their +fear a name—save one....</p> + +<p>Moyen.... And the name was on +the lips of everyone, and frenzied +woman stilled their squalling babes +with its mention.</p> + +<p>No word yet from the Secret Room, +but Prester Kleig had scarcely appeared +from it than someone started +the radio signal which informed the +frenzied, waiting world of the west +that information, exact if startling, +would now be forthcoming.</p> + +<p>In millions of homes, in thousands of +high-flying planes, listeners tuned in at +the clear-all hum.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">P</span><span class="upper">rester Kleig</span> wasted no time +in preliminaries.</p> + +<p>"Prester Kleig speaking. We are +threatened by Moyen, with scores of +monster submarines, each a mother +ship for scores of aero-subs, combinations +of airplanes and miniature submarines. +They are moving up on our +eastern coast, from some secret base +which we have not yet located. They +are equipped with death dealing instruments +of which we have but the +most fragmentary knowledge, and for +two hours I must call upon all flyers +to combat the menace; until the Secret +Agents, especially Professor Maniel, +have had opportunity to counteract the +minions of Moyen.</p> + +<p>"Flyers of the United Americas! In +the name of our country I ask that +volunteers gather on the eastern coast, +each flyer proceeding at once to the +nearest coast-landing, after dropping +all passengers. Your commanders +have already been named by your various +organizations, as required by franchise, +and orders for the movement of +the entire winged armada will come +from this station. However, the +orders will simply be this: Hold +Moyen's forces at bay for a period of +two hours! And know that many of +you go to certain death, and make your +own decisions as to whether you shall +volunteer!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[40]</a></span></p> + +<p>This ended, Prester Kleig, excitement +mounting high, hurried back to +the Secret Room.</p> + +<p>Now the public knew, and as the +American public is given to doing, it +steadied down when it knew the worst. +Fear of the unknown had changed the +public into a myriad-souled beast gone +berserk. Now that knowledge was exact +men grew calm of face, determined, +and women assumed the supporting +role which down the ages has been that +of brave women, mothers of men.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="upper">period</span> of silence for a time +after Prester Kleig's pronouncement.</p> + +<p>As he entered the first door leading +into the Secret Room, Carlos Kane met +and passed him with a smile.</p> + +<p>"You called for winged volunteers, +did you not, Kleig?" he asked quietly.</p> + +<p>Kleig nodded. "You are going?" he +said.</p> + +<p>"Yes. It is my duty."</p> + +<p>No other words were necessary, as +the men shook hands. Prester Kleig +going on to the Secret Room, Carlos +Kane going out to join the mighty +armada which must fight against the +minions of Moyen.</p> + +<p>The words of Prester Kleig were +heard by the pilots of the sky-lanes. +The passenger pits, equipped with self-opening +parachutes which dropped +jumpers in series of long falls in order +to acquire swift but accurate and safe +landing—they opened at intervals in +long falls of two thousand feet, stayed +the fall, then closed again, so that +drops were almost continuous until the +last four hundred feet—and pilots, +swiftly making up their minds, dropped +their passengers, banked their +planes, and raced into the east.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">ll</span> over the Americas pilots dropped +their passengers and their +loads if their franchises called for the +carrying of freight, and banked about +to take part in the first skirmish with +the Moyenites.</p> + +<p>Dropping figures almost darkened +the sky as passengers plunged downward +after the startling signal from +Washington. Flowers, which were the +umbrellas of chutes, opened and closed +like breathing winged orchids, letting +their burdens safely to earth.</p> + +<p>And clouds and fleets of airplanes +came in from all directions to land, in +rows and rows which were endless, +wing and wing, along the eastern coast.</p> + +<p>Prester Kleig had scarcely entered +the Secret Room than the hated voice +of Moyen again broke upon the ears of +the machinelike Secret Agents.</p> + +<p>"This is madness, gentlemen! My +people will annihilate yours!"</p> + +<p>But, since time for speech had +passed, not one of the Secret Agents +made answer or paid the slightest heed +to the warning, though deep in the +heart of each and every one was the belief +that Moyen spoke no more than the +truth.</p> + +<p>Too, there was a growing respect for +the half-god of Asia, in that he was +good enough to warn them of the holocaust +which faced their country.</p> + +<p>By hundreds and thousands, wing +and wing, airplanes dropped to the Atlantic +coast at the closest point of contact, +when the signal reached them. +At high altitudes, planes crossing the +Atlantic turned back and returned at +top speed, dropping their passengers +as soon as over land. That Moyen +made no move to prevent the return of +flyers out over the ocean, and now coming +back, was an ominous circumstance.</p> + +<p>It seemed to show that he held the +American flyers, all of them, in utter +contempt.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">P</span><span class="upper">rester Kleig</span> regarded the +time. It had been half an hour +since Moyen had spoken of attack, half +an hour since the monsters of the deep +had started the inexorable move toward +land. On the screen the submarines +were bulking larger and larger as the +moments fled, until it seemed to the +Secret Agents that the great composite +shadow of them already was sweeping +inland from the coast.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[41]</a></span></p> + +<p>As the coast came close ahead of the +monster subs the little aero-subs, to +the surprise of the Secret Agents, all +vanished into their respective mother +ships.</p> + +<p>"But they have to use them," groaned +Munson. "For their submarines are +useless in frontal attack against our +shores!"</p> + +<p>"I am not so sure of that," said +Prester Kleig. "For I have a suspicion +that those submarines have tractors +under their keels, and that they can +come out on land! If this is so the +monsters can, guarded by armour-plate, +penetrate to the very heart of our most +populated areas before their aero-subs +are released."</p> + +<p>None of the Secret Agents as yet had +stopped to ponder how the monsters +had reached their positions, and why +Moyen was attacking from the east, +when the Pacific side of the continents +would have appeared to be the obvious +point of attack, and would have obviated +the necessity of long, secret under-sea +journeys wherein discovery prematurely +must have been one of the +many worries of the submarine commanders.</p> + +<p>The mere fact of the presence of the +monsters was enough. What had preceded +their presence was unimportant, +save that their presence, and their near +approach to the shore undetected, +further proved the executive and planning +genius of Moyen.</p> + +<p>Two miles, on an average, off the +eastern coast the submarines laid their +eggs—the aero-subs, which darted from +the sides of the mother ships in flights +and squadrons, made the surface, and +leaped into the sky.</p> + +<p>Five minutes later and the signal +went forth to the phalanx of the volunteers.</p> + +<p>"Take off! Fly east and engage the +enemy, and hold him in check, and the +God of our fathers go with you!"</p> + +<p>One hour had passed since Moyen's +ultimatum when the first vanguard of +the American flyers, obeying the +peremptory signal, took the air and +darted eastward to meet the winged +death-harbingers of Moyen.</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER X</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2">"<i>They Shall Not Pass!</i>"</h3> + +<p><span class="dropcap">P</span><span class="upper">rester Kleig's</span> heartfelt desire, +as the American flyers closed +with the first of the aero-subs, was +to go out with them and aid them in the +attack against the Moyenites. But he +knew, and it was a tacit thing, that he +best served his country from the safe +haven of the Secret Room.</p> + +<p>As he watched the scenes unfold on +the screen of Maniel's genius, with occasional +glances at the somewhat mysterious +but profound and concentrated +labors of Maniel, Charmion Kane rose +from her place and came to his side.</p> + +<p>Wide-eyed as she watched the joining +of battle, she stood there, her tiny +hand encased in the tense one of +Prester Kleig.</p> + +<p>"You would like to be out there," she +murmured. "I know it! But your +country needs you here—and I have +already given Carlos!"</p> + +<p>Prester Kleig tightened his grip on +her hand.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">here</span> was deep, silent understanding +between these two, and +Prester Kleig, in fighting against the +Moyenites, realized, even above his +realization that his labors were +primarily for the benefit of his country, +that he really matched wits with +Moyen for the sake of Charmion. Had +anyone asked him whether he would +have sacrificed her for the benefit of +his country, it would have been a difficult +question to answer.</p> + +<p>He was glad that the question was +never asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, beloved," he whispered, "I +would like to be out there, but the +greatest need for me is here."</p> + +<p>But even so he felt as though he was +betraying those intrepid flyers he was +sending to sure death. Yet they had +volunteered, and it was the only way.</p> + +<p>Maniel, a gnomelike little man with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[42]</a></span> +a Titan's brain, labored with his calculations, +made swiftly concrete his +theories, while at the Sound-and-Vision +apparatus excitable General +Munson ranged the aerial battlefield to +see how the tide of battle ebbed and +flowed.</p> + +<p>That neither side would either ask +or give quarter was instantly apparent, +for they rushed head-on to meet each +other, those vast opposing winged +armadas, at top speed, and not a single +individual swerved from his course, +though at least the Americans knew +that death rode the skyways ahead.</p> + +<p>Then....</p> + +<p>The battle was joined. Moyen's +forces were superior in armament. +Their sky-steeds were faster, more +readily maneuverable, though the flying +forces of the Americas in the last +five years had made vast strides in +aviation. But what the Americans +lacked in power they made up for in +fearless courage.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> plan of battle seemed automatically +to work itself out.</p> + +<p>The first vanguard of American +planes came into contact with the forces +of Moyen, and from the noses of countless +aero-subs spurted that golden +streak which the Secret Agents knew +and dreaded.</p> + +<p>The first flight of planes, stretching +from horizon to horizon, vanished from +the sky with that dreadful surety +which had marked the passing of the +<i>Stellar</i>, and such of those warships as +had felt the full force of the visible +ray.</p> + +<p>From General Munson rose a groan +of anguish. These convertible fighting +planes had been the pride of the +heart of the old warrior. To do him +credit, however, it was the wanton, so +terribly inevitable destruction of the +flyers themselves which affected him. +It was so final, so absolute—and so utterly +impossible to combat.</p> + +<p>"Wait!" snapped Prester Kleig.</p> + +<p>For the intrepid flyers behind that +vanguard which had vanished had witnessed +the wholesale disintegration of +the leading element of the vast armada, +and the pilots realized on the instant +that no headlong rush into the very +noses of the aero-subs would avail anything.</p> + +<p>The vast American formation broke +into a mad maelstrom of whirling, darting, +diving planes. Every third plane +plummeted downward, every second +one climbed, and the remaining ships, +even in the face of what had happened +to the vanished first flight, held steadily +to the front.</p> + +<p>In this mad, seemingly meaningless +formation, they closed on the aero-subs. +Without having seen the fight, +the Americans were aping the action of +that one nameless flyer who had +charged the aero-sub that had been +destroyed.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">K</span><span class="upper">leig</span> remembered. A score of +ships had been destroyed utterly +above the graveyard of dreadnoughts, +yet only one aero-sub, and that quite +by chance, had been marked off in the +casualty column.</p> + +<p>Death rode the heavens as the American +flyers went into action. For head-on +fights, flyers went in at top speed, +their planes whirling on the axes of +fuselages, all guns going. Planes were +armored against their own bullets, and +they were not under the necessity of +watching to see that they did not slay +their own friends.</p> + +<p>Even so, bullets were rather ineffective +against the aero-subs, whose apparently +flimsy, almost transparent +outer covering diverted the bullets +with amazing ease.</p> + +<p>A whirling maelstrom of ships. The +monsters of Moyen had drawn first +blood, if the expression may be used in +an action where no blood at all was +drawn, but machines and men simply +erased from existence.</p> + +<p>Hundreds of planes already gone +when the second flight of ships closed +with the aero-subs. Yellow streaks of +death flashed from aero-sub nostrils, +but even as aero-sub operators set their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[43]</a></span> +rays into motion the American flyers +in head-on charge rolled, dived or +zoomed, and kept their guns going.</p> + +<p>High above the first flight of aero-subs, +behind which another flight was +winging swiftly into action, American +flyers tilted the noses of their planes +over and dived under full power—to +sure death by suicide, though none +knew it there at the moment.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">hese</span> aero-subs could not be +driven from the sky by usual +means, and could destroy American +ships even before those planes could +come to handgrips; but they, the flyers +plainly believed, could be crashed out +of the sky and so, never guessing what +besides death in resulting crashes they +faced, the flyers above the aero-subs, +even as aero-subs in rear flashed in to +prevent, dived down straight at the +backs of the aero-subs.</p> + +<p>In a hundred places the dives of the +Americans worked successfully, and +American planes crashed full and true, +full power on, into the backs of the +"flying fish." In some aero-subs the +container of the Moyen-dealing agency +apparently remained untouched, and +airplanes and aero-subs, welded together, +plunged down the invisible +skylanes into the sea.</p> + +<p>Under water, some of the aero-subs +were seen to keep in motion, limping +toward the nearest mother submarines.</p> + +<p>"I hope," said Prester Kleig, "the +American flyers in such cases are already dead, +for Moyen will be a maniac +in his tortures. Munson, do you hurriedly +examine the mother-subs and see +if you can locate Moyen."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="upper">owever,</span> only a scattered aero-sub +here and there went down +without the strange substance of the +yellow ray being released. In most +cases, upon the contact of plane with +aero-sub, the aero-subs and planes were +instantly blotted from view by the yellow, +golden flames from the heart of +the winged harbingers of Moyen.</p> + +<p>Golden flames, blinding in their +brightness, dropping down, mere shapeless +blotches, then fading out to nothingness +in a matter of seconds—with +aero-sub and airplane totally erased +from action and from existence.</p> + +<p>The American flyers saw and knew +now the manner of death they faced. +Yet all along the battle front not an +American tried to evade the issue and +draw out of the fight. A sublime, inspiring +exhibition of mass courage +which had not been witnessed down the +years since that general engagement +which men of the time had called the +Great War.</p> + +<p>Prester Kleig turned to look at +Maniel. Drops of perspiration bathed +the cheeks of the master scientist, but +his eyes were glowing like coals of +fire. His face was set in a white mask +of concentration, and Prester Kleig +knew that Maniel would find the answer +to the thing he sought if such +answer could be found.</p> + +<p>Would the American flyers be able +to hold off the minions of Moyen until +Maniel was ready? The fight out there +above the waters was a terrible thing, +and the Americans fought and died +like men inspired, yet inexorably the +winged armada of Moyen, preceded by +those licking golden tongues, was moving +landward.</p> + +<p>"Great God!" cried Munson. "Look!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">here</span> was really no need for the +order, for every Secret Agent saw +as soon as did Munson. Under the sea, +just off the coast, the mother-subs had +touched their blunt nose against the +upward shelving of the sea bottom—had +touched bottom, and were slowly +but surely following the underwater +curve of the land, up toward the surface, +like unbelievable antediluvian +monsters out of some nightmare.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Kleig quietly, "those +monsters of Moyen can move on land, +and the aero-subs can operate from +them as easily on land as under water."</p> + +<p>Kleig regarded the time, whirled to +look at Professor Maniel.</p> + +<p>One hour and forty minutes had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[44]</a></span> +passed since Maniel had begged for +two hours in which to prepare some +mode of effectively combatting the +might of Moyen. Twenty minutes to +go; yet the mother-subs would be +ashore, dragging their sweating, monstrous +sides out of the deep, within +ten minutes!</p> + +<p>Ten minutes ashore and there was +no guessing the havoc they could cause +to the United Americas!</p> + +<p>"Hurry, Maniel! Hurry! Hurry!" said +Prester Kleig.</p> + +<p>But he spoke the words to himself, +though even had he spoken them aloud +Maniel would not have heard. For +Maniel, for two hours, had closed his +mind to everything that transpired +outside his own thoughts, devoted to +foiling the power of Moyen.</p> + +<p>"I've found him!" snapped Munson.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="upper">e</span> pointed with a shaking forefinger +to one of the mother-subs +crawling up the slant of the ocean bed, +twisted one of the little nubs of the +Sound-and-Vision apparatus, and the +angelic face and Satanic eyes, the +twisted body, of Moyen came into +view.</p> + +<p>The face was calm with dreadful purpose, +and Moyen stood in the heart of +one of his monsters, his eyes turned +toward the land. With a gasp of terror, +dreadfully afraid for the first time, +Prester Kleig turned and looked into +the eyes of Charmion....</p> + +<p>"No," she said. "It will never happen. +I have faith in you!"</p> + +<p>There were still ten minutes of the +two hours left when the mother-subs +broke water and started crawling inland, +swiftly, surely, without faltering +in the slightest as they changed their +element from water to land.</p> + +<p>As though their appearance had been +the signal, the aero-subs in action +against the first line of American +planes broke out of the one-sided fight +and dived for their mother ships, while +a mere handful of the American planes +started back for home to prepare anew +to continue the struggle.</p> + +<p>Prester Kleig gave the signal to the +second monster armada which had remained +in reserve.</p> + +<p>"Do everything in your power to +halt the march of Moyen's amphibians!"</p> + +<p>Ten minutes to go, and Professor +Maniel still labored like a Titan.</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER XI</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>Caucasia Falls Silent</i></h3> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">s</span> the scores of amphibian monsters +came lumbering forth upon dry +land it became instantly apparent why +the aero-subs had returned to the +mother ships. For a few moments, out +of the water, the amphibians were almost +helpless, with practically no way +of attack or defense—as helpless as +huge turtles turned legs up.</p> + +<p>But as each aero-sub entered its +proper slot in the side of the mother +amphibian, it was turned about and the +nose thrust back into the opening, +which closed down to fit tightly about +the nose of the aero-sub, so that those +flame-breathing monsters protruded +from the sides of the amphibians in +many places—transforming the amphibians +into monsters with hundreds +of golden, licking tongues!</p> + +<p>As, with each and every aero-sub +in place, the amphibians started moving +inland, Professor Maniel made his +first move. With the tiny apparatus +upon which he had been working, he +stepped to the table before the Sound-and-Vision +apparatus and spoke softly +to his compatriots.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen," he said, "I have finished, +and it will work effectively!"</p> + +<p>Though Maniel spoke softly, it was +plain to be seen that he was proud of +his accomplishment, which remained only +to be attached to start performance.</p> + +<p>A matter of seconds....</p> + +<p>Yet during those seconds was the +real might, the real power for utter +devastation, of Moyen fully exposed!</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> amphibians got under way as +the airplanes of the Americas +swept into the fight.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[45]</a></span></p> + +<p>From the sides of the monsters +licked out those golden tongues of +flame—and from the front.</p> + +<p>Half a dozen amphibians slipped into +New York from the harbor side and +started into the heart of the city. And +between the time when Maniel had +said he was ready and the moment +when he made his first active move +against Moyen, a half-dozen skyscrapers +vanished into nothingness, the spots +where they had stood swept as clear of +debris as though the land had never +been reclaimed from Nature!</p> + +<p>None was ever destined to know how +many lives were lost in that first attack +of the monsters of the golden, myriad +tongues; but the monsters struck in the +midst of a working day when the skyscrapers +were filled with office workers.</p> + +<p>And resolve struck deep into the +hearts of the Secret Agents: if Moyen +were turned back, he must be made to +pay for the slaughter.</p> + +<p>A matter of seconds....</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">hen</span> a moment of deathly silence +as Munson gave way at the screen +for the gnomelike little Professor +Maniel.</p> + +<p>"Now, gentlemen!" snapped Maniel. +"If my theory is correct," manipulating +instruments with lightning speed as he +talked, "the reversion of the principle +of my Vibration-Retarder—which captures +vibrations speeding outward from +the earth and transforms them once +again into sound and pictures audible +and visible to the human ear—this apparatus +will disintegrate the monsters +as our boats and planes were disintegrated!</p> + +<p>"In this I have even been compelled +to manipulate in the matter of +time! I must not only defeat and annihilate +the minions of Moyen, but +must work from a mathematical absurdity, +so that at the moment of impact +that moment itself must become +part of the past, sufficiently remote to +remove the monsters at such distance +from the earth that not even the mighty +genius of Moyen can return them!"</p> + +<p>The whirring, gentle as the whirring +of doves' wings. In the center of the +picture on the screen were those half-dozen +amphibians laying waste Manhattan. +Maniel set his intricate, delicate +machinery into motion.</p> + +<p>Instantly the amphibians there +seemed to become misty, shadowy, and +to lift out of Manhattan up above the +roof-tops of skyscrapers still remaining, +nebulous and wraithlike as ghost-shrouds—yet +swinging outward from +the earth with speed almost too swift +for the eye to detect.</p> + +<p>But where the amphibians had rested +there stood, reclined—in all sorts of +postures, surprising and even a bit +ridiculous—the men of Moyen who had +operated the monsters of Moyen!</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">F</span><span class="upper">rom</span> the Central Radio tower +went forth a mighty voice of command +to the planes which had been +engaging the aero-subs off the coast.</p> + +<p>"Slay! Slay!"</p> + +<p>Down flashed the planes of the +Americas, and their guns were blazing, +inaudibly, but none the less deadly of +aim and of purpose, straight into the +midst of the men of Moyen who had +thus been left marooned and almost +helpless with the vanishing of their +amphibians.</p> + +<p>And, noting how they fell in strangled, +huddled heaps before the vengeful +fire of the American planes, the Secret +Agents sighed, and Maniel, his face +alight with the pride of accomplishment, +switched to another point along +the coast.</p> + +<p>And as a new group of the monsters +of Moyen came into view, and Maniel +bent to his labors afresh, the hated +voice of the master mobster broke once +more in the Secret Room.</p> + +<p>"Enough, Kleig! Enough! We will +surrender to save lives! I stipulate +only that my own life be spared!"</p> + +<p>To which Prester Kleig made instant +reply.</p> + +<p>"Did you offer us choice of surrender? +Did you spare the lives of our people +which, with your control of your<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[46]</a></span> +golden rays, you could easily have +done? No! Nor will we spare lives, +least of all the life of Moyen!"</p> + +<p>The whirring again, as of the whirring +of doves' wings. More metal +monsters, even as golden tongues +spewed forth from their many sides, +vanished from view, leaping skyward, +while the operators of them were left +to the mercies of the remaining airmen +of the Americans.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">V</span><span class="upper">oicelessly</span> the word went +forth:</p> + +<p>"Slay! Slay!"</p> + +<p>It was Charmion who begged for +mercy for the vanquished as, one by +one, as surely as fate, the monsters +with their contained aero-subs were +blotted out, leaving pilots and operators +behind them. Down upon these dropped +the airmen of the West, slaying without +mercy....</p> + +<p>"Please, lover!" Charmion whispered. +"Spare them!"</p> + +<p>"Even...?" he began, thinking of +Moyen, who would have taken Charmion. +He felt her shudder as she read +his mind, understood what he would +have asked.</p> + +<p>"There he is!" came softly from +Munson.</p> + +<p>An amphibian had just been disintegrated, +had just climbed mistily, swiftly, +into invisibility in the skies. And +there in the midst of the conquerors +left behind, his angel's face set in a +moody mask, his pale eyes awful with +fear, his misshapen body sagging, terrible +in its realization of failure, was +Moyen!</p> + +<p>Even as Kleig prepared to give the +mercy signal, a plane dived down on +the group about Moyen, and the Secret +Agents could see the hand of the pilot, +lifted high, as though he signaled.</p> + +<p>The plane was a Mayther! The pilot +was Carlos Kane!</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">J</span><span class="upper">ust</span> as Kane went into action, and +the noiseless bullets from his ship +crashed into that twisted body, causing +it to jump and twitch with the might +of them, Prester Kleig gave the signal.</p> + +<p>Even as the figure of Moyen crashed +to the soil and the man's soul quitted +its mortal casement, Kleig commanded:</p> + +<p>"Spare all who surrender! Make them +prisoners, to be used to repair the +damage they have done to our country! +Guards will be instantly placed over +the amphibians and the aero-subs—for +the day may come when we shall need +to know their secrets!"</p> + +<p>And, as men, hands lifted high in +token of surrender, quitted the now +motionless amphibians, and flyers +dropped down to make them prisoners, +Maniel sighed, pressed various buttons +on his apparatus, and the mad scene +of carnage they had witnessed for +hours faded slowly out, and darkness +and silence filled the Secret Room.</p> + +<p>But darkness is the joy of lovers, +and in the midst of silence that was +almost appalling by contrast, Kleig and +Charmion were received into each +other's arms.</p> + +<div class="minispace"> </div> +<div class="border3" style="width: 500px;"> +<h3>Everyone Is Invited</h3> + +<h3><i>To "Come Over in</i></h3> + +<h2>'THE READERS' CORNER'"!</h2> +</div> +<div class="minispace"> </div> + +<hr /> +<h2 class="chapter3"><a name="Vampires_of_Venus" id="Vampires_of_Venus"></a>Vampires of Venus</h2> + +<h2 class="chapter"><i>By Anthony Pelcher</i></h2> + +<div class="image"> +<img src="images/i047.jpg" width="516" height="583" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>He seized a short knife<br /> +and threw himself forward.</i></h3> +<div class="microspace"> </div> + +<div class="sidenote">Leslie Larner, an entomologist borrowed +from the Earth, pits himself against the +night-flying vampires that are ravaging +the inhabitants of Venus.</div> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="upper">t</span> was as if someone had thrown<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[47]</a></span> +a bomb into a Quaker meeting, +when adventure suddenly began to +crowd itself into the life of the +studious and methodical Leslie Larner, +professor of entomology.</p> + +<p>Fame had been +his since early +manhood, when he +began to distinguish +himself in +several sciences, +but the adventure +and thrills he had longed for had always +fallen to the lot of others.</p> + +<p>His father, a college professor, had +left him a good working brain and nothing +else. Later his +mother died and +he was left with +no relatives in the +world, so far as +he knew. So he +gave his life over +to study and hard work.</p> + +<p>Still youthful at twenty-five, he was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[48]</a></span> +hoping that fate would "give him a +break." It did.</p> + +<p>He was in charge of a Government +department having to do with Oriental +beetles, Hessian flies, boll weevils and +such, and it seemed his life had been +just one bug after another. He took +creeping, crawling things seriously and +believed that, unless curbed, insects +would some day crowd man off the +earth. He sounded an alarm, but humanity +was not disturbed. So Leslie +Larner fell back on his microscope and +concerned himself with saving cotton, +wheat and other crops. His only +diversion was fishing for the elusive +rainbow trout.</p> + +<p>He managed to spend a month each +year in the Colorado Rockies angling +for speckled beauties.</p> + +<p>Larner was anything but a clock-watcher, +but on a certain bright day +in June he was seated in his laboratory +doing just that.</p> + +<p>"Just five minutes to go," he mused.</p> + +<p>It was just 4:25 P. M. He had +finished his work, put his affairs in +order, and in five minutes would be +free to leave on a much needed and +well earned vacation. His bags were +packed and at the station. His fishing +tackle, the pride of his young life, was +neatly rolled in oiled silk and stood +near at hand.</p> + +<p>"I'll just fill my calabash, take one +more quiet smoke, and then for the +mountains and freedom," he told himself. +He settled back with his feet on +his desk. He half closed his eyes in +solid comfort. Then the bomb fell and +exploded.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">B</span><span class="upper">-r-r-r-r!</span></p> + +<p>The buzzer on his desk buzzed +and his feet came off the desk and hit +the floor with a thud. His eyes popped +open and the calabash was immediately +laid aside.</p> + +<p>That buzzer usually meant business, +and it would be his usual luck to have +trouble crash in on him just as he was +on the edge of a rainbow trout paradise.</p> + +<p>A messenger was ushered into the +room by an assistant. The boy handed +him an envelope, said, "No answer," +and departed.</p> + +<p>Larner tore open the envelope lazily. +He read and then re-read its contents, +while a look of puzzled surprise disturbed +his usually placid countenance. +He spread the sheet of paper out on his +desk, and for the tenth time he read:</p> + + +<div class="block" style="margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;"><p>Confidential.</p> + +<p>Memorize this address and +destroy this paper:</p> + +<p>Tula Bela, 1726 88th Street, +West, City of Hesper, Republic +of Pana, Planet Venus.</p> + +<p>Will meet you in the Frying +Pan.</p></div> + +<p>That was all. It was enough. +Larner lost his temper. He crumpled +the paper and tossed it in the waste +basket. He was not given to profanity, +but he could say "Judas Priest" in a +way that sizzled.</p> + +<p>"Judas Priest!" he spluttered. "Anyone +who would send a man a crazy +bunch of nonsense like that, at a time +like this, ought to be snuffed out like +a beetle!</p> + +<p>"'Meet you in the Frying Pan,'" he +quoted. Then he happened to recall +something. "By golly, there is a fishing +district in Colorado known as the +Frying Pan. That's not so crazy, but +the planet Venus part surely is +cuckoo."</p> + +<p>He fished the paper out of the +waste basket, found the envelope, +placed the strange message within and +put it in his inside coat pocket. Then +he seized his suitcase and fishing +tackle, and, rushing out, hailed a taxi. +Not long after he was on his way west +by plane.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">s</span> the country unrolled under him +he retrieved the strange note +from his pocket. He read it again and +again. Then he examined the envelope. +It was an ordinary one of good quality, +designed for business rather than social +usage. The note paper appeared<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[49]</a></span> +quite different. It was unruled, pure +white, and of a texture which might be +described as pebbly. It was strongly +made, and of a nature unlike any paper +Larner had ever seen before. It appeared +to have been made from a fiber +rather than a pulp.</p> + +<p>"Wonder who wrote it?" Larner +asked himself. "It is beautiful handwriting, +masculine yet artistic. Wonder +where he got the Frying Pan idea? +At any rate, I'm not going to the Frying +Pan this year—I'm camping on +Tennessee Creek, in Lake County, +Colorado. The country there is more +beautiful and restful.</p> + +<p>"But this street address on the +planet Venus. Seems to me I read +somewhere that Marconi had received +mysterious signals that he believed +came from the planet Venus. Hesper, +Hesper ... it sounds familiar, somehow. +Wonder if there could be anything +to it?"</p> + +<p>Something impelled him to follow +out the instructions in the note. He +spent the next few hours repeating the +address over and over again. When he +was satisfied that he had memorized it +thoroughly, he tore the strange paper +into bits and sent it fluttering earthward +like a tiny snowstorm.</p> + +<p>Larner was not a gullible individual, +but neither was he unimaginative. He +was scientist enough to know that +"the impossibilities of to-day are the +accomplishments of to-morrow." So +while not convinced that the note was +a serious communication, still his mind +was open.</p> + +<p>The weird address insisted on creeping +into his mind and driving out +other thoughts, even those of his +speckled playfellows, the rainbow +trout.</p> + +<p>"I've a notion to change my plans +and go from Denver to the Frying +Pan," he cogitated. Then he thought, +"No, I won't take it that seriously."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">nyone</span> who knows the Colorado +Rockies knows paradise. There +is no more beautiful country on the +globe. Lake County, where Larner +had chosen his fishing grounds, has as +its seat the old mining camp of Leadville. +It has been visited and settled +more for its gold mines than the golden +glow of its sunsets above the clouds, +but the gold of the sunsets is eternal, +while the gold of the mines is fading +quickly away.</p> + +<p>Leadville, with its 5,000 inhabitants, +nestles above the clouds, at an altitude +of more than 10,000 feet. Mount Massive +with its three peaks lies back of +the town in panorama and rises to a +height of some 14,400 feet. In the +rugged mountains thereabouts are +hundreds of lakes fed by wild streams +and bubbling crystal springs. All these +lakes are above the clouds.</p> + +<p>Winter sees the whole picture decorated +with bizarre snowdrifts from +twenty to forty feet deep, but spring +comes early. The beautiful columbines +and crocuses bloom before the snow +is all off the ground in the valleys. +The lands up to 12,000 feet altitude +are carpeted with a light green grass +and moss. Giant pines and dainty +aspens, with their silvery bark and +pinkish leaves blossom forth and +whisper, while the eternal snows still +linger in the higher rocky cliffs and +peaks above.</p> + +<p>Indian-paint blooms its blood red in +contrast to the milder colorings. +Blackbirds and bluebirds chatter and +chipmunks chirp. The gold so hard +to find in the mines glares from the +skies. The hills cuddle in banks of +snowy clouds, and above all a pure +clear blue sky sweeps. The lakes and +streams abound with rainbow trout, +the gamest of any fresh water fish. It +is indeed a paradise for either poet or +sportsman.</p> + +<p>In any direction near to Leadville a +man can find Heaven and recreation +and rest.</p> + +<p>Finding himself on Harrison Avenue, +the main street of the county +seat, Larner, after renewing some old +acquaintanceships, started west in a +flivver for Tennessee Creek. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[50]</a></span> +flivver is a modern adjustment. Until +a few years ago the only means of +traversing these same hills was by +patient, sure-footed donkeys, which +carried the pack while the wayfarer +walked along beside.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> first day's fishing was good. +Trout seemed to greet him +cheerily and sprang eagerly to the +fray. They bit at any sort of silken +fly he cast.</p> + +<p>The site chosen by Larner for his +camp was in a mossy clearing separated +from the stream by a fringe of willows +along the creek. Then came a border +of aspens backed by a forest of silver-tipped +firs.</p> + +<p>It was ideal and his eyes swept the +scene with satisfaction. Then he began +whittling bacon to grease his pan +for frying trout over the open fire.</p> + +<p>Suddenly he heard a rustle in the +aspens, and, looking up, beheld a picture +which made his eyes bulge. A +man and a woman, garbed seemingly +in the costumes of another world, +walked toward him. Neither were +more than five feet tall but were physically +perfect, and marvelously pleasing +to the eye. There was little difference +in their dress.</p> + +<p>Both wore helmets studded with +what Larner believed to be sapphires. +He learned later they were diamonds. +Their clothing consisted of tight +trouserlike garments surmounted by +tunics of some white pelt resembling +chamois save for color. A belt studded +with precious stones encircled their +waists. Artistic laced sandals graced +their small firm feet.</p> + +<p>Their skin was a pinkish white. +Their every feature was perfection +plus, and their bodies curved just +enough wherever a curve should be. +The woman was daintier and more +fully developed, and her features were +even more finely chiseled than the man. +Otherwise it would have been difficult +to distinguish their sex.</p> + +<p>Larner took in these details subconsciously, +for he was awed beyond +expression. All he could do was to +stand seemingly frozen, half bent over +the campfire with his frying pan in his +hand.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> man spoke.</p> + +<p>"I hope we did not startle +you," he said. "I thought my note +would partly prepare you for this +meeting. We expected to find you in +the Frying Pan district. When you +did not appear there we tuned our +radio locator to your heart beats and in +that way located you here. It was +hardly a second's space-flying time +from where we were."</p> + +<p>Larner said nothing. He could only +stand and gape.</p> + +<p>"I do not wonder that you are surprised," +said the strange little man. +"I will explain that I am Nern Bela, +of the City of Hesper, on the planet +Venus. This is my sister Tula. We +greet you in the interest of the Republic +of Pana, which embraces all of the +planet you know as Venus."</p> + +<p>When Larner recovered his breath, +he lost his temper.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what circus you escaped +from, but I crave solitude and +I have no time to be bothered with +fairy tales," he said with brutal bruskness.</p> + +<p>Expressions of hurt surprise swept +the countenances of his visitors.</p> + +<p>The man spoke again:</p> + +<p>"We are just what we assert we are, +and our finding you was made necessary +by a condition which grieves the +souls of all the 900,000,000 inhabitants +of Venus. We have come to plead +with you to come with us and use your +scientific knowledge to thwart a +scourge which threatens the lives of +millions of people."</p> + +<p>There was a quiet dignity about the +man and an air of pride about the +woman which made Larner stop and +think, or try to. He rubbed his hand +over his brow and looked questioningly +at the pair.</p> + +<p>"If you are what you say you are, +how did you get here?" he asked.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[51]</a></span></p> + +<p>"We came in a targo, a space-flying +ship, capable of doing 426,000 miles an hour. +This is just 1200 times as fast +as 355 miles an hour, the highest speed +known on earth. Come with us and +we will show you our ship." They +looked at him appealingly, and both +smiled a smile of wistful friendliness.</p> + +<p>Larner, without a word, threw down +his frying pan and followed them +through the aspens. The brother and +sister walking ahead of him gave his +eyes a treat. He surveyed the perfect +form of the girl. Her perfection was +beyond his ken.</p> + +<p>"They certainly are not of this +world," he mused.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="upper">few</span> hundred yards farther on +there was a beach of pebbles, +where the stream had changed its +course. On this plot sat a gigantic +spherical machine of a glasslike material. +It was about 300 feet in +diameter and it was tapered on two +sides into tees which Larner rightly +took to be lights.</p> + +<p>"This is a targo, our type of space-flyer," +said Nern Bela. "It is capable +of making two trips a year between +Venus and the earth. We have visited +this planet often, always landing in +some mountain or jungle fastness as +heretofore we did not desire earth-dwellers +to know of our presence."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" asked Larner, his +mouth agape and his eyes protruding. +His mind was so full of questions that +he fairly blurted his first one.</p> + +<p>"Because," said Bela, slowly and +frankly, "because our race knows no +sickness and we feared contagion, as +your race has not yet learned to control +its being."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Lamer thoughtfully. He +realized that humans of the earth, +whom he had always regarded as God's +most perfect beings, were not so perfect +after all.</p> + +<p>"How do you people control your +being, as you express it?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"It is simple," was the reply. "For +ninety centuries we have ceased to +breed imperfection, crime and disease. +We deprived no one of the pleasures +of life, but only the most perfect mental +and physical specimens of our people +cared to have children. In other +words, while we make no claim to controlling +our sex habits, we do control +results."</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Larner again.</p> + +<p>Nern Bela led the way to a door +which opened into the side of the +space-flyer near its base. "We have +a crew of four men and four women," +he said. "They handle the entire ship, +with my sister and I in command, making +six souls aboard in all."</p> + +<p>"Why men and women?" thought +Larner.</p> + +<p>As if in answer to his thought Bela +said:</p> + +<p>"On the earth the two sexes have +struggled for sex supremacy. This has +thrown your civilization out of balance. +On Venus we have struggled for sex +equality and have accomplished it. +This is a perfect balance. Man and +women engage in all endeavor and +share all favors and rewards alike."</p> + +<p>"In war, too?" asked Larner.</p> + +<p>"There has not been war on Venus +for 600,000 years," said Bela. "There +is only the one nation, and the people +all live in perfect accord. Our only +trouble in centuries is a dire peril +which now threatens our people, and +it is of this that I wish to talk to you +more at length."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">hey</span> were standing close to the +targo. Larner was struck by the +peculiar material of which it was constructed. +There was a question in his +eyes, and Nern Bela answered it:</p> + +<p>"The metal is duranium; it is +metalized quartz. It is frictionless, +conducts no current or ray except repulsion +and attraction ray NTR69X6 +by which it is propelled. It is practically +transparent, lighter than air +and harder than a diamond. It is cast +in moulds after being melted or, rather, +fused.</p> + +<p>"We use cold light which we pro<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[52]</a></span>duce +by forcing oxygen through air +tubes into a vat filled with the fat of +a deep sea fish resembling your whale. +You are aware, of course, that that is +exactly how cold light is produced by +the firefly, except for the fact that the +firefly uses his own fat."</p> + +<p>Larner was positively fascinated. He +smoothed the metal of the targo in appreciation +of its marvelous construction, +but he longed most to see the +curious light giving mechanism, for +this was closer to his own line of +entomology. He had always believed +that the light giving organs of fireflys +and deep-sea fishes could be reproduced +mechanically.</p> + +<p>The interior of the ship resembled +in a vague way that of an ocean liner. +It was controlled by an instrument +board at which a man and a girl sat. +They did not raise their heads as the +three people entered.</p> + +<p>When called by Bela and his sister, +who seemed to give commands in +unison, the crew assembled and were +presented to the visitor.</p> + +<p>"Earth-dwellers are not the curiosity +to us that we seem to be to you," +said Tula Bela, speaking for the first +time and smiling sweetly.</p> + +<p>Larner was too engrossed to note the +remark further than to nod his head. +He was lost in contemplation of these +strange people, all garbed exactly alike +and all surpassingly lovely to look +upon.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">n</span> odor of food wafted from the +galley, and Larner remembered +he was hungry, with the hunger of +health. He had swung his basket of +fish over his shoulder when he left his +campfire, and Tula took it from him.</p> + +<p>"Would you like to have our chef +prepare them for you?" she said, as +she caught his hungry glance at his +day's catch. This time Larner answered +her.</p> + +<p>"If you will pardon me," he said +awkwardly. "Really I am famished."</p> + +<p>"You will not miss your fish dinner," +said the girl.</p> + +<p>"I believe there is enough for all of +us," said Larner. "I caught twenty +beauties. I never knew fish to bite like +that. Why, they—" and he was off on +a voluminous discourse on a favorite +subject.</p> + +<p>Those assembled listened sympathetically. +Then Tula took the fish, +and soon the aroma of broiling trout +mingled with the other entrancing +galley odors.</p> + +<p>After a dinner at which some weird +yet satisfying viands were served and +much unusual conversation indulged +in, Nern Bela led the way to what appeared +to be the captain's quarters. +The crew and their visitor sat down +to discuss a subject which proved to +be of such a terrifying nature as to +scar human souls.</p> + +<p>"People on Venus," said Nern, as his +eyes took on a worried expression, "are +unable to leave their homes after +nightfall due to some strange nocturnal +beast which attacks them and vampirishly +drains all blood from their veins, +leaving the dead bodies limp and +empty."</p> + +<p>"What? How?" questioned Larner +leaning far forward over the conference +table.</p> + +<p>The others nodded their heads, and +in the eyes of the women there was +terror. Larner could not but believe +this.</p> + +<p>"The beasts, or should I say insects, +are as large as your horses and they +fly, actually fly, by night, striking +down humans, domestic animals and +all creatures of warm blood. How +many there are we have no means of +knowing, and we cannot find their hiding +and breeding places. They are not +native to our planet, and where they +come from we cannot imagine. They +are actually monstrous flys, or bugs, +or some form of insects."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">L</span><span class="upper">arner</span> was overcome by incredulity +and showed it. "Insects +as big as horses?" he questioned +and he could hardly suppress a smile.</p> + +<p>"Believe us, in the name of the God<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[53]</a></span> +of us all," insisted Nern. "They have +a mouth which consists of a large suction +disk, in the center of which is a +lancelike tongue. The lance is forced +into the body at any convenient point, +and the suction disk drains out the +blood. If we only knew their source! +They attack young children and the +aged, up to five hundred years, alike."</p> + +<p>"What! Five hundred years?" exploded +Larner again.</p> + +<p>"I should have explained," said +Nern, simply, "that Venus dwellers, +due to our advanced knowledge of +sanitation and health conversation, +live about 800 years and then die invariably +of old age. The only unnatural +cause of death encountered is +this giant insect. Accidents do occur, +but they are rare. There are no deliberate +killings on Venus."</p> + +<p>Larner did not answer. He only +pondered. The more he ran over the +strange happenings of the last week in +his mind the more he believed he was +dreaming. His thoughts took a strange +turn: "Why do these vain people go +around dressed in jeweled ornaments?"</p> + +<p>Nern again anticipated a question. +"Diamonds, gold and many of what +you call precious stones are common +on Venus," he volunteered. "Talc and +many other things are more valuable."</p> + +<p>"Talc?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, we use an immense quantity of +it. We have a wood that is harder than +your steel. We build machinery with +it. We cannot use oil to lubricate these +wooden shafts and bearings as it +softens the wood, so all parts exposed +to friction are sprayed constantly by +a gust of talc from a blower.</p> + +<p>"You use talc mostly for toilet purposes. +We use it for various purposes. +There is little left on Venus, and it is +more valuable to us than either gold +or diamonds. We draw on your planet +now for talc. You dump immense +quantities. We just shipped one +hundred 1,000-ton globes of it from the +Cripple Creek district, and the district +never missed it. We drew most of it +from your mine dumps."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">N</span><span class="upper">ern</span> tried not to look bored as +he explained more in detail: +"We brought 100 hollow spheres constructed +of duranium. We suspended +these over the Cripple Creek district +at an altitude of 10,000 feet above the +earth's surface. Because of the crystal +glint of duranium they were invisible +to earth dwellers at that height. Then +we used a suction draft at night, drawing +the talc from the earth, filling one +drum after another. This is done by +tuning in a certain selective attraction +that attracts only talc. It draws it +right out of your ground in tiny particles +and assembles it in the transportation +drums as pure talc. On the +earth, if noticed at all, it would have +been called a dust storm.</p> + +<p>"The drums, when loaded with talc, +are set to attract the proper planetary +force and they go speeding toward +Venus at the rate of 426,000 miles an +hour. They are prevented from colliding +with meteors by an automatic +magnetic device. This is controlled by +magnetic force alone, and when the +targo gets too close to a meteor it +changes its course instantly. The +passenger targo we ride in acts +similarly. And now may I return to +the subject of the vampires of +Venus?"</p> + +<p>"Pardon my ignorance," said Larner, +and for the first time in his life he +felt very ignorant indeed.</p> + +<p>"I know little more than I have told +you," said Nern, rather hopelessly. +"Our knowledge of your world, your +people and your language comes from +our listening in on you and observing +you without being observed or heard. +This might seem like taking an advantage +of you, were it not for the fact +that we respect confidences, and subjugate +all else to science. We have +helped you at times, by telepathically +suggesting ideas to your thinkers.</p> + +<p>"We would have given you all our +inventions in this way, gladly, but in +many instances we were unable to find +minds attuned to accept such advanced +ideas. We have had the advantage of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[54]</a></span> +you because our planet is so many millions +of years older than your own." +There was a plaintive note in Nern's +voice as he talked.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">B</span><span class="upper">ut</span> now we are on our knees to +you, so to speak. We do not +know everything and, desperately, we +need the aid of a man of your caliber. +In behalf of the distraught people of +Venus, I am asking you bluntly to +make a great sacrifice. Will you face +the dangers of a trip to Venus and use +your knowledge to aid us in exterminating +these creatures of hell?" +There was positive pleading in his +voice, and in the eyes of his beautiful +sister there were tears.</p> + +<p>"But what would my superiors in the +Government Bureau think?" feebly +protested Larner, "I could not explain...."</p> + +<p>"You have no superiors in your line. +Our Government needs you at this +time more than any earthly government. +Your place here is a fixture. You +can always return to it, should you +live. We are asking you to face a horrible +death with us. You can name +your own compensation, but I know +you are not interested so much in reward.</p> + +<p>"Now, honestly, my good professor, +there is no advantage to be gained by +explanation. Just disappear. In the +name of God and in the interests of +science and the salvation of a people +who are at your mercy, just drop out +of sight. Drop out of life on this +planet. Come with us. The cause is +worthy of the man I believe you to +be."</p> + +<p>"I will go," said Larner, and his hosts +waited for no more. An instant later +the targo shot out into interstellar +space.</p> + +<p>"How do you know what course to +follow?" asked Larner after a reasonable +time, when he had recovered from +his surprise at the sudden take-off.</p> + +<p>"We do not need to know. Our machine +is tuned to be attracted by the +planetary force of Venus alone. We +could not go elsewhere. A repulsion +ray finds us as we near Venus and protects +us against too violent a landing. +We will land on Venus like a feather +about three months from to-night."</p> + +<p>The time of the journey through +outer space was of little moment save +for one incident. Larner and the other +travelers were suddenly and rather +rudely jostled about the rapidly flying +craft.</p> + +<p>Larner lost his breath but not his +speech. "What happened?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"We just automatically dodged a +meteor," explained Nern.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="upper">ost</span> of the time of the trip was +spent by Larner in listening to +explanations of customs and traditions +of the people of the brightest planet +in the universe.</p> + +<p>There was a question Larner had desired +to ask Nern Bela, yet he hesitated +to do so. Finally one evening +during the journey to Venus, when the +travelers had been occupying themselves +in a scientific discussion of comparative +evolution on the two planets, +Larner saw his opportunity.</p> + +<p>"Why," he asked rather hesitatingly, +"did the people of Venus always remain +so small? Why did you not +strive more for height? The Japanese, +who are the shortest in stature of +earth people, always wanted to be tall."</p> + +<p>"Without meaning any offense," replied +Nern, "I must say that it is characteristic +of earth dwellers to want +something without knowing any good +reason why they want it. It is perfectly +all right for you people to be +tall, but for us it is not so fitting. You +see, Venus is smaller than the earth. +Size is comparative. You think we are +not tall because you are used to taller +people. Comparatively we are tall +enough. In proportion to the size of +our planet we are exactly the right +size. We keep our population at 900,000,000, +and that is the perfectly exact +number of people who can live comfortably +on our planet."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[55]</a></span></p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">rriving</span> on Venus, Larner was +assigned a laboratory and office +in one of the Government buildings. It +was a world seemingly made of glass. +Quartz, of rose, white and crystal +coloring, Larner found, was the commonest +country rock of the planet. In +many cases it was shot full of splinters +of gold which the natives had not +taken the trouble to recover. This +quartz was of a terrific hardness and +was used in building, paving, and public +works generally. The effect was +bewildering. It was a world of shimmering +crystal.</p> + +<p>The atmosphere of Venus had long +puzzled Larner. While not an astronomer +in the largest sense of the +word, yet he had a keen interest in the +heavens as a giant puzzle picture, and +he had given some spare time to the +study.</p> + +<p>He knew that from all indications +Venus had a most unusual atmosphere. +He had read that the atmosphere was +considerably denser than that of the +earth, and that its presence made observation +difficult. The actual surface +of the planet he knew could hardly +be seen due, either to this atmosphere, +or seemingly perpetual cloud banks.</p> + +<p>He had read that the presence of +atmosphere surrounding Venus is indicated +to earthly astronomers, during +the planet's transit, by rings of light +due to the reflection and scattering +of collected sunlight by its atmosphere.</p> + +<p>Astronomers on earth, he knew, had +long been satisfied of the presence of +great cloud banks, as rocks and soils +could not have such high reflecting +power. He knew that like the moon, +Venus, when viewed from the earth, +presents different phases from the +crescent to the full or total stage.</p> + +<p>Looking up at the sky from the +quartz streets of Venus, Larner beheld, +in sweeping grandeur, massed cloud banks, +many of them apparently rain +clouds.</p> + +<p>Nern noted his skyward gaze, and +said:</p> + +<p>"We have accomplished meteorological +control. Those clouds were brought +under control when we conquered interplanetary +force, and what you call +gravity. We form them and move +them at will. They are our rain factory. +We make rain when and where +we will. This insures our crops and +makes for health and contentment.</p> + +<p>"The air, you will note, is about the +same or a little more moist than the +earth air at sea level. This is due to +the planet's position nearer the sun.</p> + +<p>"We have been striving for centuries +to make the air a little drier and more +rare, but we have not succeeded yet. +The heavy content of disintegrated +quartz in our soil makes moisture very +necessary for our crops, so our moist +atmosphere is evidently a provision of +providence. We are used to breathing +this moist air, and when I first visited +the earth I was made uncomfortable by +your rarified atmosphere. Now I can +adjust myself to breathing the air of +either planet. However, I find myself +drinking a great deal more water on +earth than on Venus."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="upper">n</span> this fairyland which had enjoyed +centuries of peace, health and accord, +stark terror now reigned. In +some instances the finely-bred, marvellously +intelligent people were in a +mental condition bordering on madness.</p> + +<p>This was especially true in the farming +districts, where whole herds of lats +had been wiped out. Lats, Larner +gleaned, were a common farm animal +similar to the bovine species on earth, +only more wooly. On these creatures +the Venus dwellers depended for their +milk and dairy supplies, and for their +warmer clothing, which was made from +the skin. The hair was used for +brushes, in the building trades, and a +thousand ways in manufacturing.</p> + +<p>Besides the domestic animals hundreds +of people continued to meet +death, and only a few of the flying +vampires had been hunted down. The +giant insects were believed to breed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[56]</a></span> +slowly as compared to earth insects, +their females producing not more than +ten eggs, by estimate, after which +death overtook the adult. In spite of +this they were reported to be increasing.</p> + +<p>In the Government building Larner +was placed in touch with all the Government +scientists of Venus. His +nearest collaborator was one Zorn +Zada, most profound scientist of the +planet. The two men, with a score of +assistants, worked elbow to elbow on +the most gigantic scientific mystery in +the history of two planets.</p> + +<p>A specimen of the dread invader was +mounted and studied by the scientists, +who were so engrossed in their work +that they hardly took time to eat. As +for sleep, there was little of it. Days +were spent in research and nights in +hunting the monsters. This hunting +was done by newly recruited soldiers +and scientists. The weapons used were +a short ray-gun of high destructive +power which disintegrated the bodies +of the enemies by atomic energy blasts. +The quarry was wary, however, and +struck at isolated individuals rather +than massed fighting lines.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="upper">eated</span> at his work-bench Larner +asked Zorn Zada what had become +of Nern Bela. In his heart he had a +horrible lurking fear that the beautiful +Tula Bela might fall before a swarm +of the strange vampires, but he did not +voice this anxiety.</p> + +<p>"Nern and his sister are explorers +and navigators," was the reply. "They +have been assigned to carry you anywhere +on this or any other planet +where your work may engage you. +They await your orders. They are too +valuable as space-navigators to be +placed in harm's way."</p> + +<p>Breathing a sigh of relief, Larner +bent to his labors.</p> + +<p>"What other wild animals or harmful +insects have you on this planet?" he +asked Zorn.</p> + +<p>"I get your thought," replied the first +scientist of Venus. "You are seeking +a natural enemy to this deadly flying +menace, are you not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," admitted Larner.</p> + +<p>"All insects left on Venus with this +one exception are beneficial," said +Zorn. "There are no wild animals, and +no harmful insects. All animals, insects +and birds have been domesticated +and are fed by their keepers. We get +fabrics from forms of what you call +spiders and other web-builders and cocoon +spinners. All forms of birds, +beasts and crawling and flying things +have been brought under the dominion +of man. We will have to seek another +way out than by finding an enemy parasite."</p> + +<p>"Where do you think these insect invaders +came from?" asked Larner.</p> + +<p>"You have noticed they are unlike +anything you have on earth in anatomical +construction," said the savant. +"They partake of the general features +of Coleoptera (beetles), in that they +wear a sheath of armor, yet their mouth +parts are more on the order of the Diptera +(flys). I regard them more as a fly +than a beetle, because most Coleoptera +are helpful to humanity while practically +all, if not all, Diptera are malignant.</p> + +<p>"As to their original habitat, I believe +they migrated here from some other +planet."</p> + +<p>"They could not fly through space," +said Larner.</p> + +<p>"No, that is the mystery of it," agreed +Zorn. "How they got here and where +they breed are the questions that we +have to answer."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">L</span><span class="upper">ong</span> days passed on Venus. Long +days and sleepless nights. The +big insects were hunted nightly by men +armed with ray-guns, and nightly the +blood-sucking monsters took their toll +of humanity and animals.</p> + +<p>Finally Larner and Zorn determined +to capture one of the insects alive, +muzzle its lance and suction pad, and +give it sufficient freedom to find its way +back to its hiding place. By following +the shackled monster the scientists<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[57]</a></span> +hoped to find the breeding grounds.</p> + +<p>All the provinces of the planet joined +in the drive. Men turned out in automatic +vehicles, propelled by energy +gathered from the atmosphere. They +came on foot and in aircraft. Mobilization +was at given points and, leading +the van, were Zorn and Larner and +their confreres in the targo of Nern +and Tula Bela. The great army of Venus +carried giant searchlights and was +armed with deadly ray-guns.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="upper">eadquarters</span> of the vast +Army of Offense was in the targo +of the Belas. Larner was in supreme +command. Just before the big army set +out to scour the planet to seek the +breeding place of the monsters Larner +issued a bulletin that set all Venus by +the ears.</p> + +<p>Addressed to President Vole Vesta +of the Republic of Pana and the good +people of Venus, it read:</p> + +<div class="blockquote"><p>As is generally known, it has +been the habit of the nation's +space-flying merchantmen to visit +the sunlit side of the planet Mercury +to obtain certain rare woods +and other materials not found on +this planet.</p> + +<p>One side of Mercury, as is +known, is always turned from the +sun and is in a condition of perpetual +night. In this perpetual +darkness and dampness, where +many rivers flow into warm black +swamps, the vampires have bred for +centuries. Conditions were ideal +for their growth, and so through +the ages they evolved into the +monsters we have encountered +lately on Venus.</p> + +<p>During some comparatively recent +visit to Mercury the grubs of +these insects have found their way +abroad a vegetation-laden targo left +standing near the edge of the black +swamps of Mercury. These grubs +were thus transported to Venus +and underwent their natural metamorphosis +here. Reaching adult +stage, they have found some place +to hide and breed, and thus is explained +the origin of the vampires +of Venus.</p></div> + +<p>This was widely read and discussed +and was finally accepted as the means +of the invasion of peaceful, beautiful +Venus by a horror that might well have +originated in hell.</p> + +<p>However, this did not reveal the +breeding grounds, or remove the nation-wide +scourge of the horrible +winged vampires, so the mobilization of +all the forces of the planet continued.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">s</span> day followed day the hordes of +fighting Venus dwellers grew in +the concentration camps. In the targo +of the Belas, Larner, brain-weary and +body-racked as he was with overwork, +found a grain of happiness in being in +the presence of Nern and his beautiful, +petite sister.</p> + +<p>With Zorn, Larner was supervising +the construction of a big net of strongly +woven wire mesh, in which it was +hoped to catch one of the vampires. It +was decided to bait the trap with a fat +female lat.</p> + +<p>Zorn, Larner and the Belas fared +forth from the concentration camp followed +by a company of soldiers carrying +the big net. Tula with her own +hand led the fat lat heifer. His eyes +were filled with commiseration for the +poor animal.</p> + +<p>Thousands of soldiers and citizenry, +in fighting array, watched the departure +of the little group.</p> + +<p>In a glade the trap was set and the +net arranged to fall over the monster +once it attacked the calf. From a +thicket, in utter darkness, Zorn and +Larner and the two Belas waited for +the possible catch. The whole nation +stood awaiting the order to advance.</p> + +<p>On the fourth night the vigil was rewarded +in a manner frightful to relate.</p> + +<p>A clumsy flutter of giant wings broke +the stillness.</p> + +<p>The four waiting forms in the thicket +rejoiced, believing the fat lat was about +to be attacked.</p> + +<p>Onward came the approaching hor<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[58]</a></span>ror. +The measured flap, flap of its +armored wings drawing nearer and +nearer. Then, horror—horrors!</p> + +<p>A feminine scream rent the air. Cries +loud and shrill arose above a hysterical +feminine cry for help.</p> + +<p>The monster had chosen Tula Bela +for its prey!</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">Z</span><span class="upper">orn</span> exploded an alarm bomb. A +compressed air siren brought the +army forward on the run. Giant floodlights +began to light up the scene. The +blood of Larner and Nern froze.</p> + +<p>The monster had borne the girl to the +ground. Its frightful lance and cupper +was upraised to strike. Larner was the +nearest and the quickest to act. He +grabbed for his ray-gun, swung at his +belt. It was gone! In horror he remembered +he had left it at the base. +He seized a short knife and threw himself +forward, rolling his body between +that of the girl and the descending +lance and cupper.</p> + +<p>As the lance pierced his shoulder +Larner, in one wild gesture of frenzy, +drove his knife through the soft, yielding +flesh of the vampire's organ of suction.</p> + +<p>Protected by no bony structure the +snout of the monster was amputated.</p> + +<p>The terrible creature had been disarmed +of his most formidable weapon, +but he continued to fight. Larner felt +the spikes on the monster's legs tear at +his flesh.</p> + +<p>"Don't kill the thing," he shouted. +"Bring on the net. For the love of God +bring on the net!" Then he lost consciousness.</p> + +<p>It was daylight when Larner, somewhat +weakened from loss of blood, regained +consciousness.</p> + +<p>The beautiful Tula Bela was leaning +over him.</p> + +<p>She whispered comforting words to +him in a language he did not fully +understand. She whispered happy exclamations +in words he did not know +the meaning of, but the tone was unmistakably +those of a sweetheart +towards her lover.</p> + +<p>Finally, in answer to a true scientist's +question in his eyes, she said in +English:</p> + +<p>"They caught the thing alive. They +await your order to advance."</p> + +<p>"Let us be on our way," said Larner, +and he started to arise.</p> + +<p>"You are hardly strong enough," said +Tula.</p> + +<p>"Believe me, I am all right," insisted +Larner, and after several trials he got +to his feet. His constitution was naturally +strong and his will was stronger, +so he fought back all feelings of weakness +and soon announced himself ready +to go ahead with the project at hand. +For speed was all important, and the +young professor found himself unable +to remain inactive.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="upper">e</span> rejoiced when Zorn told him +that the big insect that had attacked +Tula Bela had been captured +alive and had been kept well nourished +by lat's blood injected into its stomach.</p> + +<p>With Zorn Larner went to inspect +the hideous monstrosity and found it +in leash and straining. It was ready +to be used to lead the way back to its +breeding place.</p> + +<p>Its wings shackled, the lumbering +insect floundered on its way straight +north. Ponderously and half blindly +it crawled as the searchlights' glare +was kept far enough in advance to keep +from blinding the monster.</p> + +<p>True to instinct it finally brought up +at early dawn under a high cliff of +smoky quartz. Here, in the great +crevices, the drove of diabolical vampires +were hiding.</p> + +<p>As the light struck their dens, they +attempted clumsily to take wing, but a +interlacing network of devastating disintegrating +rays from the ray-guns +shattered their bodies to dust, which +was borne away by the wind.</p> + +<p>The next few months were spent in +combing the quartz crags of Venus for +similar infested areas, but only the one +breeding nest was found. The scourge +had been conquered in its first and only +stronghold.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[59]</a></span></p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="upper">o</span> ended the greatest reign of terror +in the history of Venus.</p> + +<p>Leslie Larner was given a vote of +thanks, and riches were showered upon +him by the good people of the sky's +brightest star.</p> + +<p>His modesty was characteristic, and +he insisted that his part in saving humanity +on the planet had been small.</p> + +<p>Passage back to earth was offered +him, but Nern and Tula Bela urged +him to say and live his life on Venus. +This he finally agreed to do.</p> + +<p>"If I returned," he said, "I would +always be tempted to tell my experiences +while away, and there is not a +jury in the world which would account +me sane after I had once spoken."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">hat</span> the story of Larner's adventure +reached earth dwellers at all +is due to the fact that Nern Bela on a +subsequent visit to the earth narrated +it to a Colorado quartz miner. This +miner, a bronzed and bearded prospector +for gold, stumbled on the targo in +a mountain fastness, and there was +nought to do but make him welcome +and pledge him to secrecy.</p> + +<p>The miner surveyed the crystal targo +in rapt wonderment and said: "And to +think I am the only earth man who +ever viewed such a craft!"</p> + +<p>"No," answered Nern Bela, "there is +one other." And then the stirring story +of Leslie Larner's life on Venus was +told.</p> + + +<hr style="width: 9%; margin-top: 4em; margin-bottom: 4em;" /> + +<h2 class="chapter">SAFE FLYING IN FOGS</h2> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> outstanding development in aviation +recently, and one of the most significant +so far in aviation history was the "blind" +flight of Lieut. James H. Doolittle, daredevil +of the Army Air Corps, at Mitchel Field, +L. I., which led Harry P. Guggenheim, President +of the Daniel Guggenheim Fund for the +Promotion of Aeronautics, Inc. to announce +that the problem of fog-flying, one of aviation's +greatest bugbears, had been solved at +last.</p> + +<p>There has been "blind flying" done in the +past but never before in the history of aviation +has any pilot taken off, circled, crossed, +re-crossed the field, then landed only a short +distance away from his starting point while +flying under conditions resembling the densest +fog, as Lieut. "Jimmy" Doolittle has done, in +his Wright-motored "Husky" training-plane. +It was something uncanny to contemplate.</p> + +<p>The "dense fog" was produced artificially +by the simple device of making the cabin of +the plane entirely light-proof. Once seated +inside, the flyer, with his co-pilot, Lieut. +Benjamin Kelsey, also of Mitchel Field, were +completely shut off from any view of the +world outside. All they had to depend on +were three new flying instruments, developed +during the past year in experiments conducted +over the full-flight laboratory established by +the Fund at Mitchel Field.</p> + +<p>The chief factors contributing to the solution +of the problem of blind flying consist of +a new application of the visual radio beacon, +the development of an improved instrument +for indicating the longitudinal and lateral position +of an airplane, a new directional gyroscope, +and a sensitive barometric altimeter, +so delicate as to measure the altitude of an +airplane within a few feet of the ground.</p> + +<p>Thus, instead of relying on the natural horizon +for stability, Lieut. Doolittle uses an +"artificial horizon" on the small instrument +which indicates longitudinal and lateral position +in relation to the ground at all time. +He was able to locate the landing field by +means of the direction-finding long-distance +radio beacon. In addition, another smaller +radio beacon had been installed, casting a +beam fifteen to twenty miles in either direction, +which governs the immediate approach +to the field.</p> + +<p>To locate the landing field the pilot watches +two vibrating reeds, tuned to the radio beacon, +on a virtual radio receiver on his instrument +board. If he turns to the right or left +of his course the right or left reed, respectively, +begins doing a sort of St. Vitus +dance. If the reeds are in equilibrium the +pilot knows it is clear sailing straight to his +field.</p> + +<p>The sensitive altimeter showed Lieut. Doolittle +his altitude and made it possible for him +to calculate his landing to a distance of within +a few feet from the ground.</p> + +<p>Probably the strangest device of all that +Lieut. Doolittle has been called upon to test +in Mr. Guggenheim's war against fog is a +sort of heat cannon that goes forth to combat +like a fire-breathing dragon of old. Like the +enemies of the dragon, the fog is supposed to +curl up and die before the scorching breath +of the "hot air artillery" although the fundamental +principle behind the device is a great +deal more scientific than such an explanation +sounds. It is, in brief, based on the known +fact that fog forms only in a very narrow +temperature zone which lies between the +saturation and precipitation points of the atmosphere. +If the air grows a little colder the +fog turns into rain and falls; if it is warmed +very slightly the mist disappears and the air +is once more normally clear, although its +humidity is very close to the maximum.</p> + + + + + +<hr /> +<div class="image"> +<img src="images/i060.jpg" width="596" height="532" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>I turned back to look at the Planetara.</i></h3> + +<h2 class="chapter3"><a name="Brigands_of_the_Moon" id="Brigands_of_the_Moon"></a>Brigands of the Moon<br /> +<small>(The Book of Gregg Haljan)</small><br /> +<small>PART TWO OF A FOUR-PART NOVEL</small></h2> + +<h2 class="chapter"><i>By Ray Cummings</i></h2> +<div class="microspace"> </div> + +<div class="sidenote">Out of awful space tumbled the Space-ship +<i>Planetara</i> towards the Moon, her officers +<i>dead</i>, with bandits at her helm—and the +controls out of order!</div> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="upper">y</span> name, Gregg Haljan. My age, +twenty-five years. My occupation, +at the time my narrative begins, +in 2075, was third officer of the Interplanetary +Space-ship <i>Planetara</i>.</p> + +<p>Thus I introduce<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[60]</a></span> +myself to +you. For this is +a continuation of +the book of Gregg +Haljan, and of necessity +I am the +chief actor therein. I shall recapitulate +very briefly what has happened so +far:</p> + +<p>Unscrupulous Martian brigands were +scheming for Johnny Grantline's secret +radium-ore treasure, dug out of the +Moon and waiting there to be picked +up by the <i>Planetara</i> on her return trip +from Mars.</p> + +<p>The <i>Planetara</i> left, bound for Mars, +some ten days +away. Suspicious +interplanetary +passengers were +aboard: Miko and +Moa, a brother +and a sister of +Mars; Sir Arthur Coniston, a mysterious +Englishman; Ob Hahn, a Venus +mystic. And small, effeminate George +Prince and his sister, Anita. Love, I +think, was born instantly between Anita<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[61]</a></span> +and me. I found all too soon that Miko, +the sinister giant from Mars, also desired +her.</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<div class="image"> +<img src="images/i061.jpg" width="588" height="594" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<div class="microspace"> </div> + +<p>As we neared the Moon we received +Grantline's secret message: "Stop for +ore on your return voyage. Success +beyond wildest hopes!" But I soon +discovered that an eavesdropper in an +invisible cloak had overheard it!</p> + +<p>Soon afterwards Miko accidentally +murdered a person identified as Anita +Prince.</p> + +<p>Then, in the confusion that resulted, +Miko struck his great blow. The crew +of the <i>Planetara</i>, secretly in his pay, +rose up and killed the captain and all +the officers but Snap Dean, the radio-helio +operator, and myself.</p> + +<p>I was besieged in the chart-room. +George Prince leaped in upon me—and +put his arms around me. I looked at +him closer—only to discover it was +Anita, disguised as her brother! It +was her brother, George, who had been +killed! George had been in the brigands' +confidence—thus Anita was able +to spy for us.</p> + +<p>Quickly we plotted. I would surrender +to her, Anita Prince, whom the +brigands thought was George Prince. +Together we might possibly be able, +with Snap's help, to turn the tide, and +reclaim the <i>Planetara</i>.</p> + +<p>I was taken to my stateroom and +locked there until Miko the brigand +leader should come to dispose of me. +But I cared not what had happened—Anita +was alive!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[62]</a></span></p> + + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER XIV</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>The Brigand Leader</i></h3> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> giant Miko stood confronting +me. He slid my cubby door +closed behind him. He stood +with his head towering close +against my ceiling. His cloak was discarded. +In his leather clothes, and +with his clanking sword-ornament, his +aspect carried the swagger of a brigand +of old. He was bareheaded; the +light from one of my tubes fell upon his +grinning, leering gray face.</p> + +<p>"So, Gregg Haljan? You have come +to your senses at last. You do not wish +me to write my name upon your chest? +I would not have done that to Dean; +he forced me. Sit back."</p> + +<p>I had been on my bunk. I sank back +at the gesture of his huge hairy arm. +His forearm was bare now; the sear +of a burn on it was plain to be seen. +He remarked my gaze.</p> + +<p>"True. You did that, Haljan, in +Great-New York. But I bear you no +malice. I want to talk to you now."</p> + +<p>He cast about for a seat, and took the +little stool which stood by my desk. +His hand held a small cylinder of the +Martian paralyzing ray; he rested it +beside him on the desk.</p> + +<p>"Now we can talk."</p> + +<p>I remained silent. Alert. Yet my +thoughts were whirling. Anita was +alive. Masquerading now as her brother. +And, with the joy of it, came a shudder. +Above everything, Miko must not +know.</p> + +<p>"A great adventure we are upon, +Haljan."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="upper">y</span> thoughts came back. Miko was +talking with an assumption of +friendly comradeship. "All is well—and +we need you, as I have said before. +I am no fool. I have been aware of +everything that went on aboard this +ship. You, of all the officers, are most +clever at the routine mathematics. Is +that so?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," I said.</p> + +<p>"You are modest." He fumbled at a +pocket of his jacket, produced a scroll-sheaf. +I recognized it: Blackstone's +figures; the calculation Blackstone +roughly made of the elements of the +asteroid we had passed.</p> + +<p>"I am interested in these," Miko +went on. "I want you to verify them. +And this." He held up another scroll. +"This is the calculation of our present +position. And our course. Hahn claims +he is a navigator. We have set the +ship's gravity plates—see, like this—"</p> + +<p>He handed me the scrolls; he watched +me keenly as I glanced over them.</p> + +<p>"Well?" I said.</p> + +<p>"You are sparing of words, Haljan. +By the devils of the airways, I could +make you talk! But I want to be +friendly."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">handed</span> him back the scrolls. I +stood up; I was almost within +reach of his weapon, but with a sweep +of his great arm he abruptly knocked +me back to my bunk.</p> + +<p>"You dare?" Then he smiled. "Let +us not come to blows!"</p> + +<p>"No," I said. I returned his smile. +In truth, physical violence could get me +nothing in dealing with this fellow. I +would have to try guile. And I saw now +that his face was flushed and his eyes +unnaturally bright. He had been drinking +alcolite; not enough to befuddle +him—but enough to make him triumphantly +talkative.</p> + +<p>"Hahn may not be much of a mathematician," +I suggested. "But there is +your Sir Arthur Coniston." I managed +a sarcastic grin. "Is that his name?"</p> + +<p>"Almost. Haljan, will you verify +these figures?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. But why? Where are we going?"</p> + +<p>He laughed. "You are afraid I will +not tell you! Why should I not? This +great adventure of mine is progressing +perfectly. A tremendous stake, Haljan. +A hundred millions of dollars in gold-leaf; +there will be fabulous riches for +us all, when that radium ore is sold +for a hundred million in gold-leaf."</p> + +<p>"But where are we going?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[63]</a></span></p> + +<p>"To that asteroid," he said abruptly. +"I must get rid of these passengers. +I am no murderer."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="upper">ith</span> half a dozen killings in +the recent fight this was hardly +convincing. But he was obviously +wholly serious. He seemed to read my +thoughts.</p> + +<p>"I kill only when necessary. We will +land upon the asteroid. A perfect place +to maroon the passengers. Is it not +so? I will give them the necessities of +life. They will be able to signal. And +in a month or so, when we are safely +finished with our adventure, a police +ship no doubt will rescue them."</p> + +<p>"And then, from the asteroid," I suggested, +"we are going—"</p> + +<p>"To the Moon, Haljan. What a clever +guesser you are! Coniston and Hahn +are calculating our course. But I have +no great confidence in them. And so +I want you."</p> + +<p>"You have me."</p> + +<p>"Yes. I have you. I would have +killed you long ago—I am an impulsive +fellow—but my sister restrained me."</p> + +<p>He gazed at me slyly. "Moa seems +strangely to like you, Haljan."</p> + +<p>"Thanks," I said. "I'm flattered."</p> + +<p>"She still hopes I may really win you +to join us," he went on. "Gold-leaf is a +wonderful thing; there would be plenty +for you in this affair. And to be rich, +and have the love of a woman like +Moa...."</p> + +<p>He paused. I was trying cautiously +to gauge him, to get from him all the +information I could. I said, with another +smile, "That is premature, to talk +of Moa. I will help you chart your +course. But this venture, as you call +it, is dangerous. A police-ship—"</p> + +<p>"There are not many," he declared. +"The chances of us encountering one +is very slim." He grinned at me. "You +know that as well as I do. And we now +have those code pass-words—I forced +Dean to tell me where he had hidden +them. If we should be challenged, our +pass-word answer will relieve suspicion."</p> + +<p>"The <i>Planetara</i>," I objected, "being +overdue at Ferrok-Shahn, will cause +alarm. You'll have a covey of patrol-ships +after you."</p> + +<p>"That will be two weeks from now," +he smiled. "I have a ship of my own +in Ferrok-Shahn. It lies there waiting +now, manned and armed. I am hoping +that, with Dean's help, we may be able +to flash it a signal. It will join us on +the Moon. Fear not for the danger, +Haljan. I have great interests allied +with me in this thing. Plenty of money. +We have planned carefully."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="upper">e</span> was idly fingering his cylinder; +his gaze roved me as I sat docile +on my bunk. "Did you think George +Prince was a leader of this? A mere +boy. I engaged him a year ago—his +knowledge of ores is valuable."</p> + +<p>My heart was pounding, but I strove +not to show it. He went on calmly.</p> + +<p>"I told you I am impulsive. Half a +dozen times I have nearly killed George +Prince, and he knows it." He frowned. +"I wish I had killed him, instead of his +sister. That was an error."</p> + +<p>There was a note of real concern in +his voice. Did he love Anita Prince? +It seemed so.</p> + +<p>He added, "That is done—nothing +can change it. George Prince is helpful +to me. Your friend Dean is another. +I had trouble with him, but he is docile +now."</p> + +<p>I said abruptly, "I don't know whether +your promise means anything or not, +Miko. But George Prince said you +would use no more torture."</p> + +<p>"I won't. Not if you and Dean obey +me."</p> + +<p>"You tell Dean I have agreed to that. +You say he gave you the code-words +we took from Johnson?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. There was a fool! That Johnson! +You blame me, Haljan, for the +killing of Captain Carter? You need +not. Johnson offered to try and capture +you. Take you alive. He killed +Carter because he was angry at him. +A stupid, vengeful fool! He is dead, +and I am glad of it."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[64]</a></span></p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="upper">y</span> mind was on Miko's plans. I +ventured. "This treasure on the +Moon—did you say it was on the +Moon?"</p> + +<p>"Don't be an idiot," he retorted. "I +know as much about Grantline as you +do."</p> + +<p>"That's very little."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you know more, Miko. The +Moon is a big place. Where, for instance, +is Grantline located?"</p> + +<p>I held my breath. Would he tell me +that? A score of questions—vague +plans—were in my mind. How skilled +at mathematics were these brigands? +Miko, Hahn, Coniston—could I fool +them? If I could learn Grantline's location +on the Moon, and keep the <i>Planetara</i> +away from it. A pretended error +of charting. Time lost—and perhaps +Snap could find an opportunity to signal +Earth, get help.</p> + +<p>Miko answered my question as bluntly +as I asked it. "I don't know where +Grantline is located. But we will find +out. He will not suspect the <i>Planetara</i>. +When we get close to the Moon, we +will signal and ask him. We can trick +him into telling us. You think I do +not know what is on your mind, Haljan? +There is a secret code of signals +arranged between Dean and Grantline. +I have forced Dean to confess it. Without +torture! Prince helped me in that. +He persuaded Dean not to defy me. A +very persuasive fellow, George Prince. +More diplomatic than I am, I give him +credit."</p> + +<p>I strove to hold my voice calm. "If +I should join you, Miko—my word, if +I ever gave it, you would find dependable—I +would say George Prince is +very valuable to us. You should rein +your temper. He is half your size—you +might some time, without intention +do him injury."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="upper">e</span> laughed. "Moa says so. But +have no fear—"</p> + +<p>"I was thinking," I persisted, "I'd +like to have a talk with George Prince."</p> + +<p>Ah, my pounding, tumultuous heart! +But I was smiling calmly. And I tried +to put into my voice a shrewd note of +cupidity. "I really know very little +about this treasure, Miko. If there +were a million or two of gold-leaf in +it for me—"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps there would be."</p> + +<p>"I was thinking. Suppose you let me +have a talk with Prince? I have some +knowledge of radium ores. His skill +and mine—a calculation of what +Grantline's treasure may really be. You +don't know; you are only assuming."</p> + +<p>I paused. Whatever may have been +in Miko's mind I cannot say. But +abruptly he stood up. I had left my +bunk, but he waved me back.</p> + +<p>"Sit down. I am not like Moa. I +would not trust you just because you +protested you would be loyal." He +picked up his cylinder. "We will talk +again." He gestured to the scrolls he +had left upon my desk. "Work on +those. I will judge you by the results."</p> + +<p>He was no fool, this brigand leader.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I agreed. "You want a true +course now to the asteroid?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I will get rid of these passengers. +Then we will plan further. Do +your best, Haljan—no error! By the +Gods, I warn you I can check up on +you!"</p> + +<p>I said meekly, "Very well. But you +ask Prince if he wants my calculations +of Grantline's ore-body."</p> + +<p>I shot Miko a foxy look as he stood +by my door. I added, "You think you +are clever. There is plenty you don't +know. Our first night out from the +Earth—Grantline's signals—didn't it +ever occur to you that I might have +some figures on his treasure?"</p> + +<p>It startled him. "Where are they?"</p> + +<p>I tapped my forehead. "You don't +suppose I was foolish enough to record +them. You ask Prince if he wants to +talk to me. A high thorium content in +ore—you ask Prince. A hundred millions, +or two hundred. It would make +a big difference, Miko."</p> + +<p>"I will think about it." He backed +out and sealed the door upon me once +again.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[65]</a></span></p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">B</span><span class="upper">ut</span> Anita did not come. I verified +Hahn's figures, which were +very nearly correct. I charted a course +for the asteroid; it was almost the one +which had been set.</p> + +<p>Coniston came for my results. "I +say, we are not so bad as navigators, +are we? I think we're jolly good, considering +our inexperience. Not bad at +all, eh?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>I did not think it wise to ask him +about Prince.</p> + +<p>"Are you hungry, Haljan?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>A steward came with a meal. The +saturnine Hahn stood at my door with +a weapon upon me while I ate. They +were taking no chances—and they were +wise not to.</p> + +<p>The day passed. Day and night, all +the same of aspect here in the starry +vault of Space. But with the ship's +routine it was day.</p> + +<p>And then another time of sleep. I +slept, fitfully, worrying, trying to plan. +Within a few hours we would be nearing +the asteroid.</p> + +<p>The time of sleep was nearly passed. +My chronometer marked five A. M. of +our original Earth starting time. The +seal of my cubby door hissed. The +door slowly, opened.</p> + +<p>Anita!</p> + +<p>She stood there with her cloak +around her. A distance away on the +shadowed deck-space Coniston was +loitering.</p> + +<p>"Anita!" I whispered it.</p> + +<p>"Gregg, dear!"</p> + +<p>She turned and gestured to the +watching brigand. "I will not be long, +Coniston."</p> + +<p>She came in and half closed the door +upon us, leaving it open enough so that +we could make sure that Coniston did +not advance.</p> + +<p>I stepped back where he could not +see us.</p> + +<p>"Anita!"</p> + +<p>She flung herself into my opened +arms.</p> + + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER XV</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>The Masquerader</i></h3> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="upper">moment</span> when beyond all +thought of the nearby brigand—or +the possibility of an eavesdropping +ray trained now upon my little cubby—a +moment while Anita and I held +each other; and whispered those things +which could mean nothing to the +world, but which were all the world to +us.</p> + +<p>Then it was she whose wits brought +us back from the shining fairyland of +our love, into the sinister reality of the +<i>Planetara</i>.</p> + +<p>"Gregg, if they are listening—"</p> + +<p>I pushed her away. This brave little +masquerader! Not for my life, or for +all the lives on the ship, would I consciously +have endangered her.</p> + +<p>"But the ore," I said aloud. "There +was, in Grantline's message—See here, +Prince."</p> + +<p>Coniston was too far away on the +deck to hear us. Anita went to my door +again and waved at him reassuringly. +I put my ear to the door opening, and +listened at the space across the grid of +the ventilator over my bunk. The hum +of a vibration would have been audible +at those two points. But there was +nothing.</p> + +<p>"It's all right," I whispered. "Anita—not +you who was killed! I can hardly +realize it now. Not you whom they +buried yesterday morning."</p> + +<p>We stood and whispered, and she +clung to me—so small beside me. With +the black robe thrown aside, it seemed +that I could not miss the curves of her +woman's figure. A dangerous game she +was playing. Her hair had been cut +short to the base of her neck, in the +fashion of her dead brother. Her eyelashes +had been clipped; the line of her +brows altered. And now, in the light +of my ray tube as it shone upon her earnest +face, I could remark other changes. +Glutz, the little beauty specialist, was +in this secret. With plastic skill he +had altered the set of her jaw with his +wax—put masculinity there.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[66]</a></span></p> + +<p>She was whispering: "It was—was +poor George whom Miko shot."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">had</span> now the true version of what +had occurred. Miko had been forcing +his wooing upon Anita. George +Prince was a weakling whose only good +quality was a love for his sister. Some +years ago he had fallen into evil ways. +Been arrested, and then discharged +from his position with the Federated +Radium Corporation. He had taken up +with evil companions in Great-New +York. Mostly Martians. And Miko +had met him. His technical knowledge, +his training with the Federated Corporation, +made him valuable to Miko's +enterprise. And so Prince had joined +the brigands.</p> + +<p>Of all this, Anita had been unaware. +She had never liked Miko. Feared him. +And it seemed that the Martian had +some hold upon her brother, which puzzled +and frightened Anita.</p> + +<p>Then Miko had fallen in love with +her. George had not liked it. And +that night on the <i>Planetara</i>, Miko had +come and knocked upon Anita's door. +Incautiously she opened it; he forced +himself in. And when she repulsed +him, struggled with him, George had +been awakened.</p> + +<p>She was whispering to me now. "My +room was dark. We were all three +struggling. George was holding me—the +shot came—and I screamed."</p> + +<p>And Miko had fled, not knowing +whom his shot had hit in the darkness.</p> + +<p>"And when George died, Captain +Carter wanted me to impersonate him. +We planned it with Dr. Frank, to try +and learn what Miko and the others +were doing. Because I never knew +that poor George had fallen into such +evil things."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">could</span> only hold her thankfully +in my arms. The lost what-might-have-been +seemed coming back to us.</p> + +<p>"And they cut my hair, Gregg, and +Glutz altered my face a little, and I did +my best. But there was no time—it +came upon us so quickly."</p> + +<p>And she whispered, "But I love you, +Gregg. I want to be the first to say it: +I love you—I love you."</p> + +<p>But we had the sanity to try and +plan.</p> + +<p>"Anita, when you go back, tell Miko +we discussed radium ores. You'll have +to be careful, clever. Don't say too +much. Tell him we estimate the treasure +at a hundred and thirty millions."</p> + +<p>I told her what Miko had vouchsafed +me of his plans. She knew all that. +And Snap knew it. She had had a few +moments alone with Snap. Gave me +now a message from him:</p> + +<p>"We'll pull out of this, Gregg."</p> + +<p>With Snap she had worked out a +plan. There were Snap and I; and +Shac and Dud Ardley, upon whom we +could doubtless depend. And Dr. +Frank. Against us were Miko and his +sister; and Coniston and Hahn. Of +course there were the members of the +crew. But we were numerically the +stronger when it came to true leadership. +Unarmed and guarded now. But +if we could break loose—recapture the +ship....</p> + +<p>I sat listening to Anita's eager whispers. +It seemed feasible. Miko did +not altogether trust George Prince; +Anita was now unarmed.</p> + +<p>"But I can make opportunity! I can +get one of their ray cylinders, and an +invisible cloak equipment."</p> + +<p>That cloak—it had been hidden in +Miko's room when Carter searched for +it in A20—was now in the chart-room +by Johnson's body. It had been repaired +now; Anita thought she could +get possession of it.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="upper">e</span> worked out the details of the +plan. Anita would arm herself, +and come and release me. Together, +with a paralyzing ray, we could +creep aboard the ship, overcome these +brigands one by one. There were so +few of the leaders. With them felled, +and with us in control of the turret and +the helio-room we could force the crew +to stay at their posts. There were, +Anita said, no navigators among Miko's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[67]</a></span> +crew. They would not dare oppose us.</p> + +<p>"But it should be done at once, +Anita. In a few hours we will be at +the asteroid."</p> + +<p>"Yes. I will go now—try and get +the weapons."</p> + +<p>"Where is Snap?"</p> + +<p>"Still in the helio-room. One of the +crew guards him."</p> + +<p>Coniston was roaming the ship; he +was still loitering on the deck, watching +our door. Hahn was in the turret. +The morning watch of the crew were +at their posts in the hull-corridors; the +stewards were preparing a morning +meal. There were nine members of +subordinates altogether, Anita had calculated. +Six of them were in Miko's +pay; the other three—our own men +who had not been killed in the fighting—had +joined the brigands.</p> + +<p>"And Dr. Frank, Anita?"</p> + +<p>He was in the lounge. All the passengers +were herded there, with Miko +and Moa alternating on guard.</p> + +<p>"I will arrange it with Venza," Anita +whispered swiftly. "She will tell the +others. Dr. Frank knows about it now. +He thinks it can be done."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> possibility of it swept me +anew. The brigands were of +necessity scattered singly about the +ship. One by one, creeping under cover +of an invisible cloak, I could fell them, +and replace them without alarming the +others. My thoughts leaped to it. We +would strike down the guard in the +helio-room. Release Snap. At the turret +we could assail Hahn, and replace +him with Snap.</p> + +<p>Coniston's voice outside broke in +upon us. "Prince."</p> + +<p>He was coming forward. Anita stood +in the doorway. "I have the figures, +Coniston. By God, this Haljan is with +us! And clever! We think it will +total a hundred and thirty millions. +What a stake!"</p> + +<p>She whispered, "Gregg, dear—I'll be +back soon. We can do it—be ready."</p> + +<p>"Anita—be careful of yourself! If +they should suspect you...."</p> + +<p>"I'll be careful. In an hour, Gregg, +or less, I'll come back. All right, Coniston. +Where is Miko? I want to see +him. Stay where you are, Haljan! All +in good time Miko will trust you with +your liberty. You'll be rich like us all, +never fear."</p> + +<p>She swaggered out upon the deck, +waved at the brigand, and banged my +cubby door in my face.</p> + +<p>I sat upon my bunk. Waiting. +Would she come back? Would she be +successful?</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER XVI</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>In the Blue-lit Corridor</i></h3> + +<p><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="upper">he</span> came. I suppose it was no more +than an hour: it seemed an eternity +of apprehension. There was the +slight hissing of the seal of my door. +The panel slid. I had leaped from my +bunk where in the darkness I was lying +tense.</p> + +<p>"Prince?" I did not dare say, +"Anita."</p> + +<p>"Gregg."</p> + +<p>Her voice. My gaze swept the deck +as the panel opened. Neither Coniston +nor anyone else was in sight, save +Anita's dark-robed figure which came +into my room.</p> + +<p>"You got it?" I asked her in a low +whisper.</p> + +<p>I held her for an instant, kissed her. +But she pushed me away with quick +hands.</p> + +<p>"Gregg, dear—"</p> + +<p>She was breathless. My kisses, and +the tenseness of what lay before us +were to blame.</p> + +<p>"Gregg, see, I have it. Give us a little +light—we must hurry!"</p> + +<p>In the blue dimness I saw that she +was holding one of the Martian cylinders. +The smallest size; it would paralyze, +but not kill.</p> + +<p>"Only one, Anita?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I had it before, but Miko took +it from me. It was in his room. And +this—"</p> + +<p>The invisible cloak. We laid it on +my grid, and I adjusted its mechanism.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[68]</a></span> +A cloak of the reflecting-absorbing +variety.<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a></p> + + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">donned</span> it, and drew its hood, +and threw on its current.</p> + +<p>"All right, Anita?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Can you see me?"</p> + +<p>"No." She stepped back a foot or +two further. "Not from here. But you +must let no one approach too close."</p> + +<p>Then she came forward, put out her +hand, fumbled until she found me.</p> + +<p>It was our plan to have me follow +her out. Anyone observing us would +see only the robed figure of the supposed +George Prince, and I would escape +notice.</p> + +<p>The situation about the ship was almost +unchanged. Anita had secured +the weapon and the cloak and slipped +away to my cubby without being observed.</p> + +<p>"You're sure of that?"</p> + +<p>"I think so, Gregg. I was careful."</p> + +<p>Moa was now in the lounge, guarding +the passengers. Hahn was asleep in +the chart-room; Coniston was in the +turret. Coniston would be off duty +presently, Anita said, with Hahn taking +his place. There were look-outs in +the forward and stern watch-towers, +and a guard upon Snap in the helio-room.</p> + +<p>"Is he inside the room, Anita?"</p> + +<p>"Snap? Yes."</p> + +<p>"No—the guard."</p> + +<p>"No. He was sitting upon the spider +bridge at the door."</p> + + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">his</span> was unfortunate. That guard +could see all the deck clearly. He +might be suspicious of George Prince +wandering around; it would be difficult +to get near enough to assail him. This +cylinder, I knew, had an effective +range of only some twenty feet.</p> + +<p>Anita and I were swiftly whispering. +It was necessary now to decide exactly +what we were to do; once under observation +outside, there must be no hesitation, +no fumbling.</p> + +<p>"Coniston is sharpest, Gregg. He +will be the hardest to get near."</p> + +<p>The languid-spoken Englishman was +the one Anita most feared. His alert +eyes seemed to miss nothing. Perhaps +he was suspicious of this George Prince—Anita +thought so.</p> + +<p>"But where is Miko?" I whispered.</p> + +<p>The brigand leader had gone below a +few moments ago, down into the hull-corridor. +Anita had seized the opportunity +to come to me.</p> + +<p>"We can attack Hahn in the chart-room +first," I suggested. "And get the +other weapons. Are they still there?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. But Gregg, the forward deck +is very bright."</p> + +<p>We were approaching the asteroid. +Already its light like a brilliant moon +was brightening the forward deck-space. +It made me realize how much +haste was necessary.</p> + +<p>We decided to go down into the hull-corridors. +Locate Miko. Fell him, and +hide him. His non-appearance back on +deck would very soon throw the others +into confusion, especially now with our +impending landing upon the asteroid. +And under cover of this confusion we +would try and release Snap.</p> + +<p>We had been arguing no more than a +minute or two. We were ready. Anita +slid my door wide. She stepped +through, with me soundlessly scurrying +after her. The empty, silent deck was +alternately dark with shadow-patches +and bright with blobs of starlight. A +sheen of the Sun's corona was mingled +with it; and from forward came the +radiance of the asteroid's mellow silver +glow.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[69]</a></span></p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">nita</span> turned to seal my door; +within my faintly humming cloak +I stood beside her. Was I invisible in +this light? Almost directly over us, +close under the dome, the look-out sat +in his little tower. He gazed down at +Anita.</p> + +<p>Amidships, high over the cabin +superstructure, the helio-room hung +dark and silent. The guard on its +bridge was visible. He, too, looked +down.</p> + +<p>A tense instant. Then I breathed +again. There was no alarm. The two +guards answered Anita's gesture.</p> + +<p>Anita said aloud into my empty cubby: +"Miko will come for you presently, +Haljan. He told me to tell you that he +wants you at the turret controls to land +us on the asteroid."</p> + +<p>She finished sealing my door and +turned away; started forward along the +deck. I followed. My steps were +soundless in my elastic-bottomed shoes. +Anita swaggered with a noisy tread. +Near the door of the smoking room a +small incline passage led downward. +We went into it.</p> + +<p>The passage was dimly blue-lit. We +descended its length, came to the main +corridor, which ran the length of the +hull. A vaulted metal passage, with +doors to the control rooms opening +from it. Dim lights showed at intervals.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> humming of the ship was more +apparent here. It drowned the +slight humming of my cloak. I crept +after Anita; my hand under the cloak +clutched the ray weapon.</p> + +<p>A steward passed us. I shrank aside +to avoid him.</p> + +<p>Anita spoke to him. "Where is +Miko, Ellis?"</p> + +<p>"In the ventilator-room, Mr. Prince. +There was difficulty with the air renewal."</p> + +<p>Anita nodded, and moved on. I +could have felled that steward as he +passed me. Oh, if I only had, how +different things might have been!</p> + +<p>But it seemed needless. I let him go, +and he turned into a nearby door which +led to the galley.</p> + +<p>Anita moved forward. If we could +come upon Miko alone. Abruptly she +turned, and whispered, "Gregg, if other +men are with him, I'll draw him away. +You watch your chance."</p> + +<p>What little things may overthrow +one's careful plans! Anita had not +realized how close to her I was following. +And her turning so unexpectedly +caused me to collide with her sharply.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" She exclaimed it involuntarily. +Her outflung hand had unwittingly +gripped my wrist, caught the electrode +there. The touch burned her, and +close-circuited my robe. There was a +hiss. My current burned out the tiny +fuses.</p> + +<p>My invisibility was gone! I stood, a +tall black-hooded figure, revealed to the +gaze of anyone who might be near!</p> + +<p>The futile plans of humans! We had +planned so carefully! Our calculations, +our hopes of what we could do, +came clattering now in a sudden wreckage +around us.</p> + +<p>"Anita, run!"</p> + +<p>If I were seen with her, then her own +disguise would probably be discovered. +That above everything would be disaster!</p> + +<p>"Anita, get away from me! I must +try it alone!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">could</span> hide somewhere, repair the +cloak perhaps. Or, since now I was +armed, why could I not boldly start an +assault?</p> + +<p>"Gregg, we must get you back to +your cubby!" She was clinging to me +in a panic.</p> + +<p>"No! You run! Get away from me! +Don't you understand? George Prince +has no business here with me! They'd +kill you!"</p> + +<p>Or worse—- Miko would discover it +was Anita, not George Prince.</p> + +<p>"Gregg, let's get back to the deck."</p> + +<p>I pushed at her. Both of us in sudden +confusion.</p> + +<p>From behind me there came a shout. +That accursed steward! He had re<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[70]</a></span>turned, +to investigate perhaps what +George Prince was doing in this corridor. +He heard our voices; his shout +in the silence of the ship sounded horribly +loud. The white-clothed shape of +him was in the nearby doorway. He +stood stricken in surprise at seeing me. +And then turned to run.</p> + +<p>I fired my paralyzing cylinder +through my cloak. Got him! He fell. +I shoved Anita violently.</p> + +<p>"Run! Tell Miko to come—tell him +you heard a shout! He won't suspect +you!"</p> + +<p>"But Gregg—"</p> + +<p>"You mustn't be found out! You're +our only hope, Anita! I'll hide, fix the +cloak, or get back to my cubby. We'll +try it again."</p> + +<p>It decided her. She scurried down +the corridor. I whirled the other way. +The steward's shout might not have +been heard.</p> + +<p>Then realization flashed to me. That +steward would be revived. He was one +of Miko's men: for two voyages he had +been a spy upon the <i>Planetara</i>. He +would be revived and tell what he had +seen and heard. Anita's disguise +would be revealed.</p> + +<p>A cold-blooded killing I do protest +went against me. But it was necessary. +I flung myself upon him. I beat his +skull with the metal of my cylinder.</p> + +<p>I stood up. My hood had fallen +back from my head. I wiped my bloody +hands on my useless cloak. I had +smashed the cylinder.</p> + +<p>"Haljan!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">nita's</span> voice! A sharp note of +horror and warning. I became +aware that in the corridor, forty feet +down its dim length, Miko had appeared, +with Anita behind him. His +rifle-bullet-projector was leveled. It +spat at me. But Anita had pulled at +his arm.</p> + +<p>The explosive report was sharply +deafening in the confined space of the +corridor. With a spurt of flame the +leaden pellet struck over my head +against the vaulted ceiling.</p> + +<p>Miko was struggling with Anita. +"Prince, you idiot!"</p> + +<p>"Miko, don't! It's Haljan! Don't +kill him—"</p> + +<p>The turmoil brought members of the +crew. From the shadowed oval near +me they came running. I flung the useless +cylinder at them. But I was +trapped in the narrow passage.</p> + +<p>I might have fought my way out. Or +Miko might have shot me. But there +was the danger that, in her horror, +Anita would betray herself.</p> + +<p>I backed against the wall. "Don't +kill me! See, I will not fight!"</p> + +<p>I flung up my arms. And the crew, +emboldened, and courageous under +Miko's gaze, leaped on me and bore me +down.</p> + +<p>The futile plans of humans! Anita +and I had planned so carefully, and in +a few brief minutes of action it had +come only to this!</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER XVII</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>A Woman of Mars</i></h3> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="upper">o,</span> Gregg Haljan, you are not as +loyal as you pretend!"</p> + +<p>Miko was livid with suppressed anger. +They had stripped the cloak from +me, and flung me back in my cubby. +Miko was now confronting me; at the +door Moa stood watching. And Anita +was behind her. I sat outwardly defiant +and sullen on my bunk. But I was +alert and tense, fearful still of what +Anita's emotion might betray her into +doing.</p> + +<p>"Not so loyal," Miko repeated. "And +a fool! Do you think I am such a child +you can escape me!"</p> + +<p>He swung around. "How did he get +out of here? Prince, you came in +here!"</p> + +<p>My heart was wildly thumping. But +Anita retorted with a touch of spirit:</p> + +<p>"I came to tell him what you commanded. +To check Hahn's latest figures—and +to be ready to take the controls +when we go into the asteroid's +atmosphere."</p> + +<p>"Well, how did he get out?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[71]</a></span></p> + +<p>"How should I know?" she parried. +Little actress! Her spirit helped to +allay my fear. She held her cloak close +around her in the fashion they had +come to expect from the George Prince +who had just buried his sister. "How +should I know, Miko? I sealed his +door."</p> + +<p>"But did you?"</p> + +<p>"Of course he did," Moa put in.</p> + +<p>"Ask your look-outs," said Anita. +"They saw me—I waved to them just +as I sealed the door."</p> + +<p>I ventured, "I have been taught to +open doors." I managed a sly, lugubrious +smile. "I shall not try it again, +Miko."</p> + +<p>Nothing had been said about my killing +of the steward. I thanked my constellations +now that he was dead. "I +shall not try it again," I repeated.</p> + +<p>A glance passed between Miko and +his sister. Miko said abruptly, "You +seem to realize that it is not my purpose +to kill you. And you presume +upon it."</p> + +<p>"I shall not again." I eyed Moa. +She was gazing at me steadily. She +said, "Leave me with him, Miko...." +She smiled. "Gregg Haljan, we are no +more than twenty thousand miles from +the asteroid now. The calculations for +retarding are now in operation."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="upper">t</span> was what had taken Miko below, +that and trouble with the ventilating +system, which was soon rectified. +But the retarding of the ship's velocity +when nearing a destination required +accurate manipulation. These brigands +were fearful of their own skill. That +was obvious. It gave me confidence. I +was really needed. They would not +harm me. Except for Miko's impulsive +temper, I was in no danger from them—not +now, certainly.</p> + +<p>Moa was saying, "I think I may +make you understand, Gregg. We have +tremendous riches within our grasp."</p> + +<p>"I know it," I added with sudden +thought. "But there are many with +whom to divide this treasure...."</p> + +<p>Miko caught my intended implication. +"By the infernal, this fellow may +have felt he could seize the treasure +for himself! Because he is a navigator!"</p> + +<p>Moa said vehemently, "Do not be +an idiot, Gregg! You could not do it! +There will be fighting with Grantline."</p> + +<p>My purpose was accomplished. They +seemed to see me a willing outlaw like +themselves. As though it were a bond +between us. And they could win me.</p> + +<p>"Leave me with him," said Moa.</p> + +<p>Miko acquiesced. "For a few minutes +only." He proffered a heat-ray cylinder, +but she refused it.</p> + +<p>"I am not afraid of him."</p> + +<p>Miko swung on me. "Within an hour +we will be nearing the atmosphere. +Will you take the controls?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="upper">e</span> set his heavy jaw. His eyes +bored into me. "You're a strange +fellow, Haljan. I can't make you out. +I am not angry now. Do you think, +when I am deadly serious, that I mean +what I say?"</p> + +<p>His calm words set a sudden shiver +over me. I checked my smile.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said.</p> + +<p>"Well then, I will tell you this: not +for all of Prince's well-meaning interference, +or Moa's liking for you, or my +own need of your skill, will I tolerate +more trouble from you. The next +time—I will kill you. Do you believe +me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"That is all I want to say. You kill +my men, and my sister says I must not +hurt you. I am not a child to be ruled +by a woman!"</p> + +<p>He held his huge fist before my face. +"With these fingers I will twist your +neck! Do you believe it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes." I did indeed.</p> + +<p>He swung on his heel. "If Moa wants +to try and put sense into your head—I +hope she does. Bring him to the +lounge when you are finished, Moa. +Come, Prince—Hahn will need us." He +chuckled grimly. "Hahn seems to fear +we will plunge into this asteroid like<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[72]</a></span> +a wild comet gone suddenly tangent!"</p> + +<p>Anita moved aside to let him through +the door. I caught a glimpse of her +set white face as she followed him +down the deck.</p> + +<p>Then Moa's bulk blocked the doorway. +She faced me.</p> + +<p>"Sit where you are, Gregg." She +turned and closed the door upon us. +"I am not afraid of you. Should I be?"</p> + +<p>"No," I said.</p> + +<p>She came and sat down beside me. +"If you should attempt to leave this +room, the stern look-out has orders to +bore you through."</p> + +<p>"I have no intention of leaving the +room," I retorted. "I do not want +to commit suicide."</p> + +<p>"I thought you did. You seem +minded in such a fashion. Gregg, why +are you so foolish?"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">remained</span> silent.</p> + +<p>"Why?" she demanded.</p> + +<p>I said carefully, "This treasure—you +are many who will divide it. You have +all these men on the <i>Planetara</i>. And +in Ferrok-Shahn, others, no doubt."</p> + +<p>I paused. Would she tell me? Could +I make her talk of that other brigand +ship which Miko had said was waiting +on Mars? I wondered if he had +been able to signal it. The distance +from here to Mars was great; yet upon +other voyages Snap's signals had gotten +through. My heart sank at the +thought. Our situation here was desperate +enough. The passengers soon +would be cast upon the asteroid: there +would be left only Snap, Anita and myself. +We might recapture the ship, +but I doubted it now. My thoughts +were turning to our arrival upon the +Moon. We three might, perhaps, be +able to thwart the attack upon Grantline, +hold the brigands off until help +from the Earth might come.</p> + +<p>But with another brigand ship, fully +manned and armed, coming from Mars, +the condition would be immeasurably +worse. Grantline had some twenty +men, and his camp, I knew, would be +reasonably fortified. I knew, too, that +Johnny Grantline would fight to his +last man.</p> + +<p>Moa was saying, "I would like to +tell you our plans, Gregg."</p> + +<p>Her gaze was on my face. Keen eyes, +but they were luminous now—an emotion +in them sweeping her. But outwardly +she was calm, stern-lipped.</p> + +<p>"Well, why don't you tell me?" I +said. "If I am to help you...."</p> + +<p>"Gregg, I want you with us. Don't +you understand? We are not many. +My brother and I are guiding this +affair. With your help, I would feel +differently."</p> + +<p>"The ship at Ferrok-Shahn—"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="upper">y</span> fears were realized. She said, +"I think our signals reached it. +Dean tried, and Coniston was checking +him."</p> + +<p>"You think the ship is coming?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Where will it join us?"</p> + +<p>"At the Moon. We will be there in +thirty hours. Your figures gave that, +did they not, Gregg?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. And the other ship—how fast +is it?"</p> + +<p>"Quite fast. In eight days—or nine, +perhaps—it will reach the Moon."</p> + +<p>She seemed willing enough to talk. +There was indeed, no particular reason +for reticence; I could not, she naturally +felt, turn the knowledge to account.</p> + +<p>"Manned—" I prompted.</p> + +<p>"About forty men."</p> + +<p>"And armed? Long range projectors?"</p> + +<p>"You ask very avid questions, Gregg!"</p> + +<p>"Why should I not? Don't you suppose +I'm interested?" I touched her. +"Moa, did it ever occur to you, if once +you and Miko trusted me—which you +don't—I might show more interest in +joining you?"</p> + +<p>The look on her face emboldened +me. "Did you ever think of that, Moa? +And some arrangement for my share of +this treasure? I am not like Johnson, +to be hired for a hundred pounds of +gold-leaf."</p> + +<p>"Gregg, I will see that you get your +share. Riches, for you—and me."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[73]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I was thinking, Moa, when we land +at the Moon to-morrow—where is our +equipment?"</p> + +<p>The Moon, with its lack of atmosphere, +needed special equipment. I had +never heard Carter mention what apparatus +the <i>Planetara</i> was carrying.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="upper">oa</span> laughed. "We have located +air-suits and helmets—a variety +of suitable apparatus, Gregg. But we +were not foolish enough to leave Great-New +York on this voyage without our +own arrangements. My brother, and +Coniston and Prince—all of us shipped +crates of freight consigned to Ferrok-Shahn—and +Rankin had special baggage +marked 'theatrical apparatus.'"</p> + +<p>I understood it now. These brigands +had boarded the <i>Planetara</i> with their +own Moon equipment, disguised as +freight and personal baggage. Shipped +in bond, to be inspected by the tax officials +of Mars.</p> + +<p>"It is on board now. We will open +it when we leave the asteroid, Gregg. +We are well equipped."</p> + +<p>She bent toward me. And suddenly +her long lean fingers were gripping my +shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Gregg, look at me!"</p> + +<p>I gazed into her eyes. There was +passion there; and her voice was suddenly +intense.</p> + +<p>"Gregg, I told you once a Martian +girl goes after what she wants. It is +you I want—"</p> + +<p>Not for me to play like a cad upon a +woman's emotions! "Moa, you flatter +me."</p> + +<p>"I love you." She held me off, gazing +at me. "Gregg—"</p> + +<p>I must have smiled. And abruptly +she released me.</p> + +<p>"So you think it amusing?"</p> + +<p>"No. But on Earth—"</p> + +<p>"We are not on the Earth. Nor am +I of the Earth!" She was gauging me +keenly. No note of pleading was in +her voice; a stern authority; and the +passion was swinging to anger.</p> + +<p>"I am like my brother: I do not understand +you, Gregg Haljan. Perhaps +you think you are clever? It seems +stupidity, the fatuousness of man!"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," I said.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">here</span> was a moment of silence. +"Gregg, I said I loved you. Have +you no answer?"</p> + +<p>"No." In truth, I did not know what +sort of answer it would be best to +make. Whatever she must have read +in my eyes, it stirred her to fury. Her +fingers with the strength of a man in +them, dug into my shoulders. Her +gaze searched me.</p> + +<p>"You think you love someone else? +Is that it?"</p> + +<p>That was horribly startling; but she +did not mean it just that way. She +amended with caustic venom: "That +little Anita Prince! You thought you +loved her! Was that it?"</p> + +<p>"No!"</p> + +<p>But I hardly deceived her. "Sacred +to her memory! Her ratlike little face—soft +voice like a purring, sniveling +cat! Is that what you're remembering, +Gregg Haljan?" she sneered.</p> + +<p>I tried to laugh. "What nonsense!"</p> + +<p>"Is it? Then why are you cold under +my touch? Am I—a girl descended +from the Martian flame-workers—impotent +now to awaken a man?"</p> + +<p>A woman scorned! In all the Universe +there could be no more dangerous +an enemy. An incredible venom shot +from her eyes.</p> + +<p>"That miserable mouselike creature! +Well for her that my brother killed +her."</p> + +<p>It struck me cold. If Anita was unmasked, +beyond all the menace of +Miko's wooing, I knew that the venom +of Moa's jealousy was a greater danger.</p> + +<p>I said sharply, "Don't be simple, +Moa!" I shook off her grip. "You +imagine too much. You forget that I +am a man of the Earth and you a girl +of Mars."</p> + +<p>"Is that reason why we should not +love?"</p> + +<p>"No. But our instincts are different. +Men of the Earth are born to the +chase."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[74]</a></span></p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">was</span> smiling. With thought of +Anita's danger I could find it readily +in my heart to dupe this Amazon.</p> + +<p>"Give me time, Moa. You attract me."</p> + +<p>"You lie!"</p> + +<p>"Do you think so?" I gripped her +arm with all the power of my fingers. +It must have hurt her, but she gave no +sign; her gaze clung to me steadily.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what to think, Gregg +Haljan...."</p> + +<p>I held my grip. "Think what you +like. Men of Earth have been known +to kill the thing they love."</p> + +<p>"You want me to fear you?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps."</p> + +<p>She smiled scornfully. "That is +absurd."</p> + +<p>I released her. I said earnestly, "I +want you to realize that if you treat +me fairly, I can be of great advantage +to this venture. There will be fighting—I +am fearless."</p> + +<p>Her venomous expression was softening. +"I think that is true, Gregg."</p> + +<p>"And you need my navigating skill. +Even now I should be in the turret."</p> + +<p>I stood up. I half expected she would +stop me, but she did not. I added, +"Shall we go?"</p> + +<p>She stood beside me. Her height +brought her face level with mine.</p> + +<p>"I think you will cause no more +trouble, Gregg?"</p> + +<p>"Of course not. I am not wholly witless."</p> + +<p>"You have been."</p> + +<p>"Well, that is over." I hesitated. +Then I added, "A man of Earth does +not yield to love when there is work to +do. This treasure—"</p> + +<p>I think that of everything I said, +this last most convinced her.</p> + +<p>She interrupted, "That I understand." +Her eyes were smoldering. "When it +is over—when we are rich—then I will +claim you, Gregg."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="upper">he</span> turned from me. "Are you +ready?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. No! I must get that sheet +of Hahn's last figures."</p> + +<p>"Are they checked?"</p> + +<p>"Yes." I picked the sheet up from +my desk. "Hahn is fairly accurate, +Moa."</p> + +<p>"A fool nevertheless. An apprehensive +fool."</p> + +<p>A comradeship seemed coming between +us. It was my purpose to establish +it.</p> + +<p>"Are we going to maroon Dr. Frank +with the passengers?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"But he may be of use to us." I +wanted Dr. Frank kept aboard. I still +felt that there was a chance for us to +recapture the ship.</p> + +<p>But Moa shook her head decisively. +"My brother has decided not. We will +be well rid of Dr. Frank. Are you +ready, Gregg?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>She opened the door. Her gesture +reassured the look-out, who was alertly +watching the stern watch-tower.</p> + +<p>"Come, Gregg."</p> + +<p>I stepped out, and followed her forward +along the deck, which now was +bright with the radiance of the nearby +asteroid.</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER XVIII</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>Marooned on an Asteroid</i></h3> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="upper">fair</span> little world. I had thought +so before; and I thought so now +as I gazed at the asteroid hanging so +close before our bow. A huge, thin +crescent, with the Sun off to one side +behind it. A silver crescent, tinged +with red. From this near viewpoint, +all of the little globe's disc was visible. +The shadowed portion lay dimly red, +mysteriously; the sunlit crescent—widening +visibly is we approached—was +gleaming silver. Inky moonlike +shadows in the hollows, brilliant light +upon the mountain heights. The seas +lay in gray patches. The convexity of +the disc was sharply defined. So small +a world! Fair and beautiful, shrouded +with clouded areas.</p> + +<p>"Where is Miko?"</p> + +<p>"In the lounge, Gregg."</p> + +<p>"Can we stop there?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[75]</a></span></p> + +<p>Moa turned into the lounge archway. +Strange, tense scene. I saw Anita at +once. Her robed figure lurked in an +inconspicuous corner; her eyes were +upon me as Moa and I entered, but she +did not move. The thirty-odd passengers +were huddled in a group. Solemn, +white-faced men, frightened women. +Some of them were sobbing. One Earth-woman—a +young widow—sat holding +her little girl, and wailing with uncontrolled +hysteria. The child knew me. +As I appeared now, with my gold-laced +white coat over my shoulders, the little +child seemed to see in my uniform a +mark of authority. She left her mother +and ran to me.</p> + +<p>"You, please—you will help us? My +moms is crying."</p> + +<p>I sent her gently back. But there +came upon me then a compassion for +these innocent passengers, fated to +have embarked upon this ill-starred +voyage. Herded here in this cabin, +with brigands like pirates of old guarding +them. Waiting now to be marooned +on an uninhabited asteroid roaming in +space. A sense of responsibility swept +me. I swung upon Miko. He stood +with a nonchalant grace, lounging +against the wall with a cylinder dangling +in his hand. He anticipated me.</p> + +<p>"So, Haljan—she put some sense into +your head? No more trouble? Then +get into the turret. Moa, stay there +with him. Send Hahn here. Where is +that ass Coniston? We will be in the +atmosphere shortly."</p> + +<p>I said, "No more trouble from me, +Miko. But these passengers—what +preparation are you making for them +on the asteroid?"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="upper">e</span> stared in surprise. Then he +laughed. "I am no murderer. +The crew is preparing food, all we can +spare. And tools. They can build +themselves shelter—they will be picked +up in a few weeks."</p> + +<p>Dr. Frank was here. I caught his +gaze, but he did not speak. On the +lounge couches there still lay the +quarter-score bodies. Rankin, who had +been killed by Blackstone in the fight; +a man passenger killed; a woman and +a man wounded.</p> + +<p>Miko added, "Dr. Frank will take his +medical supplies—he will care for the +wounded. There are other bodies among +the crew." His gesture was deprecating. +"I have not buried them. We +will put them ashore; easier that way."</p> + +<p>The passengers were all eyeing me. +I said:</p> + +<p>"You have nothing to fear. I will +guarantee you the best equipment we +can spare. You will give them apparatus +with which to signal?" I demanded +of Miko.</p> + +<p>"Yes. Get to the turret."</p> + +<p>I turned away, with Moa after me. +Again the little girl ran forward.</p> + +<p>"Come—speak to my moms! She is +crying."</p> + +<p>It was across the cabin from Miko. +Coniston had appeared from the deck; +it created a slight diversion. He joined +Miko.</p> + +<p>"Wait," I said to Moa. "She is afraid +of you. This is humanity."</p> + +<p>I pushed Moa back. I followed the +child. I had seen that Venza was sitting +with the child's weeping mother. +This was a ruse to get word with me.</p> + +<p>I stood before the terrified woman +while the little girl clung to my legs.</p> + +<p>I said gently, "Don't be so frightened. +Dr. Frank will take care of you. There +is no danger—you will be safer on the +asteroid than here on the ship."</p> + +<p>I leaned down and touched her shoulder. +"There is no danger."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">was</span> between Venza and the open +cabin. Venza whispered swiftly, +"When we are landing, Gregg, I want +you to make a commotion—anything—just +as the women passengers go +ashore."</p> + +<p>"Why? No, of course you will have +food, Mrs. Francis."</p> + +<p>"Never mind! An instant. Just +confusion. Go, Gregg—don't speak +now!"</p> + +<p>I raised the child. "You take care +of mother." I kissed her.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[76]</a></span></p> + +<p>From across the cabin Miko's sardonic +voice made me turn. "Touching +sentimentality, Haljan! Get to your +post in the turret!"</p> + +<p>His rasping note of annoyance brooked +no delay. I set the child down. I +said, "I will land us in an hour. Depend +on it."</p> + +<p>Hahn was at the controls when Moa +and I reached the turret.</p> + +<p>"You will land us safely, Haljan?" he +demanded anxiously.</p> + +<p>I pushed him away. "Miko wants you +in the lounge."</p> + +<p>"You take command here?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, Hahn. I am no more anxious +for a crash than you."</p> + +<p>He sighed with relief. "That is true. +I am no expert at atmospheric entry, +Haljan—nor Coniston, nor Miko."</p> + +<p>"Have no fear. Sit down, Moa."</p> + +<p>I waved to the look-out in the forward +watch-tower, and got his routine +gesture. I rang the corridor bells, and +the normal signals came promptly back.</p> + +<p>"It's correct, Hahn. Get away with +you." I called after him. "Tell Miko +that things are all right here."</p> + +<p>Hahn's small dark figure, lithe as a +leopard in his tight fitting trousers +and jacket with his robe now discarded, +went swiftly down the spider incline +and across the deck.</p> + +<p>"Moa, where is Snap? By the infernal, +if he has been injured!—"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">U</span><span class="upper">p</span> on the helio-room bridge the +brigand guard still sat. Then I +saw that Snap was out there sitting +with him. I waved from the turret +window, and Snap's cheery gesture answered +me. His voice carried down +through the silver moonlight: "Land +us safely, Gregg. These weird amateur +navigators!"</p> + +<p>Within the hour I had us dropping +into the asteroid's atmosphere. The +ship heated steadily. The pressure +went up. It kept me busy with the +instruments and the calculations. But +my signals were always promptly answered +from below. The brigand crew +did its part efficiently.</p> + +<p>At a hundred and fifty thousand feet +I shifted the gravity plates to the landing +combinations, and started the +electronic engines.</p> + +<p>"All safe, Gregg?" Moa sat at my +elbow; her eyes, with what seemed a +glow of admiration in them, followed +my busy routine activities.</p> + +<p>"Yes. The crew works well."</p> + +<p>The electronic streams flowed out +like a rocket tail behind us. The <i>Planetara</i> +caught their impetus. In the rarified +air, our bow lifted slightly, like a +ship riding a gentle ground swell. At +a hundred thousand feet we sailed +gently forward, hull down to the asteroid's +surface, cruising to seek a landing +space.</p> + +<p>A little sea was now beneath us. A +shadowed sea, deep purple in the night +down there. Occasional green-verdured +islands showed, with the lines of white +surf marking them. Beyond the sea, +a curving coastline was visible. Rocky +headlines, behind which mountain foothills +rose in serrated, verdured ranks. +The sunlight edged the distant mountains; +and presently this rapidly turning +little world brought the sunlight +forward.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="upper">t</span> was day beneath us. We slid +gently downward. Thirty thousand +feet now, above a sparkling blue +ocean. The coastline was just ahead: +green with a lush, tropical vegetation. +Giant trees, huge-leaved. Long dangling +vines; air plants, with giant pods +and vivid orchidlike blossoms.</p> + +<p>I sat at the turret window, staring +through my glasses. A fair little world, +yet obviously uninhabited. I could fancy +that all this was newly-sprung vegetation. +This asteroid had whirled in +from the cold of the interplanetary +space far outside our Solar System. A +few years ago—as time might be measured +astronomically, it was no more +than yesterday—this fair landscape +was congealed white and bleak, with a +sweep of glacial ice. But the seeds of +life miraculously were here. The +miracle of life! Under the warming,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[77]</a></span> +germinating sunlight, the verdure +sprung.</p> + +<p>"Can you find landing space, Gregg?"</p> + +<p>Moa's question brought back my wandering +fancies. I saw an upland glade, +a level spread of ferns with the forest +banked around it. A cliff-height nearby, +frowning down at the sea.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I can land us there." I showed +her through the glasses. I rang the +sirens, and we spiraled, descending +further. The mountain tops were now +close beneath us. Clouds were overhead, +white masses with blue sky behind +them. A day of brilliant sunlight. +But soon, with our forward cruising, +it was night. The sunlight dropped +beneath the sharply convex horizon; +the sea and the land went purple.</p> + +<p>A night of brilliant stars; the Earth +was a blazing blue-red point of light. +The heavens visibly were revolving; in +an hour or so it would be daylight +again.</p> + +<p>On the forward deck now Coniston +had appeared, commanding half a dozen +of the crew. They were carrying up +caskets of food and the equipment +which was to be given the marooned +passengers. And making ready the +disembarking incline, loosening the +seals of the side-dome windows.</p> + +<p>Sternward on the deck, by the lounge +oval, I could see Miko standing. And +occasionally the roar of his voice at +the passengers sounded.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="upper">y</span> vagrant thought flung back into +Earth's history. Like this, +ancient travelers of the surface of the +sea were herded by pirates to walk +the plank, or put ashore, marooned +upon some fair desert island of the +tropic Spanish main.</p> + +<p>Hahn came mounting our turret incline. +"All is well, Gregg Haljan?"</p> + +<p>"Get to your work," Moa told him +sharply. "We land in an hour-quadrant."</p> + +<p>He retreated, joining the bustle and +confusion which now was beginning +on the deck. It struck me—could I +turn that confusion to account? Would +it be possible, now at the last moment, +to attack these brigands? Snap still +sat outside the helio-room doorway. +But his guard was alert, with upraised +projector. And that guard, I saw, in +his position high amidships, commanded +all the deck.</p> + +<p>And I saw too, as the passengers now +were herded in a line from the lounge +oval, that Miko had roped and bound +all of the men. And a clanking chain +connected them. They came like a +line of convicts, marching forward, +and stopped on the open deck-space +near the base of the turret. Dr. Frank's +grim face gazed up at me.</p> + +<p>Miko ordered the women and children +in a group beside the chained men. +His words to them reached me: "You +are in no danger. When we land, be +careful. You will find gravity very +different—this is a very small world."</p> + +<p>I flung on the landing lights; the +deck glowed with the blue radiance; +the search-beams shot down beside our +hull. We hung now a thousand feet +above the forest glade. I cut off the +electronic streams. We poised, with +the gravity-plates set at normal, and +only a gentle night-breeze to give us +a slight side drift. This I could control +with the lateral propeller rudders.</p> + +<p>For all my busy landing routine, my +mind was on other things. Venza's +swift words back there in the lounge. +I was to create a commotion while the +passengers were landing. Why? Had +she and Dr. Frank, perhaps, some last +minute desperate purposes?</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">determined</span> I would do what +she said. Shout, or mis-order the +lights. That would be easy. But to +what advantage?</p> + +<p>I was glad it was night—I had, indeed, +calculated our descent so that the +landing would be in darkness. But to +what purpose? These brigands were +very alert. There was nothing I could +think of to do which would avail us +anything more than a possible swift +death under Miko's anger.</p> + +<p>"Well done, Gregg!" said Moa.</p> + +<p>I cut off the last of the propellers.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[78]</a></span> +With scarcely a perceptible jar, the +<i>Planetara</i> grounded, rose like a feather +and settled to rest in the glade. The +deep purple night with stars overhead +was around us. I hissed out our interior +air through the dome and hull-ports, +and admitted the night-air of +the asteroid. My calculations—of necessity +mere mathematical approximations—proved +fairly accurate. In temperature +and pressure there was no +radical change as the dome-windows +slid back.</p> + +<p>We had landed. Whatever Venza's +purpose, her moment was at hand. I +was tense. But I was aware also, that +beside me Moa was very alert. I had +thought her unarmed. She was not. She +sat back from me; in her hand was a +small thin knife-blade.</p> + +<p>She murmured tensely, "You have +done your part, Gregg. Well and skillfully +done. Now we will sit here +quietly and watch them land."</p> + +<p>Snap's guard was standing, keenly +watching. The look-outs in the forward +and stern towers were also armed; I +could see them both gazing keenly +down at the confusion of the blue-lit +deck.</p> + +<p>The incline went over the hull-side +and touched the ground.</p> + +<p>"Enough!" Miko roared. "The men +first. Hahn, move the women back! +Coniston, pile those caskets to the side. +Get out of the way, Prince."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">nita</span> was down there. I saw her +at the edge of the group of women. +Venza was near her.</p> + +<p>Miko shoved her. "Get out of the +way, Prince. You can help Coniston. +Have the things ready to throw off."</p> + +<p>Five of the steward-crew were at the +head of the incline. Miko shouted up +at me:</p> + +<p>"Haljan, hold our shipboard gravity +normal."</p> + +<p>"Yes," I responded.</p> + +<p>I had done so. Our magnitizers had +been adjusted to the shifting calculations +of our landing. They were holding +now at intensities, so that upon +the <i>Planetara</i> no change from fairly +normal Earth-gravity was apparent. I +rang a tentative inquiry signal; the +operator in the hull-magnetizer control +answered that he was at his post.</p> + +<p>The line of men were first to descend. +Dr. Frank led them. He flashed a look +of farewell up at me and Snap as he +went down the incline with the chained +men passengers after him.</p> + +<p>Motley procession! Twenty odd, +dishevelled, half-clothed men of three +worlds. The changing, lightening +gravity on the incline caught them. +Dr. Frank bounded up to the rail under +the impetus of his step: caught and +held himself, drew himself back. The +line swayed. In the dim, blue-lit glare +it seemed unreal, crazy. A grotesque +dream of men descending a plank.</p> + +<p>They reached the forest glade. Stood +swaying, afraid at first to move. The +purple night crowded them; they stood +gazing at this strange world, their new +prison.</p> + +<p>"Now the women."</p> + +<p>Miko was shoving the women to the +head of the incline. I could feel Moa's +steady gaze upon me. Her knife-blade +gleamed in the turret light.</p> + +<p>She murmured again, "In a few +minutes you can ring us away, Gregg."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">felt</span> like an actor awaiting his +cue in the wings of some turgid +drama the plot of which he did not +know. Venza was near the head of the +incline. Some of the women and children +were on it. A woman screamed. +Her child had slipped from her hand, +bounded up over the rail, and fallen. +Hardly fallen—floated down to the +ground, with flailing arms and legs, +landing in the dark ferns, unharmed. +Its terrified wail came up.</p> + +<p>There was a confusion on the incline. +Venza, still on the deck, seemed to send +a look of appeal to the turret. My +cue?</p> + +<p>I slid my hand to the light switchboard. +It was near my knees. I pulled +a switch. The blue-lit deck beneath +the turret went dark.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[79]</a></span></p> + +<p>I recall an instant of horrible, tense +silence, and in the gloom beside me I +was aware of Moa moving. I felt a +thrill of instinctive fear—would she +plunge that knife into me?</p> + +<p>The silence of the darkened deck +was broken with a confusion of sounds. +A babble of voices; a woman passenger's +scream; shuffling of feet; and +above it all, Miko's roar:</p> + +<p>"Stand quiet! Everyone! No movement!"</p> + +<p>On the descending incline there was +chaos. The disembarking women were +clinging to the gang-rail; some of them +had evidently surged over it and fallen. +Down on the ground in the purple-shadowed +starlight I could vaguely see +the chained line of men. They too were +in confusion, trying to shove themselves +toward the fallen women.</p> + +<p>Miko roared:</p> + +<p>"Light those tubes! Gregg Haljan! +By the Almighty, Moa, are you up +there? What is wrong? The light-tubes—"</p> + +<p>Dark drama of unknown plot! I wonder +if I should try and leave the turret. +Where was Anita? She had been down +there on the deck when I flung out the +lights.</p> + +<p>I think twenty seconds would have +covered it all. I had not moved. I +thought, "Is Snap concerned with this?"</p> + +<p>Moa's knife could have stabbed me. +I felt her lunge against me; and suddenly +I was gripping her, twisting her +wrist. But she flung the knife away. +Her strength was almost the equal of +my own. Her hand went for my throat, +and with the other hand she was +fumbling.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> deck abruptly sprang into +light again. Moa had found the +switch and threw it back.</p> + +<p>"Gregg!"</p> + +<p>She fought me as I tried to reach +the switch. I saw down on the deck +Miko gazing up at us. Moa panted, +"Gregg—stop! If he—sees you doing +this, he'll kill you—"</p> + +<p>The scene down there was almost +unchanged. I had answered my cue. +To what purpose? I saw Anita near +Miko. The last of the women were on +the plank.</p> + +<p>I had stopped struggling with Moa. +She sat back, panting; and then she +called: "Sorry, Miko. It will not happen +again."</p> + +<p>Miko was in a towering rage. But +he was too busy to bother with me; his +anger swung on those nearest him. He +shoved the last of the women violently +at the incline. She bounded over. Her +body, with the gravity-pull of only a +few Earth-pounds, sailed in an arc and +dropped to the sward near the swaying +line of men.</p> + +<p>Miko swung back. "Get out of my +way!" A sweep of his huge arm knocked +Anita sidewise. "Prince, damn you, +help me with those boxes!"</p> + +<p>The frightened stewards were lifting +the boxes, square metal storage-chests +each as long as a man, packed +with food, tools, and equipment.</p> + +<p>"Here, get out of my way, all of you!"</p> + +<p>My breath came again; Anita nimbly +retreated before Miko's angry rush. He +dashed at the stewards. Three of them +held a box. He took it from them; +raised it at the top of the incline. Poised +it over his head an instant, with his +massive arms like gray pillars beneath +it. And flung it. The box catapulted, +dropped; and then, passing the Planetara's +gravity area, it sailed in a long +flat arc over the forest glade and crashed +into the purple underbrush.</p> + +<p>"Give me another!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> stewards pushed another at +him. Like an angry Titan, he +flung it. And another. One by one +the chests sailed out and crashed.</p> + +<p>"There is your food—go pick it up! +Haljan, make ready to ring us away!"</p> + +<p>On the deck lay the dead body of +Rance Rankin, which the stewards had +carried out. Miko seized it, flung it.</p> + +<p>"There! Go to your last resting +place!"</p> + +<p>And the other bodies. Balch Blackstone, +Captain Carter, Johnson—Miko<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[80]</a></span> +flung them. And the course masters +and those of our crew who had been +killed; the stewards appeared with +them; Miko unceremoniously cast them +off.</p> + +<p>The passengers were all on the +ground now. It was dim down there. +I tried to distinguish Venza, but could +not. I could see Dr. Frank's figure at +the end of the chained line of men. The +passengers were gazing in horror at the +bodies hurtling over them.</p> + +<p>"Ready, Haljan?"</p> + +<p>Moa prompted me. "Tell him yes!"</p> + +<p>I called, "Yes!" Had Venza failed +in her unknown purpose? It seemed +so. On the helio-room bridge Snap and +his guard stood like silent statues in +the blue-lit gloom.</p> + +<p>The disembarkation was over.</p> + +<p>"Close the ports," Miko commanded.</p> + +<p>The incline came folding up with a +clatter. The port and dome-windows +slid closed. Moa hissed against my +ear:</p> + +<p>"If you want life, Gregg Haljan, you +will start your duties!"</p> + +<p>Venza had failed. Whatever it was, +it had come to nothing. Down in the +purple forest, disconnected now from +the ship, the last of our friends stood +marooned. I could distinguish them +through the blur of the closed dome—only +a swaying, huddled group was +visible. But my fancy pictured this +last sight of them—Dr. Frank, Venza, +Shac and Dud Ardley.</p> + +<p>They were gone. There were left +only Snap, Anita, and myself.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">was</span> mechanically ringing us +away. I heard my sirens sounding +down below, with the answering clangs +here in the turret. The <i>Planetara's</i> +respiratory controls started; the pressure +equalizers began operating, and +the gravity plates shifted into lifting +combinations.</p> + +<p>The ship was hissing and quivering +with it, combined with the grating of +the last of the dome ports. And Miko's +command:</p> + +<p>"Lift, Haljan."</p> + +<p>Hahn had been mingled with the +confusion of the deck, though I had +hardly noticed him; Coniston had remained +below, with the crew answering +my signals. Hahn stood now with +Miko, gazing down through a deck +window. Anita was alone at another.</p> + +<p>"Lift, Haljan."</p> + +<p>I lifted us gently, bow first, with +a repulsion of the bow plates. And +started the central electronic engine. +Its thrust from our stern moved us +diagonally over the purple forest trees.</p> + +<p>The glade slid downward and away. +I caught a last vague glimpse of the +huddled group of marooned passengers, +staring up at us. Left to their +fate, alone on this deserted little world.</p> + +<p>With the three engines going we slid +smoothly upward. The forest dropped, +a purple spread of tree-tops, edged with +starlight and Earth-light. The sharply +curving horizon seemed following us +up. I swung on all the power. We +mounted at a forty degree angle, slowly +circling, with a bank of clouds over us +to the side and the shining little sea +beneath.</p> + +<p>"Very good, Gregg." In the turret +light Moa's eyes blazed at me. "I do +not know what you meant by darkening +the deck-lights." Her fingers dug +at my shoulders. "I will tell my brother +it was an error."</p> + +<p>I said, "An error—yes."</p> + +<p>"An error? I don't know what it was. +But you have me to deal with now. You +understand? I will tell my brother so. +You said, 'On Earth a man may kill the +thing he loves.' A woman of Mars may +do that! Beware of me, Gregg Haljan."</p> + +<p>Her passion-filled eyes bored into +me. Love? Hate? The venom of a +woman scorned—a mingling of turgid +emotions....</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">twisted</span> away from her grip and +ignored her; she sat back, silently +watching my busy activities; the calculations +of the shifting conditions of +gravity, pressures, temperatures; a +checking of the score or more of instruments +on the board before me.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[81]</a></span></p> + +<p>Mechanical routine. My mind went +to Venza, back there on the asteroid. +The wandering little world was already +shrinking to a convex surface beneath +us. Venza, with her last unknown play, +gone to failure. Had I failed my cue? +Whatever my part, it seemed now that +I must have horribly mis-acted it.</p> + +<p>The crescent Earth was presently +swinging over our bow. We rocketed +out of the asteroid's shadow. The glowing, +flaming Sun appeared, making a +crescent of the Earth. With the glass +I could see our tiny Moon, visually +seeming to hug the limb of its parent +Earth.</p> + +<p>We were away upon our course +for the Moon. My mind flung ahead. +Grantline with his treasure, unsuspecting +this brigand ship. And suddenly, +beyond all thought of Grantline and +his treasure, there came to me a fear +for Anita. In God's truth I had been, +so far, a very stumbling inept champion—doomed +to failure with everything I +tried. It swept me, so that I cursed +my own incapacity. Why had I not +contrived to have Anita desert at the +asteroid? Would it not have been far +better for her there? Taking her +chance for rescue with Dr. Frank, +Venza and the others?</p> + +<p>But no! I had, like an inept fool, +never thought of that! Had left her +here on board at the mercy of these +outlaws.</p> + +<p>And I swore now that, beyond everything, +I would protect her.</p> + +<p>Futile oath! If I could have seen +ahead a few hours! But I sensed the +catastrophe. There was a shudder within +me as I sat in that turret, docilely +guiding us out through the asteroid's +atmosphere, heading us upon our course +for the Moon.</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER XIX</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>In the Zed-light Glow</i></h3> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">ry</span> again. By the infernal, Snap +Dean, if you do anything to +balk us!"</p> + +<p>Miko scanned the apparatus with +keen eyes. How much technical knowledge +of signaling instruments did this +brigand leader have? I was tense and +cold with apprehension as I sat in a +corner of the helio-room, watching +Snap. Could Miko be fooled? Snap, +I knew, was trying to fool him.</p> + +<p>The Moon spread close beneath us. +My log-chart, computed up to thirty +minutes past, showed us barely some +thirty thousand miles over the Moon's +surface. The globe lay in quadrature +beneath our bow quarter—a huge quadrant +spreading across the black starry +vault of the lower heavens. A silver +quadrant. The sunset caught the Lunar +mountains, flung slanting shadows over +the empty Lunar plains. All the disc +was plainly visible. The mellow Earth-light +glowed serene and pale to illumine +the Lunar night.</p> + +<p>The <i>Planetara</i> was bathed in silver. +A brilliant silver glare swept the forward +deck, clean white and splashed +with black shadows. We had partly +circled the Moon, so as now to approach +it from the Earthward side. I had +worked with extreme concentration +through the last few hours, plotting the +trajectory of our curving sweep, setting +the gravity plates with constantly +shifting combinations. And with it a +necessity for the steady retarding of +our velocity.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="upper">iko</span> for a time was at my elbow +in the turret. I had not seen +Coniston and Hahn of recent hours. I +had slept, awakened refreshed, and had +a meal. Coniston and Hahn remained +below, one or the other of them always +with the crew to execute my sirened +orders. Then Coniston came to take +my place in the turret, and I went with +Miko to the helio-room.</p> + +<p>"You are skilful, Haljan." A measure +of grim approval was in Miko's +voice. "You evidently have no wish to +try and fool me in this navigation."</p> + +<p>I had not, indeed. It is delicate work +at best, coping with the intricacies +of celestial mechanics upon a semicircular +trajectory with retarding ve<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[82]</a></span>locity, +and with a make-shift crew we +could easily have come upon real difficulty.</p> + +<p>We hung at last, hull-down, facing +the Earthward hemisphere of the Lunar +disc. The giant ball of the Earth lay +behind and above us—the Sun over our +stern quarter. With forward velocity +almost checked, we poised, and Snap +began his signals to the unsuspecting +Grantline.</p> + +<p>My work momentarily was over. I +sat watching the helio-room. Moa was +here, close beside me; I felt always +her watchful gaze, so that even the play +of my expression needed reining.</p> + +<p>Miko worked with Snap. Anita too +was here. To Miko and Moa it was +the somber, taciturn George Prince, +shrouded always in his black mourning +cloak, disinclined to talk; sitting alone, +brooding and cowardly sullen.</p> + +<p>Miko repeated, "By the infernal, if +you try to fool me, Snap Dean!"</p> + +<p>The small metal room, with its grid +floor and low-arched ceiling, glared +with moonlight through its windows. +The moving figures of Snap and Miko +were aped by the grotesque, misshapen +shadows of them on the walls. Miko +gigantic—a great, menacing ogre. Snap +small and alert—a trim, pale figure in +his tight-fitting white trousers, broad-flowing +belt, and white shirt open at +the throat. His face was pale and +drawn from lack of sleep and the torture +to which Miko had subjected him. +But he grinned at the brigand's words, +and pushed his straggling hair closer +under the red eyeshade.</p> + +<p>"I'm doing my best, Miko—you can +believe it."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> room over long periods was +deadly silent, with Miko and Snap +bending watchfully at the crowded +banks of instruments. A silence in +which my own pounding heart seemed +to echo. I did not dare look at Anita, +nor she at me. Snap was trying to signal +Earth, not the Moon! His main +helios were set in the reverse. The +infra-red waves, flung from the bow +window, were of a frequency which +Snap and I believed that Grantline +could not pick up. And over against +the wall, close beside me and seemingly +ignored by Snap, there was a tiny ultra-violet +sender. Its faint hum and the +quivering of its mirrors had so far +passed unnoticed.</p> + +<p>Would some Earth-station pick it +up? I prayed so. There was a thumb +nail mirror here which could bring an +answer. I prayed that it might swing.</p> + +<p>Would some Earth telescope be able +to see us? I doubted it. The pinpoint +of the <i>Planetara's</i> infinitesimal +bulk would be beyond them.</p> + +<p>Long silences, broken only by the +faint hiss and murmur of Snap's instruments.</p> + +<p>"Shall I try the 'graphs, Miko?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>I helped him with the spectroheliograph. +At every level the plates showed +us nothing save the scarred and pitted +Moon-surface. We worked for an hour. +There was nothing. Bleak cold night +on the Moon here beneath us. A touch +of fading sunlight upon the Apennines. +Up near the South Pole, Tycho with +its radiating open rills stood like a +grim dark maw.</p> + +<p>Miko bent over a plate. "Something +here? Is there?"</p> + +<p>An abnormality upon the frowning +ragged cliffs of Tycho? We thought +so. But then it seemed not.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">nother</span> hour. No signal came +from Earth. If Snap's calls were +getting through we had no evidence +of it. Abruptly Miko strode at me from +across the room. I went cold and +tense; Moa shifted, alert to my every +movement. But Miko was not interested +in me. A sweep of his clenched +fist knocked the ultra-violet sender and +its coils and mirrors in a tinkling crash +to the grid at my feet.</p> + +<p>"We don't need that, whatever it is!"</p> + +<p>He rubbed his knuckles where the +violet waves had tinged them, and +turned grimly back to Snap.</p> + +<p>"Where are your Gamma ray mirrors?<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[83]</a></span> +If the treasure is exposed—"</p> + +<p>This Martian's knowledge was far +greater than we believed. He grinned +sardonically at Anita. "If our treasure +is on this hemisphere, Prince, we +should pick up Gamma rays? Don't +you think so? Or is Grantline so cautious +it will all be protected?"</p> + +<p>Anita spoke in a careful, throaty +drawl. "The Gamma rays came plain +enough when we passed here on the +way out."</p> + +<p>"You should know," grinned Miko. +"An expert eavesdropper, Prince—I +will say that for you. Come Dean, try +something else. By God, if Grantline +does not signal us, I will be likely to +blame you—my patience is shortening. +Shall we go closer, Haljan?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think it would help," I said.</p> + +<p>He nodded. "Perhaps not. Are we +checked?"</p> + +<p>"Yes." We were poised, very nearly +motionless. "If you wish an advance, +I can ring it. But we need a surface +destination now."</p> + +<p>"True, Haljan." He stood thinking. +"Would a zed-ray penetrate those +crater-cliffs? Tycho, for instance, at +this angle?"<a name="FNanchor_B_2" id="FNanchor_B_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_B_2" class="fnanchor">[B]</a></p> + +<p>"It might," Snap agreed. "You think +he may be on the Northern inner side +of Tycho?"</p> + +<p>"He may be anywhere," said Miko +shortly.</p> + +<p>"If you think that," Snap persisted, +"suppose we swing the <i>Planetara</i> over +the South Pole. Tycho, viewed from +there—"</p> + +<p>"And take another quarter-day of +time?" Miko sneered. "Flash on your +zed-ray; help him hook it up, Haljan."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">moved</span> to the lens-box of the +spectroheliograph. It seemed that +Snap was very strangely reluctant: +Was it because he knew that the Grantline +camp lay concealed on the north +inner wall of Tycho's giant ring? I +thought so. But Snap flashed a queer +look at Anita. She did not see it, but +I did. And I could not understand it.</p> + +<p>My accursed, witless incapacity! If +only I had taken warning!</p> + +<p>"Here," commanded Miko. "A score +of 'graphs with the zed-ray. I tell you +I will comb this surface if we have to +stay here until our ship comes from +Ferrok-Shahn to join us!"</p> + +<p>The Martian brigands were coming. +Miko's signals had been answered. In +ten days the other brigand ship, adequately +manned and armed, would be +here.</p> + +<p>Snap helped me connect the zed-ray. +He did not dare even to whisper to me, +with Moa hovering always so close. +And for all Miko's sardonic smiling, +we knew that he would tolerate nothing +from us now. He was fully armed, +and so was Moa.</p> + +<p>I recall that Snap several times tried +to touch me significantly. Oh, if only +I had taken warning!</p> + +<p>We finished our connecting. The +dull gray point of zed-ray gleamed +through the prisms, to mingle with the +moonlight entering the main lens. I +stood with the shutter trip.</p> + +<p>"The same interval, Snap?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>Beside me, I was aware of a faint +reflection of the zed-light—a gray +Cathedral shaft crossing the helio-room +and falling upon the opposite wall. An +unreality there, as the zed-light faintly +strove to penetrate the metal room-side.</p> + +<p>I said, "Shall I make the exposure?"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="upper">nap</span> nodded. But that 'graph was +never made. An exclamation from +Moa made us all turn. The Gamma +mirrors were quivering! Grantline had +picked our signals! With what undoubtedly +was an intensified receiving +equipment which Snap had not thought +Grantline able to use, he had caught +our faint zed-rays, which Snap was +sending only to deceive Miko. And +Grantline had recognized the <i>Planetara</i>, +and had released his occulting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[84]</a></span> +screens surrounding the radium ore. +The Gamma rays were here, unmistakable!</p> + +<p>And upon their heels came Grantline's +message. Not in the secret system +he had arranged with Snap, but +unsuspectingly in open code. I could +read the swinging mirror, and so could +Miko.</p> + +<p>And Miko decoded it triumphantly +aloud:</p> + +<p>"<i>Surprised but pleased your return. +Approach Mid-Northern hemisphere, +region of Archimedes, forty thousand +toises</i><a name="FNanchor_C_3" id="FNanchor_C_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_C_3" class="fnanchor">[C]</a> <i>off nearest Apennine range.</i>"</p> + +<p>The message broke off. But even its +importance was overshadowed. Miko +stood in the center of the helio-room, +triumphantly reading the light-indicator. +Its beam swung on the scale, which +chanced to be almost directly over +Anita's head. I saw Miko's expression +change. A look of surprise, amazement +came to him.</p> + +<p>"Why—"</p> + +<p>He gasped. He stood staring. Almost +stupidly staring for an instant. +And as I regarded him with fascinated +horror, there came upon his heavy gray +face a look of dawning comprehension. +And I heard Snap's startled intake of +breath. He moved to the spectroheliograph, +where the zed-ray connections +were still humming.</p> + +<p>But with a leap Miko flung him +away. "Off with you! Moa, watch +him! Haljan, don't move!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">gain</span> Miko stood staring. Oh +dear God, I saw now that he was +staring at Anita!</p> + +<p>"Why George Prince! How strange +you look!"</p> + +<p>Anita did not move. She was stricken +with horror: she shrank back against +the wall, huddled in her cloak. Miko's +sardonic voice came again:</p> + +<p>"How strange you look. Prince!" He +took a step forward. He was grim and +calm. Horribly calm. Deliberate. +Gloating—like a great gray monster in +human form toying with a fascinated, +imprisoned bird.</p> + +<p>"Move just a little Prince. Let the +zed-ray light fall more fully."</p> + +<p>Anita's head was bare. That pale, +Hamletlike face. Dear God, the zed-light +reflection lay gray and penetrating +upon it!</p> + +<p>Miko took another step. Peering. +Grinning. "How amazing, George +Prince! Why, I can hardly believe it!"</p> + +<p>Moa was armed with an electronic +cylinder. For all her amazement—what +turgid emotions sweeping her I +can only guess—she never took her eyes +from Snap and me.</p> + +<p>"Back! Don't move, either of you!" +She hissed it at us.</p> + +<p>Then Miko leaped at Anita like giant +gray leopard pouncing.</p> + +<p>"Away with that cloak, Prince!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">stood</span> cold and numbed. And +realization came at last. The faint +zed-light glow had fallen by chance +upon Anita's face. Penetrated the +flesh; exposed, faintly glowing, the +bone-line of her jaw. Unmasked the +waxen art of Glutz.</p> + +<p>And Miko had seen it.</p> + +<p>"Why George, how surprising! +Away with that cloak!"</p> + +<p>He seized her wrist, drew her forward, +beyond the shaft of zed-light, +into the brilliant light of the Moon. +And ripped her cloak from her. The +gentle curves of her woman's figure +were so unmistakable!</p> + +<p>And as Miko gazed at them, all his +calm triumph swept away.</p> + +<p>"Why, Anita!"</p> + +<p>I heard Moa mutter: "So that is it?" +A venomous flashing look—a shaft +from me to Anita and back again. "So +that is it?"</p> + +<p>"Why, <i>Anita</i>!"</p> + +<p>Miko's great arms gathered her up +as though she were a child. "So I have +you back; from the dead delivered back +to me!"</p> + +<p>"Gregg!" Snap's warning, and his +grip over my shoulders brought me a +measure of sanity. I had tensed to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[85]</a></span> +spring. I stood quivering, and Moa +thrust her weapon against my face. +The helio mirrors were swaying again +with another message from Grantline. +But it came ignored by us all.</p> + +<p>In the glare of moonlight by the forward +window, Miko held Anita, his +great hands pawing her with triumphant +possessive caresses.</p> + +<p>"So, little Anita, you are given back +to me."</p> + +<p>Against her futile struggles he held +her.</p> + +<p>Dear God, if only I had had the wit +to have prevented this!</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER XX</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>The Grantline Camp</i></h3> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="upper">n</span> the mid-northern hemisphere upon +the Earthward side of the Moon, +the giant crater of Archimedes stood +brooding in silent majesty. Grim, lofty +walls, broken, pitted and scarred, rising +precipitous to the upper circular rim. +Night had just fallen. The sunlight +clung to the crater-heights; it tinged +with flame the jagged peaks of the +Apennine Mountains which rose in +tiers at the horizon; and it flung great +inky shadows over the intervening lowlands.</p> + +<p>Northward, the Mare Imbrium +stretched mysterious and purple, its +million rills and ridges and crater +holes flattened by distance and the +gathering darkness into a seeming level +surface. The night slowly deepened. +The dead-black vault of the sky blazed +with its brilliant starry gems. The +gibbous Earth hung high above the +horizon, motionless, save for the invisible +pendulum sway over the tiny arc, +of its libration: widening to quadrature, +casting upon the bleak naked +Lunar landscape its mellow Earth-glow.</p> + +<p>Slow, measured process, this coming +of the Lunar night! For an Earth-day +the sunset slowly faded on the Apennines; +the poised Earth widened a little +further—an Earth-day of time, with +the Earth-disc visibly rotating, the +faint tracery of its oceans and continents +passing in slow, majestic review.</p> + +<p>Another Earth-day interval. Then +another. And another. Full night now +enveloped Archimedes. Splotches of +Earth-light and starlight sheen slowly +shifted as the night advanced.</p> + +<p>Between the great crater and the +nearby mountains, the broken, pseudo-level +lowlands lay wan in the Earth-light. +A few hundred miles, as distance +would be measured upon Earth. +A million million rills were here. Valleys +and ridges, ravines, sharp-walled +canyons, cliffs and crags—tiny craters +like pock-marks.</p> + +<p>Naked, gray porous rock everywhere. +This denuded landscape! Cracked and +scarred and tumbled, as though some +inexorable Titan torch had seared and +crumbled and broken it, left it now congealed +like a wind-lashed sea abruptly +frozen into immobility.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="upper">oonlight</span> upon Earth so +gently shines to make romantic +a lover's smile! But the reality of the +Lunar night is cold beyond human +rationality. Cold and darkly silent. +Grim desolation. Awesome. Majestic. +A frowning majesty that even to the +most intrepid human beholder is inconceivably +forbidding.</p> + +<p>And there were humans here now. +On this tumbled plain, between Archimedes +and the mountains, one small +crater amid the million of its fellows +was distinguished this night by the +presence of humans. The Grantline +camp! It huddled in the deepest purple +shadows on the side of a bowl-like +pit, a crudely circular orifice with a +scant two miles across its rippling rim. +There was faint light here to mark the +presence of the living intruders. The +blue-glow radiance of Morrell tube-lights +under a spread of glassite.</p> + +<p>The Grantline camp stood mid-way +up one of the inner cliff-walls of the +little crater. The broken, rock-strewn +floor, two miles wide, lay five hundred +feet below the camp. Behind it, the +jagged precipitous cliff rose another +five hundred to the heights of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[86]</a></span> +upper rim. A broad level shelf hung +midway up the cliff, and upon it Grantline +had built his little group of glassite +dome shelters. Viewed from above +there was the darkly purple crater floor, +the upflung circular rim where the +Earth-light tinged the spires and crags +with yellow sheen; and on the shelf, +like a huddled group of birds nests, +Grantline's domes clung and gazed +down upon the inner valley.</p> + +<p>Intricate task, the building of these +glassite shelters! There were three. +The main one stood close at the brink +of the ledge. A quadrangle of glassite +walls, a hundred feet in length by half +as wide, and a scant ten feet high to its +flat-arched dome roof. Built for this +purpose in Great-New York, Grantline +had brought his aluminite girders and +braces and the glassite panels in sections.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> air here on the Moon surface +was negligible—a scant one five-thousandth +of the atmospheric pressure +at the sea-level on Earth. But within +the glassite shelter, a normal Earth-pressure +must be maintained. Rigidly +braced double walls to withstand the +explosive tendency, with no external +pressure to counteract it. A tremendous +necessity for mechanical equipment +had burdened Grantline's small +ship to its capacity. The chemistry of +manufactured air, the pressure equalizers, +renewers, respirators, the lighting +and temperature-maintenance systems—all +the mechanics of a space-flyer +were here.</p> + +<p>And within the glassite double walls, +there was necessity for a constant circulation +of the Erentz temperature insulating +system.<a name="FNanchor_D_4" id="FNanchor_D_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_D_4" class="fnanchor">[D]</a></p> + +<p>There was this main Grantline building, +stretching low and rectangular +along the front edge of the ledge. +Within it were living rooms, messroom +and kitchen. Fifty feet behind +it, connected by a narrow passage of +glassite, was a similar, though smaller +structure. The mechanical control +rooms, with their humming, vibrating +mechanisms were here. And an instrument +room with signaling apparatus, +senders, receivers, mirror-grids and +audiphones of several varieties; and an +electro-telescope, small but modern, +with dome overhead like a little Earth +observatory.</p> + +<p>From this instrument building, beside +the connecting pedestrian passage, +wire cables for light, and air-tubes and +strings and bundles of instrument wires +ran to the main structure—gray snakes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[87]</a></span> +upon the porous, gray Lunar rock.</p> + +<p>The third building seemed a lean-to +banked against the cliff-wall, a slanting +shed-wall of glassite fifty feet high and +two hundred in length. Under it, for +months Grantline's borers had dug into +the cliff. Braced tunnels were here, +penetrating back and downward into +this vein of radio-active rock.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> work was over now. The borers +had been dismantled and +packed away. At one end of the cliff +the mining equipment lay piled in a litter. +There was a heap of discarded ore +where Grantline had carted and +dumped it after his first crude refining +process had yielded it as waste. The +ore-slag lay like gray powder-flakes +strewn down the cliff. Tracks and ore-carts +along the ledge stood discarded, +mute evidence of the weeks and months +of work these helmeted miners had +undergone, struggling upon this airless, +frowning world.</p> + +<p>But now all that was finished. The +radio-active ore was sufficiently concentrated. +It lay—this treasure—in a +seventy-foot pile behind the glassite +lean-to, with a cage of wires over it and +an insulation barrage guarding its +Gamma rays from escaping to mark its +presence.</p> + +<p>The ore-shelter was dark; the other +two buildings were lighted. And there +were small lights mounted at intervals +about the camp and along the edge of +the ledge. A spider ladder, with tiny +platforms some twenty feet one above +the other, hung precariously to the +cliff-face. It descended the five hundred +feet to the crater floor; and, behind +the camp, it mounted the jagged +cliff-face to the upper rim-height, +where a small observatory platform was +placed.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="upper">uch</span> was the outer aspect of the +Grantline Treasure Camp near the +beginning of this Lunar night, when, +unbeknown to Grantline and his score +of men, the <i>Planetara</i> with its brigands +was approaching. The night was perhaps +a sixth advanced. Full night. No +breath of cloud to mar the brilliant +starry heavens. The quadrant Earth +hung poised like a giant mellow moon +over Grantline's crater. A bright Earth, +yet no air was here on this Lunar surface +to spread its light. Only a glow, +mingling with the spots of blue tube-light +on the poles along the cliff, and +the radiance from the lighted buildings.</p> + +<p>The crater floor was dimly purple. +Beyond the opposite upper rim, from +the camp-height, the towering top of +distant Archimedes was visible.</p> + +<p>No evidence of movement showed +about the silent camp. Then a pressure +door in an end of the main building +opened its tiny series of locks. A +bent figure came out. The lock closed. +The figure straightened and gazed +about the camp. Grotesque, bloated +semblance of a man! Helmeted, with +rounded dome-hood suggestion of an +ancient sea diver, yet goggled and +trunked like a gas-masked fighter of +the twentieth century war.</p> + +<p>He stooped presently and disconnected +metal weights which were upon his +shoes.<a name="FNanchor_E_5" id="FNanchor_E_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_E_5" class="fnanchor">[E]</a></p> + +<p>Then he stood erect again, and with +giant strides bounded along the cliff. +Fantastic figure in the blue-lit gloom! +A child's dream of crags and rocks and +strange lights with a single monstrous +figure in seven-league boots.</p> + +<p>He went the length of the ledge with +his twenty-foot strides, inspected the +lights, and made adjustments. Came +back, and climbed with agile, bounding +leaps up the spider ladder to the dome +on the crater top. A light flashed on +up there. Then it was extinguished.</p> + +<p>The goggled, bloated figure came +leaping down after a moment. Grantline's +exterior watchman making his +rounds. He came back to the main +building. Fastened the weights on his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[88]</a></span> +shoes. Signaled within.</p> + +<p>The lock opened. The figure went +inside.</p> + +<p>It was early evening, after the dinner +hour and before the time of sleep, +according to the camp routine Grantline +was maintaining. Nine P. M. of +Earth Eastern-American time, recorded +now upon his Earth chronometer. In +the living room of the main building +Johnny Grantline sat with a dozen of +his men dispersed about the room, +whiling away as best they could the +lonesome hours.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">ll</span> as usual. This cursed Moon! +When I get home—if ever I do +get home—"</p> + +<p>"Say your say, Wilks. But you'll +spend your share of the gold-leaf and +thank your constellations that you had +your chance!"</p> + +<p>"Let him alone! Come on, Wilks, +take a hand here. This game is no good +with three."</p> + +<p>The man who had been outside flung +his hissing helmet recklessly to the +floor and unsealed his suit. "Here, get +me out of this. No, I won't play. I +can't play your cursed game with nothing +at stake!"</p> + +<p>"Commissioner's orders."</p> + +<p>A laugh went up at the sharp look +Johnny Grantline flung from where he +sat reading in a corner of the room.</p> + +<p>"Commander's orders. No gambling +gold-leafers tolerated here."</p> + +<p>"Play the game, Wilks." Grantline +said quietly. "We all know it's infernal +doing nothing."</p> + +<p>"He's been struck by Earth-light," +another man laughed. "Commander, I +told you not to let that guy Wilks out +at night."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="upper">rough</span> but good-natured lot of +men. Jolly and raucous by nature +in their leisure hours. But there was +too much leisure here now. Their +mirth had a hollow sound. In older +times, explorers of the frozen polar +zones had to cope with inactivity, loneliness +and despair. But at least they +were on their native world. The grimness +of the Moon was eating into the +courage of Grantline's men. An unreality +here. A weirdness. These fantastic +crags. The deadly silence. The +nights, almost two weeks of Earth-time +in length, congealed by the deadly +frigidity of Space. The days of black +sky, blaring stars and flaming Sun, with +no atmosphere to diffuse the daylight. +Days of weird blending sheen of illumination +with most of the Sun's heat +radiating so swiftly from the naked +Lunar surface that the outer temperature +still was cold. And day and night, +always the familiar beloved Earth-disc +hanging poised up near the zenith. +From thinnest crescent to full Earth, +and then steadily back again to +crescent.</p> + +<p>All so abnormal, irrational, disturbing +to human senses. With the mining +work over, an irritability grew upon +Grantline's men. And perhaps since +the human mind is so wonderful, elusive +a thing, there lay upon these men +an indefinable sense of impending disaster. +Johnny Grantline felt it. He +thought about it now as he sat in the +room corner watching Wilks being +forced into the plaget-game, and he +found it strong within him. Unreasonable, +ominous depression! Barring the +accident which had disabled his little +space-ship when they reached this small +crater hole, his expedition had gone +well. His instruments, and the information +he had from the former explorers, +had picked up the ore-vein with a +scant month of search.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> vein had now been exhausted; +but the treasure was here. Nothing +was left but to wait for the <i>Planetara</i>. +The men were talking of that +now.</p> + +<p>"She ought to be well mid-way from +here to Ferrok-Shahn by now. When +do you figure she'll be back here, and +signal us?"</p> + +<p>"Twenty days. Give her another five +now to Mars, and five in port. That's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[89]</a></span> +ten. We'll pick her signals in three +weeks, mark me."</p> + +<p>"Three weeks! Just give me three +weeks of reasonable sunrise and sunset! +This cursed Moon! You mean, +Williams, next daylight."</p> + +<p>"Hah! He's inventing a Lunar language. +You'll be a Moon-man yet, if +you live here long enough."</p> + +<p>Olaf Swenson, the big blond fellow +from the Scandia fiords, came and flung +himself down by Grantline.</p> + +<p>"Ay tank they bane without not +enough to do, Commander. If the ore +yust would not give out—"</p> + +<p>"Three weeks—it isn't very long, +Ollie."</p> + +<p>"No. Maybe not."</p> + +<p>From across the room somebody was +saying, "If the <i>Comet</i> hadn't smashed +on us, damn me but I'd ask the Commander +to let some of us take her back. +The discarded equipment could go."</p> + +<p>"Shut up, Billy. She is smashed."</p> + +<p>The little <i>Comet</i>, cruising in search +of the ore, had come to grief just as the +ore was found. It lay now on the crater +floor with its nose bashed into an upflung +spire of rock. Wrecked beyond +repair. Save for the pre-arrangement +with the <i>Planetara</i>, the Grantline party +would have been helpless here on the +Moon. Knowledge of that—although +no one ever suspected but that the +<i>Planetara</i> would come safely—served +to add to the men's depression. They +were cut off, virtually helpless on a +strange world. Their signalling devices +were inadequate even to reach +Earth. Grantline's power batteries were +running low.<a name="FNanchor_F_6" id="FNanchor_F_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_F_6" class="fnanchor">[F]</a> He could not attempt +wide-flung signals without jeopardizing +the power necessary for the routine +of his camp in the event of the <i>Planetara</i> +being delayed. Nor was his electro-telescope +adequate to pick small +objects at any great distance.<a name="FNanchor_G_7" id="FNanchor_G_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_G_7" class="fnanchor">[G]</a></p> + +<p>All of Grantline's effort, in truth, +had gone into equipment for the finding +and gathering of the treasure. The +safety of the expedition had to that extent +been neglected.</p> + +<p>Swenson was mentioning that now.</p> + +<p>"You all agreed to it," Johnny said +shortly. "Every man here voted that, +above everything, what we wanted was +to get the radium."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="upper">dynamic</span> little fellow, this +Johnny Grantline. Short of temper +sometimes, but always just, and a +perfect leader of men. In stature he +was almost as small as Snap. But he +was thick-set, with a smooth shaven, +keen-eyed, square-jawed face, and a +shock of brown tousled hair. A man +of thirty-five, though the decision of +his manner, the quiet dominance of his +voice, mode him seem older. He stood +up now, surveying the blue-lit glassite +room with its low ceiling close overhead. +He was bowlegged; in movement +he seemed to roll with a stiff-legged +gait like some sea captain of former +days on the deck of his swaying ship. +Queer-looking figure! Heavy flannel +shirt and trousers, boots heavily +weighted, and bulky metal-loaded belt +strapped about his waist.</p> + +<p>He grinned at Swenson. "When we +divide this treasure, everyone will be +happy, Ollie."</p> + +<p>The treasure was estimated by Grantline +to be the equivalent of ninety millions +in gold-leaf. A hundred and ten +millions in the gross as it now stood, +with twenty millions to be deducted by +the Federated Refiners for reducing it +to the standard purity of commercial +radium. Ninety millions, with only a +million and a half to come off for expedition +expenses, and the <i>Planetara</i> +Company's share another million. A +nice little stake.</p> + +<p>Grantline strode across the room +with his rolling gait.</p> + +<p>"Cheer up, boys. Who's winning +there? I say, you fellows—"</p> + +<p>An audiphone buzzer interrupted +him, a call from the duty man in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[90]</a></span> +instrument room of the nearby building.</p> + +<p>Grantline clicked the receiver. The +room fell into silence. Any call was +unusual—nothing ever happened here +in the camp.</p> + +<p>The duty man's voice sounded over +the room.</p> + +<p>"Signals coming! Not clear. Will +you come over, Commander?"</p> + +<p>Signals!</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="upper">t</span> was never Grantline's way to +enforce needless discipline. He +offered no objection when every man +in the camp rushed through the connecting +passages. They crowded the +instrument room where the tense duty +man sat bending over his helio receivers. +The mirrors were swaying.</p> + +<p>The duty man looked up and met +Grantline's gaze.</p> + +<p>"I ran it up to the highest intensity. +Commander. We ought to get it—not +let it pass."</p> + +<p>"Low scale, Peter?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Weakest infra-red. I'm bringing +it up, even though it uses too much +of our power." The duty man was +apologetic.</p> + +<p>"Get it," said Grantline shortly.</p> + +<p>"I had a swing a minute ago. I think +it's the <i>Planetara</i>."</p> + +<p>"<i>Planetara!</i>" The crowding group of +men chorused it. How could it be the +<i>Planetara</i>?</p> + +<p>But it was. The call presently came +in clear. Unmistakably the <i>Planetara</i>, +turned back now from her course to +Ferrok-Shahn.</p> + +<p>"How far away, Peter?"</p> + +<p>The duty man consulted the needles +of his dial scale. "Close! Very weak +infra-red. But close. Around thirty +thousand miles, maybe. It's Snap Dean +calling."</p> + +<p>The <i>Planetara</i> here within thirty thousand +miles! Excitement and pleasure +swept the room. The <i>Planetara's</i> coming +had for so long been awaited so +eagerly!</p> + +<p>The excitement communicated to +Grantline. It was unlike him to be +incautious; yet now with no thought +save that some unforeseen and pleasing +circumstance had brought the <i>Planetara</i> +ahead of time; incautious Grantline +certainly was.</p> + +<p>"Raise the ore-barrage."</p> + +<p>"I'll go! My suit is here."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="upper">willing</span> volunteer rushed out +to the ore-shed. The Gamma rays, +which in the helio-room of the <i>Planetara</i> +came so unwelcome to Snap and +me, were loosed.</p> + +<p>"Can you send, Peter?" Grantline demanded.</p> + +<p>"Yes, with more power."</p> + +<p>"Use it."</p> + +<p>Johnny dictated the message of his +location which we received. In his +incautious excitement he ignored the +secret code.</p> + +<p>An interval passed. The ore was occulted +again. No message had come +from us—just Snap's routine signal in +the weak infra-red, which we hoped +Grantline would not get.</p> + +<p>The men crowding Grantline's instrument +room waited in tense silence. +Then Grantline tried the telescope. Its +current weakened the lights with the +drain upon the distributors, and cooled +the room with a sudden deadly chill as +the Erentz insulating system slowed +down.</p> + +<p>The duty man looked suddenly frightened. +"You'll bulge out our walls, +Commander. The internal pressure—"</p> + +<p>"We'll chance it."</p> + +<p>They picked up the image of the +<i>Planetara</i>! It came from the telescope +and shone clear on the grid—the segment +of star-field with a tiny, cigar-shaped +blob. Clear enough to be unmistakable. +The <i>Planetara</i>! Here now +over the Moon, almost directly overhead, +poised at what the altimeter scale +showed to be a fraction under thirty +thousand miles.</p> + +<p>The men gazed in awed silence. The +<i>Planetara</i> coming....</p> + +<p>But the altimeter needle was motionless. +The <i>Planetara</i> was hanging poised.</p> + +<p>A sudden gasp went about the room.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[91]</a></span> +The men stood with whitening faces, +gazing at the <i>Planetara's</i> image. And +at the altimeter needle. It was moving. +The <i>Planetara</i> was descending. But +not with an orderly swoop.</p> + +<p>The image showed the ship clearly. +The bow tilted up, then dipped down. +But then in a moment it swung up +again. The ship turned partly over. +Righted itself. Then swayed again, +drunkenly.</p> + +<p>The watching men were stricken into +horrified silence. The <i>Planetara's</i> +image momentarily, horribly, grew +larger. Swaying. Then turning completely +over, rotating slowly end over +end.</p> + +<p>The <i>Planetara</i>, out of control, was +falling!</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER XXI</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>The Wreck of the</i> Planetara</h3> + + +<p><span class="dropcap">O</span><span class="upper">n</span> the <i>Planetara</i>, in the helio-room, +Snap and I stood with Moa's +weapon upon us. Miko held Anita. +Triumphant. Possessive. Then as she +struggled, a gentleness came to this +strange Martian giant. Perhaps he +really loved her. Looking back on it, I +sometimes think so.</p> + +<p>"Anita, do not fear me." He held her +away from him. "I would not harm you. +I want your love." Irony came to him. +"And I thought I had killed you! But +it was only your brother."</p> + +<p>He partly turned. I was aware of +how alert was his attention. He grinned. +"Hold them, Moa—don't let them do +anything foolish. So, Anita, you were +masquerading to spy upon me? That +was wrong of you." He was again +ironic.</p> + +<p>Anita had not spoken. She held herself +tensely away from Miko; she had +flashed me a look—just one. What horrible +mischance to have brought this +catastrophe!</p> + +<p>The completion of Grantline's message +had come unnoticed by us all.</p> + +<p>"Look! Grantline again!" Snap said +abruptly.</p> + +<p>But the mirrors were steadying. We +had no recording-tape apparatus; the +rest of the message was lost. The mirrors +pulsed and then steadied.</p> + +<p>No further message came. There was +an interval while Miko waited. He held +Anita in the hollow of his great arm.</p> + +<p>"Quiet, little bird. Do not fear me. +I have work to do, Anita—this is our +great adventure. We will be rich, you +and I. All the luxuries three worlds +can offer, all for us when this is over. +Careful, Moa! This Haljan has no wit."</p> + +<p>Well could he say it! I, who had +been so witless to let this come upon +us! Moa's weapon prodded me. Her +voice hissed at me with all the venom +of a reptile enraged. "So that was your +game, Gregg Haljan! And I was so +graceless to admit love for you!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="upper">nap</span> murmured in my ear, "Don't +move, Gregg! She's reckless."</p> + +<p>She heard it. She whirled on him. +"We have lost George Prince, it seems. +Well, we will survive without his ore +knowledge. And you, Dean—and this +Haljan—mark me, I will kill you both +if you cause trouble!"</p> + +<p>Miko was gloating. "Don't kill them +yet, Moa. What was it Grantline said? +Near the crater of Archimedes? Ring +us down, Haljan! We'll land."</p> + +<p>He signaled the turret. Gave Coniston +the Grantline message, and audiphoned +it below to Hahn. The news +spread about the ship. The bandits +were jubilant.</p> + +<p>"We'll land now, Haljan. Ring us +down. Come, Anita and I will go with +you to the turret."</p> + +<p>I found my voice. "To what destination?"</p> + +<p>"Near Archimedes. The Apennine +side. Keep well away from the Grantline +camp. We will probably sight it +as we descend."</p> + +<p>There was no trajectory needed. We +were almost over Archimedes now. I +could drop us with a visible, instrumental +course. My mind was whirling +with a confusion of thoughts. What +could we do? What could we dare +attempt to do? I met Snap's gaze.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[92]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ring us down, Gregg," he said +quietly.</p> + +<p>I nodded. I pushed Moa's weapon +away. "You don't need that. I obey +orders."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="upper">e</span> went to the turret. Moa +watched me and Snap, a grim, +cold Amazon. She avoided looking at +Anita, whom Miko helped down the +ladders with a strange mixture of courtierlike +grace and amused irony. Coniston +gazed at Anita with falling jaw.</p> + +<p>"I say! Not George Prince? The +girl—"</p> + +<p>"No time for argument now," Miko +commanded. "It's the girl, masquerading +as her brother. Get below, Coniston. +Haljan takes us down."</p> + +<p>The astounded Englishman continued +gazing at Anita. "I mean to say, where +to on the Moon? Not to encounter +Grantline at once, Miko? Our equipment +is not ready."</p> + +<p>"Of course not. We will land well +away. He won't be suspicious—we can +signal him again after we land. We +will have time to plan, to assemble the +equipment. Get below, I told you."</p> + +<p>The reluctant Coniston left us. I +took the controls. Miko, still holding +Anita as though she were a child, sat +beside me. "We will watch him, little +Anita. A skilled fellow at this sort of +work."</p> + +<p>I rang my signals for the shifting of +the gravity plates. The answer should +have come from below within a second +or two. But it did not. Miko regarded +me with his great bushy eyebrows upraised.</p> + +<p>"Ring again, Haljan."</p> + +<p>I duplicated. No answer. The silence +was frightening. Ominous.</p> + +<p>Miko muttered, "That accursed Hahn. +Ring again!"</p> + +<p>I sent the imperative emergency +demand.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">N</span><span class="upper">o</span> answer. A second or two. Then +all of us in the turret were +startled. Transfixed. From below came +a sudden hiss. It sounded in the turret: +it came from shifting-room call-grid. +The hissing of the pneumatic valves of +the plate-shifters in the lower control +room. The valves were opening; +the plates automatically shifting into +neutral, and disconnecting!</p> + +<p>An instant of startled silence. Miko +may have realized the significance of +what had happened. Certainly Snap and +I did. The hissing ceased. I gripped +the emergency plate-shifter switch +which hung over my head. Its disc was +dead! The plates were dead in neutral. +In the positions they were only placed +while in port! And their shifting +mechanisms were imperative!</p> + +<p>I was on my feet. "Snap! Good +God, we're in neutral!"</p> + +<p>Miko, if he had not realized it before, +was aware if it now. The Moon-disc +moved visibly as the <i>Planetara</i> lurched. +The vault of the heavens was slowly +swinging.</p> + +<p>Miko ripped out a heavy oath. "Haljan! +What is this?"</p> + +<p>He stood up, still holding Anita. But +there was nothing that he could do in +this emergency. "Haljan—what—"</p> + +<p>The heavens turned with a giant +swoop. The Moon was over us. It +swung in dizzying arc. Overhead, then +back past our stern; under us, then +appearing over our bow.</p> + +<p>The <i>Planetara</i> had turned over. Upending. +Rotating, end over end.</p> + +<p>For a moment or two I think all of +us in that turret stood and clung. The +Moon-disc, the Earth, Sun and all the +stars were swinging past our windows. +So horribly dizzying. The <i>Planetara</i> +seemed lurching and tumbling. But it +was an optical effect only. I stared +with grim determination at my feet. +The turret seemed to steady.</p> + +<p>Then I looked again. That horrible +swoop of all the heavens! And the +Moon, as it went past, seemed expanded. +We were falling! Out of control, with +the Moon-gravity pulling us inexorably +down!</p> + +<p>"That accursed Hahn—" Miko, +stricken with his lack of knowledge of +these controls, was wholly confused.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[93]</a></span></p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="upper">moment</span> only had passed. My +fancy that the Moon-disc was +enlarged was merely the horror of my +imagination. We had not fallen far +enough yet for that.</p> + +<p>But we were falling. Unless I could +do something, we would crash upon the +Lunar surface.</p> + +<p>Anita, killed in this <i>Planetara</i> turret. +The end of everything for us.</p> + +<p>Action came to me. I gasped, "Miko, +you stay here! The controls are dead! +You stay here—hold Anita."</p> + +<p>I ignored Moa's weapon which she +was still clutching mechanically. Snap +thrust her away.</p> + +<p>"Sit back! Let us alone! We're falling! +Don't you understand?"</p> + +<p>This deadly danger, to level us all! +No longer were we captors and captured. +Not brigands for this moment. +No thought of Grantline's treasure! +Trapped humans only! Leveled by the +common, instinct of self-preservation. +Trapped here together, fighting for our +lives.</p> + +<p>Miko gasped. "Can you—check us? +What happened?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I'll try."</p> + +<p>I stood clinging. This dizzying +whirl! From the audiphone grid Coniston's +voice sounded.</p> + +<p>"I say, Haljan, something's wrong! +Hahn doesn't signal."</p> + +<p>The look-out in the forward tower +was clinging to his window. On the deck +below our turret a member of the crew +appeared, stood lurching for a moment, +then shouted, and turned and ran, swaying, +aimless. From the lower hull-corridors +our grids sounded with the +tramping of running steps. Panic +among the crew was spreading over +the ship. A chaos below decks.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">pulled</span> at the emergency switch +again. Dead....</p> + +<p>But down below there was the manual +controls.</p> + +<p>"Snap, we must get down. The signals."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>Coniston's voice came like a scream +from the grid. "Hahn is dead—the controls +are broken! Hahn is dead!"</p> + +<p>We barely heard him. I shouted, +"Miko—hold Anita! Come on, Snap!"</p> + +<p>We clung to the ladders. Snap was +behind me. "Careful, Gregg! Good +God!"</p> + +<p>This dizzying whirl. I tried not to +look. The deck under me was now +a blurred kaleidoscope of swinging +patches of moonlight and shadow.</p> + +<p>We reached the deck. Ran, swaying, +lurching.</p> + +<p>It seemed that from the turret Anita's +voice followed us. "Be careful!"</p> + +<p>Within the ship our senses steadied. +With the rotating, reeling, heavens +shut out, there were only the shouts and +tramping steps of the panic-stricken +crew to mark that anything was amiss. +That, and a pseudo-sensation of lurching +caused by the pulsing of gravity—a +pull when the Moon was beneath our +hull to combine its force with our magnetizers; +a lightening when it was overhead. +A throbbing, pendulum lurch—that +was all.</p> + +<p>We ran down to the corridor incline. +A white-faced member of the +crew, came running up.</p> + +<p>"What's happened? Haljan, what's +happened?"</p> + +<p>"We're falling!" I gripped him. +"Get below. Come on with us!"</p> + +<p>But he jerked away from me. "Falling?"</p> + +<p>A steward came running. "Falling? +My God!"</p> + +<p>Snap swung at them. "Get ahead of +us! The manual controls—our only +chance—we need all you men at the +compressor pumps!"</p> + +<p>But it was an instinct to try and get +on deck, as though here below we were +rats caught in a trap. The men tore +away from me and ran. Their shouts of +panic resounded through the dim, blue-lit +corridors.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span><span class="upper">oniston</span> came lurching from the +control room. "I say—falling! +Haljan, my God, look at him!"</p> + +<p>Hahn was sprawled at the gravity-<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[94]</a></span>plate +switchboard. Sprawled, head-down. +Dead. Killed by something? Or +a suicide?</p> + +<p>I bent over him. His hands gripped +the main switch. He had ripped it +loose. And his left hand had reached +and broken the fragile line of tubes +that intensified the current of the pneumatic +plate-shifters. A suicide? With +his last frenzy determined to kill us +all?</p> + +<p>Then I saw that Hahn had been +killed! Not a suicide! In his hand he +gripped a small segment of black fabric, +a piece torn from an invisible cloak? +Was it?</p> + +<p>The questions were swept away by +the necessity for action. Snap was rigging +the hand-compressors. If he could +get the pressure back in the tanks....</p> + +<p>I swung on Coniston. "You armed?"</p> + +<p>"Yes." He was white-faced and confused, +but not in a panic. He showed +me his heat-ray cylinder. "What do +you want me to do?"</p> + +<p>"Round up the crew. Get all you +can. Bring them here to man these +pumps."</p> + +<p>He dashed away. Snap shouted after +him. "Kill them down if they argue!"</p> + +<p>Miko's voice sounded from the turret +call grid: "Falling! Haljan, you can +see it now! Check us!"</p> + +<p>I did not answer that. I pumped with +Snap.</p> + +<p>Desperate moments. Or was it an +hour? Coniston brought the men. He +stood over them with menacing weapon.</p> + +<p>We had all the pumps going. The +pressure rose a little in the tanks. +Enough to shift a bow-plate. I tried it. +The plate slowly clicked into a new +combination. A gravity repulsion just +in the bow-tip.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">signaled</span> Miko. "Have we +stopped swinging?"</p> + +<p>"No. But slower."</p> + +<p>I could feel it, that lurch of the +gravity. But not steady now. A limp. +The tendency of our bow was to stay +up.</p> + +<p>"More pressure, Snap."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>One of the crew rebelled, tried to +bolt from the room. "God, we'll crash, +caught in here!"</p> + +<p>Coniston shot him down.</p> + +<p>I shifted another bow-plate. Then +two in the stern. The stern-plates +seemed to move more readily than the +others.</p> + +<p>"Run all the stern-plates," Snap advised.</p> + +<p>I tried it. The lurching stopped. +Miko called. "We're bow down. Falling!"</p> + +<p>But not falling free. The Moon-gravity +pull upon us was more than +half neutralized.</p> + +<p>"I'll go up, Snap, and try the engines. +You don't mind staying down? +Executing my signals?"</p> + +<p>"You idiot!" He gripped my shoulders. +His eyes were gleaming, his face +haggard, but his pale lips twitched with +a smile.</p> + +<p>"Maybe it's good-by, Gregg. We'll +fall—fighting."</p> + +<p>"Yes. Fighting. Coniston, you keep +the pressure up."</p> + +<p>With the broken set-tubes it took +nearly all the pressure to maintain the +few plates I had shifted. One slipped +back to neutral. Then the pumps +gained on it, and it shifted again.</p> + +<p>I dashed up to the deck. Ah, the +Moon was so close now! So horribly +close! The deck shadows were still. +Through the forward bow windows the +Moon surface glared up at us.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">reached</span> the turret. The <i>Planetara</i> +was steady. Pitched bow-down, +half falling, half sliding like a rocket +downward. The scarred surface of the +Moon spread wide under us.</p> + +<p>These last horrible minutes were a +blur. And there was always Anita's +face. She left Miko. Faced with death, +he sat clinging. Ignoring her, Moa, +too, sat apart. Staring—</p> + +<p>And Anita crept to me. "Gregg, dear +one. The end...."</p> + +<p>I tried the electronic engines from +the stern, setting them in the reverse.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[95]</a></span> +The streams of their light glowed from +the stern, forward along our hull, and +flared down from our bow toward the +Lunar surface. But no atmosphere was +here to give resistance. Perhaps the +electronic streams checked our fall a +little. The pumps gave us pressure, +just in the last minutes, to slide a few +of the hull-plates. But our bow stayed +down. We slid, like a spent rocket +falling.</p> + +<p>I recall the horror of that expanding +Lunar surface. The maw of Archimedes +yawning. A blob. Widening to a great +pit. Then I saw it was to one side. +Rushing upward.</p> + +<p>A phantasmagoria of uprushing +crags. Black and gray. Spires tinged +with Earth-light.</p> + +<p>"Gregg, dear one—good-by."</p> + +<p>Her gentle arms around me. The +end of everything for us. I recall murmuring, +"Not falling free, Anita. Some +hull-plates are set."</p> + +<p>My dials showed another plate shifting, +checking us a little further. Good +old Snap.</p> + +<p>I calculated the next best plate to +shift. I tried it. Slid it over. Good +old Snap....</p> + +<p>Then everything faded but the feeling +of Anita's arms around me.</p> + +<p>"Gregg, dear one—"</p> + +<p>The end of everything for us....</p> + +<p>There was an up-rush of gray-black +rock.</p> + +<p>An impact....</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<h3>CHAPTER XXII</h3> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>The Hiss of Death</i></h3> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">opened</span> my eyes to a dark blur +of confusion. My shoulder hurt—a +pain shooting through it. Something +lay like a weight on me. I could not +seem to move my left arm. Very +queer! Then I moved it, and it hurt. +I was lying twisted: I sat up. And +with a rush, memory came. The crash +was over. I am not dead. Anita—</p> + +<p>She was lying beside me. There was +a little light here in this silent blur—a +soft, mellow Earth-light filtering in +the window. The weight on me was +Anita. She lay sprawled, her head and +shoulders half way across my lap.</p> + +<p>Not dead! Thank God, not dead! +She moved. Her arms went around me, +and I lifted her. The Earth-light +glowed on her pale face; but her eyes +opened and she faintly smiled.</p> + +<p>"It's past, Anita! We've struck, and +we're still alive."</p> + +<p>I held her as though all life's turgid +danger were powerless to touch us.</p> + +<p>But in the silence my floating senses +were brought back to reality by a faint +sound forcing itself upon me. A little +hiss. The faintest murmuring breath +like a hiss. Escaping air!</p> + +<p>I cast off her clinging arms. "Anita, +this is madness!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">F</span><span class="upper">or</span> minutes we must have been +lying there in the heaven of our +embrace. But air was escaping! The +<i>Planetara's</i> dome was broken—or cracked—and +our precious air was hissing out.</p> + +<p>Full reality came to me at last. I +was not seriously injured. I found that +I could move freely. I could stand. A +twisted shoulder, a limp left arm, but +they were better in a moment.</p> + +<p>And Anita did not seem to be hurt. +Blood was upon her. But not her blood.</p> + +<p>Beside Anita, stretched face down on +the turret grid, was the giant figure of +Miko. The blood lay in a small pool +against his face. A widening pool.</p> + +<p>Moa was here. I thought her body +twitched; then was still. This soundless +wreckage! In the dim glow of +the wrecked turret with its two motionless, +broken human figures, it seemed +as though Anita and I were ghouls +prowling. I saw that the turret had +fallen over to the <i>Planetara's</i> deck. It +lay dashed against the dome-side.</p> + +<p>The deck was aslant. A litter of +wreckage. A broken human figure +showed—one of the crew, who at the +last must have come running up. The +forward observation tower was down +on the chart-room roof: in its metal +tangle I thought I could see the legs +of the tower look-out.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[96]</a></span></p> + +<p>So this was the end of the brigands' +adventure! The <i>Planetara's</i> last voyage! +How small and futile are human +struggles! Miko's daring enterprise—so +villainous, inhuman—brought all in +a few moments to this silent tragedy. +The <i>Planetara</i> had fallen thirty thousand +miles. But why? What had happened +to Hahn? And where was Coniston, +down in this broken hull?</p> + +<p>And Snap. I thought suddenly of +Snap.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">clutched</span> at my wandering wits. +This inactivity was death. The +escaping air hissed in my ears. Our +precious air, escaping away into the +vacant desolation of the Lunar emptiness. +Through one of the twisted, +slanting dome-windows a rocky spire +was visible. The <i>Planetara</i> lay bow-down, +wedged in a jagged cradle of +Lunar rock. A miracle that the hull +and dome had held together.</p> + +<p>"Anita, we must get out of here!"</p> + +<p>I thought I was fully alert now. I +recalled that the brigands had spoken +of having partly assembled their Moon +equipment. If only we could find suits +and helmets!</p> + +<p>"We must get out," I repeated. "Get +to Grantline's camp."</p> + +<p>"Their helmets are in the forward +storage room, Gregg. I saw them +there."</p> + +<p>She was staring at the fallen Miko +and Moa. She shuddered and turned +away and gripped me. "In the forward +storage room, by the port of the emergency +lock-exit."</p> + +<p>If only the exit locks would operate! +We must get out of here, but find +Snap first. Good old Snap! Would +we find him lying dead?</p> + +<p>We climbed from the slanting, fallen +turret, over the wreckage of the littered +deck. It was not difficult, a lightness +was upon us. The <i>Planetara's</i> +gravity-magnetizers were dead: this +was only the light Moon-gravity pulling +us.</p> + +<p>"Careful, Anita. Don't jump too +freely."</p> + +<p>We leaped along the deck. The hiss +of the escaping pressure was like a +clanging gong of warning to tell us to +hurry. The hiss of death so close!</p> + +<p>"Snap—" I murmured.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Gregg. I pray we may find him +alive—!"</p> + +<p>"And get out. We've got to rush it. +Get out and find the Grantline camp."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">B</span><span class="upper">ut</span> how far? Which way? I +must remember to take food and +water. If the helmets were equipped +with admission ports. If we could find +Snap. If the exit locks would work +to let us out.</p> + +<p>With a fifteen foot leap we cleared +a pile of broken deck chairs. A man +lay groaning near them. I went back +with a rush. Not Snap! A steward. +He had been a brigand, but he was a +steward to me now.</p> + +<p>"Get up! This is Haljan. Hurry, we +must get out of here. The air is escaping!"</p> + +<p>But he sank back and lay still. No +time to find if I could help him: there +were Anita and Snap to save.</p> + +<p>We found a broken entrance to one +of the descending passages. I flung +the debris aside and cleared it. Like +a giant of strength with only this +Moon-gravity holding me, I raised a +broken segment of the superstructure +and heaved it back.</p> + +<p>Anita and I dropped ourselves down +the sloping passage. The interior of +the wrecked ship was silent and dim. +An occasional passage light was still +burning. The passage and all the +rooms lay askew. Wreckage everywhere: +but the double-dome and hull-shell +had withstood the shock. Then I +realized that the Erentz system was +slowing down. Our heat, like our air, +was escaping, radiating away, a deadly +chill settling upon everything. And +our walls were bulging. The silence +and the deadly chill of death would +soon be here in these wrecked corridors. +The end of the <i>Planetara</i>. I +wondered vaguely if the walls would +explode.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[97]</a></span></p> + +<p>We prowled like ghouls. We did not +see Coniston. Snap had been by the +shifter-pumps. We found him in the +oval doorway. He lay sprawled. Dead? +No, he moved. He sat up before we +could get to him. He seemed confused, +but his senses clarified with the +movement of our figures over him.</p> + +<p>"Gregg! Why, Anita!"</p> + +<p>"Snap! You're all right? We struck—the +air is escaping."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="upper">e</span> pushed me away. He tried to +stand. "I'm all right. I was up +a minute ago. Gregg, it's getting cold. +Where is she? I had her here—she +wasn't killed. I spoke to her."</p> + +<p>Irrational!</p> + +<p>"Snap!" I held him, shook him. +"Snap, old fellow!"</p> + +<p>He said, normally. "Easy, Gregg. I'm +all right now."</p> + +<p>Anita gripped him. "Who, Snap?"</p> + +<p>"She! There she is."</p> + +<p>Another figure was here! On the +grid-floor by the door oval. A figure +partly shrouded in a broken invisible +cloak and hood. An invisible cloak! I +saw a white face with opened eyes regarding +me. The face of a girl.</p> + +<p>Venza!</p> + +<p>I bent down. "You!"</p> + +<p>Anita cried, "Venza!"</p> + +<p>Venza here? Why—how—my +thoughts swept away. Venza here, +dying? Her eyes closed. But she murmured +to Anita. "Where is he? I +want him."</p> + +<p>Dying? I murmured impulsively, +"Here I am, Venza dear." Gently, as +one would speak with gentle sympathy +to humor the dying. "Here I am, +Venza."</p> + +<p>But it was only the confusion of the +shock upon her. And it was upon us +all. She pushed at Anita. "I want +him." She saw me. This whimsical +Venus girl! Even here as we gathered, +all of us blurred by the shock, confused +in the dim, wrecked ship with the chill +of death coming—even here she could +make a jest. Her pale lips smiled.</p> + +<p>"You, Gregg. I'm not hurt—I don't +think I'm hurt." She managed to get +herself up on one elbow. "Did you +think I wanted you with my dying +breath? Why, what conceit! Not you, +Handsome Haljan! I was calling Snap."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="upper">e</span> was down to her. "We're all +right, Venza. It's over. We +must get out of the ship—the air is +escaping."</p> + +<p>We gathered in the oval doorway. +We fought the confusion of panic.</p> + +<p>"The exit port is this way."</p> + +<p>Or was it? I answered Snap, "Yes, +I think so."</p> + +<p>The ship suddenly seemed a stranger +to me. So cold. So vibrationless. +Broken lights. These slanting, wrecked +corridors. With the ventilating fans +stilled, the air was turning fetid. Chilling. +And thinning, with escaping pressure, +rarifying so that I could feel the +grasp of it in my lungs and the pin-pricks +of my burning cheeks.</p> + +<p>We started off. Four of us, still alive +in this silent ship of death. My +blurred thoughts tried to cope with it +all. Venza here. I recalled how she +had bade me create a diversion when +the women passengers were landing on +the asteroid. She had carried out her +purpose! In the confusion she had not +gone ashore. A stowaway here. She +had secured the cloak. Prowling, to +try and help us, she had come upon +Hahn. Had seized his ray-cylinder and +struck him down, and been herself +knocked unconscious by his dying +lunge, which also had broken the +tubes and wrecked the <i>Planetara</i>. And +Venza, unconscious, had been lying +here with the mechanism of her cloak +still operating, so that we did not see +her when we came and found why +Hahn did not answer my signals.</p> + +<p>"It's here, Gregg."</p> + +<p>Snap and I lifted the pile of Moon +equipment. We located four suits and +helmets and the mechanisms to operate +them.</p> + +<p>"More are in the chart-room," Anita +said.</p> + +<p>But we needed no others. I robed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[98]</a></span> +Anita, and showed her the mechanisms.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I understand."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="upper">nap</span> was helping Venza. We were +all stiff from the cold; but within +the suits and their pulsing currents, the +blessed warmth came again.</p> + +<p>The helmets had admission ports +through which food and drink could be +taken. I stood with my helmet ready. +Anita, Venza and Snap were bloated +and grotesque beside me. We had +found food and water here, assembled +in portable cases which the brigands +had prepared. Snap lifted them, and +signed to me he was ready.</p> + +<p>My helmet shut out all sounds save +my own breathing, my pounding heart, +and the murmur of the mechanism. The +blessed warmth and pure air were good.</p> + +<p>We reached the hull port-locks. +They operated! We went through in +the light of the head-lamps over our +foreheads.</p> + +<p>I closed the locks after us. An instinct +to keep the air in the ship for the +other trapped humans lying there.</p> + +<p>We slid down the sloping side of the +<i>Planetara</i>. We were unweighted, irrationally +agile with the slight gravity. +I fell a dozen feet and landed with +barely a jar.</p> + +<p>We were out on the Lunar surface. +A great sloping ramp of crags stretched +down before us. Gray-black rock +tinged with Earth-light. The Earth +hung amid the stars in the blackness +overhead like a huge section of glowing +yellow ball.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">his</span> grim, desolate, silent landscape! +Beyond the ramp, fifty +feet below us, a tumbled naked plain +stretched away into blurred distance. +But I could see mountains off there. +Behind us the towering, frowning +rampart-wall of Archimedes loomed +against the sky.</p> + +<p>I had turned to look back at the +<i>Planetara</i>. She lay broken, wedged between +spires of upstanding rock. A +few of her lights still gleamed. The +end of the <i>Planetara</i>!</p> + +<p>The three grotesque figures of Anita, +Venza and Snap had started off. +Hunchback figures with the tanks +mounted on their shoulders. I bounded +and caught them. I touched Snap. We +made audiphone contact.</p> + +<p>"Which way do you think?" I demanded.</p> + +<p>"I think this way, down the ramp. +Away from Archimedes, toward the +mountains. It shouldn't be too far."</p> + +<p>"You run with Venza. I'll hold +Anita."</p> + +<p>He nodded. "But we must keep together, +Gregg."</p> + +<p>We could soon run freely. Down the +ramp, out over the tumbled plain. +Bounding, grotesque leaping strides. +The girls were more agile, more skilful. +They were soon leading us. The +Earth-shadows of their figures leaped +beside them. The <i>Planetara</i> faded into +the distance behind us. Archimedes +stood back there. Ahead, the mountains +came closer.</p> + +<p>An hour perhaps. I lost count of +time. Occasionally we stopped to rest. +Were we going toward the Grantline +camp? Would they see our tiny waving +headlights?</p> + +<p>Another interval. Then far ahead of +us on the ragged plain, lights showed! +Moving tiny spots of light! Headlights +on helmeted figures!</p> + +<p>We ran, monstrously leaping. A +group of figures were off there. Grantline's +party? Snap gripped me.</p> + +<p>"Grantline! We're safe, Gregg! +Safe!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="upper">e</span> took his bulb-light from his +helmet: we stood in a group +while he waved it. A semaphore signal.</p> + +<p>"<i>Grantline?</i>"</p> + +<p>And the answer came. "<i>Yes. You, +Dean?</i>"</p> + +<p>Their personal code. No doubt of +this—it was Grantline, who had seen +the <i>Planetara</i> fall and had come to help +us.</p> + +<p>I stood then with my hand holding +Anita. And I whispered, "It's Grant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[99]</a></span>line! +We're safe, Anita, my darling!"</p> + +<p>Death had been so close! Those horrible +last minutes on the <i>Planetara</i> had +shocked us, marked us.</p> + +<p>We stood trembling. And Grantline +and his men came bounding up.</p> + +<p>A helmeted figure touched me. I +saw through the helmet-pane the visage +of a stern-faced, square-jawed, youngish +man.</p> + +<p>"Grantline? Johnny Grantline?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said his voice at my ear-grid. +"I'm Grantline. You're Haljan? Gregg +Haljan?"</p> + +<p>They crowded around us. Gripped +us to hear our explanations.</p> + +<p>Brigands! It was amazing to Johnny +Grantline. But the menace was over +now, over as soon as Grantline had realized +its existence. As though the wreck +of the <i>Planetara</i> were foreordained by +an all-wise Providence, the brigands' +adventure had come to tragedy.</p> + +<p>We stood for a time discussing it. +Then I drew apart, leaving Snap with +Grantline. And Anita joined me. I +held her arm so that we had audiphone +contact.</p> + +<p>"Anita, mine."</p> + +<p>"Gregg, dear one."</p> + +<p>Murmured nothings which mean so +much to lovers!</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">s</span> we stood in the fantastic gloom +of the Lunar desolation, with the +blessed Earth-light on us, I sent up a +prayer of thankfulness. Not that a +hundred millions of treasure were +saved. Not that the attack upon Grantline +had been averted. But only that +Anita was given back to me. In moments +of greatest emotion the human +mind individualizes. To me, there was +only Anita.</p> + +<p>Life is very strange! The gate to +the shining garden of our love seemed +swinging wide to let us in. Yet I recall +that a vague fear still lay on me. A +premonition?</p> + +<p>I felt a touch on my arm. A bloated +helmet visor was thrust near my own. +I saw Snap's face peering at me.</p> + +<p>"Grantline thinks we should return +to the <i>Planetara</i>. Might find some of +them alive."</p> + +<p>Grantline touched me. "It's only +humanity."</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said.</p> + +<p>We went back. Some ten of us—a +line of grotesque figures bounding +with slow, easy strides over the jagged, +rock-strewn plain. Our lights danced +before us.</p> + +<p>The <i>Planetara</i> came at last into view. +My ship. Again that pang swept me as +I saw her. This, her last resting place. +She lay here in her open tomb, shattered, +broken, unbreathing. The lights +on her were extinguished. The Erentz +system had ceased to pulse—the heart +of the dying ship, for a while beating +faintly, but now at rest.</p> + +<p>We left the two girls with some of +Grantline's men at the admission port. +Snap, Grantline and I, with three +others, went inside. There still seemed +to be air, but not enough so that we +dared remove our helmets.</p> + +<p>It was dark inside the wrecked ship. +The corridors were black; the hull control-rooms +were dimly illumined with +Earth-light straggling through the +windows.</p> + +<p>This littered tomb! Already cold +and silent with death. We stumbled +over a fallen figure. A member of the +crew.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">G</span><span class="upper">rantline</span> straightened from +examining him.</p> + +<p>"Dead."</p> + +<p>Earth-light fell on the horrible face. +Puffed flesh, bloated red from the blood +which had oozed from its pores in the +thinning air. I looked away.</p> + +<p>We prowled further. Hahn lay dead +in the pump-room.</p> + +<p>The body of Coniston should have +been near here. We did not see it.</p> + +<p>We climbed up to the slanting littered +deck. The dome had not exploded, +but the air up here had almost +all hissed away.</p> + +<p>Again Grantline touched me. "That +the turret?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[100]</a></span></p> + +<p>No wonder he asked! The wreckage +was all so formless.</p> + +<p>We climbed after Snap into the +broken turret room. We passed the +body of that steward who just at the +end had appealed to me and I had left +dying. The legs of the forward look-out +still poked grotesquely up from +the wreckage of the observatory tower +where it lay smashed down against the +roof of the chart-room.</p> + +<p>We shoved ourselves into the turret. +What was this? No bodies here! The +giant Miko was gone! The pool of his +blood lay congealed into a frozen dark +splotch on the metal grid.</p> + +<p>And Moa was gone! They had not +been dead. Had dragged themselves +out of here, fighting desperately for +life. We would find them somewhere +around here.</p> + +<p>But we did not. Nor Coniston. I recalled +what Anita had said: other suits +and helmets had been here in the nearby +chart-room. The brigands had +taken them, and food and water doubtless, +and escaped from the ship, following +us through the lower admission +ports only a few minutes after we had +gone out.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="upper">e</span> made careful search of the +entire ship. Eight of the bodies +which should have been here were +missing: Miko, Moa, Coniston, and five +of the steward-crew.</p> + +<p>We did not find them outside. They +were hiding near here, no doubt, more +willing to take their chances than to +yield now to us. But how, in all this +Lunar desolation, could we hope to +locate them?</p> + +<p>"No use," said Grantline. "Let them +go. If they want death—well, they deserve +it."</p> + +<p>But we were saved. Then, as I stood +there, realization leaped at me. Saved? +Were we not indeed fatuous fools?</p> + +<p>In all these emotion-swept moments +since we had encountered Grantline, +memory of that brigand ship coming +from Mars had never once occurred to +Snap or me!</p> + +<p>I told Grantline now. His eyes +through the visor stared at me blankly.</p> + +<p>"What!"</p> + +<p>I told him again. It would be here +in eight days. Fully manned and +armed.</p> + +<p>"But Haljan, we have almost no +weapons! All my <i>Comet's</i> space was +taken with mining equipment and the +mechanisms for my camp. I can't signal +Earth! I was depending on the +<i>Planetara</i>!"</p> + +<p>It surged upon us. The brigand menace +past? We were blindly congratulating +ourselves on our safety! But it +would be eight days or more before in +distant Ferrok-Shahn the non-arrival +of the <i>Planetara</i> would cause any real +comment. No one was searching for +us—no one was worried over us.</p> + +<p>No wonder the crafty Miko was +willing to take his chances out here in +the Lunar wilds! His ship, his reinforcements, +his weapons were coming +rapidly!</p> + +<p>And we were helpless. Almost unarmed. +Marooned here on the Moon +with our treasure!</p> + +<div class="nanospace"> </div> +<div class="center">(<i>To be continued.</i>)</div> + +<div class="minispace"> </div> +<div class="nanospace"> </div> +<div class="border3" style="width: 525px;"> +<h2>ASTOUNDING STORIES</h2> + +<h3><i>Appears on Newsstands</i></h3> + +<h3>THE FIRST THURSDAY IN EACH MONTH.</h3> +</div> + +<div class="minispace"> </div> +<div class="minispace"> </div> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> The principle of this invisible cloak involves +the use of an electronized fabric. All +color is absorbed. The light rays reflected to +the eye of the observer thus show an image of +empty blackness. There is also created about +the cloak a magnetic field which by natural +laws bends the rays of light from objects behind +it. This principle of the natural bending of +light when passing through a magnetic field +was first recognized by Albert Einstein, a +scientist of the Twentieth century. In the +case of this invisible cloak, the bending light +rays, by making visible what was behind the +cloak's blackness, thus destroyed its solid +black outline and gave a pseudo-invisibility +which was fairly effective under favorable +conditions.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_B_2" id="Footnote_B_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_B_2"><span class="label">[B]</span></a> An allusion to the use of the zed-ray light +for making spectro-photographs of what +might be behind obscuring rock masses, similar +to the old-style X-ray.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_C_3" id="Footnote_C_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_C_3"><span class="label">[C]</span></a> About fifty miles.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_D_4" id="Footnote_D_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_D_4"><span class="label">[D]</span></a> +An intricate system of insulation against extremes of temperature, +developed by the Erentz Kinetic Energy Corporation in the twenty-first +century. Within the hollow double shell of a shelter-wall, or an +explorer's helmet-suit, or a space-flyer's hull, an oscillating +semi-vacuum current was maintained--an extremely rarified air, +magnetically charged, and maintained in rapid oscillating motion. Across +this field the outer cold, or heat, as the case might be, could +penetrate only with slow radiation. This Erentz system gave the most +perfect temperature insulation known in its day. Without it, +interplanetary flight would have been impossible.</p> + +<p>And it served a double purpose. Developed at first for temperature +insulation only, the Erentz system surprisingly brought to light one of +the most important discoveries made in the realm of physics of the +century. It was found that any flashing, oscillating current, whether +electronic, or the semi-vacuum of rarified air--or even a thin sheet of +whirling fluid--gave also a pressure-insulation. The kinetic energy of +the rapid movement was found to absorb within itself the latent energy +of the unequal pressure.</p> + +<p>(The intricate postulates and mathematical +formulae necessary to demonstrate the operation +of the physical laws involved would be +out of place here.) +</p><p> +The <i>Planetara</i> was so equipped, against the +explosive tendency of its inner air-pressures +when flying in the near-vacuum of space. In +the case of Grantline's glassite shelters, the +latent energy of his room interior air pressure +went largely into a kinetic energy which in +practical effect resulted only in the slight acceleration +of the vacuum current, and thus +never reached the outer wall. The Erentz +engineers claimed for their system a pressure +absorption of 97.4%, leaving, in Grantline's +case, only 2.6% of room pressure to be held +by the building's aluminite bracers. +</p><p> +It may be interesting to note in this connection +that without the Erentz system as a +basis, the great sub-sea developments on +Earth and Mars of the twenty-first century +would also have been impossible. Equipped +with a fluid circulation device of the Erentz +principle within its double hull, the first submarine +was able to penetrate the great ocean +deeps, withstanding the tremendous ocean +pressures at depths of four thousand fathoms.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_E_5" id="Footnote_E_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_E_5"><span class="label">[E]</span></a> Within the Grantline buildings it was +found more convenient to use a gravity +normal to Earth. This was maintained by +the wearing of metal-weighted shoes and +metal-loaded belt. The Moon-gravity is +normally approximately one-sixth the gravity +of Earth.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_F_6" id="Footnote_F_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_F_6"><span class="label">[F]</span></a> The Gravely storage tanks—the power +used by the Grantline expedition—were +heavy and bulky affairs. Economy of space +on the Comet allowed but few of them.</p></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_G_7" id="Footnote_G_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_G_7"><span class="label">[G]</span></a> Electro-telescopes of most modern use +and power were too large and used too much +power to be available to Grantline.</p></div> + + + + + +<hr /> +<div class="image"> +<img src="images/i101.jpg" width="525" height="531" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>He began to twist and turn, as though<br /> +torn by some invisible force.</i></h3> + + +<h2 class="chapter3"><a name="The_Soul-Snatcher" id="The_Soul-Snatcher"></a>The Soul-Snatcher</h2> + +<h2 class="chapter"><i>By Tom Curry</i></h2> +<div class="microspace"> </div> + + +<div class="sidenote">From twenty miles away stabbed the +"atom-filtering" rays to Allen Baker in +his cell in the death house.</div> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> shrill voice of a woman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[101]</a></span> +stabbed the steady hum of the +many machines in the great, +semi-darkened laboratory. It +was the onslaught +of weak femininity +against the ebony +shadow of Jared, +the silent negro +servant of Professor +Ramsey Burr. Not many people +were able to get to the famous man +against his wishes; Jared obeyed orders +implicitly and was generally an +efficient barrier.</p> + +<p>"I will see him, I will," screamed the +middle-aged woman. +"I'm Mrs. +Mary Baker, and +he—he—it's his +fault my son is +going to die. His +fault. <i>Professor! Professor Burr!</i>"</p> + +<p>Jared was unable to keep her quiet.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[102]</a></span></p> + +<p>Coming in from the sunlight, her +eyes were not yet accustomed to the +strange, subdued haze of the laboratory, +an immense chamber crammed +full of equipment, the vista of which +seemed like an apartment in hell. +Bizarre shapes stood out from the mass +of impedimenta, great stills which rose +full two stories in height, dynamos, immense +tubes of colored liquids, a hundred +puzzles to the inexpert eye.</p> + +<p>The small, plump figure of Mrs. +Baker was very out of place in this +setting. Her voice was poignant, +reedy. A look at her made it evident +that she was a conventional, good +woman. She had soft, cloudy golden +eyes and a pathetic mouth, and she +seemed on the point of tears.</p> + +<p>"Madam, madam, de doctor is busy," +whispered Jared, endeavoring to shoo +her out of the laboratory with his polite +hands. He was respectful, but firm.</p> + +<p>She refused to obey. She stopped +when she was within a few feet of the +activity in the laboratory, and stared +with fear and horror at the center of +the room, and at its occupant, Professor +Burr, whom she had addressed +during her flurried entrance.</p> + +<p>The professor's face, as he peered at +her, seemed like a disembodied stare, +for she could see only eyes behind a +mask of lavender gray glass eyeholes, +with its flapping ends of dirty, gray-white +cloth.</p> + +<p>She drew in a deep breath—and +gasped, for the pungent fumes, acrid +and penetrating, of sulphuric and nitric +acids, stabbed her lungs. It was like +the breath of hell, to fit the simile, and +aptly Professor Burr seemed the devil +himself, manipulating the infernal machines.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">cting</span> swiftly, the tall figure +stepped over and threw two +switches in a single, sweeping movement. +The vermillion light which had +lived in a long row of tubes on a nearby +bench abruptly ceased to writhe like so +many tongues of flame, and the embers +of hell died out.</p> + +<p>Then the professor flooded the room +in harsh gray-green light, and stopped +the high-pitched, humming whine of +his dynamos. A shadow picture writhing +on the wall, projected from a lead-glass +barrel, disappeared suddenly, the +great color filters and other machines +lost their semblance of horrible life, +and a regretful sigh seemed to come +from the metal creatures as they gave +up the ghost.</p> + +<p>To the woman, it had been entering +the abode of fear. She could not restrain +her shudders. But she bravely +confronted the tall figure of Professor +Burr, as he came forth to greet her.</p> + +<p>He was extremely tall and attenuated, +with a red, bony mask of a face +pointed at the chin by a sharp little +goatee. Feathery blond hair, silvered +and awry, covered his great head.</p> + +<p>"Madam," said Burr in a gentle, disarmingly +quiet voice, "your manner of +entrance might have cost you your life. +Luckily I was able to deflect the rays +from your person, else you might not +now be able to voice your complaint—for +such seems to be your purpose in +coming here." He turned to Jared, +who was standing close by. "Very +well, Jared. You may go. After this, +it will be as well to throw the bolts, +though in this case I am quite willing +to see the visitor."</p> + +<p>Jared slid away, leaving the plump +little woman to confront the famous +scientist.</p> + +<p>For a moment, Mrs. Baker stared +into the pale gray eyes, the pupils of +which seemed black as coal by contrast. +Some, his bitter enemies, claimed that +Professor Ramsey Burr looked cold +and bleak as an iceberg, others that he +had a baleful glare. His mouth was +grim and determined.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">Y</span><span class="upper">et,</span> with her woman's eyes, Mrs. +Baker, looking at the professor's +bony mask of a face, with the high-bridged, +intrepid nose, the passionless +gray eyes, thought that Ramsey Burr +would be handsome, if a little less cadaverous +and more human.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[103]</a></span></p> + +<p>"The experiment which you ruined +by your untimely entrance," continued +the professor, "was not a safe one."</p> + +<p>His long white hand waved toward +the bunched apparatus, but to her to +the room seemed all glittering metal +coils of snakelike wire, ruddy copper, +dull lead, and tubes of all shapes. Hell +cauldrons of unknown chemicals +seethed and slowly bubbled, beetle-black +bakelite fixtures reflected the +hideous light.</p> + +<p>"Oh," she cried, clasping her hands +as though she addressed him in prayer, +"forget your science, Professor Burr, +and be a man. Help me. Three days +from now my boy, my son, whom I love +above all the world, is to die."</p> + +<p>"Three days is a long time," said +Professor Burr calmly. "Do not lose +hope: I have no intention of allowing +your son, Allen Baker, to pay the price +for a deed of mine. I freely confess +it was I who was responsible for the +death of—what was the person's name?—Smith, +I believe."</p> + +<p>"It was you who made Allen get poor +Mr. Smith to agree to the experiments +which killed him, and which the world +blamed on my son," she said. "They +called it the deed of a scientific fiend, +Professor Burr, and perhaps they are +right. But Allen is innocent."</p> + +<p>"Be quiet," ordered Burr, raising his +hand. "Remember, madam, your son +Allen is only a commonplace medical +man, and while I taught him a little +from my vast store of knowledge, he +was ignorant and of much less value +to science and humanity than myself. +Do you not understand, can you not +comprehend, also, that the man Smith +was a martyr to science? He was no +loss to mankind, and only sentimentalists +could have blamed anyone for his +death. I should have succeeded in the +interchange of atoms which we were +working on, and Smith would at this +moment be hailed as the first man to +travel through space in invisible form, +projected on radio waves, had it not +been for the fact that the alloy which +conducts the three types of sinusoidal +failed me and burned out. Yes, it was +an error in calculation, and Smith +would now be called the Lindbergh of +the Atom but for that. Yet Smith has +not died in vain, for I have finally corrected +this error—science is but trial +and correction of error—and all will +be well."</p> + +<p>"But Allen—Allen must not die at +all!" she cried. "For weeks he has +been in the death house: it is killing +me. The Governor refuses him a pardon, +nor will he commute my son's +sentence. In three days he is to die +in the electric chair, for a crime which +you admit you alone are responsible +for. Yet you remain in your laboratory, +immersed in your experiments, +and do nothing, nothing!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> tears came now, and she +sobbed hysterically. It seemed +that she was making an appeal to someone +in whom she had only a forlorn +hope.</p> + +<p>"Nothing?" repeated Burr, pursing +his thin lips. "Nothing? Madam, I +have done everything. I have, as I +have told you, perfected the experiment. +It is successful. Your son has +not suffered in vain, and Smith's name +will go down with the rest of science's +martyrs as one who died for the sake +of humanity. But if you wish to save +your son, you must be calm. You must +listen to what I have to say, and you +must not fail to carry out my instructions +to the letter. I am ready now."</p> + +<p>Light, the light of hope, sprang in +the mother's eyes. She grasped his arm +and stared at him with shining face, +through tear-dipped eyelashes.</p> + +<p>"Do—do you mean it? Can you save +him? After the Governor has refused +me? What can you do? No influence +will snatch Allen from the jaws of the +law: the public is greatly excited and +very hostile toward him."</p> + +<p>A quiet smile played at the corners +of Burr's thin lips.</p> + +<p>"Come," he said. "Place this cloak +about you. Allen wore it when he assisted +me."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[104]</a></span></p> + +<p>The professor replaced his own mask +and conducted the woman into the interior +of the laboratory.</p> + +<p>"I will show you," said Professor +Burr.</p> + +<p>She saw before her now, on long +metal shelves which appeared to be +delicately poised on fine scales whose +balance was registered by hair-line indicators, +two small metal cages.</p> + +<p>Professor Burr stepped over to a +row of common cages set along the +wall. There was a small menagerie +there, guinea pigs—the martyrs of the +animal kingdom—rabbits, monkeys, and +some cats.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> man of science reached in and +dragged out a mewing cat, placing +it in the right-hand cage on the strange +table. He then obtained a small +monkey and put this animal in the left-hand +cage, beside the cat. The cat, on +the right, squatted on its haunches, +mewing in pique and looking up at its +tormentor. The monkey, after a quick +look around, began to investigate the +upper reaches of its new cage.</p> + +<p>Over each of the animals was suspended +a fine, curious metallic armament. +For several minutes, while the +woman, puzzled at how this demonstration +was to affect the rescue of her condemned +son, waited impatiently, the +professor deftly worked at the apparatus, +connecting wires here and there.</p> + +<p>"I am ready now," said Burr. "Watch +the two animals carefully."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," she replied, faintly, for +she was half afraid.</p> + +<p>The great scientist was stooping +over, looking at the balances of the indicators +through microscopes.</p> + +<p>She saw him reach for his switches, +and then a brusk order caused her to +turn her eyes back to the animals, the +cat in the right-hand cage, the monkey +at the left.</p> + +<p>Both animals screamed in fear, and +a sympathetic chorus sounded from the +menagerie, as a long purple spark +danced from one gray metal pole to the +other, over the cages on the table.</p> + +<p>At first, Mrs. Baker noticed no +change. The spark had died, the professor's +voice, unhurried, grave, broke +the silence.</p> + +<p>"The first part of the experiment is +over," he said. "The ego—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, heavens!" cried the woman. +"You've driven the poor creatures +mad!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="upper">he</span> indicated the cat. That animal +was clawing at the top bars of its +cage, uttering a bizarre, chattering +sound, somewhat like a monkey. The +cat hung from the bars, swinging itself +back and forth as on a trapeze, then +reached up and hung by its hind +claws.</p> + +<p>As for the monkey, it was squatting +on the floor of its cage, and it made a +strange sound in its throat, almost a +mew, and it hissed several times at the +professor.</p> + +<p>"They are not mad," said Burr. "As +I was explaining to you, I have finished +the first portion of the experiment. The +ego, or personality of one animal has +been taken out and put into the other."</p> + +<p>She was unable to speak. He had +mentioned madness: was he, Professor +Ramsey Burr, crazy? It was likely +enough. Yet—yet the whole thing, in +these surroundings, seemed plausible. +As she hesitated about speaking, watching +with fascinated eyes the out-of-character +behavior of the two beasts, +Burr went on.</p> + +<p>"The second part follows at once. +Now that the two egos have interchanged, +I will shift the bodies. When +it is completed, the monkey will have +taken the place of the cat, and vice +versa. Watch."</p> + +<p>He was busy for some time with his +levers, and the smell of ozone reached +Mrs. Baker's nostrils as she stared with +horrified eyes at the animals.</p> + +<p>She blinked. The sparks crackled +madly, the monkey mewed, the cat +chattered.</p> + +<p>Were her eyes going back on her? +She could see neither animal distinctly: +they seemed to be shaking in some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[105]</a></span> +cosmic disturbance, and were but blurs. +This illusion—for to her, it seemed it +must be optical—persisted, grew worse, +until the quaking forms of the two unfortunate +creatures were like so much +ectoplasm in swift motion, ghosts +whirling about in a dark room.</p> + +<p>Yet she could see the cages quite +distinctly, and the table and even the +indicators of the scales. She closed +her eyes for a moment. The acrid odors +penetrated to her lungs, and she +coughed, opening her eyes.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">N</span><span class="upper">ow</span> she could see clearly again. +Yes, she could see a monkey, and +it was climbing, quite naturally about +its cage; it was excited, but a monkey. +And the cat, while protesting mightily, +acted like a cat.</p> + +<p>Then she gasped. Had her mind, in +the excitement, betrayed her? She +looked at Professor Burr. On his lean +face there was a smile of triumph, and +he seemed to be awaiting her applause.</p> + +<p>She looked again at the two cages. +Surely, at first the cat had been in +the right-hand cage, and the monkey +in the left! And now, the monkey was +in the place where the cat had been +and the cat had been shifted to the +left-hand cage.</p> + +<p>"So it was with Smith, when the alloys +burned out," said Burr. "It is impossible +to extract the ego or dissolve +the atoms and translate them into radio +waves unless there is a connection +with some other ego and body, for in +such a case the translated soul and +body would have no place to go. +Luckily, for you, madam, it was the +man Smith who was killed when the +alloys failed me. It might have been +Allen, for he was the second pole of +the connection."</p> + +<p>"But," she began faintly, "how can +this mad experiment have anything to +do with saving my boy?"</p> + +<p>He waved impatiently at her evident +denseness. "Do you not understand? +It is so I will save Allen, your son. I +shall first switch our egos, or souls, as +you say. Then switch the bodies. It +must always take this sequence; why, +I have not ascertained. But it always +works thus."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Baker was terrified. What she +had just seen, smacked of the blackest +magic—yet a woman in her position +must grasp at straws. The world +blamed her son for the murder of +Smith, a man Professor Burr had made +use of as he might a guinea pig, and +Allen must be snatched from the death +house.</p> + +<p>"Do—do you mean you can bring Allen +from the prison here—just by +throwing those switches?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"That is it. But there is more to it +than that, for it is not magic, madam; +it is science, you understand, and there +must be some physical connection. But +with your help, that can easily be +made."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">P</span><span class="upper">rofessor Ramsey Burr,</span> +she knew, was the greatest electrical +engineer the world had ever known. +And he stood high as a physicist. +Nothing hindered him in the pursuit of +knowledge, they said. He knew no +fear, and he lived on an intellectual +promontory. He was so great that he +almost lost sight of himself. To such +a man, nothing was impossible. Hope, +wild hope, sprang in Mary Baker's +heart, and she grasped the bony hand +of the professor and kissed it.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I believe, I believe," she cried. +"You can do it. You can save Allen. +I will do anything, anything you tell +me to."</p> + +<p>"Very well. You visit your son daily +at the death house, do you not?"</p> + +<p>She nodded; a shiver of remembrance +of that dread spot passed through her.</p> + +<p>"Then you will tell him the plan and +let him agree to see me the night preceding +the electrocution. I will give +him final instructions as to the exchange +of bodies. When my life spirit, +or ego, is confined in your son's body +in the death house, Allen will be able +to perform the feat of changing the +bodies, and your son's flesh will join +his soul, which will have been tempo<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[106]</a></span>rarily +inhabiting my own shell. Do +you see? When they find me in the +cell where they suppose your son to be, +they will be unable to explain the phenomenon; +they can do nothing but release +me. Your son will go here, and +can be whisked away to a safe place of +concealment."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes. What am I to do besides +this?"</p> + +<p>Professor Burr pulled out a drawer +near at hand, and from it extracted a +folded garment of thin, shiny material.</p> + +<p>"This is metal cloth coated with the +new alloy," he said, in a matter of fact +tone. He rummaged further, saying as +he did so, "I expected you would be +here to see me, and I have been getting +ready for your visit. All is prepared, +save a few odds and ends which I can +easily clean up in the next two days. +Here are four cups which Allen must +place under each leg of his bed, and this +delicate little director coil you must +take especial pains with. It is to be +slipped under your son's tongue at the +time appointed."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">S</span><span class="upper">he</span> was staring at him still, half in +fear, half in wonder, yet she could +not feel any doubt of the man's miraculous +powers. Somehow, while he talked +to her and rested those cold eyes upon +her, she was under the spell of the +great scientist. Her son, before the +trouble into which he had been dragged +by the professor, had often hinted at +the abilities of Ramsey Burr, given her +the idea that his employer was practically +a necromancer, yet a magician +whose advanced scientific knowledge +was correct and explainable in the +light of reason.</p> + +<p>Yes, Allen had talked to her often +when he was at home, resting from his +labors with Professor Burr. He had +spoken of the new electricity discovered +by the famous man, and also told +his mother that Burr had found a +method of separating atoms and then +transforming them into a form of +radio-electricity so that they could be +sent in radio waves, to designated +points. And she now remembered—the +swift trial and conviction of Allen on +the charge of murder had occupied her +so deeply that she had forgotten all +else for the time being—that her son +had informed her quite seriously that +Professor Ramsey Burr would soon be +able to transport human beings by +radio.</p> + +<p>"Neither of us will be injured in any +way by the change," said Burr calmly. +"It is possible for me now to break up +human flesh, send the atoms by radio-electricity, +and reassemble them in +their proper form by these special +transformers and atom filters."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Baker took all the apparatus +presented her by the professor. She +ventured the thought that it might be +better to perform the experiment at +once, instead of waiting until the last +minute, but this Professor Burr waved +aside as impossible. He needed the +extra time, he said, and there was no +hurry.</p> + +<p>She glanced about the room, and her +eye took in the giant switches of copper +with their black handles; there +were others of a gray-green metal she +did not recognize. Many dials and +meters, strange to her, confronted the +little woman. These things, she felt +with a rush of gratitude toward the +inanimate objects, would help to save +her son, so they interested her and she +began to feel kindly toward the great +machines.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="upper">ould</span> Professor Burr be able +to save Allen as he claimed? +Yes, she thought, he could. She +would make Allen consent to the trial +of it, even though her son had cursed +the scientist and cried he would never +speak to Ramsey Burr again.</p> + +<p>She was escorted from the home of +the professor by Jared, and going out +into the bright, sunlit street, blinked as +her eyes adjusted themselves to the +daylight after the queer light of the +laboratory. In a bundle she had a +strange suit and the cups; her purse +held the tiny coil, wrapped in cotton.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span></p> + +<p>How could she get the authorities to +consent to her son having the suit? +The cups and the coil she might slip +to him herself. She decided that a +mother would be allowed to give her +son new underwear. Yes, she would +say it was that.</p> + +<p>She started at once for the prison. +Professor Burr's laboratory was but +twenty miles from the cell where her +son was incarcerated.</p> + +<p>As she rode on the train, seeing +people in everyday attire, commonplace +occurrences going on about her, +the spell of Professor Burr faded, and +cold reason stared her in the face. Was +it nonsense, this idea of transporting +bodies through the air, in invisible +waves? Yet, she was old-fashioned; +the age of miracles had not passed for +her. Radio, in which pictures and +voices could be sent on wireless waves, +was unexplainable to her. Perhaps—</p> + +<p>She sighed, and shook her head. It +was hard to believe. It was also hard +to believe that her son was in deadly +peril, condemned to death as a "scientific +fiend."</p> + +<p>Here was her station. A taxi took +her to the prison, and after a talk with +the warden, finally she stood there, before +the screen through which she +could talk to Allen, her son.</p> + +<p>"Mother!"</p> + +<p>Her heart lifted, melted within her. +It was always thus when he spoke. +"Allen," she whispered softly.</p> + +<p>They were allowed to talk undisturbed.</p> + +<p>"Professor Burr wishes to help you," +she said, in a low voice.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="upper">er</span> son, Allen Baker, M. D., +turned eyes of misery upon her. +His ruddy hair was awry. This young +man was imaginative and could therefore +suffer deeply. He had the gift of +turning platitudes into puzzles, and his +hazel eyes were lit with an elfin quality, +which, if possible, endeared him the +more to his mother. All his life he had +been the greatest thing in the world to +this woman. To see him in such +straits tore her very heart. When he +had been a little boy, she had been able +to make joy appear in those eyes by +a word and a pat; now that he was a +man, the matter was more difficult, but +she had always done her best.</p> + +<p>"I cannot allow Professor Burr to +do anything for me," he said dully. "It +is his fault that I am here."</p> + +<p>"But Allen, you must listen, listen +carefully. Professor Burr can save +you. He says it was all a mistake, the +alloy was wrong. He has not come +forward before, because he knew he +would be able to iron out the trouble +if he had time, and thus snatch you +from this terrible place."</p> + +<p>She put as much confidence into her +voice as she could. She must, to enhearten +her son. Anything to replace +that look of suffering with one of hope. +She would believe, she did believe. +The bars, the great masses of stone +which enclosed her son would be as +nothing. He would pass through them, +unseen, unheard.</p> + +<p>For a time, Allen spoke bitterly of +Ramsey Burr, but his mother pleaded +with him, telling him it was his only +chance, and that the deviltry Allen +suspected was imaginary.</p> + +<p>"He—he killed Smith in such an +experiment," said Allen. "I took the +blame, as you know, though I only followed +his instructions. But you say +he claims to have found the correct alloys?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. And this suit, you must put it +on. But Professor Burr himself will +be here to see you day after to-morrow, +the day preceding the—the—" She bit +her lip, and got out the dreaded word, +"the electrocution. But there won't be +any electrocution, Allen; no, there cannot +be. You will be safe, safe in my +arms." She had to fight now to hold +her belief in the miracle which Burr +had promised. The solid steel and +stone dismayed her brain.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> new alloy seemed to interest +Allen Baker. His mother told him +of the exchange of the monkey and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +cat, and he nodded excitedly, growing +more and more restive, and his eyes began +to shine with hope and curiosity.</p> + +<p>"I have told the warden about the +suit, saying it was something I made +for you myself," she said, in a low +voice. "You must pretend the coil and +the cups are things you desire for your +own amusement. You know, they have +allowed you a great deal of latitude, +since you are educated and need diversion."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes. There may be some difficulty, +but I will overcome that. Tell +Burr to come. I'll talk with him and +he can instruct me in the final details. +It is better than waiting here like a rat +in a trap. I have been afraid of going +mad, mother, but this buoys me up."</p> + +<p>He smiled at her, and her heart sang +in the joy of relief.</p> + +<p>How did the intervening days pass? +Mrs. Baker could not sleep, could +scarcely eat, she could do nothing but +wait, wait, wait. She watched the +meeting of her son and Ramsey Burr, +on the day preceding the date set for +the execution.</p> + +<p>"Well, Baker," said Burr nonchalantly, +nodding to his former assistant. +"How are you?"</p> + +<p>"You see how I am," said Allen, +coldly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes. Well, listen to what I +have to say and note it carefully. There +must be no slip. You have the suit, the +cups and the director coil? You must +keep the suit on, the cups go under the +legs of the cot you lie on. The director +under your tongue."</p> + +<p>The professor spoke further with +Allen, instructing him in scientific +terms which the woman scarcely comprehended.</p> + +<p>"To-night, then at eleven-thirty," +said Burr, finally. "Be ready."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">llen</span> nodded. Mrs. Baker accompanied +Burr from the prison.</p> + +<p>"You—you will let me be with you?" +she begged.</p> + +<p>"It is hardly necessary," said the +professor.</p> + +<p>"But I must. I must see Allen the +moment he is free, to make sure +he is all right. Then, I want to be +able to take him away. I have a place +in which we can hide, and as soon as he +is rescued he must be taken out of +sight."</p> + +<p>"Very well," said Burr, shrugging. +"It is immaterial to me, so long as you +do not interfere with the course of the +experiment. You must sit perfectly +still, you must not speak until Allen +stands before you and addresses you."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I will obey you," she promised.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Baker watched Professor Ramsey +Burr eat his supper. Burr himself +was not in the least perturbed; it was +wonderful, she thought, that he could +be so calm. To her, it was the great +moment, the moment when her son +would be saved from the jaws of death.</p> + +<p>Jared carried a comfortable chair +into the laboratory and she sat in it, +quiet as a mouse, in one corner of the +room.</p> + +<p>It was nine o'clock, and Professor +Burr was busy with his preparations. +She knew he had been working steadily +for the past few days. She gripped +the arms of her chair, and her heart +burned within her.</p> + +<p>The professor was making sure of +his apparatus. He tested this bulb and +that, and carefully inspected the curious +oscillating platform, over which +was suspended a thickly bunched group +of gray-green wire, which was seemingly +an antenna. The numerous indicators +and implements seemed to be +satisfactory, for at quarter after eleven +Burr gave an exclamation of pleasure +and nodded to himself.</p> + +<p>Burr seemed to have forgotten the +woman. He spoke aloud occasionally, +but not to her, as he drew forth a suit +made of the same metal cloth as Allen +must have on at this moment.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> tension was terrific, terrific +for the mother, who was awaiting +the culmination of the experiment +which would rescue her son from the +electric chair—or would it fail? She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +shuddered. What if Burr were mad?</p> + +<p>But look at him, she was sure he was +sane, as sane as she was.</p> + +<p>"He will succeed," she murmured, +digging her nails into the palms of her +hands. "I <i>know</i> he will."</p> + +<p>She pushed aside the picture of +what would happen on the morrow, but +a few hours distant, when Allen, her +son, was due to be led to a legal death +in the electric chair.</p> + +<p>Professor Burr placed the shiny suit +upon his lank form, and she saw him +put a duplicate coil, the same sort of +small machine which Allen possessed, +under his tongue.</p> + +<p>The Mephistophelian figure consulted +a matter-of-fact watch; at that +moment, Mrs. Baker heard, above the +hum of the myriad machines in the +laboratory, the slow chiming of a clock. +It was the moment set for the deed.</p> + +<p>Then, she feared the professor was +insane, for he suddenly leaped to the +high bench of the table on which stood +one of the oscillating platforms.</p> + +<p>Wires led out from this, and Burr sat +gently upon it, a strange figure in the +subdued light.</p> + +<p>Professor Burr, however, she soon +saw, was not insane. No, this was part +of it. He was reaching for switches +near at hand, and bulbs began to glow +with unpleasant light, needles on indicators +swung madly, and at last, Professor +Burr kicked over a giant switch, +which seemed to be the final movement.</p> + +<p>For several seconds the professor did +not move. Then his body grew rigid, +and he twisted a few times. His face, +though not drawn in pain, yet twitched +galvanically, as though actuated by +slight jabs of electricity.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> many tubes fluoresced, flared +up in pulsing waves of violet and +pink: there were gray bars of invisibility +or areas of air in which nothing +visible showed. There came the faint, +crackling hum of machinery rather like +a swarm of wasps in anger. Blue and +gray thread of fire spat across the antenna. +The odor of ozone came to Mrs. +Baker's nostrils, and the acid odors +burned her lungs.</p> + +<p>She was staring at him, staring at +the professor's face. She half rose +from her chair, and uttered a little cry.</p> + +<p>The eyes had changed, no longer +were they cold, impersonal, the eyes of +a man who prided himself on the fact +that he kept his arteries soft and his +heart hard; they were loving, soft eyes.</p> + +<p>"Allen," she cried.</p> + +<p>Yes, without doubt, the eyes of her +son were looking at her out of the body +of Professor Ramsey Burr.</p> + +<p>"Mother," he said gently. "Don't be +alarmed. It is successful. I am here, +in Professor Burr's body."</p> + +<p>"Yes," she cried, hysterically. +It was too weird to believe. It seemed +dim to her, unearthly.</p> + +<p>"Are you all right, darling?" she +asked timidly.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I felt nothing beyond a momentary +giddy spell, a bit of nausea +and mental stiffness. It was strange, +and I have a slight headache. However, +all is well."</p> + +<p>He grinned at her, laughed with the +voice which was not his, yet which she +recognized as directed by her son's +spirit. The laugh was cracked and unlike +Allen's whole-hearted mirth, yet +she smiled in sympathy.</p> + +<p>"Yes, the first part is a success," said +the man. "Our egos have interchanged. +Soon, our bodies will undergo the +transformation, and then I must keep +under cover. I dislike Burr—yet he is +a great man. He has saved me. I suppose +the slight headache which I feel +is one bequeathed me by Burr. I hope +he inherits my shivers and terrors and +the neuralgia for the time being, so +he will get some idea of what I have +undergone."</p> + +<p>He had got down from the oscillating +platform, the spirit of her son in Ramsey's +body.</p> + +<p>"What—what are you doing now?" +she asked.</p> + +<p>"I must carry out the rest of it myself," +he said. "Burr directed me when +we talked yesterday. It is more dif<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span>ficult +when one subject is out of the +laboratory, and the tubes must be +checked."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="upper">e</span> went carefully about his work, +and she saw him replacing four +of the tubes with others, new ones, +which were ready at hand. Though it +was the body of Ramsey Burr, the +movements were different from the +slow, precise work of the professor, +and more and more, she realized that +her son inhabited the shell before her.</p> + +<p>For a moment, the mother thought +of attempting to dissuade her son +from making the final change; was it +not better thus, than to chance the disintegration +of the bodies? Suppose +something went wrong, and the exchange +did not take place, and her son, +that is, his spirit, went back to the +death house?</p> + +<p>Midnight struck as he worked feverishly +at the apparatus, the long face +corrugated as he checked the dials and +tubes. He worked swiftly, but evidently +was following a procedure which he +had committed to memory, for he was +forced to pause often to make sure of +himself.</p> + +<p>"Everything is O. K.," said the +strange voice at last. He consulted his +watch. "Twelve-thirty," he said.</p> + +<p>She bit her lip in terror, as he cried, +"Now!" and sprang to the table to take +his place on the metallic platform, +which oscillated to and fro under his +weight. The delicate grayish metal +antenna, which, she knew, would form +a glittering halo of blue and gray +threads of fire, rested quiescent above +his head.</p> + +<p>"This is the last thing," he said calmly, +as he reached for the big ebony +handled switch. "I'll be myself in a +few minutes, mother."</p> + +<p>"Yes, son, yes."</p> + +<p>The switch connected, and Allen +Baker, in the form of Ramsey Burr, +suddenly cried out in pain. His mother +leaped up to run to his side, but he +waved her away. She stood, wringing +her hands, as he began to twist and +turn, as though torn by some invisible +force. Eery screams came from the +throat of the man on the platform, and +Mrs. Baker's cries of sympathy mingled +with them.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> mighty motors hummed in a +high-pitched, unnatural whine, +and suddenly Mrs. Baker saw the tortured +face before her grow dim. The +countenance of the professor seemed +to melt, and then there came a dull, +muffled thud, a burst of white-blue +flame, the odor of burning rubber and +the tinkle of broken glass.</p> + +<p>Back to the face came the clarity +of outline, and still it was Professor +Ramsey Burr's body she stared at.</p> + +<p>Her son, in the professor's shape, +climbed from the platform, and looked +about him as though dazed. An acrid +smoke filled the room, and burning insulation +assailed the nostrils.</p> + +<p>Desperately, without looking at her, +his lips set in a determined line, the +man went hurriedly over the apparatus +again.</p> + +<p>"Have I forgotten, did I do anything +wrong?" she heard his anguished cry.</p> + +<p>Two tubes were burned out, and +these he replaced as swiftly as possible. +But he was forced to go all over the +wiring, and cut out whatever had been +short-circuited so that it could be +hooked up anew with uninjured wire.</p> + +<p>Before he was ready to resume his +seat on the platform, after half an hour +of feverish haste, a knock came on the +door.</p> + +<p>The person outside was imperative, +and Mrs. Baker ran over and opened +the portal. Jared, the whites of his +eyes shining in the dim light, stood +there. "De professah—tell him dat de +wahden wishes to talk with him. It +is very important, ma'am."</p> + +<p>The body of Burr, inhabited by +Allen's soul, pushed by her, and she +followed falteringly, wringing her +hands. She saw the tall figure snatch +at the receiver and listen.</p> + +<p>"Oh, God," he cried.</p> + +<p>At last, he put the receiver back on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +the hook, automatically, and sank down +in a chair, his face in his hands.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">M</span><span class="upper">rs. Baker</span> went to him quickly. +"What is it, Allen?" she cried.</p> + +<p>"Mother," he said hoarsely, "it was +the warden of the prison. He told me +that Allen Baker had gone temporarily +insane, and claimed to be Professor +Ramsey Burr in my body."</p> + +<p>"But—but what is the matter?" she +asked. "Cannot you finish the experiment, +Allen? Can't you change the +two bodies now?"</p> + +<p>He shook his head. "Mother—they +electrocuted Ramsey Burr in my body +at twelve forty-five to-night!"</p> + +<p>She screamed. She was faint, but +she controlled herself with a great +effort.</p> + +<p>"But the electrocution was not to +be until morning," she said.</p> + +<p>Allen shook his head. "They are +allowed a certain latitude, about twelve +hours," he said. "Burr protested up to +the last moment, and begged for time."</p> + +<p>"Then—then they must have come +for him and dragged him forth to die +in the electric chair while you were +attempting the second part of the +change," she said.</p> + +<p>"Yes. That was why it failed. That's +why the tubes and wires burned out +and why we couldn't exchange bodies. +It began to succeed, then I could feel +something terrible had happened. It +was impossible to complete the Beta +circuit, which short-circuited. They +took him from the cell, do you see, +while I was starting the exchange of +the atoms."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">F</span><span class="upper">or</span> a time, the mother and her boy +sat staring at one another. She +saw the tall, eccentric figure of Ramsey +Burr before her, yet she saw also the +soul of her son within that form. The +eyes were Allen's, the voice was soft +and loving, and his spirit was with her.</p> + +<p>"Come, Allen, my son," she said +softly.</p> + +<p>"Burr paid the price," said Allen, +shaking his head. "He became a martyr +to science."</p> + +<p>The world has wondered why Professor +Ramsey Burr, so much in the +headlines as a great scientist, suddenly +gave up all his experiments and took +up the practice of medicine.</p> + +<p>Now that the public furor and indignation +over the death of the man +Smith has died down, sentimentalists +believe that Ramsey Burr has reformed +and changed his icy nature, for he +manifests great affection and care for +Mrs. Mary Baker, the mother of the +electrocuted man who had been his +assistant.</p> + +<div class="minispace"> </div> +<div class="border3" style="width: 525px;"> +<h3>BY NO MEANS</h3> + +<h4><i>Miss the Opening Installment of<br /> +the Extraordinary Four-Part Novel</i></h4> + +<h2>MURDER MADNESS</h2> + +<h3><i>By Murray Leinster</i></h3> + +<h2><i>Starting In Our Next Issue</i></h2></div> +<div class="minispace"> </div> + + + +<hr /> +<h2 class="chapter3"><a name="The_Ray_of_Madness" id="The_Ray_of_Madness"></a>The Ray of Madness</h2> + +<h2 class="chapter"><i>By Captain S. P. Meek</i></h2> + +<div class="image"> +<img src="images/i112.jpg" width="472" height="575" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<h3 class="chapter2"><i>"That's the one," he exclaimed.<br /> +"Hold the glass there for a moment."</i></h3> +<div class="microspace"> </div> + + +<div class="sidenote">Dr. Bird discovers a dastardly plot, +amazing in its mechanical ingenuity, behind +the apparently trivial eye trouble of +the President.</div> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="upper">knock</span> sounded at the door<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +of Dr. Bird's private laboratory +in the Bureau of Standards. +The famous scientist +paid no attention to the interruption +but bent his head +lower over the +spectroscope with +which he was +working. The +knock was repeated +with a quality of quiet insistence +upon recognition. The Doctor smothered +an exclamation of impatience and +strode over to the door and threw it +open to the knocker.</p> + +<p>"Oh, hello, +Carnes," he exclaimed +as he recognized +his visitor. +"Come in +and sit down and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +keep your mouth shut for a few minutes. +I am busy just now but I'll be at +liberty in a little while."</p> + +<div class="microspace"> </div> +<div class="image"> +<img src="images/i113.jpg" width="514" height="580" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<div class="microspace"> </div> + +<p>"There's no hurry, Doctor," replied +Operative Carnes of the United States +Secret Service as he entered the room +and sat on the edge of the Doctor's +desk. "I haven't got a case up my +sleeve this time; I just came in for a +little chat."</p> + +<p>"All right, glad to see you. Read +that latest volume of the <i>Zeitschrift</i> +for a while. That article of Von +Beyer's has got me guessing, all right."</p> + +<p>Carnes picked up the indicated volume +and settled himself to read. The +Doctor bent over his apparatus. Time +and again he made minute adjustments +and gave vent to muttered exclamations +of annoyance at the results he obtained. +Half an hour later he rose +from his chair with a sigh and turned +to his visitor.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of Von Beyer's +alleged discovery?" he asked the operative.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="upper">t's</span> too deep for me, Doctor," replied +the operative. "All that I +can make out of it is that he claims to +have discovered a new element named +'lunium,' but hasn't been able to isolate +it yet. Is there anything remarkable +about that? It seems to me that I have +read of other new elements being discovered +from time to time."</p> + +<p>"There is nothing remarkable about +the discovery of a new element by the +spectroscopic method," replied Dr. +Bird. "We know from Mendeleff's +table that there are a number of elements +which we have not discovered as +yet, and several of the ones we know +were first detected by the spectroscope. +The thing which puzzles me is that so +brilliant a man as Von Beyer claims +to have discovered it in the spectra of +the moon. His name, lunium, is taken +from Luna, the moon."</p> + +<p>"Why not the moon? Haven't several +elements been first discovered in +the spectra of stars?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly. The classic example is +Lockyer's discovery of an orange line +in the spectra of the sun in 1868. No +known terrestrial element gave such a +line and he named the new element +which he deduced helium, from Helos, +the sun. The element helium was first +isolated by Ramsey some twenty-seven +years later. Other elements have been +found in the spectra of stars, but the +point I am making is that the sun and +the stars are incandescent bodies and +could be logically expected to show the +characteristic lines of their constituent +elements in their spectra. But the +moon is a cold body without an atmosphere +and is visible only by reflected +light. The element, lunium, may exist +in the moon, but the manifestations +which Von Beyer has observed must +be, not from the moon, but from the +source of the reflected light which he +spectro-analyzed."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">Y</span><span class="upper">ou</span> are over my depth, Doctor."</p> + +<p>"I'm over my own. I have +tried to follow Von Beyer's reasoning +and I have tried to check his findings.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +Twice this evening I thought that I +caught a momentary glimpse on the +screen of my fluoroscope of the ultra-violet +line which he reports as characteristic +of lunium, but I am not certain. +I haven't been able to photograph +it yet. He notes in his article that the +line seems to be quite impermanent and +fades so rapidly that an accurate measurement +of its wave-length is almost +impossible. However, let's drop the +subject. How do you like your new +assignment?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's all right. I would rather be +back on my old work."</p> + +<p>"I haven't seen you since you were +assigned to the Presidential detail. I +suppose that you fellows are pretty +busy getting ready for Premier McDougal's +visit?"</p> + +<p>"I doubt if he will come," replied +Carnes soberly. "Things are not exactly +propitious for a visit of that sort +just now."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">D</span><span class="upper">r. Bird</span> sat back in his chair in +surprise.</p> + +<p>"I thought that the whole thing is +arranged. The press seems to think +so, at any rate."</p> + +<p>"Everything is arranged, but arrangements +may be cancelled. I +wouldn't be surprised to hear that they +were."</p> + +<p>"Carnes," replied Dr. Bird gravely, +"you have either said too much or too +little. There is something more to this +than appears on the surface. If it is +none of my business, don't hesitate to +tell me so and I'll forget what you +have said, but if I can help you any, +speak up."</p> + +<p>Carnes puffed meditatively at his +pipe for a few minutes before replying.</p> + +<p>"It's really none of your business. +Doctor," he said at length, "and yet I +know that a corpse is a chatterbox compared +to you when you are told anything +in confidence, and I really need +to unload my mind. It has been kept +from the press so far; but I don't know +how long it can be kept muzzled. In +strict confidence, the President of the +United State acts as though he were +crazy."</p> + +<p>"Quite a section of the press has +claimed that for a long time," replied +Dr. Bird, with a twinkle in his eye.</p> + +<p>"I don't mean crazy in that way, Doctor, +I mean <i>really</i> crazy. Bugs! Nuts! +Bats in his belfry!"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">D</span><span class="upper">r. Bird</span> whistled softly.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure, Carnes?" he +asked.</p> + +<p>"As sure as may be. Both of his +physicians think so. They were non-committal +for a while, especially as +the first attack waned and he seemed +to recover, but when his second attack +came on more violently than the first +and the President began to act queerly, +they had to take the Presidential detail +into their confidence. He has been +quietly examined by some of the greatest +psychiatrists in the country, but +none of them have ventured on a positive +verdict as to the nature of the malady. +They admit, of course, that it exists, +but they won't classify it. The +fact that it is intermittent seems to +have them stopped. He was bad a +month ago but he recovered and became, +to all appearances, normal for a +time. About a week ago he began to +show queer symptoms again and now +he is getting worse daily. If he goes +on getting worse for another week, it +will have to be announced so that the +Vice-President can take over the duties +of the head of the government."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">W</span><span class="upper">hat</span> are the symptoms?"</p> + +<p>"The first we noticed was a +failing of his memory. Coupled with +this was a restlessness and a habit of +nocturnal prowling. He tosses continually +on his bed and mutters and at +times leaps up and rages back and +forth in his bedchamber, howling and +raging. Then he will calm down and +compose himself and go to sleep, only +to wake in half an hour and go through +the same performance. It is pretty +ghastly for the men on night guard."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span></p> + +<p>"How does he act in the daytime?"</p> + +<p>"Heavy and lethargic. His memory +becomes a complete blank at times and +he talks wildly. Those are the times +we must guard against."</p> + +<p>"Overwork?" queried the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"Not according to his physicians. +His physical health is splendid and his +appetite unusually keen. He takes his +exercise regularly and suffers no ill +health except for a little eye trouble."</p> + +<p>Dr. Bird leaped to his feet.</p> + +<p>"Tell me more about this eye trouble, +Carnes," he demanded.</p> + +<p>"Why, I don't know much about it, +Doctor. Admiral Clay told me that it +was nothing but a mild opthalmia +which should yield readily to treatment. +That was when he told me to +see that the shades of the President's +study were partially drawn to keep the +direct sunlight out."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">O</span><span class="upper">pthalmia</span> be sugared! What +do his eyes look like?"</p> + +<p>"They are rather red and swollen and +a little bloodshot. He has a tendency +to shut them while he is talking and +he avoids light as much as possible. I +hadn't noticed anything peculiar about +it."</p> + +<p>"Carnes, did you ever see a case of +snow blindness?"</p> + +<p>The operative looked up in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I have. I had it myself once +in Maine. Now that you mention it, +his case does look like snow blindness, +but such a thing is absurd in Washington +in August."</p> + +<p>Dr. Bird rummaged in his desk and +drew out a book, which he consulted +for a moment.</p> + +<p>"Now, Carnes," he said, "I want some +dates from you and I want them accurately. +Don't guess, for a great deal +may depend on the accuracy of your +answers. When was this mental disability +on the part of the President first +noticed?"</p> + +<p>Carnes drew a pocket diary from his +coat and consulted it.</p> + +<p>"The seventeenth of July," he replied. +"That is, we are sure, in view +of later developments, that that was +the date it first came on. We didn't +realize that anything was wrong until +the twentieth. On the night of the +nineteenth the President slept very +poorly, getting up and creating a disturbance +twice, and on the twentieth +he acted so queerly that it was necessary +to cancel three conferences."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">D</span><span class="upper">r. Bird</span> checked off the dates on +the book before him and nodded.</p> + +<p>"Go on," he said, "and describe the +progress of the malady by days."</p> + +<p>"It got progressively worse until the +night of the twenty-third. The twenty-fourth +he was no worse, and on the +twenty-fifth a slight improvement was +noticed. He got steadily better until, +by the third or fourth of August, he +was apparently normal. About the +twelfth he began to show signs of restlessness +which have increased daily +during the past week. Last night, the +nineteenth, he slept only a few minutes +and Brady, who was on guard, says +that his howls were terrible. His memory +has been almost a total blank today +and all of his appointments were +cancelled, ostensibly because of his eye +trouble. If he gets any worse, it probably +will be necessary to inform the +country as to his true condition."</p> + +<p>When Carnes had finished, Dr. Bird +sat for a time in concentrated thought.</p> + +<p>"You did exactly right in coming to +me, Carnes," he said presently. "I +don't think that this is a job for a doctor +at all—I believe that it needs a +physicist and a chemist and possibly a +detective to cure him. We'll get busy."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, Doctor?" demanded +Carnes. "Do you think that +some exterior force is causing the +President's disability?"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">think</span> nothing, Carnes," replied +the Doctor grimly, "but I intend +to know something before I am +through. Don't ask for explanations: +this is not the time for talk, it is the +time for action. Can you get me into +the White House to-night?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I doubt it, Doctor, but I'll try. +What excuse shall I give? I am not +supposed to have told you anything +about the President's illness."</p> + +<p>"Get Bolton, your chief, on the +phone and tell him that you have talked +to me when you shouldn't have. He'll +blow up, but after he is through exploding, +tell him that I smell a rat and +that I want him down here at once +with <i>carte blanche</i> authority to do as +I see fit in the White House. If he +makes any fuss about it, remind him +of the fact that he has considered me +crazy several times in the past when +events showed that I was right. If he +won't play after that, let me talk to +him."</p> + +<p>"All right, Doctor," replied Carnes +as he picked up the scientist's telephone +and gave the number of the +home of the Chief of the Secret Service. +"I'll try to bully him out of it. +He has a good deal of confidence in +your ability."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="upper">alf</span> an hour later the door of Dr. +Bird's laboratory opened suddenly +to admit Bolton.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Doctor," exclaimed the Chief, +"what the dickens have you got on +your mind now? I ought to skin +Carnes alive for talking out of turn, +but if you really have an idea, I'll forgive him. +What do you suspect?"</p> + +<p>"I suspect several things, Bolton, but +I haven't time to tell you what they +are. I want to get quietly into the +White House as promptly as possible."</p> + +<p>"That's easy," replied Bolton, "but +first I want to know what the object +of the visit is."</p> + +<p>"The object is to see what I can find +out. My ideas are entirely too nebulous +to attempt to lay them out before +you just now. You've never worked +directly with me on a case before, but +Carnes can tell you that I have my +own methods of working and that I +won't spill my ideas until I have something +more definite to go on than I +have at present."</p> + +<p>"The Doctor is right, Chief," said +Carnes. "He has an idea all right, but +wild horses won't drag it out of him +until he's ready to talk. You'll have +to take him on faith, as I always do."</p> + +<p>Bolton hesitated a moment and then +shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Have it your own way, Doctor," he +said. "Your reputation, both as a scientist +and as an unraveller of tangled +skeins, is too good for me to boggle +about your methods. Tell me what +you want and I'll try to get it."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">want</span> to get into the White +House without undue prominence +being given to my movements, +and listen outside the President's door +for a short time. Later I will want +to examine his sleeping quarters carefully +and to make a few tests. I may +be entirely wrong in my assumptions, +but I believe that there is something +there that requires my attention."</p> + +<p>"Come along," said Bolton. "I'll +get you in and let you listen, but the +rest we'll have to trust to luck on. You +may have to wait until morning."</p> + +<p>"We'll cross that bridge when we get +to it," replied the Doctor. "I'll get a +little stuff together that we may need."</p> + +<p>In a few moments he had packed +some apparatus in a bag and, taking up +it and an instrument case, he followed +Bolton and Carnes down the stairs and +out onto the grounds of the Bureau of +Standards.</p> + +<p>"It's a beautiful moon, isn't it?" he +observed.</p> + +<p>Carnes assented absently to the Doctor's +remark, but Bolton paid no attention +to the luminous disc overhead, +which was flooding the landscape with +its mellow light.</p> + +<p>"My car is waiting," he announced.</p> + +<p>"All right, old man, but stop for a +moment and admire this moon," protested +the Doctor. "Have you ever +seen a finer one?"</p> + +<p>"Come on and let the moon alone," +snorted Bolton.</p> + +<p>"My dear man, I absolutely refuse +to move a step until you pause in your +headlong devotion to duty and pay the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +homage due to Lady Luna. Don't you +realize, you benighted Christian, that +you are gazing upon what has been +held to be a deity, or at least the visible +manifestation of deity, for ages immemorial? +Haven't you ever had time +to study the history of the moon-worshipping +cults? They are as old as +mankind, you know. The worship of +Isis was really only an exalted type of +moon worship. The crescent moon, +you may remember, was one of her +most sacred emblems."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">B</span><span class="upper">olton</span> paused and looked at the +Doctor suspiciously.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing—pulling my +leg?" he demanded.</p> + +<p>"Not at all, my dear fellow. Carnes, +doesn't the sight of the glowing orb +of night influence you to pious meditation +upon the frailty of human life and +the insignificance of human ambition?"</p> + +<p>"Not to any very great degree," replied +Carnes dryly.</p> + +<p>"Carnesy, old dear, I fear that you +are a crass materialist. I am beginning +to despair of ever inculcating in you +any respect for the finer and subtler +things of life. I must try Bolton. +Bolton, have you ever seen a finer +moon? Remember that I won't move a +step until you have carefully considered +the matter and fully answered my +question."</p> + +<p>Bolton looked first at the Doctor, +then at Carnes, and finally he looked +reluctantly at the moon.</p> + +<p>"It's a fine one," he admitted, "but +all full moons look large on clear +nights at this time of the year."</p> + +<p>"Then you <i>have</i> studied the moon?" +cried Dr. Bird with delight. "I was +sure—"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">H</span><span class="upper">e</span> broke off his speech suddenly +and listened. From a distance +came the mournful howl of a dog. It +was answered in a moment by another +howl from a different direction. Dog +after dog took up the chorus until the +air was filled with the melancholy wailing +of the animals.</p> + +<p>"See, Bolton," remarked the Doctor, +"even the dogs feel the chastening influence +of the Lady of Night and repent +of the sins of their youth and +the follies of their manhood, or should +one say doghood? Come along. I feel +that the call of duty must tear us away +from the contemplation of the beauties +of nature."</p> + +<p>He led the way to Bolton's car and +got in without further words. A half-hour +later, Bolton led the way into the +White House. A word to the secret +service operative on guard at the door +admitted him and his party, and he led +the way to the newly constructed solarium +where the President slept. An +operative stood outside the door.</p> + +<p>"What word, Brady?" asked Bolton +in a whisper.</p> + +<p>"He seems worse, sir. I doubt if he +has slept at all. Admiral Clay has been +in several times, but he didn't do much +good. There, listen! The President +is getting up again."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">F</span><span class="upper">rom</span> behind the closed door +which confronted them came +sounds of a person rising from a bed +and pacing the floor, slowly at first, +and then more and more rapidly, until +it was almost a run. A series of groans +came to the watchers and then a long +drawn out howl. Bolton shuddered.</p> + +<p>"Poor devil!" he muttered.</p> + +<p>Dr. Bird shot a quick glance around.</p> + +<p>"Where is Admiral Clay?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"He is sleeping upstairs. Shall I +call him?"</p> + +<p>"No. Take me to his room."</p> + +<p>The President's naval physician +opened the door in response to Bolton's +knock.</p> + +<p>"Is he worse?" he demanded anxiously.</p> + +<p>"I don't think so, Admiral," replied +Bolton. "I want to introduce you to +Dr. Bird of the Bureau of Standards. +He wants to talk with you about the +case."</p> + +<p>"I am honored, Doctor," said the +physician as he grasped the scientist's +outstretched hand. "Come in. Pardon<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +my appearance, but I was startled out +of a doze when you knocked. Have a +chair and tell me how I can serve you."</p> + +<p>Dr. Bird drew a notebook from his +pocket.</p> + +<p>"I have received certain dates in +connection with the President's malady +from Operative Carnes," he said, +"and I wish you to verify them."</p> + +<p>"Pardon me a moment, Doctor," interrupted +the Admiral, "but may I ask +what is your connection with the matter? +I was not aware that you were +a physician or surgeon."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">D</span><span class="upper">r. Bird</span> is here by the authority +of the secret service," replied +Bolton. "He has no connection +with the medical treatment of the +President, but permit me to remind +you that the secret service is responsible +for the safety of the President and +so have a right to demand such details +about him as are necessary for his +proper protection."</p> + +<p>"I have no intention in obstructing +you in the proper performance of your +duties, Mr. Bolton," began the Admiral +stiffly.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, Admiral," broke in Dr. +Bird, "it seems to me that we are getting +started wrong. I suspect that +certain exterior forces are more or less +concerned in this case and I have communicated +my suspicions to Mr. Bolton. +He in turn brought me here in +order to request from you your cooperation +in the matter. We have no +idea of demanding anything and are +really seeking help which we believe +that you can give us."</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, Admiral," said Bolton. +"I had no intention of angering you."</p> + +<p>"I am at your service, gentlemen," +replied Admiral Clay. "What information +did you wish, Doctor?"</p> + +<p>"At first merely a verification of the +history of the case as I have it."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">D</span><span class="upper">r. Bird</span> read the notes he had +taken down from Carnes and the +Admiral nodded agreement.</p> + +<p>"Those dates are correct," he said.</p> + +<p>"Now, Admiral, there are two further +points on which I wish enlightenment. +The first is the opthalmia which is +troubling the patient."</p> + +<p>"It is nothing to be alarmed about +as far as symptoms go, Doctor," replied +the Admiral. "It is a rather mild +case of irritation, somewhat analogous +to granuloma, but rather stubborn. He +had an attack several weeks ago and +while it did not yield to treatment as +readily as I could have wished, it did +clear up nicely in a couple of weeks +and I was quite surprised at this recurrent +attack. His sight is in no danger."</p> + +<p>"Have you tried to connect this opthalmia +with his mental aberrations?"</p> + +<p>"Why no, Doctor, there is no connection."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?"</p> + +<p>"I am certain. The slight pain which +his eyes give him could never have +such an effect upon the mind of so able +and energetic a man as he is."</p> + +<p>"Well, we'll let that pass for the moment. +The other question is this: has +he any form of skin trouble?"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> Admiral looked up in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Yes, he has," he admitted. "I had +mentioned it to no one, for it really +amounts to nothing, but he has a slight +attack of some obscure form of dermatitis +which I am treating. It is affecting +only his face and hands."</p> + +<p>"Please describe it."</p> + +<p>"It has taken the form of a brown +pigmentation on the hands. On the +face it causes a slight itching and subsequent +peeling of the affected areas."</p> + +<p>"In other words, it is acting like +sunburn?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, somewhat. It is not that, +however, for he has been exposed to +the sun very little lately, on account +of his eyes."</p> + +<p>"I notice that he is sleeping in the +new solarium which was added last +winter to the executive mansion. Can +you tell me with what type of glass it +is equipped?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes. It is not equipped with glass +at all, but with fused quartz."</p> + +<p>"When did he start to sleep there?"</p> + +<p>"As soon as it was completed."</p> + +<p>"And all the time the windows have +been of fused quartz?"</p> + +<p>"No. They were glazed at first, but +the glass was removed and the fused +quartz substituted at my suggestion +about two months ago, just before this +trouble started."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Admiral. You have +given me several things to think about. +My ideas are a little too nebulous to +share as yet but I think that I can +give you one piece of very sound advice. +The President is spending a very +restless night. If you would remove +him from the solarium and get him to +lie down in a room which is glazed +with ordinary glass, and pull down the +shades so that he will be in the dark, +I think that he will pass a better +night."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span><span class="upper">dmiral Clay</span> looked keenly +into the piercing black eyes of +the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"I know something of you by reputation, +Bird," he said slowly, "and I +will follow your advice. Will you tell +me why you make this particular +suggestion?"</p> + +<p>"So that I can work in that solarium +to-night without interruption," replied +Dr. Bird. "I have some tests which +I wish to carry out while it is still +dark. If my results are negative, forget +what I have told you. If they +yield any information, I will be glad +to share it with you at the proper time. +Now get the President out of that +solarium and tell me when the coast +is clear."</p> + +<p>The Admiral donned a dressing +gown and stepped out of the room. He +returned in fifteen minutes.</p> + +<p>"The solarium is at your disposal, +Doctor," he announced. "Shall I +accompany you?"</p> + +<p>"If you wish," assented Dr. Bird as +he picked up his apparatus and strode +out of the room.</p> + +<p>In the solarium he glanced quickly +around, noting the position of each of +the articles of furniture.</p> + +<p>"I presume that the President always +sleeps with his head in this +direction?" he remarked, pointing to +the pillow on the disturbed bed.</p> + +<p>The Admiral nodded assent. Dr. Bird +opened the bag which he had packed +in his laboratory, took out a sheet of +cardboard covered with a metallic looking +substance, and placed it on the +pillow. He stepped back and donned +a pair of smoked glasses, watching it +intently. Without a word he took off +the glasses and handed them to the +Admiral. The Admiral donned them +and looked at the pillow. As he did +so an exclamation broke from his lips.</p> + +<p>"That plate seems to glow," he said +in an astonished voice.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">D</span><span class="upper">r. Bird</span> stepped forward and +laid his hand on the pillow. He +was wearing a wrist watch with a +radiolite dial. The substance suddenly +increased its luminescence and began +to glow fiercely, long luminous streamers +seeming to come from the dial. The +Doctor took away his hand and substituted +a bottle of liquid for the plate on +the pillow. Immediately the bottle +began to glow with a phosphorescent +light.</p> + +<p>"What on earth is it?" gasped +Carnes.</p> + +<p>"Excitation of a radioactive fluid," +replied the Doctor. "The question is, +what is exciting it. Somebody get a +stepladder."</p> + +<p>While Bolton was gone after the +ladder, the Doctor took from his bag +what looked like an ordinary pane of +glass.</p> + +<p>"Take this, Carnes," he directed, "and +start holding it over each of those +panes of quartz which you can reach. +Stop when I tell you to."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> operative held the glass over +each of the panes in succession, +but the Doctor, who kept his eyes +covered with the smoked glasses and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +fastened on the plate which he had +replaced on the pillow, said nothing. +When Bolton arrived with the ladder, +the process went on. One end and +most of the front of the solarium had +been covered before an exclamation +from the Doctor halted the work.</p> + +<p>"That's the one," he exclaimed. +"Hold the glass there for a moment."</p> + +<p>Hurriedly he removed the plate from +the pillow and replaced the phial of +liquid. There was only a very feeble +glow.</p> + +<p>"Good enough," he cried. "Take +away the glass, but mark that pane, and +be ready to replace it when I give the +word."</p> + +<p>From the instrument case he had +brought he took out a spectroscope. +He turned back the mattress and +mounted it on the bedstead.</p> + +<p>"Cover that pane," he directed.</p> + +<p>Carnes did so, and the Doctor swung +the receiving tube of the instrument +until it pointed at the covered pane. +He glanced into the eyepiece, and then +held a tiny flashlight for an instant +opposite the third tube.</p> + +<p>"Uncover that pane," he said.</p> + +<p>Carnes took down the glass plate and +the Doctor gazed into the instrument. +He made some adjustments.</p> + +<p>"Are you familiar with spectroscopy, +Admiral?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Somewhat."</p> + +<p>"Take a squint in here and tell me +what you see."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> Admiral applied his eye to +the instrument and looked long +and earnestly.</p> + +<p>"There are some lines there, Doctor," +he said, "but your instrument is badly +out of adjustment. They are in what +should be the ultra-violet sector, +according to your scale."</p> + +<p>"I forgot to tell you that this is a +fluoroscopic spectroscope designed for +the detection of ultra-violet lines," +replied Dr. Bird. "Those lines you see +are ultra-violet, made visible to the eye +by activation of a radioactive compound +whose rays in turn impinge on +a zinc blende sheet. Do you recognize +the lines?"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't."</p> + +<p>"Small wonder; I doubt whether +there are a dozen people who would. +I have never seen them before, +although I recognize them from +descriptions I have read. Bolton, come +here. Sight along this instrument and +through that plate of glass which +Carnes is holding and tell me what +office that window belongs to."</p> + +<p>Bolton sighted as directed up at the +side of the State, War and Navy +Building.</p> + +<p>"I can't tell exactly at this time of +night, Doctor," he said, "but I'll go +into the building and find out."</p> + +<p>"Do so. Have you a flashlight?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Flash it momentarily out of each +of the suspected windows in turn until +you get an answering flash from here. +When you do, flash it out of each pane +of glass in the window until you get +another flash from here. Then come +back and tell me what office it is. Mark +the pane so that we can locate it again +in the morning."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">I</span><span class="upper">t</span> is the office of the Assistant to +the Adjutant General of the +Army," reported Bolton ten minutes +later.</p> + +<p>"What is there in the room?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing but the usual desks and +chairs."</p> + +<p>"I suspected as much. The window +is merely a reflector. That is all that +we can do for to-night, gentlemen. +Admiral, keep your patient quiet and +in a room with <i>glass</i> windows, preferably +with the shades drawn, until +further notice. Bolton, meet me here +with Carnes at sunrise. Have a picked +detail of ten men standing by where +we can get hold of them in a hurry. +In the mean time, get the Chief of Air +Service out of bed and have him order +a plane at Langley Field to be ready +to take off at 6 A. M. He is not to take +off, however, until I give him orders +to do so. Do you understand?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Everything will be ready for you, +Doctor, but I confess that I don't know +what it is all about."</p> + +<p>"It's the biggest case you ever +tackled, old man, and I hope that we +can pull it off successfully. I'd like to +go over it with you now, but I'll be +busy at the Bureau for the rest of the +night. Drop me off there, will you?"</p> + +<p>At sunrise the next morning, Bolton +met Dr. Bird at the entrance to the +White House grounds.</p> + +<p>"Where is your detail?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"In the State, War and Navy Building."</p> + +<p>"Good. I want to go to the solarium, +put a light on the place where the +President's pillow was last night, and +mark that pane of quartz we were +looking through. Then we'll join the +detail."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">D</span><span class="upper">r. Bird</span> placed the light and +walked with Carnes across the +White House grounds. Bolton's badge +secured admission to the State, War +and Navy Building for the party and +they made their way to the office of +the Assistant to the Adjutant General.</p> + +<p>"Did you mark the pane of glass +through which you flashed your light +last night, Bolton?" asked the Doctor.</p> + +<p>The detective touched one of the +panes.</p> + +<p>"Good," exclaimed the Doctor. "I +notice that this window has hooks for +a window washer's belt. Get a life belt, +will you?"</p> + +<p>When the belt was brought, the Doctor +turned to Carnes.</p> + +<p>"Carnes," he said, "hook on this life +saver and climb out on the window +ledge. Take this piece of apparatus +with you."</p> + +<p>He handed Carnes a piece of apparatus +which looked like two telescopes +fastened to a base, with a screw +adjustment for altering the angles of +the barrels.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span><span class="upper">arnes</span> took it and looked at it +inquiringly.</p> + +<p>"That is what I was making at the +Bureau last night," explained Dr. Bird. +"It is a device which will enable me to +locate the source of the beam which was +reflected from this pane of glass onto +the President's pillow. I'll show you +how to work it. You know that when +light is reflected the angle of reflection +always equals the angle of incidence? +Well, you place these three feet +against the pane of glass, thus putting +the base of the instrument in a plane +parallel to the pane of glass. By turning +these two knobs, one of which +gives lateral and the other vertical +adjustment, you will manipulate the +instrument until the first telescope is +pointing directly toward the President's +pillow. Now notice that the two +telescope barrels are fastened together +and are connected to the knobs, so that +when the knobs are turned, the scopes +are turned in equal and opposite +amounts. When one is turned from its +present position five degrees to the +west, the other automatically turns five +degrees to the east. When one is elevated, +the other is correspondingly depressed. +Thus, when the first tube +points toward the pillow, the other will +point toward the source of the reflected +beam."</p> + +<p>"Clever!" ejaculated Bolton.</p> + +<p>"It is rather crude and may not be +accurate enough to locate the source +exactly, but at least it will give us a +pretty good idea of where to look. +Given time, a much more accurate +instrument could have been made, but +two telescopic rifle sights and a theodolite +base were all the materials I +could find to work with. Climb out, +Carnesy, and do your stuff."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span><span class="upper">arnes</span> climbed out on the window +and fastened the hooks of +the life saver to the rings set in the +window casings. He sat the base of +the instrument against the pane of +glass and manipulated the telescope +knobs as Dr. Bird signalled from the +inside. The scientist was hard to +please with the adjustment, but at last +the cross hairs of the first telescope<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +were centered on the light in the solarium. +He changed his position and +stared through the second tube.</p> + +<p>"The angle is too acute and the distance +too great for accuracy," he said +with an air of disappointment. "The +beam comes from the roof of a house +down along Pennsylvania Avenue, but +I can't tell from here which one it is. +Take a look, Bolton."</p> + +<p>The Chief of the Secret Service +stared through the telescope.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't be sure, Doctor," he replied. +"I can see something on the roof +of one of the houses, but I can't tell +what it is and I couldn't tell the house +when I got in front of it."</p> + +<p>"It won't do to make a false move," +said the Doctor. "Did you arrange for +that plane?"</p> + +<p>"It is waiting your orders at the +field, Doctor."</p> + +<p>"Good. I'll go up to the office of the +Chief of Air Service and get in touch +with the pilot over the Chief's private +line. There are some orders that I +wish to give him and some signals to +be arranged."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">D</span><span class="upper">r. Bird</span> returned in a few +minutes.</p> + +<p>"The plane is taking off now and +will be over the city soon," he +announced. "We'll take a stroll down +the Avenue until we are in the vicinity +of the house, and then wait for the +plane. Carnes will take five of your +men and go down behind the house +and the rest of us will go in front. +Which building do you think it is, +Bolton?"</p> + +<p>"About the fourth from the corner."</p> + +<p>"All right, the men going down the +back will take station behind the house +next to the corner and the rest of us +will get in front of the same building. +When the plane comes over, watch it. +If you receive no signal, go to the next +house and wait for him to make a loop +and come over you again. Continue +this until the pilot throws a white +parachute over. That is the signal that +we are covering the right house. When +you get that signal, Carnes, leave two +men outside and break in with the +other three. Get that apparatus on the +roof and the men who are operating it. +Bolton and I will attack the front door +at the same time. Does everybody +understand?"</p> + +<p>Murmurs of assent came from the +detail.</p> + +<p>"All right, let's go. Carnes, lead out +with your men and go half a block +ahead so that the two parties will arrive +in position at about the same time."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">C</span><span class="upper">arnes</span> left the building with five +of the operatives. Dr. Bird and +Bolton waited for a few minutes and +then started down Pennsylvania Avenue, +the five men of their squad following +at intervals. For three-quarters +of a mile they sauntered down the +street.</p> + +<p>"This should be it, Doctor," said +Bolton.</p> + +<p>"I think so, and here comes our +plane."</p> + +<p>They watched the swift scout plane +from Langley Field swing down low +over the house and then swoop up into +the sky again without making a signal. +The party walked down the street one +house and paused. Again the plane +swept over them without sign. As +they stopped in front of the next house +a white parachute flew from the cockpit +of the plane and the aircraft, its +mission accomplished, veered off to the +south toward its hangar.</p> + +<p>"This is the place," cried Bolton. +"Haggerty and Johnson, you two cover +the street. Bemis, take the lower door. +The rest come with me."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">F</span><span class="upper">ollowed</span> closely by Dr. Bird +and two operatives, Bolton +sprinted across the street and up the +steps leading to the main entrance of +the house. The door was barred, and +he hurled his weight against it without +result.</p> + +<p>"One side, Bolton," snapped Dr. Bird.</p> + +<p>The diminutive Chief drew aside and +Dr. Bird's two hundred pounds of bone<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +and muscle crashed against the door. +The lock gave and the Doctor barely +saved himself from sprawling headlong +on the hall floor. A woman's +scream rang out, and the Doctor swore +under his breath.</p> + +<p>"Upstairs! To the roof!" he cried.</p> + +<p>Followed by the rest of the party, +he sprinted up the stairway which +opened before him. Just as he reached +the top his way was barred by an Amazonian +figure in a green bathrobe.</p> + +<p>"Who th' divil arre yer?" demanded +an outraged voice.</p> + +<p>"Police," snapped Bolton. "One +side!"</p> + +<p>"Wan side, is it?" demanded the +fiery haired Amazon. "The divil a +stip ye go until ye till me ye'er bizness. +Phwat th' divil arre yer doin' in th' +house uv a rayspictable female at this +hour uv th' marnin'?"</p> + +<p>"One side, I tell you!" cried Bolton +as he strove to push past the figure +that barred the way.</p> + +<p>"Oh, ye wud, wud yer, little mann?" +demanded the Irishwoman as she +grasped Bolton by the collar and shook +him as a terrier does a rat. Dr. Bird +stifled his laughter with difficulty and +seized her by the arm. With a heave +on Bolton's collar she raised him from +the ground and swung him against the +Doctor, knocking him off his feet.</p> + +<p>"Hilp! P'lice! Murther!" she +screamed at the top of her voice.</p> + +<p>"Damn it, woman, we're on—"</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">D</span><span class="upper">r. Bird's</span> voice was cut short by +the sound of a pistol shot from +the roof, followed by two others. +The Irishwoman dropped Bolton and +slumped into a sitting position and +screamed lustily. Bolton and Dr. Bird, +with the two operatives at their heels, +raced for the roof. Before they reached +it another volley of shots rang out, +these sounding from the rear of the +building. They made their way to the +upper floor and found a ladder running +to a skylight in the roof. At the foot +of the ladder stood one of Carnes' +party.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Williams?" demanded +Bolton.</p> + +<p>"I don't know, Chief. Carnes and +the other two went up there, and then +I heard shooting. My orders were to +let no one come down the ladder."</p> + +<p>As he spoke, Carnes' head appeared +at the skylight.</p> + +<p>"It's the right place, all right, Doctor," +he called. "Come on up, the +shooting is all over."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">D</span><span class="upper">r. Bird</span> mounted the ladder and +stepped out on the roof. Set on +one edge was a large piece of apparatus, +toward which the scientist +eagerly hastened. He bent over it for +a few moments and then straightened +up.</p> + +<p>"Where is the operator?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Carnes silently led the way to the +edge of the roof and pointed down. +Dr. Bird leaned over. At the foot of +the fire escape he saw a crumpled dark +heap, with a secret service operative +bending over it.</p> + +<p>"Is he dead, Olmstead?" called +Carnes.</p> + +<p>"Dead as a mackerel," came the +reply. "Richards got him through the +head on his first shot."</p> + +<p>"Good business," said Dr. Bird. "We +probably could never have secured a +conviction and the matter is best +hushed up anyway. Bolton, have two +of your men help me get this apparatus +up to the Bureau. I want to examine +it a little. Have the body taken to the +morgue and shut up the press. Find +out which room the chap occupied and +search it, and bring all his papers to +me. From a criminal standpoint, this +case is settled, but I want to look into +the scientific end of it a little more."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to know what it was all +about, Doctor," protested Bolton. "I +have followed your lead blindly, and +now I have a housebreaking without +search-warrant and a killing to explain, +and still I am about as much in the +dark as I was at the beginning."</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, Bolton," said Dr. Bird +contritely; "I didn't mean to slight<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +you. Admiral Clay wants to know +about it and so does Carnes, although +he knows me too well to say so. As +soon as I have digested the case I'll +let you know and I'll go over the whole +thing with you."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="dropcap">A</span> <span class="upper">week</span> later Dr. Bird sat in conference +with the President in +the executive office of the White +House. Beside him sat Admiral Clay, +Carnes and Bolton.</p> + +<p>"I have told the President as much +as I know, Doctor," said the Admiral, +"and he would like to hear the details +from your lips. He has fully recovered +from his malady and there is no +danger of exciting him."</p> + +<p>"I cannot read Russian," said Dr. +Bird slowly, "and so was forced to +depend on one of my assistants to +translate the papers which Mr. Bolton +found in Stokowsky's room. There is +nothing in them to definitely connect +him with the Russian Union of Soviet +Republics, but there is little doubt in +my mind that he was a Red agent and +that Russia supplied the money which +he spent. It would be disastrous to +Russia's plans to have too close an +accord between this country and the +British Empire, and I have no doubt +that the coming visit of Premier McDougal +was the underlying cause of +the attempt. So much for the reason.</p> + +<p>"As to how I came to suspect what +was happening, the explanation is very +simple. When Carnes first told me of +your malady, Mr. President, I happened +to be checking Von Beyer's +results in the alleged discovery of a +new element, lunium. In the article +describing his experiments, Von Beyer +mentions that when he tried to observe +the spectra, he encountered a mild +form of opthalmia which was quite +stubborn to treatment. He also mentions +a peculiar mental unbalance and +intense exhilaration which the rays +seemed to cause both in himself and +in his assistants. The analogy between +his observations and your case struck +me at once.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">F</span><span class="upper">or</span> ages the moon has been an +object of worship by various +religious sects, and some of the most +obscene orgies of which we have record +occurred in the moonlight. The +full moon seems to affect dogs to a +state of partial hypnosis with consequent +howling and evident pain in the +eyes. Certain feeble minded persons +have been known to be adversely +affected by moonlight as well as some +cases of complete mental aberration. In +other words, while moonlight has no +practical effect on the normal human +in its usual concentration, it does have +an adverse effect on certain types of +mentality and, despite the laughter of +medical science, there seems to be +something in the theory of 'moon +madness.' This effect Von Beyer attributed +to the emanations of lunium, +which element he detected in the spectra +of the moon, in the form of a wide +band in the ultra-violet region.</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">I</span> <span class="upper">obtained</span> from Carnes a history +of your case, and when I +found that your attacks grew violent +with the full moon and subsided with +the new moon, I was sure that I was +on the right track, although I had at +that time no way of knowing whether +it was from natural or artificial causes +that the effect was being produced. I +interviewed Admiral Clay and found +that you were suffering from a form +of dermititis resembling sunburn, and +that convinced me that an attack was +being made on your sanity, for an +excess of ultra-violet light will always +tend to produce sunburn. I inquired +about the windows of your solarium, +for ultra-violet light will not pass +through a lead glass. When the Admiral +told me that the glass had been +replaced with fused quartz, which is +quite permeable to ultra-violet and that +the change had been almost coincident +with the start of your malady, I asked +him to get you out of the solarium and +let me examine it.</p> + +<p>"By means of certain fluorescent +substances which I used, I found that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +your pillow was being bathed in a +flood of ultra-violet light, and the +fluoro-spectroscope soon told me that +lunium emanations were present in +large quantities. These rays were not +coming to you directly from their +source, but one of the windows of the +State, War and Navy Building was +being used as a reflector. I located +the approximate source of the ray by +means of an improvised apparatus, and +we surrounded the place. Stokowsky +was killed while attempting to escape. +I guess that is about all there is to it."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, Doctor," said the President. +"I would be interested in a +description of the apparatus which he +used to produce this effect."</p> + +<hr class="invisible" /> + +<p><span class="quotem">"</span><span class="dropcap">T</span><span class="upper">he</span> apparatus was quite simple, +Sir. It was merely a large collector +of moonlight, which was thrown +after collection onto a lunium plate. +The resultant emanations were turned +into a parallel beam by a parabolic reflector +and focused, through a rock +crystal lens with an extremely long +focal length, onto your pillow."</p> + +<p>"Then Stokowsky had isolated Von +Beyer's new element?" asked the +President.</p> + +<p>"I am still in doubt whether it is a +new element or merely an allotropic +modification of the common element, +cadmium. The plate which he used +has a very peculiar property. When +moonlight, or any other reflected light +of the same composition falls on it, it +acts on the ray much as the button of +a Roentgen tube acts on a cathode +ray. As the cathode ray is absorbed +and an entirely new ray, the X-ray, is +given off by the button, just so is the +reflected moonlight absorbed and a +new ray of ultra-violet given off. This +is the ray which Von Beyer detected. +I thought that I could catch traces of +Von Beyer's lines in my spectroscope, +and I think now that it is due to a +trace of lunium in the cadmium plating +of the barrels. Von Beyer could +have easily made the same mistake. +Von Beyer's work, together with Sto<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span>kowsky's +opens up an entirely new +field of spectroscopic research. I +would give a good deal to go over to +Baden and go into the matter with +Von Beyer and make some plans for +the exploitation of the new field, but +I'm afraid that my pocketbook wouldn't +stand the trip."</p> + +<p>"I think that the United States owes +you that trip, Dr. Bird," said the Chief +Executive with a smile. "Make your +plans to go as soon as you get your +data together. I think that the +Treasury will be able to take care of +the expense without raising the income +tax next year."</p> + + +<div class="minispace"> </div> +<div class="border3" style="width: 535px;"> + +<h2 class="under">IN THE NEXT ISSUE</h2> + +<h2 class="pad">Murder Madness</h2> + +<h4 style="margin-top: -.5em;"><i>Beginning an intensely Gripping,<br /> +Four-Part Novel</i></h4> + +<h3><i>By</i> MURRAY LEINSTER</h3> + + +<h2 class="pad">The Atom Smasher</h2> + +<h4 style="margin-top: -.5em;"><i>A Thrilling Adventure into<br /> +Time and Space</i></h4> + +<h3><i>By</i> VICTOR ROUSSEAU</h3> + + +<h2 class="pad">Into the Ocean's Depths</h2> + +<h4 style="margin-top: -.5em;"><i>A Sequel to "From the Ocean's Depths"</i></h4> + +<h3><i>By</i> SEWELL PEASLEE WRIGHT</h3> + + +<h2 class="pad">Brigands of the Moon</h2> + +<h4 style="margin-top: -.5em;"><i>Part Three of the Amazing Serial</i></h4> + +<h3><i>By</i> RAY CUMMINGS</h3> + +<h2>——<i>And Others!</i></h2> +</div> +<div class="minispace"> </div> + + +<hr /> +<div class="image"> +<a name="The_Readers_Corner" id="The_Readers_Corner"></a><img src="images/i127.jpg" width="585" height="530" alt="The Readers' Corner + +A Meeting Place for Readers of + +Astounding Stories" title="" /> +</div> +<div class="minispace"> </div> +<div class="microspace"> </div> + +<div class="lnl"><i>Our Thanks</i></div> + +<p style="margin-top: 1em;">Three months ago the Clayton Magazines<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +presented to lovers of Science +Fiction everywhere a new magazine +with a brand-new policy—Astounding +Stories—and now it is the Editor's +great pleasure to announce to our +thousands of friends that this new +magazine is enjoying a splendid +success.</p> + +<p>Within twenty-four hours of the +time that Astounding Stories was +released for sale, letters of praise began +pouring into our office, and—and this +is significant—many of them clearly +revealed that their writers had grasped +the essential difference of the new +Science Fiction magazine over the +others.</p> + +<p>We cannot better state this difference, +this improvement, than by quoting +what the Reader whose letter +appears under the caption, "And Kind +to Their Grandmothers," says in his +very first paragraph: "And I was still +more pleased, and surprised, to find +that the Editor seems to know that +such stories should have real story +interest, besides a scientific idea." It is +exactly that. Every story that appears +in Astounding Stories not only must +contain some of the forecasted scientific +achievements of To-morrow, but +must be told vividly, excitingly, with +all the human interest that goes to +make any story enjoyable To-day.</p> + +<p>The Editor and staff of Astounding +Stories express their sincere thanks to +all who have contributed to our splendid +start—especially to those who had +the kindness to write in with their +helpful criticism.</p> + +<p>Already one of your common suggestions +has been taken up and embodied +in our magazine, and so we +have this new department, "The +Readers' Corner," which from now on +will be an informal meeting place for +all readers of Astounding Stories. We +want you never to forget that a cordial +and perpetual invitation is extended +to you to write in and talk over with +all of us anything of interest you may +have to say in connection with our +magazine.</p> + +<p>If you can toss in a word of praise, +that's fine; if only criticism, we'll welcome +that just as much, for we may +be able to find from it a way to improve +our magazine. If you have your own +private theory of how airplanes will +be run in 2500, or if you think the real +Fourth Dimension is different from +what it is sometimes described—write +in and share your views with all of us.</p> + +<p>This department is all yours, and the +job of running it and making it interesting +is largely up to you. So "come +over in 'The Readers' Corner'" and +have your share in what everyone will +be saying.</p> + + +<div class="right">—<i>The Editor.</i></div> +<div class="microspace"> </div> + + +<div class="lnl">"<i>And Kind to Their Grandmothers!</i>"</div> + +<div class="blockquote"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>I received a pleasant surprise a few days +ago when I found a new Science Fiction magazine +at the newsstand—Astounding Stories. +And I was still more pleased, and surprised, +to find that the Editor seems to know that +such stories should have real story interest, +besides a scientific idea.</p> + +<p>Of course I took with a grain of salt the +invitation to write to the editor and give my +preference of the kind of stories I like. I +know that every editor, down in his heart, +thinks his magazine is perfect "as is." In fact, +praise is what they want, not suggestions, +judging by the letters they print.</p> + +<p>Well, I can conscientiously give you some +praise. If Astounding Stories keep up to the +standard of the first issue it will be all right. +Evidently you can afford to hire the best +writers obtainable. Notice you've signed up +some of my favorites, Murray Leinster, R. F. +Starzl, Ray Cummings. I like their stuff because +it has the rare quality rather vaguely +described as "distinction," which make the +story remembered for a long time.</p> + +<p>The story "Tanks," by Murray Leinster, is +my idea of what such a story should be. The +author does not start out, "Listen, my children, +and you shall hear a story so wonderful +you won't believe it. Only after the death of +Professor Bulging Dome do I dare to make +it public to a doubting world." No, he simply +proceeds to tell the story. If I were reading<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +it in the Saturday Evening Post or Ladies +Home Journal it would be all right to prepare +me for the story by explaining that of course +the author does not vouch for the story, it +having been told to him by a crazy Eurasian +in a Cottage Grove black-and-tan speakeasy +at 3.30 A. M. In Astounding Stories I expect +the story to be unusual, so don't bother telling +me it is so. That criticism applies to +"Phantoms of Reality," which is a story above +the average, though, despite its rather flat +title and slow beginning.</p> + +<p>Here's another good point about "Tanks." +Its characters are human. Some authors of +stories of the future make their characters +all brains—cold monsters, with no humanity +in them. Such a story has neither human interest +nor plausibility. The sky's the limit, I +say, for mechanical or scientific accomplishments, +but human emotions will be the same +a thousand years from now. And even supposing +that they will be changed, your +readers have present day emotions. The +magazine can not prosper unless those present-day +emotions are aroused and mirrored +by thoroughly human characters. The situation +may be just as outre as you like—the +more unusual the better—but it is the response +of normal human emotions to most unusual +situations that gives a magazine such as yours +its powerful and unique "kick."</p> + +<p>The response of the two infantrymen in +"Tanks" to the strange and terrifying new +warfare of the future exemplifies another +point I would like to make—the fact that no +matter what marvels the future may bring, +the people who will live then will take them +in a matter-of-fact way. Their conversation +will be cigarettes, "sag-paste," drinks, women. +References to the scientific marvels around +them will be casual and sketchy. How many +million words of an average car owner's conversation +would you have to report to give +a visitor from 1700 an idea of internal combustion +engines? The author, if skillful, can convey +that information in other ways. Yet a lot +of stories printed have long, stilted conversations +in which the author thinks he is conveying +in an entertaining way his foundation +situation. Personally, I like a lot of physical +action—violent action preferred. This is so, +probably, because I'm a school teacher and +sedentary in my habits. I have never written +a story in my life, but I'm the most voracious +consumer of stories in Chicago. I like to see +the hero get into a devil of a pickle, and to +have him smash his way out. I like 'em big, +tough, and kind to their grandmothers.</p> + +<p>It seems to me that interplanetary stories +offer the best vehicle for all the desirable +qualities herein enumerated combined. There +is absolutely no restraint on the imagination, +except a few known astronomical facts—plenty +of opportunity for violent and dangerous +adventures, strange and terrestrially impossible +monsters. The human actors, set +down in the midst of such terrifying conditions, +which they battle dauntlessly, grinning +as they take their blows and returning them +with good will, cannot fail to rouse the admiration +of the reader. And make him buy +the next month's issue.</p> + +<p>But spare us, please the stories in which +the hero, arriving on some other planet, is admitted +to the court of the king of the White +race, and leads their battles against the Reds, +the Browns, the Greens, and so on, eventually +marrying the king's daughter, who is always +golden-haired, of milky white complexion, +and has large blue eyes. Kindly reject +stories of interplanetary travel in which +a member of the party turns against the Earth +party and allies himself with the wormlike +Moon men, or what have you. Stories in +which a great inventor gone crazy threatens +to hurl the Earth into the Sun leave me cold +and despondent, for the simple reason that +crazy men are never great inventors. Name +a great inventor who wasn't perfectly sane, +if you can. The author makes the great inventor +insane to make it plausible that he +should want to destroy the World. Well, if +he is a good author he can find some other +motive.</p> + +<p>One more thing. I like to smell, feel, hear +and even taste the action of a story as well as +see it. Some authors only let you see it, and +then they don't tell you whether it's in bright +or subdued light. The author of "Tanks" fulfills +my requirements in this respect, at least +partially.—Walter Boyle, c/o Mrs. Anna +Treitz, 4751 North Artesian, Chicago, Ill.</p></div> + + +<div class="lnl"><i>A Permanent Reader</i></div> + +<div class="blockquote"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>I want to thank you for the very entertaining +hours I spent perusing your new magazine, +Astounding Stories. I read one or two +other Science Fiction magazines—it seems +that tales of this sort intrigue me. However, I +wish to say that the debut number of your +magazine contained the best stories I ever +read. Again thanking you and assuring you +that should the stories continue thus I will +be a permanent reader—Irving E. Ettinger, +The Seville, Detroit, Mich.</p></div> + + +<div class="lnl"><i>We're Avoiding Reprints</i></div> + +<div class="blockquote"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>I am well pleased with your new magazine +and wish to offer you my congratulations and +best wishes. As I am well acquainted with +most of the Science Fiction now being written, +I am in a good position to criticize your +magazine.</p> + +<p>First: The cover illustration is good, but +the inside drawings could be greatly improved.</p> + +<p>Second: Holding the magazine together +with two staples is a good idea.</p> + +<p>Third: The paper could be improved.</p> + +<p>Fourth: The price is right.</p> + +<p>Here I classify the stories. Excellent: "The +Beetle Horde," and "Tanks." Very Good: +"Cave of Horror," "Invisible Death," and +"Phantoms of Reality." Medium: "Compensation." +Poor: "Stolen Mind."</p> + +<p>Please don't reprint any of Poe's, Wells', +or Verne's works. My prejudice to Verne, +Wells and Poe is that I have read all their +works in other magazines.</p> + +<p>However, with all my criticizing, I think +that your magazine is a good one.—James<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +Nichols, 1509 19th Street, Bakersfield, California.</p></div> + + +<div class="lnl"><i>Thanks, Mr. Marks!</i></div> + +<div class="blockquote"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>I purchased a copy of "our" new magazine +to-day and I think it excellent. I am glad to +see most of my old author friends contributing +for it, but how about looking up E. R. +Burroughs, David H. Keller, M. D., C. P. +Wantenbacker and A. Merritt? They are +marvelous writers. I see Wesso did your +cover and it is very good. I have been a reader +of four other Science Fiction monthly +magazines and two quarterlies, but I gladly +take this one into my fold and I think I speak +for every other Science Fiction lover when +I say this. Which means, if true, that your +publication will have everlasting success. +Here's hoping!—P. O. Marks, Jr., 893 York +Avenue, S. W., Atlanta, Ga.</p></div> + + +<div class="lnl"><i>A Fine Letter</i></div> + +<div class="blockquote"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>Having read through the first number of +Astounding Stories, my enthusiasm has +reached such a pitch that I find it difficult to +express myself adequately. A mere letter +such as this can give scarcely an inkling of +the unbounded enjoyment I derive from the +pages of this unique magazine. To use a trite +but appropriate phrase, "It fills a long-felt +need." True, there are other magazines which +specialize in Science Fiction; but, to my mind +they are not in a class with Astounding +Stories. In most of them the scientific element +is so emphasized that it completely +overshadows all else. In this magazine, happily, +such is not the case. Here we find science +subordinated to human interest, which is as +it should be. The love element, too, is present +and by no means unwelcome.</p> + +<p>As for the literary quality of the stories, +it could not be improved on. Such craftsmen +as Cummings, Leinster and Rousseau never +fail to turn out a vivid, well-written tale. If +the stories in the succeeding issues are on +a par with those in the first, the success of +the magazine is assured.</p> + +<p>By the way, your editorial explanation of +Astounding Stories was a gem. So many of +us take our marvelous modern inventions +for granted that we never consider how +miraculous they would seem to our forebears. +As you say, the only real difference +between the Astounding and the Commonplace +is Time. A magazine such as Astounding +Stories enables us to anticipate the wonders +of To-morrow. Through its pages we can +peer into the vistas of the future and behold +the world that is to be. Truly, you have +given us a rare treat—Allen Glasser, 931 +Forest Ave., New York, N. Y.</p></div> + + +<div class="lnl"><i>The Science Correspondence Club +Broadcasts</i></div> + +<div class="blockquote"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>The other day I came upon Astounding +Stories on our local newsstand. I immediately +procured a copy because Science Fiction +is my favorite pastime, so to speak. I +was very much overjoyed that another good +Science Fiction magazine should come out, +and a Clayton Magazine too, which enhances +its splendid value still further. I have read +various members of the Clayton family and I +found each of them entertaining.</p> + +<p>After finishing the first issue, I decided to +write in and express my feelings. The stories +were all good with the exception of "The +Stolen Mind." Just keep printing stories by +Cape, Meek, Ray Cummings, Murray Leinster, +C. V. Tench, Harl Vincent and R. F. +Starzl and I can predict now that your new +venture will be a huge success.</p> + +<p>The main reason of this letter is to ask +your help in putting over Science Fiction +Week. This will take place in the early part +of February, the week of the 5th or after. We +want your co-operation in making this a big +success. You can help by running the attached +article upon the Science Correspondence +Club in your "Readers' Corner." It will +be a big aid.</p> + +<p>I am sure, because you are the Editor of +Astounding Stories, that you will be pleased +to help us in this venture. Science Fiction is +our common meeting ground and our common +ideal.</p> + +<p>I hope to have a Big Science Fiction Week +with your help.—Conrad H. Ruppert, 113 +North Superior Street, Angola, Indiana.</p> + + +<div class="center" style="margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1.5em; font-size: 105%;">To the Readers of Astounding Stories:</div> + +<p>At the present there exists in the United +States an organization the purpose of which +is to spread the gospel of Science and Science +Fiction, the Science Correspondence Club. I +am writing this to induce the readers of +Astounding Stories to join us. After reading +this pick up your pen or take the cover from +your typewriter and send in an application +for membership to our Secretary, Raymond +A. Palmer, 1431-38th St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, +or to our President, Aubrey Clements, +6 South Hillard St., Montgomery, Alabama. +They will forward application blanks to you +and you will belong to the only organization +in the world that is like it.</p> + +<p>The Club was formed by twenty young men +from all over the U. S. We have a roll of +almost 100, all over the world. Its expressed +purpose has been to help the cause of Science +Fiction, and to increase the knowledge of +Science. It also affords the advantage of being +able to express your ideas in all fields.</p> + +<p>The Preamble of the Constitution which +we have worked out reads: "We, the members +of this organization, in order to promote +the advancement of Science in general among +laymen of the world through the use of discussion +and the creation and exchange of new +ideas, do ordain and establish this organization +for the Science Correspondence Club."</p> + +<p>Article Two reads: "The institution will remain +an organization to establish better co-ordination +between the scientifically inclined +laymen of the world, regardless of sex, creed, +color, or race. There will be no restrictions +as to age, providing the member can pass an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +examination which shall be prepared by the +membership committee."</p> + +<p>The Club will also publish a monthly bulletin, +to which members may contribute. It +will also publish clippings, articles, etc., dealing +with science.</p> + +<p>The membership will have no definite limit +and the correspondence will be governed by +the wishes of each member.</p> + +<p>Need more be said?</p> + +<p>I almost forgot to say that we have two of +the best Science Fiction authors as active +members, and three more who are doing their +best, but because of such work they cannot +be active.</p> + +<p>I hope my appeal bears fruit and that we +shall hear from you soon.—Conrad H. Ruppert.</p></div> + + +<div class="lnl"><i>But—Most Everybody Prefers the +Smaller Size—and Price!</i></div> + +<div class="blockquote"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>Last night I was passing a newsstand and +saw your magazine. I bought it then and +there. I do not read any other stories except +the fantastic stories. Astounding Stories +looks all right, but may I make a suggestions? +Why not increase the size of the magazine to +that of Miss 1900 or Forest and Stream? It +would certainly look better! You could also +raise your price to twenty-five cents. Please +print as many stories as possible by the following +authors: Ray Cummings, Edgar Rice +Burroughs, Murray Leinster, Edmond Hamilton, +A. Hyatt Verrill, Stanton A. Coblentz, +Ed Earl Repp and Harl Vincent.</p> + +<p>My favorite type of story is the interplanetary +one. I wish you the best of luck in +your new venture.—Stephen Takacs, 303 Eckford +Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.</p></div> + + +<div class="lnl">"<i>First Copy Wonderful</i>"</div> + +<div class="blockquote"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>I have read the first copy of Astounding +Stories and think it wonderful. I am very +much interested in science fiction. I prefer +interplanetary stories and would like to see +many of them in the new magazine. Your +authors are fine. The ones I like particularly +are Ray Cummings, Captain S. P. Meek, and +Murray Leinster. I wonder if I could subscribe +to Astounding Stories? Will you let +me know? Good luck to the new magazine.—Donald +Sisler, 3111 Adams Mill Road, Washington, +D. C.</p></div> + + +<div class="lnl"><i>Congratulations</i></div> + +<div class="blockquote"><p>Dear Editor:</p> + +<p>Allow me to congratulate you upon the +starting of your new magazine, Astounding +Stories. Have just finished reading the first +issue and it is fine. While the class of stories +that you publish do not appeal to all, I feel +quite sure that there are many like myself +who will welcome your publication and wish +it all success.—R. E. Norton, P. O. Box 226, +Ashtabula, Ohio.</p></div> +<div class="minispace"> </div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Astounding Stories of Super-Science +April 1930, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES, APRIL 1930 *** + +***** This file should be named 29390-h.htm or 29390-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/3/9/29390/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Meredith Bach, 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 April 1930 + +Author: Various + +Editor: Harry Bates + +Release Date: July 12, 2009 [EBook #29390] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES, APRIL 1930 *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Meredith Bach, 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 + DOUGLAS M. DOLD, Consulting Editor + + +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, WIDE WORLD ADVENTURES, ALL STAR DETECTIVE STORIES, FLYERS, +RANGELAND LOVE STORY MAGAZINE, SKY-HIGH LIBRARY MAGAZINE, WESTERN +ADVENTURES, MISS 1930, _and_ FOREST AND STREAM + +_More Than Two Million Copies Required to Supply the Monthly Demand for +Clayton Magazines._ + + + + + VOL. II, No. 1 CONTENTS APRIL, 1930 + + + COVER DESIGN H. W. WESSOLOWSKI + + _Painted in Water-colors from a Scene in "Monsters of Moyen."_ + + + THE MAN WHO WAS DEAD THOMAS H. KNIGHT 9 + + _As Jerry's Eyes Fell on the Creature's Head, He Shuddered--for the + Face Was Nothing but Bone, with Dull-brown Skin Stretched Taut over It. + A Skeleton That Was Alive!_ + + + MONSTERS OF MOYEN ARTHUR J. BURKS 18 + + _"The Western World Shall be Next!" Was the Dread Ultimatum of the + Half-monster, Half-god Moyen._ + + + VAMPIRES OF VENUS ANTHONY PELCHER 47 + + _Leslie Larner, an Entomologist Borrowed from the Earth, Pits Himself + Against the Night-flying Vampires That Are Ravaging the Inhabitants + of Venus._ + + + BRIGANDS OF THE MOON RAY CUMMINGS 60 + + _Out of Awful Space Tumbled the Space-ship Planetara Towards the + Moon, Her Officers Dead, With Bandits at Her Helm--and the Controls + Out of Order!_ + + + THE SOUL SNATCHER TOM CURRY 101 + + _From Twenty Miles Away Stabbed the "Atom-filtering" Rays to Allen + Baker in His Cell in the Death House._ + + + THE RAY OF MADNESS CAPTAIN S. P. MEEK 112 + + _Dr. Bird Uncovers a Dastardly Plot, Amazing in its Mechanical + Ingenuity, Behind the Apparently Trivial Eye Trouble of the + President._ + + + THE READERS' CORNER ALL OF US 127 + + _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. +Application for entry as second-class mail pending at the Post Office at +New York, 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. + + + + +The Man Who Was Dead + +_By Thomas H. Knight_ + +[Illustration: "_I was dead._"] + + As Jerry's eyes fell on the creature's head, he shuddered--for the + face was nothing but bone, with dull-brown skin stretched taut over + it. A skeleton that was alive! + + +It was a wicked night, the night I met the man who had died. A bitter, +heart-numbing night of weird, shrieking wind and flying snow. A few +black hours I will never forget. + +"Well, Jerry, lad!" my mother said to me as I pushed back from the table +and started for my sheepskin coat and the lantern in the corner of the +room. "Surely you're not going out a night like this? Goodness gracious, +Jerry, it's not fit!" + +"Can't help it, Mother," I replied. "Got to go. You've never seen me +miss a Saturday night yet, have you now?" + +"No. But then I've never seen a night like this for years either. Jerry, +I'm really afraid. You may freeze before you even get as far as--" + +"Ah, come now, Mother," I argued. "They'd guy me to death if I didn't +sit in with the gang to-night. They'd chaff me because it was too cold +for me to get out. But I'm no pampered sissy, you know, and I want to +see--" + +"Yes," she retorted bitingly, "I know. You want to go and bask in that +elegant company. Our stove's just as good as the one down at that dirty +old store," continued my persistent and anxious parent, "and it's +certainly not very flattering to think that you leave us on a night like +this to--Who'll be there, anyway?" + +"Oh, the usual five or six I suppose," I answered as I adjusted the wick +of my lantern, hearing as I did the snarl and cut of the wind through +the evergreens in the yard. + +"That black-whiskered sphinx, Hammersly, will he be there?" + +"Yes, he'll be there, I'm pretty sure." + +"Hm-m!" she exclaimed, her expression now carrying all the contempt for +my judgment and taste she intended it should. "Button your coat up good +around your neck, then, if you must go to see your precious Hammersly +and the rest of them. Have you ever heard that man say anything yet? +Does he speak at all, Jerry?" Then her gentle mind, not at all +accustomed to hard thoughts or contemptuous remarks, quickly changed. +"Funny thing about that fellow," she mused. "He's got something on his +mind. Don't you think so, Jerry?" + +"Y-es, yes I do. And I've often wondered what it could be. He +certainly's a queer stick. Got to admit that. Always brooding. Good +fellow all right, and, for a 'sphinx' as you call him, likable. But I +wonder what is eating him?" + +"What do you suppose it could be, Jerry boy?" questioned Mother +following me to the door, the woman of her now completely forgetting her +recent criticisms and, perhaps, the rough night her son was about to +step into. "Do you suppose the poor chap has a--a--broken heart, or +something like that? A girl somewhere who jilted him? Or maybe he loves +someone he has no right to!" she finished excitedly, the plates in her +hand rattling. + +"Maybe it's worse than that," I ventured. "P'r'aps--I've no right to say +it--but p'r'aps, and I've often thought it, there's a killing he wants +to forget, and can't!" + + * * * * * + +I heard my mother's sharp little "Oh!" as I shut the door behind me and +the warmth and comfort of the room away. Outside it was worse than the +whistle of the wind through the trees had led me to expect. Black as +pitch it was, and as cold as blazes. For the first moment or two, +though, I liked the feel of the challenge of the night and the racing +elements, was even a little glad I had added to the dare of the +blackness the thought of Hammersly and his "killing." But I had not gone +far before I was wishing I did not have to save my face by putting in an +appearance at the store that night. + +Every Saturday night, with the cows comfortable in their warm barn, and +my own supper over, I was in the habit of taking my place on the keg or +box behind the red-hot stove in Pruett's store. To-night all the snow +was being hurled clear of the fields to block the roads full between the +old, zigzag fences. The wind met me in great pushing gusts, and while it +flung itself at me I would hang against it, snow to my knees, until the +blow had gone along, when I could plunge forward again. I was glad when +I saw the lights of the store, glad when I was inside. + +They met me with mock applause for my pluck in facing the night, but for +all their sham flattery I was pleased I had come, proud, I must admit, +that I had been able to plough my heavy way through the drifts to reach +them. I saw at a glance that my friends were all there, and I saw too +that there was a strange man present. + + * * * * * + +A very tall man he was, gaunt and awkward as he leaned into the angle of +the two counters, his back to a dusty show-case. He attracted my +attention at once. Not merely because he appeared so long and pointed +and skinny, but because, of all ridiculous things in that frozen +country, he wore a hard derby hat! If he had not been such a queer +character it would have been laughable, but as it was it was--creepy. +For the man beneath that hard hat was about as queer a looking character +as I have ever seen. I supposed he was a visitor at the store, or a +friend of one of my friends, and that in a little while I would be +introduced. But I was not. + +I took my place in behind the stove, feeling at once, though I am far +from being unsociable usually, that the man was an intruder and would +spoil the evening. But despite his cold, dampening presence we were soon +at it, hammer and tongs, discussing the things that are discussed behind +hospitable stoves in country stores on bad nights. But I could never +lose sight of the fact that the stranger standing there, silent as the +grave, was, to say the least, a queer one. Before long I was sure he was +no friend or guest of anyone there, and that he not only cast a pall +over me but over all of us. I did not like it, nor did I like him. +Perhaps it would have been just as well after all, I thought, had I +heeded my mother and stayed home. + +Jed Counsell was the one who, innocently enough, started the thing that +changed the evening, that had begun so badly, into a nightmare. + +"Jerry," he said, leaning across to me, "thinkin' of you s'afternoon. +Readin' an article about reincarnation. Remember we were arguin' it last +week? Well, this guy, whoever he was I've forgot, believes in it. Says +it's so. That people _do_ come back." With this opening shot Jed sat +back to await my answer. I liked these arguments and I liked to bear my +share in them, but now, instead of immediately answering the challenge, +I looked around to see if any other of our circle were going to answer +Jed. Then, deciding it was up to me, I shrugged off the strange feeling +the man in the corner had cast over me, and prepared to view my +opinions. + +"That's just that fellow's belief, Jed," I said. "And just as he's got +his so have I mine. And on this subject at least I claim my opinion is +as good as anybody's." I was just getting nicely started, and a little +forgetting my distaste for the man in the corner, when the fellow +himself interrupted. He left his leaning place, and came creaking across +the floor to our circle around the store. I say he came "creaking" for +as he came he did creak. "Shoes," I naturally, almost unconsciously +decided, though the crazy notion was in my mind that the cracking I +heard did sound like bones and joints and sinews badly in need of oil. +The stranger sat his groaning self down among us, on a board lying +across a nail keg and an old chair. Only from the corner of my eye did I +see his movement, being friendly enough, despite my dislike, not to +allow too marked notice of his attempt to be sociable seem inhospitable +on my part. I was about to start again with my argument when Seth +Spears, sitting closest to the newcomer, deliberately got up from the +bench and went to the counter, telling Pruett as he went that he had to +have some sugar. It was all a farce, a pretext, I knew. I've known Seth +for years and had never known him before to take upon himself the buying +for his wife's kitchen. Seth simply would not sit beside the man. + + * * * * * + +At that I could keep my eyes from the stranger no longer, and the next +moment I felt my heart turn over within me, then lie still. I have seen +"walking skeletons" in circuses, but never such a man as the one who was +then sitting at my right hand. Those side-show men were just lean in +comparison to the fellow who had invaded our Saturday night club. His +thighs and his legs and his knees, sticking sharply into his trousers, +looked like pieces of inch board. His shoulders and his chest seemed as +flat and as sharp as his legs. The sight of the man shocked me. I sprang +to my feet thoroughly frightened. I could not see much of his face, +sitting there in the dark as he was with his back to the yellow light, +but I could make out enough of it to know that it was in keeping with +the rest of him. + +In a moment or two, realizing my childishness, I had fought down my fear +and, pretending that a scorching of my leg had caused my hurried +movement, I sat down again. None of the others said a word, each waiting +for me to continue and to break the embarrassing silence. Hammersly, +black-whiskered, the "sphinx" as my mother had called him, watched me +closely. Hating myself not a little bit for actually being the sissy I +had boasted I was not, I spoke hurriedly, loudly, to cover my confusion. + +"No sir, Jed!" I said, taking up my argument. "When a man's dead, he's +dead! There's no bringing him back like that highbrow claimed. The old +heart may be only hitting about once in every hundred times, and if they +catch it right at the last stroke they may bring it back then, but once +she's stopped, Jed, she's stopped for good. Once the pulse has gone, and +life has flickered out, it's out. And it doesn't come back in any form +at all, not in this world!" + +I was glad when I had said it, thereby asserting myself and downing my +foolish fear of the man whose eyes I felt burning into me. I did not +turn to look at him but all the while I felt his gimlety eyes digging +into my brain. + +Then he spoke. And though he sat right next to me his voice sounded like +a moan from afar off. It was the first time we had heard this thing that +once may have been a voice and that now sounded like a groan from a +closely nailed coffin. He reached a hand toward my knee to enforce his +words, but I jerked away. + +"So you don't believe a man can come back from the grave, eh?" he +grated. "Believe that once a man's heart is stilled it's stopped for +good, eh? Well, you're all wrong, sonny. All wrong! You believe these +things. I _know_ them!" + + * * * * * + +His interference, his condescension, his whole hatefulness angered me. I +could now no longer control my feeling. "Oh! You _know_, do you?" I +sneered. "On such a subject as this you're entitled to _know_, are you? +Don't make me laugh!" I finished insultingly. I was aroused. And I'm a +big fellow, with no reason to fear ordinary men. + +"Yes, I know!" came back his echoing, scratching voice. + +"How do you know? Maybe you've been--?" + +"Yes, I have!" he answered, his voice breaking to a squeak. "Take a good +look at me, gentlemen. A good look." He knew now that he held the center +of the stage, that the moment was his. Slowly he raised an arm to remove +that ridiculous hat. Again I jumped to my feet. For as his coat sleeve +slipped down his forearm I saw nothing but bone supporting his hand. And +the hand that then bared his head was a skeleton hand! Slowly the hat +was lifted, but as quickly as light six able-bodied men were on their +feet and half way to the door before we realized the cowardliness of it. +We forced ourselves back inside the store very slowly, all of us rather +ashamed of our ridiculous and childlike fear. + +But it was all enough to make the blood curdle, with that live, dead +thing sitting there by our fire. His face and skull were nothing but +bone, the eyes deeply sunk into their sockets, the dull-brown skin like +parchment in its tautness, drawn and shriveled down onto the nose and +jaw. There were no cheeks. Just hollows. The mouth was a sharp slit +beneath the flat nose. He was hideous. + +"Come back and I'll tell you my yarn," he mocked, the slit that was his +mouth opening a little to show us the empty, blackened gums. "I've been +dead once," he went on, getting a lot of satisfaction from the weirdness +of the lie and from our fear, "and _I_ came back. Come and sit down and +I'll explain why I'm this living skeleton." + + * * * * * + +We came back slowly, and as I did I slipped my hand into my outside +pocket where I had a revolver. I put my finger in on the trigger and got +ready to use the vicious little thing. I was on edge and torn to pieces +completely by the sight of the man, and I doubt not that had he made a +move towards me my frayed nerves would have plugged him full of lead. I +eyed my friends. They were in no better way than was I. Fright and +horror stood on each face. Hammersly was worst. His hands were +twitching, his eyes were like bright glass, his face bleached and drawn. + +"I've quite a yarn to tell," went on the skeleton in his awful voice. +"I've had quite a life. A full life. I've taken my fun and my pleasure +wherever I could. Maybe you'll call me selfish and greedy, but I always +used to believe that a man only passed this way once. Just like you +believe," he nodded to me, his neck muscles and jaws creaking. "Six +years ago I came up into this country and got a job on a farm," he went +on, settling into his story. "Just an ordinary job. But I liked it +because the farmer had a pretty little daughter of about sixteen or +seventeen and as easy as could be. You may not believe it, but you can +still find dames green enough to fall for the right story. + +"This one did. I told her I was only out there for a time for my health. +That I was rich back in the city, with a fine home and everything. She +believed me. Little fool!" He chuckled as he said it, and my anger, +mounting with his every devilish word, made the finger on the trigger in +my pocket take a tighter crook to itself. "I asked her to skip with me," +the droning went on, "made her a lot of great promises, and she fell for +it." His dry jaw bones clanked and chattered as if he enjoyed the +beastly recital of his achievement, while we sat gaping at him, +believing either that the man must be mad, or that we were the mad ones, +or dreaming. + +"We slipped away one night," continued the beast. "Went to the city. To +a punk hotel. For three weeks we stayed there. Then one morning I told +her I was going out for a shave. I was. I got the shave. But I hadn't +thought it worth while to tell her I wouldn't be back. Well, she got +back to the farm some way, though I don't know--" + + * * * * * + +"What!" I shouted, springing before him. "What! You mean you left her +there! After you'd taken her, you left her! And here you sit crowing +over it! Gloating! Boasting! Why you--!" I lived in a rough country. +Associated with rough men, heard their vicious language, but seldom used +a strong word myself. But as I stood over that monster, utterly hating +the beastly thing, all the vile oaths and prickly language of the +countryside, no doubt buried in some unused cell in my brain, spilled +from my tongue upon him. When I had lashed him as fiercely as I was able +I cried: "Why don't you come at me? Didn't you hear what I called you? +You beast! I'd like to riddle you!" I shouted, drawing my gun. + +"Aw, sit down!" he jeered, waving his rattling hand at me. "You ain't +heard a thing yet. Let me finish. Well, she got back to the farm some +way or another, and something over a year later I wandered into this +country again too. I never could explain just why I came back. It was +not altogether to see the girl. Her father was a little bit of a man and +I began to remember what a meek and weak sheep he was. I got it into my +head that it'd be fun to go back to his farm and rub it in. So I came. + +"Her father was trying out a new corn planter right at the back door +when I rounded the house and walked towards him. Then I saw, at once, +that I had made a mistake. When he put his eyes on me his face went +white and hard. He came down from the seat of that machine like a flash, +and took hurried steps in the direction of a doublebarrelled gun +leaning against the woodshed. They always were troubled with hawks and +kept a gun handy. But there was an ax nearer to me than the gun was to +him. I had to work fast but I made it all right. I grabbed that ax, +jumped at him as he reached for the gun, and swung--once. His wife, and +the girl too, saw it. Then I turned and ran." + + * * * * * + +The gaunt brute before us slowly crossed one groaning knee above the +other. We were all sitting again now. The perspiration rolled down my +face. I held my gun trained upon him, and, though I now believed he was +totally mad, because of a certain ring of truth in that empty voice, I +sat fascinated. I looked at Seth. His jaw was hanging loose, his eyes +bulging. Hammersly's mouth was set in a tight clenched line, his eyes +like fire in his blue, drawn face. I could not see the others. + +"The telephone caught me," continued our ghastly story-teller, "and in +no time at all I was convicted and the date set for the hanging. When my +time was pretty close a doctor or scientist fellow came to see me who +said, 'Blaggett, you're slated to die. How much will you sell me your +body for?' If he didn't say it that way he meant just that. And I said, +'Nothing. I've no one to leave money to. What do you want with my body?' +And he told me, 'I believe I can bring you back to life and health, +provided they don't snap your neck when they drop you.' 'Oh, you're one +of _those_ guys, are you?' I said then. 'All right, hop to it. If you +can do it I'll be much obliged. Then I can go back on that farm and do a +little more ax swinging!'" Again came his horrible chuckle, again I +mopped my brow. + +"So we made our plans," he went on, pleased with our discomfiture and +our despising of him. "Next day some chap came to see me, pretending he +was my brother. And I carried out my part of it by cursing him at first +and then begging him to give me decent burial. So he went away, and, I +suppose, received permission to get me right after I was cut down. + +"There was a fence built around the scaffold they had ready for me and +the party I was about to fling, and they had some militia there, too. +The crowd seemed quiet enough till they led me out. Then their buzzing +sounded like a hive of bees getting all stirred up. Then a few loud +voices, then shouts. Some rocks came flying at me after that, and it +looked to me as though the hanging would not be so gentle a party after +all. I tell you I was afraid. I wished it was over. + + * * * * * + +"The mob pushed against the fence and flattened it out, coming over it +like waves over a beach. The soldiers fired into the air, but still they +came, and I, I ran--up, onto the scaffold. It was safer!" As he said +this he chuckled loudly. "I'll bet," he laughed, "that's the first time +a guy ever ran into the noose for the safety of it! The mob came only to +the foot of the scaffold though, from where they seemed satisfied to see +the law take its course. The sheriff was nervous. So cut up that he only +made a fling at tying my ankles, just dropped a rope around my wrists. +He was like me, he wanted to get it over, and the crowd on its way. Then +he put the rope around my neck, stepped back and shot the trap. Zamm! No +time for a prayer--or for me to laugh at the offer!--or a last word or +anything. + +"I felt the floor give, felt myself shoot through. Smack! My weight on +the end of the rope hit me behind the ears like a mallet. Everything +went black. Of course it would have been just my luck to get a broken +neck out of it and give the scientist no chance to revive me. But after +a second or two, or a minute, or it could have been an hour, the +blackness went away enough to allow me to know I was hanging on the end +of the rope, kicking, fighting, choking to death. My tongue swelled, my +face and head and heart and body seemed ready to burst. Slowly I went +into a deep mist that I knew then was _the_ mist, then--then--I was off +floating in the air over the heads of the crowd, watching my own +hanging! + +"I saw them give that slowly swinging carcass on the end of its rope +time enough to thoroughly die, then, from my aerial, unseen watching +place, I saw them cut it--me--down. They tried the pulse of the body +that had been mine, they examined my staring eyes. Then I heard them +pronounce me dead. The fools! I had known I was dead for a minute or two +by that time, else how could my spirit have been gone from the shell and +be out floating around over their heads?" + + * * * * * + +He paused here as he asked his question, his head turning on its dry and +creaking neck to include us all in his query. But none of us spoke. We +were dreaming it all, of course, or were mad, we thought. + +"In just a short while," went on the skeleton, "my 'brother' came +driving slowly in for my body. With no special hurry he loaded me onto +his little truck and drove easily away. But once clear of the crowd he +pushed his foot down on the gas and in five more minutes--with me +hovering all the while alongside of him, mind you--floating along as +though I had been a bird all my life--we turned into the driveway of a +summer home. The scientific guy met him. They carried me into the house, +into a fine-fitted laboratory. My dead body was placed on a table, a +huge knife ripped my clothes from me. + +"Quickly the loads from ten or a dozen hypodermic syringes were shot +into different parts of my naked body. Then it was carried across the +room to what looked like a large glass bottle, or vase, with an opening +in the top. Through this door I was lowered, my body being held upright +by straps in there for that purpose. The door to the opening was then +placed in position, and by means of an acetylene torch and some easily +melting glass, the door was sealed tight. + +"So there stood my poor old body. Ready for the experiment to bring it +back to life. And as my new self floated around above the scientist and +his helper I smiled to myself, for I was sure the experiment would prove +a failure, even though I now knew that the sheriff's haste had kept him +from placing the rope right at my throat and had saved me a broken neck. +I was dead. All that was left of me now was my spirit, or soul. And that +was swimming and floating about above their heads with not an +inclination in the world to have a thing to do with the husk of the man +I could clearly see through the glass of the bell. + + * * * * * + +"They turned on a huge battery of ultra-violet rays then," continued the +hollow droning of the man who had been hanged, "which, as the scientist +had explained to me while in prison, acting upon the contents of the +syringes, by that time scattered through my whole body, was to renew the +spark of life within the dead thing hanging there. Through a tube, and +by means of a valve entering the glass vase in the top, the scientist +then admitted a dense white gas. So thick was it that in a moment or two +my body's transparent coffin appeared to be full of a liquid as white as +milk. Electricity then revolved my cage around so that my body was +insured a complete and even exposure to the rays of the green and violet +lamps. And while all this silly stuff was going on, around and around +the laboratory I floated, confident of the complete failure of the whole +thing, yet determined to see it through if for no other reason than to +see the discomfiture and disappointment that this mere man was bound to +experience. You see, I was already looking back upon earthly mortals as +being inferior, and now as I waited for this proof I was all the while +fighting off a new urge to be going elsewhere. Something was calling me, +beckoning me to be coming into the full spirit world. But I wanted to +see this wise earth guy fail. + +"For a little while conditions stayed the same within that glass. So +thick was the liquid gas in there at first that I could see nothing. +Then it began to clear, and I saw to my surprise that the milky gas was +disappearing because it was being forced in by the rays from the lights +in through the pores into the body itself. As though my form was sucking +it in like a sponge. The scientist and his helper were tense and taut +with excitement. And suddenly my comfortable feeling left me. Until then +it had seemed so smooth and velvety and peaceful drifting around over +their heads, as though lying on a soft, fleecy cloud. But now I felt a +sudden squeezing of my spirit body. Then I was in an agony. Before I +knew what I was doing my spirit was clinging to the outside of that +twisting glass bell, clawing to get into the body that was coming back +to life! The glass now was perfectly clear of the gas, though as yet +there was no sign of life in the body inside to hint to the scientist +that he was to be successful. But I knew it. For I fought desperately to +break in through the glass to get back into my discarded shell of a body +again, knowing I must get in or die a worse death than I had before. + +"Then my sharper eyes noted a slight shiver passing over the white thing +before me, and the scientist must have seen it in the next second, for +he sprang forward with a choking cry of delight. Then the lolling head +inside lifted a bit. I--still desperately clinging with my spirit hands +to the outside, and all the time growing weaker and weaker--I saw the +breast of my body rise and fall. The assistant picked up a heavy steel +hammer and stood ready to crash open the glass at the right moment. Then +my once dead eyes opened in there to look around, while I, clinging and +gasping outside, just as I had on the scaffold, went into a deeper, +darker blackness than ever. Just before my spirit life died utterly I +saw the eyes of my body realize completely what was going on, then--from +the inside now--I saw the scientist give the signal that caused the +assistant to crash away the glass shell with one blow of his hammer. + +"They reached in for me then, and I fainted. When I came back to +consciousness I was being carefully, slowly revived, and nursed back to +life by oxygen and a pulmotor." + + * * * * * + +The terrible creature telling us this tale paused again to look around. +My knees were weak, my clothes wet with sweat. + +"Is that all?" I asked in a piping, strange voice, half sarcastic, half +unbelieving, and wholly spellbound. + +"Just about," he answered. "But what do you expect? I left my friend the +scientist at once, even though he did hate to see me go. It had been all +right while he was so keen on the experiment himself and while he only +half believed his ability to bring me back. But now that he'd done it, +it kinda worried him to think what sort of a man he was turning loose of +the world again. I could see how he was figuring, and because I had no +idea of letting him try another experiment on me, p'r'aps of putting me +away again, I beat it in a hurry. + +"That was five years ago. For five years I've lived with only just part +of me here. Whatever it was trying to get back into that glass just +before my body came to life--my spirit, I've been calling it--I've been +without. It never did get back. You see, the scientist brought me back +inside a shell that kept my spirit out. That's why I'm the skeleton you +see I am. Something vital is missing." + +He stood up cracking and creaking before us, buttoning his loose coat +about his angular body. "Well, boys," he asked lightly, "what do you +think of that?" + +"I think you're a liar! A damn liar!" I cried. "And now, if you don't +want me to fill you full of lead, get out of here and get out now! If I +have to do it to you, there's no scientist this time to bring you back. +When you go out you'll stay out!" + +"Don't worry," he grimaced back to me, waving a mass of bones that +should have been a hand contemptuously at me, "I'm going. I'm headed for +Shelton." He stalked the length of the floor and shut the door behind +him. The beast had gone. + +"The dirty liar!" I cried. "I wish--yes--I wish I had an excuse to kill +him. Just think of that being loose, will you? A brute who would think +up such a yarn! Of course it's all absurd. All crazy. All a lie." + +"No. It's not a lie." + + * * * * * + +I turned to see who had spoken. Hammersly's voice was so unfamiliar and +now so torn in addition that I could not have thought he had spoken, had +he not been looking right at me, his glittering eyes challenging my +assertion. Would wonders never cease? I asked myself. First this +outrageous yarn, now Hammersly, the "sphinx," expressing an opinion, +looking for an argument! Of course it must be that his susceptible and +brooding brain had been turned a bit by the evening we had just +experienced. + +"Why Hammersly! You don't believe it?" I asked. + +"I not only believe it, Jerry, but now it's my turn to say, as he did, I +_know_ it! Jerry, old friend," he went on, "that devil told the truth. +He was hanged. He was brought back to life; and Jerry--I was that +scientist!" + +Whew! I fell back to a box again. My knees seemed to forsake me. Then I +heard Hammersly talking to himself. + +"Five years it's been," he muttered. "Five years since I turned him +loose again. Five years of agony for me, wondering what new devilish +crimes he was perpetrating, wondering when he would return to that +little farm to swing his ax again. Five years--five years." + +He came over to me, and without a word of explanation or to ask my +permission he reached his hand into my pocket and drew out my revolver, +and I did not protest. + +"He said he was headed for Shelton," went on Hammersly's spoken +thoughts. "If I slip across the ice I can intercept him at Black's +woods." Buttoning his coat closely, he followed the stranger out into +the night. + + * * * * * + +I was glad the moon had come up for my walk home, glad too when I had +the door locked and propped with a chair behind me. I undressed in the +dark, not wanting any grisly, sunken-eyed monster to be looking in +through the window at me. For maybe, so I thought, maybe he was after +all not headed for Shelton, but perhaps planning on another of his +ghastly tricks. + +But in the morning we knew he had been going toward Shelton. Scientists, +doctors, and learned men of all descriptions came out to our village to +see the thing the papers said Si Waters had stumbled upon when on his +way to the creamery that next morning. + +It was a skeleton, they said, only that it had a dry skin all over it. A +mummy. Could not have been considered capable of containing life only +that the snow around it was lightly blotched with a pale smear that +proved to be blood, that had oozed out from the six bullet holes in the +horrid chest. They never did solve it. + +There were five of us in the store that night. Five of us who know. +Hammersly did what we all wanted to do. Of course his name is not really +Hammersly, but it has done here as well as another. He is +black-whiskered though, and he is still very much of a sphinx, but he'll +never have to answer for having killed the man he once brought back to +life. Hammersly's secret will go into five other graves besides his +own. + + + + +Monsters of Moyen + +_By Arthur J. Burks_ + +[Illustration: "_Now," said Kleig hoarsely, "watch closely, for +God's sake!_"] + + "The Western World shall be next!" was the dread ultimatum of the + half-monster, half-god Moyen! + + +_Foreword_ + + +In 1935 the mighty genius of Moyen gripped the Eastern world like a hand +of steel. In a matter of months he had welded the Orient into an +unbeatable war-machine. He had, through the sheer magnetism of a strange +personality, carried the Eastern world with him on his march to conquest +of the earth, and men followed him with blind faith as men in the past +have followed the banners of the Thaumaturgists. + +A strange name, to the sound of which none could assign nationality. +Some said his father was a Russian refugee, his mother a Mongol woman. +Some said he was the son of a Caucasian woman lost in the Gobi and +rescued by a mad lama of Tibet, who became father of Moyen. Some said +that his mother was a goddess, his father a fiend out of hell. + +[Illustration] + +But this all men knew about him: that he combined within himself the +courage of a Hannibal, the military genius of a Napoleon, the ideals of +a Sun Yat Sen; and that he had sworn to himself he would never rest +until the earth was peopled by a single nation, with Moyen himself in +the seat of the mighty ruler. + +Madagascar was the seat of his government, from which he looked across +into United Africa, the first to join his confederacy. The Orient was a +dependency, even to that forbidden land of the Goloks, where outlanders +sometimes went, but whence they never returned--and to the wild Goloks +he was a god whose will was absolute, to render obedience to whom was a +privilege accorded only to the Chosen. + + * * * * * + +In a short year his confederacy had brought under his might the millions +of Asia, which he had welded into a mighty machine for further conquest. + +And because the Americas saw the handwriting on the wall, they sent out +to see the man Moyen, with orders to penetrate to his very side, as a +spy, their most trusted Secret Agent--Prester Kleig. + +Only the ignorant believed that Moyen was mad. The military and +diplomatic geniuses of the world recognized his genius, and resented it. + +But Prester Kleig, of the Secret Service of the Americas, one of the +_few_ men whose headquarters were in the Secret Room in Washington, had +reached Moyen. + +Now he was coming home. + +He came home to tell his people what Moyen was planning, and to admit +that his investigations had been hampered at every turn by the uncanny +genius of Moyen. Military plans had been guarded with unbelievable +secrecy. War machines he knew to exist, yet had seen only those common +to all the armies of the world. + +And now, twenty-four hours out of New York City, aboard the _S. S. +Stellar_, Prester Kleig was literally willing the steamer to greater +speed--and in far Madagascar the strange man called Moyen had given the +ultimatum: + +"The Western World shall be next!" + + + + +CHAPTER I + +_The Hand of Moyen._ + + +"Who is that man?" asked a young lady passenger of the steward, with the +imperious inflection which tells of riches able to force obedience from +menials who labor for hire. + +She pointed a bejeweled finger at the slender, soldierly figure which +stood in the prow of the liner, like a figurehead, peering into the +storm under the vessel's forefoot. + +"That gentleman, milady?" repeated the steward obsequiously. "That is +Prester Kleig, head of the Secret Agents, Master of the Secret Room, +just now returning from Madagascar, via Europe, after a visit to the +realm of Moyen." + +A gasp of terror burst from the lips of the woman. Her cheeks blanched. + +"Moyen!" She almost whispered it. "Moyen! The half-god of Asia, whom men +call mad!" + +"Not mad, milady. No, Moyen is not mad, save with a lust for power. He +is the conqueror of the ages, already ruling more of the earth's +population than any man has ever done before him--even Alexander!" + +But the young lady was not listening to stewards. Wealthy young ladies +did not, save when asked questions dealing with personal service to +themselves. Her eyes devoured the slender man who stood in the prow of +the _Stellar_, while her lips shaped, over and over again, the dread +name which was on the lips of the people of the world: + +"Moyen! Moyen!" + + * * * * * + +Up in the prow, if Prester Kleig, who carried a dread secret in his +breast, knew of the young lady's regard, he gave no sign. There were +touches of gray at his temples, though he was still under forty. He had +seen more of life, knew more of its terrors, than most men twice his +age--because he had lived harshly in service to his country. + +He was thinking of Moyen, the genius of the misshapen body, the pale +eyes which reflected the fires of a Satanic soul, set deeply in the +midst of the face of an angel; and wondering if he would be able to +arrive in time, sorry that he had not returned home by airplane. + +He had taken the _Stellar_ only because the peacefulness of ocean liner +travel would aid his thoughts, and he required time to marshal them. +Liner travel was now a luxury, as all save the immensely wealthy +traveled by plane across the oceans. Now Prester Kleig was sorry, for +any moment, he felt, Moyen might strike. + +He turned and looked back along the deck of the _Stellar_. His eyes +played over the trimly gowned figure of the woman who questioned the +steward, but did not really see her. And then.... + +"Great God!" The words were a prayer, and they burst from the lips of +Prester Kleig like an explosion. Passengers appeared from the lee of +lifeboats. Officers on the bridge whirled to look at the man who +shouted. Seamen paused in their labors to stare. Aloft in the +crow's-nest the lookout lowered his eyes from scouring the horizon to +stare at Prester Kleig--who was pointing. + +All eyes turned in the direction indicated. + + * * * * * + +Climbing into the sky, a mile off the starboard beam, was an airplane +with a bulbous body and queerly slanted wings. It had neither wheels nor +pontoons, and it traveled with unbelievable speed. It came on +bullet-fast, headed directly for the side of the _Stellar_. + +"Lower the boats!" yelled Kleig. "Lower the boats! For God's sake lower +the boats!" + +For Prester Kleig, in that casual turning, had seen what none aboard the +_Stellar_, even the lookout above, had seen. The airplane, which had +neither wheels nor pontoons, had risen, as Aphrodite is said to have +risen, out of the waves! He had seen the wings come out of the bulbous +body, snap backward into place, and the plane was in full flight the +instant it appeared. + +Prester Kleig had no hope that his warning would be in time, but he +would always feel better for having given it. As the captain debated +with himself as to whether this lunatic should be confined as dangerous, +the strange airplane nosed over and dived down to the sea, a hundred +yards from the side of the _Stellar_. Just before it struck the water, +its wings snapped forward and became part of the bulbous body of the +thing, the whole of which shot like a bullet into the sea. + + * * * * * + +Prester Kleig stood at the rail, peering out at the spot where the plane +had plunged in with scarcely a splash, and his right hand was raised as +though he gave a final, despairing signal. + +Of all aboard the _Stellar_, he only saw that black streak which, ten +feet under water, raced like a bolt of lightning from the nose of the +submerged but visible plane, straight as a die for the side of the +_Stellar_. Just a black streak, no bigger than a small man's arm, from +the nose of the plane to the side of the _Stellar_. + +From the crow's-nest came the startled, terrific voice of the lookout, +in the beginning of a cry that must remain forever inarticulate. + +The world, in that blinding moment, seemed to rock on its foundations; +to shatter itself to bits in a chaotic jumble of sound and of movement, +shot through and through with lurid flames. Kleig felt himself hurled +upward and outward, turned over and over endlessly.... + +He felt the storm-tossed waters close over him, and knew he had struck. +In the moment he knew--oblivion, deep, ebon and impenetrable, blotted +out knowledge. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_The Half-Dream_ + + +A roaring, rushing river of chaotic sound, first. Jumbled sound to which +Prester Kleig could give no adequate name. But as he tried to analyze +its meanings, he was able to differentiate between sounds, and to +discover the identity of some. + +The river of sound he decided to be the sound of a vibrational explosion +of some sort--vibrational because it had that quivery quality which +causes a feeling of uneasiness and fret, that feeling which makes one +turn and look around to find the eyes boring into one's back--yet +multiplied in its intensity an uncounted number of times. + +Other sounds which came through the chaotic river of sound were the +terrified screaming of the men and women who were doomed. Lifeboats were +never lowered, for the reason that with the disintegration of the +_Stellar_, everything inanimate aboard her likewise disintegrated, +dropping men and women, crew and passengers, into the freezing waters of +the Atlantic. + +Prester Kleig dropped with them, only partially unconscious after the +first icy plunge. He knew when he floated on the surface, for he felt +himself lifted and hurled by the waves. In his half-dream he saw men and +women being carried away into wave-shrouded darkness, clawing wildly at +nothingness for support, clawing at one another, locking arms, and going +down together. + + * * * * * + +The _Stellar_, in the merest matter of seconds, had become spoil of the +sea, and her crew and passengers had vanished forever from the sight of +men. Yet Prester Kleig lived on, knew that he lived on, and that there +was an element, too strong to be disbelieved, of reality in his dream. + +There was a vibratory sense, too, as of the near activity of a noiseless +motor. Noiseless motor! Where had he last thought of those two words? +With what recent catastrophe were they associated? No, he could not +recall, though he knew he should be able to do so. + +Then the sense of motion to the front was apparent--an unnumbered sense, +rather than concrete feeling. Motion to front, influenced by the rising +and falling motion of mountainous waves. + +So suddenly as to be a distinct shock, the wave motion ceased, though +the forward motion--and _upward!_--not only continued but increased. + +That airplane of the bulbous body, the queerly slanted wings.... + +But the glimmering of realization vanished as a sickishly sweet odor +assailed his nostrils and sent its swift-moving tentacles upward to wrap +themself soothingly about his brain. But the sense of flight, +unbelievably swift, was present and recognizable, though all else eluded +him. He had the impression, however, that it was intended that all save +the most vagrant, most widely differentiated, impressions elude +him--that he should acquire only half pictures, which would therefore be +all the more terrible in retrospect. + +The only impressions which were real were those of motion to the front, +and upward, and the sense of noiseless machinery, vibrating the whole, +nearby. + +Then a distinct realization of the cessation of the sense of flying, and +a return, though in lesser degree, of the rising and falling of waves. +This latter sensation became less and less, though the feeling of +traveling downward continued. Prester Kleig knew that he was going down +into the sea again, down into it deeply.... Then that odor once more, +and the elusive memory. + +Forward motion at last, in the depths, swift, forward motion, though +Prester Kleig could not even guess at the direction. Just swift motion, +and the mutter of voices, the giving of orders.... + + * * * * * + +Prester Kleig regained consciousness fully on the sands of the shore. He +sat up stiffly, staring out to sea. A storm was raging, and the sea was +an angry waste. No ship showed on the waters; the mad, tumbled sky above +it was either empty of planes or they had climbed to invisibility above +the clouds that raced and churned with the storm. + +Out of the storm, almost at Prester Kleig's feet, dropped a small +airplane. Through the window a familiar face peered at Kleig. A +helmeted, begoggled figure opened the door and stepped out. + +"Kleig, old man," said the flyer, "you gave me the right dope all right, +but I'll swear there isn't a wireless tower within a hundred miles of +this place! How did you manage it?" + +"Kane, you're crazy, or I am, or...." But Prester Kleig could not go on +with the thought which had rushed through his brain with the numbing +impact of a blow. He grasped the hand of Carlos Kane, of the Domestic +Service, and the yellow flimsy Kane held out to him. It read simply: + +"Shipwrecked. Am ashore at--" There followed grid coordinate map +readings. "Come at once, prepared to fly me to Washington." It was +signed "Kleig." + +"Kane," said Kleig, "I did not send this message!" + +What more was there to be said? Horror looked out of the eyes of Prester +Kleig, and was reflected in those of Carlos Kane. Both men turned, +peering out across the tumbled welter of waters. + +Somewhere out there, tight-locked in the gloomy archives of the +Atlantic, was the secret of the message which had brought Carlos Kane to +Prester Kleig--and the agency which had sent it. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_Wings of To-morrow_ + + +As Prester Kleig climbed into the enclosed passenger pit of the +monoplane--a Mayther--his ears seemed literally to be ringing with the +drumming, mighty voice of Moyen. But now that voice, instead of merely +speaking, rang with sardonic laughter. He had never heard the laughter +of Moyen, but he could guess how it would sound. + +That airplane of the slanted wings, the bulbous, almost bulletlike +fuselage, what of it? It was simple, as Kleig looked back at his +memoried glimpse of it. The submarine was a metal fish made with human +hands; the airplane aped the birds. The strange ship which had caused +the destruction of the _Stellar_, was a combination fish and bird--which +merely aped nature a bit further, as anyone who had ever traversed +tropical waters would have instantly recognized. + +But what did it portend? What ghastly terrors of Moyen roamed the deeps +of the Atlantic, of the Pacific, the oceans of the world? How close +were some of these to the United States? + +The pale eyes of Moyen, he was sure, were already turned toward the +West. + + * * * * * + +Prester Kleig sighed as he seated himself beside Carlos Kane. Then Kane +pressed one of the myriad of buttons on the dash, and Kleig lifted his +eyes to peer through the skylight, to where that single press of a +button had set in motion the intricate machinery of the helicopter. + +A four-bladed fan lifted on a slender pedestal, sufficiently high above +the surface of the wing for the vanes to be free of the central +propeller. Then, automatically, the vanes became invisible, and the +Mayther lifted from the sandy beach as lightly, and far more straightly, +than any bird. + +As the ship climbed away for the skies, and through the transparent +floor the beach and the Atlantic fell away below the ship, a sigh of +relief escaped Kleig. This was living! Up here one was free, if only for +a moment, and the swift wind of flight brushed all cobwebs from the +tired human brain. He watched the slender needle of the altimeter, as it +moved around the face of the dial as steadily as the hands of a clock, +around to thirty thousand, thirty-five, forty. + +Then Carlos Kane, every movement as effortless as the flight of the +silvery winged Mayther, thrust forth his hand to the dash again, pressed +another button. Instantly the propellers vanished into a blur as the +vanes of the helicopter dropped down the slender staff and the vanes +themselves fitted snugly into their appointed notches atop the wing. + + * * * * * + +For a second Carlos Kane glanced at the tiny map to the right of the +dash, and set his course. It was a matter of moments only, but while +Kane worked, Prester Kleig studied the instruments on the dash, for it +had been months since he had flown, save for his recent half-dreamlike +experience. There was a button which released the mechanism of the +deadly guns, fired by compressed air, all operated from the noiseless +motor, whose muzzles exactly cleared the tips of Mayther's wings, two +guns to each wing, one on the entering edge, one on the trailing edge, +fitted snugly into the adamant rigging. + +Four guns which could fire to right or left, twin streams of lead, the +number of rounds governed only by the carrying power of the Mayther. +Prester Kleig knew them all: the guns in the wings, the guns which fired +through the three propellers, and the guns set two and two in the +fuselage, to right and left of the pits, which could be fixed either up +or down--all by the mere pressing of buttons. It was marvelous, +miraculous, yet even as Kleig told himself that this was so, he felt, +deep in the heart of him, that Moyen knew all about ships like these, +and regarded them as the toys of children. + +Kane touched Kleig on the shoulder, signaling, indicating that the +atmosphere in the pits had been regulated to their new height, and that +they could remove their helmets and oxygen tanks without danger. + + * * * * * + +With a sigh Prester Kleig sat back, and the two friends turned to face +each other. + +"You certainly look done in, Kleig," said Kane sympathetically. "You +must have been through hell, and then some. Tell me about this Moyen; +that is, if you think you care to talk about him." + +"Talk about him!" repeated Kleig. "Talk about him? It will be a relief! +There has been nothing, and nobody, on my mind save Moyen for weary +months on end. If I don't talk to someone about him, I'll go mad, if I'm +not mad already. Moyen? A monster with the face of an angel! What else +can one say about him? A devil and a saint, a brute whose followers +would go with him into hell's fire, and sing him hosannas as they were +consumed in agony! The greatest mob psychologist the world has ever +seen. He's a genius, Kane, and unless something is done, the Western +world, all the world, is doomed to sit at the feet, listen to the +commands, of Moyen! + +"He isn't an Oriental; he isn't a European; he isn't negroid or Indian; +but there is something about him that makes one thing of all of these, +singly and collectively. His body is twisted and grotesque, and when one +looks at his face, one feels a desire to touch him, to swear eternal +fealty to him--until one looks into his pale eyes, eyes almost milky in +their paleness--and gets the merest hint of the thoughts which actuate +him. If he has a failing I did not find it. He does not drink, +gamble...." + +"And women?" queried Kane, softly. + + * * * * * + +Kleig was madly in love with the sister of Kane, Charmion, and this +thing touched him nearest the heart, because Charmion was one of her +country's most famous beauties, about whom Moyen must already have +heard. + +"Women?" repeated Kleig musingly, his black eyes troubled, haunted. "I +scarcely know. He has no love for women, only because he has no capacity +for any love save self-love. But when I think of him in this connection +I seem to see Moyen, grown to monster proportions, sitting on a mighty +throne, with nude women groveling at his feet, bathed in tears, their +long hair in mantles of sorrow, hiding their shamed faces! That sounds +wild, doesn't it? But it's the picture I get of Moyen when I think of +Moyen and of women. Many women will love him, and have, perhaps. But +while he has taken many, though I am only guessing here, he has given +_himself_ to none. Another thing: His followers--well, he sets no limits +to the lusts of his men, requiring only that every soldier be fit for +duty, with a body strong for hardship. You understand?" + +Kane understood; and his face was very pale. + +"Yes," he said, his voice almost a whisper, "I understand, and as you +speak of this man I seem to see a city in ruins, and hordes of men +marching, bloodstained men entering houses ... from which, immediately +afterward, come the screams of women ... terror-stricken women...." + +He shuddered and could not go on for the very horror of the vision that +had come to him. + +But Kleig stared at him as though he saw a ghost. + +"Great God, Carl!" he gasped. "The same identical picture has been in my +mind, not once but a thousand times! I wonder...." + +Was it an omen of the future for the West? + +Deep in his soul Prester Kleig fancied he could hear the sardonic +laughter of the half-god, Moyen. + + * * * * * + +A tiny bell rang inside the dash, behind the instruments. Kane had set +direction finders, had pressed the button which signaled the +Washington-control Station of the National Radio, thus automatically +indicating the exact spot above land, by grid-coordinates, where the +Mayther should start down for the landing. + +An hour later they landed on the flat roof of the new Capitol Building, +sinking lightly to rest as a feather, nursed to a gentle landing by the +whirring vanes of the helicopter. + +Prester Kleig, surrounded by uniformed guards who tried to shield him +from the gaze of news-gatherers crowded there on the roof-top, hurried +him to the stairway leading into the executive chambers, and through +these to the Secret Chamber which only a few men knew, and into which +not even Carlos Kane could follow Prester Kleig--yet. + +But one man, one news-gatherer, had caught a glimpse of the face of +Kleig, and already he raced for the radio tower of his organization, to +blazon to the Western world the fact that Kleig had come back. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_A Nation Waits in Dread_ + + +As Prester Kleig, looking twice his forty years because of fatigue, and +almost nameless terrors through which he had passed, went to his +rendezvous, the news-gatherer, who shall here remain nameless, raced for +the Broadcasting Tower. + +As Prester Kleig entered the Secret Room and at a signal all the many +doors behind him, along that interminable stairway, swung shut and were +tightly locked, the news-gatherer raced for the microphone and gave the +"priority" signal to the operator. Millions of people would not only +hear the words of the news-gatherer, but would see him, note the +expressions which chased one another across his face. For television was +long since an accomplished, everyday fact. + +"Prester Kleig, of this government's Secret Service, has just returned +to the United Americas! Your informer has just seen him step from the +monoplane of Carlos Kane, atop the Capitol Building, and repair at once +to the Secret Room, closely guarded. But I saw his face, and though he +is under forty, he seems twice that. And you know now what this country +has only guessed at before--that he has seen Moyen. Moyen the half-man, +half-god, the enigma of the ages. What does Prester Kleig think of this +man? He doesn't say, for he dares not speak, yet. But your informer saw +his face, and it is old and twisted with terror! And--" + + * * * * * + +That ended the discourse of the news-gatherer, and it was many hours +before the public really understood. For, with a new sentence but half +completed, the picture of the news-gatherer faded blackly off the +screens in a million homes, and his voice was blotted out by a humming +that mounted to a terrific appalling shriek! Some terrible agency, about +which people who knew their radio could only guess, had drowned out the +words of the news-gatherer, leaving the public stunned and bewildered, +almost groping before a feeling of terror which was all the more +unbearable because none could give it a name. + +And the public had heard but a fraction of the truth--merely that Kleig +had come back. It had been the intention of the government to deny the +public even this knowledge, and it had; but knowledge of the denial +itself was public property, which filled the hearts of men and women all +through the Western Hemisphere with nameless dread. And over all this +abode of countless millions hovered the shadow of Moyen. + +The government tried to correct the impression which the news-gatherer +had given out. + +"Prester Kleig is back," said the radio, while the government speaker +tried, for the benefit of those who could see him, to smile +reassuringly. "But there is nothing to cause anyone the slightest +concern. He has seen Moyen, yes, and has heard him speak, but still +there is nothing to distress anyone, and the whole story will be given +to you as soon as possible. Kleig has gone into the Secret Room, yes, +but every operative of the government, when discussing business +connected with diplomatic relations with foreign powers, is received in +the Secret Room. No cause for worry!" + + * * * * * + +It was so easy to say that, and the speaker realized it, which was why +he could but with difficulty make his smile seem reassuring. + +"Tell us the truth, and tell us quickly," might have been the voiceless +cries of those who listened and saw the face and fidgeting form of the +speaker. But the words were not spoken, because the people sensed a +hovering horror, a dread catastrophe beyond the power of words to +express--and so looked at one another in silence, their eyes wide with +dread, their hearts throbbing to suffocation with nameless foreboding. + +So eyes were horror-haunted, and men walked, flew, and rode in fear and +trembling--while, down in the Secret Room, Prester Kleig and a dozen old +men, men wise in the ways of science and invention, wise in the ways of +men and of beasts, of Nature and the Infinite Outside, decided the fate +of the Nation. + +That Secret Room was closed to every one. Not even the news-gatherers +could reach it; not even the all-seeing eye of the telephotograph +emblazoned to the world its secrets. + +But _was_ it secret? + +Perhaps Moyen, the master mobster, smiled when he heard men say so, men +who knew in their hearts that Moyen regarded other earthlings as +earthlings regard children and their toys. Did the eyes of Moyen gaze +even into the depths of the Secret Room, hundreds of feet below even the +documentary-treasure vaults of the Capitol? + + * * * * * + +No one knew the answer to the question, but the radio, reporting the +return of Kleig, had given the public a distorted vision of an embodied +fear, and in its heart the public answered "Yes!" And what had drowned +out the voice of the radio-reporter? + +No wonder that, for many hours, a nation waited in fear and trembling, +eyes filled with dread that was nameless and absolute, for word from the +Secret Room. Fear mounted and mounted as the hours passed and no word +came. + +In that room Prester Kleig and the twelve old men, one of whom was the +country's President, held counsel with the man who had come back. But +before the spoken counsel had been held, awesome and awe-inspiring +pictures had flashed across the screen, invented by a third of the old +men, from which the world held no secrets, even the secrets of Moyen. + +With this mechanism, guarded at forfeit of the lives of a score of men, +the men of the Secret Room could peer into even the most secret places +of the world. The old men had peered, and had seen things which had +blanched their pale cheeks anew. And when they had finished, and the +terrible pictures had faded out, a voice had spoken suddenly, like an +explosion, in the Secret Room. + +"Well, gentlemen, are you satisfied that resistance is futile?" + +Just the voice; but to one man in the Secret Room, and to the others +when his numbing lips spoke the name, it was far more than enough. For +not even the wisest of the great men could explain how, as they knew, +having just seen him there, a man could be in Madagascar while his voice +spoke aloud in the Secret Room, where even radio was barred! + +The name on the lips of Prester Kleig! + +"Moyen! Moyen!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + +_Monsters of the Deep_ + + +"Gentlemen," said Prester Kleig as he entered the Secret Room, where sat +the scientists and inventive geniuses of the Americas, "we haven't much +time, and I shall waste but little of it. Moyen is ready to strike, if +he hasn't already done so, as I believe. We will see in a matter of +seconds. Professor Maniel, we shall need, first of all, your apparatus +for returning the vibratory images of events which have transpired +within the last thirty-six hours. + +"I wish to show those of you who failed to see it the sinking of the +_Stellar_, on which I was a passenger and, I believe, the only +survivor." + +Professor Maniel strangely mouse-like save for the ponderous dome of his +forehead, stepped away from the circular table without a word. He had +invented the machine in question, and he was inordinately proud of it. +Through its use he could pick up the sounds, and the pictures, of events +which had transpired down the past centuries, from the tinkling of the +cymbals of Miriam to all the horror of the conflict men had called the +Great War, simply by drawing back from the ether, as the sounds fled +outward through space, those sounds and vibrations which he needed. + +His science was an exact one, more carefully exact even than the +measurement of the speed of light, taking into consideration the +dispersion of sound and movement, and the element of time. + +The interior of the Secret Room became dark as Maniel labored with his +minute machinery. Only behind the screen on the wall in rear of the +table was there light. + + * * * * * + +The voice of Maniel began to drone as he thought aloud. + +"There is a matter of but a few minutes difference in time between +Washington and the last recorded location of the _Stellar_. The sinking +occurred at ten-thirty last evening you say, Kleig? Ah, yes, I have it! +Watch carefully, gentlemen!" + +So silent were the Secret Agents one could not even have heard the +breathing of one of them, for on the screen, misty at first, but +becoming moment by moment bolder of outline, was the face of a +storm-tossed sea. The liner was slower in forming, and was slightly out +of focus for a second or two. + +"Ah," said Professor Maniel. "There it is!" + +Through the sound apparatus came the roaring and moaning of a storm at +sea. On the screen the _Stellar_ rose high on the waves, dropped into +the trough, while spumes of black smoke spread rearward on the waters +from her spouting funnels. Figures were visible on her decks, figures +which seemed carved in bronze. + +In the prow, every expression on his face plainly visible, stood Prester +Kleig himself, and as his picture appeared he was in the act of turning. + +"Now," said Kleig himself, there in the Secret Room, "look off to the +left, gentlemen, a mile from the _Stellar_!" + +A rustling sound as the scientists shifted in their places. + + * * * * * + +They all saw it, and a gasp burst from their lips as though at a signal. +For, as the _Stellar_ seemed about to plunge off the shadowed screen +into the Secret Room, a flying thing had risen out of the sea--an +airplane with a bulbous body and queerly slanting wings. + +At the same time, out of the mouth of the pictured figure of Prester +Kleig, clear and agonized as the tones of a bell struck in frenzy, the +words: + +"Great God! Lower the boats! Lower the boats! For God's sake lower the +boats!" + +In the Secret Room the real Prester Kleig spoke again. + +"When the black streak leaves the nose of the plane, after it has +submerged, Professor Maniel," said Kleig softly, "slow your mechanism so +that we can see the whole thing in detail." + +There came a grunted affirmative from Professor Maniel. + +The nose of the pictured plane tilted over, diving down for the surface +of the sea. + +"Now!" snapped Kleig. "Don't wait!" + +Instantly the moving pictures on the screen reduced their speed, and the +plane appeared to stop its sudden seaward plunge and to drop down as +lightly as a feather. The wings of the thing moved forward slowly, +folding into the body of the dropping plane. + +"They fold forward," said Kleig quietly, "so that the speed of the plane +in the take-off will snap them _backward_ into position for flying!" + + * * * * * + +No one spoke, because the explanation was so obvious. + +Slowly the airplane went down to the surface of the sea, with scarcely a +plume of spindrift leaping back after she had struck. She dropped to ten +feet below the surface of the water, a hundred yards off the starboard +beam of the _Stellar_, her blunt nose pointing squarely at the side of +the doomed liner. + +"Now," said Kleig hoarsely, "watch closely, for God's sake!" + +The liner rose and fell slowly. Out of the nose of the plane, which had +now become a tiny submarine, started a narrow tube of black, oddly like +the sepia of a giant squid. Straight toward the side of the liner it +went. Above the rail the Secret Agents could see the pictured form of +Prester Kleig, hand upraised. The black streak reached the side of the +_Stellar_. + +It touched the metal plates, spreading upon impact, growing, enlarging, +to right and left, upward and downward, and where it touched the +_Stellar_ the black of it seemed to erase that portion of the ship. In +the slow motion every detail was apparent. At regular speed the blotting +out of the _Stellar_ would have been instantaneous. + +Kleig saw himself rise slowly from the vanished rail, turning over and +over, going down to the sea. He almost closed his eyes, bit his lips to +keep back the cries of terror when he saw the others aboard the liner +rise, turn over and over, and fly in all directions like jackstraws in a +high wind. + + * * * * * + +The ship was erased from beneath passengers and crew, and passengers and +crew fell into the sea. Out of the depths, from all directions, came the +starving denizens of the sea--starving because liners now were so few. + +"That's enough of that, Professor," snapped Kleig. "Now jump ahead +approximately eight hours, and see if you can pick up that aero-sub +after it dropped me on the Jersey Coast." + +The picture faded out quickly, the screaming of doomed human beings, +already hours dead, called back to apparent living by the genius of +Maniel died away, and for a space the screen was blank. + +Then, the sea again, storm-tossed as before, shifting here and there as +Maniel sought in the immensity of sea and sky for the thing he desired. + +"Two hundred miles south by east of New York City," he droned. "There it +is, gentlemen!" + +They all saw it then, in full flight, eight thousand feet above the +surface of the Atlantic, traveling south by east at a dizzy rate of +speed. + +"Note," said Kleig, "that it keeps safely to the low altitudes, in order +to escape the notice of regular air traffic." + +No one answered. + +The eyes of the Secret Agents were on that flashing, bulbous-bodied +plane of the strange wings. It appeared to be heading directly for some +objective which must be reached at top speed. + + * * * * * + +For fifteen minutes the flight continued. Then the plane tilted over and +dived, and at an altitude still of three thousand feet, the wings +slashed forward, clicking into their notches in the sides of the bulbous +body, with a sound like the ratchets on subway turnstiles, and, holding +their breath, the Secret Agents watched it plummet down to the sea. It +was traveling with terrific speed when it struck, yet it entered the +water with scarcely a splash. + +Then, for the first time, an audible gasp, as that of one person, came +from the lips of the Secret Agents. For now they could see the objective +of the aero-sub. A monster shadow in the water, at a depth of five +hundred feet. A shadow which, as Maniel manipulated his instruments, +became a floating underwater fortress, ten times the size of any +submarine known to the Americas. + +Sporting like porpoises about this held-in-suspension fortress were +myriads of other aero-subs, maneuvering by squadrons and flights, +weaving in and out like schools of fish. The plane which had bourne +Prester Kleig churned in between two of the formations, and vanished +into the side of the motionless monster of the deep. + +The striking of a deep sea bell, muted by tons and tons of water, +sounded in the Secret Room. + +"Don't turn it off, Maniel," said Kleig. "There's more yet!" + +And there was, for the sound of the bell was a signal. The aero-subs, +darting outward from the side of the floating fortress like fish darting +out of seaweed, were plunging up toward the surface of the Atlantic. +Breathlessly the Secret Agents watched them. + +They broke water like flying fish, and their wings shot backward from +their notches in the myriad bulbous bodies to click into place in flying +position as the scores of aero-subs took the air above the invisible +hiding places of the mother submarine. + + * * * * * + +At eight thousand feet the aero-subs swung into battle formation and, as +though controlled by word of command, they maneuvered there like one +vast machine of a central control--beautiful as the flight of swallows, +deadly as anything that flew. + +The Secret Agents swept the cold sweat from their brows, and sighs of +terror escaped them all. + +At that moment came the voice, loud in the Secret Room, which Kleig at +least immediately recognized: + +"Well, gentlemen, are you satisfied that resistance is futile?" + +And Kleig whispered the name, over and over again. + +"Moyen! Moyen!" + +It was Prester Kleig, Master of the Secret Room, who was the first to +regain control after the nerve-numbing question which, asked in far +Madagascar, was heard by the Agents in the Secret Room. + +"No!" he shouted. "No! No! Moyen, in the end we will beat you!" + +Only silence answered, but deep in the heart of Prester Kleig sounded a +burst of sardonic laughter--the laughter of Moyen, half-god of Asia. +Then the voice again: + +"The attack is beginning, gentlemen! Within an hour you will have +further evidence of the might of Moyen!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +_Vanishing Ships_ + + +Prester Kleig, ordered to Madagascar from the Secret Room, had been +merely an operative, honored above others in that he had been one of +the few, at that time, ever to visit the Secret Room. Now, however, +because he had walked closer to Moyen than anyone else, he assumed +leadership almost by natural right, and the men who had once deferred to +him took orders from him. + +"Gentlemen," he snapped, while the last words of Moyen still hung in the +air of the Secret Room, "we must fight Moyen from here. The best brains +in the United Americas are gathered here, and if Moyen can be +beaten--_if_ he can be beaten--he will be beaten from the Secret Room!" + +A sigh from the lips of Professor Maniel. The President of the United +Americas nodded his head, as though he too mutely gave authority into +the hands of Prester Kleig. The other Secret Agents shifted slightly, +but said nothing. + +"I have been away a year," said Kleig, "as you know, and many things +have come into regular use since I left. Professor Maniel's machine for +example, upon which he was working when I departed under orders. There +will be further use for it in our struggle with Moyen. Professor, will +you kindly range the ocean, beginning at once, and see how many of these +monsters of Moyen we have to contend with?" + + * * * * * + +Professor Maniel turned back to his instruments, which he fondled with +gentle, loving hands. + +"We have nothing with which to combat the attacking forces of Moyen," +went on Kleig, "save antiquated airplanes, and such obsolete warships as +are available. These will be mere fodder for the guns, or rays, or +whatever it is that Moyen uses in his aero-subs. Thousands, perhaps +millions, of human lives will be lost; but better this than that Moyen +rule the West! Better this than that our women be given into the hands +of this mob as spoils of war!" + +From the Secret Agents a murmur of assent. + +And then, that voice again, startling, clear, with the slightest +suggestion of some Oriental accent, in the Secret Room. + +"Do not depend too much, gentlemen," it said, "upon your antiquated +warships! See, I am merciful, in that I do not allow you to send them +against me loaded with men to be slaughtered or drowned! Professor +Maniel, I would ask you to turn that plaything of yours and gaze upon +the fleet of obsolete ships anchored in Hampton Roads! In passing, +Professor, I venture to guess that the secret of how I am able to talk +with you gentlemen, here in your Secret Room, is no secret at all to +you. Now look!" + +The Secret Agents gasped again, in consternation. + +From the white lips of mouselike Maniel came mumbled words, even as his +hands worked with lightning speed. + +"His machine is simply a variation of my own. And, gentlemen, +compatriots, with it he could as easily project himself, bodily, here +into the room with us!" + + * * * * * + +Something like a suppressed scream from one of the men present. A cold +hand of ice about the heart of Prester Kleig. But the words of Professor +Maniel were limned on the retina of his brain in letters of fire. +Suppose Moyen _were_ to project himself into the Secret Room.... + +But he would not. He was no fool, and even these Secret Agents, most of +whom were old and no longer strong, would have torn him limb from limb. +But those words of Maniel set whirling once more, and in a new +direction, the thoughts of Prester Kleig. + +"Mr. President, gentlemen...." It was the voice of Professor Maniel. + +All eyes turned again to the screen upon which the professor worked his +miracles, which today were commonplaces, which yesterday had been +undreamed of. Every Secret Agent recognized the outlines of Hampton +Roads, with Norfolk and its towering buildings in the background, and +the obsolete warships riding silently at anchor in the roadstead. + +For three years they had been there, while a procrastinating Cabinet, +Congress and Senate had debated their permanent disposal. They +represented millions of dollars in money, and were utterly worthless. +Prester Kleig, looking at them now, could see them putting out to sea, +loaded with brave-visaged men, volunteering to go to sure destruction to +feed the rapacity of Moyen's hordes. Men going out to sea in tubs, +singing.... + +But these ships were silent. No plumes of smoke from their funnels. Like +floating mausoleums, filled with dead hopes, shells of past and departed +glories. + +The beating of waves against their sides could plainly be heard. The +anchor chains squeaked rustily in the hawse-holes. Wind sighed through +regal, towering superstructures, and no man walked the decks of any one +of them. + + * * * * * + +With bated breath the Secret Agents watched. + +Why had Moyen bidden them turn their attention to these shells of +erstwhile naval grandeur? + +This time no gasps broke from the lips of the Secret Agents. Not even +the sound of breathing could be heard. Just the sighing of wind through +the superstructures of a hundred ships, the whispering of waves against +rusted bulkheads. + +Almost imperceptibly at first the towering dreadnought in the foreground +began to move! Slowly, the water swirling about her, she backed away +from her anchor, tightening the curve of the anchor chain! Water +quivered about the point of the chain's contact with the waves! + +Quickly the eyes of the Secret Agents swept along the street of ships. +The same backward motion, of dragging against their anchor chains, was +visible at the bow of each warship! + +With not a soul aboard them, the ships were waking into strange and +awesome life, dragging at their anchors, like hounds pulling at leashes +to be free and away! + +"How are they doing it?" It was almost a whisper from the President. + +"Some electro-magnetic force, sir!" stated Prester Kleig. "Professor +Blaine, that is your province! Please note what is happening, and advise +us at once if you see how they are doing it!" + +A grunt of affirmation from surly, obese Professor Blaine. + + * * * * * + +All eyes turned back again to the miracle of the moving ships. One by +one, with crashes which echoed and re-echoed through the Secret Room, +the anchor chains of the dreadnoughts parted. The ends of them swung +from the prows of the warships, while the severed portions splashed into +the Roads, and the waters hid them from view. + +The great dreadnought in the foreground swung slowly about until her +prow was pointed in the direction of the open sea, and though no sea was +running, no smoke rose from her funnels, she got slowly, ponderously +under way, and started out the Roads. Behind her, in formation, the +other ships swung into line. + +In a matter of seconds, faster than any of these vessels had ever +traveled before, they were racing in column for the open Atlantic. And +from the sound apparatus came wails and shrieks of terror, the +lamentations of men and women frightened as they had never been +frightened before. + +The shores behind the moving column of ships was moment by moment +growing blacker with people--a black sea of people, whose faces were +white as chalk with terror. + +But on, out to sea, moved the column of brave ships. + +A new note entered into the picture, as from all sides airplanes of many +makes swooped in, and swept back and forth over the moving ships, while +hooded heads looked out of pits, and faces of pilots were aghast at +what they saw. + + * * * * * + +A ghost column of ships, moving out to sea, speed increasing moment by +moment unbelievably. Even now, five minutes after the first dreadnought +had started seaward, the wake of each ship spread away on either hand in +the two sides of a watery triangle whose walls were a dozen feet +high--racing for the shores with all the sullen majesty of tidal waves. + +The crowds gave back, and their screams rose into the air in a +frightened roar of appalling sound. + +Even now, so rapidly did the warships travel, many of the planes could +throttle down, so that they flew directly above the heaving decks of the +runaway warships. + +"Get word to them!" cried Prester Kleig suddenly. "Get word to them that +if they follow the ships out to sea not a pilot will escape alive!" + +One of the Secret Agents rose and hurried from the Secret Room, +traveling at top speed for the first of the many doors enroute to the +broadcasting tower from which all the planes could be reached at once. +Prester Kleig turned back to the magic screen of Maniel. + +The warships, water thrown aside by the lifting thrust of their forefeet +in mountains that raced landward with ever-increasing fury, were +clearing the Roads and swinging south by east, heading into the wastes +of the Atlantic. As they cleared the land, and open water for unnumbered +miles lay ahead, the speed of the mighty ships increased to a point +where they rode as high on the water as racing launches, and the +creaking and groaning of their rusty bolts and spars were a continual +paean of protest in the sound apparatus accompanying the showing of the +miracle on the screen. + +"They're heading straight for the spot where that super-submarine lies!" +said the President, and no one answered him. + + * * * * * + +Prester Kleig, watching, was racing over in his mind what he could +recall of his country's armament. Warships were useless, as was being +proved here before his eyes. But there still remained airplanes, in +countless numbers, which could be diverted from ocean travel and from +routine business, to battle this menace of Moyen. + +But.... + +He shuddered as he pictured in his mind's eye the meeting of his +country's flower of flying manhood with the monsters of Moyen. + +His eyes, as he thought, were watching the racing of those ocean +greyhounds, out to sea. They were now out of sight of land, and still +some of the planes followed them. + +A half hour passed, and then.... + +The American pilots, in obedience to the radio signals, turning back +from this strange phenomenon of the ghost column of capital ships. + +Simultaneously, out of the sky dead ahead, dropped the first flight of +Moyen's aero-subs. + +At the same moment the mysterious power which had dragged the ships to +sea was withdrawn, and the warships, with no hands to guide them, swung +whither they willed, and floated in as many directions as there were +ships, under their forward momentum. There were a score of collisions, +and some of the ships were in sinking condition even before the +aero-subs began their labors. + + * * * * * + +The remaining ships floated high out of the water, because they carried +no ballast, and from all sides the aero-subs of Moyen settled to the +task of destruction--destruction which was simply a warning of what was +to come: Moyen's manner of proving to the Americas the fact that he was +all-powerful. + +"God, what fools!" cried Prester Kleig. + +The rearmost of the American aviators had looked back, had seen the +first of the aero-subs drop down among the doomed ships. Instantly he +turned out to sea again, signalling as he did so to the nearest other +planes. And in spite of the radio warning a hundred planes answered that +signal and swept back to investigate this new mystery. + +"They're going to death!" groaned the President. + +"Yes," said Kleig, softly, "but it saves us ordering others to death. +Perhaps we may learn something of value as we watch them die!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +_Golden Oblivion_ + + +"This," said Prester Kleig, as coldly precise as a judge pronouncing +sentence of death, "will precipitate the major engagement with Moyen's +forces. The fools, to rush in like this, when they have been warned! But +even so, they are magnificent!" + +The pilots of the aero-subs must instantly have noticed the return of +the American pilots, for some of the aero-subs which had dropped to the +ocean's surface rose again almost instantly, and swept into battle +formation above the drifting hulks of the warships. + +The Americans were wary. They drew together like frightened chickens +when a hawk hovers above them, and watched the activities of the +aero-subs, every move of each one being at the same time visible and +audible to the Secret Agents in the Capitol's Secret Room. + +The aero-subs which had submerged singled out their particular prey +among the floating ships, and the Secret Agents, trying to see how each +separate act of destruction was accomplished, watched the aero-sub in +the foreground, which happened to be concentrating on the dreadnought +which had led the ghost-march of the warships out to sea. + + * * * * * + +The aero-sub circled the swaying dreadnought as a shark circles a wreck, +and through the walls of the aero-sub the watchers in the Secret Room +could see the four-man crew of the thing. Grim faced men, men of the +Orient they plainly were, coldly concentrating on the work in hand. +Their faces were those of men who are merciless, even brutal, with +neither heart nor compassion of any kind for weaker ones. One man +maneuvered the aero-sub, while the other three concentrated on the +apparatus in the nose of the hybrid vessel. + +"See," spoke Prester Kleig again, "if you can tell what manner of ray +they use, and how it is projected. That's your province, General +Munson!" + +From the particular Secret Agent named, who was expert for war in the +membership of the Secret Room, came a short grunt of affirmation. A few +murmured words. + +"I'll be able to tell more about it when I see how they operate when +they are flying. That black streak under water ... well, I must see it +out of the water, and then...." + +But here General Munson ended, for the aero-sub which they were +especially watching had got into action against the dreadnought. + +The aero-sub was motionless and submerged just off the port bow of the +dreadnought. The three men inside the aero-sub were working swiftly and +efficiently with the complicated but minute machinery in the nose of +their transport. + +"It can be controlled, then, this ray," said Munson, interrupting +himself. "Watch!" + + * * * * * + +From the nose of the aero-sub leaped, like a streak of black lightning, +that ebon agency of death. It struck the prow of the battleship--and the +prow, as far aft as the well-deck, simply vanished from sight, +disintegrated! It was as though it had never been, and for a second, so +swiftly had it happened, the water of the ocean held the impression that +portion of the warship had made--as an explosive leaves a crater in the +soil of earth! + +Then a drumming roar as the sea rushed in to claim its own. The roaring, +as of a Niagara, as the waters claimed the ship, rushing down +passageways into the hold, possessing the warship with all the +invincible, speedy might of the sea. + +Mingled with this roaring was the shivering, vibratory sound which +Prester Kleig had experienced in his half-dream. The sound was so +intense that it fairly rocked the Secret Room to its furthermost cranny. + +For a second the dreadnought, wounded to death, seemed to shudder, to +hesitate, then to move backward as though wincing from her death blow. +It was the pound of the inrushing waters which did it. Then up came the +stern of the mighty ship, as she started her last long plunge into the +depths. + +But attention had swung to another warship, on the starboard beam of +which another aero-sub had taken up position. Again the ebon streak of +death from her blunt nose, smashing in and through the warship, directly +amidships, cutting her in twain as though the black streak had been a +pair of shears, the warship a strip of tissue paper. + +Up went the prow and the stern of this one, and together, the water +separating the two parts as it rushed into the gap, the broken warship +went down to its final resting place. + + * * * * * + +Abruptly Professor Maniel swung back to the American planes which had +come back to investigate the activities of the aero-subs, and on the +screen, in the midst of the battle formation into which the pilots had +swept to hurriedly, the Secret Agents could see the faces of those +pilots.... + +White as chalk with fear, mouths open in gasping unbelief. One man, a +pale-faced youth, was the first to recover. He stared around at his +compatriots, and plainly through the sound apparatus in the Secret Room +came his swift radio signals. + +"Attack! Who will follow me against these people?" + +His signals were very plain. So, too, were the answers of the other +pilots, and the heart of Prester Kleig swelled with pride as he listened +to the answering signals--and counted them, discovered that every last +pilot there present elected to stay with this youngster, to avenge their +country for this contemptuous insult which had been put upon her by the +rape of Hampton Roads. + +Into swift formation they swept, and with these planes--all planes in +use were required by franchise of operating companies to be equipped for +the emergencies of war--swung into an echelon formation, the youthful +pilot leading by mutual consent. + +They swept at full speed toward the warships, four of which had by this +time been sent to destruction--one of which had appeared to vanish +utterly in the space of a single heartbeat, so quickly that for a second +or two the shape of its bilge, the bulge of its keel, was visible in the +face of the deep--and openly challenged the aero-subs. + + * * * * * + +Muzzles of compressed air guns projected from the wing-tips of the +planes. Buttons were pressed which elevated the muzzles of guns arranged +to fire upward from either side the fighting pits, twin guns that were +fired downward from the same central magazine--the only guns in use in +the Americas which fired in opposite directions at the same time. + +But for a few moments the aero-subs refused combat. Their speed was +terrific, dazzling. They eluded the thrusts, the dives and plunges of +the American ships as easily as a swallow eludes the dive of a buzzard. + +It came to Prester Kleig, however, that the aero-subs were merely +playing with the Americans; that when they elected to move, the planes +would be blasted from the sky as easily as the warships were being +erased from the surface of the Atlantic. + +One by one, as methodically as machines, the aero-sub pilots blasted the +warships into nothingness. They had their orders, and they went about +their performance with a rigidity of discipline which astounded the +Secret Agents. They had been ordered to destroy the warships, and they +were doing that first--would go on to completion of this task, no matter +how many American planes buzzed about their ears. + +But one by one as the warships sank, the aero-subs which had either sunk +or erased them made the surface and leaped into space with a snapping +back of wings that was horribly businesslike as to sound, and climbed up +to take part in the fight against the American planes, which must +inevitably come. + + * * * * * + +The last warship, cut squarely in two from stem to stern along her +center, as though split thus by a bolt of lightning, fell apart like +pieces of cake, and splashed down, sinking away while the spume of her +disintegration rolled back from her fallen sides in white-crested waves. + +"It exemplifies the policies of Moyen," said Prester Kleig, "for his +conquest of the world is a conquest of destruction." + +The last aero-sub took to the sky, and the Americans rushed into battle +with fine disregard for what they knew must be certain death. They were +not fools, exactly, and they had seen, but not understood, the manner in +which those gallant old hounds of the sea had been erased from +existence. + +But in they went, plunging squarely into the heart of the aero-subs' +leading formation, which formation consisted of three aero-subs, flying +a wing and wing formation. + +The young American signaled with upraised hand, and the American pilots +made their first move. Every plane started rolling, at dazzling speed, +on the axis of its fuselage, while bullets spewed from the guns that +fired through the propellers. + +Bullets smashed into the leading aero-subs, with no apparent effect, +though for a second it seemed that the central aero-sub of the leading +formation hesitated for a moment in flight. + +Then, swift as had that black streak flashed from the nose of aero-subs +submerged, a streak darted from the nose of the central aero-sub, and +glistened in the sun like molten gold! + + * * * * * + +It touched the youngster who had called for volunteers for his attack +against this strange enemy. It touched his plane--and the plane vanished +instantly, while for a fraction of a second the pilot was visible in his +place, in the posture of sitting, hand on a row of buttons which did not +exist, head forward slightly as he aimed guns that had vanished. + +Then the pilot, still living, apparently unhurt, plunged down eight +thousand feet to the sea. The water geysered up as he struck, then +closed over the spot, and the gallant American youngster had become the +first victim in battle of the monsters of Moyen. + +Victim of a slender lancet of what seemed to be golden lightning. + +"He could have killed the pilot aloft there," came quietly from Munson, +"but he chose to pull his plane away from around him! Their control of +the ray is miraculous!" + +As though to confirm the statement of Munson, the leading aero-sub +struck again, a second plane. The plane vanished, but from the spot +where it had flown, not even a bit of metal or of man sufficiently large +to be seen by the delicate recording instruments of Maniel dropped out +of the sky. + +The ray of gold was a ray of oblivion if the minions of Moyen willed. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +_Charmion_ + + +"Prester Kleig," came suddenly into the Secret Room the voice of far +distant Moyen, "you will at once make a change in your rules regarding +the admission of other than Secret Agents to the Secret Room. You will +at once see that Charmion Kane, sister of your friend, is allowed to +enter!" + +"God Almighty!" A cry of agony from the lips of Prester Kleig. He had +not forgotten Charmion, but simply had had to move so swiftly that he +had put her out of his mind. For a year he had not seen her, and an hour +or two more could not matter greatly. + +"And her brother Carlos," went on the voice, "see that he, too, is +admitted. I wish, for certain reasons, that Charmion come unharmed +through the direct attack I am about to make against your country. I +confess that, save for this ability to speak to you, I am unable to work +any damage to the Secret Room, which is therefore the safest place for +Charmion Kane! Carlos Kane is being spared because he is her brother!" + +There was no mistaking the import of this sinister command from Moyen. +He had singled out Charmion, the best beloved of Prester Kleig, for his +attentions, and that he was sure of the success of his attack against +the United Americas was proved by the calm assurance of his voice, and +the fact that, concentrating on the attack as he must be, he still found +time for a thought of Charmion Kane. + + * * * * * + +The hand of ice which had seldom been absent from the heart of Kleig +since he had first seen and heard the voice of Moyen gripped him anew. +Blood pounded maddeningly in his temples. Cold sweat bathed his body. + +But the rest of the Secret Agents, save to freeze into immobility when +the hated voice spoke, gave no sign. They had worries of their own, for +no instructions had been given that they bring their own loved ones into +the sanctuary of the Secret Room. + +As though answering the thoughts of the others, the hated voice spoke +again. + +"I regret that I cannot arrange for sanctuary for the loved ones of all +of you, for you are gallant antagonists; why save the few, when the many +must perish? For I know you will not surrender, however much I have +proved to you that I am invincible. But Charmion Kane must be saved." + +"God!" whispered Kleig. "God!" + +Then spoke General Munson. + +"I think this ray which the Moyenites use is a variation of the +principle used in the intricate machinery of Professor Maniel, though +how they render it visible I do not know. But it doesn't matter, and may +be only a blind! You'll note that when the black streak, or the golden +ray, strikes anything that thing instantly disintegrates. A certain +pitch of resonance will break a pane of glass. It's a matter of +vibration, solely, wherein the molecules composing any object animate or +inanimate, are hurled in all directions instantaneously. + +"Professor Maniel's apparatus, the Vibration-Retarder, is able to +recapture the vibrations, speeding outward endlessly through space, and +to reconstruct, and _draw back_ to visibility the objects destroyed by +this visible vibratory ray, whatever it is. This problem, then, falls +into the province of Professor Maniel!" + + * * * * * + +Through the heart and soul of Prester Kleig there suddenly flowed a +great surge of hope. + +"General Munson, if you will operate the machinery of the +Vibration-Retarder, I wish to talk with Professor Maniel!" + +Instantly, efficiently, without a word in reply to the eager command of +Prester Kleig, General Munson relieved Professor Maniel at the apparatus +which Maniel called the Vibration-Retarder, his invention which he had +combined with audible teleview to complete this visual miracle of the +Secret Room. Professor Maniel stepped to where Prester Kleig was +sitting. + +Prester Kleig put fingers to his lips for silence, and an expression of +surprise crossed the wrinkled dead-white face of the Professor. + +Before Kleig could speak, however, there came a signal from somewhere +outside the Secret Room, a signal which said that the doors were being +opened and that a personage was coming. The Secret Agents looked at one +another in surprise, for every man who had a right to be inside the +Secret Room was already present. + +"I know," said Kleig, his face a mask of terror. "It is Charmion and +Carlos Kane! Moyen, the devil, has managed to make sure of obedience to +his orders!" + +The Secret Agents turned back to the screen, upon which the view of the +first aerial brush of the American flyers with the minions of Moyen, in +their aero-subs, was drawing to a terrible close. + +For, as the aero-sub commanders had played with the warships, which had +no human beings aboard them, so now did they play with the planes of the +Americas. + + * * * * * + +One American flyer, startled into a frenzy by the fate of his fellows, +put his helicopter into action, and leaped madly out of the midst of the +battle. Instantly an aero-sub zoomed, skyward after him. Again that +golden streak of light from the nose of an aero-sub, and the helicopter +vanes and the slender staff upon whose tip they whirled vanished, shorn +short off above the vane-grooves in the top of the wing! + +The plane dropped away, fluttering like a falling leaf for a moment, +before the aviator started his three propellers again. + +A cheer broke from the lips of Prester Kleig as he watched. The +commander of that particular aero-sub, apparently contemptuous of this +flyer who had tried to cut out of the fight, allowed him to fall away +unmolested--and the American, driven berserk by the casual, contemptuous +treatment accorded him by this strange enemy, zoomed the second his +propellers whirred into top-speed action, and raced up the sky toward +the belly of the aero-sub. + +"If only the aero-sub has a blind spot!" cried Prester Kleig. + + * * * * * + +In that instant a roaring crash sounded in the Secret Room as the +American plane, going full speed, crashed, propellers foremost, into the +belly of the aero-sub. + +And the aero-sub, whose brothers had seemed until this moment +invincible, did not escape the wrath of the American--though the +American went into oblivion with it! + +For, welded together, American plane and aero-sub started the eight +thousand feet plunge downward to the sea! + +"Watch!" shrieked Munson. "Watch!" + +As the aero-sub and the plane plunged down through the formation of +fighters, the aero-sub pilots saw it, and they fled in wild dismay and +at top speed from their falling compatriot. Why? For a moment it was not +apparent. And then it was. + +For out of the body of the doomed aero-subs came sheets of golden flame! +Not the flames of fire, but the golden sheen of that streak which the +aero-subs had used against the American planes already out of the fight! +The American flyer had crashed into the container, whatever it was, that +harnessed the agency through which the minions of Moyen had destroyed +the _Stellar_, and the battleships raped from Hampton Roads! + +"It is liquid, then!" shrieked Munson. + +And it seemed to be. For a second the golden mantle, strange, +awe-inspiring, bathed and rendered invisible the aero-sub and the plane +which had slain her. Then the golden flame vanished utterly, +instantly--and in the air where it had been there was nothing! The +aero-sub was gone, and the plane whose mad charge had erased her. + +"Her own death dealing agency destroyed her!" shrieked Munson. "And the +other aero-subs cut away from the fight to save themselves, because they +too carry death and destruction within them!" + + * * * * * + +Then the inner door of the Secret Room opened and two people entered. +One of them, a dazzling beauty with glorious black hair and the tread of +a princess, a picture of perfection from jeweled sandals to coiffured +hair, was Charmion Kane. Behind her came her brother, whose face was +chalky white. But Charmion, as she crossed to Kleig and kissed him, +while her eyes were luminous with love, held her head proudly high, +imperious. + +"I know," she said softly to Kleig, "and I am not afraid! I know you +will prevent it!" + +Kleig waved the two to chairs and turned again to Professor Maniel. + +On a piece of paper he wrote swiftly, using a mode of shorthand known +only to the Secret Agents. + +"Professor," he wrote feverishly, "can you reverse the process used in +your Vibration-Retarder? Tell me with your eyes, for Moyen may even know +this writing, and I am sure he hears what we say here, may even be able +to see us?" + +Professor Maniel started and stared deeply into the eyes of Prester +Kleig. His face grew thoughtful. He brushed his slender hand over the +massive dome of his brow. Hope burned high in the heart of Prester +Kleig. + + * * * * * + +Then, despite Kleig's instructions to answer merely by the expression in +his eyes, Professor Maniel leaned forward and wrote quickly on the piece +of paper Kleig had used. + +"Two hours!" + +Nothing else, no explanations; but Prester Kleig knew. Maniel believed +he could do it, but he needed two hours in which to perfect his theory +and make it workable. Kleig knew that had he been able to do it in two +years, or two decades, it still would have been in the nature of a +miracle. + +But two hours.... + +And Moyen had said that he was preparing to attack at once. + +In two hours Moyen, unless the Americas fought against him with every +resource at their command, could depopulate half the Western World. +Kleig looked back to the screen. + +There was not a single American plane in the sky above the graveyard of +those vanished warships. And the aero-subs, swift flying as the wind, +were racing back to the mother ship, scores of miles away. + +Munson worked with the Vibration-Retarder, the Sound-and-Vision devices, +ranging the sea off the coast to either side of that huge, suspended +fortress which was the mother submarine of the aero-subs. + +Gasps of terror, though the sight was not unexpected, broke from the +lips of every person in the Secret Room. + +For super-monsters of Moyen were moving to the attack. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +_Flowers of Martyrdom_ + + +For a minute the Secret Agents were appalled by the air of might of the +deep-sea monsters of Moyen, brought bodily, almost into the Secret Room +by the activities of General Munson at the Sound-and-Vision apparatus. + +Off the coast, miles away, yet looming moment by moment larger, +indicating the deceptively swift speed of the monsters, were scores of +the great under-water fortresses, traveling toward the coast of the +United Americas in a far-flung formation, each submarine separated from +its neighbor to right and left by something like a hundred miles, easy +cruising radius for the little aero-subs carried inside the monsters. + +That each submarine did carry such spawn of Satan was plainly seen, for +as the great submarines moved landward, scores of aero-subs sported +gleefully about the mother ships. There was no counting the number of +them. + +Two hours Maniel needed for his labors, which meant that for two hours +the flower of the country's manhood must try to hold in check the mighty +hordes of Moyen. + +"Somewhere there," stated Prester Kleig, "in one or the other of those +monsters, is Moyen himself. I know that since he wished Charmion saved +for his attentions! Do your work with your apparatus, Munson, while I go +out to the radio tower to broadcast an appeal for volunteers. +Charmion--Carlos...." + +But Prester Kleig found that he could not continue. Not that it was +necessary, for Charmion and Carlos knew what was in his mind. Charmion +was a lady of vast intelligence, from whom life's little ironies had not +been hidden--and Kane and Kleig had already discussed the activities of +Moyen where women were concerned. + + * * * * * + +Prester Kleig hurried to the Central Radio Tower, and as he passed +through each of the many doors leading out to the roof of the new +Capitol Building the guards at the doors left to form a guard for him, +at this moment the most precious man in the country, because he knew +best the terrible trials which faced her. + +The country was in turmoil. It seemed almost impossible that a whole day +had passed since Prester Kleig had returned and entered the Secret Room. +In the meantime a fleet of battleships had been drawn by some mysterious +agency out to sea from Hampton Roads, and a fleet of fighting planes +which had followed the ghost column outward had not returned. + +News-gatherers had spread the stories, distorted and garbled, across the +western continents, and throughout the western confederacy men, women +and children lived in the throes of the greatest fear that had ever +gripped them. Fear held them most because they could not give the cause +of their fear a name--save one.... + +Moyen.... And the name was on the lips of everyone, and frenzied woman +stilled their squalling babes with its mention. + +No word yet from the Secret Room, but Prester Kleig had scarcely +appeared from it than someone started the radio signal which informed +the frenzied, waiting world of the west that information, exact if +startling, would now be forthcoming. + +In millions of homes, in thousands of high-flying planes, listeners +tuned in at the clear-all hum. + + * * * * * + +Prester Kleig wasted no time in preliminaries. + +"Prester Kleig speaking. We are threatened by Moyen, with scores of +monster submarines, each a mother ship for scores of aero-subs, +combinations of airplanes and miniature submarines. They are moving up +on our eastern coast, from some secret base which we have not yet +located. They are equipped with death dealing instruments of which we +have but the most fragmentary knowledge, and for two hours I must call +upon all flyers to combat the menace; until the Secret Agents, +especially Professor Maniel, have had opportunity to counteract the +minions of Moyen. + +"Flyers of the United Americas! In the name of our country I ask that +volunteers gather on the eastern coast, each flyer proceeding at once to +the nearest coast-landing, after dropping all passengers. Your +commanders have already been named by your various organizations, as +required by franchise, and orders for the movement of the entire winged +armada will come from this station. However, the orders will simply be +this: Hold Moyen's forces at bay for a period of two hours! And know +that many of you go to certain death, and make your own decisions as to +whether you shall volunteer!" + +This ended, Prester Kleig, excitement mounting high, hurried back to the +Secret Room. + +Now the public knew, and as the American public is given to doing, it +steadied down when it knew the worst. Fear of the unknown had changed +the public into a myriad-souled beast gone berserk. Now that knowledge +was exact men grew calm of face, determined, and women assumed the +supporting role which down the ages has been that of brave women, +mothers of men. + + * * * * * + +A period of silence for a time after Prester Kleig's pronouncement. + +As he entered the first door leading into the Secret Room, Carlos Kane +met and passed him with a smile. + +"You called for winged volunteers, did you not, Kleig?" he asked +quietly. + +Kleig nodded. "You are going?" he said. + +"Yes. It is my duty." + +No other words were necessary, as the men shook hands. Prester Kleig +going on to the Secret Room, Carlos Kane going out to join the mighty +armada which must fight against the minions of Moyen. + +The words of Prester Kleig were heard by the pilots of the sky-lanes. +The passenger pits, equipped with self-opening parachutes which dropped +jumpers in series of long falls in order to acquire swift but accurate +and safe landing--they opened at intervals in long falls of two thousand +feet, stayed the fall, then closed again, so that drops were almost +continuous until the last four hundred feet--and pilots, swiftly making +up their minds, dropped their passengers, banked their planes, and raced +into the east. + + * * * * * + +All over the Americas pilots dropped their passengers and their loads if +their franchises called for the carrying of freight, and banked about to +take part in the first skirmish with the Moyenites. + +Dropping figures almost darkened the sky as passengers plunged downward +after the startling signal from Washington. Flowers, which were the +umbrellas of chutes, opened and closed like breathing winged orchids, +letting their burdens safely to earth. + +And clouds and fleets of airplanes came in from all directions to land, +in rows and rows which were endless, wing and wing, along the eastern +coast. + +Prester Kleig had scarcely entered the Secret Room than the hated voice +of Moyen again broke upon the ears of the machinelike Secret Agents. + +"This is madness, gentlemen! My people will annihilate yours!" + +But, since time for speech had passed, not one of the Secret Agents made +answer or paid the slightest heed to the warning, though deep in the +heart of each and every one was the belief that Moyen spoke no more than +the truth. + +Too, there was a growing respect for the half-god of Asia, in that he +was good enough to warn them of the holocaust which faced their country. + +By hundreds and thousands, wing and wing, airplanes dropped to the +Atlantic coast at the closest point of contact, when the signal reached +them. At high altitudes, planes crossing the Atlantic turned back and +returned at top speed, dropping their passengers as soon as over land. +That Moyen made no move to prevent the return of flyers out over the +ocean, and now coming back, was an ominous circumstance. + +It seemed to show that he held the American flyers, all of them, in +utter contempt. + + * * * * * + +Prester Kleig regarded the time. It had been half an hour since Moyen +had spoken of attack, half an hour since the monsters of the deep had +started the inexorable move toward land. On the screen the submarines +were bulking larger and larger as the moments fled, until it seemed to +the Secret Agents that the great composite shadow of them already was +sweeping inland from the coast. + +As the coast came close ahead of the monster subs the little aero-subs, +to the surprise of the Secret Agents, all vanished into their respective +mother ships. + +"But they have to use them," groaned Munson. "For their submarines are +useless in frontal attack against our shores!" + +"I am not so sure of that," said Prester Kleig. "For I have a suspicion +that those submarines have tractors under their keels, and that they can +come out on land! If this is so the monsters can, guarded by +armour-plate, penetrate to the very heart of our most populated areas +before their aero-subs are released." + +None of the Secret Agents as yet had stopped to ponder how the monsters +had reached their positions, and why Moyen was attacking from the east, +when the Pacific side of the continents would have appeared to be the +obvious point of attack, and would have obviated the necessity of long, +secret under-sea journeys wherein discovery prematurely must have been +one of the many worries of the submarine commanders. + +The mere fact of the presence of the monsters was enough. What had +preceded their presence was unimportant, save that their presence, and +their near approach to the shore undetected, further proved the +executive and planning genius of Moyen. + +Two miles, on an average, off the eastern coast the submarines laid +their eggs--the aero-subs, which darted from the sides of the mother +ships in flights and squadrons, made the surface, and leaped into the +sky. + +Five minutes later and the signal went forth to the phalanx of the +volunteers. + +"Take off! Fly east and engage the enemy, and hold him in check, and the +God of our fathers go with you!" + +One hour had passed since Moyen's ultimatum when the first vanguard of +the American flyers, obeying the peremptory signal, took the air and +darted eastward to meet the winged death-harbingers of Moyen. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +"_They Shall Not Pass!_" + + +Prester Kleig's heartfelt desire, as the American flyers closed with the +first of the aero-subs, was to go out with them and aid them in the +attack against the Moyenites. But he knew, and it was a tacit thing, +that he best served his country from the safe haven of the Secret Room. + +As he watched the scenes unfold on the screen of Maniel's genius, with +occasional glances at the somewhat mysterious but profound and +concentrated labors of Maniel, Charmion Kane rose from her place and +came to his side. + +Wide-eyed as she watched the joining of battle, she stood there, her +tiny hand encased in the tense one of Prester Kleig. + +"You would like to be out there," she murmured. "I know it! But your +country needs you here--and I have already given Carlos!" + +Prester Kleig tightened his grip on her hand. + + * * * * * + +There was deep, silent understanding between these two, and Prester +Kleig, in fighting against the Moyenites, realized, even above his +realization that his labors were primarily for the benefit of his +country, that he really matched wits with Moyen for the sake of +Charmion. Had anyone asked him whether he would have sacrificed her for +the benefit of his country, it would have been a difficult question to +answer. + +He was glad that the question was never asked. + +"Yes, beloved," he whispered, "I would like to be out there, but the +greatest need for me is here." + +But even so he felt as though he was betraying those intrepid flyers he +was sending to sure death. Yet they had volunteered, and it was the only +way. + +Maniel, a gnomelike little man with a Titan's brain, labored with his +calculations, made swiftly concrete his theories, while at the +Sound-and-Vision apparatus excitable General Munson ranged the aerial +battlefield to see how the tide of battle ebbed and flowed. + +That neither side would either ask or give quarter was instantly +apparent, for they rushed head-on to meet each other, those vast +opposing winged armadas, at top speed, and not a single individual +swerved from his course, though at least the Americans knew that death +rode the skyways ahead. + +Then.... + +The battle was joined. Moyen's forces were superior in armament. Their +sky-steeds were faster, more readily maneuverable, though the flying +forces of the Americas in the last five years had made vast strides in +aviation. But what the Americans lacked in power they made up for in +fearless courage. + + * * * * * + +The plan of battle seemed automatically to work itself out. + +The first vanguard of American planes came into contact with the forces +of Moyen, and from the noses of countless aero-subs spurted that golden +streak which the Secret Agents knew and dreaded. + +The first flight of planes, stretching from horizon to horizon, vanished +from the sky with that dreadful surety which had marked the passing of +the _Stellar_, and such of those warships as had felt the full force of +the visible ray. + +From General Munson rose a groan of anguish. These convertible fighting +planes had been the pride of the heart of the old warrior. To do him +credit, however, it was the wanton, so terribly inevitable destruction +of the flyers themselves which affected him. It was so final, so +absolute--and so utterly impossible to combat. + +"Wait!" snapped Prester Kleig. + +For the intrepid flyers behind that vanguard which had vanished had +witnessed the wholesale disintegration of the leading element of the +vast armada, and the pilots realized on the instant that no headlong +rush into the very noses of the aero-subs would avail anything. + +The vast American formation broke into a mad maelstrom of whirling, +darting, diving planes. Every third plane plummeted downward, every +second one climbed, and the remaining ships, even in the face of what +had happened to the vanished first flight, held steadily to the front. + +In this mad, seemingly meaningless formation, they closed on the +aero-subs. Without having seen the fight, the Americans were aping the +action of that one nameless flyer who had charged the aero-sub that had +been destroyed. + + * * * * * + +Kleig remembered. A score of ships had been destroyed utterly above the +graveyard of dreadnoughts, yet only one aero-sub, and that quite by +chance, had been marked off in the casualty column. + +Death rode the heavens as the American flyers went into action. For +head-on fights, flyers went in at top speed, their planes whirling on +the axes of fuselages, all guns going. Planes were armored against their +own bullets, and they were not under the necessity of watching to see +that they did not slay their own friends. + +Even so, bullets were rather ineffective against the aero-subs, whose +apparently flimsy, almost transparent outer covering diverted the +bullets with amazing ease. + +A whirling maelstrom of ships. The monsters of Moyen had drawn first +blood, if the expression may be used in an action where no blood at all +was drawn, but machines and men simply erased from existence. + +Hundreds of planes already gone when the second flight of ships closed +with the aero-subs. Yellow streaks of death flashed from aero-sub +nostrils, but even as aero-sub operators set their rays into motion the +American flyers in head-on charge rolled, dived or zoomed, and kept +their guns going. + +High above the first flight of aero-subs, behind which another flight +was winging swiftly into action, American flyers tilted the noses of +their planes over and dived under full power--to sure death by suicide, +though none knew it there at the moment. + + * * * * * + +These aero-subs could not be driven from the sky by usual means, and +could destroy American ships even before those planes could come to +handgrips; but they, the flyers plainly believed, could be crashed out +of the sky and so, never guessing what besides death in resulting +crashes they faced, the flyers above the aero-subs, even as aero-subs in +rear flashed in to prevent, dived down straight at the backs of the +aero-subs. + +In a hundred places the dives of the Americans worked successfully, and +American planes crashed full and true, full power on, into the backs of +the "flying fish." In some aero-subs the container of the Moyen-dealing +agency apparently remained untouched, and airplanes and aero-subs, +welded together, plunged down the invisible skylanes into the sea. + +Under water, some of the aero-subs were seen to keep in motion, limping +toward the nearest mother submarines. + +"I hope," said Prester Kleig, "the American flyers in such cases are +already dead, for Moyen will be a maniac in his tortures. Munson, do you +hurriedly examine the mother-subs and see if you can locate Moyen." + + * * * * * + +However, only a scattered aero-sub here and there went down without the +strange substance of the yellow ray being released. In most cases, upon +the contact of plane with aero-sub, the aero-subs and planes were +instantly blotted from view by the yellow, golden flames from the heart +of the winged harbingers of Moyen. + +Golden flames, blinding in their brightness, dropping down, mere +shapeless blotches, then fading out to nothingness in a matter of +seconds--with aero-sub and airplane totally erased from action and from +existence. + +The American flyers saw and knew now the manner of death they faced. Yet +all along the battle front not an American tried to evade the issue and +draw out of the fight. A sublime, inspiring exhibition of mass courage +which had not been witnessed down the years since that general +engagement which men of the time had called the Great War. + +Prester Kleig turned to look at Maniel. Drops of perspiration bathed the +cheeks of the master scientist, but his eyes were glowing like coals of +fire. His face was set in a white mask of concentration, and Prester +Kleig knew that Maniel would find the answer to the thing he sought if +such answer could be found. + +Would the American flyers be able to hold off the minions of Moyen until +Maniel was ready? The fight out there above the waters was a terrible +thing, and the Americans fought and died like men inspired, yet +inexorably the winged armada of Moyen, preceded by those licking golden +tongues, was moving landward. + +"Great God!" cried Munson. "Look!" + + * * * * * + +There was really no need for the order, for every Secret Agent saw as +soon as did Munson. Under the sea, just off the coast, the mother-subs +had touched their blunt nose against the upward shelving of the sea +bottom--had touched bottom, and were slowly but surely following the +underwater curve of the land, up toward the surface, like unbelievable +antediluvian monsters out of some nightmare. + +"Yes," said Kleig quietly, "those monsters of Moyen can move on land, +and the aero-subs can operate from them as easily on land as under +water." + +Kleig regarded the time, whirled to look at Professor Maniel. + +One hour and forty minutes had passed since Maniel had begged for two +hours in which to prepare some mode of effectively combatting the might +of Moyen. Twenty minutes to go; yet the mother-subs would be ashore, +dragging their sweating, monstrous sides out of the deep, within ten +minutes! + +Ten minutes ashore and there was no guessing the havoc they could cause +to the United Americas! + +"Hurry, Maniel! Hurry! Hurry!" said Prester Kleig. + +But he spoke the words to himself, though even had he spoken them aloud +Maniel would not have heard. For Maniel, for two hours, had closed his +mind to everything that transpired outside his own thoughts, devoted to +foiling the power of Moyen. + +"I've found him!" snapped Munson. + + * * * * * + +He pointed with a shaking forefinger to one of the mother-subs crawling +up the slant of the ocean bed, twisted one of the little nubs of the +Sound-and-Vision apparatus, and the angelic face and Satanic eyes, the +twisted body, of Moyen came into view. + +The face was calm with dreadful purpose, and Moyen stood in the heart of +one of his monsters, his eyes turned toward the land. With a gasp of +terror, dreadfully afraid for the first time, Prester Kleig turned and +looked into the eyes of Charmion.... + +"No," she said. "It will never happen. I have faith in you!" + +There were still ten minutes of the two hours left when the mother-subs +broke water and started crawling inland, swiftly, surely, without +faltering in the slightest as they changed their element from water to +land. + +As though their appearance had been the signal, the aero-subs in action +against the first line of American planes broke out of the one-sided +fight and dived for their mother ships, while a mere handful of the +American planes started back for home to prepare anew to continue the +struggle. + +Prester Kleig gave the signal to the second monster armada which had +remained in reserve. + +"Do everything in your power to halt the march of Moyen's amphibians!" + +Ten minutes to go, and Professor Maniel still labored like a Titan. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +_Caucasia Falls Silent_ + + +As the scores of amphibian monsters came lumbering forth upon dry land +it became instantly apparent why the aero-subs had returned to the +mother ships. For a few moments, out of the water, the amphibians were +almost helpless, with practically no way of attack or defense--as +helpless as huge turtles turned legs up. + +But as each aero-sub entered its proper slot in the side of the mother +amphibian, it was turned about and the nose thrust back into the +opening, which closed down to fit tightly about the nose of the +aero-sub, so that those flame-breathing monsters protruded from the +sides of the amphibians in many places--transforming the amphibians into +monsters with hundreds of golden, licking tongues! + +As, with each and every aero-sub in place, the amphibians started moving +inland, Professor Maniel made his first move. With the tiny apparatus +upon which he had been working, he stepped to the table before the +Sound-and-Vision apparatus and spoke softly to his compatriots. + +"Gentlemen," he said, "I have finished, and it will work effectively!" + +Though Maniel spoke softly, it was plain to be seen that he was proud of +his accomplishment, which remained only to be attached to start +performance. + +A matter of seconds.... + +Yet during those seconds was the real might, the real power for utter +devastation, of Moyen fully exposed! + + * * * * * + +The amphibians got under way as the airplanes of the Americas swept into +the fight. + +From the sides of the monsters licked out those golden tongues of +flame--and from the front. + +Half a dozen amphibians slipped into New York from the harbor side and +started into the heart of the city. And between the time when Maniel had +said he was ready and the moment when he made his first active move +against Moyen, a half-dozen skyscrapers vanished into nothingness, the +spots where they had stood swept as clear of debris as though the land +had never been reclaimed from Nature! + +None was ever destined to know how many lives were lost in that first +attack of the monsters of the golden, myriad tongues; but the monsters +struck in the midst of a working day when the skyscrapers were filled +with office workers. + +And resolve struck deep into the hearts of the Secret Agents: if Moyen +were turned back, he must be made to pay for the slaughter. + +A matter of seconds.... + + * * * * * + +Then a moment of deathly silence as Munson gave way at the screen for +the gnomelike little Professor Maniel. + +"Now, gentlemen!" snapped Maniel. "If my theory is correct," +manipulating instruments with lightning speed as he talked, "the +reversion of the principle of my Vibration-Retarder--which captures +vibrations speeding outward from the earth and transforms them once +again into sound and pictures audible and visible to the human ear--this +apparatus will disintegrate the monsters as our boats and planes were +disintegrated! + +"In this I have even been compelled to manipulate in the matter of +time! I must not only defeat and annihilate the minions of Moyen, but +must work from a mathematical absurdity, so that at the moment of impact +that moment itself must become part of the past, sufficiently remote to +remove the monsters at such distance from the earth that not even the +mighty genius of Moyen can return them!" + +The whirring, gentle as the whirring of doves' wings. In the center of +the picture on the screen were those half-dozen amphibians laying waste +Manhattan. Maniel set his intricate, delicate machinery into motion. + +Instantly the amphibians there seemed to become misty, shadowy, and to +lift out of Manhattan up above the roof-tops of skyscrapers still +remaining, nebulous and wraithlike as ghost-shrouds--yet swinging +outward from the earth with speed almost too swift for the eye to +detect. + +But where the amphibians had rested there stood, reclined--in all sorts +of postures, surprising and even a bit ridiculous--the men of Moyen who +had operated the monsters of Moyen! + + * * * * * + +From the Central Radio tower went forth a mighty voice of command to the +planes which had been engaging the aero-subs off the coast. + +"Slay! Slay!" + +Down flashed the planes of the Americas, and their guns were blazing, +inaudibly, but none the less deadly of aim and of purpose, straight into +the midst of the men of Moyen who had thus been left marooned and almost +helpless with the vanishing of their amphibians. + +And, noting how they fell in strangled, huddled heaps before the +vengeful fire of the American planes, the Secret Agents sighed, and +Maniel, his face alight with the pride of accomplishment, switched to +another point along the coast. + +And as a new group of the monsters of Moyen came into view, and Maniel +bent to his labors afresh, the hated voice of the master mobster broke +once more in the Secret Room. + +"Enough, Kleig! Enough! We will surrender to save lives! I stipulate +only that my own life be spared!" + +To which Prester Kleig made instant reply. + +"Did you offer us choice of surrender? Did you spare the lives of our +people which, with your control of your golden rays, you could easily +have done? No! Nor will we spare lives, least of all the life of Moyen!" + +The whirring again, as of the whirring of doves' wings. More metal +monsters, even as golden tongues spewed forth from their many sides, +vanished from view, leaping skyward, while the operators of them were +left to the mercies of the remaining airmen of the Americans. + + * * * * * + +Voicelessly the word went forth: + +"Slay! Slay!" + +It was Charmion who begged for mercy for the vanquished as, one by one, +as surely as fate, the monsters with their contained aero-subs were +blotted out, leaving pilots and operators behind them. Down upon these +dropped the airmen of the West, slaying without mercy.... + +"Please, lover!" Charmion whispered. "Spare them!" + +"Even...?" he began, thinking of Moyen, who would have taken Charmion. +He felt her shudder as she read his mind, understood what he would have +asked. + +"There he is!" came softly from Munson. + +An amphibian had just been disintegrated, had just climbed mistily, +swiftly, into invisibility in the skies. And there in the midst of the +conquerors left behind, his angel's face set in a moody mask, his pale +eyes awful with fear, his misshapen body sagging, terrible in its +realization of failure, was Moyen! + +Even as Kleig prepared to give the mercy signal, a plane dived down on +the group about Moyen, and the Secret Agents could see the hand of the +pilot, lifted high, as though he signaled. + +The plane was a Mayther! The pilot was Carlos Kane! + + * * * * * + +Just as Kane went into action, and the noiseless bullets from his ship +crashed into that twisted body, causing it to jump and twitch with the +might of them, Prester Kleig gave the signal. + +Even as the figure of Moyen crashed to the soil and the man's soul +quitted its mortal casement, Kleig commanded: + +"Spare all who surrender! Make them prisoners, to be used to repair the +damage they have done to our country! Guards will be instantly placed +over the amphibians and the aero-subs--for the day may come when we +shall need to know their secrets!" + +And, as men, hands lifted high in token of surrender, quitted the now +motionless amphibians, and flyers dropped down to make them prisoners, +Maniel sighed, pressed various buttons on his apparatus, and the mad +scene of carnage they had witnessed for hours faded slowly out, and +darkness and silence filled the Secret Room. + +But darkness is the joy of lovers, and in the midst of silence that was +almost appalling by contrast, Kleig and Charmion were received into each +other's arms. + + + +---------------------------+ + | Everyone Is Invited | + | _To "Come Over in_ | + | 'THE READERS' CORNER'"! | + +---------------------------+ + + + + +Vampires of Venus + +_By Anthony Pelcher_ + +[Illustration: _He seized a short knife and threw himself forward._] + + Leslie Larner, an entomologist borrowed from the Earth, pits himself + against the night-flying vampires that are ravaging the inhabitants + of Venus. + + +It was as if someone had thrown a bomb into a Quaker meeting, when +adventure suddenly began to crowd itself into the life of the studious +and methodical Leslie Larner, professor of entomology. + +Fame had been his since early manhood, when he began to distinguish +himself in several sciences, but the adventure and thrills he had longed +for had always fallen to the lot of others. + +His father, a college professor, had left him a good working brain and +nothing else. Later his mother died and he was left with no relatives in +the world, so far as he knew. So he gave his life over to study and hard +work. + +Still youthful at twenty-five, he was hoping that fate would "give him +a break." It did. + +He was in charge of a Government department having to do with Oriental +beetles, Hessian flies, boll weevils and such, and it seemed his life +had been just one bug after another. He took creeping, crawling things +seriously and believed that, unless curbed, insects would some day crowd +man off the earth. He sounded an alarm, but humanity was not disturbed. +So Leslie Larner fell back on his microscope and concerned himself with +saving cotton, wheat and other crops. His only diversion was fishing for +the elusive rainbow trout. + +He managed to spend a month each year in the Colorado Rockies angling +for speckled beauties. + +Larner was anything but a clock-watcher, but on a certain bright day in +June he was seated in his laboratory doing just that. + +"Just five minutes to go," he mused. + +It was just 4:25 P. M. He had finished his work, put his affairs in +order, and in five minutes would be free to leave on a much needed and +well earned vacation. His bags were packed and at the station. His +fishing tackle, the pride of his young life, was neatly rolled in oiled +silk and stood near at hand. + +"I'll just fill my calabash, take one more quiet smoke, and then for the +mountains and freedom," he told himself. He settled back with his feet +on his desk. He half closed his eyes in solid comfort. Then the bomb +fell and exploded. + + * * * * * + +B-r-r-r-r! + +The buzzer on his desk buzzed and his feet came off the desk and hit the +floor with a thud. His eyes popped open and the calabash was immediately +laid aside. + +That buzzer usually meant business, and it would be his usual luck to +have trouble crash in on him just as he was on the edge of a rainbow +trout paradise. + +A messenger was ushered into the room by an assistant. The boy handed +him an envelope, said, "No answer," and departed. + +Larner tore open the envelope lazily. He read and then re-read its +contents, while a look of puzzled surprise disturbed his usually placid +countenance. He spread the sheet of paper out on his desk, and for the +tenth time he read: + + Confidential. + + Memorize this address and destroy this paper: + + Tula Bela, 1726 88th Street, West, City of Hesper, Republic of + Pana, Planet Venus. + + Will meet you in the Frying Pan. + +That was all. It was enough. Larner lost his temper. He crumpled the +paper and tossed it in the waste basket. He was not given to profanity, +but he could say "Judas Priest" in a way that sizzled. + +"Judas Priest!" he spluttered. "Anyone who would send a man a crazy +bunch of nonsense like that, at a time like this, ought to be snuffed +out like a beetle! + +"'Meet you in the Frying Pan,'" he quoted. Then he happened to recall +something. "By golly, there is a fishing district in Colorado known as +the Frying Pan. That's not so crazy, but the planet Venus part surely is +cuckoo." + +He fished the paper out of the waste basket, found the envelope, placed +the strange message within and put it in his inside coat pocket. Then he +seized his suitcase and fishing tackle, and, rushing out, hailed a taxi. +Not long after he was on his way west by plane. + + * * * * * + +As the country unrolled under him he retrieved the strange note from his +pocket. He read it again and again. Then he examined the envelope. It +was an ordinary one of good quality, designed for business rather than +social usage. The note paper appeared quite different. It was unruled, +pure white, and of a texture which might be described as pebbly. It was +strongly made, and of a nature unlike any paper Larner had ever seen +before. It appeared to have been made from a fiber rather than a pulp. + +"Wonder who wrote it?" Larner asked himself. "It is beautiful +handwriting, masculine yet artistic. Wonder where he got the Frying Pan +idea? At any rate, I'm not going to the Frying Pan this year--I'm +camping on Tennessee Creek, in Lake County, Colorado. The country there +is more beautiful and restful. + +"But this street address on the planet Venus. Seems to me I read +somewhere that Marconi had received mysterious signals that he believed +came from the planet Venus. Hesper, Hesper ... it sounds familiar, +somehow. Wonder if there could be anything to it?" + +Something impelled him to follow out the instructions in the note. He +spent the next few hours repeating the address over and over again. When +he was satisfied that he had memorized it thoroughly, he tore the +strange paper into bits and sent it fluttering earthward like a tiny +snowstorm. + +Larner was not a gullible individual, but neither was he unimaginative. +He was scientist enough to know that "the impossibilities of to-day are +the accomplishments of to-morrow." So while not convinced that the note +was a serious communication, still his mind was open. + +The weird address insisted on creeping into his mind and driving out +other thoughts, even those of his speckled playfellows, the rainbow +trout. + +"I've a notion to change my plans and go from Denver to the Frying Pan," +he cogitated. Then he thought, "No, I won't take it that seriously." + + * * * * * + +Anyone who knows the Colorado Rockies knows paradise. There is no more +beautiful country on the globe. Lake County, where Larner had chosen +his fishing grounds, has as its seat the old mining camp of Leadville. +It has been visited and settled more for its gold mines than the golden +glow of its sunsets above the clouds, but the gold of the sunsets is +eternal, while the gold of the mines is fading quickly away. + +Leadville, with its 5,000 inhabitants, nestles above the clouds, at an +altitude of more than 10,000 feet. Mount Massive with its three peaks +lies back of the town in panorama and rises to a height of some 14,400 +feet. In the rugged mountains thereabouts are hundreds of lakes fed by +wild streams and bubbling crystal springs. All these lakes are above the +clouds. + +Winter sees the whole picture decorated with bizarre snowdrifts from +twenty to forty feet deep, but spring comes early. The beautiful +columbines and crocuses bloom before the snow is all off the ground in +the valleys. The lands up to 12,000 feet altitude are carpeted with a +light green grass and moss. Giant pines and dainty aspens, with their +silvery bark and pinkish leaves blossom forth and whisper, while the +eternal snows still linger in the higher rocky cliffs and peaks above. + +Indian-paint blooms its blood red in contrast to the milder colorings. +Blackbirds and bluebirds chatter and chipmunks chirp. The gold so hard +to find in the mines glares from the skies. The hills cuddle in banks of +snowy clouds, and above all a pure clear blue sky sweeps. The lakes and +streams abound with rainbow trout, the gamest of any fresh water fish. +It is indeed a paradise for either poet or sportsman. + +In any direction near to Leadville a man can find Heaven and recreation +and rest. + +Finding himself on Harrison Avenue, the main street of the county seat, +Larner, after renewing some old acquaintanceships, started west in a +flivver for Tennessee Creek. The flivver is a modern adjustment. Until +a few years ago the only means of traversing these same hills was by +patient, sure-footed donkeys, which carried the pack while the wayfarer +walked along beside. + + * * * * * + +The first day's fishing was good. Trout seemed to greet him cheerily and +sprang eagerly to the fray. They bit at any sort of silken fly he cast. + +The site chosen by Larner for his camp was in a mossy clearing separated +from the stream by a fringe of willows along the creek. Then came a +border of aspens backed by a forest of silver-tipped firs. + +It was ideal and his eyes swept the scene with satisfaction. Then he +began whittling bacon to grease his pan for frying trout over the open +fire. + +Suddenly he heard a rustle in the aspens, and, looking up, beheld a +picture which made his eyes bulge. A man and a woman, garbed seemingly +in the costumes of another world, walked toward him. Neither were more +than five feet tall but were physically perfect, and marvelously +pleasing to the eye. There was little difference in their dress. + +Both wore helmets studded with what Larner believed to be sapphires. He +learned later they were diamonds. Their clothing consisted of tight +trouserlike garments surmounted by tunics of some white pelt resembling +chamois save for color. A belt studded with precious stones encircled +their waists. Artistic laced sandals graced their small firm feet. + +Their skin was a pinkish white. Their every feature was perfection plus, +and their bodies curved just enough wherever a curve should be. The +woman was daintier and more fully developed, and her features were even +more finely chiseled than the man. Otherwise it would have been +difficult to distinguish their sex. + +Larner took in these details subconsciously, for he was awed beyond +expression. All he could do was to stand seemingly frozen, half bent +over the campfire with his frying pan in his hand. + + * * * * * + +The man spoke. + +"I hope we did not startle you," he said. "I thought my note would +partly prepare you for this meeting. We expected to find you in the +Frying Pan district. When you did not appear there we tuned our radio +locator to your heart beats and in that way located you here. It was +hardly a second's space-flying time from where we were." + +Larner said nothing. He could only stand and gape. + +"I do not wonder that you are surprised," said the strange little man. +"I will explain that I am Nern Bela, of the City of Hesper, on the +planet Venus. This is my sister Tula. We greet you in the interest of +the Republic of Pana, which embraces all of the planet you know as +Venus." + +When Larner recovered his breath, he lost his temper. + +"I don't know what circus you escaped from, but I crave solitude and I +have no time to be bothered with fairy tales," he said with brutal +bruskness. + +Expressions of hurt surprise swept the countenances of his visitors. + +The man spoke again: + +"We are just what we assert we are, and our finding you was made +necessary by a condition which grieves the souls of all the 900,000,000 +inhabitants of Venus. We have come to plead with you to come with us and +use your scientific knowledge to thwart a scourge which threatens the +lives of millions of people." + +There was a quiet dignity about the man and an air of pride about the +woman which made Larner stop and think, or try to. He rubbed his hand +over his brow and looked questioningly at the pair. + +"If you are what you say you are, how did you get here?" he asked. + +"We came in a targo, a space-flying ship, capable of doing 426,000 miles +an hour. This is just 1200 times as fast as 355 miles an hour, the +highest speed known on earth. Come with us and we will show you our +ship." They looked at him appealingly, and both smiled a smile of +wistful friendliness. + +Larner, without a word, threw down his frying pan and followed them +through the aspens. The brother and sister walking ahead of him gave his +eyes a treat. He surveyed the perfect form of the girl. Her perfection +was beyond his ken. + +"They certainly are not of this world," he mused. + + * * * * * + +A few hundred yards farther on there was a beach of pebbles, where the +stream had changed its course. On this plot sat a gigantic spherical +machine of a glasslike material. It was about 300 feet in diameter and +it was tapered on two sides into tees which Larner rightly took to be +lights. + +"This is a targo, our type of space-flyer," said Nern Bela. "It is +capable of making two trips a year between Venus and the earth. We have +visited this planet often, always landing in some mountain or jungle +fastness as heretofore we did not desire earth-dwellers to know of our +presence." + +"Why not?" asked Larner, his mouth agape and his eyes protruding. His +mind was so full of questions that he fairly blurted his first one. + +"Because," said Bela, slowly and frankly, "because our race knows no +sickness and we feared contagion, as your race has not yet learned to +control its being." + +"Oh," said Lamer thoughtfully. He realized that humans of the earth, +whom he had always regarded as God's most perfect beings, were not so +perfect after all. + +"How do you people control your being, as you express it?" he asked. + +"It is simple," was the reply. "For ninety centuries we have ceased to +breed imperfection, crime and disease. We deprived no one of the +pleasures of life, but only the most perfect mental and physical +specimens of our people cared to have children. In other words, while we +make no claim to controlling our sex habits, we do control results." + +"Oh," said Larner again. + +Nern Bela led the way to a door which opened into the side of the +space-flyer near its base. "We have a crew of four men and four women," +he said. "They handle the entire ship, with my sister and I in command, +making six souls aboard in all." + +"Why men and women?" thought Larner. + +As if in answer to his thought Bela said: + +"On the earth the two sexes have struggled for sex supremacy. This has +thrown your civilization out of balance. On Venus we have struggled for +sex equality and have accomplished it. This is a perfect balance. Man +and women engage in all endeavor and share all favors and rewards +alike." + +"In war, too?" asked Larner. + +"There has not been war on Venus for 600,000 years," said Bela. "There +is only the one nation, and the people all live in perfect accord. Our +only trouble in centuries is a dire peril which now threatens our +people, and it is of this that I wish to talk to you more at length." + + * * * * * + +They were standing close to the targo. Larner was struck by the peculiar +material of which it was constructed. There was a question in his eyes, +and Nern Bela answered it: + +"The metal is duranium; it is metalized quartz. It is frictionless, +conducts no current or ray except repulsion and attraction ray NTR69X6 +by which it is propelled. It is practically transparent, lighter than +air and harder than a diamond. It is cast in moulds after being melted +or, rather, fused. + +"We use cold light which we produce by forcing oxygen through air tubes +into a vat filled with the fat of a deep sea fish resembling your whale. +You are aware, of course, that that is exactly how cold light is +produced by the firefly, except for the fact that the firefly uses his +own fat." + +Larner was positively fascinated. He smoothed the metal of the targo in +appreciation of its marvelous construction, but he longed most to see +the curious light giving mechanism, for this was closer to his own line +of entomology. He had always believed that the light giving organs of +fireflys and deep-sea fishes could be reproduced mechanically. + +The interior of the ship resembled in a vague way that of an ocean +liner. It was controlled by an instrument board at which a man and a +girl sat. They did not raise their heads as the three people entered. + +When called by Bela and his sister, who seemed to give commands in +unison, the crew assembled and were presented to the visitor. + +"Earth-dwellers are not the curiosity to us that we seem to be to you," +said Tula Bela, speaking for the first time and smiling sweetly. + +Larner was too engrossed to note the remark further than to nod his +head. He was lost in contemplation of these strange people, all garbed +exactly alike and all surpassingly lovely to look upon. + + * * * * * + +An odor of food wafted from the galley, and Larner remembered he was +hungry, with the hunger of health. He had swung his basket of fish over +his shoulder when he left his campfire, and Tula took it from him. + +"Would you like to have our chef prepare them for you?" she said, as she +caught his hungry glance at his day's catch. This time Larner answered +her. + +"If you will pardon me," he said awkwardly. "Really I am famished." + +"You will not miss your fish dinner," said the girl. + +"I believe there is enough for all of us," said Larner. "I caught twenty +beauties. I never knew fish to bite like that. Why, they--" and he was +off on a voluminous discourse on a favorite subject. + +Those assembled listened sympathetically. Then Tula took the fish, and +soon the aroma of broiling trout mingled with the other entrancing +galley odors. + +After a dinner at which some weird yet satisfying viands were served and +much unusual conversation indulged in, Nern Bela led the way to what +appeared to be the captain's quarters. The crew and their visitor sat +down to discuss a subject which proved to be of such a terrifying nature +as to scar human souls. + +"People on Venus," said Nern, as his eyes took on a worried expression, +"are unable to leave their homes after nightfall due to some strange +nocturnal beast which attacks them and vampirishly drains all blood from +their veins, leaving the dead bodies limp and empty." + +"What? How?" questioned Larner leaning far forward over the conference +table. + +The others nodded their heads, and in the eyes of the women there was +terror. Larner could not but believe this. + +"The beasts, or should I say insects, are as large as your horses and +they fly, actually fly, by night, striking down humans, domestic animals +and all creatures of warm blood. How many there are we have no means of +knowing, and we cannot find their hiding and breeding places. They are +not native to our planet, and where they come from we cannot imagine. +They are actually monstrous flys, or bugs, or some form of insects." + + * * * * * + +Larner was overcome by incredulity and showed it. "Insects as big as +horses?" he questioned and he could hardly suppress a smile. + +"Believe us, in the name of the God of us all," insisted Nern. "They +have a mouth which consists of a large suction disk, in the center of +which is a lancelike tongue. The lance is forced into the body at any +convenient point, and the suction disk drains out the blood. If we only +knew their source! They attack young children and the aged, up to five +hundred years, alike." + +"What! Five hundred years?" exploded Larner again. + +"I should have explained," said Nern, simply, "that Venus dwellers, due +to our advanced knowledge of sanitation and health conversation, live +about 800 years and then die invariably of old age. The only unnatural +cause of death encountered is this giant insect. Accidents do occur, but +they are rare. There are no deliberate killings on Venus." + +Larner did not answer. He only pondered. The more he ran over the +strange happenings of the last week in his mind the more he believed he +was dreaming. His thoughts took a strange turn: "Why do these vain +people go around dressed in jeweled ornaments?" + +Nern again anticipated a question. "Diamonds, gold and many of what you +call precious stones are common on Venus," he volunteered. "Talc and +many other things are more valuable." + +"Talc?" + +"Yes, we use an immense quantity of it. We have a wood that is harder +than your steel. We build machinery with it. We cannot use oil to +lubricate these wooden shafts and bearings as it softens the wood, so +all parts exposed to friction are sprayed constantly by a gust of talc +from a blower. + +"You use talc mostly for toilet purposes. We use it for various +purposes. There is little left on Venus, and it is more valuable to us +than either gold or diamonds. We draw on your planet now for talc. You +dump immense quantities. We just shipped one hundred 1,000-ton globes of +it from the Cripple Creek district, and the district never missed it. We +drew most of it from your mine dumps." + + * * * * * + +Nern tried not to look bored as he explained more in detail: "We brought +100 hollow spheres constructed of duranium. We suspended these over the +Cripple Creek district at an altitude of 10,000 feet above the earth's +surface. Because of the crystal glint of duranium they were invisible to +earth dwellers at that height. Then we used a suction draft at night, +drawing the talc from the earth, filling one drum after another. This is +done by tuning in a certain selective attraction that attracts only +talc. It draws it right out of your ground in tiny particles and +assembles it in the transportation drums as pure talc. On the earth, if +noticed at all, it would have been called a dust storm. + +"The drums, when loaded with talc, are set to attract the proper +planetary force and they go speeding toward Venus at the rate of 426,000 +miles an hour. They are prevented from colliding with meteors by an +automatic magnetic device. This is controlled by magnetic force alone, +and when the targo gets too close to a meteor it changes its course +instantly. The passenger targo we ride in acts similarly. And now may I +return to the subject of the vampires of Venus?" + +"Pardon my ignorance," said Larner, and for the first time in his life +he felt very ignorant indeed. + +"I know little more than I have told you," said Nern, rather hopelessly. +"Our knowledge of your world, your people and your language comes from +our listening in on you and observing you without being observed or +heard. This might seem like taking an advantage of you, were it not for +the fact that we respect confidences, and subjugate all else to science. +We have helped you at times, by telepathically suggesting ideas to your +thinkers. + +"We would have given you all our inventions in this way, gladly, but in +many instances we were unable to find minds attuned to accept such +advanced ideas. We have had the advantage of you because our planet is +so many millions of years older than your own." There was a plaintive +note in Nern's voice as he talked. + + * * * * * + +"But now we are on our knees to you, so to speak. We do not know +everything and, desperately, we need the aid of a man of your caliber. +In behalf of the distraught people of Venus, I am asking you bluntly to +make a great sacrifice. Will you face the dangers of a trip to Venus and +use your knowledge to aid us in exterminating these creatures of hell?" +There was positive pleading in his voice, and in the eyes of his +beautiful sister there were tears. + +"But what would my superiors in the Government Bureau think?" feebly +protested Larner, "I could not explain...." + +"You have no superiors in your line. Our Government needs you at this +time more than any earthly government. Your place here is a fixture. You +can always return to it, should you live. We are asking you to face a +horrible death with us. You can name your own compensation, but I know +you are not interested so much in reward. + +"Now, honestly, my good professor, there is no advantage to be gained by +explanation. Just disappear. In the name of God and in the interests of +science and the salvation of a people who are at your mercy, just drop +out of sight. Drop out of life on this planet. Come with us. The cause +is worthy of the man I believe you to be." + +"I will go," said Larner, and his hosts waited for no more. An instant +later the targo shot out into interstellar space. + +"How do you know what course to follow?" asked Larner after a reasonable +time, when he had recovered from his surprise at the sudden take-off. + +"We do not need to know. Our machine is tuned to be attracted by the +planetary force of Venus alone. We could not go elsewhere. A repulsion +ray finds us as we near Venus and protects us against too violent a +landing. We will land on Venus like a feather about three months from +to-night." + +The time of the journey through outer space was of little moment save +for one incident. Larner and the other travelers were suddenly and +rather rudely jostled about the rapidly flying craft. + +Larner lost his breath but not his speech. "What happened?" he inquired. + +"We just automatically dodged a meteor," explained Nern. + + * * * * * + +Most of the time of the trip was spent by Larner in listening to +explanations of customs and traditions of the people of the brightest +planet in the universe. + +There was a question Larner had desired to ask Nern Bela, yet he +hesitated to do so. Finally one evening during the journey to Venus, +when the travelers had been occupying themselves in a scientific +discussion of comparative evolution on the two planets, Larner saw his +opportunity. + +"Why," he asked rather hesitatingly, "did the people of Venus always +remain so small? Why did you not strive more for height? The Japanese, +who are the shortest in stature of earth people, always wanted to be +tall." + +"Without meaning any offense," replied Nern, "I must say that it is +characteristic of earth dwellers to want something without knowing any +good reason why they want it. It is perfectly all right for you people +to be tall, but for us it is not so fitting. You see, Venus is smaller +than the earth. Size is comparative. You think we are not tall because +you are used to taller people. Comparatively we are tall enough. In +proportion to the size of our planet we are exactly the right size. We +keep our population at 900,000,000, and that is the perfectly exact +number of people who can live comfortably on our planet." + + * * * * * + +Arriving on Venus, Larner was assigned a laboratory and office in one of +the Government buildings. It was a world seemingly made of glass. +Quartz, of rose, white and crystal coloring, Larner found, was the +commonest country rock of the planet. In many cases it was shot full of +splinters of gold which the natives had not taken the trouble to +recover. This quartz was of a terrific hardness and was used in +building, paving, and public works generally. The effect was +bewildering. It was a world of shimmering crystal. + +The atmosphere of Venus had long puzzled Larner. While not an astronomer +in the largest sense of the word, yet he had a keen interest in the +heavens as a giant puzzle picture, and he had given some spare time to +the study. + +He knew that from all indications Venus had a most unusual atmosphere. +He had read that the atmosphere was considerably denser than that of the +earth, and that its presence made observation difficult. The actual +surface of the planet he knew could hardly be seen due, either to this +atmosphere, or seemingly perpetual cloud banks. + +He had read that the presence of atmosphere surrounding Venus is +indicated to earthly astronomers, during the planet's transit, by rings +of light due to the reflection and scattering of collected sunlight by +its atmosphere. + +Astronomers on earth, he knew, had long been satisfied of the presence +of great cloud banks, as rocks and soils could not have such high +reflecting power. He knew that like the moon, Venus, when viewed from +the earth, presents different phases from the crescent to the full or +total stage. + +Looking up at the sky from the quartz streets of Venus, Larner beheld, +in sweeping grandeur, massed cloud banks, many of them apparently rain +clouds. + +Nern noted his skyward gaze, and said: + +"We have accomplished meteorological control. Those clouds were brought +under control when we conquered interplanetary force, and what you call +gravity. We form them and move them at will. They are our rain factory. +We make rain when and where we will. This insures our crops and makes +for health and contentment. + +"The air, you will note, is about the same or a little more moist than +the earth air at sea level. This is due to the planet's position nearer +the sun. + +"We have been striving for centuries to make the air a little drier and +more rare, but we have not succeeded yet. The heavy content of +disintegrated quartz in our soil makes moisture very necessary for our +crops, so our moist atmosphere is evidently a provision of providence. +We are used to breathing this moist air, and when I first visited the +earth I was made uncomfortable by your rarified atmosphere. Now I can +adjust myself to breathing the air of either planet. However, I find +myself drinking a great deal more water on earth than on Venus." + + * * * * * + +In this fairyland which had enjoyed centuries of peace, health and +accord, stark terror now reigned. In some instances the finely-bred, +marvellously intelligent people were in a mental condition bordering on +madness. + +This was especially true in the farming districts, where whole herds of +lats had been wiped out. Lats, Larner gleaned, were a common farm animal +similar to the bovine species on earth, only more wooly. On these +creatures the Venus dwellers depended for their milk and dairy supplies, +and for their warmer clothing, which was made from the skin. The hair +was used for brushes, in the building trades, and a thousand ways in +manufacturing. + +Besides the domestic animals hundreds of people continued to meet death, +and only a few of the flying vampires had been hunted down. The giant +insects were believed to breed slowly as compared to earth insects, +their females producing not more than ten eggs, by estimate, after which +death overtook the adult. In spite of this they were reported to be +increasing. + +In the Government building Larner was placed in touch with all the +Government scientists of Venus. His nearest collaborator was one Zorn +Zada, most profound scientist of the planet. The two men, with a score +of assistants, worked elbow to elbow on the most gigantic scientific +mystery in the history of two planets. + +A specimen of the dread invader was mounted and studied by the +scientists, who were so engrossed in their work that they hardly took +time to eat. As for sleep, there was little of it. Days were spent in +research and nights in hunting the monsters. This hunting was done by +newly recruited soldiers and scientists. The weapons used were a short +ray-gun of high destructive power which disintegrated the bodies of the +enemies by atomic energy blasts. The quarry was wary, however, and +struck at isolated individuals rather than massed fighting lines. + + * * * * * + +Seated at his work-bench Larner asked Zorn Zada what had become of Nern +Bela. In his heart he had a horrible lurking fear that the beautiful +Tula Bela might fall before a swarm of the strange vampires, but he did +not voice this anxiety. + +"Nern and his sister are explorers and navigators," was the reply. "They +have been assigned to carry you anywhere on this or any other planet +where your work may engage you. They await your orders. They are too +valuable as space-navigators to be placed in harm's way." + +Breathing a sigh of relief, Larner bent to his labors. + +"What other wild animals or harmful insects have you on this planet?" he +asked Zorn. + +"I get your thought," replied the first scientist of Venus. "You are +seeking a natural enemy to this deadly flying menace, are you not?" + +"Yes," admitted Larner. + +"All insects left on Venus with this one exception are beneficial," said +Zorn. "There are no wild animals, and no harmful insects. All animals, +insects and birds have been domesticated and are fed by their keepers. +We get fabrics from forms of what you call spiders and other +web-builders and cocoon spinners. All forms of birds, beasts and +crawling and flying things have been brought under the dominion of man. +We will have to seek another way out than by finding an enemy parasite." + +"Where do you think these insect invaders came from?" asked Larner. + +"You have noticed they are unlike anything you have on earth in +anatomical construction," said the savant. "They partake of the general +features of Coleoptera (beetles), in that they wear a sheath of armor, +yet their mouth parts are more on the order of the Diptera (flys). I +regard them more as a fly than a beetle, because most Coleoptera are +helpful to humanity while practically all, if not all, Diptera are +malignant. + +"As to their original habitat, I believe they migrated here from some +other planet." + +"They could not fly through space," said Larner. + +"No, that is the mystery of it," agreed Zorn. "How they got here and +where they breed are the questions that we have to answer." + + * * * * * + +Long days passed on Venus. Long days and sleepless nights. The big +insects were hunted nightly by men armed with ray-guns, and nightly the +blood-sucking monsters took their toll of humanity and animals. + +Finally Larner and Zorn determined to capture one of the insects alive, +muzzle its lance and suction pad, and give it sufficient freedom to find +its way back to its hiding place. By following the shackled monster the +scientists hoped to find the breeding grounds. + +All the provinces of the planet joined in the drive. Men turned out in +automatic vehicles, propelled by energy gathered from the atmosphere. +They came on foot and in aircraft. Mobilization was at given points and, +leading the van, were Zorn and Larner and their confreres in the targo +of Nern and Tula Bela. The great army of Venus carried giant +searchlights and was armed with deadly ray-guns. + + * * * * * + +Headquarters of the vast Army of Offense was in the targo of the Belas. +Larner was in supreme command. Just before the big army set out to scour +the planet to seek the breeding place of the monsters Larner issued a +bulletin that set all Venus by the ears. + +Addressed to President Vole Vesta of the Republic of Pana and the good +people of Venus, it read: + + As is generally known, it has been the habit of the nation's + space-flying merchantmen to visit the sunlit side of the planet + Mercury to obtain certain rare woods and other materials not found + on this planet. + + One side of Mercury, as is known, is always turned from the sun and + is in a condition of perpetual night. In this perpetual darkness + and dampness, where many rivers flow into warm black swamps, the + vampires have bred for centuries. Conditions were ideal for their + growth, and so through the ages they evolved into the monsters we + have encountered lately on Venus. + + During some comparatively recent visit to Mercury the grubs of + these insects have found their way abroad a vegetation-laden targo + left standing near the edge of the black swamps of Mercury. These + grubs were thus transported to Venus and underwent their natural + metamorphosis here. Reaching adult stage, they have found some + place to hide and breed, and thus is explained the origin of the + vampires of Venus. + +This was widely read and discussed and was finally accepted as the means +of the invasion of peaceful, beautiful Venus by a horror that might well +have originated in hell. + +However, this did not reveal the breeding grounds, or remove the +nation-wide scourge of the horrible winged vampires, so the mobilization +of all the forces of the planet continued. + + * * * * * + +As day followed day the hordes of fighting Venus dwellers grew in the +concentration camps. In the targo of the Belas, Larner, brain-weary and +body-racked as he was with overwork, found a grain of happiness in being +in the presence of Nern and his beautiful, petite sister. + +With Zorn, Larner was supervising the construction of a big net of +strongly woven wire mesh, in which it was hoped to catch one of the +vampires. It was decided to bait the trap with a fat female lat. + +Zorn, Larner and the Belas fared forth from the concentration camp +followed by a company of soldiers carrying the big net. Tula with her +own hand led the fat lat heifer. His eyes were filled with commiseration +for the poor animal. + +Thousands of soldiers and citizenry, in fighting array, watched the +departure of the little group. + +In a glade the trap was set and the net arranged to fall over the +monster once it attacked the calf. From a thicket, in utter darkness, +Zorn and Larner and the two Belas waited for the possible catch. The +whole nation stood awaiting the order to advance. + +On the fourth night the vigil was rewarded in a manner frightful to +relate. + +A clumsy flutter of giant wings broke the stillness. + +The four waiting forms in the thicket rejoiced, believing the fat lat +was about to be attacked. + +Onward came the approaching horror. The measured flap, flap of its +armored wings drawing nearer and nearer. Then, horror--horrors! + +A feminine scream rent the air. Cries loud and shrill arose above a +hysterical feminine cry for help. + +The monster had chosen Tula Bela for its prey! + + * * * * * + +Zorn exploded an alarm bomb. A compressed air siren brought the army +forward on the run. Giant floodlights began to light up the scene. The +blood of Larner and Nern froze. + +The monster had borne the girl to the ground. Its frightful lance and +cupper was upraised to strike. Larner was the nearest and the quickest +to act. He grabbed for his ray-gun, swung at his belt. It was gone! In +horror he remembered he had left it at the base. He seized a short knife +and threw himself forward, rolling his body between that of the girl and +the descending lance and cupper. + +As the lance pierced his shoulder Larner, in one wild gesture of frenzy, +drove his knife through the soft, yielding flesh of the vampire's organ +of suction. + +Protected by no bony structure the snout of the monster was amputated. + +The terrible creature had been disarmed of his most formidable weapon, +but he continued to fight. Larner felt the spikes on the monster's legs +tear at his flesh. + +"Don't kill the thing," he shouted. "Bring on the net. For the love of +God bring on the net!" Then he lost consciousness. + +It was daylight when Larner, somewhat weakened from loss of blood, +regained consciousness. + +The beautiful Tula Bela was leaning over him. + +She whispered comforting words to him in a language he did not fully +understand. She whispered happy exclamations in words he did not know +the meaning of, but the tone was unmistakably those of a sweetheart +towards her lover. + +Finally, in answer to a true scientist's question in his eyes, she said +in English: + +"They caught the thing alive. They await your order to advance." + +"Let us be on our way," said Larner, and he started to arise. + +"You are hardly strong enough," said Tula. + +"Believe me, I am all right," insisted Larner, and after several trials +he got to his feet. His constitution was naturally strong and his will +was stronger, so he fought back all feelings of weakness and soon +announced himself ready to go ahead with the project at hand. For speed +was all important, and the young professor found himself unable to +remain inactive. + + * * * * * + +He rejoiced when Zorn told him that the big insect that had attacked +Tula Bela had been captured alive and had been kept well nourished by +lat's blood injected into its stomach. + +With Zorn Larner went to inspect the hideous monstrosity and found it in +leash and straining. It was ready to be used to lead the way back to its +breeding place. + +Its wings shackled, the lumbering insect floundered on its way straight +north. Ponderously and half blindly it crawled as the searchlights' +glare was kept far enough in advance to keep from blinding the monster. + +True to instinct it finally brought up at early dawn under a high cliff +of smoky quartz. Here, in the great crevices, the drove of diabolical +vampires were hiding. + +As the light struck their dens, they attempted clumsily to take wing, +but a interlacing network of devastating disintegrating rays from the +ray-guns shattered their bodies to dust, which was borne away by the +wind. + +The next few months were spent in combing the quartz crags of Venus for +similar infested areas, but only the one breeding nest was found. The +scourge had been conquered in its first and only stronghold. + + * * * * * + +So ended the greatest reign of terror in the history of Venus. + +Leslie Larner was given a vote of thanks, and riches were showered upon +him by the good people of the sky's brightest star. + +His modesty was characteristic, and he insisted that his part in saving +humanity on the planet had been small. + +Passage back to earth was offered him, but Nern and Tula Bela urged him +to say and live his life on Venus. This he finally agreed to do. + +"If I returned," he said, "I would always be tempted to tell my +experiences while away, and there is not a jury in the world which would +account me sane after I had once spoken." + + * * * * * + +That the story of Larner's adventure reached earth dwellers at all is +due to the fact that Nern Bela on a subsequent visit to the earth +narrated it to a Colorado quartz miner. This miner, a bronzed and +bearded prospector for gold, stumbled on the targo in a mountain +fastness, and there was nought to do but make him welcome and pledge him +to secrecy. + +The miner surveyed the crystal targo in rapt wonderment and said: "And +to think I am the only earth man who ever viewed such a craft!" + +"No," answered Nern Bela, "there is one other." And then the stirring +story of Leslie Larner's life on Venus was told. + + + + +SAFE FLYING IN FOGS + +The outstanding development in aviation recently, and one of the most +significant so far in aviation history was the "blind" flight of Lieut. +James H. Doolittle, daredevil of the Army Air Corps, at Mitchel Field, +L. I., which led Harry P. Guggenheim, President of the Daniel Guggenheim +Fund for the Promotion of Aeronautics, Inc. to announce that the problem +of fog-flying, one of aviation's greatest bugbears, had been solved at +last. + +There has been "blind flying" done in the past but never before in the +history of aviation has any pilot taken off, circled, crossed, +re-crossed the field, then landed only a short distance away from his +starting point while flying under conditions resembling the densest fog, +as Lieut. "Jimmy" Doolittle has done, in his Wright-motored "Husky" +training-plane. It was something uncanny to contemplate. + +The "dense fog" was produced artificially by the simple device of making +the cabin of the plane entirely light-proof. Once seated inside, the +flyer, with his co-pilot, Lieut. Benjamin Kelsey, also of Mitchel Field, +were completely shut off from any view of the world outside. All they +had to depend on were three new flying instruments, developed during the +past year in experiments conducted over the full-flight laboratory +established by the Fund at Mitchel Field. + +The chief factors contributing to the solution of the problem of blind +flying consist of a new application of the visual radio beacon, the +development of an improved instrument for indicating the longitudinal +and lateral position of an airplane, a new directional gyroscope, and a +sensitive barometric altimeter, so delicate as to measure the altitude +of an airplane within a few feet of the ground. + +Thus, instead of relying on the natural horizon for stability, Lieut. +Doolittle uses an "artificial horizon" on the small instrument which +indicates longitudinal and lateral position in relation to the ground at +all time. He was able to locate the landing field by means of the +direction-finding long-distance radio beacon. In addition, another +smaller radio beacon had been installed, casting a beam fifteen to +twenty miles in either direction, which governs the immediate approach +to the field. + +To locate the landing field the pilot watches two vibrating reeds, tuned +to the radio beacon, on a virtual radio receiver on his instrument +board. If he turns to the right or left of his course the right or left +reed, respectively, begins doing a sort of St. Vitus dance. If the reeds +are in equilibrium the pilot knows it is clear sailing straight to his +field. + +The sensitive altimeter showed Lieut. Doolittle his altitude and made it +possible for him to calculate his landing to a distance of within a few +feet from the ground. + +Probably the strangest device of all that Lieut. Doolittle has been +called upon to test in Mr. Guggenheim's war against fog is a sort of +heat cannon that goes forth to combat like a fire-breathing dragon of +old. Like the enemies of the dragon, the fog is supposed to curl up and +die before the scorching breath of the "hot air artillery" although the +fundamental principle behind the device is a great deal more scientific +than such an explanation sounds. It is, in brief, based on the known +fact that fog forms only in a very narrow temperature zone which lies +between the saturation and precipitation points of the atmosphere. If +the air grows a little colder the fog turns into rain and falls; if it +is warmed very slightly the mist disappears and the air is once more +normally clear, although its humidity is very close to the maximum. + + + + +Brigands of the Moon + +(The Book of Gregg Haljan) + +PART TWO OF A FOUR-PART NOVEL + +_By Ray Cummings_ + +[Illustration: _I turned back to look at the Planetara._] + + Out of awful space tumbled the Space-ship _Planetara_ towards the + Moon, her officers _dead_, with bandits at her helm--and the + controls out of order! + + +My name, Gregg Haljan. My age, twenty-five years. My occupation, at the +time my narrative begins, in 2075, was third officer of the +Interplanetary Space-ship _Planetara_. + +Thus I introduce myself to you. For this is a continuation of the book +of Gregg Haljan, and of necessity I am the chief actor therein. I shall +recapitulate very briefly what has happened so far: + +Unscrupulous Martian brigands were scheming for Johnny Grantline's +secret radium-ore treasure, dug out of the Moon and waiting there to be +picked up by the _Planetara_ on her return trip from Mars. + +The _Planetara_ left, bound for Mars, some ten days away. Suspicious +interplanetary passengers were aboard: Miko and Moa, a brother and a +sister of Mars; Sir Arthur Coniston, a mysterious Englishman; Ob Hahn, a +Venus mystic. And small, effeminate George Prince and his sister, Anita. +Love, I think, was born instantly between Anita and me. I found all too +soon that Miko, the sinister giant from Mars, also desired her. + +[Illustration] + +As we neared the Moon we received Grantline's secret message: "Stop for +ore on your return voyage. Success beyond wildest hopes!" But I soon +discovered that an eavesdropper in an invisible cloak had overheard it! + +Soon afterwards Miko accidentally murdered a person identified as Anita +Prince. + +Then, in the confusion that resulted, Miko struck his great blow. The +crew of the _Planetara_, secretly in his pay, rose up and killed the +captain and all the officers but Snap Dean, the radio-helio operator, +and myself. + +I was besieged in the chart-room. George Prince leaped in upon me--and +put his arms around me. I looked at him closer--only to discover it was +Anita, disguised as her brother! It was her brother, George, who had +been killed! George had been in the brigands' confidence--thus Anita was +able to spy for us. + +Quickly we plotted. I would surrender to her, Anita Prince, whom the +brigands thought was George Prince. Together we might possibly be able, +with Snap's help, to turn the tide, and reclaim the _Planetara_. + +I was taken to my stateroom and locked there until Miko the brigand +leader should come to dispose of me. But I cared not what had +happened--Anita was alive! + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +_The Brigand Leader_ + + +The giant Miko stood confronting me. He slid my cubby door closed behind +him. He stood with his head towering close against my ceiling. His cloak +was discarded. In his leather clothes, and with his clanking +sword-ornament, his aspect carried the swagger of a brigand of old. He +was bareheaded; the light from one of my tubes fell upon his grinning, +leering gray face. + +"So, Gregg Haljan? You have come to your senses at last. You do not wish +me to write my name upon your chest? I would not have done that to Dean; +he forced me. Sit back." + +I had been on my bunk. I sank back at the gesture of his huge hairy arm. +His forearm was bare now; the sear of a burn on it was plain to be seen. +He remarked my gaze. + +"True. You did that, Haljan, in Great-New York. But I bear you no +malice. I want to talk to you now." + +He cast about for a seat, and took the little stool which stood by my +desk. His hand held a small cylinder of the Martian paralyzing ray; he +rested it beside him on the desk. + +"Now we can talk." + +I remained silent. Alert. Yet my thoughts were whirling. Anita was +alive. Masquerading now as her brother. And, with the joy of it, came a +shudder. Above everything, Miko must not know. + +"A great adventure we are upon, Haljan." + + * * * * * + +My thoughts came back. Miko was talking with an assumption of friendly +comradeship. "All is well--and we need you, as I have said before. I am +no fool. I have been aware of everything that went on aboard this ship. +You, of all the officers, are most clever at the routine mathematics. Is +that so?" + +"Perhaps," I said. + +"You are modest." He fumbled at a pocket of his jacket, produced a +scroll-sheaf. I recognized it: Blackstone's figures; the calculation +Blackstone roughly made of the elements of the asteroid we had passed. + +"I am interested in these," Miko went on. "I want you to verify them. +And this." He held up another scroll. "This is the calculation of our +present position. And our course. Hahn claims he is a navigator. We have +set the ship's gravity plates--see, like this--" + +He handed me the scrolls; he watched me keenly as I glanced over them. + +"Well?" I said. + +"You are sparing of words, Haljan. By the devils of the airways, I could +make you talk! But I want to be friendly." + + * * * * * + +I handed him back the scrolls. I stood up; I was almost within reach of +his weapon, but with a sweep of his great arm he abruptly knocked me +back to my bunk. + +"You dare?" Then he smiled. "Let us not come to blows!" + +"No," I said. I returned his smile. In truth, physical violence could +get me nothing in dealing with this fellow. I would have to try guile. +And I saw now that his face was flushed and his eyes unnaturally bright. +He had been drinking alcolite; not enough to befuddle him--but enough to +make him triumphantly talkative. + +"Hahn may not be much of a mathematician," I suggested. "But there is +your Sir Arthur Coniston." I managed a sarcastic grin. "Is that his +name?" + +"Almost. Haljan, will you verify these figures?" + +"Yes. But why? Where are we going?" + +He laughed. "You are afraid I will not tell you! Why should I not? This +great adventure of mine is progressing perfectly. A tremendous stake, +Haljan. A hundred millions of dollars in gold-leaf; there will be +fabulous riches for us all, when that radium ore is sold for a hundred +million in gold-leaf." + +"But where are we going?" + +"To that asteroid," he said abruptly. "I must get rid of these +passengers. I am no murderer." + + * * * * * + +With half a dozen killings in the recent fight this was hardly +convincing. But he was obviously wholly serious. He seemed to read my +thoughts. + +"I kill only when necessary. We will land upon the asteroid. A perfect +place to maroon the passengers. Is it not so? I will give them the +necessities of life. They will be able to signal. And in a month or so, +when we are safely finished with our adventure, a police ship no doubt +will rescue them." + +"And then, from the asteroid," I suggested, "we are going--" + +"To the Moon, Haljan. What a clever guesser you are! Coniston and Hahn +are calculating our course. But I have no great confidence in them. And +so I want you." + +"You have me." + +"Yes. I have you. I would have killed you long ago--I am an impulsive +fellow--but my sister restrained me." + +He gazed at me slyly. "Moa seems strangely to like you, Haljan." + +"Thanks," I said. "I'm flattered." + +"She still hopes I may really win you to join us," he went on. +"Gold-leaf is a wonderful thing; there would be plenty for you in this +affair. And to be rich, and have the love of a woman like Moa...." + +He paused. I was trying cautiously to gauge him, to get from him all the +information I could. I said, with another smile, "That is premature, to +talk of Moa. I will help you chart your course. But this venture, as you +call it, is dangerous. A police-ship--" + +"There are not many," he declared. "The chances of us encountering one +is very slim." He grinned at me. "You know that as well as I do. And we +now have those code pass-words--I forced Dean to tell me where he had +hidden them. If we should be challenged, our pass-word answer will +relieve suspicion." + +"The _Planetara_," I objected, "being overdue at Ferrok-Shahn, will +cause alarm. You'll have a covey of patrol-ships after you." + +"That will be two weeks from now," he smiled. "I have a ship of my own +in Ferrok-Shahn. It lies there waiting now, manned and armed. I am +hoping that, with Dean's help, we may be able to flash it a signal. It +will join us on the Moon. Fear not for the danger, Haljan. I have great +interests allied with me in this thing. Plenty of money. We have planned +carefully." + + * * * * * + +He was idly fingering his cylinder; his gaze roved me as I sat docile on +my bunk. "Did you think George Prince was a leader of this? A mere boy. +I engaged him a year ago--his knowledge of ores is valuable." + +My heart was pounding, but I strove not to show it. He went on calmly. + +"I told you I am impulsive. Half a dozen times I have nearly killed +George Prince, and he knows it." He frowned. "I wish I had killed him, +instead of his sister. That was an error." + +There was a note of real concern in his voice. Did he love Anita Prince? +It seemed so. + +He added, "That is done--nothing can change it. George Prince is helpful +to me. Your friend Dean is another. I had trouble with him, but he is +docile now." + +I said abruptly, "I don't know whether your promise means anything or +not, Miko. But George Prince said you would use no more torture." + +"I won't. Not if you and Dean obey me." + +"You tell Dean I have agreed to that. You say he gave you the code-words +we took from Johnson?" + +"Yes. There was a fool! That Johnson! You blame me, Haljan, for the +killing of Captain Carter? You need not. Johnson offered to try and +capture you. Take you alive. He killed Carter because he was angry at +him. A stupid, vengeful fool! He is dead, and I am glad of it." + + * * * * * + +My mind was on Miko's plans. I ventured. "This treasure on the Moon--did +you say it was on the Moon?" + +"Don't be an idiot," he retorted. "I know as much about Grantline as you +do." + +"That's very little." + +"Perhaps." + +"Perhaps you know more, Miko. The Moon is a big place. Where, for +instance, is Grantline located?" + +I held my breath. Would he tell me that? A score of questions--vague +plans--were in my mind. How skilled at mathematics were these brigands? +Miko, Hahn, Coniston--could I fool them? If I could learn Grantline's +location on the Moon, and keep the _Planetara_ away from it. A pretended +error of charting. Time lost--and perhaps Snap could find an opportunity +to signal Earth, get help. + +Miko answered my question as bluntly as I asked it. "I don't know where +Grantline is located. But we will find out. He will not suspect the +_Planetara_. When we get close to the Moon, we will signal and ask him. +We can trick him into telling us. You think I do not know what is on +your mind, Haljan? There is a secret code of signals arranged between +Dean and Grantline. I have forced Dean to confess it. Without torture! +Prince helped me in that. He persuaded Dean not to defy me. A very +persuasive fellow, George Prince. More diplomatic than I am, I give him +credit." + +I strove to hold my voice calm. "If I should join you, Miko--my word, if +I ever gave it, you would find dependable--I would say George Prince is +very valuable to us. You should rein your temper. He is half your +size--you might some time, without intention do him injury." + + * * * * * + +He laughed. "Moa says so. But have no fear--" + +"I was thinking," I persisted, "I'd like to have a talk with George +Prince." + +Ah, my pounding, tumultuous heart! But I was smiling calmly. And I +tried to put into my voice a shrewd note of cupidity. "I really know +very little about this treasure, Miko. If there were a million or two of +gold-leaf in it for me--" + +"Perhaps there would be." + +"I was thinking. Suppose you let me have a talk with Prince? I have some +knowledge of radium ores. His skill and mine--a calculation of what +Grantline's treasure may really be. You don't know; you are only +assuming." + +I paused. Whatever may have been in Miko's mind I cannot say. But +abruptly he stood up. I had left my bunk, but he waved me back. + +"Sit down. I am not like Moa. I would not trust you just because you +protested you would be loyal." He picked up his cylinder. "We will talk +again." He gestured to the scrolls he had left upon my desk. "Work on +those. I will judge you by the results." + +He was no fool, this brigand leader. + +"Yes," I agreed. "You want a true course now to the asteroid?" + +"Yes. I will get rid of these passengers. Then we will plan further. Do +your best, Haljan--no error! By the Gods, I warn you I can check up on +you!" + +I said meekly, "Very well. But you ask Prince if he wants my +calculations of Grantline's ore-body." + +I shot Miko a foxy look as he stood by my door. I added, "You think you +are clever. There is plenty you don't know. Our first night out from the +Earth--Grantline's signals--didn't it ever occur to you that I might +have some figures on his treasure?" + +It startled him. "Where are they?" + +I tapped my forehead. "You don't suppose I was foolish enough to record +them. You ask Prince if he wants to talk to me. A high thorium content +in ore--you ask Prince. A hundred millions, or two hundred. It would +make a big difference, Miko." + +"I will think about it." He backed out and sealed the door upon me once +again. + + * * * * * + +But Anita did not come. I verified Hahn's figures, which were very +nearly correct. I charted a course for the asteroid; it was almost the +one which had been set. + +Coniston came for my results. "I say, we are not so bad as navigators, +are we? I think we're jolly good, considering our inexperience. Not bad +at all, eh?" + +"No." + +I did not think it wise to ask him about Prince. + +"Are you hungry, Haljan?" he demanded. + +"Yes." + +A steward came with a meal. The saturnine Hahn stood at my door with a +weapon upon me while I ate. They were taking no chances--and they were +wise not to. + +The day passed. Day and night, all the same of aspect here in the starry +vault of Space. But with the ship's routine it was day. + +And then another time of sleep. I slept, fitfully, worrying, trying to +plan. Within a few hours we would be nearing the asteroid. + +The time of sleep was nearly passed. My chronometer marked five A. M. of +our original Earth starting time. The seal of my cubby door hissed. The +door slowly, opened. + +Anita! + +She stood there with her cloak around her. A distance away on the +shadowed deck-space Coniston was loitering. + +"Anita!" I whispered it. + +"Gregg, dear!" + +She turned and gestured to the watching brigand. "I will not be long, +Coniston." + +She came in and half closed the door upon us, leaving it open enough so +that we could make sure that Coniston did not advance. + +I stepped back where he could not see us. + +"Anita!" + +She flung herself into my opened arms. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +_The Masquerader_ + + +A moment when beyond all thought of the nearby brigand--or the +possibility of an eavesdropping ray trained now upon my little cubby--a +moment while Anita and I held each other; and whispered those things +which could mean nothing to the world, but which were all the world to +us. + +Then it was she whose wits brought us back from the shining fairyland of +our love, into the sinister reality of the _Planetara_. + +"Gregg, if they are listening--" + +I pushed her away. This brave little masquerader! Not for my life, or +for all the lives on the ship, would I consciously have endangered her. + +"But the ore," I said aloud. "There was, in Grantline's message--See +here, Prince." + +Coniston was too far away on the deck to hear us. Anita went to my door +again and waved at him reassuringly. I put my ear to the door opening, +and listened at the space across the grid of the ventilator over my +bunk. The hum of a vibration would have been audible at those two +points. But there was nothing. + +"It's all right," I whispered. "Anita--not you who was killed! I can +hardly realize it now. Not you whom they buried yesterday morning." + +We stood and whispered, and she clung to me--so small beside me. With +the black robe thrown aside, it seemed that I could not miss the curves +of her woman's figure. A dangerous game she was playing. Her hair had +been cut short to the base of her neck, in the fashion of her dead +brother. Her eyelashes had been clipped; the line of her brows altered. +And now, in the light of my ray tube as it shone upon her earnest face, +I could remark other changes. Glutz, the little beauty specialist, was +in this secret. With plastic skill he had altered the set of her jaw +with his wax--put masculinity there. + +She was whispering: "It was--was poor George whom Miko shot." + + * * * * * + +I had now the true version of what had occurred. Miko had been forcing +his wooing upon Anita. George Prince was a weakling whose only good +quality was a love for his sister. Some years ago he had fallen into +evil ways. Been arrested, and then discharged from his position with the +Federated Radium Corporation. He had taken up with evil companions in +Great-New York. Mostly Martians. And Miko had met him. His technical +knowledge, his training with the Federated Corporation, made him +valuable to Miko's enterprise. And so Prince had joined the brigands. + +Of all this, Anita had been unaware. She had never liked Miko. Feared +him. And it seemed that the Martian had some hold upon her brother, +which puzzled and frightened Anita. + +Then Miko had fallen in love with her. George had not liked it. And that +night on the _Planetara_, Miko had come and knocked upon Anita's door. +Incautiously she opened it; he forced himself in. And when she repulsed +him, struggled with him, George had been awakened. + +She was whispering to me now. "My room was dark. We were all three +struggling. George was holding me--the shot came--and I screamed." + +And Miko had fled, not knowing whom his shot had hit in the darkness. + +"And when George died, Captain Carter wanted me to impersonate him. We +planned it with Dr. Frank, to try and learn what Miko and the others +were doing. Because I never knew that poor George had fallen into such +evil things." + + * * * * * + +I could only hold her thankfully in my arms. The lost +what-might-have-been seemed coming back to us. + +"And they cut my hair, Gregg, and Glutz altered my face a little, and I +did my best. But there was no time--it came upon us so quickly." + +And she whispered, "But I love you, Gregg. I want to be the first to say +it: I love you--I love you." + +But we had the sanity to try and plan. + +"Anita, when you go back, tell Miko we discussed radium ores. You'll +have to be careful, clever. Don't say too much. Tell him we estimate the +treasure at a hundred and thirty millions." + +I told her what Miko had vouchsafed me of his plans. She knew all that. +And Snap knew it. She had had a few moments alone with Snap. Gave me now +a message from him: + +"We'll pull out of this, Gregg." + +With Snap she had worked out a plan. There were Snap and I; and Shac and +Dud Ardley, upon whom we could doubtless depend. And Dr. Frank. Against +us were Miko and his sister; and Coniston and Hahn. Of course there were +the members of the crew. But we were numerically the stronger when it +came to true leadership. Unarmed and guarded now. But if we could break +loose--recapture the ship.... + +I sat listening to Anita's eager whispers. It seemed feasible. Miko did +not altogether trust George Prince; Anita was now unarmed. + +"But I can make opportunity! I can get one of their ray cylinders, and +an invisible cloak equipment." + +That cloak--it had been hidden in Miko's room when Carter searched for +it in A20--was now in the chart-room by Johnson's body. It had been +repaired now; Anita thought she could get possession of it. + + * * * * * + +We worked out the details of the plan. Anita would arm herself, and come +and release me. Together, with a paralyzing ray, we could creep aboard +the ship, overcome these brigands one by one. There were so few of the +leaders. With them felled, and with us in control of the turret and the +helio-room we could force the crew to stay at their posts. There were, +Anita said, no navigators among Miko's crew. They would not dare oppose +us. + +"But it should be done at once, Anita. In a few hours we will be at the +asteroid." + +"Yes. I will go now--try and get the weapons." + +"Where is Snap?" + +"Still in the helio-room. One of the crew guards him." + +Coniston was roaming the ship; he was still loitering on the deck, +watching our door. Hahn was in the turret. The morning watch of the crew +were at their posts in the hull-corridors; the stewards were preparing a +morning meal. There were nine members of subordinates altogether, Anita +had calculated. Six of them were in Miko's pay; the other three--our own +men who had not been killed in the fighting--had joined the brigands. + +"And Dr. Frank, Anita?" + +He was in the lounge. All the passengers were herded there, with Miko +and Moa alternating on guard. + +"I will arrange it with Venza," Anita whispered swiftly. "She will tell +the others. Dr. Frank knows about it now. He thinks it can be done." + + * * * * * + +The possibility of it swept me anew. The brigands were of necessity +scattered singly about the ship. One by one, creeping under cover of an +invisible cloak, I could fell them, and replace them without alarming +the others. My thoughts leaped to it. We would strike down the guard in +the helio-room. Release Snap. At the turret we could assail Hahn, and +replace him with Snap. + +Coniston's voice outside broke in upon us. "Prince." + +He was coming forward. Anita stood in the doorway. "I have the figures, +Coniston. By God, this Haljan is with us! And clever! We think it will +total a hundred and thirty millions. What a stake!" + +She whispered, "Gregg, dear--I'll be back soon. We can do it--be ready." + +"Anita--be careful of yourself! If they should suspect you...." + +"I'll be careful. In an hour, Gregg, or less, I'll come back. All right, +Coniston. Where is Miko? I want to see him. Stay where you are, Haljan! +All in good time Miko will trust you with your liberty. You'll be rich +like us all, never fear." + +She swaggered out upon the deck, waved at the brigand, and banged my +cubby door in my face. + +I sat upon my bunk. Waiting. Would she come back? Would she be +successful? + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +_In the Blue-lit Corridor_ + + +She came. I suppose it was no more than an hour: it seemed an eternity +of apprehension. There was the slight hissing of the seal of my door. +The panel slid. I had leaped from my bunk where in the darkness I was +lying tense. + +"Prince?" I did not dare say, "Anita." + +"Gregg." + +Her voice. My gaze swept the deck as the panel opened. Neither Coniston +nor anyone else was in sight, save Anita's dark-robed figure which came +into my room. + +"You got it?" I asked her in a low whisper. + +I held her for an instant, kissed her. But she pushed me away with quick +hands. + +"Gregg, dear--" + +She was breathless. My kisses, and the tenseness of what lay before us +were to blame. + +"Gregg, see, I have it. Give us a little light--we must hurry!" + +In the blue dimness I saw that she was holding one of the Martian +cylinders. The smallest size; it would paralyze, but not kill. + +"Only one, Anita?" + +"Yes. I had it before, but Miko took it from me. It was in his room. And +this--" + +The invisible cloak. We laid it on my grid, and I adjusted its +mechanism. A cloak of the reflecting-absorbing variety.[A] + + + [A] The principle of this invisible cloak involves the use of an + electronized fabric. All color is absorbed. The light rays reflected to + the eye of the observer thus show an image of empty blackness. There is + also created about the cloak a magnetic field which by natural laws + bends the rays of light from objects behind it. This principle of the + natural bending of light when passing through a magnetic field was first + recognized by Albert Einstein, a scientist of the Twentieth century. In + the case of this invisible cloak, the bending light rays, by making + visible what was behind the cloak's blackness, thus destroyed its solid + black outline and gave a pseudo-invisibility which was fairly effective + under favorable conditions. + + * * * * * + +I donned it, and drew its hood, and threw on its current. + +"All right, Anita?" + +"Yes." + +"Can you see me?" + +"No." She stepped back a foot or two further. "Not from here. But you +must let no one approach too close." + +Then she came forward, put out her hand, fumbled until she found me. + +It was our plan to have me follow her out. Anyone observing us would see +only the robed figure of the supposed George Prince, and I would escape +notice. + +The situation about the ship was almost unchanged. Anita had secured the +weapon and the cloak and slipped away to my cubby without being +observed. + +"You're sure of that?" + +"I think so, Gregg. I was careful." + +Moa was now in the lounge, guarding the passengers. Hahn was asleep in +the chart-room; Coniston was in the turret. Coniston would be off duty +presently, Anita said, with Hahn taking his place. There were look-outs +in the forward and stern watch-towers, and a guard upon Snap in the +helio-room. + +"Is he inside the room, Anita?" + +"Snap? Yes." + +"No--the guard." + +"No. He was sitting upon the spider bridge at the door." + + * * * * * + +This was unfortunate. That guard could see all the deck clearly. He +might be suspicious of George Prince wandering around; it would be +difficult to get near enough to assail him. This cylinder, I knew, had +an effective range of only some twenty feet. + +Anita and I were swiftly whispering. It was necessary now to decide +exactly what we were to do; once under observation outside, there must +be no hesitation, no fumbling. + +"Coniston is sharpest, Gregg. He will be the hardest to get near." + +The languid-spoken Englishman was the one Anita most feared. His alert +eyes seemed to miss nothing. Perhaps he was suspicious of this George +Prince--Anita thought so. + +"But where is Miko?" I whispered. + +The brigand leader had gone below a few moments ago, down into the +hull-corridor. Anita had seized the opportunity to come to me. + +"We can attack Hahn in the chart-room first," I suggested. "And get the +other weapons. Are they still there?" + +"Yes. But Gregg, the forward deck is very bright." + +We were approaching the asteroid. Already its light like a brilliant +moon was brightening the forward deck-space. It made me realize how much +haste was necessary. + +We decided to go down into the hull-corridors. Locate Miko. Fell him, +and hide him. His non-appearance back on deck would very soon throw the +others into confusion, especially now with our impending landing upon +the asteroid. And under cover of this confusion we would try and release +Snap. + +We had been arguing no more than a minute or two. We were ready. Anita +slid my door wide. She stepped through, with me soundlessly scurrying +after her. The empty, silent deck was alternately dark with +shadow-patches and bright with blobs of starlight. A sheen of the Sun's +corona was mingled with it; and from forward came the radiance of the +asteroid's mellow silver glow. + + * * * * * + +Anita turned to seal my door; within my faintly humming cloak I stood +beside her. Was I invisible in this light? Almost directly over us, +close under the dome, the look-out sat in his little tower. He gazed +down at Anita. + +Amidships, high over the cabin superstructure, the helio-room hung dark +and silent. The guard on its bridge was visible. He, too, looked down. + +A tense instant. Then I breathed again. There was no alarm. The two +guards answered Anita's gesture. + +Anita said aloud into my empty cubby: "Miko will come for you presently, +Haljan. He told me to tell you that he wants you at the turret controls +to land us on the asteroid." + +She finished sealing my door and turned away; started forward along the +deck. I followed. My steps were soundless in my elastic-bottomed shoes. +Anita swaggered with a noisy tread. Near the door of the smoking room a +small incline passage led downward. We went into it. + +The passage was dimly blue-lit. We descended its length, came to the +main corridor, which ran the length of the hull. A vaulted metal +passage, with doors to the control rooms opening from it. Dim lights +showed at intervals. + + * * * * * + +The humming of the ship was more apparent here. It drowned the slight +humming of my cloak. I crept after Anita; my hand under the cloak +clutched the ray weapon. + +A steward passed us. I shrank aside to avoid him. + +Anita spoke to him. "Where is Miko, Ellis?" + +"In the ventilator-room, Mr. Prince. There was difficulty with the air +renewal." + +Anita nodded, and moved on. I could have felled that steward as he +passed me. Oh, if I only had, how different things might have been! + +But it seemed needless. I let him go, and he turned into a nearby door +which led to the galley. + +Anita moved forward. If we could come upon Miko alone. Abruptly she +turned, and whispered, "Gregg, if other men are with him, I'll draw him +away. You watch your chance." + +What little things may overthrow one's careful plans! Anita had not +realized how close to her I was following. And her turning so +unexpectedly caused me to collide with her sharply. + +"Oh!" She exclaimed it involuntarily. Her outflung hand had unwittingly +gripped my wrist, caught the electrode there. The touch burned her, and +close-circuited my robe. There was a hiss. My current burned out the +tiny fuses. + +My invisibility was gone! I stood, a tall black-hooded figure, revealed +to the gaze of anyone who might be near! + +The futile plans of humans! We had planned so carefully! Our +calculations, our hopes of what we could do, came clattering now in a +sudden wreckage around us. + +"Anita, run!" + +If I were seen with her, then her own disguise would probably be +discovered. That above everything would be disaster! + +"Anita, get away from me! I must try it alone!" + + * * * * * + +I could hide somewhere, repair the cloak perhaps. Or, since now I was +armed, why could I not boldly start an assault? + +"Gregg, we must get you back to your cubby!" She was clinging to me in a +panic. + +"No! You run! Get away from me! Don't you understand? George Prince has +no business here with me! They'd kill you!" + +Or worse--- Miko would discover it was Anita, not George Prince. + +"Gregg, let's get back to the deck." + +I pushed at her. Both of us in sudden confusion. + +From behind me there came a shout. That accursed steward! He had +returned, to investigate perhaps what George Prince was doing in this +corridor. He heard our voices; his shout in the silence of the ship +sounded horribly loud. The white-clothed shape of him was in the nearby +doorway. He stood stricken in surprise at seeing me. And then turned to +run. + +I fired my paralyzing cylinder through my cloak. Got him! He fell. I +shoved Anita violently. + +"Run! Tell Miko to come--tell him you heard a shout! He won't suspect +you!" + +"But Gregg--" + +"You mustn't be found out! You're our only hope, Anita! I'll hide, fix +the cloak, or get back to my cubby. We'll try it again." + +It decided her. She scurried down the corridor. I whirled the other way. +The steward's shout might not have been heard. + +Then realization flashed to me. That steward would be revived. He was +one of Miko's men: for two voyages he had been a spy upon the +_Planetara_. He would be revived and tell what he had seen and heard. +Anita's disguise would be revealed. + +A cold-blooded killing I do protest went against me. But it was +necessary. I flung myself upon him. I beat his skull with the metal of +my cylinder. + +I stood up. My hood had fallen back from my head. I wiped my bloody +hands on my useless cloak. I had smashed the cylinder. + +"Haljan!" + + * * * * * + +Anita's voice! A sharp note of horror and warning. I became aware that +in the corridor, forty feet down its dim length, Miko had appeared, with +Anita behind him. His rifle-bullet-projector was leveled. It spat at me. +But Anita had pulled at his arm. + +The explosive report was sharply deafening in the confined space of the +corridor. With a spurt of flame the leaden pellet struck over my head +against the vaulted ceiling. + +Miko was struggling with Anita. "Prince, you idiot!" + +"Miko, don't! It's Haljan! Don't kill him--" + +The turmoil brought members of the crew. From the shadowed oval near me +they came running. I flung the useless cylinder at them. But I was +trapped in the narrow passage. + +I might have fought my way out. Or Miko might have shot me. But there +was the danger that, in her horror, Anita would betray herself. + +I backed against the wall. "Don't kill me! See, I will not fight!" + +I flung up my arms. And the crew, emboldened, and courageous under +Miko's gaze, leaped on me and bore me down. + +The futile plans of humans! Anita and I had planned so carefully, and in +a few brief minutes of action it had come only to this! + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +_A Woman of Mars_ + + +"So, Gregg Haljan, you are not as loyal as you pretend!" + +Miko was livid with suppressed anger. They had stripped the cloak from +me, and flung me back in my cubby. Miko was now confronting me; at the +door Moa stood watching. And Anita was behind her. I sat outwardly +defiant and sullen on my bunk. But I was alert and tense, fearful still +of what Anita's emotion might betray her into doing. + +"Not so loyal," Miko repeated. "And a fool! Do you think I am such a +child you can escape me!" + +He swung around. "How did he get out of here? Prince, you came in here!" + +My heart was wildly thumping. But Anita retorted with a touch of spirit: + +"I came to tell him what you commanded. To check Hahn's latest +figures--and to be ready to take the controls when we go into the +asteroid's atmosphere." + +"Well, how did he get out?" + +"How should I know?" she parried. Little actress! Her spirit helped to +allay my fear. She held her cloak close around her in the fashion they +had come to expect from the George Prince who had just buried his +sister. "How should I know, Miko? I sealed his door." + +"But did you?" + +"Of course he did," Moa put in. + +"Ask your look-outs," said Anita. "They saw me--I waved to them just as +I sealed the door." + +I ventured, "I have been taught to open doors." I managed a sly, +lugubrious smile. "I shall not try it again, Miko." + +Nothing had been said about my killing of the steward. I thanked my +constellations now that he was dead. "I shall not try it again," I +repeated. + +A glance passed between Miko and his sister. Miko said abruptly, "You +seem to realize that it is not my purpose to kill you. And you presume +upon it." + +"I shall not again." I eyed Moa. She was gazing at me steadily. She +said, "Leave me with him, Miko...." She smiled. "Gregg Haljan, we are no +more than twenty thousand miles from the asteroid now. The calculations +for retarding are now in operation." + + * * * * * + +It was what had taken Miko below, that and trouble with the ventilating +system, which was soon rectified. But the retarding of the ship's +velocity when nearing a destination required accurate manipulation. +These brigands were fearful of their own skill. That was obvious. It +gave me confidence. I was really needed. They would not harm me. Except +for Miko's impulsive temper, I was in no danger from them--not now, +certainly. + +Moa was saying, "I think I may make you understand, Gregg. We have +tremendous riches within our grasp." + +"I know it," I added with sudden thought. "But there are many with whom +to divide this treasure...." + +Miko caught my intended implication. "By the infernal, this fellow may +have felt he could seize the treasure for himself! Because he is a +navigator!" + +Moa said vehemently, "Do not be an idiot, Gregg! You could not do it! +There will be fighting with Grantline." + +My purpose was accomplished. They seemed to see me a willing outlaw like +themselves. As though it were a bond between us. And they could win me. + +"Leave me with him," said Moa. + +Miko acquiesced. "For a few minutes only." He proffered a heat-ray +cylinder, but she refused it. + +"I am not afraid of him." + +Miko swung on me. "Within an hour we will be nearing the atmosphere. +Will you take the controls?" + +"Yes." + + * * * * * + +He set his heavy jaw. His eyes bored into me. "You're a strange fellow, +Haljan. I can't make you out. I am not angry now. Do you think, when I +am deadly serious, that I mean what I say?" + +His calm words set a sudden shiver over me. I checked my smile. + +"Yes," I said. + +"Well then, I will tell you this: not for all of Prince's well-meaning +interference, or Moa's liking for you, or my own need of your skill, +will I tolerate more trouble from you. The next time--I will kill you. +Do you believe me?" + +"Yes." + +"That is all I want to say. You kill my men, and my sister says I must +not hurt you. I am not a child to be ruled by a woman!" + +He held his huge fist before my face. "With these fingers I will twist +your neck! Do you believe it?" + +"Yes." I did indeed. + +He swung on his heel. "If Moa wants to try and put sense into your +head--I hope she does. Bring him to the lounge when you are finished, +Moa. Come, Prince--Hahn will need us." He chuckled grimly. "Hahn seems +to fear we will plunge into this asteroid like a wild comet gone +suddenly tangent!" + +Anita moved aside to let him through the door. I caught a glimpse of her +set white face as she followed him down the deck. + +Then Moa's bulk blocked the doorway. She faced me. + +"Sit where you are, Gregg." She turned and closed the door upon us. "I +am not afraid of you. Should I be?" + +"No," I said. + +She came and sat down beside me. "If you should attempt to leave this +room, the stern look-out has orders to bore you through." + +"I have no intention of leaving the room," I retorted. "I do not want to +commit suicide." + +"I thought you did. You seem minded in such a fashion. Gregg, why are +you so foolish?" + + * * * * * + +I remained silent. + +"Why?" she demanded. + +I said carefully, "This treasure--you are many who will divide it. You +have all these men on the _Planetara_. And in Ferrok-Shahn, others, no +doubt." + +I paused. Would she tell me? Could I make her talk of that other brigand +ship which Miko had said was waiting on Mars? I wondered if he had been +able to signal it. The distance from here to Mars was great; yet upon +other voyages Snap's signals had gotten through. My heart sank at the +thought. Our situation here was desperate enough. The passengers soon +would be cast upon the asteroid: there would be left only Snap, Anita +and myself. We might recapture the ship, but I doubted it now. My +thoughts were turning to our arrival upon the Moon. We three might, +perhaps, be able to thwart the attack upon Grantline, hold the brigands +off until help from the Earth might come. + +But with another brigand ship, fully manned and armed, coming from Mars, +the condition would be immeasurably worse. Grantline had some twenty +men, and his camp, I knew, would be reasonably fortified. I knew, too, +that Johnny Grantline would fight to his last man. + +Moa was saying, "I would like to tell you our plans, Gregg." + +Her gaze was on my face. Keen eyes, but they were luminous now--an +emotion in them sweeping her. But outwardly she was calm, stern-lipped. + +"Well, why don't you tell me?" I said. "If I am to help you...." + +"Gregg, I want you with us. Don't you understand? We are not many. My +brother and I are guiding this affair. With your help, I would feel +differently." + +"The ship at Ferrok-Shahn--" + + * * * * * + +My fears were realized. She said, "I think our signals reached it. Dean +tried, and Coniston was checking him." + +"You think the ship is coming?" + +"Yes." + +"Where will it join us?" + +"At the Moon. We will be there in thirty hours. Your figures gave that, +did they not, Gregg?" + +"Yes. And the other ship--how fast is it?" + +"Quite fast. In eight days--or nine, perhaps--it will reach the Moon." + +She seemed willing enough to talk. There was indeed, no particular +reason for reticence; I could not, she naturally felt, turn the +knowledge to account. + +"Manned--" I prompted. + +"About forty men." + +"And armed? Long range projectors?" + +"You ask very avid questions, Gregg!" + +"Why should I not? Don't you suppose I'm interested?" I touched her. +"Moa, did it ever occur to you, if once you and Miko trusted me--which +you don't--I might show more interest in joining you?" + +The look on her face emboldened me. "Did you ever think of that, Moa? +And some arrangement for my share of this treasure? I am not like +Johnson, to be hired for a hundred pounds of gold-leaf." + +"Gregg, I will see that you get your share. Riches, for you--and me." + +"I was thinking, Moa, when we land at the Moon to-morrow--where is our +equipment?" + +The Moon, with its lack of atmosphere, needed special equipment. I had +never heard Carter mention what apparatus the _Planetara_ was carrying. + + * * * * * + +Moa laughed. "We have located air-suits and helmets--a variety of +suitable apparatus, Gregg. But we were not foolish enough to leave +Great-New York on this voyage without our own arrangements. My brother, +and Coniston and Prince--all of us shipped crates of freight consigned +to Ferrok-Shahn--and Rankin had special baggage marked 'theatrical +apparatus.'" + +I understood it now. These brigands had boarded the _Planetara_ with +their own Moon equipment, disguised as freight and personal baggage. +Shipped in bond, to be inspected by the tax officials of Mars. + +"It is on board now. We will open it when we leave the asteroid, Gregg. +We are well equipped." + +She bent toward me. And suddenly her long lean fingers were gripping my +shoulders. + +"Gregg, look at me!" + +I gazed into her eyes. There was passion there; and her voice was +suddenly intense. + +"Gregg, I told you once a Martian girl goes after what she wants. It is +you I want--" + +Not for me to play like a cad upon a woman's emotions! "Moa, you flatter +me." + +"I love you." She held me off, gazing at me. "Gregg--" + +I must have smiled. And abruptly she released me. + +"So you think it amusing?" + +"No. But on Earth--" + +"We are not on the Earth. Nor am I of the Earth!" She was gauging me +keenly. No note of pleading was in her voice; a stern authority; and the +passion was swinging to anger. + +"I am like my brother: I do not understand you, Gregg Haljan. Perhaps +you think you are clever? It seems stupidity, the fatuousness of man!" + +"Perhaps," I said. + + * * * * * + +There was a moment of silence. "Gregg, I said I loved you. Have you no +answer?" + +"No." In truth, I did not know what sort of answer it would be best to +make. Whatever she must have read in my eyes, it stirred her to fury. +Her fingers with the strength of a man in them, dug into my shoulders. +Her gaze searched me. + +"You think you love someone else? Is that it?" + +That was horribly startling; but she did not mean it just that way. She +amended with caustic venom: "That little Anita Prince! You thought you +loved her! Was that it?" + +"No!" + +But I hardly deceived her. "Sacred to her memory! Her ratlike little +face--soft voice like a purring, sniveling cat! Is that what you're +remembering, Gregg Haljan?" she sneered. + +I tried to laugh. "What nonsense!" + +"Is it? Then why are you cold under my touch? Am I--a girl descended +from the Martian flame-workers--impotent now to awaken a man?" + +A woman scorned! In all the Universe there could be no more dangerous an +enemy. An incredible venom shot from her eyes. + +"That miserable mouselike creature! Well for her that my brother killed +her." + +It struck me cold. If Anita was unmasked, beyond all the menace of +Miko's wooing, I knew that the venom of Moa's jealousy was a greater +danger. + +I said sharply, "Don't be simple, Moa!" I shook off her grip. "You +imagine too much. You forget that I am a man of the Earth and you a girl +of Mars." + +"Is that reason why we should not love?" + +"No. But our instincts are different. Men of the Earth are born to the +chase." + + * * * * * + +I was smiling. With thought of Anita's danger I could find it readily in +my heart to dupe this Amazon. + +"Give me time, Moa. You attract me." + +"You lie!" + +"Do you think so?" I gripped her arm with all the power of my fingers. +It must have hurt her, but she gave no sign; her gaze clung to me +steadily. + +"I don't know what to think, Gregg Haljan...." + +I held my grip. "Think what you like. Men of Earth have been known to +kill the thing they love." + +"You want me to fear you?" + +"Perhaps." + +She smiled scornfully. "That is absurd." + +I released her. I said earnestly, "I want you to realize that if you +treat me fairly, I can be of great advantage to this venture. There will +be fighting--I am fearless." + +Her venomous expression was softening. "I think that is true, Gregg." + +"And you need my navigating skill. Even now I should be in the turret." + +I stood up. I half expected she would stop me, but she did not. I added, +"Shall we go?" + +She stood beside me. Her height brought her face level with mine. + +"I think you will cause no more trouble, Gregg?" + +"Of course not. I am not wholly witless." + +"You have been." + +"Well, that is over." I hesitated. Then I added, "A man of Earth does +not yield to love when there is work to do. This treasure--" + +I think that of everything I said, this last most convinced her. + +She interrupted, "That I understand." Her eyes were smoldering. "When it +is over--when we are rich--then I will claim you, Gregg." + + * * * * * + +She turned from me. "Are you ready?" + +"Yes. No! I must get that sheet of Hahn's last figures." + +"Are they checked?" + +"Yes." I picked the sheet up from my desk. "Hahn is fairly accurate, +Moa." + +"A fool nevertheless. An apprehensive fool." + +A comradeship seemed coming between us. It was my purpose to establish +it. + +"Are we going to maroon Dr. Frank with the passengers?" I asked. + +"Yes." + +"But he may be of use to us." I wanted Dr. Frank kept aboard. I still +felt that there was a chance for us to recapture the ship. + +But Moa shook her head decisively. "My brother has decided not. We will +be well rid of Dr. Frank. Are you ready, Gregg?" + +"Yes." + +She opened the door. Her gesture reassured the look-out, who was alertly +watching the stern watch-tower. + +"Come, Gregg." + +I stepped out, and followed her forward along the deck, which now was +bright with the radiance of the nearby asteroid. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +_Marooned on an Asteroid_ + + +A fair little world. I had thought so before; and I thought so now as I +gazed at the asteroid hanging so close before our bow. A huge, thin +crescent, with the Sun off to one side behind it. A silver crescent, +tinged with red. From this near viewpoint, all of the little globe's +disc was visible. The shadowed portion lay dimly red, mysteriously; the +sunlit crescent--widening visibly is we approached--was gleaming silver. +Inky moonlike shadows in the hollows, brilliant light upon the mountain +heights. The seas lay in gray patches. The convexity of the disc was +sharply defined. So small a world! Fair and beautiful, shrouded with +clouded areas. + +"Where is Miko?" + +"In the lounge, Gregg." + +"Can we stop there?" + +Moa turned into the lounge archway. Strange, tense scene. I saw Anita at +once. Her robed figure lurked in an inconspicuous corner; her eyes were +upon me as Moa and I entered, but she did not move. The thirty-odd +passengers were huddled in a group. Solemn, white-faced men, frightened +women. Some of them were sobbing. One Earth-woman--a young widow--sat +holding her little girl, and wailing with uncontrolled hysteria. The +child knew me. As I appeared now, with my gold-laced white coat over my +shoulders, the little child seemed to see in my uniform a mark of +authority. She left her mother and ran to me. + +"You, please--you will help us? My moms is crying." + +I sent her gently back. But there came upon me then a compassion for +these innocent passengers, fated to have embarked upon this ill-starred +voyage. Herded here in this cabin, with brigands like pirates of old +guarding them. Waiting now to be marooned on an uninhabited asteroid +roaming in space. A sense of responsibility swept me. I swung upon Miko. +He stood with a nonchalant grace, lounging against the wall with a +cylinder dangling in his hand. He anticipated me. + +"So, Haljan--she put some sense into your head? No more trouble? Then +get into the turret. Moa, stay there with him. Send Hahn here. Where is +that ass Coniston? We will be in the atmosphere shortly." + +I said, "No more trouble from me, Miko. But these passengers--what +preparation are you making for them on the asteroid?" + + * * * * * + +He stared in surprise. Then he laughed. "I am no murderer. The crew is +preparing food, all we can spare. And tools. They can build themselves +shelter--they will be picked up in a few weeks." + +Dr. Frank was here. I caught his gaze, but he did not speak. On the +lounge couches there still lay the quarter-score bodies. Rankin, who +had been killed by Blackstone in the fight; a man passenger killed; a +woman and a man wounded. + +Miko added, "Dr. Frank will take his medical supplies--he will care for +the wounded. There are other bodies among the crew." His gesture was +deprecating. "I have not buried them. We will put them ashore; easier +that way." + +The passengers were all eyeing me. I said: + +"You have nothing to fear. I will guarantee you the best equipment we +can spare. You will give them apparatus with which to signal?" I +demanded of Miko. + +"Yes. Get to the turret." + +I turned away, with Moa after me. Again the little girl ran forward. + +"Come--speak to my moms! She is crying." + +It was across the cabin from Miko. Coniston had appeared from the deck; +it created a slight diversion. He joined Miko. + +"Wait," I said to Moa. "She is afraid of you. This is humanity." + +I pushed Moa back. I followed the child. I had seen that Venza was +sitting with the child's weeping mother. This was a ruse to get word +with me. + +I stood before the terrified woman while the little girl clung to my +legs. + +I said gently, "Don't be so frightened. Dr. Frank will take care of you. +There is no danger--you will be safer on the asteroid than here on the +ship." + +I leaned down and touched her shoulder. "There is no danger." + + * * * * * + +I was between Venza and the open cabin. Venza whispered swiftly, "When +we are landing, Gregg, I want you to make a commotion--anything--just as +the women passengers go ashore." + +"Why? No, of course you will have food, Mrs. Francis." + +"Never mind! An instant. Just confusion. Go, Gregg--don't speak now!" + +I raised the child. "You take care of mother." I kissed her. + +From across the cabin Miko's sardonic voice made me turn. "Touching +sentimentality, Haljan! Get to your post in the turret!" + +His rasping note of annoyance brooked no delay. I set the child down. I +said, "I will land us in an hour. Depend on it." + +Hahn was at the controls when Moa and I reached the turret. + +"You will land us safely, Haljan?" he demanded anxiously. + +I pushed him away. "Miko wants you in the lounge." + +"You take command here?" + +"Of course, Hahn. I am no more anxious for a crash than you." + +He sighed with relief. "That is true. I am no expert at atmospheric +entry, Haljan--nor Coniston, nor Miko." + +"Have no fear. Sit down, Moa." + +I waved to the look-out in the forward watch-tower, and got his routine +gesture. I rang the corridor bells, and the normal signals came promptly +back. + +"It's correct, Hahn. Get away with you." I called after him. "Tell Miko +that things are all right here." + +Hahn's small dark figure, lithe as a leopard in his tight fitting +trousers and jacket with his robe now discarded, went swiftly down the +spider incline and across the deck. + +"Moa, where is Snap? By the infernal, if he has been injured!--" + + * * * * * + +Up on the helio-room bridge the brigand guard still sat. Then I saw that +Snap was out there sitting with him. I waved from the turret window, and +Snap's cheery gesture answered me. His voice carried down through the +silver moonlight: "Land us safely, Gregg. These weird amateur +navigators!" + +Within the hour I had us dropping into the asteroid's atmosphere. The +ship heated steadily. The pressure went up. It kept me busy with the +instruments and the calculations. But my signals were always promptly +answered from below. The brigand crew did its part efficiently. + +At a hundred and fifty thousand feet I shifted the gravity plates to the +landing combinations, and started the electronic engines. + +"All safe, Gregg?" Moa sat at my elbow; her eyes, with what seemed a +glow of admiration in them, followed my busy routine activities. + +"Yes. The crew works well." + +The electronic streams flowed out like a rocket tail behind us. The +_Planetara_ caught their impetus. In the rarified air, our bow lifted +slightly, like a ship riding a gentle ground swell. At a hundred +thousand feet we sailed gently forward, hull down to the asteroid's +surface, cruising to seek a landing space. + +A little sea was now beneath us. A shadowed sea, deep purple in the +night down there. Occasional green-verdured islands showed, with the +lines of white surf marking them. Beyond the sea, a curving coastline +was visible. Rocky headlines, behind which mountain foothills rose in +serrated, verdured ranks. The sunlight edged the distant mountains; and +presently this rapidly turning little world brought the sunlight +forward. + + * * * * * + +It was day beneath us. We slid gently downward. Thirty thousand feet +now, above a sparkling blue ocean. The coastline was just ahead: green +with a lush, tropical vegetation. Giant trees, huge-leaved. Long +dangling vines; air plants, with giant pods and vivid orchidlike +blossoms. + +I sat at the turret window, staring through my glasses. A fair little +world, yet obviously uninhabited. I could fancy that all this was +newly-sprung vegetation. This asteroid had whirled in from the cold of +the interplanetary space far outside our Solar System. A few years +ago--as time might be measured astronomically, it was no more than +yesterday--this fair landscape was congealed white and bleak, with a +sweep of glacial ice. But the seeds of life miraculously were here. The +miracle of life! Under the warming, germinating sunlight, the verdure +sprung. + +"Can you find landing space, Gregg?" + +Moa's question brought back my wandering fancies. I saw an upland glade, +a level spread of ferns with the forest banked around it. A cliff-height +nearby, frowning down at the sea. + +"Yes. I can land us there." I showed her through the glasses. I rang the +sirens, and we spiraled, descending further. The mountain tops were now +close beneath us. Clouds were overhead, white masses with blue sky +behind them. A day of brilliant sunlight. But soon, with our forward +cruising, it was night. The sunlight dropped beneath the sharply convex +horizon; the sea and the land went purple. + +A night of brilliant stars; the Earth was a blazing blue-red point of +light. The heavens visibly were revolving; in an hour or so it would be +daylight again. + +On the forward deck now Coniston had appeared, commanding half a dozen +of the crew. They were carrying up caskets of food and the equipment +which was to be given the marooned passengers. And making ready the +disembarking incline, loosening the seals of the side-dome windows. + +Sternward on the deck, by the lounge oval, I could see Miko standing. +And occasionally the roar of his voice at the passengers sounded. + + * * * * * + +My vagrant thought flung back into Earth's history. Like this, ancient +travelers of the surface of the sea were herded by pirates to walk the +plank, or put ashore, marooned upon some fair desert island of the +tropic Spanish main. + +Hahn came mounting our turret incline. "All is well, Gregg Haljan?" + +"Get to your work," Moa told him sharply. "We land in an hour-quadrant." + +He retreated, joining the bustle and confusion which now was beginning +on the deck. It struck me--could I turn that confusion to account? Would +it be possible, now at the last moment, to attack these brigands? Snap +still sat outside the helio-room doorway. But his guard was alert, with +upraised projector. And that guard, I saw, in his position high +amidships, commanded all the deck. + +And I saw too, as the passengers now were herded in a line from the +lounge oval, that Miko had roped and bound all of the men. And a +clanking chain connected them. They came like a line of convicts, +marching forward, and stopped on the open deck-space near the base of +the turret. Dr. Frank's grim face gazed up at me. + +Miko ordered the women and children in a group beside the chained men. +His words to them reached me: "You are in no danger. When we land, be +careful. You will find gravity very different--this is a very small +world." + +I flung on the landing lights; the deck glowed with the blue radiance; +the search-beams shot down beside our hull. We hung now a thousand feet +above the forest glade. I cut off the electronic streams. We poised, +with the gravity-plates set at normal, and only a gentle night-breeze to +give us a slight side drift. This I could control with the lateral +propeller rudders. + +For all my busy landing routine, my mind was on other things. Venza's +swift words back there in the lounge. I was to create a commotion while +the passengers were landing. Why? Had she and Dr. Frank, perhaps, some +last minute desperate purposes? + + * * * * * + +I determined I would do what she said. Shout, or mis-order the lights. +That would be easy. But to what advantage? + +I was glad it was night--I had, indeed, calculated our descent so that +the landing would be in darkness. But to what purpose? These brigands +were very alert. There was nothing I could think of to do which would +avail us anything more than a possible swift death under Miko's anger. + +"Well done, Gregg!" said Moa. + +I cut off the last of the propellers. With scarcely a perceptible jar, +the _Planetara_ grounded, rose like a feather and settled to rest in the +glade. The deep purple night with stars overhead was around us. I hissed +out our interior air through the dome and hull-ports, and admitted the +night-air of the asteroid. My calculations--of necessity mere +mathematical approximations--proved fairly accurate. In temperature and +pressure there was no radical change as the dome-windows slid back. + +We had landed. Whatever Venza's purpose, her moment was at hand. I was +tense. But I was aware also, that beside me Moa was very alert. I had +thought her unarmed. She was not. She sat back from me; in her hand was +a small thin knife-blade. + +She murmured tensely, "You have done your part, Gregg. Well and +skillfully done. Now we will sit here quietly and watch them land." + +Snap's guard was standing, keenly watching. The look-outs in the forward +and stern towers were also armed; I could see them both gazing keenly +down at the confusion of the blue-lit deck. + +The incline went over the hull-side and touched the ground. + +"Enough!" Miko roared. "The men first. Hahn, move the women back! +Coniston, pile those caskets to the side. Get out of the way, Prince." + + * * * * * + +Anita was down there. I saw her at the edge of the group of women. Venza +was near her. + +Miko shoved her. "Get out of the way, Prince. You can help Coniston. +Have the things ready to throw off." + +Five of the steward-crew were at the head of the incline. Miko shouted +up at me: + +"Haljan, hold our shipboard gravity normal." + +"Yes," I responded. + +I had done so. Our magnitizers had been adjusted to the shifting +calculations of our landing. They were holding now at intensities, so +that upon the _Planetara_ no change from fairly normal Earth-gravity +was apparent. I rang a tentative inquiry signal; the operator in the +hull-magnetizer control answered that he was at his post. + +The line of men were first to descend. Dr. Frank led them. He flashed a +look of farewell up at me and Snap as he went down the incline with the +chained men passengers after him. + +Motley procession! Twenty odd, dishevelled, half-clothed men of three +worlds. The changing, lightening gravity on the incline caught them. Dr. +Frank bounded up to the rail under the impetus of his step: caught and +held himself, drew himself back. The line swayed. In the dim, blue-lit +glare it seemed unreal, crazy. A grotesque dream of men descending a +plank. + +They reached the forest glade. Stood swaying, afraid at first to move. +The purple night crowded them; they stood gazing at this strange world, +their new prison. + +"Now the women." + +Miko was shoving the women to the head of the incline. I could feel +Moa's steady gaze upon me. Her knife-blade gleamed in the turret light. + +She murmured again, "In a few minutes you can ring us away, Gregg." + + * * * * * + +I felt like an actor awaiting his cue in the wings of some turgid drama +the plot of which he did not know. Venza was near the head of the +incline. Some of the women and children were on it. A woman screamed. +Her child had slipped from her hand, bounded up over the rail, and +fallen. Hardly fallen--floated down to the ground, with flailing arms +and legs, landing in the dark ferns, unharmed. Its terrified wail came +up. + +There was a confusion on the incline. Venza, still on the deck, seemed +to send a look of appeal to the turret. My cue? + +I slid my hand to the light switchboard. It was near my knees. I pulled +a switch. The blue-lit deck beneath the turret went dark. + +I recall an instant of horrible, tense silence, and in the gloom beside +me I was aware of Moa moving. I felt a thrill of instinctive fear--would +she plunge that knife into me? + +The silence of the darkened deck was broken with a confusion of sounds. +A babble of voices; a woman passenger's scream; shuffling of feet; and +above it all, Miko's roar: + +"Stand quiet! Everyone! No movement!" + +On the descending incline there was chaos. The disembarking women were +clinging to the gang-rail; some of them had evidently surged over it and +fallen. Down on the ground in the purple-shadowed starlight I could +vaguely see the chained line of men. They too were in confusion, trying +to shove themselves toward the fallen women. + +Miko roared: + +"Light those tubes! Gregg Haljan! By the Almighty, Moa, are you up +there? What is wrong? The light-tubes--" + +Dark drama of unknown plot! I wonder if I should try and leave the +turret. Where was Anita? She had been down there on the deck when I +flung out the lights. + +I think twenty seconds would have covered it all. I had not moved. I +thought, "Is Snap concerned with this?" + +Moa's knife could have stabbed me. I felt her lunge against me; and +suddenly I was gripping her, twisting her wrist. But she flung the knife +away. Her strength was almost the equal of my own. Her hand went for my +throat, and with the other hand she was fumbling. + + * * * * * + +The deck abruptly sprang into light again. Moa had found the switch and +threw it back. + +"Gregg!" + +She fought me as I tried to reach the switch. I saw down on the deck +Miko gazing up at us. Moa panted, "Gregg--stop! If he--sees you doing +this, he'll kill you--" + +The scene down there was almost unchanged. I had answered my cue. To +what purpose? I saw Anita near Miko. The last of the women were on the +plank. + +I had stopped struggling with Moa. She sat back, panting; and then she +called: "Sorry, Miko. It will not happen again." + +Miko was in a towering rage. But he was too busy to bother with me; his +anger swung on those nearest him. He shoved the last of the women +violently at the incline. She bounded over. Her body, with the +gravity-pull of only a few Earth-pounds, sailed in an arc and dropped to +the sward near the swaying line of men. + +Miko swung back. "Get out of my way!" A sweep of his huge arm knocked +Anita sidewise. "Prince, damn you, help me with those boxes!" + +The frightened stewards were lifting the boxes, square metal +storage-chests each as long as a man, packed with food, tools, and +equipment. + +"Here, get out of my way, all of you!" + +My breath came again; Anita nimbly retreated before Miko's angry rush. +He dashed at the stewards. Three of them held a box. He took it from +them; raised it at the top of the incline. Poised it over his head an +instant, with his massive arms like gray pillars beneath it. And flung +it. The box catapulted, dropped; and then, passing the Planetara's +gravity area, it sailed in a long flat arc over the forest glade and +crashed into the purple underbrush. + +"Give me another!" + + * * * * * + +The stewards pushed another at him. Like an angry Titan, he flung it. +And another. One by one the chests sailed out and crashed. + +"There is your food--go pick it up! Haljan, make ready to ring us away!" + +On the deck lay the dead body of Rance Rankin, which the stewards had +carried out. Miko seized it, flung it. + +"There! Go to your last resting place!" + +And the other bodies. Balch Blackstone, Captain Carter, Johnson--Miko +flung them. And the course masters and those of our crew who had been +killed; the stewards appeared with them; Miko unceremoniously cast them +off. + +The passengers were all on the ground now. It was dim down there. I +tried to distinguish Venza, but could not. I could see Dr. Frank's +figure at the end of the chained line of men. The passengers were gazing +in horror at the bodies hurtling over them. + +"Ready, Haljan?" + +Moa prompted me. "Tell him yes!" + +I called, "Yes!" Had Venza failed in her unknown purpose? It seemed so. +On the helio-room bridge Snap and his guard stood like silent statues in +the blue-lit gloom. + +The disembarkation was over. + +"Close the ports," Miko commanded. + +The incline came folding up with a clatter. The port and dome-windows +slid closed. Moa hissed against my ear: + +"If you want life, Gregg Haljan, you will start your duties!" + +Venza had failed. Whatever it was, it had come to nothing. Down in the +purple forest, disconnected now from the ship, the last of our friends +stood marooned. I could distinguish them through the blur of the closed +dome--only a swaying, huddled group was visible. But my fancy pictured +this last sight of them--Dr. Frank, Venza, Shac and Dud Ardley. + +They were gone. There were left only Snap, Anita, and myself. + + * * * * * + +I was mechanically ringing us away. I heard my sirens sounding down +below, with the answering clangs here in the turret. The _Planetara's_ +respiratory controls started; the pressure equalizers began operating, +and the gravity plates shifted into lifting combinations. + +The ship was hissing and quivering with it, combined with the grating of +the last of the dome ports. And Miko's command: + +"Lift, Haljan." + +Hahn had been mingled with the confusion of the deck, though I had +hardly noticed him; Coniston had remained below, with the crew answering +my signals. Hahn stood now with Miko, gazing down through a deck window. +Anita was alone at another. + +"Lift, Haljan." + +I lifted us gently, bow first, with a repulsion of the bow plates. And +started the central electronic engine. Its thrust from our stern moved +us diagonally over the purple forest trees. + +The glade slid downward and away. I caught a last vague glimpse of the +huddled group of marooned passengers, staring up at us. Left to their +fate, alone on this deserted little world. + +With the three engines going we slid smoothly upward. The forest +dropped, a purple spread of tree-tops, edged with starlight and +Earth-light. The sharply curving horizon seemed following us up. I swung +on all the power. We mounted at a forty degree angle, slowly circling, +with a bank of clouds over us to the side and the shining little sea +beneath. + +"Very good, Gregg." In the turret light Moa's eyes blazed at me. "I do +not know what you meant by darkening the deck-lights." Her fingers dug +at my shoulders. "I will tell my brother it was an error." + +I said, "An error--yes." + +"An error? I don't know what it was. But you have me to deal with now. +You understand? I will tell my brother so. You said, 'On Earth a man may +kill the thing he loves.' A woman of Mars may do that! Beware of me, +Gregg Haljan." + +Her passion-filled eyes bored into me. Love? Hate? The venom of a woman +scorned--a mingling of turgid emotions.... + + * * * * * + +I twisted away from her grip and ignored her; she sat back, silently +watching my busy activities; the calculations of the shifting conditions +of gravity, pressures, temperatures; a checking of the score or more of +instruments on the board before me. + +Mechanical routine. My mind went to Venza, back there on the asteroid. +The wandering little world was already shrinking to a convex surface +beneath us. Venza, with her last unknown play, gone to failure. Had I +failed my cue? Whatever my part, it seemed now that I must have horribly +mis-acted it. + +The crescent Earth was presently swinging over our bow. We rocketed out +of the asteroid's shadow. The glowing, flaming Sun appeared, making a +crescent of the Earth. With the glass I could see our tiny Moon, +visually seeming to hug the limb of its parent Earth. + +We were away upon our course for the Moon. My mind flung ahead. +Grantline with his treasure, unsuspecting this brigand ship. And +suddenly, beyond all thought of Grantline and his treasure, there came +to me a fear for Anita. In God's truth I had been, so far, a very +stumbling inept champion--doomed to failure with everything I tried. It +swept me, so that I cursed my own incapacity. Why had I not contrived to +have Anita desert at the asteroid? Would it not have been far better for +her there? Taking her chance for rescue with Dr. Frank, Venza and the +others? + +But no! I had, like an inept fool, never thought of that! Had left her +here on board at the mercy of these outlaws. + +And I swore now that, beyond everything, I would protect her. + +Futile oath! If I could have seen ahead a few hours! But I sensed the +catastrophe. There was a shudder within me as I sat in that turret, +docilely guiding us out through the asteroid's atmosphere, heading us +upon our course for the Moon. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +_In the Zed-light Glow_ + + +"Try again. By the infernal, Snap Dean, if you do anything to balk us!" + +Miko scanned the apparatus with keen eyes. How much technical knowledge +of signaling instruments did this brigand leader have? I was tense and +cold with apprehension as I sat in a corner of the helio-room, watching +Snap. Could Miko be fooled? Snap, I knew, was trying to fool him. + +The Moon spread close beneath us. My log-chart, computed up to thirty +minutes past, showed us barely some thirty thousand miles over the +Moon's surface. The globe lay in quadrature beneath our bow quarter--a +huge quadrant spreading across the black starry vault of the lower +heavens. A silver quadrant. The sunset caught the Lunar mountains, flung +slanting shadows over the empty Lunar plains. All the disc was plainly +visible. The mellow Earth-light glowed serene and pale to illumine the +Lunar night. + +The _Planetara_ was bathed in silver. A brilliant silver glare swept the +forward deck, clean white and splashed with black shadows. We had partly +circled the Moon, so as now to approach it from the Earthward side. I +had worked with extreme concentration through the last few hours, +plotting the trajectory of our curving sweep, setting the gravity plates +with constantly shifting combinations. And with it a necessity for the +steady retarding of our velocity. + + * * * * * + +Miko for a time was at my elbow in the turret. I had not seen Coniston +and Hahn of recent hours. I had slept, awakened refreshed, and had a +meal. Coniston and Hahn remained below, one or the other of them always +with the crew to execute my sirened orders. Then Coniston came to take +my place in the turret, and I went with Miko to the helio-room. + +"You are skilful, Haljan." A measure of grim approval was in Miko's +voice. "You evidently have no wish to try and fool me in this +navigation." + +I had not, indeed. It is delicate work at best, coping with the +intricacies of celestial mechanics upon a semicircular trajectory with +retarding velocity, and with a make-shift crew we could easily have +come upon real difficulty. + +We hung at last, hull-down, facing the Earthward hemisphere of the Lunar +disc. The giant ball of the Earth lay behind and above us--the Sun over +our stern quarter. With forward velocity almost checked, we poised, and +Snap began his signals to the unsuspecting Grantline. + +My work momentarily was over. I sat watching the helio-room. Moa was +here, close beside me; I felt always her watchful gaze, so that even the +play of my expression needed reining. + +Miko worked with Snap. Anita too was here. To Miko and Moa it was the +somber, taciturn George Prince, shrouded always in his black mourning +cloak, disinclined to talk; sitting alone, brooding and cowardly sullen. + +Miko repeated, "By the infernal, if you try to fool me, Snap Dean!" + +The small metal room, with its grid floor and low-arched ceiling, glared +with moonlight through its windows. The moving figures of Snap and Miko +were aped by the grotesque, misshapen shadows of them on the walls. Miko +gigantic--a great, menacing ogre. Snap small and alert--a trim, pale +figure in his tight-fitting white trousers, broad-flowing belt, and +white shirt open at the throat. His face was pale and drawn from lack of +sleep and the torture to which Miko had subjected him. But he grinned at +the brigand's words, and pushed his straggling hair closer under the red +eyeshade. + +"I'm doing my best, Miko--you can believe it." + + * * * * * + +The room over long periods was deadly silent, with Miko and Snap bending +watchfully at the crowded banks of instruments. A silence in which my +own pounding heart seemed to echo. I did not dare look at Anita, nor she +at me. Snap was trying to signal Earth, not the Moon! His main helios +were set in the reverse. The infra-red waves, flung from the bow +window, were of a frequency which Snap and I believed that Grantline +could not pick up. And over against the wall, close beside me and +seemingly ignored by Snap, there was a tiny ultra-violet sender. Its +faint hum and the quivering of its mirrors had so far passed unnoticed. + +Would some Earth-station pick it up? I prayed so. There was a thumb nail +mirror here which could bring an answer. I prayed that it might swing. + +Would some Earth telescope be able to see us? I doubted it. The pinpoint +of the _Planetara's_ infinitesimal bulk would be beyond them. + +Long silences, broken only by the faint hiss and murmur of Snap's +instruments. + +"Shall I try the 'graphs, Miko?" + +"Yes." + +I helped him with the spectroheliograph. At every level the plates +showed us nothing save the scarred and pitted Moon-surface. We worked +for an hour. There was nothing. Bleak cold night on the Moon here +beneath us. A touch of fading sunlight upon the Apennines. Up near the +South Pole, Tycho with its radiating open rills stood like a grim dark +maw. + +Miko bent over a plate. "Something here? Is there?" + +An abnormality upon the frowning ragged cliffs of Tycho? We thought so. +But then it seemed not. + + * * * * * + +Another hour. No signal came from Earth. If Snap's calls were getting +through we had no evidence of it. Abruptly Miko strode at me from across +the room. I went cold and tense; Moa shifted, alert to my every +movement. But Miko was not interested in me. A sweep of his clenched +fist knocked the ultra-violet sender and its coils and mirrors in a +tinkling crash to the grid at my feet. + +"We don't need that, whatever it is!" + +He rubbed his knuckles where the violet waves had tinged them, and +turned grimly back to Snap. + +"Where are your Gamma ray mirrors? If the treasure is exposed--" + +This Martian's knowledge was far greater than we believed. He grinned +sardonically at Anita. "If our treasure is on this hemisphere, Prince, +we should pick up Gamma rays? Don't you think so? Or is Grantline so +cautious it will all be protected?" + +Anita spoke in a careful, throaty drawl. "The Gamma rays came plain +enough when we passed here on the way out." + +"You should know," grinned Miko. "An expert eavesdropper, Prince--I will +say that for you. Come Dean, try something else. By God, if Grantline +does not signal us, I will be likely to blame you--my patience is +shortening. Shall we go closer, Haljan?" + +"I don't think it would help," I said. + +He nodded. "Perhaps not. Are we checked?" + +"Yes." We were poised, very nearly motionless. "If you wish an advance, +I can ring it. But we need a surface destination now." + +"True, Haljan." He stood thinking. "Would a zed-ray penetrate those +crater-cliffs? Tycho, for instance, at this angle?"[B] + +"It might," Snap agreed. "You think he may be on the Northern inner side +of Tycho?" + +"He may be anywhere," said Miko shortly. + +"If you think that," Snap persisted, "suppose we swing the _Planetara_ +over the South Pole. Tycho, viewed from there--" + +"And take another quarter-day of time?" Miko sneered. "Flash on your +zed-ray; help him hook it up, Haljan." + + + [B] An allusion to the use of the zed-ray light for making + spectro-photographs of what might be behind obscuring rock masses, + similar to the old-style X-ray. + + * * * * * + +I moved to the lens-box of the spectroheliograph. It seemed that Snap +was very strangely reluctant: Was it because he knew that the Grantline +camp lay concealed on the north inner wall of Tycho's giant ring? I +thought so. But Snap flashed a queer look at Anita. She did not see it, +but I did. And I could not understand it. + +My accursed, witless incapacity! If only I had taken warning! + +"Here," commanded Miko. "A score of 'graphs with the zed-ray. I tell you +I will comb this surface if we have to stay here until our ship comes +from Ferrok-Shahn to join us!" + +The Martian brigands were coming. Miko's signals had been answered. In +ten days the other brigand ship, adequately manned and armed, would be +here. + +Snap helped me connect the zed-ray. He did not dare even to whisper to +me, with Moa hovering always so close. And for all Miko's sardonic +smiling, we knew that he would tolerate nothing from us now. He was +fully armed, and so was Moa. + +I recall that Snap several times tried to touch me significantly. Oh, if +only I had taken warning! + +We finished our connecting. The dull gray point of zed-ray gleamed +through the prisms, to mingle with the moonlight entering the main lens. +I stood with the shutter trip. + +"The same interval, Snap?" + +"Yes." + +Beside me, I was aware of a faint reflection of the zed-light--a gray +Cathedral shaft crossing the helio-room and falling upon the opposite +wall. An unreality there, as the zed-light faintly strove to penetrate +the metal room-side. + +I said, "Shall I make the exposure?" + + * * * * * + +Snap nodded. But that 'graph was never made. An exclamation from Moa +made us all turn. The Gamma mirrors were quivering! Grantline had picked +our signals! With what undoubtedly was an intensified receiving +equipment which Snap had not thought Grantline able to use, he had +caught our faint zed-rays, which Snap was sending only to deceive Miko. +And Grantline had recognized the _Planetara_, and had released his +occulting screens surrounding the radium ore. The Gamma rays were here, +unmistakable! + +And upon their heels came Grantline's message. Not in the secret system +he had arranged with Snap, but unsuspectingly in open code. I could read +the swinging mirror, and so could Miko. + +And Miko decoded it triumphantly aloud: + +"_Surprised but pleased your return. Approach Mid-Northern hemisphere, +region of Archimedes, forty thousand toises[C] off nearest Apennine +range._" + +The message broke off. But even its importance was overshadowed. Miko +stood in the center of the helio-room, triumphantly reading the +light-indicator. Its beam swung on the scale, which chanced to be almost +directly over Anita's head. I saw Miko's expression change. A look of +surprise, amazement came to him. + +"Why--" + +He gasped. He stood staring. Almost stupidly staring for an instant. And +as I regarded him with fascinated horror, there came upon his heavy gray +face a look of dawning comprehension. And I heard Snap's startled intake +of breath. He moved to the spectroheliograph, where the zed-ray +connections were still humming. + +But with a leap Miko flung him away. "Off with you! Moa, watch him! +Haljan, don't move!" + + + [C] About fifty miles. + + * * * * * + +Again Miko stood staring. Oh dear God, I saw now that he was staring at +Anita! + +"Why George Prince! How strange you look!" + +Anita did not move. She was stricken with horror: she shrank back +against the wall, huddled in her cloak. Miko's sardonic voice came +again: + +"How strange you look. Prince!" He took a step forward. He was grim and +calm. Horribly calm. Deliberate. Gloating--like a great gray monster in +human form toying with a fascinated, imprisoned bird. + +"Move just a little Prince. Let the zed-ray light fall more fully." + +Anita's head was bare. That pale, Hamletlike face. Dear God, the +zed-light reflection lay gray and penetrating upon it! + +Miko took another step. Peering. Grinning. "How amazing, George Prince! +Why, I can hardly believe it!" + +Moa was armed with an electronic cylinder. For all her amazement--what +turgid emotions sweeping her I can only guess--she never took her eyes +from Snap and me. + +"Back! Don't move, either of you!" She hissed it at us. + +Then Miko leaped at Anita like giant gray leopard pouncing. + +"Away with that cloak, Prince!" + + * * * * * + +I stood cold and numbed. And realization came at last. The faint +zed-light glow had fallen by chance upon Anita's face. Penetrated the +flesh; exposed, faintly glowing, the bone-line of her jaw. Unmasked the +waxen art of Glutz. + +And Miko had seen it. + +"Why George, how surprising! Away with that cloak!" + +He seized her wrist, drew her forward, beyond the shaft of zed-light, +into the brilliant light of the Moon. And ripped her cloak from her. The +gentle curves of her woman's figure were so unmistakable! + +And as Miko gazed at them, all his calm triumph swept away. + +"Why, Anita!" + +I heard Moa mutter: "So that is it?" A venomous flashing look--a shaft +from me to Anita and back again. "So that is it?" + +"Why, _Anita_!" + +Miko's great arms gathered her up as though she were a child. "So I have +you back; from the dead delivered back to me!" + +"Gregg!" Snap's warning, and his grip over my shoulders brought me a +measure of sanity. I had tensed to spring. I stood quivering, and Moa +thrust her weapon against my face. The helio mirrors were swaying again +with another message from Grantline. But it came ignored by us all. + +In the glare of moonlight by the forward window, Miko held Anita, his +great hands pawing her with triumphant possessive caresses. + +"So, little Anita, you are given back to me." + +Against her futile struggles he held her. + +Dear God, if only I had had the wit to have prevented this! + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +_The Grantline Camp_ + + +In the mid-northern hemisphere upon the Earthward side of the Moon, the +giant crater of Archimedes stood brooding in silent majesty. Grim, lofty +walls, broken, pitted and scarred, rising precipitous to the upper +circular rim. Night had just fallen. The sunlight clung to the +crater-heights; it tinged with flame the jagged peaks of the Apennine +Mountains which rose in tiers at the horizon; and it flung great inky +shadows over the intervening lowlands. + +Northward, the Mare Imbrium stretched mysterious and purple, its million +rills and ridges and crater holes flattened by distance and the +gathering darkness into a seeming level surface. The night slowly +deepened. The dead-black vault of the sky blazed with its brilliant +starry gems. The gibbous Earth hung high above the horizon, motionless, +save for the invisible pendulum sway over the tiny arc, of its +libration: widening to quadrature, casting upon the bleak naked Lunar +landscape its mellow Earth-glow. + +Slow, measured process, this coming of the Lunar night! For an Earth-day +the sunset slowly faded on the Apennines; the poised Earth widened a +little further--an Earth-day of time, with the Earth-disc visibly +rotating, the faint tracery of its oceans and continents passing in +slow, majestic review. + +Another Earth-day interval. Then another. And another. Full night now +enveloped Archimedes. Splotches of Earth-light and starlight sheen +slowly shifted as the night advanced. + +Between the great crater and the nearby mountains, the broken, +pseudo-level lowlands lay wan in the Earth-light. A few hundred miles, +as distance would be measured upon Earth. A million million rills were +here. Valleys and ridges, ravines, sharp-walled canyons, cliffs and +crags--tiny craters like pock-marks. + +Naked, gray porous rock everywhere. This denuded landscape! Cracked and +scarred and tumbled, as though some inexorable Titan torch had seared +and crumbled and broken it, left it now congealed like a wind-lashed sea +abruptly frozen into immobility. + + * * * * * + +Moonlight upon Earth so gently shines to make romantic a lover's smile! +But the reality of the Lunar night is cold beyond human rationality. +Cold and darkly silent. Grim desolation. Awesome. Majestic. A frowning +majesty that even to the most intrepid human beholder is inconceivably +forbidding. + +And there were humans here now. On this tumbled plain, between +Archimedes and the mountains, one small crater amid the million of its +fellows was distinguished this night by the presence of humans. The +Grantline camp! It huddled in the deepest purple shadows on the side of +a bowl-like pit, a crudely circular orifice with a scant two miles +across its rippling rim. There was faint light here to mark the presence +of the living intruders. The blue-glow radiance of Morrell tube-lights +under a spread of glassite. + +The Grantline camp stood mid-way up one of the inner cliff-walls of the +little crater. The broken, rock-strewn floor, two miles wide, lay five +hundred feet below the camp. Behind it, the jagged precipitous cliff +rose another five hundred to the heights of the upper rim. A broad +level shelf hung midway up the cliff, and upon it Grantline had built +his little group of glassite dome shelters. Viewed from above there was +the darkly purple crater floor, the upflung circular rim where the +Earth-light tinged the spires and crags with yellow sheen; and on the +shelf, like a huddled group of birds nests, Grantline's domes clung and +gazed down upon the inner valley. + +Intricate task, the building of these glassite shelters! There were +three. The main one stood close at the brink of the ledge. A quadrangle +of glassite walls, a hundred feet in length by half as wide, and a scant +ten feet high to its flat-arched dome roof. Built for this purpose in +Great-New York, Grantline had brought his aluminite girders and braces +and the glassite panels in sections. + + * * * * * + +The air here on the Moon surface was negligible--a scant one +five-thousandth of the atmospheric pressure at the sea-level on Earth. +But within the glassite shelter, a normal Earth-pressure must be +maintained. Rigidly braced double walls to withstand the explosive +tendency, with no external pressure to counteract it. A tremendous +necessity for mechanical equipment had burdened Grantline's small +ship to its capacity. The chemistry of manufactured air, the +pressure equalizers, renewers, respirators, the lighting and +temperature-maintenance systems--all the mechanics of a space-flyer were +here. + +And within the glassite double walls, there was necessity for a constant +circulation of the Erentz temperature insulating system.[D] + +There was this main Grantline building, stretching low and rectangular +along the front edge of the ledge. Within it were living rooms, messroom +and kitchen. Fifty feet behind it, connected by a narrow passage of +glassite, was a similar, though smaller structure. The mechanical +control rooms, with their humming, vibrating mechanisms were here. And +an instrument room with signaling apparatus, senders, receivers, +mirror-grids and audiphones of several varieties; and an +electro-telescope, small but modern, with dome overhead like a little +Earth observatory. + +From this instrument building, beside the connecting pedestrian passage, +wire cables for light, and air-tubes and strings and bundles of +instrument wires ran to the main structure--gray snakes upon the +porous, gray Lunar rock. + +The third building seemed a lean-to banked against the cliff-wall, a +slanting shed-wall of glassite fifty feet high and two hundred in +length. Under it, for months Grantline's borers had dug into the cliff. +Braced tunnels were here, penetrating back and downward into this vein +of radio-active rock. + + + [D] An intricate system of insulation against extremes of temperature, + developed by the Erentz Kinetic Energy Corporation in the twenty-first + century. Within the hollow double shell of a shelter-wall, or an + explorer's helmet-suit, or a space-flyer's hull, an oscillating + semi-vacuum current was maintained--an extremely rarified air, + magnetically charged, and maintained in rapid oscillating motion. Across + this field the outer cold, or heat, as the case might be, could + penetrate only with slow radiation. This Erentz system gave the most + perfect temperature insulation known in its day. Without it, + interplanetary flight would have been impossible. + + And it served a double purpose. Developed at first for temperature + insulation only, the Erentz system surprisingly brought to light one of + the most important discoveries made in the realm of physics of the + century. It was found that any flashing, oscillating current, whether + electronic, or the semi-vacuum of rarified air--or even a thin sheet of + whirling fluid--gave also a pressure-insulation. The kinetic energy of + the rapid movement was found to absorb within itself the latent energy + of the unequal pressure. + + (The intricate postulates and mathematical formulae necessary to + demonstrate the operation of the physical laws involved would be out of + place here.) + + The _Planetara_ was so equipped, against the explosive tendency of its + inner air-pressures when flying in the near-vacuum of space. In the case + of Grantline's glassite shelters, the latent energy of his room interior + air pressure went largely into a kinetic energy which in practical + effect resulted only in the slight acceleration of the vacuum current, + and thus never reached the outer wall. The Erentz engineers claimed for + their system a pressure absorption of 97.4%, leaving, in Grantline's + case, only 2.6% of room pressure to be held by the building's aluminite + bracers. + + It may be interesting to note in this connection that without the Erentz + system as a basis, the great sub-sea developments on Earth and Mars of + the twenty-first century would also have been impossible. Equipped with + a fluid circulation device of the Erentz principle within its double + hull, the first submarine was able to penetrate the great ocean deeps, + withstanding the tremendous ocean pressures at depths of four thousand + fathoms. + + * * * * * + +The work was over now. The borers had been dismantled and packed away. +At one end of the cliff the mining equipment lay piled in a litter. +There was a heap of discarded ore where Grantline had carted and dumped +it after his first crude refining process had yielded it as waste. The +ore-slag lay like gray powder-flakes strewn down the cliff. Tracks and +ore-carts along the ledge stood discarded, mute evidence of the weeks +and months of work these helmeted miners had undergone, struggling upon +this airless, frowning world. + +But now all that was finished. The radio-active ore was sufficiently +concentrated. It lay--this treasure--in a seventy-foot pile behind the +glassite lean-to, with a cage of wires over it and an insulation barrage +guarding its Gamma rays from escaping to mark its presence. + +The ore-shelter was dark; the other two buildings were lighted. And +there were small lights mounted at intervals about the camp and along +the edge of the ledge. A spider ladder, with tiny platforms some twenty +feet one above the other, hung precariously to the cliff-face. It +descended the five hundred feet to the crater floor; and, behind the +camp, it mounted the jagged cliff-face to the upper rim-height, where a +small observatory platform was placed. + + * * * * * + +Such was the outer aspect of the Grantline Treasure Camp near the +beginning of this Lunar night, when, unbeknown to Grantline and his +score of men, the _Planetara_ with its brigands was approaching. The +night was perhaps a sixth advanced. Full night. No breath of cloud to +mar the brilliant starry heavens. The quadrant Earth hung poised like a +giant mellow moon over Grantline's crater. A bright Earth, yet no air +was here on this Lunar surface to spread its light. Only a glow, +mingling with the spots of blue tube-light on the poles along the cliff, +and the radiance from the lighted buildings. + +The crater floor was dimly purple. Beyond the opposite upper rim, from +the camp-height, the towering top of distant Archimedes was visible. + +No evidence of movement showed about the silent camp. Then a pressure +door in an end of the main building opened its tiny series of locks. A +bent figure came out. The lock closed. The figure straightened and gazed +about the camp. Grotesque, bloated semblance of a man! Helmeted, with +rounded dome-hood suggestion of an ancient sea diver, yet goggled and +trunked like a gas-masked fighter of the twentieth century war. + +He stooped presently and disconnected metal weights which were upon his +shoes.[E] + +Then he stood erect again, and with giant strides bounded along the +cliff. Fantastic figure in the blue-lit gloom! A child's dream of crags +and rocks and strange lights with a single monstrous figure in +seven-league boots. + +He went the length of the ledge with his twenty-foot strides, inspected +the lights, and made adjustments. Came back, and climbed with agile, +bounding leaps up the spider ladder to the dome on the crater top. A +light flashed on up there. Then it was extinguished. + +The goggled, bloated figure came leaping down after a moment. +Grantline's exterior watchman making his rounds. He came back to the +main building. Fastened the weights on his shoes. Signaled within. + +The lock opened. The figure went inside. + +It was early evening, after the dinner hour and before the time of +sleep, according to the camp routine Grantline was maintaining. Nine P. +M. of Earth Eastern-American time, recorded now upon his Earth +chronometer. In the living room of the main building Johnny Grantline +sat with a dozen of his men dispersed about the room, whiling away as +best they could the lonesome hours. + + + [E] Within the Grantline buildings it was found more convenient to use a + gravity normal to Earth. This was maintained by the wearing of + metal-weighted shoes and metal-loaded belt. The Moon-gravity is normally + approximately one-sixth the gravity of Earth. + + * * * * * + +"All as usual. This cursed Moon! When I get home--if ever I do get +home--" + +"Say your say, Wilks. But you'll spend your share of the gold-leaf and +thank your constellations that you had your chance!" + +"Let him alone! Come on, Wilks, take a hand here. This game is no good +with three." + +The man who had been outside flung his hissing helmet recklessly to the +floor and unsealed his suit. "Here, get me out of this. No, I won't +play. I can't play your cursed game with nothing at stake!" + +"Commissioner's orders." + +A laugh went up at the sharp look Johnny Grantline flung from where he +sat reading in a corner of the room. + +"Commander's orders. No gambling gold-leafers tolerated here." + +"Play the game, Wilks." Grantline said quietly. "We all know it's +infernal doing nothing." + +"He's been struck by Earth-light," another man laughed. "Commander, I +told you not to let that guy Wilks out at night." + + * * * * * + +A rough but good-natured lot of men. Jolly and raucous by nature in +their leisure hours. But there was too much leisure here now. Their +mirth had a hollow sound. In older times, explorers of the frozen polar +zones had to cope with inactivity, loneliness and despair. But at least +they were on their native world. The grimness of the Moon was eating +into the courage of Grantline's men. An unreality here. A weirdness. +These fantastic crags. The deadly silence. The nights, almost two weeks +of Earth-time in length, congealed by the deadly frigidity of Space. The +days of black sky, blaring stars and flaming Sun, with no atmosphere to +diffuse the daylight. Days of weird blending sheen of illumination with +most of the Sun's heat radiating so swiftly from the naked Lunar surface +that the outer temperature still was cold. And day and night, always the +familiar beloved Earth-disc hanging poised up near the zenith. From +thinnest crescent to full Earth, and then steadily back again to +crescent. + +All so abnormal, irrational, disturbing to human senses. With the mining +work over, an irritability grew upon Grantline's men. And perhaps since +the human mind is so wonderful, elusive a thing, there lay upon these +men an indefinable sense of impending disaster. Johnny Grantline felt +it. He thought about it now as he sat in the room corner watching Wilks +being forced into the plaget-game, and he found it strong within him. +Unreasonable, ominous depression! Barring the accident which had +disabled his little space-ship when they reached this small crater hole, +his expedition had gone well. His instruments, and the information he +had from the former explorers, had picked up the ore-vein with a scant +month of search. + + * * * * * + +The vein had now been exhausted; but the treasure was here. Nothing was +left but to wait for the _Planetara_. The men were talking of that now. + +"She ought to be well mid-way from here to Ferrok-Shahn by now. When do +you figure she'll be back here, and signal us?" + +"Twenty days. Give her another five now to Mars, and five in port. +That's ten. We'll pick her signals in three weeks, mark me." + +"Three weeks! Just give me three weeks of reasonable sunrise and sunset! +This cursed Moon! You mean, Williams, next daylight." + +"Hah! He's inventing a Lunar language. You'll be a Moon-man yet, if you +live here long enough." + +Olaf Swenson, the big blond fellow from the Scandia fiords, came and +flung himself down by Grantline. + +"Ay tank they bane without not enough to do, Commander. If the ore yust +would not give out--" + +"Three weeks--it isn't very long, Ollie." + +"No. Maybe not." + +From across the room somebody was saying, "If the _Comet_ hadn't smashed +on us, damn me but I'd ask the Commander to let some of us take her +back. The discarded equipment could go." + +"Shut up, Billy. She is smashed." + +The little _Comet_, cruising in search of the ore, had come to grief +just as the ore was found. It lay now on the crater floor with its nose +bashed into an upflung spire of rock. Wrecked beyond repair. Save for +the pre-arrangement with the _Planetara_, the Grantline party would have +been helpless here on the Moon. Knowledge of that--although no one ever +suspected but that the _Planetara_ would come safely--served to add to +the men's depression. They were cut off, virtually helpless on a strange +world. Their signalling devices were inadequate even to reach Earth. +Grantline's power batteries were running low.[F] He could not attempt +wide-flung signals without jeopardizing the power necessary for the +routine of his camp in the event of the _Planetara_ being delayed. Nor +was his electro-telescope adequate to pick small objects at any great +distance.[G] + +All of Grantline's effort, in truth, had gone into equipment for the +finding and gathering of the treasure. The safety of the expedition had +to that extent been neglected. + +Swenson was mentioning that now. + +"You all agreed to it," Johnny said shortly. "Every man here voted that, +above everything, what we wanted was to get the radium." + + + [F] The Gravely storage tanks--the power used by the Grantline + expedition--were heavy and bulky affairs. Economy of space on the Comet + allowed but few of them. + + [G] Electro-telescopes of most modern use and power were too large and + used too much power to be available to Grantline. + + * * * * * + +A dynamic little fellow, this Johnny Grantline. Short of temper +sometimes, but always just, and a perfect leader of men. In stature he +was almost as small as Snap. But he was thick-set, with a smooth shaven, +keen-eyed, square-jawed face, and a shock of brown tousled hair. A man +of thirty-five, though the decision of his manner, the quiet dominance +of his voice, mode him seem older. He stood up now, surveying the +blue-lit glassite room with its low ceiling close overhead. He was +bowlegged; in movement he seemed to roll with a stiff-legged gait like +some sea captain of former days on the deck of his swaying ship. +Queer-looking figure! Heavy flannel shirt and trousers, boots heavily +weighted, and bulky metal-loaded belt strapped about his waist. + +He grinned at Swenson. "When we divide this treasure, everyone will be +happy, Ollie." + +The treasure was estimated by Grantline to be the equivalent of ninety +millions in gold-leaf. A hundred and ten millions in the gross as it now +stood, with twenty millions to be deducted by the Federated Refiners for +reducing it to the standard purity of commercial radium. Ninety +millions, with only a million and a half to come off for expedition +expenses, and the _Planetara_ Company's share another million. A nice +little stake. + +Grantline strode across the room with his rolling gait. + +"Cheer up, boys. Who's winning there? I say, you fellows--" + +An audiphone buzzer interrupted him, a call from the duty man in the +instrument room of the nearby building. + +Grantline clicked the receiver. The room fell into silence. Any call was +unusual--nothing ever happened here in the camp. + +The duty man's voice sounded over the room. + +"Signals coming! Not clear. Will you come over, Commander?" + +Signals! + + * * * * * + +It was never Grantline's way to enforce needless discipline. He offered +no objection when every man in the camp rushed through the connecting +passages. They crowded the instrument room where the tense duty man sat +bending over his helio receivers. The mirrors were swaying. + +The duty man looked up and met Grantline's gaze. + +"I ran it up to the highest intensity. Commander. We ought to get +it--not let it pass." + +"Low scale, Peter?" + +"Yes. Weakest infra-red. I'm bringing it up, even though it uses too +much of our power." The duty man was apologetic. + +"Get it," said Grantline shortly. + +"I had a swing a minute ago. I think it's the _Planetara_." + +"_Planetara!_" The crowding group of men chorused it. How could it be +the _Planetara_? + +But it was. The call presently came in clear. Unmistakably the +_Planetara_, turned back now from her course to Ferrok-Shahn. + +"How far away, Peter?" + +The duty man consulted the needles of his dial scale. "Close! Very weak +infra-red. But close. Around thirty thousand miles, maybe. It's Snap +Dean calling." + +The _Planetara_ here within thirty thousand miles! Excitement and +pleasure swept the room. The _Planetara's_ coming had for so long been +awaited so eagerly! + +The excitement communicated to Grantline. It was unlike him to be +incautious; yet now with no thought save that some unforeseen and +pleasing circumstance had brought the _Planetara_ ahead of time; +incautious Grantline certainly was. + +"Raise the ore-barrage." + +"I'll go! My suit is here." + + * * * * * + +A willing volunteer rushed out to the ore-shed. The Gamma rays, which in +the helio-room of the _Planetara_ came so unwelcome to Snap and me, were +loosed. + +"Can you send, Peter?" Grantline demanded. + +"Yes, with more power." + +"Use it." + +Johnny dictated the message of his location which we received. In his +incautious excitement he ignored the secret code. + +An interval passed. The ore was occulted again. No message had come from +us--just Snap's routine signal in the weak infra-red, which we hoped +Grantline would not get. + +The men crowding Grantline's instrument room waited in tense silence. +Then Grantline tried the telescope. Its current weakened the lights with +the drain upon the distributors, and cooled the room with a sudden +deadly chill as the Erentz insulating system slowed down. + +The duty man looked suddenly frightened. "You'll bulge out our walls, +Commander. The internal pressure--" + +"We'll chance it." + +They picked up the image of the _Planetara_! It came from the telescope +and shone clear on the grid--the segment of star-field with a tiny, +cigar-shaped blob. Clear enough to be unmistakable. The _Planetara_! +Here now over the Moon, almost directly overhead, poised at what the +altimeter scale showed to be a fraction under thirty thousand miles. + +The men gazed in awed silence. The _Planetara_ coming.... + +But the altimeter needle was motionless. The _Planetara_ was hanging +poised. + +A sudden gasp went about the room. The men stood with whitening faces, +gazing at the _Planetara's_ image. And at the altimeter needle. It was +moving. The _Planetara_ was descending. But not with an orderly swoop. + +The image showed the ship clearly. The bow tilted up, then dipped down. +But then in a moment it swung up again. The ship turned partly over. +Righted itself. Then swayed again, drunkenly. + +The watching men were stricken into horrified silence. The _Planetara's_ +image momentarily, horribly, grew larger. Swaying. Then turning +completely over, rotating slowly end over end. + +The _Planetara_, out of control, was falling! + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +_The Wreck of the_ Planetara + + +On the _Planetara_, in the helio-room, Snap and I stood with Moa's +weapon upon us. Miko held Anita. Triumphant. Possessive. Then as she +struggled, a gentleness came to this strange Martian giant. Perhaps he +really loved her. Looking back on it, I sometimes think so. + +"Anita, do not fear me." He held her away from him. "I would not harm +you. I want your love." Irony came to him. "And I thought I had killed +you! But it was only your brother." + +He partly turned. I was aware of how alert was his attention. He +grinned. "Hold them, Moa--don't let them do anything foolish. So, Anita, +you were masquerading to spy upon me? That was wrong of you." He was +again ironic. + +Anita had not spoken. She held herself tensely away from Miko; she had +flashed me a look--just one. What horrible mischance to have brought +this catastrophe! + +The completion of Grantline's message had come unnoticed by us all. + +"Look! Grantline again!" Snap said abruptly. + +But the mirrors were steadying. We had no recording-tape apparatus; the +rest of the message was lost. The mirrors pulsed and then steadied. + +No further message came. There was an interval while Miko waited. He +held Anita in the hollow of his great arm. + +"Quiet, little bird. Do not fear me. I have work to do, Anita--this is +our great adventure. We will be rich, you and I. All the luxuries three +worlds can offer, all for us when this is over. Careful, Moa! This +Haljan has no wit." + +Well could he say it! I, who had been so witless to let this come upon +us! Moa's weapon prodded me. Her voice hissed at me with all the venom +of a reptile enraged. "So that was your game, Gregg Haljan! And I was so +graceless to admit love for you!" + + * * * * * + +Snap murmured in my ear, "Don't move, Gregg! She's reckless." + +She heard it. She whirled on him. "We have lost George Prince, it seems. +Well, we will survive without his ore knowledge. And you, Dean--and this +Haljan--mark me, I will kill you both if you cause trouble!" + +Miko was gloating. "Don't kill them yet, Moa. What was it Grantline +said? Near the crater of Archimedes? Ring us down, Haljan! We'll land." + +He signaled the turret. Gave Coniston the Grantline message, and +audiphoned it below to Hahn. The news spread about the ship. The bandits +were jubilant. + +"We'll land now, Haljan. Ring us down. Come, Anita and I will go with +you to the turret." + +I found my voice. "To what destination?" + +"Near Archimedes. The Apennine side. Keep well away from the Grantline +camp. We will probably sight it as we descend." + +There was no trajectory needed. We were almost over Archimedes now. I +could drop us with a visible, instrumental course. My mind was whirling +with a confusion of thoughts. What could we do? What could we dare +attempt to do? I met Snap's gaze. + +"Ring us down, Gregg," he said quietly. + +I nodded. I pushed Moa's weapon away. "You don't need that. I obey +orders." + + * * * * * + +We went to the turret. Moa watched me and Snap, a grim, cold Amazon. She +avoided looking at Anita, whom Miko helped down the ladders with a +strange mixture of courtierlike grace and amused irony. Coniston gazed +at Anita with falling jaw. + +"I say! Not George Prince? The girl--" + +"No time for argument now," Miko commanded. "It's the girl, masquerading +as her brother. Get below, Coniston. Haljan takes us down." + +The astounded Englishman continued gazing at Anita. "I mean to say, +where to on the Moon? Not to encounter Grantline at once, Miko? Our +equipment is not ready." + +"Of course not. We will land well away. He won't be suspicious--we can +signal him again after we land. We will have time to plan, to assemble +the equipment. Get below, I told you." + +The reluctant Coniston left us. I took the controls. Miko, still holding +Anita as though she were a child, sat beside me. "We will watch him, +little Anita. A skilled fellow at this sort of work." + +I rang my signals for the shifting of the gravity plates. The answer +should have come from below within a second or two. But it did not. Miko +regarded me with his great bushy eyebrows upraised. + +"Ring again, Haljan." + +I duplicated. No answer. The silence was frightening. Ominous. + +Miko muttered, "That accursed Hahn. Ring again!" + +I sent the imperative emergency demand. + + * * * * * + +No answer. A second or two. Then all of us in the turret were startled. +Transfixed. From below came a sudden hiss. It sounded in the turret: it +came from shifting-room call-grid. The hissing of the pneumatic valves +of the plate-shifters in the lower control room. The valves were +opening; the plates automatically shifting into neutral, and +disconnecting! + +An instant of startled silence. Miko may have realized the significance +of what had happened. Certainly Snap and I did. The hissing ceased. I +gripped the emergency plate-shifter switch which hung over my head. Its +disc was dead! The plates were dead in neutral. In the positions they +were only placed while in port! And their shifting mechanisms were +imperative! + +I was on my feet. "Snap! Good God, we're in neutral!" + +Miko, if he had not realized it before, was aware if it now. The +Moon-disc moved visibly as the _Planetara_ lurched. The vault of the +heavens was slowly swinging. + +Miko ripped out a heavy oath. "Haljan! What is this?" + +He stood up, still holding Anita. But there was nothing that he could do +in this emergency. "Haljan--what--" + +The heavens turned with a giant swoop. The Moon was over us. It swung in +dizzying arc. Overhead, then back past our stern; under us, then +appearing over our bow. + +The _Planetara_ had turned over. Upending. Rotating, end over end. + +For a moment or two I think all of us in that turret stood and clung. +The Moon-disc, the Earth, Sun and all the stars were swinging past our +windows. So horribly dizzying. The _Planetara_ seemed lurching and +tumbling. But it was an optical effect only. I stared with grim +determination at my feet. The turret seemed to steady. + +Then I looked again. That horrible swoop of all the heavens! And the +Moon, as it went past, seemed expanded. We were falling! Out of control, +with the Moon-gravity pulling us inexorably down! + +"That accursed Hahn--" Miko, stricken with his lack of knowledge of +these controls, was wholly confused. + + * * * * * + +A moment only had passed. My fancy that the Moon-disc was enlarged was +merely the horror of my imagination. We had not fallen far enough yet +for that. + +But we were falling. Unless I could do something, we would crash upon +the Lunar surface. + +Anita, killed in this _Planetara_ turret. The end of everything for us. + +Action came to me. I gasped, "Miko, you stay here! The controls are +dead! You stay here--hold Anita." + +I ignored Moa's weapon which she was still clutching mechanically. Snap +thrust her away. + +"Sit back! Let us alone! We're falling! Don't you understand?" + +This deadly danger, to level us all! No longer were we captors and +captured. Not brigands for this moment. No thought of Grantline's +treasure! Trapped humans only! Leveled by the common, instinct of +self-preservation. Trapped here together, fighting for our lives. + +Miko gasped. "Can you--check us? What happened?" + +"I don't know. I'll try." + +I stood clinging. This dizzying whirl! From the audiphone grid +Coniston's voice sounded. + +"I say, Haljan, something's wrong! Hahn doesn't signal." + +The look-out in the forward tower was clinging to his window. On the +deck below our turret a member of the crew appeared, stood lurching for +a moment, then shouted, and turned and ran, swaying, aimless. From the +lower hull-corridors our grids sounded with the tramping of running +steps. Panic among the crew was spreading over the ship. A chaos below +decks. + + * * * * * + +I pulled at the emergency switch again. Dead.... + +But down below there was the manual controls. + +"Snap, we must get down. The signals." + +"Yes." + +Coniston's voice came like a scream from the grid. "Hahn is dead--the +controls are broken! Hahn is dead!" + +We barely heard him. I shouted, "Miko--hold Anita! Come on, Snap!" + +We clung to the ladders. Snap was behind me. "Careful, Gregg! Good God!" + +This dizzying whirl. I tried not to look. The deck under me was now a +blurred kaleidoscope of swinging patches of moonlight and shadow. + +We reached the deck. Ran, swaying, lurching. + +It seemed that from the turret Anita's voice followed us. "Be careful!" + +Within the ship our senses steadied. With the rotating, reeling, heavens +shut out, there were only the shouts and tramping steps of the +panic-stricken crew to mark that anything was amiss. That, and a +pseudo-sensation of lurching caused by the pulsing of gravity--a pull +when the Moon was beneath our hull to combine its force with our +magnetizers; a lightening when it was overhead. A throbbing, pendulum +lurch--that was all. + +We ran down to the corridor incline. A white-faced member of the crew, +came running up. + +"What's happened? Haljan, what's happened?" + +"We're falling!" I gripped him. "Get below. Come on with us!" + +But he jerked away from me. "Falling?" + +A steward came running. "Falling? My God!" + +Snap swung at them. "Get ahead of us! The manual controls--our only +chance--we need all you men at the compressor pumps!" + +But it was an instinct to try and get on deck, as though here below we +were rats caught in a trap. The men tore away from me and ran. Their +shouts of panic resounded through the dim, blue-lit corridors. + + * * * * * + +Coniston came lurching from the control room. "I say--falling! Haljan, +my God, look at him!" + +Hahn was sprawled at the gravity-plate switchboard. Sprawled, +head-down. Dead. Killed by something? Or a suicide? + +I bent over him. His hands gripped the main switch. He had ripped it +loose. And his left hand had reached and broken the fragile line of +tubes that intensified the current of the pneumatic plate-shifters. A +suicide? With his last frenzy determined to kill us all? + +Then I saw that Hahn had been killed! Not a suicide! In his hand he +gripped a small segment of black fabric, a piece torn from an invisible +cloak? Was it? + +The questions were swept away by the necessity for action. Snap was +rigging the hand-compressors. If he could get the pressure back in the +tanks.... + +I swung on Coniston. "You armed?" + +"Yes." He was white-faced and confused, but not in a panic. He showed me +his heat-ray cylinder. "What do you want me to do?" + +"Round up the crew. Get all you can. Bring them here to man these +pumps." + +He dashed away. Snap shouted after him. "Kill them down if they argue!" + +Miko's voice sounded from the turret call grid: "Falling! Haljan, you +can see it now! Check us!" + +I did not answer that. I pumped with Snap. + +Desperate moments. Or was it an hour? Coniston brought the men. He stood +over them with menacing weapon. + +We had all the pumps going. The pressure rose a little in the tanks. +Enough to shift a bow-plate. I tried it. The plate slowly clicked into a +new combination. A gravity repulsion just in the bow-tip. + + * * * * * + +I signaled Miko. "Have we stopped swinging?" + +"No. But slower." + +I could feel it, that lurch of the gravity. But not steady now. A limp. +The tendency of our bow was to stay up. + +"More pressure, Snap." + +"Yes." + +One of the crew rebelled, tried to bolt from the room. "God, we'll +crash, caught in here!" + +Coniston shot him down. + +I shifted another bow-plate. Then two in the stern. The stern-plates +seemed to move more readily than the others. + +"Run all the stern-plates," Snap advised. + +I tried it. The lurching stopped. Miko called. "We're bow down. +Falling!" + +But not falling free. The Moon-gravity pull upon us was more than half +neutralized. + +"I'll go up, Snap, and try the engines. You don't mind staying down? +Executing my signals?" + +"You idiot!" He gripped my shoulders. His eyes were gleaming, his face +haggard, but his pale lips twitched with a smile. + +"Maybe it's good-by, Gregg. We'll fall--fighting." + +"Yes. Fighting. Coniston, you keep the pressure up." + +With the broken set-tubes it took nearly all the pressure to maintain +the few plates I had shifted. One slipped back to neutral. Then the +pumps gained on it, and it shifted again. + +I dashed up to the deck. Ah, the Moon was so close now! So horribly +close! The deck shadows were still. Through the forward bow windows the +Moon surface glared up at us. + + * * * * * + +I reached the turret. The _Planetara_ was steady. Pitched bow-down, half +falling, half sliding like a rocket downward. The scarred surface of the +Moon spread wide under us. + +These last horrible minutes were a blur. And there was always Anita's +face. She left Miko. Faced with death, he sat clinging. Ignoring her, +Moa, too, sat apart. Staring-- + +And Anita crept to me. "Gregg, dear one. The end...." + +I tried the electronic engines from the stern, setting them in the +reverse. The streams of their light glowed from the stern, forward +along our hull, and flared down from our bow toward the Lunar surface. +But no atmosphere was here to give resistance. Perhaps the electronic +streams checked our fall a little. The pumps gave us pressure, just in +the last minutes, to slide a few of the hull-plates. But our bow stayed +down. We slid, like a spent rocket falling. + +I recall the horror of that expanding Lunar surface. The maw of +Archimedes yawning. A blob. Widening to a great pit. Then I saw it was +to one side. Rushing upward. + +A phantasmagoria of uprushing crags. Black and gray. Spires tinged with +Earth-light. + +"Gregg, dear one--good-by." + +Her gentle arms around me. The end of everything for us. I recall +murmuring, "Not falling free, Anita. Some hull-plates are set." + +My dials showed another plate shifting, checking us a little further. +Good old Snap. + +I calculated the next best plate to shift. I tried it. Slid it over. +Good old Snap.... + +Then everything faded but the feeling of Anita's arms around me. + +"Gregg, dear one--" + +The end of everything for us.... + +There was an up-rush of gray-black rock. + +An impact.... + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +_The Hiss of Death_ + + +I opened my eyes to a dark blur of confusion. My shoulder hurt--a pain +shooting through it. Something lay like a weight on me. I could not seem +to move my left arm. Very queer! Then I moved it, and it hurt. I was +lying twisted: I sat up. And with a rush, memory came. The crash was +over. I am not dead. Anita-- + +She was lying beside me. There was a little light here in this silent +blur--a soft, mellow Earth-light filtering in the window. The weight on +me was Anita. She lay sprawled, her head and shoulders half way across +my lap. + +Not dead! Thank God, not dead! She moved. Her arms went around me, and I +lifted her. The Earth-light glowed on her pale face; but her eyes opened +and she faintly smiled. + +"It's past, Anita! We've struck, and we're still alive." + +I held her as though all life's turgid danger were powerless to touch +us. + +But in the silence my floating senses were brought back to reality by a +faint sound forcing itself upon me. A little hiss. The faintest +murmuring breath like a hiss. Escaping air! + +I cast off her clinging arms. "Anita, this is madness!" + + * * * * * + +For minutes we must have been lying there in the heaven of our embrace. +But air was escaping! The _Planetara's_ dome was broken--or cracked--and +our precious air was hissing out. + +Full reality came to me at last. I was not seriously injured. I found +that I could move freely. I could stand. A twisted shoulder, a limp left +arm, but they were better in a moment. + +And Anita did not seem to be hurt. Blood was upon her. But not her +blood. + +Beside Anita, stretched face down on the turret grid, was the giant +figure of Miko. The blood lay in a small pool against his face. A +widening pool. + +Moa was here. I thought her body twitched; then was still. This +soundless wreckage! In the dim glow of the wrecked turret with its two +motionless, broken human figures, it seemed as though Anita and I were +ghouls prowling. I saw that the turret had fallen over to the +_Planetara's_ deck. It lay dashed against the dome-side. + +The deck was aslant. A litter of wreckage. A broken human figure +showed--one of the crew, who at the last must have come running up. The +forward observation tower was down on the chart-room roof: in its metal +tangle I thought I could see the legs of the tower look-out. + +So this was the end of the brigands' adventure! The _Planetara's_ last +voyage! How small and futile are human struggles! Miko's daring +enterprise--so villainous, inhuman--brought all in a few moments to this +silent tragedy. The _Planetara_ had fallen thirty thousand miles. But +why? What had happened to Hahn? And where was Coniston, down in this +broken hull? + +And Snap. I thought suddenly of Snap. + + * * * * * + +I clutched at my wandering wits. This inactivity was death. The escaping +air hissed in my ears. Our precious air, escaping away into the vacant +desolation of the Lunar emptiness. Through one of the twisted, slanting +dome-windows a rocky spire was visible. The _Planetara_ lay bow-down, +wedged in a jagged cradle of Lunar rock. A miracle that the hull and +dome had held together. + +"Anita, we must get out of here!" + +I thought I was fully alert now. I recalled that the brigands had spoken +of having partly assembled their Moon equipment. If only we could find +suits and helmets! + +"We must get out," I repeated. "Get to Grantline's camp." + +"Their helmets are in the forward storage room, Gregg. I saw them +there." + +She was staring at the fallen Miko and Moa. She shuddered and turned +away and gripped me. "In the forward storage room, by the port of the +emergency lock-exit." + +If only the exit locks would operate! We must get out of here, but find +Snap first. Good old Snap! Would we find him lying dead? + +We climbed from the slanting, fallen turret, over the wreckage of the +littered deck. It was not difficult, a lightness was upon us. The +_Planetara's_ gravity-magnetizers were dead: this was only the light +Moon-gravity pulling us. + +"Careful, Anita. Don't jump too freely." + +We leaped along the deck. The hiss of the escaping pressure was like a +clanging gong of warning to tell us to hurry. The hiss of death so +close! + +"Snap--" I murmured. + +"Oh, Gregg. I pray we may find him alive--!" + +"And get out. We've got to rush it. Get out and find the Grantline +camp." + + * * * * * + +But how far? Which way? I must remember to take food and water. If the +helmets were equipped with admission ports. If we could find Snap. If +the exit locks would work to let us out. + +With a fifteen foot leap we cleared a pile of broken deck chairs. A man +lay groaning near them. I went back with a rush. Not Snap! A steward. He +had been a brigand, but he was a steward to me now. + +"Get up! This is Haljan. Hurry, we must get out of here. The air is +escaping!" + +But he sank back and lay still. No time to find if I could help him: +there were Anita and Snap to save. + +We found a broken entrance to one of the descending passages. I flung +the debris aside and cleared it. Like a giant of strength with only this +Moon-gravity holding me, I raised a broken segment of the superstructure +and heaved it back. + +Anita and I dropped ourselves down the sloping passage. The interior of +the wrecked ship was silent and dim. An occasional passage light was +still burning. The passage and all the rooms lay askew. Wreckage +everywhere: but the double-dome and hull-shell had withstood the shock. +Then I realized that the Erentz system was slowing down. Our heat, like +our air, was escaping, radiating away, a deadly chill settling upon +everything. And our walls were bulging. The silence and the deadly chill +of death would soon be here in these wrecked corridors. The end of the +_Planetara_. I wondered vaguely if the walls would explode. + +We prowled like ghouls. We did not see Coniston. Snap had been by the +shifter-pumps. We found him in the oval doorway. He lay sprawled. Dead? +No, he moved. He sat up before we could get to him. He seemed confused, +but his senses clarified with the movement of our figures over him. + +"Gregg! Why, Anita!" + +"Snap! You're all right? We struck--the air is escaping." + + * * * * * + +He pushed me away. He tried to stand. "I'm all right. I was up a minute +ago. Gregg, it's getting cold. Where is she? I had her here--she wasn't +killed. I spoke to her." + +Irrational! + +"Snap!" I held him, shook him. "Snap, old fellow!" + +He said, normally. "Easy, Gregg. I'm all right now." + +Anita gripped him. "Who, Snap?" + +"She! There she is." + +Another figure was here! On the grid-floor by the door oval. A figure +partly shrouded in a broken invisible cloak and hood. An invisible +cloak! I saw a white face with opened eyes regarding me. The face of a +girl. + +Venza! + +I bent down. "You!" + +Anita cried, "Venza!" + +Venza here? Why--how--my thoughts swept away. Venza here, dying? Her +eyes closed. But she murmured to Anita. "Where is he? I want him." + +Dying? I murmured impulsively, "Here I am, Venza dear." Gently, as one +would speak with gentle sympathy to humor the dying. "Here I am, Venza." + +But it was only the confusion of the shock upon her. And it was upon us +all. She pushed at Anita. "I want him." She saw me. This whimsical Venus +girl! Even here as we gathered, all of us blurred by the shock, confused +in the dim, wrecked ship with the chill of death coming--even here she +could make a jest. Her pale lips smiled. + +"You, Gregg. I'm not hurt--I don't think I'm hurt." She managed to get +herself up on one elbow. "Did you think I wanted you with my dying +breath? Why, what conceit! Not you, Handsome Haljan! I was calling +Snap." + + * * * * * + +He was down to her. "We're all right, Venza. It's over. We must get out +of the ship--the air is escaping." + +We gathered in the oval doorway. We fought the confusion of panic. + +"The exit port is this way." + +Or was it? I answered Snap, "Yes, I think so." + +The ship suddenly seemed a stranger to me. So cold. So vibrationless. +Broken lights. These slanting, wrecked corridors. With the ventilating +fans stilled, the air was turning fetid. Chilling. And thinning, with +escaping pressure, rarifying so that I could feel the grasp of it in my +lungs and the pin-pricks of my burning cheeks. + +We started off. Four of us, still alive in this silent ship of death. My +blurred thoughts tried to cope with it all. Venza here. I recalled how +she had bade me create a diversion when the women passengers were +landing on the asteroid. She had carried out her purpose! In the +confusion she had not gone ashore. A stowaway here. She had secured the +cloak. Prowling, to try and help us, she had come upon Hahn. Had seized +his ray-cylinder and struck him down, and been herself knocked +unconscious by his dying lunge, which also had broken the tubes and +wrecked the _Planetara_. And Venza, unconscious, had been lying here +with the mechanism of her cloak still operating, so that we did not see +her when we came and found why Hahn did not answer my signals. + +"It's here, Gregg." + +Snap and I lifted the pile of Moon equipment. We located four suits and +helmets and the mechanisms to operate them. + +"More are in the chart-room," Anita said. + +But we needed no others. I robed Anita, and showed her the mechanisms. + +"Yes. I understand." + + * * * * * + +Snap was helping Venza. We were all stiff from the cold; but within the +suits and their pulsing currents, the blessed warmth came again. + +The helmets had admission ports through which food and drink could be +taken. I stood with my helmet ready. Anita, Venza and Snap were bloated +and grotesque beside me. We had found food and water here, assembled in +portable cases which the brigands had prepared. Snap lifted them, and +signed to me he was ready. + +My helmet shut out all sounds save my own breathing, my pounding heart, +and the murmur of the mechanism. The blessed warmth and pure air were +good. + +We reached the hull port-locks. They operated! We went through in the +light of the head-lamps over our foreheads. + +I closed the locks after us. An instinct to keep the air in the ship for +the other trapped humans lying there. + +We slid down the sloping side of the _Planetara_. We were unweighted, +irrationally agile with the slight gravity. I fell a dozen feet and +landed with barely a jar. + +We were out on the Lunar surface. A great sloping ramp of crags +stretched down before us. Gray-black rock tinged with Earth-light. The +Earth hung amid the stars in the blackness overhead like a huge section +of glowing yellow ball. + + * * * * * + +This grim, desolate, silent landscape! Beyond the ramp, fifty feet below +us, a tumbled naked plain stretched away into blurred distance. But I +could see mountains off there. Behind us the towering, frowning +rampart-wall of Archimedes loomed against the sky. + +I had turned to look back at the _Planetara_. She lay broken, wedged +between spires of upstanding rock. A few of her lights still gleamed. +The end of the _Planetara_! + +The three grotesque figures of Anita, Venza and Snap had started off. +Hunchback figures with the tanks mounted on their shoulders. I bounded +and caught them. I touched Snap. We made audiphone contact. + +"Which way do you think?" I demanded. + +"I think this way, down the ramp. Away from Archimedes, toward the +mountains. It shouldn't be too far." + +"You run with Venza. I'll hold Anita." + +He nodded. "But we must keep together, Gregg." + +We could soon run freely. Down the ramp, out over the tumbled plain. +Bounding, grotesque leaping strides. The girls were more agile, more +skilful. They were soon leading us. The Earth-shadows of their figures +leaped beside them. The _Planetara_ faded into the distance behind us. +Archimedes stood back there. Ahead, the mountains came closer. + +An hour perhaps. I lost count of time. Occasionally we stopped to rest. +Were we going toward the Grantline camp? Would they see our tiny waving +headlights? + +Another interval. Then far ahead of us on the ragged plain, lights +showed! Moving tiny spots of light! Headlights on helmeted figures! + +We ran, monstrously leaping. A group of figures were off there. +Grantline's party? Snap gripped me. + +"Grantline! We're safe, Gregg! Safe!" + + * * * * * + +He took his bulb-light from his helmet: we stood in a group while he +waved it. A semaphore signal. + +"_Grantline?_" + +And the answer came. "_Yes. You, Dean?_" + +Their personal code. No doubt of this--it was Grantline, who had seen +the _Planetara_ fall and had come to help us. + +I stood then with my hand holding Anita. And I whispered, "It's +Grantline! We're safe, Anita, my darling!" + +Death had been so close! Those horrible last minutes on the _Planetara_ +had shocked us, marked us. + +We stood trembling. And Grantline and his men came bounding up. + +A helmeted figure touched me. I saw through the helmet-pane the visage +of a stern-faced, square-jawed, youngish man. + +"Grantline? Johnny Grantline?" + +"Yes," said his voice at my ear-grid. "I'm Grantline. You're Haljan? +Gregg Haljan?" + +They crowded around us. Gripped us to hear our explanations. + +Brigands! It was amazing to Johnny Grantline. But the menace was over +now, over as soon as Grantline had realized its existence. As though the +wreck of the _Planetara_ were foreordained by an all-wise Providence, +the brigands' adventure had come to tragedy. + +We stood for a time discussing it. Then I drew apart, leaving Snap with +Grantline. And Anita joined me. I held her arm so that we had audiphone +contact. + +"Anita, mine." + +"Gregg, dear one." + +Murmured nothings which mean so much to lovers! + + * * * * * + +As we stood in the fantastic gloom of the Lunar desolation, with the +blessed Earth-light on us, I sent up a prayer of thankfulness. Not that +a hundred millions of treasure were saved. Not that the attack upon +Grantline had been averted. But only that Anita was given back to me. In +moments of greatest emotion the human mind individualizes. To me, there +was only Anita. + +Life is very strange! The gate to the shining garden of our love seemed +swinging wide to let us in. Yet I recall that a vague fear still lay on +me. A premonition? + +I felt a touch on my arm. A bloated helmet visor was thrust near my own. +I saw Snap's face peering at me. + +"Grantline thinks we should return to the _Planetara_. Might find some +of them alive." + +Grantline touched me. "It's only humanity." + +"Yes," I said. + +We went back. Some ten of us--a line of grotesque figures bounding with +slow, easy strides over the jagged, rock-strewn plain. Our lights danced +before us. + +The _Planetara_ came at last into view. My ship. Again that pang swept +me as I saw her. This, her last resting place. She lay here in her open +tomb, shattered, broken, unbreathing. The lights on her were +extinguished. The Erentz system had ceased to pulse--the heart of the +dying ship, for a while beating faintly, but now at rest. + +We left the two girls with some of Grantline's men at the admission +port. Snap, Grantline and I, with three others, went inside. There still +seemed to be air, but not enough so that we dared remove our helmets. + +It was dark inside the wrecked ship. The corridors were black; the hull +control-rooms were dimly illumined with Earth-light straggling through +the windows. + +This littered tomb! Already cold and silent with death. We stumbled over +a fallen figure. A member of the crew. + + * * * * * + +Grantline straightened from examining him. + +"Dead." + +Earth-light fell on the horrible face. Puffed flesh, bloated red from +the blood which had oozed from its pores in the thinning air. I looked +away. + +We prowled further. Hahn lay dead in the pump-room. + +The body of Coniston should have been near here. We did not see it. + +We climbed up to the slanting littered deck. The dome had not exploded, +but the air up here had almost all hissed away. + +Again Grantline touched me. "That the turret?" + +"Yes." + +No wonder he asked! The wreckage was all so formless. + +We climbed after Snap into the broken turret room. We passed the body of +that steward who just at the end had appealed to me and I had left +dying. The legs of the forward look-out still poked grotesquely up from +the wreckage of the observatory tower where it lay smashed down against +the roof of the chart-room. + +We shoved ourselves into the turret. What was this? No bodies here! The +giant Miko was gone! The pool of his blood lay congealed into a frozen +dark splotch on the metal grid. + +And Moa was gone! They had not been dead. Had dragged themselves out of +here, fighting desperately for life. We would find them somewhere around +here. + +But we did not. Nor Coniston. I recalled what Anita had said: other +suits and helmets had been here in the nearby chart-room. The brigands +had taken them, and food and water doubtless, and escaped from the ship, +following us through the lower admission ports only a few minutes after +we had gone out. + + * * * * * + +We made careful search of the entire ship. Eight of the bodies which +should have been here were missing: Miko, Moa, Coniston, and five of the +steward-crew. + +We did not find them outside. They were hiding near here, no doubt, more +willing to take their chances than to yield now to us. But how, in all +this Lunar desolation, could we hope to locate them? + +"No use," said Grantline. "Let them go. If they want death--well, they +deserve it." + +But we were saved. Then, as I stood there, realization leaped at me. +Saved? Were we not indeed fatuous fools? + +In all these emotion-swept moments since we had encountered Grantline, +memory of that brigand ship coming from Mars had never once occurred to +Snap or me! + +I told Grantline now. His eyes through the visor stared at me blankly. + +"What!" + +I told him again. It would be here in eight days. Fully manned and +armed. + +"But Haljan, we have almost no weapons! All my _Comet's_ space was taken +with mining equipment and the mechanisms for my camp. I can't signal +Earth! I was depending on the _Planetara_!" + +It surged upon us. The brigand menace past? We were blindly +congratulating ourselves on our safety! But it would be eight days or +more before in distant Ferrok-Shahn the non-arrival of the _Planetara_ +would cause any real comment. No one was searching for us--no one was +worried over us. + +No wonder the crafty Miko was willing to take his chances out here in +the Lunar wilds! His ship, his reinforcements, his weapons were coming +rapidly! + +And we were helpless. Almost unarmed. Marooned here on the Moon with our +treasure! + +(_To be continued._) + + + +-------------------------------------+ + | ASTOUNDING STORIES | + | _Appears on Newsstands_ | + | THE FIRST THURSDAY IN EACH MONTH. | + +-------------------------------------+ + + + + +The Soul-Snatcher + +_By Tom Curry_ + +[Illustration: _He began to twist and turn, as though torn by some +invisible force._] + + From twenty miles away stabbed the "atom-filtering" rays to Allen + Baker in his cell in the death house. + + +The shrill voice of a woman stabbed the steady hum of the many machines +in the great, semi-darkened laboratory. It was the onslaught of weak +femininity against the ebony shadow of Jared, the silent negro servant +of Professor Ramsey Burr. Not many people were able to get to the famous +man against his wishes; Jared obeyed orders implicitly and was generally +an efficient barrier. + +"I will see him, I will," screamed the middle-aged woman. "I'm Mrs. Mary +Baker, and he--he--it's his fault my son is going to die. His fault. +_Professor! Professor Burr!_" + +Jared was unable to keep her quiet. + +Coming in from the sunlight, her eyes were not yet accustomed to the +strange, subdued haze of the laboratory, an immense chamber crammed full +of equipment, the vista of which seemed like an apartment in hell. +Bizarre shapes stood out from the mass of impedimenta, great stills +which rose full two stories in height, dynamos, immense tubes of colored +liquids, a hundred puzzles to the inexpert eye. + +The small, plump figure of Mrs. Baker was very out of place in this +setting. Her voice was poignant, reedy. A look at her made it evident +that she was a conventional, good woman. She had soft, cloudy golden +eyes and a pathetic mouth, and she seemed on the point of tears. + +"Madam, madam, de doctor is busy," whispered Jared, endeavoring to shoo +her out of the laboratory with his polite hands. He was respectful, but +firm. + +She refused to obey. She stopped when she was within a few feet of the +activity in the laboratory, and stared with fear and horror at the +center of the room, and at its occupant, Professor Burr, whom she had +addressed during her flurried entrance. + +The professor's face, as he peered at her, seemed like a disembodied +stare, for she could see only eyes behind a mask of lavender gray glass +eyeholes, with its flapping ends of dirty, gray-white cloth. + +She drew in a deep breath--and gasped, for the pungent fumes, acrid and +penetrating, of sulphuric and nitric acids, stabbed her lungs. It was +like the breath of hell, to fit the simile, and aptly Professor Burr +seemed the devil himself, manipulating the infernal machines. + + * * * * * + +Acting swiftly, the tall figure stepped over and threw two switches in a +single, sweeping movement. The vermillion light which had lived in a +long row of tubes on a nearby bench abruptly ceased to writhe like so +many tongues of flame, and the embers of hell died out. + +Then the professor flooded the room in harsh gray-green light, and +stopped the high-pitched, humming whine of his dynamos. A shadow picture +writhing on the wall, projected from a lead-glass barrel, disappeared +suddenly, the great color filters and other machines lost their +semblance of horrible life, and a regretful sigh seemed to come from the +metal creatures as they gave up the ghost. + +To the woman, it had been entering the abode of fear. She could not +restrain her shudders. But she bravely confronted the tall figure of +Professor Burr, as he came forth to greet her. + +He was extremely tall and attenuated, with a red, bony mask of a face +pointed at the chin by a sharp little goatee. Feathery blond hair, +silvered and awry, covered his great head. + +"Madam," said Burr in a gentle, disarmingly quiet voice, "your manner of +entrance might have cost you your life. Luckily I was able to deflect +the rays from your person, else you might not now be able to voice your +complaint--for such seems to be your purpose in coming here." He turned +to Jared, who was standing close by. "Very well, Jared. You may go. +After this, it will be as well to throw the bolts, though in this case I +am quite willing to see the visitor." + +Jared slid away, leaving the plump little woman to confront the famous +scientist. + +For a moment, Mrs. Baker stared into the pale gray eyes, the pupils of +which seemed black as coal by contrast. Some, his bitter enemies, +claimed that Professor Ramsey Burr looked cold and bleak as an iceberg, +others that he had a baleful glare. His mouth was grim and determined. + + * * * * * + +Yet, with her woman's eyes, Mrs. Baker, looking at the professor's bony +mask of a face, with the high-bridged, intrepid nose, the passionless +gray eyes, thought that Ramsey Burr would be handsome, if a little less +cadaverous and more human. + +"The experiment which you ruined by your untimely entrance," continued +the professor, "was not a safe one." + +His long white hand waved toward the bunched apparatus, but to her to +the room seemed all glittering metal coils of snakelike wire, ruddy +copper, dull lead, and tubes of all shapes. Hell cauldrons of unknown +chemicals seethed and slowly bubbled, beetle-black bakelite fixtures +reflected the hideous light. + +"Oh," she cried, clasping her hands as though she addressed him in +prayer, "forget your science, Professor Burr, and be a man. Help me. +Three days from now my boy, my son, whom I love above all the world, is +to die." + +"Three days is a long time," said Professor Burr calmly. "Do not lose +hope: I have no intention of allowing your son, Allen Baker, to pay the +price for a deed of mine. I freely confess it was I who was responsible +for the death of--what was the person's name?--Smith, I believe." + +"It was you who made Allen get poor Mr. Smith to agree to the +experiments which killed him, and which the world blamed on my son," she +said. "They called it the deed of a scientific fiend, Professor Burr, +and perhaps they are right. But Allen is innocent." + +"Be quiet," ordered Burr, raising his hand. "Remember, madam, your son +Allen is only a commonplace medical man, and while I taught him a little +from my vast store of knowledge, he was ignorant and of much less value +to science and humanity than myself. Do you not understand, can you not +comprehend, also, that the man Smith was a martyr to science? He was no +loss to mankind, and only sentimentalists could have blamed anyone for +his death. I should have succeeded in the interchange of atoms which we +were working on, and Smith would at this moment be hailed as the first +man to travel through space in invisible form, projected on radio waves, +had it not been for the fact that the alloy which conducts the three +types of sinusoidal failed me and burned out. Yes, it was an error in +calculation, and Smith would now be called the Lindbergh of the Atom but +for that. Yet Smith has not died in vain, for I have finally corrected +this error--science is but trial and correction of error--and all will +be well." + +"But Allen--Allen must not die at all!" she cried. "For weeks he has +been in the death house: it is killing me. The Governor refuses him a +pardon, nor will he commute my son's sentence. In three days he is to +die in the electric chair, for a crime which you admit you alone are +responsible for. Yet you remain in your laboratory, immersed in your +experiments, and do nothing, nothing!" + + * * * * * + +The tears came now, and she sobbed hysterically. It seemed that she was +making an appeal to someone in whom she had only a forlorn hope. + +"Nothing?" repeated Burr, pursing his thin lips. "Nothing? Madam, I have +done everything. I have, as I have told you, perfected the experiment. +It is successful. Your son has not suffered in vain, and Smith's name +will go down with the rest of science's martyrs as one who died for the +sake of humanity. But if you wish to save your son, you must be calm. +You must listen to what I have to say, and you must not fail to carry +out my instructions to the letter. I am ready now." + +Light, the light of hope, sprang in the mother's eyes. She grasped his +arm and stared at him with shining face, through tear-dipped eyelashes. + +"Do--do you mean it? Can you save him? After the Governor has refused +me? What can you do? No influence will snatch Allen from the jaws of the +law: the public is greatly excited and very hostile toward him." + +A quiet smile played at the corners of Burr's thin lips. + +"Come," he said. "Place this cloak about you. Allen wore it when he +assisted me." + +The professor replaced his own mask and conducted the woman into the +interior of the laboratory. + +"I will show you," said Professor Burr. + +She saw before her now, on long metal shelves which appeared to be +delicately poised on fine scales whose balance was registered by +hair-line indicators, two small metal cages. + +Professor Burr stepped over to a row of common cages set along the wall. +There was a small menagerie there, guinea pigs--the martyrs of the +animal kingdom--rabbits, monkeys, and some cats. + + * * * * * + +The man of science reached in and dragged out a mewing cat, placing it +in the right-hand cage on the strange table. He then obtained a small +monkey and put this animal in the left-hand cage, beside the cat. The +cat, on the right, squatted on its haunches, mewing in pique and looking +up at its tormentor. The monkey, after a quick look around, began to +investigate the upper reaches of its new cage. + +Over each of the animals was suspended a fine, curious metallic +armament. For several minutes, while the woman, puzzled at how this +demonstration was to affect the rescue of her condemned son, waited +impatiently, the professor deftly worked at the apparatus, connecting +wires here and there. + +"I am ready now," said Burr. "Watch the two animals carefully." + +"Yes, yes," she replied, faintly, for she was half afraid. + +The great scientist was stooping over, looking at the balances of the +indicators through microscopes. + +She saw him reach for his switches, and then a brusk order caused her to +turn her eyes back to the animals, the cat in the right-hand cage, the +monkey at the left. + +Both animals screamed in fear, and a sympathetic chorus sounded from the +menagerie, as a long purple spark danced from one gray metal pole to the +other, over the cages on the table. + +At first, Mrs. Baker noticed no change. The spark had died, the +professor's voice, unhurried, grave, broke the silence. + +"The first part of the experiment is over," he said. "The ego--" + +"Oh, heavens!" cried the woman. "You've driven the poor creatures mad!" + + * * * * * + +She indicated the cat. That animal was clawing at the top bars of its +cage, uttering a bizarre, chattering sound, somewhat like a monkey. The +cat hung from the bars, swinging itself back and forth as on a trapeze, +then reached up and hung by its hind claws. + +As for the monkey, it was squatting on the floor of its cage, and it +made a strange sound in its throat, almost a mew, and it hissed several +times at the professor. + +"They are not mad," said Burr. "As I was explaining to you, I have +finished the first portion of the experiment. The ego, or personality of +one animal has been taken out and put into the other." + +She was unable to speak. He had mentioned madness: was he, Professor +Ramsey Burr, crazy? It was likely enough. Yet--yet the whole thing, in +these surroundings, seemed plausible. As she hesitated about speaking, +watching with fascinated eyes the out-of-character behavior of the two +beasts, Burr went on. + +"The second part follows at once. Now that the two egos have +interchanged, I will shift the bodies. When it is completed, the monkey +will have taken the place of the cat, and vice versa. Watch." + +He was busy for some time with his levers, and the smell of ozone +reached Mrs. Baker's nostrils as she stared with horrified eyes at the +animals. + +She blinked. The sparks crackled madly, the monkey mewed, the cat +chattered. + +Were her eyes going back on her? She could see neither animal +distinctly: they seemed to be shaking in some cosmic disturbance, and +were but blurs. This illusion--for to her, it seemed it must be +optical--persisted, grew worse, until the quaking forms of the two +unfortunate creatures were like so much ectoplasm in swift motion, +ghosts whirling about in a dark room. + +Yet she could see the cages quite distinctly, and the table and even the +indicators of the scales. She closed her eyes for a moment. The acrid +odors penetrated to her lungs, and she coughed, opening her eyes. + + * * * * * + +Now she could see clearly again. Yes, she could see a monkey, and it was +climbing, quite naturally about its cage; it was excited, but a monkey. +And the cat, while protesting mightily, acted like a cat. + +Then she gasped. Had her mind, in the excitement, betrayed her? She +looked at Professor Burr. On his lean face there was a smile of triumph, +and he seemed to be awaiting her applause. + +She looked again at the two cages. Surely, at first the cat had been in +the right-hand cage, and the monkey in the left! And now, the monkey was +in the place where the cat had been and the cat had been shifted to the +left-hand cage. + +"So it was with Smith, when the alloys burned out," said Burr. "It is +impossible to extract the ego or dissolve the atoms and translate them +into radio waves unless there is a connection with some other ego and +body, for in such a case the translated soul and body would have no +place to go. Luckily, for you, madam, it was the man Smith who was +killed when the alloys failed me. It might have been Allen, for he was +the second pole of the connection." + +"But," she began faintly, "how can this mad experiment have anything to +do with saving my boy?" + +He waved impatiently at her evident denseness. "Do you not understand? +It is so I will save Allen, your son. I shall first switch our egos, or +souls, as you say. Then switch the bodies. It must always take this +sequence; why, I have not ascertained. But it always works thus." + +Mrs. Baker was terrified. What she had just seen, smacked of the +blackest magic--yet a woman in her position must grasp at straws. The +world blamed her son for the murder of Smith, a man Professor Burr had +made use of as he might a guinea pig, and Allen must be snatched from +the death house. + +"Do--do you mean you can bring Allen from the prison here--just by +throwing those switches?" she asked. + +"That is it. But there is more to it than that, for it is not magic, +madam; it is science, you understand, and there must be some physical +connection. But with your help, that can easily be made." + + * * * * * + +Professor Ramsey Burr, she knew, was the greatest electrical engineer +the world had ever known. And he stood high as a physicist. Nothing +hindered him in the pursuit of knowledge, they said. He knew no fear, +and he lived on an intellectual promontory. He was so great that he +almost lost sight of himself. To such a man, nothing was impossible. +Hope, wild hope, sprang in Mary Baker's heart, and she grasped the bony +hand of the professor and kissed it. + +"Oh, I believe, I believe," she cried. "You can do it. You can save +Allen. I will do anything, anything you tell me to." + +"Very well. You visit your son daily at the death house, do you not?" + +She nodded; a shiver of remembrance of that dread spot passed through +her. + +"Then you will tell him the plan and let him agree to see me the night +preceding the electrocution. I will give him final instructions as to +the exchange of bodies. When my life spirit, or ego, is confined in your +son's body in the death house, Allen will be able to perform the feat of +changing the bodies, and your son's flesh will join his soul, which will +have been temporarily inhabiting my own shell. Do you see? When they +find me in the cell where they suppose your son to be, they will be +unable to explain the phenomenon; they can do nothing but release me. +Your son will go here, and can be whisked away to a safe place of +concealment." + +"Yes, yes. What am I to do besides this?" + +Professor Burr pulled out a drawer near at hand, and from it extracted a +folded garment of thin, shiny material. + +"This is metal cloth coated with the new alloy," he said, in a matter of +fact tone. He rummaged further, saying as he did so, "I expected you +would be here to see me, and I have been getting ready for your visit. +All is prepared, save a few odds and ends which I can easily clean up in +the next two days. Here are four cups which Allen must place under each +leg of his bed, and this delicate little director coil you must take +especial pains with. It is to be slipped under your son's tongue at the +time appointed." + + * * * * * + +She was staring at him still, half in fear, half in wonder, yet she +could not feel any doubt of the man's miraculous powers. Somehow, while +he talked to her and rested those cold eyes upon her, she was under the +spell of the great scientist. Her son, before the trouble into which he +had been dragged by the professor, had often hinted at the abilities of +Ramsey Burr, given her the idea that his employer was practically a +necromancer, yet a magician whose advanced scientific knowledge was +correct and explainable in the light of reason. + +Yes, Allen had talked to her often when he was at home, resting from his +labors with Professor Burr. He had spoken of the new electricity +discovered by the famous man, and also told his mother that Burr had +found a method of separating atoms and then transforming them into a +form of radio-electricity so that they could be sent in radio waves, to +designated points. And she now remembered--the swift trial and +conviction of Allen on the charge of murder had occupied her so deeply +that she had forgotten all else for the time being--that her son had +informed her quite seriously that Professor Ramsey Burr would soon be +able to transport human beings by radio. + +"Neither of us will be injured in any way by the change," said Burr +calmly. "It is possible for me now to break up human flesh, send the +atoms by radio-electricity, and reassemble them in their proper form by +these special transformers and atom filters." + +Mrs. Baker took all the apparatus presented her by the professor. She +ventured the thought that it might be better to perform the experiment +at once, instead of waiting until the last minute, but this Professor +Burr waved aside as impossible. He needed the extra time, he said, and +there was no hurry. + +She glanced about the room, and her eye took in the giant switches of +copper with their black handles; there were others of a gray-green metal +she did not recognize. Many dials and meters, strange to her, confronted +the little woman. These things, she felt with a rush of gratitude toward +the inanimate objects, would help to save her son, so they interested +her and she began to feel kindly toward the great machines. + + * * * * * + +Would Professor Burr be able to save Allen as he claimed? Yes, she +thought, he could. She would make Allen consent to the trial of it, even +though her son had cursed the scientist and cried he would never speak +to Ramsey Burr again. + +She was escorted from the home of the professor by Jared, and going out +into the bright, sunlit street, blinked as her eyes adjusted themselves +to the daylight after the queer light of the laboratory. In a bundle she +had a strange suit and the cups; her purse held the tiny coil, wrapped +in cotton. + +How could she get the authorities to consent to her son having the suit? +The cups and the coil she might slip to him herself. She decided that a +mother would be allowed to give her son new underwear. Yes, she would +say it was that. + +She started at once for the prison. Professor Burr's laboratory was but +twenty miles from the cell where her son was incarcerated. + +As she rode on the train, seeing people in everyday attire, commonplace +occurrences going on about her, the spell of Professor Burr faded, and +cold reason stared her in the face. Was it nonsense, this idea of +transporting bodies through the air, in invisible waves? Yet, she was +old-fashioned; the age of miracles had not passed for her. Radio, in +which pictures and voices could be sent on wireless waves, was +unexplainable to her. Perhaps-- + +She sighed, and shook her head. It was hard to believe. It was also hard +to believe that her son was in deadly peril, condemned to death as a +"scientific fiend." + +Here was her station. A taxi took her to the prison, and after a talk +with the warden, finally she stood there, before the screen through +which she could talk to Allen, her son. + +"Mother!" + +Her heart lifted, melted within her. It was always thus when he spoke. +"Allen," she whispered softly. + +They were allowed to talk undisturbed. + +"Professor Burr wishes to help you," she said, in a low voice. + + * * * * * + +Her son, Allen Baker, M. D., turned eyes of misery upon her. His ruddy +hair was awry. This young man was imaginative and could therefore suffer +deeply. He had the gift of turning platitudes into puzzles, and his +hazel eyes were lit with an elfin quality, which, if possible, endeared +him the more to his mother. All his life he had been the greatest thing +in the world to this woman. To see him in such straits tore her very +heart. When he had been a little boy, she had been able to make joy +appear in those eyes by a word and a pat; now that he was a man, the +matter was more difficult, but she had always done her best. + +"I cannot allow Professor Burr to do anything for me," he said dully. +"It is his fault that I am here." + +"But Allen, you must listen, listen carefully. Professor Burr can save +you. He says it was all a mistake, the alloy was wrong. He has not come +forward before, because he knew he would be able to iron out the trouble +if he had time, and thus snatch you from this terrible place." + +She put as much confidence into her voice as she could. She must, to +enhearten her son. Anything to replace that look of suffering with one +of hope. She would believe, she did believe. The bars, the great masses +of stone which enclosed her son would be as nothing. He would pass +through them, unseen, unheard. + +For a time, Allen spoke bitterly of Ramsey Burr, but his mother pleaded +with him, telling him it was his only chance, and that the deviltry +Allen suspected was imaginary. + +"He--he killed Smith in such an experiment," said Allen. "I took the +blame, as you know, though I only followed his instructions. But you say +he claims to have found the correct alloys?" + +"Yes. And this suit, you must put it on. But Professor Burr himself will +be here to see you day after to-morrow, the day preceding the--the--" +She bit her lip, and got out the dreaded word, "the electrocution. But +there won't be any electrocution, Allen; no, there cannot be. You will +be safe, safe in my arms." She had to fight now to hold her belief in +the miracle which Burr had promised. The solid steel and stone dismayed +her brain. + + * * * * * + +The new alloy seemed to interest Allen Baker. His mother told him of the +exchange of the monkey and the cat, and he nodded excitedly, growing +more and more restive, and his eyes began to shine with hope and +curiosity. + +"I have told the warden about the suit, saying it was something I made +for you myself," she said, in a low voice. "You must pretend the coil +and the cups are things you desire for your own amusement. You know, +they have allowed you a great deal of latitude, since you are educated +and need diversion." + +"Yes, yes. There may be some difficulty, but I will overcome that. Tell +Burr to come. I'll talk with him and he can instruct me in the final +details. It is better than waiting here like a rat in a trap. I have +been afraid of going mad, mother, but this buoys me up." + +He smiled at her, and her heart sang in the joy of relief. + +How did the intervening days pass? Mrs. Baker could not sleep, could +scarcely eat, she could do nothing but wait, wait, wait. She watched the +meeting of her son and Ramsey Burr, on the day preceding the date set +for the execution. + +"Well, Baker," said Burr nonchalantly, nodding to his former assistant. +"How are you?" + +"You see how I am," said Allen, coldly. + +"Yes, yes. Well, listen to what I have to say and note it carefully. +There must be no slip. You have the suit, the cups and the director +coil? You must keep the suit on, the cups go under the legs of the cot +you lie on. The director under your tongue." + +The professor spoke further with Allen, instructing him in scientific +terms which the woman scarcely comprehended. + +"To-night, then at eleven-thirty," said Burr, finally. "Be ready." + + * * * * * + +Allen nodded. Mrs. Baker accompanied Burr from the prison. + +"You--you will let me be with you?" she begged. + +"It is hardly necessary," said the professor. + +"But I must. I must see Allen the moment he is free, to make sure he is +all right. Then, I want to be able to take him away. I have a place in +which we can hide, and as soon as he is rescued he must be taken out of +sight." + +"Very well," said Burr, shrugging. "It is immaterial to me, so long as +you do not interfere with the course of the experiment. You must sit +perfectly still, you must not speak until Allen stands before you and +addresses you." + +"Yes, I will obey you," she promised. + +Mrs. Baker watched Professor Ramsey Burr eat his supper. Burr himself +was not in the least perturbed; it was wonderful, she thought, that he +could be so calm. To her, it was the great moment, the moment when her +son would be saved from the jaws of death. + +Jared carried a comfortable chair into the laboratory and she sat in it, +quiet as a mouse, in one corner of the room. + +It was nine o'clock, and Professor Burr was busy with his preparations. +She knew he had been working steadily for the past few days. She gripped +the arms of her chair, and her heart burned within her. + +The professor was making sure of his apparatus. He tested this bulb and +that, and carefully inspected the curious oscillating platform, over +which was suspended a thickly bunched group of gray-green wire, which +was seemingly an antenna. The numerous indicators and implements seemed +to be satisfactory, for at quarter after eleven Burr gave an exclamation +of pleasure and nodded to himself. + +Burr seemed to have forgotten the woman. He spoke aloud occasionally, +but not to her, as he drew forth a suit made of the same metal cloth as +Allen must have on at this moment. + + * * * * * + +The tension was terrific, terrific for the mother, who was awaiting the +culmination of the experiment which would rescue her son from the +electric chair--or would it fail? She shuddered. What if Burr were mad? + +But look at him, she was sure he was sane, as sane as she was. + +"He will succeed," she murmured, digging her nails into the palms of her +hands. "I _know_ he will." + +She pushed aside the picture of what would happen on the morrow, but a +few hours distant, when Allen, her son, was due to be led to a legal +death in the electric chair. + +Professor Burr placed the shiny suit upon his lank form, and she saw him +put a duplicate coil, the same sort of small machine which Allen +possessed, under his tongue. + +The Mephistophelian figure consulted a matter-of-fact watch; at that +moment, Mrs. Baker heard, above the hum of the myriad machines in the +laboratory, the slow chiming of a clock. It was the moment set for the +deed. + +Then, she feared the professor was insane, for he suddenly leaped to the +high bench of the table on which stood one of the oscillating platforms. + +Wires led out from this, and Burr sat gently upon it, a strange figure +in the subdued light. + +Professor Burr, however, she soon saw, was not insane. No, this was part +of it. He was reaching for switches near at hand, and bulbs began to +glow with unpleasant light, needles on indicators swung madly, and at +last, Professor Burr kicked over a giant switch, which seemed to be the +final movement. + +For several seconds the professor did not move. Then his body grew +rigid, and he twisted a few times. His face, though not drawn in pain, +yet twitched galvanically, as though actuated by slight jabs of +electricity. + + * * * * * + +The many tubes fluoresced, flared up in pulsing waves of violet and +pink: there were gray bars of invisibility or areas of air in which +nothing visible showed. There came the faint, crackling hum of machinery +rather like a swarm of wasps in anger. Blue and gray thread of fire spat +across the antenna. The odor of ozone came to Mrs. Baker's nostrils, +and the acid odors burned her lungs. + +She was staring at him, staring at the professor's face. She half rose +from her chair, and uttered a little cry. + +The eyes had changed, no longer were they cold, impersonal, the eyes of +a man who prided himself on the fact that he kept his arteries soft and +his heart hard; they were loving, soft eyes. + +"Allen," she cried. + +Yes, without doubt, the eyes of her son were looking at her out of the +body of Professor Ramsey Burr. + +"Mother," he said gently. "Don't be alarmed. It is successful. I am +here, in Professor Burr's body." + +"Yes," she cried, hysterically. It was too weird to believe. It seemed +dim to her, unearthly. + +"Are you all right, darling?" she asked timidly. + +"Yes. I felt nothing beyond a momentary giddy spell, a bit of nausea and +mental stiffness. It was strange, and I have a slight headache. However, +all is well." + +He grinned at her, laughed with the voice which was not his, yet which +she recognized as directed by her son's spirit. The laugh was cracked +and unlike Allen's whole-hearted mirth, yet she smiled in sympathy. + +"Yes, the first part is a success," said the man. "Our egos have +interchanged. Soon, our bodies will undergo the transformation, and then +I must keep under cover. I dislike Burr--yet he is a great man. He has +saved me. I suppose the slight headache which I feel is one bequeathed +me by Burr. I hope he inherits my shivers and terrors and the neuralgia +for the time being, so he will get some idea of what I have undergone." + +He had got down from the oscillating platform, the spirit of her son in +Ramsey's body. + +"What--what are you doing now?" she asked. + +"I must carry out the rest of it myself," he said. "Burr directed me +when we talked yesterday. It is more difficult when one subject is out +of the laboratory, and the tubes must be checked." + + * * * * * + +He went carefully about his work, and she saw him replacing four of the +tubes with others, new ones, which were ready at hand. Though it was the +body of Ramsey Burr, the movements were different from the slow, precise +work of the professor, and more and more, she realized that her son +inhabited the shell before her. + +For a moment, the mother thought of attempting to dissuade her son from +making the final change; was it not better thus, than to chance the +disintegration of the bodies? Suppose something went wrong, and the +exchange did not take place, and her son, that is, his spirit, went back +to the death house? + +Midnight struck as he worked feverishly at the apparatus, the long face +corrugated as he checked the dials and tubes. He worked swiftly, but +evidently was following a procedure which he had committed to memory, +for he was forced to pause often to make sure of himself. + +"Everything is O. K.," said the strange voice at last. He consulted his +watch. "Twelve-thirty," he said. + +She bit her lip in terror, as he cried, "Now!" and sprang to the table +to take his place on the metallic platform, which oscillated to and fro +under his weight. The delicate grayish metal antenna, which, she knew, +would form a glittering halo of blue and gray threads of fire, rested +quiescent above his head. + +"This is the last thing," he said calmly, as he reached for the big +ebony handled switch. "I'll be myself in a few minutes, mother." + +"Yes, son, yes." + +The switch connected, and Allen Baker, in the form of Ramsey Burr, +suddenly cried out in pain. His mother leaped up to run to his side, but +he waved her away. She stood, wringing her hands, as he began to twist +and turn, as though torn by some invisible force. Eery screams came +from the throat of the man on the platform, and Mrs. Baker's cries of +sympathy mingled with them. + + * * * * * + +The mighty motors hummed in a high-pitched, unnatural whine, and +suddenly Mrs. Baker saw the tortured face before her grow dim. The +countenance of the professor seemed to melt, and then there came a dull, +muffled thud, a burst of white-blue flame, the odor of burning rubber +and the tinkle of broken glass. + +Back to the face came the clarity of outline, and still it was Professor +Ramsey Burr's body she stared at. + +Her son, in the professor's shape, climbed from the platform, and looked +about him as though dazed. An acrid smoke filled the room, and burning +insulation assailed the nostrils. + +Desperately, without looking at her, his lips set in a determined line, +the man went hurriedly over the apparatus again. + +"Have I forgotten, did I do anything wrong?" she heard his anguished +cry. + +Two tubes were burned out, and these he replaced as swiftly as possible. +But he was forced to go all over the wiring, and cut out whatever had +been short-circuited so that it could be hooked up anew with uninjured +wire. + +Before he was ready to resume his seat on the platform, after half an +hour of feverish haste, a knock came on the door. + +The person outside was imperative, and Mrs. Baker ran over and opened +the portal. Jared, the whites of his eyes shining in the dim light, +stood there. "De professah--tell him dat de wahden wishes to talk with +him. It is very important, ma'am." + +The body of Burr, inhabited by Allen's soul, pushed by her, and she +followed falteringly, wringing her hands. She saw the tall figure snatch +at the receiver and listen. + +"Oh, God," he cried. + +At last, he put the receiver back on the hook, automatically, and sank +down in a chair, his face in his hands. + + * * * * * + +Mrs. Baker went to him quickly. "What is it, Allen?" she cried. + +"Mother," he said hoarsely, "it was the warden of the prison. He told me +that Allen Baker had gone temporarily insane, and claimed to be +Professor Ramsey Burr in my body." + +"But--but what is the matter?" she asked. "Cannot you finish the +experiment, Allen? Can't you change the two bodies now?" + +He shook his head. "Mother--they electrocuted Ramsey Burr in my body at +twelve forty-five to-night!" + +She screamed. She was faint, but she controlled herself with a great +effort. + +"But the electrocution was not to be until morning," she said. + +Allen shook his head. "They are allowed a certain latitude, about twelve +hours," he said. "Burr protested up to the last moment, and begged for +time." + +"Then--then they must have come for him and dragged him forth to die in +the electric chair while you were attempting the second part of the +change," she said. + +"Yes. That was why it failed. That's why the tubes and wires burned out +and why we couldn't exchange bodies. It began to succeed, then I could +feel something terrible had happened. It was impossible to complete the +Beta circuit, which short-circuited. They took him from the cell, do you +see, while I was starting the exchange of the atoms." + + * * * * * + +For a time, the mother and her boy sat staring at one another. She saw +the tall, eccentric figure of Ramsey Burr before her, yet she saw also +the soul of her son within that form. The eyes were Allen's, the voice +was soft and loving, and his spirit was with her. + +"Come, Allen, my son," she said softly. + +"Burr paid the price," said Allen, shaking his head. "He became a martyr +to science." + +The world has wondered why Professor Ramsey Burr, so much in the +headlines as a great scientist, suddenly gave up all his experiments and +took up the practice of medicine. + +Now that the public furor and indignation over the death of the man +Smith has died down, sentimentalists believe that Ramsey Burr has +reformed and changed his icy nature, for he manifests great affection +and care for Mrs. Mary Baker, the mother of the electrocuted man who had +been his assistant. + + + +--------------------------------------+ + | BY NO MEANS | + | _Miss the Opening Installment of | + | the Extraordinary Four-Part Novel_ | + | MURDER MADNESS | + | _By Murray Leinster_ | + | | + | _Starting In Our Next Issue_ | + +--------------------------------------+ + + + + +The Ray of Madness + +_By Captain S. P. Meek_ + +[Illustration: "_That's the one," he exclaimed. "Hold the glass there +for a moment._"] + + Dr. Bird discovers a dastardly plot, amazing in its mechanical + ingenuity, behind the apparently trivial eye trouble of the + President. + + +A knock sounded at the door of Dr. Bird's private laboratory in the +Bureau of Standards. The famous scientist paid no attention to the +interruption but bent his head lower over the spectroscope with which he +was working. The knock was repeated with a quality of quiet insistence +upon recognition. The Doctor smothered an exclamation of impatience and +strode over to the door and threw it open to the knocker. + +"Oh, hello, Carnes," he exclaimed as he recognized his visitor. "Come in +and sit down and keep your mouth shut for a few minutes. I am busy just +now but I'll be at liberty in a little while." + +[Illustration] + +"There's no hurry, Doctor," replied Operative Carnes of the United +States Secret Service as he entered the room and sat on the edge of the +Doctor's desk. "I haven't got a case up my sleeve this time; I just came +in for a little chat." + +"All right, glad to see you. Read that latest volume of the +_Zeitschrift_ for a while. That article of Von Beyer's has got me +guessing, all right." + +Carnes picked up the indicated volume and settled himself to read. The +Doctor bent over his apparatus. Time and again he made minute +adjustments and gave vent to muttered exclamations of annoyance at the +results he obtained. Half an hour later he rose from his chair with a +sigh and turned to his visitor. + +"What do you think of Von Beyer's alleged discovery?" he asked the +operative. + + * * * * * + +"It's too deep for me, Doctor," replied the operative. "All that I can +make out of it is that he claims to have discovered a new element named +'lunium,' but hasn't been able to isolate it yet. Is there anything +remarkable about that? It seems to me that I have read of other new +elements being discovered from time to time." + +"There is nothing remarkable about the discovery of a new element by the +spectroscopic method," replied Dr. Bird. "We know from Mendeleff's +table that there are a number of elements which we have not discovered +as yet, and several of the ones we know were first detected by the +spectroscope. The thing which puzzles me is that so brilliant a man as +Von Beyer claims to have discovered it in the spectra of the moon. His +name, lunium, is taken from Luna, the moon." + +"Why not the moon? Haven't several elements been first discovered in the +spectra of stars?" + +"Certainly. The classic example is Lockyer's discovery of an orange line +in the spectra of the sun in 1868. No known terrestrial element gave +such a line and he named the new element which he deduced helium, from +Helos, the sun. The element helium was first isolated by Ramsey some +twenty-seven years later. Other elements have been found in the spectra +of stars, but the point I am making is that the sun and the stars are +incandescent bodies and could be logically expected to show the +characteristic lines of their constituent elements in their spectra. But +the moon is a cold body without an atmosphere and is visible only by +reflected light. The element, lunium, may exist in the moon, but the +manifestations which Von Beyer has observed must be, not from the moon, +but from the source of the reflected light which he spectro-analyzed." + + * * * * * + +"You are over my depth, Doctor." + +"I'm over my own. I have tried to follow Von Beyer's reasoning and I +have tried to check his findings. Twice this evening I thought that I +caught a momentary glimpse on the screen of my fluoroscope of the +ultra-violet line which he reports as characteristic of lunium, but I am +not certain. I haven't been able to photograph it yet. He notes in his +article that the line seems to be quite impermanent and fades so rapidly +that an accurate measurement of its wave-length is almost impossible. +However, let's drop the subject. How do you like your new assignment?" + +"Oh, it's all right. I would rather be back on my old work." + +"I haven't seen you since you were assigned to the Presidential detail. +I suppose that you fellows are pretty busy getting ready for Premier +McDougal's visit?" + +"I doubt if he will come," replied Carnes soberly. "Things are not +exactly propitious for a visit of that sort just now." + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird sat back in his chair in surprise. + +"I thought that the whole thing is arranged. The press seems to think +so, at any rate." + +"Everything is arranged, but arrangements may be cancelled. I wouldn't +be surprised to hear that they were." + +"Carnes," replied Dr. Bird gravely, "you have either said too much or +too little. There is something more to this than appears on the surface. +If it is none of my business, don't hesitate to tell me so and I'll +forget what you have said, but if I can help you any, speak up." + +Carnes puffed meditatively at his pipe for a few minutes before +replying. + +"It's really none of your business. Doctor," he said at length, "and yet +I know that a corpse is a chatterbox compared to you when you are told +anything in confidence, and I really need to unload my mind. It has been +kept from the press so far; but I don't know how long it can be kept +muzzled. In strict confidence, the President of the United State acts +as though he were crazy." + +"Quite a section of the press has claimed that for a long time," replied +Dr. Bird, with a twinkle in his eye. + +"I don't mean crazy in that way, Doctor, I mean _really_ crazy. Bugs! +Nuts! Bats in his belfry!" + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird whistled softly. + +"Are you sure, Carnes?" he asked. + +"As sure as may be. Both of his physicians think so. They were +non-committal for a while, especially as the first attack waned and he +seemed to recover, but when his second attack came on more violently +than the first and the President began to act queerly, they had to take +the Presidential detail into their confidence. He has been quietly +examined by some of the greatest psychiatrists in the country, but none +of them have ventured on a positive verdict as to the nature of the +malady. They admit, of course, that it exists, but they won't classify +it. The fact that it is intermittent seems to have them stopped. He was +bad a month ago but he recovered and became, to all appearances, normal +for a time. About a week ago he began to show queer symptoms again and +now he is getting worse daily. If he goes on getting worse for another +week, it will have to be announced so that the Vice-President can take +over the duties of the head of the government." + + * * * * * + +"What are the symptoms?" + +"The first we noticed was a failing of his memory. Coupled with this was +a restlessness and a habit of nocturnal prowling. He tosses continually +on his bed and mutters and at times leaps up and rages back and forth in +his bedchamber, howling and raging. Then he will calm down and compose +himself and go to sleep, only to wake in half an hour and go through the +same performance. It is pretty ghastly for the men on night guard." + +"How does he act in the daytime?" + +"Heavy and lethargic. His memory becomes a complete blank at times and +he talks wildly. Those are the times we must guard against." + +"Overwork?" queried the Doctor. + +"Not according to his physicians. His physical health is splendid and +his appetite unusually keen. He takes his exercise regularly and suffers +no ill health except for a little eye trouble." + +Dr. Bird leaped to his feet. + +"Tell me more about this eye trouble, Carnes," he demanded. + +"Why, I don't know much about it, Doctor. Admiral Clay told me that it +was nothing but a mild opthalmia which should yield readily to +treatment. That was when he told me to see that the shades of the +President's study were partially drawn to keep the direct sunlight out." + + * * * * * + +"Opthalmia be sugared! What do his eyes look like?" + +"They are rather red and swollen and a little bloodshot. He has a +tendency to shut them while he is talking and he avoids light as much as +possible. I hadn't noticed anything peculiar about it." + +"Carnes, did you ever see a case of snow blindness?" + +The operative looked up in surprise. + +"Yes, I have. I had it myself once in Maine. Now that you mention it, +his case does look like snow blindness, but such a thing is absurd in +Washington in August." + +Dr. Bird rummaged in his desk and drew out a book, which he consulted +for a moment. + +"Now, Carnes," he said, "I want some dates from you and I want them +accurately. Don't guess, for a great deal may depend on the accuracy of +your answers. When was this mental disability on the part of the +President first noticed?" + +Carnes drew a pocket diary from his coat and consulted it. + +"The seventeenth of July," he replied. "That is, we are sure, in view +of later developments, that that was the date it first came on. We +didn't realize that anything was wrong until the twentieth. On the night +of the nineteenth the President slept very poorly, getting up and +creating a disturbance twice, and on the twentieth he acted so queerly +that it was necessary to cancel three conferences." + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird checked off the dates on the book before him and nodded. + +"Go on," he said, "and describe the progress of the malady by days." + +"It got progressively worse until the night of the twenty-third. The +twenty-fourth he was no worse, and on the twenty-fifth a slight +improvement was noticed. He got steadily better until, by the third or +fourth of August, he was apparently normal. About the twelfth he began +to show signs of restlessness which have increased daily during the past +week. Last night, the nineteenth, he slept only a few minutes and Brady, +who was on guard, says that his howls were terrible. His memory has been +almost a total blank today and all of his appointments were cancelled, +ostensibly because of his eye trouble. If he gets any worse, it probably +will be necessary to inform the country as to his true condition." + +When Carnes had finished, Dr. Bird sat for a time in concentrated +thought. + +"You did exactly right in coming to me, Carnes," he said presently. "I +don't think that this is a job for a doctor at all--I believe that it +needs a physicist and a chemist and possibly a detective to cure him. +We'll get busy." + +"What do you mean, Doctor?" demanded Carnes. "Do you think that some +exterior force is causing the President's disability?" + + * * * * * + +"I think nothing, Carnes," replied the Doctor grimly, "but I intend to +know something before I am through. Don't ask for explanations: this is +not the time for talk, it is the time for action. Can you get me into +the White House to-night?" + +"I doubt it, Doctor, but I'll try. What excuse shall I give? I am not +supposed to have told you anything about the President's illness." + +"Get Bolton, your chief, on the phone and tell him that you have talked +to me when you shouldn't have. He'll blow up, but after he is through +exploding, tell him that I smell a rat and that I want him down here at +once with _carte blanche_ authority to do as I see fit in the White +House. If he makes any fuss about it, remind him of the fact that he has +considered me crazy several times in the past when events showed that I +was right. If he won't play after that, let me talk to him." + +"All right, Doctor," replied Carnes as he picked up the scientist's +telephone and gave the number of the home of the Chief of the Secret +Service. "I'll try to bully him out of it. He has a good deal of +confidence in your ability." + + * * * * * + +Half an hour later the door of Dr. Bird's laboratory opened suddenly to +admit Bolton. + +"Hello, Doctor," exclaimed the Chief, "what the dickens have you got on +your mind now? I ought to skin Carnes alive for talking out of turn, but +if you really have an idea, I'll forgive him. What do you suspect?" + +"I suspect several things, Bolton, but I haven't time to tell you what +they are. I want to get quietly into the White House as promptly as +possible." + +"That's easy," replied Bolton, "but first I want to know what the object +of the visit is." + +"The object is to see what I can find out. My ideas are entirely too +nebulous to attempt to lay them out before you just now. You've never +worked directly with me on a case before, but Carnes can tell you that I +have my own methods of working and that I won't spill my ideas until I +have something more definite to go on than I have at present." + +"The Doctor is right, Chief," said Carnes. "He has an idea all right, +but wild horses won't drag it out of him until he's ready to talk. +You'll have to take him on faith, as I always do." + +Bolton hesitated a moment and then shrugged his shoulders. + +"Have it your own way, Doctor," he said. "Your reputation, both as a +scientist and as an unraveller of tangled skeins, is too good for me to +boggle about your methods. Tell me what you want and I'll try to get +it." + + * * * * * + +"I want to get into the White House without undue prominence being given +to my movements, and listen outside the President's door for a short +time. Later I will want to examine his sleeping quarters carefully and +to make a few tests. I may be entirely wrong in my assumptions, but I +believe that there is something there that requires my attention." + +"Come along," said Bolton. "I'll get you in and let you listen, but the +rest we'll have to trust to luck on. You may have to wait until +morning." + +"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it," replied the Doctor. "I'll +get a little stuff together that we may need." + +In a few moments he had packed some apparatus in a bag and, taking up it +and an instrument case, he followed Bolton and Carnes down the stairs +and out onto the grounds of the Bureau of Standards. + +"It's a beautiful moon, isn't it?" he observed. + +Carnes assented absently to the Doctor's remark, but Bolton paid no +attention to the luminous disc overhead, which was flooding the +landscape with its mellow light. + +"My car is waiting," he announced. + +"All right, old man, but stop for a moment and admire this moon," +protested the Doctor. "Have you ever seen a finer one?" + +"Come on and let the moon alone," snorted Bolton. + +"My dear man, I absolutely refuse to move a step until you pause in your +headlong devotion to duty and pay the homage due to Lady Luna. Don't +you realize, you benighted Christian, that you are gazing upon what has +been held to be a deity, or at least the visible manifestation of deity, +for ages immemorial? Haven't you ever had time to study the history of +the moon-worshipping cults? They are as old as mankind, you know. The +worship of Isis was really only an exalted type of moon worship. The +crescent moon, you may remember, was one of her most sacred emblems." + + * * * * * + +Bolton paused and looked at the Doctor suspiciously. + +"What are you doing--pulling my leg?" he demanded. + +"Not at all, my dear fellow. Carnes, doesn't the sight of the glowing +orb of night influence you to pious meditation upon the frailty of human +life and the insignificance of human ambition?" + +"Not to any very great degree," replied Carnes dryly. + +"Carnesy, old dear, I fear that you are a crass materialist. I am +beginning to despair of ever inculcating in you any respect for the +finer and subtler things of life. I must try Bolton. Bolton, have you +ever seen a finer moon? Remember that I won't move a step until you have +carefully considered the matter and fully answered my question." + +Bolton looked first at the Doctor, then at Carnes, and finally he looked +reluctantly at the moon. + +"It's a fine one," he admitted, "but all full moons look large on clear +nights at this time of the year." + +"Then you _have_ studied the moon?" cried Dr. Bird with delight. "I was +sure--" + + * * * * * + +He broke off his speech suddenly and listened. From a distance came the +mournful howl of a dog. It was answered in a moment by another howl from +a different direction. Dog after dog took up the chorus until the air +was filled with the melancholy wailing of the animals. + +"See, Bolton," remarked the Doctor, "even the dogs feel the chastening +influence of the Lady of Night and repent of the sins of their youth and +the follies of their manhood, or should one say doghood? Come along. I +feel that the call of duty must tear us away from the contemplation of +the beauties of nature." + +He led the way to Bolton's car and got in without further words. A +half-hour later, Bolton led the way into the White House. A word to the +secret service operative on guard at the door admitted him and his +party, and he led the way to the newly constructed solarium where the +President slept. An operative stood outside the door. + +"What word, Brady?" asked Bolton in a whisper. + +"He seems worse, sir. I doubt if he has slept at all. Admiral Clay has +been in several times, but he didn't do much good. There, listen! The +President is getting up again." + + * * * * * + +From behind the closed door which confronted them came sounds of a +person rising from a bed and pacing the floor, slowly at first, and then +more and more rapidly, until it was almost a run. A series of groans +came to the watchers and then a long drawn out howl. Bolton shuddered. + +"Poor devil!" he muttered. + +Dr. Bird shot a quick glance around. + +"Where is Admiral Clay?" he asked. + +"He is sleeping upstairs. Shall I call him?" + +"No. Take me to his room." + +The President's naval physician opened the door in response to Bolton's +knock. + +"Is he worse?" he demanded anxiously. + +"I don't think so, Admiral," replied Bolton. "I want to introduce you to +Dr. Bird of the Bureau of Standards. He wants to talk with you about the +case." + +"I am honored, Doctor," said the physician as he grasped the scientist's +outstretched hand. "Come in. Pardon my appearance, but I was startled +out of a doze when you knocked. Have a chair and tell me how I can serve +you." + +Dr. Bird drew a notebook from his pocket. + +"I have received certain dates in connection with the President's malady +from Operative Carnes," he said, "and I wish you to verify them." + +"Pardon me a moment, Doctor," interrupted the Admiral, "but may I ask +what is your connection with the matter? I was not aware that you were a +physician or surgeon." + + * * * * * + +"Dr. Bird is here by the authority of the secret service," replied +Bolton. "He has no connection with the medical treatment of the +President, but permit me to remind you that the secret service is +responsible for the safety of the President and so have a right to +demand such details about him as are necessary for his proper +protection." + +"I have no intention in obstructing you in the proper performance of +your duties, Mr. Bolton," began the Admiral stiffly. + +"Pardon me, Admiral," broke in Dr. Bird, "it seems to me that we are +getting started wrong. I suspect that certain exterior forces are more +or less concerned in this case and I have communicated my suspicions to +Mr. Bolton. He in turn brought me here in order to request from you your +cooperation in the matter. We have no idea of demanding anything and are +really seeking help which we believe that you can give us." + +"Pardon me, Admiral," said Bolton. "I had no intention of angering you." + +"I am at your service, gentlemen," replied Admiral Clay. "What +information did you wish, Doctor?" + +"At first merely a verification of the history of the case as I have +it." + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird read the notes he had taken down from Carnes and the Admiral +nodded agreement. + +"Those dates are correct," he said. + +"Now, Admiral, there are two further points on which I wish +enlightenment. The first is the opthalmia which is troubling the +patient." + +"It is nothing to be alarmed about as far as symptoms go, Doctor," +replied the Admiral. "It is a rather mild case of irritation, somewhat +analogous to granuloma, but rather stubborn. He had an attack several +weeks ago and while it did not yield to treatment as readily as I could +have wished, it did clear up nicely in a couple of weeks and I was quite +surprised at this recurrent attack. His sight is in no danger." + +"Have you tried to connect this opthalmia with his mental aberrations?" + +"Why no, Doctor, there is no connection." + +"Are you sure?" + +"I am certain. The slight pain which his eyes give him could never have +such an effect upon the mind of so able and energetic a man as he is." + +"Well, we'll let that pass for the moment. The other question is this: +has he any form of skin trouble?" + + * * * * * + +The Admiral looked up in surprise. + +"Yes, he has," he admitted. "I had mentioned it to no one, for it really +amounts to nothing, but he has a slight attack of some obscure form of +dermatitis which I am treating. It is affecting only his face and +hands." + +"Please describe it." + +"It has taken the form of a brown pigmentation on the hands. On the face +it causes a slight itching and subsequent peeling of the affected +areas." + +"In other words, it is acting like sunburn?" + +"Why, yes, somewhat. It is not that, however, for he has been exposed to +the sun very little lately, on account of his eyes." + +"I notice that he is sleeping in the new solarium which was added last +winter to the executive mansion. Can you tell me with what type of glass +it is equipped?" + +"Yes. It is not equipped with glass at all, but with fused quartz." + +"When did he start to sleep there?" + +"As soon as it was completed." + +"And all the time the windows have been of fused quartz?" + +"No. They were glazed at first, but the glass was removed and the fused +quartz substituted at my suggestion about two months ago, just before +this trouble started." + +"Thank you, Admiral. You have given me several things to think about. My +ideas are a little too nebulous to share as yet but I think that I can +give you one piece of very sound advice. The President is spending a +very restless night. If you would remove him from the solarium and get +him to lie down in a room which is glazed with ordinary glass, and pull +down the shades so that he will be in the dark, I think that he will +pass a better night." + + * * * * * + +Admiral Clay looked keenly into the piercing black eyes of the Doctor. + +"I know something of you by reputation, Bird," he said slowly, "and I +will follow your advice. Will you tell me why you make this particular +suggestion?" + +"So that I can work in that solarium to-night without interruption," +replied Dr. Bird. "I have some tests which I wish to carry out while it +is still dark. If my results are negative, forget what I have told you. +If they yield any information, I will be glad to share it with you at +the proper time. Now get the President out of that solarium and tell me +when the coast is clear." + +The Admiral donned a dressing gown and stepped out of the room. He +returned in fifteen minutes. + +"The solarium is at your disposal, Doctor," he announced. "Shall I +accompany you?" + +"If you wish," assented Dr. Bird as he picked up his apparatus and +strode out of the room. + +In the solarium he glanced quickly around, noting the position of each +of the articles of furniture. + +"I presume that the President always sleeps with his head in this +direction?" he remarked, pointing to the pillow on the disturbed bed. + +The Admiral nodded assent. Dr. Bird opened the bag which he had packed +in his laboratory, took out a sheet of cardboard covered with a metallic +looking substance, and placed it on the pillow. He stepped back and +donned a pair of smoked glasses, watching it intently. Without a word he +took off the glasses and handed them to the Admiral. The Admiral donned +them and looked at the pillow. As he did so an exclamation broke from +his lips. + +"That plate seems to glow," he said in an astonished voice. + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird stepped forward and laid his hand on the pillow. He was wearing +a wrist watch with a radiolite dial. The substance suddenly increased +its luminescence and began to glow fiercely, long luminous streamers +seeming to come from the dial. The Doctor took away his hand and +substituted a bottle of liquid for the plate on the pillow. Immediately +the bottle began to glow with a phosphorescent light. + +"What on earth is it?" gasped Carnes. + +"Excitation of a radioactive fluid," replied the Doctor. "The question +is, what is exciting it. Somebody get a stepladder." + +While Bolton was gone after the ladder, the Doctor took from his bag +what looked like an ordinary pane of glass. + +"Take this, Carnes," he directed, "and start holding it over each of +those panes of quartz which you can reach. Stop when I tell you to." + + * * * * * + +The operative held the glass over each of the panes in succession, but +the Doctor, who kept his eyes covered with the smoked glasses and +fastened on the plate which he had replaced on the pillow, said nothing. +When Bolton arrived with the ladder, the process went on. One end and +most of the front of the solarium had been covered before an exclamation +from the Doctor halted the work. + +"That's the one," he exclaimed. "Hold the glass there for a moment." + +Hurriedly he removed the plate from the pillow and replaced the phial of +liquid. There was only a very feeble glow. + +"Good enough," he cried. "Take away the glass, but mark that pane, and +be ready to replace it when I give the word." + +From the instrument case he had brought he took out a spectroscope. He +turned back the mattress and mounted it on the bedstead. + +"Cover that pane," he directed. + +Carnes did so, and the Doctor swung the receiving tube of the instrument +until it pointed at the covered pane. He glanced into the eyepiece, and +then held a tiny flashlight for an instant opposite the third tube. + +"Uncover that pane," he said. + +Carnes took down the glass plate and the Doctor gazed into the +instrument. He made some adjustments. + +"Are you familiar with spectroscopy, Admiral?" he asked. + +"Somewhat." + +"Take a squint in here and tell me what you see." + + * * * * * + +The Admiral applied his eye to the instrument and looked long and +earnestly. + +"There are some lines there, Doctor," he said, "but your instrument is +badly out of adjustment. They are in what should be the ultra-violet +sector, according to your scale." + +"I forgot to tell you that this is a fluoroscopic spectroscope designed +for the detection of ultra-violet lines," replied Dr. Bird. "Those lines +you see are ultra-violet, made visible to the eye by activation of a +radioactive compound whose rays in turn impinge on a zinc blende sheet. +Do you recognize the lines?" + +"No, I don't." + +"Small wonder; I doubt whether there are a dozen people who would. I +have never seen them before, although I recognize them from descriptions +I have read. Bolton, come here. Sight along this instrument and through +that plate of glass which Carnes is holding and tell me what office that +window belongs to." + +Bolton sighted as directed up at the side of the State, War and Navy +Building. + +"I can't tell exactly at this time of night, Doctor," he said, "but I'll +go into the building and find out." + +"Do so. Have you a flashlight?" + +"Yes." + +"Flash it momentarily out of each of the suspected windows in turn until +you get an answering flash from here. When you do, flash it out of each +pane of glass in the window until you get another flash from here. Then +come back and tell me what office it is. Mark the pane so that we can +locate it again in the morning." + + * * * * * + +"It is the office of the Assistant to the Adjutant General of the Army," +reported Bolton ten minutes later. + +"What is there in the room?" + +"Nothing but the usual desks and chairs." + +"I suspected as much. The window is merely a reflector. That is all that +we can do for to-night, gentlemen. Admiral, keep your patient quiet and +in a room with _glass_ windows, preferably with the shades drawn, until +further notice. Bolton, meet me here with Carnes at sunrise. Have a +picked detail of ten men standing by where we can get hold of them in a +hurry. In the mean time, get the Chief of Air Service out of bed and +have him order a plane at Langley Field to be ready to take off at 6 +A. M. He is not to take off, however, until I give him orders to do so. +Do you understand?" + +"Everything will be ready for you, Doctor, but I confess that I don't +know what it is all about." + +"It's the biggest case you ever tackled, old man, and I hope that we can +pull it off successfully. I'd like to go over it with you now, but I'll +be busy at the Bureau for the rest of the night. Drop me off there, will +you?" + +At sunrise the next morning, Bolton met Dr. Bird at the entrance to the +White House grounds. + +"Where is your detail?" he asked. + +"In the State, War and Navy Building." + +"Good. I want to go to the solarium, put a light on the place where the +President's pillow was last night, and mark that pane of quartz we were +looking through. Then we'll join the detail." + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird placed the light and walked with Carnes across the White House +grounds. Bolton's badge secured admission to the State, War and Navy +Building for the party and they made their way to the office of the +Assistant to the Adjutant General. + +"Did you mark the pane of glass through which you flashed your light +last night, Bolton?" asked the Doctor. + +The detective touched one of the panes. + +"Good," exclaimed the Doctor. "I notice that this window has hooks for a +window washer's belt. Get a life belt, will you?" + +When the belt was brought, the Doctor turned to Carnes. + +"Carnes," he said, "hook on this life saver and climb out on the window +ledge. Take this piece of apparatus with you." + +He handed Carnes a piece of apparatus which looked like two telescopes +fastened to a base, with a screw adjustment for altering the angles of +the barrels. + + * * * * * + +Carnes took it and looked at it inquiringly. + +"That is what I was making at the Bureau last night," explained Dr. +Bird. "It is a device which will enable me to locate the source of the +beam which was reflected from this pane of glass onto the President's +pillow. I'll show you how to work it. You know that when light is +reflected the angle of reflection always equals the angle of incidence? +Well, you place these three feet against the pane of glass, thus putting +the base of the instrument in a plane parallel to the pane of glass. By +turning these two knobs, one of which gives lateral and the other +vertical adjustment, you will manipulate the instrument until the first +telescope is pointing directly toward the President's pillow. Now notice +that the two telescope barrels are fastened together and are connected +to the knobs, so that when the knobs are turned, the scopes are turned +in equal and opposite amounts. When one is turned from its present +position five degrees to the west, the other automatically turns five +degrees to the east. When one is elevated, the other is correspondingly +depressed. Thus, when the first tube points toward the pillow, the other +will point toward the source of the reflected beam." + +"Clever!" ejaculated Bolton. + +"It is rather crude and may not be accurate enough to locate the source +exactly, but at least it will give us a pretty good idea of where to +look. Given time, a much more accurate instrument could have been made, +but two telescopic rifle sights and a theodolite base were all the +materials I could find to work with. Climb out, Carnesy, and do your +stuff." + + * * * * * + +Carnes climbed out on the window and fastened the hooks of the life +saver to the rings set in the window casings. He sat the base of the +instrument against the pane of glass and manipulated the telescope knobs +as Dr. Bird signalled from the inside. The scientist was hard to please +with the adjustment, but at last the cross hairs of the first telescope +were centered on the light in the solarium. He changed his position and +stared through the second tube. + +"The angle is too acute and the distance too great for accuracy," he +said with an air of disappointment. "The beam comes from the roof of a +house down along Pennsylvania Avenue, but I can't tell from here which +one it is. Take a look, Bolton." + +The Chief of the Secret Service stared through the telescope. + +"I couldn't be sure, Doctor," he replied. "I can see something on the +roof of one of the houses, but I can't tell what it is and I couldn't +tell the house when I got in front of it." + +"It won't do to make a false move," said the Doctor. "Did you arrange +for that plane?" + +"It is waiting your orders at the field, Doctor." + +"Good. I'll go up to the office of the Chief of Air Service and get in +touch with the pilot over the Chief's private line. There are some +orders that I wish to give him and some signals to be arranged." + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird returned in a few minutes. + +"The plane is taking off now and will be over the city soon," he +announced. "We'll take a stroll down the Avenue until we are in the +vicinity of the house, and then wait for the plane. Carnes will take +five of your men and go down behind the house and the rest of us will go +in front. Which building do you think it is, Bolton?" + +"About the fourth from the corner." + +"All right, the men going down the back will take station behind the +house next to the corner and the rest of us will get in front of the +same building. When the plane comes over, watch it. If you receive no +signal, go to the next house and wait for him to make a loop and come +over you again. Continue this until the pilot throws a white parachute +over. That is the signal that we are covering the right house. When you +get that signal, Carnes, leave two men outside and break in with the +other three. Get that apparatus on the roof and the men who are +operating it. Bolton and I will attack the front door at the same time. +Does everybody understand?" + +Murmurs of assent came from the detail. + +"All right, let's go. Carnes, lead out with your men and go half a block +ahead so that the two parties will arrive in position at about the same +time." + + * * * * * + +Carnes left the building with five of the operatives. Dr. Bird and +Bolton waited for a few minutes and then started down Pennsylvania +Avenue, the five men of their squad following at intervals. For +three-quarters of a mile they sauntered down the street. + +"This should be it, Doctor," said Bolton. + +"I think so, and here comes our plane." + +They watched the swift scout plane from Langley Field swing down low +over the house and then swoop up into the sky again without making a +signal. The party walked down the street one house and paused. Again the +plane swept over them without sign. As they stopped in front of the next +house a white parachute flew from the cockpit of the plane and the +aircraft, its mission accomplished, veered off to the south toward its +hangar. + +"This is the place," cried Bolton. "Haggerty and Johnson, you two cover +the street. Bemis, take the lower door. The rest come with me." + + * * * * * + +Followed closely by Dr. Bird and two operatives, Bolton sprinted across +the street and up the steps leading to the main entrance of the house. +The door was barred, and he hurled his weight against it without result. + +"One side, Bolton," snapped Dr. Bird. + +The diminutive Chief drew aside and Dr. Bird's two hundred pounds of +bone and muscle crashed against the door. The lock gave and the Doctor +barely saved himself from sprawling headlong on the hall floor. A +woman's scream rang out, and the Doctor swore under his breath. + +"Upstairs! To the roof!" he cried. + +Followed by the rest of the party, he sprinted up the stairway which +opened before him. Just as he reached the top his way was barred by an +Amazonian figure in a green bathrobe. + +"Who th' divil arre yer?" demanded an outraged voice. + +"Police," snapped Bolton. "One side!" + +"Wan side, is it?" demanded the fiery haired Amazon. "The divil a stip +ye go until ye till me ye'er bizness. Phwat th' divil arre yer doin' in +th' house uv a rayspictable female at this hour uv th' marnin'?" + +"One side, I tell you!" cried Bolton as he strove to push past the +figure that barred the way. + +"Oh, ye wud, wud yer, little mann?" demanded the Irishwoman as she +grasped Bolton by the collar and shook him as a terrier does a rat. Dr. +Bird stifled his laughter with difficulty and seized her by the arm. +With a heave on Bolton's collar she raised him from the ground and swung +him against the Doctor, knocking him off his feet. + +"Hilp! P'lice! Murther!" she screamed at the top of her voice. + +"Damn it, woman, we're on--" + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird's voice was cut short by the sound of a pistol shot from the +roof, followed by two others. The Irishwoman dropped Bolton and slumped +into a sitting position and screamed lustily. Bolton and Dr. Bird, with +the two operatives at their heels, raced for the roof. Before they +reached it another volley of shots rang out, these sounding from the +rear of the building. They made their way to the upper floor and found a +ladder running to a skylight in the roof. At the foot of the ladder +stood one of Carnes' party. + +"What is it, Williams?" demanded Bolton. + +"I don't know, Chief. Carnes and the other two went up there, and then I +heard shooting. My orders were to let no one come down the ladder." + +As he spoke, Carnes' head appeared at the skylight. + +"It's the right place, all right, Doctor," he called. "Come on up, the +shooting is all over." + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird mounted the ladder and stepped out on the roof. Set on one edge +was a large piece of apparatus, toward which the scientist eagerly +hastened. He bent over it for a few moments and then straightened up. + +"Where is the operator?" he asked. + +Carnes silently led the way to the edge of the roof and pointed down. +Dr. Bird leaned over. At the foot of the fire escape he saw a crumpled +dark heap, with a secret service operative bending over it. + +"Is he dead, Olmstead?" called Carnes. + +"Dead as a mackerel," came the reply. "Richards got him through the head +on his first shot." + +"Good business," said Dr. Bird. "We probably could never have secured a +conviction and the matter is best hushed up anyway. Bolton, have two of +your men help me get this apparatus up to the Bureau. I want to examine +it a little. Have the body taken to the morgue and shut up the press. +Find out which room the chap occupied and search it, and bring all his +papers to me. From a criminal standpoint, this case is settled, but I +want to look into the scientific end of it a little more." + +"I'd like to know what it was all about, Doctor," protested Bolton. "I +have followed your lead blindly, and now I have a housebreaking without +search-warrant and a killing to explain, and still I am about as much in +the dark as I was at the beginning." + +"Excuse me, Bolton," said Dr. Bird contritely; "I didn't mean to slight +you. Admiral Clay wants to know about it and so does Carnes, although he +knows me too well to say so. As soon as I have digested the case I'll +let you know and I'll go over the whole thing with you." + + * * * * * + +A week later Dr. Bird sat in conference with the President in the +executive office of the White House. Beside him sat Admiral Clay, Carnes +and Bolton. + +"I have told the President as much as I know, Doctor," said the Admiral, +"and he would like to hear the details from your lips. He has fully +recovered from his malady and there is no danger of exciting him." + +"I cannot read Russian," said Dr. Bird slowly, "and so was forced to +depend on one of my assistants to translate the papers which Mr. Bolton +found in Stokowsky's room. There is nothing in them to definitely +connect him with the Russian Union of Soviet Republics, but there is +little doubt in my mind that he was a Red agent and that Russia supplied +the money which he spent. It would be disastrous to Russia's plans to +have too close an accord between this country and the British Empire, +and I have no doubt that the coming visit of Premier McDougal was the +underlying cause of the attempt. So much for the reason. + +"As to how I came to suspect what was happening, the explanation is very +simple. When Carnes first told me of your malady, Mr. President, I +happened to be checking Von Beyer's results in the alleged discovery of +a new element, lunium. In the article describing his experiments, Von +Beyer mentions that when he tried to observe the spectra, he encountered +a mild form of opthalmia which was quite stubborn to treatment. He also +mentions a peculiar mental unbalance and intense exhilaration which the +rays seemed to cause both in himself and in his assistants. The analogy +between his observations and your case struck me at once. + + * * * * * + +"For ages the moon has been an object of worship by various religious +sects, and some of the most obscene orgies of which we have record +occurred in the moonlight. The full moon seems to affect dogs to a state +of partial hypnosis with consequent howling and evident pain in the +eyes. Certain feeble minded persons have been known to be adversely +affected by moonlight as well as some cases of complete mental +aberration. In other words, while moonlight has no practical effect on +the normal human in its usual concentration, it does have an adverse +effect on certain types of mentality and, despite the laughter of +medical science, there seems to be something in the theory of 'moon +madness.' This effect Von Beyer attributed to the emanations of lunium, +which element he detected in the spectra of the moon, in the form of a +wide band in the ultra-violet region. + + * * * * * + +"I obtained from Carnes a history of your case, and when I found that +your attacks grew violent with the full moon and subsided with the new +moon, I was sure that I was on the right track, although I had at that +time no way of knowing whether it was from natural or artificial causes +that the effect was being produced. I interviewed Admiral Clay and found +that you were suffering from a form of dermititis resembling sunburn, +and that convinced me that an attack was being made on your sanity, for +an excess of ultra-violet light will always tend to produce sunburn. I +inquired about the windows of your solarium, for ultra-violet light will +not pass through a lead glass. When the Admiral told me that the glass +had been replaced with fused quartz, which is quite permeable to +ultra-violet and that the change had been almost coincident with the +start of your malady, I asked him to get you out of the solarium and let +me examine it. + +"By means of certain fluorescent substances which I used, I found that +your pillow was being bathed in a flood of ultra-violet light, and the +fluoro-spectroscope soon told me that lunium emanations were present in +large quantities. These rays were not coming to you directly from their +source, but one of the windows of the State, War and Navy Building was +being used as a reflector. I located the approximate source of the ray +by means of an improvised apparatus, and we surrounded the place. +Stokowsky was killed while attempting to escape. I guess that is about +all there is to it." + +"Thank you, Doctor," said the President. "I would be interested in a +description of the apparatus which he used to produce this effect." + + * * * * * + +"The apparatus was quite simple, Sir. It was merely a large collector of +moonlight, which was thrown after collection onto a lunium plate. The +resultant emanations were turned into a parallel beam by a parabolic +reflector and focused, through a rock crystal lens with an extremely +long focal length, onto your pillow." + +"Then Stokowsky had isolated Von Beyer's new element?" asked the +President. + +"I am still in doubt whether it is a new element or merely an allotropic +modification of the common element, cadmium. The plate which he used has +a very peculiar property. When moonlight, or any other reflected light +of the same composition falls on it, it acts on the ray much as the +button of a Roentgen tube acts on a cathode ray. As the cathode ray is +absorbed and an entirely new ray, the X-ray, is given off by the button, +just so is the reflected moonlight absorbed and a new ray of +ultra-violet given off. This is the ray which Von Beyer detected. I +thought that I could catch traces of Von Beyer's lines in my +spectroscope, and I think now that it is due to a trace of lunium in the +cadmium plating of the barrels. Von Beyer could have easily made the +same mistake. Von Beyer's work, together with Stokowsky's opens up an +entirely new field of spectroscopic research. I would give a good deal +to go over to Baden and go into the matter with Von Beyer and make some +plans for the exploitation of the new field, but I'm afraid that my +pocketbook wouldn't stand the trip." + +"I think that the United States owes you that trip, Dr. Bird," said the +Chief Executive with a smile. "Make your plans to go as soon as you get +your data together. I think that the Treasury will be able to take care +of the expense without raising the income tax next year." + + + +------------------------------------------------------+ + | | + | _IN THE NEXT ISSUE_ | + | | + | | + | Murder Madness | + | | + | _Beginning an intensely Gripping, Four-Part Novel_ | + | | + | _By_ MURRAY LEINSTER | + | | + | | + | The Atom Smasher | + | | + | _A Thrilling Adventure into Time and Space_ | + | | + | _By_ VICTOR ROUSSEAU | + | | + | | + | Into the Ocean's Depths | + | | + | _A Sequel to_ "_From the Ocean's Depths_" | + | | + | _By_ SEWELL PEASLEE WRIGHT | + | | + | | + | Brigands of the Moon | + | | + | _Part Three of the Amazing Serial_ | + | | + | _By_ RAY CUMMINGS | + | | + | | + | ----_And Others!_ | + | | + +------------------------------------------------------+ + + + + +[Illustration: _The Readers' Corner_ + +_A Meeting Place for Readers of_ +Astounding Stories] + + +_Our Thanks_ + +Three months ago the Clayton Magazines presented to lovers of Science +Fiction everywhere a new magazine with a brand-new policy--Astounding +Stories--and now it is the Editor's great pleasure to announce to our +thousands of friends that this new magazine is enjoying a splendid +success. + +Within twenty-four hours of the time that Astounding Stories was +released for sale, letters of praise began pouring into our office, +and--and this is significant--many of them clearly revealed that their +writers had grasped the essential difference of the new Science Fiction +magazine over the others. + +We cannot better state this difference, this improvement, than by +quoting what the Reader whose letter appears under the caption, "And +Kind to Their Grandmothers," says in his very first paragraph: "And I +was still more pleased, and surprised, to find that the Editor seems to +know that such stories should have real story interest, besides a +scientific idea." It is exactly that. Every story that appears in +Astounding Stories not only must contain some of the forecasted +scientific achievements of To-morrow, but must be told vividly, +excitingly, with all the human interest that goes to make any story +enjoyable To-day. + +The Editor and staff of Astounding Stories express their sincere thanks +to all who have contributed to our splendid start--especially to those +who had the kindness to write in with their helpful criticism. + +Already one of your common suggestions has been taken up and embodied in +our magazine, and so we have this new department, "The Readers' +Corner," which from now on will be an informal meeting place for all +readers of Astounding Stories. We want you never to forget that a +cordial and perpetual invitation is extended to you to write in and talk +over with all of us anything of interest you may have to say in +connection with our magazine. + +If you can toss in a word of praise, that's fine; if only criticism, +we'll welcome that just as much, for we may be able to find from it a +way to improve our magazine. If you have your own private theory of how +airplanes will be run in 2500, or if you think the real Fourth Dimension +is different from what it is sometimes described--write in and share +your views with all of us. + +This department is all yours, and the job of running it and making it +interesting is largely up to you. So "come over in 'The Readers' +Corner'" and have your share in what everyone will be saying. + + --_The Editor._ + + +"_And Kind to Their Grandmothers!_" + + + Dear Editor: + + I received a pleasant surprise a few days ago when I found a new + Science Fiction magazine at the newsstand--Astounding Stories. And + I was still more pleased, and surprised, to find that the Editor + seems to know that such stories should have real story interest, + besides a scientific idea. + + Of course I took with a grain of salt the invitation to write to + the editor and give my preference of the kind of stories I like. I + know that every editor, down in his heart, thinks his magazine is + perfect "as is." In fact, praise is what they want, not + suggestions, judging by the letters they print. + + Well, I can conscientiously give you some praise. If Astounding + Stories keep up to the standard of the first issue it will be all + right. Evidently you can afford to hire the best writers + obtainable. Notice you've signed up some of my favorites, Murray + Leinster, R. F. Starzl, Ray Cummings. I like their stuff because it + has the rare quality rather vaguely described as "distinction," + which make the story remembered for a long time. + + The story "Tanks," by Murray Leinster, is my idea of what such a + story should be. The author does not start out, "Listen, my + children, and you shall hear a story so wonderful you won't believe + it. Only after the death of Professor Bulging Dome do I dare to + make it public to a doubting world." No, he simply proceeds to tell + the story. If I were reading it in the Saturday Evening Post or + Ladies Home Journal it would be all right to prepare me for the + story by explaining that of course the author does not vouch for + the story, it having been told to him by a crazy Eurasian in a + Cottage Grove black-and-tan speakeasy at 3.30 A. M. In Astounding + Stories I expect the story to be unusual, so don't bother telling + me it is so. That criticism applies to "Phantoms of Reality," which + is a story above the average, though, despite its rather flat title + and slow beginning. + + Here's another good point about "Tanks." Its characters are human. + Some authors of stories of the future make their characters all + brains--cold monsters, with no humanity in them. Such a story has + neither human interest nor plausibility. The sky's the limit, I + say, for mechanical or scientific accomplishments, but human + emotions will be the same a thousand years from now. And even + supposing that they will be changed, your readers have present day + emotions. The magazine can not prosper unless those present-day + emotions are aroused and mirrored by thoroughly human characters. + The situation may be just as outre as you like--the more unusual + the better--but it is the response of normal human emotions to most + unusual situations that gives a magazine such as yours its powerful + and unique "kick." + + The response of the two infantrymen in "Tanks" to the strange and + terrifying new warfare of the future exemplifies another point I + would like to make--the fact that no matter what marvels the future + may bring, the people who will live then will take them in a + matter-of-fact way. Their conversation will be cigarettes, + "sag-paste," drinks, women. References to the scientific marvels + around them will be casual and sketchy. How many million words of + an average car owner's conversation would you have to report to + give a visitor from 1700 an idea of internal combustion engines? + The author, if skillful, can convey that information in other ways. + Yet a lot of stories printed have long, stilted conversations in + which the author thinks he is conveying in an entertaining way his + foundation situation. Personally, I like a lot of physical + action--violent action preferred. This is so, probably, because I'm + a school teacher and sedentary in my habits. I have never written a + story in my life, but I'm the most voracious consumer of stories in + Chicago. I like to see the hero get into a devil of a pickle, and + to have him smash his way out. I like 'em big, tough, and kind to + their grandmothers. + + It seems to me that interplanetary stories offer the best vehicle + for all the desirable qualities herein enumerated combined. There + is absolutely no restraint on the imagination, except a few known + astronomical facts--plenty of opportunity for violent and dangerous + adventures, strange and terrestrially impossible monsters. The + human actors, set down in the midst of such terrifying conditions, + which they battle dauntlessly, grinning as they take their blows + and returning them with good will, cannot fail to rouse the + admiration of the reader. And make him buy the next month's issue. + + + But spare us, please the stories in which the hero, arriving on + some other planet, is admitted to the court of the king of the + White race, and leads their battles against the Reds, the Browns, + the Greens, and so on, eventually marrying the king's daughter, who + is always golden-haired, of milky white complexion, and has large + blue eyes. Kindly reject stories of interplanetary travel in which + a member of the party turns against the Earth party and allies + himself with the wormlike Moon men, or what have you. Stories in + which a great inventor gone crazy threatens to hurl the Earth into + the Sun leave me cold and despondent, for the simple reason that + crazy men are never great inventors. Name a great inventor who + wasn't perfectly sane, if you can. The author makes the great + inventor insane to make it plausible that he should want to destroy + the World. Well, if he is a good author he can find some other + motive. + + One more thing. I like to smell, feel, hear and even taste the + action of a story as well as see it. Some authors only let you see + it, and then they don't tell you whether it's in bright or subdued + light. The author of "Tanks" fulfills my requirements in this + respect, at least partially.--Walter Boyle, c/o Mrs. Anna Treitz, + 4751 North Artesian, Chicago, Ill. + + +_A Permanent Reader_ + + + Dear Editor: + + I want to thank you for the very entertaining hours I spent + perusing your new magazine, Astounding Stories. I read one or two + other Science Fiction magazines--it seems that tales of this sort + intrigue me. However, I wish to say that the debut number of your + magazine contained the best stories I ever read. Again thanking you + and assuring you that should the stories continue thus I will be a + permanent reader--Irving E. Ettinger, The Seville, Detroit, Mich. + + +_We're Avoiding Reprints_ + + + Dear Editor: + + I am well pleased with your new magazine and wish to offer you my + congratulations and best wishes. As I am well acquainted with most + of the Science Fiction now being written, I am in a good position + to criticize your magazine. + + First: The cover illustration is good, but the inside drawings + could be greatly improved. + + Second: Holding the magazine together with two staples is a good + idea. + + Third: The paper could be improved. + + Fourth: The price is right. + + Here I classify the stories. Excellent: "The Beetle Horde," and + "Tanks." Very Good: "Cave of Horror," "Invisible Death," and + "Phantoms of Reality." Medium: "Compensation." Poor: "Stolen Mind." + + Please don't reprint any of Poe's, Wells', or Verne's works. My + prejudice to Verne, Wells and Poe is that I have read all their + works in other magazines. + + However, with all my criticizing, I think that your magazine is a + good one.--James Nichols, 1509 19th Street, Bakersfield, + California. + + +_Thanks, Mr. Marks!_ + + + Dear Editor: + + I purchased a copy of "our" new magazine to-day and I think it + excellent. I am glad to see most of my old author friends + contributing for it, but how about looking up E. R. Burroughs, + David H. Keller, M. D., C. P. Wantenbacker and A. Merritt? They are + marvelous writers. I see Wesso did your cover and it is very good. + I have been a reader of four other Science Fiction monthly + magazines and two quarterlies, but I gladly take this one into my + fold and I think I speak for every other Science Fiction lover when + I say this. Which means, if true, that your publication will have + everlasting success. Here's hoping!--P. O. Marks, Jr., 893 York + Avenue, S. W., Atlanta, Ga. + + +_A Fine Letter_ + + + Dear Editor: + + Having read through the first number of Astounding Stories, my + enthusiasm has reached such a pitch that I find it difficult to + express myself adequately. A mere letter such as this can give + scarcely an inkling of the unbounded enjoyment I derive from the + pages of this unique magazine. To use a trite but appropriate + phrase, "It fills a long-felt need." True, there are other + magazines which specialize in Science Fiction; but, to my mind they + are not in a class with Astounding Stories. In most of them the + scientific element is so emphasized that it completely overshadows + all else. In this magazine, happily, such is not the case. Here we + find science subordinated to human interest, which is as it should + be. The love element, too, is present and by no means unwelcome. + + As for the literary quality of the stories, it could not be + improved on. Such craftsmen as Cummings, Leinster and Rousseau + never fail to turn out a vivid, well-written tale. If the stories in + the succeeding issues are on a par with those in the first, the + success of the magazine is assured. + + By the way, your editorial explanation of Astounding Stories was a + gem. So many of us take our marvelous modern inventions for granted + that we never consider how miraculous they would seem to our + forebears. As you say, the only real difference between the + Astounding and the Commonplace is Time. A magazine such as + Astounding Stories enables us to anticipate the wonders of + To-morrow. Through its pages we can peer into the vistas of the + future and behold the world that is to be. Truly, you have given us + a rare treat--Allen Glasser, 931 Forest Ave., New York, N. Y. + + +_The Science Correspondence Club Broadcasts_ + + + Dear Editor: + + The other day I came upon Astounding Stories on our local + newsstand. I immediately procured a copy because Science Fiction + is my favorite pastime, so to speak. I was very much overjoyed that + another good Science Fiction magazine should come out, and a + Clayton Magazine too, which enhances its splendid value still + further. I have read various members of the Clayton family and I + found each of them entertaining. + + After finishing the first issue, I decided to write in and express + my feelings. The stories were all good with the exception of "The + Stolen Mind." Just keep printing stories by Cape, Meek, Ray + Cummings, Murray Leinster, C. V. Tench, Harl Vincent and R. F. + Starzl and I can predict now that your new venture will be a huge + success. + + The main reason of this letter is to ask your help in putting over + Science Fiction Week. This will take place in the early part of + February, the week of the 5th or after. We want your co-operation + in making this a big success. You can help by running the attached + article upon the Science Correspondence Club in your "Readers' + Corner." It will be a big aid. + + I am sure, because you are the Editor of Astounding Stories, that + you will be pleased to help us in this venture. Science Fiction is + our common meeting ground and our common ideal. + + I hope to have a Big Science Fiction Week with your help.--Conrad + H. Ruppert, 113 North Superior Street, Angola, Indiana. + + + To the Readers of Astounding Stories: + + At the present there exists in the United States an organization + the purpose of which is to spread the gospel of Science and Science + Fiction, the Science Correspondence Club. I am writing this to + induce the readers of Astounding Stories to join us. After reading + this pick up your pen or take the cover from your typewriter and + send in an application for membership to our Secretary, Raymond A. + Palmer, 1431-38th St., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, or to our President, + Aubrey Clements, 6 South Hillard St., Montgomery, Alabama. They + will forward application blanks to you and you will belong to the + only organization in the world that is like it. + + The Club was formed by twenty young men from all over the U. S. We + have a roll of almost 100, all over the world. Its expressed + purpose has been to help the cause of Science Fiction, and to + increase the knowledge of Science. It also affords the advantage of + being able to express your ideas in all fields. + + The Preamble of the Constitution which we have worked out reads: + "We, the members of this organization, in order to promote the + advancement of Science in general among laymen of the world through + the use of discussion and the creation and exchange of new ideas, + do ordain and establish this organization for the Science + Correspondence Club." + + Article Two reads: "The institution will remain an organization to + establish better co-ordination between the scientifically inclined + laymen of the world, regardless of sex, creed, color, or race. + There will be no restrictions as to age, providing the member can + pass an examination which shall be prepared by the membership + committee." + + The Club will also publish a monthly bulletin, to which members may + contribute. It will also publish clippings, articles, etc., dealing + with science. + + The membership will have no definite limit and the correspondence + will be governed by the wishes of each member. + + Need more be said? + + I almost forgot to say that we have two of the best Science Fiction + authors as active members, and three more who are doing their best, + but because of such work they cannot be active. + + I hope my appeal bears fruit and that we shall hear from you + soon.--Conrad H. Ruppert. + + +_But--Most Everybody Prefers the Smaller Size--and Price!_ + + + Dear Editor: + + Last night I was passing a newsstand and saw your magazine. I + bought it then and there. I do not read any other stories except + the fantastic stories. Astounding Stories looks all right, but may + I make a suggestions? Why not increase the size of the magazine to + that of Miss 1900 or Forest and Stream? It would certainly look + better! You could also raise your price to twenty-five cents. + Please print as many stories as possible by the following authors: + Ray Cummings, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Murray Leinster, Edmond + Hamilton, A. Hyatt Verrill, Stanton A. Coblentz, Ed Earl Repp and + Harl Vincent. + + My favorite type of story is the interplanetary one. I wish you the + best of luck in your new venture.--Stephen Takacs, 303 Eckford + Street, Brooklyn, N. Y. + + +"_First Copy Wonderful_" + + + Dear Editor: + + I have read the first copy of Astounding Stories and think it + wonderful. I am very much interested in science fiction. I prefer + interplanetary stories and would like to see many of them in the + new magazine. Your authors are fine. The ones I like particularly + are Ray Cummings, Captain S. P. Meek, and Murray Leinster. I wonder + if I could subscribe to Astounding Stories? Will you let me know? + Good luck to the new magazine.--Donald Sisler, 3111 Adams Mill + Road, Washington, D. C. + + +_Congratulations_ + + + Dear Editor: + + Allow me to congratulate you upon the starting of your new + magazine, Astounding Stories. Have just finished reading the first + issue and it is fine. While the class of stories that you publish + do not appeal to all, I feel quite sure that there are many like + myself who will welcome your publication and wish it all + success.--R. E. Norton, P. O. Box 226, Ashtabula, Ohio. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Astounding Stories of Super-Science +April 1930, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ASTOUNDING STORIES, APRIL 1930 *** + +***** This file should be named 29390.txt or 29390.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/3/9/29390/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Meredith Bach, 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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