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diff --git a/32847.txt b/32847.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f001bda --- /dev/null +++ b/32847.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2116 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Door into Infinity, by Edmond Hamilton + +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: The Door into Infinity + +Author: Edmond Hamilton + +Release Date: June 17, 2010 [EBook #32847] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DOOR INTO INFINITY *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + The Door Into Infinity + + By EDMOND HAMILTON + +[Transcriber Note: This etext was produced from Weird Tales +August-September 1936. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence +that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] + + +[Sidenote: _An amazing weird mystery story, packed with thrills, danger +and startling events._] + + + + +_1. The Brotherhood of the Door_ + + +"Where leads the Door?" + +"_It leads outside our world._" + +"Who taught our forefathers to open the Door?" + +"_They Beyond the Door taught them._" + +"To whom do we bring these sacrifices?" + +"_We bring them to Those Beyond the Door._" + +"Shall the Door be opened that They may take them?" + +"_Let the Door be opened!_" + +Paul Ennis had listened thus far, his haggard face uncomprehending in +expression, but now he interrupted the speaker. + +"But what does it all mean, inspector? Why are you repeating this to +me?" + +"Did you ever hear anyone speak words like that?" asked Inspector Pierce +Campbell, leaning tautly forward for the answer. + +"Of course not--it just sounds like gibberish to me," Ennis exclaimed. +"What connection can it have with my wife?" + +He had risen to his feet, a tall, blond young American whose +good-looking face was drawn and worn by inward agony, whose crisp yellow +hair was brushed back from his forehead in disorder, and whose blue eyes +were haunted with an anguished dread. + +He kicked back his chair and strode across the gloomy little office, +whose single window looked out on the thickening, foggy twilight of +London. He bent across the dingy desk, gripping its edges with his hands +as he spoke tensely to the man sitting behind it. + +"Why are we wasting time talking here?" Ennis cried. "Sitting here +talking, when anything may be happening to Ruth! + +"It's been hours since she was kidnapped. They may have taken her +anywhere, even outside of London by now. And instead of searching for +her, you sit here and talk gibberish about Doors!" + +Inspector Campbell seemed unmoved by Ennis' passion. A bulky, almost +bald man, he looked up with his colorless, sagging face, in which his +eyes gleamed like two crumbs of bright brown glass. + +"You're not helping me much by giving way to your emotions, Mr. Ennis," +he said in his flat voice. + +"Give way? Who wouldn't give way?" cried Ennis. "Don't you understand, +man, it's Ruth that's gone--my wife! Why, we were married only last week +in New York. And on our second day here in London, I see her whisked +into a limousine and carried away before my eyes! I thought you men at +Scotland Yard here would surely act, do something. Instead you talk +crazy gibberish to me!" + +"Those words are _not_ gibberish," said Pierce Campbell quietly. "And I +think they're related to the abduction of your wife." + +"What do you mean? How could they be related?" + +The inspector's bright little brown eyes held Ennis'. "Did you ever hear +of an organization called the Brotherhood of the Door?" + +Ennis shook his head, and Campbell continued, "Well, I am certain your +wife was kidnapped by members of the Brotherhood." + +"What kind of an organization is it?" the young American demanded. "A +band of criminals?" + +"No, it is no ordinary criminal organization," the detective said. His +sagging face set strangely. "Unless I am mistaken, the Brotherhood of +the Door is the most unholy and blackly evil organization that has ever +existed on this earth. Almost nothing is known of it outside its circle. +I myself in twenty years have learned little except its existence and +name. That ritual I just repeated to you, I heard from the lips of a +dying member of the Brotherhood, who repeated the words in his +delirium." + +Campbell leaned forward. "But I know that every year about this time the +Brotherhood come from all over the world and gather at some secret +center here in England. And every year, before that gathering, scores of +people are kidnapped and never heard of again. I believe that all those +people are kidnapped by this mysterious Brotherhood." + +"But what becomes of the people they kidnap?" cried the pale young +American. "What do they do with them?" + + * * * * * + +Inspector Campbell's bright brown eyes showed a hint of hooded horror, +yet he shook his head. "I know no more than you. But whatever they do to +the victims, they are never heard of again." + +"But you must know something more!" Ennis protested. "What is this +Door?" + +Campbell again shook his head. "That too I don't know, but whatever it +is, the Door is utterly sacred to the members of the Brotherhood, and +whomever they mean by They Beyond the Door, they dread and venerate to +the utmost." + +"Where leads the Door? _It leads outside our world_," repeated Ennis. +"What can that mean?" + +"It might have a symbolic meaning, referring to some secluded fastness +of the order which is away from the rest of the world," the inspector +said. "Or it might----" + +He stopped. "Or it might what?" pressed Ennis, his pale face thrust +forward. + +"It might mean, literally, that the Door leads outside our world and +universe," finished the inspector. + +Ennis' haunted eyes stared. "You mean that this Door might somehow lead +into another universe? But that's impossible!" + +"Perhaps unlikely," Campbell said quietly, "but not impossible. Modern +science has taught us that there are other universes than the one we +live in, universes congruent and coincident with our own in space and +time, yet separated from our own by the impassable barrier of totally +different dimensions. It is not entirely impossible that a greater +science than ours might find a way to pierce that barrier between our +universe and one of those outside ones, that a Door should be opened +from ours into one of those others in the infinite outside." + +"A door into the infinite outside," repeated Ennis broodingly, looking +past the inspector. Then he made a sudden movement of wild impatience, +the dread leaping back strong in his eyes again. + +"Oh, what good is all this talk about Doors and infinite universes doing +in finding Ruth? I want to _do_ something! If you think this mysterious +Brotherhood has taken her, you must surely have some idea of how we can +get her back from them? You must know something more about them than +you've told." + +"I don't know anything more certainly, but I've certain suspicions that +amount to convictions," Inspector Campbell said. "I've been working on +this Brotherhood for many years, and block after block I've narrowed +down to the place I think the order's local center, the London +headquarters of the Brotherhood of the Door." + +"Where is the place?" asked Ennis tensely. + +"It is the waterfront cafe of one Chandra Dass, a Hindoo, down by East +India Docks," said the detective officer. "I've been there in disguise +more than once, watching the place. This Chandra Dass I've found to be +immensely feared by everyone in the quarter, which strengthens my belief +that he's one of the high officers of the Brotherhood. He's too +exceptional a man to be really running such a place." + +"Then if the Brotherhood took Ruth, she may be at that place now!" cried +the young American, electrified. + +Campbell nodded his bald head. "She may very likely be. Tonight I'm +going there again in disguise, and have men ready to raid the place. If +Chandra Dass has your wife there, we'll get her before he can get her +away. Whatever way it turns out, we'll let you know at once." + +"Like hell you will!" exploded the pale young Ennis. "Do you think I'm +going to twiddle my thumbs while you're down there? I'm going with you. +And if you refuse to let me, by heaven I'll go there myself!" + +Inspector Pierce Campbell gave the haggard, fiercely determined face of +the young man a long look, and then his own colorless countenance seemed +to soften a little. + +"All right," he said quietly. "I can disguise you so you'll not be +recognized. But you'll have to follow my orders exactly, or death will +result for both of us." + +That strange, hooded dread flickered again in his eyes, as though he saw +through shrouding mists the outline of dim horror. + +"It may be," he added slowly, "that something worse even than death +awaits those who try to oppose the Brotherhood of the Door--something +that would explain the unearthly, superhuman dread that enwraps the +secret mysteries of the order. We're taking more than our lives in our +hands, I think, in trying to unveil those mysteries, to regain your +wife. But we've got to act quickly, at all costs. We've got to find her +before the great gathering of the Brotherhood takes place, or we'll +never find her." + + * * * * * + +Two hours before midnight found Campbell and Ennis passing along a +cobble-paved waterfront street north of the great East India Docks. Big +warehouses towered black and silent in the darkness on one side, and on +the other were old, rotting docks beyond which Ennis glimpsed the black +water and gliding lights of the river. + +As they straggled beneath the infrequent lights of the ill-lit street, +they were utterly changed in appearance. Inspector Campbell, dressed in +a shabby suit and rusty bowler, his dirty white shirt innocent of tie, +had acquired a new face, a bright red, oily, eager one, and a high, +squeaky voice. Ennis wore a rough blue seaman's jacket and a vizored cap +pulled down over his head. His unshaven-looking face and subtly altered +features made him seem a half-intoxicated seaman off his ship, as he +stumbled unsteadily along. Campbell clung to him in true land-shark +fashion, plucking his arm and talking wheedlingly to him. + +They came into a more populous section of the evil old waterfront +street, and passed fried-fish shops giving off the strong smell of hot +fat, and the dirty, lighted windows of a half-dozen waterfront saloons, +loud with sordid argument or merriment. + +Campbell led past them until they reached one built upon an abandoned, +moldering pier, a ramshackle frame structure extending some distance +back out on the pier. Its window was curtained, but dull red light +glowed through the glass window of the door. + +A few shabby men were lounging in front of the place but Campbell paid +them no attention, tugging Ennis inside by the arm. + +"Carm on in!" he wheedled shrilly. "The night ain't 'alf over yet--we'll +'ave just one more." + +"Don't want any more," muttered Ennis drunkenly, swaying on his feet +inside. "Get away, you damned old shark." + +Yet he suffered himself to be led by Campbell to a table, where he +slumped heavily into a chair. His stare swung vacantly. + +The cafe of Chandra Dass was a red-lit, smoke-filled cave with cheap +black curtains on the walls and windows, and other curtains cutting off +the back part of the building from view. The dim room was jammed with +tables crowded with patrons whose babel of tongues made an unceasing +din, to which a three-string guitar somewhere added a wailing undertone. +The waiters were dark-skinned and tiger-footed Malays, while the patrons +seemed drawn from every nation east and west. + +Ennis' glazed eyes saw dandified Chinese from Limehouse and Pennyfields, +dark little Levantins from Soho, rough-looking Cockneys in shabby caps, +a few crazily laughing blacks. From sly white faces, taut brown ones and +impassive yellow ones came a dozen different languages. The air was +thick with queer food-smells and the acrid smoke. + +Campbell had selected a table near the back curtain, and now stridently +ordered one of the Malay waiters to bring gin. He leaned forward with an +oily smile to the drunken-looking Ennis, and spoke to him in a wheedling +undertone. + +"Don't look for a minute, but that's Chandra Dass over in the corner, +and he's watching us," he said. + +Ennis shook his clutching hand away. "Damned old shark!" he muttered +again. + +He turned his swaying head slowly, letting his eyes rest a moment on the +man in the corner. That man was looking straight at him. + +Chandra Dass was tall, dressed in spotless white from his shoes to the +turban on his head. The white made his dark, impassive, aquiline face +stand out in chiseled relief. His eyes were coal-black, large, coldly +searching, as they met Ennis' bleared gaze. + +Ennis felt a strange chill as he met those eyes. There was something +alien and unhuman, something uncannily disturbing, behind the Hindoo's +stare. He turned his gaze vacantly from Chandra Dass to the black +curtains at the rear, and then back to his companion. + +The silent Malay waiter had brought the liquor, and Campbell pressed a +glass toward his companion. "'Ere, matey, take this." + +"Don't want it," muttered Ennis, pushing it away. Still in the same +mutter, he added, "If Ruth's here, she's somewhere in the back there. +I'm going back and find out." + +"Don't try it that way, for God's sake!" said Campbell in the wheedling +undertone. "Chandra Dass is still watching, and those Malays would be on +you in a minute. Wait until I give the word. + +"All right, then," Campbell added in a louder, injured tone. "If you +don't want it, I'll drink it myself." + +He tossed off the glass of gin and set the glass down on the table, +looking at his drunken companion with righteous indignation. + +"Think I'm tryin' to bilk yer, eh?" he added. "That's a fine way to +treat a pal!" + +He added in the coaxing lower tone, "All right, I'm going to try it. Be +ready to move when I light my cigarette." + +He fished a soiled package of Gold Flakes from his pocket and put one in +his mouth. Ennis waited, every muscle taut. + +The inspector, his red, oily face still injured in expression, struck a +match to his cigarette. Almost at once there was a loud oath from one of +the shabby loungers outside the front of the building, and the sound of +angry voices and blows. + +The patrons of Chandra Dass looked toward the door, and one of the Malay +waiters went hastily out to quiet the fight. But it grew swiftly, +sounded in a moment like a small riot. _Crash_--someone was pushed +through the front window. The excited patrons pressed toward the front. +Chandra Dass pushed through them, issuing quick orders to his servants. + +For the time being the back of the cafe was deserted and unnoticed. +Campbell sprang to his feet, and with Ennis close behind him, darted +through the black curtains. They found themselves in a black corridor at +the end of which a red bulb burned dimly. They could still hear the +uproar. + +Campbell's gun was in his hand, and the American's in his. + +"We dare only stay here a few moments," the inspector cried. "Look in +those rooms along the corridor here." + +Ennis frantically tore open a door and peered into a dark room smelling +of drugs. "Ruth!" he cried softly. "Ruth!" + + + + +_2. Death Trap_ + + +There was no answer. The light in the corridor behind him suddenly went +out, plunging him into pitch-black darkness. He jumped back into the +dark corridor, and as he did so, heard a sudden scuffle further along +it. + +"Campbell!" he exclaimed, lunging forward in the black passageway. There +was no answer. + +He pitched forward through stygian obscurity, his hands searching ahead +of him for the inspector. In the dark something whipped smoothly around +his throat, tightened there like a slender, contracting tentacle. + +Ennis tore frenziedly at the thing, which he felt to be a slender silken +cord, but he could not loosen it. It was choking him. He tried to cry +out again to Campbell, but his throat could not emit the sounds. He +thrashed, twisted helplessly, hearing a loud roaring in his ears, +consciousness receding. Then, dimly as though in a dream, Ennis was +aware of being lowered to the floor, of being half carried and half +dragged along. The constriction around his throat was gone and rapidly +his brain began to clear. He opened his eyes. + +He found himself lying on the floor of a room illuminated by a great +hanging brass lamp of ornate design. The walls of the room were hung +with rich, grotesquely worked red silk Indian draperies. His hands and +feet were bound behind him, and beside him, tied in the same manner, lay +Inspector Campbell. Over them stood Chandra Dass and two of the Malay +servants. The faces of the servants were tigerish in their menace, but +Chandra Dass' face was one of dark, impassive scorn. + +"So you misguided fools thought you could deceive me so easily as that?" +he said in a strong, vibrant voice. "Why, we knew hours ago that you, +Inspector Campbell, and you, Mr. Ennis, were coming here tonight. We let +you get this far only because it was evident that somehow you had +learned too much about us, and that it would be best to let you come +here and meet your deaths." + +"Chandra Dass, I've men outside," rasped Campbell. "If we don't come +out, they'll come in after us." + +The Hindoo's proud, dark face did not change its scorn. "They will not +come in for a little while, inspector. By that time you two will be dead +and we shall be gone with our captives. Yes, Mr. Ennis, your wife is one +of those captives," he added to the prostrate young American. "It is too +bad we cannot take you and the inspector to share her glorious destiny, +but then our accommodations of transport are limited." + +"Ruth here?" Ennis' face flamed at the words, and he raised himself a +little from the floor on his elbows. + +"Then you'll let her go if I pay you? I'll raise any amount, I'll do +anything you ask, if you'll set her free." + +"No amount of money in the world could buy her from the Brotherhood of +the Door," answered Chandra Dass steadily. "For she belongs now, not to +us, but to They Beyond the Door. Within a few hours she and many others +shall stand before the Door, and They Beyond the Door shall take them." + +"What are you going to do to her?" cried Ennis. "What is this damned +Door and who are They Beyond it?" + +"I do not think that even if I told you, your little mind would be able +to accept the mighty truth," Chandra Dass said calmly. His coal-black +eyes suddenly flashed with fanatic, frenetic light. "How could your +poor, earth-bound little intelligences conceive the true nature of the +Door and of those who dwell beyond it? Your puny brains would be +stricken senseless by mere apprehension of them, They who are mighty and +crafty and dreadful beyond anything on earth." + +A cold wind from the alien unknown seemed to sweep the lamplit room with +the Hindoo's passionate words. Then that rapt, fanatic exaltation +dropped from him as suddenly as it had come, and he spoke in his +ordinary vibrant tones. + +"But enough of this parley with blind worms of the dust. Bring the +weights!" + +The last words were addressed to the Malay servants, who sprang to a +closet in the corner of the room. + +Inspector Campbell said steadily, "If my men find us dead when they come +in here, they'll leave none of you living." + + * * * * * + +Chandra Dass did not even listen to him, but ordered the dark servants +sharply, "Attach the weights!" + +The Malays had brought from the closet two fifty-pound lead balls, and +now they proceeded quickly to tie these to the feet of the two men. Then +one of them rolled back the brilliant red Indian rug from the rough pine +floor. A square trap-door was disclosed, and at Chandra Dass' order, it +was swung upward and open. + +Up through the open square came the sound of waves slap-slapping against +the piles of the old pier, and the heavy odors of salt water and of +rotting wood invaded the room. + +"The water under this pier is twenty feet deep," Chandra Dass told the +two prisoners. "I regret to give you so easy a death, but there is no +opportunity to take you to the fate you deserve." + +Ennis, his skin crawling on his flesh, nevertheless spoke rapidly and as +steadily as possible to the Hindoo. + +"Listen, I don't ask you to let me go, but I'll do anything you want, +let you kill me any way you want, if you'll let Ruth----" + +Sheer horror cut short his words. The Malay servants had dragged +Campbell's bound body to the door in the floor. They shoved him over the +edge. Ennis had one glimpse of the inspector's taut, strange face +falling out of sight. Then a dull splash sounded instantly below, and +then silence. + +He felt hands upon himself, dragging him across the floor. He fought, +crazily, hopelessly, twisting his body in its bonds, thrashing his bound +limbs wildly. + +[Illustration: "A shove sent his body scraping over the edge, and he +plunged downward through dank darkness."] + +He saw the dark, unmoved face of Chandra Dass, the brass lamp over his +head, the red hangings. Then his head dangled over the opening, a shove +sent his body scraping over the edge, and he plunged downward through +dank darkness. With a splash he hit the icy water and went under. The +heavy weight at his ankles dragged him irresistibly downward. +Instinctively he held his breath as the water rushed upward around him. + +His feet struck oozy bottom. His body swayed there, chained by the lead +weight to the bottom. His lungs already were bursting to draw in air, +slow fires seeming to creep through his breast as he held his breath. + +Ennis knew that in a moment or two more he would inhale the strangling +waters and die. The thought-picture of Ruth flashed across his +despairing mind, wild with hopeless regret. He could no longer hold his +breath, felt his muscles relaxing against his will, tasted the stinging +salt water at the back of his nose. + +Then it was a bursting confusion of swift sensations, the choking water +in his nose and throat, the roaring in his ears. A scroll of flame +unrolled slowly in his brain and a voice shouted there, "You're dying!" +He felt dimly a plucking at his ankles. + +Abruptly Ennis' dimming mind was aware that he now was shooting upward +through the water. His head burst into open air and he choked, strangled +and gasped, his tortured lungs gulping the damp, heavy air. He opened +his eyes, and shook the water from them. + +He was floating in the darkness at the surface of the water. Someone was +floating beside him, supporting him. Ennis' chin bumped the other's +shoulder, and he heard a familiar voice. + +"Easy, now," said Inspector Campbell. "Wait till I cut your hands +loose." + +"Campbell!" Ennis choked. "How did you get loose?" + +"Never mind that now," the inspector answered. "Don't make any noise, or +they may hear us up there." + +Ennis felt a knife-blade slashing the bonds at his wrists. Then, the +inspector's arm helping him, he and his companion paddled weakly through +the darkness under the rotting pier. They bumped against the slimy, +moldering piles, threaded through them toward the side of the pier. The +waves of the flooding tide washed them up and down as Campbell led the +way. + +They passed out from under the old pier into the comparative +illumination of the stars. Looking back up, Ennis saw the long, black +mass of the house of Chandra Dass, resting on the black pier, ruddy +light glowing from window-cracks. He collided with something and found +that Campbell had led toward a little floating dock where some skiffs +were moored. They scrambled up onto it from the water, and lay panting +for a few moments. + +Campbell had something in his hand, a thin, razor-edged steel blade +several inches long. Its hilt was an ordinary leather shoe-heel. + +The inspector turned up one of his feet and Ennis saw that the heel was +missing from that shoe. Carefully Campbell slid the steel blade beneath +the shoe-sole, the heel-hilt sliding into place and seeming merely the +innocent heel of the shoe. + +"So that's how you got loose down in the water!" Ennis exclaimed, and +the inspector nodded briefly. + +"That trick's done me good service before--even with your hands tied +behind your back you can get out that knife and use it. It was touch and +go, though, whether I could get it out and cut myself loose in the water +in time enough to free you." + +Ennis gripped the inspector's shoulder. "Campbell, Ruth is in there! By +heaven, we've found her and now we can get her out!" + +"Right!" said the officer grimly. "We'll go around to the front and in +two minutes we'll be in there with my men." + + * * * * * + +They climbed dripping to their feet, and hastened from the little +floating dock up onto the shore, through the darkness to the cobbled +street. + +The shabbily disguised men of Inspector Campbell were not now in front +of Chandra Dass' cafe, but lurking in the shadows across the street. +They came running toward Campbell and Ennis. + +"All right, we're going in there," Campbell exclaimed in steely tones. +"Get Chandra Dass, whatever you do, but see that his prisoners are not +harmed." + +He snapped a word and one of the men handed pistols to him and to Ennis. +Then they leaped toward the door of the Hindoo's cafe, from which still +streamed ruddy light and the babel of many voices. + +A kick from Inspector Campbell sent the door flying inward, and they +burst in with guns gleaming wickedly in the ruddy light. Ennis' face was +a quivering mask of desperate resolve. + +The motley patrons jumped up with yells of alarm at their entrance. The +hand of a Malay waiter jerked and a thrown knife thudded into the wall +beside them. Ennis yelled as he saw Chandra Dass, his dark face +startled, leaping back with his servants through the black curtains. + +He and Campbell drove through the squealing patrons toward the back. The +Malay who had thrown the knife rushed to bar the way, another dagger +uplifted. Campbell's gun coughed and the Malay reeled and stumbled. The +inspector and Ennis threw themselves at the black curtains--and were +dashed back. + +They tore aside the black folds. A dull steel door had been lowered +behind them, barring the way to the back rooms. Ennis beat crazily upon +it with his pistol-butt, but it remained immovable. + +"No use--we can't break that down!" yelled Campbell, over the uproar. +"Outside, and around to the other end of the building!" + +They burst back out through that mad-house, into the dark of the street. +They started along the side of the pier toward the river-end, edging +forward on a narrow ledge but inches wide. As they reached the back of +the building, Ennis shouted and pointed to dark figures at the end of +the pier. There were two of them, lowering shapeless, wrapped forms over +the end of the pier. + +"There they are!" he cried. "They've got their prisoners out there with +them." + +Campbell's pistol leveled, but Ennis swiftly struck it up. "No, you +might hit Ruth." + +He and the inspector bounded forward along the pier. Fire streaked from +the dark ahead and bullets thumped the rotting boards around them. + +Suddenly the loud roar of an accelerated motor drowned out all other +sounds. It came from the river at the pier's end. + +Campbell and Ennis reached the end in time to see a long, powerful, gray +motor-boat dash out into the black obscurity of the river, and roar +eastward with gathering speed. + +"There they go--they're getting away!" cried the agonized young +American. + +Inspector Campbell cupped his hands and shouted out into the darkness, +"River police, ahoy! Ahoy there!" + +He rasped to Ennis. "The river police were to have a cutter here +tonight. We can still catch them." + +With swiftly rising roar of speeded motors, a big cutter drove in from +the darkness. Its searchlight snapped on, bathing the two men on the +pier in a blinding glare. + +"Ahoy, there!" called a stentorian voice over the roar of the motors. +"Is that Inspector Campbell?" + +"Yes. Come alongside," yelled the inspector, and as the big cutter shot +close to the end of the pier, its reversing propellers churning the dark +water to foam, Ennis and Campbell leaped. + +They landed amid unseen men in the cockpit, and as he scrambled to his +feet the inspector cried, "Follow that boat that just went down-river. +But no shooting!" + + * * * * * + +With thunderous drumfire from its exhausts, the cutter jerked forward so +rapidly that it almost threw them from their feet again. It shot out +onto the bosom of the dark river that flowed like a black sea between +the banks of scattered lights that were London. + +The moving lights of yachts and barges coming up-river could be seen +gliding in that darkness. The captain of the cutter barked an order and +one of his three men, the one crouched at the searchlight, switched its +powerful beam out over the waters ahead. + +In a moment it picked up a distant gray spot racing eastward on the +black river, leaving a white trail of foam. + +"There she is!" bawled the man at the searchlight. "She's running +without lights!" + +"Keep her in the searchlight," ordered the captain. "Sound our siren, +and give the cutter her head." + +Swaying, rocking, the cutter roared on through the darkness on the trail +of that distant fleeing speck. As they raced down Blackwall Reach, the +distance between the two craft had already begun to lessen. + +"We're overtaking him!" cried Campbell, clutching a stanchion and +peering ahead against the rush of wind and spray. "He must be making for +whatever spot it is in England that is the center of the Brotherhood of +the Door--but he'll never reach it." + +"He said that within a few hours Ruth would go with the others through +the Door!" cried Ennis, clinging beside him. "Campbell, we mustn't let +them get away now!" + +Pursuers and pursued flashed on down the dark, broadening river, through +mazes of shipping, the cutter hanging doggedly to the motor-boat's +trail. The lights of London had dropped behind and those of Tilbury now +gleamed away on their left. + +Bigger, stronger waves now tossed and pounded the cutter as it raced out +of the river mouth toward the heaving black expanse of the sea. The Kent +coast was a black blur on their right; the gray motor-boat followed it +closely, grazing almost beneath the Sheerness lights. + +"He's heading to round North Foreland and follow the coast south to +Ramsgate or Dover," the cutter captain cried to Campbell. "But we'll +catch him before he passes Margate." + +The quarry was now but a quarter-mile ahead. Steadily as they roared +onward the gap narrowed, until in the glare of the searchlight they +could make out every detail of the powerful gray motor-boat plunging +through the tossing black waves. + +They saw Chandra Dass' dark face turn and look back at them, and the +cutter captain raised his speaking-trumpet to his lips and shouted over +the roar of motors and dash of waves. + +"Stand by or we'll fire at you!" + +"He won't obey," muttered Campbell between his teeth. "He knows we +daren't fire with the girl in the boat." + +"Yes, blast him!" exclaimed the captain. "But we'll have him in a few +minutes, anyway." + +The thundering chase had brought them into sight of the lights of +Margate on the dark coast to their right. Now only a few hundred feet of +black water separated them from the fleeing craft. + +Ennis and the inspector, gripping the stanchions of the rushing cutter, +saw a white figure suddenly stand erect in the boat ahead and wave its +arms to them. The gray motor-boat slowed. + +"It's Chandra Dass and he's signaling that he's giving up!" Ennis cried. +"He's stopping!" + +"By heavens, he is!" Campbell explained. "Drive alongside him, and we'll +soon have the irons on him." + +The cutter, its own motors hastily throttled down, shot through the +water toward the slowing gray craft. Ennis saw Chandra Dass standing +erect, awaiting their coming, he and the two Malays beside him holding +their hands in the air. He saw a half-dozen or more white-wrapped forms +in the bottom of the boat, lying motionless. + +"There are their prisoners!" he cried. "Bring the boat closer so we can +jump in!" + +He and Campbell, their pistols out, hunched to jump as the cutter drove +closer to the gray motor-boat. The sides of the two craft bumped, the +motors of both idling noisily. Then before Ennis and Campbell could jump +into the motor-boat, things happened with cinema-like rapidity. Two of +the still white forms at the bottom of the motor-boat leaped up and like +suddenly uncoiled springs shot through the air into the cutter. They +were two other Malays, their dark faces flaming with fanatic light, keen +daggers glinting in their upraised hands. + +"'Ware a trick!" yelled Campbell. His gun barked, but the bullet missed +and a dagger slit his sleeve. + +The Malays, with wild, screeching yells, were laying about them with +their daggers in the cutter, insanely. + +"God in heaven, they're running amok!" choked the cutter captain. + +His slashed neck spurting blood and his face livid, he fell. One of his +men slumped coughing beside him, another victim of the crazy daggers. + + + + +_3. Up the Water-Tunnel_ + + +The man at the searchlight sprang for the maddened Malays, tugging at +his pistol as he jumped. Before he got the weapon out, a dagger slashed +his jugular and he went down gurgling in death. One of the Malays +meanwhile had knocked Inspector Campbell from his feet, his knife-hand +swooping down, his eyes blazing. + +Ennis' gun roared and the bullet hit the Malay between the eyes. But as +he slumped limply, the other fanatic was upon Ennis from the side. +Before Ennis could whirl to meet him, the attacker's knife grazed down +past his cheek like a brand of living fire. He was borne backward by the +rush, felt the hot breath of the crazed Malay in his face, the +dagger-point at his throat. + +Shots roared quickly, one after another, and with each shot the Malay +pressing Ennis back jerked convulsively. With the light of murderous +madness fading from his eyes, he still strove to drive the dagger home +into the American's throat. But a hand jerked him back and he lay +prostrate and still. + +Ennis scrambled up to find Inspector Campbell, pale and determined, over +him. The detective had shot the attacker from behind. + +The captain of the cutter and two of his men lay dead in the cockpit +beside the two Malays. The remaining seaman, the helmsman, held his +shoulder and groaned. + +Ennis whirled. The motor-boat of Chandra Dass was no longer beside the +cutter, and there was no sight of it anywhere on the black sea ahead. +The Hindoo had taken advantage of the fight to make good his escape with +his two other servants and their prisoners. + +"Campbell, he's gone!" cried the young American frantically. "He's got +away!" + +The inspector's eyes were bright with cold flame of anger. "Yes, Chandra +Dass sacrificed these two Malays to hold us up long enough for him to +escape." + +Campbell whirled to the helmsman. "You're not badly hurt?" + +"Only a scratch, but I nearly broke my shoulder when I fell," answered +the man. + +"Then head on around North Foreland!" Campbell cried. "We may still be +able to catch up to them." + +"But Captain Wilson and the others are killed," protested the helmsman. +"I've got to report----" + +"You can report later," rasped the inspector. "Do as I say--I'll be +responsible." + +"Very well, sir," said the helmsman, and jumped back to the wheel. + +In a minute the big cutter was roaring ahead over the heaving black +waves, its searchlight clawing the darkness ahead. There was no sign now +of the craft of Chandra Dass ahead. They raced abreast of the lights of +Margate, started rounding the North Foreland, pounded by bigger seas. + +Inspector Campbell had dragged the bodies of the dead policemen and +their two slayers down into the cabin of the cutter. He came up and +crouched down with Ennis beside Sturt, the helmsman. + +"I found these on the two Malays," Campbell shouted to the American, +holding out two little objects in his spray-wet hand. + +Each was a flat star of gray metal in which was set a large oval, +cabochon-cut jewel. The jewels flashed and dazzled with deep color, but +it was a color wholly unfamiliar and alien to their eyes. + +"They're not any color we know on earth," Campbell shouted. "I believe +these jewels came from somewhere beyond the Door, and that these are +badges of the Brotherhood of the Door." + +Sturt, the helmsman, leaned toward the inspector. "We've rounded North +Foreland, sir," he cried. "Head straight south along the coast," +Campbell ordered. "Chandra Dass must have gone this way. No doubt he +thinks he's shaken us off, and is making for the gathering-place of the +Brotherhood, wherever that may be." + +"The cutter isn't built for seas like this," Sturt said, shaking his +head. "But I'll do it." + +They were now following the coast southward, the lights of Ramsgate +dropping back on their right. The waters out here in the Channel were +wilder, great black waves tossing the cutter to the sky one moment, and +then dropping it sickeningly the next. Frequently its screws raced +loudly as they encountered no resistance but air. + +Ennis, clinging precariously on the foredeck, turned the searchlight's +stabbing white beam back and forth on the heaving dark sea ahead, but +without any sign of their quarry disclosed. + +White foam of breaking waves began to show around them like bared teeth, +and there was a humming in the air. + +"Storm coming up the Channel," Sturt exclaimed. "It'll do for us if it +catches us out here." + +"We've got to keep on," Ennis told him desperately. "We must come up +with them soon!" + +The coast on their right was now one of black, rocky cliffs, towering +all along the shore in a jagged, frowning wall against which the waves +dashed foamy white. The cutter crept southward over the wild waters, +tossed like a chip upon the great waves. Sturt was having a hard time +holding the craft out from the rocks, and had its prow pointed obliquely +away from them. + +The humming in the air changed to a shrill whistling as the outrider +winds of the storm came upon them. The cutter tossed still more wildly +and black masses of water smashed in upon them from the darkness, dazing +and drenching them. + +Suddenly Ennis yelled, "There's the lights of a boat ahead! There, +moving in toward the cliffs!" + +He pointed ahead, and Campbell and the helmsman peered through the +blinding spray and darkness. A pair of low lights were moving at high +speed on the waters there, straight toward the towering black cliffs. +Then they vanished suddenly from sight. + +"There must be a hidden opening or harbor of some kind in the cliffs!" +Inspector Campbell exclaimed. "But that can't be Chandra Dass' boat, for +it carried no lights." + +"It might be others of the Brotherhood going to the meeting-place!" +Ennis exclaimed. "We can follow and see." + + * * * * * + +Sturt thrust his head through the flying spray and shouted, "There are +openings and water-caverns in plenty along these cliffs, but there's +nothing in any of them." + +"We'll find out," Campbell said. "Head straight toward the cliffs in +there where that boat vanished." + +"If we can't find the opening we'll be smashed to flinders on those +cliffs," Sturt warned. + +"I'm gambling that we'll find the opening," Campbell told him. "Go +ahead." + +Sturt's face set stolidly and he said, "Yes, sir." + +He turned the prow of the cutter toward the cliffs. Instantly they +dashed forward toward the rock walls with greatly increased speed, wild +waves bearing them onward like charging stallions of the sea. + +Hunched beside the helmsman, the searchlight stabbing the dark wildly as +the cutter was flung forward by the waves, Ennis and the inspector +watched as the cliffs loomed closer ahead. The brilliant white beam +struck across the rushing, mountainous waves and showed only the +towering barriers of rock, battered and smitten by the raving waters +that frothed white. They could hear the booming thunder of the raging +ocean striking the rock. + +Like a projectile hurled by a giant hand, the cutter fairly flew now +toward the cliffs. They now could see even the little streams that ran +off the rough rock wall as each giant wave broke against it. They were +almost upon it. + +Sturt's face was deathly. "I don't see any opening!" he yelled. "And +we're going to hit in a moment!" + +"To your left!" screamed Inspector Campbell over the booming thunder. +"There's an arched opening there." + +Now Ennis saw it also, a huge arch-like opening in the cliff that had +been concealed by an angle of the wall. Sturt tried frantically to head +the cutter toward it, but the wheel was useless as the great waves bore +the craft along. Ennis saw they would strike a little to the side of the +opening. The cliff loomed ahead, and he closed his eyes to the impact. + +There was no impact. And as he heard a hoarse cry from Inspector +Campbell, he opened his eyes. + +The cutter was flying in through the mighty opening, snatched into it by +powerful currents. They were whirled irresistibly forward under the huge +rock arch, which loomed forty feet over their heads. Before them +stretched a winding water-tunnel inside the cliff. + +And now they were out of the wild uproar of the storming waters outside, +and in an almost stupefying silence. Smoothly, resistlessly, the current +bore them on in the tunnel, whose winding turns ahead were lit up by +their searchlight. + +"God, that was close!" exclaimed Inspector Campbell. + +His eyes flashed. "Ennis, I believe that we have found the +gathering-place of the Brotherhood. That boat we sighted is somewhere +ahead in here, and so must be Chandra Dass, and your wife." + +Ennis' hand tightened on his gun-butt. "If that's so--if we can just +find them----" + +"Blind action won't help if we do," said the inspector swiftly. "There +must be all the number of the Brotherhood's members assembled here, and +we can't fight them all." + +His eyes suddenly lit and he took the blazing jeweled stars from his +pocket. "These badges! With them we can pose as members of the +Brotherhood, perhaps long enough to find your wife." + +"But Chandra Dass will be there, and if he sees us----" + +Campbell shrugged. "We'll have to take that chance. It's the only course +open to us." + +The current of the inflowing tide was still bearing them smoothly onward +through the winding water-tunnel, around bends and angles where they +scraped the rock, down long straight stretches. Sturt used the motors to +guide them around the turns. Meanwhile, Inspector Campbell and Ennis +quickly ripped from the cutter its police-insignia and covered all +evidences of its being a police craft. + +Sturt suddenly snicked off the searchlight. "Light ahead there!" he +exclaimed. + +Around the next turn of the water-tunnel showed a gleam of strange, soft +light. + +"Careful, now!" cautioned the inspector. "Sturt, whatever we do, you +stay in the cutter. And try to have it ready for a quick getaway, if we +leave it." + +Sturt nodded silently. The helmsman's stolid face had become a little +pale, but he showed no sign of losing his courage. + + * * * * * + +The cutter sped around the next turn of the tunnel and emerged into a +huge, softly lit cavern. Sturt's eyes bulged and Campbell uttered an +exclamation of amazement. For in this mighty water-cavern there floated +in a great mass, scores of sea-going craft, large and small. + +All of them were capable of breasting storm and wind, and some were so +large they could barely have entered. There were small yachts, big +motor-cruisers, sea-going launches, cutters larger than their own, and +among them the gray motor-launch of Chandra Dass. + +They were massed together here, those with masts having lowered them to +enter, floating and rubbing sides, quite unoccupied. Around the edges of +the water-cavern ran a wide rock ledge. But no living person was visible +and there was no visible source for the soft, strange white light that +filled the astounding place. + +"These craft must have come here from all over earth!" Campbell +muttered. "The Brotherhood of the Door has assembled here--we've found +their gathering-place all right." + +"But where are they?" exclaimed Ennis. "I don't see anyone." + +"We'll soon find out," the inspector said. "Sturt, run close to the +ledge there and we'll get out on it." + +Sturt obeyed, and as the cutter bumped the ledge, Campbell and Ennis +leaped out onto it. They looked this way and that along it, but no one +was in sight. The weirdness of it was unnerving, the strangely lit, +mighty cavern, the assembled boats, the utter silence. + +"Follow me," Campbell said in a low voice. "They must all be somewhere +near." + +He and Ennis walked a few steps along the ledge, when the American +stopped. "Campbell, listen!" he whispered. + +Dimly there whispered to them, as though from a distance and through +great walls, a swelling sound of chanting. As they listened, hearts +beating rapidly, a square of the rock wall of the cavern abruptly flew +open beside them, as though hinged like a door. Inside it was the mouth +of a soft-lit, man-high tunnel, and in its opening stood two men. They +wore over their clothing shroud-like, loose-hanging robes of gray, +asbestos-like material. They wore hoods of the same gray stuff over +their heads, pierced with slits at the eyes and mouth. And each wore on +his breast the blazing star-badge. + +Through the eye-slits the eyes of the two surveyed Campbell and Ennis as +they halted, transfixed by the sudden apparition. Then one of the hooded +men spoke measuredly in a hissing, Mongolian voice. + +"Are you who come here of the Brotherhood of the Door?" he asked, +apparently repeating a customary challenge. + +Campbell answered, his flat voice tremorless. "We are of the +Brotherhood." + +"Why do you not wear the badge of the Brotherhood, then?" + +For answer, the inspector reached in his pocket for the strange emblem +and fastened it to his lapel. Ennis did the same. + +"Enter, brothers," said the hissing, hooded shape, standing aside to let +them pass. + +As they stepped into the tunnel, the hooded guard added in slightly more +natural tones, "Brothers, you two are late. You must hurry to get your +protective robes, for the ceremony soon begins." + +Campbell inclined his head without speaking, and he and Ennis started +along the tunnel. Its light, as sourceless as that of the great +water-cavern, revealed that it was chiseled from solid rock and that it +wound downward. + +When they were out of sight of the two hooded guards, Ennis clutched the +detective's arm convulsively. + +"Campbell," he said, "the ceremony begins soon! We've got to find Ruth +first!" + +"We'll try," the inspector answered swiftly. "Those hooded robes are +apparently issued to all the members to be worn during the ceremony as +protection, for some reason, and once we get robes and get them on, +Chandra Dass won't be able to spot us. + +"Look out!" he added an instant later. "Here's the place where the robes +are issued!" + +The tunnel had debouched suddenly into a wider space in which were a +group of men. Several were wearing the concealing hoods and robes, and +one of these hooded figures was handing out, from a large rack of the +robes, three of the garments to three dark Easterners who had apparently +entered in the boat just ahead of the cutter. + +The three dark Orientals, their faces gleaming with strange fanaticism, +quickly donned the robes and hoods and passed hurriedly on down the +tunnel. At once Campbell and Ennis stepped calmly up to the hooded +custodians of the robes, and extended their hands. + +One of the hooded figures took down two robes and handed them to them. +But suddenly one of the other hooded men spoke sharply. + +Instantly all the hooded men but the one who had spoken, with loud +cries, threw themselves forward on Campbell and Paul Ennis. + +Taken utterly by surprize, the two had no chance to draw their guns. +They were smothered by gray-robed men, held helpless before they could +move, a half-dozen pistols jammed into their bodies. + +Stupefied by the sudden dashing of their hopes, the detective and the +young American saw the hooded man who had spoken slowly lift the +concealing gray cowl from his face. It was the dark, coldly contemptuous +face of Chandra Dass. + + + + +_4. The Cavern of the Door_ + + +Chandra Dass spoke, and his strong, vibrant voice held a scorn that was +almost pitying. + +"It occurred to me that your enterprise might enable you to escape the +daggers of my followers, and that you might trail us here," he said. +"That is why I waited here to see if you came. + +"Search them," he told the other hooded figures. "Take anything that +looks like a weapon from them." + +Ennis stared, stupefied, as the gray-hooded men obeyed. He was unable to +believe entirely in the abrupt reversal of all their hopes, of their +desperate attempt. + +The hooded men took their pistols from Ennis and Campbell, and even the +small gold knife attached to the chain of the inspector's big, +old-fashioned gold watch. Then they stepped back, the pistols of two of +them leveled at the hearts of the captives. + +Chandra Dass had watched impassively. Ennis, staring dazedly, noted that +the Hindoo wore on his breast a different jewel-emblem from the others, +a double star instead of a single one. + +Ennis' dazed eyes lifted from the blazing badge to the Hindoo's dark +face. "Where's Ruth?" he asked a little shrilly, and then his voice +cracked and he cried, "You damned fiend, where's my wife?" + +"Be comforted, Mr. Ennis," came Chandra Dass' chill voice. "You are +going now to join your wife, and to share her fate. You two are going +with her and the other sacrifices through the Door when it opens. It is +not usual," he added in cold mockery, "for our sacrificial victims to +walk directly into our hands. We ordinarily have a more difficult time +securing them." + +He made a gesture to the two hooded men with pistols, and they ranged +themselves close behind Campbell and Ennis. + +"We are going to the Cavern of the Door," said the Hindoo. "Inspector +Campbell, I know and respect your resourcefulness. Be warned that your +slightest attempt to escape means a bullet in your back. You two will +march ahead of us," he said, and added mockingly, "Remember, while you +live you can cling to the shadow of hope, but if these guns speak, it +ends even that shadow." + +Ennis and Inspector Campbell, keeping their hands elevated, started at +the Hindoo's command down the softly lit rock tunnel. Chandra Dass and +the two hooded men with pistols followed. + +Ennis saw that the inspector's sagging face was expressionless, and knew +that behind that colorless mask, Campbell's brain was racing in an +attempt to find a method of escape. For himself, the young American had +almost forgotten all else in his eagerness to reach his wife. Whatever +happened to Ruth, whatever mysterious horror lay in wait for her and the +other victims, he would be there beside her, sharing it! + +The tunnel wound a little further downward, then straightened out and +ran straight for a considerable length. In this straight section of the +rock passage, Ennis and Campbell for the first time perceived that the +walls of the tunnel bore crowding, deeply chiseled inscriptions. They +had not time to read them in passing, but Ennis saw that they were in +many different languages, and that some of the characters were wholly +unfamiliar. + +"God, some of those inscriptions are in Egyptian hieroglyphics!" +muttered Inspector Campbell. + +The cool voice of Chandra Dass said, behind them, "There are +pre-Egyptian inscriptions on these walls, inspector, could you but +recognize them, carven in languages that perished from the face of earth +before Egypt was born. Yes, back through time, back through mediaeval and +Roman and Egyptian and pre-Egyptian ages, the Brotherhood of the Door +has existed and has each year gathered in this place to open the Door +and worship with sacrifices They Beyond it." + +The fanatic note of unearthly devotion was in his voice now, and Ennis +shuddered with a cold not of the tunnel. + +As they proceeded, they heard a muffled, hoarse booming somewhere over +their heads, a dull, rhythmic thunder that echoed along the long +passageway. The walls of the tunnel now were damp and glistening in the +sourceless soft light, tiny trickles running down them. + +"You hear the ocean over us," came Chandra Dass' voice. "The Cavern of +the Door lies several hundred yards out from shore, beneath the rock +floor of the sea." + +They passed the dark mouths of unlit tunnels branching ahead from this +illuminated one. Then over the booming of the raging sea above them, +there came to Ennis' ears the distant, swelling chant they had heard in +the water-cavern above. But now it was louder, nearer. At the sound of +it, Chandra Dass quickened their pace. + +Suddenly Inspector Campbell stumbled on the slippery rock floor and went +down in a heap. Instantly Chandra Dass and his two followers recoiled +from them, the two pistols trained on the detective as he scrambled up. + +"Do not do that again, inspector," warned the Hindoo in a deadly voice. +"All tricks are useless now." + +"I couldn't help slipping on this wet floor," complained Inspector +Campbell. + +"The next time you make a wrong step of any kind, a bullet will smash +your spine," Chandra Dass told him. "Quick--march!" + + * * * * * + +The tunnel turned sharply, turned again. As they rounded the turns, +Ennis saw with a sudden electric thrill of hope that Campbell held +clutched in his hand, concealed by his sleeve, the heel-hilted knife +from his shoe. He had drawn it when he stumbled. + +Campbell edged a little closer to the young American as they were +hastening onward, and whispered to him, a word at a time. + +"Be--ready--to jump--them----" + +"But they'll shoot, your first move----" whispered Ennis agonizedly. + +Campbell did not answer. But Ennis sensed the detective's body +tautening. + +They came to another turn, the strong, swelling chant coming loud from +ahead. They started around that turn. + +Then Inspector Campbell acted. He whirled as though on a pivot, the +heel-knife flashing toward the men behind them. + +Shots coughed from the pistols that were pressed almost against his +stomach. His body jerked as the bullets struck it, yet he remained +erect, his knife stabbing with lightning rapidity. + +One of the hooded men slumped down with a pierced throat, and as +Campbell sprang at the other, Ennis desperately launched himself at +Chandra Dass. He bore the Hindoo from his feet, but it was as though he +was fighting a demon. Inside his gray robe, Chandra Dass writhed with +fiendish strength. + +Ennis could not hold him, the Hindoo's body seeming of spring-steel. He +rolled over, dashed the young American to the floor, and leaped up, his +dark face and great black eyes blazing. + +Then, half-way erect, he suddenly crumpled, the fire in his eyes +dulling, a call for help smothered on his lips. He fell on his face, and +Ennis saw that the heel-knife was stuck in his back. Inspector Campbell +jerked it out, and put it back into his shoe. And now Ennis, staggering +up, saw that Campbell had knifed the two hooded guards and that they lay +in a dead heap. + +"Campbell!" cried the American, gripping the detective's arm. "They've +wounded you--I saw them shoot you." + +Campbell's bruised face grinned briefly. "Nothing of the kind," he said, +and tapped the soiled gray vest he wore beneath his coat. "Chandra Dass +didn't know this vest is bullet-proof." + +He darted an alert glance up and down the lighted tunnel. "We can't stay +here or let these bodies lie here. They may be discovered at any +moment." + +"Listen!" said Ennis, turning. + +The chanting from ahead swelled down the tunnel, louder than at any time +yet, waxing and waxing, reaching a triumphant crescendo, then again +dying away. + +"Campbell, they're going on with the ceremony now!" Ennis cried. "Ruth!" + +The detective's desperate glance fastened on the dark mouth of one of +the branching tunnels, a little ahead. + +"That side tunnel--we'll pull the bodies in there!" he exclaimed. + +Taking the pistols of the dead men for themselves, they rapidly dragged +the three bodies into the darkness of the unlit branching tunnel. + +"Quick, on with two of these robes," rasped Inspector Campbell. "They'll +give us a little better chance." + +Hastily Ennis jerked the gray robe and hood from Chandra Dass' dead body +and donned it, while Campbell struggled into one of the others. In the +robes and concealing hoods, they could not be told from any other two +members of the Brotherhood, except that the badge on Ennis' breast was +the double star instead of the single one. + +Ennis then spun toward the main, lighted tunnel, Campbell close behind +him. They recoiled suddenly into the darkness of the branching way, as +they heard hurrying steps out in the lighted passage. Flattened in the +darkness against the wall, they saw several of the gray-hooded members +of the Brotherhood hasten past them from above, hurrying toward the +gathering-place. + +"The guards and robe-issuers we saw above!" Campbell said quickly when +they were passed. "Come on, now." + +He and Ennis slipped out into the lighted tunnel and hastened along it +after the others. + +Boom of thundering ocean over their heads and rising and falling of the +tremendous chanting ahead filled their ears as they hurried around the +last turns of the tunnel. The passage widened, and ahead they saw a +massive rock portal through whose opening they glimpsed an immense, +lighted space. + +Campbell and Ennis, two comparatively tiny gray-hooded figures, hastened +through the mighty portal. Then they stopped. Ennis felt frozen with the +dazing shock of it. He heard the detective whisper fiercely beside him. + +"It's the Cavern, all right--the Cavern of the Door!" + + * * * * * + +They looked across a colossal rock chamber hollowed out beneath the +floor of ocean. It was elliptical in shape, three hundred feet by its +longer axis. Its black basalt sides, towering, rough-hewn walls, rose +sheer and supported the rock ceiling which was the ocean floor, a +hundred feet over their heads. + +This mighty cathedral hewn from inside the rock of earth was lit by a +soft, white, sourceless light like that in the main tunnel. Upon the +floor of the cavern, in regular rows across it, stood hundreds on +hundreds of human figures, all gray-robed and gray-hooded, all with +their backs to Campbell and Ennis, looking across the cavern to its +farther end. At that farther end was a flat dais of black basalt upon +which stood five hooded men, four wearing the blazing double-star on +their breasts, the fifth, a triple-star. Two of them stood beside a +cubical, weird-looking gray metal mechanism from which upreared a +spherical web of countless fine wires, unthinkably intricate in their +network, many of them pulsing with glowing force. The sourceless light +of the cavern and the tunnel seemed to pulse from that weird mechanism. + +Up from that machine, if machine it was, soared the black basalt wall of +that end of the cavern. But there above the gray mechanism the rough +wall had been carved with a great, smooth facet, a giant, gleaming black +oval face as smooth as though planed and polished. Only, at the middle +of the glistening black oval face, were carven deeply four large and +wholly unfamiliar characters. As Ennis and Campbell stared frozenly +across the awe-inspiring place, sound swelled from the hundreds of +throats. A slow, rising chant, it climbed and climbed until the basalt +roof above seemed to quiver to it, crashing out with stupendous effect, +a weird litany in an unknown tongue. Then it began to fall. + +Ennis clutched the inspector's gray-robed arm. "Where's Ruth?" he +whispered frantically. "I don't see any prisoners." + +"They must be somewhere here," Campbell said swiftly. "Listen----" + +As the chant died to silence, on the dais at the farther end of the +cavern the hooded man who wore the triple-jeweled star stepped forward +and spoke. His deep, heavy voice rolled out and echoed across the +cavern, flung back and forth from wall to rocky wall. + +"Brothers of the Door," he said, "we meet again here in the Cavern of +the Door this year, as for ten thousand years past our forefathers have +met here to worship They Beyond the Door, and bring them the sacrifices +They love. + +"A hundred centuries have gone by since first They Beyond the Door sent +their wisdom through the barrier between their universe and ours, a +barrier which even They could not open from their side, but which their +wisdom taught our fathers how to open. + +"Each year since then have we opened the Door which They taught us how +to build. Each year we have brought them sacrifices. And in return They +have given us of their wisdom and power. They have taught us things that +lie hidden from other men, and They have given us powers that other men +have not. + +"Now again comes the time appointed for the opening of the Door. In +their universe on the other side of it, They are waiting now to take the +sacrifices which we have procured for them. The hour strikes, so let the +sacrifices be brought." + +As though at a signal, from a small opening at one side of the cavern a +triple file of marchers entered. A file of hooded gray members of the +Brotherhood flanked on either side a line of men and women who did not +wear the hoods or robes. They were thirty or forty in number. These men +and women were of almost all races and classes, but all of them walked +stiffly, mechanically, staring ahead with unseeing, distended eyes, like +living corpses. + +"Drugged!" came Campbell's shaken voice. "They're all drugged, and don't +know what is going on." + +Ennis' eyes fastened on a small, slender girl with chestnut hair who +walked at the end of the line, a girl in a straight tan dress, whose +face was white, stiff, like those of the others. + +"There's Ruth!" he exclaimed frantically, his cry muffled by his hood. + +He plunged in that direction, but Campbell held him back. + +"No!" rasped the inspector. "You can't help her by simply getting +yourself captured!" + +"I can at least go with her!" Ennis exclaimed. "Let me go!" + +Inspector Campbell's iron grip held him. "Wait, Ennis!" said the +detective. "You've no chance that way. That robe of Chandra Dass' you're +wearing has a double-star badge like those of the men up there on the +dais. That means that as Chandra Dass you're entitled to be up there +with them. Go up there and take your place as though you were Chandra +Dass--with the hood on, they can't tell the difference. I'll slip around +to that side door out of which they brought the prisoners. It must +connect with the tunnels, and it's not far from the dais. When I fire my +pistol from there, you grab your wife and try to get to that door with +her. If you can do it, we'll have a chance to get up through the tunnels +and escape." + +Ennis wrung the inspector's hand. Then, without further reply, he walked +boldly with measured steps up the main aisle of the cavern, through the +gray ranks to the dais. He stepped up onto it, his heart racing. The +chief priest, he of the triple-star, gave him only a glance, as of +annoyance at his lateness. Ennis saw Campbell's gray figure slipping +round to the side door. + +The gray-hooded hundreds before him had paid no attention to either of +them. Their attention was utterly, eagerly, fixed upon the stiff-moving +prisoners now being marched up onto the dais. Ennis saw Ruth pass him, +her white face an unfamiliar, staring mask. + +The prisoners were ranged at the back of the dais, just beneath the +great, gleaming black oval facet. The guards stepped back from them, and +they remained standing stiffly there. Ennis edged a little toward Ruth, +who stood at the end of that line of stiff figures. As he moved +imperceptibly closer to her, he saw the two priests beside the gray +mechanism reaching toward knurled knobs of ebonite affixed to its side, +beneath the spherical web of pulsing wires. + +The chief priest, at the front of the dais, raised his hands. His voice +rolled out, heavy, commanding, reverberating again through all the +cavern. + + + + +_5. The Door Opens_ + + +"Where leads the Door?" rolled the chief priest's voice. + +Back up to him came the reply of hundreds of voices, muffled by the +hoods but loud, echoing to the roof of the cavern in a thunderous +response. + +"_It leads outside our world!_" + +The chief priest waited until the echoes died before his deep voice +rolled on in the ritual. + +"Who taught our forefathers to open the Door?" + +Ennis, edging desperately closer and closer to the line of victims, felt +the mighty response reverberate about him. + +"_They Beyond the Door taught them!_" + +Now Ennis was apart from the other priests on the dais, within a few +yards of the captives, of the small figure of Ruth. + +"To whom do we bring these sacrifices?" + +As the high priest uttered the words, and before the booming answer +came, a hand grasped Ennis and pulled him back from the line of victims. +He spun round to find that it was one of the other priests who had +jerked him back. + +"_We bring them to Those Beyond the Door!_" + +As the colossal response thundered, the priest who had jerked Ennis back +whispered urgently to him. "You go too close to the victims, Chandra +Dass! Do you wish to be taken with them?" + +The fellow had a tight grip on Ennis' arm. Desperate, tensed, Ennis +heard the chief priest roll forth the last of the ritual. + +"Shall the Door be opened that They may take the sacrifices?" + +Stunning, mighty, a tremendous shout that mingled in it worshipping awe +and superhuman dread, the answer crashed back. + +_"Let the Door be opened!"_ + +The chief priest turned and his up-flung arms whirled in a signal. +Ennis, tensing to spring toward Ruth, saw the two priests at the gray +mechanism swiftly turn the knurled black knobs. Then Ennis, like all +else in the vast cavern, was held frozen and spellbound by what +followed. + +The spherical web of wires pulsed up madly with shining force. And up at +the center of the gleaming black oval facet on the wall, there appeared +a spark of unearthly green light. It blossomed outward, expanded, an +awful viridescent flower blooming quickly outward farther and farther. +And as it expanded, Ennis saw that he could look _through_ that green +light! He looked through into another universe, a universe lying +infinitely far across alien dimensions from our own, yet one that could +be reached through this door between dimensions. It was a green +universe, flooded with an awful green light that was somehow more akin +to darkness than to light, a throbbing, baleful luminescence. + +Ennis saw dimly through green-lit spaces a city in the near distance, an +unholy city of emerald hue whose unsymmetrical, twisted towers and +minarets aspired into heavens of hellish viridity. The towers of that +city swayed to and fro and writhed in the air. And Ennis saw that here +and there in the soft green substance of that restless city were circles +of lurid light that were like yellow eyes. + +In ghastly, soul-shaking apprehension of the utterly alien, Ennis knew +that the yellow circles were _eyes_--that that hell-spawned city of +another universe was _living_--that its unfamiliar life was single yet +multiple, that its lurid eyes looked now through the Door! + +Out from the insane living metropolis glided pseudopods of its green +substance, glided toward the Door. Ennis saw that in the end of each +pseudopod was one of the lurid eyes. He saw those eyed pseudopods come +questing through the Door, onto the dais. + +The yellow eyes of light seemed fixed on the row of stiff victims, and +the pseudopods glided toward them. Through the open door was beating +wave on wave of unfamiliar, tingling forces that Ennis felt even through +the protective robe. + +The hooded multitude bent in awe as the green pseudopods glided toward +the victims faster, with avid eagerness. Ennis saw them reaching for the +prisoners, for Ruth, and he made a tremendous mental effort to break the +spell that froze him. In that moment pistol-shots crashed across the +cavern and a stream of bullets smashed the pulsing web of wires! + +The Door began instantly to close. Darkness crept back around the edges +of the mighty oval. As though alarmed, the lurid-eyed pseudopods of that +hell-city recoiled from the victims, back through the dwindling Door. +And as the Door dwindled, the light in the cavern was failing. + +"Ruth!" yelled Ennis madly, and sprang forward and grasped her, his +pistol leaping into his other hand. + +"Ennis--quick!" shouted Campbell's voice across the cavern. + +The Door dwindled away altogether; the great oval facet was completely +black. The light was fast dying too. + +The chief priest sprang madly toward Ennis, and as he did so, the hooded +hordes of the Brotherhood recovered from their paralysis of horror and +surged madly toward the dais. + +"The Door is closed! Death to the blasphemers!" cried the chief priest +as he plunged forward. + +"Death to the blasphemers!" shrieked the crazed horde below. + +Ennis' pistol roared and the chief priest went down. The light in the +cavern died completely at that moment. + +In the dark a torrent of bodies catapulted against Ennis, screaming +vengeance. He struck out with his pistol-barrel in the mad melee, +holding Ruth's stiff form close with his other hand. He heard the other +drugged, helpless victims crushed down and trampled under foot by the +surging horde of vengeance-mad members. + + * * * * * + +Clinging to the girl, Ennis fought like a madman through a darkness in +which none could distinguish friend or foe, toward the door at the side +from which Campbell had fired. He smashed down the pistol-barrel on all +before him, as hands sought to grab him in the dark. He knew sickeningly +that he was lost in the combat, with no sense of the direction of the +door. + +Then a voice roared loud across the wild din, "Ennis, this way! This +way, Ennis!" yelled Inspector Campbell, again and again. + +Ennis plunged through the whirl of unseen bodies in the direction of the +detective's shouting voice. He smashed through, half dragging and half +carrying the girl, until Campbell's voice was close ahead in the dark. +He fumbled at the rock wall, found the door opening, and then Campbell's +hands grasped him to pull him inside. + +Hands grabbed him from behind, striving to tear Ruth from him, to jerk +him back. Voices shrieked for help. + +Campbell's pistol blazed in the dark and the hands released their grip. +Ennis stumbled with the girl through the door into a dark tunnel. He +heard Campbell slam a door shut, and heard a bar fall with a clang. + +"Quick, for God's sake!" panted Campbell in the dark. "They'll follow +us--we've got to get up through the tunnels to the water-cavern!" + +They raced along the pitch-dark tunnel, Campbell now carrying the girl, +Ennis reeling drunkenly along. + +They heard a mounting roar behind them, and as they burst into the main +tunnel, no longer lighted but dark like the others, they looked back and +saw a flickering of light coming up the passage. + +"They're after us and they've got lights!" Campbell cried. "Hurry!" + +It was nightmare, this mad flight on stumbling feet up through the dark +tunnels where they could hear the sea booming close overhead, and could +hear the wild pursuit behind. + +Their feet slipped on the damp floor and they crashed into the walls of +the tunnel at the turns. The pursuit was closer behind--as they started +climbing the last passages to the water-cavern, the torchlight behind +showed them to their pursuers and wild yells came to their ears. + +They had before them only the last ascent to the water-cavern when Ennis +stumbled and went down. He swayed up a little, yelled to Campbell. "Go +on--get Ruth out! I'll try to hold them back a moment!" + +"No!" rasped Campbell. "There's another way--one that may mean the end +for us too, but our only chance!" + +The inspector thrust his hand into his pocket, snatched out his big, +old-fashioned gold watch. + +He tore it from its chain, turned the stem of it twice around. Then he +hurled it back down the tunnel with all his force. + +"Quick--out of the tunnels now or we'll die right here!" he yelled. + +They lunged forward, Campbell dragging both the girl and the exhausted +Ennis, and emerged a moment later into the great water-cavern. It was +now lit only by the searchlight of their waiting cutter. + +As they emerged into the cavern, they were thrown flat on the rock ledge +by a violent movement of it under them. An awful detonation and +thunderous crashing of falling rock smote their ears. + +Following that first tremendous crash, giant rumbling of collapsing rock +shook the water-cavern. + +"To the cutter!" Campbell cried. "That watch of mine was filled with the +most concentrated high-explosive known, and it's blown up the tunnels. +Now it's touched off more collapses and all these caverns and passages +will fall in on us at any moment!" + +The awful rumbling and crashing of collapsing rock masses was deafening +in their ears as they lurched toward the cutter. Great chunks of rock +were falling from the cavern roof into the water. + + * * * * * + +Sturt, white-faced but asking no questions, had the motor of the cutter +running, and helped them pull the unconscious girl aboard. + +"Out of the tunnel at once!" Campbell ordered. "Full speed!" + +They roared down the water-tunnel at crazy velocity, the searchlight +beam stabbing ahead. The tide had reached flood and turned, increasing +the speed with which they dashed through the tunnel. + +Masses of rock fell with loud splashes behind them, and all around them +was still the ominous grinding of mighty weights of rock. The walls of +the tunnel quivered repeatedly. + +Sturt suddenly reversed the propellers, but in spite of his action the +cutter smashed a moment later into a solid rock wall. It was a mass of +rock forming an unbroken barrier across the water-tunnel, extending +beneath the surface of the water. + +"We're trapped!" cried Sturt. "A mass of the rock has settled here and +blocked the tunnel." + +"It can't be completely blocked!" Campbell exclaimed. "See, the tide +still runs out beneath it. Our one chance is to swim out under the +blocking mass of rock, before the whole cliff gives way!" + +"But there's no telling how far the block may extend----" Sturt cried. + +Then as Campbell and Ennis stripped off their coats and shoes, he +followed their example. The rumble of grinding rock around them was now +continuous and nerve-shattering. + +Campbell helped Ennis lower Ruth's unconscious form into the water. + +"Keep your hand over her nose and mouth!" cried the inspector. "Come on, +now!" + +Sturt went first, his face pale in the searchlight beam as he dived +under the rock mass. The tidal current carried him out of sight in a +moment. + +Then, holding the girl between them, and with Ennis' hand covering her +mouth and nostrils, the other two dived. Down through the cold waters +they shot, and then the swift current was carrying them forward like a +mill-race, their bodies bumping and scraping against the rock mass +overhead. + +Ennis' lungs began to burn, his brain to reel, as they rushed on in the +waters, still holding the girl tightly. They struck solid rock, a wall +across their way. The current sucked them downward, to a small opening +at the bottom. They wedged in it, struggled fiercely, then tore through +it. They rose on the other side of it into pure air. They were in the +darkness, floating in the tunnel beyond the block, the current carrying +them swiftly onward. + +The walls were shaking and roaring frightfully about them as they were +borne round the turns of the tunnel. Then they saw ahead of them a +circle of dim light, pricked with white stars. + +The current bore them out into that starlight, into the open sea. Before +them in the water floated Sturt, and they swam with him out from the +shaking, grinding cliffs. + +The girl stirred a little in Ennis' grasp, and he saw in the starlight +that her face was no longer dazed. + +"Paul----" she muttered, clinging close to Ennis in the water. + +"She's coming back to consciousness--the water must have revived her +from that drug!" he cried. + +But he was cut short by Campbell's cry. "Look! Look!" cried the +inspector, pointing back at the black cliffs. + +In the starlight the whole cliff was collapsing, with a prolonged, +terrible roar as of grinding planets, its face breaking and buckling. +The waters around them boiled furiously, whirling them this way and +that. + +Then the waters quieted. They found they had been flung near a sandy +spit beyond the shattered cliffs, and they swam toward it. + +"The whole underground honeycomb of caverns and tunnels gave way and the +sea poured in!" Campbell cried. "The Door, and the Brotherhood of the +Door, are ended for ever!" + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Door into Infinity, by Edmond Hamilton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DOOR INTO INFINITY *** + +***** This file should be named 32847.txt or 32847.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/8/4/32847/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan 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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