"Come back in an hour.., I shall wait for you!"

For many months Baron von Leisenberg had wanted to hear those words! His handsome frame quivered as they were

spoken . . . was the exotic Clare, beloved of all men, ready to marry him at last? Or had she discovered some new trick to test his devotion? What happened when the Baron returned? What strange twist of fate was to make this rendezvous exciting beyond measure? Every word in Arthur Schnitzler's story "The Fate of the Baron" leaps alive with revealing human emotions. Every episode unveils new facets of excitement in the search for love. "The Fate of the Baron" is only one of 83 amazing stories. Here is a collection of amatory fiction unsurpassed in all litera- ture! Scores of tempestuous characters play turbulent roles in A TREASURE-HOUSE OF these pages. Selected from the world's stories a modern best by Exciting reading t

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WILLIAM B. ZIFF THE OBSERVATORY the Board Chairman of By The Editor * and Publisher THE CIGARETTE B. G. DAVIS By John McCabe Moore 29 President VIGNETTES OF FAMOUS SCIENTISTS By Alexander Blade 60 Vice Presidents: THE ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPH GEORGE BERNER By Carter T. Wainwright 61 Sales and Advertising Director MEDICAL MYSTERY 89 MICHAEL H. FROELICH By John McCabe Moore Editorial Director MYSTERY OF THE DERO TYPESETTER By The Editor 129 H. I. MORGANROTH Production Director SCIENTIFIC MYSTERIES By L. Taylor Hansen 130 H. G. STRONG Circulation Director HOW TO USE THE SHAVER ALPHABET By The Editor 133 PROOF Secretary-Treasurer By Richard S. Shaver. 136 A. T. PULLEN PETRIFIED TREE STUMP—OR NOT? Art Director By The Editor 146 HERMAN R. BOLLIN NOTES ON SUBTERRANEAN SHAFTS By Vincent H. Gaddis 148

Editor WHAT MAN CAN IMAGINE . . . RAYMOND A. PALMER Is There an Ether Drift? Unification of Newtonian and EInsteinian Mass Concepts Managing Editor HOWARD BROWNE By Roger P. Graham 152 VISITORS FROM THE VOID Associate Editors; By Vincent H. Gaddis 159 WILLIAM L. HAMLING HENRY A. BOH MYSTERY OF THE PERUVIAN GIANTS By Marx Kaye 162 Art Editor MALCOLM SMITH WHO WAS VIRGILIUS? By S. O'Daniel 164 THE MAGNETIC PENDULUM By Lee McCann 165 DISCUSSIONS By The Readers 168

Published monthly by ZIFF-DAVIS PUBLISHING CO-WpaNY at 186 North Wabash Ave., Chicago 1, 111. New York Office, Empire State Build- ing, New York 3, N. Y. Washington office. International Building, 1819 F Btreet. N.W., Washington 4. D. C. Entered as second class matter April 11. 1946, at the Post Office. Chicago, Illinois, under the Act of March S. 1879. Subscription $2.50 for 12 Issues; Canada $'1M; Foreign $4.50. Subscribers should allow at least two weeks for change of address. All communications about subscriptions should be addressed to the Director of Circulation, Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. 18S North Wabash Ave.. Chicago 1. 111. VOLUME 21 NUMBER 6

All StaMei GampUte ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••a

THE SHAVER MYSTERY By Richard S. Shaver

The complete story of the Mystery that rocked the science fiction world!

No. 1. FORMULA FROM THE UNDERWORLD (13,000 words) 10 Illustrated by Enoch Sharp

There among the lost ones of the eaves lie forgotten secrets, formulae that can mean health and happiness and peace to the races of the surface.

No. 2. ZIGOR MEPHISTO'S COLLECTION OF MENTALIA (25,000 words) 30 Illustrated by Brady

Zigor came from an ancient family well known on the surface as well as

in the caves; and he meant to gain back the power of his great ancestor.

No. 3. WITCH'S DAUGHTER (22,000 words) 62 illustrated by Malcolm Smith

Tom Kent couldn't dream what he would find when he followed this lovely

girl into the back room of the little store and down the musty stairway.

i

No. 4. THE RED LEGION (30,000 words) 90 Illustrated by Malcolm Smith, Julian S. Krupa and Robert Fuqua

Long ago tribes of Indians vanished into the bowels of the earth. Where did they go? Do they exist today, in their hideaway from the white man?

Front cover painting by Robert Gibson Jones

illustrating a scene in the caves

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••a Copyright !M7, ZIFF-DAVIS PUBLISHING COMPANY Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations We do not accept responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts or artwork. To facilitate handling, the author should enclota a self-addressed envelope with the requisite postage attached, and artists should enclose or forward return postage. Accepted material Is subject to whatever revision is necessary to meet requirements. Payment covers all authors', contributors' and contestants' magazine rights in the U.S.A. and all other countries in the article and/or illustrations and for publicity and promotion in connection therewith and will be made at our current rates upon acceptance. All photos and drawings will be considered as part of material purchased. The names of ail characters that are used In short stories, serials and semi-fiction articles that deal with types are fictitious. Use of a name that is the same as that of any living person is coincidental. 5 HERE IT IS, readers, in spite of Hell and for yourself against pages 1S6, 157 and 1S8 where High Water! The special Shaver Mystery the correct copy appears, exactly as it was in the issue! And if you think that first sen- manuscript. You explain those errors. The man tence isn't sincere, you should have been in this who set it could not! editorial office to help put the June issue to bed! Never in our nine years of editing have such fan- XTEXT, there were numerous instances of dupli- tastic things happened to make an issue almost ^ cate galleys inserted, which, if included in the impossible. As a result, many small details, many makeup, would necessitate complete remaking of planned features, do not appear; our plans are the page forms if not discovered in the first make-

not complete ; the issue is not what we wanted it up. Other galleys were incorrectly numbered. to be. But the major portion is there, and with Certain galleys mysteriously disappeared, and yet a little study, you will see all that we intended to the numbers were correct, and did not show a convey, and understand it. missing galley where one really was. The sense of particular passages was subtly changed by minor PERHAPS a brief recital of what happened may errors which were hard to catch by any proof- give you some idea of the impossibility of these reader not entirely familiar with the Mystery be- things being entirely natural. First, in our nine cause they seemed to make proper sense and years, a certain standard of progress has been set continuity. Thus, all proofreading had to be done up between printer and publisher in the mechan- by your editor himself, and by Mr. Hamling, the ics of getting out a magazine. This standard is only other man in this office who could detect religiously maintained. A "deadline" is the "bible" such a subtle change. on which all actions are founded. To miss a dead-

line is the cardinal sin. Thus, to begin with, man- TXTE AREN'T going to mention the hundred uscripts, properly edited, go to the typesetter at ' * other things that happened to delay every- least three weeks in advance of "press date." In thing possible—the dozens of almost maliciously this case, press date was March 13. Manuscripts planned (so it seemed) interruptions from every went to the typesetter on February 19. They conceivable source, the case of nerves we de- should have been delivered on February 26 in veloped which made it impossible to type a single galley form, ready for page make-up. They were line that wasn't full of typographical errors; the set up (as provable by the date at the head of consequent retyping and "messy" editing we had each galley set in type by the typesetter) on Feb- to do, all of which made the typographer's job the ruary 20 and 21. Yet, they were not delivered to more confusing; the errors in titles painted into this office until March 5. Why? Because no one illustrations by the art department (such as could locate them! They had apparently van- "Witche's Daughter" instead of "Witch's Daugh-

ished into thin air. And yet, when they were ter" as it should be) ; the critical paper shortage finally found, they were exactly where they should that developed on this issue and on no other; the have been, in the proper location, with all the misplacing of work already done, so that it had proper identification to locate them instantly. to be done over, only to have the/ original work When they were delivered, they were almost en- turn up in plain view exactly where you had tirely useless, because, ranging from just a few placed it and had looked for it. We could go on, dozen typographical errors, to as many as 92 in but we have more important things to put in this four inches of type, they required complete re- space. We only mention what we have as just setting of all vital passages! Even more mysteri- one more proof (?) that Shaver isn't the only ous that otherwise almost letter-perfect typog- one who has what he calls "tamper." raphers should set so atrociously, the proofreaders who received that copy for checking, found no VTOW for the stories in this issue, all by Shaver. errors! They could look at a page with 92 errors First, "Formula From The Underworld." This in it, and see none. Or, as is more likely, somehow story is completely fiction—except for its descrip- those proofs were not proofread. When this was tion of the caves. All that is completely true, says suggested to the department heads, the comment Shaver—and true because he says he has seen it was: "Ridiculous!" On page 129 you will find many times over the ray, and some times in reproduced a specific passage which you can check (Continued on page 8) AMAZING STORIES 7 ADVICE TO READERS:

who are suffering the miseries of BAD SKIN Stop Worrying Now About Pimples and Blackheads and other externally caused skin troubles JUST FOLLOW SKIN DOCTOR'S SIMPLE DIRECTIONS

SQUEEZING pimples or blackheads to gel rid of CLEAR, ROBUST-LOOKING SKIN. Business execu- nasty, them is a messy business— but that isn't tives don't choose men who have a poor-looking com- the worst of it. Because doing so also in- may be plexion. Don't take chances with your success in life when jurious and leave your skin with unsightly, embarrass- this inexpensive'Viderm formula may help you. ing blemishes. There is, now, a much easier, safer, Don't murder your skin! Here's all you have to do to cleaner way to help you rid your face of ugly, offen- keep it smooth and clear. Use Viderm Skin Cleanser when sive, externally caused skin troubles. You merely fol- you wash your face. Rub the rich lather of this highly- low a doctor's simple directions. concentrated soap on your face for just a few seconds and then it off. Good-Looking Skin Is Not tor Women Only rinse Then apply a little Viderm Medicated Skin. Cream and that's all there is to it Viderm Medicated You— yes, you— can have the same healthy, normal com- Skin Cream quickly disappears, leaving your skin nice and plexion free from externally caused skin smooth. This simple treatment, used after troubles simply by giving your skin the spe- shaving, helps heal tiny nicks and cuts, re- cial care that handsome screen stars give DON'T DO THIS! lieves razor-burn and smarting, besides theirs. There's almost nothing to it— it is conditioning your skin. just about as easy as washing your face. The whole secret consists washing your of face Give Your Face This Treat tor 7 Days in a way that thoroughly cleanses the pores of every last speck of dirt and grime—some- Stop worrying and being embarrassed ovet thing that ordinary cleansing may not do. what may happen to your skin. Just send In fact, examination after examination for your Viderm Double Treatment this shows that, usually, it is not a case of "bad minute, and be confident that you will keep skin" so much as a case of incomplete or a smooth Don't murder your skin and clear complexion. Follow the faulty cleansing. What you should is use a by squeezing it. Skin is simple directions, written by a doctor, that highly concentrated soap like Viderm Skin delicate. Whenyou break you will get with your Viderm Double Cleanser which it, you leave yourself penetrates the pores and Treatment; then look in your mirror and wide open to miseries. acts as an antiseptic. When followed by a listen to your It's far easier, far safer, friends admire your smooth, quick application of Viderm Medicated to let the Double Viderm clear skin—the kind that women go for. Skin Cream, specks of irritating dirt and treatment help you enjoy Just mail your name and address to grime are quickly washed out; they dissolve a handsome, clear and The blemish-free complexion. New York Skin Laboratory, 206 Division and disappear, leaving your skin clean, Street, Dept. 46j New York City clear and free of the specks that often bring 2, New York. By return mail you will receive both out pimples, blackheads and other externally-caused skin of the Viderm formulas, troubles. complete with full directions, and packed in a safety-sealed carton. On delivery, pay It's Foolish to Take Sad Skin tor Granted two dollars plus postage. If you wish, you can save the postage fee by mailing the two dollars with your letter. It doesn't pay to risk marred skin, blotches, blemishes. Then, if you aren't thrilled with results, your money will Your very success in business, love and social life may de- be cheerfully refunded. Remember that both pend upon your looks. Handsomeness and a good appear- of the form- ance ulas you use have been fully tested and proven, and are usually start with the condition of your skin. Nobody reliable for you. If they don't help you, your likes a skin that looks unhealthy, unclean, abused, and treatments cost you nothing. After you received marked with blackheads or pimples. have your Viderm, if WOMEN ARE you have any ATTRACTED TO MEN WHO HAVE questions to ask concerning abused skin, SMOOTH, just send them in. —

8 AMAZING STORIES

from readers who had dabbled around with the alphabet and discovered that it worked amazingly well in many languages, and especially so in languages more ancient. Also, apparently encouraged by our publication of the alphabet, Mr. Shaver (then a welder in a war plant) wrote an account of an "adventure" in caves beneath the earth at incredible depths, where (Continued from page 6) lived a race of people known as dero (detrimental person—although he himself cannot say how, un- robot) who were evil in intent, and tero (integra- less his theories of teleportation, mind control, etc., tive robot) who were good in intent. These are true. Next is "Zigor Mephisto's Collection Of people, he explained, were descendants of the Mentalia" which is, in Shaver's own words, "a tale "abandondero," or those human beings who were of Nydia of the cavern people, myself, and one abandoned here 12,000 (?) years ago when a race Zigor Mephisto, descendant of an ancient and re- of people (giants) called the Titans and another nowned family, one of which you may have race called the Atlans left the earth in space ships heard before." Nydia is real, not fiction, Zigor because they had discovered that the sun was Mephisto is real, and the story is true (insofar as throwing off radioactives which were causing them any thought record can be determined to be true). to age and die who had been immortal. "Witch's Daughter" is next, and the story is com- Since the Titan and Atlan cities were under- pletely fiction, but what happens is very similar ground, and their vast civilization immovable, all really times, says Shaver. to what happens many- their machines and cities were left intact ; thus the There are openings to the caves, and such persons abandondero, taking refuge, in them, inherited as he describes do come to the surface, and for many wonderful things, which, because of their similar reasons. They also do similar things, and sun-polared destructive thinking processes, they this is the real explanation for the many mysteri- turned to destructive purposes. ous crimes, accidents and disappearances that happen all the time on the surface. The last story ll/ITH the aid of such machines as the telaug is "The Red Legion" which is fiction, but based on ' ' (telepathic augmentor) and disintegrating the true existence of an organization of Indians in rays, plus various instruments such as the "stim" this country, who do know of such things as the which enhanced physical and emotional pleasures, caves, and who do believe that many missing these dero took to tormenting surface people and tribes of redmen did go down to live there many thereby being the basis for all of our legends of years ago, and are still there, although in deci- cavern wights, little people, demons, ghosts and mated numbers. Many Indians will know that during the war—gremlins. much of the story is based on fact, but few of They cause many unexplained accidents, such as them will corroborate it, and for very good reason. those train wrecks, plane crashes, cerebral Yet, if they care to, we will publish any statement hemmorhages, etc. which are otherwise unex- they make, either in support or in refutation. plainable. Further, Mr. Shaver declared that the Titans, HpHE articles in this issue speak for themselves. living far away in space, or other people like them, We had planned others. They will appear in still visit earth in space ships, kidnap people, raid future issues instead. The reason is the incredible the caves for valuable equipment, and, in general, mishaps that prevented their inclusion. Also miss- supply the basis for all the weird stories that are ing is one story, "Mer-Witch Of Ether 18" which so numerous (see Charles Fort's books) of space will appear in a future issue, and which is a tale ships, beings in the sky, etc. that Shaver considers to be quite true of the weird

races of beings who do inhabit places in what we OHAVER'S first story (titled "I Remember call "empty space." His concept of what we should ^ Lemuria!" by your editor because he refused really mean, when we say the word "spirit." to believe Shaver's claim to have gotten the story from the caves) told of the Titan migration from AND now, for the information of those of you Earth, and the leaving of imperishable records of who "came in late" we give a "history" of the the event, and of Earth history, by a character Shaver Mystery: named Mutan Mion. It also told of the battle between two factions, the evil faction led by a TN SEPTEMBER, 1943, your editors received a sun-polared Titan named Zeit, and a good faction letter from Richard S. Shaver, who lived in from space headed by a Titan goddess named Barto, Pennsylvania, giving us the key to an Vanue, in the caves, which ended in Zeit being ancient alphabet which he claimed was the alpha- defeated and captured. bet of the mother tongue of all languages, and At the same time, L. Taylor Hansen, not having which he did not want to die with him. We pub- seen the Shaver stories (they were as yet unpub- lished this key in January 1944. lished) had made an important discovery, work- Almost immediately we began to receive letters ing as a scientist, which detailed this underground THE OBSERVATORY 9

battle, and definitely revealed the Sioux Indians' terial. If such exist, he says he has no proof, and origin as Tihuanaco, in South America, and re- therefore will neither accept or reject. Man may vealed their secret tribal history which told of have a soul, he says, but you can't see it, taste it,

this battle and how they lost knowledge of the feel it, smell it or hear it. Therefore, he isn't con-

whereabouts of their city and became roamers. cerned with it, because there is nothing he can do with it even if he could prove it existed. /COUPLE this with an incredible flood of letters Why dream up an "astral being" to explain a ^ from readers, claiming they believed the story, thing that can more logically be explained with and correcting our mistake in attributing it to ra- something requiring less faith, and more science? cial memory, and many letters claiming identical If you hear a voice, even if it claims to be your experiences in more or less detail and you have dead grandmother, why credit it to something your editor's basis for hastily publishing the sec- that cannot be proved, when it is more reasonable ond story by Mr. Shaver (who had been stunned to credit it to something so simple and logical as a by receiving payment for his first, since he had machine as simple as radio, and the speaker's voice intended it solely for publication so that the a real voice in a real person's larynx whose resi- knowledge might not be lost) and calling it dence is right here on this earth (or under its sur- "Thought Records Of Lemuria." face) rather than in a misty "spirit world"? These thought records are metallic strips of film The cave people, says Mr. Shaver, have them- on which thought is recorded, and which, when selves created these superstitions to conceal their played back, causes the "listener" vicariously to real existence, and thus obviate any real attempt to experience the events recorded thereon. These find them. Who would look for something he does records are played back to Mr. Shaver by beaming not believe to exist? That is why the caves remain them into his brain from the caves by means of secret, he says. Even if we do see a dero, we call the telaug ray. him a ghost and pull up the bedsheets.

DY MEANS of teleportation, another faculty of jV/TR. SHAVER told us how he began to hear the "rays," Mr. Shaver has seen the caves, his voices through a welding machine he was been there, spent much time, although he con- operating, which at first picked up the thoughts

fesses that so real are the "records" that it is im- of his fellow workmen, and later, weird things possible to determine (from memory) whether that terrified him. Such things as horrible screams the event happened, or was only simulated in his from someone being tortured, unseen people dis- mind. cussing outre subjects, speaking matter-of-factly of a world that, by all rights, could not possibly rjELUGED by thousands of letters, and faced exist. with such evidence that here we had some- Mr. Shaver quit his job and fled. But no longer thing that was definitely not a fraud, your editor was the welder needed for hearing the voices. Then made a special trip to Barto to investigate. While came years of horror, pain, terror, flight. The there we heard Mr. Shaver's "voices," but to our "voices" became aware of the "eavesdropper" and vexation, the gist of them was that we were "a Mr. Shaver felt he was going mad. Yet, before dope." Later Shaver confided he had requested long, he became convinced that it was true, and them to "lay off" while your editor was there. beneath him lay a vast, ancient warren of aban- However, we did determine that the "voices" were doned cities, filled with super-scientific machines, not due to microphones, hidden on the premises, deteriorated by time and radioactivity to much but were either real, or in our own mind. Self- less than the beneficial result they had originally

hypnosis the experts would call it. Let's say that's had, and operated by a race of degenerate mad- what it was, and save the experts more postage. men. We did find out the following things: (1) Mr. npO "BRIEF" the whole Shaver is perfectly sane. If he is not, we are A concept given by the all nuts; (2) He is perfectly sincere about the series of stories written by Mr. Shaver, the caves, the people in them, the Titans, the space Earth is honeycombed by "caverns" which are in- ships, and his experiences with rays, projections, habited by good and bad human creatures who voices, pains, etc.; (3) He does not attribute one are victims of detrimental radiations from old and single experience to what we might term a "ghost" "diseased with radioactivity" machines, and also for lack of a better term. Witches, poltergeists, victims of a vast "secrecy" which has become so goblins, gremlins, fairies, dwarfs—all of them are traditional that it is maintained at all costs. real, physical, alive, being either the real thing or These creatures (and incidentally all surface the teleported or telepathed image of the real races too) are descendants of the "abandondero" thing. who were those unfortunates who could not be evacuated from the planet when the original races 1XTE FOUND out, also, that he is an ex- who built the underground cities left this planet ' ' treme materialist. He does not believe in life because they had discovered that the sun was after death, or that man has a soul, or that things throwing out radiations that caused aging, and have a basis in something invisible and imma- (Continued on page 175) She struggled madly in the torturing ray 10 the Underworld 12 AMAZING STORIES

AM an explorer, by name Harte Man- witch-maids, of sorcerers, of enchanters. I ville. My face is badly scarred, one An enormous amount of smoke comes out eye is missing. My hair is grizzled, of antiquity about 'the secret of life' which but I am still strong and active. in modern words means 'how to exclude the Ten long years ago I had first heard that poisons that cause age from the human some works by the storied races of the Gods body.' All that antique smoke indicates still existed, deep in earth. While reading very strongly that once that true fire of a tale by Brandoch Daha called "The wisdom from Prometheus existed; that Womb of Tanit" I had realized that myste- storied Atlantis, full of immortals, was; rious and perhaps immortal life might still that the Gods did tread earth, sinking exist in the bowels of old Mother Earth. ankle deep in solid rock. I understood from his words that some of "Let us go over that possibility between my experiences which I had explained to us. First, we will look at the beginning of myself as hallucinations induced by priva- life. Why is it young, and not old, like its tion had been actual occurrences of im- mother? The womb of the mother holds mense significance. I mused that it was an the flesh of the baby, it is young, she is infinite shame such sincere and top-rank often aged. Why is this flesh not also old? research minds of earth had to disguise Because, interposed between her body and their work as fiction to get it before the the embryo are the walls of the womb. general mind at all. Everything that goes into the baby must Overcome with curiosity as to Daha's pass. through the food tube which passes reactions to my own experiences, I was through a large filtering organ called the curious too as to what he might have to placenta. Obviously some poison is re- tell a man who knew some of the truths moved. The baby's flesh is growing at a of the underworld. How he might loosen swift rate, the flesh of the aging mother is up and talk when he met a man who knew shrinking; it is more disintegrant than which small parts of his stories were fiction integrant." and which great parts were not. I sought him out and called upon him. I was not HE PAUSED. We both had a drink, he wrong. Mr. Daha was very glad to see me. lit a cigar; but before I could get During the course of our night-long con- going he started on. versation our discussion touched on the sub- "I once translated an ancient German jects of the secret surviving worship of the work by Bokbe. It was a translation by ancient Moon Goddess, Tanit, and details him of a very old Arabian work, which was of my expedition to plumb the depths of in turn from the Egyptian. God knows how the bottomless hole in the Cave of the old the original is. I will read you my Bats in Virginia. The fact that we both translation." knew that immortal beings have existed, He got up, pulled a pile of manuscripts do now exist, and will continue to exist, from a drawer, and selecting one, began: brought up naturally enough the age-old "After Atlantis sank beneath the blue question: roll of ocean sea, there still existed scattered "What is the Secret which keeps such about earth similar cities to Atlantis. These life from dying as other life does?" cities were not surface cities but were I remember his words: buried beneath the earth in great and deep "There have been many things mistaken caves to protect them from the deadly sun for the Secret of Life. The phrase should which they knew to be the cause of age! mean 'continue existence without aging'. But now the cities were empty and dead of All right, this time it does. But you will any intelligent life; their mighty corridors have to grasp with your head firmly, not echoed to no laughing feet of the young sleepily, to see the big meaning that can immortal they had once bred into the lie in simple phrases. storied races of the Gods. Instead, there "Since before the flood, there, exist in slunk about their streets the pariahs, the legends stories of those creatures, the Gods, lepers, the outcasts and criminals of the who were immortal. Also tales of those upper world, fled from the too frequent other kind, of scholars who learned the anger of the ignorant men of the surface. secrets of immortality; tales of magi, of They had found a refuge in these secret lost genis, of peris, of fairies, of immortal cities. FORMULA FROM THE UNDERWORLD 13

"Now, the long vanished residents of music and with mighty waves of command- these caverns had once been numerous and ing thought. So it was that magic became wealthy in the products that immortal the secret of outcasts, and the latter Gods minds which had conquered the problem the people who guarded the secret of the of death could give. The God race, long caverns from the scorned and feared men ago had 'ascended into the blue of heaven of the surface. Many and awesome were in their fiery chariots,' the nomads told each those secrets and poor and few their uses other in the torch-lit darkness, as they for them, but still magic lived again on gazed wonderingly about them at the earth. For they went to the surface with machinery whose uses even the wisest man their strange secret weapons, fooling the has not yet guessed and whose uses the ig- surface folk and taking their gold and food norant tomb robbers and pariahs dismissed and returning again to the depths, laughing with the single word—magic. But ' that with their talk of the sport it had been to first wondering ignorance of the near-wild make them think that ghosts were abroad, discoverers of the dwelling places of the that demons and efrits had come for their Atlanteans' neighbors did not continue. souls or their gold. For one day the inevitable happened. "But some, like the boy who switched "In a luxurious living place where the on the teaching machine, became aware of pillars were of sculptured metal set with the great beauty and the mighty learning sparkling brilliants like fruit and covered that lay in those machines, waiting only with the glitter of green glass-like leaves as for the touch of curious fingers on the right a tree, and the walls alive with fearfully button to spring into active life. These writhing figures in a frozen dance, a lone- children of the caves became habitual ex- some, lost child touched a button in a wall plorers of the vast mysterious recesses, projection and screamed as the figures came stretching on in ever different wonders into to life and moved magically upon the wall. the depths, into the very heart of earth. But there was love in the meaning of their "Some of the machines gave off a sweet, movements, and there was thought in the overpowering pleasant beneficial force, in- sound that came from apertures in the visible except as irridescence, yet force walls. The thought that the waves from that awakened their minds and bodies into the wall carried to the child was a force furious life and growth. Since the ancients that commanded him to love and to learn, were master builders these mechanisms did to study and to think, to watch and to not wear out easily, having been built to want, to become aware of what life could endure. These inquiring, exploring young be and to strive mightily and cannily to- people, by virtue of the growth force that ward the things he wanted most. The force was in the magic machines, became mighty commanded him in such a way that he be- beings of vastly superior abilities and came the servant of the force. strengths. Beings superior to ordinary men "For in the wall was a strange thing that by so far that they were, in truth, Gods! the Gods left, a machine that entertained "These gathered men about them, taught and taught people and many and long were them the use of the stored weapons, the the hours the child spent in that chamber aircraft that lay in the ancient under- before stealing back to his mother. When ground airship houses, and began again to he left he did not know enough to touch build as the ancient Gods had builded. the button again and the machine rap on. Great sections of earth came under their Thus began the life of the First of the secret rule. In the northland the im- Latter Gods. Over his head stormed the mortals ruled as Odin and as Wotan. In armies of our first Pharoah, but the child Greece as Zeus and his followers. In the heard them not; he was deep underground sea as Oceanus, Jehovah, Jupiter. There watching the magic of pictures that moved were many who learned in time which and talked, and listening with his brain to machines had the power to make them thought from a wire in the machine. nearly immortal and who in time came to rule their part of the world. Some of them "TTE BROUGHT his playmates into the built surface cities. In the northland the * -1 secret of the magic button that made fame of Asgard and Valhalla reached far, the figures on the wall move and live and though a man came to fear to talk to his that made the big room fill with heady God lightly. But the little people are "

14 AMAZING STORIES great' gossips. feared and hated as the curse they were. "Then a strange Evil came upon these They came to the surface in fierce raids and hidden rulers of earth; the Evil that cul- returned again before the still sane rem- minated in Ragnerak and Armageddon and nants of those who knew of the caves could in eventual Hell and Earth's near domina- catch them. tion by Hell. The Twilight and Death of "Here and there the white magic lived on, the Latter Gods was not a pleasant time. ever hunted by the maddened men of the For the sun is a fearful and deadly thing underworld who were no longer men but in the same way that glow-metal is fearful devils who strove to destroy all wisdom so and deadly, and though these Latter Gods that no one should ever be able to resist learned much, they did not learn that the them. How well they succeeded is shown sun throws an invisible pollen of poison by the darkness of centuries— that infects all the energy of earth with Daha's almost chanting voice ceased. He a horrible accumulating ever-fire that is the returned the paper to the drawer. Then true Cause of age. The machines that his voice went on, almost as if to him- gave them their strength and life and self. growth contained filters that swept the "Those are an ancient God's words! energy flows clean of these sun poisons; "Sometimes during the near past," he but this second race of Gods did not learn continued, "probably soon after the advent the secret of the filters and well though of gunpowder, it is said that they prac- they were builded the machines at last be- tised blowing up the entrances to the under- came saturated with the deadly rust. world, to trap each other and to keep themselves safe from their eternal raids on "XTOW, a good man is one whose will is each other; that now all trace of these ^ a flow of beneficial energy generated passages is lost. Others say that it is not by healthy cells, and his will is a force true, and that one reason Earth men are bringing only good to all things. But as so backward is that still, even today, wild the machines became filled with the disin- men come up from deep in the earth; wild tegrant motes from the sun's infection of men with the weapons and the tools of earth energy, these machines in turn af- Gods, and steal secretly about the world fected the great bodies and minds of the killing men of science so quietly and in such Latter Gods with a destructive flow of a way that other men never suspect the energy. A destructive, evil will, gradually true cause of death. These hint that the took the place of good will in their mighty death of such men as Pierre Curie are not frames. So it was that one by one the accidents, that Pierre was murdered be- underground cities became Hells where men cause that is the hereditary custom of these were brought to amuse the mad minds of things from the depths—to kill those who their masters with unending agonies, for a approach in their studies the use of rays, man can suffer long when his life is renewed the properties of magnets, and strange from the old machines. Many of the virtues that lie in synthetic animal mag- machines still gave off a force that kept life netism. Some hint that the Legend of the in the body even though that body were Wandering Jew, of the Watcher, of the racked with tortures that else would cause Hag, of the Howling Mother of Sin herself, death a thousand times. of witches and goblins, are still living "Gradually this evil stole over earth beings who live for no one knows how and, not knowing the cause—the failure of many centuries, yet who become evil in the filters in the machines to remove the time even today because they never learn disintegrant dust of the sun—they fought that the antique generators always de- each other in such battles as still live in generate into generators of an evil force the mouths of men. that overwhelms and distorts the will into "Evil and good fought titanically for a kind of hypnosis of destructive command. possession of earth, and Evil won, for the That men can never recover from these be- ancient polluted mechanisms turned even ings, for they have the weapons of the the best willed men into Demons of de- Gods, as well as certain wisdoms long structive will. Magic lived on as evil handed down secretly. That this evil hyp- witchery, as 'the works of the devil' and nosis by the defective machinery that they the secret people of the underworld were now build or find still cah never be fought FORMULA FROM THE UNDERWORLD 15

against, for men are too foolish—the wild metal books and had worked out a key devil-things of the caverns too wily and which opened that mighty thought to the well equipped. man who dared to enter the caverns. But "Then, too, there are very definite tales he was too old; and, too, he knew of the that have come upon them. These are dread and incomprehensible creatures who served by the better of the smaller beings dwell in those caves. His word pictures of of the caverns and sometimes men from these beings had not made the project re- the surface too. But men are supposed volving in mind any more inviting. But not to live down there long except they are try it I would, I knew that, for I knew lucky and very strong. The conditions are myself. No one felt and answered the too different. •lure of magic more readily than myself and those books were the source from which "/CERTAIN it is that many men secretly came the 'Magic Books' which in all legends ^ believe this is the real cause of all and tales of the past are the strength and man's troubles and wars. That these be- wisdom of the sorcerers. ings from the darkness come up still, flying "Now that I knew the origin of these great globes of metal in which is machin- ancient tomes from which rose the mightiest ery that controls men's minds and actions power spoken of in all the past of man, so that it is but as playing marbles or now that I knew it was true wisdom in chess for them to choose sides; and each those books and that they could be gotten side backing armies of the surface people at if one were hardy and intrepid enough, play with them as the little Dutchmen of the Devil himself—and well it might be Rip van Winkle played at nine-pins: play one as great lying in wait in the darkness of with armies of nations at a game they call those endless giants' warrens—could not Bickro—in their tongue—meaning bicker- keep me from trying to get them. ing robots. That what is to us a war is to "So it was that my long trek started." them but a game. * * * "All this and much else of a still wilder kind is whispered of and believed by many men just as magic and witches were LOWERED down the shaft of the Bot- whispered of and believed in Medieval tomless Pit, a good mile of cable un- times, though not aloud, for men would reeling above me, I searched the walls then and now tap their heads and scoff eagerly for an opening. At last it came, did anyone say aught of the truth of the one of those perfectly round, apparently underworld." metal lined holes which are the only We talked of many things which I can- entrance into the caves that were homes not mention, but one thing I learned well of the Gods. What they were originally and that was where to look for the secret intended for I don't know. Perhaps all of immortal life. For I had entered and that is left of a breather pipe to the sur- explored a bit of those endless caverns that face and the pipe, of less durable materials, honeycomb the depths of earth, but I had disappeared to leave an opening in the in- not realized that in the records of those accessible caves of the past. Inaccessable people who built them lay the formute and because the walls were made so hard no processes which had made them immortal. metal will cut them. I knew that much writing still lined the A few sways of my body and my cable walls of those tremendously antique dwell- became a pendulum to place me on a shelf ings. I knew that sealed-in portions con- a few feet from that opening. Now, again, taining libraries of books whose pages were I must enter the dwelling place of Evil, the of indestructible metal still lay untouched, home of Dread; the beautiful structures, but that anyone had ever translated any of once the homes of God-like beings, now the the language or thought of doing so had dens of incomprehensible, often giant things never entered my head. And to tell anyone whose endless struggles for existence made of the existence of actual working machines these caves a Hell. This search must not and written books built in a time so antique fail, nothing must stop me, for now that I it is forgotten was, I knew, impossible. had the key to their language—any bit of But Brandoch Daha knew, had even their immense lore of science which I might obtained from a miner one volume of the bring back could and most probably would 16 AMAZING STORIES change the whole future life of man. And and leaning backward to see better in the they knew the cause of age and had con- screen above my head my hand inadvert- quered it! I must not fail! ently grasped a lever to support me. There Load after load of equipment and food in the scene of the house and elm a great came down the cable, and the telephone wind sprang up whirling and whirling line which connected this remote hole in around the house. As I pondered whether the depths with the surface world, which the wind appearing so suddenly was a part would await my call for return did months of nature or made by the machine my other or years lapse before I used it. I set up hand rested on a lever at the side of the the radio wave emitting apparatus which huge seat and instantly an awful bolt of would activiate a needle in a radio compass force struck the elm in the center of the at my belt every ten minutes so that I screen and it disappeared, leaving noth- would never lose the direction of my base ing but a hole in the earth and a cloud of and my exit. Finally, with many of the dust whirling in the wind. This machine sensations that Theseus must have had as was quite a plaything, I decided. I had he searched for the Minotaur, I set off better learn something about it. This eye, through the vaulted halls lined with which like Odin's, seemed able to go every- majestic and mighty mechanisms, covered where and see everything, was just the with the dust of endless centuries. This thing with which to explore these caverns dust was my insurance of safety for when with and save my feet. I neared THEM, the dust would contain These caverns are not as one would pic- footprints and paths. ture them, full of stalagmites and stalactites I came to vast machines built for un- and dripping with moisture. Quite the con- knowable uses as big as a city block. Often trary, they are dry. The walls are of they were topped by a seat, massive and hardened, impenetrable rock and every huge for a giant's form. I had seen some half-mile great metal doors seal the pas- of these before, but^had not thought there sages from all water and air. Thick dust was much use in looking them over care- is the only sign of the passage of time; and fully as their age must have rendered them this varies: some places there is very little, useless. It was whispered that some of for the doors keep the caves sealed tightly. these ancient mechanisms still worked. Some are corroded, though, and here is I mounted the six-foot steps leading up much dust and some dampness. to the great seat of a machine. An infinitely I swept the ray up the miles of caves bewildering array of switches, buttons and beyond me, drinking in the colorful beauty levers were banked across the panel in of the ancient dwellings—the story of tre- front of the seat. Ten feet up, where a mendous life that every bit of the work twenty-foot giant's eyes would be, was a tells. shimmering white expanse. Was it a There is a brooding, deserted-temple at- screen? Tentatively I pulled a few levers. mosphere about these ancient homes. The A soft, thrilling humming throbbed through mighty presence of the past life left some- the vastness of the mechanism beneath me. thing that still lives, quiescent but awe- On the white expanse a picture appeared, some: the vast machines, beautiful as no a scene on the surface of earth. I turned other machinery on earth, the silence, the a huge knob and the scene changed. Like waiting power. The ray swept along the Odin's eye it swept across the country, far-reaching avenues. What was I looking how far, how many endless miles that pene- for? Well, I found something, I can tell trating view ray swept its automatic focus, you. I could not say. They sprang into the vision screen sud- Now, in ancient tales, such stories as denly as the ray swept past; they were those of Solomon's ring, of Merlin, of gone. It took me an hour to find them Aladdin's lamp, said that magic machinery again. Living things! Down here! I had was capable of nearly any miracles asked heard of them, seen some strange things

of it. Of what else was this monstrous before. But I had not had an Odin's eye machine capable? I soon found out. to watch them. They were in what had once been some I WAS looking at a surface scene, a farm huge ancient's living quarters. The bed house in front of which was a big elm was a tremendous affair some twenty by —

FORMULA FROM THE UNDERWORLD thirty feet. Sprawled about its expanse want with them? Could I get the answer were a dozen creatures asleep in the rays by looking at the sleepers' thoughts? that bathed the bed. The creatures were One of them was dreaming of the reward human, apparently, yet not human at all, he would receive for turning over the cap- on second examination. Living in the tives at their destination. And what a depths had changed them; they were as dif- destination! If it was anything like the ferent from men as a potato sprout in the Things' mental pictures, it was some place. cellar is from a potato plant in the field. Much deeper in earth, it was; once the The ray brought to the screen not only home of some tremendous being. The the things to be seen, but an augmentation chambers were many city blocks in width of the things to be heard. I distinctly heard and fantastically sculptured, lined with the creatures thinking, as well as saw them. mechanisms. A fierce activity filled the Their thought was as alarming as their place. appearance. The rays that bathed the an- Sometime in the past, I gathered, some cients' bed were pleasure rays as well as one of these cavern dwellers had turned on soporific rays. They induced an ultra- a growth force generator and lain down to pleasant dream state in which the will of sleep in it. The results were that he had the sleeper found every wish coming true, become another, greater life. He had not tremendously true. But these creatures turned it off, but stayed beside it and were not men; they were—degenerates growth had made a super being of him. things. It was not balanced growth. He was a Their wishes and dreams were of blood vast mass of pink flesh with sprouts of and death and tortures for their enemies peculiar life protruding from him. This and little else, for all the creatures they Thing was the boss of the place. The dreamed of seemed enemies. I had an im- captives were destined to serve this mass pulse—a strong one—to pull that lever that of flesh. His appetite for women was had blotted out the elm tree and turn these enormous, to judge by the harem that sur- sleeping curses into drifting dust. They rounded him, stroking the quivering pink- called themselves Hobloks. A meanness ness, carefully removing the sprouts when sat on their faces, looking out and hating they were ripe, dancing for the vast eyes all life. that surmounted the awful pile of flesh. I did not like this modern god. TN APPEARANCE the sleepers were like In other chambers men were working on * fearfully anaemic jitterbugs, small, with the ancient mechanisms, taking them apart, pipestem arms and legs, pot bellies, huge studying them, putting them back together. protruding eyes and wide, idiotically grin- I could not get from the creature's mind ning mouths. Super-goofy, I believe mod- more than a glimmer of what really was ern youth would call them. They wore going on except that he knew the people clothes as men do, apparently clothes re- laboring there were under a strong com- cently from the surface world, and as I pulsion. They were robots to others who tinkered with the focus of the monster eye made them work. The workers were tech- in front of me a modern truck sprang into nically trained men from the surface while view, a trailer job closed and fitted inside the masters were cavern beings whom the for living. There must be a way of driving workers never saw. That the masters were down here from the surface. These Things also under compulsion from the mountain had contact with the surface! I must know of flash seemed likewise true. more about that. In front of the mountain of flesh a In another chamber near the sleepers woman lay writhing in an agony of desire. were a group of normal-appearing people Wires led to her from several mechanisms apparently fresh from the surface. Reading within reach of the monster's hands. He their thought I gathered that they had made adjustments now and then on the answered an ad in the paper; had been dials of the panels. He seemed to be breath- hired only to find at the end of their ing in the augmented vitality of the woman. journey this place, and themselves in the His huge eyes ogled as he strove to bend hands of the Hobloks. They had been toward her. As her anguished limbs and locked in for days and were completely at striving body thrashed to a crescendo of sea mentally. Just what did the Hobloks awful torment—her heart gave way, her 18 AMAZING STORIES body stilled; she died. The creature in neers. I quickly understood their slavery, whose dreaming mind I watched this scene for a strong generator of thought waves was serenely, greatly satisfied at this death. filled the room with a command, abstract So I gathered was the man mountain. but powerful; stronger than any thought As I watched, her body was removed by they themselves could possibly generate. red-masked attendants and replaced by an- "Work and construct from these ancient other living beauty from the surface. The machines powerful pleasure machines for scene began again in the dreamer's mind; my enjoyment," were the thought waves. he enjoyed it greatly. Thus these highly trained men from the surface, brought into the presence of this THIS god was mad. Somewhere in the strong thought command, worked at the depths his private hell was functioning. construction of pleasure nerve stimulators These captives were destined for his pecu- for the mountain of pink flesh. Worked till liar pleasures. Many of them were women. they dropped, only to get up and work The others were technical engineers, the again. best minds an ad for trained men at a Reading the minds of the red-masked fantastically high salary had brought. How men who stood about like guards I found long had this been going on? The sleeping little but a habit of obedience to com- creature did not know; all his life so far mands from their master. They had very as I knew. little mental activity; had been practically But such things could not go on without robots since children. men's knowledge, you say. Well, having So that huge Thing of flesh that had once used the ray machinisms and knowing their been something like a man was perpetually power and seeing such things, I say they bathed in hundreds of high-power stimula- can and do go on. For no one could tive pleasure rays. His was a tremendous approach a listening ray mech without its energy devoted to ways of feeling ever operator hearing. No person could think greater sensuous pleasure; pleasure which, or do a thing other than the operator willed to him, consisted in stimulating a woman if he were watched and ruled by an Odin's till life energy killed her by its intensity. ray. The caverns do exist. I was there. Here in this underworld he had found ways It suddenly occurred to me that I might of getting a steady supply of prisoners and be in danger from these goofy Hobloks or an ever greater amount of pleasure stimu- from the will-less men who served the form- lating force rays. I did not like this Thing less master in the Hoblok's dream. And whom his slaves called Mula. No, I did once they located me, away would go all not like him. my dreams of ancient books and the formula for eternal life which the legends SO AFTER more protracted fishing with so repeatedly attribute to them. I could the mighty mechanism I had activated, not fail! The whole future of man would but was finding difficulty in learning to depend on my search, were it successful, use accurately, I finally brought Mula him- for any bit of their ancient science could self into direct focus, saw him vast on the change the whole course of earth science. center of the screen, smelt the sweat from If they spotted me on a ray I would have that soft, enormous, hundred tons of cor- short shrift I knew from the dreams of rupt growth. I heard the thought that ran killing that filled their sleeping minds. through the awful head of him. Listen care- I decided to attempt to see this private fully and I will try to tell you what a thing Hell with the giant ray at which I sat. like that thinks. It was the safest way to learn what it was "The growth which has come upon me all about. Certainly I could not proceed depends entirely on certain kinds of rays on my search without knowing where it lay which the ancients knew how to make. My and how to avoid falling into the growth robots are fast developing similar devices monster's hands. to the one which made me into this mighty A couple of hours patient searching of life and then wore out to leave me to grow the depths with the amazingly penetrative old, never to move toward pleasure in ray finally revealed one of the workrooms others' death. Ah, the sweet agonies of where the red-masked servants of the mon- these creatures desiring love—love—and ster stood guard over the enslaved engi- getting more desire of love till their flutter- ;

FORMULA FROM THE UNDERWORLD 19

ing little energies burst their flesh and fly repeated and endlessly twitching in pain away. Soon my slaves will bring the growth and terror. I stood up on the huge seat rays and I will start to grow again, to and howled into the screen: grow and feel young again, gloriously alive "Mula, if you don't instantly call off as I was centuries ago before the first your animals I'll fill you so full of pain ancient growth ray wore out. Then I will you'll wish you weren't quite so big." grow and eat and grow and fill all the all. that didn't speak English caverns with myself ; I will be By HE PROBABLY time I will have learned to consume all but he grasped the thought behind matter, to make all things into myself. the words. I will be Earth!" Mula proved to be just a big, bad sissy "Hell," I thought to myself, "the darned after all. He couldn't take it. He was all Thing is senile, is a crazy old man; maybe placating, ingratiating thought as he gave once a super being, centuries ago; but now orders sending his men back to their for- the strength in him has kept him alive mer positions. But I was stuck. I had to while age has made a destructive idiot of hold that ray on Mula and give him a him." dose of pain every time the thought oc- Just here my troubles began, for, hearing curred to him that perhaps I wasn't listen- thought as I did it had never occurred to ing and he could now arrange my demise. me that the one I listened to could also I decided I needed help. Riding herd on hear me. That there might be a way of senile super man Mula was not a one-man handling this instrument so that I could job. hear without being heard had never oc- There was only one place I could get curred to me; nor had I realized that it help—that was that truckload of fresh sur- might work both ways. Anyway, the face captives waiting in the chamber by ancient giant of growth heard me. I the sleeping Hobloks. I would have to do heard his commands ring on my ears as the job in a hurry or the man-mountain they leaped from his "robot-make" machine would put one over on me. as he called it, a device making his thought I swung the huge eye to its former focus so strong that the robots must obey it. on the sleeping crew of underworld slavers "Some surface man is spying on me with and in a twinkling had obliterated the bed a ray," I heard him thinking. "Find him. on which they lay in their poisonous Kill him or bring him to me at once!" dreams. I had no desire to play with them I heard him mentally rubbing his hands they seemed to know their way around in anticipation of the coming delight of down here and Mula was plenty to handle slowly killing me after he learned if there just now. I blasted away the locked door were others to worry about. to the chamber of the captives and standing A cold sweat broke out on my face. I up to the screen yelled at their bewildered had no wish to become part of Mula's faces: pleasure. "Get in that truck and start driving. My life right now depended on whether I'll tell you how to get out of here." Mula's creatures had equipment that would For the next hour I was busy as a post- reach this spot. There was little I could man on Christmas Eve, swinging over to do about it. Mula and giving him a mocking tee-hee All at once I thought of the lever which and a jolt of juice and swinging back to had destroyed the elm tree in my first ex- figure out the path the truck must take to perimental manipulations. I got Mula's reach me. But the hour stretched into bulk in the exact center of my screen and days. pulled that lever fully expecting to see Mula was in one vast quiver of frustrated Mula dissolve into drifting dust. Instead rage fearing to give orders to seek me out he let out the most unearthly howl of pain and yet unable to bear the loss of his power it has ever been my pleasure to hear. Too which had been undisputed for centuries, much rock, I realized, between us for the from what I had read in his mind. He was bolt to be fully effective. Well, it was some- pretty sure I was one of the Hobloks who thing to hear Mula howl and see his end- had acquired big ideas on the surface and less ripples of flesh quivering in agony like had decided to turn the tables on his meaty a scared dowager's double chins endlessly Majesty. I did not feel greatly compli- 20 AMAZING STORIES

mented, for those anasmic super-goofs were growth and his behavior, and the latter not my idea of what to be mistaken for. was much a product of their own idiotic Nevertheless I mouthed the mean-sound- little brains augmented by the mighty ing nothings I had seen them use in their machines until the constant pressure of the dreams and certainly I took as much delight great rays on him had produced an hyp- in tormenting Mula as I knew they would notic effect on Mula. He had become as have taken in tormenting me. How I de- they were by the long effect of the distant, vested that pile of fat, inhuman appetite! unnnoticed watching. They were clever imitators just as monkeys are and instinc- HOW had a growth force generator suc- tively when one looked at them over the ceeded in creating this monstrous ray, they felt it and put on an unobtrusive pollution? An increase in growth rate, in mental attitude. It was evidently this the supply of growth causing material, habit which kept Mula from realizing should result in an enhanced power of per- what a great effect they had on him. ception, a greater awareness of beauty, a Watching them I also learned that they mightier will to create, a really superior really hated and feared Mula and when being with a will to make life something he was unaware of them they had a way fine to have. How had a growth force of introducing another destructive ray into mechanism succeeded in creating this the screen. Thus, with a strong magnifica- monstrous pollution? It was too much for tion of Mula on their screen they would me. Even if the machine had failed cen- watch his brain and body with their small turies before something of the fine qualities rays which the big machine augmented and it must have helped to grow in man should carried into Mula's body. So it was, in have remained. Was age itself, then, such truth, that he was nearly an idiot, as the a cause of corruption? It appeared so. connecting nerves of his brain had been But as I watched the ancient life in him 1 mostly destroyed. He considered them as learned what really made him the horror his allies and servants. It never seemed he was. to occur to him that they were in truth From several places which I could not his death. locate, rays came into the hall where his This very subtle whittling at his huge bulk lay—rays which subtly caused him brain, as habitual to them as a mouse's to think. As I listened to these rays which nibbling is to a mouse, was the very cause seemed unnoticed by Mula I heard an of Mula's oblivious attitude, as well as the idiotic murmur of utterly degenerate hypnotic effect of all such huge rays. They thought. Some creature in the distance did not want Mula to think of them and was at some machine watching Mula and Mula obeyed the huge impulse post-hyp- the idiocy of the thought was, through the notically. strength of the great augmentation, caus- ing Mula to think in the same way. Though IT TOOK several hours of observation I could see this occur, Mula was apparently for all this to be understood by myself. oblivious of these creatures; yet, they were The creatures were very interesting. They making him think! watched surface people continually, whisp- I finally got it through me just how this ering complicated lies in their ears. This had made Mula the thing he was. These was one of their greatest pleasures; in fact creatures we're the wild natural inhabitants they had almost no use for the truth. of the caverns who had lived there since Their whole life was one of watching over earliest times, fishing in the underground the big rays and figuring out childish devil- rivers, stealing some food from surface tries to inflict on the surface men. Their fields. Those I had just killed as they slept secret—where and what they were—the were some whom Mula had impressed into surface men never seemed to figure out. his service, but all through the caverns Though most of them suffered from them were some of these thin little half-men more or less, they never spoke to each other with protruding eyes adapted to the dark. about it for fear of being considered mad. Their only play was turning on the old Believing in invisible imps! It was too machine to see and talk to surface people fantastic and stupid a thing. and to each other in the depths. Always This thing I watched, I slowly realized, some of them had watched Mula, his had been going on since the earliest times. FORMULA FROM THE UNDERWORLD 21

It was a fixed, repetitive behavior pattern paratus; too, parasitically they used any as predictable as the fact that a maple tree brain with which they were in contact. will have maple leaves. And Mula had Paradoxically, this habit did not make grown into the thing he was among these them more intelligent; just more aware of creatures. His growth had been distorted danger and harder to handle in conflict. into the thing it was by their will, degen- Their weaknesses were a monkey-like erate wills about him, augmented into a stupidity and the meanness which sat for- great hypnotic force by the ancient ray ever in their faces making them hate each communicators. Here and there through other and every living thing. the caverns little groups of these cavern imps lived in a beastlike condition and in I SAW, in distant caverns, their little some ways they were cunning as a rat, but forms racing toward us to get at nearer also as stupid. ray mechanisms and blot us out. Or, what It is necessary to explain all this to you was more likely, capture us for the torture so that you will understand what the truck- which was one of their pleasures. Of load of escaped captives and myself were pleasure rays they had almost none. Mula up against in making contact. As the truck had appropriated most of them or taken and trailer came to a Y in the cavern parts which rendered them useless. I picked roads I would tell the driver to "turn left" off dozens of them, and as I swept the inum- and immediately another voice in his ear erable galleries with the eye ray, I saw would say "no, turn right!" It was the several racing the other way. They did not cavern imps at play; a procedure as in- care for any more argument with me. stinctive to them as a rabbit's jump is to Meanwhile the engineers swarmed over a rabbit. So it took many hours and I the vast machine at which I sat, marveling was a sleepless nervous wreck before the at its construction. All the working parts trailer job finally pulled up to my position. were sealed in an air-tight sheath of gold- Out of it poured a dozen job-seeking colored metal; the thing was indestructible chorus girls and a half-dozen electrical and except by violence. radio engineers—Mula's two desires, it One of them, a big red-headed fellow seemed. who was an automotive engineer named Most of them would not be missed for MacCarthy, climbed to the huge seat beside months as they had told their friends they me. Several of the women were there were leaving to take a job in another city. watching Mula's entertainment on the How simple it was to fool surface people! screen. Swiftly I explained the set-up and "That's him, eh?" said MacCarthy open- showed the whole mess with the huge eye. mouthed at his first glimpse of Mula's gen- How long we lived depended entirely on erous folds and ripples. "My would-be em- whether our surface education should prove ployer. If he's not absolutely the most better at getting the most out of the old bloated 'pollutocrat' I ever saw I'll eat my weapons or whether the cavern dwellers' hat." lifelong experience with the profound "Yes," I answered, "and any minute he's mechanisms would be too much for us. apt to figure out what to do to get rid of Already I could feel the far watch rays us. Get on your toes, man!" picking at my brain with tiny needle "Well, it seems quite an apparatus you've cutters though immediately I swung the got here. I don\ believe in it, mind, but eye in search of attackers. The sensation you can't argue with your own eyes. It was gone and no way of knowing where to must have a lot of uses other than peek-a- look next. boo on the neighbors—it's so devilish big. I realized that these apparently idiotic One of those uses should solve our problem. little people of the underworld had an But right now I'm mighty hungry. It immense potentiality for damage in their couldn't just roll out a few loaves of experience with reading the mind and their bread, could it?" knowledge of the three dimensional I passed around my pack-load of con- geography of the endless caverns. Th^ centrated food. It was supposed to last multihead effect inherent in the use of any" me six weeks but they made short work telepathic appartus gave them immense of the best part of it. I dispatched three mental facility while they used the ap- of the men to my cache at the hole at 22 AMAZING STORIES

which I had entered, for food. The rest some multiple of a natural animal's of us set to work on the banks of levers thought was what he meant. and buttons that surrounded the huge seat What the green globes were for was a and screen, trying different combinations question that had bothered me since their to see what happened. And plenty hap- appearance. The robot heard this ques- pened. tion in my mind, released MacCarthy's From a scoop-like opening at one side, hand, went to the growing pile of glisten- green globes the size of footballs began to ing rounds, picked up one and mounted the emerge. From another opening a whir- stairs to the seat bearing the globe. With ring and clattering issued. I was sure one metal finger he poked a hole in its something was broken but after a time a transluscent shell and held it to my mouth. strange looking mechanism emerged from I tasted it and an ecstacy of flavor spread the opening with a shiny new appearance through me. It was the nectar of the like a Christmas bicycle. I stood looking Gods, put up in flexible glass. I whooped, at it wondering what on earth it was when waved the green thing at MacCarthy and it got up, walked toward me on four legs. the girls. The girls screamed and began to run and I "It's canned!" I shouted. "Drink up. was not far behind them. ButMacCarthy It's on the house!" stood his ground. AsNthe machine came "What a house!" I heard MacCarthy up to him it stopped and a round hole in say. the top of it began to emit words of a Then the robot sat down beside me, deep, rich, human quality. took the controls of the eye from my hands. The robot was a four-foot cylinder stand- There was nothing I could do about it; he ing erect on four short jointed legs. Only was built of that metal than which there is one of these legs moved at a time but very no tougher that I have ever found. Me- rapidly so that the robot moved at a good thodically the robot swung the eye in ever- walking pace and swayed hardly at all. widening circles, looking — looking. I From the top of the cylinder hung three watched the screen. The robot saw one of quite long arms. About the top part of the skinny Hobloks. Under the robot's the cylinder were a dozen small apertures long metal fingers the thing leaped into covered by fine wire grids. What they center focus. The robot seemed to pause were all for I don't know, but the robot, by in bewilderment. It was not what he ex- its own behavior was well equipped with pected to see, it was plain. But the Hob- senses lok was also at a ray mechanism watching "God," said MacCarthy, "it's a robot. us. The robot took perhaps ten seconds to Now what will we do with a robot?" read the thought in the Hoblok's mind, then pressed a stud. The Hoblok rolled I HAD an idea. I called to MacCarthy. over, apparently dead. "Take it a little distance away, if you The robot continued his sweeping search can. I'll turn the eye on it and see what in ever-widening circles. But I was wor- its insides are doing." ried about Mula. Perhaps the robot MacCarthy extended his hand as one would—no, it was too much to expect. I would to a child and the robot took hold tapped the robot's metal top, pointed in of his big red paw and followed him away. Mula's direction. Obediently he swung I swung the huge eye down upon it and the eye as indicated, much quicker and instantly I heard its mechanical thought more easily than I myself could. I waved answering my own. my hand to indicate farther and farther "When you need food I will get it," it and far as it was, Mula shortly appeared said in abstract thought. "When you in the screen. I could hear the robot's sleep, I will watch. When there is work, mechanical mind as he saw Mula's much- I will do it. What do you wish of me?" ness centered on the screen when a blaze Just how much could this robot think of light and deafening sound thundered was what puzzled me. I soon learned, for into our faces. I felt myself falling; knew the thought of the robot answered my un- no more. conscious question. "I can think as well as a wild animal I came to with my head in the lap of times three," he seemed to say. Anyway, Fanny de Moina, a miniature edition FORMULA FROM THE UNDERWORLD

of Margie Hart who had fallen for Mula's them or get any help out of them—" I ad for females. She was bathing my head didn't finish, for coming up the wide cav- with the liquid from one pf the green ern road were the three men I had sent globes and pouring some of it down my for food. Their coming had been an- throat. Either she was one of the most nounced by shouts from the girls who spent ravishing creatures on earth or the green most of the time at the screen. fluid had remarkable properties. "We have news," were their first words. "What happened?" I asked weakly. "We will soon have visitors and please be "MacCarthy said Mula must have used nice to them. They were nice to us." your ray path to conduct a heavy jolt of They had hardly thrown down their juice back to you. The robot is still out packs and stretched when out of an opening of commission. MacCarthy says since we in the side of the cave popped a long car, don't know how to fix a robot we'll have glided to a halt near us. A door slid open to make another one. He started the big and something emerged. Fanny promptly machine making one. You know, Mr. fainted; the other girls screamed and went Manville, I didn't get a chance to thank into a complicated clinch with each other. you for saving us from that overgrown The three men who had just arrived ad- hunk of meat. He is the most unattractive vanced toward the creature in welcome. man I ever saw, that Mula." She leaned He was a snail—yet, a man. A long, over and planted a highly satisfactory kiss lumpy brown body oozed toward us, and, on me. centaur-like above it rose the head, shoul- "Just to show you I enjoyed being res- ders and arms of a man. His neck was cued from super fatty," she grinned. surrounded by a foot-long frill extending MacCarthy and Murray, a radio engi- over his shealders downward. His mouth neer, a lean, dark Scot, came up leading was very big and toothless; his nose long a new robot different in no way from the and prehensile: it quivered and sniffed at other. us with a curiosity all its own. But his "Meet Joe Robot the second. How do eyes were big and brown and as gentle as a you feel?" asked MacCarthy. St. Bernard dog's. He did not waste time. "Like I'd been kicked by a Mula," I countered weakly, "but apparently I'm ""VT'OU will be surprised to hear me speak still in working order. Now listen, you * English, but I have had contact with two. Since we can't catch Mula any more surface people before. I know you are in we're in plenty of danger. Sooner or later trouble here. It is safest for you to come he will get a ray centered on us and that with me at once, without more words. will be the end. We've got to figure what Without my help you will soon be killed. to do in a hurry. Was the big ray injured There is no time for delay. I will explain by Mula's juice?" things to you on the way. Please come "Couldn't find anything wrong," an- now." swered MacCarthy. "Those things are Channing, one of the three who had just built plenty strong. What a race they arrived, spoke up. have been!" "We were talking with him a long time. Allen, a tall, thin, Southern electrical His name is Hank. There is a horde of technician, spoke up, "We've been in a them deeper in the earth, but not many huddle about the mess for a couple of are strong enough to stand gravity this hours while you were unconscious. We near the surface. There are people like can't find an answer. We can't kill Mula ourselves there too; but they have lived with this ray. We can't even look at him there too long to come to the surface. any more. It looks inevitable. Sooner or I think he is our best bet. I don't see any later Mula or the Hobloks will do for us. harm in him." Even if we run probably quicker if run, ; we I gave the word, really much elated. I since this huge ray is our only weapon." picked up Fanny, who was preparing to "If we could just talk the language that come out of her faint. robot is built to use," I mused aloud. "Let's go, folks," I called. "This is "There is a chance that there are other the subway. Can't keep the train wait- beings down here as strong or more so than ing!" Mula," I went on. "But how to find The interior of the car contained some 24 AMAZING STORIES

thirty seats. We loaded up our scanty city on stilts, like surface elevated trains. supplies; the green globes had become quite The top half of the car was transparent a pile and Joe Robot the second was per- and about us lay the ancient homes of suaded to carry Joe the first into the car. mighty immortal beings lit and tenanted; This procedure much interested Hank, the looking much as it must have when it was snail centaur. young. Across it hummed tiny heliplanes; "What is the origin of your people?" I along the ways, many cars like our own asked Hank. sped. Here and there glided or grouped the "We have dwelt deep in the earth al- snail people, not unlovely once you were ways," he began. "Our ruler, the immortal used to them. Their head crests glittered Queen Tanitia, has explained that we're a irridescently when they moved. Theirs product of the laboratories of the ancient was a gentle purposefulness as there is Gods, especially adapted to difficult under- about a good horse in action. Among world conditions, and used in pioneering them I noticed many human forms like our new borings before they were fully equipped own though clad in short glittering tunics with apparatus adapting the deep caverns and with long hair floating. They took

to other forms of life. Thus we had inher- prodigious strides when they walked, I ent abilities which enabled us to survive noticed. when most men perished, except on the surface." OUR car glided to a halt before a huge "Does any of the ancient wisdom still doorway, flanked by snailmen at guard exist?" I asked, my heart in my mouth. holding, strangely enough, modern rifles.

"Yes," he replied, "our Queen is very old. Hank led us up the inclined plane alt a No one knows how old. We have some of vastly more rapid glide than he had shown their writings which we study." us near the surface. He seemed very God! my mission was close to success! different down here; his breath slow and "You have robots," he remarked coming even, his eyes gleaming with strength, his back to the situation at hand. "That is frill standing out sharply beautiful, veined good. I have heard of them." The car like a big flower. started slowly into the tube. The tube I rose several feet in the air at each was smooth metal. From the car's top and step. I weighed little, had a sensation of bottom and sides projected wheels which strength I had never felt before. were in constant pressing contact with the We followed Hank's gliding form up the tube sides. The car was motor driven. ramp, around a glistening curve of trans- "What kind of a motor is this, anyway?" parent walls through a hallway into a I asked Hank. courtroom glittering with lush human life "I don't know," he confessed. "It is an and brilliant with laughing, intelligent antique like most things We use down here. young faces. At a desk on a dais at one It runs on water. Many of these ancient end of the place lay a woman. She rose engines run on water. You put it in, the as we entered and came swiftly toward us, engine goes, the water disappears. It is her hands outstretched in greeting. My all I know." heart leaped at sight of her, not so much The car howled along at a tremendous because of the beauty, but because of the speed. It swayed hardly at all for the sensation of burning thought that lay on projecting wheels held it rigidly in the her face. center of the tube. The tube dropped "We know your troubles," were her steadily downward. Hours went by. Mula words, "because they are similar to that of was far away, I sighed with relief at the all surface people and because we have thought. I found my weight had become the same troubles everywhere we go ex- a trifle for the sigh caused me to lift gently cept here. Here it is safe and we will in the seat. help plan a future for you." The car flashed along through a mam- Hank bowed low before her. _moth city now. It was larger and more "Queen Shola, these are the people who "beautiful than any of the caverns we had escaped from the great hulk Mula, and yet seen. The tube in which we had this is the man who rescued them. His descended had come out into the city name is Manville." cavern in a channel that ran through the The Queen extended her hand to me. FORMULA FROM THE UNDERWORLD

"I understand," she said, "that Mula immortal being whom we seldom see. You did not enjoy meeting you." will be taken before her presently." "He did squeak a little about it," I "Immortal?" I queried. admitted. "How is it that you are so well "I know already why you came to the acquainted with our difficulty?" underworld. We have been taking rec- "All over the world," answered the ords of your thought since before you ar- Queen, "these caverns extend to within a rived. You came to learn the secret of few miles of the surface and all through immortality. There is no reason," she went the caverns playing and fighting with the on, "why you should not succeed." ancient mechanisms are the Hobloks and their kind. Mostly they are mean and evil "'"pHESE snail men seem very intelli- and foolish; but they have been living with * gent," I observed. the ray equipment for so many centuries "There is a reason for their intelligence," that its use has become instinctive with she affirmed. "You see, the potentialities them and many of them are very adept at of mind-reading apparatus are immense. its various uses. They torment and injure The multihead effect alone contains enough surface people to such an extent that there power to pull the whole human race into a is little hope for their progress, especially wonderful new way of life. We have de- as they are so totally unaware of the evil veloped this side of ray work quite a bit. or its extent. Just as the Hobloks have You see, if we are in mental contact, my made Mula a thing of evil, though he was brain's questions are answered automatic- once a vital animal, so do they make of ally by yours, if it possesses the answer. many surface leaders foolish and evil crea- So that we are actually much more intelli- tures through their continuous lies and gent than two people not in contact, are thought tamper. we not? We are as intelligent as the num- "They thwart all scientific effort on the ber of brain cells active in your head multi- surface. They stop every good thing be- plied by the number in my head which is fore it becomes a part of surface life. We something like a thousand times as intelli- have often tried to exterminate the crea- gent as two ordinary people not in contact. tures, but we have only succeeded in We have developed this principle—called clearing a few of these deep earth cities the Multihead principle—into mind teams of their influence. In the far distance they containing many hundreds of specialists, spy on us still. The ancient wave rays at each brain trained to use all the resources which they sit are too powerful for us to of all the other brains. The result is a overcome. group of men perhaps a billion times as "If we try to make a clean surface place intelligent as an ordinary human. Would so as to cure some surface life of their you like to talk to someone trained in such influence and bring back the study of the a school?" ancient science through the study of the I looked at her lovely, quizzical face ancient machines, our efforts come to and suddenly realized I was talking to a nothing because we can never get enough person as far superior to myself as a man of the old ray positions in our hands to is superior to a worm. protect ourselves fully. Our men become, "I think I am talking to such a person." in a short time, foolish or insane from the The simplicity and enormity of the multi- needling they get from unreachable old head principle had floored me. rays. "The multi-head principle is one thing "It seems impossible that intelligent men we tried very hard to get surface people to could not overcome these foolish Hobloks. adopt. But they listened to the idiotic But when they turn on the old rays it gives tamper of our Hoblok opposition and fear- them immense awareness; they are super fully refused to work on telepathic appara- destructive. We have not succeeded in tus. In some ways you are still medieval, freeing any surface life of them." you surface men. This principle is one "You are the ruler of this great city?" reason Mula gets along so well—hundreds I asked Queen Shola. of minds are slaves to him and always in "I am just a sub-ruler; I have been contact. His mind uses them parasitic- appointed to rule over the humans of the ally." city. The real ruler is a very old and "They do have a reactionary attitude to- 26 AMAZING STORIES

ward some types of new things, it is true," a larger alligator you have created a I agreed. greater menace to your limbs. When a "You don't know how hard we have Hoblok steps into an ancient ray operator's tried to make them able to be of use to seat he becomes a much larger bit of devil- us. We are in constant bitter warfare try though just as stupid and undesirable." with the insane Hobloks. Come, I will "Multihead stupidity is still stupidity." show you. The mind-record workers tell "Exactly," she answered. "That is what me you are wholly trustworthy." war is—stupidity multiplied by a force. The rest of my party never missed me. And that is what Hoblok ray is—stupidity A group of uniformed officers surrounded multiplied by titanic ancient force. Thus the girls, some of whom, like Fanny de all our brilliance and knowledge of growth Moina, were real beauties. The six engi- and science is neutralized by the Hoblok neers were likewise surrounded by a bevy multiple—titanic idiocy." of underworld charm and MacCarthy's "They are charming creatures. How did red face was wreathed in grins. I guessed they get that way?" I asked. he was describing the expansive Mula; I "Endless centuries of secret parasitism could hear them laughing. on surface people have given them a sort of leech-soul! They never learned to use the QUEEN SHOLA led me into an adjoin- growth generators or synthetic food ma- ing apartment. Here the walls were chines of the ancients, but they did learn to a series of television screens on each of use the view rays and some of the weapons. which a scene of struggle was taking place. They used them so long that the worn-out On the center of each, some far distant machines give off a detrimental emanation ancient giant of a ray generator, topped by which contributed to the degeneration of a Hoblok, sent vast streams of energy to- the original flesh pattern into the leech- ward the receiver. These were met and like form of flesh it is. They are in truth neutralized by great black shorter rays a different form of life: more akin to such somewhere between. In the lower part of parasitic creatures than to man." the screen could be seen the uniformed "You certainly confirm my suspicions head and shoulders of a snail man, his on the matter. Have you tried bribery, peculiar webbed hands manipulating the turning them against each other?" defense mechanisms. At some of the rays "They have so little organization it is were humans, also in uniform. not hard. We have had some success in "This particular war is ten years old," that line. But in reality we are fighting said Queen Shola. "You see, the ancient the ancient mechanisms and when they get rays were so built and situated that they hold of one, they live in it. It becomes could not successfully fight against each their life and they are unapproachable other so that no revolution could take then, as you learned yourself when you place by their use. At the same time they argued with Mula. You could have held are so strong and well constructed that no out for years there if you kept careful weapon our weak modern minds can devise watch. Mula himself is checkmated and will subdue them. It is a premeditated made the thing he is by these creatures. deadlock so designed by the ancient God- So he amuses himself with torture and race. The Hobloks, of course, cannot waits for death. His thought is now a understand this and try to fight with them; fixed pattern as is theirs. and, perforce, we must fight back with the "You will find many such products of ancient stationary ray. It is all extremely growth-force generators in the underworld. stupid and repetitive, but so far we have Our own ruler is one. But she is different, not found the answer. We are defeated younger; and we ourselves have worked by the brilliance of the ancient minds with and renewed the growth-force mech- which built and placed the ancient rays anism till there is little danger of unbal- as a check on any attempt to dominate anced growth." their life. Do you follow?" "I begin to understand," I mused aloud, "VT'OU mentioned that Mula's thought "why Hobloks are such a menacing nui- * is fixed pattern as is the Hobloks. sance, yes." Will you explain?" I asked Shola. "You see," she went on, "when you grow "When we look at an insect like a FORMULA FROM THE UNDERWORLD 27 spider or a wasp," she replied, "we see WE ENTERED an elevator. We came only an exact repetition of all other spiders out on the roof of a tower which or wasps, just as leaves on a tree are like overlooked the whole city of Loer. Like the other leaves on the same tree. Their a pent-house garden the roof was adorned whole lives are exact repetitions of the lives with living trees and plants and was of all other spiders and wasps of the same bathed in a rich, warm light more pleasant kind. This is also almost true of men: than any sun. In the center was a round they are merely repetitions of each other building. As we approached it, soft invisi- and the past and the whole future of their ble emanations exquisitely stimulating ran lives is predictable from the past. Only over us, reading us and at the same time when the intake of growth material is waking us to an intense sense of pleasure, greater than the intake of detrimental ma- of anticipation. Before the door was a terial for long periods is there any growth statue of many-breasted Tanit; not by into new ways of life. There have been many surface sculptors, but something by the Mulas in the past of the caverns, and they ancients. Its beauty was indescribable, have almost all followed the same course unthinkable, in truth. Their art always as the present Mula. Some parts of the leaves a man gasping. We entered softly. thing are ritualistic and traditional: the She sat in one of the ancient god seats. red-horned masks, the torture — all are It was not too big. If earth has anything repetitions of ancient times. Mula adapted approaching the ancient Gods in strength, them to his own uses, which have also and in beauty, she is it. She was very old, turned out to be the same." we knew; but time had left only a wise "This conflict is endless, then?" crinkling about her eyes and humor marks "It has been going on for untold cen- at her lips. Her skin was soft and fresh turies in these caverns with infinite slight and within her perfect body one could variations, of course, but always the same sense the strength. About her were several theme: intelligent people trying to rebuild snail men and a trio of very young maidens the ancient wisdom and way of life always sat at her feet, one of whom softly thwarted by the degenerate creatures who strummed a harp. are, as you have seen, wholly destructive. About her played a greenish ray. It said The ancient mechanisms do not wear out, to my nerves all things that nerves need so the war needs no vast supply of weapons. to hear, and all the things nerves are There are always more of the creatures pleased to feel. and even if there were no intelligent people Her hair was flame red; her skin that to fight, they would still fight each other." white that often goes with red hair. Her We strolled back into the great throne eyes were very dark and brooding, yet room. Fanny de Moina ran up to us and very welcome to look at. One did not took my arm. turn away but looked deeper and saw a "Look," she said in amazement, "I friend. On her shoulder sat a crested bird thought I could dance!" and at her feet lounged a huge lion-like A welcome dance had been organized. dog. Her feet were sandaled; her gown Under the very slight gravity these people a severe transparent Grecian drape. On had evolved a most complicated and acro- her large breast some huge emeralds glit- batic dance routine wholly impossible to tered. She was woman—all wise, desir- those not accustomed to weighing so little. ing woman-flesh and she was beautiful. We could only watch, and the envious eyes The force in her gaze was tremendous; of the chorus girls, probably as good one could not help desiring her. dancers as surface earth produced, subtly She talked and her voice filled the room amused me. The flying, graceful limbs with woman-sound and the sensing pf a and easy, almost floating movements of mind too big to comprehend. Queen Shola young bodies whose feet only touched the swiftly translated into English. floor at intervals of seconds were an in- "You will have to stay with us a while. finitely finer picture of the dance than I The ways to the surface are not at present had ever seen before. open to us. We will try to make your stay The Queen sent a page to summon the pleasant and of value to you and to us." rest of the newly arrived surface people. We talked a while, but our audience "The ruler has sent for you all." was disappointing in that we had, in truth, 28 AMAZING STORIES

little to say to a mind as deep and capable those strange letters, a language to which as hers. And we all felt this. But she few surface men but myself held the key. was curious as to conditions on the surface Laboriously I translated the pages, one and very interested in our answers to her by one. Here it was: under the symbol for questions. She was very disappointed as Life—L—followed by the symbol for "on" to the condition of science in general. We followed by a symbol which meant to the were given some refreshments; stimulating Nth power—meant infinity. Swiftly I fluids of several kinds were served and wrote those blazing words which would little nut-shaped sweetmeats. We were change the life of the world to something

somehow ill at ease at our own lack of worth having if I could bring them back life and strength. to surface man. Presently we returned to the lower floors. The Formula "Live On" Some of the girls tried to join in the dance rO LIVE successfully is to conquer and did not do so badly. Presently we life's problems. This can only be done were shown to several chambers equipped by changing the conditions of your life to with modern-looking beds. eliminate the detrimental factors. Thus the influx of detrimental energy flows must WHEN I awoke Queen Shola herself be excluded, while the intake of beneficial had come with a page bearing a tray energy must be increased. To prolong life of food. indefinitely, even under deadly suns—a "And this is the food you people eat super-dense metal is particularly useful. that makes your young people so uniformly This is true for this important reason— well-constructed, so very generally beau- disintegrant energy cannot exist except it tiful!" have an integrated particle to feed on— "The ancients had vast greenhouses lit just as fire cannot exist without fuel. A by artificial heating rays. We have re- beneficial force flow is a ray which is rich paired some of them and learned to raise in the ultimate end product of disintegrance all our food down here. These whom you —energy ash. Take the most dense metal think young people are, some of them, you can obtain—and force an energy flow hundreds of years old. We have almost through it at high pressure; those bits of conquered age. We have learned to read matter which keep disintegrance alive will the old books, many of them still exist; be excluded by the density of the metal, and age was a subject they were very just as ashes fall through a grate and leave interested in. They are very hard to under- the burning above. , fire The life-giving ash stand but our multihead teams can manage of energy from which all matter is re- to get the meaning from their simpler integrated is the product of such a device. books for young people. A flow rich in energy ash causes an imme- "Could I, O Queen, could I see some of diate increase in the mental function to an those ancient books?" amazing degree, as well as stimulates and She smiled, and all the graciousness a causes a new growth—a more powerful vast mind was capable of lay on her face. and intelligent being is created immediately "Why not?" she said simply. by subjection to such a flow. Immortality This was a booklover's entrance into can be achieved by excluding all persistently Paradise. My knees knocked like a pros- disintegrant particles from the whole in- pective bridegroom's. The vast, intricately take of the animal. This is the path which worked metal doors slowly opened as we our race took to greatness, to the conquest approached. The stacks extended as far of space, to life everlasting in the dark- as the eye could reach in any direction. ness of space. The books were of metal and most of them Such metals can be obtained floating free four to five feet square. The hours fled in space, the product of gravitic space storm and I could not tear myself away. Both vortexes. These metals form the heart of the Queen and little Fanny de Moina had our most important mechanisms — the gone away, perhaps understanding what growth-force generators. this meant to me. At last I held the book for which I THE secret of immortality! It lies in searched on my knees. Even there it was "empty" space! Now I, and you, have too heavy. The pages were covered with the secret of the metal shield that can —

FORMULA FROM THE UNDERWORLD 29 make us live forever—and with two ways This is all true! Work at it; I have neither to construct it: By scientific work on mag- the ability nor the money. I have given netic vortex flows, utilizing exdisintegrance you the formula. I have done my part. to "pack" ordinary metal with energy ash Do yours, for God's sake, while I still —or, by sending men out into space itself live! in space ships! Harte Manville. Scientists — rocket men — listen to me! THE END THE CIGARETTE

cigarette, in the process of burning, much carbon monoxide formed than ordinarily, THE used. Such gives rise to between twenty-eight and depending upon the amount of glycol thirty-two different poisonous substances, cigarettes also yield oxalic acid (a calcium precipi- depending upon the preparation of the tobacco tant) by dehydration of the glycol, which is also and the type of paper used. a poison of recognized stature. As an example, acrolein deserves a seat in the Nicotine is generally considered to be a much front row. This is a substance derived from gly- more innocuous substance than formerly, although cerine by dehydration in the burning process. it does have some circulatory effects. The deadly Acrolein is one of the most irritating common poisonous form of nicotine, which is the sulfate, is substances known. The smoke from lard spilled not derived from the cigarette in any appreciable on a redhot cook-stove contains much of this amount. powerful irritant, and causes the recipient to The tarry substances which are formed—phe- cough and sneeze and weep. nols, cresols and other aromatic compounds—are Ammonia, formed in the breakdown of amino probably the worst of the offenders, because of acids, while not acutely poisonous in low concen- their insidious action upon body chemistry. All tration is constantly altering the condition of the the different poisons inhabiting cigarette smoke mucous membranes lining the nasal and bronchial have not been positively identified, but at least passages. It promotes the culturing of germs of one of this particular group (the aromatic, or various kinds in those membranes. benzene-ring compounds), known as benzpyrin,

Carbon monoxide is formed by the incomplete has been proved a potent initiator of cancerous combustion pertaining in the burning of a cigar- processes in experimental animals. The smaller ette. It is probably the main poisonous constituent the animal, however, the more susceptible it is to bringing about the feeling of loginess that arises cancer. Nevertheless, a few doctors blame this when one smokes "too much." Monoxide is par- agent for a part of the increase of the disease. ticularly poisonous to the nerve and brain cells, No habit which has not been acquired is any and to the red corpuscles. In cigarettes employing more worth sidestepping than is that of tobacco- diethylene glycol instead of glycerine as the mois- using. No habit already acquired is more worth tening agent there is about three or four times as abandoning. John McCabe Moore.

COMING IN SEPTEMBER STAR KINGS By EDMOND HAMILTON A SENSATIONAL 70,000-WORD NOVEL ZIGOR MEPHISTO'S COLLECTION OF MENTALIA " • «• ;. A. I f. i 4,!

32 AMAZING STORIES

life whether i 4 "jy JTETHINKS the most sinful and, spent our in there wondering ." f° fascinating bits of this the dancers we saw were real or . . there re > -**I VIT Collection of Mentalia, as the "Yes, and had it not been for that maze old heathen, Zigor Mephisto, called his of mirrors the mad dwarves would have got spools .of antique thought-wire, will be us. They could not tell whether we were found on the seventh level, in that den one or many, far or near, and gave up the where he used to retreat and bid the whole chase. There is much to know down here world defiance." to stay alive, and little we do know of "A grisly place of past dread and death that needed. These wights have been it is, too. The souls of men who have died brought up around these mysteries." under Zigor's hand do howl about these * * * walls like great winds. Eg Notha, it is r\N THE tail end of one of the long, called." enigmatic thought-records of the life "Mayhap they are but winds?" of the Elder Race, I heard these voices talk- "Nay, nay! You'll see." ing in an archaic but understandable Eng- "So, you are game to seek the place out! glish, somewhat of the flavor affected by 'Twill be a hard bit of traveling. Lord Shakespearian actors. Since the record knows what dangerous deviltry of these itself was of a time when the modern mad cavern people we may have worked English language had not yet been born upon us in these forgotten Hell-warrens." of the mother Atlan tongue, I couldn't "Aye, which is why I must get to the bot- figure how the voices got there. I decided tom of this wisdom, must follow every that the machine must record any voice or lead till we learn to protect ourselves. sound around, when it was played over. There is wisdom in Mephisto's Collection Then I asked Nydia. She explained that of these spools that magically store the when the recorder switch was thrown on thought of the great beings who built these the record augmenter, it would also record; endless cavern-mansions. I like it not that the two were the same machine except when an unseen thing burns the shoes off for a slight adjustment. my feet, and no one to see, no way to "Is that all of the talk in our language know who or what may be adoing of the that exists?" mischief." Nydia considered. "Yes, I would have us learn this hidden "Yes it is. But it tells of men being magic the mad imps work upon us, myself, down here, long ago—though quite recent** afore we are undone entirely." ly compared to the antiquity of the records "Who would have thought the mysteries themselves. Who they were, what they of magic the wise men talk of were but were doing, we will never know. Surface the mad people of the lost caverns, play- men, apparently, who found their way ing with these ancient works of the Devils, down here and learned something of the or of the Gods? Who would have known mysteries of the ancient magic." that any one could work magic, had he but "This Zigor Mephisto's palace of dread,

access to the old machinery of this for- they speak of it, but I have never heard of

gotten hell, and some little know-how about it before? I wish I could see it, and read that same machinery." the store of records of which it speaks. If "Aye, Francis, the know-how! There's the Mephisto of whom they speak is the the rub! Last night I pushed a button, gentleman of whom I know, I imagine the thinking to have one of the delicious records are vastly more than interesting. dreams that such a button had brought me What do you know of him, Nydia?" before, and what happened? The mon- "Mephisto is an old family name, and a strous metal thing picked me up, wrapped dread and powerful family it has been. me from head to toe in plastic butcher's They have ruled over much of the under- paper, and tied a neat plastic string around world at different times, though their for- me. Had it not been for you I'd have tunes have varied as the centuries passed. ended my days done up as a bundle of As far back as we know, there have been old clothes." rich and powerful Mephistos, some not so "And that was not so bad as last week, evil—some terrible in their slaughter of the when we entered the mad maze of mirrors. cavern people. This Zigor of whom these Had it not been for luck, we would have voices speak, I know not. He is forgotten —

ZISOR MEPHISTO'S COLLECTION OF MENTALIA 33

today. This is America, and of those of anti-gravity device. I looked at Solaris. the family of whom I have heard, only "Don't ask me how, I only know the Europe was mentioned as their home. But electric from the old generators charges he may have come here from Europe some plates on the flat under-side of the through the great under-sea ways, cen- half-globe so that it floats. You will have turies ago. He may have been very great to find the scientific words to tell yourself and powerful here, and still have been un- what the mech is all about. As it rises, an known in Europe. There were always many automatic electric eye shuts it off before secret groups, you know. They fear to be it strikes the ceiling, and we float midway known to each other, as the ancient rays in these tunnels. They used these cars a are such terrible weapons that it is better great deal, the Elder race. They ride like not to be known at all to each other. But wheels of air, and they are equipped with hereabouts, he may have ruled in great gravity controls coupled with auto-eyes power for long, and then his family wiped fore and aft, and overhead, so that one can- out by the mad nomads some night when not bump into anything even if one wished. all were drunk and forgetting to guard It is only in landing the thing that any the ways from the mad ones." skill is required, and that is very simple."

"Nydia, would it be safe for us to go "I won't try to explain it, Solaris. If there? I would give an arm to see this gravity is really a kind of electric or mag- Collection of Mentalia. Could we avoid netic force, they must have known how to death from the distant devils, and get generate and control gravity in reverse. through to this forgotten palace of Zigor's, What is the ancient name of this car?" or is the risk too terrible to face at all?" "There is the name on the panel. Any- "It could be done. It is in truth needed. way those letters are on the panels of all We must always be finding and learning these cars that I have seen. You read it." to use new and more deadly weapons. This "The letters look like Z-O-N-T-O-N. A place of the Mephisto's should contain 'Zonton' is what they may have called it, or many and terrible and strange weapons, it's the name of the man who invented it." ray-mech of which we know nothing. We "I suspect the thing can also be used as could bring some of them here, and sur- a space ship. It is tremendously powered prise these besieging dero with them. Or for its small size, and fitted with mighty we might find the place an impregnable weapons. One can never turn on but a fortress, and find it of benefit to move fraction of the propulsion dial—the drive there entirely. Eg Notha, the name tells force will propel it at terrific speed. We nothing. I will call a meeting and plan have used this one many times for short for the work." trips through the longer borings in our * * * search for the things we need. For hunt- CO IT was that Nydia, the lovely young ing trips to the great water-filled caves ^ daughter of the hidden cavern people, where the blind monsters live, for fishing and myself—an escaped convict who had But as for really knowing this ship, I do found refuge in these unknown dwellings not. I can use it, but there is much I do of the forgotten Gods of earth, and Solaris, not know, and fear to try to learn. For the son of the leader of our little group of instance, if I press this stud, the protective sane cavern dwellers, a slim, dark, well auto-ray controls are released, and then if built young man, and a little dwarfish maid I press this lift control, it goes up at terrific who loved Nydia and attended her, whose speed, the "governor" is off:—possibly for name was Truly, entered a huge half-globe use in high-flying outside the caves. It that lay in one of the numerous borings. would crash one who did not know against This half-globe was the usual traveling de- the roof. I did that inadvertently once vice used by the ancients, and there were over the water in the water-caverns, and several of them in the vast borings under nearly drowned us all. Only the strength the chambers in which we made our home of the antique materials saved us. We and our fortress. Solaris pressed a stud on bounced off the roof, knocked loose a small the puzzling keyboard of the controls that avalanche of stalactites, turned over, filled one segment of the circular chamber. started for the water just as fast as we had I gasped, for all weight had left my body. come up-—went under water traveling at The control was one that operated an terrible speed, and I managed to shut it —

AMAZING STORIES

off and we floated again. They were built similar mental apparatus, were seeing me sturdily, or we should all have been dead. in a wealth of detail no ordinary eyes with Some of these guns pointing out here we light-ray vision could attain. She was see- can use, but some I do not know how to ing my inner spirit, my will to bend life use. I will teach you what I know." into what it should be, my own opinion of my body and inner-self was in her mind \X/"E FLOATED in the exact center of adde to all our friends inner vision of me * * the circular boring, the smooth, an- to make a composite image of greatly in- cient, time-mottled rock of the floor glided creased accuracy to those held by ordinary away beneath us. The dust stirred slightly mortals. This inner vision she held of me under the forcefields of the magnetic de- was what I strove to keep clean and bright, vices which held us afloat, that was all. A and that effort was good for my soul. Her smell, as of an old bookstore, filled the kind of eye is a far more exacting one globe, the smell of time itself, familiar to than that which never sees beneath the me now as the "smell of the caverns." The surface at all. For I am an ordinary fel- bright, glittering metal, untarnished and low, of near six foot in height, 170 lbs. speaking as of work created yesterday, was weight, well muscled,—with a potato nose, here and there belied by dark streaks of large teeth, a heavy chin—no beauty, corrosion where some less hardy metal had though not entirely ugly. But Nydia saw been used in the construction of some less far more than that, which was why she essential part. Solaris advanced a huge loved me. For I do have a will to make lever a fraction of a notch, and the great life what it should be, and that was the globe started forward down the cavern at thing in me which she prized. a speed of perhaps forty miles an hour. Nydia spoke softly in my ear. "It won't go any slower, and if one went "This Zigor's palace of dread, this Eg faster, the automatic eyes would keep us Notha, I have heard of it from travelers, from bumping. But I cannot bring myself it is shunned, but some have looked upon to trust life to my wholly such antique de- it from afar. I hope we get to see it. To vices for safety. I can shut off the power read that store of records, collected from and thus slow down, but it is seldom neces- the whole cavern world by the family of sary. Watch the far screens for the ray- Mephisto. God knows what we may learn." paths of some bush-whacker nomad. They 1 often lie in wait along the ways with a ray T WISH I could put the actual scenes to kill anything that passes. We must see A of this cavern journey into your minds, them first and that without fail. They will but Words to depict the ultra-beauty of know we are traveling, our thought will the ancient work do not exist. The walls have been heard, our plans known. They of the caverns, sometimes vast connecting will try to trap us." chambers where cavern ways cross, and Beside me as I swung the vision ray in a sometimes longer chambers along the "way" slow arc across the approaching network sides like subway platforms where the of ways, Nydia's fair was hair, curling trains stop, are decorated with vast bas- softly about her gardenia face, her huge reliefs, of a meaning that sometimes glim- imseeing eyes that yet saw, much more bers through the clouds of ignorance that than others. My heart pumped that blind are modern man's inheritance—glimmer loyalty she had inspired in me. I knew through in a blaze of terrific meaning that that Nydia's mental eyes, trained from shakes the soul inside a man, but never her years of work with the telaug and quite completely registers all that it con- 1 "They" whom Nydia fears are a group of wild tains. Their picture symbol system of savage cavern dwellers who live not far the from thought was vastly different from our own home of Nydia's group, as described in "Thought uncultured one, springing from a long Records of Lemuria," a former story of the same heredity of knowledge of goings and life- people. There are many groups of these wild, evil forms of which know nothing. One men, and this particular "bunch" are descendants we of the so-called "Efrits" or Afreets of Arabia and sees pictured gatherings of beings, no two Persia, recently come to the U. S. and are wholly of them alike, and knows that it is a evil. Small, wizened and devilish, they delight in recorded scene of some past meeting of the killing and torture, and the ancient weapons they life of many planets of divergently formed use make them invulnerable. races, gathered to listen with their indi- ZIGOR MEPHISTO'S COLLECTION OF MENTALIA 35

vidual telaugs to the thought of some rays outside and they can be made to pick mighty leader or teacher, or ruler. Or one up such a picture and keep it in focus as sees pictures in a series that seem to tell of long as one wishes, and they can be made the peopling of a planet by the use of some to watch the far distance for danger, too. life manufacturing machine—for the people So it was that I could spend little time on are emerging from the bowls of an intri- the picture walls of the great tunnel through cate mechanism and proceeding from it in which we sped toward the forgotten pal- streams to build cities, roads, dwellings and ance of one Zigor Mephisto, whoever he tunnels into the earth. Yet no one enters may have been. The name aroused a vast the machine, only a flow of some mud curiosity in me. Is he the servant of the colored fluid. Some of those pictures seem legendary Satan? Was the Mephisto of to tell me that the Gods did take mere our stories and legends an actual person? mud and make men as the Bible tells us. Or is it just the surface cognizance of a Maybe they did synthesize men and set powerful name of the under-world for them to work to fulfill the pattern of de- centuries. Or does the name mean some- velopment planned into their synthetic thing else entirely? Did Satan exist? Was matrix. It is perhaps the real explanation he an ancient retainer of Mephisto 's or vice of the old "legend" of Adam and Eve. Such versa? Was he an acquaintance of the seemed the meaning of some pictures, but Sathanas of the Mutan Mion Series of their thought was so different from our own records? Well, I would know when I had that one can be sure of little accuracy in read his "Collection of Mentalia." the interpretation of these scenes or their writings by modern man. THE place lay about five hundred miles But of other pictures of vast cubes and from our home. We dtew near, about spheres inter-acting, seeming to give birth ten hours after leaving. As we came out to tinier rounded cubes and angular spheres, of the cavern way tube into the rocky of vast worlds with continents and oceans sphere or bowl in which the palace lay, the seeming to give birth by budding of projection of a great human figure in front younger, smaller spheres, globes that looked of us stopped us. Its hand was raised, palm like tiny planets—of much of such work out, and it spoke. one could make nothing. It is quite pos- "Wait here. Before you come further sible they were but the vague imaginative you must be examined. Eg Notha is not work of some artist of their liking who easily entered 1" amused them with weird creations of im- I turned to Nydia. possibilities. One does not know. But "I had understood the palace was empty this I know, they often pictured Mother of life. Who do you think is doing this?" Earth as an entity of beauty and wisdom, "I had heard it has been deserted for speaking with a mighty mental voice that many years, for the last fifty years or so. moved life to effort, thinking with great Little is known of the place, as it is avoided. thought that reached each man of her The legend of the Mephisto family is one millions and reflected in his mind so that to cause fear. Let us hope that it is not each obeyed. Speaking across space with a Mephisto who has taken up his life here flows of matter and flights of great ships, in the ruin." Earth was to them a living being, and they Solaris snapped a view ray toward the loved their Mother "Mu" and did as they great bulk of the place. Under the domed thought she wanted. Could such a wise and immense cavern roof, the building race have been deluded in thinking a planet bulked huge, the great bowl too small to itself had life—that the planet "thought," hold it. The ray went through the walls, such great thought that they listened and poked and pryed about, abruptly went out! obeyed? Is our Mother Earth now dead? "They blew my tubes," Solaris cried, Is that why the great race of the caves is futilely, snapping the switch stud on and no longer here? I wonder many things for off. "I don't like it! Let's get out of which there is no answer, as I watch their here." mighty pictures flash past the "windows" "Okay, buddy! " I didn't like the expres- of the floating speedy globe. For the win- sion on Solaris' face, like a trapped animal. dows are not "windows," but great screens "You know your way around. Take up out fed by the impulses from the powerful view- while the taking's good!" 36 AMAZING STORIES

Solaris threw the great lever to center doors of the forgotten den of Zigor and then delicately jockeyed the stick back Mephisto, Eg Notha. The howling noise along the notched path to reverse. The which the old record with the strange voice great globe stirred back a few inches along had spoken of was present. To me it the path into the tunnel we had just used seemed to be water flowing from far over- in entering, then stopped. Solaris gave it head down through great metal tubes, down more and more juice, finally pulling it back and down into the rock, under the great all the way. A cloud of the fine, time re- hulk of stone work that was the home of veiling dust of the caverns rose about us as past power. For some of the vast dynamos the force field's flows aroused fury con- one sees deep in the under-rock, I surmised. tended around us, but the globe held still Time had marred the weird building little, as though frozen in place. and the huge stone figures of animals that "Heh, heh!" cracked a fiendish crackle never existed in modern man's ken; winged in our ears. "The little innocents think to dragons flanked the doorway and across escape." the stone face was sprawled a fretwork of "Grandma, they sure walked into it, sculpured figures of hybrid animals—hy- didn't they?" It was a child's voice, one of brid of some mad-man's dream with the those we had learned to fear, a child who life forms of the ancient vari-form tech- has never had any pleasure except the nique, or perhaps none of them had ever sadistic thrills of watching his evil elders existed outside the imagined weirdness of torment some unfortunte. A voice from an some artist's mind. I could not venture an older man, masculine. opinion, nor had I time for one. These "We'll have rare sport with these fools stone figures glared down at us from a before they die." dozen impossible angles of the walls, con- I looked at Nydia and she looked back structed as they were by a mind with a —a hopeless look. vaster knowledge of geometry and the "This is it, Rich! There isn't a chance qualities of structural material than any from the sound of them." man now living. "They'll boil us alive," moaned Solaris, "and when we ask them why, since we're UP THE many tall three-foot steps we perfect strangers, they'll tell us: "Why it's scrambled as best we might, the heat customary, we always do.' These damned ray hastening us more rapidly than our mad ones of the caves." natural reluctance to be so coerced. "Do you know who they are? Is that Through the open valves of the monstrous why you are so sure?" doors, the deep dust swirling dryly in the "Their actions tell us they are the mad still air, and settling slowly as we passed. ones." Th*e dust is the one true tell-tale of the I swung my own view ray up the cliffy awful time that has passed since the caverns side of the building, which was really a were lived in by the multitudes that did great shaft of the natural rock, shaped live there when they were built. It is ever somewhat rectangularly, and bored with present, choking, cloying, smelling of eons round chambers and air-shaft apertures. of dry jforgotten time, and concealing with Windows, as such, are rare in the caverns. Its death-grey blanket the beauty of the But my penetrative beam blinked out as antigue master-work. soon as it struck the stone of the wall. A Down the long corridors, with their series of pops inside the case told me the height-shadowed, vaulting ceiling, the place antique, irreplaceable, incalculably valuable echoing our footsteps above the eery howl- and well nigh indestructible tubes had been ing of the water in the depths—and about blown from the distance. us now showed some sign of occupancy "How do they blow the tubes like that?" later than the original gigantic men who I asked. built the place—signs not reassuring. For "Just hit 'em with a powerful dis-ray. a skeleton, clothed, lay here; a thonged The overload burns them out rapidly." whip rotted over there; and nearby a long So it was that we left our ship, hanging old sword blade had not yet rusted away. there a foot off the rock on her degravity Relics of a near past that no one now alive beams. With a painful heat ray burning here had the grace to remove. Then we our buttocks, we entered the great open were in the lower levels of the place, ZISOR MEPHISTO'S COLLECTION OF MENTALIA 37 beneath the level of the great road-tubes long, over-slender figure, that smile that through which we had approached. Now was mockery itself, added to a certain there were great hangings in their places consciousness of power, a certain cynical over the doorways, the tremendous, unrot- wisdom, all told me here was one of the ting, metallically shining weaves of the old antique ray-grbups whom I have chosen to Gods, glass threads colored and inter- call the Latter Gods—the first successors mingled with gleaming metallic threads into to the original homes of the true ancient patterns and pictures, depicting the mighty Gods. His voice was dry and shrill, his scenes of that life that is to man but an age one would not know, as he spoke: enigma of mighty mysterious meaning hung - WATCHED your coming on the great from the walls, hiding the stone . I Much of the stone itself is covered now with wall-screen, 'tis set to watch always the metal as we descend, worked metal, in one open approach to this place. Is it true patterns reminiscent of no world of my what I saw there in your minds, that you knowledge, of no world I had yet seen in came here but to read the old records in the old records. For that matter, a great my ancestor Zigor's collection?" deal of the cavern world is covered with Nydia, who trusted her own subtleties solid metal, which looks as though it were better than my straightforwardness, an- sprayed on the cavern walls in molten a swered : state and then worked into artistic designs. "Yes, that is why we came, my Lord. The work depicted beings, men occasion- Are you of the family of the ancient Zigor ally, but as often like no life we know, at Mephisto, or some other, since come here?" work, at play, at love, and at war. But "I am some kind of grand-nephew of the principally these figures are engaged in old fiend, I suppose. I have always borne work or study or experiment of a nature his name. It does not matter much. I at which one can only guess. I surmise that came here, like you, to read the collection, someday some man will decipher the mean- one of the greatest still in order from that ings of these great metal histories upon time when men still had sense in their heads walls and find there complete and detailed of one kind or another. I stayed, for I decriptions of vast scientific discoveries, have given up hope of finding wisdom on of the nature of matter and energy upon earth, and my old bones crave less tiring which the scientific base of their stupend- pursuits than searching for it." ous life rested. Nydia, nearly purred, for his words had For the most part the message is too vast opened hope in her heart. for one mind to grasp in passing, and I "Oh, you are one who studies that an- doubt that many of them would yield up tique science revealed in the thought rec- their super-world mental concepts to any ords, one who knows; I am glad we found mind but the genius prepared especially for you! I—we, have studied somewhat, too, the job, and that after years of study. And but there is so much to learn and only one I think, too, that no other study would life to learn it in." yield him such a rich reward. The cynical, weary expression of the We passed through many of these metal seated figure's face lifted a little at Nydia's chambers and corridors, our minds awhirl sweet ways and he leaned toward her. with the overpowering beauty of the place, "Don't try to tell me there is life in the here cleaned of its time dust, and revealed caverns with wits between its ears? I will in near its original beauty by polishing. have you boiled in oil, the lot of you, if you Then we entered what had been the throne lie to me about that. As for you, you little room of the ancient Lord of the place. We blind beauty, if you are stuffing me with were drawn now by a pleasant, overpower- wool, I will have your lovely body gold- ing ray-impulse rather than driven by a plated, and added to the collection. I have burning in the seat of the pants, as before. had enough lies in my life to satisfy me." Drawn to the figure that sat upon the I spoke up, a little nettled at his way, throne, dwarfed into insignificance and but relieved in truth that he was interested ugliness by the beauty and size of the massy in something beside sadism, which is, too seat of the ancient God. He was a Me- often, the case of the old cavern families of phisto, my mind decided, that lean satur- power. nine face, that lank black hair, that over- "She tells the truth, always, does my 38 AMAZING STORIES

Nydia. And even if you do have her gold- CUDDENLY the figure on the throne plated, you may not keep her, for she is ^ scowled down wildly upon us, and a mine." rage with no cause passed over his face. His "Well, if you have told the truth about fists clenched and he raved at us. your studious natures, and can tell me "Who do you think you are, to come in things I do not yet know, you may live here and tell me what to do in my own through this meeting and go your way holding? You shall die a thousand deaths, when you have read the collection. But if you dogs!" you lie about yourselves, I will wash my As swiftly, the causeless rage passed from hands of you, and I assure you that the rest him and his face resumed its tired, cynical of this menage are not as well-natured as half-smile. myself, and let few go from here alive that "Don't be frightened, my guests. 'Tis I do not protect." He waved a hand to but a blood-thirsty and wholly mad relative some gold and scarlet demon masks decor- trying to dream himself me over his ray- ating the wall behind the throne. "Know control mech. If he could remember what you at what rites those are used?" he was doing he would be dangerous. But Solaris spoke up, laughing a little forced- as it is he has forgotten what he started to ly. He had figured that he understood this do with me, and has returned to his antique lonely man upon the throne. toys upon the floor. There have always "We shall keep you interested, never been mad Mephistos; I suppose there al- fear. I have assisted at some such rites to ways will be. It is what has given the line the Dark One myself . Thrilling, but apt to such a bad name. But there are not so be dangerous to strangers." many any more. We are few." "You have been held by Satanists before? At the side of him crouched a huge dog, And how did you escape the usual fate?" or what I thought was a dog, its great head "In the only way possible. The altar on his foot. But when it arose to stand took a liking to me." beside its master, I stifled a gasp of horror. "Aye, you were young, and she fell in It was distinctly not a dog! It was scaled, love with you. Yes, that is one way of its hind quarters web-footed and huge, and surviving. Methinks you will not have that its back maned with queer spines. I stepped chance here. You see, except for me, you back in alarm, but the thing was intent on are now in the hands of Satanists. And I, scratching its ear on the great carved arm of course, am also supposed to be an en- of the throne. thusiastic servant of the Dark One. But, "Be not startled, Dick," said Solaris, of course, you children could be my guests clapping me on the shoulder. "I have seen if I so willed. But will I say you are my them before. They, too, are a relic of the invited guests, or will I let my besotted and far past, still to be found in some of the mindless, cruel and half-mad retainers and southern caverns. Once the ancients bred relatives have their will of you? I know all manner of fearful beasts, as the old not myself why I should be kind to anyone. pictures tell you. Still some of them exist. It never got me much in this world to be On the surface, men have their theories of kind." evolution, but down here we know where Nydia answered. animals and man, too, came from. Is that "It got you what friends you have, I am not right, Master?" and Solaris turned to sure. They are often valuable, are friends. the Dark One's servant on the trone. A friend can stop a knife from your back As the lean, old face studied its answer or a ray from your heart—if he is a true to Solaris, I recalled the children's tales I friend." Nydia's little nose wrinkled, she had read of alchemists and sorcerers and was playing his game, and feigning fear. their "magic" books, with which they pro- "Yes, if he be not' over-avaricious and put duced such fabled beasts from their test the ray on the heart himself. There is that tubes and alembics as the "cockatrice." It about it! But do not worry overmuch; if could be those books came from these cav- they do manage to kill you, I will manage erns, and that the cockatrice was but one of to make it not too painful in ways you the simpler beginner's experiments in the know. I may have inherited more of my magic of life's chemistry that they taught. mother's weak emotions than my father's Then this descendent of Mephisto's made will to destroy. You never know." his answer: ZIGOR MEPHISTO'S COLLECTION OF MENTALIA 39

"Yes, young one, there are many such scarred across one whole side with a fearful thinks we know that surface men do not burn. know, but guess at, and guess wrongly. I had seen such hands before, in the It is too bad that they do not know some zombies of the devil groups, men they things. They would be building us some called "ro." These they used as robots to marvelous machines for pleasure, develop- handle the terrible weapons in a ray-com- ing some strong and beautiful humans, bat. When such weapons overheat, the some devastating female beauty, if they hands of the operators get a ray infection knew the ancient life science they could which rots the fingers off, sometimes does learn from the ancient records. They not heal, but goes on till death results, as should know how the Old Ones lived." in leprosy. "Sacrilege!" remarked Nydia, smiling in "We have guests, my Hugo. See they agreement at the gargoyle face of this dried- have good care, they may amuse me. You up representative of a family so dyed in know how rare that has become for me." blood as to be synonymous in name with The old man nearly smiled at Hugo, but Evil. He did not look so deadly, now that did not move. we had talked, but I was still worried. "Aye, Master. They will not want for Would he turn his face from us did trouble comfort, if they can relieve the dull life we develop, or would he shield us from such lead of late." people as had driven us in here with the The great shoulders of Hugo, gleaming painful heat ray? He cut short my thought in the dim light from the worn out wall by ringing a gong hanging near him, with tubes, preceded us out of the tremendous a small golden hammer. The thing rang room, and down an endless corridor whose and rang, a lovely sample of the antique far reaches were lost in the gloom. metal work, its tone was a marvelous, mel- As we turned a corner into another low note. similar corridor, a sultry-eyed, wide-hipped Answering the ringing note came one of young woman paused to watch us pass. the servants of this mysterious old man on Her long, strong and well-shaped legs the throne. He was attired as was his spread wide, her hands on her hips, she master, in a suit of the gleaming, soft, yet laughed at us as we came near and recited metallic mesh that was the ancient work. a cryptic bit of doggerel, that sounded like I had watched some of the group in Nydia's this: home remaking these garments from the "Meat for the butcher ancient suits that hang sometimes in the Fuel for the fires chambers, left like the machines so long Visitors come healthy ago. To be worn, they must be cut down But soon turn 'liars!" by three-fourths, for the ancients were on I grinned back at her, and said: feet and more in height. an average twenty "Just what can you mean by that?" But the glittering stuff is resistant to the She leaned against the wall of the cor- 2 penetrative rays and is still used for that ridor. Her long, glistening skirt, split to reason, as there is little else that will stop the thigh, ended in a golden girdle riding the passage of the penetray. low on her wide hips. Her torso, bare and narrow-waisted as a young girl's, was a WAS a dull faced man, the servant, HE sensuous invitation to the eyes. A pair peculiarly mutilated, as his hands of metal breast-plates completed her cos- though the fingers ends had all rotted off tume. She looked at me quizzically and a terrible disease in the past. His from some little pityingly in the eye as she answered. fingers were all stumps, and his face was "I mean that the hangers-on here will 2 Some of the war-ray is housed in rooms built make the old man think you are no-good of metal of similar qualities, opaque to the rays, "liars" if they can. All Mephistos are mad, and there is a refuge from which no modern fight- and the old one, sane enough ordinarily, has ers with ray ever yet blasted a quarry. But sel- his weak spot. And he kills all "liars" dom does a foe have time to get into one of these painfully, the very word turns him ber- refuges when attacked, for the suddenness of un- serk. So you, too, will soon be caught in seen attack by ray is disastrous so quickly—death a is on one before one realizes there is trouble. Only lie if these crooked devils that lick his boots continual and unceasing vigilance keeps one alive here can manage it. For they are all so in the caverns. inherently bad that they cannot let anyone 40 AMAZING STORIES simple and good like yourselves stay here eyes, and with the warm life in the curves for long, as the contrast would show up of her. Little Truly, who was sweet on their true characters to the old man. They Solaris herself, watched them both with a all fear to lose their place in Mephisto's jaundiced eye. Solaris said: regard, and strive always to please him, for "Could it be that one like you would care to be kicked out of his protection here to leave with us when we go? You must would mean to face the caverns alone." 3 be weary of this old hole and want to see None of us knew what to say. Our re- somewhat of the rest of the world before ception by the old man had seemed so age creeps into your bones and rots the favorable after our scare upon our arrival beauty out of you. With Solaris, you outside, that the sudden news that we were would enjoy life." not out of danger was not welcome. Nydia She smiled a warm smile at Solaris. offered: "It might be that with such as you I ' We can get along with old Mephisto, if would go if minded that way. I will think you can help us with the others for a day upon the offer. Now go to your ro"oms and or so. We do not intend to stay long." I will try to watch over you while you The woman looked at us, as though sizing sleep. And it may be you will one day us up more carefully, then launched into a watch over me and see that no harm comes swift series of instructions. to me." "Watch yourselves all the time. When "That may well be, if I have my way," you are' with the old man, disclaim im- was Solaris' answer, and we all knew that mediately any strange words that issue what was meant was a great deal, for we from your mouth, for they will control you had often stood watch—in fact, all of us and make you say exactly those things took our turns at watching over the sleep best calculated to set him into a rage; and of the rest every night. Yet here we had when in anger he is still a bloody, ruthless no rays with which to watch. So we knew man, who cares no more for human life than she was going to watch and felt more easy does a shark. If you fail to watch every- about going to bed weaponless and un- thing of the kind, if you let this blind girl guarded. say things you think are not her words, it That night we composed ourselves to will be too bad. You must say at once sleep, but with little success. Some of any one of you seems under evil ray con- Mephisto's mad company, whom we had trol: 'That is not his self speaking, that heard but had not yet seen, decided we comes from some make-ray around here needed entertainment. In the night we somewhere.' The old fellow will know were drifting into unconsciousness, among then what is going on and not blame you. the soft covers spread on the floor which Buit if you fail to watch such things, sooner Hugo had brought us when "it" began to or later they will cause him to lose his tem- happen. per and destroy you, even though he would The long couch, which was the largest regret it later terribly, he could not help piece of furniture in the room, and on himself. His hangers-on do not allow any which Nydia and Truly had made their one else to live here for they are all half- bed, suddenly refused to obey the old- mad. I have had the ear of Mephisto for fashioned law of gravity and took to many years and he trusts me, but even I floating in the air. We knew it was some- am sometimes under his suspicions. It is a one playing with the levitator mech some- place full of mad people, and I would get where in the great pile, trying to frighten my business over with and get away from, and mystify us, as is the mischievous way here before something happens—you gflrf- of so many of the mad of the caverns. But not survive. If you need me, ask for Ch'iio." this was worse than that, for the great crush SOLARIS was much taken with the sul- weight of the thing kept trying to us against the wall. Nydia and Truly clung try, insolent yet friendly stare of her desperately to it as it reared about the 3 Travelers in the caves must keep a watch fore room like a captive balloon in a gale. Then -mi aft, and to both sides, with long range ray- the couch rushed toward the ceiling, v'ew beams. It cannot be done by one man alone. heavy against To travel alone means to be shot in the back by trying to smash the two girls the the mad. flesh -eat in'- nomads of the caves, who stone, but they slipped off the side into our rc.isb. nothing so much as a human carcass. arms. ZIGOR MEPHISTO'S COLLECTION OF MENTALIA 41

Instantly the great couch fell like a stone the living flesh of a fiend in a woman's body, upon us. As it crashed to the floor, two of and from her bands streamed the lure, the the metal legs of the thing bent like putty doping compulsion of the pleasure stim- with the force of the fall. The crash must rays I was familiar with as the most seduc- have awoke Chlio, our sultry-eyed friend, ing and irresistible of the ancient's works. for she called over the invisible telaug beam This force of irresistible allure surrounded into the room. this evil-eyed female with a strength greater "Is anyone hurt?" than any physical force could resist. I answered a little roughly, for falling I felt her hands on my shoulders, and I asleep on watch is unforgivable under the was frozen. She bent and her sharp teeth conditions of cavern life. For it is by sank into my neck. And even as I felt that inducing sleep with a nerve deadening ray in spite of all my knowledge that such that the dero's overcome a watch and kill things were always an illusion produced by a whole group in their sleep. the antique mechanisms, a superstitious "No, but small thanks to your careful horror froze me immovable in her terrible watch. Some of us had better help you embrace. Then as gradually as dawn-light keep awake." another presence grew into being in the "That might be wise," she answered, room, and the face of the luxurious lipped laughing. "Particularly if it were you or Chlio came out of the shadow, filling the that nice young Solaris. Come, I will guide room with an unearthly, almost divine aura you." from the God-ray mech she was using. She I looked at Nydia, and stood in doubt, seized the solid-seeming hypnotic-powered for the sensual, frank thought of Chlio had ray projection of the mad girl by the shoul- not been entirely concealed from us on the der, and led her back—out of my sight. The beam, and she was no woman to spend a twin vision, as opposed as Heaven and Hell, night with without suspicion and Nydia's disappeared. heart was one I had no wish to hurt. Soon after, I heard a mad screaming, as Solaris understood, and nothing loath, went of an insane woman being beaten, and I to the door and left, guided by a thought was bothered no more that night. beam from Chlio, somewhere overhead. THE next day we were called to re-enter ONE would have thought that would the presence of Mephisto at an early have ended the night's mysterious hour. In the ever-dark caves, time—sun- happenings, but I was reckoning without light and dark; noon and midnight—are knowledge of the mad bunch who festered exactly the same except for the clock. Too, there under old Mephisto's once iron hand. there is always a ray watching something in I was just drifting into a dream of days the sunlit world overhead, piercing up when Nydia used to come to me in my pris- through the rock to bring the vision of sun- on cell, and her flower-sweet face was drift- light and green leaves down to the screens ing closer and closer to my own, my mind of the vision rays, and one senses day and was slipping into a soft blackness that was night by these two things. her imagined embrace crossed with the We found the lean old Lord of the Dark- gentle blackness of night itself, when the ness in his library, this was that library face that was Nydia's contorted savagely, where countless ancestors' acquisitions had swiftly—and facing me instead was the red- accumulated, brought from far ends of the lit eyes, the snarling over-ripe lips, the cavern world to one or another of the Me- sharp teeth, the reaching hungry hands of phisto's homes, and then to this place where some horrible vampire. A demoness was the Mephisto's great Zigor had assembled wrapping her mental self about my soul. it all together in the single great collection. I woke with a curse for it is great mental Records and spools of thought were stacked pain to see the image of one's beloved turn in endless tiers in a vast room, and several into the face of a revolting ghoul of the great record-reader-mech stood about the medieval darkness, and as I opened my chamber. This modern, aged, scion of the eyes, I cursed again. ancient family waved a hand at his ances- For still before me in the darkness floated tor's collection of the immense and usually the very face that had frightened me awake. enigmatic ancient wisdom that the spools It was not unreal, not a projection, it was of wire and metal micro-film represented, 42 AMAZING STORIES

and we felt as though the door to all wisdom "VTOW the old man opened up a new had been opened to us. ^ section of the record files, saying: I wish I could tell you the marvels those "What have I been showing you are from antique records made live in our minds as the very far past before the original Elder the records played and we were wafted into race left our earth. But this section is the ancient times when the world was young from a later time, and is the history of our and life was perfect—a wonderland of rich family from its beginnings, both before and experience—a place of no death and less after they came to earth. As the story disease — a place where accomplishment comes down into historical times, I will and learning were the order of every day pick the most revealing; those bits of rec- and no man lay down to sleep without ord which show what are, to me, the turning his hands having seen a mass of work and points in the history of the caves and the play accomplished, such as we moderns do fortunes of the Mephisto family. The nof get into a lifetime. For there is no records cease about one hundred years ago, telling in our weak modern words and after the first Mephisto came here under thought symbols what the ancients were or America and established himself, the Zigor what wisdom and life experience are packed of whom you have heard. I came here into their thought-records, for one gets but with my following much later, quite re- a sort of "skim" over the vastness of such cently, and this pile had been deserted for a display of mighty thought energy, and fifty years when I arrived. that thin sight of ours sees more than one "Luckily the place had remained un- man can ever convey to another with this touched, as the nomads have a superstitious poor medium. fear of the place." Old Mephisto proved tireless and very We reclined in a circle on lounges about knowing as to what we most wished to see, the massive dream-mech, with which Me- and I suspected as the day wore on that phisto had chosen to display this part of our dark-eyed friend, Chlio, of the evening the collection. I thought to myself how before was still watching us sleeplessly over fortunate it was that this store of cavern her telaug beam and was reading our minds history had been preserved through the for our purposes and telling the old man's vagaries of time and fortune to this day, mind what it was we wished to learn; that and how infinitely valuable they would be he was really laying himself out for us to a group of ambitious young technical because his dark-eyed "watcher" wished men from the surface and how much they it so. And I was mightily pleased to see would get of value to men from it all. this evidence of love and care for us in But now old Mephisto had swung a ray these two and realized from many strange separately upon each of us, and as he happenings that these two were all that turned the record release, we drifted into kept the ancient pile of wonder and wisdom a land of dream, a vivid place of more from becoming such another horror-hole reality by far than the world of the ordi- as one can find only in the madness and nary senses, for the old records were made wonder and struggle of the world below by the master race and are productive of the earth. much stronger sensations than natural We learned much of different kinds of when augmented by the powerful aug- weapons and their uses that we proposed mentors. to apply when we returned to our home and * * * to our struggle with the human djinni, the devils migrant from far Africa who beset VX^E AWOKE upon a world of metal, " us there. * where titanic towers plunged upward We learned, too, that the make of these into the blinding white of the clouds and things was not beyond us, that we could were lost to view. The soil of the planet now repair and get into running order had been, as far as the eye could see, sealed many things we had been unable to use over with rustless, impervious metal, and before. The dero from afar are full of on this foundation the vast metal living unthinking, and never try to do aught for places of this race of the past of some themselves, often making of wonder-work far world of space had been reared—and a wreck and an ugly nothingness, over reared so tremendously that nowhere could which they gloat. one see the top of anything. Between the — —

ZIGOR MEPHISTO'S COLLECTION OF MENTALIA 43

towers so fantastically vaulting skyward circling down, down and crashing into the were suspended the roads, the connecting water of a great, calm sea. The record told arteries of the huge planet city's parts. The me in some way that this was the Mediter- world whirled giddily as the eye of the ranean before it had acquired that name. recorder swung into a focus upon the Gar- Our great penetray beams reached out gantuan structure near at hand, and whirled and down, searching the water and the again as we seemed to be borne in the rock below, for still afar could be heard air and magically inserted within the in- the thunder of the pursuit rockets aug- terior of the building. mented by our detectors. Now down and Somebody was in hot water! A group of down, we crashed toward some hiding-hole swarthy men were scatered about the great the rays had spied out of the rocky bottom chamber, peering out the windows over of the sea. A long tube of hollowness could the snouts of ugly ray-weapons into the be seen on the screens far below, and this cloud-wrack of the sky outside. Far in the ended in a great metal door on the sea's distance, the gleaming bodies of a dozen bottom. This hollowness I knew was the planes swung down from the shielding surface ending^ of one of the under-earth clouds as they neared, and as swiftly swept tunnels that form a network over all earth. up into the alternate white-and-grey hov- Our beams reached out ahead of us, wrench- ering mass of mist again. For the men ing magnetically at the mechanism of the within the chamber threw a bolt of deadly door, and the lock swung open as we came, energy at every gleaming sky-fish that letting us in—closing behind us. As swiftly showed a fin. Some preparations for de- the inner door opened protestingly, creak- parture seemed going on, files were burned ingly—an age already had the door waited and an elevator appeared, was swiftly unused—and we shot through, flying now loaded and shot upward out of sight again. just above the dry floor of a cavern under Ten minutes of this intensive defense went the sea. On and on, down and down, the on, the swarthy men then dropped their ship careened, narrowly missing the fate weapons and boarded the elevator. It shot that the slightest unsureness of control up and up dizzily, and when we stepped would have meant: death in a crushing out, the windows through which one peered blast of weight and momentum as the fuel at the sky outside were shrouded and wet exploded in the crash against the walls. with the clouds obscuring all sight. But it did not happen, and at last our Now they mounted a flight of steps and leader cried out and pointed ahead—where emerged on a platform, the height of which arose the great doors that meant: Within must have been dizzying. Poised on the lies a city, a forgotten city built here by platform that was the center of the down- some ancients unknown to us. sloping roof was a long, slim ship. Its nose, from which projected a deadly looking W/^\VER the great gates of the city were ray-cathode for space use, slanted up at a these words, "THE CITY OF DIS." sharp angle. The men scrambled in and These doors likewise opened to the the ship blasted up and away—into the searching, pulling rays under our leader's space above that was swiftly the utter cold swift fingers. This leader's name I knew of space. "Mephistopheles." Into the vast city of Far below a pursuit of five long ships tremendous dwellings we shot, turning and flamed after, but the men laughed ex- searching—for what? At last I knew as we citedly, and seemed confident that their settled on a huge square pile from which the ship would not be overtaken. long electrode snouts of ray-cannon pro- Now the mind was told of the lapse of truded. With shouts we piled out of the some twenty years4 and then the ship was ship as she slid to a halt. "Now let them come—with this arma- * In a record such as this, long periods of time ment we will give them a welcome." are indicated at times, by simple "indication" I knew again, from the dogged pursuit, that is, one is mentally told that a certain period that no twenty years had elapsed since we has elapsed and believes it—although in truth but lifted a few seconds elapse, the seeming impression on from that unbelievable city of metal, the memory can be of years or even tens of thou- gargantuan towers, but that some paradox

sands of years ; but for that matter, light years may of space-time-speed had conquered some have been meant, and not actual earthly years. unit of space called by a mental symbol —

AMAZING STORIES

similar to our year. One can never fully "Where are you and what is this about understand these alien concepts involving Lording it over us? We serve no man but a knowledge of the nature of energy and our own interests only. Come, show your- space unknown to us. self that we may know what you are." Behind us the pursuit had found the Far below the fortress we heard a great water-lock into the caves on the sea bottom, rumbling, and a clanking of chains. We and had followed our ion trail, "smelling" shot a penetray downward, searching, but us out painfully through all the turns and the ray was blocked by a great mass of im- branches of the tortuously contrived cav- pervious metal that is sometimes used to erns of the Elder Ones. As they came into sheath shelter-chambers and war-ships from sight of our penetrays, we blasted at them dis-rays of all kinds. with the mighty old cannon, and one by We followed our ray down and down, one the ships heated under the fearful by many winding turns, and found at the force-flows, and exploded under the titanic last a tremendous sealed door. And on charges of Jovian lightning thrown right the door was written a legend of warning, through the living rock. Not a ship es- which we might not wholly read, for it was caped to tell where we had run to cover, in a strange language and not the universal for we searched, after the battle, for their Mantong of all space. Heeding it not, we ion trails left by the jets, and even the burned off the metal seals of the door, and guard-ship they had left outside was caught found within a sight that wrung our hearts, by us. We were safe from the knowledge for we still had hearts of a kind then. or pursuit of the hated Patrol. This would Ruthless, warlike, grasping we may have be our home now. been, but still warm human emotions some- When we returned from hunting down times held us in their sway as well. the last of the pursuit, and settled again upon the great square-cut fortress in the A VAST giant of a man lay inside, weird, lost City of Dis, a strange thing wrapped in endless turns of heavy happened to .us that changed our lives for- chains and beside him a food-tablet syn- ever from the path in which they had been thesizer machine showed us what had kept cut. him alive. A water-pipe poured into a As we set up our homes within the great fountain at his side. The stench of the chambers of the fortress, and busied our- place was frightful. As we loosened the selves repairing the ravages that time and giant's chains, he smiled upon us. But some slight corrosion had occasioned to the there was that about him which should weapons and life-machinery of the place, have given us pause, even though we were as the water flowed again into long unused not men easily given to fear. Horns there pipes and fountain bowls about the great were upon his head and a dark and sour city, a strange great voice came into the face, but such imprisonment does not make fortress! It was a giant's voice, and lone- for beauty or a cheerful face. We our- liness and despair had ingrained themselves selves were dark men, and of a hairy breed, into the timbre of the voice, so that it and the cloven hoof upon his right leg seemed the soul of the great empty city the beast that was crossed into his ancestry that spoke. sometime in the past we recognized for "I have watched your interloping activ- what it was—the mark of those Titans of ity! This is my home, but I have done the parts of space where they breed with nothing, for I did not know whether to other strange races called the "variform" kill you or not. But now that you have Titan, a thing we had heard of but had decided to remain, to make a home here, never seen. you may as well learn who is the Lord and We unwrapped the massive chains from Master here, and whom it is you will about him, for a Titan is known over all serve." space for wisdom, and we could use such The titanic strength of the voice, the ter- knowledge. The while he discoursed in his rible nature of the character as displayed thought-voice, in phrases and picture sym- by the voice, impressed us as no thing ever bols strange and outlandish to us, and had before. We searched and found no smacking of a vast antiquity. Of the fate source—the voice was wholly within our that had come upon him, the mighty minds, by our finding! Sathanas of Nor. Of Nor, the great space ZISOR MEPHISTO'S COLLECTION OF MENTALIA 45

Empire that lay between our own regions for the fire that consumed this giant of and that dark and impenetrable region lust. Sathanas had fastened himself upon taboo to all but the Gods of the Dark us and his brain was such that we could Spaces called the Elder Ones, who rule find no way to loosen his hold upon us and over Nor and other Empires from afar. only death rewarded those who tried. We We had heard of these things, and it did could do nothing but serve slavishly, and not lessen our respect for the evident great those who did so serve, he debauched with strength and apparent ability of this giant pleasures such as we had never imagined that he was of that race. I knew myself existed. And in time he released our that the men of Nor are not variforms, leader who became his chief lieutenant. but his thought pictures as he talked ex- His name was Mephistopheles, and he could plained all this and more, and his vast size not resist the persuasive mind of Sathanas, and age as well explained much to us, for nor could he resist the tempting pleasures we had heard of these immortal races but that made up the life of Sathanas' inner did not believe in them, and had ourselves confidants. And our leader became one then not any great length of life; none of of these—and somehow we knew that this us being known to live for more than a wizard from alien space had done some- thousand years. It seemed from his talk thing to Mephistopheles, for he was never that the "accursed" Aesir had imprisoned the same man—but a dour, unpleasant him there instead of killing him when they fellow and not himself at all. had evacuated all the better groups of And the record showed us the vast people from earth—those people known as under-world rule that Sathanas built with the Lesser or Latter Gods, and had not the aid of these men, a world of tremendous killed him for fear they might lose their slavery, of endless debauchery, of utter way in space and have to return here to distortion of the character of man into their old home to prepare a new start another thing by his arts with the growth toward their goal — "goal" being a life rays and cutting rays with which he under a dark star that gave no light. This changed both the bodies and brains of the we did not understand, and the giant gave men and women under his rule. (And the us no light on the matter. Except that the Hell that Sathanas built was understood by "Aesir" had considered his brain valuable, me as no other thing could explain it—for yet had hated him so much they could I saw it as it was, and the record was so not bear to kill him. They had chosen to made that I was conscious always of being condemn him to an eternity of imprison- one of these people, though which one was ment here deep under the rocks of Mother I, I could never quite learn). And that Earth's thickest crust—an eternity of vast city grew under his vile hands into a longing and waiting. We pitied him, but thing where no man had a will of his own, that only shows what great fools men can but only a will to serve his master Sathanas, be when confronted with the devious ways and no woman wanted any pleasure or love of a superior brain, for Sathanas was taking or admiration but only Sathanas, and all no chances of estranging our hearts until the children that were born there were the he had us in his power. So the days went children of Sathanas. Some few men, such by while the giant slept and ate and drank, as Mephistopheles, whom he needed for and studied us and our ways of life. their skills in ways he lacked, he was careful to allow them some modicum of self-will, THEN the day came when Sathanas and these men had their own women who calmly took our loved leader in his bore them children. But the rest of the great hands and shut him up in the same city seemed to exist only to serve the will dungeon from which he had been released. and the whims and pleasures of this vast Hence forward, he announced, Sathanas body of appetite—Sathanas. would give the orders in this City of Dis. And day by day the orders increased and HpIME passed, and men .grew and died we brought in slaves from the upper world * about him, and gradually the mind of —wild men of the forests, cultured men of the thing that was Sathanas changed, cities of the east, the big white bodies of though the gradual change was almost un- the barbarians of the North and all the noticed by the mortals that served him, people of earth we culled over to get fuel for they came and went, were born and 46 AMAZING STORIES

died, while Sathanas went on immortally "Yes, I am what is left of all that, and from the great strength that was in him. I am as discouraged as you at going on And this change was greater and greater with it all. For what is it all but a steady blood madness, a viler cruelty, an insanity slipping from the great pinnacles of the that grew and grew until all his days were rich life of the past into the poverty and spent in tormenting and murdering the ignorance and misery of these present poor mortals, and his servants spent their days. But still, even in me who inherits time in bringing more and more victims the evil, wild blood of those Mephistos, for the pleasures of the mad thing that even in me flows some hope that the future Sathanas had become. And his chief men may turn a path back into the light that became those who flattered him by affect- is science and wisdom again. So it is I ing the same madness for blood that brood- befriend you, though my instincts say to ed in Sathanas, and he drew his favor from kill you and be left in peace; left no need all others and gave it only to those who of thought or effort; left to lie in the stim pleased him by devising new and longer and enjoy the smile of Chlio, and her lasting torments for the hordes of humans artistry with the stim. Instead of that, I that were brought before him. send her with you, and the Devil help my And Mephistopheles at last left the last days without her." bloody mess, and went Northward, and the records showed no more of Sathanas, T SAT up, and looked about. Chlio had but only the family that was now called -*- come in while we dreamed in the record "Mephisto" and their ways. And they sleep, and she smiled upon us, and all the fought northward through the cavern sensuous soul of her was in her eyes, warm mazes, and the hordes of the people called and alive and somehow good in spite of "Pixies," called gnomes, called trolls, her life, or perhaps because its evil had fought and fled before the might of the taught her that after all only goodness was vast giant that was Mephisto 's power, be- sense. fore the great and irresistible weapons that Old Mephisto reached up a claw-like he bore on his air-floating ships, and ter- hand and stroked the firm, smooth flesh of rible was the waste and death as the Me- her arm, saying: phistos carved out a waste of emptiness in "It's just as well the rest of the crew the cavern life in which to live alone. here have kept out of your way, as I told And a sadness at the slaughter that con- them. Saved us all a lot of unpleasant- sumed always the best of the life and ness. Now go, and may our Mother Earth things in these records was with one always watch over you. Hugo will watch the mad as the scenes passed, as the time sweep ones, and the others had better mind their reached into the tens of thousands of years, step, for my temper has a short rein as I as the Mephistos changed faces, and gen- grow older. And no Mephisto was ever erations came and went, but ever the war noted for mildness." And for an instant and the killing went on, and ever the a Hell-flame smouldered in his eyes, and I people who were called "Faerie" fought knew that old Mephisto was watching, with them, little blond people of a mighty guarding his emotions, fearing the insanity science, but fearfully handicapped by their that had come sooner or later to all of his lack of size, and the power that was Sa- family, and I pitied him. tanism spread, and the power that was As we rose, thinking how best to say good and gentle in the caverns diminished, our goodby to this old man, who had and the number of faces that were gentle brought from out of his inheritance of an and sane grew fewer and fewer as the cen- evil nature—of a character the reverse of turies flashed past on the rapid flowing rec- noble—the power to be sane and noble, ords, and the madness and degradation of as we thought how to say what we thought the people that yet lived in the great cavern of this effort that showed on his face in world great ever greater, their lives less lines of great strain—as we all of us hesi- and less cultured, their artistry of pleasure, tated in an inner awe at this old man who of science, disappeared, and at the end of had managed to be human in spite of every it all nothing remained but the lean, dour influence to be inhuman—those creatures face of one old man, who was gently shak- who had so far remained hidden from our ing me awake. And he said: eyes in frustration, in an embarrassed frus- ZIGOR MEPHISTO'S COLLECTION OF MENTALIA 47 tration at being unable to wreak their will "DEHIND the tall, unkempt, fierce-faced upon us—now found their opportunity. figure of young Zigor appeared now Into the room of the ancient records, into the face of an old woman. Her hair was this library of sinister but somehow hal- a tangle of madness, nearly white and un- lowed antiquity, into this room where the combed for years, apparently. It hung to wisdom of the whole vast past of earth had her knees about a body that betrayed miraculously been preserved under the with every move a kind of madness that I fragile hand of one old man, under the knew too well, and feared too much—the watchful guardianship of one old man, one madness of Evil. Her toothless mouth was young woman and one loyal servant—into split in a hideous grin, and she cackled this room where we feared to breathe too constantly, evilly, a cachination that no heavily for fear of obliterating one little witch of legend ever equalled for its hor- thought wave from one brittle old metal rible glee. micro-film staggered the blood-dabbled fig- "Hee, hee, you old double-crosser—you ure of that servant—Hugo. think to keep your own wife and son shut ." "Master, your son . . and from Hugo's here in these dungeons, when the whole straining lips gushed, instead of words, a cavern world should be groveling at our torrent of blood and he fell at his aged feet." master's feet. Behind him in the doorway Old Mephisto, for some reason, looked at stood a tall, lean unkempt figure that must blind Nydia, and began to speak in a tired, have much resembled the old Mephisto, defeated voice. fifty years ago. The old man leaped to "Nydia, when I came here, I thought his feet in a moment's return of his young much as these two mad creatures do, that strength at this intrusion of sudden death with the wisdom of the nature of the upon our peaceful parting words. The old antique weapons those records of the past man croaked out: contain, I could regain the ancient dominion "Zigor, what the Devil has happened? over the caverns that the Mephistos en- Is this your deed, you young fiend? Ordered joyed in bygone times. But when I had I not you to keep your quarters while read them all, and seen what evil and de- these children from afar were with us? struction, what terrific loss and sorrow and Must you bring your vileness before the horrible endless pain the Mephisto family ?" eyes of humans . . . The sudden strength has meant to all the world for so many that had come to the old man at the centuries, some fragment of manhood still emergency left him, and his attempt to existent in the Mephisto fibre—or else the over-awe the young scion of the evil line spirit of my mother within me—rose up and failed of weakness. He sank to his chair, choked the Devil of madness within me, and gasping for breath. As he looked down I resolved that never again, while I had the at Hugo, tears came to his old eyes, and he will to stop it, should a Mephisto rule any- looked what he was—a broken old man one or fight for anything with these destroy- with no reed to lean upon, now that his ing weapons on this dark globe of pain and loyal servant was dead. blood and endless loss. It was then I shut "Your time has come, father!" Young these two up in their rooms, and have since Zigor's voice was exultant, evidently this left them out for no reason. Now all has was a deed he had planned for a long, long gone for naught—all those good intentions time. I formed after much thought upon what the "I have taken your orders for the last records revealed to me—what they meant time. From now on you will keep to your in truth. I am sorry that it must be you and quarters under my orders, and eat your your friends who suffer, for I can see no crackers and gruel in peace. I will shoul- fault in you, and I know I am right. There der the burdens of authority. You old fool, is no wisdom in Evil, but only foolishness 1 think you a Mephisto can be cooped up like One sweet word from such as you, Nydia, a chicken? There is more in the blood is worth more, someway, than all the do- than that, in spite of the squeamishness minion that Evil can offer. But, in truth, that has come over you of late. This night Evil destroys its own dominion, so that it Satan will receive his due, and you, Chlio, is a false thought that Evil can offer any- will take your rightful place ... at the thing." ." altar. . . Nydia, smiling in the face of our sudden 48 AMAZING STORIES

ill-fortune, answered the broken old man. the torture of victims, resulting in the "You have that word, my Lord. Your mental conviction that only in sadistic in- wisdom, from one who has tried both Good dulgence could "real" pleasure be obtained. and Evil, is worth to me quite an equal No defense was possible \o us, the over- amount. I thank you, for the wise old turn of directive power was sudden and man that you are." complete. They all carried hand rays, "Another reason for my anger," cried deadly little wands that paralyze, or car- young Zigor, who I noticed was not going to ried coils of rope, whose purpose I did not leave anyone else the center of the stage, have to guess for long. Swiftly Solaris and "is the fact that you. show these strangers myself were bound, and the little men did the secrets of our ancestors when you have not bother to carry us, they just dragged not allowed me even inside this room be- us down the corridor and dumped us in one fore. « Well, it is my room now, and here- of the innumerable vacant rooms—those after I shall say who comes and goes across vacant rooms that served as a continual the threshold!" reminder of what should be there and isn't: wise men from the surface studying the OEHIND the old hag, who had once antique mechanisms for the tremendous -*J been, perhaps, a regal creature and fit science that still lies here waiting for the mate for a rich and powerful Mephisto, intelligent inquirer. but was now only a crazy old witch of the What would become of the three girls, under-world, were trooping in a score of how they would fare at the hands of this creatures, carrying various weapons, and young heir of a line as bloody and fiendish ranging themselves behind the young Zigor. as the Mephistos—this young Zigor, whose They were, some dozen of them, dwarfish, temper I had surmised from his father's at- twisted-limbed products of the more ig- titude towards him; was what mainly wor- norant life of the caverns, for only those ried me, rather than my own fate. The with the wisdom regularly to use the more awful dark of the caverns closed in on us beneficial rays of the old mech grow up with the clanging of the metal door, and without rickets or worse, a complete dwarf- into that black was plunged all my hopes ing and distortion of the whole frame due for a future with Nydia; a future of build- to lack of sunlight. On their faces was a ing from the ancient science a new race of frustration, a pouting, as of a drug addict men, wise and able as the ancient races denied his drug—it was evident that the were. Too, I knew that death by torment old Mephisto had not let them do as they was the least evil we could expect. May- pleased of late, and that the young Zigor hap something far worse would be our fate, Mephisto had promised to let them have for the tales I had heard, and the things their "usual" pleasures. Having seen some- I had seen done by those raised to the evil what of these "usual" pleasures among tradition of cavern life—such as the things various nomadic people of the caves, I from Africa which had laid seige to our had no wish to be the victim. The other home-place—told me there are fates far eight of the score of people behind the worse than death. Which was what wor- young Zigor and his mother, the bent and ried me about Nydia, for the more sensi- evil crone, were tall, well-formed, and not tive a person, the more idealistic and finely ugly, but on their faces was the stigma, tempered the person, the more greatly do the sign of enslavement to evil, and it was the mind-wrecking rays of the sadists cause all too plain that with Zigor they expected pain. For to see your own mind made a gratification of those appetites, the in- thing not your own, not yourself at all; to dulgence in which has rendered all life in see all the careful work of years in building the cavern world sterile and barren of good the thing that is "yourself" made into an for men. For the use of stim rays can be unrecognizable morass of uncontrollable a good thing, a glorious enrichment of life; desires, of filthy overpowering lusts that or it can be a horrible vice, a complete tool seem one's own; of made desires to kill for evil enslavement of all the appetites and and maim and torture arise and take root inner action springs of a man's mind. Under in your own brain as part of your charac- the tutorship of such as the old crone, I ter; that sort of thing can cause a mental knew it could only be an evil thing, a false anguish more terrifyingly painful than any stimulation of the pleasure senses during physical pain. —

ZISOR MEPHISTO'S COLLECTION OF MENTALIA 49

To do these things to the brain of men sufficiently Mephistophelian for anyone's was one of the arts, the traditional teach- taste. Inside me a cold shiver grew swiftly ings of Satanists, the allied cults and pro- to a great dread, a glimpse into the dark ceedings of the mad life of the caverns wastes where human emotions and human and all the good and wise work that tries nature do not dwell, but where Demons so hard, so tenaciously through the years and similar unbelievable products of life has been unable to wipe out these age-old are birthed—a glimpse into an inferno of practices—those practices by which normal ice, fire and evil where this modern Devil children are made to grow up into devils had acquired his basilisk stare, his veno- by which sane men are made into ravening mous soul, his pride and will toward death beasts; by which a wise man is made into for all things not immediately useful to a sleepwalking zombie whose will is only him. to do as he is told if he be able. Those How did I know this Zigor was evil, you things were what I feared for my gentle ask? How does one know the winter is Nydia, for her knowledge of the wisdom coming when the leaves turn brown and fall of the antique mechanism's uses and care from the trees? How does one know that made her invaluable, but she could hardly fire burns? How does one know anything? be used by Evil without some change in her How does one know the scorpion is not a inner Nature being brought about to bend thing to fondle? One glance from his eyes, her to such purpose. now that he had thrown off all need for the hiding of his nature, now that he had HPHE dark hours dragged by, filled only seized the reins of his life from the aging * with these apprehensions. At last the hands of his father—some evil thing had dwarfish minions of the younger Mephisto leaped from concealment and taken its returned, and once again dragged us out place upon his face. The heritage of the and down the corridor like two bags of un- past had claimed him, I knew. No wisdom wanted rubbish. would turn his face from the fire of evil by Into that great old chamber of past mag- any lovely "syllogism," no matter how nificence and might, the glorious throne correct. For us there was only a waiting room of the Elder ones who built this and at the last a death. I knew that no mighty fortress—the same vast chamber words would change this creature's intent where the older Mephisto had welcomed us toward us and toward all men's sons. —the dwarfs dragged us, casting us before Zigor leaned forward over me, his face the throne where the young Zigor sat now. moody, anxious to have someone envious, He stretched out a foot and stirred me with anxious to show what he had done in seiz- a touch on the shoulder, looking down tri- ing back the ancient power of his family. umphantly into my light-dazzled eyes. "You think that I over-estimate my own He was no longer the disheveled prisoner, importance, that I have but a score of but had donned finery, some old suit from half-mad creatures to do my bidding, that the stores of his ancestors had tickled his it will not be long ere some coup of the fancy. It was, I swear, two hundred years wild ray-fighters of the far caves will end old if it was a day, preserved by the magical me, eh? Well, I know the power that lies hermetic sealing of some antique closet, in possession of these antique weapons. I adopted by these latter day interlopers for know what can be done in a short time with that use. It was a suit such as Hamlet these things, does one have the will to do might have worn, such as John Barrymore it. I have that will and I know the way! would have delighted in for the part, a I have read a part of these records denied brilliantly bejeweled short coat, with belt me by my father. I have seen just how the and dagger, sparkling in the light with ancient Giant from far space, Sathanas, jeweled hilt and scabbard. His hose were sent above ground for men and women to sleek and reached clear to the thigh, where build his power down here to a great and the puffed and slashed short breeches com- overwhelming machine, which none other in pleted the ensemble. I snickered, for the the caves could withstand. Well, I shall theatrical attempt to look the great Lord do precisely the same. Every weapon that was so palpable. Sathanas used, every move he made, can be "So, you find me amusing!" Zigor glow- copied precisely. Those weapons can be ered down upon me, his lean dark face found again, and the technical engineers 50 AMAZING STORIES and mechanics I shall bring from the sur- tion of all those things in life which may face will make all my work easier than his, be enjoyed. To you, of the surface people, for he had to train every one of his men, enjoyment of life is not so much a goal as while I can get trained men from a dozen with those who know about such things, sources. here in the caverns. For money and power "Gold lies by the ton in these vaults, and may bring you better food and more wom- the sheathing of many of these abandoned en, but cannot really greatly enhance any machines is of gold, and of alloys even more of yours pleasures—and any poor man with precious to the upper world, did they but a beautiful wife gets more of the goodness have them to know the value. I shall build of life, than a rich man with an ugly wife such a trade with the surface as the under- and the gout in his feet by far. world has not had since Sathanas drew his "Down here, that is not true. For power last earthly breath and lifted again into the can bring a man a multiplicity of the night skies in his vast ship. For men, I pleasure machines, of variant stim rays, of shall give gold; for slaves, jewels; and for which there are in the endless caverns a information, I shall barter crumbs of tech- store never touched by latter-day men nical information from the vast store repre- since the Elder race abandoned earth. sented by these machines. Yes, the surface Power and money can bring a man bene- shall staff my palaces with slaves, my ficial rays and health machines which vast- armies with well paid soldiery, my labora- ly increase his life span, his health, his tories and workshops with willing workers. ability to withstand the pleasures of dis- You will not live to see it, too sad to tell." sipation. Growth rays can build vast strength within the body, strength that "T do not blame you for ambition, Zigor. among other things increase his ability to -*- Every man is ambitious, but why did enjoy women and stim rays. These things your father thwart your ambition? He is you do not fully understand, though not a fool, your father." you may have seen somewhat of them. You "He fears that because I am a Mephisto do not fully understand all the intricacies everything I do will turn into blood and of their influence upon our life. This is war and death, as it did for all our ances- what my father was depriving me of—and tors. He does not know that great things what no man is going to deprive me of. cannot be done without a little bickering, Do you hear! No man shall stand between and eggs cannot be eaten without cracking me and my will to have the endless pleas- a shell or two. And I fear yours will be ures of those ancient Gods!" one of the first to crack. "Well, I see little to stop you except your "Why should you wish to do us harm? own fumbling ineptness. Why think that We have nothing whatever to do with you we oppose you, except insofar as you are a or your aims." danger to our existence? Why make ene- "It so happens that the tools I must use mies of us when we wish nothing but to go right now require some sating in blood and our way in peace. It has always seemed to torment} it is their nature, as you may me that ambitious men defeat themselves have observed if you have lived long in the chiefly by their habit of making enemies caverns. To use them, I must pander to where none existed, and of fearing what their appetites. So, to make my omelet, would not happen did they not fear it, and I must begin by breaking eggs." so move against it and make of a nothing a "It would seem wiser to begin your ca- combat. Is that not your chief trouble, reer with tools more amenable to the hand, the enemies that stand between you and than things that cannot be controlled with- your will?" out pandering to their every whim. For "There is truth in what you say, but my instance, ourselves here are valuable, and method will automatically eliminate error. know much of these things you must know I intend to take those records you have to get far on your chosen path." been so studious as to examine under my "It might seem so to you, but they will father's eye, hook them up in a ro-mech, serve. I have a method of doing what I and run the whole outfit from that ro-mech intend to do—to grow great and powerful, at full aug. Do you understand?" to build myself a machine of these available "No, I don't understand. What is a ro- men and weapons—a tool for the acquisi- mech?" — —

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" A ROMECH is a device which aug- of Sathanas' possession had been clad in ** ments thought so strongly that any- one of the early records of his rule in the one who hears it obeys it and does as it caverns, and it was a strange and outre dictates. These Sathanas records should sensation to be reenacting the whole ancient reproduce in actual occurrence those same scene again—a sensation of living over events which led him to power on earth." something one had not lived, but knew of. "But you are not Sathanas! The record That sensation one has sometimes unex- will make no one but an actual Sathanas plainedly—looking upon some strange master. Who, then would be the master, scene, one realizes one has seen it before, and the other characters on the records but in truth one has not. It was like that, how could they respond? These people only infinitely more so. are not counterparts of those characters." One seemed to be another person en- "The ro-mech doesn't worry about such tirely, living another life; but one was details. It reproduces in actual life as completely conscious of self, a self without nearly as possible the same events which will, a self borne upon the wave of tre- take place on the records. You will see." mendous command from the "ro-mech"; "And if it doesn't all work out as you and knowing that what was to happen plan? Suppose you want to change the would happen and nothing one could do or course of events? You will be powerless say, but go on. There is no more terrible in the grip of those terrible old records of sensation than to be thus caught up in the inhuman oppression and slavery. You, compulsion of the "ro-mech" and not any yourself, may become one of those pitiful way to use one's will or wits, but only to victims such as Sathanas gloried in tor- feel one's body and mind answering and menting—yourself may become one of obeying some outer command, steadily, those mutilated, mindless zombies who awfully going through another life as an- served in his stronghold. How avoid such other person. a result?" "I have 'tagged' the records with an "VfYDIA stood before Sathanas-Zigor, imposed identification projection from my * ' who she was and what she was going own mind augments—fixed them so they to be and do, I could not remember, but indicate exactly whom I wish to indicate only fear that it was the usual fate of those and no other." who stood before Sathanas as supplicants. So it was that we found ourselves un- She lifted her blind eyes to that lean, merci- willing participants—actors—in a play that less, proud and somehow idiotic face, a was as pre-determined as the hours on a terrible trying was on her face—her will clock face. The ancient ro-mech, one of the was struggling with the compulsion of the wonderful entertainment machines with machine uselessly—her hands lifted to Sa- which the Elder race had amused them- thanas and the chains about her wrists selves, augmented a thought record till clinked mournfully, and within me from the everyone within a mile radius had to do ancient record rose a sensation of glee exactly as did the characters in the re- another poor mortal was going to meet corded action. death, was chained already for the show On the great crystal throne, shimmering to come, and was pleading for her life with mysterious color glowing and chang- how pleasant was that fact. ing in the depths of the carven crystal, sat And even as these devilish, sadistic joys young Zigor—but my mind knew him arose in anticipation of coming torture for now as "Sathanas," the terrible, and my Nydia, my own inner self, bound by weak- master—glowering, gloomy and conscious ness to be ruled by the powerful synthetic of his terrible power; sat and an intense thought of the ro-mech records augmenta- activity was springing into life about him tion, writhed and shuddered with self-con- with this Zigor as the center of it all, demnation. How could I get joy from poor Before him postured and writhed Chlio, Nydia's plight? Yet joy was mine—I was her clothing nothing but a golden circlet, evil now! clasping about her swaying hips a wisp of At the side sat the father of Mephisto, Same-colored sheerness, and about her high taking no part, evidently the record had breasts a similar scanty wisp of material. no place for his participation, no "charac- She was clad precisely as a certain dancer ter" was assigned to him upon its surface, —

52 AMAZING STORIES

as it unrolled, and the inner mind of "me" chine near the throne; activated the inner leaped as I saw that he alone, of all these dynamos, and from it leaped a beam of people, swarming in incomprehensible ac- blinding white light. This light he played tivity about me was free of the terrible over the dancing form of Chlio, where she compulsion. Or was he? undulated before his throne. One of the dwarfish men led Nydia away That light was a terrible thing for a and I saw her no more. I seemed to know reason no man alive knows enough to un- she was placed among other slaves to await derstand, and it was a thing Sathanas had a certain terrible fate that all who were of used much for its after effects upon men. no use to Sathanas met sooner or later. Some slight details of its use remained in A fury of activity, of building, pulling my mind from old Mephisto's display of the and hauling, carrying to and fro, was going record to me. It was a thing that acted on around me. I myself was busy tinkering upon a man in exactly the same way a with a great old mechanism—it was a ray flame acts upon the senses of a moth. It which my conscious mind understood not blinds the will, even such a synthetic will at all, but my hands, obeying the compul- as was acting within us from the ro-mech, sion of the ro-mech's powerful waves of replacing it with a terrible desire to lose the thought, knew what they were doing and self, such a desire as the masochist knows: rapidly set the thing to rights, though I to be enslaved; to give up to another all somehow knew that whatever I had done self; to^ become the property of another. to it had been done unnecessarily, and that But why was Zigor using this thing it was not needed. upon Chlio. As the light bathed her, she Now, my inner mind became aware of a ceased her dance and stood, frozen in a much greater number of people about than strange and awful beauty, with tears I had observed to be living there. There streaming down her face from her disap- were rushing about me at least a thousand pearing inner self. And as the light burned people, wild, staring-eyed men of the far on, I realized why he was using Chlio as darkness, and somehow I knew that the the point of focus of the beam—for a terrible compulsion of the great ro-mech terrible compulsion reached out to all of us, had caught up in its field some strange tribe and we inched, crawled, scrambled and of nomads from the caverns outside the raced, at the last, to place ourselves at her Palace of Eg Notha, and had made them feet—her "things," her slaves. This beau- a part of its activity. A certain worried tiful, white, woman-thing was absorbing expression on Zigor's face told me that his ourselves magically within her. inner mind had seen the unwanted additions What still remained of reason within me to his ranks, as well as myself, and was told me that a terrible kind of soul-stealing wondering what would come of it when the was going on, that "Chlio" was but the record had played itself out and it had focus, and Sathanas—Zigor, standing out- come time to insert a new roll of the ancient side the direct beams and ruling its power record-wire in the ro-mech. by reason of the directive action of the ro- For the most part, these undisciplined mech review of the ancient scene, was the nomads of the caves were a'bloody, canni- recipient. For even as we gave up forever balistic lot, and once the restraint of the ro- our "selves" to "Chlio" in a terrible and mech was off them, no force could restrain complete hypnosis—from which my mind their seizing the opportunity to loot and knew we could never rise again free—even kill. I guessed that his idea of using the so was Chlio in turn giving all up to Zigor ro-mech to build once again the ancient at the source of the terrible beam. power of the Mephisto's was not going ac- This terrible bit of ancient magic upon cording to schedule. Myself I knew it the record Zigor had noticed, and was using could not, for there were too many missing to make us all captives forever of his will links for the chain of circumstance to be even as had Sathanas, so long ago! forged again as it had been, so long ago. A man will walk through fire to reach that awful devouring whiteness when it is BUT there was one series of events in played upon the body of a woman, and that record which had caused Zigor to about me writhed the bodies of all the choose it as the first! I soon realized what others, those strangers from the outer dark- this was, for Zigor walked to a great ma- ness and the mad sadists who had chosen —

ZIGOR MEPHISTO'S COLLECTION OF MENTALIA 53

Zigor as their leader. All of them, were change that the young Zigor had brought beside me, prostrate and wriggling ever upon her friends. Her despair at the closer and denser about the white and change came later, when Zigor put her straining pillar of compulsion that was the before a telaug to vaunt his supremacy, his body of Chlio under the full strength of the acquisition of power over the minds of all awful, ancient ray of power. the others. And as men or as souls or as beings of Old Mephisto, still sitting bound where any kind we ceased to be in that white he had been placed, looked at her pitifully, light, and our minds ceased to remember or and said: "I am sorry" and relapsed into think, but only listened for the voice of the silence he had assumed. Zigor had him Chlio and that voice itself waited for the taken to his former place of imprisonment, order of Zigor to speak. where he himself had spent such a long time Zigor walked now to the great ro-mech under locks and bars. and shut off the record, for it had accom- plished its purpose. And he looked at his ZIGOR, who had small regard for or fear white-headed and shaking old father where of the blind girl, used her to attend to he sat bound and watching, and he laughed his duty of the records in the collection in triumph. most of which he had never seen, as the "Now, father, try and give orders here Elder Mephisto had never allowed him ac- contrary to my own!" cess to the great old library which con- But the older Mephisto answered not at tained the secrets of the lost power of the all, nor did he look at the younger man or family. speak to him. And upon his face was a So it was that Nydia, alone in the huge repugnance, as if he regretted ever having room with the glowering young scion of the left such a thing as his son live one day. most evil family in Earth's history, selected Still we groveled there before the white, the records in chronological order, played frozen form that had been Chlio—the them one by one for his half attentive eyes. sultry, the scornful, the beautiful—and Subtly she inserted her own thought inter- Zigor looked at us and laughed. He picked pretations into the recorded scenes and up a thonged whip from where it lay near thought sequences, so that the records the throne, and tossed it to Chlio, who meant what she wanted them to mean. caught it dutifully. This can be done by moving a single "Beat them, my Chlio, they are yours, as control beside the projection nozzle, a you are mine. Beat them; they deserve a great "V" shaped opening, which, by means reward for all the work they have been do- of a double beam converging upon a single ing." focus gives a solid appearing image. Upon Chlio, her face as blank and empty as moving the control, one can comment with stone, swung the whip and brought it down subtle, unnoticeable abstract thought, upon the scrawny back of a dwarf. Not a merely by looking at a small aperture near howl of pain came from the blow, but a the record augmentative tubes, where a gasp of exaltation, a sound as of Heaven's pickup-detector takes the thought from the gate opening before his astounded eyes. natural body-magnetic beams of the eye Again and again she brought the whip down and augments them along with the augmen- upon us, walking through and around us, tation of the images and thought patterns and we writhed and crawled to get under upon the record. the descending whip, and our s'ides ran with And so it was that Zigor was educated blood from the thongs of the whip. according to Nydia's ideas of what he "Enough, Chlio, send them to bed. We should think—rather than from the true, will find work for them all in the morning." raw evil of the terrible old records of Sa- Chlio gestured with the now dripping thanas' life. (Which did no harm, but little whip, and like mindless servants of her good, for Zigor's mind was incapable of will, we scuttled out of the room, and found correct logic; being, like all evil people, places in the many empty rooms about. infected with sun-polarized cell matter in And because the order had been to sleep, his ego centers, which convert all impulses we, at once, became unconscious, oblivious of the mind into detrimental will.) of pain as well as of life itself. "This magic of those ancients, if I could Nydia, still herself, was unaware of the but master it, the world would be helpless — —

54 AMAZING STORIES

at my feet I" muttered Zigor—Nydia hear- happen. Within weeks, in all the surround- ing him. Nydia answered him. ing country under the rays from this old "What the word 'magic 5 means, trans- fortress of Eg Notha, there will be no activ- lated into our own derivative tongue, is ity that you do not order, as you have said. 'magnetic' or the 'science of magnetic'. What then will you do—will you think for Only by an age of development by a great all these people? Because Sathanas worked race, following directly in the footsteps of that way, do not think yourself able to do those mighty by-gone teachers, could their that. You do not have the mind to think man wanted to make the miracle of 'magic' for hundreds of people. For the most part, live again, he could only lay the foundation as soon as your mind turns from your rays by organizing a vast study group of young to other things, all these people will drop 'magic' be recreated whole and alive in any their work and sink into immobility. one brain. We can only learn simple bits "You think that Chlio will keep them of their true wisdom. These machines we going, because you tell her to? That will can learn to use, but that is only somewhat not be the case, my foolish friend. Your like a monkey learning to drive a motor- first act was your most foolish one. You car. It is not the true wisdom that built have stopped the main spring of life these mechanisms of mighty 'magic' If a thought. There will be no life spring from man wanted to make the miracle of 'magic' that act, but only sterile sloth; only shuffl- live again, he could only lay the foundation ing, mindless animals about you; so long by organizing a vast study group of young as you persist in such ideas. Sathanas, technicians and student scientists about the with all his might and power and wisdom, existence of these machines of the Elder was inherently a jool, and if you look at the race. Then in time, many centuries after, later records of his life, you will find him those people's children would begin to completely and irrevocably mad, wallow- glimpse the true greatness of the Elder race ing in his own filth, while the remains of his and perceive how such a race might again empire stood mindlessly waiting for orders be made to grow from the science of 'mag- from a mind that had died of sheer stupid- netics.' 'Magic' is infinitely more difficult ity—a mind that had persisted in wrong than it appears on these records of the thought until his very acts had killed all activities of men, who understood far more possibDity of life in him or those who of the science than ever we shall." followed him—a man who wallowed in vice "Bah!" ejaculated Zigor, taken aback at and sadism till no thing about remained the difficulties she laid before his grandiose clean enough to live, and so died. You had plans. "You are but a foolish blind girl better look at all these records before you what can you know of such things?" conclude they contain a recipe for power. They contain quite the reverse. "T AM not foolish, Zigor Mephisto! You "Sathanas was an adult immortal, driven * stupid bearer of a great ancient name from the realms where immortals dwell be- you nincompoop who plans what no man cause he was insane, and his insanity did can fulfill! You are the foolish one, and if not thrive on this bitter earth where all men you do not lean on my wisdom, you will die, but only increased in its mad destruc- accomplish no tiny part of your plan. You tiveness till he had destroyed all hope of have begun your work by destroying the recovery. He had even lost the way back thing most valuable to yourself—the minds to space where men do not die—through of those about you. Now, without those sheer stupidity unknowing how to operate minds, all thought must originate in your a ship in space. Sathanas was an exile who mind, and certainly you are no mighty waited too long before returning to the dark thinker, certainly your mind will never con- spaces where immortal powers live—and ceive a plan capable of growing into a his waiting was the cause of his death. I -mighty kingdom such as you want it to. If doubt that Sathanas had any real wisdom, you go on destroying and binding these or he would have known what caused death peoples minds to your own, you will paral- here on earth, and he would have fled that yze all possibilities of growth about you old age as men flee leprosy. Sathanas was nothing will happen that you do not' order a fool, one of the greatest fools ever to set to happen, and from what I have seen of foot upon this sad earth. Wise men flee your mind, that means that nothing will our sun—all others stay and die!" —

ZIGOR MEPHISTO'S COLLECTION OF MENTALIA 55

"Cease your foolish chatter, you blind ceeded. little croaking fool! You think you can tell As Nydia fled through the throne room Zigor what to do? I'll have you beat till from the shouts of the enraged Zigor, she you can't walk, for talking like that! I'll thought of the old man, and sped up the have you burned alive—do you hear—you, great stairs to the upper floors—somewhere you—" up there were the chambers where the old "Zigor, in all your life, did you ever have man had been placed. She passed Chlio, a friend, or did you always live alone? leaning against the wall—a dazed, unhappy Never having any one to love—never say- expression on her face and a sharp feeling ing 'Friend, to me you are more than any of pity, for the fate that had struck the other?' Zigor, I pity you, for you do not beautiful woman arose in her. She stopped, know what life is made of, nor what to do asking:

with it. You are a fool." "Chlio, where have they placed the old "Get out of my sight," screamed Zigor in man?" a rage, for something of the things she was Chlio gestured toward a nearby door, saying to him cut him as no other words he closed with a great lock, such as the an- had ever heard. He could not listen, the cients fashioned, and which no man can fire of her words seemed to burn into his get undone without the particular key de- mind with a terrible meaning he had never signed for them. She knew there was no glimpsed before. He could not face her, hope except in the cunning mind of the old for something in him admitted she was man, and turning to Chlio, guessed that the right, but his lack of true courage would key was on her person. not let him face the fact. "Give me the key, Chlio, hurry!" Mindlessly the unhappy woman handed- NYDIA waited not, but left the room on her the huge key, made for hands so much a run, for she had a great respect for larger than human, and Nydia flew to the the great high lock the mad anger of deros, having observed door, reaching up to almost above the reach of her small, a great deal of it. She had no wish to make placed great, time-resisting this Zigor mad with anger, but was taking frail hands. The the door a chance on angering him to make him see mechanism creaked slightly, and within, the light of wisdom if the ability to save his swung open. Nydia darted know- time in which the mind were still alive within him; which she ing she had only that distracted doubted, for there is no more stubborn or caution of young Zigor was by s blind mind than that of the dero. his rage—and began to struggle with the ropes the wrists of the old man, who Nydia knew this, as it is one of the about of great cardinal teachings of the ancient race, upon had been left still bound, out the respect Zigor for his father's abilities. which all its vast mental science and much had Then the old man spoke: of its language is based—but she knew inner pocket you will find there are people who think evil is correct "Within my gun, a heat ray of the little people. logic, merely because they have always a tiny it out and cut the ropes with its heard and seen it about them, and never Take it is a terrible had a chance to learn current logic, reason, beam. Be careful, for mercy and beneficence. If Zigor was evil weapon for all its size. Even at my age, still not wish a hole burnt through me, from this cause, she hoped to show him I do gentle hands, sweet differently, but she knew she had not suc- especially by your girl." 5 A dero is a thing that has never received any Seconds later, the old man stood up, thought correctly, never understood any syllogism, stretching and rubbing his aching limbs. due to is a mass of completely incorrect thought His height, which Nydia had failed to ob- magnetic fields of the reversal of polarity of the serve before, was impressive here alone thought about the mind cells, which in a dero are with him, and his eyes burned with a fierce sun-polared into detrimental due to induction of fire of rage at his treatment by his own son. disintegrant energy-flows from the sun. Thought Granted he had kept the youth imprisoned, is either earth-polared, integrant and therefore still—events had proven him more than constructive, or it is sun-polared, disintegrant, re- swore ceiving by polarity atunement constant impulses of right. This time, the old man to energy from the sun which convert all its thought himself, there would be no leniency. This images into destructive patterns. time 56 AMAZING STORIES

I_JE STRODE out the door, Nydia flut- room the hush of age—an age of terrific * -* tering at his heels and guiding herself work—lay like a blanket. Through that by the sound of his feet—the purposeful, hush vibrates the howling water outside the grim sound of rage' ringing in every foot- thick walls, and through that hush the step. The old man walked to the wall blind Nydia trailed the purposeful steps of near where Chlio still stood in her mind- the fearful old man, who had proved, less, waiting trance and as he saw her con- strangely, a friend in need. dition, fresh fire blazed in his eyes, for he Toward the opposite wall his steps led loved Chlio above all other people. She to where a monstrous enigma of metal and Hugo, now dead, were the only two loomed, with all its mysterious bowels laid people who had proved faithful to him open by that forgotten workman of the vast always. science of the past. He looked at the ma- The old man pressed upon the wall, and chine for a moment, then hooked up one a panel opened in the apparently solid of the cables where it lay half out of the stone. Within was a cylinder of metal, opening in the machine. For a few mo- with a control box at the side of the cylin- ments he worked. Nydia listening with der. He stepped within, and Nydia fol- her ears that served her nearly as well as lowed after. He pressed the control box eyes, could not understand what the clever lever, and the panel swung shut—the cyl- old hands were doing, but when he pulled inder dropped swiftly downward. Nydia a switch in the wall and the six foot tubes caught her breath, but was not really sur- of the machine lit up, and power sang a prised. She had long ago learned to expect terrible song of vast strength within the anything in these ageless warrens of won- machine, a glimmer of the monster of der. strength that lay here under Eg Notha After long moments the dropping cylin- came to her. Then upon a screen at the der stopped, and now Nydia's ears that side came a picture of the surface miles must serve her when she had no telaug above, a tree and a horse standing under instrument as eyes as well as ears were it in the noon day sun. filled with that eerie roaring that above had sounded like lost souls fleeing forever ^TYDIA could see this screen quite as

from some dreadful wrath, but now * ^ well as if she had eyes, for the rays sounded like many chained, titanic beasts which activated its screen penetrated the all roaring in frustrated rage—but was, skull, and acted directly upon the inner she knew, water rushing down through eyes of the mind, so that even the blind some ancient metal turbine inlets; down may see with the ancient rays. Many of and down to those seas of endless extent the antique instruments are so built. For that do lie within the heart of earth, where a moment old Mephisto tinkered with' the rock itelf from the dreadful pressure pre- dials of the mechanism, centering the horse cipitates out as the pressure forces the upon the cross wires of the screen. Then particles of dissolved matter to flocculate. pulled a great lever at the side of the Here was some long gone scientist's screen. The horse abruptly turned into a workshop, concealed from prying eyes and mass of queer looking gray jelly upon the rays by its great depth, and by an imper- grass. vious metal sheathing which excluded those Mephisto looked at Nydia and laughed penetrative rays so generally used by the shortly. Elder race. "Ha, wonder what that is supposed to be. This was the birthplace of "magic"; and I always wondered just what this thing mysterious and awful the place was, in was, and intended to find out—now I still truth. All along one vast wall were tier don't know." on tier of retorts, twisted tubings, great "Try another control, perhaps it is one vitra-glass containers, full of curious col- of those multi-purpose ray-mech they ored chemicals and tall, oddly shaped dyna- sometimes built. Turn the dial to a new mos with the old metal cables still marking, and the whole purpose of the connected to the equipment. On several machine becomes another thing. Do you long tables an array of mysterious tools want to kill your son, or do you just want lay just as they had been abandoned so to put him back in his coop till he comes long ago, and over the whole vast gloomy of age and saner viewpoint?" ZISOR MEPHISTO'S COLLECTION OF MENTALIA 57

"I don't want to kill him unless I have them, and we are watching one of those to. At this age I had little more sense than wonders." he has today. If I had something by which I could teach him what time has taught me AS THEY watched, the infant, winged —that in evil lies only frustration and being; who was yet as strangely adult defeat and that in the things my ancestors and complete as is a new hatched dragon- despised as lily-livered goodness lie true fly, vibrated her bright, rainbow wings, and

wisdom ; if there were such a machine, then with a strange cry of infinite delight in my problem would be solved." movement, flew up, and out of the focus "Let me try. I have seen something that of the rays! looked like this before." "Perhaps that is the answer we are look- Nydia twirled a graduated dial upon the ing for. Oh, Lord of Darkness, of the fam- enigmatic machine. Still within the focus ily whom I know once ruled the caverns of the rays, centered in the cross-hairs of far and wide, mayhap with this machine the machine, lay the quivering mass of we can do what so many have tried and strangely alive protoplasm which had failed. Maybe we can take those gross shortly before been a horse. Nydia again creatures above and change them into some- pressed the great lever at the side of the thing more valuable, less threatening; screen, and again the vast machine sang something that- is not dead, but greatly its song of magical power. As they watched, more ailve! Methinks the souls of those the mass of jelly quivered more and more who have gone on, the great who have violently, and from it a slow movement lived her in Eg Notha, have guided us to arose, a mist formed at the center of the this machine that it may answer our needs focus, and abruptly within the mist move- with its work. Let us try some more of ment and matter became one—life was! the markings on its dial, there is still some Something living was being created before more 'horse' left." their eyes from that strange jelly! What They turned back to the machine, but was it going to be? Their eyes strained even as they had talked together, another at the quivering picture, and the image and another tiny creature had formed grew stronger and stronger as the mist within the focus of the rays upon the gray quivered into solidity. jelly. Swiftly they grew; one male, one They stood aghast, for out of that mass female and swiftly their wings spread and of gray quivering nothing, out of the focus dried in the bright sun, and then lifted them of life generating rays was growing—a tiny up and away into the sunlight. woman. Like Minerva from Jove's fore- "It seems sacrilege to touch the dial," head, she was fully formed, adult in ap- Nydia said, stretching out one trembling pearance and lovely as the paintings of the hand to the mysterious, titanic majesty of ancient goddesses that survive on less ex- the face of the machine that was the posed walls, lovely as are the great statues product of a mind who had mastered the of the Elder race; mystically lovely, quiv- source, the meaning and creation of life ering upright on two symmetrical limbs, itself. her eyes lifted to the bright sky in wonder "There are markings on that dial that at the miracle of life so suddenly given my old eyes can't see. But they are raised her! She lifted her hands to the sky, to markings—see if your clever fingers can the tree, to the bright sun so far above. make out what they are." From her lips came a coo of ecstacy, and Nydia ran her fingers, those sensitive from her back came a fluttering, growing, tools of her mind that had served her as vibrant wonder of color—wings! Mephisto eyes so often, over the broad face of the swore. dial. "By the gods, so that was where the "Yes, yes, at each long dial indentation, little people came from! A creation of the at each of these rulings, there is a tiny mystic science of old—a synthetic form of figure drawn, but I cannot see clearly with life—this machine, by some means, takes just my fingers. Get a light, or, better, get a gross form of life and from it creates more one of those mirrors of the impervious perfectly developed forms of life—and I metal and reflect some of the light from this had thought it a weapon. Yes, those an- screen upon the dial. Then our minds may cients did create wonders from life about see the marks if our eyes cannot." 58 AMAZING STORIES

Old Mephisto went to the table and fum- microbe which they needed for their farm- bled about, returned presently with an an- ing, and created in this way from other less cient oil lamp left there by some former useful life forms." occupant in the near past, as well as with "You could be right. Try the new dial a shiny bit of the ancient alloy, which is as setting as we have it on another horse." opaque to their penetrative rays as is mer- Nydia swung the great old ray nozzle cury to light. As he held the lamp up to about, and the scene on the screen changed the dial, Nydia took the bit of shiny metal as the ray swept about the field overhead. and held it before the screen, and the rays The only horse they could find was hitched which it gave off were reflected by the metal to a hayrack, but the hay-rack was stand- toward the dial. Now she could see, and ing still—its driver asleep in the shade with so could old Mephisto. Both looked and his lunch by his side. marveled at the meaning. "Somebody's going to be darn surprised "Oh, Lord Mephisto, there are many when they wake up," Nydia whispered to little animals, one to each dial mark. Do Mephisto, desiring not to wake the farmer, you know what the meaning of that is?" "Pull the lever, let's see what this setting "Yes, my blind little witch, I know does? Never mind the farmer—he'll get what that means! It means we can take over it and explain no matter what wonder any flesh and turn it into any creatures he sees—that the sun affected him." we wish with this machine. Let us try a Nydia centered the dozing horse on the few of the markings." cross wires, pulled down the big lever. A "Look, there are a whole series of the soft haze immediately enveloped the horse, man-shaped little figures, each a little and a faint shimmering movement ran all larger than the others—let us see what over his body. Slowly, subtly, the horse they turn out. After all, those winged changed—a startling development ran fairy-like creatures will find it hard to be through all his frame. The legs elongated, accepted in that dull life up there." the ears shortened, nearly disappeared, the skull broadened and the whole frame of the FORGETTING for a moment their creature underwent a transformation, a de- * troubles in wonder of the ancient velopment, an opening out of the nature of magical instrument, that was not magic the animal—a fearful kind of flowering was at all, but only the mystery of birth and evident, the end product of an age of evolu- growth worked out to decimal points of tion was coming to life before our eyes! Not energy within patterns of magnetic matrix a man, as had happened on the previous within the machine, activated by the dial settings, but the ultimate horse of growth-stimulating rays which the an- horses—a creature never seen by living men cients had mastered, they played like chil- before stood now between the shafts! No dren—producing from the slowly shrinking longer horse—but a thing as far above a body of the horse a series of people, each horse as a man is above the first lunged of whom was more wonderful than the last. amphibian that crawled from the water to As Nydia found at last upon the dial a become the ancestor of modern man. drawing similar in all respects to men, and graduated in relation to the size of the "VTYDIA'S eyes shone with the wonder of others so as to make her realize that this * ' what they had found. She knew that human would be neither a giant nor a such miracles were to the ancients a part dwarf, she showed it to Mephisto with a of life—an accepted thing, and from read- nudge of reminder. ing the ancient thought records she "There is what you are seeking. Try dreamed of doing such things, but the that on the horse, and then we will go for "how" of such wonders was always ob- the mindless things upstairs." scured on the antique records by the ab- "I wonder why the machine requires the struse, difficult symbolism of their technical step of melting the basic animal down to thought, much too deep for the modern that grey substance?" human to hope to decipher. By some ac- "I don't believe it does! I think we had cident of their fumbling hands upon the it turned to a dial setting of some micro- dials, they had found the secret of evolu- scopic life form. Perhaps that grey sub- tion through speeded growth—the trans- stance is itself a life form—some earth formation that ages of time make upon life —

ZIGOR MEPHISTO'S COLLECTION OF MENTALIA 59

forms was here accomplished within mo- and inner soul of those forgotten ancients. ments. Like so many of the antique Somehow, if one had been sensitive and machines, the thing was multi-purposed, alert, at that moment, one would have had many adjustments designed to broaden sensed the mystic living hand of some the scope of its use; hence, their transfor- vague, but potent life, reach out frem the mation of the horse into a jelly, and the rock where it had waited away all those jelly into a winged tiny human. empty centuries—touched the bowed, in- But Nydia divined, now they had hit tent heads of the old cynical Mephisto, upon the prime purpose of the mechanism the young virginal gold hair of Nydia, and —the overcoming of the obstacle of time return to its sleep within the ancient rock. in the evolving of superior forms of life. The powerful ray upon that degenerate Now they had one of the secrets that had product of an age of retrogression began made the ancients the tremendous people to work its wonder. Slowly, slowly the they were, and Nydia swore to herself that twisted bowed legs straightened, the nothing would be able to cause her to lose humped back became more erect and the this secret—one she had known hazily bullet head rounded. The sparse, bristly must exist, but was now a concrete actual- hair became more abundant—began to curl ity before her! Her shining, tear-wet, blind gracefully about the brightening face! eyes turned to the aged man beside her. "Something" sprang to life upon the lined "Thank the Gods, we have found one of and evil face—something came to life their greatest secrets. Now you and I can within those beady eyes; the eyes them- re-make life into something that can grow selves broadened, and as the power toward the ancient goal again." hummed on, and gladness came to dwell "Now try it upon one of the wild, mad again in Nydia's heart, there stood before dwarfs that my son has enslaved to Chlio. Chlio not a twisted, evil-minded dwarf, but See what it does to such a creature—if it a straight, slim young Godling, eyes won- does what I think it may do, we have won dering about him at the sudden beauty and our battle, as well as many an unfought meaning in what had been before but dull, battle of the far future. The men this grey, "usual", hideous, unwanted life. And thing may produce! If we are right, those as they watched, the mouth that was no men should change this sad, mad world into longer a sour gash across an ugly dull face, a more pleasant place for a man to live but the luxuriously curved lips of a son of upon." the Gods—opened and the man that was Wasting no more time, Nydia swung not a man but had now become a man the great ray in a short arc, centering the spoke—his voice a soft, wondering music in screen upon the great hall of the throne his own ears and a startling wonder to in the rocky chambers over their head Zigor's suddenly awakened ears. the center chamber of all that time-for- gotten pile called "Eg Notha." "A/TY CHLIO, you have suddenly be- Soon upon the cross hairs one of the -l * A come a beautiful thing—but why do unkempt, twisted-limbed dwarfs appeared. you stand and gaze at nothing? Why do He was upon his knees before the blank- you not show joy, the joy that has sud- faced Chlio, who stood beside the great denly sprung up within me? Why do you crystalline sculpture that was that ancient not feel it too? Speak, my Chlio, that I seat of power. Young Zigor sat brooding, may hear you—my ears hunger to hear in his chin upon his hands. It was evident your voice the gladness that rings in my that the dwarf was reporting failure in the heart at sight of you." search for the old man and the blind girl. Chlio did not answer, the spell from Nydia pulled down the great lever that Zigor's use of the evil hypnotic ray re- released the flood of strange and eerily po- mained upon her; but Zigor sprang to his tent power through the conductive pene- feet as his eyes took in at last the unbe- trative ray upon the dwarf, where he lievable change that had come over the kneeled before the throne. ugly, mindless dwarf. But even as he Intently the old man and the blind girl sprang to his feet in wonder, Nydia swung watched the dwarf, and strangely behind the ray upon Zigor, carefully centering his them stirred the vast mysterious life that figure upon the cross hairs and the terrific was somehow the still living vital force power of the ancient wonder-mech droned —

60 AMAZING STORIES on its song of evolutionary magic. old Mephisto, watching his beloved Chlio Swiftly, swiftly, the wonder mounted in become a symphony of terrific lure! A vital Zigor's face, and his arm, which he had aura of womanhood pulsed about her as involuntarily thrown aloft as he felt a ray the rays transformed her who had been upon him, fearing death from the unseen merely "beautiful and good" into the vast, source of the ray, dropped again, as the and ultimate, end-product of an age of miracle of the transformation sent the beautiful and good forebears! Chlio, the ecstasy of mighty growth through every most beautiful woman living on the whole cell of his body. Swiftly the body of earth. Ecstasy spread over her shudder- Zigor became that which it would have ing form, the sleeping mind awoke to a been had he had been raised in one of wonder it had never conceived possible the nurseries of the Elder race. And as every cell of her lovely body quivered into that wonder grew within his body, as the a change into the perfect cell. evil of dis-infection died within his mind A long, long time Nydia kept the ray and the wonder of curative integrant force upon Chlio, then swung it again, looking took its place within his mind, that ancient for me. Yes, that is why I am able to tell spirit which the Elder race had left to guard you this, and get it published—because the ruins of Eg Notha turned within the she found me with that ray, and the thing under rock and quietly went again to sleep. that was a mere mindless tool of Zigor's For with the change in Zigor, the danger will awoke again to life—the body that had for the world which had been potentially been a mere, ordinary, well meaning hu- present in Zigor Mephisto disappeared. man's became—well, not the best looking "Chlio, Chlio, God's hand is upon me, I man on earth, but Nydia loves me vastly change! Ah—what has happened— —what more than formerly. have I done? Father, father " Zigor So it was that an end to trouble within sank again upon the throne and burst into the ancient walls of Eg Notha came about tears, for a lifetime of struggle with his through the miracle of growth. So it was father had to be atoned for within moments that the old cynical, beaten man we met of sudden realization, and he could not when we entered the sinister ancient fort- bear it. ress is now younger, handsomer and wiser than any other now alive. NYDIA, who had given Zigor double the And so it was that we sent our flying dose of ray that she had given the globe back again to our former encamp- dwarf, now swung the ray upon Chlio, and ment, and the little band who had fought all that beauty that had been hers began for life with the evil things that beseiged to blossom fiercely, to become the most us moved—to Eg Notha, and left the be- beautiful woman of all earth. siegers holding an empty bag. And when "By the Gods, those elder men knew they come to attack us in Eg Notha, I what to want on this green earth," swore think the Mephistos will be ready for them.

OF Fj S SCIENTISTS By ALEXANDER BLADE

£.pUfi Qaloani

SIR FRANCIS GALTON, English anthropol- Birmingham hospital, at King's college, London, ogist was born on February 16, 1822, at and at Trinity college, Cambridge. Birmingham and received his education at He was a man of many tastes in science with VIGNETTES OF FAMOUS SCIENTISTS 61

large experiences in many lines. "In 1846 and 1847 contains in the form of rain, hail or snow in parts he traveled in Egypt. In 1850 he began explora- or all of the surrounding region. tions in South Africa, landing at Walfisch bay on the west coast and spending two years in the in- ABOUT this time, Galton, inspired by his terior, which was then known as Damaraland; cousin's Origin of Species (1859), began to where he discovered the Ovampo tribe of natives, study anthropology, heredity and the application a very interesting branch of the Bantu race of of statistics to human attributes. He is regarded Africa which had become completely separated as the great authority on the subject of human from the rest of their people and consequently de- heredity, having put that science on a quantitative veloped different customs and habits. He pub- basis. In a series of remarkable publications, he lished two books on the subject of his travels in laid the foundation of the science of eugenics. For the Dark Continent, An Explorer in Tropical the improvement of mankind, he advocated the South Africa and Art of Travel. A visit to the furthering of the productivity of the fit and the north of Spain in 1860 was described in Vacation restricting of the birth-rate of the unfit. Tourists. Galton also made special investigations of color Galton then turned to meterology. In 1863 he blindness, mental imagery, instincts, number forms published his Meteorographica, which was the first and of criminality; he originated the process of serious attempt to chart the weather on an ex- composite portraiture, and paid much attention to tensive scale and in which was outlined for the fingerprints and their employment for the indenti- first time the theory of anti-cyclones, which has fication of criminals. since become one of the fundamental principles of Galton was knighted in 1909. He died at Hasle- present day weather forecasting. Also in this pub- mere on January 17, 1911, founding by his will a lication, Galton called attention to the phenomena laboratory for the study of national engenics. His of atmospheric displacement and storms. He chief scientific works are: Hereditary Genius showed that dense air is warmer than normal air, English Men of Science Inquiries (1869) ; (1874) ;

and will hold in suspension in the form of vapor into Human Faculty (1883) ; Record of Family a higher percentage of water; that is to say, its Faculties (1884); Natural Inheritance (1889); degree of humidity is greater. As it expands it Finger Prints (1892); Finger Print Directories becomes cooler, loses a measure of this capacity, Eugenics (1900). and precipitates more or less of the moisture it THE END

THE ELECTROENCEPHALOGRAPH THAT mass of grey matter lodged tenderly be used in detecting brain tumors and some types in the cranium, called the brain, has an of epilepsy. electrical beat all its own. The beats are This amazing gadget to measure the height and measured by a newly discovered instrument with speed of the brain waves came to the attention a formidable title, the electroencephalograph. of Professor George L. Keezer of Cornell and he Every individual has a pattern of brain waves as was immediately struck by the possibility of using distinctive as his outward features. the electroencephalograph to measure intelligence. To record these hidden beats, a pair of elec- He decided to determine the relation of alpha trodes are fastened on 'the head, one on the fore- rhythm to intelligence. He discovered that as the head, the other on the back of the skull, and intelligence increased, the height of the alpha these are connected with a kind of radio set con- waves also showed a tendency to change. taining amplifying vacuum tubes. The electrical But Dr. Keezer knew perfectly well that other beats then picked up are recorded by writing conditions might have caused the wave pattern to points upon a moving strip of paper, making a change, so he did not offer his results as final. pattern of waves. However, if he is right, and the electroencephalo- Just as the heart has a normal beat when it is graph can distinguish one level of intelligence not being driven by pressure during excessive from another, a great advance in psychological body action, so has the brain when it is not be- methods will have been made. ing taxed by thinking. This fundamental beat is Some people have thought that the electroen- called the alpha rhythm and comes at the rate of cephalograph might be able to measure thought, about 10 per second. but that cannot be done. It would be like trying Studies of the brain waves have revealed as- to reconstruct a radio broadcasting system merely tounding and beneficial characteristics of the by listening to sounds that come out of a loud- beats. For instance, in sleep, the alpha rhythm speaker. But intelligence is measurable, and undergoes five different changes according to the maybe the brain wave machine can eventually depth of the sleep. Perhaps the most important be made to measure it. discovery concerning brain waves is that they can Carter T. Wainwright.

Tom Kent caught a lovely sneak thief in

his room, but when he saw what was on her back

he went with her with fists clenched for battle

TOM Kent is my name. I have al- the witch-maid's eyes; to pursue the ob- ways been a man with an ambition livious ectsasy that can be found only in to get a certain special something her night-black hair; that is a lure that is out of life. Most men want women, or always with me. money, or to be the big-shot in their busi- But I am sane! I know better, and ness, or something that everyone else such dreamlike maunderings of my mind wants. Well, I want all those things, too, I put aside somehow for long walks in the but I have a desire over and above such descending darkness, along the waterfronts general ambitions. of this city, along the endless and ugly Beyond the empty dullness that we call but somehow to me weirdly fascinating "life," beyond the rows of houses full of streets of the slums of this old city of nearly identical people doing nearly iden- Baltimore. tical things, lies, to my mind, a pathway. This night I was doing just that, in- Over the hills of vain wants and empty dulging my dream desires, and dropping hoping; over the ill-formed mountains of off all the more practical cares of this partial fulfillments of futile desires . . . world in the conjuring up of the face of to a further range of mountains, greater the witch-maid who waits beyond the edge and vastly more beautiful barricades that for me: that fearfully lovely woman who shut mere man off from the thing I call the can and will give a man vastly more pleas- "edge." ure than any mortal maid can hope to give. This path I take in my daydreamings, Of course I know it isn't true, and I and waiting at the end of that path is the know that nothing of the kind of life I witchmaid! see in my dreams can exist. But I even This lovely daughter of a wise, but know her name: "Kyra". I know every somehow sinister mother is an ensorceling inch of her face as if it was a face I had mystery. Her soft white arms are to me engraved upon metal a million times, vastly more enticing than the real arms somewhere, sometime. of any earthborn female. About her a living, breathing, writhing XITALKING home, this night, the sky aura-mist of awful beauty tells of the pow- * » dripped blood from a gloomy hori- erful magic which is her heritage. About zon. The sun, apparently suffering a mor- her coil those plants, blooming and some- tal wound, sank despairingly into the bay. how bearing upon their twisted limbs the It was hot, too! fruit and the strange flowers of fearful I climbed the grimly stairs to my rooms. truths. Their old wood creaked. The air, heavy Those deadly flowers, with their bril- with the mould and dust of a century of liant red blood-petals, are the materials other sad feet climbing as wearily seemed from which she brews a terrible, irresist- to cling to my face smotheringly. I started ible potion. to unlock my door, but it wasn't necessary.

That drink brings a man a new and ter- The maid had left it unlocked . . . rific life, a life whose pleasures are so As I crossed the darkened room to the great that mere mortal life no longer can dresser, loosening my tie, I half-heard a be borne. silken sigh of movement. But it didn't All these things and a multitude of other register fully on my tired mind. I stood enticements, wait at the "edge," beyond in front of the mirror, looking at that face those barrier mountains. and wondering if everyone I had faced to- And those barriers are the time a man day had found that face as unsatisfying spends in pursuit of ordinary, unworthy as I did now. That face that we must goals. To drop such pursuit and pursue wear at some unknown one's behest— oh instead the white body, the lightning of well, maybe he had an ugly face himself. 64 WITCH'S DAUGHTER 65

Mine was probably as good as any god's thing causing this terrific echo of reason perdurable face, that had watched a mil- can be just a simple, normal hand—just a lion centuries wash over it ... it must human hand. be a pretty worn and weary face at that. So it was with this woman I glimpsed. After all, those discouraged blue eyes With her, went, to me, the awful sensing looking back at me had only seen twenty- of another world. Why, I couldn't under- five summers; that tangled sandy mop of stand; except that she had the face of sweat-heavy hair had been twisted in the Kyra—and so far as I knew Kyra was a hands of some pretty classy females—and person who existed only in my mind. they hadn't objected to my stocky two hundred pounds of bone and muscle-bound VX7ELL, she hadn't escaped, for there figure either. * * was no way out of that room. No Amid these casual cogitations before the way for an ordinary woman to travel, any- mirror, my mind kept hearing, without no- way. Only one small window, high up, ticing, the continuous soft sliding of silk and if she was slim enough to try it, a thir- against silk, and now a faint perfume, an ty-foot drop. She wouldn't. alluring musky scent that reached and at I reached into my room and seized the last penetrated my discouraged conscious- chair by the door, and all the while in my ness. I whirled toward the door just in mind buzzed the mental echo of the intui- time to see a flash of dark movement. tional glimpse of a vast alien landscape She was almost out the door, a slim that this woman had brought to me. In figure in black, moving silently, swiftly on front of the door I propped the chair. her toes. She had been behind the door I sat down and put my feet on the door as I opened it, and had almost managed casing on the other side. Even if I fell to escape my attention entirely. asleep, I was sure she would have to wake Suddenly I was angry. I loved my fel- me up in getting out of that room. low men—any my women—and I hated I couldn't leave to phone police; besides to have them make a sucker out of me. It I had no intention of arresting her. I was was so darn inconsiderate of them! just mad at her eluding me so easily. I leaped after her, and seized one smooth I sat and smoked, wondering if she was silk-covered arm. But she twisted cleverly, after what I thought she was after? The her face a white, emotionless mask, express- newspapers had made so much fun of my ing nothing. She disappeared into the ad- invention that I didn't believe anyone joining room, outside at the end of the thought it valuable enough to steal. But I hall. The lock clicked behind her. It was meant to find, out! If that elusive female one of those old-fashioned jiggers with a wasn't made of smoke . . . little lever at the top that anyone could She must work for someone in - that line lock. of business, who had read of me in the That flash view I had had of her white newspapers. But the papers had said my face was a lightning bolt to me! invention was "of no value whatever," in For that face was as familiar to me as fact, "dangerous to the health." They were my mother's, although I had never seen it wrong, but how could anyone know that in the flesh before. It was the face of but me? Kyrat And about the smooth, black silk I didn't want to rouse the house for some sleekness of that slippery female sneak- vague, inner reason. The perfume worn thief had been an aura, an overwhelming by the dark-clothed feminine figure? Per- sensing of echoes of greatness, of terrible haps it was the lure of soft woman-form

mysterious involvement, like . . . Within the sleek black silk? Something ... if you saw a hand stretching to- was at work within me, trying to protect ward you from the air of your own room, the woman from her own misguided action. without a body, you would know that here Anyway I sat and waited. was something that extended into the I got more and more angry as I waited. fourth dimension. Your mind would pic- What I would do with her when I caught ture that world of the fourth dimension, a her never entered my mind. tremendous echo of far unending reaches Neither did the more probable chance of life would resound in your mind with an that she might use a weapon on me occur earthquake effect. But the mysterious to me. I was sure she was just a cheap "

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sneak-thief. No one could know the real I leaped at her like a wrestler with two nature of my work, or plan to steal it. Or hundred bucks on the bout, twisting her so I thought then. But what I really round arm behind her, catching her soft, wanted to learn was: why did she look like sweet neck in the crook of my elbow. Kyra? Why? She let out a little gasp, but did not I had a very hurt feeling inside me, il- scream. She had no desire to bring in any logically. I spend most of waking hours spectators. trying to devise a thing to lighten the la- "Now talk fast, you pretty sneak! What bors of all men, and now one of the un- were you looking for in my rooms, and grateful creature whom I call the better what did you find?" part of man, "woman," had tried to rob me Those sparkling blue-green eyes opened of that thing. It wasn't sense but, it hurt! in terrific innocence. She struggled so very That woman had hurt me. I was going to nicely in my arms. She spoke gaspingly, get back at her some day. I waited. and with a slight accent hard to place; like You see, that was what my invention none I ever heard. was; a thing to make the labor of life "Please to let up on the neck, you large easier. Worn on the body, a synthetic roughneck. You are choking me!" animal-electric battery would replace the I was' still mad, but getting over it fast. work-energy expended by the human body "You can talk. Do it, or you'll learn with a synthetic flow of body electric. It how I don't like to be robbed." could give a man all the energy he needed "I didn't take a thing," she gasped. Her for a hard day's work without tiring him face would have fooled the devil himseli in the least. I wish I had had it on me "I just got in the wrong room. The keys today, but who would have thought a round all fit the same doors in these old houses." of waiting in the offices of manufacturers "You don't live here. I know every face would play a man out completely? in the house." It was a good invention. It was per- "All right, I could say I just moved in, fectly developed to a useful stage; but the but what's the use. They made me do it. medicos and engineers had frowned upon I don't want to steal. But I have to. They it for several reasons. have my young brother. They will kill him Not good reasons, considering their con- if I don't do what they say. They want descending examination of the device in the your invention." offices of G.I.D. (G.I.D. means General "They do, eh? I can believe that! Industrial Devices.) They had refused to I laughed then at her artfully contorted buy it. "Too liable to cause labor dissen- face, for I wasn't hurting her neck. I re- sions." "Too apt to prove harmful to the leased my hold. chemistry oj the human body." "The ex- "Do you expect me to believe someone pense of research required to prove it wants my invention? Why, I can't give harmless would far overtop any reward to it away! You have to do what 'they' want! be got from its use. Most probably only Who are 'they'? Now, tell me the truth!" prove it to be harmful to health," etc., etc. I twisted her arm a little, for I felt sure It is so easy to use words to replace hon- she was lying about something, but couldn't est thought. Pigheaded men! I was just see just what. beginning to learn how hard it is to give "It is the truth! They have my young men anything new. Every inventor had to brother. They would kill him or worse if travel the trail of refusal and scorn. So I double-crossed them; went to the police. I, had but it is a hard trail. That is why I don't run away. I can't aban- I nodded sleepily. don him. Some day I'll get him away, and then I'll run so far they will never find me." COFTLY the door opened, and one blue- She looked up into my eyes, twisting her ^ green eye, sparkling with the thrill of body so accidentally against mine, rubbing adventure, peered out at me. I let my her neck with such a graceful motion of eyes nearly close, and nodded my head her slim, rounded arm. Well, after all, I sharply again as though falling asleep. am only a man. My voice softened, and She glided out, raised one trim leg to step she knew she had me. I said: over my outstretched shanks. I galvan- "It's a good story. But I just don't be- ized into swift action. lieve it. I think I had better call the po- WITCH'S DAUGHTER 67 lice. You'd come back here tomorrow if I attached the cables to the little metal I didn't." bands, slid them under my shirt, fastened She twisted suddenly out of my now them about my arms. I was ready. relaxed grasp. But she didn't run. She The juice in that battery gave me the faced me, and now her face was a beautiful strength of four or five ordinary' men, and mask of feminine anger. There were even the batteries were good for several days. tears of vexation on her lashes; such glis- It was just a much greater supply of the tening tears. I gave up, and believed every same electric which the cells of the body word she had said. I'm only a man. manufacture and store. Crile says the elec- "You stupid animal." tric is produced by oxidation of the lipoid She was getting madder, her lovely face films of the cell's exterior—an oxidation of flushed, her teeth glittered and that per- the oil of the film. Using Geo. Crile's work fume was getting under my skin, too. to produce a battery like the human cell ." "Look here, if you don't believe me. . . had been my life work so far. It had also She turned, tore at her black dress. The been Herrera's, the Mexican scientist. I silk parted in her hands, slid down reveal- had succeeded. But I'm not famous—yet. ing to my now interested—nay, fascinated The brain controls that energy of the —eyes a smooth and undeniably lovely body, directing where it should go and back. Probably her best feature, my cyni- when. The heart of my device was a sim- cal soul insisted on remarking to my gulli- ple little switch operated by a tiny toggle. ble ego—but somewhat defeatedly. Across My harness placed one of these switches the smoothness ran a series of welts, and on every large muscle of the body. When around her arm at the arm pit ran a raw, the brain contracted a muscle the little red place where perhaps a strap had held toggle switch operated, releasing a flood of her against the agony of the beating. energy into the body from the big battery. "Do you think that was fun? The old Then the toggle-spring shut off. If the mus- woman is a witch, and that strap mark is cle remained contracted, the toggle went from the witch's cradle! But of course you on again—and so on till the muscle was would know about such things. You . . . contracted by the brain when it remained you law-abider . . . you! Do you think I off. This little switch made the energy from like what I go through? I don't know what the life-battery as fully controlled as the to do, where to turn! At the first move body's own energy—except there was a lot from me, my brother would die; and no more of it. It was a perfect tool of the one would find or arrest the devils. Police mind, giving the body a vastly greater sup- search like blind men on a picnic!" ply of work-energy. Just for a demonstration I lifted a 900 I LOOKED at her, my mental processes lb. bar-bell for the smooth dream-face who stymied. The sudden realization that had tried to burgle me. I bought that bar- what she was saying was fully true and bell for just that purpose—demonstration the plight she was in a genuine case of —but had never had a chance to use it. sadistic enslavement was too much for me. She was surprised, and those sparkling eyes After all, I am only a man. registered a lot of admiration for my phy- All the tales of witchcraft I had read as sique, a glow I did not miss as I held the a boy—including the beautiful maiden's 900 lbs. aloft, a feat no ordinary man per- rescue by the so-charming prince—rose up forms without world-wide publicity. But I to confound my cynicism. I swallowed the was no showman or I would have seen the whole thing; hook, line and sinker. chances of getting attention from it. "Maybe I can help you where no one "Now don't you think we could walk else could for bungling. I am not entirely into that place, overpower the people you a fool. My invention could prove useful. profess to fear so much, and walk out with I think I see an idea." your brother? This device gives me a lot She followed demurely through the bed- of strength." room into the bleak workroom which I "They'd shoot you, the first move. But managed to pay for out of a far-too-slen- I'm tempted to let you try—if you are der income. I motioned to a chair. From brave enough? It would be hard to refuse ." the case on the work-bench I took my bat- you anything, if you did succeed. . . Her teries and hung the case over my shoulder. voice drawled this last huskily, like a radio 68 AMAZING STORIES

siren registering temptation. She was a We walked the block through the red- natural, all right. A natural temptress. tinged night. Through the glowering old Just to be on the safe side, I left a note dark hulks of houses between the rotting on my dresser, a signed and sealed and warehouses and vacant shops. It was a stamped envelope, addressed to the police. partly abandoned waterfront section. Ap- It told where I was going, and why. She propriate for the kind we were calling on. gave me the address with a slight, hidden I was getting plenty worried long before reluctance. we arrived. "The address is a cellar below 153 Port- We entered a dimly lit shop. She walked land St. The Baltimore Police would not straight through, past the cigar counter, find it if they did not know it was there. past the sagging shelves full of ten-cent We go in through a store, and very seldom. goods, candy, kids' stuff, work gloves, what- Only at night, when there is no one around. have-you. We are very secret and very careful." There was an old woman sitting behind I noticed there was a hint of greater col- the counter, an evil-eyed old bulgy-figured laboration with these criminals than her hag, one of the foreign kind you just know other words had given me, but I said noth- has a dozen dirty petticoats on. We walked ing. I signed the letter, having given all straight through around the end of the the particulars of the address and what counter and into the door in the back. The might be found. I sealed it and stamped woman only nodded at the girl, ignored me it just in case. too entirely. The room behind the store room was THEN we went out into the night. There nearly empty, but the girl did not stop, was still a red light in the sky, as started down a staircase. I followed, and though the night were tainted with the we entered a big cellar. Empty barrels and bloody death of the sun. An ominous feel- broken packing cases littered the place. It ing crept over me which I brushed aside. was empty of life or the signs of life. She I knew I was being a fool, placing myself walked to the age-greened concrete of the in the power of the people who could be wall, pressed on it. A section swung under every bit as bad as the girl pictured. But her hand. We passed through and it closed something drove me, something in the girl's behind us with a dull sound of finality. I face, something in my own adventurous inwardly, prayerfully, hoped it wasn't final spirit. It was the same thing that made me for me. loath to believe in the evil intent of any The only thing that had kept me with person until proven. I thought I might be this girl so far was remembering the whip able to help her, I was curious about her marks on her back. She couldn't produce "witch's cradle," and no little electrified those by acting. I stayed mad about that, by herself, the lithe, slim body of her; the and I was going to do something about it white, too-innocent face with its large, sub- first chance showed. tly provocative eyes; and the mystery that Through a short tunnel-like passage we breathed about her with the strange elusive passed, and suddenly into a room of star- perfume of her. My imagination was cloth- tling magnificence! ing the sly thief with an aura of attraction Hung with green, silken, heavy-brocaded because of her likeness to my dream-world hangings, the walls writhed with the golden Kyra. My imagination is not always cor- shape of a huge dragon worked in the silk, rect, but it was the gift that made me the like a big nightmare swimming in green ink. man I am. I had always followed my imag- It was a rich setting for the woman who ined idea of something bigger in men and rose from a couch as we entered. Her vivid, women than the surface might indicate. I ripened beauty struck my senses. The half- had sometimes been wrong. nude, brown-skinned stalwarts, standing We took a taxi to within a block of the like statues at each side just back of her, address. The girl, perhaps from habit, had told me she was somebody both from an given an address that could not be traced erotic country, and vastly important—to to the hole she claimed to fear so much. have two bodyguards who could have made My forebodings grew stronger, but I would a good living as strong men in any show. not turn back. I was ashamed to show fear A stimulating wave of something, maybe before her—or before the Kyra who lived woman-beauty, maybe something more sub- only in my brain. tle and sinister—a ray, perhaps—washed .

WITCH'S DAUGHTER 69

over me like an infinitely intoxicating li- confidence. Kyra, get the man some wine, quid, invisible but potent. A liquid that while I introduce myself to him. Our best contained some subtle, all-powerful drug blue wine, Kyra." that paralyzed the will with the promise She turned now to me, and as women of everything the imagination could con- can, turned on all the lure of her so that jure of joy in a woman's giving. the flame of her body within that trans- This whole scene was the opposite of parent gown did its work with me. My what the girl's words had given me to ex- anger was gone; my curiosity, as well as a pect. Her words disillusioned me more, but desire for her in its place. It was desire awakened instead a vast anger and a curi- that made staying there the one thing I osity as big in my breast. wanted to do. Something in her voice when she had asked Kyra to bring wine had '"pHE woman by the guarded couch spoke warned me, but I was powerless to heed * first, with strange words. English with any warnings just then. Who could have? that queer accent I could not place. Some- I was helpless. This woman was a witch thing archaic and Eastern about it. Men- of another kind that I had come prepared tally I decided never to agree with a nudist to meet. Yet my fear was not gone; it was again. For the transparent film of gown only overlaid with another thing, an attrac- she wore was infinitely more revealing and tion more powerful. satisfying than any nudity could be. Every This lovely "witch" took my hand again curve, every delicious sinuosity of a danc- and pulled me to a seat on the low lounge er's developed body shone behind the glis- on which she had been reclining when I tening fabric with a luminosity as of a pale entered. Her husky, vaguely alien voice flame of vitality leaping within her soft began to weave a spell about me, the spell flesh. Her voice carried a husky, man-con- of charm and of well-told adventurous scious inflection to me, as well as her eyes, promise, a spell of woman-charm and- of boldly upon me. culture, and another that has grown strong-

"Did you get them, Kyra?" er .. . maybe it was evil, maybe it is more As she used that name, my echoing than evil now! Judge for yourself. dream-memory struck me again with the "My name," she began, "is Tanil. I vast mystery here opening before me. How come from a far country ... a country could this girl be Kyra who existed only in you have never heard of. I have been here dreams? Kyra, my witch-maid—her name, quite a long time. There is a great deal I her face, what else of hers might this girl must tell you, so that you can understand have? Her wisdom, her occult power, per- why we need you. So keep your mind open haps? and unprejudiced against us until you have "I brought something worth a lot more heard me out. Then you will decide wheth- to us. I brought the inventor himself. He er you wish to help us or not." came to save me from a terrible witch 1" Kyra entered with three goblets of wine. Kyra's laughter was gently mocking, and She had changed into a simple clinging as the strange woman joined in, I grew too drape of the same kind of translucent ma- angry to stand still, with the two women terial of which Tanil's revealing gown was

laughing at me. . . made. Her own slim beauty sang through I flushed, said: the filmy stuff like a song from the past. "I don't know what is funny. If you It was a lurid passionate past of midnight people have brought me here to make fun revels in the groves of Pan; or perhaps the of me, I may as well go now!" Even as more passionate revels held in the groves I spoke, my mind wondered, what in hell of deeper antiquity of a still longer dead is Kyra wearing whip marks for ij this time, to the worship of some more wilful place is not evil? desiring God than ever Pan had been. The woman, still laughing, took my hand The clothing of the two women struck between her own and pressed it. this same strange note of archaic music, a "Don't be angry. Kyra had to use the luringly familiar note in my male breast. first idea that came into her head, prob- Something of the glory of ancient times ably. We had a great need of your inven- lived here in this room, hidden under the tion, a need that is greater than any scru- squalor of the modern city. The question ples we might have about stealing it. Now of what this strangeness might be, made me that you are here we will take you into our listen with an avid curiosity. The wine — ;

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trickled like liquid fire down my throat. Kyra threw up her hands in alarm, re- It was like no wine I knew. A pulse rose membering suddenly my harness and guess- swiftly in me, of warmth; and the beauti- ing what had happened, but she was too ful hangings, the low, odd furnishings with late to stop me now. their hint of the East, the inviting eyes and I seized the guard's arm, pulled him to half-revealed bodies of the two women took me, turned swiftly and heaved him over my on a new and greatly enhanced beauty. It back. He flew, all three hundred pounds was a potent drink. I asked for more. of muscle and fat and smooth brown hide, clear across the room and struck the wall, TANIL'S low, almost eery voice began lay there without moving, sprawled—out! again to weave its spell. Kyra brought The other guard, not understanding my me another goblet of the potent blue wine. battery and harness, and thinking my I listened to Tanil talking, and her eyes prowess solely due to skill, advanced to- were on mine strangely, watching me for ward me, his hands outspread like a wres- some reason I didn't get. She was saying: tler, not to be caught as his fellow had "We want to be your friends here. We been. Kyra shouted: are that kind of people who want to help "His invention; he's wearing it! I didn't and plan for such men as you inventors, get a chance to tell you. He's stronger the real scientists of the world. We, too, than four men." consider ourselves scientists and useful peo- But her words were too late to save the ple. As such, in a kind of understood other guard, for I did not wait for him. brotherhood with all other intelligent peo- I leaped toward him, got him in the crotch ple. Strange things may happen to you and around the waist, lifted—heaved. He here at our hands, but please trust and went up and over my head, fell heavily on believe in us. For instance, you are going the floor six feet from me. He didn't get to sleep now because I am putting you to up. Whether he was out or not, he had sleep, and you may have very strange had enough. I dreams. Very . . . strange . . . dreams . . . As stood there panting, and the two !" women staring indeed . . . at me wide-eyed with the My voice now strangely answered Tan- sudden revealing of strength in a victim il's, but it was not of my own volition. they had thought completely in their power, Alarm was ringing a bell all through my I relaxed. The muscle tension gone, the body, the thrill of danger clamored in my several little switches of my harness opened, brain, but my inner self did not listen. It as they were made to do. The vital energy was the influence of some subtle spell she of the battery ceased to course through my had been weaving about me, or else the body. The drugs they had given me took wine had been heavily drugged! And I had sudden effect, I slumped to the floor! As fell, asked for more. . . . That was funny. I I the switches opened, a flood of power was full of wine and my senses all awry coursed through me—and as suddenly with alcohol and drugs. The soft lure of stopped. I blacked out. her sing-song tones and the subtly power- ful influence of her strong female person- T AWOKE to find myself upon a table. ality, the utter desirability of her revealed A About me were the white, masked faces beauty and the warm closeness of her be- of nurses, of doctors! If I could have side me made my voice uncontrollable. I screamed in terror I would have! No man said: likes to find himself upon an operating ta- ." "I hear, but I do not understand. . . ble, and least of all when he has given no

My head nodded sharply. . . . consent, has no illness, knows he is there The feel of the male hands of the guard because of an enemy. upon me woke me because my unconscious- What kind of an operation would they ly resisting muscles had closed the toggle be doing upon my body? The worst pos- switch of my harness, released a flood of sible ideas of their intent rose in my mind my synthetic body electric from the case they were stealing my young glands for of batteries into my libs. I leaped erect, some old man's money, etc., etc. All the sharply awake, and the restraining hands lurid tales of fiction rose in my mind to of the guard—who had been bending to explain this sudden horrible appearance of pick me up—reached for me again. He an operating room about me—and me the was a third again my weight! guy to get the knife. —

WITCH'S DAUGHTER 71

Over me were the multiple eyes of a Or is it modern science she is using, there strange ray mechanism. From a mass of in that reproduction mechanism, no witch's weird glass eyes goggling at me came a lore at all? Some secret development of myriad of tiny colored little light rays. modern science strange to me that she had Busy, moving little beams they were, mov- learned and applied in a new way. Or ing flickeringly, in little jerks, but moving was it all but more of my dreams about on steadily—across my back, across and "Kyra," and I would wake up again in back, over my body! my dingy rooms and go back to work Each of the tiny rays made a strange perfecting my life-battery so that men

crawling sensation within me as if a million would accept it, allow it to help with their microscopic ants were tearing at each cell daily labor?

those little beams touched. It was as But, darn it, there was something ter- though the moving little lights were alive ribly alien and ancient about that machine. with terrible intelligent life of a micro- It did not look like anything I had ever scopic kind that was working a strange seen. f metamorphosis within me. Sleep was stronger than my curiosity. At a little distance, obscured by the I really blacked out. But I remember bent form of Tanil whom I recognized easi- vaguely that those little rays were still ly in spite of her mask, was a similar con- sweeping back and forth over my body trivance to the one suspended over me, with their terrible crawling sensation tear- though of much smaller size. ing inside my body, as if each cell was The thing struck an eerie freezing fear being scraped off with a microscopic wire into me, for there was also a duplicate brush. operating table, and upon it a smaller thing, a thing I could see was a replica of I AWOKE, with a blissful languor in all myself! It was like seeing in a reducing my limbs. I found myself on Tanil's mirror, but brother, that was no mirror, couch, the two muscular guards standing that was real! where they had been when I first entered, Tanil came, glanced at me. Seeing my but the looks on their frozen pusses didn't open eyes, she touched me soothingly on do me any good. I was lying on the couch, the cheek. I suppose I looked hysterical and my head was in Tanil's lap. It seemed or had my mouth ready to sound like a incongruous to me that the creature whom steam whistle. That's the way I felt! I feared, who was so mysterious and power- Somehow, this Tanil was entirely too ful to my inner eyes, should be holding my smooth an article, or there was a weasel head like a girl holds a lover on a picinc. in the henhouse I had not seen yet. I knew Kyra was fussing with a drink mixer,

I was being made a chump someway and presently handed me a cocktail. I drank it. would probably wake up dead. It revived me plenty! I sat up. Then a needle pricked my arm, and I Somehow I didn't want any more physi- saw Kyra's eyes, weird over the white mask cal contact with Tanil than I could help. as ever I imagined them to be in my She was a witch in more ways than one, dreams, bending over me, counting my and I didn't want her hooks in my emo- pulse, taking my temperature—or was she? tional responses too strongly till I knew I didn't know, I was asleep, and Kyra's whether my fears or my desires were cor- face was still there, as it has been so many rect about her. I looked at her accusingly. times in my dreams. "Just what were you doing with that As the blackness blotted out even Kyra's nightmare of a ray-machine, and why did image, a voice in my mind asked curiously you drug me?" —a voice I couldn't tell from my own, but Tanil glittered a row of bright, regular was it me? Where did Tanil obtain this teeth at me and turned her body in a witch's lore? In what forgotten store of sinuous motion that brought all those dev- terrible wisdom had she obtained this astating little movements of the covering weird, too-complex machine she had placed flesh over her muscles that her transparent over me; which I had seen was repro- gown only served to decorate. ducing me in miniature upon another table? "I was making a doll of you. What do Or was she only another tool like Kyra, you think? I make dolls of all my friends!" and not the boss at all? Or were my senses "What for?" fooling me, and all this not as it seemed? "You will learn about that, and I hope —

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you like it. If you do not I will have to Tanil twisted her soft, sinuous body destroy that doll. That would be a sad again toward me, and the soft light of the thing, it is such a good one. So handsome shaded lamps twinkled all over the gown a little doll it it is, yes!" where little gems of sequins were sewn "Dolls and witchcraft are always some- onto the sheer fabric. My heart took a leap. way intermingled, Tanil. Are your dolls "No, Tanil, he would have to be a good connected with witchcraft?" liar to make an evil creature out of you.

"Who told you I was a witch?" Still . . . why all this concealment? It is "Call it masculine intuition. Do you an apparently criminal set-up in this hid- deny the charge?" den place. Why not operate openly?" "Not exactly. I have knowledge of cer- "We do things in an arbitrary way. tain arts not generally understood. Igno- Sometimes we take the law into our own rant people might call them witchcraft. hands. Always people of our kind must But surely you are too educated a man to hide to avoid narrow-minded repression. believe in the supernatural?" Law is good, but it is sometimes so stupid "Just what are you trying to do, Tanil?" in its workings that one must avoid all "I am trying to live interestingly, beau- contact with it." tifully, powerfully! That such a life in- "I can understand that." cludes danger only adds spice." "That is good. Tonight, while you sleep, "Doesn't explain anything. What use you will have good dreams that I make for do you expect from me?" you. Tomorrow you will tell me whether "Your invention. I want several hundred you work with us willingly, or be an enemy, of them for my employees." which I do not advise." "What do I get out of that?" Tanil lifted the great dragon shape, and "That depends on you. If you cooperate behind its green folds revealed a corridor willingly, a great deal. If you refuse co- with several doors, a corridor which went operation, we will build them ourselves, on into darkness endlessly. To one of these and we will make you help by using the doors she conducted' me, and showed me a doll. You will understand all this as time bed. I did not feel like sleeping and said goes on. I am myself a person like you so, but she laughed and answered: who must cooperate with others because "You may not feel like sleeping, but I they have my doll, can make me do as they promise you sleep and good dreams. Now wish. You have no alternative." listen for once to Tanil, and do not argue. As if to explain her words, a peculiar She is sometimes wise." feeing came over me, my mind seemed Tanil left me with a smile. shoved aside by another thing; and without I slipped off my clothes and hit the volition of my own, I kneeled before Tanil, sheets. I no sooner sank into that bed placed her foot on my head. Then I took than I fell asleep again. her foot off, got to my feet, and the strange I slept and I knew I slept. I knew I was compulsion passed. I swore. dreaming, too, yet my dream was real. "So that is what the dolls do! I don't Myself and my dream self knew that my understand what the dolls are or how they body lay and watched it all. work, but that is what they are for?" "That is why it was made. So that if IT SEEMED that I rose from bed, and you are not cooperative, through misunder- floated through the wall into a strange standing our methods and aims, we can use land. And toward me came a vaporous, you that way." beautifully curved woman's figure; a figure "I don't like it! I'm getting out of here awesome in its overstrong attraction for now!" me. She took me by the hand. "You can't get out, Kent. The doll is a "Where are we going?" I asked. thing that binds us all here. There is no "To the Kingdom of Micomican. To particular reason why you should worry the Land of the Chimera. To the pleasures about it, but it is a fact you should know. which only Atlantis, long dead, ever under- You are hired—and you can't quit! Ene- stood on this sad earth. To the temple of mies may lie to you, call me an evil witch a cult which seeks to revive the ancient who wants power at any cost—a terrible worship of the land of the freed imagina- creature. Do you think I am a terrible tion!" creature, a horrible old witch?" Her answer seemed right to me, though a

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I knew some way that this temple of the here on earth." imagination, and the cult that worshipped Tanil's thought was talking, soft dream- there, was an ancient and established thing talk that yet left a stronger image of on earth, but that she did not tell me this meaning than ever did waking conversation. for fear of misunderstanding. Looming now before us was the temple, It was Tanil, I saw now, and her body built, I knew, to the worship of Tanit, a was now as transparent as her gown had goddess whose teaching contradicts all that been before. She laughed at my revealed made medieval religion such a sterile and thoughts, and her laugh was the endless unpleasant affair. echo of all the desires of all youths every- Tanil's whisper made clear what was to where, and the answer to that desire, and come, as we entered the red transparent I knew love. We walked and my eyes rock of the door, that glowed with an inner could not leave her swaying figure beside light as a ruby's fire. me, but looked at her and through her into "In the Temple of Tanit, love is glorified paradise within her, to which she was the in the same way that we glorify "virtue," door. I drank and ate of the irresistible or our sterile concept of virtue. It differs strength that vitalized her beauty, that was only from the love concept of the Christians her beauty, and from that drink I grew in its greater emphasis on the love of man to be something greater than myself— for woman, and it offers opportunities for mighty lover with his love. the expression and development of ideas Now behind her I sensed, far behind and which the Christian religion has left more over us, an ancient and familiar presence; or less dormant. This worhsip of our God- the witch-mother of Kyra, who seemed to- dess Tanit is another reason for our secrecy night to be the mother of vastly more than and our hiding. Little of what goes on here Kyra. Beside her was the daughter, Kyra would be understood or allowed in the herself! surface world. Her white, loved face seemed strained My mind revolved the words "surface and worried and sorrowful over losing me world" questioningly, and hearing my to Tanil. Yet her face was also promising; thought in the dream, Tanil answered. promising me the fulfillment of the yearn- "You will learn that there is, on every ing toward her which had long been my planet, a subterranean world. Some of inner life. I could not understand the these subterranean worlds of other planets paradox of her thought. are lived in although the surface is un- We traversed a landscape not of this inhabitable. The subterranean world of this world, and I know those spiraling tree planet earth is better known on many other forms, with their multitude of great blos- worlds than it is on your own surface soms, those green skies, this shadowed, dim world. You have much to learn." lighting, revealed only sparingly yet so The temple floor was a shimmering, bril- mysteriously beautifully a garden land that liant emerald stone. The vaulted roof was was not earthly. I knew from the thought sapphire, glowing with peculiar fires of that softly connected me with Tanil, that flickering blue flames. this was her homeland, a planet other than The ruby altar, shaped like a heart, and earth.* serving as a warm backdrop to the white "We are entering the temple of Tanit, an and flawless beauty of the near-nude ancient Goddess of earth as well as of this dancer, was symbolic of the love-base of planet, which is my homeland in space. the religion of Tanit. Tanit is symbolic of love, but her love is For that matter, the dancer, expressing a different thing than men conceive love with her silken gleaming flesh all the promise of ecstasy that woman is to man, was symbolic of Tanit's worship, too. I At this point in the manuscript of "Witch's stood held by all the mystery and the ter- Daughter," the margin contained a penciled note rible strength of that lure of love that was handwriting, as follows. The not in Mr. Shaver's in her expressed—and alive. editors do not know who wrote it or what it

means. We reproduce it as it appears : "Now we're THE red altar burned a fire, that travelin', sweet sailin', just like old times, Shaver IN flickered far away, as though mysteri- on the loose. I'm gettin' the knack of script readin'. And you—with the other eye open?—are ous distance lay some how imprisoned sailin' along like a dream boat." within the ruby. From this fire radiated —

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a lure, a mind-conjuring promise welled that story of my dream with any flippant endlessly from the great red translucent disregard. stone. The promise was one of endless "Quick, while it is in your mind, tell me

. bliss for those who worshipped Tanit before what that man who stabbed me looked like. that altar. Subtly it pervaded the mind of This could mean a great deal to me. Tell, those who looked upon it with a thought, a friend, tell me!" conviction that Tanit was a living immortal Not understanding why she should think Goddess of wondrous divine beneficence, a mere dream important, I told her as and that her power flamed forever within closely as I could of the appearance of the heart of the altar, and would so flame the tall lean horror who had wielded that within the heart of all who claimed her as blade in my dream. She listened with nar- their own Goddess, and worshipped her. rowed, intent eyes, their bright green irises In my dream, looming big, over and be- centered squarely on my face to catch the hind the scene like a watching spirit was slightest nuance of meaning. When I fin- the vast face of Kyra, and below that, her ished she mused: sinister mother. I wondered vaguely if "It must have been Neues Panot, the her mother also had a counterpart in reality. priest, fiend that he is! He serves Tanit They were watching me, for what reason I or any of us—as I serve the devil, and that's could not fathom. not all." Behind them, in the dream, stole a figure, Her words meant little to me, but as I a lean, long, and menacing figure. In his searched them the depths of the meaning hand gleamed a wide, ugly knife, and as I struck me. There was such a cult as the watched the knife flashed up and back and worship of Tanit, there was such a man who then down in one swift hard movement. wielded behind-the-scenes power here, and Kyra fell, and fell, and fell, and my feet who stabbed Kyra in a dream. That dream were frozen in the hell of immobility that was not wholly foolishness, and Kyra knew occurs in dreams only, thank God! it came from some source that sought to Sweating, my hands clenched in horror, I warn her through me. awoke. My mouth was saying: "Kyra, As Kyra rose from the chair where she Kyra, look out!" over and over, and my had sat to talk to me, I stopped her. feet were struggling with the silken coverlet "There are things I must talk to you to go, to leap, to stop that gleaming knife. about. Please spare me a few minutes?" It was a vast relief to see the light of She sat again, perhaps in her role of that real cave glowing softly outside my nurse that she had assumed since my drug- door, to know that something serene and ging; perhaps pleased for me to talk as safe was keeping this place its own. Some- though she meant something to me. When how that awakening made me realize that Tanil was not near, I knew that somehow the power Tanil seemed to have was not Kyra meant a great deal to me, must be evil, nor was Kyra evil; but that the evil I somehow fatefully connected with my past sensed was still hidden, not revealed to me, dream life. But Tanil had such a vast per- and perhaps not to them either. But was sonal magnetism, and always seemed so that only an illusion, myself a dupe, her taken with me, had such a dominant pos-

character wholly different that I imagined? sessive way about her . . . Surprisingly, the living Kyra, the girl who had burglarized my diggings unsuc- LISTEN, Kyra, all my life since I have cessfully, walked into my waking sight. I been old enough to think of woman, sat up, saying: I have dreamed of a certain witch-woman, "Thank God!" a maid who in my dreams has your name, "Well, you needn't be that delighted to Kyra. Her face is your face, her body and see me." Her face was wholesome, laughing her ways yours, you are the same person. slightly at me, and myself was as relieved She has a mother, as I told you. In the as though she were in truth my Kyra of dream last night, she stood beside her when dreams, of the "edge" beyond all life. she was stabbed. How is it that you are "I dreamed some man-thing was stabbing my dream girl? Is it only a strange coin- you, and it really gave me the creeps. 1 cidence, or do you know more of it than just awake from that dream and you walk that?" in." "I know the answer to your question, but For some reason Kyra did not accept I am not sure that the time has come to —

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tell you. If you are the man you may be- my mind asked? come, why then I will tell you how this "Well, Mr. Kent, I'll tell you what will has occurred. Why you have dreamed of do you the most good. If you understand, me so long is something that will remain you may be able to decide what is best for a secret yet for awhile, but rest assured it you to do, though I do doubt you will be is not an accident. I did have something able to any deciding about this for years to do with it and have known you for a to come. You are now in the power of peo- long time from a distance." ple who have ways of ruling people un- "This worship of Tanit, the ancient known to those people ruled. Goddess—I dreamed of that, too, last night. "These dolls are one of their ways, and As you have a reality outside my dreams, are an ancient art. The dolls made by that does that cult of Tanit have a reality, too? machine have a pseudo-life, are activiated Is there such a cult?" by electric currents similar to the current* "There is a cult of Tanit. I am a part of that machine you have built to make a of it, and have been for a long time. Its man strong. They are precisely like your modern origins include extra-terrestial in- own body in a certain way—in that way a fluences." radio receiving set is like the sending sta- "Another thing, Kyra. That doll they tion—in mental atunement, and this doll doped me to make—why did they make can receive your thought ; is a key to your that doll? What is it really all about? Why thought and actions. am I here?" "You are hereafter linked to that doll in "You will hear all that soon enough. strange ways, not in the way witch's dolls Meanwhile you are not ready to learn these are commonly thought of, though. If Tanil things, and you must learn them from the wants to know what you are doing, she puts proper sources in a careful exposition that a certain ray upon the doll and no matter leaves nothing unsaid. I am not prepared what you are doing, the doll will tell her to give you such explanations, I have not your thought. It is a receiver. If she wants thought about it enough. You will gather to help you; if you are in trouble; she many facts as time goes on that will make then puts another ray upon the doll, sends such explanations far easier. It is like her thought in strong augmentation along Einstein and relativity, and asking him this beam to the doll's brain. You, no mat- about it. You are asking me just as hard ter where you are, will think those thoughts a question. What is magic? Why am I con- and do those things she makes the doll nected with magic? I can tell you, but you think. Do you understand the mystery of would not understand me any more than the doll?" you would understand Einstein if he told you about his work. You may learn in "T UNDERSTAND," I said angrily, time, and you may never understand Many A "she just stole my soul away and now think they understand but do not. Just as I am her thing. She made a zombie out of many men think they understand Einstein, me, and now I am supposed to like it!" but do so only vaguely. Such is my under- "Ordinarily, in the hands of evil people, standing of dolls and doll uses. These are such would be the case; you would be the ancient arts, a science from an older time; loser. But Tanil is not a fool, and I have a one is either raised with and understands great friendship for her. She has a doll of such things and uses them, or just uses or me, and it was made at my request. But is used by them. Or knows nothing, like there is also a doll of Tanil in other hands yourself." so that she is not entirely a free agent. "Can't you give me an idea, Kyra? I "Tanil can do great favors for a person can't just blindly accept anything Tanil with her dolls. Such things are like any tool says. My whole future is being decided here —like a tractor or a steam shovel—they are and I am having nothing to say about it. useful and harmless in the hands of sane Tell me what you can." people. But in the hands of a murderer or Kyra settled herself with a swift feminine a madman they can be terrible weapons. twist, swirling her transparent skirt in dis- So it is with the ancient art of the witch's tracting spirals about her eye-blessing legs. dolls. I watched, and knew again the feeling that "They can be made only with machinery I had known this girl for years, and that devised by the Elder race of the past, and she knew me of old. How could that be, there are not many such machines on Earth. 76 AMAZING STORIES

Tanil brought hers from another planet, but bodies of many beautiful people all pushing you are not yet ready to understand that together up the walls, and the ceiling a Tanil is from another planet. She is a splendor of half-revealed forms in gay 'witch,' an evil person, if you are ignorant abandon as though it were the place the and fearful. She is a 'good fairy' if you are pushing bodies tried so hard to reach. a sentimental fool. She is a sane and normal I followed the beautiful passage in the person trying to do her job and take care direction I thought lay the room of the of her own fate in her own wise way—if great dragon drapes. I passed several great you know her well. You reserve such de- doors into the lovely cavern rock chambers, cisions as to what is evil and what is not, and hearing the murmur of voices behind for when you know a great deal more than one, I stopped, slid cautiously forward to you do about life and its ways you will the aperture, peered in. find this: a thing is evil only when its hurts Tanil—talking with a man. The same life's proper development, and no other man who had stabbed Kyra in my dream! thing is evil. Tanil is not a person that Somehow Kyra was my friend, and I hated hurts things much, is she, Mr. Kent?" this man instantly. On such things hinge I looked at Kyra, my mind confused. future events, sometimes. But Kyra hated "I'll reserve judgment. But mind you, him, too. I had heard her mention his I don't trust you either. You have never name with venom, Nueces Panot. He explained how you got those whip marks looked like an Indian. on your back, which were what led me here in truth, and not your lies." "CHE must not know our plans any more. "Among the other unusual things of the ^ She will tell such men as this new- caverns, there is a cult of flagellants not far comer, and sooner or later their squeam- away from here in the underworld. I went ishness will take offense at our needful to see their procession not long ago; and work and betray us!" getting too near, one of them mistook me Tanil's voice was scornful. for a participant. He liked my looks, I "Betray us to whom, may I ask? Do guess, for he laid it on heavy. They are they know the life, the ways, the roads of very mad people. There are many such the caverns? Could they go to far Ornouts lost groups, scattered through these end- with their tales, or would that fool, Chong, ." less caverns. You have much to learn . . listen if they did? They would die before She had disregarded my insult, was musing they had gone fifty miles. You talk like a of something else. fool sometimes, Nueces! You tend to your I said: work. And don't imagine I do not see "I caught you robbing my rooms, too." through you. Always I have this ambition Her face flushed with sudden anger at my in such as you, fearful of every newcomer, insistence on explanations from her. She jealous of every glance I give a man. One cried: would think you my lover! "In a few weeks you may be doing for "Nueces, you may have power in your more questionable things for Tanil, and own way and your own field, but see that liking it too! You virtuous yokel!" you do not get the idea that you are pre- She flung out of the room, angry with ferred by the hidden ones to myself. They me, left me feeling like a yokel indeed, for cannot do without my wisdom, and they it was witless of me to anger one I thought can do without your flummery. Kent will of as constantly as herself. Kyra was wise learn nothing that would make him squeam and clever, and knew her way around here from us, and for that matter what do we where I was completely at sea. I felt swad- do that is so criminal? Or are you hiding dled in wool, and trying to walk where something horrible from me that you fear there was no place to put my feet. one of these newcomers may blunder on? Now that I was alone, I dressed, walked Is it your own acts you fear may betray out of the sleeping room into the long you? Nueces, sometimes you go too far! gloomy corridor and paused, my breath "This Kent has been with us but one taken for a moment by the ageless splendor night and one day, and already you come of the Elder work that had carved this to warn me of him! Fool, that man Kent passage from the rock no one knew when. is in love with me, or with Kyra, or both, Carved it so that the walls were many and Kyra is my right hand! Quit your — •

WITCH'S DAUGHTER 77

croaking and get back to your work, and is evil, and would lead only into trouble. remember that it had better be cleaner work He tells me everyone but himself is my than usual. If I did not need you, Nueces, enemy, and verily he is the only real

your skill in some matters, I would bid you enemy I have except . . . never mind. He the dark and lonesome trail for these croak- is transparent as a glass snake. I have to ings of yours." listen and humor him, and I cannot play Tanil's voice stopped, I heard Nueces that game well. I am very tired of such coming toward me, had a glimpse of his things. Amuse me, Tom Kent!" face, turned from Tanil to hide his mur- After all, I did wish an excuse to talk derous rage at her warning words. I knew with her further. he was an enemy to her, and somehow her I entered, sat down, said: stock rose with me, at the same time a "Tanil, over and over I have heard men- knowledge that she was not the master of tion of the "caverns," the "underworld," diplomacy that she might be—else she and other phrases I cannot understand. would have handled this knife-in-the-back Can't you enlighten me a little? Too, I Panot differently to minimize his opposi- have heard you are from another planet. Is tion. this a commonplace thing, that you do not As the man shuffled past me, his white make capital of it? Is it that I know robes gave him a corpselike air in the dim nothing of my own world?" light; a shudder at him passed over me. As soon as he was out of hearing, I stepped "'"pHAT is the truth, Tom Kent." Tanil from the shadow, spoke to Tanil. smiled wearily as though the question "Time for a word with me?" were one she had heard too often. "You "Come in, Kent." Her voice was still people of the surface are sure you know angry. all about life and its history on this earth. "I was passing. Just got up. I heard Nothing could be farther from the truth. you talk." "Long ago a vast race of great technical "Eavesdropping, eh?" Tanil's voice was knowledge lived on Earth—not on the sur- mocking. "I can't say I blame you. I'd face but in a tremendous series of deep eavesdrop a little, too, were I in your posi- cavern cities that stretched then and still tion. What did you want, anything in do so stretch over the whole globe. Those particular?" caverns and those machines they left are "I couldn't help trying to warn you duplicated in every other planet I have been against that fellow. He had murder on his on—three of them beside Earth. And those face as he went out." caverns have been inhabited since the "He'll get murder, the fool! If I didn't earliest days here on Earth. But, here on need him, I would have rid myself of him Earth, unlike other planets, they have been long ago. But he knows things, the ways kept secret from the people of the surface and the whereabouts of certain people of by a clique of hereditary monopolizers of the caverns, the locations of things that are the secret—few but powerful. The ma- hidden in the winding ways of this planet's chines, the vast powers of the ancient work, under-earth; much that I can learn from and the endless living space within the no one else at hand. But to have to use a empty caverns they consider their private traitor and a sneak day after day as though property. It is those we mean when we he were a friend, becomes impossible to me. speak of the 'Hidden Ones' with fear. "These cavern people of Earth are loyal "There is regular commerce between this to old traditions, and those traditions are cavern worlds' people and the other planets. secrecy, not wisdom, I'll tell you. But their Infrequent trips occur between all planets, blind secrecy and a loyalty even to an evil from the farthest one the knowledge may and foolish master? They have had many reach. One learns this is true in space— generations of very bad bringing-up, here men know of the Elder race and use their on earth. So it is that I need him for a machines everywhere except on Earth, and guide; and he takes a lot of humoring, for on Earth the Elder race has become a he is trying to build his own power beyond secret kept from common people by custom my own and so become my master. Always since early times. he tries to lead me, to tell me what to do "It is the greatest secret of earth, and and always I must do the opposite, for he your ignorance of this secret is what makes 78 AMAZING STORIES

me and my knowledge and my use of the realizing just what this knowledge does to machines strange and weird and frighten- all their former teachings of the past and ing to you. There is no reason for you to of science and of religion. If you will trust fear this knowledge now that it comes to me, Kent, I will be able to use you for a you. That fear is perhaps also a legacy of great plan I am working upon which will your heredity, who knows?" for Earth peoples very good. be good your ; I gazed at Tanil, a strange whirling in More I cannot tell you, chiefly because I my head, a whirl that was of wonder and cannot take time or effort to make you two-swift and sudden comprehension of understand. You will have to trust me and vast vistas of new explanations for old obey—if you can do that? Can you?" mysteries growing suddenly within my She gazed down at me, and caressed my

mind ; a sudden opening of my mind to the cheeks delicately with the points of her unending differences this knowledge would long fingers. make in all my thinking. "For Tanil? Can you obey and not dis- The whole education I had been given trust what you do not understand?" as to the beginnings of man and science and "I can try, Tanil. Certainly it should history must now all be revised to accom- not be hard, for I would do nearly any- modate the mighty new base for my think- thing to please you. But if you ... I ing those few words have given me. mean, I must warn you my heart turns I sank to a chair weakly, for I needed toward Kyra, for I have dreamed of a girl ." no convincing to believe Tanil's words. with her face all my life . . There was the doll-making machine, a ma- "My attitude does not mean what your chine that I new no earth science could Earth mind thinks it means. It is only produce. There was the words of Kyra friendly, the way of people brought up un- which were much the same but too brief der the love of Tanit, the Goddess of all to give me this full revelation. There were Love. We are not backward with our af- a hundred mysteries of my past life sud- fections as are you of Earth. Nor is Kyra, denly explained to me: phantasms of my my Kent. Do not worry, you will not youth; ghosts; fairy tales; wizards and break my heart. It has already been bent magic; the legend of the underworld; of in the fire of love; it is tempered now." the Styx, of Charon and of Pluto and Tanil smiled reminiscently, dismissed me Proserpine. abruptly. I knew why well enough. My mind was by those words of hers set "I am tired now. Do you mind, my awhirl upon an endless series of new re- friend?" actions to which I knew there would never "I leave you with a great deal more to be an end. New associations of inescapable think about than I had before, Tanil. Do logic to make about all my past false con- not think I am not susceptible to your clusions about God ; the origins of primitive charms. I like you a great deal too much, man; the source of man's inventions and as you probably know." sciences. My whole understanding of Earth She pushed me gently toward the door. and man must be revised, and I would "Go and look for your Kyra. She has never get done in this life all the needed long held the key to your heart, as she will thinking fully to understand and correlate one day explain to you. She is probably the new understanding with the old false on duty in the Dragon room, the one with teaching. I could only gaze weaking at the great green drape. You know where Tanil and say: it is."

"Now I understand! I . . . understand I went, but I could not help wondering

. . . now!" if it would not have been wiser not to have mentioned my tie for Kyra. After all, I "npHAT is good that you comprehend did not know this woman well, was trusting A so greatly what I have said. Your her. And I tried to feel suspicious of her, reaction tells me you have a good mind, but her "magic" was too strong. I trusted for it does not need a great deal of thought her implicitly, my heart was hers in one to understand what a revolution this makes way, if not in another. I had much to in all your thinking. I have seen other learn of "witches" and their devious ways. men like yourself struck into silent thought For Tanil held that doll, and with it she for a week while they concentrated on fully held my actions, my life-pattern, in her WITCH'S DAUGHTER 79

• two hands. I knew that, and I feared her. point. She was an alien, powerful, above and' I decided that she herself was not cog- outside the law. I was an American in- nizant that her work was potentially evil, ventor who had already given her my best that she was inherently incapable of appre- invention, and control over my actions, my ciating that a man's soul and self-determi- soul. Perhaps I was being a dupe, falling nation in life were sacred. for glossing words and sweet smiles. An On a screen in front of her rapt, lovely entire dupe! Where would her domination face would be a scene in the city overhead. end if I kept on giving her myself? I would The screen was a kind of televisor, bring- be nothing but a monkey on a stick. ing over a beam the scene from above and My head in a whirl again, my heart torn displaying the city at any magnification between the strange loyalty Tanil had in- she wished. She could make a man's face spired in me, and my own knowledge that take up a space four feet in area on that she had appropriated to herself both my screen, or she could spread it out till a work and my will left me not even freedom. vision of the whole city was displayed, the I went in to Kyra, suspicious even of her. people but dots wandering in its vastness. On the great expanse of level floor in the DAYS went by swiftly, in a kind of daze mech-chamber was a miniature reproduc- of working and waiting, of pleasure tion of the city. There were also several in the subtle contention between the two larger-scale reproductions of central sec- women, Tanil and Kyra, over my affections, tions of the city, just that size in which and in a growing comprehension of what those dolls of hers could move about as they were doing. A growing dread that the though they were normal-sized men. The peculiar activity of these peoples would dolls, placed in these three-dimensioned du- result in no good for the human race came plicates of the city above, went through to live with me. There was evil about it, exactly those actions she told them to with but just why and what the threat was I her mental control. could not fathom. On the screen in front of her she watched It took me many days to absorb what people in the city overhead, those of whom Tanil was about, what she intended. When she had doll duplicates especially. For I did understand, a kind of dread of my those people duplicated with their actions own conclusions and doubt of my own abil- and movements precisely the motions of ity to analyze such work from a moral the dolls, and the dolls moved as she dic- standpoint was my attitude. tated with a thought-beam upon them. So I watched her working, always working of course she was in reality controlling with the dolls. To me it was unholy, mys- those people, and they were quite uncon- terious, pure black magic. It was a subtle, scious of it. invisible enslavement of men to her pur- Just what her purpose was in this prac- poses. Even if her purposes were of the tice of hers I could not guess, unless it was purest white, she was at the same time set- to accustom the people themselves to this ting up a machine for absolute rule that control in many actions and over long pe- might be seized at any time by the "Hid- riods when they did only normal things and den Ones" whom she served, as I served her. so would not notice when the control made I could learn almost nothing about them, them do things they would not normally their purposes, or why they were hidden. have done. From Kyra I learned that they were the In time, I guessed another answer to this old hereditary rules of the sparse popula- question, and a greater dread of her seized tion of the endless caverns, and that Tanil me, for I could not but think that what she was doing a good thing in preparing to was doing was greatly wrong. I was con- break down this barrier between them and vinced she was up to no good; but such the surface world. Sometimes I wondered was her nature one approved of her and if Tanil was not being duped by them, could not gainsay her. Even while I feared rather than that ourselves were duped by and detested the things for which she stood, Tanil. an absolute control of surface life beyond The more I learned about Tanil's work any possibility of free choice in important the more I doubted my own ability to ana- matters, still I could not convince myself lyze such alien work from a moral stand- I was opposed to her. so AMAZING STORIES

TANIL seemed to have certain trouble ing; in the day-time activity subtly, hid- denly waiting. Perversely I gave no sign , with her work. There were always dis- turbing factors in the human equation "up- which one my deepest affections preferred. stairs," and the movements of the dolls in For I did not truly know, and feared to the reproduction city had to allow for, to lose one by preferring the other. Time went adapt themselves to, the observed variant on, and Nueces Panot and his white-robed moments introduced by the humans in the priests waited too, and watched. And I scene above—those for whom she had no knew he was vastly more to be feared than dolls. This mental forecasting of the move- Tanil realized. I spoke of this to Kyra. ments of humans over whom she had not "This death's head priest of 'love' who control seemed very difficult. I imagine it stalks around here—the one I dreamed was something like having a fleet of robot- stabbed you—how is it he is still trusted planes under radio control and suddenly and powerful? Why does Tanil not see finding the fleet of controlled planes flying that he is plotting something, that he is through another fleet of friendly planes danger?" piloted by friendly humans with whom one Kyra said: must not allow the bomb-carrying robots "Tanil is biding her time. If she made to collide. For she sometimes had humans the first move, he would have the sympathy driving cars under control, and that was of the other priests as one unjustly dealt ticklish work with cars or trucks cutting in with. They would be troublesome to han- and out. She was "just practicing." Prac- dle, as the workers here follow them pretty ticing—-with human lives risked because of blindly. But if he makes a break, then her practice? Practicing for what? She she can deal with him openly and it will would not say, only to give me an enig- be understood he is in the wrong." matic look with those other-world eyes of T> Y NOW I had realized that Tanil's full hers ; a look full of the mystery of her alien wisdom, as though to say: *-* purpose with her dolls was a full and unbreakable control of this city with her "I would tell you if your poor Earth- dolls. And after that the control mind could comprehend." of other and greater cities, and in time the whole I was never complimented by this exclu- government itself. I realized that she could sion of myself from her plans. Still, I knew do this without anyone "upstairs" being she had not decided whether I was truly a any the wiser that they were not in truth friend or just someone to use and forget. ruling themselves. Someone to trust and confide in, or some- She could move into Washington tomor- one to watch and guard against no matter row, and, after her dolls of the chief figures what her emotions. of government were made, she could at So I waited, and worked, building my any time control the whole workings of harnesses and batteries to her order. It was the government from a distance. I could a job to build a hundred of those things by understand how this could pay off richly hand; without help. For I had no inten- commercially. But I was not sure that such tion of teaching the know-how to any a goal was Tanil's real purpose. What was "helpers". her purpose? She could take control now, Nightly my sleep was filled with dreams what was she waiting for? Why "practice," similar to my first dream there in the cav- if her practice was unobserved? It didn't erns of the ; dreams worship of Tanit. And seem to matter whether her control was nightly it seemed to me that the two women perfect or not. They would not know the contended gently over which owned my difference on the surface. Not them, not heart—Tanil, or Kyra. This contention they who laugh if one mentions witchcraft seemed to be robbing me of some deep seriously as existant. pleasure, some terrific fulfillment that But whatever Tanil's real purpose, things would give full understanding of what these happened to throw her and Kyra and my- women's mysterious efforts were leading to- self into a peril that superseded all her ward—what their goal. work toward that goal. It told me, too, How could the two things hinge togeth- why she waited. er? I could not understand. These women Nueces Panot was not alone. There were seemed to be waiting for me to decide be- a group of priests who, as Kyra said, tween them; in dreams quite openly wait- "served Tanit as she served the Devil, very WITCH'S DAUGHTER

poorly." And among the workmen whom of being a free agent in life. Suddenly you I saw very often but knew not at all inti- do things without volition, you are a by- mately, Nueces was looked up to as the stander in your own mind.. A mechanical spokesman. He, like all priests, had built doll your body. Yourself, the little thing himself up for years as an intermediary in your brain that dignifies your thought between themselves and the Goddess Tanit with a consciousness of identity.. Your ego —and tried to do the same between the suddenly becomes only a passenger, won- ruler Tanil and themselves. Tanil's activ- dering what is going to happen next. ity with her dolls took much of her day. And Nueces was very industrious in plac- THAT is how it happened to me. Sud- ing himself in the good regard of these denly my hands rose up and began to workmen who were the real lifeblood of the choke Tanil. Nothing I could do about it, place. They were, some of them, people it was my body doing it and I had no con- from the surface, but for the most part trol. Something outside me was directing they were the underworld, alien types, my body. Logic, reason, nothing I thought whom I had the greatest difficulty in un- had any connection with my actions, with derstanding. the horrible things my hands were doing Their mental processes were very differ- to Tanil's lovely neck. She fought, kicked, ent from men of the surface. They were scratched—and then Kyra leaped upon my born reactionaries, seeming to prefer not back, pounding, screaming at me. having rights to being bothered with them. Tanil's hands fumbled a small object, Which did not seem to annoy anyone but crushed it. I smelled a funny odor. Even the few surface-trained electricians and as my eyes noted the purpling face of Tanil technicians who had learned to repair and and squeezed a little harder to make sure service some of the ancient machines in she was properly dying, the peculiar odor constant use. To Nueces it was these cav- rose stronger in the cab. A cloud of weird, ern people went when they wanted some- coiling smoke swirled heavier about me. I thing, and it was his promises and explana- breathed it in, and the contorted, lovely tions they listened to when they did not straining face before my horrified eyes get what they wanted. drained away into a great black tunnel into So it was that when Nueces saw his op- which we were rushing. I was unconscious. portunity he had a number of these people When I woke up, it was to the smell of in his confidence. ether, of disinfectant, of the soft brisk feet It happened this way. Tanil had decided of rubber-soled nurses, rustling their white- to make a trip up to the city to buy mate- starched selves past my bed. I looked rials. Materials she had to have to build around, a forty-bed ward, I guessed. All the great number of dolls she was planning those sick people, and me one of them! on using—materials of many kinds I could What was it, a plague? not imagine her using. But she had strange As I raised up to see better, a man got needs. Silk screens for art work, what did up from a chair beside me. she want of them? Plastics of the new "I'm police. We found you and two strengths lately developed, a long list of women unconscious in a taxi. Driver said apparently unrelated materials, which I he smelled gas, but that the smell went knew could only be used to construct some away. Got anything to say?" electric mechanisms of a nature to handle I looked at him, wondering just what great quantities of electric of the static sort he would do if I told him the truth. I —stored on large areas of dielectric. But knew! He would have me transferred to all of Tanil's work was mysterious to me, the psychopathic ward. even though it was my own field. "Nothing I could say would tell you a She took Kyra and I with her on the thing. I smelled something and passed out trip; and as we returned, riding gloomily in a cloud of yellow smoke. That is all." along in the taxi toward the entrance in "That's not much help. We know that that unassuming little grimy store on Port- much. But why? Who would want to land Street, things happened! g harm you? Who are you? Give us some Control from an exterior source of nerve idea of why such a thing would occur to energy is a very strange thing to happen you?" to a man. There is nothing else like it, "I couldn't tell you a thing. Brother, nothing that takes a man out of the illusion not a thing!" I couldn't help grinning. " . "

82 AMAZING STORIES

Suppose I did tell him? Oh My! an, throbbed through my veins. Could a The ward was on the ground floor. Out- man love two women? It has been done, side the window I could see some grass, a I guess. Certainly I wanted Kyra with all shrub, the sidewalk. the fervor of young love. But Tanil! Tanil That night, when the nurses were all off had all the lure of the mystery of wisdom, the ward but one nodding sleepily at her that lure that had placed the image of table in the end of the ward, I heard a soft Kyra in my dreams ahead of all other faces tapping at the window. in a greater degree—that wisdom that is The face was Kyra's, eerily beautiful as the witch's alone. I often wondered what in my dreams she had always been. I Kyra would have done with her own knowl- pinched myself to make sure this wasn't edge and arts without the eclipsing Tanil a dream, too. Then I slid softly out of bed, as her superior. and, crouching in the dimness between the The cab took off in a rising crescendo of beds, slid the window open. Kyra hissed: motor. In a second we were on the park- "Come on. Tanil doesn't want any police way. attention. We are skipping out to avoid Nueces hadn't been killing time. As the all the rigamarole while they try to under- cab pulled off the parkway onto Grand stand what happened. Have you seen the Ave.—a street containing many of the big- papers?" gest stores and banks of the city—we heard "What papers?" tumult far ahead, saw people running, "Don't you realize that your attack on heard shots, screams, and the dull rumble Tanil was the opening move of Nueces; of dynamite. Traffic was a snarl of cursing that he has the doll mech and the whole drivers in front—everyone trying to leave caverns in his hands? He used your doll —while the curious, thinking it a fire, were to make you try to kill Tanil. When she trying to get nearer. got around that with a gas capsule from We got out of the cab, ran toward the her bag he turned his attention to terroriz- scene of the uproar on foot. A line of ing the city. Dozens of banks have been trucks hogged the center of the street. They

robbed by people in his control ; the city were big trucks, and out of the stores, jew- is in an uproar. He has murdered dozens elry shops, and out of the bank, men were of men—guards in banks; cops; tellers . . hurrying, their arms loaded with loot, toss- There's Hell to pay! Come on. Tanil says, ing their burdens into the trucks, and hur- 'you are very strong, but she has more gas rying back for more. The trucks inched capsules,' so come along! ahead against the jammed traffic, horns "Lucky for her I wasn't wearing my tooting steadily. The shop fronts had been harness. She would be a dead woman." blasted open with dynamite. Clouds of "We have no time for talk now. We will dust hung in the air. explain later. Nueces is raising hell! We "What the H is going on?" I yelled at have to stop him. Tanil is very depressed. Tanil. She thinks the powerful 'hidden ones' have "It's Nueces! He's operating all the doll turned away from her, have lied to her. control men to loot the city; the trucks are We must save our own lives as well as the driven by his own men." lives of the people of the city. Come on, "Just how does he expect to keep the we will get clothes for you later." coppers from breaking up his party? They'll have to call out the militia for this! /"MAD only in the hospital pajamas and "He's probably set a few apartment feeling silly, I slid out of the window. houses or hotels ablaze in some other part The screen made a hell of a racket. It was of the city. It wouldn't matter—he could one of those tricky, hinged gadgets they drop them with the ray." have in such places. I never could figure "If he could, why doesn't he? Why them out, could you? doesn't he kill us if he's so anxious?" I dropped to the grass and Kyra led the "Oh, shut up! I'm trying to think what

way on a run. Half a block down the street to do. He'll wreck the city if I don't stop a cab was waiting. Kyra and I plunged him." into the dark interior. I sat down on Tan- I subsided. It was too much for me. I il 's lap, inadvertently, in the dark. She turned to watch the commotion. The op- squeezed me, laughed. That terrific effect eration was going forward with the organ- she had on me, an effect like no other wom- ized stolidity of an automobile assembly WITCH'S DAUGHTER 83

line; the trucks were the conveyor belt, you innocent bystanders." and the shops and the bank the source of I answered: supply of parts. The doll-control men la- "Wait a minute! Soon as the women bored steadily with the rapt expression I come out of it—we will have plenty of use 'had come to recognize as that of one whose for you." mind has been taken over from the dis- Tanil sat up, her face sharpening by the tance by the control mech. second. Together we half-carried Kyra to At the curb, as we hurried forward, sat a the cab, tumbled in. I gave my address, as Police Patrol car, full of uniforms—uni- Tanil said nothing. The cab swung around, forms containing burly coppers. But they started off for my former rooms. I was were all unconscious—or asleep! Here and hoping the landlord had decided to await there I saw other blue uniforms prostrate my return, had not thrown out my belong- on the pavement. There was no sign of a ings. The rent had been paid for a few wound on them. weeks in advance, but was now two weeks "How the heck did Nueces knock out overdue. the police?" The cabbie was talkative. "There are a dozen ways. A dozen dif- "You're the only folks I picked up who ferent rays would accomplish that—or sim- didn't bust out with questions, 'What hap- ple teleport of nitrous oxide into their pened?' 'What's the matter with the po- lungs. What's the difference how it was lice?' " He mimicked the confused citizens' done?" natural queries. "I suppose you folks know

"Just what do you expect to do and why all about it, that's why you're not asking are you hurrying into the thick of it? You questions?" haven't even got a cap pistol!" "Maybe we're just smart enough to know A siren rushed up a side street toward that a cab-driver wouldn't know any more us. As we sighted the speeding car the about it than we do. What did happen, motor died suddenly, the car slowed and just to conform to polite procedure? Do the police started to climb out. One by one you know?" I parried, for the fact we they slumped in unconsciousness without weren't curious might start him off on the visible cause. It was eerie, potent stuff angle that would lead to our own question- Nueces was handing out. ing by the police—and I had no desire to Even as I stood there wondering just be questioned by any police in the frame what Tanil expected to do about a thing of mind they must be in right now. as big as this—the looting of a city—I felt "Just the biggest robbery in the history a choking sensation, the world turned from of any city, that's all! A whole fleet of a mad bright impossible scurrying of rapt- trucks came along, knocked out the police faced figures into a soft darkness, and my faster than they could arrive on the scene, head cracked hard on something. and walked off with every bit of valuable merchandise and every bill in every bank AXTHEN I came to, the scurry and con- on Grand Ave. That's all that happened!" " * fusion had gone and the streets were "Some clever gang, that. Wonder how nearly empty of life. Down the street an they did it?" ambulance was stopped beside a body. The ' "They seemed to have a way of knock- white coats were bending over some one ing the cops unconscious from a distance. lying across the curb. Beside me Tanil and Science run amok, that's what it was. Some Kyra still lay unconscious. As I sat up criminal mind is better at building a weap- Tanil murmured: on than the whole U S army, I guess." "Got to get to Harruh, he will have a "Well, nearly every weapon they have ." mech up there. . . She stirred, opened now was invented by a private party some- her eyes. I said: time. It isn't so strange that one of them "Well, wherever you were going, I gather should decide to use his weapon for his own ( it's too late now." private war on society, instead of giving it A cruising cab coasted up to us, his to the government for some future Hitler brakes screeched gently as he paused near to get big-headed about." the curb. "Brother, this guy is going to be a Hit- "Feel like going home, folks?" called the ler, if I'm any judge! He sure picked up cabbie, grinning down at us. "The party's a few million bucks in a hurry. If they over. I've been picking up quite a few of don't stop him, it'll be the U.S. Mint one 84 AMAZING STORIES

of these days." That Tanil was equal to the sudden test Tanil came out of her thoughtful ab- put upon her knowledge and skill I sin- straction to speak to me in a voice the cerely hoped. But while my workshop was cabby couldn't hear. well equipped for such an experimental "I was hurrying to a certain member of electrician as myself, still I did not see the 'Old Covenant,' a man who has some how from the limited materials she could of the Elder mech up here on the surface. construct a device that would protect us But now, I don't think so much of the idea. from a ray that passed through all that For I do not trust him; he might kill us, rock. But she did! And though I asked or imprison us. He does not agree with my her questions and watched her every move ideas of expansion. He fears we will betray in spite of my resolve not to get in her way the ancient secret which has given him life or distract her, I could not understand her of luxury and monopoly. He fears compe- work fully. tition. I had thought that in the emergency "It is a 'doraytelmacini,'" she said. he would help in order to eliminate Nueces, Which was Greek to me. It was a device but now I realize that he would also elimi- which was going to make us safe from nate me did he have me at his mercy so Nueces, was all I really understood. It consisted coils completely. So it is best that I find my of a generator, tuning way out of this difficulty myself instead of of great complexity and several simple con- getting in hotter water by calling in tools trols, topped by spiderweb coils of large that might turn in my hand. I will con- size, heavy—on swivels. She turned the struct what I need with your tools, which power into the webs, and swiveled the webs I have seen you use so dexterously when I about till an indicator at the base read zero. watched you making your harness of She explained: strength." She paused, looked musingly at "It generates a neutralizing flow of en- Kyra's face, who was sleepily snuggled ergy that damps the 'tenoF energy of the against my shoulder. Then she added: control rays from the mech Nueces is us- ing. When it is in use, he cannot control ''It will not be long before Nueces makes us. Now we have to put it into a truck, another attempt upon us. We must pro- and with the truck, return to the cavern. tect ourselves while we prepare for an at- But some other things we will need for tempt to re-enter our cavern. We will have protection, such as as a gun or two." to go to your workshop while we prepare Tanil was more conversant with the city certain devices which will shield us from than perhaps many of its oldest residents, the mental flows which are used for con- from her watching of its life day after day trol. We must hurry." on her screens, and from reading the minds of its citizens. She went to the phone, SEEMED very strange to return to IT called a number, and within minutes there my rooms after the time that had was waiting at the curb an unmarked, closed elapsed; time that had changed my life so body truck, a moving van. Coming up the completely. To enter those black, weary stairs were two large-bodied, ungainly and doors, those time-eaten stairs to go up and somewhat sinister appearing individuals. I smell that queer musty odor that only an took them to be furniture movers, but when rooming house richly. old ever acquires so they opened the bags they carried and But once in diggings and unlocking the my showed Tanil what they contained, I sur- door of my workshop, I felt at home again. mised the better word for them would be I showed the place to Tanil, explained "torpedoes," as the bags contained each the machinery. I stepped back, for the a pair of M 3's, as well as plenty of am- reason that I wanted to observe her every munition. They pulled out the extension move carefully. I appreciated fully the stocks, attached the barrels, and between fact that I was going to see a scientist us we had a fire power at our disposal not from another planet in action; in action to be sneezed at. that would be all the more fascinating be- They carried, with our assistance, the cause it was an emergency. Her life de- "doraytelmacini"—which I called a "damp- pended on using all she knew quickly to er" to save my tongue from cramps, down defeat Nueces' next attempt to kill us from the stairs in sections, set it up inside the the distance. That he had other weapons truck, and Tanil got in and set the thing than the dolls' peculiar telepathic control in operation. One of the torpedoes got in- I did not know. I surmised he did. side with Tanil, as did myself, but Kyra —

WITCH'S DAUGHTER 85

chose to sit with the driver, to direct him to be quiet or to expect that surprise was to the store on Portland St. with us. The trundling mech on the truck our only defense. I handled the truck, the THE ride was uneventful, and I gath- two heavy gentlemen had their machine ered whatever lightning Nueces planned guns in their hands, the bags abandoned to hurl at us was waiting for our entry into back in the cellar. the caverns behind the cellar of the store- Behind the three of us moved the two room. women, and their bearing made me very I was right. The truck backed up to the proud of them, a feeling as though they

doorway at the side of the store that opened were my own, my sisters or my wives. . . . to a wide flight of steps down into the We came out into the huge chamber of storerooms of the cellar. The three men the dolls, and behind the great mech-con- myself and the two massive explosive gen- trol we saw Nueces, his deep eyes shot with tlemen—succeeded in getting the weird madness, his hair on end, and fear written creation of Tanil's unharmed down the across his face in great deep lines. stairs in one piece. Down upon us—from Beside him moved half-a-dozen of the that nowhere that all rays in use seem to other white-robed unnecessaries that Tanil come from—came blue and deadly light- had kept on. Tanit's priests are "sacred."

ning, crackling about us fearfully, swiftly Well, she had her reward. . . . stealing away our strength and leaving us As we entered, Nueces played the card

leaning against the walls gasping for breath. he had been holding till now . . . played Desperately Tanil worked with the controls it desperately. of her creation, and gradually the blue leap- The dolls, waiting in ranks before him, ing electric waves became less evident, lost were ready—and as we entered, stormed their life-stealing power. She had tuned the us under Nueces' frantic mental control. mech to damp the waves. I knew she would He had armed them with lancets, several have to do that for every change Nueces of them carried small women's revolvers he made in the rays he used—and wondered had found somewhere, with scalpels, knives if she was taking the desperate gamble it —there were some two hundreds of them seemed she was taking. The two grim gen- suddenly swarming toward us. tlemen looked at Tanil's nervously twitch- The -two guns of the torpedoes began to ing face, and I could see a vast doubt of hammer and Tanil screamed: her in their eyes. I murmured: "Don't shoot the dolls, it won't do any "Don't worry, she knows her onions. good. Shoot the priest. Kill Nueces; he This guy behind the blue stuff is a no- controls them!" body. ..." The two heavy men with the guns did Tanil shot me a grateful glance. not understand. One of them cursed: We entered the chamber of the dragon "What the hell, we didn't bargain on drape to find the furnishings overturned, fighting witchcraft. This wasn't in the bar- the great glittering drape torn and stained. gain!" But he kept spraying the oncoming Beside one of the low divans lay the horde of tiny people with lead and the body of a man. I recognized him as one heavy slugs knocked them down in wind- of the better minds of the group who served rows; but they got up again and kept com- Tanit as priests, and Tanil as their leader. ing. Holes showing light clean through One of those I knew who must have tried their bodies. to protect Tanil's rights in her absence. A It was unnerving, uncanny, frightening knife wound in his belly reaching upward to see the little man-things hopping on one to the short ribs had let out his life. I had leg or with an arm hanging by a tough no doubt it had been Nueces' work. shred or by a wire of the inner part still About us still lashed the blue lightning, intact, coming on and on, little knives robbed of its destructiveness by the purring glittering; deathless; implacable; each of mech Tanil had built. We had mounted it them reflecting on their faces the face of on a wheeled baggage truck and trundled Nueces. Under Nueces' mental command, the thing along. their faces grimaced oddly all alike, each of Down the corridors leading toward the them the same expression, fierce with a great machine shops of the ancients, to- cornered rat's desperation. ward the chambers where the doll-control Then they were on us; the little knives mech was installed, we moved, impossible rose and fell; the tiny revolvers spoke. Kyra 86 AMAZING STORIES fell under a swarm, the knives ran with her ing guns, inserted fresh long clips of .45 blood. I swept the M-3 sub-machine gun A.C.P.'s. from its place on the truck and blasted the Tanil cried: little fiends off Kyra. And now Tanil was "After that long-legged skunk, and kill covered with the leaping things where she him. Don't let him get away. He can stood on the hand truck beside her "damper make more trouble for us yet!" mech." She beat them down with one hand They both lumbered off, but I could see while she held the other firm on the con- they would not overtake the high-jumping trols that kept off the blighting blue rays. lean figure of Nueces. Tanil leaped down Tanil kept screaming. "Shoot the priest! from the truck, ran like a deer to the great shoot Nueces! That will end it!" smoking doll-mech and got down on her knees at the source of the smoke column A T LAST when I was going down my- that told me its mighty anique power supply self, bleeding from a hundred tiny was shorted and arcing down there some- wounds and a score of them leaping upon where. me, clinging to me, trying to trip me, her She rose swiftly to the wall panels, words percolated my thinking skull. I pulled the master switch. The arcing splut- turned the scatter-gun on Nueces, across ter ceased. I had approached. She seized the great chamber. One of the torpedoes my wrist, placed a kit of electrician's tools got the idea, too, surprisingly, and together in my hand. She pointed at the big shat- we emptied our weapons toward the robed tered cable, composed of many smaller figure crouching behind the shielding bulk wires, saying fiercely: of the great old doll-mech. He had to show "Splice, Kent, splice as fast as you have part of his body to keep his fingers on the ever done. Our lives depend on how controls that activated the little dolls. His quickly you get that mech working again. face was a contorted mask of effort as he It has a weapon ray hidden in its com- strove madly to get the last ounce of plexities that Nueces did not know, or we energy into the swarming bodies of the would all be dead. I will see about an- tiny ro-dolls. other ray to trace him so that we can kill One of the slugs nicked Nueces, he stag- him when you fix that cable. He is even gered back from the mech—which probably now racing toward another ancient ray saved his lousy life, for the other slugs had mech down the unused corridors." found and torn into a great power cable at I hunkered down, ripped the cable loose, the base of the giant mech. Weird blue and cut back the lead, and color on color, red lightning flashed upward in a fountain swiftly replaced the burnt and torn wires of terrible light-sparks clear to the in place, twisting them savagely together, shadowed ceiling—a volcano of sudden taping, replacing, over and over, as fast as lightning—and Nueces flung up an arm and I could drive my hands. fled blindly, his face burned and scarlet. Tanil came back, looked, hurried away, His long legs leaped bare and ugly and her usual self possession was now a very hairy under the flying skirt of his robes. worried woman's face. It would be five The little dolls dropped over, suddenly minutes yet before I was through. At the lifeless around us, a horde of battered little other side of the room, weird green lights bodies as weirdly lifelike in death as in their flickered as Tanil sent power into another pseudo-life. black metaled ancient machine. A ray v I picked up Kyra, found her crying and leaped from its myriad incomprehensible alive, her body scored with a hundred tiny coils out and down the corridor. The trail punctures; no way to know if any were of footprints left by Nueces and the two serious. Perhaps due to the fact that the torpedoes glowed greenly visible. Unused dolls were essentially brainless and not corridor after dusty corridor appeared and calculating, she was unhurt in any vital spot disappeared as she sent the ray sweeping I could see. after the crazy priest who had nearly Tanil, still upright on the low truck by killed us all. her mech, was bleeding from scores of As I saw the two women working little wounds in the legs, but they did not frantically with the ancient mech, I could seem to have hurt her in the body. The not but wonder who were these supposed two big-bodied torpedoes lowered the smok- supporters, the "Hidden Ones," who could —

WITCH'S DAUGHTER 87 let these things happen to those who served the now deadly atuned beam leaping on them? Or whether they were really so for- and on, across the now glass-like transpar- midable as Tanil seemed to think not to be ency of the adamantine under-rocks, seek- able to protect their own from such as ing Nueces with the penetrative power ray. Nueces. Or whether Neuces was not their At its end we finally found Nueces, his spy and tool, expressing and encompassing hair standing straight up with electric and their fear of wisdom like Tanil's, the tool with fear, his face working with ugly of their own traitorous minds that could triumph as he kept the silver beam upon never support a more able person than the now prostrate body of his enemy, Tanil. themselves? But in truth, of their nature He was a cornered rat clinging, biting to I knew nothing. the end. As Kyra touched him with the great T FINISHED, shouted to Tanil. beam, he screamed, a sound to haunt a A "All set!" man's dreams—screamed and screamed— She dropped the booster cable she was and quite suddenly stopped. The flesh hooking to still another great generator, shriveled under the far power of the beam, came racing toward me across the vast floor. shriveled tightly about his bones, and under Even as she came, a silver ray—ghastly our eyes his body turned swiftly to mummy- yet beautiful—leaped in through the rock like appearance, dried up, fell like a sack of walls, played over Tanil's lovely, supple dried sticks, his mouth still working feebly figure softly. It was a weirdly beautiful —and then turned slowly to powder before and yet heart-breaking sight to see her our eyes. freeze, her face and her wonderful tall Those were terrible rays that the ancients figure contort into agonized lines as death manufactured and hid within the intricacies raced through her. I stood with a terrible of their machines that only the wiser sorrow and a feeling of futile helplessness initiates might know where weapons lay. tearing through my breast. I knew she was The index finger of Kyra's finger was dying and I was helpless! I could not gone I noted as she shut off the power of think of anything to do toward saving her. the death ray. I realized she had not Frantically my hands sought the utterly hesitated at all to sacrifice her hand for mysterious controls of the Elder race mech Tanil's sake. I leaped forward now to before me, and miraculously from my ig- where Tanil lay, still under the silver norant fingers' motions, a ray, a strange death beam, where Nueces' death had left lovely beam of power, throbbed outward it full upon her. from the enigmatic heart of the great mech. I tugged her body from under the beam Desperately my frantic hands tried dial with one swift motion. The deadly moon- after dial and knob after knob whiteness lay in a round circle of vicious Kyra came running, her sweet face a emanations as I carried her to a huge couch piteous mask of terrible loss at Tanil's at the side of the room. plight. She had been working at the other Tanil looked piteously up at me, and that mech beside Tanil, seen the deadly silver was the hardest thing I ever went through, ray freezing her, ducked around its deadly to look into her confident eyes, once re- circle of ghastly beauty, raced toward me. ceptacle of endless unknown secrets, now Her clever hands sent the great beam I stricken and begging me for release from had started inadvertently into action, sent her inward agony. She gasped: it swiftly swinging along the path of deadly "It is too late. The hidden ones have silver light—beautiful as moonlight—as double-crossed me sooner than I expected, terrifying to the sensing of its electric force though I knew they would do that one day as a viper's venom trickling up the nostrils. anyway. I have been deluding myself and Her little tapered fingers plied several others. They could have protected us, tiny lever-switches upon the great keyboard Kent; they chose. not to do so! You and of intricate controls. Then she reached out Kyra leave here, go far away. They are and touched a finger into the beam where not good, these hidden ones that loom over it shot from the center of the mech. Her such work as ours. They have duped me finger shriveled, disappeared and she into working out a system of absolute gasped with the sudden voluntarily assumed tyranny for them to fasten on your agony of the searing pain. Then she sent United States. I have been as much a dupe AMAZING STORIES as ever you suspected you were, Kent. knew they had been more than shadows Go, while you may!" to Tanil's eyes, and that she had been a glory in their own. KYRA, her lovely sea-green eyes filled Tanil, I realized, had been a good force with streaming- tears, bent over Tanil, in a morass of horrible evil, but had not her mouth working, her hands touching the quite figured out how to overcome that racked face so tenderly and so pitifully. evil and accomplished what she willed with- hesitated too "Yes, dearest Mistress . . . yes. The out hurting the innocent—had Hidden Ones hate intelligence in anyone. long for that very reason. We thought we had found a different sort, I turned sadly to Kyra, as the two husky but they were only getting us to accomplish torpedoes came back from their hunt for work they did not know how to do. They Nueces. have been hiding their monstrous selves "Kyra, shall we do what Tanil advised from the sight of men so long they hate us —go up to that city and become normal all. They have not real brains left—and citizens. Or shall we stay and try to be- cannot stand any in others. I believe they come what she might have succeeded in are hateful creatures like Panot, in truth, becoming?" their evil nature only surpassed by their "Kent, I think that sweet, evil voice that immense stupidity." mocked her death also made her tell us to I listened to this mysterious interchange leave by controling her dying body. But astonished, for to me the only villain of the there is a way to find that out. You and I piece was Nueces Panot. But as we bent will take a honeymoon to Niagara Falls, over her, a lovely, too lovely voice began and when we return our friends here will to speak beside us—and there was no one let us back into these caverns. If they do here at all! It said, in false sorrow: not let us in, they will drive us away, and "Oh, dear Tanil, we are endlessly grate- we will know that our ugly hidden enemies ful for your work, which has taught us so do not want us here. They will not kill much. Now that you die, we will carry on us in the open in the city—as they usually your efforts, attain your goals for you. seek to hide the power they have in the Never fear, dear Tanil, your beloved ancient mech rays. We will be safe enough, surface fools will have tender care." I think. When we return, we will not feel The saccharine, mocking voice ended in Tanil's death so greatly. We need time a hideous titter of weird and ugly triumph, now to start over. Time to recover our- and Tanil's dying face lit with a terrible selves from this experience. Our friends hate. I would have not wanted to be the here will carry on while we are gone. And owner of that tittering horror voice and one day we may yet become what Tanil been in Tanil's power then. planned—the saviors of mankind from the

• that is their I bent and whispered : morass of war and stupidity "We know, Kyra and I. We know and life today. we love you, Tanil. Can you tell us some- So it was that our honeymoon and the thing we can do to save you even yet. It thunder of Niagara's mighty waters spelled is better you live with such enemies as release from sorrow and a promise of all that voice yet to conquer." the magic of love to us—as it has for others. "Kent, you can love Kyra and take care But we shall go back and wrest from of her, but without me our plans are those forgotten machines and those idling, finished. You can do nothing now. Go superior and evil hidden ones the secrets up to that City overhead and marry, and of those dead forgotten sciences that built then go far away; too far ever to hear that those vital and needed mechanisms—and voice again. Be happy, and just citizens. give them to the men of the future. This game is not for you, except you have "The dreams of me you had," Kyra one such as me with you. Forget it." day explained, "were due to one kind of In a few moments she died. machine they built. As a little girl, play- About her still lovely body gathered the ing in those same caverns, I watched you other workers of our cavern, some fifty and loved you—and made your mind my people who had come and gone, done their own. It was wrong of me? They were work and been what people always are on good dreams I made; were they not?" this earth—just shadows in our unseeing What would you say? The same as I, eyes. Softly some of them wept, and I would you not? THE MANUFACTURE OF THYROXIN

Medical Mystery Number 1 (of a series)

PHYSICIANS have recorded many cases, over chloride for a period of three weeks to one month, a period of many years, wherein the thyroid the resulting overdevelopment of the exhausted glands have overdeveloped as the direct re- thyroid can be easily seen and felt. In the case sult of tense and anxious living conditions. Some- cats are used for the experiment, eight-tenths times the overdevelopment has not been visible grain per day is necessary for the same period of (colloid goiter condition) and sometimes the goi- time, or occasionally a little longer. The greater ter does become visible. Quite often the irregu- sensitivity of man to the substance makes the larity disappears with sufficient rest, but the average dosage necessary to bring about human underlying condition has never been extensively goiter three grains daily for an adult. sought and is still an enigma to medical men. The The writer's work has shown that the produc- simplicity of the mechanism causing it is unbe- tion of thyroxin is definitely dependent upon the lievable, and the exact nature of it is so demon- destruction of acetylcholine and the liberation of strable that any experimental animal suffices for trimethylamine into the plasma. Just as there are proving. many different individual thyroid balances (as

Acetylcholine is the substance which is the many as there are living individuals) so there are chemical connective between nerve cells, between very different degrees of trimethylamine produc- nerve and muscle, between nerve and gland. It is a tion. As the individual tires, the amount of this most important chemical, because without it there substance in the blood increases, and the thyroid can be no organic synchronization. It has been endeavors to "increase the spark" so as to main- shown that it is manufactured in the animal body, tain activity, unless the individual relaxes com- and also that it breaks down in the animal body. pletely or sleeps, so as to allow the acetylcholine- Disregarding the other products of the breaking trimethylamine balance to be reestablished. down acetylcholine, consider the nitrogen com- Trimethylamine is like ammonia except that each pound which results in the process. Trimethyl- hydrogen of the ammonia molecule is replaced amine (a simple, and supposedly non-poisonous with a methyl group (CH3 ). Since the use of ptomaine, employed at one time against pneumo- ammonium chloride (corresponding to trimethyl- nia without any particular reason) is produced, amine hydrochloride) does not cause thyroid sen- one molecule for each of acetylcholine broken sitivity as the other compound does, it is demon- down. In it the valence of nitrogen is different, strable that the ptomaine and not the ready from that in the original compound. Tma is accessibility of chlorine to the gland from the partly excreted in the urine, giving rise to a part compound is the responsible factor. Although the of the ammoniacal odor. However, it has func- mass action of large amounts of chlorine or bro- tions far more important than this one. mine do affect the thyroid, they do not ordinarily The amount of Trimethylamine dissolved in harm the gland in normal systemic concentrations. the bloodstream aids in the regulation of the ac- It is possible to show that the ptomaine (tri- tivity of the thyroid gland. As the amount of methylamine) is actually employed by the thyroid the substance in the bloodstream increases the gland in the manufacture of the organic portion thyroid increases its secretion of thyroxin. of thyroxin. Excessive nervousness and anxiety puts an extra As low a concentration as 1 part t.m.a. in ten- load upon the entire body, particularly manifest- thousand of water, by inducing thyroid activation, ing through nervous condition and glandular bal- causes many animals, even the lower forms such ance. As the effects of high-pressure living show as frogs, to enter the mating season at times of up in people with susceptible thyroids, the blood- the year when they will not breed at all, ordinarily. stream shows higher concentrations of trimethyl- When the general reserves of the body, including amine (this constitutes an important portion of the amount of iodine stored in the thyroid, are the non-protein nitrogen found in urine). As the low, systemic condition is much more favorable trimethylamine concentration rises, lack of glandu- to the breakdown of acetylcholine, sensitivity to lar synchronization and nerve effectiveness appears stimuli is high, and the mating instinct is strongest. with listlessness and extreme lack of energy. This So nature takes advantage of the lower iodine is made worse by the fact that it comes about reserve predominant at early springtime, and many through gradual exhaustion of the iodine content creatures answer the procreative tendency. This of the thyroid gland, so that chlorine (or bromine is as true of the human being as it is of the lower if present from sedatives) must be employed by animals. It is the chemical background for the the gland instead of iodine in the making of thy- statement that in the Spring a young man's fancy roxin. Thyroxin without enough iodine content turns to what the young ladies have been thinking becomes less and less effective as iodine percentage about all Winter. Some say this means new decreases. Heart disturbances show up, and as the clothes, but that is only a side issue with all crea- trimethylamine level rises, the thyroid condition tures, new plumage being favored in response to passes from the non-visible "colloid" goiter to the powerful mating urge. apparent overdevelopment. The question of how the thyroid tends to be- If a rat weighing one-half pound is fed four- come exhausted during the winter months will be tenths of a grain per day of trimethylamine hydro- discussed in detail in Medical Mystery Number II. 89

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92 AMAZING STORIES FOREWORD

OUT OF THE hideous mire of futility, out of their Indian cooking fires against the of the lost, near-forgotten glories of the walls of polished and carved walls, the Indian Race, comes again a striving—even water jars and pottery, the crude wall into the present! paintings, sometimes overlaying the glori- Out of vanished power and Empire, ous work of the Elder Race. These things comes today the word of the Red Men: they have left all through the American "We live on, and we know. We will again caverns—and they are things left by In- ." be great . . dians of culture completely the same as Under Death Valley; under Butte, Mon- the Red Men of Revolutionary times. For tana; under many Western states; out of many tribes of Indians of those times when the green hell of South America; out of they fled ever westward from civilization Yucatan; of Central America; and out of (as we whites call our social order) knew Mexico—come many reports that there are of the God caverns and the tremendous large areas of the Elder caves held by things they contained. But they appar- Indians. These areas the white monopoly ently did not know how to use these things. of all antique ray people, for all their mock- How much they did know of the opera- ing and their vaunting and suppression, are tion and use of the terrific power of the unable to overcome. Elder machines we cannot know, but we There, still today, something of an an- do know that for two centuries no "spirit- cient art and wisdom vastly different in ualist" "sent his spirit" into the "spirit every way from that of the white-domi- world" without an "Indian guide." That nated ray caverns survives—untouched by this ever-present "Indian-guide" in all spir- the corruption and blight of modern ray itualist doings was the descendant of those evils. same tribes who fled into the eternal dark- , There, too, survives that savagery and ness and fearful wonder of the underworld worship of strange Gods characterized by to escape the white man's massacre of the the Aztec ceremony of cutting the heart Indian is very plain to anyone who knows out of a living victim—and offering it to anything of the history and the customs their "God." of the caverns. That they did not use the There, too, survives something best char- weapons, but only the telaug, is easily acterized by the poem of Longfellow understood when one knows of the Elder "Hiawatha," known to all of you. That Race custom of sealing all weapons against something that lives in all men, but which casual search; within great vaults that are many Indians still call "The Great Spirit." not casually found by the ignorant. There, too, survives a white and pitiful To those who know of the trickery and tiling that once was red and courageous deceit always practised by the underworld and strong. Other things that once were peoples to hide the existence of their men, are no longer enough like men to be homes, this Indian guide to the "spiritual- so called. ists" is very recognizable as the Indian race I am going to tell you a story of the in the caverns hiding themselves with an struggles of the Red Men in the caverns, easily committed lie. That they should those who have preserved their courage assist white spiritualists at their "seances" and their intelligence, and their noble ef- seems to furnish a picture of their inability forts to make of the ancient secrets a pow- to find a practical use for their time in the erful tool for the rehabilitation of the mysterious world of darkness. To one who Red Race. has seen what the Indian of the caverns It is a historic fact that whole tribes of has become from the effects of lack of Indians mysteriously vanished without sunlight and air and proper food, one can trace before the advance of the white man. understand why the Red Men of the caves It is not so generally known that they have not been a very potent force in disappeared, in many cases, into the fearful American history. vastnesses of the labyrinthine mysteries That these "Indian guides" are a phe- of the Elder Race's former home. nomena never encountered much of late The traveler in the white-dominated por- years speaks volumes to one who knows tions of the caverns today finds the marks of the constant warfare and the fragile THE RED LEGION 93

margin on which life persists in the caves. Every day some Indian friend's death They, the original Red Men, the original was reported in the Butte daily news. No tribes who entered the darkness, must have one noticed these deaths, apparently, but been recently persecuted and pursued and Lane. So far as he knew no one else had killed until they are no longer there in any heard the voices in the night mocking the numbers. Red Legion and prophesying a daily death But, one hears from the West that still for its members; a prophecy that came true the Red Men struggle for life in the western every day! and southern states and are succeding in Each death was one strong son the an- holding large areas against the modern cient blood who had joined the legion. white monopolists: those same suppressors Lane bent his black head into his arms, and secretives who keep the mighty wisdom his strong back slumped over his desk. of the Elder Work in the caverns from He felt old and beaten, though he was but modern men of the surface. thirty-eight. This story is of that struggle: to give The sun, shining redly out of the west you these heretofore unwritten pages of into his wide office window, outlined the

the secret (in this case quite recent) his- letters: "E. Lane and J. Stevens—Attor- tory of our earth. neys."

* * * CHAPTER I ANOTHER, of very different apearance Death Speaks to the Legion from surface man, but of the ancient blood that can still produce such vigorous THE voice, out of the dark silence of fighters as Jim Thorpe and in the past has the night, had said: "Every day one produced its share of Hiawathas—many, member of your Red Legion shall die." many men, now forgotten whose deeds rang Eonee Lane had paid no attention, for a then in the ears of all men on the Ameri- voice in the night out of nowhere he knew can continent—yes, another of that fierce could be anything. Could be his nerves, and ancient blood knew too of the deaths. imagination, or the mischeivous and mad Johnny Ahahne, his name, and he knew ones of the unseen below. too, why these deaths occurred. But, one by one, the men of the Red Johnny Ahahne, for the past few months, Legion about Butte, Montana—had died! was reduced to bearing burdens. Before One! Every day—one more! One that, he had been a high-placed, some- every day! Why? what lazy, member of the ruling caste of So hard it had been, building the Legion the tribe of Indians who held the caverns

of the Loyal Red Men. . . . under Montana. They had more wealth Out of the hideous mire of futility that and more power than most white men ever had consumed the Red Men; dream of possessing. They had, too, an Out of the miserable remnants of his ancient inability to make much use of the race he had welded together this striving, wealth and power—through lack of desire. active, educated and aware and able force Johnny Ahahne, Indian bearer, glanced of young men, seen it grow in numbers at the notice, printed in, to him, nearly and in skill at the secret role they must unreadable English words. Carries not play; Delivered on Deep Levels. He adjusted Out of a defeated and complacent noth- his tump strap, straightened his lean mus- ing he had built, through the years, a cular legs under the 150-pound pack of strong and united spirit in the sons of luxury items from the surface. Silently his race, men who knew what terrific power he thanked the Great Spirit, and the mighty might yet be won by them. invisible serpent who had given his brothers Now, suddenly, the unseen and mys- courage to face death rather than submit terious underworld forces that had helped to carrying the heavy packs to the deepest him so long; that had caused the Red lower levels. Now they were not required Legion to grow almost miraculously to to travel beyond their strength. Inwardly become a strong secret power through all Johnny realized that this leniency was the west; had turned instead into a de- exercised only in order to keep them alive stroying blight about Montana. and available. 94 AMAZING STORIES

As Johnny plodded off into the dimly-lit limbed animal from the Ranch of the boring his hand slid into his loin cloth, Elder Twin. Stevens stood by his car ab- fumbled for an instant with a folded bit of sently filling his pipe, his tall, spare, wide paper. His brothers on the surface must shouldered figure well dressed in dark gray, know of what had come to pass. Of the well-pressed worsted. His aquiline, high fate that had overtaken the ancient, secret cheek-boned face was expressionless. Only and aloof strength of the Red Men of the glitter of his heavy-lidded black eyes under-earth. The Red Legion had been betrayed his intent awareness. Only the their favorite project for the future. They Indians who belonged to the Red Legion must be told; those red brothers on the knew that the Ranch of the Elder Twin surface. They must be warned of what was built over an ancient Entrance to the had happened down here. Elder World; a world that only the In- Two miles from the "Express Office" dians of this part of the west knew existed. Johnny looked about carefully. Then he Only a few of the Indians knew that the reached with his mind's awareness for the Elder Twin was a living God who inhab- ionizing of any watchray upon him. At ited the deeper caverns of the Elder World. last, convinced he was unobserved, he Only a very few of them fully realized slipped the little paper out of his loin cloth the tremendous nature of the secret cov- and slid it into a tiny unmarked crevice ered by that low-built ranch house. in the ancient hardened rock of the wall. Stevens stood still a long time, eyeing Silently, unthinkingly, his mind a careful that rangy bay horse from the ranch. blank, Johnny Ahahne plodded on his long Johnny Ahahne's voice had told him in the carry into the dark. night there would be a message—written He did not love the white European ray —that he could depend on; that would be people. This Da Sylva woman who had no fake by some imp of the dark. taken over the Elder caverns under Butte, The cowhand came out of the store, Montana, was a cruel creature, and her swung into the saddle, moved down the gang was worse, when possible. When the wide street. Stevens bent, picked up the short, bloody, decisive battle was over, paper. The Red Legion had contacted the there was left alive but a few hundred of unseen. the red warriors. For them was designated the labor, the dirty jobs no one else wanted, SHORTLY Stevens entered the office and the working of the ancient mines. that bore his and Lane's names on the Johnny, as so many of his ancestors in the window. past, cursed his heathen curses on all white Lane looked up at his partner, but did men and moved on into the ever-dark. not move from his slumped, discouraged But the little paper did not remain in position at the big desk. Stevens tossed the unnoticeable slot in the hardened rock the still-folded paper in front of Lane. of the ancient cavern wall. An hour later Lane's dark eyes quickened. He picked another bearer paused, reached with his up the paper, unfolded it jerkily. On it mind to sense the ionizing of the watch was a series of pictographs, readable only rays, looked at the age-old dust to watch to a few Indians; or to a student who the furry bristling that tattled on the knew the lesser languages of the Indians. electric flows of a watch ray. The bristling They are few. dust died into quiescence, it was but the As Lane pored over the message, two wind of his slight movement. He reached men came into the office. They were cow- into the slot, took the paper. Many days hands of Indian blood from another ranch he had looked into the secret place, found near Butte, the Barred Y. Lane passed nothing. Today there was a message. He the message to one of these men, sat knew it was for the red brothers on the watching his face as he deciphered the surface—those who knew. near-forgotten symbols. One by one more such stages the paper finally By reached and more men filed into the office. Lane the surface. In the overalls of a red- knew by the man's face that he was not skinned cowhand the paper traveled toward wrong, that the message meant exactly Butte. what he had read it to mean. There was * * * no mistake. The Red Legion was doomed TN Butte, Lane's partner, Jack Stevens, if it stayed here. A parked his Buick coupe near the long- The Brotherhood of the Unseen had THE RED LEGION 95 given the sign. was too far; he had given up after a time. Eemeeshee was not industrious. THERE were now some thirty dark, Mayhap you have seen ancient Indian hawk-faced young men gathered in the drawings of their gods floating in the air big office room. Ten of them took seats over the heads of their rulers. Horrible about a broad oak table. The rest stood appearing things, with. foot-long noses and in the rear, in the shadows, watching stol- wide ears like an elephant, gross bodies idly with emotionless eyes—they were all and peculiar looking limbs. Those artists

Indian today. That Stevens and Lane were not liars, for . . . were names taken to avoid white prejudice Eemeeshee's nose was over a foot long. against the Indian origin of the men only The end of his nose turned up in a sickle themselves knew, for no one else cared. from the weird growth that had distorted There were many of Indian blood. Lane him—due to the peculiar rays of the took the chair at the head of the table. ancient machine in which he lived. Eeemee-

But he did not sit hi it. He stood, face shee's head was vast and horrible too, and upraised, hands oustretfhed, both hands his body was a mass of flesh too vast to with palms upward, fingers extended. Sol- worry about any more and Eemeeshee emnly he intoned, hardly thought of his appearance. It was "Eemeeshee, our great Breath-Master, not important. Few things were important twin brother of the Wolf of the Skys, we to Eemeeshee. beg your guidance and your blessing upon The growth rays of the machine in which us. Each day for one month, one of us has he sat, and which had kept him alive died. The voices have told us that this through the slow drag of the centuries while will continue until all who know the Elder he dreamed away his too numerous life- Secret are dead. Will you, we implore you, times, had made him grow unaccountably ancient one, come from your dreams and in some ways—in others not at all. His aid us?" face was seamed and lined, yet the flesh Into the stodgy law-office stole an awe- was soft and pink as a baby's flesh. He some breath out of Time, a breath from the belonged to a race unknown to surface far past of the glories of the Red Race. And man! into each dark expressionless face of the Long ago, his ancestors had found that Indians gathered there came a brightening; certain machines of the God caverns, if one a hope. Their ancient God lived. He had remained within them, kept one alive cen- answered. He had not answered- their tury after century. And the living in them prayers since their fathers were young was very pleasant, too. men. All had felt his mighty breath stir- The magic of the Gods who had built ring primevally in the dusty law office. them gave to one endless dreams at the * * * touch of a button. Endless dreams of love, MANY hundreds of miles away, and of Goddess-like women, of glory and war many miles underground—a living and conquest. In fact, one had only to being turned slowly from his vast crystal- think when one had punched the dream line instrument panel. It was good to hear button, and whatever one wished became his name "Eemeeshee" again upon the lips a reality in a dream more vivid than ever of men. Once, long ago, the red men had was reality. plagued him nigh to death with their pray- That family had few children. The ers; he had shut off the listening electric dream life does not make for that. But ears of the huge machine that brought to some they did have, and servants by the him the thoughts of men up in the sun- score. So that wherever one of the great light. Time had slipped by in the strange living machines was to be found, there was dream life he led. He had turned on the found one of the strange and ancient dwell- great magic ear again, and had heard but ers within. The men of the surface once one voice questing him from among the worshipped these invisible listening ears, many thought voices intermingling, the for they might be persuaded to do great voice of Eonee Lane of Butte, Montana. magic for one, if one asked them correctly Delicately he had sought with the direc- —and frequently. tive dial needles for the source of that thought, and had almost brought the scene SOFTLY Eemeeshee turned from the lis- in the law office into his screens. But it tening place, his heavy breathing sough- 96 AMAZING STORIES ing in the augmentive apparatus like a knew if Eemeeshee was a reality or a leg- great wind. If he had had the rays turned end from the past. One of these was the upward, he would have been heard like a chief of his servants. He kept the things great spirit of the winds, breathing in the of the world from interfering with Eemee- skies, and that was why he was called the shee's pleasures. There was Saba, the Breath-Master, because he did not shut off keeper of his women. Like all the great of the intake of the augmentor, and was al- the cavern world, Eemeeshee was well sup- ways heard breathing. Perhaps he did not plied with women, but he did not bother know it could be shut off. He turned on them greatly. They lived altogether in the the searching eye rays, looked about up on women's quarters. Under Saba's clever the slowly darkening surface in the eve- rule they kept busy and to themselves. ning calm. All was different up there than They were not important, and to Eemee- it had once been, long ago when he had shee, Saba was like a daughter; a daugh- watched the red men fight their wars. Their ter whom he protected from the ugly world war-whoops had once been given in conflict of reality. It was better not to know how even down in the cavern world. Long cen- worthless it was. turies had Eemeeshee sat, and his father In truth, he badly neglected the lives of had sat there before him. Eemeeshee did the people around him, who waited on him not know if he was a God or not, but he hand and foot and even loved him a little. supposed it must be so; had not men wor- But, then, Eemeeshee was only a forgotten shipped the Eemeeshees for an age? legend, and their lives only a reflection of Eemeeshee wondered a bit where all the the glories that had been the life of the Indians had gone, and who these pale peo- caverns when the Red Man was a power ple with their ugly machinery and railroads on the earth above and had sent always and square houses might be who had taken young blood down into the ancient dark- over all the land above of late. He had ness to keep things alive and pulsing. not paid much attention to the upper world There was still a lot of life in Eemee- for a long time. Time didn't matter much shee's great body. But it was a life that anyway. Old Eemeeshee did not care was not greatly interested in itself or in greatly about the actual world. To him it anyone else, either. Eemeeshee was a vic- was like an unwanted program on the tele- tim of the greatest vice on earth, the rec- visor; too commercial to listen to: like the ord-mech dreams of the Gods, and his radio in the house of a person who does practical knowledge of life and his machines not approve of the commercially raucous or anything important to an ordinary man sounds it emits. Eemeeshee seldom looked was in truth elementary—extremely so. at the upper world. He only half believed in it, anyway. Dreams were much more CHAPTER II real, and far more beautiful. The dream world into which his dream device plunged The Red Men Meet him was vastly more satisfying. Was it not more vivid, more full of sweet sound FAR off from that hidden, forgotten and pleasant sensation and mightier peo- place where the old one cogitated the ple and vastly stronger love? Eemeeshee vast mysteries of an existence he had never was not in love with the world of the ac- bothered to understand, the meeting of the tual above his head. Red Legion in the Law Offices of Eonee Eemeeshee seldom talked to mere men. Lane and Jack Stevens began. There were too many interesting characters Stevens sat down, and Lane continued in the library of wire film which furnished standing. In his hand was the paper his dream mech with material, Too, the Stevens had given him. He began to talk dream mech made these people real and —low-pitched college English. when one asked them questions or talked "A thing we have long suspected has to them, they answered. They were vast- been confirmed. The rule in the hidden ly more pleasing than mere people of the places under Montana is no longer in the world over head. Certainly the dream hands of the Red Men. A swift surprise world was one to live in; it rewarded him attack gave the power into the hands of for every effort with an infinitude of pleas- foreign white conspirators. They have de- ures. luded us into thinking no change took place. There were few living men who really Lane handed the paper to the man seated THE RED LEGION 97 next. The man looked at the paper a long "John Ahahne, a voice I have known time. It was not easy for him to decipher for many years, always speaks truth. If the Indian pictographs. Finally he nodded, he has given us warning that this is not passed the paper on to the next. The paper a place for red men, it is true. Ill luck made the circuit of the room, returned to will dog us from the enmity of these Stevens. spiteful newcomers below. They are no "For you fellows who can't read the longer our friends; our friends are dead. ancient writing of our fathers—the picto- They are masquerading as our friends graph come from one John Ahahne. Once while they bring about our destruction. he was a high-placed warrior of the tribe You know that almost always the men of in power below. Now he is reduced to the caverns kill those who know the ancient bearing burdens on his back for the white secret of their dwelling place. If these interlopers. The Indian has lost another new conquering ray practice that ancient great battle with the white man. These custom of guarding the secret of the rays, European ray people who have again begun we have no choice but to flee—and far." the ancient battle against the red man, have wiped out the friendly white ray of the A CHORUS of voices began to struggle east—and have now turned their attention to be heard—agreeing, telling of ill to the portions held from ancient times by luck and deaths of friends and relatives. red men." Stevens raised a hand. Stevens stopped, stared moodily at the "That is enough. I see it is true. We long table top. Lane's cultured voice went have been blind to think the ray people on where Stevens had stopped. below are still friendly as of old. Let us "To the red men of the surface, who are leave this country, together, all of us, and few enough and poor enough as it is—we find a country where the underworld still who have been taken into the ancient secret contains men friendly to us, or some of the only because we are few and because our ancient ones to protect us." red skins created a bond of sympathy with One Lee Johnson thrust his lean over- the red skins of the underworld—this ailed body to the fore of the room. means that to prosper in the future we must "The main idea is to go where things remove ourselves from this area to another are good. Maybe the ray won't talk to us where the red man still holds the secret other places, but they may leave us alone. caverns against the new threat." They may even help us get started again." As Lane ceased, one Ace Kitka spoke: "There have been many deaths of red A FUNERAL caravan of motor cars left men whom I know, of late. I have heard Butte the next morning. In the long voices threatening me with death, saying line of cars were some fifty men, their that each day one Indian dies until there wives and families. Others were leaving are no more of us in all this area. I have singly for locations of their own choosing. watched the papers, wondered whether the Their belongings were lashed to the sides voice in the night spoke true. It did speak and tops of the cars. In the hearse was true; the red men are being killed by invisi- the latest of the dead of the Red Legion. ble rays. The deaths are usually heart He had died in the night of a "hemor- failure, according to the doctors' death rhage, cause unknown," The white men certificates. I have decided to leave Mon- watched the funeral caravan uncompre- tana far behind myself. If you know what hendingly. is good for you, you will all go from here." "Looks like our Indians are turning "Several of my intimate friends have gypsy, or something. Funny they'd take died lately," agreed Lane. "They died all that stuff on a funeral trip. Wonder apparently naturally: one run over by a what the police have to say about it?" truck, one of pneumonia, one of a brain "Guess they got a right to leave if they hemorrhage. To us who know the power want to. It's when they decide to stop of the ancient machines, we know that their troubles will begin. There are a lot these deaths are not accidents—when they of Indian laws that Lane and Stevens are accompanied by threats from the voices. know plenty about and they are. in that I, too, have heard the voice." line. Must know what they're doing with A deep voice from the back of the crowd these two along. They got a hearse in made itself heard. the line. May be a smart trick to avoid 98 AMAZING STORIES bother with the law, eh?" CHAPTER III "Yeh, it's funny so many Indians would get ready for a long trip thataway. They A New Home could be taking a dead one to some special place to bury him, I guess." tXTHlN they reached that part of the "Been a lot of Indians dying lately. * * great American desert where the Nearly every day I read something about Humboldt sinks into the sands—that day a dead Indian. Maybe they're wiser than they had no grave to dig! Gravely Lane we think." looked at Stevens. ." "Could be, could be . . "Here in this desert must be our home. "Indians around Butte here have always Here something keeps the curse of the daily had a reputation for knowing what's com- death from us. Under our feet within the ing next. There's always been something ancient rock some power for good still

mysterious about it. Never could figure lives on. If we pass on, the deaths will it out. Maybe that is more than a funeral begin again. For the evil ray people are and maybe it ain't. Well never know. I'll single-minded; once set upon a course such bet a dime we never see those Indians as our deaths they don't stop until we are again, though." all dead. You know that. Upon the Similar conversations could have been other side of this invisible influence, they heard along the highway leading out of will follow and kill us again." Butte. But nobody thought of asking the "You may be right. It is hard to under- Indians what it was all about. stand. They are not like men; the people That night, as the long caravan made of the underworld. They are not civilized camp, they dug a grave for Ace Kitka. like ourselves. It is hard to understand His weeping wife and two papooses; the their slaying and cruelty, their dogged solemn faces of the men of the caravans; persistence in such cursing of surface men the grim knowing that the road into the with death. But we know it is so." dark deathland gaped for all of them in A leaning sign post pointed off along a this land of the white man just as it had for little used desert trail. "YUKA" said the their ancestors was a terrible thing. To sign, noncomittally. But there were scrib- know that every day one of them must bled Indian writings under the word, writ-

die . . . Why? The aching hearts asked ings that only an Indian could read. and asked the bewildered minds and there The forty cars that were left of the fifty was no answer. Just the unseen threat, that had started turned off the concrete the knowing that it was the ancient secret, into the dusty road. The wind blew killing again as it always had in the past. hotly, lonesomely, across the wide, yellow

Killing, killing . . . Why must the secret waste. Mournfully the stolid faces looked always be the reason for death instead at each other, knowing how the other's of the key to greatness for all men as it heart was hurting at this turning to the should be? Their eyes raised to the dark- desert from their loved homes. ening sky for a sign from the great father, They had sold the cars that had broken for the "breath" of the "master," for down, and those of their dead they did not some hope from the beneficence of the need and put the money into the common unseen. But only the grim knowledge pool. Lane knew their only hope was to that every day one of them must die an- face their troubles with complete unity. swered them. Their ancient Gods gave no other sign that night. THAT night they sat within the lodge Each night, as they drove slowly south- of Secumne in his desert fastness. ward, one grave was dug, one strong young There were now but twenty-five young brave, dead, was placed in the earth. Their men, and some dozen aged men. Some of prayer implored Eemeeshee to speak again them were veterans, but they knew better as he had when the exodus was decided than to go to the military with their tale. upon, but Eemeeshee did not answer. For all of them knew no white man Hampered by the number of aged, wornout understood the ancient secret — not to cars, the children, the old women, they openly admit it anyway. They thought drove sldwly, keeping together for mutual all white men cowards never to discuss the aid when needed. ancient secret. (But in truth white men THE RED LEGION 99 have been carefully taught that "voices To an outsider they looked like deeply are insanity"; never to believe such silly tanned white men, in white men's clothes. tales. And that is hard to understand But inside those clothes and that lean, when one has been raised to respect and rangy flesh, inside those tall silent young fear the ancient underworld.) The women Americans burned the ancient fire that and children were not admitted to the made the red man the feared warrior that council. he was. On those faces that savage cour- Yuka had once been quite a large mining age and hardihood of the Indian sat, at camp. Then it had been called Crockett, home. They waited. The old one would after the famous Indian fighter. After its take his time. The voice finally went on. brief hey-day it had been a ghost town "You have prayed to Eemeeshee, the for a long time. Now it was "Yuka," a Breath-Master. He has answered you. I new name for its score of falling down know that is true, for you have told me, frame shacks. and I can see you are not all liars. It has Secumne had taken the biggest shack. not happened for many years that Eemee- It had once been a bar-room. Now it was shee talked with his children. It seems that hung with Indian blankets, an open fire the ancient one has awakened, then. So I burned, weapons hung on the walls and have much to tell you. If it had not the pelts of game. Secumne sat on a chair been that you told me of your invocation to draped with a sheep pelt across the back. Eemeeshee—I would have little to say to A dozen leading men of the tribe squatted you. But that is good, that Eemeeshee behind Secumne. Old wrinkled ones, still answers his chosen. Now I must tell younger eagle-eyed sturdy ones. Stevens you what Eemeeshee is, and you must and Lane squatted directly in front of listen and understand me and believe. the old chief. Behind, filling the shack, Even these who have known me many squatted or stood the twenty-five young years, my own people, many of them men who survived. would not believe what I am going to say. Stevens smoked the long pipe, passed it But if you wish to save yourselves from to Lane. When the pipe had finally re- the fate that has dogged you here, you turned to Secumne, he took it in one thin must believe me." hand, puffed it contentedly. There was The old man stopped, looked at them, plenty of time. sounding them for unbelief, for scorn of Lane handed Secumne the little paper his words. Finding only an attention and on which John Ahahne had scribbled the respect in their faces, he went on. pictograph message. The old man looked "You see, Eemeeshee is a man. He is at it briefly, frowned, nodded, returned it. many hundred years old. His father was To make sure Secumne understood, Lane still older when he died. I have been to J interpreted the message at length. Eemeeshee s lodge, deep under earth. I "The message is what started us away have seen him." from Butte. Chance has brought us to you. Can you help us; tell us of your "X^OU have seen our ancient God?" knowledge of the secret. What we must * Lane rose to his feet, excitement not know to find a place that is safe for us? letting him sit still. Your trail signs told us you would aid "He exists in truth? Then all our men of the Red Legion." fathers' teachings are not lies, as the whfte The old man looked very stupid. He men tell us?" looked at them a, long time. Finally the "The white men are overwise some- wrinkled, toothless old mouth began to times. They 'know everything' because talk. some teacher who 'knows everything' told "What you should know takes much them so, because they read a book that telling. Not many you could find would told them what was true and what was have any information for your company. false. They believe they know many The Gods have brought you to me." The things they do not know. The white men old man spoke good English. He must are sometimes very foolish in their wis- have been in an Indian school, long ago dom. Eemeeshee is not what they think. when young. But he is not what the Red Man thinks, The company of men from Butte waited. either. He is not a spirit! He is very —

100 AMAZING STORIES

different from anything you can imagine." those days—of red men underground help- "How, different?" Stevens had leaned ing and teaching surface red men—has forward, watching Secumne's old face for survived, even though so much time and every change of expression. It was im- disaster and miles of rock lie between the portant that they be not misled by any brothers. To you Eemeeshee is a god, only old dodderer. Their future depended on a lengendary figure of the dark and ignor- what they did next. Perhaps on what the ant past. If he is in existence, you think old man might tell them depended the con- he is mysterious, powerful, unknowable; tinuation or cessation of the daily deaths a kind of super ghost." among their company. Perhaps the whole The old man paused, smiled condescend- fate of the Red Legion, of thousands of ingly as upon foolish children. His smile Indians spread over half the continent was very sweet, he was an old, a good the whole Red Legion—depended on this man, it said. One whom time had taught old man's words. Stevens, too, knew there that only goodness and kindness are wis- was a mighty thing to learn about such dom. His voice went on, a kind of mildly manifestations. This old one had seen savage chant in the half-dark. him. That was important. "But to me, who have seen him, talked The old man went on. to the ancient one, lived with him and "He is different from men, but yet only served him, he is a timid thing, a mis- a man. In some ways he is perhaps much understood character, a vast mountain of less than a man." useless and undying flesh." About the old chief some forty intent The faces of the grim young men who faces pressed closer, anxious not to miss had fled mysterious death that cut them one quavering word. Truth was in the down day by day—drew back at these old man's face, and he knew facts that words, puzzled, disappointed. They knew few other living men knew about the great not what to say. Their breath sounded mystery of life: the Gods that men have like a sigh in unison as the tension let up. worshipped and believed in always. But old Secumne went on, unnoticing, his "Where he is, under earth, you have eyes musing on things they could not know. never seen. It is a world vastly different from our own world of sunshine and nat- "TpEMEESHEE is timid, as a long- ural plant growth. Only many years of •£-» necked clam is timid, as a prairie experience can give a man understanding dog is timid, as a turtle is timid. of why things are as they are there. So "Eemeeshee has a shell. He pokes out much I will tell you will have to be taken his head. If everything is not the way the as truth though it may not seem truth. mind of him would like it, he pulls his "Long, long ago—when there were no head in, and a year goes by before he white men in all the American continent looks again. The last time—half a century the red men of the very far past found the went by, so I have heard. But it was not ancient caverns of an Elder race. There that long. I am not that old. And I in the caverns whole tribes lived and died know him. Perhaps he has poked his and fought—and learned a magic never head out every year. known by surface people. The Indian "Eemeeshe's forefathers have lived in medicine man of those days was one who such shells until it is as necessary physi- had gone to those underworld red men and cally to him as is the actual turtle's shell. learned magic—and returned to his people Eemeeshee never comes out of his shell. to teach. They learned there how to work His people have lived in such machines for the unseen red men—and the remnants always. Eemeeshee belongs to a very of their teachings, surviving in your ignor- ancient family who have always lived as he ant modern minds, have brought you to is doing. It is his way—and that way this pass; have somehow brought you to is not as we know men's ways. To us, me. I am the last of that kind of medicine Eemeeshee is not a man. He can not live man. There are no others that I know of. without his shell, that is a machine." I am older than you think. For I lived Lane stirred, rose from his haunches. a long time underground. And when I "That is very strange talk, Secumne. came out I found my friends had aged To some, what you say would not make much more than myself. The custom of sense. But we know something of what THE RED LEGION 101

you speak. We know a few^acts about selves when we know how by making the underworld. We would know more of Eemeeshee hear us. Then, if it makes him this 'shell' of Eemeeshee's. Has Eemeeshee work for five minutes, he is tired. He power? Can we go to him, as you have shuts off the machine; he is through. He gone in the past? Will he teach us, help may not turn the power into the magic us to fight for the Red Legion? Will he ears for days, months or years. For he is show us how to work for the rights of the not a thinker, this 'God' of ours. Those red men to life and a place to live? Will mighty things he could have done for the he help to make us strong again? These red men, he has not done, for he had no are the things we would know." wish to do anything." "I would tell you all these things. But it takes time, and words are very poor ""fX/HY is he like that?" Lane's eyes things with which to speak of things that were filled with the mysterious the makers of the words did not know. meaning of the old man's words, for Lane It would be better if I took you straight knew enough to know it could be so, exactly to Eemeeshee myself. Then you would as Secumne said! learn the answers to your questions and "Because Eemeeshee is a dreamer. A know the answers were true. I would not maker of his own dreams, and a dreamer encourage you too much. But you are of other's dreams, too. That machine in modern men. Things about Eemeeshee which he has lived so long no man knows and his shell and about the wonders of the when he entered—that machine can make underworld may provide your minds with dreams for the worm within it. It can also tools that to me would be useless. I am make those dreams one thinks one would not a modern." like to dream—make them into vivid intri- "You will take us to him, then?" cate and perfect patterns of life. Eemee- "Yes, my friends, I understand what shee cannot read or write, has no knowledge you want. If it is not there where Eemee- of life. He has never worked, never moved shee still lives within his shell—it is no- a muscle except to please himself with the " where! intricate pleasures of the living machine. For a long time the group sat, staring He is not a man. He is a feeble creature into the flickering embers, waiting for the of pleasure—a great bag of almost immortal old man to talk. Now and then he would flesh that lacks all interest in life as we go on, then lapse into silence again. live it. We are just the overhead scenery "Eemeeshee has sat within a weird ma- with him, which he can look at or not—as chine which he nor his fathers ever under- stood—and has not moved. The machine Stevens gave a long whistle. has fed him, protected him from all harm. "That is a revelation, Secumne. These It is that kind of machine. And all that new white ray from Europe who have time he has sat in possession of that fear- conquered the cavern under Butte—are ful power which he has only occasionally they like Eemeeshee? The white ray peo- used, according to legend. All that time ple of the east who have left the Indians the red men of earth were driven across in possession of their own caverns in the the continent, have nearly vanished from west—were they like Eemeeshee before earth. And Eemeeshee sat on, lazily pay- they died at the European hands?" ing no attention while his worshipping peo- "I cannot say these things for certain ple died and vanished. He does not really that you ask, O Son of Courage. I can think! But when we pray, sometimes say what I have heard whispered by the Eemeeshee's (the machine's) long ears voices in the night. But you know how are out, and he hears the prayers of his the voices lie to us; pretend to be spirits; red children. It is like the white man's pretend that everything they know is a radio; it hears across vast distances. But secret and that only lies can be told us it hears only thoughts. And he cocks up of the surface. You know how mad the these ears, sometimes, and then when he voices are. Yet there are voices that are understands, he answers. Not because he not mad—that are like your John Ahahne wants to, understand. But because the —good and smart men of the underearth." mechanism of the machine makes the heard "Go on. What have the voices said?" thought so strong that his own weak "The voices sometimes say that this thought must obey. So we answer our- white newcomer ray people who have con- —

102 AMAZING STORIES quered the red man's last caverns are not CHAPTER IV from Europe, but from space; from another world where things are very different. That The Finding of Eemeeshee they killed all the old friends of the people on Earth's surface; all the long lived beings A LL the next day six cars drove across like Eemeeshee within their life-machines; the desert. There was little or -no and that now surface man has no real visible trail but they were following an friends any more under the rocks of earth. ancient forgotten road, and the cars found Only corsairs from space, who seek only to it not too difficult. Old Secumne, toward keep men ignorant and weak. But I do the close of the day, indicated a stepping not believe it, for the voices seem so often place. The cars drew up in a line, facing to be like European voices: men who have the wall of a canyon. There was no partic- learned English well, but are yet Euro- ular reason for stopping that Lane could peans; Continentals. But all the voices see. agree that the leaders of these rays, every- Darkness was on them when the evening where, are too often mad. The people who meal was finished. Secumne rose from the have the control rays are mad, do not think fire, walked to the canyon wall. From his at all of anything but their own pleasure, blanket roll he had taken a little flute. Now can not even think effectively of precau- he blew three notes upon the flute. A high tions for their own safety." one, a low one, and one soft in between "There are many such as Eemeeshee left, in pitch. do you think?" A vast muffled rumble answered from "No, my friend. I think that even within the wall of rough rock. Slowly a Eemeeshee is alive only by accident. I great section tipped, swiveling slowly out- thing that most of his kind, his feeble, ward, pivoting on its center. Exposed on peculiar race of men-within-a-machine-shell both sides of the balanced section of rock has been nearly killed off by the newcomers was a tunnel, wide enough, big enough for in the caverns." four motor cars- abreast. Two cars could "These newcomers could well be from the have driven in on each side of the pivoted surface, who have introduced modern gang- rock. The tunnel led down as far as their ster methods into the strange cavern lights reached. Lane stood, overcome by world."* the magnitude of this proof of the old "No, the reports of them are too peculiar. Indian's words. Hearing of such things They contend they do not think as men. was one thing, seeing them quite another. Or do not think at all. Just pleasure and "Who built such a thing?" cruelty." "It is the work of the ancient ones who "Lazy, like Eemeeshee, but in a different built all through the under-rock of earth. way, eh?" No one knows words to describe or name "That is right. Now, if you don't mind them today. But presently I will show you —since we are starting in the morning for wall pictures of their tremendous beauty the place I spoke of, and I am an old man and strength. They were giant men. There I must go to bed. All your questions will are few such doors left any more. This be much better answered by the actuality one has been protected from erosion by than by my words. Once down there you circumstances. Too, in times not too long will learn these things." past, our own forefathers, the red men who "I suppose you are right. I would rather served such as Eemeeshee, chipped away see this immortal Eemeeshee than to hear the stone, kept the door open, protected if is about him— he as harmless as you and cared for it. Unless such care goes say." on the door will be lost forever. Such has "He is not exactly harmless. But he has happened to many doors into the under- no will to slay anyone in particular; no world. One by one they disappear for- reason to harm you. Eemeeshee can fight ever. But of late years, the voices tell me quite well or he would not be alive." there are many new openings being made." "Well however it may be—goodnight." "It doesn't seem possible that time would thing intact to operate." *It is a peculiarity of the caves that there is a leave such a weird mixture of ancient and modern. Imitation "Men have spent much time and labor of ancient dress is amazingly authentic.—Ed. upon it. See how earthen bulwarks have a

THE RED LEGION 103 been built to keep the water from flowing less and less. At last they disappeared here. How the rocks that might fall and altogether. block it have been cleared away above. "How far to the old one?" Stevens leaned Once there were many hands to serve the toward Secumne, sitting in the back seat fathers of Eemeeshee, and Eemeeshee, if with Lane. His dark, aquiline face was he had had the mind to use them. But intent, curious. such as he have little mind to use people." "Couple hours yet. Can't drive fast, Old Secumne's voice was filled with a can't tell. Maybe rock fall, maybe barri- strange weariness, as though the contem- cades put up since. Haven't been here for plation of the facts about such creatures twenty years now." as the Indian God Eemeeshee was very Lane spoke to Stevens. "Just what do we expect to get out of As the cars trundled into the smooth him, anyway. Hadn't we better discuss roadway, picked up speed, Lane asked what we are going to say to him, and then Secumne: let Secumne do the talking? He knows the "How is it that Eemeeshee has survived ancient rigamaroles by which such beings the death you think has caught up with are propitiated. It isn't as if we were going his like in other places?" to discuss a point of law with a judge on "He is not easy to kill. Too, he is not the bench, you know. We don't really feared, for he is peculiar, timid. They are have much idea what we're trying to do." used to having such as him about. It is Stevens looked at Secumne. not wise to try to kill such as the old one "When we get there, you try and arouse without necessity. They sometimes know some feeling in the old one for the red mighty things, which they do not use until man and his struggle to remain—to grow someone arouses them from their dreams." great again in his own way. Tell how the "Finding that the legendary Gods have white man has displaced us while our had a real existence, and that something guardian, Eemeeshee has dreamed away the that was once worshipped as a God still life that should have been devoted to pre- lives on when all belief in such existence serving the Indian and his way of life, his has disappeared, is a disappointment. I racial culture and attainments. Tell him suppose all Gods everywhere in the cen- that now is his last chance to be what his turies past have been just such creatures." children have always thought him to be. "They have not all been like Eemeeshee, Try and arouse some spark in his heedless no! But many have. Others, I learned heart. Then, if you see life in his brain and long ago, do not exist, but are imitated by a regard for the red man, tell him we belong people in the caverns for no reason but to a legion—the last organized red men on custom and mischievousness. But to tell the continent. That we will bring members men anything about such subjects I have of the legion here to learn from him the always found nearly impossible. It is good way of the Elder Gods. That he must only to find that the Red Legion itself is not a teach. That if there is fighting to be done, legend, but a reality. It is good to know we will do it for him. There is no need that the Legion has many members, knows for him to disturb his peace or come out enough to realize that the old tales had a of his dreams. After he has taught one of truth about them, a mighty truth." us we will guard him and serve him while we teach the others ourselves. Under- THE cars wound down and down. Driv- stand?" ing was no task, the road was broad, "I catch. I'll tell him what he should straight and level except for a gradual and have been told a hundred years ago— hardly noticeable curve, and level as new hundred and fifty—or what his father laid concrete. Here and there slight shifts should have known three hundred years of the rock strata had raised bumps, sudden ago." steps, where a drop or a raise had taken The cars were now passing the gray dust- place, but usually these were easily nego- shrouded shapes of the wonder work of the tiable as the unevenness had been filled Elder race, but old Secumne gave no sign at some time in the past with rubble. of calling a halt. Steven's eyes darted As the way led deeper and deeper into right and left, watching the dust-covered the earth, these shiftings of the rock grew mystery that was the machinery of a AMAZING STORIES

science now lost from earth. A tremendous the entrances were closed to us. We did emotion was aroused in him as he realized not know how to lay our hands on the what there was here for his people that ancient mech. We did not know an open had been denied them by the ignorance of entrance. such as Eemeeshee, and of such as Secumne. He turned to the old man. THE tall, white figure in the roadway "Why have' you never brought any of the waved them to a halt. He was white as educated young men of your tribe here? a fish's belly, but his features were purest Why have you hidden this knowledge of Indian, with a great hawk nose, wide yours for your people?" nostrils, high cheekbones—and a lean, "When I was younger," answered the old starved, greyhound body. His limbs were man sadly, "I tried to do those things you bone thin under the long white ceremonial have in mind. The young men laughed robe. He was very old, but somehow vig- at me! I tried very hard, brought some orous. His words were purest Quemaya, men here to show them. All went well till and only Secumne understood the almost they saw the body and terrible appearance extinct tongue well. of Eemeeshee. Then they laughed, or "Welcome to the ancient realm of the swore, or fled. They could not think right Breath-Master. It has been long since pil- of the ancient one and he grew angry, slew grims have found their way to their God. some, chased the others away. They had Give me your names that I may acquaint not the vision or courage. I have waited the mighty one with your presence and all my life for seekers such as you. Now learn if he will grant you sight of his glory." you have come. I warn you, Eemeeshee Secumne answered gravely in the same knows your thought. Try and think cor- tongue. rectly, or your efforts will end in failure. "We are Pilgrims come bearing news and Eemeeshee is not such a man as you and I. asking for the aid of the great one. We His heredity is very different." have much to give, and we may receive "You mean to say you brought educated much. Our news is for the ears of the young Indians here and they took no ad- great one only. He may remember my vantage of what there is here to be learned name: I was a servant here in the days, —to be used for our race? Explain!" long ago, of my youth. I am Secumne. He "Some few of them did learn what it all may also know the names of these two, for meant. They tried to lead others, to teach they know that Eemeeshee is a real being. as you plan. But they failed to convince They are Jack Stevens and Eonee Lane. others, became at last discouraged and They represent a great legion of red men, bitter as I have become. Men are very the last of our once mighty race who still foolish. They cannot believe in anything preserve courage to plan for the future of that is greater than their school books. the Indian. It will be a mighty pleasure Sometimes I think it were better had they to Eemeeshee to know that his red sons never gone to school! It closed their minds still need him, still want his leadership and to all greater truths. They have refused me. his wisdom. Tell the Breath-Master that "They have refused the wisdom of the if our fathers had sought and found the underworld and of the past because their way to his home that we would not now teachers did not tell them of it in their need his help. For he would not have school books. So they knew it could not be. turned his face away from his red sons. I got tired of being laughed at. I took my Tell him, too, we bring him news of danger women and my children and moved here to to his life from other beings who have come this place where you have found me. I am to the caverns of the Gods of the past. very tired of life." They will kill him, if he does not know they Stevens nodded grimly. come, does not cease his mighty dreaming "I think we may find a remedy for your and look at the world at his feet." difficulties. Some men told me of you when The tall, white-robed, skeletoh-thin In- I was quite young. They did not laugh. dian turned and walked away through a You have been laughed at in public; but vast doorway in the boring that was the those who did not laugh have believed you road. The eight men got out of the cars; without talking about it very much. Now built a fire; began to prepare a meal: Little we have it again: a door to the ancient was said. There was too much to say for secret. We knew this thing was true, but words to do their duty. .

THE RED LEGION 105

Lane sat by the fire, waiting for the wom- what you see. He is to a man what a en to complete the cooking. He heard a potato sprout in a dark cellar is to a potato faint scuffling behind. He turned slowly, plant in the hot sun. He is what is called and a cold fear of the unknown struck into a 'creep, a spider man.' He is not stupid, him. but he does not speak any real language. Gazing at him not three feet away was a The tongue has no more than a hundred face. A face belonging to a great white meanings. 'Food, water, sleep, wakewell, spider! Twenty feet those thin white ill'; such sounds are all you need to learn limbs extended, that little round body to talk to 'Tch Tch'." poised upon the fragility, looking at him Lane did not answer. He only looked at with a human face. The huge black eyes, Tch Tch. So 'the ever-dark had made this hanging long hair, the straggly pale beard out of man? of ivory yellow, the body which was like a Far off, down in the dim cavern road, man's if a man had been stretched Lane could see other tall white spider magically across a twenty-foot span and shapes, standing still—or moving swiftly left to live on that way. Lane could only on their incredible stick-like limbs. It was stare and lick his dry lips. He could not hard to realize that their parents had been speak. men like himself, some centuries before. The long, so much too long, thin arm Hard to realize how very greatly it is true reached out, touched Lane's cheek cau- that environment determines the organism tiously, almost caressingly. The fingers, and its shape and nature so definitely, so three times a normal man's finger length absolutely. and three times a man's fingers in thinness, The soft old voice of Secumne mur- in fragility, felt slowly, carefully over his mured: face, touched his hair, his shirt, his hand. "This one, Tch Tch, is the leader. The Satisfied, the towering, thin height eased leader is always named Tch Tch. Mostly slowly to a squatting position. they do not have names. They are really Then, the great round eyes watching but a kind of intelligent animal entirely Lane, the long arm reached out fifteen feet indigenous. to the caverns." away, dipped quickly into the cooking pot, Lane turned to Secumne a face on which snared a bit of boiled meat out of the hot was written the beginning of that awe that liquid, burned its fingers. The mouth was going to claim him utterly before he opened to a round pink 0, then let out a had learned but a minute part of what the shrill yip like a hurt puppy. caves could teach. That awe of the in- The incongruous life sat there, unnoticed finite nature of energy and her products by the others, sucking its long fingers and that is to surface man hidden by the every- eyeing Lane speculatively. Lane spoke. day humdrum activity, by the limited num- "You speak English? Who are you?" ber of the works of nature that modern The wide, too round eyes looked puzzled man observes. The terrific majesty of the at Lane, clicked its tongue. "Tch tch." But cavern works, built by the hands of a race it did not answer. so superior as to be not really men at all, "Secumne! Come here!" Lane did not but Gods, would dispel forever the limiting call loudly, his voice might startle the bonds his puny life-experience had placed strange visitor. upon Lane's mind. It is a potent alchemy for a healthy mind; the revelations the cav- THE old man rose from his place by the erns have to offer. farther fire, come slowly through the Even as Lane turned to gaze again into dark. He stood, his stolid, lined old face the fire and try to quiet his throbbing looking at the visitor. thought into sanity in spite of the mighty "Tch tch," said Secumne. truths his deduction was presenting to his "Tch thcheeee. Chee tch tech. Tch." trained, logical mind; even as he composed "What do you have to say about this?" himself and strove to pull his mind back Lane asked. from the gulfs which it was leaping, from "This is one of the lost of the caves. the gorging of its hunger upon the mighty

His people did not use the ancient rays to meaning circumstance had laid before it . . stay healthy, the conditions of the dark ... a soft shuffle of sandaled feet behind caverns have made his race, bit by bit, year him brought with their sound an alien per- by year and century'by slow century, into fume, a rustle and a sensing that is to iOG AMAZING STORIES

virile man irresistible, that which that black her realizing that themselves were so much magic of Mother Earth's ancient devising less than Saba. sends the blood leaping through the body Lane and Stevens followed the supple shouting, "woman, woman!" silhouette through the half dark. Lane whirled, crouched on his heels as he "Into the mysterious 'shell' of the ancient was, to see moving toward him from the god—the 'Breath-Master'," thought Lane. dark the white, unmistakable form of a "Now we will see what the 'mighty power' woman of normal size and remarkable ap- so many of my ancestors have worshipped pearance. She was not dressed in the long really is." funereal garments which the skeleton-thin Down a long winding ramp Saba led servitor of Eemeeshee had worn. Instead them, never looking back, her ears telling a brief fringed and beaded loincloth was her of their movement. A light glow lamp her sole attire—except for a collar of rich in her hand was the only light. Apparently Indian bead work resting upon her shoul- Saba carried it for their benefit, for she did ders. So must have looked the women of not appear to look at her surroundings, his ancestral line, centuries ago before the seemed to know her way in the utter dark- white man came, as they moved to the ness, seemed to move, like a bat, by the echo marriage rites clothed in beauty and cour- of the sounds from the surroundings. Lane age and becoming feminine humility and and Stevens followed the tiny glow in her finding it covering enough. hand, trusted to luck and to Saba that all was well. THE pale face with its too large black Quite abruptly they were no longer in a eyes came closer to Lane, and one by dark cavern, but had entered the titanic, one the men looked up at her and stared, brightly-lit luxury that is the God's home, their eyes fixed upon her as by magnetism when it has been left intact. This place polarized. Lane rose, and the blood leaped had been treated kindly by Time, or had through him. The woman smiled. An been carefully preserved by endless work by eerie something gripped Lane. He bowed many hands through the centuries. on one knee, something that he had never The walls were of crystal, a crystal that done. Her voice came to him then, a was cut with gigantic incut line-carvings, sultry, smiling voice, full of little under- like Swedish cut-glass. Terrific figures of tones and an understanding of men. the unequalled giant physique of the Elder "You are the one named Eonee Lane. race moved across the transparent planes The Master has sent me to bring you and of the walls in the breathtaking splendor the one named Stevens to him. The Mas- of form that is the Elder art work alone. ter is greatly interested that you should The great couches of spring metal were find your way to him still—when the men thrown across with gleaming silk of blue, of the surface have forgotten him for so worked in gold, while a swinging incense long." burner exhaled a softening haze into the air, "We are very interested, too. And who a haze that was a too-exotic scent of the do we have the honor of addressing?" Elder race's stores. "My name is Saba. I am called the In the midst of this vaulting fabric of Keeper of the Women. I am very glad you stone and shining crystal and carved alien have come." There was an accompaniment figures and hazy air and utterly lonely of subtle meaning to her remark that Lane luxury sat Eemeeshee, an Eemeeshee who was not sure he heard or imagined. It was was surrounded by a tremendous machine quite possible that she was glad to meet built of crystalline plastic and gleaming, men from the surface if the thin robed glittering polished metals; or fluid flowing skeleton who had met them first was a colorfully through coils and tubes beneath criterion of the men of the caverns. Or if his feet; of glowing dials and leaping ener- "Tch Tch" was a sample of the manhood gies within vast cylinders before his eyes: hereabout. of^ many great cubical screen cavities She turned and led off into the dark, wherein the whole upper world might be and Lane and Stevens followed her. The brought to focus. This machine in which women of the party turned their dark lay the great fat body of the motionless eyes upon the departing form of Saba wist- Eemeeshee was the work of a Master of fully. She was so much a woman it was the ancient machine art which has never hard to have one's man send his eyes after been on Earth since the Golden Age. THE RED LEGION 107

EEMEESHEE turned his vast, horrible was understandable to either of them. head slowly upon them as Saba's san- These awful eyes rested for a brief moment daled feet stuffed on the smooth plastic on Saba, and Saba nodded and was gone. of the floor. Within Lane's breast a ter- They were alone with the terrible re- rific fear of the unknown, an overwhelming gard of those alien, inhuman eyes. They repulsion struggled to send him screaming knew that he could read their thoughts of and shuddering back into the darkness him with the mech with which his fingers outside the alien luxury of this roost of slowly toyed. They knew that their terror. For Eemeeshee was truly no longer ^thoughts of him were not complimentary, a man, if ever his race had been man. His but how can a man think differently of flesh lay within the crystal complexities what he sees than he does think? Lane of the machine as though it were an ugly knew this thing was getting off on the dough kneaded by some alchemist into a wrong foot, some way, but the key to shape to frighten off the devil, and left making of this meeting with Eemeeshee there by his own fearful hands refusing the anything but a terror was beyond him. work. A great white sluggish pulsing thing, At last, when the long silence and slow surmounted by two vast pillars that were regard of the eyes was becoming unbear- his arms stretched out along the dial and able,' a ray lanced softly down upon them switch banks of the mechanism that was his from the touch of his sausage-long finger immortal home. And the face that he upon a dial, and a soft flood of thought turned on them as his sausage-like, two- swept into them from Eemeeshee. A vast foot-long fingers ceased their slow spider- understanding of this being flooded Lane ing glide along the instrument panel—that at this touch of the mind upon his own. face that surrounded those eyes was itself The thought queried softly, almost tim- enough to give a weak man instant mad- idly, "Who and what are you? What do ness. But the terror of the eyes was the you want of Eemeeshee?" thing that held Lane and Stevens motion- Lane's spirits rose now. Mentally he less though every instinct shouted "flee." * resolved to make a real effort at being Those eyes that surmounted that vast twist understood. Carefully he began at the of white flesh and had watched the world beginning of their trouble in Butte; of for unknown centuries, held all the weari- the Red Legion and what it meant; of what ness and boredom; all the melancholy and they had been taught by the old men of hopelessness; all the alien, cold unhuman their tribe about Eemeeshee; of how In- thought that is not thought as we know it. dians had always prayed to Eemeeshee and All the things that man does not believe had been rewarded with oblivion and a in, were in those eyes. A lonely, terrible futility of nonentity for their worship. All these thoughts of themselves ugliness of spirit sat in that . face. An and what ugliness of spirit that is the lack of iden- they hoped Eemeeshee might do for them tity, of brotherhood, with any other living mingled swiftly into a vast message to that thing. Lane read in the terrible face with its atrophied might. foot-long nose hooked and sickeling up- ward over the chin, that this being had LANE knew he was making an im- never realized there was a kinship between pression, for a pale pink flush suffused him and any living thing. He was an alien that colorless great moon of horribly flat- entity, whatever his antecedents may have tened flesh that was a face, the great nos- been. Eemeeshee did not speak, he only trils opened a little, the lonely, world- looked incuriously upon the two young weary eyes lit up with interest and again Indian men, and his eyes inspected them the meaning flowed into him from Eemee- as one inspects a fly upon a window pane shee. with the utmost disinterest and careless "What is this people's power who have acknowledgement that the fly has life. driven you forth, and why do you think The ego that is man's normal possession they're a threat to me?" shrank within Lane, and a vast sensing of Lane leaped upon his opportunity. cold aloneness came to him from Eemee- "Eemeeshee, these alien ray people come shee. from afar, they have killed all the machine Saba raised her voice in a long sing-song dwellers wherever their rays have touched. of gibberish. It was an ancient language, There is no reason to think they will not a parent to the Quemaya, but not one that kill you too, when they know where you —

108 AMAZING STORIES

are and why they have not known of you dials, and within the great cubical screens before." Lane could see the small encampment of "Who told you they killed the race of his men where their fire burned beside the the machine dwellers? Who told you these great cavern road. people killed the Gods of the caves?" Slowly, one by one, Eemeeshee sent his "Has someone told you they did not seeking telaug beam into each mind, read kill? They have killed many of the Red there all the thoughts, looked idly at Lane Legion with no cause. Why should they to note that he was watched as he did not try to kill you?" what Lane suggested. "I have become tired of life. It might And even as Lane dared to hope that be interesting if someone tried to kill me. the life in that mind might take fire from Tell me more of these people." the desperation of his followers; even as Lane told the great emotionless being Lane dared to send his mind along the all that he knew of the newcomers to the vision of what the future might be with northern caverns. Softly, mildly, the great all the wisdom of this terrific being to guide face listened, the great lazy mind turned them . . . the enemy struck again! the thoughts idly and visibly before Lane's A terrible ray lanced, searing and deadly, mental listening. down into that luxurious, lonely nest of How to rouse the time-atrophied soul of crystal and blue and gold in that chamber. that great body? How to give him human Struck, burning and smashing at the vast anger and human will to survive and create? white coils and ugly billows of soft flesh, Lane's mind leaped and struggled and of ancient, pink-and-white life, struck rend- wrestled with the problem. This great, ing at that soft vastness of Eemeeshee in a flat, twisted, lazy whiteness of flesh seemed frenzied effort to bring death quickly before to Lane to typify, to be the whole race of retaliation. men who do not think or try to solve life's Lane fell to the floor, blinded and burnt problems, all the deadwood of the race of from the ray flashing past his head, and a man rolled into one great spirit and put - terrible odor of death, of burning flesh there to dwell forever in a terrible enig- filled the great quiet room that had seen matic punishment of one soul for all the sins so much time go quietly by—and now this of omission of all men. How to rouse such had come to Eemeeshee. a devil of living nothingness into a God- like fury of will toward creation and striv- CHAPTER V ing toward a greater, fuller life for all men? How to fecundate that great thing with Saba the red flame of courage that burned, Lane knew, in the men of the Red Legion? How SABA was looking out upon the new- to make him desire to forward the real comers. Knowingly, thoughtfully her purpose of life, to fight for them and their fertile, infinitely educated mind, revolved goals understandingly and eagerly? the new thing men—in her life. Since a "Let me show you my men? Looking little girl she had spent all her waking into their minds, see their love for their hours seeing that the needs and wishes of children, for the great legends of the red the great Eemeeshee were filled. All the men of the past, see their spirit seeking a sensuous desires of his wholly mental life method to make a way of life for the red she had minded, too, making with her fer- man that will lead again to greatness as it tile mind all the images he might desire to was before such as you turned their faces watch augmented and developed into life from the red man and fell a-dreaming here fullness in the solidographic dream mech. within your God-built machines. Think All those antique records she had read what your duty toward your fellow men had given her avid young mind a food that may be. Think, Eemeeshee! These men has not been properly given to man since would fight to the death for you! Will you the Gods left the earth. She was vastly lie down and die like a coward before the more than mortal; she was what simpler coming of the evil thing that has killed people call a white fairy, a sorceress. She their brothers? Are you a coward, Eemee- knew mighty things that could be done with shee?" simple materials, she knew vast secrets of Eemeeshee slowly turned the words with- energy and life and matter without really in his mind. His hand idly turned the realizing that she was superior to man. For —

THE RED LEGION 109

all her time she was taken up ministering old priest Watusojhe served as his advisor to the greedy laziness that was the mind and general factotum. A half-dozen youths, of Eemeeshee. She had little time to think children of the women, supposed to be of other things in her life except Eemeeshee children of Eemeeshee, but in truth fath- and his needs. ered by the wanderers of the caverns Now, suddenly, into her life of even those men who spend their lives searching tenor, of fixed and, to her, perfect habits, the endless labyrinths of the dark for the had come a turmoil of new factors. The treasures that they sell to the space ships ways of her life, the wishes of her soul, that come sometimes to certain customary had that night turned into a new heated places for this purpose. (The age-old cus- channel. The tall, strong, and grim-faced tom of secrecy of the caverns forbids trade man, Lane, had made an impression on her with surface men. Too, men of the sur- vital inner self; a self that had not faced face world have little to offer that cavern man in all reality, ever before. Only some- people recognize as value. The rich, tre- times over the rays had she looked upon mendous value of the ancient profuseness men far overhead—and mostly their of productions of the vastly superior race thoughts were too simple and unbeautiful make the poor values of surface man of to interest her. little account.) Saba knew, now, that no more would she But Eemeeshee's solitary ways had given content herself with knowing men from these women of his a hunger for human afar over the rays. She realized that from kind, and the strong youth and complex the fire of striving within the mind of the thought of these newcome Indians of mod- tall grim strangers, fleeing before a rnys- ern surface educated ways was to them a terior death, from the mind of Eonee wonderful thing. So it was that Saba and Lane, their leader, and within the mind several others were watching the encamp- of the sleeker, stronger Stevens, that she ment and the scene within the crystal cham- would no more be content with the lazy ber over the ray mech, while the guard ways emptf life and luxury of pandering to the —which of old custom were supposed to be great appetite that ruled all this cavern, watched by someone always and which Saba was taking stock of herself for the reached for many miles to the four quarters first time in her life. of direction — were now perfunctorily She had drifted with the calm currents watched from a distance. On the screens, of events, events that never happened here if they had looked, could have been seen in the quiet dark, had accepted the half- the great rolling ray weapons in their ray- life of this place too easily. Something armored tanks sweeping nearer and nearer had now been added which had trans- from the north. formed her selfish, lazy reflection of Eemee- But Saba was not thinking of attack, shee's atrophied self-will to a sudden real- for there had been no attack in her life- ization that she had been letting life go by time. while she too dreamed away everything Nor, in all Eemeeshee's centuries-old that life might be in the luxury of the memory, had she noted in her reading of false sensing of what life was not of the his mind any attack of importance for so dream mech. many, many years. When the blazing bolts About Saba where she leaned against her of energy flung themselves into Eemeeshee's great old deliciously ornate vision mech in crystal nest, there was little they knew to thought, watching the scene of Lane and do about it. Warfare was the thing farthest Stevens before Eemeeshee, about her from their minds as well as from Eemee- slept or dawdled some two score other shee's thought. women, of all ages. They were the harem which Eemeeshee kept in deference to pVEN so, Saba had talked with the custom among his kind, rather than for any wandering treasure hunters, and knew real need or desire he had for them. There a great deal about warfare by hearsay. were few men in Eemeeshee's "court," for In anticipation of such attack she had Eemeeshee usually detested men and their occasionally practiced with the great wea- ambitions plaguing him to effort he did pon beams that sat in ordered ranks every- not desire to make. He banished the chil- where about the great ancient dwelling dren of the place, if they were men, before place. And as she saw the searing bolts of they came of an age to make trouble. The deadly dis-fire come seeking them out over 110 AMAZING STORIES

the long pale penetrays, she leaped, to one fleshy arms was cut nearly in two midway of the tremendous weapons and sent the from the soft billows that were his shoulder. vast vision beam flying along the enemy Lane could not help thinking as he watched ray paths for their source. that mayhap the rays who had struck at Horror struck into Saba, even the Saba Eemeeshee had done him more of a service who had experienced all the horror and than a harm, for the lassitude that seemed terror that God brains could conceive in a part of him had also been sheared away their synthetic adventure records. For the by the sudden hiss of the burning rays. thought that flowed back to her along these That great white thing reared upward conductive, teleaugmentive vision beams; and the unwounded arm moved with a ter- that leaped out at her from the great vision rible angry swiftness here and there upon screen: that thought was not human. Hu- the keyboard of switches; the many keys mans the men looked like, but what lived like an organ keyboard; the many pedals beneath their skulls made even Saba shud- that protruded near his feet. He pressed, der and start back in fear and trembling. now here, now there, and on the score of They were things sent by a greater thing, cubical screens that made up the greater a thing she had not met before in her part of the body of the transparent machine limited life—and Saba had no time to appeared swiftly scene after scene of the analyze why these apparently normal ap- great empty underworld of unending tubes pearing men were so luridly, so evilly differ- of highways, of tiers of vast empty cham- ent from men in their minds. bers filled with their dust-laden complexi- She had no time for flinching, and Saba, ties of machines and forgotten wealth. seeing the enemy that had followed the Farther and farther Eemeeshee searched caravan of fleeing Indian men, that had for the source of the attack. paused as the road led into territory un- Finally he found the smoking series of known to them, that had been feeling their spots where the enemy ray mech had way along under the great mass of rocks drawn up for attack. Wonderingly he that was their sky closer and closer to looked at it, and as he .looked the soft Eemeeshee ever since they had left familiar voice of Saba could be heard explaining to territory, acted. Eemeeshee that she had found and slain They felt for an instant that terrible the attackers already. nearness of death they had brought to so Now Eemeeshee sagged again and the many in their life. Then they died very temporary vigor that had flooded him quickly. passed away. He began to moan and weep The horror that Saba had felt when she like a whipped child. had seen and heard their thought upon the A score of Saba's women and Saba swept vision screen made her sear the bodies of into the chamber, their sandaled feet mak- those human beings until there was no more ing swift whispers of haste and pity, and horror to hear from the minds, nothing Eemeeshee's wounds were carefully washed to see, only a scorched, burnt, flaming, and treated and bound up. Lane and smoking place where their ray cars had Stevens stood through it all, an ignored been. On the cavern road where their part of the great vacant immensity that is wheeled ray mech had drawn up in line to always the atmosphere of the Elder caverns. steady the screens for firing sight, to lay At last Saba came forth from the trans- down a blanket of accurate fire, now was parent winding passages of the machine only many scattered bits of smoking metal. where Eemeeshee lay like the great pupa * * * of some vast insect thing of the past that was presently going to hatch into a winged UNKNOWING why the attack had god but had certainly not done so yet. ceased as suddenly as it had begun, Saba paused, her lithe, full woman's Lane and Stevens stood there, looking at form holding a great golden basin of water the strange spectacle of the great soft on her hip, her arm draped with bandages, worm-like body of the vast Eemeeshee in her hand a pair of ancient scissors a turned into a raging, writhing, stricken foot long. creature. "Saba," said Lane, seeing now his chance, Midway of the long softness had ap- "this occurrence proves something to me peared a great burned hole where a ray that I wish you and Eemeeshee might had drilled him, and one of the long soft fully understand. That is: you need our THE RED LEGION 111

Red Legion terribly here. This attack will be able to overcome them. For they knew not be the last. There will be more and so little of it. If it broke . . . more such attacks, and the next will not Only Saba and one or two of the women be so easily wiped out by one pair of knew the least thing about repairing the hands as was this one. You need our machines. They were too green, as Saba young Indian braves, trained and ready explained, really to fight with the weapons and watching from every far flung ray as the old accounts told her they were post. You need steadily to grow and grow meant to be fought with. and have more and more strength until But the attack did not come, and now there is no ray group anywhere to face into the great door every night came three your strength. Will you explain this to or four or a dozen of the men of the Red Eemeeshee?" Legion; men from Oregon; men from Can- "I do not need to. Even now I saw in ada; men from the pueblos; Mexican In- his angry mind just such plans. I will go dians sent their number. Swiftly the word ahead and have my women train your folk spread and steadily their numbers grew.* in the uses of the rays, and we will put Now papooses shouted and ran in the your plans swiftly into operation. You gloomy so-long-empty caverns, and cooking call in from their far homes the rest of fires gleamed by the hundreds. Indian your Red Legion and we will make this women swayed in their tribal mating place something different from what it has dances, the braves sprang and whooped in been. It will be good to have new faces, the war-dance. Life had come to this new eager spirits about. I like your place of Eemeeshee's. And over the new plans." activity glowered ever the transformed Eemeeshee, and one could read ever in LANE did not wait for more. Stevens his heard thought: "Vengeance. Eemee- by his side, they hastened back to the shee has a way to vengeance." camp of the refugees and explained the Said Saba: situation. The attack had gone unnoticed "No more does Eemeeshee flood the by the camp. The Indians slept peacefully chambers with the dream images and wal- in their blankets. low in the stim-dreams of beauty and The next morning the great hidden door wonder. No more does he take pleasure after year. in the rock lifted, and two of the cars day after day and year These that had come in went out again. In the wounds have changed him—he has waked cars were two of the young braves intent up! I have never seen him so intent upon upon delivering their message to the other anything as he is now upon growing strong centers of the Red Legion. Stevens had and fighting with these enemies who at- told them to go in person to each of the tacked without warning. His anger burns headquarters of the Legion and tell them steadily, higher and higher. He haS taught in their own words just what had happened, me many things he formerly denied me. what Eemeeshee was, and that they were Come, I will show you what he taught all needed to defend their ancient God and me yesterday." the gateway to the vast wisdom of the past. Saba took Lane to a great round ma- Eemeeshee lay in his great crystal nest chine. A mouth about three feet across and glowered and growled and nursed his hurts. Saba and Lane and Stevens worked Temples and Caves—from Enc. Brit.

. . . very ancient sanctuaries the hard daily, teaching, getting a force of but in many is by a natural or arti- ready hands upon the ancient ray controls, place of a temple taken ficial grotto .(Phoenician Astarte grottoes—the getting prepared as swiftly as they might trotto of Cynthus in Delos), or else the temple for a repetition of the attack from the i built over a subterranean opening (as at north. Every day they spread their force Delphi), and while this may ... be connected a little, posting men to the four quarters with the cult of telluric deities . . . with the old rays reaching out for forty The altar in front of temple had its prototype miles to watch steadily, sweeping across the in altars at the mouths of sacred caves . . . innumerable passages through the rock The influence of the cave temple . . . undeniable where attack might come. They were now widespread type of sanctuary. vastly safer than before the attack, but Lane Certain adyta in Greece were actually subter- knew that anyone really conversant with ranean and the association of oracles with caves the uses of the ancient mechanisms must is well known. —

112 AMAZING STORIES in the center of the mech gave a view of Lane stooped, dipped his head momen- successive coils reaching in, each coil a tarily into the pulsing flow of strange little smaller than the other to the bottom electricray. Through his mind flashed a of the inward cone. She switched on the picture of vast plans for the Red Legion, power and from the big orifice came a of great conquests of just such valuable strong bass hum—a pulsing of power that secrets of the old machines of the caves, streamed from the opening in a visible and of vast conquests and growth for the flow of power. Red Legion. As he removed his head, "What is it?" asked Lane. "It looks these pictures died slowly out, but his something like a cyclotron." mind remained sharper, clearer, he knew "This cyclotron you speak of; what is he was vastly more alive. that?" "Did he show you anything else?" this "It is a device they use to speed up an new and sharper Lane asked Saba, his electric particle. There are several kinds, eyes glittering now with energy and en- depending on the kind of particle they thusiasm. This machine for invigorating want to speed up. They bombard matter his men had heartened him. with it: it becomes more radioactive. It Saba led him toward another great ma- was used in developing the atom bomb." chine, somewhat similar in appearance but "This, then," Saba smiled, "is a 'cyclo- with a greatly more complicated keyboard tron-in-reverse.' This is used to slow down of control dials. the flow of certain kinds of particles until "Yes. He showed me this, saying: 'If the body can catch and hold them. It you need monetary metals, you can make makes the energy that is always about us them with this.' It is a similar appearing available to the body by slowing down machine—the same cone of great coils the speeds at which the parts of energy reaching inward, but its use is certainly travel. Each coil is creator of a magnetic vastly different. It also slows up the par- field which attracts, catches and slows the ticles that circulate always about us, makes flight of the bits of energy until as it of them a concentrated flow; but it has emerges it is a slow flood of the stuff from atunements that regulate what kind of which all matter is synthesized by nature particle is slowed. Watch and you will see and the body of the person in the flow why. Have you some base metal?" takes in the energy just as we take food in Lane searched his pockets, found only a through the mouth. It prepares energy fifty cent piece, some pennies and a nickel. for the absorption by that kind of matter Saba took the pennies and the nickel which our body is made of. At least, such from him and placed them on a sliding was the explanation Eemeeshee gave me as tray before the mouth of the power cone, he pointed out the uses to which I was to slid the tray into the center of the orifice. put this machine and others like it. It is She pulled the activating lever. to be used to make our warriors strong The hum rose and rose in pitch, and as and smart and able to learn quickly what Lane watched Saba adjusted the dial to they must learn to defeat this horrible a marking. enemy who has attacked us." "See, Eonee, this marking is a symbol that means gold. There is a mark for each LANE put out his hand, immersed it in element you want to produce, though these the flow of energy from the orifice. markings can only be used for materials His hand seemed to swell, to feel strong. heavier in the atomic table than the mate- The lassitude of relaxation went out of it rial you place in the flow." strength pulsed within his fingers and Presently she withdrew the tray, picked flowed up his arm. His whole body felt up the coins and handed them to Lane. invigorated just from the immersion of Lane looked at them, hefted them. They his hand,. had increased greatly in weight, changed Saba watched him. to a red gold in color. He took his knife, "Put your head in, if you want really cut one of the coins. It was pure gold. ! to note the effects. It makes the brain "Transmutation " ejaculated Lane. immensely more active. And the effect "Here we have the means to finance an continues long afterward. It is like charg- army, an empire. Eemeeshee should get ing a battery, a battery of life energy, angry oftener; God knows what we might with life energy." not learn from him of these wonders. With THE RED LEGION 113 a source of gold like this we can hire all enemy set to watch their activity. Lane, the men we need. Get this machine work- watching them taken to Eemeeshee for a ing steadily and produce a good supply going over, got a good idea of just who and of this stuff. We must send out more what the enemy were. recruiting agents and get our strength up. \The two men were dark, scrawny samples There will be plenty to do now, Saba." of humanity, in appearance like Paris "I thought you would find a use for Apaches or the criminal cockney type. this." Saba was very pleased that he saw But Lane saw, though they were human the possibilities for everyone rather than enough in general appearance, something as a means of getting rich. "It is a similar had happened to their minds. flow of slowed particles which make the This became clearer as Eemeeshee aug- matter progressively into heavier and mented their thought within his telaug heavier elements by the same method by screens, watched their progress across the which nature produced them in the first continent, their murder of everyone of the place; the intake of tiny particles of energy old ray groups they had found; a steady until the atoms build up into heavier atoms progress of conquest by silent murder of —the original process of transmutation every intelligent bit of life they had found which has produced every element from its in the caves. Some of the people they had tiny tenuous beginnings in space is here killed had solved the cryptic puzzles of speeded up to utility by a concentration the ancient writing and were fast winning of the same basic material from which all for modern men the ancient writings of matter grows. The Elder race was not science which would have proved as valu- stupid, was it?" able in time to man as man could have "No, Saba, we must work very hard to developed in many thousands of years of retrieve some of this mighty science for perfect progress. For the ancient metal modern men." records contained scientific method which it had taken a vastly superior race eons CHAPTER VI of time to perfect. These murderous ignoramuses under Preparation for Battle their woman leader, Debar Da Sylva, had wiped out many such quiet studious people MONTHS passed swiftly. A business- in their uncomprehending grabbing for val- like activity, an atmosphere of in- ue, while the very murder by which they dustry, had replaced the lazy, secluded obtained gold and ancient stim mech wiped ways of the deserted hide-out of Eemeeshee. out knowledge worth infinitely more than Outside the big rock door in the cliff the gain. which gave entry to the underworld, the Both Eemeeshee and Lane had a pretty buildings of a mock gold mine gave them good understanding of what they were up a cover for their gold production by the against when the two captives died. Their machine for transmutation. Also a cover opposition was a gang of ruthless and for their recruiting activities. ignorant killers, who had for years been Down in the caverns several thousand trying completely to wipe out all intelli- men now had their homes; practiced, drilled gent life in the underworld so that the and studied steadily. They were swiftly whole mighty power of the underworld reaching a point of full preparation for would be in their hands alone. That, in Eemeeshee's planned conquest of the the process, they destroyed the whole caverns under Montana, and particularly future of men and set back progress those immediately under Butte. another few thousand years, did not matter The spider people, called in by the hun- to them. They had no understanding of dreds, had been treated with the beneficial any duty toward other men. That, in the energy flows from the ben-ray mech. Now, process, they had been destroying every their faces sharpened in intelligence by its surface man who knew of the antique world effects, they conducted scouting forces of wonder in the under-rock, did not matter northward. Under their clicking, know- to them; though many of these surface ing guidance, the caverns were mapped, people "who knew" were the world's best the roads carefully explored. medical research scientists and the be?Jth In the midst of this mapping work, Tch of millions of future men depended on Tch and his "men" captured two of the their work. They were too ignorant to 114 AMAZING STORIES understand it was not self interest to kill control upon the minds of the spider men, a doctor, that one's own health depends commanding them to kill these two bloody- on the health of medicine as a whole. minded captives. The gentle - natured They had succeeded in their intention spider men, without being able to help to wipe out all life in the sparsely inhabited themselves, closed their long-fingered hands caverns in the eastern states and had now about the necks of these two from the far progressed into the western caverns. Some European Hellpits—and their breath soon few thousand people, intent on wiping out stopped struggling to bring life to their all life in an area bigger than the surface bodies. Eemeeshee wanted the spider men of the world—and succeeding due to the to understand that all who lived bloodily potent destructive power and vast range as these men must die, and he wanted them of the Elder race's weapons. to learn how to kill. The spider men left That was a terrible, a strange, weird his presence wiser by a terrible intent to scene: the death of these two murderous wipe v>ut the Da Sylvas of the cavern creatures. Standing before Eemeeshee, his world. vast form writhing like a great pudding Lane looked down upon Eemeeshee's blue bag, his great face with its long, upturned, and gold and crystal nest of ancient techni- outlandish nose peering down into their cal wonder, the glory of its beauty marred mind pictures augmented in a dozen screens —or enhanced—by the contrast of the tall before him, and behind the two terrified weird spider men, dragging out the dead men the tall grey-white figures of the spider bodies of the two captives—and silently men, a dozen of them towering about the approved of Eemeeshee's resurgence of two men holding them there before Eemee- forgotten spirit. Had Lane been able fully shee's great crystal machine home. to analyze the craven fear which had made Eemeeshee's mind growing angrier and Eemeeshee do this deed, and deprive their angrier as he summed up their bloody at- Legion of much needed information in tempt to inherit the whole cavern world one savage and fearful impulse to destroy for themselves. Some million people, of an enemy, he would not have felt so ap- the diverse and rather wonderfully in- proving of Eemeeshee. That ancient and formed kind that one finds sparsely scat- complex brain was not a man's. Reading tered through the endless windings and those minds had given Eemeeshee a terrible tiers of the cavern world; men like Eemee- fear of this enemy that he must fight or shee who had lived in the machines for die. He would fight, yes, because he must. centuries; men like Tch Tch who had Lane turned to Saba, where she stood evolved into a separate form of life, but beside him watching the incongruity of whose clever fingers knew many a secret the ancient wonder work and the peculiar of the Elder science; people like Saba, who and ugly life that moved about the mighty coupled with natural intelligence had had beauty of Eemeeshee's chamber. a lifetime of study under some centuries- "These allies of ours are not pretty, but old creature like Eemeeshee to become they seem efficient." what man has always called the "sorceress" "Eemeeshee should have preserved those and worshipped; and the treasure hunters lives for future reference," was all Saba said, of the caverns—many, many of these they and Lane did not notice her preoccupation. had killed by slow torture, wresting from For Saba had noticed the craven fear in their unwilling minds all their hard won Eemeeshee and realized that all was not secrets of the places where the Elder well with the great, pink-and-white and stores were hidden. enormously ugly baby who was their leader. She inwardly resolved to keep an eye on THE steady and successful progress of future mental processes of that intricate this attempt to inherit the whole ancient and depraved brain that she served. Eemee- secret of the caves for one small group of shee was a coward, she realized. a few thousand slavish robot-minded war- Eemeeshee's plans moved forward, driven riors, and their half dozen leaders such as by the desperation of Eemeeshee's full the foremost, Deliar Da Sylva, dismayed realization that the enemy was determined and frightened Eemeeshee. But also gave to wipe out all the older intelligents of the him the courage of deperation. caverns, to have the whole cavern world Softly he pressed the stim button, lanced as their private possession. Such an im- down a generously pleasant ray of stim- mense concept of selfishness had never been THE RED LEGION 115 conceived by Eemeeshee. But he knew no matter how many variations the con- their project was possible with the Elder struction had built into the way. A good rays. thousand of these cars they had run out The day before their big push started of the abandoned arsenal storerooms. northward, Lane dispatched a large packet Under Eemeeshee's instructions, learned to of blueprints, plans and transcriptions run them—and gold and the Red Legion from the Elder writings to a certain famous had provided men to operate them, trained engineers club in California. His purpose the men for the past months in their was to leave in the hands of civilized men operation, in handling the titanic weapons a full account of the affair if disaster over- built into the ancient war vehicles. took their attempt to reclaim the northern "How can such portable weapons fight caverns for the red men. It would have the more massive fixed ray installations?" saddened him to have seen the secretary Lane had asked Eemeeshee. of that club open his package. "I will show you, for you must practice The "educated" secretary read the ex- the maneuver so as to be able to form and planatory letter carefully and consigned the strike simultaneously. See these markings whole packet of Elder wisdom to the waste- on this huge stationary dynamo? That basket as the work of a deluded madman. mark indicates the 'gens' or 'negs' of So many efforts of so many great men power the dynamo will generate. One have been lost through the inability of kind of dynamo generates the beneficial "educated" men to give credence to any 'gens' of energy, the other makes the wisdom outside their limited "education." 'negs' of detrimental weapon energy. The plans and blueprints would have given Some dynamos marked with 'erg' generate modern men the secrets of the beneficial a kind of mixture of both which has a force flows, as well as the transmutation multitude of uses, according to the nature apparatus and the other mechanisms he had of the mixture* The number of these been able to understand and have blue- units indicates the range of the ray, the prints drawn. But the "educated" secre- focus intensity being equal. This dial indi- tary of the famous engineers club "knew" cates the focus intensity of the beam, transmutation was "impossible." which you have already learned. Increas- This done, and his conscience free, his ing the width of the beam decreases the duty to the race of men fulfilled—he range, as you know. As this machine is thought—Lane bent his energies to making of Eemeeshee's war a success. He knew *Gen was an antique word meaning to create that all their lives depended on winning energy of a certain beneficial kind. Thus it had this struggle; for flight would save none been adopted as the word for the unit of flow of of them from the terrific range and sensi- beneficial energies from the dynamos designed to which tive detection of the Elder race machinery furnish the synthetic life-energy flows upon underworld life was based as is our civiliza- in the hands of murderers. the — tion upon the production of wheat. Thus "gen" was to their supply of life energy the word of advance! Those endless, vaulted THAT unit as volt is to electric flow. and into every halls extending on on Neg was the reverse word unit, meaning unit color, varying shifting translucent pearly of inverted destructive. De power. As volt is to pillared with rose and soft gleaming purples electric, so is neg to energy flows which "negate" and transparent gold—endless shimmering life. Note persistence of their word "neg" in our beauty. word "negate" to "neg" a "te" flow is to neutral- Along the parallel gigantic roads, made ize the life energies. unit of of another to carry the vast traffic of a world packed Erg is the word for power Between opposed natures of gen and with giant people of an energy and a kind. the neg electric lie many in-between kinds of energy titanic industry now lost to the mind of mixtures, as complex in nature as are compounds man (forever?); along those roads leading of molecular mixtures in chemistry to the ele- on and on into the mysterious beauties ment's relative simplicity. Mostly these are use- of wonder land, rolled the weaponed, a less, and an erg is the unit of measurement for ray-armored cars of the ancients. Rolled? these mixture-flows. It is a unit used to indicate Floated! For the cars were half-spheres, the degree of useless power mixed in their gen floating on antigravity devices. Automati- flows. Thus a current is 90 gen to ten erg; nearly cally they kept an unvarying height off pure life energy value in the creation of beneficial the floor, the same height from the ceiling, electric. —

116 AMAZING STORIES

marked "one hundred gens" and the dy- cars can travel at any speed the human namos within the anti-gravity cars are eye and nerve can control within the cav- marked one gen or one neg it will take a erns. They cannot be used outside the hundred of such cars to equal the power of caverns without adjustment, as they have one such great fixed dynamo. a device in their top that, like an electric "But the weapons within the cars are eye, watches the ceiling and shuts off the more finely built for fighting, more flexible anti-grav flow automatically, keeping the of focus and can achieve much the same car a certain distance from the roof. Taken effect by amassing some seventy-five of outside the cavern, this device would fail their beams in one path. This can only be to work, the car would shoot straight up, done by lining up the cars so that their unless the manual height control were un- beams strike through the same penetrative derstood and operated by hand. bore or guide ray, then their kinetic sum Their long lines of floating cars, parallel overcomes resistance of the same amount and beautiful in their perfection of ancient as the single beam of the giant dynamo. workmanship, was fronted by Saba and But there are only one or two such great Lane in a great vision ray-mech floated on dynamos in an arsenal. We can overcome anti-gravs. In the center of the lines was a stationary ray installation by lining up the great living machine of crystal and more 'negs' of power than they have in gleaming metal with Eemeeshee puffing their dynamos. Understand?" inside. And in the rear were four smaller "I follow you, Eemeeshee. It can be vision devices with Saba's women inside. done by careful work." Bringing up the rear was Stevens, inside "It can be done. There is this draw- the hugest hemi-sphere, a great single ray back: we cannot see so well with the small mech of longer range than any of the screens of these cars as with the larger smaller cars. The larger part of the car power augmentation screen. They can see was packed with small powerful dynamos, farther and better. But I have a way all powering a vast vision and firing beam of providing us with equal sight. We have in one compact unit. Eemeeshee had put the anti-gravs under some of the great assured Stevens that nothing portable could

vision screens, mounted the power units outreach it. Their only danger, until they to operate it on other anti-grav units, con- reached the location of the enemy under nected them together with flexible cables Butte, was from carelessness. If they and, behold, we have portable vision quite failed to see some scouting ray and allowed as good as their stationary vision. Because it to get too close to their ranks, they the anti-gravs float exactly level, it is quite would lose many men until the ray was put as satisfactory, for there is so little vibration out of action. in the anti-grav devices that even when in Swiftly, silently, the tremendous assem- motion we can see nearly as well as a bly of ancient power floated northward. solid and stationary device. We will ap- Here and there on the shimmering pearly proach this enemy, stop at the utmost range beauty of the pillared ways hung a dried we can see them, line up our weapon cars in human head, giving mute evidence of the exact simultaneous line of fire—and let warfare of the degenerate, savage peoples them have it." who had peopled these caverns nomadically. Eemeeshee was speaking with his ab- Or, a crucified mummy would hang from stract thought language which Lane had the great T symbol which the ancient Elder learned to interpret even more easily than race had placed occasionally along the English, as in fact, it is vastly a more ways, just as today we see now and then potent medium of communication than oral the Christian cross which has derived language. from the ancient symbolic use of the T. The savages who had roamed here and FOR the trip, Eemeeshee had squeezed perhaps fathered the present day spider- his huge body into a smaller life-ma- like "creeps," had left such evidences of chine equipped with anti-gravs. When the their warring, and the dry warm air of the central antigrav is tipped slightly, it acts underworld had preserved the flesh per- as a frictionless drive of great power. The fectly, just as it had preserved the ancient gravity devices on the perimeter of the machines and handiwork of the Elder race lower circle of the half-sphere are never no matter the eon of time that had passed. moved from their exact alignment. These Eemeeshee's vast portable living machine THE RED LEGION 117 was equipped with a mass of enigmatic those immortal Elder masters who would apparatus. What it was all for, in truth, never return to this death-laden planet. it is probable that even Eemeeshee did not Of the modern interlopers within these know. But he certainly knew how to use sacred halls, there was no sign. No breath most of it to advantage. of a ray trail, no slightest bristling ionizing of the dust layer betrayed with its stirring AS THEIR maps told them they were a watch ray. Not even a footprint upon nearing ray field range, Eemeeshee that dust, not one tread of the magnetic shot forth a great grey beam of power anti-grav beams upon the dust-layer left far ahead of the advancing columns of its tell-tale path before them. Apparently war mech, and the results were startling. no life had touched these endless tunnels Lane speculated, as he watched the effects, and God-built chambers since they were just what the power-beam might be. He abandoned so long ago. Yet their maps figured that the ray in some way altered told them that hereabout were the forces the inner polarity of the basic building who had taken over the caverns under blocks of matter—the electronic polarity— Montana. That hereabout must lie swift so that it was no longer transparent to and terrible destruction for them if unwary. the penetray beams. Slowly they crept forward, their watch For, far ahead of their advance, the rays sweeping, sweeping, and Eemeeshee's vision beams of penetrative ray had care- mysterious beam changing the polarity of fully revolved over the whole arc ahead, the rock ahead of them so that themselves seeking for any sign of opposition. Now, remained invisible to any penetray beam as Eemeeshee played his ultra powerful from the distance. Lane realized that this beam of grey light ahead through the rock, opacity yielded to their own beams because the rock turned slowly grey and opaque close to the source such a beam is vastly to their vision beams, and they were ad- more powerful than at its tenuous further vancing, instead of through apparent glass, end. He appreciated Eemeeshee's abilities, through natural looking grey rock tunnels. for this hiding of themselves within a field His purpose, evidently, was to keep the of opacity in the rock was in truth clever. opposition's penetrative rays from finding "I hope Eemeeshee has a few more tricks their position. That it also obscured their up his sleeve against these European ray. own means of sight troubled Lane. But God knows what they may use against us," the purpose of the ancient being in the great Lane murmured to Saba. She smiled re- crystal complexity floating weirdly in their assuringly. midst became clearer as Eemeeshee shut "The old one is really enjoying himself off the grey beam. Now, as they neared the for the first time in my life time. I would farther edge of the cloudlike greyness he not believe he could change so. You have had created within the rock, their own done him much good; I would pit his penetray beams became able to peer out ancient heritage of wisdom from the strange ahead—while themselves were invisible people who fathered him against any bunch within the opacity of the rock. Lane halted of modern murderers. These who set upon his floating car just within this area of your Red Legion and drove them out; we opacity, and waited, searching far ahead know more about them than you think. with his vision beam, watching his screen They have killed and tormented the with great care for the slightest sign of 'creeps'; some of the spider men had fled enemy preparation. westward to tell me of them. Also the For what seemed forty miles ahead the nomads have told me of them. We know ways led, parallel, empty of life—the alien what they are, and we know how they splendor of the construction glistening here fight. But behind them may be some old

and there where walls _ and vertical con- behemoth from the past who may not be struction had kept the usual blanket of such easy prey. Eemeeshee is not the only time's dust from forming. Even through old one in the caves." that pall of eons of slow precipitation of Cautiously the long columns of floating dust the lovely forms of the machine art cars crept ahead with the care of troops of the ancients showed, row on row, ar- penetrating a mine field. When death rangement on arrangement, chamber after comes from ray, it comes lancing swiftly chamber, tier on tier of vast, waiting per- out of unseeable distance, and the swiftest fection — waiting always for the feet of only is life left. To the first who sighted 118 AMAZING STORIES

the enemy, to them came the advantage; aped surface luxury, while waiting on them and they meant to be the first. were the Indians who had lived and ruled secretly here up to their advent. Lane CHAPTER VII knew they had not been here more than two years. Hugging the hope that their The Battle Is Joined short tenure had not given them time to get fully acquainted with all the resources XTOW, quite suddenly, they saw life and weapons of the intricately chambered J-^ ahead. Like a telescopic view of an tiers of caverns, Lane swung the nozzle of anthill, the distance making them so tiny, his dis-cannon* in line with his vision and the penetrative rays making all the rock penetray, prepared to fire when the others about the far off titan burrows like so were aligned to fire with him. much glass. They saw the city of the Stim rays bathed the great chambers intruders. where the white newcomers lolled, appar- This was what once had been the home ently engaged in a debauch. The Indians, of the lost tribe of Votan Indians; Indians clad in loin cloths or in grey linen jackets inheriting all the pride and culture of a and skirts which seemed to be a kind of race more advanced than the Mayan plus servant's uniform, bore drinks and food; the knowledge of science that centuries or stood stony faced, as door tenders; or of life in the wonder caverns of the Elder pushed mop and bucket along the endless race had given them. The ancient original corridors. beauty of the place was overhung with the For entertainment, one of the gaudier semi-barbaric trappings, the feathered females was crushing the eight-foot, stick- head-dresses, the blankets woven in bizarre like limbs of a "creep" inch by inch with and ancient symbolic patterns, woven by a hammer; two men held his piteously nimble fingered squaws here where all the soreaming form while she plied the ham- beauty of the Elder work inspired to mer and the rest looked on. Evidently this greater understanding of the nature of was great sport. Lane ground his teeth at beauty than ever surface red men rose to the needless, purely wanton cruelty. Lane acquire. Pelts of wolf and hides of deer, had much to learn of the nature of these the fleeces of sheep and the hides of bear people. decorated the ancient spring-metal couches In the great war-ray chamber near at and softened the polished stone to the foot. hand to the lolling sybarites who ruled the fingered Sprawled amid this semi-barbaric Indian place, were the stub ray ro.** splendor were some few hundred European Lane had learned from Saba that the aliens, clad in modern clothing, loud jackets ancients' word for the magnetism between and slacks gaudy silk dresses from surface ; sexes — between man and woman was shops. On the women, bare white shoulders — "ne." He had observed this animal mag- These dis-cannon are of several varied kinds. netism that binds all humanity together in Mostly they have a dial which controls atune- an electrical matrix, over the telaug beams ment, and fire over a penetrative conductive which augment all these subtle electrical "lead" as vision ray which conducts the destruc- flows into mental vision strength. He had tive bolt but is not itself harmful in any way. realized that "ne" was a most important The control dial alters the nature of the dis-bolt part of life, making it much more inter- so that it can be slowly changed through a long series of intensities, from mildly warm to harmful ** These are men found around any of the dero "de" to straight dis, which latter and worst will "bunches." Men who have been used by "make- melt a hole through the rock for many miles. ray" (ray control) to fire the more detrimental Usually such a cannon is used on the "de" set of the huge old rays; used in warfare until their which will knock out an animal at thirty miles, fingers rot off from X-ray infection; until their or kill if held there for a short time. This "de" minds cease to exist as anything but unnecessary is an detrimental ray used for many purposes, adjunct. They are often huge men, drafted into originally designed apparently for such purposes such service for their size and strength, and never as an insecticide—it can be set to sweep a great thereafter allowed any freedom. They wait in area with diffuse beams of mildly destructive their ray-chambers just as the great old mech- power, or concentrated into a stronger beam one anisms wait—until it is time for action. Then the shot of which upsets a man's mind into temporary "make-rays" reach in, seize their poor minds and insanity. direct them in the battle. •

THE RED LEGION 119

esting than it would be without. Now, T)UT Lane did not have much time for watching these newcomers to this part of speculative thought, for Eemeeshee the caverns, he realized that the character was swiftly preparing for action. The float- signs — the variant-natured "ne" charge ing hemi-spheres of smaller ray-cannon which each physical body exerts upon each cars were lining up, one behind the other, other physical body—were either missing under swiftly darting telaug beams bearing from their bodies, or so vague as hardly his thought to each driver. to register mentally even with the mighty Lane could not help dreading the first augmentation of the ancient power tubes. clash for he realized that their attack upon Instead there was present a repellance this huge citadel with their small rays was ("ne" is an attraction) which acted in an apparently foolhardy, and that none of exactly opposite manner to "ne." Instead them but Eemeeshee and possibly Saba of liking each other, admiring or respect- really could evaluate the situation in mili- ing their most capable and best looking tary terms. members, they hated each other, and this Somehow Lane could not feel a great deal hatred was in direct proportion to their of confidence in Eemeeshee after old ability and appearance. Secumne's analysis of him. Would his Lane realized that here was revealed the resurgence of interest in life remain or reason for their characters being cruel and would he suddenly sink again into the evil; the reason for their constant and sav- apathy and dream-making with which he age warring. had wasted so many years—how many Saba glanced at him as he observed this centuries, Lane wondered? startling difference, which was so obvious Saba hissed in almost inaudible tones. over the telaug beams with which they "Look at those 'courageous' animals who were observing the enemy. could fight their way through a group of "The Elder word for that is "de," she unarmed children, themselves unseen, and told him. "It makes the difference between with these terrible weapons from a distance human and destructive beast." wipe out the young humans—and often As Lane swung his telaug beam across have. Are they not wonderful, agh?" the ray-mutilated stalwarts waiting in Lane looked over her ray screen, and the war-ray chambers, he observed that sent his own beam along its invisible direc- this "de" was even more strongly present tion sensing its path with his telaug ear. among them. He guessed its presence was Soon he heard and saw the leaders of this due to the effects of the destructive rays invasion. created by the great ray-cannon, ' effects "Mrs.. Da Sylva, may I get a drink?" which destroyed the "ne" generative inner A young and pretty slave girl stood in life of the cells leaving an animal whose her worn rags near the door, evidently she life could hardly be a life thereafter, since could not leave her position except by even the love he bore a woman turned to permission. hate in his breast. He observed that only The woman's answer, "Later!" told Lane habits of discipline kept these great, dull- enough; the girl had to remain standing eyed men from throwing themselves upon there thirsty. He knew automatically she each other in a struggle to the death. would not get her drink till her duty An explanation of the real cause of men's period ended. He swung his ray a trifle to terrible and constantly recurring wars was take in this Da Sylva. here presented to Lane's eyes. But Lane About her incredibly huge waist strained saw no solution to it at first glance, other a glittering girdle of fine metal work. In than shielding all men from such natural the girdle was caught many shining loops occurring rays by some kind of dielectric of dark transparent satin that Lane realized sheathing for their cities which would keep had never been woven by modern hands or out such "de" generating rays. machines; it was too beautiful material. Through the beautiful stuff her heavy For a picture of what the underworld has thighs, hips, always been to surface men, read "The Silver the great gleamed grossly. Nail" by Carmen Sylva (the Queen of Roumania) The barrel of her body projected starkly and Alma Strettell. There are several pertinent nude above the girdle, burly and strong as tales in her important book—"Legends from River a man, and two strips of gleaming black And Mountain." mesh broadened over her terrific breasts— 120 AMAZING STORIES

N broadening over the gross lushness like the "That's what these lazy b— need, a great buds of two horribly fecund flowers. dose of pain to tell them they are not any- Something of the ugly attraction of death thing but dogs to us. They will learn to was in her. She exuded a passion of work!" cruelty. Lean-ribbed from poor food and pale The great strong rounds of her shoulders from the underworld lack of sun, the work- were shining naked. This stark, gross men labored on, nor looked up at the parody of womanhood stood there, too screams and commotion of the one pun- vividly outlined by the mellow, age-old ished. They wore regular blue denim, beauty of the Elder chamber, and the ragged and soiled, in their miner's caps medusa coils of her black hair framed a the regular miner's lamp hung. It was face of heavy, almost masculine beauty. some ancient boring now being worked The sensuous, too-full lips, an aquiline again, and by the looks it was gold, and nose—she looked the female pirate to per- very rich. fection. It was a white quartz vein, heavily shot In Lane's mind her wide red mouth, with the yellow stuff. The vein was all of those dark horrible depths of her eyes, twelve feet wide. The men worked in a the black magic of her cruePface was heavy silence. Fear rode them was ap- printed in bitter ink forever. parent. Her words were directed to a milder Behind Lane, Eemeeshee's preparatory edition of herself, seated nearby and peer- tactical rearrangement seemed about fin- ing intently at something taking place in ished. As his ray swept up to them, Saba the distance which she was watching over pointed out Da Sylva's central chamber, the old ray screen. where the power of this place seemed to "I married him, the tout, and he took have its home. Eemeeshee took a good me to the caves." look, and Lane could hear his "Hah!" of "I guess you soon turned the tables on disgust and a kind of solemn glee in him him, eh, Deliar?" at the set-up. Lane knew he was thinking, "Precious right I did. I soon had the "This is going to be a cinch." Lane hoped big-shot wound around my finger, and it he was right. wasn't long till he died and left me in Suddenly from two miles overhead a charge. We have come a long way since cream-colored ray shot down through the then, haven't we, Miro?" blackness, and the "ulegra" (Elder word "We have managed to abolish these red for electric) flowed over the ray, into the dupes' ideas of freedom, and made a paying war-ray chambers where the rows of great- machine out of their labor, and their mines. bodied, dull-faced fighting ro waited, ani- We have overcome the best and oldest of mating them for the emergency that the the dreaded Eastern rays; the goody, watch ray far overhead had sensed, having goody things that they were! And now observed the grey opacity with which this rich western area lies open to us." Eemeeshee had surrounded his columns. "When we get this area lined up to pro- In seconds the grey cloud around them duction, we will move southward. I have was shot through with the flaming dis- heard of some great stores of the Elder beams from the great war-ray mech. They treasures under California." weren't connecting, for Eemeeshee had caused a great area of the rock to become STANDING behind Miro, the Da Sylva opaque, but they were searching out the woman watched her, then said: area with a systematic thoroughness that "Give that loafing workman a little left no room for doubt that they would 'sinus' through the soles of his feet; he score a hit soon or late. has been laying down on the job." Eemeeshee's great unturned caricature Manipulating a pain ray through the of a nose, lumpy and grotesque, flamed beet screen before her, Miro laid the man upon red with excitement. His vast, pillow- the mine's floor with pain, he lay there soft white body quivered like a grub on a writhing and shrieking with the sudden fish-hook as he waved both hands at the attack. As the pain ceased, he got up watching rays of his columns of ray-spheres and seized his shovel, began to labor with to fire and keep firing. His excited thought a great show of industry. What else could struck fear into Lane, for he was too much he do? like some womanish officers he had seen, THE RED LEGION 121 who lose all self control in emergency. shee lay, his great lips curved in the sens- But the columns of Indian-manned ray- ual, childish expression of pleasure which cars began to pull the steady-fire studs on was habitual to him and to all who are their instrument panels, and their thousand slaves to the dream-mech habit. Lane rays were soon lashing out in perfect, irre- guessed he was living over some of tie sistible alignment toward the huge war-ray dreams of infinite pleasure which had chamber where the great mutilated bodies wasted his centuries old life. of the ro-ray men moved machine-like The lithe Indian girl clawed her way above the great cannon, sweeping the vast into the complexities of the interior, hurled and deadly nozzles directing dis-flow rays her soft lovely body in unaccustomed in searching patterns through the opaque violent exertion toward the controls of cloud that was Eemeeshee's position. that vast ancient machine of Eemeeshee's Almost to the source of those flaming where must lie their only salvation, if beams our own beams reached, but not there were any for them. Even as she quite. Something was wrong, Eemeeshee's sought for the way into Eemeeshee's air- beams were not reaching, not striking down tight living chamber, the master beam of those dull-faced robots. Saba added her the war-ray from the enemy's robotic hu- own huge ray to the multiple beam, 'and mans found the tail end of their column, the glowing transparent path of the ray began to blot from existence the crystal moved within a few short feet of the vast bubbles, which broke and melted under mechanisms that were blasting at them the mighty power of destruction as if in with the terrible energies created by that truth but bubbles of nothingness. forgotten race. Now down from that female leader Da CHAPTER VIII Sylva's luxurious chamber a ray reached in upon those laboring robots, searching Desperate Charge their minds for their almost non-existent thoughts as she looked for a way to reach DELIAR DA SYLVA turned to her the attackers within their impenetrable companion. opacity. A premonition of failure, a feel- "There goes another danger—up in ing that if they were going to win this smoke. So will they all. I am curious fray and live through it they had better as to just who and what that column of do something in a hurry. Lane shot a mech is, anyway. I had not thought an- telaug ray back at Eemeeshee, but the old other power like our own in strength existed loafer was slumped in a dead faint! Ex- in all the western caverns." citement had proved too much for him! Miro smiled in relief at her mistress. Lane looked at Saba. Her flushed, wor- Then she turned back to watch the terrible ried face told him she had seen what had power of the flaming dis-ray eating stead- happened to their champion from the past. ily at the long, now revealed column of In spite of himself Lane had to grin at the ray-cars. She clenched and unclenched big booby fainting on them. her long-fingered, red-nailed hands until Nearer and nearer the searching, criss- blood streamed from the palms. It had crossing dis-rays reached toward their col- been a close thing and they both knew it. umns. Lane knew it was a matter of sec- "Tonight we will have our fill of killing, onds before they found the Red Legion the survivors will certainly enjoy them- with death. To make matters worse, the selves while they learn who it was they terrific power the their dis-rays was turn- attacked." ing the opaque rock back to normally trans- "When.you've sated your pleasure, may I parent polarity, the penetrays guiding the then kill some of them my own way?" beams made the searched parts of the asked Miro, her gross face owl-hungry, her great cloud in the rock as clear as glass. fleshy lips curling back over her teeth This made it much easier for the dull- redly, a slight drool on her chin. minded robots to keep their systematic The great dis-ray which had been rub- search pattern. bing out the floating cars, completely Saba swung open the disc of the door, destroying the occupants, was now changed leaped out into the great tunnel, raced by Da Sylva's order to a concussive vibra- backward to the huge crystalline floating tory ray which merely laid out the occu- structure in which the unconscious Eemee- pants unconscious. She wanted her meat 122 AMAZING STORIES alive for the "fun" to follow. Swiftly the vibratory ray sat at their ray-mech switch- rays swept over the endlessly long columns. panels like frozen men, staring straight j|( ){e ijc ahead, or slumped in retching paralysis from the effects of other beams. " \ DVANCE," screamed Saba over the Now, seeing the mighty mass of ray still great telemach with which Eemeeshee searching for them, the Da Sylva ray-ro, had maintained contact with the columns. stationed far above her chambers* in des- It was their only salvation to pull forward peration gave up their silence and dark- those few feet needed for their beams to ness which had protected from this sudden reach that center of the vast machines assault and staked their chances on a sud- where sourced the beams destroying them. den lashing attack with their long distance As one man, the Indians, spurred to ray-needles. (These are very thin pencils quick obedience by Saba's shriek, swung of ray whose very narrowness makes the forward the levers of the anti-grav gener- power needed to activate them much less, ators and the remaining few hundreds of and the "carry" of the ray is much farther.) ray-cars swept forward, down upon the These fiery needles of death reaching flaming source of the death. Now their down at them from a half dozen points in beams, weakened to less than effective the darkness overhead, began to pick off strength, reached the chamber, but failed the red men one by one, the fiery needles to stop the living, mutilated gargoyles searching swiftly through their bodies till within the chamber from their ray-driven a fatal spot was found. (The pain of such robot work. On and on they plunged to- a death is excruciating, for the needles ward the death-dealing master-ray, and are not fatal unless they pierce the heart swiftly the great vibratory beams lashed or cut the spinal column at the base of at them. the brain.) Steadily these needles lanced Saba now pressed all the studs she knew through their flesh, searching inexorably anything about on the great organ-like for their heart strings; while Saba with keyboard of Eemeeshee's weapon car, and Eemeeshee's master mech ray searched the the beams reached out toward the war-ray miles of darkness overhead for the source chamber where the ray-ro toiled like mad- of the needles. dened devils swinging the great controls One by one, under the fierce-eyed, sweat- of the master mech—for they were built ing girl's swift desperate hands, the far, for men three times the modern height. fiery lances of death ceased to plague them, Saba downed the "ro" at the great lever and at last the whole area before their of the master-beam, one by one they fell as advance fell silent and dark. she flung back her hair from her flaming face and strained every muscle at the great *In the ancient war-ray arrangement of ray machine's levers. Clumsily the huge beam chambers, the ray-mech are grouped about a swept about the chamber, striking the central master ray in concentric rings of eight or laboring ro more by chance than by skill. ten tiers of levels, making a hundred to two- The whole smoking and scream-filled hundred ray chambers disposed in a cylindrical the master ray at the center. Modern chamber fell into near darkness as the shape with caverns usually man but some big human robots dropped in death and dwellers in the half-dozen of these ancient chambers, and are able their weight, dropped releasingly from the to use but two or three percent of the mech- levers, let the great, whining dynamos slow anisms installed in the vast chambers. But to into an idling hum. search the intricacies of the great old defensive Saba started her search of the whole setup took time. area for the other war-ray posts which she knew must be manned; must be readying In the story "Masked World," I described the use of a teleport for purposes of attaining im- themselves for attack. mortality. I want to tell you this use of the Following her lead, the red men at the teleport is purely invention. To my knowledge smaller ray controls sent their beams lanc- the teleport leaves nothing behind, is not safe for ing out in a terrific criss-cross of searching transportation of life any distance—though it rays—for there were several hundred of might be so in capable hands. Most teleporta- them still in untouched condition. All tions of humans result in amnesia or total in- about lay their comrades, some charred sanity. Will try to label in stories which uses and still-smoking corpses, others in a trance of antique mech are correct \ and which are like death from the concussion of the invention.—R.S.S. THE RED LEGION 123

Now again Saba called into the augment The Elder race must have had some mech her command, "Advance!" and again stimulus from nature or from their own the levers plunged forward, their cars lifted wisdom that the past of such as Eemeeshee slightly and slid forward faster, faster, into did not have in their life. Else they would the heart of the web of caverns where not have been the Elder race; they would laired that evil acquisitiveness, that cruel, have been such as Eemeeshee, and they fleshy female thing Lane had seen for short would never have produced the mech that moments before the attack began. had made life so easy for Eemeeshee, and there would have been no Eemeeshe, and AS THEY slid silently forward in the no necessity for struggling against the more darkness Lane was thinking of a news- evil groups of the caverns. paper item he had seen a month before of a treasure of two billion dollars of bullion CHAPTER IX hidden by the Japanese in the waters of Tokyo bay. He connected their victory, Victory for the Red Legion inexperienced and inept as it had been, THEY advanced, fire from the re- with this item in the papers. For if ray AS personnel and information and power was maining outposts kept harrassing them. as all-embracing and wonderfully powerful .Not hitting much, but dangerously close, and intelligent as some devotees of the firing blindly as they were through Eemee- secret rays say (and believe) he knew shee's opacity ray making the rock imper- that two billion would not have lain there vious to the penetray vibrants. Slowly, all that time it did. Too, if such as this steadily, they found the source of those Da Sylva had been doing her duty by the rays and wiped them out with flashing allies, instead of plundering along under- blasts of flaming energy through the re- ground, she could have been in Japan; her sisting rock. rays would have seen this information of They could hear Da Sylva screaming the two billion dollars bullion sunk in the thought-orders, her thought-voice like a harbor, and she would have acquired the banshee's anger in her desperation. It was money, for no one but the Japs knew it a good feeling to hear that cruel voice was there for months. He wondered how facing death. It was good to know she was many proud and lazy ray were cursing not relishing the last pangs of some long- their timid failure to invade Japan with tortured "creep" or slave human worker the surface soldiers, when they read this of hers. item of missed loot in the papers. At last she, too, fell unconscious under But then, it might have been some loyal a bolt from Saba's ray, and the far outposts young fighter like Saba who had uncovered fell silent. They could hear over the the stuff for the Yank soldiers. And it telaug beams their frantic thoughts as they might have been their absence from the scrambled into the gravity defying hemi- home caverns that laid the ancient place spheres and shot away along the great open to such as Da Sylva, their absence cavern roads. Half their forces set out in fighting on the front; unseen, unknown, pursuit, the other half made sure there unheralded—but fighting with the vast an- were no traps, and took over Da Sylva's cient mystery mech for their country which central chamber and her own garishly re- did not even know they existed. It was vulsive self. hard to reconcile their activities, if that Eemeeshee looked long and ponderingly was true, with their continued deprivation upon Deliar Da Sylva's sleek, yet gross of such medically valuable information and revolting body. Her fate, what should from suffering people the world over. This it be, what could he do to punish her, as ancient secret, this time-forgotten monop- Eemeeshee's enemies were supposed to be oly, why did it go on? Lane looked back punished of old time? at Eemeeshee, snoring peacefully in his The others under Saba's swift thought- dream, and knew why. voice supervision took over the controls of Because those time-pampered, God-mech the central master rays and swept the whole raised creatures who should have been like cavern labyrinth with a vast crisscross of Gods; worshipped pleasure—were raised seeking rays to make quite sure that the never to make an effort by the ancient all- fight was really over and no man lying out providing living machines. in the dark for one overturning treacherous 124 AMAZING STORIES

sweep of deadly ray when all their "shorter" awakening to a victory he had failed to con- ray fans were off and they were unsus- tribute much to winning, suddenly went a pecting. beet red again, his great arms began to Lane had time for one long sigh of relief, quiver, his lips to drool and tremble. Even realizing that the fear that had plagued and Lane could see through the common ray killed his Red Legion was now gone. But trick, but the mighty Eemeeshee—no, he why, why had Da Sylva sent killers on had to believe everything he heard. Some the trail of the Legion? Lane resolved to fleeing enemy had decided to make one find out! more try at besting them—had flung an Lane sent his own telaug beam from his unobserved telaug beam into the chambers floating car upon Da Sylva's now half- of Da Sylva and had carefully searched conscious head. As that awful sub-con- Eemeeshee's mind for his one greatest fear. scious thought was augmented into over- Finding this fear in his memories of some whemingly loud impulses within his mind feared enemy of the past, he had imitated a terrible revulsion at even hearing what the nature of this Mexitili—the voice at she thought took place. It was like read- first—and now into the chamber came a ing Satan's mind, if Satan was a woman. great solidograph projection of the figure The things she had done, the terrible of this fake "Mexitli". Even Lane under- ideas that showed now to Lane as great stood the nature of the ruse. This new images of reality of the past, were filtered enemy had seen the image in Eemeeshee's and changed by time, but augmented by thought, had caught the thing with the the telaug into reality again. The scenes antique thought recorder attachment, was of her past fascinated him as a bird is now reprojecting the image from Eemee- fascinated by a snake, for Lane did not shee's own mind. But not Eemeeshee—oh know that the telaug cannot be used at no. If some one said something, he had to

too great strength for long periods with- believe it. out hypnosis, or he had forgotten Saba's Lane understood now why Secumne had warning in his first shocked mental immer- been so discouraged with the character of sion into evil female thought now taking these creatures of Eemeeshee's kind. His place within his own mind more strongly great face purple with fear and upset cir- than his own pale unaugmented thought. culation, his trembling hands sought the It was strange to feel oneself a woman, an great control levers of his crystal mechan- evil, passionate, lusting, cruel and bloody ism. The anti-gravs lifted it, slowly at first, woman with a past that Bluebeard would then rapidly, the great shining machine have envied. Strange and fascinating, for floated off down the corridor, swung into the joy of her mind in her past was relived the wide ways toward the south. Deaf to by Da Sylva as she realized she had not all their shouted entreaties over their rays long to live. Thankfully came her thought. as they watched this craven flight of their "Anyway, I got mine while the getting leader from a mere voice and projection, was good!" Emeeshee's great floating temple of for- gotten machinery began to speed away from SUDDENLY into that garishly distorted them, was soon lost to their following beauty where the handiwork of this search rays. Da Sylva bunch had managed to alloy Meanwhile Saba, taking it all in with a the original ancient beauty and the bar- half smile of sad understanding on her face, baric Indian additions of a different kind swung the huge rays from the war-ray of charm with an overlay of modern gaudi- chamber of Da Sylva's where she had re- ness; into that scene of victory and ven- mained with four stalwarts of the Legion to geance came a mighty voice over a green insure that the great old mech were prop- beam of terrific power. erly manned. Swung them searching the "Eemeeshee, I am Mexitli. You have distance for the origin of this fake voice brought war to people under my protection. and picture which had cost them their I must kill you, Eemeeshee, even though leader. Swung them, and, with gathering you are of the old race. I cannot allow this doubt and indecision on her face, failed to insult. find the source. Eemeeshee, whose beet-red apoplectic Something that Eemeeshee was thinking face had resumed its normal pallor through as he fled puzzled Lane. his unconscious fit and his subsequent "Mexitli is a messenger from Apollo. —

THE RED LESION 125

Mexitli is an Apollo." Indians, die! You are not men. Your "Just what did Eemeeshee mean by men- leader flees. You are shameless cowards. tioning Apollo? Just what did Eemeeshee Flee! Flee!" mean by mentioning the name Apollo? Even as Lane absorbed the abstract mes- How could he know anything about a God sage and made it into words in his mind, moderns think Greek?" Saba turned to a long streamer wrapped around Stevens Lane, saying, from head to foot. He dropped to the floor, "I will show you our Apollo records writhing and shrieking in agony. Lane from the past. Apollo was a God known leaped forward, seized Stevens' shoulders, all over earth when he was here, and he is dragged him back from the pale, painful well known to Eemeeshee from his dream fire of the rays. life—which is made up of records, is in They had not bothered to bind or im- truth a reliving of the ancient God life. prison the woman Da Sylva or her com- That is why he is so frightened. The com- panion, and in the chamber with Lane ing of Mexitli is to him a sign of Apollo's were only Saba, Stevens and two or three anger. He would not be frightened, but of the Red Legion. They had depended long immersion in the record dream life has on the many ray beams from the ray cham- made him unable to think of such things bers they had occupied on holding such as in the past. To him they are very much captives. For it is impossible for a person today, and he is frightened of Mexitli who to run away from a ray; its vast range was a very vengeful follower of Apollo. makes the attempt somewhat like that of an Sometime I will show you records of that ant trying to run away from a tidal wave. time when Apollo was on earth." It just can't be done. "All that is not much help to us. We are But with Eemeeshee fleeing in the dis- now in grave danger without Eemeeshee's tance, and most of the ray mech engaged help to us. Whoever is doing the faking in hunting for the source of the -Mexitli that scared Eemeeshee off must have some projection, Da Sylva heaved her heavy idea of following up the fake with an attack. body into one of the empty half-spheres, We've got to find him first." followed by Miro, and made the attempt "We shall." Saba was grim, and her anyway. They did not notice her till women hastened about on her thought she was some distance down the long cor- orders, too fast for Lane to hear or under- ridor leading to the ancient highway toward stand what she was telling them. the north. Lane sprang to the stationary ray instal- NOW, from the projection of the terrible lation in the big chamber and sent Da figure of Mexitli, a tall black-feath- Sylva's own ray after her, flashed a bolt ered giant of horrific aspect, his mouth a into the drive mech of the car, stopped it, great, fanged cavern in his painted face, his smoking, dead, about a mile down the cor- hands holding strange instruments—from ridor. Other than that, they found no this grotesque figure from the far past of time to bother with the two women, left the Amerind domination of cavern life them trudging on foot toward the highway. came streamers of pale fire out upon them. They would have time later to pick them Stronger and stronger grew these pale up. Meanwhile this new menace had to be streamers of fire, and pain and heat began dealt with. to drive them back from proximity to the Da Sylva found another abandoned great and growing, solid-seeming appari- grav-car and made good her escape—thanks tion. to the confusion. They were to pay for Saba shouted to Lane. their carelessness with this she-scorpion. "Do not fear or flee. If he could kill with the mech he has activated he would do so. SABA at last traced the tenuous projec- He may cause pain and discomfort, but I tion beam to its source. Lane, watch- doubt he can kill—or he would." ing, was puzzled to find several ragged, Again that terrible voice from the past dirty workmen in a, great ray chamber, flung its weird thought-pictures at us from manipulating the telesolidograph expertly. the apparition, saying: Saba sent a telaug beam into the chamber "One every day. Now it will be one asking, every minute, till you flee again as before. "Who are you?" I am not what you think. Die, dogs of In their minds the answer "Votan war- ,

126 AMAZING STORIES riors" flashed inadvertently and Saba sweep of the northern highways. Compre- shouted in sudden glad understanding. hension came swiftly to Saba, and she woke These were some of the original Indian peo- all the sleeping men, swiftly told them to ple who had held these caverns before the prepare to flee from their hard-won vic- advent of Da Sylva; had not known of the tory. Lane standing now beside Saba, retiring Eemeeshee far to the north; did seeking a way to understand what was hap- not recognize the men of the Red Legion pening, heard her mutter: as allies. Able to kill, they yet were thank- "The teleports— she left one in these ful to the Red Legion for driving out Da caverns set to receive, made her way north- Sylva and freeing them, but at the same ward during the distraction of the Votan time they saw an opportunity to wrest from attack, and now, as we sleep, has placed this struggle their old supremacy and had some ancient gas from the storerooms of sent the projection of Mexitli into the the Elder race into the sending chamber of chamber to frighten off Eemeeshee. some abandoned teleport in the northern Their cunning analysis of Eemeeshee's ways, sending into our area vast quantities nature and the effectiveness of their bug- of the ancient gas. Luckily it does not seem ." a-boo in accomplishing their object were very deadly . . interesting to us, but Saba explained that Lane answered her unconscious speech. we had come only to set them free; had "The gas is cyanogen chloride. It is no designs on their possessions or homes. deadly enough if it gets dense enough, and

Soon they joined Saba in Da Sylva 's cen- in these close quarters it is insupportable. tral chamber and helped to enlist the others Can you not blow it back upon them in of the surviving Votan who were found some way? Are there no air pumps, noth- fleeing their bondage in all directions, now ing to rid ourselves of the gas? What are that their cruel guards had gone. you saying of teleports? I do not under- ." That night found the whole system of stand . . caverns under this area of Montana under "There is no time. If we had time, we our domination, and the slow swinging could set men at getting the ancient pumps watch-rays covering every great old tun- in running order to clear the air, but with nel road from the north and east; others the gas rolling down upon us, all I see is watching too the other highways in case flee while there is time. As the gas dis- danger came from some of the Da Sylva sipates, we can return to these caverns as outfit who might have circled to attack quickly as Da Sylva. She must think us again from some unexpected direction. But fools to think that we will not." all seemed quiet, and it was a triumphant Red Legion and a rejoicing band of Votan OVER her telaug, swiftly flashing from ex-slaves who bedded down that night in group to group to group of our men, those magnificent old chambers. Da Sylva Saba gave the order to evacuate immedi- had made good her escape, and they ately. thought no more of her. But should have, That retreat, heartsick at their losses, for Da Sylva was not through. In the plagued by the pursuing demoniacs under middle of the night a choking sensation Da Sylva's raging thought-voice control waked Saba, her eyes in the darkness un- whipping them to suicidal efforts to reach naturally sensitized by some fear, saw, as them with their equally ranged weapons, only Saba could see in such darkness by made their efforts to protect their rear some sixth sense, the clouds of strange costly. Steadily the Red Legion paid for choking gas flooding the chambers, billow- their temerity in attacking Da Sylva—with ing down the corridors. She leaped to the their blood. Continually the fleshy, venge- great vision screen and sent the central ful witch sacrificed mindless ro after ro to master ray of the great fortification circling get within range, shoving a mass of speeding in search of this strange threat. floating spheres ahead here while over there It was true. Billowing down the corri- in adjacent parallel corridors, overhead, or dors from the north came a strange gas, deep underneath, sped forward single ray- and choking and gasping, fleeing before the cars in an enedavor to distract their watch- rolling billows of death, came the hundreds ray from one or the other long enough to of Votans who had bedded in the northern get in a shot. chambers; came also the men set to watch Da Sylva's numbers, steadily augmented the northern guard rays in their automatic by her now returning men, speeding up THE RED LEGION 127 from the far-flung frontiers of her holdings their own master ray chambers. These great to take their place in the battle line, were beams, which they knew would cover some now equal to their own. And their inexpe- fifty miles of their route at full extension, rience proved no match for the mindless ro, constituted a place to run to very definitely. who under control from the many control As they neared these caverns which were beams from the cars of Da Sylva's hench- familiar, near to Eemeeshee's home, Lane men, were each as capable in handling the sent his telaug beam far ahead, kept scream- ray as the veterans controlling their ing a warning to these few remaining stay- thought. at-homes, who were their last resort now. Steadily their losses grew, car by car they Their children, their women, their homes, fell into smouldering wreckage, faster and and this home-guard ray, were their last faster the panic stricken Red Men fled hope. As he flashed past an outpost of this before them. small force—one John Flannery, a half- Silently Lane cursed the non-existent breed Indian of Irish parentage—Lane spine of the great old bag of wind, Eemee- shouted at him, where he crouched over the shee. ancient mech. "Breath-Master" indeed! He must have "Give them the works, John, in the gotten that name from bragging of exploits fourth passage." he was too timid to have done, or from his There were four main highways from the short-winded and continual puffing over the north, their flight and attempts at evasion augmented telaug beams, heard by the had taken them into the third of these, Indians of the surface long ago, rather than while Da Sylva had continued with her from any mastery of the winds of fate and main force down the fourth, which in the the heavens as he had supposed. end reached the same goal. Lane had often Death flamed after them from near a speculated on the "age" of this fourth thousand lances of the red-flaming dis- passage, which seemed of different and older needles, and ever and again one of his loyal construction than the other three; was per- Red Legion shrieked as the needles sought haps the first of the many great borings through his body for a fatal spot. On they made by the elder race in this area. fled, the levers setting the anti-grav beams Flannery, big red-haired and high-cheek- into the forward-driving slant in the last boned, his blue eyes flashing a reassuring notch. Nothing but the auto-ray eyes con- message to John as he flashed past, began trolled them from plunging into the curves at once to fire upon the Da Sylva cars. of the cavern ways. The silent, gleaming His great old stationary mech gave off a ray dust-laden beauty of the mighty, earth of vastly greater potential of destruction crust supporting pillars of the hardened than their own portable weapons, and his rock of the Elder's creation fled past them solid, unshifting base of rock made his fire in terrible rushing rows, the eye could not more accurate. Lane shot on down the follow the whirling march of the pillared, great tube of rock toward the central ray time-heavy vastness past into the dark. chambers to make sure the force there was Steadily Lane searched the backward made aware of the turn of events. trail with his beam at full extension focus, But there was no need. They had been firing, firing, and at every blast some car watching, holding their fire until a sure kill of Da Sylva's flamed into hurtling fiery was in order; and at Flannery 's attack death, left a smoudering, crushing wreck upon Da Sylva, the vast old central mech against the cavern wall. Lane thought, began to flame with power, over their heads each car he destroyed, what a surface engi- into the far ways flashed the mighty shafts neering corporation would pay for just one of death, and within minutes Da Sylva and of the gadgets with which those cars were all her gang were things of the past, smoul- crammed—and he had to destroy the inval- dering piles of debris upon the forgotten uable ancient work to live on, to save any- floors of the Titans' highways. thing for future man. He must live. This destroying nemesis behind them must die. SABA, taking no chances, ordered at once But they had one ace in the hole which a return to the Votan caverns. Re- Lane was counting on Da Sylva having duced to a fourth of their original number failed to note. Before leaving their own by the reverses they had suffered, they were area, Lane and Saba had posted some thirty not happy as they returned toward Mon- men and the remainder of the women in tana's under-rock. 128 AMAZING STORIES

Again at the work of making the former least pillar of the coming new order in the nest of Da Sylva a place safe for themselves, underworld. As time goes on, and you Lane called a meeting of all of the surviv- understand that the ancient ways of vege- ing warriors. They stood before him, tating and doing nothing here in these weary, disheartened at their terrible losses; wonder caverns but enjoy the pleasure mech behind them the ranks of the Votan, ragged, of the Gods and sneer at the poor surface starved wrecks of men; and in their faces people, are gone; that the modern red man the knowledge that they expected of these has a greater duty to man on earth and newcomers only a return to life and perhaps the will to perform that duty. Then you freedom. will find yourselves glad to be part of the Lane realized he had to put heart and new Red Legion, a Red Legion using all hope into these men. He knew the Votans the mighty science of the Gods for building understood English from their long watch- a new way of life for all men. ing of the growing civilization over their heads on the surface; knew, too, that he AFTERWORD must not let them return to their old ways of repressive hiding and non-development THE REST OF this story the future of that had made them easy conquest for Da the world will have to tell. The red men Sylva's gang. of America are active in the caverns, some- From these few hundred grim-faced times ignorant, sometimes backward and weary men, Lane knew he had to build an too worshipful of the age-old secrecy, but organization that would ever after make also containing modern men of education the wisdom of the caverns safe for future and the modern aims of all scientific men men. He lifted both hands in Indian everywhere. Even the "creeps" and those fashion: people even more changed by the caverns "Men of the Red Race, this struggle than the creeps, the spider men of the seems now to have cost too much. We western caverns, are not to be despised be- have paid too highly for what we have cause of their knowledge of the wonder won. But that is not true. Nowhere on world under the rocks of Mother Earth. this dark earth does a band of men exist They will find a way to be useful as civiliza- who have won more for their fellow men tion comes more and more swiftly to the with their battle. Nowhere have the dead ancient savage ways of the backward life paid with their lives for more than we have of the underworld. won this day. The Indians of the underworld are a The Red Race has won here an oppor- factor in the coming struggle for power over tunity to again become a great world power. Earth, and they have a knowledge of the Here in this den of lust, here in these for- ancient secrets. They have in some areas gotten and disregarded caverns, we have complete possession of and domination of paid with our blood for a glorious future those mighty mechanisms of the Elder race. for all men. We shall bring modern science Such battles as the one portrayed are taking into these caverns, studying the ancient place in the west today between the white science and bringing to us all the value of ray and the red; between modern ray the wisdom of the glorious race. If we people and those who cling to the ancient remain as one striving toward a greater tradition of secrecy and suppression of all and more intelligent organization of red surface peoples. It seems natural to assume men everywhere, these ancient machines that the red men are on the side of progress, and rays, coupled with modern science, on the side of surface sanity in promoting will give the red man such power and study and use of the ancient Elder race prestige as has not been his since the first wisdom for surface men. Spaniard drew sword in Mexico." For those who seek more knowledge of The Votan Indians, listening and realiz- the Elder world I can tell you the red men ing that here was a man and a leader dif- know much of it from their legends and ferent in aims from any they had known, from such secret groups as the Red Legion, gave forth with a shout of approbation. the Black Legion and others. Whether Lane continued, glad to see in their faces a they will tell you about it is another thing. shining hope that had not been there before. The history of the Red Men in the cav- "You Votans, here in your former homes erns is a fascinating thing. For the next as our allies and friends, will be not the story I am going to select a figure you all THE RED LEGION 129

think you know, but do you? Apollo. You to be about Apollo; and it's plenty differ- know all about him. You are wrong. ent from what the school books tell you of Apollo was a man who came from space, this "period. They all admit they don't and he came to the American continent in know much about it, don't they. Well, we the days when dinosaurs and similar don't make that mistake. Our guess as to gigantics made life hazardous for the red what happened is plenty close—corrobora- men. He came for the express purpose tions prove. of eliminating the serpent race from earth Apollo is a mighty figure in Indian legend to make way for his own experiments with under many names. He came to the beneficial rays in making over the race of American continent; he wiped out the men on earth toward his ideas of what men dinosaurs; he remade the race of men by should be. That is one reason Apollo has treating the reproductive portions of their remained as the epitome of masculine bodies with beneficial rays. By his science beauty the world over. That is what he he changed the world. Where he came from was: the father of beauty in men. He made we don't know, but we know what he did it so by moulding men over into his heart's here pretty well. And it doesn't all come desire. And to do it he held to take the from Oahspe. There are many other whole world apart. The next story is going sources of this view of Apollo.

MYSTERY OF THE DERO TYPESETTER!

JUST to show you one of the almost incredible Ether Drift?" by the same author. If you'll com- things that happened to the most snafu issue pare them with the equations as they appear in of Amazing Stories ever to "be put to bed," the articles themselves, you will see the same we are publishing below the first "galley" of amazing "mess" that we saw almost too late to do

mathematical equations received from the printer anything about it ! How did this otherwise expert after a delay that made corrections almost impos- typesetter make hundreds of errors and not know sible, and almost forced us to leave out the article it; and how did the errors get past the proof- "Unification of Newtonian and Einsteinian Mass readers? None of the persons involved have Concepts" by Roger P. Graham, and "Is There an offered a satisfactory explanation! Can you?

n 6.5 I[e = e - %—m (V2 + V 2re) Vre —mVe 4.2 le = —mVfe

n 6.7 Ie = y2 m (Vie - Vre), 4.3 Me = Vre m = mrVre

mrr 7.7 Dme = 4.4 mr m 1-r 7.8 r = Ie$Ee mr 7.9 me = 5.2 Ee = Y2 — m Ve 1 - r Ee — Ie 8.1 r[ = 1 _ r = P02Ee Ee 5.4 Qe - PO 8.2 r[Ee = ^mrV2re POmo pmrp 8.3 Ee = ^p-cpVre 6.3 Ie = Y2 m V, e - y2 — m Vre Pr[p mr

n n 9.1 m = vJ y. m (Vie - V2re) V 1 — cc c* PO v2 9.2 r[ = P01 - cc 6.4 I[e = Y2 — m (V e - Vre)2 PO c2 PO v* 9.3 r = 1 - P01 - c- PO c» This ancient ruined city is Machu Piechu, fortress eity of a powerful empire. It was the Rome of early America and its importance is as great, if not greater, than that of Rome in the European sphere. It seems to have been from this city that "the foot- steps of the Southerners echoed throughout the new land" as is told in that famed old manuscript, the Chilam Balam. The phrase invoices great wonderment when one traces the thread of the northern civilizations back along roads leading south.

Pictured here The extent of the In- is the modern can Empire is shown descendant of here, extending along the ancient the western side of Inca. The idea the continent, just that the pre-lncan civili- under the "bulge of zation goes back some the upper and main 18,000 years is possible, segment of South but the Inca himself America. Shown also are goes back brilliantly for the different cultures and as much as three thou- nations absorbed by them sand years, even beyond in their northward march. the chronology of Mon- The Chimu and the Mazes fesinoS. cultures were overwhelmed.

The Spaniard, Montesinos, a scholar, imbued with the desire to learn what he could of the vanished em- pire before it was too late, tramped the entire conti- nent over, seeking the old readers of the quippus, who had been the historians and the sons of historians. From records long van- ished, and others destined to vanish, he learned of the In- cas' rise.

• vs;-.- THE EMPIRE OF THE SUN By L TAYLOR HANSEN

What was the mysterious "Empire of the Sun"? Was it the country of the ancient Incas ruled by the '

AND the footsteps of The Southerners have been, is hard to tell now because the Great ." echoed throughout the new land . . Colossus of The South existed so many milleniums

says America's most ancient book, The ago. . . . Chilam Balam. It is a phrase which haunts one's It is not the Incan Empire which holds the mind as one continues to run the various northern attentions of the archaeologists in South America, threads of a deeply inwoven pattern back to what though due to the childish inability of the con- is apparently a southern source. One becomes quering Spaniards to understand and appreciate increasingly reminded of the world of Caesar's the institutions or the history of a foreign people, day when all roads led to Rome. little enough is known of that civilization. We At last one begins to notice this southern conti- have two authorities. One is the mission-bred nent where the antiquity of countless ages awaits Inca boy who spent most of his life in Spain, and the study of skilled minds. It is a vast untouched who wrote the history of The Incan Empire from field in which the merest scratches have been what tales he could remember from the childhood made, and before which those who know it the stories once told him by his mother. best stand appalled at their own ignorance. Dr. The other authority is the scholar, Montesinos, John W. Sargent, for example, holding degrees of a Spaniard, who, imbued with a desire to learn doctor of science from Oxford and P.H.D. from what could be learned of the vanished empire Lima, and former leader of a scientific expedition before it was too late (the conquest had taken to Peru for the British Museum says: "After place before his birth), tramped the entire conti- twenty-eight years spent in probing the past of nent over, seeking out the old readers of the feel 1 Peru and Latin America in general, I that I quippus , who had been the historians, and the know less today about it than I imagined I did sons and grandsons of the historians. From rec- when I began." ords long vanished, and from others destined to Yet Dr. Sargent's other ideas are more intrigu- vanish since he made up his history, the young ing. A long list of facts has convinced him that Spaniard reconstructed the rise of The Incan man was living in South America some two hun- Empire. dred thousand years ago, while he is inclined to It is one of the most\ fantastic facts possible, join Poznansky, the Bolivian savant, in the idea that the history followed today is that composed that the pre-Incan civilization in the high Andes by the Inca boy, who, as a poor scholar who dates back some eighteen thousand years. As learns a historical sequence too young and without for the Incas themselves, he would go beyond the great enthusiasm might be expected to do, prob- chronology of Montesinos and give that brilliant ably forgot most of the list of rulers; while the empire the duration of three thousand years. list of the scholar Montesinos, who went to the Most other scientists will not follow him in this. historians for his data, is the one which is ques- For example, he gives Manco Capac as the name tioned. However, it is only fair to point out that of the first Inca and then Sinchi Rocca as the name the list of Montesinos does contain these legendary of the second dynasty a hundred generations later. names which are now thought to belong not to Linguists are no longer willing to concede that the Incas but to their legendary ancestors, the these were Incas, as they do not have Quichua supposed First Great Empire of The Sun. names. They are therefore to be relegated to the In order to understand how such a confusion great legendary powers who preceded the rise of could come about, we must remember that the the historical Incan Empire which Pizarro con- Incas claim to have been driven out of their quered and wrecked. Of these pre-Incan empires ancient stronghold in the Andes of the Tiahuanaco there apparently were several, yet at the dawn where "The Sun First Arose", and to have taken stood the titan of them all. In many ways this refuge toward the Southwest. A period of chaos empire seemed to be more impregnable than the and anarchy followed, in which they left their Imperial City of Caesar. Then Something-Hap- homeland and went north, wandering for many pened. What the nature of that Something may generations in the forests of the northland. Then, 131 132 AMAZING STORIES following the urging of * great leader, they re- lasted for two or more mifleniums. Ijke the turned in a tremendous migration to Cuzco, just culture to the north of it, Kroeber says that the north of the heart of the first empire, and began > Early Chimu: "heaves into our view as essentially a second inarch to power. developed, as self-sufficient and rich, and as lack-

There is one date-stone which would seem ing in known antecedents, as the Nazca style.'" to mark the second rise of The Incan Sun Empire Tello, without doubt, the father of Peruvian to somewhere between the circum third century archaeology, derives most of the culture traits B.C. of Montesinos and the eleventh century A.D. of even Early Chimu from what he calls the of the Incan child. That is that the Great Re- Archaic Highland. He sees the symbol of The former, in his customary white toga-like costume, Tiger, sometimes with curling ends like snakes healing the sick and preaching against war and heads (or Spider?) as basic to all culture of the human sacrifice, was abroad in the land under southern continent. In this he is probably right. the name of Viracocha and established his chris- As Kroeber remarks: "with fuller data, the part tian-like worship of a Supreme and all-powerful of The Highland will grow rather than shrink. deity, before the rise of The Incas proper. Thus For this fundamental view and its substantiation 4 a five to eight hundred A.D. date would be more at many points credit is primarily due to Tello." probable for the advent of The Second Sun Thus The Spider, when studied singly and by Empire, while the great emperors of Montesinos itself, or in connection with the north, where its must be pushed back into the past beyond the trading powers left behind much influence, seems times of anarchy and chaos and southern exile or to be an important culture. Yet when placed northern wanderings which their legends so charm- against its own background of older Tiger and ingly recount. Snake, and probably also older First Sun Empire, Partly contemporaneous with the span of the it shrinks in importance. Of one thing we seem Incas and partly subsequent to them, probably to be rather positive. There is apparently no even as the Mayan Span is related to the Aztec, evidence of an archaeological nature which would is the Moon-Empire of Chan-Chan. From ar- allow us to postulate a defeat of the Sun Empire chaeological evidence, it seems to be divided into by The Moon. three parts. There is Chimu 1 with its Spider Whence came then, this memory of the defeat design, its vigorous and realistic art of portrait of The Sun by The Moon? Was the State of pottery, and its fairy-like beauty of white stucco Chan-Chan, powerful though its influence may and painted and frescoed walls which the old city once have been, the famous conqueror? Or were must have presented.3 the people of Chan-Chan the "children of The Then came conquest from which the queen city Moon" in the same manner as the Incas were of Chan-Chan never entirely recovered. The called "Children of the Sun" meaning that their influence was now probably that of Tiahuanaco ancestors and not they, were the mighty ones? or highland. Science has not as yet decided which And whence came The Tiger in the motifs of pre-Inca civilization conquered Chan-Chan. One even Early Chimu? Had The Tiger ruled the influence suggests that the conqueror was not land before the advent of The Spider's coming? Tiahuanaco or any other highland power, but And The Incas, who conquered Chimu II; who rather a power from the direction of the Carib- remembered an earlier Empire of The Sun; and bean. That is the sudden appearance of much black whose history, according to their legends, seems to ware. That this also may have been due to trade so curiously parallel the allegorical history of The 5 is possible as Chan-Chan was undoubtedly a great Popul Vuh , who were they? The nations of trading power. Yet the sudden conquest of both the northern continent, who claim to have seen the First Sun Empire and of Chan-Chan by the "The First Sun Arise" are the widespread and Easterners is hinted in The Popul Vuh, for it says powerful Nahuas. Do they hold the missing key? that the Two Chiefs plotted against the wealth of the old Fire Empire, and left their "Land of REFERENCES Maize" in the Great Highlands for the magnificent Tello, J. C. Origen y desarrollo de las civilisa- capital of Xibalba, only to be defeated and burned ciones prehislorlcas Andinas. Reimpreso do las in the Sacred Fire. According to northern legend- Atlas XVII Cengreso de Americanistas de 1939. ary fragments, The Spider gave refuge to the Lima, Peru. 1942. orphaned children of the dead chief. Was this Coast and Highland in Prehistoric Peru (Arti- the offense for which she was bumed? cle) by A. L. Kroeber in American Anthropologist After an anarchy or chaos of some time, Chan- October 1927. Chan seems to have partly recovered and con- tinued as Chimu II. The conquerors had been 1 A quippu is a series of colored and knotted amalgamated or educated but the old vigor and strings, each knot oj which stands for a word or inspiration for realism which made Chan-Chan sentence. Relics of these, degenerated, because no of Chimu I so unique in Amerind art was gone* longer recognized as such, are to be found wound forever. This culture (Chimu I) was apparently into the braided hair of many tribes. Since even foreign in its origin and its foothold was only the Karibs of Columbus' day were quippu-reckon- temporary as cultures go, though it may have trs, it appears to have, been an eastern culture- SCIENTIFIC MYSTERIES 133 trait, though vestiges of it, probably carried thence absorbed the legends of his people during his by trade, are to be found in Tahiti and China of Indian childhood. He says that his earliest mem- the third millenium B.C. The center of the culture ory is the tiny Indian village with its curious half- trait of quippu-reckonmg is apparently South pagan festivals, and the ancient songs which his America. mother sang as she sat weaving lama wool into Recently, the quippus recording populations blankets whose patterns reached into the depths and tribute of the Incan Empire have been found. of the past. Today he is the world's greatest From them we have learned that the Incan Empire authority upon his people and their early neigh- at the time of the conquest ruled about three bors, the author of many books and the head of hundred million souls, or three times the popula- the Lima Museum. 5 tion of the present United States. Today, Peru According to the Popul Vuh, the first rulers has a population of five million. who were burned in the Sacred Fire of Xibalba 1 See Articles on Empire of The Moon and The were the aggressors in that war. Their posthumous Spider Totem. and orphaned twin sons by a Xibalban princess 3 The Nazca culture is of Mexican affinities ac- then returned to their grandmother where they cording to Kroeber. According to him, not only were raised but were ill-treated by their elder half- the truncated pyramids, but also the three-legged brothers of the monkey-totem. They then spent vessels of the Nazcas suggest a Mexican source. most of their youth in the northern woodland Other authorities have noted a similarity in de- shooting birds with their blow-pipe (Algonkinst) sign between this locality and Oaxaca, while the and returning to their home defeated the elder similarity of Viracocha and Wixicocha as names brothers and took over their music and culture for The Great Reformer is also significant. before setting out to revenge the death of their *Tello is a full-blooded Quichua Indian, who father and overthrow their mother's people.

HOW TO USE THE SHAVER ALPHABET

By THE EDITORS OF AMAZING STORIES

EVER since Amazing Stories first published on the languages of the world and their relation- Mr. Richard S. Shaver's "mysterious" al- ship to one another, and their relationship to the phabet which he claimed to have received dead languages of the past. He has traced modern from the "caves" and which was claimed by him languages back and ancient languages forward. to be the "key" to all languages, we have received He has given the step-by-step evolution of words repeated requests for reprinting of the alphabet up to the present day. It is well accepted today itself, and for more information about it. This that English (especially as spoken in America) is article is an attempt to comply with these re- a composite of many languages. There is German, quests, and to present more completely and more French, Italian, Latin, Old English, Spanish, etc., accurately the principles involved. etc., in it. It is a "potboiler" language. All this Originally we published only the alphabet, with has been done by "comparison," both along gram- the meanings attributed to each letter. We did matical and historical paths. It has been done not go into "shades" of meaning, but gave the by piecing together the bits of a "jigsaw puzzle." bare framework—which was sufficient to arouse Historically there is a record of progressive con- a storm of interest, and sufficient to prove to the tinuity which afford some clues that are the basis veriest tyro that the alphabet is important. We of many other clever deductions. did not go into the "ancient language," the The sum total of all this work has been to ar- "mother" tongue of all languages, at all. We did rive at modern English as the resultant. not because many basics were not fully under- No one has stopped to consider that all of the stood (nor are they now). However, due to the work done on languages would apply equally well work that has been done by Mr. Shaver, by your if we "turned about" and looked the other way, editors, by many readers, we are able to give a and considered modern English as causative. In more complete picture—and we are able to present other words, if there is any similarity in basics in an hypotheses which will certainly prove startling Sanskrit and in English, might it not be because to the experts, and will even more certainly arouse English is the common denominator, rathe* than a storm of disagreement and criticism. (See Mr. the reverse, which even Lawrence Hogben »dmit* Shaver's article called "Proof" in this issue.) is not true. Many of our readers will have read Lancelot Shaver, along with his other "unproved" state- Hogben's "The Loom of Language," which is per- ments, has maintained steadfastly that the mother haps the most authoritative book in print today tongue of all mankind (including those super races : —

134 AMAZING STORIES

who live in the depths of outer space—the master animal magnetism race who populated the whole universe is still W—will. literally contained in English; that is, basically, X—conflict symbol—crossed force lines since modern English is as much a bastard tongue Y—why of the mother tongue as is Sanskrit. Z—zero symbol—a quantity of energy of T neu- Therefore, when he gives his "alphabet" with tralized by an equal quantity of D its meanings, he is giving (not wholly accurately

he admits, since there is much that he didnt find The foregoing is Mr. Shaver's alphabet exactly out about those meanings) the basics of the as we first published it in January 1944. Your language of Man (Mantong, he calls it). He is editor believes (and in some instances Shaver saying that if one knew this master language, admits) that the definitions are not exactly correct one could (with patience) decipher the meaning or fully complete. We'll try to give our deduc- in any language anywhere; since that language tions (and they are pure deduction, not any in- would be derived from the master tongue. formation from a telaug ray) concerning what Right there is where Lancelot Hogben will tear corrections should be made, and where the defini- out his hair and stomp off muttering about those tions lack completeness. We will try to demon- i lunatics, and where those who have read his strate this with a few pointed examples. book, and other books on the subject, will do likewise. But for those of our readers who use FIRST, the letter A, the letter H and the the scientific method too, we will present the letter M. evidence we have for your inspection, testing, These, we think, are very much related. A and final discarding (if that is what you do). means animal and is expressed (animal, that is) The scientific method is that method which con- as either A or AN. The letter H is defined as siders all the evidence, subjects it to proof before human, and here Mr. Shaver confesses he has acceptance. It also does not reject without dis- some doubt on this one. The letter M means proof. Let's be scientific and be complete; let's man. ANIMAL-HUMAN-MAN. There's your apply the disproof test as well as the proof test. relationship. But what is the relationship? From Before we begin, here is the alphabet with its a deep study of the Shaver stories, it becomes meanings, so that you can compare and follow as quite obvious that there is a relationship, and we go along that at the same time there is a definite distinc- tion. How can an animal be a human, and yet A—animal (used 'an' for short) not be a man? That question might sum up B—be—to exist (often command as Ban meant the reason why a definite breakdown is very much "stay away to exist." Same as quarantine.) necessary. Here it is, then, and you can use your C—eon—to see own research to verify, if you wish not to accept D—de—detrimental or rather disintegrant energy this editor's word for it: (the second most important symbol in lan- A means animal. It is expressed AN also guage.) because it means, animal seed (or child, or spore). E—energy—an "all" concept including idea of It means animal in the sense that evolution motion on a planet like earth (and Darwin's theory sup- F—fecund (used "fe" as in female) —fecund man ports this assumption) eventually results in an G—generate (used "gen") "animal" which has evolved far enough to become H—human (some doubt on this one) the "child" or "seed" or "spore" of the human. I—self—ego (same as our I) It is an animal which is not yet a man—in fact J—same as generate is not even a human; but it possesses within it K—kinetic (force of motion) / the evolutionary (?) seed of a human being. In L—Life short, it could become a human, if, for instance, M—man a Titan did some ray surgery on its genes and N—child or spore or seed (as ninny) chromosomes! (See Shaver I) (See his variforms!) O—orifice (a source concept) H means human. It means: you are a man P—power who is a particular kind of man, a human. It Q—quest (as question) is an animal which has become human, or in R—ar as horror (a symbol of a dangerous quan- between an animal and a man. (Mutan Mion tity of dis (disintegrating) force in the ob- was a human, and he became a man [or a Titan] ject.) when Vanue gave him her "growth" treatment S—an important symbol meaning sun (sis) which involved certain evolutionary processes.) T—te (the most important symbol used; the real A human walks the deadly surface of a planet origin of cross symbol—it meant integra- under a sun! He is an "abandondero". (See tion force of growth (all matter is grow- Shaver!) If he could escape from his deadly ing) —the intake is gravity cause—the force world where his sentence is "death" or "poison" is T ("tic" meant science of growth)—re- which stops or infinitely retards his growth toward mains as credit word.) full manhood, he could become a man rather than U—you a human! A man lives forever, a human dies! V—vital (used as "vi")—the stuff Mesmer calls M means man. It means (from human view- —!

HOW TO USE THE SHAVER ALPHABET 135 point—from our viewpoint) a superman, or a tralize each other. Futility. Titan! (See Shaver!) It means MAN, who lives —and grows—forever out in space, where the TN ADDITION to the alphabet, a perusal of dark worlds swim unseen by human eyes! * Shaver's stories will reveal many basic "words". Bear these definitions in mind when you analyze For instance, "tic" which means "integration I the meanings of words with A, H and M in them see"—and it also means "science". I see how it will make discoveries! You tremendous goes together! Then there is "in" which means Perhaps that mystic word AUM, uttered so "I seed" or I add to, make more, grow. Another solemnly oriental by the races, is really AHM! word is "ro" which means "horror source". There The whole of evolution from beast to god ex- are many others which we won't give here; you pressed in syllable of three one basic letters! can find them for yourself. All these little "basic word' is Perhaps the not mystic at all, but based words" can be recognized in many words, and in the God-science of the Titans. (See Shaver!) their meanings already being defined in your dictionary as you make it up, will simplify the XJUE FIND a similar relationship between F, hunting for meanings in bigger words. * " G and V. Fecundity, generation, and animal There is yet another angle to "language" which magnetism, or sex. The relationship is obvious, does not have a great deal to do with the Shaver and Mr. Shaver's definitions seem as correct as alphabet, but which is used constantly by Mr- any further logic could make them. Shaver in his stories and in his reasoning, but D and T are the basically important letters! which can be used in connection with the alpha- Disintegration — integration ; detrimental — benefi- bet to great advantage. That is in a sort of cial; evil — good; dero — tero; breaking down "punning" with words (but with words that can building up; death—life; weakening—strengthen- be justified in their meanings by the Shaver ing; to grow less—to grow more. These two alphabet). letters have a positive meaning that is unmistak- For instance, take the term "Sinn Feiners". able, and if those definitions are adhered to, the The Sinn Feiners were an Irish political party true significance of a great many words comes who pretended to be evil, and in reality did a lot to the fore, no matter what meanings have been of good. When a criminal, or a louse, wants to attributed to the words themselves by mistaken conceal himself, he hides among the righteous researchers into the past whose only real tool is members of an "uplift society". Similarly when their imagination. You can take out the real a pursuer and fighter of "dero" (let's put it that; meaning with these symbols, which, if they have way!) wants to stalk his quarry, he "joins" a been honestly retained in the word, do not bow cult of evil and "feigns sin". He becomes a to imagination. "Sinn Feiner". This, Mr. Shaver says, is an Now let's take the remaining letters briefly: Elder word. It means "good growing in evil, B—meaning to be, or to exist; having reality. or — horror". To give it a literal translation, we'd C—to see; con "see on"; one who 'can see, have "sun-I-seed-fecundity-in-horror". I place who has knowledge, understands. life to grow in a horrible place. I do good in E—indicating energy (of any type attributed the guise of evil. The correct tactical approach to motion). to fighting evil is to fight it with evil (sin) I—the self, the ego; I (as we use it today). feigning. It is a mask, so that evil will not J—also generate, or "junior"; youthful. suspect your real motive. K—energy not derived from motion. Kinetic When you use the Shaver alphabet, bear in energy. Kinetics. The science of the in-energy, mind that Time and word experts have mur- the contained energy. dered the spelling, but have not murdered the L—life. All life. pronunciation near as much. If you can make N—child, seed, spore. Nee, as we use it today, no sense out of a word as it is spelled, reduce also. Or "ninny". it to phonetics and try again. The alphabet works source concept. O—a An orifice; a beginning. in all languages a great deal more than it could This is where it comes from. just by the law of averages. It works better P—power; powerful; the ability to do. than 50% of the time! And by study, by quest; search; Q— question. learning how to use it more deftly, this percent- R—horror; danger; being "of the sun" or "of age can be greatly expanded. Each new meaning the earth". Not high, but base. deciphered, verified, placed in your vocabulary S—the sun. Important because "life" begins of the "Elder" language points the way to other under a sun. Related to anything which derives meanings, supplies missing clues. its life from the sun. Located near a sun. Sun The Shaver alphabet can open up a new mean- controlled. ing to your life, decipher many mysteries of the U—you. past, give you better understanding of the reality W—will; willpower. that exists in life beyond our earthly ken, and has X—conflict. There are opposing forces here. been ingrained in our spoken words, preserved Y—why. Look for the reason. Why it is so. beyond all possibility of destruction by either The explanation (given, or to be found.) ignorant or malicious people. The Titans built Z—zero. Cancelled out. Energies which neu- the "loom of language" wisely and permanently! * PROOFS * By RICHARD S. SHAVER

This article gives Mr. Shaver's complete thoughts on what he has presented in Amazing Stories and which has become world-famous as The Shaver Mystery.

FOREWORD (OR SMOKE SCREEN):

'TX) those who cannot accept my work as any- accepting. To "Public Official" I also apologize for * thing but misguided imagination, or who think suggesting he knows more than he might publicly the whole "Shaver Mystery" is a rather stupid admit of such things, and solemnly swear that hoax, the following words are to be considered this is all untrue and he does not have to worry exactly that: more stupid contributions from a about it at all. man who is purposely hoaxing stupid readers into To you gentlemen who are intrigued by this believing silly things that could not possibly be "Hoax," I can only say you will find very inter- true. To "Police Psychiatrist," I fearfully apolo- esting data here, and that such people as pro- gize for suggesting they might be wrong, and that fessors of colleges, psychiatrists and policemen, a George Murmans might exist outside a man's mayors and insurance investigators have to be head as well as inside. I apologize to position allowed their foibles, and we can disregard the power and solemnly swear that nothing said here necessity for considering them sane quite as much is to be considered as anything but a rather stupid as they can disregard (and do) the need for con- hoax which some readers enjoy being fooled into sidering us the same.

ir it it ir "fir

FIRST, clarifying is in order. Letters in large for centuries, for an age, and the hereditary result numbers have accused me of implying this was a dero, the ancient "Devil" of mythology, and and meaning that—which I didnt. The con- his people—humans whose minds handle only dis- fusion arises of course from the fictional treatment integrant pattern thought. ALL CAVERN PEO- my message has had to be given. PLE ARE NOT DEROS, thank God. Some readers have drawn quite a variety of The good ones do a lot of work for us, in erroneous ideas. Some of them are right. The subtle unseen ways, avoid tamper accidents by truth is wild enough to suit anybody. But I wish helping out a driver, get some doctor info on how to get the picture clearer for them. to stop a plague, and are the source of some of One of the commonest errors is in the use the our modern inventions by handing over sugges- word "dero" has been receiving. Readers infer in tions to an inventor, unbeknownst, because they their letters that all cavern people are "deros," saw a similar device in the wreckage of the caves. ±at "dero" and "cavern dwellers" are synony- Even all the bad ones are not deros. A dero is

mous. That is wrong ! We wouldn't be alive if a an automaton of evil, and not an ordinary crook. large part of the people down there weren't fight- He isn't that smart. ing like hell for us and for themselves against the I would like, too, to state clearly and simply true "dero." and generally the main themes I am trying to get A dero is a cavern wight whose ancestors had across in my fictional work. Rap has given me the the habit of bringing in the sunlight over the green on such an article, and here it is. penetrays. Their evil nature is due to a constant I am trying to say that our civilization is a

"hearing" (telepathic) of sun vibrants because sham ! That our education is a very shoddy sub- those same penetrays they use to bring in the sun- stitute for what it could be if the truth of our light and warmth were designed to handle past were known. thought-waves, to detect and augment waves of I am trying to say that if we knew who and those frequencies heard by the brain. Their brains what some of our present-day bosses really were, got dis (infections) on the lipoid films of the brain we would be vastly worried at their apparent cells, where thought is generated. This went on careless and oppressive attitude toward ourselves, 136 PROOFS 137 the people—which attitude is shown in their de- more centuries. liberate deprivation of all science of the advan- That the medieval minds, cruel and vindictive tages that would arise from a general knowledge and vandalistic, are so because they are still in a of and study of the rays and rnech with which medieval state of development socially, and they their rule is enforced. were raised that way. They hold that they won't turn over the info, That these secretive, reactionary, sadistic minds that it is like an atom bomb in importance, and among them are today holding back the whole they are keeping it in their own hands. race of man from ALL true development. That I reply that I wish they would, because so they are striving with might and main to place all many deros use it, too—and that they don't need human life under a rule of a malignance unim- to keep the whole of that science a secret. So aginable, that is so horrible in its aims, in its much of it is purely benevolent and medicinal. degenerate cruelties, so destructive in its details Truth is, they are not educated, do not realize of government that the race of man will perish if what they are doing in keeping the whole a secret they succeed! still today. And you insist they do not exist—want an I am saying there are millions of people besides "artifact." (Can you get hold of an atom bomb Shaver who know there are vast caverns under to swap for the "artifact-mech" ? It's a deal!) earth, full of strange, miraculously potent ma- I am trying to say that the enlightened ones chinery—and that they do not speak because it is among them who struggle against this goal need so obvious that they would be misunderstood to our help if we can give it—and that we can't if we the point of persecution. insist they do not exist! I am saying that if our scientists were AL- There are many things I have heard that I do LOWED to have but one of these machines not know are facts. To mention these along with (which exist in great profusion and in fine repair) the things I know are facts causes an almost for study, that our whole technical development unavoidable confusion. would be accelerated beyond imagination. I am I have heard that surface light and power and saying that some of our modern developments are coal are possessions of the ray-people. I don't due to information about the Elder race methods know it, I heard it. I have heard that some of that filter through the age-old "iron curtain" be- them have harems of thousands of young women. tween the deluded surface races of man and the I don't know it. I DO KNOW they have harems, undeluded but oppressed races under our feet. and an oriental contempt for all western morality Man's age-old persecutors, the "Gods," the de- —but because of the nature of social life de- generate debauchers, the secretive age-old monop- veloped around the use of stim-rays, I can under- olizers responsible for these delusions we have stand this different morality. and call history; the persecutors we have and I KNOW many terrible things that I cannot claim do not exist; the condition of war and find a way to tell except as fiction. These are misery our races are in, once exposed would not, things so lurid and impossible they are hard to perhaps be so terribly harmful to him, would find make credible even in a lurid stf. tale. They a remedy. could not be considered as facts by an ordinary I am saying that the people responsible for man, because he has not seen and could not accept. filtering through to us some of the technical These are looked for by those who know some- secrets which find their way into our modern thing of the great secret, and look for recognizable technologists' brains are due to friends among information in the "forbidden" field. these hidden people, and that these friends in the I KNOW they have weapon rays that kill at underworld are the only members of that strange fifty miles and more. That they hit what they society that a sane modern man can consider as shoot at with these. A man cannot even think of also sane. such weapons without fear; still we must—and The rest would be beneath our attention except they have been with us right along. that they can destroy us with the ancient mech I KNOW they have telaug beams that hear (and do, regularly, kill many), debauch us with thought from a man's mind up to fifty miles and the ancient wonderful stim mech, and craze us more. That is an extremely sensitive receiver, for with the detrimental rays of that forgotten science. the sending of one brain is not exactly powerful in voltage. T AM trying to show that it is possible and I KNOW they visit space, and receive visiting * probable that there have been members of that ships from space, some of which do not get away society in the past who lived for centuries beyond again. 1 don't know why they return to earth, for the normal life span—as legend tells us. That no one here is getting a square deal! The ships they did so because of the nature of the ben-rays that return must belong to those who think they and canned nutrients still to be found in the sealed benefit from the repressive, throttling monopoly storerooms. of all the good things of earth. That there probably were rulers who lived for I am saying that earth's peoples are supporting centuries, and that some of the most repressive a destructive, extravagantly luxurious and deca- and reactionary of the present-day rulers of the dent "secret class" who rob us of our birth right cavern groups MAY have been alive for two or —the science that could be learned from the ! ;

138 AMAZING STORIES

mechanisms of the Elder race ; which same mech- size? anisms are the instruments that have held this THEY were the men who are spoken of as the class in power for many, many centuries. Aesir, under Ygdrasil's branches, planning a battle I saying am that, due to many conditions which against the Frost Giants 1 And they had telaug we cannot understand over a long period of time, beams (Odin's Eye), and they had "magical" un- many of these people are idiotic, and unfit to be derground dwarfs, and icy underworld realms of allowed to continue as our "secret" overlords. magic—and we have only the Devil's Tower to I say that if people generally knew this condi- prove it today. But it was a long time ago ; when tion, they would lose the awe and fear that keeps the sun itself was more beneficial and less aging. from the race of man many great secrets which BUT, BROTHER, HOW CAN YOU ASK FOR would prove a new and greater path of life for all PROOF WHEN YOU HAVE A DEVIL'S of us. TOWER? I am saying to these men who cry : "we want Through our dope rings (now don't tell me an artifact, an inscription, an ancient mss, we there are no dope rings) daily many men and " want proof I —you have proof all about you! women are sent to the underworld. What be- But your minds are so slanted by wrong teach- comes of them? They don't come back? No! ings that you misinterpret these artifacts and They become slaves or worse. In some cases they remnants on the surface which tell the truth about are employees; but at the mercy of a capricious the God cavern's existence. despotic class who kill for pleasure. One might Egyptian hieroglyphs, Mayan temple drawings, as well be a slave. innumerable such sources are chock-full of refer- These people leave no traces ! Did you ever try ences to the caverns, but since the science which to trace a man to a dope den? You can't. It has interprets these relics has no word for any of these "protection," and it is not a dope den. Don't tell "myths" except as myths, that is how they are me you don't understand. How could I prove a interpreted—as childish tales only. certain place was a dope den, and that people Only by going into the caves and returning disappear there regularly? You know even the with the actual pieces of mechanism could these F.B.I. has a hard job with these things, never get gentlemen be convinced. If any of the thing is them all. I don't think they even touch a ray- true, any logician can know that is an impossible graft; because it is an old "taboo," and they know request. It is like sending an Ambassador to better than to try. I think they leave it strictly Russia in a top hat and frock coat, striped pants alone. and brief case, and asking him to bring back proof We don't know hoiv the secrecy is maintained. that the Russians are contemplating a world revo- I do know that it is, and that the things I say go lution. He would be turned aside everywhere he on, do happen. went, and would come back with what we already But I could no more prove many such things know—(if he came back at all—which is improb- than I could prove that Standard Oil cheated on able) "the Russians have an Iron curtain on their income tax. Nor could anyone. information." But there is a vast number of eye-witness testi- I don't blame the Russians overmuch. But I do mony; there is a vast amount of writing from blame the cavern people because so much of the the past that is misunderstood; there is a mass of cavern mech is medical in nature. It would revo- incontrovertible proof—IF YOU INTERPRET lutionize all medicine if M.D.s had penetrays; IT CORRECTLY! But you don't I You say the electric needle rays for surgery without incision old standard explanations over and over—and beneficial rays that can keep a dying man alive they are part of the curtain that has been erected long, long after he would ordinarily die ; beneficial for an age between common people and the For- rays that make a man think several times as well. bidden Fruit.

Their science was based on a knowledge of man's For the Forbidden Fruit is the greatest pleasure nature far beyond our own—and nearly every one on earth ; and from our present day standards or of their mechanisms is of some immediate physical morals, it is an immoral pleasure. Hence it re- use to health mains hidden—although the truth is it would be So we are deprived of them because they keep the greatest stimulation our form of society could some idiot in wealth and power, who does not receive. Men would develop—for it would furnish even know enough to have technicians hired to a vast incentive to science and invention and study and develop a knowledge of the nature and medicine (especially) that is now lacking! uses of these machines. Who has no real grasp of As I see it, what the two classes, the two the importance of the caves! "worlds," need most is a mutual port of trade, a city or a market or a place where the things of yOU ask for proofs of the giganticism of the far value from one world may be openly traded for * past—and you can find Devil's Tower (Wyom- those of the other. For our washing machines we ing) in any Atlas. It is a national monument ! If would get telaugs and stim mech and small levi- it isn't a gigantic petrified stump larger than any tators and similar apparatus which would be redwood ever hoped to be, I will eat my hat 1 The infinitely valuable to us—and from what I have stump alone is taller than the Empire State build- seen, they could use the washing machines, yes I ing! What size were men when trees grew that Secrecy has acted as such a throttling thing on PROOFS 139

their life that they cook on stoves Ben Franklin peoples in my way of thinking than I had ex- would have called obsolete ; sit on wooden pected. Publicity was its own protection. benches; slave in child labor factories; are two For he deprives them quite as much as he does hundred years behind us socially. Many of their us, and it rankles them much more because they pieces of furniture (brought in in past, much of are fully conscious of his cost while we are ig- cavern needs furnishing) would bring a fortune norant even of his existence. We do not see the as Victorian and pre-Victorian antiques. (Not young girls go into his harems; we do not see speaking of Elder race antiques.) For, since the their wrecked bodies later. We do not know of his days of telegraph and newspapers and radio, the awful abuses of the rights of man or see the secrecy has required an almost total lack of com- tortures and battles in his game arenas ; do not see merce or intercourse between the worlds. (Before the human pieces in his "Bickro" games. (Human the days of newspapers, there was commerce.) chess to the death.)

And it is a world, the Elder World, and it does But they do know all these horrible things and contain wonders in the still working ancient mech- they want the course of decadence changed and anisms, but it also contains the most brutally reversed as much as myself. So it is that we try reactionary minds on earth; as well as the most to give you what you naively call "proofs," it is modern and liberal minds in certain groups. like a blind man trying to ask a man with eyes They can't have radios, because radio can be to prove that he sees. traced. (Many freighters had to give up radio when crossing enemy waters, as the radios re- "/~^NE either "knows" of the underworld or one broadcast a wave that can be detected.) does not. It is very much like a seeing race They can't have clean modern markets full of with eyes living beside and among a race without good food from America's canning factories—the eyes who refuse their existence. BUT WE ARE commerce necessary to fill them would cancel their PRESENT AND WE DO SEE! (We meaning "secrecy." Thus this reactionary policy from the those on the surface "who know.") past is just as disliked and as unpopular among But for a man who doesn't care to go out and them as it would be among us if we even knew it question pimps and prostitutes, criminals and existed. Thus such enterprising young men as my- dope peddlers, yeggs and assassins; who doesn't self have backing more valuable among them care to pore over newspaper and police files for than among the surface people. Truth is, I have strange and unexplainable occurrences, or Miss- more friends among the cavern people than on ing Persons lists for data on the losses to the the surface, and far more valuable ones. underworld; for a man who would like something They want the ancient barrier to the full de- more than eye-witness accounts from the lips of velopment of their life removed, too, just as much such "unreliable" humans; who doesn't care to as "we who know" on the surface want it re- question the personnel and inmates of an insane moved. They want the sweat-shops made humane asylum on "what the voices say" (which I will down there, they want better living conditions, admit could develop into an embarrassing ex- better sun camps where they can take their days pedition), there is a simple method of proving to on the surface without worrying about watching himself that the Underworld (in the Classic sense eyes. They want less restrictions on their life, of the word UNDERWORLD) does exist in all its and the "secrecy" custom is the most irritating miraculously preserved wonder-mech, building on and harmful of all their restrictions. building and boring on boring, city bowl on city Such things as Hecate, the blood-sucker, will bowl and city tier on city tier—deep in the earth exist among them in the future if the science mo- —peopled with a citizenry of diverse and numer- nopoly continues. Such things have plagued their ous skills in using the ancient mech to cause lives in the past when the great ben-mech rays miracle and devilment were more potent than today. The rays and the This method is in the application of the Shaver superior nutrients found in the storerooms of the alphabet to the English language and indulging Elders kept them alive much too long—and they the deductive faculties in tracing the words of the were evil. But we do not think we have any Elder tongue which still can be found, many of immortal Hecates today. times in a good state of preservation, in our own BUT, TODAY, we do have a parasitic (class English language. of) creature battening upon us, who has de- Those college products who have been endowed veloped a technique of parasitism as highly with a complete knowledge of the past history of evolved as a vampire bat's, and as ingrown in every word by etymological wizards of the col- his nature! This is the "reactionary" behind the leges, by those professors who assume that the "secret" monopoly of the antique Elder weapons past students of the evolution of languages have and pleasure mechs—and he is the enemy we seek all been correct in their assumptions, and have to expose. He is the enemy I would die to harm carefully grafted all this hoary paraphenalia of in any way; to wrest but one of the mighty Elder error upon their students; those gentlemen are secrets from Ms unworthy and unusing hand. I the men who have the greatest difficulty in finding would die cheerfully for the race of man. It was any sense in this alphabet. what I expected when the Shaver Mystery series They cannot successfully make the mental ad- began ; but I found there were more of the cavern justment necessary to a study of the alphabet, — ! !

140 AMAZING STORIES because they cannot, even for the sake of experi- a wisdom greater than our own—and any student ment, admit for one moment that it "could be* proceeding from an assumption that this wisdom possible." So they glance at it and throw it aside never existed cannot proceed even experimentally because it was not on the curriculum at college in the study of the tongue. and hence can be of no possible importance on For it is based on the play of two forces, and this green earth. all phenomena of life are described as an interplay Nevertheless by its use the basic meaning sounds between these two forces De and Te, evil and of an ancient ancestral tongue can be traced by good, Dis and Int. any student flexible-minded enough to make that Ssstt describes the touching of fire to water, of initial allowance for a base from which to pro- water to a hot stone—to us as to any primitive. ceed. BUT to a student of Mantong sssst is the survival These basic sounds, such as RA TE DE AN of the ancient symbol for sun-fire, for dis striking BE CE FE GEN ENG I KIN LO LEE LI MA against the ancient symbol for TE, for growth. MU MO NIN NE O SIS TEAT ST UND VI VE The water contains the TE or growth force, and VIE VIT WIN WER TER DER XE Y ZE and when it comes in contact with S, the fire, the noise RO can be found in so many words meaning the sssstt always comes with it—and they used the same thing, in so many languages meaning the symbols of these two primal forces with the sound same thing, that we get a picture of basic sound which they make. meanings that we can trace back and back to a De was their sound symbol for the processes of once universal tongue. Gradually to a student disintegrant energy. De vi was their word for an this once universal tongue emerges as Mantong evil man's energy. De vile their word for one and every word he says is translated by his mind filled with de; de cay, Dee See a (animal) Y. into its Mantong meaning, which is a greater Decay is a sentence in Mantong. It means: see meaning. dee in the animal, WHY? It taught. When the It cannot be done by utilizing any system of child learned the word decay, he learned to look word derivation now taught; for they are false, for the cause of the decay, too. Hence the letter and it did not happen that way ! If it did happen Y (why) is tacked on so many of their words. as they say it did, it happened long after the word But no classical product of our colleges would had come into use over the whole earth, and their ever admit that such a system of word building assumptions of its adoption into use and its ever existed for he cannot admit that anyone in spread are consequently error because they mis- the past knew that much I take in a given language an already existent word Add a little more detrimental disintegrant en- for a later derivation from some other word in energy—we get DE AD. Dead meant: if you some other language. keep adding de you will die. You can't even It wasn't that way. They only had a common monkey with the stuff (as we are learning with universal source in one ancient tongue. If they atom bombs—and are going to learn really by did derive from two or more Elder sources, they losing all our "precious" civilization in one flam- still intermingled during the great lapse of time ing battle). to form a mixture inextricable today because of Dead also meant: someone had killed a DE their original similarity in concept-symbol or unit of the social pattern. Their words had these basic-sound-meanings. coincident punning meanings packed in ! De a De This point of departure on the study of ancient A command to go out and make likewise any tongues forms an insurmountable barrier between Hitlers or would-be Hitlers was inherent in their the classical student and myself. He cannot ad- word for a dead person. mit to begin with that there could be possible a The word teat we cannot even say without basis for such an assumption that there was an lewd and comic thoughts. They meant something original universal they meant : TE force is here at teat. (The tongue. more ; He is confused by the multitude of his learn- child absorbs integrative energy here.) ings. He KNOWS the Egyptian came first, or Get a college word wizard to admit that any the Coptic or some other irrelevant tongue, and first race on earth ever knew any such thing he knows that all similarities must be traced to about energy as that there were two basic forces, original source of which he has already been in- integrative and disintegrative! It isn't even formed. He presupposes himself into a state of taught yet (or is it?) that there is an integrative admiration for his deduction which is only, after force, that disintegration demands an equivalent all, a complex assumption of firsts, derivatives, integration, or there wouldn't be anything to dis- etc. integrate in all space. OUR COLLEGES DO But, above all their squabbling over each word, NOT TEACH AN INTEGRATIVE FORCE (to Mantong emerges as the great Rosetta stone of my knowledge), or even suggest that it could be a the past. Touch any tongue with it and the veils pole about which all life proceeds upon its be- fall away; the Mantong stands clear and clean ginnings until it meets DE and ceases to BE above it all. How then get them to admit that the ancients knew there was an integrative force and used it. as NO OTHER tongue contains their knowledge a basic symbol for GOOD, for a way of life in the of energy, or gives a key to their wisdom— word TIC, even though the word tic itself de- PROOFS 141

scribes our present world system of finance and '"PHE Elder race had wisdom. Some of it can be commerce. They called it TIC—we call it Credit. found in the basic sound-meanings of our But they meant a lot more by TIC than we do by tongue by use of the Shaver alphabet. I do not the word credit. They meant a social order based claim to have "originated" the alphabet. (To me upon credits—we call it money and we get it for it was a discovery. Others may have done so.) work. Credit—(See RED, I T). Our own word Maybe I heard it with "voices." Whatever is the is one of theirs: "I will stand T for your RED truth, it will discover to you a vast race, prove (ink)." We still get in the "RED." We think it is their existence on earth, and give you an inkling modern slang for the red ink used on losses of their mighty thought-ways. columns, but in truth they used the word before I could go on talking about the Elder language there was ink. Before Carters ever made a bottle for a large book-full, but there is no space for of red ink for bookkeepers to itemize their bills that. Eventually it will (the book) be done, if not with men Used the words "in the red" to describe by me, by some one like yourself who has read their debts. me and understood there was more to the Shaver We all have these unconscious assumptions in alphabet than meets a college know-it-all's eye. our minds about words, and most of them are About proofs of the Shaver mystery, it is so wrong. self-evident to one who talks to ray people over I can go on and on with this, but I don't want rays from their caverns every day, it is somewhat to tire you. BUT if you are interested in a proof like asking an ordinary householder to prove the of the Shaver mystery, it can be had by any de- Electric Light Co. exists. ductive mind for a few hours work with the It is not evident to you who have not "heard alphabet (I hope it will be printed herewith),* voices," "seen ghosts," experienced what are and the Mantong of the Elder race will emerge called "illusions due to mental derangement," but in all its wonderfully simple meanings before which we who know call "projections," or "tele- him, and he will have a complex and wonderful solidographs." plaything for his mind in its idle moments all his It is like- two men living near the same river. life. For every word bears some flavor of their One has never seen a fish in that river all his life. thought, if you can search it out. And it isn't so The other has caught fish in the river every day. hard as our complexly misinformed professors They get into an argument, the one who believes would have us believe. Because they are wrong there are no fish in the river says : "Show me the about the past, and there is better history in King proof, the bones and tails, the heads of these fish Arthur and Merlin, in Froissart's Roland and you have caught." Oliver, in fairy tales and myths than there is in Well I will show you what is left of some of any standard text on Classical history on "Rome the fish I have caught in the river of sound that and Her Fall," on the "Rise of Athens." Those flows from the cavern world to those who are histories are correct as far as they go; but they allowed to hear. Snatches of conversation heard missed the true beginnings. We did not begin with over ray: "GOES UP—IS COMING!"

the pyramids, the way the history books do 1 We The words mean nothing to you; to me they had a vaster beginning than any Pharaoh's fool- tell that the ancient plan of coming to the surface ish piling of block on block to provide a place to and ruling openly is again being taken out of the put his mummy. And a much more intelligent closet and being brushed off for a new trial. Per- beginning. To me, the Pyramids are not a great haps "they" will come out and rule with antique- mystery; they are a sample of the imbecility of ray openly, and all of us will see it in our lifetime. men in certain early periods AFTER THE FALL. It is a thing that has been planned many times, That the cumbrous piling of those square chil- fell through because of fear, difficulties of moving drens blocks of stone into a pyramid had a mean- apparatus, disorganization due to their medieval ing, a vast significance, or any other fol-de-rol governmental set-up, etc. " that is taught about them is not my way of think- WAS DOWN HERE. HE ing. They are sheer imbecility made concrete, WAS THE TOUGHEST MAYOR IN TOWN." and we still pretend to ourselves that the Egyp- The words mean our surface Mayor tians who built them had "wisdom." The wisdom was down In the caverns on a they are talking about existed long before the visit, and that he was seemingly the "toughest" pyramids, the latter priests who understood that of the group of big-shots with him, of the under- wisdom had nothing whatever to do with causing world characters whom he visited. One does not the pyramids to be built. hnow if he really was down there, we only hear Wrap all the mists of wool about a pyramid the words. that you want. I still see a fool making a million "TELL, 'EM OUTRIGHT, SHAVER, GET lives painful that he may have a hole to be placed 'EM DOWN HERE? WE NEED 'EM in when he dies. PWA on a grand scale in ancient PLENTY 1" Egypt; a fool king who wasted the lives of his It means that there are plenty of the people people upon idiocy. down there hoping and praying that some effort like my own does break through the dense cloud *Shaver Alphabet and article about it will be of "modern" ignorance in America and gets some found on page ISO.—Ed. action out of our powerful nation before less —

142 AMAZING STORIES

worthy rulers than our own Republicans and The fact is that any honest investigation of Democrats take over—both up on the surface and super-normal manifestation always and invariably down in the caverns. But they themselves find turns up mighty important data; which data is no way of telling the men of the U. S. that will shelved by fearful, ignorant and bigoted people be understood, believed and acted upon. When who are quite sure that the school books are right, they do talk to a man, he is frightened, thinks he and that they cannot go contrary to opinion or is having delusions, goes to a psychiatrist and has they will lose their "position." himself psycho-analyzed. There is no greater ig- You see in today's paper: "THREE AIR- norance, no greater barrier to progress than the PLANES DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY WITH blindness engendered by the sense of all-knowing FOURTEEN MEN IN THEIR CREWS." You self-sufficient egoistic fol-de-rol our educational see, every day, a constant succession of such system has given our average American school Fortean occurrences, such impossible accidents product. and wrecks and catastrophes. On our "fool- I love those people down there, fighting unseen proof" railways the signals go awry and one part and unheard and unhonored, fighting and warding of a famous "cross-continent flyer" runs into an- off from us a fate that words cannot describe. The other part—of the same trainl Over and over dero of the caverns could depopulate the earth you read of the "impossible" happening! within months if they were free to do so, with the Yet you are told there are no caverns, there antique mech-rays. These people are ignored by could not be any "antique miracle machinery," our "omniscient" statesmen, though many of AND I MYSELF AM TO BELIEVE THAT I them know much of the caverns and their se- AM THE VICTIM OF DELUSIONS. EVEN crecy, and we could help them much if only the THOUGH I HAVE FELT THE SEARING curtain of "it isn't true," "they don't exist," RAYS, BEEN TORMENTED BY INVISIBLE 'Voices are imagination" were gone. DEVICES, SEEN IMPOSSIBLE PROJEC- That is what I am trying to do; remove that TIONS OF THINGS THAT DO NOT EXIST curtain once and for all. Believe me, it is vitally ON EARTH TODAY AND TALKED TO THE necessary, or I would not have the courage to face PEOPLE WHO MANIPULATE AND USE the possible consequences! THESE DEVICES EVERY DAY—AND HAVE "HAND ME SOME DRY NEEDLES 1" BEEN DOWN IN THERE AND SEEN AND Meaningless phrase, isn't it ? But not if you see TOUCHED IT ALL WITH MY OWN HANDS. the torturer, his needles slippery with blood, It would be comforting to feel that I was the reaching for less elusive tools. victim of a self-deluding mental quirk, for I It would be possible to buy some of the mech would realize there was no threat hanging over in certain parts of the cavern world. These loca- the heads of the American people; there was no tions where the caverns are peopled by humans need to overcome the blindness of these people, with some idea of developing a future for man that no deros kill regularly and steadily by such

could be found—if the whole governmental and methods as caused Heirens to kill for George "scientific" set-up of the nation, of the world, Murmans. That if I did not try to do what I do, were not too "smart" to be taken in by such a these killings such as Suzanne Degnan would not "hoax." Hex doctors, other practitioners of the be in part upon my head. For I know that much black art such as Demonist cults, do buy appa- could be done to stop such killings if only people ratus from the underworld. Not the men who knew what the real cause was. Locking Heirens DONT "hear voices" (even when they do). Statis- up did not stop George Murmans. George Mur- tics show that everyone hears voices sometimes mans can kill you! It would be smarter to pun- not the scientists who call everyone who does not ish the psychiatrists who deny George Murmans agree with them "crack-pots"; not the gentlemen exist, for they probably know quite well that the who have learned all there is to know about life, voices have real people behind them, and are not the interior of the earth, science and Einstein. men enough to admit that all is not understood You yourself, if you are honest with yourself, about such phenomena. A psychiatrist is a worse

must admit that you have "heard voices" at one criminal, if he does know, a greater coward than time or another in your life. Think carefully. Heirens seems to be, blaming it on a phantom.

AH ! You had put it aside as imagination ! But Every experienced psychiatrist has heard hun- was it? No, it wasn't! It happened! dreds of people confess they "hear voices," and that some of the "voices" prompt them to crim-

IV /TANY things could be obtained of infinite inal acts. Yet how many have the courage to * value from these people in the caverns, if all affirm the voices' real existence. THEY ARE of our civilization was aware and trying to AFRAID OF YOU, the public! Yes, they fear salvage even a bit of the mighty wisdom the the common man's conviction that "all such Elder race left behind them in their miracles of phenomena are delusions" and, that fear is justi- machine art. BUT it can't be done as long as fied! BUT, SOMEONE, SOMETIME, HAS TO "officialdumb" frowns upon all such efforts as CONQUER THAT BLIND DENIAL OF FACT "superstition," "black art," or "crackpots." It is a AND COME OUT IN THE OPEN WITH THE vital and unseen side of our life WHICH MUST TRUTH ABOUT VOICES, ABOUT SUCH BE OPENED TO THE PUBLIC .GAZE! CRIMES AS HEIRENS', AND ABOUT SUCH I

PROOFS 143

THINGS AS AVOIDABLE TRAIN WRECKS. CAUSE THAT MECH IS THE PRODUCT OF It must be faced. All right, we face It, and AGES OF INTENSELY CIVILIZED DEVEL- thousands of readers flock to our support with OPMENT BY A BIGGER, GREATER RACE, letters affirming our decision to attempt the here- A RACE WHO HAD CONTACT WITH tofore impossible! SPACE Here's hoping we succeed. For there art in the How to tell the American government there is caverns such things as weather machines, set in a something to learn about the rocks of mother pattern to govern the whole continent, that can Earth that can't be learned in a College ef Geol- control the precipitation, the winds, the whole ogy, in an "Institute of Mining Techniques"? character of the weather. I have seen them oper- How to tell a modern over-educated bigot that ated, have touched the machines; but how do I our school text-books left out the biggest page— tell itt I have as much trepidation about the the history of the Elder race? HOW? attempt as Heirens. He (can you blame him?) It can't be done! That answer tells me to flunked the test of courage. I face it. (Remember give up, to write stories about anything else, to this is a "hoax" please.) quit making dangerous statements about a people who might take umbrage and bump me with some *"pHESE machines, of infinite variety, are of that wonder-weapon-mech. *" culled over by engineers from rival (under- Then a voice says: "Tell 'em, but right! Be a world) countries such as England (for all we man!" (Now remember, bigot—this is a hoax, know) and what is not sold to them Is wrecked I confess.) by the destructive nomads of the caves "so some- And I do. There are no voices is not true! one else won't use them." Everyone can hear them and does at one time or Gypsies "know" about the underworld. Spiritu- another. Some of us hear them every day be- alists insist on the reality of their "spirits." I cause we have interesting minds, and there is know the gypsies are making better sense about fascination in exchanging mental contact with the voices than the Spiritualists. They tell for- our minds. tunes by allowing the secret rays to read their The trouble is I know better than to accept the customers' mind—and make money. So do the general blindness about the invisible. They have spiritualists, but they say it is spirits. The gypsies not seen the bodies behind these invisible phe- say it is a "gift." It is I From "gypsies" under nomena. I have ! They have only deductive abil- the earth. BUT NOT DEAD! ities which have no data to operate on that they DID YOU EVER ASK THE WEATHER can consider infallible. And they are lied to by MAN WHAT BECAME OF THE RAIN THAT fearful gentlemen who fear to state the truth, for STARTED RAINING AND SUDDENLY QUIT, reasons you must understand. If you don't un- AGAINST ALL PROBABILITY? DID YOU derstand why these gentlemen who know do not EVER ASK A PRISON GUARD HOW COME speak—just picture yourself doing it! (Uh huh!) CERTAIN GUARDS SHOT AND KILLED I should not worry, if I were them. For do OTHER GUARDS? DID YOU EVER ASK not astrologists state regularly that the motion of THE MISSING PERSONS BUREAU WHERE the stars affects human events? Do not the spirit- ALL THE MISSING PEOPLE WENT? PER- ualists baldly state that the dead come back regu- SONALLY (not by listening to the radio—but larly? It must be all right to print anything in personally looked at the files comprehensively)? this United States. Maybe it is a Constitutional Did you ever talk to insurance investigators who right? I hope so! For I have plenty to say that ascertain the cause of fires, the nature of the is apt to be misunderstood both above the sur- mechanical failures in train wrecks, all the many face and beneath. Of the two I fear the under- things that go unaccountably wrong? world the least! Above all the things that terrify NO, YOU DID NOT! You assume there was me, I fear the bigoted psychiatrist, the worldly nothing mysterious or frighteningly weird about materialist, the know-it-all scientist. any of it. YOU ASSUME THAT IT IS ALL The underworld is quite willing to let super- PERFECTLY UNDERSTOOD BECAUSE OF stition be a veil for them. No income tax, do THE NATURE OF YOUR EDUCATION. what they please with everyone, and a police force Fact is, a black witch doctor in Africa does who call the mention of them superstition. Per- know more about such things than you do. They fect! BUT there are plenty of them are smarting don't close their eyes to all the unseeable things under terrible oppressions, sweat shop condi- in life. But a "modern professor" does so close tions, murderous arena battles for those out of his eyes, and succeeds in closing most of his favor, a lack of any justice of any kind from over- students' eyes. head. Those are our friends, they want a sane and All of which wouldn't matter, if most of our normal life and justice. Truth is, even the prof- heritage in the caverns wasn't being destroyed and iteers who boost for the secrecy wish for the wasted and broken by idiotic handling by crea- good old American army to man their ray guns tures with no wits or education whatever. It when the wild dero attack from some "uncivil- matters because our civilization could receive ized" frontier of the vast cavern world. They find from just one piece of that "mech" a bigger boost the weapons they had considered invincible are than from many generations of genius. BE- outranged by weapons of the dero (wild and ig- !

144 AMAZIN© STORIES

oorant and murderous, yet who inherited from get groceries, to milk the unsuspecting farmer's their ancestors the knowledge of how to handle cows, or similar clandestine excursions, they get them well in battle). These battle weapons are plenty hell if they let anyone see them handed down among them just as the muskets of "ARE ALL GYPSIES, GYPSIES?" the camel-riding Arabs are handed down from The voice suggests that long excursions are father to son. sometimes made by cavern people masquerading But if they live through such an attack, they as gypsies. Not a difficult masquerade, it is? call it "over," and go back to ducking the income The firewood practice suggests a method of tax. proof—for yourself, though don't expect any "normal" person to believe you. Watch the broken HpHERE are good and bad rulers in the caves, dead branches in the woods near a cavern sus- good and bad factory owners down there. pected entrance. Note missing branches—see if Some would like the restrictions that hamper you can find who collected them? Listen with their trade with the surface removed; some want hidden sound devices from a distance. When you the system that assures them cheap labor kept. try a few things like this you will run into dis- I often feel I shouldn't exert myself to expose couraging or encouraging phenomena immedi- the Elder world in the face of the egregious in- ately. You will learn, in a hurry. credulity of the average man—I just shouldn't More:

bother. Let the monopoly roll on over all possible "Last light is gone. Car ahead I 'Fraid to go future development for the human race. It will after wood now, someone might see us." anyway. "Sticks are cheapest fuel. Boss's fuel costs I know the work is vitally necessary, but it money. It is hard to get money." seems so impossible in the face of "offidaldumbV "Found an ice-skating robot! Beats all what attitude in the face of revelations like George you run into." Murmans. I know that all criminal investigators "If he had the money to be ruined. ..." are not so blind as not to know there are in- "You know, we've got to double-seal all these fluences that are real behind such tales. Of course entrances." they know; there is so very much of it going on. "Last census was 58,900 inhabitants known and ." They don't know how to face the neighbor's as- under control by . . (Tampered out the rest. sumption they have gone "nuts," and they don't Most of these informative sentences are through dart open their mouths! BUT THEY KNOW, tamper and are incomplete.) and they know plenty. "Lady Estelle put together. You'd swear she This work is necessary to prevent such crimes was human." (Words about another robot, which as those dictated by "voices." If Heirens had I saw in projection, which was very human in known what such phenomena indicated, that he appearance. From my daily notes on "voices.") had acquired an underworld dero who would get "Centenarian devils filled with pep and pride." him in trouble, he could have avoided it, would "The fire is of books of magic, and on the fire have had some chance of mentally fighting off the cooks human flesh." criminal suggestions of the degenerate mind that "We get little meat, some of it is human flesh; at last managed to gain control of his actions. sometimes sold in a market; no one inquires whose Heirens was under this influence for years before flesh." he murdered. The truth about Heirens is that he "Stockholm, Sweden, best place to go for good showed remarkable resistance to these controlling white ray, and good treatment from them for per- telaug suggestions. I wish there were some way secuted surface men." (I wish I could go.)

to show what it really was that caused his down- "I don't have to wear anything ? Or have any- fall. I am trying, here. thing to wear!" (Cavern girl's voice.) "Granny got Ladies' Home Journal years ago. npO RESUME with the "fish-bones" and Now they don't get it here anywhere. Verboten, •*• "proofs" in the form of words and snatches of subscriptions. (No address.) conversations heard over just such rays as drive "A sin and dance place." people to murder, except that they are in the "The Satanic government was very strict about hands of sane members of the cavern's society: virtue." (Figure that out.) "IN HOT COUNTRIES THEY BURST "The boss is very large. Grab hold and lift any- BREASTS." thing, he can. But a sourpuss by the look of The sentence means that in South America, him." (Effects of long ben-ray on boss.) Africa and other jungled countrys there are cavern "I couldn't even outen' my cigarette. Now wild dero who use force rays up through the dripping, now shaking. Sorrow, pain, splendor, rocks to the surface people to burst maidens' foolishly intermingled." (Account of stim ex- breasts and cause their death. I wonder how one perience on forcing table, idiotic intermingling of of our "explainers" of Fortean and Shaver phe- all sensual sensations from crazy operator.) nomena would explain this occurrence. "Some tried to sell some caves to some na- "BOSS RAISES HELL WHEN WE'RE tion's governments. They were too "modern" to SEEN." believe us. Scared to talk to us, or meet us any- Means when they go out to gather firewood or where." (Meant: long ago, other countries tried —

PROOFS 145 to get some cash out of selling the "secret.") They are terrible." (Means, I think, they have "Only one little table left. Had to sell the rest. been warned of impending invasion of creatures They take everything." (Not fully understood that are not men. Whether from space or from whether she means they are removing all the some unexplored part of the endless cavern antique furniture and apparatus or whether she labyrinths, I don't know. I thought they meant means she had to sell her own possessions to get space invasion.) food.) "A new ray phenomena to me, the image in "Place your thumb toward dagger and twist. the mind is consumed by flames right in the mind. It's an idol and he uses it for a suitcase." Appears to be a heat ray super-imposed upon the "Three fourths of the looting was carried on neural penetrative of the telaug beam." under our supervision." (Not fully understood.) "Evil ruled so long—stock him no good. Now "The temp, is always 53%." have no children." "New captives are always cold. Fire is a "A have-a-look shop." luxury. You get used to it, or you die." "The neat and scarlet women." "Feed the fire with Elder books." (Coal is in six inch lumps. Burned on open grate.) \X7ELL, there you are. A sample of voices

"Many songs are attempts to get messages to ''heard and written down in the night. It is you that you cannot help seeing—like : 'Midnight not a proof, except you have a mind to see that it beaming, moonlight meaning.' but it doesn't ever could not be imagined, that it had to happen work. Men are denser than dense. Tamper that way. The official dumb attitude we know always blocks a person trying to get something already : "The man is deluded." But they're the across." same type of men who close our burlesque shows "They sold me! Brrrr. No fatigue, wonderful and go to honky-tonks or smokers in their clubs place to live. I believed them, went along in. It and holler "take-it-off" and get it taken off for is! Wonderful! But the toilet doesn't work, and them. Who squalk about juvenile deliquency and I'm starving and freezing." contribute to it themselves if they get a chance, "The reason people hear things more often in and they get it. The same men who never give a darkness, because when turn a telaug penetray on sucker a break, and everyone is a sucker, poten- a house with a light burning, the light is carried tially. The men who ban good books from pub- down here to this end of ray—then they see it and lication on moral grounds and themselves do not stop us with tamper. Lying in the dark, you hear understand morality or give a damn. But they more, no one notices." have to look virtuous to sucker public, etc. "A six-handed fiddle. I'd like to of seen the You can listen to the same old lies and believe critter that played that thing. Must of looked there is nothing going on in the world that you like a grasshopper." are not fully informed of in the daily newspaper. "The micro-show mech is great. It makes Or you can think for yourself and find an amaz- images of tiny races of people, only they are metal ing new world where things are happening—and or glass or minerals—all different and they seem a lot of it shouldn't happen. There is an in to be alive. A toy, I suppose, but they must have been had, an in to "Forbidden Fruit," and many of popular, there are a lot of them." (A device I these men who deny these things get plenty of have seen operated—it takes the [for instance] that Forbidden Fruit. But it all costs us too much chess-men idea, builds a living race of people in to ignore. We are losing lives of mighty develop- moving, three dimensional pictures; like seeing a ment and god-like pleasure because we listen to new world.) fools who do not understand that themselves are "She had faceted mirrors or jewels sewn on her greatest ofVll suckers for a lie. ankles above her insteps with surgical thread—to Well, IH^quit now. These words are not a make her feet twinkle when she walked. She had proof, and no set of words can be a proof to a places to go worth going to." (Picture of beauty mind that refuses them. of the Elder race.) BUT I WARN YOU—IF THE ELDER "We saw a metal glider full of men frozen in MECH WAS GOTTEN INTO THE HANDS OF

ice ! Not modern men, some ancient race—had OUR GREAT TECHNICAL SCIENTISTS gliders. What you call "latter gods," I suppose." OPENLY AND WITH PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE (Means with penetray in the deep ice of a glacier, OUR CIVILIZATION WOULD BECOME A or ice cave, she saw deep in the ice a glider of HEAVEN. IT WILL NOT HAPPEN IF WE metal with crew all frozen since God knows ALL CLOSE OUR EYES AND SAY IT DOES when.) NOT EXIST. "The buyer is not well in the head. He forgets This Christmas millions of toys were dug out of to get things—and we starve. So many are cut storehouses in the caverns, each of them worth a in the head; can't function properly." (Cut is an fortune to a surface manufacturer. "Ren-schur" x-ray needle that is used for less-open arguments. (sure to run) toys, the finest of the elder race A man with many enemies soon becomes absent- and played with by ignorant grown people and

. minded to the point of becoming unable to carry wantonly destroyed. Such toys as no one but on his work.) Aladdin or a modern cavern dweller knows exist.

"We have had a warning, they come, not men I Each of them was based on some application of 146 AMAZING STORIES

physics, on some wrinkle of a knowledge of energy modern attitude. denied to us. Each of them a great invention on To be incredulous of Shaver's statements, which the surface and worthless down there because do explain these once generally believed in and they are ignorant and we do not know they exist. accepted phenomena, explains them logically and Some of these things could be gotten off those sanely—supported by endless references in antique people if we knew and tried. We do not 1 I try, writings; supported by countless letters from but I am only one of a few people, the ones who present-day people who have experienced these understand that Shaver has something more than phenomena in the present day; supported by a fertile imagination and a yen to get into print, other eye-witness accounts of the antique mecha- no matter how. nisms; supported by countless occurrences in our There are more kinds of blindness than the loss daily papers explained in no other way (explain- of eyes. Men lost their mental eyes when they able in no other way) than by acceptance of decided to deny all the truth behind such phe- Shaver's "theories." nomena as witchcraft. Note for all psychiatrists: Note for Shaver Opponents: I, Shaver, solemnly swear I have never heard The incredulous attitude, historically speaking, a voice. They do not exist except in deranged has always been in the majority, and it HAS minds. ALWAYS BEEN WRONG. This is not only Note for all who even partially agree with Shaver: true of such impossible gadgets as the telephone I solemnly swear I hear voices every night. and radio, it has been true of every new dis- Note for all opponents of Shaver: covery of every kind. It has always been true Above you can find two confessions. Take of visitors to the underworld and their tales upon your choice. returning. Strangely enough, it HAS NOT AL- Note to all psychiatrists and other repressors of WAYS BEEN TRUE OF WITCHCRAFT. The truth: credulous, in various times and places, far out- I do solemnly swear and affirm I have never numbered the incredulous, where witchcraft was had a dream I consider irregular or out of the concerned. They KNEW, they said; THEY way—in any way. Just the ordinary type of FELT AND SAW AND HEARD THE TRUTH. dream. To be incredulous of witchcraft, witches and Note to proponents of Shaver: related forms of superstition is comparatively a Oh My! How's yours? PETRIFIED TREE STUMP * -OR NOT? * THE cut on this page is "Devils Tower authorities suggesting the similarity of appearance National Monument, Wyoming." Accord- of the Devils Tower to a tree stump. The fol- ing to literature published at the park, the lowing reply came from the Park: Tower rises to a height of 1280 feet from the "Dear Mr. Shaver: Your interesting letter, un- river bed and 865 feet from its apparent base on dated, has just been received, in which you remark the hilltop. Its diameter at the base is approxi- concerning the resemblance of the Devils Tower mately 1000 feet, and at the top it averages 275 to a huge tree stump. As you suspected, this like- feet. ness has often been mentioned. As to the mode of origin of the Devils Tower "Many persons think of Paul Bunyan and some geologists are by no means in agreement. That of the trees he must have worked upon, when they the rock of the Tower was at one time molten see the huge rock. A few persons have pro- and was forced upward from deep within the pounded the theory you propound now—that it earth is no question, and that it cooled beneath is actually a stump of a tree growing in a past the surface is probable. But whether the gear period of giantism. shaft as it now stands is in reality hardened lava "It is true that the orthodox scientific explana- in the neck of an old volcano, the enclosing walls tion is at variance with this idea. Orthodox scien- of which have been removed by erosion, or tific explanations are based on the preponderance whether it is part of a great sheet or sill of of evidence known to man at this time. From a molten rock which was injected between rock study of petrification of plant structures as well layers, cannot be positively stated. as the crystalline development in lava rock, we On the basis of either explanation hundreds of would say that the structure here is the cooled feet of rock have obviously been removed by remains of a mass of once-molten material, and erosion from around the Tower and carried by that it does not in any way resemble petrified rivers to the sea. plant material, except as to its superficial shape. Mr. Shaver, in line with his stories of giant Superficial shape may well be coincidence—in life on the earth in the past, wrote to the Park fact no serious person hypothecates the existence PETRIFIED TREE STUMP—OR NOT? 147

Devils Tower National Monument, Wyoming of giant humans because of the oft-times striking Its existence, so close to the Devils Tower which resemblance of certain hills or mountains to also has that appearance, will likely cause visitors various parts of the- human anatomy, especially of that time to remark upon the similarity of the female breast. what they see to a "forest" of giant tree stumps. "The rock of which the Devils Tower is com- Those who base their conceptions on superficial posed closely resembles granite in appearance and appearances will be more certain than they are is quite similar mineralogically. The fluting which today that there was a time when gigantic trees produces the appearance of bark is brought about were in existence. But the records will show, if by columnar rock structure which in turn results records for man exist for that long a time, that from relatively rapid cooling of the molten rock. at least one of these stumps was once just a hill. Such columnar jointing can be observed in forma- And a study of the nature of the rock at first tion today in vicinity of volcanos. The columnar hand, which you have not had the privilege of rock here is like the now-forming columnar rock making and which you inqure about, will show in many respects, so many that we cannot at- that the only resemblance to a petrified tree stump tribute it to coincidence. is in the superficial shape. "As to the over-all shape, it has resulted from "I wish to thank you for writing to us for the arrangement of the columns as they were information, instead of cataloguing this structure formed in response to varying rates of radiation as favoring your theory of giantism without at- of heat, gases and liquids into rock surrounding the tempting any research." * molten mass as it cooled. Four miles to the north- The foregoing is the official statement about west of here there is a convex-shaped hill of the the Devils Tower. We want to thank the Park same sort of rock which displays an arrangement officials for their kind and complete reply to Mr. of columns within the mass of such a nature that Shaver's letter. It gives us facts to work on, when erosion and undercutting progress further, rather than theory. But let's examine the facts certain columns will fall off and the shape of the and see what they really are. First, geologists hill will change from convex to a stump-like are by no means in agreement with the origin of structure similar to the Devils Tower. Devils Tower. They do agree that it is standing "In the case of this hill, it will be quite possible free, and not buried in the earth, because erosion in years to come to liken it to a giant tree stump. freed it. If it was buried in the earth, then at — ! ! !

148 AMAZING STORIES least 1280 feet of surrounding terrain were eroded. of an ash than anything else, could easily erode This does not seem likely. If it was the core of in 50,000 years leaving the burned and hardened a volcano, we have a problem—why would the tree stump standing free. The smaller tree could volcano structure itself, which is lava, be eroded have burned down to just a rounded mound as away without trace, leaving the core, which is it exists today. If the larger tree was eroded free just lava, subjected to the same rate of erosion in any length of time you want to give for the because it is the same material? process, isn't it likely the smaller tree would have Your editor has a piece of petrified wood which eroded in at least the same time? Unless the is "eroded," and when placed on end, it shows smaller tree is already uncovered, and it is only the same columnar, fluted structure mentioned the "superficial" appearance to a tree stump that as being peculiar to Devils Tower. The similarity it lacks to be exactly the same as the Devils is so striking that one wonders if study of petrified Tower? plant structures ought to be carried still further. The geologists say Devils Tower is "like the It would seem that the peculiarities of plant now-forming columnar rock in many respects (but structure would be rather hard to identify if the not all)" to a volcano lava formation. They say evidence were to be based on plant matter on a they do not agree as to just how Devils Tower gigantic scale. The cellular structure would be was formed. They say it is "similar" from actual unrecognizable because of the huge scale on which observation. it occurs. A mistake might easily be made in We say it is a tree, and from "similarities" with calling it something not plant-like at all. actual observation of such things as charcoal, The convex hill nearby has (they say) a core petrified wood, etc. Why should either "deduc- like Devils Tower. Only from superficial examina- tion" be accorded preference? tion of the hilltop, it would seem. Or maybe the Shaver and Amazing Stories say it is a tree out whole hill is lava. It would seem this is the case. there at Devils Tower.

But that doesn't prove anything—since it would Geologists say it is "similar to lava" in a vol- take at least one or two million years to erode cano or molten rock injected between layers of the hill (the length of time the geologists estimate rock. They aren't sure. it took to erode Devils Tower), before we would Orthodox scientific explanations are based upon have the visual evidence before us. Maybe the the preponderance of (all) evidence known to man smaller hill is just the mound left of a burned- at this time. It is known that the Age of Mam- over stump? mals (when Devils Tower is supposed to have Let's picture a day in the Earth's past, say only been formed) was 50 million years ago; and it is

50,000 years ago. ... We have two giant trees known that man is less than 50,000 years old ; and growing side by side. They tower S000 feet into it is known that the erosion had to take 2 mil- the air. The earth enters an area in space lion years in order to conform with other things where there is a "nebula" of dust and meteoric that are known. None of them are really known, material which falls in a tremendous fiery rain. but all hypothecated. This incandescent material burns the trees, and Maybe it's a tree, who knows. One can only buries the stumps beneath debris, covering them hypothecate, if that's all we have to go on completely. The glowing stumps carbonize, are Recently the head of the chair of geology at subjected to intense pressure, compressed to a Edinburgh University reported to the Royal So- rock-like structure very much like lava, in col- ciety that he had computed the age of the earth umnar form (have you ever made charcoal? ever 1619 times and gotten 1619 different answers iooked at a piece of charcoal and noticed the Really nowl structure?) and then cooled relatively rapidly It's a tree! due to the cessation of the storm of incandescent 'Tain't material from the skies. This material being more 'Tis! NOTES ON SUBTERRANEAN SHAFTS By VINCENT H. GADDIS

"There are sacraments of evil as well as of good ble links with a puzzling antiquity present prob- about us, and we live and move to my belief in an lems to the modern world that are bewildering unknown world, a place where there are caves and and baffling. shadows and dwellers in twilight. It is possible In Tibet there is a secret city, hidden in the that man may sometimes return on the track of world's highest mountains, and built at the top evolution, and it is my belief that an awful lore of a pit that drops deep into the earth; in Nova is not yet dead." —Arthur Machen Scotia there is a strange underground chamber protected by ancient engineering so ingenious that THROUGHOUT the world there are mys- it has baffled the best salvage experts; in Mexico terious shafts, caves and tunnels built or the prehistoric Acapulco tunnel and the padre- inhabited by unknown beings who have protected and sealed opening at Xilitla remain vanished into the mists of pre-history. These visi- unexplored. —

NOTES ON SUBTERRANEAN SHAFTS 149

South America, too, has its underground pas- a white beard who speaks six languages, including sages, linked with the long-lost and archaic Golden English, and is remarkably well-informed about City of Manoa and the disappearance of the ex- world affairs. plorer Col. Percy Fawcett. In the Ozark Moun- Illion learned that only one other westerner had tains of our country there is the story of the ever visited the city, and he had lived and died "devil pit" concealed by rugged cliffs, while off there under a Tibetan name. Life in the city re- the coast of India, covered by the sea so long ago sembles that of an ant-hill under the absolute con- that not even the incredibly aged records of that trol of its ruler. No one is permitted to leave the hoary country contain reference to them, are city without permission, and every action of its cities that apparently have been visited in modern dwellers is rigidly regulated. times by mysterious constructions unknown to The-shaft itself appeared incredibly aged and earth. very deep. Stones weighing up to twenty pounds Behind these reports are implications and cor- were thrown in, but no sound reached Illion's ears. relations of data that point to startling suggestions. His inquiries revealed that only a few of the high- There are spots on and under this planet that est initiates knew what was at the bottom, and present profound enigmas—the gravity-defying any other person who found out would die vortexes in Oregon and California, for example, "there are such secrets"—with death automatical- that may well be caused by buried machinery ly following the discovery. of ancient or extra-terrestrial origin—and the This city is apparently the headquarters of a writer feels certain that we are on the verge of widespread secret organization with agents scat- making some remarkable discoveries. Extensive tered throughout the Orient—perhaps even in the correspondence with well-known authorities and west, according to additional information reaching explorers in America and England in recent the writer recently. Illion's discovery of the con- months has produced a wealth of astonishing in- cealed evil nature of this city which poses as good, formation that would fill a book. As my time his refusal to become an agent, his escape and the permits, the material that can safely be made uncanny nature of his pursuit are details that will public will be released. be found in his book.

The Tibetan Shaft It is hoped that additional observations may TN A remote region of northern Tibet, Theodore be made by travelers in future years. The fact * Illion, playwright and world-traveler, found a that possession of this mysterious shaft is in evil mysterious shaft and an underground city devoted hands is very suggestive, and it is one of the to evil. He tells the story in his book, Darkness reasons why I feel that stories and doctrines com- Over Tibet (Rider and Co., London), which con- ing out of Tibet and apparently devoted to man- tains a detailed account of his observations and kind's best interests must be carefully considered his almost-miraculous escape. before they are blindly accepted as truth. "The existence of an underground city in Tibet," The Oak Island Pit he writes, "is occasionally hinted at by well-in- CEVERAL months ago I wrote an article an formed people in the forbidden country, although ^ the famous so-called "money pit" on Oak the stories are often extravagant and turn the Island in Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia. It has been city, which I succeeded in entering, into a 'Mighty generally believed that this amazing shaft and Underground Empire inhabited by millions of underground chamber is the work of pirates, and people.' Tibet becomes somewhat more accessible that it contains a treasure of fabulous value. The as the years roll by, and I am confident that story of how this shaft was accidentally discovered eventually other explorers will confirm my de- in 1795 by three young men, and the long tale of

scription of . . . (this) city." repeated attempts by salvage companies to solve After receiving a letter of introduction and the problem of the sea-water tunnel system that directions from a native Tibetan occultist, Illion protects the chamber will be found in my original found the city near the Sangpo Valley, twenty article. miles from the nearest village. It is known as Briefly, here are the facts: At some remote the "City of the Initiates," and consists of seven period a small army of workmen and a number underground buildings that drop at least fourteen of vessels arrived at this small island in the bay. stories below the surface, the tops of these sub- No one knows who they were, where they came surface constructions being level with the ground. from, how long ago they arrived, or what they They are built around a shaft, the top of which placed in the shaft. They sunk a shaft thirteen is surrounded by a wall four feet high and ten feet in diameter and at a depth of ISO feet built yards in diameter. a large chamber of cement, iron and oak beams, at The top of each building consists of a large least forty feet in height, on a seven-inch concrete glass skylight that is level with the surface and floor. can be quickly covered. In front of each is a Something was placed in the chamber, which narrow staircase going down to a heavy door. was then sealed. In the meantime other workmen The buildings are connected by tunnels, are easily were constructing a series of twisting tunnels to kept warm, and practically earthquake-proof. the shaft from the sea. At least two tunnels are Several hundred inhabitants are under the rule of definitely known to exist; there are likely others. a Prince Mani Rimpotche, a tall aged Tibetan with One of the tunnels was run to an inlet where a 150 AMAZING STORIES

huge artificial beach was made with tons and tons drill, and when the drill was brought to the sur- of unidentified fiber, covered with gravel and soil, face a scrap of parchment the size of a pea, torn so that it served as a vast sponge forcing water from a large sheet, was found clinging to it. In into the tunnel regardless of low tides. India ink were the characters "WI" or "VI" which, As the shaft was filled, obstructions of various as Driscoll remarks, "may be almost anything kinds—planks, fiber, concrete, putty, even char- in almost any language." coal—were placed every ten feet. When the Then there is the fiber found in the shaft and shaft was filled, the tunnels were opened, and the used in the artificial beach. According to T. D. unknown workmen left the island never to return. Barrett (True Tales of Buried Treasure), no bot- All attempts to sink shafts, therefore, and recover anist has ever been able to identify it. It resem- the buried objects are frustrated by the water bles cocoanut fiber, and is apparently of tropical coming in from the sea. There Is no way to origin. Nevertheless, thousands of tons of this hold back the flood of water that comes in faster substance, shipload after shipload, was brought than pumps can operate. No concealed shut-off here centuries ago to form a beach ISO feet long to valves for the tunnels can be located. The best act as permanent protective reservoir. salvage experts and engineers of modern times The island itself is a mystery. It is one of have been unable to solve the problem. over 300 islands in the bay, yet it alone possesses After writing the article it occurred to me that oak trees, red clover, and several other plants. here was a mystery that went beyond the mere In early days the settlers believed it was haunted, attempt of pirates to conceal some stolen gold. and there were many tales of strange lights, mys- The matter of the inscribed stone found at the terious sounds, and even the disappearance of 00-foot level, for example. It was a flat piece of several explorers. Today the island is riddled quarried basalt, about three feet long by 16 inches with shafts, torn from dynamite explosions, and wide, covered with "peculiar characters which no- the chamber, penetrated many times by drills, is body could decipher." Doubtless this inscription flooded with water. The latest idea is to excavate was the key to the mystery, but it has disap- the entire center of the island with modern ma- peared, and no copy of the characters was ever chinery. It will cost $250,000, but a company made. Pirates did not inscribe stones, mix con- will probably be formed within the next few crete, build artificial beaches or sink shafts to such years to make the attempt. Perhaps, then, Oak incredible depths. Island will give up its long-held secret. Then came a letter to the writer from Harold Mystery In Mexico T. Wilkins, world-famous authority on pirate O ISING above the Pacific near Acapulco, Mexi- lore and prehistoric history (See Who's Who). Mr. co, is a sheer rocky cliff, protected from the

Wilkins wrote : "I have long theorised that the so- sea by jagged boulders that make a landing pos- called money pit in Nova Scotia is far from any sible only by native canoe. In the face of this pirate-made pit, as no pirates, even if they were cliff is an artificial tunnel, regarded with super- military engineers, would excavate a pit over a stitious dread by the natives. Known as the "Cave hundred feet deep. In Nova Scotia, at one of of the Pirates," it was obviously made by a pre- more points, there are also the phenomena of historic, patient race, and since there are no mysterious footprints in stone—in one case lead- safe anchorage spots nearby it is doubtful that ing across what is now a swamp to a very queer pirates ever used it. elevation." It has never been fully explored, and it appar- After receiving this letter, I decided to make ently goes back into the earth for an incredible further inquiries, and learned that other writers distance. The walls are remarkably smooth and suspect the prehistoric construction of this shaft decorated with untranslated inscriptions and fig- and chamber. Charles Driscoll, for example, in his ures. Long delayed echoes reveal its astonishing book Doubloons, suggests that it may date back depth. It has been known to the Indians for to an early and unknown colony of Scandinavians some years, but they avoid it and tell of strange who buried their accumulated wealth, attempted lights that they have observed near its mouth. to return to Europe, and were all lost at sea. Although access to it is difficult, this man-made, Realizing that his idea is far-fetched, he chal- vast and unexplored ancient tunnel deserves in- lenges the reader to think up a better explanation. vestigation. Why it was constructed in such a On the other hand, Dr. A. Hyatt Verrill (Lost treacherous spot on a barren cliff is itself a mys- Treasures) writes: "It is obvious that whoever tery. placed the treasure at the bottom of that deep On the road from Mexico City to Laredo, down pit on Oak Island, and deliberately flooded the the Montezuma river valley, is the Indian town shaft, had no intentions of ever recovering it. of Tamazunchale. Twenty-five miles from this

Whoever buried it there buried it for all time, to town, on a rough side road, is Xilitla, where the be utterly beyond reach, and so far their efforts ruins of an old Spanish monastery lie surrounded have met with entire success." by a wall of masonry. On one side this wall is There are other mysterious factors; in fact the built against the side of a cliff. entire matter is utterly baffling and without a Some years ago an earthquake shook the vil- clue. In 1894 the chamber was penetrated by a lage and part of the ancient wall collapsed re- NOTES ON SUBTERRANEAN SHAFTS 151

vealing a tunnel cut into the cliff. The side* of ing heights, but never more than a few feet from the tunnel bare mysterious inscriptions and figures the road. Old-timers claim they were there fifty of birds, snakes and curious unknown animals. years before the road was built and when the area The local Indians kept away from the passage, was a woods. When approached they usually but one day two Americans who were passing vanish or rise high into the air, and they are said through the village decided to explore it. Hours to radiate heat. When pursued they often react

later they emerged greatly excited and left the as if guided intelligently. town, stating that they would return. But they The Indian Sea Enigma never came back. CINCE 17S0 shipping masters in the Indian Ocean No one knows who these Americans were or ^ and adjacent waters have been reporting their what they found. The padres, for reasons known observations of mysterious huge wheeled construc- only to themselves, sealed the tunnel again by tions, luminous and slowly revolving, under, ris- rebuilding the wall. In more recent years they ing from, or entering the sea. Hundreds of these have absolutely refused to permit exploration, reports have been published in the Marine Ob- although they state that they have no knowledge server, issued by the British Meteorological Office, of what lies within—which is probably true. Only since 18S0. Although nautical journals have dis- time will reveal the answer. cussed the enigma at various times, very little The Ozark Legend information about these observations has reached CINCE the Ozark region has already been re- the general public. ferred to as the site of an underground shaft, In 1935, the late Charles Fitzhugh Talman, Chief it is of interest to note that there exists an old Meteorologist of the U. S. Weather Bureau, in legend in various parts of Missouri and Arkansas commenting on the report of the steamer Talma

of a great hole in the ground, surrounded by great in 1929, wrote : "These tales that come to us year cliffs, from which strange sounds, lights and odors after year from the Indian Ocean of luminous emerge. Known as the "devil pit," its location is wonders as weird as anything Poe-ever imagined" not known, although men of previous generations cannot be explained by modem science. "The claimed to have visited the place years ago. Ac- whole business," he added, "is so astounding that cording to Vance Randolph (Osark Ghost Stories), one wonders why no scientific expedition has yet these old accounts state that "strange people live investigated it." on the escarpments, throw odd things into the Details on a number of these reports will be bottomless pit at night, particularly when the found in The Books of Charles Fort. Most signifi-

moon if full . . . (and) there are tales of dark- cant is the localized nature of these observations. visaged foreigners traveling at night, who make Moreover, a check of records reveals that a large regular pilgrimages to the place from distant parts proportion of these appearances, limited as they of the country." are to the Indian Ocean area, have been off the Fred Allsopp, in his Folklore of Romantic Ar- western coast of India. kansas, also refers to this story. Although there Beneath the sea in this region, according to is a deep canyon with high walls called the James Churchward (Children of Mu), lies "a "devil's half acre" near Mena, Ark., the legend large area of submerged land with structures show- is not known to the local inhabitants. It may be ing thereon." This submerged land is of an oval added that Breadtray Mountain in Stone County, shape, with the Lacadive and Maldive Islands Mo., is the scene of many reports of mysterious lying within its boundaries. At several points both phenomena, and Otto Rayburn (Ozark Country) north and south of these islands are regions of writes that "Breadtray has a legendary reputation very shallow water, crossed by channels of greater seldom paralleled." Judge Tom Moore (Mys- depth, and on clear days when the surface of the terious Tales and Legends of the Ozarks) states water is quiet and the sun is in the correct posi- that persons who visit the mountain at night hear tion, the "imposing remains of ancient structures sobs, groans and screams, and that his report are clearly to be seen." "does not come from second-hand information, Obviously this area Was once a part of India, nor is it based on hearsay." but no record of its submergence is mentioned in Also, the mysterious lights on a lonely stretch Hindu history no matter how far one goes back. of country road called the "devil's promenade" The structures are of a very large size and indi- in northeastern Oklahoma, fourteen miles from cate a prehistoric civilization highly advanced. Joplin, Mo., and five miles from Highway 66, are Is there any relationship between these puzzling famous. Anyone, on any clear night, can see ocean-dwelling wheels and this long-lost culture them, and repeated investigations have failed to of pre-history ? Where do these huge circular produce an explanation. Other strange things structures come from, and where do they go? have happened along this stretch of road, accord- What conceivable purpose do they have in sub- ing to Randolph. merging below the Indian Ocean—and only in this The lights resemble automobile headlights with localized area? It is quite possible that the an- dimmers on, vary from the size of an egg to that swers to these questions, when they are known, of a washtub, and always travel in an easterly will be as astonishing and incredible as these re- direction. They appear in varying colors at vary- ports are to us today. WHAT MAN

IS THERE AN ETHER DRIFT?

By

Roger P. Graham

THERE an ether drift? In these days when ISthe most advanced science seems based on the premise that there is no ether, that question might seem silly to some. Nevertheless, it is asked in all seriousness. At one time not so long ago science based much of its theory on an "imponderable medium" per- vading all space, which was supposed to offer NO RESISTANCE whatever to the passage of matter

through it. It was supposed to be stationary in space, so that by relating all movement to the stationary ether we would have more or less ab- solute motion. Thus, the Earth, according to this theory on the ether, was moving at least many miles per second THROUGH the ether. This theory was accepted by scientists and be- lieved to be true. So when Michelson and Morley performed their famous experiments on ether drift they did it with confidence that they would be able to measure the velocity of the ether. No one was more surprised than they when their results proved negative consistently. Nevertheless, being honest scientists, they had to accept their experi- mental data. THE EARTH DID NOT MOVE THROUGH THE ETHER. Two different types of setups were used in these experiments. Both were essentially the same in principle. The one, now famous and described in most advanced physics books as well as in THE MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE, by Jeans, floated in a pool of mercury, so that the paths of light WERE AT ALL TIMES IN THE HORIZON- TAL PLANE. The other, reported by Michelson in the AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, Series 4, Volume 3, 47S-78, year 1897, was set up in a fixed frame so that NOTHING ABOUT IT MOVED RELATIVE TO THE EARTH. The rotation of the Earth itself was supposed to turn the apparatus in the ether stream. These two experiments were done many times and always gave negative results, so the conclusion had to be accepted that THERE IS NO STA- TIONARY ETHER THROUGH WHICH THE EARTH MOVES. It is one of the peculiarities of the human mind that a specific statement can be used to generalize far beyond what it originally implied. Today the former conclusion of the ether drift experiment has been subtly altered to state that there is no move- CAN IMABll

If you will Imagine it, perhaps

someone will be inspired to do

it. This department is for your

ideas, no matter how "wild" they may seem; who knows, they may

be the spur to some man's think-

ing and thereby change our des-

tiny! Tell us your thoughts.

m«nt of the ether that could be detected under ANY experimental conditions. Nevertheless, the Michelson-Morley experiments DID NOT COVER EVERY POSSIBLE CON- DITION. A careful study of those experiments will show anyone that they could not possibly have measured any drift of the ether TOWARD THE CENTER OF THE EARTH. In other would require a solid sttcl plate at least six inches words, the ether could be flowing THROUGH thick and ten feet in diameter, fixed on a heavy the apparatus used Michelson in both types of by shaft and set on a huge concrete foundation. experiments he performed THE CEIJ. TOWARD Nevertheless, since it seemed the only way to and that velocity could TER OF THE EARTH, perform the experiment, I was determined to go not possibly register in his interferometer! through with it and had even spent several months He did not think of this possibility because the tracking down the various parts needed. accepted concept of the ether gave it the property Then a much simpler idea came to me which of being incapable of affecting matter altering and could give much more certain results, and immedi- its velocity as it drifted through the ether. ate (though inaccurate) confirmation that there If we deny that and postulate that the slightest IS a downward drift of the ether, IF THERE drift of ether will cause matter to change its IS ONE. velocity, then it follows that all fields: gravity, The idea is pictured in the diagram shown with positive electrical, negative electrical, and magnetic this article. Simply expressed, if a mirror is placed are ether drifts of some sort. flat on the floor and two surveyor's transits are the effect of gravity is the effect of an Then set up about five feet on either side of it, so that ether drift! they look down on the mirror from a height of If it is, some to there should be way measure about five feet, and the first transit is centered on the velocity of this drift. a thin line scratched in the silver of the mirror; then the second transit is moved about until its TN SEARCHING for some method to fill the gap hair lines are centered exactly on the line scratched * left by the Michelson-Morley experiments, in the mirror, and also the reflection of visible and measure the possible downward drift of lie crosshairs plated at the end of the first instru- ether, I first decided to use essentially the same ment; then, when you go back to the first instru- system that Michelson used, but with a more ment which is already centered on the scratch in rigid setup, and rotated on a horizontal shaft. The the mirror, it SHOULD be exactly centered on the drawback to that setup was that the change in reflection of the second instrument's external shape of the frame due to the shift of gravitational cross hairs just as the second instrument is on the stresses as it rotated would affect the measure- first—UNLESS THERE IS AN ETHER DRIFT. ments and hence the results would be inconclusive. If there is an ether drift it will not be possible Also it would be a very expensive setup, since it to have both instruments exactly in line with THE 153 : - :

154 AMAZING STORIES

REFLECTION of the other AND the scratch in century associations, and use the term 'space.' the mirror. The term used does not much matter." (p. 124, In this crude setup accurate results can't be ob- Jeans, Mysterious Universe.) tained, but POSITIVE results can, and HAVE The purpose of this article has been to present been obtained. I rented two surveyor's transits the METHOD by which it may be definitely and set them up in the editor's basement and proven by anyone that there IS an ether drift, spent an afternoon get-ting them lined up so that and that it is TOWARD THE CENTER OF one instrument was lined exactly with the scratch THE EARTH. The velocity of this drift must be on a small mirror on the floor AND a white greater than sixteen miles per second, since free- thread carefully centered over the end of the other falling objects from space sometimes attain to that transit, which had been set in line with the scratch velocity when they strike the atmosphere. Our on the mirror. Then I went back to the first in- first experiments show that this velocity is under strument and saw that it was about a twentieth of a hundred miles per second—probably around an inch off. eighty miles per second. Time after time I undid the setup and did it This experiment must be repeated under more over again. Each time I got the same results. accurate conditions and done by many different Then Mr. Palmer himself tried it and got almost people before its conclusions can be accepted as exactly the same results I did. final. From this roughly set up experiment I de- For the mathematical record, the mathematics termined that there IS AN ETHER DRIFT TO- used by myself in this experiment follows WARD THE CENTER OF THE EARTH AND Let THAT IT IS SOMEWHERE AROUND h=PD EIGHTY MILES PER SECOND. I think it d = AD = DC may be less, and Mr. Palmer thinks it is probably y = BE between eight-five and a hundred miles a second. x = BC Any reader can perform the same experiment Light from A reflected from the point P would and get the same results. THEY ARE DEF- pass through E if there were no ether drift, since INITELY POSITIVE. < APD = < EPD. The downward drift of ether causes the light through instead. TN ORDER to get very accurate measurement to pass B Let * of the ether velocity the path of the light ray v = velocity of ether drift should be at least a hundred feet. c = velocity of light. The transits should have fifty power instead of Then twenty-five power lenses, and the external and internal cross hairs on each telescope should be ((1) I-™. accurately lined up. ' c EP Vh» +

This diagram shows how Mr. Graham performed his experiment, using two surveyor's transits focused on a mirror on the floor from a height of five feet. See page 153 for detailed explanation.

Substituting these values in (6) we get hundreds of readers have, without persuasion of v = 87 4- miles per second. any kind, advanced similar opinions in many EDITORIAL NOTE: strange guises from "voices" to just plain deduc-

We present this experimental report as an in- tion) .

tegral part of the Shaver Mystery because (1) If this experiment can be verified, it is PROOF Mr. Graham's own work proved so parallel to the of the accuracy of Mr. Shaver's concepts in this Shaver Mystery that it was the cause of his con- particular matter, no matter how we accept the tacting us to present us with his thought-provok- METHOD by which he claims to have gained ing material, which, to forestall the accepted au- them. thority certain to be quoted at us, is NOT in Your editor has PERFORMED this experiment, accordance with that accepted authority. has witnessed an inexplicable thing that MUST Shaver says "empty" space is not empty. It is be explained. If the theories of ether drift, exd, or

filled with his "exd." (Finely divided matter what have you, DO NOT explain it, then indeed which had "disintegrated"; and from which mat- will the BETTER explanation need POSITIVE ter can itself be reintegrated.) He says its "veloc- DEMONSTRATION. The burden of proof, it is ity" is what we call gravity—that is, the effect we said scientifically, lies on the claimant. We have notice is due to the friction of its passing through claimed these things, and now we have PROVED matter, the specific mention being in this case our- them by what we (with our meagre equipment selves and the earth. He also says that "velocity" and knowledge) consider at least TENTATIVELY is present only near matter. satisfactory evidence which can and must be ex- The reader will note the startling similarity of panded beyond all reasonable doubt. Since we this statement to that just made for the first time have accepted the burden of proof—we ask those anywhere by Mr. Graham in his experiment to claimants of the opposite theory—that there is no determine an ether drift in a downward direction. ether drift, nor exd—to come forward with posi- (The in-flow of ex-disintegrance in matter Mr. tive proof of error or inadequacy in the experi- Shaver has postulated.) ment we have performed. Reason (2) is that both Mr. Shaver and Mr. ADDITIONAL EDITORIAL COMMENT: Grahan\inform us that their initial source of in- Recently we made the statement in an editorial, formation is "outside" themselves. Mr. Shaver and to a group of fans who polled many on their from his "caves" with their "telaug thought- opinions on future space flight, that we considered records," "voices," "rays" (one of which we have flight to the planets impossible. We said that, photographed), teleportation and materializations basing our statement on the present "accepted in visible form—and Mr. Graham in a sort of authority" on such things as the ether. Because

intuitive manner not entirely within the form of we believe there IS an ether drift, and that it logical reasoning power. exists ONLY near bodies of matter and not in Reason (3) is that your own editor's studies space, no space ship could overcome the resistance have convinced him of similar things (and many of that drift and reach another planet, WITHOUT .

156 AMAZING STORIES

compensating for it. In short, any space ship Readers of Oakspe will note the THIRD start- launched to, say Mars, would MISS the planet by ling agreement with Shaver exd in its scientific the distance the ether drift would carry it off its theory of how suns and planets are created—by course, just as a plane which ignores the wind the "whirlpool" or "vortex" in space. If space is velocity would not arrive at its destination by EMPTY, the concept of a whirlpool in it is silly. many miles—AND, the ship would run out of fuel If it is exd, it is NOT silly. It is the MOST long before it reached its destination, IF it ac- LOGICAL WAY to form any stellar body, to cepted authority, and counted on "coasting" drive finely divided matter (space—ether) to- through millions of miles of NON-RESISTING gether to form solid (material) bodies. emptiness, and instead discovered the emptiness It is time to reexamine the "nature of the uni- was not emptiness at all, and offered a resistance verse" to determine what new concrete evidence (which might require a constant acceleration of can be introduced to modify our obviously one gravity, more or less, to avoid coming to a archaic concepts. We can never know the real halt just as a log shoved into a lake will be halted nature of the universe, but we can approach ever by the water unless the shove is continuously closer to approximating it. We have some NEW applied) evidence to be applied to our concepts. If we The reader can see the importance of proving reject it as dogmatists, future men will suffer

Shaver and Graham right or wrong. Space travel for it. tactics and success depend on it! Picture yourself in that first space ship aimed •

Other thinkers among our readers will com- at Mars. Picture yourself missing it, dying hor- prehend that the Shaver exd concept also can ex- ribly in space, forever lost. And all because you plain why the planets remain in their orbits, how found out that a mysterious ether scientists as- they remain there, the forces that produce the sured you did not exist, ACTUALLY DID, and it phenomena, and the forces that can "create" a COULD HAVE BEEN taken into consideration, world, or a solar system. and your life would NOT have been lost.

UNIFICATION OF NEWTONIAN AND EINSTEINIAN MASS CONCEPTS By ROGER P. GRAHAM

1. XJEWTON postulated that mass was a con- equations, and provide an expression for the mass ^ ^ stant. This was assumed to be true until of any material object which will be strictly in modern experimental physics determined, after agreement with both. many careful experiments and verifications, that It will lead also to a startling generalization on mass was not a constant. A new science grew up the nature of mass and the nature of the electron. based on these new facts and equations derived 2.1 A material particle is defined to be a body from experiment. so small that, for the purposes of our investiga- Just as the old was called Newtonian Mechan- tion the distances between its different parts may ics, the new might be called Einsteinian Mechan- be neglected. (Clerk Maxwell, Matter & Motion, ics. There seemed no possible way of reconciling Art. VI.) the two. It was stated that Newtonian concepts 2.2 So is used in this article to denote a system were inadequate to account for observable fact of material particles, (2.1); with the restriction except when velocities were very low and fairly imposed on S, that no particle be added to or constant, or time intervals were fairly short. taken from it during any analysis, and the re- The Newtonian concept of mass as a constant striction imposed on the particles that their mass was discarded and the new concept of mass- remain constant. (This is the Newtonian restric- energy as a constant took its place. Both of these tion.) Then, — concepts are discussed in great detail in many 2 .3 Sn ~ mi, ma, . . . , m« existing works. It should not be necessary to 3.1 Reference frame:—a coordinate system as cover that ground again. This article is devoted described and studied in any book on solid ana- to a unification of the Newtonian "constant-mass" lytics, having three, mutually perpendicular di- concept, and the modern or Einsteinian "mass- mensions, X, Y, and Z. energy" concept. 3.2 Any analysis for one dimension that holds Starting with purely Newtonian concepts and equally for the other two will use the letter, u, for assertions, S„, which is any material object, will the variable with the understanding that x, y, or z be subjected to mathematical analysis. This ana- can be substituted for u throughout. lysis will bridge the heretofore unreconcilable gap Then if between the Newtonian and the Einsteinian 3.3 F = f(u); u = x,y,z ; ;

WHAT MAN CAN IMAGINE . 157

We have

6-4 P. - Ji'Z m,(Viu - Vou)» 3.4 F = f(x) = f(y) = f(z)

4. Let mi be any material particle, (2.1), and On squaring, separating, and collecting terms, Viu its velocity at a given instant parallel to the we get direction, u; (u = x,y, z). Then the momentum of mi is 6-5 ru - M% tin (V\a + V'ou) -Vou 1 miV,. i=» 1 i = 1 4.1 M, =miVi» Subtracting 6.5 from 6.3 we get, (4.3)

If mi, mi, ... , m„ are n such particles called 6.6 I', — I» = the set S„, (22), then at the given instant Whence,

4-2 Mu = 2miViu 6-7 Iu - HSm^-VJ' and Ma is the momentum of S„ in the direction u i= 1 (u = x, y,z). Since this is equivalent to 6.3 it follows that the Then there is a mean value for Vi„ which will total energy of S„ is equal to the sum of its in- be denoted by V„u, for which ternal energy and its energy of velocity.

7. Consider the total energy of S„ as being that 4-3 «* M, — Voa S mi moV of an unknown mass, m„, along u, of velocity V «. i= 1 Then

7.1 E„ J = y2 m„ V .U . V„„

Then we may consider mn as being a sum of the 4-4 mass m„, (4.4), and an increment Da,. Thus i = l 7.2 m„ = m„ + Dm„ S. The energy of mi due to its velocity Vm is From 6.1 and 7.1 we have 2 S.l E lu = ^miV i„ 1 2 7.3 nuV ™ = m.V „» + 21. and the total energy of S» in the direction u, whence, from 7.2 we get (u = x,y,z), is 7.4 V*„» Dm, = 2I„

5-2 From 7.1 we have

i= 1 7.5 V*„„ = 2E„/m„ Substituting in 7.4 and transposing, Then there is a mean value Q„ for Vm such that 7.6 Dmu = muIu/Ea 5. 3 E» = V3 m,Q\ (see 4.4) whence, from 7.2 we get Then

|2Ej, 7-7 5-4 \ Imo where is the velocity S„ would have if its internal energy 7-8 r = I„/E„ were translated into linear velocity along u. Then, from 7.2 we get 6. Let m 7-9 mu 6.1 Eu = ^moV»„„ + lu 1 - r

From 6.1 it Is evident that (E„ — 1„) is the 8. From the law of conservation of energy it is energy S» would have due to its velocity Vo„ is evident that if all the energy E of S„ were given each mi had the same velocity Vo«; (S.2). There- out to any system, then S n would come to rest fore In must be the component of E„, (the total relative to that system and every mi would al^o energy of S«), that is internal energy. From 6.1 come to rest in that system. and 5.3 we have Conversely, if S» were to gain back its original

velocity and internal energy from that system it 6.2 Iu = H(Qa-V»„„)m. would have to do so by diverting part of the This expression may be written as acquired energy to internal energy and use the remainder for acceleration to its former velocity.

6-3 Hence, it is evident that r in 7.8 is in reality l-l this diversion fraction. It follows that

EM — Iu -Hs m,(V«IU - V«„) 8-1 r' - 1 - r = i= 1 Eu

Now let I'„ be the u-component of the internal is the fraction of the energy, or the work done on energy of S» relative to Vou taken at rest. Then S., that will produce linear velocity. Hence, :

AMAZING STORIES

8-2 r'Ea - HmoV'** the apparent variation of measured mass is not Whence, due to other factors such as hydrodynamic ele- ments of a rigid particle moving at different speeds through a fluid. If these factors are completely 8- 3 e = u y2 {^)voa accounted for and the measured mass still varies, it must be concluded that the particle is itself a which is equivalent to 7.1. system, S», made of still smaller particles. If hydrodynamic factors are thoroughly ac- It follows that if m. is the measured mass of S„ counted for in the measurement of the mass of an at rest, and a measured amount of work is done electron (and it is by no means certain they are) on S„, producing a measured velocity of S„, then then we must conclude that THE ELECTRON the value of m in IS NOT A SIMPLE PARTICLE BUT IS A 8.4 E = j^mV* SYSTEM OF STILL SMALLER PARTICLES. will not be a constant necessarily, but will be A conclusion may be drawn concerning infinite mass. It has long been an objection to the experi- 8.5 m = m„/r' mental determination of the measured mass of the

9. There has been nothing in this analysis that electron that if it reached the velocity of light it could fix the values of r and r'. Hence they must would have infinite mass. In everyday language, be classed as unknowns whose values might be de- an electron with the speed of light would have termined for any specific object, Sn. by either an more measured mass than the entire solar system experimental determination of m for various con- plus all the other stars in the Milky Way ! But ditions, or perhaps by a detailed analysis of the now we may interpret infinite mass as follows mathematical expressions for the work done on S» 10.3 A measured mass is infinite when r', (8.1), under expressed conditions. is zero; whence, any object may be said to have In actual experiment under many and varied infinite mass if and only if all work done on it is conditions the value of m, (8.4), has been found diverted to internal energy. to vary according to the equation Conversely, 10.4 A measured mass is constant if and only if 9.1 n.-Sfe- all work done on it produces velocity. CONCLUSION We have brought the Einsteinian and the New- tonian concepts of mass into one theoretical where V is the velocity of the electron, C is the framework. There still remains one big question velocity of light, and m„ is the measured mass of to be answered; Is all mass measured, or Einstein- the electron at rest or at negligible speeds. ian, energy-mass? Or is there some primal sub- Since this is equivalent to 8.S we have stance which may be called primal mass, which is present and remains constant throughout all 9- 2 i> - -y/l-J changes of measured mass? In other words, is m», (4.3), a measured mass and or a primal mass? There seems no way of an- 7 swering that question at present. Since the 9.3 r = 1 - ^i measure of mass is'purely relative and two masses ^ may be equal, or measured equal, without exam- as the experimentally determined values for the ining the energy content of either, we have no velocity-fraction and the intemal-energy-fraction way of finding an object which we can say has of acquired energy. zero internal energy and comparing it with con- Then, if E is the work done on an electron at ventional objects. rest in a system, and m„ is the measured mass of In experiment, if we could find a particle whose the electron at rest, the velocity-producing work mass is constant at all velocities we would still done on the electron is r'E, and the velocity is not know if it were a primal substance. We would given in 8.3. only know that its energy content is constant— 10. One very important conclusion can be drawn not whether it is zero or not. from this analysis at once. It is Therefore, in this article the question of the 10.1 If the internal energy of any material par- basic nature of ultimate mass still remains unan- ticle remains a constant under all circumstances, swered. We are, however, in a position to define its measured mass at all velocities will be constant. Newtonian mass and Einsteinian mass (or energy- And, since S„ may itself be considered as a ma- mass) in common terms. terial particle, (2.1), it follows that 11.1 Newtonian mass:—Any material particle 10.2 If the measured mass of any material parti- whose internal energy remains a constant under cle varies under certain variable conditions IT all conditions available. MUST BE COMPOSED OF SMALLER PARTI- 11.2 Einsteinian mass:—Any material particle CLES. whose internal energy content varies under some Naturally it must be definitely determined that conditions. VISITORS Am tL VOID By VINCENT H. GADDIS

THERE have been signs, symbols and ob- Brunswick, N. J. Observers said that its motors jects in the skies of earth described as were silent and that its lights were blinking when snakes, swords, lights and rockets. Slow- it disappeared behind the wooded hills. Time of moving so-called meteors have zig-zagged their the observation was close to midnight. Again way above the clouds, and stratospheric explosions the state police made an unsuccessful search, and have rocked the land below. Mysterious rays again all planes throughout the east were ac- stopped airplane motors over the world's largest counted for. city as unidentified phantom planes puzzled the These three reports were collected from the war departments of four nations. Ships and men New York Times by David Markham, a member were observed to drop from the heavens in isolated of the Fortean Society. According to Tiffany areas only to vanish. Thayer, secretary of the Fortean Society, Mr. This is the startling story of bewildering events Markham, who has been collecting material on that have occurred in the last few years. What maritime vanishments, has reached certain quasi- relationship, if any, exists between these varied conclusions which he has asked him to withhold reports? Who or what lies behind them? temporarily as possibly too dangerous to make From Point Pleasant, W. Va., on Oct. 11, 1931, public. My article "Strange Secrets of the Sea" came the report that a blimp or dirigible was ob- presents the type of material referred to. served to have plunged to the earth in flames, men Oddly enough, these reports of men or airships leaping from it in parachutes as it fell. There dropping to earth and vanishing without a trace were many witnesses who stated that the crash are not unique. The original records of the late had occurred in the hills south of the city. Ob- Charles Fort contain several similar accounts. How servers at Gallipolis Ferry reported that the blimp many more lie buried in the files of obscure news- had crossed the Ohio River and it had fallen while papers we can only guess. one man was watching it through field glasses. Described as being between a hundred and one /"\NE year after the New Brunswick report a hundred and fifty feet long, it was at an altitude mysterious plane appeared over New York of three hundred feet when it burst. White ob- City. On Dec. 26, 1933, the metropolis was jects, believed to have been parachutes, fell with it. blotted out from above by a snowstorm. The Searching parties were organized. Nearby air- first telephone call to police headquarters was ports sent planes to assist in the all-day search. made at 9:30 a. m. and then the reports steadily Officials at Akron, Ohio, announced that all naval increased. The plane could not be seen, but its blimps were safe in their hangars. And despite progress was followed by the sound of its motor. the extensive search and far-flung inquiries, not Apparently the pilot was wandering blindly above a single clue was turned up. The mystery re- the snow-shrouded towers of Manhattan in circles mains—concealed somewhere in the West Virginia unable to find a place to. land. hills the solution to this puzzle is still a secret. In the hope that the pilot had a /short-wave Then, slightly less than two months later, came receiver, the National Broadcasting Company tried a report from Hammonton, N. J. On Dec. 5, to contact him. All airports were notified. late in afternoon, an aviator was observed to Beacons and searchlights were lit. A ceiling of fall in a parachute into the Folsom Swamp, one five hundred feet was reported at the Newark Air- of the densest sections of bog and woodland in the port. As the hours lengthened the ceiling rose, southern part of the state, south of the city. Ad- but the reports continued to flow in. Residents ditional reports of witnesses came from Wey- of Jersey City and the Bronx announced hearing mouth, a village on the other side of the swamp. the motor. By the middle of the afternoon, Dropping from a high altitude, no plane had when the reports finally ceased, the visibility was been observed or heard. set at a mile and the pilot could easily have landed Led by state police, five local fire companies at ports in New Jersey or Long Island, but all air and witnesses, a small army of volunteers searched fields in the Metropolitan area reported that there the swamp all night and all the next day. Air- had been no flying during the day and no stray ports throughout the eastern part of the country plane had appeared. reported that all planes were accounted for. The At this time a phantom plane was appearing long search was fruitless, but it was added that over the Scandinavian countries. The first dis- the swamp contains areas never penetrated before patch was released at Stockholm on Dec. 31, 1933, except by Indians. and it announced that Swedish army aviators had A year later, on Dec. 29, 1932, it was reported been ordered to chase a mysterious plane which that a large tri-motored airplane had been forced had been sighted for several weeks over Lapland. down in the woodlands eight miles west of New Based, it was believed, somewhere in the moun- 159 160 AMAZING STORIES

tains, it has been making night flights, and had Lou Wedemar, it was announced that pilots had recently been heard flying toward Norway during asked the Department of Commerce to investigate a heavy snowstorm. a supposed radio ray which was stopping the Another dispatch from the same city on Jan. motors of planes flying over the city. The planes 9, 1934, stated that the "ghost plane" had been while flying over the central part of Manhattan observed over Westerbotten in northern Sweden, had experienced puzzling engine trouble. In aero- and that the Swedish airforce had already lost nautical circles the belief had spread that some two airplanes in efforts to locate the base of the sort of short-wave had been developed by an un- mystery ship. A party of four men who had been known experimenter which affected the motors at making a ground search along the Norwegian bor- which it was aimed. der had vanished. Motors went suddenly dead without apparent More dispatches followed from Helsingfors and reason, and careful examination by expert me- Stockholm. There was speculation that the planes chanics failed to reveal any reason for the phe- might be Soviet flyers making test flights to arctic nomenon. Several disasters had almost occurred * icebreakers or exploring a new air route from as the "magnetism" did not pass off for some Russia to the Atlantic. Soviet authorities denied time, and the planes had to be brought down to that any of their planes were over the area. emergency landings. One example cited was the On Feb. 3 a Helsingfors dispatch announced near-disaster of a cabin plane piloted by Michael that "continued night flights over Northern Fin- Stupelli which was forced to land in the East land, Sweden and Norway by so-called ghost avia- River while carrying three passengers.

tors which have caused such apprehension here This report, too, is not unique. In October, as to prompt the general staff to organize recon- 1930, forty automobiles were stalled for an hour noitering on a wide scale by army planes all over on the road between Riesa and Wurzen in Ger- Northern Finland still remain a deep mystery." many. All motors mysteriously stopped. But Although there were a large number of eyewit- earlier, in the summer of 1923, and south of this nesses, the plane could not be identified. road in Saxony, Germany, French aviators re- The report added that mysterious lights over ported the mysterious stopping of motors near Helsingfors and Viborg had caused alarm, and Furth while they were flying from Strasbourg to that the large unidentified plane had been sighted Prague. It was believed that a German experi- over eastern Finland where aviation experts stated menter was practicing on French airplanes with "that the mysterious flyers show exceptional skill, newly-discovered rays. If so, his secret was never undoubtedly superior to that of northern Euro- used in the late war* pean aviators." The appearance of a mystery plane, the first, over London is referred to in this ON THE night of Nov. 24, 1935, a "flaming dispatch, and it has been pointed out that this word" was observed in the heavens between group of reports stopped about the time of the Palestine and Dallas, Texas. Dr. J. D. Boon, pro- inferior conjunction of Venus (Feb. 5, 1934). fessor of astrophysics at Southern Methodist Uni- But in March, 1935, an object described as versity, stated that no comet or stellar phenome- "a large shining form resembling a gigantic snake, non of any kind had been scheduled to appear. wriggling forth in the northwestern sky" appeared One witness, a newspaper editor, described the for half an hour in the early evening over southern appearance as "a narrow, bright shaft of light, Norway and Denmark. As observed at Grimstad absolutely stationary and vertical, an exact replica by a correspondent for the Tidens Tegn (Norway), of a sword." it had four or five curves marked off by shadows, In February, 1936, the "phantom light of Ring- and was in a vertical position with its "head" old" (near Pasco, Wash.) was reported. It was down toward the earth. The vision was clear. a mysterious light, drifting widely and often along There were no clouds, and it was very brilliant. populated highways where it had caused motorists The Stavanger Aftenblad for March 26 published to drive into ditches, and many citizens of high a complete description of the appearance and repute had sworn to its authenticity. It vanished sketches of it made by the artist Naesheim who when approached, and all efforts to find a plaus- was a witness. ible explanation resulted in failure. A similar object appeared three times over the A ghost scare in a mine near Bishop, Va., was city of Cruz Alta, Brazil; twice in December, reported in dispatches of Jan. 18, 1937. Officials of 1935, and again in July, 1937. On its last ap- the Pochahontas Fuel Company, owners of No. 34 pearance the "snake" had its "head" toward the Mine, were trying to lay the scare that had caused earth, the head appearing as a ball of fire. In * passing it might be added that there were reports This is not true. Your editor has an eye-witness ac- count of six B-17s crashing in the Siegfried Line, com- of "swords" and "coffins" in the sky over the ing down without a shot being fired, all of them crashing Polish -German border in 1937, but details regard- because of a simultaneous cessation of the motors. This incident was broadcast over the American radio by a ing these reports are not available to the writer news reporter,_ but did not appear in any paper of the at this time. same or following day that he knows of—nor was it men- tioned again on the air. It can only be assumed the in- Then came the mystery ray stopping airplane formation was suppressed for security reasons. It has motors over New York City. In a Universal also been rumored that German authorities have denied that they knew of such an ignition-stopping ray, or of the Service dispatch dated May 24, 1935, written by plane crashes mentioned. —Eo. VISITORS FROM THE VOID 161 more than a hundred miners to desert the pits. checked by military authorities. It moved too The mine was believed haunted. For several fast for a plane, and too slow for a meteor. Its months there had been reports of mysterious size was given variously, some of the reports moans, shrieks, slamming of doors, and a phantom stating that it was too large to be an airplane. It form that followed the men. followed a zig-zag course, from west to east and On the night of July 20, 1937, a mysterious from south to north. It "screamed through the plane was observed hovering over the Hendon air," and rattled windows. State police were Aerodrome and the heart of London. There were besieged with calls. There were a dozen reports many witnesses. The Air Ministry was puzzzled, of its fall to earth at widely-scattered points, but and its investigation was fruitless. Two nights with one exception no traces were found. The later the British steamer Ranee, while 500 miles exception is Lyons, south of Danville, 111., where off Cape Race, sighted a "mysterious plane" flying a piece of stone about eight inches long was said eastward. No trans-Atlantic flights were being to have dropped from the flaming ball. It re- made at the time. No planes had been reported sembled "petrified wood." missing. According to the crew of the vessel, From Tierquin, Ireland, came the story of a two "navigation lights" were visible on the craft. large luminous ball, larger than the moon, moving Mysterious blue flashes appeared in the southern slowly west in the sky in January, 1945. In April sky of Sussex, England, on the evening of Oct. 2, a light was observed at Jefferstown, Ky., in the 1938. These flashes were followed by a "sudden midnight sky. In was over Fisherville, to the rift in the sky where a most beautifful blue-green east, size of a large cantaloupe, glowed and receded radiance shone. Through this there appeared to in brillance like a heart throb, casting its light drop a fiery body, vivid and lovely, which dis- like a lampshade over the town. After ten minutes appeared in a second. After this there was only it vanished. On May 4 in the early morning one faint flash." there was a flash of light and an explosion re- In December, 1939, another sky visitation came ported over six states. Visible for three seconds. to Finland. According to the Finnish Evangeliskt Buildings shaken. Vittnesbord, the phenomenon took place close to midnight. It lasted for about a half hour. Be- AT 7:30 p. m. on the evening of June 1, 1945, ginning as a ball of fire which grew larger, the something whizzed through the sky over Mor- appearance changed from a red to a brilliant white ganton, N. C, traveling northwest. Tubular in color as sudden rays from the eastern and western shape, shiny, gleaming in the light as if covered horizons merged. As the light spread, a shining with aluminum, five or six feet long, with a blue object, resembling a huge human-like figure, ap- flame spurting from its tail. It disappeared in peared for a few moments at the point where the the vicinity of the mountains near Lake James rays merged. Then, slowly, the vision faded into and shortly later an explosive sound was heard. the night leaving the spectators silent and be- Near Morganton is Brown Mountain, scene of wildered. mysterious lights since the Civil War that are so A large light with a tail, resembling a comet, puzzling that government geologists have con- was observed in Transylvania in September, 1943. ducted fruitless investigations. In my files is a It was visible for five minutes. Witnesses re- long article on the Brown Mountain mystery that ported that the head dissolved and the tail took appeared in the Literary Digest for Nov. 7, 1925. the shape of a scimitar before vanishing. These lights are about the size of a toy balloon, On May 10, 1944, press dispatches told of a vary in color, move about, and appear and dis- strange light in the sky at Mexico, Mo. A number appear abruptly. of residents had observed it. Like a large kite The last report of a mysterious aircraft in the moving up and down, from side to side, and Scandinavian area came from Vaesterbotton, sometimes almost in a circle. It was located in Sweden, on July 9, 1945. Its shape resembled the northeastern sky at approximately a forty-five that of a bird. It moved at great speed going degree angle, visible in the early evening hours. south over the city at about 10,000 feet altitude. June 27, 1944—Brilliant red and green meteor "If it was a plane, it was one the like of which over Cass County, Ind. A witness near Kewanna the Swedish General Staff never had seen before." stated that it flashed across the road just above Late in the afternoon of Nov. 29, 1945, a flaming the telephone wires. Bright green with a tail of object exploded and then transformed itself into red sparks. But this object was merely a mild a ball of fire over Modesto, Calif. It was visible forerunner for the real puzzler that arrived less throughout the San Francisco area, and was ob- than two months later. served moving away northeast at a speed of about It came in the early morning hours of August 18, 800 miles per hour at an apparent low altitude. and so amazing were the varied reports of its But before we decide that is was merely a freak appearance that astronomers in Chicago said that meteor, we must add that according to the Oak- it was "man-made." The apparent ball of fire land Tribune "it was reported sighted in western was visible above eastern Illinois, Indiana and Nevada a full five hours after it was first sighted western Ohio. All the reports are conflicting, and at Oakland." rumors of robot bombs, explosions and plane No, meteors do not linger or hover in the skies crashes followed in its trail. War plants were of earth, nor do they resemble rockets or airplanes. MYSTERY of the PERUVIAN GIANTS By MARX KAYE

THE December, 1946, issue of Amazing Spaniards arrived at this place they discovered INStories Magazine appeared an interesting arti- an amazing accumulation of emeralds, but not the cle by the Reverend Chief Sequoyah, entitled, emerald which rumor had led them to seek. That "America's Mysterious Race of Indian Giants." was hidden and has not been found to this day. The article described a race of giant Indians who But even more interesting than giant emeralds lived on the Pacific Coast and were often con- was the story these people had to tell their Incan tacted by the Puget Sound Indians and other and, later, their Spanish conquerors concerning an tribes. invasion, many centuries before, by a single group

> Somewhere else I have read, in several sources, of giant men who came from the sea, not all of that one method of ocean navigation among earlier which has gone unsubstantiated, as will be shown. peoples was to drift on great rafts with the major The giants came on large rafts or barges com- currents until another continent was reached. posed of rushes. They were said to be so large Admittedly, there seems to be no relationship that their knees were as high as an average man between the first and second paragraphs, above, (meaning that they could have been over twenty but most of the present article is devoted to certain feet tall). Their limbs and heads were propor- evidences of the possibility that the two subjects tionately large, and their hair grew long, falling to are connected with the giants of Peru. I say most their shoulders. Their eyes were like small plates. of the article, because in the latter part I am They were beardless. Some wore animal skins forced to bring in a rather astonishing anti-climax. and some were naked. All of them were males. Antiquarians who have had occasion to study When they landed, they established a village of Peruvian antiquities will no doubt be familiar gigantic houses, and Garcilasso says, in the middle with the story of the Incan who was sent to Spain of the 16th century, "... even in these times by the Spanish conquistadores in the 16th century there is recollection of the location of these houses and there became learned enough to be accepted that they had." As might be expected of most as a considerable scholar and writer in the Spanish of Peru's desert coastland, no water was found, tongue. His name was Inca Garcilasso de la Vega, so they were forced to dig some rather spectacular and his chief claim to fame is his formidable five wells, a prodigious work through solid rock which volume work on Incan history entitled, "Com- was carried to great depths and lined with more entarios Reales de los lncas. Owing to its exten- rock and so constructed as to last for many cen- sive descriptions of idolatry and some criticism of turies—a feat which even the Incans might never the methods used by the conquistador es in subju- have been able to accomplish. The water tapped gating the Incan Empire, the Catholic Church and by these wells was said to be very cold, and it the Spanish crown were moved to suppress the was healthful to drink. work by destroying every copy that could be The giants could not find the game that they found of the first edition, somewhere before 1600. were accustomed to hunt for food (and knowing It was only in 1943 that Garcilasso's monumental the region to which the legend probably refers I work was republished, by Emece editores, SA., can well appreciate their desperation), so they Beunos Aires, and thus made generally available became marauders and cannibals. They ate every- again, although antiquarians before that time had thing they could find or capture, including the access to some of the original copies. The work natives, themselves. The legend says that one has not been as widely read as some of the better giant ate fifty normal men, but it does not mention known tources, such as Sarmiento and Ondegardo, whether this considerable gastronomical feat was and for this reason I am assuming that few people achieved in a day or a year. (Turkeys are knee have had brought to their attention Garcilasso's high to me, but I doubt if I could eat fifty of Chapter IX, Book Nine, Volume II, entitled: them!). Not satisfied with this fare, they also De los gigantes que huvo en aquella region, y la devoted much energy to fishing, with giant nets meurte dellos (Of the Giants which were in that and "apparatus they were said to have." region [Manta] and their death). They were a great cause of abhorrence to the The tribe of people from whom this legend natives because they would steal the women for comes is interesting, in itself. They lived on the purposes which were apparently always fatal; and northern coastland of Peru in a region which was they killed the men with even less compunction. in early times called Manta. It is said that they The natives were not sufficiently numerous in that worshipped a huge emerald which was supposed region to dare accost the giants, although they had to be the size of an ostrich egg. Many gifts of many a conference concerning the possibilities of value were brought to this emerald "goddess," eliminating them. which often consisted of other emeralds of con- The giants were said to have become degen- siderable value. As a consequence, when the erates in a few years' time, due to the absence 162 MYSTERY OF THE PERUVIAN GIANTS 163 of women of their own kind, and many were which he says he saw the giant footsteps was the ugly acts committed by them for the purpose approximately where the legend says the giants of self-gratification (twentieth century discretion first came. He had gotten a clue from an old will not permit an indulgence in the naturalism man concerning the existence of a treasure, and which was so characteristic of the writings of he had persuaded the fellow to accompany him Garcilasso's time). to the site. The old man was loathe to accompany him, because he was frightened of the place, but '"pHE legend has it that an angel appeared one he finally agreed to go. After traveling north day in a cloud and with a sort of flaming from Lima several hundred kilometers, they found sword consumed them in fire, leaving only a few themselves in a most desolate region of the desert, bones as evidence of their existence. Regarding where neither food nor water were to be obtained these bones, Garcilasso makes his most surprising (a place thrice visited by myself—author). Here statement: "This it was said of the giants, which to the east was a giant sand dune, in fact a low we believe occurred, because in this region it is foothill, which the old man pointed out as being said that there have been found and are still the location of the treasure. It is true that the found very large bones, and I have heard Span- core of this hill consists of a buried temple, the iards, who have seen a piece of a molar, express portals of which have been seen uncovered by the opinion that if the tooth had been whole it shifting sands in years past. The old man was would have weighed half a pound; and also they frightened at the prospect of spending the night have seen a piece of shin-bone that caused great here, because he said the treasure was guarded. wonderment when considering how big the entire "By whom?" queried my friend. bone must have been, all of which is evidence "By a thing that walks in the night," replied that this must have happened; because aside from the other. this the site of their village and their wells or Dismissing this remark as but the product of cisterns may still be seen." superstitious imaginings, my friend locked up his Garcilasso goes on to say that "in this year of car, which was parked off the dirt road near the 1550" certain bones were discovered in Lima beach (since paved and called the Pan American which were large enough to have belonged to such Highway), and walked up to the hill of the buried giants, and even to larger men than legend de- temple, where a small tent had been pitched for scribed. He adds that he has heard that in Mexico the night. (Spanish gossip concerning explorations and finds, "Let's go to sleep," he said. For in the morning quoted from such an early date as 1550, was they were to make some preliminary exploratory relatively fresh and close to its source!), giants' excavations. bones were also discovered in Mexico City or its About midnight, the old man grasped my environs, in a very ancient tomb. friend's arm in a fit of terror and cried out, "It's Although at first glance these giants cannot be coming! It's coming'!" too closely compared with Chief Sequoyah's "What's coming?" asked my friend, sleepily.

Olympic Peninsula giants who had hypnotic "The thing I Can't you feel it shaking the powers and seemed to enjoy a higher mental ground?" state in general, it might be possible that some My friend listened but heard and felt nothing. of them attempted a migration by sea, the hard- In an attempt to reassure his terrified companion, ships of which resulted in degeneracy. However, however, he opened the tent and looked outside. the most surprising possibility of all is that these It was a clear, moonlit night, and the desert giants may not have perished, as the legend says. fairly glowed under its bright rays. He could see They may have managed intermarriage with the for miles up the desolate coast, from the elevation natives and succeeded in perpetuating their species, of the slope on which the tent was pitched. He because something happened here in Peru a few also looked down toward the beach where his years ago that intimates they are at large, in the car was parked but saw absolutely nothing to same territory, to this day! arouse his suspicions or cause alarm. Insisting A certain wealthy acquaintance of mine in Lima that the old man's fears were groundless, he has spent more than fifteen years of his life and returned to his sleeping bag. perhaps as much as fifty thousand Peruvian Soles in explorations among the Andes, in search of 1V/TORNING arrived without event, and he soon buried treasure. He has seen and found many started getting breakfast. While thus en- strange things and had a number of remarkable gaged, he was startled by a hair raising cry adventures. Being a rather unimaginative individ- emitted by the old man, who had wandered some ual, and not being given to exaggeration or jocu- distance from the tent. The fellow was screeching larity (and inasmuch as he knew nothing about at him to come running at once, for he had found Garcilasso's story), it is very improbable that he something incredible. could be perpetrating a hoax, and for this reason My friend states that when he reached his the story he has to tell about the giant footsteps friend the latter was pointing at the sand in front is the more remarkable. of him, and that he saw before him the most It is odd that, although he has no knowledge gigantic imprint of a bare human foot that he of the legend discussed above, the location in could have ever imagined. He still has a double —

164 AMAZING STORIES

newspaper sheet on which he just managed to ness of the hills. My friend followed the path include a pencil outline of the footprint. Looking for about an hour, then considered that he was toward the mountains, he saw other imprints, as too deep in wilderness to be without a gun. So though their owner had been walking toward the he returned. The wind covered the footprints »ea. Following the line they made, he saw that before they left the place. they headed straight for his car. He took a quick At this site, treasure has definitely been dis-

run and leapt into the air precisely at the toe covered, although the major portion of it still mark of one of the footprints in an attempt to must lie there buried. One priest, well known to broadjump the length of the giant's stride, but my closest friend here, was walking around this could not. He followed the trail toward his car. place when he stubbed his toe on a gold ingot He says that the giant had evidently been looking that weighed forty-eight kilos ! This was precisely back at the tent, for he did not see the car until at the same place where my other acquaintance he was within a dozen feet of it. At this point he saw the giant footsteps. swerved sharply, as though startled, because the But Peru is replete with such mysteries and right footstep here sank deeply into the packed buried treasures. A great majority of people sand (about eight inches deep), at right angles would be very much surprised to learn to just to the line of motion. From this point, the foot- what extent this is true. . . . steps revealed a hasty retreat back into the wilder- The End

WHO WAS VIRGILIUS?

VIRGILIUS wanted to be a bishop in Ba- about Virgilius, and sent a letter to the latter, varia in the early part of the Eighth century, summoning him to appear before us, that he may

but his teachings were so strange and dis- be condemned, if, after a careful examination, he turbing that St. Boniface complained to the Pope. be found to err in his teaching." The saint had cause to complain. He had been Virgilius might have been arguing that the earth laboring for years to convert the pagan German was round, and advancing his belief in the tribes. It was slow, arduous and dangerous work. existence of the antipodes on the opposite, or Troops of pagans stalked him with swords and under, side of the globe. This does not seem

spears, and his flock was repeatedly stripped and likely, however, since it would not be cause for left destitute By wandering robber bands. He condemnation. For centuries Christian scholars accepted all these hazards as part of his job and had held this theory. At the very beginning of made his way through Bavaria and Thuringia, the Christian era, Origen (185-255) in his De then to Friesland and on to Hesse and Saxony. Principiis defended the existence of the antipodes. He not only preached Christianity, but every- A century later St. Hilary also subscribed to this where destroyed the idol temples and raised theory. The Church had made no pronouncement churches on their site. On one occasion he cut in the matter, but left the scientific question open, down an immense oak which was consecrated to allowing Origen and St. Hilary to defend the Jupiter and used lumber cut from it to build a existence of the antipodes, while St. Augustine church. (354-430), and others denied it. The task of uprooting pagan beliefs was difficult The early Church was concerned, however, enough, but St. Boniface also had to contend with about preserving the dogma of the Christian faith weird theories among his own clergy. Finally he upon which the religion was founded. Therefore, wrote to Pope Zachary (741-752) asking him to if Virgilius maintained that an entirely different do something about Virgilius who was causing no race of men, not descended from Adam, existed end of trouble. The Pope replied as follows: under the earth, he would have been condemned, "I understand from your letter that Virgilius since the Christian religion is based on the belief (I do not know whether he is a priest or not) has that all men on the face of the earth are descended been acting maliciously against you, because you from Adam, that they fell from grace through showed that he had wandered from true Catholic Adam, and that Christ appeared for the redemp- teaching, trying to make enmity between you and tion of all men. Odila, Duke of Bavaria. Nor is it true, as he Virgilius has been identified with Ferghil, the says, that he has been absolved by me so that famous Irish missionary of Carinthia, who became he might obtain the diocese of the deceased bishop, Bishop of Salzburg in 768. (Healy, Ireland's who was one of the four that you consecrated in Schools); but some scholars deny this (Mann, Bavaria. // it be true, moreover, that he teaches The Lives of the Popes). Whoever he was, he that beneath the earth there is another world and has posed an intriguing question—whether there other men, call a council, excommunicate him, and were men living beneath the earth at that time, if he be a priest, deprive him of his dignity. We and whether they have survived and still exist. have, however, ourselves1 written to the Duke 5. O'Daniel. End MAGNETIC PENDULUM By LEE McCANN

MAGNETISM is a scientific mystery with few small whirlings like a good bird dog finding an occult aura because the "Stone," the scent. Next the movement straightens and "Fire," "Agent," as the alchemists knew swings in a straight line in a definite direction, it it, is the only known force which is truly pyscho- is off toward the quarry. The operator follows in physical. As such, its influence and importance the indicated direction, walking carefully so as to man is beyond all others. It is why the alche- not to disturb the motion of the pendulum. When mists believed it to be the medium between man he has reached the spot directly above or below and God. the cache the pendulum stops moving and again There is a vast stir of interest in the properties hangs motionless. of magnetism. New facts are being sought, new Besides this, I was told, many French doctors research is being done. A New York bookseller, make use of the pendulum in dietetics and diag- whose shop boasts the largest collection of works nosis. It also plays an occasional part in such legal by and on magnetists (all out-of-print and ex- cases as in this country would come before the pensive), told me that this was in response to court of Domestic Relations. demands from doctors! No day, he said, went The pendulum distinguishes between positive by without such a call. and negative in the object over which it is swung. My own interest in magnetism which had taken It also gives the basic numerical vibratory count me there in search of books about it had been of the object, color or person. Since the turn aroused by meeting at a tea a woman who showed of the century the French have done a large me a magnetic pendulum that she had gotten in amount of research in this field listing and classi- Paris before the war. She told me fascinating fying vibratory rates, and a considerable body of things about the way the French use it which were literature has been published on the subject, none quite new to me. The pendulum was an exotic- of which has been translated, nor so far as I know looking trinket that appealed to my imagination. is available over here. Some of these books are Its thin, longish emerald silk cord was so delicately reference tables and include summaries of har-

flexible that I should never have suspected it of en- monious and discordant counts. closing, as she said it did, threadlike segments of The doctor, supposing it is a matter of diet, steel for its entire length. At one end was a little takes first the patient's personal vibratory count. bar of what looked like tortoiseshell with four tiny Then he consults his tables to find what foods shelves or "holders." At the other end was a are in harmony with this and what she must weighted tip, shell and gilded metal, about an inch avoid, and in this way a diet list is made up. long, tapered to a point. Not much of that is, I imagine, done today, but The French are themselves a magnetic people. before the war, I was told, one occasionally saw And it was they who gave Mesmer his oppor- in a restaurant the gadget produced by a customer, tunity and most of his followers. Whether their and the food tested and perhaps sent back. use of the magnetic pendulum is a kind of off- In legal cases the pendulum gives its evidence shoot of the Mesmeric cult I dont know, but at of incompatability due to imbalance of positive least it is natural that this intriguing gadget should and negative qualities in marital situations. Can't find a home in France. Its function there, accord- you just hear the horse laugh that would greet ing to my informant, is twofold. It works for the such a demonstration in the U. S. A.? doctor, and for the detective. Anyone can test something of this with a home- In the latter role it is used to spot smuggled made pendulum. A bead, preferably an amber goods for the Customs. It acts as a kind of Geiger one, or a gold ring, on a string will do it. In the counter, but is superior in that its response is not normally polarized individual, the swing is circular limited to metals and minerals. It can indicate above the back of a woman's right hand, and where the opium is hidden, the brandy and cigar- straight over the palm. This is in reverse for a ettes, jewels or whatever it is desired to locate. man. In each sex the movement over the right The method is to place a pinch or a sliver of hand reverses over the left. Held over the photo- the substance to be found in one of the "holders." graph of a woman the pendulum swings in a circle, The operator then holds the bar in steady fingers over that of a man the stroke is straight. letting the cord with its weighted tip hang motion- I showed this to a doctor in New York and he less. In a few minutes the point stirs, then a recalled that just before we went in the war one 16a :

166 AMAZING STORIES of the great French industrialists had been briefly for a limited use of hypnosis. When this school his patient. He had been puzzled, he said, by the discovered that no magnetic wands were needed Frenchman's insistent attempts to talk to him to put people to sleep they were gleeful. Medicine about magnetism at the office and at dinners where had all along fought the idea of a magnetic force they met. The doctor, who had no clue to this which physics said was non existent. The new interest, had shunted him off. After seeing the method of hypnosis, they said proved that it pendulum perform he said he intended to get in was all in the mind. But now comes Ehrenhaft touch with him as soon as war permitted and to prove that there is a magnetic "fluid." Baron learn what he could. He thought the French had du Potet did not use a magnetic rod, either, but something in this odd magnetic device, and he he makes it very clear that it was the same force mentioned what a boon it would be, if it worked, which he used. He writes: in diagnosing allergies. "By an act of understanding I separate from I heard, from a friend, of one doctor on the myself a force—real, though invisible. Deposited staff of a New York hospital who is now using upon anything it fixes itself there as an essence. the pendulum experimentally, but I was refused Soon it influences its surroundings. Magic begins. his name and that of the hospital because he was That is to say extraordinary phenomena occur. unwilling to have anything known about it at "The agent (magnetism) has its inherent prop- that stage. But I was told that he had been erties. Left to itself, when not impregnated by successful in diagnosing the sex of unborn children the soul, it acts conformably to the laws of in this way. So it may be that while the physics and analogous to the magnet. We have physicists have been tracking down magnetism to learn first what are its natural and fixed prop- in their laboratories, the doctors have not been erties, secondly to understand those we can impart wholly unmindful of its presence in their field. to it by our will." They, too, in time may have sensational findings The book contains reproductions of the magnetic to report. diagrams which he traced, impregnated with his When I was fourteen and visiting in New Eng- force, on the floor and then used in his experi- land, my host introduced me to the forked witch- ments with people. Eliphas Levi said that they hazel and I discovered proudly that I was a were the same in principle, though not in use, as water witch. I did not think of this as a those in the old Grimoires. I found that I could magnetic sensitivity then. But years later I de- duplicate du Potet's results on two of them with veloped an agonizing neuritis in my right arm the pendulum. I couldn't with the others because which did not yield to treatment. I happened you can't give a pendulum a moral conflict, which on a book which gave an account of Baines experi- was required. Du Potet says of the effect of these ments with magnets, and believe it or not, with experiments upon himself a Ten Cent store magnet I cured myself in a few "I do undoubtedly feel a certain shock through- days and never had a return. I found then that out my being. I experience an unusual sensation." I could tell by touch the magnetically positive (Some people experience this with the Fersen from the negative side of any piece of wood or technique.) And again. metal. There is as much difference to me as be- "Everywhere and at all times an unknown ele- tween smooth and rough faced cloth. ment tosses men about, as the wind sways the Still later, again in a New England summer, reed. / have felt the strokes of this formidable someone gave me Fersen's book—I forget its agent." title—which is about therapeutic positions for A last quotation from du Potet makes a fitting replenishment and intake of the body's magnetic close to this article. His book was published in needs. I found that these postures did exactly 1852, but his words apply prophetically to 1945, what the magnet did. The sensation of a delicate and to the contributions which science has made current, different according to whether positive or to the horrors of war. He says: negative, was precisely the same, and so was the "Now science has some inkling of these mys- strength of it. Fersen said he got his knowledge terious workings (magnetism) but only according in Tibet where I believe he spent some time. All to the physical order. She only arrives at her of which predisposed me to interest in the pendu- results by destroying the affinity between bodies lum when it came along. and separating their elements. . . . It may be At the bookshop which I mentioned I found a that she understands her agents better than we copy of La Magie Divoilie by Baron du Potet do ours. Yet our phenomena are real and cannot in who was some ways a more spectacular figure be explained away by 'imagination' . . . Science than Mesmer. He performed notable magnetic inoculates with doubts, sophisms, contempt for cures till the year before he died at eighty-four. truth, and so clears the path for the tyrant. This After that magnetism declined and was replaced is also magic—of an evil kind, for it turns God's as a therapy by the school of the Salpetriere which handiwork into something unrecognizable and developed along purely psychological lines, except base. The true magic agent is—the soul."

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THE SHAVER MYSTERY CLUB fectly reputable, having written for us for years, Sin: and some very fine material too! Take his "For- For those readers of Amazing Stories who have ever Is Too Long" in a recent issue of Fantastic asked us when our little club magazine will be Adventures, which its readers have acclaimed as a published, we are engaged in printing it now, and classic. "Hidden City," coming up next month in it will appear sometime in April. this magazine, is also a classic, in our opinion! We will have 64 pages, well printed, and con- And we might mention that he's written a hum- taining the first installment of Shaver's "Man- dinger of a western novel for Mammoth Western dark," his sensational thought record of the years called "The Golden Six-Gun".—Ed. around the time of Christ, and detailing His life TIAHUANACO as contained on this ancient thought record. MORE ABOUT I myself believe this manuscript to be the sen- Sirs: sation of all time in the science fiction world, to Was very much interested in Mr. Hansen's say nothing of the Shaver Mystery, the occult, treatise concerning the Apaches and Tiahuanaco. or what have you. Would you kindly communicate the following to Also, we have articles and letters containing him, with which he may or may not be familiar. much material pertinent to the Shaver Mystery, When I passed through Tiahuanaco, which is on and we hope that within a few months, our re- the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca, sometime in search will begin to produce real results in either the fall of 1943, I bought from an Indian boy a proving or disproving the Mystery. baked clay statue which he had made to represent We might say that Mr. Shaver himself would the original stone statues which may still be seen work hardest to disprove it, if that would be the there from the windows of the train while en route result of his work. I have never known a more to Guaqui. The boy used as sales talk the legend fair-minded man, nor a more sincere one. which he says lies behind those monuments which For those of Amazing'* readers who would like stand there towering above the lofty plateau to secure copies of the magazine, we are accept- (about 12,500 feet altitude) as mysteriously as ing at the present time only the price of two issues, those of Easter Island. Legend has it (according which we are certain of putting out. The price is' to the Bolivian boy) that in pre-Incan times the $1.00. The cost of the little magazine, to us, at Tiahuanaquenos were a great people, endowed the number we are able to put out, will be at least with certain gifts of the gods, but that they became that, but we're willing to shell out to find out wicked and so angered their deities that many what this is all about. We will find out, if it's were turned into stone. The stone statues are possible 1 supposed to perpetuate a sort of warning to all Thanks much for your cooperation, Mr. Palmer, men not to be wicked. and you readers of AS who have already written. Take that for what it's worth. I still have my Sincerely yours, little statue which shows a series of pyramids in its Chester S. Geier, design. Unfortunately the artist was no doubt The Shaver Mystery Club, uninformed concerning the symbolical importance 2414 Lawrence Ave., of the exact number of pyramids on the original Chicago 25, Illinois and I cannot trust the copy, nor have I the oppor- tunity now to return to Tiahuanaco and make a Okay Chet, anything for a friend! And we hope closer inspection of the statues in the light of you do find out something. If you do, please don't Mr. Hansen's article. hesitate to let us know about it! We're as anxious However, with reference to the two horns, one as you. may read in several works concerning Incan cere- For the readers' information, Mr. Geier is per- monial dress, particularly in the Comentarios —

DISCUSSIONS 169

Reales de los Incas, by Inca Garcilasso de la Vega, that two feathers of the coraquenque bird were always placed in the Incan emperor's Uautu, or turban (the colors of the turban being, incident- ally, symbolical of the rainbow, meaning that the - wearer was a Child of the Sun.) ISH'T Bf£&ttmNG There is no clue as to where the practice orig- inated, so one can only conjecture. They might have borrowed something from the Tiahuana- {or is IT?) quehos just as the Aztecs borrowed certain (gentler) religious precepts from those who existed before them in the land of Anahuac. At any rate, this could serve to add the Incans to the list of those who used the two horned symbol, al- though my own conjecture would be that they knew far less about its real significance (at least in the latter days of the empire) than did the people who brought the symbol to this region, if, indeed, it is a borrowed symbol. On the other hand, the two feathers might represent the heavenly parents of the first Incas, Manco Capac and his sister wife, Mama Ocllo, who were sup- posed to have come from the sun (Incan version of Adam and Eve?), symbolical of the duality of the sexes, embodying the forces of creation. In the pre-Incan god, Pachacamac, we see two faces, one of a woman and one of a man, in this case a deliberate symbol of creative powers. Then again, the two feathers could stand for the Sun do you want to save up a lot of and the Moon, the two most conspicuous heavenly money for? You'll never need the stuff. bodies, both of which were adored by the Incas. Why, just think of all the wonderful,

(Note : Incas refers to the Incan kings or emperors, wonderful things you can do without supposedly children of the Sun; Incans refers to money. Things like — well, things like the subjects of the Incas). I forgot to mention, On second thought, you'd better keep for those of you who may not know it, that on saving, chum. Otherwise you're licked. Tiahuanaco and Cuzco (capital of Incan civiliza- tion) are just across Lake Titicaca from each For instance, how are you ever going other (Cuzco being some slight distance back from to build that Little Dream House, with- the lake). out a trunk full of moolah? You think the In regard to the underground passages at Cuzco, carpenters are going to work free? Or the I have been told again and again by natives and plumbers? Or the architects? Not those some foreign investigators that there are sub- lads. They've been around. They're no terranean passages in the neighborhood of Cuzco dopes. which are still guarded. Men have actually been known to try to enter these passages and either Obviously the best way is by continu- disappear or turn up dead. Rather than attribute ing to buy U. S. Savings Bonds—through this to deros (this is not sarcasm, as I find Shaver- the Payroll Plan. ism very much worthy of study) I would attribute They're safe and sound. Old Uncle it to the zeal of the Indians to guard the treasures Sam personally guarantees your invest- of the past to which they feel they are the rightful ment. And he never fobbed off a bum heirs. Separately, someday, I hope to present a I.O.U. on anybody. treatise on why I believe the Treasure of the Incas exists today near Cuzco and that it could You get four bucks back for every not be valued at much less than seventy-five three you put in. millions of dollars, but that is a lengthy subject. So stick with the Payroll Plan, son— There is much to support the possibility of the and you can't lose. existence of the underground passages to which Mr. Hansen refers, because, among other evi- So— all seriousness aside—you'd better dences, it is known that the Incas had secret ways keep on saving, pal. of traveling great distances under ground. A friend of mine (a Peruvian miner with twenty SAVE WE EASY WAY.. BUY YOUR 30HDS years of experience among the Quichua Indians in the Andean highlands) has actually discovered the THROUGH fAYROU. SAWHfS 170 AMAZING STORIES

entrance to one royal passages. The floor IN THE JUNE ISSUE OF of these is paved with tile. He went back as far as he could MAMMOTH MYSTERY go without suffocating. The air is too stale and there is considerable danger of caverns. The In- A BRAND-NEW, 80,000-WORD NOVEL cans were very clever, but I don't believe at all MORE DEATHS THAN ONE that they had the means to bore tunnels for thou- sands of miles through the mountains. Rather, if BY they covered such distances underground, it can BRUNO FISCHER only mean that their man-made passages were only entrances into a series of caverns. After WHO WROTE SUCH BEST-SELLING MYS- earthquakes in the hills and in Lima (as long as BAG," TERY NOVELS AS "THE PIGSKIN twenty minutes after) you can sometimes hear "THESPIDER, LILY," THE RAVEN," "OUOTH subterranean rumblings, as though the sound were "SO MUCH BLOOD," "THE HORNETS' the result of subterranean landslides in deep NEST," ETC. caverns below. Indeed one time in lima I heard a subterranean landslide without the accompani- ALSO EXCEPTIONAL SHORT STORIES ment of earthquake. The ground merely vi- brated in a light and curious fashion for perhaps a BY minute, the accompaniment of the muffled, sub- LEO ZAGAT to ARTHUR terranean sound of sliding rocks. Ask the Indians FAIRMAN in the hills. They'll tell you at once about the PAUL W. rumblings under ground. The most interesting phase of the study of WILLIAM P. McGIVERN antiquities is the legends among many races of people concerning extra-terrestrial origins. The H. B. HICKEY Cara-Mayas believed in a sort of Snake Mother (this calls to mind Merritt's "Face in the Abyss") LEONARD FINLEY HILTS descended from the stars (Naga). The Incas strongly supported the idea of their origin in the AT YOUR NEWSSTAND APRIL 18 sun. Mr. Hansen has told us much about the ancients' repeated reference to flying machines. Here is a hypothesis which I believe is original, merely because I have not read of a similar idea

anywhere else. Take it for what it's worth. Science says that hair and feathers evolved from scales. If this is true, it means that occurrence of hair in a race of human beings would be correlated with Astounding new Jim proximity to the ape and earlier forms. Let us Major Home Method consider the case of Indian and Polynesian races, " , teaches you to play precisely those of Whom it has been suspected that guitar easily, quickly, without long hours they belong to the older races which existed be- musical practicing scales or exercises. No fore the Diluvium. They are characterized by a knowledge necessary. Play many popular very infrequent occurrence of bodily hair. Chest, songs, hymns in very short time. SO lessons, arms, legs and face are practically free of hair, in complete course for only $1.69. EXTRA — BIG 53 SONG BOOK included without addi- the Polynesian, the present day Quichuas of Peru,

tional cost. Send no money . , . pay postman the North American Indians, and many other $1.69 plus postage. (Cash with order we pay peoples not belonging to the vaunted Aryan line. postage.) Money back guarantee. Send today, Ourselves, however, are too often characterized to Jim Major, Room SSOJB, 230 East Ohio* by busby arms, legs, chests and backs of an al- (Chicago 11, IlL most atavistic degree! (Don't get sore, fellows, I'm just as much a monkey as anybody.) Ques- tion: Who is closer to the ape? • • • There is just the faint possibility that those WW people whom we Aryans, with our puny historical STUDY AT HOME Sff^aS; tradition of a few millenniums, have considered as end public life. Greateropportunities nowuw thanthan*everbefore. w* "primitive" are actually the lost and scattered Mora Ability: Mora Prestige: Mora »•"— c&d train at borne tfarto* ipara tint*. P*stm of IX.B. Wa fcmUb all children of ancient, superior races who evolved on other worlds "when you were a tadpole and I was a fish!" The snake symbol is interesting in this regard. 101 WAYS TO BE YOUR OWN BOSS! Some say that it was often used to represent the Terrific new book crammed with 101 small-capital opportunities. "waters." In other cases it was symbolic of for- Many in little-lmown, PROFITABLE fleldat Send $1.25. We'll RUSH your copy postpaid, or we'll ship C.O.D., 01.35 plus postage. bidden knowledge (Eve and the Serpent). So if AMUICAN SUCCKSS AIDS Box 147 Oellmore, New York Write tor FREE 1947 Opportunity Book Bulletin! an ancient people have a legend about a serpent DISCUSSIONS 171

ancestor coming from the stars (the Cara-Mayas), it could well mean that the "Bearers of the Ancient Knowledge" came from the stars to Earth, just as all of us must one day carry our own knowledge to other worlds when Earth can no longer support ,us. Where can I see the papers of Charles Fort? Here's one item to add to the collection. When I was seventeen I built myself a four-inch New- tonian telescope. In examining the moon one night I distinctly saw five symmetrical bodies travel slowly in formation across the moon's disc, as though they were gigantic bodies traveling closer to the moon than to the Earth. My wife laughingly accuses me now of having mistaken flies on my mirror for space ships, but if she knew more about optical laws she would know that flies on my mirror would have been far more invisible to me than if she had put them in my soup. Another time I was walking down the street one night in Los Angeles when I heard a hissing SOLID sound above me. I looked up to see a trail of STERLING THE red fire and sparks spread rather slowly from one SILVER IDEAL horizon to the other, all the while accompanied by SIFT FOR with I Ok a low hissing and sputtering sound. I am glad HIM. gold inlay. that in the Oklahoma case there were witnesses! ORDER IN I had none, or at least we didn't get together. COMES ATTRACTIVE TODAY. Evidently everybody thought what I saw was a SIFT BOX meteor. But what meteor is it that can travel

slowly frorn horizon to horizon, have a red color Masculinity In a perfect combination of art and instead of incandescent white, sputter, throw craftsmanship is this smart, luxurious and cosmo- sparks, and hiss at you? politan silver and inlaid gold tie clasp. The design "There are stranger things in Heaven and Earth is unique, and will enhance the attractiveness and than are dreamt of in your philosophy, my dear value of any tie. ." Horatio. . . SEND NO MONEY-Only your name and address, Marx Kaye, and pay postman only $4.50 plus postage on deliv- ery, or Lima, Peru, S. A. send $4.50 by cash, check or money order, and we pay postage. Order today. We thank you very much for your letter. It just adds more to the amazing story we have been accumulating from letters such as yours.— Ed. WESTERN ARTS 327 Drake Ave., San Antonio 4, Texas BACK COPIES OF SHAVER!

Sirs: I have seen your statement in the April issue of Amazing Stories concerning Shaver's mystery. I have just been discharged from a hospital after a long illness which was caused by a heart attack, and I am still under a doctor's care. According CONFIDENTIAL LOAN SERVICE to the doctor, I am not supposed to do any hard work, therefore I have plenty of time on my Borrow $SO to $300- hands. I know of a lot of second-hand book Meed money? Nomatterwhere stores where I can get all the back issues of the you live too can borrow BY MAIL $50.00 to Shaver Mysteries. Therefore, with your permis- $300.00 this eaay quick confidential way. sion, I would like to put this ad into your maga- IT IS EASY TO NO ENDORSERS NEEDED zine. As follows: BORROW Employed men and women of (rood Attention Shaver Mystery Fans! character can solve theirmoney prob- BY MAIL! lems quickly and In nrivacy with Toan3 Anyone who would like to get a back copy of Completelycon- MADE BY MAIL. No endorsers or co- signers. We do not contact employe.-*!, fidential Shaver's Mysteries please write to: and friendsor relatives. Convenient month- private. ly payments. Send us your name and Joseph Rauch, Conv«r,J«ntMonth- address and we will mail application ly Payments biank and complete details FREE in 2058 Union Street plain envelope. There is noobligation. San Francisco 23, STATE FINANCE CO. California 303 Marina Bid*., Dept. J-84, Haw Orleans IS, La. :

AMAZING STORIES

SCIENCE FICTION BOOKS IF NATURE SLEEPS Sirs: You should tain OSS Tahlets. If you lack pep, energy, vitality You may remember me as an actifan in the old and don't have natural desires for fun and good times. If you days, and that I'm in business for myself, Buffer from aches and pains, coated tongue or bad skin. It may now be due to faulty elimination. HELP NATURE with Tablet! OSR it naturally became a business to do with science —nature's herbs In tablet form. CAUTION: Take only as shown by simple directions on the box. The SAFE PRESCRIPTION fiction. In short, I'm selling science fiction books, TYPE ingredients in OSR Tablets gire quick, pleasant relief. Yes, you'll smile as you do your dally duty like a healthy m from recent publications to rare items. If any of woman. SEND NO MONEY pay postman 11.35 for — free of 180 OSR Tablets. Or send (f NOW and SAVE SSe. your readers are interested, they can get a IS POWER-WRITE TODAY. STANDARD REMEDY. list from me of hundreds of such books which are Z>3, Baltimore 2, Maryland. collectors' items. Just write to Melvin Korshak, COMING!! 1713 East 55th St., Chicago IS, Illinois ANOTHER NEW AND COMPLETE NOVEL We certainly do remember you, Melvin I And FEATURING ONE OF DETECTIVE FIC- we remember the work you did helping us at TION'S FAVORITE CHARACTERS fine the Chicon! Congrats on your new business, and "JOHNNIE FLETCHER" we are sure our readers will be glad to know where they can get books on science fiction! Ed. IN — THE WHISPERING MASTER A DISCOVERY? BY FRANK ©RUBER Sirs: Since my letter was published in the February IN THE JULY ISSUE OF MAMMOTH DETECTIVE Amazing Stories, I have received many letters from all over the United States, and several have SING-TALK thwuouroamfiadlo come personally to interview me. There is more heat behind this thing than I ever dreamed. Many of them have actually witnessed mystifying things, but have been reluctant to talk, of them for fear of ridicule. I am sure there are many more in Sins:, Talk from any room In the house, leak* anno? tnt». Lots of fun! If* this country that are keeping silent for the same il yolco^raajlee attached to any radio. SEND NO ICON reason. I have answered most of the sincere let-

FOLEY SALES CO., INC., Dept. MM. IS Sprue* St., New York 7, N. Y. ters. Some of the letters have been from critics and skeptics. I have also received some threaten- BAKING et£ /t&m# ing letters from some claimed deros threatening /la/M and warning me not to say anything more and to forget the mystifying occurrence that I witnessed ~ Baking Is one of America's high Indus- and heard. These letters I am ignoring, and in no tries in wages. Not seasonable, but year 'round good Held tor trained and experienced men. way are they swerving me from my one purpose Thorough baeie— spare time home study course lays solid foundation. If you have the aptitudem to seek the solution. To those that are so skeptic, for thla type of work, send for FREE Booklet; Opportunities In Commercial Baking." I have this to say. I do not fear these criticisms NATIONAL BAKING SCHOOL or ridicule. I am sincere and unshakable in 1»»S S. Michigan Ave.. Dept. UK Chicago S, «, my belief and I am convinced that there are mystify- LEARN HOW TO USE YOUR ing invisible forces at work in the locality. I have made a thorough exploration and search I E|N H D D POWER of the field in which I witnessed the mystifying Draw things to yon. Thousands have won over obstacles—Uee the system that may- occurrence and have accumulated more evidence lead to Power — Money — Love — Suc- to corroborate the mystery I witnessed. cess. Tou ret full Information only 60a in coin or stamps, no O.O.D. Out in the field 300 feet from the highway I W discovered that the grass and vegetation was dead ' MIND WASTER o,,,t."oa ST *!"<>, » covering a space of about 120 feet long by thirty

feet wide. As near as I can describe it, the vege- High School Course tation was just withered down as if from heat. I photographed this spot. I have also found in at Home Many Finish fn 2 Years the field something else. What it is I do not know. ss.yoar time and abilities permit. Course I have sent it off to have it analyzed. Until I have accumulated more concrete facts, I make no effort in this letter or at this time attempt to offer -itfc Start toot a on raqoaat. No ob%atkm. suggestions or solution to this amazing mystery. AmgrlcanScbool.Dapt h-a-82 Drsxslat58th. CbIca.o37 This is too big a thing for me or any one person to solve. But I will come forward in the near BE A DETECTIVE future with facts and proof, that will aid those WORK HOME or TRAVEL. Experience unnecessary. like myself who are seeking and trying to look DETECTIVE Particulars FKEE Write to behind the black wall, or I might say, invisible GEO. Z. D. WAGNER, 125 w. uih st., n. y. veil of mystery which is in our very midst. I am I

DISCUSSIONS 173

convinced that in a less period of time than we INTRODUCTORY OFFER! expect, facts will come to light that will startle the entire world. Ace Baker, 1628 N.E. 33rd St., Oklahoma City, Okla. Please send us any evidence you can, Ace. We'd like to see photos, and any analysis you get. Of course, a photo of a burned area proves nothing, but we have other statements of witnesses who have seen such phenomena.—Ed, OAHSPE'S SCIENCE Sirs: I disagree with your statement in the April '47 issue of A. S. in which you say, in your article on "Oahspe," that Oahspe's "science is in variance with accepted concepts." I think that the pres- ent scientific concept of heat, light, magnetism, etc., are fairly similar. According to "Oahspe," than the moisture light is nothing more and gases An-Iu-One Cigarette Lighter and Full-Pack Cam gtaa of the air becoming polarized needles arranged in Sou oigarettes and lights together aa you want them, treamuned, smart, modern ... a wonderful convenience; parallel lines. Darkness is the needles in a state the Ideal gift. For men or women. Built for lifetime service of beautiful plastic Deep-well lighter holds month'! of confusion. Magnetism, as explained by present supply fluid. SEND NO MONEY ... 7 DAY TRIAL. Order on trial. Inspection and approval. On arrival de- day concepts, is that molecules in an iron bar as- posit $1.98 plus C.O.D. Ubc 7 days. If not delighted return for full refund. (Send ilJg with order and we sume a parallel arrangement. In a demagnetized pay postage.) (Dealers . . . write for prices, dlsoounts.) bar the molecules are in a haphazard arrangement. HENRY SENNC & CO., Dept. 350-H In the February 22nd issue of Science News Let- 800 N. State H. Chicago 10, IUL ter is an article dealing with Prof. G. N. Lewis' experiments with phosphorescing molecules in re- gards to photosynthesis. It was proved that Follow phosphorescing molecules are in a magnetic state by exposing a fluorescein-containing glass to a This Man! strong light and suspending the glass between the Secret Sarvica Operator poles of an electro-magnet. The glass swung to- No. 38 Is On The Job! Follow him through all the excitement of ward one of the poles showing that the fluorescein f 1 his chase after the counterfeit gang. See molecules were magnetized. I howacrafty operator eolvesamurder with U tell-tale finger print.! Thrills! Mystery! If you have any ideas by your readers in your The Confidential Reports files in regards to regeneration (that is, regenera- FREE! No. 38 Made to His Chief tion of starfish's arms, earthworm's tails, etc.) I Earn a Regular Monthly Salary shall be glad to hear of them. Write for reports and free Bine Bureaus in U. S. employ oar stu- dents or gradaatesl list I have been following the Shaver mystery since Book of Crime." Learn howYOU Get of all can become a Finger Print Expert, bureaus employing!. A. S. trained "I Remember Lemuria!" and, along with thou- at home, in spare time, at small men.Write today I Literature ems cost. 53& of all Identification only to p&rmm stating agv. sands of others, I think it is great. INSTITUTE OP APPLIED SCIENCE I especially like the homey, down-to-earth man- 1920 Sunnys.de Avs., Dept. 492 A, Chicago 40, Illinois ner in which Harold M. Sherman presents his stories I think he is a swell writer and to hope Learn Profitable Profession see a great many of his stories in coming A. S. in CIO days at Home magazines. nun Men and Women. 18 to 50 R. Guyton, &1 Many Swedish Massage graduates make $50, $75. J. Jr., >i% or even more per week. Large full time Incomes 1933 Middle St., ^S* from doctors, hospitals, sanitariums, clubs or pri- vate practice. Others make good money In spare time. You can win Independence Sharpsburg, Pa. :v and prepare for future security by training at borne and Qualifying for diploma. Anatomy REPORT ON DORR CAVE Charts and 82 page illustrated Book FREE —Now! The College of Swedish Massage Sirs: Dept. 753-9,63-9.100100 &E. Ohio St., Chisago J I have just returned from a trip to investigate the Dorr brothers cave reported by Charles H. WHY WEAR Gesner in the last issue of Amazing Stories. There is a cave. I was unable to enter the cave DIAMONDS Whendiamond-dsjnltncrZlrconBfrom myself, but I shall report my findings. the mines of far-swaj mystic Sum are so *ff*et\v ana tnsxpfnstvsr " " Harmer's story, through Gesner, is based on a irAling?iff lbeanty,DSftOl stand acM bat)„elrs,fiiIlof FIBEt Exquisitemoans- series of legends started by a man named Plum- fpes. See before you bay. Writs— tot FREE catalog-. C&taloCf mer. All Harmer's stuff, plus a lot more, has been National Zircon Co.. Dept. 36 traced to Plummer. A local archaeologist accom- Wheeling, W.Va FREE! 174 AMAZING STORIES

POCKET ADDING MACHINE panied Plummer to this cave to see the 7,000 mum- Sturdy steel construction for lifetime use. Adds, mified dwarfs claimed to be there. Plummer was subtracts, aids multiplication. Capacity 999,- 999.99. A real machine—guaranteed 5 yeari. unable to show more than a very small cave, bare Thousands of satisfied users. Send name and of or artifacts. address. We ship Immediately. On delivery, mummies cay postman $2.50 (plus C.O.D. and postal* I read Gesner's letter, then studied a map of the p_, AdhrA cnar'cs). H Too send $2.50 with SilJHJ order, we pay postage. Leather- area. Mitchell's caverns were the only ones shown m ette case *5c additional. Your Trtat M^ district. two companions all money back after 10 days' trial in this general I and tend No Money if not satisfied. stopped at Mitchell's before continuing our search TAVELLA SALES CO. for the Dorr cave. A good thing we did! Our Dept. St. 25 W. Broadway, New York 7, N. most authentic information came from Jack Mitchell, the discoverer, owner, and operator of POEMS WANTED Mitchell's Caverns. (More about these later.) Dorr caves, icnows the SONGWRITERS AT ONCE Mitchell has been in the history, and has pictures of the cave. According to Send Your Poems, Any Subject, for Immedi- Mitchell, the cave is small, and all the stories ate Examination and FREE BOOK: "YOUR merely fables. It is located five miles northeast FUTURE IN SONGWRITTNG." of the desert town of Cima. Cima may be RADIO CITY MUSIC ACADEMY reached from Highways 66, 91, or 95 along the 1674 Broadway Haw York It, N. Y. Nevada-California border. The cave is located in a geological formation common to that area. That part of the Mojave wanttd stop tobacco: desert is an ancient ocean bed, now a limestone places volcanic Banks to* erarlna for tobacco as formation. In some plugs have thousands bar* with Tobacco been forced up through the limestone, breaking Eedoemer. Write for ins, booklet teuton; of rajuriona effect of tobacco the crust and forming mountains. Both the and of a treatment which baa relser- £d many man. Caution: Ivanpah, and the Providence ranges (where Mitch- fm only as directed. FREE ell's caverns are) are of this formation. The vol- 90 your* he •raMoaa BOOK THE NEWELL COMPANY canic plugs are ryohlite (reohlite), the limestone hi CtaytonSta.,StLoyU5,Me. on edge against it. Limestone caves formed in such a formation are limited in size. They can only extend from the broken upper edge, to the permanent ground BOOKLETS water level, a distance rarely over 2,000 feet. The Each one of these booklets is POCKET SIZE, also eon- thickness of the limestone determines the horizon- tains 8 ILLUSTRATIONS, and la fulj of fun and enter- tainment. 12 of these joke booklets, ALL MWEKKNT, tal extent, in Mitchell's caves, about a thousand will be shipped prepaid upon receipt of $1.00, cash or feet. Any geologist will confirm the fact that money order. No orders sent C.O.D. Print name and address and mall to: huge caverns such as Gesner mentions are impos- Treasure Novelty Co., 72 Fifth Ave., Dept. 55-F, New York 11, N.Y- sible in such a formation. There is not sufficient rock to support the arch necessary to form such domes. Carlsbad, yes, Mojave, no! THIS IS YOUR TEST Ml Now to clean up a few loose ends of Gesner's Bo you desire more abundant health? Do you feel that you are capable of securing: greater story. Harmer left the Daily News about six income? Are you limited in your enjoyment of months ago. I have been unable to locate him happiness? Do you earnestly desire to expand your capacities for receiving; and holding;? Read since. We were also unable to find out anything these attain, only if distinct. words and you feel a at all about the supposed blueprint by a U.S. Impelling urge to do so, send your name and address to Geodetic agent. THE "PRECEPTORS" Jack Mitchell discovered his caves in 1929, and 1317 N. Dewey St* Oklahoma City, Okla. began to open them in 1934. At present only part of them are open to the public. Some of the Anmuidtlaa deeper caves are not yet fully explored. Mitchell SMpa Shafts himself is a living legend of the Mojave. His mo* AnswMtloa Reyehrsf story of the caves is alone worth the trip. For ASHMnltlM the cave hunter, the rock hound, anthropologists, NewStnbpiat New RDM the botanists, or the writer, these caves are well Bend 850 for Handy Borne Workshop Gunsmith Manual and Latest Ammunition and worth a visit. If anyone is interested, the best road Guns Catalogue. to Mitchell's Caverns is by way of Essex, 30 miles NEW YORK COMPANY, 10600-10710 Wert Rldgwoy Block Kidgwoy Pennaylvnnlo) west of Needles, California, on Highway 66. Turn north at Essex on a desert road for 22 miles. Signs point the way and the road ends at Mitchell's Magic White Dice doorstep. There is no mystery here. MISS OR PASS Pair $3, $4. and $5.50, John G. Bullock, Red or Green Dice $5.59, $7.50 op SHOP SALES 1616 S. Barrington Ave., Dept. S, Box Ml, West Los Angeles 2S, Calif. Dallas 1, Texas Thank you, Mr. Bullock, for the CHMBS.—Ed. DISCUSSIONS 175

A REQUEST Sirs: I would appreciate it very much if you could find room for this letter in the Discussions column of Amazing Stories.

Many of your readers are familiar with that Springtime brings treacherous amazing book OAHSPE, and I feel sure that a lot days for asthmatics... so jour of them would welcome an opportunity to carry friend the druggist gets busy through the principles outlined in it. and orders more of Dr. R. Schirrmann's Asthmador. He I am very desirous of contacting these parties, knows more sufferers buy and any other interested parties, in an effort to Asthmador than any other get all concerned into communication with each inhalant treatment. Me can tell other. you why, too - Asthmador is The object of this is to be able to get a collective easy to use, dependably uni- idea for the formation of an independent commu- form, produced under strict nity on the lines given in OAHSPE, and to be laboratory control That's why able to ascertain exactly the best location for such POWDER you can rely on Asthmador's easy-breathing fumes to pene- a community, as well as a list of prospective trate congestion, reduce the se- members and their abilities. verity of wheeling and cough- Consequently I would be very glad to hear from ing attacks. No costly sprays to any all this and who have read book, and also buy, nothing to take internally. from those who would like to contact others Just light up and breathe! regarding it. Your money back if you can't 1 Mr . C . Roy, 1322 L St., N. W. Washington, D. C. -fa/Ma WAo/csa/e f?o~/c Sounds like a good idea, Roy.—Ed. MEN .J™ a Big Pay Business We Help Yeu Establish a Steady Route of Dealer Customers Make good weekly earnings selling stores out »«**••••••»»• BIG line of 200 products—all daily necessities; Show merchant* in your locality a sensational line of self-selling counter goods. Retail at So ( Continued from page °) t and lOo. You make up to 112% oommission; death at approximately 70 years of age. (It was No large capital required. Easy to Start spent for National Advertising has more in those days, because beneficial rays and A fortune made our products known from coast to coasU machines could combat the age poisons to a certain Send for our booklet "Your Opportunity in a extent.) These creatures who found their way Wholesale Business of Your Own." It's FRE8 —no obligation. WRITE TODAYI back into the underground cities, or who were left WORLD'S PRODUCTS 80., p«ft28-N,s>MMr( M> there, guarded their havens jealously from those who did not have access to them, and this secrecy has been maintained for thousands of years. However, the secrecy has been far from complete, as witness the incredible number of legends we have of underground races. These "leaks" were covered up by creating a belief in "supernatural" things, such as ghosts and spirits, so that surface people, catching a glimpse of an underground dweller, temporarily emerging from his dwelling, would not search for them, but be- lieve they were only phantasms. ILLUSTRATED COMIC Communication between these underground BOOKLETS races (because they have the mechanical means THK KINO M CM LIKKt to do so) and peoples who travel space in space (VKST POCKET SIZE) ships, and sometimes venture near a sun-planet for They are loaded with rare car- toons. Full of H un and Humor. raiding purposes (to steal ancient machines and 2O0IFFERENTbnokletss<'nt supplies and to procure slaves), is postulated by prepaid for $1 in plain wrapper. GRAYKO, Dept. AS -3 Mr. Shaver, and borne out by the incredible Box 520. G. P. O.. New York 1 number of reports we have and have had in the past, of visiting "ships" in the sky (such as the Write for full informa- tion on what steps an mysterious "air raid" suffered by Los Angeles dur- inventor should take to ing the war, and which the army now reveals has PATENTS secure a Patent, never been explained, except that it was no private tANOOLPH A MAVIES, 920 Columbian Hdg,Washlnelon 1,0.0. 176 AMAZING STORIES

or military plane our own, and none of the BUY FROM IHt OLDEST ESTABLISHES of Japs or any foreign power, but was certainly FIRM IN THE UNITED STAT! - SflUNC EYE GLASSES BY MAIL tracked by radar, and observed by many people to "appear to be rocket ships" from three to five in number). Life recently reported such a "ship" »-•< • over Princeton, NJ. and laughingly said it was no ,1*4- $1*95 :: "angel"; not over Princeton.

For The existence in far space of the Titans and 8»tl>. living planets. The existence of maim Atlans inside dark giants of incredible size; of "micro-men" living Write Today for tree Catoloaue. Send No Money ADVANCE SPECTACLE COMPANY within the microcosm; of "ghost-like" creatures, 53? 5. Dearborn St.. Dept.z-4 ChlcoBO, III, who are not human in appearance, yet are intelli- gent, and do not die—the Titans themselves do LEARN TO WRITE not die so long as they avoid the deadly suns. that The Magazine Institute offers an up-to-the-minute course HpHE science expounded by Mr. Shaver, and writing In for magazines which makes it easy to get started * he has learned from the "caves," such as the in spare time at home. You mar concentrate on either fiction or non-fiction. Send for FREE CATALOG describ- age poisons; the exd which is the push of gravity; ing M. I. method. VETERANS: THIS COURSE APPROVED FOR VETERANS' TRAINING. the nature of matter and its formation and dis- THE MAGAZINE INSTITUTE, INC., Dept. 775-E integration; science of growth all are ex- BO Rockefeller Plaza, Rockefeller Center. New York 20, N. Y. the — plained again in the same way they were originally explained, in the guise of a "story" in the form CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING of "fiction." You can gain a knowledge of all those things by reading this issue. Song Poems

POBMS wanted for musical setting. Send poem for Immediate VTATURALLY, we cannot present you with tie consideration and Fr« Rhyming Dictionary. Richard Brothers, 88 Woods Building, Chicago. m. *^ thousands of letters, containing almost in- POEMS Wanted. Free examination. Send poems to J. Chas. credible confirmation from readers and others McNeil, Master of Muslo, Sic ZD South Alexandria Am, Los Angeles B, Calif. having had the same experiences Mr. Shaver has SONGWRITERS: Songs published monthly. Advance royalty. had. We can do no more than hint at the amazing Send your songs poems today for our exciting offer. Hollywood or "fifth column from hell" that we have begun to Tunesmiths, Dept. EE-1, 158T N. Vine St.. Hollywood 28. Calif. will be presented in the POEMS wanted for musioal setting, for uncover and which consideration. Hamann Serrice, 612 Building, future ... the incredible way in which a foreign waukee, Wisconsin. government(s) may have obtained cavern mech. Misee//«neoo» set them up in this country, and is using them to

MAGAZINES (back dated)—foreign, domestic, arts. Books, book- set up a fifth column to end all fifth columns in a lets, subscriptions, pin-ups. etc. Catalog 100 (refunded). Cice- future invasion! have no proof, rone's Center. 863 First Ave., Now YorklT^N^Y. No, we but we narration CORRESPONDENCE Courses and self-Instruction books slightly intend to present a consecutive of what Rented. Exchanged. All subjects. Satisfaction used. Sold. we suspect, and maybe it will be reasonable guaranteed. Cash paid for used courses. Complete Information and 100-page illustrated bargain catalog Free! Write Nelson. Co.. enough to follow to its bitter end. Dept. 68, Chicago 5, 111 _ $60.00 $1,000.00 to employed men BORROW by Malll loans to CANNOT fully explain the research we and women. Easy, quick. Completely private, confidential No VUE endorsers. Repay In convenient monthly payments. Detail- Free * ' have gone into, in the matter of "spiritualism" in plain envelope. Write First Loan Co., World Herald Bldg., Dept. L-58, Omaha, Near, nor our suspicion that between Shaver and the 8C1ENTIFICT10N, weird, fantastic: books, magaiinea. Werewolf spiritualists there exists no real difference of Bookshop. MIA Maryland. Pittsburgh 6. Pa. opinion, only interpretation—that we find Mr. BELLING lane stock Fantasy Magazines. Write Fred Claaawn. Post Office. Stow, Ohio. Shaver's opinions fully substantiated by what ALASKA—"The Last Frontier" offers thousands of excellent op- some call the "astral." The "astral" can very well portunities! $1.00 brings official Government map and 19V copy- righted report describing potential opportunities in Commercial be nothing more "uncanny" than a real cave nshtog. Mining. Fur^ P PMt , a iC ^^^• ™ world with real people in it with real machines B ^1t^tp^ | Qot2^B^{ Homestead' Lands. Alaska Opportunist, 8117 Homewood Ave.. to operate, instead of "astral powers." We con- Dept. ZZ. Hollywood 28, Calif. sider "spiritualism" to be just one more proof that TNTETREaTED In Latin America & Foreign employment? II brings ltd Foreign Service Directory listing Oil, Aviation, -fining. Shaver theories are more than theories, but can Transportation. Manufacturing, Construction concerns with foreign Interests and tips for immediate application. Global Reports. be accepted as factual, and that there fa only a Homewood Ave.. Dept. ZZ, Hollywood 28. CaUI. 6417 need for more understanding. AT HOME—Tour own rnanufacturing business: $1.00 novelties. Cost you So to lio. Everything So-Lo Works. Dept. Tj-643. Loveland, Ohio. VyE HAVE pointed out "Oahspe" as a book that money-making, RARE, unique, unusual, mystifying, ' * is still more "evidence." Shaver admits it can claliatfc illustrated book catalogues. lOo (refundable) 706-A3 Judson Rives Bldg., Los Angeles 14. well be a very fine thought record, and he agrees < RAISE Turkeys the new way. Write for free informatloa explain- basically, arguing only against the "spirit" angle. ing how to make up to $3,000.00 In your own backyard. Address National Turkey Institute, Dept. 280, Columbus. Kansas. Let's find out! ABUNDANCE. Make up your mind to Have health, friends, op- Amazingly easy portunities, money, success and happiness—Now 1 r[H3R those groups of fans who complain be- master formula to Awaken your Soul's Powers of Increase to Sup- L * cause this editor calls the Shaver Stories MarSeo?" & tSOCS%M& » factual, we are reminded of one of the most 27. Calif. ... ! : —

THE OBSERVATORY 177 popular and classic stories ever published in the same fan groups' favorite magazine, Unknown, edited by John W. Campbell, Jr., "Sinister Bar- rier" by Eric Frank Russell. We quote the state- ment made at that time (March 1939) by editor Campbell: "Fifty thousand words that will make you unsure of your certainties—unsure that Man AFTIR rules Earth! A full-length novel based on weird Yes, You Can Hove and discomforting facts. The greatest imaginative novel in two decades!" A Good-Looking Nose Nobody today need go through We is Frank Russell's in TJERE Eric comment with the handicap of a badly shaped note, * preface to his novel. These are quotes disfigured features. Get your copy of "YOUS NEW FACE IS YOUS "It would be idle to pretend and dishonest to FORTUNE." See how Plastic Surgery quickly, easily re-shapes suggest that 'Sinister Barrier' is anything else ugly noses, sett back protruding ears, corrects other de- than fiction. Some may regard it as fantasy, be- fects. This book by a famous plastic surgeon contains over 88 "before cause it is placed in the future and depicts certain and after" photos, answers all the questions developments that have been predicted by those usually asked. Sent post-paid in plain wrapper for only i qualified to forecast the coming triumphs of sci- 5c. HtANKUN HOUSi; ence. But I regard it as a sort of fact-fiction PuMthni tut Omul Git,., Ptilladelphla, Pa., Osat, MM solely because I do sincerely believe that if ever

a story was based upon facts it is this one. "'Sinister Barrier' is as true a story as it is DRAW for MONEY possible to concoct while presenting believe-it-or not truths in the guise of entertainment. It derives BE AN ARTIST! Trained ArthU are) Copohle of fen-ulna; its fantastic atmosphere only from the queerness, $50. $50, $75 a Week the eccentricity, the complete inexplicability of the It's pleasant and intartjvtlng W.S.A. way.way. COMMERCIAL" Al, CARTOONING:>NINC all In ONE complete hooM ** established facts that gave it birth. I have them in course. No previous Art experience n«e«Mar hundreds havee profitedprofit**! by our practical n* the form of a thousand press clippings snatched ods since 1014. TWO i from half a hundred newspapers in the Old World and the New. A thousand more were given me by adventurers hardier than myself; people 'iSP FREE BOOK gives details! who have explored farther and more daringly into WASHINGTON SCHOOL OF ART, forbidden acres than I have done. Studio 92SH. 1115 15th St, N. W*. WashlnBton D. "But perhaps my greatest debt is to two friends, 5, C one of whom asked me, 'Since everybody wants

peace, why don't we get it?' while the other posed City Zona ( ) Stole. I am entitled to training under the a. !. (III. me this one, 'If there are extra-terrestrial races further advanced than ourselves, why haven't they STUDY AT HOMK for Personal Success and

visited us already?' Charles Fort gave me what LARGER EARNINGS. 38 yean expert instruc- well answer. said, think may be the He 7 we're tion—over 108,000 students enrolled. 1X3. property.' Degree swarded. All text material furnished.

"Critics are entitled to say, 'If you believe your Easy payment plan. Send for FREE BOOK plot has a factual basis, you are running an awful Law and Executive Guidance"—NOW risk of removal by merely developing it.' run I AMERICAN EXTENSION SCHOOL OF LAW no risk. Sinister Barrier is not fiction offered as Dept. 77* -~ 644 N. Mlchlaon Aw. Chicago 11, truth: it is offered only as fiction. Therefore, it will not be believed. The natural skepticism of my ILLUSTRATED COMICS BOOKLETS readers is my safeguard." Sell our ILLUSTRATED COMIC BOOKLETS and other NOVELTIES. Each booklet sin 4Mx2V. We will send 26 assorted booklets prepaid upon receipt of §1.00 or 75 assorted "CINISTER BARRIER" was part and parcel of booklets sent prepaid upon receipt of $2.00. Wholesale the same mystery we call "The Shaver Mys- novelty price list sent with ord>r only. No orders sent C.O.D. Send Cash or Money Order. tery" today! And like ourselves, Campbell called it factual in basis. Fans, consistency is a jewel! REPSAC SALES CO:

You, and Shaver, and your editor agree about 1 Weil 13 th 9, Dept. 40-1 New York 11, N. T. about "Sinister Barrier" and its FACTS I Take a look at more of these SAME FACTS in the LEG SUFFERERS Why continue to surfer without attempt- Shaver Mystery. We submit that Shaver has not ing to do something? Write today tor New Booklet—"THE LIEPE METHODS FOR been original. Campbell and Russell did it first! HOME USE." It tells about Varicose) Ulcers and Open Sores. Llepe Method* And they did it well ! We agree with them to the Leg used while poti tmlk. More than 40 years of bitter end—Man does not rule this Earth, and it suocess. Praised and en- dorsad by multitudes. is based on fact that he does not. Roll on, Shaver Mystery UEPE METHODS, 3284N.Gree.ri Bay Ave., I Dept. »*», Milwaukee, Wisconsin BOOKLET !

178 AMAZING STORIES

To People Who Want to Write but can't get started

Do you have the constant urge to write but the fear that a begin- ner hasn't a chance? Then listen to what the former editor of Liberty said on this subject:

"There is more room for newcomers in the writingfield today than ever be- fore. Some of the greatest of writing men and women have passed from the scene in recent years. Who will take their places? Who will be the new Robert W. Chambers, Edgar Wallace, Rudyard Kipling? Fame, riches and the happiness of achievement await the new men and women of power." Writing Aptitude Test — FREE! Beginner Earns $1,819.00 THE Newspaper Institute of America offers a FREE Writing recruits for the "Today 1 received a Aptitude Test. Its object is to discover new check for $165 for a army of men and women who add to their income by fiction and ttory. Another I soldfor article writing. $34. The other day I counted up just how Aptitude Test is simple but expert analysis of much I made previously. The Writing a It amounted to your latent ability, your powers of observation, imagination, $1,620.00. Not bad for dramatic instinct, etc. Not all applicants pass this test. Those a begbmfr, is it? — Mrs. L. L. Gray, 579 E. who do are qualified t& take the famous N.I.A. course based on McHargAve., Stamford, the practical training given by big metropolitan dailies. Texas. This is the New York Copy Desk Method which teaches you to

write by writing ! You develop your individual style instead of trying to copy that of others. You "cover" actual assignments such as metropolitan reporters get. Although you work at home, on your own time, you are constantly guided by experienced writers. It is really fascinating work. Each week you see new progress. In a matter of months you can acquire the cov- I. %MJmMkid eted "professional" touch. Then you're ready for market with greatly improved chances of VETERANS: making sales.

Mail the Coupon Note ThU course approved Sells 95 Stories But the first step is to take the Writing Apti- It minutes and and Novelettes tude Test. requires but a few for V.t.rant' costs nothing. So mail the coupon now ! Make The introduction you Training gave me to your editor the first move towards the most enjovable anfi friend, resulting in my profitable occupation—writing for publication present assignment to do a complete novelfor him Newspaper Institute of America, One Park monthly, is doubly ap- Avenue, New York 16, N. Y. (Founded 1925) p reciated esp ecially since I finished my N.I.A. training some time ago Newspaper Institute of America and, consequently, have no call on your service. One Park Ave., New York 16, N. Y. Here is concrete evi- dence that interest in S«nd me, without cost or obligation, your Writing Aptitude your students continues Test and further information about writing for profit. indefinitely. To date Mi.s 1 now, I nave sold 95 Mrs. I stories and novelettes to Mr. J 20 National Maga- Address eligible G.I. zines.** — Darrell Jor- ( ) Check here if you are under the Bill of Rights. (All correspondence confidential. No salesman will call on yon.) I02-H-667 dan, P.O. Box 279, Friendship, N.Y. Copyright 1947 Newspaper Institute of America PRINTED IN U.S.A. ' '

1 I TALKED WITH GOD

Impossible — you say? ly Peace — a Peace

No, it is not impossible which only God can give You can do the sa me —and POWER? — well thing. For then- has — the human race knows come to the earth a bril- little of this POWER, liant, shining revelation which upsets many old of the power of The conceptions of God, and Spirit of God. It has puts in V'OU K hands, come because the hu- and mine, the Power man race, through the •lesus promised when He _' Robinson ' Atomic Bomb — could Dr. Frank B. sa i d : The things that

' very easily annihilate itself. So the I do shall ye do also. Spirit of God has spoken and the I want you to know of this Power. revelation and the Power that is fol- [ live for no other purpose. For when lowing, staggers the imagination. In this dynamic, invisible Power chang- the past 18 years, MORE THAN ed my life, my duty was very plain. HALF A MILLION people have told TELL OTHERS — that's what God us without our asking them, what said to me, and I've been doing that happened when they too discovered faithfully for the past 18 years. the actual and literal Power of The Write me a simple postcard, or letter, Spirit of God, right here on earth, in NOW, and ask me for my 6000 word their own lives. message, which will give you a slight

The future is dangerous. Fear fills insight into the most soul-stirring most hearts. But may I say to you revelation from God this world has into your life, that there can come ever known. Address me as follows: Spiritual Pow- dancing flashes of the —"DR. FRANK B. ROBINSON, er of God? I mean NOW. And when Dept. 47- 1 7. Moscow, Idaho and this you do find, and know this beautiful message, which is TOTALLY FREE, Power, whatever problems, trials, will be sent by mail immediately. But fears which may beset you, melt away under the shimmering Power write now—ere you forget. The ad of God. In place of these fears, dress again—Dr. Frank B. Robinson. doubts, and trials, there comes a love- Dept.47-17 Moscow, Idaho.

The Psychiana Religion is, as r'r name implies, a religious Movement operating under Idaho non-profit religious charter. We are in our ISth year of exclusive operation through the mails. More than half a million people EACH MONTH receive our literature. We operate in our own peculiar way which is different from that of any other religion in

America. We plead with every American to allow us to point out this new revelation of the Spirit of God. It it the only revelation which can bring permanent Peace to the human race. It has its inspiration in the Realm of The Spirit of God.

II COPYRIGHT 1946 "THE PSYCHIANA RELIGION IN THE JULY ISSUE OF

UK W 5TORIE5 HARVEY DALL had a

feeling he was being

watched that day at the air terminal. And he ' HIDDEN CITY was. Even before it happened, he knew he By CHESTER S. GEIER was being drawn into a

web from which he could A complete, book length, science-

not escape— a web fiction novel by one of America's

that drew tighter and favorite fantasy writers

started him on the

weirdest adventure man

had ever known. For

Harvey Dall found he was

on a one-way ride to the

moon— to a city fan-

tastic beyond belief.

Next month's issue of

AMAZING STORIES

takes you on this

thrilling adventure-

in the newest science-

fiction novel to come

from the pen of

Chester S. Geier. Be

"sure to get your copy.