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ACE- HI C ft H AGAZINE, RANCH ROMANCES. CO*'BOY STORIES, CLUES, FIVE-HOVELS MONTHLY, ALL STAB DETECTIVE STORIES, RA7NGELAND LOVE STORY MAGAZINE, aad WESTERS ADVENTURES. Mere imam Two Million Copies Required to Supply the Monthly Demand for Clayton Magasiuet.
vol. iv. No. 2 CONTENTS NOVEMBER, 1931
COVER DESIGN , H. W. WESSOLOWSKI Painted in ^Water-Colors from a Scene im "The Pirate Planet."
THE WALL OF DEATH VICTOR ROUSSEAU 151 Ont of the Antarctic It Came—a Wail of Viscid, Grey, Half-Human Jelly, Absorbing and Destroying All Life That It Encountered.
THE PIRATE PLANET CHARLES W. DIFFIN MS A Strange Light Blinks on Venus, and Over Old Earth Hovers a Mysterious Visitant- Dread Harbinger of interplanetary War. (Beginning Four-Port Novel.)
THE DESTROYER WILLIAM MERRIAM ROUSE Iff Slowly, Insidiously, There Stole Over Allen Parker Something Uncanny. He Could No Longer Control His Hands—Even His Brain!
THE GRAY PLAGUE ^ L. A. ESHBACH 211 Maimed and Captive, in tke Depths of an Interplanetary Meteor-Craft, Lay the Only Possible Savior of Plague-Ridden' Earth.
JETTA OF THE LOWLANDS RAY CUMMINGS ZM Black-Garbed Figures Move in Ghastly Greenness As the Invisible Flyer Speeds on Its Business of Ransom. (Conclusion.)
VAGABONDS OF SPACE /HARL VINCENT 244 From the Depths of the Sargasso Sea of Space Came the Thought-Warning, "Turn Backt" But Carr and HisjMartian Friend Found It Was Too Late! (A Com* piece Novelette.)
THE READERS' CORNER ALL OF US 271 A Meeting Place for Readers of Astounding Storirs.
Single Copies, 20 Cento (In Canada, 26 Cento) Yearly SubscHpbon, $2.00 larued month tr by PubllaherV FlwmJ Corporation. 80 Lafayette St., New York. N. T. W. M. CUyttm. Pre*. el dent : Francla P. Pan-, Secretary. Entered an ara>ad-elan matter December 7. 1929. at tttt Post Onto New York. N. Y.. under Act of March 8. 1879. Title restsbrred aa a Trade Mark Id the U. S. Patent C Member NcvraaUnd Group—Men'i List- For advertising rain address E. B. Grow* * Co, Ida* U Var Ave. Hew York: or 126 North Michigan Arc. Chicago. m and his music held them spellbound
house pony was at its "That's great play another," they Man Lesson that showed me how easy It ETHEL'S — was, so I mora for the whole course. height—when suddenly there came all shouted as the last notes of "Tliir* ware no lirwme rcalc* or tadlosa in ominous knocking at the door. that snappy march song died * ewrcL5*H. I flayrri ml plwvs alinon from it there away. started that Ethel ran to open ana — stood Kane then I he Mart. Now I'm playtn' claulcnl num- Police Officer Kane. stirring old soldier song "Ou bers or Jau. barm' too tune of my life." "I want to see the man ot the the Road to Mandalay," bum," thundered Kane. following it with song This la net the uory of lust one Wlatad "I'm aorry," stammered Ethel nerv- hits from the latest caw. CNn half a million people bare laamed to pier by this nlmple method. You can, ously, "but my father is not at home." shows. loo. Kren if tou don't know one note from "Well, what's goin" on in here any- anothrr you'll ttraip )i In no lime. Fin*, officer way?" continued the sternly. tt tells you how 10 da a thing—then It "Every one on the Mock is complain- aevt you how In pictures—then you do It * b' of the noise. I've a good mind to yourself and htat ». >ou/i*lf— imst the lot of you." You teach riant at home—with- out any unlnitmtlnn llnirr cmtcIm*, Ethel was mortified— what dis* tedl* a oiu »calca or other humdrum methods. pace! "Ob please," pleaded Ethel, "please Fro® Booklet and isn't do anything like that." Then Kane hnrst out laughing. Demonstration Lesson Don'! worry, lassie — you were all To prore hnw pranical this course Is, the lawsa' such a fine time I couldn't U. S. School of MuMc bis arranged a typical tab droppin' in," he explained. DrmonMration Lnuon and explanatory Book- let which you may hare Frre. They know bow liihcl, 'vh," sighed "how you anyone ran learn 10 play bis fsrorlte Instru- let frajatened me. Won't you join nst" "Well," he Unshed, as they Anally ment by note in lev» than half the time and at htm set up from tfio piano. "I'll hare a frartlon of the rout of old Slow methods. to be on my way now.* The Hooklet will alio tell you all about the Kane Joins the Party you for your lovely music." said "Thank em si Ins new Automatic Fimgrr Centre!. "Ha." laughed Kane, as the Victrote Ethel. "Tou must be playing a eood Don't delay—act at once— fill In and mall farad again, ''why many yean V* the coupon below today—no obligation what- saw you play that "Sore, and I haven't ever. been plejin" lona at all." canned music — can't PICK YOUR < Instrument supplied If desired, cash or INSTRUMENT Thm the questions came credit.) it. H. Hcbool of Miurie, MVll *sy of you play this thick fast, "How did Vlolti and Brunswick BIdf.. New York City. taasdlal piano f Sure, Flaao you ever learn so quick- Organ Clarinet find rd like to> jrive you a ly!" "When do you Ukulele Fluie time to practice*" "Who one myself. IT. S. School or MuaU Saaapbaaa was your teacher*" "1 dare you to play 36911 Brnmswlek Bldg.. York Troeaboaa New Qay T^M," snouted Ted Pleaae send mo your free book, "fefuiio Pleeolo MaadoBa l>.*ims In Your Own noma." with tntro- 'Cello Kane Tells "Tin afraid 1'H have Cottar ductlon by Dr. Frank Crane. Free Damon- rationwration I/eunuvaat and part I art of your easy he goin*," stammered Hawaiian Steal Caller vv , a ml " am interested In the fol- late, embarrassed. Slant SlBfldaa His Story Tfc. Kane, I think fou Pleao Accordion "•» Play ror at after Italian aad Genua "Well, to tell yon the v mast yog ma." truth I bad no iearbrr.r?e nssas faboL always loved music, bni I "WD, Vole* and Spmh Collar* Vwm. maybs I Hereaoay wad oouldn'l lake rofular lea- the oflkwr. WW Cneapweliloai son* on aoraont ot my du- a BSha^ast down at tha ties aa a polloeman. Then Name -f. , flat Drama awd Tan* one eranutf. I eaw a r. H. • a»7Sli!II rtL AwiOMtie Fumaar Bchool of Music adrartlae- --2*£?« toUlaUng Control meni. teJUn' of a new way Address *> the nan "Boni n" BaaJ* (Pleairaen. of laarnla' U play. I didn't bailee* It myself but I east B Siring or Taaar) Oty
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fafil! sht exclaimed.,
Uo then I told Marge how the Hawaiian Guitar had made my ambi' tions all come true
L JSEAS Just a plain dis- couraged "wash-out." No tal- ent, do friends. No "social pres- ence," no worthwhile pros- pects. at my Job; no hard, solid cash salted away at the bank. And then what could a girl see In me? No matter how "why didht you tell much I thought about girls the way I felt about Marge, for ?* example—I couldn't do any- that before thing about It. me One night I tried reading a "I took a trip over to Bridge- Ing actual tunes right from tb> magazine. I began spinning the ton one night and played my very start. pages past my thumb. Guitar at the "Y." They went Here nt last Is the unlitnHel wild. Marge! Paid me ten dol- Opportunity for milking frlendt And THEN it Happened 1 lars for It Here Is the chance above si Somehow one page flashed "Since others to make $15 to $25 out from the rest. "Learn the then I've played at two dnnecs there, too. nnd weak and up, for part-time or Hawaiian Guitar at Home," H full-time playing. Johnny Farrell says I start with read. And it urged me to send the now. Wllh his orchestra the first of the Get FACTS for a Free Book. That was the very first lesson of this month. ! three months ago. Think of It! will mean doubling ilary." time- tested Course you re* Now let me tell you about my ^- ...... » eelve a fuU-Jlze, sweet-toned, Marge was quiet the other nlghL again Then genuine Hawaiian Guitar, pick* I masked lo< Marge If I could 1 'bur. tuner, etc. And we gtf. she ISt^^L^xJS*said—"Jim. you've ,??™J call. She told me to come over found you Phonograph Records waldl yourself. I didn't know.lt after supper. Excited? I'll say Was demonstrate every lesson In ua I was: In you. I'm so happy Course—55 In all. Marge came out In a few • • • The coupon below brtap minutes. I couldn't restrain your copy of "Tho Hawanta You can be the popular myself any longer. mas- •Way to Popularity and ter of thjs thrilllngly beautiful Bfe "Marge!" I cried, 'Tve got a Pay." We want you to read K surprise for Instrument In 1 to 3 short you I" I reached — that's all—then make your on months. Without one down and lifted up my Guitar. bit of decision. Do as Jim did—ft) Even In the semi-darkness I previous musical knowledge or that coupon Into the mnll-Ua could see Marge's eyes grow experience, you can begin play- tonight.
I played to her. DrVtTrny A. P. BLOCK, President "Aloha" ; throbbing "Carolina Moan"; all the blues of "Moan- Hawaiian Studies SlllOal In' Low" — and two others. Htm York Ao ada my el Naelo When I stopped. Marge didn't say a word for a full minute. Then she exclaimed excitedly, "Jim! Why didn't you tell me Clip and Mail NOV before T" swallowed hard. **Beue- I — | cause " I began, "because.JSC, \ Marge—well, I guess there wasn't so very much to tell-"-VJH* yji Iflh Ataaga, . Please mention Newsstand Group—Men'ss List, answering advertisements ; Ami tkem Kay had brokem through a*d was kadmg madly with great sweep* of the ax. The Wall of Death By Victor Rousseau m **f W^tilS news," said Cliff Hynes, 13, Day 7, Horometer 3, and the head- I pointing to the newspaper, lines on the front page confirmed the § "means the end of homo news of the decisive defeat of the Americanus." American military and naval forces at The newspaper in question was the the hands of the Chinese Republic. hour-sheet of the A gallant fight Inter national for days against of the Antarctic uni a wall of Broadcast Asso- Out — hopeless odds; viscid, grey, hatf-hi jelly, absorbing ciation, just de- and destroying all life that it encountered. failure of the livered by pneu- army dynamos matic tube at the airships cut off laboratory. It was stamped 1961, Month from ground guidance ; battleships 151 — " 152 ASTOUNDING STORIES ripped to pieces by the Chinese dis- AND if explorers had been con- finally, wave integrators ; and, the great tent to leave the vast unknown of black death that had wiped out two Antarctic Continent alone, they would hundred thousand men. never have taught the imprisoned Kay Bevan—to use the old-fashioned Giants to cross the great ice barrier. names which still persisted, despite the But that crossing had taken place official numerical nomenclature — fifteen years ago, and already the mind glanced through the account. He threw of man had become accustomed to the the sheet away. "We deserved it, Cliff," grim facts. he said. Who could have dreamed that the Cliff nodded. "You saw that bit supposed table-land was merely a rim about the new Chinese disintegrator? of ice-mountains, surrounding a valley If the Government had seriously con- twice the size of Europe, so far below sidered our Crumbier— sea-level that it was warmed to tropic Kay glanced at the huge, humming heat by Earth's interior fires? Or that top that filled the center of the labora- this valley was peopled with what could tory. It spun so fast that it appeared best be described as organized proto- as nothing but a spherical shadow, plasm? through which one could see the sparse _ Enormous, half-transparent, gelatin- furnishings, the table, the apparatus ous organism, attaining a height of ranged upon it, and the window over- about a hundred feet, and crudely or- looking the upper streets of New York. ganized into forms not unlike those of "Yes if!" he answered bitterly. men? "And I'm willing to bet the Chinese Half the members of the Rawlins Ex- have an inferior machine, built upon pedition, which had first entered this the plans that Chinese servant stole valley, had fallen victims to the mon- from us last year." sters. Most of the rest had gone raving "We deserved it. Cliff," said Kay mad. And the stories of the two who again. "For ten years we've harried returned, sane, to Buenos Aires, were and enslaved the yellow man, and taken discredited and scoffed at as those of a hundred thousand of his men and madmen. women to sacrifice to the Earth Giants. But of a second expedition none had What would we have done, if condi- survived, and it was the solitary sur- tions had been reversed?" vivor of the third who had confirmed "Self-preservation," Cliff suggested. the amazing story. The giant monsters, "Exactly. The law of the survival actuated by some flickering human in- of the fittest. They thought that they telligence, had found their way out of were fitter to survive. I tell you they the central valley, where they had sub- had right on their side, Cliff, and that's sisted by enfolding their vegetable and what's beaten us. Now—a hundred small animal prey with pseudopods, thousand of our own boys and girls that is to say, temporary projections of must be fed into the maw of these arms from the gelantinous bulk of their monsters every year. God, suppose it substance. were Ruth I" They had floated across the shallow "Or you or I," said Cliff. "If only seas between the tip of the Antarctic we could perfect the Crumbier I" Continent and Cape Horn, as toy bal- "What use would that be against the loons float on water. Then they had Earth Giants? There's nothing organic spread northward, extending in a wall about them, not even bones. Pure that reached from the Atlantic to the protoplasm 1" Andes. And, as they moved, they had "We could havejised,it against the devoured all vegetables and animal life Chinese." said CliBT Now — " He in their path. Behind them lay on* shrugged his shoulders hopelessly. great bare, absolutely lifeless area. THE WALL OF DEATH 133 HOW many of them wgfe there? fourth were the Atlanteans. The third That was the hideous fact that were the Lemurians, half-human beings had to be faced. Their numbers could of whom the Australian aborigines are not be counted because, after attaining the survivors. The second race was not a height of about a hundred feet, they fully organized into human form. Of reproduced by budding I the first, nothing is known. And within a few weeks these buds, "These are the second race, surviving in turn, attained their full develop- in the Antarctic valleys. Half-human ment. objects, groping toward that perfection The Argentine Government had sent of humanity of which we ourselves fall a force of twenty thousand men against very far short. As the KabbaJa says, them, armed with cannon,* machine- man, before Adam, reached from heaven guns, tanks, airplanes, poison gas, and to earth." the new death-ray. And in the night, Kay Bevan and Cliff Hynes had been when it was bivouacking, after what working feverishly to perfect their it had thought was a glorious victory, Crumbier for use in the Chinese wars. it had been overwhelmed and eaten! Convinced, as were all fair-minded Proof against the poison gas, the men, that these annual raids were un- hideous monsters were, and invulnera- justified, they yielded to the logic of ble to shot and shell. Divided and sub- the facts. Should America sacrifice a divided, slashed into ribbons, blown to hundred thousand of her boys and girls fragments by bombs, each of the pieces each year, when human life was cheap imply became the nucleus of a new in China? Boys and girls! organism, able, within a few hours, to . It had been discovered that the Earth nsume the outlines of a dwarf man, Giants required the flesh of women as and to seize and devour its prey. well as of men. Some subtle chemical But the Argentine expedition had constituent then ^produced the state of done worse than it at first dreamed of. torpidity during which the advance and It bad given the monsters a taste for the budding of the monsters was stayed. human Beshl During the ten past years their north- After that, the wave of devastation ward advance had been almost inap- had obliterated life in every city dear preciable. Brazil had even sent another up to the Amazonian forests. And army against them. then it had been discovered that, by But the deadliest gases had failed feeding these devils human flesh, they to destroy the tenacious life of these could be rendered torpid and their ad- protoplasmic creatures, and the tanks, vance stayed—so long as the periodical which had driven through and through meals continued I them, had become entangled and At first criminals had been supplied blocked in the gelatinous exudations, them, then natives, then Chinese, ob- and their occupants eaten. tained by periodical war raids. What All over the world scientists were would you have? The savage regions striving to invent some way of remov- of the earth had already been depopu- ing this menace to the world. More- lated, and a frenzy of fear had taken over, airplanes sent to the polar con- possession of the whole world. tinent had reported fresh masses mobi- Now the Chinese had defeated the lizing for the advance northward. A annual American invasion, and the second wave would probably burst Earth Giants were budding and swarm- through the Amazon forest barrier and ing through the heart of Brazil. sweep over the Isthmus and overrun North America. "TUTAN," said the Theosophists, "is Five days after the news of the XYX the fifth of the great root-races Chinese disaster was confirmed, Cliff that have inhabited this planet. The Hynes came back from the capital of 154 ASTOUNDING STORIES the American Confederation, Washing- in every city. The cry was raised that ton. Spanish Americans had been selected "It's no use, Kay." he said. "The in preference to those of more northern Government won't even look at the blood. Civil war loomed imminent. Crumbier. I told them it would dis- And year after year these scents integrate every inorganic substance to must be repeated. Boys and girls, from powder, and they laughed at me. And fifteen to twenty years of age, the it's true, Kay : they've given up the at- flower of the Federation, a hundred tempt to enslave China. Henceforward thousand of them, must die a hideout a hundred thousand of our own citizens death to save humanity. Now the choice are to be sacrificed each year. Eaten of the second year's victims was at alive, Kay I God, if only the Crumbier hand. would destroy organic forms as well I" In their laboratory, removed to the heart of the Adirondacks ^ildernen, THE first year's quota of fifty thou- Cliff and Kay were working frantically. sand boys and fifty thousand girls, "It's the last chance, Kay," said Cliff. thrown to the maw of the monsters to "If I've not solved the secret this time, save humanity, nearly disrupted the it means another year's delay. The se- Confederation. Despite the utmost cret of dissolving organic forms as secrecy, despite the penalty of death well as inorganic onesl What is this for publishing news of the sacrifice, mysterious power that enables organic despite the fact that those who drew forms to withstand the terrific bom- the fatal lots were snatched from their bardment of the W-ray?" homes at dead of night, everything be- The W-ray was the Millikan cosmic came known. ray, imprisoned and adapted for human On the vast pampas in the extreme use. It was a million times more pow- north of the Argentine Republic, where erful than the highest known voltage Bolivia, the Argentine, Paraguay and of electricity. Beneath it, even the dia- Brazil unite, was the place of sacrifice. mond, the hardest substance known, Thousands of acres, white with the dissolved into a puff of dust; and yet bones of those whom the monsters had the most fragile plant growth remained engulfed. Brainless, devoid of intel- unaffected. ligence, sightless, because even the sense had not become differentiated in 'rTNHE laboratory in the Adirondack! them, yet by some infernal instinct the JL was open at one end. Here, against Earth Giants had become aware that a background of big forest trees, a cu- this was their feasting ground. rious medley of 'substances had been By some tacit compact, the guards assembled : old chairs, a couple of who had annually brought their victims broken-down airplanes, a large disused to be devoured had been unmolested, dynamo, a heap of discarded clothing, the vast wall of semi-human shapes a miscellany of kitchen utensils on t withdrawing into">he' shelter of the table, a gas stove, 'and a heap of metal surrounding forests while the Chinese junk of all kinds. The place looked, were staked out in rows. Death, which in fact, like a junk heap. would have been a mercy, had been de- The great top was set in a socket in nied them. It was living flesh that the a heavy bar of craolite, the new metal Earth Giants craved. And here, onjhe that combined the utmost tensile spot known as Golgotha, the hideous strength with complete infusibility, sacrifice had been annually repeated. even in the electric furnace. About til That first year, when the chosen vic- feet in height, it looked like nothing tims were transported to the fatal spot, but what it was, a gyroscope in gim- all America went mad. Frenzied parents bals, with a long and extremely nar- attacked the offices of the Federation row slit extending all around the ccs> THE WALL OF DEATH 155 tral bulge, but closed on the operator's seen ; it ran slower, began to come to a side by a sliding cover of the same stop. craolite. The cloud' was gone. Where the air- Within this top, which, by its mo- planes and other junk had been, was tion, generated a field of electrical nothing but a heap of grayish dust. It force between the arms of an interior was this that had made the cloud. magnet, the W-rays were generated in Nothing remained, except that im- accordance with a secret formula; the palpable powder against the back- speed of gyration, exceeding anything ground of the trees. known on earth, multiplied their force Kay caught Cliff's arm. "Look out I" a billionfold, converting them to wave- he shouted, pointing to the heap.' lengths shorter than the shortest "Something's moving in there I" known to physical science. Like all Something was. A very angry lady great inventions, the top was of the porcupine was scrambling out, a quill- simplest construction. less porcupine, with a white skin, look- "Well," said Cliff, "you'd better ing like nothing sq much as a large, bring out Susie." hairless rat. Cliff turned to Kay. Kay left the laboratory and went to "We've failed," he said briefly. "Too the cabin beside the lake that the two late for this year now." men occupied. From her box in front "But—the quills?" of the stove a lady porcupine looked "Inorganic material. But even the up lazily and grunted. Kay raised the bones remairv intact, because there's porcupine ; in the box, of course. Susie circulation in the marrow, you see. was constitutionally indolent, but one And the Earth Giants haven't even does not handle porcupines, however bones. They're safe—this yearl" ' smooth their quills may lie. He flung himself down under a tree, Kay brought her to the heap of junk staring up at the sky in abject despair. and -placed' the box on top of it. He went inside the laboratory. > "I may as **T OOK, Kay, I've got my num- well tell you. Cliff, I wouldn't have ber I" Ruth Meade smiled as she brought Susie if I'd thought the ex- handed Kay the ticket issued by the periment had the least chance of suc- Government announcing the lottery cess," he said. / number provided for each citizen. Cliff sW nothing. He was bending One hundred thousand young people over the wheel, adjusting a micrometer. between the ages of fifteen and twenty "All ready, Kay?" he asked. would be drawn for the sacrifice, and Ruth, being nineteen, had come within KAY nodded and stepped back. He the. limits, bat this would be her last swallowed hard. He hated sacri- year. In a few weeks the Government ficing Susie to the cause of science ; he would announce the numbers—drawn almost hoped the experiment would by a second lottery—of those who were fail. condemned. Cliff pressed a lever, and slowly" the Then, before these had been made ponderous top began to revolve upon public, the victims would already have its axis. Faster, faster, till it was noth- been seized and hurried to the airship ing but a blur. Faster yet, until only depots in a hundred places, for con- its outlines were visible. Cliff pressed veyance to the hideous Golgotha of the a lever on the other side. pampas. Nothing happened apparently, except The chance that any individual for a cloudy appearance of the air at would be among the fated ones was rea- the open end of the laboratory. Cliff sonably small. It was the fashion to touched a foot lever. The top began make a jest of the whole business. to grow visible, its rotations could be Ruth smiled as she showed her ticket. 156 ASTOUNDING STORIES it. if—if any- said nothing to Cliff about Kay stared at "Ruth, KAY it, thing happened to you I'd go insane. but Cliff knew. Perhaps he had I'd—" put his fate to the test with Ruth and "Why this sudden ardor, -Kay?" learned the truth from her. Ruth made no reference to the master when she KAY took Ruth's small hand in his. saw Kay. But between the two men, "Ruth, you mustn't play with me friends for years, a coolness was in- any more. You know I love you. And exorably developing. the sight of that thing makes me al- They had gone to work on the new most insane. You do care, don't you?" machine. They were hopeful. When And, as Ruth remained silent, "Ruth, they were working, th coldness that had developed between a nice sort of partner to have I Here's them was affecting their collaboration where we split up the combination, too. Cliff was keeping something back Hynesl" from Kay. "I've been thinking that for a long time," sneered Cliff. "The fact is, Kay, KAY knew it. Cliff had made some you're a little too elementary in your discovery that he was not sharing ideas to suit me. It's due to you that with his partner. Often Kay, entering I kept hammering away on the wrong the laSoratory, would find Cliff fur- tack for years. The sooner we part, tively attempting to conceal some the better." operation that he was in the midst of. "No time like now," said Kay. "Keep Kay said nothing, but a brooding anger your laboratory. You put most of the began to fill his heart. So Cliff was money into it, anyway. I'll build me trying to get all the credit for the re- another—where I can work without be- sult of their years of work together I ing hampered by a partner who's out And always, in the back of his mind, for himself all the time. Good luck to there was a vision of the little Govern- you in your researches, and I hope ment ticket in Ruth's hand, with the you'll get all the credit when you numbers in staring black type. They find a way of annihilating the Earth had burned into his brain. He could Giants." never forget them. Often at night, And he stormed out of the labora- after a hard day's work, he would sud- tory, jumped into his plane, and winged denly awaken out of a hideous night- his way southward toward his apart- mare, in which he saw Ruth taken away ment in New York. by the agents of the Government, to be thrown as a sacrifice to the monsters. CROWDS in the streets of every And Cliff was hiding something I town on the way. In villages and That made the situation unbearable. hamlets, swarming like ants, and hur- The coolness between the two men rying along the highways I Kay, who was rapidly changing into open ani- flew one of the slow, old-fashioned mosity. And then one day, quite by planes, averaging little more than a chance, in Cliff's absence, Kay came hundred miles an hour, winged his way upon evidence of Cliff's activities. methodically overhead, too much ab- Cliff was no longer experimenting sorbed in his anger against Cliff to pay with the W-ray I He was using a new much attention to this phenomenon at type of ray altogether, the next series, first. But gradually it was borne in the psenium electron emanation dis- upon- him that something was wrong. covered only a few yean before, which He flew lower, and now he was pass- " " 158 ASTOUNDING STORIES ing over a substantial town, and he as a charge of electricity at a voltage could hear the shouts of anger that just short of that required to take life came up to him. The whole town was coursed through their bodies. Shrieks in a ferment, gathered in the town of agony rang out. Files of writhing square. forms covered the ground. Suddenly the reason came home to Kay. He saw the adjoining airport, KAY rushed to the automatic clerk and dropped like a plummet, hovering at the window beside the metal down until his wheels touched the steps, taking care to avoid contact with ground. Without waiting to taxi into them. Within six feet, the tempera- one of the public hangars, he leaped ture of his body brought the thermo- out and ran through the deserted static control into action; the window grounds into the square. " . slid upward and the dummy appeared. Groans, yells, shrieks/ of derision He turned the dial to Albany. rent the air. The whine crowd had "I want New York Division, Sub- gone maniacal. And it was as Kay had station F, Loyalist Registration," he thought. Upon a white background called. "Give me Z numbers of the high up on the town hall building, the lottery, please." numbers of the local boys and girls "No numbers will be given out until who had been picked for sacrifices were Horometer 13," the dummy boomed. being shown. "But I tell you I must know imme- diately!" Kay pleaded frantically. EIGHT 1 boys and fifteen girls, al- "Stand away, please I" ready on their way into the "I've got to know, I tell you!" wastes of South America, to meet a "We are now electrified. Last warn- hideous death. ing I" "They took my Sally," screamed a "Listen to me. My name's Kay wizened woman, the tears raining down Bevan. I— her cheeks. "Kidnaped her at the street A mighty buffet in the chest hurlei comer after dark. I didn't know why Kay ten feet backward upon the she hadn't come home last night. God,— ground. He rose, came within the elec- my Sally, my little girl, gone—gone tric zone, felt his arms twisted in a "People, you must be patie'nt," giant's grasp, staggered back again and boomed the Government announcer. sat down gasping. The window went "The President feels with you in your down noiselessly, the dummy swung 'affliction. But by next year a means back into place. Kay got upon his feet will have been devised of destroying again, choking with impotent rage. these monsters. Your children will All about him men and women were have their sacrifice recorded in the milling in a frantic mob. He broke Hall of Fame. They are true soldiers through them, went back to where his who—" plane was standing. A minute later he "To hell with the Government 1" was driving madly toward the dis- roared a man. "Stop that damn talk trict airport in New York within three machine I Break her, fellows) Then blocks of Ruth's apartment. we'll hang President Bogart from the top of the Capitol I" HE dropped into a vacant land- Yells answered him, and the crowd ing place, checked hastily, and urged forward toward the building. rushed into the elevator. Once in the "Stand back I" shrieked the an- upper street, he bounded to the mid- nouncer. "Ifs death to set foot on the dle platform, and, not satisfied to let atep. We are now electrified. Last it convey him at eight miles an hour, warning I" ) strode on through the indignant throng The first ranks of the mob recoiled until he reached his destination. Hurt" THE WALL OF DEATH 159 lug the crowds right and left he gained was back on their little private landing the exit, and a half-minute later was field. He leaped from the plane and on the upper level of the apartment ran up the trail beside the like between block. the trees. The cabin was dark; and, He pushed past the janitor and raced when Kay reached the laboratory he along the corridor to Ruth's apartment. found it dark too. She would be in if all was well ; she "Cliff! Cliff!" he shouted. worked for the Broadcast Association, No answer came, and with a sinking correcting the proofs that came from heart he snapped the button at the the district headquarters by pneumatic door. It failed to throw the expected tube. He stopped outside the door. flood of light through the interior. The little dial of white light showed With shaking hand Kay pulled the lit- him that the apartment was unoccu- tle electron torch from his pocket, and pied. its bright beam showed that the door As he stood there in a daze, hoping was padlocked. He moved round to against hope, he saw a thread hanging the window. The glass was unbreak- from the crevice between door and able, but the ray from the torch showed frame. He pulled at it, and drew out that the interior of the laboratory had a tiny strip of scandium, the new com- been dismantled, and the great top was pressible metal that had become fash- gone. ionable for engagement rings. Plastic, In those few hours Cliff, for reasons all but invisible, it could be compressed best known to himself, had removed to the thickness of a sheet of paper : it the top, Kay's one hope of saving Ruth. was the token of secret lovers, and Kay And he was gone. had given Ruth a ring of it. It was the signal, the dreaded signal IN that moment Kay went insane. He that Ruth had been tjn the lottery list raved and cursed, calling down ven- —the only signal that she had been able geance upon Cliff's head^yCliff's very to convey, since stringent precautions motive was incredible. That he had were taken to prevent the victims be- deliberately removed the top in order coming known until all possibility of that Ruth should die was not, of rescue was removed. course, conceivable. But in that first outburst of fury Kay did not consider NO chance of rescuing herl From that. a hundred airports the great Gov- Presently Kay's madness burned it- ernment airships had long since sailed self out. There was still one thing that into the skies, carrying those selected he could do. His plane, slow though by the wheel at Washington for sacri- it was, would carry him to the pampas. fice to the Earth Giants. Only one He could get fresh fuel at numerous chance remained. If Cliff had discov- bootleg petrol stations, even though ered the secret that had so long eluded the -regulations against intersectional them, surely he would .reveal it to him flight were rigid. With luck he could now I \. reach the, pampas, perhaps before the Their quarrel was forgotten. Kay sluggish monsters had fallen upon only knew that the woman he loved their prey. It was said that the vic- was even then speeding southward to tims sometimes waited for days I be thrown to the maw of the vile mon- Something was rubbing against hia sters that held the world in terror. leg, pricking it through his anklets. Surely Cliff would bend every effort to Kay looked down. A lady porcupine, save her I with tiny new quills, was showing rec- Only a few hours had pasted since ognition, even affection, if such a spiny Kay had stormed out of the laboratory beast could be said to possess that in the Adirondacks in a rage when he quality. I 160 ASTOUNDING STORIES Somehow the presence of the beast his reserves of resolution for the task restored Kay's mind to normal. confronting him. Simply to find Ruth "Well, he's left us both in the lurch, among the hundred thousand victims, Susie," he said. "Good luck to you, and die with her. A task stupendous beastie, and may you find a secure hid- in itself, and yet Kay had no doubt that ing place until your quills have grown." he would succeed, that he would be holding her in his arms when the tide DROWNING men catch at straws. of hell flowed over them. Kay snatched out his watch, and He knew the manner of that death. the illuminated dial showed that it was The irresistible onset of the giant already two quintets past horomcter 13. masses of protoplasm, the extrusion of He darted back to the cabin. The door temporary arms, or feeless, that would was unfastened, and his torch showed grasp them, drag them Into the heart him that, though Cliff had evidently of the yielding substance, and slowly departed, and taken his things, the in- smother them to death while the life terior was much as it had been. When was drained from their bodies. It had Kay picked up the telephotophone, the been said the death was painless, but oblong dial flashed out. The instru- that was Government propaganda. But ment was in working order. he would be holding Ruth in his arms. He turned the crank, and swiftly a He'd find her : he had no doubt of that succession of scenes flashed over the at all. dial. On this little patch of glassite, And, strangely enough, now that Kay Kay was actually making the spatial knew the worst, now that not the journey to Albany, each minutest slightest doubt remained, he was con- movement of the crank representing a scious of an elevation of spirits, a sort distance covered. The building of the of mad recklessness that was perfectly New York Division appeared, and its indefinable. appearance signified that Kay was tele- phonically connected. But there was KAY turned his torch into a corner no automatic voice attachment, am ex- of the kitchen. Yes, there was the pense that Kay and Cliff had decided thing' subconsciousness had prompted would be unjustified. He had to rely him to seek. A long-shafted, heavy upon the old-fashioned telephone, such woodsman's ax, a formidable weapon as was still widely in use in rural dis- at close quarters. Because it is the in- tricts. He took up the receiver. stinct of homo Americanus to die with "Sub-Station F, Loyalist Registra- a weapon in his hands, rather than let tion, please," he called. himself be butchered helplessly, Kay "Speaking," said a girl's voice pres- snatched it up. He ran back to nil ently. plane. The gas tank was nearly empty, "I want the Z numbers. All from but there was petrol in the ice-houte ZS to ZA," said Kay. beside the lake. And thus, in the dark hut, he listened Kay wheeled the machine up to it, to the doom pronounced, miles away, and filled up with gas and oil. All by a more or less indifferent operator. ready now) He leaped in, pressed the When the fatal number was read out, starter, soared vertically, helicopter he thanked her and hung up. He re- wings fluttering like a soaring hawk's. leased the crank, which moved back to Up to the passenger air lane at nine it* position, putting out the light on thousand; higher to twelve, the track the dial. of the international and supply ships; higher still, to the fourteen thousand FOR a moment or two he stood ceiling of the antiquated machine. He there motionless, in a sort of daze, banked, turned southward. though actually he was gathering all It was freezing cold up there, and THE WALL OF DEATH 161 Kay had no flying suit on him, but, be- the Caribbean, sighted the South Amer- tween the passenger lane and the lane ican coast, swept southward over the of the heliospheres, at thirty thousand, jungles of Brazil. He drank, but no there was no air police. And he could food passed his lips. He had become afford to take no chances. The Gov- a mechanism, set for one special pur- ernment police would be on the look- pose—self-immolation. out for a score such desperate men as a similar mission. He drove in a savannah the be, bent on IT was wide among the plane toward the Atlantic till a red jungles that he first caught sight glow began to diffuse itself beneath of the monsters. At first he thought him, an area of conflagration covering it was the rising dawn mist; then he square miles of territory. began to distinguish a certain horri- Swooping lower, Kay could hear the ble resemblance to human forms, and sound of detonations, the roar of old- swooped down, banking round and fashioned guns, while through the pall round the opening in the jungle until of lurid smoke came the long, violet he could see clearly. flashes of atomic guns, cleaving lanes There were perhaps a -score of them, of devastation. New York was burn- an advance guard that had pushed for- ing. ward from one of the main divisions. The frenzied populace had broken Men? Anthropoids, rather, for their Into revolt, seized the guns stored in sex was indistinguishable I Human the arsenals, and attacked the great forms ranging from a few feet to a Bronx fortress that stood like a mighty hundred, composed apparently of a sentinel to protect the port. grayish jelly, propelling themselves A swarm of airships came into view, clumsily on two feet, but floating swirling in savage fight. Kay zoomed. rather than walking. Translucent, It was not his battle. semi-transparent. Most horrible of all, these shadowy, spheroid creatures ex- NOW New York lay behind him, hibited here and there buds of various and he was winging southward sizes, which were taking on the simili- over the Atlantic. All night he flew. tude of fresh forms. And among them At dawn he came down in a coast ham- were the young, the buds that had let for bootleg petrol and oil. fallen from the parent stems, fully "You come from New York?" asked formed humans of perhaps five or six the Georgian. "Hear there's war broke feet, bouncing with a horrible playful- out up there." ness among their sires. "My war's down in Brazil," muttered As Kay soared some three hundred Kay. feet overhead, a young tapir came leap- "Say, if them Giants comes up here ing out of the jungle and ran, appar- yuh know what us folks is going to ently unconscious of their presence, do? We're going to set the hounds on right toward the monsters. Suddenly 'em. Yes, sirree, we've got a pack of it stopped, and Kay saw that it was bloodhounds, raised for jest that pur- already encircled by coils of proto- pose. I guess that's something them plasm, resembling arms, which had shot wisecrackers at Washington ain't forth from the bodies of the devils. thought of. They took two little fel- lers from Hopetown, but they won't SWIFTLY, despite its struggles and take nobody from here." bleatings, the tapir was drawn into Kay fuelled up and resumed his the substance of the monsters, which Bight southward. seemed to fuse together and form a After that it was a nightmare. The solid wall of protoplasm, in all respects in rose and set, alternating with the like the agglutination of bacteria un- taring moon and stare. Kay crossed der certain conditions. 162 ASTOUNDING STORIES Then the beast vanished in the wall, On this great plain the hundred whose agitated churnings alone gave thousand victims sat huddled in the proof of its existence. open. Food they had none, for no pur- For perhaps ten minutes longer Kay pose was to be served by mitigating remained hovering above the clearing. their last agonies. No shelter either, Then the bodies divided, resuming for the sight of buildings might delay their separate shapes^ And the white the final phase. But high above the bones of the tapir lay in a huddled doomed there floated the flag of the mass in the open. Federation, on a lofty pole, a touch of Kay went mad. Deliberately he set ironic sentimentality that had com- down his plane, and, hatchet in hand, mended itself to some mind at Wash- advanced upon the sluggish monsters. ington. Shouting wildly, he leaped into their Over a square mile of territory, midst. ringed with jungle the victims lay. The fight that followed was like a The majority of them ringed this ter- nightmare fight. He lopped off the rain; that is to say, attempting to es- slow tentacles that sought to envelop cape, they had been hurled back by him, he slashed the devils into long rib- the electrical charge, and, having no bons of writhing jelly, slashed until strength or will remaining, they had the substance blunted the ax; wiped it dropped where they had been hurled, clean and leaped into their midst again, and lay in apathetic resignation. hewing until he could no longer raise There had been screams and cries his arm. Then he drew back and sur- for mercy, and piteous scenes when veyed the scene before him. the Government airships had deposited It was dreadful enough to drive the them there and flown away, but now last remnants of sanity from his brain. an intense silence had descended upon For every piece that he had cut from the doomed. Resigned to their fate, th^e monsters, every protoplasmic rib- they sat or lay in little silent groups, bon was reorganizing before his eyes all eyes turned toward the gloomy into the semblance of a new creature. jungle. Where there had been a score, there were now five hundred! AND everywhere within this jun- Kay ran back to his plane, leaped in, gle a wraith-like mist was form- and soared southward. His face was ing at this dawn hour. From a thou- a grotesque mask of madness, and his sand miles around, the devils were cries rang out through the eth^tr. mustering for their prey, agglutinat- ing, in order that the meal of one might THE victims were no ilonger become the meal of all. chained to stakes. The Federa- Wisps of protoplasmic fog were tion, which always acted with complete stealing out through the trees, chang- secrecy, had gone one better. It had ing shape every instant, but always engaged electrical engineers, kept them, advancing; now presenting the appear- housed in secret places, transported ance of an aligned regiment of huge, them to Golgotha; and there a vast shadowy men, now nothing but a wall electrified field had been established, of semi-solid vapor. And still, with an open space whose boundaries were eyeballs straining in their sockets, the marked out by pillars of electron steel. victims watched. Between these pillars ran lines of Suddenly all were seized with the electric force. To attempt to pass them same spasm of mad terror. Again they meant—not death, for dead boys and hurled themselves against the electri- girls were spurned by the devils—but fied lines, and again they were hurled a violent shock that hurled one back- back, masses of boys and girls tum- ward. bling against one another, and acresot- THE WALL OF DEATH 163 tag In one wail that, could it have and she had known that other affair been heard in Washington, would have was folly. She had never told Kay of driven all insane. Again and again, till the bitter scene between Cliff and her- they fell back, panting and helpless. self, how he had raved against Kay and And solidly the wall of devils was sworn to win her in the end. creeping up from every side. Cliff had calmed down and apolo- Ruth Deane, one of the few who had gized, and Ruth had never seen him themselves in control, lay some dis- again. She wished he had riA taken tance back from the electrified field. it like that. But above all she Vanted From the moment when, she was sur- to see Kay, just to say good-by. prised in her apartment by the Gov- And she tried to send out her whole ernment representatives, she had heart to him in an unspoken message known that there was no hope of es- of love that would surely somehow cape. convey itself to him. SHE had slipped the ring off her fin- THE wall of devils was creeping up ger, snapped the plastic metal, and on every side, Slowly, lethargically. attached it to a thread torn from her The monsters took their time, because dress. She had managed to insert it in they knew they were invincible. The the door, hoping that Kay would find sobs and shrieks had died away. Col- it. It would serve as a last message of lected into a/ mass almost as rigid as love to him. that of the Earth Giants, the victims Every removal of a selected victim waited, palsied as a rabbit that awaits was in the nature of a kidnaping. At the approach of the serpent. dead of night her apartment had been A humming overhead. An airplane opened. She had been ordered to dress. shooting down from the sky. Rescue? Nothing could be written, no arrange- No. Only a solitary pilot, armed with ments made. She was already consid- a woodsman's ax. ered as one dead. Kay drifted down, touched ground, She had been hurried out of the leaped to his feet. Chance had brought upper entrance to the monorail, which him within five hundred yards of where conveyed her in a special car to the Ruth was standing. But Ruth had landing station. A few minutes later known who that lone flyer must be. she had been on her way to join the She broke through the throng; she camp of other victims, a hundred miles rushed to meet him. Her arms were away. Within two hours she was on around him. her way southward. "Kay, darling Kay I" Stunned by the tragedy, none of the "Ruth, dearest I" victims had made much of an outcry. "I knew you'd come." They had been given water by the air- "I've come to die beside you I" ship police. No food for boys and girls already dead. Days and nights had IT was perhaps odd that it did not passed, and now she was here, faint enter the head of either as a possi- from exhaustion, and wondering at the bility that Kay should simply place despair shown by those others. What Ruth in the plane and fly away with difference would it make in half an her to safety. Had the thought oc- hour? Besides, that Government pam- curred to Kay, he might have been phlet had insisted that this death was tempted. But such black treachery was painless I something inconceivable by either. So But an immense longing to see Kay long as the Federation remained, so once more came over her. There had long as man moved in an organized been a time when she thought she loved society, he was bound to his fellows, Cliff ; then Kay had come into her life, to fight, suffer, and die with them. 164 ASTOUNDI JG STORIES "Stand by me, Ruth. We're going And Ruth, watching with eyes di- down fighting." lated with horror, saw it yield with a They moved back toward the throng, sucking sound, and saw Kay disappear which, momentarily stirred to hope by within it. Kay's appearance, had fallen into the former apathy of despair. And now SHE saw the hideous mass fold itself the monsters were beginning to enter upon him, and a hundred extruded the electrified zone at one point. As tentacles wave in the air as they blind- they passed the line of posts, the high ly grappled for him. And then Kay tension current made their bodies lumi- had broken through, and was hewing nous, but it had no appreciable effect madly with great sweeps of the ax upon them. They moved on, inevitably. that slashed great streamers of the A score or so of semi-human forms, amorphous tissue from the wall of agglutinated into a mass, and yet indi- protoplasm. vidually discernible. They bore down It recoiled and then folded once slowly upon the crowd of victims, who more, and Kay's mighty sweeps were pressed backward as they advanced. slashing phantom limbs from phantom On the other sides, though they 'almost bodies; and lopping off tentacles that encircled the field of death, the mon- curled and coiled, and put forth carica- sters were making no maneuvers to tures of hands and fingers, and then, entrap^ their prey. Their sluggisli uniting with other slashed off tentacles, minds were incapable of conceiving began to mould themselves into the anything of the kind. But for the elec- likeness of dwarf monsters. Kay's trified zone, the great majority of the struggle was like that of a man fight- victims could have effected their es- ing a fog, for again and again he broke cape. The monsters were simply press- through the wall, and always it re- ing forward to their meal ; they did not united. interpret its capture in terms of strat- And behind it another wall of proto- egy at all. plasm was pressing forward, and on an- other side a wall was drifting up. As ANEW frenzy of horrp$ seized the Kay stopped, panting, and momentarily crowd! They fled, struggling back free, Ruth saw that they were almost until the foremost in flight reached the encircled. other side of Golgotha, to be repulsed She saw the nature of that fight. In- by the electrified zone there. They fell evitably that wall would close about in tumbled heaps. Appalling shrieks them ; and, though the bones of last rang through the air. year's victims had been gathered up Another line of the monsters was and carried away by the Federation, seeping forward, converging toward she guessed what would occur. the first. As the two lines met, they She ran to Kay and dragged him coalesced into a wall of protoplasm, a back through the closing gap. It met thousand feet in length by a hundred behind them, and again they stood face high. A wall out of which leered phan- to face with the devils. Only this time, tasmal faces, like those in a frieze. instead of a wall of protoplasm, it was Kay stood alone, his arm! around a veritable mountain that confronted Ruth. To follow the flying mojb would them, and there could be no more but prolong the agony. He raised the breaking through. ax. He looked into the girl's eyes. She TCay thought afterward that the one understood, and nodded. touch of absolute horror was that the One last embrace, one kiss, and Kay reforming monsters, the young ones placed her behind him. He sprang for- growing visibly before his eyesr had ward, shouting, and plunged into the the gamboling instinct of young lambs very heart of the wall. or other creatures. They were much " THE WALL OF DEATH 165 more lively than the parent creatures. swered, glancing at the oncoming wall. "They're slow. Will it work. Cliff? this time perhaps a third of the God, when I found you'd gone last BYspace within the electrified lines night— had been occupied by the devils. The Cliff did not answer. Ignoring Kay's wall was slowly and sluggishly advanc- offer of assistance, he fitted the top ing, and a fresh infiltration was drift- tightly into its socket of craolite, much ing in on another side. As the victims heavier than the former one. Beneath were pressed closer and closer together this, three heavy craolite legs formed in their flight, half of them seemed to a sort of tripod. go insane. They raced to and fro, "I looked forward to this possibility, laughing and screaming, flinging their Kay," said Cliff, as he adjusted the top arms aloft in extravagant gestures. and turned the clamps that held it in One young fellow, rushing across the position. "Sorry I had to deceive you, ground, hurled himself like a bolt from but you were so set on the cosmic rays, a catapult into the heart of the grisly and I knew' the psenium emanations mass, which opened and received him. wouldn't appeal to you. You wouldn't There was a struggle, a convulsion; have believed. I had a hunch Ruth then the mass moved on. would draw one of those numbers. . . . ' Kay wiped his ax. He stood beside How long?" Ruth, gathering strength and breath to The swaying masses of gray jelly fight again. What else was there to were very near them. Cliff worked do? feverishly at the top. Suddenly a humming sound came to "Let me help, Cliff 1" his ears. Still some little distance from "No I I'm through I Stand back I" the monsters, he glanced back. The shouted Cliff. victims were shouting, staring upward. Over the tops of the jungle trees Kay EVEN then—he regretted it after- saw a second airplane flying toward ward, and knew that he would re- them, a larger one than the plane which gret it to his dying day — even then he had flown. the thought flashed through Kay's mind It opened its helicopter wings and that Cliff wanted all the glory. Be- drifted downward. Kay saw a single hind him the milling, screaming crowd pilot, and, in the baggage compart- was huddling, as if for protection. ment something that at first he did not Slowly a wisp-like tentacle protruded recognize. Then he recognized both from the advancing wall. Kay swung this object and the aviator. his ax and lopped it from the phantom "It's Cliff," he whispered hoarsely. body. But the wall was almost upon "He's brought the top I" them, and from the other side it waa advancing rapidly. THE crowd was milling about Cliff "I'm readyl Stand back!" Cliff as he stepped out of the plane. turned upon Kay, his face white, his Kay broke through their midst, shout- voice hoarse. "I've one request to ing to them to clear a space, that it was make, Kay. Keep everybody back, in- their chance, their only chance. They cluding you and Ruth. Nobody is to heard him and obeyed. And Cliff and come within twenty-five yards of this Kay clasped hands, and there was Ruth machine!" beside them. "That shall be done," said Kay, a lit- The two men carried the top out of tle bitterness in his tone. the baggage compartment and set it up. "Ruth, I think I'm going to save you "Thank God I came in time," Cliff all." Cliff looked into the girl's face hissed. "How long have we got, Kay?" for a moment. "Please stand back "Five minutes, I think," Kay an- twenty-five yards," he repeated. 166 ASTOUNDING STORIES Kay took Ruth by the arm and drew gasps ; and then a wilder clamor began. her back. The crowd moved back, their "The earthquake! The earthquake I" pessure moving back the vast multi- a girl was shrilling. "God help us all P tudes behind them. The vast mob was Kay stood still, clutching Ruth tight- almost packed into a quarter of the ly in his arms. He dared not stir, for Golgotha; there was scarcely room to all the world seemed to be dissolving move. into chaos. Kay saw Cliff press the lever. SLOWLY the dust began to settle SLOWLY the giant top began to again. Perhaps five minutes passed whirl. Faster . . . faster. . . . Now before the sunbeams began to struggle it was revolving so fast that it had be- through. A cloud of grey dust still come totally invisible. But Cliff was obscured everything. But the wall of almost surrounded by the wall of jelly. protoplasm was gone I Only his back could be seen, and the Cliff's voice came moaning out of space was narrowing fast. the murk, calling Kay's name. Kay gripped Ruth's arm tightly. He Kay moved forward cautiously, still held his breath. The crowd, of whom holding Ruth. He seemed to be skirt- only a small part knew what was tak- ing the edge of a vast crater. At the ing place, was screaming with terror edge of it he found the top, revolving as the mass of jelly on the other side slowly. And Cliff's voice came from pressed them inexorably backward. beside the top. And Cliff had almost vanished. Would "Kay, we've won. Don't look at me. the machine work? Was it possible Don't let Ruth see me I Look down I" that the psenium emanations would Kay looked down into the bottomless succeed where the Millikan rays, the pit, extending clear across! the plain to W-ray had failed? the distant jungle. An enormous can- Then of a sudden the air grew dark yon cloven in the earth, filled with the as night. Kay began to sneeze. He slowly settling cloud of dust. gasped for air. He was choking. He "They're there, Kay. Don't look this could see nothing, and he strained way I" Ruth to him convulsively, while the But Kay looked—and could see noth- terrified multitudes behind him set up ing except a pile of debris, from the a last wail of despair. bottom of which Cliff's Voice issued. He could see nothing, and he stood "Cliff, you're not hurt?"* with the ax ready for the onset of the "A—a little. You must listen while monsters, more terrible now, in their I tell you how to clean up the mon- invisibility, than before. Then of a sters. It's the psenium emanation. It sudden there sounded subterranean has the same effect when; our method rumblings. The ground seemed to is applied to it. It disintegrates every- open almost under Kay's feet. thing inorganic—not organic He leaped back, dragging Ruth with "I thought, if I couldn't get them, him. Slowly the dust was settling, the I'd crumble the earth away-'—bury them. darkness lessening. A faint, luminous They're underneath the debris, Kay, a glow overhead revealed the sun. Kay mile deep, buried beneath the impal- was aware that Cliff had swung the top, pable powder that represented the in- so that the psenium rays were being organic salts and minerals; of the earth. brought to bear upon the second mass They'll never get out of (that. Proto- of the monsters on the other aide. plasm needs oxygen. They'll trouble The sun vanished in appalling black- us no more. ness. Again the dust-choked air was "You must take the top, Kay. Use almost unbreathable. The shrieks of our old method. You'll find its appli- the crowd died away in wheezing cation to the psenium emanation writ" — THE WALL OF DEATH 167 ten in a book fastened beneath the IT was like a return from the grave hood. Wipe out the rest of them. If for the amazed boys and girls who any more come, you'll know how to —since the onset of the monsters had deal with them." destroyed the electric lines—poured "Cliff, you're not badly' hurt?" Kay out of the plain of Golgotha to life and asked again. freedom. "Don't look, I tell youl Keep Ruth Many of them had gone mad, a few away I" had died of fright, but the rest would come back, to normal, and the world BUT the dust was settling fast, and was saved. suddenly Ruth uttered a scream Hunger was their greatest problem, of fear. for, despite^Kay's hurried flight to the And a strangled cry broke from nearest occupied post, it was difficult Kay's throat as he looked down at what to convince the Federation officials had been Cliff Hynes. that the devils were really gone, buried The man seemed to have become re- beneath a mile of crumbled earth. And solved into the same sort of protoplasm Kay had to be back to mop up other, bb the Earth Giants. He lay, a little smaller bands that had spread through heap, incredibly small, incredibly dis- the forests. torted. Flesh without bones, shapeless It was six months before the last of lumps of flesh where arms and legs and the monsters bad been obliterated, and body frame should' have been. then Kay, now one of the highest offi- Cliff's voice came faintly. "You re- cials in the Federation's service, was member the leakage through the rubber granted a lunarian's leave of absence and analektron container, Kay. The pending his taking command of an W-rays even fused the craolite socket. Antarctic expedition for the purpose The psenium rays are stronger. They of destroying the remaining monsters destroy even bone. They're fatal to the in their lair. man who operates the machine, unless He took this opportunity to be mar- he follows the directions. I've written ried to Ruth, in the church in his na- them out for you, but I had—no time tive town, which was en fit* for the to apply them." occasion. His voice broke off. Then, "Good luck "Thinking of Cliff?" Kay asked his to you and—Ruth, Kay," he whispered, bride, as she settled in his plane pre- almost inaudibly. "Don't let — her paratory to their starting for the look at me." honeymoon in the Adirondacks. "I Kay led Ruth gently away. "Did think he would be happy if he knew. you hear that?" she whispered, sobbing. He saved the world, dear; he gave hit "He died to save us, Kay." best. And that was all he wanted." Everyone Is Invited To "Come Over in THE READERS' CORNER'!" — Like rats in a cage, the p lames of the 91st Squadron were darting and whirling. The Pirate Planet BEGINNING A FOUR-PART NOVEL By Charles W. DMn CHAPTER I ered up his cards. "Not interested, he announced ; "too hot to-night. Keep LIEUTENANT McGUIRE threw her away." open his coat with its winged "Oh, she's far enough away Mc- insignia of the air force and Guire responded; "about seventy mil- leaned back in his chair to read lion miles. Don't get excited. more comfortably "What are you ar- the newspaper A strange light blinks on Venui, and over talking about?" ticle. old Earth hovers a mysterious visitant The captain shuf- dread >harbm£er of interplanetary war. He glanced at fled his cards ir- Captain Blake ritably. across the table. The captain was deep "Venus She's winking at us, the old in a game of solitaire, but hye looked up reprobate. One of these star-gazers at McGuire's audible chuckle. up on Mount Lawson saw the flashes a "Gay old girl!" said Lieutenant Mc- week or so ago. If you'll cut out your Guire and smoothed the paper across solitaire and lister, I'll read you some- his knees. "She's getting flirtatious." thing to improve your mind." He ig- The captain swore softly as he gath- nored the other's disrespectful remark and held the paper closer to Bee the eastern elongation, showing like a half- paragraphs. moon in the big telescopes on Mt. Law- "Ia Venus Signalling?" inquired the son. Shrouded in impenetrable clouds, caption which Lieutenant McGuire its surface has never been seen, but read. "Professor Sykes of Mt. Lawson something is happening there. Profes- Observatory Reports Flashes. sor Sykes reports seeing a distinct "The planet Venus, now a brilliant flash of light upon the terminator, or •pectade in the evening sky, is behav- margin of light. It lasted for several ing strangely according to a report seconds and was not repeated. from the local observatory on Mount "No explanation of the phenomenon Uwion. This sister star, most like is offered by scientists, as conditions Earth of all the planets, is now at its on the planet's surface are unknown. 170 ASTOUNDING STORIES Id there life there? Are the people of turned to the radio operator on duty, Venus trying to communicate? One "Have you picked up anything pe- guess is as good as another. But it is culiar," he asked, and laughed in- interesting to recall that our scientists wardly at himself for the asking. "Any recently proposed to send a similar new dots and dashes? The scientist signal from Earth to Mars by firing a say that Venus is calling. You'll have tremendous flare of magnesium. to be learning a new code." "Venus is now approaching the The man glanced at him strangely earth; she comes the nearest of all and looked quickly away. planets. Have the Venusians pene- "No, sir," he said. And added after trated their cloak of cloud masses with a pause: "No new dots and dashes." a visible light? The planet will be "Don't take that stuff too seriously, watched with increased interest as ' it Mac," the captain remonstrated. "The swings toward us in solace, in hope of day of miracles is past ; we don't want there being a repetition of the unex- to commit you to the psychopathic plained flash." ward. Now here is something real : the Giants won, and I had ten dollars on "Hp HERE," said Lieutenant Mc- them. How shall we celebrate?" A Guire, "—doesn't that elevate your mind? Take it off this infernally THE radio man was listening in- hot night? Carry you out through the tently as they started to leave. Hit cool reaches of interplanetary space? voice was hesitating as he stopped If there is anything else you want to them; he seemed reluctant to put hii know, just ask me." thoughts into words. "Yes," Captain Blake agreed, "there "Just a minute, sir," he said to Cap- is. I want to know how the game came tain Blake. out back in New York—and you don't "Well?" the captain asked. And know that. Let's go over and ask the again the man waited before he replied. radio man. He probably has the dope." Then— "Good idea," said McGuire; "maybe "Lieutenant McGuire asked me," he he has picked up a message from began, "if I had heard any strange dob Venus ; we'll make a date." He looked and dashes. I have not, but . . . well, vainly for the brilliant star as, they the fact is, sir, that I have been getting walked out into the night. There were some mighty queer sounds for the pal clouds of fog from the nearby Pacific few nights. They've got me guesting. drifting high overhead. Here and "If you wouldn't mind waiting,— Cap- there stars showed momentarily, then tain ; they're about due now " He lis- were blotted from sight. tened again to some signal inaudible The operator in the radio room to the others, then hooked up two ei- handed the captain a paper with the tra head-sets for the officers. ' day's scores from the eastern games. "It's on now," he said. "If you don't But Lieutenant McGuire, despite his mind—" ready amusement at the idea, found his McGuire grinned at the captain ai thoughts clinging to the words he had they took up the ear-phones. "Power read. "Was the planet communicat- of suggestion," he whispered, but the ing?" He pictured the great globe smile was erased from his lips at he —another Earth—slipping silently listened. For in his ear was sounding through space, coming nearer and a weird and wailing note. nearer. No dots or dashes, as the operator Did they have radio? he wondered. had said, but the signal was strong. It Would they send recognizable signals rose and fell and wavered into thrill —words—or some mathematical se- tremolos, a ghostly, unearthly sound, quence to prove their reality? He and it kept on and on in a shrill de- " " — THE PIRATE PLANET 171 ipairing wail. Abruptly it stopped. tenant McGuire. He tore the head- The captain would have removed the phones from his ears and rushed to the receiver from his ear, but the operator door. The captain was beside him. stopped him. "Listen," be said, "to the Whover—whatever—was sending that answer." mysterious signal was coming near but was that nearness a matter of miles THERE was silence, broken only or of thousands of miles? by an occasional hiss and crackle They stared at the stormy night sky of some far distant mountain storm. above. A moon was glowing faintly Then, faint as a whisper, came an an- behind scudding clouds, and the gray- swering, whistling breath. black of flying shadows formed an It, too, trembled and quavered. It opening as they watched, a wind-blown went up—up—to the limit of bearing; opening like a doorway to the infinity then slid down the scale to catch and beyond, where, blocking out the Btars, tremble and again ascend in endless was a something that brought a breath- unvarying ups and down of sound. It catching shout from the watching men. -" was another unbroken, unceasing, but Some five thousand feet up in the always changing vibration. night was a gleaming ship. There "What in thunder is that?" Captain were rows of portholes that shone Blake demanded. twinkling against the black sky—rport- "Communication of some sort, I boles in multiple rows on the side. should say," McCuire said slowly, and The craft was inconceivably liuge. he caught the operator's eyes upon him Formless and dim of outline in the in silent agreement. darkness, its vast bulk was unmistak- "No letters," Blake objected; "no able. breaks; just that screech." He listened And as they watched with staring, again. "Darned if it doesn't almost incredulous eyes, it seemed to take teem to say something," he admitted. alarm, as if it sensed the parting of its "When did you first hear this?" he concealing cloud blanket. It shot with demanded of the radio man. dizzy speed and the roar of a mighty "Night before last, sir. I did not re- meteor straight up into the night. The port it. It seemed too—too— gleam of its twinkling lights merged "Quite so," said Captain Blake in to a distant star that dwindled, shrank demanding. "But it is some form and vanished in the heights. •f broadcasting on a variable wave; The men were wordless and open- though how a thing like that can make mouthed. They stared at each other sense— in disbelief of what their eyes had reg- "They talk back and forth," said the istered. operator; "all night, most. Notice the "A liner!" gasped Captain Blake. a loud one and the faint one; two sta- "A— —liner I Mac, there is no such tions sending and answering." thing." Captain Blake waved him to silence. "Wait—wait I" he ordered. "It's grow- McGUIRE pointed where the real ing louder I" cause of their- visitor's departure appeared. A plane with engine wide IN the ears of the listening men the open came tearing down through the noise dropped to a loud grumble; clouds. It swung in a great spiral rose to a piercing shriek ; wavered and down over the field and dropped a leaped rapidly from note to note. It white flare as it straightened away; was increasing; rushing upon them then returned for the landing. It with unbearable sound. The sense of taxied at reckless speed toward the something approaching, driving toward hangars and stopped a short distance them swiftly, was strong upon Lieu- from the men. The pilot threw him- ; ASTOUNDING STORIES self oat of the cockpit and raced HE had a head-set adjusted, and drunkenly toward them. McGuire took up the other. "Did you see it?" he shouted, his Again the room was still, and agait voice a cracked scream. "Did you see from the far reaches of space the dirk it?" night sent to them its quavering call "We saw it," said Captain— Blake; The weird shrillness cried less loudly "yes, we saw it. Big as " He sought now, and the men listened in strained vainly for a proper comparison, then silence to the go and come of that vari- repeated h\%Aormer words : "Big as an able shriek. Musical at times as h ocean liner I" leaped from one clear note to another, The pilot nodded; he was breathing again it would merge into discordant heavily. blendings of half-tones that sent shiv- "Any markings?" asked his superior. ers of nervous reaction up the listener/ "Anything to identify it?" spines. "Yes, there were markings, but I "Listen," said McGuire abruptly, don't know what they mean. There "Check me on this. There are two of was a circle painted on her bow and them, one loud and one faint—right?" marks like clouds around it, but I "Right," said Captain Blake. didn't have time to see much. I came "Now notice the time intervals- out of a cloud, and there the thing was. there I The faint one stops, and the I was flying at five thousand, and they big boy cuts in immediately. No wait- hung there dead ahead. I couldn't be- ing; he answers quickly. He does it lieve it ; it was monstrous ; tremendous. every time." Then they sighted me, I guess, and "YfeW?" the captain asked. they up-ended that ship in mid-air and "Listen when he stops and see how shot straight up till they were out of long before the faint one answers. Call sight." the. lo.ud one the ship and the faint one It was the captain's turn to nod the station. . . . There I The ship U mutely. ' through I" "There's your miracle," said Lieu- There was pause; some seconds tenant McGuire softly. elapsed before the answer that whis- "Miracle is right," agreed Captain pered so faintly in their ears came out Blake; "nothing less I But it is no of the night. miracle of ours, and I am betting it "You are right, sir," the operator nil doesn't mean any good to us. Some in corroboration of McGuire's remark. other country has got the Jump on "There is that wait every time." us." "The ship answers at once," said Mc- To the pilot he ordered: "Say noth- Guire ; "the station only after a wait" ing of this—not a word—get that ? Let "Meaning— ?" inquired the captain. me have -a written report: full details, "Meaning, as I take it, that there it but concise as possible." time required for the message to go He went back to the radio room, and from the ship to the station and for the operator there received the same them to reply." instructions. "An appreciable time like that," " "What are you going to do?" the Captain Blake exclaimed, —with ra- lieutenant questioned. dio I Why, a few seconds, even, would Captain Blake was reaching for a carry it around the world a score of head-set. "Listen in," he {said briefly times I" X "try to link up that impossible ship Lieutenant McGuire hesitated apno- with those messages, then report at ment. "It happens every time," he re-' once to the colonel and whoever he minded the captain; "it is no coinci- calls in. I'll want you along, Mac, to dence. And if that other station is out wear I am sober." in space—another ship perhaps, relay- THE PIRATE PLANET 173 tng the messages to yet others between man whom McGuire did not recognize. .'* here and—Venus, let us say. . . The "brass hats," as Blake had fore- / seen, were avid for details. left the thought unfinished. The pilot of the incoming plane was HECaptain Blake was staring at there, too, and the radio man. Their . him as one who beholds a fellow-man stories were told in a disconcerting si- suddenly insane. But the look in his lence, broken only by some officer's ab- eyes changed slowly, and his lips that rupt and skeptical question on one had been opened in remonstrance came point and another. gradually in a firm, straight, line. "Now, for heaven's sake, shut up "Crazy I" he said, but it was apparent about Venus," McGuire had been told. that he was speaking as much to him- But he did not need Captain Blake's self as to McGuire." Plumb, raving warning to hold himself strictly to crazy I . . . Yet that ship did go straight what he had seen and let the others up out of sight—an acceleration in the draw their own conclusions. upper air beyond— anything we know. Lieutenant McGuire was the last It might be " And he, too, stopped one to speak. There was silence in the st the actual voicing of the wild sur- office of Colonel Boynton as he fin- mise. He shook his head sharply as if ished, a silenci that almost echoed to rid it of intruding, unwelcome from the grim walls. And the faces thoughts. of the men who* gathered there were "Forget that !" he told McGuire, and carefully masked from any expression repeated it in a less commanding tone. that might betray their thoughts. "Forget it, Mac; we've got to render It was the quiet man in civilian at- a report to sane men, you and I. What tire who spoke first. He sat beside an- we know will be hard enough for them other whose insignia proclaimed him to believe without any wild guesses. of general's rank, but be addressed "That new craft is real. It has got himself to Colonel Boynton. it all over us for size and speed and "I am very glad," he said quietly, potential offensive action. Who made "very glad, Colonel, that my unofficial it? Who mans it? Red Russia? Japan? visit came at just this time. I should That's what the brass hats will be won- like to ask some few questions." i dering; that's what they will want to Colonel Boynton shifted the respon- find out. , sibility with a gesture almost of relief. "Not a word I" he repeated to the "It is in your hands, Mr. Secretary," radio man. "You will keep1 mum on he said. "You and General Clinton this." have dropped in opportunely. There , He took McGuire with him as he left is something here xthat will tax all our to^seek out his colonel. But it was a minds." ' disturbed and shaken man, instead of The man in civilian clothes nodded the tiool, methodical Captain Blake of assent. He turned to Captain Blake. ordinary days, who went in search of "Captain," he said, "you saw this at his commanding officer. And he clung first hand. You have told us what you to McGuire for corroboration of his saw. I should like greatly to know impossible story. what you think. Will you give us your opinion, your impressions?" ''T^HERE was a group of officers to -A whom Blake made his full report. THE captain arose smartly, but his Colonel Boynton had heard but little words came with less ease. then he halted his subordinate curtly "My opinion," he stated, "will be of and, reached for a phone. And his little value, but it is based upon these words over that instrument brought a facts. I have seen to-night, sir, a new quick conference of officers and a quiet type of aircraft, with speed, climb and — — 174 ASTOUNDING STORIES ceiling beyond anything we are cap- he 'sic us on' neatly? If we mix It able of. I can only regard it as a men- with that stranger there will be no ace. It may or may not have been censure from the Secretary of War." armed, but it had the size to permit the "I assumed that was who it was," armament of a cruiser; it had power said McGuire. "Well, they have some- to carry that weight. It hung station- thing to think about, that bunch; ary in the air, so it is independent of something to study over. . . . Perhapa wing-lift, yet it turned and shot up- more than they know. ward like a feather in a gale. That "And that's their job," he concluded spells maneuverability. after a silence. "I'm going to bed; but "That combination, sir; can mean I would like a leave of absence to-mor- only that we are out-flown, out-maneu- row if that's O. K." vered and out-fought in the air. It "Sure," said Captain Blake, "though means that the planes in our hangars I should think you would like to stick are absolete, our armament so much old around. Perhaps we will see some- iron. thing. What's on your mind, Mac?" "The menace is potential at present. "A little drive to the top of Mount Whether it is an actual threat or not is Lawson," said Lieutenant McGuire. "I another matter. Who mans that ship want to talk to a bird named Sykes." what country's insignia she carries—is something on which I can have no opin- CHAPTER II ion. The power is there: who wields V it I wish we knew." LIEUTENANT McGUIRE, The questioner nodded at the con- U. S. A., was not given as a UBual clusion of Blake's words, and he ex- thing to vain conjectures, nor did hii changed quiet, grave glances with the imagination carry him beyond the general beside him. Then practical boundaries of accepted facta. "I think we all would wish to ,know Yet his mind, as he drove for hours that, Captain Blake," he observed. And through the orange-scented hills of to the colonel : "You may be able to an- California, reverted time and again to swer that soon. It would be my idea one ' persistent thought. And it wai that this craft should be—ah—drawn with him still, even when he was con- out, if we can do if. We would not sciously concentrating on the hairpin attack it, of course, until its mission is turns of Mount Lawson's narrow road. proved definitely unfriendly, but you There was a picture there, printed will resist any offensive from them. indelibly in his mind—a picture of t "And now," he added, "let us thank monstrous craft, a liner of the air, that these officers for their able reports and swung its glowing lights in a swift arc excuse them. We have much to dis- and, like a projectile from some huge .** cuss. . . sun, shot up and up and still up until it vanished in a jet-black sky. Its al- CAPTAIN BLAKE took McGuire's titude when it passed from sight he arm as they went out into the could not even guess, but the sense of night. And he drew him away where ever-increasing speed, of power that they walked for silent minutes by mocked at gravitation's puny force, And themselves. The eyes of , Lieutenant had struck deep into his mind. McCuire roamed upward to the scud- McGuire saw plainly this mystery ship ding clouds and the glimpse of far, going on and on far into the empty lonely stars; he stumbled occasionally night where man had never been. as he' walked. But for Captain Blake No lagging in that swift flight that there was thought only of matters he had seen ; an acceleration that threw nearby. the ship faster and yet faster, regard- "The old fox I" he exclaimed. "Didn't less of the thin air and the lessened THE PIRATE PLANET 175 buoyancy in an ocean of atmosphere imagining—but suddenly he dared to that held man-made machines bo close believe, and he knew it was true. to Earth. That constant acceleration, "Earthbound I" he said in contempt hour after hour, day after day—the of his own human kind, and he looked peed would be almost unlimited; in- again at the map spread below. "Ants I conceivable I Mites I That's what we are—swarming He stopped his car where the moun- across the surface of the globe. And tain road held straight for a hundred we think we're so damn clever if we feet, and he looked out over the coastal lift ourselves up a few miles from the plain spread like a toy world far be- surface I low. "Guess I'll see Sykes," he muttered "Now, how about it?" he asked him- aloud. "He and his kind at least dare self. "Blake thinks I am making a fool to look out into space; take their eyes of myself. Perhaps I am. I wonder. off the world; be impractical I" It's a long time since I fell for any He swung the car slowly around the fairy etorieB. But this thing has got curve ahead, eased noiselessly into sec- me. A"sort of bunch, I guess." ond gear and went on with the climb. THE sun was shining now from a THERE were domed observatories vault of clear blue. It was light- where he stopped : rounded struc- ing a world of reality, of houses where tures that gleamed silvery in the air; people lived their commonplace lives, and offices, laboratories: it was a place tiny houses squared off in blocks a of busy men. And Professor Sykes, mile below. There was smoke here and he found, was busy. But he spared a there from factories; it spread in a few minutes to answer courteously the haze, and it meant boilers and engines questions of this slim young fellow in and sound practical machinery of a the khaki uniform of the air service. practical world to the watching man. "What can I do for you ?" asked Pro- What had all this to do with Venus? fessor Sykes. he asked himself. This was the world "No dreamer, this man," thought Mc- he knew. It was real ; space was im- Guire as he looked at the short, stocky penetrable ; there were no men or be- figure of the scientist. Clear eyes ings of any sort that could travel glanced sharply from under shaggy through apace. Blake was right: he brows; there were papers in his hand was on a fool's errand. They couldn't scrawled over with strange mathemati- tell him anything up here at the ob- cal symbols. servatory; they would laugh at him as "You can answer some fool ques- he deserved. tions," said Lieutenant McGuire ab- Wondering vaguely if there was a ruptly, "if you don't mind." place to turn around, he looked ahead The scientist smiled bnoadly. "We're and then up ; his eyes passed from the used to that," he told the young officer; gash of roadway on the mountainside "you can't think of Any worse ones to the deep blue beyond. And within than those we ha*e heard. Have a the man .some driving, insistent, men- chair." tal force etched strongly before his McGuire drew a clipping from his eyes that picture and its problem un- pocket—it was the newspaper account answered. There was the ship—he saw he had read—and he handed it to Pro- it in memory—and it went up and still fessor Sykes. up; and he knew as surely as if he had "I came to see you about this," he guided the craft that the meteor-like began. flight could be endless. The lips of Professor Sykes lost Lieutenant McGuire could not rea- their genial curve; they straightened son it out—such power was beyond his to a hard line. "Nothing for publica- 176 ASTOUNDING STORIES tion," he said curtly. "As usual they "just one more question. Could that enlarged upon the report and made as- have been the flash of a—a rocket? sumptions and inferences not war- Like the proposed experiments in Ger- ranted by facts." many. Could it have meant in any Way "But you did see that flash?" the launching of a projectile—a ship— "By visual observation I saw a bright to travel Earthward through space?" area formed on the terminator—yes I We have no photographic corrobora- PROFESSOR SYKES knew what tion." it was to be harassed by the" curi- "I am wondering what it meant." ous mob, to avoid traps set by ingen- "That is your privilege—and mine," ious reporters, but he knew, too, when said the scientist coldly. he was meeting with honest bewilder- "But it said there," McGuire per- ment and a longing for knowledge. sited, "that it might have been a signal His fists were placed firmly on the hips of some sort." of his stocky figure as he stood look- "I did not say so: that is an infer- ing at the persistent questioner, and hit ence only. I have told you, Lieuten- eyes passed from the intent face to the ant"—he—glanced at the card in snug khaki coat and the spread wingi his hand "—Lieutenant McGuire—all that proclaimed the wearer's work. A that I know. We deal in facts up here, ship out of space—a projectile—thii and we leave the brilliant theorizing young man had said. to the journalists." "Lieutenant," he suggested quietly— and again the smile—had returned to THE young officer felt distinctly his lips as he spoke "sit down. I'm disconcerted. He did not know not as busy as I pretend to be. Now exactly what he had expected from this tell me: what in the devil have you man—what corroboration of his, wild got in your mind?" surmises—but he was getting nowhere, And McGuire told him. "Like some he Admitted. And he resented the cold of your dope," he said, "this is not for aloofness of the scientist before him. publication. But I have not been in- "I am not trying to pin you down on structed to hush it up, and I know you anything," he said, and his tone car- will keep it to yourself." ried a hint of the nervous strain that He told the clear-*yed, listening man had been his. "I am trying to learn of the previous night's events. Of the something." radio's weird call and the mystery ship. "Just what?" the other inquired. "Hallucination," suggested the sci- "Could that flash have been a sig- entist. "You saw the stars very clearly, nal?" and they suggested a ship." "You may think so if you wish: I "Tell that to Jim Burgess," said Mc- have told you all that I know. And Guire : "he was the pilot of that plane." now," he added, and rose from his And the scientist nodded as if the an- chair, "I must ask to be excused; I swer were what he expected. have work to do." He asked again about the ship's McGuire came slowly to his feet. He flight. And he, too, bore down heavily had learned nothing; perhaps there was upon the matter of acceleration in the nothing to be learned. Aj fool's er- thin upper air. He rose to lay a rand! Blake was right. But the in- friendly hand on McGuire's shoulder. ner urge for some definite knowledge "We can't know what it means," he drove him on. His eyes were serious said, "but we can form our own theo- and his face drawn to a scowl of ear- ries, you and I—and anything is pos- nestness as he turned once more to the sible. waiting man. "It is getting late," he added, "and "Professor Sykes," he demanded, you have had a long drive. Come over — " THE PIRATE PLANET 177 tod eat; spend the night here. Per- to their work," he said; "they will be haps you would like to have a look at gathering light that has been traveling our equipment—see Venus for your- millions of years on its ways. But elf. I will be observing her through you and I have something a great deal the sixty-inch refractor to-night. nearer to study." Would you care to?" "Would I ?" McGuire demanded with ANOTHER building held the big enthusiasm. "Say, that will be great I" refractor, and it was a matter of only a few seconds and some cryptic THE sun was dropping toward the instructions from Sykes until the eye- horizon when the two men again piece showed the image of the brilliant came out into the cool mountain air. planet. "Just time for a quick look around," "The moon I" McGuire exclaimed in tuggested Professor Sykes, "if you are disappointed tones when the professor interested." motioned him to see for himself. His He took the lieutenant first to an eyes saw a familiar half-circle of light. enormous dome that bulged high above "Venus," the professor informed the ground, and admitted him to the him. "It has phases like the moon. dark interior. They climbed a stair- The planet is approaching; the sun's way and came out into a room that light strikes it from the side." But held a skeleton frame of steel. "This McGuire hardly heard. He was gaz- ii the big boy," said Professor Sykes, ing with all his faculties centered upon "the one hundred-inch reflector." that distant world, so hear to him now. There were other workers there, one "Venus," he whispered half aloud. I man standing upon a raised platform Then to the professor: "It's all hazy. beside the steel frame, who arranged There are no markings— big holders for photographic plates. "Clouds," said the" other. "The god- The slotted ceiling opened as McGuire dess is veiled; Venus is blanketed in watched, and the whole structure clouds. What lies underneatb/we may swung slowly around. It was still, and never know, but we do know that of all the towering steel frame began to the planets this is most like the earth; wing noiselessly when a man at a desk most probably is an inhabited world. touched various controls. McGuire Its size, its density, your weight'' if looked about him in bewilderment. you were there—and the temperature "Quite a shop," he admitted; "but under the sun's rays about double that where is the telescope?" of ours. Still, the cloud envelope "Professor Sykes pointed to the tow- would shield it." I ering latticework of steel. "Right McGuire was fascinated, and his there.'Vhe said. "Like everyone else, thoughts raced wildly in speculation you mere expecting to see a big tube."' of what might be transpiring before He (explained in simple words the his eyes. People, living in that trop- operation of the great instrument that ical world; living and going through brought in light rays from sources mil- their daily routine under that cloud- lions of light years away. He pointed filled sky where the sun was never out where the big mirror was placed seen. The margin of light that made the one hundred-inch reflector—and he the clear shape of a half-moon marked traced for the wondering man the path- their daylight and dark ; there was one way of light that finally converged small dot of light forming just beyond upon a sensitized plate to catch and that margin. It penetratedi the dark record what no eye had ever seen. side. And it grew, as he watched, to a He checked the younger man's flow bright patch. of questions and turned him back to- "What is that," he inquired abstract- ward the stairs. "We will leave them edly—his thoughts were still filled with " — 178 ASTOUNDING STORIES those beings of his imagination. "I'll not wait," said McGuire. "I will "There is a light that extends— into the start for the field; get there by day- dark part. It is spreading light, if I can find my way down that road in the dark. HE found himself thrust roughly "Thanks' a lot." He paused a mo- aside as Professor Sykes applied.; ment before concluding slowly: "And a more understanding eye to the in- in spite of what you say. Professor, I strument. believe that we will have something to The professor whirled abruptly to get together on again in this matter." his'assistant. "Phone Professor Giles," The scientist, he saw, had turned he said sharply; "he is working on the again to his instrument. McGuire reflector. Tell him to get a photograph picked his way carefully along the nar- of Venus at once; the cloud envelope row path that led where he had parked is broken." He returned hurriedly to his car. "Good scout, this Sykes!" he his observations. One hand sketched was thinking, and he stopped to look on a waiting pad. overhead in the quick-gathering dark "Markings 1" he said exultantly. "If at that laboratory of the heavent, it would only hold! There, it is where Sykes and his kind delved and closing . gone. probed, measured and weighed, and His hand was quiet now upon the gathered painstakingly the message) paper, but where he had marked was a from suns beyond counting, from uni- crude sketch of what might have been verses out there in space that added an island. It was "L" shaped; sharply their bit of enlightenment to the great bent. story of the mystery of creation. "Whew I" breathed Professor Sykes He was humbly aware of his owi and looked up for a moment. "Now deep ignorance as he backed his car, that was interesting." i slipped it into second, and began the "You saw through?" asked McGuire long drive down the tortuous grade. eagerly. "Glimpsed the surface?—an He would have liked to talk more with island?" Sykes. But he had no thought as he Toe-scientist's face relaxed. "Don't wound round the curves how soon that jump to conclusions," he told the avi- wish was to be gratified. ator; "we are\not ready to make a geography of Venus quite yet. But we PART way down the mountainside shall know that mark if we ever see it he again checked his car where be again. I hardly think they had time had stopped on the upward climb and to get a picture. reasoned with himself about his er- rand. Once more he looked out over 44 A ND now there is only a matter the level ground below, a vast glowing X*\. of three hours for observation; expanse of electric lights now, that I must watch every minute. Stay here stretched to the ocean beyond. He wa 1 if you wish. "But," he added, "don't suddenly unthrilled by this man-made let your imagination run wild. Some illumination, and he got out of his car eruption, perhaps, this we have seen to stare again at the blackness above an ignition of gasses in the upper air and its myriad of stars that gathered —who knows? But don't connect this and multiplied as he watched. with you/ mysterious ship.; If the ship One brighter than the rest winked is a menace, if it means war, that is suddenly out. There was a constella- your field of action, not mine. And tion of twinkling lights that clustered you will be fighting with someone on nearby, and they too vanished. The Earth. It must be that some country eyes of the watcher strained them- baa gained a big lead in aeronautics. selves to sec more clearly a dim-lit out- • . . . Now I must get to work." line. There were no lights; it was — THE PIRATE PLANET 170 black shape, lost In the blackness of try so far ahead of us in air force that the mountain sky, that was blocking we are back in the dark ages—well, it out the stars. But it was a shape, and doesn't look any too good to me if they from near the horizon the pale gleams mean trouble." of the rising moon picked it out in "We will meet it when it comes," softest of outline, a vague ghost of a said Colonel Boynton. "But, between curve that reflected a silvery contour ourselves, I am in the same state of to the watching eyes below. mind. There had been a wider space in the "The whole occurrence is so damn road that McGuire had passed; he mysterious. Washington hasn't a whis- backed carefully till he could swing per of information of any such con- his car and turn it to head once more struction; the Secretary admitted that it desperate speed toward the moun- last night. It's a surprise, aobmplete tain top. And it was less than an hour surprise, to everyone. — since he had left when he was racing "But, Blake, you get that new ship back along the narrow footpath to slam ready as quickly as you can. Prepare open the doer where Professor Sykes for an altitude test the same as we looked up in amazement at his abrupt planned, but get into the air the first return. minute possible. She ought to show a The aviator's voice was hoarse with better ceiling than anything we have excitement as he shouted : "It's here here, and you may have to fly high to the ship I It's here I Where's your say 'Good morning' to that liner you phone?— I must call the field! It's saw. Put all the mechanics on it that right overhead—descending slowly can work to advantage. I think they no lights, but I saw it—I saw it I" have it pretty well along now." He was working with trembling fin- "Engine's tested and installed, sir," gers at the phone where Sykes had was Blake's instant report. "I think I pointed. "Long distance I" he shouted. can take it up this afternoon." He gave a number to the operator, ke it quick," he implored. "Quick I" HE left immediately to hurry to the hangar where a new plane CHAPTER III stood glistening in pristine freshness, and where hurrying mechanics grum- BACK at Maricopa Flying Field bled under their breaths at the sudden the daily routine had been dis- rush for a ship that was expected to turbed. There were conferences of of- take the air a week later. ficers, instructions from Colonel Boyn- An altitude test under full load! ton, and a curiosity-provoking lack of Well, what of it? they demanded one explanations. Only with Captain of another: wouldn't another day do as Blake did the colonel indulge in any well as this one? And they worked as discussion. they growled, worked with swift sure- "We'll keep this under our hats," he nesB and skill, and the final instru- •aid, "and out of the newspapers as ments took their place in the ship that long as we can. You can imagine what she might roll from the hangar com- the yellow journals would do with a plete under that day's sun. scarehead like that. Why, they would Her supercharger was tested—the ad- have us all wiped off the map and the junct to a powerful engine that would country devastated by imaginary fleets feed the hungry cylinders with heavy in the first three paragraphs." air up in the heights where the air is Blake regarded his superior gravely. thin ; there were oxygen flasks to keep "I feel somewhat the same way, myself, life in the pilot in the same thin air. Colonel," he admitted. "When I think And the hot southern sun made ludi- what this can mean—some other coun- crous that afternoon the bulky, heavily- 180 ASTOUNDING STORIES wrapped figure of Captain" Blake as he you expect of our visitor and what we sat at the controls and listened approv- will do." ingly to the roaring engine. S He waved and smiled un- settled back comfortably in good-by HE i derstandingly as he met the eyes of big chair. The office was warm, Colonel Boynton; then pulled on his and Blake knew now he had been do- helmet, settled himself in his seat and ing a day's work. took off in a thunderous blast of sound "We will just take it as it comes," to begin his long ascent!. Colonel Boynton expfained. "I can't / for the life of me figure why the craft HE had long since cracked open was spying around here. What are the valve of his oxygen flask they looking for? We haven't any big when the climb was ended, and his secrets the whole world doesn't know. goggles were frosted in the arctic cold "Of course he may not return. But so that it was only with difficulty he if he does I want you to go up and could read his instrument board, give him the once over. I can trust s "That's the top," he thought in that you to note every significant detail. mind so light and so curiously not his "You saw Ao wings. If it is a dirigi- own. He throttled the engine and ble, let's knowN*omething of their power went into a long spiral that was to end and how they can throw themselves up within a rod of where he had started •into the air the way you described. on the brown, sun-baked field. The Watch for anything that may serve to last rays of the sun were slanting over identify it and its probable place of distant mountains as he climbed stiffly manufacture—any peculiarity of mark- from the machine. ing or design or construction that may "Better than fifty thousand," exulted give us a lead. Then return and report.'' Colonel Boynton. "Of course your Blake nodded his understanding of barograph will have to be calibrated what was wanted, but his mind was on and verified, but it looks like a record, further contingencies; be wanted defi- Blake—and you had a full load. nite instructions. "Ready to go up and give merry hell "And," he asked, "if they attack— to that other ship if she shows up?" he what then? Is their fire to be re- asked. But Captain Blake shook a du- turned?" bious head. "If they make one single false "Fifty thousand is just a start for move," said Colonel Boynton savagely, that bird," he said. "You didn't see "give them everything you've got. And them shoot out of sight. Colonel. Lord the 91st Squadron will be off the knows when they quit their climb—or ground to support you at the first sign where." "of trouble. We don't want to start "Well, we'll just have a squadron anything, nor appear to do so. But, ready in any event," the colonel as- by the gods, Blake, this fellow means sured him. "We will make him show trouble eventually as sure as you're a his stuff or take a beating—if that is flyer, and we won't wait for him to what he wants." ask for it twice." They were in the colonel's office. "You had better go and get warmed THEY sat in silence, while the field up," he told the flyer ; "then Come back outside became shrouded in night. here for instructions." But Blake was And they speculated, as best they more anxious for information than for could from the few facts they had, as other comforts. to what this might mean to the world, "I'm all right," he said; "just tired to their country, to themselves. It was a bit. Let me stretch out here. an hour before Blake was aware of the Colonel, and give me the dope on what fact that he was hungry. ! THE PIRATE PLANET He rose to leave, but paused while of the stick and nodded within his Colonel Boynton answered the phone. dark cockpit at the rattle of a machine The first startled exclamation held him gun that merged its staccato notes with rigid while he tried to piece together the engine's roar. the officer's curt responses and guess But he felt, as he thought of that at what was being told. monster shape, as some primordial man "Colonel Boynton speaking. .Mc- might have felt, setting forth with a Cuire? Yes, Lieutenant. . Over stone in his hand to wage war on a Mount LawBon? . . Yes—yes, the saurian beast. same ship, I've no doubt."- His voice was even and cool in con- CHAPTER IV trast to the excited tones that carried faintly to Blake standing by. IF Colonel Boynton could have stood "Quite right I" he said shortly. "You with one of his lieutenants and will remain where you are; act as ob- Professor Sykes on a mountain top, he server; hold this line open and keep would have found, perhaps, the answer me informed. Captain Blake will leave to his question. He had wondered in immediately for observation. A squad- a puzzled fashion why the great ship ron will follow. Let me know prompt- had shown its mysterious presence over ly what you see." the flying field. He had questioned He turned abruptly to the waiting whether it was indeed the field that man. had been the object of their attention "It is back I" he said. "We're in luck or whether in the cloudy murk they Over the observatories at Mount Law- had merely wandered past. Could he son; descending, so Lieutenant Mc- have seen with the eyes of Lieutenant Guire.says. Take the same ship you McGuire the descent of the great shape had up to-day. Look them over—get over Mount Lawson, he would have up close—good luck I" He turned known beyond doubt that here was the again to the phone. magnet that drew the eyes of whatever There were planes rolling from their crew was manning the big craft. hangars before Blake could reach his It was dark where the two men stood. own ship. Their engines were thun- Others had come running at their call, dering; men were rushing across the but their forms, too, were lost in the field, pulling on leather helmets and shadows of the towering pines. The coats as they- ran—all this while he light from an open door struck across warmed up his engine. an open space. beyond which McGuire A mechanic thrust in a package of and Professor Sykes stood alone, stood sandwiches and a thermos of coffee silent and spellbound, their heads while he waited. And Captain Blake craned back at a neck-wrenching angle. grinned cheerfully and gulped the last They were oblivious to all discomforts; of his food as he waved to the mechan- their eyes and their whole minds were ics to pull out the wheel blocks. He on the unbelievable thing Jn the sky. opened the throttle and shot out into Beyond the fact that no lights were the dark. showing along the hull, there was no He climbed and circled the field, saw effort at concealment. The moon was the waving motion of lights in red and up now to illumine the scene, and it green that marked the take-off of the snowed plainly the gleaming cylinder planes of the 91st, and he straightened with its long body and blunt, shining out on a course that in less than two ends, dropping slowly, inexorably hours would bring him over the heights down. of Mount Lawson and the mystery "Like a dirigible," said McGuire that awaited him there. And he fin< huskily. "But the size, man—the size! gered the trigger grip that was part And it's shape is not right; it isn't — 182 ASTOUNDING STORIES streamlined correctly; the air—" He might mean. The light of his plane stopped his half-unconscious analysis slanted down in an easy descent; the abruptly. "The air I" What had this flyer was gliding in on a long aerial craft to do with the air? A thin layer tobagg'an slide. His motor was throt- of gas that hung close to the earth tled; there was only the whistle of the skin on an apple I And beyond— torn air on the monoplane's wings. space! There was the ethereal ocean McGuire was with the captain in hit in which this great shape swam I mind, and like him he was waiting for The reality of the big 'ship, the very whatever the stranger might do. substance of it, made the space ship Other lights were clustered where idea the harder to grasp. Lieutenant the one plane had been. The men of McCuire found that it was easier to the 91st had their orders, and the fin- see an imaginary craft taking off into gers of the watching, silent man space than to conceive of this mon- gripped an imaginary stick while he strous shape, many hundreds of tons in wished with his whole heart that he weight, being thrown through vast was up in the air. To be with Blake emptiness. Vet he knew; he knewl or the jitli«>s+^His thoughts whipped And his mind was a chaos of grim back to the mysterious Stranger; the threats and forebodings as he looked great shape was in motion ; it rose at the unbelievable reality and tried to sharply a thousand feet in the air. picture what manner of men were watching, peering, from those rows of THE approaching plane showed ports. clear in the moon's light. It swung and banked, and the vibrant AT last it was motionless. It hung song of its engine came down to the soundless and silent except for men as Blake swept in a great circle a soft roar, a scant thousand feej in about the big ship. He was looking it the air. And its huge bulk was dwarf- over, but he began his inspection at a ing the giant pines, the rounded build- distance, and the orbit of his plane ings; it threw the men's familiar made a tightening spiral as he edged surroundings into a new and smaller for a closer look. He was still swing- seals. ing in the monotonous round when the He had many times flown over these ship made its first forward move. mountains, and Lieutenant. McGuire It leaped in the air; it swept faster had seen the silvery domes of the ob- and faster. And it was moving with servatories shining among the trees. terrific speed as it crashed silently Like fortresses for aerial defense, he through the path of the tiny plane. had thought, and the memory returned And Blake, as he leaned forward on to him now. What did these new- the stick to throw his plane downward comers think of them? Had they, too, in a power dive, could have had a found them suggestive of forts on the vision, not of a ship of the air, but only frontier of a world, defenses against of a shining projectile as the great invasion from out there? Or did they monster shrieked overhead. know them for what they were? Did McGuire trembled for the safety of they wish only %p learn the extents of those wings as he saw Blake pull hii our knowledge, our culture? Were little ship out of the dive and shoot they friendly, perhaps?—palf-timid upward to a straight climb. and fearful of what they might find? But—"That's dodging them!" he A star moved in thp sky, a pin-point exulted; "that's flying! I wonder, did of light that (was plain in its message they mean to wipe him out or were to the i«ur. It was Blake, flying they only scared off?" high, volplaning to make contact and His question, was answered as, ont learn from the air what this stranger of the night, a whistling shriek pro- THE PIRATE PLANET 183 claimed the passage of the meteor ship ing from the heights. They came on a that drove unmistakably at the lone steep slant that seemed marking them plane. And again the pilot with superb for crashing death against the huge skill waited until the last moment and cylinder flashing past. And their stab- threw himself out of the path of the bing needles of machine-gun fire made oncoming mass, though his own plane a drumming tattoo, till the planes, with was tossed and whirled like an autumn the swiftness of hawks, swept aside, leaf in the vortex that the enemy formed to groups, tore on down toward created. Not a second was lost as the ground and then curved in great Blake opened his throttle and forced circles of speed to climb back to the his plane into a steep climb. theater of action. "Atta-boy!" said McGuire, as if words could span across to the man in LIEUTENANT McGUIRE was the plane. "Altitude, Blake—get alti- rigid and quivering. He should tude I" go to the phone and report to the The meteor had turned in a tremen- colonel, but the thought left him as dous circle ; so swift its motion that it quickly as it came. He was frozen in made an actual line of light as the place, and his mind could hold only the moon marked its course. And the scene that was being pictured before curved line straightened abruptly to a him. flashing mark that shot straight toward The enemy ship had described its the struggling plane. swift curve, and the planes of the de- fenders were climbing desperately for came advantage. THIS time another sound _ So slowly they moved as down to the listening ears of the compared with the swiftness of the two men. The plane tore head on to other I meet the onslaught, to swing at the But the great ship was slowing; it last instant in a frantic leap that ended came on, but its wild speed was is before in the maelstrom of air back checked. The light of the full moon of the ship. But the muffled roar was showed plainly now what McGuire had changed, punctured with a machine- seen but dimly before—a great metal gun's familiar rattle, and the stabbing beak on the ship, pointed and shining, flashes from Blake's ship before he a ram whose touch must bring annihila- threw it out of the other's path were tion to anything it struck. a song of joy to the tense nerves of the The squadron of planes made a group men down below. in the sky, and Blake's monoplane, too, This deadly rush could only be con- was with them. The huge enemy was strued as an attack, and Blake was approaching slowly: was it damaged? fighting back. The very speed of the McGuire hardly dared hope . yet great projectile must hold it to- its that raking fire might well have been course; the faster it went the more dif- deadly; it might be that some bullets ficult to swerve it from a line. This had torn and penetrated to the vitals of and much more was flashing sharply in this ship's machinery and damaged McGuire's mind. But—Blake I —alone some part. against this huge antagonist! . . It It came back slowly, ominously, to- was coming back. Another rush like a ward the circling planes. Then, throw- star through space. . . . ing itself through the air, it leaped not And McGuire shouted aloud in a directly toward them but off to one frenzy of emotion as a cluster of lights side. came falling from on high. No lone machine gun now that tore the air with LIKE a stone on the end of a cord this clattering bedlam of shots; the it swung with inconceivable speed planes of the 91st Squadron were div- in a circle that enclosed the group of — 184 ASTOUNDING STORIES planes. Again and again it whipped turned; it was flying low, and it around them, while the planes, by com- swerved erratically as it flew. It was parison, were motionless. Its orbit was a monoplane ; a new ship. flat with the ground ; then tilting, more Its motor was silended ; it stalled at yet, it made a last circle that stood like he watched, to pancake and crash a hoop in the air. And behind it as it where the towering pines made a cra- circled it left a faint trace of vapor. dle, of great branches to cushion its Nebulous!—milky in the moonlight I fall. but the ship had built a sphere, a great No thought now of the colonel wait- globe of the gas, and within it, like ing impatiently for a report; even the rats in a cage, the planes of the 91st enemy, there in the sky, was forgotten. Squadron were darting and whirling. It was Blake in that ship, and he was "Gas I" groaned the watching man; alive—or had been—for he had cut his "gas! What is it? Why don't they motor. McGuire screamed out for Pro- break through?" fessor Sykes, and there were others, The thin clouds of vapor were min- too, who came running at his call. He gling now and expanding; they blos- tore recklessly through the scrub and somed and mushroomed, and the light undergrowth and gained at last the of the moon came in pale iridescence place where wreckage hung dangling from theirfallowing folds. from the trees. The fuselage of a "Break?" through!" McGuire had plane, scarred and broken, was still prayed—and he stood in voiceless hor- held in the strong limbs. ror as he saw the attempt. The mist was touching here and CAPTAIN BLAKE was in the there a plane ; they were/engulfed, yet cockpit, half hanging from the he could see them plainly. And he side. He was motionless, quiet, and hia saw with staring, fear-filled eyes the face shone white and ghastly as they clumsy tumbling and Buttering of un- released him and drew him out. But guided wings as the great eagles of the one hand still clung with a grip like 91st fell roaring to earth with no con- death itself to a hose that led from an scious minds guiding their flight. oxygen tank.. McGuire stared in won- The valleys were deep about the der and slowly gathering comprehen- mountain, and their shadowed black- sion. ness opened to receive .the maimed, "He was fixed for an altitude test," stricken things that came fluttering or he said dazedly; "this ship was to be swooping wildly to that last embrace, used, and he was to find her ceiling. where, in the concealing shadows, the He saw what the others were getting, deeper shadows of death awaited. and he flew himself— through on a jet of pure oxygen " He stopped in utter THERE was a room where a tele- admiration of the quickness of thought phone waited: McGuire sensed Wat could outwit death in an instant this but dumbly, and the way to that % that. room was long to his stumbling feet. *Miey carried the limp body to the He was blinded; his mind would not light. "No bones broken so far as I function; he saw only those fluttering can see," said the voice of Professor things, and the moonlight on their Sykes. "Leave him here in the air. wings, and the shadows that took them He must have got a whiff of their so softly at the last. devilish mist in spite of his oxygen; One plane whistled close overhead. he was flying mighty awkwardly when McGuire stopped where he stood to he came in here." follow it with unbelieving eyes. That But he was alive!—and Lieutenant one man had lived, escaped the net—it McGuire hastened with all speed now war inconceivable I The plane re- to the room where a telephone was THE PIRATE PLANET 185 ringing wildly and a colonel of the air CHAPTER V force must be told of the annihilation of a crack squadron and of a threat^ rT**0 Captain Blake alone, of all that menaced all the world. YA those persons on the summit of mount Lawson, it was given to see and IN that far room there were others to know and be able to relate what waiting where Colonel Boynton sat transpired there and in the air above. with receiver to Jus. ear. A general's For Blake, although he appeared like uniform was gleaming in the light to one dead, was never unconscious make more sober by contrast the civil- throughout his experience. ian clothing of that quiet, clear-eyed Driving head on toward the ship, he man who held the portfolio of the Sec- had emptied his drum of cartridges be- retary of War. fore he threw his plane over and down They stared silently at Colonel in a dive that escaped the onrush of Boynton, and they saw the blood re- the great craft by a scant margin, ind cede from his face, while his cool voice that carried him down in company- went on unmoved with its replies. with the men and machines of the ". . I understand," he said; "a squadron that dived from above. washout, complete except for Captain He turned as they turned and, Blake: his oxygen saved him. . It climbed as they climbed for the ad« attacked with gas, you say? And vantage that altitude might give. Ana why did not our own planes escape? he climbed faster; his ship outdis- ... Its speed I—yes, we'll have to im/ tanced them in that tearing, scrambl- agine it,—but it is unbelievable. One ing rtish for the heights. The squad- moment " He turned to those who ron was spiraling upward in close for- waited for his report. mation with his plane above them when "The squadron," he said with forced the enemy struck. quiet, though his lips twitched in a He saw that great shape swing " bloodless line, —the 91st—is de- around them, terrible in its silent stroyed. The enemy put them down swiftness, and, like the others, he with one blow; enveloped them with failed to realize at first the net she was pa." He.recounted the essence of Mc- weaving. So thin was the gas and so Guire's report, then turned once more rapid the circling of the enemy craft, to the phone. they were captured and cut off inside "Hello, Lieutenant—the enemy ship of the gaseous sphere before the pur- —where is it now?" pose of the maneuver was seen or un- He listened—listened—to a silent re- derstood. ceiver; silent save for the sound of a He saw the first faint vapor form hot—a crashing fall—a loud, panting above him; swung over for a steep bank breath. He heard the breathing close that carried him around the inside of to the distant instrument ; it ended in the great cage of gas and that showed a choking gasp ; the instrument was si- him. the spiraling. planes as the first lent in his ear. . . . wisps of vapor swept past them. He signalled violently for the opera- He held that bank with his swift ma- tor; ordered the ringing of any and all chine, while below him a squadron of phones about the observatory, and lis- close-formed fighting craft dissolved tened in vain for a sound or syllable before his eyes into unguided units. in reply. The formations melted : wings touched "A plane," he told an orderly, "at and locked; the planes fell dizzily or once I Phone the commercial flying shot off in wild, ungoverned, swerving field near the base of Mount Lawson. flight. The air .was misty about him; Have them hold a car ready for me : I it was fragrant in his nostrils; the hall land there I" world was swimming. . . . — — 186 ASTOUNDING STORIES was gas, he knew, and with the yes, it was McGuire—shouted into i ITlight-headedness that was upon phone. ". him, so curiously like that of excessive . The squadron," he was saying altitudes, he reached unconsciously for ". Lost! Every plane dowd aid the oxygen supply. The blast of pure destroyed. . . Blake is living but in- ." gas in his face revived him for an in- jured. . And then Blake reman- stant, and in that instant of clear think- bered. And the tumbling, helplea ing his plan was formed. He threw his planes came again before his eya weight on stick and rudder, corrected .while he cursed silently at this freer- the skid his ship was taking, and, with Trig grip that would not let him cover one hand holding the tube of life-giv- his face with his hands to shut out the ing oxygen before his face, he drove sight. straight down in a dive toward the The figure of a man hurried past htm, earth. nor saw the body lying helpless in the There were great weights fastened cool dark. McGuire was still at the to his arms, it seemed, when he tried phone. And the enemy ship—? to bring the ship from her fearful dive. His mind filled with a welter of He moved only with greatest effort, words as he tried to find phrases to and it was force of will alone that com- compass his hate for that ship. And pelled his hands to do their work. His then, as if conjured out of nothing by brain, as he saw the gleaming round- his thoughts, the great craft itself ness of observatory buildings beneath came in view overhead in all its mighty him, was as clear as ever in his life, bulk. but his muscles, his arms and legs, re- It settled down swiftly; it wai fused to work; even his head; he was riding on an even keel. And in silence slowly sinking beneath a load of utter and darkness it came from above. fatigue. Blake tried to call out, but no sound The observatories were behind him; could be formed by his paralyzed he must swing back ; he could not last throat. Doors opened in silence, long, he knew; each slightest move- swinging down from the belly of the ment was intolerable effort. - thing to show in the darkness square Was this death? he wondered; "But openings through which shot beams of his mind was so clear I There were the brilliant yellow light. buildings, the trees I How thickly they There were cages that lowered— were massed beyond great platforms in slings—and the He brought every ounce of will platforms came softly to rest on the power to bear . the throttle!—and ground. ,They were moving with life; a slow glide in ... he was losing living beings clustered upon them speed . . the stick—must—come thick in the Mark. Oh God I for an in- back I The crashing branches whipped stant's release from the numbness that about him, bending, crackling—and the held his lips and throat, to cry out one world went dark. wordt The shapes were passing now in the shelter of darkness, going THERE were stars above him when toward the room. He could see he awoke, and his back was McGuire's back turned toward the wrenched and aching. He tried to door. move, to call, but found that the par- Man-shapes, tall and thin, distorted alyzing effect of the gas still held him humans, each swathed in bulging gar- fast. He was lying on the .ground, he ments; horrible staring eyes of glaa knew; a door was open in a building in the masks about their heads, and beyond, and the light in the room each hand ready with a shining weapon showed him men, a small group' of as they stood waiting for the men them, standing silent while someone within to move. " THE PIRATE PLANET 187 McGUIRE must have seen them servatories. Some made a second trip first, though his figure was half to take up the loot they had gathered. concealed from Blake where he was Then the black doorways closed; the lying. But he saw the head turn ; knew huge bulk of the ship floated high by the quick twist of the shoulders the above the trees ; it took form, dwindled man was reaching for a gun. One shot smaller and smaller, then vanished echoed in Blake's ears; one bulging from sight in the star-studded sky. figure spun and fell awkwardly to the Blake thought of their unconscious ground; then the weapons in those passenger—the slim figure of Lieute- clumsy hands hissed savagely while nant McGuire. Mac had been a close jets of vapor, half liquid and half gas, friend and a good one; his ready smile; hot blindingly into the room. The his steady eyes that could tear a prob- faces dropped from his sight. . . . lem to pieces with their analytic scru- ' There had been the clamor of sur- tiny or gaze far into space to see those prised and shouting men ; there was visions of a dreamer! uience now. And the awkward figures "Far into space." Blake repeated the in the bloated casings that protected words in his mind. And : "Good-by their bodies from the gas passed in Mac," he said softly; "you've shipped safety to the room. Blake, bound in for a long cruise, I'm thinking." He the invisible chains of enemy gas, hardly realized he had spoken the struggled silently, futilely, to pit his words aloud. will against this grip that held him. To lie there helpless, to see these men LYING there in the cold night he slaughtered I He saw one of the crea- felt his trength returning slowly. tures push the body of bis fallen com- The pines sang their soothing, whis- rade out of the way ; it was cast aside pered message, and the faint night witJf an indifferent foot. noises served but to intensify the si- Tbey were coming back : Blake saw lence of the mountain. It was some the loTTn of McGuire in unmistakable time before the grind of straining khaki. He and another man were car- gears 'fame faintly in the air to an- ried high on the shoulders of some of nounce the coming of a car up the long the invaders. They were going toward grade. And still later he heard it come the platforms, the slings beneath the to a stop some distance beyond. There hip. . . They passed close to Blake, were footsteps, and voices calling; he and again he was unnoticed in the dark. heard the voice of Colonel Boynton. A clamor came from distant build- And he was able to call out in reply, ings, a babel of howls and shrieks, in- even to move his head and turn it to human, unearthly. There were no see the approaching figures in the phrases or syllables, but to Blake it was nighti- familiar . . somewhere he had heard Colonel Boynton knelt beside him. it . . and then he remembered the ra- "Did they get you, old man?" he asked. dio and the weird wailing note that "Almost," Blake told him. "My oxy- told of communication. These things gen—I was lucky. But the others— were talking in the same discordant He did not need to complete the sen- din. tence. The silent canyons among those wooded hills told plainly the story of THEY were gathering now on the the lost men. platforms slung under the ship. A "We will fight them with gas masks," whistling note from somewhere within said the colonel ; "your experience has the great structure and the platforms taught us the way." went high in the air. They were load- "Gas-tight uniforms and our own ed, he saw, with papers and books and supplies of oxygen," Blake supple- Instruments plundered from the ob- mented. He told Boynton of the man- — ; 188 ASTOUNDING STORIES thinga he had seen come from the ship, headlines to tell the world of this latest of their baggy suits, their helmets. . . . mystery. And he had seen a small generator on Then came corroboration from the the back of each helmet. He told him fax comers of the world. The mys- of the small, shining weapons and their tery ship had not visited one section powerful jets of gas. Deadly and un- only ; it had made a survey of the whole escapable at short range, he well knew. civilized sphere, and the tales of those "They got McCuire," Blake conclud- who had seen it were no longer ed; "carried him off a prisoner. Took laughed to scorn but went on the wires another man, too." of the great press agencies to be given For a moment Colonel Boynton's to^the world. And with that the cen- quiet tones lost their even steadiness. sorship imposed by the Department of "We'll get them," he said savagely, and War broke down, and the tragic story it was plain that it was the invaders of the destruction of the 91st Air Squa- that filled his mind; "we'll go after dron passed into written history. The them, and we'll get them in spite of wild tale of Captain Blake was on their damn gas, and— we'll rip their big every tongue. ship into ribbons " \ An invasion from space! The idea Captain Blake was able to raise a dis- was difficult to accept. There were senting hand. "We will have to go scoffers who tried to find something where they are. Colonel, to do that." here for their easy wit. Why should Colonel Boynton stared at him. we be attacked? What had that other "Well?" he demanded. "Why not?" world to gain? There was no answer "We can't go where they went," said ready, but the silent lips of the men Blake simply. "I laughed at McGuire who had fallen spoke eloquently of the told him not to be a fool. But I was truth. And the world, in wonder and the fool—the blind one; we all were. consternation, was forced to believe. Colonel. That thing came here out of Were there more to come? How pace. It has gone back; it is far be- meet them? Was this war—and with yond our air. I saw it go up out of whom? -What .neighboring planet sight, and I know. Those creatures could reasonably be suspected. What were men, if you like, but no men that bad science to say? we know—not those shrieking, wailing The scientists I The scientists! The devils! And we're going to hear more clamor of the world was beating at the from them, now that they've found doors of science and demanding ex- their way here I" planations and answers. And science answered. CHAPTER VI A conference was arranged in Lon- don; the best minds in the realms of A SCORE of bodies where men had astronomy and physics came together. died in strangling fumes in the They were the last to admit the truth observatories on Mount Lawson; one that would not be denied, but admit it of the country's leading astronomical they must. And to some of the ques- scientists vanished utterly; the build- tions they found their answer. ings on the mountain top ransacked; papers and documents blowing in va- IT was not Mars, they said, though grant winds; tales of a monster ship this, in the popular mind was the in the air, incredibly huge, unbeliev- source of the trouble. Not Mars, for ably swift that planet was far in the heavens. There are matters that at times are But Venus!—misnamed for the God- not allowed to reach the press, but not dess of Love. It was Venus, and she happenings like these. And the papers alone, who by any stretch of the im- of the United States blazed out with agination could be threatening Earth., THE PIRATE PLANET 189 What did it mean ? They had no an- representatives of foreign powers to iwer. The ship was the only answer attend. to that. Would there be more?—could "I have told you all that happened," ire meet them?—defeat them? And Blake concluded, "up to the coming of gain the wise men of the world re- Colonel Boynton. May I reiterate one fused to hazard a guess. fact? I do not wonder at your ques- But they told what they knew; that tioning my state of mind and my abil- Venus was past her eastern elongation, ity to observe correctly. But I must was approaching the earth. She of all insist, gentlemen, that, while I got a the planets that swung around the sun shot of their gas and my muscles and came nearest to Earth—twenty-six mil- my nervous system were paralyzed, my lion miles in another few weeks.* Then brain was entirely clear. I saw what I whirling away she would pass to the saw; those creatures were there; they western elongation in a month and a entered the buildings; they carried off half and drive out into space. Venus Lieutenant McGuire and another man. circled the sun in a year of 225 days, "What they were or who they were and in 584 days she would again reach I cannot say. I do not know that they her eastern elongation with reference were men, but their insane shrieking to the earth, and draw near us again. in that queer unintelligible talk is sig- They were reluctant to express them- nificant. And that means of communi- selves, these men who made nothing of cation corresponds with the radio re- weighing and analyzing stars a million ception of which you know. of light years away, but if the popu- "If you gentlemen know of any part lar conception was correct and if we of this earth that can produce such a could pass through the following people, if you know of any people or weeks without further assault, we country in this world that can produce could count on a year and a half before such a ship—then we can forget all the menace would again return. And our wild fancies. And we can prepare in a year and a half—well, the physi- to submit to that country and that peo- cists would be working—and we might ple as the masters of this earth. For be prepared. I must tell you, gentlemen, with all the -Captain Blake had made his report, earnestness at my command, that until -but this, it seemed, was not enough. you have seen that ship in action, seen He was ordered to come to Washing- its incredible speed, its maneuverabil- ton, and, with Colonel Boynton, he ity, its lightning-like attack and ifs flew across the country to tell again curtain of gas, you can have no concep- hit incredible story. tion of our helplessness. And the in- signia that she carries is the B^/af was a notable gathering before our conquerors." IT j which he appeared. All the- I branches of the service were repre- BLAKE got an approving nod from sented; there were men in the uniform the Secretary of War as he took of admirals and generals; there were his seat. That quiet man rose slowly heads of Departments. And the Sec- from bis chair to add his words. He retary of War was in charge. spoke earnestly, impressively. He told his story, did Blake, before "Captain Blake has hit the nail a battery of hostile eyes. This was squarely on the head," he stated. "We not a gathering to be stampeded by have here in this room a representa- wild scareheads, nor by popular clamor. tive gathering from the whole world. They wanted facts, and they wanted If there is any one of you who can say them proved. But the gravity with that this mystery ship was built and which they regarded the investigation manned by your people, let him speak, was shown by their invitation to the and we will send you at once a com- 190 ASTOUNDING STORIES mission, to acknowledge your power The answer that destroyed all hope and negotiate for peace." came to them borne in upon a wall of The great hall was silent, in a silence water that swept the British coast. that helfemly uneasy rustlings as men The telescopes of the world were glanced one at another in wondering centered now on just one object in the dismay. heavens. The. bright evening star that "The, time has come," said the Secre- adorned the western sky was the .tar- tary with solemn emphasis, "when all get for instruments great and small dissensions among our peoples must It was past the half-moon phase now, cease. Whatever there is or ever has and it became under magnification a been of discord between us fades into gleaming crescent, a crescent that emit- insignificance before this new threat. ted from the dark sphere it embraced It is the world, now, against a power vivid flashes of light. Sykes' report unknown; we can only face it as a had ample corroboration ; the flash was united world. seen by many, and it was repeated the "I shall recommend to the President next night and the next. of the United States that a commission What was it? the waiting world be appointed, that it may co-operate asked. And the answer came not from with similar bodies from all lands. I the telescopes and their far-reaching ask you, gentlemen, to make like rep- gaze but from the waters of the Atlan- resentations to your governments, to tic. In the full blaze of day came a the end that we may meet this menace meteor that swept to the earth in an as one country and one man; meet it, arc of fire to outshine the sun. There God grant, successfully through a War must have been those who saw it strike Department of the World." —passengers and crews of passing ships—but its plunge into the depths IT was a brave gesture of the Presi- of the Atlantic spelled death for each dent of the United States ; he dared witness. the scorn and laughter of the world in standing behind his Secretary of THE earth trembled with the explo- War. The world is quick to turn and sion that followed. A gas—some rend with ridicule a false prophet. new compound that united with water And despite the unanswerable facts, to give volumes tremendous—that only the scope and power of the menace^ras could explain it. The ocean rose from not entirely believed. It was difficult its depths and flung wave after wave for the conscious minds of men to con- to race outward in circles of death. ceive of the barriers of vast space as Hundreds of feet in height at their swept aside and the earth laid open to source—this could only be estimated— attack. they were devastating when they England was slow to respond to the struck. The ocean raged over the frail invitation of the President; this mat- bulwark of Engfand in wave upon ter required thought and grave delib- wave, and, retreating, tlu; waters left eration in parliament. It might no< be smooth, shining rock where cities had true: the thought, whether spoken or been. Tfi\ stone and steel of their unexpressed, was clinging to their buildings was scattered far over the minds. And even if true—even if this .desolate land ar drawn in the suction lone ship had wandered in from space of retreating wafers to the sea. —there might be no further attack. Ireland, too, ana-France and Spain. "Why," they asked, "should there be Even the coast of America felt the more unprovoked assaults from the shock of the explosion and was swept people of another planet? What was by tidal waves of huge proportions. their object? What had they to gain? But the coast of Britain took the blow . . . Perhaps we were safe after all." at its worst. — — THE PIRATE PLANET 191 The world was stunned and waiting der—wonder—what the planet's return •—waiting I—when the next blow fell. would bring. A year and one half was The flashes were coming from Venus theirs; one year and a half in which at regular intervals, just twenty hours to, live in safety, in which to plan and and nineteen minutes apart. And with build. exactly the same time intervals the bolts arrived from space to lay waste A COLUMN, double leaded, in the the earth. London Times voiced the feeling They struck where they would: the of the world. It was copied and broad- ocean again ; the Sahara ; in the moun- cast everywhere. tains of China; the Pacific was thrown "Another attack," it concluded, "is into fearful convulsions: the wheat not a probability—it is a certainty. fields of Canada trembled and vanished They are destroying us for some rea- before a blast of flaming gas. son known only to themselves. Who Twenty hours and nineteen minutes I can doubt that when the planet returns Where it would strike, the next star- there will be a further bombardment; shell, no man might say ; that it surely an invasion by armed forces in giant would come was a deadly and nerve- ships; bombs dropped from them miles shattering certainty. The earth waited high in the air. This is what we must and prayed under actual bombardment. look forward to—death and destruc- tion dealt out by a force we are unable SOME super-gun, said science with to meet. conviction ; a great bore in the "Our munitions factories may build planet itself, perhaps. But it was larger guns, but can they reach the fixed, and the planet itself aimed with heights at which these monster ships an accuracy that was deadly; aimed of space will lie, with any faint proba- once as each revolution brought its gun bility of inflicting damage? It is on the target. Herein, laid science, doubtful. lay a basis for hope. "Our aircraft is leqs than useless ; its If, in that distant world, there was very name condemns it as inept. Craft only one such bore, it must be altering of the air I—and we have to war against its aim as the planet approached; the space ships which can rise beyond the gun must cease to bear upon the earth. thin envelope of gas that encircles the And the changing sweep of the mis- earth. siles' flight confirmed their belief. "The world is doomed—utterly and Each meteor-shell that came rushing finally doomed ; it is the end of human- into Earth's embrace burned brilliantly kind ; slavery to a conquering race at as it tore into the air. And each flam- the very best, unless ing arc was increasingly bent, until "Let us face the facts fairly. It is twenty hours and nineteen minutes had war—war to the death—between the passed—twenty minutes—thirty—an- inhabitants of this world and of that other hour . . and the peoples of other. We are men.\ What they are Earth dropped humbly to their knees God alone can say. But they are crea- in thankful praper, or raised vengeful tures of mind as are we; what they eyes and clenched fists toward the have done, we may do. heavens while their quivering lips ut- "There is our only hope. It is vain, tered blasphemous curses. The men- perhaps—preposterous in its assump- ace, for the time, had passed ; the great tion—but our Bole and only hope. We gun of Venus no longer was aiming to- must meet the enemy and defeat him, ward the earth. and we must do it on his own ground. "No more ships," was the belief ; "not To destroy their fleet we must pene- this time." And the world turned to trate space; to silence their deadly an accounting of its losses, and to won- bombardment we must go out into — 192 ASTOUNDING STORIES space aa they have done, reach their Someone I His eyes stared worider- distant world as they have reached ingly at the grotesque face like a lin- ours, and conquer as we would have gering phantasm of fevered dreamt, been conquered. There were others, he saw, and they "It is a tenuous hope, but our only were working over a body not far away one. Let our men of mundane warfare upon the floor. He recognized the fig- do their best—it will be useless. But ure of Professor Sykes. Short, stocky, if there be one spark of Cod-given his clothes disheveled—but Sykes, un- genius in the world that can point the mistakably, despite the mask upon hii way to victory, let those in authority face. turn no deaf ear. He, too, revived as McGuire watched, "It is a battle now of minds, and the and, like the flyer, he looked wonder- best minds will win. Humanity—all ingly about him at his strange com- humankind—is facing the end. In less panions. The eyes of the two men met than one year and a half we must suc- and held in wordless communication ceed—or perish. And unless we con- and astonishment. quer finally and decisively, the story of man in the history of the universe THE unreal creatures that hovered will be a tale that is told, a record of near withdrew to the far side of life in a book that is ended—closed the room. The walls beyond them and forgotten through all eternity." were of metal, white and gleaming; there were doorways. In another wall CHAPTER VII were portholes—round windows of thick glass that framed circles of ab- A BREATH of a lethal gas shot solute night. It wa» dark out beyond from the flying ship had made them with a blackness that was re- Captain Blake as helpless as if every lieved only by sharp pin-points of bril- muscle were frozen hard, and he had liance—stars in a night sky such u got it only lightly, mixed with the sav- McGuire had never seen. ing blast of oxygen. His heart had I Past and preset^ alike were hazy to gone on, and his breathing, though it the flyer; the spark of life had been became shallow, did not cease; he was brought back to his body from a far even able to turn his eyes. But to the distance; there was time needed to men in the observatory room the gas part the unreal from the real in these from the weapons of the attacking' new and strange surroundings. force came as a devastating, choking There were doorways in the ceiling, cloud that struck them senseless as if and others in the floor near where he with a blow. Lieutenant McGuire lay; ladders fastened to the wall gave hardly heard the sound of his own pis- access to these doors. A grotesque fig- tol before unconsciousness took him. ure appeared above the floor and, after It was death for the men who were a curious glance at the two men, scram- left—for them the quick darkness bled into the room and vanished neveV lifted—but for McGuire and his through the opening in the ceiling. It companion there was reprieve. was some time before the significance He was lying flat on a hard floor of this was plain to the wondering man when remembrance crept slowly back —before he reasoned that he was in to his benumbed brain. An odor, sick- the enemy ship, aimed outward from ish-sweet, was in his nostrils; the the earth, and the pull of gravitation breath of life was being forcibly and- the greater force of the vessel's pumped and withdrawn from laboring constant acceleration held its occu- lungs; a mask was tight against his pants to the rear walls of each room. face. He struggled to throw it off, and That lanky figure had been making its someone bending over removed it. way forward toward the bow of the T THE PIRATE PLANET 193 hip. McGuire's mind was clearing; "Clouds I" The exclamation was he turned his attention now to the curi- startled from him. And: "Clouds ous, waiting creatures, his captors. he repeated meditatively; he was see- There were five of them standing in ing again a cloud-wrapped world in the the room, five shapes like men, yet eye-piece of a big refracting telescope. curiously, strangely, different. They "Blanketed in clouds," Professor Sykes were tall of Btature, narrow across the had said. The scientist himself was shoulders, muscular in a lean, attenu- speaking to him now in bewildered ated fashion. But their faces! Mc- tones. Guire found his eyes returning in "Clouds?" he inquired. "That's a horrified fascination to each hideous, strange remark to make. Where are inhuman countenance. we, Lieutenant McGuire? I remember A colorless color, like the dead gray nothing after you fired. Are we flying of ashes; a skin like that of an Afri- —in the clouds?" can savage from which all but the last "A long, long way beyond them, is vestige of color had been drained. It my guess," said McGuire grimly. It was transparent, parchment-like, and was staggering what all this might even in the light of the room that mean ; there was time needed for fuller glowed from some hidden source, he comprehension. But the lean bronzed could see the throbbing lines of blood- face of the flyer flushed with anima- vessels that showed livid through the tion, and in spite of the terrors that translucent akin. And he remembered, must surely lie ahead he felt strangely now, the fingers, half-seen in his mo- elated at the actuality of an incredible ments -of awakening—they were like adventure. clinging tendrils, colorless, too, in that ashy gray, and showed the network of SLOWLY he got to his feet to find veins as if each hand had been flayed that his muscles still were reluc- alive. tant to respond to orders; he helped the professor to arise. And from the THE observer found himself ana- group that drew back further into the lyzing, comparing, trying to find far end of the room came a subdued some earthly analogy for these un- and rasping tumult of discordant earthly creatures. Why did he think sound. of potatoes sprouting in a cellar? One, seemingly in charge, held a What possible connection had these weapon in his hand! a slender tube no half-human things with that boyhood thicker than a common wire; and end- recollection? And he had seen some ing in a cylinder within the creature's laboratory experiments with plants and hand. He pointed it in threatening animals that had been cut off from tbe fashion while his voice rose in a shrill sunlight—and now the connection was call. McGuire and Professor Sykes clear; he knew what this idea was that stood quiet and waited for what the was trying to form. next moment might have in store, but These were creatures of the dark. McGuire waved the weapon aside in a These bleached, drained faces showed gesture that none could fail to read. skin that had never known the actinic "Steady," he told his companion. rays of the sun; their whole frame- "We're in a ticklish position. Do noth- work proclaimed the process that had ing to alarm them." been going on through countless gen- From up above them came an an- erations. Here was a race that had swering shrill note. Another of the lived, if not in absolute darkness, then beings was descending into the room. in some place where sunlight never "Ah!" said Lieutenant McGuire hone—a place of half-light—or of softly, "the big boss', himself. Now clouds. let's see what will happen." ASTOUNDING STORIES 194 , If there had seemed something of Sprecken sie Deutsche? Usted habit ." timidity in the repulsive faces of the Espanola? . waiting creatures, this newcomer was He followed with a fusillade of ques- of a different type. He opened flabby tions in strange and varying tongues. thin lips to give one sharp note of com- "I've even tried him with Chinese," he mand. It was as sibilant as the hissing protested in bewilderment and stared of a snake. The man with the weapon amazed at his companion's laughter. returned it to a holder at his side ; the There had to be a reaction from the whole group cringed before the power strain of the past hours, and Lieuten- and authority of the new arrival. ant McGuire found the serious ques- The men that they had seen thus far tioning in polyglot tongues and the un- were all garbed alike ; a loose-fitting changing feline stare of that hideous garment of one piece that was ludi- face too much for his mental restraint. crously like the play rompers that chil- He held his sides, while he shook and dren might wear. These were dull red roared with laughter beyond control, in color, the red of drying blood, made and the figure before hjm glared with of strong woven cloth. But this other evident disapproval of his mirth. was uniformed differently. McGuire noted the fineness of the THERE was a hissing order, and silky robe. Like the others this was two figures from the corner sprang made of one piece, loosely fitting, but forward to seize the flyer with long its bright vivid scarlet made the first clinging fingers. Their strength he seem drab and dull. A belt of metal had overestimated, for a violent throw about his waist shone like gold and of his body twisted him free, and hit matched the emblem of precious metal outstretched hands sent the two in the turban on his head. sprawling -across the room. Their leader took one quick step forward, ALL this the eyes of the flyer took then paused as if hesitating to meet in at a glance;, his attention was this young adversary. only momentarily diverted from the "Do go easy," Professor Sykes was ashen face with eyes narrow and slit- imploring. "We do not know where ted, that stared with the cold hatred of we are nor who they are, but we must a cat into those of the men. do nothing to antagonize them." He made a sound with a whistling McGuire had reacted from his hilari- breath. It seemed to be a question di- ous seizure with an emotional swing to rected to them, but the import of it the opposite extreme. "I'll break their was lost. damn necks," he growled, "if they get "An exceedingly queer lot," Profes- rough with me." And his narrow eyes sor Sykes observed. "And this chap exchanged glare for glare with those seems distinctly hostile." in the face like blood and ashes before "He's no friend of mine," said' Mc- him. Guire as the thin, pendulous lips re- The cold cat eyes held steadily upon peated their whistling interrogation. him while the scarlet figure retreated. "I can't place them," mused the sci- A louder call, shrill and vibrant, came entist. "Those facial characteristics. from the thin lips, and a swarm of , . But they must be of some nation- bodies in dull red were scrambling into ality, speak some tongue." the room to mass about their scarlet He addressed himself to the figure leader. Above and behind them the with the immobile, horrid face. face under its brilliant turban and "We do not understand you," he said golden clasp was glaring in triumph. with an ingratiating smile. Cora- The tall figures crouched, grotesque prenez vous Francaise? Non? and awkward; their long arms and German, perhaps, or Spanish? . . . hands with grasping, tendril-like fin- ; THE PIRATE PLANET 195 gers were ready. McGuire waited for of the brilliant scarlet that the crea- the sharp hissing order that would ture wore. The blood-stained man in throw these things upon him, and he khaki left his companion to fight his met the attack when it came with his own battle, and plunged headlong at a own shoulders dropped to the fighter's leaping duster of dull red, smashed pose, head drawn in close and both through with a frenzied attack of fists swinging free. straight rights and lefts, and freed There were lean fingers clutching at himself to make one final leap at the Tus throat, a press of blood-red bodies leader of this unholy pack. thick about him, and a clustering of He was fighting in blind desperation faces where color blotched and flowed. now; the two were out-numbered by The thud of fists in blows that the writhing, lean-bodied creatures, started from the floor was new to these and this thing that showed in blurred lean creatures that clawed and clung crimson before him was the directing like cats. But they trampled on those power of them all. The figure sym- who went down before the flyer's bolized and personified to the raging blows and stood upon them to spring man all the repulsive ugliness of the at his head ; they crowded in in over- leaping horde. The face came clear whelming numbers while their red before him through the mist of blood, bands tore and twined about his face. and he put the last ounce of his re- maining strength and every pound of IT was no place now for long swings weight behind a straight, clean drive McGuire twisted his body and with his right fist. threw his weight into quick short jabs His-last conscious impression was of at the faces before him. He was clear a rea, clawing hand that was closed for an instant and swung his heavy around the thick butt of a tube of steel . boot at something that clung to one . '. then down, and still down, he leg; then met with a rain of hooks and plunged into a bottomless pit of whirl- short punches the faces that closed in ing, red flashes and choking fumes again. He saw in that instant a wild There were memories that were to whirl of bodies where the stocky figure occur to Lieutenant McGuire after- of Professor Sykes was smothered be- ward—visions, dim and hazy and neath his taller antagonists. But the blurred, of half-waking moments when professor, if he was forgetting the sci- strange creatures forced food and ence of the laboratory, was remember- water into his mouth, then held a mask ing that of the squared circle—and the upon his face while he resisted weakly battle was not entirely one sided. the breathing of sweet, sickly fumes McGuire was free; the blood was that sent him back to unconsciousness. trickling down his face from innum- There were many such times; some erable cuts where sharp-nailed fingers when he came sufficiently awake to had sunk deep. He wiped the red know that Sykes waa lying near him, stream from his eyes and threw him- receiving similar care. Their lives self at the weaving mass of bodies that were being preserved. How, or why, eddied about Sykes in frantic struggle or what life might hold in store' he across the room. neither knew nor cared; the mask and The face of the professor showed the deep-drawn fumes brought stupor clear for a moment. Like McGuire he and numbness to his brain. was bleeding, and his breath came -in A window was in the floor beside short explosive gasps, but he was hold- him when he awoke—a circular win- ing his own I The eyes of McGuire dow of thick glass or quartz. But no glimpsed a wildly gesticulating, shout- longer did it frame a picture of a sky ing figure in the rear. The face, con- in velvet blackness ; no unlinking pin- torted with rage, was almost the color points of distant stars pricked keenly — 196 ASTOUNDING STORIES through the night; but, clear and daz- trembled and quavered and seemed tq zling, came a blessed radiance that the listening men to be guiding them could mean only sunshine. A glowing down through the mist. light that was dazzling to his sleep- Gone was the sunlight, and the filled eyes, it streamed in golden clouds beyond the deep-set window beautiful—to light the unfamiliar room were gloriously ablaze with a brilliance and show motionless upon the floor the softly diffused. The cloud bank was figure of Professor Sykes. His torn deep, and they felt the craft under clothing had been neatly arranged, and them sink slowly, steadily into the his face showed livid lines of healing misty embrace. It thinned below them cuts and bruises. to drifting vapor, and the first hazy McGuire tried gingerly to move his shadows of the ground showed through arms and legs; they were still func- from far beneath. Their altitude, the tioning though stiff and weak from dis- flyer knew, was still many thousands use. He raised himself slowly and. of feet. stood swaying on his feet, then made "Water," said McGuire, as his his uncertain way to his companion trained eyes made plain^to_ him what and shook him weakly by the shoulder. was still indistinct to the scientist Professor Sykes breathed deeply and "An ocean—and a shore-line—" More raised leaden lids from tired eyes to clouds obscured the view; they parted stare uncomprehendingly at McGuire. suddenly to show a portion only of a Soon his dark pupils ceased to dilate, clear-cut map. and he, too, could see their prison and the light of day. IT stretched beyond the confines of "Sunlight I" he said in a thin voice, their window, that unfamiliar line and he seemed to know riow that they of wave-marked shore; the water was were in the air; "I wonder—I wonder like frozen gold, wrinkled in counties! —if we shall land—what country? tiny corrugations and reflecting the Some wilderness and a strange race bright glow from above. But the land, a Btrange, strange race I" —that drew their eyes I He was muttering half to himself; Were those cities, those shadow- the mystery of these people whom he splashed areas of gray and rose? . . . could not identify was still troubling The last veiling clouds dissolved, and him. the whole circle was plain to their view. McGUIRE helped the other man The men leaned forward, breathless, to his feet, and they clung to intent, till the scientist, Sykes—the' each to the other for support as they man whose eyes had seen and whose crossed to kneel beside the floor-win- brain recorded a dim shape in the lens dow and learn finally where their cap- of a great telescope—Sykes drew back tors meant to take them. with a quivering, incredulous breath. A wilderness, indeed, the sight that For, below them, so plain, so unmis- met their eyes, but a wilderness of takable, there lay an island, large even clouds—no unfamiliar sight to Lieu- from this height, and it formed on this tenant McGuire of the United States round map a sharp angle like a great Army air service. But to settle softly letter "L." into them instead of driving through "We shall know that if we ever sec with glistening wingn—this was new it again," Professor Sykes had re- and vastly different from anything he marked in the quiet and security of had known. that domed building surmounting the Sounds came to them in the silence, heights of Mount Lawson. But he said penetrating faintly through thick walls nothing now, as he stared at his com- —the same familiar wailing call that panion with eyes that implored Me- — THE PIRATE PLANET 197 Guire to arouse him from this sleep, real and far away. And here before this dream that could never be real. them, in brain-stunning actuality, were ( But McGuire, lieutenant one-time in the markings unmistakable—the mark- the forces of the U. S. A., had seen it ings of Venus. And they were land- too, and he stared back with a look that ing, these two, in the company of gave dreadful confirmation. creatures wild and strange as the The observatory—Mount Lawson planet—on Venus itself I the earthJ—those were the things un- (To be continued.) IN THE NEXT ISSUE THE APE-MEN OF XLOTLI A Thrilling Nove'ette of the Nether World By David R. Sparks GRAY DENIM A Story of the Future By Harl Vincent SLAVES OF THE DUST An Amazing Story of Bio-Chemical Achievement and Revenge By Sophie Wenzel Eliis THE PIRATE PLANET Part Two of the Breath-Taking Current Novel By Charles W. Diffin —And Others! "The eommrctiom is made," marmured Von Stein. The Destroyer By William Merriam Route pencil in the hand of Al- work, was making a series of pencil THElen Parker refused to obey his sketches for a romance partly finished. will. A strange unseen force The story was as joyous and elusive u pushed his will aside and took sunlight, and until to-day his sketches possession of the pencil point so that had held the same quality. Now he what he drew was not his own. It was could not tap the reservoir from which the same when he had taken the he turned from wind-blown hair drawing board to Slowly, insidiously, there Itole over Allen and smiling eya Parker something' uncanny. He conld no typewriter. The of Madelon, hii longer control his hands——even hit brain 1 sentences were heroine. not of his fram- When he drew is ing ; the ideas were utterly foreign to \>r wrote he seemed to be submerged him. This was the first hint he re- the dark waters of a measureless evil ceived of the fate that was drawing in pit. The face that mocked him from like night upon him and his beautiful the paper was stamped with a world- wife. old knowledge of forbidden things. Parker, a young writer of growing Parker dropped his pencil and leaned reputation who illustrated his own back, tortured. He and his wife, Betty, 198 : THE DESTROYER 199 had taken this house in Pine Hills, a place.' You know—opposite the church. onall and extremely quiet suburban We looked at it and thought it was too village, solely for the purpose of con- large for us. He's made a lot of alter- centration on the book which was to ations." be the most important work he had "Oh, yesl" Parker had placed the done. He went to the door of the room newcomer, more recent than himself. that he used for a studio and called "I had an idea that he was a doctor of ^"Bettyl Can you come here a mo- philosophy, not medicine." ' ment, please ?" "He has half a dozen degrees, they say. Certainly he's a stunning look- THERE was a patter of running ing man. I saw him en the street." feet on the stairs and then a girl "Maybe he doesn't practice." The of twenty, or thereabout, came into the artist was gazing, baffled and sick at room. Any man would have said she heart, upon what he had wrought. was a blessing. Her hair "was yellow "And what could he do, unless it's my like ripe com," and her vivid blue eyes liver?" held depth and character and charm. "He might be a psycho-analyst, or "Look!" exclaimed Parker. "What something like that," she reapplied, do you think of this stuff ?" slowly. For a moment there was silence. "But why the wild interest in this Then Allen Parker saw something he particular doctor?" Parker roused had never before seen in his wife's face himself and looked at her. He felt ir- for him or his work—a look of com- ritable, and was ashamed of it. plete disgust. "Only for your work," said Betty. A "I wouldn't have believed you faint pink touched her cheeks. capable of doing anything so bo Allen Parker had a sudden feeling of horrid I" she said coldly. "How could certainty that his wife was lying to you?" him. To one who knew the Parkers it "I don't know I" His arms, which would have been equally impossible to had been ready to take her to him for thing of Betty as lying, or of her hus- comfort, dropped. "The work has been band as believing such a thing. Parker . . . difficult, lately. As though some- was outraged by his own suspicion. He thing were pulling at my mind. But sprang up and began to pace the Boor. not like this I It isn't me!" "All right, then I" he exploded. "My "It must be you, since it came out of work is going to the dogs I Why, you I" She turned away and moved rest- there's an appointment with Cart- lessly to one of the windows. wright to-morrow to show him these "Through me I" muttered Parker. sketches, and the last few chapters I've "Ideas come!" done I We'll go now I If this man can't "You'll have to do something I" do anything for me I'll try somebody "But what? I don't know what to else I" dot" ''Why not go to see that new doc- IN ten minutes they were walking up tor?" asked Betty, over her shoulder. the quiet street toward the present "Dr. Friedrich von Stein?" home of Dr. Friedrich von Stein. De- "Von Stein?" repeated Parker, spite his self-absorption Parker could vaguely. "Don't know him. Anyhow, not help noticing that his wife had I don't need a doctor. What in the never looked more attractive than she world made you think of that?" did at this moment. Her color had deepened, little wisps of hair curled "VTOTHING, except that I can see against her cheeks, and there was a AN his house from here. He's sparkle in her eyes which he knew taken what they call 'the old Reynolds' came only on very particular occasions. : " aoo ASTOUNDING STORIES Even from the outside it was ap- his eyes impressed Parker; they were parent that many strange things had steady, penetrating, and absolutely been done to the staid and dignified black. But for a thread of gray here house of Reynolds. A mass of aerials and there his well-kept beard and hair hung above the roof. Some new win- were black. He might have been any dows had been cut at the second floor age from forty to sixty, so deceptive and filled with glass of a peculiar red- was his appearance. > dish-purple tinge. A residence had "Come in, if you please," he said, been turned into a laboratory, in sharp before Parker could speak. Von Stein'i contrast to the charming houses up and voice was rich and deep, but with i down the street and the church of gray metallic quality which somehow cor- stone that stood opposite. responded with his mechanical smile. Beside the door, at the main en- Except f«f^ the guttural r's there wu trance, a modest plate bore the legend hardly a hint of the foreigner in hit "Dr. Friedrich von Stein." Parker speech. "It is Mr. and Mrs. Parker, I pressed the bell. Then he squared his believe? I am Dr. von Stein." broad shoulders and waited; a very miserable, very likeable young man, HE stood aside for them to past with a finely shaped head and a good into the hallway, and while they set of muscles under his well cut murmured their thanks he shot a volley clothes. He had brought his sketches, of German at the man, whom he called but he was uncomfortable with* the Heinrich. The frightened servant portfolio une\er his arm. It seemed to vanished; and the Parkers were taken contaminate him. into a living room furnished carelessly, i but in good enough taste. Betty took THE door opened to reveal a blocky her place on a couch, to which the doc- figure of a man in a workman's tor led her with a bow. Parker sank blouse and overalls. The fellow was into an overstuffed chair not far from pale of eye, towheaded ; he appeared to a window. be good natured but of little intelli- "I learned your names because of the gence. The only remarkable thing beauty of madame," said Von Stein, u bout him was a livid welt that ran he stood looming above., the mantel across one cheek, from nose to ear. Be- Again he bowed. "One could not see side him a glossy-coated dachshund her without wishing to know how such wagged furiously, after having barked a charming woman was called. You are once as a matter of duty. my neighbors from down the street, I "May we see Dr. von Stein?" asked believe." Parker. "If he is in?" "Yes," replied Allen. He wanted to "I will ask the Herr Doktor if he iss be agreeable, but found it difficult in," replied the man, stiffly. "And I think Mrs. Parker has de- "Dummkopf!" roared a voice from veloped a great admiration for you. inside the house. An instant later man She persuaded me to come here to-day. and dog shrank back along the hall and Are you, by chance, a psycho-analyist? there appeared in their place one of the I don't even know that you are a doc- most striking personalities Allen tor of medicine, but— Parker had ever seen. T "I know a very great deal about the Dr. Friedrich von Stein was inches Human mind," interrupted Dr. von more than six feet tall and he stood Stein calmly. "I know a great deal perfectly erect, with the unmistakable about many things. I am not going to carriage of a well drilled soldier. He practice medicine here in Pine Hills was big boned, but lean, and every because I have research work to do, bat movement was made with military pre- I will help you if I can. What is your cision. More than any other feature trouble?" , THE DESTROYER 201 THE question brought back to your knowledge of the higher reaches Parker the mood of half an hour of scientific thought?" ago. Almost savagely he snapped the "Why, I majored in philosophy in portfolio open and spread out a few of college," said Parker, hesitatingly. his recent drawings, with some of the "But that's quite a time ago, Herr Dok- earlier ones for comparison, tor. Of course I've tried to keep up "Look I" he* cried. "These vicious with the conclusions of science. But things are what I am doing now! I a writer or a painter doesn't have any can't help myself I The pencil does not too much opportunity. He has his own obey me I Apparently I have no emo- problems to concern him." tional control. It's as though my nor- "Yes, indeed I" Dr. von Stein was mal ideas were shouldered aside, like thoughtful. "So, and especially for the people in a crowd. And my writing benefit of madame, I shall speak in to-day was as bad as these illustrations. terms of the concrete." I'm doing a book. Consider these "Please consider me stupid 1" begged things carefully, Doctor. They are not Betty. "But I want to understand I" obscene, except by inference. They "Certainly, except that you are not can't be censored. The book would go stupid, Madame. I will proceed. Both through the mails. Yet they are dead- of you, I assume, know something of ly I Look at my heroine in these two the radio? Very good I You know pictures. In one she is like—like vio- that an etheric wave transmits the mes- lets I In the other she looks capable of sage, and that it is received and am- any crime I What is she? A vampire, plified so that it is within the range if there is such a thing ? A witch ? I of the human ear. These waves were can almost believe in demonology since there when paleolithic man hunted his I made these last drawings I" vmeat with a stone-tipped club. To use Parker, in spite of his excitement, them it was necessary to invent the tried to read the face of Dr. Friedricb microphone, and a receiving instru- von Stein. He found nothing but the ment. automatic smile, upon that mask. Yet "What I have said you already know. it seemed to the artist that this time But here is what may startle you. Hu- there was a hint of real pleasure in the man thought is an etheric wave of the curve of the lips. Was it possible that same essential nature as the radio anyone could like those drawings? wave. They are both electrical cur- Parker began to think that he was go- rents external , to man. Thoughts ing insane. sweep across the human mind as sound "This is most unfortunate for you," currents sweep across the aerials of rumbled the doctor. "I understand. a radio—" But I trust that the condition can be "I told you I" Allen Parker turned a remedied, if it persists. You, Mr. triumphant face to his wife. "Pardon Parker, and you, Madame, do you un- me, Herr Doktor I I have tried to con- derstand something of physics, of psy- vince Mrs. Parker that my idea came chology, of metaphysics?" from outside I" "I fear that I'm rather ignorant," an- swered Betty. "Certainly I am in com- MTj* XACTLY I" Dr. von Stein took parison with a man of your attain- JOj no offense. "And a difference ments," between the mind and the radio set is that with the radio you tune in upon DR. VON STEIN bowed. He wh&tever you choose, and when you turned his eyes The mind is black upon Boose. not under such Parker. ntrol, although it should be. It re- "And you, sir? I must adjust my ex- ives that to which it happens to be planation to—what shall I say? To "ogen. I will do something I" and saw Betty standing near his bed. "I'll come, and thank you I" Parker Her fingers twisted against each other; felt better, and more cheerful than he her face was drawn and white. had since the beginning of the dis- "Allen 1" she whispered. "I'm afraid I" turbance. "Few things could make me Instantly he was on his feet; his suffer so much as trouble with my arms went around her and the yellow work." head dropped ' wearily against his "That ib what I thought," agreed Dr. shoulder. von Stein. "Afraid of what?" he cried. "What is it, sweetheart?" BETTY rose. Her husband caught "I don't know I" All at once her body the look in her eyes as they met stiffened and she pulled away from the bright, black gaze of Dr. von Stein, him. Then she laughed. "What non- and he went cold. That look had al- sense I I must have been having a bad ways been for him alone. Her feet dream . it's nothing. Sorry I both- seemed to linger on the way to the ered you, Allen I" door. She was gone before he could stop "He's wonderful I" she breathed, as her. Bewildered, he did not know they started down the uneventful whether to follow. Better not, he street. ' "Scientific things never inter- thought. She would sleep now, and ested me before. But he makes them perhaps he would. But he was worried. vital, living!" Betty was becoming less and less like "And yet," said Parker, thoughtful- herself. ly, "there's something uncanny about that man I" AT last Parker did sleep, to awake "Nonsense I" exclaimed Betty. "It's shortly after daylight. He got because he's a genius I Don't be small, a hasty breakfast and took an early Allen I" train to New York. When John Cart- Parker gasped, and remained silent. wright, a shrewd and kindly man well He could not remember that his wife advanced in years, arrived at his office had ever spoken to him in quite that Allen Parker was right there waiting way. They finished the little 'journey for him. home without speaking again and Cartwright had shown a real affec- Parker went directly to studio. He sat tion for the younger man, a paternal down, with drooping shoulders, arid interest. He beamed, as usual, until he considered the mess he had made of sat down with the new drawings. his book. Well, there was nothing to Slowly the smile faded from his face. do but see Cartwright to-morrow and He went over them twice, three times, face the music I and then he looked up. Dinner that night was a mournful af- "My boy," he said, "did you do fair. The soft footsteps of the servant these?" going in and out of the dining room, "Yes." the ticking of the clock, were almost "Do you know that you are turning the only sounds. Betty was deep in her a delicate and beautiful romance into a own thoughts ; Parker was to miserable lascivious libel on the human, race?" to talk. He went to bed early and lay "It is being done," replied Parker, in staring into the darkness for what a low voice. "And I—I can't help my- seemed like an eternity of alow moving self!" hours. "What do you mean by that ?" The tall, deep voiced clock in the "I mean that when I start to draw 204 ASTOUNDING STORIES Madelon my hand produces that woman "He will," replied Betty, with con- of Babylon I The writing is just as viction. "He'll do a great many things I" bad. It's full of sneering hints, double meanings. ... I shall destroy the stuff. PARKER told her of his interview I've been to see a psycho-analyst." with Cartwright, but she seemed "Ah I" thoughtfully. "Perhaps you're little interested. He did not try to tired, Allen. Why not take Betty for work that day but, after he had put the a sea trip? Therein still be time for offending drawings and manuscript out fall publication." of sight, he wandered, read, smoked, "I'm going to try everything pos- and in the evening persuaded Betty to sible. I'd rather be dead than do work take a moonlight walk with him. like this I" They passed the house of Dr. von Stein, from which came a faint burn- HEN Parker left his friend he ing that sounded like a dynamo. Across w was Bomewhat encouraged. the street the church was alight for After the first shock Cartwright had some service. Triumphant music rifted been inclined to make light of the dif- to them. The moon hung above the ficulty, and by the time Allen Parker spire, with its cross outlined darkly reached Pine Hills his stride had the against the brilliant sky. The win- usual swing and snap. dows were great jewels. Betty drew a He ran up the steps of his house and deep breath. burst into the living room with a smile. "Sometimes, Allen," she said, "I feel Betty was sitting by one of. the win- like praying!" dows, her hands lying relaxed in her "You are a beautiful prayer," whis- lap. She turned a somber face toward pered Parker. her husband, and spoke before he had She walked close to him, holding nil time to say a word of greeting. arm, and repeated softly: "You knew that Cordelia Lyman died a short time ago, didn't you?" "Are not two prayers a perfect "What's that ?" exclaimed Parker, be- strength ? wildered. "Lyman? Oh, the old lady And shall I feel afraid?" down the street who left her money to found a home for aged spinsters?" But that was the end of that mood. What about it?" By the time they arrived home Betty "But she didn't leave her money to was again the strange, aloof, cold, found a home for aged spinsters, Allen. slightly hard woman of the past few She had said she was going to, and days. Again depression settled upon everybody thought so. Her will was Allen Parker. admitted to probate, or whatever they call it, yesterday. She left half a mil- THE next morning he breakfasted lion, all she had, to Dr. Friedrich von alone and went directly to the Stein, to be used as he thinks best for studio, without seeing Betty. Sun the advancement of science!" streamed into the room; the pencil "Good heavens!" Parker stared. moved swiftly. For a brief time Parker "Why, I didn't know she knew him. thought that he was himself again, as He'd only been here a week or so when Madelon grew upon the block of pa- she died." per. But the end was terrible. The "There isn't a flaw in the will, they last few strokes made her grotesque. say. You can imagine that Pine Hills This time the woman he had drawn is talking!" was not merely evil ; she was a mock- "Well," said Parker philosophically, ing parody of bis heroine. He threw "he's lucky. I hope he does something drawing and pencil across the room. with it." But no real artist can be discouraged 205 THE DESTROYER j ihort of death. He went to work again "Worse I Much worse I" ind labored until luncheon time. The "Then come to my house this evening results were no better, although they at nine. May I expect you? And varied. Now it seemed that some ma- alone?" levolent power was playing with him, "Yes." There was much Parker torturing him to the accompaniment of wanted to say, but he choked the devilish laughter. He was haggard and words back. "I'll be there, and alone." actually stooped of body when he "I shall be ready fot you. Good-by." bathed his face and went down to the Allen Parker hung up the receiver. dining room. From across the table He did not leave the studio again un- Betty regarded him curiously. til evening. "Fleming Proctor shot himself last night," she announced, calmly. "This Parker approached the house morning they found him dead in his ASof Dr. Friedrich von Stein he office." saw that the church was lighted as it "Proctor ? You don't mean the presi- had been the night before. In a clear dent of the Pine Hills National Bank?" sky the moon rode above the spire. "Yes." The expression of Betty's He paused to let his glance sweep up face did not change. "There was a note along the beautiful line that ran from saying that he was sorry, ft seems he'd earth to the slender cross. That was made a large loan without security to how he felt. He Ranted to rise, as an unknown person, and the bank ex- that line rose, from cumbering earth aminer was coming to-day. Proctor to clarity and beauty. aid he couldn't help what he did. The He mounted the steps and rang. Dr. note was confused, as though he were von Stein met him, with eyes and teeth trying to tell something and couldn't. agleam in the hall light. Wearily They think his mind must have given Parker stepped inside. His mood of way, particularly as they can't trace the moment before was fading. the loan, although the money is un- "Go upstairs to my laboratory, if doubtedly gone." you please," said the doctor. "It is best that I see you there, for it may "/"p HAT kind of thing doesn't hap- be that you will need treatment" X pent" Parker was stunned. He "I need something," replied Parker had known Fleming Proctor, and liked as he went up a long flight of stairs. him. They met often at the country "I'm in a bad way." chdx "Proctor was honest, and a fine Without answer von Stein led him business man I" down a short corridor and held open a "It did happen, Allen I" door. Allen Parker stepped into a "I'd like to know more about it. room that bewildered him with its That would have been a eaae for Dr. strange contrasts. von Stein to take in hand." At a glance he saw that nearly the "Perhaps," said Betty, in a voice like whole upper floor of the building had ice. "But I'm more interested in find- been converted into one gigantic room. ing out how soon you are going to re- Near a big stone fireplace, where burn- turn to normal. Frankly, I'm begin- ing driftwood sent up its many tinted ning to get bored." flames, Heinrich stood rigidly at at- Without a word Parker rose and left tention. Hans, the dachshund, crouched the room. Never before had his wife at his feet. When the dog started to hurt him like this. Doubly sensitive meet Parker a guttural command just now, he was suffering alone in the stopped him. studio when the telephone rang. Here there were bearskins on the "Dr. von Stein speaking. Are you floor, huge stuffed chairs, footrests, lit- better, Mr. Parker?" tle tables, humidors, pipe racks, all that 200 ASTOUNDING STORIES. one eoold desire for comfort. Two Danse Macabre of Saint-Saess floated German duelling swords were crossed weirdly upon the air, as though tat above the mantel. music came from afar off. "Is that part of the treatment?" BUT beyond this corner everything asked Parker, with a faint smile. "It*i was different. Parker saw the not cheering, exactly." massed windows of reddish-purple "Merely an idiosyncrasy of mine," glass; he saw apparatus for which he anawcced Von Stein, showing his teeth. had no name, as well as some of the "Beforeanything is done I must, in ordinary paraphernalia of the chemical order to aid the receptivity of your laboratory. There was wiring every* mind, go a little further with the ex- where, and a multitude of lighting planation of certain things which I fixtures. Utilitarian tables, desks and mentioned the other day. I promise chairs were placed about with' mathe- not to bore you. More than that, Mr. matical precision. There were plates Parker, I promise that you will be and strips of metal set into the glass more interested than you have eve smooth flooring, which was broken by been in anything!" depressions and elevations of unusual form. IT seemed to Parker that there was The most striking thing in the room something sinister in the manner was a huge copper bowl that hung in- and speech of Dr. von Stein. The verted from the ceiling. In it, and Dance of Death I Did that music have extending down below the rim, was a meaning? \ Impossible! It was only what seemed to be a thick and station- his own sick\ mind that was allowing ary mist. It looked as though the bowl such thoughts to come to him. had been filled with a silver gray mist "Anything that will help," he mur- and then turned bottom side up. But mured. the cloud did not fall or float away. "You have noticed that copper "I can think and speak best from my bowl?" Von Stein did not wait for i desk," Von Stein was saying. "Please reply. "The misty appearance inside sit down facing me in the chair which and underneath it is given by thou- Heinrich will place for you. Then we sands upon thousands Of minute will talk." platinum wires. When it Is in use Heinrich rolled one of the over- slight electrical current is passed stuffed chairs noiselessly to a position through it, varying in power according about six feet from the desk. Parker to the rate of vibration needed. Thit noticed a long metal strip in the floor instrument, my dear sir, is a transmit- between him and the doctor. ter of thought. I may call it the micro- Just then Hans wriggled forward phone of the mind. I can tune in on and the artist scratched his ears, to be any mind in the world, by experiment- rewarded by a grateful tongue. Again ing up and down the vibration range a command from Heinrich brought the to determine the susceptibility of the dog to heel, but the voice was not so particular person. The human mind gruff this time. Together they re- d^es not need an amplifier, as the radio turned to the fireplace. receiving set, does. Rather', it acts as Von Stein let his hands rest upon its own amplifier, once having received the desk top—a surface covered with the thought. I invented one, however, levers, electric switches, push buttons, to prove that it could be done. I and contrivances the nature of which equipped Heinrich with it and in half Parker could not guess. The doctor an hour by suggestion reduced him to leaned forward. He threw over a his present state of docile stupidity. witch. The lights in the room became I have, Mr. Parker, the means of mov- less bright. He pressed a button. The ing people to do my bidding 1" THE DESTROYER 207 VON STEIN stopped abruptly, as ALLEN PARKER was not one to though for emphasis and to al- indulge in melodrama. For a low his astounding statements to take long moment he sat looking into the effect. Parker sat stunned, struggling black eyes of Von Stein. Then he spoke to grasp all the implications of what carefully. he had just heard. Suddenly they be- "If my wife of her own will loved came clear. He saw events in order, you, and wanted freedom, I'd let her and in relation to each other. go. But this is a kind of hypnosis. "So that's how it was with Cordelia It's diabolical!" Lyman I" he cried hoarsely, leaning "Who but the devil was the father forward. "And it was you who had of magic?" asked the doctor, cheerful- that money from Fleming Proctor!" ly. "Hypnosis is unconsciously based "You are not unintelligent," re- on a scientific principle which I have marked Dr. von Stein. "Better that mastered. Repeated advertising of a science should have the Lyman money tooth brush or a box of crackers is mild than a few old women of no particular mental suggestion—hypnosis, if you use. As for Proctor, he was a fool. I will. My dear fellow, be sensible!" would have protected him." "Sophistry!" growled Parker. ." "And my pictures . . . my book. . . Von Stein laughed. He moved a "I can cure you, Mr. Parker. // / lever upon a dial and a sheet of blue will!" flame quivered between them. With "And anyone is at the mercy of this another movement of the lever it man I" groaned Parker. vanished. "Not absolutely, I'm sorry to Bay," 13—eould destroy you instantly," he Bid the doctor. "The action of thought said, "and completely, and no one on the human consciousness is exactly could prove a crime! I shall not do' it. like that 'of sound on the tuning fork. I have no time to be bothered with in- When the mind is tuned right, we'll vestigations. Think of the fate I have ay for illustration, the lower vibra- promised you. Think, and you will tions are not picked out of the ether. give her up!" But as. few minds are tuned right, and "I shall not!" Parker wiped cold u all vary from time to time, I'm prac- drops from his forehead. The doctor tically omnipotent." frowned thoughtfully. "You have changed the nature of my "I'll intensify her desire to come wife!" Parker was getting hold of him- here to-night," he said. "She herself self and he could speak with a degree will persuade you." of calmness. "That is a worse crime than the one you've committed against PARKER set his fingers into the me directly I" arms of his chair as Von Stein "Mr. Parker," said the doctor, im- rose and walked to the copper bowl. pressively, "you are in a web. I am the He stood directly under it, and put on spider. You are the fly. I don't par- goggles with shields fitting close to ticularly desire to hurt you, but I want his feet. At the pressure of his foot your wife. This is the crux of the a tablelike affair rose from the floor in matter. She is the woman to share my front of him. This, like the desk, was triumphs. Already I have aroused her equipped with numerous dials, buttons interest. Give her up and you will and levers. Von Stein manipulated continue your work as before. Refuse, them. The great cap of copper de- and you will lose her just as certainly scended until his head was enveloped as though you give her to me. For, by the mist of platinum wires. A faint my dear sir, you will be insane in less humming grew in the room, A tiny than a month from now. I promise bell tinkled. you that!" "The connection is made," murmured ; 208 ASTOUNDING STORIES Von Stein. He lifted a hand for silence Thought is vibration in one dimension; then his fingers leaped among the matter in two. You lave just seen ok gadgets on the table. After that came untie the knot, dissociate the electrons, a brief period, measured by seconds, or what you will. In plain language of immobility. Then the table sank I have caused matter to vanish utterly. from view, the copper bowl lifted, and That paper is not burned up. It no JJr. von Stein went back to his chair. longer exists in any form. The earth "She will be here shortly," he said. upon which we stand, Parker, can be "If that does not change your dissolved like mist before the sun I" mind. . . Appalled as he was at this man whs He shrugged. Parker knew what boasted and made good his terrible that shrug meant. He searched his boasts Allen Parker had not forgotten mind for a plan and found none. Bet- the purpose that was in him. Now waj ter die fighting than yield, or risk the his chance, while Von Stein stood vengeance of Friedrich Stein. If smiling triumphantly between von *table he could get the doctor away from the and desk. desk where he controlled' the blue- Parker shot from his chair with the white flame there might be a chance to speed of utter desperation. He feinted, do something. Von Stein was by far and drove a vicious uppercut to the the larger man, but Parker had been an jaw of Dr. Friedrich von Stein. The athlete all his life. If. . . . doctor reeled but he did not go down. "That mass of copper and platinum," His fists swung. Parker found him no he said, tentatively, "will make you boxer, and beat a tattoo upon his mid- master of the world I" dle. Von Stein began to slump. "My brain, my intelligence, has made Then two thick muscled arms closed me master of the world I" corrected around the artist from behind and he Von Stein, proudly. He was touched was lifted clear of the floor. He kicked, in the right spot jjow. "You have not and tried to turn, but it was useleo. seen all 1" The doctor recovered himself. Hie eyes blazed fury. HE sprang up and went to one of "Put him in the chair, Heinricb I" he the tables. From his pockef he roared. "For this I will show you whit took a piece of paper and crumpled it I can do, Herr Parker I" into a ball while, with the other hand, he made some electrical connections to AT that instant little Hans, who a plate of metal set into the surface of had teen yelping on the edge of the table. Next he placed the wad of the battle, dashed in. He leaped for paper on the plate. Then, standing at the throat of Von Stein. The doctor arm's length from the apparatus, he kicked him brutally. pressed a button. Instantly the paper The shriek of agony from Hani disappeared behind a screen of the loosened the arms of Heinrich. Parker colors of the spectrum, from red to got Phis footing again. He saw the violet. The banded colors were there clumsy serving man spring forward for a minute fraction of a second. Then and gather his dog up to his braatt there was nothing where the paper had Again Parker rushed for his enemy. been on the plate. Von Stein smiled It was clear now that Von Stein was as he stepped away from the table. cut off from the controls he wanted, "The electron is formed by the cross- and without Heinricb he could not ing of two lines of force," he said, "and master Parker in a fight. For an in- the interaction of positive and negative stant he stood baffled. Then he re- polarity. The electron is a stress in treated the length of the room, taking the ether, nothing more, but it is the what blows he could not beat off. Be tuff of which all matter is made. staggered upon a plate of metal tst THE DESTROYER 209 Into the floor, righted himself, and / A great flash of the colon of the failed in an attempt to catch hold of spectrum sent Parker reeling back. Parker. Suddenly he bowed in the Dr. Friedrich von Stein had gone the direction of the distant doorway. way of the crumpled ball of paper. Allen half turned. Betty was com- There was a long moment of silence. ing down thcroom, staring and breath- Then Allen Parker found his wife in less. his arms, clinging to him. "Leben sie wohl!" cried Von Stein. " 'Are not two prayers a perfect ?' "Farewell, Madame 1 I should like to strength " she murmured, sobbing take you with me I" against his heart. A HUNDRED M^LES UNDERGROUND SCIENTISTS bidding their families good- sciences should do precisely what Dr. Shap- by in the morning to drop fifty or a hun- ley suggests. dred miles underground in high speed ele- At least one underground laboratory has vators, there to undertake researches not nps- already been installed, for Prof. E. B. Bab- tiblc nearer to the earth's surface, may be cock of the University of California has such realities of the next decade or two if "some a workroom in the Twin Peaks Tunnel, under- wealthy individual or institution accepts the neath the mountain that rises above the city recommendation of Dr. Harlow Shapley, dis- of San Francisco. Natural radioactivity in tinguished astronomer of Harvard, m a talk the rocks thereabouts is greater than normal recently before the American Geographical and Prof. Babcock finds that this apparently Society. ^ increases new species among fruit flics. The earth's interior, Dr. Shapley said, is To dig out laboratory rooms a mile or so me "third dimension" of geography. Explora- down in existing deep mines probably would tion of the planet's surface soon must cease cost far less than many enterprises already from lack of places to explore. Even the financed by philanthropists. Even to deepen sppcr air is coming to be reasonably well these shafts for several miles would be much known scientifically, thanks to instruments less difficult than most people imagine. tent up with balloons and to the radio and Increasing heat, if it is found that that heat other investigators who have been uncover- does increase, would not be difficult to over- .fag secrets of upper-air electricity. But the come had the engineers sufficient money. interior of the earth is still one of the great Ventilation and transportation to and from mysteries. It is a paradox of astronomy that the surface, while too costly for the business men more is known about the center of the enterprise of winning metals from very deep nm or of a star like Siriua than about the' mines, probably would present no serious center of the earth. difficulty were facts the chief object instead Deep shafts of bore holes into the earth of profit. The only question to be decided have been suggested often as sources of heat before intending benefactors of science are for human use. It is doubtful, however, urged to consider some suCh project is whether such heat supplies could be obtained. whether or not the facts likely to be won For one thing, the supposed internal heat of promise enough value to mankind. the earth is still nothing but a guess. It may An ..excellent case can be made out for an- be that the relatively slight increases of heat swering yes. Dr. Shapley mentioned four found as one goes deeper in existing mines chief tinea of investigation suitable for such are due to radioactivity in the rocks instead deep-mine laboratories: studios of gravity and of to outward seepage from the internal fires. of the variable length of the day, researches Another difficulty about utilizing earth heat on the. various kinds of earthquake waves, Is that heat moves so slowly through sub- experiments on ether drift and tests of the stances like rock, as any housewife can prove biological effects of cosmic rays and of the by trying to fry an egg on a brick placed rays from radium. over a gas flame. As soon as the rock heat Astronomical theories indicate that the* day immediately at the bottom of a bore hole had ought to be growing slightly longer aa the been exhausted heat supply would stop until earth's rotation decreases a trifle from cen- more could diffuse in from the sides. tury to century because of friction from (he Dr. Shapley 'a suggestion, in any event, is tides. The actual length of the dui seems, net to search for heat but for facta. Even in however, sometimes to be decreasing a tmy existing, relatively shallow mines, he believes, fraction of a second from yMp^to year, as scientific laboratories at different depths under theory says that it should; sometimes to be the surface might yield valuable data not now increasing in a way for which no present obtainable. Most scientific men will agree. theory provides. Observations underneath ss may the earth with a portion of the planet's crust t familiar only with the standatrdised labora- and gravity overhead, might yield important torles of physics or chemistry, there clues to the cause of this mysterious • i why a half-dozen or so of the time kept by the terrestrial clock. Aml St The Gray Plague By L. A. Eshbach CHAPTER I El Paso, Texas, on the morning of March 11th. months bcfpre the begin- In a few hours a great throng of peo- FIVEning of that period of madness, ple gathered around the dully smolder- that time of chaos and death ing mass of fire-pitted rock, the upper that became known as the Gray half of which protruded from the Plague, the first Earth where it of the strange had buried itself, Maimed and captWe,' in the depths of an meteors fell to like a huge, interplanetary meteor-craft, lay the only Earth. It landed a posiible auvior of plague*rtddeo Earth. roughly outlined miles west of hemisphere. And few , C 210 7 key were almost upon him wiien he leaped into action. then, when the crowd had assorted pit for about ten minutes; then, like a its greatest proportions, the meteor, s.iuff oJ-out candle (lame, it vanished. with a mighty, Earth-shaking rojf/ex- The second of the strange meteors ploded. landed on the evening of March 13th, A vast Mood of radiance, more bril- in the city of Peking. China. It de- liant than \hc light of the sun, lit up molished several buildings, and buried the sky for miles around. One moment, itself beneath the ruins. The Chinese, a throng of curious people, a number of unaware of the tragedy at El Paso, Kientists, newspaper men—a crashing gathered in the vicinity, and when the explosion—and then a great, yawning meteor exploded at about ten o'clock pit sending forth a blinding radiance I that night, were instantly destroyed. Destruction and death where life had As in Texas, the great pit emitted a bean. cloud of dazzling light for about ten The brilliant light streamed from the minutes, throwing a brilliant glow over ; 212 ASTOUNDING STORIES the city and its surroundings; then tic articles about it appeared in maga- was extinguished. zine sections of Sunday newspapers. The people of the world awoke to And the astronomers of Earth turned the fact that events worthy of more their telescopes toward Venus with* an than passing interest were occurring. interest th^y had never felt before. The press of eVery nation began giving the strange meteors more and more FOUR days of expectant waiting publicity. Statements of different passed by after the third meteor pseudo-scientists were published in ex- h|d fallen, while interest continued planation of the meteor's origin, state- mounting kt an accelerating pace. And ments that aroused world wide con- then, at about two o'clock in the morn- jecture. ing of the 18th, three great observa- tories, two in North America and one APPROXIMATELY twenty-four in England, recorded the falling of an hours jaiter the falling of the extraordinarily large and unusually second missile, the third one fell, land- brilliant meteor that glowed with an ing near Madrid, Spain. The Span- intense, bluish-white light as it en- iards, having received news of the E4 tered the Earth's atmosphere. And, Paso and Peking tragedies, avoided unlike most' meteors, this one was not the ugly mass of rock as though it consumed by its intense heat, but con- were* a dreaded pestilence. In every tinued gleaming brilliantly until it van- way its action was similar to that of ished below the horizon. Simultaneoui its two predecessors. with the falling of the meteor, the The interest of the world was dou- Earth was rocked by one of the wont bled now. The unusual similarity of quakes in history. the action of the meteors, and the regu- Seismographs in all parts of the larity of their landings, seemed indica- world recorded the tremors of the tive of a definite, hostile purpose be- Earth, each indicating that the distur- hind it all. A menace from the un- bance had occurred somewhere beneath known—a peril from the skies I the Atlantic ocean. Evidently the Scientists began giving serious con- fourth meteor had fallen into the ocean, sideration to the unusual phenomenon, for the shaking of the Earth was obvi- pottering around in the pits, wearing ously the result of the collision. That airs of puzzlement. But their investi- quakes had not followed the landing gations were of no avail, for nothing of of the first three was due to the fact any great significance came to light that they had been far smaller thin through their efforts. the fourth. At about that time, an announcement And then, a short time after the was made that created a furor. As- earthquake, the worst storm in two tronomers in different parts of the hundred years oyer the Atlantic. f broke United States reported that they had Waves, mountain high, piled them- observed a bright flare of light leaping selves upon each other in a wild fren- up from the darkened portion of the zy ; a shrieking wind lashed the waters planet Venus. The astronomers had into a liquid chaos. Great ocean-linen hatf no definite idea of anything of im- were tossed about like tiny chips; an portance in back of what they had seen appaling number of smaller ships were but not so the masses. The flare, they lost in that insane storm. said, was caused by the release of an- Nor was the destruction confined to tgjj^ier meteor I the sea, for all along the Atlantic coast 1 From Venus I Missiles, hurled by of North America and Europe, mighty Venerians, menacing the Earth I The walls of water rushed, in, and wrecked silver planet became the subject of uni- entire towns and cities. versal discussion; innumerable fantas- Fortunately the storm was of short THE GRAY PLAGUE 213 duration; a few hours after it began, On the morning of August 3rd, the it subsided. Charleston was found, half buried in For a number of weeks public atten- the sand of a beach on the coast of tion was centered upon the meteors and Florida, cast there, evidently, by a pass- storm; but gradually, when nothing ing storm. The freighter had been one further occurred, the fickle interest of of the first boats to disappear. the masses began to wane. A month When the ship's discoverers boarded after the storm, the strange meteors her. their eyes were greeted by a sight were no longer mentioned by the press, whose ghastliness filled them with^a and" consequently, had passed from the numbing horror. Indeed, so terrifying! public mind. Only the astronomers re- was the spectacle on the Charleston, membered, keeping their telescopes that the discoverers, four boys of ado- trained on Venus night after night. lescent age, left in fear-stricken haste. Nor could they be induced to return to FOUR months passed by during the ship's deck. which nothing of an unusual na- ture came to the attention of the world. LATER, a group of men from a But at the end of that time, it suddenly nearby town boarded the freigh- dawned upon those nations whose ter to investigate the boys' amazing re- shores touched the Atlantic ocean, that port. In the group was a newspaper something extraordinary was happen- reporter who chanced to be in the vi- ing. It was taking place so insidously, cinity on a minor story. It was through so quietly, that it had attracted no the reporter's account that the facts great attention. became known as quickly as they did. A series of inexplicable sea disasters When the men clambered up the side had begun. Every ship that had trav- of the Charleston to her deck, they saw eled over a certain, regular steamship a spectacle the like of which had never route, had disappeared, leaving no before been seen on Earth. Although trace. Mysteriously, without warning, they had been prepared for the horror they had vanished ; without a single to some extent by the story of the SOS being sent, seven freighters had boys, the sight ,on the Charleston ex- been lost,. The disappearances had been ceeded their description to such a de- called to the world's attention by the gree that, for the moment, the men hipping companies, alarmed at the were rendered speechless. gradual loss of their boats. The deck of the Charleston was a Then other mysterious vanishings shambles—a scene of sudden, chilling came to the attention of the world. death. All about were strewn gray, Ships in all parts of the Atlantic were lifeless bodies. Death had overtaken being lost. When this fact became the crew in the midst of their duties, known, trans-Atlantic commerce ceased suddenly, without warning, it seemed. almost over night. With the exception Bodies strewn about—yet nowhere was of a few privately owned yachts and there sign of decay! Bodies, lifeless freighters, the Atlantic became de- for days, or weeks—yet intact! serted. The men were fearfully impressed by And finally, a few days after the the strangely grotesque positions of world became aware of the strange dis- the corpses. With a few! exceptions, appearances on the Atlantic, the Gray they lay on the deck in abnormal, Plague introduced itself to humanity. twisted masses of gray covered flesh. Attempts were made to repress the Somehow, they seemed flattened, as facts: but the tragedy of the freighter, though they had been soft, jellylike, Charleston, in all its ghastliness and and had flowed, had settled, flat against horror, became known in spite of all the deck. Some were no more than attempts at secrecy. three inches thick, and had spread out ; 214 ASTOUNDING STORIES to such an extent that they looked like appearances, while the bodies were fantastic caricatures of human bodies. plastic, had flattened out. And then, That unnatural change in their struc- strange and unnatural though it. ture*, and the ghastly, dead-gray color seemed, the calcium from the dissolved of their skins gave the corpses a horri- bones had gathered at the surface of fying, utterly repulsive appearance that each body, and combining with {he made the flesh of the men crawl. flesh and skin, had formed the hard, The bodies had a strangely soft as- bony shell that gave them their ghastly pect, as though they were still jellylike. grayhess, and their appearance of petri- One of the men, bolder than the rest, fication. Aside from this, the scien- touched a body—and withdrew his tists learned nothing; the cause of this hand in revulsion and surprise. For amazing phenomenon was a complete the ugly mass was cold, and as hard as . mystery to them. bone ; the tissues of the flesh seemingly Slowly, methodically, step by step, replaced by a solid, bony substance. the unusual had been taking place. Later investigation revealed that all Fromthe time of the landing of the the dead on the Charleston had as- first Arrange meteor, up to the dis- sumed a similar, bonelike solidify. covery of the Charleston, there had When the men left the freighter to been a gradual increase in the signifi- report the tragedy to the proper au- cance of each succeeding event. thorities, their faces were blanched, Then finally came the climax: the and their nerves badly shaken. Yet Gray Plague itself. All that preceded their horror was nothing when com- it faded into significance before the pared1 with what it would have been, horror of the dread pestilence that had they known what was to follow. seized the world with its destroying talons. RAPID'LY the story of the Charles- ton spread. By means of the A SHORT time after the discovery press, over the radio, even by word of of the Charleston, the Plague mouth, the story of the horror on the made its first appearance on land. freighter was given publicity. All over Slowly, pitilessly, inexorably, it began, the United States and Canada it spread, taking its toll all along the Atlantic and from thence to the rest of the coast! From Newfoundland to Brazil; world. Eagerly was the story accepted from the British Isles to Egypt, wher- here, at last, was the explanation of the ever people lived near the ocean, thou- sea disasters! And then, more than sands were stricken with the dread ever before, was the Atlantic ocean malady. shunned. The old and infirm were the most The bodies of the seamen on the quickly affected ; their weakened bodies freighter were turned over to scientists could not withstand the ravage of the for experimentation and research. It Plague as could those of younger peo- 'was thought that they might be able to ple. An old man, walking along a large discover the cause of the Gray Death, thoroughfare in Savannah, Georgia, and with a knowledge of its cause, cre- suddenly uttered a fearful shriek and ateVsomething with which to free the sank to the pavement. While the pe- Atlantic from its scourge. destrians watched with bulging eyes, The scientists' investigations only he seemed to shrink, to flatten, to flow served1 to mystify the world to a liquidly, turning a ghastly gray. With- greater degree. The only thing that in an hour he was as hard as the men of came to light was the cause of the the Charleston. Of all the millions, bodies' bonelike rigidity. In some in- perhaps he was the first. explicable way the bones in the sea- Others followed in the wake of the men had dissolved, and according to first victim, young as well as old ; three THE GRAY PLAGUE 215 hours after the death in Savannah, cue the world from the grip of the every channel of communication was Plague. Thousands of people died choked with news of a constantly in- while striving to escape from the Gray creasing number of casualties. A Bos- Death, crushed by passing motor ve- ton minister, preaching a funeral ser- hicles, or starving in the congested mon, collapsing beside the coffin; a areas. Gone was the boasted civiliza- lineman on a telegraph pole, overcome, tion of man—humanity sinking rabidly falling—and splashing! A thousand to the level of the beast; gone, de- incongruous tragedies shocking hu- stroyed in a few weeks I manity. And then one day when the end In Europe the action of the Plague seemed perilously close, there was ush- was the same as in North America. ered into the presence of the remnant Death stalking the sea-coast, destroy- of the United States officials who had ing thousands ; ignorant fishermen, men gathered in San Francisco, a twisted of learning, women and children of monstrosity of a man, fearfully scurrej every age—all were grist to be ground and deformed. He was closeted wi'.h in the mill of the Gray Plague. them for two hours. At the end of that Before a week had gone by, no one time an excited official communicated remained alive in the villages, towns with the leader of the Arr.crican sci- and cities all along the Atlantic. , New entists. York, London, all the large coast cities, "A cure for the Plague has been dis- were deserted by the living, left to the covered I" he cried in joyful tones. rigid dead. From the largest metropo- ' j'M&n still has a chance I" lis to the smallest hamlet, all becam^prV Before an hour had passed by, scien- body-glutted tombs. .J tists were in possession of cultures of And then, on the morning of October germs that would destroy the bacilli of 12th, news was given to the/world that the Gray Death. The hope of salva- threw mankind into a manic. The tion restored some semblance of order; Plague was moving inland! Slowly, and in a very short time the develop- yet relentlessly it spread, no longer ment of the germs was going forward confining its effect to th« sea-coast, but as rapidly as skilled bacteriologists moving farther and farther inland to- could carry it. Forces of doctors were ward the heart of the two continents, marshalled to administer the cure, in- driving mankind before it. For people oculating all who were untouched by fled in insane terror before the advanc- the Plague. ing death. Nor was there escape from At about that time, a small, bronze- the menace—no antidote to counteract, colored sphere arose into the air above no sanctuary wherein to hide. San Francisco, and sped eastward with To North and South, to East and amazing velocity. It flashed over the West, the pestilence spread, destroying United States, ojer the Atlantic ocean, as it went. Unless there were some and over western Europe, finally land- miraculous intervention, the human ing in the midst of the European race would be destroyed I hordes. There its operator, a deformed 'cripple, left bacteria similar to those OFFICIALS of the world were at he had given to the United States. their wits' end; scientists threw In a short time Europe, too, was busi- up their hands in despair. The Plague ly engaged in developing the bacteria, was an insoluble puzzle—enigmatical, and inoculating her people. utterly inexplicable, beyond the knowl- Many others died before the world edge of Earth. was rendered immune, but at last man- Scientists and doctors were brutally kind let its labors cease. The Gray lain during that period by fear-crazed Plague was overcome. mobs, because of their inability to rea- Then the work of reclaiming the de- — 216 ASTOUNDING STORIES serted areas was begun; then, too, was —darkness that was intensified by its started the ghastly task of disposing contrast with the meteor's blinding of the countless, rigid dead. And final- light. ly, a great steamer left New York har- For ten tense, breathless seconds ut- bor, and started across the Atlantic. ter silence hung over the sea . . . then, It was the purpose of the men on board for those- on the yacht, the world went to destroy utterly the source of the mad! A shrill, unearthly shriek—the Plague. sound of the meteor's passage through But long before that occurred, hu- the atmosphere; an ear-splitting roar, manity had heard the story of Phillip as of the simultaneous release of the Parkinson, the man who saved the thunder-drums of ages; a howling de- world—had heard, and had honored the mon of wind; a solid wall of raging, deliverer of mankind. swirling water of immeasurable height Parkinson's story follows: —all united in an indescribable chaos, that bewildered those on board the CHAPTER II Diana, and that lifted the yacht and threw it upon its side I THE steam yacht, Diana, bound When the first rushing mountain of for the Azores and points south, lathering, thundering water crashed was two days out from Miami when the upon the yacht, Parkinson felt himself great meteor fell into the Atlantic On hurtling through the roaring air. For the after deck, leaning over the rail, a moment he heard the infernal pande- watching the moonlit waters, stood monium of noise . . . then the stran- Phillip Parkinson, owner of the yacht. gling, irresistible brine closed over his A bacteriologist of international fame head. was Parkinson, on an early vacation to A blackness deeper than that of the recuperate from the effects of a strenu- night—and Parkinson knew no more. ous winter of research. Nervous, rather high-strung, he had been unable to sleep; at about one in the morning of SLOWLY consciousness returned to the 18th cf March, he had come up on the bacteriologist. It came under deck. the guise of a dull, yet penetrating He had stood tnere for about an hour throbbing coming from beneath the when suddenly there appeared in the surface on which he lay. Vaguely h- sky above him, a meteor, a great disc wondered at it ; he had not yet entirely of blue-white incandescence. It seemed cast off the enshrouding stupor that to be rushing straight down toward gripped him. him; instinctively he leaped back, as Gradually he came into full posses- though to avoid the fiery missile. sion of his faculties—and became aware As the constantly expanding disc of a dull aching throughout his entire flashed through the hundred miles of body. In his chest it seemed to be in- Earth's atmosphere, the ocean, as far tensified; every breath caused a sharp as eye could eee, became as light as pang of pain. day. Bajthed in that baleful, white Faltering and uncertain, he arose and glare, Parkinson, bewildered, dazed, peered around. Before, lay the open half-blinded, watched the approaching sea, calm now, and peaceful. Long, stellar visitant. rolling swells swept in and dashed In a few moments it struck—no more themselves against the rocks a few feet than two miles away. In the last, away. Rocks? For a moment Parkin- bright flare of blue-white light, Park- son stared at the irregular shoreline in inson saw a gigantic column of steam dazed wonder. Then as his mind and boiling water leap up from the sea. cleared, the strangeness of h'is position Then thick, impenetrable darkness fell flashed upon him. THE GRAY PLAGUE 217 Solid earth was under bis feet I Al- passed his lips. And the fact that it though he must be hundreds of miles was impossible for him to quench his from shore, in some way he had drifted thirst only served to render it more upon. land. So far as he knew, there acute. were no islands in that part of the In order to take his mind from Atlantic; yet his very position belied thoughts of his thirst and of the imme- the truth. He could not have drifted diate future, he rapidly circled the to the mainland; the fact that he was island. As he had expected, it was alive precluded all possibilities of that, utterly barren. With shoulders droop- for he would have drowned in far less ing in despair he settled wearily to* a time than the latter thought implied. seat on a jagged mass of metal high up He turned and inspected the land on top of the meteor. upon which he had been cast. A small, An expression of sudden interest lit barren island, bleak and inhospitable, up his face. For a second time he felt and strangely metallic, met his gaze. that peculiar throbbing, that strange The rays of the sun, beating down upon pulsing beneath the surface of the It, were thrown back with an uncom- meteor. But now it was far more fortable intensity ; the substance of the noticeable than before. It seemed to aland was a lustrous, copperlike metal. be directly below him, and very close No soil softened the harshness of the to the surface. nirface; indescribably rugged and pit- » Parkinson could not tell how long he ted was the two hundred-foot expanse. sat there, but from the appearance of It reminded Parkinson of a bronze re- the sun, he thought that at the very lief-map of the moop. shortest, an hour passed by while he For a moment he puzzled over the remained on that spot. And during atrangeness of the unnatural island; that time, the throbbing gradually in- then suddenly he realized the truth. creased until the metal began vibrating This was the meteor I Obviously, this under his feet. was the upper side of the great sphere Suddenly the bacteriologist leaped from space, protruding above the sea. aside. The vibrating had reached its height, and the meteor seemed to lurch, FORTUNATE for him that the to tilt at a sharp angle. His leap car- meteor had not been completely ried him to firm footing again. And covered by water, he thought—but was then, his thirst and hopeless position it fortunate? True, he was alive now, completely forgotten, Parkinson stared thanks to the tiny island, but how long in fascination at the amazing spectacle would he remain alive without food or before him. water, and without hope of securing either? Unless he would be picked up AN eighteen-foot disc of metal, a by a passing steamer, he would die a perfect circle, seemed to have far more unpleasant death than that of been cut out of the top of the meteor. drowning. Some miracle had saved While he watched, it began turning him from a watery grave ; it would re- slowly, ponderously, and started sink- quire another to rescue him from a ing into the meteor. As it sank, Park- worse fate. inson fancied that it, grew transparent, Even now he was beginning to feel and gradually vanished into nothing- thirsty. He had no way of determining ness—but he wasn't sure. bow long he had been unconscious, but A great pit, eighteen feet wide, but that it was at least ten hours, he was far deeper, lay before him in the very certain, for the sun had been at its place where, not more than ten minutes zenith when he had awakened. No less before, he had stood. Not a moment than fifteen hours had gone by since too soon had he leaped. water—other than that of the sea—had Motionless he stood there, waiting in 218 ASTOUNDING STORIES tense expectation. What would hap- or, unnatural as that Beemed, would pen next, he had* not the least idea, but have assumed a form quite diffcrest he couldn't prevent his imagination from the human. Of course, condition] from running riot. on Earth could be approximated on tt- He hadn't long to wait before his other planet. At any rate, whatever watching was rewarded. A few min- the explanation, the sphere was emit- utes after the pit appeared, he heard a ting men I loud, high-pitched whir coming from They were men—but there was same- the heart of the meteor. As it grew thing^fueer about them. They wot louder, it assumed a higher and still very tall—seven feet or more—and higher key, finally rising above the very thin; and their skins were a deli- range of human ears. And at that cate, transparent white. They looked moment the strange vehicle arose to rather ghostly in their tight-fitting, the surface. white suits. It was not this that made A simple-appearing mechanism was them seem queer, however; it was an the car, consisting of a twelve-foot indefinite something, a vague sugges- sphere of the same bronzelike metal tion of heartless inhumanity, of un- that made up the meteor, with a huge earthliness, that was somehow repul- wheel, like a bronze cincture, around sive and loathsome. its middle, ft was the whirling of this There were three of them, all very great wheel that had caused^he high- similar in appearance and bearing. pitched whirring. The entile, strange Their surprise at the sight of Parkin- machine was surrounded by i^pefuliar son, if anything, was greater than the green radiance, a radiance that s armed start their appearance had given him. to crackle ominously as the sphere He, at least, had expected to see beingi hovered over the mouth of the pic. of some sort, while the three had been For a moment the car hung motion- taken completely by surprise. less, then it drifted slowly to the sur- For a moment they Surveyed him face^ of the meteor, landing a few feet with staring, cold-blue eyes. Then away from Parkinson. Hastily he drew Parkinson extended his hand, and ai back from the greenly phosphorescent cordially as he could, exclaimed: thing—but not before he had experi- "Hello! Welcome to Earth I" enced an unpleasant prickling sensa- The visitors from space ignored hii tion over his entire body. advances, and continued staring at him. As the bacteriologist drew away, Their attitude at first, Was quizzical, there was a sharp, audible click within speculative, but slowly a hostile ei- the interior of the sphere; and the pression crept into their icyes. green radiance vanished. At the same Suddenly, with what seemed like moment, three heavy metal supports common consent, they faced each other, sprang from equi-distant points in the and conversed in low tones in some sides of the car, and held the sphere in unintelligible tongue. For almost a a balanced position on the rounded top minute they talked, while Parkinson of the meteor. watched them in growing appreheo- There was a soft, grating sound on sioft!-\ the opposite side of the car. Quickly Finally they seemed toi have reached Parkinson circled it—and stopped short some/ definite conclusion; with one in surprise. accord they turned and moved slowly toward the bacteriologist, something MEN were descending from an distinctly menacing in their attitudes. opening in the side of the The men from the meteor were tall, but sphere I Parkinson had reasoned that, they were thin ; Parkinson, too, was ince the meteor had come from the large, and his six-foot length was cov- depths of •pace, any being in its interi- ered with layers of solid muscle. At a ;: THE GRAY PLAGUE 219 the three advanced toward him, he meteor, seeming to radiate from its doubled his fists, and crouched in readi- ' walls. In his helpless state, and in the ' ness for the expected attack. awkward position in which he was car- ried, with his head close to the floor, he THEY'were almost upon him when could see little of the room through he leaped into action. A crushing which they passed, in spite of the light. left to his stomach sent the first one Later, however, he learned that it was to the meteor-top, where he lay doubled circular in shape, and about twice the up in pain. But that was the only blow diameter of the cylindrical tube that that Parkinson struck ; in a moment he led into it. The wall that bound this found himself lying prone upon his chamber was broken at regular inter- back, utterly helpless, his body com- vals by tall, narrow doorways, each pletely paralyzed. What they had done leading into a different room. to him, he did not know; all that he Parkinson was carried into one of could remember was two thin bodies these, and was placed in a high-backed twining themselves around him— metal chair. After he had been strapped harp twinge of pain at the base of his fast, one of the men placed his hands akull; then absolute helplessness. at the base of the bacteriologist's skull One of the tall beings grasped Park- he felt a sudden twinge of pain; and inson about the waist, and with surpris- his strange paralysis left him suddenly. ing strength, threw him over his shoul- der. The other assisted his groaning HE knew it was useless to struggle fellow. When the latter had recovered without resisting, he let them to some extent, the three ascended the place upon his head a caplike device ladder that led into the metal sphere. that seemed lost in a tangled maze of The interior of the strange vehicle, machinery. Each meteor-man grasped as far -as Parkinson could see, was as one of the instruments resembling old- simple as its exterior. There was no time radio headphones that were fast- intricate machinery of any sort in the ened to Parkinson's head-gear, and square room; probably what machinery clamped it over his ears. there was, lay between the interior and The bacteriologist heard a steady, exterior walls of the sphere. As for humming drone, like a swarm of angry controls, these consisted of several bees—felt a peculiar, soothing warmth hundred little buttons that studded one about his head ; and then he slept. of the walls. Only a moment or two seemed to When they entered the vehicle, have passed when he awoke. The Parkinson was literally, and none too strange device on his head was removed gently, dumped upon the floor. The and put away ; and then, to Parkinson's man who had carried him stepped over amazement, one of the three men, evi- to the controls. Like those of a skilled dently the leader, spoke—in English! typist, his long, thin fingers darted "Now that you have recovered con- over the buttons. In a moment the sciousness," he remarked in a cold, ex- sphere was in motion. pressionless voice, "you had better real- There were no more thrills for Park- ize at the very beginning that'you are inson in that ride than he would have completely in our power. Any effort to derived from a similar ride in an ele- escape will be futile, for there is only vator. They sank very slowly for some one way to reach the outside : the open- minutes, it seemed to him; then they ing through the top; and only one stopped with a barely noticeable jar. means of travel through that opening : The door of the car was thrust aside the sphere. And since you know noth- by one of the three, and Parkinson was ing about the operation of the machine, borne from the sphere. A bright, cop- any attempt to run it would be disas- pery light flooded the interior of the trous to you. 220 ASTOUNDING STORIES. "If you promise to refrain from greatest heat-resister, a metal we call' violence, we'll release you, and give thoque ; I see no corresponding word in you some measure of freedom. We'll your vocabulary ; evidently you are ua- do this because you can be of assistance familiar with the element, or else it ii in unknown on Earth; to us one of our tasks here on your , planet." "After our flight through span, Parkinson assented readily ; he knew automatically controlled; by the way, he could gain nothing by rejecting on Venus, we landed here. With our their offer. "Of course I'll promise. thoque disintegrater, we bored a pas- But—but, how did you learn English?" sageway to the surface' of this great he asked in bewilderment. sphere. Then we entered the car, rest "You taught us," the leader replied. to the top of the passageway, and dis- "That device we placed upon your head covered you. created a duplicate of your knowledge "That is a brief synopsis of our ac- in our minds. We knew your lan- tions—and it must suffice I Ask no guage, your world, indeed, yourself, as questions; we do not wish to be dis- well as you do." turbed by the blind gropings of your Parkinson shook his head in amaze- primitive mind I" ment. Another question came to his There was a cold finality in the mind as the men released him. He was Venerian's voice that convinced Park- interrupted before he could give it inson that for the moment, at least, he expression. had better forget the many question! that had surged up in his mind. "T^VONT ask," the leader ex- The Venerian leader spoke again. M—J claimed. "I'll tell our entire "From our observations bf your mind, story so that you'll have no occasion to we know that you have not had food annoy us with your questions. or water for a rather lengthy period of "We're Venerians," he began, "inhab- time. It is not our purpose to starve itants of the planet you call Venus. you; you shall eat and drink." For ages our world has been over- A minute later Parkinson sat at i crowded. A short time ago, the condi- very high table '.n one Of the room, tions became so acute that something drinking water from Venus, and eating had to be done. It was suggested that the fare of an alien world. we seek another habitable planet to which our people could migrate. DAYS passed by, merging into "Your Earth was thought to be the weeks, while Parkinson lost all 1 world with physical conditions most track of time. The bacteriologist ! closely resembling those of Acor, or existence became a ceaseless round oi Venus. Our scientists set to work toil. The Venerian had said that he immediately, using forces and devices would be given some measure of free- with which you are totally unfamiliar, dom, because he would be of use to and constructed several missiles which them; he had not been with thenfMong they hurled at Earth. These missiles, ere he learned what that use was. spherical masses closely resembling One of the rooms was filled with meteors, were set to explode after a gTeat slabs of thoque; it was Parkin- certain period of contact with an at- son's task to carry the slabs to the mosphere similar to our own. By their vehicle at the base of the shaft, one by explosion we on Venus could deter- one; to rise to the surface with them, mine whether or not this world had a accompanied by two of the men—the breathable atmosphere. third was working on the surface and "Upon our deciding that the Earth there unload them. Day after day thta was habitable, we built this great ma- continued. chine. It if chiefly composed of our Hope of escaping was almost dead at ; ' THE GRAY PLAGUE 221 Parkinson's breast, because he was con- blast of air to be sent through the tubes stantly under the surveillance of those when the Venerians so desired. hard, blue eyes. Only one thing kept What the purpose of this great edi- hope alive : by watching the Venerians fice was, Parkinson could hot guess; operate the car, he was slowly gaining later, he learned the horrible signifi- a knowledge of the meaning of the cance of it all. many buttons in the wall. Some day, After the tower was finished, the bac- if an opportunity came, he meant to be teriologist was left to his own devices ready to take advantage of it. to a great extent, though always closely Once, shortly after his monotonous watched by one of his captors. They toil began, Parkinson experienced a let him eat all the food he desired, and great flare of hope for deliverance. let him lie around as much as he They had just brought .another slab to wished, regaining his health and the surface, when a steamer appeared strength. This was a pleasant surprise above the horizon. It was far away, for him; he took full advantage of his but its crew must surely have seen the privileges. island. Then, one day when Parkinson had But his expectations were short- fully recovered from the effects of his lived. One of the three drew from grueling labors, the leader of the beneath his tight-fitting, white gar- Venerians approached him from be- ments a little, metal object, a long hind, and before he could raise a hand tube, with a handle at one end, and in defense, had rendered him helplessly pointed it at the vessel. For a moment paralyzed. he held it thus, moving it slowly back- "You will now be given a second ward and forward; then he returned it opportunity to help the cause of Venus to its place of concealment, and turned on Earth," he said in his expressionless away with an air of indifference. And voice. And so saying, he lifted Parkin- Parkinson saw the ship burst suddenly son, and bore him into one of the rooms. into flame, a few minutes later to sink beneath the waves. CHAPTER III SHAKEN to the depths of his being, no time while he was held cap- Parkinson resumed his work. The ATtive by the Venerians was Park- inhumanity of these saturnine Veneri- inson ?s hopeless, or as completely ans filled him with a dread so great that filled with despair as when he was be refused to admit it to himself. That carried into this room. There was that had not been the first time that something depressing about the cham- they had destroyed a ship, he felt sure ber, something that gripped his heart his heart sank, and grew more hopeless. with- the chill hand of dread. He had At last his task of carrying slabs was a feeling of impending evil. finished. The room was empty, and the The few momentary glimpses of the work completed. A great tower, entire- chamber that he had gotten while he ly covering the island, reared its head was being carried, sufficed to convince into the sky. In appeara.icf, it resem- Parkinson that this was a laboratory, bled a very tall lighthouse. This re- or—he shuddered at the thought—an semblance held true only until its top operating room. The walls, floor and was reached ; there it ended. From the ceiling were composed of a white por- tower's top extended four long, hollow celainlike substance; from these walls, arms, so constructed that they whirled strangely, streamed the same, coppery about the tower at a mad pace when the light that filled the en'.ire meteor. machinery with which they were con- Entirely concealing one wall was a nected was started. In addition, ar- long, glass case, constructed to form rangement was made for a powerful countless little niches, each of which — 222 ASTOUNDING STORIES held a small, transparent vessel. At ttu: intelligent beings on one planet yom back of the room was a high table, cov- race must go I It is our intention te ered with transparent cases which were destroy all human life on Earth 1 f filled with complex instruments of "We intend accomplishing this wrtk every description, some similar to Venerian microbes. From the recoil those on Earth; others entirely differ- of your knowledge, I've learned that ent. diseases of various kinds are common The thing that brought the thought on Earth. We expected that such of an operating room to Parkinson's would be the case, and thus, you would mind, was the long, white slab that not be immune to germs, so we camt rested on metal uprights in the room's prepared. Each of the small compart- center—an operating table. A moment ments in that case that you may hart after they entered the room, he had his seen, contains a culture of a different theory substantiated; the Venerian germ. After we have determined which leader placed him on the white slab, Venerian bacilli will be the most effec- stretching him to full length. It was tive, we will develop them in great an operating table—and he was to be quantities, and loose them upon yom the subject of their operation I world. He had lain there but a moment when "In the selecting process, you will two of the Venerians approached, one play your part. Since our germs may on either side, and began removing his have a different effect upon your bodies clothing. It was not long before he than they do upon Venetians, we will lay on the cold slab, entirely nude. inoculate you with different diseases, and watch their effects upon you. HILE he was being stripped, he "Of course, you yourself will be in W heard the leader of the Veneri- no gTeat danger, for we Will have the ans -moving about, heard the click of diseases under our constant control glass, the rasp of metal upon metal. On Acor we have abolished disease en- But, unable to move his eyes, he had tirely, having a reagent or an antitoxin seen none of his activities, except to for every malady ; we will use our cum note that several of the little vessels upon you immediately after we have had been taken from their resting seen how you react to each* disease. places. "What we desire is a bacillus that When the two had finished disrobing will take effect v/hen it is breathed in A him, zn . had replaced him upon his through the lungs. If the disease ii of back, the leader appeared. He looked Buch a nature as to instill; fear in the down at Parkinson, a queer expression minds of observers, so much the better; in his hard, blue eyes. He seemed to but that is unnecessary. When we dis- hesitate a moment; then he spoke. cover a microbe of that nature, we will "Earthling," he said in his toneless be ready to act. . voice, "I have decided to tell you of our "By the way, our work has been les- intentions. You are going to play a sened to a great degree by the fact that very important part in our scheme, and you are a bacteriologist. The knowl- it is only fitting that you should know. edge we gain from you has enabled at You can do nothing to hinder our to eliminate at least half of our mi- plans; you are giving us incalculable crobes. All Venerian germs that are aid; and it affords me Lome degree of duplicated on Earth will be left out of satisfaction to tell you this. our calculations. Only those unknown "As you know, Earthling, we purpose to your planet will be tried upon you." to have the people of Acor to come to Earth to live, to relieve the congested HEN the Venerian had finished conditions of our own world. Obvious- W his explanation, each word of ly, there it no room for two type* of which had sounded like a death knell to : THE GRAY PLAGUE y 223 Parkinson, the bacteriologist lay on the tortures indescribable. Hideous dis- tlab In the grip of a nightmare of hor- eases covered him with festering sores ror. The cold-blooded brutality of twisted his flesh into a repellent mass these Venerian beasts, and the thought of scars; left him weakened and de- of lying there helpless with his body formed. Had it not been for the in- the prey of unknown diseases, filled credible curative powers of the Veneri- him with a maddening fear and dread. ans, he would have died then; but Mightily he struggled to bre^k the always, when the end seemed at hand, uncanny bonds that held him paralyzed, they brought him back to life, only to but it was of no avail. • His body re- subject him to other horrors. tained its helpless rigidity. Only for a moment was Parkinson AFTER what seemed countless left to his fearful musings*; then the ages, the Venerians left him Venetians began their work. A tall alone. Under the powerful effects of table on wheels was brought from their cures, Parkinson began to recover. tomewhere, and. drawn to the side of Hope welled up in his heart; perhaps the slab. Upon this various instru- the terrible experiments were ended. ments were/placed, side by side with When he was almost certain that the numerous, Apt vessels containing germ torture was over, his hopes were sud- cultures. Parkinson saw none of this, denly destroyed. The three Venerians but from the sounds that came to his approached again, each bearing a num- ears he could infer what was taking ber of vessels containing germ cultures. place. These they placed on the table at Park- Finally, everything seemed to be in inson's side; then two of them with- readiness. The Venerian leader bent drew, leaving the leader to continue over Parkinson for a moment; and the his work. Uttering a few words in the latter felt a sharp pain in his side. Venerian tongue, he occupied__himself Then the Venerian withdrew. with something on the table, and a Slowjy, interminably, the time moment later turned toward the bac- dragged by while the microbes that had teriologist, a long needle in his hands. been introduced into his body were at Parkinson felt a great burning pain their work. How long he lay there in his left arm, as though a searing, hot with the Venerians watching, he could needle had been thrust into his flesh. not tell, but it seemed to be hours. In a moment this vanished. Then a During that time he felt himself feeling of irresistible lassitude over- gripped by an increasingly violent whelmed him ; an unbearable weariness fever. Unbearable heat flooded his filled him with longing for rest, peace body. And because of his helplessness, —death. This, too, was of short dura- he could do nothing to relieve his pain tion. and discomfort. It was maddening! With the passing of the weariness, When he thought he had reached the Parkinson became aware of a sharp limit of his endurance, and felt that he throbbing in his arm. Rapidly this in- would go insane in another moment, creased in violence, until suddenly an the Venerian leader injected some- unbearable, excruciating agony seized thing into his side. He became aware him. Far greater was this than any of an immediate sense of relief ; in an pain he had suffered before. For a unbelievably short time the fever had moment he struggled to scream, to left him, and he was himself again. move, to do anything to relieve his There followed for Parkinson, hours agony. There seemed to be a sudden of nightmare agoriy, while the Veneri- snap—a cry of anguish burst-from his ans experimented with his living body. lips—and his senses left him. Just as Time after time he was inoculated with the bonds of paralysis had broken, he strange bacilli that wracked him with had lost consciousness. 224 ASTOUNDING STORIES Life returned to Parkinson very brought with them, was impregnate slowly. In a daze he stared around, with the bacilli. This was then takm uncomprehending. Then suddenly he up into the tower, where, as Parking* realized that he was no longer para- learned later, it was blown out through lysed; nor was he in the operating the four tubes that spun around die room. The bed on which he" lay was tower's top, to drift through the air— soft, comfor'-.ble ; the room, unfamiliar. to enter human bodies—to destroy lift But not for long did his mind dwell The Venerians worked with the cuj. upon this; i-i a few moments his eye- tures and impregnated dust without lids closed, and he slept the sleep of protection of any sort; evidently they complete mental and physical exhaus- were immune to the disease. Lata tion. Parkinson learned that he wasMikewist During the weeks that followed, immune; they had rendered him to Parkinson did litAe other than sleep. after trying the germs upon him. Occasionally he arose, either to stretch Gradually the bacteriologist's health himself, or to secure food, but for the returned—so gradually that his capton greater part of the time he remained in seemed not to notice it. He was glad bed. His body was a mere shadow of of this, for their vigilance had related, its former self as the result of his ter- and he did not want it renewed. Eva rible experience on the white slab; his when he was as strong and well as ever, incessant sleeping, necessary because he spent much time in bed, shamming of his weakened condition, served to illness. And when he could do m bring him back to his former health. without danger of detection, he kept I The Venerians seemed glad to have it close watch upon the three, waiting for thus; asleep, he did not disturb their a time when he would be entirely alone. activities. AT last his opportunity came. The HEN he had awakened from his three Venerians rose to the sur- W first period of natural slumber, face together, leaving him in his room, he had received a terrible shock. His to all outward appearances, asleep. Bot left arm was gone, amputated at the sleep was far from him at that moment; shoulder. Strangely, the wound had he had been watching. healed while he slept, probably the re- Shortly after the sphere had vanished sult of the Venerian doctoring, so there up the shaft, Parkinson emerged from was no pain; but the shock had been his room. For a moment he surveyed terrible. the circle of doors; then; he shrugged After Hie had recovered from the his shoulders. They all looked alike to effects of that shock, he had resolved him. Quickly he crossed the room, and to make the Venerians pay for what pressed a button that mechanically they had -done. And then he had real- opened a door. It was his purpose, fust ized that the inhuman brutes must be of all, to secure a weapon ; one room destroyed for a greater reason : unless would do as well as another for a be- he interfered, he believed that they ginning. would carry out their intention of de- At first glance Parkinson was struck stroying all human life. by the strange familiarity of this cham- As the weeks passed by, while ber; then, after a moment, he recog- strength was returning to Parkinson, nized it. A tall, high-backed metal he learned in a general way what the chair in its center was its mark of iden- invaders were doing. They were en- tification. This was the chamber gaged in developing vast quantities of wherein the Venerians had transferred microbes to be spread over Earth. a record of his knowledge* to their When these were ready, a great amount minds. of fine dust that the Venerians had Carefully he looked around in testA THE GRAY PLAGUE 225 of a weapon, but the room held nothing immediate danger from the two re- but the chair and the thought transfer- maining Venerians, for they were up in ence device. In a moment he with- the tower, while the sphere was in the drew, closing the door behind him. meteor ; so he could think with utmost In the next room he entered, he was safety. Deep thought and careful plan- fortunate. This chamber was filled ning were necessary now, for he had with strange devices of various kinds. taken the step that must mean either While curiously inspecting the intri- his death or the death of the Venerians. cate machines, he saw something that Suddenly he leaped into action; he brought a smile of satisfaction to his had decided upon his next move. Cross- lips. ing to the case he secured another wea- Against one wall stood a- tall, glass pon. He wasn't sure that they could case, one of the shelves of which held be effectively discharged without re- several metal devices that Parkinson loading; handicapped as he was with immediately recognized as being the one arm gone, he had to be certain of Venerians' weapons. Poignantly he re- the reliability of his means of defense. membered how a similar device had de- Then he left the room, and crossed to stroyed a ship. the huge thoque sphere. Leaving the door slightly ajar, he It waB the work of a moment to enter crossed to the case and secured one of this, and prepare to ascend. This done, the weapons. For a moment he studied he turned his attention to the numer- it. There was nothing complex about ous knobs on the wall. He had not the mechanism ; a cursory examination seen them for quite a while; it was sufficed to reveal how it was operated. with difficulty that he recalled which Pressure on a little knob at the back of knobs controlled the car's ascent. At the handle released the devastating last, hesitantly, but correctly, he ray. pressed on the knobs, and the sphere He was about to slip the device into rose slowly toward the surface. his pocket when he stiffened involun- At the proper moment, Parkinson tarily. There was a sound' of move- brought the vehicle to a halt, and slid ment outside the room—he heard a step back the door. Furtively he peered on the metal floor—then he whirled. around. The Venerians were on the other side of the towr, Quickly ha ONE of the Venerians stood in the lowered the ladder ano\descended. doorway, a menacing frown on his face. He was crouching, ready to AS he stepped to the floor, a sud- spring upon Parkinson. den cry of dismay fell upon his Quick as thought, the bacteriologist ears. One of the Venerians, coming leveled his newly-acquired weapon, and around the car, had discovered him. pressed on the knob. There was a sud- Without a moment's hesitation, Park- den spurt of flame from the Venerian's inson aimed his little weapon, and body; then it crumpled, sagging, pressed upon the knob. Like his fel- shrinking together. low, the Venerian fell to the floor, a Hastily Parkinson released the pres- heap of charred ashes. sure on the little knob, aghast at the With the second Venerian destroyed, destructive power of his little weapon. Parkinson dashed around the sphere, Then, as he remembered the torture he metal cylinder held in readiness. The had endured at their hands, he directed leader of the Venerians was stealing the ray upon the ashes, until they, too, stealthily around the other side of th« were consumed, leaving naught but a car, his hand fumbling beneath his gar- dark patch on the floor. ment. For several minutes Parkinson stood "Stop I" Parkinson cried. "Raise there in deep thought. There was no your hands above your head—empty I" 226 ASTOUNDING STORIES A cylinder clattered to the metal floor Ten minutes later, when the Vene- as the Venerian's hands moved sky- rian regained his senses, he was fatt- ward. ' ened securely to the tall, metal chair. "Keep your back turned I" Parkinson "Well," Parkinson addressed him, snapped as the invader began about. "I "conditions seem to be reversed now, won't hesitate to press on this litttle and you're the underdog. I've nipped knob, at your first hostile move I I'd your invasion in the bud. All your thoroughly enjoy burning you to a elaborate preparations are wasted." crisp, so be very careful." Something resembling a sneer * While talking, Parkinson had moved wreathed the Venerian's thin lips; a slowly toward the man from Venus; mocking gleam let his cold, blue eyes. now, almost upon him, he quickly "So our efforts have been wasted, dropped his weapon into a pocket, and1 have they? I'm afraid I can't agree swung a terrible blow at the base /of his with you. Already, enough bacteria skull. The Venerian fell to the floor have been released to destroy all life, without a groan, unconscious. though it will take longer than we de- Parkinson stared at the recumbent sire. Even though you kill me, our figure rather dubiously for a moment. goal will still be reached. The human If only he had his other arm I But it race will die I" was gone; with an impatient shake of A cloud of gloom fell Upon Parkin- His- head he stooped and raised the son. He had exepected this; but he senseless invader. had been hoping that he Was wrong. It was anything But an easy task for "Then there's only one thing for me the bacteriologist to carry his seven- to do, and that is: I'll have to force you foot burden up the ladder and into the to tell me how to undo the damage sphere, but finally, he succeeded in do- you've done." ing so. Then, without delay, he low- The Venerian smiled mirthlessly. ered the car into the meteor again. "You have absolutely no chance of ac- As he bore the Venerian from the complishing that," he said. "We've vehicle, he tried to decide upon his done our work too well to allow any next mpve.' Obviously, he had to se- interference now. cure the1 one surviving invader, so that "You do not know this, but we have he would not be a menace to Parkinson released upon your world the worst ma- when he revived. And then the logical lady ever known to Venus. There ia thing to do would be, in some way, to only one remedy ; and I'm the only one secure information from him as to how who knows it, or who has the' meant to cure the disease that was spreading wherewith to accomplish it. And I over the world. certainly won't tell!" The worried expression on Parkin- THE logical thing to do, yes—but son's face increased in intensity. There how? With only one arm, the sim- was something in the Venerian's voice ple task of binding the Venerian pre- that convinced him that he meant what sented considerable difficulty. How he said. much more difficult would it be to force Then suddenly his countenance anything from him? cleared, and a happy smile replaced Then the solution of the first problem his frown. presented itself ,to Parkinson. What "Perhaps you won't tell, but I think was to prevent his strapping this being you will. There are more ways than into the high-backed chair to which he one of forcing you." had been secured some time before? Quickly he crossed the circular room PARKINSON had hit upon a solu- to the door be had first passed through tion to his problem. The Vene- while searching for a weapon. tians had reproduced his knowledge fat THE GRAY PLAGUE 237 their brains; why wouldn't i^be possi- machinery that filled folly a quarter of ble for him to reverse the operation? the great building. In a moment he secured the thought- Even this caused him no great con- transference apparatus from a case in cern; he was as familiar with it aa he the rear of the room, and bore it to the would have been had the constructed chair, and^in spite of the Venerian it. For some moments he was busy leader's struggles, placed it upon his with numerous dials and levers; then head. H^put the-bead-phones over his the release of the germs was stopped. own ears.Vand befiati fumbling with the controls. \ PARKINSON spent several minutes Suddenly he seemed to strike the in examining the contents of the right combination. There was a faint, tower, his Earthly mind lost in wonder humming drone in his ears; after a mo- at the strange things his Venerian ment this was replaced by a loud crack- knowledge revealed to him. Then he ling—and the knowledge of the man entered the sphere again, and sank from Venus was becoming his own. into the meteor. Somewhat dazed, Parkinson shut off As he moved toward the room that the current. His mind was in a tur- held the Venerian, his mind was busy moil. He was in possession of knowl- with conjectures as to what he would edge of such an amazing character-that, do with his prisoner. It was necessary for the moment, he had lost hirroental for the bacteriologist to reach the equilibrium. Indeed, so strange was mainland as quickly as possible, and his new-found knowledge, that he could make use of his knowledge of .the enre not grasp the significence if even half for the Gray Plague. He didn't want of the facts in his mind. to kill the man; he couldn't frSe him; But already, he knew how, with ani- yet if he left him strapped to the chair, mal electricity, they had paralyzed he'd surely die of starvation. him; knew what had happened to him Still undecided, he thrust open the on the operating table ; knew the nature door. With a startled gasp he stopped of the dread disease that destroyed his short. Somehow the Venerian had inn; the Gray Plague—and knew the freed himself; at that moment he cure! leaped toward Parkinson. A sudden thought arrested this re- Instinctively the bacteriologist flung view of his new knowledge. The up his hand in a defensive attitude. Gray Plague ! At that very moment in- The onrushing Venerian caught Par- calculable quantities of the deadly kinson's out-thrust fist in the pit of his bacilli were being cast into the air. stomach, and doubled up in pain. And he was doing nothing about itt While he was thus defenseless, Par- He glanced at the Venerian. He was kinson placed a well-directed blow on still unconscious, and would remain so the side of the Venerian's jaw, a blow for some minutes to come. And even carrying every ounce of his strength. if he did recover his senses, he was se- So great was the force of the punch, curely fastened to the chair; Parkin- that it lifted the man from Venus and ton dashed out of the room, crossed to cast him headlong upon the floor. His the sphere, and passed through the head landed with a sickening thud. open doorway. ' Unmoving, he lay where he had fallen. Without hesitation he manipulated Parkinson knelt over him for a mo- the controls, directed by his Venerian ment, then arose. Without question, knowledge. Rapidly the sphere rose to the man was dead. The Venerian had the surface. solved the bacteriologist's last prob- As it came to rest on the floor of the lem; he was free to return to the tower, Parkinson sprang from the car, United States with his means of saving *nd headed toward a mass of intricate mankind. 228 ASTOUNDING STORIES DRAWING the little, metal cylin- stragglers and lending in the heart of der from his pocket, he burned the congested areas. After making the body of the Venerian leader to a few inquiries, he returned to tbf heap of ashes, ridding the world of the sphere, and continued on toward the last invader. Then he turned and en- West. He landed, finally, outside the tered the glass-lined operating room. city of San Francisco. , Following the dictates of his Vene- A short time later, twisted, deformed, rian knowledge, he crossed to one of yet triumphant, he was Ushered into the walls, and drew therefrom a flat, the presence of the United Statei glass vessel, somewhat like a petri dish. government as—the man who bad This contained bacteria that were saved the human race. harmless in themselves, and were hos- tile to those of the Gray Plague. These CHAPTER IV germs, brought from Venus, were the only cure for the terrible disease.* THE terrible days of the Gray Parkinson's adventure was almost at Plague ended in mystery. Much an end. He had not emerged unscathed, that had puzzled the world, Parkinson, but he had won! with his Venerian knowledge, ex- The details of his further actions plained; but there was one thing, the need not be recorded. Suffice it to say final, enigmatical act in the strange that he entered the sphere, carrying his drama, that was as much of a mystery ^precious, curative germs, arose to the to him as it was to the rest of the topNjf the tower, and passed through a world. round opening in its side. His bor- Enigma! Of what significence. of rowed knowledge revealed that the 'car what portent—who coula'tell? possessed abilities that he had not sus- When the great vessel from the pected; with amazing speed he caused United States, equipped to destroy the it to flash across the Atlantic Ocean to meteor of the Vcnerians, nearer! the the United States. great thoque sphere, they came upon i There he saw the frightful carnage scene quite different from what they that the Plague had caused, saw the had expected. Parkinson, who was on deserted cities—and was filled with the ship, was more surprised than the r self-reproach because he had no t/ acted rest, for he had dc mite Knowledge of sooner. what, in the natural course of events, Across the miles and miles of de- they should see. For the.: others there serted country he sped, following the was nothing so very strange in what fleeing hordes, finally passing over the they saw; Parkinson had tied, that was all. •The work of the English bacteriology, Twort. in 1915, and the Frenchman, d'Herclle, When the bacteriologist had left the in 1917, brought to the attention of the scien- meteor, there had been a high, bronze- tific world the fact that many bacteria are colored tower, a burnished lighthouse, subject to attack and destruction by some un- known, active agent with which they are as- covering its entire top. It had been sociated in infected material. This agent, there—but now it was gorje ! Only the whatever its character, changed growing germ jagged, arched surface oA the meteor cultures to a dead, glassy substance. Twort advanced the thought that the agent remained. v J might be a living, filtered virus, although he They lowered boats and rowed to the favored the theory that it was an enzyme de- strange island. There saw some- rived from the bacteria themselves. they D'Htrelle. on the contrary, believed that thing that filled them—Parkinson es- this phenomenon was due to a living, multi- pecially—with a very definite uneasi- ultra-microscopic microbe that plying, de- was stroyed certain bacteria. ness. The entire top of the meteor Evidence favoring both theories has come a twisted, fire-blasted mass of bronze- result that, present, to light, with the at con- like metal. Where the tower had been, troversy is rife. Up to date, the contention re- mi neither side has been proved. where the shaft had led into the THE CRAY PLAGUE 229 markable interplanetary vehicle, there all indications, something alien to ma now a broken expanse of thoquc Earth was still within her confines. that flashed fire under the rays of the sun. BEHIND it all—the meteors, the Something seemed to have melted, to Plague, the sealing of the Vene- have fused the tower, until it had tian vehicle—is one fact of great sig- ( crumpled, and had run, filling the en- nificence. No longer is man alone in trance of the meteor. There was irre- the universe; no longer is he in isola- futable evidence to that effect; no one tion I Out of space came a menace, an thought otherwise. intelligence striving to wrest from him But what agency had done this his right to rule over Earth. No longei strange thing? can man in his smug complacency think Someone suggested that - it might of himself as being secure in his have been the work of some prear- strength. He has been shown the utter ranged mechanism. Parkinson shook folly of such thinking. his head. Had such been the case, his The menace—the invaders from Vencrian knowledge would have told Venus—came, and were destroyed, him so. their purposes defeated. Yet—in the Obviously, nothing of Earth had vast reaches of space, in worlds of done it, nothing of Earth—then some- other dimensions, in the cosmic cruci- thing of Venus I Inconclusive conjec- ble of life that embodies all creation, ture, perhaps, but no other explanation there may be other forms of life, other offered itself. Something had sealed menaces, hovering clouds of death, pre- the contents oX the meteor from the paring to sweep down upon Earth to sight of man, something with a pur- snuff out her life. Who can tell? pose. From Venus? The thought was And who may say that man is free logical, to say the least. from the Venerian- danger? The Not foi long did they remain there strange sealing of the meteor implies beside the Venerian vehicle ; there was that the menace is still present. Who naught for them to do, so they turned knows but what those inhuman Vene- about and headed toward the United rian brutes may even now be planning States. They bore tidings that were some new invasion, may be preparing vaguely disturbing, tidings that none to renew their attack upon Earth? were glad to hear. For, according to Time alone will tell. / ROBOT PILOTS FOR AIRCRAFT PERFECTION of an automatic mechanical the machine on that route and errors of even piloting mechanism for airplanes has been a fraction of a degree are instantly and auto- achieved after several years of experiment at matically detected and corrected. All the the royal aircraft establishment of Fa rnbor- human pilot has to do in a plane so equipped ough. is to take off and land the machine. The apparatus has been successfully tried The Pilot's Assistcr is the official name of J out on various types of planes—two-seater the new English .device. It weighs about day bombers, large twin-engine night bomb- 120 pounds. en and big Hying boats. Its use as a secoad Flights have been made with the mechan- or relief pilot on long distance flights by ical pilot in all sorts of weather. In dense Royal Air Force machines is now being con- fog and clouds, when a human pilot would ' sidered have found it almost impossible to maintain In every test the robot pilot has steered straight or level flight because of the ab- an accurate course for hours at a time and sence of any visible horizon by which to over distances up to 400 miles while human steer, the mechanical pilot flew the plane with saembere of the crew have been concerned absolute accuracy. On one test flight the with other duties. automatic pilot steered a dead true course The basis of the mechanical pilot la a gyro- from Farnborough in South i ngland, to New- scope that controls pistons connected with castle, 270 miles farther north. The homac the rudder and elevators of the plane. These pilot did not touch the controls until it wai pistons are actuated by compressed air. necessary to land the plane at the destina- Once a coarse Is set the robot pilot keeps tion. Hans and / kamied out the heavy casket. Jetta of the Lowlands CONCLUSION By Ray Cummings CHAPTER XV a few years ago water had been here, water black and cold and sound- y/ In the Bandit Camp less. Tremendous pressure, with three dark cave, with its small thousand or more fathoms of the THEspots of tube-light mounted ocean above it. Fishes had roamed upon movable tripods, was eery these passages, no doubt. Strange mon- with grotesque swaying shad- sters of the deeps; sightless, or with ows. The bandit camp. Hidden down eyes like phosphorescent torches. here in the depths of the Mid-Atlantic But the water was gone now. Blue Lowlands. An in- ooze was caked accessible retreat, upon the cave Black-garbed this cave in what figiu-et move in ghastly floor. Eroded frccnotii the invisible (Iyer ipeecU on walls; niches and once was the ita buiineel of raniom. ocean floor. Only tiny gullies; crev- 230 : JETTA OF THE LOWLANDS 231 lees and on arching dome high over- this black breathing sea, lapping head. A fantastic cave—no one, see- against its eroded, fantastic shore-line. ing it aa I saw it that morning at Within the cave, there was only a dawn, could have believed it was upon vague filtering daylight from the lower this earth. From where De Boer had entrance, a thin shaft from the rift put me—on the Bat top of a small, overhead, and the blue tube-light, butte-like dome near the upper end of throwing great shadows of the tents -the sloping cave floor—all the area of and the men against the black rock this strange bandit camp was visible to walls. me. There seemed perhaps a hundred of A little tent of parchment was set the bandits here. A semi-permanent upon the dome-top. camp, by its aspect. Grey parchment " "If ours," said De Boer, with a grin. tents were set up about the floor, some "Hake yourself comfortable. Gutierrez small, others more elaborate. It seemed will be your willing servant, until we as though it were a huddled little tee about this ransom. It will have to group of buildings in the open' air, in- be one very large, for you are a damn stead of in a cave. One tent, j : ii>t at trouble to me,~Grant. And a risk. Food the foot of my dome, seemed De Boer's will come shortly. Then you can sleep personal room. He went into it after I think you will want it." leaving me, and came out to join the He leaped from the little butte, leav- main group of his fellows near the cen- ing the taciturn ever-watchful Gutier- ter of the cave where a large electron rez sitting cross-legged on the ledge stove, and piped water from a nearby near me, with his projector across his subterranean freshet, and a long table knees. set with glassware and silver, stood these men for kitchen and eating place. THE cave was irregularly circular, with perhaps, a hundred-feet di- THE treasure had not yet been ameter and a ceiling fifty feet high. A brought in from the flyer. But, drift of the fetid, Lowland air went from what I overheard, it seemed that through it—into a rift at this upper the radiumized ingots of the "ill-fated end, and out through the lower pas- Spawn and Perona were to be stored sage entrance which sloped downward for a year at least, here in this cave. thirty feet and debouchea upon a rip- I could see the strong-room cubby. It pled ramp of ooze outside. It was day- was hewn from the rock of the cave light out there now. From my perch I wall, its sealed-grid door-oval set with could see the sullen heavy walls of a metal bars. ridge. Mist hung against them, but I saw also what seemed a small but the early morning sunlight came down well-equipped machine shop, in a re- in shafts penetrating the mist and cess room at one side of the cave. Men striking the oily surface of a spread of were working in th^rc under the light water left here in the depths of a of tubes. And there was a niche hol- cauldron. lowed out in the wall to make a room De Boer's flyer was outside. We for De Boer^s instruments—ether-wave had landed by the shore of the sea, and receivers and transmitters, the aerial the bandits had pushed the vehicle into receiving wires of which stretchedvln an arching recess which seemed as banks along the low ceiling. ^ though made to hide it. All this camp There was no activity in there now, was hidden. Arching crags of the except for one man who was operating ridge-wall jutted out over the cave en- what I imagined might be an aerial in- trance. From above, any passing sulator, guarding the place from any flyer—even though well below the prying search-vibrations. atro-bcight—would see nothing but The main cave was a bustle of ac- 233 ASTOUNDING STORIES tivity. The arriving bandits were greet- one corner of my tent. But sleep ing their fellows and exchanging ne^rs. would not come: my thoughts ran like The men who had been left here^were a tumbling mountain torrent, and ai jubilant at the success of the Chief's aimlessly. I hoped that Jetta was latest enterprise. Bottles were un- sleeping. De Boer was now at the cen- sealed and they began to prepare the ter table with ' his men. Hans was morning meal. guarding Jetta. He was a phlegmatic, My presence caused considerable heavy Dutchman, and seemed decent comment. I was a complication at enough. which most of the men were ill pleased, I wondered what Hanley might be especially when the ariving bandits doing to rescue me. But as I thought told who I was, and that the patrols of about it, I could only hope that hii the United States were doubtless even patrolsWould not find us but here. An now trying to find me. attack, ajid most certainly De Boer and But De Boer silenced the grumbling his men in their anger would kill me with rough words. out of hand. And possibly Jetta also, "My business, not yours. But you I had not had a word alone with will take your share of his ransom, Jetta since that scene in the control won't you? Have done I" room. When we disembarked, she had And Jetta, she had caused comment stayed close by De Boer... But I knew also. But when the bottles were well that Jetta had fathomed my purpose, distributed the grumbling turned to that she was working to the same end. ribald banter which made me shudder We must find a way of arranging the that it should fall upon Jetta's ears. ransom which would give us an oppor- Oe Boer had kept his men away from tunity to escape. her, shoving them aside when they I pondered it. And at last an idea crowded to see her. She was in a little came to me, vague in all its details, as tent now,' not far from the base of my yet. But it seemed feasible, and I ledge. thought it would sound plausible to De My meal presently was brought from Boer. I would watch my1 chance and where most of the bandits now were explain it to him. Then I realized how roistering at the/fong table in the cen- much aid Jetta would be. She would ter of the cave./ agree with my plan, and help me con- "Eat," said Gutierrez. "I eat with vince him. And, when the crucial time you, Americano. Madre Mia, when you came, though I would be a captive, are ransomed away from here it will watched by Gutierrez, bound and please met De Boer is fool, with tak- gagged, perhaps—Jetta would be at ing such a chance." liberty. De Boer and Gutierrez would not be on their guard with her. ITH the meal ended, another I drifted off to sleep, working out w guard came to take Gutierrez' the details of my plan. place and I was ordered into my tent. The routine of the camp, it seemed, XVI CHAPTER , was to use the daylight hours for the Planning' the Ransoni time of sleep. vThere were lookouts and guards at the entrance, and a little I WAS awakened by the sound of arsenal of ready weapons stocked in lovfr voices outside my tent. Jetta'i the passage. The men at the table were voice, ahd De Boer's, and, mingled with still at their meal. It would end, I did them, the babble of the still hilarious noc doubt, by most of them falling into bandits in the center of the cave. But heavy alcholic slumber. there were only a few left now: most I was tired, poisoned by the need of of them had fallen into heavy slumber. sleep. I lay on fabric cushions piled in I had been asleep for several hours, I " : " " JETTA OF THE LOWLANDS 233 figured. The daylight shadows out- might have gotten? Tell me that, wise tide the cave entrance showed that it one ?" was at least noon. "We will not be trapped. And sup- I lay listening to the voices which pose you kill him—won't they track bad awakened me. De Boer was say- you just the same, Henrick?" ing: "No. We would 'leave his body on "But why, Jetta, should I bother with some crag where it would be found. your ideas? I know what is best. The patrols would more quickly tire This ransom is too dangerous to ar- of chasing a killer when the damage is range." His voice sounded calmly good done. They want Grant alive." humored ; I could hear in it now more "Then let them have him alive—for than a trace of alcoholic influence. He a big price. Hendrick, listen— added, "I think we had better kill him "Well, what?" he demanded again. and have done. My men think so, too "What is your plan?" — already I have caused trouble with "Why—well, Hendrick, like this them, by bringing him." She stammered, and I realized that It jolted me into full wakefulness. she had no plausible plan. She was Jetta's voice: "No I I tell you it can fumbling, groping, urging upon De be arranged, Hendrick. —I have been Boer that I must be ransomed alive. thinking of it, planning it But she had not good reason for it. "Child! Well what? The least I can "Well?" he prompted impatiently. do is listen : I am no pig-headed Amer- "You—can you raise Great New ican. Say it out. What would you do York on the audiphone, Hendrick?" to ransom him safely?" "Yes," he said. "Hanley's office?" THEY were just at the foot of my "Yes, no doubt. Chah—that would ledge, in front of De Boer's tent. give him a start, wouldn't it? De Boer Their voices rose so that I could hear calmly calling himl" them plainly. For all my start at being awakened to hear my death determined HE was laughing. I heard what upon, I recall that I was almost equally sounded as though he were gulp- startled by Jetta's voice. Her tone, her ing another drink. "By damn, Jetta, manner with De Boer. Whatever op- you are not the timid bird you look. portunities they had had for talking Call Hanley', eh?" together, the change in their relation- "Yes. Can it be done and still bar ship was remarkable. De Boer was his instruments from locating us?" now flushed with drink, but for all that "Yes, and bar his television. Believe he had obviously still a firm grip upon it, Jetta, I have every device for hid- his wits. And I heard Jetta now urg- ing. But—call Hanley I" ing her ideas upon him with calm con- "Why not? . . . Hendrick, stop!" fidence. An outward confidence ; yet I started. It seemed that he was under it there was a vibrant emotion embracing her; forcing half drunken suppressed within her even tone; a caresses upon her. hint of tremulous fright; a careful cal- I scrambled through my tent door- culation of the effect she might be way, but Gutierrez, who had come back making upon De Boer. Had he not on guard, at once seized me. been intoxicated—with drink and with "Hui—so haste! Back, you." her—he might have sensed it. But he The Spaniard spoke softly, and he did not. 1 was grinning. "The chief plays with "Hendrick, it can be done. A big woman's words, no? Charming seno- price. Why not?" rita, though she dresses like a boy. "Because if we are trapped and But that is the more charming, eh? caught, of what use is the price we Listen to her', Grant." " : 234 ASTOUNDING ^TORIES He gripped me, and prodded my side "Stop I Hendrick, be serious I" Hi with the point of his knife blade. "Lie had reached for her again. "Don't b* down Americano: we will listen." a fool, Hendrick." Jetta was insisting, "Hendrick, "Very well," he said. "I am all serf, BtopI" ous. What is your plan?" "Why?" SHE was more resourceful this time, COULD see them now. They were She retorted, "This craven Grant, J1 seated^ be for* the opening of De he fears for his life—but he is very Boer's tent. A little stove in front of smart, Hendrick. I think he is schem- them. Coffee for Jetta, who was seated ing every moment how he can be safe- cross-legged, pouring it ; a bowl of ly ransomed." drink for De Boer. And some baked "Hah! No doubt of that I" breadstuff dainties on a platter. "And he has had experience with "Hendrick— Chief Hanley. He- knows Hanleyi She pushed him away as he leaned methods, how Hanley will act. Let m to embrace her. Although she was see what Grant says of this." laughing with him, I could only guess She had no plan of her own, but she at the chill of fear that might be in hoped that by now I had one I And her heart. she was making an opportunity for me 1" "Foolish, Hendrick to put it before De Boer. "Foolish little bird, Jetta mine." He said, "There is sense to that, "You—it is you who are foolish, Jetta. If there is any way to fool Hendrick." She slid from his embrace Hanley, that craven American has no and held her brimming coffee cup bal- doubt thought it out." anced before her, to ward him off. She held another drink before him "You think I am really clever, so trust "Yes. Let us see what he says." me, Hendrick. Oh there is a great fu- He drank; and again as they were ture for us; you say I inspire you; let near together he caressed- her. met Hendrick De Boer, Chieftain of "What a schemer you are, little bird the Lowlands! My father would have You and I are well matched, eh?" helped you become that. You can "Gutierrez may be watching us I" she build a little empire, Hendrick—why warned. not? Father wanted to make you They suddenly looked up and saw President of Nareda. Why not build Gutierrez and me. your own Lowland Empire? We have "Hah!" Fortunately it struck Dt a hundred men now? Why not gather Boer into further good humor. "Hah— a thousand? Ten thousand? An em- we have an audience ! Bring down the pire!" prisoner, Gutierrez! Let us Bee if hii "Ave Maria!' from Gutierrez. "This wits can get him out of this plight !" nida thinks big thoughts Come down, Grant!" De Boer raised his bowl. "An empire Gutierrez shoved me down the lad- up, —De~4Joer of the Lowlands I Go on; der ahead of him. De Boer stood you amuse me. We have a nice start, and seized me. His great fingers dug with this treasure." into my shoulders. "Yes. And the ransom money. But "Sit down, American I It seems you you will take me first to Cape Town, are not to die. Perhaps not." Hendrick ? We ban be married there The strength of His fingers was hurt- I am seventeen in a month." ing me: he hopedsl would wince. Mine "Of course, Jetta. Haven't I prom- was now an ignominious r61e, indeed, ised?" There was no convincingness to yet I knew it was best. me in the way he said it. "Of course. I gasped, "Don't do that: you hurtf* To Cape Town for our marriage.'' He chuckled and cast me loose. I " JETTA OF THE LOWLANDS 235 added, with a show of spirit, "You are room to call Hanley. As we crossed giant. because you are the cave, with and De Boer walk- a bullying —Just Hans bigger than I am ing ahead together, De Boer spoke "Hear that, Jetta? The American louder than he realized, and the words Ends courage with his coming ran- came back to me. som!" "Not so bad, Hans? We will use him—but I am not a fool. I'll send HE shoved me to the ground. him back dead, not alive! A little Gutierrez grinned, and withdrew knife-thrust, just at the end I Safest a trifle. Jetta avoided meeting my for us, eh, Hans?" gaze. "Have some coffee," De Boe,r offered. CHAPTER XVII "Alcohol is not good for you. Now Within the Black Sack aay: have you any suggestions on how 1 can safely ransom you?" E left the bandit stronghold It seemed that Jetta was holding her W just after nightfall that same breath with anxiety. But I answered day. There were five of us on the with an appearance of ready eagerness, X-Hyer. Jetta and De Boer, Hans and "Yes, I have. I can arrange it with Gutierrez and myself. The negotia- complete safety to you, if you give me tions with Hanley had come through a chance." satisfactorily; to De Boer, certainly, "You've got your chance. Speak for he was in a triumphant mood as out." they cast off the aero and we rose over "You promise you will return me the mist-hung depths. alive? Not hurt me?" It was part of my plan, this meager "De duvel—yes I You have my manning of the bandit ship. But it promise. But your plan had better be was mechanically practical : there was very good." only Hans needed at the controls for "It is." this short-time flight; with De Boer I told it carefully. The details of it plotting his course, working out his grew with my words. Jetta joined in last details—and with Gutierrez to it But, most of all, it did indeed guard me. sound feasible. "But it must be done De Boer had been quite willing to at once," I urged. "The weather is take no other men—and most of them right; to-night it will be dark; over- were too far gone in their cups to be cast; not much wind. Don't you think of much use. I never have fathomed so?" De Boer's final purpose. He promised He sent Gutierrez to the cave's in- Jetta now that when I was successfully strument room to read the weather ransomed he would proceed to Cape forecast instruments. My guess was Town by comfortable night flights and right. marry her. It pleased Gutierrez and "To-night then," I said. "If we Hans, for they wanted none of their linger, it only gives Hanley more time comrades. The treasure was still on the to plan trickery." flyer. The ransom gold would be "Let us try and raise him now," Jetta added to it. I think that De Boer, suggested. Gutierrez and Hans planned never to The Dutchman, Hans, had joined us. return to their band. Why, when the He too, seemed to think my ideas were treasure divided so nicely among three, good. break it up to enrich a hundred? Except for the guards at the cave I shall never forget Hanley's grim entrance, all the other bandits were face as we saw it that afternoon on far gone in drink. With Hans and De Boer's image-grid. My chief sat at Gutierrez, we went to the instrument his desk with all his location detec- ASTOUNDING STORIES ton impotent, listening to my disem- level, and no Lowland sea, nor any bodied voice explaining what I wanted settlements in the neighborhood. him to do. My humble, earnest, The time was set at an hour befort frightened desire to be ransomed safe- midnight. No mail, passenger 'at ly at all costs I My plea that he do freight flyers were scheduled to pan nothing to try and trap De Boer I near there at that hour, and, save for It hurt me to appear so craven. But some chance private craft, we wouM with it all, I knew that Hanley under- be undisturbed. The ransom gold wa stood. He could imagine my leering available to Hanley. He had said he captor standing at my elbow, prompt- would bring it in his personal Wasp. ing my words, dictating my very tone —prodding me with a knife in the ribs. THE details of the exchange were I tried, by every shade of meaning, to simple. Hanley, with only one convey to Hanley that I hoped to mechanic, would hover at the zero- escape and save the ransom money. height, his Wasp lighted so that «e And I think that he guessed it, though could see it plainly. The wind drift, he was wary in the tone he used for according to forecast, Would be De Boer to hear. He accepted, unhesi- southerly. At 11 P. M. Hanley would tatingly, De Boer's proposition; as- release from his Wasp a small helium- sured us he would do nothing to assail gas baloon-car—a ten-foot basket with De Boer; and never once did his grim the supporting gas bag above it, face convey a hint of anything but weighted so that it would slowly de- complete acquiescence. scend into the depths, with a southern drift. WE had President Markes on the Our flyer, invisible and soundless circuit. De Boer, with nothing would pick up the baloon-car at some to lose, promised to return Jetta with point in its descent. The gold would me. In gold coin, sixty thousand U. S. be there, in a black casket. Dc Boer dollar-standards for me; a third as would take the gold, deposit Jetta and much from Nareda, for Jetta. me in the car, and release it again. The details were swiftly arranged. And when the balloon finally settled to We cut the circuit. I had a last look the rocks beneath, Hanley could pick at Hanley's face as the image of it it up. No men would be hidden by faded. He seemed trying to tell me to Hanley in that basket. De Boer had do the best I could ; that he was pow- stipulated that when casting loose the erless, and would do nothing to balloon, its car must be swept by Han- jeopardize my life and Jetta's. Every- ley with a visible electronic ray. No thing was ready for the affair to be hidden men could withstand that blast I consummated at once. The weather Such was the arrangement with was right; there was time for Hanley Hanley. I was convinced that he in- and De Boer each comfortably to reach tended to carry it out to the letter. He the assigned meeting place. would have his own invisible X-flyer We flew, for the first hour, nearly in the neighborhood, no doubt. But it due west. The meeting place was at would not interfere with the safe 35 deg. N. by Sp deg. W., a few hun- transfer of Jetta and me. dred miles east by north of the fairy- That De Boer would carry out his like mountaintop of the Bermudas. part, Hanley could only trust. He had Our charts showed the Lowlands said so this afternoon bluntly. And there to run down to what once was De Boer had laughed and i interposed measured as nearly three thousand his voice in our circuit. fathoms called now eighteen thou- "Government money against these sand feet below the zero-height. A two lives, Hanley I Of course you km broken region, a depth-ridge fairly to trust met" JETTA OF THE LOWLANDS S37 IT was a flight, for us, of something reality. And my heart was pounding. less than four hours to the meeting Would Jetta and I succeed? Or was place. Hans was piloting, seated alone our love—unspoken love, bom of a in the little cubby upon the forward glance and the pressure of our hands wing-base, directly over the control in that moonlit Nareda garden—was room. De Boer, with Jetta at his our love star-crossed, foredoomed to side, worked over his course and tragedy ? A few hours, now, would watched his instrument banks. I was, tell us. at the start of the flight, lashed in a De Boer was taking no chances. He t chair of the control room, my ankles was using his greatest intensity of and wrists tied and Gutierrez guard- power, with every safeguard for com- ing me. plete invisibility and silence. From Jetta did not seem to notice me. She where I sat I could make out the black did not look at me, nor I at her. She, form of Hans through the ceiling grid, pretended interest only in the success at his pilot controls in the overhead of the transfer; in her father's treasure cubby. A queer glow like an aura was on board, the coming ransom money, around him. The same green radiance and then a flight to Cape Town, divid- suffused the control room. It could ing the treasure only with Hans and not penetrate the opened windows of Gutierrez; and in her marriage with the ship; could /not pass beyond the De Boer. She said she wanted me re- electro-magnetic field enveloping us. turned to Hanley alive ; craven coward Nor could the curious hum which per- that I was, still I did not deserve meated the ship's interior get past the death. De Boer had agreed. But I barrage barrier. From outside, I knew, knew that at last, as they tumbled me we were invisible and inaudible. into the basket, someone would slip a Strange unreality, here in the con- knife into met trol room! The black-garbed figures I had, as we came on board, just the of De Boer and Jetta at their table chance for a few whispered sentences were unreal, spectral. At the door with Jetta. But they were enough! -oval, which I could barely see, Gutier- Wc both knew what we had to do. rez lurked like a shadow. All of them, Desperate expedient, indeed! It and Hans in the cubby above, were seemed more desperate now as the time garbed in tight-fitting dead-black suits approached than it had when I planned of silklene fabric. Thin, elastic as It. sheer silk web, opaque, lustreless. It The weather at 7 P. M. was heavily covered their feet, legs and bodies ; and overcast. Sultry, breathless, with solid, their arms and hands like black, silk wide-flung cloud areas spread low over gloves. Their heads were helmeted the zero-height. Night settled black with it. And they had black masks in the Lowlands. The mists gathered. which as yet were flapped up "and fas- We flew well down—under the tened to the helmet above their fore- minus two thousand-foot level—so heads. Their faces only were exposed, that out of the mists the highest dome tinted a ghastly, lurid green by this peaks often passed close beneath us. strange light. It glowed and glistened like phosphorescence on their eyeballs, AT 8 P.M. De Boer flung on the making them the eyes of animals in a mechanism of invisibility. The in- hunter's torchlight, at night. terior of the ship faded to its grue- some green darkness. My senses DE BOER moved upon an errand reeled as the current surged through across the control room. He was me. Lashed in my chair, I sat strain- a burly black spectre in the skin-tight ing my adjusting eyes, straining my suit. His footfalls faintly sounded on hearing to cope with this gruesome un- the metal floor. They were toneless 338 ASTOUNDHMft STORIES footfalls. Unreal They might have as he approached me with the bag, « been belli, or jangling thuds : they bad though he were thinking of that sileat lost their identity in this soundless, knife thrust he would give me at tin vibrating hum. last. And he spoke, "We are making good De Boer said, "Stand up. Grant* progress, Jetta. We will be on time." He cut the fastenings that held* me hi Ghastly voice I So devoid of every my chair. But my ankles and writti human timbre, every overtone shade to remained tied. give it meaning, that it might have "Stand up, can't you?" been a man's voice, or a woman's, the "Yes." voice of something living, or some- thing dead. Sepulchral.' A stripped I GOT unsteadily to my feet Is shell of voice. Yet to me, inside here the blurred green darkness I could with it, it was perfectly audible. see that Jetta was not looking at me. And Jetta said, "Yes, Hendrick, that Gutierrez held the mouth of the sack is good." open. As though I were an upright A voice like his: no different. log of wood, De Boer lifted me. Crewsome. Weird. "Pull it up over his feet, Gutierrez." The oblong sack was longer than my I TRY now to picture the scene in body. They drew it over me, and detail, for out of these strange bunched its top over my head. And conditions Jetta and I were to make De Boer laid me none too gently on our opportunity. the floor. 9 P. M. De Boer was a methodical "Lie still. Do you get enough air?" fellow. He checked his position on the "Yes." chart. He signalled the routine orders The black fabric was sufficiently to Hans. And he gestured to Gutierrez. porous for me to breathe comfortably The movements and acts of everyone inside the sack. had been definitely planned. And this, "AH right, Gutierrez. I have the too, Jetta and I had anticipated. gag-" "Time to make him ready, Gutierrez. I felt them carrying me from the Bring the sack in here. I'll fasten him control room, twenty feet or so along away." the corridor, where a door-portc I was not garbed like the others. opened to a small balcony runway hong - They could move out on the wing run- beneath the forward wing. Jutting way under, Hajrieyi eyes at short from if was a little take-off platform range, or cjimb in and out of the bal- some six feet by twelve in size. It was looiv-caifand not be visible. here that the balloon-basket was to be Gutierrez brought the sack. A dead- boarded. The casket containing the black fabric. ransom gold would be landed here, and "Shall I cut him loose now from his the sack containing me placed in the chair. Commander?" car and cast loose. It was all within "I'll do it." the area of invisibility of our flyer. De Boer drew a long knife blade, De Boer knelt over me, and drew coated black, and thin and sharp as a back the top of the sack to expose my half-length rapier. Gutierrez had one face. of similar fashion. No electronic "A little gag for you. Grant, so yen weapons were in evidence, probably will not be tempted to call out." because the hiss of one fired would "I won't do that." would have been too loud for our bar- "You might. Well, good-by, Anter-, rage, and its flash too bright. But a ican." knife thrust is dark and silent I "Good-by." And I breathed, "Good- The Spaniard's eyes were gleaming by, Jetta." Would I ever see km — — JETTA OF THE LOWLANDS again? Was this the end of every- "Well you say it, Seflorita. In half 1 thing for us? an hour now, we will be away. Santa Maria, when this is over I shall breathe HE forced the gag into my mouth, with more comfort 1" tied it, and verified that my "We'll have no trouble, Gutierrez. inkles and wrists were securely We're almost there. In ten minutes lashed. In the green radiance he and now, or a litle more." Gutierrez were like ghouls prowling "So soon? What time is it?" over me, and their muffled toneless "Well, after half-past ten. When voices, tomblike. it's over, Gutierrez, we head for Cape The sack came up over my head. Town. Clever of me, don't you think, "Good-by, Grant." I could not tell to persuade Hendrick to take us to which one said it. And the other Cape Town? Just you three men to chuckled. divide all this treasure. It would be I could feel them tying the mouth of foolish to let a hundred others have the sack above my, head. I lay stiff. it." Then I heard their steps. Then silence. "True, Nina; true enough." I moved. I might have rolled, but I "I insisted upon you and Hans did not try it. I could raise my knees Gutierrez, what is that?" within the sack—double up like a A silence. folded pocket knife—but that was all. "I heard nothing." A long, dark silence. It seemed in- "A voice, was it?" terminable. Was Gutierrez guarding "The Americano?" me here in the corridor ? I could not "Not No—the commander calling? tell; I heard nothing save the vague Was it? Calling you, Gutierrez? Per- hum of the electronite current. haps we have sighted Hanley's Wasp. It had been 9 o'clock. Then I fan- Got I'll stand here, and come quickly cied that it must be 10. And then, back." perhaps, almost 11. I wondered what the weather outside was like. Soon we FOOTSTEPS. Now I Our chance, would be nearing the meeting place. come at last I I twisted over on Would Hanley be there ? Would Jetta my side, and lay motionless. Ah, if won, very soon now, be able to do her only those were Gutierrez' fading foot- part? I listened, horribly tense, with falls I And Jetta, here alone with me every interval between the thumps of in the green darkness! Just for this my heart seeming so long a gap of one vital moment. waiting. Fingers were fumbling at the top of my sack, unfastening the cord. Hands I HEARD a sound I A toneless, un- and arms came swiftly in. Fingers identifiable sound. Another like it ; ran down my back as I lay on my side a little sequence of faint sounds. to admit them quickly. Fingers went Growing louder. Approaching foot- futrabling at the cords that lashed my steps? Jetta's? I prayed so. crossed wrists behind me. A *knee Then a low voice. Two voices. pressed against me. A hurried, pant- Both the same in quality. But from ing, half sobbing breath close over the words I could identify them. me "Hello, Gutierrez." Just a hurried moment. The hands "Nina, hello." withdrew. The sack went back over Jetta 1 She had cornel my head. The knees, the slight weight "The captive is safe? No trouble?" against me, was gone. A few seconds "No. He has not moved." only. "Careful of him, Guttierrez. He is Footsteps. The voices again. worth a lot of money to us." "Was it the commander, Gutierrez?" " 240 ASTOUNDING STORIES "No. I do not know what it was. voice; "The Wasp is in sight, Guties* Nothing, probably." rezl" "The Wasp in eight?" A movement—a sound like foot- "Not yet, Nina. You had best go steps. Probably Gutierrez moving to back: De Boer, he might be jealous of the corridor window to glance at us, no? He is busy with his instru- Hanley's distant hovering flyer. I ments, but should he realize you are hoped it might be that : I had to take here, talking with me— the chance. "Senseless, Gutierrez I" "Is it so, Nina? I have no attraction? SLID the bag from my face. I I Go back to him. Gold I want, not feared an abrupt alarm, or Gutier- trouble over you I" rez leaping upon me. But there was Faint laughter. silence, and I saw his vague dark out- "When we Bight the Wasp, I'll call lines at the window oval, five feet from and tell you, Gutierrez. Too bad you me. won't let me stay with you. I like I got my ankles loose and slid the you." bag off. I was unsteady on my feet, "Yes. But go now I" but desperation aided me. Faint laughter. Footsteps. Then Gutierrez half turned as I gripped silence. him from behind. My hand on his Our vital moment had come and mouth stifled his outcry. His black passed. And Jetta had done her part; knife blade waved blindly. Then my the rSle of action upon this dim lurid clenched knuckle caught his temple, stage was now mine to play. and dug with the twisting Santus blow. Hy hands were free. I was expert at it, and I found the vulnerable spot. CHAPTER XVIII He crumpled in my - grasp, and I slid his falling body across the narrow The Combat in the Green Darkness corridor into the nearest cubby oval. ANOTHER interval. A dead, dark Almost soundless; and in the con- silence. I did not dare move. trol room Jetta and De Boer were mur- Gutierrez was here, within a few feet muring and gazing at Hanley's ship, of me, probably. I wondered if he which hung ahead and above us at the could see the outlines of the black zero-height. sack. Doubtless they were very vague. I had planned all my movements. No But if I exposed my flesh, my face, my motion was lost. Gutierrez was about hands, that would at once attract his my height and build. I stripped his attention. black suit from him, donned it, then I worked the loosened cords from tied his ankles and wrists, and gagged my wrists; moved my stiffened hands him against the time when he would until, with returning blood, the recover consciousness. Then I stuffed strength came to them. I could not his body in the sack and tied its top reach my bound ankles without This black suit had a mask, rolled up doubling up my knees. I did not dare and fastened to the helmet. I loosed chance such a movement of the sack. it, dropping it over my face. Knife in But, after a moment, I got my hands hand, I stood at the corridor window. in front of me. Then I took the gag from my IT was all black outside. The clouds mouth, and, with a cautious hand, pried were black overhead; the highest at the top of the sack where it was Lowland crags, several thousand feet bunched over my head. Its fastening beneath us, were all but blotted out in was loose. the murky darkness. Only one thing Another interval. A dim muffled was to be seen: a quarter of a nttli : JETTA OP THE LOWLANDS 341 (head, now, and a thousand feet higher Hans. I must await my chance to get than our level, the shining, birdlike them together. outlines of Hanley's hovering little "Gutierrez 1 Hans, get us under it I Wasp. It stood like a painted image Gutierrez I" of an aero, alone on a dead-black back- The vague outline of De Boer came ground. Red and green signal-lights toward me in the corridor, burly dark dotted it, and on its stern tip a small, blob. His mask was down now. There ipreading searchlight bathed the wings were points of light, glowing like faint and the body with a revealing silver distant stars, to mark his eyes. radiance. "Gutierrez." Our forward flight had been checked, "Yes." and we, too, were hovering. Hans A small black figure followed after doubtless would remain for a time in him. Jetta. the pilot cubby; De Boer and Jetta "Yes, De Boer." I stood over the were in the control room. It was only sack. "I am ready." twenty feet away, but I could barely De Boer's giant shape towered be- ee its oval entrance. side me. Nowl My knife thrust now I "Gutierrez I" But Hans was coming toward us. He One of them was calling. My hollow would take alarm before I could reach empty voice echoed back as I softly him. responded "Open the side porte, Gutierrez. "Yes?" Hurry, the car is here. Hans, you "Be ready. We are arrived." should have stayed up there I" Tea, Commander. All is well." "The drift is calculated ; the car is I continued to stand at the window. just here." Hanley's little balloon-car was visible We were all swift-moving shadows; now. Then he cut it away. We had disembodied voices. moved forward in the interval. The "Get that porte open." tiny car-floated out almost above us. "Yes." I opened it. My gaze searched the void of dark- bcm outside. Did Hanley have an in- E went outside on the runway. visible flyer out there? Perhaps so. W I passed close to Jetta, and just But it could accomplish nothing as for an instant pressed my gloved yet. It would not even dare approach, fingers on the black fabric of her arm for fear of collision with us. —and she knew. "Now, seize it." THE tiny car, with a white pilot "Here, Hans, climb up." light in it, swayed with a slow "I have it. Pull it, Gutierrez I" descent. The basket beneath the sup- The car drifted at us from the black porting balloon oscillated in a wide void. We caught it. •wing, then steadied. A sudden flash "Hold it, Gutierrez." showed up there—a flashing electronic "Hans, clip the balloon. Up with stream, from Hanley's Wasp to the bas- you." ket. The shot swept the basket in- In the blurred haste, I could not get terior. No one could be hidden there them together.' I did not want to kill and survive. one and have the other leap upon me. It was Hanley's proof to us that he We fastened the little balloon and was following instructions. dragged the car onto the take-off plat- "Hah ! He obeys properly, Jetta I" form. The shape of Hans leaped into The voice floated back to me from the car. "the control room. Could I creep in "It is here I The ransom money I" there, surprise De Boer now, and kill "Lift it to me. Heavy ?" him? Doubtless. But it would alarm "Yes." " " 242 ASTOUNDING STORIES "Gutierrez, help me. —Hurry I If "Philip, look out for him!" Hanley tries any trickery "Hah I The American. By damn, Our aero was drifting downward and what is this?" southward in the slight wind. Hanley's It gave De Boer pause. He gripped Wasp still hovered at the zero-height. a wing stay-wirjr for a second. "In, Gutierrez." Then he came with a rush. The corridor door was open behind HANS and I hauled out the heavy me. I flung myself into it—and col- casket and placed it on the wing lided with a shape. runway. De Boer pried up its lid. The "Philip I" gold was there. I could not tell where t shoved at her frantically. Jetta was; I prayed she would keep "Jetta, get back! Away from usl" away from this. I pulled at her, half falling. De Then the shape of De Boer was miss- Boer's shape came through the door- 1 ing I But in a moment he appeared, way into the corridor. And was dragging the sack. blotted out in the green darkness u "Lift him, Gutierrez. Hans, unclip he turned the other way, to avoid me the balloon and shove off the car!" if I struck. , We were all standing at the two- A silence. The shadow of Jetta was foot rail of the runway. The car-bas- behind me. I stood with poi&ed knife, ( ket, floating now, was off side and listening, straining my eyes through level with us. My chancel the faint green darkness. De Boer was "In with him, Gutierrez." here, knife in hand, fallen now into I encased its craftly, shoved- the body, in motionless silence, j He might black sack, with Hans helping me. have been close here down 1 the corri- And suddenly De Boer's knife came dor. Or in any one of these nearby down at the sack I A stab. But an in- cubby doorways. stinct to save the poor wretch within I slid forward along the wall. The swept me. I struck at De Boer's arm corridor was solid black down its ind deflected the blow. The sack length: the green radiance seemed rumbled into the car. brighter at the control room behind I had neglected whatever chance had me. Had De Boer gone into this solid existed. Too late now I blackness, to lure me? "What in the hell I" De Boer's shape seized me. I STOPPED my advance. Stood "What— again, trying to see or hear some- It sent me into a sudden confusion. thing. . I flung him off. I stumbled against the And then I saw him I Two small shape of Hans. glowing points of light. Distant stars. The car was almost loose; drifting His eyes I Five feet ahead of me? Or away. ten? Or twenty? Without thought—a frantic impulse A rustle. A sound. —I pushed Hans over the brink. He His dark form materialized as he fell into the car. It swayed ikto an came—a huge, black blob overwhelm- oscillation with the impact. TnVial- i ing me, his arm- and knife blade strik- loon sank below our wing level and ' ing. * was gone, with only Hans, muffled I dropped to the floor-grid, and hii shouts floating up. blade went over me. And as I dropped, I struck with an upward thrust. My AND De Boer came leaping at me knife met solidity; sank into flesh. from behind. I whirled around. I twisted past him on the floor as he My danger was loo much for the fell. My knife was gone: buried in watching Jetta. She screamed. him. " JETTA OF THE LOWLANDS 243 Words were audible; choking gasps. forms, came rushing forward and I could see his form rising, staggering. greeted us. The open porte was near him; he We were an hour locating De Boer's iwayed through it. flyer, for all that Jetta and I had just Did he know he was mortally left it and thought we could find our wounded? I think so. He swayed on way back. But we stumbled onto it at the wing runway, and I slid to the last. Hanley felt his way aboard and door and stood watching. And was brought it to visibility. It has since ware of the shadow of Jetta creeping been returned to the Anti-War Depart- to join me. ment, with the compliments of Han- "Is he—?" ley's Office. "Quiet, Jetta." The ransom money was restored to He stood under the wing, swaying, its proper source. Spawn's treasure of gripping a stay. Then his voice radiumized quicksilver we shipped sounded, and it seemed like a laugh. back to Nareda, where it was checked "The craven American—wins." —He and divided, and Jetta's share legally moved a step. "Not too see—me die awarded to her. He toppled at the rail. "Good-by, De Boer was dead when Hanley Jrtra." found him that night on the rocks. A great huddled shadow. A blob, Jetta and I did not go to look at toppling, falling. . . . him. . . . Far down there now the crags and The balloon basket landed safely. peaks of the Lowland depths were Hanley and his men were down there risible. The darkness swallowed his in time to seize it. Hans was caught; whirling body. We could not hear the and Gutierrez, within the sack, was Impact. found to be uninjured. They are in- carcerated now in Nareda. They were CHAPTER XIX willing to tell the location of the ban- dit stronghold. A raid there the fol- Episode of the Lowlands lowing day resulted in the capture of THERE is but little remaining for most of De Boer's men. me to record. I could not operate All this is now public news. You the mechanism of invisibility of De have heard it, of course. Yet in my Boer's X-flyer. But its pilot controls narrative,, setting down the events as were simple. With Jetta at my Bide, I lived them, I have tried to give more trembling now that our gruesome task vivid details than the bare facts as was over, we groped our way through they were blared through the public the green darkness and mounted to the audiphbnes. pilot cubby. And within ten minutes An episode of the strange, romantic, I had lowered the ship into the depths, fantastic Lowlands. A very unim- found a landing place upon the dark portant series of incidents mingled rocks, and brought us down. with the news of a busy world—just a Hanley's Wasp had landed : we saw few minutes of the newscasters' time its lights half a mile from us. And to tell how a band of depth smugglers then the lights of another ship—an was caught. X-flyer convoying Hanley—slowly But it was a very important episode materializing nearby. to me. It changed, for me, a clanking, And then .reunion. Jetta and I left thrumming machine-made world into a De Boer's invisible vessel and clam- shining fairyland of dreams come true. bered over the rocks. And presently It gave me little Jetta. '-Hanley, staring at our grotesque blackXXX (The End) Vagabonds of Space A COMPLETE NOVELETTE By Had Vincent CHAPTER I that's all. Since 2317 you've had me The Nomad sitting at the helm of International Airways and live worked my fool head GATHERED around a long ta- off for you. Now—get someone else I" ble in a luxuriously furnished "Made plenty of money yourself, director's room, a group of didn't you, Carr?" asked one of the men listened in astonishment directors, a corpulent man with a self- to the rapid and forceful speech of one satisfied countenance. of their number. "Sure I did. "I tell you I'm That's not the through, gentle- From the depths of the Sargasso Sea of point. I've done Space came the thought-warning, "Turn averred the all work. men," back !" But Carr and hit Martian friend the speaker. "I'm fed found it was too lata I There's not an- up with the job, other executive 244 Carr went mad with jury. There it was, loomime dose im his visiom. in the outfit whose job is more than a ies pro rata, based on your individual title, and you know it. I want a change holdings. But I reserve the right to and a rest. Going to take it, too. So, dump it all on the market at the first go ahead with your election of officers sign of shady dealings. That suit and leave me out." you?" "Your stock?" Courtney Davis, The recalcitrant young President of chairman of the board, sensed that International Airways had risen from Carr Parker meant what he said. the table. The chairman attempted to Til hold ifc The rest of you can restrain him. vote it as you choose : divide the prox- "Come on now, Carr, let's reason this " 246 ASTOUNDING STORIES out. Perhaps if you just took a leave forests ; hunting ; fishing. But the for. jf absence— ests were gone, the streams enslaved "Call it anything you want. I'm by the power monopolies. There were Jone right now." only the cities—and barren plains. Carr Parker stalked from the room, Everything in life was made by man, leaving eleven perspiring capitalists to artificial. argue over his action. SOMETHING drew his eyes upward HE rushed to the corridor^nd ner- and he spotted an unusual object vously pressed the call button of in the heavens, a mere speck as yet but the elevators. A minute later he drawing swiftly in from the upper air emerged upon the roof of the Airways lanes. But this ship, small though it building, one of the tallest of New appeared, stood out from amongst its York's mid-town sky-scrapers. The fellows for some reason. Carr rubbed air here, fifteen hundred feet above the his eyes to clear his vision. Was it? hot street, was cool and fresh. He Yes—at was—surrounded by a lumin- walked across the great flat surface of ous haze. Notwithstanding the brilli- the landing stage to inspect a tiny heli- ance of the afternoon sun, this haze copter which had just settled to a land- was clearly visible. A silver shimmer- ing. Angered as he was, he still could ing that was not like anything he had not resist the attraction Tfiese trim lit- seen on Earth. The ship swung in to- tle craft had always held for him. The ward the city and was losing altitude feeling was in his blood. rapidly. Its silvery aura deserted it His interest, however, was short and the vessel was revealed' as a sleek, lived and he strolled to the observation tapered cylinder with no wings, rud- aisle along the edge of the landing ders or helicopter screws. Like the stage. He stared moodily into the hea- giant liners of the Interplanetary Ser- vens where thousands of aircraft of all vice it displayed no visible means of descriptions sped hither and yon. A support or propulsion. This was no huge liner of the Martian route was- , ordinary vessel. dropping from the skies and drifting Carr watched in extreme interest at toward her cradle on Long Island. He it circled the city in a huge Spiral, set- looked out over the city to the north: tling lower at each turn. It seemed fifty miles of it he' knew stretched that the pilot was searching for a defin- along the east shore of the Hudson. ite landing stage. Then suddenly it Greatest of the cities of the world, it swooped with a rush. Straight for the housed a fifth of the population of the stage of the Airways building! The United States of North America; a strange aura reappeared and the little third of the wealth. vessel halted, in mid-air, poised a mo- Cities! The entire world lived in ment, then' dropped gracefully and them! Civilization was too highly de- lightly as a feather to the level surface veloped nowadays. Adventure was a not a hundred feet from where he thing of the past. Of course there stood. He hurried to the spot to ex- were the other planets. Mars and amine the strange craft. Venus, but they were as bad. At least "Mado!" he exclaimed in surprise as he had found them so on nil every busi- a husky, bronzed Martian squeezed ness trip. He wished he had lived a through the quickly opened manhole couple of centuries ago, when the first and clambered heavily to the platform. space-ships ventured forth from, the Mado of Canax—an old friend! earth. Those were days of excitement "Devils of Terra!" gasped the Mar- and daring enterprise. Then a man tian, his knees giving way, "—your I've could find ways of getting away from murderous gravity ! Here, help me. things—next to nature—out into the forgotten the energizing switch." — V VAGABONDS OF SPACS Vft CARR laughed as he gambled with Planet i 9, the farthest out from the a mechanism that was strapped to sun?" the Martian's back. Mado, who tipped "No-o." Carr*s eyes brightened the scales at over two hundred pounds somewhat. ea his own planet, weighed nearly six "Then you haven't seen anything or hundred here. His legs simply couldn't been anywhere. Trouble with you is carry the load I you've been in the rut too long. Think- There you are, old man." Parker ing there's nothing left in the universe had located the switch and a musical but the commonplace. Right, too, if purr came from the black box between you stick to the regular routes of tra- the 'Martian's broad shoulders. "Now vel. But the Nomad's different. I'm stand up and tell me what you're doing just a rover when I'm at her controls, here. And what's the idea of the pri- a vagabond in space—free as the ether vate ship? Come all the way from that surrounds her air-tight hull. And, home in it?" take it from me, there's something to His friend struggled to his feet with see and do out there in space. Off the m effort, for the field emanating from usual lanes, perhaps, but it's there." the black box required a few seconds "You've been out—how long?" Carr to reach the intensity necessary to hesitated. counteract two-thirds of the earth's "Eighty Martian days. Seen plenty gravity. too." He waved his arm in a gesture n "Thanks Carr, he grinned. "Yes, I that seemed to take in the entire uni- one all the way in that bus. Alone, verse. too-^and she's mine I What do you "Why come here, with so much to think of her?" be seen out there?" "A peach, from what I can see. But "Came to visit you, old stick-in-the- how come ? Not using a private space- mud," grinned Madjb, "and to try and lier on your business trips, are you?" persuade you to join me. I find you "Not on your life I I've retired. Go- footloose already. You're itching for ing to play around for a few years. adventure; excitement. Will you That's why I bought the Nomad." come?" "Retired I Why Mado, I just did the Carr listened spellbound. "Right same thing." now?" ne asked. "Great stuff I They've worked you to "This very minute. Come on." death. What are you figuring on doing "My bag." objected Carr, "it must be with yourself?" packed. I'll need funds too." Carr shrugged his shoulders resign- "BagJ What for? Plenty of duds on edly. "Usual thing, I suppose. Travel the Nomad—for any old climate. And aimlessly, and bore myself into old money—don't make me laugh I Vaga- age. Nothing else to do. No kick out bonds need money?" He backed to- of life these days at all, Mado, even in ward the open manhole of the Nomad, chasing around from planet to planet: still grinning. They're all the same." Carr hesitated, resisting the impulse to take Mado at his word. He looked THE Martian looked keenly at his around. The landing stage had been friend. "Oh, is that so?" he said. deserted, but people now were ap- "No kick, eh? Well, let me tell you, proaching. People not to be tolerated Carr Parker, you come with me and at the moment. He saw Courtney we'll find something you'll get a kick Davis, grim and determined. There'd out of. Ever seen the Sargasso Sea of be more arguments, useless but aggra- the solar system? Ever been on one of vating. Well, why not go? He'd de- the asteroids? Ever seen the other cided to break away. What better aid* of the Mood—Uranus—Neptune chance? Suddenly he dived for the 248 ASTOUNDING STORIES manhole of Mado's vessel; wriggled "TT'S a mystery ship. Invented and his way to the padded interior of the JL built by Thrygis, a discredited air-lock. He heard the clang of the scientist of my country. Spent a for- circular cover. Mado was clamping it tune on it and then went broke and tb its gasketed seat. killed himself. I bought it from the "Let's go I" he shouted. executors for a song. They thought it was a pile of junk. But the plans and CHAPTER II notes of the inventor were there and I studied 'em well. The ship is a marvel, Into the Heavens \ Carr. Utilizes gravitational attraction THE directors of International Air- and reversal as a propelling force and ways stared foolishly when they can go like the Old Boy himself. I've saw Carr Parker and the giant Martian hit two thousand miles a1 second with enter the mysterious ship which was a her." trespasser on their landing stage. They "A second I Why, that's, ten times at gazed incredulously as the gleaming fast as the regular liners) Must use i torpedo-shaped vessel arose majesti- whale of a lot of fuel. Arid where do cally from its position. There was no you keep it? The fuel, I mean." evidence of motive power other than a "Make it right on board. I'm telling sudden radiation from its hull plates you Carr, the Nomad has no equal of faintly crackling streamers of sil- She's a corker." very light. They fell back in alarm "I'll say she is. But what do yon as it pointed its nose skyward and ac- mean—make the fuel?" celerated with incredible rapidity, the "Cosmic rays. Everywhere in space silver-energy bathing them in its blind- you know. Seems they are the result ing luminescence. They burst forth in of violent concentrations of energy that excited recrimination when it vanished cause the birth of atoms. Thrygii into the blue. Courtney Davis shook doped out a collector of these rays that his fist after the departing vessel and takes 'em from their paths and con- swore mightily. centrates 'em in a retort where therc'i Carr Parker forgot them entirely a spongy metal catalyst that never de- when he clambered into the bucket seat teriorates. Here there is a reaction ta beside Mado, who sat at the Nomad's the original action out in "space and controls. He was free at last; free to new atoms are born, simple ones of probe the mysteries of outer space, to hydrogen. But what could be sweeter roam the skies with this Martian he for use in one of our regular atomic had admired since boyhood. motors? The energy of disintegration "Glad you came?" Mado asked his is used to drive the generators of the Terrestrial friend. artificial gravity field, and there yon "You bet. But tell me about your- are. Sounds complicated, but realty self. How you've been and how come isn't. And nothing to get out of whack yoli've rebelled, too? / I haven't seen either." / you for a long time, ,you know. Why, it's been years I" "TREATS the rocket motors and "Oh, I'm all right. Guess I got fed J_J bulky fuel of the regular linen up with things about the same way you a mile, doesn't it? But since when are did. Knew last time I saw you that you you a navigator, Mado?" were feeling as I did. That's why I "Don't need to be a navigator with came after you." the Nomad. She's automatic, once the "But this vessel, the Nomad. I didn't controls are set. Say we wish to visit know such a thing was in existence. Venus. The telescope is sighted on How does it operate? It seems quite that body and the gravity forces ad- different from the usual ether-liners." justed so we'll be attracted in mat VAGABONDS OF SPACE 249 direction and repelled in the opposite around for long as there was an awful direction. Then we can go to bed and pull from the mass. Had to use full forget it. The -movement of the body reversal of the gravity force to get in its orbit makes no difference because away." the force follows wherever it goes. "Now why didn't you tell me that See? The speed increases until the before? That's something to think opposing forces axe equal, when decel- about. Like the ancient days of ocean- eration commences and we gradually going ships on Earth." slow down until within ten thousand "Tell you? How could I tell you? miles of the body, when the Nomad You've been questioning me ever since automatically stops. Doesn't move I first saw you and I've been busy^very " either, until we awaken to take the con- minute answering you trols. How's that for simple?" Carr laughed and slid from his seat "Good enough. But suppose a wan- to the floor. He felt curiously light dering meteor or a tiny asteroid gets and loose-jointed. A single step car- in the way ? At our speed it wouldn't ried him to one of the stanchions of the have to be as big as your fist to go control cabin and he clung to it for a through us like a shot." moment to regain his equilibrium. "All taken care of, my dear Carr. I "What's wrong?" he demanded. "No told you Thrygis was a wiz. Such a internal gravity mechanism on the happenstance would disturb the deli- Nomad?" cate balance of the energy compensat- "Sure is. But it's adjusted for Mar- ors and the course of the Nomad would tian gravity. You'll get along, but it instantly alter to dodge the foreign wouldn't be so easy for me with Earth object. Once passed by, the course gravity. I'd have to wear the portable would again be resumed." C-ray all the time, and that's not so "Some ship, the Nomad!" Carr was comfortable. All right with you?" delighted with the explanations. "I'm "Oh, certainly. I didn't understand." old on her and on the trip. Where axe we now and where bound ?" CARR saw that his friend had un- strapped the black box from his MADO glanced at the instrument shoulders. He didn't blame him. Clad board. "Nearly a million miles he wasn't a Martian. It was mighty out and headed for that Sargasso Sea I inconvenient for them on Venus or told you about," he said. "It isn't vis- Terra. Their bodies, larger and of ible in the telescope, but I've got it double the specific gravity, were not marked by the stars. Out between the easily handled where gravity was near- orbits of Mars and Jupiter, a quarter of ly three times their own. The Venusi- a billion miles away. But we'll average ans and Terrestrials were more for- better than a thousand miles a second. tunate when on Mars, for they could Be there in three days of your time." become accustomed to the altered con- "How can there be a sea out there in ditions. Only had to be careful they •pace?" didn't overdo. He remembered vividly "Oh, that's just my name for it. Most a quick move he had made on his first peculiar thing, though. There's a vast, visit to Mars. Carried him twenty feet billowy sort of a cloud. Twists and to slam against a granite pedestal. Bad weaves around as if alive. Looks like cut that gave him, and the exextion i|* seaweed or something; and Carr, I the rarefied atmosphere had him gasp- wear there are things floating around ing painfully. in it. Wrecks. Something damn pe- He walked to one of the ports and culiar, anyway. I vow I saw a signal. peered through its .thick window. /People marooned there or something. Mado was fussing with the controls. Sorts scared me and I didn't stay The velvety blackness of the heavens; 250 ASTOUNDING STORIES the myriad diamond points of clear Mado, who had disclaimed all knowl- brilliance. Cold, too, it looked out edge of navigation, was. busy in the tur- there,<1%ad awesomely vast The sun ret with a sextant. He made rapid cal- and Earth had been left behind and culations based on its indications and could not be seen. But Carr didn't hurried to the controls. care. The heavens were marvelous "Find it?" Carr asked. when viewed without the obstruction "Yep. Be there in a half hour." of an atmosphere. But he'd seen them The nose of the vessel swung around /often enough on his many business and Mado adjusted the gravity energy trips to Mars and Venus. carefully. Carr glued his eye to the "Ready for bed?" Mado startled him telescope. with a tap on the shoulder. "See anything?" inquired Mado. "Why—if you say so. But you "About a million stars, that's all." haven't shown me through the Nomad "Funny. Should be dose by." yet." Then: "Yes I Yes I I see it!" Carr "All the time in the universe for that. exulted. "A milky cloud. Transparent Man, don't you realize you're free? almost. To the right a little morel" Come, let's grab some sleep. Need it The mysterious cloud rushed to out here. The ship'U be here when we meet them and soon was visible to the wake up. She's flying herself right naked eye through the forward port now. Fast, too." Their speed increased alarmingly and Carr looked at the velocity indicator. Mado cut off the energy. Seven hundred miles a second and still "What's that?" Mado stared white- accelerating I He felt suddenly tired faced at his friend. and when Mado opened the door of a "A voice I You hear it too?" sleeping cabin its spotless bunk looked _ "Yes. Listen I" very inviting. He turned in without ' Amazed, they gazed at each other. It protest. was a voice; yet not a sound came to their ears. The voice was in their own CHAPTER HI consciousness. A mental message I Yet each heard A Message and understood. There were no words, but clear mental images. THE days passed quickly, whether "Beware I" it seemed to warn. "Come measured by the Martian chronom- not closer, travelers from afar. There eter aboard the Nomad or by Carr*s is danger in the milky fleece before watch, which he was regulating to you I" match the slightly longer day of the red planet. He'was becoming proficient MADO pulled frantically at the in the operation of all mechanisms of energy reverse control. The the ship and bad developed a fondness force was now fully repelling. Still for its every appointment. the billowing whiteness drew nearer. Behind them the sun was losing much It boiled and bubbled with the ferocity of its blinding magnificence as it reced- of one of the hot lava cauldrons of ed into the ebon background of the Mercury. Changing shape rapidly, it firmament. The Earth was but one of threw out long streamers that writhed the countless worlds visible through and twisted like the arms of an octopus. the stem ports, distinguishable by its Reaching. Searching for victims! slightly greenish tinge. They had "God!" whispered Carr. "What is reached the vicinity of the phenomenon it?" of space Mado had previously dis- "Take warning," continued the voice covered. Carr "found himself seething that was not a voice. "A great ship, s with excitement as the Nomad was royal ship from a world unknown to brought to a drifting speed. you, now is caught in the grip of tma VAGABONDS OF SPACE 231 mighty monster. We can not escape, obtained from the full force of the md death draws quickly near. But we attracting or repulsive energies. They on warn others and ask that our fate darted this way, and that but always be reported to our home body." found themselves closer to the milky A sudden upheaval of the monstrous billows that now were pulsating in mass spewed forth an object that seeming eagerness to engulf the new bounced a moment on the rippling sur- victim. face and then was lost to view. A Once more came the telepathic warn- sphere, glinting golden against the ing, "Delay no longer. It is high time white of its awful captor. you turned back. You must escape to "The space-ship I" gasped Mado. "Ifs warn our people and yours. Even now vanished again I" the awful creature has us in its vitals, They hurtled madly in the direction its tentacles reaching through our shat- of this monster of the heavens, their tered walls, creeping and twining reverse energy useless. through the passages of our vessel. "We're lost, Mado." Carr was calm Crushing floors and walls, its demoniac sow. This was excitement with a ven- energies heating our compartment be- geance. He'd wished for it and here it yond belief. We can hold out no long- was. But he'd much rather have a er. Got Go quickly. Remember—the chance to fight for his life. Fine end- third satellite of the fifth planet—to ing to his dreams I the city of golden domes. Tell of our "Imps of the canals I The thing's fate. Our people will understand. ilivel" Mado hurled himself at the You—" controls as a huge blob of the horrible The voice was stilled. Mado groaned whiteness broke loose from the main as if in pain and Carr saw in that in- body and wabbled uncertainly toward stant that each knob and lever on the them. A long feeler reached forth and control panel glowed with an unearth- grasped the errant portion, returning ly brush discharge. Not violet as of k with, a vicious jerk. high frequency electricity, but red. Turn back I Turn back I" came the Cherry red as of heated metal. The eery warning from the golden sphere. emanations of the cosmic monster were "All is over for us. Our hull is crushed. at work on the Nomad. A glance 1 The air is pouring from our last com- through the forward port showed they partment. Already we find breathing had but a few miles to go. They'd be difficult Turn back I The third satel- in the clutches of the horror in min- lite of the fifth planet is our home. utes, seconds, at the rate they were Visit it, we beseech you, and report the traveling. Mado slumped in his seat, manner of our going. This vile crea- his proud head rolling grotesquely on ture of space has power to draw you his breast. He slid to the floor, help- to its breast, to crush you as we are less. crashed." CARR went mad with fury. It THE Nomad lurched and shuddered, couldn't be I This thing of doom drawn ever closer to the horrid was a creature of his imagination I But mass of the thing. A gigantic jellyfish, no—there it was, looming close in his that's what it was, a hundred miles vision. By God, he'd leave the mark across I Carr shivered in disgust as it of the Nomad on the vicious thing! throbbed anew, sending out those He remembered the ray with which the grasping streamers of its mysterious vessel was armed. He was in the pilot's material As the Nomad plunged to its seat, fingering controls that' blistered doom with increasing speed, Mado his hands and cramped his arms with tried to locate some spot in the uni- an unnameable force. He'd fight the verse where an extreme effect could be "brute I Full energy—head on—that ' 233 ASTOUNDING STORIES was the way to meet it. Why bother CHAPTER IV with the reversal? It was no use. Europa A blood-red veil obscured his vision. He felt for the release of the ray; HEN Carr opened his eyes h pulled the gravity energy control to W was to the normal lighting of full power forward. In a daze, groping his own sleeping cabin. The Nonut blindly for support, he waited for the was intact, though an odor of scorched shock of impact. The mass of that varnish permeated the air. They were monstrosity must be terrific, else why unharmed—as yet. He tUmed on hit had it such a power of attraction for side and saw that Mado was moving other bodies? Or was it that the thing about at the side of his couch. Good radiated energies unknown to science? old Mado! With a basin of water in Whatever it was, the thing would know his hand and a cloth. He'd been bath- the sting of the Nomad's ray. What- ing his face. Brought him to. He sit ever its nature^'animate or inanimate, it up just as Mado turned to apply the was matter. The ray destroyed matter. cloth anew. Obliterated it itterly. Tore the atoms "Good boy, Carr! All right?" smiled asunder, whitnng their electrons from the Martian. their orbi» with terrific velocity. "Little dizzy. But I'm okay." Can There>-*« some effect, that was cer- sprang to his feet where he wabbled tain I No great use perhaps. But a uncertainly for a moment. "But the crater would mark ths>last resting place Nomad?" he asked. "Is she—are we of the Nomad; a huge crater. Perhaps safe?" "Never safer. the nasty whiteness would close in overr What in the name of them later. But there'd be less of the1 Saturn did you do?" creature's bulk to menace other travel- Carr passed his hand across his eyes, ers in space. trying to remember. "The D-ray," he His head ached miserably; his body said. "I turned it on and dived ints was shot through and through with the thing with full attraction. Then— cramping agonies. The very blood in I forget Where is it—the thing, I his veins was liquid fire, searing his mean ?" veins and arteries with pulsing awful- "Look I" Mado drew him to the stem ness. He staggered from the control compartment. cabin; threw himself on his bunk. The Far behind them there shone a misty covers were electrified and clung to him wreath, a ring of drifting matter that like tissue to rubbed amber. The wall writhed and twisted as if in mortal of the sleeping cabin 'vibrated with a agony. screeching note. The floors trembled. "Is that it?" Madness! That's all it wast He'd "What's left of it. You shot your awaken in a moment. Find himself in way through it ; through and out of its his own bed at home. He'd dreamed of influence. D-ray must have devitalized adventures before now. But never of the thing as it bored through. Killed such as this I It just couldn't happen I its energies—for the time, at least." A nightmare—fantasy of an over-tired Already the thing was closing is. brains-it was. Soon there would be a solid mass 11 There came a violent wrench that before. But the Nomad was saved. must have torn the hull plates from "How about yourself?" asked Carr their bracings. The ship seemed to anxiously. "Last time I saw you you close in on him and crush him. A ter- were flat on the floor." rific concussion flattened him to the "Nothing wrong with me now. A bit bunk. Then all was still. Carr Park- stifr and sore, that's all. When I came er's thoughts broke short abruptly. He to I put all the controls in neutral and had slipped into unconsciousness. came looking for you. I Was scared. VAGABONDS OP SPACE 2S3 bat the thing's all over now, so let's go." where disassembled electrons from "Where?" their cosmic-ray hydrogen were reas- "Europa." sembled in the proper structure to pro- "Where's that?" duce atoms of any desired element. "Don't you remember? The third Their supply of synthetic food could dtellite of the fifth planet. That's be replenished in like manner when Europa, third in distance from Jupiter, necessity arose. Thrygis had forgotten the fifth planet. It is about the size of nothing. Terra's satellite—your Moon. We'll "How do you suppose we'll make our- find the city of the golden domes." selves understood to the people of Europa?" asked Carr, when they had CARR'S eyes renewed their sparkle. swung around the great orb of Jupiter "Right I" he exclaimed, "i forgot and were headed toward the satellite. the mental message. Poor devils! All "Shouldn't have any trouble, Carr. over for them now. But we'll carry Believe me, to a people who have prog- their message. How far is it?" ressed to the 'point of sending mental "Don't know yet till I determine our messages over five hundred miles of position and the position of Jupiter. space, it'll be a cinch, understanding But it's quite a way. Jupiter's 483 our simple mental processes. Bet million miles from the Sun, you know." they'll read our every thought." "We're more than half way, then." "That's right. But the language. "Not necessarily. Perhaps we're on Proper names and all that. Can't get the opposite side of the sun from (hose over with thought waves." Jupiter's present position. Then we'd "No, but I'll bet they'll have some have a real trip." way of solving that too. You wait and "Let's figure it out." Carr was anx- see." ious to be off. Carr lighted a cigar and inhaled Luck was with them, as they found deeply as he gazed from one of the after some observations from the tur- ports. He'd never felt better in his life. ret. Jupiter lay off their original course Always had liked Martian tobacco, too. by not more than fifteen degrees. It Wondered what they'd do when the was but four days' journey. supply ran out. One thing they could- Again they were on their way and n't produce synthetically. The disc of the two men, Martian and Terrestrial, the satellite loomed near and it shone made good use of the time in renewing with a warmly inviting light. Almost their old friendship and in the study of red, like the color of Mars, it was. Sort "astronomy as they had done during the of golden, rather. Anyway, he won- first leg Of their journey. Though of dered what awaited them there. This widely differing build and nature, the was a great life, this roaming in space, two found a close bond in their similar unhampered by laws or conventions. inclinations. The library of the Nomad The Nomad was well named. was an excellent one. Thrygis had seen "Wonder what they'll think of our to that, all of the voice-vision reels be- yarn," he said. ing recorded in Cos, the interplanetary "And me. I wonder, too, what that language, with its standardized units ungodly thing was back there. The of weight and measurement. thing that is now the grave of some of their people. And what the golden THE supplies on board the Nomad 'sphere was doing so far from home. were ample. Synthetic foods there, It's a mystery." were for at least a hundred Martian days. The supply of oxygen and water THEY had gone over the ' same was inexhaustible, these essential items ground a hundred times and had being produced in automatic retorts not reached a satisfactory conclusion. ; 2S4 ASTOUNDING STORIES But perhaps they'd learn more in the the air—strange flapping-winged craft city of golden domes. that soared and darted like huge birdk "Another thing," said Carr, "that's Once one of them approached so close- puzzled me. Why is it that Europa ly they could see its occupants, seem- y has tttI Yt~~ discovered before this; ingly a people similar to the Venusiam, that it's inhabited, I mean ?" small of stature and slender. "Rocket ships couldn't carry enough "How in time are we to find this city fuel. Besides, our astronotners've al- of golden domes?" Carr ejaculated. ways told us that the outer planets As if in answer to his question then were too cold ; too far from the sun." came a startling command, another of "That is something to think about. the mental messages. Maybe we'll not be able to stand the "Haiti" it conveyed to their mind. low temperature ; thin atmosphere ; low "Continue not into our country until surface gravity." < we have communed with you." "We've our insulated suits ana the Obediently. Mado brought up the oxygen helmets for the first two objec- nose of the Nomad and slowed bet tions. The G-rays'll hold us down in down to a gradual stop. They hovered any gravity. But we'll see mighty at an altitude of about four thousand soon. We're here." feet, both straining their ears as if lis- They had entered the atmosphere as tening for actual speech. they talked and the Nomad was ap- "It is well," continued the message. proaching the surface in a long glide "Your thoughts are good. You come with repulsion full on. It was daytime from afar seeking the city of goldea on the side they neared. Pale daylight, domes. Proceed now and i fleet of oat but revealing. The great ball that was vessels will meet you and guide you to Jupiter hung low on the horizon, its our city." misty outline faintly visible against/ "Now wouldn't that jar you?" whis- the deep green of the sky. pered Carr. "Just try to get away with anything- on this world." THE surface over which they Mado laughed as he started the gen- skimmed was patchworked with erators of the propelling energy. "I'd farm-lands and crisscrossed by gleam- hate to have a wife of Europa," he com- ing ribbons. Roadways! It was like mented. "No sitting - up - with - sick - the voice-vision records of the ancient friend story'could get by with herr days on Mars and Terra before their peoples had taken to the air. Here was CHAPTER V a body where a person could get out in The City of Golden Domes the open ; next to nature. They crossed a lake of calm green water fringed by WITH the Nomad cruising slowly golden sands. At its far side a village over the surface of the peaceful spread out beneath them and was gone satellite, Mado sampled the atmosphere a village of broad pavements and cir- through a tube which was provided for cular dwellings with flat rooms, each that purpose. The pressure was low, with its square of ground. A golden as they had expected; about twenty mountain range loomed in the back- inches of mercury in the altitude at ground; vanished beneath them. More which they drifted. But the oxygen fields and roads. Everywhere there content was fairly high and the impuri- were yellows and reds and the silver ties negligible. A strange element was sheen of the roads. No green save that somewhat in evidence, though Mado'i of the darkening sky and the waters of analysis showed this to be present i> the streams and ponds. It was a most bat minute quantity. They ppened the inviting panorama. porta and drew their first breath of the Occasionally they passed a vessel of atmosphere of Europa. VAGABONDS OF SPACE 2SS "Good air, Carr." Mado was sniffing Another mountain range loomed It one of the ports. "A bit rare for you, close and' was gone. On its far Bide lot I think you'll get along with it. there stretched the desolate wastes of Temperature of forty-five degrees. a desert, a barren plain that expended That's not so bad. The strangest thing in all directions to the horizon. Wind- the gravity. This body isn't much swept, it was, and menacing beneath gore than two thousand miles in diam- them. Europa was not all as they had eter, yet its gravity is about the same first seen it. on Venus—seven eigths of that of A glimmer of brightness appeared at Terra. Must have a huge nickel-iron the horizon. The fleet was reducing core." speed and soon they saw that theif "Yes. It'll be a cinch for me. But journey was nearly over. At the far you, you big lummox—it's the G-ray edge of the desert the bright spot re- for you as long as we're here." solved itself into the outlines of a city, "Uh-huh. You get all the breaks, the city of golden domes. Cones they don't you?" looked like, rather, with rounded tops Carr laughed. He was becoming anx- and fluted walls. The mental message ious to land. "What sort of a reception had conveyed the most fitting descrip- do you suppose we'll get?" he said. tion possible without words or picture. "Not bad, from the tone of that last The landing was over so quickly that message. And here they come, Carr. they had but confused impressions of Look—a dozen of them. A royal recep- their reception. A great square in the tion, so far." heart *>f the city, crowded with people. Suddenly they were in the midst of Swooping maneuvers of hundreds of i flock of great birds; birds that flapped the bird-like ships. An open space for their golden wings to rise, then soared their arrival. The platform where a and circled like the gulls of the ter- committee awaited them. The king, or restrial oceans. And these mechanical at least he seemed to be king. The sea birds were fast. Carr and Mado watch- of upturned faces, staring eyes. ed in fascination as they strung out in V formation and led the way in the MADO fidgeted and opened his direction of the setting sun. Six, sev- mouth to voice a protest but en hundred miles an hour the Nomad's Carr nudged him into silence. The indicator showed, as they swung in be- king, had risen from his seat in the hind these ships of Europa. circle on the platform and was about to address them. There was no repetition THEY crossed a large body of water, of the telepathic means of communica- a lake of fully five hundred miles tion. in width. More country then, hardly "Welcome, travelers from the inner populated now and with but few of the planets," said the king. \ He spoke Cos gleaming roadways. The sun had set, perfectly I "Cardos, emperor of the but there was scarcely any diminution body you call Europa, salutes you. Our of the light for the great ball that was scientists have recorded youi thoughts Jupiter reflected a brilliance of far with their psycho-ray apparatus and greater intensity than that of the full have learned that you have a message Moon on a clear Terrestrial night. A for us, a message we fear is not pleas- marvelous sight the gigantic body pre- ant. Am I correct?" sented, with its alternate belts of gray- Carr stared at the soft-voiced mon- blue and red and dazzling white. And arch of this remarkable land. It was h hung so low and huge in the heavens incredible that he spoke in the uni- that it seemed one had but to stretch versal language of the inner planets I forth a hand to touch its bright sur- "Your Highness," he replied, "is cor- ' face. rect. We have a message. But it 256 Astounding stories amazes us that you are familiar with the people of Europa, and strangely at our language." tractive in the light of the mother shall explain later. Mean- planet. "That we s 1" while—the message Not a word was spoken when the; "The message," Carr said, "is not reached the abode of their guide. They pleasant. A golden sphere out in space. entered an elaborate hall and were Helpless in the clutches of a nameless whisked upward in an automatic* ele- m3nster, a vast creature of jelly-like vator. Detis ushered them into his suistance but possessed of enormous apartment when they alighted. He destructive energy. A mental message smiled gravely at their looks of won- our vessel warning us away and bid- der as they cast eyes on the maze of ding us to come here; to tell you of apparatus before them It was a labor- their fate. We escaped and here we atory rather than a living room in are." which they stood. The face of Cardos paled. He Detis led them to an adjoining room reached for an egg-shaped crystal that.—-where he bid them be seated. They reposed on the table ; spoke, -rapidly exchanged wondering glances as their into its shimmering depths. Hidden host paced the floor vigorously before amplifiers carried his voice throughout speaking further. the square in booming tones. It was a "Friends," he finally blurted, "I hope strange tongue he spoke, with many you'll excuse my emotion but the newt gutturals and sibilants. A groan came you brought is a terrible blow to me ai up from the assembled multitude. to all Europa. Carli, our prince, be- Cardos tossed the crystal to the table loved son of Cardos, was commander of with a resigned gesture, then tottered the ship you reported lost. We deeply and swayed. Instant confusion reigned mourn his loss." in the square and the emperor was as- sisted from the platform by two of his CARR and Mado waited in respect- retainers. They never saw him again. ful silence while their host made effort to control his feelings. ONE of the counsellors, a middle- "Now," he said, after a moment, "I aged man with graying russet hair can talk. You have many questions to and large gray eyes set in a perfectly ask, I know. So have I. But first I smooth countenance, stepped from the must tell you that Carli's was an expe- platform and grasped the two adven- dition to your own worlds. A grave turers as the confusion in the square danger hangs over them and he wai increased to an uproar. sent to warn them. He has been lost "Come," he whispered, in excellent Our only space-ship capable of making Cos; "I'll explain all to you in the quiet the journey also is lost. Six Martian of my own apartments. I am Detis, a years were required to build it, so I scientist, and my home is close by." fear the warning will never reach your .Gently he clung to them as the larger people. Already the time draws near." men forced their way between the mill- "A grave danger?" asked Mado. ing groups of excited Europans. No "What sort of a danger?" one gave them much attention. All "War I Utter destruction I Conquest seemed to be overcome with grief. A by the most warlike and ambitious terrible disaster, this loss of the golden people in the solar system." sphere must be I "Not the people of Europa?" asked They were out of the square and in Carr. one of the broad streets. The fluted "Indeed not. There is another in- •ides of the unpointed cones shone habited satellite of Jupiter, next far- softly golden on all sides. Alike in thest from the mother planet. Gany- every respect were these dwellings of. mede, you call it. It ia from there VAGABONDS OF SPACE 257 that these conquerors are to set forth." was anyway I Anyone'd think he'd "Many of them?" inquired Mado. never seen a woman in all his thirty- "Two million or so. They're pre- five years I \ pared to send an army of more than a "My daughter, On, gentlemen," said tenth of that number on the first expe- Detis. dition." The girl's eyes had widened as she "A mere handful!" Carr was con- looked at the huge Martian with the temptuous. funny black box on his back. They "True, but they are armed with the dropped demurely when turned to most terrible of weapons. Your people those of the handsome Terrestrial. are utterly unprepared and, unless "Oh," she said, in Cos, "I didn't know warned, will be driven from their cities you had callers." and left in the deserts to perish of hun- ger and exposure. This is a -real dan- CHAPTER VI ger." Vlor-uidin "Something in it, Carr, if what he Bays is true. We've no arms nor war- ^/TpHE time passed quickly in Pala- riors. Haven't had for two centuries. >L dar, city of the golden domes. You knoW it as well as I do." Detis spent many hours in the labora- "Bah I Overnight we could have a tory with his two visitors and the fair million armed^and ready to fight them O^a was usually at his side. She was off." an efficient helper to her father and a gracious hostess to the guests. DETIS raisej] his hand. "You The amazement of the visitors grew offend me," he said gravely. "I apace as the wonders of Europan sci- have told you this in good faith and ence were revealed to them. They sat you reward me with disbelief and by the hour at the illuminated screen boastful talk. Your enemies are more of the rulden, that remarkable astro- powerful than you think, and your own nomical instrument which brought the people .utterly defenceless against surfaces of distant celestial bodies them." within a few feet of their eyes, and the "I'm sorryi" Carr apologized, "and sounds of the streets and the jungles ni listen to all you have to say. Sure- to their ears. It was no longer a mys- ly your prince has not given his life in tery how the language of Cos had be- vain." He Was ashamed before this come so familiar to these people. scientist of Europa. They learned of the origin of the A tinkling feminine voice from the races that inhabited Europa and Gany- next room called something in the mede. Ages before, it was necessary Europan tongue. for the peoples of the then thickly pop- Detis raised his head proudly and ulated Jupiter to cast about for new his frown softened at the sound of homes due to the cooling of the surface dainty footsteps. His voice was a of that planet. Life was becoming un- caress as he replied. bearable. In those days there were two A vision of feminine loveliness stood dominant races on the mother body, a framed in the doorway and the visitors gentle and peaceful people of great rose hastily from their seats. Carr scientific accomplishment and a race of gazed into eyes of the deepest blue he savage brutes who, while very clever had ever seen. Small in stature though with their hands, were of lesser mental this girl of Europa was—not more than strength and of a quarrelsome and five feet tall—she had the form of a fighting disposition. goddess and the face of an angel. He Toward the last the population of was flushing to the roots of his hair. both main countries was reduced to but Could feel it spread. What an ass he a few survivors, and the intelligent —. 238 ASTOUNDING STORIES face had discovered a means of travers- preparations. Your people can not ing space and was prepared to leave combat their sound-ray. With it they the planet for the more livable satel- can remain outside the vision of those lite—Europa. Learning of these plans, on the surface and set the tall buildings the others made a treaty of perpetual of your cities in harmonic vibrations peace as a price for 'their passage to that will bring them down in ruins another satellite—Ganymede. The about the ears of the populace." migration began and the two satellites were settled by the separate bands of •VpHERE'LL be nothing left for pioneers and their new lives begun. X them to take if they destroy all our cities ; nowhere for them to, live. THE perpetual treaty had not been I don't get it." broken since, but the energies of "Only a few will be destroyed com- the warlike descendents of those first pletely, to terrify the rest of the in- settlers of Ganymede were expended habitants of your worlds. Others will in casting about for new fields to con- be depopulated by means of vibrations quer. Through the ages they cast in that will kill off the citizens without creasingly covetous eyes on those in- harming the cities themselves—vibra-] ner planets, Mara, Terra and Venus. tions which are capable of blanketing Not having the advantage of the Rul- a large area and raising the body tem- den, they knew of these bodies only perature of all living things therein to what could be seen through their own a point where death will ensue in a crude optical instruments and whzif very few minutes. Other vibrations they had learned by word of mouth will paralyze all electrical equipment from certain renegade Europans they on the planet and make it impossible were able to bribe. for your ships of the air to set-out to While their neighbors of the smaller give battle, even were they properly satellite were engaged in peaceful pur- armed." suits, tilling the soil and making ex- "Looks bad, Carr," said Mado glum- cellent homes for themselves, the dwellers an Ganymede were fashion- "It does that. We've got to go back ing instruments of warfare and build- and carry the warning." ing a fleet of space-ships to carry them "I fear it is too late," said Detis. to their intended victims. It was a re- "Much time will be needed in which to. ligion with them; they could think of develop a defense and surely it can not nothing else. An unscrupulous scien- be done within the three isini before tist of Europa sold himself to them they set forth—about four of your several generations previously and it days." was this scientist who had made the "They leave that soon?" Carr was plans for their space-fliers and had con- taken aback. trived the deadly weapons with which "Yes, with their one hundred and they were armed. He likewise taught twenty vessels; forty to each of your them the language of Cos and it now three planets; seventeen hundred men was spoken universally throughout to a vessel." Ganymede in anticipation of the glori- Carr jumped to his feet. "By the ous days of conquest. heat devils of Mercury!" he roared, "You honestly believe them able to "we'll go to their lousy little satellite do this?" asked Carr, still skeptical and find a way to prevent it I" after two days of discussion. "I know it as a certainty," Detis re- ORA gazed at his flushed face with plied solemnly. "It is only during the unconcealed admiration; past generation we have learned of the "You're crazy t" exploded Mado. completeness and awfulness of their "What can we do with the Nomad?" — VAGABONDS OF SPACE 259 "Her D-ray can do plenty of dam- his own way in moBt things and entire- ly unused to the ways of the gentler "Yes, but they'd have us down before Bex. He could have shaken the little we could account for five of their ves- vixen I But now she was standing be- sels. It's no use, I tell you." fore him and there was something in But Carr was stubborn. "We'll pay those great blue eyes besides anger; them a call anyway. I'll bet we can something that set his heart pounding dope out some way of putting it over madly. on them. Are you game ?" "All right 1" he agreed desperately, "Of course I'm game. I'll, go anyr ."have your own way." where you will. But it's a fool idea He turned on his heel and strode to just the same." the) door. Giving in to this slip of a "Maybe so. Maybe not. Anyway girl I What a fool he was I But it let's go." would be great at that to have her along "Just a moment, gentlemen," Deris in the Nomad. interposed. "How about me?" They found the public square desert- Carr stared at him and saw that his ed, the gilded dwellings hung with eyes shone with excitement. "Why, I somber colors in mourning for Carli. believe you'd like to go with us!" be Ora and Detis were very quiet and pre- exclaimed admiringly. occupied when they entered the Nom- "I would, indeed." ad. The five isini of lamentation for "Come on then. We're off." He was the young prince had not yet passed. impatient to be gone. The two Europans were delighted Detis busied himself with a small with the appointments and mechanisms tpparatus that folded into a compact of the little vessel from Mara. They cue, explaining that it was one that investigated every nook and cranny of might prove useful. Ora left the room its interior during the journey and bat quickly returned. She too carried were voluble in their praise of its in- email case, and she had donned a snug ventor and builder. Neither had ever fitting leather garment that covered her set foot in a space-flier and each was from neck t» knees. seized with a longing to explore apace "What's this?" demanded Carr. with these two strangers from the inner "Sorely Miss Ora does not intend to planets. They would make a couple of tome with us?" good vagabonds along with Mado and "She never leaves my side," said himself, Carr thought as they expressed Detis proudly. their feelings. But there was more "Nothing doing P* Carr stated em- serious -business at hand. They were phatically. "There'll be plenty of dan- nearing Ganymede. ger on this trip. We'll have no woman "Where'll we land, Detis?" Mado •long—least of all your charming called from the control cabin. daughter." "Vlor-urdin. That is their chief city. I'll guide you to the location." MADO was leaving everything to his friend, but he grinned in an- THEY took up their places at the ticipation when he saw the look of ports and scanned the surface of soger on the girl's face. the satellite as Mado dropped the ship She stamped her little foot and faced into its atmosphere. A far different Carr valiantly. "See here, Mr. Carr scene was presented than on Europa. Parker I" she stormed, "I'm no weak- The land was seamed and scarred, the ling. I'm the daughter of my father colors of the foliage somber. Grays and and where he goes I go. Youll take browns predominated and the jungles ne or I'll never speak to you again." seemed impenetrable. A river swung Can Bushed. He was accustomed to into view and its waters were black aa 2S0 ASTOUNDING STORIES the deepest night, its flow sluggish. A Evidently the influence of the" ray rank mist hung over the surface. was directive. They had no Inkling of "The river of Charisl" exclaimed the thoughts transmitted from the alert Detis. "Follow it, Mado. No, the brain of the scientist but, from the look other direction. There! It leads di- of satisfaction on his face, they could rectly to Vlor-urdin." see that he was obtaining the desired By good chance they had entered the contact. atmosphere at a point not far from "Rapaju," he exclaimed, switching their destination. In less than an hour off the power of his instrument, "com- by the Nomad's chronometer the towers mander of the fleet of the Llotta. I of Vlor-urdin were sighted. have advised him of our arrival. Told It was a larger city than Pala-dar him that a Martian and a Terrestrial and of vastly different appearance. A wish to treat with him concerning the hollow square of squat ^buildings en- proposed invasion of their planets. His closed the vast workshops and storage answering thought first was of fiercest space of the fleet of war vessels. Their rage, then conciliatory in nature. He'll huge spherical bulks rose from their receive you and listen to your argu- cradles in tier after tier that stretched ments, though he promises nothing. Is as far as the eye could reach when the that satisfactory?" Nomad had dropped to a level buy "Yes." Carr and Mado were agreed. slightly above the tips of the highest At least it would give them a chance to spires. The spires were everywhere, look over the ground and to make decorative towers at the corners of the plans, should any occur to them. squat buildings. Everything was black, The Nomad circled over the heart of the vessels of the fleet, the squat build- the city and soon Mado saw a suitable ings and the spires of Vlor-urdin. landing space. They settled gracefully Death was in the air. Rank vapor in an open area close by the building drifted in through the opened ports. indicated by Detis as that of the admin- There was silence in the city below istration officials of the city. them and silence in the Nomad. / Ora shuddered and drew closer Ao A GROUP of squat, sullen Llotta him. Carr was aware of her nearness awaited them and, without speak- and a ramp rose in his throat. A hor- ing a word either of 'hatred or welcome, rible fear assailed him. Fear for the led them into the forbidding entrance safety of the dainty Europan at his of the building. Close-set, beady eyes; side. He found her hand; covered it unbelievably flat- features of chalky protectingly with his own. whiteness; chunky bowed legs, bare and hairy; long arms with huge dan- CHAPTER VII gling paws—these were the outstand- ing Rapaju characteristics of the Llotta. Mado stared straight before him, re- DETIS was setting up and adjust- fusing to display any great interest in ing the complicated mechanisms the loathsome creatures, but Carr wss of his little black case. A dozen vacuum frankly curious and as frankly disap- tubes lighted, and a murmur of throb- proving. bing energy came from a helix of shin- Rapaju leered maliciously When the ing metallic ribbon that topped the four voyagers stood before him. He whole. Flexible cables led to a cap-like looked the incarnation of all that was contrivance which Detis placed on his evil and vile, a monster among mon- head. He frowned in concentration. sters. Sensing him to be the more ag- The psycho-ray apparatus," Ora ex- gressive of the two visitors from plained. "He's sending a message to doomed planets, he addressed his re- the city." marks to Can. VAGABONDS OF SPACE 2S1 "You come to plead with Rapaju," he Rapaju relaxed. He was confident sneered, his Cos tinged with an out- he could bribe these puerile foreigners landish accent, "to beg for the worth- to help him in the great venture. And less lives of your compatriots; for the sadly he needed such help. The Llotta wealth of your cities?" were not navigators. Their knowledge "We come to reason with you," re- of the heavens was sadly incomplete. plied Carr haughtily, "if you are capa- They had no maps of the surfaces of ble of reasoning. What is this incred- the planets to be visited. Their simul- ible thing you are planning?" taneous blows would be far more effec- Mado gasped at the effrontery of his tive and the campaign much shorter if friend. But Carr was oblivious of the they could choose the most vital cen- warning looks cast in his direction. ters for the initial attacks. "Enough of that 1" snapped Rapaju. "Now," he said, "that we understand "Ill do the talking—you the reasoning. one another, let us talk further of the I've a proposition to make to you, and plans. Then you will be able to con- if you know what's best, you'll agree. sider carefully before making your de- Otherwise yoo^lt be first of the Terres- cision." trials to die. Is that clear?" Rapaju could be diplomatic when he "Clear enough, all right," growled wished. Carr longed to sink his fingers Carr. "What do you mean—a propo- in the hairy throat. But he smiled sition ?" hypocritically and found an oppor- "Hal I thought you'd listen. My tunity to wink meaningly at Mado. offer is the lives of you and your com- This was going to be good! And who panion in exchange for your assistance knew?—perhaps they might find some in guiding my fleet to the capital cities way to outwit these mad savages. To of your countries. Not that our plans think of them in control of the inner will be changed if you refuse, but that planets was revolting. much time will be saved in this man- They retired to a small room with ner and quick victory made certain Rapaju and four of his lieutenants, without undue sacrifice of valuable Detis and Ora accompanying them. Ora property-" sat close to Carr at the circular table "You—you— I" Carr stammered in in Rapaju's council. Carr thought soger. But there was no use in raising grimly of the board meetings in far • rumpus—now. They'd only kill him. away New York. Something might be accomplished if he Rapaju talked. He told of the arma- pretended to accede. "Co on with your ment of his vessels, painting vivid pic- story," he finished lamely. tures of the destruction to be wrought "In addition to sparing your lives in the cities of Terra, of Mars and 111 place you both in high position Venus. His great hairy paws clutched after we seize your respective planets. at imaginary riches when he spoke Kike you chief officers in the prison glowingly of the plundering to follow. lands we intend to establish for your He spoke of the women of the Inner countrymen. What do you say?" planets and Carr half rose from his seat "Will you give us time to talk it when he observed the lecherous glitter over and think about it?"'' in his beady eyes. Oral Great God, "Until the hour of departure, if you was she safe here? He stole a g' ince wish." at the girl and a recurrence of the aw- ^ ful fear surged through him. In her CARR bowed, avoiding Mado's leather garment, close fitting and se- questioning eyes. He looked at vere, she looked like a boy. Perhaps Ora where she stood at the side of they would not know. Besides, there Deris. She flashed him a guarded was the perpetual treaty with Europa, Bile. He knew that she understood. It always bad been observed, Detis said. 262 ASTOUNDING STORIES AS Rapaju expanded upon the With a roar like a wild animal Carr glories to come he told perforce was upon him, bearing him to the floor. of many of the details of the plans. His fingers were in that hairy throat, One thing stood out in Carr's mind: where they had itched to twine. the vessels of the Llotta were not equal "Dirty, filthy beast I" he was snarling. to the Nomad in many respects. They "%gff your foul hands on Ora, wiU'you? must carry their entire supply of fuel Say your prayers, if you know any, yon from the starting point and this was swine I" calculated as but a small percentage in Then his muscles went limp and he excess of that required to carry them was jerked to his feet by a terrible to their destinations. Their speed was force, a force that sent him reeling not as great as the Nomad's' by at least and gasping against the wall. One of a third. If the Nomad led the fleet Rapaju's lieutenants stood before bio from Ganymede they might be able to with a tiny weapon in his hand, the get them off their course; cause them weapon which had released the paralyz- to run out of fuel out in the vacuum ing gas he breathed. He was choking; and absolute zero of space. He kicked suffocating. A black mist rose before Mado under the table and arose to ask him. He felt his knees give way. Dim- a few leading questions. ly, as in a dream, he saw that Ora wai Ora was whispering to her father and in Detis' arms. Rapaju was on his feet, he nodded his head as if in complete fingering his neck and laughing hor- agreement with what she was saying. ribly. These two were not deceived by his "The treaty, Rapaju P Detis was apparent traitorous talk', but Mado was shouting. aghast. Carr wondered if Rapaju be- Ora was sobbing. Mado was in the lieved him as did his friend. ' hands of two of the vile Llotta, strug- "We'll do it, Rapaju," he stated final- gling wildly to free himself. The Mar- ly. "In our ship, the Nomad, we'll tian's eyes accused him. He shut hit guide you across the trackless wastes own and groaned. Opened them again. of the heavens. We'll take you to our But it was no use. Everything in the capital cities; point out to you the room was whirling now, ciazily. He richest of the industrial centers. We fought to regain his senses, crawled have no love for our own worlds. Mado weakly toward the squat figure of Rap- and I deserted them for a life of vaga- aju where it swayed and twisted and bondage amongst the stars. We ask no spun around. Then all was darkness, reward other than that we be permitted The gas had taken its toll. to leave once more on our travels, to roam space as we choose." CHAPTER Vllt attempted to voice an Mado objection The Expedition. but Carr's hand was heavy on his shoul- der. "Shut up, you fool !" he hissed in CARR awakened to a sense of word- his ear. "Can't you trust me?" less disgust. Fool that he was to spill the, beans as he had I All Bet to RAPAJU'S eyes seemed to draw put one over on the leader of the Llotta, like this I He closer / together as he returned. then to come a cropper Carr's unflinching stare. He walked knew he had been spared for a purpose. around the table and stood at the side The gas was not intended to kill, only of the tall Terrestrial. Suddenly he to render him helpless for a time. He grasped Ora's jacket, tore it open at opened his eyes to the light of a famil- the thsoat. He ran his hairy fingers iar room. He had awakened before in over the bare shoulder of the shrinking this bed. It was his own cabin on board girl and gurgled his delight at the vel- the Nomad. What had happened ? Had vet smoothness of her skin. he dreamed it all, Europa, Ora, Rapaju " " ! " VAGABONDS OF SPACE _all of it? He sat up and felt of his Ora pressed him back as he tensed bis aching head. muscles for a spring. "Oh, are you awake?" a soft voice "Sorry I was so slow," Carr grated, greeted him. over her shoulder. "Another five sec- "Ora I" he exclaimed. It was indeed onds, Rapaju, and I'd have had your the, beautiful as ever. windpipe out by the roots." "Sh-h," she warned, placing the tip Rapaju scowled darkly and fingered of a finger to his lips, ^They'll hear us." his throat. "But, my dear Carr, you "Who?" he whispered. were too slow," he said, "and I live— "Rapaju—his two guards. They're and shall live—while you shall die. in the control cabin with father and Meanwhile you'll carry out your agree- Hado." ment. Come, Ora." "What? They've taken the Nomad*y The girl hesitated a moment, then "Yes. We're under way. They've with a pleading glance at Carr stepped forced Mado to guide them but do not from the room. trust him. Rapaju spared you as he "All right now, Parker," snapped believes you more capable. He'll hold Rapaju. "Into your clothes and into you to your word." the pilot's seat. You'll stay there, too, "Lord! But what are you doing till the journey's over. Get busy I" here?" One of his guards had appeared in Ora— dropped her eyes. "He—Rap- the doorway. Carr knew that resistance aju " she said, "inferred from your was useless. Besides, seated at those action in assaulting him that you were controls, he might think of something. very fond of me. He holds me as a Rapaju'd never get Ora if he could hostage for your good behavior. Father help it I volunteered to come along. He persu- aded Rapaju to allow it. Swore allegi- ADO'S shoulders drooped and M hia face ance to his cause. Of course he was haggard and drawn, wouldn't leave me." but he summoned a smile when he saw Carr. CARR gazed at her in admiration of "Hello, Carr," he said. "You all her courage. She had been nurs- right?" ^ ing him, too I What a girl she was "Sure. Rapaju says I've got to take "Ora," he said huskily, "Rapaju was the controls." right I am fond of you. More than "Very well." Mado shrugged his fond : I love you. I never knew I could broad shoulders and slipped from the feel this way." pilot's seat. Two ugly Llotta guards "Oh Carr, you mustn't I" She drew were watching, ray-pistols in hand. back as he scrambled to his feet. "The chart is corrected, Carr, and— They'll find us. We must not show "Never mind the conversation I" that we care. Rapaju is a beast. He Rapaju snarled. "There'll be no talk wants me for himself and is delaying between you at all. Beat it to your the time only until you have brought cabin, Mado." the fleet safely to the inner planets and - The Martian glowered and made as to their great cities. He— if to retort hotly. "The skunk I Wants you himself, "But Rapaju," Detis interposed, does he? Why, why didn't I kill— him? speaking from his position at one of But Ora, you said—you do care the ports, "they'll have to consult re- "Hal I thought sol" Rapaju stood garding the course of the vessel. Mado in the doorway, grinning mockingly at is more familiar than Carr with the the pair. "The impetuous Terrestrial navigation of space." ia up and about. Back at his old game I" "Shut up I" roared Rapaju. "I know "Please, please, for my sake, Can P what I am doing. And, what's more, — " 264 ASTOUNDING STORIES you'U not convene with them, either I you'll suffer. You shall live to see yon I'm running this expedition, and I'm home city crash in utter ruin; your not taking any* chances.™ people slain, starved, beaten. And, Detis subsided and followed Mado above all, there's Ora— through the passage to the sleeping "Don't defile her name In your ugly I" cabins. mouth, you— THE ensuing silence was ominous. CARR bit his tongue to keep back Carr could feel the eyes of the the torrent of invectives that Llotta upon him as he examined the sprang to his lips. This Would never adjustments of the controls and peeped do I He'd get himself bumped off be- through the telescope. A glance at the fore they were well started. And while velocity indicator showed him they there was life there was hope. He'd sere traveling at a rate of eight hun- stick to his guns and think; think and dred miles a second. He studied the plan. If only he could have a few chart and soon made out their position. words with Mado. They must get out Jupiter was a hundred million miles of this mess. There must be a wayl behind them and they were heading al- There must! most due sunward. The automatic con- Rapaju was laughing in triumph. trol mechanism was not functioning. Thought he had cowed him, did he? Evidently Mado had kept this a secret Boastful savage I If he could navigate —and for a purpose. He wished he the Nomad himself, why didn't he? could talk with his friend. They'd Liar ! He and Mado were godsends to plan something. / him, and he knew itl His speech at "Like your job?" Rapaju was gloat- the council table had been the real ing over this Terrestrial who had dared truth. to lay hands upon him. Foreign thoughts entered his mind. "Yes, but not the company." Carr Detis, good old Detis, was using his was disdainful. thought apparatus in his own cabin I "You'll like it less before I've fin- He paid no attention to the words of ished with you. And get this straight. Rapaju when he left the control room. You think we're dependent on you to Detis was on the job! Between them guide us to the inner planets, and that they'd outwit this devil of Ganymede. we'll not harm any of you until they "Keep your cpurage," came the mes- are reached. Don't fool yourself I I've sage. "I've read the thoughts of Mado watched Mado and I've spent much and he bids you examine the chart care- time in the excfllent library of the fully. He's made some notations in Nomad. I've learned plenty about the the ancient language of Mars. The navigation of space and can reach those automatic control of the Nomad can be planets as quickly and directly as you. used when necessary. He has not ad- But it pleases me to see you work, so vised Rapaju of its existence." work you shall. I'll check you care- Carr was encouraged and Jte concen- fully, and -don't think you can deceive trated on a suitable reply. But, though me. Don't try to depart from the true he did not consciously will it, hit course. The sun is my check as it is thoughts were of Ora. yours, and I'll keep constant tab on our Instantly there came the reassurance position. Get it?" of her father. "Ora is not in immedi- "A rather long speech, Rapaju." ate danger. Rapaju is saving her for Carr grinned, into the evil face of the his revenge on you. And I'm watching commander. her constantly. A ray-pistol is con- "Still defiant, eh? Suits me, Carr cealed in my clothing, its charge ready Parker. We'll have some nice talks for the foul creature in case he should here, and then—when it pleases me lay hands on her. But you must plan VAGABONDS OF SPACE ass an escape, and salvation for your not kill him—yet. Carr drove one of worlds. Examine the chart at once." them halfway down the passageway with a well-planted punch. The other looked from the corner of his was on his back, hairy legs twined HEeye and saw that one of the around his waist, an aim under his Llotta guards was watching intently. chin, drawing his head back with a He peered into the eyepiece of the tele- steady and terrible pressure. He scope; made an inconsequential change whirled around, trying to shake off bis in one of the adjustments. The guard beastly antagonist. stirred but did not arise. He looked at But those powerful legs and arms the chart with new interest, scanned its held fast He tore at the hairy ankles markings carefully. What had Mado where they crossed in the pit of his marked for his attention? There were stomach; wrenched them free. Still hundreds of notations, some in Cos and the creature clung to him, twisting his a few in the ancient Martian, all in head until it seemed his neck must Hado's painstaking chirography. break. He found a waving foot with Ah, there it was I A tiny spot almost his right hand; wrenched it mightily. on their course, with Mado's minute There was a sharp snap and the foot notation. Sargasso Seal' What did It dangled limp in his fingers. He had mean? Did Mado intend to lead the broken the ankle. With a howl of pain fleet into the embrace of thaf dreadful his assailant let go and dropped to the monster they had so fortunately floor to crawl away like a whipped cur. escaped? An excellent idea to save In a flash Carr saw that the brute the inner planets. But suicide for was reaching for his ray-pistol where them I He'd do it though, if it weren't it had dropped during the encounter. for Ora. She was so sweet and inno- He kicked it from the reach of that cent. She must not die ; must not suf- hairy paw and sprang after it With fer. Another way must be found. H« one of those little weapons m his hands groaned aloud as he realized that her the odds would change I His fingers predicament was the result of his own closed on its grip just as Ora rushed bullheadcdness. If only he hadn't in- into the room, closely followed by Ra- sisted on the trip to Ganymede. But paju, whose distorted features were then there was the problem of preserv- terrible to behold. The cabin was full ing the civilization of the inner planets. of them now; the guard he had first It had to be met. knocked down; the lust-crazed com- There was a commotion behind him; mander—the one with the broken an- a feminine shriek from .the after cab- kle. All but Detis and Mado. Carr ins; loud shoutings from the beast faced- them alone. called Rapaju. Cut's heart skipped a So close was Rapaju to the girl that beat He was paralyzed with fear. But he dared not use the pistol, and now only for an instant With a bellow of the uninjured guard was circling him, rage he whirled around and started fpr trying to get in a position where he the door, charging the two guards with could use his ray-pistol without endan- head down and arms flailing. gering his commander. Carr fumbled for the release of the weapon he held in CHAPTER IX in his hand ; found it. The guard threw himself to the floor Nemesis when he saw it raised; shouted a warning. But it was THE Llotta did not use their ray- too late. The deadly ray had sped on pistols. They were too busy at- its mission of death ; struck him full in tempting to elude the mad rushes of the middle. The twisted body lay still the powerful Terrestrial. Besides, a moment and then collapsed like a there were good reasons they should punctured balloon, leaving his scant — 26$ ASTOUNDING STORIES f clothing in a limp heap—empty. A "Stand up and take it like a man!" worthy miniature of the D-ray, this lit- he roared. tle weapon! RAPAJU shook his head to clear it HE turned to face Rapaju and saw and rushed in with a bellow of that he was shielding himself rage. Just what Carr wanted! Start- with Ora's body.' She had fainted and ing almost from the floojyCais right now hung drooping in the arms of the came up to meet the vicious jaw with beast. Where was Mado? Detis? a crack that told of the terrific power Good God—he'd killed them I Carr behind it. Lifted from his feet and thought of that little spot on the chart. hurled half way across the room by the Must be very close now. They'd pass impact, Rapaju lay motionless where so near there'd be no escape. Put he he fell. could not reach the controls without Carr was at the telescope.. Their taking his eyes from Rapaju. That speed was close to fifteen hundred would have to wait. miles a second. The monstrous mass of Rapaju was backing toward the door, Mado's Sargasso Sea loomed close in still holding the limp figure of the girl his vision. Off their course by a hun- before him. The injured guard lay dred miles or more. They'd miss it all moaning on the floor. right. He had the situation in hand "Drop her, you devil I" Carr shouted now on board the Nomad. But how desperately as he saw that Rapaju soon about the fleet behind them? He would reach the passageway. thought fast and furiously. Another Then suddenly he reached for the two minutes and they'd pass the thing; controls and pushed the energy lever the inexplicable horror which had ac- to full speed forward. He braced him- counted for the golden sphere of the self for the shock of acceleration and Europans. Could he used it ? Suppose saw Rapaju and Ora thrown backward the fleet of the enemy into the passageway, the girl's body The idea was full of possibilities. cushioned by that of her captor as they He rushed to the stem compartment, were flung violently to the floor. Madly and scanned the heavens for the massed he rushed to the narrow entrance and' body of spheres he knew would be the tore at the hairy arms that encircled fleet of the Llotta. At this speed they the slender waist of the girl. He jerked must have fallen far behind. Yes, there the snarling commander of the Llotta they were. Not so far behind at that expedition to his feet and slammed him The battle in the control room must against the metal wall. have been a shorter one than it had "Now, you damn pig," he grunted, seemed. He returned .quickly to the "111 finish the job. Dirty scum of a controls and reversed the energy, to rotten world!" give the fleet a chance to catch up to He dragged his victim into the con- him trol cabin and threw him to the floor. Closer came that mass of whitish But Rapaju was like an eeL He wrig- jelly. And now it was much larger gled from under him and snatched from than before. The terrible creature, for the heap of clothing the ray pistol of living matter it was, beyond doubt, was the disintegrated guard. With a yelp growing with the rapidity of a rising of triumph he rose to his knees and flood. Great tentacles of its horrid leveled the weapon. translucent substance reached in all di- A well placed kick sent it spinning rections for possible victims. He sick- and Carr was upon him. He snapped ened at the sight But what a fate for back the head with a terrible punch; the fleet of the Llotta! If only he then lifted the dazed creature to his could maneuver them into its influ- feet and stepped hack. ence. " 1 VAGABONDS OF SPACE 267 changed his course slightly and through the passage, Ora at his heels. HEheaded directly for the monster, Sure enough, the crippled guard had again increasing speed. Perhaps—if dragged himself to the controls; was he calculated the forces correctly—he manipulating the energy director as he Could dive through it again with the had seen Mado do. They were heading D-ray to clear a path. But no. It was directly for the terrible monster of the a miraele-^kay had escaped before, and heavens now the—Vicious thing was more than No need now to peer through the double its previous size. Once more telescope. The thing was visible to be altered his course. He'd cross in the naked eye. No power could save front of the thing; skim it as close as them I Carr hurled himself at the he1 dared and shoot from its influence guard and tore at the hairy paw which on the far side. The greater mass of gripped the lever. The throbbing of the enemy vessels and their lack of a strange energies filled the air of the quick-acting repulsive force would room, and Carr's brain pulsed with the prove their undoing. maddening rhythm. The red discharge Full speed ahead. A rapid mental appeared at the projections of the con- calculation—an educated guess, rather trol panels. He forgot the fleet of the —and he set the automatic control. Llotta, forgot the menace to his own Turning around to start for the stern world. Only Ora mattered now, and compartment, he saw that Ora had re- he had not the power to save her I covered from her swoon and now stood, As in a daze he knew he was wrench- swaying weakly in the passageway. ing mightily at the body of the power- "Oral" he exclaimed delightedly. He ful minion of Rapaju. His fingers en- rushed to her side and supported her countered heated metal—one of the in a tender embrace. ray-pistols. He felt the intense vibra- "Rapaju?" she questioned with hor- tion of the weapon as its charge was ror in her eyes. released. But he still.lived. The beast "Won't bother you for a while, dear/ who held it had missed I Dimly he was But your father—Mado?" / conscious of the screams of Ora ; of the "He gassed them. They'll recover." yielding of the creature who fought The brave girl had regained her com- him. An animal cry registered on his posure. consciousness and he shook the sud- "Good I But, comet Time's short." denly limp Llotta from him. He knew He half carried her to the rear, berat- somehow that his last enemy was gone. ing himself the while for his inability A quick glance showed him that Ora to pay her closer attention. With arms was still on her feet, braced against the still around her he placed her at one wall. The red veil was before his eyes. of the stern ports. He grasped the controls, and fought "What is it, Carr?" She sensed his desperately to keep his strength and excitement. senses. A streamer of horrid white- "The fleet—see I We'll destroy them." ness swung across his vision; slithered The spherical vessels were close be- clammily over the glass of one of the hind, huddled together in mass forma- forward ports. They were into the tion and following the Nomad blindly. thing! It was the end I He groaned "How, Carr?" aloud as he fumbled with the mechan- "Lead them into it. Wait till you isms and strove to formulate a plan of see! There's a— escape. THE Nomad lurched, and changed THE fleet, he knew, was just behind. direction. Cold fear clutched at An enormous mass. The repulsive his throat. That devil of a guard I Why energy astern would be terrific. He hadn't he killed him? He dashed turned it full on. The whiteness ob- — ZDS ASTOUNDING STORIES cured his vision. Then it was gone Lucky it was that Rapaju had used the once more. A single streamer waved gas pistol rather than the ray.- Perhaps before him and encompassed them. it had been a mistake. Or perhaps he The movement of these members must had needed the scientific knowledge of be inconceivably rapid, else they'd be Detis, the familiarity with the inner invisible at the speed the Nomad was planets that was Mado's. At any rate, traveling. Full speed ahead. The re- they had no delusions regarding his pulsion full on in the direction of the designs on Ora or his hatred of Carr. center of the mass as well as astern. By his own passions had the comman- The framework of the Nomad creaked der of the fleet been led to the error protestingly from the terrific forces that cost him his life and made possible that tore at her vitals. the destruction of his fleet. Then suddenly they were released. Car was torn by conflicting emotions. The Nomad was shooting off into The delectable little Europan was most space. The resultant of those combined disturbing. He'd never had much use forces had done the trick. Only the for the other sex—on Earth. Too dom- edge of that devil-fish of space, had inating, most of them. And always they touched. Free—they were free of thrown at his head by designing^ par- themonater! The red veil lifted. He ents for his money. But Ora was dif- rushed to Ora's side. She was kneel- ferent! Her very nearness set his ing at one of the floor ports, breathing pulses racing. And he knew that she heavily but unharmed. cared for him as he did for her. Those Below them they saw the swiftly re- moments in the control cabin after the ceding mass: the fleet of the Llotta explosion I But something had come diving headlong, drawn inexorably into over him since he cut loose from the the rapacious embrace of the vile crea- old life. Wanderlust — that was it ture of the heavens. An instant the He'd never go back. Neither would he awful whiteness of the thing closed in be content to settle down to a domestic greedily about the many spheres of the life in Pala-dar. Wanted to be up and fleet; swallowed them from sight and going somewhere. contorted madly and with seeming glee , "Oh, Carr, Carr I" Ora's voice called over the triumph. Then, in a burst of Ao him, "Mado is awake. He wants blinding incandescence, it was gone. you." The moDster, the fleet—everything Good old Mado I Why couldn't they blasted into nothingness. The fuel just continue on their way as they had storage compartments of the vessels of started out? Roaming the universe in Ganymede had exploded ! The heavens search of other adventures I But the were rid of the inexplicable growing silvery tinkle of Ora's laughter reached menace; the inner planets were saved his ears. She was irresistible I He for- from a terrible invasion. And the got his doubts as he hurried to his Nomad was safe. Ora, Detis, Mado friend's cabin. all were safe I At his side Ora was trembling. Gen- MADO was staring at the Europan tly he raised her to her feet, and took maiden with a ludicrous expres- her into his arms. sion of astonishment — gawping, Carr called it. And Ora was laughing at CHAPTER X him. "Your friend," she gurgled, "doesn't Vagabonds All believe he's alive, or that I am, or you. TOGETHER they cared for Detis Tell him we are." and Mado ; made them comfortable Carr grinned. Mado did look funny in their bunks until the time when the at that. "Hello, old sock," he said, "had effects of the gas would wear off. dream?" a bad / VAGABONDS OF SPACE 269 "Did I? Oh boy I" Mado rocked to wrong with you Can? You act sore. 1 and fro, his head in his hands. Then Want to go home ?" he displayed sudden intense interest. "Me? Don't be like that No—I'd "Rapaju?" he asked. "His guards—the like to carry on as we planned. There's fleet—what's happened?" Saturn, Uranus and Neptune yet; "Ah ha I Now you know you're Planet 9; a flock of satellites and alive I" Carr laughed. "But the others asteroids. Oh, dammit I" are dead and gone. The fleet's gone to Mado looked his amazement. "Well, mash—and how I" what's to prevent it?" he demanded. "But Carr. How did you- do it? Tell "The Nomad's still here, and so are we. me I" I'm just as anxious to keep going as Mado threw off his covers and you are. Why not?" dapped his friend on the back, a re- But Carr did not reply. Why not, sounding thump that brought a gasp indeed? He strode from the cabin and from Ora. into the control room. The Nomad 'Your Sargasso Sea did it. And it's was drifting in space, subject only to a thing of the past, too. Wait till I natural forces that swung it in a vast 1" tell jtou about it orbit around the sun. He started the generators and drove the vessel from ORA "tripped from the room as Carr her temporary orbit with rapid accel- sat on the edge of the bunk to eration. Out — out into the jeweled spin his yarn. blackness of the heavens. There was "But man alive!" Mado exclaimed Jupiter out there, a bright orb that when the story was finished. "Don't came suddenly very near when he cen- you know you've done a miraculous tered it on the cross-haixs of the tele- thing? I'd never have had the nerve. scope. Jhaf damn creature out there had more The excited voices of Ora and Detis than four times its former attracting came to his ears. The booming speech energy. That's what made it impossi- of Mado. Why couldn't he be sensi- ble for the fleet to get away. And you ble and companionable as they were? —you lucky devil—you just doped if But a perverse demon kept him at the out right. The fleet of the Llotta gave controls. They'd think him a grouch. you a tremendous push from astern Well, maybe he was I But the vastness when you used the repulsive energy. of the universe beckoned. New worlds If they hadn't been there with their to explore; mysteries to be solved; a enormous 'mass to react against we'd life of countless new experiences I all have been mincemeat now along Anyone'd think he was the owner of with the Llotta. You Terrestrials sure the Nomad, the way he planned for the can think fasti Me, now—Lord, if it future. had been me, I'd have thought of it after my spirit had departed to its re- THEY were in the control cabin ward—or punishment. Glory be ! It's now—Mado and Detis and Ora. A the greatest thing Lever heard of." moment he hesitated, eyes glued to the "Ratal You'd have done the same as telescope. Then, with a petulant ges- I did. Probably would have missed it ture, he reached for the automatic con- a mile instead of nearly getting caught trol ; locked it. Shouldn't be this way. as I did. A good thing the fleet's gone, They'd think him an awful cad. And through. Mars and Terra—Venus, too they'd be right I He whirled to face —they'll never know how close it was them. for them. Wouldn't have sense enough Detis was smiling. Mado gazed owl- to appreciate it, anyway." ish ly solemn. Ora clung to the arm of "They would if they ever got a taste her father, and her long lashes hid the of what the Llotta planned. But what's blue eyes that had played such havoc 270 ASTOUNDING STORIES with the emotions of the Terrestrial. "Carr," the girl whispered, after a "Carr," said Detis, gently, "we must time, "where are we going?" thank you. You saved our lives, you "To Europa. Your home." know." "To—to stay?" "Aw, forget it. Saved my own, too, "No." Car was suddenly confident; didn't I? By a lucky break." determined. "We'll stop there to break "It wasn't luck, Carr." Detis w.as the news. Then we'll be wedded, yon gripping his hand now. "It was sheer and I, according to the customs of your grit and brains. You had them both. people. Our honeymoon—years of it- If you hadn't used them we'd all be will be spent in the Nomad, roving the corpses—or disintegrated—excepting universe. Mado'U agree, I knbw. Wan- Ora, perhaps. And you know the fate derers of the heavens we'll be, On that awaited her. Instead, life are alive But we'll have each other; and when and well. The fleet is gone. Rapaju's we've—you've—had enough of it, I'lH* body and that of his guard drift name- ready to settle down. Anywhere you less in space where you disposed of say. Are you game?" them through the air-lock of the "Oh, Carr I How did you guess? Ifi Nomad. The inner planets need fear just as we'd planned. Father and Mado no future invasion, for the resources and I. Didn't think I'd go, did you, of Ganymede have been expended in you stupid old dear?" the one huge enterprise that has failed. "Why—why Ora." Carr was stam- All through your quick wit and brav- mering now. He'd thought pressure of the scientist's hand, smiU able little minx I "I was a bit afraid," ing sheepishly. He pushed him away he admitted; "and I still can't believe after a moment. He didn't want their that it's actually true. You're sure you gratitude or praise. Didn't know what want to?" he wanted. Ora still avoided meeting "Positive. Why Carr, .I've always his gaze. "Nonsense," he repeated. been a vagabond at heart. And now that "And now, please, leave me. ' You, I've found you we'll just be vagabonds Detis. Mado, too. I'd like to be alone together. Father and Mado will leave for a while—with Ora. Mind?" us very much to each other. Their Mado's owlish look broadened to a scientific leanings, you know. And— knowing grin as he backed into the oh—it'll just be wonderful I" passageway. Detis collided with the "It's you that'll make it wonderful, huge Martian in his eagerness to be sweetheart." out of the room. They were alone and Carr drew her close. The stars shone Carr was on his feet. Nothing mat- still more brightly and beckoned anew. tered now—excepting Ora. Suddenly Vagabonds, all of them I Like the gyp- the was in his arms, the fragrance of sies of old, but with vastly more ter- her hair in his nostrils. ritory to roam. The humdrum routine of his old life seemed very far behind. STAR gazing, the two of them. It He wondered what Courtney Davis was ridiculous) But the wonders would say if he could see him now. of the universe held a new beauty now Wordless happiness had come to him, for Carr. The distant suns had taken and he let his thoughts wander oat on added brilliance. Still they beck- into the limitless expanse of the heav- onesV ens. Star gazing still—just he and On. From a Science Fiction "Fiend" novelette, "The Terror of Air- Level Six," was a close second. "The Forgotten Planet," by Dear Editor: S. P. Wright, "Beyond the Heaviside Layer," I agree with you about the reprinting of by S. P. Meek and "From an Amber Block," old itoriea, because you would only force by Tom Curry were all good stories. older Science Fiction readers to read the same The cover illustration was the best yet. I staff that they have read before. Any Science hope that the next dozen covers do not have Fiction fiend like myself will surely have the blue backgrounds. Other colors you might reprinted story in his collection of magazines. have are green, red, pink, orange, yellow, The size of your magazine is perfect, but black and light and dark purple. your paper is not very good. As for me, I When will Edmond Hamilton's first story don't care about your paper because your be published in Astounding Stories? Have itories are so very good that the paper you received any stories by Stanton Coblentz, doesn't matter. A. Hyatt VcrUl, Ed Earl Repp, John W. M y favorite story, and one of the best Campbell, Jr., Edward E. Chappelow and itories that I have ever read so far, is "Mur- Edgar Rice Burroughs yet? der Madness." It has a very original idea Why not have a page devoted to the au- and holds your interest from the very start thors? You could print a picture and tell I am also for a more often publication of something about one author each month. I your think that an illustration representing Science magazine ; about twice a month.—Rup- pert Jones, New York, N. Y. Fiction would look good on the contents page. I hope that Wesso will soon be illustrating Valuable Suggestions every story in Astounding Stories, or that you will obtain another artist equally as good Dear Editor: (if possible). The July issue of Astounding Stories is one Is it possible for you to use a better and of the best issues you have so far published. thinner grade of paper? I save all my Arthur J. Burks sure is a master at writing Astounding Stories and I like them to be «nce Fiction tales. The first installment of thin so they will not take up so much room. Earth, the Marauder" was swell. Harl Vin- —Jack Da rrow, 4225 N. Spaulding Ave., Chi- cent is another very good author His cago, Illinois. 271 272 ASTOUNDING STORIES Not Yet kinds of stories. I am pleased to see that your readers criticize freely. A story the) Dear Editor: will please one reader will not interest as. I have just received your July issue of other, perhaps, and it may not be the faalt is Astounding Stories, and I must say that it of the author's ability so much as that hi the best yet. doesn't like that type of story.: The only thing wrong with it, in my "Out of the Dreadful Depths," by C. Wl opinion, is that it is too small ; the size should lard is the best story I've read for some time, be at least 9x12. Also it should be a semi- I could not see a single way fat could be im- monthly, or at least accompanied by a quar- proved. "The Moon Master," by Chas. Dun terly and annual. was just as good but I didn't Eke the ending The stories in the July issue are wonderful, so well. I certainly hope Mr. Diffin will write all except Hurray Leinster'a serial, which more stories like it, especially using his same does not belong in your magazine. three leading characters. "The Forgotta If you have any intention of putting an Planet," by Mr. Wright, was well written aad annual or a quarterly on the market, will you Eretty good in spite of the fact that I doat be so kind as to communicate with me as I ke that type of story so weU. am very much interested in your magazine. "Murder Madness," by Murray Leuutet —Louis Wentzler, 1938 Woodbine St, Brook- was well written and the characters interest- lyn, N. Y. ing and real but I didn't like his subject I hope for more and different stories from him. "Ever Since" "Earth," the Marauder," by Arthur J. Bona looks as though it was going to be a record Dear Editor: winner for me—accomplish the impossible, I want to tell you what I think of your and make a good story from a story of the new magazine. I think it's great. future. I stopped in a doig store and saw Astound- I don't like horror stories, crazy stories and ing Stories on tfie newsstand. I bought it stories written far into the future, as "Brig, and have been buying it ever since. I am ands of the Moon." These stories make light fourteen years old, but I am interested in of the vast distances of space and are too science. not get a story by Edgar Rice Why weird, droll and fail to give a single shiver Burroughs, and some more by Ray Cum- down my old backbone. They are strange mings? and inhabited by strange people. No start I wish success to your wonderful magazine. can give the faintest idea of the space be- -We McCalvy/ 1244 Beach St., St. Paul., tween those mighty suns of i the universe. Minn. f Most of them have more imagination thaa scientific knowledge. "Earth, the Marauder,* 'Not One Poor Story Yet" an exception. I would much rather Dear Editor: hear stories of pri- meval days of tie lost Atlantis before I agree with you that reprints should ab- Earth waa populated with scientific solutely be kept out of your magazine. I ad- beings, when the cave man looked mit that there are many stories of unusual up at the unknown, then bo near to him At the merit among the reprints but I favor new moon, which wss then so dose, and uninhabited by superior and fresher stories. bemgi. Talea of superstition and all In your last issue (June) I consider "The mystery stones of the unknown. I like Moon Master" ss being the best story, closely interplanetary stories, if not written too far into followed by "Out of the Dreadful Depths." the future. / "The Cavern World" came next, followed by I like the present size and shape of your magazine. "Giants of the Ray," "Brigands of the Moon" Best wishes for the success of and "Murder Madness." your magazine.—An Interested Reader, Gofft- town, N. I have not found one poor story in your H. and never expect to. magazine yet, Likes I, for one, favor a larger sized magazine with a five cent increase in price, or, at least, Dear Editor: if the magazine must remain small, I would I have just finished reading the July Issue like to see a quarterly out on the third Thurs- of Astounding Stories snd think story day every three months. I every is simply great, especially "The Terror of Air- I am extremely pleased to see that an in- Level Six?' That sure is a story I "The For- terplanetary story by R. F. Starsl will appear gotten Planet" is a corker, tool in your next issue. Please have more of his While reading the letters in "The Readers' stories if possible.—Forrest James Ackerman, I noticed that almost -everyone bat '530 Staples Ave, Ssn Francisco, Calif. Comer" a hankering for Edgar Rice Burroughs' Likes Present Size stories. Believe it or not, I'm wild about his stories myself and I'm looking forward to Dear Editor: reading his stories in Astounding Stories. It Best stories in the last two Issues: C. D. won't make any difference if they'll be orig- WiUard's "Out of the Dreadful Depths" (Ex- inals or reprints, so long as they're Bar- cellent); Chi a. W. Diffin's "The Moon Mas- roughs I favor- ter" (Very Good) ; Sewell P. Wright's "For- Ray Gummings is another one of my gotten Planet" (Fairly Good). ites and I always read his stories first His I am a new reader, but interested in these "Brigands of the Moon" bit me in the right : THE READERS' CORNER 273 pot "The Moon Master" in the June issue Trial by Readers was also a very fine story. Now about this argument about reprinted Dear Editor: tories. I think that J, at least, one reprinted When Astounding Stories first appeared on story appeared in each issue of Astounding the newsstands, a brand new Science Fiction Stories, It wouldn't hurt its reputation. Here magazine, I was prejudiced against it as a are some reprints that hit the ceiling: 'The competitor to the existing magazines-—one War in the Air," by Wells; "Tananto, the that might carry an inferior quality of Science Conqueror," by Cummings; "The Conquest Fiction so closely approaching the superna- of Mars," by Serviss. I'm sure the readers tural as to practically disregard science. In a would enjoy reading them. But if you are few cases, as with very good writers like A. persistent about avoiding reprints then we'll Merritt and H. P. L^vtecraft, this is permis- have to do without them.—Paul Nikolaieff, sible, but, otherwise?, not at all so. In the 4825 S. Seeley Ave,, Chicago, Illinois. Erst issue, "The Stolen Mind" seemed to bear me out, but, then, there was "Tanks." I Wants Sequel bought the next issue—much better! And, then the third showed The Soul Master," Dear Editor: very well written, but not quite science, as I have read every issue of Astounding related. Yet, "Cold Light" held me on, and Stories though I can barely afford it I like "Brigands of the Moon." There is no danger it very much. The best novels were, in order of my dropping off now! 1, "The Moon Master"; 2, "Phantoms of In the current issue. "Murder Madness" Reality" ; 3, "Spawn of the Stars"; 4, 'Terror and "The Power and the Glory" stand out of Air-Level Six." as mile-posts in the history of Science Fiction. In the July Issue you published a story, The rest are not far behind, though, as a "Earth, the Marauder, which promises to be matter of fact, "Beyond the Heaviside Layer" even better than the "Skylark of Space" that and "Earth, the Marauder" have more dis- once came out in another magazine. I like cernible flaws than the rest. Just for ex- Harl Vincent, Ray Cummings, Arthur Burks, ample, a layer of organic matter would raise and Martian stories best. Interplanetary Cain with astronomy, due to refraction. Air tones always agree with me. Burroughs is is bad enough. But the writing overwhelms an excellent author. I like his Martian books. the error. You have certainly assembled a The Beetle Horde" in the first two issues group of excellent authors, new and old, and was very good. But why not give a sequel I am glad to see the promise of R. F. Starzl about the other and more terrible creatures in the next issue. His "Madness of the Dust" in the earth whom the madman spoke of? is one of the most naturally written inter- Fourth dimensionals are sometimes good. planetary stories I have read—logical and You should have reprints by Burroughs, dear, just as it would happen to anybody. Cummings and Merrit. I am eagerly waiting And now for the big question—that of re- for the next issue. Do not enlarge the maga- prints. You seem to have already decided the zine because I cannot afford it. Don't pub- answer, and have defended your action well, lish stories like "From an Amber Block." but I wonder if it is well enough. By far your They're rotten. Publish more future and in- best argument is your last—"authors must terplanetary stories.—Joseph Edelman, 721 eat"—with which I have no quarrel at all. De Kalb Ave., Brooklyn, N. Y. Still, one classic serial a year, or at most two, might not prove too harmful. Following back, Stands Pat I reach a statement concerning "The Satur- day Evening Post." In the past it has pub- Dear Editor: lished hundreds of the world's best stories, I have read all the issues of A. S. since the and never reprinted. True. But why? Be- date of publication and thmk^rnat there Is no cause these stories are all available in book other magazinelnVftai-oir^ne market. I would form, in libraries and book stores, in original like to offer a few -suggestions contrary to or new editions or in the Grosset and DiMSap most of your readers (Le., Jack Darrow & list of perpetually printed best sellers. It is Chas. Barret): possible to read them for years after publica- 1.—Keep magazine in present size and price. tion. But try to find the past masterpieces of 2.—Issue it only once a month. If it was Science Fiction. With the exception of Bur- issued semi-monthly the writers would soon roughs' books, most were never printed in run out of ideas; and the readers would get book form. Even books by Wells and Verne, sick of it if they read it so often anyway. classics of their kind are gone, totally gone, 3.—Keep up the style of stories now run- even from the shelves of libraries. Many of ning, Le., keep the science a b'ttle in the back- Verne's best stories were never translated ground. Do not let it monopolize the story. from the French. And the other classics of I get other magazines that do not follow which readers write, classics familiar to most the last mentioned rule and the result is the of us only by name and by a few lucky tastes stories are full of machines going 10,000 miles of others, newer works by the same authors, per hour, etc.; pink, black, purple and eleven- are absolutely gone—annihilated. Their best teen other colored rays. As a result the works are beyond the reach of the reader. stories are drier than the Sahara Desert. Only by republication, in magazine or book, The illustrations are fine (O.K.) as they can they be revived in an age when they wm art—Walter O'Brien, 6 Hageman PL, North be remembered and preserved—an age awake Bergen, N. J. to science and Science Fiction. Other maga- 274 ASTOUNDING STORIES sines are doing it, one or two to the year, and Snatcher." Better leave souls and aatrals and it may be that you need not reprint; but the egos alone, except in very, very rare cases, reservoir of the past is large, and a few can- when an author turns up who can make you not drain it. This leads to your first argu- believe jn them as mechanical entities. ment, that better stories are being written As a Science Fiction fan, a student of chem- .today. They are—better than the average of istry, and a hopeful author, I wijl probably classics. It the past—but not better than the write to "The Readers' Corner" aS often as I would be folly to say that because the short want to blow off steam regarding science or story is a modern development, and because fiction or the way in which you are running Galsworthy or Walpole or Reimarch are bet- the magazine. I hope I won't be : considered ter than the average of yesterday, to our an utter nuisance, and will be given a trial by present tastes, that the classics of the past jury—a jury of readers.—P. Schuyler Miller, should be scrapped. 302 So. Ten Broeck St., Scotia, New York! The analogy, I feel, is good. The classics of general literature have their place in his- "Handy to Hold" Fiction should tory. The classics of Science Dear Editor: have theirs. There are dozens better than *s I wish to say that I have the seven the general of present work, by A. Mer- num- run : bers of Astounding Stories that have ritt. Homer Eon Flint, George Allan England, been issued thus far, and I have read Austin Hall, John Taine, Garret P. Serviss, them through every word. It is wonderful, Ralph Milne Farley, Ray Cummings, and and there is no word of fault to be uttered others that stood out in an age when Science concerning any of them. I think Fiction was considered pure phantasy or im- "Murder Madness" is the best story you have aginative "trash." In the present age, they printed so fftr, but they are all good in different ways. would be still better, and this time they would You received dome letters not be lost to the world, for there are pub- that surprise me. How anyone /tan ask lishers and readers who would preserve them. you to change the make-up to the blanket You may adhere to your decision, but, to my sheet form is more than I can mind, and, I think, to far more than 1% of see. It is so handy to hold and to read as other minds, reprints of classics are essential, it is now. I do hope you will not ^change it. actually vitally necessary. Try to find out ' No, there is what a ballot would show. Again, from the so much that one wants to read these days that author's point of view. Up to now, Burroughs I do not advocate issuing twice a month. haa had all the breaks as to book publication. One issue each month is just Now Ray Cummings and others are being right. But I do wish yon would increase the published. "An author must eat." Give him number of pages to at least the number in Five a chance, by reviving his best efforts, and Novels magazine. Of course, you would bringing; them to public attention, so that a want 25c. for it then, and that is ail right publisher will find them worthy of publica- Am glad that you refuse to give us reprints. tion. Host of the masters of Science Fiction We do not want them. are alive—give them a chance to eat. Too, a Astounding Stories is a gem, and I hope great many of the beat modern authors are to read it for the remainder of my life. Keep modern readers: ask them 'if they would be right on with the good work,—Will S. Gush- willing to see one of the best stories of the ing, 21 Cottage St., Abington, Massachusetts. past re-issued each year, stories unpublished in existing magazines for ten years or more. We Hope So, Too! I certainly hope you will alter your decision. Dear Editor: / And now to reverse some other decisions Your July issue of Astounding Stories was is of readers. The size quite all right and wonderful. Your magazine is improving Mr. very handy for binding purposes, Mack greatly. "Murder Madness" is a great story, Incidentally, the to the contrary. staples are and "Earth, the Marauder," is one of the best so placed as to make binding simple. Also stories I have ever read, I hope the other to Mr. Barrow. I prefer the artist contrary parts of it are just as interesting as the first Gould, to Wesso, for interior illustrations, part.—Mick Soulis, 115 W. 15th Ave., Gary, though Wesso is best for mechanical illustra- Indiana. tions. Incidentally, give us the name of the artist for each story, especially when the il- Another Sequel lustrations are unsigned, as in the April issue. Wesso's best cover for you has been that for Dear Editor: April, illustrating "Monsters of Moyen." It Well, I have so much to say, or rather shows his best style very well. would like to say for your magazine. I like it As to my favorite type of Science Fiction, in every detail but one, which is waiting a rest stories. any kind, if well written, will do. As it hap- whole month for the of my pens, the king of authors, A. Merritt, has a I wish you would give us the third sequel type all his own, as Mr. Bryant notes, which of "Out of the Ocean's Depths.** Let the perform Is unbeatable, and my favorite. However, at young scientist discover a way to times, a good writer may fall down in his matrimony between the girl of the ocean and fundamental assumptions. I don't care where the man, and then let their child live either in or how far he goes, so long as he starts with or out of water. There could be two more something that present-day science does not good stories or s-auals of "Oat of the deny. Here is where "The Soul Master" fell Ocesn's Depths." I like them all down, find, even more so, "The Soul I liked 'Murder Madness," too. It seems as — THE READERS' CORNER 275 though It is really real, and not fiction. I by everyone who reads this type of literature. wish you would get the book out twice a You began with Cummings, Rousseau, Meek month.—Mrs. B. R. Woods, Cotte, Arkansas. and Leinster. Hm-m, let's see. And you're keeping up the good system by having added From Author to Author Vincent, Starzl, Burks, Curry, Miss Lorraine, Hamilton, Dear Editor: etc But you don't escape entirely unscathed, for the other magazines give Since Astounding Stories began you have us stories from authors which haven't as published a goodly number of really remark- yet written a story which appeared in your col- able stories, chief among which, in my estima- umns. Let's see; besides the stars above, let's tion, are the following: "Spawn of the Stars," add to the galaxy Keller (three cheers), by C. W. Diffin; "Brigands' of the Moon^/by Brcuer, Smith (his story, Skylark of Riy Cnmmings; "Monsters of Moyeiv by "The Space," ought to have about six sequels), the Arthur J. Burks; "The .-Atom Smasher," by late Mr. Serviss, VerrilL Poe, Wells, Verne, Victor Rousseau; and "The Moon Master," Flint (o-o-oh, for that "Blind Spot*), Hall, C W. Diffin. England, Hasta (one story is all I've But none of these can compare with by him read, but it only whetted my appetite), and Biffin's last short story, "The Power and the Simmons. Oh, yes, the two Taines, the de- Glory," which appeared in the last (July) tective of Keller's and the author. iuue. For originality of theme, clever Dr. But there's something missing. phraseology and excellent literary craftsman- Hm-m — ah, Merrittl What a writer! How couKl I ship it stands alone—a little masterpiece. Its A have forgotten him? reminds of author should be congratulated. Which me Burroughs who has been left out in the rain To the best of my knowledge, Mr. Diffin for quite a while. He belongs back in the b s newcomer in Science Fiction. • The first fold. itory of his that I read was "Spawn of the Mr. Editor, do you remember way back Stars." Keep his pen busy, Mr. Editor; he's when you said we should write in to you to raloable—an I don't mean maybet tell you of the stories we want and that yon If I could write a story like "The Power would get them for us? Of course, you do. ud the Glory," I'd certainly congratulate Stories and authors cannot be parted, so get myself!—L. A Eahbach, 225 Chestnut St, I've listed above and forget Reading, Pa. those authors about the stories, for they'll all be good. kick about any particular author "Held Me Spellbound" I do not for the reason that if I tried to write on the Dear Editor: same subject they picked out and are picking, I happened to read one of your books the my work would be pretty different from what other day—Astounding Stories is the one they'd produce, and their works would be the and I was very much taken up with it I ones that would be published. Please don't found that it was a very interesting book, read that twice; I hope to be a contributor indeed. I have no fear in saying that it held very soon. me spellbound from the start till the finish. In my opinion you should enlarge the size The one that I happened to buy was the issue of the magazine, but for heaven's sake don't of May, 1930, and the story that gripped me increase the departments. Every day that we most was "Brigands of the Moon." It was read a paper we learn of what science is do- very thrilling, indeed, and I am very sorry I ing.* And, at the end of the month we read could not obtain the previous copies so as to the same thing in a magazine which should start at the beginning. But, however, I am give us a story instead. The price is just sble to obtain a copy every month and am right. But, even if the magazine were en- very pleased, as I would hate to miss a copy larged and the price boosted to a quarter, do again. you really* think that we get enough material Well, I hope this letter will reach yon to devour? No! Then what? Get out a safely. Remember me as a contented reader Quarterly! And please don't wait about that of your magazine.—Geo. Young, 447 Canning for the next ten years. St, Nth. Carlton N. 4, Melbourne, Australia. This is a pretty lengthy letter and I don't expect you to print it but I want you to get We Are Printing It! the views of at least one devoted reader.—Isi- Manzen, 544 Myrtle Ave., Brooklyn, Dear Editor: dore N. Y. It seems that you have taken a wrong slant on my letter which you published recently. True, I did give you a long list of stories Every Single One which I wanted to see, but I didn't mean that Dear Editor: yon should publiah only reprints, no new I certainly received a pleasant surprise stories. Far from it Instead, I'd suggest when I glanced at the table of contents for that you give us a classic, say, every six the August issue. When one sees Victor months. This arrangement ought to be okay Rousseau, R. F. Starzl, Murray Leinster, Haii with everyone. That's that for reprints. Vincent and Edmond Hamilton, one knows About the stories and the authors, they're that the issue is bound to be a good one. I all right There's one thing that I like about wish to congratulate you on the way yon you that I don't find in the other Science Fic- have been running Astounding Stories. If tion magazines. With the very first issue you you intend to keep giving us the authors yon started off with the authors that are wanted are now, throughout your whole career, you —— 276 ASTOUNDING STORIES are a law-breaker. What I mean by that is to beat the August issue. It cari feecallcd an that no other magazine has kept a, high "all star" number. What authors I Hamilton, grade of authors very long. The old maga- Rousseau, Starzl, Burks, and others; all of zines on the market have once had stories by whom are among my favorite authors. The the authors you are giving us now, but they stories were so good that it is almost impos- never kept these authors long. If you keep sible to pick out the best one. However, after the authors you have now you may well be some thought I have finally chosen Hamil- assured of success. ton's "The Second Satellite." "Earth, the "Silver Dome" undoubtedly copped the Marauder," is a close second. I hope you prize for this issue. It could not have been have many more stories by Edmond Hamil- better. "The Lord of Space" was a very good ton. story. "The Planet of Dread" was another I see that the cover is the first one to be very good story. "The Second Satellite," by of a different color. Please have a new color Hamilton, was excellent. For once in his life each month. Hamilton has written a story that has not the There are a few ways in which Astounding Stories same old plot all his other stories have I I may be improved. Enough of the wish to congratulate him on the best story readers have mentioned improving the qual- ity of paper that I nave he has ever written I "The Flying City" was the so do not to com- the same thing all over again. The world in ment On this. An editorial each month would danger and suddenly our magnificent hero improve the magazine greatly. comes along, takes a hand, and presto the Here's hoping that Astounding Stories be- danger is all over. Of course, he has to meet comes a semi-monthly soon—very soon. die beautiful girl and fall in love with her, Michael Fogaris, 157 Fourth St, Passaic, and at the end of the story marry her I Re- member, history repeats itself. Have you ever heard of the world being saved by one Stands Pat / man? Not Neither have I. The world will Dear Editor: < V^~-^ never be saved by one nun. Therefore, all I have been a reader of your magazine for fi those stories are the bunk." "Murder Mad- some tune I hope to continue reading it in ness" waa wonderful I expect to see it in the future. the talkies before long. It could be filmed I notice in "The Readers* Corner" that easily enough, couldnTit! I know it certainly some want reprints. Others want the size of would make a wonderful picture. I expect to -the magazine changed. I say. give us "fresh" see you publish "Murder Madness" and / stories and leave the size of the magazine "Brigands of the Moon" in book form. If alone. you do, I will try my darndeat to get a In my opinion, the best stories in your copy. Also in my list of good authors up {uly issue were "Beyond the Heaviaide there I forgot to mention Arthur J. Burks. .ayer" and "Earth, the Marauder." They Now I wish to broach the subject of a were both fine. Keep up the good work. Quarterly to you. I think Astounding Stories Carlton Abernathy, P. O. Box : 584, Clear- should have one. Every other Science Fic- water, Florida. tion magazine has, so let us have one, too. Won't you? You can give us over twice aa "The Readers' Corner" much as you do in the monthly and charge 50c. copy. Have one good book and about a All Readers axe extended a sincere several short stories in each issue; no serials. How about it? and cordial invitation to "coope over in 1 And now let's talk a little about Astounding 'The Readers' Corner " and join in Stories I Why not cut the paper smooth, the our\jnbnthly discussion of stories, way you do in Five Novels Monthly? It authors, scientific principles would make the magazine look a lot better. and possi- It would also be a lot easier to find one's bilities—everything that's of common place when one has to lay the book down for interest in connection with our a moment. The last reason may sound trivial, Stories. but it's really annoying to try to find one's Astounding place among those bulky pages. The paper Although from time to time the you use now gives the magazine an inferior Editor may make a comment Or so, this appearance when compared to others of ita kind. It certainly would be a relief to see is a department primarily for .Readers, you use better paper. Won't you please con- and we want you to make full use of aider the points I have brought out in my it. Likes, dislikes, criticisms, explana- letter?—Gabriel Kirschner, Box 301, Temple, Texas. tions, roses, brickbats, suggestions everything's welcome here ; bo "come "What Authors !" over in 'The Readers' Corrjcr' " and Dear Editor: discuss it with all of us I Astounding Stories is improving with every issue. However, you would bave to go far —The Editor. nstant death to germs of disease! rink of itl — a non-poisonous mouth wash the millions of bacteria breed* solotely harmless, pleasant to taste, healing ing there — kills them outright. tunic; yet with power to destroy germs by The number of bacteria orj a millions. the surfaces of the mucous Soeh is Listcrine, for fifty years the out- membrane id actually reduced loding antiseptic and germicide for oral 98'". peat. This has been clearly demon- Every type of dangerous germ Bwiftly suc- strated by repeated tests made nihe to iL Among them ore the Strcpto- under methods employed at oeoi Hemolytic us, the organism associated Johns Honkios, Pennsylvania, th sore throat. Micrococcus Catarrhal and Yale Universities. itirrh) found frequently with colds, and : Pneumococcal 8 (pneumonia). Gargle every 2 hours Enemy infection of MjWc a habit of using full strength Listcrine as en Staphylococcus Aureus (pus) and Bacillus Ty- mouth Wiifh and gargle every night and morning. ojua (typhoid), germs specified for test purposes Thin treatment under noriu.il conditions of health is bom of their resistance to germicides, yield to ii. considered suflicictit to keep mouth germs nnder iterioe kills them in counts ranging to 200,000,000 control and maintain a clean and healthy condition IS seconds (fastest killing time science has accu- in the oral tract. ely recorded). When, however, you have a cold or sore throat Vow you canundcrstnnd why full strength Listcrine commit your doctor and increase the frequency of m> successful in ingagainnt colds, sore throat, guard the gargle to once every two hours. J other infections. Why, also, it combats these die* *a once they have gained a foothold. Thus you give nature an extra attacking force Deeded when body resistance is low, to keep disease Reduces mouth germs 98% germ* under control. Lambert Pharmacal Company, b moment Listcrine enters the mouth it attacks St. Loui*, Mo., U. S. A. isterine— safe — non-poisonous KILLS 200,000,000 GERMS IN 15 SECONDS Please mention Newsstand Gkuup— Men's List, when answering advertisements . . N — IFOR THOUSANDS OF M[ ? I Genuine^/ 5|\ TOBACCO HABI Stop craving tobacco In any form, Tobacco Rcdetmar In most cases relieves all craving; for it in ft few days' time. Don't teal to fruit the tobacco habit unaided. It's of ten* toeing fight against heavy odds, and may mean a d t reusing afaoek to ti Kedeemer he I nee, acts Quickly. Not a Substitute Tobacco Redee: druiraof any kind. It ia In no tobacco. After finishing the be no desire to use tob nee of the remedy* In f ectly satisfactory, we will what form—whether It ia plug, floe eat or anuff. In _ deeaser removes all craving for In a very few days. And rememl a positive money-back guarantee. Write today for our free booklet showing the injurious effect of to- bacco upon the human system and convincing art- deuce that Tobacco RedeeiaeT baa relieved the era* Lug for tobacco in thousands of cases. NEWELL PUARMACAL COMPANY Dept. 793. CUjieaSuuea St.Lsab.la, NOWONIY Han'a your ciatnce to own a genuine Isle model Uudsrn-ood No. S all completely reflnljbed for only H Uie manufacturer's original price—and on easy terras besides. This Us roll -Mind standard I'ndorwood Na S vlto 4-row Keyboard ChararUT.i! and bu all tats Improvement*. M:vniif.icturcU to sell originally for t\en.Ui. Now ollcroil at Tar below H price— whUe I titer last. Fully <;uarani*N?cl. Easy Terms— only 12c a day 1 t'nderwood So. prleed at %UM days' trial. Tnen unlf lsc a day on tnj «ur raar-lo-|aiy plan. Da not niDfuM ttala world fa- tun Teach Typ#wriliii| ninui L'ndvrwo'od wllb Inferior balfaauiuih Thl« lab- roodi-l h»« ruoitern lni>r..r i-nirnia. iru.-lu.l- liit Lhc uiiItituI alandard t row kerbonrd. two-color ribbon, atanofartw _ _ bur i i-r. ribbon re »e r»e. t«b- SUtloos. - - Dtallon r.laaae, shlftlix-k nnd togs In Broadcasting — — v both at Saa and in the Air. You qualify f i tnanr til her rpatgrtn. K'frv bet actual worko machine beautifully reflniibed COBBESPONDENCE. by vialon and Sound equipment. ami rfie« r it. Oi*raU.-a and new. Complete Romp 8'udy CmrrtD luoki liku brand TELEVISION—Talking Plctnru f \ sjssssis of iLi' iu ul an Sant lO DAY TRIAL And now Television Is oo the war! Boon tTSre'II be Tv[#«1iimB Hv«r>-tn. Spetd 8-nd ar.i*rial offer rom>ori below for THOUSANDS eTTELEVISION raUUM fttUj Ulactrvi'd. wi'oa diLrlns at COT ( if injikjn' i rial — Ifynudrr-ide in groand Moor of Telartaionl I*am Television tbli (bccul offer. EjaILt Srep tin* ruaebinB >t m> roek- I?!2J**-t leam> arbonli, T^ffaa&LQffg { d, o fed m b-ittoni pru-e. pay only gS.JO a Diutiuwa 'ofTleee, (mrywhrrs. month unill the tvj-|r»ln prirr of brancbes of Radio at Coyne. only %i* w Hertu price) In ( aid. NOT A CORRE3- _ No book*. NoLmmoi, AU-ACTUALWOl DIO. TELEVISION and SOUND EQUIP1* btwraattional Typewriter Exchange j SI litin. Earn whala yon laarw- RWOT 231 West Monroe Street, Chicago, RL Dept. 1115 I COUHJN NOW FOB BIG FBEE BOOKI . I eofli»*f |1 depo'lr H.nd (' rut-'rw. -<-.d So. 9 K 0 tl ( hic»(f>.it | onct. for 10 day n il If I am n I i-iTu:/ (niUfl.il I cjn r Turn I [h.C LTWIS. Prstblant "1— I k.vi, ii I will ! r >iub u.m aid II- n iMVei la Tali, ^sl j .A*t.... | I Addreai. tinine «> I Addrttm . Town. SUUf.. i!ic[iti"ii Nlw^mmi CiK"Lr Mi:n'^ l.lr-r. advertisements !. - , WANTED UUPstPrices for murder $1°-P Hears Brings^bur I WHAT YOU DO— Send Choice F 51. OO with name, ad- dre»e and Meiaw of a-aw article 4* si rod. Stat* I IO MONTHS 1, How: ions at addroeo. PAY ~W ». ««. M Married or TO alnclot 4, Nam* erf em. ployari B, Nature) of world O, How lone employed. K verythlng c onf Identiel. He) direct Inqulr.e a. WHAT WI DO — On arrival of order N end 18 day $1,000 'Mod. awy b.l- Reward 11 dirty, forlorn snack by the river's edge they found kttttSitedbodyof Genevieve Martin. Her pretty BS swollen and distorted. Marks on the slender East snowed that she had been brutally choked to Mih. Who had committed this ghastly crime? riM like thia srs being nolved over- day by Finger rYfnt mSm, We read in the paper* of tbeir exploits .baar off tbo pkrtM tbay eolve. thu reward* lh»y win. ringer e*rint Kfarti ere the heroes of the hour. / More Trained Men Needed Ve demand for trained men by governments, states, met, detective agencies, corporations, and private i becorn^ingjgreater every day. Here is a real I At Home in Spare Time r, through this amazing new, simple course, you u the secrets of this science easily and quickly b m you spare time. Any man with common >l education and average ability can become a Fin* " ' it Detective in surprisingly short time. Re- aaM -wtma iwM. .... a diamond* and 4 eap- phirn In caie. 4 aappMree In dii.-nilon bnnlM. IS k« : Wttboot aoy_ obMdWtioc whatever, tend moj JEWELRY , « . Catalog , . . 17-Jot.I . '.Men at « low prk*. [ui »tyH. I Sent Fr« : iai*at mm, ord.ri S4.1-. — LWTo AdultsSWEETS W\^1670BRWmHEWYORK ...... ii:..— Please mention Newsstand Group—Men's List, when answering advertisements MSBMBSi MOLDING A Patterson helped me get a steady GOVERNMENT MIGHTY ARM POSITION! $1900 to start .' in 1ST Rallnr Vit) CUi ror jotvMintm*. if sSmaaJti EM CmZKN mnrwh.r. b.lw.— IS to M j '!«*». writs n-.w for faturxnn • bin* fr*a . „ irlltns how ba'll hrlr, vou Qamlltj for * SAFK job with rour UoclaSua. ARTHUR R. PATTERSON, CtvM Itrvkt fMM lOS-B WHrh Bids.. RachMter, N Get Pattersons FREE BOOK Responsible Mf "r Guarantees New Shirts for every one that Shrinks or Fades. Selling like Wildfire, Biggest Profits ! Complete line includes Neck' wear. Hosiery. Underwear and Jackets. Write^ Dept. BONDED SHIRT COMPANY •VlJ •! FIFTH AVI., NEW YORK Get a 17 Inch Bicep SOW LEARN DRAFTIM at one mmihecan Complete Course on Ann Building ONLY 25c Chicago Ti Gotten rl Get an arm of might with ihe power and grip to ©bay **aWi your physical desires. Within 30 days you can now bund your arm from a scrawny piece of akin and bone to fine of huge muscular t'ne. I don't mean jusl a 17-inch bicep but a 15-inch forearm and an 8-inch wrist. This specially PATENTS prepared course will build every muscle in the arm be- cause it baj been scientifically worked out for that purpose. gsu sans ^^ir?^ You can develop a pair of triceps shaped like a horseshoe Hons or write for FltEE book. "How to Obuln a Pits nd and just as strong, and a pair of biceps that will show • "rtfjcord of Intention" rorm. No coarse for tnlon lion on bow to proceed, r**"" their double bead formation. The sinewy cables between tf>aMfflls atrial It eoatt tuu. Prompt.' careful, nfllrlsRl seme*. Clanaas the biceps and elbow will be deep and thick with wire cable O'Brien, ltegirtered Paieot Attorney. 1BT-C Security I ligaments. In that arm of yours, the forearm will belly with bulk, and the great supinator lifting muscle you can make into a column of power, while your wrist will grow alive and writhe with cordy sinew. All this you can get for 25 cents—send for this course today and within 30 days' time you can have a he-man's arm built to be as beauti- ful, brawny and magnificent as the village blacksmith's. You can't make a mistake. The guarantee of the strong* est armed man in the world stands behind this course. I give you all the secrets of strength illustrated and ex- Wonderful, new device, rsa plained as you like it. 30 days will give you an unbreak- guides your hand ; corrects able grip af steel and a Herculean arm. Mail your order writing in a (ew days. Big improvement is late now while you cao still get this course at my introductory hours. No failures. Complete outline FREE. Writ price of only 25c. C. J. Qzment, Dept. W7. St. Louis. Mo. BUSH THE COUPON TODAY To each purchaser will be given a FREE COPY of TUB Bnchstein's Fibre Limi THRILL OF BEING STRONG. It is a priceless book to the strength fan and muscle builder. Full of pictures Guaranteed of marvelous bodied men who tell you decisively how you can build symmetry and strength the equal o( theirs. IEAOI OUT-CRASP THIS SPECIAL OFFER AIM fibre arm*, and braces for all deformities. JOWETT INSTITUTE si PHYSICAL CULTURE N. S. BUCHSTEIN CO.. 610 3ti AVE.. SO.. MINNEAPOLIS, HI m Pnplnr Sum, DcpL2LA, Sainton, Penu. Drtr Mr. Jowetti I am enclosing 25e. Please send me Ihe course "MOLDING A MIGHTY ARM" and a (ree copr of "THE THRILL OF BEING STRONG." TOBACCC Aidrr 11 —1 — Please mention Newsstand Group— Mf.n . PS Discovery AUTO New *NO-FROST" wiao- OFFERS CHANCE TO MAKE ^T^Bk Mk '^F (MiaLDS CUM *6 A litre is V£J> FOR MOTORMea n m w mor.ey-makinp; idea for nmhitimu workers. It offers n char.ee to make $G In ?'J a day in full time- -$1.00 to S2.00 an hour in spare time. All you rictd lo do is lake can- of orders in your i.niuiry for No-Frost—a, remarkable- new preparationn thai isi< 7U.*inint"i AD you do is demonstrate to auto owners, t&xlcab and won't streak, smear, msr or scratch, yet It keeps glass bus cotnt>;ini< s. htoi ea. (laraices, houaewivi-s. etc., and clean and eknr as rrynlal. A necessity for every auto the orders. We don't r.i-11 to dealers. .All business ukc owner, storekeeper, slre.t-car motormnn, taxicab and bus from your locality moat came through you. Yom alone driver, locomotive engineer, housewife, and everyone who git the profit on ever it ordrr. Every demn nitration leads wears glasses to an order. Just put a little No-Frost on the glass. It sale tn stores. Tr roil act QUlcklr you will Mmrek Cleared SlOO la SEND NO MONET bn cirpn every opportunity to make big mrmi-y— mun> money i-rhaps than you a Single Week J put four name and edtlrcw on the thourht pov-ibli-. At least m the Lnlureal- coupon ami send Li to aw. I'll present you Ing farts. Mad the coupon today—NOWl wiita facta that show how to start rlcbt In Houfrcd* of my JlepresontailTM are mak- making M to (9 a day as my 1 lev restm ta- I Albert Milli. Prei., ing aaadMfne profits with No- Frost and my | me. You don't nwd anr casual, uaininc Ave., fast-atlllng apecLalue*. II. L. hew CM 3 Monmouth Cincinnati, 0. other or crpertenor- 1 ull you Ju»i what to do J j I l'lea^e tend me full details of your I am, af N*w York, report* i>roflrs or f-39.93 and >»f In this pleasant. intcreM ins work. new inont'v-meklnc proptr.it iou with- I la IH hour*. Wm. Niweomb. 8*J yean II dneta't ront a penny m intesiigale. I out cost or obligation. ' ola. makan ai high ai ISO a week. And Yrt you bare an o[iponunliy to malu> some Un. lewd Hacictt. of Ohio, cleared 1.13 worth- while profit* evorr day—right from Name T noun.—more than hb» made in tiro the Mart- I Ma iHta in a factory. These big cam- Audii-.-.. tap of a icv of my Ilrproeniatlrei ahow Jnrt Mall Coupon ike mndrrnil possibilities. U there any Op A- !' t'o_ O^tiOt or_WrHal'lalnly) rawo* why you can't do as wellT | | nlhly ^GURSWTTHOUT CASH J New you^con wear a riot ton oHy advertitsd diamond Ring O* gomanoj ; —a beautiful i8Kt. wMre"gof cf rrtodain 'ring mJ witt\ a gonuin* dioJ mond of geiyprou* and *a norionaliy.r^ bdvwrtiiad &o!ovo wxifch.'i— *yOctr faitrtfvll »im«kp«pcr for yeon tp cowo. S«nd no.cqshl — J*jr-*|0ll couptjnl' jlowWltxrAdvtrtiiad Cash frie», on f" fbf>fol CrndHf — and yow can *veor yowfl \ ...... I1..J. ».- toMonoa inalc(« (hs ffnQ_a.-id I *° I or* your gaarcinteei. NTA FE To SANTA FE WATCH CO. Dwpt.Bs5, Thomas Bldg. ( Tepsko, Karuat Gsnllsmsm floats tend met Diomend Bing O' Romance And Bulova Watch as fea- hvrsd in your adverlttement. Alto tsnd bsaulifully lllwtlraled jewelry catalogue. Name : . Address. -Cir,- NEW INDUSTRY Be A Detective Make Secret Investigations NEEDS MEN Earn Big Money. Work home or travel. n^CTniC nEFHiaKnATinN offrn wonderful opportunities to jrMlea rum. Fascinnting work. Experience unnecessary. Kiprri- ht^l.tt fnr lug Mr JoIh o;*n In l-rfwlnc- "an. Lnsi a llation. vi-niiy. nc. Now. ea-^r. practical tralnina fin at borne. to F» «julrk rfL-ulu.. Enrf-.r-wrf UT Ifad In r manufartiirer-. DETECTIVE Particulars FREE, Write NOW finifiymrnt 5? MTilcr Ijow r.i', easy termi. Money -bark GEO. N. ft. WAGNER, 2190 Broadway, N.T. ^OINHTiTLTK. Dt-pt. itino. 4 Please mention N'kwsstand Group— .Mr.M's List, when an^wtrinp; a«l\ crtisrmenls How Make THIS SECRET SERVICE BOOK Big Money! FREE for 30 Days Reading Give Away No Money Dow if Actual Crime Cases Delicious postpaid and FEEE for 80 day* Wfjgt Confection Detection, Boeret r, griupin j book on CrlBM -mm ullcation Work. Written by—ootstaadauaiis anther* ttr . Too follow Um opantor How the orltfnaton of cms of Amolct'i mi popular, widely axlmrLHed confHMlona aa* ufMiung for more men 10 take cafe of | storm— the mvktt uncus local on a cJernr T^CCaX? Book D**. If20 Si Ut plan that nana bis money coming In «fsn the first day Just lei tins people taste tt free. Already local mto hare taken In as high as IJOU to |J00 in a tingle nay. NO IILUNO TO DO STOP Tobacco No house to bouv canvasslnc. Biora tell being can escape the ha . affects of tobacee. It for you. Uencrous now profit tearing No human Don't try to quit without aulatance. L c our simple inejpsnatrt plan feet It Into nearly eitry store without remedy help you. A complete trealm en costs but II.OO. Jfrerj need of high pre&mre selling. New "laMo It first" plan brtnn promptly refunded If you do not Kit desired result.*;, enormouji repeal order*. Now the market for thin tempilne eoofee- penny Ours la a harmlof" preparation, lly compounded u> nt- Licmi m mj irrmaKluai tbat more men are needed quick to sen that awl a nditioii. make orj ling of too*. > piSMBt, dealers are kept suppllrO. This opmlnii means mare you than come the that wlU and easy. It < . with a money back guarantee. a mere Joh. It means big money quick —and the chance to build, a remanent bu«lnet» of your own with a ateady profit pouring La t AAfVMA P- 0. BOX H-tl from locaJ stores. Don't worry about big capital. "'-'"—« ex- Anti-Tobacco LrCagOe OMAHA. NEBR. Cnonce, or sales ability. Wo loll you Juat what 10 do 10 mako g money at tho start. »4f IN ONB DAT CAUSE Ira Shook look In 1363 In a stogie dayv**Iarlne took In 111,165 In three month*. Gordon. 14.000 prorlta In two mom In Naur, ASTHMA DISCOVERED $3,000 in tLrw months. Hundreds moro bis profit records. RUSH APPUOA JtOlt Write for important booklet on Doctor Fugate's Bo many men wlU apply far then openings lhat we will probably discovery the basic of bronchial asthma he rweraped. Therefore, wo urge you to ru\b tho application be- of cause lo» If you are intemted In up to 150 eren In a day. Address and hay fever. No cost. No obligation. Simply H. W. EakJni, President, 1193 Hit* Stn«t, Saringfleltf. Ohio. address Dept. 6300, Fugate Co., 126 S. Meridian t., Indianapolis, Ind. Ph. W. EakJni. Preeldsnt. 1 S H(|h 81.. Springfield. I Oh la. § I Consider m« an applicant for opening as owner of one of your I duiiik-sm~* on jour plan that new Mart* me in big bu.nncM with- a out douii: any nith prraiure selling or house to bouse canva^lng. Ad4rtt I I c«if_ Who is the gay, cunning, elusive crook in yellow known as THE NERVE ROLLICKING ROGUE Torture* By JOHNSTON McCULLEY Nervousness Is dangerous. Thousands (to In- sane because they cannot endure the tor- ture. Many more thou.se nda commit suicide, in the November issue of for mental pain la the moat terrible of all paina. If you are nervous, irritable, aclf- convriou*. bashful, unhappy, cannot sleep-, have nervous indijfestion or other symptoms of weak or dern.njci.il nerves, tend for the 64- ALL STAR p*Kc book. "•Streniftheninir the Nwvlh." It explains WHY you are nervous, and know- ing WHY, you can STOP it. Order the book TO-DAY. MoJilcr your nerves, or they DETECTIVE STORIES will master YOU. End your nervous-mental torture. Book sent in plain wrapper for 25 eta. (coin or stamps I . Aildrea*. Paul von On sale >. I900 Cellini Bids., 48 Wert 48th New York. Friday, Oct 174 All newMtands Please mention Newsstand Group— Men's List, when answering advertisements . i 1 1 EXTRA 1 STRONG IMPROVED MODEL Most Practical COPPER Bolter 4k Cooker Made «ritri large 6- loch Im- Cma) Q« fad Upoal- Rata. prwUcsJ «.cd tW«. NoU— u> a""t oat of ora^r . a uM aab- atantkl and Osrabla uo tb* nuA^WHM a^fatlaa». EasHy Cfoanod D £n£—™ Ad" l_a| To w liuil—i lor tma ul S1260 to '3400 a Year PICK YOUR JOB Men, Women— 18 to 50 These an stead* poaltlons. Strikes, poor boiiserui condJUcau. or politic* vul not affect them. OonramcU employees cat ladr Mr for ttrdre full months every roar. no** to arras a Tw FARN MONEY Railway Portal Clerlu trl SI.DM the arm, rear, being paid on the first and fifteenth AT of *eoh mooih. 179.17 each par dxj. HOME Tbflr par Is unlc— UuroeMd. the y maximum bring Tear. YOU can mike $15 to $50 weekly In 59 S2.T00 a J 112.30 each pay day. spare or full time at borne oil painting - Sbotngrapba. No experience needed. 1AILWAI To canvaae—ex. We uutioct yon b»I LCIEHI our sew simp— Pfaobo-Coba* andaupply you with anking ou . employ mart rui ioe- ^Vrits fee tknlara and Free Bonk to-day. The IRVINO-VANCECOMPANYOTLtd.Ltd. 1 1SX Bart Buikliag. Toronto, Can,n. 1 B*Uw*y Postal Clerk*, like all QoTtmment employee* bare a yearly vacation or IS working days (about 18 da—). On runs, they usually work 3 day* and here 3 day* off duty or In the same proportion. During thla off duty and t« cation their pay contlnu— Jus l a* though lb— were mMot They trarel on a MAKE MONEY paw when on bu-Mnewi and tbe country. What they craw old. they are retired nib a pension. City Mall Carrierra, Peart Offlew C-wrfca SELLING SHIRTS Clerk* and Carriers now rommenre at f 1.700 a year and auto- matically lD.rrca.-4i lino a year Id J2.1i)i) end 12.300. They al*0 bavu 13 days' iutd itc»tlan. City residence is unnecessary. C^waraiaaiart Oark—FUa dark Salary JI.jMO to 12.500 a year. Pleasant clerlral sad flUng work In the fsxlous soTmuneni drpannii-nis al Washington. D. C, and olber dtlea throuabout (he couniry. to Yowr Jab ftaadft rooipua thaaa mod It Ion wllh foof^pr«»- cbaonaa tvJtkn* (raapallr. ao chan la aaifet to IWtKANEHT aunWaait; fraqoantlr nnt of a («ltkMi and Am *aar*a ••Vrva. «IV. rarr low. DO YOlf OCT tl.m ._ ASSURANCE THAT A riutH NOW SOU WIlX GET 0. 100 to B.T0O A YEAH7 Y«« Cna Owt Tb r>to> Tw— Uat of Poaltlona Tur It err ml nail It today — now. el ddo> EaaaaHi i hwort end C. P. A.'a am B.OdD to 110,003 rev. your . . . oltlD svtUoo toft^. u» UaiuTStat*.. #• twin panm *oratr_atihimvii at boawbaapa in «f*r»acv* lbs- naimtrn MCNadaj pnaitfcna. F*»' Tmhrilna tmdar iba uai aaial t FRANKLIN INSTITUTE Dept. P-264. Rocheilcr. N. V. Please mention Newsstand Croup— Mf:n's Ijst, whin auswcririR ail\ iriiscincnts ! GOY'T. POSITIONS 05 T0>75 WEEKLY ! ) By. Hall Clerk ( ) Rleno-Typlit ) P. O. Laborer 1 ) Immigrant Lnjpectoj I , ) B. r. D. Carrier ( ) Seamitraa ! ) Special Agent < > Auditor ( ) Customs ta.«p. ( ) Bteoo- Secretary ( > City Mull Carrier f ) v. h. Border Patrol' ( ) Meat I Director 1 ) Chauffeur- Carrier ) P. 0. Clerk ( ) Watchman \ Pile Clerk Bk tiled Laborer , ) General Clerk Poatmailee ( ) Matron Typlrt "HSTRUl Build Muscles and Strength With this Iron Shoe Ruptured? The Germuu Invented tho Iron Rhoe be- causo i hey realized It enabled thim to achtcvo Be Comfortable-* physical yer feetion. We have brought It to Anu-rica and Improred It. It Is offered you Three million of these comfort- 1 0 0 strong -.y* ™? . P^ *". ff._* !! able sanitary appliances sold. No U obnoxious springs or pads. Auto-g legs w that" you" will "be"s™ot> matic Air Cushion gently assists I daja. Wo don't jus* ablp the apparatus and let you work out your muscle building nature in drawing together the problems for yourself. We include with our— broken parts. Durable. Cheap. Sent ^ FREE SPECIAL OFFER on 10-day trial to prove its worth. Beware of i The IHON MAN'S FAMOUS IL- 60-DAY Every appliance made to individual measurements sal LUSTRATED PICtURK COURSE of exer- cise instruction, SPECIAL STRENGTH RE- sent direct from Marshall. Full information and Rupture CORDER and STRENGTH REGISTER, booklet sent free in plain, sealed envelope. Write for al thereby making this the create* I body but Id - the facts today. 1ns offer presented to you in s lifetime. It 173 F State St.. U the area! emt muscle buUdlnf apparatus yon e»er aaw. Write for particular* today and Mart getting strong st once. Follow the choice of champion* and set, that grip of iteel. Ring In now on our special offer and j FAR learn all about the lowest priced and blggeet I M/3NEY YAH result getting satMSs* under the sun. ' L AT HOME _ AMERICAN ATHLETIC APPLIANCE CO., 4MI Frankford Ave.. Dept. NCI I, Philadelphia. Pa. Have a Good I Time • • • • A Bmple, i It—16 my practi< Make REAL Growtha) oB. Wri Money . . . WM. DAVIS, M.D., 124-X Grwt / Learn to play a Buescher, for social popularity; big pay ; success. Live oo the cream of life. Any Buescher j quickly, easily mastered. Lease •Vd&wV Siven free with instrument. Jon and or orchestra in 90 days. Test younelfoD aBueichcr in your own home 6 days free. Eaiy terms. Send postal for beautiful cats* log. No obligation. MentioQ favorite instrument. Stnd today. CO. B3> till BUlSCHtR BLOCK CLKHART, malum LOWEST WHOLESALE PRICES binatlona. etc. Write today RADIO CORPORATION • f to Please mention Newsstand Group—Men's List, when answering advertisements — Play the Hawaiian Guitar like t^e Hawaiians/ - ague! owe u»*d hi pUjrlng tbJ* foadnatlriB. Inatni* 2Sl Our native Hawaiian in* true torn Uatch'jrou to Xsur Ihtn quickly. Pictures abow how. Every. pa*? hi M»K Hour Buy Lmmm • mi ft I lb* lour Cvan if torn dsn*t 1 *£! r°« »l-r om r-*a r™» wot - - cke'dt * Please mention Newsstand Gboup—Men's List, when answering aHvertisemcnts . LOVE LIFE ROMANCE IN Eight bnproveu Muscle RANCH Builders ROMANCES Easily muter feat* which now Mem dlftVult. If you not physical culture for health thla enaJpment la what you need. SAVE AT LEAST HALF I We furnUh im cable duct expander adjustable to 200 lba. rwbiinc*. Made or Dew Use extra ftxensth rubber La H*e resistance needed for rare muwle derd- opment Pair el paitnud band trim de*qfap powerful trip and arm. Wall exnrcuuni parte dereJop baca. arms and leu. Head map permlta rie/cJse ooajuurm of neck muscles. Develop Entire »aUs- leg miuclee with foot strap faction rur- — gttr* speed, endurance. anteed or Illustrated course bows bow lo develop any part of bodj. toad N* Mm _ Seed name and addno. Wo send all by re- turn mail. Par postman 13.? 6 plus postaie. 1000 Loud Shots B vlype Q Ne Repealing Cap Pistol Here are stories of the real West, tingling with the thrill of life, pulsing with youth and FREES adventure. * al ™1 k*dio«- -t>au. buff, buf. Hp, rtp. rial Dn'l • u ro with (tu piiU*. w* nuuta Lnia to J«h rem. I nuda pac*«d mUi aacb ptaul. Om Four* quit*. A BKA1XT OftEAT OiTEft Ttw Oaww sasaet -fee Im'taulM U teat niMifwtih bMS eWtMs iUriaoTTiktkB. file* RANCH ROMANCES Mb. clobi, MMda, tmlaBnlon vitb iiImi fsr ui. RmUr iiiIM ill n prte* II 00 a r«u tad - f ~ ' aaSaTaa f w MdraUtnwi it a Clayton Magazine uw fa* o ibApb ad r™ nifB laipraaa ollact- naif a fawBHUi t&b wsadarfaJ BaalaTanri 1000 i ii bhIii af —mill W«ranil« Lu Please mention Newsstand Gboup—Men's List, when answering advertisements 1 etlnto rahoat9rwcstmmf We ct&rt you. run FOOTWEAR money with our i* m&rkablc Ulrec-t-to 51RVICE fcr rearer plan. Mat Jim profl (a mr wneo you abow'aplcn SJitn ureao thwtuienemsltv —and Tanner* Quality shoes at our low prices ate a Deceaaiiy ihat "^aas attfcf to the nine cutloraera oxiln and ualo. Big idvua odmmlvJoaa una yourprOfitscoaiccWX. Wc tell YOU bow od wh-r? to *cll. QUALITY LISTERINE Shoving Cream NOW Mojamp* for your reior. H slides on the glycerine film produced bf the thick cmmy lather. Try It today. 25< YOU WANTA i INCOME SELL SHIRTS Eonfcjf ooflij rroai the Ran. Let Quiko-help too. Woo- fefaJ aspic Outfit gca onLrt. Fuiejr Mai'* Sbiro, Tio, lUnv, Hwiterr. Untenable «!oei. Uoiqac talc* i tun, troaclad nmain, FREE ibirn, Tus, Cub Bona. Write for Free Outfit NOWI DeptK-1 QUAKEB SJURT CORP., 1 107 Broadway, M. V. eSarGED END NO MONEY »S.r» »"•« ait* MxZOln. (inriBlMtMMM, I'STlriEStV.^ri special SrS?.n^™-*^t" ;i FREE OFFER |n>M«kiu of p*K«u Mr.t. I ik* utnnU** BE A RAILWAY TRAFFIC INSPECTOR Wj.fw.ty and Fi m. Cam up to 4250 Monthly ttfenS k&s=%,:: saftgas Come to my rescue—QUICK ! I'm HOPELESSLY LOST in these "treacherous, trackless catacombes. I've tried for hours to find the right path to freedom but here I am right back in the middle again. Can YOU Find the Right Path? Will you try? A THOUSAND THANKS ! —I knew you would. Bet 6rst, let me warn you that THERE IS ONLY ONE PATH to freedom end It's,—Oh I so hard to find. It starts in the middle where I am and, WITHOUT CROSSING ANY OF THE WALLS, it ends somewhere on the outside of these terrible catacombes. I hope YOU can find THB RIGHT PATH to get me out. If you do, mark it plainly with pen or pencil and send it to me quick. IF CORRECT, I'll see that you an qualified at once for an opportunity to win as much as $2320.00 cash out of the $8,000.00 IN REWARDS' that I'm going to give away. $1,000.00 Cash Just For Being Quick! Y«, I'll positively my ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS nth to someone. Jolt tar being prompt and duplicate prizes in me of tie*. IT'S ALL FREE I Anyone may * lor nothing, so send YOUR answer today. Rnsb it I L> SHULMAN. 37 W. Van Bursa Street, Dept. 560, CHICAGO, ILL. Please mention Newsstand Group—Men's List, when answering advertisements They gave a newThri THAT S WHY THEY GOT THERE SO QUICKLY A L I C V, W II I T E S/ir pottmlrd {mi i-itwnts . . . poiimli-il stittiiinltmrs rumiuli'd thf. lirvs of a luillmil /v/irirW/rr. Thvn it inu'n- evi'il tlirwtor sfwttwl . Mi *• . . mid in it Jt'ic short yt'urs n nviv If hitr slur rosr in //f»//vif'f »<*/'-« hcui rim. Luck? . . . Lurk nothing! Alice White m;i?> ciidim vl by Xtitiirr with 11 fjieriul charm ht llirill the million*. Ol.It COM), tni), is mic of Matures favorite-. I'.inlou ell with inr>ll sweeter lulijccff? 1 1 jiiiai; to million* a hrnml new taste-thrill, without a trace «if throat-irritation. That's why (X. It i;oi,l> hroke into the '*IKg-I" s I hull a year, why toiluy it's the country's fa. M eft growing cigarette: Ju ToLiy, tlic tlinlls milliuuj aa a movie alar. une nf tlic iiuriliwi'ii's fuur leading cigureilci. II I. T T r II r nii.\rcos "NOT A COrr. II IN A OAHI, OA I)" Pleasure is always on your side when you smoke Camels