by Don Wilcox
Luckily, the pilot caught Charley’s ankles, braced himself and held tight. Bill crawled up over Charley like a cat coming out of a bathtub. In a moment everyone was back on the shelf, safe and scared—too scared to move.
“No more monkeyshines,” the mayor said, “we’ll sit right where we are till the wind blows us down.”
Sooner or later, the mayor declared, someone would see the plane wreckage on the tower and come to their rescue. The pilot stroked his chin, doubting whether planes ever passed this way. And meanwhile, Madam Lasanda kept an ear to the side of the corner of the tower, fully convinced that the footsteps were ascending.
Pakkerman held the little copper statue under his arm as he hurried through the glide-walk to the Red Room. He passed Gallagher without waking him and went directly to the spiral ascent.
He bounded up the steps two at a time. Round and round and round. He knew his pace. In an emergency like this he was good for a burst of speed.
Halfway up to the giant eye he stopped to listen. The low snoring of Gallagher came up softly through the emptiness. From high overhead voices sounded dimly. A rock came bouncing down on the outside. It oozed into the plastic material of the shaft and became imbedded silently. If the stranded people only knew, Pakkerman thought, they too could have dropped painlessly into the flexible shell of the tall spire and eased to a stop unharmed somewhere along this spiral ascent. But perhaps it was just as well they didn’t know. It would give Pakkerman a chance to look them over before he admitted them.
Of one thing he was sure. The mirrors had told him. Madam Lasanda was in the party. Whether he was ready or not, he was about to meet her again.
Could he face her after all that had happened in the past two years?
Only the beginnings of a plan had formed in his mind. He would rescue her and would leave the rest of her party stranded until he had had time to talk with her.
He ascended to a platform twenty feet above the upper edge of the giant eye and there he emerged through a narrow door to a shelf on the outside of the tower. He looked up. He saw the plane clinging like a kite at the top of a telephone pole. He saw no persons.
He called. “Mary! Mary Lasanda!
Are you there?”
Five heads peeped over a concealed shelf. Pakkerman smiled to himself. It was a good solid shelf, but he decided that four persons on it would be enough.
CHAPTER XLIII
Sue and Jimmy watched through the mirrors. They saw how cleverly Pakkerman got Madam Lasanda away from the rest of the group, and they heard the moans of the mayor who, left with the boys, bewailed his fate as the forgotten man.
But it was the greeting between Pakkerman and Madam Lasanda that took Sue’s breath away.
“Gee!” she whispered to Jimmy in a tone of awe. “I never say anything like that, even in the movies. Look at the tears in her eyes. She hasn’t seen him for over two years. She knows he’s been all wrapped up in this Scravvzek thing, and the way she’s lookin’ at him—gee!”
“Look, he’s tellin’ her how he got that scar over his right eye,” Jimmy said.
“She doesn’t mind the scar. Um, what a voice. It’s not just the way she kissed him, it’s the way she looks at him and the way she’s talking to him—umm!”
Jimmy looked at Sue. “Hey, what you cry in’ about?”
“Think, Jimmy! If the captain had done what he intended to do, this wouldn’t have happened. They’d never have looked at each other this way. Do you see, Jimmy?”
Jimmy saw. He knew, without Sue telling him, that the tragedy Allan had planned had been missed by a hair.
“Listen to ‘em. Gosh-ding! He must be all out of that Scravvzek spell, the way he’s talkin’.”
They listened spellbound . . .
* * *
Madam Lasanda was aware that Val Pakkerman had been under the spell of the evil power for many months past. Now he was suddenly free! Free!
He pursued his lips, trying to restrain her optimism.
“I’m free—temporarily,” he emphasized. “It came suddenly. First I found this—” he tapped the little copper statue, “and I discovered you were here, stranded. An ideal surprise entrance. Frankly, I believe it was your corning that shocked me out of my shell.”
“It was a lucky shock—and a timely one,” Madam Lasanda said, and her dark eyes clouded. “Things have been growing worse all over the world. The radio reports reached us as we were flying. Disasters have been striking all over the globe. Unaccountable riots. Storms. Earthquakes.
“Oh Val, my heart bled for you every time I heard such a report. I knew all that torment was passing through your hands.”
Pakkerman seemed to be looking through the clouds beyond the spire. “I’m sorry, Mary. I suppose this little fire tender has conveyed everything to you. It’s been bad. Very bad. I don’t know how you stood it. I thought you would surely strike me out of your heart after you realized—”
“I always believed that someday you’d escape it. Now you have escaped, Val. This very day—”
“It’s temporary, Mary. Someone has taken my place, just for the moment.”
“Who?”
“Captain Burgess.”
“Oh.”
“You sent him here, didn’t you, in the hope that he might do something to help?”
“Has he?”
He’s raised plenty of hell one way or another. But I didn’t know the Scravvzek had him lined up. It all happened suddenly. The damned thing fastened itself on him just as he was about to deal it a stiff blow.”
“Really? You mean that the captain could actually have crippled the Scravvzek? He’s found a way?”
“I thought so—until it jumped on him and took possession of him.”
“It’s too bad he missed.” Madam Lasanda looked at Pakkerman with sudden suspicion. “How would he have crippled it?”
Pakkerman pressed her hand, “Never mind. He didn’t get to do it.”
She was suddenly alarmed. “How?”
“Never mind, dear.”
“By killing you?”
“Yes. That was it. It could have worked. No one but I was qualified to be the Scravvzek’s man, I thought. But I had overlooked Allan Burgess himself.”
“Oh, Val!” She touched his shoulder, his cheek, his hair. She passed her fingers lightly over the scar above his right eye. Then, as if resolving to shake out of a sentimental mood, she asked in a matter-of-fact voice, “What about the captain? Will he yield to the Scravvzek’s destructive purposes?”
“Of course. How can he help it?”
“Wholeheartedly?”
“Did I—wholeheartedly?”
“I don’t know,” she said frankly.
“Maybe you were only the Scravvzek’s puppet, against your own will.”
“I’m afraid I served only too readily.
The fact is, my deep hatred born out of the unfairness of the world has twisted me into something pretty cold and deadly.” His face colored with the admission, and the line over his eye showed white.
Madam Lasanda nodded with her eyelashes. She was ready to understand. But not to blame. Then—
“Speaking of your feelings toward the unfair world, would you like to know who came along with the Mayor and me?”
The men from the shelf above were making themselves heard. Pakkerman listened to the voices. Voices he remembered. A sinister picture came back to his mind—the shadows against the white curtain—the unfair charges of disloyalty—the taunts from gangsters who had framed him. So these were two of the Mayor’s boys!
“I’ll be happy to meet them,” Pakkerman said, narrowing his eyes and nodding slowly. “I’ll climb up a few feet just to get a look at them under the sunlight.”
A moment later he was gazing up at them. The mayor shrank back in a corner and pretended to be aloof. The innocent pilot listened with interest. Bill Gavor and Charley Spandoak, as guilty as snakes, perspired under the heat of Pakkerman’s embarrassing reminders of their crime
.
They refused to discuss the matter. They had just come through a plane crash, they whimpered. And they begged, in the name of mercy to be allowed to get down out of this dizzy sky nest . . .
* * *
Sue and Jimmy, taking it all in at the mirrors, were glad when Pakkerman came away and left the men in their sky trap.
“I’ll see what I can do for you later,” Pakkerman promised in a faintly ominous tone, “if the Scravvzek doesn’t shake you down in the meantime.”
Then he and Madam Lasanda were making their way down slowly, talking as they descended.
CHAPTER XLIV
They were soon inside the tower, where they were able to follow the spiral path. They passed the area where the light of the great diamond bounced through the translucent walls. Their path widened into a stairs.
Madam Lasanda was taking in everything eagerly . . .
At a distance, Sue and Jimmy were also getting in on the party, by way of the mirrors. Sue was fascinated, listening to their talk. She sighed.
“Only a fortune teller could have such interesting things to say. I wish I could talk to my boyfriend the way she does.”
“You got a boyfriend?” Jimmy asked.
“I mean if I had a boyfriend.”
“Gosh-ding-it,” Jimmy gulped.
“You know you always got me if you want me. Of course I’m not the kind of guy they put in the magazines to advertise collars. I’m nobody—just Jimmy Ruggles.”
“Jimmy Ruggles is a swell guy,” Sue said, patting him on the arm. “But I’m not really in love with anybody much, I guess.”
“The captain, maybe?”
“Maybe . . . Gee, I’m worried about him. I hope that Scravvzek quits hounding him. Poor guy, he looked awfully uncomfortable when that ball of light wrapped him up. He told us not to worry, he’d shake it off . . . But I don’t know . . .”
They looked away from the mirrors, toward the top of the cone. A barrage of orange sparks showered down somewhere across a distant surface.
“Is Allan doing that?” Sue asked in alarm. “Will he start destroying things too?”
Her question caused Jimmy to bounce to his feet. He caught her hand and they went running up across the surface of mirrors.
They ran toward the top of the cone. The millions of little illuminated mirrors flashed under their feet. Within a hundred yards of the top the luminous clouds slowed their progress.
“Captain!” Jimmy called. “Captain! Are you up there?”
The steamy orange fire clouds would engulf them if they went any farther. The ceiling looked more than ever like an expanse of ominous red sky pressing down from overhead— Or it might have been a red hot sheet of iron, catching the heat from the crater.
A shower of sparks sailed out from the steamy clouds. Their path cut a fiery curve. They skimmed under the low ceiling and drifted far out across the side of the cone.
“Disaster for someone.” Sue said.
“I wonder who’s getting it.”
“That’s an awful thing for Allan Burgess to do,” Jimmy mumbled helplessly. He turned, wondering as he had wondered before, why he didn’t dare ascend to the point of the cone and look into the crater of orange fire clouds. But something told him that what was safe for Allan wasn’t safe for him. Sue must have had the same instinct.
“We’re too close to the top,” Sue said. “Let’s get out of here.”
“What about the captain?”
“He’s up there fighting around among the clouds somewhere. He’s acting like he’s got some destructive business to take care of, just like Pakkerman.”
“This is awful,” Jimmy repeated.
“We ought to do something.”
“We can’t manage him as long as he’s wrapped up in that shell of fire . . . Gee, I’m even afraid of him,” Sue admitted. “How did you feel when he ordered everybody to salute?”
“I felt like saluting . . . What are we gonna do?”
“There’s only one thing we can do. Appeal to Doc Pakkerman. This Scravvzek business is his dish. He shouldn’t make Allan Burgess eat it. Come on, let’s find him.”
The rocky walls had begun to tremble before they got through the glide-walk ride. Just as they were emerging from the dark tunnel, the glide-walk went into reverse. They ran a quarter mile dash to cover the last fifteen yards, when the reverse action set in. What with Jimmy’s’ speed and Sue’s sure grip on his hand, they made it against the current.
In the Red Room they found Gallagher. They badgered him into showing them the way to ascend the tower, and they made him agree to go dig up a four-way lunch for them.
They hurried up through the spiral ascent until they had to stop from sheer dizziness. Then Sue took time out to give Jimmy a curtain lecture on how Pakkerman must not be approached. A man who had just gone through a siege with the Scravvzek might not be ready for another encounter.
“It’s a delicate situation,” Sue said, “Madam Lasanda has just recovered him. She won’t want him to go back. But I’ve a dreadful hunch that the only way Pakkerman can release Allan is by going back into the thing himself.”
“I’ll let you do the talkin’,” Jimmy said.
“If it has to be either Pakkerman or Allan, it won’t be easy. Madam Lasanda would be on one side, and naturally I’d be on the other. Only I don’t think anyone would quarrel. I can see her side of it too plain. She’s terribly in love.”
“An’ what about you?”
“Okay, Jimmy, I’d just as well say it. Sure I’m in love. I haven’t known Allan very long, but I’ll be honest with you—S-s-sh! Here they come.”
The meeting with Madam Lasanda and Pakkerman was one that made Sue’s heart beat too fast. She was afraid she might be looked upon as an intruder in this whole strange affair.
However, within a few minutes, Sue knew that Madam Lasanda had decided to like her, and as soon as the situation was understood, both women revealed their sympathy for each other at every turn. Then it was Madam Lasanda who pursued Val Pakkerman with the question, “What can be done about Allan Burgess?”
Gallagher lifted a puzzled eyebrow when he came to them with the food. He saw Pakkerman, free from the Scravvzek fire. He heard the question about Captain Burgess. At the same time he was aware that the quaking of the rocks under his feet was something more than his drunken condition. He plodded down the stairs, scuffing his hair thoughtfully. He looked back and muttered that he figured he was still supposed to be keeping guard, and he didn’t like the way all these invaders were making a goat out of him.
Jimmy wished Pakkerman would hurry. Things were rocking. Fiery globes were coasting into view along the Red Room floor. Doc Pakkerman would not be hurried. He sat on the steps, munching slowly with his hand against his cheek and his deep eyes on Madam Lasanda. In his mind he was still revolving within the shock of leaving the Scravvzek so completely. Now he was trying to see it all from the outside.
“Are you sure it’s evil?” Jimmy asked, breaking the silence Sue had imposed on him.
Pakkerman gave an outraged snarl. It was as evil as all hell, and as dangerous as the hand of death. Why should anyone doubt it?
“Well,” Jimmy said lamely, “it did save Sue an’ me from drinkin’ that poison. Why?”
“It had a purpose. Don’t you see the momentary effect that had upon Allan? He saw that the thing had saved you two. So he felt kindly toward it for a moment. He was in a perfect frame of mind to receive it.”
Sue was quick to catch an implication. “Do you mean that he could reject it if he didn’t feel kindly toward it?”
Pakkerman answered that he believed so. “If a man has a good heart toward all the world, only an unusual circumstance will make him receive the Scravvzek . . . But there are always the mirrors. If a man has watched them and come to doubt the goodness of the world, his disillusionment offers the Scravvzek a favorable setup.”
“Allan didn’t say much about disillusionment,” Sue commented.
&
nbsp; “But he was sure wrapped up in the mirrors,” Jimmy said. “An’ now he’s down there tossin’ Scravvzek devilment right an’ left. What we gonna do—”
Sue nudged him and he fell silent. But no one noticed, for at that moment the earthquakes broke out with new fury.
They looked down over the stairs and saw a part of the red rock floor caving away. It broke like two pieces of pie in a giant pie crust, and fell slowly.
They saw Gallagher down there in his cozy alcove, munching a sandwich. One of his liquor bottles started rolling down the inclined floor. He got up and plodded after it with unsteady steps. The floor was sinking under his feet. The bottle kept rolling out of his reach. He broke into a soggy run.
The floor went down and down, and Gallagher and the bottle went with it. They fell and were lost in a cloud of orange-colored light that came boiling up from the depths.
Half of the red rock floor remained intact through the quake that followed; but two quarters of the piecrust sank down into the vast emptiness of the cone room below. When the orange fire-clouds shifted to one side, Sue and Jimmy could see all the way down to the glittering mountain of mirrors.
CHAPTER XLV
All through the night the earth quivered and groaned from the furies of the Scravvzek power.
On the outside of the tower, high above the mountains, a mayor, a pilot, and two of Maple City’s corrupt citizens endured a thousand deaths. All night long they believed that the plane would come ripping down over their heads at any moment. They continually felt the tower itself to be falling, though it never fell. And whenever a break in the mountain’s crusts revealed a flood of fiery globes or a spray of mad comets somewhere below them, they were sure that all hell had burst up out of the center of the earth and would soon rise to engulf them.
Through that mad night the eighty men who had once belonged to Captain Burgess were his again, more than ever before. When the terrifying “eyes” of the Scravvzek came bursting through the walls with a hiss of lava, men would stop in their tracks and salute. If green fingertips chased through the ravines, men would toss them food or uniforms or plunder from a neighbor’s cave anything that might pacify an Evil Scravvzek on a rampage. The winds roared through the caverns, and the Captain’s men heard them as voices. They rushed forth to obey imagined commands. But when the actual voice of the Scravvzek thundered out with words unmistakably articulated, many was the man who froze in his tracks, unable to tremble.