by Hal K. Wells
when I foundthe cavern the process of awakening the Shining Ones would require thatthey be carefully fed with the calcium and lime from the bones of living_yaharigans_, the normal food of all Rikorians.
* * * * *
"The few _yaharigans_ I had brought from Rikor were consumed on my longtrip to Earth. So I had to recruit a party of human beings to go with meand serve as the necessary food for the Shining Ones. My search for thecavern took longer than I had expected for I knew only its approximatelocation. My own body at last had to have sustenance. Last night theNegro, Jeff Peters, provided that sustenance.
"I shall feed those of you who remain to the first group of Shining Onesto be awakened. After that we shall be strong enough in numbers to sallyforth and capture ample food for awakening the rest of our comrades.Then in our full strength we shall emerge and again become masters of aplanet upon which your crude race shall exist only as _yaharigan_ herdsfor our sustenance."
Layroh's resonant voice ceased. Keeping the black ray projector alertlycovering the men, he strode over to a closed metal door in the wall justbeyond them. He took a small tube from a rack beside it and opened thedoor by sending a flash of yellow light into the mechanism of its lock.
"Into the pits until I am ready for you," he commanded curtly. "Theywere first constructed for keeping our own _yaharigans_ while we wereworking in the cavern, and they should serve just as well for you."
* * * * *
With the memory of Olsen's tragic fate still fresh in their minds, themen obediently filed into the next room, with Layroh bringing up therear. The room was little more than a single large cell carved from theliving rock, and lighted by a single radium bulb in the ceiling.
Its smooth glasslike floor was broken at intervals of ten feet bycircular pits fifteen feet deep. At Layroh's order the men entered thefloor-pits, one man to each pit. As Foster lowered himself into one ofthem he saw how grimly efficient a trap the pit was.
An unusually tall and active man might be able to jump high enough totouch the edge, but the effort would be useless. Those glass-smoothedges were so cunningly rounded that they offered no possible purchasefor clutching fingers. The diameter of the pit, ten feet, was too greatto permit any effort at climbing by wedging one's body between twoopposing walls.
Layroh sent every man into the pits but one.
"You will return to the cavern with me, Carter," he ordered. "I haveneed for you at once."
They heard the door clang shut as Layroh and Carter left the pit room.Chaos reigned as the men flung their bodies against the pit walls inefforts to escape. There was the click of metal as several of them triedwith pocket knives to chip finger-holes in the walls, but the glassysurfaces were of diamond hardness.
* * * * *
Foster's brain was numb with despair as he began to realize the truemeaning of those sleeping things out in the cavern. Death in someunknown and horrible form was imminent for himself and his companions,he knew, but his thoughts were going far beyond that, to the time whenthe Shining Ones would emerge in all their resistless power to ravageand conquer a helpless world.
There could be little doubt as to the futility of Earth's best effortsagainst the advanced science of these invaders from far-off Rikor.Encased in their colossal machine-bodies of glittering metal, and armedwith such terrible weapons as the black ray projector, the Shining Oneswould be as invulnerable as men trampling an anthill underfoot.
The future status of mankind upon the Earth would be that of vast herdsof human _yaharigans_, probably bred for ever greater bone content asmen breed cattle for superior food values. The picture aroused Foster toa fury of cold desperation. If they could only escape from the pitsthere might be a chance to trap Layroh and slay him before he broughtthose hordes of opalescent slugs to life. Then escape from the cavernitself would be an easy matter. Even if the outer door had been lockedsince they passed through it Layroh had the light-key and Fosterremembered the combination.
Half a dozen wild schemes flitted through Foster's brain, only to bediscarded as futile. Then suddenly he thought of something that hadevery chance of success if only they were given time enough. Layroh inhis arrogance had forgotten that his prisoners were not naked brutes ofRikor. In the very clothing the men wore was the means of escape fromthe pits.
* * * * *
Foster's voice cut through the babel in the room until he gainedeveryone's attention.
"Our only chance for escape is to get a rope between two pits," he saidcurtly. "Then one man can climb out while the other holds the rope.We'll have to make that rope from our clothing. No one man can get astrip strong enough, so we'll have to work the strips to a central manwho can braid them into a single heavy rope. I'm near the center. Getthe strips to me. Tear your clothing into ribbons, and knot themtogether. Use your knives, watches, anything to weight one end of thestrip. Then cast until you get contact with the pit next to you. Thatway all the strips can be worked to me."
A period of feverish activity followed while the men went to work.Layroh also was busy. Through several narrow ventilating slits high inthe cavern wall they heard the hum of machinery.
The first of the men finished knotting their ropes together. Withweighted ends muffled to deaden their fall upon the rock floor, theybegan casting to get contact with their neighbors.
Success came slowly. There were often scores of blind casts made beforea weighted end came into an adjoining pit. But the time finally camewhen Foster had a twenty-five-foot length of rope strong enough to bearhis weight. He already had a single strand making contact with Garriganin the next pit. Garrigan drew the heavier rope in to him, then acted asan anchor while Foster climbed to the floor above.
* * * * *
His downstretched hand pulled Garrigan to freedom. Getting the other menup to the floor was the work of but a few moments. They were aweird-looking crew in the torn fragments of clothing that remained tothem. Foster stationed them beside the locked cavern door so that theywould be hidden behind it when it opened.
"Wait till Layroh is safely inside," he ordered, "then rush him. Getthat black ray thing out of commission first. Without that, we should bemore than a match for him. In the meantime you come with me, Garrigan.Maybe we can get a look into the cavern."
By climbing on Garrigan's broad shoulders Foster found that he had aclear view through one of the narrow ventilating slits. Layroh had madeefficient use of the time since he had left the pit room. Suspended fromsoftly glowing wires in the large central glass case was a circulargroup of ten of the Shining Ones.
Foster's eyes widened in horror as he saw the object in which thetrailing tendrils of the luminous slugs were sunk. It was the naked bodyof Carter. As those sucking tendrils drew out the substance of hisskeleton, Carter's body was changing slowly, horribly, sinking into aflabby mass of puttylike flesh.
The dormant bodies of the great slugs glowed perceptibly brighter asthey fed, and the pulsations of opalescence quickened. The Shining Oneswere beginning to awaken. Faint but unmistakable there came to Foster'sears a low singing drone from the group.
He shuddered. He knew now why Jeff Peters' shadow had seemed sogrotesquely _boneless_. That droning buzzing sound he had heard from theblack tent had been the feeding cry of a Shining One--of Layroh. Then,his horrible feast ended, Layroh had blasted what remained of his victiminto nothingness with the black ray.
* * * * *
Foster was abruptly startled into action as Layroh turned from watchingthe central case. Picking up the black ray projector, he started towardthe pit-room door. Foster scrambled down. With Garrigan he joined thetensely waiting group beside the door.
There was the sound of the mechanism unlocking. The door opened andLayroh came striding in. In a concerted rush the men were upon him.Foster's hurtling dive for the black ray projector knocked the apparatusout of Layroh's hands.
It crashed to the floor with a violence that leftit shattered and useless. Swept off his feet by the savage fury of theunexpected attack, Layroh went to the floor beneath the writhing groupof men.
The metal sinews of his magnificent body brought him to his knees in onemighty effort, but the numbers of his assailants were too great. Againhe was beaten down while powerful hands tore at his limbs. The metal ofthe ingenious machine that was Layroh's body began twisting and givingway before the savagery of the assault.
He staggered to his feet, flinging the men aside in one last mad surgeof power, and lurched toward the cavern. His effort to slam the doorclosed behind him was blocked by the swift leap of two of the men.Layroh staggered on into the cavern. Then suddenly the torn framework ofhis legs collapsed completely, and he fell heavily on his back.
The men surged forward with a shout of triumph. But before they couldreach Layroh's prostrate