by Various
Earth, the Marauder
PART TWO OF A THREE-PART NOVEL
_By Arthur J. Burks_
Closer and closer they came.]
[Sidenote: Deep in the gnome-infested tunnels of the Moon, Sarka andJaska are brought to Luar, the radiant goddess against whose minionsthe marauding Earth had struck in vain.]
WHAT HAS GONE BEFORE
The Earth was dying. Ever since Sarka the First, king of scientists,had given mankind the Secret of Life, which prolonged lifeindefinitely, the Earthlings had multiplied beyond all count, and beenforced to burrow deep into the ground and high into the air in thedesperate search for the mere room in which to live. There was muchcivil war. The plight of the children of men was desperate. Somethinghad to be done.
Then Sarka the Third called the Spokesmen of the Gens of Earth aroundhim, and proposed to them a new scheme which had come to him in hislaboratory atop the Himalayas. He would swing the Earth from itsorbit!--send it careening through space toward the Moon!--there todestroy its inhabitants and supplant them with a colony of Earthlings!And then they would surge on to Mars!
One by one the twelve Spokesmen, each the head and representative ofthe teeming trillions comprising his Gens, acceded. Even Dalis, thejealous rival of Sarka, finally gave his sulky consent.
So, under Sarka's commands, the Earth's hordes were mobilized; and intune with the Master Beryl in Sarka's laboratory all the Beryls of theEarth vibrated, freeing the Earth from her age-old orbit and swingingher out towards the Moon.
The Gens of Dalis--the trillions of people who swore allegiance tohim--would lead the attack on the Moon. When within fifty thousandmiles, they darted out, clad only in their tight green clothing andthe helmets that held the anti-gravitational ovoids, whichneutralized gravity for them and enabled them to instantly fly wherethey willed. Their only weapons were hand atom-disintegrators. And outfrom the Moon came mysterious aircars, with long clutchingtentacles--the weapons of the Moon's minions! The war of the worldswas begun!
Yet Dalis, leader of the Gens that now engaged the Moon's aircars, wasstill in the laboratory with Sarka. For Dalis' treacherous mindcoveted control of the Earth, and though the urge to lead his Gensinto battle was tremendous, still he stayed, watching Sarka closely,waiting for the moment when he could trick Sarka and assume control.
And at the head of the Gens of Dalis was a woman, Jaska, whom Sarkaloved. The Moon's aircars swept away the Gens of Dalis, and out fromEarth poured the Gens of Cleric, who was Jaska's father. The newcomersfought desperately to save Jaska from the deadly clutches of theaircars.
Dalis could stand it no longer. He sped forth from the laboratory, toreorganize his beaten Gens. Jaska flew for home; but behind her asingle aircar, splashed with crimson, reached forth its tentacles toclutch her--and Sarka groaned with the agony of his impotence to helpthe woman he loved.
CHAPTER XI
_Escape--and Dalis' Laughter_
But Sarka was not to be so easily beaten. There still remained aninfinite number of possible changes of speed by manipulation of ovidumby vibration set up by the Beryls, without which this flight from thebeginning would have been impossible. But for two hours, while thewhite robed men of Cleric fought against the car of the crimsonsplashes to prevent the capture of the daughter of theirSpokesman--and died by hundreds in the grip of those grimtentacles--Sarka was forced to labor with the Beryls untilperspiration bathed his whole body and his heart was heavy as heforesaw failure. And failure meant death or worse for Jaska.
But at the end of two hours, while the men of Cleric fought like meninspired against the aircar of the crimson slashes, a cessation in theoutward speed of the earth could be noted. At the end of three hoursthe body of Jaska, all this time fighting manfully to attain tolanding place on the Earth, was at last bulking larger; but thetentacles of the aircar were groping after her, reaching for her,striving to catch and clasp her to her death.
The two Sarkas watched and prayed while the might of the Beryls,traveling at top speed, fought against the force of whatever was usedby the Moon-men to compel the Moon to withdraw. Still the men ofCleric fought that single car, and died by hundreds in the fighting.White robed figures which became shriveled and black in the grip ofthose tentacles.
* * * * *
Countless of the men of Cleric deliberately cast themselves againstthose tentacles, throwing their lives away to give Jaska more leewayin her race for life.
"Will she make it, father?" queried Sarka in a whisper.
"If the courage and loyalty of her people stand for anything, she willmake it," he replied.
On she came at top speed, and now through the micro-telescopes theSarkas could see the agony of effort on her face, even through thesmooth mask used by the people of Earth for flight in space wherethere was no atmosphere. Courage was there, and the will ofnever-say-die; and Jaska, moreover, was coming back to the man sheloved. In a nebulous sort of way Sarka realized this, for though thesetwo had not mated there was a resonant inner sympathy between themwhich had rounded into an emotion of overpowering force since Jaskahad proved to Sarka that she was to be trusted--that he had beensomething less than a faithful lover when he had mistrusted her, everso little.
Closer now and closer, and at last the aircar of the crimson splasheswas drawing away, losing in the race for life. It was falling back, asthough minded to turn about and race back for the Moon, now a ball inthe sky, far away, the outlines of its craters growing dim and mistywith distance. Now the men of Cleric, those who remained, werebreaking contact with the aircar, and forming a valiant rear-guard forthe retreat of Jaska.
* * * * *
Throughout the Earth, as the Beryls fought with ever increasing speedto lower the rate of the earth's outward race from the Moon, was sucha trembling, such a vibration induced by conflicting, alien forces asthere had not been even in that moment when back there in its orbit,the Earth could have either been kept within its orbit, or hurledoutward into space at the touch of a finger.
Now Jaska, surrounded by her father's men, was almost close enough totouch the Earth.
She made it, weak and weary, and rested for a moment while herfather's men steadied her. Then, thrusting them aside, with gesturesbidding them return to their Gens, she lifted into the air again, andfled straight for the laboratory of Sarka.
She entered tiredly through the exit dome, and all but collapsed into thearms of Sarka. Gently he removed her helmet of the anti-gravitationalovoid, noting as she leaned against him the tumultuous beating of herheart. Then her gentle eyes opened and she whispered to Sarka.
"You trust me now?"
For answer he bent and kissed her softly on the lips--for the kiss,from the far distant time when the first baby was kissed by the firstmother, had been the favored caress of mankind. Her face wastransfigured as she read his answer in his eyes, and the touch of hislips. Then, remembering, fear flashed across her face. Shestraightened, and grasping Sarka by the hand, hurried with him intothe observatory.
* * * * *
She took the seat in which Dalis had sat before he had gone out to thecommand of his Gens, studied for many minutes the battle in spacebetween the two alien worlds.
"Dalis is winning," said the Elder Sarka quietly, "apparently!"
"The qualification is a just one," said Jaska softly. "'Apparently,'indeed! You will note now that, though men of the Gens of Dalis swarmall about the aircars, and even clamber atop them, no more are dyingin the grasp of those tentacles? Is Dalis arranging a treacheroustruce with the Moon-men?"
"I have been wondering about that," said Sarka softly, "for it is mybelief that nothing not conducive to his own selfish interests wouldhave forced Dalis to leave this place and take command of his Gens, asI had first ordered, unless he had schemes planned of which father andI could know nothing. Now that I think of it, Jaska, how did Dalisknow our secret code of fingers?"
Jaska started, and turn
ed a blanched face to Sarka.
"_Did_ he know?" she cried. "Did he? If he did that proves a suspicionthat I have entertained since the first moment when Dalis swept intothe fight, and I sensed that alien signals were being flashed back andforth!"
"Flashed back and forth!" ejaculated Sarka. "How do you mean? ThatDalis was somehow able to communicate with the Moon-men in their ownlanguage, or through their own signals?"
* * * * *
"Why not? He knew our secret code, did he not? I never gave it to him,and I know that you did not. No, Dalis has some means, neverdiscovered or suspected by you Sarkas, whereby he is able tounderstand alien tongues and alien sign manuals!"
"That means," said Sarka the Elder in a dead voice, "that by forcingDalis to go out at the head of his Gens...."
"We have," interrupted Sarka the Younger, "placed a new weapon oftreason in his hands! Dalis, at the very moment of contact with theaircars, loaded with Moon-men, broke in on their signals--they musthave had some means of signalling one another--and communicated withthem in their own way! Do you think it possible that, with all hisGens, he may go over to the Moon-men, form an alliance with them?"
For many moments no one dared to answer the question; yet, from whatthe Sarkas knew of him, it was not impossible at all. For Dalis wasthe master egotist always, and never overlooked opportunity to gainsomething for himself.
It was Jaska who broke the silence.
"Did you note carefully," she said, "those aircars which werepartially destroyed by our ray directors and atom-disintegrators?"
The Sarkas nodded.
"Did you note that no men, formed like our own, no creatures of anysort whatever, fell from the cars?"
* * * * *
Again the awesome silence, and the keen brains of the Sarkas wrestledwith this vague hint of the uncanny.
"You mean, Jaska ... you mean...."
"That the occupants of aircars are part of the cars, but--Beings ofthe Moon! That they are either metal monsters endowed with brains ortiny creatures irrevocably attached to the cars themselves!"
"But how," said Sarka at last, "are we to be sure? I can understandwhat Dalis might do if the Moon-men granted his wish for an alliancewith them. It is easy to understand why his Gens would follow hislead, for with the Moon forced outward from the Earth faster than hisGens could retreat, there is but one direction for his Gens togo--toward the Moon! They would go to the Moon as captives and trustthe keen brain of Dalis to gain the mastery, sooner or later, over theMoon-men. And then...."
"And then--?" repeated Sarka the Elder.
"Then, Dalis has already been inspired by the speed with which thoseaircars travel! You will remember that he did not take kindly toleaving the Earth and making his abode on some other planet! But whycould he not do so, combine forces and knowledge with the people ofthat planet--and then return to Earth in alliance with them?--after wehave depleted our forces by placing a large portion of our people onMars and Venus and Saturn?"
"Sarka, my son," said Sarka's father, "before we continue with ourflight to Mars, we must know the truth! We must somehow learn exactlywhat is going on on the Moon! If you could reach the Moon, alone,undetected, and bring back a report...."
* * * * *
For a moment he left it there, and the faces of all three were graywith worry and abysmal fear.
"I can't go bodily, father," said Sarka at last, "but you remember mysecret exit dome, to the right of the observatory, from which I havenever yet dared exit from this place for fear that it might cost me mylife?"
Sarka the Elder nodded, while Jaska looked puzzled. Another evidenceof the fact that Sarka had not always trusted her, for she knewnothing of a secret exit dome. Sarka's eyes, as he looked at Jaska,mutely asked her forgiveness, which she gave him with her smile.
"I remember, son, and now?..."
"Surely it is worth risking one's life to know what new menace loomsover the children of men!"
"What is the use of this secret dome?" asked Jaska softly.
"It is merely an elaboration of the regular exit dome, combined withcertain phases of our atom-distintegrators, and the principle involvedin the anti-gravitational ovoids. I step into the secret exit dome,garbed for flight Outside, and will myself to appear bodily in acertain place. It is instantaneous. I step into the dome, forexample, and will myself to appear whole upon the Moon, and there Iwill appear!"
"You mean that during the period of transposition you are invisible?"
"Yes, invisible because non-existent, except for the essentialelements of me, broken down by the secret exit dome, reassembled atthe place willed in their entirety! I can't fly there, for a millioneyes would see me approach! I must go in secret, as a spy, and wearingthe clothing and insignia of a member of the Gens of Dalis!"
Silence in the observatory for a brief breathing space, and then Jaskaspoke that speech out of the books of antiquity, which remains theclassic expression of loyalty.
"Whithersoever thou goest, there will I go also!"
From the laboratory came a sudden burst of laughter, the laughterwhich all three recognized as the laughter of Dalis; but when theyentered the place of the Revolving Beryl, there was no one there--anda feeling of dread, all encompassing, held them thralled for the spaceof several heart-beats. Dalis, they knew, was thousands of miles away,upon the Moon; yet here in the place of the Master Beryl they allthree had just heard his sardonic laughter!
CHAPTER XII
_Ashes of the Moon_
Through the micro-telescopes it was possible to see what had happenedafter Dalis had assumed command of the Gens of Dalis. For even thoughthe Moon, in spite of the speed of the Beryls, was being forcedfurther and further from the Earth, the eyes of the micro-telescopespicked out and enlarged details to such an extent that the battleseemed to be transpiring under the eyes of the beholders.
A terrific jumble, in which Earthlings and aircars were all tumbledtogether in mad chaos, a great mass of writhing, green-garbed figures.Infinite in number--in the midst of which were the gigantic aircars,like monster beetles being beset by armies upon armies of ants.
Then, by the time Jaska had seated herself in the observatory atop theHimalayas, to watch what developed, the battle seemed to be over, andthe Moon-men had won. For the huge cars swung around between themyriads of the Gens of Dalis, and seemed to be herding them toward theMoon, as though they were prisoners.
Telepathically, Sarka and his father had been able to catch some hintof the thoughts of the Earthlings in the battle, and these thoughtshad been tinged with doubt, fear and horror, so that even thus toreceive them, by mental telepathy, was to feel the searing heat oftheir fear.
* * * * *
Now, in the instant when the battle in Space seemed to be over and theGens of Dalis were prisoners, the thought waves were no more, and abrooding silence took their place. Dalis, the Sarkas knew, possessedthe power to mask his thoughts, for it was a power possessed in commonby all the scientists of Earth. But the common people of his Gens didnot posses that power. However, for the moment Sarka had forgotten anall important something: that, when people were outside the roof ofthe world, they were subservient to the will of a common commander towhom they had sworn allegiance.
If, therefore, Dalis could mask his own thoughts from the brains ofmen, he could also mask the thoughts of the people of his Gens, merelyby willing it! So Sarka and his father and Jaska could not knowwhether the Gens of Dalis had gone over in a body with him, in a trucewith the people of the Moon, or whether they were dual prisoners--ofDalis and of the Moon-men!
More than ever was it necessary for someone to somehow reach the Moonand make a thorough investigation, discover just what Dalis was doing,what mischief he was hatching.
The secret exit dome seemed to be the answer.
"You can manage without me, father?" asked Sarka.
* * *
* *
The elder Sarka nodded.
"Of the other Spokesmen of Earth," went on Sarka, "I trust Gerd themost. Might I suggest that you bring him here, trust him in alldetails, and let him take my place wherever possible? Or, betterstill, keep Jaska here with you! I ... I may not be able to return!I'll try to find a way, but--we can always communicate telepathically.Jaska...."
"Jaska," said that young lady grimly, "goes with Sarka wherever Sarkagoes!"
"But it may mean death! We can only guess at the cunning of the Moondwellers! They may have been in secret communication with Dalis forcenturies! Dalis, who somehow discovered our secret finger code, mayalso know of the secret exit dome, and the principle upon which itoperates! If he does, he may know how to combat it! Perhaps thatexplains his laughter! Perhaps he heard and understood every word wespoke, hears and understands every word we speak now! Who knows? Hemay wait until I have passed through the secret exit dome, and thenmake it impossible for me to be reincarnated on the Moon--orelsewhere!"
"No matter," said Jaska softly, "wherever Sarka goes, there goesJaska! It is useless to attempt to dissuade me, and it is time youlearned that!"
In spite of himself Sarka smiled, and his father met his smile with aquizzical one of his own. Both men had the same thought.
"The eternal woman!" said Sarka the Elder. "No man has ever understoodher--no man ever will! And all men are ruled by her!"
Sarka shrugged, and Jaska spoke again.
"Don't you think it is time we tried this new experiment?"
* * * * *
Sarka nodded, and his face was suddenly alight with the excitementwhich burned within him.
"First," he said, "we need accoutrements of the Gens of Dalis for twopeople!"
Jaska smiled.
"Forseeing that we might have need of such equipment, I had severalcomplete outfits sent here when I took charge of the Gens of Dalis asits Spokesman!"
Two minutes later, arrayed in the green clothing of the House ofDalis, swathed in it from neck to toe, wearing their belts and themasks which were necessary to life in space where there was noatmosphere, the whole topped by the gleaming helmets whose skull-pansheld the infinitesimally small anti-gravitational ovoids, Jaska andSarka entered the secret exit dome, side by-side.
On the breast and back of each showed the yellow stars of the Gens ofDalis. There was no hiding their identity otherwise, and if any of theGens saw them, both would be immediately recognized--for Jaska hadcommanded the Gens, and Sarka was the world's greatest scientist knownto every human being. But they planned on carrying out theirinvestigations by stealth.
"Father," said Sarka, "when the inner door is closed upon us, you havebut to press the button to the right of the door. Press it when thelight beside it glows red, which will indicate that we have willedourselves to go to a certain destination!"
* * * * *
The inner door closed upon Sarka and Jaska, and, hand in hand, side byside, their bodies glowing with knowledge of warm, sympatheticcontact, they waited for a miracle which had never before beenattempted.
"Are you afraid, beloved?" queried Sarka.
"When I am with you," she said softly, "I have no fear."
"Then face the outer door, and will to go wherever I will to takeyou!"
Side by side, hand-in-hand still, they faced the outer door, and Sarkawilled:
"Let us appear together in a deserted spot, within sight but unseen,of the Moon crater from which those aircars were sent against us!"
A sudden blur, a cessation of all knowledge, and then....
Sarka and Jaska stood side by side in a desolate expanse surrounded bybleak and appalling mountains of grotesque shape, in a light that wasweirdly, awesomely blue. Their feet were invisible, deeply rooted insome soft, fine material which looked like snow.
After a swift glance around to see if anything lived or moved in thisawful desolation, Sarka stooped and dipped up some of the fine stuffwith his fingers, touched it to his lips.
* * * * *
The material seemed to be fine blue ashes and on his tongue it had asoapy savor. He peered at Jaska, whose eyes were glowing withexcitement, whose lips were parted with anticipation, and instantly heopened a mental conversation with her.
"We must speak with each other telepathically, but do not speak withme until I have explained to you how to mask your thoughts from allpersons save the one with whom you hold converse! First, I love you!Second, let us see if, searching the sky, we can find the Earth!"
In a few brief, highly technical words, Sarka told his beloved how totalk with him in the manner which he had never before explained toher. They had used telepathy before, countless times, but they had notcared who heard--while now secrecy in all things was the primeessential for success, even for life.
When he had told her, and she replied, "I understand perfectly, and itseems quite easy," they turned and surveyed the heavens, out of which,by this new miracle of the secret exit dome, they had dropped to theface of the Moon.
Away across the space between worlds, its transfiguration plainlyvisible to the two, they could make out and identify the world fromwhich they had come. Save that they knew themselves standing on theMoon, they would have thought as far as appearances went, that theplace where they had come was the Moon, many times enlarged. It seemedincredible that they had come so far in the twinkling of an eye; butthat they had was proved by the fact of their physical presence.
"Look, Jaska!" said Sarka suddenly. "See how our Earth glows, asthough it were afire inside!"
* * * * *
They stared at the great circular yellowish flame that he pointed out,and Sarka, always the scientist whose science was one of exactness,tried to estimate just where, on the Earth's surface, the glow was.
"Jaska," he said again, "that glow comes out of the heart of the Gens areawhich Dalis ruled! And no one lives there, since Dalis' Gens flew out to dobattle! That's why we did not know of it before we left! That glow,somehow, beloved, is the cause of the outward-from-the-Earth journey of theMoon! First we must locate the Moon-source of the glow, and render itincapable of further forcing itself away! For do you realize that, unlesswe do so, we will never again see home?"
Jaska said nothing, but her eyes were troubled for a moment. Then shesmiled again.
"What care I if I become a prisoner on the Moon, if you are with me?"
Sarka was just now realizing the wonder of this raven-haired womanwhom, knowing her for half a century as he had, he had just known solittle after all.
"If we seem in danger of discovery, Jaska," he said to her, "drop downinstantly into the ashes, for if we are discovered by Dalis...."
He left it there and, with a deep intake of breath, started away forthe nearest and highest hill. They desired to walk, yet found walkingalmost impossible, as they could not keep their feet on the groundsave by the exercise of a really incredible effort of will. So,despairing of keeping their feet in contact with the ashes, they flewjust above them, heading for the nearest weird-looking ridge.
* * * * *
In the strange light, which was oddly like moonlight in some painteddesert of Earth, shapes were distorted and somehow menacing, colorswere raw, almost bleeding--and distances that seemed but a steprequired hours to traverse.
Ever and anon, as they traveled they looked back up at the Earth whichwas their home. It still was visible, though plainly smaller withdistance, and for a time Sarka's heart misgave him; but he onlyclasped tighter the hand of Jaska and moved on.
They were just at the base of the first hill, which had now become amountain of gloomy, forbidding aspect, when the first sound they hadheard on the moon came to them. A sound that was a commingling of thelaughter of Dalis, the barking of jackals of the olden times, thehumming of a million Beryls revolving at top speed, and a stridentbuzzing such as neither had ever heard
.
Had they been discovered? Was the sound a warning? They could notknow; but as they stared at the crest of the hill, two long, snaky,waving things appeared above the crest, undulating, waving to andfro, as though questing for something. They crouched low in the whiteashes at the base of the mountain, and waited, scarcely breathing.
CHAPTER XIII
_The Lunar Cubes_
For a long time Sarka and Jaska remained still, like sentinels,listening to the strange discord which seemed to emanate from behindthe hill at whose base they crouched.
"Look!" said Sarka at last. "There against the sky, beyond and betweenthose two waving tentacles! Note that column of light, scarcelylighter than the light which surrounds it everywhere? It looks like amassive column just lighter than everything around it, yet so littlelighter that you have to watch closely to see it at all?"
Jaska stared for all of a minute, before she thought back her answer.
"I see it," she said.
"Note now whether it goes, as it reaches outward into Space!"
Jaska followed the mighty height of the thing, outward and outward,and then gasped.
"Sarka," she said, "its end touches the Earth in the very heart ofthat strange glow we spoke about!"
"Exactly! And people of Earth know nothing about it, because it isinvisible to them! It is only from Outside that the glow it makesagainst the Earth is visible! If we can divert its direction, orrender it useless in any way, the Moon will no longer be thrust awayby its force!"
A pause of indecision, then Sarka thought again:
"Let us go, Jaska! Keep behind me, right on my heels!"
Slowly, fighting against something that seemed determined to pull, orhurl, them outward from the surface of the Moon with each forwardmovement they made, they essayed the side of the hill, pausing at theend of what seemed like hours in a sort of hollow just large enoughto mask their bodies and stared over its edge into one of the cratersof the Moon. Out of the depths of that crater came the discordantsounds, which now were almost deafening, and out of that crater toocame the almost invisibly bluish column whose outer tip touched theEarth.
* * * * *
Right before them, so close that they all but rested in its shadow,was one of those monster aircars, its tentacles moving to and fro asthough wafted into motion by some vagrant breeze. But since neitherSarka nor Jaska could feel the breeze, Sarka knew that it was lifewhich caused the waving motion of those tentacles of terror.
"Note," he said to Jaska, "that there is a tiny trap-door in thebottom of the aircar, and that the thing rests on a half-dozen ofthose tentacles!"
"I see," came Jaska's reply.
Jaska went on:
"Note the gleaming thing on the ground, right below the aircar? Iwonder what it is?"
They studied the thing there, which seemed to be a huge jewel of somesort that glittered balefully in the eery light of the Moon. It was,perhaps, twice the size of an average man's torso, and was almostexactly cubical in shape. As Sarka studied the thing, he sensed thatfeeling flowed out of it--that the cube, whatever it was, was alive!
He tore his glance away from it, and realized that he accomplished thefeat with a distinct effort of will--as though the cube had willed tohold his gaze, knew he was there. His eyes, peering around the innerslope of the crater--which dipped over, some hundreds of feet down,and plunged downward to some unknown depth--noted a broad, flat stone,off to his right; and around the rim of the crater he counted a fullhundred of the aircars, all with their tentacles waving as if theybelonged to sentient creatures.
* * * * *
Below each one, as he studied them and strained his eyes to make outdetails, he caught the baleful gleam of other cubes like the first hehad seen. The aircars, it seemed, were either sentinels, at the lip ofthe crater, or were the dwelling places of sentinels--and the cubeswere those sentinels!
It seemed absurd, but it came to Sarka in a flash that that was theanswer, and his eyes came back to the first cube, because it wasnearer and more easy to study.
"I will not be swayed by the will of the thing," Sarka told himself."Nor will I allow it to analyze me! Jaska, do you do likewise!"
Beside him, Jaska shivered. He turned to look at her. Her face wascoldly white, and her eyes were big with terror and fascination as shestared at that first cube, resting so balefully there under the firstaircar.
He shook her, and she seemed to bring her eyes to his with a terrific,will-straining effort.
"Look at me!" he told her, telepathically. "Keep your eyes on me, forto look at the cube spells danger!"
But his own eyes went back to the thing, and he studied it closely. Acold chill raced through his body as he noted that its gleam wasbecoming dull, fading slowly out. It had gleamed brightly at first,and now was losing its sheen, fading away to invisibility. He thoughthe should be able, regardless of gleam or color, to see its outline;but its outline, too, seemed to be becoming faint, indistinct.
* * * * *
Then, in a trice, it was gone, and a feeling of uneasiness, morecompelling than he had ever known before, coursed through the soul ofSarka. Where had the cube gone? What was it? What was its purpose? Hetore his eyes away from the spot where he had last seen it, and staredaway to the shadow beneath the second nearest aircar, where he hadglimpsed another of the cubes.
The cube there, too, was fading out.
"Sarka! Sarka! Look!" came to his brain the thoughts of Jaska.
Sarka turned and stared at her, and a feeling of fear for which hecould not account at all took fast hold of him. The eyes of Jaska,wide and staring as they had been when he commanded her to look awayfrom the cube under the aircar, were staring at that flat, table-likerock, off to his right.
There, almost in the center of the rock, a gleaming something wastaking shape! Just a dull spot, in the center of the yellow glow; thenthe beginning of the outline of a cube. Then, all at once, the cubeitself, gleaming and baleful!
Sarka gasped in terror. He had seen the cube vanish, its glowdisappear, and now here it was, almost close enough to touch, on arock beside him, gleaming and baleful as before! That it was the samecube he had seen under the first aircar, he somehow knew without beingtold. That it was a sentient _thing_ he also knew, for now there wasno mistaking the fact that, but for the presence in the little hollowof Jaska and Sarka, the cube would not have moved.
* * * * *
Swift as light, Sarka's right hand darted to his belt, where his raydirector should be nestled against his need of it. And with his firstmovement, the cube's brilliance vanished instantly, the cubedisappeared, and appeared again right before the face of Sarka, soclose he could touch it! Yet he did not turn the ray director againstit, nor did he extend his hand to touch the thing--because he wasafraid to do so!
Even as the cube appeared before his eyes, thrice baleful and menacingin its close proximity, his eyes darted back to that broad flat rock,where the second gleaming cube now appeared!
"Great God, Jaska!" he sent mentally, "what does it mean?"
"These," she answered bravely back, "are Moon-soldiers! And, unlesswe manage not to appear furtive, we are undone!"
Still Sarka made no move, while other gleaming cubes appeared on theflat rock. Five other cubes appeared beside the first, at the rim ofthe hollow which held the forms of Jaska and Sarka. The cubes wereclosing on them, oddly like a squad of Earthlings in the olden times,advancing by rushes against an entrenched enemy!
The buzzing sound which they had first heard now seemed accentuated,but, instead of being outside of the listeners, seemed inside them,hammering against their very brains! Messages were being sent to them,or passed back and forth between and among the cube-men aboutthem--and they hadn't the slightest idea how to make answer, knowwhether an answer was expected of them, or what the cube-men thoughtabout them!
Since there was nothing else to do, they lay
there, hands clasped, aschildren in the dark clasp hands, and waited for what might transpire.
* * * * *
Suddenly the discord from the inside of the crater ceased, and all wasstill, while it came to Sarka that the cube-men who stood before himwere in grim communication with something invisible to Sarka andJaska, somebody, perhaps, deep in the bowels of the Moon, over insidethe crater.
They knew, those two, that the cube-soldiers were reporting theirpresence, and asking instructions; that the Moon had gone silent tolisten, and that within a few moments their fate would be decided.What should they do?
In his hand Sarka held his ray director, with which he knew he couldblast one or all of the cubes into nothingness. But still he held hishand, made no move.
Something, however, had to be done, for the discord was startingagain, growing in volume. It made Sarka think, oddly enough, of a deafmute fighting for speech! Then came the first intelligible sound....
A burst, from the depths of the crater, of sardonic laughter!
"Dalis!" said Sarka, and moved. While Sarka moved, Jaska held fast tohis arm. Casting her fear to the winds, furious because of thelaughter of Dalis, Sarka thrust his ray director back into his beltand stood upright.
Bending over he seized the first of the gleaming cubes and hurled itover the edge of the crater, saw it start plummeting down. But evenbefore it fell out of sight within the crater its gleam had dulleduntil it was almost impossible to see the thing. Racing as thoughracing against time, Sarka caught up cube after cube and hurled themall after the first.
* * * * *
Out of the crater there came no sound of heavy objects striking,though Sarka felt there should have, for the cubes were almost asheavy as a man.
Then his hair almost stood on end under his helmet, for under thatfirst aircar, where he had first seen it, the initial cube was againgleaming into life!
The thing had dissolved while being hurled over the rim, and reformedin its proper place, its station as silent sentinel under the aircar!
These cubes then, were indeed sentinels--sentinels impossible toinjure. Though no force had been used against Sarka and Jaska, Sarkahad the feeling that they were powerless, and that here on the edge ofa crater of the Moon awful forces were being mustered against them.Mustered slowly, sluggishly, yet surely, as though the mentality whichmustered them knew them helpless, and that there was no need to hurry!
As for Jaska, she merely clung to Sarka and waited--trusting him nomatter what might transpire.
On a blind chance, Sarka brought out his ray director again, turnedits muzzle toward that invisibly-blue column, pressed with hisfingers, moving the director back and forth.
Instantly the blue column seemed to break short off, while the brokenupper portion started racing outward toward the Earth. Sarka watchedit, and noted that the yellowish glow on the Earth, even as hewatched, was fading out--disappearing!
"If the ray will smash the blue column, Jaska," he said, "it will alsodestroy its source! Come! We will go look for it!"
And, holding her hand tightly, he rose to his feet and strode boldlydown the inner slope of the vast crater.
CHAPTER XIV
_The Crater Gnomes_
It seemed to Sarka, as he moved down the inner slope of the crater,that the cubes were somehow making sport of him, laughing at him,though no hint of laughter or anything resembling laughter emanatedfrom them.
But, shutting his lips grimly, holding fast to Jaska's hand, heproceeded on, reached the lower portion of the inner slope, where itdropped off into a seeming black abyss, and dropped, keeping to a safespeed because of the fact that both he and Jaska were attired formovement in the air--though their manner of aerial transportationcould scarcely be called flying.
The anti-gravitational ovoids simply rendered ineffectual the law ofgravity.
Down they dropped, endlessly it seemed, while all about them, growinggradually, a bluish glow began to make itself manifest. Sarka turnedand looked at the face of Jaska and noted that it--all her being--wasglowing with this strange radiance.
He smiled at her, and she smiled back.
Looking down now, to what seemed still a vast depth, they could seefigures moving, tiny, almost infinitesimal, about a great circularcone, out of the depths of which came that strange bluish column whoseouter tip touched the Earth.
* * * * *
Some inner sense warned Sarka not to touch that column, or to permitJaska to do so. They dropped down beside it, while Sarka, for noreason that he could assign, once more took his ray director in hisfree hand and held it in readiness. It seemed so tiny and futile--sofoolish for two people, one of them a woman--to go into the very heartof an alien world, against an unknown enemy, armed with such a tinyweapon. Two people against unguessed myriads, whose very nature was anenigma, even to Sarka.
Closer now appeared the bottom of the crater, whose floor seemed to becovered with something that looked like blue sand, or rock. From thisbluish substance the glow which bathed the two Earthlings seemed toemanate.
The funnel of the crater had now given away to the immensities ofspace, in all directions, and the cold of outside was being replacedby a warmth which promised soon to be even uncomfortable.
Then, without a jar, the two landed at the bottom of the crater, sideby side, close enough almost to that great cone to touch it. Out ofthe cone came that bluish column, to shoot up through the funnel downwhich the two had lightly dropped ... and the motion of the--whateverit was--was accompanied by a muted moaning sound, like that of adistant waterfall.
They paused there, in amazement, taking stock of their surroundings.Huge tunnels, whose roofs were lost to invisibility in the bluishhaze, whose extremities could only be guessed at, reached off in alldirections. As far as the two could tell they were the only livingsouls within the crater, though both knew better.
Sarka had the feeling, and he knew Jaska shared it with him, thatinnumerable eyes were studying them, innumerable intellects werecataloguing them. And somehow he sensed the presence, somewhere near,of the traitor Dalis!
* * * * *
Then that discordant sound again, breaking so swiftly that it fellupon the eardrums of Sarka and Jaska like the crack of doom. Out ofthe many tunnels, from all directions, came hordes of beings whichwould have made the nightmares of Paracelsus--first of the scientistsof Earth--pale to insignificance.
Paracelsus had written and illustrated his nightmares. Had hinted ofstrange acts of flesh-grafting--as the grafting of legs on the head ofman. He had spoken, and written about, ghastly operations, from whichmen came forth as part men, part spiders; part men, part scorpions,dogs, cats, crocodiles....
Sarka thought, as his mind went back to those ancient books of hispeople in which still remained vestiges of the theories of Paracelsus,that somehow, in his dreams, Paracelsus must have visited the cratersof the Moon.
These people ... if they could be called people....
They had heads like the heads of Earthlings, broad-domed of brow,lacking eyelashes or lids, so that their eyes were perpetuallystaring. They possessed no bodies at all, and their legs, thin andattenuated to the size of the wrists of average men, seemed to supportthe massive heads with difficulty!
From all directions they came, looking like spiders such as Sarka theFirst had described to Sarka, when Sarka had been a mere boy. Theycame on the floor, out of the tunnels; they dropped from the walls ofthe tunnels, and down from the invisible roofs, landing on the flooras lightly as feathers--and all converged on Jaska and Sarka.
They seemed to have no fear at all, but only a vast curiosity.
Closer and closer they came.
* * * * *
Jaska's grip tightened on the hand of Sarka, for one of the creatures,with a spiderish leap, had jumped upon her, fastening its legs in hertight-fitting costume, where he hung, his face within
an inch or twoof hers. His lidless eyes, unblinking, stared deeply into hers.
Others jumped up beside the first, and still others clambered overSarka, until both Sarka and Jaska were covered by them like beetlesattacked by ants. But these strange gnomelike creatures, who did notfear these strangers, apparently meant them no harm.
Then, after a thorough scrutiny, began the strangest talking Sarka hadever heard. The crater-Gnomes seemed to communicate by making strangeclucking sounds with their tongues, sounds which were unmusical anddiscordant, and which, as the Gnomes who stood back from them, becausealready the two were covered until no more could cling to Jaska orSarka, joined in the speech--mounted in the cavern to a vast crescendoof sound.
Sarka knew then that this was the sound which had come out to themwhile they crouched at the crater rim. These were people of the Moon:but if these were Moon-men, what, or who, were those gleaming cubes?
"Stand perfectly still," Sarka mentally admonished Jaska, "theyapparently mean us no harm!"
He had not spoken aloud, had not allowed his thought to reach any butJaska; yet instantly the discordant clucking ceased, and the Gnomeswere quiet, as though they politely listened to someone who hadinterrupted them, yet whose interruption they resented, or werecurious about.
* * * * *
Wondering how the creature would regard his action, Sarka reachedforth and plucked away the first Gnome which had jumped upon Jaska,and placed him gently on the ground. The thing merely stared at Sarkawith his lidless eyes, as though wondering at Sarka's meaning. Thenhis lips, which were triangular, rather than straight as those ofEarthlings, began again that strange clucking.
Immediately the Gnomes which clung to Jaska and Sarka dropped away,and scuttled into the midst of the myriads that stood and watched.They did not understand the speech of these Earthlings, but they wereunusually clever in comprehending the meaning of gestures.
"Hold fast to me, Jaska," thought Sarka toward her--and wondered anewas the Gnomes instantly ceased their clucking sounds--"for I am goingto try an experiment."
Holding her hand still, he turned and strode straight toward the hugecone out of which rose the bluish column.
Instantly the Gnomes broke into a frightful clucking of tongues, asound that mounted to ear-drum-breaking intensity, and in a trice,climbing over one another to get into position, they moved in betweenSarka and the cone. So eager were they to bar his further progressthat they stood atop one another, until the depth of them was as tallas Sarka standing upright.
Yet, though they plainly said to Sarka: "You must not approach thecone," they did not seem to be angry with their visitors, but onlycurious. Sarka looked at Jaska, noted how wanly she smiled.
Then he turned, and headed for the nearest of the monster tunnels.
* * * * *
Instantly he detected a surprising eagerness in the renewed cluckingof tongues, while the Gnomes raced ahead, behind, all about the two,capering like pet animals, showing these strangers the way into thetunnel.
As they entered it, Sarka tried to discover whence came the bluishglow. The floor seemed to be of bluish sandstone, though its color,too, might have been caused by the glow. It was warm, too, so warmthat perspiration was breaking out on the cheeks of Sarka.
Whence came the glow? Apparently from the very walls of the tunnel, orits roof; but surely from somewhere, surely from some secret place,whence it was diffused all over.
"And Jaska," said Sarka, "the Moon, according to my father'sresearches, is literally honeycombed with craters like this one!"
Again, as he thought, that strange, sudden cessation of the cluckingof the Gnomes. Whither were they leading them? It was plain to be seenthat the Gnomes were heading for some destination, almost herdingSarka and Jaska toward it. Capering creatures, who behaved witlessly,yet were far from witless. If Sarka were not sadly mistaken, thesewere Moon-men--and women, too, perhaps, since he could not tell thesex of them--and those gleaming cubes were their outer guards, perhapsslaves.
If the cubes were really of metal--they had felt warm to Sarka'stouch--then these Moon-men had gone further in science thanEarthlings, as they had imbued at least some metals, or stones, withintelligence sufficiently advanced for them to perform actionsindependently of their masters' wills.
* * * * *
Sarka, too, was remembering another thing: that he had touched one ofthese Gnomes, to remove it from Jaska--and had felt a distinct shockthat was patently electrical!
The bluish glow was increasing, becoming more soft and mellow, shadinggradually into golden, as they advanced--shading still as theypreceded until it was almost white, almost blinding, in its radiance.
Then, of a sudden, the clucking of the Gnomes ended, and the creaturesceased their capering, fell into something that might have been anordered military formation, and with Jaska and Sarka in the midst ofthem, moved straight toward a broad expanse of the tunnel wall, in theface of which appeared three long lines, deeply cut in the shape of atriangle.
The Gnome who had first leaped upon Jaska advanced to the wall, pausedwith his face almost against the lower line of the triangle, andremained there, intently staring, while the other Gnomes remainedmute and unmoving.
Stronger and stronger appeared the blinding light. Slowly the innerportion of the triangle began to give inward, like a door. And out ofthe opening came that blinding radiance.
As the triangular door stood entirely open, Sarka and Jaska stood inthunderstruck silence, staring like people bereft of their senses. Forthere, standing in the opening, the now white radiance itself a mantleto cover her, was a woman, unclothed save for the radiance, who mighthave been of the Earth, save that she was more beautiful than anywoman of Earth.
Beside her the radiant beauty of Jaska paled, became wan and sickly.
But Sarka noted immediately her eyes, whose depths bewildered, amazedhim. For in them he could see no expression, no feeling, but onlyabysmal cruelty. That she was Sarka's master, and Jaska's master, andmaster of all these Gnomes, became instantly apparent fortelepathically she addressed Sarka.
"I am busy now. The Moon-people will hold you prisoners in the Placeof the Blue light, until I am ready to give you to the Cone!"
CHAPTER XV
_The Place of the Blue Light_
So the Gnomes were Moon-people, masters of the Moon cubes! And peopleand cubes were ruled by a woman who resembled a woman of Earth!
The Gnomes took them back the way they had come.
Where, Sarka wondered, were the people of the Gens of Dalis? And wherewas Dalis himself! Sarka was sure that, in those first discords whichhad come out of the crater, he had heard at least a hint of thelaughter of Dalis.
And this woman clothed in radiance--who was she? And what? That shewas a creature of the Moon, and yet resembled in all ways a woman ofEarth, save that she was more beautiful than any woman Sarka had everseen, seemed almost impossible to believe. Yet he had seen her. So hadJaska, and as Sarka and Jaska, with the capering Gnomes still aboutthem, were led away to a fate at which they could only guess, Sarkawondered at Jaska's silence and at the strange lack of expression onher face.
He pressed her hand, but somehow she failed to return the pressure,mystifying more than ever. This sudden coldness was not like Jaska.
Back they went through the vast cavern where the cone of the bluishcolumn still moaned and murmured. Sarka moved as close to the cone asthe Gnomes would permit, and peered up along the mighty length of thecolumn. At its tip was still the Earth, like a star viewed from thebottom of a deep well.
Smaller, too, it seemed, which proved that Sarka's breaking of theblue column had been but momentary, that the column had almostinstantly regained its contact with the Earth. What was its source,what the composition of the column?
* * * * *
At the moment there could be no answer to the question. Now the Gnomeswere escorting them int
o another tunnel, whose glow was even bluerthan that which the two had experienced in the other tunnels. And thedeeper they penetrated, the more distant from the cavern of the Cone,the deeper in color became that light.
Finally the Gnome who had mentally asked permission of the RadiantWoman to show her Jaska and Sarka passed before another expanse ofwall, identical in appearance with that of the wall of the trianglefrom which the Radiant Woman had appeared.
This time the Gnome managed ingress by a strange clucking sound, withhis triangular lips held close to the base-line of the triangle.
Now the door swung open; but the radiance which now came out was notclear white, as in the case of the outer door, but deeply, coldlyblue. For the first time the Gnomes used force with their prisoners,thus proving to them that they were indeed prisoners. Their tiny feetcaught at Sarka and at Jaska, and forced them through the door, whichswung shut behind them.
Sarka looked at Jaska who, in this strange new light, had taken on thecolor of indigo, and smiled at her. She did not return his smile, buther eyes looked deeply, somewhat sorrowfully, into his. As though sheasked him a question he could not understand, to which he couldtherefore give no answer.
* * * * *
Sarka was now conscious of the fact that the heat of theirprison-house--whose character they did not as yet know--was becomingalmost unbearable. They were alone, too, for the Gnomes had notentered the door of triangle. Sarka partially removed his life mask,and testing the atmosphere of the place, found it capable of beingbreathed without the mask. He signalled mentally to Jaska to removeher mask, and when the girl had done so he took her in his arms andkissed her on the lips.
She accepted his caress, but did not return it, and her eyes stillpeered deeply into his.
"Well, beloved," he said. "I am terribly sorry. But I did not want youto come because I was afraid that something of this sort wouldhappen."
She did not answer.
"What is it, Jaska?" he said at last.
"What did you think of that woman?" she asked softly.
"Beautiful!" he said enthusiastically. "Fearfully beautiful! But didyou see her eyes? She had no more mercy in her heart than if she weremade of stone! And she hated us both the moment she saw us!"
"And you, Sarka--did you hate her, too?"
Sarka stared at her, not comprehending.
"I feel," he said, "that if we are ever to escape her, we must killher, or render her incapable of retaining us!"
Then, of her own accord, Jaska placed her arms around Sarka, and gavehim her lips. Her new behavior was as incomprehensible to Sarka as herformer enigmatic expression had been. Wise in the ways of science wasSarka, but he knew nothing of women!
* * * * *
Now hand in hand again, they began a survey of their prison house. Thebluish glow was unbearable to the eyes, and tears came unbidden andran down the cheeks of the prisoners. In a minute or two, perspirationwas literally bathing the bodies of the two. After a questioningexchange of glances, Sarka swiftly divested himself of his costume,stripping down to the gray toga of Earth's manhood. With a shrug,Jaska removed her clothing to her own toga, and the two suits Sarkacarried under his arm.
They started ahead, exploring, then sprang back with a cry of fright.Sarka did not know whether it was Jaska or himself who had cried out;for just as they moved forward, a rent opened in the floor at theirfeet, and their eyes for a moment--they could stand no longer--peeredinto a bluely flaming abyss which, save for the color, reminded Sarkaof the word pictures of Hell he had read in Earth's books ofantiquity!
As the two stepped back, the rent in the floor closed instantly. Sarkahad noted where the end of it had been, and started to detour, hiseyes on the floor.
Over to his left the bluely glowing wall reached up to invisibleimmensity. But as he would have passed along the wall, the rent openedagain, effectually barring his way.
Beyond the rent he could see a vast continuation of the cavern, and hefelt that, could they only pass the rent, they might reach a placewhere the heat was not so unbearable, and they could stay and talk incomfort.
* * * * *
Releasing Jaska, he stepped back and prepared to leap the spot wherethe rent had been. High he jumped, and far, surprised at the length ofhis own leap. He landed lightly, far beyond the area where the renthad been, and even as he landed, a rent opened again at his feet, thuseffectually barring further progress!
"It could just as easily," he told himself, "have opened under myfeet, and dropped me into the abyss!"
From behind him came the sudden sound of screaming. He whirled to lookback, to see Jaska standing there, arms outstretched toward him, hereyes wide with fear and horror, and as he stood watching, she raced tohim, unmindful of abysses that might open under her feet, and flungherself into his arms.
"Come back!" she moaned. "Come back! Don't you see? _They_ don't wishyou to explore further! We are in their power, and must simply awaittheir pleasure, whoever or whatever they are! They see all we do!"
So they turned back, and stood against the door which held themprisoners; and the heat of the place seemed to enter into them, tognaw at their very vitals. After a time Sarka found himself almosttearing at his throat, fighting for breath.
* * * * *
Gasping, the tears bathing their cheeks until even their tears andtheir perspiration would flow no more, they huddled now just insidethe massive stone door, arms about each other, and almost prayed fordeath. Sarka at least prayed for death for both of them; but Jaskaprayed for a way of deliverance, prayed that herself and Sarka mightsomehow win free, and be together again.
Sarka, who knew little of women, marveled at the grandeur of hercourage, and wondered that he really knew this radiant woman solittle. He compared her in his mind with the unclothed woman who hadordered them here as prisoners, and it came to him that Jaska was allperfection, all tender womanhood, while the Radiant Woman was amonster, without soul or compassion--a creature of horror who mockedGod with her outward seeming of perfection.
Jaska read his thoughts, and smiled wanly to herself, and Sarkawondered how, suffering as he knew she must be suffering, she couldfind the courage to smile.
Then, for a time, the two became comatose, mastered by the blue heat,and in dreamlike imaginings wandered in strange fields which couldonly, to these two, have been racial memories, since neither had everseen such fields. There were cool streams, all a-murmur, and breezeswhich cooled their sun-tanned cheeks. Water touched their tongues, andcooled their whole bodies as they gratefully imbibed it.
* * * * *
In their wanderings, in which Sarka was a faun and Jaska a nymph, theytalked together in a language which only these two comprehended--alanguage which dealt in figures of speech, a language which dependedupon handclasps for periods, glances of the eyes for commas, and thesinging of their hearts for complete understanding.
Then a cool breeze, cool by comparison, caressed their pain-distortedcheeks, and the Gnomes came in, found them lying there, and cluckedendlessly as though wondering what to do with them.
From hand to tiny hand, their feet serving as hands, the Gnomes passedgarments--garments of the Gens of Dalis, and clothed again the twowhom the Place of the Blue Light had all but slain. Of that ghastlyexperiment Sarka retained but one real memory....
That bluish light, in the midst of the abyss, shifting and swayinglike blue serpents swimming in Hades ... that bluish light of theCone, which he had broken up for a brief moment by the use of his raydirector. Was this bluish light in the abyss the source of the lightin the Cone? If one were to destroy it at its source....
The two regained consciousness completely as the triangular doorclosed behind Sarka and Jaska and the Gnomes, and they were taken intothe refreshing coolness of the tunnel, led back again in the directionof the room where they had seen the Radiant Woman. Both Jaska andSar
ka noticed that they were clothed in new clothing, and a shy blushtinged the cheeks of Jaska as her eyes met those of Sarka.
* * * * *
This time they entered the vast chamber of radiance behind the firsttriangular door, and were forced to their knees to do obeisance to theRadiant Woman, who sat on a gleaming yellow stone for dais! The guardswho forced Sarka and Jaska to their knees, were clothed in the greenof the Gens of Dalis, and Dalis himself, his face stern, but bearingno sign of recognition of these two, stood at the right hand of theRadiant Woman!
"You come to us as spies," the thought of the Radiant Woman impingedupon the brains of Sarka and of Jaska, "and as spies you should begiven to the Cone. But if you swear eternal allegiance to me, to obeyme in all things, to forego your allegiance to Earth, your lives willbe spared! What say you?"
Boldly Sarka stared into the almost opaque eyes of the woman. Then hisglance went to the face of Dalis.
"What," he asked boldly, in the language of Earth, "does the traitorDalis say?"
"I have sworn allegiance to Luar, who addresses you, and am her allyin all things! I have but one addition to make to what she says: Jaskabelongs to me!"
The sudden leering grin of Dalis was hideous.
Sarka peered at Jaska, framing his answer. But Jaska spoke first.
"For myself, O Dalis," she said swiftly, "I can answer in but one way.Return me to the Place of the Blue Light, and forget me there!"
Sarka smiled, while his heart leaped with joy.
"And I, O Luar," he said mentally to the Radiant Woman, "prefer deathwith Jaska, at the Place of the Blue Light, than life as a traitor tothe world of my nativity!"
Instantly Luar began the clucking sound which was the language of theGnomes, at the same time allowing her thoughts as she spoke to impressthemselves upon the brains of the prisoners.
"Take them away! Take them to the Cavern of the Cone, and when theyhave suffered as much as such inferior beings are capable ofsuffering, thrust them into the base of the Cone!"
CHAPTER XVI
_Cavern of the Cone_
The Gnomes had been bidden to take the prisoners to the Cavern of theCone, but to the surprise of Sarka and Jaska, they were taken back tothe Place of the Blue Light! This time the Gnomes entered the placewith them, closing and securing the door behind them.
But the Place of the Blue Light had changed!
Now it had no floor of blue, as it had had before, but only a corridorperhaps wide enough to allow the passage of four grown men, walkingside by side, while the abyss of which the two had got but the meresthint through the opening and closing rents filled all the center ofthe place!
The Gnomes seemed impervious to the unendurable heat, and these,moving together, one behind the other, one beside the other, one atopthe other, formed a living wall between Sarka and Jaska and the rim ofthe flaming blue abyss, to protect them from the heat.
Yet through the bodies of this living wall of Gnomes, a wall which washigher than the heads of Sarka and Jaska, the heat forced its way tothe prisoners, and burned them anew with its agony.
To what dread rendezvous were they going? Where, save for the fewguards at the house of Luar, were the people of the Gens of Dalis?Sarka felt, somehow, that the answers to all these questions wouldsoon be made manifest, and a feeling of exaltation he could notexplain was possessing him as he advanced. Around the corridor, whoseone side was the wall reaching up to invisibility, whose other sidedropped off into the abyss, the Gnomes herded the prisoners.
* * * * *
The leader of the Gnomes was again the Gnome who had first leaped uponJaska to examine her curiously. Now, watching the lidless eyes of thisbeing, Sarka fancied he could detect a hint of some expression. TheGnome was excited at some prospect, some climax which they wereapproaching. What? On and on they moved. The blue flames from theabyss, roaring in a way that neither of the prisoners had everexperienced, reached upward in searing tongues toward the invisibleroof of this place.
Then, when they had progressed far from the door of entry, Sarkagasped at a new manifestation. Out of the abyss, some distance ahead,came a gleaming thing, something that had apparently evolved itselfout of the flames of the abyss. Blue of color it was, because of theflames from the pit; but Sarka recognized it with a start which hecould not suppress nor understand.
It was one of those cubes, such as he and Jaska had seen at the lip ofthe Moon-crater! As they approached, guided by the Gnomes, other cubesappeared out of the abyss, others in numbers swiftly augmented, untila veritable battalion of them had marshalled itself, there at the lipof the abyss.
* * * * *
Straight toward these cubes the Gnomes led Sarka and Jaska, and whenthey had reached the center of the group, they halted, forming acircle, still a wall to mask the prisoners from the heat of the abyss.The leader of the Gnomes stopped with his face, his lidless eyes,close to one of the cubes.
For a moment he paused thus, and Sarka felt sure that somehow theGnome was holding thought converse with the cube; but, try as hemight, he could find no meaning in the weird conversation for himself.It was oddly like listening to a conversation in a code beyond hisknowledge.
Then the Gnome turned back to Sarka and Jaska. By a pressure of tinyfeet, he tried to indicate that Sarka and Jaska should unclasp theirhands. But they only clung the tighter, and now threw their arms abouteach other.
The Gnome desisted, much to the joy of the lovers, while Sarka studiedthe cubes, wondering what their mission was with Jaska and himself.
Slowly, together, the cubes began to lose their bluish glow, theircube shape--to vanish utterly.
In a trice, still locked in each other's arms, Sarka and Jaska saw theGnomes through what appeared to be an even bluer haze. Besides, theheat of the abyss no longer tortured them, and their bodies werecooling in a way that was unbelievably refreshing.
"What is it, beloved?" whispered Jaska. "What is it?"
* * * * *
Sarka stared at the Gnomes, now in retreat, capering as they had firstcapered when the two had fallen into their hands, toward the door bywhich all had entered. Mystified, Sarka put forth his hand. It came incontact with something solid, and oddly warm, which stirred aninstantly responsive chord in the brain of Sarka.
This feeling was the same as he experienced when he had lifted thosecubes and hurled them into the crater--where they had dissolved infalling, and instantly reappeared, each under its own aircar!
"Jaska!" he explained. "Jaska! The cubes have dissolved themselves,and have reformed in the shape of a globe, as a protective coveringabout us, to protect us from the heat of the abyss! Apparently we arenot to be killed at once! These cubes are slaves of the Gnomes, ofwhom Luar is ruler!"
They were indeed locked inside a globe, a globe whose integral partswere the cubes of their acquaintance; and the atmosphere of theinterior was not uncomfortable, but otherwise. Sarka and Jaska werefeeling normal for the first time since they had landed on the Moon.But what was the meaning of this strange imprisonment?
They were soon to know!
For the globe which enclosed them, moved to the edge of the flamingabyss, and dropped into the bluish glow! It did not drop heavily, likea falling object on Earth, but rather floated downward, right into theheart of the flames. At this new manifestation of the strangeness ofscience on the Moon, Sarka was at once all scientist himself, strivingto find adequate answers for things which, from cause to effect, wereentirely new to him. With Jaska still clasped close against him, heseated himself in the base of the globe and studied the area throughwhich they were passing.
Blue flames which seemed to be born somewhere, an infinite distancebelow them; blue flames which he knew to be the element that, shotoutward from the great cone, had forced the Moon away from the Earth.
No sound of the roaring flames came through the globe, but everymovement of them was visible.
/> * * * * *
Sarka turned and peered through the bottom of the globe; but all hecould see below were the flames, a molten indigo lake of them. Now, asthey floated downward, the glow was giving away to lighter blue, towhite, almost pure white, like the radiance which covered Luar like amantle.
Sarka felt himself on the eve of vast important discoveries, and thescientist in him made him, for the moment, almost forget the woman athis side. Jaska, unbothered about anything, now that Sarka was at herside, regarded his expression of deep concentration with a tolerantsmile.
Whiter now was the light, and faster fell the globe which held thetwo.
The color of the globe, now fallen below the area of blue, had takenon, chameleonlike, the color of the white flames that bathed it.
Then, apparently right in the center of a lake of white flames, thoughSarka could see no solid place on which the globe had landed, theglobe came to rest.
Now everything was plain to see, and Sarka studied his surroundingswith new interest. He felt a mounting sensation of scalp-pricklinghorror.
For, scattered throughout the lake of white flames, in all directions,as far as the eye could reach--standing alone, suffering untoldagonies, from the expressions on their faces--were people of the Gensof Dalis!
* * * * *
No longer were they clothed in green and wearing on breast and backthe yellow stars of their Gens. Now they were nude as they had comeinto the world and standing there, each was holding out hands inhorror, to hold back myriads of the Gnomes, who would have forced themto submerge themselves in the white flames of the lake!
Was the Gens of Dalis being burned alive? What was the meaning ofthis?
For a moment, filled with horror, Sarka looked away from thespectacle. Off to his right, as he sat, he noted that the flames,which here seemed lighter than they had in high levels, wereconverging on a single spot toward the side of the lake of whiteflames--as smoke converges on the base of a chimney leading outward tothe air!
He knew as he stared that he was gazing at the spot where the bluishcolumn of the cone was born!
Shaking his head, he turned back to the mighty spectacle of thishorrible thing that was being done to the people of the Gens of Dalis.
In his brain there suddenly crashed a thought whose source he couldonly guess at, whose meaning mystified him more than anything yetexperienced. The thought might have emanated from Luar, or from Dalis.But the more he thought of the matter, the more he thought how thephrasing of the thought was like the telepathy of Sarka the Second,now thousands of miles away, upon the Earth. And this was the thought:
"If they fight the flames, the flames will destroy them! If they gointo them freely, voluntarily, they will be rendered immune to heatand to cold, to life and to death. But it is better that they die, forEarth's sake!"
What did it mean?
* * * * *
Sarka thought of the radiant white light which perpetually bathed theperson of Luar, and thought that he had somehow been given a hint ofits source. If the Gens of Dalis were voluntarily bathed in the lakeof white flames, would they become as Luar?
Somehow, though he knew that such bathing would save their lives, theidea filled him anew with horror. He found himself torn between twoduties. If he sent his thought out there to the Gens of Dalis, peopleof Earth, his people, they would be saved, but might forever becomeallies of the people of the Moon. If Sarka did not tell them, theywould die--and there were millions of them.
But his science had always been a science of Life, and it still was.
"Enter the flames!" he telepathically bade his people. "Enter theflames!"
But they did not heed him, and for the first time the atmosphere ofthe interior of the globe seemed filled with savage, abysmal menace!Plain to Sarka was the meaning of that menace: The cubes whichcomposed this globe were loyal to their masters, the masters to amistress, Luar, and would countenance no meddling.
Likewise it was impossible, if the Gnomes willed it to the cubes, forSarka to transmit his thoughts to the Gens of Dalis through thetransparent walls of the globe!
They were prisoners, indeed, of Dalis and of Luar!
* * * * *
But could Sarka and Jaska turn their new-found knowledge to their ownuse? Sarka was thinking back, back to one of the ancient tomes of hispeople. It spoke, someplace, of a man who had got trapped in the heartof a seething volcano, where the heat of it had cured him of hisillnesses, made him whole again, given him new youth and freshness.
But since the cubes could forestall his transmission of thought, andperhaps could read and understand thoughts, how was he to tell Jaska?How show her that a way of deliverance had been given into theirhands, if they only possessed the courage to use it!
Again came that thought, which Sarka recognized as the telepathy ofhis father:
"Courage! You will win, and Jaska with you!"
Thoughts could come in to them then, but could not go out. Or did itmean that the cubes, or the masters of the cubes, did not care if theprisoners received messages from outside, because they knew themselvescapable of frustrating anything the prisoners planned? Perhaps. Morethan likely that was it.
But, looking through the bottom of the globe, into the sea of whiteflames below, Sarka gripped more tightly his ray director, and triedto marshal the forces of his courage. There was surely some way ofescape. Some way out of their strange predicament.
CHAPTER XVII
_Casting the Die_
Somehow Sarka believed that this white radiance of the abyss held thesecret of the omnipotence of Luar, if omnipotence she possessed. Thatshe did seemed sure, else Dalis would not have been with her. Besides,she had asked Sarka and Jaska to swear allegiance to her. Yes thesecret was here, in the heart of the lake of white flames.
It might have been the Moon Fountain of Youth, or of omnipotence.There was no telling, unless Sarka tried an experiment.
His fury at Dalis now knew no bounds, and he was conscious of adesire, too poignant almost to be borne, in some way to circumvent thearch-traitor. For here in the craters of the Moon Dalis was workingout a strange amplification of the scheme which he had, centuriesbefore, proposed to Sarka the First. He was subjecting the people ofhis Gens to the white flames.
If they immersed themselves voluntarily, they became as Luar was, butstill subservient to the will of Dalis--and, in his hands, invincibleinstruments of war! Dalis had doubtless already been bathed in theflames. Sarka was not sure, for in the home of Luar the white lightwas so blinding it would have been impossible to make sure that thewhite radiance clothed the others with Luar.
"That's it!" said Sarka to himself. "That's it! Dalis and those guardsat the dais of Luar have already been subjected to the white flames!The rest who immerse themselves, voluntarily, come forth as Luar andDalis! Who do not, die. Dalis' manner of forcing the survival of thefittest! His idea of the flood in grandfather's time, only now hecauses his selection by flames instead of flood! He believes that onlythose worthy to survive, and to stand at his back in whatever heconceives to be his need, will guess the secret of the immersion. Theothers will die!"
* * * * *
What a terrible alternative, when Dalis could as easily have given thesecret to all his people! Could have told them how to save themselves!But it was not Dalis' way. Here, in the beginning of what was tobecome a dual sovereignty of the Moon, Dalis had already taken thoughton the matter of over-population, and was destroying the many that thefew--the strongest, most ruthless--might survive! Hundreds ofthousands, millions of the Gens of Dalis, stood at the door of life,and did not know how to enter, merely because Dalis withheld the key!And, pausing in terror before the flames, they died, when a step and aplunge would have saved them all!
"If he lives to be a million, if he lives through everlasting life,"said Sarka to himself, "and does penance through a thousand
reincarnations, Dalis can never atone for this wholesale destructionof humanity! But I ... I wonder!"
Sarka realized the nicety of the revenge of Dalis upon Jaska andhimself. Dalis had not given the secret to the prisoners, but by hisuse of the cubes, he had plunged them into the very heart of thehorror, where they could see the suffering of the people of the Gens.Then, when they had seen and appreciated the horror of it all, theywould follow the people of the Gens to death!
But Luar had spoken of thrusting them into the base of the Cone!
* * * * *
Then they were not for the flames after all! How could it be done? Theglobe composed of the cubes had but to transport the prisoners to thebase of the Cone, press against that base, and open to let theprisoners free--and in the heart of the white-blue column they wouldbe hurled outward from the Moon, into space. The mere prospect of suchhorror caused the perspiration to break forth anew on the body ofSarka.
But there might be a way.
"I wonder," he asked himself, "if the Earth people in _this_ cratercould read my thoughts in spite of their agonies, if I could get mythought to them through the globe? I wonder if, reading my thoughts,they would obey?"
Bit by bit, as parts of a puzzle fall into place, he made his plan,and his heart beat high with excitement. Jaska bent before him to lookinto his eyes, and he knew that she was trying to read his face. Sheknew, wise Jaska, that this brilliant lover of hers was making a plan,and she believed in the sure success of it because it would be _his_!
She smiled at him, her courage high, and waited!
Holding the ray director between his body and that of Jaska, he took aterrible, ghastly chance. Dalis had known the secret sign manual ofthese two; but would the intelligence of the cubes comprehend it? Hemust take the chance, slender as it seemed. His free hand began tospell out, with all speed, the mad plan he had conceived.
"The white flames are harmless if one plunges into them voluntarily.Are you afraid to attempt it? No? Then unfasten your clothing, andhave it so arranged that you can drop entirely out of it when I giveyou the signal, which will be a mere widening of the eyes, like this!You understand? We must go nude into the flames, so that they willbathe our whole bodies! But, when you slip out of your clothing, tearyour anti-gravitational ovoid from the skull-pan of your helmet, andhold it in your mouth! Then depend upon me, and have no fear!"
"I have no fear," replied the fingers of Jaska. "I go to death withyou if you wish--or to Life!"
* * * * *
Feeling the menace of the cubes almost gripping at his throat as hegot into action, Sarka unfastened his own clothing, ripped the ovoidfrom his helmet, placed it in his mouth. Then, looking at Jaska, hegave her the signal.
Instantly, at her nod, he brought forth the ray director, pressed itwith his fingers, directing its muzzle toward the curve of the globe,swinging it around in a circle, cutting out the bottom of the globe ofcubes.
The action must have been one of untold surprise to the cubes whichmade up the globe, for before anything could be done to stay the handof Sarka, his ray director had cut out the bottom of the globe, andJaska and himself, divested now of all clothing, had fallen from theglobe.
Unbearable heat slashed and tore at them. They still held hands, andwhen their feet touched upon something solid, they were gasping withthe unbelievable heat; and it was ripping at their lungs like talonsof white hot steel. But, pausing not at all, Sarka raced ahead withJaska, and dived straight into the lake of white flames.
As he dived he directed his thoughts toward the people of the Gens whostood, undecided, dying by slow inches, on their little oases in thelake. And this was the thought, which was a command.
"Plunge into the flames! They will not hurt you! Plunge in, and obeymy commands, O people of the Gens of Dalis! I, Sarka, command that youobey me! Jaska, who commanded you at the will of Dalis, also commands.Gather with Jaska and me at the base of the Cone! You have but tofollow the converging of the flames!"
* * * * *
Together the two plunged in, and it seemed all at once as though thefire had gone out of the white flames, for they were cool and soothingto the touch. Sarka could feel new life being borne in him, could feelhimself revitalized, exalted, lifted to the heights. He suddenlyexperienced the desire to run, and shout his joy for all to hear. Butreason held him. Not thus easily would Luar and Dalis, the traitor,give over their designs against these two.
But in the heart of the flames, they dropped down, while they turnedtheir faces toward the base of the Cone, or where they thought thebase to be, even as Sarka gave another command to the now invisiblepeople of the Gens of Dalis.
"Hold your ovoids in your mouths and follow! Obey my will!"
They dropped now to what seemed to be cool flagstones, while abovethem showed an orifice in a wall, into which those tongues of flamewere darting. They paused there, side by side, their faces radiant,and looked back the way they had come.
Coming out of the white flames, like battalions on parade, were thepeople of the Gens of Dalis--scores and hundreds of them, who hadsensed and heeded the mental commands of Sarka. Like genii appearingout of the flames they came, to muster about Sarka and Jaska.
Then, when it seemed that no more were coming, Sarka turned to thebase of the Cone, his face high shining with courage and confidence,and stepped straight into the flames that led into the Cone. Besidehim came Jaska, while behind him came the people of the Gens of Daliswho dared to do as he had commanded.
They were sucked into the Cone like chips sucked into a whirlpool, andSarka willed a last command as they entered:
"Quit the column at the lip of the crater, and muster about theaircars!"
CHAPTER XVIII
_The People of Radiance_
The exaltation of Sarka knew no bounds, and looking into the eyes ofJaska, he knew she felt it, too. For her face was shining, and all ofher, the wondrous shining brilliance of her, was bathed in the whiteradiance that mantled Luar. And now, since Jaska too knew thatradiance, her beauty was greater even than that of Luar. Sarkathrilled anew at the glory of her.
But even as he stepped into the base of the Cone, he stepped out ofthe blue column at the lip of the Moon-crater. Swift as light, andswifter, had been the flight upward from the Cavern of the Cone; yet,so keen were his perceptions, he knew when he had passed through thechamber of the bluish glow, into which he and Jaska had first droppedupon arrival.
Now they were on the lip of the crater, and the people of the Gens whohad followed him, were slipping out of the blue column, like insectsout of a flame, and converging on the aircars whose tentacles stillwaved as they had when Sarka had last seen them.
Sarka looked at these people in amazement. To him there was a divinitynow about their nudeness which nudity never before had suggested tohim. For the people shone, and there was something glorious in thosedivinely white bodies. They reminded Sarka of his people's books ofantiquity, and his childhood's pictures of angels....
But the effect of those white flames!...
* * * * *
There was no explaining it. But Sarka felt that whatever he willed todo he could do; that whatever he wished for was his, whether it washis by right or no. He felt that he could move mountains, with onlythe aid of his hands. Looking at Jaska he conceived all sorts of newbeauty in her, for she was the brightest, to him, of all the peoplewho had passed through the lake of white flames, and been cleansed intheir heat.
"No wonder Luar has mastered the Moon!" he cried to Jaska. "For whenshe was bathed in the white flames, her will is paramount!"
"But how, if she passes the people of the Gens of Dalis through theflames, will she retain her sovereignty?"
"Because Dalis, too, has passed through, and his will is the will ofthe Gens! They will obey him, and he has sworn allegiance to Luar, orgiven some sort of oath of fealty!"
"How strange that but one per
son on the Moon has been bathed in thewhite flames!"
"How do we know," Sarka almost whispered it, "that she is, originally,of the Moon? Does she not look too much like our people, to be fromanother world entirely?"
"I do not know, but ... you mean ... you mean...?"
"I scarcely know; but Dalis would swear allegiance to no man, muchless to a woman, unless he knew that man, or woman, far better than hehas had opportunity, in a matter of hours only, to know Luar!"
He left it there then, as he strode boldly, with Jaska by his side, tothe nearest of the aircars.
* * * * *
As he approached the car, the gleam cube beneath it seemed to gleambrighter and brighter, as though it echoed the radiance of Sarka.Sarka knew, studying this phenomenon, that he possessed at least ahint of the secret of Luar's omnipotence. There had been a hintbefore, but by now its meaning was clearer. The white flames, out ofthe heart of the dying Moon, gave new life, exaltation, not only tothe bodies but to the brains of those who passed through it, and withtheir brains quickened, they possessed such knowledge as men of Earth,for ages, had wished to possess.
Transmutation of metals ... the ability, at will, to endow the higher,more selective metals with intelligence ... and the ability to retaincommand of the intelligences thus endowed. This explained the power ofLuar over the Gnomes, and the power of the Gnomes over the cubes--ifthey possessed that power.
But the Gnomes, what of them? What were they?
But for a space Sarka must await the answer to that question, forthere was little time. Already he knew that the tale of his escape,and his taking over of a portion of the Gens of Dalis, must have gonelike wildfire through all the crater, and from this crater, perhaps,had been transmitted to all the craters of the Moon. All thecraters....
* * * * *
That explained to him the absence from the lake of white flames, wherehe had seen so few, comparatively, of the people of Dalis' Gens. TheMoon was honeycombed by such craters, and perhaps the white flameconnected them all, made them all one. And Luar commanded all from herdais in this crater Sarka and his people were escaping. The millionsof the Gens had been swallowed by the craters of the Moon, at commandof Luar, acceded to by Dalis--and all over the Moon the very thingswhich Sarka and Jaska had witnessed were taking place.
Even now, as Sarka raced for the aircar, and Jaska with him, he couldfeel a backward pulling that was well-nigh invincible. Someone waswilling him to return, willing the Gnomes to pursue him, willing thecubes to refuse obedience to him; but he laughed and stepped to theaircar, passing by the nearest writhing tentacle as though he knew itpossessed no power to harm him. The tentacle swept aside, and did nottry to bar him, while he sent his will crashing against that brightlygleaming cube. "Into the aircar! We enter with you!"
The cube vanished instantly, and it seemed to Sarka that invisiblehands caught at his feet, lifting him up through the trap-door in thebelly of the aircar, up and inside. The door swung shut, and in theforward end of the vast aircar gleamed the cube which had obeyed hiscommand!
* * * * *
Sarka sent one thought careening outward from the aircar, a command tothe cubes which stood watch beneath the other aircars.
"Obey the Radiant People, and through them, _me_!"
The light of the cube made the interior of the aircar as light as day,and Sarka was struck at once with another phenomenon. He could seethrough the sides of the car in any direction.
And what he saw filled him with a sudden fear!
Out of the crater poured myriads of the Gnomes, and up the sides of itcame myriads of the gleaming cubes, all racing toward the cars.
"Get back! Get back!" he commanded the Gnomes and the cubes.
At the same time he issued his commands to the cube within his owncar, and to the cubes which by now were inside the other aircars,realizing that the cubes themselves were the motive power of theaircars--and that his will was the will of these individual cubes.
"Fly at once! Fly outward at top speed toward the Earth!"
Instantly, as though a single signal had started all the cars, a dozenaircars rose majestically from the crater, while Sarka studied theGnomes and the cubes in turmoil on the rim. He noted then, a strangecircumstance: that when he commanded the Gnomes and the pursuing cubesto keep back, they hesitated, dazedly, as though they did not knowwhether to advance or to retreat; that when he merely watched them,they came on.
He laughed aloud at this measuring of mental swords with Luar, andwith Dalis. For he could sense the conflict very plainly. Shecommanded the Gnomes and the cubes to attack, he commanded them toretreat, and they remained undecided, like people drawn between twoextremities, and uncertain which direction to take.
Upward, side by side now, floated the aircars of the Moon, and in theforepeak of each, one of the gleaming cubes, like--likeanti-gravitational ovoids of the Moon! At the fast falling rim of thecrater boiled the Gnomes and the cubes, stirring and tumbling,hampered by their very numbers, as they tried to attack at will ofLuar and retreated in confusion at the will of Sarka.
Then there was Jaska beside Sarka, her face fearful, as he pointed offacross the gloomy expanse of the Moon.
From all sides, from all directions, from other craters which thesetwo had not even seen, came scores and hundreds of the monster cars!
They had beaten Luar and Dalis but for a moment, then! Now, at hercommand, the countless other aircars were coming in to head them off,to fight them back to the surface of the Moon. It would be a raceagainst time, and against death. But of at least a dozen of theaircars, Sarka was master, and he did not fear the issue. That strangeexaltation which the white flames had given him filled him with aconfidence that nothing could shake.
He shot a thought at the gleaming cube in the forepeak.
"Faster! Faster! There is no limit to your speed! Faster! Faster! Evenfaster!"
Instantly the Moon seemed literally to drop away beneath the dozenaircars which carried the Radiant People, while the aircars of Luarand of Dalis fell hopelessly behind.
Sure that they would win in this race now, since he was just beginningto realize the vastness of his power--the all-encompassing,all-mastering power of the human mind and will, which the white flamesof the Moon had made almost god-like--Sarka turned his eyes toward acoldly gleaming sphere in the star-spangled heavens ahead.
* * * * *
It was the Earth, and it seemed ringed in flames! From its edges thereseemed to shoot long streamers of yellow or golden flames, which brokeinto sunlike pinwheels of radiance at their tips. Something, there onthe precious Earth, was decidedly wrong!
Instantly, telepathically, he sought to gain mental contact with hisfather.
"Father, we are coming!" he said, across those countless miles. "Whatis happening?"
For a full minute there was no answer. Then it came, feeble, broken,weighted with fear; but it was a thought-message, unmistakably, ofSarka the Second.
"Hurry, son! Hurry! For Dalis has indeed betrayed us! I could notmaintain control of the Earth with the Beryls, for some strangecatastrophe has destroyed all the Beryls in the area Dalis ruled! Theshifting of positions of the Earth and the Moon has so altered therelative effects of the pull of gravity exerted by the planets thatMars has been brought into dangerous proximity to us and is already soclose that her ether-lights are playing over us! Surely you must beable to see them! We have received messages, but as yet I have onlybeen partially able to decode them! What I have decoded, however,presages catastrophe--for I am sure that Mars and the Moon are inconfederation, and that the Moon-people have deliberately forced usinto contact with her ally!"
Cold fear clutched at the throat of Sarka as he caught the message. Hedecided not to tell Jaska for the moment. He looked to right and left,at the aircars on either side of him, then issued his commands.
"Faster! Faster! Be prepared to land in the are
a of the Gens ofCleric, as close as possible to my laboratory!"
A strange, awesome sight, that flight of the rebels of Dalis' Gensfrom the Moon to the Earth--like gleaming stars across the void. Farout in Space they fled at terrific speed through almost utterdarkness, but their light was still blinding, lighting the way.
(_Concluded in the next issue_)