The Worshipers of the Flame were centeredabout the chief city of Gio, Fetter had told us, and therefore we werein position to start action without delay.
Force of men would avail us nothing, since the entire crew of the_Ertak_ would be but a pitiful force compared to the horde Liane couldmuster. Our mission could be accomplished--if, indeed, it could beaccomplished at all--by the force of whatever authority our positioncommanded, and the outwitting of Liane.
Accordingly, it was decided that, in the emergency, all three of uswould undertake the task, leaving the ship in charge of Sub-officerScholey, chief of the operating room crew, and a very capable,level-headed man. I gave him his final instructions as we left theship, early the next morning:
"Scholey, we are leaving you in a position of unusual responsibility.An emergency makes it necessary, or at least desirable, for Mr.Correy, Mr. Kincaide and myself to leave the ship. Mr. Hendricks hasalready departed; therefore, the _Ertak_ will be left in your charge.
"Remain here for five days; if we do not return in that time, leavefor Base, and report the circumstances there. The log will reveal fullauthority for your actions."
"Very well, sir!" He saluted, and we passed through the air-lock whichprotected the _Ertak_ from the unpleasant atmosphere of Lakos, armedonly with atomic pistols, and carrying condensed rations and menoresat our belts.
* * * * *
We went directly to the largest of the mines, the natives regarding uswith furtive, unfriendly eyes. A great crowd of men were loungingaround the mouth of the mine, and as we approached, they tightenedtheir ranks, as though to block our passage.
"We'll bluff it through," I whispered. "They know the uniform of theService, and they have no leader."
"I'd like to take a swing at one of them," growled Correy. "I don'tlike their looks--not a bit. But just as you say, sir."
Our bluff worked. We marched up to the packed mass as though we hadnot even noticed them, and slowly and unwillingly, they opened a pathfor us, closing in behind us with rather uncomfortable celerity. For amoment I regretted we had not taken a landing crew from the _Ertak_.
However, we won through the mouth of the mine without violence, buthere a huge Lakonian who seemed to be in authority held up his handand blocked our way.
"Let me handle him, sir," said Correy from the corner of his mouth. "Iunderstand a little of their language."
"Right," I nodded. "Make it strong!"
Correy stepped forward, his head thrust out truculently, thumbs hookedthrough his belt, his right hand suggestively near his automaticpistol. He rapped out something in unpleasant gutturals, and the tallLakonian replied volubly.
"He says it's orders," commented Correy over his shoulder. "Now I'lltell him who's giving orders around here!"
He stepped closer to the Lakonian, and spoke with emphatic briefness.The Lakonian fell back a step, hesitated, and started to reply. Correystopped him with a single word, and motioned us to follow him. Theguard watched us doubtfully, and angrily, but he let us pass.
"He told me," explained Correy, "that _she_ had given orders. Didn'tname her, but we can guess, all right. I told him that if she wishedto say anything to us, she could do it in person; that we weren'tafraid of her, of him, or all the Lakonians who ever breathed greensoup and called it air. He's a simple soul, and easily impressed. Sowe got by."
"Nice work," I commended him. "It's an auspicious start, anyway."
* * * * *
The mouth of the mine was not the usual vertical shaft; as Fetters hadtold us, it was a great ramp, of less than forty-five degrees, leadingunderground, illuminated by jets of greenish flame from metal bracketsset into the wall at regular intervals, and fed by a never-failinginterplay of natural gas. The passageway was of varying height andwidth, but nowhere less than three times my height from floor toceiling, and it was broad enough at its narrowest so that ten menmight have marched easily abreast.
The floor, apparently, had been smoothed by human effort, but for therest, the corridor was, to judge from the evidence, entirely naturalfor the walls of shiny black rock bore no marks of tools.
At intervals, other passages branched off from the main one we werefollowing, at greater and less angles, but these were much narrower,and had very apparently been hewn in the solid rock. Like the centralpassage, they were utterly deserted.
"We'll be coming out on the other side, pretty soon," commented Correyafter a steady descent of perhaps twenty minutes. "This tunnel must goall the way through. I--what's that?"
We paused and listened. From behind us came a soft, whispering sound,the nature of which we could not determine.
"Sounds like the shuffle of many feet, far behind," suggested Kincaidegravely.
"Or, more likely, the air rushing around the corners of those smallerpassages," I suggested. "This is a drafty hole. Or it may be just thecombined flarings of all these jets of flame."
"Maybe you're right, sir," nodded Correy. "Anyway, we won't worryabout it until we have to. I guess we just keep on going?"
"That seems to be about all there is to do; we should enter one of thebig subterranean chambers Fetters mentioned, before long."
* * * * *
As a matter of fact, it was but a minute or two later, that we turneda curve in the corridor and found ourselves looking into a vast openspace, the roof supported by huge pillars of black stone, and thefloor littered with rocky debris and mining tools thrown down byworkmen.
"This is where they take out the temite ore, I imagine," saidKincaide, picking up a loose fragment of rock. He pointed to a smudgeof soft, crumbly gray metal, greasy in appearance, showing on thesurface of the specimen he had picked up. "That's the stuff, sir,that's causing us all this trouble: nearly pure metallic temite." Hedropped the fragment, looking about curiously. "But where," he added,"are the miners?"
"I'm inclined to believe we'll find out before we get back to the_Ertak_," said Correy grimly. "Everything's moved along too sweetly;trouble's just piling up somewhere."
"That remains to be seen," I commented. "Let's move on, and see what'sbeyond. That looks like a door of some sort, on the far side. Perhapsit will lead us to something more interesting."
"I hope it does," growled Correy. "This underground business isgetting on my nerves!"
It was a door I had seen, a huge slab of light yellow-green metal. Ipaused, my hand on the simple latch.
"Stand to one side," I said softly. "Let's see what happens."
I lifted the latch, and the heavy door opened inward. Cautiously, Istared through the portal. Inside was blackness and silence;somewhere, in the far distance, I could see two or three tinypin-pricks of green light.
"We'll take a look around, anyway," I said. "Follow me carefully andbe ready for action. It seems all right, but somehow, I don't like thelooks of things."
In single file, we passed beyond the massive door, the light from thelarge room outside streaming ahead of us, our shadows long andgrotesque, moving on the rocky floor ahead of us.
Then, suddenly, I became aware that the path of light ahead of us wasnarrowing. I turned swiftly; the door must be closing!
As I turned, lights roared up all around us, intense light whichstruck at our eyes with almost tangible force. A great shout rose,echoing, to a vaulted ceiling. Before we could move or cry out, ascore of men on either side had pinioned us.
"Damnation!" roared Correy. "If I only had the use of my fists--justfor a second!"
* * * * *
We were in a great cavern, the largest I have ever beheld. A hugebubble, blown in the molten rock by powerful gases from the seethinginterior of the world.
The roof was invisible above our heads, and the floor sloped downgently in every direction, toward a central dais, so far away that itsdetails were lost to us. From the center of the dais a mighty pillarof green flame mounted into the air nearly twenty times the height ofa man. All around the d
ais, seated on the sloping floor of the cavern,were Lakonians.
There were hundreds of them, thousands of them, and they were assilent and motionless as death. They paid no heed to us; theycrouched, each in his place, and stared at the column of greenishflame.
"It was a trap," muttered Kincaide as our captors marched us rapidlytoward the dais in the center of the huge amphitheater. "They werewaiting for us; I imagine we have been watched all the time. And wewalked into the trap exactly like a bunch of schoolboys."
"True--but we've found, I believe, what we wished to find," I toldhim. "This is the meeting place of the Worshipers of the Flame. There,I
Priestess of the Flame Page 5
