CHAPTER XXIII
Into the Depths
The _Monitor_ turned again, speeding back toward the remaining Lassanships; with a startling shock of surprise, Gloria noticed that therewere only two. Down below them one of the last three Americanrocket-cruisers had spread her wings and was gliding gently toward theearth. Like the _Monitor's_, her crew had evidently found the lightningflash worthless at the enormous altitude and was abandoning the battletill conditions became more favorable. The other rocket remainedfaithful; turned as they turned and charged up with them toward the lastof the Lassans.
It was a weird scene. They had climbed so far that the earth was nowperceptibly round beneath them; a vague line marked the westwardprogress of the sunset and beyond it the sun, an immense yellow ball,set with a crown of vividly red flames, hung in the inky-black heavens.On the opposite side, the stars, more brilliant and greater in numberthan any ever before viewed by the eye of man, made the sky a carpet oflight across which the green globes moved like shadows, their undersidesillumined by the sun.
As the _Monitor_ approached, the nearest globe seemed to be turning onits axis. Suddenly, out of the side that faced them, came the quick,stabbing beam of the light-ray, like the flicker of a sword. It struckthe _Monitor_ full on the prow. There was a burning rain of sparks pastthe windows; the rocket-ship leaped and quivered, and those within felt,rather than saw, something give. Then, with a tremendous explosion, allthe more horrible because utterly without sound, the great globe thathad thrown the ray, burst into fragments.
And at the same moment the _Monitor_ began to fall. Down, down, downwent the rocket-cruiser with the round ball of the earth rising to meetthem at a speed incredible. The sun went out; they were swallowed in apurple twilight as they plunged. The earth changed from a ball to adish, from a dish to a plane, from a plane to a dark mass without form,and in the mass vague lights and glimmerings of water came out, andstill their course was unchecked, still Sherman fought frantically withthe useless controls.
Desperately Murray pressed the firing keys of the stern-rockets;unchecked she drove on, almost straight down, plunging to certaindestruction. The earth loomed nearer, nearer, the end seemedinevitable--.
Then Gloria saved them. In some moment of inspiration, she threw on thesearchlight; and the automatic connection fired the gravity-beam. Therewas a shattering report; the course of the _Monitor_ was halted, andbruised and broken, she tumbled over and over to the ground, safe butruined.
"Suffering Lassans!" said Ben Ruby, as they picked themselves out of thewreckage, "but that was a jar. What hit us, anyway?"
Sherman pointed to Gloria, breathlessly. "Give the little girl a hand,"he ejaculated. "She sure pulled us out of the fire that time."
"I'll say she did," said Murray, "but what happened, anyway? I thoughtthat light-ray of theirs wouldn't work on these ships."
"It won't--in air," said Sherman ruefully, surveying the wreck of the_Monitor_. "But the air blankets down the effect a lot. Out there we gotthe whole dose. Even then it shouldn't have hurt us so seriously, but Iexpect a lot of our lead sheathing got jarred loose when we went throughthose yellow rays and when they let that light-ray go, she leaked allover the place. Wonder what made that Lassan ship blow up like that,though? I thought she sure had us."
"Oh," said Ben, "I think maybe I did that. When the light-ray came on itoccurred to me that the gravity-beam might go down their beam of lightjust as fast as it would down ours, and they must have a port-hole orsomething through their gravity-screen or they couldn't let the ray out.So I just let them have it."
"Boy, you sure saved the lives of four of Uncle Sam's flying men thattime. About one second more of that stuff and we'd have cracked up rightthere. Look at the front of our bus. The outer plating is all caved inand the inner is starting to go."
"She is pretty well used up isn't she? What gets me though, is thatthere's one more of those things loose."
"Look!" cried Gloria suddenly, pointing upward.
Far in the zenith above them they saw a point of light; a point thatgrew and spread and became definite as a great star; then it became ashooting star, plunging earthward, and so great was its speed that evenas they watched they could make out a green fragment, flame-wrapped inits midst.
"The last one!" said Sherman. "Thank God for that. Wonder how they gother?"
"Wonder what we do next," remarked Murray, practically.
They looked about them. They were on a hillside in a little clearing ina high, narrow valley. On every side were woods, dark and impenetrable.Just below they could hear the purl of a brook, and the trees about themwere bare with the dark bareness of spring, a few fugitive buds beingthe only announcement that the season of growing was at hand. Nolandmarks, no roads were visible, and the sky was darkening fast.
"The question," said Gloria, "is not where do we go, but where are wegoing from."
"It might be most anywhere," remarked Murray. "Adirondacks, Catskills,or even Laurentians. I don't think we got far enough west for it to bethe Blue Ridge or the Appalachians, but there's no way of telling."
"Well," Gloria offered, "I've been in a lot of mountains in my day, butI never saw any where following a stream didn't take you somewheresooner or later. I vote we trail along with that brook there and seewhat happens."
"Bright thought," commented Ben. "Let's see what we can dig out of thewreck by way of weapons."
"What for? There aren't any animals, and they couldn't hurt you if therewere. If we meet any of the Lassans any weapon you got out of that messwouldn't be much use. Wish we had a flashlight though."
Treading carefully, but with a good deal of noise and confusion, theybegan to crash their way through the underbrush along the bank of thestream. At the foot of the valley it dived over a diminutive waterfalland then tumbled into another similar brook. Along the combined streamsran a road--a dirt road originally, now long untraveled, muddy and bad,but still a road.
An hour's walking brought them around the foot of another mountain andinto a valley where the road divided before a projecting buttress ofrock. A teetering sign-post stood at the fork. With some trouble, andafter getting himself immersed to the knees in the ditch, Murray managedto reach it and straining his eyes in the starlight, made out what itsaid. "THIS WAY TO HAMILTON'S CHICKEN DINNERS. 1 MILE" it read. With asnort of disgust he hurled the deceitful guidepost into the ditch andjoined the others.
"Toss a coin," someone suggested. No coins. A knife was flipped upinstead. It fell heads and in accordance with its decision they took theroad to the right. It led them along beside the stream for a while, thenparted company with it and began to climb, and they soon foundthemselves at the crest of the hill. The night had become darker anddarker, clouding over. But for the road they would have been completelylost. Finally, after skirting the hillcrest for a distance, the roaddipped abruptly, and as it did so, they passed out of the forest into aregion cleared but not cultivated, with numerous close-cut stumps comingright to the roadside.
"But for the fact that it's a long ways away," remarked Sherman, "Iwould say that this was the district around the Lassan headquarters."
"What makes you think it's a long ways away?" asked Gloria. "Do you knowwhere we are? Neither do I."
"By the nine gods of Clusium, I believe that's it, at that!" saidSherman suddenly as the road turned past a place where a long scar ofearth ran up the hillside, torn and blackened. "Look--that looks exactlylike the result of one of our gravity-beam shots! And there--isn't thatthe door?"
They were on the hillside now, directly above the place he hadindicated. From above and in the darkness it appeared as a cliff,breaking down rapidly to the valley, but Sherman led them to one side,straight down the hill and in another moment they were at its base. Thegreat door through which the green balls had poured out that eveningstood before them, a mighty arch reaching up into the dimness--and itwas open.
"Looks like the boys haven't come home to supper yet," said Gloria in anawed whisper, conte
mplating the gigantic arch and the dark passage intowhich it led.
"Yes, and a lot of them aren't coming, either," replied Murray in asimilar tone. "But what do we do--make a break for it or poke in and seeif anybody's home?"
"Listen, you three," said Sherman. "You run along and build some moremonitors and go get whatever comes out of here. Me, I'm going to have awhirl at this door. The swellest girl in the world is in there, or was,and I'm going to find her."
"Nothing doing, old scout," said Ben. "If you go in we go too--exceptGloria."
"What's the matter with me?" she demanded. "I'm made of the same kind ofmachinery you are, aren't I? And I'm good enough to run your foolishfighting-machine. Don't be a goop." And she stepped forward.
The blue-domed hall that gave directly on the outer air had disappearedsince Sherman and Marta Lami had raced out of it on that night that nowseemed so long ago. In its place was an enormous tunnel, linedapparently with some metal, for its sides were smooth and shimmering.The portion they entered was lightless, but it curved as it ran down,and around the curve they could see the faint reflection of a lightsomewhere farther along the passage. Their feet echoed oddly in theenormous silence of the place. There seemed nothing alive or deadwithin.
"Boy," whispered Murray to Gloria, "if one of those green globes comesback now it will squash us flatter than a false prosperity bankroll.This is the craziest thing we ever did."
"Right," she said, "but what the hell? I just came for the ride. Look,what's that?"
Before them, around the bend of the passage, they could see another doorfrom which the light which glittered along the tunnel was streaming. Inthe opening stood a man, or what seemed to be a man, facing,fortunately, inwards.
After a moment's cautious peering, Sherman pronounced him one of theape-man slaves. He wore a thought-helmet, and had some kind of a weaponin his hand. The four held a cautiously whispered conference.
"Listen," said Sherman, "we've got to jump that baby before he doesanything. I think he's got one of those small light-guns. Didn't knowthey trusted them to the slaves, but I suppose so many of the Lassansgot shot up that they had to do it. Now, who's got a knife?"
A search of pockets revealed that Murray Lee had the only one in thecompany.
"Never mind," said Sherman, "one is enough. Now we three will sneak upon him. The main thing is not to let him see us; if he makes a move,jump him quick. Remember there's a Lassan at the other end of the line,and the Lassan is getting everything he thinks. He doesn't think veryfast, but don't take chances. If he sees us, you hop in, Murray, and cutthe wire that leads out of his helmet and short-circuit it. They mayhave it fixed so that it won't short-circuit by now but I don't thinkso. If he doesn't see us before we jump him, clap your hands over hiseyes, Ben, and I'll try to get the helmet off him and pass out someinformation to the Lassan at the other end that will keep him quiet. Butthe main thing is to get that gun first. Everybody understand?"
Three heads nodded in unison.
"All right. Come on."
They crept up the passage together avoiding touching hands lest the ringof the metal should warn the sentry. As they approached they could seethe room he looked out on was one of the familiar blue-domed halls; thepassage ended sharply some six feet above its floor ("Taking no chanceson more escapes" thought Sherman) and that the hall was of enormoussize. There were machines in one corner of the floor. In another stoodone of the green globes, half finished, with spidery trellises of redmetal outlining what would be the surface of the sphere. Around ithelmeted mechanical men came and went busily. The rest of the hall, forall its vast extent, was completely empty. At the far end was a row ofdoors; high on the far side an opening that looked like a door but hadno obvious purpose.
This much they saw; then the sentry stirred as though to turn, and witha quick patter of feet, they were upon him. Before he had time to turnaround Ben Ruby launched himself in a perfect football tackle for hislegs, bringing the ape-man down with a crash. As he fell, Shermansnatched at the helmet, and Gloria the light-gun, which had dropped fromhis fingers, while Murray pinioned the struggling creature's arms. In amoment Sherman found the finger-holes in the helmet, pressed, and itcame loose in his hands while the ape-man ceased to struggle.
"Let him up now, folks," said Sherman, "give him a swift kick and pointhim toward the door. He won't come back." And he rapidly adjusted thethought-helmet to his own head.
The Lassan at the other end was evidently disturbed. He had received thesound of the crash from the ape-man's brain and was asking querulouslywhat it meant.
"What has happened?" the thought demanded insistently. "What is it thatstruck you? Have the fighting machines returned? Show a picture of whatyou see. Are the slaves escaping?"
"Everything's all right," Sherman sent back. "Something broke loose downbelow and I stumbled trying to look at it." He closed his eyes, forminga mental picture of the hall, with everything in order, then one of thepassage, and reached up and detached the helmet, motioning to Murray forthe knife. An instant's sawing and the device short-circuited with afizzing of blue sparks.
"That will give that one a headache for a while," he remarked. "We'llhave to hurry, though. When he comes to he'll investigate and thenthere'll be trouble."
"What's that?" asked Gloria, pointing across the hall at the aperturehigh up in the wall. A gleaming beak had been thrust out and the bright,intelligent eye of one of the dodo-birds was regarding them malevolentlyfrom the opening.
"Shoot, quick!" said Sherman, "For God's sake! They're telepathic.They'll have every Lassan in the place after us."
Gloria fumbled a second with the gun, located the finger hole, sent aspurt of light flying across the room. It missed the head, but found itsmark somewhere in the body of the bird, for there was a squawk and thehead disappeared. Sherman vaulted down the six-foot drop, landing with abang. "Come on," he cried, "short-circuit every wire you can find; tearthem loose if you can't cut them any other way--and make for the middledoor at the back."
They ran across the hall toward the work benches. It seemed enormous;like a race in a dream, in which one seems to make no progress whatever.But the workers did not appear to notice them. Driven by the thoughts ofthe controlling Lassans, they were incapable of attending to anythingelse unless it was forced on their attention.
As they approached the benches, however, one flat-faced ape-man almostran into them. His face took on an expression of puzzled inquiry and atthe same moment a figure whose carriage plainly showed it human steppeddown toward them from the half-completed green globe. Gloria paused,leveled her light-gun at the ape-man, and his face vanished in a sprayof fire. The human advanced slowly as though struggling against someforce that was too strong for him. Sherman reached him first, wrenchedthe helmet from his head and dropping it on the floor stamped on it tillthe fine mechanism was irretrievably ruined. The mechanical human fellto his knees.
"Who are you?" he asked, "God?"
"We're all right," said Murray, and Sherman, "which way to the livingcages? Do you know Marta Lami?"
The man shook his head like one recovering from a dream. "I do' know,"he said, "they had the helmets on me for twenty periods. I do' knownothing. We came through that door. In the little automobiles."
He indicated a door behind some of the machines.
Speed was urgent, but Sherman paused to instruct them briefly. "There'llbe another sentry at the door. Pop him first, Gloria. Murray, take yourknife, and Ben, get anything you can and cut all the wires on thosebirds around here. There are some more wires leading out of themachines. Be sure to get them, too. You might let loose somethingimportant. We'll try to get you another gun."
CHAPTER XXIV
The Ending of It All
Impassively, oblivious of the invasion about them, the workers kept onat their machines like ants when their nest is broken open. Sherman andGloria dodged around one of them, avoiding the direct line of sight ofthe robot who worked at it and walked rapidly toward the door giving
onthe car-tracks. The man on duty had no weapon, but paid them noattention, being occupied in watching a car just sliding in to thestation. "It's a shame" began Gloria, but "Shoot!" insisted Sherman andthe light-ray struck him in the back of the neck fusing head and neck toa single mass. As he sank to the floor he turned partly over.
"Good heavens, it's Stevens!" said Gloria, "the man who organized therebellion against Ben Ruby in New York and brought the dodos down onus."
"Never mind. Hurry," her companion urged in a fever of activity. Thedoors of the car were opening and half a dozen mechanical men steppedout, mostly with the foolish visages and shambling steps of the ape-men,but two whose upright walk proclaimed them human.
"Listen, everybody," called Sherman, quickly. "We're from outside. We'retrying to bust up this place. Get back in the car, quick, and come helpus." Suiting the action to the word, he leaped for the firstcompartment, reached it just as it was closing and wedged himselfinside.
The car had a considerable run to make. In the dimly-lightedcompartment, Sherman was conscious of turns, right, left, right again,and of a steady descent. He wondered vaguely whether he had taken theright method; whether the cage rooms lay near one another or were widelyseparated. At all events the diversion in the hall of the green globeswould hold the attention of the Lassans for some time, and theshort-circuiting of so many lines would hamper their methods of dealingwith the emergency....
The car came to a stop. Sherman heard a door or two open, but his owndid not budge, and he had no needle to stir it. He must wait, hopingthat Gloria had not been isolated from him. She had the ray-gun at allevents, and would not be helpless. Then the door opened again.
He was released into a cage that seemed already occupied, and one looktold him that his companion was an ape-man.
"Gloria!" he called.
"Right here," came the cheerful answer from two cages down. "This is aswell thing you got me into. How do we get out of here?"
"Have you got a pin or needle of any kind?" he asked.
"Why--yes. Turn your back." She did something mysterious among herfeminine garments and held up an open safety-pin for him to see acrossthe intervening cage.
"Stick your arm through the bars and see if you can toss it down thetrack. If I don't get it, you'll have to blast your way out with thelight-gun, but I don't like to do that. Don't know how many shots itholds and we need them all."
She swung with that underarm motion which is the nearest any woman canachieve to a throw. The pin struck the gleaming car-rail, skidded,turned and came to rest before Sherman's cage. He reached for it, butthe ape-man in the cage, who had been watching with interested eyes, wasquicker. Fending Sherman off with one huge paw, he reached one of hisfeet through the bars for the object and held it up before his eyesadmiringly.
Sherman grabbed, but this only fixed the ape-man in his evident opinionthat the object he held was of value. He gripped it all the tighter,turned an amiable face toward Sherman and gibbered. Losing patience atthis unfortunate contretemps when time was so precious, the aviatorlifted an iron foot and kicked him, vigorously and with purpose, in theplace where kicks do the most good. The ape-man pitched forward,dropping the fascinating pin, then rose and came toward Sherman, hisexpression clearly indicating his intention of tearing the American limbfrom limb. The cage was narrow: the ape-man the bigger of the two.Sherman thought hard and fast. The oil-ball!
He leaped for the lectern, snatched it open, seized the ape-man'soil-ball and held it aloft as though to throw it out into the corridor.With a wail of anguish the simian clutched at the precious object.Sherman squeezed it enough to let a little stream run forth, holding itjust out of his reach, and as he stabbed for it again, tossed it backinto a corner of the cell. The ape-man leaped upon it covetously, andSherman bent over the bars, fumbling in his nervous haste to unlockthem.
Luckily the safety-pin fitted. With a subdued click the bars swunginward and he was out in the corridor. Another moment and Gloria wasfree also.
"Any more people in here?" Sherman called. Three voices answered and hehurried from cage to cage, setting them free as the warning blue lightsthat prohibited shouting began to flicker around the roof.
"Come on," he called, "we must get out of here, quick!"
They hesitated a moment between the two doors, chose that at the upperend. As they raced through it, they heard a panel clash somewhere. TheLassans were investigating.
They were in one of the passages through which the cars ran, withalternate bars of light and dark across it marking the termination ofside-passages. "Look!" said Gloria. Into the cage-room they had justquitted a car was coming, its featureless front gliding noiselesslyalong the track. "In here," said Sherman, pulling the others after himdown the nearest lighted passage.
Followed by the other four Sherman followed it steadily along to theright, where it ended at a door.
"What now?" said someone.
"In," decided Gloria. "Likely to be a cage-room as not."
Sherman searched for the inevitable finger-holes, found them andpressed. The door swung back on--
A Lassan reclining at ease on one of the curious twisted benches besidewhich stood a tall jar of the same yellow-flecked green material theyhad seen the others devouring. The room was blue-domed but very small,and its walls were covered with soft green hangings in pendulous drops.A thought-helmet was on the elephant-man's head; its other end was wornby one of the mechanical people whose back was to the door as theyentered, and who appeared to be working some kind of machine thatpunched little holes of varying shape in a strip of bright metal.
As the five Americans pressed into the room, the Lassan rose, reachedfor his ray-gun, but Gloria pushed the one she held into his face and herelaxed with a little squeal of terror, while Sherman reached into hispouch and secured the weapon.
As he did so the Lassan reached up and snapped loose the thought-helmet;the metal figure turned round and gazed at them.
"Marta!"
"The boy friend!"
* * * * *
The Lassan was very old. His skin was almost white and seamed with setsof diminutive wrinkles, and as he regarded the two mechanical people,locked in each other's embrace an expression of puzzlement and distastecame over his features, giving place to one of cool and lofty dignity ashe perceived that Gloria did not mean to kill him on the spot. Liftinghis trunk, he motioned imperiously toward the thought-helmet which Martahad cast aside, then set the other end of it on his own head.
To the invading Americans, crowded into the little room, it seemed for amoment as though they had somehow burst into a temple. Sherman's facebecame grave, and following the Lassan's direction, he picked up thehelmet and fitted it on his head. The thought that came through it gavea feeling of dignity and power such as he had never experienced before;almost as though it were some god talking.
"By what right," it demanded, "do you invade the room of scientificcomposition? Why are you not in your cages? You know you will receivethe punishment of the yellow lights in the greater degree for thisunauthorized invasion. Save yourself further punishment now by retiringquietly. You can take my life, it is true, but I am old and my life isof no value. Think not that I am the only Lassan in the universe."
"Sorry," Sherman gave him back, "but this is a rebellion. You are notfamiliar with the history of this planet, or you would know thatAmericans can't be anybody's slaves. Let us go in peace and we will letyou return to your own planet."
"Let us go!" came the Lassan's answer. "Your obstinate presumptionsurprises me. Do you think that the Lassans of Rigel, the highest racein the universe will let go where they have once grasped?"
"You will or we'll jolly well make you," replied the American. "Do youthink your silly green globes are going to do you any good? The lastone fell beside us tonight."
Sherman could sense the sudden wave of panic in the Lassan's thought atthis unexpected answer. He had evidently assumed that they were from theunderground labor bat
talions and were not familiar with events outside.But he rallied nobly.
"And do you imagine, foolish creature of a lower race, that the greenglobes are our last resource? Even now I have perfected a device thatwill wipe your miserable people from the planet. But if it did not,rather would we Lassans perish in the flames of a ruined world thanabandon a task once undertaken; we who can mold the plastic flesh toenduring metal and produce machines that have brains; we who can controlthe great substance that underlies all life and matter."
"Well, here's one task you're going to abandon," Sherman thought back."We, who can call lightning from the skies, are going to give you aterrible sock on the--trunk, if you don't. If you doubt it try and findhow many Lassans live after today's battle. Go on back where you camefrom. You're not wanted in this world."
"You know, or should know, the law of evolution," replied the Lassan."The weaker and less intelligent must ever give way before the stronger.By the divine right of--" his flow of thought stopped suddenly, changedto a wild tumult of panic. Sherman looked up. Round the rim of the bluedome, where it stood above the hangings, a string of lights was winkingoddly, in a strange, uneven rhythm. "God of the Lassans, deliver us!"the thought that reached his own was saying. "The tanks are broken--thelight is loose!" Then suddenly his mind was closed and when it openedagain it had taken on a new calmness and dignity and a certain god-likestrength.
"I do not know how or where," it told Sherman, "but an accident hashappened. Perhaps an accident produced by your strange and active race.The connections have broken; the tanks of the substance of life in thebowels of this mountain have broken and the whole is set free. It ishard to see the labor of centuries thus destroyed; to see you, creaturesof a lower race, inherit a world so divinely adapted to the rule ofintelligence.
"For in this accident the whole of our race must perish if you have toldthe truth about the destruction of our green globes. We called in allthe Lassans from your world for the work of the destruction of yourarmies. Yes, you told the truth. Your mind is open, I can see it. We arelost.... There is no hope remaining; it means destruction or the metalmetamorphosis for every living Lassan, and there will be none to endowthem with the life in metal we have given you.
"Perhaps it was our own fault. Your curious race, for all its defects,has certain qualities of intelligence, and above all that strangequality of activity and what you call courage. If we could have summonedup the same activity; if we had possessed the same courage to attackagainst odds, this would not have happened. It is our failure that wehave depended too much on naked intellect; learned to do too many thingsthrough the hands of our servants. Had Lassans been at the controls ofour fighting ships, instead of the automatons we used, you would neverhave conquered them so easily.
"Be that as it may. We have lost and you have won. I can show myselfmore generous than you would have been, and thus can gain a victory overyou. If you would escape, follow the car-track straight on to where itforks; then take the left-hand turning. If you would be restored toyour former and imperfect and repulsive form (though I cannot conceivewhy you should, being permanently fixed in beautiful and immortalmetal), do not run away, but await the coming of the substance of lifein the outer hall or passage, being careful not to approach it tooclosely or to touch it, so that you may receive the emanation only. Itis this emanation, surrounding our space ship that produced your presentform, which we changed to machinery by our surgery; and it so acts onthe metal of which you are composed that it will reverse the case. Asfor me I am old and tired; already the walls of this place tremble tothe coming of my doom. Leave me, before I regret what I have told you."
* * * * *
He reached his trunk up and disconnected the thought-helmet, andstanding up, with a certain high dignity, pointed to the door.
Relieved of the helmet Sherman could hear a confused roaring like thaton the day when Marta Lami and he had short-circuited the miningmachine. "Come on," he called to the rest, dropping the helmet. "Hell'slet loose. We've got to hurry."
Outside the roaring was perceptibly louder and seemed to be approaching.As they leaped down to the track a faint glow was borne to them redlyalong the rail. The ape-men in the cage-room they had escaped from werehowling and beating the bars of their cages, with no blue lights toforbid them.
The track was slippery--Marta Lami and the three they had released fromthe cage room, unshod. Sherman gripped her by the hand. "Hurry, oh,hurry," he panted, pulling her along.
They passed another passage, down which a door stood open. The softlight that normally illuminated the place was flickering wildly, theycaught a glimpse of three or four Lassans within, stirring wildly,rushing from place to place, trying this connection and that. The dullsound behind them increased; the track grew steeper.
"What about the rest?" gasped Gloria, running by his side.
"Don't know," he answered. "They did something. The whole place iscoming down."
As they rounded a corner the track forked before them. Remembering theLassan's parting instructions, Sherman led them to the left, passedanother passage mouth, and they found themselves in a small blue-domedhall, empty save for a single car that stood on the track. There wasjust room to squeeze past it where the passage began again at the otherend. And as they made it the roaring sound changed to a series ofexplosions, sharp and clear. The ground trembled, seemed to tilt; thecar slid backward into the passage they had just vacated.
Ten feet, twenty-five feet more--and they were on the platform leadingto the hall of the green globes. Sherman swung himself up, offered ahand to Marta. In a moment the others were beside them and they weredarting for the door. The ground was trembling again, shock after shock.Something fell with a crash as they raced across the platform and intothe hall.
Within, all was confused darkness and a babble of sound. A dodo screamedsomewhere. An ape-man ran past them, gibbering, mad with fright, anddived to the track. Sherman ran across the hall, followed by Marta andthe three he had released. Gloria halted.
Behind them something fell with a crash; ape-men rangibbering with fright.]
"Murray!" she cried, "Murray!" and then lifted the light-gun and sent apencil of fire screeching to the roof. There was an answering shock assomething tumbled from the ceiling.
"Murray!" she called again, at the top of her voice. Behind them,through the platform something fell with a crash and a long red flamelicked through the door, throwing tall shadows and weird lights acrossthe bedlam within.
"Here!" came a voice, and Gloria turned to see Murray and Ben runningtoward her.
"Come on," she said, "hurry. The works is busted."
They made the doorway just as Sherman was pulling Marta up the six-footstep. Ben and Murray lifted Gloria in their arms, tossed her up. The redflame in the background had given place to a white one, and a boilingwhite mass of something was sending a long tongue creeping across thefloor.
Willing arms snatched at those of Ben and Murray, pulling them upward tosafety. They turned to run down the tunnel.
"No!" cried Sherman. "Stick! It's all right. The old bloke told me so."
There was another explosion and a great white cloud rolled toward themabove the liquid tide. Then they lapsed into unconsciousness.
* * * * *
Murray Lee yawned and sat up.
The others lay around him in curious piled attitudes as though they haddropped off to sleep in the midst of something. He noted, with a shockof surprise, that Ben Ruby's face, turned in his direction, was notmetal, but good, honest flesh and blood. He gazed at his own hands.Flesh and blood likewise. He looked around.
The hall of the blue dome had vanished. A tangled mass of rock, cementedin some grey material, was before them, obscure in the darkness. At theother end was the passage, its ceiling fallen here and there, its sidescaved in. But a stream of light showed that an opening still led to theoutside.
He bent over and shook Gloria. She came to with a st
art, looked abouther, and said with an air of surprise, "Oh, have I been asleep? Why,what's happened to you Murray? You need a shave." Then felt of her ownface and found it smooth again.
"For Heaven's sake!" she ejaculated.
The sound brought the rest bolt upright. Sherman looked round at theothers, then at the passage, and smiled with satisfaction.
"That old Lassan," he remarked, "told me the metal evolution wouldreverse if we got the emanation without letting the stuff touch us.Well, he was a sport."
"Yes, but--" said Marta Lami, standing up and feeling of herself. "Lookwhat they did to us. My toes are flexible and my figure bulges in suchqueer places. I'll never be able to dance again. Oh, well, I suppose itdoesn't matter--I'll be marrying the boy friend anyway." She tookSherman's hand and he blushed with embarrassment.
"Good idea," said Murray Lee and looked hard at Gloria.
She nodded and turned her head.
"Ho hum," said Ben Ruby. "The dictator of New York seems to be _detrop_. How does one get out of here?"
THE END
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[Transcriber's Note: Hyphen variations left as printed.]
The Onslaught from Rigel Page 23
