by John Blaine
“My box.Ha! I just remembered. My box was among that stuff that Sahmeed walked off with.”
“Oh, well,” Rick answered, “one six- incheris better than none.” He drew one of the red firecrackers from the box and held it high.
“It may be our last Fourth, so why don’t we show the Mongols how we celebrate a good, rip-roaring Fourth back home,” he said with false gaiety. He walked toward the edge of the plateau and looked over.
Far below, he could see two of the guards posted by the entrance in the base of the rock.
“As though we needed guarding,” he commented.
Scotty’s eyes were gleaming. “How good a shot are you?” he asked.
“What do you mean?”
Scotty pointed straight down at one of the dozing guards. “See how his leather armor is pulled away from the back of his neck?”
Rick looked. “Impossible,” he said.
“Oh, yeah?”Scotty reached for the firecracker in Rick’s hand. “Watch an expert,” he chuckled.
Rick held a match while Scotty lit the firecracker, then watched his pal hold it over the edge of the plateau. Scotty squinted for a moment,then let the firecracker go. It started to turn over as it fell, then straightened out and plummeted straight to its target! With a shower of sparks, it went straight down the neck of the man and let go!
The Mongol leaped straight into the air and let out the most fearsome howl Rick had ever heard.
Scotty was convulsed with laughter. Zircon deserted his key, and Weiss hurried to the plateau edge as they realized what the boys had done. They all looked down at the guard, who was digging at the back of his armor and shaking his dagger up at them.
“Brother, if he could get his hands on you,” Rick said.
“He seemed to know what it was,” Scotty observed.
Weiss spoke up. “You forget,” he said, “these people are from the land where firecrackers were invented . . .China . It’s an old story to them.A very old story.”
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They turned from the edge and walked back toward the box of fireworks.
“Well, I forone, don’t see any sense in having a nice holiday spoiled, just because we’re up here,” Rick said, trying to speak lightly.
“Neither doI ,” Scotty replied. But Rick could tell that the excitement of his bull’s-eye shot had worn off and his heart wasn’t in it.
If they gave in to the gloom that was enveloping them, Rick realized their imprisonment would be even more of a torture than it was already. Hunger was nipping at his insides and would get worse as the day progressed. None of the others had mentioned being hungry or thirsty but he knew that all of them were.
With what passed for a laugh, he reached for the box of fireworks and beckoned Scotty to the edge of the cliff. They tried to amuse themselves by dropping the smaller crackers over the side for a while, but this soon palled on them.
“Seems like a waste of time,” Scotty sighed.
“We have nothing but time.” The moment he said it, Rick knew he had queered any holiday atmosphere left in either of them. They dropped the fireworks to the ground and walked to the radar key over which Weiss was now crouching.
They stood there silently, watching Weiss’s fingers tap out the message though every last one of them had lost hope that it would ever reach the outside world.
“If we could only do something,” Scotty suddenly exploded.
It was not his pal’s nerve breaking, Rick knew. Scotty meant that he wanted to go down fighting.
“Look, why don’t we make this Fourth of July a real whooper- dooper?” Rick suggested.
“Aw, Rick,” Scotty objected.
“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” Weiss spoke up suddenly, surprising them both.
“So do II” Zircon added. “What’s on your mind, Rick?”
“Well,” he began, “here is the field telephone.” He reached into the equipment box and lifted it out. “We can use the head of it as a microphone.”
Light was dawning on Zircon now. “I see. And you want to attach it to an amplifier and speaker, and really give them a grand explosion.”
“Wait,” Weiss interrupted. “We were going to use that field telephone for communicating between our radar equipment and our camp . . . when we got there.”
“ OptimistI” Zircon snorted.
“Sure, let’s do it.” Scotty was enthusiastic now.
Zircon disengaged the amplifier from the radar equipment and started connecting it to the loudspeaker.
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“That means no messages for a while,” Weiss said worriedly.
“Let them wait,” Zircon laughed recklessly. He seemed to be having as much fun as the two boys now.
Rick connected the makeshift microphone to the amplifier and speaker, and Zircon tied the whole into the wind-driven power supply.
“Good thing this is a ten-inch speaker,” Rick grinned. “This is really going to make some noise!”
Weiss was rummaging nervously through the equipment. “I hope this turns out all right,” he said.
“They’ll never forget this Fourth of July.” Zircon smiled. “Light your firecrackers, Rick.”
Scotty held the microphone far away from him, and Rick held one of the larger crackers in a pair of pliers and lit it.
They held their ears as the firecracker fizzed. And then it exploded with a roar that startled even the scientists who thought they knew what the effect would be.
The blast rolled from the huge speaker in a thunderous wave that smashed against the rocky walls that imprisoned theLostCity , seeming to gain volume as it bounced from ledge to ledge.
“Look at the Mongols,” Scotty said, pointing down.
They looked, and saw terrified faces turned up to them.
“ WhoopeelDo it again,” Julius Weiss yelled.
They roared with laughter at the little man’s sudden enthusiasm and then Rick said, “Why not make this one a whooper- slooper-dooper?Two of them at once!”
Zircon slapped Rick on the back in approval. Rick put two crackers within the jaws of the pliers. This time Scotty stretched his arm almost out of its socket to get away from the blast he knew would come.
The fuses crackled as Rick touched the match to them and held the firecrackers toward the microphone.
With a roar, they went off, but the ocean of sound that welled from the speaker wiped the smiles off every face.
For as the reverberations rocketed across the city, they felt an ominous rumble.Rick saw Weiss staring beyond him to the left, and as he whirled around, his heart pounded.
A whole section of the mountain wall was slowly detaching itself from the sheer side and with gathering speed started to slip toward the floor of the valley. Then the side of the mountain disengaged itself completely and with a mighty roar plunged toward the earth.
With horror, Rick realized what they had done. Their Fourth of July celebration had set off a landslide.
They were almost knocked from their feet as one half of the crumbling mountain hurled itself outward and landed with a deafening crash squarely in theLostCity !
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CHAPTER XX
Return of the Great Khan
Choking clouds of dust rose from the floor of the valley and mushroomed out above the city. Their eardrums were still numbed by the mighty roar of the landslide, and below them they could see nothing through the haze.
Rock was still f ailing, and Rick breathed thankfulness that they could not see the havoc wrought on the Mongols by their innocently intended celebration.
No one spoke. It was impossible to put their anguish into words. They just stared down into the rising cloud of dust.
Finally Zircon muttered, “I didn’t want this to happen.Even to be free.”
“And especially since it serves no purpose,” Weiss added, almost in a whisper.
Rick looked out over the valley, trying to see the extent of the damage wrought by the landslide. Even the golden tomb of G
enghis Khan was obscured, and all that his eyes could find was the wall dividing the living city from the dead.
The dust was slowly settling now and they moved to the edge of the plateau to get a better look. Rick saw running figures and winced as he heard agonized wails from below.
Scotty appeared beside him. “If we could only get down from here now,” he said urgently. “No one would even notice.”
“But how?”Rick’s eyes went to the only exit, which was the trap door. They couldn’t hope to get that open. There was no way ... no ... Wait! On the trap door were the spools of wire they had taken from the repair kit when they made the windmill.
Scotty saw them at the same time. “Look,” he exclaimed.
The same thought was in both their minds. They ran to the spools. Rick picked one up. It was heavy copper, insulated with rubber and fabric.
“It would hold a man’s weight,” he said.
“Mine/ Scotty replied. “Let’s get busy.”
“Not you,” Rick objected. “If anyone takes the chance I will.”
“Letssee your hands.”
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He held them out, and realized that Scotty was right. He had forgotten that his hands were scored and cut from his descent down the rocks. In the excitement of all that had happened since, he hadn’t noticed the pain.
“It’s my job,” Scotty said. “Come on, help me.”
The professors were at their sides now. “Scotty can get down on the wire,” Rick explained quickly, adding to himself: “With luck.” It was a terrible risk. The Mongols might see the descending figure. Or the wire might part. It wasn’t designed to take such a load. And what could they hitch it to?
Scotty thought it over,then decided. “I’ll go down hand over hand. You couldn’t lower me. There isn’t anything to take a purchase on.”
“We’ll each wind a coil of the line around our bodies, then lie down and each hold on to one of the crates,” Zircon suggested.
Rick almost objected. He didn’t want Scotty to take the chance. Then he realized that, for Scotty, it was only a choice of two evils. Stay on the plateau and starve, or try the wire and perhaps survive. If he failed, it would at least be a quick end.
Rick turned hurriedly and walked to the edge of the plateau, while the others unwound coil after coil of the heavy wire. He didn’t want Scotty to see how worried he was. Only after he had stood a moment, looking down into the choking clouds of dust that still rose from the valley, did he regain control of his expression and hurry back to help the others join the wires together.
They twisted two wires together to form a stronger line, rechecked the places where they had connected coil to coil. Then, one by one, they shook hands with Scotty.
“You’ll make it,” Zircon said briefly.
Weiss’s smile was confident. “We’ll expect you back through the trap door.”
Rick took his friend’s hand. “Easy does it, fella .”
Scotty took a pair of rubberized gloves from the repair kit and slipped them on. “Back in ten minutes,”
he said calmly.
Zircon, as the heaviest, would be anchor man. He wound the wire around his big body twice,then secured the end firmly. Rick was next in line. He made a double coil right in front of Zircon and slipped into it. In front of him, Weiss did the same. Then they all lay down on their stomachs, feet toward the edge of the plateau, arms around the heaviest crates they could find.
Scotty lowered the wire down the side of the plateau closest to the mountainside and saw that it reached the ground with room to spare. “Hold tight,” he warned. “Here I go.”
Rick noted that his friend’s voice seemed perfectly normal. Again he wondered at Scotty’s control, knowing that the boy must be scared stiff. His face was away from the edge, but he knew by the tension on the wire when Scotty put his weight on it, and he knew when Scotty went over the edge because the strands bit cruelly into his middle, and he had to grit his teeth to keep from crying out.
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Then he felt himself sliding! The awful realization came to him that Scotty’s weight was pulling them all toward the edge!
Rick tried to dig in with his feet and felt the leather soles scrape against the rock. He sank his teeth into his lip with the strain of holding fast to the crate he held and saw that it was sliding, slowly, relentlessly back.
Behind him, he heard Weiss exclaim, and cold sweat started out on his face. The little professor must be near the edge! In front of him, he could see Zircon’s powerful legs pushing against the flat surface, as though the big scientist were trying to swim forward toward the center of the plateau.
The stone scored his elbows and rubbed through the thick fabric of his woolen shirt, but he didn’t even feel the pain. Like Zircon, he was trying to hold his ground with swimming motions, driving his legs against the flat stone that gave no grip whatsoever.
How long had it been? Eternity had passed since the wire had bitten into his waist. His breath was ragged with trying to breathe against the constriction, and he felt wetness around his waist that might be blood.
Weiss let out a strangled yell and Rick and Zircon increased their efforts to hold fast. The slow, terrible dragging went on, and his elbows left thin smears of red where they pressed against the stone.
Zircon’s breathing was loud, but he heard no further sound behind him. He was afraid to look anywhere but straight ahead. Were they all to drop from the edge?
His kicking feet pushed . . . and met nothing! A horrified gasp was forced from him and his clutching hands pulled at the slowly moving crate.
His feet were already over the edge ... his ankles . . . his legs were waving uselessly, his knees scraping the rock . . .
The pressure stopped.
Scotty had reached the ground! Or had the wire parted?
Rick scrambled back from the edge, feeling the drag of Weiss’s body on the wire. Zircon’s powerful legs pushed at the rock, and inch by inch, they regained what they had lost, until a weak voice said, “All right. I’m ... I’m up.”
Zircon whipped out of the wire coils and jumped to help Weiss. The little professor tried valiantly to stand, but his knees buckled and he fell flat.
Rick unwound the wire from around his waist, feeling the pain as it came loose. He felt as though he had been cut in half.
Julius Weiss was stark white, even his lips colorless. “He dragged me right over,” he said weakly. “I thought . . .”
“I know,” Zircon said hoarsely. “I thought we were all done for. Did he make it?”
Rick staggered to the edge and looked down, one hand on his aching midriff. Far below, the dangling Page 100
wire vanished into the cloud of dust. “I think he must have,” he said.
For a few moments none of them spoke, each busy tending his wounds. Rick gulped air into his tortured lungs, inspected the welts where the wire had cut, and found that the wetness was only perspiration. He looked at his raw elbows and knees and winced at the torn, scraped flesh.
Then he went to the opposite side and tried to see through the heavy cloud of dust down to the entrance.
He could see dim shapes in the dust, and knew that the Mongols were at the entrance. Probably some of them had hidden from the avalanche, in the passageway. How could Scotty get through that?
A low rumble jarred the thoughts from him. He looked up, and up, to an overhanging ledge of rock far above the valley floor. He heard Weiss and Zircon gasp behind him, but he couldn’t take his eyes from the ledge. Slowly, ever so slowly, it detached from the mountainside and seemed to float down and down.
A grinding roar shook the stone platform and smashed against his eardrums in beating waves. Dust and broken rock erupted high in the air and fell around them in a gravelly rain.
For a full five minutes, the three on the plateau stood with bowed heads, their hands held high to protect them from debris that fell in the wake of the great ledge. The roar slowly lessened and gave way to sharp explos
ions as small rocks smashed into the valley. Then there was only silence.
Rick looked up, his face pale.
“Please God that’s the last of it!” Zircon said.
The dust was all around them now, rising in great gusts up toward the very peaks, coating everything with brown grit and blotting out the sun.
Then, with a suddenness that sent a chill through the travelers, the whole dust-choked valley was bathed in a weird green light.
It spread over their heads in an arc and exploded into colored balls of fire.
“Look,” Weiss yelled.
His shaking hand pointed to the high wall that divided the city from the tomb of the Khan.
There, shadowy in the eerie light of the rocket, stood a terrible figure dressed in leather armor and standing with feet wide apart on the wall. It wore a great helmet with a horsetail crest, and on one arm was an embossed shield. From the free hand spurted a fountain of fire that arched into the sky.
The Genghis Khan!
A surprised gasp came from the two professors, and Rick’s lips framed the name: “ Scottyl”
But the sound was drowned out by the wail that rose from the city below. Through the dust they glimpsed faintly a thousand Mongols, kneeling in abject worship and bowing toward the figure on the wall Rick came alive suddenly. “Professor Weiss,” he shouted above the wailing. “Get on the mike and tell Page 101
them the Khan has returned. Tell them to get us down from here. We’re the Khan’s true messengers!
Tell them!”
“He’s right,” Zircon yelled. “Hurry, Julius!”
Weiss gripped the microphone and began to chant in Mongol. Rick couldn’t understand the words, but even to him it sounded impressive. Later, Weiss told him what had been said.
The Great Khan, The Mighty Khan, Ruler Of All Men, has come again! Hear ye , people of the valley, hear and obey! Free my true messengers whom ye have-imprisoned on the Hill of the Thousand Repentant Ancestors! Take them with all their belongings to the valley entrance and set them free, that they may earn, news of my coming to the outer world.
The sonorous voice rolled out, echoing hollowly from the rock walls.
