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DOLD Coaoaltlo< Edit. The Clayton Standard on a Magazine Guarantees ■ H TAat the stories thernia are rUim. liUMlif, vivid, by leadla* writers of lbs do* aod V_y_V_V purchased aodor eoadlitoas approved by the Authors' League of Aoorkai W^B^^B Thai rath BifulMI oro ^Moaofociurod la Ijaiea loapi by Amorlcu vonoai V_V_W TAol oarh ae»sdeelar sad agsBt la lasared a fair profit | ™^—W TAst ob iBlolnsoBt coaoonalp guerdo their advenlalna; pagnj. W^M i Too eiaer Clovton Mogctalnci erei ■F ACE-IIICH MAGAZINE. RAKCrl ROMANCES, COWBOY STORIES, CLUES, FrVE-KOVELS Jf MONTHLY. WIDE WORLD ADVENTURES. ALL STAR DETECTIVE STORIE- /• RAn'CELAND LOVE STORY MAGAZINE, WESTERN ADVENTURES. aad FOREST AMD STREAM. More than Two Mitliom Copies Required to Supply the Monthly Demand for Clayton Maftlmes. VOL. II, No. .3 CONTENTS JUNE, m COVER DESIGN H. W. WESSOLOWSKI Painted in Water-colors from a Scene in "The Moon Master." OUT OF THE DREADFUL DEPTHS C D. WILLARD ' Robert Thorpe Seeks Out the Nameless Horror That Is Sucking All Hume Ships in the South Pacific. ' i Life Out of MURDER MADNESS MURRAY LEINSTER Bell, of the Secret "Trade," Strikes into the South American Jungle to Find Ike Hidden Stronghold of the Master — the Unknown Monster Whose Diabolical Poison Swiftly and Surely Is Enslaving the Whole Continent. (Part Two of a Con'tinaed Novel.) THE CAVERN WORLD JAMES P. OLSEN A Great Oil Field Had Cone Dry — and A shoe. Trapped Far under the Earth Anient Ike Revolting Petrolic. Learns Why. BRIGANDS OF THE MOON RAY CUMMINCS The Besieged Earth-men Wage Grim, Ultra- scientific War with Martian Bandits in a Last Great Struggle for Their Radium-ore — and Their Lives. (Conclusion.) 311 352 GIANTS OF THE RAY TOM CURRY Madly the Three Raced for Their Lives up the Shaft of the Radium Mine, for Behind Them Poured a Stream of Hideous Monsters— Giants of the Ray! 3U THE MOON MASTER CHARLES W. DIFFIN Through Infinite Deeps of Space Jerry Foster Hurtles, to the Moon— Only to be Trapped by a Barbaric Race and Offered as a Living Sacrifice to Cong, their Loathsome, Hyp- notic God. (A Complete Novel.) THE READERS' CORNER rV ALL OF US A ^Meeting Pluce for Readers of Astounding Stories. 421 Single Cob tea, 20 Centi (In Canada, 25 Cento) Yearly Subscription, $2.00 luucd monthly by Publish.-™' Fiscal Corporation, go Lafayette St.. N«-w York. N. Y. W. H. Clayton. Presi- dent: Nathan CoMnuinn, S«ici)l>aucr History 11. United States 12. Story of the American Kci oluiion 13. V. S. Civil War H. Live* o( Presidents 15. V. S. Dry- Law Literature 10. Facts In Kno.v About the Classics 17. hoo'.i* to Read IS. Hcr.'Jn s Guide The Arts ID. Pain'i::ii Fad* 20. Scu!;>ru c Facts Music Facts 22. Mu*xal Terms »il v Architecture Facts Languages 21. Latin Self Taught ■_'."». Frencli Self Taught 20. Spanish Pell Taught 117. German •Self Taught Business 28. Econoiiiicj (Wealthl *J0. HowW..llStreetWorks 30. I". S. Commercial Geography 468 P.get — 826,000 Word* 31. Commercial Law XI. Business Letter* 311. Typewriting GuiJc M. How to Write Telegrams Science . :r». Cheiniltry Self Tauaht Physics Self Taught .TT. Astronomy SeHTauglit Psychology SeliTaughl 30. Hiddlc of Human Ueliavior 4(1. F. volution Explained 41. Great Scientist 4-. Zoology Pelf Taught 43. Woodworking Mathematics 44. Plane Geometry 45. Curiosities of Mathematics 40. Arithmetic <1) 47. Arithmetic (2) Reference Manual! 4k. Quotation* 4:>. Shakespeare's Lines &>. Classical Mythology . r >1. IliMical Allusions C2. Foreign Words S:t. Famous Autl.ors M. Gazetteer General Helps 55. 1 l U4I>ilIlCCl^|lJ» /sell, profitable to him. But from rhc outset ihinp / r went bidlr. Scarcely had he opened with bfc Good looking. Bright. Aggressive. He came try cheery "Good morning, Madam," than he fond he company from a Boston firm where he had ihc door closed in his face. They simply wouldn't made an enviable sales record for three years. He listen to him. It was a new and biticr experience to do great things in hiS new position; for him, and he couldn't explain it. tfford to overlook this matter The insidious thing about halitosis 'un- pleasant breath") is that the victim himself rarely knows when he has it. And even his best friends hesitate to fell him. Clearly, such a condition is a distinct drawback to progress business, profes- sional or social life Common sense aiicj instinct of ordinary decency suggest tha cry possible step be taken to put the breath 1 suspicion. : certain way to accomplish this is : the mouth with full strength Listi safe antiseptic, every morn in;, ever e mg ! between times before meeting others, instantly conquer:, h.shtos. cause being a germicide*, it halts food fer- mentation and checks infection — each aciuse of odors. Then, being a powerful dcoJorani, it swiftly overcomes the odots themselves Lambert Pharmacal Company, St. Louis, Mo., U.S. A. "Though safe to use ia tny body caHt^fuU icrenffih Liner* kills chq the Stipheylocoiiu* Aurcuts (pus) and Bicilw T> rlioM'i (typhoid) fterrm j " m I 5 m. too tit (fastest time LISTE ends halitosis Phase ira'ntii.n X: v l.i-i, wh en an- wt'Mii;, "Help — help — the eyes — the eyes!" Out of the Dreadful Depths By C. D. Willard ROBERT THORPE reached languidly for a cigarette and, with lazy fingers, extracted a lighte^ from his pocket. "Be a sport," he repeated to the gray haired man across the tabic. "Be a sport, Admiral, and send me across on a destroyer. Never been on a destroyer except in port. It would be a new Robert Thorpe aeeki out the namel^u horror that !• sucking all human life out of shipt in the South Pacific. experience enjoy it a lot. . ." In the palm-shaded veranda of this club-house in Manila, Admiral Stru there, U. S. N., regarded with un- disguised disfavor the young man in the wicker chair. He looked at the deep chest and the broad shoulders which even a loose white coat could not conceal, at the short, wavy brown hair and the slow, friendly smile on the face below. ' A likable chap, this Thorpe, but lazy — just an idler — he had concluded. Been playing around Manila for the last two months — resting up, he had said. And from what? the Ad- miral had ques- tioned disdain- •fully. Admiral Struthers did not like i-.'.dolent young. men, but it would have saved him money if he had really got an answer to his question and had learned just why and how Robert Thorpe had earned a vacation. "You on a destroyer 1" he said, and the lips beneath the close-cut gray mustache twisted into a smile. "That, ?93 294 ASTOUNDING STORIES would be too rough an experience for you, I am afraid, Thorpe. Destroyers pitch about quite a bit, you know." He included in his smile the de- stroyer captain and the young lady who completed their party. The young lady- had a charming and saucy smile and knew it; she used it in reply to the Admiral's remark. "I have asked Mr. Thorpe to go on the Adelaide," she said. "We shall be leaving in another month — but Robert tells me he has other plans." "Worse and worse," was the Ad- miral's comment. "Your fatl^erVyacht is not even as steady as a destroyer. Now I Would suggest a nice com- fortable liner. . . ." ROBERT THORPE did not miss the official glances of amusement, but his calm complacence was un- ruffled. "No," he said, "I donjt just fancy liners. Fact is, I have been thinking of sailing across to the States alone." The Admi ral's smile increased to a short laugh. "I would make a bet you wouldn't get fifty miles from Manila haibor." ^The younger man crushed his cigar rette slowly into the tray. "How much of a bet?" he asked. "What will you bet that I don't sa^l alone from here to — where are, you -s^tioned? — San Diego? — from here to San Diego?" "Humph I" was the snorted reply. "I would bet a thousand dollars on that and take your money for Miss Allaire's pet charity." "Now that's an idea," said Thorpe. He reached for a check book in his inner pocket and began to write. » "In case I lose," he explained, "I might be hard ■ to find, so I will just ask Miss Allaire to hold this check for me. You can do the same." He handed the check to the girl. "Winner gets his thousand back, Ruth^ loser's money goes to any little orphans you happen t6 fancy." "You're not serious," protested the Admiral. "Surd The bank will take that check seriously, I promise you. And I saw just the sloop I want for the trip . . . had my eye on her for the past month." "But, Robert," began Ruth Allaire, "you don't mean to risk your life on a foolish bet?" Thorpe reached over to pat tenderly the hand that held his check. "I'm glad if you care," he said, and there was an undertone of seriousness be- neath his raillery, "but save your sympathy for the Admiral. The U. S. Navy can't bluff me." He rose more briskly from his chair. "Thorpe. . . ." said Admiral Struthers. He was thinking deeply, trying to re- collect. "Robert Thorpe. ... I have a book by someone ot that name — travel and adventure and knocking about the world. Young man, are you the Robert Thorpe?" »■ "Why, yes, if you wish to put it that way," agreed the other. He waved lightly to the r girl as he moved away. "I must be running along," he said, "and get that boat. See you all in San Diego I" THE first rays of the sun touched with golden fingers the tops of the lazy swells of the Pacific. Here and there a wave broke to spray under the steady wind and became a shower of molten metal. And in the boat, whose sails caught now and then the touch of morning, Robert Thorpe stirred himself and rose sleepily to his feet. Out of the snug cabin at this first hint of day, he looked first at the com- pass and checked his course, then made sure of the lashing about the helm. The steady trade-winds had borne him on through the night, and he nodded with satisfaction as he prepared to lower his lights. He was reaching for a line as the little craft hung for an instant on the top of a wave. And in that instant his eyes caught a marking i of white on the dim waters ahead. ''Breakers I" he shouted aloud and leaped for the lashed wheel. He swung OUT OF THE DREADFUL DEPTHS 295 off to leeward and eased a bit on the main-sheet, then lashed the wheel again to hold on the new course. Again from a wave-crest he stared from under a sheltering hand. The breakers were there — the smooth swells were foaming — breaking in mid-ocean where his chart, he knew, showed water a mile deep. Beyond the white line was a three-master, her sails shivering in t!;e breeze. The big sailing ship swung off on a new tack as he watched. Was she dodging those breakers? he wondered. Then he stared in amazement through the growing light at the unbroken awell9 where the white line had been. HE rubbed his sleepy eyes with a savage band and stared again. There were no breakers — the sea was an even expanse of heaving water. "I could swear I saw them I" he told himself, but forgot this perplexing oc- currence in the still more perplexing maneuvers of the sailing ship. This steady wind — for smooth han- dling — was all that such a craft could ask, yet here was this old-timer of the sea with a full spread of canvas boom- ing and cracking as the ship jibed. She rolled far over as he watched, re- covered, and tore off on a long, sweep- ing circle. The one man crew of the little sloop should have been preparing breakfast, as he had for many mornings past, but, instead he swung his little craft into the wind and watched for near an hour the erratic rushes and shivering baitings of the larger ship. But long before this time had passed Thorpe knew he was observing the aimless maneuvers ot an unmanned vessel. / And he watched his chance for a closer inspection. THE three-master Minnie R., from the dingy painting of the stern, hung quivering in the wind when he boarded her. There was a broken log- line that swept down from the stern, and he caught this and made his own boat fast. Then, watching his chance, he drew close and went overboard, the line in his hand. "Like a blooming native after cocoa- nuts," he told himself as he went up the side. But he made it andf pulled himself over the rail as the ship drew off on another tack. Thorpe looked quickly about the de- serted deck. "Ahoy, there 1" he shouted, but the straining of rope and spars was his only answer. Canvas was whipping to ribbons, sheetsjcracked their frayed ends like lashes as the booms swung wildly, but a few sails still held and caught the air: ' He was on the after deck, and he leaped first for the wheel that was kicking and whirling with the swing of the rudder. A glance at the canvas that still drew, and he set her on a course with a few steadying pulls. There was rope lying about, and he lashed the wheel with a quick turn or two and watched the ship steady down to a smooth slicing of the waves from the west. And only then did the man take time to quiet his panting breath and look about him in the unnatural quiet of this strangely deserted deck. He shouted again and walked to a com- panionway to repeat the hail. Only an echo, sounding hollowly from be- low, replied to break the vast silence. IT was puzzling — inconceivable. Thorpe looked^about him to note the lifeboats snug and undisturbed in their places. No sign there of an abandonment of the boat, but aban- doned she was, as the silence told only too plainly. And Thorpe, as he went below, had an uncanny feeling of the crew's presence — as if they had been there, walked where he walked, shouted and laughed a matter of a brief hour or two before. The door of the captain's cabin was burst in, hanging drunkenly from one hinge. The log-book was open; there were papers on a rude desk. The bunk was empty where the blankets had been 296 ASTOUNDING STORIES thrown hurriedly aside. Thorpe could almost see the skipper of this mystery ship leaping frantically from his bed" at some sudden call or commotion. A chair was smashed and broken, and the man who examined it curiously wiped from his hands a disgusting'slime that was smeared stickily on the splintered fragments. There was a fetid stench within his nostrils, and he passed up further examination of this room. Forward in the fo'c'sle he felt again irresistibly the recent presence of the crew. And again he found silence and emptiness and a disorder that told of a fear-stricken flight. The odor that sickened and nauseated the exploring man was everywhere. He was glad to gain the freedom of the wind-swept deck aria* rid his Jungs of the vile breath within the vessel. He stood silent and bewildered. There was not a living soul aboard the ship— no sign of life. He started sud- denly. A moaning, whimpering cry came from forward on the deck! Thorpe leaped across a disorder of tangled rope to race toward the bow. He stopped short at sight of a battered cage. Again the moaning came to him —there Was something that still lived on board the ill-fated ship. E drew closer to see a great, hud- dled, furry mass that crouched and cowered in a corner of the cage. A huge ape, Thorpe concluded, and it moaned and whinlpered absurdly like a human in abject fear. Had this been the terror that drove the men into the sea? Had this ape escaped and menaced the officers and crew? Thorpe dismissed the thought he well knew was absurd. The stout wood bars of the cage were broken. It had been partially crushed, and the chain, that held it to the deck was ex- tended to its full length. "Too much for me,!' the man said slowly, aloud; "entirely too much for met But I can't sail this old hooker alone ; I'll have to get out and let her drift." He removed completely one of the splintered bars from the broken cage. "I've got to leave you, old fellow," he told the cowering animal, "but I'll give you the run of the ship." He went below once more and came quickly back with the log-book and pa- pers from the captain's room. He tied these in a tight wrapping of oilcloth from the galley and hung them at his belt. He took the wheel again and brought the cumbersome craft slowly into the wind. The bare mast of his own sloop was bobbing alongside as he went down the line and swam over to her. Fending off from the wallowing hulk, he cut the line, and his small craft slipped slowly astern as the big vessel fell off in the wind and drew lumberingly away on its unguided course. She vanished into the clear-cut hori- zon before the watching man ceased his staring and pricked a point upon his chart that he estimated was his position. And he watched vainly for some sign of life on the heaving waters as jhe set his sloop back on her easterly course. IT was a sun-tanned young man who walked with brisk strides into the office of Admiral Struthers. The gold- striped arm of the uniformed man was extended in quick greeting. "Made it, did you?" he exclaimed. "Congratulations I" "All O.K.," Thorpe agreed. "Ship and log are ready for your verification." "Talk sense," said the officer. "Have any trouble or excitement? Or per- haps you are more interested in col- lecting a certain bet than you are in discussingthe trip." "Damn the bet!" said the young man feverently. "And that's just what I am here for — to talk about the trip. There were some little incidents that may in- terest you." He painted for the Admiral in brief, terse sentences the picture of that day- OUT OF THE DREADFUL DEPTHS 297 break on the Pacific, the line of break- ers, white in the vanishing night, the abandoned ship beyond, cracking her canvas to tatters in the freshening breeze. And he told of his boarding her and of what he had found. "Where was this?" asked the officer, and Thorpe gave his position as he bad checked it. "I reported the derelict to a passing steamer that same^jjay,''' he added, but the Admiral was calling for a chart. He spread it on the desk before him and placed the tip of asfpencil in the center of an unbroken expanse. "Breakers, you said?" he questioned. "Why, there are hundreds of fathoms here, Mr. Thorpe.". "T KNOW it," Thorpe agreed^'but X I saw them — a stretch of white water fbr an eighth of a mile. I know it's impossible, but true. But forget that item for a time, Admiral. Look at this." He opened a brief case and took out a log-book and some other papers. "The log of the Minnie R." he ex- plained briefly. "Nothing in it but , routine entries up to that morning and then nothing at all." "Abandoned," mused the Admiral, "and they did not take to the boats. There have been other instances — never explained." "See if this helps any," suggested Thorpe and handed (he other two sheets of paper. "They were in the captain's cabin," he added. Admiral Struthers glanced at them, then settled back in his chair. "Dated September fourth," he said. "That would have been the day previ- ous to the time you found her." The writing was plain, in a careful, well- formed hand. He cleared his throat and read aloud: "Written by Jeremiah Wilkens of Salem, Mass., master of the Minnie, R-, bound from Shanghai to San Pedro. I have sailed the seas for forty years, arid for the first time I am afraid. I hope I may destroy this paper when the lights of San Pedro are safe in sight, but I am writing here what it would shame me to set down in the ship's log, though I know there are stranger happenings on the face of the waters than man has ever seen — or has lived to tell. " A LL this day I have been filled £\. with fear. I have been watched — I have felt it as surely as if a devil out- of hell stood beside me with his eyes fastened on mine. The men have felt it, too. They have been frightened at nothing and have tried to conceal it as I have done. And the animals. "A shark has followed us for days — it is gone to-day. The cats — we have three on board — have howled horribly and have hidden themselves in the cargo down below.. The mate is bring- ing a big monkey to be sold in Los Angeles. ' An orang-outang, he calls it. It has been an ugly .brute, shaking at the bars of its cage and showing its ugly teeth ever since we left port. But to-day it is crouched in a corner of its cage and will not stir even for food. The poor beast- is in mortal terror. "All this is more like the wandering talk of an old woman muttering in a corner by the fireside of witches and the like than it is' like a truthful ac- count set down by Jeremiah Wilkins. And now that I have written it I see there is nothing to tell. Nothing but the. shameful account of my fear of some horror beyond my knowing. And now that it is written I am tempted to destroy — No, I will wait — " "And now what is this?" Admiral Struthers interrupted his reading to ask. He turned the paper to read a coarse, slanting scrawl at the bottom of the page. "The eyes — the eyes — they are every- where above us — God help—" The writing trailed off in a straggling line. — THE lips beneath the trim gray mustache drew themselves into a' hard tine. It was a moment before 298 ASTOUNDING STORIES , Admiral Struthers raised his eyes to meet those of Robert Thorpe. "You found this in the captain's cabin?" he asked. "Yes." "And the captain was — "Gone," "Blood stains?" "No," but the door had been burst off its hinges. There had been a strugj gle without a doubt." The officer mused for a minute or two. "Did they go aboard another vessel ?" he pondered. "Abandon ship— open the sea/-cbcks — sink it for the insur- ance?" He was trying vainly to find some answer to the problem, some ex- planation that would not impose too great a strain upon his own reason. "I have reported to the owners," said Thorpe. "The Minnie R. ASTOUNDING STORIES There Were other arms whose eyes were searching the stern of. the yacht. Thorpe plunged frenziedly down a companionway for the cabin he knew was Ruth Allaire's. Was he in time? Could he save her if he found her? His mind was in a turmoil of half- formed plans as he rushed madly down the corridor to find the body of the girl a limp huddle across the .threshold of her cabin. SHE was alive ; he knew it as he I swung her soft body across one shoulder and staggered with his bur- den up the stairs. If he could only breathe t His throat was \ tight and strangling with the reeking putre- scence in the air. And before his eyes was a picture of the strong oak bars of his own retreat. Somehow, some way, he must get back to the aban- doned ship. An eye detected him as he came on deck, and he dropped the limp 'body of the girl at his feet as he swung his rifle toward the glowing light within the opening jaws. The sucking discs cupped and wrinkled in dread readi- ness in the fleshy, toothless opening. He emptied the magazine into the head, -though he knew Mi is was only a feeler and a feeder for a still more horrible mouth in the monstrous body that rose and fell tremendously irS the dark wa- ters beyond. But it was typical of Robert Thorpe that even in the horror and frenzy of the moment he rammed another clip of cartridges into his rifle before he stooped to again raise the prostrate figure of Ruth Allaire. The forward deck for the moment was clear ; it rose high with the weight of the writhing, twisting arms that weighed down the stern of the yacht where the crew had taken refuge. To think of helping them was worse than folly — he dismissed the thought as another great eye came ovec the) rail. Once more he used the gun, then lowered the girl to the waiting boat, and cast off and rowed with the steal thiest of strokes into the dark. BEHIND. him were whippingpoints of light above the white bril- liance of the yacht Adelaide. The boat was tossing in great waves that came from beyond, -.vhere a body, in- credibly huge, was tearing the waters to foam. There were ghostly arms that shone in slimy wetness, that lashed searchingly in all directions, as the monster gave vent to its fury at Thorpe's attack. There were scream- ing human figures grasped in many of the jaws, and the man was glad with a great thankfulness that the girl's stupor could save her from the fright- ful sight. He dared to row now, and his breath was coming in great choking sobs of sheer exhaustion when at last he pulled the senseless form of Ruth Allaire to the deck of the Nagasaki and drew her within the frail shelter of the wireless room. Stout had the oaken bars appeared, and safe. his refuge in the barricaded room, but that was before he had seen in horrible reality the fearful fury of this monster from the deep. He placed the braces against the door and tumid with hopeless haste to seize the wire- less key. "Bennington," he Sailed, and the answer came strong and clear. "Where are you. . . . Help—" His fingers froze upon the key and the answering mes- sage in his ears was unheeded as he watched across the water the destruc- tion of the yacht. This craft that had dared to resist the onset of the brute, to fight against it, to wound it, was feeling the full fury of the monster's rage. The gleam- ing lights of the doomed ship were waving lines that swept to and fro in the grip of those monstrous arms. The boat beneath Thorpe's feet was tossing in the waves that told of the titanic struggle. He had meant to look south for some sign of the oncoming de- stroyer, but in fearful fascination he stared spellbound where the masts of the trim yacht swept downward into the waves, where the green of her star- OUT OF THE DREADFUL DEPTHS 307 board lantern glowed faintly for an in- stant, then vanished, to leave only the darkness and the starlit sea. A VOICE aroused him from his stupefaction. "Where am I . . where am I?" Ruth Allaire was asking in a frightened whisper. "That terrible thing — " She shuddered violently as memory returned to show again the horror she had witnessed. "Where are we, Robert? And the Adelaide — where is it?" Thorpe turned slowly. The insane turmoil of the past hour had numbed his brain, stunned him. "The Adelaide — " he mumbled, and groped fumblingly for coherent thoughts. He stared at the girl. She was half-risen from the floor where he had laid her, and the sight of her quiv- ering face brought reason again to his mind. He knelt tenderly beside her and raised her in his arms. "Where is the yacht?" she repeated. "The Adelaide.'" ''Cone," Thorpe told her. "Lost I" A thought struck him. "Was your father on board, Ruth?" Ruth was dazed. "Lost," she. repeated. "The Adelaide — lost I . . No," she added in belated response to Thorpe's question, "Daddy was not there. But the men— Captain MacPherson 'that horrible mon- ster. ." She buried her face in her hands as she realized what Thorpe's silence meant. He held the trembling figure close as the girl whispered: "Where are we, Robert? Are we safe?" "We may win through yet," he told her through grim, set. lips. He realized abruptly that he was seeing the face of Ruth Allaire in the light. He had left a lantern burning I He withdrew his arms from about her and sprang quickly to his feet to put out of the tell-tale light. In darkness and quiet was their only safety. And he knew as he sprang that he had waited too long. A soft body crashed heavily on the deck outside. THE girl's voice was shrill with terror as she began a question. Thorpe's hand pressed upon her lips in the dark where he stood waiting — waiting. A luminous something was glowing outside the cabin. It searched and prodded about the deserted deck to whip upward at the audible hiss of wet carbide. Another appeared ; the rifle came slowly to the man's shoulder as a pair of jaws gaped glowingly beyond the windows and an eye stared un- blinkingly from its hornlike sheath. It crashed madly against the walls of the wireless'room to shatter the glass and make kindling of the woodwork of the sash. Thorpe fired once and again be- fore the specter vanished, and he knew with sickening certainty that the wounds were only messages to some central brain that would send other ravening tentacles against them. But the oak bars had held. He reached in -the brief interval for the key, and he sent out one final call for help. He strained his ears against the head-set for some friendly human word of hope. " — rocket," the wireless man was say- ing. "Fire rockets. We can't find — " A swift, writhing arm wrapped crush- ingly about the cabin as the message ceased. THORPE seized his rifle and fired into the gray mass that bulged with terrible muscular contractions through the window. He fired again to aim lengthways of the arm and inflict as damaging a wound as his weapon would permit. The arm relaxed, but a score of others took up the attack; Again the sickening stench was about them as gaping jaws gleamed fiery beneath the hateful eyes and tore at the flimsy structure. Thorpe jammed more car- tridges into the gun and fired again and again, then dropped the weapon to fumble for the rockets that Brent had given him. He lighted one with trembling 308 ASTOUNDING. STORIES searchlight played, huge aim were lashing backward toward the sea. The waves beyond had vanished where a monstrous body shone wetly black in a blinding glare. And the man hung panting, helpless, on the one ^remaining bar across the doorway to look where, beyond, her forward guns a spitting stream of stac- cato flashes, the Bennington tore the waves to high-thrown spray. Her four clean funnels ■ swung far over as the slim ship, with her stabbing, crashing guns, swung in a sweeping circle to bear down upon the black bulk slowly sinking in the searchlight's glare. The vast body had vanished as the destroyer shot like one of her own projectiles over the spot where the beast bad lain. And then, where she had passed, the sea arose in a heaving mound. / The big ship beneath the watching man shuddered again as an- other depth charge grumbled its chal- lenge to the master of the deeps. tHE warship went careening on an arc to return and throw the full glare of her searchlights on the scene. They lighted a vast sea, strangely stilled. An oily smoothness leveled waves and ironed them out to show more clearly the convulsions of a torn mass that rose slowly into/sight. Thorpe in some way found himself outside the cabin. And he knew that the girl was again beside him as he stared and stared at what the waters held. A bloated serpent form beyond believing was struggling in the greasy He saw it plainly now, for the deck (swell. Its waving tentacles again were was a glare of vfhite light. He saw the / flung aloft in impotent fury, and, be- V fingers; the first ball shot straight into a waiting mouth. Another ignited a searing flame of acetlylene gas where a .wet arm writhed in the hot carbide trail. The man' leaned far out through the broken window. No time to look around. He let the red flares streamed upward high into the air, then dropped the rocket hiss-^ ing on the deck to seize once more the rifle. A mass of muscle crashed against the door; it went to splinters under the impact, and only the two oak bars re- mained Jo hold in check the horrible tentacles and the darting heads. One mouth closed to a pointed end that forced its way between the bars. The oak gave under the strain as Robert Thorpe pulled vainly at an empty gun. Beside him rose shrieks of terror as the monstrous thing came on, and Thorpe beat with frantic fury with his clubbed rifle at the fleshy snout. He knew as he swung the weapon ft the .shrieks had ceased, then smiled mly in the numbing horror as he lized that Ruth Allaire was beside i. A piece of oak was in her hands, and she was striking with desperate and silent fury at the slimy flesh. IT was the end, Thorpe knew, and suddenly he was glad. The night- mare was over, and the end was com- ing with this girl beside him. But Robert Thorpe was fighting on to the last, and he tried to make his blows reach outward to the hateful devilish eye. eye and the thick arm behind it and thi score of others that made a heaving, knotted mass were brilliant and wetly shining. He could see now how best to strike, and he turned his gun to thrust with the- barrel at the eye. It withdrew before his stroke — the jaws slid backward to the deck. There were sounds that hammered at his ears. "The guns I The guns I" a girl was ■creaming. Across the deck, where a neath them, where their thick ends jointed the body, a head with one hor- rible eye rose into the air. A thick- lipped mouth gaped open, and the gleam of molars shone white in the blinding I glare. The ! twisting body shuddered throughout its vast bulk, and the wav- ing arms and futile staring eyes dropped helpless into the splashing sea. Again the revolting head was OUT OF THE DREADFUL DEPTHS 309 raised as the destroyer sent a rain of shells into its fearful mas* Once more the oily seas were calm. They closed over the whirling vortex where a deni- zen of the lightjeas depths was re- turning to those distant, subterranean caverns — returning as food for what other voracious monsters might still exist. The man's arm was about the figure of the girl, trembling anew in a .fresh reaction from the horror they had escaped, when a small boat drew along- side. ' "They're safe," a hoarse voice bel- lowed back to the destroyer, and a man came monkeywise up a rope where Thorpe had launched his boat. And now, as one in a dream, Thorpe allowed the girl to be taken from him, to be lowered to the waiting boat. He clambered down himself and in silence was rowed across to the destroyer. "Thank God I" said Brent, as he met them at the rail. "You're safe, old man . . . and Miss Allaire . . . both of you I You let off that rocket just in time; we couldn't pick you up with our light — "And now," he added, "we're going back ; back to San Diego. The Admiral wants a word of mouth report." Thorpe stilled him with a heavy ges- tures "Give Ruth an opiate," he said dully. "Let her forget . . . forget I . . . Good God, can we ever -forget — " He stumbled forward, heedless of Brent's arm across his shouldexs as the sur- geon took the girl in charge. ADMIRAL STRUTHERS, U.S.N., leaned back from his desk and blew a cloud of smoke thoughtfully to- ward the ceiling. He looked silently from Thorpe to Commander Brent. "If either one of you had come to me with such a report," he said finally, "I would have found it incredible; I would have thought you were entirely insane, or trying some wild hoax." "I wish it were a damn lie," said Thorpe quietly. "I wish I didn't have to believe ft." There were new lines about the young-old eyes, lines that spoke what) the lips would not confess of sleepiest nights and the impress of a picture he could not erase. "Well, we have kept it out of the papers," said the Admiral. "Said it was a derelict, and the wild messages float- ing about were from an inexperienced man, frightened and irresponsible. Bad advertising — very — for the pas- senger Jines." "Quite," Commander Brent agreed, "but of course Mr. Thorpe may want to use this in his next book of travel. He has "earned the right without doubt." "No," said Thorpe emphatically. "No I I told you. Brent, there was often a factual basis for fables — re- member? Well, we have proved that. But sometimes it is best to leave the fables just fables. I think you will agree." A light step sounded in the corridor beyond. "Nothing of this to Miss Allaire," he said sharply. The men rose as Ruth Allaire en- tered the room. "We were just speak- ing," said the Admiral with an engag- ing smile beneath his close-cut mus- tache, "of the matter of a bet. Mr. Thorpe has won handily, and he has taught me a lesson. He took a check book from his desk. ">J»hat charity would you like to name, Miss Allaire? That was left to you, you remember^ «. "Some' seamen's home," said Ruth Allaire gravely. "You will know best, if you two are really serious about that silly bet." "That bet, my dear," said Robert Thorpe with smiling eyes, "was very serious . . . and it has had most serious consequences." He turned "to the wait- ing men and extended a hand in fare- well. "We are going to Europe, Ruth and I," he told them. "Just rambling around a bit. Our honeymoon, you know. Look us up if you're cruising out that way." mad. The local sub deputy gave his guests the thrill of watch- ing maniacs battling to the death." / Murder Madness PART TWO OF A FOUR-PART NOVEL By Murray Leintter SEVEN United States Secret Ser- vice men have disappeared in South America. Another is found — a screaming homicidal maniac. It is rumored that they are victims of a dia- b o 1 i c a 1 poison which produces "murder mad- ness." Charley Bell, of the "Trade"— a secret service organization that does not officially exist;— discovers that > sinister system of slavery is flourish- ing in South American, headed by a mysterious man known only as The Master. This slavery is accomplished by means of a poison which causes its victims to experience a horrible writh- ing of the hands, 'followed by a mad- ness to do murder, two weeks after the poison is taken. The victims get relief only with an antidote sup- plied h rough Ribiera, The Mas- ter's Chief Dep- uty; but in the antidote there is more of the poison which again in two weeks will t take effect. And so it is that a person who once receives the poison is forever enslaved. v Bell learns that Ribiera has kidnaped 310 Boll, of the secret "Trade," strikes into the South American jungle to find the hLklen stronghold of The Master— the un- Howd monster whose diabolical poison swiftly and sorely is enslaTua* the whole continent. * 1 . Paula Canalejas, daughter of a Bra- zilian cabinet minister — himself a vic r tim — who has killed himself on feeling the "murder madness," caused by the poison, coming over him. Bell corners Ribiera in his home, buries the muzzles of two six-guns in his stomach, and de- mands that he set Paula free. CHAPTER VI IN this room the electric lights were necessary at all times. And it oc- curred to Bell irrelevantly that perhaps there were no windows because there might be sometimes rather, noisy scenes within these walls. And windows will convey the sound of screaming to the outside air, while solid - walls will not. He stood alert and grim, with his re- volvers pressing into Ribiera's flabby flesh. His fingera were tensed upon the triggers. If he killed Ribiera, he would be killed. Of course. And men and women he had known and liked might be doomed to the most horrible of fates by Ribiera's death. Yet even the death or madness of many men was preferable to the success of the con- spiracy in which Ribiera seemed to figure largely. Ribiera looked up at him with the eyes of a terrified snake. There was a little stirring at the door. "Your friends," said Bell softly, "had better not com! dose." Ribiera gasped ah order. The stir- rings stopped. Paula came slowly into the room, quite alone. She smiled queerly at Bell. "I believed that you would come," she said quietly. "And yet I do not know that we can escape." , "We're going to try," said Bell grim- ly. To Ribiera he added curtly, "You'd better order, the path cleared to the door, and have one of your cars brought around." 1 l 312 ASTOUNDING STORIES RIBIERA croaked a repetition of the command. "Now stand up — slowly," said Bell evenly. "Very slowly. I don't want to die, Ribiera, bo I don't want to kill you. But I haven't much hope of escape, so I shan't hesitate very long about doing it. And I've got these guns' hammers trembling at full cock. If I get a bul- let through my head, they'll go off just the same and kill you." Ribiera got up. Slowly. His face was a pasty gray. "Your major-domo," *Bell told him matter-of-factly, "will go before us and open every door on both sides of the way to ths street. Paula" — he used her given name without thought, or with- out realizing it — "Paula will go and look into each door. If she as much as looks frightened, I fire, and try to fight the rest of the way clear. Understand? I'm going to get down to a boat I have ready in the harbor if I have to fill you and evlry living soul in the house 1" There was no boat in the harbor, naturally. But the major-domo moved hesitantly across the room, looking at his master for orders. For Ribiera 4o d)e meant death, or madness to. his 'slaves. The major-domo's face Was ghastly with fear. He moved onwird, and Bell heard- the sound of doors being thrust wide. Once he gave a command in the staccato fashion of a terrified man. Bell nodded grimly. "Now we'll move. Slowly, Ribiera I Always slowly. ... Ah I That's bet- ter! Paula, you go on before and look, Into each room. I shall be sorry if any of your servants follow after you, Rij biera. . . Through the doorway. Yes ( All clear, Paula? I'm balancing the hammers very carefully, Ribiera. Very delicate work. It is fortunate for you that my nerves are rather steady. But really, I don't much care. . . . Still all clear before us, Paula? With the ser- vants nerve-racked as they are, I be- lieve we'll make it through, even if I do kill Ribiera. There'll be no par- ticular point in killing us then. It won't help them. Don't stumble, please. Ribiera. ... Co carefully, and very slowly. . . ." RIBIERA'S face was a gray mask of terror when they reached the door. A long, low car with two men on the chauffeur's seat was waiting. "Only one man up front, Ribiera," said Bell dryly. "No ostentation, please. Now, I hop* your servants haven't summoned the police, because they might want to stop me from marching you out there with a gun in the small of your back. And that would be deplorable, Ribiera. Quite deplorable." With a glance, he ordered Paula into the tonneau. He followed her, driving Ribiera before him. There seemed to be none about but the stricken, terrified servant who had opened the door for their exit. ( "My friend," Bell told the mmjor-t domo grimly, "I'll give you a bit of comfort. I'm not going to try to take the Senhor Ribiera away with me. Once I'm on board the yacht that waits for me, I'll release him, so he can keep you poor devils sane until my Govern- ment has found a way to beat this devilish poison of his. Then 111 come back and kill him. Now you can tell the Chauffeur to drive us to the Biera Mar." He settled back in his seat. There were beads' of perspiration on his fore- head, but he could not wipe them off. He held the two revolvers against Ri- biera's flabby body. THE car turned the corner, and he added dryly: "Your servants, Ribiera, will warn your more prominent slaves of my in- tention of going on board a yacht. Preparations will be made to stop every pleasure boat and search it for me. So . . . tell, your chauffeur to swing about and make for the flying field And tell him to drive carefully, by the, way. I've still got- these gunsv on a very fine adjustment of the trigger- pressure." MURDER MADNESS 313 Ribiera croaked the order. Bell was exactly savage enough to kill him if he did not escape. For twenty minutes the car sped through the residential districts of Rio. The sun was high in the air, but clouds were banking up above, the Pao d'As- lucar — the Sugarloaf — and it looked-as if there might be one of the sudden lummer thunderstorms that sometimes ■weep Rio. Then the clear road to the flying field. Rio has the largest metropolitan district in the world, but a great deal of it is piled on end, and Rio itself built on most of the rest. The flying field is necessarily some miles from even the residential districts, for the take of a level plain of sufficient area. The car shot ahead through practi- cally untouched jungle, interspersed with tiny clearings . in which were patchwork houses that might have been i thousand miles in the interior instead of so near the center of all civilization in Brazil. Up smooth gradients. Around beautifully engineered curves. BELL put aside one revolver long enough tot. search Ribiera care- folly. He found a pearl-handled auto- matic, and handed it to Paula. "Worth having," he said cheerfully. "I wonder if you'd mind searching the chauffeur: with that gun at his head I think he'd be peaceful. You needn't have him stop." Paula stood up, smiling a little. "I did not think I lacked courage, Senhor," she observed, "but you have taught me more." "Nil despeiaodum," said Bell lightly. He relaxed deliberately. Matters would be tense at the flying field, and he would need to be wholly calm. There was little danger of an attempt at rescue here, and the' necessity of being ready to shoot Ribiera at any instant was no longer a matter of split seconds. He watched, while, bent over the back of the front seat, she extracted two squat weapons from the chauff elir's pocket*. "Quite an arsenal," said Bell as he pocketed them. He turned pleasantly to Ribiera. "Now, Ribiera, you under- stand just what I want. That big am- phibian plane. of yours is fairly fast, and once when I was merely your guest you assured me that it was always kept fueled and even provisioned for a long flight. When we reach the flying field I want it rolled out and warmed up, over at the other end of the field from the flying line. We'll go over to it in the car. "And I've thought of something. It worried me, before, because sometimes if a man's shot he merely relaxes all over. So while we're at the flying field I'm going to be holding back the trig- gers of these guns with my thumbs. I flon't have to pull the triggers at all — just let go and they'll go off. . It isn't so fine an adjustment as I had just now, but it's safer for you, as long as you behave. And you might urge your chauffeur to be cautious. I do hope, Ribiera, that you won't look as if you were frightened. If there's any hitch, and delay for letting some fuel out of the tanks or messing up the motors, I'll be very sorry for, you." THE car swooped out into bright sunshine. The flying field lay be- low, already in the shadow of the banking clouds above. Hangars lay stretched out across the level space. Through the gates. Ribiera licked his lips. Bell jammed the revolver muzzles closer agaisjBt his sides. The chauffeur halted the car, Paula spoke softly to him. He stiffened. x Bell found it possible to smile faintly. RiSiera gave orders. There was a moment's pause — the revolver muzzles went deeper into his side — and he snarled a repetition. The official cringed and moved swiftly. "You have chosen your slaves well, Ribiera," said Bell coolly. "They seem to occupy all strategic positions. We'll ride across." i The gears clashed. The car swerved forward and went deliberately across 314 ASTOUNDING STORIES the wide dear space that was the flying field. It halted near the farther side. In minutes the door of a hangar swung wide. There was the sputtering of a not-yet-warmed-up motor. The big plane came slowly out, its motors coughing now and then. It swung clumsily across the field, turned in a wide circle, and stopped some forty or fifty feet from the car. > "Send the mechanic back, on foot," said Bell softly. Again Ribiera found it expedient to snarl. And Bell added, gently, while the throttled-down motors of the big amphibian boomed on: "Now get out of the car." Tiny figures began to gaze curiously at them from the row of hangars. The mechanic starting back on foot, the four people getting out of the car, the big plane waiting. 4 ITH his revolver ready and aimed - at Ribiera's bulk, Bell reached in the front of the car and turned-off the switch. The motor died abruptly. He put the key in his pocket. "Just, to get a minute or two extra start," he said dryly. "Climb up in the plane, Paula." She obeyed, and turned at the top. "I will cover them until you are up," she said quietly. Bell laughed, now. A genuine laugh, for the first time in many days. "We do work together I" he said cheerfully. But he backed up the ladder. There was a stirring over by the hangars. The mechanic Who had taxied the plane to this spot was a dwindling speck, no more than a third of the way across the field. But even from the distant ban- gars it could be seen that something was wrong. "Close the door, Paula," said Bell. He had seated himself at the controls, and scanned the instruments closely. This machine was heavy and large and massive. The boat-body between the retractable wheels added weight to the structure, and when Bell gave it the gun it seemed to pick up speed with an irritating slowness, and to rtU and lurch very heavily when it did be- gin to approach flying speed. The run was long before the tail came up. was longer before the joltings lessened and the plane began to rise slowly, with the solid steadiness that only a large and heavily loaded plane can compaa. UP, and up. . . Bell was three hundred feet high when he ' crossed the hangars and saw tiny facet staring up at him. Some of the snail figures were pointing across the field. The big plane circled widely, gaining altitude, and Bell gazed down. Rihiea was gesticulating wildly, pointing up- ward to the soaring thing, ahaUng jjj, fist at it, and making imperious, frantic motions of command. Bell took one quick glance all about the horizon. Toward the sea the ton shone down brilliantly upon the city. Inland a broad white wall of advancing rain moved toward the coastline. And Bell smiled frostily, and flung the big ship into a dive and swooped clown > upon Ribiera as a hawk might swoop at a chicken. Ribiera saw the monster thing bear- ing down savagely, its motors believ- ing, its nose pointed directly at him. And there is absolutely nothing' mom terrifying upon the earth than to see 1 plane diving upon you with deadly la- tent. A panic that throws back to nan- human ancestors seizes upon a nit f He feels the paralysis of those ancient anthropoids who were preyed upon by dying races of winged monsters in the past. That racial, atavistic terror seizes upon him. ' Bell laughed, though it sounded more like a bark, as Ribiera flung him- self to the ground and screamed hoarsely when the plane seemed about to pounce upon him. The shrill timbre of the shriek cut through the roaring of the motors, even through the thick padding of the big plane's cabin walk that reduced that roaring to a not in- tolerable growl. w MURDER BUT the plane passed ten feet or more above his head. It rose, and climbed steeply, and passed- again ibove the now buzzing, agitated han- gars, and climbed above' the hills be- hind the flying field as some men went running and others moved by swifter means toward the shaken, nerve-racked Ribiera, on whose lips were flecks of foam. Bell looked far below and far behind him. The incredible greenness of tropic verdure, of the jungle which rings Rio all about. The many glitter- ing* of sunlight upon glass, and upon the polished domes of sundry public buildings, and the multitudinous shim- merings of the tropic sun upon the bay. ,Tk*,deep dark Bhadow of the banking cloud drew a sharp line across the earth, and deep in that shadow lay the flying field*, growing small and distant u the plane flew on. But specks raced across the wide expanse. In a peculiar, Irrational fashion those specks darted toward a nearly invisible . speck, and encountered other specks darting away from that nearly invisible speck, and gradually alt the specks were turned about and racing for the angular, toy- block squares which were the hangars of the aeroplanes of the city of Rio de Janeiro. Little white things appeared from those hangars — planes being thrust out into the open air while motes of men raced agitatedly about them. One of them was suddenly in motion. It moved slowly and clumsily across the ground, and then abruptly moved more swiftly. It seemed to float upward and to swing about in; mid-air. It came floating toward the 1 amphibian, though apparently nearly stationary against the sky. Another moved -jerkily, and mother. . . . IUST before the big plane dived into the wide white wall of falling wa- ter, the air behind it seemed to swarm with aircraft. In the cabin of the amphibian, of course, the bellowing of the motors MADNESS 315 outside was muffled to a certain degree. Paula clung to the seats and moved awkwardly up to the place beside Bell. She had just managed to seat herself when the falling sheet of water ob- literated all the world. "Strap yourself in your seat," he said in her ear above the persistent -tumult without. "Then you might adjust my safety-belt. We'll be flying blind in this rain. I hope the propellers hold." She fumbled first at the belt beside his upholstered chair, and only after- ward adjusted her own*. He sent a quick glance at her. "Shouldn't have done that," he said quietly. "I can manage somehow." The plane lurched and tumbled wildly. He kicked) rudder and jerked on the stick, watching the instrument board closely. In moments the wild gyrations ceased. "The beginning of this," he said evenly, "is going to be hectic. There'll be lightning soon." Almost on his words the gray mist out the cabin windows seemed to flame. There was thunder* even above the mo- tors. But the faint, perceptible trem- bling of the whole plane under the im- pulse of its engines kept on. Bell kept his eyes on the bank and turn indicator, glancing now and then at the altimeter, "We've got to climb," he said short- ly, up where the lightning is, too. We want to pass the Serra da Carioca with room to spare, or we'll crash on it." There was no noticeable change in the progress of the plane, of course. Rain was dashing against the windows of the cabin with an incredible velocity. Rain at a hundred miles an hour acts more like hail than water, anyhow, and ^fiell was trusting grimly to the, hope that the propellers were of steel, which will withstand even hail, and a hope that the blast through the engine cowl- ings would keep the wiring free of water-mad! short circuits. BUT the air was bad beyond belief. At times the plane spun like thistledown in a vast and venomous 316 ASTOUNDING STORIES flood that crashed into the windows with a vicious rattling. Lightning be- gan and 1 grew fiercer. - It seemed at times as if the plane were whirling crazily in sheer incandescent flame. The swift air-currents at the beginning of a tropic thunderstorm were here multiplied in trickiness and velocity by the hills of the Serra da Carioca, and Bell was flying blind as well. The safety-belts were needed fifty times within twenty minutes, as the big ship was flung about by fierce blasts fhat sometimes blew even the rain upward for a time. And over all, as the am- phibian spun madly, and toppled crazi- ly, and fought for height, there was the terrific, incessant crashing of thun- der which was horribly dose, and the crackling flared of lightning all about. "I'm going/ to take a-- chance," said Bell curtly above the uproar, with the windows seeming to look out upon the fires of hell. "I think .we're , high enough. The compass has, gone crazy, but I'm going to risk it." Again there was no perceptible al- teration in the motion of the ship, but he fought it steadily toward the west. And it seemed that he actually was passing beyond the first fierce fringe of the storm, because the lightning be- came^— well, not less frequent, but less continuous. AND suddenly, in a blinding flare of light that made every separate raindrop look like a speck of molten metal, he saw another airplane. It was close. Breath-takingly close. It came diving down out of nowhere and passed, less than twenty yards before the nose of the amphibian. It glistened with wet, and glittered unbearably in the in- credible brightness of the lightning. Every spot and speck and detail showed with aft almost ghastly distinctness. But it dived on pasti its pilot rigid and tense and unseeing, plunging like a meteor straight downward. The golden, irridescent mist of rain closed over its body. And it was gone. Ten minutes later Bell was driving onward through a gray obscurity, wUti now was no more than tinted pad; by receding lightning-flashes. The sir was still uneven and treacherous. Tat big plane hurtled downward hundrtdi of feet in wild descending gusts' acassf the hills, and was then flung upward on invisible billows of air for other hundreds of feet. But it was less a> controllable. There were periods si minutes when the safety-belts did not come into use. AND later still, half an hour per. haps, the steadiness of the sir gave assurance that the plane was past the range of the Serra da Carioca sad was headed inland. He drove on, watching his instruments and 8yis| blind, but with a gathering confidence in an ultimate escape from the swans of aircraft Ribiera had sent aloft in die teeth- of the storm to hunt for has. The motors hummed outside the pad- ded cabin. The girl beside him an very quiet and very still and very pale, "We want to get out of this before long," -he said in her ear," and then ¥t can find out where we are, and espe- cially begin to make some plans far ourselves." Her eyes turned to him. There *ts a curious stiffness in her manner. It might have seemed reserve, but Bell recognized the symptoms of a woman whose self-control is hanging by I thread. He smiled. "Hold on a while yet," he said gess%. "I know you want to cry. But pleas; hold on a while yet. When we read friends. ." Her hands went to her throat, aid he could feel the effort of will that kept her voice steady. "Friends? We have 'no friends* She managed a smile. "The Senna Ribiera explained to me when I if rived at his house how it was that nt questions would be asked about an- disappearance. My father is dead The newspapers this morning said that it was not known whether he killed himself or was assassinated. At MURDER MADNESS 317 genhor Ribiera has given orders to his ■Javes. The newspapers of this after-c noon will inform a horrified world that you and I, together,, murdered my father that we might flee together with such of his riches as he had actually gathered together for me to take away. We are murderers, my friend. Cables and telegraph "wires are 'reporting the news. The daughter of the Minister of War of the Republic of Brazil was as- sisted by her. lover to murder her father. She has fled with him. Now —where are we still to find friends?" BELL'stared, for the fraction of an instant. One thought came to him, and Was checked. The Trade does sot exist,' anywhere. The Trade would not help. And murderers are always tfoly handed over when the Govern- ment of the United States is requested politely to do so by another nation. Always. And so fat as the whole civilized world was concerned they ware murderers. Even the employees of the flying field who were not subject to The Master would swear to the strictly accurate story of their escape together. "It is just scandalous enough and horrible enough," said Bell quietly, "to be reprinted everywhere, as news. You're right. We haven't any friends. We're up against it. And so I think spll have to hunt down and kill The Master. Then we'll be believed. And there are just two of us, with what weapons we have in our pockets, to at- tack. How many thousands of slaves do you suppose The Master has by DOW?" And, quite suddenly, he laughed. CHAPTER VII THE sun was sinking slowly when the plane appeared above the val- ley. There was only jungle below. Jungle, and the languid river which now flowed sluggishly into a wide and •hallow pool in which drowned trees formed a mass of substance neither land nor marsh nor river. The river now contracted to a narrow space and showed signs of haste, and even foam- ing water, and then again flowed placidly onward, sometimes even a hundred yards in breadth. Shadows of the mountains to the west were creep- ing toward the opposite hill-flanks, darkening the thick foliage and send- ing flocks of flying things home to their chosen roosts. The sound of the plane was a buzzing noise, which grew louder to a sharp drone as it seemed to increase in size, and became a dull monotonous roar as it dipped toward the waters of the stream. It floated downward, very gently, and circled as if regarding a certain spot critically, and resumed its onward flight. Again it circled, anx- iously, now, as if the time for alight- ing were short. It seemed to hesitate in midair, and dived, and circled upstream and came down the valley again. It sank, and sank, lower and lower, until the white of its upper 'wings was hidden by the tail trees on either side. I A jabiru stork saw it from down- stream, ^solemnly squatting on four eggs which eventually would perpetu- ate the race. The jabiru was about forty feet above the water and had a clear view of the stream. The stork squatted meditatively, with its long, naked neck projecting above the edge of its nest. THE plane dipped ever lower, its reflection vivid and complete upon the waveless stream below it. Ten feet above the water. Five — and swift rip- ples from the rash of air disturbed the unbroken reflections behind. It was almost a silhouette against the mir- rored appearance of the sunset sky. And then a clumsy-seeming boat body touched water with a vast hissing sound, and settled more and ,more heavily, while the speed of the plane checked markedly and its motors roared on senselessly. Then, abruptly, the plane checked and partly swung around. The jabiru 318 ASTOUNDING STORIES half-rose from its eggs.. The motors were bellowing wildly again. As if tearing itself free, the plane sheered off from some invisible obstacle, one of its wing tip floats splashed water wildly, and, with the motors thunder-, ing at their fullest speed, it went to- ward the shore with a dragging wing, like some wounded bird. It beached, and the jabiru heard a sudden dense silence fall. A man climbed out of the boatlike body. He walked to the bow and dropped to the shore. He peered under the upward slanting nose of the boat-thing. The jabiru, listening intently; heard words. Then, quite suddenly and quite ab- ruptly, and generally with the unosten- tatious efficiency with which Nature manages such things in the tropics, night fell. It was dark within minutes. C * THE noise of Bell's scrambling back onto the deck of the am- phibian's hull could be heard inside the cabin. He opened the door and slipped down inside. "There ouf>ht to be some lights," he said curtly. "Ribiera did himself rather well, as a rule." He struck a match. Paula's eyes shone in the match-flame, fixed upon his face. He looked about, frowning. He found a switch and pressed it, and a dome-light came into being. The cabin of the plane, from a place of darkness comparable fo that of the jungle all about, became suddenly a cosy and comfortable place. "Well?" said Paula quietly. Bell hesitated, and took a deep breath. "We'r* stuck," he said wryly. "We must have struck a snag or perhaps a rock, just under water. Half the bot- tom of the hull's torn out. There's no hope of repair. If I hadn't given her the gun and beached her, we'd have sunk in mid-stream." Paula said nothing. "Things are piling on us," said Bell grimly. "In the morning I'll try to make a raft. We ELL had been listening impatient- M—f ly, when a sudden whining, whis- tling noise broke into the program of ■very elevated "music, played utterly without zest. The sound came from the speaker, of course. He frowned thoughtfully. The whis- tling changed in timbre and became flutelike, then changed Again, nearly to its original pitch and tone. Paula was not listening. Her mind seemed very far away, and on subjects the reverse of pleasurable. "'Listen I" said Bell suddenly. "You hear that whistle? It came on all at once I" Paula waited. The whistling noise went on. It was vaguely discordant, and it was monotonous, and it was more than a little irritating. Again it changed timbre, going up to the shrill- est of squealing*, and back nearly to its original sound an instant later. Bell began to paw over maps. The plane had been intended for flight over the vast distances of Brazil, and there was a small supply of condensed f|od and a sporting rifle and shells included in its equipment. Emergency landing fields are not exactly common in tat back country of South America. "Here," said Bell sharply. "Here it where we are. It must be where wt are I No towns of any size nearby. No railroad. No boat route. Nothragl Nothing but jungle shown heref* HE frowned absorbedly over tht problem. "What is it?" asked Paula. "Someone near," said Bell briefly. "That's another radio receiver, an old fashioned regenerative set, sensitive enough and reliable enough, but a nui- sance to everyone but its owner — ei- cept when it's a godsend, as it is to us." The music ended, and a voice an- nounced in laboriously classic Portu- guese, with only a trace of the guttural tonation of the car/oca, that the most important news items of the day would be given. Paula paled a little, but listened without stirring. The voice read — the rustling of sheets of paper was abnor- mally loud — a bit of foreign news, and a bit of local news, and then. ... . She was deathly pale when the an- nouncement of her father's death wst finished, and she had heard the official view of the police reported— exactly what Ribiera had told her it would bi When the voice added that a friend of the late Minister of War, the Senhor Ribiera, had offered twenty contos for the capture of the fugitive pair, who had escaped in an airplane stolen from him, she bit her lip until it almost bled "T KNOW," he said abstractedly." J. "It's as you said. But listen to that whistle." The news announcement ceased. Music began again. The whistling abruptly died away. "I just found some coils," said BeU feverishly, "that plug in to take the place of the longer-wave ones. Va going to try them. It's a hunch, and it's crazy, but. ..." . MURDER There were sharp dickinga. The radio receiver was one of those extra- ordinarily light and portable ones that ue made for aircraft. In seconds it ms transformed into a short-wave re- ceiver. Bell began to manipulate the 'dills feverishly. Two minufes. Three. Four. The speaker suddenly began to whine toftly and monotonously. ^Regeneration," said Bell feverishly, "on a carrier-wave. It can't be far off, that receiving set." Suddenly a voice spoke. It was blurred and guttural. Infinitely deli; cite adjustments cleared it up. And then. • • * Bell listened eagerly, at first in tri- umph, then in amazement, and at last in a grim satisfaction. Reports from Rio on a short-wave band of radio fre- quencies were passing from Ribiera to ■me other place apparently inland. It wa Ribiera's own voice, which quiv- ered with rage as he reported Bell's (•cape. 1 "/ do not think," he snapped in Por- tuguese, "fAar full details should be spoken even on beam wireless. I shall come to the fazenda tomorrow and communicate with The Master direct. In the meantime I have warned all sub- itputies in Brazil. I urge that all dep- uties be informed and instructed as The Master may direct." ANOTHER voice replied that The Master would be informed. In thsjpeantime the deputy for Brazil was notified. This list of bits of information drilled Bell's blood. This man, of Ven- ezuela, had been denied the grace of The Master by the deputy in Caracas. He would probably use the passwords tad demand the grace of The Master of tub-deputies in the State of Pari. To be seized and Caracas informed. The deputy in Colombia desired that the •on of Colonel Garcia — upon a hunting- ptrty with friends in the Amazon basin —should be attached to the service of The Matter. His father had been so MADNESS 321 i attached, and it was believed had smug- gled a letter into the foreign mail warning his son. If possible, that let- ter should be intercepted. And from Paraguay the deputy requested that the family of Senor Gomez, visiting relatives in Rio, tfhould be induced to regard the service of The Master as (de- sirable. . \ The orders ceased abruptly. Ribiera acknowledged them. The whining whistle cut off. And Bell turned to Paula very grimly indeed. "Pretty, isn't if?" he asked in a, vast calmness. "Apparently every nation on the continent has some devil like Ribiera in charge of the administration of this fiendish poison. Every repub- lic has some fiend at work in it. And they're organized. My God I They're organized! The Master seems to sup- ply them with the mixture of poison and its antidote, and they report to him. ." PAULA nodded. "That was what my father had written down for you," she said quietly. "Any man who can be lured to eat or drink anything these' men have pre- pared is lost. He gains no pleasure, as a drug might give. He is entrapped into a lifetime of awful fear, knowing that a moment's disobedience, a mo- ment's reluctance to obey whatever command they give, will cause his madness." "I'm trying to think what we can work out of this," said* Bell shortly. "Some things are clear. There's a radio receiving set nearby, which listened to those short-wave reports. Within five or six miles, at most. We're going to find 1 hat tonforrow. And there's a cen- tral point, a* fazenda, where one may talk direct with The Master, whoever and wherever he may be. And— judg- ing by Ribiera — my guess is that The Master has the same hold upon them that they have on their underlings. Ribiera is too arrogant 'a scoundrel to make obsequious reports if he were not afraid to omit them." He was silent for 322 ASTOUNDING STORIES a moment, thinking. Then he said abruptly, "Try to get- some sleep, if you can. That pistol of Ribiera's — you have it handy ? Keep it where you can reach it iif the dark. I'm going to watch, though." f\ Paula settled herself comfortably, and looked queerly across the dimly lit little cabin > at him. "My friend," she said with the faint- est of quavering smiles, "Please do not reassure me. I have the courage of en- durance, at least. And — I do not fear you." \ IT seemed to Bell, listening in the darkness ^that fell when he turned off the switchVthat she stayed awake for a long time. But when she did Bleep, she slept heavily. Bell had a raft of canes afloat beside the amphibian when she walked. He was sweat-streaked and bitten by many insects. He was tired, and his clothes were rags. But the raft was nearly twenty fact long, it would easily float two persons and what small supplies 'the plane, carried, and it could be han- dled by a long, pole. "Hullo," he said cheerfully when she climbed on top of the waterlogged hull of the. plane. "We're nearly ready to start off. I'm sorry I can't advise you to try to refresh yourself in the river. There are some fish in it that are fiends. One of them took a slice out of the side of my hand." "Piranhas!" she exclaimed, and was jjale. "You should have known I" Piranhas are small fresh-water fish of the Brazilian rivers, never more than a foot and a half long, which prove the existence of a devil. Where they swarm in schools they will tear every morsel of flesh from a swimmer's body as he struggles to reach shore, and leave a dean-stripped skeleton of a mule or horse if an animal should essay to swim a stream. "FU ask, next time," said Bell rue- fully. "I'd planned a swim. But if youll fix some coffee while I finish up this raft, we'll get going. I don't think we're far from some place or other. I heard what sounded suspiciously like a motor boat, about dawn.'* SHE lqjbked at him anxiously. "Of course," said. Bell, smiling, "if the boat belonged to whoever lis- tened in on the Rio broadcast and the short-wave news, he won't be especially friendly, though he should be glad to see us. But I've been studying the map, and I have a rather hopeful idea. Let's have coffee." He. grinned as long as she was in sight,' and when he went into the cabin . of the plane he seemed more cheerful still. But the idea of floating down this nameless little jungle stream upon a raft of canes was not one that he would have chosen. It was forced upon him. To travel through the jungle it- self was next to impossible with a girl, especially as they were dressed for city streets and not at all for battling with dense and thorn-studded undergrowth. And to stay with the plane was obvi- ously absurd. Sooner or later they had to abandon it, though the moment they did desert it they would be encounter- ing not only the impersonal menace of the jungle, but the actual enmity of all the human race. The raft was the only possibility. IT floated smoothly enough when they started off, with Bell working inexpertly with his long pole to keep it in mid-stream. He was, of course, acutely apprehensive. In country like this a rapid could be expected any- where. The jungle life loomed high above their heads on either side, and Jthe life of the jungle went on undis- turbed by their passage. Monkeys gaped at them and exchanged undoubt- edly witty comments upon their ap- pearance. Birds flew overhead with raucous and unpleasant dries. Toucans, in particular, made 'a most discordant din. Once they disturbed a tiny herd pf peccaries, drinking, which regarded them pugnaciously and trotted sturdily out of sight as they came abreast. MURDER MADNESS 323 But for one mile, for two, the stream gowed smoothly. A third. . . . And pisla pointed ahead in silence. A dug- sot projected partly from the shoreline. Bell wielded his long pole cautiously now, and drew closer and ever closer to the stream bank. Paula pointed again. There was even a small dock — luxury notbinkable in these wilds. The raft touched bottom. And sud- denly from somewhere out of sight there came a horrible and a bestial Bond. It was a scream of blood-lust, of gladness, of overpowering and un- speakable rage. Following it came cackling laughter. Paula went white. "The fazenda," said Bell softly, "of the sub-deputy who was listening in on Bbiera last night. And it sounds as if axneone were very much amused. Some poor devil. . ." Paula shuddered. Tm going ashore," said Bell, smil- ing frostily. "There's nothing else to do." CHAPTER VIII CROUCHED at the edge of the jungle, where the clearing began,. Pari* heard four shots. Two in quick ■accession, and a wait ' of « minutes. Then a third, and another long wait, tal then the last. Then silence. Paula befto to shiver. Bell had helped her uhere from the raft and insisted on her waiting at the edge of the jungle. "Not that you'll be any safer,"phe had told- her grimly, "but that I may be. One person can move more quickly on two. And if I'm chased I'll plunge for 4he place you're hidden, and you ob open Ere. Then the two of us sight hold them off." "Why?" Paula said slowly. And Bell caught at her wrist. "Don't let me hear you talk like that!" he said sharply. "We're going to beat th'is thing) We've got to I And beag desperate helps, but being in despair doesn't help a bit. Buck up I" He frowned at her until she smiled. 1 will not despair again without your permission," she told him. "Real- ly. I will not." He found her a hiding-place and went cautiously out into the clearing, still frowning. HE had been gone five minutes be- ■ fore the first shot sounded, and quite ten before the last rang out dully, and was echoed and re-echoed hollowly by the jungle trees. And Paula lay waiting by the edge of the clearing, Ribiera's pearf-handled automatic in her hand — Bell had carried the rifle from the plane. Small insects moved all about her, and she heard soft rus- tlings as the life of the jungle went on over her head ~and under her feet, and terror welled up in her throat. She was trembling almost uncontrol- lably when Bell came back. He walked openly toward her hiding-place. "Paula." She came out, trying to steady her quivering lips.' "We're all right," said Bell grimly. "This is the fazenda of a sub-deputy. I suspect, also, it's an emergency land- ing field for Ribiera'on the way to that place he talked to last night. There's a two-place plane here with both wheels and floats, in a filthy little feted. It seems to be all right. We're going to take off in it and try to make Mora- dores, where your people are. What's the matter?" Her face was deaths pale. "I thought," she said with some diffi- culty, "when I Ward the shots — I thought you were killed." Bell shook his head. "I wasn't," he said grimly. "It was four other men who were killed." HE led her carefully past the house. It was a fairly typical fazeoda dwelling, if more substantial than most. It was wholly unpretentious, with whitewashed walk), and the effect of grandeur it would give to natives of this region would/come solely from the number of buildings. There were half a dozen or more. 124 ASTOUNDING STORIES "I killed four men," repeated Bell coldly. "And I'm damned glad of it. That scream we heard. ... I know pretty well what happened here last night. Remember, Rjbiera spoke of using a beam-wireless to make his re- port. He must have had a short-wave beam set somewhere on the outskirts of Rio, aimed at whatever headquarters he reports to. He's going up to that headquarters some time today, by plane, of course. He needed emergency land- ing fields along the route, and here he picked out a native and made him a sub-deputy. Charming. . \. ." Moving past the buildings, Paula caught sight of massive wooden bars set in the side of a building. Some- thing crumpled up and limp lay before them. "Don't look over there," said Bell harshly. "There was a woman in this house and she told* me what happened, though I'd guessed it before. The sub- deputy was here last night with a party of friends. Newly enslaved, some of them. He enteftained them. . . Up ^at Ribiera's place a girl told me she and | her husband had been shown a Secret Service man. ' He went 'mad before their eyes. It was an object-lesson for them, a clear illustration of what would happen to them if they ever disobeyed. I imagine that something of the sort is used by all The Master's deputies to convince their slaves of the fate that awaits them for disobedience. The local man had brought a party up to watch two men go mad. After that sight they'll be obedient." 1 HE reached a shed, huge, but in disrepair. Monster doors were ajar. Bell heaved at them and swung them wide. A small, trim, two-seated plane showed in the shadowy interior. "This is for' emergency use," said Bell grimly, "and we face an emerg- ency. Ill get it out and load it up. There's a dump of gas and bo on here. You might look around outside the door, in case the one man who got away can find someone to help stop me." He set to work checking on fuel and oil. He loaded extra gas in the front cockpit, a huge tin of it. Another would crowd him badly in the pilot's cockpit in the rear, but he stowed it tt carefully as he could. "The local sub-deputy," he added evenly, "has added to the thrill by hav- ing the two men put in one cage. He let his guests observe the progress of the madness the damned .poison pro- duces. And presently, as the madness grew, the two men fought. They were murder mad. The local sub-deputy gave his guests the thrill of watching maniacs battling to the death. He left early this morning with bis party, and I imagine that everyone was suitably submissive to his demands for the future. There were four men and a woman left as caretakers here. I found the four men before the cage, baiting the poor devil who'd killed the other last night. That's why we heard the scream. When I came up with my rifle they stared at me, and ran. U T GOT one then, and as a matter of X mercy I put a bullet through the man who'd gone murder mad. The"— Bell sounded as if he were acutely nauseated — "the man he'd killed was still in the cage. My God I . . . Then I went looking for the other three men. Wasting time, no doubt, but I found them. I was angry. I got one, and the others ran away again. A little later the third man jumped me with a knife. He slit my sleeve. I killed him. Didn't find the fourth man." Bell moved to the front of the plane. "I'll see if the catches." He swung on the stick. It went over stiffly. Again, and again. With a bel- low, the motor caught. Bell shouted in ""Paula's ear. "We'll get in. Use the*warming-up period to taxi out. We want to get away as soon as we can." He helped her up into the seat, then remembered. He rummaged about and flung a tumbled flying suit up in the cockpit with her. KURDBK MADNESS v 32S "If you get a chance, pot it on I" he ihtatsd. He stepped into a similar outfit, reached up and throttled down the motor, and kicked away the blocks B ~*»r the wheels. He vaulted up into place. And slowly and/ clumsily the (ran little ship came lurching and roll- ing out of the shed. ' THE landing field was not large, but Bell took the plane to its edge. He faced it about, and bent below the cockpit combing to avoid the slip stream and look at his maps again, brought from the big amphibian. Some- thing caught his eye. Another radio receiving set. "Amphibian planes," he muttered, "for landing on earth or water. And radios. I wonder if he has directional for a guide? It would seem sensible, tod if a plane went down the rest of them would know about where to look." Paula reached about and touched his shoulder. She pointed. There was a movement at the edge of the jungle sod a puff of smoke. A ballet went through the fusilage of the plane, inches behind BelL He frowned, grasped the stick, and gave the motor the gun. ' It lifted heavily, like all amphibians, hot it soared over the group of build- ings some twenty or thirty feet above the top of the wireless mast and went on, rising steadily, to clear even the topmost trees on the farther side of the stream by a hundred feet or more. It went on and on, roaring upward, tad the Jungle receded ever farther below it. The horizon drew back and back. At two thousand feet the earth began to have the appearance of a shal- low platter. At three thousand it was the plane and a search for landmarks, he wondered very grimly indeed what would be the state of things in that town. If in Rio, where civilization held sway, Ribiera exercised such despotic though secret power, in a squalid and forgotten little village like ''this the rule of a sub-deputy of The Master could be bestial and horrible beyond belief. E' i ASTWARD. Bell had overshot the mark the night before. Be- fore he had located himself he was quite fifty miles beyond the spot Paula had suggested as a hiding place. Now he retraced his way. A peak jutting up from far beyond the horizon was a guiding mark. He, set the plane's nose for it, and relaxed. The motor thundered on valorously. Far below was a vast expanse of thick jungle, intercepted but nowhere broken by occasional small streams, and now and then the tiny, angular things which might be houses. But^aooses were very infrequent. In the first ten miles — with a view of twenty miles in every direction — Bell picked .put no more than four small groups of buildings which might be the unspeakably isolat- ed (azendas of the folk of this region. "Ribiera was comiirg this way," he muttered. He fumbled the headphone of the radio set into place. The set seemed to be already arbitrarily tuned. He turned it on. Therejwas a monotonous series of flashes, with the singing note of a buzzer in them. A radio direction signal. "Ribiera's on the way." Bell stared far ahead, without rea- And it seemed to him that just ■ steep aided bowl, and Bell could look 1 then, against that far distant guiding e< peak, he saw a black speck "^Hng in midair. down and trace the meandering of the steam on which he had landed the night before. Not too far downstream — some fifteen miles, perhaps were the squalid, toy sized structures of a town of the far interior of Brazil He across the sky, and he never learned its name, but even in his them. Paula looked preoccupation with the management of and he pointed. He as HE pulled hack the joy stick, tached, feathery De- clouds spread climbing far behmd at him, to 326 stiffen upon sight of the other aircraft. In minutes Bell's plane .was tearing madly through sunlit fleecy monsters which looked soft and warm and allur- ing, and were cold and damp and blind- ing in their depths. Bell kept on his course. The two planes were approach- ing each other at a rate of nearly two hundred miles an hour. And then, while the harsh, discordant notes of the radio signal sounded mo- ASTOUNDING STORIES eyes narrowing suddenly. "On the direct route. Fifty miles back there's another landing field. I wonder. . . ." He was already suspicious before he flattened out above the house, while dogs fled madly. He noticed, too, that horses in a corral near the buildings showed no signs of fright. And horses are always afraid of landing aircraft, unless they have had much opportunity to grow accustomed to them. notonously in his ears, Bell stared — - Tlje little plane rolled and bumped, down and, through a rift 'between two clouds, saw the other plane for an in- stant, a -thousand feet below. The sun shone upon it fiercely. Its propeller was a shimmerihg, cobwebby disk before it. It 'seemed to hang motionless — so short was Bell's view of it — between earth and sky: a fat, glistening body as of a monstrous (in- sect. Bell could even see figures in its cockpits. Then it was gone, but Bell felt a curious hatred of the thing? Ribiera was almost certainly in it, headed for the place to which he had spoken the night before. And Bell was no longer able to think of Ribiera with any calm- ness. He felt a personal, gusty hatred for the man and all he stood for. ■ HIS face was grim and savage as his own plane sped through the clouds. But just as the two aircraft had approached each other with the combined speed of both, so they sep- arated. It seemed only a moment later that Bell dipped down below the clouds and -the other plane was visible only as a swiftly receding mote in the son- light. r "I wonderpfaud Bell coldly to him- self, with /fie thunder of the motor coming through the singing of the air route signal, "I wonder if he'll see the ship I cracked up last night?" i Paula was pointing. The shoulder of a hill upthnist beneath the jungle. The tall trees were cleared away at its crest. Small, whitewashed buildings appeared below. "Good landing field," said Bell, his' and gradually came to a stop. Bell in- conspicuously shifted a revolver to the outer pocket of his flying suit. Figures came toward them, with a certain hesi- tating reluctance that changed Bell's suspicions even while it confirmed them. "Tl AULA," he said grimly, "this is AT another landing field for Ribi- era's emergency use. It sticks out all over the place. Relatives or no rela- tives, you want to make sure of them, You understand?" Her eyes widened in a sudden star- tled fear. She caught her breath sharp- ly. Then she said quietly, though her voice trembled: "I understand. Of course." She slipped out of the plane and ad- vanced to meet the approaching figures. There were surprised, astounded excla- mations. A bearded man embraced her and shouted. Women appeared and, after staring, embraced. Paula turned to wave her hand reassuringly to Bell, and vanished inside the house. Bell looked overplus instruments, ex- amined the gas in the tank, and began to work over his maps in the blazing sunlight. He cut out the switch and the motor stopped with minor hissings of compression. The maps held his at- tention, though he listened keenly as he worked for any signs of trouble that Paula might encounter. He was beginning to have a definite idea in his mind. Ribiera had talked to a headquarters somewhere, by beam radio from Rio. | Beam wireless, of course, is nothing more or less than • MURDER MADNESS 327 concentration of a radio signal in a nearly straight line, instead of allow- ing it to spread about equally on all odes of the transmitting station. It Bikes both for secrecy and economy, pnce nearly all the power used' at the lending apparatus is confined to an arc of about three degrees of a circle. Directed to a given receiving station, itceiving outfits to one side or the other of that path are unable to listen is, and the signal is markedly stronger in the chosen path. Exactly the same process, of course, is used for radio directional signals, one of -which still based monotonously in Bell's ears cntil he impatiently turned it off. A plane in the path hears the signal. If it does not hear the signal, it is demon- strably off the straight route. BELL, then, was in a direct line from Rio to the source of a radio Cicction signal. Fifty miles back, •here the big amphibian had crashed, k was in the same air line. To extend that line on into the interior would give the destination of Ribiera, and the loca- tion of the headquarters where direct communication with The Master was nrintaincd. He worked busily. His maps were in Kparate sheets, and it took time to check the line from Rio. When imshed, he computed grimly. "At a hundred miles an hour, he was figuring the maximum distance which could plausibly be accepted as a fay's journeying by air. He surveyed the maps again. 'The plateau of Coyaba, at a guess. Hm. Fleets of ercraft could practise there and never be teen. An army could be maneuvered without being reported. Certainly the headquarters for the whole continent could be there. Striking distance of Bio, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, La Paz, mi Asuncion. Five republics." CERTAINLY, from hie figures, it seemed plausible that somewhere tp on the Plateau of Guyana — where no taut run, no boats pry, and no tele- graph line penetrates ; which juts out ultimately into that unknown region where the Rio Zingu and the Tapajoz have their origins— certainly it seemed plausible that there must lie the head- qaurters of the whole ghastly conspir- acy. There, it might be, the deadly plantB from which The Master's poison was brewed were grown. ^There the deadly stuff was measure]!* out and mixed with its temporary antidote. . . . Paula came back, a young man with her. Her eyes were wide and staring, as if she had looked upon something vastly worse than death. "He — Ribiera," she gasped. "My uncle, he owned this place. They — have him here — alive — and mad 1 And all the rest. k time to fract hen he had "\ Bell fumbled in the pocket of his fly- ing suit. The young man with Paula was looking carefully at the plane. And there was a revolver in a holster at his side. An air of grim and des- perate doggedness was upon him. "This is — my cousin," gasped Paula. "He — and his wife — and — and — " THE young man took out his weap- on. He fired. There was a clang- ing of metal, the screetch of tortured steel. Bell's own revolver^ went off the fraction of a second too Late. •You may kill me, Senhor," said the 'rig man through stiff lips. His re- volver had dropped from limp fingers. He pressed the fingers of his left hand upon the place where blood welled out, just above his right elbow. 'You may kill me. But if you and my cousin Paula escaped. . . Aave a wife, Sen- hor, and my mother, and my ■■hildrr'v Kill me if you please. It is your r^ght. But I have seen my father go mad." Sweat, the sweat of agony and of shame, came out upon his face. "I fought him, Senhor, to save the lives of all the rest. And I have spoiled your engine, and I have already sent word that you and Paula are here. Not for my own life, but . ." He waited, haggard and ashamed and desperate and hopeless. But Bell was 328 ASTOUNDING STORIES ■taring at the motor of the airplane. "Crankcase punctured," he said dully. "Aluminum. The bullet went right through. We -can-'t fly fire miles. And Ribiera knows we're here— or will." CHAPTER IX , THERE was the sound of weeping in the house, the gusty and hope- less weeping of women. Bell had been walking around and around the plane, staring at it with his hands clenched. Paula watched him. j "I am thinking," she said in an at- tempt at courage, 'fehat you said I must not despair without your permission. But—" "Hush!" said Bell impatiently. He stared at 'the engine. "I'd give a lot for a car. Bolts. . . . How many hours have we?" "Four," said Paula drearily. '"Per- haps five. You have smashed the radio in the house ?" Bell nodded impatiently. He had smashed the radio, a marvelously com- pact and foolproof outfit, arbitrarily tuned to a fixed short wave-length. It was almost as simple to operate as a telephone. There had been no opposi- tion to the destruction. Paula's cousin had disabled their plane and reported their presence. He was inside the ^ house now, sick with shame — and yet he would do the same again. In one of the rooms of the house, behind strong 'bars, a man was kept who had been an object-lesson. . "Is there any machinery ?" asked Bell desperately. "Any at all about the place?" ^ Paula shook her head. ( _ "It may be that there is a pump." Bell went off savagely, hunting it. He came back and dived into the cock- pit of the plane. He came out with a wrench, and his jaws set grimly. He worked desperately at the pump. He came back with two short, thick bolts. He crawled into the plane again, tearing out the fire wall impatiently, getting up under the motor. "We have one chance in five thou, 'sand," he said grimly from there, "of getting away from here to crash in the jungle. Personally, I prefer that to falling into Ribiera's hands. If your cousin or anybody else comes near us, out here, call me, and 111 be much obliged." THERE was the sound of scraping, patient, desperate, wholly unprom- ising scraping. It seemed to go on for L hours. "The wrench, please, Paula." She passed it to him. The bullet had ' entered the aluminum crankcase of the motor and pierced it through. By spe- cial providence it had not struck the crankshaft, and had partly penetrated the crankcase on the other side. Bell had cut it out, first of all. He had two holes in the crankcase, then, through 'which the cylinder oil had drained away. And of all pieces of machinery upon earth, an aircraft motor requires oiL Bell's scraping had been to change .the punctured holes of the bullet into cone shaped bores. The aluminum alio; was harder than pure aluminum, of course, but he had managed it with a knife. Now he fitted the short bolts in the bores, forced the threads on them to cut their own grooves, and by main strength screwed them in to a fit. He tightened them. He came out with his eyes glowing oddiy. "The vibration will work them loose, sooner or later," he observed grimly, "and they maynot be oil tight. Also, the crankshaft may clear them, and it may not. If we go up in. the ship in this state we may get five miles away, or five hundred. At any minute it may fail us, and sooner or later it will fail us. Are you game to go up, Paula?" SHE smiled at him. "With you, of course."* He began to brush off his hands. "There ought to be oil and gas here," he said briefly. "Another thing, there'll MURDER MADNESS 329 probably be some metal chips in the crankcase, which may stop an oil line at any minute. It's a form of commit- ting suicide, I imagine." He went off, hunting savagely for the supplies of fuel and lubricant which would be stored at any emerg- ency field. ' He found them. He was pouring gasoline into the tanks before what he was doing was noticed. Then there was stunned amazement in the house. When he had the crankcase full of oil the young man came out. Bell tapped his revolver suggestively. "With no man about this house," he said grimly, "Ribiera will put in otje of his own choice. And you have a Wife and children and they'll be at that man's mercy. Don't make me kill you./ Ribiera may not blame you for my es- cape if you tell him everything — and you're hurt, anyway. Either we get away, and you do that, or you're killed and we get away anyhow." He toppled two last five gallon tins of gasoline into the cockpits— crowding them abominably — and swung on the prop. The engine caught. Bell throt- tled it down, kicked away the stones with which he had blocked its wheels, and climbed up into the pilot's cockpit. With his revolver ready in his lap he taxied slowly over to a favorable start- ing point. THE ship rqse slowly, and headed west again. At three thousand feet he cut out the motor to shout to Paula. "One place is as good as another to us, now. The whole continent is closed to us by now. I'm going to try to find that headquarters and. do some damage. Afterwards, we'll see." He cut in the motor again and flew steadily westward. He rose gradually to four thousand feet, to five. . . He watched his instruments grimly, the motor temperature especially. There were flakes of metal in the oil lines. Twice he saw the motor temperature rise to a point that brought the sweat out on his face. And twice nW saw it drop again. Bits of shattered metal were in the oiling system, and they had partly blocked the stream of lubricant until the engine heated badly. And each time the vibration had shifted them, or loosened them. . . . They had left the big amphibian no earlier than nine o'clock. It was noon when they took off for the fazcada of Paula's kin. But it was five o'clock and after when they rose from there with an engine which might run indefinitely and might stop at any second. Bell did not really expect it to run for a long time. He had worked as much to cheat Ribiera of the satisfac- tion of a victory as in hopes of a real escape. But an hour, and the motor still ran. It was consistently hotter than an aero engine should >run. Twice it had gone up to a dangerous tempera- ture. One other time it had gone up for a minute or more as if the oiling system had failed altogether. But it still ran, and the sun was sinking to- ward the horizon and shadows were lengthening, and Bell began to look al- most hopefully for a clearing in which to land before the dark hours came. Then it was that he saw the planes that had been sent for him and for Paula. THERE were three of them, fast two-seaters very much like the one he drove. They were droning east- ward, with all cockpits filled, from that enigmatic point in the west. And Bell had descended to investigate a barely possible stream when they saw him. The leader banked steeply and climbed upward toward him. The others gazed, swung sharply, and came after him, spreading out as they came.' And Bell, after one instant's grim de- bate, went into a maple leaf dive for the jungle below him. The- others dived madly in his wake. He heard a sharp,- tearing rattle. A machine-gun. He saw the streaks of 'tracers going very wide. Gunfire in the air is far from accurate. A machine-giin burst from a hundred yards, when the gun 330 > ASTOUNDING STORIES has to be aimed by turning the whole madly vibrating ship, is less accurate than a rifle at six hundred, or even eight. Most aircraft duels. are settled at distances of less than a hundred yards. It was that fact that Bell counted on. With a motor that might go dead at any instant and a load of passengers and gas at least equaling that of any of the other ships, mere flight pro- mised little. The other ships, too. were armed, at any rate the leader was) and Bell had only small arms at his disposal. But a plane pilot, stunting madly- to dodge tracer bullets, has lit- tle time to spare for revolver work. Bell had but one advantage. He expected to be killed. He looked upon both Paula and himself as vefy probably dead already. And he infin- itely preferred the~clean death of a crash to either the life or death that Ribiera would offer them. Heflattened out barely twenty yards above the waving branches that are the roof of the jungle. He went scudding over the tree tops, rising" where the jungle |ose, dipping where it dropped, and behind him the foliage wa^ed wildly as if in a cyddhe. The other planes dared not follow. To dive upon him meant too much chance of a dash into the entrapping branches. One plane, indeed, did try it, and Bell scudded lower and lower until the wheels of the small plane were spinning from occasional, breath taking contacts with the feathery top- most branches of jungle giants. That other plane flattened out not less than a hundred feet farther up and three hundred yards behind. To fire on him with a fixed gun meant a dive to bring the gun muzzle down. And a dive meant a crash. l A STREAM flashed past below. There was the glitter of water, reflecting the graying sky. A down- ward co n c ut here dragged at the wings of the plane. Bell jerked at the stick, and her nose came up. There was a clashing, despite her climbing angle, of branches upon the running gear, but she broke through and shot upward, trying to stall. Beirflung her down again into his mad careering. It was not exactly safe. Of course. It was practically .a form of suicide. But Bell had not death, but life to fear. He could afford to be far more reckless than any man who desired to live. The plane went scuttling madly across the jungle tops, now rising to skim the top of a monster ceiba, now dipping deliberately. The three pursuing planes hung on- above him helplessly while the short, short twilight of the- tropica fell, and Bell went racing across the jungle, never twenty feet above the tree top and with the boughs behind him show- ing all the Agitation of a miniature hurricane. As darkness deepened, the race became more suicidal still, and there were no lighted fields nearby to mark a landing place. But as darkness grew more intense, Bell could dare to rise to fifty, then a (hundred feet above the tops, and the dangers of diving to his level remained undiminished: And then it was dark. BELL climbed to two hundred feet. To two hundred and fifty. With more freedom, now, he could take one hand from the controls. He could feel the menace of the tumultuously roar- ing motors in his wake, but he was smiling very strangely in the blackness. He reached' inside his flying suit and tore away the front of his shut. He reached down and battered in/the top of one of the five gallon gasoline tins in the cockpit with the barrel of his revolver. Be stuffed the scrap of cloth into the rent. Jit was wetted instantly by .the splashing. Another savage blow, unheard in the thunder of the motor. In thq peculiarly calm air of the cockpit the reek of gasoline was strong, but cleared away. And Bell, with the froatyj grim smile of^ a man who gambles with his life, struck , a MURDER MADNESS 331 light. The cloth flared wildly, and he reached his hands into the flame and heaved the tin of fuel overside. The cloth was burning fiercely, and spilled gasoline caught in midair. A fierce and savage flame dropped earth- ward. Spark on the cloth, and the cloud of inflammable vapor that formed where the leaking, tin fell plummet- like, carried the flame down when the wind of its fall would have blown it out. The following planes saw a flash- i ut from his destina- tion. While he was on the direct path the monotonous signals could be heard. When they weakened or died he would have left the wayK^ But they continued, discordant and harsh and monotonous, while the last faint trace of the afterglow, died away and night was complete, and a roof of many stars glittered overhead, and the jungle lay dark and deadly below him. For nearly half an hour more he kept on. Twice he switched on the instru- 338 ASTOUNDING STORIES ment board light to glance at the motor temperature. The first time it appeared a little high. The second time it was norma] again. But there was little use in watching instruments. If the motor failed there was no landing field to make for. A sudden faint glow sprang into be- ing, many miles ahead. The pinkish glare of many, many' lights turned on suddenly. As the plane thundered on the glow grew brighter. An illuminated field, for the convenience of messen- gers who carried the poison for The Master to all the nations which were to .be subjected. The glow went-out as Bell was just able ,to distinguish long rows of twin- kling bulbs/ and he saw the harshor, fiercer gloW of floodlights. He reached forward and touched Paula's shoulder. Conversation, was impossible over the motor's roar. ' Her hand reached up and pressed his. ' Then he saw other lights. Bright lights, as from houses. Arc lights as from storage warehouses, or something of the sort. A long, long row of lighted windows, which might hi dormitories or perhaps sheds in which The Mas- ter's enslaved secretaries kept the rec- ord of his victims. THE earth flung back the roaring of the little plane's motor. Bell had but little time to act before other planes would dart upward to seek him out. He dived, and the wing tip land- ing lights went on, sending fierce glares downward. Twin disks of light appeared upon the earth. Sheds, houses, a long row of shacks as if for laborers. A drying field, on which were spread out plants with their leaves turning brown. A wall about it. . . . "The damned stuff," said Bell grim- ly- He swept on. Jungle, only jangle. He banked steeply as lights flicked on and off below mi as— once — the wing tip lights showed men running fran- tically two hundred feet below. Then a stream of fire shot earthward, and Bell held up his hand and arm into the blast of the slip stream. It blew out the blaze that had licked at his flesh. He stared down. The gas can had left a trailing stream of fluid be- hind it as it went spinning down to earth. All that stream of inflammable stuff was aflame. The can Itself struck earth and seemed to explode, and the trailing mass of fire was borne onward by the wind and lay across a row of thatch-roofed buildings. An incred- ible sheet of £re spread out. The stuff in the drying yard was burning. Bell laughed shortly, and flung over another of his flaming bombs, and an- other, and the fourth. . . . HE climbed for the skies, then, as rectangles of light showed below and planes were* thrust out of their lighted hangars. Four huge conflagra- tions were begun. One was close by a monster rounded tank, and Bell watched with glistening eyes as it crept closer. Suddenly — it seemed sud- denly, but it must have been minute* later — flame rushed up the sides of that tank, there was a sudden hollow boom- ing, and fire was flung broadcast in a blazing, pouring flood. "Their fuel tank I" said Bell, his eyes gleaming in the ruddy light from be- low. He shut off this landing lights and went upward, steeply. "I've played hell with them now I" A thousand feet up. Two thousand. Two thousand five hundred. . . . And suddenly Bell felt cold all over. The instrument board I The motor was hot. Hot t Burning I He shut it off before it could burst into flames, but he heard the squealing of tortured, unlubricatod metal grind- ing to a stop. He leveled out. It was strangely, terribly silent in the high darkness, despite the roaring of wind about the gliding plane. The absence of the motor roar was the thing that made it horrible. "Paula," said Bell harshly, "one of those plugs came out, I guess. The motor's ruined. Dead. The ship's go- MURDER MADNESS 339 lug to crash. Ready with your para- chute?" IT was dark, up there, save for the glare of fires upon the under sur- face of the 1 wings. But he saw her hand, encannined by that glare, upon die combing of the cockpit. A moment later her face. She turned, light-daz- iled, to smile back at him. "AH right, Charles." Her voice qua- vered a little, but it was very brave. "I'm ready. You're coming, too?" "I'm coming," said Bell grimly. Be- low them was the city of The Master, set blazing by their doing. If their chutes were seen descending. • • • And if they were not. . . . "Count ten," said Bell hoarsely, "and pull out the ring. I'll be right after you." He saw the slim little black-clad figure drop, plummetlike, and prayed in an agony of fear. Then a sudden blooming thing hid it from Bight. Thick clouds of smoke lay over the lights and fires below. Bell stepped over the side apd went hurtling down toward the earth in his turn. (To be continued) IN THE NEXT ISSUE EARTH, THE MARAUDER Beginning a Thrilling Three 'Part Novel of an Amamg interplanetary Hegira By Arthur J. Burks THE TERROR OF AIR LEVEL 6 A Novelet of an Extraordinary Aerial Menace By Harl Vincent MURDER MADNESS Part Three of the Gripping Continued !§ovel By Murray Leinster THE FORGOTTEN PLANET One of the Fineil StorieM We Have yet PublUhed By'Sewell feaslee Wright — And Others! He aimed it, ami the Thing gripping him was hurled back ufom the others. The Cavern World By -Jennet P. OUen "-W-MPOSSIBLE! What sort of I creatures would they be, that I could live two miles beneath the surface of the earth? Sure- ly, Asher, you are joking I" R. Briggs Johns, mighty power back of Stan-America Oil Corporation, looked at Blaine Asher closely, ex- pecting to see>the chief geologist and scientist of the company laugh. But Blaine Asher did not laugh. Serious, his rather thin face grave as he leaned his tall, muscular body above a torsion machine he was adjusting, there was nothing to indicate he had the faintest idea of a joke. "Why damn it, Asher I" Johns insisted wrath- fully, "you don't really mean that, 340 THE CAVERN WORLD 341 And" — he took a nervous turn around lie laboratory — "if auch a wild thing ffere possible, what has that to do with our trouble? You haven't led roe on to spend a million dollars drilling a tMrty-six-inch hole, just so you could tetti fantastic theory?" fou know better than that." Asher wiped his hands and leaned against a table. Johns, looking into the cool gray eyes of the man before him, did know better. Blaine Asher was more tksB just a geologist or scientist. Well he might be termed a master geo-metal- largfst- Johns nodded, wiping beads of perspiration from his brow. Tfou say impbssible — and want to know how those creatures cause this field, the largest oil field in the world, to start going bone dry over night. An right: "Remember how you laughed when I told you that oil would some day be mined instead of pumped or flowed from the earth? You couldn't see how one central shaft could be sunk, then tunnels run back underneath the oil strata, tapping the sand from the bot- tom and letting the oil run down to be pumped outgone shaft. Yet, that way, we would get all the oil, instead of the possible one-eighth of the total amount at we get by present methods. "Now, you have seen that done. And yon said that was impossible." "WES," Johns objected, "but those X test wells we mined were only a few hundred feet deep. Wells in this field axe eight thousand feet deep I Think of the heat, man I You can't do it And as for people — " "Your great field has suddenly gone dry, almost in a month's time," Asher stopped him: /'What is happening here can happen elsewhere. Only, formations in this field are more suited to there being life— or something — be- low us. Stan-America is going broke. Many others have already gone broke. Still, that oil couldn't have gotten as/ay. 'As for heat — yes, we know that oil is hot when it comes up from the oil sand at eight thousand feet, or from ordinary wells at three to six thousand feet. But" — Asher lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply — "gas coming out of the same well is cold! So cold it forms frost inches thick on pipes and tanks. "Rock pressure — the pressure of the earth — forcing up the gas, causes that. Why couldn't that same pressure cool great caverns below the granite cap be- low the oil sands? It could. For that matter, I know that same pressure will generate useful power. I'll show you that in a minute." "All righf I" Johns chewed his cigar almost, savagely. "Say, then, that you can work down there, nearly two miles underground ; granted that we can tun- nel from beneath the sands and pump more oil from one central shaft than we now do from fifty wells — what has that to do with this posh about a race of people?" "They are not people, perhaps." Asher grinned at the "there, I've stuck you I" look on Johns' face. "Let's say, rather, creatures. Have you ever met Lee Wong, the great Chinese scientist, or his Russian geological collaborator, Krenski? No? "TXTELL, i have. I met them in YV Paris in 1935— five years ago. They're brilliant men, and they've pre- pared some wonderful papers. Bril- liant, I said: they are also dangerous. They claim, you know, that the fossils we now drill up come from a lost race — people who went into the earth while man, like us, wa steaming up onto the earth from the water. Some claim those fossils have been on the surface at one time, and were silted over. But eight thousand feet is a lot of silt, Johns: ever thought of that?" "Good God I" Johns gasped hoarsely. "You almost make me believe you are right. But, supposing there is such a race of things — what will you do?" "This." Asher drew back a curtain that was stretphed across one end of the laborajpry. "You know I was 342 ASTOUNDING STORIES working on a cage in which to descend into that eight-thousand-foot well you've drilled — the well you're going to use to try and find why this field Fs suddenly gone dry. • This is it." Johns' stared, shook his head wondfcr- ingly and stared again. Before hixrJt ready to be' transported to the well that was larger than any ever drilled before, stood what Blaine Asher called his Miner, for want of a better name. A thick steel tube, it was. Twelve feet long and large enough around that a man might stand inside of it. The top was welded on in mucbj the manner a top is welded on an ordinary hot- water heater, and had connections for hose in it. At the height of a man's eyes heavy windows were set in, and in one side was a door just large enough to admit a man's body. This door sealed tight the minute it closed. "It looks like — like some sort of a deep sea diving outfit," Johns said as he walked around the braces that held the Miner upright. "But all those gadgets inside and on the bottom — ?" He indicated the strange instruments that could be seen when the door was opened, and the queer glass tubes that projected from the very bottom. «« PRESSURE-POWER units— my XT own invention," Asher told him. "For ten years I've been working on this. I knew that some day I would want to explore the oil caverns beneath the earth, so I made ready. "As I told you, rock' pressure, or earth pressure, is a tremendous thing. It is power, so I figured how to use it. Under artificial pressure, I have tried out my Miner and its equipment. "Those tubes sticking from the bot- tom contain something you are familiar with: non-burning and non-explosive helium gas. I have discovered a way, by their use, to create power that will melt away rock or iron — literally dis- solve it into nothing! Not in an hour, or minutes. In seconds, Johns I "The pressure of tfie earth acts as my generator. The pressure action on latUu the filaments of platinum, and seven] compositionsNl have no time to explain now, causes heat. Call it friction of compressed air, if\you wish. As neon gases carry an electric spark, so does this helium cany the power generated by earth pressure. The pressure below earth acts on the delicate coils and points of my generator. This bit of power is carried into the helium tubes, and by a system of vacuum power, U increased millions of times. Thus, the tiny spark of a 'cigar lighter would electrocute a hundred men I" "I — you .mean somewhat like a violet ray is increased in the lightning tubes?" Johns strove to grasp the foundation of the thing. , "Yes, the foundation of it all — with, the earth's pressure the 'power motive," Asher nodded. "So, after my Miner is on the bottom of our well, I can bum < —or dissolve— U room as large as mis laboratory in a few minutes. The whole thing is no mystery after you learn it — not nearly so much as radium, or radio, was. Merely creating a spark of electricity and fanning it through s vacuum and a conductor of massed gases." "But" — Johns had unconsciously dropped his voice to a whisper — "what of these strange creatures? How would you deal with them? Damn it, Asher, I think I'm beginning to believe this nutty idea of yours. Any man who cm generate power with the pressure of air as it is packed by earth must know what he is talking about I" "I have but one protection against anything down there that tries to harm me," Asher said simply. "That is this —see?" WHAT he held up looked like an old-fashioned six-shooter. It was fitted with a platinum-sealed box in the place where a cylinder would have been. The barrel looked like some queer, blue glass. "Do you see that test tube?" Asher pointed to a glass tube on a table a few feet away. "Now watch." s THE CAVERN WOR^D 343 He pressed a tiny ratchet under his dumb. A snapping, buzzing noise £|lcd the laboratory. Johns gave an exclamation of wonder and awe. Quickly, the test tube started to melt into a pool of molten glass. Asher in- creased the pressure of his ratchet trigger. The tube was knocked to the floor. "Static electricity — always some form of electricity," said Asher grin- ning at the astonished oil baron. "Con- ductor coils here," he continued as he tipped the sealed cylinder, "are charged much as a flash-lamp battery. The charged conductors attract the static electricity of the air, and, in a Banner similar to the action of the power generator, increase power. There is a slight difference: by turn- ing quick power on my static gun, I can cause the charge to knock down tnd merely electrocute, as I knocked the half-melted tube from the table." 1 can understand that, a little," Johns sighed profoundly. "It's the mat juice that causes a gasoline truck to catch fire if you don't have a ground chain on it somewhere. But, just the one, I claim it's remarkable." "Not half as remarkable as what I expect to find two miles down when I descend to-morrow." Asher had a dreamy look in his eyes. "I wonder: sew ways to get petroleum wealth . . . f strange people. ." "1UT EN,"— Asher, a 1 tight-fitting as- JLYX bestos composition suit cover- ing him from foot to neck, spoke terse- ly— ^"when you get me on bottom, stop every bit of machinery, and don't dare pall up until I give the signal. If I'm down there the entire day, all right. Bat" — he smiled, trying to make light of the danger — "if I don't signal within tkfaty-six hours, pull up anyhow." From the bull-wheels of the drilling- rig Asher spooled out some of the air- hose cable through which air blown ever ice would be, pumped into the Miner; then when the long steel cylin- der was over the hole and ready, he turned to the company officials and government scientists and engineers around him in the boarded-up derrick. "Possibly I can get a survey in an hour. Perhaps I'll have to come back to the surface and make adjustments to my equipment. That remains to be seen. . . . Now, let's get low." He adjusted a helmet over his head. It looked much like the helmet worn by a sea diver, except that it had no connecting hose for air. The windows in the helmet, which contained pres- sure lights, worked on the same prin- ciple as the disintegrating rays of the Miner. When Asher turned the ratchet that set the little pressure machine into motion, a violet-tinged green ray of great lighting power shot out and in- creased, by weight of air, or atmos- phere beneath the earth, the power of one tiny spark a million times. Without ceremony or farewell, Asher crawled inside his tube. The door was closed and he fastened it from inside. For a moment, wild panic assailed him But he fought it off, becoming again less the feeling human and more the cold calculator of advanced science. The light from out- side, coming in through the windows of the Miner, was shut off. The long steel cage clanked against the sides of the special casing in the well, and Blaine Asher was on his trip into a lower world never before visited by man. That was what Asher believed. But, had he known what waited for him, two' miles into the bowels of the earth. • AT five hundred feet, the descent stopped, giving him time to adjust himself to the- pressure change. The gas and oil had been cased out of the hole. That is, the casing had been run on through the producing strata, shut- ting it off. Asher signaled Vf buizer, and 'a stream of the ice-washed air flowed down to him. Three thousand feet I Six thousand feet I More than a mile down I Sweat 344 ASTOUNDING STORIES poured from his body in streams, and the air coining into the Miner through the hose did not relieve him. It was hot — almost unbearably so. His ears were roaring. The dark of his tube was relieved as he turned on his pres- sure lamps. He adjusted the pressure •discs over his ears by twisting a thumb- screw on his helmet, and the pounding of his eardrums ceased. Gasping, he watched the depth meter in front of him. It did not seem as if he was moving, but the indicator now showed more than seven thousand feet. It moved around slowly and more slowly; trembled at eight thousand — and stopped. Like the snapping of a man's fingers, the temperature inside the Miner changed. Asher was now fifty feet be- low the bottom of the oil and gas sands, and if his theory'about rock pressure worked. ... It was working. Frost was forming on the inside of the Miner I "I'm right — right — right I" Asher thought, elated, sending his buzzer signal up to those so far above. The icy air through his hose changed to air of normal temperature. He sig- naled for slack in the lowering cable, then prepared for the greatest test of alL Cramped, with hardly, room to move, he studied his gages. Helium tubes at the proper pressure for compressing the tiny spark of the pressure gener- ator, so it would flare a million times stronger under the action of 'the vacuum tubes; diamond and cut-glass tubes in the bottom of the Miner, thermoed with layers of quicksilver: everything cleared, everything ready. HIS hand shaking, Asher pushed the tiny switch that brought his filament points trembling together un- der the atmospheric pressure so far underground. A tiny spark danced and throbbed through the tiny glass tube before him, beginning to buzz as it started the circuit of increasing coils, and soon humming and vibrating as the helium and vacuum tubes swelled it to full power. Spark after spark, increased almost beyond imagi. nation, followed one after another. The Miner throbbed and shook. White-faced, Asher touched the lit. tie lever that opened the blasting out- lets in the bottom. Almost instantly the Miner dropped a full six inches- went on, down to a foot. Asher, pride of success choking him, pulled the lever hard over, which brought some of the tubes beneath him spreading out, to blast away/the earth on each side of him. He signaled for more and more slack as the depth indicator showed be had burned, or disintegrated, his way down to thirty feet beyond the original boi' torn of the bole. He was below the bot- tom of the protecting wall of casing now — at the mercy of the pressure of two miles of earth. Slowly, setting all his bottom tubes to cutting away on all sides of him, he started hollowing out enough room to step out into. His lights, /when he looked through the windows, showed ghostly on earth ten feet on each side of hint Ten more minutes and he had created a room nearly twenty-five feet square — a man-made cave, two miles be- low the surface. > There was something akin to awe in the feelings of Asher when he opened the little door, crawled out and stood erect. The/pressure lamps in his hel- met lit up the room he 1 had made. There were no sounds, just a vague, ringing silence. , Then so quidfty that it robbed him of his senses, two things happened. A hundred yards away from the well in which he had descended, another well, drilled by another oil company, was shot. Three hundred quarts of nitro-glycerine were sent off in the bole. ASHER screamed and clamped his ear discs down tight. Vlt seemed the very gods of thunder were shriek- ing and raging in his head ; every nerve THE CAVERN WORLD 345 and fiber in bis body throbbed and tin- gled with .the hellish Vibration. On his knees, where the shock had thrown him, in darkness beyond de- scription, Asher realized the lights from the Miner no longer shone out. Frantically, he adjusted the small lights in his helmet and got them to ■ending off their rays again. Then, an icy hand seemed to squeeze his heart, turning his blood to ice-water in his veins. He cursed himself for not fore- seeing that some company might shoot a well close by, while he was under- ground. He turned. The Miner was all right, but Blaine Asher was trapped! For the walls of the hole below the bottom of the casing had caved. Thirty feet of rock, sand and Conglomerate matter were between him and the bottom of the pipe. f' He was trappeS — two miles below the earth. There was no hope of rescue, the hope that miners feel in deep ■hafts. There could be no rescue for Asher. No one could get to him. He cried out his horror, fighting to keep from swooning. The helmet hampered him. He turned on a small pressure lamp attached to the belt at his waist, and chanced tak- ing the helmet off. Dank and nauseouB was the air that he breathed, since it no longer came through the filters in his helmet. But it was air that would serve, nevertheless. A Crackling, rumbling sound caused him to rum quickly. Eyes wide, he ■tared at the long crack that was open- ing before him. Asher was between two layers of granite — one layer under him, and an- other above him, just below the oil •ands. Now, as the crack between these two layers widened, he could see it slope downward until it ended in a great cavern that stretched endlessly away beyond the beams of his light. IT wasn't this crack that caused Blaine Asher, an iron-hearted man of science, to choke and sag^down to a sitting position, his knees refusing to support him. No— it was the terri- ble. Godless, unbelievable Things that scurried around in the smooth rock hall that stretched away into the cav- ern. Frozen with soul-chilling fear, Asher stared with eyes that bulged. What were they? Spawned neither of God nor Satan — what could they be? Black- skinned — or was it skin? — like rubber, with round bodies, like black basket balls inflated to triple size ; bodies that seemed to ripple, distort, swell and contract with life within life. Short, foot-long stems that must have been legs, ending in round ba|ls that served as feet, no doubt. Tentacles, Asher would have called them, six feet in length, thick as mighty cables and dotted with suckers like the tentacles of an octopus. And heads — Asher gagged and vomited I Not heads. Just masses of the black body substance as large as the two fists of a man. In each head was a crooked black gash for a mouth. There were no eyes that Asher could see. Yet, these Things seemed to ,see one an- other, and emitted strange, chill, squeaking sounds! As Asher watched, the Things sensed his presence. A half hundred of them rose and started toward him. They did not walk, nor did they crawl. Un- dulating, contorting strangely, they came on with incredible speed, long tentacles waving before them; slither- ing on the rockjf floor of the cavern; making those odd squeaking noises. As they neared him, Asher sprang to his feet, backing up against the pile of savings beside the Miner. A long tentacle whipped out and wrapped around his leg. A short, snout-tentacle quivered toward his face. There was strength beyond imagining in the grip on him. ITH an almoat animal snarl the man from the earth's surface moved to protect himself from these, creatures, surely of the lowest living w 346 ASTOUNDING STORIES order. He grabbed into' the pocket of his loose asbestos composition suit, and bis fingers closed comfortingly around the static gun. He aimed it, and the Thing gripping him was hurled back upon the others. Crackling, snapping viciously, the charges of electricity that were drawn from the very earth increased in the gun and spumed out like lightning bolts. The Things squeaked excitedly and surged forward. Asher's finger^ pulled the ratchet trigger full force, and like dew before a strong shaft of sunlight, the gruesome Things were knocked away. . Hating the sight, Asher changed the charge of his gun, cutting the size of the path the volts covered, thereby in- creasing the potency of the discharge. The piled bodies sizzled, and to Asher's nose came a sulphurous smell. Then, there was nothing at all. . . * Sick, he put the gun back/nto the deep pocket and leaned on the wall. He turned around again to the pile of cavings that barred his way from the surface, and dug like a madman with his Bare hands. The Miner was weighed down, and he could not use it anyhow. The blasting tubes were on the bottom, and could not be shifted to the top. Suddenly he stopped his crazed work, raised his head and listened. "My Cod I" he gasped hoarsely, "am I stark mad?" He thought be must be, for the voice of a human being came ot his ears. "You will be pleased, Blaine Asher, to Sirn around I And do not make any foolish moves, I warn you." "Qee Wong I Krenakil" Asher turned, face to face with the super- scientists of whom he had spoken to R. Briggs Johns the day before. Asher shook his head. More of the terrible dream, this meeting two humans down in the earth's core. U R JTOST right, honorable Asher." XVX Lee Wong bowed mockingly. He and Krenaki were garbed in loose- fitting garments of much the same style as Asher. In their hands, they carried static guns. Not the small gun, such as Asher had concealed in his pocket. More like heavy air drills, they were. Asher frowned at the lamps they car- ried. He knew by the dazzling action of the rays that they were pressure lamps. But they gave off much better light than those of his own invention. They had gone him one better there. "Did— did you see them?" Asher gulped. "And how — how did you get down here ? Tell me I" He took a step toward Lee Wong, intending to lay his hand on the Chinaman, to make sure he was live flesh and blood, and not a fig- ment of his disordered brain. "Stand where you are I"' Lee Wong snapped. He held the heavy static gun up and Asher felt a light charge tingle his body. "Those Things of which you speak — I assume you mean the Pe- trolia. Ah, yes, we Bee them. Every day, we see them. For us they work. They work, my dear Blaine Asher, tap- ping upward into the oil sands; sands that are burial places of countless mil- lions of generations of Petrolia; of lost races that once ruled supreme over these underground worlds. "How simple, to take the oil from below — the oil you want so much above. Someone must do the work. ~i and Krenaki found the Petrolia ready and willing. Being creatures of feel- ing, with little sense, we were able to bend their dying wills to do our work. You see, wc made them feel we would save them, a dying race, from extinc- tion! They do our bidding." t Asher was bewildered by the enorm- ity of the thing. "You mean these Things you have called Petrolia actu- ally work for you? And that you saved them from becoming extinct?" r- *»rj»XACTLY," Lee Wong nodded, Ej seeming to be enjoying himself. "Like humans of the surface, Petrolia live on the dead. I mean, wherever we get our living food from the earth, we plant our dead back in that v earth. Petrolia are spawned in beds of pe- THE CAVERN WORLD 347 trdleum. Just as eels seek deep water to lay their eggs, so do Petrolia go to tfie oil strata to spawn future tribes. "When we pump out the oil, they have no — shall we say "hatching?" — beds. But now, by tapping and bring- ing down the oil, we have assured them more spawning pits. They will in- crease, and we have made them sense it For that matter, the very oil they breed in, gives them sustenance. That it why they are black fleshed and blooded, and have suckers instead of mouths, as a black man is black through sges beneath hot suns. "It's easy for us, who are wiser than other men, to figure what oilfield might contain such people. We have a rapid elevator connecting us to the surface. And—" * 'Then," Asher almost shouted, "I'm not trapped I" "No?" Lee Wong wrinkled his fore- head quizzically. "You should realize that we cannot allow you to go back to the surface — alive, or any other way. We intend to increase the Petrolia, spreading them to other underground, yet uninhabited worlds. You would spoil that. "No, you will never return to the sur- face. They cannot haul your tube to the top, so they will think you perished in it. And" — Lee Wong shrugged — "it might have been better if you had, Mr.—" "/ wouldn't I" the yellow man snarled. He rolled the ratchet of his static gun and Asher was hurled to the floor by the heavy shock. Wisely, he stood up, keeping bis hands well away from the pocket in which his own gun rested. He doubted whether his little static gun could compete with the guns of the others, but it was something. They had not thought to search - him — per- haps they might not. It was his only hope. LEE WONG bowed low again, mo- tioning Asher to go ahead. "Now you shall see what we have done. We ire proud, and we know you can ap- preciate our workings. You will be glad to learn why we do as we are do- ingfi you will be intrigued as a fellow scientist. Then, so sad to say, you must perish for having gained that very knowledge." Asher shrugged,* and through half- closed lids he eyed Lee Wong and the rather small, slender Krenski, of the high brow and large head. Then he walked ahead of them. Head up, shoul- ders back, be walked carelessly down the wide hall — a hall that led into the main cavern of that underground em- pire. It was large — fully a hundred feet in a rough square. Not fifteen feet from floor to ceiling at any point, it followed the course of the two layers of granite between which it was sandwiched. Other long halls, or crevices, ran in every direction out of this main cavern. In the walls, in niches and cracks, the superior pressure lamps had been placed, throwing a bright, eery light over it all. Asher recoiled suddenly at the sight of hundreds of Petrolia that swarmed the hallways, and they seemed to sense another presence beside that of Lee Wong or Krenski. A choked, gurgling sound came from the Chinaman, and they disappeared down the halls, squeaking angrily as they went. "Our control room," explained Lee Wong waving his hand about him. He pointed to a dozen twenty-four inch pipe-lines that ran along the low ceil- ing, coming from as many different halls into the room, but all going out the same large hill, larger than the rest. "There are the arteries of our system. There is the oil that is so— shall we say strangely? — missing in your wells." He smiled, a taunting, mocking light in his eyes. "You well understand how we do it. Above us, just below the oil ytrata, is ■a steel, trough-shaped roof. The oil, tapped from below, drains into these, and then into these pipe-lines. If we were working from above, now, we would run it to a central shaft, and 348 ASTOUNDING STORIES ISTm pump it out. We do not want it on the surface, however." "fry HEN why in the name of hell do X you want it?" Asher barked, a tense note of anger in his voice. "And what do you do with it?" These two were humans. At least, they were in man-form, if not in feeling* And the Petrolia could be handled. Asher was getting mad, and his fear ebbed. "Come." Lee Wong led the way under the pipe-lines, down the large hall. Kfenski, his heavy static gun ready, walked at Asher's back. They came out into another cavern that stretched beyond the powerful' lights. The sound of their voices echoed like thunder of the drums of Thor, and J Asher realized this cavern might stretch away in Stygian blackness for hundreds of miles. Asher marveled, for the floor of this cavern dropped at least five feet below the level'of the control room or incom- ing hallways, forming a natural reser- voir. A reservoir for the big streams of oil that were pouring into it from the pipe-lines. The rumble of the oil as it came in and splashed out in a never-ending' stream, and the rumble of the oil streams above them as the precious fluid flowed down into the plated drain roof, sounded like the tramp of the Weary feet of the damned, as it echoed back and forth across the mighty ^cavern. * "Our storage." Lee Wong stood at the edge, and explained. TAlso, as you may seel a concentration fincubator, or spawning bed and food storage for ojir Petrolia." Blaine Asher looked again .at the rippling oil at bis feet. He choked brokenly and stepped back a pace. For the oil hear the bank was 'alive! It rippled and splashed, teeming with life. By the strange alchemy of breed- ing in oil, and living on oil as man lives on bread, that lake of oil_ waa a mass of growing Petrolia. Millions — yes, countless billions — of them I Hide- ous, foul Things that Would be turned loose with the rest in that nightmare world — that would be taken to other buried worlds to start new races. "T*> UT why— why?" Asher almost J_) screamed the words at Lee Wong. "Petrolia will be our armies, protect- ing our underground wealth," Lee Wong answered him. "They will be our faithful workers, under no com- mand but mine. For, even Krenskj has not mastered the over-control it takes to handle them I "Gradually, as happened to the field we are now under, all oil fields will go dry. We will be getting the oil from below, and putting it in storage in mother earth. Think, Blaine Asher, what it will meant" There was a fa- natical light in Lee Wong's beady eyes. "A world without petroleum is a world without power. No oil for fuel ; no gasoline, lubricants or by-products of any sort. No airplanes could fly; tanks, tractors, oil-burning trains and ships; mechanical appliances— nothing could run. We now take the oil from America. Later, when our Petrolia have increased and we have devised means of moving them, we will go to all oil-producing countries. "We will secrete the oil and paralyze the world. Now, in Russia and China and India, our societies are organizing and growing. They will handle the weakened, powerless nations, and I shall be ruler of the universe,, surf ace and beneath, with Krenslri to aid me, you see. It is wonderful, is it not? And, knowing what you-! do, having seen what you have, could you call it impossible ?" Blaine Asher groaned. It was not impossible, he knew. Unreal; mon- strous — but never impossible. A region of hideous Petrolia; a world stripped of automotive and mechanical power, its fuel held in the hands of a few, far underground — it was terrible to think of. And Asher the only one who knew. THE CAVERN WORLD The only one who could avert such a thing. The fate of an entire world was in his hands. And he would soon die. Die? Nol Blaine Asher swore si- lently to himself that no power in exis- tence should keep him from destroying these two fiends. It had to be done! He dared not fail. <*T Tt T ONDERFUL, stupenduous VV thing," he forced himself to mile. "I'd like to grasp the hand of the genius who devised and^ carried out such a wonderful thing." I ' He took a step toward Lee Wong, right hand extended, his left slipping toward the pocket where his own static gun rested. Lee Wong extended his *wn right hand. Something in the chill, flint look of Asher's eyes must have warned him. Even as Asher's fingers closed around his hand, he tried to jerk back. "Destroy him I" he cried out to Krenski. Asher dropped to one knee, letting his static gun remain in his pocket. His left hand closed around Lee Wong's wrist as the Oriental tried to pull away. Krenski was bringing the heavy, cylinderlike gun up and aiming it at Asher. Asher twisted on one knee, his teeth gritted, braced to receive the shock from the gun. He jerked Lee Wong's arm down, heaved and came to his feet. Crying out, arms and legs flailing, the Chinaman catapulted toward Krenski —and just at the instant Krenski fired 1 The sickening srnell of cindered flesh was in Asher's nostrils as he turned and ran back up the main hallway. He glanced back dver his shoulder as he ran, and shuddered at the black mass lying at Krenski's feet. Lee Wong was no more. Wide-eyed, the Russian stared at the thing at his feet. Then, with a fiendish shriek, turned and brought the gun into line on the fleeing Asher.' A crackling charge of electricity tinged the back of Asher's head as he dove head first around the corner of ^49 the hall into the control cavern. He reasoned that Krenski had sent a full charge after him, and hope kindled higher in his breast. For Asher be- lieved his smaller static weapon was as strong as that of the other. At that, it would be a test, and Asher dared not take chances. HE crouched in the door of another hallway, waiting. Cursing, Kren- ski dashed into the control cavern. Asher brought his gun up and fired. But even as he pulled the trigger, a long tentacle reached from the dark crevice behind him and jerked his arm. His charge snapped by the Russian, warning the other that Asher, too, was dealing with powerful electric rays that meant death should they touch. Asher yielded to the tug of the slimy, sulphur-smelling tentacle, letting .it pull him into the crevice, the charges of Krenski's weapon crackling Tjy him, leaving his skin dry, and a powdery sensation in his mouth. In the shelter of the crevice, Asher turned his gun upon the Petrolia that gripped him. The tentacles fell away, fading to nothingness before the charges Aat showed quivery blue in the dark. Like catacombs, one crevice opened into another. Asher darted into the next crevice and edged cau- tiously toward the control cavern. The angry buzzing and snapping of Krenski's weapon caused him to duck instinctively, although no deadly charges came his way. "Oh, God I" be heard the Russian's high-pitched voice, agonized, wailing, "they're 'coming in — they're coming in I" / A squeaking and slithering, now greater than ever, rose above all other sounds. And Asher realized what Kren- ski meant. Lee Wong had said, that only he could control the Petrolia. They were swarming into the control room now. That was what Krenski was shooting at. The squeaking sounds came up the crevice in which Asher was and a cold, 350 ASTOUNDING STORIES . / i clammy sweat broke ounall over him. He could blast a thousand of them into nothing. But by sheer- force, more body than his fight static "gun could down, they would overwhelm him. Hirmind raced swiftly. He remem- bered the location, out in the control room, of the cage elevator that ran to the surface. It had not been hurt by the glycerine blast that had trapped Asher. The elevator shaft from the control room was cased clear into the cavern floor, and the blast had not jarred this far. .g \ HE wheeled and sent another charge of static electricity into the crevice back of him, ^hen lunged out into the control room. It would be his own weapon against Krenski's, and a chance to gain the bottom of the shaft. \ Krenski — piled, charred heaps of the Petrolia around him, which had momen- tarily cleared the attack — was running across the control room. Like* a seeth- ing wave, the foul Petrolia undulated from every crevice and hallway, com- ing in to fresh attack. The Russian, terror lending him speed, raced for the cage at the foot of the shaft that led to the surface. At the same time Asher- -ran out. • Nearly a hundred feet apart, on op- posite sides of the ' cavern, they stopped. Krenski turned his heavy weapon toward Asher at the same time Asher sent his own gun crackling and snapping out blue, fiery flame. Side-stepping, now crouching, now dodging to this side and that, they fought their strange duel. Asher'a right arm was burned, his hair singed from his head, and his body jarred again and again as Krenski touched him. Krenski, groaning through} gritted teeth, suffered bums all over his chest and left leg. As the Petrolia came on, and the lightning play, of deadly electric charges continued, Asher made a dis- covery. He noticed that the rays, or charges, of the two guns, when they met in mid-air, caused blue flame, and that the charges went no farther. It did it again. The two charges met, crackled to explosion in the air. Krenski, too, noticed it, and he also noticed that the Petrolia were almost upon them again. Coming on in a wave that could not be hurled back. HE looked at Asher, and met the dare in Asher'a eyes. Straight at each other, neither moving, they shot their static, charges. Neither would move: it was a challenge from Asher that Krenski had to meet. One of them would have to die before the other would be able to gain the cage in the shaft. There could be no compromise, and only one man at a time could go surfaceward. If they continued to dodge and fight, the Petrolia would overwhelm them. Power against power, they fought it out. Asher's finger tightened on his trig- ger release until it seemed the skin would split; then he caused his hand to tremble just enough to make hii electric charges cover the space in which . Krenski's charges traveled. Hissing, spitting, flashing explosions, giving off sounds and light like big explosions of flash powder, the charges met. Asher tingled from head to foot, and thrilled to the very marvel 67 the thing. Two deadly beams pf electricity, hold- ing each other off I In one long, continuous flash, -the contact point of the charges began to shift. Closer and closer, as the force of superior charges cleaved through the other, the contact points neared Krenski. He saw death upon him, for, in another instant, Asher's charges would hurl his own bolts back upon him. The smaller weapon of Blaine Asher, attracting more static electric currents by reason of having a small attracting battery, inside, where the larger gun of the jsther depended upon magnets for attraction, was triumph- ing. V THE CAVERN WORLD 351 Krenaki's mustache and light beard tinged and curled. He cried out, stepped back, throwing up his arms as death flashed through his body. HIS gun playing about him, Asher raced toward the big valves and gates that shut off the drain of the pipe-lines. Burning, reeking of sul- phur and burned leather, the Petrolia vanished before him. But, as he turned, the drainage system that was robbing the field shut «H. They had blocked his way again I Too many to blast away altogether, they pressed in. Asher leaped forward, feet kicking, left fist smashing out, static gun crackling as if tovtell him that nothing could stop them. Ten- tacles gripped at him, the foul, stink- ing smell gagged him. But the squeaks of the Petrolia maddened him. "Squeak, damn you I" Asher shouted wildly, kicking, shooting and hitting, gaining toward the shaft. "Squeak — for all the damned Things that ever bred below the earth cannot stop one surface man I" He burned and fought his way through and jumped into the cage as his gun electrocuted two of the Pet- rolia that tried to weave in after him. As he slammed the door, Asher was conscious that something was happen- big. He hesitated, just long enough to •ee the cavern start buckling and cav- ing. ' The pressure of the oil, now shut off, was filling back toward the sur- face, creating a mighty pressure down- ward. The surface wells would pro- duce man's power-fuel once more. Asher slammed the door, turned on the power, and the cage" shot upward. A half hour later, those waiting on the floor of the derrick above the hole in which Asher bad gone down, started. Asher, burned, wounded, blood stream- ing from his battered body, staggered in and collapsed at their' feet. "T CAN'T believe it I Insane I Impos- X siblel Yet, every well in this field has started producing again I And when we went to that old,' abandoned wildcat well, we found the shaft open- ing I I had it covered up, as you or- dered." R. Briggs Johns paced up and down the laboratory floor, talking to Asher, who had just arisen from his bed, two weeks after he had collapsed at their feet in the derrick. Still bandaged,. he was a different Blaine Asher. His face was lined, and the hair next to his scalp nearly snow white. "I'll be able x to do some walking around outside in a few days," Asher declared as he cleaned a test tube 1 and placed it in a rack. "I can locate sev- eral wells over that underground stor- age cavern, and you can recover that oil. But you can't mine this field. "Twenty years, perhaps, and you can. But it will take that long for those Petrolia to die out. We've got to get the. oil out from below to a point where they can ho longer spawn. We will apply mining in other fields — but not here!" "Not here," Johns repeated, shudder- ing. "It's up to you to see no one else tries it." Asher lit a cigarette and nodded at Johns? "Get control of the field — anything. Tell the oil men something". But don't tell them the truth. They wouldn't believe you. They would call you raving mad. "The world does not know. It would not believe.' Can we do other than remain silent ?" R. Briggs Johns, sick of thinking of the cavern world and horrible things below them, knew they could not. Like featkers m* wrt blot witk it. Brigands of the Moon (The Book of Gregg Haljan) CONCLUSION OF A FOUR-PART NOVEL By Ray Gumming* CHAPTER XXXIV The First Encounters IT seemed, with that first shot from the enemy, that a great relief came to me — an apprehension fallen away. We had anticipated this moment for so long, dreaded it. I think all our men felt it. A shout went up : "Harmless !" It was not that. But our building withstood it better than I had feared. It was a flash from a large electronic projector mounted on the deck of the brigand ship. It stabbed up from the shadows across the valley at the foot The Iwniagwl Earth-men wage grim, ultra scientific war with Martian hancSti in I lait great straggle for their radiant-ore — and their lives. of the opposite crater-wall, V beam of vaguely fluorescent light. Simultane- ously the search-light vanished. The stream of electrons caught the front face of our main building in a six-foot circle. It held a few seconds, vanished ; then stabbed again, and still again. Three bolts. A total, I suppose, of nine or ten seconds. I was standing with Grantline at a front window. We had rigged an oblong of insulated fabric like a cur- tain; we gtood J peering, holding the curtain cautiously aside. The ray •truck some twenty feet away from us. "Harmless!" 352 BRIGANDS OF THE MOON 353 The men in the room shouted it with derision. But Grantline swung on them. "Don't think thatl" An interior signal-panel was beside Grantline. He called the duty-men in the instrument room. "It's over. What are your readings?" $. THE bombarding electrons had passed through the outer shell of the building's double-wall, and been ab- sorbed in the rarefied, magnetized air- current of the Erentz circulation. Like poison in a man's veins, reaching his heart, the free alien electrons had dis- turbed the motors. They accelerated, then retarded. Pulsed unevenly, and drew added power from the reserve tanks. But they had normalized at once when the shot was past. The duty-man's voice sounded from the grid in answer to Grantline's question : "Five degrees colder in your build- ing. Can't you feel it?" The disturbed, weakened Erentz cir- culation had allowed the outer cold to radiate through a trifle. The walls had had a trifle extra explosive pressure, from the room-air. A strain — but that was all. "It's probably their most powerful •ingle weapon, Gregg," Grantline said. I nodded. "Yes. I think so." I bad smashed the real giant, with its ten-mile range. The ship was only two miles from us, but it seemed as though this projector were exerted to its distance limit. I had noticed on the- deck only one of this type. The others, paralyzing-rays and heat rays, were less deadly. Grantline commented : "We can with- stand a lot of that bombardment. If we stay inside — " That ray, striking a man outside, would penetrate his Erentz suit within a few seconds, we could not doubt. We had, however, no intention of go- ing out unless for dire necessity. "Even so," said Grantline, "A hand- shield would hold it off for a certain length of time." E had an opportunity a moment later to test our insulated shields. The bolt came again. It darted along the front face of the building, caught our window and clung. The double window-shells were our weakest points. The sheet of flash- ing Erentz current was transparent; we could see through it as though it were glass. It moved faster, but was thinner at the windows than in the walls. We feared the bombarding elec- trons might cross it, penetrate the in- ner shell and, like a lightning bolt, en- ter the room. We dropped the curtain comer. The radiance of the bolt was dimly visible. A few seconds, then it vanished again, and behind the shield we had not felt a tingle. "Harmless I" But our power had been drained nearly an aeron, to neutralize the shock to the Erentz current. Grantline said: "If they kept that up, it would be a question of whose power supply would last longest. And it would not be ours. . . . You saw our lights fade down while the bolt was striking?" But the brigands did not know we were short of power. And to fire the projector with a continuous bolt would, in thirty minutes, perhaps, have ex- hausted their own power-reserve. This strange warfare I It was new to all of us, for there^had been no wars on any of the three inhabited worlds for many years. Silent, electronic con- flict! Not a question of men in battle. A man at a switch on the brigand ship was the sole actor so far in this as- sault. And the results were visible only in the movement of the needle- dials on our instrument panels. A struggle, so far,', not of man's bravery, or skill, or strategy, but merely of electronic power supply. YET warfare, however modern, can never transcend the human ele- ment. Before this assault was ended. I was to have many demonstrations of thatl W 354 ASTOUNDING STORIES "I won't answer them," Grantline declared. "Our game is to sit defen- sive. Conserve everything. Let them make the leading moves." * We waited half an hour, but no other shot came »The valley ' floor was patched with Earthlight and shadow. We could see the vague outline of the brigand ship backed up at the foot of the opposite crater-wall. The form of its dome over the illumined deck was' visible, and the lim of its tiny hull ovals. On the rocks near the ship, helmet- lights of prowling brigands occasion- ally showed. Whatever activity was going on down there we could not see with the naked eye. Grantline did not use our telescope at first. To connect it, even for local range, drew on our precious ammunition of power, Some of Vie men urged that we search the sky with the telescope. J Was our rescue ship from Earth coming ? But Grantline re- fused. We were in no trouble yet. And every 'delay was to our advantage. "Commander, where shall I put these helmets?" A man came wheeling a pile of hel- t nlets on a little truck. "At the manual port e— other' build- ing." • Our weapons and outside equipment were massed at the main exit-locks of the large building. But we might want to sally out through the smaller locks also. Grantline sent helmets there; suits were not needed, as most of us' were garbed in them now, but without the helmets. SNAP was still in the workshop. I went there during this first half- hour of the attack. Ten of our men were busy there with tne little flying platforms and the fabric shields. "How is it, Snap?" "Almost all ready." He had six of the platforms, includ- ing the one we had already used, and more than a dozen hand-shields. At a squeeze, all of us could ride on these six little vehicles! We might have to ride them! We planned that, in the event of disaster to the buildings, we could at least escapt in this fashion. Food supplies and water were now be- ing placed at the portes. Depressing preparations I Our build- ings uninhabitable, a rush out and away, abandoning the treasure. . . . Grantline had never mentioned such a contingency, but. I noticed, neverthe- less, that preparations were being made. "Only that one shot, Gregg?" Snap's voice was raised over the clang jjf the workmen bolting the lit- tle gravity-plates of the last platform. "Four blasts. But just the one pro- jector. Their strongest." He grinned. He wore no Erentz suit as yet. He stood in torn grimy work- trousers and a bedraggled shirt, with the inevitable red eyeshade holding back his unruly hair. Around his waist was the weighted belt, and there were weights on his shoes for gravity sta- bility. "Didn't hurt us much." "No." "When I get the tube-panels in this thing I'll be finished. It'll take an- other half-hour. I'll join you. Where are you stationed?" ) SHRUGGED. "I was- at a front window with Johnny. Nothing to do as yet." Snap wenf back to his work. ".Well, the longer they delay, the better for us. If only your signal got through, Gregg I We'll have a rescue ship here in a few hours more." Ah, that "if!" I turned away. "Can't help you, Snap?" "No. Take those shields," he added to one of the men. "Take them where?" "To Grantline. The front admission porte, or the back. He'll tell you which." The shields were wheeled away on a little cart. I followed it. Grantline sent it to the back exit. I BRIGANDS OF THE MOON 355 "No other move from them yet, Johnny?" "No. All quiet." "Snap's almost 6nished." The brigands presently made another play. A giant heat-ray beam came across the valley. It clung to our front wall for nearly a minute. Grantline got the reports from the: instrument room. He laughed. "That helped rather than hurt us. Heated the outer wall. Frank took advantage of it and eased up the motors." We wondered if Miko knew that. Doubtless Ee did, for another interval passed and the heat-ray was not used again. THEN came a zed-ray. I stood at the window, watching it, faint sheen of beam in the dimness. It crept with sinister deliberation along our front building-wall, clung momentarily to our shielded windows and Pried with its revealing glow into Snap's workshop. "Looking us over," Grantline com- mented. "I hope they like what they tee." I knew he did not feel the bravado that was in his tone. We had nothing He was testing his short-range pro- jectors now. With my eyes again ac- customed to the normal Earthlight in the valley, I could see the stabs of little electronic beams, the Martian paralyz- ing-rays and heat-beams. They darted out like flashing swords from the rocks near the ship. Then the whole ship and the crater- wall behind it seemed to shift sidewise as a Benson curve-light spread its glow about the ship, with a projector curve- beam coming up and touching the win- .dow through which I was peering. "Haljan, come look at these damn girls I Commander — shall I stop them? They'll kill themselves, or kill us — or smash something I" r E followed thf man intb the building's broad 'central corri- dor. Anita and Venza were riding a midget flying platform! Anita, in her boyish black garb ; Venza, with a flow- ing white Venus-robe. They lay on the tiny, six-foot oblong of metal, one manipulating its side shields, the other at the controls. As we arrived, the platform came sliding down the narrow confines of the corridor, lurch- ing, barely missing a door-grid projec- tion. Up to skim the low vaulted ceil- but small hand weapons: heat-rays^**ng, then down to the floor, electronic projectors, and bullet pro- jectors. All for very short-range fight- ing. If Miko had not known that be- fore, he could at least make a good guess at it after the careful zed-ray in- spection. With his ship' down there two miles away, we were powerless to reach him. It seemed that Miko was now testing the use of all his mechanisms. A light- flare went up from* the dome-peak of the ship. It rose In a slow arc over the valley, and burst. For a few seconds the two-mile circle of crags was brilliantly illumined. I stared, but I had to shield my eyes against the dazzling actinic glare, and I could see nothing. Was Miko making a zed-ray photograph of our interiors? We had no way of knowing. It sailed past our heads, rising over us. as we ducked. Anita waved her hand. Grantline gasped, "By the infernal I"- I shouted, "Anita, stop I" - But they only waved at us, skim- ming down the length of the corridor, seeming to avoid a smash a dozen times by the smallest mai%in of chance, stop- ping miraculously at the further end, hanging poised in mid-air, wheeling, coming back, undulating up and down. Grantline clung to me. "By the gods of the airways I" In spite of my astonished horror I could not but share Grantline's obvi- ous admiration. Three of four other men were watching. The girls were amazingly skillful, no doubt of that. There was not a man among us who ASTOUNDING STORIES could have handled that gravity-plat- form indoof a, not one who would have had the braah*f emerity to try it. The platform landed with the grace of a humming bird at jour feet, the girls dexterously balancing so that it came to rest swiftly, without the least bump, I confronted them. "Anita, what are you doing?" She stood up, flushed and smiling. "Practising." Imperturbable girls! The product of their age. Oblivous to the brigand atj tack, they were in here practising! "What for?" I demanded. Venza's roguish eyes twinkled at me. Her hands went to her slim hips with a gesture of defiance. She asked, "Are you speaking for yourself or the commander?" I IGNORED her. "What for?" I re- iterated. "Because we're good at it," Anita re- torted. "Better than any of /ou men. If ypu should need us. . . ." "We don't. We won't," I said short- ly- "But if you should. wVenza put in, "If Snap and I hadn't come for you, you wouldn't be here, -Gregg Hal j an. I didn't notice you were so horrified to see me holding that shield up over you!' It silenced me. She added, "Commander, let us alone. We won't smash anything." Grantline laughed, "I hope you won't l' 1 A warning call took us back to the front window. The brigand's search- beam /was again being used. It swept slowly along the length of the cliff. Its circle went down the cliff steps to the valley floor, and came sweeping up again. Then it went up to the observa- tory platform at the summit above us, then back and crept over to the ore- sheds. We had no men outside, if that was what the brigand wanted to determine. The search-beam presently vanished. It was replaced immediately by a zed- ray, which darted at once to our trea- sure sheds and clung. That stung Grantline into his first action. We flung our own zed-ray down across the valley. It reached the brigand ship ; this zed-ray and a search- . light were our only two projectors of long range. The brigand ray vanished when ours flashed on. I was with Grantline at an image grid in the instrument room We saw the deck of the brigand ship and the blurred interior of the cabins. "Try the search-beam, Franc*. We don't need the other." The zed-ray went off. We gazed down our searchlight which clung ta the dome of the distant enemy vessel. We could see movement there. "The telescope," Grantline ordered. THE little dynamos burned. The telescope-finder glowed and clari- fied. On the deck of the ship we saw the brigands working with the assem- bling of ore-carts. .A deck landing, porte was open. The ore-carts were being carried out through a porte-lock and down a landing incline. And on the rocks outside, we saw several of the carts — and rail-sections and the sections of an ore-sbnte. Mike/ was unloading his mining ap- paratus^ He was making ready to come up for the treasure I The discovery, startling as ft was, nevertheless was far overshadowed by an imperative danger alarm from our main building. Brigands were outside on our ledge ! Miko's search-beam, sweeping the ledge a moment before, had carefully avoided revealing them. It had been done just for that purpose, no doubt — making us sure that the ledge was unoccupied and thus to guard against our own light making a search. • But there was a brigand grimp here close outside our walls ! By the merest chance the radiating glow from our search-ray had shown the helmet ed figures scurrying for shelter. Grantline leaped to his feet.'' BRIGANDS OF THE MOON 357 We rushed for the rear exit-porte which was nearest us. The giant bloated figures had been seen running along the outside of the connecting corridor, in this direction. But before we ever got there, a new alarm came. A brigand was crouching at a front corner of the main building I His hy- drogen heat-torch had already opened a rift in the wall I CHAPTER XXXV Desperate Offensive «TN with you I" ordered Grantline. J. "Get you. helmets on! How many? SiK? Enough — get back there, Wil- liams — you were laBt. The lock won't hold any more." I was one of the six who jammed into the manual exit lock. We went through it; in a moment we were out- side. It was less than three minutes since the prowling brigands had been seen. Grantline touched me just as we emerged. "Don't wait for orders! Get them!" 'That fellow with the torch, the most dangerous — " "Yes! I'm with you." We went out with a rush. We had already discarded our shoe and belt weights. I leaped, regardless of my companions. The scurrying Martians had disap- peared. Through .my visor bull'seye I could see only the Earthlit rocky sur- face of the ledge. Beside me stretched the dark wall of our building. I bounded toward the front. The brigand with the torch had been at this front corner. I could not see him from here: he had been crouching just around the angle. I had a tiny bullet projector, the best weapon for short range outdoors. I was aware of Grantline close behind me. It took only a few of my giant^eaps. I landed at the corner, recovered my balance, and whirled around to the front. The Martian was here, a giant misshapen lump as he crouched. His torch was a little stab of blue in the deep shadow enveloping him. Intent upon his work, he did not see me. Per- / haps he thought his fellows had broken' our exits by now. j 1 LANDED like a leopard upon his back and fired, my weapon muzzle ramming him. His torch fell hissing with a silent rain of blue fire upon the rocks. As my grip upon him made audi- phone contact, his agonized scream rat- tled the diaphragms of my ear-grids with horrible, defening intensity. He lay writhing under me, then was still. His scream choked into silence. His suit deflated within my encircling grip. He was dead; my leaden, steel- tipped pellet had punctured the double surface of his Erentz-fabric, pene- trated his chest. Grantline's following leap landed him over me. "Dead?" "Yes." I climbed from the inert body. The torch had hissed itself out. Grantline swung on our building corner, and I leaned down, with him to examine it. The torch had fused and scarred the surface of the wall, burned almost through. A pressure-rift had opened. We could see it, a curving gash in the metal wall-plate like a crack in a glass window-pane. I went cold. This was serious dam- age! The rarefied Erentz-air would seep out. It was leaking now: we could see the magnetic radiance of it all up the length of the ten-foot crack. The leak would change the pressure of the Erentz "system, constantly lower it, demanding steady renewal. The Erentz motors would overheat ; some might go bad from the strain. Grantline stood gripping me. "Damn bad I" "Yes. Can't we repair it, Johnny?" "No. Have to take that whole plate- section out, shut off the Erentz plant 358 ASTOUNDING STORIES and exhaust the interior air "of all this bulkhead of the building. ' Day's job- maybe more." AND the crack would get worse, I knew. It would gradually spread and widen. The Erentz circu- lation would fail. All our, power would be drained struggling to maintain it. This brigand who had unwittingly committed suicide by his daring actj had accomplished more than he per- haps had realized. I could envisage our weapons, useless from lack of pow- er. The air in our buildings turning fetid and frigid; ourselves forced: to % the helmets. A rush out to abandon the camp and escape. The buildings exploding — scattering into a litter on the ledge like a child's broken toy. The treasure abandoned, with the brigands coming up and loading it on their ship. Our defeat. "^B-a few hourafnow — or minutes. This crack could slowly widen, or it could break suddenly at any time. "Disaster, come now so ab- ruptly upon us at the very start of the,' /bqigand attack. . . ' j Grantline's voice in my audiphone broke my despairing rush of thoughts. "Bad. Come on, Gregg; nothing .to do here." We were aware that our other four men had run along the building's other side. They emerged now — with the running brigands in front of them, rushing out toward the staircase on the ledge. Three giant Martian figures in flight, with our four men chasing. A bullet projector spat, with its queer stab of exploding powder fed by the buring oxygen fumes of its arti- ficial air-chamber — one of our men fir- ing. A brigand fell to the rocks by the brink of the ledge. The others reached the descending staircase, tum- bled down it wfth reckless leaps. Our men turned back. Before we could join them, the enemy ship down in the valley sent up a cautious search-- beam which located its returning men. Then the beam swung up to the ledge, landed upon us. , We stood confused, blinded by the brilliant glare. Grantline stumbled against me. "Run, Gregg I They'll be firing at UB." We dashed away. Our companions joined us, rushing back for the porte. I saw it open, reinforcements coming out to help us — half a dozen figures carrying a ten-foot insulated shield. They could barely get it out through the porte. THE Martian search-ray abruptly vanished. Then almost instantly the electronic ray came with its deadly stab. Missed us at first, as we ran for .the shield. It vanished, and) stabbed ■again. It caught us, but nowiwe were \behind the shield, carrying it back to the porte, hiding behind it. The ray stabbed once or twice more. ,. Whether Miko's instruments showed him how serious that damage was to / our front wall, we never knew, JBut I think that he realized. His search- beam clung to it, and his zed-ray pried into our interiors. ' The brigand ship was active I now. We were desperate; we used our tele- scope freely for observation. And used our zed-ray and search-light. Miko's ore-carts and mining apparatus were unloaded on the rocks. T,he rail- sections were being carried a mile out, nearly to the center of the valley. A subsidiary camp was being established there, only a mile from the base of our cliff, but still' far beyond reach of our weapons. We could see the brigand lights down there. Then the ore-shute sections were brought over. We could see Miko's men carrying some of the giant pro- jectors, mounting them in the new po- sition. Power tanks and cables. Light- flare catapaults — little mechanical can- nons for throwing the bombs. The enemy search-light constantly raked our vicinity. Occasionally the giant electronic projector flung up its bolt as though warning us not to dare leave our buildings. BRIGANDS OF THE MOON 359 HALF an hour went by. Our situ- ation was even worse than Miko could know. The Erentz motors were running hot— our power draining, the crack widening. When it would break we could not tell; but the danger was like a sword over us. An anxious thirty", minutes for us, this second interlude. Grantline called a meeting of all our little force, with evefy man having his say. Inactivity was no longer a feasible policy. We recklessly used our power to search the sky. Our rescue ship might be up there; but we could not see it 'with our disabled instruments. No signals came.* We could not — or, at least, did not — receive them. "They wouldn't signal," Grantline protested. "They'd know the Martians would be more likely- to get the signal than us. Of what use to warn Miko?" But he did not dare wait for a rescue ship that mignt or might not be com- ing I Miko was playing the waiting game now — making ready for a quick loading of the ore when we were forced to abandon our building!. The brigand ship\Aiddenly moved its position 1 It rose op in a low flat arc, came forward and settled in the center of the valley where the carts and rail-sections were piled, and the 'out- side projectors newly mounted on the rocks. But the projectors only shot at us occasionally. The ^rigands now began laying the rails from the ship. toward the base of our cliff. The chute would bring the ore down from the ledge, and the carts would take it to the ship. The laying of the rails was done under cover of occasional stabs from the electronic projector. And* then we discovered that Miko had made still another move. The brigand rays, fired from the depths of the valley, could strike our front build- ing, but could not reach all our ledge. And from the ship's new and nearer position this disadvantage was intensi- fied. Then abruptly we realized that under cover of darkness-bombs an elec- tronic projector and search-ray had been carried to the top of the crater- rim, diagonally across and only half a mile from us. Their beams shot down, raking all our vicinity from this new angle. 1WAS on the little flying platform which sallied out as a test to attack these isolated projectors. Snap and I and one other volunteer went. He and I held the shield; Snap handled the controls. Our exit-porte was on the lee side of the building from the hostile search- beam. We got out unobserved and sailed upward; but soon a light from the ship caught us. And the projector bolts came up. . . . Our sortie only lasted a few minutes. To me, it was a confusion. of crossing beams, with the stars overhead, the swaying' little platform under me, and the shield tingling in my hands when the blasts struck us. Moments of blurred terror. . . . The voice of the man beside me sounded in my ears: "Now, Haljan, give them onel" We were up over the peak of the rim with the hostile projectors under us. I gauged our movement, and dropped an explosive powder bomb. It missed. It flared with a puff on the rocks, twenty feet from where the two projectors were mounted. I saw that two helmeted figures were down there. They tried to swing their grids upward, but could pot get them vertical to reach us. The ship was firing at us, but it was far away. And Grantline's, search-beam Was going full-power, clinging to the ship tb dazzle them. Snap circled us. Av we came back I dropped another bomb. Its silent puff, seemed littered with flying fragments of the two projectors and the bodies of the men. We flew swiftly back and got in. IT decided Grantline. For an hour past Snap and I had been urging our plan to use the gravity platforms. To ASTOUNDING STORIES remain inactive was sure defeat now. Even if our buildings did not explode — if we thought to huddle in them, hel- tneted in the failing air — then Miko could readily ignore us arid proceed with his loading of U. ;rcn=ure under our helpless gaze. He lo_!J ~o that now with safety — if we refused to Bally out — for we could not fire our weapons through our windows.* To remain 'defensive would end in- evitably in our defeat. We all knew it. now; it was obvious. The waiting game was Miko's — not ours I And he was playing it. The success of our attack upon the distant isolated projectors heartened us. Yet it was a desperate offensive indeed Upon which we how decided I We prepared our little expedition at the larger of the exit portes. Miko's zed-ray was watching all our interior movements. We made a brave show of activity in our workship with aban- doned ore-carts which were stored there. We got them out, started to re- condition them. It seemed to fool Miko. His zed-ray clung to the workshop, watching us. And at the distant porte we gathered (the little platforms, the shields, hel- mets, bombs, and a few hand-projectors. There were six platforms — three of us upon each. It left four people to remain indoors. I NEED not describe the emotion with which Snap and I listened to Venza and Ajiita pleading to be allowed to accompany us. They urged it upon Grantline, and we took no part. It was too important a decision. The treasure — the life or death of all these men — hung now upon the fate of our venture. Snap and I could not intrude our per- sonal feelings. -f * To fire a projector through the walls or windows would at once wreck the protective Ercntr 'system. The enemy ship had pres- sure fortes, constructed for the emission of the weapon-rays. Qrantline'a only weapons thus mounted were his search-beam and zed- ray. And the girls won. Both were un- deniably more skilful at handling the midget platforms than any of us men. Two of the six platforms could be guided by them. That was a third of our little force I And of what use to go out and be defeated, leaving the girls here to meet death almost imme- diately afterward? We gathered at the porte. A last minute change made Grantline order six of his men to remain guarding the buildings. The instruments — the Erentz system — all the appliances had to be attended. • It left four platforms, each with three men, with Grantline at the con- trols of one of them. And upon the other two of the six Venza rode with Snap, and I with Anita. We crouched in thye shadows outside the porte. So small an army, sallying out to bomb this enemy vessel or be killed in the attempt I Only sixteen of us. And thirty or so brigands. I envisaged then this tiny Moon- crater, the scene of this battle we were waging. Struggling humans, desper- ately trying to kill. Alone here on this globe. Around us, the wide reaches of Lunar desolation. In all this world, every human being was gathered here, struggling to kill! Anita drew me down to the platform. "Ready, Gregg." The others were rising. We lifted, moved slowly out and away from the protective shadows of the building. In a tiny queue the six little plat- forms sailed out over the valley toward the brigand ship. CHAPTER XXXVI The Battle in the Crater GRANTLINE led us. We held about level. Five hundred feet beneath us the brigand ship lay, cradled on the rocks. When it was still a mile away from us I could see all its outline fairly clearly in the dimness. Its tiny hull-windows were now dark; but the blurred shape of the hull was Visible, BRIGANDS OF THE MOON 361 md above it the rounded cap of dome, trith a dim radiance beneath it. We followed Grantline's platform.- It was rising, drawing the others after, it like a tail. I touched Anita where she lay beside me with her bead half in the small hooded control-bank. "Going too high." ( She nodded, , but followed the line nevertheless. It was Grantline's com- mand. I lay crouched, holding the inner tips of the flexible side-shields. The bot- tom of the platform was covered with the insulated fabric. There were two side-shields. They extended upward some two feet, flexible so that I could hold them out to see over them, or draw them up and in to cover us. They afforded a measure of protec- tion against the hostile rays, though just how much we were not sure. With the platform level, a bolt from beneath could not harm ub unless it continued (or a considerable time. But the plat- form, except upon direct flight, was seldom level, for it was a frail, un- stable little vehicle I To handle it was more than a question of the controls. We balanced, and helped to guide it, with the movement of our bodies — shifting our weight sidewise, or back, or forward to make it dip as the con- trols altered the gravity-pull in its tiny plate-sections. Like a bird, wheeling, soaring, swooping. To me, it was a precarious business. BUT now we were in straight flight diagonally upward. The outline of the brigand ship came under us. I crouched tense, breathless; every mo- ment it seemed that the brigands must discover us and, loose their bolts. They may have seen us for some mo- ments before they fired. I peered over the side-shield dowji at our mark, then up ahead to get Grantline's firing sig- nal It seemed long delayed. We were ibnoat over the ship. An added glow down there must have warned Grant- line that a shot was coining. The tiny red light flared bright on his platform. I hissed on our Benson curve-light radiance. We had been dark, but a soft glow now enveloped us. Its sheen went down to the ship to reveal us. But its curving path showed us falsely placed. I saw the little line of plat- forms ahead of us seem to move sud- denly sidewise. It was everyone for himself now; none of us could tell where the other platforms actually were placed or head- ed. Anita swooped us sharply down to avoid a possible collision. "Gregg—?" "Yes. I'm aiming." I was making ready to drop the little explosive globe-bomb.'. Our search- light ray at the camp, answering Grant- line's signal, shot down and bathed the ship in a white glare, revealing it for our aim. Simultaneously the brigand bolts came up at us. I held my bomb out over the shield, calculating the angle to throw it down. The brigand rays flashed around me. They were horribly close; Miko had understood our sudden visible shift and aimed, not where we appeared to be, but where we had been a moment before. I DROPPED my bomb hastily at the gtewing white ship. The touch of a hostile ray would have exploded i( in my hand. I could see its blue-sizzling fuse as it fell.. I saw the others also dropping from our nearby platforms. The explosions from them merged in a confusion of the white glare — and a cloud- of black light-nyist as the brig- ands out on the. rocks used their odcult- ing darkness bombs. We swept past in a blur of leaping hostile beams. Silent battle of lights I Darkness bombs-, down at the ship struggling to bar our camp search-ray. The Benson radiance-rays from our passing platforms curving down to mingle with the confusion. The elec- tronic rays Bending up their bolts. Our platforms dropped some ten dynamitrine bombs in that first passage 362 ASTOUNDING STORIES over the ship. As we sped by, I dimmed the Benson's radiance. I peered. We had not hit the ship. Or if we had, the damage was inconclusive. But on the rocks I could see a pile of ore-carts scattered — broken wreckage, in which the litter of two or three, projectors seemed strewn. And the gruesome de- flated forms of several helmeted fig- ures. Others seemed to be running^ scattering — hiding in the rocks 1 and pit-holes. Twenty brigands at least were outside the ship. Some were run- ning over toward the base of our camp- lcdge. The darkness bombs were spreading like a curtain over the val- ley 'floor ; but it seemed that some of the figures were dragging their pro- jectors away. We sailed off toward the opposite crater-rim. I remember passing over the broken wreckage of Grantline's little space-ship, the Cmnet. Miko's bolts momentarily had vanished.' We had hit some of his outside projectors; the others were abandoned, or being dragged to safer positions. AFTER a mile we wheeled and went* back. I suddenly realized that only four platforms were in the re-formed line ahead of us. One was missing I I saw it now, waverjng down, close'over the ship. A bolt leaped up diagonally from a distant angle on the rocks and caught the disabled platform. It fell, whirling, glowing red— disap- peared into the blur of darkness like a bit of heated metal plunged into water. One out of six our platforms al- ready lost I Three men of our little force gone I But Grantline led us desperately back. Anita caught his signal to break our line. The five platforms scattered, dipping and wheeling' like frightened birds — blurring shapes, shifting unnat- urally in flight as the Benson curve- angles were altered. Anita now took our platform in a long swoop downward.- Her tense, murmured voice sounded in my ears : "Hold off; I'll take us low." A melee. Passing platform shape). The darting bolts, crossing like ancient rapiers. Falling blue points of fuse, lights as we threw our bombs. Down in a swoop. Then rising. Away, and then back. This silent war. fare of lights! It seemed that around me must be bursting a pandemonium of sound. Yet I heard nothing. Silent, blurred melee, infinitely, frightening. A bolt struck us, clung for an instant; but we weathered it. The light wai blinding. Through my gloves I could feel the tingle of the over-charged shield as it caught and absorbed the hostile bombardment. * Under me the platform seemed heated. My little Erentz motors ran with ragged pulse. I got too much oxygen ; my head roared with it. Spots danced before my closed eyes. Then not enough oxygen. I wa dully smotheripg. Then the bolt was gone. I found in 'soaring upward, horribly tilted. I shifted over. "Anita I Anita, dear I" "Yes, Gregg. Air right." THE melee went on. The brigand ship and all its vicinity was en- veloped in darkness-mist now — a turgid sable curtain, made more dense by the dissipating heavy fumes of our explod- ing bombs which settled low over the ship and the rocks nearby. The search" light from our camp strove futilely to penetrate the cloud. Our platforms were separated. One went by high over us; I saw another dart close beneath my shield. "God, Anita I" "Too closet I did not mean that— I didn't Bee it." Almost a collision. "Oh, Gregg, haven't we broken the ship's dome yet?" It seemed not. I had dropped nearly all my bombs. This could not go on much longer. Had it been only five minutes? Only that? Reason told me so, yet it seemed an eternity of horror. Another swoop. My last bomb. Anita had brought us into position to fling it BRIGANDS OF THE MOON 363 But I could not. A bolt stabbed up from the gloom and caught us. We huddled, pulling the shields up and over us. Blurred darkness again. Too much to the side now. I had to wait while Anita swung us back. Then we seemed too high. .We swooped. But not too lowl Down in the darkness mist we would immediately have lost direction, and crashed. I waited with my last bomb. The other platforms were occasionally dropping them; I had been too hasty, too prodigal. Had we broken the ship's dome with i direct hit ? It seemed not. THE brigands were occasionally ■ending up catapulted light-flares. They came from positions on the rocks outside the ship. They mounted in lazy curves and burst over us. The concealing darkness, broken only by the flares of our explosions, enveloped the enemy. Our camp search-light was ■till struggling with it. But overhead, where the few little platforms were circling and swooping, the flares gave an almost continuous glare. It was dazzling, blinding. Even through the smoked pane which I adjusted to my visor I could not stand it. But there were thoughts of compara- tive dimness. In a patch where the Earthlight struck through the darkness of the rocks, I saw another of our fal- len platforms ! Snap and Venza I Dear God.*. It was not they, but three figures of our men. One was dead. Two had nirvived the fall! They stood up, stag- gering. And in that instant, before the ,turgid black curtain closed over "them, I saw two brigands come rush- ing. Their hand projectors stabbed at close range. Our men crumpled and fell. And now I saw why probably we had never yet hit the ship. Its outline was revealed. "Now, Gregg — can you fling it from here?" We were in position again. I flung my last missile, watched its light as it dropped. On the dome-roof two of Miko's men were crouching. My bomb was truly aimed — perhaps one of the few in all our 'bombardment which would have landed directly on the dome-roof. But the waiting marksmen fired at it with short-range heat pro- jectors and exploded it harmlessly while it was still above .them. We swung up and away. I saw, high above us, Grantline's platform, recog- nizing its red signal light. There seemed a lull. The enemy fire had died down to only a very occasional bolt. In the confusion of my whirling impres- sions I wondered if Miko were in dis- tress? No\ that I We had not hit his ship ; perhaps we had .done little dam- age indeed! It was we who were in distress. Two of our platforms had fallen — two out of six. Or more, of which I did not know. 1SAW one rising off to the side of us. Grantline was over us. Well, we were at least three. And then I saw the fourth. "Grantline is calling us up, Gregg." "Yes." Grantline's signal-light was sum- moning us from the attack. He was a thousand or two thousand feet above. I was suddenly shocked with horror. The search-ray from our camp abrupt- ly vanished I Anita wheeled us to face the distant ledge. The camp-lights showed, and over on% of the buildings was a distress light I Had the crack in our front wall brok- en, threatening explosion of all the buildings? The wild thoughts swept me. But it was not that. I could see light-stabs from the cliff outside the main building. Miko had dared to send some of his men to attack our almost abandoned camp I Grantline realized it. His red hel- met-light semaphored the command to follow him. His platform soared away, heading for the camp, with the other two behind him. 364 ASTOUNDING STORIES Anita lifted us to follow. But I checked her. "No! Off to the right, across the valley." "But Gregg I" "Do as I say, Anita." She swung us diagonally away from both the camp and the brigand ship. I prayed that we might not be noticed by the brigands. \ "Anita, listen : I've an idea I" The attack on the brigand ship was over. It lay enveloped in the darkness of the powder-gas cloud and/Its own darkness bombs. But it was uninjured- hiiko had answered us with our own tactics. He had practically unmanned the ship, no doubt, and had sent his men to our buildings. The fight had shifted. But I was now without am- munition, save for two or three small bullet projectors. # Of what use for our platform to rush back? Miko expected that. His attack on the camp was undoubtedly made juittfor that purpose. "A/Ufa, if we can get down on the rocks somewhere near the ship, and creep up «on it unobserved in that blackness. . ." 1 MIGHT be able to open its manual hull-lock, rip it open and let the air out. If I could get into its pressure chamber and unseal the inner slide. . . . v "It would wreck the ship, Anita, ex- haust all its air. Shall we try it?" "Whatever you say, Gregg." We seemed to be unobserved. We skimmed close to the valley floor, a nrite'from the ship. We headed slowly (toward it, sailing low over the rocks. Then we landed, left the platform. "Let me go first, Anita." I held a bullet projector.X With slow, cautious leaps, we advanced. Anita was behind me. I had wanted to leave her with the platform, but she would not stay. And to be with me seemed at least equally safe. The rocks were deserted. I thought there- was very little chance that any of the enemy would lurk here. We clam- bered over the pitted, scarred surface. The higher crags, etched with Earth- light, stood like sentinels in the gloom. The brigand ship with its surround- ing darkness was not far from us. Then we entered the cloud.' No one was out here. We passed the wreckage of broken projectors, and gruesome, shattered human forms. We prowled closer. The hull of the ship loomed ahead of us. All dark. We came at last close against the sleek metal hull-side, slid along it to- ward where I was sure the manual- porte was located. Abruptly I realized that Anita was not behind me I Then I saw her at a little distance, struggling in the grip of a giant helmeted figure I The brigand lifted her — turned, and, carrying her, ran the other way I I did not dare fire. I bounded after them along the hull-side, around under the curve of the pointed bow, down along the other side. I had mistaken the hull-porte loca- tion. It was here. The running, bound- ing figure reached it, slid the panel. I was only fifty feet away — not much more than a single leap. I saw Anita being shoved into the pressure lock. The Martian flung himself after her. I fired at him, but misBed. I came with a rush. And as I reached the porte it slid closed in my fate, barring me I CHAPTER XXXVII In the Pressure Lock ITH puny fists I pounded the panel. A small pane in it was transparent. Within the lock I could see the blurred figures of Anita and her captor — and, it seemed, another figure. The lock was some ten feet square, with a low ceiling. It glowed with a dim tube-light. I pounded, thumped with futile, silent blows. The mechanism was here to open this manual; but it was now clasped from within and would not operate. W BRIGANDS OF THE MOON 365 A few seconds only, while I stood there in a panic of confusion, raging to get in. This disaster had come so sud- denly I I did not plan; I had no thought save to batter my way in and rescue Anita. I recall that I beat on the glassite pane with my bullet pro- jector until the weapon was bent and useless; and I flung it with a wild, despairing rage at my feet. They were letting the ship's air- pressure into this lock. Soon they would open the inner panel, step into the secondary chamber — and in a mo- ment more would be within the ship's hull corridor. Anita, .lost to me I The outer panel suddenly opened ! I had lunged against it with my shoul- der; the giant figure inside slid it. I was taken by surprise! I half-fell in- ward. Huge arms went around me. The goggled face of the helmet peered into mine. "So it is you, Haljanl I thought I recognized that little device over your helmet-bracket. And there is my little Anita, come back to me again I" Mikol THIS was he. His great bloated arms encircling me, bending me backward, holding me almost helpless. I saw over his shoulder that Anita was clutched in the grip of another helmet- ed figure. No giant, but tall for an Earthman — almost as tall as myself. Then the tube-light in the room illu- mined the visor. I saw the face, recog- nized it. Moal I; gasped, "So — I've — got you, Mifco— " "Got me I" You're a fool to the last, Gregg Haljan I A fool to the last ! But you were always a fool." I could scarcely move in his grip. My arms/were pinned. As he slowly bent me backward, I - wound my legs around one of his; it was as unyielding u a steel pillar. He had closed the outer panel; the air-pressure in the lock was rising. I could feel it against my sjiit. My helmeted head was being forced backward ; Miko's left arm held me. In his gloved right hand as it came slowly up over my throat I saw a knife-blade, its naked, sharpened metal glistening blue-white in the light from overhead. I seized his wrist. But my puny strength could not hold him. The knife, against all my efforts, came slowly down. A moment of this slow deadly com- bat — the end of everything for me. I was aware of the helmeted figure of Moa casting off Anita — and then the two girls leaping together upon Miko. It threw him off his balance, .and my hanging weight made him topple for- ward. He took a step to recover him- self ; his hand with the knife was flung up with an /instinctive, involuntary balancing gesture. And as it came swiftly down again, 1 forced the knife- blade to graze his throat. Its point caught in the fabric of his suit. His startled oath jangled in my ears. The girls were clawing, at him ; we were all four scrambling, swaying. With despairing strength I twisted at his waist. The knife went into his throat. I plunged it deeper. HIS suit went flabby. He crumpled over me and fell, knocking me to the floor. His voice, with the horrible gurgling rasp of .death in it, rattled my ear-grids. "Not such a i fool — are you," Hal- jan—" ^ Moa's helmeted head was close over us. I saw that she had seized the knife, jerked it from her brother's throat. She leaped backward, waving it. I twisted from under Miko's inert, lifeless body. As I got to my feet, Anita flung herself to shield me. Moa was across the lock, backed up against its wall. The knife in her hand went up. She stood for the briefest instant regarding Anita and me holding each other. I thought that she was about to leap upon us ; but before I could move, the knife came down and plunged into her breast. She fell forward, her gro- 366 ASTOUNDING STORIES tesque helmet striking the floor-grid almost at my feet. "Gregg I" "She's dead." "No I She moved! Get her helmet off I There's enough air here." 1 My helmet pressure-indicator was faintly buzzing to show that a safe pressure was in the, room} I shut off Moa's Erentz motors, unfasteiied her helmet, raised it off. We gently turned her body. She lay with closed leyes, i her pallid face blue-east from the light in the lock. With our own helmets off, we knelt over her. ' \ ' h, Gregg, is she dead?" o. Not quite — but dying." "Oh Gregg, I don't want herto die I She was trying to help you there at the last."- , • She opened her eyes; the film of death was glazing them. But she saw m:, recognized me. * "Gregg—" "Yes, Moa, Vpx here." -t HER livid lips were faintly drawn in a smile. I'm — so glad — you took the helmets off, Gregg. I'm — goi:-ig — yoU know." 'Not" "•Going — back to Mars — to rest with the fire-makers — where I came from. I was thinking — maybe you would kiss ,me, Gregg—?" Anita gently pushed me down. I pressed the white, faintly smiling lips with mine. She sighed, and it ended v.- th a rattle in her throat. "Thank you — Gregg — closer — I can't tn'.k so loudly — " One of her gloved hands struggled to touch me, but she had no strength and it fell back. Her words were the faintest of whispers: "There was no use living — without ycur love. But I want you to see — now — that a Martian girl can— die with a smile — " Her eyelids fluttered down; it seemed that she sighed and then was not breathing. But on her livid face the faint smile still lingered to show me how a Martian girl could die. We had forgotten for the moment where we were. As I glanced up I saw that through the inner panel, past the secondary lock, the ship's hull-cor- ridor was visible, and along its length a group of Martians were advancing I They saw t4s, and came running. "Anita I Look I We've got to get out of herel" The secondary lock was open to the corridor. We jammed on our. helmets. The unhelmeted brigands by then were fumbling at the inner panel. I pulled at the lever of the outer panef. The brigands were hurrying, thinking they could be in time to stop me. One of the more cautious fumbled with a hel- met. \ "Anita, ruaj Try and keep your feet." ^ ^ I slid the outer panel and pushed at Anita. Simultaneously the brigands opened the inner porte. The air came with d tempestuous rush. A blast through the inner porte — through the little pressure-lock— a wild rush out to the airless Moon. All the air in the ship madly rushing to escape. . . . Like feathers we were blown with it I recall an impression of the hurtling brigand figures and swift-flying rocks under me. A silent crash as I struck. Then soundless, empty, blackness. CHAPTER XXXVIII Triumph! "T S he conscious? We'd better take J. him back, get his helmet off." "It's over. We can get back now. Venza, dear, we've won — it's over." "He hears ubI" "Gregg I" "He hears us— he's all right I" I opened my eyes. I lay on the rocks. Over my helmet other helmets were peering, and faint, familiar voices mingled with the roaring in my ears. " — back to the camp anil get his hel- met off." BRIGANDS OF THE MOON 367 "Are his motors smooth ? Keep them right, Snap— he must have good air." I seemed unhurt. But Anita. . . . She was here. "Gregg, dear one I" Anita safe I Ail four of us here on the Earthlit rocks, close outside the brigand ship. "Anita I" ' She held me, lifted me. I was unin- jured. I could stand; I staggered up and stood swaying. The brigand ship, a hundred feet away, loomed dark and silent, a lifeless hulk, already empty of air, drained in that mad blast outward. Like the wreck of the Planetara — a dead, pulseless* hulk already. f We four stood together, triumphant. The battle was over. The brigands were worsted, almost the last man of them dead or dying. No more than ten or fifteen had been available for that final assault upon the camp buildings. Miko's last strategy. I think perhaps he had intended, with his few remain- ing men, to take the ship and make away, deserting his fellows. All on the ship, caught unhelmeted by the explosion, were dead long since. I stood listening to Snap's trium- phant account. It had not been dim- cult for the flying platforms to hunt down the attacking brigands on the open rocks. We had only lost one more platform. . Human hearts beat sometimes with very selfish emotions. It was a trium- phant ending for as, and we hardly gave a thought that half of Grantline's little group had perished. We huddled on Snap's platform. It rose, lurching drunkenly, barely carry- ing us. And as we headed for the Grantline buildings, where still the rift in the wall had not quite broken, there came the final triumph. Miko had been aware of it, and- knew he had lost. Grantline's search-light leaped upward, swept the sky, caught its sought-for object — a huge silver cylinder, bathed brightly in the white search-beam glare. The police-ship from Earth I CHAPTER XXXIX My Exit MY narrative lies now in this per- manently recorded form before you, and I prepare my exit bow with the humble hope that I may have given you pleasure. If so, I do beg you to tell me of it. There are some who al- ready have flashed their approval of my discs ; I thank them most earnestly and gratefully. My errors of recording unquestion- ably are many ; and for them I ask your indulgence. There have been, I can readily see, errors of omissJSri I have not mentioned, for instance,' the final rescue of the Planetara's marooned passengers on the asteroid. You will bear with me, since the disc-space has its technical limitations, that such omissions have been unavoidable. Since the passage of the Earth-law by the Federated Board of Education, forcing narrative fiction to cling so closely to sworn facts of actual happen- ing, I need offer no assurance of the truth of my narrative. My witnesses have filed their corroborating declara- tions. Indeed, the Planetara's wreck and the brigands' attack upon the Moon-treasure were given the widest news-casters* publicity, as you all know. Yet I, who was unwittingly in- volved in those stirring events, may have added a more personal note, mak- ing the scenes more vivid to your imag- ination. I have (tried to do that. I do hope that in some measure you wilf think I have sueVteeded. There are many foolish girls now who say that they would like to know Gregg Haljan. They doubtless would be very disappointed. I really crave no more publicity. And the girls of all the Universe have no charm for me. There is only one, for me — an Earth- girl. I think that life has very beautifully endowed me with its blessings. Giants of the Ray By Tom Curry I TELL you I'm not crazy," in- sisted the tall man. "Durkin, they got a big mint." Bill Durkin laughed roughly, and sneered openly at his partner, Frank Maget. "G'wan, you're drunk." "Well, I was last night," admitted Maget. "But I'd slept it off this morning. I was lying under that table in the Por- tuguee's, and Madly the three raced for their lire* up the shaft of the radium mine, for behind them poured a stream of hideous mon- sters—giants of the ray! when I opened my eyes, there were these three birds sitting near me. They hadn't spotted me. I heard 'em talking of wealth, how their mine was of unbe- lievable richness and greater than any other deposit in the world. Well, that means something, don't it?" "That's all right," said Dur- kin. v "But who- ever saw a cricket fifteen inches long?" 368 « "Listen. There were three of these guys. One was a hell of a looking fel- low: his face was piebald, with purple •pots. His skin was bleached and withered, and one eye looked like a pearl collar button I They called him Professor, too, Professor Gurlone. Well, he takes out this damn cricket thing and it was sort of reddish purple but alive, and as long as ypur forearm. This professor guy says his son had taken an ordinary cricket and made it grow into the one he had. But the mine was what interested me. I kept my mouth shut and my ears open, and it's in the Matto Grosso. May be emeralds, diamonds, or gold. Boy, I'm beading for it, right now. The old Its form tf'os that of a gigamtu jroe, and from its throat sounded the terrific bel- lowing which rivalled thunder. £ 369 guy's going back to-morrow, get me?" "It's a lot of bunk," growled Durkin, who was stout an% red of countenance. "Yeh? Well, Otto Ulrich don't put fifty thousand into bunk." Durkin whistled. "You mean the German loosened up that much?" he asked, and his eyes showed interest. "Sure. He paid this Gurlone fifty thousand dollars — credit, of course. "Well — maybe there's something in the mine story. But boy, you were drunk when you saw that cricket. No cricket ever grew that big. You al- ways see things when you get too much rum in you." "The hell you say," cried Maget. "I saw it, I tell you I" ASTOUNDING STORIES DURKIN feigned elaborate polite- ness. "Oh, all right, Frank. Have itr your, own way. 'You saw a cricket that big and this Gurlone feller took a couple of pink elephants out of his pocket to pay the check. S,ure, I believe you." But money never failed to attract the two tropical tramps. They were look- ing for trouble, not work, and the idea of a raid on a rich mine in the Matto Grosso was just what they would en- joy. 1 An hour later, they had cornered a small, inoffensive peon named Juan. Juan, Maget and Durkin had discov- ered, had come out of the wilderness with Professor Gurlone, the strange looking gentleman who spoke of a fabulously wealthy *mine and com- manded checks for 6fty thousand dol- lars from a reputable banking firm. Such a man was worth watching. The two rascals were expert at pump- ing the little half-breed. "Kiey knew peons, and the first thing that hap- pened was that Durkin had slipped Juan several dollars and had pressed a large glass of whiskey on the little man. The conversation was in broken English and Spatiish. "Quien sabe?" \ Durkin and Maget had this phrase flung at them often during the course of the talk with Juan, and there were many elaborate shrugs. There was a mine, way back in the Matto Grosso, said Juan. He thought it might contain silver: there had been the shaft of an old mine there. But now they were deep down in the ground, digging out reddish brfewn ore, and the cavern smoked and smelted so badly a man could work but an hour or two before being relieved. But the 3>ay was very high. Also, Juan, in "his rambling way, spoke of grotesque ani- mals. What were these creatures like? asked Durkin. Then came a shrug, and Juan said they were like nothing else on earth. DURKIN discounted the part of the story having to do with the strange animals. He thought it was peon superstition. But now he was sure there was a rich mine to be raided. "It's a tough part of the Grosso,/ he said, turning to Maget. "Sure. Hard to carry enough water and suppiles to make it. Say, Juan, who was that big Portuguee with Pro- fessor Gurlone? He's blind, ain't he? His eyes were white as milk, and his face tanned black as river mud. Surely is a great big guy, and tough looking, too." Durkin drummed on the table, con- sidering the matter, while Juan spoke of the big Portuguese. The swarthy man with the] colorless blind eyes was Espinosa, former owner of the mine. He had sold part of his claim to the Gurlones, but had remained with them as an' assistant. Though blind, he knew the depths of the mine and could feel his way about, and direct the peoni in their labors. ' "I've got it," said Durkin, turning back to Juan and Maget^^'Juan, it's up to you. You've got to blaze the trail so we can follow ypu in. And you can steal food and cache it for use on the way, see? x We'll come along a day or so after the Gurlones." It took some .persuading 1 to make Juan consent to their plot, but the peon yielded at last to money and the pro- mise of part of the spoils. "Maybe you can steal Gurlone's samples and they'll give us a line on" what he's up to out there. Whether it's emeralds or diamonds or gold that they're taking out of the mine." Juan was stupid and superstitious, like most of his fellows. He had obeyed orders, digging out the red ore, and that was all he knew. But prompted by the two tramps, he was ready'for trouble, too. Juan told them that Professor Gur-. lone carried a small lead case which he seemed to prize greatly. "Get it, then," ordered v Durkin.' GIANTS OF THE RAY 371 The two tramps, saw Gurlone's party start on the morrow. There were many cases of supplies loaded into launches, some marked Glass, /Acids, and so on." Then, there were boxes of food and various things needed in a jungle camp. JUAN, .their tool, was working with the other peons, and at ten o'clock in the morning the launches set out, pushing into the current of the Madeira. Old Gurlone, of the livid face, was in charge of one boat, and the gigantic Portuguese, with his colorless eyes and burned complexion v sat beside him. That night, the two tropical tramps stole a small boat witi a one-cylinder motor, and started uV the river. It was a hard journey, but they were used to river and jungle work, and the object they had in view was enough to make them discount trouble. They speculated upon what manner of trea- sure it was they would find in the cavern of the Matto Grosso mine. It might be precious stones, it might be gold. Certainly it was something very valuable. They carried little supplies, but they were heavily armed. For food, they might , hunt and also' depend on the caches-, left by their friend, Juan the peon. Three hundred miles from Manaos, they came to the landing where old Gurlone had unloaded his boats. The two tramps drew their own craft up on shore a quarter of a mile away, keep- ing out of sight, and hid the boat in dense brush. Then they crept up the river bank, keeping out of sight of the boatmen, who were preparing for the return voyage, and cut into the jungle so as to strike the trail of the caravan ahead. For several hours they followed the path easily. They found palm trees blazed with new marks, and these they were sure their friend Juan had left for them. But the trail was easy to keep without these. The supplies had been loaded on burros, which had been awaiting the boats. That night, they camped beside a small stream. They were but twenty- four hours behind Professor Gurlone and his party, and the food Juan had cached for them was in good condi- tion. ' THEY were up at daybreak, and pressed on, armed to the teeth and ready for a fight. "What's that?" said Durkin, stopping so suddenly that Maget ran into him. They had been walking at a swift pace along the jungle path, the giant trees forming a canopy overhead. Mon- keys screamed at them, birds flitted a hundred feet above them in the roof of the forest. , The sun beat on the jungle top, but few rays lightened the gloom beneath. From up ahead sounded a frightful scream, followed by a long drawn out wailing. Maget glanced at Durkin, and the latter shrugged, and pressed on. But he gripped his rifle tightly, for the cries were eery. From time to time the two stopped to catch better the direction of the wails. At last, they located the spot where the injured person lay. It was under a great bombax tree, and on the shaded ground writhed a man. The two stopped, horrified at the squirming figure. The man was tear- ing at his face with' his nails, and his countenance was bloody with long scratches. He cursed and moaned in Spanish, and Durkin, approaching closer, recog- nized Juan the peon. "Hey, Juan, what the hell's the mat- ter? A snake bite you?" The bronzed face of the sturdy little peon writhed in agony. He screamed in answer, he could not talk coherent- ly. He mumbled, he groaned, but they could not catch his words. At his side lay a small lead container, and closer, as though he' had dropped it after extracting it from its case, lay a tube some six inches in length. It 372 ASTOUNDING STORIES was a queer tube, for it seemed to be filled witb smoky, pallid' worms of light that writhed even as Juan writhed. "What's the trouble?" asked Durkin gruffly, for he was alarmed, at the be- havior of the peon. It seemed to both tramps that the man must have gone mad. THEY kept back from him, witb. ready guns. Juan shrieked, and it sounded as though he said he was burn- ing up, in a great fire. Suddenly the peon staggered to his feet; as he pushed himself up, his hands gripped the tube, and he clawed at'his face. Perplexity and horror were writ on the faces of the two tramps. Maget was struck with pity for the unfortu- nate peon, who seemed to be suffering the tortures of the damned' He was not a bad man, was Maget, but rather a weakling who had a run of bad luck and was under the thumb of Durkin, a really hard character. Durkin, while astounded at the actions of Juan, showed no pity. Maget stepper forward, to try and comfort Juan; the peon struck out at him, and whirled around. But a few yards away was the bank of the stream, and Juan crashed into a black palm set with spines, caromed off it, and fell face downward into the water. The glass tube was smashed and the pieces fell into the stream. , "God, he must be blind," groaned Maget. "Poor guy, I've got to save him." "The hell with him," growled Dur- kin. He' grasped his partner's arm and stared curiously down at the dying peon. "Let go, I'll pull him out," said Maget, trying to wrench away from Durkin. J . "He's done for. Why worry about a peon?" said Durkin. "Look at those fish I" The muddy waters of the 1 stream had parted, and dead fish were rising about the body of Juan. But not about the dying man so much as close to the spot where the broken tube , had fallen. 'White bellies up, the fish died as though by magic. "Let's— let's get the hell back to Manoas, BH1," said Maget in a sickly voice. "This — this is too much for' me." A NAMELESS fear, which had been with Maget ever since the beginning of the venture, was growing more insistent. "What ?" cried Durkin. "Turn back f now? The hell, you say I That damn peon got into a fight with somebody and maybe got bit by a snake later. We'll go on and get that treasure." "But — but what made those fish come up that way?" said Maget, his brows creased in perplexity. Durkin shrugged. "What's the dif- ference? We're O. K., ain't we?" In spite of the stout man's bravado, it was evident .that he, too, was dis- turbed at the sttange happenings. He kept voicing aloud the question in his mind ; what was in the queer tube ? But/ he forced Maget to go in. With- out Juan, the peon, to leave them caches of food on the trail, they would have a difficult time getting provender, but both were trained jungle travelers and could find fruit and shoot enough game to keep them going. . Day after day they marched on, not far from the rear of the party before them. They took care to keep off Gur- lone's heels, for they did not wish their presence to be discovered. When they hpd been on the journey, which led them east, for four days, the two rascals came to a waterless plateau, which stretched before them in dry perspective. Before they came to the end of this, they knew what real thirst was, and their tongues were black in their mouths before they caught the curling smoke of fires in the valley where they knew the mine must be. "That's the mine," gasped Durkin, pointing to the smoke. QIANTS OF THE RAY 373 THE sun was setting in golden splendor at their backs ; they crept forward, using great boulders and piles of reddish earth, strange to them, for cover. Finally they reached the trail which led to the hills, overlooking the valley, and a panorama spread before them which amazed them because of its elaborateness. It seemed more like a stage scene than a wilderness picture. Straight ahead of them, as they lay flat on their stomachs and peered at the big camp, yawned the black mouth of a large cavern. This, they were sure, was the mine itself. Close by this mouth stood a stone hut. It was clear that this building had something to do with the ore, perhaps a refining plant, Durkin suggested. There were long barracks for the peons, inside a barbed wire enclosure, and they could see the little men loung- ing now about campfires, where frying food was being prepared. Also, there was a long, low building with many windows in it, and houses for supplies and- for the use of the owners of the camp. "Looks like they were ready in case of a fight," said Durkin at last. "That fence around the peons looks like they might be bavin' trouble." "Some camp," breathed Maget. "We got to find somethin' to drink," said Durkin. "Come on." They worked their way about the rim of the valley, and in doing so caught glimpses of Professor Curlone, the el- derly man they had spotted in Monaos, and also saw the big Portuguese with his sightless eyes. At the other side of the valley, they came on a spring which flowed to the east and disappeared under ground far- ther down. "Funny water, ain't it?" said Durkin, lying down on his stomach to suck up the milky water. But they were not in any mood to be particular about the fluids they drank. The long dry march across the arid lands separating the camp from the rest of the world had taken all moisture from their throats. MAGET, drinking beside his part- ner, saw that the water glinted and sparkled, though the sun was be- low the opposite rim of the valley. It seemed that greenish, silvery specks danced in the milky fluid. "Boy, that's good,", Durkin finally found time to say, "I feel like I could fight a wildcat." The water did, indeed, impart a feel- ing of exhilaration to the two tramps. They crept up close to the roof of the parallel shaft which they had seen from the other side of the valley, and looked down into the camp again. Professor Gurlone of the livid face and Espinosa the blind Portuguese, were talking to a big man whose golden beard shone in the last rays of the sun. "That's the old bird's son," said Dur- kin, "that Juan told us about. Young Gurlone." A rumbling, pleasant laugh floated on the breeze, issuing from the big youth's throat. The wind was their way, now, and the valley breathed forth an unpleasant odor of chemicals and tainted meat. "Funny place," said Maget. "Say, I got a hell of a headache, Bill." "So'vc I," grunted Durkin. "Maybe that water ain't as good as it seemed at first." THEY lay in a small hollow, watch- ing the activity of the camp. The peons were in their pen, and it was evi- dent that they were being watched by the owners of^the camp. As purple Twilight fell across the strange land, we two tramps began to notice the dul) tounds which came to their ears from time to time. "That's funny thunder," sa'id Maget nervously. "If I didn't know it was thunder, I'd swear some big frogs were around here." "Oh, hell. Maybe it's an earthquake," said Durkin irritatedly. "For God's sake, quit your bellyachin'. You've 374 ASTOUNDING STORIES done nothin' but whine ever since we left Juan." "Well, who could blame me — " began Maget. He broke off sud'denly, the pique in his voice turned to a quiver of fear, aa he grasped Durkin's arm. "Oh, look," he gasped. Durkin, seeing his partner's eyes staring at a point directly behind him, leaped up and scrambled away, think- ing that a snake must be about to strike him. J He turned round when he felt he was far enough away, and saw that the ground was moving near the spot where he had been lying. ^ The earth was heaving, as though ploughed by a giant share ; a blunt, purplish head, which seemed too fear- ful to be really alive, showed through the broken ground, and a worm began to draw its purple length from the depths. It was no snake, but a gigantic angleworm, and as it came forth, foot after foot, the two watched with'glazed eyes. — ' "Maget swallowed. "I've seen 'em two feet long," he said. "But never like ( purkin, howevfcr, when he realized Ahit the loathsome creature could not see them and was creeping blindly to- wards them with its ugly, fat body creasing and elongating, picked up rocks and began to destroy the mon- strous worm. He cursed as he worked. Dull red blood spattered them, and a fetid odor from the gashes caused them to. retch, but they finally cut the thing in two, and then they moved away from there. which they noticed was padlocked heavily. Durkin stopped suddenly, and cursed. "I've cut my foot," he said. "These damn shoes are gone; all right, from that march. - But come on, never mind," They crept to the mouth of the cavern .and peered in. "Ugh," said Maget. He drew back with a shudder. The floor of the mine was covered with a grey slush, in which were seething white masses of slugs weaving fn the slime. A powerful, rotten odor breathed in their faces, as though they stood in the mouth of a great giant. "Ahf' yelled Durkin, throwing his arms. across his face. The greenish, ghostly light which emanated from the slime was weaker than moonlight, just enough to see by; a vast shadow hovered above their heads, as though < a gigantic bat flew there. The sweep and beat of great wings drove them back, and they fled in terror from such awful corruption. But the flying monster, with a wing spread of eight feet, dashed past them, and silhouetted against the rising moon like a goblin. Then came another, and finally a flock of the big birds. Durkin and Maget ran away, passing the stone house which stood near the cavern's mouth. The booming sounds from the bowels of the earth filled their ears now, and it was not thunder ; no, it issued from the depths of the mine. "We— we got to get somethin' to eat," said Durkin, as they paused near one of the shacks, in which shone a light. THE dull rumblings beneath them frightened Maget, and Durkin, too, though the latter tried to brazen it out. "Come on, it's gettin' dark. We can take a look in their mine now.*' Maget, whimpering, followed. The booming sounds were increasing. But Durkin slipped down the hill- side, and Maget followed into the val- ley. They crept past the stone shack, SOUNDS of voices came from the interior. They crept closer, and listened outside the window. ■ Inside, they could see Espinosa, Gurlone senior, and the big youth with the golden beard, Gurlone junior. "Yes, father," the young man was saying. "I believe we had better leave, at once. It's getting dangerous. I've reached the five million mark now, with the new process, and it is ready to GIANTS OF THE RAY 375 work with or sell, just as we wish." "Hear that?" whispered Durkih tri- umphantly.. "Five million I" "It's all ready, in the stone house," said young Gurlone. "Why should we leave now?" said old Gurlone, his livid face working. "Now, when we are, just at the point of success in our great experiments? So far, while we have struck many creatures of abnormal growth, still, we have overcome them." "Well, father, there is something in the mine now which makes it too dan- gerous to work. That is, until they are put out of the way. You can hear them now." The three inside the shack listened, and so did Durkin and Maget. The booming sounds swelled louder and the earth of the valley shook. "I t'ink we better go," said Espinosa gruffly. "I agree with your son, Pro- fessor." "No, no. We can conquer this, what ever it is." "You see, father, while you were away, we broke through into a natural cavern, an underground river. It was then that the trouble started. You know the effect of the stuff on the in- sects and birds. It enlarged a cricket one hundred times. You saw that your- self. Six of the peons have disappeared — they didn't run away, either. They went down the shaft and never came back." "Oh, they probably fell into the water and drowned," said old Gurlone impatiently. "Even if. they did not, we can kill anything with these large bore rifles." "We'd better pull out and let it alone for a while," said young Gurlone grave- ly. "The peons have been trying to bolt for several days. They'd be gone now if I hadn't penned them in and electrified the fence." MAGET put his hand on his friend's shoulder. "I'm starv- ing^" he whispered. Durkin nodded, and they turned away, toward what they had marked as a supply shack. They heard a low mur- mur from the peons' pen, as they be- gan to break off the hasps of the lock which held the door of the storehouse. They got inside with little trouble; and began to- feel about in the dark for food. They located biscuits and canned goods which they split open, and these they wolfed hungrily, listen- ing carefully for sounds from outside. "Herp they come," said Maget, grip- ping Durkin's arm. They looked out the window of the supply shack, and saw old Gurlone is- sue from the building outside which the two tramps had been listening. In one hand, the old Professor, brave as a lion, carried an old fashioned double- barreled elephant gun, and the rays from a powerful electric torch shone across the barrel. At least, they thought the bizarre' figure was old Gurlone, from the size. For the man was clad in a black, shiny suit, and over his head was a, flapping hood of the same material in which were large eyeholes of green glass. Be- hind this strange form came a larger one, armed also with a big bore rifle and with another powerful flashlight. The blind Portuguese was armed, too, but he was not clad in the black suit. He took his stand beside the mouth of the cavern, and waited while the two Gurlones entered the mine. "My foot hurts," said Durkin sud- denly, breaking the silence. "I'm going out and see what hap- pens," said Maget. DURKIN limped after Maget, who now took the lead. They crept close as possible to the mine opening, and saw the big Portuguese standing there in silence, listening 'carefully. Any sounds the two might have made were drowned in the great bellowing from within the cavern. These noises, so like the croak of bullfrogs but magnified a thousand ASTOUNDING STORIES times, were terrifying to the heart. The sweep of wings sounded on the night air, and Espinosa. drew back and squatted close to the grourid, as im- mense green creatures, flying on dusty wings, issued from the mine. "God, those . are moths," breathed Maget. Yes, unmistakably, they were moths, as large as condors. The' green ones, but for their size, were lunar moths, familiar enough to the two tramps. More bats came, disturbed by the en- trance of the two* Gurlones. Durkin broke, then. "I'm — I'm — I guess you're right, Maget," he whis- pered, in a terrified voice. We should have never come. If my foot wasn't hurt, I'd start for the river now. Curse it, what a place I" /«•' The booming, vast croaks filled the whole valley, reverberating through the hills. Wails sounded from the peon camp. jr The big Portuguese was shouting to the Gurlones, "Come out, come out I" Maget gripped his own rifle, and stood up, bravely. His fear, though it was great, seemed to have brought out tMe better side of the man, while Dur- kin, so brave at first, had cracked un- der the strain. "Look out, they'll see you," whim- pered Durkin. Maget strode forward. A blast of fetid, stinking air struck his face, and he choked. The noises were noto ear- splitting, but above the bellows' came the -sounds of the big rifles, the echoes booming through the recesses of the cavern. ^ Then the \two Gurlones, running madly, burst from the mine entrance. "Run," they screamed. "Run for your life, Espinosa !" "I'll help you," cried Maget, and Durkin could detain him no longer. THE Gurlones hardly noticed the newcomer, as they ran madly to- wards the shelter of their houses. Es- pinosa joined them, going swiftly in spite of his blind eyes. The croaking made Maget's brain scream with the immensity of the sound. Luminous, white disks, three feet in diameter, glared at him, and the creature, which progressed with- jerky leaps toward him, almost filled the mouth of the mine. It was hot in pursuit of the fleeing Gurlones. It squatted and then jumped, and presently it was out in the night air. Its form was that of a gigantic frog, but it stood some twenty feet in height, and from its throat sounded the ter- rific bellowing,' which rivalled the thunder. Maget bravely stepped forward, and began to fire into the huge, soft body. The great mouth opened, and as the dum-dum bullets tore gashes in the blackish green batrachian, the thunder- ous croaks took on a note of pain. The odor of the creature was hor- rible. Maget could scarcely draw his breath as he fired the contents of the magazine into the big animal. Two more jumps brought the frog almost to Maget's feet, and the tropical tramp felt a whiskerlike tentacle touch his face, and bad smelling slime covered him; The frog was blind, without doubt, from its underground life, but the ten- tacles seemed to be the way it Anally located its prey, for it turned on Maget and made a final snap at him. The great jaws closed like the flap of hell, and Maget leaped back with a cry of triumphant terror. THE bullets had finally stopped the big frog, but at its heels came a strange, jellylike creature, not quite, as bulky as the frog, but pushing along on its legs and with a tail some efght feet thick and fifteen feet in length. This, too, evidently a polywog, was blind, with whitened disc* for eyes, but^it slid along at a rapid rate because of its size. Maget's gun was empty; he turned to flee, but the polywog stopped and sniffed at the thick blood v of its fellow. Then, to Maget's relief, it be- GIANTS OF THE RAY 377 pa to hungrily devour its oompanion. Utterly filthy, and ferocious, the polywog in silence snapped great chunks from the dead giant frog. "Hello. Who are you?" Maget turned, having forgotten the amenities of life in the excitement. Professor Gurlone and his son, still dad in their black suits, but with their helmets off, were standing beside him, clutching their guns and lights. The big Portuguese, Espinosa, ap- peared, and Durkin was beside him. "Why," said Maget, between gasps, "we just happened to be out exploring, and we saw your camp. We were on our way in when we heard the noises and came to investigate." "I see," said old Gurlone. "What made you head in this direction, and where's your outfit?" "Ob, we cached most it back there," said Maget. "My partner's hurt his foot, so he can't walk well. Isn't that so, Durkin ?" "Yen," growled Durkin. "I got a tore foot, all right." OLD GURLONE was suspicious of the vague story which Maget and Durkin concocted as the explanation of their presence in the valley. But evi- dently tie Professor was too worried about the situation in which he and his friends were, to question the two tramps very closely. In fact, he seemed rather glad that he had two more pairs of hands to aid him, and he thanked Maget for his bravery. They dispatched the great polywog as it tore its parent to bits, and then the five men, the two Gurlones, Espi- nosa, Maget, and the limping, cursing Durkin, retired to one of the shacks. The living quarters of the Gurlones was quite elaborate. There were many books on rough shelves, and there was a small bench filled with glass phials and chemicals] though the main labora- tory was in one of the long buildings. Professor Gurlone poured drinks for the five, and welcomed Durkin and Maget as allies. "We'll need every man we can get, if we are to cope with these great crea- tures," said old Gurlone. "The peons are too frightened to be of use. Lucki- ly, it was a frog we came upon on the banks of the subterranean river. There is no telling how many more creatures of the same or greater size may be down there. We will have to destroy them, every one." Maget and Durkin shuddered. "Say," blurted Durkin, his face working ner- vously, "how the hell did that frog get so big? I thought I was seein' things, Professor." "No, no," said Professor Gurlone. "You see, the ore in the mine contains radium, that is, salts of radium. It) is a pitchblende deposit, and it happens to be so rich in radium content that throughout the ages it has affected all the life in the cavern. The arid land surrounding the ore — this has been, generally, one of the characteristics of radium deposits — has kept most of the jungle creatures away, but under- ground beings such as reptiles, worms and frogs, have gradually become im- mune to the effects of the ore^and have grown prodigiously and abnormally under the stimulation of the rays given off by the radium. "Now, this is nothing strange in it- self, but never, before has such a rich deposit been discovered, so that the amounts of radium available have been too small to really check its effect on growth in animals. That is our chief scientific object in coming here: we realized, from Senor*Espinosa's de- scription of the played-out silver mine he had, and from his loss of sight, that he had stumbled upon a valuable de- posit of radium. It usually occurs with silver, that is, the uranium mother ore does, through, the disintegration of which radium is formed. The content of radium per ton in this ore proved unbelievably rich : we were delighted. I have always suspected that the ani- mal cell might be stimulated into ab- normal growth by exposure to radium salts, for such a thing already has been 378 ASTOUNDING STORIES hinted .at /n the scientific world. Not till our chance came here, however, has enough radium been available for the experiments." MACET and Durkin listened with open mouths. Radium meant but . vague things ' to them. They had heard of radium paint which shone in the dark on the dials of watches and clocks, but of the properties 6l the metal and its salts they were utterly ignorant. "That radium stuff is what makes the funny light in that mine, then?" asked Maget. "Exactly. The radio-activity of the elements in the ore give off the light. There are three rays, the alpha, beta and gamma, and — " The 1 professor forgot himself in a lecture on the properties of radium. Durkin, breaking in, asked, slyly, "Is this radium worth as much as silver?" Young Kenneth Gurlone laughed, and even old Professor Gurlone smiled. "Radium is worth more than gold or diamonds or platinum. Its value is fabulous. We have five million dollars worth already, in the form of the chloride." "Whew," whistled Durkin. He glanced sidewise at Maget. "Yejs," said Professor Gurlone, "five million dollars worth of it! Those great monsters who have been de- veloped throughout the ages by the ac- tion of the radium rays on their bodies, causing them to grow so pro- digiously, are but incidents. We must destroy them, so that our work cannot be interfered with. We must use dy- namite, blow them to bits.. They are powerful enough to crush the stone bank by the mine mouth and ruin the labors of the past two years, gentle- men." Armed, and once more fortified with whiskey, the five made their way out- side. The moon was darkened by an immense shadow, as one of the giant bats winged its way over their heads. But there were no more monster frogs. \ The ugly, bulky shapes of the dead polywog and its parent lay before them. "We are safe for the moment," said Professor Gurlone. "Go and quiet the peons, Espinosa: they will listen to you." THE peons still wailed in terror; the blind Espinosa slipped silently away. "Come," said Professor Gurlone, to his son and to Maget and Durkin. "I will show you the laboratory, so that you can understand better the eficcti of radium on growth." The professor led them to the long, low, many-windowed building nearby, and flooded it with light. It contained cage after cage in which were monkeys, 'pumas, and various jungle folk, ^"hese creatures set up a chattering ana* howl- ing at the light and intruders. Maget glanced curiously about him. He saw shining vials and glassware of queer* shapes on long black tables, and tubes of chemicals. There were im- mense screens of dull lead. "Those are for protection," said Professor Gur- lone, "as are the lead-cloth suits we wear. Otherwise we would be burned by radium rays." Maget looked about, to see if his partner was listening, but he had gone away. However, Maget was intensely inter- ested. He went from cage to cage, as Professor Gurlone, rather in the man- ner of a man giving a lecture to stu- dents, pointed out animal after animal that had been treated by the radium. "This," said the professor, "is a mon- key which usually attains a height of two feet. You can see for yourself that is is now larger than a gorilla." THE horrible, malformed creature bared its teeth and shook its bars in rage, but it was weak, evidently, from the treatment accorded it. Its hair was burned off in spots, and its eyes were almost white. There was a jaguar, and this beast GIANTS OF THE RAY 379 Itemed 1 to have burst its skin in its effort to grow as large as three of its kind. "You see, we have not so much time as nature," said Professor Gurlone. "These beasts cannot be enlarged too rapidly, or they would die. They must be protected from the direct rays of the radium, which is refined. In the ore, the action is more gradual and gentle, since it is less concentrated. But the metal itself would burn 'the vital or- gans out of these creatures, cause them to be struck blind, shrivel them up in- side and kill them in a few minutes in the quantity we have. We expose them bit by bit, allowing more and more time as they begin to grow immune to the rays. Here, you see, are smaller creatures which have grown some eight or ten times beyond normal size." All the animals seemed the worse for wear. Maget, his brain reeling, yet was beginning tq grasp what radium did to one. It was not gold that you could pick up and carry away. "If a man touched that radium," he liked, "what would happen to him?" "Just what I said would happen to the animals if we did not give it to them gradually," said Gurlone, with a wave of his hand. "It would kill him, strike him down as though by invisible poison gas. His heart and lungs would cease to function, pernicious anemia would set in, as the red corpuscles in hit blood perished by millions. He would be struck blind, fall down and die in agony." To Maget came the picture of the un- fortunate Juan. As though answering bis unasked question, Professor Gur- lone went on. "We had a pefon com- ing up with us," he said. "His name was Juan. He stole my sample case, which contained an ounce of radium chloride, and ran off with it. If he opens it, it will kill him in just that way. MAGET shivered. "But— but didn't it hurt you to carry it?" he •sked. I "No. For it was incased in a lead container some two inches in thickness, and the rays cannot penetrate such a depth of lead. They are trapped in the metal." "Father, father, you're wasting time," broke in Kenneth Gurlone, shaking his yellow head. "We must act at once. The peons are almost mad with fear. Even Espinosa cannot quiet them. And every moment is precious, for the monsters may break forth." But Maget was looking nervously about for Durkin. Where was he? Durkin had his mind on the treasure, and — As they turned toward the door, the professor saying, "The rays from the ore, which is not so concentrated as the purified metal, do not kill — " Dur- kin suddenly appeared. He carried his rifle at his hip, and he limped and cursed angrily. "Come across," shouted Durkin. "Give me the key to that stone house. Snap into it, and no argument." "The key — to the stone bank?" re- peated old Gurlone. "Yes. I'll give you five counts to throw it over — then I'll shoot you and take it," snarled Durkin savagely. "I want that treasure, whatever it is, and I'lJ have it. One . . . two . . . three . . . ." The tramp sent a shot over their heads as" a warning. "Hey, Bill, easy, easy," pleaded Maget. "That stuff is radium. It'll ruin you, bo'yl" "Shut up, you yeller-bellied bum," snarled Durkin. "Four. ." A tinkle of, metal came on the stone floor of the laboratory, as old Gurlone- tossed his keys to Durkin. "Don't go in that ehfck," cried young Gurlone. "It'll be your death, man — " "Liars," yelled Durkin, and backed out the door. "H'm," said old Gurlone, turning to Maget. "So you came to rob us, eh?" BUT Maget thought of Juan,, and then he knew he did not want Durkin, in spite of his failings, to per- 380 ASTOUNDINCv'STORIES iah so. He ran for the door, and across the clearing. "Durkin — Bill — wait, it's Frank — " Great bellowings sounded^from the bowels of the earth, but Maget ignored these in his effort to save his partner. Durkin had the padlock off the stone shack, and pulled back the door. As the door disclosed the interior, Maget could see that a greenish haze filled the entire building. Wan liquid light streamed forth like heavy fifth). > Bravely, to save his pal from death, Maget tan forward. But Durkin had entered the stone shack. Maget went to the very door of the building. Durkin was inside, and Maget could see his partner's thick form as a black object in the strange, thick air. An eery scream came suddenly from Durkln's lips; Maget wrung his hands and called for help. "Come out, Bill, come put," he cried. Durkin evidently tried to obey, for he turned toward the door. But his knees seemed to give way beneath him, he threw his arm across his eyes as he sank to the ground, crying in agony, incoherent sounds issuing from his lips. Shriek after shriek the unfortunate man uttered. As Maget made a dash forward to take a chance with death and rescue his friend, Professor/ Gur- lone and his son Kenneth ran up and threw a black cloak over the tramp. The three entered the shack of death. Maget, not entirely covered, felt hjs heart give a terrific jump, and he gasped for breath. Durkin was quiver- ing on the floor which was lined with lead. ROUND vials stood about the room like a battery of searchlights, and from these emanated the deadly* green haze. But almost before Maget touched his pal, Durkin was dead. Curled up as though sewed together by heavy cords, Durkin lay in a ball, a shaking mass of bumed flesh. The two Gurlones pushed out ahead of them, and raised their hands. They had oh their black suits and their hel- mets. "It is too late to do anything for him now," said Kenneth Gurlone sadly. "He was headstrong. You can see for your- self that the five million dollars takei care Of itself. Certain death goes with it if you are unprotected. These lead, cloth suits will keep off the rays for i short time. We always wear them Vwhen we are working with the metal, even when we have a lead screen." ."Poor Bill," sobbed Maget. "It's terrible !" Professor Gurlone shrugged. "It was his own fault. He was a thief and he would not let us stop him. I hope it's been a lesson to you, Maget." "Yes. I want to help you," said Maget. "If you'll keep me with you, I'll work for you and be straight. Give me a chance." "Good. Then shake hands, on it," iaid Kenneth, and they clasped handi infirmly. > Espinosa appeared from the dark- ness. "The peons are mad with terror," he said morosely. "They cannot be held much longer. They will revolt" "Well, we must kill the creatures in the cavern : that will quiet them more than anything else," said Professor Gurlone. "Better close the stone shack," said Kenneth. But as he spoke, a vast shape, another giant frog, appeared in the entrance of the shaft. "Get some dynamite and fuses," or- dered Professor Gurlone quietly. "Come on Kenneth, and you, Maget, if you care to risk your life. You need not do so unless you wish t,o." Bravely, the older man led the way towards the croaking monster. The ground shook at its approach. It wu heading for the bodies of the dead frog and polywog, bent on a search for food. Evidently these vast creatures were forced to prey upon one '"another for sustenance. GIANTS OF THE RAY 381 THE rifles spoke, and Maget and the professor, in their black suits, protected by the lead-cloth and helmets from the rays, advanced. They poured bullet after bullet into the frog. Kenneth came running to join them, and Espinosa stood by. Kenneth had dynamite bombs with fuses ready for lighting and throwing. He also brought more ammunition, and the three armed themselves to the teeth. It was well after midnight when they itarted into the mine. They knew they must act quickly or'retreat, for the bel- lowings sounded nearer and nearer the surface of the earth. Each man carried big, powerful flash- lights, and the three entered the mine ■haft and walked across the seething ilugs into the bowels of the earth. "Stay close together," ordered old Gurlone. The mine was easy to descend for the first hundred yards. It led in a gentle slope downward. The way, save for a few giant bats and moths, and the big maggots, was clear. The green- US' haze, not so bright as that in the death 'shack, enveloped them, but they seeded' their flashes to see clearly. "Slowly, take it easy," counseled old Gurlone. The mine spread out now, and began a steeper descent. The air was poor, and it was hard to' breathe through the mask. Maget, his heart thumping mightily, listened to the roaring within the depths of the mine. > Now the ground seemed to drop away before them. Maget could hear the running of water, the underground > river, and every now and then there came an immense splash, , as if some great whale had thrown itself about in the water. A terrifically loud hissing filled their ears, and suddenly, before them, •bowed an utterly white snake with a bead as biS as a barrel. Its white eyes glared sightlessly, but its tongue stuck forth for several feet, Kenneth Gurlone coolly tossed a lighted b«;mb at the creature: the ex- plosion shattered their ear-drums, but it also smashed the serpent. THE writhing, wriggling coils, big- ger than the body of a horse, slashed about, dangerously near. They picked themselves up, and pushed on, keeping close to the right wall. A great bat smashed against Maget, and knocked the light ont of his hand, but the blow was a glancing one, and he was able to retrieve his light and hurry on. They were far from the entrance, now. The hole which had been broken through by the peons showed before them, and they could see milky water dashing over black rocks. I Pallid eyes looked at them, and they knew they gazed upon another of the giant frogs. They tossed a bomb at the creature, and blew a jagged, hole in his back. No sooner had he begun to die than there came* a sudden rush of other monsters and a feast began. "Throw, all together," yelled Ken- neth Ghrlone. Into the vast mass of creatures, who crowded one another in the river for their, share of the spoils, they threw bomb after bomb. The dynamite deaf- ened them, and acrid fumes choked them, but they fired their rifles at the prodigious animals and there, in the big river cavern, was a seething mass of horrible life, dying in agony. The bellowings and hissings sounded louder, so loud that the earth shook as if actuated by a mighty hearthquake. Maget gripped Kenneth Gurlone's arm. "My bombs are gone," he shouted. He had but a few rounds of ammuni- tion left, and still more of the giant reptiles appeared. A centipede with its creeping, horrible legs topped the mass of squirming matter; they could see the terrific sting of the creature, so deadly when but a fraction of an inch long, and which was now at least a foot, armed with poison. There came the rush of more bats and moths, a rush that threw the three men off their feet. 382 ASTOUNDING STORIES "We must have opened the hole more with our bombs," shrieked old Gurlone. "The . dead bodies attract the other creatures, more and more of them are coming. It is impossible; we cannot deal with them all." - otht ' giant bats and mo tirs winged their way about the heads of the monsters. At the rim^of the valley, the four men paused. "Cod help the peons," said Kenneth Gurlone. THE vast gobbling-of the great ani- mals in the 'river below them was so prodigious they could not grasp it. It seemed it must be optical illusion. In a few moments, the dead had been eaten, swallowed whole, and fights were progressing between the victors. They tossed the rest of their bqmbs, fired the remaining ammunition^ and as they prepared to retreat, several of the big creatures slopped over and started up the river bank into the mine shaft. They ran for theii 1 lives, the three. Madly, With the earth shaking behind them as they were pursued by a hop- ping monster of a beetle with immense mandibles reaching out at them, they dashed for the open air. Giant moths and bats struck at them, and Maget fell down several times be- fore he reached the outside, and he was bruised and out of breath. "Come on, .there are too many to fight," gasped old Gurlone, throwing off the lead* suit. 1 But there was no need to'talk. The creatures, distured by the bombs, had collected in one spot and, shown the- way out by one of their number, were coming. Espinosa, with Kenneth Gurlone holding his hand, ran swiftly for the hills surrounding the valley. Maget helped old Professor Gurlone, who was so out of breath that he could scarcely move. The great beetle which had been pur- suing them was the first to break forth into the valley. Turning back for a look over his shoulder, Maget sdpv the tiling pause, but the cavern belched forth a vast array of monsters, the beasts roaring, hissing, bellowing, in an increasing mass of sound. They swarmed over the ground, and NOW the horde of monsters swelled more and more ; the bats and moths winged in mad frenzy about the open door of the radium*- shack. There were great beetles, centipedes, ants, crickets, hopping, crawling things, and grotesquely immense in size. Fights progressed here and there, but the majority of them were carried along in the sweep of the multitude. "See, the radium kills those who get too close," said Professor Gurlone, in a hushed voice. » ' The giant moths and bats were un- able to withstand the lure of the green light. They flew with mad beatings of wings straight for the open door of the death house, and many of the great creatures, attracted by the light and urged on by an unexplainable force which sent them to death like gnats and moths in a flame, crowded near to the death-dealing radium. Not until the whole shack was cov- ered with quivering forms of the dead, did the other creatures veer off and with hops, creepings and myriad giant legs, begin to cover the whole valley. The -stone walls of the death shack had crumpled in with the weight; the other buildings, more lightly built, gave at once, with crackings and crash- ings. The four men were powerless to as- sist the unfortunate peons, who were trapped in their barracks. The charged wires stopped many of the big beasts, but soon the electric light was short- circuited, and the valley, in the moon- light, was a seething mass of fighting, dying, feasting monsters. OTHER sounds, besides those made, by the big creatures, came to tM ears of the stricken men on the hill- side. The breaking of glass, the cries GIANTS OF THjE RAY t 383 of the jungle animals trapped in their cages, the shrieks of dying peons whg were eaten at a gulp by the big frogs or stung to death, impaled oh the man- dibles of some gjeat stinging centipede. In the spot where the radium death shack had been, was a pulpy mass of livid, smoky light. Now the bowl of the valley was filled as by some vast jelly. The creatures were slopping over the walls, and bat- tling together. The shambles was not yet over, but the four could remain no longer. They made their way down the hillside and struck out across the arid lands. Maget, the tramp, became the leader. He was a trained jungle man, and it was he who finally brought them safely to the Madeira. - He was their strong man, the one who found the trail and located roots and fruit for the party to subsist on. They nearly perished in the trip for lack of water, but again, Maget was able to supply them with roots which kept them from dying in agony. THEY lay upon the river bank now, . exhausted but alive. Maget had limited old Gurlone, acted as his staff, half carried him the last miles of the trip. Their clothes were almost gone, they were burned to crisps by the tropic son. Flies and other insects had taken their toll. - But Maget had brought them through. The tall, thin fellow's hair had turned utterly white. But so had his toul. • 'You're a good man, Maget," said Professor Gurlone. "You have saved us, and you have been brave as a lion." Maget shook his head. "Professor,'.' he said, "I came into the jungle to rob you. Durkin and I bribed Juan to steal that radium, and I feel responsible for his death. We thought you had dia- monds or gold in the Matto Grosso, and we were after it. That's why I am here." "You ifave repaid your debt to us, more than fully," said Kenneth, hold- ing out his hand. "Yes," said Espinosa. "Will you keep me with ydu, then?" asked Maget anxiously. "Are — will you go back there?" PROFESSOR Gurlone stared at him, and then said, in a surprised tone, "Why, of course I" "But the monsters?" asked Maget. "Many of them will die in the outer air," said Gurlone. "The survivors of the battles will start eating the dead. They will finally clear away the debris of dead creatures about the radium shack. As each is exposed to the rays of the concentrated metal, it will die. The others will eat it, and be killed in turn. Thus\ they will be destroyed. If there are any survivors after this evi- dent turn of events, then we w^ll cope with them when we return, reinforced. Dynamite, enough of it, will finish them off. And, Maget, in your next pursuit after knowledge of strange things, you msy get a few earthly riches. The radium is still there, and you will share in it." "Thank you," said Maget humbly. "I'm with you to the end." "You must keep quiet about this," cautioned Kenneth Gurlone. "We do not want the world' to know too much of our vast store of radium. It would attract adventurers and we would be annoyed by ignorant men. But we're thankful you lay drunk in that saloon when my father spoke of the' millions, Maget." In Manaos, Maget found himself a changed man. To his surprise, in spite of his white hair, - brought on by the horror of what ha had seen, he found that he had gained two inches in height, and that he was larger of girth. This, Professor Gurlone told him, was the effect of the radium rays. Never again did Maget lie drunk on the floor of a saloon. The events through which he had gone had seared the tramp's soul, and he kept close to his new master, Professor Gurlone. H* iaufked t loudly and contemptuously. The Moon Master By Charlet W. Biffin """•Jh. yOW that's a mighty que«r , I noise," Jerry Foster told 1 himself. He dropped the " pack from his shoulders and leaned closer to the canyon rim. Miles behind him was the last beaten trail ; Jerry want- ed peace and soli- tude and quiet. And now the quiet of the silent mountains was disturbed. From far below came a steady, muf- fled roar. Faint it was, and distant, but peculiar in its unvarying, unceas- ing rush. "Not water," Jerry concluded; "not enough down there. Sounds like — like a wind — like a wind thar-ean't quit "Oh well — " He shrug£d his shoul- ders and slipped into the straps of hit pack. Then he went back again to the granite ledge. "I wonder if there's i way down," he said. There was, but it took all of Jer- ry's strength to see him safely through. On a fan-shaped talus of spreading boulden he stopped. There was a limestone wail beyond. And at its base, from a crevice that was almost a 'cave, came a furious rush of air and steam. , 384 Through infinite deeps of space* Jerry Foster hurtles to the Moon — only to be trapped hj a barbaric race and offered as a lirinc sacrifice to Oong , their loathsome, hypnotic god. It touched him lightly a hundred feet away, and he threw himself flat to escape the hot blast. Endlessly it came, with its soft, rushing roar, a ceaseless, scorching blast from the cold rocks. "That's almighty funny," mused Foster, and sniffed; the air. There was no odor! "And' 1 is it hot!" he said. "Nothing like that in my geology book. And what is beyond? Looks like concrete work, as if someone had plastered up tlL St. • the cave." He picked his way quickly across the rock slope. It was hard going. Below him the rocks and dirt went steep to the canyon floor. At its foot the blast swept di- agonally over the slope. He must see what lay beyond. . "Curious," he thought; "curious if that is nature's work — and a lot more so if it isn't." A rock rolled beneath his feet. An- other I He scrambled and fought des- perately for foothold in the slipping 386 ASTOUNDING STORIES earth. Then, rolling and clawing, he rode helpless on the slid* straight to- ward the mysterious blast. He felt it envelop him, hot and strangling. His lungs were dry and burning the blazing sun faded from the rocks . . . the world was dark? . . . DARKNESS was still abouti him when he awoke. But it was cool ; the air was sweet on his lips. And it was not entirely dark. He turned his head.. He was in a room. On a rough-hewn table a can- dle 'was burning. Its light cast flicker- ing shadows on walls of stone. Rum- bling in his ears was the sound of the blast that had overwhelmed him. It echoed, seemingly, from far back- in the stone cliff. Jerry made a move tar sit up. He found that his hands and feet were tied, his body bound to the rough board bed. At the sound of his stirring, a figure came out from the farther shadow. It was that of a man. Jerry looked at him in silence. He was tall, his thin erectness making him seem abnormal in the low room. The lean face was unshaven, and from under a thatch 'of black hair a pair of deep-set eyes stared penetratingly at the figure on the rude bed. "Well," asked Jerry, at length, "what's the big idea?" There was no reply. Only the intent, staring eyes. "You got me out of that man-trap of yours," Jerry continued. "You saved my life." THE tall man finally spoke. "Yes, I saved your life. -You missed the hottest part of the exhaust. I pumped you full of oxygen." "Then why tie me up like this?" Jerry Foster was frankly puzzled. "You are lucky to be alive. Spies are not always allowed — " He interrupted himself abruptly. "You are a reporter," he stated. "Wrong," said Jerry Foster. "Who sent your" "Nobody seqt me. I heard the noise of your infernal blast-furnace and came down to have a look." "Who sent you?" repeated the man. "Goodwin? The Stillwater crowd? Who was it?" "I don't know what you are talking about," protested Jerry. "I don't know who your Goodwin^or Stillwater peo- ple are. I don't know who you are — I don't give a damn. Take these ropes off and cut out the melodrama. I'll go on my way, and I don't care if I never see you again." "That's a lie." The tall figure leaned over to shake a bony fist. "You'd re- port to Goodwin. He stole my last in- vention. He'll not get this.'' Jerry considered the wild figure carefully. "He's a nut," he thought When he spoke, his voice was con- trolled. "Now, see' here," he said: "I don't know anything about this. Fm Jerry Foster, live in San Francisco—" "So does Goodwin." "Confound you and your Goodwin I So do a million other people live there I I'm getting away from there^-Fm head- ing into the hills for a short vacation. All I want is to get away from the world. I'm looking for a little peace and quiet." THE thin man interrupted with a harsh laugh. "Come here spying," he said, "and tell me you want to get away from the world." Again he laughed shrilly. "And I am going to be your little fairy godmother. I wish ycii weie Goodwin himself I I wish I had mo here. But you'll get your wish — you'll get your wish. You'll leave the world, you shall, indeed." He rocked back and forth with ap- preciation of his humor. "Didn't know I was all ready to leave, did you? All packed and ready to go. Supplies all stowed away; enough en- ergy stored to carry me millions of miles. Or maybe you did know — may- THE MOON MASTER 387 be there are others coming. . . ." He hurried across the room to open a heavy door of split logs in the rock wall. "I'll fool them all this time," he said; ■and you'll never go back to tell them." The door closed behind him. "Crazy as a bed-bug," Jerry told him- self. He strained frantically at the ropes that bound him. "Looks bad for me: the old bird said I'd never go back. Well, what if I die now . . or six months from now? Though I know that doctor was wrong." He tried to accept his fate philo- sophically, but the will to live was strong. And one of his wrists felt looser in its bonds. ACROSS the room his pack lay on the floor, and in it was a heavy forty-five. } If he could get the pistol. ... A knot pulled loose under his twisting fingers. One hand was free? He worked feverishly at the other wrist. The ropes were suddenly loose. He pulled himself to his feet, took a mo- ment to regain control of cramped mus- cles, then flung himself at the pack. When the heavy door opened he was behind it, his pistol in his hand. There was no struggle; the lanky figure showed no maniacal fury. In- stead, the man did a surprising thing. He sank weakly upon the rough bunk where Jerry had lain, his face buried in his thin hands. "I should have let you die," he .said slowly, hopelessly. "I should have let you die. But I couldn't do that. . And now you'll steal my invention for t>oodwin." Jerry was as exasperated as he was tmazed. l "I toldj you," he almost shouted, "I never knew anyone named Goodwin I I don't care a hoot about your invention. And as for letting me die — why didn't you? That's a puzzle; you were about to kill me, anyway." "No," said the other patiently. "I wasn't going to kill you." "You said I'd never go back." "I was' going to take you with me." "Take me where?" "To the moon," said the drooping figure. Jerry Poster stared, open-mouthed. The pistol sagged in his limp hand. "To the moon I" he gasped. Then: "See here," he said firmly. "I've got you where I want you." — he held the pistol steady — "and now I'm going to learn what's back of this. I n think you are crazy, absolutely crazy. But, tell me, who are you? > What do you think you're doing? What was the meaning of that roaring blast?" • — y THE man looked up. "You don't know?" he asked eagerly. "You really don't?" "No," said Jerry; "but I'm going to find out." "Yes," the other agreed. "Yes, you can, now that you've got the upper hand. I guess I was half crazy when I thought I had been spied out. But I'll tell you." He sat erect. "I am Thomas J. Win- slow," he said, and made the statement as if it were an explanation in itself. "Well," said Jerry, "that's no burst of illumination to my ignorance. Come again." The man called Winslow was ready — anxious — to talk. "I am an inventor. I have made mil- lions of dollars"-x-Jerry looked at the disheveled apparel of the speaker and smiled — "for other people. The Still- water syndicate stole my valveless mo- tor. Then I developed my television set. Goodwin beat me out of that : he will have it on the market inside of a year. I swore they should neyer profit by this, my greatest invention." Jerry was impressed in spite of him- self by the man's earnest simplicity. "What is it?" he asked. "I've broken the atom," said Win- slow. "First tore the atoms of hydro- gen and oxygen apart — dissociated them in the molecule of water — and have resolved them into their energy 388 ASTOUNDING STORIES components. That's what you heard— the reaction. It is self-sustaining, exo- thermic. That hot blast carried off the heat pf my retort." INSLOW rose from the bunk. Gone was his listless despon- dency. "Put up that gun," he said; l"you don't need it now. I think we under- stand each other better than we did." He crossed with quick strides to the door leading into the Cliff. "Come with me," he told Foster. "I am leaving to-day. You will not stop me. But before I go I will show you something no other man than myself has ever seen." „ He led the way through the doorway. There was another room beyond, Jerry saw. It was a cave. Plainly Winslow had taken these caves in the rocks and bad made of them a laboratory. A lantern gave scant illumination; Jerry made out a small electric gene- rator, and that was all. He felt a keen disappointment. Somehow this thin- faced man had communicated to him something of his own' belief, his own earnestness. "What kind of a laboratory do you call this?" he demanded. But the other was busy. In the wall an opening had been closed with a small iron door, with ce- ment around it. Winslow opened it and reached through. He was evident- ly adjusting something. The little dynamo began to hum. There was a crackling hiss from be- yond the iron doorway. The opening was flooded with a clear blue light. Then the roar began. It was tre- mendous, deafening, in the echoing cave. "You may look now," said Winslow, and stood aside. JERRY peered through. There was another cave beyond. In it was a small metal cylinder, a retort of some kind. The blue light came from a crooked bulb beyond. The retort itself was white-hot, despite a stream of wa> ter flowing upon it. A cloud of steam drove continuously out and up (through a crevice in the rocks. The water flowed steadily from some subterranean stream in the limestone formation. It was diverted for its cooling purposes, but a portion also flowed continuously into the retort Jerry's eyes found this, and he could see nothing else. For, before his eyes, the impossible was occurring. .The retort was small, a couple of feet in diameter. It had no discharge pipes, could hold but a few gallons. Yet into it, in a steady stream, flowed the icy water. Gallons, hundreds of gallons, flowing and flowing, endless- ly, into a reservoir which could never hold it. The inventor watched Foster with complacent satisfaction. "Where does it go?" Jerry asked in- credulously. "Into nothingness," was the reply. "Or nearly that!" "See?" He held up a flask of pale green liquid. "And this," he added, ex- hibiting another that was colorless. "I have worked here for many months. I have converted thousands of thousands of gallons of water. It hai flowed into ' that retort, never to re- turn. I have gathered this, the product, a few drops at a time. "The protons and the electrons," he explained, "are re-formed. They are static now, unmoving. Call this what you will — energy or matter — they art one and the same." "Still," said Jerry, gropingly, "what has all that to do with the moon? Yon said you were going there." •♦"^■ES," agreed the invehtor, "I am X going, and this is the driving force to carry me there. I pass a' cer- tain electric current through these two liquids. I carry the wires to two heavy electrodes. Between them resolution of matter occurs. The current carries these two components to again com- bine them and form what we call mat- W THE MOON MASTER 389 to, the gases hydrogen and oxygen. "Do I need to tell you of thccon- itant, ceaseless and tremendous explo- lion that follows? "But enough of this I You said I was crazy. I gavt you a few bad hours. I have shown you this much as a meas- ure of recompense. You have seen what no other man has ever Been. It is enough." He motioned Foster through the door. The roaring ceased. The in- ventor returned shortly, the two flasks of liquid in his hands. He transferred both to two metal containers that were ready for the precious load. He car- ried them with the utmost care as he went out of doors. Once he returned, and Jerry knew by the crashes from the inner room that the laboratory work was indeed done. There would be nothing left to tell the iccret to whomever might come. He followed Winslow outside, trail- ing him toward a wooded knoll. There was a clearing among the trees. And in it, hidden from all sides, his eyes found another curious sight. On the ground rested a dirigible in miniature. Still, it was small, he rea- med, only by comparison with its ■ioniter prototype; actually it .was a suable cylinder of aluminum, that thone brightly in the sun. It was bluntly rounded at the ends. There were heavy windows, open exhaust /ports, a door in the side, pierced ' through thick walls. Winslow van- ished within, while Jerry watched in pitying wonder. { DESPITE its size, it was a toy, an absurd and pitiful toy. Real (cuius and lunacy had many an over- lapping line, Jerry, reflected as he ap- proached U> look inside. But he found Winslow in a room surrounded by a network of curving, latticed struts. The machine was no makeshift of a de- mented builder; it was a beautiful bit of construction that Jerry Foster ex- Brined. "How did you ever get it here?" he marveled. "What you had in the cave you could pack in, but this — all these parts — castings — cases of supplies — " The inventor did not even turn. He was busy with some final adjustments. "Flew it in," he said shortly. "Built it in an old shop I owned out near Oakland." "And it flew?" Jerry was still in- credulous. "Certainly it flew I On a drop or less of the liquids you saw." He pointed to a, heavy casting at the center of the machine. There were braces tying it strongly to the entire structure, braces designed to receive and transmit a tre- mendous thrust. "This is the generator. Blast ex- pelled through the big exhaust at the stern. These smaller exhausts go above and below — right and left at the bow. Perfect control I" "And you flew it here!" Jerry was still trying to grasp that incontro- vertible fact. "And you were going to take me to the moon, you said." He looked above him where a pale, silvery segment showed dimly in the sky. "But why the moon?" he ques- tioned. "Even granting that this will fly through space. . . ." "It will," the other interrupted. "I tried it. Went up to better than fifty miles." Jerry Foster took a minute to grasp that statement, thenxontinued : "Grant- ing that, why go to the moon? There is nothing there, no air to speak of, no water! It's all. known." THE inventor turned to face the younger man in the doorway. "There is nothing known," he stated. "The modern telescopes reach out a million light years into space. But the one place they have never Been— can never see — is less than two hundred and fifty thousand miles away. The moon, as of course you know, always keeps the same side toward us. The other side of the moon has never been seen. ' "Listen," he said, and his deep-set 390 ASTOUNDING STORIES eyes were afire with an intense emo- tion. "The moon is no tiny satellite; it is a sister planet. It is whirled on the end of a rope (we call it gravita- i tion), swung around and around the Vartb. How could there be water or anything fluid on this side? It is all thrown to the other side by the centri- fugal force. Who knows what life is there? No one — no one I I am going to find out." . Jerry Foster was silent. He *was thinking hard. He looked about him at "the clean hills, the trees, the world he knew. And he was weighing the se- cure life he knew against a great ad- venture. He took one long breath of the clear air as one who looks his last at a fa- miliar scene. He exhaled slowly. But he stepped firmly into the machine. "Winslow,'"he said, "have you any rope handy?" The inventor was annoyed. "Why, yes, I guess so. Why?- What do you want of it?" "I want you to tie me up again," said Jerry Foster. "I want you to cany me off as you planned. I want to go with you." The tall man stared at the quiet, de- termined face before him. Slowly his own strained features smoothed into kindly lines. He grasped tight at Jerry's hand. "I was dreading that part of it," he confessed slowly; "going alone. It would have been lonely — out there. . . ." THE shining cylinder of aluminum alloy was hurtling through space. No longer was it a ship of the air; it had thrown itself far beyond that thin gaseous envelope surrounding the earth; out into the black and empty depths that lay beyond. And in it were two men, each reacting in his own way to an adventure incredible. One was deep in the computation of astrono- mical data; the .other alhrill with a quivering, nerve-shaking joy that was almost breath-taking. A metal grating that had formed the rear wall of their cabin was now the floor. Winslow had thrown the ship into a vertical clani/that made of their machine a projectile shooting straight out from the earth. Gravitation held them now to the grating floor. And, stronger even than the earth-pull, wu the constant acceleration of motion that made their weight doubled again and again. The inventor moved ponderously, with leaden limbs, to take sights from the windows above, to consult his mapi of the sky, check and re-check his fig- ures. But Jerry had eyes only for the earth they had left. FLAT on the grating he lay, Mi eyes over a thick glass in a pro- turbance of the shell that allowed him to stare and stare at what lay directly below. He watched the familiar things of earth vanish in fl ee cy clouds; through them there formed the great ball, where oceans and continents drew slowly into focus. And now he was filled with a seme of great solitude. The world, in its old, familiar companionship, was gone — probably forever. The earth — bis earth — his world — that place of van distances on land and on sea, of lofty mountain ranges and heaving oceans, of cities, countries, continents — wis become but a toy. A plaything from the nursery of some baby god, hanging so quiet in space he could almost reach and take it in his hands. Beyond it the sun was blazing, a hard ' outlined disc in the black sky. Its rayi made shining brilliance of a polar ice- cap. Jerry Foster closed his eyes and drew back from the glass. Again he was aware of the generator, whose end- less roar reverberated in their compart- ment. A smaller but similar apparatus was operating on one of the liquids from the inventor's laboratory to gene- rate oxygen and release it inside the room. An escape valve had been set to maintain one atmosphere of pressure about them. Water dripped from a con- THE MOON MASTER 391 teaser where both gases were formed to burn into water vapor and cool to liquid form. ONE of the windows below admit- ted a shaft of direct sunlight; it Qlnmined their room with a faint glow. It would never cease, Jerry knew. They acre in a place of eternal sunshine, jtt a realm of an endless night. Above aim, as Jerry raised his head, the win- jam framed nothing but utter black- acts, save where some brilliant point ■used the presence of a star. He ■ased the soft diffusion of light that sokes daylight on earth. Here was only the one straight beam that entered one window to make a circle of light on toe opposite wall. Jerry looked from a window of heavy glass atfthe side. This had been the bottom of their ship when they left And he found in the heavens the object of their quest. Clear-cut and golden was half the circle; the rest (lowed faintly in the airless void. He tried to realize the bewildering fact — the moon, this great globe that he saw, was rushing, as were they, to their tryiting-place in space. Jerry stared until his eyes were ach- ing. His mind refused to take hold upon the truth he knew was true. He '«t* suddenly tired, heavy with weari- ness that was an aftermath of hiB emo- tional turmoil. He let his heavy body relax where some blankets had piled themselves upon the grated floor. The roar of the generator faded into far si- lence as he slipped into that strange spaceless realm that men call sleep. THE human mind is marvelous in its power of adjustment, its adaptability to the new and the strange. The unbelievable is so soon the commonplace. Jerry Foster was to sleep more than once in this tiny new world of Winslow's creating, this dimi- nutive meteor, inside which they lived and moved and thought and talked. The fact of their new existence soon cased as a topic of wonder. They alternated in their rest And they counted the passage of time by the hours their watches marked, then divided these hours into days out there where there were no days. Seven of them had passed when the hour came that Winslow chose for checking their speed. They were driving directly toward the moon, which was assuming propor- tions like those of earth. The pilot admitted a portion of the blast to a bow port, and the globe ahead of them gradually swung off. The pilot was re- versing. their position in space to bring thtf powerful blast of their stern ex- haust toward the moon, so as to resist somewhat its increasing pull. Now their stern windows showed the approaching globe. It was slowly expanding. They were falling toward it. The inventor moved a rheostat, and from behind them the stern blast rose to a tremendous roar. The decelera- tion held them with unbearable weight to the rear of the cabin. No thought now for the shining earth, yellow and brilliant in the vel- vet sky above. Jerry Foster watched through the slow hours as the globe beneath them enlarged and expanded in ever-increasing slowness. Slowly their falling motion slackened as they cushioned against the terrific thrust of the exhaust below. THE globe ceased to grow and held constant. Winslow cut the ex- haust to a gentler hjast. They were definitely within the moon's gravita- tional field; their last hold upon the earth was severed. The great globe was revolving beneath them. "How about it?" Foster asked breathlessly. "It doesn't revolve like that — not the moon I" > "We have approached from the- earth side," said the other, "but we have overshot it. Say that the moon is re- volving, or say that we are- s winging about it in an orbit of our own — it is all the same thing. "And soon," he added slowly, '^re 392 ASTOUNDING STORIES shall Bee.'. . ." He faltered and hie lips trembled and refilled "to frame the words of a dream that was coming true. "We shall see ... the lost side of the moon. What irill it be . . . what — will —it— be. . . .?'\ To Foster tne whole experience had now the uncolity of a dream. He could not ijBfc himself into mental focus. His tYughts were blurred, his emotions dead. They were approaching the moon, he told himself. It was the moon that was there below them, slowly enlarging now, as their own earth bad hung be- low them, but dwindling, when they left^ "The moon!" he told himself over and over. "The moon — it is real I" But the numbness in his brain would not be shaken off. His voice, when he spoke, was casual. * He might have been speaking of any commonplace — a ball-game", or a good show. "The sun- is coming from my right," he said. "We are going around toward the dark side of the moon. Shall you land there?" Winslow shook his head. "Wait," M said, "and watch." Jerry returned to his circle of glass. THERE was' a shading of light on the surface below him. From, the right the sunV'brilliance threw black shadows and bright beams transversely over a wilderness of volcanic waste. And beyond, where the rays could not reach, was a greater desolation of darkness, its blackness relieved only by a dim light. He realized with a start of amazement that the dim light he saw was. that of their own earth- far above; it was lighting their approach to this Bister orb. Their aide-motion was swift as they drew nearer. Another hour and more,' and they were drawing toward an ex- panse of utter darkness. The earth- light was fading where they passed. They were approaching, in very fact, the other side of the moon. What was below? What mysteries awaited them? He shivered, despite the warmth of the generator, cheery, red, that heated the snug cabin; shiv. ered with unformed thoughts of tin- known terrors. But he forced his voice to calm steadiness when he repeated his question to Winslow. "Must we land there?" he asked. "Ia the dark?" The inventor was piloting his ship with ceaseless concentration. Their falling speed was checked; they were close enough so that the whistling of air was heard merging with the thun- der of their exhaust. He moved the rheostat under his hand, and the thun- der slackened. "No," ^e said. "You are forgetting your astronomy. This 'other side' U subject to the same conditions as the near side. The sun shines on then alike, but alternately. We are round- ing the limb away from the sun. We find, as you see, a darkness that is ab- solute except for the light of the start. Here the earth never shines, and the sun only during the lunar day. But the sun is creeping down this other side. Their day, equal to fifteen of our days, is beginning. We shall come into the light again. I am checking our motion across the surface. We shall land, when it seems best, later on. There will be light." THE thin strong hands of the pilot played over the current and valve controls. Their ship slowly swung and dipped to a horizontal position. A blast from below held them off from the moon. A bow port was roaring as their speed slowly decreased. Minutes merged endlessly into long hours as Jerry's eager eyes strained to detect some definite form onfthe sur- face beneath. Dimly a glow appeared far ahead; slowly the darkness faded. They were moving ahead, but their wild speed was checked. And slowly the new earth below took v on outline and form as the sun's glow crept over it THE MOON MASTER 393 What would the light disclose? His mind held irrationally to thoughts his reason would .have condemned. He found himself watching for people, for houses, lights gleaming from windows. This, in a region of cold that ap- proached the absolute zero. The reality came as a shock.' The first rays that crept into vision were silvery ringers of light. They re- flected up to the heights in glittering brilliance. They gathered and merged as the ship drove on toward the sun- rise, and they showed to the watching eyes a wondrous, a marvelous world. A world that was snowbpund, weighted and blanketed with a mantle of white. TO JERRY the truth came as a crushing, a horrible blow. He turned slowly to look at his com- panion; to look and be startled anew by the happiness depicted on the lean face. "I knew it," the pilot was saying. "I always knew it. But now — now. . ." He was speechless with joy.' "It's terrible!" said Foster. He al- most resented the other's elation. "It's a hell I Just a frozen hell of desola- tion." "Man — man I" -was the response, "can't you see? Look I The whiteness we see is snow, a snow of carbon di- oxide. The cold is beyond guessing. But the clear places — the vast fields — it's ice, man, it's ice I" "Horrible I" Jerry shuddered. "Beautiful," said the other. "Mar- vellous I Think, think what that means. It means water in the hot lunar day. It means vapor and clouds in the sky. It means that where that is there is air —life, perhaps. God alone knows all that it means. And we, too, shall know. . . ." The ship settled Blowly to the sur- face of the new world. Black blobs of shadow become distinct craters ; vol- canoes rose slowly to meet them, to drift aside and rise above as they sank to the floor of a valley. They came to rest upon a rocky floor. On all sides their windows showed a waste of torn and twisted rock. Vol- canic mountajns towered to the heights, their sides streaked with masses of lava, frozen to Btillness these countless years from its molten state. The ris- ing sun, its movement imperceptible, cast long slanting rays between the peaks. It lighted a ghostly world, white with thick hoar-frost of solid carbon dioxide. A silent world, locked in the stillness of cold near the abso- lute zero. Not ajbreath of air stirred; no flurry of snow gave semblance of life to the scene. Their generator was stillen, and the silence, after the end- less roaring of endless days, Was over- powering. BXJT Winslow pointed exultantly from one .window, where an icy expanse could be seen. "That will be water," he said; "water, when the sun has risen." He turned on the generator for warmth. The cold was striking through the thick insulated walls. They sat silent, peering out upon that boundless desolation, upon a world's breathless nakedness, exposed for the first time in all eternity to human eyes. Jerry's mind was searching for some means of expression, but the words would not come. There were neither words nor coherent thoughts to give vent to the emotions that surged with- in him. Their watches showed the passage of nearly two earth days before they dared venture forth. They watched the white mantle of frost vanish into gas. From the darkness that they called "west," winds rushed shriekingly into the sunrise. "Convection currents," Winslow ex- plained ; "off under the sun. In the di- rect rays the heat grows intense; the air rises. This is rushing in to fill (the void. It will serve our ends, too. It will churn the air into a mixture we can breathe, dispel the thick layer of CO. that must have formed close to the ground." 394 ASTOUNDING STORIES More hours, and the icy sheet was melting. A Clin of water rippled in the gusts of wind. Winslow opened the release valve that would permit the es- cape of air from their chamber, equal- izing the pressures within and without. The air hissed through the valve, and he closed it so the escape was gradual. "We must exercise,'! he told Jerry. "We will decompress slowly, like divers coming up from deep-sea work. But watch yourself," he warned. "Re- member you are six times as strong as you were on the earth. Don't jump through the roof." THE valve had ceased to hiss when Winslow opened it wide. The air in their cabin was thin ; their lungs la- bored heavily at first. Jerry felt as he had felt more than once at some great elevation on earth. But they lived, and they could breathe, and they were about to do what never man had done — to set foot on this place men cajUed the unknown side of the moon. Earth habits were strong; Jerry brought his pistol and a hunting knife out of his pack and hung them at his belt, as the inventor opened the door and sniffed cautiously of the air. y Jerry Foster's blood was racing ; the air was cold on his face as he rushed out. But it brought to his nostrils odors strange and yet strangely famil- iar. He was oddly light-headed, irre- sponsible as a child as he shouted and danced and threw -himself high in the air, to laugh childishly at the pure pleasure of his light landing. The 1 sun made long shadows of two ludicrous figures that went leaping and racing across thejocks. Their strength was «prodigous, and they were filled with an upwelling joy of living and the combined urge of an eternity of spring- times. The very air tingled with life; there was overpowering intoxication in this potent, exhilarating breath from a world new-born. The ground that they crossed so recklessly was a vast honeycomb of caves. Between the rocks the soil was soft with the waters from melting ice, and the men laughed as they floun- dered at times in the oozing mud. Be- yond was a lake, and it was blue with a depth of color that was almost black, a reflection of the deep, velvet blackness of the sky overhead. And beyond that was the sloping side of an extinct vol- cano. "Up— up I" Jerry shouted. "From up there we will see the whole world — the whole moon I" He laughed as he re- peated the exultant phrase : "The moon — the whole moon 1" DESPITE their strength which carried them in wild bounds across impassable chasms, their labor- ing lungs checked them in the ascent. The joyous inebriation was wearing off. Winslow met his companion's eyes sheepishly as they stopped where a sheer cliff of basalt above caught and held the warmth of the sun's rays. Be- hind them it rose a straight hundred feet, and before stretched a vast pano- rama. The sun was mounting now in the aky. It brought into strong relief the, 'welter of volcanic waste that ex- tended in bold detail through the clear air far out to the horizon, where, misty and dim, the first vaporous clouds were forming from the steaming earth. And as they watched, the depressing bareness and emptiness of that gray- black expanse was changing. Far to the cast a pink flush was spreading on the hills. It wavered and flowed, and it changed, as they watched, to deep areas of orange and red. The delicate pink swept>in waves over valleys and hills, a vast kaleidoscopic coloration that rioted over a strange world. In silence it spilled into the valley below. The slope they had traversed was radiant with color. At their feet the ground was in mo- tion ; it heaved and rolled in countless places. Rounded shapes in myriads were emerging. Plants — mushroom growths — poured up from the earth to drink in the sunshine of their brief summer. They burst the earth to show THE MOON MASTER 395 unfolding leaves or blunted, rounding beads, that grew before the men's in- credulous eyes. Winslow was the first to recover from the stupefying beauty of the spectacle. "The machine I" he gasped. "Back to the ship! We'll be swamped, over-'' whelmed. . ." He cashed madly back down the slope. T ERRY was beside him, a revulsion I of feeling driving him to frantic ef- forts. The piercing beauty that had enthralled him was becom^' a thing of terror. The soft, pulpy, growing things that crushed beneath his feet were a menace in their lust for life. They were a mile and more from the machine. Could they ever find it, Jerry wondered. The whole landscape .was changed; bare rocks were half- hidden now under clinging, creeping vines. Only the sun remained as a guide. They must go toward the sun and a little north. He followed Winslow, who was cir- cling a huge area of weird growths that already were waist high. They leaped across a gaping chasm and fought their way over a low hill, rank with vegeta- tion, only to be confronted by a maze of great stalks — stalks that sprouted as they watched, dismayed, and threw out grotesque and awkward branches. They made one futile effort to force their way, but the trunks, though pliant, were unyielding. To attempt to find their way through the labyrinth was folly. "We've got to keep on trying," said Jerry Foster. "We've got to get back, or. . . ." Winslow, as the look in his eyes showed, needed no ending to that sentence. There was the summer of a lunar day ahead ; the inventor did nott need to be told of the scorching, broil- ing heat that would wither the land when the sun struck , from straight overhead. And in theie ship was food and water and a means of transport to the cooler heights above. IT was Jerry who took charge of the situation. Here was a prodigous laboratory in which Winslow's science was useless, but in fighting with na- ture — even nature in as weird and ter- rifying a mood as this — Jerry felt him- self not entirely incompetent. He looTsed about him. It had been but an hour since they watched the first onslaught of this life that engulfed them. And now they were cut off. Through an opening, where bare rocks made a rift in the vegetation, he saw again the high ground where they had stood. There was more rock there on the volcanic slope: the growing things were in clumps — islands, rather than continents of rank growth. "We must go back," he to)d Win- slow, "and climb while we can. Get to the high ground, take bearings on the place where we left the ship. We'll look over the ground and figure a some way to get there." Winslow nodded. He was plainly bewildered, lost in the new jungle. He followed Jerry, who bounded across a crevice in the earth. The ground was rotten with the honeycomb of caves and cracks. Jerry forced his way through and over a rock heap, where the thick trunks of nightmare trees were spaced farther apart. There was an open- ing ahead; he started forward, then stopped abruptly and motioned the other to silence. FROM beyond there came sounds. There was rending of soft, pliant tissue. The soujid came through the thin air from a grove up ahead, where big plants were waving, though the wind had long since ceased. To their ears came a snoring, blubbering snuf- fle. A stone was dislodged, to come bounding toward them from the hill- *aide; the soft' plants were flattened be- fore\it. The men cowertfd in the shelter of a giant fungus. Beybnd the rocks, above the mottled reds aVd yellows of the grotesque trees, a head appeared. It waved at the 396 ASTOUNDING STORIES end of a long, leathery neck. All mouth, it seemed to the watchers, as they saw a pair of short forelegs pull the succulent tops of the giant growth into a capacious maw. Below, there was visible a part ofV gigantic, grayish body. It was crashing down toward them, eating greedily as it came. "Back," said Jerry softly. "Go back to that cave. We will hide there ip some crack in the ground." They picked their way noiselessly over the rocks. The cave they had crossed offered a refuge from the beast. It went slantingly down into the ground 1 , a great tunnel, deep in the rock. They dropped into the opening and^started forward, only to recoil, at the fetid stench that assailed their nostrils. "A bear pit," gasped Jerry. "Great Heavens 1 What a smelll" f They stopped, dismayed^ Far below them in the bowels of some subter- ranean passage was the crashing of loose stone; a scrambling and scratch- ing of great claws came echoing to them. They leaped madly for the outer air. "Over here," Jerry directed, and led the way, crouching, to the concealment of great stalks and vine-covered rocks. He pointed toward the open ground where they had been a few moments before. The tree-eater was out in full view. Its flabby, barrel- He reached for the hand. Itfftrewas. bled, he felt, in his. The impulse to take the slim form within his .arms, to hold her close, was strong upon him. Would he ever see her again . . . would he? "Won't you say good-by, Marahna?" he asked. But she smiled, instead— a friendly smile, and encouraging. Then dropped in silence to her knees to press with both her trembling handB his hand upon her forehead. And, still in si- lence, she. rose to vanish from the room. The men entered the narrow open- ing to start forward into the dark. But Jerry Foster was puzzled, puzzled and more than a trifle hurt. Marahna cpuld at least have said good-by. She knew the wood, for he jt>ad taught it to her. And she had let him — them — go. "Oh, well," he thought, "how can I know how a princess feels — a princess of the mopn? And why should I care —why should she? But. . . ." He re- fused to; complete the thought. He hurried /instead, as best he could, to followAvinslow, fumbling ahead of him in the dark. JERRY had used plenty of muttered invective with the massage he had given his arm, but he cursed his handi- cap wholeheartedly at the end of some several hours. 408 ASTOUNDING STORIES They were standing, fie and Wins- ' low, in a dark tunnel, They had climbed and clawed their way through the absolute dark, over broken, frag- ments, through narrow apertures, down and up, and up again through a tor- tuous, winding course. And now they had reached the end. They had found the source of the fr^sh air, had come within reaching distance, it seemed, 'of sunlight and all that their freedbm might mean. And they had come, too, to a precipitous rock wall. They stared long and hopelessly at the shaft that reached, vertical and sheer, high, high over their heads. And ' a curse like that of Tantalus was theirs. For, far at the top, slanting in through eotne off-shooting passage, there was sunlight. It was unmistakable in its clear glare, beautiful, glorious — and unattainable. There were roughnesses 4n the wall, footholds, handholds here and there. "It might be '. . v. it might be. , . ." Jerry tried to believe, but the ache in his arm made the thought hopeless and incomplete. He turned to his com- panion. "I believe you can do it," he said steadily. INSLOW'S dark eyes were gleaming in the dimness thaj surrounded. "Possibly," he replied, and eyed the ascent with an appraising stare. "Even probably. But you know damn well, Foster, that I'm not going to try." "Don't be an ass." Jerry's tone was harsh, but the tall man must have known what emotions lay underneath. ".We'll play it out together," he said. Jerry was silent as he reached in the darkness for Winslow's hand. "Of course I knew you were that sort," he said. He waited a moment, then added: "But you're going, old man, you're going. Don't you see it's our only hope?" Winslow shook his head emphatical- ly. Jerry could see him in the dim re- flection from that radiance above. "NotUing doing," the .calm voice as- sured him. "Don't botHer to think up more reasons why I should desert." "Listen I" Jeny gripped roughly at the other's shoulder. "Listen- to ^rea- son. "If you go and I go back there, what will happen? With Marahna gone we are helpless, and we will be helpless to save her. The long night is ahead. How can we live? Where can we live? We will be wiped out as sure as we're alive this minute. "If you go— and if you make it to the, ship — there's a chance. Alone, I may manage to stick it out." He knew he was lying, knew that the other knew it, too, but he went on determinedly. "You can wait for me up above. My arm will be well — " Winslow stopped him with a gesture. "There's a chance," the older man was muttering, "there's a chance. . . ." He swung quickly toward Foster, to grab hard at the good right hand. "I'm going," he stated. "I'm on my way. I won't say good-by ; what's the use — I'll be back soon I" He released his hold on Jerry to leap high in the air for a ledge of project- ing rock. He caught it and hung. Hii foot found a toehold and he drew him- self up to where another rough outcrop gave grip for his hands.- Jerry Foster stood frozen to throb- bing stillness. Words were strangling in his throat, an impulse, almost irre- sistible, to call. If there were only a rope. . He was still silent when the tiny fig- ure of his companion and friend was lost in the heights, where it vanished into that tunnel from which came the light. He turned blindly, to stumble back into the dark. MARAHNA was waiting when he regained the safety of her room! "Safety I" The thought was bitter when linked with the certain fate that lay ahead. Silently she stroked the bent bead of the man who dropped dejectedly upon W THE MOON MASTER 409 the hard stone floor. Her fingers were gentle, comforting, despite the utter hopelessness and discouragement that lay heavily upon him. They sat thus, nor counted the flying minutes, while the fog of despair in the mind of the beaten man was clear- ing. He raised his head finally to meet the look in the dark eyes. And he man- aged a smile, as one can who has thought his way through to the bitter end and has faced it. He patted the hand that had stroked his bowed head. "It's all right," he said gently. "What is to be, will be — and we can't change it. And it's all right somehow." His sleeping, during their long stay, had been a cause for amusement to Marahna, whose habits were tuned to the long days and nights on the moon. -And he was sleepy now, sleepy and tired. She spread the robe over him as he rested on the soft fiber bed. He awoke from a deep sleep with a light heart. For Jerry Foster, as he faced his own certain death, had seen certain things. It was the end — that was one fact he couldn't evade. But he grinned cheerfully, all by himself in that strange cheerless, room, as he thought of what else he hid visioned. "And it will be just one hell of a fight," he said softly aloud. "There will be some of those priests that will know they have been in a war." HE examined again the knife and the automatic, and counted the cartridges left in the magazine. There were more he had found in a pocket of his coat, enough to replace those he had fired. He slipped the pistol into its holster at the sound of soft foot- steps approaching. It was Marahna who entered, a strange and barbaric Marahna. She was cladlin a garment of spun gold that enveloped her tall figure. It trailed in rippling beauty on the floor — draped in resplendence her slim body, to end in soft folds about a head-dress that left Jerry breathless. Her face was entirely concealed. The gold helmet covered her head. It was tail, made entirely of hammered gold in which spirals of jewels reflected their colors of glittering light. She was quite unrecognizable in the weird magnificence. Only her voice identified the -figure. She murmured chokingly some soft words, then raised her head with- its barbaric helmet! proudly high as she concluded. There were words become familiar now to Jerry. Together with the spectacle she presented, her mean- ing was more than plain. "The time has come," she was telling him. "The sun . . the hour of sacri- fice." Jerry leaped to his feet. His plans for battle were being revised. An idea — a plan, half-formed — was beating in his brain. A sound was beating upon him, too. There were drums that throbbed in steady unison, that echoed hollowly along resounding walls, that ap- proached in loudly increasing cadence. THE plan was complete. "No I" said Jerry Foster, with a wild laugh. He reached to remove the golden helmet. He placed it upon his own head, un- der the startled gaze of the wondering girl. He reached out for the robe. "You shall not go," he told her. "I will go in your place. And when I reach that room. ." His eyes were savage behind tbf slits in the golden head-dress. "No — noi" the girl protested. Her face showed plainly the complete hope- lessness of what Jerry proposed. To pit himself against that antagonist — she knew how futile was the brave ges- ture. Jerry was undaunted. "IVe got to die anyway," he tried to explain, "and if I can get in one good crack at what- ever is there — well, I may be of help." His hand was taking off the cloak. Marahna's eyes were steady upon him. She ceased to resist. She whipped one of the covers from the couch about her 410 ASTOUNDING STORIES and helped him with the golden robe. The throbbing of drums* was ham- mering at Jerry's temples. They were close at handt Marahna, without a word, rushed frantically back toward the room where the others waited. And again Jerry Foster felt that odd tightening cf disappointment about his /heart. But what was the difference, be | told himself, in a hundred years — or a hundred minutes. He set his lips tight and walked slowly out and down thej passage. The room he entered was deathly quiet. There were figures standing about, figures robed in ^ their gold- threaded drapes, that stared strangely, wondcrmgly, at him, and drew them- selves into a huddled group against the wall. And two there were, who stood apart: the other victims — their, sacri- ficial garments wrapped them round where they waited for the third who was to accompany them. Jerry joined them as a guard came in from the outer hall. THE drums were rolling softly in their rhythmic beat. The priests who entered showed annoyance at the delay ; they gave a curt order, and mo- tioned the three to follow. Outside, the corridor was broad, and the double rows of lights on either side glowed brightly to illumine a pageant grotesque and terrible in its barbaric ^splendor. The drums throbbed louder. Jerry saw them in their fire of bur- nished metal, beaten by the hands of naked men. Beyond, sttgroup of war- riors waited. Stalwart and strongly muscled, they stood erect in copper ar- mor beside a platform of metal bars, whose Boor was of latticed gold. The victims were placed upon it to stand erect: Jerry balanced himself upon the golden floor as the warriors raised it slowly to their shoulders. Priests, in robes of heavy golden rope, were ranged about; they formed a guard and escort ten deep about the living sacrifice. At that the drums in- creased their volume, and to this was added a nerve-racking, discordant and rasping jangle, when sheets of copper, paper-thin, were struck with a heavy hand. The pulsing, throbbing pande- monium was terrific as the march be- gan. Slowly they maide their way through a winding gallery. Slowly they came to where a portal, high-arched, gave en- trance upon the great bill. Solemnly, proudly, the priests lead the way aa they circled the vast room. Their wrap- pings of gold were a scintillant quiver of light; above each hard face a circle of gold — symbol of the sun— was borne imperiously high. THE priestly guard surrounded the platform where the three standing figures were huddled. And Behind, and on either side, the men with the drums and the discordant, ringing sheets gave full force to their blows. ^The high vault above thundered and roared to the thunder and roar of the drums. And, high over all, a wailing began. The thin shrillness beat with the tempo of the drums in a pitch that steadily descended. The glittering procession had come to rest at its ap- pointed place in the pathway of light as the wailing came down, to a moan. "Oong! Oong!" the voices groaned, while the walls re-echoed the despair- ing tones. Only from the band of war- riors did the ear of Jerry Foster detect anything but misery and despair. The priests were silent, but the warriors, in their shining armor, stood erect and roared out the syllables in exultant joy- The priests were now upon the dais — the rocky platform, divided by the great, glowing parabol- of light. They stood erect as a new high priest, re- placing the one Jerry had killed, crossed to bow an4< grovel in the rad- iance from their god. The room was silent with the silence of a great tomb as the march of death began. Softly, from the silence, the drums resumed the merest whisper of their former .thunderous booming. Be- THE MOON MASTER 411 tide him, Jerry heard the soft sobs of a girl. One of the figures swayed and threatened to"fall as the platform was lowered to rest upon the floor. The other pressed close to support the drooping figure. NOW the entire -directed ray of light from the round, glowing hoje struck full upon them. It blinded and ' dazzled, yet, plain and distinct, Jerry saw at its heart the circle of blackness, the eye of the mysterious, hypnotic parabola — the entrance to what lay beyond.^ The beat of the drums was hypnotic. As if in a trance he saw, at the side of the way they must go, the form of the head priest beckon them on. The two victims at his side took one step ori the path tiptheir death. And the same stiff rigidity held Jerry as he, too, moved onward and up the golden ramp. The drums were bearing them on. Louder they throbbed in a steady cres- cendo, to carry the three rigid -figures a step at a time up the pathway of light. The priest, Jerry felt more than saw, was beside them. Close'ahead was the blackness that held the set stare of.his eyes.' One of the golden figures was before him He saw the priest reach out to take the helmet from her head. The movement aroused him from bis numb horror. An impulse to escape surged through him; every nerve was tense and ready for a spring. He looked quickly about. The warriors were' be- hind, the priests ready on their plat- form to direct them. And in the door- way, from where he first had seen this chamber, on the only way he knew that led to freedom, another figure, tall in its priestly robes, blocked the passage. HOPELESS, he knew. And then there swept through him a wave of hate. Gone was his horror, and gone the dull deadness of brain and body. There, facing ' him, was the mouth of the pit, where waited a something — horrible, rapacious — demanding the lives Of these people . . of Marahna ... of others — more and yet more. No thought now of life or escape. For the moment, Jerry Foster's whole being held nothing but hot hate, and the wish for revenge. Before him the priest was stripping the robe from the girl at his feet. She stood like a statue, a carving of purest alabaster, slim and erect in her white, slender nakedness. .And the face that he saw through incredulous eyes was that of Marahna. Marahna I The realization and quick understanding held him spellbound. She had come, had taken the robes from another poor victim . . to be with him in this, the last hour. I Marahna — a princess - among these strange folk — was giving her life when another could have been in her place. And she smiled tremulously, bravely, as her eyes locked with his, as, speech- less and spellbound, he stared through the eyelets of gold. The priest was i reaching for his head-dress. Jerry ^tensed. The mo- ment had come. HE was ready. As the weight left his shoulders, he dropped, with one swift movement, his' golden dis- guise. The robe fell in folds at his feet. He stared in silence, through narrowing eyes, at the face of the head priest above him. Then, leaping straight up, he fastened one hand, sinewy, sun-browned and strong, on the white neck below the white face. They crashed backfto land on the ramp and roll, struggling, toward the edge. Jerry's hold never slackened. He felt his fingers sink deep in the flesh. He came to his knees, then up, to hold the writhing figure at arm's length. Then, heaving with all his strength, he whipped the man into the air, to drag him in one leaping bound 'for the sheltering darkness beyond. A figure was entering with him — a slim, naked, figure, with glowing and worshipping eyes. Behind them the silence was that- ASTOUNDING STOBIES tered. Jerry saw, as he stepped from the light, the- riot of figures that surged in hysterical frenzy through the great hall. The priests were leaping among them . . the tall priest who . had guarded the door was fighting his way through the mob. Jerry loosed his quivering hand from the throat it held. He cast the figure from him. And he blinked his eyes to make them serve him in' the blackness all about. Beside him, a form, invisible in the dark, was stroking at his face, and a voice was whispering tremulously: "Cherrie . . . Cherriel" THE tumult in the^ great hall reached them but faintly. Jerry Foster strove desperately to focus his eyes in that darkness of utter night. A dim glow from the portal crept softly in to bring faint illumination to the farther wall. Slowly his eyes found that which they feared yet sought, \ Off in the dark, directly opposite the, entrance, was a white and ghostly thing. Formless and vague, it wavered and blurred to his straining eyes. He fumbled clumsily for a match, one of his treasured store. He must see — he must know what was waiting — The match flared to a point of bril- liance in the murky gloom. It showed, on the floor where they stood, a litter of dried vegetation — food, doubtless placed there as an offering. It was dry now, and dusty, and through it there shone the bleak whiteness of bones. Beyond was the floor, and be- yond that. . . . The whiteness that had been but a blur grew sharply distinct. Jerry could not have told what he expected the light to disclose. Cer- tainly it was not the heaping of coils, milk-white and ghastly, that took shape before his staring eyes. Above them a head bung in air. It was motionless — lifeless, almost — like the coiled body that held it. But the eyes, black and staring, in the bloated, bulging head, made its poised stillness the more deadly. Even in the dark Jerry had sensed the hypnotic spell of unseen eyes. Visible, they held 'him in a rigid, un- reasoning terror. Unreal, unthinkable, this serpentlike horror, tremendous and ghastly in its loathsome whiteness. A dweller in the dark, used by the priests as a symbol .and a threat for the ignorant folk who trusted and believed them. And it held him, stilled and stricken, in its evil spell. THE flame was scorching Jerry's hand that nervelessly opened to release the match. The man was like a statue, frozen to mental deadnesa. About bis feet a light was playing, un- seen. ' A bit of the dry stuff sprang brightly to yellow flame. Neither see- ing nor feeling, the figure of Jerry Foster stood, held in the deadly magic of the malignant eyes. Dimly he sensed that the prostrate body on the floor was that of Marahna. Vaguely he knew when the form of the priest .took a halting step forward. The fire his match had kindled waa rising about bis feet. The flames seared and stabbed with a pain that reached his dulled brain. Quivering and shaken, the body of Jerry Foster reacted again to a conscious thought. *He leaped quickly as the deadly witchery left him, and he tore at the smoldering cloth about his legs. And now he knew the thing before him for what it was. Shocking in its gigantic size, more so in the concen- trated venom of its gaze, it was the flabby, scaly and crusted whiteness of the thing that filled his being with a* deadly nausea. He stared with a sick- ened fascination at the flabby, droop- ing pouches beside the mouth, the dis- torted, bulging head' and the short legs, armed with long, curving talons — legs that sprang from out the neck to clutch and tear at what the jaws might hold. Deadly and hateful — loathsome be- yond all imagining — still Jerry Foster found it was something a man could meet. Its devilish power to paralyze and still the soul of him was gone. THE MOON MASTER 413 He snatched quickly for the gun at his belt and knelt to aim — then checked his finger on the trigger. The figure of the priest had come between him sod the monster. THE golden robe was dragging. It fell to the floor, to gleam dully in the flickering light of the fire. , Against the heaping coils of white the priest was outlined, drawn, as Jerry sensed, against the protest of every fiber of his being. Yet, one stiff step at a time, he went faltering on. The hair above his white face was torn in disarray. And the face itself, so ex- ultantly fierce in its hour of triumph, now a mask of quivering, hopeless ter- ror. The head of the monster came slowly to life. It raised and raised into the air. The mouth gaped open with a Jioarse, sucking sound, then struck, "like a whip of light, at the doomed priest. His screams, as the thing descended upon him, rang through the roar of the forty-five. Jerry fired again where the black eyes showed above the writh- ing body of their prey. The head jerked backward, to tower in the dark- ness overhead. The mouth disgorged its contents to the floor. Only for a shuddering instant did the monster pause. Then it launched its great bulk in a counter-attack, while the automatic poured out the rest of its futile lead. The gun was knocked from his grasp as the great head smashed past, swerved from its aim by the blinding bullets. Jerry knew only that his knife was in his hand as the great scabrous coils closed about inevitably him. Vaguely he heard the shouting from behind as the writhing folds engulfed him. He stabbed blindly at the scaly mass; again and again his knife ripped ilashingly'lt the abhorrence that drew him closed Then his arm, too, was caught in the crushing loatheaome embrace. . . . HE felt no pain — the pressure alone was insufferable. His head was drawn back. Above him the horrible eyes glared into his — there was blood dripping from the jaws. He saw it in the brilliance of a light that flashed in blue heat overhead. There came in his ears a vast roaring of sound, a great heit-blast that scorched and burned at his face. The crushing pressure was relaxed. He went reeling to the floor, as the great coils whirled high into the air. He was stunned by the fall, his body inert and relaxed. But he knew through it all that from somewhere above there was shrieking of gas— blue, roaring fires— '-a flame that tore blast- ingly into a writhing contortion be- yond. The tall figure of a priest was bend- ing over him, but it was the voice of Winslow that was in his ears — a blessed, human voice — when he awoke. "Thank God, I made it," the voice was saying, over and over. "Thank God, I found the ship and got back here in timet" There was light within the cavern. The burning fungus was extinguished by the smothering coils that had crashed upon it, but beyond was a wav- ing plume of yellow where a blue flame shot against a wall of rock. And Jerry, through the stress and riot of emotion that overwhelmed him, laughed chokingly, wildly, at t the words of his companion. "It is sodium," Winslow was saying in explanation, as he saw Jerry's eyes resting on the light. "A hydrogen flame, but there's sodium in the rocks that turns the flame yellow. I rigged up a flame-thrower of hydrogen." "You would," Jerry gasped through hysterical laughter. "You would do just that, and make your way back to this hell just to save me — you damn fool inventor I" HE clung to Winslow, who was raising him to his feet. Marahna was beside him, robed in the golden 414 ASTOUNDING STORIES garment of the priest. She placed her hands beside his face to turn him to- ward the further wall. The light wai fickle, but it showed him, as it rose ana fell, the blackened, swollen body of tne monster, still writhing in its death struggle. And beside it, blasted and charred, the head of the obscene sun god, severed by the cutting, obliterat- ing blast, lay flabby and black in a silent heap. j i "Rather effective," said Winslow, complacently, "though I didn't have much to work with. Two small vials of my liquid and a hand generator to furnish the current. A tubular strut from /the frame of the ship made the blow-pipe." "And these?" Jeny questioned, and pointed to the priest's vestments that Winslow still wore. "Oh, it was all quiet up above," Baid the inventor, "and I came, down the rope. But there was Ujne of them-, waiting at the bottom. He didn't need these any more when I left, so I took them to help get about — " He stopped, to cross quickly and pick up the flame-thrower as the flame died away. It roared as he worked at the mechanism, then' dwindled again. Its light, for an instant, was reflected in a liquid on the floor. "Broken!" said Winslow in an an- guished voice. "The vials are gone — smashed I And I counted on this to hold off the mob, to get us safely out. ..." , He regarded the instrument with silent dismay. The rjlue flame, as he held it, flickered and died. "Not so good I" said Jerry slowly. He stopped to retrieve the knife. This, he reflected, was their sole weapon of defense. In the dim light his eyes met with Winslov/s in mutual comprehen- sion of their plight. THERE were caverns beyond, dark and forbidding. Did they lead to the outer world? Or, instead, was it not probable that they went to some deep, subterranean dens, from which this monster had learned to come it the priests' summons? Jeny put from his mind all thought of escape in the direction. ( "And Marahna, too," he told Win. slow. "What will become of her?" The girl got the essence of the ques- tion. Fumbling for phrases that they knew, she made them believe that she was) safe. Her people, she told them, would protect her. "Yes," Jerry agreed, "I guess that*! right. She's a princess, you know," he reminded Winslow, "and the great mass of the people look up to her. Only the priests and warrior gangi will be opposed. But how can we get through them?" The quesf on was unanswered. "We've got to knock them cold some way," said the inventor. "Got to give them a fright that will last till they let us get through. Once at the big shah where we came down, we can make our getaway.' But how to do it . . ." His voice died away in dismal thought Jerry's eyes were casting about. The priest's robe? No, not good enough. It had brought Winslow through, but it couldn't take them back. Marahni? No help there; she had enough to do to protect herself from the fury of the priests. HIS eyes rested again on the steam- ing, blackened mass that still showed the horrible features that bad marked the head of the monster. The sun god I There was an idea there. "Cornel" he said to Winslow, and walked swiftly across to the severed head. He had to steel his nerves before he could lay hands upon the vile thing. The paws were still attached behind the head. He took a grip on one and pulled. The great mass moved. "I don't get the idea," said Winslow. "Nor. I," Jerry admitted, "but there'l an idea here^' His thoughts were rac- ing in the moment's silence. \ "I've got it," he shouted. "I've got it I If only I can make Marahna under- THE MOON MASTER r 415 stand!" He led the girl nearer to the door, where hia signs could be seen more plainly. "Yon," he told her, "go out there." He pointed to the place where the priests had stood. "Tell your people" —he took the attitude of pie orator de- claiming to his audience — "we have come here from thej*un." Again his ■igns were plain. Marahna nodded. This plainly was literal truth to her. 'Tell them," he continued earnestly, "we have saved them from this thing. Tell them it was no sun god, but a monster that the ■priests had kept. Monster 1" he exclaimed, and pointed to the head and to the body that still writhed and jerked spasmodically. "No god — not" And again the girl showed her understanding. Her eyes were glowing. "Then," said Jerry, indicating Win- dow and himself, "we will take the head that they have worshipped, and we'll drag it out and throw it to the priests." His gestures were graphic. The girl nodded her head in an ecstasy of comprehension. , "And then," Jerry added softly for Window's hearing, "we'll beat it. And, with luck, we'll make it safe." There's a chance," said Winslow softly, "there's a chance — and that's all we ask." IT'S up to you, Marahna," Jerry told her; His words were mean- ingless, but the tone sufficed. >She drew herself proudly erect, wrapped herself closely in the robe of braided gold, and ■tepped firmly and fearlessly through the portal and down toward the plat- form of the priests. The two men watched from the shadows. Beyond the outline of the platform they saw the warrior clans, a phslanv of protecting bodies. And be- yond, drawd back in huddled con- sternation, «rere masses of white- faced people — Maranna's people — who. listened, now, in wondering silence to their princess. Marahna made her way slowly to the platform's edge. Of all the. countless ones to have gone that road, she was the first ever to return; She stood silent, while her eyes found their way scornfully over the enemy below. Then, looking beyond them, she began to speak. Her soft voice echoed liquidly throughout the room. She gestured, and Jerry knew that she was giving them the message. t. From the priests there came once a 'hoarse, inarticulate growl of hate and unbelief. She silenced them with her hand. She pointed to the heavens, and she told them of the sun and of the two who were true children of the sun, who had come to save them from their false god. HER voice rose as she told her peo- ple in impassioned tones that which she had seen. And she was shouting above the tumult of the priests and pointing directly at them as she made the roof echo with the message: "Oong devah! Oong devabl" 'The god is dead," translated Jerry. "Devah means death; she said that of herself before we left. Come on I" he shouted, and laid hold of one great claw. "It's our turn now." Winslow was tugging at the other foot. Between them they dragged into the light the obscene burden. Down the long ramp they took it and off upon the platform of the priests, where Marahna waited. The priests, as Jer|y*s quick glance showed, were milling wildly about. It seemed that a charge was soon to fol- low, but the commotion ceased as the two men came upon the platform, haul- ing between them the great scorched head of "Oong." The vast hall was without movement or sound as they made their way out to the front. Jerry stood erect and faced the crowd. He pointed, as had Marahna, toward the sun somewhere above those thick masses of rock; he traced it in its course across the sky; he pointed to Winslow and himself. And in loudest ASTOUNDING STORIES tones he roared throughout the room his message. "Oong," he' shouted, "Oong devah!" "I'll count three," he whispered in the utter silence. "Then let 'er go I" Again he took a firm hold on the flabby paw. "One," he whispered, and swung his body with the word. "Two . . . and threer THE men heaved mightily upon the gruesome horror. The head sw,ung ghastly in scorched whiteness into the air. The dead jaws -fell open as it crashed downward among the huddled, stricken priests. "This way I" commanded Winslow. He had been, carefully appraising the openings in the crowd. "And don't hurry I Remember, you're a god to them — or something a dam sight worse." Heads proudly erect, the two strode firmly down the pathway of golden light. The room was silent as the few they met fell back in cringing fear. Slowly, interminably, the long triumphal march was made across the rocky cavern of the moon. Not till they reached the portal did the silence break. The shrieks of the priests and the clashing of copper were behind them, as they vanished with steady steps from out the room. "Now/ run!" ordered Winslow. "Run as if the devils from hell were after you — and I think they are I" The pro tore madly down the corridor whose double rows of brightness made possi- ble their utmost speed. There was the narrowing of the passage — Jerry remembered it — where they came out at the foot of the great shaft, the dead throat of the volcano. Behind them the shrieks and clamor echoed close. A rope was dangling from far up at the top. Jerry leaped for it before he recalled the condition of his arm. In the ex- citement of the encounter "he had for- gotten that the arm was still in no shape for a long hand-over-hand climb. "I can't make it," he said, and looked about quickly. There were baskets of fungus growth, already dried from the heat of the mid-day sun that had shoot where it grew. He dragged one to the narrow part of the tunnel. Winslow tugged at another and threw it up a a barricade. A chalk-white figure h copper sheathing was clambering upoa it as he worked at another of the neu JERRY let go the fiber basket he wu dragging and drew his knife as be sprang to meet the assault. A sharp cutting edge was unknown to these Workers in copper. Jerry slipped un- der the raised bludgeoning copper weapon to plunge the knife into ■ white throat. Then, without a look at the body he helped Winslow, strag- gling with another load. They completed the barricade. A heap of fungus made a raised place where Jerry leaped. Commanding the top of the pile that blocked the choked throat of the passage, he was ready for the next figure that leaped wildly up. It would take them a while, Jerry saw, to learn of thiB scintillant dealt that struck at them from close quarter! His knife flashed again and again a he took the men one at a time and let their limp bodies roll back to the pan- age beyond. THE assault was checked who Jerry shouted to his companies. "Tie the rope around me," he ordered "up under my arms . . . then you go oo up. When you get there pull up— and for the Lordt sake pull fasti" "Go on," he shouted. "I can hold them for a while — " He turned swiftly to take a leaping body upon the red point of his knife. He felt the rope ^bout him as k fought, knew by its twitching what Winslow started the long climb, tai prayed dumbly for strength to hold bs weak fortress till the other could boat himself up to the top. He was fighting blindly as they cat on in endless succession, the figures*! THE MOON MASTER 417 frenzied priests leaping grotesquely beyond. Only the strategic position he had taken allowed him to turn the wild assault again and again. They could only reach him by ones and twos, but the end must come soon. There were priests tearing at the foot of the bar- ricade. . . . The cold winds that came down from above revived him, but it helped the figures ripping at the fiber cords.' The dry fungus fragments whirled gaily away and down the pass- age in the wind. The wind! The draft was blowing from him, directly upon his attackers. Jerry struggled and clinched with an- ' other that boundett beside him, and knew as he fought that a weapon was at hand. His knife found the lower edge of copper, and the figure screamed ■8 he rolled it down the slope. He ■lipped the knife into his left hand as he rambled with his right. HIS precious matches 1 He struck one on the rock; it broke in his trembling fingers. Another — there were so few left. He drew it with in- finite care on the surface of rock. The figures below tore in, frenzy at the weakening barricade, while yet others stood waiting at this sign of some new form of magic. They shouted again, as they had when, those long days ago, he had lighted a cigarette before their horri- fied gaze. Jerry shielded the Uny blaze in his hand to bring it beneath a papery leaf beside him. The flame flashed and dwindled. He 'oared not drop back to set fire to the base of the heap. But even in the ex- haustion and strain of the moment Jerry Foster still knew the value of the showman's tricks in reaching the fears of these white-faced fighters. With grandiloquent gesture he raised another of the tindery frag- ments and ignited it from the first. Another, aid he had the beginning of a fire. He lit another piece, and, when he had it blazing, dropped it behind him and kept on with the sb«w. A large piece became a flaming torch, and he waved it before him and laughed to see the warriors cringe. A cloud of smoke was billowing about him — he leaped to safety through a ris- ing wall of flame. * * The rear slope of the barricade be- came a furnace; the wind behind him swept the smoke clouds down the pass- age. He heard, and sank back weakly on the ground as it came to him, the screaming riot where a mob of terrified warriors fought and struck to turn the horde t'hat clamored behind them and pushed them on. The blast roared over the heaped fuel and poured downward from the crest. The noise of the re- treat went silent in the distance. SPENT and exhausted, Jerry Foster lay panting upon the stone floor. The breath of cold and life came down the long shaft from the crater. Had Winslow gained the top? Was he equal to the climb? Jerry hardly felt the jerking of the rope about his shoul- ders, but he knew as, in frantic haste, it drew him scraping up the long side of the shaft. The biting cold above revived him, and again a scene of desolation was spread before his eyes. Winslow fum- bled with the knots and released him from the rope. "Come on I" he shouted, and ex- tended a helping hand as they leaped and raced across the rocky floor. Jerry again was vividly, strongly alive as the cold winds swept him. He leaped hugely through the whirling wisps of dried out vegetation — the sun had stripped the surface of every liv- ing thing. Again the rocky slopes rose naked in the rosy light of evening. The sun was hidden below a distant range of jagged hills. The long night was begun. "You're going the wrong way," Jerry shouted. "We left it over thert." He stopped to point where the sun had set. "See, that's where we fought the beasts—" "Come on I" repeated Winslow. 418 ASTOUNDING STORIES "Hurry! We mustn't lose. out now. I flew the ship over this way while I was up here before." A ridge of rock cut off the view where Winslow pointed.X "Bully for you !" Jerry shouted and twined to fol- low. They stopped as the slope ahead, from its multitude of honeycomb cav- erns, erupted men. THE priests were ahead, and be- hind them swarmed their mek Vindictive and revengeful, the wily eneiny was fighting to the end. The two stopped in consternation. "what's the use!" demanded Jerry. His ,voice was tired, utterly hopeless. "And the ship's right over there. . . ." "A million miles away," said Wifl- slow slowly, "as far as we're con- cerned," The array was sweeping down the long slope: they had found their quarry. There were other figures, too, pouring from the throat of tile volcano — white, naked figures that swarmed in growing numbers and rushed across upon them from the rear. "Trapped," said Jerry Foster savage- ly, "and we almost made it." He rose wearily to bis feet. "Well take it standing." The armored warriors were ap- proaching; in leaping friumph they raced to be the first ones at the death. The shouts of the priests were ringing encouragement in their ears. BUT the leaders from the rear were nearer. One deep breath Jerry drew as he turned to meet them. Then stared, astonished, as the figures swept past. They streamed by in confusion. They were armed with rocks, with dubs or copper metal — some even car- ried bars of gold above their heads. They came in a great a warm that swept past and beyond them. And they met, like an engulfing wave, the bounding figures of the men in copper. Smoth- ered and lost were the warriors in the horde that poured increasingly on. The wave, before Jerry's eyes, swept on over the crest, while he still stood in amazed unbelief at the battle that raged. It was Marahna who brought under- standing. He turned to see her kneel in sobbing, thankful abasement at his feet. Marahna I Her people! She had saved them! -There was time needed for the full force of the truth to banish the hopeless despair from his heart. Then he stooped to raise the crouching fig. ure with arms that were suddenly strong. THE pale rose light of the departed sun above shone softly within a rocky valley of the moon. It tipped the tall crags with lavender hues, and it touched with soft gleaming reflections a blunted cylinder of aluminum alloy. The valley was silent, save for the hushed whispers of wondering thou- sands who peopled the enclosing hills, and the rushing roar from the cylinder itself where the inventor was testing his machine. There were figures in priestly robes — scores of them — and they were sur- rounded by a white throng that, silent and watchful, held them captive. Beyond, in the open, where bare rock made a black rolling floor, there were two who stood alone. The golden figure of a girl, and beside her, Jerry Poster, in wordless indecision. Behind him was the ship. Its muffled thunder came softly to his un- heeding ears. He looked at the girl steadily, thoughtfully. Gone was all trace of her imperious dignity. The Princess Marahna was now all woman. And Jerry, looking into het dark eyes, read plainly the yearning and adoration in their depths. The Princess Marahna had forgotten her deference to the god in her love for' the man. The tale was told in her flushed face, openly, unashamed. d his gray eyes were thoughtful ender as he gazed into hers. He thinking, was Jerry Foster,'- of many things. And he was weighing them carefully. His hand clasped and THE MOON MASTER 419 unclasped at something safely hidden in his pocket. He had. taken it from his pack; he had wanted something for Harahna, something she would trea- sure? AND now she was offering him her- self. He could take her with him, take her to that far-off world that ■he never dreamed existed. He could ■bow her the things of that world, its wonders and beauties. He could train her in its ways. He would watch over her, love her. . . . And she would be miserable and heartsick for the sight' of this awful desolation." He knew it —he told himself it was the truth — and he hated himself for the telling. The voice of Winslow aroused him. The inventor had come from his ship. "We had better be starting," he said. The slim figure of the girl in her robe of pure gold trembled visibly. She knew, it was plain, the import of the words. She spoke rapidly, beseeching- ly, in her own tongue. The words were liquid music in the air. Then, realiz- ing their impotence, she resorted to her poor vocabulary of their own strange sounds. "No I" she said, and shook her head vehemently. "No— no I" .» She motioned to wait, and she called loud and dear across the silence to her own people. There was a stir about the priests. One in the robes and head- dress of the high priest was" brought forward, led by two others of her men. They stopped a few steps from her and bowed- low. Again «he called, and the leaders smong the vast throng came, too, and made their obeisance before her. SHE turned then to Jerry. And now it was Marahna, Princess of the Moon, who stood quiet and poised be- rore him. The light, he saw, made soft wavelets of J radiance in her hair, and her eyes were still glowing and tender. She stepped forward toward the priest. The helmet of the sun god was upon bis head. It marked him, Jerry knew. as the master of their world. True, they, had bowed in submission to that other master, whose vile head lay horrible and harmless on the floor of the great hall — they had believed in the com- mands the priests had pretended to re- ceive from him — but this emblem on the helmet marked the leader of the race, the master of this world, for these simple folk. Marahna reached her slim hands and lifted the thing of gold. She turned and held it above the startled eyes of Jerry Foster, and she placed it upon his head with all the dignity that be- came a queen. A word from her, and the men before him dropped in hum- bleness to the ground. The Princess Marahna was among them in honoring salutation to their king. Jerry was beyond' speech. Not so Winslow. "It looks to me," he said dryly, "as if you were being offered the kingdom of the earth — I mean the moon. Think it over, Jerry — think it over." AND Jerry Foster thought it. over, deeply and soberly. He could rule this people, he and Marahna, rule in peace and quiet and comfort. He could bring them knowledge and wis- dom of infinite help; he could make their new civilization a measure of ad- vancement for a whole race. He could t(gch them, train them, instruct them. And he and Marahna — there would be children who would be princes born — could be happy — for a time. And then . and then he wouH be old. Old and lonely for his kind, hungering and longing for his own people. As Ma- rahna would be on earth, so would he be here. . . . His decision was formed. And with it he knew he must not hurt the heart of Marahna. She loved him, Jerry Foster, the man. He must leave her as Jerry Foster, the god, child of the sun. He stood suddenly to his full height, and who shall say that for a moment the man did not approach the stature of divinity — for ne was wholly kind. 420 ASTOUNDING STORIES He placed a hand upon the head of the kneeling girl before him. He held her in her submissive pose, then, turn- ing to the waiting men, he spoke in measured tones. "I thank you," he said, and the words came from a full heart, "but my place is nor here. I leave with you one more worthy." Before their wondering gaze he re- moved the glowing circlet from his head ; he leaned to place it on the head of Marahna, humbled before him.. With strong hands he raised her to her feet. His look, so tender yet reserved, was full of meaning. She followed his every sign. » HE waved once toward the sW, hidden behind the distant hills; 4be pointed again to Window and him- sjelf and to their shining ship; and dgain he marked the going'bf the sun. His meaning was plain — these children of the sun must return to their far-off home. rie turned now to Marahna. In his hand was the object he had taken from his pack. It was a treasured thing, this locket of platinum on its thin and lacy chain ; it had been his mother's, and he thought of her now as he opened the clasp to show his own face framed within the oval. His mother — she had worn this. And she would have ap- proved, he knew, of its disposal. Gravely he faced Marahna. He showed her the picture within the case, then held it aloft where all might see. He closed it and taught her the pres- sure that released the spring. Then, with gentle dignity that made of the gesture a rite,' he placed the chain about the neck of Princess Marahna — Queen, now, of the People jof the Moon. And he knew that he gave into her keeping their only relic of a being from the sun. It marked her beyond' all future question with a symbol of mastery. And it made of him a god. And even a queen may not aspire to such an one. It was well that Winslow's hand was there to guide him as he walked with unseeing eyes toward the ship. TIME may lose at times all mean- ing and measure — moments be- come timeless. It seemed ages to Jerry Foster when Winslow spoke in casual tones. "I'm going straight up," he said-, above the generator's roar. "Then we'll swing around above the other side. We'll follow the sun — make the *full circle of the moon before we Start." * But Jerry neither thought nor heard. His eyes were close to a window of thick glass. Below him was a shrink- ing, dwindling landscape, wind-swept and_ desolate. There was a multitude of faces, turned worshipping toward the sky. On one, who stood apart in tiny lone- liness, his vision centered. He watched and strained his aching eyes until the figure was no more. Only the pale rose of a dying sun, and a torn, volcanic waste that tugged strangely at "hit heart. "Yes," he answered mechanically, "yes, we'll go round with the sun . . • a couple of sun gods." He laughed strangely as he regarded his Bompanion. If Winslow wondered at the weari- ness in the voice he made no sign. He was busy with a rheostat that made thunderous roaring of the blast behind their ship; that swung them in a sweeping arc through velvet skies, away from the far side of the moon, to follow the path of the setting sun- homeward bound. v^zAleetlne PJace for Readers of~ Astounding otories 'Second Better Than First" Dear Editor: The second number of Astounding Stories It better than the first. "Spawn of the Stars," br Charles Willard Diffin, was the best story, cutely followed by "Creatures of thYXight," S' Sophie Wenzel Ellis and 'The (Beetle orde, by Victor Rousseau. I like stories of vibration as in "Mad Music," and ofaccel- eration, as in 'The Thief of Time." t am clad to see Harl Vincent in the pages of Astounding Stories. I have read many good stories by him. Interplanetary stories arc my favorites, and the more you have of them the better. I wish that you would put Astounding Stories out twice a month or put out a quar- terly containing twice as much reading ma- terial as the monthly. In this you could put one book-length novel and a few shorter stories. Are you going to start a department con- taining the readers' letters soon? — Jack R Darrow, 422S N. Spauldlng Avenue, Chi- cago, IU. Size and Paper Dor Editor: I certainly am glad to see your magazine appear on the newsstands. I also view with appreciation the fact that you have such bril- liant authors as Harl Vincent and Captain S. P. Meek; U. S. A., on your Hat of con- tributors. Your stories are of the very high- ^ est value in the line of Science Fiction. How- ever, I did not like "The Corpse on the Grat- ing." It did not have an Inkling of scientific background. I really am surprised it waa published in a Science Fiction magazine. Aside from the' fact that the idea of the story was merely a fantastical surmise I waa very favorably Impressed with the author's style and his use of the EngUsfr language. Why don't you try for some more of the worka of the other well-known authors in this line of fiction? My main object in writing this letter was that I think you rub the name of Science Fic- tion in the dust by printing it on such paper and in such a small magazine. If yoo^intend to compete with your several contemporaries, you will almost have to alter your size and qualify of your paper. You might Include a full page illustration for each story also, but, you will admit, that to combat these other influential Science Fic- tion magazines, you will have to put your magazine on a par materially with the others in your line. I admire the type of stories which you pub- lish and want to see your magazine get ahead.— Warren Williams, MS Dorchester, Chicago, Illinois. 422 ASTOUNDING STORIES They Willi Dear -Editor: I am a monthly reader of your Astounding Stories and I am greatly interested in them. The best story I have so far read is "Crea- tures of the Light." It is a story of Super- science indeed. If the author of this story would write more like it, I am sure they would be greatly appreciated. Here is hoping (hat more of their kind ap- pear in the very near, future. Your for more food stories. — Quenton Stockman. 245 Dixon trcet, Portland, Oregon. "Surpasses the First" \ Dear Editor: I hare just finished the February issue of your magazine. It surpasses the first issue by far. f am glad to see that you have eight stories m this issue. What is just enough. I like one serial (not too long), one or two novelettes, and five or six short stories in each issue. Tell Captain S. P. Meek to write more adventures of Dr. Bird. I have arranged the stories of the first two issues according to my own liking. Excel- lent: "The Beetle Horde" and "Phantoms of Reality." Good: 'The Cave of Horror," "Tanks" and "Invisible Death." Fair: "The Stolen Kind" and "Compensation." In the second issue: Excellent: "Creatures of the Light," "Old Crompton's Secret," "The Beetle Horde" and "Spawn of the Stars." Good: 'The Thief of Time" and "Mad Music." Bur: "The Corpse on the Grating" and "Into Space." I hope there will be more stories under "Excellent" next month. — Ward Elmore, 2012 Avenue J., Ft. Madison, la. "Only One Trouble—" Dear Editor: I have just finished reading your new magazine and think it's great. The only trouble with it is that it doesn't have enough stories. I liked "Phantoms of. Reality," by Ray Cummings, best, and 'The Cave of Horror," by Capt S. P. Meek, next best. 'The Beetle Horde," and "Tanks" were also good. Ray Cummings and S. P. Meek are among my favorite Science Fiction authors. I like beat interplanetary stories 1 and stories of the aircraft of the future. I would like to- see a good interplanetary story by R. H. Romans insthis magazine pretty soon. Other good authors whose stories I would like to read are: Dr. David H. Keller, Dr. Miles J. Brewer, Lilitb Lorraine, Ed Earl Repp and Walter Kateley. In your editorial you mention the fact that some day in the future a person can disin- tergate his body in New York and reinter- gate it in China. I would like to see a good story about that by either Ray Cummings or S. P. Heck. Something else: why not make your maga- zine a little bigger and include a scientific ar- ticle or two once In a while? — J. W. Latimer, 1000 East 6th Street, National City, Calif. "No Horror Stories" Dear Editor: I am taking this opportunity to let jm know what I think of Astounding Storio. The worst fault is the tendency to print is. ror stories. Please don't do this. If I bctoj see another story Tike 'The Corpse on a, Grating" in your magazine it will be tso soon. { Don't print < so many detective storia, Capt. Meek's v futendid stories* are plenty. Please start a xtisBussion column and pa' Wesso's drawingsViaside the magazine, too. Are you planning on any reprints? I wool4 like to see some reprints of Ray Cumminmj A. Merritt's, H. G. Wells', Garret Smith and George A. England's stories soon. "Phantoms of Reality," "The Beak Horde," "The Cave of Horror," "Into Spaa,' "Creatures of the Light," and "Old Croon, ton's Secret" were splendid. I hope for fewer detective stories and ai horror stories. — Joe Stone, 123 20th Streo, Toledo, Ohio. We Liked It, Too! Dear Editor: Just a line to tell you that I bought as first copy of Astounding Stories and tar; certainly are good, especially "Creatum a* the Light," by Sophie Wenxel Ellis. It's nt best short story I've read in ages. I host to read more by her in the future. Yon for success.— F. J. Michasiow, Battery "D* Ft Hancock, N. J. "Strikes a Mystic Chord" Dear Editor: / I think that your Astounding Story Map. zine is a fine magazine. It seems to strike i mystic cord within me and makes me re- spond to it ' One thing lacking — I believe, that is— a de- partment for letters from your readers. "Spawn of the Stars" is certainly a fas scientific story. I -wish that the author of "Into Space" would write a sequel to his story. — Rosas Bainbridge, Rockford, Illinois. ^/ We're Avoiding Reprints Dear Editor: I am writing again about Aatonadnx Stories. It seems more people are interertd in science to-dajr than ever before, and u easy and interesting way to gain this knowl- edge is through reading an entertaining sci- ence story. Regarding stories in your February use, will list them according to my likes snd da- likes. "Into Space" and "Mad Music" cos- rained science maybe not impossible In ov future. "Spawn of the Stars," The Bee* Horde," "Creatures of the Light," Tat -Thief of Time" and "Old Crompton's Sect** were very Interesting science, and good ras- ing, but "The Corpse on the Grating" «Ts) not appeal to me. I like interplanetary stories and stories a* what might be on other planets. | THE READERS' CORNER 423 I notice some familiar names among your ■sthors. Why not print some (not too many) iteriea from H. G. Wells, E. R. Burroughs ud Jules Verne? Some of their stories trfalch were considered just wild dreams of the author at the time of writing have ac- tually become a reality, as, for instance, the labmarine. If you keep on as you started or Improve I can see only success. — C. E. An- derson, 3504 Colfax Avenue South, Minne- apolis. Minn. A Few Favorites Dear Editor: I am an electrical engineer. I read the hit two issues of your magazine. I liked it my muckv It is thrilling and very well edited. I will buy it regularly. I liked "Invisible Death" best. "The Bee- tle Horde" was good, "Phantoms of Reality," nod, "Into Space" and "Mad Music," very good. "Creatures of the Light," "Old Cranston's Secret" and "Spawn of the Stars* good. — Adolph Wasaervogcl, Gedden Terrace, Waterbury, Conn. 'Going Somel" Dear Editor: 1 purchased one of your magazines when I first saw them. ' I always had a liking for Saper-science stories, but your magaaine was the best I ever got hold of. Thought I could sever wait until the next issue to finish "The Beetle Horde." I believe "The Cave of Hor- ror" was the best story in that issue. It really seemed as If It could be true. Due respect must be paid the author of "The Corpse on the Grating," for it was en- ticing and fantastic "Phantoms of Reality" was good. All the storieatrin the second magazine teemed as good as the best of the first num- ber, and that's going somet Hay you succeed in getting the same good ud better stories as you have in the first two issues of a magazine that I am sure will trow to fame. — Harold Rakestraw, Box 25, WInthop, Wash. We Intend To Dear Editor: Having read the first two issues of your lew magazine, I find it has a larger variety of stories than any of the other Science Fic- tion magazines now found on the newsstands, not keep it that way? It will be unique. . Wessolowski, your artist, is great. He is one who can draw when it comes to a rood scientific background. I consider "Tanks" your best story as yet, with "Spawn of the Stars" close second. "Invisible Dejath," "Creatures of the Light" •ad "Mad Music" were also good. Try to ftn us some stories by Edgar Rice Bur- waghs and A. Merritt Did not think much of TTje Beetle Horde"— too many like it- Tod Shatkowski, 812 Hoffman St, Hammond, Some Good Suggestions Dear Editor: I received the pleasure of purchasing a copy of Astounding Stories the other day, the first copy I have seen. I have not yet read it, but I am unable to wait that long to inform you of my great joy in greeting a new magazine of this type. I am a reader of other magazines similar to A. S. Stories of Harl Vincent, Capt S. P. Meek, Murray Leinster, and others appear in these magazines, also, so I am familiar with your authors. But you have asked me what sort of stories I'd like to see in A. S., so here goes. First of all, I would earnestly beg you not to print such stories as those that deal with ghosts, etc., because in my opinion there are far too many good stories available to cast them aside for trash. The type of story I prefer is the kind that is fanciful, odd and interesting. Some* tales deal with a new invention of some sort, but contain no action or plot. However, I fail to see any like that in the present A. S., un- less it's "Mad Music." A few utterly impossible stories are so in- terestingly told that it is worth while to pub- lish them. Some examples are stories by A. Merritt (whose stories are the most fascinat- ing I have ever read), H. P. Lovecraft (mas- ter of the bizarre and the grotesque) and G. A. England. My letter seems to be mostly composed of suggestions, but that is only because I am o interested in anything pertaining to stories of imagination, or Science Fiction, as it is called. However, Astounding Stories seems to be very satisfying to me. I am glad that you have Wessolowski on your artist's staff. I hope that you will have a story contest some time in the future, as they are very in- teresting, and often uncover hitherto unknown talent in the contestants. I sincerely wish you the utmost of success in Astounding Stories and hope that it will live a long, enduring life. I hope, aa time goes on, you will favor us with more illustrations, for this type of story needs a large amount drawings so that the readers won't overwork their imaginations. Astounding Stories seems to be very shy, for I heard of it from a friend and got the February, 1930 Issue only after an exhaustive search. The place where I got it appears to be about the only one in town selling it I hope more stores will handle your, great magazine. (I didn't intend the words^'great magazine" to be sarcastic. I really think it's great!) I hope you will have a department in which the readers may discuss the merits or faults of stories published. Or st least print excerpts now and then. Enclosed find twenty cents in stamps for which please send me the first issue. — A. W. Bemal, 1374 E. 32 Street, Oakland, Calif. 1 424 ASTOUNDING STORIES "Stories I Like Best—" Dear Editor: The stories I like best is your Astounding Stories of Super-science were "The Beetle Horde," by Victor Rousseau, "The Cave of Horror," by Capt. S. P. Meek, "Compensa- tion." by C. V. Tench, "Invisible Death," by Anthony Pelcher. I have just bought your second copy of Astounding Stories. I like the book very much, and expect to buy it every month. — Isaac pworkowitz, 1262 Val- entine Avenue, Bronx, N. Y. "Just What Is Needed" Dear Editor: ' I have read the first two copies of your new magazine and I would like to make a few comments and criticisms. This maga- zine is very popular in my community .and is just what is needed to instill scientific inter- eat in the mind of the general public. Science Fiction will arouse more interest and will be read by more people than any amount of dry science and cold facts. Since you would like to have a reader's opinion, I will say that "The Beetle Horde" is the best story that I have read in a long time and was based on the most excellent science; "The Thief of Time" was good; try to get some more stories by Capt. S. P. Meek; one in every copy would not be too maary. I could not Jet all "het up" over "Spawn of the Stars." t was a little vague; I do not think the au- thor had a very distinct idea about the na- ture of the invaders. The stories do not have to stick to cold science, but should not violate an established fact without a reasonable explanation, as this might cause a mistaken idea in the minds of the readers. A few good authors are: Dr. Keller, A. Hyatt Verrul, Walter Kately and R. H. Romans.— Wayne Bray, Campbell, Missouri. "Literature That TypiBes New Age" Dear Editor: As a member of an organization whose existence was founded through the medium of Science Fiction, I have watched yonr magazine closely, and here are the results: It is all Science Fiction, virile, interesting and new. A popular edition of these stories with the name of a great publishing house behind it. The authors you have acquired are su- preme in this field. Ray Curnmlngs and Cap- tain Meek need no introduction. And Harl Vincent is a notable addition whose stories of "Indefinite Extension" and interplanetary travel are well known to Science Fiction fans. Science Fiction, first introduced by Verne, Poe. Wells, Haggard and other old masters in this line, is a type of literature that typi- fies the new age to come — the age of science. And, in conclusion, may I say that the Sci- ence Correspondence Club extends to your new and most acceptable publication heard, est wishes for continued and increasing sac cess. I subscribe myself to the advancement of science and Science Fiction. — Walter P. Dennis, F.P.S., 46S3 Addison Street, Chicago. I1L "Keep Up the Good Work" Dear Editor: I have just completed the perusal of the first issue of Astounding Stories and am in. meseiy* pleased. I am a high school senior, and though have only a rudimentary knowl- edge of science, the subject impresses me sad I am eager to gain new facts and food for thought. I compliment you on securing the servica of such writers of sclentifiction as Ray Cud- mings, Harl Vincent, and R. F. Starzl. The; are good! Ray Cum mings' impressive style, h|s vivid imagination, and his knowledge of his subject seem to me invincible. His stories are always welcome. Now, concerning the services of other writers of Science Fiction, I think the rst- jority of the readers would be well pleased with the following list: Edgar Rice Bur- roughs, A. Hyatt Verrill, H. O. Wells, David H. Keller, Otis Adelbert Kline and Stanton Coblentz. The above mentioned, I am sure, would greatly please your readers. I be- lieve it would greatly improve the drcuU- tion of your magazine to try to secure tot services of such writers (especially E. K, Burroughs). I am greatly interested in the future cf your magazine and wish it every bit of Eats in the^vorld. You have made an astoundint start. Keep up the good work.— A. & Jaweett, Jr., 132 Murdock Avenue, AshevDk, N. C. "The Readers' Corner" All Readers are extended a sincere and cordial) invitation to "come over in 'The Readers' Comer' " and join in our monthly discussion %f stories, authors, scientific principles and possi- bilities — everything that's of common interest in connection with our Astounding Stories. Although from time to time the Editor may make a comment or so, this is a department primarily for Readers, and we want you to make full use of it. Likes, dislikes, criticisms, ex- planations, roses, brickbats, sugges- tions — everything's welcome here; at "come over in 'The Readers' jComer" and discuss it with all of us I —Toe Editor. "JoVe me** J^ve my DO(j If you love your dog, don't let fleas torment him. Use Sergeant's Skip Flea Soap or Sergeant's Skip Flea Powder. Famous Dog Book Free We urge you to write for your free copy of Sergeant's Dog Book, which explains in clear, everyday language the care of dogs, the symptoms of their diseases and the bett treat- ments. This book is illustrated and contains interesting articles on the care, feeding and breeding of dogs. Use the coupon. Sergeant's Dog Pood Io addition to the famous Sergeant's Dog Medicines, your dealer now has Sergeant's Dog Food. This balanced ration contains a large proportion of freshly cooked beef. A splendid food for all dogs and pups. We guarantee your dog will eat it. Sergeant's Dog Medicines and Sergeant's Dog Food are sold by dealers everywhere. 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Dean of Harvaid. in the iJigliib Dept.. John (Jalli-Law discovered and developed other now celebrated writers. Let ton tiallLthaw method help YOU with tbe^e rich reward*, tils 2-tolume L'otirte tells luH what you miuu know. Vol 1— "The Only Two Ways to Write a Story" — tells "bow lo- put a to^Lthec" and auuUii cotu|>leie test of 20 ma-tter starli-. II— "The Twenty Problems ol Flctlea Writlaf"— give* the principles for technical ri.a-.tery loll 1 * you "how to I ell vour storr." i Tbcrt, as a ux-r of hit method, to get Jnh'i sonal advice, you sre entitled to a FREE analysis itton by yotatoclf. yoB can write si or I is that sail— or >etu alter five days' free use. 'below brings this complete 2 -vol. Course for (Ivo xaminatioe! Then ■«) bow easily you can matter writing John GelU-ihaw'a way. If you don't wv method can help win an Important plane m tfa.- j Held— Just return the books and pay nothing, i r to ki-ep the book.*— and get a free Analysis of a Hon* ml only #3 at the end of tire days and S3 montlil- for only tbreo mottths. (.Vot e nrrtipndtnee coarse — -solfetn:i aire fe fre>.J Will you be John G alii '■haw's nest "dl-*coieTy"T Find out! Get the-e nook''! Send no money, par the -pat* hi en Doth log — Juai mail the form below to O- P. PUTNAM'S tiOSS (Dept. 1H). 1 WM iMi Mr. New York CHy. G~ P. PUTNAM'S SONS (DepT 136). 2 West 45th Street. New York City. -Send me John GallishaWs 2 -vol. Short -Story Writing: Courv* for free examination. At the end of 5 days I will either mat. huu 13 and then V\ for three consecutive months or mum th» }uu 13 book'., t'poni romplet _ Analjs,, by John CaHL-haw oT Name will II be entitled written by mt to ft frrH< AuMre* — - I'.ty ar.d State Please mcnlion Newsstand Group-— Men's Lim, when au>wciing a IvcniseniLnis Amazingly Easy Way to Get Into ELECTRICITY ; Don't rper.d yaor life waiting for J5 raises taadnil, hopeless job. Now ... and forever. ..•aynood-bye to 26 and » dollars a we*k. J«t ma teach to" bow to prepare for positions ttiat lead to <50 . twndenc*. bat by an amazing- way to teach right here fas teas "ll C*7M Bates* that makes no a practical expert In 80 days! Getting Into electricity is far easier than you Imagine! UABN WITHOUT BOOKS — la 90 Days B9 Actmml Wrfc— in tkm Qrmmt C+jmm flu f t 1 don't care If too don't know an armature ftpnm an air brake —I don't expect you to! It makes no difference! Don't let nek of money atop too. Moat of the man at Com* b»™ no more looey than you haveJTba fa why I bare worked out my ■*■ "amtWMI con Id be trained. . . on one of the greatest outlays of electrical . real dyi apparatus ersr aasembled . . . real dynamos, engine*, power plants, autns, switchboards, tranrmittinft stations . . . every- thlna- from door bells to farm power and lighting- . . . foil sized ... tn full operation every day I So Boohs — No Ltssrnn* No dull books, no baffling charts, noclasaes. you get individusl training... til real actual work. . . building resl batteries . . . winding real ira*- turee, operating real motors, dynajnae and generators, wiring houses, etc. GET THE FACTS SSSSSSir^^SS.^ moved. This setwol Is 30 years old -Coyne training !■ tested — proven beyond nil doubt— endorsed by many large electrirsl concerns. You can find out everything absolutely free. Simply mall the coupon and let me ■end you the big, free Coynobook of ISO photographs . . facta .Jobs . Cornel . salaries . . . opportunities. sluing and how we assist our graduatea tn the ilgate you. So set at once. Jut mall coupon. photos Tills you how msn yearn expenses ■ graduatea in the field. This doe* BIO BOOK FREE t tailing complete COYNE S^ CTR,CAt SCHOOL a St., Dept. AS 56, CWcaio, W. I COYNE EIXCTR1CAL SCHOOL, as. C Lewis, Pres. ■ soo a. N>aa street. Dept. AO as. CMeeos, S HnH s Airplane, and Automotive nk« * ' .irn whib* lurnlur." Nam*- am- 4 W Brings youlhis bmntifvl. I You Pay?30M ftsiwR Baas* tee las A"tnek»'' deal aaabe li 7LZ albht for oa fa offer this ..... _. 111 while ring. Certificate aeecmai — irenlseteg to bay eachange feeflM a awssasi Pin ■ osj. to this sd Stats' U) How lea. m L ~!SS. (t) Ag». <|t Harried er How long rrsptartei. for 10 day uisi— tf LEARN to PLAY VIOLIN. TCHOR BANJO. HAWAIIAN GUITAR. BANJO. COB. NET, BUITAR, MANDOLIN. BANJO MANDOLIN. BANJfr. GUITAR. BNARE OHUM, FICLO DRUM, PIANO er ORBAl quicair by note by our oopyrigbted easy to learn liinni iisfli MttW.,Nii uste « ul^twsMay. Ley l e x ers ea « l ftS| H n»< as- m east W epsrs earn ben ii -. was Uatt r«e eel ■ joe wine — teitsft, or fsfnnS rwi tumm. i ITS eni o» see am lb. Oar frea sSk) tasp srtL n can do (<* tfl BeUtaMBS Trass bi t>asBNist last BsVWALO, BVT I 1 Ve#a/ aU NO OttMTKM* NO OfCRATIOIH ~30 OAV HOMC TJUAL" Dr. Josrpiis* Nose Corrector OB make your nose beautiful by mould- ing flesh and cartilage to desires shape. Worn night or day in ab- solute comfort. Amazing and sail- ing results in shortest time. FRKI BOOKLET tells how. Write today. Dr. JOUPU, Inc. %1 , Dept. F BO Irving ion, N. J. Please mention Nkwsstand Grolt— Men's List, when answering advertisements More fun/***^ AMUSEMENT PARK All yours with a Hariey-Davidson Motorcycle — the dip and zoom of the "Roller Coaster", the thrilling whirl of the "Airships", the sip and speed of the "Whip"! All yours to enjoy — every time you tide your Hariey-Davidson — for motorcycling combines the thrills of a dosen sports in one. You never tire of it What wonderful vacation and out- ing trips you'll take with the jolly bunch of Hariey-Davidson riders! And the cost is so low — a Hariey- Davidson is easy to buy, and upkeep is only a penny or two per mile. Let your nearest HarUy-Davidson Dealer showyouthe 1930 models, and explain hit Pay-As-Tou-Ride Plan. Mail the coupon to us for literature. Davidson Mail the Coupon! HAJU.EY* DAVIDSON MOTOR CO. Dept. N. S. C MJwjuktt. W». lotmttcd in Tour motarcTclcf. Send litcralure. AdJr-11 □ >tc u □ 16-19 ytara. □ 20-30 ycji r and up. □ unjej 16 ycai 'heck your age group. MOULDING A MIGHTY CHEST Get a 46 Inch Chest Complete Course on Chest Building ONLY 25c Learn the real secret of powerful cfaest building. Know all about the muscles that lift, widen and deepen ihe chest and broaden the shoulders. Practice the si«cci*i- ucd exercises which will nuke YOUR chest nu^t and powerful. The greatest analysis of vital, vigorous chest development ever written. Learn the Hindoo religious system of exercises that makes their wrestlers and strong men invincible. A Hindoo strong man and wrestler threw Zybysco in two seconds. Many other methods un- known to the American body builder, art explained. Complt !c with anatomic illustrations on which arc in-li- cit ed the little known vital spots iu c'riMlini: vital internal strength. You can build for yourself a Hercu- lean cli?il. The author, George F. Jowci-t, buiit bis rheu from 3 2 inches of weakness to -18 inches of coliusjl r slreriKth. Develop your chest will, straps i muscle. Till it full of irresistible vital Btrrnc WORTH ITS WQGBT IN GOLD— GET IT TODAY To each purchaserWill be given a FREE COPY nP THE THRILL OF BqiSC STRONG. It is a prireU.v. book to the strength Iaa> and muscle builder. Full of I'Ltiires of marvelous hoofed men who tell you decisively I iow you can build symmetry and strength the equal of the BEACH OUT — GRASP THIS SHOAL 8FFEK JtWETT INSTITUTE of PHYSICAL CULTURE 422 Poplar Street, Dept. Z-F, Sainton, Pennn, Dear Mr. Towetl : I am enclosing 2.V. Tplease send roe i!:e let: "Si Ol* 1 .HI NO A MIGHTY CHEST" and a free copy of "Til E, THRILL OF OEr^U STRONG." Please nunlion Newsstand Gkult— Mk.n's List, when answering aiUcriiscnunis GOV'T, POSITIONS 3 5 TO 75 WEEKLY Easy Quick lb Get Into ^ Major R* train You AT HOME T\ of atiiaaing Horn* Study Oiurw y.ey.uc* >ou nil any of the fucinaUni Aiiauon Jook. < Thr around or u a skilled flyer, payifiK tit to H' 1 ' I uud jou to u,-r*ed quicLly. to All one of the fchoi ■:r and around Jobs now open and I help you t. lind jour nehi place in Arikiioc. W Help Ton Get Tour Job Ijuh at home In your spare hours. In 12 «hwt wwks you can be ready to take your ttytn« instruct lorn at greatl* reduced rtiM «t any alTLvrt near your home, or riant here In Da>ton. ur rou can atop into any aTiatiou around Mb witll my hHii. Ki- [icrli-nro wiac induMn mtlon I call In « youl Yo r attest .union! 3 "rik?" the 'first atep by' maillnf "coupon NOW lor KUL>: Book and Tuition offer. ■ AIOR R. L. ROCKWELL Dayton Schoel of Aviation Dftk l-6. Oajton. OhiO L Hall Coupon For My Book Sent ir AGENTS'. *B A DAY liverybody needs food. Our wonderlul new plan gives customers better quality and lower prices. Men and women Rep- resentatives wanted now. $8 a day and. Free Ford TuJor Sedan to producers. No experience or capital required. 2 A NOT. Products— =11 Tail sellers. I Food I'rodjcu, Toilet Preparations, Soaps, etc. All needed in evei home, Big ordere. Big profits. Steady repeat business. Write i quick. A Better W Loo 0 kYng Nom! My ^"moST 5"n£, o> ' *~ Dnprore the ahape of the bom ur (Hwuldiiif tbe cart i Ian and nato parts, safely, and painlessly. Thli M a<-compi:ihed tbroudi the very fine ail precise adjustments which only my pat- ented Model 25 poueuea. Hwrults art bwUng. Can be worn at nlaht. or dur- Hut the day. Money refunded if not tat* urtiod after thirty days* trial. Wrlta for frao booklet to / PATENTS Is a> myklrriounly all urine JV-rftime that e'trecu and fa-clnaici. 1 -> •eductue chirm and cmtle mailc l« poignant, sweet and llncrrn.c a* om-'> Htm kin. It Imds Lho charm you nerd to be happy In low and ,-ocial affair*-, An S 1a traduction In ill* Aaivrtran public *■ an >riu (aha rirr-4,* ,ar r.„n>» at (ha r ifirur — I pnri of t, v.Tien answering advertisements "Pick YOUR , GovernmentJob' ark fur Unci* Sun. Gat rood p»r. rrnlit In- .(MM. »ac»tinflFt Bill lien lun With D«J, .*J» llMMIMt, p*o*Mis. S»n.l fur .nf Km ortrat.li-*. th» 1™ .. f .7 1 *rT^.r Y **^'r.!Tl 7 NOW EqtT5SpV*4"*2£! *MlfS2 ta^artH^TirSi.wntl-iwn/' Giant Chest Expander Here's ui im- ONLY beard of oupor- »o OO tunity for every- ODO" to devclpp bit muscle* and obttln Brest serength. by using our Giant fLmt Expander and Pro((r^-i»i' Eirrcher. Complete lnrtrocitoo* w.ih every ex- erciser. Hade in cable form, -as nitu- ■.:.:'■! in 4 <■■ ■!■..(.■ a slim. He- re to 40U Ibx. S ■■-!.. for S3. 10 cables for lea for IB and M Wljil for |3. Build your- ist what you want to be. SEND NO HONEY. IShi '_ Prejrttme Exerciser Co. E. 1 IU. Tart Ci» TOBACCO Habit Overcome Or No Pay Onr MojjOO man and women and SBperba Remeay to hefp atop Ctpptsa*. Cigars, Pipe. Qiewinsj or Scuff. Write for full oa tnd fVw+*™ do dope or Eafatt dregs. Coata S2JX) if armsayJaL toUuag if sot SUPtRBA CO . A- it, BartMnor*. Md. HYPNOTIZE iirpoousn. Mind Magnetic Ileallnt. Tell* bow expert* brpnn jukr ** * Blanc*, make other* obey their commands. *™J How co crercome bad habits, how to giro a home performance, set on the at***, etc Uelpnat to **ery man and woman. executives, salesmen, doctors, mothnni, 'etc. Simple. e**y. Learn at borne. Only Jl 10. inilud- 1ns the "Hypnotic Eye." a new aid for amateur*, bend Kami* or M. O: (or pay C. O. D.. plus :ag« Cuaran- S Uad. Ed ucator Prm. 19 Park flew. New Vara. Deft, H-41 DIRECT FROM MO VI ELAND hOTK" 10 PSTCBOLOCT LOVE DROPS rciu>-uuK hook hike Aliunnr. Ultra- alodam la framnc*. Stir* malm of rich MM poor. Old and TouBg aorran- ILtJ#*C LOVI LETTEES 'ftacTrEfoTEwa-* rVr?hX«4 I£d o»i«i n *! 7 l*fi-nuJi *ir»! ud unrHlul HBfJi for Lav* Won* Co. Dept. MS. lax 12SC. Holt/weal Cal -jrayoi w-wearer agency. Paya Mb. »ot«. Thousands successful Samp! ■ Ire*. BUrt at once. Write today. T. CARLTON MILLS. INC. 100 L Tt>rvUl A«e.,N*w Tor*. N.T. Please mention NEWSSTAND Gr-ju?- We couldiit „ save a cent "1 hadn't received a raise In yean and my small salary aearcrly Lasted from week to week. Margaret scrimped and saved and did all her own noshing and housework, but the trills kept piling up and X could s*> she was always afraid I would lose my position. But still I kept drilling along in tba time old rut. "Then one day I met Tom Wilson, who used to work right beside me. He told me he was making $5000 a year and had nice home in the suburbs, new car and everything. I asked him how be happened to get ahead so fast. 'Oh. 1 got tired working for a small salary.' he said, 'so I started studying at home through the International Correspondence Schools.' That woke me up. I told Margaret that if the I. CV S. could help a man like Tom Wilson it could help me. So I cut our that I. C. S. coupon and mailed it to Scran too. "It certainly was a lucky day for me. In four months I received a raise in salary and beiore the end of the year I was neat in line for manager of my department. We've got a car of our own now and bank account that'* growing every day." ien your employer checks up his men tor ok of you J Is there any reason why you yourself these questions. You must facj you eipect adtaneernent and more money. Tlow do you itand vt] promoUonf Doe* he thl — . should be selected? Ask yourself thrse questions. Trfy ii yo - — them squarely 1 C. S. can do for you. It doean'r. you In an y wa y to aak (or lud least find out what the I. Mail Coupon for Free Booklet ■— — i 1 1 ■ i i— i ■ — ^ — ^— — — i — INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE SCHOOLS *Tae I/alcersal CntrrrsUs" Box 2129-E, Strantoa, Peaaa. Without eost or obi its t Ion. pleats ten I me a copy of your bv>k- let. "Who Win* and Why." and full particulars about the sub] XL or/ore which I hate mark ' TECHNICAL I EleetrJnl Engineer Inf Electric Uchtlnt MeclianlfaJ Engineer Mechanics! Dr.'lUir.in Machine ((hop Practice Railroad Positions Gas Enilne Overntlni: rirll Engineer QV«f\ M Surrey lug and M,>p:iin; PluuiMrut and nesting Architect Arrliitecti* BlueprlnH ContracloT and liulMer Structural Dmrtsman t'onerete RuU>ler Structural Enctneer ("tierolitry (J Pharmacy Vutr>mob:ie Work Attattoa Engines ftanaatUn □ Njartssgiaa Mathematics QB " G COURSES (v-'.-i' ; -. mm ^ hi I,.. I. fjn fw prr*4«« rnUms In r«mroa »*ouM s-n-i tw* coupon re Iks M**af* Ifarstl Carrtipanien^ School* tanadion. Limited. Monfreol, Csm4o Li - ., when answering aiUcrtiscnKiits Play the Hawaiian Guitar like the Hawa iians / $1 AH] REGULAR »1S VALUE LIMITED LOW PRICE OFFER Send No Money 3 BflR SAVE OVER HALF ON THIS OFFER But rou bats still moro'f you buy now. Every thing's Included a lh.1* special law price offer. Bit. RUWd 10 Cable Exerciser adjustable to 200 lbs. resistance. iVmck:.- Wall Excreting Parti for Hack aad Shoulder development. Hand Orip that but Ida m>ky WnUi and Forearm . Head Gear to brine out those dormant Neck UukIm. Foot Stirrup and Harness thai dercI* -inewy Calf and Th:e* Muvln. ItesulatiorA Heavy Skip Rove for -uwd. Endurance and Wind. And a completely illustrated Course or Initruction. All This— For Only 13.13! Take advan- use of (bin temporary low prion Offer NOW. Jet tend your name and address. We'll ihip everything tut by return mail. Pay DMtuian only $3.91 plus postal chargee. Outside United Stats*. Cash With Order. ^ INSTITUTE FOR PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT. Inc. 13 East 22nd Dept. F-21 New York. H. Y. I WILL TRAIN YOU AT HOME BIG PAY RADIO JOB T ™*«* afjp **■ PATtaj MO. Mt. Ti. 1100 ■ week are ot*olns emry year i Kroadrasttna- Statlom. Coeunercial Land tat loci '-Badlo raotortaa. with Dealer* nd Jabbers and other Badlo brancnea. o>i can team at noma to your spare aae to^e a Badlo Expert Extra BMay repairing itts otlic.Al while learaln*. Write for "Bleb j ^ward, in Badlo." It telU you about !, ra * ny opportunities, my course H imurai Employment Service. No MujaUon. No scent will call. ACT NOW. E. SMITH. President. Osirt. 0 F M «*, Washington. D. f Only * Motion* used piscina; this f ascitis litis mcni. Our native Hawaiian instructor* teach 'you misUr them q uk-kly. Pictures enow hew. Every, thing explained clearly. Easy La>a a awe Play In Hall Hour GIVEN Urn U~priitl#d ~knwoi and (Mr |J^ ur " ™£* F*t a*rm P"sr. uhrn you enroll HAWAIIAN OUITAK t Car warrl AT OKCe for at ttacM<* offer] •"dtujr term. Y«u •vrrjlhmf I lattaln. A c.4iftft mill do. ACT I _ N» ulnu-twrn*,,!, nwi>e4 FRENCH LOVE DROPS An enobantlne exotic perfume of In* slsilble charm. clinging for boon fa. lorars loath to part. Ju-t a ke drops are enough. Pull sat |asa> 8Sc prepaid or SI. 30 C. 0. D. pas pohtase. Direction* with every era* FREE: 1 full size bottle if m order 2 vials. D'ORO CO. Box n, Variek Station. New Y« Pea*. HSGS SONG WRITERS? - SUBSTANTIAL ADVANCE ROYALTIES are paid on work found acceptable for pobrkj. tion. Anyone wishing to write either the aitM muiic for sonsa may submit work for free a- aminHtion and advice. Pojf experience uniieceowj New demand created by "TaUtins PicnnvJ 1 fully described in our free book. Write fox I Today. NEWCOMER ASSOCIATES * 723 Eaxle Building, New York . MONEY FOR YOU iSl5fs» 925 weekly time at borne e»sn| display cards. !eo**jj t work. No can vaaaini TT COMPANY Umlttrf BU(_Taronta. Can. re CCIENCE now knows that the tisy (rav O tale aland frequently cautes lest seat*, and strength, night rising, com' pains In the back. legs. feet. etc.. past 40. Unless corrected this msy mii.-raale old ane and grave lurgsry. an aouing drualrsi treatment ii snaw swift, permanent relief to thousands. UM and endorsed by physicians, hotsitsli sM sanitarium. Sent an trial. Feel It i younger in 6 Days or pay nothini lor offer and free book of dsri . abort «e*> past SO. W. j. KIRK, 4130 Harris Ave. Travel on "Uncle Sam's" Pay Roll Year to Ci YOUR COUNTRY > Too Un It STEADY WORK — NO lAYOFFS — rviu v Railway Postal Clrrkv- M;il Carriers—' Ce mason EaturwlJesi Sufficient ic\tio»s / N4mc Slerto JJ / Please mention Newsstand Grm.T- Mi. v '~ List, when answering advertisements FOR THOUSANDS OF MEN -Tobacco Habit LBanlshed AatUs Help You Stop craving tobacco in any form. To^*- ~ " seawr in most cues relieves foritinafewdaya'tima. Don't ] the tobacco habit unaided. It's . fight against hcavyodiK end * Larshocktothen. habit to quit yon- Tbbaccouacrsusuallycan depend^ opon^thia belt) by simply using ■ding to simple dt~ ooee, acta quickly. it too. la thoroughly reliable. Met a Substitute ;eew*aw>x contains no habit-form- am in* druge of any kind. It ia in no sense a ■ ■nbstitute for tobacco. After finishing the ■ treatment. thereBbouldbenodeaiM s. pipe. plus, fine cut or snuff. In . cues Tobacco Itedt? merrcmoveeallcravjns for tobacco in any form la a very few dayn. 1 very fe» And remember, it ia offered with a positive I raom-y-back Ku;iranlce. Wnto today for our froo booklet 6howin K the Injurious effect of tobacco ppoo th.) human nyntcm and couTlncmg evidence that TOBACCO IlKDKKMJrlltdocsquicKlyivlicTe I the craving for tobacco In most cases. f NEWELL PHARMACAL COMPANY Dept. 793 dartsa Statiat St, Lob*. Mo NEW DEVICE MAKES pi!) WASWNC EASY/ :« ■ ass— Sp aa a a HBPffti • | Gr-TS rakx cmr* nixkly MtMei ] •* vne. Iliilil Owsr M^gMMliay 1 AGENTS MAKE AGENTS WANTED To mwa I o*d Mtabliihrd fir. .rid Uk» ordm. Make [:■« Monw »»*ry d.H M> liussjfitttnv f r Mmtaof *n kind*. Ntftitju, Diisrwsar, m r*Ja« mm, MM Kwnwi, awasssls. rjuMnnf. apaasksaaaji sag Outftt freet 4»22-2a Uiicoto Chicago NO JOKE TO BE DEAF —EVERY DEAF PERSON KNOWS THAT 1 them day and nlgbt. Tney stop . bead do lacs and rinsing earn They nmfortabio. Nnone " I will bell deaf and Address ■^afiTtgsm^ fiow*!*^*!^ ^oa^ear? 1 Adi 9& . r. war, Artiuu.i br Dr» e*. (i.e.) •tail Bill. Odrrtt. Mich. ORRECT fjr Your NOSE g Ttotmnds hare u*d the Anita Nose Adinstftf to lmnru*# tsaaa appearance. Shape* fir-h sad canilMo of tsaf nose—safely, pelnleuly. walls 9 lasting. Doctor* a»- guarantee. Oold Medal •lane,. Writs foe 30-D.y TRIAL OFFEI FREE BOOKLET. •43 Aatta BulWins, Hoea**, N. J. •Then I bsbI for yinr catalog. I didn't ■new a n«t« of ansae. A few ** w *"' h e ■Asr I bought my Warlltaer Insnr I ba d taken say plaes la a prof* _ UiImU a. Now I am HQ) a , weak, three tunas what I mads ss elerk. 1 wish everybody knew bow easy It to— ' 1 wbistls a tan* a " -SIB WW Free Trial Too may now bavs any ¥ strumeot for an ample free own home. Exaa*Jns the nets the ftns workmaoshlp, rich toes value and especially It is to play. No obligation to buy — no expense for tbe trial. Wo make this liberal offer because we want yon to try for yourself a gsnaine Worlitzcr Instrument, tbe result of ZOO yesr'e ex- perience inmusJcsJinatrumeotbuildlDg. Easy payments am arranged to sort SEE tqntty to try a i Free Book articles, many of them abown in full colors. All iicnulne Wurllucr inatruments— buy direct from Wurlltser and save moecy. Bpecial offers en complete outfits. Wo also gin yea oar Free Trial, Easy Payment Flan. No obbaaawa. Sena Coupon Today! /The Rudolph Wurl'itzer Co, 106 East 4th Street, Cincinnati, Ohio Komt Addriu _ CUt V 1 j'nwl . — answeni Plcasc^icntion NEWSSTAND Gnoup— Men's List, when answering advertisements- ill This Man! THERE'S a devil inside of you. He's try- ing to kill you. Look out for him! He tells you not to work, so hard. What's the use? The boss only piles more work on you. He 'tells you, not to oother with your body* If you're weak — you always will be weak. Exercise is just a lot of rot. Do you recognize him? Of course you do. He's in us all. He's a murderer of ambition. He's a liar and a fool. Kill him! If you don't he will kill you. Saved Thank your lucky stars you have another man inside of you. He's the human dynamo. He* fills you full of pep and ambhion. He keeps you alive — on fire. He urges you on in your dally tasks. He makes you strive for bigger and better things to do. He makes you crave for life and strength. He teaches you that the weak fall by the wayside, but the. strong succeed. He shows you that exer- cise builds live tissue — live tissue is muscle — muscle means strength — strength 1 is power. Power brings success! That's what you want, and gosh darn your old hide! You' redoing to get it. Which Man' Will It Be! It's up to you. Set your own future. You want to be the Human Dynamo? Fine! Well, let's get busy. That's where I come in. That's my job. Here's what I'll do for you: In ]U6t 30 days I'll increase your arrn^one full inch with real live, animated muscle.' Yes, and I'll add two inches to your chest in the> same time. Pretty good, eh? That's nothing. Now come the works. I'll build up your shoulders. I'll deepen your chest. I'll strengthen your whole body. I'll give you anus and legs like pillan. I'll literally pack muscle up your stomach and down your back. Meanwhile I'll work on those inner muscles your vital organs. You'll feel the thrill of life shooting up your bid backbone and throughout ; system. You'll feel so full of life you will shout to the world, "I'm a man and I can prove it." Sounds good, what? But listen! That isn't all. I'm not just promising these things. I guarantee It's a sure bet. Oh, boy! Let's ride. EARLE LIEDEBMAN, Tha MdhU Builder Author of "Miuele Butldinf," "Science of Wmtlrtf." "SecreW of Strenfffc," "Here'* Health," "EniuttnU." Smt f« mi k* 64-tOfe ■ M C EARLE UEDERMAN Dept. 1706, 305 Broadway, New York City Dear Sir: Plutc send me, absolutely FREE and it any obligation on my part whatever, a of your Jatot book, Muscular Develop' Name Street City.. State (Pfact. writ* or print pltinlg) "T What do you think of that* I don't ask oo« cent, peppiest piece of rradln* you en* laid your tarn on. nertr blink an eyelash till you're turned the last "~ 48 full-PMC photos or myself and some of my This la the finest art aaUery of rtn last one of thorn to tfcoaUoK my pr ?~t a kick out of This book, you J EARtE LIEDERM; DEPT. 1706, 305 BROADWAY, NEW YORK < Please mention Newsstand Gbouf— Men's List, when answering advertisements "SO. MY noil M4UTY,YOU WOULD REPULSE ME ,EH?" barked DALTON "I would indeed," said the fairest flower of the countryside. "And how!" "What is there about me, gal, to bring this disfavor down upon my head?" he demanded. "Your voice, sir," she answered him haughtily. "The man who wins my heart must smoke OLD GOLDS in kindness to his throat— and to his listeners." OID GOLD FASTEST GROWING CIGARETTE IN HISTORY. ..NOT A COUGH IN A CARLOAD 0 P. Ltvfflsrd Camels are odds-on favorites in every field. . . . There isn't a cigarette . . . anywhere . . . that can touch them for fragrance, for mildness, for downright smoking pleasure! am CIGARETTES © 1930, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Winston-Salem, N. C.