ft ISN'T SUCH A BUM WORLD AFTER ALU t WHEN YOU WORK UNDER A SIMON IKKf STRAW BOSS WITH A TIME gflCK AARINGAT VOU ALITHE TIME- AND YOU NEVER H«iE ANYTHING IN YOUR POCKETS" EXCEPT A HOLE — and bills keep piling upon you till you camt see how in the sam hill you'be EVER GOING TO GET OUT or DEBT- AND THEN VOU FIND IN A LITTLE BOOK THE KEY TO SECRETS WHICH H« WOE THOUSANDS COMFORTABLY ffll OFF AND EVEN RICH — AND YOU START USING THOSE SECRETS YOURSELF AND LEARN WHAT IT IS TO REALLY MAKE BIG MONEY AS A SALESMAN — OH FELLERS' it isn't such ABUM WORLD AFTER ALL When Men Raise Their Pay $3,000 to ft ,000 a Year . . . After Reading This Little Free Book I A MARVELOUS little free Iwok is bringing vital ■m to thousands of men today and making mo- ntvtis changes in their lives. Just sixty (our pane? —•boat seven ounces of paper and printers' ink ; but care arc thousands of nun holding clown big-pay jobs i3 over the United States and Canada with earnings rating Dp to JlO.tMi a year. \ and even bigger, who tuned by reading this great hook. Tike, for instance, Frank J. Walsh of Lud- k*, Mauachu setts. Just a lew years ago, Walsh nt ilnnrgliog along on $1,000 a year. In just w evening, reading this little free volume, he Bade the change in his life that raised his pay m 000%. Abom the iatn< time that Walsh was getting nrtart two other men— C. V. Champion of Han- r*. Illinois, and R. B. Hansen of Akron. Ohio t reading it too. Both were factory hands — but today both of them are t-rcudtnts -Jjpwou* and growing companies with incomes over PMBOiyear! Just lately a California cowboy named |*" Snore spent an evening reading this book, in a ■J***. It wasn't many months later lliat lie told " J °»t week when he made $52S clear, as a salesman. *■ from all walks of life— men who never dreamed ?7 tp nld master the secrets of salesmanship — regular SNN^iJuit like anybody else, without any eatra advau- «f money or education— that's what these men are. ^■W* book, and the marvelous N. S. T A. l>emon- Method, are specially planned to help just that ^ « aen— ambitious average fellows. The N. S. T. A. 7fcAb-t a two cent stamp! Blmplfr fill out and mall the coupon to us to-lay. NATIONAL SALESMEN'S TRAINING ASSOCIATION Dept. 8-7H. N. 8. T. A. Bids.. Chleato. Illlnoli Nation* 5 Salesmen's Training Association. Dept. S-79S. N. H. T. A. Hid a.. Chicago. 111. , _ PIfiw mp fret- and without nhlita'lnei mv copy of 'The Key to Master Kalesrosnthlp." and full detail* of your Free Kmptnyruenl Herrlce and other special "Earn While You Loam framres Btate . Please mention Newsstand Group — Men's List, when answering advertisements DPP ®2? SWMES.° §(§2353(311 On Sale the First Thursday of Each Month w. m. a \rron. huiikn HARRY BATES, Editor Dn. Dni'KLAS H. DOLD. The Clayton Standard on a Magazine Guarantees fiVoi iJm torit* xharrlm an abas, liUmtUd vivid, leading vdian «g la* day and pnrebuad aodar conditions approved by ibe Authors' 1 1 ill! of Anariaat Thrnt eaah Maaaalaea are maaafaaiarad la Ualoa Jiup* bp ataoriaaa — irrbaina | Taut oath nawadaala* aad agent U Uuarad a fait prufti| Thai mm lalaltiyeal Eeaaorahlp pudi ibelr advertising pifn- Thm olfcar Clajlom magoafna* arm i ACE- HI C ft H AGAZINE, RANCH ROMANCES. CO*' BOY STORIES, CLUES, FIVE-HOVELS MONTHLY, ALL STAB DETECTIVE STORIES, RA7NGELAND LOVE STORY MAGAZINE, aad WESTERS ADVENTURES. Mere imam Two Million Copies Required to Supply the Monthly Demand for Clayton Magasiuet. NOVEMBER, 1931 vol. iv. No. 2 CONTENTS COVER DESIGN , H. W. WESSOLOWSKI Painted in ^Water -Colors from a Scene im "The Pirate Planet." THE WALL OF DEATH VICTOR ROUSSEAU 151 Ont of the Antarctic It Came— a Wail of Viscid, Grey, Half-Human Jelly, Absorbing and Destroying All Life That It Encountered. THE PIRATE PLANET CHARLES W. DIFFIN MS A Strange Light Blinks on Venus, and Over Old Earth Hovers a Mysterious Visitant- Dread Harbinger of interplanetary War. (Beginning ■ Four-Port Novel.) THE DESTROYER WILLIAM MERRIAM ROUSE Iff Slowly, Insidiously, There Stole Over Allen Parker Something Uncanny. He Could No Longer Control His Hands — Even His Brain! THE GRAY PLAGUE ^ L. A. ESHBACH 211 Maimed and Captive, in tke Depths of an Interplanetary Meteor-Craft, Lay the Only Possible Savior of Plague-Ridden' Earth. JETTA OF THE LOWLANDS RAY CUMMINGS ZM Black-Garbed Figures Move in Ghastly Greenness As the Invisible Flyer Speeds on Its Business of Ransom. (Conclusion.) VAGABONDS OF SPACE /HARL VINCENT 244 From the Depths of the Sargasso Sea of Space Came the Thought-Warning, "Turn Backt" But Carr and HisjMartian Friend Found It Was Too Late! (A Com* piece Novelette.) THE READERS' CORNER ALL OF US 271 A Meeting Place for Readers of Astounding Storirs. Single Copies, 20 Cento (In Canada, 26 Cento) Yearly SubscHpbon, $2.00 larued month tr by PubllaherV FlwmJ Corporation. 80 Lafayette St., New York. N. T. W. M. CUyttm. Pre*. dent : Francla P. Pan-, Secretary. Entered an ara> ad-elan matter December 7. 1929. at tttt Post Onto el New York. N. Y.. under Act of March 8. 1879. Title restsbrred aa a Trade Mark Id the U. S. Patent C Member NcvraaUnd Group — Men'i List- For advertising rain address E. B. Grow* * Co, Ida* U Var Ave. Hew York: or 126 North Michigan Arc. Chicago. m and his music held them spellbound ETHEL'S house pony was at its height — when suddenly there came in ominous knocking at the door. Ethel ran to open it ana — there stood Police Officer Kane. "I want to see the man ot the bum," thundered Kane. "I'm aorry," stammered Ethel nerv- ously, "but my father is not at home." "Well, what's goin" on in here any- way?" continued the officer sternly. "Every one on the Mock is complain- b' of the noise. I've a good mind to imst the lot of you." Ethel was mortified— what a dis* pace! "Ob please," pleaded Ethel, "please isn't do anything like that." Then Kane hnrst out laughing. Don'! worry, lassie — you were all lawsa' such a fine time I couldn't tab droppin' in," he explained. 'vh," sighed liihcl, "how you frajatened me. Won't you join nst" Kane Joins the Party "Ha." laughed Kane, as the Vict rote ■farad again, ''why saw you play that canned music — can't *sy of you play this taasdlal piano f Sure, > jrive you a "That's great — play another," they all shouted as the last notes of that snappy march song died away. Kane then started that * stirring old soldier song "Ou the Road to Mandalay," following it with song hits from the latest shows. rd like to one myself. "1 dare you to play ■T^M," snouted Ted "Tin afraid 1'H have ■ he goin*," stammered late, embarrassed. Tfc. Kane, I think fou ■"•» Play ror at after v mast yog ma." nssas faboL a "WD, Vwm. maybs I WW the oflkwr. BSha^ast down at tha • a»7Sli!II , rtL flat n" - -2*£?« toUlaUng *> the nan "Boni PICK YOUR INSTRUMENT Flaao Vlolti Organ Ukulele Troeaboaa Pleeolo Cottar "Well," he Unshed, as they Anally let htm set up from tfio piano. "I'll hare to be on my way now.* "Thank you for your lovely music." said Ethel. "Tou must be playing a eood many yean V* "Sore, and I haven't been plejin" lona at all." Thm the questions came thick and fast, "How did you ever learn so quick- ly!" "When do you find time to practice*" "Who was your teacher*" Clarinet Fluie Saaapbaaa MaadoBa 'Cello Hawaiian Steal Caller Slant SlBfldaa Pleao Accordion Italian aad Genua Vole* and Spmh Collar* Hereaoay wad Cneapweliloai Drama awd Tan* AwiOMtie Fumaar Control BaaJ* (Pleairaen. B Siring or Taaar) Man Lesson that showed me how easy It was, so I mora for the whole course. "Tliir* ware no lirwme rcalc* or tadlosa ewrcL5*H. I flayrri ml plwvs alinon from I he Mart. Now I'm playtn' claulcnl num- bers or Jau. barm' too tune of my life." This la net the uory of lust one Wlatad caw. CNn half a million people bare laamed to pier by this nlmple method. You can, loo. Kren if tou don't know one note from anothrr you'll ttraip )i In no lime. Fin*, tt tells you how 10 da a thing — then It ■aevt you how In pictures — then you do It yourself and htat ». * You teach >ou/i*lf— riant at home — with- out any unlnitmtlnn llnirr cmtcIm*, tedl* oiu »calca or other humdrum methods. Fro® Booklet and Demonstration Lesson To prore hnw pranical this course Is, the U. S. School of MuMc bis arranged a typical DrmonMration Lnuon and explanatory Book- let which you may hare Frre. They know bow anyone ran learn 10 play bis fsrorlte Instru- ment by note in lev» than half the time and at a frartlon of the rout of old Slow methods. The Hooklet will alio tell you all about the em si Ins new Automatic Fimgrr Centre!. Don't delay — act at once — fill In and mall the coupon below today— no obligation what- ever. < Instrument supplied If desired, cash or credit.) it. H. Hcbool of Miurie, MVll Brunswick BIdf.. New York City. Kane Tells vv , a wration uvaat His Story "Well, to tell yon the truth I bad no iearbrr.r?e always loved music, bni I oouldn'l lake rofular lea- son* on aoraont ot my du- ties aa a polloeman. Then one eranutf. I eaw a r. H. Bchool of Music adrartlae- meni. teJUn' of a new way of laarnla' U play. I didn't bailee* It myself but I east IT. S. School or MuaU 36911 Brnmswlek Bldg.. New York Qay Pleaae send mo your free book, "fefuiio l>.*ims In Your Own noma." with tntro- ductlon by Dr. Frank Crane. Free Damon- ■■ration I/eun and part I ml art of your easy " am interested In the fol- Name -f. Address Oty Please mention Newsstand Gboup — Men's List, when answering advertisements A sure cure for many ills is just this: Rfetrtf -'hen the chances are that you should be where stirring he-man things are happening — out in our great West. If you can't actually go there, allow the authors of Ace-High Magazine to take you West in their outstanding stories of action and adventure. WESTERN, ACTION t» SPORT STORIES 20c i F lease i.iuitinn \"fw>stanh (>»<>i/i> — MV.n's List, whin answering advcrii>e::icnts [will train you - at home ~ ■ to fill a ~**r V\crvf Radio Job.'} If yon are earning a penny leu thrui |3l) a I week, send for my book of Information on the I opportunities Id Radio. It \ or 140 a week for looser than the short time It takes to get ready for Radio. Igjvel of RADIO PARTS for ahome. Experimental Laboratory In Hadlo ™ ilia pMiw tu I m «p«wou csa build. ■any •ppor* • •Stoma The day you enroll with me Til show yon how to do 10 Jobs, common In most every nefnb* borhood. for spare time money. Throughout your coarse I send you information on servic- ing popular makes of sets; I rive you the plans and ideas that are making 1100 to $1,000 for hundreds of N. R. L students In their spare Ham while studying. jBSSMtlfr «M i awi ■ "■■for* f inlirtd k* I ni Buktni 1M Lut wook " •st mj tucocu to H. Radio principles as used in Talking Movies, Television and home Television experiments. Wired Radio, Radio's use la Aviation, are all given. I am so sure that I can train you satisfactorily that I wID agree in writing to refund every penny of your tuition If you are not satisfied with my Lessons and Instruction Service . f . upon completing. mmL M-psuj* nook •■ ttlaiaMlliB FU "I Jstt I made I Ml _ .Get your copy today. It tells you where an Sutarr to Mar in Bodlo's good Jobs are, what they pay. tells you m m** tine. VyjMSt about my course, what others who have taken g*. 1 ™** P* Wl-.V It are doing and making. Find out what Radio SP uton " kJO - offers you, without the slightest obligation. ACT MOW. J.E. _ Mills PssjL OHH Lifetime EmpbwentfervketoallQradiutfel I am doubling and tripling the salaries of many A ^> . in one year and Mytofa less Find out about/ / this quick way to M?i$3m&-/ J. B. BaffTH. Praridmt, NaUonal Radio InatUuta. DapL Ol Waahlnitsn, D. C. Datr Mr. BmiLh: fiend ro* your Thli miutt don not obligate ma. Please mention Newsstand Gboup — Men's List, when answering advertisements fafil! sht exclaimed., Uo then I told Marge how the Hawaiian Guitar had made my ambi' tions all come true L JSEAS Just a plain dis- couraged "wash-out." No tal- ent, do friends. No "social pres- ence," no worthwhile pros- pects. at my Job; no hard, solid cash salted away at the bank. And then what could a girl see In me? No matter how much I thought about girls — the way I felt about Marge, for example — I couldn't do any- thing about It. One night I tried reading a magazine. I began spinning the pages past my thumb. And THEN it Happened 1 Somehow one page flashed out from the rest. "Learn the Hawaiian Guitar at Home," H read. And it urged me to send for a Free Book. That was three months ago. Now let me tell you about the other nlghL I masked Marge If I could call. She told me to come over after supper. Excited? I'll say I was: Marge came out In a few minutes. I couldn't restrain myself any longer. "Marge!" I cried, 'Tve got a surprise for you I" I reached down and lifted up my Guitar. Even In the semi-darkness I could see Marge's eyes grow I played to her. DrVtTrny "Aloha" ; throbbing "Carolina Moan"; all the blues of "Moan- In' Low" — and two others. When I stopped. Marge didn't say a word for a full minute. Then she exclaimed excitedly, "Jim! Why didn't you tell me before T" I swallowed hard. **Be cause — " I began, "because. Marge — well, I guess there wasn't so very much to tell- 'before.' "But now," I rushed on— rDFE VLaaIi "I'm started for the biggest *HMMl things that ever were opened JMtJfm up to me! Listen, Marge! Tve _„J™^ done It at home, without a eyes teacher, by a wonderful new method. "why didht you tell me that before ?* "I took a trip over to Bridge- ton one night and played my Guitar at the "Y." They went wild. Marge! Paid me ten dol- lars for It "Since then I've played at two dnnecs there, too. nnd Johnny Farrell says I start with his orchestra the first of the month. Think of It! ! will mean doubling my ilary." Ing actual tunes right from tb> very start. Here nt last Is the unlitnHel Opportunity for milking frlendt Here Is the chance above si others to make $15 to $25 ■ weak and up, for part-time or full-time playing. Get the FACTS now. Wllh the very first lesson of this time- tested Course you re* ^- ........ » eelve a fuU-Jlze, sweet-toned, Marge was quiet again Then genuine Hawaiian Guitar, pick* ISt^^L^xJS* 1 ,??™J 'bur. tuner, etc. And we gtf. you Phonograph Records waldl lo< she said — "Jim. you've found yourself. I didn't know.lt Was In you. I'm so happy • • • You can be the popular mas- ter of thjs thrilllngly beautiful Instrument — In 1 to 3 short months. Without one bit of previous musical knowledge or experience, you can begin play- demonstrate every lesson In ua Course — 55 In all. The coupon below brtap your copy of "Tho Hawanta •Way to Popularity and Bfe Pay." We want you to read K that's all — then make your on decision. Do as Jim did— ft) that coupon Into the mnll-Ua tonight. ue- | JSC, \ "-VJH* yji A. P. BLOCK, President Hawaiian Studies SlllOal Htm York A o ad a my el Naelo Clip and Mail NOV Iflh Ataaga, .he' shelter of the surrounding forests while the Chinese were staked out in rows. Death, which would have been a mercy, had been de- nied them. It was living flesh that the Earth Giants craved. And here, onjhe spot known as Golgotha, the hideous sacrifice had been annually repeated. That first year, when the chosen vic- tims were transported to the fatal spot, all America went mad. Frenzied parents attacked the offices of the Federation in every city. The cry was raised that Spanish Americans had been selected in preference to those of more northern blood. Civil war loomed imminent. And year after year these scents must be repeated. Boys and girls, from fifteen to twenty years of age, the flower of the Federation, a hundred thousand of them, must die a hideout death to save humanity. Now the choice of the second year's victims was at hand. In their laboratory, removed to the heart of the Adirondacks ^ildernen, Cliff and Kay were working frantically. "It's the last chance, Kay," said Cliff. "If I've not solved the secret this time, it means another year's delay. The se- cret of dissolving organic forms as well as inorganic onesl What is this mysterious power that enables organic forms to withstand the terrific bom- bardment of the W-ray?" The W-ray was the Millikan cosmic ray, imprisoned and adapted for human use. It was a million times more pow- erful than the highest known voltage of electricity. Beneath it, even the dia- mond, the hardest substance known, dissolved into a puff of dust; and yet the most fragile plant growth remained unaffected. 'rTNHE laboratory in the Adirondack! JL was open at one end. Here, against a background of big forest trees, a cu- rious medley of 'substances had been assembled : old chairs, a couple of broken-down airplanes, a large disused dynamo, a heap of discarded clothing, a miscellany of kitchen utensils on t table, a gas stove, 'and a heap of metal junk of all kinds. The place looked, in fact, like a junk heap. The great top was set in a socket in a heavy bar of craolite, the new metal that combined the utmost tensile strength with complete infusibility, even in the electric furnace. About til feet in height, it looked like nothing but what it was, a gyroscope in gim- bals, with a long and extremely nar- row slit extending all around the ccs> THE WALL OF DEATH 155 tral bulge, but closed on the operator's side by a sliding cover of the same craolite. Within this top, which, by its mo- tion, generated a field of electrical force between the arms of an interior magnet, the W-rays were generated in accordance with a secret formula; the speed of gyration, exceeding anything known on earth, multiplied their force a billionfold, converting them to wave- lengths shorter than the shortest known to physical science. Like all great inventions, the top was of the simplest construction. "Well," said Cliff, "you'd better bring out Susie." Kay left the laboratory and went to the cabin beside the lake that the two men occupied. From her box in front of the stove a lady porcupine looked up lazily and grunted. Kay raised the porcupine ; in the box, of course. Susie was constitutionally indolent, but one does not handle porcupines, however smooth their quills may lie. Kay brought her to the heap of junk and -placed' the box on top of it. He went inside the laboratory. > "I may as well tell you. Cliff, I wouldn't have brought Susie if I'd thought the ex- periment had the least chance of suc- cess," he said. / Cliff sW nothing. He was bending over the wheel, adjusting a micrometer. "All ready, Kay?" he asked. KAY nodded and stepped back. He swallowed hard. He hated sacri- ficing Susie to the cause of science ; he almost hoped the experiment would fail. Cliff pressed a lever, and slowly" the ponderous top began to revolve upon its axis. Faster, faster, till it was noth- ing but a blur. Faster yet, until only its outlines were visible. Cliff pressed a lever on the other side. Nothing happened apparently, except for a cloudy appearance of the air at the open end of the laboratory. Cliff touched a foot lever. The top began to grow visible, its rotations could be seen ; it ran slower, began to come to a stop. The cloud' was gone. Where the air- planes and other junk had been, was nothing but a heap of grayish dust. It was this that had made the cloud. Nothing remained, except that im- palpable powder against the back- ground of the trees. Kay caught Cliff's arm. "Look out I" he shouted, pointing to the heap.' "Something's moving in there I" Something was. A very angry lady porcupine was scrambling out, a quill- less porcupine, with a white skin, look- ing like nothing sq much as a large, hairless rat. Cliff turned to Kay. "We've failed," he said briefly. "Too late for this year now." "But— the quills?" "Inorganic material. But even the bones remairv intact, because there's circulation in the marrow, you see. And the Earth Giants haven't even bones. They're safe — this yearl" ' He flung himself down under a tree, staring up at the sky in abject despair. **T OOK, Kay, I've got my num- ■ ber I" Ruth Meade smiled as she handed Kay the ticket issued by the Government announcing the lottery number provided for each citizen. One hundred thousand young people between the ages of fifteen and twenty would be drawn for the sacrifice, and Ruth, being nineteen, had come within the. limits, bat this would be her last year. In a few weeks the Government would announce the numbers — drawn by a second lottery — of those who were condemned. Then, before these had been made public, the victims would already have been seized and hurried to the airship depots in a hundred places, for con- veyance to the hideous Golgotha of the pampas. The chance that any individual would be among the fated ones was rea- sonably small. It was the fashion to make a jest of the whole business. Ruth smiled as she showed her ticket. 156 ASTOUNDING STORIES Kay stared at it. "Ruth, if— if any- thing happened to you I'd go insane. I'd—" "Why this sudden ardor, -Kay?" KAY took Ruth's small hand in his. "Ruth, you mustn't play with me any more. You know I love you. And the sight of that thing makes me al- most insane. You do care, don't you?" And, as Ruth remained silent, "Ruth, it isn't Cliff Hynes, is it? I know you two are old friends. I'd rather it were Cliff than anybody else, if it had to be some one, but — tell me, Ruth I" "It isn't Cliff," said Ruth slowly. "Is it — some one else?" "It's you, dear," answered Ruth. "It's always been you. It might have been Cliff if you hadn't come along. But he knows now it can never be he." "Does he know it's me?" asked Kay, greatly relieved. Ruth inclined her head. "He took it very finely," she said. "He said just what you've said about him. Oh, Kay, if only your experiment had succeeded, and the world could be free of this nightmare 1 What happened? , Why couldn't you and Cliff make it destroy life?" "I don't know, dear," answered Kay. "Iron and steel melt into powder at the least impact of the rays. They are so powerful that there was even a leakage through the rubber and anelektron con- tainer. Even the craolite socket was partly fused, and that is supposed to be an impossibility. And there was a hole in the ground seven feet deep where the very mineral water in the earth had been dissolved. But against organic substances the W-ray is pow- erless. "Next year, dear — next year we'll have solved our problem, and then we'll free the world of this menace, this nightmare. Ruth — don't let's talk about that now. I love you I" They kissed. The Earth Giants faded out of their consciousness even while Ruth held tha^otninous ticket in her hand. ( KAY said nothing to Cliff about it, but Cliff knew. Perhaps he had put his fate to the test with Ruth and learned the truth from her. Ruth made no reference to the master when she saw Kay. But between the two men, friends for years, a coolness was in- exorably developing. They had gone to work on the new machine. They were hopeful. When they were working, thharbm£er of interplanetary war. ered up his cards. "Not interested, he announced ; "too hot to-night. Keep her away." "Oh, she's far enough away Mc- Guire responded; "about seventy mil- lion miles. Don't get excited. "What are you talking about?" The captain shuf- fled his cards ir- ritably. She's winking at us, the old One of these star-gazers up on Mount Lawson saw the flashes a week or so ago. If you'll cut out your solitaire and lister, I'll read you some- thing to improve your mind." He ig- nored the other's disrespectful remark "Venus reprobate. and held the paper closer to Bee the paragraphs. "Ia Venus Signalling?" inquired the caption which Lieutenant McGuire read. "Professor Sykes of Mt. Lawson Observatory Reports Flashes. "The planet Venus, now a brilliant •pectade in the evening sky, is behav- ing strangely according to a report from the local observatory on Mount Uwion. This sister star, most like Earth of all the planets, is now at its eastern elongation, showing like a half- moon in the big telescopes on Mt. Law- son. Shrouded in impenetrable clouds, its surface has never been seen, but something is happening there. Profes- sor Sykes reports seeing a distinct flash of light upon the terminator, or margin of light. It lasted for several seconds and was not repeated. "No explanation of the phenomenon is offered by scientists, as conditions on the planet's surface are unknown. 170 Id there life there? Are the people of Venus trying to communicate? One guess is as good as another. But it is interesting to recall that our scientists recently proposed to send a similar signal from Earth to Mars by firing a tremendous flare of magnesium. "Venus is now approaching the earth; she comes the nearest of all planets. Have the Venusians pene- trated their cloak of cloud masses with a visible light? The planet will be watched with increased interest as ' it swings toward us in solace, in hope of there being a repetition of the unex- plained flash." "Hp HERE," said Lieutenant Mc- A Guire, " — doesn't that elevate your mind? Take it off this infernally hot night? Carry you out through the cool reaches of interplanetary space? If there is anything else you want to know, just ask me." "Yes," Captain Blake agreed, "there is. I want to know how the game came out back in New York — and you don't know that. Let's go over and ask the radio man. He probably has the dope." "Good idea," said McGuire; "maybe he has picked up a message from Venus ; we'll make a date." He looked vainly for the brilliant star as, they walked out into the night. There were clouds of fog from the nearby Pacific drifting high overhead. Here and there stars showed momentarily, then were blotted from sight. The operator in the radio room handed the captain a paper with the day's scores from the eastern games. But Lieutenant McGuire, despite his ready amusement at the idea, found his thoughts clinging to the words he had read. "Was the planet communicat- ing?" He pictured the great globe — another Earth — slipping silently through space, coming nearer and nearer. Did they have radio? he wondered. Would they send recognizable signals — words— or some mathematical se- quence to prove their reality? He ASTOUNDING STORIES turned to the radio operator on duty, "Have you picked up anything pe- culiar," he asked, and laughed in- wardly at himself for the asking. "Any new dots and dashes? The scientist say that Venus is calling. You'll have to be learning a new code." The man glanced at him strangely and looked quickly away. "No, sir," he said. And added after a pause: "No new dots and dashes." "Don't take that stuff too seriously, Mac," the captain remonstrated. "The day of miracles is past ; we don't want to commit you to the psychopathic ward. Now here is something real : the Giants won, and I had ten dollars on them. How shall we celebrate?" THE radio man was listening in- tently as they started to leave. Hit voice was hesitating as he stopped them; he seemed reluctant to put hii thoughts into words. "Just a minute, sir," he said to Cap- tain Blake. "Well?" the captain asked. And again the man waited before he replied. Then— "Lieutenant McGuire asked me," he began, "if I had heard any strange dob and dashes. I have not, but . . . well, the fact is, sir, that I have been getting some mighty queer sounds for the pal few nights. They've got me guesting. "If you wouldn't mind waiting, Cap- tain ; they're about due now — " He lis- tened again to some signal inaudible to the others, then hooked up two ei- tra head-sets for the officers. ' "It's on now," he said. "If you don't mind—" McGuire grinned at the captain ai they took up the ear-phones. "Power of suggestion," he whispered, but the smile was erased from his lips at he listened. For in his ear was sounding a weird and wailing note. No dots or dashes, as the operator had said, but the signal was strong. It rose and fell and wavered into thrill tremolos, a ghostly, unearthly sound, and it kept on and on in a shrill de- THE PIRATE PLANET 171 ipairing wail. Abruptly it stopped. The captain would have removed the receiver from his ear, but the operator stopped him. "Listen," be said, "to the answer." THERE was silence, broken only by an occasional hiss and crackle of some far distant mountain storm. Then, faint as a whisper, came an an- swering, whistling breath. It, too, trembled and quavered. It went up— up — to the limit of bearing; then slid down the scale to catch and tremble and again ascend in endless unvarying ups and down of sound. It was another unbroken, unceasing, but always changing vibration. "What in thunder is that?" Captain Blake demanded. "Communication of some sort, I should say," McCuire said slowly, and he caught the operator's eyes upon him in silent agreement. "No letters," Blake objected; "no breaks; just that screech." He listened again. "Darned if it doesn't almost teem to say something," he admitted. "When did you first hear this?" he demanded of the radio man. "Night before last, sir. I did not re- port it. It seemed too— too— " "Quite so," said Captain Blake in ■demanding. "But it is some form •f broadcasting on a variable wave; though how a thing like that can make sense — " "They talk back and forth," said the operator; "all night, most. Notice the loud one and the faint one; two sta- tions sending and answering." Captain Blake waved him to silence. "Wait — wait I" he ordered. "It's grow- ing louder I" IN the ears of the listening men the noise dropped to a loud grumble; rose to a piercing shriek ; wavered and leaped rapidly from note to note. It was increasing; rushing upon them with unbearable sound. The sense of something approaching, driving toward them swiftly, was strong upon Lieu- tenant McGuire. He tore the head- phones from his ears and rushed to the door. The captain was beside him. Whover — whatever — was sending that mysterious signal was coming near — but was that nearness a matter of miles or of thousands of miles? They stared at the stormy night sky above. A moon was glowing faintly behind scudding clouds, and the gray- black of flying shadows formed an opening as they watched, a wind-blown opening like a doorway to the infinity beyond, where, blocking out the Btars, was a something that brought a breath- catching shout from the watching men. Some five thousand feet up in the - " night was a gleaming ship. There were rows of portholes that shone twinkling against the black sky— rport- boles in multiple rows on the side. The craft was inconceivably liuge. Formless and dim of outline in the darkness, its vast bulk was unmistak- able. And as they watched with staring, incredulous eyes, it seemed to take alarm, as if it sensed the parting of its concealing cloud blanket. It shot with dizzy speed and the roar of a mighty meteor straight up into the night. The gleam of its twinkling lights merged to a distant star that dwindled, shrank and vanished in the heights. The men were wordless and open- mouthed. They stared at each other in disbelief of what their eyes had reg- istered. "A liner!" gasped Captain Blake. "A — a — liner I Mac, there is no such thing." McGUIRE pointed where the real cause of their- visitor's departure appeared. A plane with engine wide open came tearing down through the clouds. It swung in a great spiral down over the field and dropped a white flare as it straightened away; then returned for the landing. It taxied at reckless speed toward the hangars and stopped a short distance from the men. The pilot threw him- ASTOUNDING STORIES self oat of the cockpit and raced drunkenly toward them. "Did you see it?" he shouted, his voice a cracked scream. "Did you see it?" "We saw it," said Captain Blake; "yes, we saw it. Big as — " He sought vainly for a proper comparison, then repeated h\%A ormer words : "Big as an ocean liner I" The pilot nodded; he was breathing heavily. "Any markings?" asked his superior. "Anything to identify it?" "Yes, there were markings, but I don't know what they mean. There was a circle painted on her bow and marks like clouds around it, but I didn't have time to see much. I came out of a cloud, and there the thing was. I was flying at five thousand, and they hung there dead ahead. I couldn't be- lieve it ; it was monstrous ; tremendous. Then they sighted me, I guess, and they up-ended that ship in mid-air and shot straight up till they were out of sight." It was the captain's turn to nod mutely. ' "There's your miracle," said Lieu- tenant McGuire softly. "Miracle is right," agreed Captain Blake; "nothing less I But it is no miracle of ours, and I am betting it doesn't mean any good to us. Some other country has got the Jump on us." To the pilot he ordered: "Say noth- ing of this — not a word — get that ? Let me have -a written report: full details, but concise as possible." He went back to the radio room, and the operator there received the same instructions. "What are you going to do?" the lieutenant questioned. Captain Blake was reaching for a head-set. "Listen in," he {said briefly ; "try to link up that impossible ship with those messages, then report at once to the colonel and whoever he calls in. I'll want you along, Mac, to ■wear I am sober." HE had a head-set adjusted, and McGuire took up the other. Again the room was still, and a gait from the far reaches of space the dirk night sent to them its quavering call The weird shrillness cried less loudly now, and the men listened in strained silence to the go and come of that vari- able shriek. Musical at times as h leaped from one clear note to another, again it would merge into discordant blendings of half-tones that sent shiv- ers of nervous reaction up the listener/ spines. "Listen," said McGuire abruptly, "Check me on this. There are two of them, one loud and one faint — right?" "Right," said Captain Blake. "Now notice the time intervals- there I The faint one stops, and the big boy cuts in immediately. No wait- ing; he answers quickly. He does it every time." "YfeW?" the captain asked. "Listen when he stops and see how long before the faint one answers. Call the. lo.ud one the ship and the faint one the station. . . . There I The ship U through I" There was pause; some seconds elapsed before the answer that whis- pered so faintly in their ears came out of the night. "You are right, sir," the operator nil in corroboration of McGuire's remark. "There is that wait every time." "The ship answers at once," said Mc- Guire ; "the station only after a wait" "Meaning — ?" inquired the captain. "Meaning, as I take it, that there it time required for the message to go from the ship to the station and for them to reply." "An appreciable time like that," Captain Blake exclaimed, " — with ra- dio I Why, a few seconds, even, would carry it around the world a score of times I" X Lieutenant McGuire hesitated apno- ment. "It happens every time," he re-' minded the captain; "it is no coinci- dence. And if that other station is out in space — another ship perhaps, relay- THE PIRATE PLANET 173 tng the messages to yet others between here and — Venus, let us say. . . .'* / HE left the thought unfinished. . Captain Blake was staring at him as one who beholds a fellow-man suddenly insane. But the look in his eyes changed slowly, and his lips that had been opened in remonstrance came gradually in a firm, straight, line. "Crazy I" he said, but it was apparent that he was speaking as much to him- self as to McGuire." Plumb, raving crazy I . . . Yet that ship did go straight up out of sight — an acceleration in the upper air beyond anything we know. It might be — " And he, too, stopped st the actual voicing of the wild sur- mise. He shook his head sharply as if to rid it of intruding, unwelcome thoughts. "Forget that !" he told McGuire, and repeated it in a less commanding tone. "Forget it, Mac; we've got to render a report to sane men, you and I. What we know will be hard enough for them to believe without any wild guesses. "That new craft is real. It has got it all over us for size and speed and potential offensive action. Who made it? Who mans it? Red Russia? Japan? That's what the brass hats will be won- dering; that's what they will want to find out. , "Not a word I" he repeated to the radio man. "You will keep 1 mum on this." , He took McGuire with him as he left to^seek out his colonel. But it was a disturbed and shaken man, instead of the tiool, methodical Captain Blake of ordinary days, who went in search of his commanding officer. And he clung to McGuire for corroboration of his impossible story. ''T^HERE was a group of officers to -A whom Blake made his full report. Colonel Boynton had heard but little ■then he halted his subordinate curtly and, reached for a phone. And his words over that instrument brought a quick conference of officers and a quiet man whom McGuire did not recognize. The "brass hats," as Blake had fore- seen, were avid for details. The pilot of the incoming plane was there, too, and the radio man. Their stories were told in a disconcerting si- lence, broken only by some officer's ab- rupt and skeptical question on one point and another. "Now, for heaven's sake, shut up about Venus," McGuire had been told. But he did not need Captain Blake's warning to hold himself strictly to what he had seen and let the others draw their own conclusions. Lieutenant McGuire was the last one to speak. There was silence in the office of Colonel Boynton as he fin- ished, a silenci that almost echoed from the grim walls. And the faces of the men who* gathered there were carefully masked from any expression that might betray their thoughts. It was the quiet man in civilian at- tire who spoke first. He sat beside an- other whose insignia proclaimed him of general's rank, but be addressed himself to Colonel Boynton. "I am very glad," he said quietly, "very glad, Colonel, that my unofficial visit came at just this time. I should like to ask some few questions." i Colonel Boynton shifted the respon- sibility with a gesture almost of relief. "It is in your hands, Mr. Secretary," he said. "You and General Clinton have dropped in opportunely. There is something here x t hat will tax all our minds." ■' The man in civilian clothes nodded assent. He turned to Captain Blake. "Captain," he said, "you saw this at first hand. You have told us what you saw. I should like greatly to know what you think. Will you give us your opinion, your impressions?" THE captain arose smartly, but his words came with less ease. "My opinion," he stated, "will be of little value, but it is based upon these facts. I have seen to-night, sir, a new type of aircraft, with speed, climb and 174 ASTOUNDING STORIES ceiling beyond anything we are cap- able of. I can only regard it as a men- ace. It may or may not have been armed, but it had the size to permit the armament of a cruiser; it had power to carry that weight. It hung station- ary in the air, so it is independent of wing-lift, yet it turned and shot up- ward like a feather in a gale. That spells maneuverability. "That combination, sir; can mean only that we are out-flown, out-maneu- vered and out-fought in the air. It means that the planes in our hangars are absolete, our armament so much old iron. "The menace is potential at present. Whether it is an actual threat or not is another matter. Who mans that ship — what country's insignia she carries — is something on which I can have no opin- ion. The power is there: who wields it I wish we knew." The questioner nodded at the con- clusion of Blake's words, and he ex- changed quiet, grave glances with the general beside him. Then — "I think we all would wish to ,know that, Captain Blake," he observed. And to the colonel : "You may be able to an- swer that soon. It would be my idea that this craft should be — ah — drawn out, if we can do if. We would not attack it, of course, until its mission is proved definitely unfriendly, but you will resist any offensive from them. "And now," he added, "let us thank these officers for their able reports and excuse them. We have much to dis- cuss. . . .** CAPTAIN BLAKE took McGuire's arm as they went out into the night. And he drew him away where they walked for silent minutes by themselves. The eyes of , Lieutenant McCuire roamed upward to the scud- ding clouds and the glimpse of far, lonely stars; he stumbled occasionally as he' walked. But for Captain Blake there was thought only of matters nearby. "The old fox I" he exclaimed. "Didn't he 'sic us on' neatly? If we mix It with that stranger there will be no censure from the Secretary of War." "I assumed that was who it was," said McGuire. "Well, they have some- thing to think about, that bunch; something to study over. . . . Perhapa more than they know. "And that's their job," he concluded after a silence. "I'm going to bed; but I would like a leave of absence to-mor- row if that's O. K." "Sure," said Captain Blake, "though I should think you would like to stick around. Perhaps we will see some- thing. What's on your mind, Mac?" "A little drive to the top of Mount Lawson," said Lieutenant McGuire. "I want to talk to a bird named Sykes." CHAPTER II V LIEUTENANT McGUIRE, U. S. A., was not given as a UBual thing to vain conjectures, nor did hii imagination carry him beyond the practical boundaries of accepted facta. Yet his mind, as he drove for hours through the orange-scented hills of California, reverted time and again to one ' persistent thought. And it wai with him still, even when he was con- sciously concentrating on the hairpin turns of Mount Lawson's narrow road. There was a picture there, printed indelibly in his mind — a picture of t monstrous craft, a liner of the air, that swung its glowing lights in a swift arc and, like a projectile from some huge sun, shot up and up and still up until it vanished in a jet-black sky. Its al- titude when it passed from sight he could not even guess, but the sense of ever-increasing speed, of power that mocked at gravitation's puny force, had struck deep into his mind. And McGuire saw plainly this mystery ship going on and on far into the empty night where man had never been. No lagging in that swift flight that he had seen ; an acceleration that threw the ship faster and yet faster, regard- less of the thin air and the lessened THE PIRATE PLANET 175 buoyancy in an ocean of atmosphere that held man-made machines bo close to Earth. That constant acceleration, hour after hour, day after day — the ■peed would be almost unlimited; in- conceivable I He stopped his car where the moun- tain road held straight for a hundred feet, and he looked out over the coastal plain spread like a toy world far be- low. "Now, how about it?" he asked him- self. "Blake thinks I am making a fool of myself. Perhaps I am. I wonder. It's a long time since I fell for any fairy etorieB. But this thing has got me. A" sort of bunch, I guess." THE sun was shining now from a vault of clear blue. It was light- ing a world of reality, of houses where people lived their commonplace lives, tiny houses squared off in blocks a mile below. There was smoke here and there from factories; it spread in a haze, and it meant boilers and engines and sound practical machinery of a practical world to the watching man. What had all this to do with Venus? he asked himself. This was the world he knew. It was real ; space was im- penetrable ; there were no men or be- ings of any sort that could travel through apace. Blake was right: he was on a fool's errand. They couldn't tell him anything up here at the ob- servatory; they would laugh at him as he deserved. Wondering vaguely if there was a place to turn around, he looked ahead and then up ; his eyes passed from the gash of roadway on the mountainside to the deep blue beyond. And within the man .some driving, insistent, men- tal force etched strongly before his eyes that picture and its problem un- answered. There was the ship— he saw it in memory — and it went up and still up; and he knew as surely as if he had guided the craft that the meteor-like flight could be endless. Lieutenant McGuire could not rea- son it out — such power was beyond his imagining — but suddenly he dared to believe, and he knew it was true. "Earthbound I" he said in contempt of his own human kind, and he looked again at the map spread below. "Ants I Mites I That's what we are — swarming across the surface of the globe. And we think we're so damn clever if we lift ourselves up a few miles from the surface I "Guess I'll see Sykes," he muttered aloud. "He and his kind at least dare to look out into space; take their eyes off the world; be impractical I" He swung the car slowly around the curve ahead, eased noiselessly into sec- ond gear and went on with the climb. THERE were domed observatories where he stopped : rounded struc- tures that gleamed silvery in the air; and offices, laboratories: it was a place of busy men. And Professor Sykes, he found, was busy. But he spared a few minutes to answer courteously the questions of this slim young fellow in the khaki uniform of the air service. "What can I do for you ?" asked Pro- fessor Sykes. "No dreamer, this man," thought Mc- Guire as he looked at the short, stocky figure of the scientist. Clear eyes glanced sharply from under shaggy brows; there were papers in his hand scrawled over with strange mathemati- cal symbols. "You can answer some fool ques- tions," said Lieutenant McGuire ab- ruptly, "if you don't mind." The scientist smiled bnoadly. "We're used to that," he told the young officer; "you can't think of Any worse ones than those we ha*e heard. Have a chair." McGuire drew a clipping from his pocket — it was the newspaper account he had read — and he handed it to Pro- fessor Sykes. "I came to see you about this," he began. The lips of Professor Sykes lost their genial curve; they straightened to a hard line. "Nothing for publica- 176 ASTOUNDING STORIES tion," he said curtly. "As usual they enlarged upon the report and made as- sumptions and inferences not war- ranted by facts." "But you did see that flash?" "By visual observation I saw a bright area formed on the terminator — yes I We have no photographic corrobora- tion." "I am wondering what it meant." "That is your privilege — and mine," said the scientist coldly. "But it said there," McGuire per- sited, "that it might have been a signal of some sort." "I did not say so: that is an infer- ence only. I have told you, Lieuten- ant" — he glanced at the card in his hand — " — Lieutenant McGuire — all that I know. We deal in facts up here, and we leave the brilliant theorizing to the journalists." THE young officer felt distinctly disconcerted. He did not know exactly what he had expected from this man — what corroboration of his, wild surmises — but he was getting nowhere, he Admitted. And he resented the cold aloofness of the scientist before him. "I am not trying to pin you down on anything," he said, and his tone car- ried a hint of the nervous strain that had been his. "I am trying to learn something." "Just what?" the other inquired. "Could that flash have been a sig- nal?" "You may think so if you wish: I have told you all that I know. And now," he added, and rose from his chair, "I must ask to be excused; I have work to do." McGuire came slowly to his feet. He had learned nothing; perhaps there was nothing to be learned. Aj fool's er- rand! Blake was right. But the in- ner urge for some definite knowledge drove him on. His eyes were serious and his face drawn to a scowl of ear- nestness as he turned once more to the waiting man. "Professor Sykes," he demanded, "just one more question. Could that have been the flash of a — a rocket? Like the proposed experiments in Ger- many. Could it have meant in any Way the launching of a projectile — a ship— to travel Earthward through space?" PROFESSOR SYKES knew what it was to be harassed by the" curi- ous mob, to avoid traps set by ingen- ious reporters, but he knew, too, when he was meeting with honest bewilder- ment and a longing for knowledge. His fists were placed firmly on the hips of his stocky figure as he stood look- ing at the persistent questioner, and hit eyes passed from the intent face to the snug khaki coat and the spread wingi that proclaimed the wearer's work. A ship out of space — a projectile — thii young man had said. "Lieutenant," he suggested quietly— and again the smile had returned to his lips as he spoke — "sit down. I'm not as busy as I pretend to be. Now tell me: what in the devil have you got in your mind?" And McGuire told him. "Like some of your dope," he said, "this is not for publication. But I have not been in- structed to hush it up, and I know you will keep it to yourself." He told the clear-*yed, listening man of the previous night's events. Of the radio's weird call and the mystery ship. "Hallucination," suggested the sci- entist. "You saw the stars very clearly, and they suggested a ship." "Tell that to Jim Burgess," said Mc- Guire : "he was the pilot of that plane." And the scientist nodded as if the an- swer were what he expected. He asked again about the ship's flight. And he, too, bore down heavily upon the matter of acceleration in the thin upper air. He rose to lay a friendly hand on McGuire's shoulder. "We can't know what it means," he said, "but we can form our own theo- ries, you and I — and anything is pos- sible. "It is getting late," he added, "and you have had a long drive. Come over THE PIRATE PLANET 177 tod eat; spend the night here. Per- haps you would like to have a look at our equipment — see Venus for your- ■elf. I will be observing her through the sixty-inch refractor to-night. Would you care to?" "Would I ?" McGuire demanded with enthusiasm. "Say, that will be great I" THE sun was dropping toward the horizon when the two men again came out into the cool mountain air. "Just time for a quick look around," tuggested Professor Sykes, "if you are interested." He took the lieutenant first to an enormous dome that bulged high above the ground, and admitted him to the dark interior. They climbed a stair- way and came out into a room that held a skeleton frame of steel. "This ii the big boy," said Professor Sykes, "the one hundred-inch reflector." There were other workers there, one I man standing upon a raised platform beside the steel frame, who arranged big holders for photographic plates. The slotted ceiling opened as McGuire watched, and the whole structure swung slowly around. It was still, and the towering steel frame began to ■wing noiselessly when a man at a desk touched various controls. McGuire looked about him in bewilderment. "Quite a shop," he admitted; "but where is the telescope?" "Professor Sykes pointed to the tow- ering latticework of steel. "Right there.'Vhe said. "Like everyone else, you mere expecting to see a big tube."' He (explained in simple words the operation of the great instrument that brought in light rays from sources mil- lions of light years away. He pointed out where the big mirror was placed — the one hundred-inch reflector — and he traced for the wondering man the path- way of light that finally converged upon a sensitized plate to catch and record what no eye had ever seen. He checked the younger man's flow of questions and turned him back to- ward the stairs. "We will leave them to their work," he said; "they will be gathering light that has been traveling millions of years on its ways. But you and I have something a great deal nearer to study." ANOTHER building held the big refractor, and it was a matter of only a few seconds and some cryptic instructions from Sykes until the eye- piece showed the image of the brilliant planet. "The moon I" McGuire exclaimed in disappointed tones when the professor motioned him to see for himself. His eyes saw a familiar half-circle of light. "Venus," the professor informed him. "It has phases like the moon. The planet is approaching; the sun's light strikes it from the side." But McGuire hardly heard. He was gaz- ing with all his faculties centered upon that distant world, so hear to him now. "Venus," he whispered half aloud. Then to the professor: "It's all hazy. There are no markings — " "Clouds," said the" other. "The god- dess is veiled; Venus is blanketed in clouds. What lies underneatb/we may never know, but we do know that of all the planets this is most like the earth; most probably is an inhabited world. Its size, its density, your weight'' if you were there — and the temperature under the sun's rays about double that of ours. Still, the cloud envelope would shield it." I McGuire was fascinated, and his thoughts raced wildly in speculation of what might be transpiring before his eyes. People, living in that trop- ical world; living and going through their daily routine under that cloud- filled sky where the sun was never seen. The margin of light that made the clear shape of a half-moon marked their daylight and dark ; there was one small dot of light forming just beyond that margin. It penetratedi the dark side. And it grew, as he watched, to a bright patch. "What is that," he inquired abstract- edly — his thoughts were still filled with 178 ASTOUNDING STORIES those beings of his imagination. "There is a light that extends into the dark part. It is spreading — " HE found himself thrust roughly aside as Professor Sykes applied.; a more understanding eye to the in- strument. The professor whirled abruptly to his'assistant. "Phone Professor Giles," he said sharply; "he is working on the reflector. Tell him to get a photograph of Venus at once; the cloud envelope is broken." He returned hurriedly to his observations. One hand sketched on a waiting pad. "Markings 1" he said exultantly. "If it would only hold! There, it is closing . gone. His hand was quiet now upon the paper, but where he had marked was a crude sketch of what might have been an island. It was "L" shaped; sharply bent. "Whew I" breathed Professor Sykes and looked up for a moment. "Now that was interesting." i "You saw through?" asked McGuire eagerly. "Glimpsed the surface? — an island?" Toe-scientist's face relaxed. "Don't jump to conclusions," he told the avi- ator; "we are\not ready to make a geography of Venus quite yet. But we shall know that mark if we ever see it again. I hardly think they had time to get a picture. 44 A ND now there is only a matter X*\. of three hours for observation; I must watch every minute. Stay here if you wish. "But," he added, "don't let your imagination run wild. Some eruption, perhaps, this we have seen — an ignition of gasses in the upper air — who knows? But don't connect this with you/ mysterious ship.; If the ship is a menace, if it means war, that is your field of action, not mine. And you will be fighting with someone on Earth. It must be that some country baa gained a big lead in aeronautics. . . . Now I must get to work." "I'll not wait," said McGuire. "I will start for the field; get there by day- light, if I can find my way down that road in the dark. "Thanks' a lot." He paused a mo- ment before concluding slowly: "And in spite of what you say. Professor, I believe that we will have something to get together on again in this matter." The scientist, he saw, had turned again to his instrument. McGuire picked his way carefully along the nar- row path that led where he had parked his car. "Good scout, this Sykes!" he was thinking, and he stopped to look overhead in the quick-gathering dark at that laboratory of the heavent, where Sykes and his kind delved and probed, measured and weighed, and gathered painstakingly the message) from suns beyond counting, from uni- verses out there in space that added their bit of enlightenment to the great story of the mystery of creation. He was humbly aware of his owi deep ignorance as he backed his car, slipped it into second, and began the long drive down the tortuous grade. He would have liked to talk more with Sykes. But he had no thought as he wound round the curves how soon that wish was to be gratified. PART way down the mountainside he again checked his car where be had stopped on the upward climb and reasoned with himself about his er- rand. Once more he looked out over the level ground below, a vast glowing expanse of electric lights now, that stretched to the ocean beyond. He wa suddenly unthrilled by 1 this man-made illumination, and he got out of his car to stare again at the blackness above and its myriad of stars that gathered and multiplied as he watched. One brighter than the rest winked suddenly out. There was a constella- tion of twinkling lights that clustered nearby, and they too vanished. The eyes of the watcher strained them- selves to sec more clearly a dim-lit out- line. There were no lights; it was • THE PIRATE PLANET 170 black shape, lost In the blackness of the mountain sky, that was blocking out the stars. But it was a shape, and from near the horizon the pale gleams of the rising moon picked it out in softest of outline, a vague ghost of a curve that reflected a silvery contour to the watching eyes below. There had been a wider space in the road that McGuire had passed; he backed carefully till he could swing his car and turn it to head once more it desperate speed toward the moun- tain top. And it was less than an hour since he had left when he was racing back along the narrow footpath to slam open the doer where Professor Sykes looked up in amazement at his abrupt return. The aviator's voice was hoarse with excitement as he shouted : "It's here — the ship I It's here I Where's your phone? — I must call the field! It's right overhead— descending slowly — no lights, but I saw it — I saw it I" He was working with trembling fin- gers at the phone where Sykes had pointed. "Long distance I" he shouted. He gave a number to the operator, ke it quick," he implored. "Quick I" CHAPTER III BACK at Maricopa Flying Field the daily routine had been dis- turbed. There were conferences of of- ficers, instructions from Colonel Boyn- ton, and a curiosity-provoking lack of explanations. Only with Captain Blake did the colonel indulge in any discussion. "We'll keep this under our hats," he •aid, "and out of the newspapers as long as we can. You can imagine what the yellow journals would do with a scarehead like that. Why, they would have us all wiped off the map and the country devastated by imaginary fleets in the first three paragraphs." Blake regarded his superior gravely. "I feel somewhat the same way, myself, Colonel," he admitted. "When I think what this can mean — some other coun- try so far ahead of us in air force that we are back in the dark ages — well, it doesn't look any too good to me if they mean trouble." "We will meet it when it comes," said Colonel Boynton. "But, between ourselves, I am in the same state of mind. "The whole occurrence is so damn mysterious. Washington hasn't a whis- per of information of any such con- struction; the Secretary admitted that last night. It's a surprise, aobmplete surprise, to everyone. — "But, Blake, you get that new ship ready as quickly as you can. Prepare for an altitude test the same as we planned, but get into the air the first minute possible. She ought to show a better ceiling than anything we have here, and you may have to fly high to say 'Good morning' to that liner you saw. Put all the mechanics on it that can work to advantage. I think they have it pretty well along now." "Engine's tested and installed, sir," was Blake's instant report. "I think I can take it up this afternoon." HE left immediately to hurry to the hangar where a new plane stood glistening in pristine freshness, and where hurrying mechanics grum- bled under their breaths at the sudden rush for a ship that was expected to take the air a week later. An altitude test under full load! Well, what of it? they demanded one of another: wouldn't another day do as well as this one? And they worked as they growled, worked with swift sure- nesB and skill, and the final instru- ments took their place in the ship that she might roll from the hangar com- plete under that day's sun. Her supercharger was tested — the ad- junct to a powerful engine that would feed the hungry cylinders with heavy air up in the heights where the air is thin ; there were oxygen flasks to keep life in the pilot in the same thin air. And the hot southern sun made ludi- crous that afternoon the bulky, heavily- 180 ASTOUNDING STORIES wrapped figure of Captain" Blake as he sat at the controls and listened approv- ingly to the roaring engine. S He waved good-by and smiled un- derstandingly as he met the eyes of Colonel Boynton; then pulled on his helmet, settled himself in his seat and took off in a thunderous blast of sound to begin his long ascent!. / HE had long since cracked open the valve of his oxygen flask when the climb was ended, and his goggles were frosted in the arctic cold so that it was only with difficulty he could read his instrument board, s "That's the top," he thought in that mind so light and so curiously not his own. He throttled the engine and went into a long spiral that was to end within a rod of where he had started on the brown, sun-baked field. The last rays of the sun were slanting over distant mountains as he climbed stiffly from the machine. "Better than fifty thousand," exulted Colonel Boynton. "Of course your barograph will have to be calibrated and verified, but it looks like a record, Blake — and you had a full load. "Ready to go up and give merry hell to that other ship if she shows up?" he asked. But Captain Blake shook a du- bious head. "Fifty thousand is just a start for that bird," he said. "You didn't see them shoot out of sight. Colonel. Lord knows when they quit their climb— or where." "Well, we'll just have a squadron ready in any event," the colonel as- sured him. "We will make him show his stuff or take a beating — if that is what he wants." They were in the colonel's office. "You had better go and get warmed up," he told the flyer ; "then Come back here for instructions." But Blake was more anxious for information than for other comforts. "I'm all right," he said; "just tired a bit. Let me stretch out here. Colonel, and give me the dope on what you expect of our visitor and what we will do." HE settled back comfortably in i big chair. The office was warm, and Blake knew now he had been do- ing a day's work. "We will just take it as it comes," Colonel Boynton expfained. "I can't for the life of me figure why the craft was spying around here. What are they looking for? We haven't any big secrets the whole world doesn't know. "Of course he may not return. But if he does I want you to go up and give him the once over. I can trust you to note every significant detail. "You saw Ao wings. If it is a dirigi- ble, let's knowN*omething of their power and how they can throw themselves up •■into the air the way you described. Watch for anything that may serve to identify it and its probable place of manufacture — any peculiarity of mark- ing or design or construction that may give us a lead. Then return and report.'' Blake nodded his understanding of what was wanted, but his mind was on further contingencies; be wanted defi- nite instructions. "And," he asked, "if they attack— what then? Is their fire to be re- turned?" "If they make one single false move," said Colonel Boynton savagely, "give them everything you've got. And the 91st Squadron will be off the ground to support you at the first sign ■"of trouble. We don't want to start anything, nor appear to do so. But, by the gods, Blake, this fellow means trouble eventually as sure as you're a flyer, and we won't wait for him to ask for it twice." THEY sat in silence, while the field outside became shrouded in night. And they speculated, as best they could from the few facts they had, as to what this might mean to the world, to their country, to themselves. It was an hour before Blake was aware of the fact that he was hungry. He rose to leave, but paused while Colonel Boynton answered the phone. The first startled exclamation held him rigid while he tried to piece together the officer's curt responses and guess at what was being told. "Colonel Boynton speaking. .Mc- Cuire? Yes, Lieutenant. . Over Mount LawBon? . . Yes — yes, the same ship, I've no doubt."- His voice was even and cool in con- trast to the excited tones that carried faintly to Blake standing by. "Quite right I" he said shortly. "You will remain where you are; act as ob- server; hold this line open and keep me informed. Captain Blake will leave immediately for observation. A squad- ron will follow. Let me know prompt- ly what you see." He turned abruptly to the waiting man. "It is back I" he said. "We're in luck ! Over the observatories at Mount Law- son; descending, so Lieutenant Mc- Guire.says. Take the same ship you had up to-day. Look them over — get up close — good luck I" He turned again to the phone. There were planes rolling from their hangars before Blake could reach his own ship. Their engines were thun- dering; men were rushing across the field, pulling on leather helmets and coats as they- ran — all this while he warmed up his engine. A mechanic thrust in a package of sandwiches and a thermos of coffee while he waited. And Captain Blake grinned cheerfully and gulped the last of his food as he waved to the mechan- ics to pull out the wheel blocks. He opened the throttle and shot out into the dark. He climbed and circled the field, saw the waving motion of lights in red and green that marked the take-off of the planes of the 91st, and he straightened out on a course that in less than two hours would bring him over the heights of Mount Lawson and the mystery that awaited him there. And he fin< THE PIRATE PLANET of the stick and nodded within his dark cockpit at the rattle of a machine gun that merged its staccato notes with the engine's roar. But he felt, as he thought of that monster shape, as some primordial man might have felt, setting forth with a stone in his hand to wage war on a saurian beast. CHAPTER IV IF Colonel Boynton could have stood with one of his lieutenants and Professor Sykes on a mountain top, he would have found, perhaps, the answer to his question. He had wondered in a puzzled fashion why the great ship had shown its mysterious presence over the flying field. He had questioned whether it was indeed the field that had been the object of their attention or whether in the cloudy murk they had merely wandered past. Could he have seen with the eyes of Lieutenant McGuire the descent of the great shape over Mount Lawson, he would have known beyond doubt that here was the magnet that drew the eyes of whatever crew was manning the big craft. It was dark where the two men stood. Others had come running at their call, but their forms, too, were lost in the shadows of the towering pines. The light from an open door struck across an open space. beyond which McGuire and Professor Sykes stood alone, stood silent and spellbound, their heads craned back at a neck-wrenching angle. They were oblivious to all discomforts; their eyes and their whole minds were on the unbelievable thing Jn the sky. Beyond the fact that no lights were showing along the hull, there was no effort at concealment. The moon was up now to illumine the scene, and it snowed plainly the gleaming cylinder with its long body and blunt, shining ends, dropping slowly, inexorably down. "Like a dirigible," said McGuire huskily. "But the size, man — the size! gered the trigger grip that was part And it's shape is not right; it isn't 182 ASTOUNDING STORIES streamlined correctly; the air — " He stopped his half-unconscious analysis abruptly. "The air I" What had this craft to do with the air? A thin layer of gas that hung close to the earth — the skin on an apple I And beyond— space! There was the ethereal ocean in which this great shape swam I The reality of the big 'ship, the very substance of it, made the space ship idea the harder to grasp. Lieutenant McCuire found that it was easier to see an imaginary craft taking off into space than to conceive of this mon- strous shape, many hundreds of tons in weight, being thrown through vast emptiness. Vet he knew; he knewl And his mind was a chaos of grim threats and forebodings as he looked at the unbelievable reality and tried to picture what manner of men were watching, peering, from those rows of ports. AT last it was motionless. It hung soundless and silent except for a soft roar, a scant thousand feej in the air. And its huge bulk was dwarf- ing the giant pines, the rounded build- ings; it threw the men's familiar surroundings into a new and smaller seals. He had many times flown over these mountains, and Lieutenant. McGuire had seen the silvery domes of the ob- servatories shining among the trees. Like fortresses for aerial defense, he had thought, and the memory returned to him now. What did these new- comers think of them? Had they, too, found them suggestive of forts on the frontier of a world, defenses against invasion from out there? Or did they know them for what they were? Did they wish only %p learn the extents of our knowledge, our culture? Were they friendly, perhaps? — palf-timid and fearful of what they might find? A star moved in thp sky, a pin-point of light that (was plain in its message to the i«ur. It was Blake, flying high, volplaning to make contact and learn from the air what this stranger might mean. The light of his plane slanted down in an easy descent; the flyer was gliding in on a long aerial tobagg'an slide. His motor was throt- tled; there was only the whistle of torn air on the monoplane's wings. McGuire was with the captain in hit mind, and like him he was waiting for whatever the stranger might do. Other lights were clustered where the one plane had been. The men of the 91st had their orders, and the fin- gers of the watching, silent man gripped an imaginary stick while he wished with his whole heart that he was up in the air. To be with Blake or the jitli«>s+^His thoughts whipped back to the mysterious Stranger; the great shape was in motion ; it rose sharply a thousand feet in the air. THE approaching plane showed clear in the moon's light. It swung and banked, and the vibrant song of its engine came down to the men as Blake swept in a great circle about the big ship. He was looking it over, but he began his inspection at a distance, and the orbit of his plane made a tightening spiral as he edged for a closer look. He was still swing- ing in the monotonous round when the ship made its first forward move. It leaped in the air; it swept faster and faster. And it was moving with terrific speed as it crashed silently through the path of the tiny plane. And Blake, as he leaned forward on the stick to throw his plane downward in a power dive, could have had a vision, not of a ship of the air, but only of a shining projectile as the great monster shrieked overhead. McGuire trembled for the safety of those wings as he saw Blake pull hii little ship out of the dive and shoot upward to a straight climb. But — "That's dodging them!" he exulted; "that's flying! I wonder, did they mean to wipe him out or were they only scared off?" His question, was answered as, ont of the night, a whistling shriek pro- THE PIRATE PLANET 183 claimed the passage of the meteor ship that drove unmistakably at the lone plane. And again the pilot with superb skill waited until the last moment and threw himself out of the path of the oncoming mass, though his own plane was tossed and whirled like an autumn leaf in the vortex that the enemy created. Not a second was lost as Blake opened his throttle and forced his plane into a steep climb. "Atta-boy!" said McGuire, as if words could span across to the man in the plane. "Altitude, Blake — get alti- tude I" The meteor had turned in a tremen- dous circle ; so swift its motion that it made an actual line of light as the moon marked its course. And the curved line straightened abruptly to a flashing mark that shot straight toward the struggling plane. THIS time another sound came down to the listening ears of the two men. The plane tore head on to meet the onslaught, to swing at the last instant in a frantic leap that ended is before in the maelstrom of air back of the ship. But the muffled roar was changed, punctured with a machine- gun's familiar rattle, and the stabbing flashes from Blake's ship before he threw it out of the other's path were a song of joy to the tense nerves of the men down below. This deadly rush could only be con- strued as an attack, and Blake was fighting back. The very speed of the great projectile must hold it to- its course; the faster it went the more dif- ficult to swerve it from a line. This and much more was flashing sharply in McGuire's mind. But — Blake I — alone against this huge antagonist! . . It was coming back. Another rush like a star through space. . . . And McGuire shouted aloud in a frenzy of emotion as a cluster of lights came falling from on high. No lone machine gun now that tore the air with this clattering bedlam of shots; the planes of the 91st Squadron were div- ing from the heights. They came on a steep slant that seemed marking them for crashing death against the huge cylinder flashing past. And their stab- bing needles of machine-gun fire made a drumming tattoo, till the planes, with the swiftness of hawks, swept aside, formed to groups, tore on down toward the ground and then curved in great circles of speed to climb back to the theater of action. LIEUTENANT McGUIRE was rigid and quivering. He should go to the phone and report to the colonel, but the thought left him as quickly as it came. He was frozen in place, and his mind could hold only the scene that was being pictured before him. The enemy ship had described its swift curve, and the planes of the de- fenders were climbing desperately for advantage. _ So slowly they moved as compared with the swiftness of the other I But the great ship was slowing; it came on, but its wild speed was checked. The light of the full moon showed plainly now what McGuire had seen but dimly before — a great metal beak on the ship, pointed and shining, a ram whose touch must bring annihila- tion to anything it struck. The squadron of planes made a group in the sky, and Blake's monoplane, too, was with them. The huge enemy was approaching slowly: was it damaged? McGuire hardly dared hope . yet that raking fire might well have been deadly; it might be that some bullets had torn and penetrated to the vitals of this ship's machinery and damaged some part. It came back slowly, ominously, to- ward the circling planes. Then, throw- ing itself through the air, it leaped not directly toward them but off to one side. LIKE a stone on the end of a cord it swung with inconceivable speed in a circle that enclosed the group of 184 ASTOUNDING STORIES planes. Again and again it whipped around them, while the planes, by com- parison, were motionless. Its orbit was flat with the ground ; then tilting, more yet, it made a last circle that stood like a hoop in the air. And behind it as it circled it left a faint trace of vapor. Nebulous! — milky in the moonlight I — but the ship had built a sphere, a great globe of the gas, and within it, like rats in a cage, the planes of the 91st Squadron were darting and whirling. "Gas I" groaned the watching man; "gas! What is it? Why don't they break through?" The thin clouds of vapor were min- gling now and expanding; they blos- somed and mushroomed, and the light of the moon came in pale iridescence from their fallowing folds. "Break?" through!" McGuire had prayed — and he stood in voiceless hor- ror as he saw the attempt. The mist was touching here and there a plane ; they were/engulfed, yet he could see them plainly. And he saw with staring, fear-filled eyes the clumsy tumbling and Buttering of un- guided wings as the great eagles of the 91st fell roaring to earth with no con- scious minds guiding their flight. The valleys were deep about the mountain, and their shadowed black- ness opened to receive .the maimed, stricken things that came fluttering or swooping wildly to that last embrace, where, in the concealing shadows, the deeper shadows of death awaited. THERE was a room where a tele- phone waited: McGuire sensed this but dumbly, and the way to that room was long to his stumbling feet. He was blinded; his mind would not function; he saw only those fluttering things, and the moonlight on their wings, and the shadows that took them so softly at the last. One plane whistled close overhead. McGuire stopped where he stood to follow it with unbelieving eyes. That one man had lived, escaped the net — it war inconceivable I The plane re- turned; it was flying low, and it swerved erratically as it flew. It was a monoplane ; a new ship. Its motor was silended ; it stalled at he watched, to pancake and crash where the towering pines made a cra- dle, of great branches to cushion its fall. No thought now of the colonel wait- ing impatiently for a report; even the enemy, there in the sky, was forgotten. It was Blake in that ship, and he was alive— or had been — for he had cut his motor. McGuire screamed out for Pro- fessor Sykes, and there were others, too, who came running at his call. He tore recklessly through the scrub and undergrowth and gained at last the place where wreckage hung dangling from the trees. The fuselage of a plane, scarred and broken, was still held in the strong limbs. CAPTAIN BLAKE was in the cockpit, half hanging from the side. He was motionless, quiet, and hia face shone white and ghastly as they released him and drew him out. But one hand still clung with a grip like death itself to a hose that led from an oxygen tank.. McGuire stared in won- der and slowly gathering comprehen- sion. "He was fixed for an altitude test," he said dazedly; "this ship was to be used, and he was to find her ceiling. He saw what the others were getting, and he flew himself through on a jet of pure oxygen — " He stopped in utter admiration of the quickness of thought Wat could outwit death in an instant % that. *Miey carried the limp body to the light. "No bones broken so far as I can see," said the voice of Professor Sykes. "Leave him here in the air. He must have got a whiff of their devilish mist in spite of his oxygen; he was flying mighty awkwardly when he came in here." But he was alive! — and Lieutenant McGuire hastened with all speed now to the room where a telephone was THE PIRATE PLANET 185 ringing wildly and a colonel of the air force must be told of the annihilation of a crack squadron and of a threat^ that menaced all the world. IN that far room there were others waiting where Colonel Boynton sat with receiver to Jus. ear. A general's uniform was gleaming in the light to make more sober by contrast the civil- ian clothing of that quiet, clear-eyed man who held the portfolio of the Sec- retary of War. They stared silently at Colonel Boynton, and they saw the blood re- cede from his face, while his cool voice went on unmoved with its replies. ". . I understand," he said; "a washout, complete except for Captain Blake: his oxygen saved him. . It attacked with gas, you say? And why did not our own planes escape? ... Its speed I — yes, we'll have to im/ agine it, but it is unbelievable. One moment — " He turned to those who waited for his report. "The squadron," he said with forced quiet, though his lips twitched in a bloodless line, " — the 91st — is de- stroyed. The enemy put them down with one blow; enveloped them with pa." He.recounted the essence of Mc- Guire's report, then turned once more to the phone. "Hello, Lieutenant — the enemy ship —where is it now?" He listened — listened — to a silent re- ceiver; silent save for the sound of a ■hot — a crashing fall — a loud, panting breath. He heard the breathing close to the distant instrument ; it ended in a choking gasp ; the instrument was si- lent in his ear. . . . He signalled violently for the opera- tor; ordered the ringing of any and all phones about the observatory, and lis- tened in vain for a sound or syllable in reply. "A plane," he told an orderly, "at once I Phone the commercial flying field near the base of Mount Lawson. Have them hold a car ready for me : I ■hall land there I" CHAPTER V rT**0 Captain Blake alone, of all YA those persons on the summit of mount Lawson, it was given to see and to know and be able to relate what transpired there and in the air above. For Blake, although he appeared like one dead, was never unconscious throughout his experience. Driving head on toward the ship, he had emptied his drum of cartridges be- fore he threw his plane over and down in a dive that escaped the onrush of the great craft by a scant margin, ind that carried him down in company- with the men and machines of the squadron that dived from above. He turned as they turned and, climbed as they climbed for the ad« vantage that altitude might give. Ana he climbed faster; his ship outdis- tanced them in that tearing, scrambl- ing rtish for the heights. The squad- ron was spiraling upward in close for- mation with his plane above them when the enemy struck. He saw that great shape swing around them, terrible in its silent swiftness, and, like the others, he failed to realize at first the net she was weaving. So thin was the gas and so rapid the circling of the enemy craft, they were captured and cut off inside of the gaseous sphere before the pur- pose of the maneuver was seen or un- derstood. He saw the first faint vapor form above him; swung over for a steep bank that carried him around the inside of the great cage of gas and that showed him. the spiraling. planes as the first wisps of vapor swept past them. He held that bank with his swift ma- chine, while below him a squadron of close-formed fighting craft dissolved before his eyes into unguided units. The formations melted : wings touched and locked; the planes fell dizzily or shot off in wild, ungoverned, swerving flight. The air .was misty about him; it was fragrant in his nostrils; the world was swimming. . . . 186 ASTOUNDING STORIES IT was gas, he knew, and with the light-headedness that was upon him, so curiously like that of excessive altitudes, he reached unconsciously for the oxygen supply. The blast of pure gas in his face revived him for an in- stant, and in that instant of clear think- ing his plan was formed. He threw his weight on stick and rudder, corrected the skid his ship was taking, and, with one hand holding the tube of life-giv- ing oxygen before his face, he drove straight down in a dive toward the earth. There were great weights fastened to his arms, it seemed, when he tried to bring the ship from her fearful dive. He moved only with greatest effort, and it was force of will alone that com- pelled his hands to do their work. His brain, as he saw the gleaming round- ness of observatory buildings beneath him, was as clear as ever in his life, but his muscles, his arms and legs, re- fused to work; even his head; he was slowly sinking beneath a load of utter fatigue. The observatories were behind him; he must swing back ; he could not last long, he knew; each slightest move- ment was intolerable effort. - Was this death? he wondered; "But his mind was so clear I There were the buildings, the trees I How thickly they were massed beyond — He brought every ounce of will power to bear . the throttle! — and a slow glide in ... he was losing speed . . the stick — must— come — back I The crashing branches whipped about him, bending, crackling — and the world went dark. THERE were stars above him when he awoke, and his back was wrenched and aching. He tried to move, to call, but found that the par- alyzing effect of the gas still held him fast. He was lying on the .ground, he knew; a door was open in a building beyond, and the light in the room showed him men, a small group' of them, standing silent while someone — yes, it was McGuire — shouted into i phone. ". . The squadron," he was saying ". Lost! Every plane dowd aid destroyed. . . Blake is living but in- jured. . ." And then Blake reman- bered. And the tumbling, helplea planes came again before his eya .while he cursed silently at this freer- Trig grip that would not let him cover his face with his hands to shut out the sight. The figure of a man hurried past htm, nor saw the body lying helpless in the cool dark. McGuire was still at the phone. And the enemy ship—? His mind filled with a welter of words as he tried to find phrases to compass his hate for that ship. And then, as if conjured out of nothing by his thoughts, the great craft itself came in view overhead in all its mighty bulk. It settled down swiftly; it wai riding on an even keel. And in silence and darkness it came from above. Blake tried to call out, but no sound could be formed by his paralyzed throat. Doors opened in silence, swinging down from the belly of the thing to show in the darkness square openings through which shot beams of brilliant yellow light. There were cages that lowered— great platforms in slings — and the platforms came softly to rest on the ground. ,They were moving with life; living beings clustered upon them thick in the Mark. Oh God I for an in- stant's release from the numbness that held his lips and throat, to cry out one wordt The shapes were passing now in the shelter of darkness, going toward the room. He could see McGuire's back turned toward the door. Man-shapes, tall and thin, distorted humans, each swathed in bulging gar- ments; horrible staring eyes of glaa in the masks about their heads, and each hand ready with a shining weapon as they stood waiting for the men within to move. THE PIRATE PLANET 187 McGUIRE must have seen them first, though his figure was half concealed from Blake where he was lying. But he saw the head turn ; knew by the quick twist of the shoulders the man was reaching for a gun. One shot echoed in Blake's ears; one bulging figure spun and fell awkwardly to the ground; then the weapons in those clumsy hands hissed savagely while jets of vapor, half liquid and half gas, ■hot blindingly into the room. The faces dropped from his sight. . . . ' There had been the clamor of sur- prised and shouting men ; there was uience now. And the awkward figures in the bloated casings that protected their bodies from the gas passed in safety to the room. Blake, bound in the invisible chains of enemy gas, struggled silently, futilely, to pit his will against this grip that held him. To lie there helpless, to see these men slaughtered I He saw one of the crea- tures push the body of bis fallen com- rade out of the way ; it was cast aside witJf an indifferent foot. Tbey were coming back : Blake saw the loTTn of McGuire in unmistakable khaki. He and another man were car- ried high on the shoulders of some of the invaders. They were going toward the platforms, the slings beneath the ■hip. . . They passed close to Blake, and again he was unnoticed in the dark. A clamor came from distant build- ings, a babel of howls and shrieks, in- human, unearthly. There were no phrases or syllables, but to Blake it was familiar . . somewhere he had heard it . . and then he remembered the ra- dio and the weird wailing note that told of communication. These things were talking in the same discordant din. THEY were gathering now on the platforms slung under the ship. A whistling note from somewhere within the great structure and the platforms went high in the air. They were load- ed, he saw, with papers and books and Instruments plundered from the ob- servatories. Some made a second trip to take up the loot they had gathered. Then the black doorways closed; the huge bulk of the ship floated high above the trees ; it took form, dwindled smaller and smaller, then vanished from sight in the star-studded sky. Blake thought of their unconscious passenger — the slim figure of Lieute- nant McGuire. Mac had been a close friend and a good one; his ready smile; his steady eyes that could tear a prob- lem to pieces with their analytic scru- tiny or gaze far into space to see those visions of a dreamer! "Far into space." Blake repeated the words in his mind. And : "Good-by Mac," he said softly; "you've shipped for a long cruise, I'm thinking." He hardly realized he had spoken the words aloud. LYING there in the cold night he felt his trength returning slowly. The pines sang their soothing, whis- pered message, and the faint night noises served but to intensify the si- lence of the mountain. It was some time before the grind of straining gears 'fame faintly in the air to an- nounce the coming of a car up the long grade. And still later he heard it come to a stop some distance beyond. There were footsteps, and voices calling; he heard the voice of Colonel Boynton. And he was able to call out in reply, even to move his head and turn it to see the approaching figures in the nighti- Colonel Boynton knelt beside him. "Did they get you, old man?" he asked. "Almost," Blake told him. "My oxy- gen — I was lucky. But the others — " He did not need to complete the sen- tence. The silent canyons among those wooded hills told plainly the story of the lost men. "We will fight them with gas masks," said the colonel ; "your experience has taught us the way." "Gas-tight uniforms and our own supplies of oxygen," Blake supple- mented. He told Boynton of the man- 188 ASTOUNDING STORIES thinga he had seen come from the ship, of their baggy suits, their helmets. . . . And he had seen a small generator on the back of each helmet. He told him of the small, shining weapons and their powerful jets of gas. Deadly and un- es capable at short range, he well knew. "They got McCuire," Blake conclud- ed; "carried him off a prisoner. Took another man, too." For a moment Colonel Boynton's quiet tones lost their even steadiness. "We'll get them," he said savagely, and it was plain that it was the invaders that filled his mind; "we'll go after them, and we'll get them in spite of their damn gas, and we'll rip their big ship into ribbons — " \ Captain Blake was able to raise a dis- senting hand. "We will have to go where they are. Colonel, to do that." Colonel Boynton stared at him. "Well?" he demanded. "Why not?" "We can't go where they went," said Blake simply. "I laughed at McGuire ; told him not to be a fool. But I was the fool — the blind one; we all were. Colonel. That thing came here out of ■pace. It has gone back; it is far be- yond our air. I saw it go up out of sight, and I know. Those creatures were men, if you like, but no men that we know — not those shrieking, wailing devils! And we're going to hear more from them, now that they've found their way here I" CHAPTER VI A SCORE of bodies where men had died in strangling fumes in the observatories on Mount Lawson; one of the country's leading astronomical scientists vanished utterly; the build- ings on the mountain top ransacked; papers and documents blowing in va- grant winds; tales of a monster ship in the air, incredibly huge, unbeliev- ably swift — There are matters that at times are not allowed to reach the press, but not happenings like these. And the papers of the United States blazed out with headlines to tell the world of this latest mystery. Then came corroboration from the fax comers of the world. The mys- tery ship had not visited one section only ; it had made a survey of the whole civilized sphere, and the tales of those who had seen it were no longer laughed to scorn but went on the wires of the great press agencies to be given to^the world. And with that the cen- sorship imposed by the Department of War broke down, and the tragic story of the destruction of the 91st Air Squa- dron passed into written history. The wild tale of Captain Blake was on every tongue. An invasion from space! The idea was difficult to accept. There were scoffers who tried to find something here for their easy wit. Why should we be attacked? What had that other world to gain? There was no answer ready, but the silent lips of the men who had fallen spoke eloquently of the truth. And the world, in wonder and consternation, was forced to believe. Were there more to come? How meet them? Was this war — and with whom? -What .neighboring planet could reasonably be suspected. What bad science to say? The scientists I The scientists! The clamor of the world was beating at the doors of science and demanding ex- planations and answers. And science answered. A conference was arranged in Lon- don; the best minds in the realms of astronomy and physics came together. They were the last to admit the truth that would not be denied, but admit it they must. And to some of the ques- tions they found their answer. IT was not Mars, they said, though this, in the popular mind was the source of the trouble. Not Mars, for that planet was far in the heavens. But Venus! — misnamed for the God- dess of Love. It was Venus, and she alone, who by any stretch of the im- agination could be threatening Earth., THE PIRATE PLANET 189 What did it mean ? They had no an- iwer. The ship was the only answer to that. Would there be more? — could ire meet them? — defeat them? And ■gain the wise men of the world re- fused to hazard a guess. But they told what they knew; that Venus was past her eastern elongation, was approaching the earth. She of all the planets that swung around the sun came nearest to Earth — twenty-six mil- lion miles in another few weeks.* Then whirling away she would pass to the western elongation in a month and a half and drive out into space. Venus circled the sun in a year of 225 days, and in 584 days she would again reach her eastern elongation with reference to the earth, and draw near us again. They were reluctant to express them- selves, these men who made nothing of weighing and analyzing stars a million of light years away, but if the popu- lar conception was correct and if we could pass through the following weeks without further assault, we could count on a year and a half before the menace would again return. And in a year and a half — well, the physi- cists would be working — and we might be prepared. -Captain Blake had made his report, -but this, it seemed, was not enough. He was ordered to come to Washing- ton, and, with Colonel Boynton, he flew across the country to tell again hit incredible story. IT was a notable gathering before which he appeared. All the- branches of the service were repre- sented; there were men in the uniform of admirals and generals; there were heads of Departments. And the Sec- retary of War was in charge. He told his story, did Blake, before a battery of hostile eyes. This was not a gathering to be stampeded by wild scareheads, nor by popular clamor. They wanted facts, and they wanted them proved. But the gravity with which they regarded the investigation was shown by their invitation to the representatives of foreign powers to attend. "I have told you all that happened," Blake concluded, "up to the coming of Colonel Boynton. May I reiterate one fact? I do not wonder at your ques- tioning my state of mind and my abil- ity to observe correctly. But I must insist, gentlemen, that, while I got a shot of their gas and my muscles and my nervous system were paralyzed, my brain was entirely clear. I saw what I saw; those creatures were there; they entered the buildings; they carried off Lieutenant McGuire and another man. "What they were or who they were I cannot say. I do not know that they were men, but their insane shrieking in that queer unintelligible talk is sig- nificant. And that means of communi- cation corresponds with the radio re- ception of which you know. "If you gentlemen know of any part of this earth that can produce such a people, if you know of any people or country in this world that can produce such a ship— then we can forget all our wild fancies. And we can prepare to submit to that country and that peo- ple as the masters of this earth. For I must tell you, gentlemen, with all the earnestness at my command, that until you have seen that ship in action, seen its incredible speed, its maneuverabil- ity, its lightning-like attack and ifs curtain of gas, you can have no concep- tion of our helplessness. And the in- signia that she carries is the B^/af our conquerors." j I BLAKE got an approving nod from the Secretary of War as he took his seat. That quiet man rose slowly from bis chair to add his words. He spoke earnestly, impressively. "Captain Blake has hit the nail squarely on the head," he stated. "We have here in this room a representa- tive gathering from the whole world. If there is any one of you who can say that this mystery ship was built and manned by your people, let him speak, and we will send you at once a com- 190 ASTOUNDING STORIES mission, to acknowledge your power and negotiate for peace." The great hall was silent, in a silence that helfemly uneasy rustlings as men glanced one at another in wondering dismay. "The, time has come," said the Secre- tary with solemn emphasis, "when all dissensions among our peoples must cease. Whatever there is or ever has been of discord between us fades into insignificance before this new threat. It is the world, now, against a power unknown; we can only face it as a united world. "I shall recommend to the President of the United States that a commission be appointed, that it may co-operate with similar bodies from all lands. I ask you, gentlemen, to make like rep- resentations to your governments, to the end that we may meet this menace as one country and one man; meet it, God grant, successfully through a War Department of the World." IT was a brave gesture of the Presi- dent of the United States ; he dared the scorn and laughter of the world in standing behind his Secretary of War. The world is quick to turn and rend with ridicule a false prophet. And despite the unanswerable facts, the scope and power of the menace^ras not entirely believed. It was difficult for the conscious minds of men to con- ceive of the barriers of vast space as swept aside and the earth laid open to attack. England was slow to respond to the invitation of the President; this mat- ter required thought and grave delib- eration in parliament. It might no< be true: the thought, whether spoken or unexpressed, was clinging to their minds. And even if true — even if this lone ship had wandered in from space — there might be no further attack. "Why," they asked, "should there be more unprovoked assaults from the people of another planet? What was their object? What had they to gain? . . . Perhaps we were safe after all." The answer that destroyed all hope came to them borne in upon a wall of water that swept the British coast. The telescopes of the world were centered now on just one object in the heavens. The. bright evening star that adorned the western sky was the .tar- get for instruments great and small It was past the half-moon phase now, and it became under magnification a gleaming crescent, a crescent that emit- ted from the dark sphere it embraced vivid flashes of light. Sykes' report had ample corroboration ; the flash was seen by many, and it was repeated the next night and the next. What was it? the waiting world asked. And the answer came not from the telescopes and their far-reaching gaze but from the waters of the Atlan- tic. In the full blaze of day came a meteor that swept to the earth in an arc of fire to outshine the sun. There must have been those who saw it strike — passengers and crews of passing ships — but its plunge into the depths of the Atlantic spelled death for each witness. THE earth trembled with the explo- sion that followed. A gas — some new compound that united with water to give volumes tremendous — that only could explain it. The ocean rose from its depths and flung wave after wave to race outward in circles of death. Hundreds of feet in height at their source — this could only be estimated— they were devastating when they struck. The ocean raged over the frail bulwark of Engfand in wave upon wave, and, retreating, tlu; waters left smooth, shining rock where cities had been. Tfi\ stone and steel of their buildings was scattered far over the .desolate land ar drawn in the suction of retreating wafers to the sea. Ireland, too, ana-France and Spain. Even the coast of America felt the shock of the explosion and was swept by tidal waves of huge proportions. But the coast of Britain took the blow at its worst. THE PIRATE PLANET 191 The world was stunned and waiting •—waiting I — when the next blow fell. The flashes were coming from Venus at regular intervals, just twenty hours and nineteen minutes apart. And with exactly the same time intervals the bolts arrived from space to lay waste the earth. They struck where they would: the ocean again ; the Sahara ; in the moun- tains of China; the Pacific was thrown into fearful convulsions: the wheat fields of Canada trembled and vanished before a blast of flaming gas. Twenty hours and nineteen minutes I Where it would strike, the next star- shell, no man might say ; that it surely would come was a deadly and nerve- shattering certainty. The earth waited and prayed under actual bombardment. SOME super-gun, said science with conviction ; a great bore in the planet itself, perhaps. But it was fixed, and the planet itself aimed with an accuracy that was deadly; aimed once as each revolution brought its gun on the target. Herein, laid science, lay a basis for hope. If, in that distant world, there was only one such bore, it must be altering its aim as the planet approached; the gun must cease to bear upon the earth. And the changing sweep of the mis- siles' flight confirmed their belief. Each meteor-shell that came rushing into Earth's embrace burned brilliantly as it tore into the air. And each flam- ing arc was increasingly bent, until — twenty hours and nineteen minutes had passed — twenty minutes — thirty — an- other hour . . and the peoples of Earth dropped humbly to their knees in thankful praper, or raised vengeful eyes and clenched fists toward the heavens while their quivering lips ut- tered blasphemous curses. The men- ace, for the time, had passed ; the great gun of Venus no longer was aiming to- ward the earth. "No more ships," was the belief ; "not this time." And the world turned to an accounting of its losses, and to won- der — wonder — what the planet's return would bring. A year and one half was theirs; one year and a half in which to, live in safety, in which to plan and build. A COLUMN, double leaded, in the London Times voiced the feeling of the world. It was copied and broad- cast everywhere. "Another attack," it concluded, "is not a probability — it is a certainty. They are destroying us for some rea- son known only to themselves. Who can doubt that when the planet returns there will be a further bombardment; an invasion by armed forces in giant ships; bombs dropped from them miles high in the air. This is what we must look forward to — death and destruc- tion dealt out by a force we are unable to meet. "Our munitions factories may build larger guns, but can they reach the heights at which these monster ships of space will lie, with any faint proba- bility of inflicting damage? It is doubtful. "Our aircraft is leqs than useless ; its very name condemns it as inept. Craft of the air I — and we have to war against space ships which can rise beyond the thin envelope of gas that encircles the earth. "The world is doomed — utterly and finally doomed ; it is the end of human- kind ; slavery to a conquering race at the very best, unless — "Let us face the facts fairly. It is war — war to the death — between the inhabitants of this world and of that other. We are men.\ What they are God alone can say. But they are crea- tures of mind as are we; what they have done, we may do. "There is our only hope. It is vain, perhaps — preposterous in its assump- tion — but our Bole and only hope. We must meet the enemy and defeat him, and we must do it on his own ground. To destroy their fleet we must pene- trate space; to silence their deadly bombardment we must go out into 192 ASTOUNDING STORIES space aa they have done, reach their distant world as they have reached ours, and conquer as we would have been conquered. "It is a tenuous hope, but our only one. Let our men of mundane warfare do their best — it will be useless. But if there be one spark of Cod-given genius in the world that can point the way to victory, let those in authority turn no deaf ear. "It is a battle now of minds, and the best minds will win. Humanity — all humankind — is facing the end. In less than one year and a half we must suc- ceed—or perish. And unless we con- quer finally and decisively, the story of man in the history of the universe will be a tale that is told, a record of life in a book that is ended — closed — and forgotten through all eternity." CHAPTER VII A BREATH of a lethal gas shot from the flying ship had made Captain Blake as helpless as if every muscle were frozen hard, and he had got it only lightly, mixed with the sav- ing blast of oxygen. His heart had gone on, and his breathing, though it became shallow, did not cease; he was even able to turn his eyes. But to the men in the observatory room the gas from the weapons of the attacking' force came as a devastating, choking cloud that struck them senseless as if with a blow. Lieutenant McGuire hardly heard the sound of his own pis- tol before unconsciousness took him. It was death for the men who were left — for them the quick darkness neveV lifted — but for McGuire and his companion there was reprieve. He was lying flat on a hard floor when remembrance crept slowly back to his benumbed brain. An odor, sick- ish-sweet, was in his nostrils; the breath of life was being forcibly pumped and withdrawn from laboring lungs; a mask was tight against his face. He struggled to throw it off, and someone bending over removed it. Someone I His eyes stared worider- ingly at the grotesque face like a lin- gering phantasm of fevered dreamt, There were others, he saw, and they were working over a body not far away upon the floor. He recognized the fig- ure of Professor Sykes. Short, stocky, his clothes disheveled — but Sykes, un- mistakably, despite the mask upon hii face. He, too, revived as McGuire watched, and, like the flyer, he looked wonder- ingly about him at his strange com- panions. The eyes of the two men met and held in wordless communication and astonishment. THE unreal creatures that hovered near withdrew to the far side of the room. The walls beyond them were of metal, white and gleaming; there were doorways. In another wall were portholes — round windows of thick glass that framed circles of ab- solute night. It wa» dark out beyond them with a blackness that was re- lieved only by sharp pin-points of bril- liance — stars in a night sky such u McGuire had never seen. I Past and preset^ alike were hazy to the flyer; the spark of life had been brought back to his body from a far distance; there was time needed to part the unreal from the real in these new and strange surroundings. There were doorways in the ceiling, and others in the floor near where he lay; ladders fastened to the wall gave access to these doors. A grotesque fig- ure appeared above the floor and, after a curious glance at the two men, scram- bled into the room and vanished through the opening in the ceiling. It was some time before the significance of this was plain to the wondering man — before he reasoned that he was in the enemy ship, aimed outward from the earth, and the pull of gravitation and- the greater force of the vessel's constant acceleration held its occu- pants to the rear walls of each room. That lanky figure had been making its way forward toward the bow of the THE PIRATE PLANET 193 ■hip. McGuire's mind was clearing; he turned his attention now to the curi- ous, waiting creatures, his captors. There were five of them standing in the room, five shapes like men, yet curiously, strangely, different. They were tall of Btature, narrow across the shoulders, muscular in a lean, attenu- ated fashion. But their faces! Mc- Guire found his eyes returning in horrified fascination to each hideous, inhuman countenance. A colorless color, like the dead gray of ashes; a skin like that of an Afri- can savage from which all but the last vestige of color had been drained. It was transparent, parchment-like, and even in the light of the room that glowed from some hidden source, he could see the throbbing lines of blood- vessels that showed livid through the translucent akin. And he remembered, now, the fingers, half-seen in his mo- ments -of awakening — they were like clinging tendrils, colorless, too, in that ashy gray, and showed the network of veins as if each hand had been flayed alive. THE observer found himself ana- lyzing, comparing, trying to find some earthly analogy for these un- earthly creatures. Why did he think of potatoes sprouting in a cellar? What possible connection had these half-human things with that boyhood recollection? And he had seen some laboratory experiments with plants and animals that had been cut off from tbe sunlight — and now the connection was clear; he knew what this idea was that was trying to form. These were creatures of the dark. These bleached, drained faces showed skin that had never known the actinic rays of the sun; their whole frame- work proclaimed the process that had been going on through countless gen- erations. Here was a race that had lived, if not in absolute darkness, then in some place where sunlight never ■hone — a place of half-light— or of clouds. "Clouds I" The exclamation was startled from him. And: "Clouds T he repeated meditatively; he was see- ing again a cloud-wrapped world in the eye-piece of a big refracting telescope. "Blanketed in clouds," Professor Sykes had said. The scientist himself was speaking to him now in bewildered tones. "Clouds?" he inquired. "That's a strange remark to make. Where are we, Lieutenant McGuire? I remember nothing after you fired. Are we flying — in the clouds?" "A long, long way beyond them, is my guess," said McGuire grimly. It was staggering what all this might mean ; there was time needed for fuller comprehension. But the lean bronzed face of the flyer flushed with anima- tion, and in spite of the terrors that must surely lie ahead he felt strangely elated at the actuality of an incredible adventure. SLOWLY he got to his feet to find that his muscles still were reluc- tant to respond to orders; he helped the professor to arise. And from the group that drew back further into the far end of the room came a subdued and rasping tumult of discordant sound. One, seemingly in charge, held a weapon in his hand! a slender tube no thicker than a common wire; and end- ing in a cylinder within the creature's hand. He pointed it in threatening fashion while his voice rose in a shrill call. McGuire and Professor Sykes stood quiet and waited for what the next moment might have in store, but McGuire waved the weapon aside in a gesture that none could fail to read. "Steady," he told his companion. "We're in a ticklish position. Do noth- ing to alarm them." From up above them came an an- swering shrill note. Another of the beings was descending into the room. "Ah!" said Lieutenant McGuire softly, "the big boss', himself. Now let's see what will happen." 194 , ASTOUNDING STORIES If there had seemed something of timidity in the repulsive faces of the waiting creatures, this newcomer was of a different type. He opened flabby thin lips to give one sharp note of com- mand. It was as sibilant as the hissing of a snake. The man with the weapon returned it to a holder at his side ; the whole group cringed before the power and authority of the new arrival. The men that they had seen thus far were all garbed alike ; a loose-fitting garment of one piece that was ludi- crously like the play rompers that chil- dren might wear. These were dull red in color, the red of drying blood, made of strong woven cloth. But this other was uniformed differently. McGuire noted the fineness of the silky robe. Like the others this was made of one piece, loosely fitting, but its bright vivid scarlet made the first seem drab and dull. A belt of metal about his waist shone like gold and matched the emblem of precious metal in the turban on his head. ALL this the eyes of the flyer took in at a glance;, his attention was only momentarily diverted from the ashen face with eyes narrow and slit- ted, that stared with the cold hatred of a cat into those of the men. He made a sound with a whistling breath. It seemed to be a question di- rected to them, but the import of it was lost. "An exceedingly queer lot," Profes- sor Sykes observed. "And this chap seems distinctly hostile." "He's no friend of mine," said' Mc- Guire as the thin, pendulous lips re- peated their whistling interrogation. "I can't place them," mused the sci- entist. "Those facial characteristics. , . But they must be of some nation- ality, speak some tongue." He addressed himself to the figure with the immobile, horrid face. "We do not understand you," he said with an ingratiating smile. Cora- prenez vous Francaise? Non? German, perhaps, or Spanish? . . . Sprecken sie Deutsche? Usted habit Espanola? . ." He followed with a fusillade of ques- tions in strange and varying tongues. "I've even tried him with Chinese," he protested in bewilderment and stared amazed at his companion's laughter. There had to be a reaction from the strain of the past hours, and Lieuten- ant McGuire found the serious ques- tioning in polyglot tongues and the un- changing feline stare of that hideous face too much for his mental restraint. He held his sides, while he shook and roared with laughter beyond control, and the figure before hjm glared with evident disapproval of his mirth. THERE was a hissing order, and two figures from the corner sprang forward to seize the flyer with long clinging fingers. Their strength he had overestimated, for a violent throw of his body twisted him free, and hit outstretched hands sent the two sprawling -across the room. Their leader took one quick step forward, then paused as if hesitating to meet this young adversary. "Do go easy," Professor Sykes was imploring. "We do not know where we are nor who they are, but we must do nothing to antagonize them." McGuire had reacted from his hilari- ous seizure with an emotional swing to the opposite extreme. "I'll break their damn necks," he growled, "if they get rough with me." And his narrow eyes exchanged glare for glare with those in the face like blood and ashes before him. The cold cat eyes held steadily upon him while the scarlet figure retreated. A louder call, shrill and vibrant, came from the thin lips, and a swarm of bodies in dull red were scrambling into the room to mass about their scarlet leader. Above and behind them the face under its brilliant turban and golden clasp was glaring in triumph. The tall figures crouched, grotesque and awkward; their long arms and hands with grasping, tendril-like fin- THE PIRATE PLANET 195 gers were ready. McGuire waited for the sharp hissing order that would throw these things upon him, and he met the attack when it came with his own shoulders dropped to the fighter's pose, head drawn in close and both fists swinging free. There were lean fingers clutching at Tus throat, a press of blood-red bodies thick about him, and a clustering of faces where color blotched and flowed. The thud of fists in blows that started from the floor was new to these lean creatures that clawed and clung like cats. But they trampled on those who went down before the flyer's blows and stood upon them to spring at his head ; they crowded in in over- whelming numbers while their red bands tore and twined about his face. IT was no place now for long swings ; McGuire twisted his body and threw his weight into quick short jabs at the faces before him. He was clear for an instant and swung his heavy boot at something that clung to one leg; then met with a rain of hooks and short punches the faces that closed in again. He saw in that instant a wild whirl of bodies where the stocky figure of Professor Sykes was smothered be- neath his taller antagonists. But the professor, if he was forgetting the sci- ence of the laboratory, was remember- ing that of the squared circle — and the battle was not entirely one sided. McGuire was free; the blood was trickling down his face from innum- erable cuts where sharp-nailed fingers had sunk deep. He wiped the red stream from his eyes and threw him- self at the weaving mass of bodies that eddied about Sykes in frantic struggle across the room. The face of the professor showed clear for a moment. Like McGuire he was bleeding, and his breath came -in short explosive gasps, but he was hold- ing his own I The eyes of McGuire glimpsed a wildly gesticulating, shout- ing figure in the rear. The face, con- torted with rage, was almost the color of the brilliant scarlet that the crea- ture wore. The blood-stained man in khaki left his companion to fight his own battle, and plunged headlong at a leaping duster of dull red, smashed through with a frenzied attack of straight rights and lefts, and freed himself to make one final leap at the leader of this unholy pack. He was fighting in blind desperation now; the two were out-numbered by the writhing, lean-bodied creatures, and this thing that showed in blurred crimson before him was the directing power of them all. The figure sym- bolized and personified to the raging man all the repulsive ugliness of the leaping horde. The face came clear before him through the mist of blood, and he put the last ounce of his re- maining strength and every pound of weight behind a straight, clean drive with his right fist. His-last conscious impression was of a rea, clawing hand that was closed around the thick butt of a tube of steel . . '. then down, and still down, he plunged into a bottomless pit of whirl- ing, red flashes and choking fumes There were memories that were to occur to Lieutenant McGuire after- ward — visions, dim and hazy and blurred, of half-waking moments when strange creatures forced food and water into his mouth, then held a mask upon his face while he resisted weakly the breathing of sweet, sickly fumes that sent him back to unconsciousness. There were many such times; some when he came sufficiently awake to know that Sykes waa lying near him, receiving similar care. Their lives were being preserved. How, or why, or what life might hold in store' he neither knew nor cared; the mask and the deep-drawn fumes brought stupor and numbness to his brain. A window was in the floor beside him when he awoke — a circular win- dow of thick glass or quartz. But no longer did it frame a picture of a sky in velvet blackness ; no unlinking pin- points of distant stars pricked keenly 196 ASTOUNDING STORIES through the night; but, clear and daz- zling, came a blessed radiance that could mean only sunshine. A glowing light that was dazzling to his sleep- filled eyes, it streamed in golden — beautiful — to light the unfamiliar room and show motionless upon the floor the figure of Professor Sykes. His torn clothing had been neatly arranged, and his face showed livid lines of healing cuts and bruises. McGuire tried gingerly to move his arms and legs; they were still func- tioning though stiff and weak from dis- use. He raised himself slowly and. stood swaying on his feet, then made his uncertain way to his companion and shook him weakly by the shoulder. Professor Sykes breathed deeply and raised leaden lids from tired eyes to stare uncomprehendingly at McGuire. Soon his dark pupils ceased to dilate, and he, too, could see their prison and the light of day. "Sunlight I" he said in a thin voice, and he seemed to know riow that they were in the air; "I wonder — I wonder — if we shall land — what country? Some wilderness and a strange race — a Btrange, strange race I" He was muttering half to himself; the mystery of these people whom he could not identify was still troubling him. McGUIRE helped the other man to his feet, and they clung to each to the other for support as they crossed to kneel beside the floor-win- dow and learn finally where their cap- tors meant to take them. A wilderness, indeed, the sight that met their eyes, but a wilderness of clouds — no unfamiliar sight to Lieu- tenant McGuire of the United States Army air service. But to settle softly into them instead of driving through with glistening wingn — this was new and vastly different from anything he had known. Sounds came to them in the silence, penetrating faintly through thick walls —the same familiar wailing call that trembled and quavered and seemed tq the listening men to be guiding them down through the mist. Gone was the sunlight, and the clouds beyond the deep-set window were gloriously ablaze with a brilliance softly diffused. The cloud bank was deep, and they felt the craft under them sink slowly, steadily into the misty embrace. It thinned below them to drifting vapor, and the first hazy shadows of the ground showed through from far beneath. Their altitude, the flyer knew, was still many thousands of feet. "Water," said McGuire, as his trained eyes made plain^to_ him what was still indistinct to the scientist "An ocean — and a shore-line — " More clouds obscured the view; they parted suddenly to show a portion only of a clear-cut map. IT stretched beyond the confines of their window, that unfamiliar line of wave-marked shore; the water was like frozen gold, wrinkled in counties! tiny corrugations and reflecting the bright glow from above. But the land, — that drew their eyes I Were those cities, those shadow- splashed areas of gray and rose? . . . The last veiling clouds dissolved, and the whole circle was plain to their view. The men leaned forward, breathless, intent, till the scientist, Sykes — the' man whose eyes had seen and whose brain recorded a dim shape in the lens of a great telescope — Sykes drew back with a quivering, incredulous breath. For, below them, so plain, so unmis- takable, there lay an island, large even from this height, and it formed on this round map a sharp angle like a great letter "L." "We shall know that if we ever sec it again," Professor Sykes had re- marked in the quiet and security of that domed building surmounting the heights of Mount Lawson. But he said nothing now, as he stared at his com- panion with eyes that implored Me- THE PIRATE PLANET 197 Guire to arouse him from this sleep, this dream that could never be real. But McGuire, lieutenant one-time in the forces of the U. S. A., had seen it too, and he stared back with a look that gave dreadful confirmation. The observatory — Mount Lawson — the earthJ — those were the things un- real and far away. And here before them, ( in brain-stunning actuality, were the markings unmistakable — the mark- ings of Venus. And they were land- ing, these two, in the company of creatures wild and strange as the planet — on Venus itself I (To be continued.) IN THE NEXT ISSUE THE APE-MEN OF XLOTLI A Thrilling Nove'ette of the Nether World By David R. Sparks GRAY DENIM A Story of the Future By Harl Vincent SLAVES OF THE DUST An Amazing Story of Bio-Chemical Achievement and Revenge By Sophie Wenzel Eliis THE PIRATE PLANET Part Two of the Breath-Taking Current Novel By Charles W. Diffin — And Others! "The eommrctiom is made," mar mured Von Stein. The Destroyer By William Merriam Route THE pencil in the hand of Al- len Parker refused to obey his will. A strange unseen force pushed his will aside and took possession of the pencil point so that what he drew was not his own. It was the same when he turned from drawing board to typewriter. The sentences were not of his fram- ing ; the ideas were utterly foreign to him. This was the first hint he re- ceived of the fate that was drawing in like night upon him and his beautiful wife. Parker, a young writer of growing reputation who illustrated his own 198 Slowly, insidiously, there Itole over Allen Parker something' uncanny. He conld no longer control his hands— —even hit brain 1 work, was making a series of pencil sketches for a romance partly finished. The story was as joyous and elusive u sunlight, and until to-day his sketches had held the same quality. Now he could not tap the reservoir from which he had taken the wind-blown hair and smiling eya of Madelon, hii heroine. When he drew \>r wrote he seemed to be submerged is the dark waters of a measureless evil pit. The face that mocked him from the paper was stamped with a world- old knowledge of forbidden things. Parker dropped his pencil and leaned back, tortured. He and his wife, Betty, THE DESTROYER 199 had taken this house in Pine Hills, a onall and extremely quiet suburban village, solely for the purpose of con- centration on the book which was to be the most important work he had done. He went to the door of the room that he used for a studio and called : ^"Bettyl Can you come here a mo- ment, please ?" ' THERE was a patter of running feet on the stairs and then a girl of twenty, or thereabout, came into the room. Any man would have said she was a blessing. Her hair "was yellow like ripe com," and her vivid blue eyes held depth and character and charm. "Look!" exclaimed Parker. "What do you think of this stuff ?" For a moment there was silence. Then Allen Parker saw something he had never before seen in his wife's face for him or his work — a look of com- plete disgust. "I wouldn't have believed you capable of doing anything so bo horrid I" she said coldly. "How could you?" "I don't know I" His arms, which had been ready to take her to him for comfort, dropped. "The work has been . . . difficult, lately. As though some- thing were pulling at my mind. But not like this I It isn't me!" "It must be you, since it came out of you I" She turned away and moved rest- lessly to one of the windows. "Through me I" muttered Parker. "Ideas come!" "You'll have to do something I" "But what? I don't know what to dot" ''Why not go to see that new doc- tor?" asked Betty, over her shoulder. "Dr. Friedrich von Stein?" "Von Stein?" repeated Parker, vaguely. "Don't know him. Anyhow, I don't need a doctor. What in the world made you think of that?" "VTOTHING, except that I can see AN his house from here. He's taken what they call 'the old Reynolds' place.' You know — opposite the church. We looked at it and thought it was too large for us. He's made a lot of alter- ations." "Oh, yesl" Parker had placed the newcomer, more recent than himself. "I had an idea that he was a doctor of philosophy, not medicine." "He has half a dozen degrees, they say. Certainly he's a stunning look- ing man. I saw him en the street." "Maybe he doesn't practice." The artist was gazing, baffled and sick at heart, upon what he had wrought. "And what could he do, unless it's my liver?" "He might be a psycho-analyst, or something like that," she reapplied, slowly. "But why the wild interest in this particular doctor?" Parker roused himself and looked at her. He felt ir- ritable, and was ashamed of it. "Only for your work," said Betty. A faint pink touched her cheeks. Allen Parker had a sudden feeling of certainty that his wife was lying to him. To one who knew the Parkers it would have been equally impossible to thing of Betty as lying, or of her hus- band as believing such a thing. Parker was outraged by his own suspicion. He sprang up and began to pace the Boor. "All right, then I" he exploded. "My work is going to the dogs I Why, there's an appointment with Cart- wright to-morrow to show him these sketches, and the last few chapters I've done I We'll go now I If this man can't do anything for me I'll try somebody else I" IN ten minutes they were walking up the quiet street toward the present home of Dr. Friedrich von Stein. De- spite his self-absorption Parker could not help noticing that his wife had never looked more attractive than she did at this moment. Her color had deepened, little wisps of hair curled against her cheeks, and there was a sparkle in her eyes which he knew came only on very particular occasions. aoo ASTOUNDING STORIES Even from the outside it was ap- parent that many strange things had been done to the staid and dignified house of Reynolds. A mass of aerials hung above the roof. Some new win- dows had been cut at the second floor and filled with glass of a peculiar red- dish-purple tinge. A residence had been turned into a laboratory, in sharp contrast to the charming houses up and down the street and the church of gray stone that stood opposite. Beside the door, at the main en- trance, a modest plate bore the legend : "Dr. Friedrich von Stein." Parker pressed the bell. Then he squared his broad shoulders and waited; a very miserable, very likeable young man, with a finely shaped head and a good set of muscles under his well cut clothes. He had brought his sketches, but he was uncomfortable with* the portfolio une\er his arm. It seemed to contaminate him. i THE door opened to reveal a blocky figure of a man in a workman's blouse and overalls. The fellow was pale of eye, towheaded ; he appeared to be good natured but of little intelli- gence. The only remarkable thing ■bout him was a livid welt that ran across one cheek, from nose to ear. Be- side him a glossy-coated dachshund wagged furiously, after having barked once as a matter of duty. "May we see Dr. von Stein?" asked Parker. "If he is in?" "I will ask the Herr Doktor if he iss in," replied the man, stiffly. "Dummkopf!" roared a voice from inside the house. An instant later man and dog shrank back along the hall and there appeared in their place one of the most striking personalities Allen Parker had ever seen. Dr. Friedrich von Stein was inches more than six feet tall and he stood perfectly erect, with the unmistakable carriage of a well drilled soldier. He was big boned, but lean, and every mov em ent was made with military pre- cision. More than any other feature his eyes impressed Parker; they were steady, penetrating, and absolutely black. But for a thread of gray here and there his well-kept beard and hair were black. He might have been any age from forty to sixty, so deceptive was his appearance. > "Come in, if you please," he said, before Parker could speak. Von Stein'i voice was rich and deep, but with i metallic quality which somehow cor- responded with his mechanical smile. Except f«f^ the guttural r's there wu hardly a hint of the foreigner in hit speech. "It is Mr. and Mrs. Parker, I believe? I am Dr. von Stein." HE stood aside for them to past into the hallway, and while they murmured their thanks he shot a volley of German at the man, whom he called Heinrich. The frightened servant vanished; and the Parkers were taken into a living room furnished carelessly, but in good enough taste. Betty took her place on a couch, to which the doc- tor led her with a bow. Parker sank into an overstuffed chair not far from a window. "I learned your names because of the beauty of madame," said Von Stein, u he stood looming above., the mantel Again he bowed. "One could not see her without wishing to know how such a charming woman was called. You are my neighbors from down the street, I believe." "Yes," replied Allen. He wanted to be agreeable, but found it difficult "And I think Mrs. Parker has de- veloped a great admiration for you. She persuaded me to come here to-day. Are you, by chance, a psycho-analyist? I don't even know that you are a doc- tor of medicine, but — " T "I know a very great deal about the Human mind," interrupted Dr. von Stein calmly. "I know a great deal about many things. I am not going to practice medicine here in Pine Hills because I have research work to do, bat I will help you if I can. What is your trouble?" THE DESTROYER 201 THE question brought back to Parker the mood of half an hour ago. Almost savagely he snapped the portfolio open and spread out a few of his recent drawings, with some of the earlier ones for comparison, "Look I" he* cried. "These vicious things are what I am doing now! I can't help myself I The pencil does not obey me I Apparently I have no emo- tional control. It's as though my nor- mal ideas were shouldered aside, like people in a crowd. And my writing to-day was as bad as these illustrations. I'm doing a book. Consider these things carefully, Doctor. They are not obscene, except by inference. They can't be censored. The book would go through the mails. Yet they are dead- ly I Look at my heroine in these two pictures. In one she is like — like vio- lets I In the other she looks capable of any crime I What is she? A vampire, if there is such a thing ? A witch ? I can almost believe in demonology since I made these last drawings I" Parker, in spite of his excitement, tried to read the face of Dr. Friedricb von Stein. He found nothing but the automatic smile, upon that mask. Yet it seemed to the artist that this time there was a hint of real pleasure in the curve of the lips. Was it possible that anyone could like those drawings? Parker began to think that he was go- ing insane. "This is most unfortunate for you," rumbled the doctor. "I understand. But I trust that the condition can be remedied, if it persists. You, Mr. Parker, and you, Madame, do you un- derstand something of physics, of psy- chology, of metaphysics?" "I fear that I'm rather ignorant," an- swered Betty. "Certainly I am in com- parison with a man of your attain- ments," DR. VON STEIN bowed. He turned his black eyes upon Parker. "And you, sir? I must adjust my ex- , planation to— what shall I say? To your knowledge of the higher reaches of scientific thought?" "Why, I majored in philosophy in college," said Parker, hesitatingly. "But that's quite a time ago, Herr Dok- tor. Of course I've tried to keep up with the conclusions of science. But a writer or a painter doesn't have any too much opportunity. He has his own problems to concern him." "Yes, indeed I" Dr. von Stein was thoughtful. "So, and especially for the benefit of madame, I shall speak in terms of the concrete." "Please consider me stupid 1" begged Betty. "But I want to understand I" "Certainly, except that you are not stupid, Madame. I will proceed. Both of you, I assume, know something of the radio? Very good I You know that an etheric wave transmits the mes- sage, and that it is received and am- plified so that it is within the range of the human ear. These waves were there when paleolithic man hunted his v meat with a stone-tipped club. To use them it was necessary to invent the microphone, and a receiving instru- ment. "What I have said you already know. But here is what may startle you. Hu- man thought is an etheric wave of the same essential nature as the radio wave. They are both electrical cur- rents external , to man. Thoughts sweep across the human mind as sound currents sweep across the aerials of a radio—" "I told you I" Allen Parker turned a triumphant face to his wife. "Pardon me, Herr Doktor I I have tried to con- vince Mrs. Parker that my idea came from outside I" M Tj* XACTLY I" Dr. von Stein took JOj no offense. "And a difference between the mind and the radio set is that with the radio you tune in upon wh&tever you choose, and when you Boose. The mind is not under such ntrol, although it should be. It re- ives that to which it happens to be "ogen.