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- Transcribers note: This etext was produced from Astounding Stories
- April 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
- the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
- [Illustration]
- [Chet Ballard answers the pinpoint of light that from the
- craggy desolation of the moon stabs out man's old call for help.]
- The Finding of Haldgren
- _A Complete Novelette_
- By Charles Willard Diffin
- CHAPTER I
- SOS
- The venerable President of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale
- had been speaking. He paused now to look out over the sea of faces that
- filled the great hall in serried waves. He half turned that he might let
- his eyes pass over the massed company on the platform with him. The
- Stratosphere Control Board--and they had called in their representatives
- from the far corners of Earth to hear the memorable words of this aged
- man.
- [Illustration: _The beasts fell into the pit beyond; their screams rang
- horribly as they fell._]
- From the waiting audience came no slightest sound; the men and women
- were as silent as that other audience listening and watching in every
- hamlet of the world, wherever radio and television reached. Again the
- figure of the President was drawn erect; the scanty, white hair was
- thrown back from his forehead; he was speaking:
- " ... And this vast development has come within the memory of one man.
- I, speaking to you here in this year of 1974, have seen it all come to
- pass. And now I am overwhelmed with the wonder of it, even as I was when
- those two Americans first flew at Kittyhawk.
- "I, myself, saw that. I saw with these eyes the first crude
- engine-bearing kites; I saw them from 1914 to 1918 tempered and
- perfected in the furnace of war; I saw the coming of detonite and the
- beginning of our air-transport of to-day. And always I have seen brave
- men--men who smiled grimly as they took those first crude controls in
- their hands; who laughed and waved to us as they took off in the 'flying
- coffins' of the great war; who had the courage to dare the unknown
- dangers of the high levels and who first threw their ships through the
- Repelling Area and blazed the air-trails of a new world.
- "And to-day I, who have seen all this, stand before you and say: 'Thank
- God that the spirit of brave men goes on!'
- * * * * *
- "It has never ended--that adventurer strain--that race of Viking men. We
- have two of them here to-night. The whole world is pausing this instant
- wherever men are on land or water or air to do honor to these two.
- "They do not know why they are here. They have been summoned by the
- Stratosphere Control Board which has delegated to me the honor of making
- the announcement."
- The tall figure was commandingly erect; for an instant the fire of youth
- had returned to him.
- "Walter Harkness!" he called. "Chester Bullard! Stand forth that the
- eyes of the world may see!"
- Two men arose from among the members of the Board and came hesitantly
- forward. Strongly contrasting was the darkly handsome face of Harkness,
- man of wealth and Pilot of the Second Class, and the no less pleasing
- features of Chet Bullard, Master Pilot of the World. For Bullard's
- curling hair was as golden as the triple star upon his chest that
- proclaimed his standing to the world and all the air above.
- The speaker was facing them; he turned away for a moment that he might
- bow to a girl who was still seated next to the chair where Walt
- Harkness had been.
- "To Mrs. Harkness," he said, "who, until one month ago, was Mademoiselle
- Delacouer of our own beloved France, I shall have something further to
- say. She, too, has been summoned by the Board, but, for now, I address
- these two."
- * * * * *
- Again he was facing the two men; and now he was speaking directly to
- them:
- "Pilot Harkness and Master Pilot Bullard, for you the world has been
- forced to create a new honor, a new mark of the world's esteem. For you
- two have done what never men have done before. We who have preceded you
- have subdued the air; but you, gentlemen, you--the first of all created
- beings to do so--have conquered space.
- "And to you, because of your courage; because of your dauntless pioneer
- spirit; because of the unconquerable will that drove you and the
- inventive genius that made it possible--because all these have set you
- above us more ordinary men, since they have made you the first men to
- fly through space--it is my privilege now to show you the honor in which
- you are held by the whole world."
- The firm voice quavered; for a moment the old hands trembled as they
- lifted a blazing gem from its velvet case.
- "Chester Bullard, Master Pilot, on behalf of the Stratosphere Control
- Board I bestow upon you--"
- "Stop!"
- * * * * *
- Every radiophone in the world must have echoed that sharp command; every
- television screen must have shown to a breathless audience the figure
- whose blond hair was awry, whose lean face was afire with protest, as
- Chet Bullard sprang forward with upraised hand.
- "You're wrong--dead wrong! You're making a mistake. I can't accept
- that!"
- The master pilot's voice was raised in earnest protest. He seemed, for
- the moment, unaware of the thousands of eyes that were upon him;
- heedless of the gasp of amazement that swept sibilantly over the vast
- audience like a hissing wave breaking upon the beach. And then his face
- flushed scarlet, though his eyes still held steadily upon the startled
- countenance of the man who stood transfixed, while the jewel in his hand
- took the light of the nitron illuminators above and shot it back in a
- glory of rainbow hues.
- From the seated group on the platform a man came forward. Commander of
- the Air, this iron-gray man; he was head of the Stratosphere Control
- Board, supreme authority on all matters that concerned the air levels of
- the whole world; Commander-in-Chief of all men who laid hands on the
- controls of a ship. He spoke quietly now, and Chet Bullard, at his first
- word, snapped instantly to salute, then stood silently waiting.
- "What is the meaning of this?" demanded the voice of authority. The
- voice seemed soft, almost gentle, yet each syllable carried throughout
- the hall with an unmistakable hint of the hardness of a steelite shell
- beneath the words.
- "The eyes of the world are upon us here; the whole world is gathered to
- do you honor. Is it possible that you are refusing that which we offer?
- Why? You will speak, please!"
- And Chet Bullard, standing stiffly at attention before his commander,
- spoke in a tone rendered almost boyish by embarrassment.
- * * * * *
- "I can't accept, sir. Pilot Harkness will bear me out in this. You would
- decorate us for being the first to navigate space; but we are not the
- first."
- "Continue!" ordered the quiet voice as Chet paused. "You refer to
- Haldgren, probably."
- "To Pilot Haldgren, sir."
- "This is absurd! Haldgren was lost. It is supposed that he fell back
- into the sea, or struck some untraveled part of Earth."
- "I have checked over his data, sir. It is my opinion that he did not
- fall; his figures indicate that he must have thrown his ship beyond the
- gravitational influence of Earth."
- The Commander eyed the master pilot coldly. "And because you _think_
- that your conclusions are more accurate than those of my own
- investigating committee, you refuse this honor!
- "Attention!" he snapped sharply. "The entire Service of Air is being
- rendered ridiculous by your conduct! I command you to accept this
- decoration."
- "You are exceeding your authority, sir. I refuse!"
- Suddenly the frozen quiet of the Commander's face was flushed red with
- rage. "Give me that insignia!" he demanded, and pointed to the triple
- star on Chet Bullard's breast. "Your commission is revoked!"
- * * * * *
- To the last breathless spectator in the farthest end of the great hall
- the white pallor of Chet Bullard's face must have been apparent. One
- hand moved toward the emblem on his blouse, the cherished triple star of
- a master pilot of the World; then the hand paused.
- "I have still another reason for believing Haldgren is alive," he said
- in a cold and carefully emotionless voice. "Are you interested in
- hearing it?"
- "Speak!" ordered the Commander.
- Chet Bullard, still wearing the triple star, crossed quickly to a phone
- panel in the speaker's stand at one side of the stage. He jerked out an
- instrument. The buzz of excited whispering that had swept the audience
- gave place to utter silence. Each quiet, incisive word that Chet spoke
- was clearly heard. He gave his call number.
- "Bullard; Master Pilot, First Class; Number U.S. 1; calling Doctor Roche
- at Allied Observatory, Mount Everest. Micro-wave, please, and connect
- through for telefoto-projection."
- A few breathless seconds passed, while Chet aimed an instrument of
- gleaming chromium and glass, whose cable connections vanished in the
- phone panel recess. He focused it upon an artificially darkened screen
- above and behind the grouped figures on the stage. Then:
- "Doctor Roche?" Chet queried.
- And, before the whole audience, the dark screen came to life to show a
- clear-cut picture of a man who sat at a telescope; whose hand held a
- radiophone; and who glanced up frowningly and said: "Yes, this is Doctor
- Roche."
- Chet's response was immediate.
- "Bullard speaking; Chet Bullard, at New York. When I was in your
- observatory yesterday, Doctor, you said that you had seen flashes of
- light on the Moon. You remember that, don't you? You saw them some
- months ago while I was on the Dark Moon."
- * * * * *
- The man in that distant observatory was no longer scowling at this
- interruption of his work. His smile was echoed by the cordial tone of
- his voice that rang clearly through the great hall.
- "Correct, Mr. Bullard. An observer at our two hundred-inch reflector
- reported them on two successive nights. They were inside the crater of
- Hercules."
- From his place at the center of the stage the waiting Commander of Air
- protested:
- "Come--come! We know all about that, Bullard. Are you trying to say--"
- The voice of the astronomer was speaking again:
- "You will no doubt be interested to know that the lights occurred again
- yesterday at about this time.... Let me see if they are on now. I will
- have the two hundred-inch instrument used as before, and will show you
- what we see.
- "Watch your screen, but don't expect to find any substantiation of your
- wild theory that these lights have a human origin." He laughed softly.
- "No atmosphere to speak of there, you know; we have determined that very
- definitely."
- On the screen the picture of the smiling man flashed off; it was
- replaced by an unflickering darkness that came abruptly into softly
- shaded light. There was an expanse of volcanic terrain and a round
- orifice of tremendous size, where the sunlight cast black shadows. Other
- shaded portions about were like rocky, broken ground.
- * * * * *
- To Chet, staring at the strange conformation, came the quick sense of
- hanging above that ground and looking down upon it. And he knew that in
- New York he was looking through a great telescope down under the world
- and was staring straight down into the throat of an extinct volcano on
- the Moon.
- There were few wonders of the modern world that could thrill the master
- pilot with any feeling of amazement, but here was a new experience. He
- would have spoken, would have ejaculated some word of wonder, but for
- the new light that claimed his eyes and brain.
- The volcano, even in death, was ages old; its cold desolation showing
- plainly on the screen. No fires poured now from a hot throat; the
- molten sea that once had raged within had hardened and choked that vast
- throat with rock that had frozen to make one enormous plain. Ringed
- about by the jagged sides of the tremendous volcano, the floor within
- seemed smooth by comparison, except for another depression at its upper
- edge.
- Here was another and smaller crater inside the great ringed wall of
- Hercules. The light of the sun struck slantingly across to throw one
- side of the gigantic cup into shadow, while the opposite rim blared
- brightly in the lunar dawn. And within the smaller crater, too, one side
- was dead black with shadow.
- Dead!--No moving thing--no sign of life or indication that life might
- ever have been! A dead world, this!--its utter desolation struck Chet's
- half-uttered exclamation to a hoarse whisper of dismay. In all the
- universe what less likely place might one discover wherein to look for
- man?
- * * * * *
- His gaze was held in fascinated hopelessness on the barren, mountainous
- ring, on the inner inverted cone, on the shadow within that smaller
- crater--_on a tiny pinpoint of light that was flashing there!_... He
- hardly knew when he raised one trembling hand and pointed, while a voice
- quite unlike his own said huskily:
- "Look! Look! I told you it was so!... There! In that little
- crater!--it's signaling! Three dots--now three dashes--three dots again!
- The old S O S!--the old call for help! It's Haldgren!"
- Again the screen showed the smiling scientist.
- "Caught them just right," he said, "and glad to be of service. Now, if
- there's anything else I can do--"
- "Thanks!" said Chet in that same strained voice. "Thanks! There's
- nothing else." A switch clicked beneath his hand, and once more the
- screen was dark.
- "Those dots and dashes! The old S O S! Who could doubt now?" Chet was
- telling himself this when the Commander's voice broke in harshly.
- "Even you must see the absurdity of this, Bullard. You have heard this
- astronomer tell you what the rest of us knew for ourselves--that there
- is no air on the Moon; that it is impossible for a human being to live
- there. And you would have us believe that a man has lived there for five
- years!
- "But I am taking your distinguished record into account; I am
- overlooking your insubordination and the folly of your reasoning.
- Perhaps your feeling about Haldgren does you credit; but Haldgren is
- dead. Now I am giving you another chance: I order you to come forward
- and receive this honor, which is an honor to the entire Service of Air."
- * * * * *
- Chet was staring in open amazement. "No air on the Moon," this man had
- said. And what of that? Neither was there air in interplanetary space,
- yet he had traveled there. It was inconceivable that this imperious and
- dictatorial man could be so blind.
- "I can't do it, sir," he tried to explain. "You surely can't disregard
- that message, the old call for help. We were using that, you know, when
- Haldgren took off five years ago."
- No longer did a masking softness overlay the hard brittleness of the
- Commander's voice.
- "Your star!" he snapped. "You are no longer in the Service, Bullard!"
- But Chet Bullard, as he stepped forward that the Commander might rip the
- triple star from his chest, was not alone. Walt Harkness was only a
- Pilot of the Second Class, but he stripped the emblem from his own
- silken blouse and placed it in the Commander's outstretched hand beside
- Chet's star.
- "Permit me, sir, to share Mr. Bullard's enviable humiliation," he
- observed with venomous courtesy; and added:
- "Whatever similar honors were in store for Mrs. Harkness and myself are
- respectfully declined. We, too, are of the opinion that Pilot Haldgren
- deserves them instead of us."
- For an instant Chet's flashing smile drew his face into friendly lines.
- "Thanks!" he said.
- But all friendliness was erased as he swung back upon the Commander.
- * * * * *
- No thought now of the thousands of staring faces or of the millions
- throughout the world who were watching him and were hearing his words.
- Chet Bullard clipped those words into curt phrases, and he shot them at
- his superior officer as if from a detonite gun:
- "You think your judgment better than mine--you've dropped me from the
- Service--and you've got the power to make that stick! But you're wrong,
- sir, dead wrong! And I'll make you admit it, too.
- "No--don't interrupt! I'm going to say what I please, and this is it,
- Commander:
- "Hang onto that jewel you were giving me. Keep it ready. For I'm going
- to the Moon. I'm going to find Haldgren, if he's still living when I get
- there. And, at the least, I will bring back some record to show he is
- the man we should honor.
- "Haldgren, alive or dead, was the first man to conquer space. Neither
- Harkness nor I would steal an atom of his glory. I'll have the proof
- when I come back. And when I come--"
- * * * * *
- For an instant the ready grin that marked Chet's irresistible good
- nature lighted up his face with a silent echo of some laugh-provoking
- thought occurring in his mind.
- "--when I do come, Commander, I will make you eat your words. It's you
- who will be out of the Service then, laughed out!"
- The Commander smiled, too; smiled coldly, complacently, while his head
- shook.
- "Again you are mistaken," he told Chet; "never again will you fly as
- much as one foot above Earth."
- And still Chet's grin persisted. "Commander," he said, "a man in your
- position should not make so many mistakes. I am going--I give you
- warning now--going to the Moon. And you haven't enough Patrol Ships in
- all the air levels of Earth to hold me back, once I'm on my way!"
- And every television screen of Earth showed a remarkable scene: a
- red-faced, choleric Commander of the Air, who shouted that a group of
- officers might leap forward to do his bidding; a dark-haired man and a
- girl who sprang beside him. The bodies of the two were interposed for an
- instant between the officers' weapons and a fair-haired man.... And the
- lean young man, with his shock of golden hair thrown back from his face,
- leaped like a panther in that same instant; drew himself to an open
- window; threw himself through, and vanished among the brilliant lights
- and black shadows of a New York night.
- But, as he fought his way free of the throng outside, there came above
- the clamor of an excited crowd the voice of Walt Harkness in cryptic
- words:
- "The ship is yours, Chet," the fugitive heard Harkness call; "it's in
- cold storage for you!"
- CHAPTER II
- _A Dirty Red Freighter...._
- Chet Bullard was more at home among the air-lanes of Earth than he was
- on solid ground. But he oriented himself in an instant; knew he was on a
- cross street in the three hundred zone; and saw ahead of him, not a
- hundred feet away, the green, glowing ring that marked a subway
- escalator.
- In the passing throng there were those who looked curiously at him. Chet
- checked his first headlong flight and dropped to an unhurried walk.
- About him, as he well knew, the air was filled with silent radio waves
- that were sounding the alarm in every sentry box of the great city. They
- would reach the aircraft terminals and the control room of every ship
- within a fixed radius. He had dared the wrath of one of the most
- powerful officials of Earth; no effort would be spared to run him down;
- his picture would be flashing within ten minutes on every television
- screen of the Air Patrol. And Chet Bullard knew only one way to go.
- Of course they would be watching for him at the airports, yet he knew he
- must get away somehow; escape quickly--and find some corner of the world
- where he could hide.
- He was in the escalator, and wild plans were flashing through his mind
- as he watched the levels go past. "First Level; Trains North and South;
- Local Service. Second Level; Express Stop for North-shore Lines. Third
- Level; Airport Loop Lines; Transatlantic Terminals--"
- Chet Bullard, his hair still tangled on his hatless head, his blouse
- torn where a hand had ripped off the Master Pilot's emblem, stepped from
- the escalator to a platform, then to a cylindrical car that slid
- silently in before him and whose flashing announcement-board proclaimed:
- "_Hoover Airport Express. No Intermediate Stops._"
- * * * * *
- Would they be watching for him at the great Hoover Terminal on the tip
- of Long Island? Chet assured himself silently that he would tell the
- world they would be. But even a fugitive may have friends--if he has
- been a master pilot and has a lean, likable face with a most disarming
- grin.
- Where would he go? He did not know; he had been bluffing a bit and the
- Commander had called him when his hand was weak; he had no least idea
- where he could find their ship. If only he had had a chance for a word
- with Walt Harkness: Walt had been flying it; he had left it apparently
- in a storage hangar.
- But where? And what was it that Walt had called out? Chet was racking
- his brains to remember.
- "The ship is yours," Walt had shouted ... and something about "storage."
- But why should he have laid up the ship; why should he have stored it?
- Chet saw the lights of subterranean stations flashing past as the car
- that held him rode silently through a tube that it touched not at all.
- He knew that magnetic rails made a grillwork that surrounded the car and
- that drew it on at terrific speed while suspending it in air. But he
- would infinitely have preferred the freedom of the high levels, and his
- own hand on a ship's controls.
- A ship!--any ship!--but preferably his ship and Walt's. And Walt had
- said something of "_storage--cold storage_." The words seemed written
- before him in fiery lines. It was a moment before he knew what he had
- recalled. Then a slow smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and he
- turned and stared through a window that showed only blackness.
- "_Cold storage!_" That was good work on Walt's part. He had been forced
- to shout the directions before them all, yet tell none of those others
- about him where the ship was hidden. Chet was picturing that place of
- "cold storage" as he smiled. The fact that it was some thousands of
- miles away troubled him not at all.
- * * * * *
- The great Hoover Terminal was a place where night never came. Its
- daylight tubes wove a network of light about the stupendous enclosure,
- their almost silent hissing merged to an unceasing rush of sound, so
- soft as to be unheard through the scuffing feet and chattering voices of
- the ever-hurrying crowds.
- From subways the impatient people came and went, and from highway
- stations where busses and private cars drove in and away. The clock in
- the squat tower swung its electrically driven hands toward the figure
- 22; there lacked but two hours of midnight, and a steady stream of
- aircraft came dropping down the shaft of green light that reached to and
- through the clouds. There would be many liners leaving on the hour;
- these that were coming in were private craft that spun their flashing
- helicopters like giant emeralds in the green descending light, while the
- noise of their beating blades filled the air with a rush of sound.
- Outside the entrance to the Passenger Station, Chet Bullard withdrew
- himself from the surging press of hurrying men and women and slipped
- into a shadowed alcove. Two passing figures in the gray and gold of the
- Air Patrol scanned the crowd closely; Chet drew himself into the deeper
- shadows and waited until they were by before he emerged and followed
- the shelter of a coffee-house that extended toward another entrance to
- the field, where pilots and mechanics passed in and out.
- * * * * *
- A bulletin board showed in changing letters of light the official
- assignment of landing space. And, though every passing eye was turned
- toward it, Chet knew that each man was intent upon the board and not on
- the shadowed niche in the building behind it. He watched his chance and
- slipped into that shadow.
- Unseen, he could see them as they approached: men in the multicolored
- uniforms of many lines, who paused to read, to exchange bantering
- shop-talk--and to pass on.
- Many voices: "Storm area, over the South-shore up to Level Six. You
- birds on the local runs had better watch your step" ... "--coming down
- at Calcutta. Yeah, a dirty, red-bottomed freighter that rammed him. I
- saw it take off two of his fans, but Shorty set the old girl down like a
- feather on the lift of the four fans he had left. You said it--Shorty's
- a real pilot...."
- Another pause; then a growling voice that proclaimed complainingly:
- "Lord, but I'm tired! All right, Spud; grin, you damned Irishman! But if
- you had been hauling the Commander all over Alaska to-day and then got
- ordered out again just as you were set for a good sleep, you'd be sore.
- What in thunder does he want his ship for to-night, I ask you?"
- * * * * *
- Chet, crouching still lower in the little retreat, stiffened to
- attention at the reference to the Commander. So the "big boss" had
- ordered out his own cruiser again! He listened still more intently to
- the voice that replied.
- "Sure, and it's thankful you sh'u'd be to be holdin' the controls on a
- fine, big cruiser like that; though, betwixt you and me, 'tis myself
- that don't envy you your job. Me and my old freighter, we go wallowin'
- along. And to-night I'm takin' her home for repairs--back to the fact'ry
- in Rooshia where they made her; and the devil of a job it will be, for
- she handles with all the grace of a pig in a puddle."
- Chet risked a glance when the sound of heavy footsteps indicated that
- one of the two speakers had gone on alone to the pilots' gate. Before
- the huge bulletin board, in pilot's uniform and with the markings of a
- low-level man on his sleeve, stood the sturdy figure of the man called
- Spud. He started back at sight of the face peering out at him, but Chet
- whispered a command, and the man moved closer to the hiding place behind
- the board.
- There were others coming in a laughing group up the walk; daylight tubes
- illuminated the approach. Chet spoke hurriedly.
- "I'm in a devil of a mess, Spud. Will you lend a hand? Will you stand by
- for rescue work?"
- And Spud studied the bulletin board as he growled:
- "Lend a hand?--yes, and the arm with it, Mr. Bullard. You stud by me
- once whin I needed help; and now you ask will I stand by for rescue
- work. Till we crash--that's all, me bhoy!"
- * * * * *
- Spud's speech was tinged with the brogue of Erin; it grew perceptibly
- more pronounced as his quick emotions took hold of him.
- "Quiet!" said Chet. "Wait till they pass!"
- The newcomers stopped for no more than a glance. Then:
- "I'm demoted," Chet told the round-eyed man who stared unbelievingly at
- the vacant place on Chet's blouse. "The air's hot with orders for my
- arrest. I've got to get out, and I've got to do it quick."
- And now there was only a trace of the brogue in Spud's voice. Chet knew
- the trick of the man's speech; touch his heart and his tongue would grow
- thick; place him face to face with an emergency and he would go cold and
- hard, while the good-natured phrasing of his native sod went from him
- and he talked fast and straight.
- "The devil you say!" exclaimed Spud. "What you've done I don't know, nor
- yet why you did it. But, whatever it was, I don't believe you let that
- triple star go for less than a damned good reason. Now, let me think;
- let--me--think--"
- A figure in gray and gold was approaching, a member of the Air Patrol.
- Spud's tongue was lively with good-natured raillery as he fell into step
- and drew the officer with him through the pilots' gate, while Chet, from
- his shadow, saw with satisfaction the apparent desertion. He had known
- Spud O'Malley of old. Spud was square--and Spud had wanted time for
- thinking.
- There were many who passed Chet's hiding place before a cautious whisper
- came to him and he saw a hand that thrust a roll of clothing around the
- edge of the bulletin board.
- "Put 'em on!" was the order of Spud. "And smear your yellah hair with
- the grease! Work fast, me bhoy!"
- * * * * *
- The command was no less imperative for being spoken beneath Spud's
- breath, and for the first time Chet's hopes soared high within him. It
- had all been so hopeless, the prospect of actual escape from the net
- that was closing about him. And now--!
- He unrolled the tight package of cloth to find a small can of black
- graphite lubricant done up in a jacket and blouse. Both were stained and
- smeared with grease; they were amply large. Chet did not bother to strip
- off his own blouse; he pulled on the other clothes over his own, and his
- face was alight with a grin of appreciation of Spud's attention to
- details as he took a daub of the grease, rubbed it on his hands, then
- passed them through his hair.
- "Yellah," Spud had said, but the description was no longer apt. And the
- man who stepped forth beside Spud O'Malley in the uniform of an engineer
- of a tramp freighter looked like nothing else in the world but just
- that.
- "Come on, now!" ordered Spud harshly, as a figure in gray and gold
- appeared around the corner of the coffee shop. "You're plinty late, me
- fine lad! Now get in there and clean up that dirty motor and get her
- runnin'! Try out every fan on the old boat; then we'll be off.
- "You're number CG41!" he whispered. And Chet repeated the number as he
- followed the pilot through the gate.
- "O.K.," said the guard at the gate, "and I'll bet he gives you hell and
- to spare!"
- Chet slouched his shoulders to disguise his real height and followed
- where Spud O'Malley, with every indication of righteous anger, strode
- indignantly down the pavement, at the far end of which was a battered
- and service-stained ship.
- * * * * *
- Her hull of dirty red showed mottlings of brown; she was sadly in need
- of a painter's gun. She would groan and squeal, Chet knew, when the fans
- lifted her from the hold-down clutch; and she couldn't fly at over
- twenty thousand without leaking her internal pressure through a thousand
- cracks that made her porous as an old balloon--but to Chet's eyes the
- old relic of the years was a thing of sheer beauty and grace.
- O'Malley was leading through an open freight hatch; Chet followed, and,
- at his beckoning hand, slipped into a dingy cabin.
- "Lay low there," the pilot ordered, and still, as Chet observed, his
- speech showed how clearly the man was thinking, since the emergency
- still existed "I've cleared some time ago, Mr. Bullard; we're ready to
- leave as soon as we get the dispatcher's O.K."
- The minutes were long where Chet waited in the pilot's cabin. Each sound
- might mean a last-minute search of departing ships, but he tried to tell
- himself that the attention of the officers would be centered upon the
- passenger liners.
- Beyond, where he could see out into the control room, a white light
- flashed. He heard the bellowing orders of the Irishman at the controls.
- And, as other sounds reached his ears, he had to grip his hands hard
- while he fought for control of the laughter that was almost hysterical.
- For, beneath him, he felt the sluggish lift of the ship, and, from every
- joint and plate of this old-timer of the air, came squawking protests
- against the cruel fates that drove her forth again to face the
- buffeting, racking gales.
- But the blue light of an ascending area was about them, and Spud
- O'Malley was shouting from the control room:
- "Sure, and we're off, Mr. Bullard. Now do ye come up here and tell me
- all about it--but I warn you, I'll not be believin' a word--"
- CHAPTER III
- _Up From Earth_
- Chet had plenty of time in which to acquaint Pilot O'Malley with the
- facts. And, when he had told his story, it did his sick and worried
- mind good to hear the explosive stream of expletives that came from the
- other's lips. Yet, despite the Irishman's anger, it was noticeable that
- he closed the tight door of the control room before he said a word.
- "Only a skeleton crew," he explained. "Just the relief pilot and the
- engineers and a man or two in the galley, and I trust 'em all. But you
- can't be too careful.
- "The Commander," he concluded, "is gettin' to be more an emperor than a
- Commander, and somethin's got to be done. Discipline we must have, 'tis
- true; but this kotowin' to His Royal Highness and all o' that--devil a
- bit do I like it! If only you could show him up, Mr. Bullard--but of
- course you can't."
- "I'm not so sure," Chet responded. "What I told the big boss wasn't all
- bluff. Haldgren _did_ go out, five years ago this month. We have the
- record of a Crescent liner's captain who saw Haldgren's little ship
- shoot through the R.A. and go on out as if it were going somewhere. And
- now we have these flashes!
- "Do you see what that means, Spud? An SOS! Nobody but an Earth-man would
- send that, and we wouldn't do it now. We would just press the lever of
- our emergency-call, and every receiver within a thousand miles would
- pick up the scream of it.
- "But we've had this Dunston Emergency Transmitter less than four years.
- Haldgren knew only the old S O S. And remember this: three dots, three
- dashes and three dots don't just happen. They showed up on the Moon.
- They were repeated the next night. _Somebody sent them!_ Who was it?"
- * * * * *
- And Pilot O'Malley gave the only obvious answer:
- "There's only yourself and Mr. Harkness and Pilot Haldgren that could
- have got there. 'Twas Haldgren, of course! What a pity that you can't
- go; 'tis likely the poor bhoy needs help."
- "Five years!" mused Chet. "Five long years since he left! He must have
- landed safely--and then what? After five years comes a signal and that
- signal a call for help that no pilot worthy the name would disregard....
- "Where are we bound?" he demanded abruptly.
- "Rooshia," said O'Malley. "I disremember the name--'tis on my
- orders--but I know it's a long way up north."
- "Spud," said Chet, "you're a rotten pilot; you're one of the worst I
- ever knew. Careless--that's your worst fault--and if anybody doubts that
- they'll believe it after this trip. For, Spud, if you're any friend of
- mine, and I know you are, you're going to lose your bearings, and kick
- this old sky-hog a long way beyond that factory she is bound for. And
- you're going to set me down in a God-forsaken spot in the arctic where
- I'm pretty sure I'll find a ship waiting for me.
- "And, if you just stick around for a while after that, you will see me
- take off for the Moon. Then, if Haldgren is there--"
- Chet failed to finish the sentence; he was staring through a rear
- lookout, where, over the arc of the Earth's horizon, could be seen a
- thin crescent Moon; about it drifting clouds made a halo.
- The eyes of Spud O'Malley followed Chet's, and his imaginative faculties
- must have been stimulated by Chet's words, for he gazed open-mouthed, as
- if for the first time he visioned that golden scimitar as something more
- substantial than a high-hung light. He drew one long incredulous breath
- before he answered.
- "What position, sir? Say the word and I'll lose myself so bad we'll be
- over the Pole and half-way to the equator again!"
- "Not that bad," was Chet's assurance. "Just spot this ship over 82:14
- north, 93:20 east, and I'll give you local bearings from there."
- Then to himself: "'Cold storage,' Walt said; he meant our old shop, of
- course. Probably had a hunch we would need it."
- But to the pilot he said only the one word: "Thanks!"--though the grip
- of his hand must have spoken more eloquently.
- * * * * *
- The eastbound lanes of the five thousand level saw them plod slowly
- along, while faster and better-groomed ships slipped smoothly past; then
- the red hull rose to Level Twelve and swung out upon the great circle
- course that would bear them more nearly in the direction of the
- destination Chet had given. There were free levels higher up in which
- they could have laid a direct course, but the Irish pilot did not need
- Chet to tell him that the old hull would never stand it. Her internal
- pressure could never have been maintained at any density such as human
- lungs demanded.
- But they were on their way, and Chet's customary genial expression gave
- place to one of more grim determination as he watched the white-flecked
- ocean drift slowly past below.
- Once a patrol ship spoke to them. Daylight had come to show plainly the
- silver hull with the distinctive red markings of the Service that
- slipped smoothly down from above to hang poised under flashing fans like
- a giant humming-bird. Her directed radio beam flashed the yellow call
- signal in O'Malley's control room.
- * * * * *
- Chet was beside him, and the two exchanged silent glances before
- O'Malley cut in his transmitter. He must give name and number--this
- signal was a demand that could not be disregarded--but on the old
- freighter was no automatic sender that would flash the information
- across to the other ship; the pilot's voice must serve instead.
- "Number three--seven--G--four--two!" he thundered into the radiophone.
- "Freighter of the Intercolonial Line, without cargo--"
- "For the love of Pete," shouted the loudspeaker beside him in volume to
- drown out the pilot's words, "are you sending this by short wave, or are
- you just yelling across to me? Calm down, you Irish terrier!"
- Then, before the pilot could reply, the voice from the silver and red
- patrol ship dropped into an exaggerated mimicry of the O'Malley brogue--
- "And did yez say 'twas a freighter you had there? Sure, I thot at th'
- very last 'twas a foine big liner from the Orient and Transpolar run,
- dropped down here from the hoigh livils! All right, Spud; on your way!
- But don't crowd the bottom of the Twelve Level so close. This is
- O--sixteen--L; Jimmy Maddux. By--by! I'll report you O.K."
- * * * * *
- Again Chet looked at the pilot silently before he glanced back at the
- vanishing ship, already small in the distance. He repeated the Patrol
- Captain's words:
- "You will 'report us O.K.'--yes, Jimmy, you'll do that, and if they want
- to find us again you can tell them right where to look."
- "I'm pushin' her all I can, Mr. Bullard," said Spud. "'Tis all she can
- do.... And now do ye go into my cabin--there's two berths there--and
- we'll just turn in and sleep while my relief man takes his turn. But go
- in before I call him; there's not a soul on the ship besides ourselves
- knows that you're here."
- And, in the cabin a short time later, Pilot O'Malley chuckled as he
- whispered: "I gave the lad his course. And Mac will follow it, but it'll
- niver take him near to the part of Rooshia he expects it to. Still, the
- record's clear as far as he's concerned; I've got it in the log. Mac's a
- good lad, and I wouldn't have him get into trouble over this."
- * * * * *
- In the freighter's cabin the chronometer was again approaching the hour
- of twenty-two; for nearly twenty-four hours the ship had been on her
- plodding way. And, lacking the A.D.D.--the Automatic Destination
- Detector--and other refinements of instrumental installations of the
- passenger ships, Pilot O'Malley had to work out his position for
- himself.
- And where a faster craft would have driven through with scarcely a
- quiver, the big ship trembled with the buffets and suction of a wintry
- blast that drove dry snow like sand across the lookout glasses. The
- twelve thousand level was an unbroken cloud of snow--a gray smother
- where the red ship's blunt and rusty bow nosed through.
- O'Malley clung to the chart table as the air gave way beneath them and
- the ship fell a hundred feet or more before her racing fans took hold
- and jerked her back to an even keel. He managed to check his figures,
- then moved to the door of his cabin, opened it and called softly.
- Chet was beside him in an instant. It had seemed best that he remain in
- hiding, and he knew what the pilot's call meant. "Made it, did you!" he
- exclaimed. "Now I'll take a look about and pick up my bearing points."
- But one look at the ports and he shook his head.
- "That's dirty," he told O'Malley, and his eyes twinkled as he felt the
- old ship rear and plunge with the lift of a driving gale; "and how the
- old girl does feel it! She can't rip through, and she can't go above.
- You've had some trip, Spud; it's been mighty decent of you to go to all
- this--"
- * * * * *
- A flashing of yellow light on the instrument panel brought his thanks to
- a sudden halt. A voice, startling in its sudden loudness, filled the
- little room.
- "Calling three--seven--G--four--two! Stand by for orders! Patrol
- O--sixteen--L sending; acknowledge, please!"
- Chet's eyes were staring into those of O'Malley. "That's Jimmy Maddux
- back on our trail," he said. "Now, what has got them suspicious?"
- He glanced once at the collision instrument. "He's right overhead at
- thirty thousand," he added; "and there are more of them coming in from
- all sides. Now what the devil--"
- Spud O'Malley had his hand on the voice switch. "Be quiet!" he
- commanded; then spoke into the transmitter--
- "Three--seven--G--four--two acknowledging!" he said, and again Chet
- observed how all trace of accent had departed from his voice; it was an
- indication of the moment's tenseness and of the pilot's full
- understanding of their position.
- The answering order was crisply spoken; this was a different Jimmy
- Maddux from the one who had chaffed the Irish pilot some hours before.
- "Stand by! We're coming down! Records at Hoover Terminal show two men
- reporting at pilots' gate under the number of your engineer, CG41. Hold
- your ship exactly where you are; we're sending a man aboard!"
- * * * * *
- Chet had moved silently to the controls. The old multiple-lever
- instrument--he knew it well! But he looked at Spud O'Malley and waited
- for his nod of assent before he presumed to trespass on another pilot's
- domain. Then he shifted two little levers, and the ship fell away
- beneath them as it plunged toward the Earth.
- And Pilot O'Malley was explaining to the Patrol Ship Captain as best he
- could for the rolling plunge of the careening ship:
- "I can't hold her, sir. And you'd best be keepin' away. It's stormin'
- fearful down here, and I can't rise above it! Keep clear!--I'm warnin'
- you!" The hum of their helicopters rose to a shrill whine as Chet drove
- the ship out and down through the smothering clouds. "You must hear her
- fans on your instruments; you can see how we're pitchin'!"
- He switched off the transmitter for a moment and faced Chet. "They've
- been checkin' close," he stated. "That was my engineer's number I gave
- you as we came through the gate. And, of course, he had given it before
- when he reported in. Now we're up against it."
- The collision instrument was humming with the sound of many motors, and
- warning lights were giving their silent alarm of the oncoming ships.
- "They're comin' in," Spud went on hopelessly, "like a flock of kites in
- the tropics when one of them's found somethin' dead--and it's us that's
- the carcass!"
- * * * * *
- But Chet was not listening. The snowy clouds had broken for an instant;
- their ship had driven through and beneath them. Through the wild,
- whirling chaos of white there came for an instant a rift--and far across
- an icy expanse Chet glimpsed a range of black hills!
- He spoke sharply to the pilot. "That's Jimmy Maddux above us--kid him
- along, Spud! Tell him we're coming up, don't let him grab us with his
- magnets! This is putting you in a devil of a hole, old man. I'm
- sorry!--but we've got to see it through now.
- "You can never set this ship down, Spud; that patrol would be on our
- backs in half a second. And they'd knock me out with one shot the minute
- I stepped outside."
- The clear space in the storm had filled again with the dirty gray of
- wind-whipped snow; off at the right a dim glow of distant fires was the
- midnight sun as it shone for a brief moment. One blast, more malignant
- in its fury than those that had come before, tore first at the blunt
- bow, then caught them amidships to roll the big, sluggish freighter till
- her racked framework shrieked and chattered.
- Spud pointed through a rear lookout where a silvery Patrol Ship flashed
- down through the clouds. "There's Jimmy!" he shouted. "He's takin' no
- chances of our landing--he's right on our tail!"
- * * * * *
- But Chet Bullard, his hands working at the control levers, was staring
- straight ahead into that gray blast; and his eyes were shining as he
- pulled back on a lever that threw them once more into the concealment of
- the whirling clouds above.
- "Spud," he was shouting, "have you got a 'chute? You freighters have 'em
- sometimes. Get me a 'chute and I'll fool them yet! I saw the shed--our
- hangars--our work shop! There's where our ship is!"
- They were lost once more in the snow that seemed to be driving past in
- solid drifts. Chet heard Spud shouting down a voice tube. And,
- curiously, it was plain that the Irish pilot had lost all tenseness from
- his voice; he was happy and as carefree as if he had found the answer
- to all his perplexing questions. He was calling an order to his relief
- pilot.
- "Mac--do ye break out two parachutes, me lad! Bring 'em up here, and
- shake a leg! No, there's nothin' to worry about--divil a thing!"
- Then, into the transmitter, he shouted thickly as he switched the
- instrument on:
- "Jimmy, me bhoy, kape away! Kape away, I'm tellin' you, or ye'll have me
- Irish temper disturbed, and I'm a divil whin I'm roused! What do I know
- about your twin ingineers? Wan of thim makes trouble enough for me! Now
- take yourself away, and don't step on the tail of this ship or we'll go
- down to glory together!--unless we go to another terminal and find
- oursilves in hell, and us all covered wid snow. Think how divilish
- conspicuous you'd be feelin'--"
- * * * * *
- A discord of voices silenced his laughing banter; on the instrument
- board the warning light was flashing imperatively. Above the bedlam of
- voices one stood out, and all other commands went silent before the
- voice of authority.
- "Silence! This is the Commander of Air! Orders for O--sixteen--L: seize
- that ship! Your magnets!--disregard damage!--get your magnets on that
- ship and hold her. We are coming down--"
- Chet reached for the transmitter switch and opened it that their voices
- might not go beyond the control room.
- "Lots of company; they seem pretty certain that they're on the right
- track. And the big boss himself is coming down to call. Can't you hurry
- those 'chutes?"
- The control room door was flung open as the figure of a young man
- stumbled through and dropped two bundles of cloth and webbing upon the
- floor. He clung to the door-frame as Chet threw the big freighter into
- a totally unexpected maneuver that rolled them down and away from a
- silver-bellied ship above. Then the levers moved again, and the ship
- went hard-a-port as Chet caught again one fleeting glimpse of shadow
- below that could only be the markings of a building he had known well.
- "Hold her there, Spud!" he shouted. "He'll be back in a minute or two!
- He'll get us next time!"
- Chet was reaching for the straps of a 'chute. He had the webbing about
- him when he stopped to waste precious seconds in wide-eyed staring at
- the figure of Spud O'Malley.
- * * * * *
- Spud was pulling at a recalcitrant buckle. He had motioned the relief
- pilot to take the controls, and now the bulk of a parachute pack hung
- awkwardly behind him.
- "Spud!" Chet shouted. "You're not stepping out too! It's no sure thing
- with these old 'chutes; they're probably rotten! Stay here! Tell 'em I
- stuck you up with a gun!--tell 'em I made you bring me--"
- "If you must talk," said Spud O'Malley calmly, and pulled a strap tight
- across his chest, "do ye be tryin to work while you talk. Get that
- harness on! If I let you stow away on my ship you can do no less than
- take me along on yours!"
- A crashing impact drove the men to the floor in a sprawling heap; Chet
- pulled the last strap tight as he lay there. The lookouts were black
- above where the belly of a Patrol Ship clung close.
- "Jimmy knows how to obey orders," said Chet as he came to his feet. "No
- cable magnets for Jimmy! He just smashed down on top of us, ripped off
- our fans and grabbed hold." He was helping Spud to his feet as he spoke.
- "Mac, me bhoy," the pilot told his assistant, "the log has it all, the
- whole story. There'll be no trouble for you at all."
- He yanked quickly at the port-opening switch, and the big steel disk
- backed slowly out of its threaded seat and swung wide.
- * * * * *
- Chet drew back one involuntary step as a blast of icy wind drove
- stinging snow into his face. Then, without a word, he gave Spud O'Malley
- a joyous grin and threw himself out into the void....
- And, later, as he released the 'chute where a wind was dragging him
- violently across an icy expanse, he was laughing exultantly to see
- another 'chute whirled into the enshrouding drifts, while the chunky
- figure of a man came scrambling to his feet that he might shake a fist
- into the air toward some hidden enemy and shout into the storm epithets
- only half-heard.
- "--and be damned to ye!" Chet heard him conclude; then was close enough
- to throw one arm about the figure and draw him after where he made his
- way toward a building that was like a mountain of snow.
- Spud must have marveled at the craft within; at her sleek, shining
- sides; the flat nose that ended in a black exhaust port. He was
- examining the other exhausts that ringed her round when Chet pulled out
- a lever from the streamlined surface and swung open an entrance port.
- He motioned Spud into the brilliantly lighted interior, where nitron
- illuminators were almost blinding as they shone of gleaming levers and
- dials of a control room like none that Spud O'Malley had ever seen.
- Chet had thrown the building's doors open wide; a whirling motor had
- drawn them back on hidden tracks. Now he closed the entrance port with
- care, then glanced at his instruments before he placed his hand on a
- metal ball.
- * * * * *
- It hung suspended in air within a cage of curved bars. It was a
- modification of the high-liner ball-control, and it was new. Walt
- Harkness had had it installed to replace a more crudely fashioned
- substitute that had brought them safely back from the Dark Moon. The
- name of that new satellite was on Chet's lips as his thin hand rested
- delicately upon the ball.
- "It's not the Dark Moon this time, old girl," he told the ship, "though
- you've taken me there twice. But we're going up just the same, and I
- told the Commander he hasn't Patrol Ships enough to hold us back." His
- fingers were gripping the little ball--lifting it--moving it forward....
- And, as if he lifted the ship itself, the silent cylinder came roaring
- into life. Within the great building was a thundering blast that made
- the voice of the storm less than a whispering breath. It came but
- faintly through the heavily insulated walls, but Chet felt the lift of
- the ship, and that joyous smile was crinkling about his eyes as the
- silvery cylinder floated smoothly out of her shelter into the grip of
- the wind.
- His eyes were on an upper lookout, where clouds were driving away like a
- curtain unrolled. More cloud banks were coming, but, for a time, the
- heavens were clear where the great red hull of a rusty freighter hung
- helpless beneath a red and silver Patrol Ship whose magnets held fast to
- its prey.
- * * * * *
- There were other shapes in the markings of the Service that shot
- slantingly down. Chet thought again of the carrion birds; then he saw
- the gold star on the bow of a great cruiser and knew from that ship that
- the Commander must be seeing their own below. Then he eased gently
- forward on a tiny ball--forward and forward, while the compensating
- floor of the control room swung up behind them and seemed thrusting up
- with unbearable weight.
- There were flashes from the cruisers above, and flashes of red on the
- ice behind with fountains of shattered ice and rock; detonite works its
- most terrible destruction on a surface that is brittle and hard. But of
- what avail are detonite shells against a craft whose speed builds up to
- something greater than the muzzle velocity of a shell?--a silvery craft
- that sweeps out and out toward a black mountain range; then swings
- slowly up in a curve of sheer beauty that bends into banked masses of
- clouds--and ends.
- But within the control room, Chet Bullard, no longer Master Pilot of the
- World, but master, in all truth, of space, knew that his ship's flight
- was far from ending. He turned to grin happily at his companion.
- "We're off!" he shouted. "And it's thanks to you that we made it. If
- Haldgren's alive he'll have you to thank; for it's you that has done the
- trick so far!"
- But Spud O'Malley answered soberly as he stared up and out into the
- blackness of levels he had never seen.
- "I've helped," he admitted; "I've helped a bit. But it's a divil of a
- job of navigatin' that's ahead. And that's up to you, Chet Bullard; 'tis
- no job for an old omadhaun like mesilf!"
- Chet felt the lift of the Repelling Area as they shot through. Ahead was
- the black velvet night that he knew so well; its silent emptiness was
- pricked through with bright points of fire.
- "I found the Dark Moon," he said slowly, "and that you can't see at all.
- This other will be easy."
- There was no boastfulness in the tone, and Spud O'Malley nodded as he
- glanced respectfully at the young man who threw back his disheveled mop
- of hair from a lean face and marked down some cryptic figures on a
- record sheet.
- Chet Bullard was on the job ... and his passenger, it would seem, was
- satisfied that his unbelievable adventure was well begun.
- CHAPTER IV
- _Life Monstrous and Horrible_
- "It looks," said Spud O'Malley, "as if some bad little spalpeen of the
- skies had thrown pebbles at it when 'twas soft. It's fair pockmarked
- with places where the stones have hit."
- He was staring through a forward lookout, where the whole sky seemed
- filled with a tremendous disk. One quarter was brilliantly alight; it
- formed a fat crescent within whose arms the rest of the globe was held
- in fainter glowing. By comparison, this greater portion was dark, though
- illuminated by earthlight far brighter than any moonlight on Earth.
- But light or dark, the surface showed nothing but an appalling
- desolation where the rocky expanse had been still further torn and
- disrupted--pockmarked, as O'Malley had said, with great rings that had
- been the walls of tremendous volcanoes.
- Chet was consulting a map where a similar area of circular markings had
- been named by scientists of an earlier day.
- "Hercules," he mused, and stared out at the great circle of the moon.
- "The crater of Hercules! Yes, that must be it. That dark area off to one
- side is the Lake of Dreams; below it is the Lake of Death. Atlas!
- Hercules! Suffering cats, what volcanoes they must have been!"
- "I don't like your names," objected O'Malley. "Lake of Death! That's
- not so good. And I don't see any lake, and the whole Moon is wrong side
- up, according to your map."
- Chet reached for the ball-control, moved it, and swung their ship in a
- slow, rotary motion. The result was an apparent revolution of the Moon.
- "There, it's right side up," Chet laughed; "that is, if you can tell me
- what direction is 'up' out here in space. And, as for the names, don't
- let them disturb you; they don't mean anything. Some old-timer with a
- little three-inch telescope probably named them. The darker areas looked
- like seas to them. Astronomers have known better for a long time; and
- you and I--we're darned sure of it now."
- * * * * *
- The great sea of shadow, a darker area within the shaded portion whose
- only light came from the Earth, was plainly a vast expanse of blackened
- rock. An immense depression, like the bottom of some earlier sea, it was
- heaved into corrugations that Chet knew would be mountain-high at close
- range. Marked with the orifices of what once had been volcanoes, the
- floor of that Lake of Death was hundreds of miles in extent.
- But as for seas and lakes, there was no sign of water in the whole,
- vast, desolate globe. An unlikely place, Chet admitted, for the
- beginning of their search, and yet--those flashes of light!--the S O S!
- They had been real!
- The bow blast had been roaring for over an hour; their strong
- deceleration made the forward part of the ship seem "down." And down it
- was, too, by reason of the pull of the great globe they were
- approaching. But the roaring exhaust up ahead was checking their speed;
- Chet measured and timed the apparent growth of the Moon-disk and nodded
- his satisfaction at their reduced speed.
- "This will stop us," he said. "I didn't know but we would have to swing
- off, shoot past, and return under control. But we're all right, and
- there is the place we are looking for--the big ring of Hercules, the
- level floor of rock inside it. And over at one side the smaller
- crater--"
- * * * * *
- He was gazing entranced at the mammoth circle that had been a volcano's
- throat--the very one he had seen flashed on the screen. He moved the
- control to open a side exhaust and change their direction of fall. He
- was still staring, with emotions too overwhelming for words, and Spud
- O'Malley was silent beside him, as the great ring spread out and became
- an up-thrust circle of torn, jagged mountains some thirty or more miles
- across and directly below.
- They fell softly into that circle. Its mountainous sides were high; they
- blocked off the view of the enormous terraces beyond that had been the
- crater's sloping sides.
- From the direction that had suddenly become "east," the rising sun's
- strong light struck in a slant to make the bar rocks seem incandescent.
- On one side the giant rim of the encircling mountains was black with
- shadow. The shadow reached out across the vast, rocky floor almost to
- the foot of the opposite wall many miles away. It enveloped their
- falling ship like a cushioning, ethereal sea: velvety, softly black,
- almost palpable.
- It was wrapping them about in the darkness of night as Chet's slender
- hand touched so delicately upon the ball-control--checked them, eased
- off, drew back again until the thundering exhausts echoed softly where
- their ship hung suspended a hundred feet above a rocky floor. The
- shrouding darkness erased the harsh contours of mountain and plain; it
- seemed shielding this place of desolation and horror from critical,
- perhaps unfriendly eyes of these beings from another world. And Chet
- laid their ship down gently and silently on the earthlit plain as if he,
- too, felt this sense of intrusion--as if there might be those who would
- resent the trespass of unwanted guests.
- But Spud O'Malley must have experienced no such delicacy of feeling. He
- let go one long pent-up breath.
- "And may the saints protect us!" he said. "The Lake of Death outside,
- and inside here is purgatory itself, or I don't know my geography. But
- you made it, Chet, me bhoy; you made it! What a sweet little pilot you
- are!"
- * * * * *
- "There's air here," Chet was telling his companion later; "air of a
- sort, but it's no good to us."
- He pointed to the spectro-analyzer with its groupings of lines and light
- bands. "Carbon dioxide," he explained, "and some nitrogen, but mighty
- little of either. See the pressure gage; it's way down.
- "But that won't bother us too much. We've got some suits stowed away in
- the supplies that will hold an atmosphere of pressure, and their oxygen
- tanks will do the rest. We were ready for anything we might find on our
- Dark Moon trip, but we didn't need them there. Now they'll come in
- handy."
- "That's all right," O'Malley assured him; "I've gone down under water in
- a diving suit; I've gone outside a ship for emergency repairs in a suit
- like yours when the air was as thin as this; I can stand it either way.
- But what I want to know is this:
- "What the divil chance is there of findin' your man, Haldgren, in such
- a frozen corner of purgatory as this? How could he live here? Here
- you've come in a fine, big ship, and his was a little bit of a bullet by
- comparison. Yet I doubt if you could live here for five years with all
- your big oxygen supply. Now, how could he have done it with his little
- outfit?
- "And what has he eaten? Does this look like a likely place for shootin'
- rabbits, I ask you? Can a man catch a mess of fish in that empty Lake of
- Death? Or did Haldgren bring a sandwich with him, it may be?"
- * * * * *
- Chet Bullard shook his head doubtfully.
- "Don't get sarcastic!" he grinned. "You can't think of any wilder
- questions than I have asked myself.
- "He couldn't have lived here, Spud; that's the only answer. It just
- isn't humanly possible. All I know is that he did it. I can't tell you
- how I know it, but I do. Those lights were a human call for help. No
- living man but Haldgren could have flashed them. He's alive--or he was
- then; that's all I know."
- Spud crossed the control room as he had done a score of times to look
- through a glass port at the world outside. Chet, too, turned to the
- lookout by which he stood and stared through it. The men had found
- themselves surprisingly light within the ship. They had been compelled
- to guard against sudden motion; a step, instead of carrying them one
- stride, might hurl them the length of the room. This lowered
- gravitational pull helped to explain to the pilot that outer world.
- There, close by, was the rocky plain on which he had landed the ship:
- Smooth and shiny as obsidian in places, again it was spongy gray, the
- color of volcanic rock, bubbling with imprisoned gases at the instant
- of hardening. It stretched out and down, that gently rolling plain, for
- a thousand yards or more, then ended in a welter of nightmare forms done
- in stone. It was like the work of some demented sculptor's tortured
- brain.
- * * * * *
- Jutting tongues of rock stood in air for a hundred--two hundred--feet.
- Chet hardly dared estimate size in this place where all was so strange
- and unearthly. The hot rock had spouted high in the thin air, and it had
- frozen as it threw itself frantically out from the inferno of heat that
- had given it birth. The jets sprayed out like spume-topped waves; they
- were whipped into ribbons that the winds of this world could not tear
- down, and the ribbons shone, waving white in the earthlight. The
- tortured stone was torn and ripped into twisted contortions whose very
- writhing told of the hell this had been. Its grotesque horror struck
- through to the deeper levels of Chet's mind with a feeling he could not
- have depicted in words.
- From the higher elevation where their ship lay he could look out and
- across this welter of storm-lashed rock to see it level off, then vanish
- where another crater mouth yawned black. Here was the inner crater! It
- had seemed small before; it was huge now--a place of mystery, a black,
- waiting throat into which Chet knew he must go--a place of indefinable
- terror.
- But it was the place, too, whence strange flashes had come, flashes that
- had told of the distress and suffering of men since the time when
- wireless waves had been widely used. The old call--the S O S!--it had
- come from that throat; it had seemed a call sent directly to him! And
- Chet Bullard's eyes held steadily toward that place of mystery and of a
- sender unknown.
- "I'm going down," he told himself more than O'Malley. "There's something
- about it I can't understand, something pretty damnable about it, I
- admit. But, whatever it is, that's what I am here to find out."
- "'Tis a divil of a place to die," said O'Malley, "and not one I'd pick
- out at all. But it may be we won't have to. I'm goin' along, of course."
- * * * * *
- The master pilot was reaching for the flexible metal suit he had brought
- from the store room. It was air-tight, gas-proof; it would hold an
- internal pressure far beyond anything the wearer would demand; and its
- headpiece was flexible like the body of the suit, and would fit him
- closely.
- He drew the suit up over the clothes he wore and closed the front with
- one pull of a metal tab. Within, soft rubber-faced cushions had
- interlocked; the body would fasten to the headpiece in the same way. But
- Chet paused with the headpiece in his hand.
- He looked at the glass window that would be before his eyes; at the thin
- diaphragms that would come over his ears and that would admit all
- ordinary sounds; and he tried out the microphone attachment that he
- could switch on to bring to his ears the faintest whisper from outside.
- All this he examined with care while he seemed to be thinking deeply.
- Then he straightened and looked at his companion.
- "No, Spud, you're not going," he said. "This is my job. You'll stay with
- the ship. You and I make a rather small army: we don't know yet what we
- may be up against, and we mustn't risk all our forces in one advance.
- I'll see what is there; and, in case anything happens, you can take the
- ship back. I've taught you enough on the way over; I had this very
- thing in mind."
- He slipped the helmet over his blond head before O'Malley could reply.
- * * * * *
- The ear-pieces and the microphone allowed him to hear. Another diaphragm
- in the center of the metal across his chest took his own voice and
- shouted it into the room.
- "Sure, I know you want to go. Spud; but you'll have to stay in reserve.
- Now show me how well you can fly the ship. Lift her off; then drift over
- that crater, and we'll have a look-see!"
- Spud O'Malley's face was glum as he obeyed. Spud had seen nothing but
- death in this place of horror--Chet had observed that plainly--yet it
- was equally plain that the Irish pilot was finding the order to live in
- safety a bitter dose. But Spud knew how to take orders; he lifted the
- little ball gently and swung the ship out toward the blackness of that
- deeper pit.
- Chet was watching the changing terrain. He saw the place of
- solid-spouted rock end; saw it flatten out to an undulating surface that
- had rolled and heaved itself into many-colored shapes. Even in the
- earthlight the kaleidoscopic colors were vivid in their changing reds
- and blues and yellow sheens. Then this surface sloped sharply away,
- though here it was rough with broken rock where half-hardened lava,
- coughed from that throat, had fallen back and adhered to the molten
- sides.
- This rock in the inner crater was gray, pale and ghostly in the
- earthlight. It went down and still down where Chet's eyes could not
- follow--down to an utter blackness. Chet was staring speculatively at
- that waiting dark when the first flash came.
- Blindingly keen! A flash of white light!--another and another! It
- blazed dazzlingly into their cabin in vivid dashes and dots--the same
- signal as before was being repeated!
- * * * * *
- A hundred yards away was a little shelf of rock. Chet jerked at
- O'Malley's shoulder with his metal-cased hand and pointed. "Set her
- down!" he ordered "Let me out there! We can't put the ship down where
- those lights are; the throat is too narrow; there may be air-currents
- that would smash us on a sharp rock. I'll go down! You wait! I'll be
- back."
- He was opening the inner door of the entrance port. Another closure in
- the outer shell made an air-lock. He took time for one grip at the hand
- of Spud O'Malley, one grin of excited, adventurous joy that wrinkled
- about his eyes behind the window of his helmet--then he picked up a
- detonite pistol, examined again its charge of tiny shells, jammed it
- firmly into the holster at his waist and swung the big door shut behind
- him.
- And Pilot O'Malley watched him go with a premonition that he dared not
- speak. He heard the closing of the outer door; saw the tall, slender
- figure in a metal suit like a knight of old as Chet waved once, settled
- the oxygen tank across his shoulders and picked his way carefully over a
- waste of shattered stone that led down and down into the dark.
- Then the Irishman looked once at the suit he had expected to wear,
- stared back where the figure of Chet had vanished, then dropped his head
- upon his hands while his homely face was twisted convulsively.
- * * * * *
- It had come so soon! The great adventure was upon them before he had
- realized. The reconnaissance--the flashes--and then Chet had gone! And
- now he was alone in a silent ship that rested quietly in this soundless
- world. The silence was heavy upon him; it seemed pressing in with actual
- weight to bear him down. It was shattered at the last by the faintest of
- whispered echoes from without.
- Spud was on his feet in an instant, his eyes straining at one lookout
- after another, each giving him a view of only the desolation he knew and
- hated.
- What could it have been? he demanded. He found and rejected a dozen
- answers before he saw, far down in the black crater-mouth, a flash of
- red; then heard again that ghost of a sound and knew it for what it was.
- Thick walls, these of the space ship, and insulated well; and the thin
- atmosphere of this wild world could cut a blast of sound to a mere
- fraction of its volume! But the walls were admitting a fragmental echo
- of what must have been a reverberating voice. They were quivering to the
- roar of exploding detonite!
- It was Chet! He was fighting, he was in trouble! Spud's trembling hands
- steadied upon the metal control; he lifted the ship as smoothly as even
- Chet might have done, and he drove it out and down into a throat too
- narrow for safety, but where the tiny, red flash of a weapon had called
- with an S O S as plain as any lettered call--a message to which brave
- men have everywhere responded.
- * * * * *
- He saw Chet but once. The master pilot had shown him the flare release
- lever; he moved it now, and the place of darkness was suddenly blinding
- with light. There were rocks close at hand; the crater had narrowed to a
- funnel throat that was cut and terraced as if by human hands. Below, it
- ended in a smooth stone floor where the lava had sealed it shut.
- From a terrace came the gleaming reflection of Chet's suit. Miraculously
- the gleam was doubled, as if another in similar garb stood at his side.
- And beyond, from blocks of stone, came leaping things--living creatures!
- The light died. Spud realized he had not opened the release lever full.
- He fumbled for it--found it, jammed it over! And in the light that
- followed he saw only empty, terraced walls where nothing moved, and a
- lava floor below that, for an instant, gaped open, then again was smooth
- and firm.
- And the thunder of his ship's exhausts came back to him from those
- threatening walls to tell of a loneliness more certain and terrible than
- any solitude he had found in the silence where he had waited above.
- But through all his dismay ran an undercurrent of puzzled wonderment.
- For here on a dead world, where all men agreed there could be no life,
- he had seen the impossible.
- Only one glimpse before the light had died; only for an instant had he
- seen the things that leaped upon Chet--but he knew! Never again could
- any man tell Spud O'Malley that the Moon was a lifeless globe ... and he
- knew that the life was of a form monstrous and horrible and malign!
- CHAPTER V
- _"And I've Brought You to This!"_
- The master pilot, when he stepped forth upon that weird globe which was
- the Moon, found himself plunged into a spectral world. Even from within
- the air-tight suit, through whose helmet-glass he peered, he sensed, as
- he had not when inside the ship, the vast desolation, the frozen
- emptiness of this rocky waste.
- His suit of woven metal was lined throughout with heavy fabric of
- insuline fibers, that strange product brought from the jungle heat of
- the upper Amazon to keep out the bitter cold of this frozen world. His
- ship was felted with the same material between its double walls; without
- it there would have been no resisting the cold of these interstellar
- reaches.
- But, despite the padding within his suit, he felt the numbing cold of
- this dead world strike through. And the bleak and frigid barrenness that
- met his gaze was so implacably hostile to any living thing as to bring a
- shudder of more than physical cold.
- No warming sun, as yet, reflected from the rocks. About him was the
- blackness of a fire-formed lithosphere, whose lighter veining and
- occasional ashy fields were made ghostly in the earthlight.
- One slow, all-seeing glance at this!--one moment of wondering amazement
- when he tilted his head far back that he might look up to the mouth of
- the crater and see, in a dead-black sky, the great crescent of earth--a
- vast, incredible moon peeping over the serrate edge. Then, as if the
- interval of time since leaving the ship had been measured in hours
- instead of brief seconds, he remembered the flashing lights that had
- signaled from below.
- * * * * *
- His first step carried him, slipping and sprawling awkwardly, across a
- rocky slope white with the rime of carbon dioxide frost. He came to his
- feet and turned once to wave toward the ship where he knew Spud O'Malley
- must be watching from a lookout. Then, moving cautiously, to learn the
- gage of his own strength in this world of diminished weights, he started
- down.
- Rough going, Chet found; the wall of this great throat had not hardened
- without showing signs of its tortured coughing. But Chet learned to
- judge distance, and he found that a fifty-foot chasm was a trifle to be
- crossed in one leap; huge boulders, whose molten sides had frozen as
- they ran and dripped, could be surmounted by the spring of his leg
- muscles that could throw him incredibly through the air. And always he
- went downward toward the place where the lights had flashed.
- They came once more. He had descended a thousand feet, he was
- estimating, when the black igneous rocks blazed blindingly with a
- reflected light like that of a thousand suns.
- Another hundred feet below, down a precipitous slope, was a broad table
- of rock. He saw it in the instant before he threw one metal-clad arm
- across the eye-piece of his helmet to shut out the glare. And he saw, in
- that fraction of a second, a moving figure, another like himself, clad
- in an armored suit whose curves and fine-woven mesh caught the light in
- a million of sparkling flames.
- It was Haldgren, he told himself; and there was something that came
- chokingly into his throat at the thought. That lonely figure--one tiny
- dot of life on a bleak and lifeless stage! It was pitiful, this undying
- effort to signal, to let his own world know that he still lived.
- * * * * *
- Chet did not put it into coherent words, but there was an overwhelming
- emotion that was part pity and part pride. He was suddenly glad and
- thankful to belong to a race of men who could carry on like this--who
- never said die. And, as the glare winked out, he threw himself
- recklessly down that last slope and brought up in a huddle at the feet
- of the one who had started back in affright. There was one metal-cased
- hand that went in a helpless gesture to the throat; the figure, all
- silvery white in the dim Earth-glow, staggered back against a wall of
- rock; only by inches did it miss a fall from the precipice edge where
- the rock platform ended.
- From the floor, where his fall had flung him in awkward posture, Chet
- saw this; saw it and marveled vaguely. What picture he had formed of
- Haldgren--what he had expected of him--he could not have told. Certainly
- it was not this slenderly youthful figure, nor this reaction that was
- more of fright than startled amazement. And the voice! Surely he had
- heard an involuntary, half-stifled scream!
- He came slowly to his feet. And he was wondering now if his deductions
- had been wrong. He had been to sure that the sender of those messages
- was an Earth-man; he had been so certain of finding Haldgren.
- * * * * *
- Slowly he crossed the table of rock toward the waiting figure; gently he
- extended his hands, palms upward, in a gesture of peaceful promise.
- Whoever, whatever this was--this Moon-being who had signaled and in
- doing so had happened upon the letters that had a definite meaning of
- Earth--Chet knew he must not frighten him. One outstretched hand touched
- the metal that cased an arm; moved upward to the headpiece, as
- close-fitting as his own; tilted it that the light of Earth might shine
- within and show him what manner of being he had found.
- And Chet, who had seen strange creatures on that Dark Moon where he and
- Harkness had explored, was prepared, despite the suit so like his own,
- to see some weird being of this newer world. But for what the soft light
- of that distant Earth disclosed he was entirely unprepared.
- Eyes, blue and lovely as an azure sea but wide with terror and dismay;
- eyes that showed plainly a consternation of unbelief that changed
- slowly, as the blue eyes stared into Chet's gray ones, until they were
- suddenly misty with tears; and the figure sagged and would have dropped
- at his feet had he not caught it in his arms.
- He heard his own voice exclaiming in wonderment: "A girl! One of our own
- kind! Out here! On the Moon!"
- And another voice, sweetly tremulous, replied:
- "Oh, it's true--it's true! You have come! You read my call! Oh, I hardly
- dared hope--"
- Then the thrilling ecstasy of happiness in the voice gave place to
- accents of dismay as some horror of fear swept in upon her.
- "And I've brought you to this! You will be lost! Quick! Climb for your
- life! I will come after. Quick! Quick!"
- * * * * *
- There was agony in the voice now, and the figure wrenched itself from
- Chet's arms to point one slender hand upward in frantic urging, while
- yet the head turned that the eyes might look backward as if some danger
- threatened from below.
- "I've got a ship," Chet assured her. "God knows who you are or how you
- got here, but it's all right now. We'll leave."
- He had regained his grip upon one of those slender hands and was
- preparing to swing her up to the top of an incredibly high rock. Her
- scream checked him and sent his one free hand to the detonite pistol at
- his waist.
- "Behind you!" she cried. "Look back! They have come out!"
- The crater-pit behind and below them was black with the inky blackness
- of smooth, fire-formed rock. Its many facets were smooth and polished;
- they made mirrors, many of them, for the earthlight reflected from the
- crater mouth. They served to diffuse this dim light and throw it again
- upon the monstrous blacknesses that were swarming from below.
- "Men!" thought Chef in one instant of half-comprehension. Then, as he
- saw the chalk-white bodies, the dead and flabby whiteness of their faces
- from which red eyes stared, he revised his estimate; here was nothing
- human.
- The pistol was in his hand, but as yet he had not fired. Only the terror
- in the girl's voice had told him that these were enemies; he waited for
- a closer view or for some direct attack, and needed to wait but a
- moment.
- Only an instant after he had seen, the chalk-white bodies clustered
- below were in motion. They came leaping up the smooth expanses of rock,
- and they were obscured at times as if by black curtains that were drawn
- across their bodies. Then they would flash out again in dead-white
- nakedness.
- * * * * *
- It was uncanny. Chet had a feeling that they were wrapping themselves in
- black invisibility. Only when a score of the white things threw
- themselves out into space did he know the truth.
- Out and upward they sprang, to soar above Chet's head and land on the
- slope above. All escape was cut off now; but it was not this thought
- that held Chet motionless for that moment of horror. It was the glimpse
- he had had against the light of the crater mouth of beating, flailing
- wings that whipped the thin air above him; of curved claws; and of long,
- horrible tails that might have belonged to giant rats. And the demoniac
- cries that the thin air brought him were no more suggestive of devils
- unleashed than were the leathery wings and the fleshy tails of the
- beasts.
- Yet it was not this alone that stunned the mind of the master pilot, but
- the horrible incongruity, of this monstrous inhumanness allied with the
- human form of their bodies. And throughout he observed, with a curious
- sense of detachment, the furious beating of the wings, almost useless in
- the thin air, and the expansion and contraction of sac-like membranes on
- each side of the necks which he took to be auxiliary lungs.
- * * * * *
- It was the girl's action that brought Chet to his senses. She moved
- slowly across the smooth table of rock toward the three or four beasts
- who had gained its level. Her head was bowed in utter dejection; Chet
- sensed it as plainly as if she had spoken. She held out her hands
- helplessly toward the creatures--and in that instant Chet's pistol
- spoke.
- Tiny shells, those of a detonite pistol, and the grain of explosive in
- the tip of each bullet is microscopic. But no body, human or inhuman, be
- it made of flesh, can withstand the shattering concussion of that
- exploding shell.
- The beasts beside that figure, slenderly girlish even in its metal
- sheath, fell into the pit beyond; their screams rang horribly as they
- fell. There were others who took their places, and they, too, vanished
- under the smashing shots.
- And then, after timeless moments of waiting, while the only sound was
- the half-audible voice of the girl who sobbed: "Now you are surely lost.
- They will kill you--you should not have fired--I should never have
- brought you here"--there came the familiar thunder of a ship's exhausts.
- Down from above, a black shadow came silently crashing; a blaze of light
- terrific in its brilliance brought an exclamation to Chet's lips and
- hope to his heart.
- "Spud! You old fool, you're coming to get us!"
- But the words ended with an avalanche of bodies that threw themselves
- down the black slope. There were others coming from below, leaping from
- the stones. The ledge was filled with them.
- Chet was firing blindly as he felt himself borne down--felt long fingers
- that ripped, then closed about his throat and jammed the metal of his
- suit in chokingly. He heard the beating of giant wings about him; felt
- himself half-carried and half-thrown toward a floor of rock far below.
- There was an opening that loomed blackly in that floor; one glimpse of
- his surroundings Chet had before the press of bodies closed him in. They
- were forcing the shining, silvery figure of a girl into that black
- opening--dropping her! Then he felt himself hurled into the same void,
- while above him a ship of space thundered vainly from her great exhausts
- as if roaring in rage at her own futility.
- CHAPTER VI
- _Heart of the Moon_
- In the grasp of the winged creatures' long, clawed hands Chet was
- helpless. He was struggling vainly when they released their hold and he
- felt himself falling into a pit that, as far as he knew, was a
- bottomless abyss. He was still struggling to right himself in mid-air
- when he struck.
- To fall even so short a distance on Earth would have meant instant
- death. Here, where gravitation's pull was but one-sixth that of Earth,
- he still struck on a rocky floor with a thud that made him sick for lack
- of breath.
- Above him was a pale circle of light. Tipping the edge of a vast crater
- mouth high above was a rim of brilliance. Earthlight! Chet was suddenly
- certain that he was seeing that glow for the last time as the circle
- went black, and there came to him the unmistakable clang of metal where
- a door was shut.
- Through the countless mingled emotions that filled him he was wondering
- what manner of creatures these were into whose hands he had fallen.
- Intelligent, beyond a doubt, in their own way; he could not question the
- evidence of his own eyes and ears. They were able to work in metals and
- to seal the mouth of this lunar tomb.
- But he was still alive; he could not give up now. This adventure upon
- which he had launched with such high hopes had turned out differently
- than expected; but, he told himself, it was not ended yet.
- And, instead of a lifeless globe, he had found this: a place peopled
- with strange, half-human life. And, more marvelous still, instead of
- Haldgren, whom he had come to seek, there had been a girl!
- * * * * *
- Chet had recovered his ability to breathe, had made sure that the oxygen
- tank was intact; and now he called softly into the blackness of this
- dark vault where he had seen her thrown.
- "Are you alive?" he asked. "Can you hear me?"
- For answer came quick rustling of moving bodies, the smooth rasping of
- wings on leathery wings, hands that fumbled for him, then closed about
- arms and legs and throat, while in his ears was a chattering of
- high-pitched squeals. Again he was lifted in air, held there in the grip
- of a score of lean, long-fingered hands. He was nerving himself to
- undergo without flinching whatever new torture might be in store. Yet he
- thrilled inexplicably as through the sounds of these things about him,
- he heard a muffled: "Yes--yes! Oh, I am glad--"
- The sentence was unfinished. Before Chet's eyes a light was growing. A
- mere slit at first, it grew to a luminous circle in the rocky floor. And
- as it opened, he felt the pressure of his metal suit upon his body,
- where before it had been slightly ballooned by the pressure of oxygen he
- had maintained.
- With the opening of this door to another subterranean chamber had come a
- renewed atmospheric pressure. And now, in the denser gas, he saw, in
- ghastly silhouette against the lighted pit, flying figures that floated
- and soared on outstretched wings of inky black.
- * * * * *
- Beside him and above he heard the swishing flutter of other wings; he
- felt himself lifted from the floor; he was being floated out above the
- luminous pit by the flying things that held him.
- No direct glare came from below, but a soft violet radiance. It shone
- full upon him--past him--to light up and give detail to those faces that
- had been featureless before. Chet had just one moment of fascinated
- staring into the diabolical, pasty faces where narrow, red eyes stared
- back into his. Then the squealing voices were stilled!
- One, louder than the rest, rasped an order. And again Chet felt the
- hands relax; once more he was falling, down--down--and still down--until
- he knew that his velocity of fall meant an impact he could never
- survive.
- And, curiously, as he fell, his mind was entirely unconcerned with his
- own fate. For himself, he had accepted death. But he saw for what seemed
- like hours a vision of a familiar control room and an Irish pilot who
- sat by the controls. He was looking sharply ahead, he was checking
- speed, he was landing softly--safely--on a familiar field of Earth....
- That passed; and, following, came a feeling of regret, a deep hurt and
- a rage at his own inability to be of help. For, above him, through the
- luminous air, he saw another body falling, and he knew that the girl,
- too, had been thrown to the same fate.
- * * * * *
- Those eyes of blue had locked with his for but a few brief seconds. Who
- she was--what she was--he had no way of knowing. But in that instant of
- mental meeting there had passed a flash between the two that had burned
- deeply into Chet's real and hidden self.
- Chet, himself, had he been in laughing mood, might have smiled at the
- idea of affection being born in that brief time. Yet he might have asked
- instead how long was needed to bridge the sharp gap of a radio-power
- transmitter; how much time was needed for anode and cathode each to
- recognize the other. Something of this was passing in confusion through
- his mind while his more conscious faculties were tensing his body for
- the fatal impact he knew must come.
- Without thinking the thought in words he knew that the luminous walls
- had receded. They were more distant now; their glow came to him from far
- above, and, as his falling body turned again and again in air, he saw
- that below him was nothing but a vast emptiness filled with luminous
- vapors that swirled and writhed.
- Then the last gleam of lighted walls faded; he was falling at terrific
- speed through a black tempest whose winds tore and screamed about him.
- * * * * *
- It was his own falling speed that made these winds; there remained with
- him enough of reasoning power to realize this. And he waited, and
- marveled that he could fall so tremendous a distance. First had been
- the great shaft down which he had plunged; then, as it widened, had come
- this greater void. The crater of Hercules must have opened, into a vast
- shell or a cavern of incredible depth. The winged things of the Moon
- knew of it; they had cast him to his death--him and the girl.
- Her slowly turning body was not far away; it was as if they two hung
- suspended in air, while frightful blasts of whatever gas filled this
- space whipped and shrieked past and wrapped them round with a terrific
- pressure. And then the tempest ceased. Slowly the blasts diminished; the
- pressure relaxed; gradually the sense of falling passed away, and with
- this there came a glimpse of light.
- Again the walls glowed as they had before, but far off in the distance.
- Chet saw them grow luminous while he seemed hung motionless in space.
- Then once more they drew away from him; once more he knew he was falling
- away from that light--plunging again into the depths he had traversed.
- And now, despite the oxygen that came to him uninterruptedly, he found
- his head swimming. The limit of human endurance had been reached.
- Desperately he tried to bring his reason to bear upon this miracle that
- had happened. He had not struck; instead of falling to his death he had
- cushioned against something; he was falling again where, not far away,
- another metal-clad figure hung limply in air and fell as he fell. And
- with that knowledge the whirling turmoil within his brain ended in a
- blood-red flashing that went finally to merciful darkness....
- * * * * *
- That darkness still wrapped him thickly about when he regained
- consciousness--a darkness saved from utter black only by a faint
- luminosity that seemed to penetrate and be part of the air about him.
- Still hardly more than half-conscious, lying, it seemed, on a soft bed
- where he was weightless, he stirred and flung out one arm. From his
- fingertips he saw whirls of violet light sweep out and away, as vortices
- might have been set in motion by a swimmer in a more liquid medium.
- Fascinated, failing utterly to comprehend where he was, he moved his
- hands deliberately, swept one arm from side to side--and a number of
- luminous whirlpools went spinning out into space. And then he
- remembered.
- He remembered the terrific fall that miraculously brought him back to a
- place of light like that where his fall had begun. He remembered
- beginning the second fall; and, while he still could not know what it
- meant, he knew that he must have been unconscious for hours. And, with
- that, his thoughts came back to the girl. For the first time he found
- leisure to give mental voice to his wonderment.
- The mystery of it all!--of her presence here on the Moon! Again he was
- overwhelmed with the wonder of his surprising discovery. It was nearly
- beyond belief; almost he doubted the reality of what his own eyes had
- seen.
- * * * * *
- But there was no doubting his own presence here in this strange place.
- The unreality of it--the strangeness of his own sensations--were borne
- in upon him. Where was he? he asked. What was this soft cushion upon
- which he rested so lightly? He tried to sit up and found that he merely
- twisted his body and set other eddies of light into motion.
- Cautiously, he swung one arm out as far as he could reach. There was
- nothing there. He moved the arm down; reached with his hand beneath
- him--and still there was nothing tangible! Through his mind swept a
- gripping fear, a wordless, incoherent terror of something he could not
- name. Desperately he wanted to touch something firm and solid; lay his
- hands upon something he knew was real; and he flung out arms and legs in
- a paroxysm of futile effort.
- He seemed hung in nothingness, an utter emptiness where nothing moved;
- only the ghostly whirls of light that ran lazily away from his beating
- hands until they died silently away into darkness, swallowed up in this
- unspeakable horror of soundless space. And, when he had quieted again,
- he knew with a dreadful certainty that there was nothing there; he was
- suspended in a great void--immersed in an ocean of some unknown gas.
- The sense of loneliness that filled him was devastating. He could have
- faced death as he had faced it before, unflinchingly; that was all in
- the day's work. But here was something that tested sanity itself. Could
- he but touch something substantial, he told himself, it would help him
- to keep a grip on reality; even to see and feel one of the winged
- horrors would be in a way a relief.
- * * * * *
- His struggles had ceased; all about him the atmosphere was quivering and
- writhing with whirling light that swirled and danced and mingled one
- glowing vortex with another. Then it, too, died; and, through the dark
- that was relieved only by the faint luminosity of the quiescent gas, he
- saw far off a point of light.
- Here was something to which he could pin his eyes; something outside of
- himself and the horror of nothingness in which he was immersed. He
- stared through the window of his helmet while the light grew and
- expanded into nebulous, cloudy glowing that faded and was gone.
- Again it came and died; and a third time. And then Chet Bullard swore
- loudly and harshly within the silence of his own metal sheath, while he
- cursed his own dullness that had kept him from instant comprehension.
- That light was far away, but, "Keep moving!" Chet called, hoping that
- his voice might span the void. "Keep moving so I can see your light!
- I'll try to swim over."
- He threw himself over with a convulsive jerk and flattened the palms of
- his hands in a breaststroke, while he kicked with his feet against the
- dense atmosphere about him. And he saw with delight that the whirling
- ripples of light moved back of him; he felt that he was making some
- headway, slight though it must be.
- * * * * *
- He saw her at last, and heard her call:
- "I am swimming, too," she cried. "How wonderful to see you! This
- loneliness! It is horrible--unbearable!"
- "I understand," Chet said; "it is pretty bad."
- Then, at sound of a stifled sob, he gripped one reaching hand hard and
- tried to bring himself out from under the pall that numbed his own mind;
- he even attempted to force a note of lightness into his words.
- "I've flown everything with wings," he told her, "but this is the first
- time I ever flew myself. Guess I was never properly designed."
- Feeble, this attempt at humor; but there was none to note the strained
- edge in his tone, only a girl, whose metal-clad hand closed in a tight
- hold upon his.
- "You can joke--_now_," she said with a catch in her voice that showed
- how desperately hard she was trying to meet Chet's fortitude and force
- her own words to steadiness. "That takes--real nerve. I like that!"
- Then she added: "But it's hopeless; you know that. They've got us. And
- now that some of them have been killed they will--they will--"
- And the trace of Chet's strained smile that lingered on his lips, could
- she have seen it, would have appeared grim.
- "Whatever it was you didn't say, I agree with. I imagine the finish will
- not be pleasant." Once more he was facing the inevitable; and, as
- before, he faced it squarely and knowingly, then put it completely from
- his mind. There was so much he must know before that adventure's end was
- reached.
- "Tell me," he demanded, "who are 'they'? Where are they? How many are
- there of them? And where have they got us? What kind of a place is this,
- where all natural laws are suspended, where gravitation is at zero?
- "And, for heaven's sake, tell me: who are you? Where are you from? How
- did you get here on the Moon?"
- * * * * *
- That uncontrollable catch in the girl's voice had taken on a trace of
- brave laughter that overlay the trembling sob in her throat.
- "That is a lot of information," she said, "and I am afraid it will not
- make much difference if you know. Oh, I wish I had some atom of
- encouragement for you! I do not know who you are either--and you have
- been so brave! You have come here, I brought you with my signals for
- help--brought you to your death.
- "For it _is_ death! This is the end of our adventuring--mine and yours
- as well--here at the center, the exact center of the Moon."
- "Ah-h!" answered Chet Bullard softly, as understanding came to him. "I
- should have guessed it. The atmospheric pressure and density--and we
- fell past the center, then back again; we've been vibrating back and
- forth until we came to rest at last. And now we die! Well, it might have
- been worse."
- He was staring out through the little window of his helmet, staring into
- the faintly luminous atmosphere, facing the end of his brave fling with
- fortune. It was an instant before he realized that there was something
- moving in the void. He pressed softly upon the hand he held and pointed.
- "See!" he said in a hushed tone. "There is something there!"
- * * * * *
- It took form slowly, a shapeless, round blur in the pale light. Inch by
- inch it drifted toward them, until Chet moved one hand abruptly and
- found he had created a ripple of light by which he could see more
- clearly. And he saw before him a bulging, membraneous sac.
- It had been smoothly spherical before; it heaved itself into strange
- protuberances as he watched. He flipped his hand to set up another
- vortex of light, and he saw the first rip that formed in the membrane.
- Before his staring eyes the bag burst open; and Chet, who had wished for
- some substantial thing, even a denizen of this wild world, found his
- wish fulfilled. For the thin membrane tore in a score of places to
- release a body from within--a shapeless, huddled mass of chalk-white
- flesh in a wrapping of black leather that unfolded before his eyes and
- became wings which waved feebly in their first attempt at flight.
- The pallid body, supple as a giant worm, jerked spasmodically and turned
- sightless eyes toward the watching Earth-folk. Then, as if drawn by some
- magnet, invisible in the distance, the black wings began to beat the
- air, and the creature moved off in a straight line toward some unknown
- goal.
- * * * * *
- Another of the membraneous spheres drifted past in the light that came
- from those fluttering wings. A second showed in repulsive shininess.
- Chet was aware that there were many of the things about.
- "Eggs!" he exclaimed with a disgust that partook of nausea, "And the
- damnable thing hatched--right here!--before our eyes!"
- And the girl gave the final explanation: "The Moon is just a great
- shell. They lay their eggs, these half-human creatures that you saw, and
- attach them to the inner surface of that shell. Then at a certain period
- they come loose and float away. I never knew what became of them; now I
- understand at last."
- "You know all this!" protested Chet. "How can you know it? How long have
- you been here?"
- "I kept track of time for a while," said the voice beside him; "then I
- forgot it when they took Frithjof away. But it must be about five years.
- Five years of terror and vain hopes and wild plans for escape! And now
- it ends--after five years!"
- And Chet Bullard, within his metal helmet, was repeating in
- bewilderment: "Five years! Haldgren left five years ago! What does it
- mean?"
- Nor did he pause to realize that through his amazement was woven a
- thread of another hue, tinged faintly with jealousy that demanded of
- him: "Frithjof! Who is Frithjof who was taken away?"
- Chet's mind was filled with a confusion of questions that jostled one
- another to silence when he tried to give them expression. And there was
- little time for questioning.
- * * * * *
- He saw other floating eggs whose membraneous coverings had turned
- leathery and opaque. And he saw white phantom figures who gathered those
- eggs. One came near till Chet could make out the repulsive face and
- black, staring eyes with their fiery red center. It was one of the
- things that had captured him; he saw it move swiftly on broad wings. It
- held a leathery egg in its curled-claw hands while its long tail whipped
- around and laid the egg open with one slash of a sharp spiked point.
- One more of the young of this horrible species was liberated and went
- winging away into the dark, only the whirls of light in the atmosphere
- marking the beating of its wings.
- Chet's eyes followed it to see far out beyond a light that expanded as
- it drew near. The beaten atmospheric gas was whipped to cold flame where
- some ten or a dozen phantom demons came swiftly on toward the waiting
- humans.
- They were swarming about in an instant. Chet had no time for even a
- shouted warning before he felt himself seized by their long, bony claws.
- Then a net of rough-fibered rope was flung about him, and he felt it
- draw tight as the winged beasts lifted him up and out into the void.
- "Wrong again!" Chet told himself ruefully. "We don't die at the center
- of the Moon, after all!" But, as the whipping wings drove whirling
- blasts of violet light back upon him he could find nothing of comfort in
- the thought that some different experience still lay ahead.
- CHAPTER VII
- _The Gateway to Hell_
- Spud O'Malley, at the controls of the ship, held the craft in a vertical
- lift while his eyes clung in horrible fascination to the mirrors that
- showed from a lower lookout the volcanic floor falling away. Amazement
- had almost stifled his breathing, until at last he let go a long breath
- that ended in a curse.
- "The outrageous, damned things!" he breathed. "Jumping, they were, and
- leaping, and flying on their leather wings like a lot of black bats out
- o' hell! And I'm thinkin' that's where they've taken Chet Bullard, and
- never again will he hold a ship like 'twas in the hollow of his hand,
- and him settin' it down like a feather!
- "And: 'Fly back home!' he says to me. I can do it, too; thanks to his
- teachin'. But fly back and leave that bhoy in the hands of those
- murderin' devils!--'tis little he knows the Irish!"
- He was talking half under his breath, murmuring to himself as if it
- helped him to see clearly the situation that must be faced.
- "But to get to him--that's the trouble. I saw a big door go shut in that
- stone floor. They're cunnin', clever beasts; I'll say that for 'em. And
- there was a raft of 'em; and plenty more down in hell where they live,
- I've no doubt."
- He moved forward on the ball-control, and the great ship swept like a
- silvery shadow through the night toward the distant, lighted crater rim.
- This he could see clearly, but the other side of the ring of mountains
- was black with shadow.
- And, far out beyond, spread like a cloud over all the desolate world,
- was blackness. Spud drove the ship up another five thousand feet, and
- still that darkness spread out in inky pools where only an occasional
- mountain peak caught the flat rays of the sun.
- * * * * *
- And what had Chet called these dark areas? "Lake of Dreams" and "Lake of
- Death." Spud's superstitious mind was a-quiver with dread and an
- ominous premonition to which the empty, frozen wastes below him gave
- added force.
- "I'll have to wait," he told himself. "The light of the Moon--I mean the
- Earth--is bright, but not bright enough. I'll just wait till the Sun
- climbs higher. When it shines down into that hole that is the gateway to
- hell--and well I know it--then I can see what is there. Then, maybe, I
- can find some way to get inside; and I hope the lad lives till I get
- there."
- He circled back; swept down in a long, leisurely flight, and came again
- to the place of gently sloping rock where Chet had first landed. And he
- searched till he found the identical spot and laid the ship down on a
- level keel.
- Far away the Sun was gilding the hard outlines of mountains that ringed
- them in. Spud did not know how long he must wait. Had he realized that
- it must be a matter of days it is probable he would have donned the
- metal suit and started out. But instead he busied himself in a careful
- investigation of the storeroom and a check-up of ammunition and supplies
- that were there.
- * * * * *
- The lunar day, as all Earth-men know, is a matter of nearly fifteen of
- Earth's days. Spud O'Malley was wild with impatience when at last the
- Sun was striking less flatly across the land and he knew that the time
- had come when he could start.
- He had sensed the change that took place in the world outside; from the
- lookouts of the control room he had seen the bare rocks lose their white
- markings of hoar frost and at last actually quiver with heat as the Sun
- beat upon them. He had seen the growing things that crept from every
- crevice and hollow--pale, colorless mosses that threw out long tendrils
- which licked across the hot rocks as if hungry for the nourishment the
- thin air brought.
- Spud knew nothing of the carbon dioxide which these pale green growths
- could combine with water under the Sun's hot rays and build into
- vegetable tissue. But he marveled again and again at the hungry things
- that made a mesh of ropy strands across the smooth area about the ship.
- They even hung in drooping masses from the weird rocks beyond; and, so
- light they were, they raised their heads hungrily in air, while the
- corded tendrils even threw themselves in contorted writhings at times
- when the Sun struck with increasing warmth.
- "A dead world!" said Spud scornfully. "How much the scientists back
- there don't know! First those livin', flyin' devils; and now this! The
- whole place is fairly wrigglin' with life."
- * * * * *
- It was then that he made one last flight over the inner crater and saw
- light on the floor of stone in the funneled depths. Then he sent the
- ship like a rocket down to the shelf of rock where Chet had begun his
- descent; and he worked with trembling fingers to adjust the metal suit
- and regulate the oxygen supply.
- He waited only to strap a couple of detonite pistols about him; then,
- with never a backward look, he let himself out through the air-locking
- doors and started pell-mell toward the inner crater.
- Like Chet, he had learned to gage his tremendous strength; like the
- master pilot, he threw himself down the rocky slope. But where Chet had
- leaped and stumbled in the darkness, O'Malley worked in full light.
- He came at last to the rocky floor where molten stone in ages past had
- hardened to seal the throat of this vent. Hundreds of feet across, Spud
- estimated; smooth in appearance from above, but broken with deep
- crevasses and excrescences where hot, fluid stone had frozen in its
- moment of bubbling turbulence. And, in one place, where the floor was
- smooth, Spud found what he was searching for: a circular, metal ledge
- that projected above the smooth rock; and, within it, a still smoother
- sheet of what appeared to be hammered metal.
- "A door it is," whispered the pilot, half-fearful of listening ears,
- "and the gateway to Hell!" He grinned broadly at some thought. "And here
- I've been told 'twas, of all places, the easiest to get into; one little
- slip from grace and there you were! Sure, and the priests were as wrong
- as the scientists. It must be Heaven that's easy to crash, for the front
- door of Hades is shut fast without even a keyhole to peep through."
- * * * * *
- Then his face sobered to its customary homely lines. "The poor bhoy!" he
- exclaimed. "I've got to get in some way. I wonder how hard and thick it
- is."
- He was raising a mass of black, shining rock in his hands--a fragment
- that his strength would not have moved a fraction of an inch on Earth.
- He steadied it above his head, preparing to crash it upon the metal
- door; then waited; stared incredulously at the black metal sheet;
- lowered the great stone silently and turned to leap mightily yet with
- never a sound for the shelter of an upflung saw-toothed ridge.
- And, from its shelter, he watched the black door swing smoothly into the
- air, while, from the gaping black mouth of the pit beneath, incredible
- man-shapes of fish-belly white drew themselves up to the edge of the pit
- and perched there, where they might stretch their long necks into the
- light of the Sun.
- Below them, Spud saw, dangled long, rat-like tails; and their wings,
- black and leathery, hung down too from their backs or dragged on the
- rocks behind where some three or four of the owl-eyed creatures crawled
- out and walked across the rock toward the place where an Irish pilot
- waited and stared with unbelieving and horrified eyes from the
- concealment of his rocky fort.
- CHAPTER VIII
- _The Fires_
- Great vortices of whirling light rolled out to either side in an endless
- pyrotechnical display to show the power of those flailing wings that
- were bearing Chet and his companion through the dark void--bearing them
- to some destination Chet could not envisage.
- His body turned in space at times, and he saw the spreading cone of
- luminous gas behind them like the wake of a great ship in a
- phosphorescent sea. The hiss and threshing of many wings came
- unceasingly. Once he swung close to another body clad like his own and,
- like him, enmeshed in a net. And he saw in the light of the luminiferous
- air the girl's wide, staring eyes. Then she was gone, and all about was
- only the whip of wings and the flashing whirls of light.
- He tried to form some picture of this sphere through whose center, empty
- but for this gas, he was being swung. That first fall had carried him
- down the tube of some volcanic blow-pipe; he had fallen straight for
- what seemed like hours. And that had been through the crust of this
- great, hollow globe. Then the center!--but of this he dared make no
- estimate; he knew only that the huge leather wings were threshing the
- dense air in an untiring rhythm and that he was being carried for a
- tremendous distance at remarkable speed.
- It became soothing, that rushing, swinging sweep of his body through
- space. There was death ahead, without doubt--but what of that? He was
- sleepy--sleepy--and beyond this nothing mattered. Just to sleep, to
- drift off in spirit into a void like this through which he was
- swinging....
- And so traveled Chet Bullard, one time Master Pilot of Earth, through,
- the heart of another world--on and endlessly on, while leather-winged
- demons dragged him after, flying straight away from the center of the
- Moon toward a place and events unknown.
- But Chet Bullard had ceased to note the passing hours or the swirling
- gases that came alight at the beating of those wings; he was asleep in a
- stupor that was as deep as it was timeless.
- * * * * *
- He opened his eyes at last; it seemed but a moment that he had slept.
- But now there was no rushing hiss of air, nor was he being lifted in a
- great net. He lay instead upon a support of some kind, and about him all
- was still.
- Not at first did he observe the exquisite carving of the yellow bed on
- which he lay; that came later. The fact that its massive gold and its
- scrollwork of inlaid platinum were worth a fortune meant nothing to him
- then. His eyes were held by the immensity of the great room and the
- intricate series of arches that made up a vaulted ceiling.
- It shone with a light of its own, that carved ceiling; no least lovely
- detail was lost. And Chet found his eyes roving from one to another of
- angel figures that seemed suspended in air.
- The white of purest alabaster was theirs; and their outstretched wings,
- too, were white. He realized confusedly that they were like the black
- demons--like them and yet entirely unlike. For, where the black-winged
- ones had been ugly of feature, with every mark of degeneracy, these were
- the ultimate of loveliness in face and form. Figures of men he saw,
- stalwart and strong, yet perfectly proportioned; and the others--the
- women and girls--were superhuman in their ethereal beauty.
- "Angels!" breathed Chet and turned his head slowly to see the exquisite
- figures that seemed hovering above the whole vast room in silent
- benediction. "Angels--no less! And they're carved from stone! Those
- black devils never did it. What does it mean? What does it mean!"
- And not until then did Chet realize a wonderful thing. So enthralled had
- he been by the wonder of this hovering angel band he had not realized
- that he was seeing them with no helmet glass between; he was lying
- disrobed on his couch of pure gold.
- * * * * *
- For an instant, panic seized him. Without his helmet and the oxygen
- supply, he must strangle. And then he knew that he was breathing
- naturally in an atmosphere like that of Earth but for the strange
- fragrances that swept to him on the soft, warm air.
- He came slowly to his feet and steadied himself with one hand on the
- scrollwork of the bed. Then memories rushed in upon him, and he lived
- again the long, sickening fall through the heart of this world, the
- finding of the girl of mystery, hung like himself in the immensity of
- the inner world, their capture; and the band of black-winged ones who
- swung them through space in nets that drew tightly about them.
- The girl! Again he saw the clear look from those eyes of blue. It was
- she who had signaled; it was she whom he had come through vast space to
- rescue. And now she was lost!
- Chet stared slowly about him at the magnificence of the tremendous room.
- He saw more delicate figures done in inlay on the walls; he knew that he
- was in a place whose beauty and wealth should have set his nerves
- tingling; and all he sensed was the loneliness of this place where he
- was the only living occupant.
- * * * * *
- He found his Earth-clothes beside the golden couch. He had put them on
- and was examining the suit and helmet to learn with relief that they
- were intact when the first sound came to him. From an arched entrance
- across the room were coming shuffling figures whose black wings were
- wrapped about their chalk-white bodies. Only their pallid faces showed,
- ghastly and inhuman, as the eyes glowed redly from their deep black
- sockets. Chet still held the suit in his hands as the black-winged ones
- came toward him across the floor, and he carried it with him as he moved
- unresistingly where they led him with the pull of their claw-like hands
- upon his arms.
- "No gun!" he told himself hopelessly. "Not a chance if I put up a fight!
- They've got me and got me right. Now what I need to do is to be
- good--lay low--find out something about all this, and find her!" He
- could not name the girl whose eyes were haunting him in their appealing
- loveliness; he could think of her only as the mystery girl, and he
- accepted without surprise or denial the fact that the finding of her
- outweighed all else that this new world might hold for him.
- As the shuffling figures closed about him and led him away he found
- relief in the thought of his ship, of Spud's safety, and of his return
- to the world that they both knew as home.
- "Never again for me!" said Chet softly beneath his breath. "But Spud
- will get there. Perhaps he is there now--no telling how long I have
- slept!"
- * * * * *
- He saw it all so plainly: saw the Irish pilot bringing the ship to rest
- at the great Hoover Terminal. And he saw, too, a relief expedition that
- would be organized by Harkness and that must arrive too late. To suppose
- that any help might reach him here inside this wild world was too much;
- Chet looked with judicially appraising eyes at the things about him and
- could not allow himself to be deceived. There was no hope; but he made
- one resolve and made it grimly in words that never reached his lips.
- "Give me half a chance at them, Walt," he promised, "and if ever you do
- get inside here, you'll know where I've been. I'll find the girl
- first--I must do that--then I'll give these devils something to remember
- me by before they put us away for good!" And now the face of the pilot
- was almost happy as he stared at the snarling, twisted features of those
- that led him unresistingly through a series of stone rooms that seemed
- without beginning or end. He even disregarded the spiked tails that
- whipped at him with heavy blows to hurry him along.
- "If I had a gun," he told them inaudibly, "I'd take you on right now.
- But you got that, or I lost it in the scuffle, so I'll just twist your
- scrawny necks in my bare hands when the time comes. And it's coming, you
- ugly devils! It's coming!"
- Their claws pulled roughly at him to hurry him into another room. And
- where before he could see nothing of a beautiful room because of the
- absence of a pair of smiling eyes, he now saw nothing else for their
- presence. For, across the great hall, whose walls and ceilings glowed
- softly with yellow light, his eyes swept unerringly to a slim figure in
- a pilot's suit--to an oval face and blue eyes and red lips that could
- still curve into a trembling smile of welcome as he drew near.
- * * * * *
- Forgotten was the grip of sharp-spiked, clawing hands; even the
- anticipated sweets of revenge were lost from Chet's mind. He knew only
- that he had found her--the mystery girl--and that the blue eyes were
- locked with his in an intimacy that set something deep within him into a
- turmoil of emotion.
- And instead of the countless questions he had expected to launch upon
- her when again they met, he found his lips trembling and wordless--until
- they uttered one hoarse ejaculation of: "Thank God!"
- But the girl seemed to understand, for she reached one slender hand to
- touch him lightly upon the arm where these gripping claws had been.
- "Yes," she whispered; "I was afraid, too--afraid for you!"
- More whispered words, but they were lost to Chet in the babel of sound
- that engulfed them. Those who had brought him had moved silently, and
- the throng of some hundred or more that waited beside the girl had been
- mute. But now they burst into a chorus of shrill cries whose keenness
- stabbed at Chet's ears.
- A pandemonium of the same high-pitched squeals, he had heard
- before--this was all that he could distinguish at first. Then the shrill
- sounds broke into words and unintelligible phrases, and he knew they
- were talking among themselves.
- * * * * *
- They quieted at a sound from the girl. She had turned to face them, and
- she forced her own soft voice into a shrill pitch as she spoke to them.
- Their clamor broke out once more as she ceased, but it was more
- subdued. Chet could hear her as she turned toward him.
- "They think you are Frithjof," she explained.
- "You talked with them?" asked Chet incredulously.
- "But certainly; have I not been here for five years? They have their
- language--but enough of that now. They are angry. They sent Frithjof
- away; they tell me now that he escaped; they think you are he--that you
- have changed your appearance with magic--that the ship they saw was
- summoned by your magic. They say they will kill us both; throw us to the
- fires!"
- "Wait!" almost shouted Chet to make himself heard above the din of
- shrieking voices. "I've got to know! Who are you? Who is Frithjof? How
- did you get here? Where are you from? Tell me quickly! It may give me
- something to go on; it may mean a chance for delay."
- And if Chet had not been out of breath from the shouted questions, he
- would surely have been left breathless by their amazing answer.
- "I thought you knew," said the girl as the din of shrillness subsided.
- There seemed to Chet a note of hurt in her voice. "I thought you knew,
- that you had come here knowing. I am Anita, and Frithjof is my
- brother--Frithjof Haldgren! I stowed away on his ship; he did not know.
- I was only thirteen then.... And now, is Frithjof forgotten back in that
- world that we left?"
- Again that note of disappointment; the pilot sensed it even through the
- tenseness of the moment when both Earth-folk knew that death stood close
- at their side. He answered quickly:
- "I came for your brother. I saw your signals. I came to find Haldgren
- and to save him. And I have failed. But if death, as you say, is all we
- can expect, let me say this: 'I have failed, but I have found you; and
- whatever comes I am content.'"
- * * * * *
- The blue eyes were wide; they were looking at him with a searching
- glance that changed to a childish candor while a flush stole over the
- pale face. She reached out one hand toward his. "We could have been
- happy," she said simply; "and now--now we must face the
- fires--together."
- "I don't know just what you mean by that," spoke Chet softly, "but,
- whatever it is, there is a little matter of a fight first."
- He released her hand and moved swiftly between her and the nearer of the
- throng; and his blood pulsed strongly through him as he faced a battery
- of hostile red eyes and knew that he was preparing for his last fight.
- A hand clutched at his arm. "Not now!" begged Anita Haldgren's voice.
- "Wait! They will not all come. I too, can fight; but we cannot face so
- many!"
- The rat-tails of the nearest beasts were whipping to and fro; the eyes
- in the chalky faces were like living coals where the ashes have been
- freshly blown. Chet stepped back beside the girl, and he made no protest
- as the black claws seized him and the sharp talons dug into his flesh.
- But he whispered to the one who was hurried along beside him: "You are
- right; I'll be good as long as we stay together. But if not--if we're
- separated--if they take you away--"
- And the girl nodded quick agreement with his unspoken words.
- * * * * *
- Chet set his teeth together to make more bearable the pain of those
- gripping claws; but the hurt was easier to bear when he saw that the
- girl was more carefully treated. She was close ahead as his captors
- hustled him from this room into others and yet others, all carved from
- the solid rock.
- What a people this must be who could do such work as this! Again the
- sense of amazement struck through to Chet despite the pain--amazement
- and a feeling of an inexplicable incongruity when he saw the
- leather-winged creatures that had him in their grip. And again there
- were figures high overhead--white, floating figures on pinions of pure
- white; their faces, kindly and serene, looked down upon the motley
- throng.
- "Look above you!" gasped Chet. "Anita! What are they? Not like these
- devils!"
- And the girl ahead half-turned her head to answer: "Ancestors! A
- thousand generations back! They have come down to this state
- now--degenerated."
- Chet saw one of the beasts who held her jerk her sharply about, and he
- knew that his remaining questions must wait--wait forever, perhaps, and
- remain unsaid.
- They came at last to a place where Chet found the answer to one question
- he had not dared ask; a place where gaping chasms in the floor glowed
- red with the wrath of unquenched fires. And the girl, Anita, when they
- had been placed by themselves against a glowing, lighted wall of rock,
- stared steadily at those pits and the sulphurous fumes that vomited out
- at times; then turned and spoke to the pilot in a voice steady and sure.
- "It will be over quickly," she assured him. "Frithjof said that the
- heat, like the warmth of this whole inner world, comes from the
- contraction of the rocks in the cold of night. There is great pressure
- developed ... but he never learned the source of the light in the
- walls."
- * * * * *
- Talking to still the beating of a heart pulsing with dread, perhaps!
- Chet had no mind for explanations. Before him were a score of yawning
- clefts in a rocky floor; one was larger than the rest; there were
- figures whose white bodies glowed red in its reflected light as they
- floated on black wings high above; the light of those hidden fires
- blazed and died intermittently. There death was waiting, while these
- demons--these degenerate half-men, living products of a dying
- race--whipped the air in a frenzy of expectation as they darted above
- those chasms that were like rifts in the rock roof of hell.
- Chet did not answer the statements of the girl. Instead he turned and
- gathered her once into his arms, while his lips met hers to find a ready
- response. Her face, so calm and pale, was turned upward to his. And his
- own voice trembled at first; then was steady and firm.
- "I love you. I've come a long way to tell you, and I didn't know why I
- came. And now it is too late."
- "Anita Haldgren," he said, and let his voice linger as he repeated the
- name, "Anita Haldgren--a beautiful name--a beautiful soul! And now--" He
- released her quickly and swung to meet a rush of beastly things that
- half-ran, half-flew across the great room.
- * * * * *
- Outstretched arms of white that ended in black claws! Snarling, grinning
- teeth in faces of dead-white flesh! Barbed tails that hissed through the
- air as they swung down upon him! And Chet Bullard, his blond hair
- shining like the gold that was inlaid and encrusted upon the walls of
- the room--Chet Bullard, Master Pilot, once, of a distant Earth--did not
- wait for the assault to reach him, but sprang in upon the beastly things
- with swinging fists that came up from beneath to crash into grinning
- faces; to smash dully into white, scabrous flesh; or catch beneath the
- angle of out-thrust jaws jolt the ghastly faces into awkward angles.
- They went down before him at first. Then the long rat-tails came
- whipping over, the demon-heads, ripping down with slashing blows on the
- pilot's head and shoulders. Off at one side, a dozen paces away, a
- slender figure tore loose from gripping claws. Chet saw it; he freed
- himself for an instant to leap to her side. She was tugging at a bar of
- gold, a scepter in the hands of a sculptured figure in the wall. It
- would have been a serviceable weapon, but it bent slowly. Another of the
- beasts was upon her as Chet sprang.
- This one went down beneath the chopping right that Chet shot to a lean,
- white jaw; then a barbed tail caught him a blow that laid his shoulder
- open. Another descended--and another. The pilot sank to the floor. Anita
- was beside him, shielding him with her own body from the rain of blows.
- Then they were buried beneath a great weight of odorous bodies--till
- Chet, after a time, felt himself dragged to his feet.
- * * * * *
- His head, was ringing with the shrieks of the shrill-voiced mob. He was
- still struggling, still fighting blindly, as the clamor ceased. Then he
- stood erect and motionless as he heard the voice of Anita Haldgren.
- "It's Frithjof!" she cried. "Oh, my dear--my dear! It's Frithjof! I
- heard him! But he can't reach us--he can't help us! I will try to
- reason with these beasts--bargain with them--make them afraid! I will
- tell them it is magic."
- And, as her voice, high-pitched in the language of this race, rose in
- protest against them, Chet heard what the girl had detected first: a
- sharp, metallic rapping within the wall, a rapping that was dulled by
- distance but whose separate blows were distinct; and he knew, with a
- knowledge that came from somewhere else than his bewildered brain, that
- the raps were forming dots and dashes. They were talking Morse!
- The girl's frenzied appeal ended in a din of shrieks; a horde of
- man-beasts swept into the air and launched themselves in a solid mass
- upon the two. Chet saw Anita for one instant as he felt himself lifted
- in air. About him was a pandemonium of flailing wings; ahead and below
- was the red of hidden fires. They were being lifted out and over the
- pits.
- One instant only, while tortured eyes smiled bravely into his; then a
- great pit-mouth that gaped a horrible welcome up ahead. So plainly Chet
- saw it! He could not tear his eyes away. He saw the red, smoking breath
- of it; he saw a rocky lip that shone like one great ruby.
- * * * * *
- It was impossible! Even the blast of air that tore at him meant nothing
- at first! But it was happening! Before his eyes it was happening! Chet
- watched dumbly, uncomprehendingly, as that great overhanging rock tore
- itself into fragments that rose screamingly into the air or fell to the
- depths beneath.
- Another section of solid floor erupted a hundred feet across the room!
- The destruction was being kept away, Chet knew. And then, while a roar
- like all the thunders of Earth reverberated deafeningly through the rock
- room, the claws that gripped him relaxed their hold.
- He fell, nor felt the impact of his fall. He came to his feet, ran
- stumblingly to the edge of the nearest pit where he threw his arms about
- the body of a girl and dragged her to safety. And while he did it he
- was babbling in broken sentences:
- "It's detonite! Your brother!... Where did he get it?... Detonite!...
- Oh, my dear--my dear!"
- And his arms were tight about her while he held his body between her and
- the explosions that tore at the floor in an inferno of crashing
- explosions out beyond--until three of the demon-beasts, red with the
- reflected fires of that subterranean hell, flew down like black-winged
- bats bent on vengeance. And Chet, laughing at their numbers, sprang out
- with hard fists swinging in well-directed blows, and welcomed them as
- only an Earth-man could.
- CHAPTER IX
- _O'Malley Investigates_
- Spud O'Malley's twinkling Irish eyes had seen strange sights in his
- years of piloting an Intercolonial freighter; he had touched at odd
- corners of the Earth. But never had he seen such creatures as confronted
- him now.
- Sheltered behind a jagged ridge of volcanic rock in the inner crater of
- the great ring of Hercules, he stared in utter horror at the figures
- that approached. For to Spud, with all his inherited ancestral faith in
- gnomes and pixies, these bat-winged things were nothing less than people
- of the under world--demons from some purgatory of the Moon--devils,
- living and breathing, spewed out from that buried hell for a moment of
- relaxation from their horrid work.
- And, coming directly toward him across a level lava bed, three of the
- things, with leather wings trailing, were approaching. Spud was
- unmoving; his feet might have been one with the volcanic rock on which
- he stood for any ability of his to raise them. Only his eyes turned
- slowly in their sockets to stare wildly at the three who drew near; who
- glimpsed his awe-stricken eyes behind his helmet glass; and who uttered
- shrill, screaming cries that brought the rest of the unholy crew leaping
- and flapping across the rocks.
- And, within that helmet, Spud's lips moved unconsciously to repeat
- prayers he would have sworn were forgotten these many years. There was a
- pistol at his belt where his hand was resting; another hung at his other
- side. But the man made no move to defend himself; he was struck numb and
- nerveless, not through fear, but through that horror which comes with
- seeing one's most gruesome superstitions come true. Spud O'Malley, who
- would have laughed at devils and believed in them while he laughed, knew
- now that they were real. They had captured Chet; they were about to take
- him, too, to the hell that was their home.
- * * * * *
- And still he did not move while the demon figures pressed closer, while
- their wild, shrieking cries echoed within his helmet; while they lashed
- their scaly tails, and at last leaped in unison upon the helpless man.
- And then, with that first touch, Spud O'Malley, who had not only seen
- strange creatures but had fought with them, came to himself--and the
- hand that rested upon a detonite pistol moved like the head of a
- striking snake.
- The roar of detonite was strained and thin in the light atmosphere of
- this globe; it seemed futile compared with its usual thunderous report.
- But its effects were the same as might have been expected on Earth!
- Spud was hurled to the rocky floor, as much by the closeness of the
- exploding shells as by the weight of the bodies that came upon him. He
- fell free of the first leaping things that went to fragments in mid-air
- as his pistol checked them. And he made no effort to arise, but lay
- prostrate, while he swung that slender tube of death about him and saw
- the winged beasts shattered and torn--until there were but five who ran
- wildly with frantic, flapping wings; and these the tiny shells from
- Spud's gun caught as they ran when the Irishman sprang to his feet and
- took careful aim across the jagged rocks.
- "Saints be praised!" the pilot was saying over and over. "Saints be
- thanked!--even the Devil's imps can't stand up to detonite shells! And
- Chet, the poor lad!--his gun must have been knocked from his hand; he
- was fightin' in the dark, too! And they took him down there, they
- did!--down where I'm goin' to see if the lad is still livin'."
- And Spud O'Malley, though he believed fully in the demoniac nature of
- these opponents and never for an instant thought but that he was
- descending into an inferno of the Moon, strode with steady steps toward
- the portal of that Plutonic region and lowered himself within.
- * * * * *
- That ring of metal, huge and accurately formed, made Spud pause in
- thought; the massive metal door that came up from below to fit that ring
- snugly--that, too, looked more like the work of human hands than of
- demons. The pilot was frankly puzzled as he tentatively moved a lever
- down below that door and saw the huge metal mass swing shut.
- About him the walls were glowing. He saw, in the floor, another circular
- door, but found no lever with which to operate it. Nor did he search for
- one, since he could have no way of knowing that here was where Chet had
- gone. But, from the corridor where he stood other lighted passages led;
- and one slanted more steeply than the rest.
- "That's the way I'm goin'," announced Spud. "I know that, and it's all I
- do know; I'm goin' down till I find some place where the devils live and
- where Chet may be."
- The passage took him smoothly down. It turned at times, and smaller
- branches split off, but he followed the main corridor that he had
- selected for his route. And he paused, at last, beside a metal frame in
- the rock wall, where the door that fitted so tightly in the frame was
- not like the others he had seen. For the first ones, though cleverly
- fashioned and machined, were of iron, rusted red with the ages; while
- this one that was before him now was paneled and decorated with sweeping
- scrolls. And, above this portal that seemed hermetically sealed, was a
- white figure such as Chet had seen.
- * * * * *
- Spud's gaze traveled up to it slowly, and his knees were trembling as
- they had not done when facing the black-winged ones. "'Tis an angel," he
- whispered, "or the statue of one! And that explains it all. 'Tis them
- that has done all this--these passages, and the sweet-fittin' doors. And
- do they live here? I wonder. Heaven help me if I meet them, for never
- could I shoot at one of them, the pretty things!"
- He was still gazing in rapt wonder that was near to worship when the
- great door began to move. He saw the first hair-line crack, and the thin
- line of light was like a hot wire across his eyes, so quickly did he
- respond. Beyond, where he had not yet gone, was a branching passage. All
- the walls glowed softly with light--no shelter of darkness was his--but
- Spud leaped for the little passage and raced down it until a turn
- screened him from sight.
- "That's movin'!" he congratulated himself. "What an athlete I'm
- becomin'!" And it was fortunate for the pilot that the ceiling was high,
- for his tremendous Earth-strength propelled him in unbelievable bounds.
- He still moved on silently, for far ahead in the corridor something had
- caught his eyes. And he stopped finally beside a little car; then saw
- that he had been following a single rail, buried under the dust of ages
- on the corridor floor.
- The monorail car lay on its side. At one end of it was a motor. Not a
- motor such as men had built, Spud confessed, but an electric motor none
- the less. And beyond this, where the passage ended, was a wall veined
- thickly with gold.
- * * * * *
- Ropy strands of the metal shone reddish-yellow in the soft light of the
- walls; detached pieces lay on the floor and in the car itself. Spud
- regarded it with amazement, but the wealth he was witnessing left him
- cold; another thought was forcing itself into his brain.
- That thought took more definite form when another corridor took him to
- rooms where great metal cases were neatly stacked; other adjoining rooms
- held strange machinery and appliances on metal stands.
- "Lab'ratories!" said the amazed man explosively. "And storehouses, too!
- Neither angels nor devils did this; 'tis the work of men--and I know how
- to get along with men. I'll go find them. Belike they have saved the
- lad, Chet, and he'll be waitin' to see me."
- He raced back along the corridor, but stopped short at its end, where he
- had taken flight from the larger passage. There was sound of shrieking
- voices, and Spud dropped to the floor to present as small a view as
- possible to the half-human things that trailed their black wings past
- the metal entrance; then he crept cautiously to peer around the corner,
- when the last one had gone.
- They were waiting out beyond; Spud watched them intently. They had great
- nets of rope in which were living things that struggled and writhed.
- He saw one of the creatures stoop to break off a protruding end of
- pinkish, nameless substance; the thing seemed to struggle in his hands
- while he took it to his mouth and munched on it. Even when Spud realized
- that this living food was vegetation of some sort, he was still sickened
- with the sight of its being taken alive into the bodies of these
- Moon-beasts.
- * * * * *
- One of the ugly figures raised a black-clawed hand to seize a lever let
- flush into the wall. It had been concealed. Spud saw the door open; saw
- the waiting horde troop through, dragging their loaded nets; and he saw
- the door close silently, while the actuating lever moved back to its
- former position.
- And Spud, speaking half aloud, counted slowly to a hundred, then another
- hundred, as a gage of the time while he waited for those beyond the door
- to move on. But at the count of two hundred his eager hands were upon
- the lever, while his eyes were hungry to stare beyond the opening door.
- They found nothing but emptiness when the door swung wide. Another room
- of luminous walls; another door in the farther wall. The man moved
- slowly through the doorway one cautious step at a time and stared about.
- He found a lever like the others, moved it--and saw the door close
- silently behind him. Another lever was near the second door; he pulled
- carefully, steadily, upon it.
- There was no movement of the door, but something had occurred as he
- knew by the hissing sound that came from above his head. Its source he
- could not find; its result was most startling. For, where before his
- suit had bulged out roundly with the inner pressure of one atmosphere,
- it now became less taut--and it hung loosely about him when the hissing
- ceased.
- "An air-lock," said Spud joyfully, "or I'm a rat-tailed imp myself! That
- means a heavier air-pressure inside. And now I know 'tis men folks I'm
- goin' to see!"
- * * * * *
- The lever moved easily now, and the second door swung open and closed
- behind him as before. Spud tore recklessly at the fastening of his suit,
- regardless of the fact that an increased pressure might still come from
- some gas that would mean death to a human. But, like Chet, he found the
- air fragrant and pure, and he rid himself of the encumbering suit,
- strapped the pistols at his waist, rolled the suit to a bundle he could
- sling over one shoulder, and moved carefully as a cat as he went forward
- through a corridor that led down and still down.
- As he went the empty labyrinth of halls filled him with a horrible
- depression; yet there was beauty everywhere--beauty whose delicacy of
- curve and color filled even the untrained mind of Spud O'Malley with a
- thrill of delight.
- There were halls and vast rooms without number; there were carvings that
- glowed with a light of their own--figures so filled with the very spirit
- of livingness that they seemed stepping out from the cold walls to greet
- him; there were more celestial hosts of purest white poised apparently
- in mid-flight.
- There were marvelous, rioting waves of color that pulsed and throbbed
- through the walls and the very air of some rooms; and there were
- articles of furniture--carved tables, chairs--objects whose purpose
- Spud could not guess. But, except for the occasional sound of shrill,
- squeaking voices in the distance, there was no sign of the presence of
- the builders, the men Spud had hoped to find.
- And he knew at last that his quest was hopeless. The dust of uncounted
- centuries that lay thickly upon all was evidence as convincing as it was
- mute.
- "There's naught but the devils!" Spud despaired. "The others--saints be
- helpin' of them!--have been gone for more years than a man dares think
- of. So, the devils it is; I'll follow them--I'll go where they are. But
- I'm not so sure at all of findin' the lad now."
- * * * * *
- That high-pitched chattering that had come to him at times was his only
- guide now. It seemed echoing in greater volume from one passage that
- slanted down more sharply than the rest. Spud followed it, clinging with
- hands and feet to the steep-pitched floor; but some sudden impulse
- seized him and compelled him to stop at intervals while he drew a pistol
- from his belt. Its grip was of steelite that rang sharply as a bell when
- he struck it upon the walls. And he tapped out the general call of the
- Service time after time; then strained his faculties in eager listening
- until he went hopelessly on.
- But he repeated the call. "For the lad may hear it and be heartened," he
- argued. "And if he's free to do it he'll answer--though I think I'd
- break down and cry with joy did I hear an answerin' rap."
- And still the chattering grew louder, while the watching, creeping man
- moved stealthily on. A wave of gas came to him once and set him choking,
- while far ahead he saw a reflected glow more red than the pale, lucent
- shimmering of the walls.
- He stopped dead still as once more there flooded through him a thousand
- unnamed fears of this domain of the Evil One where he would trespass.
- But he forced his feet to carry him on until he could peer down through
- a rift in the rock floor to behold another room whose walls glowed redly
- with the light of fires far down in hot-throated pits.
- * * * * *
- There were figures whose white bodies shone as redly in that
- glow--figures that floated on outspread leather wings of dead black.
- Small wonder that the mind of Spud O'Malley found here the confirmation
- of his worst fears; small wonder that his trembling lips whispered:
- "'Tis Hell! 'Tis Hell, at last!"
- But there was that which froze his quivering nerves to cold quiet, which
- set his lips into a grim, straight line and held him motionless above
- the opening from which he saw the room below--as, from a flurry of
- bodies against one far side, he saw a girl emerge.
- She was in the hands of the black-winged beasts who carried her into the
- air then swung out toward the fiery pit. And Spud's incredulous: "Oh,
- the poor, beautiful darlin'!" rose unconsciously to his lips to die away
- in a quick-drawn breath. For, from the mass of bodies, another figure
- was tossed up into the air to be gripped by black, waiting claws--and
- Spud knew that he was seeing Chet Bullard, fighting, struggling, in the
- grasp of these demons from the Pit.
- * * * * *
- The fumes from that inferno rose straight up. They passed out at another
- funnel-shaped throat except for an occasional eddy that whirled back
- toward the watching man. But Spud O'Malley, hanging precariously from
- that opening above, knew nothing of the sulphurous fumes or of the
- tight band they clamped about his throat. He was taking careful aim at
- the first of the flying beasts, found Chet in his line of fire, and
- snapped forward his pistol to fire at the lip of the pit instead. And he
- slipped forward the continuous discharge lever that caused the pistol to
- shake in his hand as it emptied its capacious magazine in a furious rain
- of bullets whose every end was tipped with the deadliest explosive of
- Earth.
- The floor rose up toward him in a spouting volcano of fire, while Spud
- glared wildly through glazed and blinded eyes and swung his pistol to
- rake the flying horde where he knew Chet was not.
- He saw, through the haze that was sweeping before him, Chet's sprawled
- body on the floor; he saw him leap to his feet and rush to the rescue of
- the girl. Then the empty pistol slipped from Spud's nerveless hand; and
- his other, that had clung with unshakable grip to a sharp edge of rock,
- relaxed, while he plunged headlong toward the floor below.
- CHAPTER X
- _One Stroke for Freedom_
- In that subterranean chamber of the Moon, where the angry red of still
- deeper fires flared fitfully; where winged demons, like evil creatures
- of a drug-crazed dreamer's mind, darted shrieking through the sulphurous
- air, it was a slender, blue-eyed girl who took control of events.
- She it was who, when the explosions of detonite had ceased, saw the fall
- of a body from high above. She saw it strike upon a mound of dead
- Moon-beasts; saw the homely, human features as the body rolled to the
- floor; and it was she who threw herself upon it protectingly when one of
- the enemy wounded dragged his broken wings trailing across the stone
- that he might reach that human face with his distended claws.
- "A man!" Anita Haldgren screamed. "It's a man--help me!" And Chet was
- beside her in an instant to drag the limp body to safety.
- "Spud!" he shouted. "It's Spud O'Malley! He never went back! He came
- down here to save us!"
- He grabbed up the gun where it had fallen; saw the empty magazine; then
- flung himself down beside the unconscious figure of Spud while he tore
- at the fastenings of the second weapon.
- "His suit!" he shouted to the girl. "Get his suit! It's there where he
- fell! Bring yours and mine, too!"
- He was hardly able to gage his own strength here where all weights were
- one-sixth of their equivalent on Earth. He stooped and swung the chunky
- body of Spud across his shoulder as easily as he would have lifted a
- child. And, having done it, he was entirely at a loss as to where to go.
- Across the great room was a throng of leaping, flapping things; more
- were pouring in from open doors. Chet stood hesitant and bewildered,
- until Anita spoke.
- "Come!" she called, and darted toward a narrow entrance.
- * * * * *
- The clamorous shrieking from the horde of Moon-beasts marked their
- swooping assault upon the two, and Chet paused to send them three shots
- that checked the advance. Then, with the body of Spud held tightly, he
- sprang where Anita had gone.
- She was waiting, but gave Chet no chance to question her. "Come!" she
- commanded again, and ran on as before. But, as Chet gained her side, she
- offered between gasping breaths an explanation.
- "Five years they kept us ... like animals in a cage ... but there was a
- place ... a sacred place ... they let us go there.... And they let us
- make signal lights from outside ... they called it magic.
- "And now Frithjof has escaped ... he will go to the sacred room ... only
- there would he be safe...."
- They had turned and twisted through narrow passages. Anita, it seemed,
- was plotting a course through less frequented thoroughfares of this
- strange city. But they came at last to a vast auditorium into which they
- peered from a half-opened door.
- The room was of preposterous size, and Chet marveled at the minds that
- had conceived and wrought so tremendous an undertaking. And he saw
- plainly in his own mind the throngs of serene-faced beings who must have
- folded their white wings softly about them to gather there for worship.
- But more plainly still he saw the jostling, squealing crowd that was
- there that instant before his eyes.
- Hundreds of them--thousands, it might be--and the sound of their shrill
- voices made hideous echoes from the high-flung ceiling of the great
- hall. The dry rustling of their leather wings was an unceasing rush of
- sound.
- * * * * *
- Some who seemed to be leaders stood above the rest on a platform which
- formed the base of a terraced formation against the far wall of the
- room. Even at a distance Chet could see and wonder at the simple beauty
- of that place of metals and jewels where the great ones of an earlier
- race had once stood.
- Back of those who harangued the crowd the terraces built themselves up
- to a pyramid against the rock wall; and on either side, opening upon
- the platform base, was a doorway of noble proportions, whose metal doors
- of burnished reds and browns were closed.
- "The sacred room," whispered Anita, "beyond those doors. Frithjof has
- closed them. He is there. I know it--I know it!"
- Chet was still holding the body of O'Malley. Only his choked breathing
- showed that he still lived, but now he stirred and struggled in Chet's
- grasp, while he struck out blindly and hoarse sounds came from his
- throat.
- Chet clapped one hand over the pilot's mouth. "For the love of heaven,
- Spud," he said fiercely, "be still! Don't speak--don't say a word! It's
- Chet--Chet Bullard! I've got you, we're all right!"
- The pilot's struggles ceased, and Chet eased him to the floor where he
- sat still gasping for breath; the fumes from that place of death had
- been strangling in his throat.
- Beside him Chet heard the girl repeating in softest tones the name she
- had heard for the first time.
- "Chet--Chet Bullard! How odd a name! But I love it--I couldn't help but
- love it."
- * * * * *
- In the great room were some who had turned toward the sound of Chet's
- scuffling; they were walking slowly toward the half-opened door.
- "Come!" said Anita Haldgren again, and fled like a slender,
- golden-haired wraith down the narrow hall.
- More twisting passages until Chet was hopelessly lost. But he no longer
- needed to carry O'Malley, who was running beside him, and he had
- implicit faith in the girlish guide who went before. He was not
- surprised when they came after many detours to a narrow door of wrought
- metals in white and gold, whose inset designs were worked in glowing
- jewels.
- Nor was he surprised when the door opened in response to a series of
- knocks from Anita's hand that spelled SOS in the code he knew, and a
- man, whose long hair and beard hung about a face as handsome as that of
- a Viking of old, stood motionless in that doorway.
- But the surprise of that flaxen-haired giant can be only imagined when a
- young man whom he had never seen on Earth or Moon stepped forward from
- his sister's side with outstretched hand.
- "I am Bullard," said the slim young man, "Master Pilot of the World--or
- at least that was my rating up to the time I left in search of you. And
- now, Pilot Haldgren, we've a ship outside, and, if you'd care to go back
- with us--"
- And with equal casualness the blond Viking replied: "You came in search
- of us! You saw our signals! After all this time! Yes, we shall be glad
- to go back with--we shall be glad--yes--"
- But his deep, rumbling voice broke into something like a sob, and he
- turned with outstretched arms to stumble blindly toward his sister, who
- buried her face in his torn and ragged blouse.
- * * * * *
- "You came in search of us--you came through space just to find and
- rescue us!" Haldgren, it seemed, could not recover from the effects of
- this unbelievable fact. He was gripping hard at the hand of Chet
- Bullard, while his other great arm was thrown about the shoulders of
- Spud O'Malley.
- "But now that you are here, what is to be done? Every exit will be
- guarded; we are shut off from the outer world by a hundred locked doors
- and by thousands of those beasts."
- He took his arm from Spud's shoulder to point toward the great doors,
- beyond which was a rising clamor of shrill sound.
- "They will break in here soon; they would have been here before had they
- known of the old lost entrance of the priests that Anita and I found.
- We're as bad off as ever, I am afraid. There will be no holding them
- now."
- "I can hold some," said Chet, and touched his weapon. Haldgren nodded
- his shaggy head.
- "Some, but not many of the thousands we must face before ever we fight
- our way through to the outer world. No, my friend Bullard, that will
- never save us; we are doomed!"
- But Chet, unwilling to accept or share the other's convictions, was
- seeing again the great room beyond those doors--a room of vast
- proportions; of high-arched, vaulted ceiling where sweeping curves all
- centered and ended in one tremendous central point. It hung down, that
- point, a blazing pendant--an inverted keystone; through some magic of
- that ancient people all the colors of the spectrum had been made to ebb
- and flow like rainbows of living light.
- * * * * *
- But something deeper than the beauty of this had impressed Chet. A
- master pilot does not study design of structures, even structures meant
- for travel through the air, without gaining knowledge of architectural
- fundamentals; his mind, subconsciously, had been following strains and
- stresses through those super-imposed curves. He turned abruptly to
- Haldgren with a question.
- "It seemed to me when I was following Anita that we climbed upward; we
- were always running upward through the passages. We must be near the
- surface of the Moon; is that true?"
- Haldgren nodded slowly. "I think so--yes! In the great room out there
- are windows of quartz high in the ceiling. You could not see them from
- where you were, but they are there. I have seen them lighted; I think it
- was the light of the sun."
- "In that case," said Chet quietly, "I will ask you to open those doors."
- "But they will come in!" the big man protested.
- "They will not come in."
- Chet turned to the girl. "I will ask you, my dear, to accompany me--if
- you have faith."
- And, to that, Anita Haldgren granted not even a word of reply. She moved
- more swiftly than her brother to a controlling lever in the wall ... and
- the ponderous doors swung slowly back.
- * * * * *
- Beyond those opening doors a din of shrieks went abruptly still. They
- rose again in a squeaking babel of amazement and again were silenced as
- Chet Bullard stepped through the arch. Beside him was the slender figure
- of Anita; following was a stocky man whose unhandsome, face was alight
- with a broad grin.
- "Go to it, my bhoy!" Spud O'Malley was saying. "I don't know what you're
- up to, but you'll be countin' me in--and here's hopin' you give those
- devils hell!"
- And, behind them all, in great strides that brought him up with the
- rest, came Haldgren, recovered now from the stupefaction that had held
- him momentarily. The four went silently where Chet led to the highest
- point of the great terraced rostrum.
- It was a stepped pyramid, Chet found, split in half and the half placed
- against the wall. There was a stairway of smaller steps where priests,
- some thousands of years before, had made their way to the top. And the
- dust of centuries arose in smoky puffs as the four trod that path where
- the holy ones had gone. Below them the silence was ending in sibilant
- hissing calls as the black-winged beast-men watched that procession to
- the heights. Some few had launched themselves into the air, Chet saw
- when he turned.
- "Tell them to go back," he said to Anita; "tell them to listen to what I
- have to say!" There followed immediately the sound of Anita's soft voice
- distorted to shrill sounds that echoed throughout the hall.
- "Tell them now," said Chet when the hall was still, "that I have come
- from another world. Tell them that I hold the thunderbolts of their
- ancient gods in my hands. Then tell them if they permit us to depart we
- will go and leave them in peace. But if they try to harm us, the temple
- of their gods will be destroyed, and they, too, shall die. Tell them!"
- * * * * *
- There was something of unwonted solemnity in the voice of the master
- pilot--something of quiet power and the dignity that became a messenger
- of the gods--as he gave his orders and faced the throng.
- And there was the patience of a god who is sickened of slaughter as he
- faced the discordant din and the threatening forward surge of the demon
- throng below. The girl had spoken, and the air was black with their
- threshing wings, while still Chet waited with outstretched hand.
- To the creatures below--the things half-men and half-beasts--the shining
- tube in that extended hand meant nothing of threat. And even to the
- Irish pilot, who stood silently watching, the gesture seemed futile.
- "You've overplayed your hand, lad," he said in a tone of despair. "'Tis
- no little gun like that will stop them now!"
- He was watching that hand and the shining tube; watching in amazement
- as he saw it swing slowly up toward the advancing horde risen level with
- them in the air--up above their massed blackness of wings--on and up,
- until the tube was pointing toward the base of a carven pendant, whose
- blending colors were fairy lights at play.
- And still the weapon waited until the snarling faces of the enemy were
- close. Then the pistol cracked once, and the roar of its exploding shell
- came thundering after.
- For an instant all motion ceased; the very wings of the flying beasts
- seemed frozen rigid in mid-flight. Then the whole of the vast room was
- in motion.
- * * * * *
- A rush of escaping air whirled upward the black-winged monsters in an
- inverted maelstrom of shrieking winds. And, falling to meet them, came
- an enormous pendant whose rioting colors seemed glorying in their own
- death. And with that came the swift disintegration of the vaulted arches
- where the one central supporting point of their intricate maze had been
- shattered; till, with a crashing avalanche of sound that obliterated the
- thundering echoes of the detonite charge, the entire ceiling, that
- seemed now like the roof of a mighty world, roared down to destruction.
- The pyramidal rostrum was at one side. A cascade of shattered rock fell
- like a curtain before it--a kindly curtain that hid from human sight the
- hideous slaughter of a demoniac mob. It was still falling; the
- imprisoned air was gathering added force to rush upward, screaming as if
- the very winds were insane with joy at their release, when the great
- arms of Frithjof Haldgren closed about the others of the group and half
- carried them, half hurled them, down the slope.
- * * * * *
- The echoing clang of great doors was still with them as the bellowing
- voice of Haldgren was heard.
- "Get into your suits! The internal pressure is lost." Even as he spoke
- the big man was clutching at his throat, though the closing doors of the
- sacred room had given them respite. "Quick! They have emergency doors.
- They will close them--but this part is cut off. In only minutes there
- will be no air!"
- But it was Chet who snapped shut the closure of Anita Haldgren's suit
- before he pulled on his own. And he grinned happily through the glass of
- his helmet as he saw the others safely encased, while their suits slowly
- bulged as the pressure of the air about them went down and their own
- tanks of oxygen took up the task of maintaining one atmosphere of
- pressure.
- In silence the great doors of the sacred room swung back; in silence, as
- before, the Earth-folk passed through where chaos had reigned. Chet
- checked them; he threw one arm clumsily around the figure of Anita
- Haldgren while he turned to her brother.
- "The door is open, Frithjof Haldgren," he said, and pointed upward at
- the black vault of the heavens where a massive ceiling had been. In that
- immensity of space, framed in the torn outlines of a shattered world,
- shone a great globe--a globe like a giant moon. The Earth, unbelievably
- bright, was beckoning them once more.
- "The door is open," Chet repeated; "do you still wish to go home?"
- CHAPTER XI
- _"Bullard, of the I.B.C.!"_
- The controls of a meteor ship held steady without the touch of the
- pilot's hand. Chet Bullard was staring at a radiocone on the instrument
- board in the control room where a voice from some super-powered station
- was calling. His own radio had been crackling a call, and now this
- response was coming across the void.
- "Orders from the Stratosphere Control Board: You will proceed at once to
- New York. Radiobeacon 2X12 will guide you down. Your message received
- and we acknowledge report of the finding of the space-flyer, Pilot
- Haldgren. Do not discharge any passengers and land nowhere else than at
- New York without direct orders of the Board. Keep your directional
- signal on full power; our cruisers will pick you up in the highest
- level. Signed: Commander of Air."
- Spud O'Malley, it was, who broke the silence of the room where only the
- sound of the terrific exhaust came thinly through.
- "May divils confound him! And it's back on the Moon with those other
- beasts I'm wishin' I was. At least a man can get close enough to slam
- them in their ugly faces; but the Commander and his cruisers! Sure,
- there's nothin' we can do!"
- "Just take our medicine," said Chet Bullard quietly. "But I have proved
- him wrong; Haldgren, here, is the living evidence of that. And I said I
- would laugh him from the Service--well, I'm not so sure of that."
- "But surely," broke in Haldgren's booming voice, "there will be only
- praise for what you have done. I do not understand--"
- "You don't know the Commander, my boy," Spud broke in dryly. "And you
- don't know that the lad, here, defied him to his face and ran the
- gantlet of his cruisers' guns to get away and go after you."
- "Ah!" grunted the giant. "And now I understand. It is the old story--an
- incompetent man in a place of authority--"
- * * * * *
- Chet broke in.
- "Not quite right; this Commander of ours has done much--he is a driver
- of men--but there are some of us who think he lacks vision. He can never
- see beyond the stratosphere he rules so ably; and his position is
- supreme."
- "There is still the Governing Council--we will appeal--"
- But the master pilot was not listening to Haldgren's words; his slim,
- sensitive hand was reaching for the ball-control to build up still more
- the tremendous blast of a forward exhaust that was checking their speed
- and making them as heavy as if their bodies were of meteoric iron.
- A forward lookout showed a black globe; its circle was rimmed with fire
- from the Sun that it blotted out. A hemisphere of night lay below--the
- black, mysterious night of a waiting Earth. But one strong signal came
- in on the instruments at Chet's side to show him where on that horizon
- was New York; and the call of a flagship of cruisers was flashing before
- him as the lift of the Repelling Area was felt.
- "Follow!" flashed the order. "You will follow to New York!" And, through
- the black night, faint flashes of light marked the fleet of swift
- guardians of the skies that closed in, then swept downward and out--an
- impregnable convoy about the speeding, roaring ship.
- And there was that in Chet's face as he handled the controls that
- brought Anita Haldgren to his side that she might lift his free hand in
- wordless comfort and press it to her face.
- * * * * *
- That venerable and beloved man, the President of the Federation
- Aeronautique Internationale, stood silent before a vast audience.
- Throughout the great auditorium was silence; each of the gathered
- thousands was listening to the shrieking sirens from the landing field
- on the roof overhead.
- Skylights above showed the night air ablaze with red, through which the
- vivid green of landing signals pierced in staccato bursts. From the roof
- of that building to the highest level of the stratosphere the air was
- cleared; no craft of the Service would venture to pierce the barrage of
- light and radio waves that hemmed that aerial shaft. And down the shaft,
- in a thunder of roaring exhausts, came a shining shape.
- She sparkled and flashed in the crimson and green of that emergency
- light, and from her bow poured a tornado that blasted the air, then
- streamed out behind in hot gas like a comet of flame. Then the thunders
- died; the shining shape turned once slowly in air to show her blunt nose
- and cylindrical body before she settled softly as a homing bird to the
- embrace of great waiting arms of steel. And, inside the building, a
- white-haired man was saying:
- "They are here! Thank God, they are here! Their radio has prepared us;
- our signals have guided them home. And now it is not New York, nor even
- the United States of America alone who attends; the whole world will be
- summoned. Look!"
- * * * * *
- Behind, and high above him on a wall, was a radio panel. Its signal
- lamps went suddenly dark. The thin, blue-veined hand of the speaker was
- pointing.
- "Only twice has the world-call flashed: once when the Molemen came and
- the future of the world was at stake; once when the Dark Moon crashed
- down from the void and the serpents of space menaced aerial traffic. And
- now--once again!--the whole world is summoned! Every city and hamlet of
- Earth--every ship of the air and the sea--every vessel on the ocean,
- under the ocean, and in the air levels above--"
- His voice broke sharply. From the panel there came a thin call, a
- quivering that was more a trembling than a sound; it reached out to
- touch raspingly the nerves of every listener. Then the whole board burst
- forth in a flash of fire where a flaming crystal leaped to life--and
- none could see that pulsing flame without thrilling to the knowledge
- that it was calling a whole world with its wordless summons.
- The light died; a television detector whined as its motors came to
- speed; and each watcher knew that the waiting world was connected with
- that auditorium in New York; all that happened, there--each sight and
- sound--was circling the globe.
- An announcer's voice roared briefly before the regulator cut down on its
- volume.
- "You are seeing the Radio-central Auditorium in New York. On the landing
- stage above, after a journey of five hundred thousand miles, a strange
- craft has settled to rest. Its pilot: Chester Bullard, once rated as
- Master Pilot of the World! Its journey, now safely completed: from the
- Earth to the Moon, and return!
- "The world is waiting to greet Pilot Bullard, though of this he, as yet,
- is unaware. World-wide radio control is now transferred to Radio-central
- Auditorium in New York! They are coming! They are entering!"
- * * * * *
- But the thousands gathered in that great hall heard no other words from
- the radiocone. Their attention was focused upon the broad stage, where,
- descending from a lift, a strange group stepped out upon the stage,
- stood an instant in startled wonder that was near embarrassment, then
- took the seats to which they were shown.
- And again the venerable President of the Federation Aeronautique
- Internationale was speaking.
- "It is less than a month since I stood here before you, when, as again
- is true to-night, the entire personnel of the executives of the
- Stratosphere Control Board was gathered to do honor to the pioneers of
- space--the discoverer--"
- On the stage near the speaker, Chet Bullard stared in consternation at a
- girl in a pilot's suit as grimed and ragged as his own. His gaze passed
- on to the set features of Pilot O'Malley--to the blue eyes of a
- flaxen-haired giant--then on to where Walt Harkness and Diane, his wife,
- sat regarding him with happy smiles. Dimly Chet heard the man at the
- speakers' stand.
- "--and on that other occasion, Mr. Bullard refused a decoration tendered
- him and marking him as the first to travel through airless space.
- "I have here"--the speaker smiled slightly as he extended his hand where
- a jewel flashed fire from a velvet case--"the identical jewel and medal.
- And to-night, while the peoples of Earth are gathered throughout the
- world to do honor to Mr. Bullard, it has been given to me the proud
- privilege of welcoming him home."
- * * * * *
- He turned and held out a beckoning hand toward Chet. In a daze the
- younger man arose and moved beside the one who had called him.
- "And now, Chester Bullard, on behalf of the Governing Council of the
- Ruling Nations of this Earth, I greet you: Pilot of the Stratosphere no
- longer--but Pilot of Endless Space! The world welcomes you; and, through
- me, it places in your hands this jewel.
- "But you will observe that we older ones may still learn, and we do not
- repeat our former mistake. We hand you this medal, emblematic of the
- first penetration of space, to do with as you will."
- The thin hand was shaking as the speaker turned and swept the audience
- with one all-inclusive gesture.
- "To you who are before me now; to you out beyond wherever parallels of
- longitude and latitude are known--I present the Columbus of the
- Stars!--Chester Bullard!"
- And suddenly Chet found himself alone in a pandemonium of sound. From
- the countless faces that blurred into one unrecognizable sea came a roar
- of human voices like waves thundering against storm-worn cliffs; above
- the clamor was the sound of shrieking sirens; and through all, when it
- seemed that no other sound could be heard, came the full-volume,
- nerve-stunning clangor from the radiocone's wide-opened throat as the
- trumpets and brass of all the monster bands of Earth broke forth, under
- radio control, in one synchronous song--till even that was drowned under
- the roaring welcomes in strange tongues as the nations of Earth cut in.
- * * * * *
- And Chet Bullard, his blouse still torn where a Commander of Air had
- ripped off a three-starred emblem of a Master Pilot, shook his blond
- head to clear it of the confusion that seemed beating him down. And he
- stared and stared, not at the rioting throng before him, but at
- something he could in part comprehend--a glowing, flashing jewel that
- rested in his hand. And slowly there crept into his eyes a look of
- understanding, while a ghost of a smile twitched and tugged at the
- corners of his mouth.
- The hall, which one instant was a bedlam of roaring voices, went silent
- as Chet Bullard raised his hand. He was still smiling as he bowed toward
- the white-haired man whose happy face belied the moisture in his eyes;
- then he faced the throng, and his voice held no hint of trembling or
- uncertainty.
- "The Columbus of the Stars! I thank you for that title, which I can
- accept only most humbly. For I ask you to go back with me into history
- and remember, as I am remembering, that before Columbus there were
- others whose names are lost.
- "The Norsemen--those Vikings of old!--who dared the unknown seas, were
- first. And again history repeats. But this time the pioneer will not
- remain unknown. I have been to the Moon; I have reached out into
- space--but I followed another's trail.
- "Frithjof Haldgren!" he shouted, and extended a hand toward the gentle
- giant whose face was aflame as he came to Chet's side. "Frithjof
- Haldgren, I present you to the world. Only one can be the first; and
- yours is the honor and glory. This medal is yours alone; I place it
- where it belongs!"
- * * * * *
- And Frithjof Haldgren, white of face and lips now instead of fiery red,
- stood silent and trembling while Chet fastened a jewel upon his grimy
- tattered blouse; then retired to his chair as if beaten back by the
- rolling waves of sound.
- But to Chet, as he watched the man go, came a quick sense of
- disappointment. Unconsciously, his hand went to the same place on his
- own chest where had rested an emblem he had prized above all else--and
- now his searching fingers found only the mark of his disgrace. Then he
- knew again that the aged President was speaking, while he held Chet
- beside him with one detaining hand.
- "We older ones have served, perhaps; we have done what we could; we pray
- that the world is better for our efforts! And we shall continue to
- serve; yet it is to youth that we must look for the progress which is to
- come.
- "Today we face a new life whose horizons, once bounded by the limiting
- air, have been pushed back. We have conquered space, and before us is
- the waiting marvel of man's extension of his activities throughout the
- universe.
- "How far shall we go in this new and endless sphere? With interplanetary
- travel, what is our goal? Only youth can give the answer. And in the
- hands of youth must the command of this great adventure be placed.
- * * * * *
- "Gentlemen, the Governing Council of the Ruling Nations of this Earth
- has created a new command. By the acts of this man who stands beside me,
- and by his fellow-explorer, Walter Harkness, the Council has been forced
- to take this step.
- "That command will rank second only to the Governing Council itself; a
- body of men shall compose it who shall be known as the Interstellar
- Board of Control." He turned squarely toward Chet. "I am placing in
- your hands, Mr. Bullard, your commission as Commander of that Board. The
- best minds of all nations will be at your call. Will you accept--will
- you gather these men about you and do your part in this great work for
- the greater future of mankind?"
- The ears of a listening world waited long for an answer. But the eyes of
- that world saw a figure whose blond head was suddenly lowered as if to
- hide a betrayal of what was in his heart; they saw him raise his bowed
- head to stare mutely toward a girl whose eyes of blue were swimming with
- happy tears as she gave him a trembling smile--and only then did they
- see Chet Bullard draw himself erect, while his voice went out with the
- speed of light to a waiting world.
- "I accept, Mr. President. Proudly--humbly--I accept!"
- And the eyes of the world, if they were understanding eyes, must have
- smiled with his, as the Commander of the Interstellar Board of Control
- grasped, among others, the congratulatory hand of his subordinate, the
- Commander of Air.
- But if there were any who expected to read mockery in those smiling
- eyes, they had yet to learn the measure of Commander Bullard--"Bullard,
- of the I.B.C.!"
- --- Provided by LoyalBooks.com ---
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