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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/29046-h.zip b/29046-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..815b335 --- /dev/null +++ b/29046-h.zip diff --git a/29046-h/29046-h.htm b/29046-h/29046-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7158f39 --- /dev/null +++ b/29046-h/29046-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1586 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Heads Of Apex, by Francis Flagg + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; background-color: #FFFFFF; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + + +.tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} + +.img1 {border:solid 1px; } + +.f2 { font-size:x-large; font-weight:bold; } + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Heads of Apex, by Francis Flagg + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Heads of Apex + +Author: Francis Flagg + +Release Date: June 5, 2009 [EBook #29046] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEADS OF APEX *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p><p class="center">This etext was produced from Astounding Stories October 1931. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img class="img1" src="images/image_001.jpg" width="500" height="508" alt="I looked into the face of a girl about to be bled." /> +<span class="caption">I looked into the face of a girl about to be bled.</span></div> + +<h1>The Heads of Apex</h1> + +<h2>By Francis Flagg</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="sidenote">Far under the sea-floor Solino's submarine carries two American +soldiers of fortune to startling adventure among the Vampire Heads of Apex.</div> + + +<p><span class="f2">J</span>ustus Miles was sitting on a bench in the park, down at the heels, +hungry, desperate, when a gust of wind whirled a paper to his feet. It +was the advertising section of the <i>New York Times</i>. Apathetically, he +picked it up, knowing from the past weeks' experience that few or no +jobs were being advertised. Then with a start he sat up, for in the +center of the page, encased in a small box and printed in slightly +larger type than the ordinary advertisement, he read the following +words: "Wanted: Soldier of Fortune, young, healthy; must have good +credentials. Apply 222 Reuter Place, between two and four." It was +to-day's advertising section he was scanning, and the hour not yet +one.</p> + +<p>Reuter Place was some distance away, he knew, a good hour's walk on +hard pavement and through considerable heat. But he had made forced +marches in Sonora as badly shod and on even an emptier stomach. For +Justus Miles, though he might not have looked it, was a bona fide +soldier of fortune, stranded in New York. Five feet eight in height, +he was, loose and rangy in build, and with deceptively mild blue eyes. +He had fought through the World War, served under Kemal Pasha in +Turkey, helped the Riffs in Morocco, filibustered in South America and +handled a machine-gun for revolutionary forces in Mexico. Surely, he +thought grimly, if anyone could fill the bill for a soldier of fortune +it was himself.</p> + +<p>222 Reuter Place proved to be a large residence in a shabby +neighborhood. On the sidewalk, a queue of men was being held in line +by a burly cop. The door of the house opened, and an individual, +broad-shouldered and with flaming red hair, looked over the crowd. +Instantly Justus Miles let out a yell, "Rusty! By God, Rusty!" and +waved his hands.</p> + +<p>"Hey, feller, who do you think you're shovin'?" growled a hard-looking +fellow at the head of the line, but Justus Miles paid no attention to +him. The man in the doorway also let out an excited yell.</p> + +<p>"Well, well, if it isn't the Kid! Hey, Officer, let that fellow +through: I want to speak to him."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">W</span>ith the door shut on the blasphemous mob, the two men wrung each +other's hands. Ex-Sergeant Harry Ward, known to his intimates as +"Rusty," led Justus Miles into a large office and shoved him into a +chair.</p> + +<p>"I didn't know you were in New York, kid. The last I saw of you was +when we quit Sandino."</p> + +<p>"And I never suspected that 222 Reuter Place would be you, Rusty. +What's the lay, old man, and is there any chance to connect?"</p> + +<p>"You bet your life there's a chance. Three hundred a month and found. +But the boss has the final say-so, though I'm sure he'll take you on +my recommendation."</p> + +<p>He opened a door, led Justus Miles through an inner room, knocked at a +far door and ushered him into the presence of a man who sat behind a +roll-topped desk. There was something odd about this old man, and +after a moment's inspection Justus Miles saw what it was. He was +evidently a cripple, propped up in a strange wheelchair. He had an +abnormally large and hairless head, and his body was muffled to the +throat in a voluminous cloak, the folds of which fell over and +enveloped most of the wheelchair itself. The face of this old +gentleman—though the features were finely molded—was swarthy: its +color was almost that of a negro—or an Egyptian. He regarded the two +men with large and peculiarly colored eyes—eyes that probed them +sharply.</p> + +<p>"Well, Ward, what is it?"</p> + +<p>"The man you advertised for, Mr. Solino."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">S</span>olino regarded Justus Miles critically.</p> + +<p>"You have been a soldier of fortune?" he asked. He spoke English with +the preciseness of an educated foreigner.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. Rusty—that is, Mr. Ward knows my record."</p> + +<p>"I was his sergeant in France, sir; saw fighting with him in Morocco, +Turkey, Nicaragua—"</p> + +<p>"You can vouch for him, then; his character, courage—"</p> + +<p>"You couldn't get a better man, sir. If I had known he was in town I +would have sent for him."</p> + +<p>"Very well; that is sufficient. But Mr.—Miles did you +say?—understands he is embarking on a dangerous adventure with grave +chances of losing his life?"</p> + +<p>"I have faced danger and risked my life before this," said Justus +Miles quietly.</p> + +<p>The other nodded. "Then that is all I am prepared to tell you at this +time."</p> + +<p>Justus Miles accompanied Ward to his room where the latter laid out +for him a change of clothing. It was luxurious to splash in warm water +and bath-salts after the enforced griminess of weeks. The clothes +fitted him fairly well, the two men being of a size. Lounging in his +friend's room after a substantial meal, and smoking a Turkish +cigarette, he questioned Ward more closely.</p> + +<p>"Who is the old fellow?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. He hired me through an advertisement and then set me to +employing others."</p> + +<p>"But surely you know where we are going?"</p> + +<p>"Hardly more than you do. Solino did say there was a country, a city +to be invaded. Whereabouts is a secret. I can't say I care for going +it blind, but neither do I like starving to death. I was in about the +same shape you were when you applied. Desperate."</p> + +<p>Justus Miles stretched himself comfortably.</p> + +<p>"A spiggoty by the looks of him," he said; "negro blood, no doubt. +Well, fighting's my trade. I'd rather cash in fighting than sit on a +park bench. I suppose the old boy will tell us more in good time, and +until then we're sitting pretty, with good eats to be had; so why +worry?"</p> + +<p>And yet if Justus Miles had been able to look ahead he might not have +talked so blithely.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">D</span>uring the week that followed his employment, he saw nothing of +Solino, though Ward met the old man for a few moments every day to +receive his instructions. "It puzzles me," he confessed to Miles, +"how the old chap lives. There's a private exit to the street from his +rooms, but I could swear he never goes out. How could he in that +wheelchair—no attendant. And yet he must. How would he get food?"</p> + +<p>Justus Miles smiled lazily. "No mystery at all, Rusty. We're gone for +hours at a time. What's to prevent him from phoning to have his meals +brought in?"</p> + +<p>"But I've questioned them at the restaurant and they say—"</p> + +<p>"Good Lord!—is there only one restaurant in Manhattan?"</p> + +<p>Yet Justus Miles himself could not help feeling there was something +mysterious about Solino, but just how mysterious he did not +realize—until, one evening, he stood with a half dozen of his fellow +adventurers in a lonely spot on the Long Island coast and watched the +darkness deepen around them. "We shall wait," said Solino presently, +"until the moon comes up."</p> + +<p>The moon rose at about nine o'clock, flooding the beach and the +heaving expanse of water with a ghostly light. From the folds of +Solino's cloak, close about his muffled throat, a peculiar ray of +green light flashed out over the water. In answer, a green light +flashed back, and presently, something low and black, like the body of +a whale half submerged, stole towards the beach. Scarcely a ripple +marked its progress, and the nose of it slid up on the sand. "Good +Lord!" whispered Miles, grasping Ward by the arm: "it's a submarine!"</p> + +<p>But the craft on which the surprised soldiers of fortune gazed was not +an ordinary submarine. In the first place, there was no conning tower; +and, in the second, from the blunt nose projected a narrow gangway +bridging the few feet of water between the mysterious craft and the +dry beach. But the men had little time to indulge in amazement. +"Quick," said Solino; "load those boxes onto the gangway. No need to +carry them further." He himself wheeled his chair into the interior of +the submarine, calling back, "Hurry, hurry!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>he adventurers accomplished the loading in a few minutes. "Now," came +the voice of their employer, "stand on the gangway yourselves. Steady; +don't move."</p> + +<p>Under their feet they felt the gangway vibrate and withdraw from the +land. For a moment they were in utter darkness; then a light flashed +up and revealed a long, box-like room. The opening through which they +had come had closed, leaving no sign of its existence.</p> + +<p>In the center of the room stood a mechanism like a huge gyroscope, and +a plunging piston, smooth and black, went up and down with +frictionless ease. In front of what was evidently a control board sat +a swarthy man with a large hairless head and peculiarly colored eyes. +The adventurers stared in surprise, for this man, too, sat in a +wheelchair, seemingly a cripple; but unlike Mr. Solino he wore no +cloak, his body from the neck down being enclosed in a tubular metal +container. The body must have been very small, and the legs amputated +at the hips, since the container was not large and terminated on the +seat of the peculiar wheel chair to which it seemed firmly attached.</p> + +<p>Solino did not offer to introduce them to the man at the control +board, who, aside from a quick look, paid them no attention. He +ushered them ahead into another, though smaller cabin, and after +indicating certain arrangements made for their comfort, withdrew. From +the slight sway of the floor under their feet and the perceptible +vibration of the craft, the adventurers knew they were under way.</p> + +<p>"Well, this is a rum affair and no mistake about it," said one of +them.</p> + +<p>"A freak—a bloomin' freak," remarked another whose cockney accent +proclaimed the Englishman.</p> + +<p>"Yuh're shore right," said a lean Texan. "That hombre out there had no +legs."</p> + +<p>"Nor hands either."</p> + +<p>Miles and Ward glanced at one another. The same thought was in both +minds. Neither of them had ever seen Mr. Solino's hands. A rum affair +all right!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">H</span>ours passed. Some of the men fell to gambling. At intervals they ate. +Twice they turned in and slept. Then, after what seemed an +interminable time, Solino summoned Miles and Ward to his presence in +the control room. "It is time," he said, "that you should know more of +the enterprise on which you have embarked. What I say, you can +communicate to the other men. A year's salary for all of you lies to +your credit at the Chase Bank of New York. And this money will not be +your sole reward if you survive and serve faithfully."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir," said Ward; "but now that we are well on our way to +our destination, could you not tell us more about it? You have said +something of a city, a country. Where is that country?"</p> + +<p>"Down," was the astounding answer.</p> + +<p>"Down?" echoed both men.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Solino slowly, "down. The gateway to that land is at the +bottom of the ocean."</p> + +<p>As the two men gaped at him, incredulous, an awful thing happened. +With an appalling roar and a rending of steel and iron, the submarine +halted abruptly in its headlong flight, reared upward at an acute +angle and then fell forward with a tremendous crash. The adventurers +were thrown violently against a steel bulkhead, and slumped down +unconscious....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">H</span>ow long they lay there insensible they never knew. Justus Miles was +the first to come to, and he found himself in Stygian blackness. +"Rusty!" he called, feeling terribly sick and giddy. Only silence +answered him. "Good God!" he thought, "what has happened?" His hand +went out and recoiled from something soft and sticky. Gingerly he sat +up. There was a lump on his head. His body felt bruised and sore but +it was evidently sound. He recollected the small but powerful +flashlight in his pocket, and drew it forth and pressed the button. A +reassuring pencil of light pierced through the gloom. Even as it did +so, someone groaned, and Ward's voice uttered his name.</p> + +<p>"Is that you, Kid?"</p> + +<p>"It's me, all right."</p> + +<p>"You ain't hurt?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing to speak of. How about you?"</p> + +<p>"O. K., I guess. An awful headache."</p> + +<p>"Can you stand up?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>Ward's face appeared in the ray of light, pale and blood-streaked.</p> + +<p>"I wonder what happened."</p> + +<p>"It sounded like a collision."</p> + +<p>They stared at one another with fearful eyes. A collision while +underseas in a submarine is a serious matter.</p> + +<p>"Where's Solino?"</p> + +<p>Justus Miles ran the beam of his torch this way and that, and saw that +the room was in a fearful confusion. The gyroscopic mechanism had +broken from its fastenings and rolled forward. Somewhere beneath its +crushing weight lay the control board and the swarthy operator. Then +they saw Solino, still in his overturned wheelchair, the cloak drawn +tightly about himself and it; but the top of his head was crushed in +like an eggshell. Justus Miles had touched that head when he stretched +out his hand in the darkness.</p> + +<p>He and Ward had been saved from death as by a miracle. Over their +heads the great piston had hurtled, killing Solino and tearing through +the steel partition into the chamber beyond, visiting it with death +and destruction. One hasty examination of that place was enough. The +men in there were dead.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">S</span>ick with horror, the two survivors faced the stark reality of their +terrible plight. Trapped in an underwater craft, they saw themselves +doomed to perish even more miserably than their companions. As the +horrible thought sank home, a cool breath of air, suggesting the smell +of stagnant salt water, blew through an opening created by the +crushing of the plates in the vessel's hull—an opening larger than +the body of a man. Miles and Ward stared at it with puzzled eyes. With +such a hole in her hull, the boat should have been admitting water and +not air. However, they approached the gap and examined it with their +torches.</p> + +<p>"Here goes," Ward said after a moment's hesitation, and clambered +through the opening, followed by his friend. When they were able to +make out their surroundings, they saw that they were in a vast tunnel +or cavern, the extent of which was shrouded in darkness. How the +submarine had left the ocean and penetrated to this cavern it was +impossible to say; but evidently it had come so far over a shining +rail, a break in which had caused the disaster. The cavern or tunnel +was paved with disjointed blocks of stone which once might have been +smooth and even, but which now were disarranged by time and slimy with +dampness and seagrowths. In the clammy air Miles involuntarily +shuddered. "Good Lord, Rusty, we're certainly up against it! The only +fellow who could tell us our whereabouts is dead!"</p> + +<p>Ward's jaw tightened. "That rail leads somewhere: it's our only hope. +But first let us get our guns and some food."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>hey were fortunate enough to discover several thermos bottles +unbroken. Hot coffee revived their fainting spirits. Treating their +bruises and cuts as well as they could, they left the submarine or +car—it seemed to have been convertible for use either in water or on +rail—and trudged ahead.</p> + +<p>Beyond the break that had caused the wreck, the rail stretched away +into illimitable blackness. Over rough stones, stumbling into shallow +pools of water, the light of their torches serving but faintly to show +the depressing surroundings, the two men plunged. Neither of them was +without fear, but both possessed the enduring courage of men +habituated to facing danger and sudden death without losing control of +their faculties.</p> + +<p>Time passed, but they had no means of telling how much, since their +wrist watches no longer functioned. But after a while they noticed +that the grade was upward and the going easier. At the same moment, +Ward called attention to the fact that, even without electric torches, +it was possible to see. All around the two Americans grew a strange +light—a weird, phosphorescent glow, revealing far walls and massive +pillars.</p> + +<p>Now they could see that they were in a vast chamber, undoubtedly the +work of human hands; a room awe-inspiring to behold, and even more +than awe-inspiring in the reflections it forced upon their minds. +Passages radiated on either hand to mysterious depths, and great bulks +loomed in the spectral light. Justus Miles gave a low cry of amazement +when a closer investigation revealed those bulks to be the wrecks of +mighty and intricate machines, the use of which it was vain to +conjecture. He looked at Ward.</p> + +<p>"Solino spoke of a city down in the ocean. Can this be it?"</p> + +<p>Ward shook his head. "Everything here is old, abandoned. Look—what is +that?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>he figure of a giant creature, carved either from stone or marble and +encrusted with phosphorous, stood lowering in their path. It was that +of a winged beast with a human head. Its features were negroid in +character; and so malignant was the expression of the staring face, so +lifelike the execution of the whole statue, that a chill of fear ran +through their veins. It was in Ward's mind that this gigantic carving +was akin to the ones he had seen in Egypt, and as old, if not older.</p> + +<p>Beyond the statue the rail curved and the grade leveled; and, rounding +the bend, they were amazed to come upon a sort of "yard" where the +rail stopped. In that enclosure, on several sidings, were submarine +cars similar to the wrecked one they had abandoned. But that was not +the sight which brought them to a breathless halt. Beyond the sidings +stood what appeared to be a small building of gleaming crystal.</p> + +<p>After a moment of breathless wonder they cautiously approached the +bizarre structure. No dampness or phosphorus impaired the clarity of +its walls. The material composing them felt vibrantly warm to the +touch. It was not glass, yet it was possible to look without +difficulty into the interior of the building, which appeared to be one +large room containing nothing but a central device not unlike the +filaments of an electric bulb. In fact, the whole building, viewed +from the outside, reminded the two adventurers of a giant light globe. +The filaments radiated a steady and somehow exhilarating light. The +door—they knew it was a door because an edging of dark metal +outlined its frame—gave admittance to the room.</p> + +<p>"Shall we?" questioned Miles; and Ward answered doubtfully, "I don't +know. Perhaps...."</p> + +<p>But at last they turned the golden knob, felt the door give to their +pressure, and stepped through the entrance into the soft radiance of +the interior. Unthinkingly, Ward released his hold on the knob and the +door swung shut behind them. Instantly there was a flash of light, and +they were oppressed by a feeling of nausea: and then, out of a +momentary pit of blackness, they emerged to find that the room of +crystal had oddly changed its proportions and opaqueness. "Quick!" +cried Ward; "let us get out of this place." Both men found the door +and staggered forth.</p> + +<p>Then, at sight of what they saw, they stood rooted to the spot in +sheer amazement. The gloomy tunnel and the sidings of submarine cars +had vanished, and they were standing in a vast hall, an utterly +strange and magnificent hall, staring up into the face of a creature +crudely human and colored green!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>he green man was almost of heroic proportions; he was clad in but a +breech-clout, and was so broad as to appear squat in stature. He +carried a short club, and appeared almost as dumbfounded as the two +Americans. A moment he regarded them, then, with a ferocious snarl of +rage, he hurled himself upon the startled Ward and half clubbed, half +pushed him to the floor. Recovering from his momentary inaction and +realizing the danger in which his friend stood, Miles shouted and +leaped upon the green man's back, fastening his sinewy fingers about +the giant's throat.</p> + +<p>But the latter was possessed of incredible strength, and, +straightening up, he shook off Miles as a bear might shake off an +attacking dog, and threw him heavily to the floor. Then the green +giant whirled up his club, and it would have gone hardly with Miles if +Ward had not remembered his automatic and fired in the nick of time. +As if poleaxed, the green man fell; and both the adventurers recovered +their feet.</p> + +<p>"Look out!" shouted Ward.</p> + +<p>Through a wide entrance came charging a dozen greenish giants. Miles +fired both his pistols. The leader of the greenish men paused in +mid-leap, clawing at his stomach.</p> + +<p>"This way, Kid!" yelled Ward; "this way!"</p> + +<p>Taking advantage of the confusion in the ranks of the attackers, the +two sprang to where an exit in the far wall promised an avenue of +escape. Down a broad passage they rushed. Seemingly the passage ended +in a cul-de-sac, for a wall of blank whiteness barred further +progress. Behind them came charging the greenish giants uttering +appalling cries. Desperately the two Americans turned, resolved to +sell their lives as dearly as possible; but at that moment happened a +sheer miracle. The blank wall divided, revealing a narrow crevice +through which they sprang. Noiselessly the crevice closed behind them, +shutting out the green pursuers, and a voice said—a voice in precise +but strangely accented English:</p> + +<p>"We have been expecting you, gentlemen, but—where is Solino?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">N</span>ever would Miles and Ward forget the amazement of that moment. They +were in a place which looked not unlike a huge laboratory. Then they +saw it was a lofty room containing a variety of strange mechanisms. +But it was not on these their eyes focussed. Confronting them in odd +wheelchairs, with hairless heads projecting from tubular containers +like the one they had seen encasing the man at the control board of +the submarines, were all of half a hundred crippled men!</p> + +<p>"Good Lord!" exclaimed Miles, "I must be seeing things!"</p> + +<p>"Where is Solino?" demanded the voice in strangely accented English.</p> + +<p>Ward saw that the question came from an individual in a wheelchair a +few feet in front of them.</p> + +<p>"Solino is dead," he answered.</p> + +<p>"Dead?" A ripple of sound came from the oddly seated men.</p> + +<p>"Yes, the submarine car was wrecked in the tunnel, and everyone aboard +was killed save us two."</p> + +<p>The hairless men looked at one another. "This is Spiro's work," said +one of them, still in English; and another said, "Yes, Spiro has done +this."</p> + +<p>Miles and Ward were recovering somewhat from their initial +astonishment. "What place is this?" asked the former.</p> + +<p>"This is Apex—or, rather, the Palace of the Heads in Apex."</p> + +<p>The Palace of the Heads! The two Americans tried to control their +bewilderment.</p> + +<p>"Pardon us if we don't understand. Everything is so strange. First the +submarine was wrecked. Then we entered the crystal room and the tunnel +vanished. We can't understand how this place can be at the bottom of +the Atlantic."</p> + +<p>"It isn't at the bottom of the Atlantic."</p> + +<p>"Not at the bottom? Then where?"</p> + +<p>"It isn't," said the voice slowly, "in your world at all."</p> + +<p>The import of what was said did not at first penetrate the minds of +the Americans. "Not in our world?" they echoed stupidly.</p> + +<p>"Come," said the crippled man smiling inscrutably, "you are tired and +hungry. Later I shall explain more." His strangely colored eyes bored +into their own. "Sleep," said his voice softly, imperatively; and +though they fought against the command with all the strength of their +wills, heaviness weighted down their eyelids and they slept.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">F</span>rom dreamless sleep they awakened to find that fatigue had +miraculously vanished, that their wounds were healed and their bodies +and clothes were free of slime and filth. All but one of the crippled +men—for so in their own minds they termed the odd individuals—had +gone away. That one was the man who had first addressed them.</p> + +<p>"Do not be alarmed," he said. "In our own fashion we have given you +food and rest and attended to your comfort."</p> + +<p>Ward smiled, though a trifle uncertainly. "We are not easily +frightened," he replied.</p> + +<p>"So! That is good. But now listen: my name is Zoro and I am Chief of +the Heads of Apex. Ages ago we Heads lived on a continent of your +Earth now known to scholars as Atlantis. When Atlantis sank below the +waves—in your sacred book that tragedy is known as the Flood—all but +a scattered few of its people perished. I and my companions were among +the survivors."</p> + +<p>The Americans stared at him unbelievingly. "But that was a hundred +thousand years ago!" exclaimed Ward.</p> + +<p>"Three hundred thousand," corrected Zoro.</p> + +<p>They stared at him dumbly.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Zoro; "it sounds incredible to your ears, but it is true. +Mighty as is the industrial civilization of your day, that of Atlantis +was mightier. Of course, the country wasn't then called Atlantis; its +real name was A-zooma. A-zooma ruled the world. Its ships with sails +of copper and engines of brass covered the many seas which now are +lands. Its airships clove the air with a safety and speed your own +have still to attain. The wealth of the world poured into A-zooma, and +its rulers waxed vain-glorious and proud. Time after time the +enslaved masses of A-zooma and of conquered countries rose in great +rebellions. Then against them marched the "iron baylas" breathing +death and destruction, and from the air mighty ships poured down the +yellow fog...."</p> + +<p>Zoro paused, but presently went on: "So we ruled—for ten thousand +years; until the scientists who begot those engines of destruction +became afraid, because the serfs themselves began to build secret +laboratories. We of the priesthood of science saw the inevitable +disaster. Long ago we had put off our bodies—"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">Z</span>oro smiled at the Americans' amazement. "No," he said, "I am not a +cripple in a wheelchair. This tubular container holds no fleshly body. +Inside of it is a mechanical heart which pumps artificial blood—blood +purified by a process I will not describe—through my head. It also +contains certain inner devices under my mental control, devices that +take the place of human hands and feet. Only by accident or through +lack of certain essentials can I die."</p> + +<p>His listeners stared at him in awe. "You mean," faltered Miles, "that +save for your head you are all—machine?"</p> + +<p>"Practically, yes. We priest-scientists of the Inner Mystery prolonged +life in such fashion. I was three thousand years old when—But enough! +I will not weary you with a recital of how the slaves burrowed the +bowels of A-zooma and of how the masters loosed against them the +forces of the atom. Suffice it to say that on an island we built our +vast system of buildings—or tunnel as you choose to call it—and +sealed them away from the outside world, entrance being made by +submarines through automatically controlled locks.</p> + +<p>"At about this time our experiments opened up another realm of +existence, manifesting at a vibratory rate above that of earth. To +this new realm we brought workers who built the City of Apex and the +palace you are in. But, unfortunately, we brought with us no weapons +of offense, and in the new world we had neither the material nor the +delicate mechanisms and factories to reproduce them. However, for +countless ages there was no rebellion on the part of the workers who, +even in A-zooma, had worshipped us as gods. They were born, grew old +and died, but we abode forever. Besides, in the City of Apex they were +freer than they had ever been before, merely having to furnish our +laboratories with certain raw materials and the wherewithal to sustain +the blood supply on which our lives depend. But, of late, they have +made common cause with the original inhabitants of this plane, the +green men—"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>he green men! As if the words were a signal, a dreadful thing +happened. Out of a far shadow leaped a lean and hideous monster. To +Miles' startled eyes it seemed to grow as it leaped. Thin, +unbelievably thin it was, yet swelling at the head. From between two +goggle-eyes writhed a rope-like trunk. Twelve feet in the air its head +towered over Zoro. "Look out!" screamed the American.</p> + +<p>Zoro's chair seemed to jump. Too late! Around the tubular container +wrapped the snake-like trunk, plucking the wheelchair and its occupant +from the floor and dangling them high in air. "Shoot!" cried Zoro.</p> + +<p>Miles shot. His bullet ploughed through the unbelievably thin body and +ricochetted from a pillar beyond. Ward fired with better effect. One +of the goggle eyes spattered like glass. Under a fusillade of bullets +the monster wilted, giving expression to a weird, shrill cry. Zoro +dangled head downwards. To drop from such a height on his skull would +probably be fatal.</p> + +<p>But the monster did not drop him. Instead, in its death agony, its +grip tightened, and the Americans witnessed an incredible sight. +Before their very eyes the monster began rapidly to shrink. Its +tenuous body telescoped together, becoming thinner and thinner in the +process, until on the floor there lay the lifeless body of a +snake-like creature not more than six inches in length!</p> + +<p>"Good Lord!" breathed Miles.</p> + +<p>Zoro who had escaped unscathed from his perilous plight, regarded it +with his peculiarly colored eyes.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">"I</span>t is a tah-a-la," he said, "and must have entered the room at the +same time you did. The green men often capture and train them for +hunting. When about to seize their prey their bodies have the power of +enormously stretching." Outwardly he seemed unaffected by the danger +safely passed and waved away several of his fellows who had wheeled to +the spot attracted by the noise of the pistols. The Americans were +more shaken. "Perhaps," said Ward, "there is danger of—"</p> + +<p>"None," replied Zoro. "I know there are no other tah-a-las inside +these rooms, since it is the nature of these beasts to rush to each +other's aid when they scream. And as for outside attacks, the +laboratories are insulated against any the insurgent workers can make. +Their weapons are poor—the green men use but clubs. No, it is not +their attacks we fear but their refusal to furnish us with supplies. +They worshipped us as gods, and the giving of supplies was long a +religious rite. But now they doubt our divinity, and, since they no +longer listen to or obey our decrees, we have no means of punishing +them. Spiro is responsible for this."</p> + +<p>"Spiro?" questioned the two men.</p> + +<p>"He whom we raised to the dignity of godhead on the accidental death +of Bah-koo, causing a deep sleep to fall upon him in the temple and +grafting his head upon the mechanical body left by the latter. Twice +before we had done this with citizens of Apex, and how were we to know +that Spiro would resent it? True, he was in love with Ah-eeda, but the +physical passions of men die with the organisms that give them birth. +For three years he dwelt with us in the laboratories, learning the +wisdom of the Heads, and then,"—Zoro's face became forbidding—"he +denounced us to the people. Though there was more or less discontent, +they would never have dared defy us save for him. He told them that +our curses could do no harm, that we were merely the heads of men like +himself and would die if they refused to give us the wherewithal to +renew blood.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">"B</span>ut this refusal of theirs is an evil thing," he cried, looking at +the Americans with his strangely colored eyes. "It violates the custom +of ages, and strikes at the very roots of our existence. So we held +council and sent two of our number to Earth after men and weapons to +enforce our demands. For years we had watched Earth, seen its myriad +civilizations rise and fall, studied the coming of America to power +and importance. So it was to America that Solino went, by way of the +tunnel that still exists under the Atlantic—"</p> + +<p>"And hired us," interrupted Ward, "and brought us to the tunnel in the +submarine-car where we—"</p> + +<p>"Stepped into the crystal chamber," finished Zoro. "That chamber is a +re-vibrating device of certain rays and chemicals. The shutting of the +door closed the switches and hurled your bodies to where a +receiving-station on this plane integrated them again."</p> + +<p>So they were not at the bottom of the ocean. They were—stupendous +thought—living in a new world of matter!</p> + +<p>"Spiro suspected our plans," continued Zoro. "He isolated us in our +laboratories, and, by means of a crystal tube, went through to the +tunnel, tore up a section of track, and wrecked the submarine-car. But +his act was only partially successful. You two escaped death; you are +here; you are ready to keep faith and fight in our service."</p> + +<p>"We are ready to fight," assented Miles and Ward. The situation was +certainly an unusual one, and one they did not clearly understand; but +theirs was the simple code of the mercenary soldier—they would fight +for whoever hired them, and be loyal as long as their wages were paid.</p> + +<p>"Then there is no time to lose," exclaimed Zoro. "Already our blood +grows thin. You must go back to the wrecked submarine and retrieve +your weapons."</p> + +<p>"But how?"</p> + +<p>"There is a sending tube in the next compartment."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>hey followed Zoro through lofty rooms filled with amber light until +they came to one wherein were assembled the rest of the Heads. Zoro +spoke to them swiftly in a strange, flowing tongue. Then he conducted +the two Americans to a crystal chamber at the end of the room and bade +them enter it. The vibrant light caressed their limbs.</p> + +<p>"When I close this door," he said, "you will find yourselves back in +the tunnel. Board one of the submarine-cars on the siding and proceed +to the wreck." He gave them detailed instructions how to operate the +car. "Then get your weapons and return. Do you understand?"</p> + +<p>They nodded.</p> + +<p>"The workers possess no arms the equal of machine-guns and bombs. They +will be at your mercy. Remember that you are fighting for our lives +and that, if you save them, your reward will be great. Fear nothing."</p> + +<p>The door closed. After a moment there was a blinding flash, a moment +of swooning darkness, and then they were staring through transparent +walls into the phosphorescent gloom of the underseas crypt. Suddenly, +what they had recently undergone seemed the product of an illusion, a +dream. Ward shook himself vigorously. "I guess it was real enough," he +said. "Let us see if the car works."</p> + +<p>They ran out to the wreck and returned without trouble. The +machine-gun was mounted for action and the gas-bombs slung over their +shoulders in convenient bags. "All right," said Miles tensely, "let us +go."</p> + +<p>Again they entered the crystal chamber; again there was the flash of +light and the sensation of falling into darkest space. Then, in a +moment it seemed, they were stepping into the hall from which they had +fled pursued by the green men—only for the second time, to be +confronted by a crowd of hostile giants. "Don't fire, Kid!" yelled +Ward. "It's no use to kill them uselessly. Give them the bombs!"</p> + +<p>Disconcerted by the attack of tear-gas, the green men broke and fled. +"After them," panted Ward: "we've got them on the run!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>hrilling to the lust of battle, the two Americans emerged into an +open square. They had little time to note the odd buildings and +strange statues. Coming towards them with leveled weapons, the nature +of which they did not know, was a band of short men—that is, short in +comparison with the greenish giants. Behind this company appeared +still another, and another. Tear-gas was useless to stop their onward +rush. "All right," yelled Miles, "it's lead they want!"</p> + +<p>The machine-gun spat a hail of bullets. Before the first withering +blast the swarthy men recoiled in confusion. Then a second volley +scattered them like chaff. Miles and Ward were conscious of no pity +for the dead and wounded lying on the pavement of yellow stone. This +was their profession, the stern business of which they were masters. +In France they had seen worse sights, and in Nicaragua and Mexico. +They swept destructively out of the square and into a long tree-lined +avenue. This might be another world or dimension but its trees looked +not unlike those of tropical America.</p> + +<p>In a short while the radiating streets were cleared of crowds and the +cries of the mob died away. Miles and Ward paused in the shadow of an +overhanging wall and wiped their faces. "That was quick work, all +right," said Ward; and, even as he said it, the wall seemed to fall +upon their unprotected heads and crush them into unconsciousness....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">O</span>ut of a sick darkness they came. At first they thought they were +confronting Zoro. Then, as the mists of unconsciousness cleared from +aching heads, they perceived that they were in a vast hall crowded +with swarthy men in short tunics, and with greenish giants wearing +nothing but breech-clouts and swinging short clubs. The fierce eyes of +the greenish giants were upon them, and the vengeful ones of the +swarthy men. But the desire of both to rend and tear was held in check +by the dominant head emerging from a tubular container mounted upon a +wheelchair. The Americans stared. This was not the head of Zoro. No!</p> + +<p>"The head of Spiro," thought Miles and Ward with sinking hearts.</p> + +<p>They had fallen into the power of the leader of the insurgent workers!</p> + +<p>Spiro—for it was indeed he—regarded them with pitiless eyes. His +English was slower and not as fluent as that of Zoro, and his words +harder to understand.</p> + +<p>"You Americans, beings of another world, have come here at the +bidding of the Heads to slay and kill for gold."</p> + +<p>He paused. "I who for three years studied your country, learned its +language, history, did not believe men of your race could be so vile."</p> + +<p>He paused again, and Ward broke out hotly, "It is true that we came +here to fight for gold, but who are you to speak of vileness? Have you +not turned on the Heads, your benefactors, now your brothers, who +raised you to their height? Are you not leading a revolt of the +workers which would deny them the means of sustaining life? Are you +not seeking to perpetrate—murder?"</p> + +<p>Spiro regarded him slowly. "Is it possible you are in ignorance of +what those means are? Listen, then, while I tell you the hideous +truth. Since the dawn of our history, until the present moment, the +Heads have maintained their lives by draining blood from the veins of +thousands of Apexans yearly!"</p> + +<p>The Americans' faces whitened. "What do you mean?" breathed Ward.</p> + +<p>"I mean that the artificial blood pumped by mechanical hearts through +the brains of the Heads—yes, and that is now being pumped through my +own!" cried Spiro bitterly—"is manufactured from human blood. Human +blood is the basis of it. And to get that blood every Apexan must +yield his quota in the temple. Slowly but surely this practice is +sapping the vitality of the race. But though the Apexans realized this +they were afraid to speak against the custom. For the Heads were +worshipped as gods; and when the gods spoke, blasphemers +died—horribly."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">M</span>iles and Ward shuddered.</p> + +<p>"Even I," went on Spiro, "denounced blasphemers and thought it holy +that each should yield a little of his blood to the Almighty Ones. +Then I woke from darkness to find myself—a Head. At first I could not +understand, for I was in love with Ah-eeda—and can a machine mate? +But it is true that love is largely desire, and desire of the body. +With the death of the body, desire died; and it may be that pride and +ambition took its place. But, for all that, there were moments when I +remembered my lost manhood and dreamed of Ah-eeda. Yes, though the +laboratory of the Heads revealed wonders of which I had never dreamed, +though I looked into your world and studied its languages and history, +though I was worshipped as a god and endless life stretched ahead of +me—nevertheless, I could see that the strength of my race was being +sapped, its virility lost!"</p> + +<p>His voice broke. "In the face of such knowledge what were immortality +and power? Could they compensate for one hour of life and love as +humanity lived it? So I brooded. Then one day in the temple I looked +into the face of a girl about to be bled and recognized Ah-eeda. In +that moment, hatred of the fiends posing as gods and draining the +vitality of deluded worshippers, crystallized and drove me to action. +So it was I who denounced the Heads, aroused the people!" Spiro's +voice broke; died. Miles and Ward stared at him, horrified; and after +a while Miles exclaimed, "We never suspected! We would never have +fought to maintain such a thing had we known!"</p> + +<p>"Nonetheless," said Spiro inflexibly, "you fought for it, and many +people died and more are afraid. Superstition is a hard thing to kill. +Already there are those who murmur that truly the Heads are gods and +have called up demons from the underworld, as they threatened they +would, to smite them with thunder until once more they yield blood in +the temple. But I know that without blood the Heads must die +miserably and the people be freed from their vampire existence. It is +true that I too shall die, but that is nothing. I die gladly. +Therefore, to keep the people from sacrificing blood, to show them +that you are mortal and the Heads powerless to save the demons they +have raised, you must be slain in front of the great palace.</p> + +<p>"Yes; you, too, must die for the people!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">B</span>ound and helpless, lying on their backs and staring into the gloom of +the small chamber into which they had been thrown, Miles and Ward had +time to ponder their desperate situation. Spiro was delaying their +death until the workers of Apex would have time to gather and witness +it. At first they had struggled to loosen their bonds, but such +efforts served only to tighten them. Then they had tried the trick of +rolling together so that the fingers of one might endeavor to undo the +knots securing the other. On a memorable occasion in Turkey they had +freed themselves in this manner. But the attempts proved fruitless +now. The floor of the chamber was smooth, nor could they find any +rough projection on which to saw the cords.</p> + +<p>Exhausted, they finally desisted. The same thought was in both minds: +Were they doomed to die in this strange world, fated never to see +Earth again? Well, a soldier of fortune must expect to meet with +reverses. Still, it was a tough break. After a long silence Ward said, +"How were we to know that the heads lived on the blood of the people?"</p> + +<p>"Would it have made any difference if we had known?" asked Miles.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not." Ward tried to shrug his shoulders. "After all, we have +fought to maintain systems not much better. There is little +difference, save in degree, between draining the life-blood of a race +and robbing it of the fruits of its labor."</p> + +<p>"But sometimes we fought to liberate people," protested Miles.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I like to think of that. It's good to have something to our +credit when we cash in. And it looks," he said pessimistically, "as if +our time to do so has come."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>hey ceased talking. Time passed cheerlessly. Finally both of them +fell into a heavy slumber from which they were aroused by the sudden +flashing in their eyes of a bright light, bright only in comparison +with the former intense darkness. "What's that!" cried Ward, startled.</p> + +<p>"S-sh," said a soft voice warningly, and when their eyes became +accustomed to the illumination, they were amazed to perceive the +slender form of a young girl carrying a torch. She was marvelously +lovely to look at, with her blue-black hair brushed straight back from +a low, broad forehead and her smooth skin as dark as that of an +Egyptian. Nor was she dressed unlike pictures Miles had seen of people +of ancient Egypt. The embroidered plates covering the small breasts +shone and glittered; bracelets and bangles flashed on bare arms and +shapely ankles; while from the waist to below the knees was a skirt of +rich material. On the small feet were sandals of intricate design. +Besides the torch, the girl carried a slim, gleaming knife, and for a +moment the adventurers were guilty of imagining she had come to slay +them where they lay. But her manner quickly dispelled their fear. +Sinking on her knees beside them, she said, "Do not be afraid; Ah-eeda +will not harm you."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">S</span>o this was Ah-eeda, the girl of whom Spiro had spoken. Miles and Ward +devoured her loveliness with their eyes; her coming flooded their +bosoms with renewed hope. She continued speaking. Her English was not +at all fluent, and she was often compelled to make it clear with +expressions in her own tongue and with explanatory gestures. But to +Miles and Ward, who knew nothing of temple training, her speaking +English at all was a miracle.</p> + +<p>"Is it true that you are men from another world?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And you came to make the people give their blood to the Heads?"</p> + +<p>"No, that is not true. We were in ignorance of what it was we fought +for. Had we known the truth we would have refused to fight for the +Heads."</p> + +<p>"Then, if I were to set you free, you would go back to your own world +and not fight my people any more?"</p> + +<p>They nodded vigorously.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I am so glad," exclaimed the girl; "I did not want to see you +die!" She looked at Miles as she spoke. "I saw you before Spiro this +afternoon. Poor Spiro!" she murmured as she cut their bonds. It was +some time before circulation was restored to their limbs. Miles asked +anxiously, "How many guards are there at the door?"</p> + +<p>"Twelve," said the girl; "but they are playing wong-wo in the room +outside and drinking soola." She pantomimed her meaning. "I came here +through a secret passage beyond," she indicated by a wave of her hand. +"Now that you can walk, let us hurry." Shyly she took Miles' hand. The +warm clasp of her fingers made the blood course faster in his veins.</p> + +<p>Through a long passage they glided to another room. There were several +confusing turns and dark hallways, and twice they had to cower in +shadowy corners while Ah-eeda boldly advanced and held converse with +occasional persons encountered, though for the most part the way was +silent and deserted. At last they came to a low door opening on a +narrow street and the girl put out her torch.</p> + +<p>"To return to our own world we must first reach the Palace of the +Heads," said Ward. The girl nodded. "I will guide you there. But we +must hurry: the workers will soon be gathered."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">N</span>ever were Miles and Ward to forget that breathless flight. The girl +led them through narrow and devious byways over which dark buildings +leaned, evidently avoiding the more direct and open thoroughfares. It +seemed as if they were to escape without hindrance when, suddenly, out +of a dimly lighted doorway, lurched the gigantic figure of a green man +carrying a flare. This flare threw the figures of the fugitives into +relief.</p> + +<p>"Ho!" roared the green man, and came at them like a furious bull. It +seemed characteristic of his kind to attack without parley. The torch +dropped as he came. There was no resisting that mighty bulk. Unarmed, +and with scant room to move backward, the two Americans went down; and +that would have been the end of the battle if Ah-eeda, who had shrunk +to one side out of the way of the combatants, had not snatched up the +still flaming torch and held it against the naked back of the greenish +giant. With a scream of anguish the latter ceased throttling the +Americans, clapped his hands to his scorched back and rolled clear of +them.</p> + +<p>Instantly they staggered to their feet and fled down the roadway after +the light-footed Ah-eeda. Behind them the screams of the green man +made the night hideous. "Damn him!" panted Ward; "he'll have the whole +town on our heels!" Providentially, at that moment the road debouched +into the great square. This they crossed at a run, and so, for the +last time, entered the Palace of the Heads. Its wide halls and +chambers were practically deserted.</p> + +<p>Past the crystal chamber where they had first materialized into this +strange world they dashed, and through the far door and down the +corridor to the blank wall. Already in the rear could be heard the +sound of pursuit, the rising clamor of the mob. Ward hammered on the +wall with both fists. "Zoro! Zoro! let us in!" Now the first of the +mob had entered the corridor. "Zoro! Zoro!" Noiselessly, and just in +time, the wall parted and they sprang through, Miles half carrying the +slender form of Ah-eeda. The wall closed behind them, obliterating the +fierce cries and footbeats of their pursuers.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">I</span>n front of them was Zoro, his hairless head projecting from the +tubular container. Ah-eeda shrank fearfully into Miles' embrace. All +the other Heads were ranged back of Zoro, but there was something odd +about them. The massive craniums lolled loosely to one side or another +and the curiously colored eyes were glazed or filmed. Zoro held his +head erect, but only with an effort, and his features were drawn and +ghastly looking.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said in a feeble voice, "the Heads are dying. You need not +tell me that you have failed. In the end force always fails. No longer +will the veins of the people yield their blood to us, and without +their blood we cannot live. Soon three hundred thousand years of +intelligence will be no more." His voice faltered.</p> + +<p>Miles and Ward had learned to feel nothing but horror and detestation +of the Heads, but now in the face of their tragic end, hearing the +dying words of Zoro, awe and sympathy struggled with other emotions in +their hearts. These mighty intellects had lived before the days of the +flood; their eyes filming now in death had seen the ancient empires +of Earth rise and fall.... Sumeria, Babylon.... Stupendous thought; +and yet in the face of death a hundred thousand years of life was of +no more importance than that of a day. Suddenly Ward sprang forward +and shook the fainting Head. "Zoro! Zoro! what of us? We served you +faithfully and would now return to Earth."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">V</span>isibly Zoro made a great effort to reply. "Go to the crystal tube in +the laboratory beyond," he said at last. "It still works. I have told +you how to run the car. Mend the tracks. The locks open automatically +and let the car into the ocean when it strikes the switch. Your reward +is in...." The words died away. Then, with a sudden influx of +strength, the hairless head straightened, the strangely colored eyes +cleared, and in a loud voice Zoro called out something in an unknown +tongue and then collapsed.</p> + +<p>Out of that chamber of death the Americans fled, suddenly afraid of +its weird occupants. In time the workers of Apex would break into +that strange laboratory and find the vampires of the ages dead. And in +a very short time Spiro himself would die—Spiro the avenger.</p> + +<p>At the crystal tube Miles paused. "Ah-eeda," he said softly, "we +return to Earth, but I shall never forget you, never!"</p> + +<p>A moment he hesitated, and then bent and kissed her swiftly. Instantly +she was in his arms, clinging to him passionately.</p> + +<p>"I too," she cried; "I too!"</p> + +<p>"She means," said Ward, "that she wants to go back with us. What do +you say?"</p> + +<p>"God knows I am tempted to take her," said Miles; "but would it be +right? What does she know of Earth?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing," said Ward; "but I believe she loves you. And have you +thought that after helping us to escape she may not be safe among her +own people?"</p> + +<p>Miles bowed his head. "Very well," he said; "so be it. I swear to make +her happy."</p> + +<p>So there were three of them who entered the crystal tube.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Heads of Apex, by Francis Flagg + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEADS OF APEX *** + +***** This file should be named 29046-h.htm or 29046-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/0/4/29046/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Heads of Apex + +Author: Francis Flagg + +Release Date: June 5, 2009 [EBook #29046] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEADS OF APEX *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from Astounding Stories October 1931. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the + U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + [Illustration: I looked into the face of a girl about to be bled.] + + + + The Heads of Apex + + + By Francis Flagg + + * * * * * + + + + +[Sidenote: Far under the sea-floor Solino's submarine carries two American +soldiers of fortune to startling adventure among the Vampire Heads of +Apex.] + + +Justus Miles was sitting on a bench in the park, down at the heels, +hungry, desperate, when a gust of wind whirled a paper to his feet. It +was the advertising section of the _New York Times_. Apathetically, he +picked it up, knowing from the past weeks' experience that few or no +jobs were being advertised. Then with a start he sat up, for in the +center of the page, encased in a small box and printed in slightly +larger type than the ordinary advertisement, he read the following +words: "Wanted: Soldier of Fortune, young, healthy; must have good +credentials. Apply 222 Reuter Place, between two and four." It was +to-day's advertising section he was scanning, and the hour not yet +one. + +Reuter Place was some distance away, he knew, a good hour's walk on +hard pavement and through considerable heat. But he had made forced +marches in Sonora as badly shod and on even an emptier stomach. For +Justus Miles, though he might not have looked it, was a bona fide +soldier of fortune, stranded in New York. Five feet eight in height, +he was, loose and rangy in build, and with deceptively mild blue eyes. +He had fought through the World War, served under Kemal Pasha in +Turkey, helped the Riffs in Morocco, filibustered in South America and +handled a machine-gun for revolutionary forces in Mexico. Surely, he +thought grimly, if anyone could fill the bill for a soldier of fortune +it was himself. + +222 Reuter Place proved to be a large residence in a shabby +neighborhood. On the sidewalk, a queue of men was being held in line +by a burly cop. The door of the house opened, and an individual, +broad-shouldered and with flaming red hair, looked over the crowd. +Instantly Justus Miles let out a yell, "Rusty! By God, Rusty!" and +waved his hands. + +"Hey, feller, who do you think you're shovin'?" growled a hard-looking +fellow at the head of the line, but Justus Miles paid no attention to +him. The man in the doorway also let out an excited yell. + +"Well, well, if it isn't the Kid! Hey, Officer, let that fellow +through: I want to speak to him." + + * * * * * + +With the door shut on the blasphemous mob, the two men wrung each +other's hands. Ex-Sergeant Harry Ward, known to his intimates as +"Rusty," led Justus Miles into a large office and shoved him into a +chair. + +"I didn't know you were in New York, kid. The last I saw of you was +when we quit Sandino." + +"And I never suspected that 222 Reuter Place would be you, Rusty. +What's the lay, old man, and is there any chance to connect?" + +"You bet your life there's a chance. Three hundred a month and found. +But the boss has the final say-so, though I'm sure he'll take you on +my recommendation." + +He opened a door, led Justus Miles through an inner room, knocked at a +far door and ushered him into the presence of a man who sat behind a +roll-topped desk. There was something odd about this old man, and +after a moment's inspection Justus Miles saw what it was. He was +evidently a cripple, propped up in a strange wheelchair. He had an +abnormally large and hairless head, and his body was muffled to the +throat in a voluminous cloak, the folds of which fell over and +enveloped most of the wheelchair itself. The face of this old +gentleman--though the features were finely molded--was swarthy: its +color was almost that of a negro--or an Egyptian. He regarded the two +men with large and peculiarly colored eyes--eyes that probed them +sharply. + +"Well, Ward, what is it?" + +"The man you advertised for, Mr. Solino." + + * * * * * + +Solino regarded Justus Miles critically. + +"You have been a soldier of fortune?" he asked. He spoke English with +the preciseness of an educated foreigner. + +"Yes, sir. Rusty--that is, Mr. Ward knows my record." + +"I was his sergeant in France, sir; saw fighting with him in Morocco, +Turkey, Nicaragua--" + +"You can vouch for him, then; his character, courage--" + +"You couldn't get a better man, sir. If I had known he was in town I +would have sent for him." + +"Very well; that is sufficient. But Mr.--Miles did you +say?--understands he is embarking on a dangerous adventure with grave +chances of losing his life?" + +"I have faced danger and risked my life before this," said Justus +Miles quietly. + +The other nodded. "Then that is all I am prepared to tell you at this +time." + +Justus Miles accompanied Ward to his room where the latter laid out +for him a change of clothing. It was luxurious to splash in warm water +and bath-salts after the enforced griminess of weeks. The clothes +fitted him fairly well, the two men being of a size. Lounging in his +friend's room after a substantial meal, and smoking a Turkish +cigarette, he questioned Ward more closely. + +"Who is the old fellow?" + +"I don't know. He hired me through an advertisement and then set me to +employing others." + +"But surely you know where we are going?" + +"Hardly more than you do. Solino did say there was a country, a city +to be invaded. Whereabouts is a secret. I can't say I care for going +it blind, but neither do I like starving to death. I was in about the +same shape you were when you applied. Desperate." + +Justus Miles stretched himself comfortably. + +"A spiggoty by the looks of him," he said; "negro blood, no doubt. +Well, fighting's my trade. I'd rather cash in fighting than sit on a +park bench. I suppose the old boy will tell us more in good time, and +until then we're sitting pretty, with good eats to be had; so why +worry?" + +And yet if Justus Miles had been able to look ahead he might not have +talked so blithely. + + * * * * * + +During the week that followed his employment, he saw nothing of +Solino, though Ward met the old man for a few moments every day to +receive his instructions. "It puzzles me," he confessed to Miles, +"how the old chap lives. There's a private exit to the street from his +rooms, but I could swear he never goes out. How could he in that +wheelchair--no attendant. And yet he must. How would he get food?" + +Justus Miles smiled lazily. "No mystery at all, Rusty. We're gone for +hours at a time. What's to prevent him from phoning to have his meals +brought in?" + +"But I've questioned them at the restaurant and they say--" + +"Good Lord!--is there only one restaurant in Manhattan?" + +Yet Justus Miles himself could not help feeling there was something +mysterious about Solino, but just how mysterious he did not +realize--until, one evening, he stood with a half dozen of his fellow +adventurers in a lonely spot on the Long Island coast and watched the +darkness deepen around them. "We shall wait," said Solino presently, +"until the moon comes up." + +The moon rose at about nine o'clock, flooding the beach and the +heaving expanse of water with a ghostly light. From the folds of +Solino's cloak, close about his muffled throat, a peculiar ray of +green light flashed out over the water. In answer, a green light +flashed back, and presently, something low and black, like the body of +a whale half submerged, stole towards the beach. Scarcely a ripple +marked its progress, and the nose of it slid up on the sand. "Good +Lord!" whispered Miles, grasping Ward by the arm: "it's a submarine!" + +But the craft on which the surprised soldiers of fortune gazed was not +an ordinary submarine. In the first place, there was no conning tower; +and, in the second, from the blunt nose projected a narrow gangway +bridging the few feet of water between the mysterious craft and the +dry beach. But the men had little time to indulge in amazement. +"Quick," said Solino; "load those boxes onto the gangway. No need to +carry them further." He himself wheeled his chair into the interior of +the submarine, calling back, "Hurry, hurry!" + + * * * * * + +The adventurers accomplished the loading in a few minutes. "Now," came +the voice of their employer, "stand on the gangway yourselves. Steady; +don't move." + +Under their feet they felt the gangway vibrate and withdraw from the +land. For a moment they were in utter darkness; then a light flashed +up and revealed a long, box-like room. The opening through which they +had come had closed, leaving no sign of its existence. + +In the center of the room stood a mechanism like a huge gyroscope, and +a plunging piston, smooth and black, went up and down with +frictionless ease. In front of what was evidently a control board sat +a swarthy man with a large hairless head and peculiarly colored eyes. +The adventurers stared in surprise, for this man, too, sat in a +wheelchair, seemingly a cripple; but unlike Mr. Solino he wore no +cloak, his body from the neck down being enclosed in a tubular metal +container. The body must have been very small, and the legs amputated +at the hips, since the container was not large and terminated on the +seat of the peculiar wheel chair to which it seemed firmly attached. + +Solino did not offer to introduce them to the man at the control +board, who, aside from a quick look, paid them no attention. He +ushered them ahead into another, though smaller cabin, and after +indicating certain arrangements made for their comfort, withdrew. From +the slight sway of the floor under their feet and the perceptible +vibration of the craft, the adventurers knew they were under way. + +"Well, this is a rum affair and no mistake about it," said one of +them. + +"A freak--a bloomin' freak," remarked another whose cockney accent +proclaimed the Englishman. + +"Yuh're shore right," said a lean Texan. "That hombre out there had no +legs." + +"Nor hands either." + +Miles and Ward glanced at one another. The same thought was in both +minds. Neither of them had ever seen Mr. Solino's hands. A rum affair +all right! + + * * * * * + +Hours passed. Some of the men fell to gambling. At intervals they ate. +Twice they turned in and slept. Then, after what seemed an +interminable time, Solino summoned Miles and Ward to his presence in +the control room. "It is time," he said, "that you should know more of +the enterprise on which you have embarked. What I say, you can +communicate to the other men. A year's salary for all of you lies to +your credit at the Chase Bank of New York. And this money will not be +your sole reward if you survive and serve faithfully." + +"Thank you, sir," said Ward; "but now that we are well on our way to +our destination, could you not tell us more about it? You have said +something of a city, a country. Where is that country?" + +"Down," was the astounding answer. + +"Down?" echoed both men. + +"Yes," said Solino slowly, "down. The gateway to that land is at the +bottom of the ocean." + +As the two men gaped at him, incredulous, an awful thing happened. +With an appalling roar and a rending of steel and iron, the submarine +halted abruptly in its headlong flight, reared upward at an acute +angle and then fell forward with a tremendous crash. The adventurers +were thrown violently against a steel bulkhead, and slumped down +unconscious.... + + * * * * * + +How long they lay there insensible they never knew. Justus Miles was +the first to come to, and he found himself in Stygian blackness. +"Rusty!" he called, feeling terribly sick and giddy. Only silence +answered him. "Good God!" he thought, "what has happened?" His hand +went out and recoiled from something soft and sticky. Gingerly he sat +up. There was a lump on his head. His body felt bruised and sore but +it was evidently sound. He recollected the small but powerful +flashlight in his pocket, and drew it forth and pressed the button. A +reassuring pencil of light pierced through the gloom. Even as it did +so, someone groaned, and Ward's voice uttered his name. + +"Is that you, Kid?" + +"It's me, all right." + +"You ain't hurt?" + +"Nothing to speak of. How about you?" + +"O. K., I guess. An awful headache." + +"Can you stand up?" + +"Yes." + +Ward's face appeared in the ray of light, pale and blood-streaked. + +"I wonder what happened." + +"It sounded like a collision." + +They stared at one another with fearful eyes. A collision while +underseas in a submarine is a serious matter. + +"Where's Solino?" + +Justus Miles ran the beam of his torch this way and that, and saw that +the room was in a fearful confusion. The gyroscopic mechanism had +broken from its fastenings and rolled forward. Somewhere beneath its +crushing weight lay the control board and the swarthy operator. Then +they saw Solino, still in his overturned wheelchair, the cloak drawn +tightly about himself and it; but the top of his head was crushed in +like an eggshell. Justus Miles had touched that head when he stretched +out his hand in the darkness. + +He and Ward had been saved from death as by a miracle. Over their +heads the great piston had hurtled, killing Solino and tearing through +the steel partition into the chamber beyond, visiting it with death +and destruction. One hasty examination of that place was enough. The +men in there were dead. + + * * * * * + +Sick with horror, the two survivors faced the stark reality of their +terrible plight. Trapped in an underwater craft, they saw themselves +doomed to perish even more miserably than their companions. As the +horrible thought sank home, a cool breath of air, suggesting the smell +of stagnant salt water, blew through an opening created by the +crushing of the plates in the vessel's hull--an opening larger than +the body of a man. Miles and Ward stared at it with puzzled eyes. With +such a hole in her hull, the boat should have been admitting water and +not air. However, they approached the gap and examined it with their +torches. + +"Here goes," Ward said after a moment's hesitation, and clambered +through the opening, followed by his friend. When they were able to +make out their surroundings, they saw that they were in a vast tunnel +or cavern, the extent of which was shrouded in darkness. How the +submarine had left the ocean and penetrated to this cavern it was +impossible to say; but evidently it had come so far over a shining +rail, a break in which had caused the disaster. The cavern or tunnel +was paved with disjointed blocks of stone which once might have been +smooth and even, but which now were disarranged by time and slimy with +dampness and seagrowths. In the clammy air Miles involuntarily +shuddered. "Good Lord, Rusty, we're certainly up against it! The only +fellow who could tell us our whereabouts is dead!" + +Ward's jaw tightened. "That rail leads somewhere: it's our only hope. +But first let us get our guns and some food." + + * * * * * + +They were fortunate enough to discover several thermos bottles +unbroken. Hot coffee revived their fainting spirits. Treating their +bruises and cuts as well as they could, they left the submarine or +car--it seemed to have been convertible for use either in water or on +rail--and trudged ahead. + +Beyond the break that had caused the wreck, the rail stretched away +into illimitable blackness. Over rough stones, stumbling into shallow +pools of water, the light of their torches serving but faintly to show +the depressing surroundings, the two men plunged. Neither of them was +without fear, but both possessed the enduring courage of men +habituated to facing danger and sudden death without losing control of +their faculties. + +Time passed, but they had no means of telling how much, since their +wrist watches no longer functioned. But after a while they noticed +that the grade was upward and the going easier. At the same moment, +Ward called attention to the fact that, even without electric torches, +it was possible to see. All around the two Americans grew a strange +light--a weird, phosphorescent glow, revealing far walls and massive +pillars. + +Now they could see that they were in a vast chamber, undoubtedly the +work of human hands; a room awe-inspiring to behold, and even more +than awe-inspiring in the reflections it forced upon their minds. +Passages radiated on either hand to mysterious depths, and great bulks +loomed in the spectral light. Justus Miles gave a low cry of amazement +when a closer investigation revealed those bulks to be the wrecks of +mighty and intricate machines, the use of which it was vain to +conjecture. He looked at Ward. + +"Solino spoke of a city down in the ocean. Can this be it?" + +Ward shook his head. "Everything here is old, abandoned. Look--what is +that?" + + * * * * * + +The figure of a giant creature, carved either from stone or marble and +encrusted with phosphorous, stood lowering in their path. It was that +of a winged beast with a human head. Its features were negroid in +character; and so malignant was the expression of the staring face, so +lifelike the execution of the whole statue, that a chill of fear ran +through their veins. It was in Ward's mind that this gigantic carving +was akin to the ones he had seen in Egypt, and as old, if not older. + +Beyond the statue the rail curved and the grade leveled; and, rounding +the bend, they were amazed to come upon a sort of "yard" where the +rail stopped. In that enclosure, on several sidings, were submarine +cars similar to the wrecked one they had abandoned. But that was not +the sight which brought them to a breathless halt. Beyond the sidings +stood what appeared to be a small building of gleaming crystal. + +After a moment of breathless wonder they cautiously approached the +bizarre structure. No dampness or phosphorus impaired the clarity of +its walls. The material composing them felt vibrantly warm to the +touch. It was not glass, yet it was possible to look without +difficulty into the interior of the building, which appeared to be one +large room containing nothing but a central device not unlike the +filaments of an electric bulb. In fact, the whole building, viewed +from the outside, reminded the two adventurers of a giant light globe. +The filaments radiated a steady and somehow exhilarating light. The +door--they knew it was a door because an edging of dark metal +outlined its frame--gave admittance to the room. + +"Shall we?" questioned Miles; and Ward answered doubtfully, "I don't +know. Perhaps...." + +But at last they turned the golden knob, felt the door give to their +pressure, and stepped through the entrance into the soft radiance of +the interior. Unthinkingly, Ward released his hold on the knob and the +door swung shut behind them. Instantly there was a flash of light, and +they were oppressed by a feeling of nausea: and then, out of a +momentary pit of blackness, they emerged to find that the room of +crystal had oddly changed its proportions and opaqueness. "Quick!" +cried Ward; "let us get out of this place." Both men found the door +and staggered forth. + +Then, at sight of what they saw, they stood rooted to the spot in +sheer amazement. The gloomy tunnel and the sidings of submarine cars +had vanished, and they were standing in a vast hall, an utterly +strange and magnificent hall, staring up into the face of a creature +crudely human and colored green! + + * * * * * + +The green man was almost of heroic proportions; he was clad in but a +breech-clout, and was so broad as to appear squat in stature. He +carried a short club, and appeared almost as dumbfounded as the two +Americans. A moment he regarded them, then, with a ferocious snarl of +rage, he hurled himself upon the startled Ward and half clubbed, half +pushed him to the floor. Recovering from his momentary inaction and +realizing the danger in which his friend stood, Miles shouted and +leaped upon the green man's back, fastening his sinewy fingers about +the giant's throat. + +But the latter was possessed of incredible strength, and, +straightening up, he shook off Miles as a bear might shake off an +attacking dog, and threw him heavily to the floor. Then the green +giant whirled up his club, and it would have gone hardly with Miles if +Ward had not remembered his automatic and fired in the nick of time. +As if poleaxed, the green man fell; and both the adventurers recovered +their feet. + +"Look out!" shouted Ward. + +Through a wide entrance came charging a dozen greenish giants. Miles +fired both his pistols. The leader of the greenish men paused in +mid-leap, clawing at his stomach. + +"This way, Kid!" yelled Ward; "this way!" + +Taking advantage of the confusion in the ranks of the attackers, the +two sprang to where an exit in the far wall promised an avenue of +escape. Down a broad passage they rushed. Seemingly the passage ended +in a cul-de-sac, for a wall of blank whiteness barred further +progress. Behind them came charging the greenish giants uttering +appalling cries. Desperately the two Americans turned, resolved to +sell their lives as dearly as possible; but at that moment happened a +sheer miracle. The blank wall divided, revealing a narrow crevice +through which they sprang. Noiselessly the crevice closed behind them, +shutting out the green pursuers, and a voice said--a voice in precise +but strangely accented English: + +"We have been expecting you, gentlemen, but--where is Solino?" + + * * * * * + +Never would Miles and Ward forget the amazement of that moment. They +were in a place which looked not unlike a huge laboratory. Then they +saw it was a lofty room containing a variety of strange mechanisms. +But it was not on these their eyes focussed. Confronting them in odd +wheelchairs, with hairless heads projecting from tubular containers +like the one they had seen encasing the man at the control board of +the submarines, were all of half a hundred crippled men! + +"Good Lord!" exclaimed Miles, "I must be seeing things!" + +"Where is Solino?" demanded the voice in strangely accented English. + +Ward saw that the question came from an individual in a wheelchair a +few feet in front of them. + +"Solino is dead," he answered. + +"Dead?" A ripple of sound came from the oddly seated men. + +"Yes, the submarine car was wrecked in the tunnel, and everyone aboard +was killed save us two." + +The hairless men looked at one another. "This is Spiro's work," said +one of them, still in English; and another said, "Yes, Spiro has done +this." + +Miles and Ward were recovering somewhat from their initial +astonishment. "What place is this?" asked the former. + +"This is Apex--or, rather, the Palace of the Heads in Apex." + +The Palace of the Heads! The two Americans tried to control their +bewilderment. + +"Pardon us if we don't understand. Everything is so strange. First the +submarine was wrecked. Then we entered the crystal room and the tunnel +vanished. We can't understand how this place can be at the bottom of +the Atlantic." + +"It isn't at the bottom of the Atlantic." + +"Not at the bottom? Then where?" + +"It isn't," said the voice slowly, "in your world at all." + +The import of what was said did not at first penetrate the minds of +the Americans. "Not in our world?" they echoed stupidly. + +"Come," said the crippled man smiling inscrutably, "you are tired and +hungry. Later I shall explain more." His strangely colored eyes bored +into their own. "Sleep," said his voice softly, imperatively; and +though they fought against the command with all the strength of their +wills, heaviness weighted down their eyelids and they slept. + + * * * * * + +From dreamless sleep they awakened to find that fatigue had +miraculously vanished, that their wounds were healed and their bodies +and clothes were free of slime and filth. All but one of the crippled +men--for so in their own minds they termed the odd individuals--had +gone away. That one was the man who had first addressed them. + +"Do not be alarmed," he said. "In our own fashion we have given you +food and rest and attended to your comfort." + +Ward smiled, though a trifle uncertainly. "We are not easily +frightened," he replied. + +"So! That is good. But now listen: my name is Zoro and I am Chief of +the Heads of Apex. Ages ago we Heads lived on a continent of your +Earth now known to scholars as Atlantis. When Atlantis sank below the +waves--in your sacred book that tragedy is known as the Flood--all but +a scattered few of its people perished. I and my companions were among +the survivors." + +The Americans stared at him unbelievingly. "But that was a hundred +thousand years ago!" exclaimed Ward. + +"Three hundred thousand," corrected Zoro. + +They stared at him dumbly. + +"Yes," said Zoro; "it sounds incredible to your ears, but it is true. +Mighty as is the industrial civilization of your day, that of Atlantis +was mightier. Of course, the country wasn't then called Atlantis; its +real name was A-zooma. A-zooma ruled the world. Its ships with sails +of copper and engines of brass covered the many seas which now are +lands. Its airships clove the air with a safety and speed your own +have still to attain. The wealth of the world poured into A-zooma, and +its rulers waxed vain-glorious and proud. Time after time the +enslaved masses of A-zooma and of conquered countries rose in great +rebellions. Then against them marched the "iron baylas" breathing +death and destruction, and from the air mighty ships poured down the +yellow fog...." + +Zoro paused, but presently went on: "So we ruled--for ten thousand +years; until the scientists who begot those engines of destruction +became afraid, because the serfs themselves began to build secret +laboratories. We of the priesthood of science saw the inevitable +disaster. Long ago we had put off our bodies--" + + * * * * * + +Zoro smiled at the Americans' amazement. "No," he said, "I am not a +cripple in a wheelchair. This tubular container holds no fleshly body. +Inside of it is a mechanical heart which pumps artificial blood--blood +purified by a process I will not describe--through my head. It also +contains certain inner devices under my mental control, devices that +take the place of human hands and feet. Only by accident or through +lack of certain essentials can I die." + +His listeners stared at him in awe. "You mean," faltered Miles, "that +save for your head you are all--machine?" + +"Practically, yes. We priest-scientists of the Inner Mystery prolonged +life in such fashion. I was three thousand years old when--But enough! +I will not weary you with a recital of how the slaves burrowed the +bowels of A-zooma and of how the masters loosed against them the +forces of the atom. Suffice it to say that on an island we built our +vast system of buildings--or tunnel as you choose to call it--and +sealed them away from the outside world, entrance being made by +submarines through automatically controlled locks. + +"At about this time our experiments opened up another realm of +existence, manifesting at a vibratory rate above that of earth. To +this new realm we brought workers who built the City of Apex and the +palace you are in. But, unfortunately, we brought with us no weapons +of offense, and in the new world we had neither the material nor the +delicate mechanisms and factories to reproduce them. However, for +countless ages there was no rebellion on the part of the workers who, +even in A-zooma, had worshipped us as gods. They were born, grew old +and died, but we abode forever. Besides, in the City of Apex they were +freer than they had ever been before, merely having to furnish our +laboratories with certain raw materials and the wherewithal to sustain +the blood supply on which our lives depend. But, of late, they have +made common cause with the original inhabitants of this plane, the +green men--" + + * * * * * + +The green men! As if the words were a signal, a dreadful thing +happened. Out of a far shadow leaped a lean and hideous monster. To +Miles' startled eyes it seemed to grow as it leaped. Thin, +unbelievably thin it was, yet swelling at the head. From between two +goggle-eyes writhed a rope-like trunk. Twelve feet in the air its head +towered over Zoro. "Look out!" screamed the American. + +Zoro's chair seemed to jump. Too late! Around the tubular container +wrapped the snake-like trunk, plucking the wheelchair and its occupant +from the floor and dangling them high in air. "Shoot!" cried Zoro. + +Miles shot. His bullet ploughed through the unbelievably thin body and +ricochetted from a pillar beyond. Ward fired with better effect. One +of the goggle eyes spattered like glass. Under a fusillade of bullets +the monster wilted, giving expression to a weird, shrill cry. Zoro +dangled head downwards. To drop from such a height on his skull would +probably be fatal. + +But the monster did not drop him. Instead, in its death agony, its +grip tightened, and the Americans witnessed an incredible sight. +Before their very eyes the monster began rapidly to shrink. Its +tenuous body telescoped together, becoming thinner and thinner in the +process, until on the floor there lay the lifeless body of a +snake-like creature not more than six inches in length! + +"Good Lord!" breathed Miles. + +Zoro who had escaped unscathed from his perilous plight, regarded it +with his peculiarly colored eyes. + + * * * * * + +"It is a tah-a-la," he said, "and must have entered the room at the +same time you did. The green men often capture and train them for +hunting. When about to seize their prey their bodies have the power of +enormously stretching." Outwardly he seemed unaffected by the danger +safely passed and waved away several of his fellows who had wheeled to +the spot attracted by the noise of the pistols. The Americans were +more shaken. "Perhaps," said Ward, "there is danger of--" + +"None," replied Zoro. "I know there are no other tah-a-las inside +these rooms, since it is the nature of these beasts to rush to each +other's aid when they scream. And as for outside attacks, the +laboratories are insulated against any the insurgent workers can make. +Their weapons are poor--the green men use but clubs. No, it is not +their attacks we fear but their refusal to furnish us with supplies. +They worshipped us as gods, and the giving of supplies was long a +religious rite. But now they doubt our divinity, and, since they no +longer listen to or obey our decrees, we have no means of punishing +them. Spiro is responsible for this." + +"Spiro?" questioned the two men. + +"He whom we raised to the dignity of godhead on the accidental death +of Bah-koo, causing a deep sleep to fall upon him in the temple and +grafting his head upon the mechanical body left by the latter. Twice +before we had done this with citizens of Apex, and how were we to know +that Spiro would resent it? True, he was in love with Ah-eeda, but the +physical passions of men die with the organisms that give them birth. +For three years he dwelt with us in the laboratories, learning the +wisdom of the Heads, and then,"--Zoro's face became forbidding--"he +denounced us to the people. Though there was more or less discontent, +they would never have dared defy us save for him. He told them that +our curses could do no harm, that we were merely the heads of men like +himself and would die if they refused to give us the wherewithal to +renew blood. + + * * * * * + +"But this refusal of theirs is an evil thing," he cried, looking at +the Americans with his strangely colored eyes. "It violates the custom +of ages, and strikes at the very roots of our existence. So we held +council and sent two of our number to Earth after men and weapons to +enforce our demands. For years we had watched Earth, seen its myriad +civilizations rise and fall, studied the coming of America to power +and importance. So it was to America that Solino went, by way of the +tunnel that still exists under the Atlantic--" + +"And hired us," interrupted Ward, "and brought us to the tunnel in the +submarine-car where we--" + +"Stepped into the crystal chamber," finished Zoro. "That chamber is a +re-vibrating device of certain rays and chemicals. The shutting of the +door closed the switches and hurled your bodies to where a +receiving-station on this plane integrated them again." + +So they were not at the bottom of the ocean. They were--stupendous +thought--living in a new world of matter! + +"Spiro suspected our plans," continued Zoro. "He isolated us in our +laboratories, and, by means of a crystal tube, went through to the +tunnel, tore up a section of track, and wrecked the submarine-car. But +his act was only partially successful. You two escaped death; you are +here; you are ready to keep faith and fight in our service." + +"We are ready to fight," assented Miles and Ward. The situation was +certainly an unusual one, and one they did not clearly understand; but +theirs was the simple code of the mercenary soldier--they would fight +for whoever hired them, and be loyal as long as their wages were paid. + +"Then there is no time to lose," exclaimed Zoro. "Already our blood +grows thin. You must go back to the wrecked submarine and retrieve +your weapons." + +"But how?" + +"There is a sending tube in the next compartment." + + * * * * * + +They followed Zoro through lofty rooms filled with amber light until +they came to one wherein were assembled the rest of the Heads. Zoro +spoke to them swiftly in a strange, flowing tongue. Then he conducted +the two Americans to a crystal chamber at the end of the room and bade +them enter it. The vibrant light caressed their limbs. + +"When I close this door," he said, "you will find yourselves back in +the tunnel. Board one of the submarine-cars on the siding and proceed +to the wreck." He gave them detailed instructions how to operate the +car. "Then get your weapons and return. Do you understand?" + +They nodded. + +"The workers possess no arms the equal of machine-guns and bombs. They +will be at your mercy. Remember that you are fighting for our lives +and that, if you save them, your reward will be great. Fear nothing." + +The door closed. After a moment there was a blinding flash, a moment +of swooning darkness, and then they were staring through transparent +walls into the phosphorescent gloom of the underseas crypt. Suddenly, +what they had recently undergone seemed the product of an illusion, a +dream. Ward shook himself vigorously. "I guess it was real enough," he +said. "Let us see if the car works." + +They ran out to the wreck and returned without trouble. The +machine-gun was mounted for action and the gas-bombs slung over their +shoulders in convenient bags. "All right," said Miles tensely, "let us +go." + +Again they entered the crystal chamber; again there was the flash of +light and the sensation of falling into darkest space. Then, in a +moment it seemed, they were stepping into the hall from which they had +fled pursued by the green men--only for the second time, to be +confronted by a crowd of hostile giants. "Don't fire, Kid!" yelled +Ward. "It's no use to kill them uselessly. Give them the bombs!" + +Disconcerted by the attack of tear-gas, the green men broke and fled. +"After them," panted Ward: "we've got them on the run!" + + * * * * * + +Thrilling to the lust of battle, the two Americans emerged into an +open square. They had little time to note the odd buildings and +strange statues. Coming towards them with leveled weapons, the nature +of which they did not know, was a band of short men--that is, short in +comparison with the greenish giants. Behind this company appeared +still another, and another. Tear-gas was useless to stop their onward +rush. "All right," yelled Miles, "it's lead they want!" + +The machine-gun spat a hail of bullets. Before the first withering +blast the swarthy men recoiled in confusion. Then a second volley +scattered them like chaff. Miles and Ward were conscious of no pity +for the dead and wounded lying on the pavement of yellow stone. This +was their profession, the stern business of which they were masters. +In France they had seen worse sights, and in Nicaragua and Mexico. +They swept destructively out of the square and into a long tree-lined +avenue. This might be another world or dimension but its trees looked +not unlike those of tropical America. + +In a short while the radiating streets were cleared of crowds and the +cries of the mob died away. Miles and Ward paused in the shadow of an +overhanging wall and wiped their faces. "That was quick work, all +right," said Ward; and, even as he said it, the wall seemed to fall +upon their unprotected heads and crush them into unconsciousness.... + + * * * * * + +Out of a sick darkness they came. At first they thought they were +confronting Zoro. Then, as the mists of unconsciousness cleared from +aching heads, they perceived that they were in a vast hall crowded +with swarthy men in short tunics, and with greenish giants wearing +nothing but breech-clouts and swinging short clubs. The fierce eyes of +the greenish giants were upon them, and the vengeful ones of the +swarthy men. But the desire of both to rend and tear was held in check +by the dominant head emerging from a tubular container mounted upon a +wheelchair. The Americans stared. This was not the head of Zoro. No! + +"The head of Spiro," thought Miles and Ward with sinking hearts. + +They had fallen into the power of the leader of the insurgent workers! + +Spiro--for it was indeed he--regarded them with pitiless eyes. His +English was slower and not as fluent as that of Zoro, and his words +harder to understand. + +"You Americans, beings of another world, have come here at the +bidding of the Heads to slay and kill for gold." + +He paused. "I who for three years studied your country, learned its +language, history, did not believe men of your race could be so vile." + +He paused again, and Ward broke out hotly, "It is true that we came +here to fight for gold, but who are you to speak of vileness? Have you +not turned on the Heads, your benefactors, now your brothers, who +raised you to their height? Are you not leading a revolt of the +workers which would deny them the means of sustaining life? Are you +not seeking to perpetrate--murder?" + +Spiro regarded him slowly. "Is it possible you are in ignorance of +what those means are? Listen, then, while I tell you the hideous +truth. Since the dawn of our history, until the present moment, the +Heads have maintained their lives by draining blood from the veins of +thousands of Apexans yearly!" + +The Americans' faces whitened. "What do you mean?" breathed Ward. + +"I mean that the artificial blood pumped by mechanical hearts through +the brains of the Heads--yes, and that is now being pumped through my +own!" cried Spiro bitterly--"is manufactured from human blood. Human +blood is the basis of it. And to get that blood every Apexan must +yield his quota in the temple. Slowly but surely this practice is +sapping the vitality of the race. But though the Apexans realized this +they were afraid to speak against the custom. For the Heads were +worshipped as gods; and when the gods spoke, blasphemers +died--horribly." + + * * * * * + +Miles and Ward shuddered. + +"Even I," went on Spiro, "denounced blasphemers and thought it holy +that each should yield a little of his blood to the Almighty Ones. +Then I woke from darkness to find myself--a Head. At first I could not +understand, for I was in love with Ah-eeda--and can a machine mate? +But it is true that love is largely desire, and desire of the body. +With the death of the body, desire died; and it may be that pride and +ambition took its place. But, for all that, there were moments when I +remembered my lost manhood and dreamed of Ah-eeda. Yes, though the +laboratory of the Heads revealed wonders of which I had never dreamed, +though I looked into your world and studied its languages and history, +though I was worshipped as a god and endless life stretched ahead of +me--nevertheless, I could see that the strength of my race was being +sapped, its virility lost!" + +His voice broke. "In the face of such knowledge what were immortality +and power? Could they compensate for one hour of life and love as +humanity lived it? So I brooded. Then one day in the temple I looked +into the face of a girl about to be bled and recognized Ah-eeda. In +that moment, hatred of the fiends posing as gods and draining the +vitality of deluded worshippers, crystallized and drove me to action. +So it was I who denounced the Heads, aroused the people!" Spiro's +voice broke; died. Miles and Ward stared at him, horrified; and after +a while Miles exclaimed, "We never suspected! We would never have +fought to maintain such a thing had we known!" + +"Nonetheless," said Spiro inflexibly, "you fought for it, and many +people died and more are afraid. Superstition is a hard thing to kill. +Already there are those who murmur that truly the Heads are gods and +have called up demons from the underworld, as they threatened they +would, to smite them with thunder until once more they yield blood in +the temple. But I know that without blood the Heads must die +miserably and the people be freed from their vampire existence. It is +true that I too shall die, but that is nothing. I die gladly. +Therefore, to keep the people from sacrificing blood, to show them +that you are mortal and the Heads powerless to save the demons they +have raised, you must be slain in front of the great palace. + +"Yes; you, too, must die for the people!" + + * * * * * + +Bound and helpless, lying on their backs and staring into the gloom of +the small chamber into which they had been thrown, Miles and Ward had +time to ponder their desperate situation. Spiro was delaying their +death until the workers of Apex would have time to gather and witness +it. At first they had struggled to loosen their bonds, but such +efforts served only to tighten them. Then they had tried the trick of +rolling together so that the fingers of one might endeavor to undo the +knots securing the other. On a memorable occasion in Turkey they had +freed themselves in this manner. But the attempts proved fruitless +now. The floor of the chamber was smooth, nor could they find any +rough projection on which to saw the cords. + +Exhausted, they finally desisted. The same thought was in both minds: +Were they doomed to die in this strange world, fated never to see +Earth again? Well, a soldier of fortune must expect to meet with +reverses. Still, it was a tough break. After a long silence Ward said, +"How were we to know that the heads lived on the blood of the people?" + +"Would it have made any difference if we had known?" asked Miles. + +"Perhaps not." Ward tried to shrug his shoulders. "After all, we have +fought to maintain systems not much better. There is little +difference, save in degree, between draining the life-blood of a race +and robbing it of the fruits of its labor." + +"But sometimes we fought to liberate people," protested Miles. + +"Yes, I like to think of that. It's good to have something to our +credit when we cash in. And it looks," he said pessimistically, "as if +our time to do so has come." + + * * * * * + +They ceased talking. Time passed cheerlessly. Finally both of them +fell into a heavy slumber from which they were aroused by the sudden +flashing in their eyes of a bright light, bright only in comparison +with the former intense darkness. "What's that!" cried Ward, startled. + +"S-sh," said a soft voice warningly, and when their eyes became +accustomed to the illumination, they were amazed to perceive the +slender form of a young girl carrying a torch. She was marvelously +lovely to look at, with her blue-black hair brushed straight back from +a low, broad forehead and her smooth skin as dark as that of an +Egyptian. Nor was she dressed unlike pictures Miles had seen of people +of ancient Egypt. The embroidered plates covering the small breasts +shone and glittered; bracelets and bangles flashed on bare arms and +shapely ankles; while from the waist to below the knees was a skirt of +rich material. On the small feet were sandals of intricate design. +Besides the torch, the girl carried a slim, gleaming knife, and for a +moment the adventurers were guilty of imagining she had come to slay +them where they lay. But her manner quickly dispelled their fear. +Sinking on her knees beside them, she said, "Do not be afraid; Ah-eeda +will not harm you." + + * * * * * + +So this was Ah-eeda, the girl of whom Spiro had spoken. Miles and Ward +devoured her loveliness with their eyes; her coming flooded their +bosoms with renewed hope. She continued speaking. Her English was not +at all fluent, and she was often compelled to make it clear with +expressions in her own tongue and with explanatory gestures. But to +Miles and Ward, who knew nothing of temple training, her speaking +English at all was a miracle. + +"Is it true that you are men from another world?" + +"Yes." + +"And you came to make the people give their blood to the Heads?" + +"No, that is not true. We were in ignorance of what it was we fought +for. Had we known the truth we would have refused to fight for the +Heads." + +"Then, if I were to set you free, you would go back to your own world +and not fight my people any more?" + +They nodded vigorously. + +"Oh, I am so glad," exclaimed the girl; "I did not want to see you +die!" She looked at Miles as she spoke. "I saw you before Spiro this +afternoon. Poor Spiro!" she murmured as she cut their bonds. It was +some time before circulation was restored to their limbs. Miles asked +anxiously, "How many guards are there at the door?" + +"Twelve," said the girl; "but they are playing wong-wo in the room +outside and drinking soola." She pantomimed her meaning. "I came here +through a secret passage beyond," she indicated by a wave of her hand. +"Now that you can walk, let us hurry." Shyly she took Miles' hand. The +warm clasp of her fingers made the blood course faster in his veins. + +Through a long passage they glided to another room. There were several +confusing turns and dark hallways, and twice they had to cower in +shadowy corners while Ah-eeda boldly advanced and held converse with +occasional persons encountered, though for the most part the way was +silent and deserted. At last they came to a low door opening on a +narrow street and the girl put out her torch. + +"To return to our own world we must first reach the Palace of the +Heads," said Ward. The girl nodded. "I will guide you there. But we +must hurry: the workers will soon be gathered." + + * * * * * + +Never were Miles and Ward to forget that breathless flight. The girl +led them through narrow and devious byways over which dark buildings +leaned, evidently avoiding the more direct and open thoroughfares. It +seemed as if they were to escape without hindrance when, suddenly, out +of a dimly lighted doorway, lurched the gigantic figure of a green man +carrying a flare. This flare threw the figures of the fugitives into +relief. + +"Ho!" roared the green man, and came at them like a furious bull. It +seemed characteristic of his kind to attack without parley. The torch +dropped as he came. There was no resisting that mighty bulk. Unarmed, +and with scant room to move backward, the two Americans went down; and +that would have been the end of the battle if Ah-eeda, who had shrunk +to one side out of the way of the combatants, had not snatched up the +still flaming torch and held it against the naked back of the greenish +giant. With a scream of anguish the latter ceased throttling the +Americans, clapped his hands to his scorched back and rolled clear of +them. + +Instantly they staggered to their feet and fled down the roadway after +the light-footed Ah-eeda. Behind them the screams of the green man +made the night hideous. "Damn him!" panted Ward; "he'll have the whole +town on our heels!" Providentially, at that moment the road debouched +into the great square. This they crossed at a run, and so, for the +last time, entered the Palace of the Heads. Its wide halls and +chambers were practically deserted. + +Past the crystal chamber where they had first materialized into this +strange world they dashed, and through the far door and down the +corridor to the blank wall. Already in the rear could be heard the +sound of pursuit, the rising clamor of the mob. Ward hammered on the +wall with both fists. "Zoro! Zoro! let us in!" Now the first of the +mob had entered the corridor. "Zoro! Zoro!" Noiselessly, and just in +time, the wall parted and they sprang through, Miles half carrying the +slender form of Ah-eeda. The wall closed behind them, obliterating the +fierce cries and footbeats of their pursuers. + + * * * * * + +In front of them was Zoro, his hairless head projecting from the +tubular container. Ah-eeda shrank fearfully into Miles' embrace. All +the other Heads were ranged back of Zoro, but there was something odd +about them. The massive craniums lolled loosely to one side or another +and the curiously colored eyes were glazed or filmed. Zoro held his +head erect, but only with an effort, and his features were drawn and +ghastly looking. + +"Yes," he said in a feeble voice, "the Heads are dying. You need not +tell me that you have failed. In the end force always fails. No longer +will the veins of the people yield their blood to us, and without +their blood we cannot live. Soon three hundred thousand years of +intelligence will be no more." His voice faltered. + +Miles and Ward had learned to feel nothing but horror and detestation +of the Heads, but now in the face of their tragic end, hearing the +dying words of Zoro, awe and sympathy struggled with other emotions in +their hearts. These mighty intellects had lived before the days of the +flood; their eyes filming now in death had seen the ancient empires +of Earth rise and fall.... Sumeria, Babylon.... Stupendous thought; +and yet in the face of death a hundred thousand years of life was of +no more importance than that of a day. Suddenly Ward sprang forward +and shook the fainting Head. "Zoro! Zoro! what of us? We served you +faithfully and would now return to Earth." + + * * * * * + +Visibly Zoro made a great effort to reply. "Go to the crystal tube in +the laboratory beyond," he said at last. "It still works. I have told +you how to run the car. Mend the tracks. The locks open automatically +and let the car into the ocean when it strikes the switch. Your reward +is in...." The words died away. Then, with a sudden influx of +strength, the hairless head straightened, the strangely colored eyes +cleared, and in a loud voice Zoro called out something in an unknown +tongue and then collapsed. + +Out of that chamber of death the Americans fled, suddenly afraid of +its weird occupants. In time the workers of Apex would break into +that strange laboratory and find the vampires of the ages dead. And in +a very short time Spiro himself would die--Spiro the avenger. + +At the crystal tube Miles paused. "Ah-eeda," he said softly, "we +return to Earth, but I shall never forget you, never!" + +A moment he hesitated, and then bent and kissed her swiftly. Instantly +she was in his arms, clinging to him passionately. + +"I too," she cried; "I too!" + +"She means," said Ward, "that she wants to go back with us. What do +you say?" + +"God knows I am tempted to take her," said Miles; "but would it be +right? What does she know of Earth?" + +"Nothing," said Ward; "but I believe she loves you. And have you +thought that after helping us to escape she may not be safe among her +own people?" + +Miles bowed his head. "Very well," he said; "so be it. I swear to make +her happy." + +So there were three of them who entered the crystal tube. + + * * * * * + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Heads of Apex, by Francis Flagg + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HEADS OF APEX *** + +***** This file should be named 29046.txt or 29046.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/0/4/29046/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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