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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/29717-h.zip b/29717-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a947166 --- /dev/null +++ b/29717-h.zip diff --git a/29717-h/29717-h.htm b/29717-h/29717-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fa81327 --- /dev/null +++ b/29717-h/29717-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4186 @@ +<!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"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Finding Of Haldgren, by Charles Willard Diffin. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + div.trans-note {border-style: solid; + border-width: 1px; + margin: 3em 5%; + padding: 1em; + text-align: center; + background-color: #E6F0F0; + color: inherit; + font-size: 0.9em; } + + + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +Project Gutenberg's The Finding of Haldgren, by Charles Willard Diffin + +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 Finding of Haldgren + +Author: Charles Willard Diffin + +Release Date: August 17, 2009 [EBook #29717] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FINDING OF HALDGREN *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Graeme Mackreth and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="trans-note"> +<p>Transcribers note: This etext was produced from Astounding Stories +April 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that +the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p> +</div> + + + +<p class="center"> +<img src="images/illus01.jpg" alt="cover" /> +</p> + + + + + + + +<h1>The Finding of Haldgren</h1> + +<h3><i>A Complete Novelette</i></h3> + +<h2>By Charles Willard Diffin</h2> + + +<p class='center'>Chet Ballard answers the pinpoint of light that from the +craggy desolation of the moon stabs out man's old call for help.</p> + +<p class="center" style="margin-top: 5em;"> +<img src="images/illus03.jpg" alt="chet" /> +</p> +<p class='center'><i>The beasts fell into the pit beyond; their screams rang +horribly as they fell.</i></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<p class='center'>SOS</p> + + +<p>The venerable President of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale +had been speaking. He paused now to look out over the sea of faces that +filled the great hall in serried waves. He half turned that he might let +his eyes pass over the massed company on the platform with him. The +Stratosphere Control Board—and they had called in their representatives +from the far corners of Earth to hear the memorable words of this aged +man.</p> + + + +<p>From the waiting audience came no slightest sound; the men and women +were as silent as that other audience listening and watching in every +hamlet of the world, wherever radio and television reached. Again the +figure of the President was drawn erect; the scanty, white hair was +thrown back from his forehead; he was speaking:</p> + +<p>" ... And this vast development has come within the memory of one man. +I, speaking to you here in this year of 1974, have seen it all come to +pass. And now I am overwhelmed with the wonder of it, even as I was when +those two Americans first flew at Kittyhawk.</p> + +<p>"I, myself, saw that. I saw with these eyes the first crude +engine-bearing kites; I saw them from 1914 to 1918 tempered and +perfected in the furnace of war; I saw the coming of detonite and the +beginning of our air-transport of to-day. And always I have seen brave +men—men who smiled grimly as they took those first crude controls in +their hands; who laughed and waved to us as they took off in the 'flying +coffins' of the great war; who had the courage to dare the unknown +dangers of the high levels and who first threw their ships through the +Repelling Area and blazed the air-trails of a new world.</p> + +<p>"And to-day I, who have seen all this, stand before you and say: 'Thank +God that the spirit of brave men goes on!'</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"It has never ended—that adventurer strain—that race of Viking men. We +have two of them here to-night. The whole world is pausing this instant +wherever men are on land or water or air to do honor to these two.</p> + +<p>"They do not know why they are here. They have been summoned by the +Stratosphere Control Board which has delegated to me the honor of making +the announcement."</p> + +<p>The tall figure was commandingly erect; for an instant the fire of youth +had returned to him.</p> + +<p>"Walter Harkness!" he called. "Chester Bullard! Stand forth that the +eyes of the world may see!"</p> + +<p>Two men arose from among the members of the Board and came hesitantly +forward. Strongly contrasting was the darkly handsome face of Harkness, +man of wealth and Pilot of the Second Class, and the no less pleasing +features of Chet Bullard, Master Pilot of the World. For Bullard's +curling hair was as golden as the triple star upon his chest that +proclaimed his standing to the world and all the air above.</p> + +<p>The speaker was facing them; he turned away for a moment that he might +bow to a girl who was still seated next to the chair where Walt +Harkness had been.</p> + +<p>"To Mrs. Harkness," he said, "who, until one month ago, was Mademoiselle +Delacouer of our own beloved France, I shall have something further to +say. She, too, has been summoned by the Board, but, for now, I address +these two."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Again he was facing the two men; and now he was speaking directly to +them:</p> + +<p>"Pilot Harkness and Master Pilot Bullard, for you the world has been +forced to create a new honor, a new mark of the world's esteem. For you +two have done what never men have done before. We who have preceded you +have subdued the air; but you, gentlemen, you—the first of all created +beings to do so—have conquered space.</p> + +<p>"And to you, because of your courage; because of your dauntless pioneer +spirit; because of the unconquerable will that drove you and the +inventive genius that made it possible—because all these have set you +above us more ordinary men, since they have made you the first men to +fly through space—it is my privilege now to show you the honor in which +you are held by the whole world."</p> + +<p>The firm voice quavered; for a moment the old hands trembled as they +lifted a blazing gem from its velvet case.</p> + +<p>"Chester Bullard, Master Pilot, on behalf of the Stratosphere Control +Board I bestow upon you—"</p> + +<p>"Stop!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Every radiophone in the world must have echoed that sharp command; every +television screen must have shown to a breathless audience the figure +whose blond hair was awry, whose lean face was afire with protest, as +Chet Bullard sprang forward with upraised hand.</p> + +<p>"You're wrong—dead wrong! You're making a mistake. I can't accept +that!"</p> + +<p>The master pilot's voice was raised in earnest protest. He seemed, for +the moment, unaware of the thousands of eyes that were upon him; +heedless of the gasp of amazement that swept sibilantly over the vast +audience like a hissing wave breaking upon the beach. And then his face +flushed scarlet, though his eyes still held steadily upon the startled +countenance of the man who stood transfixed, while the jewel in his hand +took the light of the nitron illuminators above and shot it back in a +glory of rainbow hues.</p> + +<p>From the seated group on the platform a man came forward. Commander of +the Air, this iron-gray man; he was head of the Stratosphere Control +Board, supreme authority on all matters that concerned the air levels of +the whole world; Commander-in-Chief of all men who laid hands on the +controls of a ship. He spoke quietly now, and Chet Bullard, at his first +word, snapped instantly to salute, then stood silently waiting.</p> + +<p>"What is the meaning of this?" demanded the voice of authority. The +voice seemed soft, almost gentle, yet each syllable carried throughout +the hall with an unmistakable hint of the hardness of a steelite shell +beneath the words.</p> + +<p>"The eyes of the world are upon us here; the whole world is gathered to +do you honor. Is it possible that you are refusing that which we offer? +Why? You will speak, please!"</p> + +<p>And Chet Bullard, standing stiffly at attention before his commander, +spoke in a tone rendered almost boyish by embarrassment.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"I can't accept, sir. Pilot Harkness will bear me out in this. You would +decorate us for being the first to navigate space; but we are not the +first."</p> + +<p>"Continue!" ordered the quiet voice as Chet paused. "You refer to +Haldgren, probably."</p> + +<p>"To Pilot Haldgren, sir."</p> + +<p>"This is absurd! Haldgren was lost. It is supposed that he fell back +into the sea, or struck some untraveled part of Earth."</p> + +<p>"I have checked over his data, sir. It is my opinion that he did not +fall; his figures indicate that he must have thrown his ship beyond the +gravitational influence of Earth."</p> + +<p>The Commander eyed the master pilot coldly. "And because you <i>think</i> +that your conclusions are more accurate than those of my own +investigating committee, you refuse this honor!</p> + +<p>"Attention!" he snapped sharply. "The entire Service of Air is being +rendered ridiculous by your conduct! I command you to accept this +decoration."</p> + +<p>"You are exceeding your authority, sir. I refuse!"</p> + +<p>Suddenly the frozen quiet of the Commander's face was flushed red with +rage. "Give me that insignia!" he demanded, and pointed to the triple +star on Chet Bullard's breast. "Your commission is revoked!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>To the last breathless spectator in the farthest end of the great hall +the white pallor of Chet Bullard's face must have been apparent. One +hand moved toward the emblem on his blouse, the cherished triple star of +a master pilot of the World; then the hand paused.</p> + +<p>"I have still another reason for believing Haldgren is alive," he said +in a cold and carefully emotionless voice. "Are you interested in +hearing it?"</p> + +<p>"Speak!" ordered the Commander.</p> + +<p>Chet Bullard, still wearing the triple star, crossed quickly to a phone +panel in the speaker's stand at one side of the stage. He jerked out an +instrument. The buzz of excited whispering that had swept the audience +gave place to utter silence. Each quiet, incisive word that Chet spoke +was clearly heard. He gave his call number.</p> + +<p>"Bullard; Master Pilot, First Class; Number U.S. 1; calling Doctor Roche +at Allied Observatory, Mount Everest. Micro-wave, please, and connect +through for telefoto-projection."</p> + +<p>A few breathless seconds passed, while Chet aimed an instrument of +gleaming chromium and glass, whose cable connections vanished in the +phone panel recess. He focused it upon an artificially darkened screen +above and behind the grouped figures on the stage. Then:</p> + +<p>"Doctor Roche?" Chet queried.</p> + +<p>And, before the whole audience, the dark screen came to life to show a +clear-cut picture of a man who sat at a telescope; whose hand held a +radiophone; and who glanced up frowningly and said: "Yes, this is Doctor +Roche."</p> + +<p>Chet's response was immediate.</p> + +<p>"Bullard speaking; Chet Bullard, at New York. When I was in your +observatory yesterday, Doctor, you said that you had seen flashes of +light on the Moon. You remember that, don't you? You saw them some +months ago while I was on the Dark Moon."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The man in that distant observatory was no longer scowling at this +interruption of his work. His smile was echoed by the cordial tone of +his voice that rang clearly through the great hall.</p> + +<p>"Correct, Mr. Bullard. An observer at our two hundred-inch reflector +reported them on two successive nights. They were inside the crater of +Hercules."</p> + +<p>From his place at the center of the stage the waiting Commander of Air +protested:</p> + +<p>"Come—come! We know all about that, Bullard. Are you trying to say—"</p> + +<p>The voice of the astronomer was speaking again:</p> + +<p>"You will no doubt be interested to know that the lights occurred again +yesterday at about this time.... Let me see if they are on now. I will +have the two hundred-inch instrument used as before, and will show you +what we see.</p> + +<p>"Watch your screen, but don't expect to find any substantiation of your +wild theory that these lights have a human origin." He laughed softly. +"No atmosphere to speak of there, you know; we have determined that very +definitely."</p> + +<p>On the screen the picture of the smiling man flashed off; it was +replaced by an unflickering darkness that came abruptly into softly +shaded light. There was an expanse of volcanic terrain and a round +orifice of tremendous size, where the sunlight cast black shadows. Other +shaded portions about were like rocky, broken ground.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>To Chet, staring at the strange conformation, came the quick sense of +hanging above that ground and looking down upon it. And he knew that in +New York he was looking through a great telescope down under the world +and was staring straight down into the throat of an extinct volcano on +the Moon.</p> + +<p>There were few wonders of the modern world that could thrill the master +pilot with any feeling of amazement, but here was a new experience. He +would have spoken, would have ejaculated some word of wonder, but for +the new light that claimed his eyes and brain.</p> + +<p>The volcano, even in death, was ages old; its cold desolation showing +plainly on the screen. No fires poured now from a hot throat; the +molten sea that once had raged within had hardened and choked that vast +throat with rock that had frozen to make one enormous plain. Ringed +about by the jagged sides of the tremendous volcano, the floor within +seemed smooth by comparison, except for another depression at its upper +edge.</p> + +<p>Here was another and smaller crater inside the great ringed wall of +Hercules. The light of the sun struck slantingly across to throw one +side of the gigantic cup into shadow, while the opposite rim blared +brightly in the lunar dawn. And within the smaller crater, too, one side +was dead black with shadow.</p> + +<p>Dead!—No moving thing—no sign of life or indication that life might +ever have been! A dead world, this!—its utter desolation struck Chet's +half-uttered exclamation to a hoarse whisper of dismay. In all the +universe what less likely place might one discover wherein to look for +man?</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>His gaze was held in fascinated hopelessness on the barren, mountainous +ring, on the inner inverted cone, on the shadow within that smaller +crater—<i>on a tiny pinpoint of light that was flashing there!</i> ... He +hardly knew when he raised one trembling hand and pointed, while a voice +quite unlike his own said huskily:</p> + +<p>"Look! Look! I told you it was so!... There! In that little +crater!—it's signaling! Three dots—now three dashes—three dots again! +The old S O S!—the old call for help! It's Haldgren!"</p> + +<p>Again the screen showed the smiling scientist.</p> + +<p>"Caught them just right," he said, "and glad to be of service. Now, if +there's anything else I can do—"</p> + +<p>"Thanks!" said Chet in that same strained voice. "Thanks! There's +nothing else." A switch clicked beneath his hand, and once more the +screen was dark.</p> + +<p>"Those dots and dashes! The old S O S! Who could doubt now?" Chet was +telling himself this when the Commander's voice broke in harshly.</p> + +<p>"Even you must see the absurdity of this, Bullard. You have heard this +astronomer tell you what the rest of us knew for ourselves—that there +is no air on the Moon; that it is impossible for a human being to live +there. And you would have us believe that a man has lived there for five +years!</p> + +<p>"But I am taking your distinguished record into account; I am +overlooking your insubordination and the folly of your reasoning. +Perhaps your feeling about Haldgren does you credit; but Haldgren is +dead. Now I am giving you another chance: I order you to come forward +and receive this honor, which is an honor to the entire Service of Air."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Chet was staring in open amazement. "No air on the Moon," this man had +said. And what of that? Neither was there air in interplanetary space, +yet he had traveled there. It was inconceivable that this imperious and +dictatorial man could be so blind.</p> + +<p>"I can't do it, sir," he tried to explain. "You surely can't disregard +that message, the old call for help. We were using that, you know, when +Haldgren took off five years ago."</p> + +<p>No longer did a masking softness overlay the hard brittleness of the +Commander's voice.</p> + +<p>"Your star!" he snapped. "You are no longer in the Service, Bullard!"</p> + +<p>But Chet Bullard, as he stepped forward that the Commander might rip the +triple star from his chest, was not alone. Walt Harkness was only a +Pilot of the Second Class, but he stripped the emblem from his own +silken blouse and placed it in the Commander's outstretched hand beside +Chet's star.</p> + +<p>"Permit me, sir, to share Mr. Bullard's enviable humiliation," he +observed with venomous courtesy; and added:</p> + +<p>"Whatever similar honors were in store for Mrs. Harkness and myself are +respectfully declined. We, too, are of the opinion that Pilot Haldgren +deserves them instead of us."</p> + +<p>For an instant Chet's flashing smile drew his face into friendly lines. +"Thanks!" he said.</p> + +<p>But all friendliness was erased as he swung back upon the Commander.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>No thought now of the thousands of staring faces or of the millions +throughout the world who were watching him and were hearing his words. +Chet Bullard clipped those words into curt phrases, and he shot them at +his superior officer as if from a detonite gun:</p> + +<p>"You think your judgment better than mine—you've dropped me from the +Service—and you've got the power to make that stick! But you're wrong, +sir, dead wrong! And I'll make you admit it, too.</p> + +<p>"No—don't interrupt! I'm going to say what I please, and this is it, +Commander:</p> + +<p>"Hang onto that jewel you were giving me. Keep it ready. For I'm going +to the Moon. I'm going to find Haldgren, if he's still living when I get +there. And, at the least, I will bring back some record to show he is +the man we should honor.</p> + +<p>"Haldgren, alive or dead, was the first man to conquer space. Neither +Harkness nor I would steal an atom of his glory. I'll have the proof +when I come back. And when I come—"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>For an instant the ready grin that marked Chet's irresistible good +nature lighted up his face with a silent echo of some laugh-provoking +thought occurring in his mind.</p> + +<p>"—when I do come, Commander, I will make you eat your words. It's you +who will be out of the Service then, laughed out!"</p> + +<p>The Commander smiled, too; smiled coldly, complacently, while his head +shook.</p> + +<p>"Again you are mistaken," he told Chet; "never again will you fly as +much as one foot above Earth."</p> + +<p>And still Chet's grin persisted. "Commander," he said, "a man in your +position should not make so many mistakes. I am going—I give you +warning now—going to the Moon. And you haven't enough Patrol Ships in +all the air levels of Earth to hold me back, once I'm on my way!"</p> + +<p>And every television screen of Earth showed a remarkable scene: a +red-faced, choleric Commander of the Air, who shouted that a group of +officers might leap forward to do his bidding; a dark-haired man and a +girl who sprang beside him. The bodies of the two were interposed for an +instant between the officers' weapons and a fair-haired man.... And the +lean young man, with his shock of golden hair thrown back from his face, +leaped like a panther in that same instant; drew himself to an open +window; threw himself through, and vanished among the brilliant lights +and black shadows of a New York night.</p> + +<p>But, as he fought his way free of the throng outside, there came above +the clamor of an excited crowd the voice of Walt Harkness in cryptic +words:</p> + +<p>"The ship is yours, Chet," the fugitive heard Harkness call; "it's in +cold storage for you!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<p class='center'><i>A Dirty Red Freighter....</i></p> + + +<p>Chet Bullard was more at home among the air-lanes of Earth than he was +on solid ground. But he oriented himself in an instant; knew he was on a +cross street in the three hundred zone; and saw ahead of him, not a +hundred feet away, the green, glowing ring that marked a subway +escalator.</p> + +<p>In the passing throng there were those who looked curiously at him. Chet +checked his first headlong flight and dropped to an unhurried walk.</p> + +<p>About him, as he well knew, the air was filled with silent radio waves +that were sounding the alarm in every sentry box of the great city. They +would reach the aircraft terminals and the control room of every ship +within a fixed radius. He had dared the wrath of one of the most +powerful officials of Earth; no effort would be spared to run him down; +his picture would be flashing within ten minutes on every television +screen of the Air Patrol. And Chet Bullard knew only one way to go.</p> + +<p>Of course they would be watching for him at the airports, yet he knew he +must get away somehow; escape quickly—and find some corner of the world +where he could hide.</p> + +<p>He was in the escalator, and wild plans were flashing through his mind +as he watched the levels go past. "First Level; Trains North and South; +Local Service. Second Level; Express Stop for North-shore Lines. Third +Level; Airport Loop Lines; Transatlantic Terminals—"</p> + +<p>Chet Bullard, his hair still tangled on his hatless head, his blouse +torn where a hand had ripped off the Master Pilot's emblem, stepped from +the escalator to a platform, then to a cylindrical car that slid +silently in before him and whose flashing announcement-board proclaimed: +"<i>Hoover Airport Express. No Intermediate Stops.</i>"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Would they be watching for him at the great Hoover Terminal on the tip +of Long Island? Chet assured himself silently that he would tell the +world they would be. But even a fugitive may have friends—if he has +been a master pilot and has a lean, likable face with a most disarming +grin.</p> + +<p>Where would he go? He did not know; he had been bluffing a bit and the +Commander had called him when his hand was weak; he had no least idea +where he could find their ship. If only he had had a chance for a word +with Walt Harkness: Walt had been flying it; he had left it apparently +in a storage hangar.</p> + +<p>But where? And what was it that Walt had called out? Chet was racking +his brains to remember.</p> + +<p>"The ship is yours," Walt had shouted ... and something about "storage." +But why should he have laid up the ship; why should he have stored it?</p> + +<p>Chet saw the lights of subterranean stations flashing past as the car +that held him rode silently through a tube that it touched not at all. +He knew that magnetic rails made a grillwork that surrounded the car and +that drew it on at terrific speed while suspending it in air. But he +would infinitely have preferred the freedom of the high levels, and his +own hand on a ship's controls.</p> + +<p>A ship!—any ship!—but preferably his ship and Walt's. And Walt had +said something of "<i>storage—cold storage.</i>" The words seemed written +before him in fiery lines. It was a moment before he knew what he had +recalled. Then a slow smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and he +turned and stared through a window that showed only blackness.</p> + +<p>"<i>Cold storage!</i>" That was good work on Walt's part. He had been forced +to shout the directions before them all, yet tell none of those others +about him where the ship was hidden. Chet was picturing that place of +"cold storage" as he smiled. The fact that it was some thousands of +miles away troubled him not at all.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The great Hoover Terminal was a place where night never came. Its +daylight tubes wove a network of light about the stupendous enclosure, +their almost silent hissing merged to an unceasing rush of sound, so +soft as to be unheard through the scuffing feet and chattering voices of +the ever-hurrying crowds.</p> + +<p>From subways the impatient people came and went, and from highway +stations where busses and private cars drove in and away. The clock in +the squat tower swung its electrically driven hands toward the figure +22; there lacked but two hours of midnight, and a steady stream of +aircraft came dropping down the shaft of green light that reached to and +through the clouds. There would be many liners leaving on the hour; +these that were coming in were private craft that spun their flashing +helicopters like giant emeralds in the green descending light, while the +noise of their beating blades filled the air with a rush of sound.</p> + +<p>Outside the entrance to the Passenger Station, Chet Bullard withdrew +himself from the surging press of hurrying men and women and slipped +into a shadowed alcove. Two passing figures in the gray and gold of the +Air Patrol scanned the crowd closely; Chet drew himself into the deeper +shadows and waited until they were by before he emerged and followed +the shelter of a coffee-house that extended toward another entrance to +the field, where pilots and mechanics passed in and out.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A bulletin board showed in changing letters of light the official +assignment of landing space. And, though every passing eye was turned +toward it, Chet knew that each man was intent upon the board and not on +the shadowed niche in the building behind it. He watched his chance and +slipped into that shadow.</p> + +<p>Unseen, he could see them as they approached: men in the multicolored +uniforms of many lines, who paused to read, to exchange bantering +shop-talk—and to pass on.</p> + +<p>Many voices: "Storm area, over the South-shore up to Level Six. You +birds on the local runs had better watch your step" ... "—coming down +at Calcutta. Yeah, a dirty, red-bottomed freighter that rammed him. I +saw it take off two of his fans, but Shorty set the old girl down like a +feather on the lift of the four fans he had left. You said it—Shorty's +a real pilot...."</p> + +<p>Another pause; then a growling voice that proclaimed complainingly: +"Lord, but I'm tired! All right, Spud; grin, you damned Irishman! But if +you had been hauling the Commander all over Alaska to-day and then got +ordered out again just as you were set for a good sleep, you'd be sore. +What in thunder does he want his ship for to-night, I ask you?"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Chet, crouching still lower in the little retreat, stiffened to +attention at the reference to the Commander. So the "big boss" had +ordered out his own cruiser again! He listened still more intently to +the voice that replied.</p> + +<p>"Sure, and it's thankful you sh'u'd be to be holdin' the controls on a +fine, big cruiser like that; though, betwixt you and me, 'tis myself +that don't envy you your job. Me and my old freighter, we go wallowin' +along. And to-night I'm takin' her home for repairs—back to the fact'ry +in Rooshia where they made her; and the devil of a job it will be, for +she handles with all the grace of a pig in a puddle."</p> + +<p>Chet risked a glance when the sound of heavy footsteps indicated that +one of the two speakers had gone on alone to the pilots' gate. Before +the huge bulletin board, in pilot's uniform and with the markings of a +low-level man on his sleeve, stood the sturdy figure of the man called +Spud. He started back at sight of the face peering out at him, but Chet +whispered a command, and the man moved closer to the hiding place behind +the board.</p> + +<p>There were others coming in a laughing group up the walk; daylight tubes +illuminated the approach. Chet spoke hurriedly.</p> + +<p>"I'm in a devil of a mess, Spud. Will you lend a hand? Will you stand by +for rescue work?"</p> + +<p>And Spud studied the bulletin board as he growled:</p> + +<p>"Lend a hand?—yes, and the arm with it, Mr. Bullard. You stud by me +once whin I needed help; and now you ask will I stand by for rescue +work. Till we crash—that's all, me bhoy!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Spud's speech was tinged with the brogue of Erin; it grew perceptibly +more pronounced as his quick emotions took hold of him.</p> + +<p>"Quiet!" said Chet. "Wait till they pass!"</p> + +<p>The newcomers stopped for no more than a glance. Then:</p> + +<p>"I'm demoted," Chet told the round-eyed man who stared unbelievingly at +the vacant place on Chet's blouse. "The air's hot with orders for my +arrest. I've got to get out, and I've got to do it quick."</p> + +<p>And now there was only a trace of the brogue in Spud's voice. Chet knew +the trick of the man's speech; touch his heart and his tongue would grow +thick; place him face to face with an emergency and he would go cold and +hard, while the good-natured phrasing of his native sod went from him +and he talked fast and straight.</p> + +<p>"The devil you say!" exclaimed Spud. "What you've done I don't know, nor +yet why you did it. But, whatever it was, I don't believe you let that +triple star go for less than a damned good reason. Now, let me think; +let—me—think—"</p> + +<p>A figure in gray and gold was approaching, a member of the Air Patrol. +Spud's tongue was lively with good-natured raillery as he fell into step +and drew the officer with him through the pilots' gate, while Chet, from +his shadow, saw with satisfaction the apparent desertion. He had known +Spud O'Malley of old. Spud was square—and Spud had wanted time for +thinking.</p> + +<p>There were many who passed Chet's hiding place before a cautious whisper +came to him and he saw a hand that thrust a roll of clothing around the +edge of the bulletin board.</p> + +<p>"Put 'em on!" was the order of Spud. "And smear your yellah hair with +the grease! Work fast, me bhoy!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The command was no less imperative for being spoken beneath Spud's +breath, and for the first time Chet's hopes soared high within him. It +had all been so hopeless, the prospect of actual escape from the net +that was closing about him. And now—!</p> + +<p>He unrolled the tight package of cloth to find a small can of black +graphite lubricant done up in a jacket and blouse. Both were stained and +smeared with grease; they were amply large. Chet did not bother to strip +off his own blouse; he pulled on the other clothes over his own, and his +face was alight with a grin of appreciation of Spud's attention to +details as he took a daub of the grease, rubbed it on his hands, then +passed them through his hair.</p> + +<p>"Yellah," Spud had said, but the description was no longer apt. And the +man who stepped forth beside Spud O'Malley in the uniform of an engineer +of a tramp freighter looked like nothing else in the world but just +that.</p> + +<p>"Come on, now!" ordered Spud harshly, as a figure in gray and gold +appeared around the corner of the coffee shop. "You're plinty late, me +fine lad! Now get in there and clean up that dirty motor and get her +runnin'! Try out every fan on the old boat; then we'll be off.</p> + +<p>"You're number CG41!" he whispered. And Chet repeated the number as he +followed the pilot through the gate.</p> + +<p>"O.K.," said the guard at the gate, "and I'll bet he gives you hell and +to spare!"</p> + +<p>Chet slouched his shoulders to disguise his real height and followed +where Spud O'Malley, with every indication of righteous anger, strode +indignantly down the pavement, at the far end of which was a battered +and service-stained ship.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Her hull of dirty red showed mottlings of brown; she was sadly in need +of a painter's gun. She would groan and squeal, Chet knew, when the fans +lifted her from the hold-down clutch; and she couldn't fly at over +twenty thousand without leaking her internal pressure through a thousand +cracks that made her porous as an old balloon—but to Chet's eyes the +old relic of the years was a thing of sheer beauty and grace.</p> + +<p>O'Malley was leading through an open freight hatch; Chet followed, and, +at his beckoning hand, slipped into a dingy cabin.</p> + +<p>"Lay low there," the pilot ordered, and still, as Chet observed, his +speech showed how clearly the man was thinking, since the emergency +still existed "I've cleared some time ago, Mr. Bullard; we're ready to +leave as soon as we get the dispatcher's O.K."</p> + +<p>The minutes were long where Chet waited in the pilot's cabin. Each sound +might mean a last-minute search of departing ships, but he tried to tell +himself that the attention of the officers would be centered upon the +passenger liners.</p> + +<p>Beyond, where he could see out into the control room, a white light +flashed. He heard the bellowing orders of the Irishman at the controls. +And, as other sounds reached his ears, he had to grip his hands hard +while he fought for control of the laughter that was almost hysterical. +For, beneath him, he felt the sluggish lift of the ship, and, from every +joint and plate of this old-timer of the air, came squawking protests +against the cruel fates that drove her forth again to face the +buffeting, racking gales.</p> + +<p>But the blue light of an ascending area was about them, and Spud +O'Malley was shouting from the control room:</p> + +<p>"Sure, and we're off, Mr. Bullard. Now do ye come up here and tell me +all about it—but I warn you, I'll not be believin' a word—"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<p class='center'><i>Up From Earth</i></p> + + +<p>Chet had plenty of time in which to acquaint Pilot O'Malley with the +facts. And, when he had told his story, it did his sick and worried +mind good to hear the explosive stream of expletives that came from the +other's lips. Yet, despite the Irishman's anger, it was noticeable that +he closed the tight door of the control room before he said a word.</p> + +<p>"Only a skeleton crew," he explained. "Just the relief pilot and the +engineers and a man or two in the galley, and I trust 'em all. But you +can't be too careful.</p> + +<p>"The Commander," he concluded, "is gettin' to be more an emperor than a +Commander, and somethin's got to be done. Discipline we must have, 'tis +true; but this kotowin' to His Royal Highness and all o' that—devil a +bit do I like it! If only you could show him up, Mr. Bullard—but of +course you can't."</p> + +<p>"I'm not so sure," Chet responded. "What I told the big boss wasn't all +bluff. Haldgren <i>did</i> go out, five years ago this month. We have the +record of a Crescent liner's captain who saw Haldgren's little ship +shoot through the R.A. and go on out as if it were going somewhere. And +now we have these flashes!</p> + +<p>"Do you see what that means, Spud? An SOS! Nobody but an Earth-man would +send that, and we wouldn't do it now. We would just press the lever of +our emergency-call, and every receiver within a thousand miles would +pick up the scream of it.</p> + +<p>"But we've had this Dunston Emergency Transmitter less than four years. +Haldgren knew only the old S O S. And remember this: three dots, three +dashes and three dots don't just happen. They showed up on the Moon. +They were repeated the next night. <i>Somebody sent them!</i> Who was it?"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>And Pilot O'Malley gave the only obvious answer:</p> + +<p>"There's only yourself and Mr. Harkness and Pilot Haldgren that could +have got there. 'Twas Haldgren, of course! What a pity that you can't +go; 'tis likely the poor bhoy needs help."</p> + +<p>"Five years!" mused Chet. "Five long years since he left! He must have +landed safely—and then what? After five years comes a signal and that +signal a call for help that no pilot worthy the name would disregard....</p> + +<p>"Where are we bound?" he demanded abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Rooshia," said O'Malley. "I disremember the name—'tis on my +orders—but I know it's a long way up north."</p> + +<p>"Spud," said Chet, "you're a rotten pilot; you're one of the worst I +ever knew. Careless—that's your worst fault—and if anybody doubts that +they'll believe it after this trip. For, Spud, if you're any friend of +mine, and I know you are, you're going to lose your bearings, and kick +this old sky-hog a long way beyond that factory she is bound for. And +you're going to set me down in a God-forsaken spot in the arctic where +I'm pretty sure I'll find a ship waiting for me.</p> + +<p>"And, if you just stick around for a while after that, you will see me +take off for the Moon. Then, if Haldgren is there—"</p> + +<p>Chet failed to finish the sentence; he was staring through a rear +lookout, where, over the arc of the Earth's horizon, could be seen a +thin crescent Moon; about it drifting clouds made a halo.</p> + +<p>The eyes of Spud O'Malley followed Chet's, and his imaginative faculties +must have been stimulated by Chet's words, for he gazed open-mouthed, as +if for the first time he visioned that golden scimitar as something more +substantial than a high-hung light. He drew one long incredulous breath +before he answered.</p> + +<p>"What position, sir? Say the word and I'll lose myself so bad we'll be +over the Pole and half-way to the equator again!"</p> + +<p>"Not that bad," was Chet's assurance. "Just spot this ship over 82:14 +north, 93:20 east, and I'll give you local bearings from there."</p> + +<p>Then to himself: "'Cold storage,' Walt said; he meant our old shop, of +course. Probably had a hunch we would need it."</p> + +<p>But to the pilot he said only the one word: "Thanks!"—though the grip +of his hand must have spoken more eloquently.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The eastbound lanes of the five thousand level saw them plod slowly +along, while faster and better-groomed ships slipped smoothly past; then +the red hull rose to Level Twelve and swung out upon the great circle +course that would bear them more nearly in the direction of the +destination Chet had given. There were free levels higher up in which +they could have laid a direct course, but the Irish pilot did not need +Chet to tell him that the old hull would never stand it. Her internal +pressure could never have been maintained at any density such as human +lungs demanded.</p> + +<p>But they were on their way, and Chet's customary genial expression gave +place to one of more grim determination as he watched the white-flecked +ocean drift slowly past below.</p> + +<p>Once a patrol ship spoke to them. Daylight had come to show plainly the +silver hull with the distinctive red markings of the Service that +slipped smoothly down from above to hang poised under flashing fans like +a giant humming-bird. Her directed radio beam flashed the yellow call +signal in O'Malley's control room.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Chet was beside him, and the two exchanged silent glances before +O'Malley cut in his transmitter. He must give name and number—this +signal was a demand that could not be disregarded—but on the old +freighter was no automatic sender that would flash the information +across to the other ship; the pilot's voice must serve instead.</p> + +<p>"Number three—seven—G—four—two!" he thundered into the radiophone. +"Freighter of the Intercolonial Line, without cargo—"</p> + +<p>"For the love of Pete," shouted the loudspeaker beside him in volume to +drown out the pilot's words, "are you sending this by short wave, or are +you just yelling across to me? Calm down, you Irish terrier!"</p> + +<p>Then, before the pilot could reply, the voice from the silver and red +patrol ship dropped into an exaggerated mimicry of the O'Malley brogue—</p> + +<p>"And did yez say 'twas a freighter you had there? Sure, I thot at th' +very last 'twas a foine big liner from the Orient and Transpolar run, +dropped down here from the hoigh livils! All right, Spud; on your way! +But don't crowd the bottom of the Twelve Level so close. This is +O—sixteen—L; Jimmy Maddux. By—by! I'll report you O.K."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Again Chet looked at the pilot silently before he glanced back at the +vanishing ship, already small in the distance. He repeated the Patrol +Captain's words:</p> + +<p>"You will 'report us O.K.'—yes, Jimmy, you'll do that, and if they want +to find us again you can tell them right where to look."</p> + +<p>"I'm pushin' her all I can, Mr. Bullard," said Spud. "'Tis all she can +do.... And now do ye go into my cabin—there's two berths there—and +we'll just turn in and sleep while my relief man takes his turn. But go +in before I call him; there's not a soul on the ship besides ourselves +knows that you're here."</p> + +<p>And, in the cabin a short time later, Pilot O'Malley chuckled as he +whispered: "I gave the lad his course. And Mac will follow it, but it'll +niver take him near to the part of Rooshia he expects it to. Still, the +record's clear as far as he's concerned; I've got it in the log. Mac's a +good lad, and I wouldn't have him get into trouble over this."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In the freighter's cabin the chronometer was again approaching the hour +of twenty-two; for nearly twenty-four hours the ship had been on her +plodding way. And, lacking the A.D.D.—the Automatic Destination +Detector—and other refinements of instrumental installations of the +passenger ships, Pilot O'Malley had to work out his position for +himself.</p> + +<p>And where a faster craft would have driven through with scarcely a +quiver, the big ship trembled with the buffets and suction of a wintry +blast that drove dry snow like sand across the lookout glasses. The +twelve thousand level was an unbroken cloud of snow—a gray smother +where the red ship's blunt and rusty bow nosed through.</p> + +<p>O'Malley clung to the chart table as the air gave way beneath them and +the ship fell a hundred feet or more before her racing fans took hold +and jerked her back to an even keel. He managed to check his figures, +then moved to the door of his cabin, opened it and called softly.</p> + +<p>Chet was beside him in an instant. It had seemed best that he remain in +hiding, and he knew what the pilot's call meant. "Made it, did you!" he +exclaimed. "Now I'll take a look about and pick up my bearing points."</p> + +<p>But one look at the ports and he shook his head.</p> + +<p>"That's dirty," he told O'Malley, and his eyes twinkled as he felt the +old ship rear and plunge with the lift of a driving gale; "and how the +old girl does feel it! She can't rip through, and she can't go above. +You've had some trip, Spud; it's been mighty decent of you to go to all +this—"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A flashing of yellow light on the instrument panel brought his thanks to +a sudden halt. A voice, startling in its sudden loudness, filled the +little room.</p> + +<p>"Calling three—seven—G—four—two! Stand by for orders! Patrol +O—sixteen—L sending; acknowledge, please!"</p> + +<p>Chet's eyes were staring into those of O'Malley. That's Jimmy Maddux +back on our trail," he said. "Now, what has got them suspicious?"</p> + +<p>He glanced once at the collision instrument. "He's right overhead at +thirty thousand," he added; "and there are more of them coming in from +all sides. Now what the devil—"</p> + +<p>Spud O'Malley had his hand on the voice switch. "Be quiet!" he +commanded; then spoke into the transmitter—</p> + +<p>"Three—seven—G—four—two acknowledging!" he said, and again Chet +observed how all trace of accent had departed from his voice; it was an +indication of the moment's tenseness and of the pilot's full +understanding of their position.</p> + +<p>The answering order was crisply spoken; this was a different Jimmy +Maddux from the one who had chaffed the Irish pilot some hours before.</p> + +<p>"Stand by! We're coming down! Records at Hoover Terminal show two men +reporting at pilots' gate under the number of your engineer, CG41. Hold +your ship exactly where you are; we're sending a man aboard!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Chet had moved silently to the controls. The old multiple-lever +instrument—he knew it well! But he looked at Spud O'Malley and waited +for his nod of assent before he presumed to trespass on another pilot's +domain. Then he shifted two little levers, and the ship fell away +beneath them as it plunged toward the Earth.</p> + +<p>And Pilot O'Malley was explaining to the Patrol Ship Captain as best he +could for the rolling plunge of the careening ship:</p> + +<p>"I can't hold her, sir. And you'd best be keepin' away. It's stormin' +fearful down here, and I can't rise above it! Keep clear!—I'm warnin' +you!" The hum of their helicopters rose to a shrill whine as Chet drove +the ship out and down through the smothering clouds. "You must hear her +fans on your instruments; you can see how we're pitchin'!"</p> + +<p>He switched off the transmitter for a moment and faced Chet. "They've +been checkin' close," he stated. "That was my engineer's number I gave +you as we came through the gate. And, of course, he had given it before +when he reported in. Now we're up against it."</p> + +<p>The collision instrument was humming with the sound of many motors, and +warning lights were giving their silent alarm of the oncoming ships.</p> + +<p>"They're comin' in," Spud went on hopelessly, "like a flock of kites in +the tropics when one of them's found somethin' dead—and it's us that's +the carcass!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>But Chet was not listening. The snowy clouds had broken for an instant; +their ship had driven through and beneath them. Through the wild, +whirling chaos of white there came for an instant a rift—and far across +an icy expanse Chet glimpsed a range of black hills!</p> + +<p>He spoke sharply to the pilot. "That's Jimmy Maddux above us—kid him +along, Spud! Tell him we're coming up, don't let him grab us with his +magnets! This is putting you in a devil of a hole, old man. I'm +sorry!—but we've got to see it through now.</p> + +<p>"You can never set this ship down, Spud; that patrol would be on our +backs in half a second. And they'd knock me out with one shot the minute +I stepped outside."</p> + +<p>The clear space in the storm had filled again with the dirty gray of +wind-whipped snow; off at the right a dim glow of distant fires was the +midnight sun as it shone for a brief moment. One blast, more malignant +in its fury than those that had come before, tore first at the blunt +bow, then caught them amidships to roll the big, sluggish freighter till +her racked framework shrieked and chattered.</p> + +<p>Spud pointed through a rear lookout where a silvery Patrol Ship flashed +down through the clouds. "There's Jimmy!" he shouted. "He's takin' no +chances of our landing—he's right on our tail!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>But Chet Bullard, his hands working at the control levers, was staring +straight ahead into that gray blast; and his eyes were shining as he +pulled back on a lever that threw them once more into the concealment of +the whirling clouds above.</p> + +<p>"Spud," he was shouting, "have you got a 'chute? You freighters have 'em +sometimes. Get me a 'chute and I'll fool them yet! I saw the shed—our +hangars—our work shop! There's where our ship is!"</p> + +<p>They were lost once more in the snow that seemed to be driving past in +solid drifts. Chet heard Spud shouting down a voice tube. And, +curiously, it was plain that the Irish pilot had lost all tenseness from +his voice; he was happy and as carefree as if he had found the answer +to all his perplexing questions. He was calling an order to his relief +pilot.</p> + +<p>"Mac—do ye break out two parachutes, me lad! Bring 'em up here, and +shake a leg! No, there's nothin' to worry about—divil a thing!"</p> + +<p>Then, into the transmitter, he shouted thickly as he switched the +instrument on:</p> + +<p>"Jimmy, me bhoy, kape away! Kape away, I'm tellin' you, or ye'll have me +Irish temper disturbed, and I'm a divil whin I'm roused! What do I know +about your twin ingineers? Wan of thim makes trouble enough for me! Now +take yourself away, and don't step on the tail of this ship or we'll go +down to glory together!—unless we go to another terminal and find +oursilves in hell, and us all covered wid snow. Think how divilish +conspicuous you'd be feelin'—"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A discord of voices silenced his laughing banter; on the instrument +board the warning light was flashing imperatively. Above the bedlam of +voices one stood out, and all other commands went silent before the +voice of authority.</p> + +<p>"Silence! This is the Commander of Air! Orders for O—sixteen—L: seize +that ship! Your magnets!—disregard damage!—get your magnets on that +ship and hold her. We are coming down—"</p> + +<p>Chet reached for the transmitter switch and opened it that their voices +might not go beyond the control room.</p> + +<p>"Lots of company; they seem pretty certain that they're on the right +track. And the big boss himself is coming down to call. Can't you hurry +those 'chutes?"</p> + +<p>The control room door was flung open as the figure of a young man +stumbled through and dropped two bundles of cloth and webbing upon the +floor. He clung to the door-frame as Chet threw the big freighter into +a totally unexpected maneuver that rolled them down and away from a +silver-bellied ship above. Then the levers moved again, and the ship +went hard-a-port as Chet caught again one fleeting glimpse of shadow +below that could only be the markings of a building he had known well.</p> + +<p>"Hold her there, Spud!" he shouted. "He'll be back in a minute or two! +He'll get us next time!"</p> + +<p>Chet was reaching for the straps of a 'chute. He had the webbing about +him when he stopped to waste precious seconds in wide-eyed staring at +the figure of Spud O'Malley.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Spud was pulling at a recalcitrant buckle. He had motioned the relief +pilot to take the controls, and now the bulk of a parachute pack hung +awkwardly behind him.</p> + +<p>"Spud!" Chet shouted. "You're not stepping out too! It's no sure thing +with these old 'chutes; they're probably rotten! Stay here! Tell 'em I +stuck you up with a gun!—tell 'em I made you bring me—"</p> + +<p>"If you must talk," said Spud O'Malley calmly, and pulled a strap tight +across his chest, "do ye be tryin to work while you talk. Get that +harness on! If I let you stow away on my ship you can do no less than +take me along on yours!"</p> + +<p>A crashing impact drove the men to the floor in a sprawling heap; Chet +pulled the last strap tight as he lay there. The lookouts were black +above where the belly of a Patrol Ship clung close.</p> + +<p>"Jimmy knows how to obey orders," said Chet as he came to his feet. "No +cable magnets for Jimmy! He just smashed down on top of us, ripped off +our fans and grabbed hold." He was helping Spud to his feet as he spoke.</p> + +<p>"Mac, me bhoy," the pilot told his assistant, "the log has it all, the +whole story. There'll be no trouble for you at all."</p> + +<p>He yanked quickly at the port-opening switch, and the big steel disk +backed slowly out of its threaded seat and swung wide.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Chet drew back one involuntary step as a blast of icy wind drove +stinging snow into his face. Then, without a word, he gave Spud O'Malley +a joyous grin and threw himself out into the void....</p> + +<p>And, later, as he released the 'chute where a wind was dragging him +violently across an icy expanse, he was laughing exultantly to see +another 'chute whirled into the enshrouding drifts, while the chunky +figure of a man came scrambling to his feet that he might shake a fist +into the air toward some hidden enemy and shout into the storm epithets +only half-heard.</p> + +<p>"—and be damned to ye!" Chet heard him conclude; then was close enough +to throw one arm about the figure and draw him after where he made his +way toward a building that was like a mountain of snow.</p> + +<p>Spud must have marveled at the craft within; at her sleek, shining +sides; the flat nose that ended in a black exhaust port. He was +examining the other exhausts that ringed her round when Chet pulled out +a lever from the streamlined surface and swung open an entrance port.</p> + +<p>He motioned Spud into the brilliantly lighted interior, where nitron +illuminators were almost blinding as they shone of gleaming levers and +dials of a control room like none that Spud O'Malley had ever seen.</p> + +<p>Chet had thrown the building's doors open wide; a whirling motor had +drawn them back on hidden tracks. Now he closed the entrance port with +care, then glanced at his instruments before he placed his hand on a +metal ball.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It hung suspended in air within a cage of curved bars. It was a +modification of the high-liner ball-control, and it was new. Walt +Harkness had had it installed to replace a more crudely fashioned +substitute that had brought them safely back from the Dark Moon. The +name of that new satellite was on Chet's lips as his thin hand rested +delicately upon the ball.</p> + +<p>"It's not the Dark Moon this time, old girl," he told the ship, "though +you've taken me there twice. But we're going up just the same, and I +told the Commander he hasn't Patrol Ships enough to hold us back." His +fingers were gripping the little ball—lifting it—moving it forward....</p> + +<p>And, as if he lifted the ship itself, the silent cylinder came roaring +into life. Within the great building was a thundering blast that made +the voice of the storm less than a whispering breath. It came but +faintly through the heavily insulated walls, but Chet felt the lift of +the ship, and that joyous smile was crinkling about his eyes as the +silvery cylinder floated smoothly out of her shelter into the grip of +the wind.</p> + +<p>His eyes were on an upper lookout, where clouds were driving away like a +curtain unrolled. More cloud banks were coming, but, for a time, the +heavens were clear where the great red hull of a rusty freighter hung +helpless beneath a red and silver Patrol Ship whose magnets held fast to +its prey.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There were other shapes in the markings of the Service that shot +slantingly down. Chet thought again of the carrion birds; then he saw +the gold star on the bow of a great cruiser and knew from that ship that +the Commander must be seeing their own below. Then he eased gently +forward on a tiny ball—forward and forward, while the compensating +floor of the control room swung up behind them and seemed thrusting up +with unbearable weight.</p> + +<p>There were flashes from the cruisers above, and flashes of red on the +ice behind with fountains of shattered ice and rock; detonite works its +most terrible destruction on a surface that is brittle and hard. But of +what avail are detonite shells against a craft whose speed builds up to +something greater than the muzzle velocity of a shell?—a silvery craft +that sweeps out and out toward a black mountain range; then swings +slowly up in a curve of sheer beauty that bends into banked masses of +clouds—and ends.</p> + +<p>But within the control room, Chet Bullard, no longer Master Pilot of the +World, but master, in all truth, of space, knew that his ship's flight +was far from ending. He turned to grin happily at his companion.</p> + +<p>"We're off!" he shouted. "And it's thanks to you that we made it. If +Haldgren's alive he'll have you to thank; for it's you that has done the +trick so far!"</p> + +<p>But Spud O'Malley answered soberly as he stared up and out into the +blackness of levels he had never seen.</p> + +<p>"I've helped," he admitted; "I've helped a bit. But it's a divil of a +job of navigatin' that's ahead. And that's up to you, Chet Bullard; 'tis +no job for an old omadhaun like mesilf!"</p> + +<p>Chet felt the lift of the Repelling Area as they shot through. Ahead was +the black velvet night that he knew so well; its silent emptiness was +pricked through with bright points of fire.</p> + +<p>"I found the Dark Moon," he said slowly, "and that you can't see at all. +This other will be easy."</p> + +<p>There was no boastfulness in the tone, and Spud O'Malley nodded as he +glanced respectfully at the young man who threw back his disheveled mop +of hair from a lean face and marked down some cryptic figures on a +record sheet.</p> + +<p>Chet Bullard was on the job ... and his passenger, it would seem, was +satisfied that his unbelievable adventure was well begun.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<p class='center'><i>Life Monstrous and Horrible</i></p> + + +<p>"It looks," said Spud O'Malley, "as if some bad little spalpeen of the +skies had thrown pebbles at it when 'twas soft. It's fair pockmarked +with places where the stones have hit."</p> + +<p>He was staring through a forward lookout, where the whole sky seemed +filled with a tremendous disk. One quarter was brilliantly alight; it +formed a fat crescent within whose arms the rest of the globe was held +in fainter glowing. By comparison, this greater portion was dark, though +illuminated by earthlight far brighter than any moonlight on Earth.</p> + +<p>But light or dark, the surface showed nothing but an appalling +desolation where the rocky expanse had been still further torn and +disrupted—pockmarked,as O'Malley had said, with great rings that had +been the walls of tremendous volcanoes.</p> + +<p>Chet was consulting a map where a similar area of circular markings had +been named by scientists of an earlier day.</p> + +<p>"Hercules," he mused, and stared out at the great circle of the moon. +"The crater of Hercules! Yes, that must be it. That dark area off to one +side is the Lake of Dreams; below it is the Lake of Death. Atlas! +Hercules! Suffering cats, what volcanoes they must have been!"</p> + +<p>"I don't like your names," objected O'Malley. "Lake of Death! That's +not so good. And I don't see any lake, and the whole Moon is wrong side +up, according to your map."</p> + +<p>Chet reached for the ball-control, moved it, and swung their ship in a +slow, rotary motion. The result was an apparent revolution of the Moon.</p> + +<p>"There, it's right side up," Chet laughed; "that is, if you can tell me +what direction is 'up' out here in space. And, as for the names, don't +let them disturb you; they don't mean anything. Some old-timer with a +little three-inch telescope probably named them. The darker areas looked +like seas to them. Astronomers have known better for a long time; and +you and I—we're darned sure of it now."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The great sea of shadow, a darker area within the shaded portion whose +only light came from the Earth, was plainly a vast expanse of blackened +rock. An immense depression, like the bottom of some earlier sea, it was +heaved into corrugations that Chet knew would be mountain-high at close +range. Marked with the orifices of what once had been volcanoes, the +floor of that Lake of Death was hundreds of miles in extent.</p> + +<p>But as for seas and lakes, there was no sign of water in the whole, +vast, desolate globe. An unlikely place, Chet admitted, for the +beginning of their search, and yet—those flashes of light!—the S O S! +They had been real!</p> + +<p>The bow blast had been roaring for over an hour; their strong +deceleration made the forward part of the ship seem "down." And down it +was, too, by reason of the pull of the great globe they were +approaching. But the roaring exhaust up ahead was checking their speed; +Chet measured and timed the apparent growth of the Moon-disk and nodded +his satisfaction at their reduced speed.</p> + +<p>"This will stop us," he said. "I didn't know but we would have to swing +off, shoot past, and return under control. But we're all right, and +there is the place we are looking for—the big ring of Hercules, the +level floor of rock inside it. And over at one side the smaller +crater—"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He was gazing entranced at the mammoth circle that had been a volcano's +throat—the very one he had seen flashed on the screen. He moved the +control to open a side exhaust and change their direction of fall. He +was still staring, with emotions too overwhelming for words, and Spud +O'Malley was silent beside him, as the great ring spread out and became +an up-thrust circle of torn, jagged mountains some thirty or more miles +across and directly below.</p> + +<p>They fell softly into that circle. Its mountainous sides were high; they +blocked off the view of the enormous terraces beyond that had been the +crater's sloping sides.</p> + +<p>From the direction that had suddenly become "east," the rising sun's +strong light struck in a slant to make the bar rocks seem incandescent. +On one side the giant rim of the encircling mountains was black with +shadow. The shadow reached out across the vast, rocky floor almost to +the foot of the opposite wall many miles away. It enveloped their +falling ship like a cushioning, ethereal sea: velvety, softly black, +almost palpable.</p> + +<p>It was wrapping them about in the darkness of night as Chet's slender +hand touched so delicately upon the ball-control—checked them, eased +off, drew back again until the thundering exhausts echoed softly where +their ship hung suspended a hundred feet above a rocky floor. The +shrouding darkness erased the harsh contours of mountain and plain; it +seemed shielding this place of desolation and horror from critical, +perhaps unfriendly eyes of these beings from another world. And Chet +laid their ship down gently and silently on the earthlit plain as if he, +too, felt this sense of intrusion—as if there might be those who would +resent the trespass of unwanted guests.</p> + +<p>But Spud O'Malley must have experienced no such delicacy of feeling. He +let go one long pent-up breath.</p> + +<p>"And may the saints protect us!" he said. "The Lake of Death outside, +and inside here is purgatory itself, or I don't know my geography. But +you made it, Chet, me bhoy; you made it! What a sweet little pilot you +are!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"There's air here," Chet was telling his companion later; "air of a +sort, but it's no good to us."</p> + +<p>He pointed to the spectro-analyzer with its groupings of lines and light +bands. "Carbon dioxide," he explained, "and some nitrogen, but mighty +little of either. See the pressure gage; it's way down.</p> + +<p>"But that won't bother us too much. We've got some suits stowed away in +the supplies that will hold an atmosphere of pressure, and their oxygen +tanks will do the rest. We were ready for anything we might find on our +Dark Moon trip, but we didn't need them there. Now they'll come in +handy."</p> + +<p>"That's all right," O'Malley assured him; "I've gone down under water in +a diving suit; I've gone outside a ship for emergency repairs in a suit +like yours when the air was as thin as this; I can stand it either way. +But what I want to know is this:</p> + +<p>"What the divil chance is there of findin' your man, Haldgren, in such +a frozen corner of purgatory as this? How could he live here? Here +you've come in a fine, big ship, and his was a little bit of a bullet by +comparison. Yet I doubt if you could live here for five years with all +your big oxygen supply. Now, how could he have done it with his little +outfit?</p> + +<p>"And what has he eaten? Does this look like a likely place for shootin' +rabbits, I ask you? Can a man catch a mess of fish in that empty Lake of +Death? Or did Haldgren bring a sandwich with him, it may be?"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Chet Bullard shook his head doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Don't get sarcastic!" he grinned. "You can't think of any wilder +questions than I have asked myself.</p> + +<p>"He couldn't have lived here, Spud; that's the only answer. It just +isn't humanly possible. All I know is that he did it. I can't tell you +how I know it, but I do. Those lights were a human call for help. No +living man but Haldgren could have flashed them. He's alive—or he was +then; that's all I know."</p> + +<p>Spud crossed the control room as he had done a score of times to look +through a glass port at the world outside. Chet, too, turned to the +lookout by which he stood and stared through it. The men had found +themselves surprisingly light within the ship. They had been compelled +to guard against sudden motion; a step, instead of carrying them one +stride, might hurl them the length of the room. This lowered +gravitational pull helped to explain to the pilot that outer world.</p> + +<p>There, close by, was the rocky plain on which he had landed the ship: +Smooth and shiny as obsidian in places, again it was spongy gray, the +color of volcanic rock, bubbling with imprisoned gases at the instant +of hardening. It stretched out and down, that gently rolling plain, for +a thousand yards or more, then ended in a welter of nightmare forms done +in stone. It was like the work of some demented sculptor's tortured +brain.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Jutting tongues of rock stood in air for a hundred—two hundred—feet. +Chet hardly dared estimate size in this place where all was so strange +and unearthly. The hot rock had spouted high in the thin air, and it had +frozen as it threw itself frantically out from the inferno of heat that +had given it birth. The jets sprayed out like spume-topped waves; they +were whipped into ribbons that the winds of this world could not tear +down, and the ribbons shone, waving white in the earthlight. The +tortured stone was torn and ripped into twisted contortions whose very +writhing told of the hell this had been. Its grotesque horror struck +through to the deeper levels of Chet's mind with a feeling he could not +have depicted in words.</p> + +<p>From the higher elevation where their ship lay he could look out and +across this welter of storm-lashed rock to see it level off, then vanish +where another crater mouth yawned black. Here was the inner crater! It +had seemed small before; it was huge now—a place of mystery, a black, +waiting throat into which Chet knew he must go—a place of indefinable +terror.</p> + +<p>But it was the place, too, whence strange flashes had come, flashes that +had told of the distress and suffering of men since the time when +wireless waves had been widely used. The old call—the S O S!—it had +come from that throat; it had seemed a call sent directly to him! And +Chet Bullard's eyes held steadily toward that place of mystery and of a +sender unknown.</p> + +<p>"I'm going down," he told himself more than O'Malley. "There's something +about it I can't understand, something pretty damnable about it, I +admit. But, whatever it is, that's what I am here to find out."</p> + +<p>"'Tis a divil of a place to die," said O'Malley, "and not one I'd pick +out at all. But it may be we won't have to. I'm goin' along, of course."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The master pilot was reaching for the flexible metal suit he had brought +from the store room. It was air-tight, gas-proof; it would hold an +internal pressure far beyond anything the wearer would demand; and its +headpiece was flexible like the body of the suit, and would fit him +closely.</p> + +<p>He drew the suit up over the clothes he wore and closed the front with +one pull of a metal tab. Within, soft rubber-faced cushions had +interlocked; the body would fasten to the headpiece in the same way. But +Chet paused with the headpiece in his hand.</p> + +<p>He looked at the glass window that would be before his eyes; at the thin +diaphragms that would come over his ears and that would admit all +ordinary sounds; and he tried out the microphone attachment that he +could switch on to bring to his ears the faintest whisper from outside. +All this he examined with care while he seemed to be thinking deeply. +Then he straightened and looked at his companion.</p> + +<p>"No, Spud, you're not going," he said. "This is my job. You'll stay with +the ship. You and I make a rather small army: we don't know yet what we +may be up against, and we mustn't risk all our forces in one advance. +I'll see what is there; and, in case anything happens, you can take the +ship back. I've taught you enough on the way over; I had this very +thing in mind."</p> + +<p>He slipped the helmet over his blond head before O'Malley could reply.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The ear-pieces and the microphone allowed him to hear. Another diaphragm +in the center of the metal across his chest took his own voice and +shouted it into the room.</p> + +<p>"Sure, I know you want to go. Spud; but you'll have to stay in reserve. +Now show me how well you can fly the ship. Lift her off; then drift over +that crater, and we'll have a look-see!"</p> + +<p>Spud O'Malley's face was glum as he obeyed. Spud had seen nothing but +death in this place of horror—Chet had observed that plainly—yet it +was equally plain that the Irish pilot was finding the order to live in +safety a bitter dose. But Spud knew how to take orders; he lifted the +little ball gently and swung the ship out toward the blackness of that +deeper pit.</p> + +<p>Chet was watching the changing terrain. He saw the place of +solid-spouted rock end; saw it flatten out to an undulating surface that +had rolled and heaved itself into many-colored shapes. Even in the +earthlight the kaleidoscopic colors were vivid in their changing reds +and blues and yellow sheens. Then this surface sloped sharply away, +though here it was rough with broken rock where half-hardened lava, +coughed from that throat, had fallen back and adhered to the molten +sides.</p> + +<p>This rock in the inner crater was gray, pale and ghostly in the +earthlight. It went down and still down where Chet's eyes could not +follow—down to an utter blackness. Chet was staring speculatively at +that waiting dark when the first flash came.</p> + +<p>Blindingly keen! A flash of white light!—another and another! It +blazed dazzlingly into their cabin in vivid dashes and dots—the same +signal as before was being repeated!</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A hundred yards away was a little shelf of rock. Chet jerked at +O'Malley's shoulder with his metal-cased hand and pointed. "Set her +down!" he ordered "Let me out there! We can't put the ship down where +those lights are; the throat is too narrow; there may be air-currents +that would smash us on a sharp rock. I'll go down! You wait! I'll be +back."</p> + +<p>He was opening the inner door of the entrance port. Another closure in +the outer shell made an air-lock. He took time for one grip at the hand +of Spud O'Malley, one grin of excited, adventurous joy that wrinkled +about his eyes behind the window of his helmet—then he picked up a +detonite pistol, examined again its charge of tiny shells, jammed it +firmly into the holster at his waist and swung the big door shut behind +him.</p> + +<p>And Pilot O'Malley watched him go with a premonition that he dared not +speak. He heard the closing of the outer door; saw the tall, slender +figure in a metal suit like a knight of old as Chet waved once, settled +the oxygen tank across his shoulders and picked his way carefully over a +waste of shattered stone that led down and down into the dark.</p> + +<p>Then the Irishman looked once at the suit he had expected to wear, +stared back where the figure of Chet had vanished, then dropped his head +upon his hands while his homely face was twisted convulsively.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It had come so soon! The great adventure was upon them before he had +realized. The reconnaissance—the flashes—and then Chet had gone! And +now he was alone in a silent ship that rested quietly in this soundless +world. The silence was heavy upon him; it seemed pressing in with actual +weight to bear him down. It was shattered at the last by the faintest of +whispered echoes from without.</p> + +<p>Spud was on his feet in an instant, his eyes straining at one lookout +after another, each giving him a view of only the desolation he knew and +hated.</p> + +<p>What could it have been? he demanded. He found and rejected a dozen +answers before he saw, far down in the black crater-mouth, a flash of +red; then heard again that ghost of a sound and knew it for what it was.</p> + +<p>Thick walls, these of the space ship, and insulated well; and the thin +atmosphere of this wild world could cut a blast of sound to a mere +fraction of its volume! But the walls were admitting a fragmental echo +of what must have been a reverberating voice. They were quivering to the +roar of exploding detonite!</p> + +<p>It was Chet! He was fighting, he was in trouble! Spud's trembling hands +steadied upon the metal control; he lifted the ship as smoothly as even +Chet might have done, and he drove it out and down into a throat too +narrow for safety, but where the tiny, red flash of a weapon had called +with an S O S as plain as any lettered call—a message to which brave +men have everywhere responded.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He saw Chet but once. The master pilot had shown him the flare release +lever; he moved it now, and the place of darkness was suddenly blinding +with light. There were rocks close at hand; the crater had narrowed to a +funnel throat that was cut and terraced as if by human hands. Below, it +ended in a smooth stone floor where the lava had sealed it shut.</p> + +<p>From a terrace came the gleaming reflection of Chet's suit. Miraculously +the gleam was doubled, as if another in similar garb stood at his side. +And beyond, from blocks of stone, came leaping things—living creatures!</p> + +<p>The light died. Spud realized he had not opened the release lever full. +He fumbled for it—found it, jammed it over! And in the light that +followed he saw only empty, terraced walls where nothing moved, and a +lava floor below that, for an instant, gaped open, then again was smooth +and firm.</p> + +<p>And the thunder of his ship's exhausts came back to him from those +threatening walls to tell of a loneliness more certain and terrible than +any solitude he had found in the silence where he had waited above.</p> + +<p>But through all his dismay ran an undercurrent of puzzled wonderment. +For here on a dead world, where all men agreed there could be no life, +he had seen the impossible.</p> + +<p>Only one glimpse before the light had died; only for an instant had he +seen the things that leaped upon Chet—but he knew! Never again could +any man tell Spud O'Malley that the Moon was a lifeless globe ... and he +knew that the life was of a form monstrous and horrible and malign!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<p class='center'><i>"And I've Brought You to This!"</i></p> + + +<p>The master pilot, when he stepped forth upon that weird globe which was +the Moon, found himself plunged into a spectral world. Even from within +the air-tight suit, through whose helmet-glass he peered, he sensed, as +he had not when inside the ship, the vast desolation, the frozen +emptiness of this rocky waste.</p> + +<p>His suit of woven metal was lined throughout with heavy fabric of +insuline fibers, that strange product brought from the jungle heat of +the upper Amazon to keep out the bitter cold of this frozen world. His +ship was felted with the same material between its double walls; without +it there would have been no resisting the cold of these interstellar +reaches.</p> + +<p>But, despite the padding within his suit, he felt the numbing cold of +this dead world strike through. And the bleak and frigid barrenness that +met his gaze was so implacably hostile to any living thing as to bring a +shudder of more than physical cold.</p> + +<p>No warming sun, as yet, reflected from the rocks. About him was the +blackness of a fire-formed lithosphere, whose lighter veining and +occasional ashy fields were made ghostly in the earthlight.</p> + +<p>One slow, all-seeing glance at this!—one moment of wondering amazement +when he tilted his head far back that he might look up to the mouth of +the crater and see, in a dead-black sky, the great crescent of earth—a +vast, incredible moon peeping over the serrate edge. Then, as if the +interval of time since leaving the ship had been measured in hours +instead of brief seconds, he remembered the flashing lights that had +signaled from below.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>His first step carried him, slipping and sprawling awkwardly, across a +rocky slope white with the rime of carbon dioxide frost. He came to his +feet and turned once to wave toward the ship where he knew Spud O'Malley +must be watching from a lookout. Then, moving cautiously, to learn the +gage of his own strength in this world of diminished weights, he started +down.</p> + +<p>Rough going, Chet found; the wall of this great throat had not hardened +without showing signs of its tortured coughing. But Chet learned to +judge distance, and he found that a fifty-foot chasm was a trifle to be +crossed in one leap; huge boulders, whose molten sides had frozen as +they ran and dripped, could be surmounted by the spring of his leg +muscles that could throw him incredibly through the air. And always he +went downward toward the place where the lights had flashed.</p> + +<p>They came once more. He had descended a thousand feet, he was +estimating, when the black igneous rocks blazed blindingly with a +reflected light like that of a thousand suns.</p> + +<p>Another hundred feet below, down a precipitous slope, was a broad table +of rock. He saw it in the instant before he threw one metal-clad arm +across the eye-piece of his helmet to shut out the glare. And he saw, in +that fraction of a second, a moving figure, another like himself, clad +in an armored suit whose curves and fine-woven mesh caught the light in +a million of sparkling flames.</p> + +<p>It was Haldgren, he told himself; and there was something that came +chokingly into his throat at the thought. That lonely figure—one tiny +dot of life on a bleak and lifeless stage! It was pitiful, this undying +effort to signal, to let his own world know that he still lived.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Chet did not put it into coherent words, but there was an overwhelming +emotion that was part pity and part pride. He was suddenly glad and +thankful to belong to a race of men who could carry on like this—who +never said die. And, as the glare winked out, he threw himself +recklessly down that last slope and brought up in a huddle at the feet +of the one who had started back in affright. There was one metal-cased +hand that went in a helpless gesture to the throat; the figure, all +silvery white in the dim Earth-glow, staggered back against a wall of +rock; only by inches did it miss a fall from the precipice edge where +the rock platform ended.</p> + +<p>From the floor, where his fall had flung him in awkward posture, Chet +saw this; saw it and marveled vaguely. What picture he had formed of +Haldgren—what he had expected of him—he could not have told. Certainly +it was not this slenderly youthful figure, nor this reaction that was +more of fright than startled amazement. And the voice! Surely he had +heard an involuntary, half-stifled scream!</p> + +<p>He came slowly to his feet. And he was wondering now if his deductions +had been wrong. He had been to sure that the sender of those messages +was an Earth-man; he had been so certain of finding Haldgren.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Slowly he crossed the table of rock toward the waiting figure; gently he +extended his hands, palms upward, in a gesture of peaceful promise. +Whoever, whatever this was—this Moon-being who had signaled and in +doing so had happened upon the letters that had a definite meaning of +Earth—Chet knew he must not frighten him. One outstretched hand touched +the metal that cased an arm; moved upward to the headpiece, as +close-fitting as his own; tilted it that the light of Earth might shine +within and show him what manner of being he had found.</p> + +<p>And Chet, who had seen strange creatures on that Dark Moon where he and +Harkness had explored, was prepared, despite the suit so like his own, +to see some weird being of this newer world. But for what the soft light +of that distant Earth disclosed he was entirely unprepared.</p> + +<p>Eyes, blue and lovely as an azure sea but wide with terror and dismay; +eyes that showed plainly a consternation of unbelief that changed +slowly, as the blue eyes stared into Chet's gray ones, until they were +suddenly misty with tears; and the figure sagged and would have dropped +at his feet had he not caught it in his arms.</p> + +<p>He heard his own voice exclaiming in wonderment: "A girl! One of our own +kind! Out here! On the Moon!"</p> + +<p>And another voice, sweetly tremulous, replied:</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's true—it's true! You have come! You read my call! Oh, I hardly +dared hope—"</p> + +<p>Then the thrilling ecstasy of happiness in the voice gave place to +accents of dismay as some horror of fear swept in upon her.</p> + +<p>"And I've brought you to this! You will be lost! Quick! Climb for your +life! I will come after. Quick! Quick!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There was agony in the voice now, and the figure wrenched itself from +Chet's arms to point one slender hand upward in frantic urging, while +yet the head turned that the eyes might look backward as if some danger +threatened from below.</p> + +<p>"I've got a ship," Chet assured her. "God knows who you are or how you +got here, but it's all right now. We'll leave."</p> + +<p>He had regained his grip upon one of those slender hands and was +preparing to swing her up to the top of an incredibly high rock. Her +scream checked him and sent his one free hand to the detonite pistol at +his waist.</p> + +<p>"Behind you!" she cried. "Look back! They have come out!"</p> + +<p>The crater-pit behind and below them was black with the inky blackness +of smooth, fire-formed rock. Its many facets were smooth and polished; +they made mirrors, many of them, for the earthlight reflected from the +crater mouth. They served to diffuse this dim light and throw it again +upon the monstrous blacknesses that were swarming from below.</p> + +<p>"Men!" thought Chef in one instant of half-comprehension. Then, as he +saw the chalk-white bodies, the dead and flabby whiteness of their faces +from which red eyes stared, he revised his estimate; here was nothing +human.</p> + +<p>The pistol was in his hand, but as yet he had not fired. Only the terror +in the girl's voice had told him that these were enemies; he waited for +a closer view or for some direct attack, and needed to wait but a +moment.</p> + +<p>Only an instant after he had seen, the chalk-white bodies clustered +below were in motion. They came leaping up the smooth expanses of rock, +and they were obscured at times as if by black curtains that were drawn +across their bodies. Then they would flash out again in dead-white +nakedness.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was uncanny. Chet had a feeling that they were wrapping themselves in +black invisibility. Only when a score of the white things threw +themselves out into space did he know the truth.</p> + +<p>Out and upward they sprang, to soar above Chet's head and land on the +slope above. All escape was cut off now; but it was not this thought +that held Chet motionless for that moment of horror. It was the glimpse +he had had against the light of the crater mouth of beating, flailing +wings that whipped the thin air above him; of curved claws; and of long, +horrible tails that might have belonged to giant rats. And the demoniac +cries that the thin air brought him were no more suggestive of devils +unleashed than were the leathery wings and the fleshy tails of the +beasts.</p> + +<p>Yet it was not this alone that stunned the mind of the master pilot, but +the horrible incongruity, of this monstrous inhumanness allied with the +human form of their bodies. And throughout he observed, with a curious +sense of detachment, the furious beating of the wings, almost useless in +the thin air, and the expansion and contraction of sac-like membranes on +each side of the necks which he took to be auxiliary lungs.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was the girl's action that brought Chet to his senses. She moved +slowly across the smooth table of rock toward the three or four beasts +who had gained its level. Her head was bowed in utter dejection; Chet +sensed it as plainly as if she had spoken. She held out her hands +helplessly toward the creatures—and in that instant Chet's pistol +spoke.</p> + +<p>Tiny shells, those of a detonite pistol, and the grain of explosive in +the tip of each bullet is microscopic. But no body, human or inhuman, be +it made of flesh, can withstand the shattering concussion of that +exploding shell.</p> + +<p>The beasts beside that figure, slenderly girlish even in its metal +sheath, fell into the pit beyond; their screams rang horribly as they +fell. There were others who took their places, and they, too, vanished +under the smashing shots.</p> + +<p>And then, after timeless moments of waiting, while the only sound was +the half-audible voice of the girl who sobbed: "Now you are surely lost. +They will kill you—you should not have fired—I should never have +brought you here"—there came the familiar thunder of a ship's exhausts.</p> + +<p>Down from above, a black shadow came silently crashing; a blaze of light +terrific in its brilliance brought an exclamation to Chet's lips and +hope to his heart.</p> + +<p>"Spud! You old fool, you're coming to get us!"</p> + +<p>But the words ended with an avalanche of bodies that threw themselves +down the black slope. There were others coming from below, leaping from +the stones. The ledge was filled with them.</p> + +<p>Chet was firing blindly as he felt himself borne down—felt long fingers +that ripped, then closed about his throat and jammed the metal of his +suit in chokingly. He heard the beating of giant wings about him; felt +himself half-carried and half-thrown toward a floor of rock far below.</p> + +<p>There was an opening that loomed blackly in that floor; one glimpse of +his surroundings Chet had before the press of bodies closed him in. They +were forcing the shining, silvery figure of a girl into that black +opening—dropping her! Then he felt himself hurled into the same void, +while above him a ship of space thundered vainly from her great exhausts +as if roaring in rage at her own futility.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<p class='center'><i>Heart of the Moon</i></p> + + +<p>In the grasp of the winged creatures' long, clawed hands Chet was +helpless. He was struggling vainly when they released their hold and he +felt himself falling into a pit that, as far as he knew, was a +bottomless abyss. He was still struggling to right himself in mid-air +when he struck.</p> + +<p>To fall even so short a distance on Earth would have meant instant +death. Here, where gravitation's pull was but one-sixth that of Earth, +he still struck on a rocky floor with a thud that made him sick for lack +of breath.</p> + +<p>Above him was a pale circle of light. Tipping the edge of a vast crater +mouth high above was a rim of brilliance. Earthlight! Chet was suddenly +certain that he was seeing that glow for the last time as the circle +went black, and there came to him the unmistakable clang of metal where +a door was shut.</p> + +<p>Through the countless mingled emotions that filled him he was wondering +what manner of creatures these were into whose hands he had fallen. +Intelligent, beyond a doubt, in their own way; he could not question the +evidence of his own eyes and ears. They were able to work in metals and +to seal the mouth of this lunar tomb.</p> + +<p>But he was still alive; he could not give up now. This adventure upon +which he had launched with such high hopes had turned out differently +than expected; but, he told himself, it was not ended yet.</p> + +<p>And, instead of a lifeless globe, he had found this: a place peopled +with strange, half-human life. And, more marvelous still, instead of +Haldgren, whom he had come to seek, there had been a girl!</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Chet had recovered his ability to breathe, had made sure that the oxygen +tank was intact; and now he called softly into the blackness of this +dark vault where he had seen her thrown.</p> + +<p>"Are you alive?" he asked. "Can you hear me?"</p> + +<p>For answer came quick rustling of moving bodies, the smooth rasping of +wings on leathery wings, hands that fumbled for him, then closed about +arms and legs and throat, while in his ears was a chattering of +high-pitched squeals. Again he was lifted in air, held there in the grip +of a score of lean, long-fingered hands. He was nerving himself to +undergo without flinching whatever new torture might be in store. Yet he +thrilled inexplicably as through the sounds of these things about him, +he heard a muffled: "Yes—yes! Oh, I am glad—"</p> + +<p>The sentence was unfinished. Before Chet's eyes a light was growing. A +mere slit at first, it grew to a luminous circle in the rocky floor. And +as it opened, he felt the pressure of his metal suit upon his body, +where before it had been slightly ballooned by the pressure of oxygen he +had maintained.</p> + +<p>With the opening of this door to another subterranean chamber had come a +renewed atmospheric pressure. And now, in the denser gas, he saw, in +ghastly silhouette against the lighted pit, flying figures that floated +and soared on outstretched wings of inky black.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Beside him and above he heard the swishing flutter of other wings; he +felt himself lifted from the floor; he was being floated out above the +luminous pit by the flying things that held him.</p> + +<p>No direct glare came from below, but a soft violet radiance. It shone +full upon him—past him—to light up and give detail to those faces that +had been featureless before. Chet had just one moment of fascinated +staring into the diabolical, pasty faces where narrow, red eyes stared +back into his. Then the squealing voices were stilled!</p> + +<p>One, louder than the rest, rasped an order. And again Chet felt the +hands relax; once more he was falling, down—down—and still down—until +he knew that his velocity of fall meant an impact he could never +survive.</p> + +<p>And, curiously, as he fell, his mind was entirely unconcerned with his +own fate. For himself, he had accepted death. But he saw for what seemed +like hours a vision of a familiar control room and an Irish pilot who +sat by the controls. He was looking sharply ahead, he was checking +speed, he was landing softly—safely—on a familiar field of Earth....</p> + +<p>That passed; and, following, came a feeling of regret, a deep hurt and +a rage at his own inability to be of help. For, above him, through the +luminous air, he saw another body falling, and he knew that the girl, +too, had been thrown to the same fate.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Those eyes of blue had locked with his for but a few brief seconds. Who +she was—what she was—he had no way of knowing. But in that instant of +mental meeting there had passed a flash between the two that had burned +deeply into Chet's real and hidden self.</p> + +<p>Chet, himself, had he been in laughing mood, might have smiled at the +idea of affection being born in that brief time. Yet he might have asked +instead how long was needed to bridge the sharp gap of a radio-power +transmitter; how much time was needed for anode and cathode each to +recognize the other. Something of this was passing in confusion through +his mind while his more conscious faculties were tensing his body for +the fatal impact he knew must come.</p> + +<p>Without thinking the thought in words he knew that the luminous walls +had receded. They were more distant now; their glow came to him from far +above, and, as his falling body turned again and again in air, he saw +that below him was nothing but a vast emptiness filled with luminous +vapors that swirled and writhed.</p> + +<p>Then the last gleam of lighted walls faded; he was falling at terrific +speed through a black tempest whose winds tore and screamed about him.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was his own falling speed that made these winds; there remained with +him enough of reasoning power to realize this. And he waited, and +marveled that he could fall so tremendous a distance. First had been +the great shaft down which he had plunged; then, as it widened, had come +this greater void. The crater of Hercules must have opened, into a vast +shell or a cavern of incredible depth. The winged things of the Moon +knew of it; they had cast him to his death—him and the girl.</p> + +<p>Her slowly turning body was not far away; it was as if they two hung +suspended in air, while frightful blasts of whatever gas filled this +space whipped and shrieked past and wrapped them round with a terrific +pressure. And then the tempest ceased. Slowly the blasts diminished; the +pressure relaxed; gradually the sense of falling passed away, and with +this there came a glimpse of light.</p> + +<p>Again the walls glowed as they had before, but far off in the distance. +Chet saw them grow luminous while he seemed hung motionless in space. +Then once more they drew away from him; once more he knew he was falling +away from that light—plunging again into the depths he had traversed.</p> + +<p>And now, despite the oxygen that came to him uninterruptedly, he found +his head swimming. The limit of human endurance had been reached.</p> + +<p>Desperately he tried to bring his reason to bear upon this miracle that +had happened. He had not struck; instead of falling to his death he had +cushioned against something; he was falling again where, not far away, +another metal-clad figure hung limply in air and fell as he fell. And +with that knowledge the whirling turmoil within his brain ended in a +blood-red flashing that went finally to merciful darkness....</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>That darkness still wrapped him thickly about when he regained +consciousness—a darkness saved from utter black only by a faint +luminosity that seemed to penetrate and be part of the air about him.</p> + +<p>Still hardly more than half-conscious, lying, it seemed, on a soft bed +where he was weightless, he stirred and flung out one arm. From his +fingertips he saw whirls of violet light sweep out and away, as vortices +might have been set in motion by a swimmer in a more liquid medium.</p> + +<p>Fascinated, failing utterly to comprehend where he was, he moved his +hands deliberately, swept one arm from side to side—and a number of +luminous whirlpools went spinning out into space. And then he +remembered.</p> + +<p>He remembered the terrific fall that miraculously brought him back to a +place of light like that where his fall had begun. He remembered +beginning the second fall; and, while he still could not know what it +meant, he knew that he must have been unconscious for hours. And, with +that, his thoughts came back to the girl. For the first time he found +leisure to give mental voice to his wonderment.</p> + +<p>The mystery of it all!—of her presence here on the Moon! Again he was +overwhelmed with the wonder of his surprising discovery. It was nearly +beyond belief; almost he doubted the reality of what his own eyes had +seen.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>But there was no doubting his own presence here in this strange place. +The unreality of it—the strangeness of his own sensations—were borne +in upon him. Where was he? he asked. What was this soft cushion upon +which he rested so lightly? He tried to sit up and found that he merely +twisted his body and set other eddies of light into motion.</p> + +<p>Cautiously, he swung one arm out is far as he could reach. There was +nothing there. He moved the arm down; reached with his hand beneath +him—and still there was nothing tangible! Through his mind swept a +gripping fear, a wordless, incoherent terror of something he could not +name. Desperately he wanted to touch something firm and solid; lay his +hands upon something he knew was real; and he flung out arms and legs in +a paroxysm of futile effort.</p> + +<p>He seemed hung in nothingness, an utter emptiness where nothing moved; +only the ghostly whirls of light that ran lazily away from his beating +hands until they died silently away into darkness, swallowed up in this +unspeakable horror of soundless space. And, when he had quieted again, +he knew with a dreadful certainty that there was nothing there; he was +suspended in a great void—immersed in an ocean of some unknown gas.</p> + +<p>The sense of loneliness that filled him was devastating. He could have +faced death as he had faced it before, unflinchingly; that was all in +the day's work. But here was something that tested sanity itself. Could +he but touch something substantial, he told himself, it would help him +to keep a grip on reality; even to see and feel one of the winged +horrors would be in a way a relief.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>His struggles had ceased; all about him the atmosphere was quivering and +writhing with whirling light that swirled and danced and mingled one +glowing vortex with another. Then it, too, died; and, through the dark +that was relieved only by the faint luminosity of the quiescent gas, he +saw far off a point of light.</p> + +<p>Here was something to which he could pin his eyes; something outside of +himself and the horror of nothingness in which he was immersed. He +stared through the window of his helmet while the light grew and +expanded into nebulous, cloudy glowing that faded and was gone.</p> + +<p>Again it came and died; and a third time. And then Chet Bullard swore +loudly and harshly within the silence of his own metal sheath, while he +cursed his own dullness that had kept him from instant comprehension.</p> + +<p>That light was far away, but, "Keep moving!" Chet called, hoping that +his voice might span the void. "Keep moving so I can see your light! +I'll try to swim over."</p> + +<p>He threw himself over with a convulsive jerk and flattened the palms of +his hands in a breaststroke, while he kicked with his feet against the +dense atmosphere about him. And he saw with delight that the whirling +ripples of light moved back of him; he felt that he was making some +headway, slight though it must be.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He saw her at last, and heard her call:</p> + +<p>"I am swimming, too," she cried. "How wonderful to see you! This +loneliness! It is horrible—unbearable!"</p> + +<p>"I understand," Chet said; "it is pretty bad."</p> + +<p>Then, at sound of a stifled sob, he gripped one reaching hand hard and +tried to bring himself out from under the pall that numbed his own mind; +he even attempted to force a note of lightness into his words.</p> + +<p>"I've flown everything with wings," he told her, "but this is the first +time I ever flew myself. Guess I was never properly designed."</p> + +<p>Feeble, this attempt at humor; but there was none to note the strained +edge in his tone, only a girl, whose metal-clad hand closed in a tight +hold upon his.</p> + +<p>"You can joke—<i>now</i>," she said with a catch in her voice that showed +how desperately hard she was trying to meet Chet's fortitude and force +her own words to steadiness. "That takes—real nerve. I like that!"</p> + +<p>Then she added: "But it's hopeless; you know that. They've got us. And +now that some of them have been killed they will—they will—"</p> + +<p>And the trace of Chet's strained smile that lingered on his lips, could +she have seen it, would have appeared grim.</p> + +<p>"Whatever it was you didn't say, I agree with. I imagine the finish will +not be pleasant." Once more he was facing the inevitable; and, as +before, he faced it squarely and knowingly, then put it completely from +his mind. There was so much he must know before that adventure's end was +reached.</p> + +<p>"Tell me," he demanded, "who are 'they'? Where are they? How many are +there of them? And where have they got us? What kind of a place is this, +where all natural laws are suspended, where gravitation is at zero?</p> + +<p>"And, for heaven's sake, tell me: who are you? Where are you from? How +did you get here on the Moon?"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>That uncontrollable catch in the girl's voice had taken on a trace of +brave laughter that overlay the trembling sob in her throat.</p> + +<p>"That is a lot of information," she said, "and I am afraid it will not +make much difference if you know. Oh, I wish I had some atom of +encouragement for you! I do not know who you are either—and you have +been so brave! You have come here, I brought you with my signals for +help—brought you to your death.</p> + +<p>"For it <i>is</i> death! This is the end of our adventuring—mine and yours +as well—here at the center, the exact center of the Moon."</p> + +<p>"Ah-h!" answered Chet Bullard softly, as understanding came to him. "I +should have guessed it. The atmospheric pressure and density—and we +fell past the center, then back again; we've been vibrating back and +forth until we came to rest at last. And now we die! Well, it might have +been worse."</p> + +<p>He was staring out through the little window of his helmet, staring into +the faintly luminous atmosphere, facing the end of his brave fling with +fortune. It was an instant before he realized that there was something +moving in the void. He pressed softly upon the hand he held and pointed.</p> + +<p>"See!" he said in a hushed tone. "There is something there!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It took form slowly, a shapeless, round blur in the pale light. Inch by +inch it drifted toward them, until Chet moved one hand abruptly and +found he had created a ripple of light by which he could see more +clearly. And he saw before him a bulging, membraneous sac.</p> + +<p>It had been smoothly spherical before; it heaved itself into strange +protuberances as he watched. He flipped his hand to set up another +vortex of light, and he saw the first rip that formed in the membrane.</p> + +<p>Before his staring eyes the bag burst open; and Chet, who had wished for +some substantial thing, even a denizen of this wild world, found his +wish fulfilled. For the thin membrane tore in a score of places to +release a body from within—a shapeless, huddled mass of chalk-white +flesh in a wrapping of black leather that unfolded before his eyes and +became wings which waved feebly in their first attempt at flight.</p> + +<p>The pallid body, supple as a giant worm, jerked spasmodically and turned +sightless eyes toward the watching Earth-folk. Then, as if drawn by some +magnet, invisible in the distance, the black wings began to beat the +air, and the creature moved off in a straight line toward some unknown +goal.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Another of the membraneous spheres drifted past in the light that came +from those fluttering wings. A second showed in repulsive shininess. +Chet was aware that there were many of the things about.</p> + +<p>"Eggs!" he exclaimed with a disgust that partook of nausea, "And the +damnable thing hatched—right here!—before our eyes!"</p> + +<p>And the girl gave the final explanation: "The Moon is just a great +shell. They lay their eggs, these half-human creatures that you saw, and +attach them to the inner surface of that shell. Then at a certain period +they come loose and float away. I never knew what became of them; now I +understand at last."</p> + +<p>"You know all this!" protested Chet. "How can you know it? How long have +you been here?"</p> + +<p>"I kept track of time for a while," said the voice beside him; "then I +forgot it when they took Frithjof away. But it must be about five years. +Five years of terror and vain hopes and wild plans for escape! And now +it ends—after five years!"</p> + +<p>And Chet Bullard, within his metal helmet, was repeating in +bewilderment: "Five years! Haldgren left five years ago! What does it +mean?"</p> + +<p>Nor did he pause to realize that through his amazement was woven a +thread of another hue, tinged faintly with jealousy that demanded of +him: "Frithjof! Who is Frithjof who was taken away?"</p> + +<p>Chet's mind was filled with a confusion of questions that jostled one +another to silence when he tried to give them expression. And there was +little time for questioning.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He saw other floating eggs whose membraneous coverings had turned +leathery and opaque. And he saw white phantom figures who gathered those +eggs. One came near till Chet could make out the repulsive face and +black, staring eyes with their fiery red center. It was one of the +things that had captured him; he saw it move swiftly on broad wings. It +held a leathery egg in its curled-claw hands while its long tail whipped +around and laid the egg open with one slash of a sharp spiked point.</p> + +<p>One more of the young of this horrible species was liberated and went +winging away into the dark, only the whirls of light in the atmosphere +marking the beating of its wings.</p> + +<p>Chet's eyes followed it to see far out beyond a light that expanded as +it drew near. The beaten atmospheric gas was whipped to cold flame where +some ten or a dozen phantom demons came swiftly on toward the waiting +humans.</p> + +<p>They were swarming about in an instant. Chet had no time for even a +shouted warning before he felt himself seized by their long, bony claws. +Then a net of rough-fibered rope was flung about him, and he felt it +draw tight as the winged beasts lifted him up and out into the void.</p> + +<p>"Wrong again!" Chet told himself ruefully. "We don't die at the center +of the Moon, after all!" But, as the whipping wings drove whirling +blasts of violet light back upon him he could find nothing of comfort in +the thought that some different experience still lay ahead.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<p class='center'><i>The Gateway to Hell</i></p> + + +<p>Spud O'Malley, at the controls of the ship, held the craft in a vertical +lift while his eyes clung in horrible fascination to the mirrors that +showed from a lower lookout the volcanic floor falling away. Amazement +had almost stifled his breathing, until at last he let go a long breath +that ended in a curse.</p> + +<p>"The outrageous, damned things!" he breathed. "Jumping, they were, and +leaping, and flying on their leather wings like a lot of black bats out +o' hell! And I'm thinkin' that's where they've taken Chet Bullard, and +never again will he hold a ship like 'twas in the hollow of his hand, +and him settin' it down like a feather!</p> + +<p>"And: 'Fly back home!' he says to me. I can do it, too; thanks to his +teachin'. But fly back and leave that bhoy in the hands of those +murderin' devils!—'tis little he knows the Irish!"</p> + +<p>He was talking half under his breath, murmuring to himself as if it +helped him to see clearly the situation that must be faced.</p> + +<p>"But to get to him—that's the trouble. I saw a big door go shut in that +stone floor. They're cunnin', clever beasts; I'll say that for 'em. And +there was a raft of 'em; and plenty more down in hell where they live, +I've no doubt."</p> + +<p>He moved forward on the ball-control, and the great ship swept like a +silvery shadow through the night toward the distant, lighted crater rim. +This he could see clearly, but the other side of the ring of mountains +was black with shadow.</p> + +<p>And, far out beyond, spread like a cloud over all the desolate world, +was blackness. Spud drove the ship up another five thousand feet, and +still that darkness spread out in inky pools where only an occasional +mountain peak caught the flat rays of the sun.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>And what had Chet called these dark areas? "Lake of Dreams" and "Lake of +Death." Spud's superstitious mind was a-quiver with dread and an +ominous premonition to which the empty, frozen wastes below him gave +added force.</p> + +<p>"I'll have to wait," he told himself. "The light of the Moon—I mean the +Earth—is bright, but not bright enough. I'll just wait till the Sun +climbs higher. When it shines down into that hole that is the gateway to +hell—and well I know it—then I can see what is there. Then, maybe, I +can find some way to get inside; and I hope the lad lives till I get +there."</p> + +<p>He circled back; swept down in a long, leisurely flight, and came again +to the place of gently sloping rock where Chet had first landed. And he +searched till he found the identical spot and laid the ship down on a +level keel.</p> + +<p>Far away the Sun was gilding the hard outlines of mountains that ringed +them in. Spud did not know how long he must wait. Had he realized that +it must be a matter of days it is probable he would have donned the +metal suit and started out. But instead he busied himself in a careful +investigation of the storeroom and a check-up of ammunition and supplies +that were there.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The lunar day, as all Earth-men know, is a matter of nearly fifteen of +Earth's days. Spud O'Malley was wild with impatience when at last the +Sun was striking less flatly across the land and he knew that the time +had come when he could start.</p> + +<p>He had sensed the change that took place in the world outside; from the +lookouts of the control room he had seen the bare rocks lose their white +markings of hoar frost and at last actually quiver with heat as the Sun +beat upon them. He had seen the growing things that crept from every +crevice and hollow—pale, colorless mosses that threw out long tendrils +which licked across the hot rocks as if hungry for the nourishment the +thin air brought.</p> + +<p>Spud knew nothing of the carbon dioxide which these pale green growths +could combine with water under the Sun's hot rays and build into +vegetable tissue. But he marveled again and again at the hungry things +that made a mesh of ropy strands across the smooth area about the ship. +They even hung in drooping masses from the weird rocks beyond; and, so +light they were, they raised their heads hungrily in air, while the +corded tendrils even threw themselves in contorted writhings at times +when the Sun struck with increasing warmth.</p> + +<p>"A dead world!" said Spud scornfully. "How much the scientists back +there don't know! First those livin', flyin' devils; and now this! The +whole place is fairly wrigglin' with life."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was then that he made one last flight over the inner crater and saw +light on the floor of stone in the funneled depths. Then he sent the +ship like a rocket down to the shelf of rock where Chet had begun his +descent; and he worked with trembling fingers to adjust the metal suit +and regulate the oxygen supply.</p> + +<p>He waited only to strap a couple of detonite pistols about him; then, +with never a backward look, he let himself out through the air-locking +doors and started pell-mell toward the inner crater.</p> + +<p>Like Chet, he had learned to gage his tremendous strength; like the +master pilot, he threw himself down the rocky slope. But where Chet had +leaped and stumbled in the darkness, O'Malley worked in full light.</p> + +<p>He came at last to the rocky floor where molten stone in ages past had +hardened to seal the throat of this vent. Hundreds of feet across, Spud +estimated; smooth in appearance from above, but broken with deep +crevasses and excrescences where hot, fluid stone had frozen in its +moment of bubbling turbulence. And, in one place, where the floor was +smooth, Spud found what he was searching for: a circular, metal ledge +that projected above the smooth rock; and, within it, a still smoother +sheet of what appeared to be hammered metal.</p> + +<p>"A door it is," whispered the pilot, half-fearful of listening ears, +"and the gateway to Hell!" He grinned broadly at some thought. "And here +I've been told 'twas, of all places, the easiest to get into; one little +slip from grace and there you were! Sure, and the priests were as wrong +as the scientists. It must be Heaven that's easy to crash, for the front +door of Hades is shut fast without even a keyhole to peep through."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Then his face sobered to its customary homely lines. "The poor bhoy!" he +exclaimed. "I've got to get in some way. I wonder how hard and thick it +is."</p> + +<p>He was raising a mass of black, shining rock in his hands—a fragment +that his strength would not have moved a fraction of an inch on Earth. +He steadied it above his head, preparing to crash it upon the metal +door; then waited; stared incredulously at the black metal sheet; +lowered the great stone silently and turned to leap mightily yet with +never a sound for the shelter of an upflung saw-toothed ridge.</p> + +<p>And, from its shelter, he watched the black door swing smoothly into the +air, while, from the gaping black mouth of the pit beneath, incredible +man-shapes of fish-belly white drew themselves up to the edge of the pit +and perched there, where they might stretch their long necks into the +light of the Sun.</p> + +<p>Below them, Spud saw, dangled long, rat-like tails; and their wings, +black and leathery, hung down too from their backs or dragged on the +rocks behind where some three or four of the owl-eyed creatures crawled +out and walked across the rock toward the place where an Irish pilot +waited and stared with unbelieving and horrified eyes from the +concealment of his rocky fort.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<p class='center'><i>The Fires</i></p> + + +<p>Great vortices of whirling light rolled out to either side in an endless +pyrotechnical display to show the power of those flailing wings that +were bearing Chet and his companion through the dark void—bearing them +to some destination Chet could not envisage.</p> + +<p>His body turned in space at times, and he saw the spreading cone of +luminous gas behind them like the wake of a great ship in a +phosphorescent sea. The hiss and threshing of many wings came +unceasingly. Once he swung close to another body clad like his own and, +like him, enmeshed in a net. And he saw in the light of the luminiferous +air the girl's wide, staring eyes. Then she was gone, and all about was +only the whip of wings and the flashing whirls of light.</p> + +<p>He tried to form some picture of this sphere through whose center, empty +but for this gas, he was being swung. That first fall had carried him +down the tube of some volcanic blow-pipe; he had fallen straight for +what seemed like hours. And that had been through the crust of this +great, hollow globe. Then the center!—but of this he dared make no +estimate; he knew only that the huge leather wings were threshing the +dense air in an untiring rhythm and that he was being carried for a +tremendous distance at remarkable speed.</p> + +<p>It became soothing, that rushing, swinging sweep of his body through +space. There was death ahead, without doubt—but what of that? He was +sleepy—sleepy—and beyond this nothing mattered. Just to sleep, to +drift off in spirit into a void like this through which he was +swinging....</p> + +<p>And so traveled Chet Bullard, one time Master Pilot of Earth, through, +the heart of another world—on and endlessly on, while leather-winged +demons dragged him after, flying straight away from the center of the +Moon toward a place and events unknown.</p> + +<p>But Chet Bullard had ceased to note the passing hours or the swirling +gases that came alight at the beating of those wings; he was asleep in a +stupor that was as deep as it was timeless.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He opened his eyes at last; it seemed but a moment that he had slept. +But now there was no rushing hiss of air, nor was he being lifted in a +great net. He lay instead upon a support of some kind, and about him all +was still.</p> + +<p>Not at first did he observe the exquisite carving of the yellow bed on +which he lay; that came later. The fact that its massive gold and its +scrollwork of inlaid platinum were worth a fortune meant nothing to him +then. His eyes were held by the immensity of the great room and the +intricate series of arches that made up a vaulted ceiling.</p> + +<p>It shone with a light of its own, that carved ceiling; no least lovely +detail was lost. And Chet found his eyes roving from one to another of +angel figures that seemed suspended in air.</p> + +<p>The white of purest alabaster was theirs; and their outstretched wings, +too, were white. He realized confusedly that they were like the black +demons—like them and yet entirely unlike. For, where the black-winged +ones had been ugly of feature, with every mark of degeneracy, these were +the ultimate of loveliness in face and form. Figures of men he saw, +stalwart and strong, yet perfectly proportioned; and the others—the +women and girls—were superhuman in their ethereal beauty.</p> + +<p>"Angels!" breathed Chet and turned his head slowly to see the exquisite +figures that seemed hovering above the whole vast room in silent +benediction. "Angels—no less! And they're carved from stone! Those +black devils never did it. What does it mean? What does it mean!"</p> + +<p>And not until then did Chet realize a wonderful thing. So enthralled had +he been by the wonder of this hovering angel band he had not realized +that he was seeing them with no helmet glass between; he was lying +disrobed on his couch of pure gold.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>For an instant, panic seized him. Without his helmet and the oxygen +supply, he must strangle. And then he knew that he was breathing +naturally in an atmosphere like that of Earth but for the strange +fragrances that swept to him on the soft, warm air.</p> + +<p>He came slowly to his feet and steadied himself with one hand on the +scrollwork of the bed. Then memories rushed in upon him, and he lived +again the long, sickening fall through the heart of this world, the +finding of the girl of mystery, hung like himself in the immensity of +the inner world, their capture; and the band of black-winged ones who +swung them through space in nets that drew tightly about them.</p> + +<p>The girl! Again he saw the clear look from those eyes of blue. It was +she who had signaled; it was she whom he had come through vast space to +rescue. And now she was lost!</p> + +<p>Chet stared slowly about him at the magnificence of the tremendous room. +He saw more delicate figures done in inlay on the walls; he knew that he +was in a place whose beauty and wealth should have set his nerves +tingling; and all he sensed was the loneliness of this place where he +was the only living occupant.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He found his Earth-clothes beside the golden couch. He had put them on +and was examining the suit and helmet to learn with relief that they +were intact when the first sound came to him. From an arched entrance +across the room were coming shuffling figures whose black wings were +wrapped about their chalk-white bodies. Only their pallid faces showed, +ghastly and inhuman, as the eyes glowed redly from their deep black +sockets. Chet still held the suit in his hands as the black-winged ones +came toward him across the floor, and he carried it with him as he moved +unresistingly where they led him with the pull of their claw-like hands +upon his arms.</p> + +<p>"No gun!" he told himself hopelessly. "Not a chance if I put up a fight! +They've got me and got me right. Now what I need to do is to be +good—lay low—find out something about all this, and find her!" He +could not name the girl whose eyes were haunting him in their appealing +loveliness; he could think of her only as the mystery girl, and he +accepted without surprise or denial the fact that the finding of her +outweighed all else that this new world might hold for him.</p> + +<p>As the shuffling figures closed about him and led him away he found +relief in the thought of his ship, of Spud's safety, and of his return +to the world that they both knew as home.</p> + +<p>"Never again for me!" said Chet softly beneath his breath. "But Spud +will get there. Perhaps he is there now—no telling how long I have +slept!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He saw it all so plainly: saw the Irish pilot bringing the ship to rest +at the great Hoover Terminal. And he saw, too, a relief expedition that +would be organized by Harkness and that must arrive too late. To suppose +that any help might reach him here inside this wild world was too much; +Chet looked with judicially appraising eyes at the things about him and +could not allow himself to be deceived. There was no hope; but he made +one resolve and made it grimly in words that never reached his lips.</p> + +<p>"Give me half a chance at them, Walt," he promised, "and if ever you do +get inside here, you'll know where I've been. I'll find the girl +first—I must do that—then I'll give these devils something to remember +me by before they put us away for good!" And now the face of the pilot +was almost happy as he stared at the snarling, twisted features of those +that led him unresistingly through a series of stone rooms that seemed +without beginning or end. He even disregarded the spiked tails that +whipped at him with heavy blows to hurry him along.</p> + +<p>"If I had a gun," he told them inaudibly, "I'd take you on right now. +But you got that, or I lost it in the scuffle, so I'll just twist your +scrawny necks in my bare hands when the time comes. And it's coming, you +ugly devils! It's coming!"</p> + +<p>Their claws pulled roughly at him to hurry him into another room. And +where before he could see nothing of a beautiful room because of the +absence of a pair of smiling eyes, he now saw nothing else for their +presence. For, across the great hall, whose walls and ceilings glowed +softly with yellow light, his eyes swept unerringly to a slim figure in +a pilot's suit—to an oval face and blue eyes and red lips that could +still curve into a trembling smile of welcome as he drew near.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Forgotten was the grip of sharp-spiked, clawing hands; even the +anticipated sweets of revenge were lost from Chet's mind. He knew only +that he had found her—the mystery girl—and that the blue eyes were +locked with his in an intimacy that set something deep within him into a +turmoil of emotion.</p> + +<p>And instead of the countless questions he had expected to launch upon +her when again they met, he found his lips trembling and wordless—until +they uttered one hoarse ejaculation of: "Thank God!"</p> + +<p>But the girl seemed to understand, for she reached one slender hand to +touch him lightly upon the arm where these gripping claws had been. +"Yes," she whispered; "I was afraid, too—afraid for you!"</p> + +<p>More whispered words, but they were lost to Chet in the babel of sound +that engulfed them. Those who had brought him had moved silently, and +the throng of some hundred or more that waited beside the girl had been +mute. But now they burst into a chorus of shrill cries whose keenness +stabbed at Chet's ears.</p> + +<p>A pandemonium of the same high-pitched squeals, he had beard +before—this was all that he could distinguish at first. Then the shrill +sounds broke into words and unintelligible phrases, and he knew they +were talking among themselves.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>They quieted at a sound from the girl. She had turned to face them, and +she forced her own soft voice into a shrill pitch as she spoke to them. +Their clamor broke out once more as she ceased, but it was more +subdued. Chet could hear her as she turned toward him.</p> + +<p>"They think you are Frithjof," she explained.</p> + +<p>"You talked with them?" asked Chet incredulously.</p> + +<p>"But certainly; have I not been here for five years? They have their +language—but enough of that now. They are angry. They sent Frithjof +away; they tell me now that he escaped; they think you are he—that you +have changed your appearance with magic—that the ship they saw was +summoned by your magic. They say they will kill us both; throw us to the +fires!"</p> + +<p>"Wait!" almost shouted Chet to make himself heard above the din of +shrieking voices. "I've got to know! Who are you? Who is Frithjof? How +did you get here? Where are you from? Tell me quickly! It may give me +something to go on; it may mean a chance for delay."</p> + +<p>And if Chet had not been out of breath from the shouted questions, he +would surely have been left breathless by their amazing answer.</p> + +<p>"I thought you knew," said the girl as the din of shrillness subsided. +There seemed to Chet a note of hurt in her voice. "I thought you knew, +that you had come here knowing. I am Anita, and Frithjof is my +brother—Frithjof Haldgren! I stowed away on his ship; he did not know. +I was only thirteen then.... And now, is Frithjof forgotten back in that +world that we left?"</p> + +<p>Again that note of disappointment; the pilot sensed it even through the +tenseness of the moment when both Earth-folk knew that death stood close +at their side. He answered quickly:</p> + +<p>"I came for your brother. I saw your signals. I came to find Haldgren +and to save him. And I have failed. But if death, as you say, is all we +can expect, let me say this: 'I have failed, but I have found you; and +whatever comes I am content.'"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The blue eyes were wide; they were looking at him with a searching +glance that changed to a childish candor while a flush stole over the +pale face. She reached out one hand toward his. "We could have been +happy," she said simply; "and now—now we must face the +fires—together."</p> + +<p>"I don't know just what you mean by that," spoke Chet softly, "but, +whatever it is, there is a little matter of a fight first."</p> + +<p>He released her hand and moved swiftly between her and the nearer of the +throng; and his blood pulsed strongly through him as he faced a battery +of hostile red eyes and knew that he was preparing for his last fight.</p> + +<p>A hand clutched at his arm. "Not now!" begged Anita Haldgren's voice. +"Wait! They will not all come. I too, can fight; but we cannot face so +many!"</p> + +<p>The rat-tails of the nearest beasts were whipping to and fro; the eyes +in the chalky faces were like living coals where the ashes have been +freshly blown. Chet stepped back beside the girl, and he made no protest +as the black claws seized him and the sharp talons dug into his flesh. +But he whispered to the one who was hurried along beside him: "You are +right; I'll be good as long as we stay together. But if not—if we're +separated—if they take you away—"</p> + +<p>And the girl nodded quick agreement with his unspoken words.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Chet set his teeth together to make more bearable the pain of those +gripping claws; but the hurt was easier to bear when he saw that the +girl was more carefully treated. She was close ahead as his captors +hustled him from this room into others and yet others, all carved from +the solid rock.</p> + +<p>What a people this must be who could do such work as this! Again the +sense of amazement struck through to Chet despite the pain—amazement +and a feeling of an inexplicable incongruity when he saw the +leather-winged creatures that had him in their grip. And again there +were figures high overhead—white, floating figures on pinions of pure +white; their faces, kindly and serene, looked down upon the motley +throng.</p> + +<p>"Look above you!" gasped Chet. "Anita! What are they? Not like these +devils!"</p> + +<p>And the girl ahead half-turned her head to answer: "Ancestors! A +thousand generations back! They have come down to this state +now—degenerated."</p> + +<p>Chet saw one of the beasts who held her jerk her sharply about, and he +knew that his remaining questions must wait—wait forever, perhaps, and +remain unsaid.</p> + +<p>They came at last to a place where Chet found the answer to one question +he had not dared ask; a place where gaping chasms in the floor glowed +red with the wrath of unquenched fires. And the girl, Anita, when they +had been placed by themselves against a glowing, lighted wall of rock, +stared steadily at those pits and the sulphurous fumes that vomited out +at times; then turned and spoke to the pilot in a voice steady and sure.</p> + +<p>"It will be over quickly," she assured him. "Frithjof said that the +heat, like the warmth of this whole inner world, comes from the +contraction of the rocks in the cold of night. There is great pressure +developed ... but he never learned the source of the light in the +walls."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Talking to still the beating of a heart pulsing with dread, perhaps! +Chet had no mind for explanations. Before him were a score of yawning +clefts in a rocky floor; one was larger than the rest; there were +figures whose white bodies glowed red in its reflected light as they +floated on black wings high above; the light of those hidden fires +blazed and died intermittently. There death was waiting, while these +demons—these degenerate half-men, living products of a dying +race—whipped the air in a frenzy of expectation as they darted above +those chasms that were like rifts in the rock roof of hell.</p> + +<p>Chet did not answer the statements of the girl. Instead he turned and +gathered her once into his arms, while his lips met hers to find a ready +response. Her face, so calm and pale, was turned upward to his. And his +own voice trembled at first; then was steady and firm.</p> + +<p>"I love you. I've come a long way to tell you, and I didn't know why I +came. And now it is too late."</p> + +<p>"Anita Haldgren," he said, and let his voice linger as he repeated the +name, "Anita Haldgren—a beautiful name—a beautiful soul! And now—" He +released her quickly and swung to meet a rush of beastly things that +half-ran, half-flew across the great room.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Outstretched arms of white that ended in black claws! Snarling, grinning +teeth in faces of dead-white flesh! Barbed tails that hissed through the +air as they swung down upon him! And Chet Bullard, his blond hair +shining like the gold that was inlaid and encrusted upon the walls of +the room—Chet Bullard, Master Pilot, once, of a distant Earth—did not +wait for the assault to reach him, but sprang in upon the beastly things +with swinging fists that came up from beneath to crash into grinning +faces; to smash dully into white, scabrous flesh; or catch beneath the +angle of out-thrust jaws jolt the ghastly faces into awkward angles.</p> + +<p>They went down before him at first. Then the long rat-tails came +whipping over, the demon-heads, ripping down with slashing blows on the +pilot's head and shoulders. Off at one side, a dozen paces away, a +slender figure tore loose from gripping claws. Chet saw it; he freed +himself for an instant to leap to her side. She was tugging at a bar of +gold, a scepter in the hands of a sculptured figure in the wall. It +would have been a serviceable weapon, but it bent slowly. Another of the +beasts was upon her as Chet sprang.</p> + +<p>This one went down beneath the chopping right that Chet shot to a lean, +white jaw; then a barbed tail caught him a blow that laid his shoulder +open. Another descended—and another. The pilot sank to the floor. Anita +was beside him, shielding him with her own body from the rain of blows. +Then they were buried beneath a great weight of odorous bodies—till +Chet, after a time, felt himself dragged to his feet.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>His head, was ringing with the shrieks of the shrill-voiced mob. He was +still struggling, still fighting blindly, as the clamor ceased. Then he +stood erect and motionless as he heard the voice of Anita Haldgren.</p> + +<p>"It's Frithjof!" she cried. "Oh, my dear—my dear! It's Frithjof! I +heard him!" But he can't reach us—he can't help us! I will try to +reason with these beasts—bargain with them—make them afraid! I will +tell them it is magic."</p> + +<p>And, as her voice, high-pitched in the language of this race, rose in +protest against them, Chet heard what the girl had detected first: a +sharp, metallic rapping within the wall, a rapping that was dulled by +distance but whose separate blows were distinct; and he knew, with a +knowledge that came from somewhere else than his bewildered brain, that +the raps were forming dots and dashes. They were talking Morse!</p> + +<p>The girl's frenzied appeal ended in a din of shrieks; a horde of +man-beasts swept into the air and launched themselves in a solid mass +upon the two. Chet saw Anita for one instant as he felt himself lifted +in air. About him was a pandemonium of flailing wings; ahead and below +was the red of hidden fires. They were being lifted out and over the +pits.</p> + +<p>One instant only, while tortured eyes smiled bravely into his; then a +great pit-mouth that gaped a horrible welcome up ahead. So plainly Chet +saw it! He could not tear his eyes away. He saw the red, smoking breath +of it; he saw a rocky lip that shone like one great ruby.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It was impossible! Even the blast of air that tore at him meant nothing +at first! But it was happening! Before his eyes it was happening! Chet +watched dumbly, uncomprehendingly, as that great overhanging rock tore +itself into fragments that rose screamingly into the air or fell to the +depths beneath.</p> + +<p>Another section of solid floor erupted a hundred feet across the room! +The destruction was being kept away, Chet knew. And then, while a roar +like all the thunders of Earth reverberated deafeningly through the rock +room, the claws that gripped him relaxed their hold.</p> + +<p>He fell, nor felt the impact of his fall. He came to his feet, ran +stumblingly to the edge of the nearest pit where he threw his arms about +the body of a girl and dragged her to safety. And while he did it he +was babbling in broken sentences:</p> + +<p>"It's detonite! Your brother!... Where did he get it?... Detonite!... +Oh, my dear—my dear!"</p> + +<p>And his arms were tight about her while he held his body between her and +the explosions that tore at the floor in an inferno of crashing +explosions out beyond—until three of the demon-beasts, red with the +reflected fires of that subterranean hell, flew down like black-winged +bats bent on vengeance. And Chet, laughing at their numbers, sprang out +with hard fists swinging in well-directed blows, and welcomed them as +only an Earth-man could.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<p class='center'><i>O'Malley Investigates</i></p> + + +<p>Spud O'Malley's twinkling Irish eyes had seen strange sights in his +years of piloting an Intercolonial freighter; he had touched at odd +corners of the Earth. But never had he seen such creatures as confronted +him now.</p> + +<p>Sheltered behind a jagged ridge of volcanic rock in the inner crater of +the great ring of Hercules, he stared in utter horror at the figures +that approached. For to Spud, with all his inherited ancestral faith in +gnomes and pixies, these bat-winged things were nothing less than people +of the under world—demons from some purgatory of the Moon—devils, +living and breathing, spewed out from that buried hell for a moment of +relaxation from their horrid work.</p> + +<p>And, coming directly toward him across a level lava bed, three of the +things, with leather wings trailing, were approaching. Spud was +unmoving; his feet might have been one with the volcanic rock on which +he stood for any ability of his to raise them. Only his eyes turned +slowly in their sockets to stare wildly at the three who drew near; who +glimpsed his awe-stricken eyes behind his helmet glass; and who uttered +shrill, screaming cries that brought the rest of the unholy crew leaping +and flapping across the rocks.</p> + +<p>And, within that helmet, Spud's lips moved unconsciously to repeat +prayers he would have sworn were forgotten these many years. There was a +pistol at his belt where his hand was resting; another hung at his other +side. But the man made no move to defend himself; he was struck numb and +nerveless, not through fear, but through that horror which comes with +seeing one's most gruesome superstitions come true. Spud O'Malley, who +would have laughed at devils and believed in them while he laughed, knew +now that they were real. They had captured Chet; they were about to take +him, too, to the hell that was their home.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>And still he did not move while the demon figures pressed closer, while +their wild, shrieking cries echoed within his helmet; while they lashed +their scaly tails, and at last leaped in unison upon the helpless man.</p> + +<p>And then, with that first touch, Spud O'Malley, who had not only seen +strange creatures but had fought with them, came to himself—and the +hand that rested upon a detonite pistol moved like the head of a +striking snake.</p> + +<p>The roar of detonite was strained and thin in the light atmosphere of +this globe; it seemed futile compared with its usual thunderous report. +But its effects were the same as might have been expected on Earth!</p> + +<p>Spud was hurled to the rocky floor, as much by the closeness of the +exploding shells as by the weight of the bodies that came upon him. He +fell free of the first leaping things that went to fragments in mid-air +as his pistol checked them. And he made no effort to arise, but lay +prostrate, while he swung that slender tube of death about him and saw +the winged beasts shattered and torn—until there were but five who ran +wildly with frantic, flapping wings; and these the tiny shells from +Spud's gun caught as they ran when the Irishman sprang to his feet and +took careful aim across the jagged rocks.</p> + +<p>"Saints be praised!" the pilot was saying over and over. "Saints be +thanked!—even the Devil's imps can't stand up to detonite shells! And +Chet, the poor lad!—his gun must have been knocked from his hand; he +was fightin' in the dark, too! And they took him down there, they +did!—down where I'm goin' to see if the lad is still livin'."</p> + +<p>And Spud O'Malley, though he believed fully in the demoniac nature of +these opponents and never for an instant thought but that he was +descending into an inferno of the Moon, strode with steady steps toward +the portal of that Plutonic region and lowered himself within.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>That ring of metal, huge and accurately formed, made Spud pause in +thought; the massive metal door that came up from below to fit that ring +snugly—that, too, looked more like the work of human hands than of +demons. The pilot was frankly puzzled as he tentatively moved a lever +down below that door and saw the huge metal mass swing shut.</p> + +<p>About him the walls were glowing. He saw, in the floor, another circular +door, but found no lever with which to operate it. Nor did he search for +one, since he could have no way of knowing that here was where Chet had +gone. But, from the corridor where he stood other lighted passages led; +and one slanted more steeply than the rest.</p> + +<p>"That's the way I'm goin'," announced Spud. "I know that, and it's all I +do know; I'm goin' down till I find some place where the devils live and +where Chet may be."</p> + +<p>The passage took him smoothly down. It turned at times, and smaller +branches split off, but he followed the main corridor that he had +selected for his route. And he paused, at last, beside a metal frame in +the rock wall, where the door that fitted so tightly in the frame was +not like the others he had seen. For the first ones, though cleverly +fashioned and machined, were of iron, rusted red with the ages; while +this one that was before him now was paneled and decorated with sweeping +scrolls. And, above this portal that seemed hermetically sealed, was a +white figure such as Chet had seen.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Spud's gaze traveled up to it slowly, and his knees were trembling as +they had not done when facing the black-winged ones. "'Tis an angel," he +whispered, "or the statue of one! And that explains it all. 'Tis them +that has done all this—these passages, and the sweet-fittin' doors. And +do they live here? I wonder. Heaven help me if I meet them, for never +could I shoot at one of them, the pretty things!"</p> + +<p>He was still gazing in rapt wonder that was near to worship when the +great door began to move. He saw the first hair-line crack, and the thin +line of light was like a hot wire across his eyes, so quickly did he +respond. Beyond, where he had not yet gone, was a branching passage. All +the walls glowed softly with light—no shelter of darkness was his—but +Spud leaped for the little passage and raced down it until a turn +screened him from sight.</p> + +<p>"That's movin'!" he congratulated himself. "What an athlete I'm +becomin'!" And it was fortunate for the pilot that the ceiling was high, +for his tremendous Earth-strength propelled him in unbelievable bounds.</p> + +<p>He still moved on silently, for far ahead in the corridor something had +caught his eyes. And he stopped finally beside a little car; then saw +that he had been following a single rail, buried under the dust of ages +on the corridor floor.</p> + +<p>The monorail car lay on its side. At one end of it was a motor. Not a +motor such as men had built, Spud confessed, but an electric motor none +the less. And beyond this, where the passage ended, was a wall veined +thickly with gold.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Ropy strands of the metal shone reddish-yellow in the soft light of the +walls; detached pieces lay on the floor and in the car itself. Spud +regarded it with amazement, but the wealth he was witnessing left him +cold; another thought was forcing itself into his brain.</p> + +<p>That thought took more definite form when another corridor took him to +rooms where great metal cases were neatly stacked; other adjoining rooms +held strange machinery and appliances on metal stands.</p> + +<p>"Lab'ratories!" said the amazed man explosively. "And storehouses, too! +Neither angels nor devils did this; 'tis the work of men—and I know how +to get along with men. I'll go find them. Belike they have saved the +lad, Chet, and he'll be waitin' to see me."</p> + +<p>He raced back along the corridor, but stopped short at its end, where he +had taken flight from the larger passage. There was sound of shrieking +voices, and Spud dropped to the floor to present as small a view as +possible to the half-human things that trailed their black wings past +the metal entrance; then he crept cautiously to peer around the corner, +when the last one had gone.</p> + +<p>They were waiting out beyond; Spud watched them intently. They had great +nets of rope in which were living things that struggled and writhed.</p> + +<p>He saw one of the creatures stoop to break off a protruding end of +pinkish, nameless substance; the thing seemed to struggle in his hands +while he took it to his mouth and munched on it. Even when Spud realized +that this living food was vegetation of some sort, he was still sickened +with the sight of its being taken alive into the bodies of these +Moon-beasts.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>One of the ugly figures raised a black-clawed hand to seize a lever let +flush into the wall. It had been concealed. Spud saw the door open; saw +the waiting horde troop through, dragging their loaded nets; and he saw +the door close silently, while the actuating lever moved back to its +former position.</p> + +<p>And Spud, speaking half aloud, counted slowly to a hundred, then another +hundred, as a gage of the time while he waited for those beyond the door +to move on. But at the count of two hundred his eager hands were upon +the lever, while his eyes were hungry to stare beyond the opening door.</p> + +<p>They found nothing but emptiness when the door swung wide. Another room +of luminous walls; another door in the farther wall. The man moved +slowly through the doorway one cautious step at a time and stared about.</p> + +<p>He found a lever like the others, moved it—and saw the door close +silently behind him. Another lever was near the second door; he pulled +carefully, steadily, upon it.</p> + +<p>There was no movement of the door, but something had occurred as he +knew by the hissing sound that came from above his head. Its source he +could not find; its result was most startling. For, where before his +suit had bulged out roundly with the inner pressure of one atmosphere, +it now became less taut—and it hung loosely about him when the hissing +ceased.</p> + +<p>"An air-lock," said Spud joyfully, "or I'm a rat-tailed imp myself! That +means a heavier air-pressure inside. And now I know 'tis men folks I'm +goin' to see!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The lever moved easily now, and the second door swung open and closed +behind him as before. Spud tore recklessly at the fastening of his suit, +regardless of the fact that an increased pressure might still come from +some gas that would mean death to a human. But, like Chet, he found the +air fragrant and pure, and he rid himself of the encumbering suit, +strapped the pistols at his waist, rolled the suit to a bundle he could +sling over one shoulder, and moved carefully as a cat as he went forward +through a corridor that led down and still down.</p> + +<p>As he went the empty labyrinth of halls filled him with a horrible +depression; yet there was beauty everywhere—beauty whose delicacy of +curve and color filled even the untrained mind of Spud O'Malley with a +thrill of delight.</p> + +<p>There were halls and vast rooms without number; there were carvings that +glowed with a light of their own—figures so filled with the very spirit +of livingness that they seemed stepping out from the cold walls to greet +him; there were more celestial hosts of purest white poised apparently +in mid-flight.</p> + +<p>There were marvelous, rioting waves of color that pulsed and throbbed +through the walls and the very air of some rooms; and there were +articles of furniture—carved tables, chairs—objects whose purpose +Spud could not guess. But, except for the occasional sound of shrill, +squeaking voices in the distance, there was no sign of the presence of +the builders, the men Spud had hoped to find.</p> + +<p>And he knew at last that his quest was hopeless. The dust of uncounted +centuries that lay thickly upon all was evidence as convincing as it was +mute.</p> + +<p>"There's naught but the devils!" Spud despaired. "The others—saints be +helpin' of them!—have been gone for more years than a man dares think +of. So, the devils it is; I'll follow them—I'll go where they are. But +I'm not so sure at all of findin' the lad now."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>That high-pitched chattering that had come to him at times was his only +guide now. It seemed echoing in greater volume from one passage that +slanted down more sharply than the rest. Spud followed it, clinging with +hands and feet to the steep-pitched floor; but some sudden impulse +seized him and compelled him to stop at intervals while he drew a pistol +from his belt. Its grip was of steelite that rang sharply as a bell when +he struck it upon the walls. And he tapped out the general call of the +Service time after time; then strained his faculties in eager listening +until he went hopelessly on.</p> + +<p>But he repeated the call. "For the lad may hear it and be heartened," he +argued. "And if he's free to do it he'll answer—though I think I'd +break down and cry with joy did I hear an answerin' rap."</p> + +<p>And still the chattering grew louder, while the watching, creeping man +moved stealthily on. A wave of gas came to him once and set him choking, +while far ahead he saw a reflected glow more red than the pale, lucent +shimmering of the walls.</p> + +<p>He stopped dead still as once more there flooded through him a thousand +unnamed fears of this domain of the Evil One where he would trespass. +But he forced his feet to carry him on until he could peer down through +a rift in the rock floor to behold another room whose walls glowed redly +with the light of fires far down in hot-throated pits.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There were figures whose white bodies shone as redly in that +glow—figures that floated on outspread leather wings of dead black. +Small wonder that the mind of Spud O'Malley found here the confirmation +of his worst fears; small wonder that his trembling lips whispered: +"'Tis Hell! 'Tis Hell, at last!"</p> + +<p>But there was that which froze his quivering nerves to cold quiet, which +set his lips into a grim, straight line and held him motionless above +the opening from which he saw the room below—as, from a flurry of +bodies against one far side, he saw a girl emerge.</p> + +<p>She was in the hands of the black-winged beasts who carried her into the +air then swung out toward the fiery pit. And Spud's incredulous: "Oh, +the poor, beautiful darlin'!" rose unconsciously to his lips to die away +in a quick-drawn breath. For, from the mass of bodies, another figure +was tossed up into the air to be gripped by black, waiting claws—and +Spud knew that he was seeing Chet Bullard, fighting, struggling, in the +grasp of these demons from the Pit.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The fumes from that inferno rose straight up. They passed out at another +funnel-shaped throat except for an occasional eddy that whirled back +toward the watching man. But Spud O'Malley, hanging precariously from +that opening above, knew nothing of the sulphurous fumes or of the +tight band they clamped about his throat. He was taking careful aim at +the first of the flying beasts, found Chet in his line of fire, and +snapped forward his pistol to fire at the lip of the pit instead. And he +slipped forward the continuous discharge lever that caused the pistol to +shake in his hand as it emptied its capacious magazine in a furious rain +of bullets whose every end was tipped with the deadliest explosive of +Earth.</p> + +<p>The floor rose up toward him in a spouting volcano of fire, while Spud +glared wildly through glazed and blinded eyes and swung his pistol to +rake the flying horde where he knew Chet was not.</p> + +<p>He saw, through the haze that was sweeping before him, Chet's sprawled +body on the floor; he saw him leap to his feet and rush to the rescue of +the girl. Then the empty pistol slipped from Spud's nerveless hand; and +his other, that had clung with unshakable grip to a sharp edge of rock, +relaxed, while he plunged headlong toward the floor below.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<p class='center'><i>One Stroke for Freedom</i></p> + + +<p>In that subterranean chamber of the Moon, where the angry red of still +deeper fires flared fitfully; where winged demons, like evil creatures +of a drug-crazed dreamer's mind, darted shrieking through the sulphurous +air, it was a slender, blue-eyed girl who took control of events.</p> + +<p>She it was who, when the explosions of detonite had ceased, saw the fall +of a body from high above. She saw it strike upon a mound of dead +Moon-beasts; saw the homely, human features as the body rolled to the +floor; and it was she who threw herself upon it protectingly when one of +the enemy wounded dragged his broken wings trailing across the stone +that he might reach that human face with his distended claws.</p> + +<p>"A man!" Anita Haldgren screamed. "It's a man—help me!" And Chet was +beside her in an instant to drag the limp body to safety.</p> + +<p>"Spud!" he shouted. "It's Spud O'Malley! He never went back! He came +down here to save us!"</p> + +<p>He grabbed up the gun where it had fallen; saw the empty magazine; then +flung himself down beside the unconscious figure of Spud while he tore +at the fastenings of the second weapon.</p> + +<p>"His suit!" he shouted to the girl. "Get his suit! It's there where he +fell! Bring yours and mine, too!"</p> + +<p>He was hardly able to gage his own strength here where all weights were +one-sixth of their equivalent on Earth. He stooped and swung the chunky +body of Spud across his shoulder as easily as he would have lifted a +child. And, having done it, he was entirely at a loss as to where to go.</p> + +<p>Across the great room was a throng of leaping, flapping things; more +were pouring in from open doors. Chet stood hesitant and bewildered, +until Anita spoke.</p> + +<p>"Come!" she called, and darted toward a narrow entrance.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The clamorous shrieking from the horde of Moon-beasts marked their +swooping assault upon the two, and Chet paused to send them three shots +that checked the advance. Then, with the body of Spud held tightly, he +sprang where Anita had gone.</p> + +<p>She was waiting, but gave Chet no chance to question her. "Come!" she +commanded again, and ran on as before. But, as Chet gained her side, she +offered between gasping breaths an explanation.</p> + +<p>"Five years they kept us ... like animals in a cage ... but there was a +place ... a sacred place ... they let us go there.... And they let us +make signal lights from outside ... they called it magic.</p> + +<p>"And now Frithjof has escaped ... he will go to the sacred room ... only +there would he be safe...."</p> + +<p>They had turned and twisted through narrow passages. Anita, it seemed, +was plotting a course through less frequented thoroughfares of this +strange city. But they came at last to a vast auditorium into which they +peered from a half-opened door.</p> + +<p>The room was of preposterous size, and Chet marveled at the minds that +had conceived and wrought so tremendous an undertaking. And he saw +plainly in his own mind the throngs of serene-faced beings who must have +folded their white wings softly about them to gather there for worship. +But more plainly still he saw the jostling, squealing crowd that was +there that instant before his eyes.</p> + +<p>Hundreds of them—thousands, it might be—and the sound of their shrill +voices made hideous echoes from the high-flung ceiling of the great +hall. The dry rustling of their leather wings was an unceasing rush of +sound.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Some who seemed to be leaders stood above the rest on a platform which +formed the base of a terraced formation against the far wall of the +room. Even at a distance Chet could see and wonder at the simple beauty +of that place of metals and jewels where the great ones of an earlier +race had once stood.</p> + +<p>Back of those who harangued the crowd the terraces built themselves up +to a pyramid against the rock wall; and on either side, opening upon +the platform base, was a doorway of noble proportions, whose metal doors +of burnished reds and browns were closed.</p> + +<p>"The sacred room," whispered Anita, "beyond those doors. Frithjof has +closed them. He is there. I know it—I know it!"</p> + +<p>Chet was still holding the body of O'Malley. Only his choked breathing +showed that he still lived, but now he stirred and struggled in Chet's +grasp, while he struck out blindly and hoarse sounds came from his +throat.</p> + +<p>Chet clapped one hand over the pilot's mouth. "For the love of heaven, +Spud," he said fiercely, "be still! Don't speak—don't say a word! It's +Chet—Chet Bullard! I've got you, we're all right!"</p> + +<p>The pilot's struggles ceased, and Chet eased him to the floor where he +sat still gasping for breath; the fumes from that place of death had +been strangling in his throat.</p> + +<p>Beside him Chet heard the girl repeating in softest tones the name she +had heard for the first time.</p> + +<p>"Chet—Chet Bullard! How odd a name! But I love it—I couldn't help but +love it."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>In the great room were some who had turned toward the sound of Chet's +scuffling; they were walking slowly toward the half-opened door.</p> + +<p>"Come!" said Anita Haldgren again, and fled like a slender, +golden-haired wraith down the narrow hall.</p> + +<p>More twisting passages until Chet was hopelessly lost. But he no longer +needed to carry O'Malley, who was running beside him, and he had +implicit faith in the girlish guide who went before. He was not +surprised when they came after many detours to a narrow door of wrought +metals in white and gold, whose inset designs were worked in glowing +jewels.</p> + +<p>Nor was he surprised when the door opened in response to a series of +knocks from Anita's hand that spelled SOS in the code he knew, and a +man, whose long hair and beard hung about a face as handsome as that of +a Viking of old, stood motionless in that doorway.</p> + +<p>But the surprise of that flaxen-haired giant can be only imagined when a +young man whom he had never seen on Earth or Moon stepped forward from +his sister's side with outstretched hand.</p> + +<p>"I am Bullard," said the slim young man, "Master Pilot of the World—or +at least that was my rating up to the time I left in search of you. And +now, Pilot Haldgren, we've a ship outside, and, if you'd care to go back +with us—"</p> + +<p>And with equal casualness the blond Viking replied: "You came in search +of us! You saw our signals! After all this time! Yes, we shall be glad +to go back with—we shall be glad—yes—"</p> + +<p>But his deep, rumbling voice broke into something like a sob, and he +turned with outstretched arms to stumble blindly toward his sister, who +buried her face in his torn and ragged blouse.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"You came in search of us—you came through space just to find and +rescue us!" Haldgren, it seemed, could not recover from the effects of +this unbelievable fact. He was gripping hard at the hand of Chet +Bullard, while his other great arm was thrown about the shoulders of +Spud O'Malley.</p> + +<p>"But now that you are here, what is to be done? Every exit will be +guarded; we are shut off from the outer world by a hundred locked doors +and by thousands of those beasts."</p> + +<p>He took his arm from Spud's shoulder to point toward the great doors, +beyond which was a rising clamor of shrill sound.</p> + +<p>"They will break in here soon; they would have been here before had they +known of the old lost entrance of the priests that Anita and I found. +We're as bad off as ever, I am afraid. There will be no holding them +now."</p> + +<p>"I can hold some," said Chet, and touched his weapon. Haldgren nodded +his shaggy head.</p> + +<p>"Some, but not many of the thousands we must face before ever we fight +our way through to the outer world. No, my friend Bullard, that will +never save us; we are doomed!"</p> + +<p>But Chet, unwilling to accept or share the other's convictions, was +seeing again the great room beyond those doors—a room of vast +proportions; of high-arched, vaulted ceiling where sweeping curves all +centered and ended in one tremendous central point. It hung down, that +point, a blazing pendant—an inverted keystone; through some magic of +that ancient people all the colors of the spectrum had been made to ebb +and flow like rainbows of living light.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>But something deeper than the beauty of this had impressed Chet. A +master pilot does not study design of structures, even structures meant +for travel through the air, without gaining knowledge of architectural +fundamentals; his mind, subconsciously, had been following strains and +stresses through those super-imposed curves. He turned abruptly to +Haldgren with a question.</p> + +<p>"It seemed to me when I was following Anita that we climbed upward; we +were always running upward through the passages. We must be near the +surface of the Moon; is that true?"</p> + +<p>Haldgren nodded slowly. "I think so—yes! In the great room out there +are windows of quartz high in the ceiling. You could not see them from +where you were, but they are there. I have seen them lighted; I think it +was the light of the sun."</p> + +<p>"In that case," said Chet quietly, "I will ask you to open those doors."</p> + +<p>"But they will come in!" the big man protested.</p> + +<p>"They will not come in."</p> + +<p>Chet turned to the girl. "I will ask you, my dear, to accompany me—if +you have faith."</p> + +<p>And, to that, Anita Haldgren granted not even a word of reply. She moved +more swiftly than her brother to a controlling lever in the wall ... and +the ponderous doors swung slowly back.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Beyond those opening doors a din of shrieks went abruptly still. They +rose again in a squeaking babel of amazement and again were silenced as +Chet Bullard stepped through the arch. Beside him was the slender figure +of Anita; following was a stocky man whose unhandsome, face was alight +with a broad grin.</p> + +<p>"Go to it, my bhoy!" Spud O'Malley was saying. "I don't know what you're +up to, but you'll be countin' me in—and here's hopin' you give those +devils hell!"</p> + +<p>And, behind them all, in great strides that brought him up with the +rest, came Haldgren, recovered now from the stupefaction that had held +him momentarily. The four went silently where Chet led to the highest +point of the great terraced rostrum.</p> + +<p>It was a stepped pyramid, Chet found, split in half and the half placed +against the wall. There was a stairway of smaller steps where priests, +some thousands of years before, had made their way to the top. And the +dust of centuries arose in smoky puffs as the four trod that path where +the holy ones had gone. Below them the silence was ending in sibilant +hissing calls as the black-winged beast-men watched that procession to +the heights. Some few had launched themselves into the air, Chet saw +when he turned.</p> + +<p>"Tell them to go back," he said to Anita; "tell them to listen to what I +have to say!" There followed immediately the sound of Anita's soft voice +distorted to shrill sounds that echoed throughout the hall.</p> + +<p>"Tell them now," said Chet when the hall was still, "that I have come +from another world. Tell them that I hold the thunderbolts of their +ancient gods in my hands. Then tell them if they permit us to depart we +will go and leave them in peace. But if they try to harm us, the temple +of their gods will be destroyed, and they, too, shall die. Tell them!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There was something of unwonted solemnity in the voice of the master +pilot—something of quiet power and the dignity that became a messenger +of the gods—as he gave his orders and faced the throng.</p> + +<p>And there was the patience of a god who is sickened of slaughter as he +faced the discordant din and the threatening forward surge of the demon +throng below. The girl had spoken, and the air was black with their +threshing wings, while still Chet waited with outstretched hand.</p> + +<p>To the creatures below—the things half-men and half-beasts—the shining +tube in that extended hand meant nothing of threat. And even to the +Irish pilot, who stood silently watching, the gesture seemed futile.</p> + +<p>"You've overplayed your hand, lad," he said in a tone of despair. "'Tis +no little gun like that will stop them now!"</p> + +<p>He was watching that hand and the shining tube; watching in amazement +as he saw it swing slowly up toward the advancing horde risen level with +them in the air—up above their massed blackness of wings—on and up, +until the tube was pointing toward the base of a carven pendant, whose +blending colors were fairy lights at play.</p> + +<p>And still the weapon waited until the snarling faces of the enemy were +close. Then the pistol cracked once, and the roar of its exploding shell +came thundering after.</p> + +<p>For an instant all motion ceased; the very wings of the flying beasts +seemed frozen rigid in mid-flight. Then the whole of the vast room was +in motion.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>A rush of escaping air whirled upward the black-winged monsters in an +inverted maelstrom of shrieking winds. And, falling to meet them, came +an enormous pendant whose rioting colors seemed glorying in their own +death. And with that came the swift disintegration of the vaulted arches +where the one central supporting point of their intricate maze had been +shattered; till, with a crashing avalanche of sound that obliterated the +thundering echoes of the detonite charge, the entire ceiling, that +seemed now like the roof of a mighty world, roared down to destruction.</p> + +<p>The pyramidal rostrum was at one side. A cascade of shattered rock fell +like a curtain before it—a kindly curtain that hid from human sight the +hideous slaughter of a demoniac mob. It was still falling; the +imprisoned air was gathering added force to rush upward, screaming as if +the very winds were insane with joy at their release, when the great +arms of Frithjof Haldgren closed about the others of the group and half +carried them, half hurled them, down the slope.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>The echoing clang of great doors was still with them as the bellowing +voice of Haldgren was heard.</p> + +<p>"Get into your suits! The internal pressure is lost." Even as he spoke +the big man was clutching at his throat, though the closing doors of the +sacred room had given them respite. "Quick! They have emergency doors. +They will close them—but this part is cut off. In only minutes there +will be no air!"</p> + +<p>But it was Chet who snapped shut the closure of Anita Haldgren's suit +before he pulled on his own. And he grinned happily through the glass of +his helmet as he saw the others safely encased, while their suits slowly +bulged as the pressure of the air about them went down and their own +tanks of oxygen took up the task of maintaining one atmosphere of +pressure.</p> + +<p>In silence the great doors of the sacred room swung back; in silence, as +before, the Earth-folk passed through where chaos had reigned. Chet +checked them; he threw one arm clumsily around the figure of Anita +Haldgren while he turned to her brother.</p> + +<p>"The door is open, Frithjof Haldgren," he said, and pointed upward at +the black vault of the heavens where a massive ceiling had been. In that +immensity of space, framed in the torn outlines of a shattered world, +shone a great globe—a globe like a giant moon. The Earth, unbelievably +bright, was beckoning them once more.</p> + +<p>"The door is open," Chet repeated; "do you still wish to go home?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<p class='center'><i>"Bullard, of the I.B.C.!"</i></p> + + +<p>The controls of a meteor ship held steady without the touch of the +pilot's hand. Chet Bullard was staring at a radiocone on the instrument +board in the control room where a voice from some super-powered station +was calling. His own radio had been crackling a call, and now this +response was coming across the void.</p> + +<p>"Orders from the Stratosphere Control Board: You will proceed at once to +New York. Radiobeacon 2X12 will guide you down. Your message received +and we acknowledge report of the finding of the space-flyer, Pilot +Haldgren. Do not discharge any passengers and land nowhere else than at +New York without direct orders of the Board. Keep your directional +signal on full power; our cruisers will pick you up in the highest +level. Signed: Commander of Air."</p> + +<p>Spud O'Malley, it was, who broke the silence of the room where only the +sound of the terrific exhaust came thinly through.</p> + +<p>"May divils confound him! And it's back on the Moon with those other +beasts I'm wishin' I was. At least a man can get close enough to slam +them in their ugly faces; but the Commander and his cruisers! Sure, +there's nothin' we can do!"</p> + +<p>"Just take our medicine," said Chet Bullard quietly. "But I have proved +him wrong; Haldgren, here, is the living evidence of that. And I said I +would laugh him from the Service—well, I'm not so sure of that."</p> + +<p>"But surely," broke in Haldgren's booming voice, "there will be only +praise for what you have done. I do not understand—"</p> + +<p>"You don't know the Commander, my boy," Spud broke in dryly. "And you +don't know that the lad, here, defied him to his face and ran the +gantlet of his cruisers' guns to get away and go after you."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" grunted the giant. "And now I understand. It is the old story—an +incompetent man in a place of authority—"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Chet broke in.</p> + +<p>"Not quite right; this Commander of ours has done much—he is a driver +of men—but there are some of us who think he lacks vision. He can never +see beyond the stratosphere he rules so ably; and his position is +supreme."</p> + +<p>"There is still the Governing Council—we will appeal—"</p> + +<p>But the master pilot was not listening to Haldgren's words; his slim, +sensitive hand was reaching for the ball-control to build up still more +the tremendous blast of a forward exhaust that was checking their speed +and making them as heavy as if their bodies were of meteoric iron.</p> + +<p>A forward lookout showed a black globe; its circle was rimmed with fire +from the Sun that it blotted out. A hemisphere of night lay below—the +black, mysterious night of a waiting Earth. But one strong signal came +in on the instruments at Chet's side to show him where on that horizon +was New York; and the call of a flagship of cruisers was flashing before +him as the lift of the Repelling Area was felt.</p> + +<p>"Follow!" flashed the order. "You will follow to New York!" And, through +the black night, faint flashes of light marked the fleet of swift +guardians of the skies that closed in, then swept downward and out—an +impregnable convoy about the speeding, roaring ship.</p> + +<p>And there was that in Chet's face as he handled the controls that +brought Anita Haldgren to his side that she might lift his free hand in +wordless comfort and press it to her face.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>That venerable and beloved man, the President of the Federation +Aeronautique Internationale, stood silent before a vast audience. +Throughout the great auditorium was silence; each of the gathered +thousands was listening to the shrieking sirens from the landing field +on the roof overhead.</p> + +<p>Skylights above showed the night air ablaze with red, through which the +vivid green of landing signals pierced in staccato bursts. From the roof +of that building to the highest level of the stratosphere the air was +cleared; no craft of the Service would venture to pierce the barrage of +light and radio waves that hemmed that aerial shaft. And down the shaft, +in a thunder of roaring exhausts, came a shining shape.</p> + +<p>She sparkled and flashed in the crimson and green of that emergency +light, and from her bow poured a tornado that blasted the air, then +streamed out behind in hot gas like a comet of flame. Then the thunders +died; the shining shape turned once slowly in air to show her blunt nose +and cylindrical body before she settled softly as a homing bird to the +embrace of great waiting arms of steel. And, inside the building, a +white-haired man was saying:</p> + +<p>"They are here! Thank God, they are here! Their radio has prepared us; +our signals have guided them home. And now it is not New York, nor even +the United States of America alone who attends; the whole world will be +summoned. Look!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Behind, and high above him on a wall, was a radio panel. Its signal +lamps went suddenly dark. The thin, blue-veined hand of the speaker was +pointing.</p> + +<p>"Only twice has the world-call flashed: once when the Molemen came and +the future of the world was at stake; once when the Dark Moon crashed +down from the void and the serpents of space menaced aerial traffic. And +now—once again!—the whole world is summoned! Every city and hamlet of +Earth—every ship of the air and the sea—every vessel on the ocean, +under the ocean, and in the air levels above—"</p> + +<p>His voice broke sharply. From the panel there came a thin call, a +quivering that was more a trembling than a sound; it reached out to +touch raspingly the nerves of every listener. Then the whole board burst +forth in a flash of fire where a flaming crystal leaped to life—and +none could see that pulsing flame without thrilling to the knowledge +that it was calling a whole world with its wordless summons.</p> + +<p>The light died; a television detector whined as its motors came to +speed; and each watcher knew that the waiting world was connected with +that auditorium in New York; all that happened, there—each sight and +sound—was circling the globe.</p> + +<p>An announcer's voice roared briefly before the regulator cut down on its +volume.</p> + +<p>"You are seeing the Radio-central Auditorium in New York. On the landing +stage above, after a journey of five hundred thousand miles, a strange +craft has settled to rest. Its pilot: Chester Bullard, once rated as +Master Pilot of the World! Its journey, now safely completed: from the +Earth to the Moon, and return!</p> + +<p>"The world is waiting to greet Pilot Bullard, though of this he, as yet, +is unaware. World-wide radio control is now transferred to Radio-central +Auditorium in New York! They are coming! They are entering!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>But the thousands gathered in that great hall heard no other words from +the radiocone. Their attention was focused upon the broad stage, where, +descending from a lift, a strange group stepped out upon the stage, +stood an instant in startled wonder that was near embarrassment, then +took the seats to which they were shown.</p> + +<p>And again the venerable President of the Federation Aeronautique +Internationale was speaking.</p> + +<p>"It is less than a month since I stood here before you, when, as again +is true to-night, the entire personnel of the executives of the +Stratosphere Control Board was gathered to do honor to the pioneers of +space—the discoverer—"</p> + +<p>On the stage near the speaker, Chet Bullard stared in consternation at a +girl in a pilot's suit as grimed and ragged as his own. His gaze passed +on to the set features of Pilot O'Malley—to the blue eyes of a +flaxen-haired giant—then on to where Walt Harkness and Diane, his wife, +sat regarding him with happy smiles. Dimly Chet heard the man at the +speakers' stand.</p> + +<p>"—and on that other occasion, Mr. Bullard refused a decoration tendered +him and marking him as the first to travel through airless space.</p> + +<p>"I have here"—the speaker smiled slightly as he extended his hand where +a jewel flashed fire from a velvet case—"the identical jewel and medal. +And to-night, while the peoples of Earth are gathered throughout the +world to do honor to Mr. Bullard, it has been given to me the proud +privilege of welcoming him home."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>He turned and held out a beckoning hand toward Chet. In a daze the +younger man arose and moved beside the one who had called him.</p> + +<p>"And now, Chester Bullard, on behalf of the Governing Council of the +Ruling Nations of this Earth, I greet you: Pilot of the Stratosphere no +longer—but Pilot of Endless Space! The world welcomes you; and, through +me, it places in your hands this jewel.</p> + +<p>"But you will observe that we older ones may still learn, and we do not +repeat our former mistake. We hand you this medal, emblematic of the +first penetration of space, to do with as you will."</p> + +<p>The thin hand was shaking as the speaker turned and swept the audience +with one all-inclusive gesture.</p> + +<p>"To you who are before me now; to you out beyond wherever parallels of +longitude and latitude are known—I present the Columbus of the +Stars!—Chester Bullard!"</p> + +<p>And suddenly Chet found himself alone in a pandemonium of sound. From +the countless faces that blurred into one unrecognizable sea came a roar +of human voices like waves thundering against storm-worn cliffs; above +the clamor was the sound of shrieking sirens; and through all, when it +seemed that no other sound could be heard, came the full-volume, +nerve-stunning clangor from the radiocone's wide-opened throat as the +trumpets and brass of all the monster bands of Earth broke forth, under +radio control, in one synchronous song—till even that was drowned under +the roaring welcomes in strange tongues as the nations of Earth cut in.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>And Chet Bullard, his blouse still torn where a Commander of Air had +ripped off a three-starred emblem of a Master Pilot, shook his blond +head to clear it of the confusion that seemed beating him down. And he +stared and stared, not at the rioting throng before him, but at +something he could in part comprehend—a glowing, flashing jewel that +rested in his hand. And slowly there crept into his eyes a look of +understanding, while a ghost of a smile twitched and tugged at the +corners of his mouth.</p> + +<p>The hall, which one instant was a bedlam of roaring voices, went silent +as Chet Bullard raised his hand. He was still smiling as he bowed toward +the white-haired man whose happy face belied the moisture in his eyes; +then he faced the throng, and his voice held no hint of trembling or +uncertainty.</p> + +<p>"The Columbus of the Stars! I thank you for that title, which I can +accept only most humbly. For I ask you to go back with me into history +and remember, as I am remembering, that before Columbus there were +others whose names are lost.</p> + +<p>"The Norsemen—those Vikings of old!—who dared the unknown seas, were +first. And again history repeats. But this time the pioneer will not +remain unknown. I have been to the Moon; I have reached out into +space—but I followed another's trail.</p> + +<p>"Frithjof Haldgren!" he shouted, and extended a hand toward the gentle +giant whose face was aflame as he came to Chet's side. "Frithjof +Haldgren, I present you to the world. Only one can be the first; and +yours is the honor and glory. This medal is yours alone; I place it +where it belongs!"</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>And Frithjof Haldgren, white of face and lips now instead of fiery red, +stood silent and trembling while Chet fastened a jewel upon his grimy +tattered blouse; then retired to his chair as if beaten back by the +rolling waves of sound.</p> + +<p>But to Chet, as he watched the man go, came a quick sense of +disappointment. Unconsciously, his hand went to the same place on his +own chest where had rested an emblem he had prized above all else—and +now his searching fingers found only the mark of his disgrace. Then he +knew again that the aged President was speaking, while he held Chet +beside him with one detaining hand.</p> + +<p>"We older ones have served, perhaps; we have done what we could; we pray +that the world is better for our efforts! And we shall continue to +serve; yet it is to youth that we must look for the progress which is to +come.</p> + +<p>"Today we face a new life whose horizons, once bounded by the limiting +air, have been pushed back. We have conquered space, and before us is +the waiting marvel of man's extension of his activities throughout the +universe.</p> + +<p>"How far shall we go in this new and endless sphere? With interplanetary +travel, what is our goal? Only youth can give the answer. And in the +hands of youth must the command of this great adventure be placed.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>"Gentlemen, the Governing Council of the Ruling Nations of this Earth +has created a new command. By the acts of this man who stands beside me, +and by his fellow-explorer, Walter Harkness, the Council has been forced +to take this step.</p> + +<p>"That command will rank second only to the Governing Council itself; a +body of men shall compose it who shall be known as the Interstellar +Board of Control." He turned squarely toward Chet. "I am placing in +your hands, Mr. Bullard, your commission as Commander of that Board. The +best minds of all nations will be at your call. Will you accept—will +you gather these men about you and do your part in this great work for +the greater future of mankind?"</p> + +<p>The ears of a listening world waited long for an answer. But the eyes of +that world saw a figure whose blond head was suddenly lowered as if to +hide a betrayal of what was in his heart; they saw him raise his bowed +head to stare mutely toward a girl whose eyes of blue were swimming with +happy tears as she gave him a trembling smile—and only then did they +see Chet Bullard draw himself erect, while his voice went out with the +speed of light to a waiting world.</p> + +<p>"I accept, Mr. President. Proudly—humbly—I accept!"</p> + +<p>And the eyes of the world, if they were understanding eyes, must have +smiled with his, as the Commander of the Interstellar Board of Control +grasped, among others, the congratulatory hand of his subordinate, the +Commander of Air.</p> + +<p>But if there were any who expected to read mockery in those smiling +eyes, they had yet to learn the measure of Commander Bullard—"Bullard, +of the I.B.C.!"</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Finding of Haldgren, by Charles Willard Diffin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FINDING OF HALDGREN *** + +***** This file should be named 29717-h.htm or 29717-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/7/1/29717/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Graeme Mackreth 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 Finding of Haldgren + +Author: Charles Willard Diffin + +Release Date: August 17, 2009 [EBook #29717] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FINDING OF HALDGREN *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Graeme Mackreth and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +Transcribers note: This etext was produced from Astounding Stories +April 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that +the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. + + +[Illustration] + +[Chet Ballard answers the pinpoint of light that from the +craggy desolation of the moon stabs out man's old call for help.] + + +The Finding of Haldgren + +_A Complete Novelette_ + +By Charles Willard Diffin + + + + +CHAPTER I + +SOS + + +The venerable President of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale +had been speaking. He paused now to look out over the sea of faces that +filled the great hall in serried waves. He half turned that he might let +his eyes pass over the massed company on the platform with him. The +Stratosphere Control Board--and they had called in their representatives +from the far corners of Earth to hear the memorable words of this aged +man. + +[Illustration: _The beasts fell into the pit beyond; their screams rang +horribly as they fell._] + +From the waiting audience came no slightest sound; the men and women +were as silent as that other audience listening and watching in every +hamlet of the world, wherever radio and television reached. Again the +figure of the President was drawn erect; the scanty, white hair was +thrown back from his forehead; he was speaking: + +" ... And this vast development has come within the memory of one man. +I, speaking to you here in this year of 1974, have seen it all come to +pass. And now I am overwhelmed with the wonder of it, even as I was when +those two Americans first flew at Kittyhawk. + +"I, myself, saw that. I saw with these eyes the first crude +engine-bearing kites; I saw them from 1914 to 1918 tempered and +perfected in the furnace of war; I saw the coming of detonite and the +beginning of our air-transport of to-day. And always I have seen brave +men--men who smiled grimly as they took those first crude controls in +their hands; who laughed and waved to us as they took off in the 'flying +coffins' of the great war; who had the courage to dare the unknown +dangers of the high levels and who first threw their ships through the +Repelling Area and blazed the air-trails of a new world. + +"And to-day I, who have seen all this, stand before you and say: 'Thank +God that the spirit of brave men goes on!' + + * * * * * + +"It has never ended--that adventurer strain--that race of Viking men. We +have two of them here to-night. The whole world is pausing this instant +wherever men are on land or water or air to do honor to these two. + +"They do not know why they are here. They have been summoned by the +Stratosphere Control Board which has delegated to me the honor of making +the announcement." + +The tall figure was commandingly erect; for an instant the fire of youth +had returned to him. + +"Walter Harkness!" he called. "Chester Bullard! Stand forth that the +eyes of the world may see!" + +Two men arose from among the members of the Board and came hesitantly +forward. Strongly contrasting was the darkly handsome face of Harkness, +man of wealth and Pilot of the Second Class, and the no less pleasing +features of Chet Bullard, Master Pilot of the World. For Bullard's +curling hair was as golden as the triple star upon his chest that +proclaimed his standing to the world and all the air above. + +The speaker was facing them; he turned away for a moment that he might +bow to a girl who was still seated next to the chair where Walt +Harkness had been. + +"To Mrs. Harkness," he said, "who, until one month ago, was Mademoiselle +Delacouer of our own beloved France, I shall have something further to +say. She, too, has been summoned by the Board, but, for now, I address +these two." + + * * * * * + +Again he was facing the two men; and now he was speaking directly to +them: + +"Pilot Harkness and Master Pilot Bullard, for you the world has been +forced to create a new honor, a new mark of the world's esteem. For you +two have done what never men have done before. We who have preceded you +have subdued the air; but you, gentlemen, you--the first of all created +beings to do so--have conquered space. + +"And to you, because of your courage; because of your dauntless pioneer +spirit; because of the unconquerable will that drove you and the +inventive genius that made it possible--because all these have set you +above us more ordinary men, since they have made you the first men to +fly through space--it is my privilege now to show you the honor in which +you are held by the whole world." + +The firm voice quavered; for a moment the old hands trembled as they +lifted a blazing gem from its velvet case. + +"Chester Bullard, Master Pilot, on behalf of the Stratosphere Control +Board I bestow upon you--" + +"Stop!" + + * * * * * + +Every radiophone in the world must have echoed that sharp command; every +television screen must have shown to a breathless audience the figure +whose blond hair was awry, whose lean face was afire with protest, as +Chet Bullard sprang forward with upraised hand. + +"You're wrong--dead wrong! You're making a mistake. I can't accept +that!" + +The master pilot's voice was raised in earnest protest. He seemed, for +the moment, unaware of the thousands of eyes that were upon him; +heedless of the gasp of amazement that swept sibilantly over the vast +audience like a hissing wave breaking upon the beach. And then his face +flushed scarlet, though his eyes still held steadily upon the startled +countenance of the man who stood transfixed, while the jewel in his hand +took the light of the nitron illuminators above and shot it back in a +glory of rainbow hues. + +From the seated group on the platform a man came forward. Commander of +the Air, this iron-gray man; he was head of the Stratosphere Control +Board, supreme authority on all matters that concerned the air levels of +the whole world; Commander-in-Chief of all men who laid hands on the +controls of a ship. He spoke quietly now, and Chet Bullard, at his first +word, snapped instantly to salute, then stood silently waiting. + +"What is the meaning of this?" demanded the voice of authority. The +voice seemed soft, almost gentle, yet each syllable carried throughout +the hall with an unmistakable hint of the hardness of a steelite shell +beneath the words. + +"The eyes of the world are upon us here; the whole world is gathered to +do you honor. Is it possible that you are refusing that which we offer? +Why? You will speak, please!" + +And Chet Bullard, standing stiffly at attention before his commander, +spoke in a tone rendered almost boyish by embarrassment. + + * * * * * + +"I can't accept, sir. Pilot Harkness will bear me out in this. You would +decorate us for being the first to navigate space; but we are not the +first." + +"Continue!" ordered the quiet voice as Chet paused. "You refer to +Haldgren, probably." + +"To Pilot Haldgren, sir." + +"This is absurd! Haldgren was lost. It is supposed that he fell back +into the sea, or struck some untraveled part of Earth." + +"I have checked over his data, sir. It is my opinion that he did not +fall; his figures indicate that he must have thrown his ship beyond the +gravitational influence of Earth." + +The Commander eyed the master pilot coldly. "And because you _think_ +that your conclusions are more accurate than those of my own +investigating committee, you refuse this honor! + +"Attention!" he snapped sharply. "The entire Service of Air is being +rendered ridiculous by your conduct! I command you to accept this +decoration." + +"You are exceeding your authority, sir. I refuse!" + +Suddenly the frozen quiet of the Commander's face was flushed red with +rage. "Give me that insignia!" he demanded, and pointed to the triple +star on Chet Bullard's breast. "Your commission is revoked!" + + * * * * * + +To the last breathless spectator in the farthest end of the great hall +the white pallor of Chet Bullard's face must have been apparent. One +hand moved toward the emblem on his blouse, the cherished triple star of +a master pilot of the World; then the hand paused. + +"I have still another reason for believing Haldgren is alive," he said +in a cold and carefully emotionless voice. "Are you interested in +hearing it?" + +"Speak!" ordered the Commander. + +Chet Bullard, still wearing the triple star, crossed quickly to a phone +panel in the speaker's stand at one side of the stage. He jerked out an +instrument. The buzz of excited whispering that had swept the audience +gave place to utter silence. Each quiet, incisive word that Chet spoke +was clearly heard. He gave his call number. + +"Bullard; Master Pilot, First Class; Number U.S. 1; calling Doctor Roche +at Allied Observatory, Mount Everest. Micro-wave, please, and connect +through for telefoto-projection." + +A few breathless seconds passed, while Chet aimed an instrument of +gleaming chromium and glass, whose cable connections vanished in the +phone panel recess. He focused it upon an artificially darkened screen +above and behind the grouped figures on the stage. Then: + +"Doctor Roche?" Chet queried. + +And, before the whole audience, the dark screen came to life to show a +clear-cut picture of a man who sat at a telescope; whose hand held a +radiophone; and who glanced up frowningly and said: "Yes, this is Doctor +Roche." + +Chet's response was immediate. + +"Bullard speaking; Chet Bullard, at New York. When I was in your +observatory yesterday, Doctor, you said that you had seen flashes of +light on the Moon. You remember that, don't you? You saw them some +months ago while I was on the Dark Moon." + + * * * * * + +The man in that distant observatory was no longer scowling at this +interruption of his work. His smile was echoed by the cordial tone of +his voice that rang clearly through the great hall. + +"Correct, Mr. Bullard. An observer at our two hundred-inch reflector +reported them on two successive nights. They were inside the crater of +Hercules." + +From his place at the center of the stage the waiting Commander of Air +protested: + +"Come--come! We know all about that, Bullard. Are you trying to say--" + +The voice of the astronomer was speaking again: + +"You will no doubt be interested to know that the lights occurred again +yesterday at about this time.... Let me see if they are on now. I will +have the two hundred-inch instrument used as before, and will show you +what we see. + +"Watch your screen, but don't expect to find any substantiation of your +wild theory that these lights have a human origin." He laughed softly. +"No atmosphere to speak of there, you know; we have determined that very +definitely." + +On the screen the picture of the smiling man flashed off; it was +replaced by an unflickering darkness that came abruptly into softly +shaded light. There was an expanse of volcanic terrain and a round +orifice of tremendous size, where the sunlight cast black shadows. Other +shaded portions about were like rocky, broken ground. + + * * * * * + +To Chet, staring at the strange conformation, came the quick sense of +hanging above that ground and looking down upon it. And he knew that in +New York he was looking through a great telescope down under the world +and was staring straight down into the throat of an extinct volcano on +the Moon. + +There were few wonders of the modern world that could thrill the master +pilot with any feeling of amazement, but here was a new experience. He +would have spoken, would have ejaculated some word of wonder, but for +the new light that claimed his eyes and brain. + +The volcano, even in death, was ages old; its cold desolation showing +plainly on the screen. No fires poured now from a hot throat; the +molten sea that once had raged within had hardened and choked that vast +throat with rock that had frozen to make one enormous plain. Ringed +about by the jagged sides of the tremendous volcano, the floor within +seemed smooth by comparison, except for another depression at its upper +edge. + +Here was another and smaller crater inside the great ringed wall of +Hercules. The light of the sun struck slantingly across to throw one +side of the gigantic cup into shadow, while the opposite rim blared +brightly in the lunar dawn. And within the smaller crater, too, one side +was dead black with shadow. + +Dead!--No moving thing--no sign of life or indication that life might +ever have been! A dead world, this!--its utter desolation struck Chet's +half-uttered exclamation to a hoarse whisper of dismay. In all the +universe what less likely place might one discover wherein to look for +man? + + * * * * * + +His gaze was held in fascinated hopelessness on the barren, mountainous +ring, on the inner inverted cone, on the shadow within that smaller +crater--_on a tiny pinpoint of light that was flashing there!_... He +hardly knew when he raised one trembling hand and pointed, while a voice +quite unlike his own said huskily: + +"Look! Look! I told you it was so!... There! In that little +crater!--it's signaling! Three dots--now three dashes--three dots again! +The old S O S!--the old call for help! It's Haldgren!" + +Again the screen showed the smiling scientist. + +"Caught them just right," he said, "and glad to be of service. Now, if +there's anything else I can do--" + +"Thanks!" said Chet in that same strained voice. "Thanks! There's +nothing else." A switch clicked beneath his hand, and once more the +screen was dark. + +"Those dots and dashes! The old S O S! Who could doubt now?" Chet was +telling himself this when the Commander's voice broke in harshly. + +"Even you must see the absurdity of this, Bullard. You have heard this +astronomer tell you what the rest of us knew for ourselves--that there +is no air on the Moon; that it is impossible for a human being to live +there. And you would have us believe that a man has lived there for five +years! + +"But I am taking your distinguished record into account; I am +overlooking your insubordination and the folly of your reasoning. +Perhaps your feeling about Haldgren does you credit; but Haldgren is +dead. Now I am giving you another chance: I order you to come forward +and receive this honor, which is an honor to the entire Service of Air." + + * * * * * + +Chet was staring in open amazement. "No air on the Moon," this man had +said. And what of that? Neither was there air in interplanetary space, +yet he had traveled there. It was inconceivable that this imperious and +dictatorial man could be so blind. + +"I can't do it, sir," he tried to explain. "You surely can't disregard +that message, the old call for help. We were using that, you know, when +Haldgren took off five years ago." + +No longer did a masking softness overlay the hard brittleness of the +Commander's voice. + +"Your star!" he snapped. "You are no longer in the Service, Bullard!" + +But Chet Bullard, as he stepped forward that the Commander might rip the +triple star from his chest, was not alone. Walt Harkness was only a +Pilot of the Second Class, but he stripped the emblem from his own +silken blouse and placed it in the Commander's outstretched hand beside +Chet's star. + +"Permit me, sir, to share Mr. Bullard's enviable humiliation," he +observed with venomous courtesy; and added: + +"Whatever similar honors were in store for Mrs. Harkness and myself are +respectfully declined. We, too, are of the opinion that Pilot Haldgren +deserves them instead of us." + +For an instant Chet's flashing smile drew his face into friendly lines. +"Thanks!" he said. + +But all friendliness was erased as he swung back upon the Commander. + + * * * * * + +No thought now of the thousands of staring faces or of the millions +throughout the world who were watching him and were hearing his words. +Chet Bullard clipped those words into curt phrases, and he shot them at +his superior officer as if from a detonite gun: + +"You think your judgment better than mine--you've dropped me from the +Service--and you've got the power to make that stick! But you're wrong, +sir, dead wrong! And I'll make you admit it, too. + +"No--don't interrupt! I'm going to say what I please, and this is it, +Commander: + +"Hang onto that jewel you were giving me. Keep it ready. For I'm going +to the Moon. I'm going to find Haldgren, if he's still living when I get +there. And, at the least, I will bring back some record to show he is +the man we should honor. + +"Haldgren, alive or dead, was the first man to conquer space. Neither +Harkness nor I would steal an atom of his glory. I'll have the proof +when I come back. And when I come--" + + * * * * * + +For an instant the ready grin that marked Chet's irresistible good +nature lighted up his face with a silent echo of some laugh-provoking +thought occurring in his mind. + +"--when I do come, Commander, I will make you eat your words. It's you +who will be out of the Service then, laughed out!" + +The Commander smiled, too; smiled coldly, complacently, while his head +shook. + +"Again you are mistaken," he told Chet; "never again will you fly as +much as one foot above Earth." + +And still Chet's grin persisted. "Commander," he said, "a man in your +position should not make so many mistakes. I am going--I give you +warning now--going to the Moon. And you haven't enough Patrol Ships in +all the air levels of Earth to hold me back, once I'm on my way!" + +And every television screen of Earth showed a remarkable scene: a +red-faced, choleric Commander of the Air, who shouted that a group of +officers might leap forward to do his bidding; a dark-haired man and a +girl who sprang beside him. The bodies of the two were interposed for an +instant between the officers' weapons and a fair-haired man.... And the +lean young man, with his shock of golden hair thrown back from his face, +leaped like a panther in that same instant; drew himself to an open +window; threw himself through, and vanished among the brilliant lights +and black shadows of a New York night. + +But, as he fought his way free of the throng outside, there came above +the clamor of an excited crowd the voice of Walt Harkness in cryptic +words: + +"The ship is yours, Chet," the fugitive heard Harkness call; "it's in +cold storage for you!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_A Dirty Red Freighter...._ + + +Chet Bullard was more at home among the air-lanes of Earth than he was +on solid ground. But he oriented himself in an instant; knew he was on a +cross street in the three hundred zone; and saw ahead of him, not a +hundred feet away, the green, glowing ring that marked a subway +escalator. + +In the passing throng there were those who looked curiously at him. Chet +checked his first headlong flight and dropped to an unhurried walk. + +About him, as he well knew, the air was filled with silent radio waves +that were sounding the alarm in every sentry box of the great city. They +would reach the aircraft terminals and the control room of every ship +within a fixed radius. He had dared the wrath of one of the most +powerful officials of Earth; no effort would be spared to run him down; +his picture would be flashing within ten minutes on every television +screen of the Air Patrol. And Chet Bullard knew only one way to go. + +Of course they would be watching for him at the airports, yet he knew he +must get away somehow; escape quickly--and find some corner of the world +where he could hide. + +He was in the escalator, and wild plans were flashing through his mind +as he watched the levels go past. "First Level; Trains North and South; +Local Service. Second Level; Express Stop for North-shore Lines. Third +Level; Airport Loop Lines; Transatlantic Terminals--" + +Chet Bullard, his hair still tangled on his hatless head, his blouse +torn where a hand had ripped off the Master Pilot's emblem, stepped from +the escalator to a platform, then to a cylindrical car that slid +silently in before him and whose flashing announcement-board proclaimed: +"_Hoover Airport Express. No Intermediate Stops._" + + * * * * * + +Would they be watching for him at the great Hoover Terminal on the tip +of Long Island? Chet assured himself silently that he would tell the +world they would be. But even a fugitive may have friends--if he has +been a master pilot and has a lean, likable face with a most disarming +grin. + +Where would he go? He did not know; he had been bluffing a bit and the +Commander had called him when his hand was weak; he had no least idea +where he could find their ship. If only he had had a chance for a word +with Walt Harkness: Walt had been flying it; he had left it apparently +in a storage hangar. + +But where? And what was it that Walt had called out? Chet was racking +his brains to remember. + +"The ship is yours," Walt had shouted ... and something about "storage." +But why should he have laid up the ship; why should he have stored it? + +Chet saw the lights of subterranean stations flashing past as the car +that held him rode silently through a tube that it touched not at all. +He knew that magnetic rails made a grillwork that surrounded the car and +that drew it on at terrific speed while suspending it in air. But he +would infinitely have preferred the freedom of the high levels, and his +own hand on a ship's controls. + +A ship!--any ship!--but preferably his ship and Walt's. And Walt had +said something of "_storage--cold storage_." The words seemed written +before him in fiery lines. It was a moment before he knew what he had +recalled. Then a slow smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, and he +turned and stared through a window that showed only blackness. + +"_Cold storage!_" That was good work on Walt's part. He had been forced +to shout the directions before them all, yet tell none of those others +about him where the ship was hidden. Chet was picturing that place of +"cold storage" as he smiled. The fact that it was some thousands of +miles away troubled him not at all. + + * * * * * + +The great Hoover Terminal was a place where night never came. Its +daylight tubes wove a network of light about the stupendous enclosure, +their almost silent hissing merged to an unceasing rush of sound, so +soft as to be unheard through the scuffing feet and chattering voices of +the ever-hurrying crowds. + +From subways the impatient people came and went, and from highway +stations where busses and private cars drove in and away. The clock in +the squat tower swung its electrically driven hands toward the figure +22; there lacked but two hours of midnight, and a steady stream of +aircraft came dropping down the shaft of green light that reached to and +through the clouds. There would be many liners leaving on the hour; +these that were coming in were private craft that spun their flashing +helicopters like giant emeralds in the green descending light, while the +noise of their beating blades filled the air with a rush of sound. + +Outside the entrance to the Passenger Station, Chet Bullard withdrew +himself from the surging press of hurrying men and women and slipped +into a shadowed alcove. Two passing figures in the gray and gold of the +Air Patrol scanned the crowd closely; Chet drew himself into the deeper +shadows and waited until they were by before he emerged and followed +the shelter of a coffee-house that extended toward another entrance to +the field, where pilots and mechanics passed in and out. + + * * * * * + +A bulletin board showed in changing letters of light the official +assignment of landing space. And, though every passing eye was turned +toward it, Chet knew that each man was intent upon the board and not on +the shadowed niche in the building behind it. He watched his chance and +slipped into that shadow. + +Unseen, he could see them as they approached: men in the multicolored +uniforms of many lines, who paused to read, to exchange bantering +shop-talk--and to pass on. + +Many voices: "Storm area, over the South-shore up to Level Six. You +birds on the local runs had better watch your step" ... "--coming down +at Calcutta. Yeah, a dirty, red-bottomed freighter that rammed him. I +saw it take off two of his fans, but Shorty set the old girl down like a +feather on the lift of the four fans he had left. You said it--Shorty's +a real pilot...." + +Another pause; then a growling voice that proclaimed complainingly: +"Lord, but I'm tired! All right, Spud; grin, you damned Irishman! But if +you had been hauling the Commander all over Alaska to-day and then got +ordered out again just as you were set for a good sleep, you'd be sore. +What in thunder does he want his ship for to-night, I ask you?" + + * * * * * + +Chet, crouching still lower in the little retreat, stiffened to +attention at the reference to the Commander. So the "big boss" had +ordered out his own cruiser again! He listened still more intently to +the voice that replied. + +"Sure, and it's thankful you sh'u'd be to be holdin' the controls on a +fine, big cruiser like that; though, betwixt you and me, 'tis myself +that don't envy you your job. Me and my old freighter, we go wallowin' +along. And to-night I'm takin' her home for repairs--back to the fact'ry +in Rooshia where they made her; and the devil of a job it will be, for +she handles with all the grace of a pig in a puddle." + +Chet risked a glance when the sound of heavy footsteps indicated that +one of the two speakers had gone on alone to the pilots' gate. Before +the huge bulletin board, in pilot's uniform and with the markings of a +low-level man on his sleeve, stood the sturdy figure of the man called +Spud. He started back at sight of the face peering out at him, but Chet +whispered a command, and the man moved closer to the hiding place behind +the board. + +There were others coming in a laughing group up the walk; daylight tubes +illuminated the approach. Chet spoke hurriedly. + +"I'm in a devil of a mess, Spud. Will you lend a hand? Will you stand by +for rescue work?" + +And Spud studied the bulletin board as he growled: + +"Lend a hand?--yes, and the arm with it, Mr. Bullard. You stud by me +once whin I needed help; and now you ask will I stand by for rescue +work. Till we crash--that's all, me bhoy!" + + * * * * * + +Spud's speech was tinged with the brogue of Erin; it grew perceptibly +more pronounced as his quick emotions took hold of him. + +"Quiet!" said Chet. "Wait till they pass!" + +The newcomers stopped for no more than a glance. Then: + +"I'm demoted," Chet told the round-eyed man who stared unbelievingly at +the vacant place on Chet's blouse. "The air's hot with orders for my +arrest. I've got to get out, and I've got to do it quick." + +And now there was only a trace of the brogue in Spud's voice. Chet knew +the trick of the man's speech; touch his heart and his tongue would grow +thick; place him face to face with an emergency and he would go cold and +hard, while the good-natured phrasing of his native sod went from him +and he talked fast and straight. + +"The devil you say!" exclaimed Spud. "What you've done I don't know, nor +yet why you did it. But, whatever it was, I don't believe you let that +triple star go for less than a damned good reason. Now, let me think; +let--me--think--" + +A figure in gray and gold was approaching, a member of the Air Patrol. +Spud's tongue was lively with good-natured raillery as he fell into step +and drew the officer with him through the pilots' gate, while Chet, from +his shadow, saw with satisfaction the apparent desertion. He had known +Spud O'Malley of old. Spud was square--and Spud had wanted time for +thinking. + +There were many who passed Chet's hiding place before a cautious whisper +came to him and he saw a hand that thrust a roll of clothing around the +edge of the bulletin board. + +"Put 'em on!" was the order of Spud. "And smear your yellah hair with +the grease! Work fast, me bhoy!" + + * * * * * + +The command was no less imperative for being spoken beneath Spud's +breath, and for the first time Chet's hopes soared high within him. It +had all been so hopeless, the prospect of actual escape from the net +that was closing about him. And now--! + +He unrolled the tight package of cloth to find a small can of black +graphite lubricant done up in a jacket and blouse. Both were stained and +smeared with grease; they were amply large. Chet did not bother to strip +off his own blouse; he pulled on the other clothes over his own, and his +face was alight with a grin of appreciation of Spud's attention to +details as he took a daub of the grease, rubbed it on his hands, then +passed them through his hair. + +"Yellah," Spud had said, but the description was no longer apt. And the +man who stepped forth beside Spud O'Malley in the uniform of an engineer +of a tramp freighter looked like nothing else in the world but just +that. + +"Come on, now!" ordered Spud harshly, as a figure in gray and gold +appeared around the corner of the coffee shop. "You're plinty late, me +fine lad! Now get in there and clean up that dirty motor and get her +runnin'! Try out every fan on the old boat; then we'll be off. + +"You're number CG41!" he whispered. And Chet repeated the number as he +followed the pilot through the gate. + +"O.K.," said the guard at the gate, "and I'll bet he gives you hell and +to spare!" + +Chet slouched his shoulders to disguise his real height and followed +where Spud O'Malley, with every indication of righteous anger, strode +indignantly down the pavement, at the far end of which was a battered +and service-stained ship. + + * * * * * + +Her hull of dirty red showed mottlings of brown; she was sadly in need +of a painter's gun. She would groan and squeal, Chet knew, when the fans +lifted her from the hold-down clutch; and she couldn't fly at over +twenty thousand without leaking her internal pressure through a thousand +cracks that made her porous as an old balloon--but to Chet's eyes the +old relic of the years was a thing of sheer beauty and grace. + +O'Malley was leading through an open freight hatch; Chet followed, and, +at his beckoning hand, slipped into a dingy cabin. + +"Lay low there," the pilot ordered, and still, as Chet observed, his +speech showed how clearly the man was thinking, since the emergency +still existed "I've cleared some time ago, Mr. Bullard; we're ready to +leave as soon as we get the dispatcher's O.K." + +The minutes were long where Chet waited in the pilot's cabin. Each sound +might mean a last-minute search of departing ships, but he tried to tell +himself that the attention of the officers would be centered upon the +passenger liners. + +Beyond, where he could see out into the control room, a white light +flashed. He heard the bellowing orders of the Irishman at the controls. +And, as other sounds reached his ears, he had to grip his hands hard +while he fought for control of the laughter that was almost hysterical. +For, beneath him, he felt the sluggish lift of the ship, and, from every +joint and plate of this old-timer of the air, came squawking protests +against the cruel fates that drove her forth again to face the +buffeting, racking gales. + +But the blue light of an ascending area was about them, and Spud +O'Malley was shouting from the control room: + +"Sure, and we're off, Mr. Bullard. Now do ye come up here and tell me +all about it--but I warn you, I'll not be believin' a word--" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_Up From Earth_ + + +Chet had plenty of time in which to acquaint Pilot O'Malley with the +facts. And, when he had told his story, it did his sick and worried +mind good to hear the explosive stream of expletives that came from the +other's lips. Yet, despite the Irishman's anger, it was noticeable that +he closed the tight door of the control room before he said a word. + +"Only a skeleton crew," he explained. "Just the relief pilot and the +engineers and a man or two in the galley, and I trust 'em all. But you +can't be too careful. + +"The Commander," he concluded, "is gettin' to be more an emperor than a +Commander, and somethin's got to be done. Discipline we must have, 'tis +true; but this kotowin' to His Royal Highness and all o' that--devil a +bit do I like it! If only you could show him up, Mr. Bullard--but of +course you can't." + +"I'm not so sure," Chet responded. "What I told the big boss wasn't all +bluff. Haldgren _did_ go out, five years ago this month. We have the +record of a Crescent liner's captain who saw Haldgren's little ship +shoot through the R.A. and go on out as if it were going somewhere. And +now we have these flashes! + +"Do you see what that means, Spud? An SOS! Nobody but an Earth-man would +send that, and we wouldn't do it now. We would just press the lever of +our emergency-call, and every receiver within a thousand miles would +pick up the scream of it. + +"But we've had this Dunston Emergency Transmitter less than four years. +Haldgren knew only the old S O S. And remember this: three dots, three +dashes and three dots don't just happen. They showed up on the Moon. +They were repeated the next night. _Somebody sent them!_ Who was it?" + + * * * * * + +And Pilot O'Malley gave the only obvious answer: + +"There's only yourself and Mr. Harkness and Pilot Haldgren that could +have got there. 'Twas Haldgren, of course! What a pity that you can't +go; 'tis likely the poor bhoy needs help." + +"Five years!" mused Chet. "Five long years since he left! He must have +landed safely--and then what? After five years comes a signal and that +signal a call for help that no pilot worthy the name would disregard.... + +"Where are we bound?" he demanded abruptly. + +"Rooshia," said O'Malley. "I disremember the name--'tis on my +orders--but I know it's a long way up north." + +"Spud," said Chet, "you're a rotten pilot; you're one of the worst I +ever knew. Careless--that's your worst fault--and if anybody doubts that +they'll believe it after this trip. For, Spud, if you're any friend of +mine, and I know you are, you're going to lose your bearings, and kick +this old sky-hog a long way beyond that factory she is bound for. And +you're going to set me down in a God-forsaken spot in the arctic where +I'm pretty sure I'll find a ship waiting for me. + +"And, if you just stick around for a while after that, you will see me +take off for the Moon. Then, if Haldgren is there--" + +Chet failed to finish the sentence; he was staring through a rear +lookout, where, over the arc of the Earth's horizon, could be seen a +thin crescent Moon; about it drifting clouds made a halo. + +The eyes of Spud O'Malley followed Chet's, and his imaginative faculties +must have been stimulated by Chet's words, for he gazed open-mouthed, as +if for the first time he visioned that golden scimitar as something more +substantial than a high-hung light. He drew one long incredulous breath +before he answered. + +"What position, sir? Say the word and I'll lose myself so bad we'll be +over the Pole and half-way to the equator again!" + +"Not that bad," was Chet's assurance. "Just spot this ship over 82:14 +north, 93:20 east, and I'll give you local bearings from there." + +Then to himself: "'Cold storage,' Walt said; he meant our old shop, of +course. Probably had a hunch we would need it." + +But to the pilot he said only the one word: "Thanks!"--though the grip +of his hand must have spoken more eloquently. + + * * * * * + +The eastbound lanes of the five thousand level saw them plod slowly +along, while faster and better-groomed ships slipped smoothly past; then +the red hull rose to Level Twelve and swung out upon the great circle +course that would bear them more nearly in the direction of the +destination Chet had given. There were free levels higher up in which +they could have laid a direct course, but the Irish pilot did not need +Chet to tell him that the old hull would never stand it. Her internal +pressure could never have been maintained at any density such as human +lungs demanded. + +But they were on their way, and Chet's customary genial expression gave +place to one of more grim determination as he watched the white-flecked +ocean drift slowly past below. + +Once a patrol ship spoke to them. Daylight had come to show plainly the +silver hull with the distinctive red markings of the Service that +slipped smoothly down from above to hang poised under flashing fans like +a giant humming-bird. Her directed radio beam flashed the yellow call +signal in O'Malley's control room. + + * * * * * + +Chet was beside him, and the two exchanged silent glances before +O'Malley cut in his transmitter. He must give name and number--this +signal was a demand that could not be disregarded--but on the old +freighter was no automatic sender that would flash the information +across to the other ship; the pilot's voice must serve instead. + +"Number three--seven--G--four--two!" he thundered into the radiophone. +"Freighter of the Intercolonial Line, without cargo--" + +"For the love of Pete," shouted the loudspeaker beside him in volume to +drown out the pilot's words, "are you sending this by short wave, or are +you just yelling across to me? Calm down, you Irish terrier!" + +Then, before the pilot could reply, the voice from the silver and red +patrol ship dropped into an exaggerated mimicry of the O'Malley brogue-- + +"And did yez say 'twas a freighter you had there? Sure, I thot at th' +very last 'twas a foine big liner from the Orient and Transpolar run, +dropped down here from the hoigh livils! All right, Spud; on your way! +But don't crowd the bottom of the Twelve Level so close. This is +O--sixteen--L; Jimmy Maddux. By--by! I'll report you O.K." + + * * * * * + +Again Chet looked at the pilot silently before he glanced back at the +vanishing ship, already small in the distance. He repeated the Patrol +Captain's words: + +"You will 'report us O.K.'--yes, Jimmy, you'll do that, and if they want +to find us again you can tell them right where to look." + +"I'm pushin' her all I can, Mr. Bullard," said Spud. "'Tis all she can +do.... And now do ye go into my cabin--there's two berths there--and +we'll just turn in and sleep while my relief man takes his turn. But go +in before I call him; there's not a soul on the ship besides ourselves +knows that you're here." + +And, in the cabin a short time later, Pilot O'Malley chuckled as he +whispered: "I gave the lad his course. And Mac will follow it, but it'll +niver take him near to the part of Rooshia he expects it to. Still, the +record's clear as far as he's concerned; I've got it in the log. Mac's a +good lad, and I wouldn't have him get into trouble over this." + + * * * * * + +In the freighter's cabin the chronometer was again approaching the hour +of twenty-two; for nearly twenty-four hours the ship had been on her +plodding way. And, lacking the A.D.D.--the Automatic Destination +Detector--and other refinements of instrumental installations of the +passenger ships, Pilot O'Malley had to work out his position for +himself. + +And where a faster craft would have driven through with scarcely a +quiver, the big ship trembled with the buffets and suction of a wintry +blast that drove dry snow like sand across the lookout glasses. The +twelve thousand level was an unbroken cloud of snow--a gray smother +where the red ship's blunt and rusty bow nosed through. + +O'Malley clung to the chart table as the air gave way beneath them and +the ship fell a hundred feet or more before her racing fans took hold +and jerked her back to an even keel. He managed to check his figures, +then moved to the door of his cabin, opened it and called softly. + +Chet was beside him in an instant. It had seemed best that he remain in +hiding, and he knew what the pilot's call meant. "Made it, did you!" he +exclaimed. "Now I'll take a look about and pick up my bearing points." + +But one look at the ports and he shook his head. + +"That's dirty," he told O'Malley, and his eyes twinkled as he felt the +old ship rear and plunge with the lift of a driving gale; "and how the +old girl does feel it! She can't rip through, and she can't go above. +You've had some trip, Spud; it's been mighty decent of you to go to all +this--" + + * * * * * + +A flashing of yellow light on the instrument panel brought his thanks to +a sudden halt. A voice, startling in its sudden loudness, filled the +little room. + +"Calling three--seven--G--four--two! Stand by for orders! Patrol +O--sixteen--L sending; acknowledge, please!" + +Chet's eyes were staring into those of O'Malley. "That's Jimmy Maddux +back on our trail," he said. "Now, what has got them suspicious?" + +He glanced once at the collision instrument. "He's right overhead at +thirty thousand," he added; "and there are more of them coming in from +all sides. Now what the devil--" + +Spud O'Malley had his hand on the voice switch. "Be quiet!" he +commanded; then spoke into the transmitter-- + +"Three--seven--G--four--two acknowledging!" he said, and again Chet +observed how all trace of accent had departed from his voice; it was an +indication of the moment's tenseness and of the pilot's full +understanding of their position. + +The answering order was crisply spoken; this was a different Jimmy +Maddux from the one who had chaffed the Irish pilot some hours before. + +"Stand by! We're coming down! Records at Hoover Terminal show two men +reporting at pilots' gate under the number of your engineer, CG41. Hold +your ship exactly where you are; we're sending a man aboard!" + + * * * * * + +Chet had moved silently to the controls. The old multiple-lever +instrument--he knew it well! But he looked at Spud O'Malley and waited +for his nod of assent before he presumed to trespass on another pilot's +domain. Then he shifted two little levers, and the ship fell away +beneath them as it plunged toward the Earth. + +And Pilot O'Malley was explaining to the Patrol Ship Captain as best he +could for the rolling plunge of the careening ship: + +"I can't hold her, sir. And you'd best be keepin' away. It's stormin' +fearful down here, and I can't rise above it! Keep clear!--I'm warnin' +you!" The hum of their helicopters rose to a shrill whine as Chet drove +the ship out and down through the smothering clouds. "You must hear her +fans on your instruments; you can see how we're pitchin'!" + +He switched off the transmitter for a moment and faced Chet. "They've +been checkin' close," he stated. "That was my engineer's number I gave +you as we came through the gate. And, of course, he had given it before +when he reported in. Now we're up against it." + +The collision instrument was humming with the sound of many motors, and +warning lights were giving their silent alarm of the oncoming ships. + +"They're comin' in," Spud went on hopelessly, "like a flock of kites in +the tropics when one of them's found somethin' dead--and it's us that's +the carcass!" + + * * * * * + +But Chet was not listening. The snowy clouds had broken for an instant; +their ship had driven through and beneath them. Through the wild, +whirling chaos of white there came for an instant a rift--and far across +an icy expanse Chet glimpsed a range of black hills! + +He spoke sharply to the pilot. "That's Jimmy Maddux above us--kid him +along, Spud! Tell him we're coming up, don't let him grab us with his +magnets! This is putting you in a devil of a hole, old man. I'm +sorry!--but we've got to see it through now. + +"You can never set this ship down, Spud; that patrol would be on our +backs in half a second. And they'd knock me out with one shot the minute +I stepped outside." + +The clear space in the storm had filled again with the dirty gray of +wind-whipped snow; off at the right a dim glow of distant fires was the +midnight sun as it shone for a brief moment. One blast, more malignant +in its fury than those that had come before, tore first at the blunt +bow, then caught them amidships to roll the big, sluggish freighter till +her racked framework shrieked and chattered. + +Spud pointed through a rear lookout where a silvery Patrol Ship flashed +down through the clouds. "There's Jimmy!" he shouted. "He's takin' no +chances of our landing--he's right on our tail!" + + * * * * * + +But Chet Bullard, his hands working at the control levers, was staring +straight ahead into that gray blast; and his eyes were shining as he +pulled back on a lever that threw them once more into the concealment of +the whirling clouds above. + +"Spud," he was shouting, "have you got a 'chute? You freighters have 'em +sometimes. Get me a 'chute and I'll fool them yet! I saw the shed--our +hangars--our work shop! There's where our ship is!" + +They were lost once more in the snow that seemed to be driving past in +solid drifts. Chet heard Spud shouting down a voice tube. And, +curiously, it was plain that the Irish pilot had lost all tenseness from +his voice; he was happy and as carefree as if he had found the answer +to all his perplexing questions. He was calling an order to his relief +pilot. + +"Mac--do ye break out two parachutes, me lad! Bring 'em up here, and +shake a leg! No, there's nothin' to worry about--divil a thing!" + +Then, into the transmitter, he shouted thickly as he switched the +instrument on: + +"Jimmy, me bhoy, kape away! Kape away, I'm tellin' you, or ye'll have me +Irish temper disturbed, and I'm a divil whin I'm roused! What do I know +about your twin ingineers? Wan of thim makes trouble enough for me! Now +take yourself away, and don't step on the tail of this ship or we'll go +down to glory together!--unless we go to another terminal and find +oursilves in hell, and us all covered wid snow. Think how divilish +conspicuous you'd be feelin'--" + + * * * * * + +A discord of voices silenced his laughing banter; on the instrument +board the warning light was flashing imperatively. Above the bedlam of +voices one stood out, and all other commands went silent before the +voice of authority. + +"Silence! This is the Commander of Air! Orders for O--sixteen--L: seize +that ship! Your magnets!--disregard damage!--get your magnets on that +ship and hold her. We are coming down--" + +Chet reached for the transmitter switch and opened it that their voices +might not go beyond the control room. + +"Lots of company; they seem pretty certain that they're on the right +track. And the big boss himself is coming down to call. Can't you hurry +those 'chutes?" + +The control room door was flung open as the figure of a young man +stumbled through and dropped two bundles of cloth and webbing upon the +floor. He clung to the door-frame as Chet threw the big freighter into +a totally unexpected maneuver that rolled them down and away from a +silver-bellied ship above. Then the levers moved again, and the ship +went hard-a-port as Chet caught again one fleeting glimpse of shadow +below that could only be the markings of a building he had known well. + +"Hold her there, Spud!" he shouted. "He'll be back in a minute or two! +He'll get us next time!" + +Chet was reaching for the straps of a 'chute. He had the webbing about +him when he stopped to waste precious seconds in wide-eyed staring at +the figure of Spud O'Malley. + + * * * * * + +Spud was pulling at a recalcitrant buckle. He had motioned the relief +pilot to take the controls, and now the bulk of a parachute pack hung +awkwardly behind him. + +"Spud!" Chet shouted. "You're not stepping out too! It's no sure thing +with these old 'chutes; they're probably rotten! Stay here! Tell 'em I +stuck you up with a gun!--tell 'em I made you bring me--" + +"If you must talk," said Spud O'Malley calmly, and pulled a strap tight +across his chest, "do ye be tryin to work while you talk. Get that +harness on! If I let you stow away on my ship you can do no less than +take me along on yours!" + +A crashing impact drove the men to the floor in a sprawling heap; Chet +pulled the last strap tight as he lay there. The lookouts were black +above where the belly of a Patrol Ship clung close. + +"Jimmy knows how to obey orders," said Chet as he came to his feet. "No +cable magnets for Jimmy! He just smashed down on top of us, ripped off +our fans and grabbed hold." He was helping Spud to his feet as he spoke. + +"Mac, me bhoy," the pilot told his assistant, "the log has it all, the +whole story. There'll be no trouble for you at all." + +He yanked quickly at the port-opening switch, and the big steel disk +backed slowly out of its threaded seat and swung wide. + + * * * * * + +Chet drew back one involuntary step as a blast of icy wind drove +stinging snow into his face. Then, without a word, he gave Spud O'Malley +a joyous grin and threw himself out into the void.... + +And, later, as he released the 'chute where a wind was dragging him +violently across an icy expanse, he was laughing exultantly to see +another 'chute whirled into the enshrouding drifts, while the chunky +figure of a man came scrambling to his feet that he might shake a fist +into the air toward some hidden enemy and shout into the storm epithets +only half-heard. + +"--and be damned to ye!" Chet heard him conclude; then was close enough +to throw one arm about the figure and draw him after where he made his +way toward a building that was like a mountain of snow. + +Spud must have marveled at the craft within; at her sleek, shining +sides; the flat nose that ended in a black exhaust port. He was +examining the other exhausts that ringed her round when Chet pulled out +a lever from the streamlined surface and swung open an entrance port. + +He motioned Spud into the brilliantly lighted interior, where nitron +illuminators were almost blinding as they shone of gleaming levers and +dials of a control room like none that Spud O'Malley had ever seen. + +Chet had thrown the building's doors open wide; a whirling motor had +drawn them back on hidden tracks. Now he closed the entrance port with +care, then glanced at his instruments before he placed his hand on a +metal ball. + + * * * * * + +It hung suspended in air within a cage of curved bars. It was a +modification of the high-liner ball-control, and it was new. Walt +Harkness had had it installed to replace a more crudely fashioned +substitute that had brought them safely back from the Dark Moon. The +name of that new satellite was on Chet's lips as his thin hand rested +delicately upon the ball. + +"It's not the Dark Moon this time, old girl," he told the ship, "though +you've taken me there twice. But we're going up just the same, and I +told the Commander he hasn't Patrol Ships enough to hold us back." His +fingers were gripping the little ball--lifting it--moving it forward.... + +And, as if he lifted the ship itself, the silent cylinder came roaring +into life. Within the great building was a thundering blast that made +the voice of the storm less than a whispering breath. It came but +faintly through the heavily insulated walls, but Chet felt the lift of +the ship, and that joyous smile was crinkling about his eyes as the +silvery cylinder floated smoothly out of her shelter into the grip of +the wind. + +His eyes were on an upper lookout, where clouds were driving away like a +curtain unrolled. More cloud banks were coming, but, for a time, the +heavens were clear where the great red hull of a rusty freighter hung +helpless beneath a red and silver Patrol Ship whose magnets held fast to +its prey. + + * * * * * + +There were other shapes in the markings of the Service that shot +slantingly down. Chet thought again of the carrion birds; then he saw +the gold star on the bow of a great cruiser and knew from that ship that +the Commander must be seeing their own below. Then he eased gently +forward on a tiny ball--forward and forward, while the compensating +floor of the control room swung up behind them and seemed thrusting up +with unbearable weight. + +There were flashes from the cruisers above, and flashes of red on the +ice behind with fountains of shattered ice and rock; detonite works its +most terrible destruction on a surface that is brittle and hard. But of +what avail are detonite shells against a craft whose speed builds up to +something greater than the muzzle velocity of a shell?--a silvery craft +that sweeps out and out toward a black mountain range; then swings +slowly up in a curve of sheer beauty that bends into banked masses of +clouds--and ends. + +But within the control room, Chet Bullard, no longer Master Pilot of the +World, but master, in all truth, of space, knew that his ship's flight +was far from ending. He turned to grin happily at his companion. + +"We're off!" he shouted. "And it's thanks to you that we made it. If +Haldgren's alive he'll have you to thank; for it's you that has done the +trick so far!" + +But Spud O'Malley answered soberly as he stared up and out into the +blackness of levels he had never seen. + +"I've helped," he admitted; "I've helped a bit. But it's a divil of a +job of navigatin' that's ahead. And that's up to you, Chet Bullard; 'tis +no job for an old omadhaun like mesilf!" + +Chet felt the lift of the Repelling Area as they shot through. Ahead was +the black velvet night that he knew so well; its silent emptiness was +pricked through with bright points of fire. + +"I found the Dark Moon," he said slowly, "and that you can't see at all. +This other will be easy." + +There was no boastfulness in the tone, and Spud O'Malley nodded as he +glanced respectfully at the young man who threw back his disheveled mop +of hair from a lean face and marked down some cryptic figures on a +record sheet. + +Chet Bullard was on the job ... and his passenger, it would seem, was +satisfied that his unbelievable adventure was well begun. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_Life Monstrous and Horrible_ + + +"It looks," said Spud O'Malley, "as if some bad little spalpeen of the +skies had thrown pebbles at it when 'twas soft. It's fair pockmarked +with places where the stones have hit." + +He was staring through a forward lookout, where the whole sky seemed +filled with a tremendous disk. One quarter was brilliantly alight; it +formed a fat crescent within whose arms the rest of the globe was held +in fainter glowing. By comparison, this greater portion was dark, though +illuminated by earthlight far brighter than any moonlight on Earth. + +But light or dark, the surface showed nothing but an appalling +desolation where the rocky expanse had been still further torn and +disrupted--pockmarked, as O'Malley had said, with great rings that had +been the walls of tremendous volcanoes. + +Chet was consulting a map where a similar area of circular markings had +been named by scientists of an earlier day. + +"Hercules," he mused, and stared out at the great circle of the moon. +"The crater of Hercules! Yes, that must be it. That dark area off to one +side is the Lake of Dreams; below it is the Lake of Death. Atlas! +Hercules! Suffering cats, what volcanoes they must have been!" + +"I don't like your names," objected O'Malley. "Lake of Death! That's +not so good. And I don't see any lake, and the whole Moon is wrong side +up, according to your map." + +Chet reached for the ball-control, moved it, and swung their ship in a +slow, rotary motion. The result was an apparent revolution of the Moon. + +"There, it's right side up," Chet laughed; "that is, if you can tell me +what direction is 'up' out here in space. And, as for the names, don't +let them disturb you; they don't mean anything. Some old-timer with a +little three-inch telescope probably named them. The darker areas looked +like seas to them. Astronomers have known better for a long time; and +you and I--we're darned sure of it now." + + * * * * * + +The great sea of shadow, a darker area within the shaded portion whose +only light came from the Earth, was plainly a vast expanse of blackened +rock. An immense depression, like the bottom of some earlier sea, it was +heaved into corrugations that Chet knew would be mountain-high at close +range. Marked with the orifices of what once had been volcanoes, the +floor of that Lake of Death was hundreds of miles in extent. + +But as for seas and lakes, there was no sign of water in the whole, +vast, desolate globe. An unlikely place, Chet admitted, for the +beginning of their search, and yet--those flashes of light!--the S O S! +They had been real! + +The bow blast had been roaring for over an hour; their strong +deceleration made the forward part of the ship seem "down." And down it +was, too, by reason of the pull of the great globe they were +approaching. But the roaring exhaust up ahead was checking their speed; +Chet measured and timed the apparent growth of the Moon-disk and nodded +his satisfaction at their reduced speed. + +"This will stop us," he said. "I didn't know but we would have to swing +off, shoot past, and return under control. But we're all right, and +there is the place we are looking for--the big ring of Hercules, the +level floor of rock inside it. And over at one side the smaller +crater--" + + * * * * * + +He was gazing entranced at the mammoth circle that had been a volcano's +throat--the very one he had seen flashed on the screen. He moved the +control to open a side exhaust and change their direction of fall. He +was still staring, with emotions too overwhelming for words, and Spud +O'Malley was silent beside him, as the great ring spread out and became +an up-thrust circle of torn, jagged mountains some thirty or more miles +across and directly below. + +They fell softly into that circle. Its mountainous sides were high; they +blocked off the view of the enormous terraces beyond that had been the +crater's sloping sides. + +From the direction that had suddenly become "east," the rising sun's +strong light struck in a slant to make the bar rocks seem incandescent. +On one side the giant rim of the encircling mountains was black with +shadow. The shadow reached out across the vast, rocky floor almost to +the foot of the opposite wall many miles away. It enveloped their +falling ship like a cushioning, ethereal sea: velvety, softly black, +almost palpable. + +It was wrapping them about in the darkness of night as Chet's slender +hand touched so delicately upon the ball-control--checked them, eased +off, drew back again until the thundering exhausts echoed softly where +their ship hung suspended a hundred feet above a rocky floor. The +shrouding darkness erased the harsh contours of mountain and plain; it +seemed shielding this place of desolation and horror from critical, +perhaps unfriendly eyes of these beings from another world. And Chet +laid their ship down gently and silently on the earthlit plain as if he, +too, felt this sense of intrusion--as if there might be those who would +resent the trespass of unwanted guests. + +But Spud O'Malley must have experienced no such delicacy of feeling. He +let go one long pent-up breath. + +"And may the saints protect us!" he said. "The Lake of Death outside, +and inside here is purgatory itself, or I don't know my geography. But +you made it, Chet, me bhoy; you made it! What a sweet little pilot you +are!" + + * * * * * + +"There's air here," Chet was telling his companion later; "air of a +sort, but it's no good to us." + +He pointed to the spectro-analyzer with its groupings of lines and light +bands. "Carbon dioxide," he explained, "and some nitrogen, but mighty +little of either. See the pressure gage; it's way down. + +"But that won't bother us too much. We've got some suits stowed away in +the supplies that will hold an atmosphere of pressure, and their oxygen +tanks will do the rest. We were ready for anything we might find on our +Dark Moon trip, but we didn't need them there. Now they'll come in +handy." + +"That's all right," O'Malley assured him; "I've gone down under water in +a diving suit; I've gone outside a ship for emergency repairs in a suit +like yours when the air was as thin as this; I can stand it either way. +But what I want to know is this: + +"What the divil chance is there of findin' your man, Haldgren, in such +a frozen corner of purgatory as this? How could he live here? Here +you've come in a fine, big ship, and his was a little bit of a bullet by +comparison. Yet I doubt if you could live here for five years with all +your big oxygen supply. Now, how could he have done it with his little +outfit? + +"And what has he eaten? Does this look like a likely place for shootin' +rabbits, I ask you? Can a man catch a mess of fish in that empty Lake of +Death? Or did Haldgren bring a sandwich with him, it may be?" + + * * * * * + +Chet Bullard shook his head doubtfully. + +"Don't get sarcastic!" he grinned. "You can't think of any wilder +questions than I have asked myself. + +"He couldn't have lived here, Spud; that's the only answer. It just +isn't humanly possible. All I know is that he did it. I can't tell you +how I know it, but I do. Those lights were a human call for help. No +living man but Haldgren could have flashed them. He's alive--or he was +then; that's all I know." + +Spud crossed the control room as he had done a score of times to look +through a glass port at the world outside. Chet, too, turned to the +lookout by which he stood and stared through it. The men had found +themselves surprisingly light within the ship. They had been compelled +to guard against sudden motion; a step, instead of carrying them one +stride, might hurl them the length of the room. This lowered +gravitational pull helped to explain to the pilot that outer world. + +There, close by, was the rocky plain on which he had landed the ship: +Smooth and shiny as obsidian in places, again it was spongy gray, the +color of volcanic rock, bubbling with imprisoned gases at the instant +of hardening. It stretched out and down, that gently rolling plain, for +a thousand yards or more, then ended in a welter of nightmare forms done +in stone. It was like the work of some demented sculptor's tortured +brain. + + * * * * * + +Jutting tongues of rock stood in air for a hundred--two hundred--feet. +Chet hardly dared estimate size in this place where all was so strange +and unearthly. The hot rock had spouted high in the thin air, and it had +frozen as it threw itself frantically out from the inferno of heat that +had given it birth. The jets sprayed out like spume-topped waves; they +were whipped into ribbons that the winds of this world could not tear +down, and the ribbons shone, waving white in the earthlight. The +tortured stone was torn and ripped into twisted contortions whose very +writhing told of the hell this had been. Its grotesque horror struck +through to the deeper levels of Chet's mind with a feeling he could not +have depicted in words. + +From the higher elevation where their ship lay he could look out and +across this welter of storm-lashed rock to see it level off, then vanish +where another crater mouth yawned black. Here was the inner crater! It +had seemed small before; it was huge now--a place of mystery, a black, +waiting throat into which Chet knew he must go--a place of indefinable +terror. + +But it was the place, too, whence strange flashes had come, flashes that +had told of the distress and suffering of men since the time when +wireless waves had been widely used. The old call--the S O S!--it had +come from that throat; it had seemed a call sent directly to him! And +Chet Bullard's eyes held steadily toward that place of mystery and of a +sender unknown. + +"I'm going down," he told himself more than O'Malley. "There's something +about it I can't understand, something pretty damnable about it, I +admit. But, whatever it is, that's what I am here to find out." + +"'Tis a divil of a place to die," said O'Malley, "and not one I'd pick +out at all. But it may be we won't have to. I'm goin' along, of course." + + * * * * * + +The master pilot was reaching for the flexible metal suit he had brought +from the store room. It was air-tight, gas-proof; it would hold an +internal pressure far beyond anything the wearer would demand; and its +headpiece was flexible like the body of the suit, and would fit him +closely. + +He drew the suit up over the clothes he wore and closed the front with +one pull of a metal tab. Within, soft rubber-faced cushions had +interlocked; the body would fasten to the headpiece in the same way. But +Chet paused with the headpiece in his hand. + +He looked at the glass window that would be before his eyes; at the thin +diaphragms that would come over his ears and that would admit all +ordinary sounds; and he tried out the microphone attachment that he +could switch on to bring to his ears the faintest whisper from outside. +All this he examined with care while he seemed to be thinking deeply. +Then he straightened and looked at his companion. + +"No, Spud, you're not going," he said. "This is my job. You'll stay with +the ship. You and I make a rather small army: we don't know yet what we +may be up against, and we mustn't risk all our forces in one advance. +I'll see what is there; and, in case anything happens, you can take the +ship back. I've taught you enough on the way over; I had this very +thing in mind." + +He slipped the helmet over his blond head before O'Malley could reply. + + * * * * * + +The ear-pieces and the microphone allowed him to hear. Another diaphragm +in the center of the metal across his chest took his own voice and +shouted it into the room. + +"Sure, I know you want to go. Spud; but you'll have to stay in reserve. +Now show me how well you can fly the ship. Lift her off; then drift over +that crater, and we'll have a look-see!" + +Spud O'Malley's face was glum as he obeyed. Spud had seen nothing but +death in this place of horror--Chet had observed that plainly--yet it +was equally plain that the Irish pilot was finding the order to live in +safety a bitter dose. But Spud knew how to take orders; he lifted the +little ball gently and swung the ship out toward the blackness of that +deeper pit. + +Chet was watching the changing terrain. He saw the place of +solid-spouted rock end; saw it flatten out to an undulating surface that +had rolled and heaved itself into many-colored shapes. Even in the +earthlight the kaleidoscopic colors were vivid in their changing reds +and blues and yellow sheens. Then this surface sloped sharply away, +though here it was rough with broken rock where half-hardened lava, +coughed from that throat, had fallen back and adhered to the molten +sides. + +This rock in the inner crater was gray, pale and ghostly in the +earthlight. It went down and still down where Chet's eyes could not +follow--down to an utter blackness. Chet was staring speculatively at +that waiting dark when the first flash came. + +Blindingly keen! A flash of white light!--another and another! It +blazed dazzlingly into their cabin in vivid dashes and dots--the same +signal as before was being repeated! + + * * * * * + +A hundred yards away was a little shelf of rock. Chet jerked at +O'Malley's shoulder with his metal-cased hand and pointed. "Set her +down!" he ordered "Let me out there! We can't put the ship down where +those lights are; the throat is too narrow; there may be air-currents +that would smash us on a sharp rock. I'll go down! You wait! I'll be +back." + +He was opening the inner door of the entrance port. Another closure in +the outer shell made an air-lock. He took time for one grip at the hand +of Spud O'Malley, one grin of excited, adventurous joy that wrinkled +about his eyes behind the window of his helmet--then he picked up a +detonite pistol, examined again its charge of tiny shells, jammed it +firmly into the holster at his waist and swung the big door shut behind +him. + +And Pilot O'Malley watched him go with a premonition that he dared not +speak. He heard the closing of the outer door; saw the tall, slender +figure in a metal suit like a knight of old as Chet waved once, settled +the oxygen tank across his shoulders and picked his way carefully over a +waste of shattered stone that led down and down into the dark. + +Then the Irishman looked once at the suit he had expected to wear, +stared back where the figure of Chet had vanished, then dropped his head +upon his hands while his homely face was twisted convulsively. + + * * * * * + +It had come so soon! The great adventure was upon them before he had +realized. The reconnaissance--the flashes--and then Chet had gone! And +now he was alone in a silent ship that rested quietly in this soundless +world. The silence was heavy upon him; it seemed pressing in with actual +weight to bear him down. It was shattered at the last by the faintest of +whispered echoes from without. + +Spud was on his feet in an instant, his eyes straining at one lookout +after another, each giving him a view of only the desolation he knew and +hated. + +What could it have been? he demanded. He found and rejected a dozen +answers before he saw, far down in the black crater-mouth, a flash of +red; then heard again that ghost of a sound and knew it for what it was. + +Thick walls, these of the space ship, and insulated well; and the thin +atmosphere of this wild world could cut a blast of sound to a mere +fraction of its volume! But the walls were admitting a fragmental echo +of what must have been a reverberating voice. They were quivering to the +roar of exploding detonite! + +It was Chet! He was fighting, he was in trouble! Spud's trembling hands +steadied upon the metal control; he lifted the ship as smoothly as even +Chet might have done, and he drove it out and down into a throat too +narrow for safety, but where the tiny, red flash of a weapon had called +with an S O S as plain as any lettered call--a message to which brave +men have everywhere responded. + + * * * * * + +He saw Chet but once. The master pilot had shown him the flare release +lever; he moved it now, and the place of darkness was suddenly blinding +with light. There were rocks close at hand; the crater had narrowed to a +funnel throat that was cut and terraced as if by human hands. Below, it +ended in a smooth stone floor where the lava had sealed it shut. + +From a terrace came the gleaming reflection of Chet's suit. Miraculously +the gleam was doubled, as if another in similar garb stood at his side. +And beyond, from blocks of stone, came leaping things--living creatures! + +The light died. Spud realized he had not opened the release lever full. +He fumbled for it--found it, jammed it over! And in the light that +followed he saw only empty, terraced walls where nothing moved, and a +lava floor below that, for an instant, gaped open, then again was smooth +and firm. + +And the thunder of his ship's exhausts came back to him from those +threatening walls to tell of a loneliness more certain and terrible than +any solitude he had found in the silence where he had waited above. + +But through all his dismay ran an undercurrent of puzzled wonderment. +For here on a dead world, where all men agreed there could be no life, +he had seen the impossible. + +Only one glimpse before the light had died; only for an instant had he +seen the things that leaped upon Chet--but he knew! Never again could +any man tell Spud O'Malley that the Moon was a lifeless globe ... and he +knew that the life was of a form monstrous and horrible and malign! + + + + +CHAPTER V + +_"And I've Brought You to This!"_ + + +The master pilot, when he stepped forth upon that weird globe which was +the Moon, found himself plunged into a spectral world. Even from within +the air-tight suit, through whose helmet-glass he peered, he sensed, as +he had not when inside the ship, the vast desolation, the frozen +emptiness of this rocky waste. + +His suit of woven metal was lined throughout with heavy fabric of +insuline fibers, that strange product brought from the jungle heat of +the upper Amazon to keep out the bitter cold of this frozen world. His +ship was felted with the same material between its double walls; without +it there would have been no resisting the cold of these interstellar +reaches. + +But, despite the padding within his suit, he felt the numbing cold of +this dead world strike through. And the bleak and frigid barrenness that +met his gaze was so implacably hostile to any living thing as to bring a +shudder of more than physical cold. + +No warming sun, as yet, reflected from the rocks. About him was the +blackness of a fire-formed lithosphere, whose lighter veining and +occasional ashy fields were made ghostly in the earthlight. + +One slow, all-seeing glance at this!--one moment of wondering amazement +when he tilted his head far back that he might look up to the mouth of +the crater and see, in a dead-black sky, the great crescent of earth--a +vast, incredible moon peeping over the serrate edge. Then, as if the +interval of time since leaving the ship had been measured in hours +instead of brief seconds, he remembered the flashing lights that had +signaled from below. + + * * * * * + +His first step carried him, slipping and sprawling awkwardly, across a +rocky slope white with the rime of carbon dioxide frost. He came to his +feet and turned once to wave toward the ship where he knew Spud O'Malley +must be watching from a lookout. Then, moving cautiously, to learn the +gage of his own strength in this world of diminished weights, he started +down. + +Rough going, Chet found; the wall of this great throat had not hardened +without showing signs of its tortured coughing. But Chet learned to +judge distance, and he found that a fifty-foot chasm was a trifle to be +crossed in one leap; huge boulders, whose molten sides had frozen as +they ran and dripped, could be surmounted by the spring of his leg +muscles that could throw him incredibly through the air. And always he +went downward toward the place where the lights had flashed. + +They came once more. He had descended a thousand feet, he was +estimating, when the black igneous rocks blazed blindingly with a +reflected light like that of a thousand suns. + +Another hundred feet below, down a precipitous slope, was a broad table +of rock. He saw it in the instant before he threw one metal-clad arm +across the eye-piece of his helmet to shut out the glare. And he saw, in +that fraction of a second, a moving figure, another like himself, clad +in an armored suit whose curves and fine-woven mesh caught the light in +a million of sparkling flames. + +It was Haldgren, he told himself; and there was something that came +chokingly into his throat at the thought. That lonely figure--one tiny +dot of life on a bleak and lifeless stage! It was pitiful, this undying +effort to signal, to let his own world know that he still lived. + + * * * * * + +Chet did not put it into coherent words, but there was an overwhelming +emotion that was part pity and part pride. He was suddenly glad and +thankful to belong to a race of men who could carry on like this--who +never said die. And, as the glare winked out, he threw himself +recklessly down that last slope and brought up in a huddle at the feet +of the one who had started back in affright. There was one metal-cased +hand that went in a helpless gesture to the throat; the figure, all +silvery white in the dim Earth-glow, staggered back against a wall of +rock; only by inches did it miss a fall from the precipice edge where +the rock platform ended. + +From the floor, where his fall had flung him in awkward posture, Chet +saw this; saw it and marveled vaguely. What picture he had formed of +Haldgren--what he had expected of him--he could not have told. Certainly +it was not this slenderly youthful figure, nor this reaction that was +more of fright than startled amazement. And the voice! Surely he had +heard an involuntary, half-stifled scream! + +He came slowly to his feet. And he was wondering now if his deductions +had been wrong. He had been to sure that the sender of those messages +was an Earth-man; he had been so certain of finding Haldgren. + + * * * * * + +Slowly he crossed the table of rock toward the waiting figure; gently he +extended his hands, palms upward, in a gesture of peaceful promise. +Whoever, whatever this was--this Moon-being who had signaled and in +doing so had happened upon the letters that had a definite meaning of +Earth--Chet knew he must not frighten him. One outstretched hand touched +the metal that cased an arm; moved upward to the headpiece, as +close-fitting as his own; tilted it that the light of Earth might shine +within and show him what manner of being he had found. + +And Chet, who had seen strange creatures on that Dark Moon where he and +Harkness had explored, was prepared, despite the suit so like his own, +to see some weird being of this newer world. But for what the soft light +of that distant Earth disclosed he was entirely unprepared. + +Eyes, blue and lovely as an azure sea but wide with terror and dismay; +eyes that showed plainly a consternation of unbelief that changed +slowly, as the blue eyes stared into Chet's gray ones, until they were +suddenly misty with tears; and the figure sagged and would have dropped +at his feet had he not caught it in his arms. + +He heard his own voice exclaiming in wonderment: "A girl! One of our own +kind! Out here! On the Moon!" + +And another voice, sweetly tremulous, replied: + +"Oh, it's true--it's true! You have come! You read my call! Oh, I hardly +dared hope--" + +Then the thrilling ecstasy of happiness in the voice gave place to +accents of dismay as some horror of fear swept in upon her. + +"And I've brought you to this! You will be lost! Quick! Climb for your +life! I will come after. Quick! Quick!" + + * * * * * + +There was agony in the voice now, and the figure wrenched itself from +Chet's arms to point one slender hand upward in frantic urging, while +yet the head turned that the eyes might look backward as if some danger +threatened from below. + +"I've got a ship," Chet assured her. "God knows who you are or how you +got here, but it's all right now. We'll leave." + +He had regained his grip upon one of those slender hands and was +preparing to swing her up to the top of an incredibly high rock. Her +scream checked him and sent his one free hand to the detonite pistol at +his waist. + +"Behind you!" she cried. "Look back! They have come out!" + +The crater-pit behind and below them was black with the inky blackness +of smooth, fire-formed rock. Its many facets were smooth and polished; +they made mirrors, many of them, for the earthlight reflected from the +crater mouth. They served to diffuse this dim light and throw it again +upon the monstrous blacknesses that were swarming from below. + +"Men!" thought Chef in one instant of half-comprehension. Then, as he +saw the chalk-white bodies, the dead and flabby whiteness of their faces +from which red eyes stared, he revised his estimate; here was nothing +human. + +The pistol was in his hand, but as yet he had not fired. Only the terror +in the girl's voice had told him that these were enemies; he waited for +a closer view or for some direct attack, and needed to wait but a +moment. + +Only an instant after he had seen, the chalk-white bodies clustered +below were in motion. They came leaping up the smooth expanses of rock, +and they were obscured at times as if by black curtains that were drawn +across their bodies. Then they would flash out again in dead-white +nakedness. + + * * * * * + +It was uncanny. Chet had a feeling that they were wrapping themselves in +black invisibility. Only when a score of the white things threw +themselves out into space did he know the truth. + +Out and upward they sprang, to soar above Chet's head and land on the +slope above. All escape was cut off now; but it was not this thought +that held Chet motionless for that moment of horror. It was the glimpse +he had had against the light of the crater mouth of beating, flailing +wings that whipped the thin air above him; of curved claws; and of long, +horrible tails that might have belonged to giant rats. And the demoniac +cries that the thin air brought him were no more suggestive of devils +unleashed than were the leathery wings and the fleshy tails of the +beasts. + +Yet it was not this alone that stunned the mind of the master pilot, but +the horrible incongruity, of this monstrous inhumanness allied with the +human form of their bodies. And throughout he observed, with a curious +sense of detachment, the furious beating of the wings, almost useless in +the thin air, and the expansion and contraction of sac-like membranes on +each side of the necks which he took to be auxiliary lungs. + + * * * * * + +It was the girl's action that brought Chet to his senses. She moved +slowly across the smooth table of rock toward the three or four beasts +who had gained its level. Her head was bowed in utter dejection; Chet +sensed it as plainly as if she had spoken. She held out her hands +helplessly toward the creatures--and in that instant Chet's pistol +spoke. + +Tiny shells, those of a detonite pistol, and the grain of explosive in +the tip of each bullet is microscopic. But no body, human or inhuman, be +it made of flesh, can withstand the shattering concussion of that +exploding shell. + +The beasts beside that figure, slenderly girlish even in its metal +sheath, fell into the pit beyond; their screams rang horribly as they +fell. There were others who took their places, and they, too, vanished +under the smashing shots. + +And then, after timeless moments of waiting, while the only sound was +the half-audible voice of the girl who sobbed: "Now you are surely lost. +They will kill you--you should not have fired--I should never have +brought you here"--there came the familiar thunder of a ship's exhausts. + +Down from above, a black shadow came silently crashing; a blaze of light +terrific in its brilliance brought an exclamation to Chet's lips and +hope to his heart. + +"Spud! You old fool, you're coming to get us!" + +But the words ended with an avalanche of bodies that threw themselves +down the black slope. There were others coming from below, leaping from +the stones. The ledge was filled with them. + +Chet was firing blindly as he felt himself borne down--felt long fingers +that ripped, then closed about his throat and jammed the metal of his +suit in chokingly. He heard the beating of giant wings about him; felt +himself half-carried and half-thrown toward a floor of rock far below. + +There was an opening that loomed blackly in that floor; one glimpse of +his surroundings Chet had before the press of bodies closed him in. They +were forcing the shining, silvery figure of a girl into that black +opening--dropping her! Then he felt himself hurled into the same void, +while above him a ship of space thundered vainly from her great exhausts +as if roaring in rage at her own futility. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +_Heart of the Moon_ + + +In the grasp of the winged creatures' long, clawed hands Chet was +helpless. He was struggling vainly when they released their hold and he +felt himself falling into a pit that, as far as he knew, was a +bottomless abyss. He was still struggling to right himself in mid-air +when he struck. + +To fall even so short a distance on Earth would have meant instant +death. Here, where gravitation's pull was but one-sixth that of Earth, +he still struck on a rocky floor with a thud that made him sick for lack +of breath. + +Above him was a pale circle of light. Tipping the edge of a vast crater +mouth high above was a rim of brilliance. Earthlight! Chet was suddenly +certain that he was seeing that glow for the last time as the circle +went black, and there came to him the unmistakable clang of metal where +a door was shut. + +Through the countless mingled emotions that filled him he was wondering +what manner of creatures these were into whose hands he had fallen. +Intelligent, beyond a doubt, in their own way; he could not question the +evidence of his own eyes and ears. They were able to work in metals and +to seal the mouth of this lunar tomb. + +But he was still alive; he could not give up now. This adventure upon +which he had launched with such high hopes had turned out differently +than expected; but, he told himself, it was not ended yet. + +And, instead of a lifeless globe, he had found this: a place peopled +with strange, half-human life. And, more marvelous still, instead of +Haldgren, whom he had come to seek, there had been a girl! + + * * * * * + +Chet had recovered his ability to breathe, had made sure that the oxygen +tank was intact; and now he called softly into the blackness of this +dark vault where he had seen her thrown. + +"Are you alive?" he asked. "Can you hear me?" + +For answer came quick rustling of moving bodies, the smooth rasping of +wings on leathery wings, hands that fumbled for him, then closed about +arms and legs and throat, while in his ears was a chattering of +high-pitched squeals. Again he was lifted in air, held there in the grip +of a score of lean, long-fingered hands. He was nerving himself to +undergo without flinching whatever new torture might be in store. Yet he +thrilled inexplicably as through the sounds of these things about him, +he heard a muffled: "Yes--yes! Oh, I am glad--" + +The sentence was unfinished. Before Chet's eyes a light was growing. A +mere slit at first, it grew to a luminous circle in the rocky floor. And +as it opened, he felt the pressure of his metal suit upon his body, +where before it had been slightly ballooned by the pressure of oxygen he +had maintained. + +With the opening of this door to another subterranean chamber had come a +renewed atmospheric pressure. And now, in the denser gas, he saw, in +ghastly silhouette against the lighted pit, flying figures that floated +and soared on outstretched wings of inky black. + + * * * * * + +Beside him and above he heard the swishing flutter of other wings; he +felt himself lifted from the floor; he was being floated out above the +luminous pit by the flying things that held him. + +No direct glare came from below, but a soft violet radiance. It shone +full upon him--past him--to light up and give detail to those faces that +had been featureless before. Chet had just one moment of fascinated +staring into the diabolical, pasty faces where narrow, red eyes stared +back into his. Then the squealing voices were stilled! + +One, louder than the rest, rasped an order. And again Chet felt the +hands relax; once more he was falling, down--down--and still down--until +he knew that his velocity of fall meant an impact he could never +survive. + +And, curiously, as he fell, his mind was entirely unconcerned with his +own fate. For himself, he had accepted death. But he saw for what seemed +like hours a vision of a familiar control room and an Irish pilot who +sat by the controls. He was looking sharply ahead, he was checking +speed, he was landing softly--safely--on a familiar field of Earth.... + +That passed; and, following, came a feeling of regret, a deep hurt and +a rage at his own inability to be of help. For, above him, through the +luminous air, he saw another body falling, and he knew that the girl, +too, had been thrown to the same fate. + + * * * * * + +Those eyes of blue had locked with his for but a few brief seconds. Who +she was--what she was--he had no way of knowing. But in that instant of +mental meeting there had passed a flash between the two that had burned +deeply into Chet's real and hidden self. + +Chet, himself, had he been in laughing mood, might have smiled at the +idea of affection being born in that brief time. Yet he might have asked +instead how long was needed to bridge the sharp gap of a radio-power +transmitter; how much time was needed for anode and cathode each to +recognize the other. Something of this was passing in confusion through +his mind while his more conscious faculties were tensing his body for +the fatal impact he knew must come. + +Without thinking the thought in words he knew that the luminous walls +had receded. They were more distant now; their glow came to him from far +above, and, as his falling body turned again and again in air, he saw +that below him was nothing but a vast emptiness filled with luminous +vapors that swirled and writhed. + +Then the last gleam of lighted walls faded; he was falling at terrific +speed through a black tempest whose winds tore and screamed about him. + + * * * * * + +It was his own falling speed that made these winds; there remained with +him enough of reasoning power to realize this. And he waited, and +marveled that he could fall so tremendous a distance. First had been +the great shaft down which he had plunged; then, as it widened, had come +this greater void. The crater of Hercules must have opened, into a vast +shell or a cavern of incredible depth. The winged things of the Moon +knew of it; they had cast him to his death--him and the girl. + +Her slowly turning body was not far away; it was as if they two hung +suspended in air, while frightful blasts of whatever gas filled this +space whipped and shrieked past and wrapped them round with a terrific +pressure. And then the tempest ceased. Slowly the blasts diminished; the +pressure relaxed; gradually the sense of falling passed away, and with +this there came a glimpse of light. + +Again the walls glowed as they had before, but far off in the distance. +Chet saw them grow luminous while he seemed hung motionless in space. +Then once more they drew away from him; once more he knew he was falling +away from that light--plunging again into the depths he had traversed. + +And now, despite the oxygen that came to him uninterruptedly, he found +his head swimming. The limit of human endurance had been reached. + +Desperately he tried to bring his reason to bear upon this miracle that +had happened. He had not struck; instead of falling to his death he had +cushioned against something; he was falling again where, not far away, +another metal-clad figure hung limply in air and fell as he fell. And +with that knowledge the whirling turmoil within his brain ended in a +blood-red flashing that went finally to merciful darkness.... + + * * * * * + +That darkness still wrapped him thickly about when he regained +consciousness--a darkness saved from utter black only by a faint +luminosity that seemed to penetrate and be part of the air about him. + +Still hardly more than half-conscious, lying, it seemed, on a soft bed +where he was weightless, he stirred and flung out one arm. From his +fingertips he saw whirls of violet light sweep out and away, as vortices +might have been set in motion by a swimmer in a more liquid medium. + +Fascinated, failing utterly to comprehend where he was, he moved his +hands deliberately, swept one arm from side to side--and a number of +luminous whirlpools went spinning out into space. And then he +remembered. + +He remembered the terrific fall that miraculously brought him back to a +place of light like that where his fall had begun. He remembered +beginning the second fall; and, while he still could not know what it +meant, he knew that he must have been unconscious for hours. And, with +that, his thoughts came back to the girl. For the first time he found +leisure to give mental voice to his wonderment. + +The mystery of it all!--of her presence here on the Moon! Again he was +overwhelmed with the wonder of his surprising discovery. It was nearly +beyond belief; almost he doubted the reality of what his own eyes had +seen. + + * * * * * + +But there was no doubting his own presence here in this strange place. +The unreality of it--the strangeness of his own sensations--were borne +in upon him. Where was he? he asked. What was this soft cushion upon +which he rested so lightly? He tried to sit up and found that he merely +twisted his body and set other eddies of light into motion. + +Cautiously, he swung one arm out as far as he could reach. There was +nothing there. He moved the arm down; reached with his hand beneath +him--and still there was nothing tangible! Through his mind swept a +gripping fear, a wordless, incoherent terror of something he could not +name. Desperately he wanted to touch something firm and solid; lay his +hands upon something he knew was real; and he flung out arms and legs in +a paroxysm of futile effort. + +He seemed hung in nothingness, an utter emptiness where nothing moved; +only the ghostly whirls of light that ran lazily away from his beating +hands until they died silently away into darkness, swallowed up in this +unspeakable horror of soundless space. And, when he had quieted again, +he knew with a dreadful certainty that there was nothing there; he was +suspended in a great void--immersed in an ocean of some unknown gas. + +The sense of loneliness that filled him was devastating. He could have +faced death as he had faced it before, unflinchingly; that was all in +the day's work. But here was something that tested sanity itself. Could +he but touch something substantial, he told himself, it would help him +to keep a grip on reality; even to see and feel one of the winged +horrors would be in a way a relief. + + * * * * * + +His struggles had ceased; all about him the atmosphere was quivering and +writhing with whirling light that swirled and danced and mingled one +glowing vortex with another. Then it, too, died; and, through the dark +that was relieved only by the faint luminosity of the quiescent gas, he +saw far off a point of light. + +Here was something to which he could pin his eyes; something outside of +himself and the horror of nothingness in which he was immersed. He +stared through the window of his helmet while the light grew and +expanded into nebulous, cloudy glowing that faded and was gone. + +Again it came and died; and a third time. And then Chet Bullard swore +loudly and harshly within the silence of his own metal sheath, while he +cursed his own dullness that had kept him from instant comprehension. + +That light was far away, but, "Keep moving!" Chet called, hoping that +his voice might span the void. "Keep moving so I can see your light! +I'll try to swim over." + +He threw himself over with a convulsive jerk and flattened the palms of +his hands in a breaststroke, while he kicked with his feet against the +dense atmosphere about him. And he saw with delight that the whirling +ripples of light moved back of him; he felt that he was making some +headway, slight though it must be. + + * * * * * + +He saw her at last, and heard her call: + +"I am swimming, too," she cried. "How wonderful to see you! This +loneliness! It is horrible--unbearable!" + +"I understand," Chet said; "it is pretty bad." + +Then, at sound of a stifled sob, he gripped one reaching hand hard and +tried to bring himself out from under the pall that numbed his own mind; +he even attempted to force a note of lightness into his words. + +"I've flown everything with wings," he told her, "but this is the first +time I ever flew myself. Guess I was never properly designed." + +Feeble, this attempt at humor; but there was none to note the strained +edge in his tone, only a girl, whose metal-clad hand closed in a tight +hold upon his. + +"You can joke--_now_," she said with a catch in her voice that showed +how desperately hard she was trying to meet Chet's fortitude and force +her own words to steadiness. "That takes--real nerve. I like that!" + +Then she added: "But it's hopeless; you know that. They've got us. And +now that some of them have been killed they will--they will--" + +And the trace of Chet's strained smile that lingered on his lips, could +she have seen it, would have appeared grim. + +"Whatever it was you didn't say, I agree with. I imagine the finish will +not be pleasant." Once more he was facing the inevitable; and, as +before, he faced it squarely and knowingly, then put it completely from +his mind. There was so much he must know before that adventure's end was +reached. + +"Tell me," he demanded, "who are 'they'? Where are they? How many are +there of them? And where have they got us? What kind of a place is this, +where all natural laws are suspended, where gravitation is at zero? + +"And, for heaven's sake, tell me: who are you? Where are you from? How +did you get here on the Moon?" + + * * * * * + +That uncontrollable catch in the girl's voice had taken on a trace of +brave laughter that overlay the trembling sob in her throat. + +"That is a lot of information," she said, "and I am afraid it will not +make much difference if you know. Oh, I wish I had some atom of +encouragement for you! I do not know who you are either--and you have +been so brave! You have come here, I brought you with my signals for +help--brought you to your death. + +"For it _is_ death! This is the end of our adventuring--mine and yours +as well--here at the center, the exact center of the Moon." + +"Ah-h!" answered Chet Bullard softly, as understanding came to him. "I +should have guessed it. The atmospheric pressure and density--and we +fell past the center, then back again; we've been vibrating back and +forth until we came to rest at last. And now we die! Well, it might have +been worse." + +He was staring out through the little window of his helmet, staring into +the faintly luminous atmosphere, facing the end of his brave fling with +fortune. It was an instant before he realized that there was something +moving in the void. He pressed softly upon the hand he held and pointed. + +"See!" he said in a hushed tone. "There is something there!" + + * * * * * + +It took form slowly, a shapeless, round blur in the pale light. Inch by +inch it drifted toward them, until Chet moved one hand abruptly and +found he had created a ripple of light by which he could see more +clearly. And he saw before him a bulging, membraneous sac. + +It had been smoothly spherical before; it heaved itself into strange +protuberances as he watched. He flipped his hand to set up another +vortex of light, and he saw the first rip that formed in the membrane. + +Before his staring eyes the bag burst open; and Chet, who had wished for +some substantial thing, even a denizen of this wild world, found his +wish fulfilled. For the thin membrane tore in a score of places to +release a body from within--a shapeless, huddled mass of chalk-white +flesh in a wrapping of black leather that unfolded before his eyes and +became wings which waved feebly in their first attempt at flight. + +The pallid body, supple as a giant worm, jerked spasmodically and turned +sightless eyes toward the watching Earth-folk. Then, as if drawn by some +magnet, invisible in the distance, the black wings began to beat the +air, and the creature moved off in a straight line toward some unknown +goal. + + * * * * * + +Another of the membraneous spheres drifted past in the light that came +from those fluttering wings. A second showed in repulsive shininess. +Chet was aware that there were many of the things about. + +"Eggs!" he exclaimed with a disgust that partook of nausea, "And the +damnable thing hatched--right here!--before our eyes!" + +And the girl gave the final explanation: "The Moon is just a great +shell. They lay their eggs, these half-human creatures that you saw, and +attach them to the inner surface of that shell. Then at a certain period +they come loose and float away. I never knew what became of them; now I +understand at last." + +"You know all this!" protested Chet. "How can you know it? How long have +you been here?" + +"I kept track of time for a while," said the voice beside him; "then I +forgot it when they took Frithjof away. But it must be about five years. +Five years of terror and vain hopes and wild plans for escape! And now +it ends--after five years!" + +And Chet Bullard, within his metal helmet, was repeating in +bewilderment: "Five years! Haldgren left five years ago! What does it +mean?" + +Nor did he pause to realize that through his amazement was woven a +thread of another hue, tinged faintly with jealousy that demanded of +him: "Frithjof! Who is Frithjof who was taken away?" + +Chet's mind was filled with a confusion of questions that jostled one +another to silence when he tried to give them expression. And there was +little time for questioning. + + * * * * * + +He saw other floating eggs whose membraneous coverings had turned +leathery and opaque. And he saw white phantom figures who gathered those +eggs. One came near till Chet could make out the repulsive face and +black, staring eyes with their fiery red center. It was one of the +things that had captured him; he saw it move swiftly on broad wings. It +held a leathery egg in its curled-claw hands while its long tail whipped +around and laid the egg open with one slash of a sharp spiked point. + +One more of the young of this horrible species was liberated and went +winging away into the dark, only the whirls of light in the atmosphere +marking the beating of its wings. + +Chet's eyes followed it to see far out beyond a light that expanded as +it drew near. The beaten atmospheric gas was whipped to cold flame where +some ten or a dozen phantom demons came swiftly on toward the waiting +humans. + +They were swarming about in an instant. Chet had no time for even a +shouted warning before he felt himself seized by their long, bony claws. +Then a net of rough-fibered rope was flung about him, and he felt it +draw tight as the winged beasts lifted him up and out into the void. + +"Wrong again!" Chet told himself ruefully. "We don't die at the center +of the Moon, after all!" But, as the whipping wings drove whirling +blasts of violet light back upon him he could find nothing of comfort in +the thought that some different experience still lay ahead. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +_The Gateway to Hell_ + + +Spud O'Malley, at the controls of the ship, held the craft in a vertical +lift while his eyes clung in horrible fascination to the mirrors that +showed from a lower lookout the volcanic floor falling away. Amazement +had almost stifled his breathing, until at last he let go a long breath +that ended in a curse. + +"The outrageous, damned things!" he breathed. "Jumping, they were, and +leaping, and flying on their leather wings like a lot of black bats out +o' hell! And I'm thinkin' that's where they've taken Chet Bullard, and +never again will he hold a ship like 'twas in the hollow of his hand, +and him settin' it down like a feather! + +"And: 'Fly back home!' he says to me. I can do it, too; thanks to his +teachin'. But fly back and leave that bhoy in the hands of those +murderin' devils!--'tis little he knows the Irish!" + +He was talking half under his breath, murmuring to himself as if it +helped him to see clearly the situation that must be faced. + +"But to get to him--that's the trouble. I saw a big door go shut in that +stone floor. They're cunnin', clever beasts; I'll say that for 'em. And +there was a raft of 'em; and plenty more down in hell where they live, +I've no doubt." + +He moved forward on the ball-control, and the great ship swept like a +silvery shadow through the night toward the distant, lighted crater rim. +This he could see clearly, but the other side of the ring of mountains +was black with shadow. + +And, far out beyond, spread like a cloud over all the desolate world, +was blackness. Spud drove the ship up another five thousand feet, and +still that darkness spread out in inky pools where only an occasional +mountain peak caught the flat rays of the sun. + + * * * * * + +And what had Chet called these dark areas? "Lake of Dreams" and "Lake of +Death." Spud's superstitious mind was a-quiver with dread and an +ominous premonition to which the empty, frozen wastes below him gave +added force. + +"I'll have to wait," he told himself. "The light of the Moon--I mean the +Earth--is bright, but not bright enough. I'll just wait till the Sun +climbs higher. When it shines down into that hole that is the gateway to +hell--and well I know it--then I can see what is there. Then, maybe, I +can find some way to get inside; and I hope the lad lives till I get +there." + +He circled back; swept down in a long, leisurely flight, and came again +to the place of gently sloping rock where Chet had first landed. And he +searched till he found the identical spot and laid the ship down on a +level keel. + +Far away the Sun was gilding the hard outlines of mountains that ringed +them in. Spud did not know how long he must wait. Had he realized that +it must be a matter of days it is probable he would have donned the +metal suit and started out. But instead he busied himself in a careful +investigation of the storeroom and a check-up of ammunition and supplies +that were there. + + * * * * * + +The lunar day, as all Earth-men know, is a matter of nearly fifteen of +Earth's days. Spud O'Malley was wild with impatience when at last the +Sun was striking less flatly across the land and he knew that the time +had come when he could start. + +He had sensed the change that took place in the world outside; from the +lookouts of the control room he had seen the bare rocks lose their white +markings of hoar frost and at last actually quiver with heat as the Sun +beat upon them. He had seen the growing things that crept from every +crevice and hollow--pale, colorless mosses that threw out long tendrils +which licked across the hot rocks as if hungry for the nourishment the +thin air brought. + +Spud knew nothing of the carbon dioxide which these pale green growths +could combine with water under the Sun's hot rays and build into +vegetable tissue. But he marveled again and again at the hungry things +that made a mesh of ropy strands across the smooth area about the ship. +They even hung in drooping masses from the weird rocks beyond; and, so +light they were, they raised their heads hungrily in air, while the +corded tendrils even threw themselves in contorted writhings at times +when the Sun struck with increasing warmth. + +"A dead world!" said Spud scornfully. "How much the scientists back +there don't know! First those livin', flyin' devils; and now this! The +whole place is fairly wrigglin' with life." + + * * * * * + +It was then that he made one last flight over the inner crater and saw +light on the floor of stone in the funneled depths. Then he sent the +ship like a rocket down to the shelf of rock where Chet had begun his +descent; and he worked with trembling fingers to adjust the metal suit +and regulate the oxygen supply. + +He waited only to strap a couple of detonite pistols about him; then, +with never a backward look, he let himself out through the air-locking +doors and started pell-mell toward the inner crater. + +Like Chet, he had learned to gage his tremendous strength; like the +master pilot, he threw himself down the rocky slope. But where Chet had +leaped and stumbled in the darkness, O'Malley worked in full light. + +He came at last to the rocky floor where molten stone in ages past had +hardened to seal the throat of this vent. Hundreds of feet across, Spud +estimated; smooth in appearance from above, but broken with deep +crevasses and excrescences where hot, fluid stone had frozen in its +moment of bubbling turbulence. And, in one place, where the floor was +smooth, Spud found what he was searching for: a circular, metal ledge +that projected above the smooth rock; and, within it, a still smoother +sheet of what appeared to be hammered metal. + +"A door it is," whispered the pilot, half-fearful of listening ears, +"and the gateway to Hell!" He grinned broadly at some thought. "And here +I've been told 'twas, of all places, the easiest to get into; one little +slip from grace and there you were! Sure, and the priests were as wrong +as the scientists. It must be Heaven that's easy to crash, for the front +door of Hades is shut fast without even a keyhole to peep through." + + * * * * * + +Then his face sobered to its customary homely lines. "The poor bhoy!" he +exclaimed. "I've got to get in some way. I wonder how hard and thick it +is." + +He was raising a mass of black, shining rock in his hands--a fragment +that his strength would not have moved a fraction of an inch on Earth. +He steadied it above his head, preparing to crash it upon the metal +door; then waited; stared incredulously at the black metal sheet; +lowered the great stone silently and turned to leap mightily yet with +never a sound for the shelter of an upflung saw-toothed ridge. + +And, from its shelter, he watched the black door swing smoothly into the +air, while, from the gaping black mouth of the pit beneath, incredible +man-shapes of fish-belly white drew themselves up to the edge of the pit +and perched there, where they might stretch their long necks into the +light of the Sun. + +Below them, Spud saw, dangled long, rat-like tails; and their wings, +black and leathery, hung down too from their backs or dragged on the +rocks behind where some three or four of the owl-eyed creatures crawled +out and walked across the rock toward the place where an Irish pilot +waited and stared with unbelieving and horrified eyes from the +concealment of his rocky fort. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +_The Fires_ + + +Great vortices of whirling light rolled out to either side in an endless +pyrotechnical display to show the power of those flailing wings that +were bearing Chet and his companion through the dark void--bearing them +to some destination Chet could not envisage. + +His body turned in space at times, and he saw the spreading cone of +luminous gas behind them like the wake of a great ship in a +phosphorescent sea. The hiss and threshing of many wings came +unceasingly. Once he swung close to another body clad like his own and, +like him, enmeshed in a net. And he saw in the light of the luminiferous +air the girl's wide, staring eyes. Then she was gone, and all about was +only the whip of wings and the flashing whirls of light. + +He tried to form some picture of this sphere through whose center, empty +but for this gas, he was being swung. That first fall had carried him +down the tube of some volcanic blow-pipe; he had fallen straight for +what seemed like hours. And that had been through the crust of this +great, hollow globe. Then the center!--but of this he dared make no +estimate; he knew only that the huge leather wings were threshing the +dense air in an untiring rhythm and that he was being carried for a +tremendous distance at remarkable speed. + +It became soothing, that rushing, swinging sweep of his body through +space. There was death ahead, without doubt--but what of that? He was +sleepy--sleepy--and beyond this nothing mattered. Just to sleep, to +drift off in spirit into a void like this through which he was +swinging.... + +And so traveled Chet Bullard, one time Master Pilot of Earth, through, +the heart of another world--on and endlessly on, while leather-winged +demons dragged him after, flying straight away from the center of the +Moon toward a place and events unknown. + +But Chet Bullard had ceased to note the passing hours or the swirling +gases that came alight at the beating of those wings; he was asleep in a +stupor that was as deep as it was timeless. + + * * * * * + +He opened his eyes at last; it seemed but a moment that he had slept. +But now there was no rushing hiss of air, nor was he being lifted in a +great net. He lay instead upon a support of some kind, and about him all +was still. + +Not at first did he observe the exquisite carving of the yellow bed on +which he lay; that came later. The fact that its massive gold and its +scrollwork of inlaid platinum were worth a fortune meant nothing to him +then. His eyes were held by the immensity of the great room and the +intricate series of arches that made up a vaulted ceiling. + +It shone with a light of its own, that carved ceiling; no least lovely +detail was lost. And Chet found his eyes roving from one to another of +angel figures that seemed suspended in air. + +The white of purest alabaster was theirs; and their outstretched wings, +too, were white. He realized confusedly that they were like the black +demons--like them and yet entirely unlike. For, where the black-winged +ones had been ugly of feature, with every mark of degeneracy, these were +the ultimate of loveliness in face and form. Figures of men he saw, +stalwart and strong, yet perfectly proportioned; and the others--the +women and girls--were superhuman in their ethereal beauty. + +"Angels!" breathed Chet and turned his head slowly to see the exquisite +figures that seemed hovering above the whole vast room in silent +benediction. "Angels--no less! And they're carved from stone! Those +black devils never did it. What does it mean? What does it mean!" + +And not until then did Chet realize a wonderful thing. So enthralled had +he been by the wonder of this hovering angel band he had not realized +that he was seeing them with no helmet glass between; he was lying +disrobed on his couch of pure gold. + + * * * * * + +For an instant, panic seized him. Without his helmet and the oxygen +supply, he must strangle. And then he knew that he was breathing +naturally in an atmosphere like that of Earth but for the strange +fragrances that swept to him on the soft, warm air. + +He came slowly to his feet and steadied himself with one hand on the +scrollwork of the bed. Then memories rushed in upon him, and he lived +again the long, sickening fall through the heart of this world, the +finding of the girl of mystery, hung like himself in the immensity of +the inner world, their capture; and the band of black-winged ones who +swung them through space in nets that drew tightly about them. + +The girl! Again he saw the clear look from those eyes of blue. It was +she who had signaled; it was she whom he had come through vast space to +rescue. And now she was lost! + +Chet stared slowly about him at the magnificence of the tremendous room. +He saw more delicate figures done in inlay on the walls; he knew that he +was in a place whose beauty and wealth should have set his nerves +tingling; and all he sensed was the loneliness of this place where he +was the only living occupant. + + * * * * * + +He found his Earth-clothes beside the golden couch. He had put them on +and was examining the suit and helmet to learn with relief that they +were intact when the first sound came to him. From an arched entrance +across the room were coming shuffling figures whose black wings were +wrapped about their chalk-white bodies. Only their pallid faces showed, +ghastly and inhuman, as the eyes glowed redly from their deep black +sockets. Chet still held the suit in his hands as the black-winged ones +came toward him across the floor, and he carried it with him as he moved +unresistingly where they led him with the pull of their claw-like hands +upon his arms. + +"No gun!" he told himself hopelessly. "Not a chance if I put up a fight! +They've got me and got me right. Now what I need to do is to be +good--lay low--find out something about all this, and find her!" He +could not name the girl whose eyes were haunting him in their appealing +loveliness; he could think of her only as the mystery girl, and he +accepted without surprise or denial the fact that the finding of her +outweighed all else that this new world might hold for him. + +As the shuffling figures closed about him and led him away he found +relief in the thought of his ship, of Spud's safety, and of his return +to the world that they both knew as home. + +"Never again for me!" said Chet softly beneath his breath. "But Spud +will get there. Perhaps he is there now--no telling how long I have +slept!" + + * * * * * + +He saw it all so plainly: saw the Irish pilot bringing the ship to rest +at the great Hoover Terminal. And he saw, too, a relief expedition that +would be organized by Harkness and that must arrive too late. To suppose +that any help might reach him here inside this wild world was too much; +Chet looked with judicially appraising eyes at the things about him and +could not allow himself to be deceived. There was no hope; but he made +one resolve and made it grimly in words that never reached his lips. + +"Give me half a chance at them, Walt," he promised, "and if ever you do +get inside here, you'll know where I've been. I'll find the girl +first--I must do that--then I'll give these devils something to remember +me by before they put us away for good!" And now the face of the pilot +was almost happy as he stared at the snarling, twisted features of those +that led him unresistingly through a series of stone rooms that seemed +without beginning or end. He even disregarded the spiked tails that +whipped at him with heavy blows to hurry him along. + +"If I had a gun," he told them inaudibly, "I'd take you on right now. +But you got that, or I lost it in the scuffle, so I'll just twist your +scrawny necks in my bare hands when the time comes. And it's coming, you +ugly devils! It's coming!" + +Their claws pulled roughly at him to hurry him into another room. And +where before he could see nothing of a beautiful room because of the +absence of a pair of smiling eyes, he now saw nothing else for their +presence. For, across the great hall, whose walls and ceilings glowed +softly with yellow light, his eyes swept unerringly to a slim figure in +a pilot's suit--to an oval face and blue eyes and red lips that could +still curve into a trembling smile of welcome as he drew near. + + * * * * * + +Forgotten was the grip of sharp-spiked, clawing hands; even the +anticipated sweets of revenge were lost from Chet's mind. He knew only +that he had found her--the mystery girl--and that the blue eyes were +locked with his in an intimacy that set something deep within him into a +turmoil of emotion. + +And instead of the countless questions he had expected to launch upon +her when again they met, he found his lips trembling and wordless--until +they uttered one hoarse ejaculation of: "Thank God!" + +But the girl seemed to understand, for she reached one slender hand to +touch him lightly upon the arm where these gripping claws had been. +"Yes," she whispered; "I was afraid, too--afraid for you!" + +More whispered words, but they were lost to Chet in the babel of sound +that engulfed them. Those who had brought him had moved silently, and +the throng of some hundred or more that waited beside the girl had been +mute. But now they burst into a chorus of shrill cries whose keenness +stabbed at Chet's ears. + +A pandemonium of the same high-pitched squeals, he had heard +before--this was all that he could distinguish at first. Then the shrill +sounds broke into words and unintelligible phrases, and he knew they +were talking among themselves. + + * * * * * + +They quieted at a sound from the girl. She had turned to face them, and +she forced her own soft voice into a shrill pitch as she spoke to them. +Their clamor broke out once more as she ceased, but it was more +subdued. Chet could hear her as she turned toward him. + +"They think you are Frithjof," she explained. + +"You talked with them?" asked Chet incredulously. + +"But certainly; have I not been here for five years? They have their +language--but enough of that now. They are angry. They sent Frithjof +away; they tell me now that he escaped; they think you are he--that you +have changed your appearance with magic--that the ship they saw was +summoned by your magic. They say they will kill us both; throw us to the +fires!" + +"Wait!" almost shouted Chet to make himself heard above the din of +shrieking voices. "I've got to know! Who are you? Who is Frithjof? How +did you get here? Where are you from? Tell me quickly! It may give me +something to go on; it may mean a chance for delay." + +And if Chet had not been out of breath from the shouted questions, he +would surely have been left breathless by their amazing answer. + +"I thought you knew," said the girl as the din of shrillness subsided. +There seemed to Chet a note of hurt in her voice. "I thought you knew, +that you had come here knowing. I am Anita, and Frithjof is my +brother--Frithjof Haldgren! I stowed away on his ship; he did not know. +I was only thirteen then.... And now, is Frithjof forgotten back in that +world that we left?" + +Again that note of disappointment; the pilot sensed it even through the +tenseness of the moment when both Earth-folk knew that death stood close +at their side. He answered quickly: + +"I came for your brother. I saw your signals. I came to find Haldgren +and to save him. And I have failed. But if death, as you say, is all we +can expect, let me say this: 'I have failed, but I have found you; and +whatever comes I am content.'" + + * * * * * + +The blue eyes were wide; they were looking at him with a searching +glance that changed to a childish candor while a flush stole over the +pale face. She reached out one hand toward his. "We could have been +happy," she said simply; "and now--now we must face the +fires--together." + +"I don't know just what you mean by that," spoke Chet softly, "but, +whatever it is, there is a little matter of a fight first." + +He released her hand and moved swiftly between her and the nearer of the +throng; and his blood pulsed strongly through him as he faced a battery +of hostile red eyes and knew that he was preparing for his last fight. + +A hand clutched at his arm. "Not now!" begged Anita Haldgren's voice. +"Wait! They will not all come. I too, can fight; but we cannot face so +many!" + +The rat-tails of the nearest beasts were whipping to and fro; the eyes +in the chalky faces were like living coals where the ashes have been +freshly blown. Chet stepped back beside the girl, and he made no protest +as the black claws seized him and the sharp talons dug into his flesh. +But he whispered to the one who was hurried along beside him: "You are +right; I'll be good as long as we stay together. But if not--if we're +separated--if they take you away--" + +And the girl nodded quick agreement with his unspoken words. + + * * * * * + +Chet set his teeth together to make more bearable the pain of those +gripping claws; but the hurt was easier to bear when he saw that the +girl was more carefully treated. She was close ahead as his captors +hustled him from this room into others and yet others, all carved from +the solid rock. + +What a people this must be who could do such work as this! Again the +sense of amazement struck through to Chet despite the pain--amazement +and a feeling of an inexplicable incongruity when he saw the +leather-winged creatures that had him in their grip. And again there +were figures high overhead--white, floating figures on pinions of pure +white; their faces, kindly and serene, looked down upon the motley +throng. + +"Look above you!" gasped Chet. "Anita! What are they? Not like these +devils!" + +And the girl ahead half-turned her head to answer: "Ancestors! A +thousand generations back! They have come down to this state +now--degenerated." + +Chet saw one of the beasts who held her jerk her sharply about, and he +knew that his remaining questions must wait--wait forever, perhaps, and +remain unsaid. + +They came at last to a place where Chet found the answer to one question +he had not dared ask; a place where gaping chasms in the floor glowed +red with the wrath of unquenched fires. And the girl, Anita, when they +had been placed by themselves against a glowing, lighted wall of rock, +stared steadily at those pits and the sulphurous fumes that vomited out +at times; then turned and spoke to the pilot in a voice steady and sure. + +"It will be over quickly," she assured him. "Frithjof said that the +heat, like the warmth of this whole inner world, comes from the +contraction of the rocks in the cold of night. There is great pressure +developed ... but he never learned the source of the light in the +walls." + + * * * * * + +Talking to still the beating of a heart pulsing with dread, perhaps! +Chet had no mind for explanations. Before him were a score of yawning +clefts in a rocky floor; one was larger than the rest; there were +figures whose white bodies glowed red in its reflected light as they +floated on black wings high above; the light of those hidden fires +blazed and died intermittently. There death was waiting, while these +demons--these degenerate half-men, living products of a dying +race--whipped the air in a frenzy of expectation as they darted above +those chasms that were like rifts in the rock roof of hell. + +Chet did not answer the statements of the girl. Instead he turned and +gathered her once into his arms, while his lips met hers to find a ready +response. Her face, so calm and pale, was turned upward to his. And his +own voice trembled at first; then was steady and firm. + +"I love you. I've come a long way to tell you, and I didn't know why I +came. And now it is too late." + +"Anita Haldgren," he said, and let his voice linger as he repeated the +name, "Anita Haldgren--a beautiful name--a beautiful soul! And now--" He +released her quickly and swung to meet a rush of beastly things that +half-ran, half-flew across the great room. + + * * * * * + +Outstretched arms of white that ended in black claws! Snarling, grinning +teeth in faces of dead-white flesh! Barbed tails that hissed through the +air as they swung down upon him! And Chet Bullard, his blond hair +shining like the gold that was inlaid and encrusted upon the walls of +the room--Chet Bullard, Master Pilot, once, of a distant Earth--did not +wait for the assault to reach him, but sprang in upon the beastly things +with swinging fists that came up from beneath to crash into grinning +faces; to smash dully into white, scabrous flesh; or catch beneath the +angle of out-thrust jaws jolt the ghastly faces into awkward angles. + +They went down before him at first. Then the long rat-tails came +whipping over, the demon-heads, ripping down with slashing blows on the +pilot's head and shoulders. Off at one side, a dozen paces away, a +slender figure tore loose from gripping claws. Chet saw it; he freed +himself for an instant to leap to her side. She was tugging at a bar of +gold, a scepter in the hands of a sculptured figure in the wall. It +would have been a serviceable weapon, but it bent slowly. Another of the +beasts was upon her as Chet sprang. + +This one went down beneath the chopping right that Chet shot to a lean, +white jaw; then a barbed tail caught him a blow that laid his shoulder +open. Another descended--and another. The pilot sank to the floor. Anita +was beside him, shielding him with her own body from the rain of blows. +Then they were buried beneath a great weight of odorous bodies--till +Chet, after a time, felt himself dragged to his feet. + + * * * * * + +His head, was ringing with the shrieks of the shrill-voiced mob. He was +still struggling, still fighting blindly, as the clamor ceased. Then he +stood erect and motionless as he heard the voice of Anita Haldgren. + +"It's Frithjof!" she cried. "Oh, my dear--my dear! It's Frithjof! I +heard him! But he can't reach us--he can't help us! I will try to +reason with these beasts--bargain with them--make them afraid! I will +tell them it is magic." + +And, as her voice, high-pitched in the language of this race, rose in +protest against them, Chet heard what the girl had detected first: a +sharp, metallic rapping within the wall, a rapping that was dulled by +distance but whose separate blows were distinct; and he knew, with a +knowledge that came from somewhere else than his bewildered brain, that +the raps were forming dots and dashes. They were talking Morse! + +The girl's frenzied appeal ended in a din of shrieks; a horde of +man-beasts swept into the air and launched themselves in a solid mass +upon the two. Chet saw Anita for one instant as he felt himself lifted +in air. About him was a pandemonium of flailing wings; ahead and below +was the red of hidden fires. They were being lifted out and over the +pits. + +One instant only, while tortured eyes smiled bravely into his; then a +great pit-mouth that gaped a horrible welcome up ahead. So plainly Chet +saw it! He could not tear his eyes away. He saw the red, smoking breath +of it; he saw a rocky lip that shone like one great ruby. + + * * * * * + +It was impossible! Even the blast of air that tore at him meant nothing +at first! But it was happening! Before his eyes it was happening! Chet +watched dumbly, uncomprehendingly, as that great overhanging rock tore +itself into fragments that rose screamingly into the air or fell to the +depths beneath. + +Another section of solid floor erupted a hundred feet across the room! +The destruction was being kept away, Chet knew. And then, while a roar +like all the thunders of Earth reverberated deafeningly through the rock +room, the claws that gripped him relaxed their hold. + +He fell, nor felt the impact of his fall. He came to his feet, ran +stumblingly to the edge of the nearest pit where he threw his arms about +the body of a girl and dragged her to safety. And while he did it he +was babbling in broken sentences: + +"It's detonite! Your brother!... Where did he get it?... Detonite!... +Oh, my dear--my dear!" + +And his arms were tight about her while he held his body between her and +the explosions that tore at the floor in an inferno of crashing +explosions out beyond--until three of the demon-beasts, red with the +reflected fires of that subterranean hell, flew down like black-winged +bats bent on vengeance. And Chet, laughing at their numbers, sprang out +with hard fists swinging in well-directed blows, and welcomed them as +only an Earth-man could. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +_O'Malley Investigates_ + + +Spud O'Malley's twinkling Irish eyes had seen strange sights in his +years of piloting an Intercolonial freighter; he had touched at odd +corners of the Earth. But never had he seen such creatures as confronted +him now. + +Sheltered behind a jagged ridge of volcanic rock in the inner crater of +the great ring of Hercules, he stared in utter horror at the figures +that approached. For to Spud, with all his inherited ancestral faith in +gnomes and pixies, these bat-winged things were nothing less than people +of the under world--demons from some purgatory of the Moon--devils, +living and breathing, spewed out from that buried hell for a moment of +relaxation from their horrid work. + +And, coming directly toward him across a level lava bed, three of the +things, with leather wings trailing, were approaching. Spud was +unmoving; his feet might have been one with the volcanic rock on which +he stood for any ability of his to raise them. Only his eyes turned +slowly in their sockets to stare wildly at the three who drew near; who +glimpsed his awe-stricken eyes behind his helmet glass; and who uttered +shrill, screaming cries that brought the rest of the unholy crew leaping +and flapping across the rocks. + +And, within that helmet, Spud's lips moved unconsciously to repeat +prayers he would have sworn were forgotten these many years. There was a +pistol at his belt where his hand was resting; another hung at his other +side. But the man made no move to defend himself; he was struck numb and +nerveless, not through fear, but through that horror which comes with +seeing one's most gruesome superstitions come true. Spud O'Malley, who +would have laughed at devils and believed in them while he laughed, knew +now that they were real. They had captured Chet; they were about to take +him, too, to the hell that was their home. + + * * * * * + +And still he did not move while the demon figures pressed closer, while +their wild, shrieking cries echoed within his helmet; while they lashed +their scaly tails, and at last leaped in unison upon the helpless man. + +And then, with that first touch, Spud O'Malley, who had not only seen +strange creatures but had fought with them, came to himself--and the +hand that rested upon a detonite pistol moved like the head of a +striking snake. + +The roar of detonite was strained and thin in the light atmosphere of +this globe; it seemed futile compared with its usual thunderous report. +But its effects were the same as might have been expected on Earth! + +Spud was hurled to the rocky floor, as much by the closeness of the +exploding shells as by the weight of the bodies that came upon him. He +fell free of the first leaping things that went to fragments in mid-air +as his pistol checked them. And he made no effort to arise, but lay +prostrate, while he swung that slender tube of death about him and saw +the winged beasts shattered and torn--until there were but five who ran +wildly with frantic, flapping wings; and these the tiny shells from +Spud's gun caught as they ran when the Irishman sprang to his feet and +took careful aim across the jagged rocks. + +"Saints be praised!" the pilot was saying over and over. "Saints be +thanked!--even the Devil's imps can't stand up to detonite shells! And +Chet, the poor lad!--his gun must have been knocked from his hand; he +was fightin' in the dark, too! And they took him down there, they +did!--down where I'm goin' to see if the lad is still livin'." + +And Spud O'Malley, though he believed fully in the demoniac nature of +these opponents and never for an instant thought but that he was +descending into an inferno of the Moon, strode with steady steps toward +the portal of that Plutonic region and lowered himself within. + + * * * * * + +That ring of metal, huge and accurately formed, made Spud pause in +thought; the massive metal door that came up from below to fit that ring +snugly--that, too, looked more like the work of human hands than of +demons. The pilot was frankly puzzled as he tentatively moved a lever +down below that door and saw the huge metal mass swing shut. + +About him the walls were glowing. He saw, in the floor, another circular +door, but found no lever with which to operate it. Nor did he search for +one, since he could have no way of knowing that here was where Chet had +gone. But, from the corridor where he stood other lighted passages led; +and one slanted more steeply than the rest. + +"That's the way I'm goin'," announced Spud. "I know that, and it's all I +do know; I'm goin' down till I find some place where the devils live and +where Chet may be." + +The passage took him smoothly down. It turned at times, and smaller +branches split off, but he followed the main corridor that he had +selected for his route. And he paused, at last, beside a metal frame in +the rock wall, where the door that fitted so tightly in the frame was +not like the others he had seen. For the first ones, though cleverly +fashioned and machined, were of iron, rusted red with the ages; while +this one that was before him now was paneled and decorated with sweeping +scrolls. And, above this portal that seemed hermetically sealed, was a +white figure such as Chet had seen. + + * * * * * + +Spud's gaze traveled up to it slowly, and his knees were trembling as +they had not done when facing the black-winged ones. "'Tis an angel," he +whispered, "or the statue of one! And that explains it all. 'Tis them +that has done all this--these passages, and the sweet-fittin' doors. And +do they live here? I wonder. Heaven help me if I meet them, for never +could I shoot at one of them, the pretty things!" + +He was still gazing in rapt wonder that was near to worship when the +great door began to move. He saw the first hair-line crack, and the thin +line of light was like a hot wire across his eyes, so quickly did he +respond. Beyond, where he had not yet gone, was a branching passage. All +the walls glowed softly with light--no shelter of darkness was his--but +Spud leaped for the little passage and raced down it until a turn +screened him from sight. + +"That's movin'!" he congratulated himself. "What an athlete I'm +becomin'!" And it was fortunate for the pilot that the ceiling was high, +for his tremendous Earth-strength propelled him in unbelievable bounds. + +He still moved on silently, for far ahead in the corridor something had +caught his eyes. And he stopped finally beside a little car; then saw +that he had been following a single rail, buried under the dust of ages +on the corridor floor. + +The monorail car lay on its side. At one end of it was a motor. Not a +motor such as men had built, Spud confessed, but an electric motor none +the less. And beyond this, where the passage ended, was a wall veined +thickly with gold. + + * * * * * + +Ropy strands of the metal shone reddish-yellow in the soft light of the +walls; detached pieces lay on the floor and in the car itself. Spud +regarded it with amazement, but the wealth he was witnessing left him +cold; another thought was forcing itself into his brain. + +That thought took more definite form when another corridor took him to +rooms where great metal cases were neatly stacked; other adjoining rooms +held strange machinery and appliances on metal stands. + +"Lab'ratories!" said the amazed man explosively. "And storehouses, too! +Neither angels nor devils did this; 'tis the work of men--and I know how +to get along with men. I'll go find them. Belike they have saved the +lad, Chet, and he'll be waitin' to see me." + +He raced back along the corridor, but stopped short at its end, where he +had taken flight from the larger passage. There was sound of shrieking +voices, and Spud dropped to the floor to present as small a view as +possible to the half-human things that trailed their black wings past +the metal entrance; then he crept cautiously to peer around the corner, +when the last one had gone. + +They were waiting out beyond; Spud watched them intently. They had great +nets of rope in which were living things that struggled and writhed. + +He saw one of the creatures stoop to break off a protruding end of +pinkish, nameless substance; the thing seemed to struggle in his hands +while he took it to his mouth and munched on it. Even when Spud realized +that this living food was vegetation of some sort, he was still sickened +with the sight of its being taken alive into the bodies of these +Moon-beasts. + + * * * * * + +One of the ugly figures raised a black-clawed hand to seize a lever let +flush into the wall. It had been concealed. Spud saw the door open; saw +the waiting horde troop through, dragging their loaded nets; and he saw +the door close silently, while the actuating lever moved back to its +former position. + +And Spud, speaking half aloud, counted slowly to a hundred, then another +hundred, as a gage of the time while he waited for those beyond the door +to move on. But at the count of two hundred his eager hands were upon +the lever, while his eyes were hungry to stare beyond the opening door. + +They found nothing but emptiness when the door swung wide. Another room +of luminous walls; another door in the farther wall. The man moved +slowly through the doorway one cautious step at a time and stared about. + +He found a lever like the others, moved it--and saw the door close +silently behind him. Another lever was near the second door; he pulled +carefully, steadily, upon it. + +There was no movement of the door, but something had occurred as he +knew by the hissing sound that came from above his head. Its source he +could not find; its result was most startling. For, where before his +suit had bulged out roundly with the inner pressure of one atmosphere, +it now became less taut--and it hung loosely about him when the hissing +ceased. + +"An air-lock," said Spud joyfully, "or I'm a rat-tailed imp myself! That +means a heavier air-pressure inside. And now I know 'tis men folks I'm +goin' to see!" + + * * * * * + +The lever moved easily now, and the second door swung open and closed +behind him as before. Spud tore recklessly at the fastening of his suit, +regardless of the fact that an increased pressure might still come from +some gas that would mean death to a human. But, like Chet, he found the +air fragrant and pure, and he rid himself of the encumbering suit, +strapped the pistols at his waist, rolled the suit to a bundle he could +sling over one shoulder, and moved carefully as a cat as he went forward +through a corridor that led down and still down. + +As he went the empty labyrinth of halls filled him with a horrible +depression; yet there was beauty everywhere--beauty whose delicacy of +curve and color filled even the untrained mind of Spud O'Malley with a +thrill of delight. + +There were halls and vast rooms without number; there were carvings that +glowed with a light of their own--figures so filled with the very spirit +of livingness that they seemed stepping out from the cold walls to greet +him; there were more celestial hosts of purest white poised apparently +in mid-flight. + +There were marvelous, rioting waves of color that pulsed and throbbed +through the walls and the very air of some rooms; and there were +articles of furniture--carved tables, chairs--objects whose purpose +Spud could not guess. But, except for the occasional sound of shrill, +squeaking voices in the distance, there was no sign of the presence of +the builders, the men Spud had hoped to find. + +And he knew at last that his quest was hopeless. The dust of uncounted +centuries that lay thickly upon all was evidence as convincing as it was +mute. + +"There's naught but the devils!" Spud despaired. "The others--saints be +helpin' of them!--have been gone for more years than a man dares think +of. So, the devils it is; I'll follow them--I'll go where they are. But +I'm not so sure at all of findin' the lad now." + + * * * * * + +That high-pitched chattering that had come to him at times was his only +guide now. It seemed echoing in greater volume from one passage that +slanted down more sharply than the rest. Spud followed it, clinging with +hands and feet to the steep-pitched floor; but some sudden impulse +seized him and compelled him to stop at intervals while he drew a pistol +from his belt. Its grip was of steelite that rang sharply as a bell when +he struck it upon the walls. And he tapped out the general call of the +Service time after time; then strained his faculties in eager listening +until he went hopelessly on. + +But he repeated the call. "For the lad may hear it and be heartened," he +argued. "And if he's free to do it he'll answer--though I think I'd +break down and cry with joy did I hear an answerin' rap." + +And still the chattering grew louder, while the watching, creeping man +moved stealthily on. A wave of gas came to him once and set him choking, +while far ahead he saw a reflected glow more red than the pale, lucent +shimmering of the walls. + +He stopped dead still as once more there flooded through him a thousand +unnamed fears of this domain of the Evil One where he would trespass. +But he forced his feet to carry him on until he could peer down through +a rift in the rock floor to behold another room whose walls glowed redly +with the light of fires far down in hot-throated pits. + + * * * * * + +There were figures whose white bodies shone as redly in that +glow--figures that floated on outspread leather wings of dead black. +Small wonder that the mind of Spud O'Malley found here the confirmation +of his worst fears; small wonder that his trembling lips whispered: +"'Tis Hell! 'Tis Hell, at last!" + +But there was that which froze his quivering nerves to cold quiet, which +set his lips into a grim, straight line and held him motionless above +the opening from which he saw the room below--as, from a flurry of +bodies against one far side, he saw a girl emerge. + +She was in the hands of the black-winged beasts who carried her into the +air then swung out toward the fiery pit. And Spud's incredulous: "Oh, +the poor, beautiful darlin'!" rose unconsciously to his lips to die away +in a quick-drawn breath. For, from the mass of bodies, another figure +was tossed up into the air to be gripped by black, waiting claws--and +Spud knew that he was seeing Chet Bullard, fighting, struggling, in the +grasp of these demons from the Pit. + + * * * * * + +The fumes from that inferno rose straight up. They passed out at another +funnel-shaped throat except for an occasional eddy that whirled back +toward the watching man. But Spud O'Malley, hanging precariously from +that opening above, knew nothing of the sulphurous fumes or of the +tight band they clamped about his throat. He was taking careful aim at +the first of the flying beasts, found Chet in his line of fire, and +snapped forward his pistol to fire at the lip of the pit instead. And he +slipped forward the continuous discharge lever that caused the pistol to +shake in his hand as it emptied its capacious magazine in a furious rain +of bullets whose every end was tipped with the deadliest explosive of +Earth. + +The floor rose up toward him in a spouting volcano of fire, while Spud +glared wildly through glazed and blinded eyes and swung his pistol to +rake the flying horde where he knew Chet was not. + +He saw, through the haze that was sweeping before him, Chet's sprawled +body on the floor; he saw him leap to his feet and rush to the rescue of +the girl. Then the empty pistol slipped from Spud's nerveless hand; and +his other, that had clung with unshakable grip to a sharp edge of rock, +relaxed, while he plunged headlong toward the floor below. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +_One Stroke for Freedom_ + + +In that subterranean chamber of the Moon, where the angry red of still +deeper fires flared fitfully; where winged demons, like evil creatures +of a drug-crazed dreamer's mind, darted shrieking through the sulphurous +air, it was a slender, blue-eyed girl who took control of events. + +She it was who, when the explosions of detonite had ceased, saw the fall +of a body from high above. She saw it strike upon a mound of dead +Moon-beasts; saw the homely, human features as the body rolled to the +floor; and it was she who threw herself upon it protectingly when one of +the enemy wounded dragged his broken wings trailing across the stone +that he might reach that human face with his distended claws. + +"A man!" Anita Haldgren screamed. "It's a man--help me!" And Chet was +beside her in an instant to drag the limp body to safety. + +"Spud!" he shouted. "It's Spud O'Malley! He never went back! He came +down here to save us!" + +He grabbed up the gun where it had fallen; saw the empty magazine; then +flung himself down beside the unconscious figure of Spud while he tore +at the fastenings of the second weapon. + +"His suit!" he shouted to the girl. "Get his suit! It's there where he +fell! Bring yours and mine, too!" + +He was hardly able to gage his own strength here where all weights were +one-sixth of their equivalent on Earth. He stooped and swung the chunky +body of Spud across his shoulder as easily as he would have lifted a +child. And, having done it, he was entirely at a loss as to where to go. + +Across the great room was a throng of leaping, flapping things; more +were pouring in from open doors. Chet stood hesitant and bewildered, +until Anita spoke. + +"Come!" she called, and darted toward a narrow entrance. + + * * * * * + +The clamorous shrieking from the horde of Moon-beasts marked their +swooping assault upon the two, and Chet paused to send them three shots +that checked the advance. Then, with the body of Spud held tightly, he +sprang where Anita had gone. + +She was waiting, but gave Chet no chance to question her. "Come!" she +commanded again, and ran on as before. But, as Chet gained her side, she +offered between gasping breaths an explanation. + +"Five years they kept us ... like animals in a cage ... but there was a +place ... a sacred place ... they let us go there.... And they let us +make signal lights from outside ... they called it magic. + +"And now Frithjof has escaped ... he will go to the sacred room ... only +there would he be safe...." + +They had turned and twisted through narrow passages. Anita, it seemed, +was plotting a course through less frequented thoroughfares of this +strange city. But they came at last to a vast auditorium into which they +peered from a half-opened door. + +The room was of preposterous size, and Chet marveled at the minds that +had conceived and wrought so tremendous an undertaking. And he saw +plainly in his own mind the throngs of serene-faced beings who must have +folded their white wings softly about them to gather there for worship. +But more plainly still he saw the jostling, squealing crowd that was +there that instant before his eyes. + +Hundreds of them--thousands, it might be--and the sound of their shrill +voices made hideous echoes from the high-flung ceiling of the great +hall. The dry rustling of their leather wings was an unceasing rush of +sound. + + * * * * * + +Some who seemed to be leaders stood above the rest on a platform which +formed the base of a terraced formation against the far wall of the +room. Even at a distance Chet could see and wonder at the simple beauty +of that place of metals and jewels where the great ones of an earlier +race had once stood. + +Back of those who harangued the crowd the terraces built themselves up +to a pyramid against the rock wall; and on either side, opening upon +the platform base, was a doorway of noble proportions, whose metal doors +of burnished reds and browns were closed. + +"The sacred room," whispered Anita, "beyond those doors. Frithjof has +closed them. He is there. I know it--I know it!" + +Chet was still holding the body of O'Malley. Only his choked breathing +showed that he still lived, but now he stirred and struggled in Chet's +grasp, while he struck out blindly and hoarse sounds came from his +throat. + +Chet clapped one hand over the pilot's mouth. "For the love of heaven, +Spud," he said fiercely, "be still! Don't speak--don't say a word! It's +Chet--Chet Bullard! I've got you, we're all right!" + +The pilot's struggles ceased, and Chet eased him to the floor where he +sat still gasping for breath; the fumes from that place of death had +been strangling in his throat. + +Beside him Chet heard the girl repeating in softest tones the name she +had heard for the first time. + +"Chet--Chet Bullard! How odd a name! But I love it--I couldn't help but +love it." + + * * * * * + +In the great room were some who had turned toward the sound of Chet's +scuffling; they were walking slowly toward the half-opened door. + +"Come!" said Anita Haldgren again, and fled like a slender, +golden-haired wraith down the narrow hall. + +More twisting passages until Chet was hopelessly lost. But he no longer +needed to carry O'Malley, who was running beside him, and he had +implicit faith in the girlish guide who went before. He was not +surprised when they came after many detours to a narrow door of wrought +metals in white and gold, whose inset designs were worked in glowing +jewels. + +Nor was he surprised when the door opened in response to a series of +knocks from Anita's hand that spelled SOS in the code he knew, and a +man, whose long hair and beard hung about a face as handsome as that of +a Viking of old, stood motionless in that doorway. + +But the surprise of that flaxen-haired giant can be only imagined when a +young man whom he had never seen on Earth or Moon stepped forward from +his sister's side with outstretched hand. + +"I am Bullard," said the slim young man, "Master Pilot of the World--or +at least that was my rating up to the time I left in search of you. And +now, Pilot Haldgren, we've a ship outside, and, if you'd care to go back +with us--" + +And with equal casualness the blond Viking replied: "You came in search +of us! You saw our signals! After all this time! Yes, we shall be glad +to go back with--we shall be glad--yes--" + +But his deep, rumbling voice broke into something like a sob, and he +turned with outstretched arms to stumble blindly toward his sister, who +buried her face in his torn and ragged blouse. + + * * * * * + +"You came in search of us--you came through space just to find and +rescue us!" Haldgren, it seemed, could not recover from the effects of +this unbelievable fact. He was gripping hard at the hand of Chet +Bullard, while his other great arm was thrown about the shoulders of +Spud O'Malley. + +"But now that you are here, what is to be done? Every exit will be +guarded; we are shut off from the outer world by a hundred locked doors +and by thousands of those beasts." + +He took his arm from Spud's shoulder to point toward the great doors, +beyond which was a rising clamor of shrill sound. + +"They will break in here soon; they would have been here before had they +known of the old lost entrance of the priests that Anita and I found. +We're as bad off as ever, I am afraid. There will be no holding them +now." + +"I can hold some," said Chet, and touched his weapon. Haldgren nodded +his shaggy head. + +"Some, but not many of the thousands we must face before ever we fight +our way through to the outer world. No, my friend Bullard, that will +never save us; we are doomed!" + +But Chet, unwilling to accept or share the other's convictions, was +seeing again the great room beyond those doors--a room of vast +proportions; of high-arched, vaulted ceiling where sweeping curves all +centered and ended in one tremendous central point. It hung down, that +point, a blazing pendant--an inverted keystone; through some magic of +that ancient people all the colors of the spectrum had been made to ebb +and flow like rainbows of living light. + + * * * * * + +But something deeper than the beauty of this had impressed Chet. A +master pilot does not study design of structures, even structures meant +for travel through the air, without gaining knowledge of architectural +fundamentals; his mind, subconsciously, had been following strains and +stresses through those super-imposed curves. He turned abruptly to +Haldgren with a question. + +"It seemed to me when I was following Anita that we climbed upward; we +were always running upward through the passages. We must be near the +surface of the Moon; is that true?" + +Haldgren nodded slowly. "I think so--yes! In the great room out there +are windows of quartz high in the ceiling. You could not see them from +where you were, but they are there. I have seen them lighted; I think it +was the light of the sun." + +"In that case," said Chet quietly, "I will ask you to open those doors." + +"But they will come in!" the big man protested. + +"They will not come in." + +Chet turned to the girl. "I will ask you, my dear, to accompany me--if +you have faith." + +And, to that, Anita Haldgren granted not even a word of reply. She moved +more swiftly than her brother to a controlling lever in the wall ... and +the ponderous doors swung slowly back. + + * * * * * + +Beyond those opening doors a din of shrieks went abruptly still. They +rose again in a squeaking babel of amazement and again were silenced as +Chet Bullard stepped through the arch. Beside him was the slender figure +of Anita; following was a stocky man whose unhandsome, face was alight +with a broad grin. + +"Go to it, my bhoy!" Spud O'Malley was saying. "I don't know what you're +up to, but you'll be countin' me in--and here's hopin' you give those +devils hell!" + +And, behind them all, in great strides that brought him up with the +rest, came Haldgren, recovered now from the stupefaction that had held +him momentarily. The four went silently where Chet led to the highest +point of the great terraced rostrum. + +It was a stepped pyramid, Chet found, split in half and the half placed +against the wall. There was a stairway of smaller steps where priests, +some thousands of years before, had made their way to the top. And the +dust of centuries arose in smoky puffs as the four trod that path where +the holy ones had gone. Below them the silence was ending in sibilant +hissing calls as the black-winged beast-men watched that procession to +the heights. Some few had launched themselves into the air, Chet saw +when he turned. + +"Tell them to go back," he said to Anita; "tell them to listen to what I +have to say!" There followed immediately the sound of Anita's soft voice +distorted to shrill sounds that echoed throughout the hall. + +"Tell them now," said Chet when the hall was still, "that I have come +from another world. Tell them that I hold the thunderbolts of their +ancient gods in my hands. Then tell them if they permit us to depart we +will go and leave them in peace. But if they try to harm us, the temple +of their gods will be destroyed, and they, too, shall die. Tell them!" + + * * * * * + +There was something of unwonted solemnity in the voice of the master +pilot--something of quiet power and the dignity that became a messenger +of the gods--as he gave his orders and faced the throng. + +And there was the patience of a god who is sickened of slaughter as he +faced the discordant din and the threatening forward surge of the demon +throng below. The girl had spoken, and the air was black with their +threshing wings, while still Chet waited with outstretched hand. + +To the creatures below--the things half-men and half-beasts--the shining +tube in that extended hand meant nothing of threat. And even to the +Irish pilot, who stood silently watching, the gesture seemed futile. + +"You've overplayed your hand, lad," he said in a tone of despair. "'Tis +no little gun like that will stop them now!" + +He was watching that hand and the shining tube; watching in amazement +as he saw it swing slowly up toward the advancing horde risen level with +them in the air--up above their massed blackness of wings--on and up, +until the tube was pointing toward the base of a carven pendant, whose +blending colors were fairy lights at play. + +And still the weapon waited until the snarling faces of the enemy were +close. Then the pistol cracked once, and the roar of its exploding shell +came thundering after. + +For an instant all motion ceased; the very wings of the flying beasts +seemed frozen rigid in mid-flight. Then the whole of the vast room was +in motion. + + * * * * * + +A rush of escaping air whirled upward the black-winged monsters in an +inverted maelstrom of shrieking winds. And, falling to meet them, came +an enormous pendant whose rioting colors seemed glorying in their own +death. And with that came the swift disintegration of the vaulted arches +where the one central supporting point of their intricate maze had been +shattered; till, with a crashing avalanche of sound that obliterated the +thundering echoes of the detonite charge, the entire ceiling, that +seemed now like the roof of a mighty world, roared down to destruction. + +The pyramidal rostrum was at one side. A cascade of shattered rock fell +like a curtain before it--a kindly curtain that hid from human sight the +hideous slaughter of a demoniac mob. It was still falling; the +imprisoned air was gathering added force to rush upward, screaming as if +the very winds were insane with joy at their release, when the great +arms of Frithjof Haldgren closed about the others of the group and half +carried them, half hurled them, down the slope. + + * * * * * + +The echoing clang of great doors was still with them as the bellowing +voice of Haldgren was heard. + +"Get into your suits! The internal pressure is lost." Even as he spoke +the big man was clutching at his throat, though the closing doors of the +sacred room had given them respite. "Quick! They have emergency doors. +They will close them--but this part is cut off. In only minutes there +will be no air!" + +But it was Chet who snapped shut the closure of Anita Haldgren's suit +before he pulled on his own. And he grinned happily through the glass of +his helmet as he saw the others safely encased, while their suits slowly +bulged as the pressure of the air about them went down and their own +tanks of oxygen took up the task of maintaining one atmosphere of +pressure. + +In silence the great doors of the sacred room swung back; in silence, as +before, the Earth-folk passed through where chaos had reigned. Chet +checked them; he threw one arm clumsily around the figure of Anita +Haldgren while he turned to her brother. + +"The door is open, Frithjof Haldgren," he said, and pointed upward at +the black vault of the heavens where a massive ceiling had been. In that +immensity of space, framed in the torn outlines of a shattered world, +shone a great globe--a globe like a giant moon. The Earth, unbelievably +bright, was beckoning them once more. + +"The door is open," Chet repeated; "do you still wish to go home?" + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +_"Bullard, of the I.B.C.!"_ + + +The controls of a meteor ship held steady without the touch of the +pilot's hand. Chet Bullard was staring at a radiocone on the instrument +board in the control room where a voice from some super-powered station +was calling. His own radio had been crackling a call, and now this +response was coming across the void. + +"Orders from the Stratosphere Control Board: You will proceed at once to +New York. Radiobeacon 2X12 will guide you down. Your message received +and we acknowledge report of the finding of the space-flyer, Pilot +Haldgren. Do not discharge any passengers and land nowhere else than at +New York without direct orders of the Board. Keep your directional +signal on full power; our cruisers will pick you up in the highest +level. Signed: Commander of Air." + +Spud O'Malley, it was, who broke the silence of the room where only the +sound of the terrific exhaust came thinly through. + +"May divils confound him! And it's back on the Moon with those other +beasts I'm wishin' I was. At least a man can get close enough to slam +them in their ugly faces; but the Commander and his cruisers! Sure, +there's nothin' we can do!" + +"Just take our medicine," said Chet Bullard quietly. "But I have proved +him wrong; Haldgren, here, is the living evidence of that. And I said I +would laugh him from the Service--well, I'm not so sure of that." + +"But surely," broke in Haldgren's booming voice, "there will be only +praise for what you have done. I do not understand--" + +"You don't know the Commander, my boy," Spud broke in dryly. "And you +don't know that the lad, here, defied him to his face and ran the +gantlet of his cruisers' guns to get away and go after you." + +"Ah!" grunted the giant. "And now I understand. It is the old story--an +incompetent man in a place of authority--" + + * * * * * + +Chet broke in. + +"Not quite right; this Commander of ours has done much--he is a driver +of men--but there are some of us who think he lacks vision. He can never +see beyond the stratosphere he rules so ably; and his position is +supreme." + +"There is still the Governing Council--we will appeal--" + +But the master pilot was not listening to Haldgren's words; his slim, +sensitive hand was reaching for the ball-control to build up still more +the tremendous blast of a forward exhaust that was checking their speed +and making them as heavy as if their bodies were of meteoric iron. + +A forward lookout showed a black globe; its circle was rimmed with fire +from the Sun that it blotted out. A hemisphere of night lay below--the +black, mysterious night of a waiting Earth. But one strong signal came +in on the instruments at Chet's side to show him where on that horizon +was New York; and the call of a flagship of cruisers was flashing before +him as the lift of the Repelling Area was felt. + +"Follow!" flashed the order. "You will follow to New York!" And, through +the black night, faint flashes of light marked the fleet of swift +guardians of the skies that closed in, then swept downward and out--an +impregnable convoy about the speeding, roaring ship. + +And there was that in Chet's face as he handled the controls that +brought Anita Haldgren to his side that she might lift his free hand in +wordless comfort and press it to her face. + + * * * * * + +That venerable and beloved man, the President of the Federation +Aeronautique Internationale, stood silent before a vast audience. +Throughout the great auditorium was silence; each of the gathered +thousands was listening to the shrieking sirens from the landing field +on the roof overhead. + +Skylights above showed the night air ablaze with red, through which the +vivid green of landing signals pierced in staccato bursts. From the roof +of that building to the highest level of the stratosphere the air was +cleared; no craft of the Service would venture to pierce the barrage of +light and radio waves that hemmed that aerial shaft. And down the shaft, +in a thunder of roaring exhausts, came a shining shape. + +She sparkled and flashed in the crimson and green of that emergency +light, and from her bow poured a tornado that blasted the air, then +streamed out behind in hot gas like a comet of flame. Then the thunders +died; the shining shape turned once slowly in air to show her blunt nose +and cylindrical body before she settled softly as a homing bird to the +embrace of great waiting arms of steel. And, inside the building, a +white-haired man was saying: + +"They are here! Thank God, they are here! Their radio has prepared us; +our signals have guided them home. And now it is not New York, nor even +the United States of America alone who attends; the whole world will be +summoned. Look!" + + * * * * * + +Behind, and high above him on a wall, was a radio panel. Its signal +lamps went suddenly dark. The thin, blue-veined hand of the speaker was +pointing. + +"Only twice has the world-call flashed: once when the Molemen came and +the future of the world was at stake; once when the Dark Moon crashed +down from the void and the serpents of space menaced aerial traffic. And +now--once again!--the whole world is summoned! Every city and hamlet of +Earth--every ship of the air and the sea--every vessel on the ocean, +under the ocean, and in the air levels above--" + +His voice broke sharply. From the panel there came a thin call, a +quivering that was more a trembling than a sound; it reached out to +touch raspingly the nerves of every listener. Then the whole board burst +forth in a flash of fire where a flaming crystal leaped to life--and +none could see that pulsing flame without thrilling to the knowledge +that it was calling a whole world with its wordless summons. + +The light died; a television detector whined as its motors came to +speed; and each watcher knew that the waiting world was connected with +that auditorium in New York; all that happened, there--each sight and +sound--was circling the globe. + +An announcer's voice roared briefly before the regulator cut down on its +volume. + +"You are seeing the Radio-central Auditorium in New York. On the landing +stage above, after a journey of five hundred thousand miles, a strange +craft has settled to rest. Its pilot: Chester Bullard, once rated as +Master Pilot of the World! Its journey, now safely completed: from the +Earth to the Moon, and return! + +"The world is waiting to greet Pilot Bullard, though of this he, as yet, +is unaware. World-wide radio control is now transferred to Radio-central +Auditorium in New York! They are coming! They are entering!" + + * * * * * + +But the thousands gathered in that great hall heard no other words from +the radiocone. Their attention was focused upon the broad stage, where, +descending from a lift, a strange group stepped out upon the stage, +stood an instant in startled wonder that was near embarrassment, then +took the seats to which they were shown. + +And again the venerable President of the Federation Aeronautique +Internationale was speaking. + +"It is less than a month since I stood here before you, when, as again +is true to-night, the entire personnel of the executives of the +Stratosphere Control Board was gathered to do honor to the pioneers of +space--the discoverer--" + +On the stage near the speaker, Chet Bullard stared in consternation at a +girl in a pilot's suit as grimed and ragged as his own. His gaze passed +on to the set features of Pilot O'Malley--to the blue eyes of a +flaxen-haired giant--then on to where Walt Harkness and Diane, his wife, +sat regarding him with happy smiles. Dimly Chet heard the man at the +speakers' stand. + +"--and on that other occasion, Mr. Bullard refused a decoration tendered +him and marking him as the first to travel through airless space. + +"I have here"--the speaker smiled slightly as he extended his hand where +a jewel flashed fire from a velvet case--"the identical jewel and medal. +And to-night, while the peoples of Earth are gathered throughout the +world to do honor to Mr. Bullard, it has been given to me the proud +privilege of welcoming him home." + + * * * * * + +He turned and held out a beckoning hand toward Chet. In a daze the +younger man arose and moved beside the one who had called him. + +"And now, Chester Bullard, on behalf of the Governing Council of the +Ruling Nations of this Earth, I greet you: Pilot of the Stratosphere no +longer--but Pilot of Endless Space! The world welcomes you; and, through +me, it places in your hands this jewel. + +"But you will observe that we older ones may still learn, and we do not +repeat our former mistake. We hand you this medal, emblematic of the +first penetration of space, to do with as you will." + +The thin hand was shaking as the speaker turned and swept the audience +with one all-inclusive gesture. + +"To you who are before me now; to you out beyond wherever parallels of +longitude and latitude are known--I present the Columbus of the +Stars!--Chester Bullard!" + +And suddenly Chet found himself alone in a pandemonium of sound. From +the countless faces that blurred into one unrecognizable sea came a roar +of human voices like waves thundering against storm-worn cliffs; above +the clamor was the sound of shrieking sirens; and through all, when it +seemed that no other sound could be heard, came the full-volume, +nerve-stunning clangor from the radiocone's wide-opened throat as the +trumpets and brass of all the monster bands of Earth broke forth, under +radio control, in one synchronous song--till even that was drowned under +the roaring welcomes in strange tongues as the nations of Earth cut in. + + * * * * * + +And Chet Bullard, his blouse still torn where a Commander of Air had +ripped off a three-starred emblem of a Master Pilot, shook his blond +head to clear it of the confusion that seemed beating him down. And he +stared and stared, not at the rioting throng before him, but at +something he could in part comprehend--a glowing, flashing jewel that +rested in his hand. And slowly there crept into his eyes a look of +understanding, while a ghost of a smile twitched and tugged at the +corners of his mouth. + +The hall, which one instant was a bedlam of roaring voices, went silent +as Chet Bullard raised his hand. He was still smiling as he bowed toward +the white-haired man whose happy face belied the moisture in his eyes; +then he faced the throng, and his voice held no hint of trembling or +uncertainty. + +"The Columbus of the Stars! I thank you for that title, which I can +accept only most humbly. For I ask you to go back with me into history +and remember, as I am remembering, that before Columbus there were +others whose names are lost. + +"The Norsemen--those Vikings of old!--who dared the unknown seas, were +first. And again history repeats. But this time the pioneer will not +remain unknown. I have been to the Moon; I have reached out into +space--but I followed another's trail. + +"Frithjof Haldgren!" he shouted, and extended a hand toward the gentle +giant whose face was aflame as he came to Chet's side. "Frithjof +Haldgren, I present you to the world. Only one can be the first; and +yours is the honor and glory. This medal is yours alone; I place it +where it belongs!" + + * * * * * + +And Frithjof Haldgren, white of face and lips now instead of fiery red, +stood silent and trembling while Chet fastened a jewel upon his grimy +tattered blouse; then retired to his chair as if beaten back by the +rolling waves of sound. + +But to Chet, as he watched the man go, came a quick sense of +disappointment. Unconsciously, his hand went to the same place on his +own chest where had rested an emblem he had prized above all else--and +now his searching fingers found only the mark of his disgrace. Then he +knew again that the aged President was speaking, while he held Chet +beside him with one detaining hand. + +"We older ones have served, perhaps; we have done what we could; we pray +that the world is better for our efforts! And we shall continue to +serve; yet it is to youth that we must look for the progress which is to +come. + +"Today we face a new life whose horizons, once bounded by the limiting +air, have been pushed back. We have conquered space, and before us is +the waiting marvel of man's extension of his activities throughout the +universe. + +"How far shall we go in this new and endless sphere? With interplanetary +travel, what is our goal? Only youth can give the answer. And in the +hands of youth must the command of this great adventure be placed. + + * * * * * + +"Gentlemen, the Governing Council of the Ruling Nations of this Earth +has created a new command. By the acts of this man who stands beside me, +and by his fellow-explorer, Walter Harkness, the Council has been forced +to take this step. + +"That command will rank second only to the Governing Council itself; a +body of men shall compose it who shall be known as the Interstellar +Board of Control." He turned squarely toward Chet. "I am placing in +your hands, Mr. Bullard, your commission as Commander of that Board. The +best minds of all nations will be at your call. Will you accept--will +you gather these men about you and do your part in this great work for +the greater future of mankind?" + +The ears of a listening world waited long for an answer. But the eyes of +that world saw a figure whose blond head was suddenly lowered as if to +hide a betrayal of what was in his heart; they saw him raise his bowed +head to stare mutely toward a girl whose eyes of blue were swimming with +happy tears as she gave him a trembling smile--and only then did they +see Chet Bullard draw himself erect, while his voice went out with the +speed of light to a waiting world. + +"I accept, Mr. President. Proudly--humbly--I accept!" + +And the eyes of the world, if they were understanding eyes, must have +smiled with his, as the Commander of the Interstellar Board of Control +grasped, among others, the congratulatory hand of his subordinate, the +Commander of Air. + +But if there were any who expected to read mockery in those smiling +eyes, they had yet to learn the measure of Commander Bullard--"Bullard, +of the I.B.C.!" + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Finding of Haldgren, by Charles Willard Diffin + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FINDING OF HALDGREN *** + +***** This file should be named 29717.txt or 29717.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/7/1/29717/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Graeme Mackreth 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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