diff options
Diffstat (limited to '29966-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/29966-h.htm | 4701 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_001.jpg | bin | 0 -> 64078 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_a.jpg | bin | 0 -> 1749 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_a1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 2326 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_b.jpg | bin | 0 -> 1774 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_d.jpg | bin | 0 -> 2028 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_e.jpg | bin | 0 -> 1748 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_f.jpg | bin | 0 -> 1496 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_g.jpg | bin | 0 -> 1902 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_g1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 2313 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_h.jpg | bin | 0 -> 1865 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_i.jpg | bin | 0 -> 1161 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_j.jpg | bin | 0 -> 1290 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_m.jpg | bin | 0 -> 2144 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_o1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 2512 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_s.jpg | bin | 0 -> 1848 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_s1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 2246 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_t.jpg | bin | 0 -> 18522 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_t1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 2055 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_w.jpg | bin | 0 -> 2243 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29966-h/images/image_w1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 3165 bytes |
21 files changed, 4701 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/29966-h/29966-h.htm b/29966-h/29966-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5f93495 --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/29966-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4701 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Slaves Of Mercury, by Nat Schachner + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; background-color: #FFFFFF; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} + + +a[name] { position: static; } +a:link { border:none; color:#0000ff; text-decoration:none; } +a:visited {color:#0000ff; text-decoration:none; } +a:hover { color:#ff0000; } + +.sidenote { + width: 30%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold; font-size:smaller; } + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-right: 0.25em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft1 { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; + margin-top: 0em; + margin-right: 0.25em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Slaves of Mercury, by Nat Schachner + +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: Slaves of Mercury + +Author: Nat Schachner + +Release Date: September 12, 2009 [EBook #29966] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVES OF MERCURY *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p class="center">This etext was produced from Astounding Stories September 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> +<p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_001.jpg" width="600" height="373" alt="A blinding beam sheared through Peabody's middle." /> +<span class="caption">A blinding beam sheared through Peabody's middle.</span> +</div> +<p> </p> + +<h1>Slaves of Mercury</h1> +<p> </p> +<h4><i>A Complete Novelette</i></h4> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h2>By Nat Schachner</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h2><i>The Space Wanderer Returns</i></h2> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div> +<p>ilary Grendon piloted his battered, time-worn space flier, the +<i>Vagabond</i>, to the smiling Earth that rose rapidly to greet it. Only +the instinctive ease of long practise prevented a smash-up, his hands +trembled so at the controls.</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Hilary returns to find alien diskoids in Earth's +stratosphere, and out-world lords patrolling her cities.</div> + +<p>Home again—the old familiar Earth! He could scarcely believe it! +Perhaps it was only a dream, and he'd wake up among the unhuman +glittering cylinders of Saturn, shuddering and crawling with the +iciness of their fixed regard.</p> + +<p>Hilary's eyes blurred with unaccustomed mistiness as he drank in the +warm sunlight, the soft green of the grass and the gracious lines of +the slender birches as they fluttered their leaves daintily in the +unhurrying breeze. How different it all was from the harsh red +angularities of Mars!</p> + +<p>He was outside, breathing deeply, inhaling the perfumed air with +delight. This was the only heaven; beyond—that far-flung immensity of +planetary orbs—was hell! He, Hilary Grendon, the carefree, smiling +skeptic of old, was a Fundamentalist now.</p> + +<p>How long was it since they had started out on the first flight that +man had taken into outer space—he and those stanch comrades? Five +years? God! Had it been so long? Yet here he was, back on Earth +again, the kindly, blessed Earth their eyes had clung to when they +were fighting desperately for their lives against the protoplasmic +things that inhabited Ganymede.</p> + +<p>Hilary brushed a tear away as he thought of those brave, loyal +friends. Dick lay as he fell on Saturn, transfixed by an icicle dart; +Martin had been engulfed in an unholy maw on Ganymede; Dorn was a +frozen idol to the spiral beings of Pluto; and poor Hurley, his fate +was the worst of all: his hideously bloated body was swinging in an +orbit around Mars, a satellite through all eternity.</p> + +<p>He, Hilary Grendon, was the sole survivor of that tremendous Odyssey!</p> + +<p>Hilary shook his head vigorously to clear away the flood of +recollections. Enough that he had returned. Then a sudden eagerness +surged through him, a joyous intensity of emotion. What a story he had +to relate—how the Earth people would hang with bated breath upon his +adventurings! And Joan—his heart gave a queer leap at the thought of +that slender ardent wisp of a girl with her shining head and steady +gray eyes. She had promised to wait for him, forever, if need be. She +had said it simply, without heroics; yet Hilary knew then that she +would keep her promise.</p> + +<p>A rush of impatience succeeded the inaction of his memories. He must +get to New York at once. He could not wait any longer. Joan +first—then Amos Peabody, the venerable President of the United +States—to report his return. He smiled at the stupefaction that would +greet him. No doubt he had long been given up for dead. The world had +been skeptical of the space ship he had invented; had, except for a +faithful few, mocked at his plans. Indignantly he had taken his +calculations, his blue prints of the spheroid, along with him. If the +flight was a success, well and good; if not, they would not be worth +much anyway.</p> + +<p>In spite of his fever to be off, he carefully locked the controls, +sealed the outer air-lock. Hilary Grendon was a methodical man: that +was the reason he had survived.</p> + +<p>Then he struck across country, walking very fast. He knew where he +was: in the wilderness of the Ramapos, some forty miles from New York. +Sooner or later, he reasoned, he would strike one of the radiating +conveyors that led into the metropolis, or a human being that would +set him on the right track.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div><p> half hour's sturdy tramping brought him out of the tangled hills +into civilization. There was a glitter of metal and vita-crystal +dwellings that stood four-square to the sun and the winds. A broad +ribbon-conveyor hurled its shining length in ceaseless rush down the +narrow valley. Human beings—normal homely Earth men with the ordinary +number of legs and arms, with honest-to-God faces and warm living +flesh, were seated on the conveyor-benches as they flashed by. Hilary +could have wept with delight. It was two years since he had seen his +own kind; two years since Hurley's tragic misstep through the breach +in the air-lock made by a meteor as they were nearing Mars.</p> + +<p>Hilary leaped on the slow-moving ramp, skilfully worked his way across +the graded speed belts until he was on the express conveyor that led +straight on to New York.</p> + +<p>He sank into a cushioned seat next to an oldish man with iron-gray +hair through which the speed of their flight whipped and pulled. +Hilary was bursting for real human conversation again; he grinned to +himself at the excited astonishment of this impassive stranger if he +should announce himself. How should he do it? Should he remark +casually without any preamble: "Pardon me for addressing you, sir, but +I'm Hilary Grendon, you know." Just like that, and lean back for the +inevitable gasp: "What, not <i>the</i> Hilary Grendon!" And he would nod +offhandedly as though he had just taken a little trip to Frisco and +back.</p> + +<p>He stole a sidelong glance at the sternly-etched profile. The man was +staring straight in front of him, looking neither to the left nor to +the right. It did not seem as if he were aware of Hilary's existence. +So with a sigh Hilary decided against that method of approach as a +trifle too abrupt.</p> + +<p>"Nice day to-day, isn't it?" The sound of his own voice startled him. +English was an alien language to his unaccustomed tongue after the +hissing syllables of the Martians.</p> + +<p>With pathetic eagerness he awaited the inevitable answer to this +commonplace introduction; that he might once more hear normal Earth +tones in friendly converse, see the smile of greeting on a real Earth +face.</p> + +<p>But there came no answer. The man continued staring straight ahead, +immobile, fixed. There was no slightest turn to the etched profile. It +was as if he had not heard.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary felt a sudden surge of anger. Damn discourteous, this first +Earthman he had met. What had happened to the old hospitality? Had it +passed out while he was roaming the spaces? He leaned over, harsh +words tumbling for exit, when suddenly he checked himself. There was +something strange about that fierce blank stare. The man's face, too, +he saw now, was lined and worn; suffering had left its multitudinous +imprint upon an ordinarily rotund countenance.</p> + +<p>Hilary shouted suddenly: "Good morning." The man did not answer, nor +did he stir from his unvarying pose. Deaf! The returned Earthman +suffered swift pity. With gentle forefinger he prodded the man.</p> + +<p>The reaction was astounding. The man cowered like a pricked balloon; +little strangling moans forced themselves out of clenched teeth. Dumb, +too! His face jerked around to the direction of Hilary's gentle +prodding. Merciful heavens, the man was blind also! Two vacant +red-rimmed sockets stared pitifully at him—the eyeballs were gone, +ripped out.</p> + +<p>But what struck Hilary particularly was the mortal terror that was +depicted on the blind man's face. It was as though he expected some +cruel, crippling blow to follow; as though it were the last straw on +the back of unmentionable former agonies. Hilary shuddered. It was not +good to witness such animal fear. A dark shadow blotted out the +brightness of the Earth-day for him. There was something wrong here, +something that required a good deal of explanation.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +is probing eyes went thoughtfully over the poor cowering wretch. +Those careworn features were familiar, somehow. Where had he seen the +man before? Suddenly he stiffened, choking an exclamation. The man was +bound immovably to his seat. Thin metal links, almost invisible, +encircled his feet; held the elbows taut against the fluted columns of +the seat-back.</p> + +<p>Hilary's space-tanned features hardened; the light gray of his eyes +darkened. All the pleasure of his homecoming vanished. The kindly +Earth seemed suddenly grown inimical. What had happened in the five +long years of his absence? This would have been impossible on the +Earth he had known; a man, manifestly the victim of hideous tortures, +bound like a wild animal to the seat of a public conveyor.</p> + +<p>He went swiftly into action. From the depths of a capacious pocket he +fished a sheathed blade of stellite, triply keen; its razor-sharp edge +sawed smoothly at the bonds.</p> + +<p>In his mounting anger Hilary had paid no attention to the scattering +of people occupying the cushioned chairs of the speeding conveyor. But +a smothered nearby gasp caused his head to jerk up. He met the +incredulous stare of a paunchy, heavy-jowled man seated some chairs +away. There was more than incredulity, there was furtive fear in the +small beady eyes sunken in folds of fat.</p> + +<p>Hilary gave way to unreasoning anger.</p> + +<p>"Stop looking like a stuck pig," he called sharply. "Give me a hand +with this poor fellow."</p> + +<p>The response was surprising. The man got up from his chair +precipitately, stark panic written all over him. The sweat oozed from +his shiny forehead as he backed cautiously away. He tripped over the +edge of the seat behind, and fell. Once more he scrambled to his feet, +and as if the fall had released his trembling muscles, he turned and +ran, stumbling and dodging across the local conveyors, never once +looking back.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary watched his mad flight wonderingly. "Good Lord," he thought, +"does my face frighten people so? Maybe I've turned into a Martian."</p> + +<p>He turned to appeal to the others on the conveyor, and received +another shock. The few men within earshot were already on their feet +and moving away from there with unostentatious celerity. Hilary +surveyed their receding backs thoughtfully. What was there about +himself to frighten grown men out of their wits? Or was it the poor +tortured wretch he was trying to release who was responsible for the +exodus?</p> + +<p>Already the express was almost clear. He saw the deserters throwing +themselves guiltily into seats on the local belts, and then he was +carried swiftly past. Only one man remained stubbornly in his seat, +some fifteen rows back. He was a huge mountain of a man, a giant upon +Earth, and there was a strangeness in his wide stare.</p> + +<p>Hilary frowned, then shook his head, and dropped down to his task +again. The blind man moaned and jerked as he felt the bite of stellite +upon his fetters. Hilary made soothing sounds, forgetful that he could +not hear, and worked steadily. There was a little clinking noise and +the links that bound the arms fell apart. He attacked the leg shackles +next.</p> + +<p>There was a tap on Hilary's shoulder, light, electric, yet strangely +heavy in its implications. Hilary turned his head sharply, saw the +landscape blotted out by a huge overshadowing bulk. Five years in a +hostile universe had made him cautious. He pivoted on his heels and +rose in a single flowing motion, stellite blade ready for instant +action.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h2><i>The Strange Guard</i></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div> +<p>here confronted him the hugest figure of a man he had ever seen. +Hilary was not lacking in inches himself—he was well over six feet; +but the giant staring quizzically down at him was nearer seven, with +shoulders to match. The features of his face were gargantuan in their +ruggedness, yet singularly open, while a pair of mild blue eyes, +childlike in expression, looked in perpetual wonder out upon the +world.</p> + +<p>In spite of his annoyance, Hilary instinctively liked the giant.</p> + +<p>"What do you want?" he inquired gruffly.</p> + +<p>The Colossus surveyed him with his child's eyes.</p> + +<p>"Man, you are crazy." He spoke in a deep bass rumble, without emotion +or inflection. He was simply stating a fact.</p> + +<p>A surge of annoyance swept over the returned wanderer from the far +spaces. This was the last straw.</p> + +<p>"I may be," he admitted coldly, "but I like my particular form of +craziness."</p> + +<p>"You know the penalty of course for what you are doing?" the big man +inquired unemotionally.</p> + +<p>Hilary swore deeply. "Damn the penalties, whatever you mean by that. +Here's a man who has been tortured unmercifully—chained like a dog. I +intend to free him."</p> + +<p>The mild blue eyes contained the hint of a gleam.</p> + +<p>"But you know the penalties," he repeated. His murmur sounded like the +rumble of a distant earthquake.</p> + +<p>Hilary straightened sharply, poked his finger at the midriff of the +giant.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what you are talking about," he stabbed. "What is the +meaning of all this? Who is this unfortunate, and why did everyone +disappear as though I had the plague when I sat next to him?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div><p> look of bewilderment swept over the massive face, bewilderment +tinged with a dawning suspicion of the questioner's sanity.</p> + +<p>"You mean to say you don't know?" The tone held incredulity.</p> + +<p>"I've just told you so," Hilary pointed out. He felt a growing unease.</p> + +<p>The giant eyed him closely. "Man, where on earth have you been these +last three years?"</p> + +<p>Hilary grinned. "I haven't."</p> + +<p>"You haven't?" echoed the other. Suspicion hardened the childlike eyes +into cold flame. The man was dangerous when aroused. He thrust his jaw +down at Hilary. "If you are jesting with me...." He left the sentence +unfinished, but the clenching of a huge fist left no doubt as to his +intention.</p> + +<p>"I am not jesting," Hilary assured him grimly. "I have been away from +the Earth for five years. I've just returned."</p> + +<p>The great hand clenched tighter. "Now I know you are crazy, or—Who +are you?" he ended abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Hilary Grendon."</p> + +<p>"Hilary Grendon—Hilary Grendon," rumbled the other in manifest +perplexity. It was evident the name meant nothing to him.</p> + +<p>This then was the homecoming he had dreamed of in the unfathomable +reaches of space. Hilary thought bitterly. Five short years and he was +already forgotten. Then the irony of it struck him, and he laughed +aloud.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said. "Five years ago I led the Grendon Expedition to +explore interplanetary space in the space-ship I had invented. I've +come back—alone."</p> + +<p>It was amazing to watch long-overlaid memories struggling up through +the subconscious. At last the giant spoke.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," he said meditatively, "I seem to remember something about +it." He surveyed Hilary with a new interest. "So you were one of those +chaps, eh?"</p> + +<p>The explorer admitted it, humbly. Of such are the uses of fame.</p> + +<p>"Well, now," said the giant, "that might explain it. Though it sure +beats all." And he shook his head as though he still did not +understand.</p> + +<p>"Who is that man?" Hilary stabbed a forefinger at the blind man, who +sat immobile as before, his worn etched face ever to the front. "It's +monstrous. Amos Peabody shall hear of it."</p> + +<p>The Colossus looked at him mildly.</p> + +<p>"That," he said, "<i>is</i> Amos Peabody!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_s.jpg" alt="S" width="36" height="50" /></div><p>ilence lay like a live thing between them. Hilary whirled in a +kaleidoscope of emotion. Was this wasted, tortured being the portly, +dignified President of the United States who had bade him Godspeed at +the start of his tremendous journey five years before? His pitying +eyes searched the lineaments of the poor wretch. There was no doubt of +it now; it <i>was</i> Amos Peabody.</p> + +<p>Hilary gripped his informant's arm. His voice was deadly calm. "I want +the truth about this, and I want it fast."</p> + +<p>"The truth," echoed the big man with strange laughter; "now that is +something—"</p> + +<p>His eyes widened over Hilary's shoulder. With a swiftness remarkable +in one of his bulk he shook off Hilary's restraining grip, caught him +by the shoulder and thrust him, all in one motion, into a chair +several removed from Peabody. In a trice his huge bulk was safely +ensconced in the adjoining one.</p> + +<p>Hilary's hand went to the butt of the automatic within his blouse. The +giant saw the movement. He leaned forward.</p> + +<p>"Don't make a move," he warned, "the guard is coming."</p> + +<p>"What guard?"</p> + +<p>"You'll see fast enough. Appear unconcerned if you value your life. +Don't look back."</p> + +<p>Hilary complied. His face became an expressionless mask as he lounged +in his chair, but his thoughts seethed and boiled. What terrible +mystery had enveloped the Earth during his absence? Why was Amos +Peabody tortured and made into a public mockery?</p> + +<p>There was a slight whirring noise behind him. Heedful of his +companion's admonition he relaxed in apparent unconcern, but his hand +stole once more to the fold in his blouse. His long fingers rested +caressingly upon the butt of his automatic. There were still three +good Earth bullets in the chamber.</p> + +<p>The whirring ceased. There was a slight jar as of something landing +on the speeding conveyor. Yet Hilary did not look back, though his +grip tightened. A heavy body stumbled toward them, cursing in strange +phrases. It passed from behind, came to a halt before the giant. +Hilary shot a sharp glance upward from under veiled lids. An +exclamation sprang full-throated to his lips, died unheard under a +tremendous effort of his will.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div><p>efore them stood a being—it could not be called a man. He was no +denizen of the Earth, that was evident, yet Hilary had visited all the +planets outward from our own without encountering such a monster.</p> + +<p>He hulked before them like a behemoth, even dwarfing Hilary's +companion with his enormous stature; but it was noticeable that he +supported his weight ill, as if Earth's gravitation was too strong for +him. Manlike he was in every essential, but the skin of his face was a +pasty dull gray, and ridged and furrowed with warty excrescences. Two +enormous pink eyes, unlidded, but capable of being sheathed with a +filmy membrane, stared down at them with manifest suspicion. A gray, +three-fingered hand held an angled tube significantly. A lens gleamed +transparent in the sunlight from the open end.</p> + +<p>Hilary did not move under the stare, nor did his companion. The mild +blue eyes were childlike as ever. The guard's gaze shifted from them +to the trembling figure of Amos Peabody. He bent over him, thrust at +him with ungentle hand. The automatic under Hilary's fingers crept +farther out from the blouse, but a warning gesture from his companion +stopped him.</p> + +<p>The guard amused himself with shaking the blind man; then he bent +suddenly. He had seen the broken links. With ominous deliberation he +turned his vast weight upon them. His baleful pink eyes fastened upon +Hilary's companion.</p> + +<p>"You!" he growled throatily, "what do you know about this?" He spoke +in English, but it was obviously not his native tongue.</p> + +<p>Mildly innocent was the giant's face.</p> + +<p>"I know nothing, Magnificent," he said humbly. "I am on my way to +Great New York on my own insignificant affairs, and I bother my head +with nothing else."</p> + +<p>"The bonds of this dog, Peabody, have been severed," the guard +insisted, "and recently, too. Speak up, Earthman, or—you know the +penalty."</p> + +<p>"I know the penalty," he answered respectfully, "but I have been +seated here only five minutes, and I know nothing of this Peabody."</p> + +<p>The guard fingered his tube.</p> + +<p>"Let me see your tag," he said suddenly.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he other opened his blouse obediently and exposed a thin copper disk +suspended on his chest. The guard tugged at it brutally to bring it +within range of his vision. The pull jerked the giant's head forward, +and the thin metal strand cut cruelly into the back of his neck. +Hilary saw a flush of red sweep like a wave up to his forehead, and +the mild blue eyes turned hard like glinting blue pebbles. But not a +word escaped his lips.</p> + +<p>"Grim Morgan," the guard read, "A46823 Great New York. Pah, what +barbarous names you Earthmen have." He shoved the giant back heavily +into his seat, and turned his baleful glare upon Hilary.</p> + +<p>"You, what do you know about this?"</p> + +<p>Grim Morgan interposed hastily. "Nothing, Magnificent. He came on the +express conveyor after I did."</p> + +<p>The guard's free hand went back. Very deliberately he struck him +across the face with three ridged fingers. An angry welt raised.</p> + +<p>"That will teach you to keep your mouth shut when not spoken to."</p> + +<p>The big man's eyes were mild, but his hands tensed as though they were +curled around a throat. He said nothing.</p> + +<p>The guard turned to Hilary again. "Answer me," he barked.</p> + +<p>"My friend told the truth," Grendon said simply.</p> + +<p>"Your tag?"</p> + +<p>"I have none."</p> + +<p>Suspicion flared openly in the pink eyes.</p> + +<p>"Where is it?"</p> + +<p>"I never had one."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" There was a world of meaning to the exhalation. "You know of +course that every Earthman must be registered. The penalty for +non-obedience is—death."</p> + +<p>The angled tube came up with the swiftness of light. Grim Morgan cried +out sharply, lunged out of his seat. Hilary tore at his gun, knowing +sickeningly that the draw would be slower than the action of the +strange weapon in the guard's hand.</p> + +<p>There was a sneer on the monster as he pressed something on the tube. +Hilary's automatic was only half out of his blouse. Grim's lunge would +never reach in time. He was too far away.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h2><i>The Death of Amos Peabody</i></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_j.jpg" alt="J" width="33" height="50" /></div> +<p>ust how any inkling of what was happening penetrated the pain-swept +consciousness of the blind and deaf President could never be +determined. Possibly a thin repercussion of Grim's cry, possibly an +intuition that comes to sense-bereft men. But he had jerked +spasmodically erect. There was a sharp tinkling as the weakened leg +links broke. He threw himself in a queer, awkward movement forward, +directly in the path of the tubed weapon. A blinding beam flashed out +of the orifice, sheared through Peabody's middle as though he were cut +cleanly in half with a gigantic knife. He toppled in two sections to +the floor of the conveyor—released from all humiliation, all +suffering.</p> + +<p>At the same time two other things happened. Grim Morgan hit the guard +like a crashing thunderbolt and Hilary's gun barked once. The monster +tottered under the impact. A puzzled expression flitted over his +pinkish eyes, a filmy sheath spread over them like a veil, and he fell +heavily, a neat bullet hole square between his eyes.</p> + +<p>Hilary shoved the gun back in his blouse, and stared alternately at +the huddled form of the grotesque being and all that remained of Amos +Peabody. The old President had saved his life at the cost of his own. +Instinctively his hand went up in formal salute to the gallant old +man.</p> + +<p>Grim Morgan shook him by the shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Man," he said quietly, "we have killed a Mercutian guard. Within the +hour we shall be dead men too."</p> + +<p>Hilary looked up at him sharply.</p> + +<p>"A Mercutian," he echoed. "You mean—"</p> + +<p>"That for three years now the Earth has been a conquered province of +these devils from Mercury," Grim interposed swiftly. "We have +committed the unforgivable offense and must pay for it."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary glanced swiftly around. The express conveyor was clear of +passengers for over a hundred yards each way. All the people within +range had cleared off when Hilary had attempted to release Peabody. +The small figure of a man got up from his chair beyond the charmed +circle, and was threading his way forward. The local conveyors seemed +to be moving backward at graded speeds. Beyond was the open country, +gradually thickening into scattered rows of crystal buildings. They +were in the suburbs of Great New York. Within ten minutes the conveyor +terminal would be reached.</p> + +<p>Hilary's eyes flicked speculatively to the tiny cigar-shaped boat in +which the dead guard had flown down to them. Its smooth gray-gleaming +surface was devoid of wings or other lifting devices. Only a +fan-shaped fin projected from the stern like the tail of a fish. The +cockpit, if such it could be called, was tiny, just ample enough to +accommodate the Mercutian's girth. The sunlight dazzled back from a +bewildering jumble of tiny lenses inset in the instrument board. +Arranged along the hull, on either side, were larger disks of the same +quartz-like material.</p> + +<p>"Let's get away in the flier," he said.</p> + +<p>"Can't," Grim said. "Those lenses you see on the instrument board are +the controls. No one knows how to operate them except the Mercutians. +Our people managed to capture a few, but couldn't do a thing with +them."</p> + +<p>Hilary stared at the motionless flier with interest. "What are those +round glass disks stretched along the hull in a double row?" he asked. +"They look like burning glasses."</p> + +<p>"That's just what they are," said Grim sadly. "The top row are +sun-lenses, that throw a terrible ray for a distance of two to three +hundred feet. Melts everything in its path—men trees, rocks even. You +saw one in action in the sun-tube with which poor old Peabody was cut +in half. The lower row of lenses on the flier are search beams."</p> + +<p>"Search beams?" Hilary echoed inquiringly.</p> + +<p>"Yes. They act like X-rays, more powerful though, and with the further +property of rendering everything they touch transparently crystal for +depths of ten to fifteen feet. Lead is the only element they can not +penetrate. Another secret our scientists can not fathom, so they talk +learnedly about the stream of rays polarizing the structure of matter +along a uniaxis."</p> + +<p>"Can't those lenses be duplicated, and turned as weapons against the +Mercutians?"</p> + +<p>"No. They are made of a peculiar vitreous material native to Mercury."</p> + +<p>"And no one has found out the principle on which they work?"</p> + +<p>"Well, there have been theories. We haven't many scientists left, you +know. But the most popular one is that these lenses have the power of +concentrating the rays of the sun to an almost infinite degree, and +then spreading them out again, each individual beam with the +concentrated energy of the whole. Some new way of rearranging quanta +of energy."</p> + +<p>"Hmm!" Hilary's brow was wrinkled. For a long moment he stared and +thought.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div><p>t last he snapped back to their present situation: the dead guard at +their feet, the dismembered body of Amos Peabody, the cowed groups of +Earthmen on the speeding conveyors, keeping respectful distances.</p> + +<p>"We'd better start moving if we want to get away," he said.</p> + +<p>"It's no use." Grim spread his hands resignedly. "We'll have to take +our medicine."</p> + +<p>Hilary flared angrily. "You're talking nonsense. What's to prevent us +from hopping to another platform? There is no other Mercutian in +sight."</p> + +<p>"No, but there were plenty of Earthmen who saw us."</p> + +<p>"They won't tell."</p> + +<p>"Oh, won't they?" Grim shook his head quietly. "You don't realize what +has happened. Their spirit has been crushed until they are actually +slavish in soul as well as in body. They fought bravely enough on the +first invasion. Even after the conquest there were plenty of men +looking for an opportunity to fight them again. Amos Peabody headed +the revolt. It was smothered in blood, so effectually that only slaves +are left. Peabody was left as a horrible warning. He was sent from +city to city to be exhibited to the populace, unattended on the way, +so confident were the Mercutians of the terror they had inspired."</p> + +<p>"So you think those Earthmen who saw us will report to their masters," +Hilary said slowly.</p> + +<p>Grim nodded.</p> + +<p>"I know it—they'll expect to curry favor in return."</p> + +<p>Hilary felt a web of circumstance tighten around him. His jaw +tautened. Thank the Lord he had been away—on his own. He had not the +soul of a slave—yet.</p> + +<p>"Won't you fight for your life?" he asked the big man curiously.</p> + +<p>A spark lit in the mild blue eyes, died down.</p> + +<p>"Yes if there were a chance," he said dully. "But there is none. The +whole Earth is honeycombed with their guards. They have fliers, sun +weapons, invisible search beams. We'd never elude them."</p> + +<p>Hilary snorted impatiently. "We have good Earth brains, haven't we? +I've traveled all the outer planets and never met any intelligence +equal to that of a man, and I won't admit for a moment that the +Mercutians are any exceptions."</p> + +<p>A man stepped casually onto the express, took one startled look at the +dead guard, at them, and fled precipitately back.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft1"><img src="images/image_a1.jpg" alt="A" width="56" height="52" /></div><p>nother one to spread the alarm," Morgan said grimly. "There'll be a +dozen guards dropping down on us in the next five minutes."</p> + +<p>"Let's get going then." Hilary was pulling the big man along by main +force when he heard a movement in back of them. He stopped, whirled, +automatic thrusting its blue nose forward.</p> + +<p>The little man who had gotten up before on the express was pushing +rapidly toward them.</p> + +<p>"Stop." Hilary's voice was harsh with command.</p> + +<p>But the little man did not heed. He literally stumbled in his haste, +crying: "You've killed a Mercutian."</p> + +<p>"What of it, my bantam?" Hilary inquired softly, the muzzle of his gun +boring into a lean flat stomach. The little man was actually pressing +against the automatic in his excitement.</p> + +<p>"What of it?" he shrilled excitedly. "God, all this time I've been +waiting to find someone with guts enough to smash one of them. Sir, +I'm proud to shake your hand."</p> + +<p>He reached over the wicked-looking muzzle, gripped Hilary's fist, +still tight on the gun butt, and pumped vigorously. He dropped the +hand, swerved on Grim.</p> + +<p>"And you too, sir." His little fingers were engulfed in a mighty paw. +"I saw it all, I tell you," he babbled. "We've got them on the run. +We'll sweep the filthy devils clean off the Earth. We'll annihilate +them."</p> + +<p>"Whoa there, my little gamecock." Morgan grinned down at the excited +little man. "One Mercutian doesn't make a Roman holiday. They're +plenty more where he came from. You'd better clear out before they +come, or you'll be included in the party."</p> + +<p>The little fellow—he was not much more than five feet no inches +tall—drew himself up to his full height. "What," he ejaculated, "me +desert my friends? Wat Tyler's never had that said of him yet. We +stick together, to hell and back again."</p> + +<p>Hilary grinned as he slipped the weapon back into his blouse. He was +beginning to like this little firebrand. In truth, Grim had rather +fairly described him as a gamecock. His stature, the bristly red hair +that flamed above a freckled face, the lightest of blue eyes that +snapped with excitement, the peculiar strut of him.</p> + +<p>"You'll do," he said briefly.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div><p>t a safe distance a crowd was gathering, a crowd of Earthmen. Grim +surveyed them carefully. They were milling back and forth, but no one +dared come closer. "Slaves," he grunted, "not a spark left in them." +His eyes swept the heavens. Two faint black specks appeared in the +blue distance, from the direction of Great New York.</p> + +<p>"They're coming for us," he said quietly.</p> + +<p>"Let them," crowed the fiery little bantam, "we'll meet them man to +man."</p> + +<p>He wrenched the tube from the stiffened fingers of the dead guard, +swung it exultingly aloft.</p> + +<p>"You little fool," Hilary cried sharply, and struck it down again. +"We're not waiting for them. That's suicide. Come. I'm afraid it's too +late for you to turn back now. You've been seen with us."</p> + +<p>He dashed across the moving belts, Grim and Wat, a grotesquely +assorted pair, directly behind him.</p> + +<p>Passengers, men and women both, scattered at their approach, stark, +servile fear smothering their dulled countenances. Cries arose on all +sides. "The Magnificents are coming."</p> + +<p>The black specks became larger, forming themselves into swift one-man +fliers. The three men pelted across the graded conveyors as hard as +they could run. No Earthman tried to stop them; one look at their grim +faces would have been a most potent dissuader. And fortunately there +were no Mercutians within hailing distance other than the rapidly +nearing fliers.</p> + +<p>They flung themselves off the last slow-moving platform, panting.</p> + +<p>"Which way now?" Hilary asked. His quick eye raked the scene for +possible hideouts. They were on a smoothly clipped lawn, heaving +gently up to a pretty rambling structure, built on an antique design, +pleasingly irregular and nestling to the ground as though it were +indigenous to the soil. The walls were modern, though, of +vita-crystal, which possessed the peculiar property of permitting +<i>all</i> of the beneficial rays of the sun to penetrate, and yet +presented a perfectly opaque appearance to the outside world.</p> + +<p>No other hiding place was in sight. The lawn stretched smooth on all +sides except for a scattering of trees—poor enough cover. The +Mercutians were almost directly overhead now, preparing to swoop.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft1"><img src="images/image_o1.jpg" alt="O" width="60" height="54" /></div> +<p>ur only chance seems to be the house," Hilary answered his own +question quietly.</p> + +<p>Grim shook his head. "Their search beams can penetrate the +vita-crystal walls as though they were transparent glass."</p> + +<p>Hilary's heart sank. "Can't help it," he said laconically. "Come on."</p> + +<p>The three men broke into a run. It was only a hundred yards, but the +Mercutians were coming down fast. They had been seen. A flash as of +molten metal gleamed overhead. A blinding ray leaped for the ground, +struck viciously a little ahead of the running men. The velvet green +grass crisped to ash; the soil underneath scorched.</p> + +<p>"Scatter!" Hilary shouted.</p> + +<p>Instantly the men spread out. Another blast hissed down at them, so +close to Hilary that the heat seared his left side like a red-hot +iron. The Mercutians were getting the range. Wat Tyler stopped short +with a howl of defiance. He whipped the hand tube he had taken from +the dead guard out of his blouse.</p> + +<p>"Hide it, you fool!" Hilary yelled back at him. "We don't want them to +known we are armed."</p> + +<p>Wat obeyed reluctantly. He shook his fist high in the air, and started +to run again. It was not an instant too soon, either. A beam slithered +down the smoldering air, and the Earth literally boiled under its +impact, directly on the spot where Wat had stopped to shake his fist. +All about them the terrible rays were slashing now.</p> + +<p>But a last desperate burst of speed carried the Earthmen onto a wide +enclosed portico, in the old manner. Hilary pounded on the +vita-crystal door. It was tightly locked.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft1"><img src="images/image_s1.jpg" alt="S" width="45" height="57" /></div> +<p>tep back a moment," Morgan rumbled.</p> + +<p>Hilary obeyed. The big man spat thoughtfully upon his hands, worked +his shoulders tentatively. Then he too retreated to the outermost edge +of the portico. Above, the crystal suddenly shattered. Sharp-edged +fragments showered down upon them. There was little time to waste.</p> + +<p>Grim heaved forward in a slanting rush, right shoulder extended. He +crashed into the locked door like a runaway train. There was a +grinding noise, a smash of crystal, and his shoulder was through, +incased in a halo of bright, sharp edges.</p> + +<p>The big man staggered back, his shoulder streaming blood from a +hundred cuts. His face was pale and drawn.</p> + +<p>"Good fellow," Wat yelled, "even though you are an overgrown ox." He +darted in behind the man-mountain like a twisting snake. His deft +fingers reached in through the shattered crystal, pressed something on +the inside. The door slid into its wall pocket with a sound of +grinding glass.</p> + +<p>Wat burst into the opened room first, Grim right behind him. Hilary +brought up the rear, Grim's great bulk blotting out for the moment any +view of the interior.</p> + +<p>There was a sudden gasp—a girl's voice.</p> + +<p>"Wh—What does this mean?" She was tremulous, yet unafraid.</p> + +<p>Hilary stopped suddenly as though brought up against a solid wall. His +heart pounded madly. That voice—but it was utterly impossible!</p> + +<p>Wat answered, gallantly. "Sorry to annoy you, miss, but they're after +us. My partner here's wounded."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you poor man." There was quick sympathy in the clear tones. "But +who is after you?"</p> + +<p>A splintering crash resounded outside.</p> + +<p>"The Mercutians, as you no doubt hear," the little man responded with +faint irony.</p> + +<p>The girl gasped again. "Oh my God!"</p> + +<p>There was silence. Hilary strained his ears, yet took care to keep +hidden behind Grim's huge frame. What would she do now? It seemed to +him as if the whole world depended on her reply.</p> + +<p>The girl broke the silence. She had come to a swift decision.</p> + +<p>"They must not get you. Go upstairs, quietly, into the chamber on the +left of the hall. It's my bedroom. Their search beams can not +penetrate it; the walls are draped with lead-encrusted curtains. I'll +stay down here and try to throw them off the trail."</p> + +<p>Hilary's heart recommenced beating. A gush of joy overwhelmed him. +The girl had proven herself.</p> + +<p>Grim spoke, for the first time.</p> + +<p>"You know the penalty of course, for hiding us."</p> + +<p>She did not answer directly. "I can't help it. I can't surrender +Earthmen to those beasts. Besides"—there was a catch in her +voice—"it does not matter much since—"</p> + +<p>Hilary stepped quietly from behind Grim's overshadowing bulk.</p> + +<p>The girl's eyes went wide at the sight of him; her slender white hand +flew to her throat. She looked as if she had seen a ghost.</p> + +<p>"You—you!" she choked. "Hilary!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_s.jpg" alt="S" width="36" height="50" /></div><p>he swayed and would have fallen, had Hilary not jumped to catch her. +His heart was beating thickly with excess of emotion. Joan Robbins in +his arms again—how he prayed for this moment in the icy reaches of +interplanetary space. Yet what was she doing here in Bronxville? Her +home had always been atop the windswept Robbins Building in Great New +York.</p> + +<p>Her hand went softly over his features, as though to assure herself +that it was really he.</p> + +<p>"Oh, my dear," she whispered brokenly. "I had almost given up all +hope. Everyone was certain you were lost—long ago."</p> + +<p>Whirrings sounded outside.</p> + +<p>"Sorry to break up your reunion," Grim interrupted in his bass rumble, +"but the Mercutians have landed on the lawn. They'll be in here right +away."</p> + +<p>Joan tore herself out of Hilary's arms. Her slim straight figure +tautened; her velvet soft eyebrows puckered over deep-lit pools.</p> + +<p>"Upstairs quickly, all of you," she cried. "I'll manage them somehow."</p> + +<p>Hilary said quietly, "I won't leave you alone with those brutes. You +go along up, and I'll remain here." The automatic gleamed in his hand.</p> + +<p>"No, no," she panted, "you mustn't. You wouldn't have a chance. Leave +it to me." She literally pushed them with her little hands to the +stairway. "Go, if you love me."</p> + +<p>"The girl's right," Grim said, "there's a chance. If not," he shrugged +his shoulders, "we can always come down again."</p> + +<p>Outside were heavy thuddings on the portico.</p> + +<p>"You in there," a heavy alien voice resounded, "open or we blast our +way in." The door had been slid back into position.</p> + +<p>There was no room for further argument. Very reluctantly Hilary +followed his companions up the winding stairway.</p> + +<p>At the top of the stairs an entrance slide showed darker on the left. +Wat fumbled for a moment until he found the button. The door whirred +open, even as they heard Joan's clear voice below: "Come in, +Magnificents!" There was a trampling of feet.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h2><i>The Kidnapping of Joan</i></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div> +<p>he Earthmen moved quickly and quietly into Joan's room. Thin, crinkly +draperies of heavy silk impregnated with lead in colloidal solution, +covered all the walls, the door itself. But Hilary shot no more than a +cursory glance around; he had left the slide slightly ajar; he was +listening intently. The gun was in his hand. There were only two +bullets in the chambers—all that were left of the thousands of rounds +the expedition had started out with. He must not waste them.</p> + +<p>The thick rough voice of a Mercutian floated up from below.</p> + +<p>"Three Earth slaves came in here. Where did they go?"</p> + +<p>"They did," Joan admitted readily. "They frightened me out of my wits. +I screamed and they ran through the house and out the back way."</p> + +<p>The Mercutian was suspicious.</p> + +<p>"Hmm. Funny there's no sign of a struggle here. Nothing is upset."</p> + +<p>"They ran out the back way," the girl repeated tonelessly.</p> + +<p>"We'll see; but if you are lying...." He said no more, but the pause +was significant in its implications.</p> + +<p>"I would not lie to the Magnificents."</p> + +<p>"Not if you are wise." He seemed to be the leader. He evidently turned +to his companion, for there issued a flood of throaty consonants to +which the other grunted once. Then the listeners heard his heavy +stamping as he walked through the house to the rear. A door whirred; +he had gone out.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he remaining Mercutian said suddenly: "He won't find them."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" Joan asked, a bit tremulously.</p> + +<p>The Mercutian laughed harshly. "Because you lied. You've hid them in +the house."</p> + +<p>Hilary heard Joan's sudden sharp intake of breath.</p> + +<p>"No, no, Magnificent," she cried.</p> + +<p>The Mercutian laughed again—a hard cruel laugh. There was no mirth in +it.</p> + +<p>"All Earthwomen are liars. I know where you hid them. In your bed +chamber. The trick is too old already. We may not be able to see +through the lead curtains, but we can break down the door. I warned +Artok not to permit the use of the lead curtains, but he has a soft +streak. He listened to the women's pleadings for privacy. Privacy, +pah! A cloak for conspiracies, that's all it comes to. When Gurda +returns, we search upstairs and drag out your rats from their hole."</p> + +<p>He laughed smugly, pleased with his own cleverness.</p> + +<p>"It is not so." Strange how calm Joan sounded. "They are not in the +house. Only my dying mother is here. She is bedded upstairs. The +doctor ordered absolute quiet. The slightest noise would be fatal."</p> + +<p>The Mercutian sneered. "We'll take a look at that dying mother of +yours right now."</p> + +<p>"You mustn't," the girl panted. "She will die, I tell you."</p> + +<p>"And what does it matter to me?"</p> + +<p>There was the sound of a struggle, a sharp cry, followed by a dull +thud.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary was out through the door like a flash, down the corridor to the +head of the stairs with automatic extended. The monster Mercutian was +coming heavily up the treads. They saw each other simultaneously.</p> + +<p>The Mercutian's pink eyes turned a vicious red; the tube dangling in +his hand jerked sharply up. Hilary squeezed the trigger. The gun +barked. The Mercutian spun half around with the force of the tearing +bullet. The deadly beam from his weapon slithered over the wall, +searing a great molten gash in the crystal. He was badly hurt, but he +did not fall. Howling with pain and rage, he slewed himself around +again, pointed his sun weapon unsteadily upward.</p> + +<p>Hilary let him have the other slug. The big body jerked, and fell +backward with a crash to the bottom of the stairs, there to lie oddly +contorted and still.</p> + +<p>There was a thundering rush from the rear of the lower floor, a +hoarse throaty cry. Hilary tore down the steps three at a time, Grim +and Wat slithering behind him.</p> + +<p>The other Mercutian was bending over Joan's semiconscious form, +sweeping her into the crook of a huge arm. He shot a startled glance +at the down-pouring Earthmen, swerved the girl around, and aimed his +tube.</p> + +<p>Hilary pulled the trigger as he swerved. There was a sharp click, but +no explosion. Hilary cursed and threw himself down. He had forgotten +that there were no more bullets. The speeding flash scorched overhead.</p> + +<p>Grim and Wat crouched low. Wat's tube, the one he had wrested from the +dead guard on the conveyor, was being slowly raised. The Mercutian saw +it, shifted the inanimate girl in front of himself, and backed +stealthily toward the splintered door.</p> + +<p>"Don't shoot," Hilary cried sharply. "You'll kill Joan."</p> + +<p>Wat lowered the tube disgustedly. Hilary groaned aloud. If only he had +had one more bullet. There was enough of the gigantic body exposed to +offer an excellent target to a steel slug without harming Joan, but +the sun weapon sent out its beam in a flat spray.</p> + +<p>The Mercutian sensed their dilemma as they crouched on the stairs. He +laughed unpleasantly as he backed through the doorway, Joan's limp +body held straight in front of him.</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Earth slaves," he taunted. "I take your pretty Earth maiden +with me. In five minutes I return, with others. You cannot escape. +Good-by."</p> + +<p>He jumped clumsily through the door. The crouching Earthmen heard a +click. It had closed behind him.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary and his companions cleared the stairs in almost a single bound. +He had snatched the sun-tube out of Wat's hand. Through the splintered +slide he saw the Mercutian climbing into his flier, but a great +crystal column of the portico intervened. Nevertheless, while Wat +fumbled for the button that released the slide, he took a chance. +Every split second was precious now. He aimed the weapon, pressed the +spring. A white dazzling ray darted fanwise from the orifice. It +touched the column, fused it into molten, running glass. But the +Mercutian was already in his seat, Joan limp beside him. He was +fumbling at the controls.</p> + +<p>The door slid open at last. Hilary shot through like a bullet from a +rifle. The flier had already taken off on a long slanting rise. A +three-fingered hand waved mockingly down at him. Hilary raised his +weapon, then lowered it with a groan. The flier was well within range +yet, but if he aimed the terrible beam at it, there would be a crash +of fused twisted material, and—Joan was in it. What a dilemma! If he +didn't shoot, she would be borne away—he dared not think to what +horrible fate.</p> + +<p>Grim's hand rested lightly on his shoulder as he watched the flier +become a faint black speck in the direction of Great New York.</p> + +<p>"She was your sweetheart." His gruff voice was oddly gentle.</p> + +<p>Hilary brushed a weary hand over his forehead. The Earth, the universe +itself, were suddenly dead, meaningless gobs of matter.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said tonelessly. "Five years ago she promised to wait for my +return. She kept her word. I found her again—only to lose her."</p> + +<p>Grim said quietly: "I too once loved a girl. I joined the last +rebellion under Amos Peabody. The Mercutians threatened to seize the +wives, sisters, sweethearts of the revolters if they persisted. Many +of the men surrendered. I was one of those who refused. When the +revolt was over, smothered in flame from their giant sun-tubes, I +found that they had made good their threats. My girl was gone, +vanished. Two Mercutians had taken her away. She was never found +again."</p> + +<p>He paused in brooding silence. "They are up to their old tricks +again." His eyes were steely blue now. Hilary pressed his hand in +silence. They were welded together by a common loss.</p> + +<p>Wat Tyler broke in upon them. "If you fellows want to hang around +here, I'll be on my way. That Mercutian hyena will be back here with a +dozen others just like him in less than no time."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary snapped out of his sorrow. He could not help Joan by having +himself captured or killed, nor was it fair to Grim and Wat. They had +placed themselves unquestioningly under his leadership. Something else +too was growing into burning life in his mind. This was his Earth, his +and Grim's and Wat's, and of millions of other normal human beings. +The Mercutians were interlopers, brutal conquerors. He would devote +his now otherwise meaningless life to driving them off the planet, +wiping them out of the solar system. A tall order, yes, but not for +nothing had he fought almost single-handed against those other +monstrosities on other worlds: Martians, Ganymedans, Saturnians. The +Mercutians were no stronger than they. Besides, there was Joan.</p> + +<p>"Men," he said crisply, once more the clear-headed commander of his +space expedition, "I intend to fight these Mercutian invaders until +Earth is free once more, or—I am dead. I have no illusions about the +magnitude of the job, of its practical hopelessness. But that does not +mean that you two have to throw away your lives also. I am a marked +man, without any identification tag. You on the other hand, can get +away from here, mingle indistinguishably with the hordes of people in +Great New York. You would be safe. Our ways part here, if you desire +it so." He added hastily, "I would be the last to blame you."</p> + +<p>Grim Morgan and Wat Tyler looked at each other, a great giant of a man +and an undersized bantam. Yet some electric spark of sympathy seemed +to dart between them, these so dissimilar beings.</p> + +<p>Wat elected to be the spokesman. His voice rose shrilly, as it always +did when he was laboring under stress of excitement or emotion.</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> won't blame us," he almost squeaked. "Who asked you? Damn it, +haven't we consciences of our own? Are we quitters, yellow-bellied +Mercutians to quit a pal? Are we, Grim Morgan? Speak, you big ox."</p> + +<p>He wheeled abruptly and shook a small fist high in the air. It barely +reached under Grim's nose. The big man looked down at the little +gamecock unsmilingly.</p> + +<p>"No, Wat Tyler, we are not," he said gravely.</p> + +<p>Wat turned to Hilary triumphantly.</p> + +<p>"There, you see," he crowed, "we stick together. We'll lick those +Mercutian monsters; we'll sweep them into the ocean, into space. And +what's more, we'll rescue your girl too." He stopped to catch his +breath. Grim was nodding slowly. He had not the little man's +exuberance. <i>His</i> girl could not be rescued any more, but he could +remember.</p> + +<p>Hilary's frozen heart warmed into life again. With loyal comrades such +as these, even the impossible might be accomplished. Very quietly, +without heroics, the three men shook hands. Nothing more, yet they +knew that they were bound indissolubly together, as long as there was +a gasp of breath in any of them.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary's brain functioned with racing smoothness. In minutes the +Mercutians would be back.</p> + +<p>"We must find a secure hiding place at once," he said. "Know of any?"</p> + +<p>Grim shook his head negatively. "There is none," he spoke slowly. +"Their search beams penetrate everything."</p> + +<p>"Except lead," Hilary interposed.</p> + +<p>"Except lead," he conceded.</p> + +<p>"Very well then. We shall have to find a place we can line with lead. +In the meantime. I have my space flier up in the Ramapos. If it hasn't +been discovered yet, it will be essential to our task. We'll have to +get there quickly."</p> + +<p>"How?" Wat asked,</p> + +<p>"By the conveyors, of course."</p> + +<p>"No good," the little man declared. "Mercutian guards will be +patrolling them. You have no identification tag. You would be caught."</p> + +<p>Hilary considered that. "Suppose you two go on along," he suggested. +"Find it and wait for me. I'll manage somehow."</p> + +<p>"No," they answered unanimously; "we go together or not at all."</p> + +<p>Hilary did not try to argue. He would have replied himself in exactly +the same terms. He looked longingly at the abandoned flier of the +gray-faced Mercutian, lying cold and still within the house.</p> + +<p>"If only we could operate the ship," he said.</p> + +<p>Then, characteristically, he dismissed the vain longing and bent to +the business in hand. "That means we'll have to make it on foot, and +keep under cover all the way. Come on."</p> + +<p>As the three men moved rapidly over the great lawn toward the nearest +covert, a little wood a quarter of a mile away, the horizon that was +Great New York showed silhouetted against the westering sun numerous +little black dots. The Mercutians were coming.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h2><i>Outlaws of Earth</i></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div> +<p>hree days later three footsore, weary, hungry men skulked in the edge +of the woods near a little clearing in the Ramapos. For three days +they had ducked and dodged and literally burrowed into the ground by +day, traveling only at night. Above and around them the noise of +pursuit rolled. The Mercutians were persistent.</p> + +<p>Speedy one-man fliers patrolled the airways, their search beams +casting invisible rays in wide sweeping arcs over the uneven terrain. +Wherever they touched, the ground sprang into vivid illumination, +crystal clear to depths of ten to fifteen feet. Several times the +crystal swath swept breathlessly close to the place where the +fugitives crouched in covert. The conveyors carried back and forth +armed companies of guards. The Mercutians were making a mighty effort +to capture their prey.</p> + +<p>But somehow the Earthmen had won through, and eager eyes searched the +little glade. Hilary exhaled sharply. The <i>Vagabond</i>, stanch and +faithful companion of all his travels, rested immovably on the deep +green grass. It had escaped the questing eyes of the Mercutians. The +travel lanes did not touch this secluded spot.</p> + +<p>"So that's your space ship, eh?" said Grim, surveying the tarnished, +pitted spheroid with something of awe.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Hilary lovingly as he unlocked the outer port side. A +hasty glance around inside showed that nothing had been touched. +Everything was orderly, methodical, just as he had left it.</p> + +<p>Grim and Wat examined with interest the banked controls, the +polarization apparatus that set up repulsion waves and literally +kicked the ship out into space away from the planet against which it +had been set.</p> + +<p>"Time enough to inspect," Hilary warned them. "Never can tell when +those damned Mercutians may spy on us."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +e set the polarization controls so that the mere pulling of a switch +would send the flier careening off into space. He surveyed the +apple-pie order of the interior with vast satisfaction.</p> + +<p>"Now let them come," he said, "the <i>Vagabond</i> can show anything that +flies a clean pair of heels. Let's eat."</p> + +<p>He dragged an aluminum box out of its locker, opened it to disclose a +gray funguslike mass. He cut off huge slices and offered it to his +companions.</p> + +<p>They looked at it doubtfully.</p> + +<p>"Ugh," Wat shuddered violently, "I never saw stuff like that before. +It doesn't look good." The little man, they soon discovered, had +violent discriminations in food.</p> + +<p>"Try it." Hilary assured him. "It's a Martian growth, and delicious. +We had to live on the land so to speak, on our journey. Our Earth food +gave out long before the finish."</p> + +<p>Wat looked at it with manifest distaste, but Grim was already wolfing +his portion and making little pleased sounds. Wat bit into a portion +gingerly, found it tasted somewhat like truffles, and soon was not far +behind in gulping it down.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_w.jpg" alt="W" width="65" height="50" /></div> +<p>hen their appetites had been appeased, Hilary called a council of +war.</p> + +<p>"First of all," he told them, "we'll have to find a hideout. That +presupposes two things: a place large enough to store the <i>Vagabond</i>, +and hidden from view, either from the naked eye or their search +beams."</p> + +<p>"That sounds like a large cavern lined with lead," said Grim.</p> + +<p>"Exactly."</p> + +<p>"And there are none such in this territory," Grim replied quietly.</p> + +<p>"I will not move too far from New York," Hilary spoke with +determination; "there is Joan...."</p> + +<p>Grim looked blank. There was Joan, of course.</p> + +<p>Wat got up suddenly. "I know a place," he said, "within a mile of +here, and it's not a cave. Come on; I'll show you. I was a Ranger in +the Ramapo Game Preserve in the old days."</p> + +<p>Hilary asked no more. The polarization switch made contact, and the +<i>Vagabond</i> left the Earth with a swift rush. It maneuvered with the +ease of an Earth flier. Wat directed him, scanning the rugged +tree-clad mountains with eager eye.</p> + +<p>"There," he said finally, "set her down right there. Easy."</p> + +<p>Hilary saw no break in the uninterrupted line of the mountain, but he +followed directions. He had come to have an abounding faith in the +little red-haired man.</p> + +<p>The space flier eased gently down. Just as it seemed as if it would +perforce come to rest upon serrated tree tops, a faint glimmer showed +amid the darker green. There was an opening, just barely room for the +<i>Vagabond</i>.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary jockeyed skilfully through, kept on descending into a narrow +cleft in the slope. The walls rose almost perpendicularly on either +side. About fifty feet down there was a sharp turn and the gorge +angled downward for another fifty feet. When the flier came to rest at +the bottom, it was securely hidden in a slanting cleft, some forty +feet wide and several hundred long. A mountain brook brawled at one +side, assuring plentiful water. The outside world was absolutely +invisible. Perpetual twilight reigned; only a pale dim religious light +filtered through.</p> + +<p>"Just the thing," Wat exulted. "We'll never be found here, no matter +how much they search, unless someone actually stumbles into the +opening. There's almost eighty feet of solid rock above us, and their +search beams only penetrate about ten to fifteen."</p> + +<p>"Splendid." Hilary said. "Now we've got to get to work."</p> + +<p>For two days they toiled incessantly. A rope ladder was fabricated to +insure ease of entrance and exit without recourse to the ship. Wat, as +the least conspicuous, was delegated to scour the countryside and +bring in stores of provisions. The bottom of the gorge was leveled off +with infinite labor. Rough wood shelters were erected. Spares and +electrical equipment to replace worn parts in the <i>Vagabond</i> were also +purchased by Wat, in cautious small purchases. It necessitated long +trekking through mountain trails, but there was no murmur from him. +The search, he reported, seemed to be slackening. Only the routine +guards whizzed by on the conveyors, and the usual Mercutian fliers +that kept to the regular air lanes.</p> + +<p>At last even Hilary was satisfied. He was ready now for the plan that +had been slowly forming in his mind during the days of their flight +and of work. He was going to attempt a rescue of Joan. She had never +left his thoughts once; he was burning with inward anxiety, though his +face was a mask to cover his true feelings.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he last evening he sat with the others within one of the wooden +shelters. A huge fire of fragrant pine knots blazed up a crude boulder +chimney.</p> + +<p>"I am going out now to find Joan," he told them quietly.</p> + +<p>"When do we start?" asked Wat.</p> + +<p>"I am going alone." There was a movement of protest. He checked it at +once. "You can understand the reasons. One man can worm his way where +three men cannot. It isn't a question of force, of brute strength. +Besides, if anything should go wrong, there are still the two of you +to carry on—to be the focus of a new revolt. If all of us were +caught, there would be no further hope for the Earth."</p> + +<p>"It's a hell of a note," Wat grumbled, unconvinced. "There's fighting +to be done, and me cooped up here like a sick hen."</p> + +<p>"Hilary's right," Grim interposed thoughtfully. "It's a one-man job. +We'll have our chance later." He turned on Hilary. "But if anything +does happen to you, you understand we won't stay quietly. We'll +come—if you are still alive. Promise you will let us know—if you +can."</p> + +<p>"I'll promise that," Hilary agreed. "There is a way."</p> + +<p>He got up and went out of the hut. In a few minutes he was back, +holding three small flat disks enmeshed in a spray of fine wires for +them to see.</p> + +<p>"I've just removed the communication disks from our space suits. +Strap them in position on your right shoulder blade, hook the +wires—so—and you can talk to me or to each other over distances of +one hundred miles. Underneath your clothing they cannot be seen. +Should I require your assistance, I'll call, and further, I'll show +you both how to run the <i>Vagabond</i>, in case...." His voice trailed.</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, of course," Grim interposed hastily, "but you'll be here to +run it when the time comes."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," Hilary smiled faintly. Then he leaned forward. "I've gotten +a pretty good idea of what's happened on Earth since I went away, but +now I need more details. Otherwise I'll run into things that will +surprise me, and that might not be so—pleasant."</p> + +<p>They told him, interrupting each other, arguing over details, Hilary +interposing questions every now and then.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div><p>bout a year and a half after Hilary's departure into trackless space, +a huge flat diskoid came hovering to the ground near Great New York. +It carried a party of Mercutians on a friendly exploration, so they +said, once communication could be established between Earth linguists +and themselves. They were welcomed, made much of. They seemed friendly +enough. At their own request they were whirled over the Earth in Earth +planes on a tour of inspection.</p> + +<p>When they departed, with much protestation of friendship, they assured +President Peabody they would return some day, they and others of their +race. Just what hidden threat there was in that promise, no one on +Earth realized. It was taken at face value.</p> + +<p>Just a year later, almost to the day, the by this time familiar +diskoid was seen hovering once more over Great New York. The +Mercutians were returning. The people of New York suspected nothing. +No troops were rushed to the scene to repel invasion; no guns were +trained on the space ship. It was just another friendly visit, and +hurried preparations were commenced for a rousing welcome on their +landing.</p> + +<p>What New York did not know was that simultaneously with the appearance +of the Mercutian flier over their city, a hundred others were even +then hovering over the strategic capitals of the world. The first +Mercutian ambassadors had put to good advantage that hurried tour of +inspection.</p> + +<p>No one was alarmed. Each capital city thought itself signally honored +by the reappearance of the lone Mercutian over it. The plan was +clever, the timing perfect.</p> + +<p>At a signal flashed through the ether, things started happening.</p> + +<p>The great diskoids, hovering high in the stratosphere, suddenly blazed +into blinding light. To the dazzled onlookers below, a new sun seemed +to have been born. A truncated cone of flame leaped downward. The +diskoid was the apex, the spreading base all of Great New York. The +sheeted brilliance enveloped the doomed city. It was a holocaust. New +York became a roaring furnace. Stone and steel heated to +incandescence.</p> + +<p>The affrighted people had no chance for their lives. Like moths in a +flame they died on the streets, in the ovens of their homes, in the +steaming rivers into which they had thrown themselves to escape the +awful heat. There were few survivors, only those who happened to be +inside the giant skyscrapers, protected by many thicknesses of crystal +and steel.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div><p>s Great New York went, so went a hundred other cities. The Earth was +caught unawares, but the governments, the people, responded nobly. +Troops were mobilized hurriedly, preparations rushed for warfare.</p> + +<p>But the Earthmen did not have a chance. The great sinister diskoids +moved methodically over the Earth, high in the stratosphere, where the +futile Earth planes could not reach them, and sent the terrible blaze +of destruction down unerringly upon armies, cities, towns.</p> + +<p>It was over soon. One after another, the Earth governments +capitulated. America was the last—old Amos Peabody vowed he would +rather go down to utter destruction than yield—but he was out-voted +in Council. It was pure slaughter otherwise, without a chance to fight +back.</p> + +<p>At once the Mercutians set up their government. The Earth was turned +into a colony. The leader of the invaders, the son of the Mercutian +emperor, became Viceroy, with absolute powers. Sooner or later, it was +their intention to transport the entire Mercutian race to the Earth, +and make it their permanent home. Mercury was not an ideal place to +live on; in the restricted area around the poles where life was +possible, terrific storms alternated with furnace droughts, to which +the hottest part of the Sahara was an Arctic paradise. No wonder the +first Mercutian expedition had broached the subject of Earth as an +easy conquest when they returned.</p> + +<p>The Mercutians treated the Earth people as slaves. Their rule was +brutal and arrogant in the extreme. The Earth people revolted, under +the leadership of Amos Peabody. Weaponless, except for small hidden +stores of rifles and revolvers—the Mercutians had cannily disarmed +their slaves—they fought desperately with axes, knives, clubs, +anything, against the overlords.</p> + +<p>The result could have been expected. The rebellion was smothered in +blood and fire. The bravest of the Earthmen died in battle, or were +executed afterwards. The slaves, the weaklings, were left. Old Amos +Peabody was treated as Hilary had seen. He was exhibited in city after +city as a public warning.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary's blood was boiling as the terrible narration went on and on. +But his face was calm, immovable.</p> + +<p>"How do the diskoids operate?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Something like the sun rays on the one-man fliers," Grim told him, +"only vastly more powerful. They are not limited in range, for one +thing. It took only one, fifty miles up in the stratosphere, to +destroy all New York. I saw the one that first spied on the Earth. It +was about five hundred feet in diameter, made of the same vitreous +material, and shaped like a huge lens. No doubt, besides being a space +ship, it is just that. The sun's light flashes through it, is +rearranged into terrible burning rays, and sears all in its path."</p> + +<p>"Hm'm!" Hilary meditated. "So everything the Mercutians have in the +way of weapons and armament depends directly on the sun's rays."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Grim agreed. "After all, you must remember that with Mercury +exposed as it is to the fierce heat of the sun, it would be only +natural for them to develop weapons that utilized its rays."</p> + +<p>"Then the tubes and the fliers cannot operate at night?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, because then they receive the reflected waves from the diskoids +that are stationed out in space, in eternal sunlight."</p> + +<p>Hilary considered this a moment.</p> + +<p>"Where do you think it possible Joan was taken?" he changed the +subject abruptly.</p> + +<p>"It is hard to say," Grim answered slowly. "But your best chance would +be with the Viceroy himself. There have been rumors—when pretty girls +disappear."</p> + +<p>Hilary's jaw set hard.</p> + +<p>"I think I'll interview His Mercutian Magnificence," he said. "Where +are his quarters?"</p> + +<p>"The Robbins Building."</p> + +<p>"Good Lord, that's Joan's...." So that was why Joan was up in the +Bronxville suburb. "What happened to her father, Martin Robbins?"</p> + +<p>"Executed after the revolt," Wat interposed. "Your girl must have +escaped, otherwise she'd have been treated then like the other girls +whose relatives had fought."</p> + +<p>Hilary smiled unaccountably, the first smile since Joan had been +taken. He knew the Robbins Building well; he had been a frequent +visitor there in the old days. There were surprises in store for His +Nibs the Mercutian....</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h2><i>Mutterings of Revolt</i></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div> +<p>he next morning, as dawn burst over the mountain tops, he started on +his perilous mission. But no one who knew Hilary Grendon would have +recognized him in the meek, shambling, slightly bent Earth slave who +climbed the last rung of the rope ladder out of the hidden gorge.</p> + +<p>He had changed his clothes for an old, space-worn suit that one of his +former comrades could never have any further use for. The skilful +application of wood ash and powdered charcoal to the hollows around +the eyes, the pits beneath the cheekbones, gave him a gaunt, careworn +appearance, suitable to an Earthman too brow-beaten to dream of +defying his overlords.</p> + +<p>Wat, who had artistically applied the make-up, viewed his handiwork +with admiration. "You'll do," he grinned. "The way you look, even a +little fellow like me would be perfectly safe in spitting upon you."</p> + +<p>Before he went, he explained the mechanism of the <i>Vagabond</i> +thoroughly to his friends. Finally they nodded; they would know how to +work the controls.</p> + +<p>There was the question of weapons. The captured sun-tube was out of +the question; it could not be secreted beneath the dark-blue blouse. +Hilary fondled his automatic wistfully.</p> + +<p>"If only I had some bullets," he sighed.</p> + +<p>"Hell, man, I know where you can get plenty," said Wat. There was a +hidden cache, not far from where they were, stored against the day. +There were still some brave spirits left on Earth who hoped and +plotted. Wat had been one of them. Hilary's spirits rose immeasurably. +With his gun loaded he could face the whole Mercutian planet.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary made the return journey to Great New York in an hour. He wormed +his way carefully to the nearest conveyor, and made his way openly to +the express platform, secure in his disguise.</p> + +<p>There was an air of unrest, of tension in the air. The Earth +passengers no longer sat dully, apathetically, as they were whizzed +along. Little groups buzzed together, excited, gesticulating.</p> + +<p>Hilary unostentatiously joined one. There was a sudden silence as he +sank quietly into his seat, glances of uneasy suspicion. But he looked +thoroughly innocuous, and the chief whisperer felt emboldened to +resume the thread of his interrupted discourse.</p> + +<p>"There <i>are</i> men left on Earth," he mouthed secretively to the little +circle of heads. "The Mercutians went down like animals—fifteen of +them killed, I hear. The whole company of guards retreated in a +hurry"—he paused for greater effect, and continued slowly and +impressively—"from—three—Earthmen."</p> + +<p>Hilary raised his head sharply. They were discussing his exploit, +evidently. With exaggerations of course. That was inevitable.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," the speaker proceeded, "that shows you. These damned +Mercutians are not invulnerable. They can be overcome, chased off the +Earth. But we've got to be men, not slaves."</p> + +<p>High excitement shone in the surrounding faces.</p> + +<p>"But we ain't got no weapons," a small, weak-chinned man protested.</p> + +<p>The other spat carefully: "No weapons, huh? Man, I could show you—"</p> + +<p>A dark, silent man standing uninterestedly next to him jabbed him in +the ribs. The orator gulped and stammered: "I—I mean—"</p> + +<p>"Psst," someone hissed hurriedly, "the Mercutians."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hree giant Mercutian guards, their sun-tubes at the ready, stumbled +heavily down the aisles of the express, sagging with the pull of +Earth's gravitation. Their gray, warted faces were black as +thunderclouds.</p> + +<p>They stopped before the hastily scattered group.</p> + +<p>"You heard the orders," the hugest one barked: "no congregating of +Earth slaves on the conveyors or elsewhere. Next time you disobey, +I'll ray you. You understand?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Magnificent," the weak-chinned man muttered hurriedly.</p> + +<p>But the little knot reformed immediately after the guards had passed +on.</p> + +<p>"Magnificents!" The first speaker spat viciously. "I'd like to wring +their necks."</p> + +<p>Hilary shifted unobtrusively to another excited cluster. There the +same procedure was followed. A quiet-voiced man was talking, lauding +the exploit of the three embattled Earthmen, skillfully and subtly +enkindling enthusiasm, raising wholesome doubts as to the +invulnerability of the hated Mercutians.</p> + +<p>Numerous patrols of guards stalked up and down the conveyors, +arrogant, manifestly itching for a pretext to ray the conquered. But +the Earthmen gave them no opportunity. The groups melted at their +approach into meek, vacuous individuals; reformed instantly as they +moved on. And there were no informers. The Earthmen had resumed their +almost forgotten Earth solidarity in fronting the invaders.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary watched the restless shifting groups with a glow of pride. This +was his work, the spark he had kindled was being fanned into a steady +blaze. These whisperers, these exhorters, who were they? Members of an +underground organization? Possibly. Wat and Grim had both belonged to +loose circles, vague and shifting in membership. Possibly they were +coalescing now, joining up into a world-wide organization. He hoped +so. It would make his task easier, it also helped restore his pride in +being an Earthman. He had almost thought that this supine listless +race of his was not worth rescuing.</p> + +<p>He reached the terminal in Great New York without untoward incident. +No one challenged this meek, shabby-looking Earthman. The Mercutians +gave him barely a glance; the Earthmen disregarded him when they +whispered together. Hilary was content; he was not seeking undue +notice.</p> + +<p>The terminal was the scene of unwonted activity. The conveyors were +disgorging crowds of Earthmen, grim, determined-looking individuals. +They scattered purposefully through the various exits of the huge +building. Hilary noted with interest that there were no women, no +children, on the constantly incoming expresses.</p> + +<p>The Mercutians were massing, too. The terminal was crowded with +guards. They stalked heavily about, shouldering their Earth slaves +rudely out of the way, sending them sprawling with sudden quick +shoves. It would take only an untoward word, a false movement, to +start a massacre. The Mercutians were deliberately trying to egg them +on.</p> + +<p>But the Earthmen took the abuse, the physical violence, quietly. They +picked themselves up, disappeared through the exits, giving way to new +arrivals. Once Hilary caught a gleam of familiar steel in the +unbuttoned recess of a man's blouse pocket. He smiled. There were +untoward events impending.</p> + +<p>But first he must take care of his own private matter. Joan was a +captive in the hands of the Mercutian Viceroy. What was his name? Wat +had told him. That was it—Artok.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +e was out in the street now, a wide vita-crystal paved thoroughfare, +one of the many that radiated from the terminal like the spokes of a +wheel. On either side was an upflung spray of tall receding towers, +dazzling in the sunshine.</p> + +<p>It struck Hilary suddenly. There had been bright unclouded skies +during the days since his arrival. Only at night had it rained, like +clockwork: every night for fifteen minutes immediately after midnight. +A light steady shower that ceased as suddenly as it sprang up. It was +unusual. This was April in the Spring of 2348 and April was always a +month of showery heavens. Had the Mercutians, accustomed to the +blazing light of their own planet, deliberately managed some way to +create perpetual sunshine on Earth? Very likely, considering the +clockwork night showers, no doubt for the purpose of preventing +droughts. There was the matter of weapons and power, too. They all +depended on the sun.</p> + +<p>Hilary took the inside moving platform. It would take him to the +Robbins Building. The street was black with people, surging back and +forth, restless, ominous.</p> + +<p>Mercutians stalked purposefully along, in companies of ten. Their +guttural voices were harsh with command. The Earthmen scattered out of +their way. Those who were not nimble enough were knocked down, +trampled underfoot.</p> + +<p>One Earthman, braver than the rest, or more foolish, gave vent to a +scream of rage, when a young girl, with whom he was arm in arm, was +wrested brutally away. His fist shot out, caught the leering guard +flush on his chin.</p> + +<p>The Mercutian staggered, then bellowed with rage. His tube flashed +upward. The Earthman's eyes opened wide as with wonder, then he +collapsed, cut cleanly in half.</p> + +<p>There was a full-throated growl from the jammed thoroughfare, a sudden +surging forward. But the guards, reinforced by others, had their tubes +lifted, ominous, death-dealing. The crowd ebbed back hastily.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary had joined the first rush. His blood pounded in his veins at +the unprovoked brutality. For a hasty moment he visioned the +commencement of the revolt. But as the mob retreated before the +weapons, his brain cooled. The time was not ripe yet. It would be +pure slaughter. Besides, there was Joan.</p> + +<p>Once more he was the meek, downtrodden slave. He got off the platform, +shambled over to the Robbins Building, an imposing pile of +vita-crystal. It rose high into the air, overtopping even the great +Memorial Tower. Martin Robbins had been wealthy, very much so. He had +been a physicist of world repute, and this building was a monument to +his inventive genius. The top floors were devoted to marvelously +equipped laboratories. On the roof were the living quarters—dwelling +of many rooms surrounded by an alpine garden. All Great New York +stretched beneath. In the distance the green waters of the Atlantic +dazzled in the sunshine.</p> + +<p>Hilary knew the layout well. It had been his second home before.... He +put the bitter thoughts determinedly behind him. There was work ahead. +The stooped, hollow-cheeked creature shambled aimlessly up to the +entrance. It was filled with Mercutian guards.</p> + +<p>He edged his way along, hoping to pass through unnoticed.</p> + +<p>"Here, you," a burly Mercutian barred his way, "get out of here before +I ray you."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary seemed to shrivel together in mortal terror. He turned to slink +out again. The guard had him by the shoulder, was propelling him with +ungentle paws toward the exit. Hilary let himself be shoved.</p> + +<p>A cold curt voice spoke a sharp command:</p> + +<p>"What have you there?"</p> + +<p>Where had Hilary heard that voice before?</p> + +<p>The pushing guard spun him around hastily.</p> + +<p>"He was trying to get into the building, Cor Urga," he said +respectfully. "These damned Earth slaves are everywhere under foot. +It's time we rayed a few to teach them a lesson."</p> + +<p>Hilary found himself gazing at the gray saturnine countenance that had +burnt itself into his memory. Urga—the Mercutian who had kidnaped +Joan! His muscles tensed suddenly for a quick spring, then relaxed. He +must play the game.</p> + +<p>Urga looked him over carefully, puzzled.</p> + +<p>"Strange," he grunted, "I've seen this fellow before, but I cannot +remember where."</p> + +<p>Hilary was taut. Would he be recognized?</p> + +<p>But the Mercutian Cor—in Earth terms, Captain of a Hundred—shook his +head finally, and turned away. The disguise had held up.</p> + +<p>"All these Earth slaves look alike. This one is a particularly poor +specimen. Turn him loose. If he tries to come in again, kill him.</p> + +<p>"Get," the guard growled viciously, and sent Hilary sprawling out into +the street to the muttering accompaniment of the seething Earth +crowds. The temper of the people was rapidly reaching the explosion +point.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div><p>ut Hilary picked himself up, meekly brushed himself off, and melted +unostentatiously into the moving crowd. He desired no undue attention.</p> + +<p>Strangely enough, there were no Mercutians in sight. Only the surging, +growling Earthmen. Hilary felt their mysterious disappearance to be +ominous—as though they had been warned by some secret signal. +Something terrible was about to happen. He must get to that certain +passageway he knew, and quickly. If only it were not guarded.</p> + +<p>A cry went up about him, a yell of many voices.</p> + +<p>"The Mercutians are coming."</p> + +<p>Hilary whirled. Down the street, issuing from the terminal, deployed +a full regiment of guards, bowed under the strong pull of the Earth, +but formidable enough. Sun-tubes glinted dangerously. A stentorian +voice reached him. "Clear the streets, you Earth dogs," it roared. +"You're been warned enough. One minute to obey and I'll burn you all +down."</p> + +<p>A babel of excited voices went up. The crowds farther down, near the +advancing Mercutians, melted into a wild scramble. Men trampled each +other underfoot in a mad attempt to reach safety before the minute's +expiration.</p> + +<p>Where Hilary had paused, there was a milling indecisiveness. Men were +already quietly edging their way toward adjoining buildings, into side +thoroughfares; others were more belligerent.</p> + +<p>"Kill the bloody beasts!" a man suddenly screamed near Hilary, drawing +a pistol from beneath his blouse. He waved it frantically in the air. +There was an ugly surge, a low-throated growl. It needed very little +for the mob to get out of hand and hurl itself upon the steadily +approaching Mercutian regiment.</p> + +<p>Hilary acted swiftly. He caught the man's pistol arm, thrust it down +sharply out of sight. A quick wrench, and the gun was in his own hand. +The man, wild-eyed, opened his mouth to shout.</p> + +<p>"Shut up," Hilary hissed fiercely. "Are you mad? You wouldn't have a +chance. They'd ray us all clean out of existence." He thrust the +pistol back into the man's blouse. "Wait; our chance will come."</p> + +<p>"Oh, my God! Look!" someone screamed.</p> + +<p>A command shattered the air; the tubes of the Mercutians uplifted; a +blinding sheet of flame blazed solidly down the street. The minute's +grace was up.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_e.jpg" alt="E" width="44" height="50" /></div> +<p>ven at this distance, the heat scorched and seared. There were many +unfortunates caught farther down, men who had had no chance to seek +safety in time. They melted in the furnace blast as though they were +bits of metal in an electric arc.</p> + +<p>"Run for your lives!" the shout went up. All thought of resistance was +gone. It was every one for himself. The man with the gun was the first +to run. Hilary found himself caught in the mad rush. The Mercutians +were pounding along methodically raying in front of them.</p> + +<p>Hilary was thrust into a little eddy of men to one side. It swirled +and shoved. The entrance of the Pullman Building loomed ahead. The +sight of it gave Hilary new vigor. That was his destination. If only +he could make it.</p> + +<p>He straightened out of his stoop, squared his shoulders. The next +instant a human battering ram crashed through the twirling, yelling +mob. Head down, right shoulder and elbow working in unison, a path +magically opened where no path had been before. Every second was +precious now. The heat of the tubes was engulfing him in waves, +raising little blisters on the unprotected skin.</p> + +<p>Hilary plunged into the open entrance of the Pullman Building. It was +packed with humanity, struggling for the lift platforms, to take them +to the upper stories, out of reach of the awful rays. Hilary was +thankful for that. His destination was beneath, in the sub-levels. A +moving escalator led downward. It was deserted.</p> + +<p>A fierce, wild screaming arose outside, screams that gurgled and died +horribly. Hilary felt sick inside. The full blast of the rays had +reached the milling crowd. It would be a hideous and merciless +slaughter.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary's gray eyes burned, his lips set in a straight, hard line. The +beasts would pay for this. He shot down the escalator at full speed. A +spray of passageways met him. He did not hesitate. He chose the one +farthest to the left and dashed along its winding length until he came +to a dead end. The vita-crystal gleamed blankly back at him.</p> + +<p>But Hilary knew what he was doing. Long ago Martin Robbins had told +him of the secret connection between the two adjoining buildings. A +passageway that led between the outer and inner shells of crystal +walls; lifts that shot smoothly to the laboratories and +pent-apartments on the roofs of the two structures. For Simeon Pullman +had been a close friend of Robbins; a fellow physicist, in fact. They +interchanged theories, results of experiments, and found this swift +connection most convenient.</p> + +<p>Both men were dead now—Pullman as the result of a premature +explosion, and Robbins, executed by the Mercutians. But the secret +passageway remained.</p> + +<p>Hilary pressed the secret spring he knew of. A gleaming oblong of +crystal slid silently open. He went in without hesitation and the +slide closed with a little whir behind him.</p> + +<p>A low tunnel confronted him, just barely high enough for him to move +without stooping. The walls here were of burnished metal, glowing with +impregnated cold-light. It was empty, silent. Evidently it had been +undisturbed for years. The Mercutians had not discovered this secret +way then.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he tunnel slanted downward for several hundred yards, then turned +sharply upward until a vita-crystal wall barred the way. Hilary could +hear vague sounds from the other side. He was in the Robbins +Building. He turned to the left, where a shaft stretched upward, +completely enclosed by crystal walls. A thin oblong edging showed the +platform beneath. He stepped on it, hesitated for a moment. There were +two control buttons; one that stopped the lift in the laboratory, the +other in the sleeping room that once was Martin Robbins'.</p> + +<p>Hilary decided in favor of the penthouse; there was less chance of a +present occupant of the room. If there was—he shrugged his shoulders +and loosened the automatic in his blouse. He pressed the button.</p> + +<p>The platform shot smoothly upward, up, up, thrusting a thousand feet +up. At length it came to a gliding halt. Hilary knew he was on the +roof now, in the interior of the wall making one side of the +sleep-apartment. The vita-crystal gleamed mockingly opaque at him. If +only he could see through; if only he had a Mercutian search beam now. +Was there someone in the room on the other side of the wall? He +strained his ears to listen, but the crystal was pretty much +sound-proof.</p> + +<p>Very quietly Hilary drew his gun, broke it, examined the chamber. The +six bullets lay snug. He snapped it back in position, held the +automatic butt against his side, reached over and pressed the release +button.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he slide whirred open. Hilary waited a second, tense, ready to shoot +at the slightest sound. His eyes bored through the oblong. Nothing was +in sight except the luxurious furnishings he remembered so well; +nothing stirred. But his vision was limited to that part of the room +framed by the slide. With infinite caution he peered out, his +searching gaze flicking swiftly, around the sleep-apartment. It was a +man's room with built in divans, automatic sleep-spray, wall rack to +hold illuminated book sheets, magnified so as to be read comfortably +from a reclining position on the divan—in short, the usual ordered +luxuries of a well-furnished sleep-room.</p> + +<p>It was empty—but the divan was touseled, certain small things +disarranged. Someone used this room. Hilary stepped out, leaving the +slide behind him open in case of an enforced retreat. He paused to +think. Where could Joan be held prisoner—if, and it was a big if—she +were really here. He ran over the possibilities.</p> + +<p>The laboratories were out of the question. The great master room then. +No doubt Artok, the Viceroy, had installed himself there. It was +regally magnificent. That might repay a visit. A bold scheme flashed +across his mind. Seize Artok himself, abduct him into the secret +passage, and compel him to disclose Joan's whereabouts, give her up. +Hilary smiled grimly. Sheerly suicidal, yes, but he was desperate now, +and there seemed no other way.</p> + +<p>Gun shifted back into his blouse, with his right hand thrust in, on +the butt, he glided softly out of the chamber. No one was in sight. +The passageway seemed oddly deserted. Possibly the staff had been +attracted to the outer rim of the terrace by the commotion below.</p> + +<p>At the end of the passageway, facing him, was the master room. Another +swift look about, and Hilary was moving down the long corridor, close +to the wall, his footfalls deadened by the soft composition rug.</p> + +<p>Slowly, very slowly, he pressed the button to release the slide. It +slid open at a barely perceptible rate. As the slender crack widened, +Hilary, looked in, taking care to keep his body to one side.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h2><i>In the Hands of the Mercutians</i></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div> +<p> Mercutian was lolling in a reclining chair, his gray, warty face +turned half away from Hilary. He was rather undersized for a +Mercutian, standing not more than seven feet, and his gray, unwieldy +body was heavy and gross as though thickened with good living and +debauch. A fleshy three-fingered hand was pounding vehemently on the +arm of the chair. His guttural roughened voice came clearly to the +listener. He was talking to someone unseen from the angle of the +slowly widening slit. He was annoyed.</p> + +<p>"For the last time I give you the opportunity," the Mercutian +howled—in English. "If you refuse I turn you over to Urga; he wants +you."</p> + +<p>The crack in the door had widened perceptibly. Hilary's heart gave a +tremendous leap. Disclosed to his vision was a figure standing +opposite the Mercutian, slim, defiant, proud—Joan.</p> + +<p>What unimaginable luck! The automatic leaped like a live thing into, +his hand. He crouched, the blood pounding in his temples, waiting for +the slide to come completely open. He dared not reach over for the +button control to shift the speed; the movement might be heard inside.</p> + +<p>The path was clear now. Overpower the Mercutian, escape with Joan down +the deserted corridors back to the secret passageway, emerge below, +return to their hideout in the Ramapos and plan for revolt. It was all +as simple as that.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft1"><img src="images/image_w1.jpg" alt="W" width="78" height="54" /></div> +<p>e must have these Earth slaves," the Mercutian continued, unheeding. +"They, must be made an example of. They are responsible for the +unrest. They have killed Magnificents; and the Earth fools think they +can do the same. They will find out their error soon enough. But as +long as those three live, so long will the slaves hope, and plot."</p> + +<p>"I cannot tell you anything about them," Joan said monotonously. It +was evident that this was not the first time she had said so.</p> + +<p>"Yes you can," the Mercutian said as softly as his gutturals would +permit. "There is one in particular you know a great deal about. Urga +told me. A long-lost lover, no?" His gray-ridged countenance contorted +into a thick disgusting leer.</p> + +<p>"There it something mysterious about him. He has no identification +tag; he releases Peabody; seems not to know the penalties. He has a +pistol, a forbidden weapon; he dares to kill a Magnificent; he eggs on +two others, ordinary Earth slaves to join him; he disappears out of +sight, in spite of all search." He was shouting now, pounding the +chair arm with complete loss of dignity. "Who is he, where does he +come from, where did he go? Answer me?"</p> + +<p>The girl faced him boldly.</p> + +<p>"You are afraid of him, Viceroy," she challenged. "You fear his +example. He has shown what a brave man can do; the Earth people will +follow him. The Mercutians are not invulnerable."</p> + +<p>"Yes," the Viceroy said heavily. He was talking more to himself. Then +he realized his mistake. "No, of course not," he growled hurriedly. +"Enough of this. You tell me what I want to know or I call Urga in."</p> + +<p>Joan's face went white, but she faced him unflinchingly.</p> + +<p>"I do not know where he is, and if I did, I would not tell you."</p> + +<p>"Very well then." The Viceroy leaned over to the table.</p> + +<p>The slide was completely open now.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't call anyone if I were you."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he Viceroy whirled in his chair at the sound of the calm Earth voice, +calm yet deadly in its implications. He found himself staring into the +stubby opening of an Earth automatic, a forbidden weapon. The hand +that held it was steady, and the gray eyes that bored into his were +hard as pebbles.</p> + +<p>There was a smothered gasp from Joan. "Hilary."</p> + +<p>"Yes; come to take you away." He spoke swiftly. "We have no time to +waste, Joan. Is there any binding material in the room?"</p> + +<p>"I—I believe there is. Dad always kept odds and ends in the store +chest near the bookshelves."</p> + +<p>"Go and get it then. We'll truss up his most Mercutian +Magnificence—No you don't," Hilary said harshly; "keep your hands in +front of you and don't move."</p> + +<p>The Viceroy was stealthily reaching for the sun-tube dangling from his +belt. He jerked his hand back, a cold sweat beading his forehead. +Hilary's finger had compressed on the trigger; the slightest extra +pressure meant flaming death.</p> + +<p>"That's better," Hilary approved.</p> + +<p>"You shall pay for this," howled the Mercutian, finding voice again. +"You shall suffer a hundred deaths in one."</p> + +<p>"Softly," Hilary grinned. "Just a little while ago you were very +anxious to meet me. Now that I'm here you don't seem overmuch +pleased." Joan was rummaging frantically in the open chest.</p> + +<p>The Viceroy started, his unlidded pink eyes opened wider. But he was +careful to keep his hands in plain view.</p> + +<p>"You are the Earth dog who killed the Magnificents."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't call names," Hilary advised. "It might be unhealthy. But I +am that very individual. And I trust"—he bowed mockingly-"to have +more notches on my gun before I am through."</p> + +<p>"You—you—shall be taken to Mercury. My father has special places for +such as you." Joan was coming now swiftly with lengths of wire, soft +thick material for swathing.</p> + +<p>"Get me there first," Hilary said indifferently. "Gag him, Joan, so he +can't open his ugly mouth any more. Then tie him up, well."</p> + +<p>Joan thrust the gag into the thick gash of a mouth, choking off a +torrent of imprecations in the guttural Mercutian tongue. Then she +proceeded to truss him, expertly, efficiently.</p> + +<p>"Good job," Hilary approved. "Now with your kind permission, Most +Viceregal Magnificence, we shall go." He bowed mockingly. "Come, +Joan."</p> + +<p>"Not so fast, Earth slave." A cold saturnine voice resounded like the +clang of doom behind him. He whirled, shifting his gun swiftly for a +quick shot.</p> + +<p>A little gush of heat caught his trigger hand as the index finger +contracted desperately. The smarting pain tore the pistol out of his +hand. It dropped to the floor, unheeded. Hilary found himself staring +into the gross unpleasant face of Urga, a sun-tube trained directly at +his midriff.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft1"><img src="images/image_t1.jpg" alt="T" width="64" height="54" /></div> +<p>he Earth slave who tried to slink into the building," Urga said, +surprised. "How did he get up here?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," the Viceroy said shortly, working the gag out of his +mouth. "Don't stand there like a fool. Untie me." Gratitude was not +among the Viceroy's virtues.</p> + +<p>Urga's face mottled as he hastened to obey. When Artok stood finally +released, he glared heavily at Hilary and Joan. Then slowly a smile +broke over his warty features, a smile that boded unutterable things. +Hilary waited quietly, ready to seize the slightest opening; Joan +pressed wide-eyed against his shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Know this Earth dog?" the Viceroy jerked at Hilary.</p> + +<p>Urga's glance was puzzled. "I told you I threw him out of the +entrance, but even then I felt I had seen him before."</p> + +<p>"You have, Cor Urga," the ruler laughed shortly. "This is the one who +is responsible for the mutterings of the slaves. He slew your comrade, +Gornu."</p> + +<p>The captain started, peered into his captive's unflinching +countenance.</p> + +<p>"He's disguised!" he cried. "Let me kill him, Magnificent." He +fingered his sun-tube significantly.</p> + +<p>The Viceroy was in high good humor now.</p> + +<p>"Not so fast. You would let him off too easy. I have a better scheme. +We shall show the mutinous dogs how we treat those who revolt against +our will."</p> + +<p>A cruel smile broke over Urga.</p> + +<p>"I understand, Magnificent. Make a public warning of him like that +fool Peabody. Rip out his tongue and his eyes, smash his eardrums, and +ride him from city to city, in chains."</p> + +<p>"Exactly."</p> + +<p>Joan shuddered, convulsively. "No, no," she cried aloud in her terror, +"don't do that. I'll tell you everything; I'll do—"</p> + +<p>"Joan," Hilary interrupted sharply, "not another word." His arm went +around her.</p> + +<p>She collapsed against his shoulder, sobbing.</p> + +<p>"It is too late for bargains now," the Viceroy shrugged indifferently. +"We have the man we wanted. As for the other two, you will tell us +where they are hiding anyway."</p> + +<p>Urga turned to him expectantly.</p> + +<p>"Your Magnificence," he urged respectfully, "you promised me the girl, +if—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, take her." The Viceroy waved a weary hand. "I don't want her; I +have too many as it is."</p> + +<p>The captain's face lit up with an unhealthy glow. He approached +eagerly to seize his prize. Joan gave a little cry of dismay, and +shrank closer to her lover.</p> + +<p>Hilary tensed in every muscle. Though it meant instant death, he would +not permit that towering brute to lay his clumsy paw on Joan.</p> + +<p>Urga reached out to clasp the frightened girl. Hilary seemed to +uncoil. His fist shot straight up with all the power of his body +behind it. It crashed into the jutting jaw of the Mercutian like a +charge of high explosive dynol. For all his height and massive +strength, the giant toppled over, thudding heavily against the floor.</p> + +<p>For the moment Hilary saw freedom ahead. The sun-tube had fallen from +the nerveless fingers. He darted for it with the speed of a striking +snake. Even as his fingers curled around the handle, there came a roar +from the Viceroy.</p> + +<p>"Drop it, or I'll cut you in two."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary knew when he was beaten. Slowly, reluctantly, his fingers +uncurled. He arose, to meet the gleaming opening of the Viceroy's +weapon, and the surprised stare in back of it.</p> + +<p>Urga got up groggily, feeling gingerly the tender point of his jaw. +There was unfathomable hatred in his lidless eyes.</p> + +<p>The Viceroy chuckled throatily.</p> + +<p>"I never thought, Cor Urga, to have seen a puny Earthman, a mere +midget, overcome a Mercutian. Especially you, a winner of the prize +of strength three times running in the arenas."</p> + +<p>Urga flushed darkly.</p> + +<p>"It was an unexpected blow; it caught me unawares," he said heatedly. +"I'll break the slave in two."</p> + +<p>"Try it—without your sun-tube," said Hilary laconically.</p> + +<p>The captain made a movement toward him.</p> + +<p>"Leave him alone," Artok cried sharply. He seemed to enjoy his +Captain's discomfiture. "I have other plans for him. Now go. Take the +girl with you. I'll watch this presumptuous Earthling."</p> + +<p>Urga advanced with an evil grin. Hilary thrust Joan suddenly behind +him; crouching like a cat. He would go down fighting. For all his +bulk, the Viceroy wheeled on his flank, raised his weapon.</p> + +<p>"One false move, and you are dead carrion," he said coldly. His weapon +was raised. Hilary was caught between two fires, exposed to the +searing blasts that would issue at the slightest pressure.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless he intended to strike. A sudden swerving jump, and he +might throttle one before he would be blasted into nothingness. It +would be Urga, he decided grimly. He tensed for the final desperate, +suicidal spring. The two Mercutians were watching him like unsheathed +hawks.</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Joan," he whispered, and his muscles went taut.</p> + +<p>Urga paused, his weapon came up sharply. One little pressure, and—</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>here was a commotion in the outer hall, the sound of padding feet. +The four in the master room froze into immobility. Two Mercutian +guards stumbled panting into the room. They came to a jerking halt, +threw themselves prone upon the floor, arms outstretched in +obeisance.</p> + +<p>"May we speak, oh Magnificent?" they asked humbly.</p> + +<p>"Say your say," the Viceroy said crossly.</p> + +<p>They rose to their feet heavily, and one of them spoke.</p> + +<p>"The Earth dogs are revolting. The Cors of the outlying districts +report that the slaves are massing and are marching on Great New York. +They are armed with Earth weapons. The Cor of the Third District +reports two men responsible—one is a giant among them, almost as tall +as our own kind; and the other a puny red-haired firebrand. The Cor +has tried to capture them, but they are elusive. Even the search beams +cannot disclose their hiding place."</p> + +<p>Hilary's heart gave a great bound. Grim and Wat had not waited then.</p> + +<p>The Viceroy's face darkened with anger.</p> + +<p>"The filthy scum," he growled; "this morning's lesson was not enough. +This time I'll slay, burn, smash until there isn't a single rebel +left. I'll fertilize their damned Earth with their own black blood. +You, Cor Urga," he snapped, "transmit my orders to the Cors of the +Hundreds. They are to mobilize their men at once, and proceed in +accordance with instructions known to them as General Order One. All +conveyors to be stopped except for troop movements. Every slave found +with weapons, or acting suspiciously, to be slain on the spot. Flying +patrols to scatter in pairs, observe for concentrations of slaves. Ray +any gathering without warning. Inform Cor Algor of the <i>Tora</i> (this +was the great armed diskoid of the Mercutians that had previously +reduced Great New York, Hilary found out afterwards) to resume his +station over the city, ready to act when I give the signal."</p> + +<p>Even in the conflict of emotions, Hilary marveled at the +unhesitating, snapped flow of orders. The Viceroy, in spite of his +seeming gross lethargy, was a soldier, and an efficient one to boot.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Magnificent." Urga bowed low, and departed, thrusting a +malignant glance at Hilary.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he Viceroy thrust off from him his bright yellow robes, wriggled his +vast bulk swiftly into a close-fitting dull-gray tunic. To his belt he +fastened little round knobs; the sun-tube dangled swankily at one +side. He was accoutered for battle.</p> + +<p>He seemed to have forgotten the existence of the Earthlings.</p> + +<p>"You," he snapped to one of the waiting guards, "go to the laboratory +at once; convey my strict orders to Cor Eela that the weather machine +must function perfectly. There must be no slip-up—his life will +answer for it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, oh Magnificence." The guard prostrated himself once more, then +departed hastily.</p> + +<p>Vast echoes resounded in Hilary's mind. "Weather machine—weather +machine," he puzzled, holding Joan the tighter. There was more to this +than met the eye. He must think.</p> + +<p>The Viceroy turned suddenly, stared at them, fingering his tube.</p> + +<p>"I could of course have you killed at once," he thought aloud, "and +have no further trouble; but then Urga would be angry." His lidless +eyes rested fleetingly on Joan. "And I would lose my public warning to +the few Earth dogs who will survive. If it weren't that I needed them +to till the fields, and work the machines, I would not leave a single +one alive."</p> + +<p>He seemed to come to a decision. "You'll wait my return." He spoke +sharply to the guard. "Bind them up well. Thrust gags into their +mouths." He grimaced. "I can taste mine yet. And remember, if they +escape, just turn that sun-tube of yours on yourself. It will be +pleasanter for you. Understand?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Magnificent."</p> + +<p>The obsequious guard caught hold of Hilary, under the watchful tube of +Artok, and proceeded with clumsy weighted fingers to tie him up. +Hilary did not resist. An idea was slowly forming in his mind. Joan's +turn came next.</p> + +<p>When they were trussed so tightly that neither could move, the Viceroy +smiled mockingly. "We shall meet again, Earth dogs," he said, and was +gone.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h2><i>Rescued</i></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div> +<p>he guard looked at his captives sourly, kicked viciously at Hilary to +relieve his feelings. There was fighting to be had outside; Earth +slaves to be tortured and slain, and he was out of it—wet nurse to a +couple of prisoners.</p> + +<p>He growled disconsolately. Through an open slide window giving out on +the terrace, a confused roaring, a babel of sounds came filtering +through. There was trouble below—fighting already, very likely. The +Mercutian glanced back at his bound and gagged prisoners. They were +immobile, helpless. He looked guiltily about. The great room was bare, +silent. With almost furtive movements he opened the door leading to +the terrace, stumbled out, and was leaning over the parapet, absorbed +in the spectacle of Great New York below.</p> + +<p>Instantly, Hilary lifted his head, exerting to the utmost his muscles. +He could just see the guard's back, strained over the side. Hilary +relaxed rolled painfully over to Joan. She stared at him wide-eyed.</p> + +<p>If only he could make her understand. He must get the gag out of his +mouth. Every moment was precious; the guard might return momentarily. +He screwed his face into tremendous contortions, wiggled his feet as +much as he could, worked his jaws, trying desperately to convey his +meaning.</p> + +<p>Joan watched him puzzled; trying to follow those strange contortions. +Beads of perspiration started on his brow as her face registered blank +incomprehension. Just as he was giving up in despair, she grasped the +idea. Her face brightened, and her shapely head nodded stiffly.</p> + +<p>The trussed-up pair started at once to pivot around on the floor. +Fortunately the composition was polished, affording little friction. +With infinite pains the maneuver was completed. They lay side by side +now. Joan's trim feet close to Hilary's head.</p> + +<p>Writhing and contorting, she worked the sharp heel of her foot against +the thick wad of the gag in Hilary's mouth, and pushed. It was solidly +tied, but it gave a little. Encouraged, she redoubled her efforts, +pushing with all the limited force of her bound limbs.</p> + +<p>The yielding gag cut cruelly, the sharp heel scraped and gouged into +Hilary's cheeks, but he did not mind. He was in a fever of +apprehension. If only the guard's interest were held by the events +below until he had accomplished what he intended!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div><p>t last his mouth was free. The gag had been pushed over his nose. +Joan rolled away. She had accomplished the task Hilary had set her, +but she was still puzzled. What earthly good would it do him to talk?</p> + +<p>She found out almost immediately. He was twisting his head, burrowing +with his nose against the blouse over his right shoulder. The open +tunic give a bit, and he burrowed painfully, Joan watching with +growing fascination, until one of the binding wires stopped further +progress. But it seemed far enough, judging from the satisfied +illumination in Hilary's eyes.</p> + +<p>He spoke, his mouth pressed close against the shoulder blade, his +tones queerly muffled, thick.</p> + +<p>"Grim Morgan, Wat Tyler, Grim Morgan, Wat Tyler," he whispered over +and over again. He could not hear if there was any response; his ears +were muffled now by the spread gag. He could not help that.</p> + +<p>"Grim Morgan, Wat Tyler," he muttered monotonously, "Hilary Grendon +calling. Held prisoner with Joan, top of Robbins Building. Guarded. +Urgent you free us. Artok has sent out general death orders. I have +plan to stop him. Come, quickly."</p> + +<p>Over and over he murmured the message, hoping desperately they would +hear him in the communication disks strapped to their shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Come quickly," he repeated; and then the guard, tiring of the view +below, or the streets having been cleared of rebels, came softly into +the room. Hilary's head jerked quickly back, the shoulder of his tunic +falling back into position.</p> + +<p>"Here, what's this?" the guard growled suspiciously, catching sight of +the displaced gag. "How on Mercury did you do that?"</p> + +<p>He knelt swiftly, thrust the gag back into position with ungentle paw, +kicked the unresisting form in the side to show his displeasure, and +rose. Hilary's heart pounded; the guard had not seen the inconspicuous +disk under the tunic. He was in an agony of expectation. Had his +comrades caught his message? Could they rescue him even if they had? +Questions that only time could answer.</p> + +<p>The guard was alert now; he did not like that queer removal of the +gag. There would be no further chance to unbind themselves. What +seemed hours passed as they lay cramped, immobile.</p> + +<p>The air grew thick and warm, or was it only his imagination? No, for +the guard felt it, too. Then something buzzed, intermittently. One +long, two short. It seemed to emanate from a round black button on the +sleeve of his gray tunic. A signal!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he guard exclaimed something in guttural Mercutian, rose hastily, and +closed the open door and window. He pressed another button, and +sheeted lead curtains rolled swiftly over the vita-crystal roof, +darkening the room, cutting off the rays of diffused sunlight. Then he +seated himself not far from the captives, facing them, grinning +savagely. Hilary wondered why.</p> + +<p>Again what seemed hours passed. Behind the lead curtain, the room had +become definitely, uncomfortably warm. The Earthlings perspired; the +atmosphere was literally steaming; and in their cramped limbs, the +torture was fast becoming unbearable. Only the Mercutian guard did not +seem to mind. He was accustomed to far higher temperatures on the arid +planet that was his home.</p> + +<p>Just as the prisoners were gasping almost their last gasp, the heat +seemed to recede, swiftly. At once the guard rolled back the leaden +shade opened the door and window again. His grin was broadly +triumphant. Something clutched at Hilary's heart; he understood now. +The beastly invaders! He struggled furiously at his bonds, but they +did not give. He ceased his efforts, panting.</p> + +<p>The moments passed. Hilary was giving up whatever slender hopes he had +had. Wat and Grim had not heard, or if they did, they could do +nothing. A slow, sullen despair enveloped him.</p> + +<p>He was watching the guard. That gray-faced giant turned his head +suddenly, jumped up as fast as his lumbering alien weight could move, +snatched at his sun-tube.</p> + +<p>"Don't move an inch, if you want to live," a deep, slow voice vibrated +through the room. A well-remembered voice. Hilary would have laughed +aloud his relief, but he was gagged. His comrades had not failed them.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he guard dropped his half-raised weapon sullenly, staring at the +intruders in dazed incomprehension. Hilary jerked his head around. +Framed in the doorway was Grim—good old Grim—a long-barreled dynol +pistol steady in his hand. From behind him there darted a little +figure, red-haired, freckled, shrill with delight. An old-fashioned +submachine gun, abstracted from some museum, weighed heavily under his +arm.</p> + +<p>It clattered unheeded to the floor as the bantam dived for Hilary and +Joan.</p> + +<p>"We came as fast as we could when we got your message," he crowed. +"Dropped everything." His nimble fingers were making havoc of the +knotted bonds, while his nimbler tongue wagged on. "Boy, we have them +on the run. We'll sweep them out into space by the time we're +through."</p> + +<p>Hilary and Joan were free now. Very painfully they rose to their feet, +stamping and pounding their arms to make the sluggish blood circulate +again. Wat hopped about in his excitement.</p> + +<p>"Here, you little runt," Grim's voice boomed at him, "stop jumping +around, and tie up this Mercutian. We have no time to waste."</p> + +<p>Wat groaned comically. "See how that big ox orders me around," he +proclaimed, but he picked up the wire and in a trice had the guard +helpless and glaring.</p> + +<p>Hilary had recovered his speech.</p> + +<p>"Thanks, boys," he told them simply. "I knew you'd come if it was +humanly possible. But how did you manage to get through the +Mercutians? The building is honeycombed with them."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_m.jpg" alt="M" width="60" height="50" /></div> +<p>organ grinned. "We came in the <i>Vagabond</i>," he said.</p> + +<p>"What," almost yelled Hilary, "you mean—"</p> + +<p>"That your ship is resting comfortably outside on the terrace. When +little Wat here caught your message in the communication disk, we were +busy organizing companies of Earthmen in the hills back of Suffern. As +recruits poured in, we'd tell them off in hundreds, appoint officers, +see that they had arms, or gave them directions where to find the old +caches, and hustled them off. Had to shift our quarters continually, +because Mercutian fliers would pick us up with their search-beams, and +start raying. Had some close shaves. But when we heard you were +caught, we turned over the command to the nearest new officer, hurried +to the gorge, and here we are. The <i>Vagabond</i> handled beautifully."</p> + +<p>"I could take her myself to the Moon," Wat boasted.</p> + +<p>"Hadn't we better be going?" Joan asked anxiously.</p> + +<p>"There is work first to be done," Hilary, answered grimly. "There's a +certain weather machine in the laboratory I want to take a look at."</p> + +<p>"Weather machine?" Grim echoed, puzzled.</p> + +<p>"Yes. The Viceroy let something slip about it. For some reason it's +very important to them that it continues to function. I'm curious."</p> + +<p>A gasp from Joan. Surprised, the men turned to her.</p> + +<p>"Of course," she said breathlessly. "Father had been working on it for +the longest time. It was a machine to control weather. Something to +do with broadcasting tremendously high voltages, ionizing the air and +causing rain clouds to form or reversing the process and scattering +clouds back into thin air. This was the Master Machine. All over the +Earth, at spaced distances, were smaller replicas, substations, +controlled from this one. He had great hopes of furnishing equable +weather to all the Earth. It was just completed, when...." She trailed +off.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_g.jpg" alt="G" width="50" height="50" /></div> +<p>rim frowned. "Very interesting, but what is so terribly important +about it now?"</p> + +<p>"You fool," Hilary exploded, "it's as important as hell. Don't you +see? What are the Mercutians' weapons? Sun-tubes, sun-rays from their +fliers, tremendous burning disks that are their space-ships. +Sun—sun—everything they have depends upon the sun. Take away the +sun, and what have they? Nothing but their hideous giant bodies—they +are weaponless. Now do you see?" He fairly shouted at him.</p> + +<p>Grim's face lit up heavily; Wat was dancing insanely.</p> + +<p>"Get hold of the machine, reverse the process. Make it form clouds, +great big woolly ones. Start a rain that'll make the Deluge look sick; +forty days—a year—and we'll drown them all," Wat cried.</p> + +<p>"Exactly," Hilary nodded. "Joan darling, you and Wat get into the +<i>Vagabond</i>, and wait for us. Grim and I will take care of the +laboratory."</p> + +<p>"What?" Tyler ejaculated. "Leave me cooped up when there's a fight on. +I'm coming."</p> + +<p>"So am I," Joan was pale but determined.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Lord," Hilary groaned. "Listen to me, please," he said patiently. +"Time is precious, and I can't argue. Joan, you would only be a +hindrance. I for one would be thinking more of protecting you than +fighting. As for you, Wat," he turned to the furious bantam, "I'm +sorry, but you'll have to take orders. The <i>Vagabond</i> must be guarded. +If we're cut off, we're through. And there's Joan."</p> + +<p>"Well. If you want to put it that way," Wat grumbled.</p> + +<p>"I knew you'd be sensible," Hilary said hurriedly, not giving them a +chance to change their minds. "At the slightest alarm, take off. Don't +try to rescue us if we don't return. The Earth cause is more important +than any individual. If you get caught, too, the revolt will be +leaderless; at an end."</p> + +<p>The men shook hands gravely. Joan, white-faced, kissed Hilary +passionately. "Be careful, my dear."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hen the two men were gone, moving cautiously down the corridor with +deadened footfalls. Hilary had retrieved his automatic; Grim had his +more modern dynol pistol. The guard had been thrust into a corner, +bound, unnoticed.</p> + +<p>The laboratory was on the floor below. They trod carefully down the +inclined ramp connecting all the floors. The corridors, the ramp, were +deserted.</p> + +<p>"All out fighting," Hilary whispered. "The revolt must be spreading."</p> + +<p>Grim swore. "The idiots. I told them not to start anything until I +returned. They'll be wiped out—they weren't ready."</p> + +<p>Hilary nodded slowly. He thought of the strange heat while he had been +captive. There would be very few Earthmen left alive in Great New York +now.</p> + +<p>They were at the foot of the ramp now. Just ahead gleamed an open +slide. A pale-blue light streamed out at them; in the oblong of the +interior they could see moving shapes, weirdly cut off, crossing their +field of vision; bright gleaming machines, segments of tremendous +tubes flooded with the pale-blue light. And over all was a constant +hum, a crackling, a whining of spinning parts. The laboratory!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h2><i>The Weather Machine</i></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div> +<p>he two men flattened themselves against the wall so that they could +not be seen by a casual glance from the Mercutians inside the +laboratory.</p> + +<p>"There are a lot of them," Grim whispered.</p> + +<p>"Can't help it," Hilary answered grimly. "Have to take our chances."</p> + +<p>"Of course," Grim said simply. There was no backing out.</p> + +<p>Silently, with catlike tread, they inched their way forward flat +against the wall, keeping out of the blue flood of illumination. The +shapes, or rather segments of shapes within, moved about, engrossed in +the business at hand, unaware of the creeping death.</p> + +<p>The Earthmen had reached their stations unobserved, one on either side +of the open slide. Very carefully Hilary protruded his head around the +vita-crystal, and ducked back almost instantly. But his quick eye had +taken in all the essential details in that momentary vision.</p> + +<p>There were about a dozen Mercutians in the long laboratory, and each +had a sun-tube dangling from his belt, ready at hand. The laboratory +was crowded with apparatus, but what had drawn Hilary's attention was +a gigantic gleaming metallic sphere set up prominently in the center +of the room. Protruding from it at all angles were great quartz tubes, +through which a blue light pulsed and flamed. It was connected by huge +cables to a spark-bathed dynamo. Other cables writhed through the +translucent ceiling. The weather machine!</p> + +<p>Hilary took a firmer grip on his automatic, nodded once to Grim. The +two Earthmen stepped simultaneously through the open door.</p> + +<p>"Raise your paws high and keep them up." Hilary's voice cracked like a +whip through the busy confusion of the laboratory. The Mercutians, +scattered as they were, whirled around from their tasks to face two +deadly weapons held by two determined-looking men.</p> + +<p>There was a chorus of strange guttural oaths, but every hand moved +skyward, reluctantly.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary picked out the most blasphemous sounding of the cursers, +rightly deeming him the Cor in charge.</p> + +<p>"You," he said, "what switches regulate the weather machine?"</p> + +<p>The Mercutian Cor was a particularly ugly specimen. The gray warts +were gigantic, hiding whatever semblance of manlike features there +might have been beneath.</p> + +<p>"I'll see you dogs burned to a cinder in the sun first," he growled.</p> + +<p>"Keep them covered, Grim," Hilary said sharply. "I'll take care of +this fellow personally."</p> + +<p>He walked straight across the room for the Cor, eyes blazing, index +finger on trigger. The Cor, fear staring out of his lidless eyes, +backed slowly away from the approaching death. There was a hushed +silence.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell, I'll tell!" the Cor screamed, as the relentless weapon +almost touched his paunchy stomach.</p> + +<p>"I thought you would," Hilary said grimly, not for an instant relaxing +the pressure against the trigger. "If you value your worthless hide, +you'd better talk, and talk fast. What switch reverses the machine, to +bring on rain? If you are wise, you won't try to fool me."</p> + +<p>The wretch almost stumbled in his eagerness. "By the gray soil of +Mercury I'll tell you the truth." His arm flung up, pointing. "That +knob over there controls the—"</p> + +<p>Hilary never heard the rest. There was a crash at the other end of the +laboratory. One of the Mercutians, tired of keeping his arms high +extended, had attempted to rest his huge bulk against a laboratory +table. It went over with a splintering crash of glassware.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary whirled around to face the noise. As he did so, the Cor seized +his opportunity. His right arm dropped to his side, jerked up his +sun-tube. Hilary heard Grim's warning cry, tried to pivot back again. +But Grim beat him to it. The dynol pistol exploded sharply; the +flaming pellet caught the Cor square in his side. There was a dull +explosion and the Cor was torn violently into bits. He dropped, a mass +of shapeless blobs.</p> + +<p>But now hell had broken loose. The Mercutians were not cowards. At the +moment of the diversion, every one of them had gone for his sun-tube. +A flame streaked close to Hilary's head, shivered the opposite wall +into molten fragments. He ducked behind a table and fired. A Mercutian +threw up his hands, staggered and pitched forward heavily. Grim's +dynol bullets whined in their passage, spattered the laboratory with +flying blobs of flesh. They did terrible execution. Hilary's automatic +spat its leaden hail.</p> + +<p>But the Mercutians were entrenched now behind tables, machinery, +whatever cover they could find. The beams from half a dozen sun-tubes +slithered across the room, burning flaming paths through the +overheated air, bringing the very walls down about them. It could not +last long. Already Hilary had a nasty burn across one shoulder; there +was a streak of red across Grim's forehead as he hid behind the panel +of the entrance, whipping his pistol around to fire, and ducking back +again. There were too many of the enemy, and overwhelming +reinforcements could be expected any moment. The Earthmen's position +was desperate.</p> + +<p>Through it all the great weather machine hummed and crackled; the +tubes were sheets of surging flame. Hilary cursed softly. If only the +Cor had completed his sentence before he died. Hilary would have +chanced a sudden rush forward to reverse it, to bring on a deluge of +rain and clouds, even though it meant certain death. The machine +seemed to gleam at him mockingly; the hum continued with tantalizing +smoothness.</p> + +<p>"Look out," Grim's voice came to him sharply. He jerked his head back, +just in time. A ray streaked past his ear like a thunderbolt. The heat +from it scorched his face.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he Mercutians were stealthily crawling nearer, pushing heavy, tables +in front of them as shields. He was almost outflanked now. In another +minute he would be exposed.</p> + +<p>Hilary thought rapidly. His position was untenable. He would have to +run for it. A sudden dash to the door might possibly win through. But +the machine! He set his teeth hard. If he could not change the +weather, at least he could destroy the infernal thing, stop its +grinding out perfect sunshine for the Mercutians.</p> + +<p>He lifted his weapon. Off to one side a Mercutian arm advanced +cautiously, bringing up a sun-tube. He swung on it and fired. The +sun-tube clattered to the floor and the arm jerked back, accompanied +by a howl of anguish. Hilary smiled grimly, took careful aim at the +metal sphere of the machine. The bullet leaped true for its mark. A +little round hole showed—but nothing happened. The infernal machine +hummed softly as ever.</p> + +<p>He cursed, fired again. Another round hole, and that was all. With +increasing viciousness he turned his aim on the quartz tubes, pierced +them through and through. Before his very eyes, the quartz seemed to +run and melt around the holes, to seal them tight as if he had never +shot. The blue flames leaped and surged mockingly. The Mercutians were +jeering now; raucous calls went up.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary felt a sinking despair. He had failed; would have to run for it +now. Small chance to make it, too. Then he heard Grim's deep bass. +"Hold it a moment," he said as if he had read his thoughts.</p> + +<p>Fascinated, Hilary saw the giant's pistol slowly thrust its long +barrel around the edge of the crystal slide. A half dozen rays leaped +viciously, for it. But a flaming pellet streaked out of its orifice +before it was jerked back.</p> + +<p>Hilary could see its red path as it struck the sphere of the machine. +The next instant there was a dull explosion and the whole machine +disintegrated into a smother of flying fragments. The expanding dynol +had done the trick where lead had failed. There would be no more +weather control.</p> + +<p>But Hilary did not pause to see the finish. Even as the machine burst, +he was running across the room, bending low. Fragments whizzed by him +at a fearful clip; rays crisscrossed all about him.</p> + +<p>But somehow he was through. Grim's finger was on the slide button. It +closed with a snap behind him, cutting off the pursuing howls of rage.</p> + +<p>Silently the two men darted up the ramp to the pent-apartment, dashed +into the master bedroom. The Mercutian guard whom they had left +securely bound, was gone. The Earthmen looked at each other, a great +fear in their eyes. In one bound Hilary was at the door slide, +thrusting it open. He tore out upon the open terrace, Grim right +behind him.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>hey looked wildly about. The terrace was empty. There was no sign of +the <i>Vagabond</i>, or of Joan and Wat. High overhead hovered a great +burnished diskoid. Long streamlined Mercutian fliers darted through +the air, but nowhere was there a sign of the familiar sphere.</p> + +<p>Hilary gripped his companion's arm. "They've been captured, Grim," he +choked.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense," the giant said gruffly, to hide his own misgivings. "They +just took alarm at something and winged off."</p> + +<p>"But where is the guard then?"</p> + +<p>Grim shook his head. He could not answer that. Despair overwhelmed +Hilary. After all he had gone through, to have Joan snatched away from +him at the moment of success. It was terrible. Wat too, that +freckled-faced bantam.</p> + +<p>"I should never have left them alone," he accused himself +remorsefully.</p> + +<p>"Here," said Grim sharply, "none of that. You did exactly the proper +thing. We'll find them yet."</p> + +<p>It was a confidence that he did not feel. There was the noise of +padding feet up the ramp. The Mercutians were coming, in force.</p> + +<p>Grim gripped Hilary by the shoulder, shook him vigorously. "They're +coming. We're trapped."</p> + +<p>Grendon snapped out of the lethargy into which he had sunk, face drawn +and gray.</p> + +<p>"No. There is a way. Follow me."</p> + +<p>The first of the Mercutians pounded heavily into the room when Hilary +had thrust Grim into the secret lift. He whirled and fired. The +Mercutian coughed and fell forward. Other gray warty faces, furious, +thrust from behind their dying comrade. But Hilary was in the lift, +pressing the button for full speed down. A darting ray showered them +with rounded smoking bits of vita-crystal, but they were dropping +headlong through the building.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>en minutes later they emerged cautiously from the entrance to the +Pullman Building. It was deserted, deathly still. The two Earthmen +stopped short, horror-struck at what they saw.</p> + +<p>The streets were shambles. Hundreds of bodies lay sprawled in tumbling +twisted heaps. Earthmen all, with here and there the grotesque huge +bulk of a Mercutian who had failed to hear the warning signal. The +bodies were scorched, blackened. Raw agony appeared on contorted +desperate faces. It was not good to look upon.</p> + +<p>"Wh—what has happened?" Grim gasped, his breath coming heavily.</p> + +<p>"Just a little pleasantry of the Mercutians," Hilary said bitterly. He +looked upward. High overhead hovered a gigantic shape, motionless.</p> + +<p>Its great disk, burnished and dazzling in the cloudless sky, seemed to +cast a sinister shadow over the city it had destroyed a second time.</p> + +<p>"There's the toy that did it," said Hilary. "I felt the heat while I +was a captive up in the Robbins Building. You must have flown over +after, and missed it."</p> + +<p>Grim shook a great brawny fist aloft. His deceptively mild eyes were +hard flames now. His face was set in great strong ridges. Hilary had +never seen him this way before.</p> + +<p>"I'll rip every Mercutian to pieces with my bare hands—shred him into +little bits." He meant it too. Hilary shuddered.</p> + +<p>Far off down the wide thoroughfare came the glint of weapons, the +sight of massed ranks. A Mercutian patrol was shambling along, +heavy-gaited.</p> + +<p>"Come on, Grim, let's get out of here," said Hilary.</p> + +<p>They flattened like shadows against the wall, slunk stealthily through +radiating streets. As much as possible they kept their eyes away from +the sickening sights, the poor burned bodies of their fellow men. +Steadily they headed for the branch local conveyors as being less +likely to be under surveillance.</p> + +<p>The Ramapos was their destination. Hilary went dully, listlessly. Joan +was gone again; this time he could not possibly know where. Every step +he took though, seemed to lead him farther away from her. His glazed +eye searched the shining skies as he stumbled along. Not a sign +anywhere of the <i>Vagabond</i>. Only the hateful swift-moving Mercutian +fliers.</p> + +<p>It was only Grim's insistence that kept him going. The secret gorge +was the headquarters of the revolt, he argued. If the fools he had +left in charge hadn't thrown their men recklessly on New York against +his instructions to join that last foolhardy heroic attack, there was +still a chance of salvaging the revolution.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h2><i>Back to the Ramapos</i></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div> +<p>t was dark when they reached the first swellings of the Ramapo Range. +It was dangerous to try and make their way through tangled brush and +mountain trails. All night they camped on the bare ground, sleeping +fitfully, cramped cold, shivering. They dared not light a fire; it +would draw instant unwelcome attention.</p> + +<p>When dawn came, they were on the move, glad to stretch their sodden +limbs. Unerringly Grim homed for the invisible cleft. Nothing stirred +in the forests, even the birds seemed gone. The fog had lifted, the +sun blazed forth in unclouded majesty. The damp on them dried quickly.</p> + +<p>But Grim shook his fist at the unwitting orb.</p> + +<p>"Damn that weather machine," he growled. "Breaking it seems to have +made matters worse. Even the regular midnight shower has stopped. I'd +give ten years of my life for the sight of a cloud."</p> + +<p>"It will never rain again," Hilary said wearily. "It has forgotten +how."</p> + +<p>The bright sunny sky seemed a brazen hell to the footsore Earthmen. It +mocked and jeered at them with sparkling waves of warmth.</p> + +<p>Before them was an unbroken mass of underbrush. The next instant they +were on the brink of the chasm.</p> + +<p>"They haven't found us yet," said Morgan, surveying the looped end of +the rope ladder. They climbed swiftly down the swaying rungs. The rock +slanted with them, turned sharply and fell sheer. Below there was a +confused murmur, the sound of movement.</p> + +<p>A voice came floating up to them, sharp, commanding.</p> + +<p>"Stop where you are, you two. You're covered."</p> + +<p>"It's Morgan," Grim bellowed, not pausing an instant in his descent.</p> + +<p>The next instant he dropped lightly to the floor of the gorge. A +moment later Hilary stepped beside him.</p> + +<p>Men were crowding about Grim, clean-cut, determined-looking Earthmen. +Nothing like the men he had encountered on his first trip on the +express conveyor. The bottom of the gorge had all the appearance of a +wartime camp.</p> + +<p>There were at least a hundred men encamped in the narrow cleft, +crowded and crowding. A tall man thrust himself forward, spare, +angular.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft1"><img src="images/image_w1.jpg" alt="W" width="78" height="54" /></div> +<p>elcome, Captain Morgan," he cried. "We had given up all hopes of +seeing you again."</p> + +<p>"Hello, Waters," said Grim. "Where's Lieutenant Pemberton?"</p> + +<p>The other looked shamefaced.</p> + +<p>"He's, gone," he muttered. "Took two hundred men with him."</p> + +<p>Morgan's face was awful. "Disobeyed orders, did he? Where did he go?"</p> + +<p>"To join in the attack on Great New York. Reports came in that the +countryside was up in arms, moving to attack the Mercutians. I +couldn't hold him. Said you were crazy, never coming back. He went, +and two hundred of the boys went with him."</p> + +<p>Grim said: "Know what happened?"</p> + +<p>Waters shook his head. "Our radio communication went dead yesterday +afternoon."</p> + +<p>"He's dead," said Grim softly. "The others too."</p> + +<p>A groan went up as he described swiftly the holocaust of the day +before. "That was why I warned you all to wait. We can't fight them +yet. But I'm forgetting...." He turned to Hilary, who had remained +quietly aside. "This is Hilary Grendon, your Chief. He's the man who +is responsible for the revolt. I told you about him. We all take +orders from him hereafter. If anyone can beat the Mercutians, here's +your man."</p> + +<p>A babel of sound burst about him like a bomb. Men patted him on the +back, shook his hand, crowded him until he was almost smothered. It +was a rousing reception. The kind Hilary had dreamed of on his return +from his tremendous flight through space—and had not received.</p> + +<p>For his act of revolt, unwitting as it was, had fired the imaginations +of the Earth people, who in their degradation and despair had come to +believe the Mercutian overlords invulnerable. It had been the little +spark that touched off a far-reaching train of events. In the few days +that had elapsed Hilary had become a legendary figure.</p> + +<p>The sparkle came back to his eyes, his brain cleared of the fog of +hopelessness as he took command. Joan was lost—yes—but there was the +Earth to be saved.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +is orders crackled. The little gorge became a hive of activity. With +Grim and Waters as efficient assistants he soon whipped the tiny +company into ordered discipline. Absurdly few to fight the Mercutians, +but Hilary counseled patience. They were a nucleus merely, he told +them. When the time arrived to fight in the open, the peoples of the +Earth would swell their ranks.</p> + +<p>To provide against the day, he sent scouts out to filter through the +surrounding villages and towns; unarmed, to all seeming meekest of the +Earthlings. They stirred the embers of revolt with muted whisperings; +they found trustworthy leaders in each community to organize secretly +all able-bodied men; they returned with tidings of the outside world, +with food and other necessities.</p> + +<p>Sometimes they did not return. Then others went out to take their +places. It was the fortune of war. Day and night a sentinel was posted +in a dugout directly under the overhanging lip of the gorge. It was +his duty to warn of impending attack; above all, to rake the sky +ceaselessly with a crudely-contrived periscope for signs of gathering +clouds, be they no bigger than a handsbreadth.</p> + +<p>But the heavens were a brass blaze by day and a glittering mask of +stars by night. Weather machine or none, in truth it seemed that it +had forgotten to rain.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary was hard put to it to restrain the impatience of his men. +Reports drifted in from the scouts. The premature revolt had been +crushed in blood and agony. New York was deserted except for the +Mercutians. The country round had been ruthlessly rayed; not only had +the armed bands of Earthmen been ferreted out and destroyed, but +peaceful communities had been wantonly burned into the ground.</p> + +<p>Strong reinforcements had been rushed to the Great New York territory +from more peaceful sectors of the world. There were three of the +terrible diskoids hovering within a radius of one hundred miles, ready +to loose their hideous destruction at the slightest sign of +disaffection.</p> + +<p>But this time the spirit of the Earthmen was not broken. Their gait +was springier, their glance more forthright than heretofore. For every +one knew that Hilary Grendon, the prime mover, the defier of the +Mercutians, had escaped. The invaders sought him ceaselessly, offering +huge rewards for knowledge of his whereabouts. But there were no +traitors. Even these few who knew would suffer unimaginable tortures +rather than reveal him to the enemy.</p> + +<p>"Patience," Hilary counseled his little band. "I know it is hard; I +have my own scores to even. But we could only bring disaster upon +ourselves and the cause of Earth's freedom by premature action. What +have we? A handful of men, poorly armed. A few pistols; only, three of +which can use the dynol pellets; a little ammunition. The rest of you +have knives, axes, pitchforks. Poor enough weapons against the +terrible rays of the Mercutians. We must wait."</p> + +<p>Someone grumbled. "For what? Until the Mercutians finally trace our +hideout and ray us out of existence?"</p> + +<p>"We must take that chance," Hilary told him quietly. "Let it but rain, +and we move at once."</p> + +<p>"It never will," someone averred with profound conviction.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div><p>t began to seem so as the days passed, and the sun blazed pitilessly +as ever. The brief night showers had ceased completely. That seemed +the only effect of the weather machine's destruction. Some of the +weaker spirits among the men were for disbanding. They were afraid of +eventual discovery; anxious about their families, left to the tender +mercies of the outlanders. Hilary argued, dissuaded, but to no effect. +They were determined to go. If by the end of the week there was no +action, they said, they would leave. It was Wednesday then.</p> + +<p>Thursday and Friday passed. No change. On Saturday a scout brought +breathless tidings. One of the great diskoids had crashed to the +ground from its station fifty miles up in a smother of flame and +flying fragments. No one knew what had happened; the Mercutians of +course threw a strict censorship about the affair.</p> + +<p>But rumors flew on winged whisperings. Some war vessel from space had +attacked the Mercutian, brought it down. More diskoids were rushed to +New York; there were five now menacing the territory.</p> + +<p>Grim looked steadily at Hilary when the news was brought to them. A +momentary wild hope flared in his friend's eye that died out quickly.</p> + +<p>"I know what you're going to say," said Hilary. "You think it is Wat +Tyler and Joan, somehow escaped in the <i>Vagabond</i>."</p> + +<p>The giant nodded slowly. "Why not?" he challenged.</p> + +<p>"It's impossible," muttered the other. "Where could they have been all +this time? Surely they would have returned to this place. And you +forget that Mercutian guard who was freed. No, my friend, they have +been killed, the <i>Vagabond</i> seized, and that was the end to that."</p> + +<p>Morgan shook his head skeptically.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_s.jpg" alt="S" width="36" height="50" /></div><p>aturday was cloudless. Sunday morning the malcontents were to leave, +to dribble back quietly to their homes. They were sullen, defiant in +the face of the openly expressed scorn of the loyal men, but +determined.</p> + +<p>"No use getting ourselves killed for nothing," they muttered.</p> + +<p>Double sentries were posted that night. A gloom hung over the camp. +Hilary went to sleep heavy-hearted. This seemed the end of all his +visions. Joan dead, Wat too; no hope of freeing the Earth from its +slavery. If only he had the <i>Vagabond</i>, he'd take off again for the +uncharted reaches of spaces, find some little habitable asteroid, live +out the rest of his meaningless life there. With these gloomy thoughts +he fell at last into fitful slumber.</p> + +<p>He was awakened, hours later by a sudden uproar. The camp was in +confusion. Sleepy voices tossed back and forth in inextricable babble. +Hilary was on his feet in an instant, instinctively slipping his +automatic into his blouse. Grim looked huge at his side, unperturbed.</p> + +<p>"What's happened?" Hilary shouted to make himself heard.</p> + +<p>"Don't know," grunted the other, "but we'll soon find out."</p> + +<p>He pushed massively through the milling crowd of sleep-frightened men +like a ship shouldering the waves, Hilary in his wake. One of the +sentinels appeared suddenly before them.</p> + +<p>"You," spat Hilary, "why aren't you at your post?"</p> + +<p>The man saluted automatically and gasped.</p> + +<p>"The Mercutians have come."</p> + +<p>"What do you mean?" Hilary demanded, as a groan went up.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft1"><img src="images/image_o1.jpg" alt="O" width="60" height="54" /></div> +<p>ne of the weak-kneed men, sir," the sentry ejaculated, "wouldn't +wait until morning to make his get-away. We found him climbing out. +Said it would be dangerous in broad daylight. He was in a terrible +funk. We had no orders to stop anyone who wanted to leave, so we just +jeered him, and let him go. My comrade leaned out to watch.</p> + +<p>"As he hit the ground, he was bathed suddenly in light. The next +instant the blackness of the night was split by a sizzling flame. It +crisped the poor fellow to a cinder, and sheared the head of my +comrade clean off. I caught the body, pulled it back into the dugout, +but it was too late.</p> + +<p>"I knew what had happened, sir. Some damned Mercutian flying patrol +had spotted us with their search beam. I didn't wait for more, but +scrambled out of the dugout as fast as I could. Up above I saw a +one-man flier slanting down for me. It was a-sparkle, ready for +another ray. I came down the ladder in a hurry, I tell you."</p> + +<p>The man was panting, white-faced. Someone cried: "It's all over; +they'll smother us in now."</p> + +<p>Hilary swung around. It would take very little to start a panic.</p> + +<p>"Stop that," he said sharply. "Now is no time to play the coward." He +turned again to the sentinel.</p> + +<p>"A one-man flier, you said?" he reflected aloud.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," the other answered, "and I'll bet he's calling for help +right now."</p> + +<p>"That's just what I intend putting a stop to," said Hilary grimly. He +shifted his gun to an easier drawing position, swung himself aloft on +the ladder. "Take over, Grim, until I come back," he shouted down. +"If I don't, send others up to get that Mercutian."</p> + +<p>"Come down," Grim yelled after him, alarmed. "I'll go up; you're the +leader here."</p> + +<p>"That's why it's my job. So long."</p> + +<p>The men stared up after the tiny ascending figure, lumps in their +throats. They would die gladly for Hilary Grendon now; he was proving +himself. Grim fumed and waited. Hilary had disappeared above the +angled bend.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h2><i>Driven from Cover</i></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_f.jpg" alt="F" width="43" height="50" /></div> +<p>ar overhead, Hilary climbed swiftly. He realised the seriousness of +their situation. Let that Mercutian flash his message to Headquarters +and there would be a swarm of fliers upon them within an hour's time. +They would be caught like rats in a trap, without a chance for their +lives.</p> + +<p>He gritted his teeth and swung himself up the faster. He turned the +bend. There was the dark sky above, faintly spangled with stars. The +flier was not in sight. Hilary stifled an imprecation. If he had taken +off, they were doomed.</p> + +<p>He moved more cautiously now, stepping gingerly from rung to rung up +the swaying ladder. The cleft widened; he was near the top. He paused. +There was not the slightest sound. But Hilary was taking no chances.</p> + +<p>With infinite slowness he raised his head over the matted underbrush +that masked the entrance. For the moment he could see nothing in the +pitchy blackness. Then a dim shape loomed to one side. From within it +there came a tiny hum, intermittent, almost inaudible.</p> + +<p>Hilary knew what that was: a transmitter. Even then the fatal message +was winging through the ether. He did not hesitate. He lofted to the +ground with one quick heave, steadied on his swaying feet as the +automatic flashed into his hand.</p> + +<p>"Throw up your hands, Mercutian," he shouted at the dimly-perceived +bulk. "I have you covered." He tensed, straining his ears for any +movement that might locate the hidden foe.</p> + +<p>The tiny humming ceased abruptly. There was painful silence.</p> + +<p>"Don't try—" Hilary commenced. He stopped, swerved his body suddenly +to one side. A red glow had warned him. The hurtling ray scorched past +him with a crackling blaze. Hilary was off balance, teetered, and went +down with a crash into the thorny underbrush, his automatic exploding +into sharp flame.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div><p> hoarse guttural laugh came from the flier. "Got you that time, Earth +dog," the invisible Mercutian taunted. There was silence. Another belt +crashed from the ship, heaved the ground under its impact. Another and +another. Still no break in the silence, no cry.</p> + +<p>The Mercutian muttered to himself: "The dog is dead, all right." He +peered out cautiously. The underbrush was black, sullenly quiet. Great +swaths showed where the rays had swept the Earth. With a hoarse +chuckle the grotesque giant climbed over the side of his ship. A +search beam swung in his hand. He was in deep shadow. He swung the +beam in a short arc. There was nothing, only matted vegetation. There +was one thick thorny bush he noted, however, extending its bulk behind +the bow of the ship. He stepped out a bit, away from the flier's +shadow, and swung his beam directly at it. The invisible ray pierced +through the interlacing twigs with ease. It picked out a prone figure, +lying with arm extended.</p> + +<p>The Mercutian chuckled again, but the chuckle changed almost +immediately to a throaty cry of alarm. With a swiftness that went +incongruously with his awkward bulk, his free arm dropped for his hand +ray. There was a sharp burst of flame, a staccato bark. The Mercutian +staggered, swayed with sullen pain-widened eyes, and pitched headlong +forward.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he prone figure in the bush leaped up, ran for him. The Mercutian was +dead, drilled through the heart. Hilary sheathed his weapon grimly. +His task was done. One thing, though. How much of the message had been +transmitted? He must know. He vaulted over the side of the flier, +fumbled around until he found the receiving apparatus. Then he waited, +dreading to hear the silence broken. A minute passed, two minutes, and +Hilary breathed a sigh of relief. The message had not gotten through.</p> + +<p>Then it came—a tiny sparking, an intermittent hum. Hilary's heart +sank with hammering blows. He tried to read the signals, but they were +in code, or in the Mercutian tongue, which was just as bad. It was not +necessary, though. Headquarters <i>had</i> heard; they <i>knew</i>.</p> + +<p>Hilary did not waste an instant in vain regrets. Within an hour the +gorge would be a vicious trap; he must get his men out at once. What +then he did not know, nor bother. There was the more immediate +problem.</p> + +<p>He went down the swinging ladder hand over hand, not pausing for the +rungs. Every instant was precious now. His hands scorched, but he did +not feel the pain.</p> + +<p>His flying body collided thudding with a heavy bulk beneath. There was +a grunt, the rope jerked from his hands, and two bodies fell cursing, +entangled, to the ground. Luckily it was not far distant. He sprang +to his feet, found Grim heaving his bulk up more slowly.</p> + +<p>"I was coming up after you," the giant growled. "You were gone too +long. That's the thanks I get."</p> + +<p>Hilary had no time for idle talk.</p> + +<p>"Attention, men," he snapped. "We leave at once. You have five minutes +to get your arms, ammunition clips and rations, light marching order."</p> + +<p>Without a word they scattered alertly to their tasks. It was the +discipline of veterans.</p> + +<p>"You didn't get the Mercutian?" Grim was troubled.</p> + +<p>"I got him all right," answered his leader laconically, "but too late. +His message had gone through."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_f.jpg" alt="F" width="43" height="50" /></div><p>ive minutes later to the dot, the camp was lined up, accoutered +complete. They were silent, tense, but smartly erect. Hilary's flash +glowed over them in the dark. Then he nodded approvingly.</p> + +<p>"Fine work, men. Up that ladder, one at a time," he said. "Each man +counts twenty slowly, one—two—three before he follows. Keep your +distance, and move fast."</p> + +<p>The first man sprang to the ladder, went up swiftly. Twenty seconds +later, the next man's foot was on the bottom rung. Up and up they +went, one after the other, each man counting off and climbing. Hilary +watched them anxiously.</p> + +<p>"Hope we make it," he muttered to Grim. "It'll take all of forty +minutes to evacuate, and the Mercutians may be on us by then."</p> + +<p>It was almost forty minutes to the dot when Hilary's head emerged from +the cleft. He was the last man out. The men were lined up on a level +bit, nervous, apprehensive. In spite of the discipline, heads +automatically jerked upward, raked the sky for sign of the enemy.</p> + +<p>Where to now?—thought Hilary. There were no more hiding places as +perfect as the one they had just left. They were forced into the open, +easy prey for the first lynx-eyed Mercutian. Sooner or later, they +would be discovered, and then.... A last hopeless glance at the +mocking stars. Never had man yearned more for rain, oceans and oceans +of it.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary roused himself. Whatever of despair he felt did not appear in +his staccato orders.</p> + +<p>"We march at once, men," he said. "Scatter formation, five paces +between. At the signal, take nearest cover, and prepare for action. +Forward—"</p> + +<p>"Too late." Grim's voice was flat, controlled.</p> + +<p>Hilary looked around sharply. "What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Look." Morgan's hand swept aloft. Through the darkling night, faintly +visible in the feeble starlight—there was no moon—were driving +shapes, a full score of them converging upon the little band.</p> + +<p>One look was sufficient. Mercutian fliers hurrying in response to +their fellow's signal. There was no time, no chance to escape.</p> + +<p>"Very well, men." Hilary commanded, coldly calm. "Take cover. Do not +fire until I give the order."</p> + +<p>There was instant scattering. The men dived for whatever poor bit of +protection they could find: jutting rocks, tree trunks, thin thorny +bushes even.</p> + +<p>Grim and Hilary crouched together behind a great boulder.</p> + +<p>"How many pistols are there in the crowd?" Hilary asked quietly.</p> + +<p>"Not many. Outside of your automatic and my dynol pistol, there are +two other dynols and not more than a dozen automatics. If only we had +the submachine gun with us, but Wat took it along, and he's gone."</p> + +<p>"Not much chance, I'm afraid," said Hilary; "but we'll fight it out. +Here they come."</p> + +<p>The two men crouched lower. All about them was silence; not even a +leaf stirred in the heavy breathlessness.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he driving fliers were easily visible now. Ominous hurtling +projectiles, coming to crush out the last vestige of revolt on the +conquered planet. On they came, purposefully, directly, knowing their +way; a full score, converging in a scream of wind against their bows +as they dropped straight for the hidden gorge.</p> + +<p>It seemed to the hidden watchers as though they would crash to Earth +with the speed of their swoop. But at one hundred feet aloft the +fliers braked their headlong flight, hovered motionlessly in echelon +formation.</p> + +<p>A moment's breathless pause—to the hiding men it seemed eternity—and +all the uneven terrain, rocks, trees, bushes, the soil itself, burst +into glowing white crystal clearness. The Mercutians had turned on +their search beams.</p> + +<p>Hilary gazed clear through the rock behind which he crouched as though +it were a transparency. All around him he saw the prone bodies of his +men, naked to the view of all and sundry.</p> + +<p>A hoarse derisive chuckle rasped from above. Hilary sprang to his +feet; further attempt at concealment was useless. As he did so, the +air seemed to split in two, there was a blinding rending crash. Not +ten feet from where he stood, the ground tossed in torture. A man +screamed—terribly. The first blow had been struck.</p> + +<p>Hilary burned with a cold consuming anger. "Up, men, and fire. Aim +forward about three feet back of the prow." That was where the pilot +would be.</p> + +<p>A scattered burst of cheers answered him. On all sides, like crystal +ghosts, the Earthmen rose to their feet. They were fighting men.</p> + +<p>Hilary took careful aim at a flier almost directly overhead and fired. +He could have sworn he hit it, but nothing happened. Grim's dynol +pistol flamed redly nearby. The tracer pellet scorched upward, +impacted, against the hull of a flier. There was a faint detonation, +and the next instant the air was full of flying fragments.</p> + +<p>"Got that one," he said softly.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary was conscious of a faint envy. His automatic seemed like a +harmless popgun against that deadly weapon. But he drew another bead +and fired again. With bated breath he awaited the result. Nothing. +Hilary groaned, made as if to throw the useless gun away, when the +flier he had aimed at wabbled, tried to right itself, and crashed in a +swift erratic loop.</p> + +<p>By now the pitifully few weapons of the Earthmen were popping. Two +more of the enemy fliers hurtled to destruction. But as at a given +signal, the air above them seemed suddenly to flame destruction. With +the noise of a thousand thunderbolts the massed rays struck.</p> + +<p>The groaning Earth tossed and heaved in billowing waves to escape its +torture. The trees were blazing pyres. It seemed impossible for +anything that lives within that area to escape instant destruction.</p> + +<p>Hilary felt a wave of blinding heat envelop him, and he was thrown +flat to the quaking ground. Frightful cries, screams of agony, came to +his dulled ears as from a great distance. He heaved himself up +wearily, scorched, smoldering, but otherwise unhurt.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft1"><img src="images/image_g1.jpg" alt="G" width="63" height="53" /></div> +<p>rim," he whispered through thick cracked lips. "Grim, where are +you?"</p> + +<p>"Here." Strange how tranquil he sounded. A scarecrow of a figure arose +almost at his right from a smoldering bush, a giant clothed in smoking +rags. In the strange illumination of the search beams he seemed the +wraith of a scarecrow.</p> + +<p>"Thank God you're alive," Hilary croaked. "The others...?"</p> + +<p>Figures were staggering up from the holocaust about them.</p> + +<p>Grim's practised eyes counted. "About fifty left," he said, "just one +half."</p> + +<p>Hilary's voice rose suddenly, strongly. "Keep on firing, men." Once +again his pistol barked defiance.</p> + +<p>A faint, ragged cheer answered him. A few guns flamed; there were only +a handful left.</p> + +<p>"God!" someone cried.</p> + +<p>The massed ships above were gleaming faintly. Little shimmering +sparkles ran over the hulls. They were going to ray again. Hilary went +berserk, screamed strange oaths, fired again and again. Grim fired, +more slowly. Two of the enemy ships left the formation, plunged +headlong. But the shimmering grew brighter. In seconds the terrible +bolts would be loosed. It was the end. The Earthmen knew it. They +could not survive a second raying.</p> + +<p>Grim shouted. Never before had Hilary heard him raise his voice to +that pitch. His great arm was upflung. "Look!" he screamed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h2><i>The Vagabond</i></h2> + +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div> +<p>igh up, a dark blob against the feeble starlight, something was +dropping; dropping with the speed of a plummet, straight for the +massed Mercutian fliers. From outer space it seemed to come, a +plunging ripping meteor.</p> + +<p>A search beam must have swung hurriedly aloft, for it flamed into +startling being; a spheroid, compact, purposeful, dropping with +breathtaking velocity.</p> + +<p>Something seemed to explode in Hilary's brain. A great cry wrenched +out of his torn throat.</p> + +<p>"The <i>Vagabond</i>."</p> + +<p>Unbelievable, impossible. Yet he could not be mistaken. The <i>Vagabond</i> +was coming home again!</p> + +<p>By this time the Mercutians had seen it too. It meant suicide, that +rushing projectile from outer space, but it would take along with it +in the crash of its flight a goodly number of the Mercutian fliers. +The Mercutians were no cowards, but death stared them openly in the +face.</p> + +<p>Instantly, all was in confusion. Forgotten the rebellious Earthmen +below, forgotten everything but escape from the down-rushing +thunderbolt.</p> + +<p>Hilary, staring upward, could visualize the fliers working desperately +at their controls. The clustered ships vibrated like a school of +frightened fish poised for instant flight. Then they were in motion; +scattering, wabbling in the terror of their retreat.</p> + +<p>The <i>Vagabond</i> hurtled down among them like a hawk among pigeons. Its +surface glowed with the speed of its flight. To Hilary's fascinated +gaze it seemed as if there would be a terrific smash. But the +<i>Vagabond</i> came to a screaming, braking halt directly in the center of +the milling, scattering Mercutians.</p> + +<p>Almost simultaneously the air resounded with staccato bursts. +<i>Ratatat-tat-a-tat.</i></p> + +<p>"Good little Wat," Grim danced insanely. "He's cutting loose the +submachine gun."</p> + +<p>Hilary woke from his amazement with a start.</p> + +<p>"Shoot, and shoot to kill," he shouted above the turmoil. "Don't let a +single one get away."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div><p>utomatics spat their leaden hail, dynol pellets flamed redly, and +over all resounded the rapid drum fire of the machine gun, pouring +steel-jacketed death into the confused ranks of the Mercutians.</p> + +<p>The monster invaders had lost their heads. Even then, they could have +destroyed the Earthmen with their deadly spreading rays. But the +strange apparition from above had demoralized them. No one thought of +fighting: flight, safety, were the only thoughts in their minds.</p> + +<p>Flier after flier went tailspinning to horrible death while his +comrades fled in all directions.</p> + +<p>It was soon over. The greater number of the Mercutians were twisted +smoldering wrecks. The few who escaped were rapidly diminishing dots +in the cold starlight.</p> + +<p>Its work finished, the rescuing space flier settled softly to the +ground, in the midst of the embattled cheering Earthmen, temporarily +gone insane.</p> + +<p>The air-lock port yawned, and a slim figure darted out, straight into +Hilary's outstretched arms.</p> + +<p>"Joan!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div><p>ehind her danced a small red-haired individual, his homely features +grinning with delight. Under his arm swung heavily a submachine gun. +He disappeared almost immediately into the vast bearlike grip of his +gigantic friend. His shrill voice went on unceasingly, but strangely +muffled, as Grim hugged him. Finally he extricated himself, ruffled, +breathless, but still talking.</p> + +<p>"What did I tell you, you big ox?" he shrilled. "We'll chase them off +the Earth, sweep 'em out into space."</p> + +<p>"Why, you little gamecock," the giant observed affectionately, "I'm +beginning to believe you can do it."</p> + +<p>"We thought you had gone for good," said Hilary, holding Joan tightly +to him as if he feared to lose her again. "What happened to you on the +Robbins Building?"</p> + +<p>"Can't get rid of us that easily, can he, Joan?" The little man +smirked knowingly at the girl. "It was all very simple," he went on. +"No sooner had you two left us than we heard the thud of a flier +landing on the other end of the roof. The pilot looked out at us +startled. We recognized each other simultaneously. It was our old +friend—Urga."</p> + +<p>Hilary clenched his fist. He had a good many scores to settle with the +Cor.</p> + +<p>Wat saw his action. "I did my best," he stated apologetically. "I ran +for the machine gun. But by that time Urga had shot aloft again. +Didn't seem as though he wanted to wait. I heard his whistle shrilling +in the air. Fliers came thick as flies."</p> + +<p>He spread his hands in a quaint gesture. "What could I do, Hilary?" +his voice was appealing. "Any minute I expected to have a ray on us. I +couldn't wait for you two, the <i>Vagabond</i> would have been a little +pile of ashes. Besides, there was Joan. She kicked and struggled: she +wanted to stay for you, but I shoved her in the ship, locked the port, +and went scooting up like a rocket. You should have seen the +Mercutians scatter."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_f.jpg" alt="F" width="43" height="50" /></div><p>or the first time in his life words seemed to fail him. +"You—are—not—angry?" he fumbled, looking for all the world like a +bedraggled dog who knows he has been in mischief.</p> + +<p>"Angry?" Hilary fairly whooped. "What for? For saving the ship, Joan, +all of us? Why, you little bit of pure gameness, you did the only +sensible thing."</p> + +<p>Wat grinned from ear to ear.</p> + +<p>"But why," Grim interrupted, "didn't you have sense enough to come +back here, instead of scaring everybody to death?"</p> + +<p>Wat turned on him indignantly. "Sure," he squeaked, "and bring all the +Mercutians along with me? No sir, I shot straight up into the +stratosphere, and headed for the Canadian woods. Felt we'd be safe +there."</p> + +<p>Hilary looked at him. "I've heard," he said overcasually, "that an +accident happened to one of the Mercutian diskoids. Know anything +about it?"</p> + +<p>The redhead grinned. "I was the accident. I wasn't staying cooped up +in the wilderness. Joan and I decided we'd do some scouting before we +came back; see what was happening over the rest of the world. We were +returning from one of those little expeditions, cruising about fifty +miles up, when we almost bumped into the diskoid. We saw them first; +we had just come out of the shadow of the Earth; they were in the sun. +I let them have it before they had a chance to turn on their rays. The +bullets punctured them clean; must have let out their air. I didn't +wait to see; ducked back into the shadow again."</p> + +<p>"How did you get here in the nick of time?" asked Hilary suddenly. "A +few minutes later and there would have been no rescue."</p> + +<p>Wat looked, at him in some surprise.</p> + +<p>"Why, we got your signal, of course."</p> + +<p>"Signal?" Hilary echoed. "I never—" Then he paused. Morgan was +grinning sheepishly, "Here, what do you know about this?" he queried +sharply.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he giant's grin widened. "Just a little," he admitted. "I'd been +playing around with my transmitter. Used some of the spare equipment +we had cached for the <i>Vagabond</i>, and stepped up the sending radius to +a thousand miles or so."</p> + +<p>"We received your call in the woods north of Lake Ontario," Joan +interrupted.</p> + +<p>Grim nodded, gratified. "I thought it might work," he rumbled. "You +see," he explained to Hilary, "ever since I heard about that diskoid, +I <i>knew</i> that the <i>Vagabond</i> was responsible. But you refused to +believe it. So I worked in secret, rigging up the apparatus. Didn't +want to stir up false hopes. I finished it yesterday. When we were +discovered, I started sending."</p> + +<p>"It took us just ten minutes over the hour to get here from a standing +start," Wat boasted. "We almost burned up the old machine smashing +through the air, didn't we Joan?"</p> + +<p>She nodded happily from her cozy position in the crook of Hilary's +arm.</p> + +<p>Hilary looked long and steadily at his friends.</p> + +<p>"Well—" he finally began, when someone cried out sharply.</p> + +<p>A dark shape shot over the rim of the mountainside, swooped down at +them in one fierce lunge. Involuntarily the Earthmen threw themselves +flat on the ground to avoid the tremendous rush of its flight. At one +hundred feet it banked sharply, a circle of light gleamed, and a long +blazing streamer thrust its relentless finger at the prostrate figures +of the Earthmen.</p> + +<p>There was a blinding flash, a roar. Hilary was on his feet, bullets +spitting rapidly. But already the lone Mercutian flier had completed +his bank, and was zooming out of range. Hilary watched the flier grow +fainter and fainter in the starlit distance. Almost he could hear the +far-off hoarse chuckle of its pilot.</p> + +<p>Then he turned to survey the damage. The Earthmen were up, growling +low heartfelt curses. That one blast had been catastrophic.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>here on the ground lay the smoking ruins of the <i>Vagabond</i>, beloved +companion of his space wanderings. For a moment Hilary gave way to a +deep-seated despair. This was the end of all his plannings. He had +built high hopes on the <i>Vagabond</i> in his carefully laid schemes for +overcoming the Mercutians. He stood as one stunned.</p> + +<p>Someone cried: "A curse is upon us; let us scatter before it is too +late!"</p> + +<p>It acted on Hilary like a cold shower, that cry of despair.</p> + +<p>"No," his voice resounded strong and vibrant. "We did not need the +<i>Vagabond</i>. It never was part of my plans." A lie, of course, but most +necessary. "That Mercutian saved me the trouble of finding a hiding +place for it. Come, let us march. At dawn it rains, I <i>know</i> it will."</p> + +<p>"You've said that every day since the weather machine was smashed," a +voice cried out from the rear.</p> + +<p>Hilary paused, thrown off his balance momentarily. Yet a second's +hesitation would be fatal. It was Joan who answered for him. She +sprang forward, lithe and exalted, her dark eyes flashing even in the +dark.</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you how he knows. I myself had almost forgotten. Tomorrow +is exactly two weeks since the weather machine was destroyed. My +father, Martin Robbins, built it. He told me then that its effects +were so powerful that they lasted for two weeks, even with the machine +turned off. Only positive action could bring an immediate reversal, of +weather conditions. <i>That's</i> how he knows."</p> + +<p>Joan had turned the tide. The waverers turned as one man to Hilary. +"Lead on! We follow!"</p> + +<p>"Very well," he stated quietly. "We can't remain here. The Mercutians +will be back soon in overwhelming force, burning for revenge. We +march."</p> + +<p>To Joan, in barely audible tones: "Is that true, what you said?"</p> + +<p>"I—I think so. I remember Dad mentioned a time limit. I think it was +two weeks."</p> + +<p>"If it isn't, we're facing a damned unpleasant prospect to-morrow," he +said grimly.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h2><i>The Last Battle</i></h2> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_d.jpg" alt="D" width="57" height="56" /></div> + +<p>awn found the little band still struggling over the thick-forested +mountains in a desperate attempt to avoid detection. They were +footsore, weary, their clothes shredded by innumerable sharp thorns, +their eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep. Overhead, the paling sky was +already dotted with the fliers of the Mercutians; faint sounds came to +them of the clumsy thrashing of enemy patrols as they beat the woods +for the fugitives. The Mercutians were putting forth all their +resources to seek out and destroy these irritant foci of revolt.</p> + +<p>At length Hilary called a halt. They were in a little valley, not far +from Bear Mountain. It offered some protection from the searchers. The +enclosing hills would mask them, from all but search beams directly +overhead.</p> + +<p>"It is no use going any farther," he said wearily. "We all need sleep +and rest. Sooner or later they'll find us, no matter where we go, and +then—" He shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>The weary, panting men threw themselves down upon the ground, too +tired even to eat. Immediately they were in a drugged sleep. Joan was +sleeping too, her face pale drawn, but like a little child's in her +slumber. Hilary watched her with a sharp pang in his heart. What would +the next few hours bring to her, to all of them?</p> + +<p>Nor did Grim and Wat sleep either. The three of them squatted on their +heels, silent, as the cold dawn wind swept with a great sigh through +the valley.</p> + +<p>The stars were paling now, the purple sky was enswathing itself in +pearly grays. Something glowed pinkly overhead; and was extinguished +almost immediately by the prevailing gray.</p> + +<p>Hilary started violently. "Did you see that?"</p> + +<p>"See what?" Grim was drunk for lack of sleep.</p> + +<p>Hilary was on his feet, peering upward. "I thought I saw—there, there +it is again."</p> + +<p>The other two were on their feet also, weariness forgotten, heads +thrown back.</p> + +<p>High overhead, in the overturned cup of the sky, an irregular pink +wisp formed before their wondering eyes, and vanished again. But more +slowly, than the first time.</p> + +<p>"Well?" asked Wat, puzzled.</p> + +<p>"A cloud." Hilary's voice was a prayer.</p> + +<p>"Hell," said Wat disgustedly. "If that's a cloud I'm a Mercutian. +There wouldn't be enough water there to moisten a canary seed."</p> + +<p>"And even if there were it wouldn't matter now," said Grim calmly. +"We're discovered."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_a.jpg" alt="A" width="51" height="50" /></div><p> long slim flier shot athwart the brightening sky, paused suddenly in +flight as though jerked by an invisible string. The next instant the +valley was illumined by a transparent glow. It enveloped the Earthmen, +made crystal figurines of the most solid among them. They seemed like +wraiths through which, as in a glass, more could be seen beyond. The +solid ground, the rocks, were transparencies floating in an ocean of +airy nothingness. A search beam!</p> + +<p>The flier hung steady, high overhead, holding them in the dissolving +area of his beam. Too high to ray them but also too high for their +futile bullets. The Mercutians no longer underrated the fighting +abilities of their erstwhile slaves.</p> + +<p>"He's sending out messages for help," observed Hilary.</p> + +<p>"Let's take it on the run," Wat suggested.</p> + +<p>"No good. Where could we run to that his beam couldn't follow?"</p> + +<p>"Well, we can only die once," Wat observed cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"And take as many Mercutians with us as we can," Grim amended. "That's +one lucky thing. Their rays have no greater range than our bullets."</p> + +<p>"Except the diskoids," said Hilary. "Here's your chance, Wat, to play +with your rattle."</p> + +<p>The red head, who had lugged the heavy machine gun all the way with +him, patted its snout affectionately. "It plays the devil's tattoo," +he said.</p> + +<p>More fliers materialized in the by now brighter blue of early morning. +The sun was just peeping over the serrated tops of the mountains. But +still they did not attack.</p> + +<p>"Afraid of us," Wat chuckled. "Bet they'll send to Mercury for the +whole damn army before they come for us."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_t.jpg" alt="T" width="55" height="50" /></div><p>he first shock was over. With the inevitable staring them in the +face, the men had achieved something of a gay recklessness. Hilary +found some natural recessions under overhanging masses of rocks that +would afford protection from the searing power of the rays. To be +effective, the fliers would have to land in the valley or fly low, +thus exposing themselves to the raking fire of the Earthmen's weapons. +Hilary posted his little band skilfully underneath these natural +shelters in such a way that they would be able to command the bit of +sky from every angle.</p> + +<p>The men jerked and fidgeted. The heavens darkened with massed fliers, +and still they came. The Mercutians were taking no chances.</p> + +<p>"Plenty of guests at our funeral," Wat chuckled, sighting along the +barrel of his gun.</p> + +<p>Hilary left the jesting to the others. He was watching the skies +intently.</p> + +<p>Joan slipped her arm through his. "You see something that we don't. +What is it?"</p> + +<p>He nodded with an intent frown. "There are clouds forming up there. +The first I've seen since I came back to this planet. Rain clouds, +too, if I know anything about it. Look."</p> + +<p>Joan tilted her head backward. Thin scuds of vapor darted across the +sky, driven by the morning breeze; dissolved and reformed a little +farther on. Tenuous wisps, evanescent, wraithlike. The sun shone +steadily, unobscured.</p> + +<p>"Those little things," said Joan unbelievingly. "Why, if that's all +you're depending on, we're finished."</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless they are rain clouds. But <i>when</i> the rain will come is +another matter. Very likely too late."</p> + +<p>Grim came hurriedly over from his post near the entrance to the little +valley. His face was placid as ever, but his eyes were worried.</p> + +<p>"We are being surrounded," he stated calmly.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary sprang to his feet. "What do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Listen. Do you hear it?"</p> + +<p>Far down the overgrown trail they had followed into the valley came +the noise of heavy stumbling feet, innumerable feet.</p> + +<p>"They are taking no chances," said Grim, his countenance unchanged.</p> + +<p>Hilary looked swiftly around. The valley was a cul-de-sac, surrounded +on three sides of its narrow oblong by precipitous hills. From the +fourth side, the Mercutians were coming—an army, from the sound of +them. Overhead were a hundred fliers, and more coming. The trap was +sprung!</p> + +<p>Hilary's voice rang out. "All men without guns down the valley to +repel invaders. Those with guns remain at your positions; watch the +fliers. Wat Tyler in command."</p> + +<p>With a joyous cry the Earthmen started for the narrow mouth of the +valley, all without guns. Gone was the helpless feeling of before; now +they could fight too. Axes, spades, pitchforks, sticks and stones +even, were their weapons.</p> + +<p>Hilary thrust his automatic into Joan's hand. "You use it, dear. I +won't need it. Come on, Grim."</p> + +<p>Morgan smiled slowly, handed over his dynol pistol without a word to a +weaponless man and stalked after his leader. His great hand clutched +and unclutched unconsciously. This was what he wanted, hand-to-hand +fighting.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_b.jpg" alt="B" width="42" height="50" /></div><p>y the time they reached the foot of the valley, the noise of the +oncoming Mercutians sounded like the rumbling of thunder. Secure in +their numbers there was no thought of concealment.</p> + +<p>The Earthmen were pitifully few, only thirty of them, and wretchedly +armed. Hilary disposed of them up the slope of the hill on either +side, set them to loosening jutting boulders. He was in command on one +slope. Grim on the other.</p> + +<p>In a minute the Mercutians would be upon them. A simultaneous attack, +no doubt; the fliers dropping low to loose their deadly rays from +above as the land force attacked with their hardly less deadly hand +rays.</p> + +<p>Hilary shot a last hasty glance aloft. His heart gave a great bound. +The thin insubstantial vapors of a little before had solidified, taken +on a grosser leaden hue. The sky was a sullen gray, shot through +intermittently with the broad flares of a sun valiantly struggling to +reassert its long undisputed sway. Little flickers of lightning played +around the ragged edges of the clouds.</p> + +<p>To the most unobservant it was evident now that a storm was in the +making. But might it not be too late? The sun still shone, and as long +as its light pierced through, the weapons of the Mercutians held all +their deadly potency.</p> + +<p>The alien invaders sensed the urgent necessity for quick action, for +the fliers were dropping now, hundreds of them, to within range. +Hilary heard the shouted orders of the Mercutians Cors, the crashing +forward of a mighty host, and then the front of the attack burst out +of the trees in an engulfing flood of gigantic unwieldy bodies and +gray warty faces.</p> + +<p>A quick view of the stout ungainly Viceroy, Artok, another of the +coldly saturnine visage of Urga in the front rank, and with a roar of +gutturals, the attack was on.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_d.jpg" alt="D" width="57" height="56" /></div><p>own from above came a myriad blinding flashes, turning the inclosed +valley into an inferno of heat and rocking, boiling, shattered ground. +Up the valley shot the massed hand rays of the hundreds as they swept +along in close-packed trot.</p> + +<p>It seemed as if nothing could exist in that blazing, screaming hell. +Hilary, stunned, shaken, scorched, felt as if he were the only one +alive. Yet as the front of the attack washed up before him, he did not +hesitate. He sprang to his feet, swung the nicely hefted long-handled +ax he had picked up, uttered a war whoop that went back to remote +ancestors, and flung himself headlong into the boiling mass of +Mercutians.</p> + +<p>As he did so, he caught a fleeting, comforting glimpse of Grim rising +to his full height on the other slope, huge hands raised, and crashing +down barehanded, silent, into the ranks of the enemy. A cheer went up, +a faint ragged cheer, and other figures popped up out of nowhere and +dropped feet first into the fray.</p> + +<p>Hilary found himself engulfed in a welter of figures that towered +heads above him. His ax swung up and down, bit into something soft and +yielding. The Mercutian screamed horribly; blood spouted from his +wide-split shoulder. He fell stumbling to his knees, and Hilary +stepped into the little open space. That gave him more elbow room. A +furious towering monster swung his tube around in the press. Hilary +ducked as the sizzling ray sped over his head. There were howls of +pain as the spreading beam cut a burning swath through the packed +Mercutians.</p> + +<p>Thereafter no more tubes were raised. The quarters were too close. It +was to be hand-to-hand fighting; thousands of giant Mercutians against +a handful of puny Earthmen.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /><div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_h.jpg" alt="H" width="50" height="50" /></div><p> +ilary swung his red-dripping ax in ever-widening circles. At every +swing a Mercutian tumbled. A little space opened around him, literally +hewn out of living flesh. But with strange fierce cries he threw +himself again and again into the wall of bodies. There and there only +was salvation possible where the sun-tubes could not be used.</p> + +<p>Far over to one side he caught glimpses of bodies in violent +upheavings, bodies that thrust explosively to either side as from the +sharp prow of an invisible ship. Then a great figure heaved staggering +into view, bloody, gashed, great arms encircling Mercutian heads, +smashing them together like eggshells, flinging them apart, seizing +others. Grim Morgan, berserk with bare hands.</p> + +<p>Here and there in his own travail Hilary sighted little foci of +struggle, Earthmen with ax and pitchfork and spade battling valiantly +in a sea of Mercutians. A swirl, an eddy, and all too often a sudden +surge and flowing of gray warty faces, and smooth rippleless heads +where an Earthman had gone down, trampled into pulp.</p> + +<p>Hilary's first rush with swinging flashing ax had caught the +Mercutians unawares. They had relied upon their sun-tubes, and in the +mêlée succeeded only in inflicting frightful havoc on their own kind. +Now, however, they came for Hilary in a solid mass, huge +three-fingered hands flailing, seeking to thrust him down by sheer +weight of numbers. He swung and swung again, the ax bit deep, but +still they came. His arm grew weary from so much slaughter, it rose +more and more slowly, and then it rose no more. The bloody ax was +wrenched from his nerveless fingers, and he was down, smothered by +innumerable trampling bodies. Over him the tide swirled smooth. Heavy +feet kicked and battered at his body, hands reached down to pluck and +rip at him.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_f.jpg" alt="F" width="43" height="50" /></div><p>eebly he tried to fend them off, but the shodden hoofs smashed him +down again, gouged at his unprotected face. He struggled, but soon he +would not struggle any more.</p> + +<p>From afar came to his dimming ears below, a huge shout that shook the +ground. Feet pounded him down into semi-unconsciousness; there was a +mighty shuffling to and fro over him, and then the feet were gone. A +huge well-remembered hand, caught him, heaved him upright. It was +Grim. His face was a wreck, battered out of all semblance, but those +blue mild eyes were flaming with an unholy light.</p> + +<p>Hilary tottered, and the giant shook him.</p> + +<p>"Wake up," he bawled; "they're coming again."</p> + +<p>With a great effort Hilary cleared his numbed brain, saw the +resurgence of the temporarily beaten herd. His fists clenched +automatically.</p> + +<p>"Good boy," Grim whooped. "Let's get them."</p> + +<p>Then they were engulfed, fighting back to back. Hilary seemed to be +fighting in a dream. He never had a clear conception of what happened. +Faces thrust themselves into his own, furious, contorted; his fist +went out mechanically, thudded against something soft, and the face +disappeared. Hands reached plucking for him; he thrust them off, and +swung left and right again.</p> + +<p>Once he looked dully upward. The sky was gray slate now, festooned +with bellying black. No sign of the sun; not the least ray could +pierce. The fliers hung aimless overhead, no sparkle to their hulls. +The valley was dark too; the terrible rays had ceased raking it with +an inferno of heat.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_j.jpg" alt="J" width="33" height="50" /></div><p>ust before he lowered his upflung face to smash his fist into another +face, something wet blobbed on his forehead. A raindrop? Perhaps, but +he was too far gone to care now. Life was an endless series of howling +Mercutians to thrust fists into.</p> + +<p>A cheer rose high, punctured by quick sharp explosions of sound. Guns. +Those few remaining of the fighting Earthmen farther up the valley, no +longer menaced by the futile fliers, had come down to help their +weaponless brethren. Wat's voice was shrill in the land, yelling, +exhorting, screaming. A familiar <i>rat-a-tat-a-tat</i> came down the +wind. The submachine gun was spitting steel-jacketed death. Where was +Joan? Hilary wondered wearily.</p> + +<p>A face towered over him, a face he knew. Urga. The Mercutian was no +longer impassive; his gray countenance was distorted with hideous +hate. "I'll break you in two," he mouthed, and lunged for Hilary.</p> + +<p>The Earthman came out of his daze at the sight of the other. Strength +seemed to flow back into his weary body. His fist came up, clean with +all the power that was left in him. It went home with a +soul-satisfying crunch. Urga's gray gash of a mouth seemed to smear +slowly over the rest of his face. A wild animal scream burst from him +as he sagged. Then a swirl of other Mercutians anxious to get at the +Earthman eddied him out of view.</p> + +<p>Hilary felt better. Now he could die content. Even with their guns, +what could a handful of Earthmen do against the resistless, +ever-coming tide of Mercutians, thousands of them?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div><p>t was raining now, slowly at first, large scattered drops, then +heavier and heavier, until the fogged air was a driving sheet of +water.</p> + +<p>What of it?—thought Hilary bitterly as he fought and slipped and +stumbled in the slimy, bloody muck that was now the ground. The +Mercutians' weapons were useless, but they did not need them any more. +Sheer numbers would overwhelm the Earthmen.</p> + +<p>Then to his amazement something happened. The heavens, long outraged +by the artificial repression of the weather machine, kicked over all +traces and opened their sluices in earnest. The sky was one vast +waterfall. The elements roared and rocked; the valley was knee deep +already in a spate of waters.</p> + +<p>Hilary splashed and waded after his enemies. But they were going. They +staggered and trembled in every shaking limb, heedless now of the +Earthmen. They slipped and fell into the flood, and stayed there, +motionless under the waters. Like Pharaoh's army they were being +drowned before the amazed Earthmen's very eyes.</p> + +<p>On their own planet it never rained; there was no water except for +carefully hoarded underground lakes. This first taste of real Earth +weather was too much for them. They could not withstand the driving +rain, the water swirling round their knees. All the strength went out +of their shaggy frames, their knees buckled and down they went, +helpless, destroyed by a natural phenomenon to which they were +unaccustomed. They had actually been smothered by the humidity!</p> + +<p>Hilary's voice was strong again. With great shouts, he rallied his +men. A pitiful handful; only fifteen of the fifty that had entered the +valley. But Joan was alive, her face black with burned skin, otherwise +unhurt. Wat's grin rose superior to a mask of raw flesh, and Grim, +bleeding from a hundred wounds, was still a tower of strength.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> +<div class="figleft"><img src="images/image_i.jpg" alt="I" width="25" height="50" /></div><p>t was a strange sight as they stood almost waist deep in the flood, +the storm beating down upon them, hundreds and hundreds of bodies +floating, bumping against them.</p> + +<p>"We must clinch our victory, men," Hilary shouted above the roar of +the elements. "We must go to arouse the Earth, sweep the Mercutians +into the oceans while the storm lasts, or all our work will go for +naught."</p> + +<p>A great cheer went up from the little band, and without resting, +without food or sleep, they waded their way out of the valley, into +civilization once more, carrying their message, arousing the peoples, +gathering to themselves like a tiny snowball rolling down a +mountainside, a huge swelling army of jubilant Earthmen, Earthwomen, +too, moving in resistless flood down upon New York.</p> + +<p>The rest is history. Like a torrent they swept down upon the cowed, +weakened Mercutians. Those that did not escape in the great diskoids +back to their own torrid, waterless planet were searched out, torn to +pieces by the infuriated Earth peoples.</p> + +<p>For five days and five nights the storm raged, all over the world. The +floodgates were opened; outraged nature was taking her revenge. For +five days and five nights the sun was hidden behind bucketing gray +skies. And for five days and five nights, Americans, English, Chinese, +Zulus, Australians, Russians, Bushmen, Argentinians, animated by a +common purpose, rose gleefully and smote the invaders. When the sun +finally peeped once more from behind the thick blanket of clouds, not +a Mercutian remained. Few had escaped; the rest would never see +Mercury again.</p> + +<p>"We've won," Joan sighed happily, after it was all over, and was able +to nestle once more comfortably in Hilary's arms. "Thanks to you."</p> + +<p>"You forget Grim Morgan and Wat Tyler, dear."</p> + +<p>"Ye-es, they helped, too," she admitted grudgingly; "but without you, +what could they have done?"</p> + +<p>Hilary started to protest, but over her crown of shining hair, he saw +Grim and Wat watching him, grinning like two monkeys. Wat's thumb was +raised to his nose in an immemorial gesture.</p> + +<p>"You're right," said Hilary defiantly. "What could they have done?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Slaves of Mercury, by Nat Schachner + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SLAVES OF MERCURY *** + +***** This file should be named 29966-h.htm or 29966-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/9/6/29966/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_001.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8218e0c --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_001.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_a.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_a.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..aa86591 --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_a.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_a1.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_a1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd340f4 --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_a1.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_b.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_b.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a769002 --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_b.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_d.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_d.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9c80263 --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_d.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_e.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_e.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c6694fc --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_e.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_f.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_f.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2ed7f74 --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_f.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_g.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_g.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d58db2 --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_g.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_g1.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_g1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8a91e68 --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_g1.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_h.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_h.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e6d0e81 --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_h.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_i.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_i.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dbd5c4e --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_i.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_j.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_j.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..efc286d --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_j.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_m.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_m.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b3e7263 --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_m.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_o1.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_o1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6a0f5b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_o1.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_s.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_s.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c25f47f --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_s.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_s1.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_s1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b831301 --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_s1.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_t.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_t.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c51d25a --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_t.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_t1.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_t1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..69db93a --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_t1.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_w.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_w.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..61a4298 --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_w.jpg diff --git a/29966-h/images/image_w1.jpg b/29966-h/images/image_w1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4c79e73 --- /dev/null +++ b/29966-h/images/image_w1.jpg |
