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diff --git a/old/62621.txt b/old/62621.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 7568116..0000000 --- a/old/62621.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2097 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Flame Breathers, by Ray Cummings - -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/license - - -Title: The Flame Breathers - -Author: Ray Cummings - -Release Date: June 4, 2020 [EBook #62621] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLAME BREATHERS *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - The Flame Breathers - - By RAY CUMMINGS - - Vulcan was a doom-world. One expedition had - mysteriously disappeared, and now another was - following in its path--searching for the unknown - menace that stalked Vulcan's shadowed gorges. - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories March 1943. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -I write this narrative, not with the idea of contributing any -additional scientific data to the discovery of Vulcan, but to put upon -the record the real facts of our truly-amazing space voyage. - -The newscasters have hailed me as a modern Columbus. Surely I would not -want to appear ungracious, unappreciative of all the applause that -has been heaped upon me. But I do not deserve it. I did my job for my -employers. The Society sent me to make a landing upon Vulcan--if the -little planet existed. I found that it does exist; it was exactly where -I was told it ought to be. I carried out my instructions, returned and -made my report. There is no great heroism in that. - -So I am writing the facts of what happened. Just a bald, factual -account, without the imaginative trimmings. The real hero of the -discovery of Vulcan was young Jan Holden. He did his job--did it -well--and he did something just a little extra. - -I'm Bob Grant, which of course you have guessed by now. Peter -Torrence--the third member of our party--is in the Federal Prison up -the Hudson. I had to turn him in. - -We were given one of the smaller types of the Bentley--T-44--an alumite -cylindrical hull, double-shelled, with the Erentz pressure-current -circulating in it. It was a modern, well-equipped little spaceship. -In its thirty-foot length of double-decked interior we three were -entirely comfortable.... The voyage, past the orbit of Venus and -then Mercury as we headed directly for the Sun--using the Sun's full -attraction--was amazingly swift and devoid of incident beyond normal -space-flight routine. Much of our time was spent in the little forward -control turrent--the "green-house," where below, above and to the sides -the great glittering abyss of the firmament is spread out in all its -amazing glory. - -Vulcan, if it existed, would be almost directly behind the Sun now. -We had no possible chance of sighting it, we knew, even when, heading -inward, we cut the orbit of Mercury. Torrence, almost from the start of -the trip, figured we should follow into the attraction of Mercury which -was then far to one side. - -"From that angle we'll see Vulcan just that much sooner," he argued. - -"They told me to head straight in, to twenty-nine million miles," I -said. "And that's what I'm doing--obeying orders." - -I held our plotted course. Torrence never ceased grumbling about it, -and I must admit there was a lot of sense in his argument. He is a big -fellow--burly, heavy-set and about my own height, which is six feet -one. He had close-clipped hair and a square, heavy face. He's just -turned thirty, I understand. That's five years older than I--and I was -in charge. Perhaps that irked him. He is unquestionably a headstrong -fellow; self-confident. But he obeyed orders, though with grumbling. -And as a mechanical technician--no one could do better. He knew the -technical workings of the little ship inside out. - -"We follow orders?" young Jan Holden said. "And when we reach -twenty-nine million miles from the Sun--then we're on our own?" - -"Yes," I agreed. - -"Then, when we head off to round the Sun, if Vulcan is where they think -it is we ought to sight it in a few days?" - -"I certainly hope so, Jan." - -"I wonder if it's inhabited. I wish it would be." His dark eyes were -shining. His thin cheeks, usually pale, were flushed with excitement. -He was just eighteen--only a month past the legal minimum age for -Interplanetary employment. A slim, romantic-looking boy, he was willing -and eager to help in every way. A good cook, expert in handling his -cramped quarters and preparing the many synthetic foods with which we -were equipped. - -"You hope it's inhabited, Jan?" I asked. - -"I sure do." - -I grinned at him. "Well, if it is, you'll be disappointed to find I'll -be doing my best to keep away from whatever living creatures are there. -That's a job for a larger expedition than ours." - -"Yes, I suppose it is." - - * * * * * - -Jan often sat with me through our long vigils up there in the -green-house. Sometimes he wouldn't speak for an hour--just sitting -there dreaming. Sometimes he would talk of the ill-fated Roberts and -King Expedition--the only exploratory flight which ever had headed in -this close to the Sun. That was five years ago. Roberts and King, with -a crew of eight, had never been heard from since. - -"I just think they found Vulcan," Jan said once, out of one of his long -silences. - -"They were told to return after a routine landing," Torrence put in. - -"Well then, suppose they crashed their ship," Jan said. "Suppose they -can't get back--" - -"What we ought to do is sight Vulcan, round it and go home," Torrence -said. "To the devil with orders to land. I'd go back and tell them that -in my judgment--" - -"We'll land," I said. "Determine gravity--meteorological -conditions--secure samples of soil, vegetation--what-nots--you know the -specifications, Torrence." - -If indeed there was any Vulcan. If a landing upon what might be a fiery -surface were physically possible.... - -Another day passed. And then another and another. We were all three -tense, expectant. There was little apparent motion in the great starry -cyclorama spread around us--just the slow dwindling of Earth and Venus, -the monstrous Sun shifting slowly to the right with the starfield -behind it progressively becoming visible. - -"We're chasing a phantom," Torrence said, on the fourth day, with -the Sun now almost abreast of us and some twenty-four million miles -distant. "This damned heat! They sent us out for a salary that's a mere -pittance--and give us inadequate equipment. No wonder there's been no -exploration so close in here." - -Bathed in the full, direct Sun-rays our interior air had heated into a -torrid swelter. Stripped to the waist, with the sweat glistening on us, -we sat in the shrouded green-house.... And then at last I saw Vulcan! A -little round, lead-colored blur. Just a dot, but in a few hours it was -clear of the intervening Sun. No question of its identity. Vulcan. The -new world. - -"We did it!" Jan murmured. "Oh, we did it." - - * * * * * - -It was a busy time, for me especially, those next ninety-six hours. -I was soon enabled to calculate, at least roughly, that Vulcan was a -world of some eight hundred miles diameter, with an orbit approximately -eighteen million miles from the Sun. - -"It has an atmosphere?" Jan murmured anxiously. - -"Yes, I think so." We kept away from the Sun for a time; and then at -last we were able to head directly for Vulcan. - -The atmosphere presently was visible. No need for us to use the -pressure-suits. I envisaged at first that upon such a little world -gravity would be very slight. But now the heavy, metallic quality of -its rock-surface was apparent. A world, doubtless much denser than -igneous Earth. - -It was my plan to land on the side away from the Sun. - -We rounded Vulcan at some two million miles out. The clouds were -fairly dense in many places; sluggish, slow-moving. There were fires -on the Sun side--a temperature there which would make it certainly -uninhabitable to any creatures resembling humans.... - -It was the ninth day after the sighting of Vulcan that quite by chance -I discovered its _allurite_. We were now fairly close over the dark -hemisphere, with the Sun occulted behind it. At a thousand miles of -altitude, we were dropping slowly down upon the spreading dark disc -which now occupied most of our lower firmament. I had been making a -series of routine spectro-color-graphs to file with my reports. - -Jan heard my muttered exclamation and came crowding to gaze over my -shoulder at the dripping little color spectrograph. - -"What is it, Bob? Something important?" - -"That bond-line there--see it? That's a metal on Vulcan--shining of its -own light--radioactive type-A." - -That much, I could determine. Then Jan and I looked it up in the -Hughson list of Identified Spectrae. It was _allurite_. - -"That's valuable?" Torrence murmured. "Pure _allurite_--" - -I laughed. "It certainly would be, if we could find any sizable -deposits here. On Earth, it takes some seventeen tons of the very -richest _allurium_ to get maybe a grain of pure _allurite_. We'll take -a look around, try and get a sample of the ore here. If it pans out -rich enough, they can send a well-equipped mining expedition." - -"We ought to get a bonus for this," Torrence said. "If you don't tell -'em so, I will." - - * * * * * - -The descent upon Vulcan took another twenty-four hours. Then at last we -had passed through a cloud-bank and, at some twenty thousand feet, the -new world stretched dark and bleak beneath us. It certainly looked--to -Jan's intense disappointment--wholly uninhabited. It was a tumbled, -rocky landscape, barren and forbidding. Beneath us there were black -ravines and canyons, little jagged peaks and hill-top spires, some of -them sharp as needle-points. Off at one of the distant horizons the -tiered land, rising up, stretched into the foothills of serrated ranks -of mountain peaks which loomed over the jagged dark horizon line. - -A great metal desert here. In the fitful starlight, and the mellow -light of little crescent Mercury which hung over the mountains like a -falling, new moon, the metallic quality of the rock was obvious--sleek, -bronzed metal ore, in places polished by erosion so that it shone -mirror-like. In other places it was mottled with a greenish cast. - -"Well," Jan murmured, "not very hospitable-looking, is it? Don't you -suppose there's any moisture, or any vegetation?" - -There was no sign of any living creatures beneath us as we drifted -diagonally downward. But presently, at lower altitude, I could see -gleaming pools of water in the rock-hollows. The remains of a rainstorm -here. Then we saw what looked like a great fissure--an open scar -rifted in a glistening, polished metallic plateau. Grey-black steam -was rising, condensing in the humid night-air. The hidden fires of -the bowels of the little planet seemed close at this one point. As -we stared, a red glow for a moment tinged the steam with a red and -greenish reflection of some subterranean glare, far down. - -Nothing but metal desert. But presently, as we slid forward, no more -than a few thousand feet above the rocky surface now, Jan murmured -suddenly, - -"Look off there. Like a little oasis, isn't it?" - -There was a patch of what seemed to be rocky soil. Just a few hundred -acres in extent, set in a cup-like depression with little buttes and -needle-spires and the strewn boulders of the metal waste surrounding -it. A clump of tangled vegetation covered it--a fantastic miniature -jungle of interlaced, queerly shaped little trees, solid with air-vines -and pods and clumps of monstrous, vivid-colored flowers. It was an -amazing contrast to the bleakness of the bronze desert. - -"Well, that's more like it," Jan exclaimed. "Not all desert, Bob. See -that?" - -Torrence, with his usual efficient practicality, had been busy -getting our landing equipment in order. He paused beside me in the -green-house, where I sat at the rocket-stream controls which now were -in operation for this atmospheric flight. - -"Where you figure on landing?" he asked. "Somewhere about here? You -want to locate that _allurite_?" - -"Yes," I agreed. - - * * * * * - -It is not altogether safe, handling even so small a space-flight ship -as ours, in atmosphere at low altitudes. Especially over unknown -terrain. It seemed my best course now to make the landing here, secure -my rock-samples and make my routine observations. I did not need -Torrence to tell me that we were not equipped for extensive exploration -of an unknown world. A trip on foot of perhaps a day or two, using the -spaceship as a base, would suffice for my records. - -"There's a better chance of finding sizable deposits of allurium here -than anywhere else?" Torrence suggested. "Don't you think so?" - -With that, too, I agreed. He prepared us for a night and a few meals of -camping--a huge pack for himself, which with a grin he declared himself -amply able to carry; a smaller one for Jan; and my instruments and -electro-mining drills for me. - -We dropped down within an hour or two, landing with a circular swing -into a dim, cauldron-like depression of the desert where the polished -ground was nearly level and free of boulders. - -That was a thrill to me--my first step into the new world--even though -I have experienced it several times before. Laden with our packs, we -opened the lower-exit pressure porte. The night air, under heavier -pressure than we were maintaining inside, oozed in with a little -hiss--moist, queer-smelling air. It seemed at first heavy, oppressive. -The acrid smell of chemicals was in it. - -The night-temperature was hot--sultry as a summer tropic night on -Earth. With the interior gravity shut off as we opened the porte, at -once I felt a sense of lightness. But it was not extreme. Despite -Vulcan's small size, its great density gives it a gravity comparable to -Earth's. - -In a little group we stood on the rocky ground with a dark, immense -heavy silence around us--a silence that you could seem to hear--and -yet a silence which seemed pregnant with the mystery of the -unknown. Somehow it made me suddenly think of weapons. Besides our -utility-knives, we each had a small, short-range electro-flash gun. I -saw that Torrence had his in his hand. - -"Put it away," I said. "There's nothing here." - -With a grin, he shoved it back into his belt. "Which way?" he demanded. -"What will the ore of _allurium_ look like? Green and red spots in -sand-colored streaks of rock, that Hughson book says." - -I figured that I could recognize it, though I am far from a skilled -geologist. Certainly I agreed with Torrence that our most important -job was to find some sizable lodes of _allurium_, measure its probable -extent, and take average samples of it back with us. - - * * * * * - -We climbed out of the little cauldron. In the tumbled darkness we -picked our way among the crags. An Earth-mile, then another. Little -Jan, like an eager hound was generally ahead of us, with his tiny -search-glare sweeping the jagged rocks. We crossed a narrow winding -canyon, inspected a slashed cliff-face. It was arduous going. Despite -the sense of lightness and our tropic black-drill clothes of short -trousers, thin jackets and shirts, we were panting, bathed in sweat -within an hour. Silently, Torrence plodded at my side. It was my -first trip with him; and I could see he did not altogether trust my -efficiency. - -"You can find the way back to the ship?" he demanded once. "To get lost -in a place like this--" - -I had marked it; little twin spires above the cauldron. They were -visible now, looming against the dark sky behind us. - -I showed him. "I saw them," he said. "I could lead us back. My idea is, -if we cover about ten miles and then camp--" - -A cry from Jan interrupted us. He was standing on a little ridge of -rock like a bronze metal wave frozen into solidity. Against the deep -purple sky his slim figure was a silhouette of solid black. He was -staring off into the distance; his arm waved with a gesture as he -called to us. - -"Something off there! Something lying on the rocks--come look!" - -We ran to join him. About a quarter mile distant there was a broad -gully. A dark blob was visible lying at the bottom of it--a sizable -blob, something forty or fifty feet long. We picked our way there; -climbed down into the ragged, thirty-foot ravine. It was a spaceship -lying here--with its sleek alumite hull resting on its side with one of -its rocket-stream fins bent and smashed under it. - -"The Roberts-King ship," Torrence exclaimed. "So they got here. Cracked -up in the landing." - -There seemed no doubt of it. This was unquestionably the Roberts-King -vehicle--an older version of our own vessel. We stood staring at it -blankly--at its little bow pressure port which was wide open, a narrow -rectangle with the interior blackness behind it. - -Then I saw that here on the rocks near the doorway, a litter of tools -and mechanisms were strewn; and a section of one of the gravity plates -which had been disconnected and brought out here. - -"Trying to repair it," I said to the silently staring, awed Torrence. -"Five years ago. Now what do you suppose--" - -A startled cry from Jan interrupted me. - -The body was lying on the rocks, just beyond the bow of the ship. It -was Jonathan Roberts--stocky, middle-aged leader of the expedition. -Clad in a strange costume of thin brown material, seemingly animal -skin, he lay crumpled. I had never met him, but from his published -portraits I could recognize him at once. In the starlight here his dead -face with staring eyes goggled up at us. - -"Why--why--" Torrence gasped. "Five years--" - -There was no great look of decay about the body. Roberts had died -here, certainly not five years ago. I was bending down over the body; -I shoved at one of the shoulders and turned it over. Stricken Jan, -Torrence and I stared numbed. A thin bronze sliver of metal--fin-tipped -like a metal arrow--was buried in Roberts' back! - -Again the alert Jan was gazing at the dim, fantastic night-scene around -us. Abruptly his hand gripped my arm as he gasped, - -"Why--good Lord--what's that? Over there--" - -In the blackness down the gully, perhaps a hundred feet from us, a -little spiral of fire had appeared. A tiny wisp of red-green flame. It -seemed to hover in the air a few feet above the rocky gully floor. Like -a phantom wraith of fire, it silently leaped and twisted. - -"My God--it's coming toward us!" Torrence suddenly gasped. - -In the darkness the silent wisp of fire had swayed sidewise, and then -came along the edge of the gully, a disembodied conflagration in -mid-air, as though wafted by a rush of wind we could not feel. - - - II - -For a moment of startled horror we stood motionless. The floating -little flame seemed bounding now, just over the rocks. Bounding? -Abruptly I seemed to see a dark shape of solidity under it--something -almost, but not quite invisible in the blackness. A tangible thing? A -creature--burning? Thoughts are instant things. I recall that in that -second, I had the impression of a four-legged thing like a huge dog, -bounding toward us over the rocks. The flame in which it was enveloped, -had spread--it was a blob of flame, but solidity was there. - -All in a second. My little electro-gun was in my hand. And then from -beside me, Torrence fired--his flash with a whining sizzle splitting -the blackness of the gully with its pencil-point of hurled electrons. -His hasty aim quite evidently was wild. I saw the little splash of -colored sparks where his charge hit the rocks. Too high. - -My gun was leveled. But in that split-second, the oncoming blob of -fire abruptly had been extinguished. There was only the faint blurred -suggestion of the dog-like thing. It had stopped short, and then -suddenly was retreating. My shot, and Jan's, followed it. In another -few seconds there was no possibility of hitting it. Silently it had -vanished. There was only the black silent gully around us, with the -blurred crags standing like menacing dark ghosts. - -My instinct then, I must admit, was for us to retreat at once to our -ship. In the heavy empty silence we stood blankly gazing at each other. -Torrence was grim; Jan was shaking with excitement and the fear all of -us felt. - -"You heard that whistle?" I murmured. - -"I heard it," Jan exclaimed. "Something--somebody--human--" There were -weird, hostile inhabitants on Vulcan--no question of that now! And -here was Roberts' body with a metal sliver of arrow in its back, mute -evidence of what we were facing. And already our presence here had been -discovered. I stared around at the rocky darkness, every blurred crag -now seeming to mask some unknown menace. - -"That whistle," Torrence murmured, "calling off that flaming -thing--started at our shots. Something is around here, watching us now, -undoubtedly." - -The yawning dark doorway of the wrecked spaceship was near us. -Something seemed lying just beyond its threshold. - -"You two stay here," I told Torrence and Jan. "Don't let them surprise -us again. We'll have to get back to our ship--" - -The port doorway led into a little pressure chamber. On its dark -sloping floor, as the wrecked ship lay askew, I stood with my -flashlight illumining so ghastly a scene that my blood chilled in my -veins. It was a bloody shambles of horror. For a moment I gazed; and -as I turned away, sickened, I found Jan at my elbow. He too, had been -staring. He clutched at me, white and shaken, and I turned away my -light. - -"The rest of them," he murmured. - -"Yes. Looks that way. All of them--" - -The bodies were strewn, clothing and flesh ripped apart so that here -were only the bones of men, with pulpy crimson-- - -"No humans did that, Jan." - -"No," he shuddered. "That Thing in flames that came at us--" - - * * * * * - -His words died in his throat. Outside there was a scream--a shrill, -eerie human cry. The high-pitched scream of a woman! Gun in hand, with -Jan close behind me, I ran outside. The dimness of the rocky gully -seemed empty. The cry had died away. - -"Torrence! You Torrence--what in the devil--" - -My low vehement words wafted away. There was no Torrence. Cautiously I -ran around the bow of the wrecked ship, gazed down its other side. - -"Torrence--Torrence--" - -The nearby rocks seemed to echo back my words, mocking me. - -"Why--why--" Jan gasped, "I left him right out here. He was just -standing, looking down at Roberts' body with the arrow in it. I just -thought I'd go inside with you for a minute." - -I pulled him down to the ground. We crouched, close against the side of -the ship. "That scream," I whispered, "wasn't far away. A few hundred -feet down the gully." - -"It sounded like a girl. It did, didn't it? Bob, if they got Torrence -that quickly--an arrow in him--" - -I peered, tense. The rock shadows were all motionless. In the heavy -blank silence there was only my startled breathing, and Jan's; and the -thumping of my own heart against my ribs. Had this weird enemy gotten -Torrence so swiftly, so silently? Something not human, that had so -quickly seized him and dragged him away? Or one of those metal arrows -in his back, so that his body was lying around here somewhere, masked -by the darkness. Jan and I had certainly not been inside the ship more -than a minute or two-- - -A sharp clattering ping against the alumite side of the wrecked ship -struck away my thoughts. A metal arrow! It bent against the hull-plate -and dropped almost beside me! The still-hidden sniper had seen us, that -was evident, for the arrow had whizzed only a foot or so over our heads. - -"Jan--lower--" - -We almost flattened ourselves against the bulge of the hull, with a -little pile of boulders in front of us. My gun was leveled, but there -was nothing to shoot at. Then from diagonally across the gully again -there came a sharp human cry! A girl's voice? It was soft this time, a -bursting little cry, half suppressed. - -Thoughts are instant things. I was aware of the cry and with it there -was another whizz. Another arrow. This one was wider of the mark; it -hit far to one side of us, up near the bow of the ship. - -"Jan! Wait!" His little flash gun was up in the crevice of the rocks -in front of us. In another second he would have fired. I saw his -target--two dim blobs across the gully. For just that second they were -visible as they rose up out of a hollow. A man; and the slighter -figure with him seemed that of a girl. Her hair, glistening like spun -metal in the dim light, hung over her shoulders. - -The two figures were struggling. There was the sound of the girl's low -cry, and a grunt from the man.... My low admonition stopped Jan from -firing and in another second the shapes across the gully had vanished. - -"That girl," I murmured. "She tried to keep him from killing us. Seemed -that way, don't you think?" - -"Well--" - - * * * * * - -We waited. From across the gully there was no sound. I could see now -that there was a little ridge in the broken, littered gully floor, -behind which the two figures had vanished. A lateral depression was -there, with the ragged, broken cliff-wall some ten feet behind it. - -"Do you suppose there's only one of them?" Jan whispered. "One man--and -that girl--" - -"And that--that Thing in flames--" - -There was no sign of the animal-like creature. For another moment we -crouched tense, peering, listening. A loose stone the size of my fist -was here beside us. I picked it up. It was weirdly heavy for its size. -Then I flung it out into the gully to the right of us. It fell with a -clatter. - -Our enemy was there all right. An arrow whizzed in the darkness and -struck near where the stone had fallen. - -Jan laughed with contempt. "Dumb enough--that fellow. Bob, listen, -we've got flash-guns. That fellow with no brains--and just with -arrows--" - -True enough. "You stay here," I whispered. - -"What's the idea?" - -"You wait a couple of minutes. Then throw another stone off to the -right--about the same place. Understand?" - -"No, I don't." - -"Well, you do it, anyhow." - -There seemed a line of shadow to the left of us, a shadow which -extended well out into the gully. The ground dropped down in that -area--a slope strewn with crags, broken with little crevices. Crouching -low, I crept to the bow of the ship, to the left away from Jan; sank -down, waited. There was no sound; evidently I had not been seen. I -started again, picking my way down the slope. - -A minute. I was well out into the gully now, ten feet or so down, so -that I could not see the wrecked ship where Jan was crouching. From -here the opposite cliff-wall showed dark and ragged. Occasionally it -yawned with openings, like little cave-mouths. The place where the -figures had been crouching should be visible from here. The broken, -lower side of the little ridge behind which they had dropped was in -view to me now. It was dark with shadow, but there seemed nothing there. - -Slowly, cautiously, I crossed the gully. Two minutes since I had left -Jan? I melted down beside a rock, almost at the edge of the cliff-wall. -And then, out in the gully, far to the right, I heard the stone clatter -as Jan threw it. - -There was no answering arrow-shot this time.... One can be very -incautious, usually at just the wrong moment. I recall that I stood -up to see better, though I flattened myself against a boulder. And -suddenly, close behind me, I was aware of a padding, thudding rhythmic -sound on the rocks. I whirled. I had only a second's vision of a dark -bounding animal shape coming at me. My sizzling little flash went under -it as it rose in one of its bounding leaps. - -I had no time to fire another shot. Frantically I pulled the -trigger-lever, but the gun's voltage had not yet rebuilt to firing -pressure. Futilely I flung the gun into the creature's face as it bore -down upon me. - -The impact of the dark oblong body knocked me backward so that I fell -with it sprawling, snarling upon me. In the chaos of my mind there was -only the dim realization of a heavy body as big as my own; spindly -legs, like the legs of a huge dog. There seemed six or eight legs, -scrambling on me. - -Wildly I fought to heave it off. There was a face--a ring of glaring -green eyes; fang-like jaws of a long pointed snout which opened, -snarling with a gibbering, gruesome cry. I shoved my left forearm into -the jaws as they came at my face. They closed upon my arm, ripping, -tearing. - - * * * * * - -But somehow I was aware that I had lunged to my feet. And the Thing -reared up with me. It was a Thing almost as heavy as myself. My left -arm had come loose from its jaws and as its scrambling weight pressed -me I went down again. A Thing of rubber? It seemed boneless, the shape -of it bending as I seized it. A gruesomely yielding body. My flailing -blows bounded back from it. Then I knew that I was gripping it by the -head, twisting it. The snarling, snapping jaws suddenly opened wide -with a scream--a scream that faded into a mouthing gibber, and in my -grip the Thing went limp. I cast it away and it sank to the rocks, -quivering. - -For an instant I stood panting, trembling with nausea sickening me. -On my hands the flesh of the weird antagonist was sticking like -viscous, gluey rubber. Hot and clinging. Hot? I stared at my hands -in the dimness. For a second I thought it was phosphorescence. Then -yellow-green wisps of flame were rising from my hands. Frantically I -plunged them into my jacket pockets. The tiny flames were extinguished. -I stripped off my jacket, flung it away and it lay with a little smoke -rising from it where the weird stuff was trying again to burst into -flame. - -The skin of my hands was seared, but the contact with the flames had -been only momentary and the burns were not severe. It had all happened -in a minute or two. I recall that I was standing trembling, staring -at the yawning mouth of a cave entrance which was nearby in the -cliff-face. A movement in there? A moving blob? Then I was aware that -there was a light behind me. Off across the gully there was a blob of -light-fire. A red-green blob, swirling, scrambling. And the sound of a -distant, gibbering snarl.... - -The singing whizz of an arrow past my head made me turn again. My human -adversary! I saw him now. He was coming at a run from the mouth of the -cave--a wide-shouldered, grotesquely-shaped man with a brown hairy -garment draped upon him. He swayed like a gorilla on thick bent legs. -In one hand he held what seemed an arrow-sling. In the other he carried -a long narrow segment of rock, swinging it like a club. He was no more -than ten feet from me. In the dimness I could see his huge round head -with tangled, matted blank hair. As I whirled to meet him, his voice -was a bellow of guttural roar, like an animal bellowing to intimidate -its enemy. - -I turned, jumped sidewise. And abruptly from a rock-shadow another -shape rose up! Slim, small white body, brown-draped with long, gleaming -tawny hair. The girl! Her voice gasped, - -"You run! He kill you! In here--this way--" - -The bellowing savage had turned heavily in his rush and was charging -us. In her terror and confusion the girl gripped me, shoving me toward -the cave. As we ran I flung an arm around her, lifting her up. She -weighed hardly more than a child. Then we were in the blackness of a -tunnel-passage. I set her down. - -"Lie down. Be quiet," I whispered vehemently. She understood me; she -crouched back against the side wall. There seemed a little light here, -a glow which I realized was inherent to the rocks, like a vague, faint -phosphorescence. But it was brighter outside. The charging savage had -evidently paused at the entrance. As I stared now, his bulky figure -loomed there, grotesque silhouette. Then doubtless he saw me. With -another bellow he came charging in. - -I stood waiting, like a Toreador, in front of a heavily charging bull. -It was something like that, for as he rushed me, swinging his club and -plunging with lowered head of matted hair, nimbly I jumped aside. I had -seized a rock half as big as my head. He had no time to turn and poise -himself as I jumped on him, crashing the rock at the side of his broad -ugly face as he straightened and swung around. - -Ghastly blow. His face smashed in as the rock seemed to go into it. -For a second his hulking body stood balanced upon the crooked legs and -broad flat bare feet. Gruesome dead thing with the face and top of the -head gone, it balanced on legs suddenly turned rigid. Then it toppled -forward and thudded against the passage wall, sliding sidewise to the -ground where it lay motionless. - - * * * * * - -In the phosphorescent dimness, I dropped beside the girl. She was -panting with terror, shuddering, with her hands before her face. - -"It's all right," I murmured. "Or at least, maybe it isn't all right -with you, but he's dead, anyway." - -Utterly incongruous, the delicately formed bronze-white girl--and that -hulking, grotesque, clumsy savage. - -"Oh--yes," she murmured. "Dear--yes--" - -"You speak English--strange, here on Vulcan--" - -"But from your Captain Roberts--he was the fren' of mine--of all the -Senzas--" - -"He's dead. An arrow in him--lying over there by his wrecked ship--the -rest of them, dead inside--" - -"Yes. I know it. That was these Orgs. I was caught--just the last time -of sleep. Tahg--surely it seems it must be Tahg who sent this Org to -take me from my father's home--" - -A captive! And she had fought with her savage captor to stop him from -sending an arrow into me. Then, in his absorption as he tried to stalk -me, she had broken loose from him. - -"Just this one Org?" I murmured. "Is he the only one around here? He -and that--animal-thing which I killed?" - -"That--a female _mime_--you--you--" - -She was huddling beside me, clinging to me, still shuddering. "Two Orgs -there were," she whispered. "And another mime--a fire-male--" - -The flame-creature! Queerly, it was not until that instant that I -thought of Jan. Out there across the gully, that swirling swaying blob -of light-fire! Those snarling sounds! Jan had been attacked by another -of the savages, and by the weird flaming creature! The mime fire-male, -as the girl called it. - -I jumped to my feet. "What--what you do?" she demanded. - -"You stay here. What's your name?" - -"Ama. Daughter of Rohm, the Senza. He my father. He very good fren' of -the Captain Roberts--good fren' of all the Earthmen. Like you? You are -Earthman?" - -"Yes. Now Ama, listen--I came here with another Earthman--with two -others, in fact. One of them is over there by the Roberts' ship.... You -wait here--" - -"No!" she gasped. I had dashed toward the tunnel entrance, but I found -her with me. "No--no, I stay with you." - -From the entrance the gully showed dim and silent. Over the little rise -of ground, just the top of the Roberts' spaceship was visible. - -Ama clung to me. "I stay with you," she insisted. - -Cautiously we picked our way across the gully, up the small ascending -slope. No sound; nothing moving. But now there was a pungent, acrid -chemical smell hanging here in the windless air. - -"The fire-mime!" Ama whispered. "You smell the fire? Then he was angry, -ready to fight--" - -"He fought," I retorted grimly. "I saw it--" - -"Look! Look there--" - - * * * * * - -Her slim arm as she gestured tinkled with metal baubles hanging on -it.... I saw, up the slope, the blob of something lying on the rocks. -Jan! My heart pounded. But it wasn't Jan. The body of one of the weird -oblong animals was lying there. Lying on its side, with its six legs -stiffly outstretched. Ugly hairless thing, like a giant dog which had -been skinned. I could see now that the grey-green flesh had a greasy, -pulpy look. What strange organic material was this? Certainly nothing -like it existed on Earth. Impervious to heat, as the human stomach -tissue is impervious to the action of its own digestive juices. -Evidence of the thing's flaming oxidation was here. Wisps of smoke were -rising from the ground about the slack body. - -Had Jan killed it? The ring of eyes above the long muzzle snout bulged -with a glassy, goggling dead stare. The jaws were open, with a thick, -forked black tongue protruding, and green, sticky-looking froth still -oozing out. The teeth were long and sharp, fangs like polished black -ivory protruding from the jaw. The cause of its death was obvious. A -knife-slash had ripped, almost severed its throat in a hideous wound -where green-black viscous ooze was still slowly dripping, with smoky -vapor rising from it. - -For a moment, with little Ama clinging to me, I must have stood -appalled at the weird sight of the dead fire-mime. If Jan had fought -and killed it--then where was he now? And where was that other Org, -companion of the clumsy savage I had killed when it had tried to -attack me? - -And where was Torrence? - -"Your fren'--he did this?" Ama was murmuring. - -"Yes, I guess so." I raised my voice cautiously. "Jan--Oh, Jan, where -are you?" - -The dark shadowed rocks mocked me with their muffled, blurred echo of -my call. There seemed nothing here alive, save Ama and me. The wrecked -spaceship lay broken and silent on the rocks, with the gruesome, strewn -bodies of the Earthmen in it. And the body of Roberts still lay here -outside, near the bow. - -"Jan--Jan--" - -Then Ama abruptly gasped, "The Orgs! See them--up there!" - -The cliff which was the gully wall, at this point was some fifty -feet high. I stared up to a patch of yellow light which had appeared -there in the darkness. A band of the murderous Orgs! Carrying flaming -torches, a dozen or more of the gargoyle savages stood above us on the -cliff-brink. One stood in advance of them, pointing down at us. He was -the other one, doubtless, who had originally been down here with Ama. -Around them, half a dozen of the huge greenish mimes bounded, whining -with gibbering cries of eagerness. - -And in that instant, an arrow came down. I saw one of the savages sling -it from a flexible, whip-like contrivance. The whizzing metal shaft -sang past our heads and clattered on the rocks. - -Ama was clutching me. "You come! Oh hurry--they kill us both." - -There was no argument about that. I flung a last look around with the -vague thought that I would see Jan lying here. Then I let Ama guide -me. At a run, we headed back down the declivity and diagonally across -the gully. A rain of arrows came down, clattering around us, but in a -moment most of them were falling short. - -"Which way, Ama? Where we go?" - -"My people--my village--not too far." - -"Which way?" - -"Through this cliff. There are passages into the lower valley." - -"You know the way?" - -"Yes, oh yes." - -A dark opening in the opposite cliff presently was before us. The Orgs -were coming down the other cliff now; their bellowing voices and the -whining cries of the mimes were a blended babble. - -"A storm is coming," Ama said suddenly. - -The distant sky over the lower end of the gully was shot now with weird -lurid colors. In the heavy dark silence here around us, a sudden sharp -puff of wind plucked at us, tossing Ama's long tawny hair. - -"This way--" she added. - -My arm went around her as another wind-blast thrust us sidewise, almost -knocking her off her feet. Then clinging together, fighting our way -in a rush of wind which now abruptly was a roar, we plunged into the -depths of the yawning tunnel. - - - III - -I must recount now what happened to Jan, as he told it to me when after -a sequence of weird events, he and I were together again. When I left -him crouching there close against the hull of the wrecked Roberts' -ship, he lost sight of me almost in a moment. There was just the faint -blob of me sliding into a shadow; and then the lowering ground down -which I went hid me. Tensely he crouched, peering across the gully, -listening to the heavy silence. - -Two minutes, I had said; and then he must throw the rock. His hand -fumbled around, found a sizable rock-chunk. He understood my purpose, -of course--to divert our adversary across the gully at a moment when I -might be close to jump him from the other direction. - -Jan was excited, apprehensive, just an inexperienced boy. Was the -crouching savage with the girl still there across the gully? There was -no sound, no movement. Was it two minutes now? - -He flung the stone at last and raised himself up a little with his -gun leveled. The stone clattered off to the right. But it provoked -no whizzing arrow. No sound of me, jumping upon my adversary.... -Nothing.... But what was that? Jan stiffened. Distinctly he heard the -sizzling puff of a flashgun shot. My gun! He knew it must be; it was to -the left, out in the gully. And following it there was a low gibbering -snarl. Faint in the distance, but in the heavy silence plainly audible. - -I had been attacked! Jan found himself on his feet, with no thought -in his mind save to dash to me.... He had taken no more than a few -scrambling leaps on the rocks. He reached the brink of the descent. -Far down and out in the gully it seemed that he could see the blur of -something fighting. - -His low incautious movement had betrayed him. From behind him there was -a low whistling. A signal! An eager whining snarl instantly resounded -to it. Jan had no more than time to whirl and face the sounds when a -great bounding grey-green shape was on him! - -Jan's shot missed it, and the next second the lunging oblong body -struck him. The impact knocked him backward. His gun clattered away. -Then the huge, hairless dog-like thing sprawled upon him, its slavering -jaws snapping. They found his shoulder as he lunged and the fang-like -teeth sank in.... - -A miracle that Jan could have kept his wits so that he fumbled for -his knife as he fell. But suddenly he got it out, stabbed and slashed -wildly with it as he rolled and twisted on the ground with the snarling -creature on top of him.... And suddenly he was aware that the thing had -burst into flame! - -It could have been only a few seconds during which Jan fought that -weird living fire. It was a wild chaos of horror.... Licking, oozing -flames exuding like an aura from the sticky viscous flesh that horribly -sprawled upon him. Monstrous ghastly adversary, with flesh that seemed -now like burning bubbling rubber, stenching with acrid gas-fumes.... - -Just a few seconds, then Jan realized that somehow he had broken loose -from the jaws that gripped his shoulder. He tried to scramble to his -feet. The flames searing his face made him close his eyes. He was -holding his breath, choking. His clothes were on fire.... - - * * * * * - -Then the sprawling, lunging body knocked him down again. He was still -wildly, blindly slashing with his knife. Vaguely he was aware, over -the chaos of snapping snarls, that a human voice nearby with guttural -shouts was urging the animal to dispatch its victim. But suddenly--as -Jan's knife-blade ripped into its throat--the snarls went into a -ghastly, eerie animal scream of agony--a long scream that died into a -gurgle of gluey, choking blood-fluid.... - -Jan was aware that the creature had fallen from him with its flames -dying. On the rocks he rolled away from it, with his scorched hands -wildly brushing his clothes to extinguish them. Then he was on his -feet, staggering, choking, coughing. But his knife, its blade dripping -with an oozing flame, still wildly waved. - -And then he was aware that twenty feet away, a heavy, grotesque -man-like shape was standing with a club and arrow-sling. But with his -flame-creature dead and the sight of the staggering, triumphant Jan -waving his flaming knife-blade--the watching savage suddenly dropped -his club and let out a cry of dismay and fear. And then he ran. - -For a moment Jan, wildly, hysterically laughing, went in pursuit. But -in the rocky darkness the fleeing savage already had vanished.... - -Then reaction set in upon Jan. His burned face and hands stung as -though still fire was upon him. He was still gasping, choking from the -fumes of his smoldering clothes. His eyes, with lashes singed, smarted, -watering so that all the vague night-scene was a swaying blur.... He -found himself sitting down on the rocks.... - -And then suddenly he remembered me. Where had I gone? What had -happened?... - -Vaguely Jan recalled that I had left him and gone across the gully.... -Where was I now?... Then he seemed dimly to recall that he had heard my -shot.... - -In the dimness suddenly it seemed to Jan that he saw me, far up the -gully to the right, up on the cliff-top. For just a moment he was -sure that it was the shape of me, silhouetted against the sky.... The -sight gave him strength. Still staggering, he ran wildly forward.... -A quarter of a mile; certainly it seemed that far. He had crossed the -gully by now. The figure up above had vanished.... Queer. What was I -doing up there? Chasing the savage?... - -Jan climbed the little cliff, which was ragged, and lower here than -elsewhere. It led him to the undulating, upper plateau, crag-strewn, -dim under a leaden sky. But there was enough light so that he could -see the distant figure. It was only two or three hundred yards away, -plodding on, apparently not looking back.... - -Jan ran after it. And then he was calling: - -"Bob! You Bob--" - -The figure turned. Started suddenly back, and called: - -"Is that you? Jan?" - -It was Torrence! He came back at a lumbering run now--Torrence, -bare-headed, gun in hand. But he obviously hadn't had any encounter. -His jacket was buttoned across his shirt; he looked just as he had when -Jan had last seen him, out there at the bow of the wrecked spaceship -when Jan had gone inside to join me. - -Torrence stared at the burned Jan. "Why--good Heavens," he gasped. -"You--I saw that thing killing you. I was up here--I started down, but -too late--" - -"Where's Bob?" - -"Bob? Why--he was killed. Burned--like you. I tried to help him--too -late--the damned things--" - - * * * * * - -The lameness of it was lost on the still-dazed Jan at that moment. I -had been killed! It struck him with a shock. And as he stood wavering, -trembling, Torrence drew him to a rock. - -"Too bad," Torrence murmured sympathetically. - -"Where--where were you?" Jan said at last. "We came out of the -ship--couldn't find you." - -"I was attacked by one of those cursed Things. Like the one that nearly -got you--like the one that killed Bob. I chased it; shot at it when I -got up here. But I shouldn't have come up--then I saw you and Bob--too -late to get back to you. So I was starting for our ship. It's off this -way, not so very far." - -For a little time Jan sat there numbed, and Torrence sat -sympathetically, silently beside him. - -"When we get back," Torrence murmured at last, "you can put in your -report with mine. We did our best--but there isn't any use now, us -tackling this thing." - -Jan must have been wholly silent, thinking of me, dead, burned, back -there in the darkness of the gully. - -"You all right now, lad?" - -"Yes," Jan said. "Yes--I'm all right." - -"When we get back, we ought to get a bonus," Torrence said. "Don't -worry, Jan--I'll see you get plenty. Your report and mine--to tell them -the hazards of this trip--" - -"We should go back?" Jan said. - -"Yes, certainly we should. Get back to Earth as fast as we can. No -chance of doing anything else--" - -Torrence gazed apprehensively around them in the darkness. That much -at least--the reality of his apprehension as they sat there on the -open plateau--that was authentic enough. And Jan also felt that at any -moment one of the flaming creatures might attack them. - -"You strong enough to start now?" - -"Yes, sure I am," Jan agreed. - -They started, picking their way along. Jan tried to remember how far we -three had come from our own ship until we had discovered the Roberts' -vessel.... For ten or fifteen minutes now he and Torrence clambered -over the rocks. - -"You think you know the way?" Jan asked at last. - -"Yes--or I thought I did." Torrence's tone was apprehensively dubious. -And that, too must have been authentic. Certainly it would be a -desperate plight to be lost here on Vulcan. "It was Bob who was sure he -knew the way back--" - -"I think we are all right," Jan agreed. "That big rock-spire off -there--I remember it." - -As they progressed, Jan was aware now that the sky behind them was -brightening. They turned and stared at it. - -"Weird--" Torrence muttered. - -"Yes--some sort of storm. If it's bad--you suppose we ought to take -shelter? It's pretty open up here." - -The sky was certainly weird enough--a swirl of leaden clouds back -there, shot now with lurid green and crimson. And suddenly there came -a puff of wind. Then another. Stronger, it whined between the nearby -naked crags. In a little nearby ravine it caught an area of loose -metallic stones, whirled them before it with a tinkling clatter. - -"We came through that ravine, coming out this way," Jan said suddenly. -"I'm sure of it." - -Torrence remembered it also. Another blast of wind came; and with -it blowing them, they scurried into the ravine. The lurid storm-sky -painted it with a crimson and green glare, so that the narrow cut in -the rocky plateau was eerie. To Jan it seemed suddenly infernal. He -clutched at the larger, far more bulky Torrence as they hurried along -with the wind blasting them. - -Loose metallic stones were blowing around them now with a clatter. -Then suddenly the sky seemed riven by a darting, jagged red shaft of -lightning. And then red rain was pelting them. - -"Got to find some place," Torrence panted. He had to shout it above the -roar as the wind tore at his words and hurled them away. - -"Over there?" Jan gestured. "Looks like a cave." - -The sides of the ravine were rifted in many places with vertical -crevices. They headed toward a wider slit of opening which seemed -to lead well back underground. A place of shelter until this storm -passed.... - - * * * * * - -To Jan, what happened then was weirdly terrifying. He suddenly realized -that as they approached the opening, they were being pulled at it. Into -it! A suction, as though somewhere down underground this storm had -created a partial vacuum--a far lesser pressure so that the air of the -little ravine was rushing into it! - -Terrified, both of them now were fighting to keep away. But it was no -use. Like wind-blown puffs of cotton they were sucked into the yawning -opening. A sudden chaos of roaring horror. Jan felt that he was still -clutching at Torrence. Then both of them fell, sliding, sucked forward -as a plunger cylinder is sucked through a pneumatic tube. The ground -here in the passage felt smooth as polished marble. - -For how long they plunged forward Jan had no conception. Roaring, -sucking darkness. Then it seemed that there was a little light. An -effulgence; a pallid, eerie glow, like phosphorescence streaming from -the rocks. The narrow passage was steadily widening; and then abruptly -they were blown out into emptiness. - -It was a vast grotto, with smooth metallic floor almost level. The -effulgence here was brighter, so that an undulating, vaulted ceiling -glistened far overhead. For a moment the nearer wall was visible, -smooth, burnished metal rock. Eroded by the winds of centuries, all the -rock here was burnished until it shone mirror-like. - -The huge pallid interior roared and echoed with the tumbling -wind-torrents seething in it. A lashing cauldron jumbled with eddying -blasts. Jan and Torrence tried to get to their feet. They could see now -that they were far out from the wall--sliding, buffeted, desperately -clinging together, hurled one way and then another. Bruised from head -to foot, panting, gasping in the swiftly changing pressures, Jan felt -his senses leaving him. A numbed vagueness was on him, so that there -was only the suck and roar of the winds and the feel of Torrence to -whom he was clinging. They were lying prone now-- - -"Easing up a little--" He heard Torrence's voice as though from far -away. And then he came to his senses to find that he and Torrence had -hit against a wall of the grotto and were clinging to a projection of -rock. - -Easing up a little.... The storm outside lessening.... Jan must have -drifted off again; and after another interval he was conscious that -there was only a tossing, crazy breeze in here. It whined and moaned, -echoing from one wall to another so that the pallid, silvery half-light -seemed filled with a myriad gibbering little voices. - -And Jan could see now that he and Torrence had been blown into a recess -of the grotto--a smaller cave. The rock formation here was as though -this were the heart of a monstrous crystal--vertical facets of strata -that glistened pallidly. - -"We'll have to try and cross back," Torrence said, and in the confined -space his words weirdly echoed, split and duplicated so that there -seemed many little whispering replicas of his words. "Find that passage -where we came in--" - -They were on their feet now--suddenly to Jan there was around them a -vast vista of pallid dimness. A glowing, limitless abyss stretching off -into shadowy nothingness, everywhere he looked. - -"Why--why," he murmured, "this place--so large--" - -Torrence still had his flash cylinder. He fumbled in his jacket pocket, -brought it out. Amazing thing! As he snapped it on, its tiny white beam -showed mirrored in a hundred places of the paneled, crystalline walls! -The blurred image of Torrence and Jan standing holding each other with -their light-shaft before them, duplicated so that there were a hundred -of them everywhere they looked! And countless other hundreds smaller -and smaller in the myriad backgrounds! - - * * * * * - -With a startled curse Torrence took a few steps into what seemed pallid -emptiness, and then suddenly his image was coming at him! Lost! To Jan -came the rush of horror that they might, wander in here, balked at -every turn.... - -Another startled cry from Torrence stuck away Jan's thoughts. Neither -he nor Torrence had time to make a move. There was suddenly everywhere -the duplicated image of a thick, swaying, gargoyle savage, standing -like a gorilla on thick bent legs, with one crooked arm holding a -flaming torch over his head. A myriad replicas of him everywhere! Was -he close to them, or far away? And in which direction? - -In that stricken second the questions stabbed into Jan's tumultuous -mind. Then he was aware of something whirling in the air over his -head--something crashing on his skull so that all the world seemed -to go up into a splitting, blinding roar of light. He felt his legs -buckling under him. There was only Torrence's fighting outcry and the -sound of a guttural echoing voice as Jan fell and his senses slid off -into a blank and black, empty silence.... - - - IV - -I go back now to that moment when Ama and I, pursued by the roaming -band of Orgs, plunged into a tunnel passage that led from the gully, -near the wrecked Roberts' spaceship. It was quite evident that Ama was -aware of the dangers of the wind-storms of her little world. There was -a swift air-current sucking into this passage. But it was not powerful -enough to do more than hurry us along. Once, where the tunnel branched, -there seemed an open grotto up a little subterranean ascent to the -right. It glowed with a brighter pallid light than was here in the -passage. I turned that way with an interested gaze, but at once she -clutched at me. - -"No--no. In times of the storm, very bad sometimes in places under the -ground." - -There seemed no sign of pursuit behind us. "The Orgs--they run heavy," -Ama said when I mentioned it. In the pale opalescent glow of the -tunnel, I could see her faint triumphant smile as she gazed up at me -sidewise. Strange little face, utterly foreign so that upon Earth, by -Earth standards one would have been utterly baffled to identify her. -But it was an appealing face, and now, with her terror gone, the sly -glance she flung at me was wholly feminine. - -"Those fire-mimes," I said. "Couldn't they rush ahead of their masters, -trailing us?" I explained how on Earth dogs would do that, following -their quarry by the scent. She looked puzzled, and then she brightened. - -"I remember. The Captain Roberts told us about that. The mimes are -different. The male and female both--they follow what it is they see, -nothing else." - -Then she told me about the weird, dog-like creatures. The male, exuding -a scent--if you could call it that--a vapor which in the air bursts -into spontaneous combustion as it combines with the atmospheric oxygen. - -How long we ran through what proved to be a maze of passages in the -honey-combed ground, I have no idea. Several Earth-miles, doubtless. -Several times we stopped to rest, with the breezes tossing about us as -I listened, tense, to be sure the Orgs were not coming. Then at last we -emerged; and at the rocky exit I stood staring, amazed. - -It was a wholly different looking world here. The pallid underground -sheen was gone; and now again there was the dim twilight of the -interminable Vulcan night. From where we stood the ground sloped down -so that we were looking out over the top of a wide spread of lush, -tangled forest. Weird jungle, rank and wild with spindly trees of -fantastic shapes, heavy with pods and exotic flowers and tangled with -masses of vines. Beyond it, far ahead of us there seemed a line of -little metal mountains at the horizon; and to the left an Earth-mile or -so away, the forest was broken to disclose a winding thread of little -river. It shone phosphorescent green in the half light. The storm was -over now, but still the colors lingered in the cloud sky--a glorious -palette of rainbow hues up there that tinted the forest-top. - -Ama gestured toward the thread of river. "The Senzas--my people and my -village--off that way beyond the little water. We go quickly. But we be -careful, until we get beyond the water." - -"Swim it?" - -"We can. But I think I remember where there is a Senza boat hidden on -this side." - - * * * * * - -She had already told me more of what happened to her. The Senzas, -primitive obviously, yet with an orderly tribal civilization, were the -dominant race here on little Vulcan. The savage Orgs--a far lower, more -primitive type both mentally and physically--in nomadic fashion, roamed -the metal deserts and little stunted forests which lay beyond the -barren regions. They were, at times of religious frenzy, cannibalistic, -with weird and gruesome festival rites which Ama only shudderingly -sketched. - -For the most part, the clumsy Orgs and their weird mime-creatures were -kept from the Senza forests. But occasionally they raided, stealing -the Senza women, and roaming the lush forests for food. There had -been, in the Senza village, one Tahg, a wooer of Ama. An older man, -but somehow well liked by the Senza tribal leader. Repulsed by Ama, he -had threatened her--and then he had vanished from the village; gone -hunting, and the Senzas considered that the Orgs might have killed him. - -"But I think it was Org blood in him," Ama said. "I told the Captain -Roberts that--I remember just before he and his men left us to finish -the repairs of their ship--and then we found later that the Orgs had -killed them all." - -Tahg, Ama thought, had become the tribal leader of this group of the -Orgs--indulging with them in their gruesome rites.... Then, just a few -hours ago, two Orgs had crept upon Ama as she slept--with extraordinary -daring for an Org, had successfully seized her and carried her off. -Taking her into the Org country, past the Roberts' spaceship, where -they had come upon me, and Torrence and Jan.... - -"We be careful now," she was telling me as we stood gazing out over the -forested slope. "After a storm it is when the Orgs mostly roam--the -hunting here is better when the little creatures are out after the -water." - -The little creatures! Best of the animal foods here on Vulcan.... The -red-storm quite evidently had emptied torrential rain on the forest. -The fantastic trees were heavy with it. Soddenly it dripped from the -overhead branches. And now as we started down the slope, I saw the -little creatures. Insect or animal, no one could have said. A myriad -sizes and shapes of them, from a finger-length to the size of a cat. -Before our advance they scurried, on the ground, scattering with -weird little outcries. Some flew clumsily into the leaves overhead; -others ran up there on the vines, peering down at us as we passed. We -came suddenly upon a pool of rain-water. Greedily a hundred little -orange-green things, seemingly almost all head and snout, were crowding -at the pool, sucking up the water. With eerie, maniacal little voices -they rolled and bounced away at our approach. - -This weird forest! Abruptly I was aware that there were places where -the rope-like vines and leafy branches of the underbrush shrank away -from us as we advanced--slithering and swaying little vines in sudden -movement before us. Sentient vegetation. There are plants on Earth -which shrink and shudder at a touch. Others which snap and seize an -unwary insect enemy. But here it was far more startling than that. I -saw a vine on the ground rise up upon its myriad little tendrils; the -pods, like a row of heads upon it were quivering, puffing. The extended -length of it, like a snake slithered from my threatening tread. - -"It fears every human," Ama said. "A strange thing to you Earthmen?" - -"Well, slightly," I commented. "Suppose it--some of this vegetation got -angry--" Fantastic thought, but the reality of it--a looping, swaying -vine over our heads, as thick as my arm--that was a stark reality. -"Would a thing like that attack us, Ama?" - -She shrugged. "There is talk of it. But I think no one is ever truthful -to say it really happened." - -We were in the depths of the forest now. In the humid, heavy darkness -it was sometimes arduous going. That thread of river--we could not see -it now, but I judged it still must be half an Earth-mile away. Once -we sat down in a little open glade to rest. In the thick silence the -throbbing voice of the forest, blended of the scurrying life and the -rustling vines, was a faint steady hum. Then suddenly I saw that Ama -was tense, alert, sitting up listening. She looked startled, abruptly -frightened. - -"What is it?" I whispered. - -"Off there--the vines, they are frightened. You hear?" - - * * * * * - -It seemed that somewhere near us, the vine-rustling had grown louder. -A scurry, mingled with little popping sounds from the pods. Someone -coming? I recall that the startled thought struck me. Then from a -thicket near at hand a group of little creatures came dashing. They -saw us, wheeled and scurried sidewise. I was on my feet, peering into -the shadowed leafy darkness. I thought I heard a low, guttural voice. -Whether I did or not, the whizz of an arrow past me was reality enough. - -A wandering band of the Orgs were stalking us! At the whizz of the -arrow I made a dash sidewise. My gun was gone; I jerked out my knife. -Ama was up, and another arrow barely missed her--an arrow that came -from a totally different direction so that I knew we must be already -surrounded. - -"Ama--lie down! Down--" - -A woman under some circumstances can be a terrible handicap. She didn't -drop to the ground; she stood gazing around her in terror, and then she -came running at me, clutching me so that I was futilely struggling to -cast her off. Another arrow sang past our heads, and then from several -directions, the Orgs were bursting into the glade. - -I tore loose from Ama, but it was no use. Whatever effective fight I -might have put up, it could have brought a rain of arrows which might, -probably would, have killed the girl. - -"Quiet," I murmured. "They've got us. No chance to fight." - -I stood trying to shield her as in the dimness the Orgs crowded around -us. Ten or more of them, jabbering at us, seizing me and presently -shoving us off through the forest. - -Two or three others seemed to join us in a moment; and abruptly Ama -gasped: - -"Tahg! There is Tahg--" - -The renegade Senza, quite obviously a leader here, shoved past his -jabbering, triumphant men and confronted us. He was seemingly startled, -and then triumphant at seeing Ama here. Then his gaze swept to me. He -was a big, muscular, but slender fellow. He was clad in a brief brown -drape; but his aspect was wholly different from the heavy, misshapen, -clumsy-looking Orgs. His thick dark hair fell longish about his ears, -framing his hawk-nosed, thin-lipped face. And his narrow dark eyes -squinted at me as he frowned. - -"Well," he said, "Earthman? New one?" His English was evidently less -fluent than Ama's, but it was understandable enough. - -"Yes," I agreed. "Friendly--like all Earthmen." - -He had signaled to the Orgs, and two of them had shuffled forward and -taken Ama from me. - -"Jus' good time," Tahg said ironically. "Org gods pleased tonight to -have Earthmen--" - -Earthmen! The plural! I had little opportunity to ponder it. Roughly -I was shoved onward through the forest, back to where it thinned into -a stretch of metal desert--and beyond that into a new terrain of -stunted, gnarled trees and rope vines on a rocky ground. To me it was -an exhausting march. Ama, with Tahg beside her, usually was behind -me. Once we stopped and food and water were given me. When we started -again, I saw that, at Tahg's direction, one of the savages had hoisted -Ama to his back, carrying her in a rope-vine sling. Occasionally other -small bands of Orgs joined us, until there were fifty or more of them, -triumphantly returning to their village. Their torches were burning -now, and a little ahead of us a pack of the huge green-grey mimes were -leaping. - -Then Tahg came toward me. "Good-bye," he said. "You look more good to -me when I see you next time. The gods prepare you now." - - * * * * * - -He turned and was lost in the darkness. My ankles had been fettered -with a two-foot length of rope; my wrists were crossed and lashed -behind me. No one was with me now but my two captors who urged me -forward, impatient at my little jerky steps. The village and its -jabbering turmoil and lights was in a moment hidden by a rise of the -rocky ground. Then I saw before me a fairly large, square building of -stone, flat-roofed, with a cone-shaped stone-pile on top like a crude -church spire. - -An Org temple. It was windowless; some twenty feet high from ground to -its roof. A narrow, rectangular slit of doorway was in front, where -two huge torches, like braziers one on either side, were burning. An -Org stood between them, with the torchlight painting him--an aged -savage in a long, white skin drape which was fantastically ornamented. -He was thin and bent, his round brown skull almost hairless, his -body shriveled, parched with age. His skinny arms were upraised, -outstretched to welcome me. - -But my startled gaze turned from him, for on the ground just at the -edge of the swaying torchlight, I saw that two figures were lying. Two -men, roped and tied into inert bundles. - -They were Jan and Torrence! - - - V - -There was a time when, roped and tied like Jan and Torrence, I was -laid beside them while in the torchlight, alone with his pagan gods, -the ancient Org priest stood intoning his prayers and incantations. It -was then that Jan was able to tell me what had happened to him. He was -lying between Torrence and me. I had little chance to talk to Torrence. -Nor any great desire, for I considered him then merely a craven fellow -who had deserted us at the very first of the weird attacks. - -Human emotions work strangely. It was obvious now, as we lay there in -the darkness, with the aged savage in the torchlight near us--obvious -enough that we were doomed to something horrible which at best would -end in our death. Yet Jan and I--each having considered the other -dead--were for a brief time at least, pleased that we were here. No -one yet alive, can normally quite give up hope of escaping death. I -recall that in the darkness I was furtively trying to loosen my bonds, -twisting and squirming. - -"You needn't bother," Torrence muttered. "I've tried all that. And -those two damned Orgs who carried you here--they're still watching us." - -"Going to take us inside, I guess," Jan whispered. "Inside this temple -to--to--" - -His shuddering imagination supplied no words. But his idea was right, -for presently the old priest was finished with his incantations. His -cracked voice called a command and the two savages who had brought me -here came from nearby. One by one, they picked us up and carried us -inside. - -I was the last to go in. The place was a single stone square room. It -was lurid with a swaying torchlight. Carved gargoyle images, crude -and hideously ugly--grotesque personification of the pagan Vulcan -gods--where ranged along the walls. The old priest was standing now on -a little dais, between the two interior torches. His arms were upraised -toward me as I was carried in; behind him there was a quick stone -altar, with a line of smaller images on it. His voice rose, quavering, -as I was slowly carried past him; and his hands over me might have been -purifying me for the coming rite. - -In the center of the room, raised some five feet above the floor, there -was a broad stone slab, with a big, grinning, pot-bellied stone image -mounted up there. Then I saw that the slab had a broad, cradle-like -depression in front of the image. Still bound, lying there side by -side, with the belly of the huge image projecting partly over them, -were Jan and Torrence. And now the two savages hoisted me up and rolled -me among them. - -The sacrificial altar. Heaven knows, I could not miss the realization -now. There was a weird, acrid, nauseous smell clinging here from former -ceremonies. And as I was hoisted up, I saw that the smooth sides of -the altar were seared, blackened by the heat of flames which so many -times before must have been here. - -And the heat--the fire? Within a moment after I was rolled into the -saucer-like depression of the alter--with Torrence muttering despairing -curses and Jan pallid and grim beside me--outside the temple there -sounded a weird gibbering chorus of baying. Ghastly, familiar sound! -The mimes--the giant fire-males! Released at the temple doorway, they -came bounding in--blobs of leaping red-green flame! A dozen or more -of the weird creatures, all of these much larger than the male Jan -had killed near the Roberts' spaceship. Fire-males trained for this -ceremony. Enveloped in their lurid flames they rushed at the altar, -circling it, swiftly running one behind the other so that we were -encircled with a ring of leaping flames. - -I heard Torrence mutter, "To roast us! Just to roast us slowly--" - - * * * * * - -The shoulders and heads of the running, circling fire-mimes were nearly -as high as the altar slab on which we were lying. The flames of them -swirled two or three feet higher--blobs of fire which merged one with -the other. A circular curtain of mounting flame walling us in. Through -it the temple interior was blurred, distorted. Vaguely the figure of -the aged priest was visible. He was now on his knees, turned partly -away from us as he faced his little row of god-images, supplicating -them. - -Curtain of swirling fire. Within a moment the heat of it was searing -us. Heat slowly intensifying. It was bearable now; but the confined -circle of air here was mounting in temperature; the big gargoyle -image over us, the metallic-rock slab beneath us both were slowly -heating. The smoke and the swirling gas-fumes would choke us into -unconsciousness very quickly, I knew. And then the mounting heat would -at last make this a sizzling griddle, on which we would lie, slowly -roasting.... - -A chaos of confused phantasmagoria blurred my mind in those first -horrible moments.... I saw the old priest, so solemnly, humbly -supplicating his gods as he officiated at this gruesome pagan -ceremony ... then I could envisage us being carried off, back to the -Org village where the people, not worthy of being here in the sacred -temple, were so eagerly awaiting us ... then the orgy--sacred feast, -endowing its participants with what future virtues and panaceas they -conceived their gods would give them.... - -The end, for us.... Already Jan was pitifully coughing.... But what -was this? I felt a shape stir beside me; a small, slender figure with -dangling hair; I felt trembling fingers fumbling at my bonds. - -Ama! She had crept from a little recess under the giant bulging statue -of the gargoyle god, here on the altar. Ama, who had found a chance to -slip away from the wooing Tahg, and had preceded us here--hiding up -here so that she might try and release us.... - -But it was too late now. So obviously too late! She had accomplished -nothing, save to immolate herself here with us! - -Into my ear her terrified voice was whispering, "I thought that the -fire-males would not come so soon." - -In the blurring, blasting heat and smoke, she had untied us, but of -what use? "No--no chance to try and jump," she stammered. "As we fell -they would leap upon us--kill us in a moment--" - -The sizzling, crackling of the flames--the gibbering baying of the -fire-mimes mingling with the incantations of the old priest--it was -all a blurred chaos.... Then suddenly I was aware that Jan, coughing, -choking, had struggled half erect on the slab. There was just an -instant when I saw his contorted face, painted lurid by the flames. -Wild despairing desperation was stamped there. But there was something -else. An exaltation.... - -"You--run--" he gasped. - -And then he jumped. A wild, desperate leap, upward and outward.... It -carried him through the curtain of flame and out some ten feet to the -temple floor. The thud of his crashing body mingled with the gibbering -yelps of the fire-mimes as they whirled and pounced upon him--all of -them in a second, merged into a great blob of flame out there on the -temple floor where they fought, scrambling over him, ripping--tearing-- - -Gruesome horror.... I knew in that second that already Jan was dead.... -And then I was aware that the other side of the altar, behind the -gargoyle image, was momentarily completely dark. All the flaming -creatures were fighting over Jan's body. Torrence, too, had realized -it. I saw him stagger up and jump into the darkness. I shoved at Ama; -rolled and tumbled her off the slab. We fell in a heap and scrambled -erect. The pawing, snarling group of fire-mimes, twenty feet away with -the big altar slab intervening, intent upon their scattering fragments, -for that moment did not heed us. On his little dais by the wall, the -old priest had turned and was standing numbed, confused. There was no -one else in the sacred temple. The single doorway was a vertical slit -of darkness. Already Torrence was running for it. I clutched at Ama and -we ran. - - * * * * * - -Out into the rocky blackness. I recall that I had the wits to turn us -away from where the Org village lay nearby, behind the hillock.... -Then, suddenly, from behind a crag, a dark figure rose up. Tahg! Tahg, -who had been crouching here, evidently impatient for his feast so that -he would be the first to see us as we were brought from the temple.... - -He stood gasping, startled; and in that same second I was upon him, my -fist crashing into his face so that he went backward and down. With -desperate haste I caught up a rock from the ground--pounded it on -his head--wildly pounding until his skull smashed.... Then I was up, -clutching Ama. Torrence already was ten or twenty feet ahead of us in -the darkness. We ran after him; he heard us coming and waited. - -"Which way?" he gasped. "She ought to know. Our spaceship--that would -be best--" - -At the door of the temple the old priest now was standing screaming. -From behind the little hill, answering shouts were responding.... - -"Is it closer to your village, or to our ship?" I demanded of Ama. - -"Why--why to your ship, I think." - -"You know the way?" - -"Yes--yes, I think so. Not to where you landed--that I do not know. But -to the Roberts' ship--" - -And the Orgs doubtless would consider that we would head into the Senza -country. The forests in that direction would be full of roaming Orgs -hunting us.... - -She and I and Torrence ran, plunging wildly forward in the rocky -darkness, with the lights and the turmoil behind us presently fading -away into the heavy blank silence of the Vulcan night.... - - * * * * * - -I think that there is little I need add. It was a long, arduous -journey, but we reached our little spaceship safely. And in a moment, -with the rocket-streams shoving downward and with the lower-hull -gravity plates in neutral, slowly we were rising into the cloudy -darkness. - -"You will take me to my people?" Ama said anxiously. "You did promise -me--" - -"Yes, of course, Ama--we'll land you near your village--" - -Queerly enough, it was not until that moment after all the tumultuous -events which had engulfed us, that suddenly I remembered the deposits -of _allurite_ which we had hoped to locate upon Vulcan. If I could -take back samples of the ore--to my sponsors that doubtless would -be considered the major success--the only success indeed--of my -expedition.... It occurred to me then that we could land at the Senza -village, and for a little time, prospect from there.... - -But even that plan was doomed to frustration. I mentioned it to -Torrence. "We should head for Earth," he said dogmatically. "I have had -enough of this." - -It was then, before we had gone far toward the Senza country, that -I noticed the rocket streams were acting queerly. A seeming lack of -power.... Torrence had gone down into the hull; he came back presently -to the turret. - -"The Pelletier rotators are slowing," I said. "What's the matter?" - -He shook his head. "I noticed it," he said. "Haven't found out yet. You -want to come and look?" - -I locked the controls, left Ama and went down into the hull with -Torrence. In the dim mechanism cubby, as I bent over the Pelletier -mechanisms, suddenly Torrence leaped on me! It came as quickly, -unexpectedly as that. The culmination of his brooding, murderous, -cowardly plans. His heavy face was contorted, his eyes blazing. In his -hand he held a sliver of metal arrow. It was bent, doubled over, so -that all this time he had been able to keep it hidden in his clothes. -The arrow he had taken from Roberts' body, as it lay there near the -bow of the wrecked spaceship! The little light in the mechanism cubby -gleamed on it now; glistened on the green and red spots of the sleek, -sand-colored metal. _Allurite!_ The precious substance--not an alloy, -not a low-grade _allurium_ ore, but _allurite_ in its pure state! On -Earth this single bent little arrow could be worth a fortune! - -And the frenzied Torrence was gloating: "See it, you damn fool--your -_allurite_--right under your nose all the time! And now it's mine--" -In that second he would have plunged the needle-sharp arrow-point like -a stilletto into my heart. But his own frenzied, murderous hysteria -defeated him. My fist struck his wrist, knocked his stab-thrust away, -with the arrow clattering to the floor. And then I had him by the -throat, strangling him until he yielded and I tied him up.... - -As you who read this, of course, already know from the news reports, I -dropped Ama near the edge of the Senza village. I recall now how she -stood in the Vulcan night, in the torchlight with the excited crowd of -her people behind her; the last I saw of Vulcan was the little figure -of her waving at me as I rose into the leaden sky and headed back for -Earth.... Maybe--just maybe--I'll return someday to that land where Jan -gave his life that his friends might live. - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Flame Breathers, by Ray Cummings - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLAME BREATHERS *** - -***** This file should be named 62621.txt or 62621.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/2/6/2/62621/ - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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