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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7193cc2 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #63213 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63213) diff --git a/old/63213-h.zip b/old/63213-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index ff3e647..0000000 --- a/old/63213-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/old/63213-h/63213-h.htm b/old/63213-h/63213-h.htm deleted file mode 100644 index b1128e4..0000000 --- a/old/63213-h/63213-h.htm +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2247 +0,0 @@ -<!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=us-ascii" /> - <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> - <title> - The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Citadel of Death, by Carl Selwyn. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -.caption p -{ - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0; - margin: 0.25em 0; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.blockquot { - margin-left: 5%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - -.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } -.ph1 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } - - - </style> - </head> -<body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Citadel of Death, by Carl Selwyn - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Citadel of Death - -Author: Carl Selwyn - -Release Date: September 16, 2020 [EBook #63213] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CITADEL OF DEATH *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>The Citadel Of Death</h1> - -<h2>By CARL SELWYN</h2> - -<p>Vulcan held the weirdest secret of the ages,<br /> -one of eternal life that Rick Norman had to<br /> -find to save his friend from death. But it held<br /> -another secret, too—one that was so vicious,<br /> -even knowing it meant Rick Norman was doomed.</p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Planet Stories Fall 1944.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>"It's too risky for you to go alone, Johnny," Rick Norman said. "Wait -till I get through showing the Senator around the mine. Then if you -still think your gravity gadget can get us to Vulcan against Sun drag, -we'll go look into this Fountain of Youth business together." He knew -Johnny wasn't paying any attention to his argument, however, and as -he talked his big fingers were busy under the table unfolding the wax -paper from the two small green capsules—Martian knockout drops. Two -of them would be enough to put Johnny out for a week.</p> - -<p>Johnny Gordon's black hair gleamed in the nightclub's orange light. -When he laughed, his tanned face was surprisingly boyish—surprising -because his name was linked with adventure in headlines on many -planets. "You think the patrol's going to be laying for me off -Mercury," he laughed. "Well, I'd like a little excitement."</p> - -<p>Norman dropped the wax paper on the floor and hid the capsules in -his big palm. Johnny was right—they would've had a lot more fun if -they'd never bumped into that dead comet off Neptune. But how were -they to know that cold hunk of drift metal would turn out to be solid -platinum? That was three years ago and now their income was a number -like the circumference of Jupiter in feet. To him it was a devil of a -responsibility. To Johnny it was just plain boring.</p> - -<p>But he couldn't let Johnny get himself killed running away from a full -dress suit. "Okay," he said, faking resignation. "You win." Roughly -handsome, Norman's hell or high water smile was as much a part of him -as his long legs. He filled their glasses as the orchestra started -moaning <i>Martian Moon</i>, dropped the capsules into the bubbly green wine -in Johnny's glass. "Here's to the Twenty-First Century Ponce de Leon," -he smiled, raising his glass.</p> - -<p>Johnny reached across the table and picked up the bottle. "Here's to -the boredom of a million dollars," he said and drank the toast straight -from the bottle. He wiped his chin, grinning. "You ought to know you -can't catch me on a Martian mickey. They stop the bubbles."</p> - -<p>As Norman stared at the suddenly lifeless wine in Johnny's glass, he -realized there was only one thing left to do. He knew a couple of boys -who were pretty handy with a blackjack and he knew an old hunting lodge -in the Adirondacks where they could lock Johnny up for a week.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The next morning as Norman was packing his bags, one of his "boys" -appeared at the door. His eyes were black and swollen. Embarrassed, he -held out an envelope. Norman tore it open.</p> - -<p>"<i>You'll find your other playmate locked in my bathroom. I'll bring you -a jug full of the Fountain of Youth.</i>" The note was written in Johnny's -careless scrawl! Norman flicked the ampliphone button in the little -table beside his bed.</p> - -<p>"Interstellar Spaceport!" he ordered the invisible telemike as he -pulled a handful of bills from his pocket and shoved them at the -battered gentleman in the door. "Thanks for trying, Spike. Go kick -Johnny's bathroom door down. Joe's locked up in there—"</p> - -<p>"Spaceport," the wall speaker said.</p> - -<p>"John Gordon," Norman asked, waving Spike out, "has he been there?"</p> - -<p>"Mr. Gordon took off half an hour ago, sir," said the ampliphone. "For -Mercury."</p> - -<p>"Thanks...." As Norman clicked off the receiver, premonition crept over -him like a shadow. His hand moved to the receiver again—to call for a -ship and follow Johnny. Then the ampliphone buzzed under his hand.</p> - -<p>It was the Senator. He was waiting at the capital.</p> - -<p>As he started throwing shirts into his bag, Norman knew it was against -his better judgment. But after all, Johnny could take care of himself. -Spike's hamburger face proved that.</p> - -<p>It was with this thought that he picked up the plump Senator and left -for the platinum comet. When the sleek private cruiser nosed into the -little world's artificial air three days later, the mine foreman met -them with a radiogram in his hand.</p> - -<p>Silently cursing the static that had interfered with space reception -on the way over, cold fear clutched at Norman's heart as he read the -message. "The platinum's yours," he told the astonished mine foreman. -"Show the Senator around."</p> - -<p>As their bewildered faces stared after him, he took off for Earth again -immediately.</p> - -<p>The trip back was maddening and he ignored all speed laws as he roared -full-throttle into the bright mountain range that was New York City. -Newsboys were still shouting the headlines on the street when he -reached the hospital.</p> - -<div class="blockquot"> -<p>"FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH IN TRAGIC REVERSE! JOHN GORDON FOUND IN DRIFTING -SPACE BOAT! INVENTION MISSING!"</p></div> - -<p>Norman shoved a bill at the driver, jumped out of the taxi and ran up -the hospital steps. The girl at the desk recognized him. "Room 947, Mr. -Norman. Dr. Smyth is expecting you."</p> - -<p>He hurried to the elevator where a mob of reporters were also waiting. -"What do you think happened to him, Mr. Norman? Do you think he reached -Vulcan? What do you think became of his cruiser with the anti-gravity -invention?"</p> - -<p>"Later, boys," Norman said, his familiar smile a little shaky now. -"I've got to see Johnny first."</p> - -<p>A black-bearded doctor opened the door at his knock. From within the -room came an odd babbling sound like a child talking to itself. Looking -over the doctor's shoulder, Norman saw an old man lying on the white -bed. He stepped past the doctor into the room.</p> - -<p>Propped up on pillows, the old man lay there like an ancient withered -mummy. Only his skull-like eyes were alive, yellow and wild as he -stared at his disfigured hands. His hands were more like paws for -each finger and thumb had been severed close to the palm, the scars -well-healed as if the mutilation had happened years ago.</p> - -<p>"They found his pilot's license in his pocket," the doctor said, "and -the blood test proved his identity."</p> - -<p>"No!" Norman said, turning back to the bed. "This is impossible!"</p> - -<p>"I've given him a thorough examination," the doctor said. "He has every -condition of advanced senility. We can't say how he lost his fingers -nor how they healed so quickly. We only know this," his voice dropped -to a whisper, "that he is very near death of old age...."</p> - -<p>Norman's eyes were damp. Through the window the afternoon sun lined the -old man's sunken cheeks with deep shadows, gleamed on his thin, white -hair. His voice was a high-pitched quaver. "My hands... my hands...."</p> - -<p>Norman sprang to the bed, knelt beside the ancient creature. "Johnny! -It's me! Rick! Tell me what happened!"</p> - -<p>But the old man stared at him blankly, then looked back down at his -hands again.</p> - -<p>Norman got to his feet slowly. "Okay, Johnny," he said through tight -lips. "But I'll find out what happened to you. And I think I know where -to start."</p> - -<p>Twenty minutes later, however, the pudgy Gorig Sade, Ambassador from -Mercury, could offer little information. He leaned back in his gilded -chair and raised his hand toward the sunset at the window. His right -hand was artificial, an electric member in flesh-like plastic. "Behind -that Sun," he said, a slight smile on his thick lips, "lies a planet -without a human footprint. Within the Mercurian Zone of Protection, -Vulcan is closely guarded by the Mercurian Zone Patrol. Vulcan is a -death trap—too close in the Sun's gravitational field. We cannot -answer to the safety of those who slip past the patrol and enter the -whirlpool."</p> - -<p>Norman smiled, as a fighter smiles at his opponent when he comes out at -the bell. "That's enough of that line, Sade. When did your patrol last -see John Gordon? They were waiting for him off Mercury. You've had your -paid killers after him ever since he refused to sell out to you. Now -his gravitational counteractive turns up missing. It would have meant a -lot to Mercury—or to you, rather, since your rotten politics owns the -place."</p> - -<p>Sade got to his feet like a disturbed bull. "Get out!" His electric -hand hummed as he raised it toward the door. "I shall see the Secretary -of State about your insult!"</p> - -<p>Norman's left hand shot out like a striking snake, clutched the -Ambassador's collar and dragged him out of his chair.</p> - -<p>"Okay, Sade," he smiled, "but there's one thing maybe you don't know. -Johnny built <i>two</i> ships, a smaller one before he equipped the cruiser -he left in. I'm taking that ship to try to reach Vulcan. Johnny's -spectroscope proved a lot about this Fountain of Youth business and -now it's the only chance to save his life. Anyway, I'll find out what -happened to him, and if you had anything to do with it, I'm going to -tear your yellow throat out."</p> - -<p>He slammed the sputtering Ambassador back into his chair, and left the -office. Now Sade would forget the Secretary of State and order his -patrol to be waiting for him. A burst of flame in desolate space and -who would know.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Ten minutes outside the Mercurian Zone of Protection, Norman welcomed -the misty glow as live nebulae engulfed the transparent dome -surrounding him. It brightened the monotonous blue light in the pilot -room and erased his lonely reflection in the foot-thick thermo-glass -that darkened the white-hot glare of space ahead.</p> - -<p>Traveling near Mercury was like walking a tight rope. A few degrees -off course and the delicate balance between worlds would totter—jerk -him away to a charred plunge into the Sun. Also, Sade's wolves might -appear any moment now. But he'd get through them, he thought, slapping -the trigger grip of his panel guns. The picture of Johnny back there -in the hospital, however, was an ache in his throat that dulled his -excitement—an excitement reminiscent of hundreds of tight spots they'd -squeezed through together before they'd struck it right and traded -adventure for tea cups. Helpless, crazed, eighty years old before his -time—why hadn't Johnny waited! But he was bull-headed and bored, -anxious to prove what his spectroscope hinted—that Vulcan, close in -the arms of the mother Sun, was a spawning place for life itself. Ponce -de Leon again, in 2063....</p> - -<p>Grinding out his cigarette, Norman glanced at the chart in his lap, -eyed the circle that was Vulcan, a white circle—<i>unexplored</i>. Deep in -the whirlpool of the Sun's gravitation, it had lured countless ships to -a hurtling destruction until a trade-wise Mercury placed guards around -the area and its siren world.</p> - -<p>Norman glanced up from his musings as the filter's blue light darkened -the room again. The nebulae outside had vanished. Almost human, that -glass! The hotter it became outside, the darker the glass became—not -only shielding the pilot's eyes but perfectly maintaining the -insulation of the control room. Suddenly he jerked his head up, chilled -as he stared at the mirrored wall in front of him.</p> - -<p>Reflected in the glass, a ghostly figure stood behind him in the galley -door.</p> - -<p>"Hello."</p> - -<p>It was a feminine voice. Slowly, Norman swung his long legs around -and stared at the girl, too astonished to speak. She was just a kid, -about fifteen years old, wearing baggy white coveralls. A mop of -honey-colored hair framed her pert freckled face.</p> - -<p>She held up her hands as if to keep him away. "Now don't get excited." -Her blue eyes were like a kitten's. "I'm Dorothy Gray. My father owns -the <i>Daily Times</i> and I work on the paper during vacation. I played -stowaway because you're on the trail of the news story of the century. -While you were checking out with the dispatcher," the girl grinned, -"I emptied your food locker and crawled in myself. I know you must be -trying to find out what happened to your friend. You're the type that -gets things done."</p> - -<p>Grinding his teeth, Norman turned back to the control panel and -reached for the turn lever. Now he had to take this brat to Earth—when -Johnny's life depended on haste in the opposite direction. No! He'd put -her in a space suit and kick her out. Johnny was his best friend. His -anger hovered an instant over the decision. And in that instant he saw -the girl step aside. His mouth fell open as <i>another</i> figure appeared -from the galley.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>This time it was a grown woman—breath-takingly grown. She walked in -like she owned the place, smoothing a tweed skirt above bare legs -that could have graced a glassilk hose advertisement. Above a crimson -blouse, her hair was black as sunless space against her cloud-like -skin. She was obviously Venusian, with the orchid-like beauty of all -women of the emerald planet. In her hand was a stubby jet of a pistol, -the round hole of its barrel staring into Norman's bewildered eyes.</p> - -<p>"Hello, handsome," she said, ignoring the girl beside her. "I was in -your ammunition locker. I'm Keren Vaun. Just stick at those controls. -I'm here to make sure that the patrol gets you." She sat down on the -metal box beside the galley door. She crossed her trim legs and held -the pistol steady on one rounded knee.</p> - -<p>"Okay," Norman smiled. "If that's the way you want it." He turned -around, clamped his long legs under the control seat, and flipped the -stabilizer switch. Their little world turned upside down, sprawling -both females across the floor in a mass of contrasting legs and arms.</p> - -<p>When the switch flipped back into contact, the ship righted itself -instantly and Norman stepped across the room and picked up the pistol. -He stepped back and squeezed his panel triggers. Dead guns. "So you've -carted out all my ammunition and Sade is really after me."</p> - -<p>The Venusian woman pulled herself up off the floor. "You'll find out -when the patrol sights you." Her black eyes looked as deadly as her gun -had.</p> - -<p>"Let 'em come," Norman said.</p> - -<p>As if his words were a cue, a bell tinkled in the room. He jumped to -the panel and turned a dial, lighting the blue filter to scan the void -outside. The magnetic detector warned of something outside—a patrol -cruiser!</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Norman fingered his triggers instinctively, then left the dead guns in -a rage as black as the Venusian's hair. The only thing he could shoot -at the patrol were his hull fire extinguishers. He clicked on the rear -view screen—he had to see the patrol first now—outmaneuver them -somehow. But behind him was only the blackness of space.</p> - -<p>The raven-haired woman's sparkling eyes grew nervous. "If those fools -shoot—" She lit a cigarette, exhaling quickly.</p> - -<p>The bell rang frantically. Something was coming at them, fast. He -traversed the screen again but around them was no visible thing. The -sun was too bright. There was only one thing to do. His hand fell on -the wheel, twirled it around to swoop off course—try to dodge the -patrol, wherever they were—take a chance on fighting his way back -against Sun drag.</p> - -<p>A flash of red light burst into the room. The pilot room keeled over. -He fell to the room's glass ceiling that had suddenly become the floor. -The women landed in a perfumed heap on top of him.</p> - -<p>He stood on the slick curve of glass, eyeing the cut-off on the control -panel which was now overhead. A patrol boat had come in from the Sun's -blind spot. They'd chanced a long shot. Jammed the exhaust tube and -thrown the stabilizer off balance. Seconds off course. Norman could -perhaps have brought her back. Minutes—the Sun was an inexorable pull.</p> - -<p>Madly, Norman jumped to reach the cut-off—to cut the unbalanced rocket -blast that held the ship on its back in the increasing speed of their -dive. Out of control, they were streaking toward the Sun under full -power.</p> - -<p>The diameter of the Sun is 108 times that of Earth. Its mass is 324,000 -times as great. Mathematics could calculate easily the speed of falling -into that molten inferno but Norman knew only the thundering of his -heart in that silent room. He jumped three times for the cut-off -lever—and fell back. Then with fear like steel coils in his legs, he -floundered up once more, leaped from the glass and the tips of his -fingers brought down the clutch.</p> - -<p>The room slowly moved out from under him, sliding the girls across the -smooth glass. He was at the controls before the ship righted itself. -Sweeping the panel, he jerked every rocket into reverse.</p> - -<p>And nothing happened. The power of his blasts was nothing against the -direct pull of the Sun, this close. The ship hurtled toward its fiery -mass at terrific speed.</p> - -<p>Among the battery of instruments on the panel was a small stratometer, -calibrated in seconds. Norman saw the pointer moving with the speed of -the second hand on a watch. With each jump of the pointer, they fell -thousands of miles. Despite the thermo-glass, heat grew in the room -like a live thing. In less than three minutes, he realized, the ship -would begin to <i>melt</i>. He sprang from the controls, bent over the long -coffin-shaped box beside the galley door. His fingers were frantic -thumbs as he set the dials. It wasn't merely a test of the gravitation -counteractive now. The mechanism <i>had</i> to work or they would boil like -lobsters in the steam of the very air they breathed.</p> - -<p>Dorothy Gray stood sensibly out of the way, watching his frenzied hands -switch the delicate instrument. The Venusian woman cursed softly, -straightening her twisted skirt. "Wait till I see Sade again!" she -said. "Ordering his men to fire when he knew I was in here—Hey!" she -demanded. "Why's it getting so hot in here?"</p> - -<p>Dorothy pointed toward the instrument panel. "See that little clock," -she said, oddly observant for one of her few years. "That's a -stratometer. My dad's shown 'em to me on the big passenger lines. It -says we're falling mighty fast. It's getting hot in here because we're -falling into the Sun."</p> - -<p>Seconds thundered by as Norman twirled the rheostat knobs in the -counteractive, fighting to bring the delicate focus of its power -into play against the dread suction that was dragging them down. The -thermo-glass was jet black now against the solid heat outside. With -apparently a knowing hand, Dorothy set the air conditioning unit up to -maximum as drops of moisture formed on the ceiling and dampened the -pilot room like hot dew. The thermo-glass began to bulge slightly at -its invisible seams, first in thin ridges around the ceiling, jutting -out more and more as the mad heat increased. Protection against the -extremes of temperature in space, it was constructed to follow these -lines of expansion. But for how long?</p> - -<p>Keren screamed, razor-edged above the electric tension in the room. -"Give me a parasuit!" she cried. "Get me out of here!"</p> - -<p>Norman's fingers played the rheostats like a piano. Suddenly an -electric eye blinked red as the counteractive fell into focus on the -true gravity force sector of the Sun. As he leaped to the controls, his -eye caught a glimpse of the stratometer's small death-white face. They -were sixty seconds from cremation....</p> - -<p>Slowly, with nerve-tight slowness, he turned the brake wheel a fraction -of an inch as the hand of the clock moved on. The room was dim, the -panel lights casting weird shadows along the black ridges in the seams -of the thermo-glass. The ridges jutted inward over an inch now, spaced -two feet apart like braces or rafters around the room.</p> - -<p>Suddenly Keren threw herself upon Norman, locked her arms around -his neck, dragging his sweaty hands from the wheel. "Stop us!" she -whimpered hoarsely. "Stop us, handsome! I don't want to die!"</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">II</p> - -<p>Norman tried to fling her away from him but the fear-crazed woman -clutched his hair as he took the wheel again and he was almost dragged -from his seat as he turned the wheel another notch. The wheel blistered -his fingers, but he turned it with will-screaming slowness, ignoring -Keren's clawing hands. The pointer on the stratometer climbed up the -dial in short, inexorable jerks. Tick-tick-tick-tick! Tolling their -funeral march at a thousand fiery miles per second ... per second....</p> - -<p>In the nightmare of those moments, Norman saw Dorothy's reflection -in the fog-smeared glass, tugging at the frantic brunette, trying to -pull her away from him. He saw her hand rise, a wrench in it. She -brought it down on the Venusian's dark head as the clock swept to its -nerve-breaking jump and he spun the wheel with all his strength.</p> - -<p>It was a timeless instant. His hand lay limp on the wheel, his eyes on -Dorothy's dim figure in the foggy glass. She stood there like a bad -camera shot of a little girl dressed up in her papa's overalls. Then, -slowly, he realized that what he thought was the reflection of one -of her blue eyes was instead a small, luminous globe suspended in the -bright nothingness of sunlight ahead. He rubbed his sweat-burning eyes.</p> - -<p>The blackness of the glass was fading quickly, the seam bulges -sinking back with the contraction. Without the slightest tremor, the -counteractive had stopped their plunge into the Sun, and the reverse -rockets had taken over. They were headed out again. The blue globe -grew swiftly as they approached. Source of a thousand tales of terror, -Vulcan sped toward them out of the distance.</p> - -<p>In a few moments, washed air cooled the pilot room as the air -conditioning unit purred full speed. Its soft whistle, the brighter -light and Norman's instruments were the only evidence that they swam -effortlessly in a wild current that swept into the gates of the solar -hell.</p> - -<p>"If we had enough insulation," Norman said, "we could go into the very -flames of the sun. Like we almost did anyhow." Johnny's counteractive -had given the universe new eyes—to seek an elixir to save his life.</p> - -<p>Keren moaned.</p> - -<p>Dorothy held a glass of water to Keren's scarlet lips. "There's a -mirror in the galley," she told her. "Go freshen up before we land." -Keren looked like a wilted orchid and Norman smiled, finding it -difficult to hate anyone after the ordeal they had just survived.</p> - -<p>Keren's eyes raised to him with an unexpected softness as she stood up. -"I'm sorry I acted like an idiot," she said coolly. "You saved my life -and you won't regret it." She shook her sleek hair and turned to the -galley. "Get out of my way, brat!" she snapped at Dorothy and left the -pilot room.</p> - -<p>Norman grinned at Dorothy. "You wield a wicked wrench," he said. "I'm -glad you're on my side."</p> - -<p>The fifteen year old fugitive from a high school journalism class -grinned back, wrinkling her freckled nose. "You wield a wicked heart -attack," she said. "Miss Vaun's on your side now if not on mine."</p> - -<p>He turned back to the controls. They were but a few minutes from the -unexplored planet. There was nothing he could do now but take the girls -along with him. A junior miss and a Venusian beauty queen, landing on -an unknown world.</p> - -<p>As they approached, Vulcan filled their window, a great smooth -curve, its blue color lightening to green. Norman switched off the -counteractive and cut in the landing rockets.</p> - -<p>When Keren's exotic perfume entered the room again, the land below was -a map of verdant plains, rolling mountains and glassy seas. Quickly it -swelled to jungle and flashing water and, with a champagne tingle in -his blood, Norman dropped toward an open well of meadow in the trees.</p> - -<p>His excitement, however, was tinged with sadness. Johnny should be -here now. They had dropped upon a score of unknown worlds together. -Now he landed without his partner, in a last-hope venture to save that -partner's life.</p> - -<p>The green vegetation was a colorful contrast against the bright yellow -of dead grass. They would have to be careful about fire, Norman knew. -He'd seen that thick grass on other Sun-tropical worlds; it burned fast -as gunpowder.</p> - -<p>This close to the Sun, Vulcan probably had a constant wind. The -gravity seemed approximately the same as Earth's. He plugged in the -spectroscope to test the air and as he glanced out the window at the -intake valve a slow chill trickled down his back.</p> - -<p>It wasn't only the wind moving the grass outside. The grass was -<i>growing.</i></p> - -<p>Dorothy and Keren came to the window. As they watched, the grass beside -the hull rose two inches.</p> - -<p>"It's horrible," Dorothy whispered. Then, "Look!" she shrilled, -pointing.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Norman shook his head as if recovering from a blow, the words of the -Mercurian Ambassador ringing in his ears: "Vulcan is a planet without -a human footprint...." All science knew of this supposedly untrod -planet was suddenly a lie. There, beside the ship, was the unmistakable -imprint of a human foot.</p> - -<p>As Norman looked up he saw a man step out of the jungle and walk toward -them across the grass. A jet gun bounced on the stranger's hip. He wore -high-top boots, a checkered hunting shirt and his black-mustached face -was heavily tanned. Norman tore himself from his bewilderment and -turned on the outside speaker. "Who are you! How did you get here?"</p> - -<p>"Same way you did," the receiver brought the fellow's voice inside. -"Think you're the only one with a counteractive?"</p> - -<p>To Norman's verified knowledge, Johnny's counteractive was the only one -listed under inter-planetary patents. He turned on Keren. "What do you -know about this?" But she held her carmine lips tight, staring out the -window.</p> - -<p>"The air must be all right," he said. "Let's go." He took his jet gun -from the compartment in the control panel and strapped the holster -close to his right hand. Hot sunlight burnished the room as he threw -the panel switch opening the space port.</p> - -<p>He walked to the door. The stranger waited below, hairy hands on his -hips. "I hope you've got an Earthian cigarette. They're scarce around -here."</p> - -<p>Norman dropped the folding steps and Dorothy, curiosity bright in her -kitten-blue eyes, walked out into the windy sunlight. As Norman started -out, the port clanged shut in his face, hurtling him back into the -middle of the room. Rockets hummed as the ship leaped ten feet in the -air.</p> - -<p>Keren stood before the panel with her hand on the rise lever. Norman -sprang across the room and jerked her aside as the ship sailed out of -the clearing and plowed through the tree tops. "I've had enough of your -tricks, lady!" he said through clenched teeth.</p> - -<p>"No, handsome!" Keren cried. "You've got to get us away from here!" -Before he could right the ship she took him from behind and pinned his -arms to his sides.</p> - -<p>"You fool!" Norman yelled, twisting her hands from him. "We're going -to crash!" But the woman fought like a panther, black eyes blazing. -Controls gone wild, the ship rolled over on its side, and bumped -heavily down into the shadowed mire and ground to a halt.</p> - -<p>"You crazy witch!" Norman got to his feet, eying the sloping floor and -the smoke curling up from the leaves under the ship. The rockets had -set the woods on fire. His port rise-rockets dangled, a twisted mass -of tubes. "Why'd you do this?" he demanded, facing her with itching -fists. "Who was that fellow back there? Talk," he ordered, "before I -slap your painted face off!"</p> - -<p>Her eyes were like a half-tamed cat's. "I'm not talking, handsome."</p> - -<p>Norman looked into her black eyes and ice formed in his heart. "So that -was one of Sade's men back there."</p> - -<p>The outside speaker was still on and in the silence came the crackle of -flame as the wind fanned the jungle fire into a rage of orange tongues -around the ship. The thermo glass instantly turned black and its -faithfully expanding seams began pushing inward against the heat.</p> - -<p>Into the room came the hissing of a giant snake. The glass was suddenly -drenched with a misty green liquid.</p> - -<p><i>Antipyrol!</i></p> - -<p>The fire went out as Norman jumped to the window and a silvery bulk -floated down into the jungle beside them.</p> - -<p>It was a space cruiser, a late model. Twin burnished coils encircled -its silvery hull-counteractive coils. Norman knew that, beginning now, -was an ordeal that could end only in death for himself or whoever -manned that ship. It was Johnny's ship. Inside it could not be a friend.</p> - -<p>Through the filter glass, lighted with the fire gone, he could see out -but they couldn't see in. A port opened in the cruiser's glittering -side, steps fell to the jungle floor and three men stepped out. -Norman was not surprised. Two of them wore the fiery red uniform of -the Mercurian patrol and Norman's eyes narrowed when he saw their -companion. Fat, clad in a silk shirt with his electric arm swinging -jerkily, down the steps came the Mercurian ambassador, Gorig Sade.</p> - -<p>He and his patrolmen strode through the muddy ashes with their guns -drawn. Norman's fingers itched for the triggers of his starboard guns. -With one burst—! But the guns were empty. Cursing the Venusian woman, -he reached for his pistol. He'd shoot it out point blank from the door. -Then as his hand moved toward the panel switch to open the door he -barely felt the needle enter his back. He saw Keren jump away with the -hypodermic needle in her hand.</p> - -<p>If she had been a man Norman would have shot her on the spot. Instead, -he just looked at her with all the hate in his soul, feeling now the -stinging sensation in his back, knowing that <i>something</i> was already -seeping into his veins—to knock him out, paralyze him, kill him—just -when he had a chance at Sade, just when he had a chance to solve the -mystery of Johnny's death sentence and perhaps find something here to -save him.</p> - -<p>"The crash must have shook 'em up pretty bad," said a voice outside. -"We'll have to cut the door open."</p> - -<p>Oddly, as Norman stared at the hypodermic syringe in Keren's hand he -remembered a trick he'd once pulled on Jupiter. A last ditch trick.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>His hand jumped to a lever on the panel and jerked it down. He heard -an oath mingled with the hiss of antipyrol as his full extinguishers -spurted their jets into the jungle for fifty yards around the ship. -When he looked out, he saw Sade and the two red-uniformed patrolmen -staggering about blindly in the green rain with their hands covering -their eyes.</p> - -<p>"They'll be blind as bats for half an hour," Norman laughed, cutting -off the spray. He jerked a coil of rope from the panel compartment. "I -don't know what you stuck me with," he told Keren, "but if I go out, -you are going to be tied up till I come to." In a moment he had her -wrists securely tied behind her. Keren remained silent, staring at him -with black-cat eyes half closed.</p> - -<p>Throwing the door switch, he stepped to the port and found the three -men standing in the ashes between the ships, digging at their swollen -eyes. "Get out," he ordered the sullen Venusian and she walked down the -steps ahead of him.</p> - -<p>As he went out a streak of flame hissed over the woman's head and -splattered on the metal hull beside his shoulder.</p> - -<p>He jumped backward into the cabin, behind the protecting wall. Peering -out carefully, he saw a gun barrel glinting in the cruiser's door. He -smiled. "Sade!" he yelled, loud enough for the blinded Mercurian on the -ground to hear. "I'm giving you five seconds to tell whoever's in that -cruiser to come out. Then I'm shooting you in the legs—then your good -arm—then your yellow belly!"</p> - -<p>The fat man groped about wildly, helpless and confused.</p> - -<p>"One!" Norman counted. "Two ... three ... four—"</p> - -<p>"Come out, Swart!" Sade shouted. "He'll kill me!"</p> - -<p>"Throw down your gun and come out with your hands in the air," Norman -ordered and to his surprise the dark-mustached man of his first -acquaintance appeared in the door with his hands upraised as a pistol -plopped into the mud. "Who else's in there?" Norman was taking no -chances.</p> - -<p>"Nobody, Mr. Norman. That's all of 'em." With excitement in her voice, -Dorothy appeared behind the dark-faced Swart and Norman felt a warmth -of relief that she was safe. "They picked us up right after you left," -she said.</p> - -<p>"Come here and hold this gun, honey," Norman said. "Miss Vaun sabotaged -our ship but we've captured a whole herd of pigs and we're going to -have a barbecue." Dorothy ran across the mud to him. "Keep this gun -pointed at the fellow with the mustache. If he tries anything while I'm -tying his hands, pull the trigger."</p> - -<p>In a moment, Swart was firmly bound and sitting on the cruiser's steps. -Sade and the patrolmen stood, rubbing their blind eyes and cursing. -"You slimy hog," Norman said, jerking Sade around as he kept an eye on -the patrolmen. "If I didn't want you to do a lot of talking first, I'd -tie this rope around your neck instead of your hands." It was the first -time Norman had ever tied up an artificial hand but he only pulled the -rope the tighter. Then he sat the unholy group down on the steps of the -ship and surveyed them with a wide grin.</p> - -<p>"All right," he said, "who's talking first, before I start skinning -each one of you with a pen knife."</p> - -<p>"There's a notebook in the cruiser, Mr. Norman," Dorothy said. "I heard -the fat one talking about it. They've found something here and the -notebook tells all about it."</p> - -<p>"So it's all written down for me," Norman laughed. "Watch 'em, Dorothy. -If they get fidgety, call me." He entered the snug, well-remembered -cabin. Keren's hypo must have been pretty weak. He still felt nothing.</p> - -<p>He frowned, puzzled to see a narrow tank built around the cushioned -wall. Pushing aside the space units—life preservers—hanging on their -customary hooks, he rapped the tank with his knuckles. It was heavily -insulated, a liquid of some sort sloshing inside. Shaking his head, he -went on into the pilot room where his eyes immediately fell on a small -black notebook lying on the control panel. He picked it up eagerly.</p> - -<p>"<i>Complete life cycle accelerated</i>," he read on with an eerie thrill. -Then, abruptly universal scientific language. "<i>One year equals -approximately twenty minutes</i>...." Remembering the quick growing grass, -he read on with amazement. Then, abruptly the page became a cross-word -puzzle of chemical symbols—it would take time to figure them out—</p> - -<p>"I don't want to stay out there, Mr. Norman," a voice interrupted him. -It was Dorothy standing in the door. "They're saying such bad words."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Norman grinned. "Point your gun at 'em to hush," he said. She grinned -back, wrinkling her freckled nose and went outside again as he returned -to his perusal of the symbols.</p> - -<p>They were a description of the elements in <i>something</i>, in a very -unusual combination. Then slowly his eyes raised from the notebook -again. Something deep in the shadows of his mind was trying to -speak—not about the symbols—about something else. Something he had -done? Something he had seen? Anyhow, Norman had been in enough bad -spots to pay attention when that ghostly feeling sounded its alarm.</p> - -<p>Closing the notebook, he stepped across the pilot room and walked into -the cabin, into a pistol's point blank explosion.</p> - -<p>The burst of flame seared Norman's left side. In the same second, -as his hand came up to grab the gun, he realized the impossibility -of getting it in time. Swart was too close. His hand dropped to his -blistered side. Swart had him between death and surrender.</p> - -<p>"You're lucky," Swart's mustache wiggled as he spoke. "Get outside."</p> - -<p>Dazed at the unbelievably swift change of events, Norman obeyed. And -as his foot hit the first step he knew what had called him from the -notebook.</p> - -<p>Dorothy—<i>was no longer Dorothy</i>....</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>She had been changed when she entered the ship a moment ago but he -hadn't realized it. Staring at her full lips, her higher cheek bones, -her snub nose that had straightened into a smooth profile—he forgot -the sudden switch of gun authority until Swart jabbed him in the back.</p> - -<p>He went down the steps, his eyes on what had been the fifteen year old -fugitive from a high school journalism class. Just out of pig-tails and -giggles—Dorothy Gray was suddenly a woman. Her freckles were weirdly -absent now, her blond hair was longer, her arms were more full—her -legs—her—! Her white coveralls had shrunk on what was now a slim, -lithe figure. But it was really Dorothy—the same pert face, the same -kitten-like eyes, wide with an astonishment as great as his own.</p> - -<p>Sade's laughter broke Norman's blank stare. "Next time you tie up a man -with an artificial arm make sure it isn't electric. It's easy to cause -a short circuit when you're soaked with fire extinguisher fluid and -when they short circuit they burn through rope very easily."</p> - -<p>But Norman barely heard him, barely saw Swart untying the patrolmen -whose swollen eyes were beginning to see again. He was remembering! -"<i>Complete</i> life cycle <i>accelerated. One year equals approximately -twenty minutes.</i>" He offered no resistance as Swart jerked the notebook -from his hand. As the grass grew, so had Dorothy—so had Johnny, to the -horrible near-completion of his life cycle. But why wasn't Sade, Keren, -the others affected? Why not himself?</p> - -<p>"Let's get in the ship," Keren broke into his thoughts. "There's no -sense wasting the best years of this girl's life out here." With an -unholy smile she walked up the steps into the cruiser.</p> - -<p>"Get in the ship, Norman," Sade said, smiling like a puddle of oil. -"You've got a lot more to see before we waste the best years of your -life."</p> - -<p>Inside the cruiser, Dorothy sank into a pillowed chair and jerked a -small pocket mirror before her blue eyes. She seemed unable to decide -whether to laugh or cry. Sade, Keren and the patrolmen left for the -pilot room, leaving Swart on guard. Immediately, the green foliage fell -away from the windows as the ship climbed out of the jungle.</p> - -<p>There were tears in Dorothy's eyes but her newly red-bloomed lips were -tight. There was horror in this thing that had happened, years of her -life whisked away—she must be eighteen now, and she had the radiant -loveliness of clear sunshine.</p> - -<p>But Norman's thoughts dwelt little on the heart-quickening results of -her sudden change. He pondered the change itself. Again he calculated -the time she had been exposed to whatever grim atmosphere enveloped -Vulcan—she couldn't have been out there more than a few minutes. And -in those few minutes she had raced through two long years.</p> - -<p>"But why wasn't I affected?"</p> - -<p>Swart sat across the cabin with his pistol in his lap, hungrily nursing -a cigarette he had bummed from Keren. "You were in the ship," he -squinted his amusement through a smoke ring. "She was on the ground." -He grinned, eyeing Dorothy. "Shows up better on her too."</p> - -<p>So that was it—something in the dank soil. But what about the others? -He asked Swart, who only shook his head. "The boss'll tell you all -you need to know." And Norman knew there were many questions yet -unanswered. Johnny hadn't been one to fall into a trap laid by nature -alone. There was something going on here, more than he knew yet, and -something told him that he was on the right track—that in Vulcan's -strange power that dealt both beauty and decay, there was power here -that might save Johnny....</p> - -<p>Finally Dorothy decided to laugh. "I don't know what happened," she -said, her voice no longer a child's, "but there seems nothing to do -about it—except to start running around with an older crowd when I get -back home."</p> - -<p><i>If</i> we get back home, Norman thought mirthlessly. If he knew Sade, he -and Dorothy were both in the same boat, a boat that would not be long -afloat. "I'm sorry, Dorothy," he said. "It's my fault you're here."</p> - -<p>"Wrong," she shook her blonde head. "I wanted to come with you." He -looked away, sensing for the first time that now, somehow, they were on -a different basis. Dorothy was no longer a child and her girlish hero -worship was apparently replaced by something more mature.</p> - -<p>He felt the cruiser nose down. They were landing again.</p> - -<p>Norman reached up and yanked a space suit from its wall hook, threw it -to Dorothy. "Put this on over your coveralls." As he jerked another -suit down for himself, he caught a glimpse of a jungle-walled clearing -with a peculiar shaped building at the end of a small landing field.</p> - -<p>As they slid to a quick stop, the port opened and Sade and his little -group appeared again. The fat Mercurian laughed as he saw Norman and -Dorothy buckling on the stiff garments. He made no move to stop them. -"Keren tells me you're very interested in our little world," he said. -"That tank along the wall there holds what you're looking for, but -first we must show you around."</p> - -<p>Encircled by the four patrolmen, Norman and Dorothy were hustled out -of the ship and across the landing field. The odd, light-house-like -building stood at the end of the field, a large windowless structure -with a conical tower on top. They were led to the building in silence, -ushered into a huge room and the door closed behind them. Venusian -mahogany paneled the tapestry covered walls and heavy carved furniture -was scattered about the room's creamy white floor. Sade opened a heavy -door at the side and motioned his prisoner-guests in.</p> - -<p>"I haven't time to talk now," he said. "Here's something to entertain -you until I return." He flicked a button outside the door, then closed -the door, leaving them alone in the small room.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Norman glanced at Dorothy, then turned to examine the place as he took -off his helmet. The room was small, dark paneled and windowless like -the one outside. A furry <i>zhak</i>-skin rug covered the black floor. He -started to speak, but a panel at the end of the room suddenly glowed -with the transparent clearness of a window. A television screen—what -was Sade up to!</p> - -<p>Then Norman sucked in his breath through his teeth as Dorothy -clutched his arm. Not the withered creature of the hospital but the -tousle-headed guy he'd grown up with—Johnny's image appeared on the -screen.</p> - -<p>Johnny stood in what at first appeared to be a clearing in the jungle -but as he kicked at some invisible obstacle, Norman realized a wall of -glass separated him from the surrounding field outside. The scene was -sparkling clear, as if they were watching through a window Johnny's -futile efforts to scale the smooth wall. His path around the enclosure -proved it to be circular, about eight feet in diameter. Norman ground -his teeth. So Johnny <i>had</i> been Sade's prisoner!</p> - -<p>Johnny took off one of his metal-soled shoes and started hammering the -fine glass as if something whipped him into a frantic effort to escape. -Dorothy silent beside him, Norman watched the black-haired boy rub his -eyes wearily as he pounded with the shoe. How had Sade gotten this -picture? What was his purpose in showing it now? The glass of Johnny's -prison must have been superbly invisible but soft for slowly he ground -a shallow niche at the base of the wall, a foothold.</p> - -<p>Norman felt like yelling a cheer but he whispered an oath as he -watched Johnny grind out a higher foothold. Trying to carve a niche -higher still, his fingers stained the glass red. Quickly the glass -was dripping with blood. "Look at his hands!" Dorothy whispered. In -Johnny's efforts to cling to the wall, the ground glass was eating away -the tips of his fingers.</p> - -<p>And Norman shuddered to see the gray change creeping over Johnny's -face. Before his eyes, Johnny's dark hair became streaked with gray -and his ashen face became furrowed with wrinkles. Horror-ridden years, -swiftly heaped upon him.</p> - -<p>Dorothy covered her face with her hands. But Norman couldn't tear his -eyes from the luminous screen. The film had been cut to speed it up. -Johnny had hacked five slits in the glass now. His fingers and thumbs -were ragged stumps as he hung on the splintered glass, ten feet up the -blood-smeared wall. And in his terrible fascination, Norman saw that -Johnny's hands healed almost as fast as they were torn. As the dry -flesh of age withered his face, as he sacrificed his hands in a mad -struggle to escape the invisible terror in Vulcan's sunlight.</p> - -<p>Norman slammed his fists against the locked door. "Sade! You scum of -the universe!" But there was no answer as his eyes were drawn back -to the screen to see Johnny's fingerless paws grasp the rim of his -prison. A wrinkled, animal-like thing, eyes yellowed and wild, he drew -up his gnarled legs and fell over the glass wall into the gravel on the -other side. Half crawling, half running, he disappeared quickly into -the trees.</p> - -<p>As though a prolonged roar of sound had suddenly ceased, the panel -darkened, leaving only Dorothy's muffled sobs.</p> - -<p>But in Norman's brain was a numb hate that froze his reason. He didn't -hear the door open behind him.</p> - -<p>"Interesting, wasn't it?" It was Sade's voice. "But in a moment an even -more interesting experiment will take place in my laboratory."</p> - -<p>Norman turned slowly. Swart and the two patrolmen stood with the fat -man at the door. Norman took one quick step forward. His right hand -shot out. His fingers sank like spikes into the flabby skin of Sade's -throat. Another split second and Norman's fingers would have met behind -the Mercurian's windpipe and ripped it out, but in that split second -the patrolmen were on him. Then he was on the floor, fighting silently -in the blackness of his fury. A heavy boot caught him behind the left -ear and the blackness engulfed him completely.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">III</p> - -<p>Battered and bruised, he found himself on his feet when he came to. -Sade stood in the door, his good hand fingering the blue welts on his -throat. His shirt was in shreds, exposing the white blob of flesh that -was his body and the helpless sausage-end stump that was his right arm.</p> - -<p>"If I could get my hands on you—" Norman whispered.</p> - -<p>"You won't again," Sade said hoarsely. "You're in my hands now. And -within the hour I shall have <i>two</i> of them. With them I shall keep you -alive forever while you die a thousand deaths. I hold the key to life -and death, on Vulcan...." He whirled again and left, followed by his -henchmen and the door locked again behind them.</p> - -<p>The silky <i>zhak</i>-skin rug was worn with Norman's pacing when he heard -the key click in the lock again. The door opened to Keren Vaun. Ghostly -beautiful against the soft light outside, her starry loveliness meant -nothing to Norman. He sprang to the door and covered her scarlet lips -with one hand, closed the door quickly. "Tell me how to get to Sade," -he demanded, "or I'll wring your neck right here!"</p> - -<p>Keren remained rigid until he loosened his grasp. Then: "Shut up," she -whispered. "I came to help you escape." She didn't look at Dorothy. "I -came to help you on one condition. That you take me with you—alone."</p> - -<p>Norman hesitated three heart beats. "Let's go," he said. He heard -Dorothy gasp behind him but he didn't even look back as Keren opened -the door, finger to her lips, and led him out.</p> - -<p>Locking the door behind her, she led him down a dim, white-floored -corridor. Norman walked carefully, the baggy suit rustling as he moved. -Keren halted before a door at the side of the passage. Glancing up and -down the vacant hall, she opened the door quickly and went in. Norman -followed.</p> - -<p>The room was bare with another closed door on the other side. "You -don't need that space suit," Keren ordered. "Take it off." Norman -peeled the suit off obediently. It was no time for questions. "When I -jabbed you with that hypo before Sade found us, it immunized you. It's -a vaccination Sade discovered; we're all protected here."</p> - -<p>As Norman marveled at this strange woman, understanding now that fact -of his own salvation from the powers of Vulcan, she motioned toward -the door opposite the one through which they had entered the room. -"Sade's—John Gordon's cruiser is outside where we left it, about a -hundred yards from this door. It's unguarded but there's a guard in -the tower. He'll shoot when he sees you so you must get to the ship -quickly. The cruiser's guns are loaded. If you make it, take off and -blast this building. I'll run for the woods." Keren's heavy-lashed eyes -met his. "When they are dead, Vulcan will be ours."</p> - -<p>Norman smiled. "What if I don't come back? What if I pull out and radio -Earth for help?"</p> - -<p>Keren returned his smile, her eyes like a moonless night. "If you don't -come back, I'll kill the Earth girl inside." She threw back her head, -hair swirling at her pale throat like the flow of black oil. "Now kiss -me—and go."</p> - -<p>It was a choice; Keren's life or Dorothy's. If he got the ship and -Keren ran for the woods, his guns would have to find <i>her</i> before they -turned on the house. Then he could bargain with Sade by radio. "I'll -owe you a thousand kisses," he said, opened the door, and darted out -into the sunlight. Then it was raining red heat as liquid fire spurted -around his pounding legs.</p> - -<p>A bare twenty yards ahead, the cruiser waited, glinting silver in the -sun. His pants leg caught fire and he could feel its blistering heat, -fanned by the wind, as he streaked across the gravel.</p> - -<p>Then he saw it too late. A sheen of crimson in the air. Streaks of -red, painted on nothing. <i>Johnny's blood!</i> Flame from the guns behind -him sizzled on the invisible glass as Norman, unable to check the -piston power of his legs, crashed into the invisible wall of what had -been Johnny's prison. His forehead hit the glass with a hollow ring. -Clutching the wall with both hands, he slid down to the gravel and into -darkness for his second failure that afternoon.</p> - -<p>Roughly, they dragged him back to the house. But he wasn't out. Through -the searing pain in his head he had fought back to consciousness as -the patrolmen touched him. His mind limped through the pain, trying to -figure out what to do now as they dragged him into the big front room -and dropped him on the floor.</p> - -<p>"Imbeciles! Careless fools!"</p> - -<p>The voice opened Norman's eyes, banished the throbbing in his head as -he struggled to his feet. But the two patrolmen locked his arms behind -him.</p> - -<p>"How did he get out!" The fat man glared from Norman to the patrolmen. -Swart stood beside him.</p> - -<p>"There were only two keys to that room," Swart suggested.</p> - -<p>Sade's florid face paled, then his button eyes flickered with the cold -cruelty of a wild animal. "Find Keren," he said softly. "Bring her to -my laboratory."</p> - -<p>Rick's eyes showed helpless fury as his arms tightened in the -patrolmen's grasp. "Keren had nothing to do with it," he said. "I -picked the lock."</p> - -<p>Sade reached out and slapped his face repeatedly with his open palm. -Hands clamped behind him, Norman took it, barely feeling the stinging -blows, their impact light under the impact of what he saw.</p> - -<p>"Yes! It's real!" Sade halted his slapping and, laughing like a fiend, -rolled up his sleeves. He held his hands up close before Norman's eyes. -Norman shuddered, staring at Sade's right hand. Slightly smaller, -ghastly white but firm, where the stump of Sade's right arm had been -was now flesh. Blood coursed through the bulging veins, a pale hand -extended pudgy fingers.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Sade howled with laughter as Norman drew back from the thing as from a -snake. "It's real!" Sade shouted, gleefully. "Flesh and blood! I have -two hands now!" Exultantly, he held his clenched fists before Norman's -white face. "In these hands I shall hold the pulse of the universe, -to let it throb or halt at my will. I shall be neither king nor -dictator—I shall be a god! The power of life and death in the universe -is mine!"</p> - -<p>Lifting his gaze from the hands, Norman met the fat man's eyes coldly. -"How'd you do this, Sade?"</p> - -<p>Sade's laughter dwindled to a greasy smile. "After seeing what the -power of Vulcan did to your friend, perhaps it is fitting that you -should see this power in reverse." He nodded at the patrolmen. "Bring -him along."</p> - -<p>In an arm-lock on both sides, Norman was dragged down the same corridor -where he had followed Keren in his futile attempt to escape. They -halted at a door at its far end. Sade opened the door and Norman was -shoved in.</p> - -<p>The place was white-walled and bare, like a hospital room but without -the usual furniture. On a four-legged platform in the center of -the room lay a large porcelain cylinder, like a chamber used for -sterilizing surgical instruments, but the surface of the cylinder was -smooth, without gadgets, only a heavily bolted cap at one end. Sade -patted the cylinder as a sculptor might admire the work of his chisel. -"This holds what John Gordon sought and what you seek now to save his -life," he smirked. "This container holds fluid from Vulcan's Fountains -of Youth!"</p> - -<p>Standing before the cylinder, Norman's mind's eye searched the -situation for some chance of escape. Here was what he had come so far -to obtain and he was powerless to take it. But perhaps it wasn't time; -there was much he needed to know.</p> - -<p>"Vulcan's power is a radiation," Sade said, "but not from the Sun. It's -a liquid under the ground, like Earthian oil—a radioactive element -such as science has only found traces of in the cosmic rays. More -powerful than radium, it exudes an exciter to growth—a living force."</p> - -<p>"How'd you discover it without being affected by it?" Norman asked.</p> - -<p>"Your friend Gordon was the guinea pig," the Mercurian said. Norman -kept still. "After we took him and his cruiser when he entered the -Protection Zone, we came here immediately. Working in space suits -until my technicians on Mercury discovered an immunization, we brought -Vulcan's strange liquid in like an oil gusher. The effect of the pure -liquid is instantaneous; its effects on the surface of the ground -outside are greatly diluted. While we built this house round the well, -we watched Vulcan's milder effects on your friend in the glass cage."</p> - -<p>Norman's jaw paled, but he kept his head. "How did Johnny get off the -planet after he escaped?"</p> - -<p>"Fool!" Sade laughed. "He didn't escape. We could stay and watch him -every minute—that's why we left the automatic camera to record his -reactions. He did contrive to get out of the cage but when we found -him in the jungle we simply took him off the planet and dropped him in -space in a life boat where he'd be picked up." Sade laughed again. "Did -you think I didn't know he built two ships with counteractives! John -Gordon's return was merely a message to you—to come here in that other -ship. Now we have the only counteractives in existence. Vulcan is an -utterly impregnable fortress. No army in the universe can interrupt my -plans."</p> - -<p>Norman realized that everything Sade said was true. No power could -approach Vulcan without a counteractive. "What are your plans, Sade?"</p> - -<p>The fat man held up his new right arm, his small eyes glowing. "My -technicians obtained for me the hand-bud of an unborn child. It was -embedded in the stump of my right arm." He stared at his hand stretched -its white fingers, his thick lips smiling. "With but a brief exposure -of my arm to a spray of Vulcan's liquid in full strength, I <i>grew</i> the -hand of a thirty-year-old man!" He banged the cylinder with his fist. -"What would happen if I sprayed this life-death fluid in a city street! -It can be placed in a shell and fired from a gun. I have here a <i>Force</i> -that can cause the most horrible of wounds—quick decay. It can utterly -destroy or immediately heal. How I use this power depends upon how -quickly the governments of the universe submit to my wishes in a new -stellar order."</p> - -<p>But Norman had a question stronger than his hopelessness at what he'd -just heard. "Could this liquid help John Gordon now?"</p> - -<p>Instead of replying, Sade smiled. He stepped over to one of the -room's blank walls and pressed a small button. A wide panel slid back -revealing several tiers of wire cages containing monkeys, rabbits, -and white rats. Sade scooped a plump slick rat out of its cage and -and closed the panel again. Walking back to the cylinder, he slapped -the helpless creature's head against his wrist and stunned it. Then, -drawing a flat shelf from the cylinder's platform, he dropped the -unconscious rat on it and threw the heavy bolts on the cylinder's cap.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Inside the thick-walled container, Norman discovered, were neatly -coiled tubes hanging on pegs. Sade grabbed one of the small hoses, -pulled it out and squeezed a button on the little nozzle. A fine, -blood-red spray hissed from the nozzle and he directed the red mist -upon the limp body of the white rat. The damp liquid had barely touched -the rat's fur when instantly its small face wrinkled, its fur grew -coarse and thin and it assumed the appearance of a very old animal.</p> - -<p>Still smiling, Sade glanced at Norman's troubled gaze, then shut off -the hose, stuck it back in the cylinder and drew out another. The spray -that dampened the rat this time was light pink. The rat's coarse coat -thickened, its sides swelled before Norman's eyes and youth was born -anew in the little animal's very brain as it leaped to its feet and -scurried around the shelf with all the energy of fresh strength.</p> - -<p>"It's like many poisons," Sade said. "Full strength, its effect is -death. Greatly diluted—with mere water—its miracles make it an elixir -supreme...."</p> - -<p>The door opened to Keren, followed by Dorothy and Swart. Keren's poise -little hinted she'd plotted Sade's death less than an hour ago. Dorothy -had removed her space suit; her eyes were red from crying. Keren took a -cigarette from her loose blouse. "You sent for me, Sade?"</p> - -<p>The Mercurian's eyes were like a rattlesnake's as he held out his two -hands for her to see. "I have these now," he said softly. "Soon I shall -have every world at my command. Will you marry me?"</p> - -<p>The dark-haired woman lit her cigarette calmly, her hand steady. "Yes," -she answered simply.</p> - -<p>Sade laughed. "You say yes now because your life is at stake—because -you tried to aid the Earthman. But for that you won't lose your life, -Keren. You will lose something you value more than your life, Keren. -You will lose—your beauty. Get a rope, Swart."</p> - -<p>Keren flicked her cigarette into Sade's face. Quick as a whip, her hand -entered the throat of her blouse. Norman saw the glint of naked metal -flash in an arc toward Sade's chest. Dorothy gasped.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> - <div class="caption"> - <p><i>Keren whirled and lunged at the screaming Mercurian.</i></p> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>The silver dagger sank into Sade's chest just over his heart. The fat -man staggered back. But before he could fall, Swart acted, as quick as -a ferret, clipped Keren's chin, and as she crumpled silently to the -floor, he caught the gasping Mercurian and eased him down.</p> - -<p>From Sade's chest blood spurted higher than the dagger's hilt as Swart -yanked one of the hoses from the cylinder and directed its crimson -spray on Sade's wound. Slowly, Swart drew out the dagger's sticky blade -in the spray. When the dagger was out of Sade's chest there was no -visible sign of a wound. Sade opened his eyes and looked up at them.</p> - -<p>"What shall I do with her?" Swart said.</p> - -<p>Sade got to his feet. He stood there, panting a moment. "The rope," he -said. Swart pushed a wall button, extracted a length of cord from a -panel compartment and returned. "Tie her to the cylinder," Sade hissed, -"and tie the nozzle of the hose in her hair."</p> - -<p>In a moment, the unconscious Keren was hanging by her backward-bent -arms from the cylinder. The cord was tight from her wrists, around -the cylinder and under to her slim ankles. In her hair was fixed the -slowly oozing hose. A rivulet of red trickled down her smooth cheek.</p> - -<p>"What about these two?" Swart said, motioning toward Norman and Dorothy.</p> - -<p>"While we go to repair the new counteractive ship which Mr. Norman so -kindly brought us," Sade said, "we can leave him and his girl in the -glass cage."</p> - -<p>As they were marched across the field, Norman remembered Johnny's -face on the hospital pillow—tragic, old. Now, in the green beauty of -this time-thundering world, this same fate reached for them as it was -caressing Keren's cheek in the white-walled room in the tower. Norman -put his arm around Dorothy's shoulder.</p> - -<p>She drew away. "You deserted me for Keren once. Worry about her now, -not me."</p> - -<p>Swart grinned. "You can argue that out while you grow old together," he -said. The patrolman who had come out with them picked up a metal ladder -beside the invisible wall and leaned it against the rim of the glass. -Then, smiling, he walked back and grabbed the collar of Dorothy's -coveralls. "We sealed up the chinks to keep 'em from pulling the same -trick Gordon did but hadn't we better strip 'em to make sure?"</p> - -<p>Norman's fists tightened but he felt the barrel of Swart's pistol dig -into his side. Then, on a quick thought, he drew a half-empty pack -of cigarettes from his pocket. "Leave her alone, Swart. We haven't -anything to escape with. Take these cigarettes for our clothes."</p> - -<p>The dark man's hand snatched them greedily. "I don't know why I don't -take both." But he stepped away from the ladder and waved his pistol at -them. "All right. Get in there. In ten seconds I'm shooting."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Norman followed Dorothy up the rungs of the ladder, climbed around her -and—as Swart raised his gun menacingly—hung on the rim of the glass -and dropped the twenty feet to the gravel inside their prison. Dorothy -climbed over and dropped into his waiting arms.</p> - -<p>As the patrolman took the ladder down, Sade and the other red-uniformed -gorilla left the house and walked toward them across the field. They -came up and halted before the glass, staring in at them and laughing. -Dorothy stood beside Norman and he took her hand tightly.</p> - -<p>"When they leave we'll start to work," he whispered. "We've got to get -you out of here quick."</p> - -<p>"Why only me?"</p> - -<p>He told her about Keren's hypodermic work. "But first you've got to -believe me," he said. "I didn't desert you when I left with Keren. It -was our only chance to escape. I was coming back for you. You've got -to believe me." He turned and took her shoulders in his hands, looking -into her blue eyes.</p> - -<p>She bit her lips, staring at him. Then, "I don't want to believe -anything else."</p> - -<p>Norman squeezed her shoulders, then glanced up to see Sade and his men -walking toward the cruiser, leaving the house deserted except for Keren -chained to a doom of unspeakable horror inside. The cruiser leaped from -the field and floated past them over the jungle. Eying the high rim -of the glass wall, Norman waited until the ship disappeared over the -horizon, then backed against the glass quickly and held out his hand.</p> - -<p>"Quick!" he told Dorothy. "Stand on my shoulders and try jumping!"</p> - -<p>Dorothy placed one small foot into his hand and swung up to his -shoulders. Norman raised to his tiptoes—every inch counted. "Jump! -High!"</p> - -<p>Her fingertips missed the rim of the glass two full feet and clawing -the slick surface, she slid back down into Norman's arms. "Try again! -We've got to get you out of here!"</p> - -<p>Again and again she placed her foot in Norman's hand, swung up, leaped -high—and fell back again, her forehead bruised from bumping the glass, -her fingernails broken.</p> - -<p>"You'll never make it," Norman said wearily. "We've got to think of -something else." Hammering his fist into his palm, he started pacing -the wall. Suddenly he dropped to his knees and started clawing the -gravel. But he hadn't dug six inches when he scraped against concrete. -Several different holes proved the ring of glass rested on what had -been a refueling platform. "Sade would have thought of that."</p> - -<p>He started pacing the wall again, running his hand around the smooth -glass. There <i>had</i> to be a way out! The glass had been the pilot-room -shell of a ship, its tapering nose sliced off. He thought of trying to -rock it back and forth to turn it over. But the glass weighed tons.</p> - -<p>He turned and stared at Dorothy helplessly. She had scratched her -finger in one of her falls. Proving again that only her body had grown, -she immediately stuck her finger in her mouth upon the discovery of the -scratch. Norman's brain seethed. He couldn't let this girl die here.</p> - -<p>Now, he realized, he faced the same problem that had been Johnny's. And -he knew what withering shadow would claim Dorothy's lips if he failed. -Vulcan was a hell of priceless, fleeing moments; each heartbeat a drum -sounding a sickening doom of decay. Each tick of his watch was the -footfall of death one step closer. The invisible terror that hovered -over Vulcan was beyond the grasp of imagination—but it was real! As -real as Keren's pale face under that trickle of red horror, as real as -Dorothy's fresh loveliness which would soon be eaten away—unless he -could get her away from here.</p> - -<p>Neither he nor Dorothy had any metal with which he might attempt -Johnny's mad feat. Standing there, looking about the enclosure, -Norman's heart beat quicker with each second as each second took its -unseen toll upon the girl who was his responsibility. Looking at her -golden hair glinting in the sunlight, Norman suddenly realized she was -more than a responsibility.... Quickly he turned away.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">IV</p> - -<p>The glass was thick, perfectly clear. Only its glimmer in the sun said -they were imprisoned. Beyond the field, the ever dying and growing -jungle undulated like a green sea. Just outside the glass, the ladder -lay on the gravel where the patrolman had dropped it—within arm's -reach and it might as well have been light years away.</p> - -<p>"Look!" Dorothy cried. "The scratch on my finger's already healed." -She held up her finger and there was no mark on it. Vulcan's power -was working, building a life then to tear it down. Each soul-wringing -second created beauty, clear blue-eyed, honey-haired beauty—to -transform it as swiftly into ugliness....</p> - -<p>It was the first time in Norman's eventful life that he had ever stared -defeat in the face. He had met death before and he had been in some -pretty tight spots but always there had been some way out. Not here. -There was no possible way to climb a twenty-foot wall of perpendicular -oil-slick glass.</p> - -<p>"I'm afraid I've failed you, Dorothy," he said. In his mind now was -only the thought of something he must <i>not</i> do. He couldn't allow her -to go through the horror he had seen on Johnny's gray face. After two -hours, when he saw the first gray hair—he looked down at his hands. -They were his only weapons against a longer torture. Could he kill -Dorothy with his own hands...?</p> - -<p>"Well," Dorothy broke in on his thoughts. "Sade wins; and when we go, -the whole universe is next." Her voice was a full octave lower than -Norman had first heard it when she appeared at his galley door.</p> - -<p>Norman walked over and stood before her. "Whatever happens," he said, -"I want you to know this—that I've fallen in love with you. You're the -bravest woman I've ever known and the most beautiful. That combination -usually doesn't go together."</p> - -<p>She looked up at him with very blue and serious eyes. "I've been in -love with you for a long time," she said. "Ever since I first saw your -picture in the paper. That's why I came with you."</p> - -<p>Her words were cut off by Norman's lips. Then quickly he left her and -walked back to the glass, staring out at the wind-whipped jungle. Why -wait? Why go through this torture any longer? Get it over with now!</p> - -<p>"Gods of the universe, forgive me," he whispered and turned to take her -throat in his hands.</p> - -<p>Light flashed across his face. It was Dorothy's mirror. She held -it, smoothing her sun-burnished hair. A thought burst into his -consciousness like a butterfly from a cocoon.</p> - -<p>He jumped over and snatched the mirror from her hand, ripped his watch -from his wrist and flipped off the crystal with his thumbnail, letting -the watch drop to the ground.</p> - -<p>"What're you doing!"</p> - -<p>He didn't bother to answer. His pulse was liquid fire as he held the -watch crystal close to the glass wall with one hand and focused the -rays of the sun into it with the mirror. A thin curl of smoke rose from -the jungle across the field. Then where the smoke had been an orange -flame licked up from the dry grass. He dropped the mirror and the watch -crystal and grabbed Dorothy close to him in the center of their prison, -holding her tightly.</p> - -<p>"Why! Why!"</p> - -<p>"You'll see!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Lashed by the wind, the fire spread like a flood. A blast of smoke -engulfed the glass obscuring their view with its swirling whiteness. -Then bits of flaming ashes dotted the smoke as the flames found new -fuel in the rotted trees. Standing there, holding Dorothy in his arms, -Norman saw the glass around them slowly darken. Quickly, as the wind -brought the increasing heat upon them, the glass turned black and all -he could see was the wild smoke rolling across the hole at the top -of their stifling cage. He felt Dorothy coughing. Heat swam in the -blackness about them.</p> - -<p>Then almost as suddenly as it had begun, the wind swept the smoke away -and Norman tore himself away from Dorothy and sprang to the glass wall. -Without waiting till the glass lightened, he ran his hand across its -blistering surface. When the thermal quality of the glass permitted -the passage of light and the sight of the smoldering forest across the -field, Norman was half way up the slick side, climbing like a ladder -the bulging ridges that encircled the glass at its invisible seams.</p> - -<p>As Dorothy stared at him, unbelieving, he vaulted over the rim and -jolted with stinging feet to the hot gravel outside. The metal ladder -was like a live coal in his hands but he barely felt it as he threw it -against the wall and ran up it like a squirrel. Sitting on the cooling -rim, he drew the ladder up after him and dropped it inside for Dorothy.</p> - -<p>Soon they were streaking across the steaming gravel toward the house, -Dorothy's hair streaming in the smoky wind.</p> - -<p>Norman burst into the big front room with Dorothy behind him. Their -running feet were loud in the silent house as they sped down the -corridor, Norman dreading what he would find tied to the cylinder where -they had left Keren. "You don't want to see this," he said, halting at -the closed door. "Try these other doors and find a gun. Sade may be -back any moment!"</p> - -<p>Dorothy obediently turned away as he went in and the sight that met his -eyes was to figure in many a future nightmare. Half way between the -door and the cylinder, Keren lay on the floor, more like some hideous -reptile than a human being, staring up at him, her eyes two black -holes, hate alive in them, the only life in what was left of her face.</p> - -<p>Norman stepped over and picked her up, his fingers recoiling from -the touch of leathern skin and bone. Her luxurious hair had vanished -leaving a skull, cracked skin tight across her cheek bones. The rope -that had held her to the cylinder had slipped from her shrunken wrists -and how she had crawled this far, Norman couldn't tell.</p> - -<p>He carried her to the cylinder, opened the heavy cap and drew out -the small hose that Sade had used to restore to youth the white rat. -Quickly, he sprayed the pink liquid upon her face and body—a treatment -that was to rewrite all of medical science. Her cheeks swelled again -to the form of a living face and like a trick of superimposed motion -picture work, before his eyes Keren's skeletal structure became covered -again with firm, rounded flesh, and on her head wispy black threads -appeared and extended again into a silken sable mass.</p> - -<p>To save the spark of life that remained with Johnny, Norman knew he had -to get this material back to Earth now; which meant a finish fight for -a space ship. "Are you strong enough now? We've got to ambush Sade."</p> - -<p>It was an effort for Keren to reorganize her forgotten coordinations -which enabled her to speak. Her lips moved soundlessly as he carried -her to the door and down the passage. He explained quickly how he and -Dorothy had escaped.</p> - -<p>"There are guns in the tower," she managed to whisper as they entered -the front room.</p> - -<p>Dorothy stood at the door with two jet rifles, peering out at the still -deserted field. "I found these in their bedroom," she said, handing -Norman one of the guns. "Is she all right? I thought—"</p> - -<p>Norman told her what he had done to revive Keren. "But here's what we -do," he said, lowering Keren to a sofa. "Sade will see the empty cage -and know there's something wrong when he comes in to land. He will -probably attack the house. We've got to get back in the cage. Keren can -vaccinate you," he nodded to Dorothy, allaying her hesitation. "When -they land, I'll jump out and take care of as many as I can. Keren can -get the rest from the tower."</p> - -<p>"There's a glass cutter in the store room," Keren said, nodding her -approval of the plan. Her cheeks were white as paper but she got up and -walked unsteadily from the room.</p> - -<p>"The liquid brought her back from the grave," Norman whispered to -Dorothy, watching Keren walk up the hall.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Keren returned immediately, and gave Norman the glass-cutter, which was -an instrument shaped like a small riveting hammer. "One promise," she -asked. "Sade's mine. I'll be in the tower. You've got to save him for -me."</p> - -<p>Keren took her hypodermic from her pocket and, at Norman's smile, -Dorothy permitted the needle to enter her arm. "All right. Let's go."</p> - -<p>With the cutter in one hand and the rifle in the other, Norman left the -house again with Dorothy running beside him.</p> - -<p>At the glass cage again, it was short work to cut a narrow door at -the base of the smooth wall. With an eye on the horizon, Norman -quickly covered the cutter with gravel, then motioned Dorothy into the -invisible enclosure that had been their prison and so nearly their -mausoleum. "We'll play dead," he explained, stretching out on the -gravel with the two rifles hidden under him. Dorothy lay down beside -him. "When they leave the ship and come over here, I'll jump out. You -stay inside in case they get a chance to shoot back."</p> - -<p>Suddenly the air hummed with the flow of rockets. "Here they are!" But -the sound told Norman that his job was doubled in danger. There were -two ships now, the other, his own. They'd repaired it.</p> - -<p>Rockets idling, they hovered over the field and slowly settled. Sade's -group was now split in two parties—he couldn't surprise them both....</p> - -<p>"Don't move!" Norman whispered, feeling Dorothy's soft hair against his -cheek. His fingers tightened on the guns under his body. His pulse was -loud in his ears. If they suspected something? But it was too late for -worry now. He heard footsteps on the gravel as the sound of the rockets -sputtered and died away.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The next second was a lifetime. Then suddenly he was on his feet. He -whirled, ducked out through the hole in the glass. The guns in his -hands were spitting their red streams, before his eyes found the men -before him, and he played the guns like two garden hoses, spraying -death. The two patrolmen fell, charred and black. But the two groups -had ruined his ambush. Swart sprang aside, behind the glass wall as the -flame streaked past him. Norman saw Sade standing in the door of the -ship, staring at the wild scene. The door was slammed shut as Norman's -guns splattered the hull with fire. Then the fight was between him and -Swart alone.</p> - -<p>On the opposite sides of the ring of glass, Dorothy standing there -horrified between them, it was one of the strangest situations in -Norman's experience. The glass was impervious to jet fire. Dorothy was -perfectly safe. But as Norman moved around the wall to get a shot at -Swart, the dark little man also moved, keeping the arc of glass between -them. It couldn't continue. A sudden sheet of flame rushed past one -side of the glass, Sade firing from the ship. Swart was not slow to -take advantage of the opportunity. Quickly he slid around the wall to -corner Norman against Sade's fire.</p> - -<p>Norman stood waiting, rifles poised to blast Swart's gun barrel as it -nosed past the curve of glass. But Swart was no fool. He was playing -for time. Norman heard the throbbing as Sade started his rockets. Sade -was moving the ship to trap him between their guns.</p> - -<p>Norman started to jump back through the hole in the glass. But that -would be suicide; while Swart guarded the door, Sade could pick them -off from above in the ship. Then an idea whispered in Norman's mind. -If he could lure Swart from the protection of the glass into Keren's -sights in the the tower—if he could trust Keren—but there was nothing -else to do. He ducked into the enclosure beside Dorothy.</p> - -<p>Swart laughed. Norman could hear it inside the glass. Quickly, Swart -stepped to the edge of the hole, his pistol covering their exit, -smiling at them through the wall. "You ain't very bright, Norman." It -was the last breath that ever passed his lips, for a long, thin line of -flame suddenly stretched from the tower to the small of his back. Swart -dropped without a sound, surprise on his dead face.</p> - -<p>But Sade's ship was already in the air.</p> - -<p>"He'll come and strafe us!" Norman shouted to Dorothy above the roar of -the rockets. He took her hand, dragged her out of the cage past Swart's -body. They had to get to the cruiser; their only hope was a fight with -Sade in the air. But the sound of Sade's rockets stopped Norman in his -tracks as he started to dash for the cruiser. Sade's ship was skimming -the field, twenty feet off the ground, his rockets sputtering like a -gasoline engine with a broken piston.</p> - -<p>The ship was headed directly toward the house, apparently unable to -rise. Then Norman saw what had happened. Keren's rifle had hit the -rise rocket tube. The heavily repaired solder work had burned through. -Unable to gain altitude, the ship hurtled into the house like a freight -plane gone wild. The plastic walls ripped like tinfoil as the ship's -heavy nose plowed into the building just below the tower.</p> - -<p>There was no explosion. The impact killed the rockets. Dust plumed -up like a geyser, disappeared swiftly in the wind, leaving the ship -hanging there tail out, stuck in the building like an arrow.</p> - -<p>Norman and Dorothy were at the door before the debris stopped falling. -The front room was choked with dust and bits of torn plastic rained -from the ceiling as they ran down the shadowy corridor. The door -leading to the tower stairs hung on its hinges, admitting a beam of -sunlight from the demolished upper story. They ran up the broken -stairs, swaying precariously. The cracked hull of the ship lay in the -debris of what remained of the tower. The wall had been sheared off -level with the floor on one side and swaying out from the foundation -below a misty rainbow sparkled its colors in the sunlight, hissing -softly as the red fluid escaped from a pipe hidden in the wreckage. -Sade's well around which the house was built had split in the crash.</p> - -<p>Leaving Dorothy at the top of the stairs, Norman climbed over -the chunks of plastic into the tower room. Then he realized his -foolhardiness. Too late. A chill tingled the back of his neck as he saw -the ship's port hanging open.</p> - -<p>He heard Dorothy's warning cry behind him as he turned around slowly.</p> - -<p>Sade's grimy bulk stood beside a chunk of plastic at the edge of the -littered floor. The sunlight glistened on the pistol in his hand, as it -squirted a stream of red flame upon the barrel of Norman's rifle. The -gun dropped from Norman's blistered fingers.</p> - -<p>"You thought you could escape what Vulcan and I can do," Sade said. -"None can escape us, for Vulcan and I control the universe from now -on." He pointed his pistol to the floor at Norman's feet and pulled the -trigger. Norman stepped back as the flame licked up around his shoes. -"Keep walking until you fall into that rainbow down there!"</p> - -<p>"Wait, Sade!" Norman stepped back again as the line of fire followed -him. "There's no time for this. That pipe's going to burst wide open -any moment!" He shifted from one foot to another, the soles of his -shoes burning.</p> - -<p>"Jump," Sade said quietly. He raised the gun higher.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Norman retreated another step. Two feet lay between him and the edge -of the sheared wall, the end of the floor, and then the misty lethal -colors hissing ten feet below.</p> - -<p>Dorothy scrambled over the plastic wreckage and threw herself at Sade, -but the flat of his palm met her face and hurled her aside. The line of -fire moved to Norman's toes again, and he stepped back his last step. -Like a cobra wavering before its prey, the flame swept back and forth -across the floor, inches from Norman's toes, scorching the floor under -his feet. He glanced down at the crimson mist, leaping like a fountain -under the splinters of plastic jutting out over it. Then he realized -that fate had given him his chance—for a price.</p> - -<p>He had come to Vulcan to find something to save Johnny's life. In -the tank in the cruiser out on the field was the fluid that could do -that. On the broken wall below him, just over the fountain of death, a -piece of the wreckage jutted outward two feet—he could leap to that, -swing clear of the mist and reach the ship and be free. He could save -Johnny—by leaving Dorothy behind.</p> - -<p>There could be no compromise. He had no doubt that Sade would kill her -the instant he realized the trick.</p> - -<p>Norman glanced back into Sade's triumphant smile. Suddenly he returned -the smile and laughed out loud. "When'd you take your last vaccination, -Sade!" he laughed. "Did you know your hair had turned white?"</p> - -<p>Sade held his smile as steady as his gun. "I'm not leaving you and look -for a mirror," he said. "No tricks will save you this time. Those shots -are good for 24 hours."</p> - -<p>"Not with all this raw stuff in the air," Norman laughed. "Look how -your hands have withered."</p> - -<p>"What matter," Sade said, "my Fountain of Youth can restore me again." -But his smile loosened, and quick as light his glance dropped to his -hands. Norman's knees straightened like steel springs. The length of -flame seared his hip as he sprang. Then his fist piled into Sade's -heavy jaw.</p> - -<p>The gun flew out and down into the mist. Sade hit the floor rolling and -struggled to his feet as Norman was on him like a hurricane. He crossed -jabs into his face with both fists then stepped back and swung a long -arc that crushed the big man's nose. Sade stumbled backward, screamed, -arms flailing the air wildly, and fell backward off the edge of the -floor.</p> - -<p>Norman stepped over and looked down. Deep in the eery rainbow mist -that swirled around him, Sade scrambled to his feet and looked around -frantically, confused with the colors. His hair turned snow white, his -round cheeks tightened across the bones of his face and his big belly -vanished in his baggy clothes. He held his hands up before his face -and forgot Norman to stare at his skeleton-like fingers. Then, his -hands still raised before his eyes, he sank to the ground as his legs -collapsed. The shoes fell off his bony feet as he lay there writhing.</p> - -<p>Norman shook his head, rubbed his eyes. Sade wasn't writhing. It was -the wind rustling his clothes.</p> - -<p>Norman found Dorothy's sunlit head pressed against his shoulder as -she cried like a baby. He touched her hair gently, then turned to the -wreckage of the tower.</p> - -<p>A moment's search in the debris disclosed Keren's broken form. He -lifted her dead weight in his arms and with Dorothy behind him went -quickly down the stairs. In the front room, he laid Keren on the sofa -and, risking one moment more, jerked a tapestry from the wall and -gently covered her body. Then they ran out of the house and across the -field to the cruiser.</p> - -<p>As he helped Dorothy through the port he heard a cyclone roar from the -house. He shoved Dorothy in, jumped in after her and slammed the door. -Through the glass, they watched the house fly to pieces like a bursting -bomb as a giant flower of red spouted high over the field. Then, where -the house had been, stood a wavering red column, feet thick, towering -above the green jungle. It sprayed down upon the cruiser like a scarlet -rain.</p> - -<p>They stared at the vivid scene until the red film covered the cabin -windows. Then Norman thumped the tank around the cabin wall, heard -its dull fullness, and walked into the pilot room and sat down at -the controls. "There's plenty in the tank for Johnny," he said, "and -there's plenty on Vulcan for the Universe."</p> - -<p>"What shall we name it?" Dorothy said.</p> - -<p>As they soared away from the planet and their increasing speed washed -the red film from the glass. Norman looked at the dwindling green -globe that was Vulcan and lived again, swiftly, all that had happened -there. And strangely, now that it was over, one phrase whispered in his -mind. <i>I'll owe you a thousand kisses</i>....</p> - -<p>"Let's name it 'Kerine,'" he said. "We owe her more than we can ever -repay."</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>The word "Kerine" was being shouted in every street and across every -backyard fence in the universe two days later and it was a tense moment -outside a closed white door in a hospital in New York City. Although -the surgery was on the fifteenth floor, Norman and Dorothy could -hear the clamor in the street below as thousands halted traffic for -blocks around and the policemen stood by with folded arms, smiling. -Downstairs, the lobby was packed with photographers and reporters, -waiting.</p> - -<p>As the white door opened, Norman and Dorothy jumped to their feet. -Norman could hear his heart thumping above the noise from the street as -he looked down at the sheet-covered stretcher the nurses rolled out the -door. As the stretcher rolled into the hall, the face appeared and deep -within his pounding heart, Norman yelled his joy. Johnny's face was -pale and thin, as if recently recovered from a long illness, but it was -Johnny's face, his barber-shy black hair tousled on his forehead.</p> - -<p>"Hello, chum," Johnny said. "The doc told me all about it." Then he -glanced at Dorothy. "So that's her."</p> - -<p>"She's got exclusive rights to the story," Norman grinned.</p> - -<p>"I can't wait to get back in a full dress suit," Johnny said. "For the -wedding."</p> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Citadel of Death, by Carl Selwyn - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CITADEL OF DEATH *** - -***** This file should be named 63213-h.htm or 63213-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/2/1/63213/ - -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 print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: The Citadel of Death - -Author: Carl Selwyn - -Release Date: September 16, 2020 [EBook #63213] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ASCII - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CITADEL OF DEATH *** - - - - -Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - The Citadel Of Death - - By CARL SELWYN - - Vulcan held the weirdest secret of the ages, - one of eternal life that Rick Norman had to - find to save his friend from death. But it held - another secret, too--one that was so vicious, - even knowing it meant Rick Norman was doomed. - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Planet Stories Fall 1944. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - -"It's too risky for you to go alone, Johnny," Rick Norman said. "Wait -till I get through showing the Senator around the mine. Then if you -still think your gravity gadget can get us to Vulcan against Sun drag, -we'll go look into this Fountain of Youth business together." He knew -Johnny wasn't paying any attention to his argument, however, and as -he talked his big fingers were busy under the table unfolding the wax -paper from the two small green capsules--Martian knockout drops. Two -of them would be enough to put Johnny out for a week. - -Johnny Gordon's black hair gleamed in the nightclub's orange light. -When he laughed, his tanned face was surprisingly boyish--surprising -because his name was linked with adventure in headlines on many -planets. "You think the patrol's going to be laying for me off -Mercury," he laughed. "Well, I'd like a little excitement." - -Norman dropped the wax paper on the floor and hid the capsules in -his big palm. Johnny was right--they would've had a lot more fun if -they'd never bumped into that dead comet off Neptune. But how were -they to know that cold hunk of drift metal would turn out to be solid -platinum? That was three years ago and now their income was a number -like the circumference of Jupiter in feet. To him it was a devil of a -responsibility. To Johnny it was just plain boring. - -But he couldn't let Johnny get himself killed running away from a full -dress suit. "Okay," he said, faking resignation. "You win." Roughly -handsome, Norman's hell or high water smile was as much a part of him -as his long legs. He filled their glasses as the orchestra started -moaning _Martian Moon_, dropped the capsules into the bubbly green wine -in Johnny's glass. "Here's to the Twenty-First Century Ponce de Leon," -he smiled, raising his glass. - -Johnny reached across the table and picked up the bottle. "Here's to -the boredom of a million dollars," he said and drank the toast straight -from the bottle. He wiped his chin, grinning. "You ought to know you -can't catch me on a Martian mickey. They stop the bubbles." - -As Norman stared at the suddenly lifeless wine in Johnny's glass, he -realized there was only one thing left to do. He knew a couple of boys -who were pretty handy with a blackjack and he knew an old hunting lodge -in the Adirondacks where they could lock Johnny up for a week. - - * * * * * - -The next morning as Norman was packing his bags, one of his "boys" -appeared at the door. His eyes were black and swollen. Embarrassed, he -held out an envelope. Norman tore it open. - -"_You'll find your other playmate locked in my bathroom. I'll bring you -a jug full of the Fountain of Youth._" The note was written in Johnny's -careless scrawl! Norman flicked the ampliphone button in the little -table beside his bed. - -"Interstellar Spaceport!" he ordered the invisible telemike as he -pulled a handful of bills from his pocket and shoved them at the -battered gentleman in the door. "Thanks for trying, Spike. Go kick -Johnny's bathroom door down. Joe's locked up in there--" - -"Spaceport," the wall speaker said. - -"John Gordon," Norman asked, waving Spike out, "has he been there?" - -"Mr. Gordon took off half an hour ago, sir," said the ampliphone. "For -Mercury." - -"Thanks...." As Norman clicked off the receiver, premonition crept over -him like a shadow. His hand moved to the receiver again--to call for a -ship and follow Johnny. Then the ampliphone buzzed under his hand. - -It was the Senator. He was waiting at the capital. - -As he started throwing shirts into his bag, Norman knew it was against -his better judgment. But after all, Johnny could take care of himself. -Spike's hamburger face proved that. - -It was with this thought that he picked up the plump Senator and left -for the platinum comet. When the sleek private cruiser nosed into the -little world's artificial air three days later, the mine foreman met -them with a radiogram in his hand. - -Silently cursing the static that had interfered with space reception -on the way over, cold fear clutched at Norman's heart as he read the -message. "The platinum's yours," he told the astonished mine foreman. -"Show the Senator around." - -As their bewildered faces stared after him, he took off for Earth again -immediately. - -The trip back was maddening and he ignored all speed laws as he roared -full-throttle into the bright mountain range that was New York City. -Newsboys were still shouting the headlines on the street when he -reached the hospital. - - "FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH IN TRAGIC REVERSE! JOHN GORDON FOUND IN - DRIFTING SPACE BOAT! INVENTION MISSING!" - -Norman shoved a bill at the driver, jumped out of the taxi and ran up -the hospital steps. The girl at the desk recognized him. "Room 947, Mr. -Norman. Dr. Smyth is expecting you." - -He hurried to the elevator where a mob of reporters were also waiting. -"What do you think happened to him, Mr. Norman? Do you think he reached -Vulcan? What do you think became of his cruiser with the anti-gravity -invention?" - -"Later, boys," Norman said, his familiar smile a little shaky now. -"I've got to see Johnny first." - -A black-bearded doctor opened the door at his knock. From within the -room came an odd babbling sound like a child talking to itself. Looking -over the doctor's shoulder, Norman saw an old man lying on the white -bed. He stepped past the doctor into the room. - -Propped up on pillows, the old man lay there like an ancient withered -mummy. Only his skull-like eyes were alive, yellow and wild as he -stared at his disfigured hands. His hands were more like paws for -each finger and thumb had been severed close to the palm, the scars -well-healed as if the mutilation had happened years ago. - -"They found his pilot's license in his pocket," the doctor said, "and -the blood test proved his identity." - -"No!" Norman said, turning back to the bed. "This is impossible!" - -"I've given him a thorough examination," the doctor said. "He has every -condition of advanced senility. We can't say how he lost his fingers -nor how they healed so quickly. We only know this," his voice dropped -to a whisper, "that he is very near death of old age...." - -Norman's eyes were damp. Through the window the afternoon sun lined the -old man's sunken cheeks with deep shadows, gleamed on his thin, white -hair. His voice was a high-pitched quaver. "My hands... my hands...." - -Norman sprang to the bed, knelt beside the ancient creature. "Johnny! -It's me! Rick! Tell me what happened!" - -But the old man stared at him blankly, then looked back down at his -hands again. - -Norman got to his feet slowly. "Okay, Johnny," he said through tight -lips. "But I'll find out what happened to you. And I think I know where -to start." - -Twenty minutes later, however, the pudgy Gorig Sade, Ambassador from -Mercury, could offer little information. He leaned back in his gilded -chair and raised his hand toward the sunset at the window. His right -hand was artificial, an electric member in flesh-like plastic. "Behind -that Sun," he said, a slight smile on his thick lips, "lies a planet -without a human footprint. Within the Mercurian Zone of Protection, -Vulcan is closely guarded by the Mercurian Zone Patrol. Vulcan is a -death trap--too close in the Sun's gravitational field. We cannot -answer to the safety of those who slip past the patrol and enter the -whirlpool." - -Norman smiled, as a fighter smiles at his opponent when he comes out at -the bell. "That's enough of that line, Sade. When did your patrol last -see John Gordon? They were waiting for him off Mercury. You've had your -paid killers after him ever since he refused to sell out to you. Now -his gravitational counteractive turns up missing. It would have meant a -lot to Mercury--or to you, rather, since your rotten politics owns the -place." - -Sade got to his feet like a disturbed bull. "Get out!" His electric -hand hummed as he raised it toward the door. "I shall see the Secretary -of State about your insult!" - -Norman's left hand shot out like a striking snake, clutched the -Ambassador's collar and dragged him out of his chair. - -"Okay, Sade," he smiled, "but there's one thing maybe you don't know. -Johnny built _two_ ships, a smaller one before he equipped the cruiser -he left in. I'm taking that ship to try to reach Vulcan. Johnny's -spectroscope proved a lot about this Fountain of Youth business and -now it's the only chance to save his life. Anyway, I'll find out what -happened to him, and if you had anything to do with it, I'm going to -tear your yellow throat out." - -He slammed the sputtering Ambassador back into his chair, and left the -office. Now Sade would forget the Secretary of State and order his -patrol to be waiting for him. A burst of flame in desolate space and -who would know. - - * * * * * - -Ten minutes outside the Mercurian Zone of Protection, Norman welcomed -the misty glow as live nebulae engulfed the transparent dome -surrounding him. It brightened the monotonous blue light in the pilot -room and erased his lonely reflection in the foot-thick thermo-glass -that darkened the white-hot glare of space ahead. - -Traveling near Mercury was like walking a tight rope. A few degrees -off course and the delicate balance between worlds would totter--jerk -him away to a charred plunge into the Sun. Also, Sade's wolves might -appear any moment now. But he'd get through them, he thought, slapping -the trigger grip of his panel guns. The picture of Johnny back there -in the hospital, however, was an ache in his throat that dulled his -excitement--an excitement reminiscent of hundreds of tight spots they'd -squeezed through together before they'd struck it right and traded -adventure for tea cups. Helpless, crazed, eighty years old before his -time--why hadn't Johnny waited! But he was bull-headed and bored, -anxious to prove what his spectroscope hinted--that Vulcan, close in -the arms of the mother Sun, was a spawning place for life itself. Ponce -de Leon again, in 2063.... - -Grinding out his cigarette, Norman glanced at the chart in his lap, -eyed the circle that was Vulcan, a white circle--_unexplored_. Deep in -the whirlpool of the Sun's gravitation, it had lured countless ships to -a hurtling destruction until a trade-wise Mercury placed guards around -the area and its siren world. - -Norman glanced up from his musings as the filter's blue light darkened -the room again. The nebulae outside had vanished. Almost human, that -glass! The hotter it became outside, the darker the glass became--not -only shielding the pilot's eyes but perfectly maintaining the -insulation of the control room. Suddenly he jerked his head up, chilled -as he stared at the mirrored wall in front of him. - -Reflected in the glass, a ghostly figure stood behind him in the galley -door. - -"Hello." - -It was a feminine voice. Slowly, Norman swung his long legs around -and stared at the girl, too astonished to speak. She was just a kid, -about fifteen years old, wearing baggy white coveralls. A mop of -honey-colored hair framed her pert freckled face. - -She held up her hands as if to keep him away. "Now don't get excited." -Her blue eyes were like a kitten's. "I'm Dorothy Gray. My father owns -the _Daily Times_ and I work on the paper during vacation. I played -stowaway because you're on the trail of the news story of the century. -While you were checking out with the dispatcher," the girl grinned, -"I emptied your food locker and crawled in myself. I know you must be -trying to find out what happened to your friend. You're the type that -gets things done." - -Grinding his teeth, Norman turned back to the control panel and -reached for the turn lever. Now he had to take this brat to Earth--when -Johnny's life depended on haste in the opposite direction. No! He'd put -her in a space suit and kick her out. Johnny was his best friend. His -anger hovered an instant over the decision. And in that instant he saw -the girl step aside. His mouth fell open as _another_ figure appeared -from the galley. - - * * * * * - -This time it was a grown woman--breath-takingly grown. She walked in -like she owned the place, smoothing a tweed skirt above bare legs -that could have graced a glassilk hose advertisement. Above a crimson -blouse, her hair was black as sunless space against her cloud-like -skin. She was obviously Venusian, with the orchid-like beauty of all -women of the emerald planet. In her hand was a stubby jet of a pistol, -the round hole of its barrel staring into Norman's bewildered eyes. - -"Hello, handsome," she said, ignoring the girl beside her. "I was in -your ammunition locker. I'm Keren Vaun. Just stick at those controls. -I'm here to make sure that the patrol gets you." She sat down on the -metal box beside the galley door. She crossed her trim legs and held -the pistol steady on one rounded knee. - -"Okay," Norman smiled. "If that's the way you want it." He turned -around, clamped his long legs under the control seat, and flipped the -stabilizer switch. Their little world turned upside down, sprawling -both females across the floor in a mass of contrasting legs and arms. - -When the switch flipped back into contact, the ship righted itself -instantly and Norman stepped across the room and picked up the pistol. -He stepped back and squeezed his panel triggers. Dead guns. "So you've -carted out all my ammunition and Sade is really after me." - -The Venusian woman pulled herself up off the floor. "You'll find out -when the patrol sights you." Her black eyes looked as deadly as her gun -had. - -"Let 'em come," Norman said. - -As if his words were a cue, a bell tinkled in the room. He jumped to -the panel and turned a dial, lighting the blue filter to scan the void -outside. The magnetic detector warned of something outside--a patrol -cruiser! - - * * * * * - -Norman fingered his triggers instinctively, then left the dead guns in -a rage as black as the Venusian's hair. The only thing he could shoot -at the patrol were his hull fire extinguishers. He clicked on the rear -view screen--he had to see the patrol first now--outmaneuver them -somehow. But behind him was only the blackness of space. - -The raven-haired woman's sparkling eyes grew nervous. "If those fools -shoot--" She lit a cigarette, exhaling quickly. - -The bell rang frantically. Something was coming at them, fast. He -traversed the screen again but around them was no visible thing. The -sun was too bright. There was only one thing to do. His hand fell on -the wheel, twirled it around to swoop off course--try to dodge the -patrol, wherever they were--take a chance on fighting his way back -against Sun drag. - -A flash of red light burst into the room. The pilot room keeled over. -He fell to the room's glass ceiling that had suddenly become the floor. -The women landed in a perfumed heap on top of him. - -He stood on the slick curve of glass, eyeing the cut-off on the control -panel which was now overhead. A patrol boat had come in from the Sun's -blind spot. They'd chanced a long shot. Jammed the exhaust tube and -thrown the stabilizer off balance. Seconds off course. Norman could -perhaps have brought her back. Minutes--the Sun was an inexorable pull. - -Madly, Norman jumped to reach the cut-off--to cut the unbalanced rocket -blast that held the ship on its back in the increasing speed of their -dive. Out of control, they were streaking toward the Sun under full -power. - -The diameter of the Sun is 108 times that of Earth. Its mass is 324,000 -times as great. Mathematics could calculate easily the speed of falling -into that molten inferno but Norman knew only the thundering of his -heart in that silent room. He jumped three times for the cut-off -lever--and fell back. Then with fear like steel coils in his legs, he -floundered up once more, leaped from the glass and the tips of his -fingers brought down the clutch. - -The room slowly moved out from under him, sliding the girls across the -smooth glass. He was at the controls before the ship righted itself. -Sweeping the panel, he jerked every rocket into reverse. - -And nothing happened. The power of his blasts was nothing against the -direct pull of the Sun, this close. The ship hurtled toward its fiery -mass at terrific speed. - -Among the battery of instruments on the panel was a small stratometer, -calibrated in seconds. Norman saw the pointer moving with the speed of -the second hand on a watch. With each jump of the pointer, they fell -thousands of miles. Despite the thermo-glass, heat grew in the room -like a live thing. In less than three minutes, he realized, the ship -would begin to _melt_. He sprang from the controls, bent over the long -coffin-shaped box beside the galley door. His fingers were frantic -thumbs as he set the dials. It wasn't merely a test of the gravitation -counteractive now. The mechanism _had_ to work or they would boil like -lobsters in the steam of the very air they breathed. - -Dorothy Gray stood sensibly out of the way, watching his frenzied hands -switch the delicate instrument. The Venusian woman cursed softly, -straightening her twisted skirt. "Wait till I see Sade again!" she -said. "Ordering his men to fire when he knew I was in here--Hey!" she -demanded. "Why's it getting so hot in here?" - -Dorothy pointed toward the instrument panel. "See that little clock," -she said, oddly observant for one of her few years. "That's a -stratometer. My dad's shown 'em to me on the big passenger lines. It -says we're falling mighty fast. It's getting hot in here because we're -falling into the Sun." - -Seconds thundered by as Norman twirled the rheostat knobs in the -counteractive, fighting to bring the delicate focus of its power -into play against the dread suction that was dragging them down. The -thermo-glass was jet black now against the solid heat outside. With -apparently a knowing hand, Dorothy set the air conditioning unit up to -maximum as drops of moisture formed on the ceiling and dampened the -pilot room like hot dew. The thermo-glass began to bulge slightly at -its invisible seams, first in thin ridges around the ceiling, jutting -out more and more as the mad heat increased. Protection against the -extremes of temperature in space, it was constructed to follow these -lines of expansion. But for how long? - -Keren screamed, razor-edged above the electric tension in the room. -"Give me a parasuit!" she cried. "Get me out of here!" - -Norman's fingers played the rheostats like a piano. Suddenly an -electric eye blinked red as the counteractive fell into focus on the -true gravity force sector of the Sun. As he leaped to the controls, his -eye caught a glimpse of the stratometer's small death-white face. They -were sixty seconds from cremation.... - -Slowly, with nerve-tight slowness, he turned the brake wheel a fraction -of an inch as the hand of the clock moved on. The room was dim, the -panel lights casting weird shadows along the black ridges in the seams -of the thermo-glass. The ridges jutted inward over an inch now, spaced -two feet apart like braces or rafters around the room. - -Suddenly Keren threw herself upon Norman, locked her arms around -his neck, dragging his sweaty hands from the wheel. "Stop us!" she -whimpered hoarsely. "Stop us, handsome! I don't want to die!" - - - II - -Norman tried to fling her away from him but the fear-crazed woman -clutched his hair as he took the wheel again and he was almost dragged -from his seat as he turned the wheel another notch. The wheel blistered -his fingers, but he turned it with will-screaming slowness, ignoring -Keren's clawing hands. The pointer on the stratometer climbed up the -dial in short, inexorable jerks. Tick-tick-tick-tick! Tolling their -funeral march at a thousand fiery miles per second ... per second.... - -In the nightmare of those moments, Norman saw Dorothy's reflection -in the fog-smeared glass, tugging at the frantic brunette, trying to -pull her away from him. He saw her hand rise, a wrench in it. She -brought it down on the Venusian's dark head as the clock swept to its -nerve-breaking jump and he spun the wheel with all his strength. - -It was a timeless instant. His hand lay limp on the wheel, his eyes on -Dorothy's dim figure in the foggy glass. She stood there like a bad -camera shot of a little girl dressed up in her papa's overalls. Then, -slowly, he realized that what he thought was the reflection of one -of her blue eyes was instead a small, luminous globe suspended in the -bright nothingness of sunlight ahead. He rubbed his sweat-burning eyes. - -The blackness of the glass was fading quickly, the seam bulges -sinking back with the contraction. Without the slightest tremor, the -counteractive had stopped their plunge into the Sun, and the reverse -rockets had taken over. They were headed out again. The blue globe -grew swiftly as they approached. Source of a thousand tales of terror, -Vulcan sped toward them out of the distance. - -In a few moments, washed air cooled the pilot room as the air -conditioning unit purred full speed. Its soft whistle, the brighter -light and Norman's instruments were the only evidence that they swam -effortlessly in a wild current that swept into the gates of the solar -hell. - -"If we had enough insulation," Norman said, "we could go into the very -flames of the sun. Like we almost did anyhow." Johnny's counteractive -had given the universe new eyes--to seek an elixir to save his life. - -Keren moaned. - -Dorothy held a glass of water to Keren's scarlet lips. "There's a -mirror in the galley," she told her. "Go freshen up before we land." -Keren looked like a wilted orchid and Norman smiled, finding it -difficult to hate anyone after the ordeal they had just survived. - -Keren's eyes raised to him with an unexpected softness as she stood up. -"I'm sorry I acted like an idiot," she said coolly. "You saved my life -and you won't regret it." She shook her sleek hair and turned to the -galley. "Get out of my way, brat!" she snapped at Dorothy and left the -pilot room. - -Norman grinned at Dorothy. "You wield a wicked wrench," he said. "I'm -glad you're on my side." - -The fifteen year old fugitive from a high school journalism class -grinned back, wrinkling her freckled nose. "You wield a wicked heart -attack," she said. "Miss Vaun's on your side now if not on mine." - -He turned back to the controls. They were but a few minutes from the -unexplored planet. There was nothing he could do now but take the girls -along with him. A junior miss and a Venusian beauty queen, landing on -an unknown world. - -As they approached, Vulcan filled their window, a great smooth -curve, its blue color lightening to green. Norman switched off the -counteractive and cut in the landing rockets. - -When Keren's exotic perfume entered the room again, the land below was -a map of verdant plains, rolling mountains and glassy seas. Quickly it -swelled to jungle and flashing water and, with a champagne tingle in -his blood, Norman dropped toward an open well of meadow in the trees. - -His excitement, however, was tinged with sadness. Johnny should be -here now. They had dropped upon a score of unknown worlds together. -Now he landed without his partner, in a last-hope venture to save that -partner's life. - -The green vegetation was a colorful contrast against the bright yellow -of dead grass. They would have to be careful about fire, Norman knew. -He'd seen that thick grass on other Sun-tropical worlds; it burned fast -as gunpowder. - -This close to the Sun, Vulcan probably had a constant wind. The -gravity seemed approximately the same as Earth's. He plugged in the -spectroscope to test the air and as he glanced out the window at the -intake valve a slow chill trickled down his back. - -It wasn't only the wind moving the grass outside. The grass was -_growing._ - -Dorothy and Keren came to the window. As they watched, the grass beside -the hull rose two inches. - -"It's horrible," Dorothy whispered. Then, "Look!" she shrilled, -pointing. - - * * * * * - -Norman shook his head as if recovering from a blow, the words of the -Mercurian Ambassador ringing in his ears: "Vulcan is a planet without -a human footprint...." All science knew of this supposedly untrod -planet was suddenly a lie. There, beside the ship, was the unmistakable -imprint of a human foot. - -As Norman looked up he saw a man step out of the jungle and walk toward -them across the grass. A jet gun bounced on the stranger's hip. He wore -high-top boots, a checkered hunting shirt and his black-mustached face -was heavily tanned. Norman tore himself from his bewilderment and -turned on the outside speaker. "Who are you! How did you get here?" - -"Same way you did," the receiver brought the fellow's voice inside. -"Think you're the only one with a counteractive?" - -To Norman's verified knowledge, Johnny's counteractive was the only one -listed under inter-planetary patents. He turned on Keren. "What do you -know about this?" But she held her carmine lips tight, staring out the -window. - -"The air must be all right," he said. "Let's go." He took his jet gun -from the compartment in the control panel and strapped the holster -close to his right hand. Hot sunlight burnished the room as he threw -the panel switch opening the space port. - -He walked to the door. The stranger waited below, hairy hands on his -hips. "I hope you've got an Earthian cigarette. They're scarce around -here." - -Norman dropped the folding steps and Dorothy, curiosity bright in her -kitten-blue eyes, walked out into the windy sunlight. As Norman started -out, the port clanged shut in his face, hurtling him back into the -middle of the room. Rockets hummed as the ship leaped ten feet in the -air. - -Keren stood before the panel with her hand on the rise lever. Norman -sprang across the room and jerked her aside as the ship sailed out of -the clearing and plowed through the tree tops. "I've had enough of your -tricks, lady!" he said through clenched teeth. - -"No, handsome!" Keren cried. "You've got to get us away from here!" -Before he could right the ship she took him from behind and pinned his -arms to his sides. - -"You fool!" Norman yelled, twisting her hands from him. "We're going -to crash!" But the woman fought like a panther, black eyes blazing. -Controls gone wild, the ship rolled over on its side, and bumped -heavily down into the shadowed mire and ground to a halt. - -"You crazy witch!" Norman got to his feet, eying the sloping floor and -the smoke curling up from the leaves under the ship. The rockets had -set the woods on fire. His port rise-rockets dangled, a twisted mass -of tubes. "Why'd you do this?" he demanded, facing her with itching -fists. "Who was that fellow back there? Talk," he ordered, "before I -slap your painted face off!" - -Her eyes were like a half-tamed cat's. "I'm not talking, handsome." - -Norman looked into her black eyes and ice formed in his heart. "So that -was one of Sade's men back there." - -The outside speaker was still on and in the silence came the crackle of -flame as the wind fanned the jungle fire into a rage of orange tongues -around the ship. The thermo glass instantly turned black and its -faithfully expanding seams began pushing inward against the heat. - -Into the room came the hissing of a giant snake. The glass was suddenly -drenched with a misty green liquid. - -_Antipyrol!_ - -The fire went out as Norman jumped to the window and a silvery bulk -floated down into the jungle beside them. - -It was a space cruiser, a late model. Twin burnished coils encircled -its silvery hull-counteractive coils. Norman knew that, beginning now, -was an ordeal that could end only in death for himself or whoever -manned that ship. It was Johnny's ship. Inside it could not be a friend. - -Through the filter glass, lighted with the fire gone, he could see out -but they couldn't see in. A port opened in the cruiser's glittering -side, steps fell to the jungle floor and three men stepped out. -Norman was not surprised. Two of them wore the fiery red uniform of -the Mercurian patrol and Norman's eyes narrowed when he saw their -companion. Fat, clad in a silk shirt with his electric arm swinging -jerkily, down the steps came the Mercurian ambassador, Gorig Sade. - -He and his patrolmen strode through the muddy ashes with their guns -drawn. Norman's fingers itched for the triggers of his starboard guns. -With one burst--! But the guns were empty. Cursing the Venusian woman, -he reached for his pistol. He'd shoot it out point blank from the door. -Then as his hand moved toward the panel switch to open the door he -barely felt the needle enter his back. He saw Keren jump away with the -hypodermic needle in her hand. - -If she had been a man Norman would have shot her on the spot. Instead, -he just looked at her with all the hate in his soul, feeling now the -stinging sensation in his back, knowing that _something_ was already -seeping into his veins--to knock him out, paralyze him, kill him--just -when he had a chance at Sade, just when he had a chance to solve the -mystery of Johnny's death sentence and perhaps find something here to -save him. - -"The crash must have shook 'em up pretty bad," said a voice outside. -"We'll have to cut the door open." - -Oddly, as Norman stared at the hypodermic syringe in Keren's hand he -remembered a trick he'd once pulled on Jupiter. A last ditch trick. - - * * * * * - -His hand jumped to a lever on the panel and jerked it down. He heard -an oath mingled with the hiss of antipyrol as his full extinguishers -spurted their jets into the jungle for fifty yards around the ship. -When he looked out, he saw Sade and the two red-uniformed patrolmen -staggering about blindly in the green rain with their hands covering -their eyes. - -"They'll be blind as bats for half an hour," Norman laughed, cutting -off the spray. He jerked a coil of rope from the panel compartment. "I -don't know what you stuck me with," he told Keren, "but if I go out, -you are going to be tied up till I come to." In a moment he had her -wrists securely tied behind her. Keren remained silent, staring at him -with black-cat eyes half closed. - -Throwing the door switch, he stepped to the port and found the three -men standing in the ashes between the ships, digging at their swollen -eyes. "Get out," he ordered the sullen Venusian and she walked down the -steps ahead of him. - -As he went out a streak of flame hissed over the woman's head and -splattered on the metal hull beside his shoulder. - -He jumped backward into the cabin, behind the protecting wall. Peering -out carefully, he saw a gun barrel glinting in the cruiser's door. He -smiled. "Sade!" he yelled, loud enough for the blinded Mercurian on the -ground to hear. "I'm giving you five seconds to tell whoever's in that -cruiser to come out. Then I'm shooting you in the legs--then your good -arm--then your yellow belly!" - -The fat man groped about wildly, helpless and confused. - -"One!" Norman counted. "Two ... three ... four--" - -"Come out, Swart!" Sade shouted. "He'll kill me!" - -"Throw down your gun and come out with your hands in the air," Norman -ordered and to his surprise the dark-mustached man of his first -acquaintance appeared in the door with his hands upraised as a pistol -plopped into the mud. "Who else's in there?" Norman was taking no -chances. - -"Nobody, Mr. Norman. That's all of 'em." With excitement in her voice, -Dorothy appeared behind the dark-faced Swart and Norman felt a warmth -of relief that she was safe. "They picked us up right after you left," -she said. - -"Come here and hold this gun, honey," Norman said. "Miss Vaun sabotaged -our ship but we've captured a whole herd of pigs and we're going to -have a barbecue." Dorothy ran across the mud to him. "Keep this gun -pointed at the fellow with the mustache. If he tries anything while I'm -tying his hands, pull the trigger." - -In a moment, Swart was firmly bound and sitting on the cruiser's steps. -Sade and the patrolmen stood, rubbing their blind eyes and cursing. -"You slimy hog," Norman said, jerking Sade around as he kept an eye on -the patrolmen. "If I didn't want you to do a lot of talking first, I'd -tie this rope around your neck instead of your hands." It was the first -time Norman had ever tied up an artificial hand but he only pulled the -rope the tighter. Then he sat the unholy group down on the steps of the -ship and surveyed them with a wide grin. - -"All right," he said, "who's talking first, before I start skinning -each one of you with a pen knife." - -"There's a notebook in the cruiser, Mr. Norman," Dorothy said. "I heard -the fat one talking about it. They've found something here and the -notebook tells all about it." - -"So it's all written down for me," Norman laughed. "Watch 'em, Dorothy. -If they get fidgety, call me." He entered the snug, well-remembered -cabin. Keren's hypo must have been pretty weak. He still felt nothing. - -He frowned, puzzled to see a narrow tank built around the cushioned -wall. Pushing aside the space units--life preservers--hanging on their -customary hooks, he rapped the tank with his knuckles. It was heavily -insulated, a liquid of some sort sloshing inside. Shaking his head, he -went on into the pilot room where his eyes immediately fell on a small -black notebook lying on the control panel. He picked it up eagerly. - -"_Complete life cycle accelerated_," he read on with an eerie thrill. -Then, abruptly universal scientific language. "_One year equals -approximately twenty minutes_...." Remembering the quick growing grass, -he read on with amazement. Then, abruptly the page became a cross-word -puzzle of chemical symbols--it would take time to figure them out-- - -"I don't want to stay out there, Mr. Norman," a voice interrupted him. -It was Dorothy standing in the door. "They're saying such bad words." - - * * * * * - -Norman grinned. "Point your gun at 'em to hush," he said. She grinned -back, wrinkling her freckled nose and went outside again as he returned -to his perusal of the symbols. - -They were a description of the elements in _something_, in a very -unusual combination. Then slowly his eyes raised from the notebook -again. Something deep in the shadows of his mind was trying to -speak--not about the symbols--about something else. Something he had -done? Something he had seen? Anyhow, Norman had been in enough bad -spots to pay attention when that ghostly feeling sounded its alarm. - -Closing the notebook, he stepped across the pilot room and walked into -the cabin, into a pistol's point blank explosion. - -The burst of flame seared Norman's left side. In the same second, -as his hand came up to grab the gun, he realized the impossibility -of getting it in time. Swart was too close. His hand dropped to his -blistered side. Swart had him between death and surrender. - -"You're lucky," Swart's mustache wiggled as he spoke. "Get outside." - -Dazed at the unbelievably swift change of events, Norman obeyed. And -as his foot hit the first step he knew what had called him from the -notebook. - -Dorothy--_was no longer Dorothy_.... - - * * * * * - -She had been changed when she entered the ship a moment ago but he -hadn't realized it. Staring at her full lips, her higher cheek bones, -her snub nose that had straightened into a smooth profile--he forgot -the sudden switch of gun authority until Swart jabbed him in the back. - -He went down the steps, his eyes on what had been the fifteen year old -fugitive from a high school journalism class. Just out of pig-tails and -giggles--Dorothy Gray was suddenly a woman. Her freckles were weirdly -absent now, her blond hair was longer, her arms were more full--her -legs--her--! Her white coveralls had shrunk on what was now a slim, -lithe figure. But it was really Dorothy--the same pert face, the same -kitten-like eyes, wide with an astonishment as great as his own. - -Sade's laughter broke Norman's blank stare. "Next time you tie up a man -with an artificial arm make sure it isn't electric. It's easy to cause -a short circuit when you're soaked with fire extinguisher fluid and -when they short circuit they burn through rope very easily." - -But Norman barely heard him, barely saw Swart untying the patrolmen -whose swollen eyes were beginning to see again. He was remembering! -"_Complete_ life cycle _accelerated. One year equals approximately -twenty minutes._" He offered no resistance as Swart jerked the notebook -from his hand. As the grass grew, so had Dorothy--so had Johnny, to the -horrible near-completion of his life cycle. But why wasn't Sade, Keren, -the others affected? Why not himself? - -"Let's get in the ship," Keren broke into his thoughts. "There's no -sense wasting the best years of this girl's life out here." With an -unholy smile she walked up the steps into the cruiser. - -"Get in the ship, Norman," Sade said, smiling like a puddle of oil. -"You've got a lot more to see before we waste the best years of your -life." - -Inside the cruiser, Dorothy sank into a pillowed chair and jerked a -small pocket mirror before her blue eyes. She seemed unable to decide -whether to laugh or cry. Sade, Keren and the patrolmen left for the -pilot room, leaving Swart on guard. Immediately, the green foliage fell -away from the windows as the ship climbed out of the jungle. - -There were tears in Dorothy's eyes but her newly red-bloomed lips were -tight. There was horror in this thing that had happened, years of her -life whisked away--she must be eighteen now, and she had the radiant -loveliness of clear sunshine. - -But Norman's thoughts dwelt little on the heart-quickening results of -her sudden change. He pondered the change itself. Again he calculated -the time she had been exposed to whatever grim atmosphere enveloped -Vulcan--she couldn't have been out there more than a few minutes. And -in those few minutes she had raced through two long years. - -"But why wasn't I affected?" - -Swart sat across the cabin with his pistol in his lap, hungrily nursing -a cigarette he had bummed from Keren. "You were in the ship," he -squinted his amusement through a smoke ring. "She was on the ground." -He grinned, eyeing Dorothy. "Shows up better on her too." - -So that was it--something in the dank soil. But what about the others? -He asked Swart, who only shook his head. "The boss'll tell you all -you need to know." And Norman knew there were many questions yet -unanswered. Johnny hadn't been one to fall into a trap laid by nature -alone. There was something going on here, more than he knew yet, and -something told him that he was on the right track--that in Vulcan's -strange power that dealt both beauty and decay, there was power here -that might save Johnny.... - -Finally Dorothy decided to laugh. "I don't know what happened," she -said, her voice no longer a child's, "but there seems nothing to do -about it--except to start running around with an older crowd when I get -back home." - -_If_ we get back home, Norman thought mirthlessly. If he knew Sade, he -and Dorothy were both in the same boat, a boat that would not be long -afloat. "I'm sorry, Dorothy," he said. "It's my fault you're here." - -"Wrong," she shook her blonde head. "I wanted to come with you." He -looked away, sensing for the first time that now, somehow, they were on -a different basis. Dorothy was no longer a child and her girlish hero -worship was apparently replaced by something more mature. - -He felt the cruiser nose down. They were landing again. - -Norman reached up and yanked a space suit from its wall hook, threw it -to Dorothy. "Put this on over your coveralls." As he jerked another -suit down for himself, he caught a glimpse of a jungle-walled clearing -with a peculiar shaped building at the end of a small landing field. - -As they slid to a quick stop, the port opened and Sade and his little -group appeared again. The fat Mercurian laughed as he saw Norman and -Dorothy buckling on the stiff garments. He made no move to stop them. -"Keren tells me you're very interested in our little world," he said. -"That tank along the wall there holds what you're looking for, but -first we must show you around." - -Encircled by the four patrolmen, Norman and Dorothy were hustled out -of the ship and across the landing field. The odd, light-house-like -building stood at the end of the field, a large windowless structure -with a conical tower on top. They were led to the building in silence, -ushered into a huge room and the door closed behind them. Venusian -mahogany paneled the tapestry covered walls and heavy carved furniture -was scattered about the room's creamy white floor. Sade opened a heavy -door at the side and motioned his prisoner-guests in. - -"I haven't time to talk now," he said. "Here's something to entertain -you until I return." He flicked a button outside the door, then closed -the door, leaving them alone in the small room. - - * * * * * - -Norman glanced at Dorothy, then turned to examine the place as he took -off his helmet. The room was small, dark paneled and windowless like -the one outside. A furry _zhak_-skin rug covered the black floor. He -started to speak, but a panel at the end of the room suddenly glowed -with the transparent clearness of a window. A television screen--what -was Sade up to! - -Then Norman sucked in his breath through his teeth as Dorothy -clutched his arm. Not the withered creature of the hospital but the -tousle-headed guy he'd grown up with--Johnny's image appeared on the -screen. - -Johnny stood in what at first appeared to be a clearing in the jungle -but as he kicked at some invisible obstacle, Norman realized a wall of -glass separated him from the surrounding field outside. The scene was -sparkling clear, as if they were watching through a window Johnny's -futile efforts to scale the smooth wall. His path around the enclosure -proved it to be circular, about eight feet in diameter. Norman ground -his teeth. So Johnny _had_ been Sade's prisoner! - -Johnny took off one of his metal-soled shoes and started hammering the -fine glass as if something whipped him into a frantic effort to escape. -Dorothy silent beside him, Norman watched the black-haired boy rub his -eyes wearily as he pounded with the shoe. How had Sade gotten this -picture? What was his purpose in showing it now? The glass of Johnny's -prison must have been superbly invisible but soft for slowly he ground -a shallow niche at the base of the wall, a foothold. - -Norman felt like yelling a cheer but he whispered an oath as he -watched Johnny grind out a higher foothold. Trying to carve a niche -higher still, his fingers stained the glass red. Quickly the glass -was dripping with blood. "Look at his hands!" Dorothy whispered. In -Johnny's efforts to cling to the wall, the ground glass was eating away -the tips of his fingers. - -And Norman shuddered to see the gray change creeping over Johnny's -face. Before his eyes, Johnny's dark hair became streaked with gray -and his ashen face became furrowed with wrinkles. Horror-ridden years, -swiftly heaped upon him. - -Dorothy covered her face with her hands. But Norman couldn't tear his -eyes from the luminous screen. The film had been cut to speed it up. -Johnny had hacked five slits in the glass now. His fingers and thumbs -were ragged stumps as he hung on the splintered glass, ten feet up the -blood-smeared wall. And in his terrible fascination, Norman saw that -Johnny's hands healed almost as fast as they were torn. As the dry -flesh of age withered his face, as he sacrificed his hands in a mad -struggle to escape the invisible terror in Vulcan's sunlight. - -Norman slammed his fists against the locked door. "Sade! You scum of -the universe!" But there was no answer as his eyes were drawn back -to the screen to see Johnny's fingerless paws grasp the rim of his -prison. A wrinkled, animal-like thing, eyes yellowed and wild, he drew -up his gnarled legs and fell over the glass wall into the gravel on the -other side. Half crawling, half running, he disappeared quickly into -the trees. - -As though a prolonged roar of sound had suddenly ceased, the panel -darkened, leaving only Dorothy's muffled sobs. - -But in Norman's brain was a numb hate that froze his reason. He didn't -hear the door open behind him. - -"Interesting, wasn't it?" It was Sade's voice. "But in a moment an even -more interesting experiment will take place in my laboratory." - -Norman turned slowly. Swart and the two patrolmen stood with the fat -man at the door. Norman took one quick step forward. His right hand -shot out. His fingers sank like spikes into the flabby skin of Sade's -throat. Another split second and Norman's fingers would have met behind -the Mercurian's windpipe and ripped it out, but in that split second -the patrolmen were on him. Then he was on the floor, fighting silently -in the blackness of his fury. A heavy boot caught him behind the left -ear and the blackness engulfed him completely. - - - III - -Battered and bruised, he found himself on his feet when he came to. -Sade stood in the door, his good hand fingering the blue welts on his -throat. His shirt was in shreds, exposing the white blob of flesh that -was his body and the helpless sausage-end stump that was his right arm. - -"If I could get my hands on you--" Norman whispered. - -"You won't again," Sade said hoarsely. "You're in my hands now. And -within the hour I shall have _two_ of them. With them I shall keep you -alive forever while you die a thousand deaths. I hold the key to life -and death, on Vulcan...." He whirled again and left, followed by his -henchmen and the door locked again behind them. - -The silky _zhak_-skin rug was worn with Norman's pacing when he heard -the key click in the lock again. The door opened to Keren Vaun. Ghostly -beautiful against the soft light outside, her starry loveliness meant -nothing to Norman. He sprang to the door and covered her scarlet lips -with one hand, closed the door quickly. "Tell me how to get to Sade," -he demanded, "or I'll wring your neck right here!" - -Keren remained rigid until he loosened his grasp. Then: "Shut up," she -whispered. "I came to help you escape." She didn't look at Dorothy. "I -came to help you on one condition. That you take me with you--alone." - -Norman hesitated three heart beats. "Let's go," he said. He heard -Dorothy gasp behind him but he didn't even look back as Keren opened -the door, finger to her lips, and led him out. - -Locking the door behind her, she led him down a dim, white-floored -corridor. Norman walked carefully, the baggy suit rustling as he moved. -Keren halted before a door at the side of the passage. Glancing up and -down the vacant hall, she opened the door quickly and went in. Norman -followed. - -The room was bare with another closed door on the other side. "You -don't need that space suit," Keren ordered. "Take it off." Norman -peeled the suit off obediently. It was no time for questions. "When I -jabbed you with that hypo before Sade found us, it immunized you. It's -a vaccination Sade discovered; we're all protected here." - -As Norman marveled at this strange woman, understanding now that fact -of his own salvation from the powers of Vulcan, she motioned toward -the door opposite the one through which they had entered the room. -"Sade's--John Gordon's cruiser is outside where we left it, about a -hundred yards from this door. It's unguarded but there's a guard in -the tower. He'll shoot when he sees you so you must get to the ship -quickly. The cruiser's guns are loaded. If you make it, take off and -blast this building. I'll run for the woods." Keren's heavy-lashed eyes -met his. "When they are dead, Vulcan will be ours." - -Norman smiled. "What if I don't come back? What if I pull out and radio -Earth for help?" - -Keren returned his smile, her eyes like a moonless night. "If you don't -come back, I'll kill the Earth girl inside." She threw back her head, -hair swirling at her pale throat like the flow of black oil. "Now kiss -me--and go." - -It was a choice; Keren's life or Dorothy's. If he got the ship and -Keren ran for the woods, his guns would have to find _her_ before they -turned on the house. Then he could bargain with Sade by radio. "I'll -owe you a thousand kisses," he said, opened the door, and darted out -into the sunlight. Then it was raining red heat as liquid fire spurted -around his pounding legs. - -A bare twenty yards ahead, the cruiser waited, glinting silver in the -sun. His pants leg caught fire and he could feel its blistering heat, -fanned by the wind, as he streaked across the gravel. - -Then he saw it too late. A sheen of crimson in the air. Streaks of -red, painted on nothing. _Johnny's blood!_ Flame from the guns behind -him sizzled on the invisible glass as Norman, unable to check the -piston power of his legs, crashed into the invisible wall of what had -been Johnny's prison. His forehead hit the glass with a hollow ring. -Clutching the wall with both hands, he slid down to the gravel and into -darkness for his second failure that afternoon. - -Roughly, they dragged him back to the house. But he wasn't out. Through -the searing pain in his head he had fought back to consciousness as -the patrolmen touched him. His mind limped through the pain, trying to -figure out what to do now as they dragged him into the big front room -and dropped him on the floor. - -"Imbeciles! Careless fools!" - -The voice opened Norman's eyes, banished the throbbing in his head as -he struggled to his feet. But the two patrolmen locked his arms behind -him. - -"How did he get out!" The fat man glared from Norman to the patrolmen. -Swart stood beside him. - -"There were only two keys to that room," Swart suggested. - -Sade's florid face paled, then his button eyes flickered with the cold -cruelty of a wild animal. "Find Keren," he said softly. "Bring her to -my laboratory." - -Rick's eyes showed helpless fury as his arms tightened in the -patrolmen's grasp. "Keren had nothing to do with it," he said. "I -picked the lock." - -Sade reached out and slapped his face repeatedly with his open palm. -Hands clamped behind him, Norman took it, barely feeling the stinging -blows, their impact light under the impact of what he saw. - -"Yes! It's real!" Sade halted his slapping and, laughing like a fiend, -rolled up his sleeves. He held his hands up close before Norman's eyes. -Norman shuddered, staring at Sade's right hand. Slightly smaller, -ghastly white but firm, where the stump of Sade's right arm had been -was now flesh. Blood coursed through the bulging veins, a pale hand -extended pudgy fingers. - - * * * * * - -Sade howled with laughter as Norman drew back from the thing as from a -snake. "It's real!" Sade shouted, gleefully. "Flesh and blood! I have -two hands now!" Exultantly, he held his clenched fists before Norman's -white face. "In these hands I shall hold the pulse of the universe, -to let it throb or halt at my will. I shall be neither king nor -dictator--I shall be a god! The power of life and death in the universe -is mine!" - -Lifting his gaze from the hands, Norman met the fat man's eyes coldly. -"How'd you do this, Sade?" - -Sade's laughter dwindled to a greasy smile. "After seeing what the -power of Vulcan did to your friend, perhaps it is fitting that you -should see this power in reverse." He nodded at the patrolmen. "Bring -him along." - -In an arm-lock on both sides, Norman was dragged down the same corridor -where he had followed Keren in his futile attempt to escape. They -halted at a door at its far end. Sade opened the door and Norman was -shoved in. - -The place was white-walled and bare, like a hospital room but without -the usual furniture. On a four-legged platform in the center of -the room lay a large porcelain cylinder, like a chamber used for -sterilizing surgical instruments, but the surface of the cylinder was -smooth, without gadgets, only a heavily bolted cap at one end. Sade -patted the cylinder as a sculptor might admire the work of his chisel. -"This holds what John Gordon sought and what you seek now to save his -life," he smirked. "This container holds fluid from Vulcan's Fountains -of Youth!" - -Standing before the cylinder, Norman's mind's eye searched the -situation for some chance of escape. Here was what he had come so far -to obtain and he was powerless to take it. But perhaps it wasn't time; -there was much he needed to know. - -"Vulcan's power is a radiation," Sade said, "but not from the Sun. It's -a liquid under the ground, like Earthian oil--a radioactive element -such as science has only found traces of in the cosmic rays. More -powerful than radium, it exudes an exciter to growth--a living force." - -"How'd you discover it without being affected by it?" Norman asked. - -"Your friend Gordon was the guinea pig," the Mercurian said. Norman -kept still. "After we took him and his cruiser when he entered the -Protection Zone, we came here immediately. Working in space suits -until my technicians on Mercury discovered an immunization, we brought -Vulcan's strange liquid in like an oil gusher. The effect of the pure -liquid is instantaneous; its effects on the surface of the ground -outside are greatly diluted. While we built this house round the well, -we watched Vulcan's milder effects on your friend in the glass cage." - -Norman's jaw paled, but he kept his head. "How did Johnny get off the -planet after he escaped?" - -"Fool!" Sade laughed. "He didn't escape. We could stay and watch him -every minute--that's why we left the automatic camera to record his -reactions. He did contrive to get out of the cage but when we found -him in the jungle we simply took him off the planet and dropped him in -space in a life boat where he'd be picked up." Sade laughed again. "Did -you think I didn't know he built two ships with counteractives! John -Gordon's return was merely a message to you--to come here in that other -ship. Now we have the only counteractives in existence. Vulcan is an -utterly impregnable fortress. No army in the universe can interrupt my -plans." - -Norman realized that everything Sade said was true. No power could -approach Vulcan without a counteractive. "What are your plans, Sade?" - -The fat man held up his new right arm, his small eyes glowing. "My -technicians obtained for me the hand-bud of an unborn child. It was -embedded in the stump of my right arm." He stared at his hand stretched -its white fingers, his thick lips smiling. "With but a brief exposure -of my arm to a spray of Vulcan's liquid in full strength, I _grew_ the -hand of a thirty-year-old man!" He banged the cylinder with his fist. -"What would happen if I sprayed this life-death fluid in a city street! -It can be placed in a shell and fired from a gun. I have here a _Force_ -that can cause the most horrible of wounds--quick decay. It can utterly -destroy or immediately heal. How I use this power depends upon how -quickly the governments of the universe submit to my wishes in a new -stellar order." - -But Norman had a question stronger than his hopelessness at what he'd -just heard. "Could this liquid help John Gordon now?" - -Instead of replying, Sade smiled. He stepped over to one of the -room's blank walls and pressed a small button. A wide panel slid back -revealing several tiers of wire cages containing monkeys, rabbits, -and white rats. Sade scooped a plump slick rat out of its cage and -and closed the panel again. Walking back to the cylinder, he slapped -the helpless creature's head against his wrist and stunned it. Then, -drawing a flat shelf from the cylinder's platform, he dropped the -unconscious rat on it and threw the heavy bolts on the cylinder's cap. - - * * * * * - -Inside the thick-walled container, Norman discovered, were neatly -coiled tubes hanging on pegs. Sade grabbed one of the small hoses, -pulled it out and squeezed a button on the little nozzle. A fine, -blood-red spray hissed from the nozzle and he directed the red mist -upon the limp body of the white rat. The damp liquid had barely touched -the rat's fur when instantly its small face wrinkled, its fur grew -coarse and thin and it assumed the appearance of a very old animal. - -Still smiling, Sade glanced at Norman's troubled gaze, then shut off -the hose, stuck it back in the cylinder and drew out another. The spray -that dampened the rat this time was light pink. The rat's coarse coat -thickened, its sides swelled before Norman's eyes and youth was born -anew in the little animal's very brain as it leaped to its feet and -scurried around the shelf with all the energy of fresh strength. - -"It's like many poisons," Sade said. "Full strength, its effect is -death. Greatly diluted--with mere water--its miracles make it an elixir -supreme...." - -The door opened to Keren, followed by Dorothy and Swart. Keren's poise -little hinted she'd plotted Sade's death less than an hour ago. Dorothy -had removed her space suit; her eyes were red from crying. Keren took a -cigarette from her loose blouse. "You sent for me, Sade?" - -The Mercurian's eyes were like a rattlesnake's as he held out his two -hands for her to see. "I have these now," he said softly. "Soon I shall -have every world at my command. Will you marry me?" - -The dark-haired woman lit her cigarette calmly, her hand steady. "Yes," -she answered simply. - -Sade laughed. "You say yes now because your life is at stake--because -you tried to aid the Earthman. But for that you won't lose your life, -Keren. You will lose something you value more than your life, Keren. -You will lose--your beauty. Get a rope, Swart." - -Keren flicked her cigarette into Sade's face. Quick as a whip, her hand -entered the throat of her blouse. Norman saw the glint of naked metal -flash in an arc toward Sade's chest. Dorothy gasped. - -[Illustration: _Keren whirled and lunged at the screaming Mercurian._] - -The silver dagger sank into Sade's chest just over his heart. The fat -man staggered back. But before he could fall, Swart acted, as quick as -a ferret, clipped Keren's chin, and as she crumpled silently to the -floor, he caught the gasping Mercurian and eased him down. - -From Sade's chest blood spurted higher than the dagger's hilt as Swart -yanked one of the hoses from the cylinder and directed its crimson -spray on Sade's wound. Slowly, Swart drew out the dagger's sticky blade -in the spray. When the dagger was out of Sade's chest there was no -visible sign of a wound. Sade opened his eyes and looked up at them. - -"What shall I do with her?" Swart said. - -Sade got to his feet. He stood there, panting a moment. "The rope," he -said. Swart pushed a wall button, extracted a length of cord from a -panel compartment and returned. "Tie her to the cylinder," Sade hissed, -"and tie the nozzle of the hose in her hair." - -In a moment, the unconscious Keren was hanging by her backward-bent -arms from the cylinder. The cord was tight from her wrists, around -the cylinder and under to her slim ankles. In her hair was fixed the -slowly oozing hose. A rivulet of red trickled down her smooth cheek. - -"What about these two?" Swart said, motioning toward Norman and Dorothy. - -"While we go to repair the new counteractive ship which Mr. Norman so -kindly brought us," Sade said, "we can leave him and his girl in the -glass cage." - -As they were marched across the field, Norman remembered Johnny's -face on the hospital pillow--tragic, old. Now, in the green beauty of -this time-thundering world, this same fate reached for them as it was -caressing Keren's cheek in the white-walled room in the tower. Norman -put his arm around Dorothy's shoulder. - -She drew away. "You deserted me for Keren once. Worry about her now, -not me." - -Swart grinned. "You can argue that out while you grow old together," he -said. The patrolman who had come out with them picked up a metal ladder -beside the invisible wall and leaned it against the rim of the glass. -Then, smiling, he walked back and grabbed the collar of Dorothy's -coveralls. "We sealed up the chinks to keep 'em from pulling the same -trick Gordon did but hadn't we better strip 'em to make sure?" - -Norman's fists tightened but he felt the barrel of Swart's pistol dig -into his side. Then, on a quick thought, he drew a half-empty pack -of cigarettes from his pocket. "Leave her alone, Swart. We haven't -anything to escape with. Take these cigarettes for our clothes." - -The dark man's hand snatched them greedily. "I don't know why I don't -take both." But he stepped away from the ladder and waved his pistol at -them. "All right. Get in there. In ten seconds I'm shooting." - - * * * * * - -Norman followed Dorothy up the rungs of the ladder, climbed around her -and--as Swart raised his gun menacingly--hung on the rim of the glass -and dropped the twenty feet to the gravel inside their prison. Dorothy -climbed over and dropped into his waiting arms. - -As the patrolman took the ladder down, Sade and the other red-uniformed -gorilla left the house and walked toward them across the field. They -came up and halted before the glass, staring in at them and laughing. -Dorothy stood beside Norman and he took her hand tightly. - -"When they leave we'll start to work," he whispered. "We've got to get -you out of here quick." - -"Why only me?" - -He told her about Keren's hypodermic work. "But first you've got to -believe me," he said. "I didn't desert you when I left with Keren. It -was our only chance to escape. I was coming back for you. You've got -to believe me." He turned and took her shoulders in his hands, looking -into her blue eyes. - -She bit her lips, staring at him. Then, "I don't want to believe -anything else." - -Norman squeezed her shoulders, then glanced up to see Sade and his men -walking toward the cruiser, leaving the house deserted except for Keren -chained to a doom of unspeakable horror inside. The cruiser leaped from -the field and floated past them over the jungle. Eying the high rim -of the glass wall, Norman waited until the ship disappeared over the -horizon, then backed against the glass quickly and held out his hand. - -"Quick!" he told Dorothy. "Stand on my shoulders and try jumping!" - -Dorothy placed one small foot into his hand and swung up to his -shoulders. Norman raised to his tiptoes--every inch counted. "Jump! -High!" - -Her fingertips missed the rim of the glass two full feet and clawing -the slick surface, she slid back down into Norman's arms. "Try again! -We've got to get you out of here!" - -Again and again she placed her foot in Norman's hand, swung up, leaped -high--and fell back again, her forehead bruised from bumping the glass, -her fingernails broken. - -"You'll never make it," Norman said wearily. "We've got to think of -something else." Hammering his fist into his palm, he started pacing -the wall. Suddenly he dropped to his knees and started clawing the -gravel. But he hadn't dug six inches when he scraped against concrete. -Several different holes proved the ring of glass rested on what had -been a refueling platform. "Sade would have thought of that." - -He started pacing the wall again, running his hand around the smooth -glass. There _had_ to be a way out! The glass had been the pilot-room -shell of a ship, its tapering nose sliced off. He thought of trying to -rock it back and forth to turn it over. But the glass weighed tons. - -He turned and stared at Dorothy helplessly. She had scratched her -finger in one of her falls. Proving again that only her body had grown, -she immediately stuck her finger in her mouth upon the discovery of the -scratch. Norman's brain seethed. He couldn't let this girl die here. - -Now, he realized, he faced the same problem that had been Johnny's. And -he knew what withering shadow would claim Dorothy's lips if he failed. -Vulcan was a hell of priceless, fleeing moments; each heartbeat a drum -sounding a sickening doom of decay. Each tick of his watch was the -footfall of death one step closer. The invisible terror that hovered -over Vulcan was beyond the grasp of imagination--but it was real! As -real as Keren's pale face under that trickle of red horror, as real as -Dorothy's fresh loveliness which would soon be eaten away--unless he -could get her away from here. - -Neither he nor Dorothy had any metal with which he might attempt -Johnny's mad feat. Standing there, looking about the enclosure, -Norman's heart beat quicker with each second as each second took its -unseen toll upon the girl who was his responsibility. Looking at her -golden hair glinting in the sunlight, Norman suddenly realized she was -more than a responsibility.... Quickly he turned away. - - - IV - -The glass was thick, perfectly clear. Only its glimmer in the sun said -they were imprisoned. Beyond the field, the ever dying and growing -jungle undulated like a green sea. Just outside the glass, the ladder -lay on the gravel where the patrolman had dropped it--within arm's -reach and it might as well have been light years away. - -"Look!" Dorothy cried. "The scratch on my finger's already healed." -She held up her finger and there was no mark on it. Vulcan's power -was working, building a life then to tear it down. Each soul-wringing -second created beauty, clear blue-eyed, honey-haired beauty--to -transform it as swiftly into ugliness.... - -It was the first time in Norman's eventful life that he had ever stared -defeat in the face. He had met death before and he had been in some -pretty tight spots but always there had been some way out. Not here. -There was no possible way to climb a twenty-foot wall of perpendicular -oil-slick glass. - -"I'm afraid I've failed you, Dorothy," he said. In his mind now was -only the thought of something he must _not_ do. He couldn't allow her -to go through the horror he had seen on Johnny's gray face. After two -hours, when he saw the first gray hair--he looked down at his hands. -They were his only weapons against a longer torture. Could he kill -Dorothy with his own hands...? - -"Well," Dorothy broke in on his thoughts. "Sade wins; and when we go, -the whole universe is next." Her voice was a full octave lower than -Norman had first heard it when she appeared at his galley door. - -Norman walked over and stood before her. "Whatever happens," he said, -"I want you to know this--that I've fallen in love with you. You're the -bravest woman I've ever known and the most beautiful. That combination -usually doesn't go together." - -She looked up at him with very blue and serious eyes. "I've been in -love with you for a long time," she said. "Ever since I first saw your -picture in the paper. That's why I came with you." - -Her words were cut off by Norman's lips. Then quickly he left her and -walked back to the glass, staring out at the wind-whipped jungle. Why -wait? Why go through this torture any longer? Get it over with now! - -"Gods of the universe, forgive me," he whispered and turned to take her -throat in his hands. - -Light flashed across his face. It was Dorothy's mirror. She held -it, smoothing her sun-burnished hair. A thought burst into his -consciousness like a butterfly from a cocoon. - -He jumped over and snatched the mirror from her hand, ripped his watch -from his wrist and flipped off the crystal with his thumbnail, letting -the watch drop to the ground. - -"What're you doing!" - -He didn't bother to answer. His pulse was liquid fire as he held the -watch crystal close to the glass wall with one hand and focused the -rays of the sun into it with the mirror. A thin curl of smoke rose from -the jungle across the field. Then where the smoke had been an orange -flame licked up from the dry grass. He dropped the mirror and the watch -crystal and grabbed Dorothy close to him in the center of their prison, -holding her tightly. - -"Why! Why!" - -"You'll see!" - - * * * * * - -Lashed by the wind, the fire spread like a flood. A blast of smoke -engulfed the glass obscuring their view with its swirling whiteness. -Then bits of flaming ashes dotted the smoke as the flames found new -fuel in the rotted trees. Standing there, holding Dorothy in his arms, -Norman saw the glass around them slowly darken. Quickly, as the wind -brought the increasing heat upon them, the glass turned black and all -he could see was the wild smoke rolling across the hole at the top -of their stifling cage. He felt Dorothy coughing. Heat swam in the -blackness about them. - -Then almost as suddenly as it had begun, the wind swept the smoke away -and Norman tore himself away from Dorothy and sprang to the glass wall. -Without waiting till the glass lightened, he ran his hand across its -blistering surface. When the thermal quality of the glass permitted -the passage of light and the sight of the smoldering forest across the -field, Norman was half way up the slick side, climbing like a ladder -the bulging ridges that encircled the glass at its invisible seams. - -As Dorothy stared at him, unbelieving, he vaulted over the rim and -jolted with stinging feet to the hot gravel outside. The metal ladder -was like a live coal in his hands but he barely felt it as he threw it -against the wall and ran up it like a squirrel. Sitting on the cooling -rim, he drew the ladder up after him and dropped it inside for Dorothy. - -Soon they were streaking across the steaming gravel toward the house, -Dorothy's hair streaming in the smoky wind. - -Norman burst into the big front room with Dorothy behind him. Their -running feet were loud in the silent house as they sped down the -corridor, Norman dreading what he would find tied to the cylinder where -they had left Keren. "You don't want to see this," he said, halting at -the closed door. "Try these other doors and find a gun. Sade may be -back any moment!" - -Dorothy obediently turned away as he went in and the sight that met his -eyes was to figure in many a future nightmare. Half way between the -door and the cylinder, Keren lay on the floor, more like some hideous -reptile than a human being, staring up at him, her eyes two black -holes, hate alive in them, the only life in what was left of her face. - -Norman stepped over and picked her up, his fingers recoiling from -the touch of leathern skin and bone. Her luxurious hair had vanished -leaving a skull, cracked skin tight across her cheek bones. The rope -that had held her to the cylinder had slipped from her shrunken wrists -and how she had crawled this far, Norman couldn't tell. - -He carried her to the cylinder, opened the heavy cap and drew out -the small hose that Sade had used to restore to youth the white rat. -Quickly, he sprayed the pink liquid upon her face and body--a treatment -that was to rewrite all of medical science. Her cheeks swelled again -to the form of a living face and like a trick of superimposed motion -picture work, before his eyes Keren's skeletal structure became covered -again with firm, rounded flesh, and on her head wispy black threads -appeared and extended again into a silken sable mass. - -To save the spark of life that remained with Johnny, Norman knew he had -to get this material back to Earth now; which meant a finish fight for -a space ship. "Are you strong enough now? We've got to ambush Sade." - -It was an effort for Keren to reorganize her forgotten coordinations -which enabled her to speak. Her lips moved soundlessly as he carried -her to the door and down the passage. He explained quickly how he and -Dorothy had escaped. - -"There are guns in the tower," she managed to whisper as they entered -the front room. - -Dorothy stood at the door with two jet rifles, peering out at the still -deserted field. "I found these in their bedroom," she said, handing -Norman one of the guns. "Is she all right? I thought--" - -Norman told her what he had done to revive Keren. "But here's what we -do," he said, lowering Keren to a sofa. "Sade will see the empty cage -and know there's something wrong when he comes in to land. He will -probably attack the house. We've got to get back in the cage. Keren can -vaccinate you," he nodded to Dorothy, allaying her hesitation. "When -they land, I'll jump out and take care of as many as I can. Keren can -get the rest from the tower." - -"There's a glass cutter in the store room," Keren said, nodding her -approval of the plan. Her cheeks were white as paper but she got up and -walked unsteadily from the room. - -"The liquid brought her back from the grave," Norman whispered to -Dorothy, watching Keren walk up the hall. - - * * * * * - -Keren returned immediately, and gave Norman the glass-cutter, which was -an instrument shaped like a small riveting hammer. "One promise," she -asked. "Sade's mine. I'll be in the tower. You've got to save him for -me." - -Keren took her hypodermic from her pocket and, at Norman's smile, -Dorothy permitted the needle to enter her arm. "All right. Let's go." - -With the cutter in one hand and the rifle in the other, Norman left the -house again with Dorothy running beside him. - -At the glass cage again, it was short work to cut a narrow door at -the base of the smooth wall. With an eye on the horizon, Norman -quickly covered the cutter with gravel, then motioned Dorothy into the -invisible enclosure that had been their prison and so nearly their -mausoleum. "We'll play dead," he explained, stretching out on the -gravel with the two rifles hidden under him. Dorothy lay down beside -him. "When they leave the ship and come over here, I'll jump out. You -stay inside in case they get a chance to shoot back." - -Suddenly the air hummed with the flow of rockets. "Here they are!" But -the sound told Norman that his job was doubled in danger. There were -two ships now, the other, his own. They'd repaired it. - -Rockets idling, they hovered over the field and slowly settled. Sade's -group was now split in two parties--he couldn't surprise them both.... - -"Don't move!" Norman whispered, feeling Dorothy's soft hair against his -cheek. His fingers tightened on the guns under his body. His pulse was -loud in his ears. If they suspected something? But it was too late for -worry now. He heard footsteps on the gravel as the sound of the rockets -sputtered and died away. - - * * * * * - -The next second was a lifetime. Then suddenly he was on his feet. He -whirled, ducked out through the hole in the glass. The guns in his -hands were spitting their red streams, before his eyes found the men -before him, and he played the guns like two garden hoses, spraying -death. The two patrolmen fell, charred and black. But the two groups -had ruined his ambush. Swart sprang aside, behind the glass wall as the -flame streaked past him. Norman saw Sade standing in the door of the -ship, staring at the wild scene. The door was slammed shut as Norman's -guns splattered the hull with fire. Then the fight was between him and -Swart alone. - -On the opposite sides of the ring of glass, Dorothy standing there -horrified between them, it was one of the strangest situations in -Norman's experience. The glass was impervious to jet fire. Dorothy was -perfectly safe. But as Norman moved around the wall to get a shot at -Swart, the dark little man also moved, keeping the arc of glass between -them. It couldn't continue. A sudden sheet of flame rushed past one -side of the glass, Sade firing from the ship. Swart was not slow to -take advantage of the opportunity. Quickly he slid around the wall to -corner Norman against Sade's fire. - -Norman stood waiting, rifles poised to blast Swart's gun barrel as it -nosed past the curve of glass. But Swart was no fool. He was playing -for time. Norman heard the throbbing as Sade started his rockets. Sade -was moving the ship to trap him between their guns. - -Norman started to jump back through the hole in the glass. But that -would be suicide; while Swart guarded the door, Sade could pick them -off from above in the ship. Then an idea whispered in Norman's mind. -If he could lure Swart from the protection of the glass into Keren's -sights in the the tower--if he could trust Keren--but there was nothing -else to do. He ducked into the enclosure beside Dorothy. - -Swart laughed. Norman could hear it inside the glass. Quickly, Swart -stepped to the edge of the hole, his pistol covering their exit, -smiling at them through the wall. "You ain't very bright, Norman." It -was the last breath that ever passed his lips, for a long, thin line of -flame suddenly stretched from the tower to the small of his back. Swart -dropped without a sound, surprise on his dead face. - -But Sade's ship was already in the air. - -"He'll come and strafe us!" Norman shouted to Dorothy above the roar of -the rockets. He took her hand, dragged her out of the cage past Swart's -body. They had to get to the cruiser; their only hope was a fight with -Sade in the air. But the sound of Sade's rockets stopped Norman in his -tracks as he started to dash for the cruiser. Sade's ship was skimming -the field, twenty feet off the ground, his rockets sputtering like a -gasoline engine with a broken piston. - -The ship was headed directly toward the house, apparently unable to -rise. Then Norman saw what had happened. Keren's rifle had hit the -rise rocket tube. The heavily repaired solder work had burned through. -Unable to gain altitude, the ship hurtled into the house like a freight -plane gone wild. The plastic walls ripped like tinfoil as the ship's -heavy nose plowed into the building just below the tower. - -There was no explosion. The impact killed the rockets. Dust plumed -up like a geyser, disappeared swiftly in the wind, leaving the ship -hanging there tail out, stuck in the building like an arrow. - -Norman and Dorothy were at the door before the debris stopped falling. -The front room was choked with dust and bits of torn plastic rained -from the ceiling as they ran down the shadowy corridor. The door -leading to the tower stairs hung on its hinges, admitting a beam of -sunlight from the demolished upper story. They ran up the broken -stairs, swaying precariously. The cracked hull of the ship lay in the -debris of what remained of the tower. The wall had been sheared off -level with the floor on one side and swaying out from the foundation -below a misty rainbow sparkled its colors in the sunlight, hissing -softly as the red fluid escaped from a pipe hidden in the wreckage. -Sade's well around which the house was built had split in the crash. - -Leaving Dorothy at the top of the stairs, Norman climbed over -the chunks of plastic into the tower room. Then he realized his -foolhardiness. Too late. A chill tingled the back of his neck as he saw -the ship's port hanging open. - -He heard Dorothy's warning cry behind him as he turned around slowly. - -Sade's grimy bulk stood beside a chunk of plastic at the edge of the -littered floor. The sunlight glistened on the pistol in his hand, as it -squirted a stream of red flame upon the barrel of Norman's rifle. The -gun dropped from Norman's blistered fingers. - -"You thought you could escape what Vulcan and I can do," Sade said. -"None can escape us, for Vulcan and I control the universe from now -on." He pointed his pistol to the floor at Norman's feet and pulled the -trigger. Norman stepped back as the flame licked up around his shoes. -"Keep walking until you fall into that rainbow down there!" - -"Wait, Sade!" Norman stepped back again as the line of fire followed -him. "There's no time for this. That pipe's going to burst wide open -any moment!" He shifted from one foot to another, the soles of his -shoes burning. - -"Jump," Sade said quietly. He raised the gun higher. - - * * * * * - -Norman retreated another step. Two feet lay between him and the edge -of the sheared wall, the end of the floor, and then the misty lethal -colors hissing ten feet below. - -Dorothy scrambled over the plastic wreckage and threw herself at Sade, -but the flat of his palm met her face and hurled her aside. The line of -fire moved to Norman's toes again, and he stepped back his last step. -Like a cobra wavering before its prey, the flame swept back and forth -across the floor, inches from Norman's toes, scorching the floor under -his feet. He glanced down at the crimson mist, leaping like a fountain -under the splinters of plastic jutting out over it. Then he realized -that fate had given him his chance--for a price. - -He had come to Vulcan to find something to save Johnny's life. In -the tank in the cruiser out on the field was the fluid that could do -that. On the broken wall below him, just over the fountain of death, a -piece of the wreckage jutted outward two feet--he could leap to that, -swing clear of the mist and reach the ship and be free. He could save -Johnny--by leaving Dorothy behind. - -There could be no compromise. He had no doubt that Sade would kill her -the instant he realized the trick. - -Norman glanced back into Sade's triumphant smile. Suddenly he returned -the smile and laughed out loud. "When'd you take your last vaccination, -Sade!" he laughed. "Did you know your hair had turned white?" - -Sade held his smile as steady as his gun. "I'm not leaving you and look -for a mirror," he said. "No tricks will save you this time. Those shots -are good for 24 hours." - -"Not with all this raw stuff in the air," Norman laughed. "Look how -your hands have withered." - -"What matter," Sade said, "my Fountain of Youth can restore me again." -But his smile loosened, and quick as light his glance dropped to his -hands. Norman's knees straightened like steel springs. The length of -flame seared his hip as he sprang. Then his fist piled into Sade's -heavy jaw. - -The gun flew out and down into the mist. Sade hit the floor rolling and -struggled to his feet as Norman was on him like a hurricane. He crossed -jabs into his face with both fists then stepped back and swung a long -arc that crushed the big man's nose. Sade stumbled backward, screamed, -arms flailing the air wildly, and fell backward off the edge of the -floor. - -Norman stepped over and looked down. Deep in the eery rainbow mist -that swirled around him, Sade scrambled to his feet and looked around -frantically, confused with the colors. His hair turned snow white, his -round cheeks tightened across the bones of his face and his big belly -vanished in his baggy clothes. He held his hands up before his face -and forgot Norman to stare at his skeleton-like fingers. Then, his -hands still raised before his eyes, he sank to the ground as his legs -collapsed. The shoes fell off his bony feet as he lay there writhing. - -Norman shook his head, rubbed his eyes. Sade wasn't writhing. It was -the wind rustling his clothes. - -Norman found Dorothy's sunlit head pressed against his shoulder as -she cried like a baby. He touched her hair gently, then turned to the -wreckage of the tower. - -A moment's search in the debris disclosed Keren's broken form. He -lifted her dead weight in his arms and with Dorothy behind him went -quickly down the stairs. In the front room, he laid Keren on the sofa -and, risking one moment more, jerked a tapestry from the wall and -gently covered her body. Then they ran out of the house and across the -field to the cruiser. - -As he helped Dorothy through the port he heard a cyclone roar from the -house. He shoved Dorothy in, jumped in after her and slammed the door. -Through the glass, they watched the house fly to pieces like a bursting -bomb as a giant flower of red spouted high over the field. Then, where -the house had been, stood a wavering red column, feet thick, towering -above the green jungle. It sprayed down upon the cruiser like a scarlet -rain. - -They stared at the vivid scene until the red film covered the cabin -windows. Then Norman thumped the tank around the cabin wall, heard -its dull fullness, and walked into the pilot room and sat down at -the controls. "There's plenty in the tank for Johnny," he said, "and -there's plenty on Vulcan for the Universe." - -"What shall we name it?" Dorothy said. - -As they soared away from the planet and their increasing speed washed -the red film from the glass. Norman looked at the dwindling green -globe that was Vulcan and lived again, swiftly, all that had happened -there. And strangely, now that it was over, one phrase whispered in his -mind. _I'll owe you a thousand kisses_.... - -"Let's name it 'Kerine,'" he said. "We owe her more than we can ever -repay." - - * * * * * - -The word "Kerine" was being shouted in every street and across every -backyard fence in the universe two days later and it was a tense moment -outside a closed white door in a hospital in New York City. Although -the surgery was on the fifteenth floor, Norman and Dorothy could -hear the clamor in the street below as thousands halted traffic for -blocks around and the policemen stood by with folded arms, smiling. -Downstairs, the lobby was packed with photographers and reporters, -waiting. - -As the white door opened, Norman and Dorothy jumped to their feet. -Norman could hear his heart thumping above the noise from the street as -he looked down at the sheet-covered stretcher the nurses rolled out the -door. As the stretcher rolled into the hall, the face appeared and deep -within his pounding heart, Norman yelled his joy. Johnny's face was -pale and thin, as if recently recovered from a long illness, but it was -Johnny's face, his barber-shy black hair tousled on his forehead. - -"Hello, chum," Johnny said. "The doc told me all about it." Then he -glanced at Dorothy. "So that's her." - -"She's got exclusive rights to the story," Norman grinned. - -"I can't wait to get back in a full dress suit," Johnny said. "For the -wedding." - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Citadel of Death, by Carl Selwyn - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CITADEL OF DEATH *** - -***** This file should be named 63213.txt or 63213.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/2/1/63213/ - -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 print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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