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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75218 ***
+
+
+
+
+
+                        Secret of the EARTH STAR
+
+                                   By
+                             HENRY KUTTNER
+
+           [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
+                     Amazing Stories August 1942.
+         Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
+         the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
+
+       _The theft of the Earth Star blazed a trail of death to a weird
+       city under the Sahara._
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: The jewel glowed and death leaped from the gun]
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER I
+
+
+Despite the blazing heat of the hot Indian night, this air-conditioned
+room in the palace was cool and comfortable. It was a bit too luxurious
+for a business office; otherwise, it might have been any New York suite.
+Three men sat at a small glass-topped table, on which stood a Gladstone
+bag.
+
+They rose as two Indians entered, bowing respectfully to the Rajah. The
+latter was a small, weak-faced man with a straggling moustache and lips
+too large and red for his sallow face. He barely acknowledged the
+greetings, his gaze riveted on the leather bag.
+
+“You have the Earth Star?” he asked.
+
+“Yes,” said one of the three Europeans. He opened the bag, unlocked a
+metal case built into it, and withdrew a jewel-case. This he opened and
+placed flat on the table.
+
+The Rajah’s mouth went dry. He could not repress a little shiver. “The
+Earth Star ...” he whispered.
+
+On black velvet the great gem flamed. It was lens-shaped and supernally
+lovely, with rays of living light flaming out from its heart. The colors
+latent within it changed and shifted under the soft illumination. It was
+like a diamond—yet no diamond had ever possessed the wonder of the
+Earth Star.
+
+The Rajah’s secretary breathed deeply. “Carbon,” he murmured. “A
+tree-fern some million years ago—”
+
+One of the Europeans interrupted, though he did not look away from the
+jewel. “A little more than that, sir. It took unusual pressure to make
+the Earth Star. It came from the new cavern mines under the Atlantic,
+you know, when they were taking cores to test from immense depths. A
+tree-fern made the Earth Star—but that fern was somehow buried deeper
+than man has ever thought possible. It’s immensely harder than diamond,
+though it’s carbon, of course. And the only one in existence—”
+
+The Rajah said softly, “There is an Earth Star in the crown of your
+ruler.”
+
+A subdued smile went the rounds of the group. “So there is, and an
+excellent imitation, too. I repeat: you will be the owner of the only
+Earth Star in existence.”
+
+The Rajah placed his slim hand, glittering with invaluable jeweled
+rings, flat on the table-top. “Then it is a bargain. My secretary will
+give you a check.”
+
+Abruptly the moonlight was blotted out. The figure of a man seemed to
+rush out of the night, leaping in through the open window to land
+lightly on the deep carpet. And that window overlooked a sheer abyss,
+reaching down to the river gorge far below.
+
+The sudden movements of the Europeans, and the quick gesture of the
+Rajah’s secretary, were arrested at sight of an oddly shaped pistol in a
+gloved hand. The intruder stood motionless, one hand gripping a light
+metal ladder that extended up through the window and out of sight. He
+wore ordinary flying togs, but his face was hidden by a black silk mask.
+
+“Don’t move,” he said, in a low voice that was obviously disguised.
+“No—don’t do that!” The pistol jerked slightly; otherwise there was no
+indication that the trigger had been pulled. But one of the Europeans
+cursed softly as his arm dropped to his side, paralyzed.
+
+“A neurogun,” the masked man observed pleasantly. “It _can_ kill, you
+know.... I’ll thank you not to move. Now—” He hooked the flexible
+ladder across a chair and moved warily to the table. “The Earth Star,
+eh?”
+
+“Don’t be a fool,” the secretary said. “You can’t hope to sell that.
+It’s unique.”
+
+The intruder did not answer, but his quizzical gaze was amused. The
+tallest of the Europeans snarled, “Sell it? Jackass—haven’t you ever
+heard of the Merlin?”
+
+As he spoke, his foot moved slightly toward the chair to which the
+ladder was attached. He froze as the Merlin turned toward him.
+
+“You recognize me?”
+
+“I’ve heard of you.”
+
+“Good!” The Merlin’s voice was suddenly sharp. “Then listen! I have ways
+of finding out what I want to know. I discovered that certain powers
+ruling your country had decided to sell the Earth Star to our friend the
+Rajah. The price I don’t know, but it must be fabulous. If that money
+were to go to needed purposes, I’d not have come here tonight.”
+
+The tall European kicked the chair gently. The metal ladder slipped off,
+slid across the carpet, and vanished out the window. The Merlin
+apparently did not notice, though his retreat was now cut off.
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+He went on: “But the money is to be used for armaments. And you
+gentlemen, and those behind you, are trying to foment a new war. As for
+you—” He glanced at the Rajah. “You are a degenerate moron. _Don’t
+move!_ It’s probably the first time you’ve ever heard the truth, but
+you’re going to hear it now. You’re the wealthiest man in the Orient,
+and you inherited your fortune, as well as your powers. You won’t buy
+the Earth Star out of your own treasury, though. It’ll mean taxes for
+your people, who are starving already. Another reason why I’m here.”
+
+The Merlin glanced down. “This bit of carbon is causing trouble, I
+think. So I’ll take it along. The imitation that was made to replace it
+won’t interest the Rajah. So—”
+
+He slipped the jewel in his pocket and moved back toward the window. The
+others watched him narrowly. The Merlin apparently did not notice the
+absence of his metal ladder.
+
+The gun was still steady in one hand, but in the other he now held an
+object like a small flashlight. “You may be interested in knowing how I
+evaded your guards and alarms. I came in a gyroship.”
+
+“But—my motor-killing rays—” The Rajah’s eyes were wide.
+
+“They extend up only 300 feet. I hovered well above that point and came
+down a ladder. And here it is.”
+
+The ladder swung in from the darkness. The Merlin’s voice was amused as
+he slipped the “flashlight” into his flying suit.
+
+“A clever trick—but I have a very powerful magnet. I’ll leave you,
+gentlemen—”
+
+For an instant his attention was distracted as he put one foot on the
+window-sill. Simultaneously the tallest European acted. With a
+deep-voiced oath he sprang forward, seized the Merlin, and clamped one
+hand over the outlaw’s gun-wrist.
+
+“Hold him!” the secretary shrilled. He dived for an alarm buzzer. The
+other Europeans closed in.
+
+The Merlin fought in silence. His opponent was trying to drag him back
+into the room—and that would be fatal. The outlaw dropped his weapon
+and gripped the ladder, with both hands now.
+
+He pulled himself up, putting all his weight on his arms. Inevitably the
+European was lifted too. Overbalanced, the two went arcing into the
+night as clutching fingers missed their mark by a fraction.
+
+“Shoot!” the Rajah screamed. “Shoot him!”
+
+Guns blazed from the window. Dim in the moonlight two figures were
+struggling on a frail metal ladder, suspended above nothingness. A scrap
+of cloth went fluttering down.
+
+“His mask—”
+
+Out of the dark came a voice, sharp and clear.
+
+“_Martell!_”
+
+It rose in a scream. One of the figures went plunging down.
+
+The secretary was at the window, a flashlight in his hand. He focused
+the beam on the quarry, a man in flying togs who kept his face turned
+from the light. Now other rays shot out from the roof, bathing the
+Merlin in merciless brilliance. A shot cracked sharply.
+
+“They’ll get him,” the Rajah said. “I’ve sub-machine guns on the roof.”
+
+The Merlin’s hand lifted, fumbled over the ladder. And—suddenly—he was
+gone! Ladder and outlaw vanished!
+
+The Rajah stared in blank amazement. “How—”
+
+“Automatic winding device in his plane. It just wound him up.” The
+European who spoke looked at his empty gun. “Better get your planes
+after him.”
+
+At a nod from the Rajah the secretary hurried from the room. “We’ll get
+him,” royalty remarked.
+
+“No, you won’t. The Merlin’s got a fast plane. He’s pulled off these
+things before. But this time—well, he lost his mask.”
+
+“Did you recognize him?”
+
+“Stone did, before he fell. He screamed a name. Remember? Martell.”
+
+“A common name,” the Rajah frowned.
+
+“Stone and I worked closely together. He knew no Martells. He recognized
+the name and the face from elsewhere. Newsreels—newspapers—everybody
+knows Seth Martell and his sons. I’ll get in touch with my government
+immediately. May I use your televisor?”
+
+“Yes. Recover the Earth Star, and I’ll buy it.”
+
+“That,” said the European grimly, “is a bargain.”
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II
+                                 Escape
+
+
+Seth Martell’s craggy, strong face was set in harsh lines as he sat
+staring at a folded paper on his desk. Sunlight came warmly through the
+windows of the penthouse apartment above New York, silvering Martell’s
+iron-gray hair and clipped moustache. He looked hard as nails—till he
+lifted his lids and gazed at the three young men before him.
+
+Seth Martell was one of the biggest men in America. Connected with the
+military, high up in the government, his honesty had never been
+questioned, nor his devotion to his country. Always he had been
+unswerving in serving his own ideals, no matter what self-sacrifice it
+entailed. Now—
+
+Now there was pain in his gray eyes.
+
+He looked at his three sons and hesitated, tapping the folded document
+with stubby, calloused fingers.
+
+“Well?”
+
+None of the three spoke.
+
+Martell reached for a buzzer, and then drew back his hand. He looked at
+the tallest of the three.
+
+“Tony. Are you the Merlin?”
+
+Tony—a dark, lean young man, with very keen black eyes and a thin eager
+face—cocked up a quizzical eyebrow. “I, sir? The—”
+
+Martell’s restraint failed for an instant as he snapped, “Answer me!”
+
+Tony sobered. “No, sir,” he said quietly. “I’m not.”
+
+“Phil.”
+
+The second youth, blond and stocky, took a stubby pipe out of his mouth.
+
+“No, sir.”
+
+“Jimmy.”
+
+The third of the trio looked somewhat like Tony, though a less matured
+man. The eagerness in Tony’s face was enthusiasm in Jimmy’s, boyish and
+pleasant. He shot a quick glance at the others, hesitated, and finally
+said, with a little frown, “I’m not the Merlin, sir.”
+
+Martell sighed. “All right. Go in the sun-room and wait, boys. The
+investigators will be in presently.” He sat steadily regarding his nails
+till his sons had departed.
+
+Tony left them at the door. “Be with you directly,” he murmured, and
+hurried off along the corridor. The others went into the room, and ten
+minutes later the oldest of the three came in, his face blandly
+impassive. He went to the window and stood staring out over the
+skyscrapers of New York, waiting on the verge of the 21st century. He
+began to whistle ruminatively.
+
+“Seth insisted on interviewing us before the detecs. Good of him.”
+
+Young Jimmy, nervously lighting a cigarette, nodded. “Damn good. But all
+this.... I don’t understand it.”
+
+Phil’s serious eyes were questioning. “Are you sure? There’s no doubt
+the authorities think one of us is a crook. I wonder—”
+
+There was a little silence. Finally Jimmy asked, “Who is this Merlin,
+anyway?”
+
+“Cleverest crook in the world,” said Tony, turning. “At least, he’s been
+kicking around for two years. That means a lot these days. He’s pretty
+much of a Robin Hood. Only kills in self-defense—and never for personal
+profit.”
+
+Phil broke in, “Plenty of criminals have evaded capture for years, but
+they’re the small fry. Not important enough to attract attention. But
+the Merlin—everyone thinks he’s had years of experience. Remember when
+Janison died? The governor? The Merlin killed him, and nobody knew why
+till they found out Janison was one of the biggest political racketeers
+in the country. He’s a Robin Hood of sorts, but the law won’t stand for
+Robin Hoods.”
+
+“And,” said Tony sardonically, “one of us is the Merlin. So they say.”
+
+Phil grinned. “Which one?”
+
+“Oh, they’ll find out. They’ll chart our psychology—our character
+patterns—and check it with the analysis of the Merlin’s activities.
+Their lie-detectors will tell them which one of us is the Merlin. That’s
+positive identification, you know.”
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+Jimmy crushed out his cigarette, lips working. He swung suddenly on the
+others.
+
+“You’re damn flippant about it! What if it’s true? What if one of us
+_is_ this crook—d’you know what that’ll mean to Seth? His son shown to
+the world as a thief and a murderer. Seth will stick by us; I know that.
+But I know what his honor means to him. He got that silver plate in his
+skull because he thought more of honor than his life. And now—”
+
+“Shut up, Jimmy,” Phil said quietly. “We know all that. But what can we
+do about it?”
+
+Tony murmured, “Our youngest brother is about to suggest that the Merlin
+confess. A touching sentiment. Headlines all over the world announcing
+the news. Seth resigning all his offices immediately—he’d do that.
+Everyone knowing that a son of Seth Martell was—the Merlin.”
+
+Phil said, “The Merlin might ... disappear.”
+
+“He’d have to disappear for good. Suppose I’m the lad, Philip, and
+suppose I disappear. A signed confession would be just as effective. The
+moment I disappear, it proves I’m the Merlin. No one has ever watched
+us. As Seth’s sons, we’re above the routine character-checks. We
+reported to Seth once a month. Otherwise we were free, all of us, with
+plenty of time to do as we pleased. Including brigandage!”
+
+Phil grunted. “Anyway, people can’t simply drop out of sight in this day
+and age. Not with television, specialized wireless, telephotography, and
+so forth. Where the devil could a man hide for years?”
+
+“In the Foreign Legion,” Tony said, and waited. His gaze searched the
+faces of the other two.
+
+Surprise, astonishment, and incredulity showed. And vanished. Into
+Phil’s eyes came a look of dogged grimness. And Jimmy’s face
+showed—excitement.
+
+“The Legion?” he asked.
+
+“Yeah. No extradition. Since 1960, when the company started. No
+government has a hand in the Legion. They rent its services from the
+company, just as the Hessian dukes used to sell their soldiers to fight
+for other countries. When there’s a job to be done too dirty for anyone
+else, they ask the Legion—and waive extradition. The Polar fortresses.
+The Sub-Sahara. The Canal Patrols on Mars. Dangerous space-lane patrols.
+It isn’t like the ancient French Legion. This one’s privately owned,
+and, once you get in, nothing on Earth or Mars can touch you. As long as
+you’re in the Legion. Men don’t live long in it, as a rule.”
+
+“Cheerful thought,” Phil grunted, puffing at his pipe. “By the way,
+which of us _is_ the Merlin?”
+
+Tony smiled. “I’m the guy, lads. And that’s what I’ve been building up
+to. I’m going to drop out of sight. Head for the Legion. And—well, I
+wanted you two to know about it. I can’t tell Seth, of course. But—”
+
+“I’ll be damned,” Phil said in blank amazement. “You’ve got the Earth
+Star?”
+
+“That’s right.”
+
+“Odd. I happen to have it myself. In a hollow tooth.”
+
+“You’re both crazy,” said Jimmy. “I’ve got it.”
+
+Tony shook his head. “It’s no use. There’s no point in the three of us
+going into the Legion. One’s enough. So—”
+
+Phil said, “Wait a minute. Suppose all three of us disappear? Nobody’d
+press a charge against three men, when obviously two were innocent. I
+happen to have the jewel myself—”
+
+“Yeah,” Tony grunted. “But slow down. You’re both going off the
+deep-end. I’m leaving now. Heading for the Legion, and you’re both
+staying here.”
+
+Jimmy said, “We’ll meet you there.”
+
+The argument kept on—with no result. Jimmy and Phil were adamant. Each
+one insisted he had the stolen gem. And, if they didn’t accompany Tony,
+they’d simply go after him on their own hook. “So we’d better stick
+together,” Phil said at last. “We’ll have a better chance that way.”
+
+Tony’s lips were compressed. “You crazy fools! You’d do it, too ...
+well, stay here. I’m going after an amphiplane.”
+
+“What if the investigators get here first?” Phil asked.
+
+“Stall ’em. And keep your eye on that window.”
+
+Jimmy was chewing his lip. “How do you expect to get out? If there are
+guards—”
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+Tony’s grin flashed. “You’ll find out.” He turned to the door—and was
+gone, apparently unruffled. But as he hurried along the passage there
+was a gnawing uneasiness in his mind. Guards would no doubt be watching
+to prevent just such an attempt at escape as this. Only blind luck could
+help now.
+
+He went into the big, gleaming kitchen, a bare room with murals on its
+walls. Every appliance had been built-in, so that stove, tables, and so
+forth, could be swung out from their cubbyholes by the pressure of a
+button. The room was empty.
+
+Tony’s sharp eyes flickered about, resting at last on a panel near by.
+He went to it, swung it open, and revealed a black hole beyond. The
+dumbwaiter. A glance upward informed him that the little car was below,
+though how far he did not know. Deftly Tony swung his legs through the
+hole and seized the ropes in strong fingers.
+
+He closed the panel behind him.
+
+It wasn’t entirely dark. A diffused pale glow filtered down from above,
+and gently, carefully, Tony let himself slip toward the shaft’s bottom.
+It was a long chance. Unless he found footing on the dumbwaiter car
+soon, his fingers would inevitably lose their cramped grip. For this was
+a penthouse apartment in a skyscraper.
+
+Down he went into the shaft. Skin scraped from his hands. It grew
+darker, and below him was only unfathomable blackness. Tony hooked his
+legs about the rope and rested for a few moments, though he dared not
+delay long. Time was vitally important.
+
+Then down he went again. He was in pitch darkness now, every muscle
+strained and beginning to ache. His hands stung painfully. His shoulders
+were throbbing.
+
+Tony’s feet thumped softly upon the peaked top of the car.
+
+Gasping with relief, he relaxed, keeping the ropes wound about his wrist
+so that his weight would not carry the car to the bottom too suddenly.
+But a moment later he was plummeting down, occasionally checking his
+speed when caution grew stronger than the imperative need for haste. Up
+in the penthouse Jimmy and Phil were waiting, perhaps being questioned
+even now by the investigators. And Seth—unseen in the darkness, Tony’s
+face grew grim. Seth was suffering. The old man’s devotion to his
+ideals, to humanity was pitted against his genuine love for his three
+step-sons. And one of those three was the Merlin.
+
+Finally the car thumped against the bottom of the shaft. A little crack
+of light indicated the panel opening into the porter’s cellar. Tony used
+his knife-blade to open it, easing the door outward little by little
+till he discovered that the room was vacant.
+
+The rest was surprisingly easy. A pair of overalls and a cap in a closet
+made a satisfactory disguise, and, carrying a can of rubbish, Tony
+walked blandly past the service man posted on guard outside. He
+deposited his burden on the sidewalk, and without a pause began to hurry
+toward the corner. A hail stopped him.
+
+“You, there! Wait a minute!”
+
+Tony turned. The guard was following him, gaze probing. A thick finger
+thrust out suspiciously.
+
+“Where’re you going?”
+
+The street was almost empty. Tony didn’t wait for the guard. He hastened
+toward him, arms hanging loosely at his side—until the last moment.
+Then, as recognition came into the man’s eyes and as his hand dived into
+a pocket, Tony brought up his fist in a vicious uppercut. The blow was
+delivered at such close quarters that it went unobserved by passers-by.
+The dull thwack of bone against bone was the only sound. Tony caught the
+guard as he fell, pulled him swiftly back into the cellar, and left him
+there. The man was out for the count.
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+There were no other guards. Tony’s progress was not halted again. He
+reached his destination, secured a small, swift amphiplane, equipped
+with gyros, and lifted it through the port in the roof. Luckily, he had
+plenty of money in his pocket—enough to buy the plane instead of
+renting it, had he desired to do so. But, like most ships of this type,
+the instrument board was fitted with a “homing pigeon” device, by which
+the plane could be set to return to its garage along a radio beam
+whenever desired.
+
+Tony’s fingers flickered over the controls. The ship was a honey—small
+and swift, built like a thick cigar, with retractable wings and props.
+He swung up in a wide arc that presently brought him directly over the
+penthouse that was his goal.
+
+Briefly he wondered what had happened there, and whether Phil and Jimmy
+were still waiting. Well—fast work was vital now. The investigators
+were already on guard. Sight of an approaching plane would warn them of
+trouble. Tony checked his controls, took a few deep breaths—and dropped
+faster than was safe. The wind shrieked up into a high-pitched whine
+past the ship, almost beyond the threshold of hearing.
+
+The skyscraper leaped toward him like a driving lance. Its top seemed
+about to impale him. But the controls had been expertly set, and the
+craft fled down safely to one side, stopping with a bone-wrenching jolt
+as the automatics took hold. Tony fought back giddiness and stared out
+through swimming eyes. His blurred vision focused. Too far to the left—
+
+He slid the ship forward. This was the window. Inside, he could see
+Phil’s broad back, and one hand extended in a sign of warning. So the
+investigators had already arrived. But where was Jimmy? Tony couldn’t be
+sure.
+
+A voice he didn’t recognize was talking. One of the investigators ...
+
+“Well, we’ll find him. And the lie-detectors will give us the
+information we want. Trying to frame Seth Martell is the dirtiest thing
+the Merlin ever did.”
+
+Jimmy said, “You’re nuts.”
+
+“Yeah? One of our men saw it. The Merlin was opening Martell’s
+safe—trying to put the Earth Star in it and throw the blame on Martell.
+But he didn’t have time. Our man was too close, and the Merlin had to
+scram in a hurry. Now—which one of you was it?”
+
+Tony’s eyebrows lifted. A new element had entered into the affair.
+Trying to throw the blame on Seth—yeah, that _was_ a hell of a lousy
+trick. So—
+
+Tony whistled softly, and saw Phil jerk aside, crying out something. A
+slim form came hurtling toward the window. Tony got a glimpse of Jimmy’s
+pale young face; then the boy was hurtling out into space, almost
+overshooting the mark in his eagerness. Tony seized his arm and pulled
+him back as he swayed on the ship’s edge. The craft dipped slightly
+under the additional weight, and then lifted again as compensatory
+stabilizers went into action.
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+From within the room came a crash, and a sharp cry of pain. Phil
+appeared, his face stolid and expressionless. He jumped, landing
+accurately, and immediately whirled. In his hand, Tony saw, was a bronze
+figurine he had snatched up from a table.
+
+“Run for it!” he snapped. There were faces in the window. A gun snarled
+viciously. Phil hurled the figurine with deadly aim, shattering the
+glass above the group, and the investigators dodged back as shards and
+splinters showered them. Almost immediately they were back—but Tony’s
+hands had found the controls.
+
+The ship fled up. As it fled it curved southward, till far below could
+be seen the shining waters of Long Island Sound.
+
+Jimmy said tautly, “They’re coming after us. I can see planes—”
+
+Phil touched a lever. The upper framework of the plane was instantly
+sheathed with transparent walls, making it more than ever resemble a
+fat, shining cigar.
+
+Tony sent the craft rocketing down. Almost at the surface of the water,
+he pulled out into a glide, swooping almost without a splash into the
+Sound. The light was blotted out by green translucence that grew darker
+as the ship slanted into the depths.
+
+“Not too deep,” Phil suggested. “The hull won’t stand a crack-up.”
+
+Tony didn’t answer. He was fingering the controls, trying to get every
+possible bit of speed out of the ship before the pursuers located it
+with their search-rays. If they could reach the outer Atlantic, they’d
+be safe—barring accident. But they were not safe in the Sound.
+
+Abruptly the water ahead sizzled and bubbled with heat. An aerial
+torpedo had been launched. Tony shot up and then almost immediately
+dived again, shifting sharply to the left. Before his companions could
+get their breath, the ship was rushing back along the way it had came,
+retracing its path. Jimmy said sharply, “What the hell—”
+
+Phil’s fingers dug into the youngster’s arm. “Good idea, Tony.”
+
+The latter nodded. “Maybe. We’ll dig in at the mouth of the Hudson.
+They’ll never look for us there. Then tonight we can slip out, take the
+air again—and head for the Company.”
+
+Jimmy said, “Once we’re there, we’re safe. There’s no extradition from
+the Legion, eh?”
+
+“Only to Hell,” Tony remarked, grinning.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER III
+                           Legion of the Lost
+
+
+“So,” said the fat little man with the shaved head, “so you want to join
+the Legion. Eh?”
+
+Tony looked him over. The dingy office in the outskirts of the North
+African city was unimpressive. But, somehow, the little man was not. He
+wore dirty white tropical linens, his face glistened with sweat, but to
+the three brothers he represented fate. On his decision their destiny
+would depend.
+
+“Yeah,” Tony said. “We want to join. Well?”
+
+The little man smiled, tapping pudgy fingers on the crowded desk. “Well.
+Let’s see. You passed the physical examination. Your names are—Anthony.
+Phillips. Jameson.” The pale blue eyes sparkled maliciously. “Better
+remember ’em. Sometimes it’s hard at first, but you’ll get used to them.
+I’m sure I don’t know why everyone who enters the Legion changes his
+name. There’s no extradition. However ... You are joining for a term
+of five years. If you wish to leave before then, you can buy your
+freedom if you have the money. If you have not, you must serve your
+term.
+
+“You may try to escape. You may succeed. You may fail, and in that case
+will be assigned to the guards in the uranium pits of Mars. No one has
+ever escaped from there. It is not advisable—” The blue eyes were hard
+as steel now. “It is scarcely wise to attempt escape. Aside from all
+else, when you leave us, you are no longer under the Company’s
+protection.”
+
+He passed a plump hand over his shining head. “Anything more?”
+
+Tony glanced at his brothers and shook his head. “Not a thing. What
+happens next?”
+
+“The Sub-Sahara post needs men. It’s an easy job for recruits, keeping
+the Copts in check and seeing they don’t go outside raiding. Here!” A
+buzzer rang, and soon a man entered, clad in the dull gray uniform of
+the Legion. He saluted casually.
+
+“Sir.”
+
+“Captain Brady,” said the fat little man, “these three are assigned to
+Sub-Sahara. Rookies. Anthony, Phillips, Jameson. Break ’em in.” He
+immediately became engrossed in the papers piled high on his desk.
+
+Tony looked at the officer with interest. He saw a spare figure, and a
+worn, tired face, deeply lined, with sunken eyes and a clipped
+moustache. An adventurer gone to seed, he thought—grown tired.
+
+Brady said, “Come along,” and led the way out of the room. They emerged
+in blazing white sunlight. A helicopter stood a few rods away, and the
+captain gestured toward it.
+
+“_’ntre._ We’ll fly, and talk as we go. Discipline needn’t begin till we
+reach Sub-Sahara, so if you’ve any questions—I’m at your service.”
+
+He pointed toward the plane, and followed the brothers into it. With
+quick, familiar motions he lifted the craft into the air and sent it
+winging southward.
+
+“I’ll stop at Azouad. That’s an oasis on the way. You can get smokes and
+equipment there—personal stuff you may want. That is—if you have any
+money.”
+
+Tony’s eyes narrowed, but he merely said, “We’ve a little.” He shifted
+on the worn leather seat, glancing aside at Captain Brady. The man’s
+haggard face was immobile, the eyes mere slits as he squinted into the
+flaming sunlight.
+
+From the rear of the plane came Jimmy’s voice. “Just what is
+Sub-Sahara?”
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+Brady’s voice went dull with routine. “Well—twenty years or more ago a
+labyrinth of caverns was discovered under the Sahara. It was inhabited
+by survivors of prehistoric Egyptians—Copts. They were trapped
+underground in some ancient catastrophe, and got along there, gradually
+growing accustomed to their environment. Matter of fact—there was a
+sort of colony in the old pre-dynastic days down there. The Copts worked
+mines, and there was a—well, a city of miners under the Sahara. When
+the entrance was blocked, the miners couldn’t get out—so they stayed
+there.”
+
+“What about food?” Jimmy asked. “And oxygen?”
+
+“There’s a lot about that Copt tribe we don’t know. Food—well, fish and
+mushrooms are staples. The Midnight Sea lies under the Sahara. Ages ago
+the water in it made the desert itself a sea, but it drained underground
+at last. As for oxygen, there must have been outlets before we blasted
+some, though they’ve never been discovered. Possibly through river caves
+that drain into the sea.”
+
+Captain Brady rubbed his eyes with the back of one mahogany hand. “A lot
+we don’t know about the Copts. Savage, ferocious—but marvelous miners.
+The Legion’s posted there to keep order. Prevent raids on the surface
+tribes. The Copts worship Isis, or the Moon—I dunno which. Probably
+they’re the same. Keep clear of them unless you’re armed; don’t monkey
+with their religion; and don’t enter any passages engraved with the
+emblems of the Moon and the sistrum.”
+
+“Why not?”
+
+“Religion, youngster. No white man has ever seen the Ka’aba—the Black
+Stone—at Mecca. It’s sacred to the Moslem, just as the Alu—the group
+of deepest caverns—are sacred to the Copts. They say Amon-Ra is down
+there.”
+
+Jimmy’s eyebrows lifted. “Amon-Ra? The ancient Egyptian god?”
+
+“Right. ‘The Hidden Light.’ We have a sort of armed truce with the
+Copts, provided we don’t interfere too much. When they get out of line,
+we whip them back. Figuratively, of course.” Brady’s hand touched the
+buttoned holster at his thigh.
+
+“What did you say the sacred caves were called?” Phil asked suddenly.
+
+“Alu.”
+
+“What does it mean?”
+
+“The Land of Light.” Brady looked around. His face was alight with
+interest. “Have you studied Egyptology?”
+
+“No—afraid not.”
+
+The captain’s eyes lost their glow. “Um. Bit of a hobby of mine. Land of
+Light—Hidden Light—Isis, the Moon goddess—I’ve always wondered what
+exists in Alu. Never found out. Never expect to. But I shouldn’t be
+surprised if there’s the wreckage of a civilization down there.”
+
+He chuckled. “Not that the commander agrees with me—Commander Desquer,
+you’ll be under him. But he can’t tell me how the Pyramids were built,
+or the explanation of so many mysteries of Egypt. In my opinion, space
+travel was understood ages before Europeans achieved it. Yes ...” He
+nodded thoughtfully. “A puzzle. A nomadic civilization on the Nile, and
+then, without warning, a civilization full-blown and decadent. Where did
+it come from? It was decadent when it reached Egypt. I wonder ...”
+
+He turned to the controls. “Here’s Azouad. Half an hour. You’ll find
+plenty of shops. Don’t buy any wines—they won’t keep in Sub-Sahara.
+Brandy’s good. And pipes wear better than cigarettes in the Legion.”
+
+Below the gyro was a patch of gray on the brownish, rolling Sahara
+plain. Small dots of faded green were visible, trees struggling
+desperately for moisture and life. In a clearing Captain Brady set down
+the ship.
+
+“All out,” he grunted. “_Parte!_ Half an hour, remember.”
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+The brothers watched the lean figure move briskly across the sun-baked
+square, to disappear into the depths of a cantina. Then they looked at
+one another.
+
+“Well!” Jimmy murmured. “So we’re in the Legion!”
+
+“Sub-Sahara. Um. Come on; we’ve only half an hour. Let’s look over
+Azouad.” Tony hesitated, gripped Phil’s arm, and glanced up. “That a
+plane?”
+
+“Yeah.” Phil squinted aloft. “Wait ... not a government plane.
+Private. Anyway, so what? There’s no extradition.”
+
+“I know,” Tony said softly. “But the Earth Star’s plenty valuable.
+Somebody might have ... ideas.”
+
+“Maybe I’d better mail it back home,” Jimmy grinned.
+
+Three glances crossed. And, curiously, at that moment a shadow drifted
+across the brothers—the shadow of a plane, chilling them momentarily
+after the blast of the African sun. It was like an omen.
+
+Phil said, “I wonder which of us really has it?”
+
+“I have,” Tony remarked. “Come along. I want a drink.”
+
+He led the way, shouldering through a crowd of assorted riff-raff, the
+usual scum of a bordertown. Odors of sesame, oils, and less familiar
+stenches were sickeningly strong. Dozens of mongrels roved hungrily
+about; the flies were countless.
+
+They bought smokes and entered a cantina, dark and muggy. A fat native
+served them squareface gin, waddling toward the dim corner where they
+sat. Behind them, Tony noticed, was a door, half opened less to permit
+fresh air to enter than to allow foul to emerge. He pushed it shut with
+a casual foot.
+
+The gin wasn’t good, but it was strong. Also, it was inordinately
+expensive. Jimmy made a wry face.
+
+“Hell of a lot of good money will do us now. We’ve ten minutes. Think
+we’ll like Sub-Sahara?”
+
+“It sounds—interesting,” Phil said slowly. “Captain Brady’s certainly
+hipped on his Land of Light. I wonder what sort the Copts are?”
+
+“Tough hombres,” Tony grunted. There was a brief silence. The waiter
+appeared, refilled glasses, and departed. Then—
+
+“_Merlin!_” a soft voice whispered.
+
+Tony’s fingers tightened around his glass. Phil sat perfectly
+motionless. Jimmy’s head jerked slightly; then he was immobile.
+
+Tony looked around, and the others followed his lead.
+
+Standing beside them was a small, round-faced man, his beady dark eyes
+glinting beneath a sun-helmet, his tropical whites looking freshly
+laundered. His gaze swiveled sharply from one to another of the trio. A
+shadow of disappointment flickered over his features and was gone.
+
+Tony said, “Who the devil are you?”
+
+The stranger flashed white teeth. “The private secretary of a certain
+Rajah. One of you has seen me before. I do not know which one.
+However—”
+
+“He’s crazy,” Phil grunted. “Batty as a bedbug. Drink up, boys.”
+
+“My name is Zadah,” the man went on without heeding the interruption. “I
+know that one of you is the Merlin and has the Earth Star. I want it.”
+
+Tony looked at the man. “Do you think anybody’d who’d stolen a jewel
+would be fool enough to keep it on him?”
+
+“The Merlin would. Because he’d want to make certain that a
+certain—deal—wouldn’t ever be completed. An imitation of the stone was
+made, so perfect that the deception can be discovered only by comparison
+with the original. Someone might try to sell the imitation as the
+original jewel—and the Merlin could block such a transaction only by
+producing the real Earth Star. He won’t get rid of it. Not unless—he’s
+forced to.”
+
+Tony drank gin reflectively. “There’s an offensive odor in this place,”
+he remarked. “Notice it, anybody?”
+
+Zadah said, “I do not want the police to find you or the Earth Star. If
+I recover it myself, the Rajah will pay me any price to have the
+jewel—and the original owners can prove nothing. My private operatives
+have traced you this far. Now—” He took out a small gun. “You will
+stand up and walk one by one through the door behind you. Stay in single
+file. My plane is just near by. We will fly to my country, and there—”
+Again the teeth flashed. “There I think it will not be too hard to learn
+which of you is the Merlin.”
+
+Tony hesitated, remembering the plane he had seen in the sky. Zadah held
+the gun almost hidden under his coat, but of its deadliness there could
+be no doubt. The brothers exchanged glances.
+
+“Stand up!” Zadah whispered.
+
+Tony obeyed. He turned toward the door, opened it, and stepped out into
+sunlight. The others followed. Zadah said, “To the left.”
+
+They moved slowly through an alley, littered with refuse and foul with
+odors. Not a soul was visible—only a stray cur that ran past, tail
+between its legs.
+
+“Across the square. The gun is in my pocket, but I have my finger on the
+trigger. Make no suspicious move.”
+
+Tony’s lips were white. He guessed well enough what would happen once he
+and his brothers were captives aboard the plane. Zadah would not stop at
+torture to achieve his ends. If only—
+
+But there was no sign of help. Across the square they went, toward a
+small gyro in its center. Loungers in the shadows of the low buildings
+eyed the group incuriously as they passed. They walked on, toward a
+cantina, past its door—
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+Captain Brady came out. He hesitated, his sunken eyes intent on the
+spectacle. Then he moved like an uncoiled spring.
+
+Zadah sensed danger. He started to whirl, dragging his gun from his
+pocket. But Brady’s hand chopped down viciously, the edge of the palm
+smashing against the secretary’s spine, at the nape of the neck.
+
+A little grunt came from Zadah. He went down like a wet sack of flour.
+Casually Brady bent, picked up the gun, and pocketed it. His humorless
+eyes were without any hint of emotion.
+
+“Time to go,” he said. “Come along.”
+
+Silently the brothers followed Brady to the latter’s plane. Without a
+word they took off, speeding south until the desert-stain of Azouad was
+lost beneath the horizon.
+
+And not once, during the journey, did Captain Brady refer to the affair
+in which he had played Saviour. Tony, grinning to himself, remarked in
+an undertone, “There’s no extradition from the Legion.”
+
+“Yeah,” Phil nodded. “The devil protects his own.”
+
+Jimmy said nothing. He was too busy peering out at the rolling dunes and
+endless plains of the Sahara.
+
+Sub-Sahara! Underground labyrinth—an oasis under a burning, lifeless
+expanse of wilderness! To the three Martells it was, at first, a relief,
+after the flaming heat of the desert. Though even in the beginning there
+was a feeling of oppression as the metal car sank down into its shaft
+and the weight of earth overhead was felt almost tangibly.
+
+It seemed hours later when the car stopped and a panel in its bare side
+slid open. Pale radiance flickered in through the gap, lighting the
+men’s faces eerily. The glow seemed to come from the walls itself.
+
+“Phosphorescent paint,” Brady said, nodding. “Saves trouble. We spray
+the walls and ceiling once a year, and it’s bright enough for our needs.
+Come along.”
+
+The four stepped out into a passageway. It wasn’t long. It ended before
+a metallic door; Brady took a rod from his pocket and held it briefly
+pointed at the lock. The panel opened.
+
+Beyond the threshold lay a cavern.
+
+Huge and dim and alien as a distant world it seemed, a gigantic hollow
+hemisphere in the solid Earth. It was, as far as Tony could judge, about
+two miles in diameter, with a jagged floor that had been cleared in a
+few spots. The dim light filtered down from the ceiling, as sunlight
+through heavy cloud. When Brady spoke, his voice was incongruous in this
+place of silvery soft grayness.
+
+“There’s the fort. Over there—” He pointed. “That’s the entrance to the
+Coptic tunnels. We guard the entrance to the surface. Though the Copts
+haven’t tried to make any surface raids for a long time.” He swung out
+along a rough path, the others following. “They hate the Bedouins, just
+as the ancient Egyptians did. They don’t especially dislike us, unless
+we get in their way. If the mineral deposits the Copts work weren’t
+valuable, though, they’d be left to themselves. But the Legion’s paid to
+make sure the mines are kept active.”
+
+Tony didn’t answer. His eyes were slowly accustoming themselves to this
+strange light. He glanced up at a ceiling that was both visible and
+invisible. No details could be seen. A veil of shining cloud seemed to
+obscure the rock far above. The vault of a world, Tony thought. A world
+created here, perhaps, when the Sahara was a sea instead of a desert.
+What had Brady said a while ago? Something about a prehistoric, mighty
+civilization in ante-dynastic Egypt ... and, far and far below, the
+Copts still worshiped Isis, in the hidden caverns of Alu where no white
+man had ever penetrated. “The wreckage of a civilization down there,”
+Brady had said.
+
+In this eery cavern-world it was easy to believe in almost anything. A
+scrap of half-forgotten verse drifted through Tony’s mind:
+
+    “_But you have seen the hieroglyphs on the great sandstone obelisks,_
+    _And you have talked with Basilisks, and you have walked with
+      hippogriffs_ ...”
+
+They were at the fort. Nothing could be seen beyond a palisade of
+strong, dully-gleaming metal. But a bell rang sharply; a gate opened,
+and a man in legionnaire uniform appeared.
+
+Even in the odd light his face seemed strangely pallid—drained of all
+color, like bleached papyrus. He was gaunt and fleshless almost to the
+point of emaciation, so that his eyes and mouth were black hollows. It
+seemed as though a skull wore the rakish Legion cap atop its dome.
+
+He saluted, and Brady responded.
+
+“Hello, Jacklyn. Tell Commander Desquer I’m here.”
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+Jacklyn stood aside to let the others enter. Tony discovered that within
+the palisade were a dozen metal shacks, prefabricated, and without sign
+of life. So this would be their home from now on!
+
+Brady said, “Well? Didn’t you—”
+
+Jacklyn’s voice was strained. “Glad you’re back, sir. The commander left
+for the surface an hour ago. He got a message.... There’s trouble,
+sir. The Copts—they’ve kidnapped Ruggiero.”
+
+Captain Brady looked at his fingernails. “It’s full moon, isn’t it?”
+
+“Yes, sir.”
+
+“All right. I need four men. Completely armed. We’ll leave as soon as
+they’re ready.”
+
+Jacklyn hurried away. Tony asked, “Is this—the usual thing, down here?”
+
+Brady shook his head. “No. At full moon the Copts choose a victim to
+represent Osiris. The Husband of Isis. Usually it’s all done quietly,
+and the sacrifice is a Copt, of course.”
+
+Jimmy inquired rather weakly, “What sort of sacrifice is it?”
+
+“Degenerate form of Egyptian religion. According to legend, Seth, the
+evil god, was jealous of Osiris. He put him to death, tearing his body
+into fourteen pieces. The Copts are ... literal-minded.”
+
+Brady sucked in his breath. “I wish I knew more of their mythos. The
+ceremony glorifies Isis of the Moon. A Copt has always served before.
+But now ...” He pulled at the clipped gray moustache. “Ruggiero has
+been taken to Alu to be sacrificed. This means trouble—plenty of it.”
+But there was no fear in the sunken eyes; only excited anticipation.
+“Alu! The Land of Light!”
+
+And suddenly Tony understood. For years Brady had wondered about the
+half-mythical cavern world below, a place forbidden to him by rigid
+rules. Now, in the absence of the commander, it was Brady’s duty to
+rescue the kidnapped legionnaire. His duty—and his chance.
+
+Tony said, “Let us go with you, captain. Eh?”
+
+Jimmy and Phil exchanged surprised glances. Then Phil nodded. “Yeah! How
+about it?”
+
+Brady hesitated. “You’re untrained. You don’t know the ropes—”
+
+“We know how to handle guns.”
+
+“Carbon-pistols?”
+
+“We can learn easily enough.”
+
+“Yes ... they’re simple. But—all right,” the captain said with sudden
+decision. “You’re new, and that means you’re not scared stiff of Alu.
+The three of you and Jacklyn. Right!”
+
+He bawled for the skull-faced man. “Jacklyn! Get equipment! I’m taking
+these three recruits. _Allons!_”
+
+Tony grinned at his brothers. Their introduction to the Legion was to be
+exciting, after all—if not fatal!
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV
+                               Sub-Sahara
+
+
+Jacklyn said, “Fifty years nearly I’ve been here. It never changes.
+First time I’ve ever seen the Copts get out of hand. Sure, they’d try to
+get out once in a while to butcher the Bedouins, but they never had
+anything against us. Funny.”
+
+The group was marching swiftly through a dim tunnel, Captain Brady in
+the lead, the others trailing. They had been moving for an hour, in a
+labyrinth of passages through which the captain unerringly found his
+way. Now he looked back and remarked:
+
+“That’s right. I know this maze pretty well, but Jacklyn knows it
+blindfolded. He’s practically a Copt himself. Hasn’t been above ground
+for fifty years.”
+
+“You must like it here,” Jimmy remarked.
+
+Jacklyn said, very softly, “It’s hell. You been in New York lately?
+Yeah? How does the old burg look now?”
+
+“It’s changed in fifty years,” Phil said. “But you know that already.”
+
+“Times Square, though—that’s there, eh? I remember I used to feel empty
+whenever I got out of the old town. God, I’d like to see it again—but
+not on a televisor. In fact,” he went on slowly, “I’d like to smell
+fresh air again. Not this artificial ventilation. See starlight and
+green growing things.”
+
+“And the Sun,” Jimmy nodded understandingly. He glanced at Jacklyn—and
+then caught his breath at sight of the expression on the legionnaire’s
+pallid face. Horror—and hate!
+
+It was gone immediately. Jacklyn ignored the remark. He said, “I was one
+of the first spacemen. There’ve been plenty of improvements since my
+time, what with liquid fuels instead of powder, and those new magnetic
+induced-gravity screens they’re working on. But it’s like shipping, I
+guess—steam or sail, it’ll never really change. There’ll be the sea
+under you, or space around you. We—”
+
+“_Sh-h!_” Brady held up a warning finger. “Hold it!”
+
+They paused, but no sound came. The captain relaxed.
+
+“Thought I heard an explosion. Guess not. Well—by the way, are you sure
+you know how to use the carbon-pistols?”
+
+“It’s not hard,” Tony said. He took out his weapon, resembling an
+oversized revolver with a cup-shaped hollow where the hammer should have
+been. From his pocket he withdrew a bit of coal, slipped it into the
+cup, where prongs held it firmly in place, and hefted the gun. “Not so
+easy to sight as a Colt, but the force-charge scatters, doesn’t it?”
+
+Jacklyn said, “Right. Watch the recoil, though. Ease the trigger-button
+down. And don’t run out of coal.”
+
+“Funny,” Tony remarked. “Coal doesn’t seem much good in a pistol.”
+
+Captain Brady laughed a little. “The thing’s based on atomic
+force—liberation of quanta, though I don’t understand the scientific
+principles of it myself. Works only on carbon. Coal’s carbon—and cheap.
+So, if the Copts get out of hand, we fight ’em with the coal they dig
+for us. Rather unfair, but it’s all in the Legion’s work.”
+
+“Practically everything is,” Tony said dryly. “How much farther,
+captain?”
+
+“We’ve been going down steadily—wait! Here’s someone. Don’t touch your
+guns unless I give the word.”
+
+Tony stared ahead. For a second he saw nothing; then abruptly the tunnel
+was filled with a dozen bizarre figures. Clad in skin-fitting garments
+of unfamiliar texture, white-skinned, with blue veins showing plainly
+through the flesh, the men’s faces were aquiline and strong, with beaked
+noses and abnormally large eyes, in which the pupils nearly eclipsed the
+irises. The Copts’ hair—they had none on their faces—was like bleached
+straw, tightly curled. They seemed unarmed, yet Brady’s whole body
+subtly tensed as he stood waiting.
+
+The foremost of the Copts, taller than the rest, and wearing a tapering
+headdress, came forward, hand lifted. He spoke in English.
+
+“Captain Brady, why are you here?”
+
+Brady said, “If any harm comes to a legionnaire, it will not be well
+with the Copts, priest.”
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+The man nodded. “I understand. That was a mistake. Some of our younger
+men—they have already been suitably punished for meddling in affairs
+beyond them. Your legionnaire is back in the fort, Captain Brady. You
+will find him there if you return.”
+
+Tony detected a half-veiled glance the priest sent at his fellows. Brady
+saw it also, and tugged at his moustache.
+
+“You are speaking true words?”
+
+“I speak true words.”
+
+“Suppose we do not believe. Suppose we—go on.”
+
+A stir shook the Copts; they looked at one another askance. The priest
+said, “The Moon passages begin not far from here. Those you may not
+enter.”
+
+Brady seemed undecided. “We shall go back. But if our man is not safely
+in the fort—”
+
+The priest’s smile was apparently guileless. “He will be there.”
+
+“All right. About face! _Allons!_”
+
+Tony turned with the others. But before a foot was lifted there came an
+interruption. The priest’s voice was raised in an urgent command in an
+unfamiliar tongue. He, with the others, had seen the bloodstained,
+tattered, huge figure that sprang out from concealment behind a rock.
+
+“Kill those men!” a bull voice shouted. “Blast ’em down!”
+
+“Commander Desquer!” Brady clipped—and then—
+
+“Out guns!”
+
+For from the ranks of the Copts a pale ray had lanced, striking full
+upon Desquer’s bison chest, bared by a tattered tunic. Another ray
+touched Tony; he felt a wave of intolerable heat as he snatched out the
+carbon-gun at his belt.
+
+_Cr-rack!_ Brady’s weapon snarled viciously, and the heat-ray left Tony.
+He slipped a coal-cartridge into the cup and triggered almost without
+aiming. The deadly little guns worked havoc. But there were almost a
+dozen Copts, and for a few moments the tunnel was a chaotic Maelstrom of
+battle, dominated by Desquer’s deep voice roaring commands.
+
+“Get them! All of them! Aim at their bellies!”
+
+Smoke drifted away. The Copts lay in helpless huddles amid red stains.
+Tony lowered his gun and stared around anxiously. Jimmy was painfully
+rubbing his arm where a heat-ray had cindered the cloth. Phil was
+apparently untouched, and so was Jacklyn, but Captain Brady was rubbing
+his thigh and cursing quietly. As for Commander Desquer, it was
+impossible to judge whether he had been injured in the conflict. He was
+already wounded in a dozen places.
+
+Tony’s fascinated gaze clung to the man. The mighty body was thewed like
+an auroch-bull, the matted, deep chest heaving convulsively with
+exhaustion. The commander’s head was shaved, but nevertheless there was
+something leonine about his face. Shaggy, tufted eyebrows overhung
+glittering small eyes, and thick, sensual lips were pressed tightly
+together. Desquer reminded Tony, somehow, of a Nero or a Caligula—a
+degenerate Roman despot.
+
+Now Desquer flung back his huge head in an arrogant gesture. “Jacklyn!
+See if the priest’s got a healing-ray. We need it.” As the legionnaire
+hurried forward the commander turned his eyes to the others. Tony felt a
+curious shiver ripple down his spine as the cold gaze touched him.
+Desquer looked long and intently at Tony, and not until he had stared
+equally long at Phil and Jimmy did he turn his attention to Brady.
+
+“The fort’s gone,” he said. “The Copts smashed it and massacred every
+man. They blew up the shaft to the surface just after I reached
+Sub-Sahara. I just managed to get away ... the cavern’s overrun with
+’em.”
+
+Jacklyn came back with a small flat box, in which a lens was set. He
+touched a button and turned the lens to focus upon Brady’s thigh.
+
+“Thanks ... up a bit ... You know they kidnapped Ruggiero?”
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+Desquer nodded “Yes. I found a Copt alone and induced him to give me a
+little information.” He glanced at his hands, took out a small knife,
+and began to clean his nails. “What this means I don’t know. A
+_jehad_—a holy war, possibly. Though it’s without precedent.”
+
+The captain lifted his hand. “Enough, Jacklyn. Tend to the commander.”
+
+But Desquer shook his head impatiently. “No time.” He drew Brady aside,
+as Jacklyn turned to the others. The two officers withdrew a few steps
+and lowered their voices.
+
+Tony stared at the lensed box as Jacklyn used it on Jimmy’s arm. “What
+the devil’s that?”
+
+“A gadget the Copts have. Nobody knows how it works. They don’t
+themselves. It was handed down ... it’s a ray that increases cell
+activity. Builds up cell tissue. Prevents infection ... how’s that?”
+
+“Swell,” said Jimmy, touching his arm. “It still hurts a bit, though.”
+
+“It won’t for long—”
+
+Desquer said, “You three recruits—listen to me. We’re going down. Into
+Alu. Jacklyn, you’ll go for help.”
+
+The skull-faced legionnaire’s body jerked convulsively. He stared at the
+commander.
+
+“For—help?”
+
+Desquer nodded. “Right. You know these caves. There are other openings
+to the surface. Get help. We’ll hide out and wait for you. The Copts
+won’t expect us to go right to their headquarters, so that’s just what
+we’ll do.”
+
+“But—” Jacklyn moistened dry lips. “I’ll have to go to the surface?”
+There was a curious note of horror in his voice.
+
+“Don’t argue. Move! You’ll have a better chance alone than with
+companions, so—_allez!_”
+
+Jacklyn moved a pace away, stopped, and turned back. He said woodenly,
+“I can’t go to the surface, Commander.”
+
+Desquer said very softly, “Why not?”
+
+“Sunlight will kill me.”
+
+There was a little silence.
+
+“Why?”
+
+“I was space-burned. That’s why I joined the Legion. It’s a kind of
+allergy, you know—I was so badly burned in space by direct solar rays
+that even filtered sunlight will kill me now in a few hours.”
+
+Tony felt his stomach move sickeningly. So that was why Jacklyn had
+remained in Sub-Sahara for fifty years. A prison with its mockery of
+freedom—
+
+“Let one of the others go, sir!”
+
+“I’ll go,” Jimmy offered—but Desquer snarled at him.
+
+“Silence! You know these caves, Jacklyn—”
+
+“The captain knows them!”
+
+“He’s badly burned. That heat-ray touched the bone. He couldn’t stand a
+long trek. Here!” Desquer bent over the dead Copts and rapidly began to
+strip them of their garments. “If sunlight will kill you, stay out of
+it.”
+
+“In the desert?”
+
+“Bandages, you fool—bandages! Wrap yourself up in these. Travel by
+night if you have to, after you reach the surface.”
+
+Silently Jacklyn began to don the garments. He said without expression,
+“It will kill me.”
+
+Desquer threw him an armful of clothes and grinned. “You’ll live long
+enough to get help. If the Copts break out of Sub-Sahara, it’ll be like
+rounding up a thousand fleas. Besides, I don’t know what’s back of
+this—but it’s nothing small, I can promise you. If—”
+
+He leaped like a panther. His shod foot came down with a sickening
+crunch on flesh and bone. Tony, startled by the sudden movement, saw
+that Desquer had sprung upon the Coptic priest, from whose hand a
+ray-projector had dropped. The priest’s blood-smeared face, twisted in
+agony, lifted toward the ceiling as he cried out.
+
+“Not dead, eh?” Desquer whispered, his voice taut with savage fury.
+“Well—you soon will be.”
+
+He drew back his foot. But the priest’s lifted arm somehow halted him.
+The Copt dragged himself half erect. His thin voice shrilled, “Go down
+to Alu, fools! But you will be too late. Isis has risen—and with her
+the gods who dwell in Alu. Before the opening to the outer world can be
+cleared again, we shall have triumphed—and the Earth will tremble
+before the power of the Ancients! Aye—the Ancients who ruled over the
+Four Rivers before their sons fled to Egypt!
+
+“Go down to Alu, fools! _You shall find death!_”
+
+The priest fell back—and died.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER V
+                         Five Against the Gods
+
+
+Hours had passed. The legionnaires, headed by Commander Desquer, were
+encamped by a small, rocky inlet on the Midnight Sea, a fathomless lake
+of inky water that stretched beyond the limit of vision. A pallid glow
+came from the cavern roof far above, rippling over the surface of the
+tideless, sluggish sea. It was a scene fantastic almost beyond belief,
+and Tony, on guard at the mouth of a crevasse where the others slept,
+could scarcely realize that he was still on Earth, and not beneath the
+surface of some alien world.
+
+They had come far and fast, slipping stealthily past the guards the
+Copts had posted, taking advantage of every unused tunnel, guided more
+by instinct than by knowledge. The city of the Copts they had skirted,
+descending ever deeper to the forbidden gates of Alu. And now, on the
+shore of the Midnight Sea, they were ready for the plunge into the
+unknown.
+
+“We can’t stay here,” Desquer grunted. “They’d find us sooner or later.
+But in Alu we have a chance. The element of surprise will be on our
+side, at least.”
+
+He was right. Tony knew. He shifted uneasily, glancing at the carbon
+pistol and checking its load. His thoughts went back to New York, and
+the civilization of a world that seemed a billion miles distant. A world
+lost to him—and his brothers—forever. And in exchange they had
+gained—this!
+
+A hand fell on Tony’s shoulder. Desquer said, “All right. We’re
+marching.” The commander’s heavy jaw jutted as he stared out over the
+water.
+
+The others appeared one by one, ragged, disheveled, and unshaved. Brady
+was wincing with the pain in his stiffened leg as he walked. Jimmy’s
+face was haggard; he had not the stamina of the others. But Phil seemed
+as sturdy and untroubled as ever.
+
+Desquer turned; his cold eyes took stock of his command. “All right.
+March!”
+
+He led the way. Brady behind him. The brothers followed. Tony caught a
+wink from Phil, and lagged behind somewhat, till the officers were out
+of earshot of a whisper.
+
+“Yeah?”
+
+Phil’s hand touched his tunic pocket. “Somebody searched me while I was
+asleep. I thought I was dreaming, but when I woke up, this pocket was
+unbuttoned.”
+
+Tony’s eyebrows lifted. “Oh-oh!” He squinted ahead. “Who—”
+
+“Dunno. But—somebody. Just thought I’d tell you. We’d better keep our
+eyes peeled after this.”
+
+Phil exchanged a meaningful glance with Tony and increased his pace. The
+latter frowned, trying to figure out what this new development meant.
+The Earth Star? It was scarcely probable that anyone in Sub-Sahara would
+know the details of the theft and its aftermath. More likely the motive
+was merely petty robbery—unless, indeed, Phil had actually dreamed it.
+But in his heart, somehow, Tony sensed impending danger. The baleful
+fires of the Earth Star still burned far below the surface of the
+planet.
+
+Desquer? He could scarcely know anything of the jewel. Brady? Perhaps
+the encounter with Zadah, the Rajah’s secretary, had aroused the
+captain’s suspicions. Or—Jimmy? Was he searching for the Earth Star,
+trying to learn which of his brothers carried it? That might have been
+more plausible had not Jimmy kept insisting, with his brothers, that he
+himself had stolen the gem.
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+Tony’s face did not change, but his hand touched the butt of the
+carbon-pistol. He felt safer with the weapon at his thigh. For a time he
+plodded on, every sense alert for sign of danger. The immediate peril
+was from the Copts, of course.
+
+None of the underground race appeared as the group skirted the Midnight
+Sea. They came at last to a tunnel mouth where Desquer paused,
+hesitating, to confer with Brady. The latter pointed to a sign cut out
+of the rock above the entrance—a full moon surmounted by a crescent.
+
+“Moon and sistrum,” the captain nodded. “This is one of the forbidden
+gateways. A door to Alu.”
+
+Desquer grunted. “Very well. Come along. Watch out for traps.”
+
+They entered the tunnel. It was darker, though a vague illumination
+filtered from the walls and roof, due, perhaps, to some sort of
+radioactivity. The passage slanted down steeply. It was apparently
+little used, and in spots almost blocked by debris, where the
+legionnaires had to crawl through painfully. Desquer’s bull strength
+came in useful there. The giant commandant was untiring, and there came
+a time when he was almost carrying Brady along as the captain’s weak leg
+grew weaker.
+
+“Wonder if Jacklyn will make it,” Jimmy muttered to Tony.
+
+“God knows. If he doesn’t, we’re in the soup.”
+
+Phil grinned. “What if he does? We’re still in Alu!”
+
+The tunnel grew steeper. Now half-obliterated carvings were visible on
+the walls, symbols that bore the trace of immeasurable antiquity. One
+sign puzzled Tony; it was a cross within a circle. It reminded him,
+somehow, of the dying Coptic priest’s words—“... the Ancients who
+ruled over the Four Rivers before their sons fled to Egypt.” The circled
+cross struck a chord of memory in Tony’s mind, and he knew, somehow,
+that the cross was supposed to represent four rivers. But—try as he
+might—he could recall no more.
+
+There were other carvings, most of them showing the sistrum and the
+lunar disk. They had been cut out of the rock, Tony felt, long before
+the Pharaohs had reigned in Egypt, before the uraeus crown had come to
+represent a dynasty. A little chill touched Tony as he thought of the
+endless centuries that had ravaged the world above and left the road to
+Alu untouched.
+
+Before Egypt—a civilization. And in Alu—_what_?
+
+No premonition troubled Commander Desquer. His great frame marched on
+untiringly, practically carrying the exhausted Brady. Down and down they
+went. Tony’s legs began to ache, and Jimmy was drooping with fatigue.
+Phil’s stolid face showed no emotion, but there were lines of strain
+about his mouth.
+
+Down—and down! Into Earth’s secret heart—into the forbidden land. And
+what caused Tony the most uneasiness was the fact that they went on
+unchallenged. Perhaps the Copts had not discovered the intruders. Or,
+perhaps, the Copts knew that there was no need to guard the road to Alu.
+
+Occasionally Tony would intercept a glance from Desquer, who would
+impartially stare at the three brothers as though in puzzled curiosity.
+But the commander said nothing, till at last they came out in a large
+cavern from which three tunnel-mouths opened, besides the one on the
+threshold of which they stood. Desquer paused, his gaze searching.
+
+“We’ll camp here,” he said shortly. “In the middle. That way, our
+retreat won’t be cut off if the Copts find us. That middle passage is
+our road. Eh, Captain?”
+
+Brady nodded. “Yes. The Moon and sistrum is over it.”
+
+In silence the five moved wearily to the center of the cavern and
+dropped rather than relaxed on the rock floor. They were tired out.
+Desquer alone sat straddle-legged, his gun ready in his hand, icy eyes
+flashing about.
+
+“Sleep,” he said. “I’ll guard.”
+
+Tony gratefully obeyed. Stillness closed over the cave. But—it was
+broken.
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+Very faintly, as though from an infinite distance, came a rhythmic
+chanting. Muffled and scarcely audible it whispered, almost below the
+threshold of hearing.
+
+Brady’s breath hissed between his teeth. “Hear that?”
+
+Desquer said, “Well?”
+
+“The Chant of Set. Somewhere they’re beginning the ceremony of Osiris,
+where they’ll sacrifice Ruggiero.”
+
+Tony said, “That’s where they tear the victim into pieces, isn’t it?”
+
+“Yes. Commander—” Brady didn’t finish. One look at Desquer’s grim face
+was enough.
+
+“Don’t be a fool, captain. Get your rest—and the rest of you, too.
+You’ll need it. You know well enough we can’t rescue Ruggiero.”
+
+That, Tony thought as he relaxed, was true; but nevertheless he had a
+curiously unpleasant feeling at the base of his spine. Somewhere amid
+these caverns a white man was being horribly sacrificed, and it was not
+a thought conducive to sound sleep. Yet Desquer was right. The
+legionnaires’ only chance was to remain hidden ...
+
+Once Tony roused sleepily to find the Commander lying down and Captain
+Brady on guard. Brady was wandering about the cavern, staring up at the
+carving of the Moon and sistrum. He was a gaunt, scarecrow figure in the
+dim light. As Tony drifted off again to sleep he realized that the faint
+chanting had grown louder—
+
+That it was different now in tone—triumphant!
+
+And then Desquer was shaking Tony’s shoulder, his hand pressed over the
+legionnaire’s lips. The commander’s eyes were glittering brightly.
+
+“_Sh-h!_ Not a sound! Rouse the others.”
+
+Silently Tony obeyed. There was no sign of Captain Brady, he realized.
+
+On cat feet Desquer led the three into the tunnel. Hidden by the first
+turn, he whispered, “Brady’s gone. When I woke up—”
+
+Jimmy asked, “What happened to him? The Copts?”
+
+“Perhaps.”
+
+“But wouldn’t they have killed us, then?”
+
+Desquer passed a hand over his shaven head. “Not necessarily. They may
+have other plans.” He smiled, not pleasantly. “So Brady’s gone. That
+leaves the four of us.” There was an oddly secretive look in the cold
+eyes. “Come on. We’re still heading for Alu.”
+
+“What’s the use?” Tony asked. “If the Copts have discovered us—”
+
+“They may not have. Brady may have gone off to try and save Ruggiero. I
+doubt that, though—but we mustn’t overlook any chances. Alu is our
+destination. So—_allons!_”
+
+The three brothers exchanged glances. One by one their number was being
+cut down. First the entire garrison of the fort; then Jacklyn; now
+Captain Brady. Tony felt a twinge of sympathy for the weatherbeaten old
+soldier. Whatever had happened to the man, Brady would have gone down
+fighting.
+
+“He didn’t try to warn us,” Jimmy muttered.
+
+Desquer grunted. “We don’t know all the weapons of those Copts. Where
+they get them God knows. Every once in a while they’ll pop up with some
+super-scientific device far beyond their power to manufacture. It’s a
+mystery. Maybe we’ll find the answer in Alu.”
+
+That, to Tony, was a strange paradox. A search amid the ruins of a
+forgotten past for the super-science of the future. And yet—whence had
+come the mighty civilization of Egypt? What mystery lay behind the
+cryptic powers of the Copts?
+
+There could be no answer, as yet. The four men marched on, down into the
+depths. They were beneath the Midnight Sea now, Tony decided, since the
+tunnel had curved in a long loop. Not only beneath the Sahara Desert,
+but under a sunken sea as well.
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+Endlessly the road stretched before them. But the end came unexpectedly.
+So exhausted were the four that they scarcely realized that the silvery
+radiance of the tunnel had given place to a reddish glow, brighter and
+reminiscent of volcanic activity. Desquer lifted his hand in warning. He
+went on to reconnoitre, and presently beckoned the others. His burly
+figure was rigid, Tony saw.
+
+And, as he went on, he saw something else. The tunnel ended. It opened
+upon a cavern.
+
+A cavern that was a world!
+
+A world beneath a desert and a sea! Alu, the Land of Light, lay before
+the adventurers, and human eyes had never gazed upon a stranger sight. A
+metropolis of antiquity, with the wrecks of mighty buildings and fallen
+pillars strewing the flat floor of the cave. It was like Pompeii, and
+far older than Pompeii. It was grander than Karnak, more alien than
+crumbling Ang-kor-Vat. In the distance a pyramid rose toward the roof of
+the cave—touching it, supporting it as the fabled tree Yggdrasil is
+supposed to support the Earth.
+
+Red light flamed from beyond the pyramid.
+
+Alu! Old beyond imagination, cradle of a race that had ruled long and
+long ago! Alu, which the Egyptians had incorporated into their mythology
+as their heaven.
+
+The sheer, overwhelming majesty of the panorama struck the men dumb, as
+a hand might strike an impious lip. Huge and desolate and dead the lost
+world stretched before them, holding its secret fast, as it had held it
+since before the Pharaohs reigned. No wonder the pyramids were a
+mystery—built by some alien science. The same science that had reared
+the colossal structures of Alu!
+
+A hundred feet away a square white marble building towered, Doric
+pillars on either side of its open gateway. Some indefinable urge drew
+Tony’s eyes to it.
+
+Desquer said, “Hear that?”
+
+The others listened, but detected no sound. The commander grunted.
+
+“It came from that temple. Get your guns ready. We’re going in. If
+there’s trouble, shoot first.”
+
+The four moved softly across the flat rock of the floor. Halfway to the
+door of the building Jimmy clutched Tony’s arm. He pointed, his face
+chalk-white.
+
+“Look at that!”
+
+Tony followed his brother’s gaze, as did the others. Far away were two
+structures connected by an arched span. Across this span figures were
+moving.
+
+Figures with human bodies—but inhuman heads!
+
+At the distance it was impossible to make out details, but it was plain
+that there was something definitely abnormal about the beings who walked
+across the span. They moved in stately file and were gone. Jimmy
+whispered:
+
+“Remember what the priest said? The gods live in Alu!”
+
+Tony thought of the Egyptian gods, men with the heads of beasts and
+birds and reptiles. Could some monstrous hybrids have survived in this
+cavern? He shrugged off the thought.
+
+“Masks, Jimmy! Don’t be an idiot. Come on.”
+
+Desquer urged them toward the square building. “Quick! We can hide here,
+until we know more about this place. Keep your guns ready.”
+
+The commander’s icy eyes were searching the gloom of the temple as they
+crossed the threshold. The symbol of Osiris, sign of the horned bull,
+was carved everywhere. Crumbling, broken pillars made the interior of
+the temple a labyrinth. The floor was littered with smashed blocks of
+stone.
+
+It was very dim here, but one ray of red light flamed like a sword-blade
+through a gap in the wall and fell directly upon the throne that stood
+on a dais at the farther end of the room. Tony and the others looked
+down a long aisle toward the throne and the statue upon it—the statue
+of a man, clad in stylized flowing robes, with the head of a bull upon
+the human shoulders.
+
+“Come on!” Desquer whispered. He gripped his gun. Tony felt the butt of
+his own weapon cold against his palm as he walked on. The approach to
+the dais seemed endless. Incredible journey amid the wreckage of a
+forgotten civilization! So might a lost soul have journeyed to Osiris
+... A scrap of verse came unbidden to Tony.
+
+    “_Ten hundred shaven priests did bow to Ammon’s altar day and night,_
+    _Ten hundred lamps did wave their light through Ammon’s carven
+      house—and now_
+    _Foul snake and speckled adder with their young ones crawl from stone
+      to stone_
+    _For ruined is the house and prone the great rose-marble monolith!_”
+
+Desquer stopped. His figure stood rock-still for a moment. The gun swung
+up, aimed at the statue on the throne.
+
+And now Tony saw what the commander had already realized. It was no
+statue that faced them. The being was alive!
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI
+                            Before the Gods
+
+
+Only one thing could have stopped Desquer’s finger on the trigger—and
+that thing happened. The monster on the throne spoke. Thick and almost
+unintelligible, its voice poured out from the inhuman muzzle, as the
+hands twitched on the arms of the throne.
+
+“Don’t!” the bull-headed creature moaned. “It’s Brady—Brady!”
+
+Sheer amazement petrified Desquer. He lowered his gun at last, shaved
+scalp shining with sweat. Tony swallowed a lump in his dry throat,
+glaring at the hybrid on the dais.
+
+Brady? Captain Brady?
+
+“Those devils did this to me,” the thick voice went on. “Surgery,
+commander—super-surgery. Remember their healing ray? They grafted the
+flesh and skin of a bull on to my head and speeded up the cellular
+activity tremendously with their ray. I—I don’t dare move. This head is
+so heavy it would snap my spine if—if—”
+
+Desquer said in a low voice, “Are we in danger now?” His eyes searched
+the shadows.
+
+“You’re doomed,” Brady mouthed. “Thotmes told me the hellish plan behind
+all this. Thotmes is the high priest. He’s one of the very few that know
+the secret of Alu. He told me—almost everything. It tickled his ego, I
+think, to gloat over his triumph ...”
+
+The bull head lolled forward and came back into place again abruptly.
+Brady said, “Maybe there’s a chance. I don’t know. Your guns ...
+Listen! If you can get to the pyramid and blast the machine out of
+existence—”
+
+“What machine?” Desquer asked.
+
+“The machine that will destroy Europe! The same kind of machine that
+created Earth’s Moon, ages ago! The machine that sank Atlantis!”
+
+Tony’s breath caught in his throat. Atlantis? Now he remembered the
+significance of the sign of the cross-and-circle. It was the symbol of
+Atlantis, the four rivers on the island continent. Softly he whispered,
+“The Ancients who ruled over the Four Rivers before their sons fled to
+Egypt.”
+
+Brady said, “Yes. That’s the secret of Egypt, and its civilization. Men
+have guessed at that before now. Ages ago, when Europe was filled with
+nomadic tribes, Atlantis was a continent of culture and science. It was
+unstable—volcanic activity went on endlessly beneath it. And the land
+began to sink. Thotmes told me how the scientists of Atlantis planned to
+prevent their doom.
+
+“They made a Moon. Out of the bed of the Pacific Ocean they tore part of
+the Earth and sent it driving out into space. They thought that would
+release the pressure under Atlantis and save their civilization.
+
+“They failed. The forces they controlled were too mighty. Atlantis sank,
+taking with it a science such as the world has never known and perhaps
+may never know again. But before the deluge, a few Atlanteans fled
+eastward, through the Pillars of Hercules, to Egypt.”
+
+The bull head nodded. “They were the ancestors of the underground Copts.
+They found Sub-Sahara centuries before the Pharaohs, and they found Alu.
+There they built a city such as had existed in the Atlantean valleys.
+They sent forth some of their number to civilize the Nile peoples, and
+those Atlanteans became the high priests of the gods. They created the
+gods!
+
+“As they created me—they made gods with heads of bulls and crocodiles
+and jackals, to terrify the superstitious tribes that needed tangible
+gods to worship. And then the road to the surface was closed by some
+ancient cataclysm, so that the Atlanteans were trapped here. Some few of
+the priests kept their culture. The others degenerated. They became—the
+Copts.
+
+“But the priests still kept the old religion alive, using their surgery
+and their healing-rays to make new gods, and ruling the Copts through
+fear. Now they plan to make a second Moon, and to raise Atlantis; they
+wish to rule the Earth as they did once, long ago.”
+
+Brady’s thin hands clenched into fists. “They caught me in the cavern
+where I was standing guard—used some sort of paralyzing ray on me. They
+brought me down here and told me what they intend. There’s a machine
+that’s capable of ripping all Europe from the face of the Earth and
+sending it out in space, to be another Moon.”
+
+Tony said, “But that would wreck the world!”
+
+“That is part of their plan. They have lost all their science,
+possessing only a few machines and devices that have come down since the
+days of the Atlantean exodus. And these are gradually losing their
+power. In sunken Atlantis Thotmes and his followers can find weapons and
+secrets that will enable them to rule the world. But first they plan to
+make another moon—to destroy Europe—and to wreck most of the Earth
+with quakes, tidal waves, and storms. They’ll be safe here in Alu.
+They’ll emerge after the Atlantic has drained into the great abyss that
+will be left by the destruction of Europe, and they’ll return to
+Atlantis, west of the Canary Islands.”
+
+“A machine to make a Moon!” Desquer’s voice was almost scornful.
+“Unbelievable!”
+
+“It was done once. The principle is that of vibration. A file of men
+marching in unison can shake down a bridge—you know that. The right
+vibration can wreck a building. Sonic waves can disrupt the molecular
+framework of the Earth, and Thotmes has a machine that can be focused
+_through_ the body of the planet. There will be little temblors in
+Europe at first, then heavy quakes. They will grow stronger. And finally
+the entire continent will be ripped away, and centrifugal force will
+carry it out to its orbit. Thotmes explained it in detail ...”
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+The bull head jerked forward suddenly. There was a sharp, brittle snap.
+And, slowly, the body of Captain Brady leaned and bent. It toppled.
+
+Desquer sprang forward with a curse. He touched the monstrous muzzle,
+jerked his hand away, and then felt for Brady’s heart-beat. After a
+moment he shrugged.
+
+“Well, he told us enough. Now ...” The commander stood up, his gaze
+traveling slowly from face to face. “Now we must find that machine and
+destroy it—eh?”
+
+He seemed vaguely displeased when the three brothers nodded as one. But
+his words were commonplace enough.
+
+“We need information. _Bon._ First, we must find someone who can supply
+it. Preferably this Thotmes—but we cannot pick and choose, I suppose.”
+
+Jimmy said on impulse, “You believe Captain Brady’s story?”
+
+For answer Desquer waved his hand around. “Look at this. No modern
+civilization built it. I’ve lived in Sub-Sahara for a long time,
+and—well, at least I’ll verify the story before I act. Let me remind
+you that it is not your business to ask questions.” His cold gaze held
+the youngster.
+
+Tony said quickly, “I’ll get the information, commander.”
+
+Desquer nodded. “Very well. I need tell you nothing you do not already
+know. Most of the Copts know English; if not, bring your captive back
+here. We shall wait.”
+
+Tony looked once at the sprawled, terrible body that had been Captain
+Brady, waved casually to Phil and Jimmy—and went out. Along the
+shadowed aisle of pillars he hurried, pausing only when he emerged from
+the temple. There, crouching in the dimness, he paused, looking about.
+
+There was no sign of life. In the distance loomed the tunnel mouth by
+which they had entered Alu. Tony slid along the side of the building and
+peered gingerly around the corner. He could see the arched ramp along
+which the “gods” had passed, but it was vacant now. What was the logical
+course to pursue?
+
+The lost city stretched about for miles, an apparently tenantless ruin.
+Yet it was peopled, Tony knew, by Thotmes the high priest and his
+servitors—perhaps by Copts, though probably not, since the latter were
+confined to their own city above. At the thought Tony involuntarily
+glanced up. Beyond the cavern roof was the Midnight Sea, above that the
+Coptic city, and still further above, Sub-Sahara itself. The weight of
+innumerable tons of Earth pressing down on him was almost suffocating.
+However—
+
+Tony shook off the feeling and set out at random, after taking careful
+bearings. He had a compass, but it was useless in this environment, as
+he found after brief experimentation. But he could gauge direction
+fairly well from the great pyramid, which was visible from almost any
+point in the city of Alu.
+
+He kept in the shadows, which were concealingly dark where the
+flickering red light did not shine. What caused that volcanic glow Tony
+did not know, though he hazarded a few guesses. He went toward the
+pyramid.
+
+It was a metropolis of the dead. Eons ago it had been inhabited, by the
+survivors of sunken Atlantis, but now only the dust of ages filled it.
+Silence, and everywhere the symbol of Isis, Moon-goddess, carved upon
+the stones. Silence ...
+
+The pyramid drew nearer, and Tony was amazed anew at its hugeness. It
+towered up and up to the very ceiling of the cavern, seeming to support
+it like a pillar. Perhaps it did—he could not tell. But as he came
+closer he saw that the pyramid was hollow, for there were lighted
+embrasures here and there in the sloping expanse of its sides.
+
+And still there was no sound, no movement, no trace of life.
+
+Tony grew more cautious, though there seemed no need. An arched opening
+loomed in the side of the pyramid near him, and he slunk toward it
+watchfully. No guards were posted. He hesitated near the threshold.
+Should he take the risk of entering what might be a stronghold of his
+enemies? To search the deserted city was seemingly a vain task, and,
+shrugging, Tony walked boldly toward the opening. But his gun was in his
+hand, and a coal-cartridge in its cup, ready for instant use.
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+A passageway sloped upward within the pyramid. It was lighted dimly by
+gleaming bars like neon-tubes that ran the length of the ceiling. In the
+vague glow Tony went stealthily on.
+
+The corridor was featureless and without doors—at first. But, suddenly,
+he noticed what had at first evaded his attention, a series of panels
+set in the walls. The secret of their locks was beyond him, until at
+last one seemed simpler than the others. Tony pressed a spring that was
+not too deftly hidden—and the panel opened.
+
+He looked through metal bars into a great cage.
+
+Briefly he thought of a menagerie, and then went sick and dizzy with
+nausea. This was, indeed, a “zoo”—but it did not hold animals. It
+held—gods!
+
+The artificial monsters created by Thotmes and his servants roamed
+within the cage, men with the heads of teratological mythos. Here,
+indeed, were the gods of Egypt, jackal-headed, ibis-headed, bull-headed,
+even some with the heads of crocodiles set hideously upon the human
+shoulders. So brightly lit was the cage that the beings did not see
+Tony, and he drew back swiftly, closing the panel. Obviously he could
+get no information here. He suppressed a strong impulse to use his
+carbon-gun to put these pitiful beings out of the unending nightmare of
+their existence. If this was a sample of Thotmes’ power, it would not be
+well for the Atlantean to rule over Earth!
+
+Tony went on along the corridor. From his slight knowledge of
+Egyptology, he knew that not all of the gods were malevolent, like Set.
+Both Osiris and Amon-Ra were benevolent, and so, indeed, was Isis.
+Perhaps in the beginning the whole religion had been a good one, and had
+become decadent and degenerate with the passage of ages in this hidden
+cavern-world. The obvious parallel was Satanism ...
+
+Yet this wasn’t a question of superstition. It was one of logic and
+science, of cold facts in which the mythology of a race had been rooted.
+Behind the veil of so-called “magic” lay an alien and powerful culture,
+born in Atlantis long before Ur and Akkad had risen in Sumeria, along
+the Tigris and Euphrates.
+
+On and on Tony went, a cold uneasiness rising within him. No one
+appeared to bar his path. More than once he glanced at the
+carbon-gun—but he was unprepared when the floor dropped beneath him,
+and he fell, writhing and twisting, into darkness.
+
+He landed heavily on a hard surface, and went down with a grunt and an
+oath. Before he could rise, he felt the weight of muscular bodies upon
+him. Handicapped by the darkness, he fought doggedly, but the gun was
+torn from his grasp almost at the outset of the struggle. He was not in
+complete blackness; there was a vague dim glow, but Tony’s eyes were not
+conditioned to it, as those of his enemies were. At last he lay
+prostrate, held motionless by iron hands that gripped him.
+
+A deep voice murmured a command. The light grew brighter. Tony blinked,
+staring up from his position spread-eagled on a stone floor. He
+discovered that he was in a bare chamber, with a barred door of metal
+grating set in one wall. Five strong-thewed Copts held him—but almost
+immediately Tony saw that they were not Copts. Their faces lacked the
+degeneracy of the underground mining race. They were cruel instead of
+stupid. Cruel—and arrogant, proud! Proud with the knowledge of a
+culture that stretched back into the mists of a lost antiquity.
+
+One man stood against the wall—and he was a giant. He wore a short
+spade beard, and soft, glossy black hair fell in curled, oily ringlets
+about his face. He was handsome with the beauty of a sword-blade, strong
+and powerful and deadly, and his beaked nose was hooked like a scimitar.
+Pale blue eyes watched Tony unwinkingly.
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+In not-quite-perfect English, he said, “I am Thotmes.” Tony could not
+repress a slight movement, and the blue eyes narrowed; but the priest
+merely smiled. “You know me? That is strange. Perhaps you have spoke
+to ... Osiris!”
+
+He nodded to the priests, who relaxed their grip on Tony. The
+legionnaire sprang up, but made no hostile movement. He stood silent,
+watching Thotmes.
+
+The Atlantean stroked his beard. “You are wise. This will be your
+prison, and, if you cause no trouble, you can live for a time. We do not
+murder unnecessarily.”
+
+“Only nine-tenths of the world’s population,” Tony said gently.
+
+“That,” Thotmes smiled, “is necessary. We are a handful, against
+billions. Not even the powers we shall recover from Atlantis would
+enable us to conquer Earth—unless Earth is already conquered, her
+navies and aircraft and weapons smashed by cataclysms.”
+
+“You actually expect to make a second Moon?” Tony’s voice held
+skepticism. But the priest was not offended.
+
+“Yes. Such a thing was done once before. The machine that made the Moon
+was built in Atlantis, and we have built a duplicate here. It took
+centuries, but at last it is finished. In the heart of the pyramid it
+lies—and already it is in operation.”
+
+“In operation?” Involuntarily Tony glanced around. “I don’t—”
+
+“You feel nothing here and now, of course. Later you may, though we are
+safe in Alu. The machine sets up vibration and molecular disruption in
+certain strata under Europe, and gradually the intensity of the
+vibration will be increased—until Europe shakes itself literally to
+pieces. In a week or even less the final cataclysm will take place.
+Europe will vanish, leaving an abyss into which the waters of the
+Atlantic will pour. And Atlantis will rise again!”
+
+“That,” said Tony, “will be Old Home Week, eh?”
+
+Thotmes didn’t answer. He turned to the others and gestured. One of them
+slid open the barred grating, and the group filed out. The door slammed.
+
+Beyond it, Thotmes smiled at his captive. “Your companions will join you
+soon. We shall not trouble to search for them. They will walk into our
+midst soon enough, and then you will have company.”
+
+“Look out you don’t get your head blown off by one of them,” Tony
+remarked.
+
+Thotmes lost his smile. He tugged at his spade beard and said, “Few men
+jest in Alu. There is always a need for new gods—and you would look
+well with a jackal’s head on your shoulders.”
+
+“You’d look lovely with a rat’s,” Tony agreed, “only you already have
+one.”
+
+The high priest said something indistinguishable, glared and departed.
+Tony was left alone. He shrugged and took stock of his possessions.
+
+He had been searched completely. His pockets were empty. Carbon-gun and
+coal-cartridges had been taken from him. He had no tool by which he
+might leave the cell.
+
+On the other hand, there might possibly be a concealed panel somewhere.
+It took an hour for Tony to convince himself that none existed. Finally
+he sat down and waited. There was nothing else to do. He had got the
+information for which he had come. The machine of the Atlanteans was in
+the heart of the pyramid. But he was unarmed, and had no way of
+conveying a message to Desquer or his brothers. Briefly he wondered what
+was happening to Phil and Jimmy, and how long they would wait. And when
+they got tired of waiting—what would they do?
+
+What could they do—trapped in Alu, city of science and fathomless
+antiquity? Four men, Desquer and the brothers, against the mighty powers
+of the greatest civilization Earth had ever known. Four against the
+might that had made Egypt an invincible empire.
+
+Four against the gods!
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VII
+                         The Might of Atlantis
+
+
+A thump from above brought Tony from his crouching position to stand
+rigidly erect, gaze riveted to the ceiling. He was in time to see a
+section of it swing down on hinges, letting the body of a man, with arms
+and legs flailing, drop into the prison. Tony sprang forward, breaking
+the man’s fall. It was Phil.
+
+Phil’s blond hair was disheveled, a stubble of yellow beard on his face;
+but his stocky body was as steel-muscled as ever. He still gripped the
+carbon-gun he had been holding, and his eyes met Tony’s with relief.
+
+“You okay?”
+
+“Yeah.” There was no need for more, so deep was the understanding
+between the brothers. Tony said swiftly, “Anybody after you?”
+
+“Didn’t see anybody.”
+
+“Took ’em by surprise, perhaps. But they’ll be along. We’ve got to work
+fast while we’ve a chance of getting out of here.” He glanced at the
+barred door. “We could blast out there with the carbon-gun, but I don’t
+know the road. Hop on my shoulders, kid. We’re going out through the
+ceiling.”
+
+Phil handed his brother the gun and climbed deftly onto Tony’s shoulders
+as the latter knelt. Slowly he rose, steadying Phil with one hand.
+
+“Got—got worried about you when you didn’t show up. I went after you.”
+
+“See if you can open the panel ... Jimmy all right?”
+
+“He’s okay. The kid’s pretty tough ... Got it!”
+
+The hinged panel slid down as Phil’s stubby fingers closed over the edge
+of the opening. Tony heaved up strongly. For a second Phil hung there;
+then his body wriggled up, and his weight was gone from Tony’s
+shoulders.
+
+Simultaneously a cry came from beyond the barred door.
+
+A pale ray lanced out. Tony felt a twinge of agony in his side.
+Involuntarily he flung up the carbon-gun and fired. The metal door
+vanished in a blaze of white fires. Whoever had been beyond it had also
+disappeared without trace.
+
+But there were others coming. Tony traded shots with them. He heard
+Phil’s voice and risked a glance up. Phil was lying flat, his arm
+extended down.
+
+“Jump for it!”
+
+“Can’t,” Tony said. “They’d wing me ...”
+
+“You’ve got to. I can hear them coming up here, too.”
+
+“Beat it. Get back to Desquer. Tell him the machine’s in the base of
+this pyramid. I’m going out this way; there’ll be a better chance of one
+of us getting through if we take different routes. Beat it!”
+
+There was a pause, punctuated by the snarl of the carbon-gun. Then Phil
+said, “Okay. Luck!”
+
+His feet scraped on the stone above. The panel slammed shut. Tony made a
+wry face, realizing that Phil was unarmed. But he had a better chance of
+escape than Tony himself, for a dozen or more of priests was blocking
+the passage that led—perhaps!—to freedom.
+
+Tony fired again. The foremost of the priests went down, and the others
+hesitated. The gun crackled savagely. One priest broke and fled—and the
+others followed.
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+Tony hurried after them, every sense on the alert. The passage was
+apparently bare, and silent save for the dying thump of flying feet; but
+he guessed that there might be traps. Would this road lead to escape?
+And—had Phil escaped safely? There was no way of knowing—yet.
+
+The passage stretched empty before Tony. He gripped the gun, feeling in
+its cold metal a reassurance against even the danger of Thotmes and his
+powers. There was no limit to the weapon’s potentialities. The stronger
+the charge, the more effective the results. With a powerful enough
+charge, Tony thought sardonically, he could bring down the whole
+pyramid. Unfortunately he had no ammunition, save for the clip in the
+gun’s butt.
+
+At a side passage he hesitated, realizing that the new tunnel led up.
+The priests would not expect him to take this path—so he did so. And,
+as it turned out, he was wise.
+
+He came out on a little balcony overlooking the sloping ramp of the
+pyramid. Beneath him the massive piles of masonry fled down like
+gigantic steps, and Tony hesitated as he glanced down. A noise from
+behind him, along the passage, helped him make his decision.
+
+It was almost too late. A priest burst into view, mouth open in a
+soundless scream, raising a short metal rod in one hand. Tony flung up
+the carbon-gun and squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened.
+
+The ammunition was exhausted.
+
+Tony’s reaction was involuntary and instinctive. He flung the gun
+straight at the priest’s face and ducked, diving in at his opponent. A
+beam of light lanced out over Tony’s head. Then he crashed into the
+priest’s knees and brought the man down heavily.
+
+There was no time for ethics. Tony struck low and hard. He left the
+priest unconscious and vaulted the balcony’s rail. Down the slope of the
+pyramid he sprang, leaping along the huge steps made by the giant
+blocks, risking his neck at every jump. But—he made it.
+
+Once at the base of the pyramid, he was comparatively safe. Out of the
+red glow the shadows were heavy, and Tony took advantage of them to
+slink away toward the wall of the cavern he could see far ahead of him.
+But before he did so he made a brief scouting trip, hoping to find Phil.
+It was useless. Either Phil had already made good his escape, or else he
+had fallen victim to the priests of Thotmes.
+
+There was no sign of excitement. Tony wondered why. Perhaps the escape
+of prisoners was of little importance to the Atlanteans. They were too
+self-confident—with good reason, it might be. Science that could rip
+the Earth asunder was not easily to be conquered.
+
+Near the door of the Temple of Osiris Tony quickened his pace. The sound
+of hoarse breathing and shuffling footsteps came to his ears. On the
+threshold he hesitated, staring, but saw nothing in the dimness of the
+interior. Wait! Far down beneath the dais were two motionless bodies.
+One was that of Captain Brady, of course. But the other—
+
+Tony broke into a run. Yet he retained caution enough to move as
+silently as possible, though he could hardly repress a shouted question.
+Had the Atlanteans found the intruders in Alu? Was the body that of
+Desquer, or—Jimmy?
+
+It was neither! Tony stumbled over a carbon-gun, snatched it up in one
+motion, and simultaneously saw that beside the figure of Brady lay Phil,
+unconscious and bloodstained, red fluid seeping from a gaping hole in
+his chest. But Tony could spare only one glance at his brother. Beside
+him, between the pillars that towered to the roof, two men were locked
+in conflict—Jimmy and Commander Desquer!
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+Jimmy was getting the worst of it. He was weaponless and trying to hold
+on to the hand in which Desquer held his gun. The commander was slowly
+breaking his opponent’s grip. No expression showed in the Legion
+officer’s face, but his eyes were black and deadly as wet velvet. Jimmy
+was gasping and bleeding from a cut over one eye, almost exhausted.
+
+Tony said, his voice like a whiplash, “_Drop that gun, Desquer!_”
+
+The commander’s reaction was unexpected. All in one swift motion he
+released Jimmy and flung himself back. Hidden in the shadow of the
+pillars, he fired at Tony.
+
+The shot missed. Tony lifted his own weapon—the one Jimmy had
+apparently dropped—but Desquer was fleeing, dodging in and out like a
+phantom. Why the devil—! Then Tony knew why. Desquer was no coward.
+But, on the other hand, he was no fool. He had run out of ammunition. A
+cartridge belt on the floor, its buckle torn off, explained the reason.
+In the fight Desquer had lost the belt.
+
+He vanished through the door of the temple and was gone. Tony stared at
+Jimmy. “What the hell?”
+
+The boy was white and gasping. “Phil got back. He’d seen you in the
+pyramid—told us where the machine was. But he’d been wounded—”
+
+“Yeah. Keep talking, kid.” Tony was kneeling beside the unconscious form
+of Phil, rendering such first aid as he could.
+
+“Desquer sent me outside to keep guard. I heard Phil yell, and came
+running in. I was just in time to see Desquer—” The boy swallowed. “He
+killed Phil, Tony. Shot him through the chest. I tried to stop him—and
+then you came in.”
+
+Phil’s eyelashes flickered. Tony gave Jimmy the gun. “Okay. Run along
+and keep guard again. Watch out for Desquer. If he shows up—”
+
+“I’ll use the gun.” There was deadly grimness in the young voice.
+Jimmy’s hand closed over the weapon; he hurried off down the dark aisle.
+
+Phil was looking up at his brother, a wry grin twisting his lips. “So
+you got out of the pyramid too, eh? Good.”
+
+“What happened, boy?” Tony was futilely trying to stanch the flow of
+blood.
+
+“Nothing much. Desquer didn’t bandage me up after I got here. He
+searched me, instead. Found nothing, of course. But—he asked me where
+the Earth Star was.”
+
+There was a little silence. Tony whispered, “How—”
+
+“I don’t know. Desquer found out something. He’s after the gem. Thought
+I had it, and when he couldn’t find it on me, he tried to make me talk.
+His methods weren’t very—nice. That’s when I yelled, I guess. I jumped
+at Desquer. Found out I wasn’t as badly wounded as I’d thought. He shot
+me through the chest.”
+
+Phil coughed. “Might as well stop trying, Tony. I’m the first of us to
+go. I’ve a hunch there’ll be another. But one of us three ought to pull
+through.”
+
+“I’ll get Desquer,” Tony said very softly. His thin, dark face was a
+grim mask of copper.
+
+“Thanks. And keep an eye on the kid, will you? I—I—” A gush of blood
+came from Phil’s mouth. He coughed rackingly. Tony hurriedly ripped off
+his shirt to improvise an additional bandage.
+
+But it was useless. Ten minutes later Tony stood silently beside the
+body of his brother, looking down at the stolid features, relaxed
+utterly now in death. The shadows of the temple of Osiris pressed in
+heavily. It was, in a way, fitting that death should have come for Phil
+in Alu, the asphodel land where Egyptians thought the souls went to roam
+endlessly.
+
+Tony turned and walked slowly along the aisle. At the threshold of the
+temple he turned and looked back. Phil would rest there forever,
+perhaps—and it was such a sarcophagus as few men have ever possessed.
+
+“Don’t move,” a low voice commanded. “Not an inch! _Careful!_”
+
+[Illustration: “Don’t move! Not if you value your lives!”]
+
+But Tony’s reaction was involuntary as he whirled. Almost beside him,
+but out of easy reach, was Commander Desquer. In his hand was a
+carbon-gun, and another was in his holster. The man’s glittering eyes
+watched Tony icily from under the shaggy penthouse brows.
+
+“Careful!” Desquer repeated. “Your brother wasn’t.”
+
+“Where is he?”
+
+“There.... He isn’t hurt. He’ll wake up in a few minutes. Just
+stunned. My gun wasn’t loaded, but his was. So—”
+
+Desquer grinned and passed his palm over his shaved scalp. “Revive him.
+Quick!” he barked as Tony hesitated.
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+The latter silently went to where Jimmy lay huddled against the wall of
+the temple. He knelt beside the boy and began to slap his cheeks. He
+glanced up once to see the Commander watching him narrowly.
+
+Desquer said, “Where’s the Earth Star? You got it?”
+
+“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tony grunted.
+
+“No? Then let me explain. That televisor call that took me to the
+surface—it was from a man named Zadah, the secretary of a certain
+Rajah. He told me all about you. Offered me a fortune if I got the jewel
+back for him. Well—I intend to. I’m sick of the Legion, and this is my
+chance to buy my way out and live like a prince. So—where’s the stone?”
+
+Tony told him, but his remark was unprintable. Desquer’s thick lips
+twisted in a sneer.
+
+“Very well. But I’ll get it, remember that.”
+
+“A lot of good it’ll do you now.”
+
+“I’ll get out of here. But first we’re going to destroy that machine of
+Thotmes. Your brother’s waking up. Bring him along. We’re heading for
+the pyramid.”
+
+Grimly Tony hoisted the half-unconscious Jimmy to his feet and supported
+him. “We’re unarmed. There are scores of priests—”
+
+“You’re going to stay unarmed,” Desquer snapped. “I can handle a gun
+better than any three men. _Allons!_”
+
+Tony grunted and started out, carrying most of Jimmy’s weight on his
+shoulders as the boy slowly recovered from the blow that had stunned
+him. His lips were a tight, pale line. Both he and Jimmy were completely
+in Desquer’s power, and the man was so completely an egotist that he had
+not hesitated to carry out his own plans even in the face of a doom that
+threatened the entire Earth. Ruthless Desquer was—but of his icy
+courage there could be no doubt. Nor of his greed! Tony sensed something
+of the driving power within the man, the desolate years of loneliness in
+Sub-Sahara, a prison worse for Desquer, perhaps, than for any other man
+there.
+
+They moved toward the pyramid, keeping to the shadows. Tony and Jimmy
+preceded their captor, conscious always of the gun leveled unerringly at
+their backs. There was neither sign nor movement to indicate the
+presence of the Atlanteans.
+
+“How do you expect to get to the machine?” Tony asked finally. “It’s
+guarded.”
+
+“I can outshoot a dozen Copts,” Desquer said confidently. “We’re going
+straight in. We’ll find a guide—make him guide us. If anyone gets in
+our way, he’ll regret it. We’re going in, smash the machine, and come
+out again. And then—I’ll find out which of you has the Earth Star.”
+
+Tony didn’t reply. He went on, his mind desperately searching for a
+plan. But it seemed hopeless. There was no way out.
+
+Finally only a broad plaza separated them from the pyramid. At its edge
+the trio paused. Desquer said, “We’ll skirt around to that building—see
+it? It juts into the open space ... I don’t see any guards, but there
+may be some.”
+
+The three were standing in the shadow at the corner of a tall stone
+obelisk. And without warning a score of figures dropped down upon them,
+in utter silence—and with murderous fury.
+
+Desquer’s guns were in his hands. The snarling crackle of the
+carbon-pistols rapped out, awakening echoes in the dead city. Tony could
+not see the commander; he was borne down under a press of bodies,
+struggling furiously. Beside him he heard Jimmy cursing and striking out
+weakly. The Atlantean priests were not using their ray-projectors,
+perhaps because they depended on weight of numbers. That was their
+mistake!
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+It was Desquer’s fearless savagery turned the tide of battle. His guns
+bellowed without ceasing. Thrice he went down, rising at last a
+gargoylish, hideous figure, dripping with blood from a dozen wounds, his
+bare scalp shining blackly in the red light. One by one and two by two
+he killed, mercilessly, viciously, finally clubbing his pistol to
+dispose of the last of the priests, who was atop Tony.
+
+“Can’t waste ammunition,” he growled. “Get up! Both of you! Hurry!”
+
+Tony stood up, Jimmy beside him. A few of the priests _had_ escaped, he
+saw, and were even now fleeing toward the temple. Desquer raised his
+gun, hesitated, and lowered it.
+
+“Come on!”
+
+Tony stared. Scores—no, more than a hundred priests were pouring from
+the pyramid, forming a phalanx massing itself to guard the threshold. In
+the lead stood Thotmes, his spade beard making him easily recognizable.
+The fleeing priests joined their companions, and the little army stood
+in silence.
+
+“Not using their ray-projectors,” Tony said. “Guess they’re good only at
+short range.”
+
+Desquer snarled, “Come on!” His guns snouted forward, urging his
+captives on. Slowly they moved across the plaza.
+
+The commander fired. A priest fell, screaming. The ranks closed in,
+hiding him from view.
+
+Again and again Desquer fired. His gun clicked on an empty chamber; he
+emptied the other one. Then he reached for his belt—and Tony heard him
+curse.
+
+“_Dieu!_ Those damned Copts! The priests—they got my ammunition belt in
+the fight!”
+
+Tony stopped, turned. Desquer was standing straddle-legged, the
+carbon-pistols, futile without coal, pointing at the priests. His face
+was set into rock-hard lines.
+
+Thotmes shouted something and lifted the missing ammunition belt in one
+hand. He raised it tauntingly.
+
+“Got any coal?” Desquer rasped. The other two men shook their heads.
+
+The priests began to move forward.
+
+Tony said, “You can’t destroy the machine now, Desquer. You’ve doomed
+the world—and yourself.”
+
+Desquer’s knuckles were white; he stood as though carven from granite.
+His jet eyes squinted at the oncoming mob.
+
+Jimmy started to laugh. “How do you like it, Desquer?” he mocked.
+“You’re not the commander now. You’re just a guy with an empty gun.
+And—you’re going to die, Desquer. _You’re going to die!_”
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII
+                            The New Atlantis
+
+
+The tension grew unendurable. The priests were advancing slowly, as
+though assured that their quarry could not escape. In the lead Thotmes
+was smiling and stroking his beard with one hand.
+
+“Surrender,” he called out. “No harm will come to you—for a while. Not
+till we need new beast-gods!”
+
+Desquer’s face went a mottled red. But still there was no fear in the
+man. He faced the throng, still holding his guns—and suddenly sheathed
+one and began to search his pockets. His low voice rapped out.
+
+“Quick, you fools! See if there’s anything on you we can use for
+ammunition. It doesn’t have to be coal—carbon will do.”
+
+Tony shot one hurried glance at the mob of priests. Desquer gave a
+little cry of triumph and brought out a single coal-cartridge from his
+tunic pocket. “Good! Only one, but—” He slipped it into the gun’s
+firing cup.
+
+There was a queer look, almost of amusement, on Tony’s dark face. He
+gripped Jimmy’s arm and whispered, “Wait!”
+
+Desquer stepped forward. He raised his gun and called, “Halt!”
+
+A flashing smile came from Thotmes. The high priest did not reply. He
+kept on....
+
+And Desquer fired.
+
+Thotmes seemed surprised. He paused, lifting his hands to a chest that
+was a gory mass of red ruin. He stared at his bloodstained fingers.
+
+From the priests went up a whisper of terror—as Thotmes fell! The high
+priest of Alu was dead!
+
+Desquer did not pause. He took one step forward, and another, as though
+expecting his enemies to give back. But they did not.
+
+They massed together grimly—and advanced.
+
+This time the commander paused, his thick lips twisting. His hand dived
+into his tunic pocket in a futile gesture. But there was no more
+ammunition.
+
+Tony was smiling. He touched Desquer’s arm.
+
+“I’ve a bullet for you, commander.”
+
+“Eh?” The glittering eyes widened. “Where—”
+
+Desquer’s gaze focused on what Tony held in his palm. Lens-shaped and
+lovely the great gem lay there, flashing in the red light of Alu. Like a
+diamond it was—but it was not a diamond.
+
+Jimmy said breathlessly, “Tony! You—”
+
+“_The Earth Star!_” There was sweat on Desquer’s face.
+
+“Go on,” Tony whispered. “Take it, commander! It’s carbon. You can use
+it as a bullet. A coal-cartridge will kill a man. This jewel’s much
+harder than stone. There’s no limit to the power of a carbon gun. You
+can bring down the pyramid with this—commander!”
+
+Desquer still did not move, and Tony deftly slipped the jewel into the
+gun’s cup. It rested there in its strange setting, beautiful beyond
+imagination, holding within its fiery heart fortunes and grandeur and
+death. A jewel—but it was carbon, too. And Desquer’s eyes did not move
+from the great gem.
+
+“Shoot,” Tony said. “If you do, you lose the Earth Star. If you
+don’t—it means death.”
+
+The commander’s face was shining with sweat. He glanced up once to the
+mob of priests, very close now. His gross frame shook with the agony of
+indecision. To possess the Earth Star—and to know that its possession
+meant certain doom! He had only to squeeze the trigger, and his enemies
+would be blasted out of existence. But if he did that—
+
+He would lose the Earth Star!
+
+He snarled at Tony, “So you were the one! The Merlin—”
+
+“_Fire!_”
+
+Almost involuntarily Desquer brought up the gun and aimed it. He was
+whispering curses under his breath, putting off until the last moment
+the decision that must be made sooner or later. And he dared not wait
+too long. The priests came closer.
+
+The flickering red glow made Desquer’s features scarlet and black; his
+eyes burned balefully, tortured and terrible. He said, “Damn you!
+I—I’ll—”
+
+His finger tightened on the trigger. And—stopped.
+
+For the priests had paused. They were staring at the Earth Star. They,
+too, were frozen motionless.
+
+One cried, “The jewel! The jewel!”
+
+The tableau held. Abruptly the priests gave back, hesitating. Tony heard
+Jimmy’s gasp. He, too, was wondering what this meant.
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+He was never to know. Perhaps, in long-forgotten ages, another Earth
+Star had been dug out from beneath the Atlantic, to form part of the
+religion of Atlantis. Tony could not know. But he realized that the
+priests recognized the jewel, or thought they did. They bowed before it!
+
+Instantly Desquer realized his opportunity. He said quietly, “Come on.
+We’re going into the pyramid—and smash the machine.”
+
+Tony said, “You’re crazy. The priests won’t stand for _that_!”
+
+Desquer grinned unpleasantly. Without warning the other gun was in his
+hand; he clubbed it and swung. Tony felt a crashing blow on his head as
+he ducked. Gasping with pain, he reeled in and closed with the giant
+commander.
+
+Jimmy had hold of Desquer’s arm but with one sweeping motion the officer
+sent the boy sprawling. Desquer and Tony went down with a crash on the
+stones. Soft cries came from the priests. They began to move forward
+again, their superstitious terror gone.
+
+Desquer’s stubby fingers were sunk into Tony’s throat; he squeezed
+viciously, his tiny eyes glinting. Though he lay undermost, he was
+getting the better of the battle. Tony pumped blow after blow at the
+commander’s face, but apparently without effect. He felt Jimmy at his
+side, saw the boy try to tear the iron fingers from his brother’s neck.
+
+And, too, Tony saw the carbon-pistol lying on the stones near by.
+
+“Jimmy!” His voice was a cracked wheeze. “Gun—pyramid—”
+
+Into Desquer’s eyes sprang murder-light. The fingers contracted, sending
+agony down Tony’s spine. Jimmy understood, though, and dived for the
+pistol. He snatched it up, leveled it at the pyramid and the oncoming
+priests.
+
+Desquer yelled like a beast. His fingers relaxed. Somehow he writhed
+free, sprang up, plunged toward Jimmy.
+
+“Don’t!” he bellowed. “Don’t—”
+
+From the gun’s muzzle burst a raving blast of searing flame. The
+incredible pressure that had made the Earth Star was released. Straight
+through the ranks of the priests it bored an aisle, into the heart of
+the pyramid, melting and wrecking solid stone with the terrific power of
+its thrust. The volcanic fires of Earth itself seemed to be latent in
+that—bullet!
+
+Over the cries of the priests came a rumbling, crashing thunder. A block
+fell, clattering down the pyramid’s side. The structure buckled. Its
+whole side was torn out. The summit toppled and came thundering down,
+amid clouds of smoking dust and ruin.
+
+Tony staggered erect, staring up. Something was happening to the cavern
+roof. The pyramid _had_ been a pillar, supporting it. And now the
+support was gone—
+
+Rocks fell from above. Cracks ran out like a great spider web. Something
+silvery flashed down from above, glinting red in the crimson glow. Tony
+remembered that above Alu was—the Midnight Sea!
+
+And that sunless, tideless ocean was pouring into the cavern world
+through the crevasse that had been torn in its floor!
+
+The falling water became a column, a torrent, a bellowing Niagara. It
+drowned the wreckage of the pyramid. Down the flood came thundering, and
+icy tides lapped at Tony’s feet. He seized Jimmy’s arm, pushed him
+along.
+
+“We’ve got to get out of here!”
+
+“How—how can we?”
+
+“We can try—”
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+Their voices, raised to shouts, sounded like thin whispers above the
+mighty rush of the ocean that was pouring into Alu. The priests ran
+about aimlessly, and among them, Tony saw, was Commander Desquer. A knot
+of the Atlanteans surrounded the officer. They were trying to pull him
+down, like wolves surrounding a bison. Unarmed, Desquer yet was stronger
+than his opponents.
+
+Silently Jimmy pointed. Tony’s teeth showed in a mirthless grin.
+
+“So what?” his lips formed. He was remembering Phil ...
+
+The brothers plunged along the street, already knee deep in surging
+black water. A louder thunder came from behind them. A new sound filled
+the cavern—a deep hissing, like steam. Beyond the wreck of the pyramid,
+Tony saw with a quick glance, crimson clouds were lifting. So the red
+light of Alu was actually due to volcanic activity. And now the icy
+waters of the Midnight Sea were finding the molten fires of lava—
+
+More rocks fell thunderously. Looking back, Tony saw a single figure
+charging after them—Desquer, a battered, bleeding giant who splashed on
+through the water amid a hail of stone that dropped from the vaulted
+heaven of Alu. All about him that deadly hail dropped. One glance Tony
+had of Desquer rushing on, heavy shoulders hunched, teeth bared in a
+mirthless grin—
+
+Then he was gone! The avalanche from the cracking skies buried him. A
+pile of rocks showed for an instant where he had been, and that, too,
+vanished as the rising waters seethed past.
+
+Tony said nothing, but as he fought past the temple of Osiris where
+Phil’s body lay, he lifted his hand in a queer, quick salute. Perhaps
+Phil would know, now, that his death had been avenged ...
+
+Already the dark tides were seething at the tunnel-mouth that led to the
+upper world. On the threshold Tony paused, to take one last look at
+ruined Alu. The red light was darker now, and somber. The flaming clouds
+boiled up endlessly; the rock shook and quaked underfoot. The Niagara
+that poured from the roof of the cave looked like a solid obelisk, and
+an odd thought came into Tony’s mind.
+
+“A pillar of cloud by day ... and a pillar of smoke by night ...”
+
+Alu, daughter of Atlantis, was dying as the mother continent had died.
+Earth-fires and deluge were slaying her, wiping out all life, wrecking
+the culture that had survived from the misty, unknown eons before Egypt
+was. The huge temples, half submerged in seething tides, were falling in
+ruin. All over the vast cavern darkness was falling.
+
+The arched ramp they had seen on entering Alu was still visible, far
+away. And now Tony saw that there were figures upon it, as there had
+been at first. Figures with strange, misshapen heads—
+
+The pitiable, terrible beast-gods of Alu, created by dead Thotmes’
+science!
+
+One glimpse Tony had of those far figures, outlined blackly against red
+smoke. Then—the ramp fell.
+
+Over Alu the roaring desolation of death and ruin held sway!
+
+Tony turned to the white-faced Jimmy. Already the water was tearing at
+their thighs.
+
+“Come on,” he shouted. “We’re getting out of here. Fast!”
+
+They fled up the tunnel ...
+
+The rest was sheer nightmare. Somehow they found their way, following
+always the passages that led up, hiding from terrified, frantic Copts,
+fleeing through corridors whose walls shook with the grip of earthquake.
+Up and up they went, finding at last a frightened Copt who agreed to
+guide them to the surface. His own world was falling in pieces about
+him, and he wished only to escape. A cave-in crushed him not long after,
+but the passage stretched unbroken before the brothers. They toiled
+on ...
+
+Daylight filtered in yellow brilliance through a crack in the rock.
+Exhausted, haggard, filthy scarecrows, the two squeezed through into
+blazing sunlight. About them lay rolling dunes. They were in a rocky
+little valley.
+
+They dropped to the sand and lay there motionless for hours, scarcely
+conscious of the burning sun.
+
+The soft mutter of a gyro motor woke them. Tony sat up, blinking. He was
+in time to see a plane land softly not far away, and a figure in flying
+uniform step out.
+
+                 *        *        *        *        *
+
+Jimmy was still sleeping. Tony lurched forward to greet the new arrival.
+His eyes were misty with sleep, and he did not at first recognize the
+pilot—not till the latter took out an automatic and held it ready.
+
+Then he saw it was Zadah, the Rajah’s secretary.
+
+Tony stopped, swaying a little, his arms hanging limp at his sides.
+Zadah’s round face was triumphant. The beady eyes shone with triumph.
+
+“Luck,” he said. “I’ve been cruising about for hours just on an off
+chance. I just happened to sight you—”
+
+“The Copts.” Tony said thickly. “They—”
+
+Zadah nodded. “I know. Your legionnaire got through—Jacklyn. There’s an
+army of troopers at the mouth of Sub-Sahara. But—where’s the Earth
+Star? If you escaped, that means Desquer didn’t get it.”
+
+“It’s gone. Desquer got it—and used it. The Earth Star’s destroyed,
+Zadah.”
+
+The other hesitated. Something he saw in Tony’s eyes made him realize
+that the latter spoke truth. Abruptly baffled rage sprang into Zadah’s
+round face.
+
+“Gone! Then—”
+
+He lifted the gun, his lips white with fury at the wreckage of his
+plans. “Maybe! If you’re lying, I’ll find the jewel on your bodies.”
+
+Tony tensed himself for a spring that he knew in advance would be
+futile. But, before he could move, another figure hurled itself forward.
+Jimmy’s slight frame dived at the killer.
+
+Zadah’s gun barked. Jimmy cried out; the Oriental swung his weapon back
+to Tony. But he was too late. His wrist was held in a grip of iron.
+Tony’s dark face was close to his own, and there was death in the somber
+eyes.
+
+Zadah screamed.
+
+Tony said not a word. Very slowly, very carefully, he bent Zadah’s hand
+back. The latter’s finger was still on the trigger. The gun pointed at
+last at the killer’s heart.
+
+Then Tony smiled—and the muscles of his hand contracted.
+
+The report was shatteringly loud in the desert stillness.
+
+Tony let the limp body slide down, and turned back to Jimmy. The boy was
+dead. Zadah’s bullet had made a neat little hole in the brown shirt.
+
+After a moment Tony carried the body of his brother to the plane and put
+it aboard. He followed. He sent the gyro winging up over the desert.
+
+Beneath him the Sahara stretched, a white wilderness under the flaming
+heat of the Sun. To the north could be seen an encampment, the troopers
+that had arrived, too late, at the mouth of Sub-Sahara. Tony set the
+controls and fled beyond them.
+
+The desert gave place to the Mediterranean, and that, in turn, to the
+Pacific Ocean. The cool blueness of night folded down. Moonlight
+silvered the waves.
+
+Tony opened a trap-door in the floor and let the body of his brother
+slide through. Phil rested in the temple of Osiris—and Jimmy would lie
+beneath the waves that hid Atlantis.
+
+He went back to the controls, staring ahead at an empty horizon.
+Westward lay New York. He could go back there now; the motive for
+keeping hidden had vanished. No one would know who the Merlin was. Some
+men might guess, might be convinced that either Phil or Jimmy had stolen
+the Earth Star—but they would never dare make an accusation, and Seth
+Martell would need make no compromises with his honor and his ideals.
+
+Only Tony would know that the Merlin had been his brother Phil.
+
+For ten minutes he had been alone with Phil in the Temple of Osiris.
+And, before the youth died, he had told Tony the truth—that he was the
+Merlin. He had given his brother the Earth Star to keep. But no one
+would ever know that now.
+
+Tony’s throat was tight. He stared at the dim horizon of sky and sea,
+knowing that beyond it lay New York, and a life he could take up again
+where he had left it. A life he must live—alone.
+
+A faint glow brightened to the west. The tallest towers of Manhattan
+were pillars of light against the sky.
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75218 ***