This etext was produced from Astounding Stories September 1931. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U. S. Copyright on this publication was renewed. [Illustration: The tip sprayed a web around his body. ] Devil Crystals of Arret _By Hal K. Wells_ Facing a six-hour deadline of death, young Larry raids a hostile world of rat-men and tinkling Devil Crystals. Benjamin Marlowe and his young assistant, Larry Powell, opened thedoor of the Marlowe laboratory, then stopped aghast at the sightwhich greeted their startled eyes. There on the central floor-plate directly in the focus of the bigatomic projector stood the slender figure of Joan Marlowe, oldBenjamin Marlowe's niece and Larry Powell's fiancee. The girl had apparently only been awaiting their return to thelaboratory for around her gray laboratory smock was already fastenedone of their Silver Belts, and a cord was already in place runningfrom her wrist to the main switch of the projection mechanism. Joan's clear blue eyes sparkled with the thrill of high adventure asshe swiftly raised a slender hand in a gesture of warning to the twomen. "Don't try to stop me, " she warned quietly. "I can jerk the switchand be in Arret, before you've taken two steps. I'm going to Arret, anyway. I was only waiting for you to return to the laboratory soI'd be sure of having you here to bring me back to Earth againbefore I have time to get into any serious trouble over there. " "But, Joan, " Benjamin Marlowe protested, "this is sheer madness! Noone can possibly guess what terrible conditions you may confront inArret. We've never dared to send a human being across the atomicbarrier yet!" "We've sent all kinds of animals across, though, " Joan retortedcalmly, "and as long as we recalled them within the twelve-hourlimit they always came back alive and unhurt. There's no reason whya human being should not be able to make the round trip just assafely. Ever since our Silver Belts first came back with the weirdplant and mineral fragments which proved that there really is such aplace as Arret, I've been wild to see with my own eyes theincredible things that must exist there. " Joan waved her hand in gay farewell. "Good-by, Uncle Ben and Larry!I know that you'll drag me back just as quickly as you can possiblydash over to the recall switch, but I'll at least have had a fewprecious seconds of sightseeing as Earth's first human visitor toArret!" * * * * * Larry Powell was already sprinting for the mechanism as Joan jerkedthe cord that ran to the switch, but he was barely half-way acrossthe intervening space when the big atomic projector flared forth ina brilliant gush of roseate flame. For a fraction of a second Joan's slender figure was outlined in thevery heart of the ruddy glow, then vanished completely. There wasleft only a short length of the switch cord to indicate that thegirl had ever stood there. Powell reached the mechanism and shut off the projector's flame, then turned swiftly to the control-panel of the recall mechanism. Ashe closed the switch on this panel, three banks of tubes set intriangular form around the floor-plate upon which Joan had stoodglowed a brilliant and blinding green. Shielding his eyes from the glare with an upraised forearm, Powellbegan stepping a rheostat up to more and more power. In his anxiety, he increased the power far too quickly. There was a sudden gush ofblue-white flame from the heart of the mechanism, together with thehissing crackle of fusing metal. The green light in the tubespromptly died. Benjamin Marlowe was bending over the apparatus almost instantly. Amoment later he raised a face that had suddenly gone white. Therewas terror in his eyes as he turned to his assistant. "The entire second series of coils is burned out, Larry!" he gaspedin consternation. "Joan is marooned over there in Arret--marooned inthat grim unknown land as completely beyond our reach as though shewere upon one of the moons of Mars!" For a long moment the two men gazed at each other withhorror-stricken faces, dazed and shaken. Then they quickly drewthemselves together again and set about the herculean task of makingthe necessary repairs to the damaged mechanism in time to rescueJoan before the twelve-hour limit should doom the girl to foreverremain an exile in that land of alien mystery beyond the atomicbarrier. * * * * * Their previous experiments with animals had proved that no livingcreature from Earth could be brought back after it had been in Arretover twelve hours. After that time the change in the atomsconstituting living tissues apparently became permanently Arretian, for the Silver Belts returned without any trace of their originalwearers. The necessary repairs to the damaged coils were of such an exactingand intricate nature that any great speed was impossible. Hourspassed while the two men bent to their work with grim concentration. Neither of them dared think too much of what nameless dangers mightbe confronting Joan during those weary hours. Their actual knowledgeof Arret was so pitiably slight. Some months ago, while they were experimenting upon apparatus forreversing the electrical charges of an atom's electrons and protons, they had first stumbled upon the incredible fact that such a placeas Arret really existed. They found that it was another worldoccupying the same position in space as Earth, with the fundamentaldifference in the two interwoven planes of existence lying in theelectrical make-up of the atoms that constituted matter in eachplane. On Earth all atoms are composed of small heavy protons that arealways positive in charge, and larger lighter electrons that arealways negative. In Arret the protons were negative, and theelectrons positive. The result was two worlds occupying the samespace at the same time, yet with matter so essentially andcompletely different that each world was intangible to the other. They had named the unseen world Arret, the reverse of Terra. Finding it impossible to work directly upon most forms of matter, the experimenters had finally evolved a silver alloy that served asa medium both for sending objects into Arret and then bringingthem back to Earth. By focussing the flame of the projectionapparatus upon a Silver Belt of this alloy, the electrical chargesof the Belt's atoms were reversed, automatically causing the Belt tovanish from Earth and materialize in Arret. At the same time theatoms of any object within the Belt's immediate radius weresimilarly transformed, and that object was taken into Arret with theBelt. The recall mechanism functioned by broadcasting a power wave thatagain reversed the atomic charge of the Belt and its containedobject back to that of Earth. At the same time the recall waveexerted an attractive force that drew the atoms back to a centralpoint in the laboratory, where they were re-materialized upon thesame floor-plate from which they had originally been sent. * * * * * The twelve-hour time limit was half up when Benjamin Marlowe andLarry Powell finally straightened up wearily from their work overthe recall mechanism, their repairs completed. It had been oneo'clock in the afternoon when Joan Marlowe vanished from Earth inthe roseate flare of the projector. It was now nearly seven o'clock. With nerves tense from anxiety, the two men crossed over to thecontrol-panel of the recall apparatus. This time they donned gogglesof dark glass to shield their eyes from the blinding green glare. Marlowe threw the main switch, and the banked tubes came to life ina flood of vivid emerald light. Marlowe began stepping the rheostat up gradually to more power, advancing it with cautious slowness to avoid any chance of arepetition of the previous accident. The green radiance streamingfrom the tubes in every direction began to throb with an electricforce that the two men could feel pulsing through their own bodies. There was a click as the rheostat struck the last notch. The greenradiance was now a searing flame that half-blinded them even throughthe thick dark glass of their protective goggles, while the vibrantforce of the green rays was sweeping through their bodies with atingling shock that nearly took their breath away. Tensely the two men stared at the metal floor-plate in the center ofthe area bounded by the flaming green tubes. Just over the plate thegreen radiance seemed to be thickening and swirling oddly. Theswirling eddy became a small dense cloud of darker green light. Thenabruptly, like the fade-in on a moving picture screen, from thecloud over the plate the misty outlines of an object swiftly clearedand solidified into a bizarre something at whose unfamiliar aspectboth Marlowe and Powell gasped in amazement. Marlowe snapped the switch off, and the green radiance vanished. Stripping the dark goggles from their eyes, the two men hurried overfor a closer view of the thing that rested quiescent and apparentlylifeless there on the metal floor-plate. * * * * * It was shaped like a huge egg, a little over a yard long, and wasapparently composed of a solid lump of some unknown crystallinesubstance that closely resembled very clear, pale amber. Embedded inthe heart of the strange egg were clearly visible objects whichcaused Marlowe and Powell to gasp in mingled horror and amazement. Chief among the things imprisoned in that amber shroud was theSilver Belt that Joan had worn, but the Belt was now looped over thebony shoulder of a skeleton that by no possible stretch of theimagination could ever have been that of a creature of this Earth. The skeleton was still perfectly articulated, and gleamed throughthe crystalline amber as though its bony surfaces were encrustedwith diamond dust. The bones were apparently those of a creaturethat in life had been half dwarf-ape and half giant rat. The beast had stood a little under a yard in height. The legs wereshort, powerful, and bowed. The long arms ended in claw-liketravesties of hands. The skull was relatively small, with a sharplysloping forehead and projecting squirrel-like teeth that weremarkedly rodent. Around the skeleton's neck there was a wide band of some strangegray metal, with its smooth outer surface roughly scratched incharacters that resembled primitive hieroglyphics. Marlowe's face was white with grief as he turned to Powell. "Joanmust be dead, Larry, " he said sadly. "Otherwise, she would surelynever have allowed her Silver Belt to pass into the possessionof--this! She knew that the Belt represented her only hope of everbeing brought back to this world. " * * * * * For a moment Powell stared intently into the heart of thecrystalline egg without answering. Then suddenly he straightened upwith marked excitement upon his face. "There's a small sheet of paper entwined in the coils of that Belt!"he exclaimed. "It may be a message from Joan!" Swiftly the two men lifted the amber egg up to the top of aworkbench. Powell took a small hammer to test the hardness of thestrange translucent substance. He struck it a sharp rap, then recoiled in surprise at the effect ofhis blow, for the entire egg instantly shattered with a tinklingcrash like the bursting of a huge glass bubble. So complete was thedisintegration of the egg and the skeleton within it that all thatremained of either was a heap of diamond and amber dust. The onlythings left intact were the Silver Belt and the metal collar. Powell snatched up the Belt and extracted the small piece of paperthat had been firmly tucked into its coils. Hurriedly written inpencil upon the paper was a message in a handwriting familiar toboth Powell and Marlowe: Help! I am held prisoner in the Cave of Blue Flames! --Joan. "Larry, Joan must still be alive over there in Arret!" There was newhope in Benjamin Marlowe's voice. "Yes, alive and held captive by whatever monstrosities may inhabitthat unknown plane, " Powell agreed grimly. "There's only one way inwhich we can possibly rescue her now. That is for you to send meinto Arret with a reserve Belt for Joan. I'll be ready to start assoon as I get a couple of automatic pistols that I have up in myroom. It's a sure thing that I'll need them over there in Arret. " * * * * * Five minutes later Powell stood ready and waiting upon thefloor-plate in the focus of the big atomic projector, with thecentral lens of the apparatus levelled down upon him like a hugesearchlight. Around Powell's waist were strapped two Silver Belts, and a cartridge belt with a holstered . 45-calibre automatic oneither side. His wrist-watch was synchronized to the second withBenjamin Marlowe's watch. "Joan's twelve-hour time limit in Arret will expire at one o'clocktomorrow morning. " Powell reminded Marlowe. "That gives me nearlysix hours in which to find her and equip her with a Silver Belt. Youwill broadcast the recall wave at exactly one o'clock. If I haven'tsucceeded in finding Joan by then, I'll discard my own Belt and stayon over there in Arret with her.... I'm ready to start now, wheneveryou are. " Benjamin Marlowe raised his hand to the switch in the projector'scontrol panel. "Good-by, Larry, "--the old man's voice shook a triflein spite of himself--"and may God be with you!" He closed theswitch. A great burst of roseate flame leaped toward Powell from theprojector. The laboratory was instantly blotted out in a swirlingchaos of ruddy radiance that swept him up and away like a chip upona tidal wave. There was a long moment during which he seemed tohurtle helplessly through a universe of swirling tinted mists, whilegreat electric waves tingled with exquisite poignancy through everyatom of his body. Then the mists suddenly cleared like the tearing away of a mightycurtain, and with startling abruptness Powell found himself again ina solid world of material things. For a moment as he gazed dazedlyabout him he thought that the roseate glow of the projector muststill be playing tricks with his eyesight, for the landscape aroundhim was completely and incredibly red! * * * * * He soon realized that the monochrome of scarlet was a natural aspectof things in Arret. The weird vegetation all around him was of auniform glossy red. The sandy soil under his feet was dullbrick-red. High in the reddish-saffron sky overhead there blazed alurid orb of blood-red hue, the intense heat of its ruddy radiancegiving the still dry air a nearly tropical temperature. From thisorb's position in the sky and its size, Powell was forced toconclude that it must be the Arretian equivalent of Earth's moon. For a moment he stood motionless as he peered cautiously around him, trying to decide what should be his first step in this scarlet worldthat was so utterly alien in every way to his own. On every side thelandscape stretched monotonously away from him in low rolling duneslike the frozen ground swell of a crimson sea--dunes covered withvegetation of a kind never seen upon Earth. Not a leaf existed in all that weird flora. Instead of leaves ortwigs the constituent units of bushes and grasses consisted ofglobules, glossy spheres of scarlet that ranged in size frompinheads to the bulk of large pumpkins. The branches of thevegetation were formed from strings of the globules set edge to edgeand tapering in size like graduated beads strung upon wire, dwindling in bulk until the tips of the branches were as fragile asthe fronds of maidenhair fern. The bulk of the shrubbery washead-high, and so dense that Powell could see for only a couple ofyards into the thicket in any direction. The stillness around Powell was complete. Not even a globular twigstirred in the hot dry air. Powell decided to head for the crest ofone of the low dunes some fifty feet away. From its top he might beable to sight something that would give a clue to the location ofthe "Cave of Blue Flames" of which Joan had written. * * * * * He arrived at the foot of the dune's slope without incident. Butthere he came to an abrupt halt as the silence was suddenlyshattered by a strange sound from the shrubbery-covered crest justabove him. It was a musical, tinkling crash, oddly suggestive of ahandful of thin glass plates shattering upon a stone floor. A secondlater there came the agonized scream of some creature in its deaththroes. The tinkling, crashing sound promptly swelled to a steady pulsingsong like that of a brittle river of crystalline glass surging andbreaking over granite boulders. There was an eery beauty in thattinkling burst of melody, yet with the beauty there was anintangible suggestion of horror that made Powell's flesh creep. The crystalline song swelled to a crescendo climax. Then there cameanother sound, a single resonant note like that given when a stringof a bass viol is violently plucked--and the tinkling melodyabruptly died. Immediately following the resonant twang some objectwas ejected from the midst of the thicket on the dune's crest, andcame rolling and bounding down the gentle slope toward Powell. It finally came to rest against the base of a bush almost at hisfeet. He whistled softly in surprise as he saw the nature of thething. It was another of the yard-long egg-shaped crystals oftranslucent amber like the one that had been materialized inBenjamin Marlowe's laboratory. Imprisoned in the clear depths ofthis amber egg was the sparkling, diamond-encrusted skeleton of whathad apparently been a small quadruped about the size of a fox. Powell's eyes narrowed in speculation as he realized that he hadbefore him the first slight clue as to what might have happened toJoan. Her Silver Belt had been enclosed in one of those amber, crystalline eggs. Apparently her capture had been in some wayconnected with that sinister, unseen Tinkling Death. * * * * * Powell began cautiously working his way up the slope of the dune, with an automatic pistol ready for use in his right hand. Silencereigned unbroken now in the thicket on the crest, but with eachupward step that he took there came with constantly increasing forcea feeling of some vast, alien intelligence lurking up there, watching and waiting. Nearer and nearer the crest he worked his wary way, until he was soclose that he fancied he could see the vague outline of somemonstrous silvery bulk looming there in the heart of the redthicket. He took another cautious step forward--and then his carefulstalking was sharply interrupted. Without a second's warning there came the roaring rush of greatwings beating the air just above him. Powell tried to dive forcover, but he was too late. A slender snaky tentacle came lashingdown and struck his shoulder with a force that sent him sprawlingforward upon his face. Before he could rise, two of the tentaclestwined around him, and he was jerked up into the air like awood-grub captured by a husky robin. Again the great wings above him threshed the air in tremendouspower, as the unseen monster started away with its prey. Then thetentacles from which he was dangling shifted their grip slightly, turning Powell's body in the air so that he could look up and gethis first glimpse of the thing that had captured him. He shudderedat what he saw. The creature was a hideous combination of octopusand giant bat. Naked wings of membrane spanned twenty feet from tip to tip. Therewas a pursy sac-like body, ending in a head with staring, lidlesseyes and a great black beak that looked strong enough to shear sheetsteel. From the body descended half a dozen long writhing tentacles. * * * * * Powell's one hundred and eighty pounds made a weight that wasapparently a burden for even this flying monster. It flew jerkilyalong, scarcely a dozen feet from the ground, and there waslaborious effort obvious in every movement of its flapping wings. Powell decided to make a prompt break for escape before theoctopus-bat succeeded in fighting its way any higher. His left armwas still pinioned to his body by one of the constricting tentacles, but his right hand, with the automatic in it, was free. He swung the weapon's muzzle into line with the hideous face abovehim, then sent a stream of lead crashing upward into the creature'shead. The bullet struck squarely home. The tentacles tightenedconvulsively with a force that almost cracked Powell's ribs. Then inanother paroxysm of agony the tentacles flung him free. The impetus of his fall sent him rolling for a dozen feet. Unhurt, save for minor scratches and bruises, he scrambled to his feet justin time to see the mortally wounded octopus-bat come crashing downin the red vegetation some thirty yards away. For a few minutesthere was audible a convulsive threshing; and then there wassilence. Powell refilled the automatic's clip, then looked about, trying toregain his bearings. He wanted to return to the thicket of theTinkling Death, but the octopus-bat had carried him hundreds ofyards from there and he was now uncertain even of the direction inwhich the thicket was. As he paused in indecision, there came to Powell's ears a new soundthat promptly drove all thought of the Tinkling Death from his mind. * * * * * The sound of his gun against the octopus-bat had apparentlyattracted new and unseen assailants--and their number was legion. Swiftly closing in upon him from every side there came the rustleand whisper of countless thousands of unseen foes advancing throughthe dense red thickets. Completely hemmed in as he was, flight was out of the question. Hesought the center of a small clearing, some ten feet in diameter, inorder to gain at least a moment's sight of his adversaries beforethey swarmed in upon him. With an automatic in each hand, he waitedtense and ready. The encircling rush came swiftly nearer, until Powell was suddenlyaware that the unseen horde had arrived. The thicket bordering histiny clearing was literally alive with yard-high furry bodies ofcreatures that dodged about too swiftly in the cover of the redbushes for him to get a clear view of any of them. There was aconstant babel of snarling, chattering sound as the things calledback and forth to each other. Then the chattering stopped abruptly, as though at the command ofsome unseen leader. The next moment one of the creatures steppedboldly out into full view in the clearing. Powell's scalp crinkledin disgust as he realized the nature of the thing confronting him. It was literally a rat-man. Its upright posture upon two powerful, bowed hind legs was that of a man, but its human-like points wereovershadowed by a dozen indelible marks of the beast. A coat ofshort, dirty gray fur covered the creature from head to foot. Itshands and feet were claw-like travesties of human members. Itspointed, chinless face with its projecting teeth and glitteringlittle beady eyes was that of a giant rodent. The beast in the clearing was apparently a leader of some sort, foraround his throat was a wide collar of gray metal, with its flatsurface marked in rudely scratched hieroglyphics. Powell's heartleaped as he noted the collar. In this creature before him he hadhis second clue to the whereabouts of Joan Marlowe. Not only was the collar practically identical to the one worn by theskeleton that had been materialized in the egg back in thelaboratory, but the skeleton itself was obviously that of one of therat-men. Could it be this grotesque horde of human-like rodents thatwas holding Joan captive in the Cave of Blue Flames? * * * * * Powell tried desperately to think of some way of communicating withthe gray-collared leader. Then the beast shrilled a command thatbrought hundreds of the beasts swarming into the clearing from everyside, and in the face of the menace of their countless glitteringeyes and bared fangs Powell abandoned all thought of attempting toparley with the beasts. There was another shrill command from the leader, and the hordeclosed in. Both of Powell's guns flamed in a crashing leaden hailthat swept the close-packed ranks of furry bodies with murderouseffect. But he was doomed by sheer weight of numbers. The rat-men directly in front of the blazing pistols waveredmomentarily, but the press of the hundreds behind them swept theminexorably forward. Powell emptied both guns in a last vain effort. Then he was swept from his feet, and the horde surged over him. Blinded and smothered by the dozens of furry bodies that swarmedover him, he had hardly a chance to even try to fight back. Hiscartridge-belt and guns, his Silver Belts and his wrist-watch werestripped from him by the dozens of claw-like hands that searched hisbody. Other claw-hands jerked his arms behind his back and lashedthem firmly together with rope. A blanketing sheet of some heavy fabric was crammed over his headand tied in place so tightly that he was completely blindfolded andhalf-suffocated. A noose was knotted around his neck. A suggestivejerk of this noose brought Powell lurching to his feet; there wasanother commanding jerk, and he obediently started walking. * * * * * The march that followed soon became torture for the captive. Blindfolded as he was, and having only the occasional jerks of ropeto guide his footsteps, he stumbled and fell repeatedly, until hisaching body seemed one solid mass of bruises. As nearly as he could judge, the horde had conducted him nearly twomiles when the path abruptly sloped downward. A moment later thesudden coolness of the air and the echoes about him told him thatthey had entered an underground passage of some kind. Aftertraversing this passage for several yards they emerged into what wasapparently a large open area, for he could hear the excitedchattering and squealing of countless thousands of rat-men on everyside of him. He was dragged forward a dozen steps more, then brought to a halt. The blindfolding fabric was roughly stripped from his head. For amoment he blinked dazedly, half-blinded by a glare of blue lightthat flooded the place. He was standing in a vast cavern. From dozens of fissures high inthe rock walls streamed flickering sheets of blue flame which bothwarmed and lighted the place. There was a weird tingling glow in theair that suggested that the strange blue fires might be electricalin their origin. Powell looked eagerly around for Joan, but he could see no trace ofher. The only other living beings in the big cavern were theswarming thousands of the rat-people. The brutes were apparently toolow in the evolutionary scale to have any but the most primitiveform of tribal organization. Sitting on a rude rock throne just in front of Powell was agrotesquely fat, mangy-furred old rat-man who was obviously the kingof the horde. Some thirty or forty rat-men, larger and stronger thantheir fellows, wore the gray-metal collars that apparently markedthem as minor leaders. * * * * * The great bulk of the horde, numbering far into the thousands, swarmed in the cavern in one vast animal pack, sleeping, feeding, snarling, fighting. As Powell was halted before the king's throne, most of them abandoned their other pursuits to come surging aroundthe captive in a jostling, curious mob. The metal-collared leader of the pack that had captured Powellpresented the rat-king with the captive's gun-belt and two SilverBelts, accompanying the gifts with a squealing oration that wasapparently a recital of the capture. The old monarch took thetrophies with delight. The two Silver Belts were promptly draped over his own furryshoulders by the king--seemingly following the same primitive lovefor adornment that inspires an African savage to ornament his personwith any new and glittering object he happens to acquire. Therat-king then graciously draped the cartridge-belt and holsteredautomatics around the shoulders of the metal-collared leader who hadcaptured Powell. The king turned his attention back to his prisoner. He studied thecaptive curiously for a moment or two, then squealed a briefcommand. A score of the rat-men promptly closed in upon Powell, andbegan herding him toward a far back corner of the big cavern. Stopping a few yards away from the edge of what seemed to be a widedeep pit in the rock floor, the guard stripped Powell's bonds fromhim. Powell made no move to take advantage of his freedom, realizingthat the swarming thousands of rodents in the cave made escape outof the question for the moment. He allowed himself to be docilelyherded on to the edge of the pit. And the next moment he exclaimed aloud in delighted surprise as hegazed down at the floor of the pit ten feet beneath him. There, sitting on a low heap of stones on the pit's sandy floor, white-faced and weary but apparently unhurt, was Joan Marlowe. * * * * * The girl's face brightened in relief as she looked up and recognizedhim. "Larry! Oh, thank God you've come!" The leader of the guards motioned for Powell to jump down into thepit. He needed no urging. A moment later he landed lightly on thesandy floor of the pit, and Joan was in his arms. The rat-men left a dozen of their number scattered as sentriesaround the edge of the pit. The rest of them returned to the mainhorde, leaving the prisoners to their own devices. "I knew that you'd come, Larry, as soon as you got my note, " Joanexclaimed happily. "But how did you ever succeed in finding thisCave of Blue Flame?" "I didn't find it myself, " Powell admitted. "I was captured like aboob and dragged here. " He told Joan of his mishaps since arrivingin Arret. The girl nodded when he had finished. "Much the same happened to me, Larry, only the red moon wasn't shining then. The only light wasfrom what looked like the dim ghost of a big yellow sun. Imaterialized in Arret almost in the middle of a scouting group ofrat-men. They took me captive immediately. When several minutespassed without you and Uncle Benjamin broadcasting the recall wavefor me, I knew that something terrible must have happened back inthe laboratory, and that I might be marooned in Arret for hours. "I tried to hang onto my Silver Belt, of course, " the girlcontinued, "but when I was brought to the cavern here I saw that theking was going to take it. There was a notebook and a pencil in mylaboratory smock. I managed to write the note and twine it into thebelt just before it was taken from me. The king seemed to think thenote enhanced the Belt's value as an ornament. He was wearing itwhen I last saw it. Was he materialized in the laboratory with theBelt?" Powell told her of the amber egg and the skeleton. "The same sort of crystalline amber egg that accompanied the work ofthe mysterious Tinkling Death, wasn't it?" Joan mused. "One of theking's lieutenants must have stolen the Belt, and reaped promptretribution when he tried to flee. I wonder what that weird TinklingDeath is?" "Possibly some strange weapon of the rat-men, " Powell hazarded. "No, they are as afraid of it as we are. While I was being broughthere to this cave the Tinkling Death was heard several times in thedistance, and the rat-men were obviously terrified at the sound. " * * * * * The prisoners' conversation was abruptly interrupted by a rhythmic, snarling chant from the vast horde of rat-men in the cavern above. The chant rose and fell in a rude cadence that was suggestivelyritual in nature. "They've been doing that at intervals ever since I was first broughthere, " Joan commented. "It sounds almost like the beginning of someprimitive religious ceremony, doesn't it?" Powell nodded, without telling Joan the depressing thought in hismind. The rat-men were so low in the evolutionary scale as to belittle more than beasts, and a prominent feature of nearly allprimitive religious rites is the sacrifice of living beings. Powellcould not help but wonder whether the chanting might not mark thebeginning of rites which would end with the sacrifice of himself andJoan to some monstrous deity of theirs. The snarling chant continued with monotonous regularity for hours, while the prisoners huddled helplessly together there on the floorof the pit, awaiting the next move of the rat-men. Any thought ofescape was out of the question. The sheer walls of the pit werealways guarded by alert sentries who had only to call to bring theentire horde to their help. Without Powell's wrist-watch, the captives had no way of accuratelyfollowing the lapse of time, but they both realized that thetwelve-hour time limit upon Joan's rescue from Arret must be comingperilously near its end. They waited in momentary fear lest a suddenturmoil in the cavern above them should indicate that BenjaminMarlowe had broadcast the recall wave, whisking the two Belts backto Earth, together with the old rat-king who presumably still worethem. * * * * * The chanting above rose slowly to a snarling climax, then swiftlydied away into silence. A moment later there came the sound ofthousands of claw-like feet scratching over the rocky floor as themain horde apparently began marching out of the cavern. A detachmentof fifty rat-men appeared at the pit's edge. A rude metal ladder was shoved down to the captives, and ametal-collared leader motioned for them to climb up. Seeing nothingto be gained by refusal, they obeyed. They were seized as theyreached the top, and their hands again bound behind them. Theoverwhelming numbers of the rat-men made any attempt at resistancefutile. There was no sign of the main horde as Joan and Powell were herdedout through the empty cavern and out into the open air again. Withtheir prisoners in the center of their group, the rat-men startedalong a well-worn path that wound through the red vegetation. Overhead the blood-red moon still blazed down in lurid splendor. From somewhere ahead of them the captives began to again hear thedistant squealing chant of the main horde. They steadily approachedthe sound, until abruptly they emerged into a huge clearing that hadapparently been a ceremonial assembly place for generations, for itssmooth sandy floor was packed down nearly to the hardness of rock. The main horde of rat-men was there now, countless thousands ofthem, packed in a roughly crescent-shaped mob, with the open side oftheir formation facing what seemed to be a large deep pit, someseventy yards in circumference. In the clear space left between thehorde and the edge of the pit was a smaller group, among them theold king himself. Powell's heart leaped as he noted that the Silver Belts were stilldraped over the mangy old monarch's shoulders. If only he and Joancould get their hands on those precious Belts before BenjaminMarlowe broadcast the recall wave that would forever snatch them outof their reach! * * * * * The captives were hurried through the main horde and taken in chargeby a score of picked guards who herded them on to join a small groupof four rat-men near the pit's edge. These four rodents wereapparently also prisoners, for their arms were firmly bound behindthem. The rat-king, accompanied only by the metal-collared leader, aroundwhose shoulders the gun-belt was still draped, stood near the pit'sedge some ten yards distant from the guards and captives. Betweenthe prisoners and the rodent monarch the edge of the pit jutted outin a narrow tongue of rock that extended outward for about twentyfeet over the pit. Joan and Powell had barely taken their place with the other captiveswhen an abrupt and familiar sound drew their attention to the floorof the pit some thirty feet beneath them. Its smooth sandy bottomwas clearly visible from where they stood. And there on that sandyfloor were six great gleaming shapes of menace which broughtinvoluntary gasps of horrified amazement to the captives' lips. The faint musical tinkling sound as the things moved in occasionalponderous restlessness was unmistakable. Joan and Powell realizedthat the amazing organisms responsible for the mysterious TinklingDeath were at last before them. The things were giant _living_ crystals--great silverysemi-transparent shapes nearly ten feet in height, their facetedsides pulsing in sinister and incredible life as they gleamed inunearthly beauty beneath the blazing rays of the red moon! Near the center of each of the giant crystals there was visiblethrough the semi-transparent wall a large inner nucleus of sullenopalescence that ceaselessly swirled and eddied. Their powers of movement were apparently limited to a slow, ponderous, half-rocking, half-rolling progress on their heavyrounded bases. They were now grouped in a rough semicircle justunder the edge of the rocky projection that extended out over thepit. The opalescent nucleus in every silvery faceted form seemed tobe "watching" with frightening intensity the figures on the pit'sedge above them. * * * * * There was no mistaking the meaning of the scene. The giantcarnivorous crystals had obviously been lured from their normalhabitat in Arret's red vegetation, and established there in the bigpit by the rat-men to act as principals in their primitive religiousceremonies. Those Devil Crystals waiting down there on the pit's floor werewaiting to be fed--and the small group of captives, rat-men andhuman beings, were to be the feast! Utterly sick at heart, Powell wondered if they would at least begiven the boon of a merciful death before being hurled over thebrink to those lurking shapes. He was not left long in doubt. At a shrill command from the rat-king the guards closed in upon thecaptives and herded two of the bound rat-men from among them. Aguard placed to the lips of each of the captive brutes a small cupcontaining a faintly cloudy white liquid. Apparently resigned totheir fate, the creatures docilely drained the cups. The drugged drinks acted with startling rapidity. Scarcely a minutepassed before the rodents' eyes clouded dully, their jaws droppedslackly open, and their bodies stiffened in almost completerigidity. The bonds were quickly stripped from the two stupefied creatures. The ceremonial rites apparently required that the victims go totheir doom unbound and of their own volition. The guards maneuveredthe two over to the rocky projection that jutted out over the pit. Moving with the stiffly wooden steps of automatons, the two victimsstarted out along the narrow projection, leaving the guards behind. On they marched, straight for the end of the rocky strip--and then, without a second's hesitation, they plunged on and over. Their bodies crashed to the pit's floor squarely among the group ofwaiting crystals. One of the rat-men lay motionless. The otherdazedly tried to struggle to his feet--but was too late. * * * * * From the side of the nearest Devil Crystal, some fifteen feet awayfrom the dazed rat-man, a cone-shaped projection budded withstartling swiftness. A fraction of a second more and the projection had lengthened into along slender arm of crystalline silver that streaked across theintervening space with the swiftness of a spear. There was a crashing, tinkling sound as the point of the arm struckthe furry body of the rat-man. Then the arm's point sprayed into aweb of shining filaments that laced the rodent's body inexorably intheir web. The arm immediately contracted, jerking the victim irresistiblytoward the waiting crystal. A second later the rat-man was pinnedagainst the faceted crystalline side just under the opalescentnucleus. The moment the furry body made contact with the crystal's side aterrifying phenomenon occurred. Crystals grew and spread all overits form with the lightning growth of water-glass. Faster and fasterclustered the crystalline shroud, until the furry body was lancedthrough and through--and all the time the air was filled witheldritch music as of a thousand sheets of thinnest glass crashing, tinkling and shattering. The crystal growths over the imprisoned body rounded their contoursand merged together until they were in the form of a greatcrystalline egg. The outlines of the rodent's body blurred andvanished, melting swiftly until only a diamond-encrusted skeletonwas left. The color of the great Devil Crystal began to gleam pinkas the victim's flesh and blood were absorbed. The egg-like excrescence under the nucleus turned in hue to paletranslucent amber in whose depths the diamond skeleton gleamed withweird brilliance. Then there came a sudden twang, as of a violentlyplucked string on a bass viol, and the amber egg dropped from thefaceted side. The Crystal's feast was over. One of the most terrifying aspects of the whole thing had been itsincredible speed. The entire tragedy had occurred in but little overtwo minutes from the time the lance-arm had first struck therat-man. In the meantime the body of the second rodent had been drawn in anddevoured by another of the carnivorous crystalline monsters. Therecame a second twang now, as its skeleton in its amber shroud wasdiscarded. * * * * * Powell's brain reeled as he saw the other crystals move sluggishlynearer the foot of the rocky projection in anticipation of the nextvictims. The remaining two captive rat-men came next. They were swiftlydrugged, unbound, and started on their dazed march. They trudgedwoodenly out the rocky projection to its end, then on and over; andagain the grim tragedy of the Devil Crystal's feast was repeated, tothe accompaniment of that eerily beautiful crashing, tinkling song. The four Devil Crystals that had completed their gruesome feastmoved sluggishly away, leaving the space clear for the two crystalsthat remained unfed. The score of guards closed in upon Joan andPowell. With the crystalline doom at last staring them squarely in the face, Powell went berserk in a final desperate effort to gain even amoment's respite. He lashed out in a writhing, kicking flurry thatalmost cleared the space around them. Then three of the rat-men slipped behind him, and a second later hisfeet were jerked from under him. His bound arms made him helpless toavert his fall, and he crashed heavily to the ground. Then a dozenof the powerful little beasts swarmed over him, completelyoverpowering him by their numbers. Claw-like hands pried his set jaws apart. A cup of the cloudy whiteliquid was pressed to his lips. He choked; then, unable to helphimself, he had to let the stuff pour down his throat. It had anacid taste faintly reminiscent of lemons. The rat-men apparentlywanted to make sure of giving him enough, for they poured anotherfull cup of the liquid down his throat before releasing him. The guards then fell back and Powell stumbled to his feet. Joan wasalready up again, standing close beside him. From the wry expressionupon her face, Powell knew that she had also been given the druggedpotion. * * * * * For a long minute the two stood there with every nerve trembling asthey helplessly waited for the paralyzing numbness to sweep overtheir bodies. The seconds passed slowly, and still their mindsremained as clear as though the drug had been water. Another fullminute elapsed without effect, before they could finally convincethemselves of the amazing truth. The drugged drink of the rat-men, instantly paralyzing to those oftheir own rodent race, was utterly harmless to the human being fromanother world! Powell instantly realized the forlorn last chance their unexpectedimmunity to the drug gave them. "Play 'possum, Joan!" he whispered tensely. "Then we'll make abreak for the king and those Belts!" Joan nodded slightly in quick understanding. Powell let his jaw dropslack and open, and stiffened his body in imitation of the stuporthe rodent drug victims had shown. Joan promptly followed his lead. The alertly watching guards relaxed their tense vigilance in obviousrelief. The guards waited another minute to be sure of the drug's effects. Then, apparently satisfied, they stepped forward and unbound the twoprisoners. Powell let his bonds drop from him without making ahostile move of any kind. He wanted first to wait until he was freeof the encircling guards. The rat-men maneuvered the two into position, and prodded themforward toward the projecting point of rock. They obediently begantheir march, simulating as best they could the wooden mechanicalgait of the drug victims. Powell saw from the corner of his eye thatJoan was tensely watching his face for a sign from him. As the captives reached the narrow projection the guards dropped acouple of yards behind and halted to watch. It was the chance forwhich Powell had been waiting. "Let's go!" he shouted to Joan. The girl, alert for his signal, wasright beside him as they wheeled and dashed at break-neck speed forthe rat-king and his sole lieutenant, some ten yards away. * * * * * They were upon the two startled rodent leaders before they evenrealized what was happening. Powell swept the squirming old king upin the air, tore the Silver Belts from about the monarch'sshoulders, and flung the creature sprawling and senseless at thepit's edge. The lieutenant leaped for Powell's throat in a belated effort atrescue, but Powell smashed a solid fist squarely into its snarlingface, and the brute collapsed with a broken neck. Snatching his gun-belt from the fallen rat-man, Powell crammed newclips of ammunition into the two guns and wheeled to confront therest of the rat-men. The detachment of guards, demoralized by thedazzling speed of the captives' sortie, were milling in obviousuncertainty. Behind them the thousands of the main horde were chattering andsquealing in excited frenzy, dazed and bewildered by their king'sswift overthrow. The whole clearing was a seething mob of excitedbeasts, stunned for the moment, but ready at any second to rallyfrom their shock and surge forward in a furious charge that wouldsweep everything before it. Powell menaced the rat-men with levelled guns while Joan, withfingers that shook from excitement and haste, quietly buckled one ofthe Silver Belts around each of them. The guards rallied from their panic first. At a shrill command fromtheir leader, they began cautiously edging forward toward Joan andPowell. The two gave ground slowly, working their way back overtoward the projecting tongue of rock. Out on the end of that narrowstrip, Powell knew that he could hold the horde at bay for a fewmoments at least. * * * * * They reached the rocky projection, and began backing slowly andcarefully out toward its end. The guards, galvanized into action bytheir captives' retreat, suddenly came surging forward in a furiouscharge. Powell emptied the two automatics in a crashing volley that nearlywiped out the charging guards. The few survivors turned and fled inpanic back to the main horde. Powell reloaded his clips withfeverish haste. The thousands of rat-men in the main horde were now milling in whatwas apparently a last moment of hesitation before surging forward inan irresistible stampede toward the beleaguered two out on the rockystrip. Several bolder individuals at the edge of the horde edged a stepforward. Their example was followed by a hundred others. Anotherhesitant step or two--and then the whole horde was in motion. Powell swept the front rank with a rain of lead from one of theautomatics, holding the other as a reserve. The heavy bullets plowedmurder into the close-packed furry bodies. The charge waveredmomentarily. Then Powell felt Joan tugging frantically at his arm. "Larry, the rocks under us are crumbling!" she cried. "We'll behurled down into the pit!" Even as she spoke, Powell felt the narrow strip of rock under themquiver and settle. He looked quickly down. All along its length, thenarrow rocky projection, weakened by their weight, was breakingswiftly away from the pit's edge. And on the floor of the pit belowthem the two waiting Devil Crystals moved with musical, tinklingsounds as they waited restlessly for their prey to fall among them. The horde of rat-men rallied and swept on forward in a wave thatnothing could have stopped this time--but their charge was too late. The entire rocky projection collapsed with a final sickening lurch, and slid to the pit's floor, carrying Joan and Powell with it in aminiature avalanche of rocky rubble. * * * * * Even in the chaos of their wild descent, Powell retained his gripupon the loaded automatic in his hand. They struck the bottom andstaggered half-dazed to their feet, to confront the two crystallinemonsters rocking on their rounded bases scarcely ten feet away. The fatal cone-shaped projection was already beginning to form uponthe silver-faceted side of the nearest Devil Crystal. Before thelance-like arm of crystal could flash outward, Powell sent twobullets crashing into the crystal's side just over the opalescentnucleus. The leaden missiles caromed harmlessly off, as though they hadstruck armor-plate, but the nucleus clouded momentarily and thecone-shaped projection dissolved back into the side. With lightning speed Powell shifted his aim to the other crystaljust as its partly-formed arm was flashing toward them. His bulletcrashed into the silvery side squarely over the nucleus. Again thebullet's effect was the same. This crystal nucleus clouded murkily, and the lance-like arm telescoped back into the faceted bulk. But the effect of the bullets was only momentary. Swiftly the nucleiof both crystals cleared. A deep blue film, apparently protective innature, formed between the outer wall and each nucleus. The conesbudded, and again the arms started forth. Powell fired again, and this time uselessly. His bullet strucksquarely, but the shock of its impact was apparently nullified bythe protective blue film. He emptied his gun in a last crashingfusillade, but without effect of any kind upon the film-guardednuclei of the giant crystals. Their forming arms never wavered as they came lancing forward withdeadly accuracy straight toward Joan and Powell. In a last effort tosave Joan from the terrible doom of the crystal lances as long aspossible, Powell flung his own body as a shield in front of thehalf-fainting girl. The tip of one of the crystalline arms struckhis chest with a crashing tinkle of musical glass. Instantly the tip sprayed into a web of fine filaments that laced onaround his body. A tinkling shock raced through his every nerve fromthe contact with the weird life force of the great crystal. The arm began contracting. Powell was helpless against the terrificpower of the slender, diamond-hard lance of crystal. He felt himselfirresistibly drawn toward the silver-faceted wall of the DevilCrystal. His senses reeled in the babel of alien sounds--the crashing, glass-like music of the crystalline monsters and the snarling, squealing, paean of jubilant triumph from the thousands of rat-mennow lining the rim of the pit above. * * * * * Then suddenly the pit, the Devil Crystals, and everything else inthe nightmare world of Arret was blotted out in a vast swirlingcloud of pulsing roseate flame that seemed to sweep him bodily upinto the air and whirl him dizzily around. His dazed brain staggered from the shock of the cataclysmic forcethat was disintegrating an entire world around him, but through theutter chaos one thought rang clear and exultant in his consciousness. Benjamin Marlowe had finally broadcast the recall wave! For what seemed endless eons of time Powell hurried through alimitless universe of swirling, tinted fires, while vibrations of amighty force tingled with poignant ecstasy in every atom of hisbody. Then the eddying clouds of flame began to coalesce and solidify withstartling suddenness. A moment later, like the abrupt lighting of aroom when an electric switch is snapped, the mists vanished andPowell felt firm footing again under his feet. Around him were thefamiliar objects of Benjamin Marlowe's laboratory. He was standing upon the floor-plate in the center of the areabounded by the banked green tubes, and beside him stood Joan, sobbing with relief at their last-minute rescue from the DevilCrystals of Arret. And over by the control panel of the recallmechanism was the slight figure of old Benjamin Marlowe, with agreat joy now shining in his faded eyes.