[Illustration]

 The Winged Men of Orcon

 _A Complete Novelette_

 By David R. Sparks

 Far out at the edge of the Universe two scientists play a game of wits--Earth to the winner. 

CHAPTER I

_The Wrecked Space-Ship_

When I came to, it was dark; so dark that the night seemed all but fluidwith black pigment. Breathing was difficult, but in spite of that, however, I felt exhilarated mentally. Also I felt strong, stronger thanI ever had in my life before. I tried to raise my hands, and found thatI was handcuffed. 

I lay sprawled out on a sharply canted floor of metal, and from outsidethe house, or whatever it was I was in, I could hear the screeching andhowling of the wind. I touched my face with my fettered hands, and theact gave me a feeling of comfort, for the scar on my cheek was stillthere and I knew that I was myself. 

[Illustration: A flash of blue light played about our ship. ]

Twisting around, I sat up, and with great difficulty drew a lighter frommy trousers pocket. The flame glimmered up. I knew then that I was lyingin the control room of a great flying machine!

All about me I saw crumpled human forms clad in glistening gray flyingjumpers. It was very, very hot. I thought I caught the sound of wavescrashing on a shore. Through a broken port blustered a hot wind ladenwith an odd odor suggestive of garlic and kelp. It was just as darkoutside as in. I stirred about a bit, and found that I was in good shapeexcept for the handcuffs. 

A low moan came from behind a bulkhead door at one end of the controlroom. I listened, and again the sound was repeated. With the lighterstill flickering in my hands, I got to my feet. The bulkhead door wasjammed, but I found a heavy telargeium spanner-wrench on the floor, andwith a strength which frightened me--a strength which could have comeonly by some upset condition of gravitation--I soon crashed the dooropen. I had no sooner done it, however, than I forgot about the moanwhich had fetched me. 

 * * * * *

What I saw first, hanging on a hook on one wall, was a bunch of keys, one of which readily opened the lock of my handcuffs. Then there was along-barrelled, gleaming atomic gun, undamaged, and a couple of the newcold-ray flashlights. Free, I caught up one of the flashlights, andplaced back on their hook the keys which had opened the cuffs. Then Istooped over each corpse, and confirmed my first impression that two ofthe dead men were strangers to me, but that I half recognized one. 

The vaguely familiar man was clad, under his gray jumper, in the uniformof a rear admiral of the U.  S.  W. Upper Zone Patrol Division. He wore amedal of high honor, the Calypsus medal. I knew that he was WellingtonForbes, the man who had defeated the planet Calypsus three years before. 

Wellington Forbes! And I with him!

I think I may be excused my temporary forgetfulness of the moan whichhad brought me to Forbes' death chamber. Uppermost in my mind was themanner in which I had been brought here. For it was he, approaching methrough the medium of letters and messengers, who had begged, imploredme to help him against Orcon, the eccentric planet of my own discovery, the planet which belonged to a solar system at the other end of theUniverse from ours. Because of my knowledge of Orcon, with its bubblingseas, its brooding nightmares, and lastly, its queer conduct towardEarth, he had wanted to take me away from my telescopes to fight. And Ihad refused. 

Now I understood how I came to be here. 

I knew that this dead man had kidnapped me after drugging me with one ofthe new amnesiacs. Yorildiside, I reckoned it. And just because I knewthat Admiral Forbes had seized me by force, I knew almost to a certaintythat I was shipwrecked on that very Orcon which I had discovered twoyears before. 

 * * * * *

I was enraged at this high-handed treatment. For if danger was indeedthreatening Earth from Orcon, my place of all places was at mytelescopes. I could do with them, for the civilizations about me, whatno one else could. Too, I was actuated by selfish motives. I loved mytelescopes and my isodermic super-spectroscopes. And there was stillmuch work I had to do! Already I had discovered three new elements, andthat had showed me I was but at the beginning of a knowledge ofcosmological chemistry. Forbes! He had brought me by force out here onthis beastly little planet whose orbit was like that of a snake with theSaint Vitus' dance! He had taken me to this wretched planet which lay atsuch a remote end of the Universe that not even explorers had beentempted to visit it!

"Oh, damn the whole business!" I groaned aloud. I was thoroughly angryand bitter. 

In a little while I experienced a sudden change of mood. I'd no soonerspoken than a moan came from directly behind me, and I remembered whyI'd got going in the beginning, and was ashamed. I entered a smallcompartment which opened from Forbes' cabin, and discovered immediatelythree more people. 

The strides I had taken made me realize that I had to be careful, for Iwas indeed endowed with a terrific strength--an extraordinary strengthand lightness. One of these three new people was obviously dead, for hisneck was broken. The other two still breathed. The first of the two wasa short man, a Japanese by the look of him. His arm was broken. Theother person was, to my surprise, a woman. She, like the dead Forbes, wore the insignia of the U.  S.  W. Upper Zone Patrol. Her insignia wasthat of a navigating officer. 

So it was she who had caused the crash!

It was also she who had moaned. My feelings as I lifted her to a bunkwere mixed. Being a reactionary, I still felt that woman's place was notin the Army or Navy. Yet I confess that the woman--or girl, rather--wasornamental. She was of the Iberian type. She was beautiful, and lookedhelpless. Some atavistic trait of the protective instinct in man made metake a little more pains in caring for her than I might have taken witha man. 

 * * * * *

"Doctor Weeks, " were the first surprised words she murmured when I hadbandaged a cut in her head and she came to. 

Weeks being my name--Frederick Weeks--I grunted and wondered just howmuch _she'd_ had to do with my being here. I noted that the eyes weregray with violet lights. 

"You were handcuffed and drugged, " she announced wonderingly. 

"I was, " I answered, "but I'm not any more. Thanks to my own efforts. "

She dropped that subject. 

"Take me to Admiral Forbes, Doctor Weeks. I am Captain Virginia Crane. "

I acknowledged curtly her introduction of herself and told her theadmiral was dead. Her cheeks, already pale, grew white. I asked her thenumber of the space flyer's crew. She said ten. So far, four were dead, three alive, including myself, and the rest unaccounted for, I told her. She winced. In a moment, though, she pulled herself together with a gritwhich I could not deny, despite my disapproval of her being here. 

"I suppose you wonder why you're here, " she said suddenly, "and where weare. "

"I don't need to be told where I am, " I said coldly, "but a littleinformation as to who was responsible for my coming to Orcon wouldn't beamiss. I suppose it was Forbes. "

She cut me off with a look. 

"It wasn't the admiral. " Her really beautiful eyes narrowed. "It was Iwho planned your abduction and got him to execute it. "

"You!"

I drew back. My manner was formal and cold. 

And after that I guess I pretty well boiled over. But did it gain meanything? Before I had said half enough to soothe my lacerated feelings, the girl simply shrugged and looked bored. 

"Don't be a fool, " she ordered curtly. "We needed you, and I, for one, was not going to see your egotistical ideas about an unimportant pieceof work--your cosmological chemistry--jeopardize the safety of theworld. Oh, I know the government wanted you in your laboratory. But withLudwig Leider loose on Orcon, and you the only one in our Zone who knewmuch of anything about the planet, what could you expect?"

 * * * * *

I hardly know what might have happened between us if she had notmentioned Leider's name when she did. The insults with which she hadbegun had hardly been atoned for by her half understanding of my refusalto join Forbes, and I was still in a rage. Yet, as it was, at themention of Leider I snapped to attention. 

"Ludwig Leider! Here?"

"Yes, " she replied significantly. 

"But that makes a difference! Why wasn't I told? Why this sillykidnapping?"

She moved a little on the couch and looked at me. 

"There was not time to tell you and to chance putting up with furthersilly arguments on your part. When the secret service detail which hadbeen handling the Leider case brought in word of his whereabouts, therewas time only to get a ship specially outfitted for such a tremendousjourney and start. We _had_ to kidnap you. "

I hardly heard her last words. Ludwig Leider--scientist extraordinary, renegade, terrorist. Everyone of our latter day century knew that he wasthe greatest example of the megalomaniac--the power-seekinggenius--which the human race had produced for decades. Everyone knewthat he--furious because he had been denied the high position he cravedas ruler for life of the united peoples of Earth--had been the leader ofthe interplanetary struggle which had resulted in Forbes' brilliantlysuccessful attack on Calypsus. And everyone knew that he had escapedfrom Calypsus. And that, while he was free, there could be no realsafety anywhere, either for Earth, which he hated, or any of its alliedplanets. Leider, here! No wonder I had been observing queer goings on inOrcon!

 * * * * *

Somehow I forgot to be angry with poor dead Forbes. Almost I forgot todisapprove of the woman. 

"See here!" I broke out. "If your secret service detail was right, andLeider _is_ on Orcon, we've got to stop talking and get going. Tell memore about your expedition. "

"Do you know, " she said presently, "I rather thought you would makequite a leader--and fighter--if you could ever be aroused. As for theexpedition, we have only this one ship. It's that kind of a job. "

"Oh, suicide party, eh?"

I ignored her remark about my ability as a fighter. I had never aspiredto any sort of naval or military leadership. 

"Yes, " she answered; "suicide party. And I suppose, with our shipwrecked, our admiral dead, and contact with Leider not even made as yet, it's become doubly so. But we've got to do something. "

She leaned forward on the couch. 

"Our primary objective, " she went on, "was to reach Orcon and scout, andthen radio information back to Earth. But we also have two tons of thenew explosive, kotomite, aboard and are to do damage if we can. What areyou going to do, Doctor? The command is yours now. "

I was well enough versed in the upper space tactics of our modern navyto appreciate the wisdom which had been used in sending the one shipalone on the expedition, and I could well understand the reasonable hopeof success which had been promised. I confess I was staggered to knowwhat could be done, however, now that the admiral was dead and the shipwrecked. As for my having inherited the command, I was even moredisconcerted. 

"_I_ don't know what we're going to do, " I said in answer to CaptainCrane's question. "I doubt if Forbes would know, if he were alive, andI'm by no means the commander he was. But, as you say, we have to dosomething. So, since it's a little early in the game to explode thekotomite and call it a day's work, we better declare a truce betweenourselves, and then check up on the ship. Come on, if you're able. "

She was able. 

 * * * * *

In the next twenty minutes we found that it was the forward end of thegreat flier which was damaged, and that while she was in fair shapeamidships and astern, she would never fly again. We discovered that thethree unaccounted-for men of the crew were lying forward, and found thattwo were dead and one lived--a radio man named LeConte. He had two ribsbroken. Half a dozen atomic guns remained to us, and we found intact onedynamo capable of generating the new cold light in considerablequantities. It was not an encouraging check-up, though. Out of a crew often, only the four of us were alive; Captain Crane, the Jap, LeConte, and myself. And all of us were more or less battered. The ship was stillhabitable, but smashed beyond hope of repair. Around us stretchedOrcon--in the control of Ludwig Leider. 

I got LeConte, the radio man with the broken ribs, into the small cabinwhere the Jap still lay and made him comfortable. Then I set the Jap'sbroken arm. I gave both him and LeConte an injection of penopalatrin inorder that their shattered bones might be decently knitted in two orthree hours. The Jap presently came to, and I found that he was acivilian like myself, but one who had long been employed on the U.  S.  W. Research staff as a ray and explosive expert. I realized at once that hewas the inventor of the kotomite with which the ship was loaded. 

All of them, including Captain Crane, told me the story of the crash. Captain Crane hadn't been responsible, after all. Their magnogravitossystem had failed in some mysterious manner as they approached Orcon. Inspite of the checking effect of their helium pontoons, which hadexpanded properly when they had come into Orcon's atmosphere, they hadslammed into a sea of light and crashed. That was all anyone knew. Buteveryone suspected that Leider had been somehow responsible. 

"I do not enjoy the prospect, " Koto said after a glance at histemporarily helpless left arm. "If Leider is able to wreck a space shipbefore she ever reaches his planet, he has more power than he ever hadduring the Calypsus war. "

 * * * * *

I said nothing, but simply looked at LeConte, and nodded approval whenhe muttered something about getting his sending set in shape, if thatwere possible. We were sitting in the small cabin and Captain Crane wassearching my face with those discomforting, violet-lighted gray eyes. Iknew she was asking me once more what I was going to do, and I knewthat, except that we might fire the kotomite, I could tell her nothing. 

We sat on in silence. Then, however, before I spoke about the kotomite, a change came. 

All at once I felt the space flier tremble under me. It rocked gentlyover on one side and began to move. Slowly, but definitely. 

Koto and I were on our feet in a flash. Captain Crane stiffened andfaced me, waiting. 

"What is it?" Koto gasped. 

"We'll find out what it is, " I flung back. "Miss Crane--Captain--on deckwith you. Here, Koto, a hand with one of the guns. We'll take it up outof the hatchway and through the main cabin. "

LeConte, I knew, was the one we must be careful of, with his crackedribs. 

"Get to your apparatus, " I ordered him, "and stay with it until you getthrough to Earth. "

With that I jumped into the main cabin, stepped over Forbes' lifelessbody, and caught hold of the nearest of the atomic guns. I was to be aleader, after all. 

CHAPTER II

_The Cable of Menace_

It was dark when we gained the deck; as dark as it had been when I firstregained consciousness. Captain Crane was attending to that problem, however. As Koto and I floundered with the gun on the slipperytelargeium plates of the outer hull, I heard her moving about. Then sheuttered a cry of relief, and there came a faint click. Instantly thedarkness all about--the clinging noisome darkness of Orcon at night--wasshattered. 

The blessed rays of our one good lighting dynamo were loosed!

I saw the girl standing braced beside a stanchion, staring over theship's side. 

"Come on, Koto!" I snapped. 

I am no fighting man by trade. Nevertheless, there was a kind ofinstinct which told me to get the gun set up at any point of vantagealong the ship's side. And Koto understood. 

"There, " he breathed after but a few seconds, and from the experiencedway in which he touched the disintegration-release trigger with his onegood hand, I knew we were ready. 

The flier was still moving, slowly and smoothly. She seemed to be halflifted, half drawn by some colossal force. I leaned far out over therail. 

A long, slender, but apparently indestructible cable had been affixed toour stern by means of a metal plate at its end which I guessed to bemagnetic. I saw that the cable vanished under lashing waves which brokeon a not distant shore, and that we were being drawn irresistibly towardthe waves. 

 * * * * *

The light from the deck brought out dazzling scintillations from a beachcomposed of gigantic crystal pebbles as large as ostrich eggs. On thebeach and grouped thickly all about our hull, swarmed a legion ofcreatures which--

Well, they were the brood of Orcon. They were the creatures who hadgiven Ludwig Leider refuge and allied themselves with him in his attemptto make trouble for Earth. And they were half-bird, half-human! Theirfaces, bodies, arms, and legs were human. _But they had wings!_Translucent, membranous structures, almost gauzy, which stretched outfrom their shoulders like bat's wings. And their skins, as they surgedabout in the beams of our light, gleamed a bright orange color, andabout their heads waved frilled antennae which were evidently used asextra tactile organs to supplement the human hands. I could seeinstantly that the Orconites possessed a high degree of intelligence. Ofall the queer breeds that interplanetary travel and exploration hadproduced, this was the queerest. 

I swung to Koto, who was crouching beside the gun. 

"Get rid of that cable before we go under!" I exclaimed. 

I had already guessed that the plate which held the cable to our sternwas magnetic. It was easy to see that the cable had been fastened thereby the Orconites and that our ship and ourselves might be drawn todestruction. I flung myself over to Koto's side to help him with thegun. 

The howling wind which had been at a lull as we reached the deck, brokeloose again, and, as a gust hit us, Koto, gun, and I were all but sweptoverboard. The winged legion overside gave loud cries and bracedthemselves against the gusts. I saw Virginia Crane clinging desperatelyto her stanchion beside the light switches. 

"More light if you have it!" I screamed to her against the wind. 

Then Koto and I got the gun going. 

 * * * * *

My first feeling was one of intense relief. As the thing went off underour hands, and I knew from a faint trembling and a low hiss that theweapon was functioning perfectly, I felt thankful indeed for theinstinct which had made me get the gun on deck. It could be only amatter of seconds now until a whole section of the metallic cable wasdisintegrated completely and until our ship was free. 

Breathlessly I watched the greenish atomic stream play along the brightlength of the cable of death, and, as Koto and I steadied the guntogether, I knew he shared my relief. Despite the howling of the wind, the yells of the Orconites, the continued slow movement of the ship, andthe hideous churning of the waves astern, I laughed to myself. 

"Doctor Weeks!"

I saw that Captain Crane had gone aft to watch the effects of our fire. 

"All right, " I bellowed. "What--"

"Nothing is happening back here! Your gun! What's the matter with it?"

I was too startled to answer otherwise than I did. 

"Nothing's the matter with it. What's the matter with _you_?"

But the next instant I knew she was right. 

"My God, Doctor!" Koto cried, and I knew he had leaped to the sameconclusion I had. 

Suddenly I brushed Koto's hands away from the gun, and myself directedit so that its ray cut straight across one whole group of the queercreatures on the beach. Then I cursed. 

Instead of being cut down, broken like so many blades of grass, not oneof the creatures showed that the ray had touched them at all. They onlyuttered tremendous hoarse sounds that might have been laughter. 

I stood up. 

"Koto, Leider's found means of protecting both raw materials and livingbeings against the atomic gun!"

 * * * * *

Captain Crane was beside us now, and I saw that she did not need to betold of the disaster. As Koto turned away from the gun, I thought ofLeConte below. When the waves closed in on us, he would be caught like arat. 

The shriek of the wind and the crash of waves grew louder. I felt uponmy face the sting of spray from the aqueous solution of which thelashing sea at our stern was composed. The cable held, and the shipcontinued to move. We were barely a hundred yards away from the shore. 

All at once, though, a string of both chemical and physicalformulae--the last thing a man would expect to think of in such aposition--flashed into my mind. 

"Here, wait a minute, " I thought. "If Leider's done this thing, itmeans--it must mean--that he's juggled his atomic structures throughproduction in terrific quantities of the quondarium light which Itheorized about last year! But he can't have done that without playinghell with the action of magnetic forces from beginning to end! I believeif we take the gun aft and direct it at--"

That was as far as I got with forming words. I flung myself toward thegun and began to drag it to a position aft, where we might direct itsray full force, at close range, against the magnetic metal plate whichheld the cable to our stern. 

"Help me!" I yelled at the others. 

Koto was the first to close in. Struggling, slipping, hampered ratherthan helped by our great strength, we clawed our way aft. A combinedlurch of ship and blast of wind threw Captain Crane down, but shestaggered up. 

We dropped the gun with a thump at a spot where the bulging curve of thestern swelled directly under the muzzle. I grabbed at the trigger justas a new surge of movement brought the flier perilously close to agreat, inrushing wall of water which was not water. Koto's face wasdrawn, and Virginia Crane was staring in horrified fascination at thegun. 

 * * * * *

Again came the faint trembling of the beautifully constructed mechanism. The green ray leaped out across the blinding whiteness of our lightrays. I jammed the muzzle down until the whole force of the atomicstream was spouting against the magnetic plate which held the cable toour stern. 

"Look, Doctor! Look!" Captain Crane cried. 

But I was already looking. 

For an instant a flash of blue light played about our ship. There was asingle sharp, crackling sound; and, ringing in the night, an echoing, high-pitched twang. 

Koto let out a shout. I took my hands away from the gun. 

Backward the twanging cable snapped, demolishing with one touch a scoreof the clustering Orconites. Into the waves it snapped, and our ship, ceasing to move, came to rest upon the glittering pebbles of the beach. 

I heaved a deep sigh. 

"What came to me a moment ago, " I said breathlessly to the others, "wasthe idea that when atomic structures are so juggled that they are nolonger affected by the gun, all the forces of magnetism, which usuallyare immune to the atomic stream, are rendered liable to disruption byit. We could not destroy Leider's cable, but we could play the deucewith its magnetic grip on us. "

Koto was looking at me wide-eyed, and I saw that his interest was askeen as my own. Even Virginia Crane, scientist though she was not, wasinterested. 

We were in no position, however, to sit still and think. The wavesastern and the howling wind were subsiding noticeably, but theinhabitants of Orcon all about us were still creating a great hubbub. Our next obvious move, regardless of what they might do, was to get holdof one of them and make him talk. 

 * * * * *

After a gesture to Koto and Captain Crane to stay where they were, I ranto a spot on the deck where I had seen a permanent ladder fixed to theside of the ship. Three jumps took me down to the beach, and three moretook me into the very midst of the mob. 

The confusion brought about by the destruction of the score or so ofOrconites by the flying cable, and by our unexpected salvation, allworked for me. And another thing worked for me, too. 

These people had great intelligence, but they seemed like sheep when itcame to a question of physical, hand to hand encounter. Of rough andtumble fighting with fists they knew nothing--as indeed not many peopledo in this century, even on Earth. The result of it all was that theyshrank back when I charged into them, and not a blow was struck, evenwhen I caught up the nearest figure in my path, swung it over myshoulder, and tore back to the ladder. In two shakes I was standing onthe deck again, my prisoner all safe. 

"What a creature!" Virginia Crane cried as I presented her and Koto withmy struggling but helpless prize. 

That was just what I had thought after my first glimpse of the wholebrood of them. Close inspection showed, as I had supposed, that theOrconite was a man, and yet not a man. The body, the limbs, the enormoushead, the features of the orange-colored face were human; and the chapbegan to spout excited sounds which were certainly the words ofintelligent speech. But also he was winged, and from the orange foreheadwaved those curious, frilled feelers!

 * * * * *

He was clad in a single loose garment of woven cloth which permittedfree action for both limbs and wings. A small, flat black box with amouthpiece into which he could speak, was strapped to his chest in sucha position that it was almost concealed by the folds of his blouse. Wewere to find out presently the purpose of this instrument, but I did notexamine it carefully then. As the creature glared balefully at us fromhis intelligent dark eyes, I glanced over the side of the ship to seewhether trouble was to be expected from his fellows. 

And for the moment they surged about so much, and made so much noise, that I thought trouble might come. The shouting, however, was caused bytheir dismay at all that had happened to them, and I saw that instead ofmaking ready to attack they were preparing a retreat. We had whippedthem temporarily. 

We had thrown them into such disorder, indeed, that in another moment awhole force of them gave proof of their ability to fly, by taking offfrom the beach. Up and out they swept, out into the intense blacknesswhich overhung the sea behind us. In another moment the whole crew hadvanished, and I was glad enough of it. 

"Come on below, " I said to my two companions. "There's no telling howlong Leider will keep his hands off us, and we've got to find out fromour prisoner whatever we can. "

With that I turned to the companionway, lugging the winged man, and theothers followed. 

CHAPTER III

_In the Grip of Ludwig Leider_

Once we were below, LeConte joined us from the radio room. After takinga swift look at our prisoner, and listening to our account of what hadhappened above, he reported that the radio had been put out ofcommission by the crash but could be repaired. All of us then held ahasty conference and decided that since no one was badly in need ofrest, LeConte would return to his sending set, Koto would keep a deckwatch, and Captain Crane and I would see what we could learn from theprisoner. 

From the start it had been certain that the Orconite's strength was notto be compared to our earthly powers. Therefore I made no attempt tobind him, but simply shoved him into a seat in the main cabin of theflier--the room in which Forbes' body still lay--and began to try tomake him talk. 

I knew that Leider must have some way of communicating with his allies, and I was determined that if he could, I could. But it was uphill work. The creature closed his mouth, assumed a sullen look, and sat tight. Heknew what I was after--that I could tell by the expression of hisface--but he met with stolid silence all of my attempts to address himin such languages as I knew of Earth and our allied planets. I gotnowhere, until, in a manner as sudden as it was unexpected, somethinghappened which ended the deadlock. 

 * * * * *

The way it happened was this. As LeConte, working in the radio roomclose off the main saloon, completed a connection which had been broken, he called to us that he was making progress, and a moment later we heardthe click of his sending key and the shrill squeal of a powerfulelectric arc breaking across the transmission points of his set. Irealized at once that this did not mean that the set was wholly inorder, for the pitch of the squealing arc was too high and too sharp, but I did know that there was hope of establishing communication withEarth soon. And, too, I realized another thing. 

The moment that shrill, squealing sound impinged upon the Orconite'sears, he jumped and uttered a cry of pain. There was something about hisnervous organism that could not stand these sounds!

"LeConte, " I shouted, "close your key again!"

After that the battle was won. By the time I had explained to LeContewhy I had given him the order, and he had filled the cabin two or threetimes with the screech, the Orconite was ready to speak. He trembled inhis seat. His mouth twisted with pain, and a look of agony seared hiseyes. He burst into fluent Orconese speech. Then he made a swift passwith one hand at the black box on his chest, touched a switch there, andbegan to rattle his Orconese into the mouthpiece. 

The result--well, one might have known that Leider would have found someingenious means of making the difficult speech of Orcon easy. Out of thesmall instrument into which our prisoner spoke his hard, rattling words, came a flood of pure German. 

An instrument for translating spoken Orconese into spoken German. Thatwas what the little box was. 

"Shut the accursed transmission set off!" came from the box in a clearGerman which I understood readily. "I will talk. Ask what you want toknow. I cannot stand this!"

 * * * * *

His face still contorted, the Orconese touched a second switch on thebox, and indicated that I was to speak at the instrument. I did so, inGerman. The result was an instant translation into the prisoner's owntongue. 

The rest was easy. 

"What is your name?" was my first question. 

"Hargrib. "

"What were you and your people trying to do to us with the cable youhitched to our stern?" I asked next. 

"Destroy you. "

The whole story was this: In a power house on an island only a fewhundred yards off the beach was kept a magnetic cable which Leider hadbeen using in connection with some deep sea dredging apparatus he keptthere. When our ship crashed, the order had come from headquarters thatthe cable be fastened to us and the ship drawn into the sea. I concludedthat we had missed an unpleasant fate by a narrow margin. 

Quickly Hargrib confirmed our belief that it was Leider who had wreckedour ship while it was still approaching Orcon through space. A ray whichhad crippled the magnogravitos had been used. So great was Leider'spower that, after disabling us, he had even been able to direct ourcourse so that we had crashed on the beach close to the headquarters hehad set up for himself deep in the wilderness, away from the cities ofOrcon. 

The Orconite's free mention of Leider's name and his open admissionthat the man was king and god in Orcon, made direct inquiry about himeasy. Also it was plain that Hargrib, now he had been cornered, wouldhold nothing back because he believed we would never live long enough tomake trouble, regardless of what information we gained. 

 * * * * *

To state the rest of it briefly, we learned that Leider had come toOrcon immediately after his defeat at Calypsus. He had found readyallies here, on the crazy, distant planet which had been too remote totempt explorers from Earth until necessity had forced our voyage. Thepeople of Orcon knew science and machinery, and were advanced in everyrespect. From communication which they had had with other peoples intheir own zone of the Universe, they had even heard of Earth and itsallied planets. They had lent themselves readily to Leider's fierceplans to make trouble for Earth. 

As to what Leider's plan of war was, Hargrib could not tell us much, forhis duties kept him absorbed in other work, not connected with thecampaign. He stated definitely, however, that Leider had almostcompleted the development of apparatus which would enable him to strikehis blow without ever leaving Orcon. The whole work was being carriedforward in tremendous subterranean laboratories and power rooms whichhad been established in a series of natural caverns only a few milesdistant from the desolate beach on which we were lying at that moment. Hargrib said that with the coming of daylight, we would be able to seethe mountains in which the caverns were concealed, just as we would beable to sight the nearby island whence had been shot the cable which hadso nearly done for us. 

At this point my natural curiosity as a scientist made me desire greatlyto ask a thousand questions about the planet itself, with its bubblingchemical seas and its erratic orbit, and I did ask a few things. Theanswers I received confirmed the theory I had already formed that Orcondid not revolve regularly, but had days and nights which might lastanywhere from a few hours to a month. I was told--what I had alreadyguessed--that the bubbling fluid which composed the seas changed theorbit of the planet as the nature of the fluid's chemical elementschanged. 

Also I was told flatly and calmly, as though there were nothing at allremarkable about the fact, that Leider had penetrated so deeply into thechemical secrets of Orcon that he was able to control the coming of dayand night. Finally I was told that the planet had a hot, moist climateinstead of the frigid one to be expected when any sun was so remote, because of the continued warmth-giving chemical action of its seas. 

 * * * * *

I could have gone on seeking information for hours. Captain Crane, however, showed impatience at even the few questions I did ask, and Iknew that she was justified. It was my duty to think about the positionwe were in and the task we had in hand. 

I asked Hargrib sharply what was to be expected from Leider now that hiscable party against us had failed. And he told me. 

The sum of it was that Leider was working eagerly to complete hispreparations for the attack on Earth. Although it was he who had sentword from headquarters that we were to be destroyed, he had not pausedto attend to the matter himself. Hargrib thought, however, that thefailure of the cable party might change this attitude, and expressedthe belief that Leider would interview us now before he put us out ofthe way. He swore, and I believed, that he did not know when or howLeider would come to us or have us brought to him. Also he did not knowwhen or how we would finally be exterminated. 

I now asked a series of indirect questions which led me to believe thatneither Hargrib nor his master knew of the thing I had been conscious offrom the start--that we had aboard the ship an amount of high explosivesufficient to do ghastly damage not only to this section of the coastbut to the whole planet of Orcon. I gathered, however, that Leidersuspected we were armed against him in some way, and would watch uscarefully. 

 * * * * *

By now daylight had begun to peer in through the ports, a greenishdaylight which grew out of the north, and with its coming I resolved ona plan of action. 

"I am done with Hargrib, " I said suddenly to Captain Crane. "We'll lockhim up in one of the staterooms, and after that we'll see if we can'tget busy with something that will at least help Earth, even if itdoesn't help us. "

Hargrib, still terrified by those radio sounds he could not stand, madeno protest when I ordered him into the stateroom which had belonged tothe ship's second officer, and we were rid of him in a moment. 

I now called LeConte from the radio room and Koto in from the deck, andafter Captain Crane and I had told them what we had learned, I made myproposal. 

The plan was simply that LeConte should continue to work on his sendingapparatus until he reached Earth, while Koto, Captain Crane and I setout on a reconnaissance. I said that I hoped to be able to locateLeider's headquarters and learn what method of attack he intended to useagainst Earth; and that I hoped further that at least one of us would beable to bring word back to LeConte, who could send it to Earth. FinallyI indicated that we would see what could be done with our two tons ofkotomite as soon as we had made the attempt to send information home. Itold LeConte, who would stay with the ship, to fire the explosivehimself if anything happened to make him believe that we had been killedwhile scouting. 

I did not fail to point out that since our atomic guns were uselessagainst the Orconites and Leider, we should have to go unarmed on ourexpedition, and I did not fail to state that the whole effort seemedfutile. But the opportunity offered by Leider's present withdrawal wasone we could not afford to miss. We were drowning people, I said, and wemust clutch at straws. And my friends were good enough to agree. 

 * * * * *

As soon as the conference was ended, therefore, we disposed of our sixdead by the simple process of disintegrating them with one of the atomicguns, and then LeConte returned to the radio, and Koto, Captain Craneand I went on deck to have our first look at Orcon by daylight. 

The first thing we saw was the small, rocky islet just off the shorewhence had come the cable. It seemed a harmless place now, with only onesquat building of stone and no Orconites about, but we were glad enoughto turn away from it and look toward the dark and ragged range ofmountains which loomed up some five miles inland--the mountains ofLeider's headquarters. Not that the sight inspired us with greaterconfidence. It didn't. But it was good to look at the mountains, because the fact that we were going there meant that at least we shouldbe acting instead of idling. 

No Orconite was visible anywhere. 

With the coming of daylight--the greenish daylight of Orcon--the seabehind us had calmed until its surface was disturbed only by giganticlazy bubbles which broke with muffled, thudding explosions. The airsmelled of chlorine, iodine, and sulphurated hydrogen, but wasbreathable. I saw that the principal characteristic of life on Orcon wasan organic ability to thrive under almost any climatic conditions. Manyof the huge, crystal clear boulders which covered the beach and thecoastal plain which led to the hills, were covered with leafless flowerswhich had immense, leathery petals and sharp, fang-like spines. Otherevidences of swift growing life showed on every hand. Ugly, jelly-likecreatures oozed about the ship and everywhere else. In places the veryrocks seemed ready to come to life. 

 * * * * *

After one good look about, I issued the order to start. As we clambereddown the ship's ladder to the beach and set out resolutely toward thehills, I made myself try to hope, and for a time did muster up a littlecheer. 

I did not keep it, though. In less than ten minutes something happenedwhich ended our expedition in a terrible manner. 

What began it was a long shout which came echoing from LeConte back onthe ship. The instant I heard the cry I knew, somehow, that trouble hadstarted. Leider had kept off us as long as we had remained quiet, but atour first move he had gone into action. 

While LeConte's cry still echoed in my ears, I swung to face the shipand saw him waving frantically from the deck. At that moment I also hada queer impression that the sunlight was growing brighter on all theglittering rocks, and that some new feeling was creeping into the air. 

"Doctor Weeks!" LeConte cried across the distance between us. "Come atonce!"

Terror had laid hold of the man. Captain Crane, Koto and I began to runto him. 

"What is it?" I shouted. 

"I don't know, " came the thin answer. "I almost had Earth when my wholeset went to pieces. Come, quickly!"

"We will, if we're able, " I muttered to myself, and said aloud as I ranin the gigantic bounds possible on Orcon: "Koto, Captain, do you feelanything queer in the air as if--as if--"

I never finished. Suddenly Captain Crane screamed and flung out her armsto me with the gesture of one about to fall. 

"Doctor Weeks!" she gasped. "Frederick, help me!"

 * * * * *

And that was all. Before she could choke out another word, before Icould do more than clutch at her, she had been caught up by an invisiblepower, caught up straight into the now dazzlingly brilliant green air, and swept away from us as if she were a feather in a tornado. 

It was over before realization could sink in. Nor was her departure all. From the ship came a ringing yell, and as LeConte, in the distance, clutched a stanchion as if for dear life, the whole battered, glimmeringgray shape of the flier moved, shivered, and in a flash was caught upand whisked away as easily as had been Virginia Crane!

"He's got us!" I sputtered as I turned to Koto. "He was only waitinguntil we started to march against him. "

"God, yes. Horrible!" he muttered. 

Then _his_ kindly yellow face went white. Even while I stood looking athim, he, too, was swept away into space. 

When my turn came, it was as if implacable fingers took hold of mywrists, the front of my coat, my shoes. I distinctly remember thinkingthat after all the peace we'd had, something as astounding as this wasalmost bound to have happened. The glittering boulders of the coastalplain fell away, and I felt myself being whirled through space. Thespeed was taking my breath away. A ringing came into my ears, spotsfloated before my eyes, a nauseating light-headedness swept me, and Ilapsed into unconsciousness. 

CHAPTER IV

_In the Caverns of Orcon_

I came out of it to find myself lying on my back upon the rocky floor ofa cavern more lofty than any cathedral. The air was warm and chargedwith a pungent, almost mephitic odor. Blue light filled the vastsubterranean place. I heard the far-away, droning throb of machinery. Crackling sounds like static on a vast scale ripped back and forth atintervals. 

Neither Captain Crane, Koto, nor LeConte was in sight, but wherever Ilooked as I twisted my head slowly, I saw winged Orconites staring atme. They stood back against the walls of the cavern chamber, their wingsfolded, the antennae on their orange foreheads waving gently. None wasclose, but all watched with cold, intelligent interest. I decided that Iwas in Leider's headquarters, a closely guarded prisoner. It was to besupposed that Leider had brought us here, as Hargrib had said he might, to interview us before he finished us off. 

Fear for the others laid hold of me, but I was still too dazed and giddyto get up and look for them. I lay still, trying to remember everything. 

"He waited until we made an aggressive move, " I thought, "and then hedid _something_ to us. He did something which brought us shootingthrough the air here to his headquarters!"

After I had progressed so far, it did not take me long to realize whatmethod Leider had employed to fetch us to the caverns. Nor did it takeme much longer, once I was sure of the method, to roll over heavily andbegin to yank the metal buttons off my coat. Since the manyguards--fully twenty of them--made no move to interfere, I did not stopuntil I had torn every button off my clothing, dumped from my pocketsevery object which had a scrap of metal on it, and even dug the metaleyelets out of my shoes. 

 * * * * *

What had happened was that Leider had simply readjusted the forces ofhis damned power houses so as to yank us to him, ship and all, _without_the medium of a magnetic cable. What he had done was to direct at us amagnetic current so terrific that, taking hold of the few odds and endsof metal on our persons, it had snatched us bodily through space. Andthe ship, too! It was stupendous; incredible. 

Full consciousness had returned by this time, and fear possessed me evenmore completely than it had before--fear for what might be going tohappen to Earth and fear of what might already have happened to myfriends. The Leider who had planned the Calypsus war had had no suchgigantic powers as these. As thoughts of Virginia Crane and the othersincreased until they filled my whole mind, I sat up on the floor of thecavern and then rose slowly to my feet. 

The guards never relaxed their vigilance, but they made no move as Imoved; they only stared, and I ventured to call out. 

"Captain Crane! Koto! LeConte!" I shouted loudly. 

No answer came. Since the Orconites still did not prevent me, I began towalk swiftly down the length of the great, echoing cathedral cavern, toward an abutment of rock which jutted out from one wall, separatingthe room I was in from another. Again I shouted, and the whole placerang with echoes, and my fears grew. 

But all at once fear vanished. I knew that the worst had not happenedand that I was not to be left alone. 

"Doctor Weeks!" It was Koto's voice, and it came from behind theabutment of rock toward which I was hurrying. 

"Koto!" I yelled and entered the next cavern and saw it all. 

 * * * * *

He was lying stretched out on the rocky floor of an underground room asvast as the one I had left behind me. He was unhurt, and he was wavingto me! Captain Crane, just waking up, was stretched out beside him. Ourship, a colossal bulk of battered, gleaming metal, had come to alighting point some fifty yards beyond them. LeConte was sitting on thedeck, staring groggily at me. 

Guards were posted all around the walls of this new cavern, and those Ihad just walked away from now came crowding in to join their fellows, but none spoke to us or held us back. In another thirty seconds LeContehad slid down from the ship, Captain Crane had stumbled to her feet, Koto had flung an arm about me, and we were all babbling together. 

I will not attempt to tell of our feelings during that interval. But thereunion did much for us. When I had returned to consciousness, it hadbeen with the thought that our puny scouting expedition had been wreckedbefore it had begun, and that all else had been lost to us. Now the merefact that we were together once more changed my attitude suddenly andcompletely. 

"Defeated?" I asked myself, and as I gripped the warm hands of friends Iknew that we were not defeated at all. Rather it seemed that everythingwe could have hoped to gain was won. 

The penopalatrin I had injected in Koto and LeConte had mended theformer's broken arm and the latter's cracked ribs, so that none of uswas in any way disabled. And we seemed to be free within limits. And ourship was here in Leider's caverns--our ship laden with two tons of themost terrific explosive science had ever created. And the Orconites, though they might be suspicious, knew nothing of our weapon. 

Now that hope had sprung to life again, I knew that the opportunitiesopen to us were huge. We were in great trouble, and whatever we didwould probably not be easily done, but there was a strong chance that wemight yet strike a blow that would help the peoples of Earth in theirhour of need. 

 * * * * *

It was not necessary to explain to the others all that was passing in mymind, for I could tell by their expressions that they were comprehendingthe possibilities as clearly as I. 

"What's Leider up to?" Captain Crane asked after a while. 

"He's brought us here to put us through an interview, " I answered. "Hehasn't sent for us yet because he's busy getting ready for his war. Also, since he's a Prussian all the way through, he's probably ignoringus in the belief that his absence will make us more impressed with hismightiness. "

"Yes, but what are we going to do while he ignores us?" she snappedback. 

"Quite a lot, " I answered, and turned to LeConte. "What are the chancesof getting word to Earth?"

"Impossible, " he said, shaking his head. "The set was wrecked when themagnetism--or whatever it was--took hold of us. "

"All right. Never mind it. " I looked at Koto now. "Koto, what do youhave to do to fire your explosive?"

I was sure now that the thought had already been in their minds, forCaptain Crane and LeConte nodded and Koto smiled. 

"The kotomite, " he answered, "is packed in telargeium drums in theship's hold, and protected against being exploded until oxygen isadmitted to the drums and force applied. It was our original hope toland on Orcon, deposit the drums, and fire them by a time fuse. Thequickest way now would be simply to place one of our atomic guns in thehold, turn it loose, and get out. The stream of the gun would in a veryshort time disintegrate the drums to admit oxygen, and would at the sametime set off the explosive. "

"Good, " I said shortly, and without more ado glanced about the cavern tolook over the situation with regard to the forty or so Orconites whom wehad been ignoring, and who had ignored us, ever since we found eachother. 

 * * * * *

They were standing motionless against the walls, eyes alert, uglyantennae waving, but with their arms folded across their chests. Thereseemed to be no reason why we should not all march boldly to the ship, climb aboard, and forthwith do the work that was to be done there. Ihad, however, a feeling that our task was not to be so easilyaccomplished, and was not long in discovering that the feeling wascorrect. 

The moment I told the others to come with me, and we all started to walktoward the ship, the whole encircling force of Orconites began to movesilently forward. When we were within a few yards of the ship's ladder, a tall lithely built Orconite who seemed to be captain of the guard, flopped his wings, shot across the cavern, and dropped down before us. Into the instrument on his chest he rapped a word of Orconese which wastranslated instantly into the German. 

"_Verboten!_" was the word. 

Forbidden! The Orconites were not taking any chances with us. It wasdiscouraging, but no more than I had expected. It simply meant that ifwe were to be interfered with, we should have to do something about theinterference. 

I quickly began to work out a plan. 

First of all I shrugged at the captain of the guard and turned back fromthe ship as though his refusal to let us aboard was of no consequence. Next I spoke to the others. 

"Come on, " I said in a normal voice. "Don't make a fuss now, but pullback, from the gangway. "

They saw, I think, that I was planning something, and we retreatedtogether, with the result that the Orconites ceased to threaten and oncemore fell back to the walls of the cavern. Their captain flew over andjoined them. 

 * * * * *

"I thought for a moment, " I said, "that we might tell the captain thatHargrib was locked up in the ship, and so furnish an excuse to getaboard. But that isn't good. Some of the Orconites would surely go withus, and in that case it would be next to impossible to get at thekotomite properly. What we need is at least a couple of minutes whichwill be uninterrupted. We'll leave Hargrib right where he is, and getaccess to the ship in another way. We'll fight for it!"

"Fight?" Captain Crane shot a glance at me, and I saw that the ideaappealed to her. 

"So far as I can see, " I said quickly, "Leider hasn't armed his guardswith any unique weapon, but has merely left them to watch us. And theOrconites don't know how to fight! Think of the ease with which I gotaway with Hargrib last night. When it comes to dealing destruction withscientific weapons, their power is appalling. When it comes to aslugging match, they are only so many sheep. And Leider's forgotten totake that fact into account!"

I felt really sure that the guards were not armed with some mysteriousweapon we could not see, and Koto felt the same. 

"Doctor, you're right!" he exclaimed. "Leider's made a mistake! He'sforgotten what damage can be done by physical strength, and left usalone with a mere flesh-and-blood guard. There are forty of theOrconites and their leader, and only four of us. But we have strengththat they never dreamed of possessing. It makes the odds almost even!"

"Right, " I snapped. "And they will be even altogether if we can get holdof some clubs. "

 * * * * *

Koto and the others looked doubtful at that, but I had been thinkinghard of the problem all the while we were talking. I motionedunobtrusively toward the end of the room, where a tunnel, blue-lightedand lined with curious, glittering dials like ammeters, gave entrance, evidently, to another great underground chamber. On the floor of thattunnel, close to the entrance, lay a pile of heavy stalactites of somemineral which resembled jade. The spikes had seemingly been cleared offthe tunnel roof and left to be carried away. They were pointed enough tobe used for stabbing, and looked heavy enough to make stout clubs. 

Captain Crane smothered an exclamation as she glanced at the pile, andKoto and LeConte smiled. 

Our conversation all this while had been carried on with seemingcasualness, and not even the leader of the Orconites showed suspicion. More than ever I felt that neither they nor Leider would be prepared todefend the ship against a sudden physical attack. 

"The weak point for us, " I said, "is that we'll have to make an awfulrow, and the alarm will go out, and eventually some weapon will bebrought out to stop us. But if we work quickly, there's a good chancethat we can finish everything before Leider is able to step in with somedevilish freak instrument. Take it easy until we've got the clubs, andthen cut loose for all you're worth. Captain Crane, it's a great pityyou're a woman. In all this you'll simply have to--"

I did not finish. Something in the look she gave me stopped me quite, and somehow, whether I would admit it or not, I knew she was as fit aswe were. By this time we were strolling away from the ship toward thetunnel. 

 * * * * *

Blue-lighted, brilliant, the opening loomed larger as we approached. Thesame sounds of static on a vast scale which filled our cavern, filledthe tunnel, but the place was deserted. The pile of jade spikesshimmered right at the entrance. A few of the guards behind us saunteredat our heels without speaking, and the dozen or so about the tunnelclosed in toward the opening, but no restraint was put upon us. 

"We seem to have the freedom of the place and the key to the city!" wasCaptain Crane's dry comment. 

"Yes, " I answered. "I'm pretty sure it's going to be a case of lambs ledto the slaughter. Looks as if--Oh, good Lord, look!"

At the moment when I spoke those last words, we had approached to withinthirty or forty feet of the pile of stalactites, and from the quickmovement which eight or ten Orconites made ahead of us, drawingthemselves up in a line across the tunnel mouth, I knew that we hadalmost reached the limit of our freedom. But it was not that fact, orthe movement of our guards, that brought the exclamation from me. 

"Look!" I cried again, even though I knew each of the others had seen asclearly as I. 

From where we were walking slowly forward, it was possible to see cleardown the tunnel to the tall, lighted cavern beyond our own. In thecenter of that cavern, with her nose pointing toward a wide tunnel downwhich showed a glimmer of daylight, rested the long, needle-like, brighthull of the most beautifully designed space flier I had ever seen. 

We did not need to be told that this was Leider's own cruiser. A ship ofsuch magnitude and exceeding beauty could have been nothing else. 

 * * * * *

The guards knew we had seen and were aware of our excitement, butcontented themselves by standing fast in the line they had alreadyformed across the tunnel. We advanced another few yards. 

"Mother of Mercy!" LeConte whispered, almost in awe. 

"There's a chance for us!" Koto gasped. "A chance! We'll set one of theguns going in the hold of our own ship, and then--"

Captain Crane's face was flushed with intense excitement, and herfingers were moving as though she felt the delicate controls of thespace ship under them even now. 

"Could you pilot it?" I asked. 

"_Could_ I! Give me the chance!" she cried. 

"All right, " I snapped, "we will!"

And in that second I enlarged my plans to take this gorgeous newdevelopment into account. 

"Fight to take the cruiser, " I ordered. "Captain Crane, Koto, LeConte, get aboard as soon as you can cut your way through. I'll take care ofour ship and the kotomite at that time and join you, if possible. Comeon!"

Thus was it decided. Thus did we enter our fight with an outlook asutterly different from our original one as hope is different fromdespair. Our discovery of the cruiser had been almost accidental, athing which might never have taken place except for our trip to get thespikes of jade. Surely such a happy accident had never happened before!

 * * * * *

The moment I gave the command to go ahead, and we started to run, all ofthe ugly, bird-like faces of the Orconites across the tunnel becameconvulsed, and the creatures commenced to howl at us. Before we hurledourselves against the line, swift reinforcements shot through the airover our heads and joined them, and the temporary uncertainty which hadheld them gave way, so that they met our advance with an advance oftheir own. But we did not care. 

A few smashing blows which I delivered with my fists served to bringscreams of agony from the several creatures immediately about me, and asone or two staggered and crashed to the floor, the others gave way alittle. In a moment I was through the line to the pile of stalactites. And the others were through with me. 

"Here you go, Koto!" I cried, and stooping down in spite of the jostlingbodies and clammy hands that tried to prevent us, I caught up one of thelong, needle-pointed, heavy stalactites. As I shoved it at him andsnatched another for myself, Captain Crane and the others armedthemselves. 

By this time every Orconite in the heavy guard was on the spot, and thewhole mass was all over us, gasping, burbling, flapping their wings, fighting to clutch at us with their hideous orange hands and wavingantennae. Decidedly the fight was on, and I was forced to admit the factthat, though these creatures might be sheep, even sheep have power. Butthe first skirmish was already won, and I had faith that we could winthe real battle. 

I balanced my peculiar weapon in my hand to get the feel of it, thenbrushed aside a pair of sucking paws which were trying to take it fromme, and plunged the spike clean through the body of the man who held me. 

He fell without making a sound. I regained my weapon by planting my booton his chest and wrenching it free. 

I swung the spike like a club and crushed two heads with a single blowat each. A downward blow served almost to hack a long, clutching armfrom an Orconite's body. With four men out of the struggle, I looked tosee how my companions were faring, and was assured by a single glancethat they were as well off as I. 

 * * * * *

Encouraged greatly, I met an advance of pressing, jostling bodies by areturn to my original technique of stabbing. I stabbed every time a handreached out to hold me, and if I did not take a life with each stab, Iat least drew a spout of greenish-colored blood. 

It was not a nice business, any of it, especially as the Orconites wereas fearless before our onslaught as they were powerless. But it had tobe done. We were fighting for far more than our own lives. 

The blue-lighted corridor with its rippling sounds of static and itsgigantic ammeters became worse than a shambles. We walked upon, stumbledover, wallowed amongst the piled corpses of the slain, whose master, knowing more of the science of destructive warfare than any other beingin the Universe, had nevertheless forgotten that it was still possiblefor mankind to fight with their hands. 

Such a fight could have only one ending. 

When the end came I saw that Virginia Crane was splashed with the uglyblood of the Orconites from her smooth forehead to the soles of herflying boots, but she was unhurt. The rest of us were likewiseblood-stained and uninjured. We were all too excited to feel tired. Themoment the pressure about us began to relax, she surged toward thewaiting cruiser at the end of the tunnel, and I shouted to Koto andLeConte. 

"Go and help her, you two! I'll do the work on our ship!"

They did not question my order, but obeyed. 

There were only ten or a dozen of the winged ones left now, and when thetwo men leaped after the woman, it was easy for me to fight a jabbing, slashing battle which not only protected the retreat, but enabled me towork my way slowly toward our own ship and its kotomite. 

 * * * * *

With Leider's cruiser already headed toward the tunnel which led outfrom the underground hangar, I knew that it could be taken into spacewith a minimum loss of time. I believed that I could get an atomic gungoing in our hold quickly, too. My hopes rose high as I darted a glanceover my shoulder and saw Captain Crane and Koto taking, three at a time, the gangway steps which led to the deck and control room, with LeContedirectly behind them. Now there were only seven guards left instead of adozen, and those were at last showing signs of being cowed. I cut downtwo, and gave a great bound which carried me away from the others in thedirection of our wrecked ship. 

No sooner, though, did I tense myself for a second leap than I felt anerveless sensation in my knees, as though the bones had turned tobutter, and knew that my high hopes had budded too soon. Instead ofleaping, I staggered on for two short steps, then stopped because Icould stagger no farther. Looking back at the cruiser, I saw thatLeConte, still on the gangway, had stopped also. Captain Crane and Kotowere making weak, despairing signs at me from the entrance to thecontrol room. Both of them looked as sick as cats. I heard a laugh, ashrill, rasping sort of laugh, from the forward end of the brightcruiser, and I looked in that direction. 

I saw a short man, bald headed, with frog eyes peering at us from behindthick prismatic glasses. He was clad in baggy green overalls, and wasslowly waving in our direction a glistening metal tube which he held inboth hands. From the end of the tube emanated a purplish light. 

"You were clever, my good young friends, " he chortled, "to think offighting with your hands, but you were not quite quick enough. Notto-day goes anyone in my cruiser! What do you think of the enervatingray, heh? Ingenious, not? Ludwig Leider discovered it. I am LudwigLeider. You shall come with me and with your own eyes watch thede-energizing of New York and Paris and Berlin. For I am ready to doaway with your paltry Earth now!"

I felt the last energy ooze out of me and I sunk, all in a heap, on thefloor of Ludwig Leider's cavern. 

CHAPTER V

_Death in a Box_

New York. We did see it with our own eyes. The instrument through whichwe gazed was like a metal box with a ground-glass top and a mesh ofslender wires leading away from the table on which the box rested. Leider touched a button amidst a long row of buttons on the table. Allwe had to do after that was to look at the ground-glass plate, and thepicture was there. 

We, in Leider's private laboratory on Orcon, saw the crowds of a massmeeting of some sort in Union Square, saw a boy and a girl kissing eachother in the shadow of bushes in Central Park, saw a little fox terrierwatching with only one eye open. 

We could not speak, any of the four of us, as we stared at that verysimple box which wrought miracles. I stood still, thinking of the thingswhich had happened after our capture, when the cruiser had alreadyseemed to be in our grasp. 

First of all, Leider had restored our energy to us by the simple processof turning off the ray which emanated from the tube in his hands. Then averitable legion of Orconites had come to the cavern in which thecruiser rested, and we had been marched through the very heart of thepower rooms, with their hum and clack and dazzle of mighty machinery, to the laboratory. That was all. 

The Orconites had left us outside the heavy doors of the private room, but, just as there had been no opportunity to attack while they marchedwith us, Leider gave us no opportunity to harm him while we were alone. Though he had forgotten once the damage we could do in a fight, he wasnot going to be fooled again. He kept the great table of the box betweenourselves and him, and his wary hands were always closer to a certainrow of control buttons than ours were to his. 

 * * * * *

It was he who broke at last the silence which had fallen as we watchedNew York from Orcon, and his voice was loud in the hushed laboratoryfrom which the noises of his subterranean power houses were shut out. 

"Sit down, " he commanded, "and keep away from the table and thereflector. "

Then, when we had taken chairs beside the table, he began to speak tous. 

"That little dog you saw--I have it in my power to withdraw from him inone second all the energy which makes him run, jump about, live. That Ican do by touching controls here at my table without even leaving thismarvelous, marvelous room. " A frown crossed his forehead above hispop-eyes, and he exclaimed with swift anger, in a croaking voice, "Andwhat I do to the little dog, I can do as easily to the whole populationof your loathsome Earth!"

I looked up at him where he stood with the table between us, and atlength found my tongue. 

"And of course you will do it, you swine!" I burst out. 

His momentary anger had passed as swiftly as it had come, and, ignoringmy epithet, he rocked smugly on the balls and heels of his feet andsmiled. 

"Ah, Herr Doktor, " he answered contentedly, "I will destroy Earth, ofcourse! For who has better cause than I, whom Earth would not accept asher master? All of the people there will lose the power to move, andthey will die. I am ready now, in the uttermost degree. After you soneatly but uselessly saved yourselves from drowning last night, Ifinished. As easily can I de-energize the peoples of Earth as I canyou--the four of you--if you should make the move to harm me. "

 * * * * *

Captain Crane was staring first at Leider, then at me, and her cheekswere gray and ghastly looking. Koto and LeConte were both sitting tightin chairs beside our own, watching me rather than Leider. I looked overthe shelves, the whole complex apparatus of that incredible room, butsaw no weapon of any kind. And my hands were useless because _his_ wereso close to the damnable controls. 

"But what becomes of Earth itself, after our peoples are gone?" I askedpresently. 

Leider shrugged and his eyes twinkled behind the thick glasses. 

"Herr Doktor, you are a brilliant man. Amongst the most brilliant, Ishould say, of any who on the Earth have labored. Yet of science youknow less than a child. What should I do with Earth except to sit herein my own room, and, with the anarcostic ray, reduce its solid structureinto stardust which will drift away into space like the smoke from onetiny match? Pouf! like that. "

I looked at the table, at Leider's wary hands. I knew that the man wasready, even as he had said, to do away with Earth. I guessed that wewould die, too, when Earth was gone--probably here in this room. And itseemed likely that the destruction would begin at a not distant moment, for there was some quality of fanatical evil lurking even now inLeider's face. 

Then, however, I stiffened in my chair very suddenly indeed. If I couldfind a way to get close to the box on the table without rousing Leider'ssuspicion, the outlook might not be so black!

"Leider, " I exclaimed all at once, and there was a vigor in my words, "it's all very well for you to be saying these mighty things, but do youknow what? I don't believe you can draw the energy out of the human raceor disintegrate the Earth, either!"

 * * * * *

I think if I had kicked him I could not have surprised him more. Whichwas exactly what I had hoped to do. 

"You--you do not _believe_?" he said, incredulously. 

"No I don't!"

"Ach, Gott!" A black fury overcame him. Hideous fury. He was alreadystanding beside the table. Quaking from head to foot, he pointedsavagely at the box. "Get up and look into the reflector!" He choked andhis voice rose to a scream. "Get up! Stoop close to the reflector andwatch! Watch there, I say!"

The thing which had launched me on my course of action was the fact thatthe picture-making box was not screwed to the table. The only thingwhich held it there was the soft mesh of wires!

With a concealed gesture to the others to stay still, I rose, placed myhands on the table close to the box, and leaned forward as though tolook at the glass. 

"It shall come now!" Leider yelled, and at that moment took his eyes offme, while he reached with a rage-palsied hand for the twinkling line ofbuttons. 

The instant he looked away from me, I gave a tug which jerked the heavybox away from its wires as easily as a weed is plucked from soft earth. As I made the move Leider looked up and screamed. His hand, alreadyreaching for the buttons, darted forward. But the instant had been all Ineeded. Before the darting hand ever reached the table, I struck Leidera sharp blow, and hurled the box to the floor. 

In a moment more the others were around me. The box was shattered tomatchwood. Leider was lying on the floor behind his table with one armdoubled limply under him and dark blood welling from a forehead gashwhich I hoped went as deep as his brain. 

Koto and LeConte kicked open the laboratory door and shot through. Captain Crane and I jumped after them. 

CHAPTER VI

_Through the Darkness of Orcon_

Gongs clanged, blue lights flashed on and off with the lurid glare ofsulphur pits burning in hell, and screaming, winged Orconites, all mixedup together, pelted toward us as thickly as the snowflakes of ablizzard. I don't suppose the destruction of one little mesh of wireshad ever created such a disturbance before. 

Leider's cruiser rested in the hangar two caverns away. 

"Play hide-and-seek with them!" I shouted against the turmoil. 

The initial wave of the attack struck us as we tore from the laboratorycorridor into the first power room. Captain Crane went down under theonslaught of what must have been a hundred Orconites, and it took allthe tearing strength of Koto's, LeConte's, and my hands combined toburrow through the piles of creatures who covered her, and get her out. By the time she was on her feet again, a new legion was at us. 

I had not, however, suggested hide-and-seek meaninglessly. 

While the others fought, and wildest confusion reigned, I pulled off mycoat, flung it aside, and crammed myself into a loose, one-piece costumeof Orcon which I tore off a corpse. Then I fought while my threecompanions repeated the operation. We succeeded in confusing the mob tosuch an extent that we were able to work our way through the fringes ofthe melee and move clear across the first room, before we wererecognized. 

 * * * * *

The alarm of our escape, though, spread into the next room almost assoon as we reached it, and a foolish attempt we made to keep bunchedtogether and get through with a dash, betrayed us before we got wellstarted. 

Now it was a case of being drowned again by a sheer deluge of men. Whilethe Orconites pawed me, tripped me, and otherwise discommoded me, Ibroke necks, dug out eyes, tore quivering antennae from foreheads untilI felt as if I had been doing nothing else for hours. And those besideme were doing the same. Yet always more bladder faces rose in front ofus, and more wings beat down from above. Not even our supreme strengthwas great enough to stand it. 

Out across the bleeding, crumpled bodies and the teeming swarms beyond, I saw as through a red mist the glittering, whirling maze of Leider'swondrous generators, and began to curse to myself. 

For the steady pressure was forcing us slowly back toward the machinesand toward the rugged, high wall of the cavern beyond, and I knew thatonce we reached the wall we could retreat no farther and must standthere to fight until we were completely exhausted. I drew closer toVirginia Crane and did what I could to help her with her main group ofassailants while still battling my own. 

Oddly enough, I was remembering how, when she had been caught up by themagnetic current that had brought us here, she had cried out to me, calling me by my given name.... The recollection filled me with a queeremotion, partly rebellion and partly--something else. In the crisis wewere facing now, I somehow lacked my wonted power to shun femininity. 

 * * * * *

Side by side we struggled against our enemies, tearing at them with ourwhole strength, yet always we were driven closer to the wall which wouldfinally stop us. 

"Oh, " she finally gasped, "I--didn't want--to die!"

"No, " I answered through set teeth as I hurled down an Orconite only tobe confronted by two more; "but I'm afraid--we must. Well, we've doneaway with Leider, anyway. "

"Yes, " she choked. "That's--something. "

Koto and LeConte were as hard pressed as we. Then, as we fell steadilyback into a passage between two of the vast generators, back toward thesolid wall of the cavern, a queer thing happened. 

Despite the fact that LeConte was embroiled with a dozen winged men, hisface became crinkled with a broad grin!

"Watch!" he yelled suddenly, and I _did_ watch. 

We were within a few feet of the driving gear of one of the generators. Quick as a bolt of lightning, LeConte caught a deadly firm hold on oneof the ugly, squawking orange-skinned creatures, raised him into theair, and there held him poised while he swung around to face thegenerator. 

Genius!

There was a shriek, then a thousand shrieks. Impelled by the Frenchman'stremendous heave, the winged man shot forward and struck full, with asplashing sound, against the terrifically revolving armature. Athunderbolt seemed to explode in our faces. All in that room, we as wellas the Orconites, reeled dazedly back. A stench of seared flesh andshort circuited wires smote our nostrils. Darkness--smothering, thick, absolute darkness--settled over us. 

 * * * * *

"Come on!" LeConte shouted amidst the blessed inkiness of it, and I felthim tug at my hand. Captain Crane's hand slipped into my other, Kotocaught hold of her, and we started forward. 

Genius indeed, this stroke of LeConte's. 

Clinging stoutly to each other, we pushed through the meager, floundering opposition which was all that was offered in the intensedarkness, and began to forge swiftly ahead. Ten yards ... A hundred. Aslight decrease of the sounds of crying and panting and of confusedflopping wings told us we had passed through the arch which separatedthe wrecked power room from the hangar. 

"Captain, " I whispered as we battered against some confused and helplessOrconites and flung them aside, "could you make anything of the controlsystem on the cruiser before Leider got us?"

Virginia Crane said vigorously that she had. 

"The light switches are all on a board to the right of the entrancedoor. The other controls are as readily accessible. "

"Leaves us in something of a position!" I whispered. 

The hand which she had placed in my own tightened its grip. I heardLeConte grunt with satisfaction as he pressed forward. I began to figureon ways and means of getting to our wrecked ship alone after the otherswere aboard the cruiser. 

We crossed another fifty or sixty yards of the darkness, and found fewerof the badly shaken Orconites in our path. Now, in that thick obscurity, I sensed that we were nearing the magnificent, tapering hull with itsfish-scale sides. 

"Come on!" I urged unnecessarily. I kicked into several of the yieldingbodies left from our first fight, before Leider had taken us, and in alittle while the feel of cool, smooth metal under my hand told me we hadreached the gangway. 

"Up you go, Captain!" I snapped, and as she clutched the slender rail ofthe gangway and plunged upwards, "LeConte, you next. Koto--"

But Koto laid a firm hand on my arm. 

"No, I do not go. "

 * * * * *

We stopped where we were. The noises of pursuit were still around us, and I could have slugged him for making a delay. 

"You fool, get aboard!" I roared. 

But it did no good. 

"No. "

"Get the motors started!" I called to Captain Crane. "LeConte, you helpher. " Then I turned to Koto and in the dark waved a fist under his nose. "You idiot--"

"No, my friend, " he laughed at me. "You killed Leider. LeConte put outthe lights. Captain Crane will pilot the ship. Now it's my turn. Youwill pardon my insubordination, but you will also please to hurry up thegangway before I knock you unconscious and throw you up. Damn it, it'smy explosive, anyway, isn't it? Who has the best right to fire it?"

With that he whirled away from me. 

"Don't wait!" he called over his shoulder. 

I laughed at him and sang out the order to Captain Crane to stand by. Asfor myself, I remained standing on the small platform at the foot of thegangway. 

The moment Captain Crane flipped a switch which flooded the control roomand a score of ports along the hull with golden light, I thought theyells which rose from the other room and the far side of this one wouldblow the roof off. By the time we felt a quiver run through the hull, and heard the sweet, deep-throated hum of the gigantic power plant, amob of Orconites had formed for a new attack. It was hideous that wecould not wait for Koto in darkness, but the light was essential toCaptain Crane's preparations, so there was nothing to be done. I feltthat Koto's chances of getting back to us were one in a thousand. 

 * * * * *

Yet suddenly, as I still clung to the foot of the gangway, LeContethrust his head from the control room door and yelled at me to hang ontight. At once the ship moved forward, and, rolling easily on her groundgear, swung left and lunged toward the swooping mob of Orconites. 

Handling that space flier in the cavern was like trying to navigate aone-hundred-thousand-ton freighter in a pond. But Captain Crane didit--she whom I had once accused, to myself, of misnavigating andwrecking our other ship. The Orconites had formed themselves in a densegroup. We went into them, mowed them down, stopped under the great archwhich led to the inky black power rooms, backed up, and, as thescreaming lines reformed, crunched terrifically into them again. 

By this time I saw in the corridor leading to our old ship, where thedarkness was only partially broken by our lights, a dark-headed grinningman who was bent nearly double with the speed of his running. 

"He's coming!" I howled. 

"He's coming!" LeConte echoed to Virginia Crane in the control room. 

And again the miracle of the hundred-thousand-tonner in the pond wasperformed. Again the cruiser backed up and swung around. We headedtoward Koto, straight toward him. 

 * * * * *

There still were droves of Orconites to contend with. Flocks of them hadtaken to their wings, and were filling the whole upper reaches of thecavern, now that a juggernaut had the floor. They had spied Koto andwere swooping toward him. But they could not seize him without coming tothe floor, and they could not come to the floor without contending withthe juggernaut. 

Now the cruiser seemed to swoop. I saw a swirl of wings all about, battering down and down about the Jap; then I clung to the gangway railwith one hand and reached far out with the other toward our friend. 

He leaped, and I felt the warm contact of his hands gripping my arm. Igave a heave, and landed him on the steps as neatly as a fisherman evernetted a trout. 

"All clear!" I screamed up the gangway. 

It was not until we were on the deck, and the cruiser was glidingmagnificently forward toward the shaft which led outside to space andlight, that Koto spoke. But when he did, his words had significance. 

"It's done!" he panted. "The gun is firing against the drums!"

We dove into the control room, and LeConte banged the outer door shutand jammed huge catches, battening it down for our flight through space. 

"Get out as fast as you can!" LeConte panted on, speaking now to CaptainCrane as she headed us gently into the tunnel. "The kotomite's due to gooff the second the first drums are disintegrated. "

I dropped limply on to a seat beside the pilot and sat still. 

 * * * * *

We passed through the tunnel in five or six seconds. In another fiveseconds, we had not only taken off, but had worked up a formidablespeed. We barely felt the explosion when it came. But on the instrumentboard in front of Virginia Crane, gleamed a little box with aground-glass top, and in that we saw, as by a magic, what happened onOrcon. 

First the mountains which topped the subterranean power houses werelifted off. Then the whole planet rocked. Finally the caverns wereinundated by the deluge of the sea which, in the beginning, had sonearly swallowed us. 

Orcon was not destroyed, but we knew even then that such of itsinhabitants as might remain alive would not soon again dream of makingan attack upon Earth. 

On the way back, as Earth took form and grew round in the interminablereaches of space ahead of us, I got on well with Captain Crane. Itstarted when she asked me if I were still so cocksure that woman had noplace in the U.  S.  W. Upper Zone Patrol, and I was forced to answer thatI was not. After that, one thing led to another. 

We were photographed together when we landed beside the colossal, metal-roofed hangars of the Long Island station of the U.  S.  W. Thesnapshot was published in that afternoon's tabloids under the caption:Betrothed. 

Transcriber's Note:

This e-text was produced from Astounding Stories January 1932. Extensiveresearch did not uncover any evidence that the U. S. Copyright on thispublication was renewed.