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Argosy Weekly, September 17, 1932, with first part of "Pirates of Venus"

Chapter I. Carson Napier
Chapter II. Off For Mars
Chapter III. Rushing Toward Venus
Chapter IV. To The House Of The King
Chapter V. The Girl In The Garden
Chapter VI. Gathering Tarel
Chapter VII. By Kamlot's Grave
Chapter VIII. On Board The Sofal
Chapter IX. Soldiers Of Liberty
Chapter X. Mutiny
Chapter XI. Duare
Chapter XII. "A Ship!"
Chapter XIII. Catastrophe
Chapter XIV. Storm

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Illustration 1.
Map of Amtor by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Illustration 2.
Frontispiece. Spreading his powerful wings, he rose...
Illustration 3.
I snapped the rope in its face.
Illustration 4.
I struck viciously at its head.
Illustration 5.
The Klangans carried us with them.
Illustration 6.
"I cannot," she sobbed.

"Pirates of Venus," Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., 1934

Map of Amtor by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

"Pirates of Venus," Frontispiece.

Spreading his powerful wings, he rose,
while Duare stretched her hands toward me.

I. — CARSON NAPIER

"If a female figure in a white shroud enters yourbedchamber at midnight on the thirteenth day of this month,answer this letter; otherwise, do not."

Having read this far in the letter, I was about to consign itto the wastebasket, where all my crank letters go; but for somereason I read on, "If she speaks to you, please remember herwords and repeat them to me when you write." I might have read onto the end; but at this juncture the telephone bell rang, and Idropped the letter into one of the baskets on my desk. It chancedto be the "out" basket; and had events followed their ordinarycourse, this would have been the last of the letter and theincident in so far as I was concerned, for from the "out" basketthe letter went to the files.

It was Jason Gridley on the telephone. He seemed excited andasked me to come to his laboratory at once. As Jason is seldomexcited about anything, I hastened to accede to his request andsatisfy my curiosity. Jumping into my roadster, I soon coveredthe few blocks that separate us, to learn that Jason had goodgrounds for excitement. He had just received a radio message fromthe inner world, from Pellucidar.

On the eve of the departure of the great dirigible, O-220,from the earth's core, following the successful termination ofthat historic expedition, Jason had determined to remain andsearch for von Horst, the only missing member of the party; butTarzan, David Innes, and Captain Zuppner had persuaded him of thefolly of such an undertaking, inasmuch as David had promised todispatch an expedition of his own native Pellucidarian warriorsto locate the young German lieutenant if he still lived and itwere possible to discover any clue to his whereabouts.

Notwithstanding this, and though he had returned to the outerworld with the ship, Jason had always been harassed by a sense ofresponsibility for the fate of von Horst, a young man who hadbeen most popular with all the members of the expedition; and hadinsisted time and time again that he regretted having leftPellucidar until he had exhausted every means within his power ofrescuing von Horst or learned definitely that he was dead.

Jason waved me to a chair and offered me a cigarette. "I'vejust had a message from Abner Perry," he announced, "the firstfor months."

Now as this pertains to a subject entirely foreign to thepresent volume, I might mention that I have alluded to it onlyfor the purpose of explaining two facts which, while not vital,have some slight bearing on the remarkable sequence of eventswhich followed. First, it caused me to forget the letter I justmentioned, and, second, it fixed the date in my mind—thetenth.

My principal reason for mentioning the first fact is to stressthe thought that the matter of the letter, so quickly andabsolutely forgotten, had no opportunity to impress itself uponmy mind and therefore could not, at least objectively, influencemy consideration of ensuing events. The letter was gone from mymind within five minutes of its reading as completely as thoughit had never been received.

The next three days were exceedingly busy ones for me, andwhen I retired on the night of the thirteenth my mind was sofilled with the annoying details of a real estate transactionthat was going wrong, that it was some time before I could sleep.I can truthfully affirm that my last thoughts were of trustdeeds, receivers in equity, and deficiency judgments.

What awoke me, I do not know. I sat up with a start just intime to see a female figure, swathed in what appeared to be awhite winding sheet, enter my room through the door. You willnote that I say door rather than doorway, for such was the fact;the door was closed. It was a clear, moonlit night; the varioushomely objects in my room were plainly discernible, especiallythe ghostly figure now hovering near the foot of my bed.

I am not subject to hallucinations, I had never seen a ghost,I had never wished to, and I was totally ignorant of the ethicsgoverning such a situation. Even had the lady not been soobviously supernatural, I should yet have been at a loss as tohow to receive her at this hour in the intimacy of my bedchamber,for no strange lady had ever before invaded its privacy, and I amof Puritan stock.

"So it is," I agreed, and then I recalled the letter that Ihad received on the tenth.

"He left Guadalupe today," she continued; "he will wait inGuaymas for your letter."

That was all. She crossed the room and passed out of it, notthrough the window which was quite convenient, but through thesolid wall. I sat there for a full minute, staring at the spotwhere I had last seen her and endeavoring to convince myself thatI was dreaming, but I was not dreaming; I was wide awake. In factI was so wide awake that it was fully an hour before I hadsuccessfully wooed Morpheus, as the Victorian writers so neatlyexpressed it, ignoring the fact that his sex must have made itrather embarrassing for gentlemen writers.

I reached my office a little earlier than usual the followingmorning, and it is needless to say that the first thing that Idid was to search for that letter which I had received on thetenth. I could recall neither the name of the writer nor thepoint of origin of the letter, but my secretary recalled thelatter, the letter having been sufficiently out of the ordinaryto attract his attention.

"It was from somewhere in Mexico," he said, and as letters ofthis nature are filed by states and countries, there was now nodifficulty in locating it.

You may rest assured that this time I read the lettercarefully. It was dated the third and postmarked Guaymas. Guaymasis a seaport in Sonora, on the Gulf of California.

Being engaged in a venture of great scientificimportance, I find it necessary to solicit the assistance (notfinancial) of some one psychologically harmonious, who is at thesame time of sufficient intelligence and culture to appreciatethe vast possibilities of my project.

Why I have addressed you I shall be glad toexplain in the happy event that a personal interview seemsdesirable. This can only be ascertained by a test which I shallnow explain.

If a female figure in a white shroud entersyour bedchamber at midnight on the thirteenth day of this month,answer this letter; otherwise, do not. If she speaks to you,please remember her words and repeat them to me when youwrite.

Assuring you of my appreciation of your earnestconsideration of this letter, which I realize is rather unusual,and begging that you hold its contents in strictest confidenceuntil future events shall have warranted its publication, I am,Sir,

"So it did to me on the tenth," I agreed; "but today is thefourteenth, and now it looks like another story."

"That is just what I do mean to tell you," I interrupted. "Thelady came, I saw, she conquered."

Ralph looked worried. "Don't forget what your nurse told youafter your last operation," he reminded me.

"Jerry. She said that narcotics often affected a patient'smind for months afterward." His tone was solicitous.

"Well, at least Jerry admitted that I had a mind, which someof the others didn't. Anyway, it didn't affect my eyesight; I sawwhat I saw. Please take a letter to Mr. Napier."

"Or coming in a white shroud," suggested Ralph. "I think I'llphone Captain Hodson to send a squad car around here; sometimesthese nuts are dangerous." He was still skeptical.

I must admit that we both awaited the arrival of Carson Napierwith equal interest. I think Ralph expected to see a wild-eyedmaniac. I could not visualize the man at all.

About eleven o'clock the following morning Ralph came into mystudy. "Mr. Napier is here," he said.

"Does his hair grow straight out from his scalp, and do thewhites of his eyes show all around the irises?" I inquired,smiling.

"No," replied Ralph, returning the smile; "he is a very finelooking man, but," he added, "I still think he's a nut."

"Ask him to come in," and a moment later Ralph ushered in anexceptionally handsome man whom I judged to be somewhere betweentwenty-five and thirty years old, though he might have been evenyounger.

He came forward with extended hand as I rose to greet him, asmile lighting his face; and after the usual exchange ofbanalities he came directly to the point of his visit.

"To get the whole picture clearly before you," he commenced,"I shall have to tell you something about myself. My father was aBritish army officer, my mother an American girl from Virginia. Iwas born in India while my father was stationed there, andbrought up under the tutorage of an old Hindu who was muchattached to my father and mother. This Chand Kabi was somethingof a mystic, and he taught me many things that are not in thecurriculums of schools for boys under ten. Among them wastelepathy, which he had cultivated to such a degree that he couldconverse with one in psychological harmony with himself quite aseasily at great distances as when face to face. Not only that,but he could project mental images to great distances, so thatthe recipient of his thought waves could see what Chand Kabi wasseeing, or whatever else Chand Kabi wished him to see. Thesethings he taught me."

"And it was thus you caused me to see my midnight visitor onthe thirteenth?" I inquired.

He nodded. "That test was necessary in order to ascertain ifwe were in psychological harmony. Your letter, quoting the exactwords that I had caused the apparition to appear to speak,convinced me that I had at last found the person for whom I havebeen searching for some time.

"But to get on with my story. I hope I am not boring you, butI feel that it is absolutely necessary that you should have fullknowledge of my antecedents and background in order that you maydecide whether I am worthy of your confidence and assistance, ornot." I assured him that I was far from being bored, and heproceeded.

"I was not quite eleven when my father died and my motherbrought me to America. We went to Virginia first and lived therefor three years with my mother's grandfather, Judge John Carson,with whose name and reputation you are doubtless familiar, as whois not?

"After the grand old man died, mother and I came toCalifornia, where I attended public schools and later entered asmall college at Claremont, which is noted for its highscholastic standing and the superior personnel of both itsfaculty and student body.

"Shortly after my graduation the third and greatest tragedy ofmy life occurred—my mother died. I was absolutely stunnedby this blow. Life seemed to hold no further interest for me. Idid not care to live, yet I would not take my own life. As analternative I embarked upon a life of recklessness. With acertain goal in mind, I learned to fly. I changed my name andbecame a stunt man in pictures.

"I did not have to work. Through my mother I had inherited aconsiderable fortune from my great-grandfather, John Carson; sogreat a fortune that only a spendthrift could squander theincome. I mention this only because the venture I am undertakingrequires considerable capital, and I wish you to know that I amamply able to finance it without help.

"Not only did life in Hollywood bore me, but here in SouthernCalifornia were too many reminders of the loved one I had lost. Idetermined to travel, and I did. I flew all over the world. InGermany I became interested in rocket cars and financed several.Here my idea was born. There was nothing original about it exceptthat I intended to carry it to a definite conclusion. I wouldtravel by rocket to another planet.

"My studies had convinced me that of all the planets Marsalone offered presumptive evidence of habitability for creaturessimilar to ourselves. I was at the same time convinced that if Isucceeded in reaching Mars the probability of my being able toreturn to earth was remote. Feeling that I must have some reasonfor embarking upon such a venture, other than selfishness, Idetermined to seek out some one with whom I could communicate inthe event that I succeeded. Subsequently it occurred to me thatthis might also afford the means for launching a secondexpedition, equipped to make the return journey, for I had nodoubt but that there would be many adventurous spirits ready toundertake such an excursion once I had proved it feasible.

"For over a year I have been engaged in the construction of agigantic rocket on Guadalupe Island, off the west coast of LowerCalifornia. The Mexican government has given me every assistance,and today everything is complete to the last detail. I am readyto start at any moment."

As he ceased speaking, he suddenly faded from view. The chairin which he had been sitting was empty. There was no one in theroom but myself. I was stunned, almost terrified. I recalled whatRothmund had said about the effect of the narcotics upon mymentality. I also recalled that insane people seldom realize thatthey are insane. WasI insane! Cold sweat broke out uponmy forehead and the backs of my hands. I reached toward thebuzzer to summon Ralph. There is no question but that Ralph issane. If he had seen Carson Napier and shown him into mystudy—what a relief that would be!

But before my finger touched the button Ralph entered theroom. There was a puzzled expression on his face. "Mr. Napier isback again," he said, and then he added, "I didn't know he hadleft. I just heard him talking to you."

I breathed a sigh of relief as I wiped the perspiration frommy face and hands; if I was crazy, so was Ralph. "Bring him in,"I said, "and this time you stay here."

When Napier entered there was a questioning look in his eyes."Do you fully grasp the situation as far as I have explained it?"he asked, as though he had not been out of the room at all.

"Wait, please," he requested. "I know what you are going tosay, but let me apologize first and explain. I have not been herebefore. That was my final test. If you are confident that you sawme and talked to me and can recall what I said to you as I satoutside in my car, then you and I can communicate just as freelyand easily when I am on Mars."

"But," interjected Rothmund, "youwere here. Didn't Ishake hands with you when you came in, and talk to you?"

"Who's loony now?" I inquired inelegantly, but to this dayRothmund insists that we played a trick on him.

"You were saying that you were all ready to start, had yourrocket set up on Guadalupe Island," I reminded him.

"Right! I see you got it all. Now, as briefly as possible,I'll outline what I hope you will find it possible to do for me.I have come to you for several reasons, the more important ofwhich are your interest in Mars, your profession (the results ofmy experiment must be recorded by an experienced writer), andyour reputation for integrity—I have taken the liberty ofinvestigating you most thoroughly. I wish you to record andpublish the messages you receive from me and to administer myestate during my absence."

"I shall be glad to do the former, but I hesitate to acceptthe responsibility of the latter assignment," I demurred.

"I have already arranged a trust that will give you ampleprotection," he replied in a manner that precluded furtherargument. I saw that he was a young man who brooked no obstacles;in fact I think he never admitted the existence of an obstacle."As for your remuneration," he continued, "you may name your ownfigure."

"It may take a great deal of your time," interjected Ralph,"and your time is valuable."

"Precisely," agreed Napier. "Mr. Rothmund and I will, withyour permission, arrange the financial details later."

"That suits me perfectly," I said, for I detest business andeverything connected with it.

"Now, to get back to the more important and far moreinteresting phases of our discussion; what is your reaction tothe plan as a whole?"

"Mars is a long way from earth," I suggested; "Venus is nineor ten million miles closer, and a million miles are a millionmiles."

"Yes, and I would prefer going to Venus," he replied."Enveloped in clouds, its surface forever invisible to man, itpresents a mystery that intrigues the imagination; but recentastronomical research suggests conditions there inimical to thesupport of any such life as we know on earth. It has been thoughtby some that, held in the grip of the Sun since the era of herpristine fluidity, she always presents the same face to him, asdoes the Moon to earth. If such is the case, the extreme heat ofone hemisphere and the extreme cold of the other would precludelife.

"Even if the suggestion of Sir James Jeans is borne out byfact, each of her days and nights is several times as long asours on earth, these long nights having a temperature of thirteendegrees below zero, Fahrenheit, and the long days acorrespondingly high temperature."

"Yet even so, life might have adapted itself to suchconditions," I contended; "man exists in equatorial heat andarctic cold."

"But not without oxygen," said Napier. "St. John has estimatedthat the amount of oxygen above the cloud envelope that surroundsVenus is less than one tenth of one per cent of the terrestrialamount. After all, we have to bow to the superior judgment ofsuch men as Sir James Jeans, who says, 'The evidence, for what itis worth, goes to suggest that Venus, the only planet in thesolar system outside Mars and the earth on which life couldpossibly exist, possesses no vegetation and no oxygen for higherforms of life to breathe,' which definitely limits my planetaryexploration to Mars."

We discussed his plans during the remainder of the day andwell into the night, and early the following morning he left forGuadalupe Island in his Sikorsky amphibian. I have not seen himsince, at least in person, yet, through the marvellous medium oftelepathy, I have communicated with him continually and seen himamid strange, unearthly surroundings that have been graphicallyphotographed upon the retina of my mind's eye. Thus I am themedium through which the remarkable adventures of Carson Napierare being recorded on earth; but I am only that, like atypewriter or a dictaphone—the story that follows ishis.

II. — OFF FOR MARS

As I set my ship down in the sheltered covealong the shore of desolate Guadalupe a trifle over four hoursafter I left Tarzana, the little Mexican steamer I had charteredto transport my men, materials, and supplies from the mainlandrode peacefully at anchor in the tiny harbor, while on the shore,waiting to welcome me, were grouped the laborers, mechanics, andassistants who had worked with such whole-hearted loyalty forlong months in preparation for this day. Towering head andshoulders above the others loomed Jimmy Welsh, the only Americanamong them.

I taxied in close to shore and moored the ship to a buoy,while the men launched a dory and rowed out to get me. I had beenabsent less than a week, most of which had been spent in Guaymasawaiting the expected letter from Tarzana, but so exuberantly didthey greet me, one might have thought me a long-lost brotherreturned from the dead, so dreary and desolate and isolated isGuadalupe to those who must remain upon her lonely shores foreven a brief interval between contacts with the mainland.

Perhaps the warmth of their greeting may have been enhanced bya desire to conceal their true feelings. We had been togetherconstantly for months, warm friendships had sprung up between us,and tonight we were to separate with little likelihood that theyand I should ever meet again. This was to be my last day onearth; after today I should be as dead to them as though threefeet of earth covered my inanimate corpse.

It is possible that my own sentiments colored myinterpretation of theirs, for I am frank to confess that I hadbeen apprehending this last moment as the most difficult of thewhole adventure. I have come in contact with the peoples of manycountries, but I recall none with more lovable qualities thanMexicans who have not been contaminated by too close contact withthe intolerance and commercialism of Americans. And then therewas Jimmy Welsh! It was going to be like parting with a brotherwhen I said good-bye to him. For months he had been begging to gowith me; and I knew that he would continue to beg up to the lastminute, but I could not risk a single life unnecessarily.

We all piled into the trucks that we had used to transportsupplies and materials from the shore to the camp, which layinland a few miles, and bumped over our makeshift road to thelittle table-land where the giant torpedo lay upon its mile longtrack.

"Everything is ready," said Jimmy. "We polished off the lastdetails this morning. Every roller on the track has beeninspected by at least a dozen men, we towed the old crate backand forth over the full length of the track three times with thetruck, and then repacked all the rollers with grease. Three of ushave checked over every item of equipment and suppliesindividually; we've done about everything but fire the rockets;and now we're ready to go—youare going to take mealong, aren't you, Car?"

I shook my head. "Please don't, Jimmy," I begged; "I have aperfect right to gamble with my own life, but not with yours; soforget it. But I am going to do something for you," I added,"just as a token of my appreciation of the help you've given meand all that sort of rot. I'm going to give you my ship toremember me by."

He was grateful, of course, but still he could not hide hisdisappointment in not being allowed to accompany me, which wasevidenced by an invidious comparison he drew between the ceilingof the Sikorsky and that of the old crate, as he hadaffectionately dubbed the great torpedolike rocket that was tobear me out into space in a few hours.

"A thirty-five million mile ceiling," he mourned dolefully;"think of it! Mars for a ceiling!"

The laying of the track upon which the torpedo was to take offhad been the subject of a year of calculation and consultation.The day of departure had been planned far ahead and the exactpoint at which Mars would rise above the eastern horizon on thatnight calculated, as well as the time; then it was necessary tomake allowances for the rotation of the earth and the attractionof the nearer heavenly bodies. The track was then laid inaccordance with these calculations. It was constructed with avery slight drop in the first three quarters of a mile and thenrose gradually at an angle of two and one half degrees fromhorizontal.

A speed of four and one half miles per second at the take-offwould be sufficient to neutralize gravity; to overcome it, I mustattain a speed of 6.93 miles per second. To allow a sufficientfactor of safety I had powered the torpedo to attain a speed ofseven miles per second at the end of the runway, which I purposedstepping up to ten miles per second while passing through theearth's atmosphere. What my speed would be through space wasproblematical, but I based all my calculations on the theory thatit would not deviate much from the speed at which I left theearth's atmosphere, until I came within the influence of thegravitational pull of Mars.

The exact instant at which to make the start had also causedme considerable anxiety. I had calculated it again and again, butthere were so many factors to be taken into consideration that Ihad found it expedient to have my figures checked and recheckedby a well-known physicist and an equally prominent astronomer.Their deductions tallied perfectly with mine—the torpedomust start upon its journey toward Mars some time before the redplanet rose above the eastern horizon. The trajectory would bealong a constantly flattening arc, influenced considerably atfirst by the earth's gravitational pull, which would decreaseinversely as the square of the distance attained. As the torpedoleft the earth's surface on a curved tangent, its departure mustbe so nicely timed that when it eventually escaped the pull ofthe earth its nose would be directed toward Mars.

On paper, these figures appeared most convincing; but, as themoment approached for my departure, I must confess to a suddenrealization that they were based wholly upon theory, and I wasstruck with the utter folly of my mad venture.

For a moment I was aghast. The enormous torpedo, with itssixty tons, lying there at the end of its mile long track, loomedabove me, the semblance of a gargantuan coffin—my coffin,in which I was presently to be dashed to earth, or to the bottomof the Pacific, or cast out into space to wander there to the endof time. I was afraid. I admit it, but it was not so much thefear of death as the effect of the sudden realization of thestupendousness of the cosmic forces against which I had pitted mypuny powers that temporarily unnerved me.

Then Jimmy spoke to me. "Let's have a last look at thingsinside the old crate before you shove off," he suggested, and mynervousness and my apprehensions vanished beneath the spell ofhis quiet tones and his matter-of-fact manner. I was myselfagain.

Together we inspected the cabin where are located thecontrols, a wide and comfortable berth, a table, a chair, writingmaterials, and a well-stocked bookshelf. Behind the cabin is asmall galley and just behind the galley a storeroom containingcanned and dehydrated foods sufficient to last me a year. Back ofthis is a small battery room containing storage batteries forlighting, heating, and cooking, a dynamo, and a gas engine. Theextreme stern compartment is filled with rockets and theintricate mechanical device by which they are fed to the firingchambers by means of the controls in the cabin. Forward of themain cabin is a large compartment in which are located the waterand oxygen tanks, as well as a quantity of odds and endsnecessary either to my safety or comfort.

Everything, it is needless to say, is fastened securelyagainst the sudden and terrific stress that must accompany thetake-off. Once out in space, I anticipate no sense of motion, butthe start is going to be rather jarring. To absorb, as much aspossible, the shock of the take-off, the rocket consists of twotorpedoes, a smaller torpedo within a larger one, the formerconsiderably shorter than the latter and consisting of severalsections, each one comprising one of the compartments I havedescribed. Between the inner and outer shells and between eachtwo compartments is installed a system of ingenious hydraulicshock absorbers designed to more or less gradually overcome theinertia of the inner torpedo during the take-off. I trust that itfunctions properly.

In addition to these precautions against disaster at thestart, the chair in which I shall sit before the controls is notonly heavily overstuffed but is secured to a track or frameworkthat is equipped with shock absorbers. Furthermore, there aremeans whereby I may strap myself securely into the chair beforetaking off.

I have neglected nothing essential to my safety, upon whichdepends the success of my project.

Following our final inspection of the interior, Jimmy and Iclambered to the top of the torpedo for a last inspection of theparachutes, which I hope will sufficiently retard the speed ofthe rocket after it enters the atmosphere of Mars to permit me tobail out with my own parachute in time to make a safe landing.The main parachutes are in a series of compartments running thefull length of the top of the torpedo. To explain them moreclearly, I may say that they are a continuous series of batteriesof parachutes, each battery consisting of a number of parachutesof increasing diameter from the uppermost, which is the smallest.Each battery is in an individual compartment, and eachcompartment is covered by a separate hatch that can be opened atthe will of the operator by controls in the cabin. Each parachuteis anchored to the torpedo by a separate cable. I expect aboutone half of them to be torn loose while checking the speed of thetorpedo sufficiently to permit the others to hold and furtherretard it to a point where I may safely open the doors and jumpwith my own parachute and oxygen tank.

The moment for departure was approaching. Jimmy and I haddescended to the ground and the most difficult ordeal now facedme—that of saying good-bye to these loyal friends and co-workers. We did not say much, we were too filled with emotion,and there was not a dry eye among us. Without exception none ofthe Mexican laborers could understand why the nose of the torpedowas not pointed straight up in the air if my intended destinationwereMarte. Nothing could convince them that I would notshoot out a short distance and make a graceful nose dive into thePacific—that is, if I started at all, which many of themdoubted.

There was a handclasp all around, and then I mounted theladder leaning against the side of the torpedo and entered it. AsI closed the door of the outer shell, I saw my friends pilinginto the trucks and pulling away, for I had given orders that noone should be within a mile of the rocket when I took off,fearing, as I did, the effect upon them of the terrificexplosions that must accompany the take-off. Securing the outerdoor with its great vaultlike bolts, I closed the inner door andfastened it; then I took my seat before the controls and buckledthe straps that held me to the chair.

I glanced at my watch. It lacked nine minutes of the zerohour. In nine minutes I should be on my way out into the greatvoid, or in nine minutes I should be dead. If all did not gowell, the disaster would follow within a fraction of a splitsecond after I touched the first firing control.

Seven minutes! My throat felt dry and parched; I wanted adrink of water, but there was no time.

Four minutes! Thirty-five million miles are a lot of miles,yet I planned on spanning them in between forty and forty-fivedays.

One minute! I thought of my mother and wondered if she wereway out there somewhere waiting for me.

Thirty seconds! My hand was on the control. Fifteen seconds!Ten, five, four, three, two—one!

I turned the pointer! There was a muffled roar. The torpedoleaped forward. I was off!

I knew that the take-off was a success. I glanced through theport at my side at the instant that the torpedo started, but soterrific was its initial speed that I saw only a confused blur asthe landscape rushed past. I was thrilled and delighted by theease and perfection with which the take-off had beenaccomplished, and I must admit that I was not a little surprisedby the almost negligible effects that were noticeable in thecabin. I had had the sensation as of a giant hand pressing mesuddenly back against the upholstery of my chair, but that hadpassed almost at once, and now there was no sensation differentfrom that which one might experience sitting in an easy chair ina comfortable drawing-room on terra firma.

There was no sensation of motion after the first few secondsthat were required to pass through the earth's atmosphere, andnow that I had done all that lay within my power to do, I couldonly leave the rest to momentum, gravitation, and fate. Releasingthe straps that held me to the chair, I moved about the cabin tolook through the various ports, of which there were several inthe sides, keel, and top of the torpedo. Space was a black voiddotted with countless points of light. The earth I could not see,for it lay directly astern; far ahead was Mars. All seemed well.I switched on the electric lights, and seating myself at thetable, made the first entries in the log; then I checked overvarious computations of time and distances.

My calculations suggested that in about three hours from thetake-off the torpedo would be moving almost directly toward Mars;and from time to time I took observations through the wide-angletelescopic periscope that is mounted flush with the upper surfaceof the torpedo's shell, but the results were not entirelyreassuring. In two hours Mars was dead ahead—the arc of thetrajectory was not flattening as it should. I becameapprehensive. What was wrong? Where had our careful computationserred?

I left the periscope and gazed down through the main keelport. Below and ahead was the Moon, a gorgeous spectacle asviewed through the clear void of space from a distance someseventy-two thousand miles less than I had ever seen it beforeand with no earthly atmosphere to reduce visibility. Tycho,Plato, and Copernicus stood out in bold relief upon the brazendisc of the great satellite, deepening by contrast the shadows ofMare Serenitatis and Mare Tranquilitatis. The rugged peaks of theApennine and the Altai lay revealed as distinctly as I had everseen them through the largest telescope. I was thrilled, but Iwas distinctly worried, too.

Three hours later I was less than fifty-nine thousand milesfrom the Moon; where its aspect had been gorgeous before, it nowbeggared description, but my apprehension had cause to increasein proportion; I might say, as the square of its increasinggorgeousness. Through the periscope I had watched the arc of mytrajectory pass through the plane of Mars and drop below it. Iknew quite definitely then that I could never reach my goal. Itried not to think of the fate that lay ahead of me; but,instead, sought to discover the error that had wrought thisdisaster.

For an hour I checked over various calculations, but coulddiscover nothing that might shed light on the cause of mypredicament; then I switched off the lights and looked downthrough the keel port to have a closer view of the Moon. It wasnot there! Stepping to the port side of the cabin, I lookedthrough one of the heavy circular glasses out into the void ofspace. For an instant I was horror stricken; apparently just offthe port bow loomed an enormous world. It was the Moon, less thantwenty-three thousand miles away, and I was hurtling toward it atthe rate of thirty-six thousand miles an hour!

I leaped to the periscope, and in the next few seconds Iaccomplished some lightning mental calculating that mustconstitute an all-time record. I watched the deflection of ourcourse in the direction of the Moon, following it across the lensof the periscope, I computed the distance to the Moon and thespeed of the torpedo, and I came to the conclusion that I hadbetter than a fighting chance of missing the great orb. I hadlittle fear of anything but a direct hit, since our speed was sogreat that the attraction of the Moon could not hold us if wemissed her even by a matter of feet; but it was quite evidentthat it had affected our flight, and with this realization camethe answer to the question that had been puzzling me.

To my mind flashed the printer's story of the first perfectbook. It had been said that no book had ever before beenpublished containing not a single error. A great publishing houseundertook to publish such a book. The galley proofs were read andreread by a dozen different experts, the page proofs received thesame careful scrutiny. At last the masterpiece was ready for thepress—errorless! It was printed and bound and sent out tothe public, and then it was discovered that the title had beenmisspelled on the title page. With all our careful calculation,with all our checking and rechecking, we had overlooked theobvious; we had not taken the Moon into consideration at all.

Explain it if you can; I cannot. It was just one of thosethings, as people say when a good team loses to a poor one; itwas abreak, and a bad one. How bad it was I did not eventry to conjecture at the time; I just sat at the periscopewatching the Moon racing toward us. As we neared it, it presentedthe most gorgeous spectacle that I have ever witnessed. Eachmountain peak and crater stood out in vivid detail. Even thegreat height of summits over twenty-five thousand feet appeareddistinguishable to me, though imagination must have played amajor part in the illusion, since I was looking down upon themfrom above.

Suddenly I realized that the great sphere was passing rapidlyfrom the field of the periscope, and I breathed a sigh ofrelief—we were not going to score a clean hit, we weregoing to pass by.

I returned then to the porthole. The Moon lay just ahead and alittle to the left. It was no longer a great sphere; it was aworld that filled my whole range of vision. Against its blackhorizon I saw titanic peaks; below me huge craters yawned. Istood with God on high and looked down upon a dead world.

Our transit of the Moon required a little less than fourminutes; I timed it carefully that I might check our speed. Howclose we came I may only guess; perhaps five thousand feet abovethe tallest peaks, but it was close enough. The pull of theMoon's gravitation had definitely altered our course, but owingto our speed we had eluded her clutches. Now we were racing awayfrom her, but to what?

The nearest star, Alpha Centauri, is twenty-five and a halfmillion million miles from earth. Write that on yourtypewriter—25,500,000,000,000 miles. But why trifle withshort distances like this? There was little likelihood that Ishould visit Alpha Centauri with all the wide range of space atmy command and many more interesting places to go. I knew that Ihad ample room in which to wander, since science has calculatedthe diameter of space to be eighty-four thousand million lightyears, which, when one reflects that light travels at the rate ofone hundred eighty-six thousand miles a second, should satisfythe wanderlust of the most inveterate roamer.

However, I was not greatly concerned with any of thesedistances, as I had food and water for only a year, during whichtime the torpedo might travel slightly more than three hundredfifteen million miles. Even if it reached our near neighbor,Alpha Centauri, I should not then be greatly interested in theevent, as I should have been dead for over eighty thousand years.Such is the immensity of the universe!

During the next twenty-four hours the course of the torpedonearly paralleled the Moon's orbit around the earth. Not only hadthe pull of the Moon deflected its course, but now it seemedevident that the earth had seized us and that we were doomed torace through eternity around her, a tiny, second satellite. But Idid not wish to be a moon, certainly not an insignificant moonthat in all probability might not be picked up by even thelargest telescope.

The next month was the most trying of my life. It seems theheight of egotism even to mention my life in the face of thestupendous cosmic forces that engulfed it; but it was the onlylife I had and I was fond of it, and the more imminent seemed themoment when it should be snuffed out, the better I liked it.

At the end of the second day it was quite apparent that we hadeluded the grip of the earth. I cannot say that I was elated atthe discovery. My plan to visit Mars was ruined. I should havebeen glad to return to earth. If I could have landed safely onMars, I certainly could have landed safely on earth. But therewas another reason why I should have been glad to have returnedto earth, a reason that loomed, large and terrible,ahead—the Sun. We were heading straight for the Sun now.Once in the grip of that mighty power, nothing could affect ourdestiny; we were doomed. For three months I must await theinevitable end, before plunging into that fiery furnace. Furnaceis an inadequate word by which to suggest the Sun's heat, whichis reputedly from thirty to sixty million degrees at the center,a fact which should not have concerned me greatly, since I didnot anticipate reaching the center.

The days dragged on, or, I should say, the longnight—there were no days, other than the record that I keptof the passing hours. I read a great deal. I made no entries inthe log. Why write something that was presently to be plungedinto the Sun and consumed? I experimented in the galley,attempting fancy cooking. I ate a great deal; it helped to passthe time away, and I enjoyed my meals.

On the thirtieth day I was scanning space ahead when I saw agorgeous, shimmering crescent far to the right of our course; butI must confess that I was not greatly interested in sights of anysort. In sixty days I should be in the Sun. Long before that,however, the increasing heat would have destroyed me. The end wasapproaching rapidly.

III. — RUSHING TOWARD VENUS

The psychological effects of an experience suchas that through which I had been passing must be considerable,and even though they could be neither weighed nor measured, I wasyet conscious of changes that had taken place in me because ofthem. For thirty days I had been racing alone through spacetoward absolute annihilation, toward an end that would probablynot leave a single nucleus of the atoms that compose me anelectron to carry on with, I had experienced the ultimate insolitude, and the result had been to deaden my sensibilities;doubtless a wise provision of nature.

Even the realization that the splendid crescent, loomingenormously off the starboard bow of the torpedo, was Venus failedto excite me greatly. What if I were to approach Venus moreclosely than any other human being of all time! It meant nothing.Were I to see God, himself, even that would mean nothing. Itbecame apparent that the value of what we see is measurable onlyby the size of our prospective audience. Whatever I saw, whomight never have an audience, was without value.

Nevertheless, more to pass away the time than because I wasparticularly interested in the subject, I began to make somerough calculations. These indicated that I was about eighthundred sixty-five thousand miles from the orbit of Venus andthat I should cross it in about twenty-four hours. I could not,however, compute my present distance from the planet accurately.I only knew that it appeared very close. When I say close, I meanrelatively. The earth was some twenty-five million miles away,the Sun about sixty-eight million, so that an object as large asVenus, at a distance of one or two million miles, appearedclose.

As Venus travels in her orbit at the rate of nearly twenty-twomiles per second, or over one million six hundred thousand milesin a terrestrial day, it appeared evident to me that she wouldcross my path some time within the next twenty-four hours.

It occurred to me that, passing closely, as was unavoidable,she might deflect the course of the torpedo and save me from theSun; but I knew this to be a vain hope. Undoubtedly, the path ofthe torpedo would be bent, but the Sun would not relinquish hisprey. With these thoughts, my apathy returned, and I lostinterest in Venus.

Selecting a book, I lay down on my bed to read. The interiorof the cabin was brightly illuminated. I am extravagant withelectricity. I have the means of generating it for eleven moremonths; but I shall not need it after a few weeks, so why shouldI be parsimonious?

I read for a few hours, but as reading in bed always makes mesleepy, I eventually succumbed. When I awoke, I lay for a fewminutes in luxurious ease. I might be racing toward extinction atthe rate of thirty-six thousand miles an hour, but I, myself, wasunhurried. I recalled the beautiful spectacle that Venus hadpresented when I had last observed her and decided to haveanother look at her. Stretching languorously, I arose and steppedto one of the starboard portholes.

The picture framed by the casing of that circular opening wasgorgeous beyond description. Apparently less than half as faraway as before, and twice as large, loomed the mass of Venusoutlined by an aureole of light where the Sun, behind her,illuminated her cloudy envelope and lighted to burning brilliancea thin crescent along the edge nearest me.

I looked at my watch. Twelve hours had passed since I firstdiscovered the planet, and now, at last, I became excited. Venuswas apparently half as far away as it had been twelve hours ago,and I knew that the torpedo had covered half the distance thathad separated us from her orbit at that time. A collision waspossible, it even seemed within the range of probability that Ishould be dashed to the surface of this inhospitable, lifelessworld.

Well, what of it? Am I not already doomed? What difference canit make to me if the end comes a few weeks sooner than I hadanticipated? Yet I was excited. I cannot say that I felt fear. Ihave no fear of death—that left me when my mother died; butnow that the great adventure loomed so close I was overwhelmed bycontemplation of it and the great wonder that it induced. Whatwould follow?

The long hours dragged on. It seemed incredible to me,accustomed though I am to thinking in units of terrific speed,that the torpedo and Venus were racing toward the same point inher orbit at such inconceivable velocities, the one at the rateof thirty-six thousand miles per hour, the other at over sixty-seven thousand.

It was now becoming difficult to view the planet through theside port, as she moved steadily closer and closer to our path. Iwent to the periscope—she was gliding majestically withinits range. I knew that at that moment the torpedo was less thanthirty-six thousand miles, less than an hour, from the path ofthe planet's orbit, and there could be no doubt now but that shehad already seized us in her grasp. We were destined to make aclean hit. Even under the circumstances I could not restrain asmile at the thought of the marksmanship that this fact revealed.I had aimed at Mars and was about to hit Venus; unquestionablythe all-time cosmic record for poor shots.

Even though I did not shrink from death, even though theworld's best astronomers have assured us that Venus must beunfitted to support human life, that where her surface is notunutterably hot it is unutterably cold, even though she beoxygenless, as they aver, yet the urge to live that is born witheach of us compelled me to make the same preparations to landthat I should have had I successfully reached my original goal,Mars.

Slipping into a fleece-lined suit of coveralls, I donnedgoggles and a fleece-lined helmet; then I adjusted the oxygentank that was designed to hang in front of me, lest it foul theparachute, and which can be automatically jettisoned in the eventthat I reach an atmosphere that will support life, for it wouldbe an awkward and dangerous appendage to be cumbered with whilelanding. Finally, I adjusted my chute.

I glanced at my watch. If my calculations have been correct,we should strike in about fifteen minutes. Once more I returnedto the periscope.

The sight that met my eyes was awe inspiring. We were plungingtoward a billowing mass of black clouds. It was like chaos on thedawn of creation. The gravitation of the planet had seized us.The floor of the cabin was no longer beneath me—I wasstanding on the forward bulkhead now; but this condition I hadanticipated when I designed the torpedo. We were diving nose ontoward the planet. In space there had been neither up nor down,but now there was a very definite down.

From where I stood I could reach the controls, and beside mewas the door in the side of the torpedo. I released threebatteries of parachutes and opened the door in the wall of theinner torpedo. There was a noticeable jar, as though theparachutes had opened and temporarily checked the speed of thetorpedo. This must mean that I had entered an atmosphere of somedescription and that there was not a second to waste.

With a single movement of a lever I loosed the remainingparachutes; then I turned to the outer door. Its bolts werecontrolled by a large wheel set in the center of the door andwere geared to open quickly and with ease. I adjusted themouthpiece of the oxygen line across my lips and quickly spun thewheel.

Simultaneously the door flew open and the air pressure withinthe torpedo shot me out into space. My right hand grasped the ripcord of my chute; but I waited. I looked about for the torpedo.It was racing almost parallel with me, all its parachutesdistended above it. Just an instant's glimpse I had of it, andthen it dove into the cloud mass and was lost to view; but what aweirdly magnificent spectacle it had presented in that briefinstant!

Safe now from any danger of fouling with the torpedo, I jerkedthe rip cord of my parachute just as the clouds swallowed me.Through my fleece-lined suit I felt the bitter cold; like a dashof ice water the cold clouds slapped me in the face; then, to myrelief, the chute opened, and I fell more slowly.

Down, down, down I dropped. I could not even guess theduration, nor the distance. It was very dark and very wet, likesinking into the depths of the ocean without feeling the pressureof the water. My thoughts during those long moments were such asto baffle description. Perhaps the oxygen made me a little drunk;I do not know. I felt exhilarated and intensely eager to solvethe great mystery beneath me. The thought that I was about to diedid not concern me so much as what I might see before I died. Iwas about to land on Venus—the first human being in all theworld to see the face of the veiled planet.

Suddenly I emerged into a cloudless space; but far below mewere what appeared in the darkness to be more clouds, recallingto my mind the often advanced theory of the two cloud envelopesof Venus. As I descended, the temperature rose gradually, but itwas still cold.

As I entered the second cloud bank, there was a verynoticeable rise in temperature the farther I fell. I shut off theoxygen supply and tried breathing through my nose. By inhalingdeeply I discovered that I could take in sufficient oxygen tosupport life, and an astronomical theory was shattered. Hopeflared within me like a beacon on a fog-hid landing field.

As I floated gently downward, I presently became aware of afaint luminosity far below. What could it be? There were manyobvious reasons why it could not be sunlight; sunlight would notcome from below, and, furthermore, it was night on thishemisphere of the planet. Naturally many weird conjectures racedthrough my mind. I wondered if this could be the light from anincandescent world, but immediately discarded that explanation aserroneous, knowing that the heat from an incandescent world wouldlong since have consumed me. Then it occurred to me that it mightbe refracted light from that portion of the cloud envelopeilluminated by the Sun, yet if such were the case, it seemedobvious that the clouds about me should be luminous, which theywere not.

There seemed only one practical solution. It was the solutionthat an earth man would naturally arrive at. Being what I am, ahighly civilized creature from a world already far advanced byscience and invention, I attributed the source of this light tothese twin forces of superior intelligence. I could only accountfor that faint glow by attributing it to the reflection upon theunder side of the cloud mass of artificial light produced byintelligent creatures upon the surface of this world toward whichI was slowly settling.

I wondered what these beings would be like, and if myexcitement grew as I anticipated the wonders that were soon to berevealed to my eyes, I believe that it was a pardonableexcitement, under the circumstances. Upon the threshold of suchan adventure who would not have been moved to excitement bycontemplation of the experiences awaiting him?

Now I removed the mouthpiece of the oxygen tube entirely andfound that I could breathe easily. The light beneath me wasincreasing gradually. About me I thought I saw vague, dark shapesamong the cloud masses. Shadows, perhaps, but of what? I detachedthe oxygen tank and let it fall. I distinctly heard it strikesomething an instant after I had released it. Then a shadowloomed darkly beneath me, and an instant later my feet strucksomething that gave beneath them.

I dropped into a mass of foliage and grasped wildly forsupport. A moment later I began to fall more rapidly and guessedwhat had happened; the parachute had been uptilted by contactwith the foliage. I clutched at leaves and branches, fruitlessly,and then I was brought to a sudden stop; evidently the chute hadfouled something. I hoped that it would hold until I found asecure resting place.

As I groped about in the dark, my hand finally located asturdy branch, and a moment later I was astride it, my back tothe bole of a large tree—another theory gone the ignoblepath of countless predecessors; it was evident that there wasvegetation on Venus. At least there was one tree; I could vouchfor that, as I was sitting in it, and doubtless the black shadowsI had passed were other, taller trees.

Having found secure lodgment, I divested myself of myparachute after salvaging some of its ropes and the straps fromthe harness, which I thought I might find helpful in descendingthe tree. Starting at the top of a tree, in darkness and amongclouds, one may not be positive what the tree is like nearer theground. I also removed my goggles. Then I commenced to descend.The girth of the tree was enormous, but the branches grewsufficiently close together to permit me to find safefooting.

I did not know how far I had fallen through the second cloudstratum before I lodged in the tree nor how far I had descendedthe tree, but all together it must have been close to twothousand feet; yet I was still in the clouds. Could the entireatmosphere of Venus be forever fog laden? I hoped not, for it wasa dreary prospect.

The light from below had increased a little as I descended,but not much; it was still dark about me. I continued to descend.It was tiresome work and not without danger, this climbing downan unfamiliar tree in a fog, at night, toward an unknown world.But I could not remain where I was, and there was nothing aboveto entice me upward; so I continued to descend.

What a strange trick fate had played me. I had wanted to visitVenus, but had discarded the idea when assured by my astronomerfriends that the planet could not support either animal orvegetable life. I had started for Mars, and now, fully ten daysbefore I had hoped to reach the red planet, I was on Venus,breathing perfectly good air among the branches of a tree thatevidently dwarfed the giant Sequoias.

The illumination was increasing rapidly now, the clouds werethinning; through breaks I caught glimpses far below, glimpses ofwhat appeared to be an endless vista of foliage, softlymoonlit—but Venus had no moon. In that, insofar as theseeming moonlight was concerned, I could fully concur with theastronomers. This illumination came from no moon, unless Venus'ssatellite lay beneath her inner envelope of clouds, which waspreposterous.

A moment later I emerged entirely from the cloud bank, butthough I searched in all directions, I saw nothing but foliage,above, around, below me, yet I could see far down into that abyssof leaves. In the soft light I could not determine the color ofthe foliage, but I was sure that it was not green; it was somelight, delicate shade of another color.

I had descended another thousand feet since I had emerged fromthe clouds, and I was pretty well exhausted (the month ofinactivity and overeating had softened me), when I saw just belowme what appeared to be a causeway leading from the tree I wasdescending to another adjacent. I also discovered that from justbelow where I clung the limbs had been cut away from the tree toa point below the causeway. Here were two startling andunequivocal evidences of the presence of intelligent beings.Venus was inhabited! But by what? What strange, arborealcreatures built causeways high among these giant trees? Were theya species of monkey-man? Were they of a high or low order ofintelligence? How would they receive me?

At this juncture in my vain speculations I was startled by anoise above me. Something was moving in the branches overhead.The sound was coming nearer, and it seemed to me that it wasbeing made by something of considerable size and weight, butperhaps, I realized, that conjecture was the child of myimagination. However, I felt most uncomfortable. I was unarmed. Ihave never carried weapons. My friends had urged a perfectarsenal upon me before I embarked upon my adventure, but I hadargued that if I arrived on Mars unarmed it would beprimafacie evidence of my friendly intentions, and even if myreception were warlike, I should be no worse off, since I couldnot hope, single-handed, to conquer a world, no matter how wellarmed I were.

Suddenly, above me, to the crashing of some heavy body throughthe foliage were added hideous screams and snarls; and in theterrifying dissonance I recognized the presence of more than asingle creature. Was I being pursued by all the fearsome denizensof this Venusan forest!

Perhaps my nerves were slightly unstrung; and who may blamethem if they were, after what I had passed through so recentlyand during the long, preceding month? They were not entirelyshattered, however, and I could still appreciate the fact thatnight noises often multiply themselves in a most disconcertingway. I have heard coyotes yapping and screaming around my camp onArizona nights when, but for the actual knowledge that there werebut one or two of them, I could have sworn that there were ahundred, had I trusted only to my sense of hearing.

But in this instance I was quite positive that the voices ofmore than a single beast were mingling to produce the horrid dinthat, together with the sound of their passage, was definitelyand unquestionably drawing rapidly nearer me. Of course I did notknow that the owners of those awesome voices were pursuing me,though a still, small voice within seemed to be assuring me thatsuch was the fact.

I wished that I might reach the causeway below me (I shouldfeel better standing squarely on two feet), but it was too far todrop and there were no more friendly branches to give me support;then I thought of the ropes I had salvaged from the abandonedparachute. Quickly uncoiling them from about my waist, I loopedone of them over the branch upon which I sat, grasped bothstrands firmly in my hands, and prepared to swing from my porch.Suddenly the screams and snarling growls ceased; and then, closeabove me now, I heard the noise of something descending toward meand saw the branches shaking to its weight.

Lowering my body from the branch, I swung downward and slidthe fifteen or more feet to the causeway, and as I alighted thesilence of the great forest was again shattered by a hideousscream just above my head. Looking up quickly, I saw a creaturelaunching itself toward me and just beyond it a snarling face ofutter hideousness. I caught but the briefest glimpse ofit—just enough to see that it was a face, with eyes and amouth—then it was withdrawn amidst the foliage.

Perhaps I only sensed that hideous vision subconsciously atthe time, for the whole scene was but a flash upon the retina ofmy eye, and the other beast was in mid-air above me at theinstant; but it remained indelibly impressed upon my memory, andI was to recall it upon a later day under circumstances soharrowing that the mind of mortal earth man may scarce conceivethem.

As I leaped back to avoid the creature springing upon me, Istill clung to one strand of the rope down which I had loweredmyself to the causeway. My grasp upon the rope was unconsciousand purely mechanical; it was in my hand, and my fist wasclenched; and as I leaped away, I dragged the rope with me. Afortuitous circumstance, no doubt, but a most fortunate one.

The creature missed me, alighting on all fours a few feet fromme, and there it crouched, apparently slightly bewildered, and,fortunately for me, it did not immediately charge, giving me theopportunity to collect my wits and back slowly away, at the sametime mechanically coiling the rope in my right hand. The little,simple things one does in moments of stress or excitement oftenseem entirely beyond reason and incapable of explanation; but Ihave thought that they may be dictated by a subconscious mindreacting to the urge of self-preservation. Possibly they are notalways well directed and may as often fail to be of service asnot, but then it may be possible that subconscious minds are noless fallible than the objective mind, which is wrong far moreoften than it is right. I cannot but seek for some explanation ofthe urge that caused me to retain that rope, since, all unknownto me, it was to be the slender thread upon which my life was tohang.

Silence had again descended upon the weird scene. Since thefinal scream of the hideous creature that had retreated into thefoliage after this thing had leaped for me, there had been nosound. The creature that crouched facing me seemed slightlybewildered. I am positive now that it had not been pursuing me,but that it itself had been the object of pursuit by the otherbeast that had retreated.

In the dim half-light of the Venusan night I saw confrontingme a creature that might be conjured only in the half-delirium ofsome horrid nightmare. It was about as large as a full-grownpuma, and stood upon four handlike feet that suggested that itmight be almost wholly arboreal. The front legs were much longerthan the hind, suggesting, in this respect, the hyena; but herethe similarity ceased, for the creature's furry pelt was stripedlongitudinally with alternate bands of red and yellow, and itshideous head bore no resemblance to any earthly animal. Noexternal ears were visible, and in the low forehead was a singlelarge, round eye at the end of a thick antenna about four incheslong. The jaws were powerful and armed with long, sharp fangs,while from either side of the neck projected a powerful chela.Never have I seen a creature so fearsomely armed for offense aswas this nameless beast of another world. With those powerfulcrablike pincers it could easily have held an opponent farstronger than a man and dragged it to those terrible jaws.

For a time it eyed me with that single, terrifying eye thatmoved to and fro at the end of its antenna, and all the time itschelae were waving slowly, opening and closing. In that briefmoment of delay I looked about me, and the first thing that Idiscovered was that I stood directly in front of an opening cutin the bole of the tree; an opening about three feet wide andover six feet high. But the most remarkable thing about it wasthat it was closed by a door; not a solid door, but onesuggesting a massive wooden grill.

As I stood contemplating it and wondering what to do, Ithought that I saw something moving behind it. Then a voice spoketo me out of the darkness beyond the door. It sounded like ahuman voice, though it spoke in a language that I could notunderstand. The tones were peremptory. I could almost imaginethat it said, "Who are you, and what do you want here in themiddle of the night?"

Of course I knew that whatever it was behind that door, itcould not understand me; but I hoped that my tone would assure itof my peaceful designs. There was a moment's silence and then Iheard other voices. Evidently the situation was being discussed;then I saw that the creature facing me upon the causeway wascreeping toward me, and turned my attention from the doorway tothe beast.

I had no weapons, nothing but a length of futile rope; but Iknew that I must do something. I could not stand there supinelyand let the creature seize and devour me without striking a blowin my own defense. I uncoiled a portion of the rope and, more indespair than with any hope that I could accomplish anything of adefensive nature, flicked the end of it in the face of theadvancing beast. You have seen a boy snap a wet towel at acompanion; perhaps you have been flicked in that way, and if youhave, you know that it hurts.

Of course I did not expect to overcome my adversary by anysuch means as this; to be truthful, I did not know what I didexpect to accomplish. Perhaps I just felt that I must dosomething, and this was the only thing that occurred to me. Theresult merely demonstrated the efficiency of that single eye andthe quickness of the chelae. I snapped that rope as a ringmastersnaps a whip; but though the rope end travelled with great speedand the act must have been unexpected, the creature caught therope in one of its chelae before it reached its face. Then ithung on and sought to drag me toward those frightful jaws.

I snapped the rope in its face.

I learned many a trick of roping from a cowboy friend of mymotion picture days, and one of these I now put into use in anendeavor to entangle the crablike chelae. Suddenly giving therope sufficient slack, I threw a half hitch around the chela thatgripped it, immediately following it with a second, whereupon thecreature commenced to pull desperately away. I think it wasmotivated solely by an instinctive urge to pull toward its jawsanything that was held in its chelae; but for how long it wouldcontinue to pull away before it decided to change its tactics andcharge me, I could not even guess; and so I acted upon a suddeninspiration and hurriedly made fast the end of the rope that Iheld to one of the stout posts that supported the handrail of thecauseway; then, of a sudden, the thing charged me, roaringfuriously.

I turned and ran, hoping that I could get out of the reach ofthose terrible chelae before the creature was stopped by therope; and this I but barely managed to do. I breathed a sigh ofrelief as I saw the great body flipped completely over on itsback as the rope tautened, but the hideous scream of rage thatfollowed left me cold. Nor was my relief of any great duration,for as soon as the creature had scrambled to its feet, it seizedthe rope in its other chela and severed it as neatly as one mightwith a pair of monstrous tinner's snips; and then it was after meagain, but this time it did not creep.

It seemed evident that my stay upon Venus was to be brief,when suddenly the door in the tree swung open and three menleaped to the causeway just behind the charging terror that wasswiftly driving down upon me. The leading man hurled a short,heavy spear that sank deep into the back of my infuriatedpursuer. Instantly the creature stopped in its tracks and wheeledabout to face these new and more dangerous tormentors; and as hedid so two more spears, hurled by the companions of the firstman, drove into his chest, and with a last frightful scream, thething dropped in its tracks, dead.

Then the leading man came toward me. In the subdued light ofthe forest he appeared no different from an earth man. He heldthe point of a straight, sharp sword pointed at my vitals. Closebehind him were the other two men, each with a drawn sword.

The first man spoke to me in a stern, commanding voice, but Ishook my head to indicate that I could not understand; then hepressed the point of his weapon against my coveralls, oppositethe pit of my stomach, and jabbed. I backed away. He advanced andjabbed at me again, and again I backed along the causeway. Nowthe other two men advanced and the three of them fell toexamining me, meanwhile talking among themselves.

I could see them better now. They were about my own height andin every detail of their visible anatomy they appeared identicalwith terrestrial human beings, nor was a great deal left to myimagination—the men were almost naked. They wore loinclothsand little else other than the belts that supported the scabbardsof their swords. Their skins appeared to be much darker thanmine, but not so dark as a negro's, and their faces were smoothand handsome.

Several times one or another of them addressed me and I alwaysreplied, but neither understood what the other said. Finally,after a lengthy discussion, one of them reëntered the opening inthe tree and a moment later I saw the interior of a chamber, justwithin the doorway, illuminated; then one of the two remainingmen motioned me forward and pointed toward the doorway.

Understanding that he wished me to enter, I stepped forward,and, as I passed them, they kept their sword points against mybody—they were taking no chances with me. The other manawaited me in the center of a large room hewn from the interiorof the great tree. Beyond him were other doorways leading fromthis room, doubtless into other apartments. There were chairs anda table in the room; the walls were carved and painted; there wasa large rug upon the floor; from a small vessel depending fromthe center of the ceiling a soft light illuminated the interioras brightly as might sunlight flooding through an open window,but there was no glare.

The other men had entered and closed the door, which theyfastened by a device that was not apparent to me at the time;then one of them pointed to a chair and motioned me to be seated.Under the bright light they examined me intently, and I them. Myclothing appeared to puzzle them most; they examined anddiscussed its material, texture, and weave, if I could judgecorrectly by their gestures and inflections.

Finding the heat unendurable in my fleece-lined coveralls, Iremoved them and my leather coat and polo shirt. Each newlyrevealed article aroused their curiosity and comment. My lightskin and blond hair also received their speculativeattention.

Presently one of them left the chamber, and while he wasabsent another removed the various articles that had lain uponthe table. These consisted of what I took to be books bound inwooden and in leather covers, several ornaments, and a dagger ina beautifully wrought sheath.

When the man who had left the room returned, he brought foodand drink which he placed upon the table; and by signs the threeindicated that I might eat. There were fruits and nuts in highlypolished, carved wooden bowls; there was something I took to bebread, on a golden platter; and there was honey in a silver jug.A tall, slender goblet contained a whitish liquid that resembledmilk. This last receptacle was a delicate, translucent ceramic ofan exquisite blue shade. These things and the appointments of theroom bespoke culture, refinement, and good taste, making thesavage apparel of their owners appear incongruous.

The fruits and nuts were unlike any with which I was familiar,both in appearance and flavor; the bread was coarse butdelicious; and the honey, if such it were, suggested candiedviolets to the taste. The milk (I can find no other earthly wordto describe it) was strong and almost pungent, yet far fromunpleasant. I imagined at the time that one might grow to bequite fond of it.

The table utensils were similar to those with which we arefamiliar in civilized portions of the earth; there were hollowedinstruments with which to dip or scoop, sharp ones with which tocut, and others with tines with which to impale. There was also ahandled pusher, which I recommend to earthly hostesses. All thesewere of metal.

While I ate, the three men conversed earnestly, one or anotherof them occasionally offering me more food. They seemedhospitable and courteous, and I felt that if they were typical ofthe inhabitants of Venus I should find my life here a pleasantone. That it would not be a bed of roses, however, was attestedby the weapons that the men constantly wore; one does not carry asword and a dagger about with him unless he expects to haveoccasion to use them, except on dress parade.

When I had finished my meal, two of the men escorted me fromthe room by a rear doorway, up a flight of circular stairs, andushered me into a small chamber. The stairway and corridor wereilluminated by a small lamp similar to that which hung in theroom where I had eaten, and light from this lamp shone throughthe heavy wooden grating of the door, into the room where I wasnow locked and where my captors left me to my own devices.

Upon the floor was a soft mattress over which were spreadcoverings of a silky texture. It being very warm, I removed allof my clothing except my undershorts and lay down to sleep. I wastired after my arduous descent of the giant tree and dozed almostimmediately. I should have been asleep at once had I not beensuddenly startled to wakefulness by a repetition of that hideousscream with which the beast that had pursued me through the treehad announced its rage and chagrin when I had eluded it.

However, it was not long before I fell asleep, my dozing mindfilled with a chaos of fragmentary recollections of my stupendousadventure.

IV. — TO THE HOUSE OF THE KING

When I awoke, it was quite light in the room,and through a window I saw the foliage of trees, lavender andheliotrope and violet in the light of a new day. I arose and wentto the window. I saw no sign of sunlight, yet a brightnessequivalent to sunlight pervaded everything. The air was warm andsultry. Below me I could see sections of various causewaysextending from tree to tree. On some of these I caught glimpsesof people. All the men were naked, except for loincloths, nor didI wonder at their scant apparel, in the light of my experience ofthe temperatures on Venus. There were both men and women; and allthe men were armed with swords and daggers, while the womencarried daggers only. All those whom I saw seemed to be of thesame age; there were neither children nor old people among them.All appeared comely.

From my barred window I sought a glimpse of the ground, but asfar down as I could see there was only the amazing foliage of thetrees, lavender, heliotrope, and violet. And what trees! From mywindow I could see several enormous boles fully two hundred feetin diameter. I had thought the tree I descended a giant, butcompared with these, it was only a sapling.

As I stood contemplating the scene before me, there was anoise at the door behind me. Turning, I saw one of my captorsentering the room. He greeted me with a few words, which I couldnot understand, and a pleasant smile, that I could. I returnedhis smile and said, "Good morning!"

He beckoned me to follow him from the room, but I made signsindicating that I wished to don my clothes first. I knew I shouldbe hot and uncomfortable in them; I was aware that no one I hadseen here wore any clothing, yet so powerful are the inhibitionsof custom and habit that I shrank from doing the sensible thingand wearing only my undershorts.

At first, when he realized what I wished to do, he motioned meto leave my clothes where they were and come with him as I was;but eventually he gave in with another of his pleasant smiles. Hewas a man of fine physique, a little shorter than I; by daylight,I could see that his skin was about that shade of brown that aheavy sun tan imparts to people of my own race; his eyes weredark brown, his hair black. His appearance formed a markedcontrast to my light skin, blue eyes, and blond hair.

When I had dressed, I followed him downstairs to a roomadjoining the one I had first entered the previous night. Herethe man's two companions and two women were seated at a table onwhich were a number of vessels containing food. As I entered theroom the women's eyes were turned upon me curiously; the mensmiled and greeted me as had their fellow, and one of themmotioned me to a chair. The women appraised me frankly butwithout boldness, and it was evident that they were discussing mefreely between themselves and with the men. They were bothuncommonly goodlooking, their skins being a shade lighter thanthose of the men, while their eyes and hair were of about thesame color as those of their male companions. Each wore a singlegarment of a silken material similar to that of which my bedcover had been made and in the form of a long sash, which waswrapped tightly around the body below the armpits, confining thebreasts. From this point it was carried half way around the bodydownward to the waist, where it circled the body again, the looseend then passing between the legs from behind and up through thesash in front, after the manner of a G string, the remainderfalling in front to the knees.

In addition to these garments, which were beautifullyembroidered in colors, the women wore girdles from which dependedpocket pouches and sheathed daggers, and both were plentifullyadorned with ornaments such as rings, bracelets, and hairornaments. I could recognize gold and silver among the variousmaterials of which these things were fabricated, and there wereothers that might have been ivory and coral; but what impressedme most was the exquisite workmanship they displayed, and Iimagined that they were valued more for this than for theintrinsic worth of the materials that composed them. That thisconjecture might be in accordance with fact was borne out by thepresence among their ornaments of several of the finestworkmanship, obviously carved from ordinary bone.

On the table was bread different from that which I had had thenight before, a dish that I thought might be eggs and meat bakedtogether, several which I could not recognize either byappearance or taste, and the familiar milk and honey that I hadencountered before. The foods varied widely in range of flavor,so that it would have been a difficult palate indeed that wouldnot have found something to its liking.

During the meal they engaged in serious discussion, and I wascertain from their glances and gestures that I was the subject oftheir debate. The two girls enlivened the meal by attempting tocarry on a conversation with me, which appeared to afford them agreat deal of merriment, nor could I help joining in theirlaughter, so infectious was it. Finally one of them hit upon thehappy idea of teaching me their language. She pointed to herselfand said, "Zuro," and to the other girl and said, "Alzo"; thenthe men became interested, and I soon learned that the name ofhim who seemed to be the head of the house, the man who had firstchallenged me the preceding night, was Duran, the other twoOlthar and Kamlot.

But before I had mastered more than these few words and thenames of some of the foods on the table, breakfast was over andthe three men had conducted me from the house. As we proceededalong the causeway that passed in front of the house of Duran,the interest and curiosity of those we passed were instantlychallenged as their eyes fell upon me; and it was at once evidentto me that I was a type either entirely unknown on Venus or atleast rare, for my blue eyes and blond hair caused quite as muchcomment as my clothing, as I could tell by their gestures and thedirection of their gaze.

We were often stopped by curious friends of my captors, orhosts (I was not sure yet in which category they fell); but noneoffered me either harm or insult, and if I were the object oftheir curious scrutiny, so were they of mine. While no two ofthem were identical in appearance, they were all handsome and allapparently of about the same age. I saw no old people and nochildren.

Presently we approached a tree of such enormous diameter thatI could scarcely believe the testimony of my eyes when I saw it.It was fully five hundred feet in diameter. Stripped of branchesfor a hundred feet above and below the causeway, its surface wasdotted with windows and doors and encircled by wide balconies orverandas. Before a large and elaborately carved doorway was agroup of armed men before whom we halted while Duran addressedone of their number.

I thought at the time that he called this man Tofar, and suchI learned later was his name. He wore a necklace from whichdepended a metal disc bearing a hieroglyphic in relief; otherwisehe was not accoutered differently from his companions. As he andDuran conversed, he appraised me carefully from head to feet.Presently he and Duran passed through the doorway into theinterior of the tree, while the others continued to examine meand question Kamlot and Olthar.

While I waited there, I embraced the opportunity to study theelaborate carvings that surrounded the portal, forming a framefully five feet wide. Themotif appeared historical, and Icould easily imagine that the various scenes depicted importantevents in the life of a dynasty or a nation. The workmanship wasexquisite, and it required no stretch of the imagination tobelieve that each delicately carved face was the portrait of somedead or living celebrity. There was nothing grotesque in thedelineation of the various figures, as is so often the case inwork of a similar character on earth, and only the borders thatframed the whole and separated contiguous plaques wereconventional.

I was still engrossed by these beautiful examples of the woodcarver's art when Duran and Tofar returned and motioned Oltharand Kamlot and me to follow them into the interior of the greattree. We passed through several large chambers and along widecorridors, all carved from the wood of the living tree, to thehead of a splendid stairway, which we descended to another level.The chambers near the periphery of the tree received their lightthrough windows, while the interior chambers and corridors wereilluminated by lamps similar to those I had already seen in thehouse of Duran.

Near the foot of the stairway we had descended we entered aspacious chamber, before the doorway to which stood two men armedwith spears and swords, and before us, across the chamber, we sawa man seated at a table near a large window. Just inside thedoorway we halted, my companions standing in respectful silenceuntil the man at the table looked up and spoke to them; then theycrossed the room, taking me with them, and halted before thetable, upon the opposite side of which the man sat facing us.

He spoke pleasantly to my companions, calling each by name,and when they replied they addressed him as Jong. He was a fine-looking man with a strong face and a commanding presence. Hisattire was similar to that worn by all the other male Venusans Ihad seen, differing only in that he wore about his head a filletthat supported a circular metal disc in the center of hisforehead. He appeared much interested in me and watched meintently while listening to Duran, who, I had no doubt, wasnarrating the story of my strange and sudden appearance the nightbefore.

When Duran had concluded, the man called Jong addressed me.His manner was serious, his tones kindly. Out of courtesy, Ireplied, though I knew that he could understand me no better thanI had understood him. He smiled and shook his head; then he fellinto a discussion with the others. Finally he struck a metal gongthat stood near him on the table; then he arose and came aroundthe table to where I stood. He examined my clothing carefully,feeling its texture and apparently discussing the materials andthe weave with the others. Then he examined the skin of my handsand face, felt of my hair, and made me open my mouth that hemight examine my teeth. I was reminded of the horse market andthe slave block. "Perhaps," I thought, "the latter is moreapropos."

A man entered now whom I took to be a servant and, receivinginstructions from the man called Jong, departed again, while Icontinued to be the object of minute investigation. My beard,which was now some twenty-four hours old, elicited considerablecomment. It is not a beautiful beard at any age, being sparse andreddish, for which reason I am careful to shave daily when I havethe necessary utensils.

I cannot say that I enjoyed this intimate appraisal, but themanner in which it was conducted was so entirely free from anysuggestion of intentional rudeness or discourtesy, and myposition here was so delicate that my better judgment preventedme from openly resenting the familiarities of the man calledJong. It is well that I did not.

Presently a man entered through a doorway at my right. Iassumed that he had been summoned by the servant recentlydispatched. As he came forward, I saw that he was much like theothers; a handsome man of about thirty. There are those whodeclaim against monotony; but for me there can never be anymonotony of beauty, not even if the beautiful things were allidentical, which the Venusans I had so far seen were not. Allwere beautiful, but each in his own way.

The man called Jong spoke to the newcomer rapidly for aboutfive minutes, evidently narrating all that they knew about me andgiving instructions. When he had finished, the other motioned meto follow him; and a few moments later I found myself in anotherroom on the same level. It had three large windows and wasfurnished with several desks, tables, and chairs. Most of theavailable wall space was taken up by shelves on which reposedwhat I could only assume to be books—thousands of them.

The ensuing three weeks were as delightful and interesting asany that I have ever experienced. During this time, Danus, inwhose charge I had been placed, taught me the Venusan languageand told me much concerning the planet, the people among whom Ihad fallen, and their history. I found the language easy tomaster, but I shall not at this time attempt to describe itfully. The alphabet consists of twenty-four characters, five ofwhich represent vowel sounds, and these are the only vowel soundsthat the Venusan vocal chords seem able to articulate. Thecharacters of the alphabet all have the same value, there beingno capital letters. Their system of punctuation differs from oursand is more practical; for example, before you start to read asentence you know whether it is exclamatory, interrogative, areply to an interrogation, or a simple statement. Charactershaving values similar to the comma and semicolon are used much aswe use these two; they have no colon; their character thatfunctions as does our period follows each sentence, theirquestion mark and exclamation point preceding the sentences thenature of which they determine.

A peculiarity of their language that renders it easy to masteris the absence of irregular verbs; the verb root is never alteredfor voice, mode, tense, number, or person, distinctions that areachieved by the use of several simple, auxiliary words.

While I was learning to speak the language of my hosts, I alsolearned to read and write it, and I spent many enjoyable hoursdelving into the large library of which Danus is the curatorwhile my tutor was absent attending to his other duties, whichare numerous. He is chief physician and surgeon of his country,physician and surgeon to the king, and head of a college ofmedicine and surgery.

One of the first questions that Danus had asked me when I hadacquired a working knowledge of his language was where I camefrom, but when I told him I had come from another world more thantwenty-six million miles from his familiar Amtor, which is thename by which the Venusans know their world, he shook his headskeptically.

"There is no life beyond Amtor," he said. "How can there belife where all is fire?"

"What is your theory of the—" I started, but I had tostop. There is no Amtorian word for universe, neither is thereany for sun, moon, star, or planet. The gorgeous heavens that wesee are never seen by the inhabitants of Venus, obscured as theyperpetually are by the two great cloud envelopes that surroundthe planet. I started over again. "What do you believe surroundsAmtor?" I asked.

He stepped to a shelf and returned with a large volume, whichhe opened at a beautifully executed map of Amtor. It showed threeconcentric circles. Between the two inner circles lay a circularbelt designated as Trabol, which means warm country. Here theboundaries of seas, continents, and islands were traced to theedges of the two circles that bounded it, in some places crossingthese boundaries as though marking the spots at which venturesomeexplorers had dared the perils of an unknown and inhospitableland.

"This is Trabol," explained Danus, placing a finger upon thatportion of the map I have briefly described. "It entirelysurrounds Strabol, which lies in the center of Amtor. Strabol isextremely hot, its land is covered with enormous forests anddense undergrowth, and is peopled by huge land animals, reptiles,and birds, its warm seas swarm with monsters of the deep. No manhas ventured far into Strabol and lived to return.

"Beyond Trabol," he continued, placing his finger on the outerband designated as Karbol (Cold Country), "lies Karbol. Here itis as cold as Strabol is hot. There are strange animals theretoo, and adventurers have returned with tales of fierce humanbeings clothed in fur. But it is an inhospitable land into whichthere is no occasion to venture and which few dare penetrate farfor fear of being precipitated over the rim into the moltensea."

He looked at me in astonishment. "I can well believe that youcome from another world when you ask me such questions as youdo," he remarked. "Do you mean to tell me that you know nothingof the physical structure of Amtor?"

"It is not a theory; it is a fact," he corrected me gently."In no other way may the various phenomena of nature beexplained. Amtor is a huge disc with an upturned rim, like agreat saucer; it floats upon a sea of molten metal and rock, afact that is incontrovertably proved by the gushing forth of thisliquid mass occasionally from the summits of mountains, when ahole has been burned in the bottom of Amtor. Karbol, the coldcountry, is a wise provision of nature that tempers the terrificheat that must constantly surge about the outer rim of Amtor.

"Above Amtor, and entirely surrounding her above the moltensea, is a chaos of fire and flame. From this our clouds protectus. Occasionally there have occurred rifts in the clouds, and atsuch times the heat from the fires above, when the rifts occurredin the daytime, has been so intense as to wither vegetation anddestroy life, while the light that shone through was of blindingintensity. When these rifts occurred at night there was no heat,but we saw the sparks from the fire shining above us."

I tried to explain the spherical shape of the planets and thatKarbol was only the colder country surrounding one of Amtor'spoles, while Strabol, the hot country, lay in the equatorialregion; that Trabol was merely one of two temperate zones, theother one being beyond the equatorial region, which was a bandaround the middle of a globe and not, as he supposed, a circulararea in the center of a disc. He listened to me politely, butonly smiled and shook his head when I had finished.

At first I could not comprehend that a man of such evidentintelligence, education, and culture should cling to such abelief as his, but when I stopped to consider the fact thatneither he nor any of his progenitors had ever seen the heavens,I began to realize that there could not be much foundation forany other theory, and even theories must have foundations. I alsorealized, even more than I had before, something of whatastronomy has meant to the human race of earth in the advancementof science and civilization. Could there have been suchadvancement had the heavens been perpetually hidden from ourview? I wonder.

But I did not give up. I drew his attention to the fact thatif his theory were correct, the boundary between Trabol andStrabol (the temperate and the equatorial zones) should be muchshorter than that separating Trabol from Karbol, the polarregion, as was shown on the map, but could not have been provedby actual survey; while my theory would require that the exactopposite be true, which was easily demonstrable and must havebeen demonstrated if surveys had ever been made, which I judgedfrom the markings on the map to be the case.

He admitted that surveys had been made and that they had shownthe apparent discrepancy that I had pointed out, but he explainedthis ingeniously by a purely Amtorian theory of the relativity ofdistance, which he proceeded to elucidate.

"A degree is one thousandth part of the circumference of acircle," he commenced. (This is the Amtorian degree, her savantsnot having had the advantage of a visible sun to suggest anotherdivision of the circumference of a circle as did the Babylonians,who hit upon three hundred sixty as being close enough.) "And nomatter what the length of the circumference, it measures just onethousand degrees. The circle which separates Strabol from Trabolis necessarily one thousand degrees in length. You will admitthat?"

"Very good! Then, will you admit that the circle whichseparates Trabol from Karbol measures exactly one thousanddegrees?"

"Things which equal the same thing equal each other, do theynot? Therefore, the inner and outer boundaries of Trabol are ofequal length, and this is true because of the truth of the theoryof relativity of distance. The degree is our unit of linearmeasure. It would be ridiculous to say that the farther one wasremoved from the center of Amtor the longer the unit of distancebecame; it only appears to become longer; in relation to thecircumference of the circle and in relation to the distance fromthe center of Amtor it is precisely the same.

"I know," he admitted, "that on the map it does not appear tobe the same, nor do actual surveys indicate that it is the same;but it must be the same, for if it were not, it is obvious thatAmtor would be larger around the closer one approached the centerand smallest of all at the perimeter, which is so obviouslyridiculous as to require no refutation.

"This seeming discrepancy caused the ancients considerableperturbation until about three thousand years ago, when Klufar,the great scientist, expounded the theory of relativity ofdistance and demonstrated that the real and apparent measurementsof distance could be reconciled by multiplying each by the squareroot of minus one."

I saw that argument was useless and said no more; there is nouse arguing with a man who can multiply anything by the squareroot of minus one.

V. — THE GIRL IN THE GARDEN

FOR some time I had been aware that I was in thehouse of Mintep, the king, and that the country was calledVepaja. Jong, which I had originally thought to be his name, washis title; it is Amtorian for king. I learned that Duran was ofthe house of Zar and that Olthar and Kamlot were his sons; Zuro,one of the women I had met there, was attached to Duran; theother, Alzo, was attached to Olthar; Kamlot had no woman. I usethe word attached partially because it is a reasonably closetranslation of the Amtorian word for the connection and partiallybecause no other word seems exactly to explain the relationshipbetween these men and women.

They were not married, because the institution of marriage isunknown here. One could not say that they belonged to the men,because they were in no sense slaves or servants, nor had theybeen acquired by purchase or feat of arms. They had comewillingly, following a courtship, and they were free to departwhenever they chose, just as the men were free to depart and seekother connections; but, as I was to learn later, theseconnections are seldom broken, while infidelity is as rare hereas it is prevalent on earth.

Each day I took exercise on the broad veranda that encircledthe tree at the level upon which my apartment was located; atleast, I assumed that it encircled the tree, but I did not know,as that portion assigned to me was but a hundred feet long, afifteenth part of the circumference of the great tree. At eachend of my little segment was a fence. The section adjoining mineon the right appeared to be a garden, as it was a mass of flowersand shrubbery growing in soil that must have been brought up fromthat distant surface of the planet that I had as yet neither setfoot upon nor seen. The section on my left extended in front ofthe quarters of several young officers attached to the householdof the king. I call them young because Danus told me they wereyoung, but they appear to be about the same age as all the otherAmtorians I have seen. They were pleasant fellows, and after Ilearned to speak their language we occasionally had friendlychats together.

But in the section at my right I had never seen a human being;and then one day, when Danus was absent and I was walking alone,I saw a girl among the flowers there. She did not see me; and Ionly caught the briefest glimpse of her, but there was somethingabout her that made me want to see her again, and thereafter Irather neglected the young officers on my left.

Though I haunted the end of my veranda next to the garden forseveral days, I did not again see the girl during all that time.The place seemed utterly deserted until one day I saw the figureof a man among the shrubbery. He was moving with great caution,creeping stealthily; and presently, behind him, I saw another andanother, until I had counted five of them all together.

They were similar to the Vepajans, yet there was a difference.They appeared coarser, more brutal, than any of the men I had asyet seen; and in other ways they were dissimilar to Danus, Duran,Kamlot, and my other Venusan acquaintances. There was somethingmenacing and sinister, too, in their silent, stealthymovements.

I wondered what they were doing there; and then I thought ofthe girl, and for some reason the conclusion was forced upon methat the presence of these men here had something to do with her,and that it boded her harm. Just in what way I could not evensurmise, knowing so little of the people among whom fate hadthrown me; but the impression was quite definite, and it excitedme. Perhaps it rather overcame my better judgment, too, if mynext act is an index to the matter.

Without thought of the consequences and in total ignorance ofthe identity of the men or the purpose for which they were in thegarden, I vaulted the low fence and followed them. I made nonoise. They had not seen me originally because I had been hiddenfrom their view by a larger shrub that grew close to the fencethat separated the garden from my veranda. It was through thefoliage of this shrub that I had observed them, myselfunobserved.

Moving cautiously but swiftly, I soon overtook the hindmostman and saw that the five were moving toward an open doorwaybeyond which, in a richly furnished apartment, I saw the girl whohad aroused my curiosity and whose beautiful face had led me intothis mad adventure. Almost simultaneously, the girl glanced upand saw the leading man at the doorway. She screamed, and then Iknew that I had not come in vain.

Instantly I leaped upon the man in front of me, and as I didso I gave a great shout, hoping by that means to distract theattention of the other four from the girl to me, and in that Iwas wholly successful. The other four turned instantly. I hadtaken my man so completely by surprise that I was able to snatchhis sword from its scabbard before he could recover his wits; andas he drew his dagger and struck at me, I ran his own bladethrough his heart; then the others were upon me.

Their faces were contorted by rage, and I could see that theywould give me no quarter.

The narrow spaces between the shrubbery reduced the advantagewhich four men would ordinarily have had over a singleantagonist, for they could attack me only singly; but I knew whatthe outcome must eventually be if help did not reach me, and asmy only goal was to keep the men from the girl, I backed slowlytoward the fence and my own veranda as I saw that all four of themen were following me.

My shout and the girl's scream had attracted attention; andpresently I heard men running in the apartment in which I hadseen the girl, and her voice directing them toward the garden. Ihoped they would come before the fellows had backed me againstthe wall, where I was confident that I must go down in defeatbeneath four swords wielded by men more accustomed to them thanI. I thanked the good fortune, however, that had led me to takeup fencing seriously in Germany, for it was helping me now,though I could not long hold out against these men with theVenusan sword which was a new weapon to me.

I had reached the fence at last and was fighting with my backtoward it. The fellow facing me was cutting viciously at me. Icould hear the men coming from the apartment. Could I hold out?Then my opponent swung a terrific cut at my head, and, instead ofparrying it, I leaped to one side and simultaneously stepped inand cut at him. His own swing had carried him off balance, and,of course, his guard was down. My blade cut deep into his neck,severing his jugular. From behind him another man was rushingupon me.

Relief was coming. The girl was safe. I could accomplish nomore by remaining there and being cut to pieces, a fate I hadonly narrowly averted in the past few seconds. I hurled my sword,point first, at the oncoming Venusan; and as it tore into hisbreast I turned and vaulted the fence into my own veranda.

Then, as I looked back, I saw a dozen Vepajan warriorsoverwhelm the two remaining intruders, butchering them likecattle. There was no shouting and no sound other than the briefclash of swords as the two sought desperately but futilely todefend themselves. The Vepajans spoke no word. They seemedshocked and terrified, though their terror had most certainly notbeen the result of any fear of their late antagonists. There wassomething else which I did not understand, something mysteriousin their manner, their silence, and their actions immediatelyfollowing the encounter.

Quickly they seized the bodies of the five strange warriorsthat had been killed and carrying them to the outer garden wall,hurled them over into that bottomless abyss of the forest theterrific depths of which my eyes had never been able to plumb.Then, in equal silence, they departed from the garden by the samepath by which they had entered it.

I realized that they had not seen me, and I knew that the girlhad not. I wondered a little how they accounted for the deaths ofthe three men I had disposed of, but I never learned. The wholeaffair was a mystery to me and was only explained long after inthe light of ensuing events.

I thought that Danus might mention it and thus give me anopportunity to question him; but he never did, and something keptme from broaching the subject to him, modesty perhaps. In otherrespects, however, my curiosity concerning these people wasinsatiable; and I fear that I bored Danus to the verge ofdistraction with my incessant questioning, but I excused myselfon the plea that I could only learn the language by speaking itand hearing it spoken; and Danus, that most delightful of men,insisted that it was not only a pleasure to inform me but hisduty as well, the jong having requested him to inform me fullyconcerning the life, customs, and history of the Vepajans.

One of the many things that puzzled me was why such anintelligent and cultured people should be living in trees,apparently without servants or slaves and with no intercourse, asfar as I had been able to discover, with other peoples; so oneevening I asked him.

"It is a long story," replied Danus; "much of it you will findin the histories here upon my shelves, but I can give you a briefoutline that will at least answer your question.

"Hundreds of years ago the kings of Vepaja ruled a greatcountry. It was not this forest island where you now find us, buta broad empire that embraced a thousand islands and extended fromStrabol to Karbol; it included broad land masses and greatoceans; it was graced by mighty cities and boasted a wealth andcommerce unsurpassed through all the centuries before orsince.

"The people of Vepaja in those days were numbered in themillions; there were millions of merchants and millions of wageearners and millions of slaves, and there was a smaller class ofbrain workers. This class included the learned professions ofscience, medicine, and law, of letters and the creative arts. Themilitary leaders were selected from all classes. Over all was thehereditary jong.

"The lines between the classes were neither definitely norstrictly drawn; a slave might become a free man, a free man mightbecome anything he chose within the limits of his ability, shortof jong. In social intercourse the four principal classes did notintermingle with each other, due to the fact that members of oneclass had little in common with members of the other classes andnot through any feeling of superiority or inferiority. When amember of a lower class had won by virtue of culture, learning,or genius to a position in a higher class, he was received uponan equal footing, and no thought was given to hisantecedents.

"Vepaja was prosperous and happy, yet there were malcontents.These were the lazy and incompetent. Many of them were of thecriminal class. They were envious of those who had won topositions which they were not mentally equipped to attain. Over along period of time they were responsible for minor discord anddissension, but the people either paid no attention to them orlaughed them down. Then they found a leader. He was a laborernamed Thor, a man with a criminal record.

"This man founded a secret order known as Thorists andpreached a gospel of class hatred called Thorism. By means oflying propaganda he gained a large following, and as all hisenergies were directed against a single class, he had all thevast millions of the other three classes to draw from, thoughnaturally he found few converts among the merchants and employerswhich also included the agrarian class.

"The sole end of the Thorist leaders was personal power andaggrandizement; their aims were wholly selfish, yet, because theyworked solely among the ignorant masses, they had littledifficulty in deceiving their dupes, who finally rose under theirfalse leaders in a bloody revolution that sounded the doom of thecivilization and advancement of a world.

"Their purpose was the absolute destruction of the culturedclass. Those of the other classes who opposed them were to besubjugated or destroyed; the jong and his family were to bekilled. These things accomplished, the people would enjoyabsolute freedom; there would be no masters, no taxes, nolaws.

"They succeeded in killing most of us and a large proportionof the merchant class; then the people discovered what theagitators already knew, that someone must rule, and the leadersof Thorism were ready to take over the reins of government. Thepeople had exchanged the beneficent rule of an experienced andcultured class for that of greedy incompetents and theorists.

"Now they are all reduced to virtual slavery. An army of spieswatches over them, and an army of warriors keeps them fromturning against their masters; they are miserable, helpless, andhopeless.

"Those of us who escaped with our jong sought out thisdistant, uninhabited island. Here we constructed tree cities,such as this, far above the ground, from which they cannot beseen. We brought our culture with us and little else; but ourwants are few, and we are happy. We would not return to the oldsystem if we might. We have learned our lesson, that a peopledivided amongst themselves cannot be happy. Where there are evenslight class distinctions there are envy and jealousy. Here thereare none; we are all of the same class. We have no servants;whatever there is to do we do better than servants ever did it.Even those who serve the jong are not servants in the sense thatthey are menials, for their positions are considered posts ofhonor, and the greatest among us take turns in filling them."

"But I still do not understand why you choose to live intrees, far above the ground," I said.

"For years the Thorists hunted us down to kill us," heexplained, "and we were forced to live in hidden, inaccessibleplaces; this type of city was the solution of our problem. TheThorists still hunt us; and there are still occasional raids, butnow they are for a very different purpose. Instead of wishing tokill us, they now wish to capture as many of us as they can.

"Having killed or driven away the brains of the nation, theircivilization has deteriorated, disease is making frightfulinroads upon them which they are unable to check, old age hasreappeared and is taking its toll; so they seek to capture thebrains and the skill and the knowledge which they have beenunable to produce and which we alone possess."

"Yes, of course," I replied, "nor any children. I have oftenmeant to ask you for an explanation."

"These are not natural phenomena," he assured me; "they arethe crowning achievements of medical science. A thousand yearsago the serum of longevity was perfected. It is injected everytwo years and not only provides immunity from all diseases butinsures the complete restoration of all wasted tissue.

"But even in good there is evil. As none grew old and nonedied, except those who met with violent death, we were faced withthe grave dangers of overpopulation. To combat this, birthcontrol became obligatory. Children are permitted now only insufficient numbers to replace actual losses in population. If amember of a house is killed, a woman of that house is permittedto bear a child, if she can; but after generations ofchildlessness there is a constantly decreasing number of womenwho are capable of bearing children. This situation we have metby anticipating it.

"Statistics compiled over a period of a thousand yearsindicate the average death rate expectancy per thousand people;they have also demonstrated that only fifty per cent of our womenare capable of bearing children; therefore, fifty per cent of therequired children are permitted yearly to those who wish them, inthe order in which their applications are filed."

He smiled. "With Mintep's permission, which I imagine will notbe difficult to obtain. Come," he added, "I'll take some bloodtests now to determine the type and attenuation of serum bestadapted to your requirements." He motioned me into hislaboratory.

When he had completed the tests, which he accomplished withease and rapidity, he was shocked by the variety and nature ofmalignant bacteria they revealed.

"You are a menace to the continued existence of human life onAmtor," he exclaimed with a laugh.

"You would not be so healthy two hundred years from now if allthose bacteria were permitted to have their way with you."

He shrugged. "We do not know. The serum was perfected athousand years ago. There are people among us today who were ofthe first to receive injections. I am over five hundred yearsold; Mintep is seven hundred. We believe that, barring accidents,we shall live forever; but, of course, we do not know.Theoretically, we should."

He was called away at this juncture; and I went out on theveranda to take my exercise, of which I have found that I requirea great deal, having always been athletically inclined. Swimming,boxing, and wrestling had strengthened and developed my musclessince I had returned to America with my mother when I was eleven,and I became interested in fencing while I was travelling inEurope after she died. During my college days I was amateurmiddleweight boxer of California, and I captured several medalsfor distance swimming; so the inforced inactivity of the past twomonths had galled me considerably. Toward the end of my collegedays I had grown into the heavyweight class, but that had beendue to an increase of healthy bone and sinew; now I was at leasttwenty pounds heavier and that twenty pounds was all fat.

On my one hundred feet of veranda I did the best I could toreduce. I ran miles, I shadow boxed, I skipped rope, and I spenthours with the old seventeen setting-up exercises of drillregulations. Today I was shadow boxing near the right end of myveranda when I suddenly discovered the girl in the gardenobserving me. As our eyes met I halted in my tracks and smiled ather. A frightened look came into her eyes, and she turned andfled. I wondered why.

Puzzled, I walked slowly back toward my apartment, myexercises forgotten. This time I had seen the girl's full face,looked her squarely in the eyes, and I had been absolutelydumfounded by her beauty. Every man and woman I had seen since Ihad come to Venus had been beautiful; I had come to expect that.But I had not expected to see in this or any other world suchindescribable perfection of coloring and features, combined withcharacter and intelligence, as that which I had just seen in thegarden beyond my little fence. But why had she run away when Ismiled?

Possibly she had run away merely because she had beendiscovered watching me for, after all, human nature is about thesame everywhere. Even twenty-six million miles from earth thereare human beings like ourselves and a girl, with quite humancuriosity, who runs away when she is discovered. I wondered ifshe resembled earthly girls in other respects, but she seemed toobeautiful to be just like anything on earth or in heaven. Was sheyoung or old? Suppose she were seven hundred years old!

I went to my apartment and prepared to bathe and change myloincloth; I had long since adopted the apparel of Amtor. As Iglanced in a mirror that hangs in my bathroom I suddenlyunderstood why the girl may have looked frightened and runaway—my beard! It was nearly a month old now and mighteasily have frightened anyone who had never before seen abeard.

When Danus returned I asked him what I could do about it. Hestepped into another room and returned with a bottle ofsalve.

"Rub this into the roots of the hair on your face," hedirected, "but be careful not to get it on your eyebrows, lashes,or the hair on your head. Leave it there a minute and then washyour face."

I stepped into my bathroom and opened the jar; its contentslooked like vaseline and smelled like the devil, but I rubbed itinto the roots of my beard as Danus had directed. When I washedmy face a moment later my beard came off, leaving my face smoothand hairless. I hurried back to the room where I had leftDanus.

"You are quite handsome after all," he remarked. "Do all thepeople of this fabulous world of which you have told me have hairgrowing on their faces?"

"Nearly all," I replied, "but in my country the majority ofmen keep it shaved off."

"I should think the women would be the ones to shave," hecommented. "A woman with hair on her face would be quiterepulsive to an Amtorian."

"But if Amtorians do not grow beards, what was the need ofthis salve that you gave me?" I asked.

"It was perfected as an aid to surgery," he explained. "Intreating scalp wounds and in craniectomies it is necessary toremove the hair from about the wound. This unguent serves thepurpose better than shaving and also retards the growth of newhair for a longer time."

"Use it every day for six days and the hair will never againgrow on your face. We used to use it on the heads of confirmedcriminals. Whenever one saw a bald-headed man or a man wearing awig he watched his valuables."

"In my country when one sees a bald-headed man," I said, "hewatches his girls. And that reminds me; I have seen a beautifulgirl in a garden just to the right of us here. Who is she?"

"She is one whom you are not supposed to see," he replied."Were I you, I should not again mention the fact that you haveseen her. Did she see you?"

There was that in his manner which precluded questions, and Idid not pursue the subject further. Here was a mystery, the firstsuggestion of mystery that I had encountered in the life ofVepaja, and naturally it piqued my curiosity. Why should I notlook at the girl? I had looked at other women without incurringdispleasure. Was it only this particular girl upon whom I mustnot look, or were there other girls equally sacrosanct? Itoccurred to me that she might be a priestess of some holy order,but I was forced to discard that theory because of my belief thatthese people had no religion, at least none that I could discoverin my talks with Danus. I had attempted to describe some of ourearthly religious beliefs to him, but he simply could notperceive either their purpose or meaning any more than he couldvisualize the solar system or the universe.

Having once seen the girl, I was anxious to see her again; andnow that the thing was proscribed, I was infinitely more desirousthan ever to look upon her divine loveliness and to speak withher. I had not promised Danus that I would heed his suggestions,for I was determined to ignore them should the opportunityarise.

I was commencing to tire of the virtual imprisonment that hadbeen my lot ever since my advent upon Amtor, for even a kindlyjailer and a benign prison régime are not satisfactorysubstitutes for freedom. I had asked Danus what my status was andwhat they planned for me in the future, but he had evaded a moredirect answer by saying that I was the guest of Mintep, the jong,and that my future would be a matter of discussion when Mintepgranted me an audience.

Suddenly now I felt more than before the restrictions of mysituation, and they galled me. I had committed no crime. I was apeaceful visitor to Vepaja. I had neither the desire nor thepower to harm anyone. These considerations decided me. Idetermined to force the issue.

A few minutes ago I had been contented with my lot, willing towait the pleasure of my hosts; now I was discontented. What hadinduced this sudden change? Could it be the mysterious alchemy ofpersonality that had transmuted the lead of lethargy to the goldof ambitious desire? Had the aura of a vision of feminineloveliness thus instantly reversed my outlook upon life?

I turned toward Danus. "You have been very kind to me," Isaid, "and my days here have been happy, but I am of a race ofpeople who desire freedom above all things. As I have explainedto you, I am here through no intentional fault of my own; but Iam here, and being here I expect the same treatment that would beaccorded you were you to visit my country under similarcircumstances."

"The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit ofhappiness—freedom," I explained. I did not think itnecessary to mention chambers of commerce dinners, Rotary andKiwanis luncheons, triumphal parades and ticker tape, keys tocities, press representatives and photographers, nor news reelcameramen, the price that he would undoubtedly have had to payfor life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

"But, my dear friend, one would think from your words that youare a prisoner here!" he exclaimed.

"The jong is the jong," he replied. "He will send for you inhis own time; until then, let us continue the friendly relationsthat have marked our association up to now."

"I hope they will never be changed, Danus," I told him, "butyou may tell Mintep, if you will, that I cannot accept hishospitality much longer; if he does not send for me soon, I shallleave on my own accord."

"You would not live to take a dozen steps from the apartmentsthat have been assigned you," he assured me seriously.

"There are warriors posted in the corridors," he explained;"they have their orders from the jong."

"I am sorry that you raised the question," he said, "asotherwise you might never have known."

Here indeed was the iron hand in the velvet glove. I hoped itwas not wielded by a wolf in sheep's clothing. My position wasnot an enviable one. Even had I the means to escape, there was noplace that I could go. But I did not want to leave Vepaja—Ihad seen the girl in the garden.

VI. — GATHERING TAREL

A WEEK passed, a week during which I permanentlydiscarded my reddish whiskers and received an injection of thelongevity serum. The latter event suggested that possibly Mintepwould eventually liberate me, for why bestow immortality upon apotential enemy who is one's prisoner; but then I knew that theserum did not confer absolute immortality—Mintep could haveme destroyed if he wished, by which thought was suggested thepossibility that the serum had been administered for the purposeof lulling me into a sense of security which I did not, inreality, enjoy. I was becoming suspicious.

While Danus was injecting the serum, I asked him if there weremany doctors in Vepaja. "Not so many in proportion to thepopulation as there were a thousand years ago," he replied. "Allthe people are now trained in the care of their bodies and taughtthe essentials of health and longevity. Even without the serumswe use to maintain resistance to disease constantly in the humanbody, our people would live to great ages. Sanitation, diet, andexercise can accomplish wonders by themselves.

"But we must have some doctors. Their numbers are limited nowto about one to each five thousand citizens, and in addition toadministering the serum, the doctors attend those who are injuredby the accidents of daily life, in the hunt, and in duels andwar.

"Formerly there were many more doctors than could eke out anhonest living, but now there are various agencies that restricttheir numbers. Not only is there a law restricting these, but theten years of study required, the long apprenticeship thereafter,and the difficult examinations that must be passed have alltended to reduce the numbers who seek to follow this profession;but another factor probably achieved more than all else torapidly reduce the great number of doctors that threatened thecontinuance of human life on Amtor in the past.

"This was a regulation that compelled every physician andsurgeon to file a complete history of each of his cases with thechief medical officer of his district. From diagnosis to completerecovery or death, each detail of the handling of each case hadto be recorded and placed on record for the public to consult.When a citizen requires the services of a physician or surgeonnow, he may easily determine those who have been successful andthose who have not. Fortunately, today there are few of thelatter. The law has proved a good one."

This was interesting, for I had had experience with physiciansand surgeons on earth. "How many doctors survived the operationof this new law?" I asked.

"There must have been a larger proportion of good doctors onAmtor than on earth," I commented.

Time hung heavily upon my hands. I read a great deal, but anactive young man cannot satisfy all his varied life interestswith books alone. And then there was the garden at my right. Ihad been advised to avoid that end of my veranda, but I did not,at least not when Danus was absent. When he was away I hauntedthat end of the veranda, but it seemed deserted. And then one dayI caught a glimpse of her; she was watching me from behind aflowering shrub.

I was close to the fence that separated my runway from hergarden; it was not a high fence, perhaps slightly under fivefeet. She did not run this time, but stood looking straight atme, possibly thinking that I could not see her because of theintervening foliage. I could not see her plainly enough, that istrue; and, God, how I wanted to see her!

What is that inexplicable, subtle attraction that some womanholds for every man? For some men there is only one woman in theworld who exercises this influence upon him, or perhaps if thereare more, the others do not cross his path; for other men thereare several; for some none. For me there was this girl of analien race, upon an alien planet. Perhaps there were others, butif there were, I had never met them. In all my life before I hadnever been moved by such an irresistible urge. What I did, I didupon the strength of an impulse as uncontrollable as a law ofnature; perhaps it was a law of nature that motivated me. Ivaulted the fence.

Before the girl could escape me, I stood before her. Therewere consternation and horror in her eyes. I thought that she wasafraid of me.

She drew herself up proudly. "I am not afraid of you," shesaid; "I—," she hesitated and then started over. "If youare seen here you will be destroyed. Go back to your quarters atonce and never dare such a rash act again."

I thrilled to the thought that the fear that I had seen soclearly reflected in her eyes was for my safety. "How may I seeyou?" I asked.

"But I have seen you, and I intend seeing you again. I amgoing to see a lot of you, or die in the attempt."

"Either you do not know what you are doing or you are mad,"she said and turned her back on me as she started to walkaway.

She wheeled on me like a tigress and slapped my face, and thenshe whipped the dagger from the scabbard at her girdle. "Howdared you," she cried, "lay a hand upon me! I should killyou."

At that declaration her eyes did indeed reflect horror. Shewheeled then so quickly that I could not stop her and was gone. Istood for a moment, debating whether I should follow her or not,and then a modicum of reason intervened to save me from such anassininity. An instant later I had vaulted the fence again. I didnot know whether anyone had seen me or not, and I did notcare.

When Danus returned a short time later, he told me that Mintephad sent him for me. I wondered if the summons was in any wayrelated to my adventure in the garden at the right, but I did notinquire. If it were, I should know in due time. The attitude ofDanus was unchanged, but that no longer reassured me. I wasbeginning to suspect that the Amtorians were masters ofdissimulation.

Two young officers from the quarters adjoining mineaccompanied us to the chamber where the jong was to question me.Whether or not they were acting as an escort to prevent my escapeI could not tell. They chatted pleasantly with me during theshort walk along the corridor and up the staircase to the levelabove; but then the guards usually chat pleasantly with thecondemned man, if he feels like chatting. They accompanied meinto the room where the jong sat. This time he was not alone;there were a number of men gathered about him, and among these Irecognized Duran, Olthar, and Kamlot. For some reason theassemblage reminded me of a grand jury, and I could not help butwonder if they were going to return a true bill.

I bowed to the jong, who greeted me quite pleasantly enough,and smiled and nodded to the three men in whose home I had spentmy first night on Venus. Mintep looked me over in silence for amoment or two; when he had seen me before I had been dressed inmy earthly clothes, now I was garbed (or ungarbed) like aVepajan.

"Exposure to light on the veranda has darkened it," I replied.I could not say sunlight, because they have no word for sun, ofthe existence of which they do not dream. However, such was thecase, the ultra violet rays of sunlight having penetrated thecloud envelopes surrounding the planet and tanned my body quiteas effectively as would exposure to the direct rays of the sunhave done.

"I have been treated with kindness and consideration," Ireplied, "and have been quite as happy as any prisoner couldreasonably be expected to be."

"Neither do I, jong, but I like the truth. I have been aprisoner, and I have been awaiting this opportunity to ask youwhy I am a prisoner and to demand my freedom."

He raised his eyebrows; then he smiled quite openly. "I thinkthat I am going to like you," he said; "you are honest and youare courageous, or I am no judge of men."

I inclined my head in acknowledgment of the compliment. I hadnot expected that he would receive my blunt demand in a spirit ofsuch generous understanding; but I was not entirely relieved, forexperience had taught me that these people could be very suavewhile being most uncompromising.

"There are some things that I wish to tell you and somequestions that I wish to ask you," he continued. "We are stillbeset by our enemies, who yet send occasional raiding partiesagainst us, who upon numerous occasions have sought to introducetheir spies among us. We have three things that they require ifthey are not to suffer extinction: scientific knowledge, and thebrains and experience to apply it. Therefore they go to anylengths to abduct our men, whom they purpose holding in slaveryand forcing to apply the knowledge that they themselves do nothave. They also abduct our women in the hope of breeding childrenof greater mentality than those which are now born to them.

"The story that you told of crossing millions of miles ofspace from another world is, of course, preposterous andnaturally aroused our suspicions. We saw in you another Thoristspy, cleverly disguised. For this reason you have been under thecareful and intelligent observation of Danus for many days. Hereports that there is no doubt but that you were totally ignorantof the Amtorian language when you came among us, and as this isthe only language spoken by any of the known races of the world,we have come to the conclusion that your story may be, in part,true. The fact that your skin, hair, and eyes differ in colorfrom those of any known race is further substantiation of thisconclusion. Therefore, we are willing to admit that you are not aThorist, but the questions remain: who are you, and from whencecame you?"

"I have told only the truth," I replied; "I have nothing toadd other than to suggest that you carefully consider the factthat the cloud masses surrounding Amtor completely obscure yourview and therefore your knowledge of what lies beyond."

He shook his head. "Let us not discuss it; it is useless toattempt to overthrow the accumulated scientific research andknowledge of thousands of years. We are willing to accept you asof another race, perhaps, as was suggested by the clothing youwore upon your arrival, from cold and dreary Karbol. You are freeto come and go as you please. If you remain, you must abide bythe laws and customs of Vepaja, and you must become self-supporting. What can you do?"

"I doubt that I can compete with Vepajans at their own tradesor professions," I admitted, "but I can learn something if I amgiven time."

"Perhaps we can find someone who will undertake yourtraining," said the jong, "and in the meantime you may remain inmy house, assisting Danus."

"We will take him into our house and train him," spoke upDuran, "if he cares to help us collect tarel and hunt."

Tarel is the strong, silky fiber from which their cloth andcordage are made. I imagined that collecting it would be tame andmonotonous work, but the idea of hunting appealed to me. In noevent, however, could I ignore Duran's well-meant invitation, asI did not wish to offend him, and, furthermore, anything would beacceptable that would provide the means whereby I might becomeself-supporting. I therefore accepted his offer, and, theaudience being concluded, I bid good-bye to Danus, who invited meto visit him often, and withdrew with Duran, Olthar, andKamlot.

As no mention had been made of the subject, I concluded thatno one had witnessed my encounter with the girl in the garden,who was still uppermost in my thoughts and the principal cause ofmy regret that I was to leave the house of the jong.

Once more I was established in the house of Duran, but thistime in a larger and more comfortable room. Kamlot took charge ofme. He was the younger of the brothers, a quiet, reserved manwith the muscular development of a trained athlete. After he hadshown me my room, he took me to another apartment, a miniaturearmory, in which were many spears, swords, daggers, bows,shields, and almost countless arrows. Before a window was a longbench with racks in which were tools of various descriptions;above the bench were shelves upon which were stacked the rawmaterials for the manufacture of bows, arrows, and spear shafts.Near the bench were a forge and anvil, and there were sheets androds and ingots of metal stored near by.

"Yes, but for exercise only," I replied; "in my country wehave perfected weapons that render a sword useless incombat."

He asked me about these weapons and was much interested in mydescription of earthly firearms. "We have a similar weapon onAmtor," he said. "We of Vepaja do not possess them, because thesole supply of the material with which they are charged lies inthe heart of the Thorist country. When the weapons are made theyare charged with an element that emits a ray of extremely shortwave length that is destructive of animal tissue, but the elementonly emits these rays when exposed to the radiation of anotherrare element. There are several metals that are impervious tothese rays. Those shields that you see hanging on the walls, theones that are metal covered, are ample protection from them. Asmall shutter of similar metal is used in the weapon to separatethe two elements; when this shutter is raised and one element isexposed to the emanations of the other, the destructive R-ray isreleased and passes along the bore of the weapon toward thetarget at which the latter has been aimed.

"My people invented and perfected this weapon," he addedruefully, "and now it has been turned against us; but we getalong very well with what we have, as long as we remain in ourtrees.

"In addition to a sword and dagger, you will need a bow,arrows, and a spear," and as he enumerated them he selected thevarious articles for me, the last of which was really a short,heavy javelin. A swivelled ring was attached to the end of theshaft of this weapon, and attached to the ring was a long,slender cord with a hand loop at its extremity. This cord, whichwas no heavier than ordinary wrapping twine, Kamlot coiled in apeculiar way and tucked into a small opening in the side of theshaft.

"We hunt high in the trees," he replied, "and if it were notfor the cord we should lose many spears."

"It is of tarel," he replied, "and could support the weight often men. You will learn much of the properties and value of tarelbefore you have been with us long. Tomorrow we shall go outtogether and gather some. It has been rather scarce of late."

At the evening meal that day I met Zuro and Alzo again, andthey were most gracious to me. In the evening they all joined inteaching me the favorite Vepajan game, tork, which is played withpieces that are much like those used in mah jong and bears astartling resemblance to poker.

I slept well that night in my new quarters and when daylightbroke I arose, for Kamlot had warned me that we should startearly upon our expedition. I cannot say that I looked forwardwith any considerable degree of enthusiasm to spending the daygathering tarel. The climate of Vepaja is warm and sultry, and Ipictured the adventure as being about as monotonous anddisagreeable as picking cotton in Imperial Valley.

After a light breakfast, which I helped Kamlot to prepare, hetold me to get my weapons. "You should always wear your sword anddagger," he added.

"Always, wherever you are," he replied. "It is not only acustom, but it is the law. We never know when we may be calledupon to defend ourselves, our houses, or our jong."

"Those are all that I need bring, I suppose," I remarked as Iwas leaving the room.

Why I should need a spear to gather tarel I could not imagine;but I brought all the weapons that he had mentioned, and when Ireturned he handed me a bag with a strap that went around my neckto support it at my back.

"We may not get any," he replied. "If we get a bagful betweenus we may do some tall boasting when we return."

I said no more, thinking it best to learn by experience ratherthan to be continually revealing my lamentable ignorance. Iftarel were as scarce as his statement suggested, I should nothave much picking to do, and that suited me perfectly. I am notlazy, but I like work that keeps my mind on the alert.

When we were both ready, Kamlot led the way upstairs, aprocedure which mystified me, but did not tempt me into askingany more questions. We passed the two upper levels of the houseand entered a dark, spiral staircase that led still fartherupward into the tree. We ascended this for about fifteen feet,when Kamlot halted and I heard him fumbling with something aboveme.

Presently the shaft was bathed with light, which I saw camethrough a small circular opening that had been closed with astout door. Through this opening Kamlot crawled, and I followedhim, to find myself on a limb of the tree. My companion closedand locked the door, using a small key. I now saw that the doorwas covered on the outside with bark, so that when it was closedit would have been difficult for anyone to have detected it.

With almost monkeylike agility, Kamlot ascended, while I,resembling anything but a monkey in this respect, followed,thankful for the lesser gravitational pull of Venus, howeverlittle less than that of earth it might be, for I am notnaturally arboreal.

After ascending about a hundred feet, Kamlot crossed to anadjacent tree, the branches of which interlocked with those ofthe one we had been ascending, and again the upward climbcommenced. Occasionally the Vepajan stopped to listen as wepassed from tree to tree or clambered to higher levels. After wehad travelled for an hour or more, he stopped again and waiteduntil I had overtaken him. A finger on his lips enjoined me tosilence.

"Tarel," he whispered, pointing through the foliage in thedirection of an adjacent tree.

I wondered why he had to whisper it, as my eyes followed thedirection of his index finger. Twenty feet away I saw whatappeared to be a huge spider web, partially concealed by theintervening foliage.

"Be ready with your spear," whispered Kamlot. "Put your handthrough the loop. Follow me, but not too closely; you may needroom to cast your spear. Do you see him?"

"No," I admitted. I saw nothing but the suggestion of a spiderweb; what else I was supposed to see I did not know.

"Neither do I, but he may be hiding. Look up occasionally sothat he can't take you by surprise from above."

This was more exciting than picking cotton in Imperial Valley,though as yet I did not know just what there was to be excitedabout. Kamlot did not appear excited; he was very cool, but hewas cautious. Slowly he crept toward the great web, his javelinready in his hand; and I followed. When we were in full sight ofit we saw that it was empty. Kamlot drew his dagger.

"Start cutting it away," he said. "Cut close to the branchesand follow the web around; I will cut in the other directionuntil we meet. Be careful that you do not get enmeshed in it,especially if he happens to return."

Kamlot looked puzzled. "Why should we go around it?" hedemanded, a little shortly I thought.

I subsided. I had thought that the tarel he pointed at wasbeyond the web, although I had seen nothing; but then of course Ihad not known what tarel was or what it looked like. We had beencutting away for a few minutes when I heard a noise in a treenear us. Kamlot heard it at the same time.

"He is coming," he said. "Be ready!" He slipped his daggerinto his sheath and grasped his spear. I followed hisexample.

The sound stopped, but I could see nothing through thefoliage. Presently there was a rustling among the foliage, and aface appeared some fifteen yards from us. It was a hideousface—the face of a spider tremendously enlarged. When thething saw that we had discovered it, it emitted the mostfrightful scream I had ever heard save once before. Then Irecognized them—the voice and the face. It had been acreature such as this that had pursued my pursuer the night thatI had dropped to the causeway in front of the house of Duran.

The words had scarcely crossed the lips of the Vepajan whenthe hideous creature rushed toward us. Its body and legs werecovered with long, black hair, and there was a yellow spot thesize of a saucer above each eye. It screamed horribly as it came,as though to paralyze us with terror.

Kamlot's spear hand flew back and forward, and the heavyjavelin, rushing to meet the maddened creature, buried itselfdeeply in the repulsive carcass; but it did not stop the charge.The creature was making straight for Kamlot as I hurled myjavelin, which struck it in the side; but even this did not stopit, and to my horror I saw it seize my companion as he fell backupon the great limb upon which he had stood, with the spider ontop of him.

The footing was secure enough for Kamlot and the spider, forthey were both accustomed to it, but to me it seemed veryprecarious. Of course the tree limbs were enormous and often thebranches were laced together, yet I felt anything but secure.However, I had no time to think of that now. If not already dead,Kamlot was being killed. Drawing my sword, I leaped to the sideof the huge arachnid and struck viciously at its head, whereuponit abandoned Kamlot and turned upon me; but it was badly woundednow and moved with difficulty.

I struck viciously at its head.

As I struck at that hideous face, I was horrified to see thatKamlot lay as though dead. He did not move. But I had only timefor that single brief glance. If I were not careful I, too,should soon be dead. The thing confronting me seemed endowed withunsapable vitality. It was oozing sticky blood from severalwounds, at least two of which I thought should have been almostinstantly lethal; yet still it struggled to reach me with thepowerful claws that terminated its forelegs, that it might drawme to those hideous jaws.

The Vepajan blade is a keen, two-edged affair, a little widerand thicker near the point than at the haft, and, while not wellbalanced to my way of thinking, is a deadly cutting weapon. Ifound it so in this my first experience with it, for as a greatclaw reached out to seize me I severed it with a single blow. Atthis the creature screamed more horribly than ever, and with itslast remaining vitality sprang upon me as you have seen spidersspring upon their prey. I cut at it again as I stepped back; andthen thrust my point directly into that hideous visage, as theweight of the creature overbore me and I went down beneathit.

As it crashed upon me, my body toppled from the great branchupon which I had been standing, and I felt myself falling.Fortunately, the interlacing, smaller branches gave me somesupport; I caught at them and checked my fall, bringing up upon abroad, flat limb ten or fifteen feet below. I had clung to mysword, and being unhurt, clambered back as quickly as I could tosave Kamlot from further attack, but he needed noprotection—the great targo, as the creature is called, wasdead.

Dead also was Kamlot; I could find no pulse nor detect anybeating of the heart. My own sank within my breast. I had lost afriend, I who had so few here, and I was as utterly lost as onemay be. I knew that I could not retrace our steps to the Vepajancity, even though my life depended upon my ability to do so, asit doubtless did. I could descend, but whether I was still overthe city or not I did not know; I doubted it.

So this was gathering tarel; this was the occupation that Ihad feared would bore me with its monotony!

VII. — BY KAMLOT'S GRAVE

HAVING set out to gather tarel, I finished thework that Kamlot and I had nearly completed when the targoattacked us; if I succeeded in finding the city, I should atleast bring something to show for our efforts. But what aboutKamlot? The idea of leaving the body here was repugnant to me.Even in the brief association I had had with the man I had cometo like him and to look upon him as my friend. His people hadbefriended me; the least that I could do would be to take hisbody back to them. I realized, of course, that that was going tobe something of a job, but it must be done. Fortunately, I amextraordinarily muscular, and then, too, the gravitational pullof Venus favored me more than would that of earth, giving me anadvantage of over twenty pounds in the dead weight I should haveto carry and even a little better than that in the amount of myown live weight, for I am heavier than Kamlot.

With less difficulty than I had anticipated I succeeded ingetting Kamlot's body onto my back and trussed there with thecord attached to his javelin. I had previously strapped hisweapons to him with strands of the tarel that half filled my bag,for, being unfamiliar with all the customs of the country, I didnot know precisely what would be expected of me in an emergencyof this nature, and preferred to be on the safe side.

The experiences of the next ten or twelve hours are anightmare that I should like to forget. Contact with the dead andnaked body of my companion was sufficiently gruesome, but thesense of utter bewilderment and futility in this strange worldwas even more depressing. As the hours passed, during which Iconstantly descended, except for brief rests, the weight of thecorpse seemed to increase. In life Kamlot would have weighedabout one hundred eighty pounds on earth, nearly one hundredsixty on Venus, but by the time darkness enveloped the gloomyforest I could have sworn that he weighed a ton.

So fatigued was I that I had to move very slowly, testing eachnew hand-and foothold before trusting my tired muscles to supportthe burden they were carrying, for a weak hold or a misstep wouldhave plunged me into eternity. Death was ever at my elbow.

It seemed to me that I descended thousands of feet and yet Ihad seen no sign of the city. Several times I heard creaturesmoving through the trees at a distance, and twice I heard thehideous scream of a targo. Should one of these monstrous spidersattack me—well, I tried not to think about that. Instead Itried to occupy my mind with recollections of my earthly friends;I visualized my childhood days in India as I studied under oldChand Kabi, I thought of dear old Jimmy Welsh, and I recalled abevy of girls I had liked and with some of whom I had almost beenserious. These recalled the gorgeous girl in the garden of thejong, and the visions of the others faded into oblivion. Who wasshe? What strange interdiction had forbidden her to see or tospeak with me? She had said that she loathed me, but she hadheard me tell her that I loved her. That sounded rather silly nowthat I gave it thought. How could I love a girl the first instantthat I laid eyes upon her, a girl concerning whom I knewabsolutely nothing, neither her age nor her name? It waspreposterous, yet I knew that it was true. I loved the namelessbeauty of the little garden.

Perhaps my preoccupation with these thoughts made me careless;I do not know, but my mind was filled with them when my footslipped a little after night had fallen. I grasped for support,but the combined weights of myself and the corpse tore my handsloose, and with my dead companion I plunged downward into thedarkness. I felt Death's cold breath upon my cheek.

We did not fall far, being brought up suddenly by somethingsoft that gave to our combined weights, then bounced up again,vibrating like a safety net such as we have all seen used byaerial performers. In the faint but all pervading light of theAmtorian night I could see what I had already guessed—I hadfallen into the web of one of Amtor's ferocious spiders!

I tried to crawl to an edge where I might seize hold of abranch and drag myself free, but each move but entangled me themore. The situation was horrible enough, but a moment later itbecame infinitely worse, as, glancing about me, I saw at the faredge of the web the huge, repulsive body of a targo.

I drew my sword and hacked at the entangling meshes of the webas the fierce arachnid crept slowly toward me. I recall wonderingif a fly entangled in a spider's web suffered the hopelessnessand the mental anguish that seized me as I realized the futilityof my puny efforts to escape this lethal trap and the ferociousmonster advancing to devour me. But at least I had someadvantages that no fly enjoys. I had my sword and a reasoningbrain; I was not so entirely helpless as the poor fly.

The targo crept closer and closer. It uttered no sound. Ipresume that it was satisfied that I could not escape and saw noreason why it should seek to paralyze me with fright. From adistance of about ten feet it charged, moving with incredibleswiftness upon its eight hairy legs. I met it with the point ofmy sword.

There was no skill in my thrust; it was just pure luck that mypoint penetrated the creature's tiny brain. When it collapsedlifeless beside me, I could scarcely believe the testimony of myeyes. I was saved!

Instantly I fell to work severing the strands of tarel thatenmeshed me, and in four or five minutes I was free and hadlowered myself to a branch below. My heart was still poundingrapidly and I was weak from exhaustion. For a quarter of an hourI remained resting; then I continued the seemingly endlessdescent out of this hideous forest.

What other dangers confronted me I could not guess. I knewthat there were other creatures in this gigantic wood; thosepowerful webs, capable of sustaining the weight of an ox, had notbeen built for man alone. During the preceding day I had caughtoccasional glimpses of huge birds, which might themselves, ifcarnivorous, prove as deadly menaces as the targo; but it was notthem that I feared now, but the nocturnal prowlers that hauntevery forest by night.

Down and down I descended, feeling that each next moment mustwitness the final collapse of my endurance. The encounter withthe targo had taken terrific toll of my great strength, alreadysapped by the arduous experiences of the day, yet I could notstop, I dared not. Yet how much longer could I drive exhaustednature on toward the brink of utter collapse?

I had about reached the end of my endurance when my feetstruck solid ground. At first I could not believe the truth, butglancing down and about me I saw that I had indeed reached thefloor of the forest; after a month on Venus I had at last placedfoot upon her surface. I could see little or nothing—justthe enormous boles of great trees in whatever direction I looked.Beneath my feet lay a thick matting of fallen leaves, turnedwhite in death.

I cut the cords that bound the corpse of Kamlot to my back andlowered my poor comrade to the ground; then I threw myself downbeside him and was asleep almost immediately.

When I awoke, it was daylight again. I looked about me, butcould see nothing but the counterpane of whitened leaves spreadbetween the boles of trees of such gargantuan girth that I almosthesitate to suggest the size of some of them, lest I discreditthe veracity of this entire story of my experiences on Venus. Butindeed they must needs be huge to support their extraordinaryheight, for many of them towered over six thousand feet above thesurface of the ground, their lofty pinnacles enshrouded foreverin the eternal fog of the inner cloud envelope.

To suggest an idea of the size of some of these monsters ofthe forest, I may say that I walked around the bole of one,counting over a thousand paces in the circuit, which gives,roughly, a diameter of a thousand feet, and there were many such.A tree ten feet in diameter appeared a frail and slendersapling—and there can be no vegetation upon Venus!

What little knowledge of physics I had and a very slightacquaintance with botany argued that trees of such height couldnot exist, but there must be some special, adaptive forcesoperating on Venus that permit the seemingly impossible. I haveattempted to figure it out in terms of earthly conditions, and Ihave arrived at some conclusions that suggest possibleexplanations for the phenomenon. If vertical osmosis is affectedby gravity, then the lesser gravity of Venus would favor thegrowth of taller trees, and the fact that their tops are foreverin the clouds would permit them to build up an ample supply ofcarbohydrates from the abundant water vapor, provided there wasthe requisite amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of Venusto promote this photosynthetic process.

I must admit, however, that at the time I was not greatlyinterested in these intriguing speculations; I had to think aboutmyself and poor Kamlot. What was I to do with the corpse of myfriend? I had done my best to return him to his people, andfailed. I doubted now that I could ever find his people. Thereremained but a single alternative; I must bury him.

This decided, I started to scrape away the leaves beside him,that I might reach the ground beneath and dig a grave. There wereabout a foot of leaves and leaf mold and below that a soft, richsoil which I loosened easily with the point of my spear andscooped out with my hands. It did not take me long to excavate anice grave; it was six feet long, two feet wide, and three feetdeep. I gathered some freshly fallen leaves and carpeted itsbottom with them, and then I gathered some more to place aroundand over Kamlot after I had lowered him to his final restingplace.

While I worked I tried to recall the service for the dead; Iwanted Kamlot to have as decent and orderly a burial as I couldcontrive. I wondered what God would think about it, but I had nodoubt but that he would receive this first Amtorian soul to belaunched into the unknown with a Christian burial and welcome himwith open arms.

As I stooped and put my arms about the corpse to lower it intothe grave, I was astounded to discover that it was quite warm.This put an entirely new aspect on the matter. A man dead foreighteen hours should be cold. Could it be that Kamlot was notdead? I pressed an ear to his chest; faintly I heard the beatingof his heart. Never before had I experienced such an access ofrelief and joy. I felt as one reborn to new youth, to new hopes,to new aspirations. I had not realized until that instant thedepth of my loneliness.

But why was Kamlot not dead? and how was I to resuscitate him?I felt that I should understand the former before I attempted thelatter. I examined the wound again. There were two deep gashes onhis chest just below the presternum. They had bled but little,and they were discolored, as I now noticed, by a greenish tint.It was this, meaningless though it may be, that suggested anexplanation of Kamlot's condition. Something about that greenishtint suggested poison to my mind, and at once I recalled thatthere were varieties of spiders that paralyzed their victims byinjecting a poison into them that preserved them in a state ofsuspended animation until they were ready to devour them. Thetargo had paralyzed Kamlot!

My first thought was to stimulate circulation and respiration,and to this end I alternately massaged his body and applied thefirst aid measures adapted to the resuscitation of the drowned.Which of these accomplished the result I do not know (perhapseach helped a little), but at any rate I was rewarded after along period of effort with evidences of returning animation.Kamlot sighed and his eyelids fluttered. After anotherconsiderable period, during which I nearly exhausted myself, heopened his eyes and looked at me.

At first his gaze was expressionless and I thought thatperhaps his mind had been affected by the poison; then a puzzled,questioning look entered his eyes and eventually recognition. Iwas witnessing a resurrection.

"What happened?" he asked in a whisper, and then, "Oh, yes, Irecall; the targo got me." He sat up, with my assistance, andlooked around. "Where are we?" he demanded.

"You saved me from the targo," he said. "Did you kill it? Butyou must have, or you never could have gotten me away from it.Tell me about it."

Briefly, I told him. "I tried to get you back to the city, butI became lost and missed it. I have no idea where it lies."

"I do not know all the customs of your people," I replied;"but your family has been kind to me, and the least that I coulddo was to bring your body back to them, nor could I leave afriend up there to be devoured by birds and beasts."

"I shall not forget," he said quietly. He tried to rise then,but I had to assist him. "I shall be all right presently," heassured me, "after I have exercised a little. The effects of thetargo's poison wear off in about twenty-four hours even withouttreatment. What you have done for me has helped to dissipate themsooner, and a little exercise will quickly eradicate the lastvestiges of them." He stood looking about as though in an effortto orient himself, and as he did so his eyes fell upon hisweapons, which I had intended burying with him and which lay onthe ground beside the grave. "You even brought these!" heexclaimed. "You are a jong among friends!"

After he had buckled his sword belt about his hips, he pickedup his spear, and together we walked through the forest,searching for some sign that would indicate that we had reached apoint beneath the city, Kamlot having explained that trees alongthe important trails leading to the location of the city weremarked in an inconspicuous and secret manner, as were certaintrees leading upward to the hanging city.

"We come to the surface of Amtor but seldom," he said, "thoughoccasionally trading parties descend and go to the coast to meetvessels from the few nations with which we carry on asurreptitious commerce. The curse of Thorism has spread far,however, and there are few nations of which we have knowledgethat are not subject to its cruel and selfish domination. Once ina while we descend to hunt the basto for its hide and flesh."

"It is a large, omnivorous animal with powerful jaws armedwith four great fangs in addition to its other teeth. On its headgrow two heavy horns. At the shoulder it is as tall as a tallman. I have killed them that weighed thirty-six hundred tob."

A tob is the Amtorian unit of weight, and is the equivalent ofone third of an English pound; all weights are computed in tobsor decimals thereof, as they use the decimal system exclusivelyin their tables of weights and measures. It seems to me much morepractical than the confusing earthly collection of grains, grams,ounces, pounds, tons, and the other designations in common useamong the various nations of our planet.

From Kamlot's description I visualized the basto as anenormous boar with horns, or a buffalo with the jaws and teeth ofa carnivore, and judged that its twelve hundred pounds of weightwould render it a most formidable beast. I asked him with whatweapons they hunted the animal.

"Some prefer arrows, others spears," he explained, "and it isalways handy to have a low branched tree near by," he added witha grin.

"Very. When a basto appears upon the scene, man is as oftenthe hunted as the hunter, but we are not hunting bastos now. WhatI should most like to find is a sign that would tell me where weare."

We moved on through the forest, searching for the tiny roadsigns of the Vepajans, which Kamlot had described to me as wellas explaining the location in which they are always placed. Thesign consists of a long, sharp nail with a flat head bearing anumber in relief. These nails are driven into trees at a uniformheight from the ground. They are difficult to find, but it isnecessary to have them so, lest the enemies of the Vepajans findand remove them, or utilize them in their search for the citiesof the latter.

The method of the application of these signs to therequirements of the Vepajans is clever. They would really be oflittle value to any but a Vepajan as guide posts, yet each nailtells a remarkable story to the initiated; briefly it tells himprecisely where he is on the island that comprises the kingdom ofMintep, the jong. Each nail is placed in position by a surveyingparty and its exact location is indicated on a map of the island,together with the number on the head of the nail. Before aVepajan is permitted to descend to the ground alone, or to leadothers there, he must memorize the location of every sign nail inVepaja. Kamlot had done so. He told me that if we could find buta single nail he would immediately know the direction of anddistance to those on either side of it, our exact position uponthe island, and the location of the city; but he admitted that wemight wander a long time before we discovered a single nail.

The forest was monotonously changeless. There were trees ofseveral species, some with branches that trailed the ground,others bare of branches for hundreds of feet from their bases.There were boles as smooth as glass and as straight as a ship'smast, without a single branch as far up as the eye could see.Kamlot told me that the foliage of these grew in a singleenormous tuft far up among the clouds.

I asked him if he had ever been up there, and he said he hadclimbed, he believed, to the top of the tallest tree, but that hehad nearly frozen to death in the attempt. "We get our watersupply from these trees," he remarked. "They drink in the watervapor among the clouds and carry it down to their roots. They areunlike any other tree. A central, porous core carries the waterfrom the clouds to the roots, from whence it rises again in theform of sap that carries the tree's food upward from the ground.By tapping one of these trees anywhere you may obtain a copioussupply of clear, cool water—a fortunate provisionof—"

He listened intently for a moment. "Yes," he replied. "We hadbetter take to a tree, at least until we see what it is."

As he climbed into the branches of a near-by tree, I followedhim; and there we waited. Distinctly I could hear somethingmoving through the forest as it approached us. The soft carpet ofleaves beneath its feet gave forth but little sound—just arustling of the dry leaves. Nearer and nearer it came, apparentlymoving leisurely; then, suddenly, its great head came into viewfrom behind the bole of a tree a short distance from us.

"A basto," whispered Kamlot, but from his previous descriptionof the beast I had already guessed its identity.

It looked like a basto, only more so. From the eyes up itshead resembled that of an American bison, with the same short,powerful horns. Its poll and forehead were covered with thick,curly hair, its eyes were small and red-rimmed. Its hide was blueand of about the same texture as that of an elephant, withsparsely growing hairs except upon the head and at the tip of thetail. It stood highest at the shoulders and sloped rapidly to itsrump. Its front legs were short and stocky and ended in broad,three-toed feet; its hind legs were longer and the hind feetsmaller, a difference necessitated by the fact that the forelegsand feet carried fully three quarters of the beast's weight. Itsmuzzle was similar to that of a boar, except that it was broader,and carried heavy, curved tusks.

"Here comes our next meal," remarked Kamlot in an ordinarytone of voice. The basto stopped and looked about as he heard mycompanion's voice. "They are mighty good eating," added Kamlot,"and we have not eaten for a long while. There is nothing like abasto steak grilled over a wood fire."

My mouth commenced to water. "Come on," I said, and started toclimb down from the tree, my spear ready in my hand.

The basto had located us and was advancing, uttering a soundthat would have put to shame the best efforts of a full-grownlion. I do not know whether to describe it as a bellow or a roar.It started with a series of grunts and then rose in volume untilit shook the ground.

"He seems to be angry," I remarked; "but if we are going toeat him we must kill him first, and how are we to kill him if weremain in the tree?"

"I am not going to remain in the tree," replied Kamlot, "butyou are. You know nothing about hunting these beasts, and youwould probably not only get yourself killed but me into thebargain. You stay where you are. I will attend to the basto."

This plan did not suit me at all, but I was forced to admitKamlot's superior knowledge of things Amtorian and his greaterexperience and defer to his wishes; but nevertheless I heldmyself ready to go to his assistance should occasion require.

To my surprise, he dropped his spear to the ground and carriedin its stead a slender leafy branch which he cut from the treebefore descending to engage the bellowing basto. He did not comedown to the floor of the forest directly in front of the beast,but made his way part way around the tree before descending,after asking me to keep the basto's attention diverted, which Idid by shouting and shaking a branch of the tree.

Presently, to my horror, I saw Kamlot out in the open a dozenpaces in rear of the animal, armed only with his sword and theleafy branch which he carried in his left hand. His spear lay onthe ground not far from the enraged beast and his positionappeared utterly hopeless should the basto discover him before hecould reach the safety of another tree. Realizing this, Iredoubled my efforts to engage the creature's attention, untilKamlot shouted to me to desist.

I thought that he must have gone crazy and should not haveheeded him had not his voice attracted the attention of the bastoand frustrated any attempt that I might have made to keep thebeast's eyes upon me. The instant that Kamlot called to me thegreat head turned ponderously in his direction and the savageeyes discovered him. The creature wheeled and stood for a momenteyeing the rash but puny man-thing; then it trotted towardhim.

I waited no longer but dropped to the ground with theintention of attacking the thing from the rear. What happenedthereafter happened so quickly that it was over almost in thetime it takes to tell it. As I started in pursuit, I saw themighty basto lower its head and charge straight for my companion,who stood there motionless with his puny sword and the leafybranch grasped one in either hand. Suddenly, at the very instantthat I thought the creature was about to impale him on thosemighty horns, he waved the leaf covered branch in its face andleaped lightly to one side, simultaneously driving the keen pointof his blade downward from a point in front of the left shoulderuntil the steel was buried to the hilt in the great carcass.

The basto stopped, its four legs spread wide; for an instantit swayed, and then it crashed to the ground at the feet ofKamlot. A shout of admiration was on my lips when I chanced toglance upward. What attracted my attention I do not know, perhapsthe warning of that inaudible voice which we sometimes call asixth sense. What I saw drove the basto and the feat of Kamlotfrom my thoughts.

"My God!" I cried in English, and then in Amtorian, "Look,Kamlot! What are those?"

VIII. — ON BOARD THE SOFAL

Hovering just above us, I saw what at firstappeared to be five enormous birds; but which I soon recognized,despite my incredulity, as winged men. They were armed withswords and daggers, and each carried a long rope at the end ofwhich dangled a wire noose.

Even as he spoke a couple of wire nooses settled around eachof us. We struggled to free ourselves, striking at the snareswith our swords, but our blades made no impression upon thewires, and the ropes to which they were attached were beyond ourreach. As we battled futilely to disengage ourselves, the klangansettled to the ground, each pair upon opposite sides of thevictim they had snared. Thus they held us so that we werehelpless, as two cowboys hold a roped steer, while the fifthangan approached us with drawn sword and disarmed us. (Perhaps Ishould explain that angan is singular, klangan plural, plurals ofAmtorian words being formed by prefixing kloo to words commencingwith a consonant and kl to those commencing with a vowel.)

Our capture had been accomplished so quickly and so deftlythat it was over, with little or no effort on the part of thebirdmen, before I had had time to recover from the astonishmentthat their weird appearance induced. I now recalled having heardDanus speak ofvoo klanagan upon one or two occasions, butI had thought that he referred to poultry breeders or somethingof that sort. How little could I have dreamed of the reality!

For some reason I was astonished to hear him speak, although Ido not know why anything should have astonished me now. "I am astranger from another world," I told him. "My friend and I haveno quarrel with you. Let us go."

"Yes, he is wasting his breath," agreed the angan. "You areVepajans, and we have orders to bring Vepajans to the ship. Youdo not look like a Vepajan," he added, surveying me from head tofeet, "but the other does."

"Anyway, you are not a Thorist, and therefore you must be anenemy," interjected another.

They removed the nooses from about us and tied ropes aroundour necks and other ropes about our bodies beneath our arms; thentwo klangan seized the ropes attached to Kamlot and two morethose attached to me, and, spreading their wings, rose into theair, carrying us with them. Our weight was supported by the ropesbeneath our arms, but the other ropes were a constant suggestionto us of what might happen if we did not behave ourselves.

As they flew, winding their way among the trees, our bodieswere suspended but a few feet above the ground, for the forestlanes were often low ceiled by overhanging branches. The klangantalked a great deal among themselves, shouting to one another andlaughing and singing, seemingly well satisfied with themselvesand their exploit. Their voices were soft and mellow, and theirsongs were vaguely reminiscent of Negro spirituals, a similaritywhich may have been enhanced by the color of their skins, whichwere very dark.

As Kamlot was carried in front of me, I had an opportunity toobserve the physical characteristics of these strange creaturesinto whose hands we had fallen. They had low, receding foreheads,huge, beaklike noses, and undershot jaws; their eyes were smalland close set, their ears flat and slightly pointed. Their chestswere large and shaped like those of birds, and their arms werevery long, ending in long-fingered, heavy-nailed hands. The lowerpart of the torso was small, the hips narrow, the legs very shortand stocky, ending in three-toed feet equipped with long, curvedtalons. Feathers grew upon their heads instead of hair. When theywere excited, as when they attacked us, these feathers standerect, but ordinarily they lie flat. They are all alike;commencing near the root they are marked with a band of white,next comes a band of black, then another of white, and the tip isred. Similar feathers also grow at the lower extremity of thetorso in front, and there is another, quite large bunch justabove the buttocks—a gorgeous tail which they open into ahuge pompon when they wish to show off.

Their wings, which consist of a very thin membrane supportedon a light framework, are similar in shape to those of a bat anddo not appear adequate to the support of the apparent weight ofthe creatures' bodies, but I was to learn later that thisapparent weight is deceptive, since their bones, like the bonesof true birds, are hollow.

The creatures carried us a considerable distance, though howfar I do not know. We were in the air fully eight hours; and,where the forest permitted, they flew quite rapidly. They seemedutterly tireless, though Kamlot and I were all but exhausted longbefore they reached their destination. The ropes beneath our armscut into our flesh, and this contributed to our exhaustion as didour efforts to relieve the agony by seizing the ropes above usand supporting the weight of our bodies with our hands.

The Klangans carried us with them.

But, as all things must, this hideous journey ended at last.Suddenly we broke from the forest and winged out across amagnificent land-locked harbor, and for the first time I lookedupon the waters of a Venusan sea. Between two points that formedthe harbor's entrance I could see it stretching away as far asthe eye could reach—mysterious, intriguing, provocative.What strange lands and stranger people lay off there beyond thebeyond? Would I ever know?

Suddenly now my attention and my thoughts were attracted tosomething in the left foreground that I had not before noticed; aship lay at anchor on the quiet waters of the harbor and justbeyond it a second ship. Toward one of them our captors werewinging. As we approached the nearer and smaller, I saw a craftthat differed but little in the lines of its hull from earthlyships. It had a very high bow, its prow was sharp and slopedforward in a scimitarlike curve; the ship was long and narrow ofbeam. It looked as though it might have been built for speed. Butwhat was its motive power? It had no masts, sails, stacks, norfunnels. Aft were two oval houses—a smaller one restingupon the top of a larger; on top of the upper house was an ovaltower surmounted by a small crow's nest. There were doors andwindows in the two houses and the tower. As we came closer, Icould see a number of open hatches in the deck and peoplestanding on the walkways that surrounded the tower and the upperhouse and also upon the main deck. They were watching ourapproach.

As our captors deposited us upon the deck, we were immediatelysurrounded by a horde of jabbering men. A man whom I took to bean officer ordered the ropes removed from us, and while this wasbeing done he questioned the klangan who had brought us.

All the men that I saw were similar in color and physique tothe Vepajans, but their countenances were heavy andunintelligent; very few of them were good-looking, and only oneor two might have been called handsome. I saw evidences of ageamong them and of disease—the first I had seen onAmtor.

After the ropes had been removed, the officer ordered us tofollow him, after detailing four villainous-looking fellows toguard us, and conducted us aft and up to the tower thatsurmounted the smaller house. Here he left us outside the tower,which he entered.

The four men guarding us eyed us with surly disfavor."Vepajans, eh!" sneered one. "Think you're better than ordinarymen, don't you? But you'll find out you ain't, not in The FreeLand of Thora; there everybody's equal. I don't see no good inbringing your kind into the country anyway. If I had my way you'dget a dose of this," and he tapped a weapon that hung in aholster at his belt.

The weapon, or the grip of it, suggested a pistol of somekind, and I supposed that it was one of those curious firearmsdischarging deadly rays, that Kamlot had described to me. I wasabout to ask the fellow to let me see it when the officer emergedfrom the tower and ordered the guard to bring us in.

We were escorted into a room in which sat a scowling man witha most unprepossessing countenance. There was a sneer on his faceas he appraised us, the sneer of the inferior man for hissuperior, that tries to hide but only reveals the inferioritycomplex that prompts it. I knew that I was not going to likehim.

"Two more klooganfal!" he exclaimed. (A ganfal is a criminal.)"Two more of the beasts that tried to grind down the workers; butyou didn't succeed, did you? Now we are the masters. You'll findthat out even before we reach Thora. Is either of you adoctor?"

The fellow, whom I took to be the captain of the ship, eyed meclosely. "You are no Vepajan," he said. "What are you, anyway? Noone ever saw a man with yellow hair and blue eyes before."

"As far as you are concerned," I replied, "I am a Vepajan. Ihave never been in any other country in Amtor."

"Because it doesn't make any difference what you think aboutit," I snapped. I did not like the fellow, and when I do not likepeople I have difficulty in hiding the fact. In this case I didnot try to hide it.

"Sit down," I advised him. "You're here under orders to bringback Vepajans. Nobody cares what you think about them, but you'llget into trouble if you don't bring them back."

Diplomacy would have curbed my tongue, but I am notparticularly diplomatic, especially when I am angry, and now Iwas both angry and disgusted, for there had been something in theattitude of all these people toward us that bespoke ignorantprejudice and bitterness. Furthermore, I surmised from scraps ofinformation I had picked up from Danus, as well as from theremarks of the sailor who had announced that he would like tokill us, that I was not far wrong in my assumption that theofficer I had thus addressed would be exceeding his authority ifhe harmed us. However, I realized that I was taking chances, andawaited with interest the effect of my words.

The fellow took them like a whipped cur and subsided after asingle weakly blustering, "We'll see about that." He turned to abook that lay open before him. "What is your name?" he asked,nodding in Kamlot's direction. Even his nod was obnoxious.

"I am Carson of Napier," I replied, using the Amtorian form;"I am a Vepajan from Kooaad."

"A what?" he demanded. "I never heard of such a thing." Hetried to write the word in his book and then he tried topronounce it, but he could do neither, as the Amtorians have noequivalents for many of our vowel sounds and seem unable even topronounce them. Had I written the word for him in Amtorian hewould have pronounced it ah-vy-ah-tore, as they cannot form thelonga and shorto sounds, and theiri isalways long.

Finally, to cover his ignorance, he wrote something in hisbook, but what it was I did not know; then he looked up at meagain. "Are you a doctor?"

"Yes," I replied, and as the officer made the notation in hisbook, I glanced at Kamlot out of the corner of an eye andwinked.

"Take them away," the man now directed, "and be careful ofthis one," he added, indicating me; "he is a doctor."

We were taken to the main deck and led forward to theaccompaniment of jeers and jibes from the sailors congregated onthe deck. I saw the klangan strutting around, their tail featherserect. When they saw us, they pointed at Kamlot, and I heard themtelling some of the sailors that he was the one who had slain thebasto with a single sword thrust, a feat which appeared to forcetheir admiration, as well it might have.

We were escorted to an open hatch and ordered below into adark, poorly ventilated hole, where we found several otherprisoners. Some of them were Thorans undergoing punishment forinfractions of discipline; others were Vepajan captives likeourselves, and among the latter was one who recognized Kamlot andhailed him as we descended into their midst.

"'Ill fortune' does not describe it," replied Honan;"catastrophe would be a better word. The klangan were seekingwomen as well as men; they saw Duare" (pronounced Doo-ah-ree)"and pursued her; as I sought to protect her they capturedme."

"Your sacrifice was not in vain," said Kamlot; "had you diedin the performance of such a duty it would not have been invain."

"They captured Duare!" exclaimed Kamlot in tones of horror."By the life of the jong, it cannot be."

Kamlot appeared crushed, and I could only attribute hisdejection to the hopelessness of a lover who has irretrievablylost his beloved. Our association had not been eithersufficiently close nor long to promote confidences, and so I wasnot surprised that I had never heard him mention the girl, Duare,and, naturally, under the circumstances, I could not question himconcerning her. I therefore respected his grief and his silence,and left him to his own sad thoughts.

Shortly after dawn the following morning the ship got underway. I wished that I might have been on deck to view thefascinating sights of this strange world, and my precarioussituation as a prisoner of the hated Thorists engendered lessregret than the fact that I, the first earth man to sail the seasof Venus, was doomed to be cooped up in a stuffy hole below deckwhere I could see nothing. But if I had feared being kept belowfor the duration of the voyage, I was soon disillusioned, forshortly after the ship got under way we were all ordered on deckand set to scrubbing and polishing.

As we came up from below, the ship was just passing betweenthe two headlands that formed the entrance to the harbor, in thewake of the larger vessel; and I obtained an excellent view ofthe adjacent land, the shore that we were leaving, and the wideexpanse of ocean stretching away to the horizon.

The headlands were rocky promontories clothed with verdure ofdelicate hues and supporting comparatively few trees, which wereof a smaller variety than the giants upon the mainland. Theselatter presented a truly awe inspiring spectacle from the opensea to the eyes of an earth man, their mighty boles rearing theirweirdly colored foliage straight up for five thousand feet, wherethey were lost to view among the clouds. But I was not permittedto gaze for long upon the wonders of the scene. I had not beenordered above for the purpose of satisfying the aestheticlongings of my soul.

Kamlot and I were set to cleaning and polishing guns. Therewere a number of these on either side of the deck, one at thestern, and two on the tower deck. I was surprised when I sawthem, for there had been no sign of armament when I came on boardthe preceding day; but I was not long in discovering theexplanation—the guns were mounted on disappearingcarriages, and when lowered, a sliding hatch, flush with thedeck, concealed them.

The barrels of these pieces were about eight inches indiameter, while the bore was scarcely larger than my littlefinger; the sights were ingenious and complicated, but there wasno breech block in evidence nor any opening into a breech, unlessthere was one hidden beneath a hoop that encircled the breech, towhich it was heavily bolted. The only thing that I could discoverthat might have been a firing device projected from the rear ofthe breech and resembled the rotating crank that is used torevolve the breech block in some types of earthly guns.

The barrels of the guns were about fifteen feet long and ofthe same diameter from breech to muzzle. When in action they canbe extended beyond the rail of the ship about two thirds of theirlength, thus affording a wider horizontal range and more deckroom, which would be of value on a ship such as that on which Iwas a captive, which was of narrow beam.

"Do those differ materially from the R-rays you described whenyou were telling me about the small arms used by theThorans?"

"The R-ray destroys only animal tissue," he replied, "whilethere is nothing that the T-ray may not dissipate. It is a mostdangerous ray to work with because even the material of the gunbarrel itself is not wholly impervious to it, and the only reasonthat it can be used at all is that its greatest force is expendedalong the line of least resistance, which in this case naturallyis the bore of the gun. But eventually it destroys the gunitself."

He touched the crank at the end of the breech. "By turningthis, a shutter is raised that permits radiations from element 93to impinge on the charge, which consists of element 97, thusreleasing the deadly T-ray."

"Why couldn't we turn this gun about and rake the ship abovedeck," I suggested, "thus wiping out the Thorans and giving usour freedom?"

He pointed to a small, irregular hole in the end of the crankshaft. "Because we haven't the key that fits this," hereplied.

"The officers have keys to the guns they command," he replied."In the captain's cabin are keys to all the guns, and he carriesa master key that will unlock any of them. At least that was thesystem in the ancient Vepajan navy, and it is doubtless the sametoday in the Thoran navy."

He made no answer, and I did not pursue the subject, but Icertainly gave it a lot of thought.

As I worked, I noted the easy, noiseless propulsion of theship and asked Kamlot what drove it. His explanation was long andrather technical; suffice it to say that the very useful element93 (vik-ro) is here again employed upon a substance called lor,which contains a considerable proportion of the element yor-san(105). The action of vik-ro upon yor-san results in absoluteannihilation of the lor, releasing all its energy. When youconsider that there is eighteen thousand million times as muchenergy liberated by the annihilation of a ton of coal than by itscombustion you will appreciate the inherent possibilities of thismarvellous Venusan scientific discovery. Fuel for the life of theship could be carried in a pint jar.

I noticed as the day progressed that we cruised parallel to acoast line, after crossing one stretch of ocean where no land wasin sight, and thereafter for several days I noted the samefact—land was almost always in sight. This suggested thatthe land area of Venus might be much greater in proportion to itsseas; but I had no opportunity to satisfy my curiosity on thatpoint, and of course I took no stock in the maps that Danus hadshown me, since the Amtorians' conception of the shape of theirworld precluded the existence of any dependable maps.

Kamlot and I had been separated, he having been detailed toduty in the ship's galley, which was located in the forward partof the main deck house aft. I struck up a friendship with Honan;but we did not work together, and at night we were usually sotired that we conversed but little before falling asleep on thehard floor of our prison. One night, however, the sorrow ofKamlot having been brought to my mind by my own regretfulrecollections of the nameless girl of the garden, I asked Honanwho Duare was.

IX. — SOLDIERS OF LIBERTY

Constant association breeds a certaincamaraderie even between enemies. As the days passed, thehatred and contempt which the common sailors appeared to haveharbored for us when we first came aboard the ship were replacedby an almost friendly familiarity, as though they had discoveredthat we were not half bad fellows after all; and, for my part, Ifound much to like in these simple though ignorant men. That theywere the dupes of unscrupulous leaders is about the worst thatmay be said of them. Most of them were kindly and generous; buttheir ignorance made them gullible, and their emotions wereeasily aroused by specious arguments that would have made noimpression upon intelligent minds.

Naturally, I became better acquainted with my fellow prisonersthan with my guards, and our relations were soon established upona friendly basis. They were greatly impressed by my blond hairand blue eyes which elicited inquiries as to my genesis. As Ianswered their questions truthfully, they became deeplyinterested in my story, and every evening after the day's workwas completed I was besieged for tales of the mysterious, fardistant world from which I came. Unlike the highly intelligentVepajans, they believed all that I told them, with the resultthat I was soon a hero in their eyes; I should have been a godhad they had any conception of deities of any description.

In turn, I questioned them; and discovered, with no surprise,that they were not at all contented with their lots. The formerfree men among them had long since come to the realization thatthey had exchanged this freedom, and their status of wageearners, for slavery to the state, that could no longer be hiddenby a nominal equality.

Among the prisoners were three to whom I was particularlyattracted by certain individual characteristics in each. Therewas Gamfor, for instance, a huge, hulking fellow who had been afarmer in the old days under the jongs. He was unusuallyintelligent, and although he had taken part in the revolution, hewas now bitter in his denunciation of the Thorists, though thishe was careful to whisper to me in secrecy.

Another was Kiron, the soldier, a clean-limbed, handsome,athletic fellow who had served in the army of the jong, butmutinied with the others at the time of the revolution. He wasbeing disciplined now for insubordination to an officer who hadbeen a petty government clerk before his promotion.

The third had been a slave. His name was Zog. What he lackedin intelligence he made up in strength and good nature. He hadkilled an officer who had struck him and was being taken back toThora for trial and execution. Zog was proud of the fact that hewas a free man, though he admitted that the edge was taken offhis enthusiasm by the fact that every one else was free and therealization that he had enjoyed more freedom as a slave than hedid now as a freeman.

"Then," he explained, "I had one master; now I have as manymasters as there are government officials, spies, and soldiers,none of whom cares anything about me, while my old master waskind to me and looked after my welfare."

"Would you like to be really free?" I asked him, for a planhad been slowly forming in my mind.

"Certainly," he replied, "if I could find some one who wouldbe kind to me and protect me from the Thorists."

"Not without help," I agreed, "but if others would join you,would you make the attempt?"

"Why not? They are taking me back to Thora to kill me. I couldbe no worse off, no matter what I did. But why do you ask allthese questions?"

"If we could get enough to join us, there is no reason why weshould not be free," I told him. "When you are free, you mayremain free or choose a master to your liking." I watched closelyfor his reaction.

"You mean another revolution?" he asked. "It would fail.Others have tried, but they have always failed."

"It would not be difficult for a few men to take this ship," Isuggested. "The discipline is poor, the night watches consist oftoo few men; they are so sure of themselves that they would betaken completely by surprise."

Zog's eyes lighted. "If we were successful, many of the crewwould join us," he said. "Few of them are happy; nearly all ofthem hate their officers. I think the prisoners would join usalmost to a man, but you must be careful of spies—they areeverywhere. That is the greatest danger you would have to face.There can be no doubt but there is at least one spy among usprisoners."

"You can depend upon Gamfor," Zog assured me. "He does not saymuch, but in his eyes I can read his hatred of them."

"Just the man!" exclaimed Zog. "He despises them, and he doesnot care who knows it; that is the reason he is a prisoner. Thisis not his first offense, and it is rumored that he will beexecuted for high treason."

"But I thought that he only talked back to an officer andrefused to obey him," I said.

"That is high treason—if they wish to get rid of a man,"explained Zog. "You can depend on Kiron. Do you wish me to speakto him about the matter?"

"No," I told him. "I will speak to him and to Gamfor; then ifanything goes wrong before we are ready to strike, if a spy getswind of our plot, you will not be implicated."

"I do not care about that," he exclaimed. "They can kill mefor but one thing, and it makes no difference which thing it isthey kill me for."

"Nevertheless, I shall speak to them, and if they will joinus, we can then decide together how to approach others."

Zog and I had been working together scrubbing the deck at thetime, and it was not until night that I had an opportunity tospeak with Gamfor and Kiron. Both were enthusiastic about theplan, but neither thought that there was much likelihood that itwould succeed. However, each assured me of his support; and thenwe found Zog, and the four of us discussed details throughouthalf the night. We had withdrawn to a far corner of the room inwhich we were confined and spoke in low whispers with our headsclose together.

The next few days were spent in approaching recruits—avery ticklish business, since they all assured me that it wasalmost a foregone conclusion that there was a spy among us. Eachman had to be sounded out by devious means, and it had beendecided that this work should be left to Gamfor and Kiron. I waseliminated because of my lack of knowledge concerning the hopes,ambitions, and the grievances of these people, or theirpsychology; Zog was eliminated because the work required a muchhigher standard of intelligence than he possessed.

Gamfor warned Kiron not to divulge our plan to any prisonerwho too openly avowed his hatred of the Thorists. "This is atime-worn trick that all spies adopt to lull the suspicions ofthose they suspect of harboring treasonable thoughts, and totempt them into avowing their apostasy. Select men whom you knowto have a real grievance, and who are moody and silent," hecounselled.

I was a little concerned about our ability to navigate theship in the event that we succeeded in capturing her, and Idiscussed this matter with both Gamfor and Kiron. What I learnedfrom them was illuminating, if not particularly helpful.

The Amtorians have developed a compass similar to ours.According to Kiron, it points always toward the center ofAmtor—that is, toward the center of the mythical circulararea called Strabol, or Hot Country. This statement assured methat I was in the southern hemisphere of the planet, the needleof the compass, of course, pointing north toward the northmagnetic pole. Having no sun, moon, nor stars, their navigationis all done by dead reckoning; but they have developedinstruments of extreme delicacy that locate land at greatdistances, accurately indicating this distance and the direction;others that determine speed, mileage, and drift, as well as adepth gauge wherewith they may record soundings anywhere within aradius of a mile from the ship.

All of their instruments for measuring distances utilize theradio-activity of the nuclei of various elements to accomplishtheir ends. The gamma ray, for which they have, of course,another name, being uninfluenced by the most powerful magneticforces, is naturally the ideal medium for their purposes. Itmoves in a straight line and at uniform speed until it meets anobstruction, where, even though it may not be deflected, it isretarded, the instrument recording such retardation and thedistance at which it occurs. The sounding device utilizes thesame principle. The instrument records the distance from the shipat which the ray encounters the resistance of the ocean's bottom;by constructing a right triangle with this distance representingthe hypotenuse it is simple to compute both the depth of theocean and the distance from the ship at which bottom was found,for they have a triangle of which one side and all three anglesare known.

Owing to their extremely faulty maps, however, the value ofthese instruments has been greatly reduced, for no matter whatcourse they lay, other than due north, if they move in a straightline they are always approaching the antarctic regions. They mayknow that land is ahead and its distance, but they are never surewhat land it is, except where the journey is a short and familiarone. For this reason they cruise within sight of land whereverthat is practical, with the result that journeys that mightotherwise be short are greatly protracted. Another result is thatthe radius of Amtorian maritime exploration has been greatlycircumscribed; so much so that I believe there are enormous areasin the south temperate zone that have never been discovered bythe Vepajans or the Thorists, while the very existence of thenorthern hemisphere is even unguessed by them. On the maps thatDanus showed me considerable areas contained nothing but thesingle wordjoram, ocean.

However, notwithstanding all this (and possibly because ofit), I was confident that we could manage to navigate the shipquite as satisfactorily as her present officers, and in thisKiron agreed.

"At least we know the general direction of Thora," he argued;"so all we have to do is sail in the other direction."

As our plans matured, the feasibility of the undertakingappeared more and more certain. We had recruited twentyprisoners, five of whom were Vepajans, and this little band weorganized into a secret order with passwords, which were changeddaily, signs, and a grip, the last reminiscent of my fraternitydays in college. We also adopted a name. We called ourselvesSoldiers of Liberty. I was chosen vookor, or captain. Gamfor,Kiron, Zog, and Honan were my principal lieutenants, though Itold them that Kamlot would be second in command if we weresuccessful in taking the ship.

Our plan of action was worked out in detail; each man knewexactly what was expected of him. Certain men were to overpowerthe watch, others were to go to the officers' quarters and securetheir weapons and keys; then we would confront the crew and offerthose who chose an opportunity to join us. The others—well,there I was confronted with a problem. Almost to a man theSoldiers of Liberty wanted to destroy all those who would notjoin us, and really there seemed no alternative; but I stillhoped that I could work out a more humane disposition ofthem.

There was one man among the prisoners of whom we were allsuspicious. He had an evil face, but that was not his sole claimupon our suspicions—he was too loud in his denunciation ofThorism. We watched him carefully, avoiding him whenever wecould, and each member of the band was warned to be careful whentalking to him. It was evident to Gamfor first that this fellow,whose name was Anoos, was suspicious. He persisted in seeking outvarious members of our group and engaging them in conversationwhich he always led around to the subject of Thorism and hishatred of it, and he constantly questioned each of us about theothers, always insinuating that he feared certain ones werespies. But of course we had expected something of this sort, andwe felt that we had guarded against it. The fellow might be assuspicious of us as he wished; so long as he had no evidenceagainst us I did not see how he could harm us.

One day Kiron came to me evidently laboring under suppressedexcitement. It was at the end of the day, and our food had justbeen issued to us for the evening meal—dried fish and ahard, dark-colored bread made of coarse meal.

"Let us go off in a corner and eat," I suggested, and westrolled away together, laughing and talking of the day's eventsin our normal voices. As we seated ourselves upon the floor toeat our poor food, Zog joined us.

"Sit close to us, Zog," directed Kiron; "I have something tosay that no one but a Soldier of Liberty may hear."

He did not say Soldier of Liberty, but "kung, kung, kung,"which are the Amtorian initials of the order's title. Kung is thename of the Amtorian character that represents thek soundin our language, and when I first translated the initials I wascompelled to smile at the similarity they bore to those of awell-known secret order in the United States of America.

"While I am talking," Kiron admonished us, "you must laughoften, as though I were telling a humorous tale; then, perhaps,no one will suspect that I am not.

"Today I was working in the ship's armory, cleaning pistols,"he commenced. "The soldier who guarded me is an old friend ofmine; we served together in the army of the jong. He is as abrother to me. For either the other would die. We talked of oldtimes under the banners of the jong and compared those days withthese, especially we compared the officers of the old régime withthose of the present. Like me and like every old soldier, hehates his officers, so we had a pleasant time together.

"Finally he said to me, quite suddenly, 'What is this I hearof a conspiracy among the prisoners?'

"That almost took me off my feet; but I showed no emotion, forthere are times when one must not trust even a brother. 'Whathave you heard?' I asked.

"'I overheard one of the officers speaking to another,' hetold me. 'He said that a man named Anoos had reported the matterto the captain and that the captain had told Anoos to get thenames of all the prisoners whom he knew to be involved in theconspiracy and to learn their plans if he possibly could.'

"'He said that if the captain would give him a bottle of winehe believed that he could get one of the conspirators drunk andworm the story from him. So the captain gave him a bottle ofwine. That was today.'

"My friend looked at me very closely, and then he said,'Kiron, we are more than brothers. If I can help you, you havebut to ask.'

"I knew this, and knowing how close to discovery we alreadywere, I decided to confide in him and enlist his aid; so I toldhim. I hope you do not feel that I did wrong, Carson."

"By no means," I assured him. "We have been forced to tellothers of our plans whom we knew and trusted less well than youknow and trust your friend. What did he say when you had toldhim?"

"He said that he would help us, and that when we struck hewould join us. He promised, too, that many others of the soldierswould do likewise; but the most important thing he did was togive me a key to the armory."

"Tonight!" I replied. "Pass the word to Gamfor and Honan, andyou four to the other Soldiers of Liberty."

We all laughed heartily, as though some one had told a mostamusing story, and then Kiron and Zog left me, to acquaint Gamforand Honan with our plan.

But upon Venus as upon earth, the best laid plans of mice andmen "gang aft a-gley," which is slang for haywire. Every nightsince we had sailed from the harbor of Vepaja the hatch had beenleft off our ill-smelling prison to afford us ventilation, asingle member of the watch patrolling near to see that none of uscame out; but tonight the hatch was closed.

"We shall have to strike by daylight," I whispered, "but wecannot pass the word tonight. It is so dark down here that weshould certainly be overheard by some one outside our own numberif we attempted it."

I was a long time getting to sleep that night, for my mind wastroubled by fears for our entire plan. It was obvious now thatthe captain was suspicious, and that while he might not knowanything of the details of what we purposed, he did know thatsomething was in the air, and he was taking no chances.

During the night, as I lay awake trying to plan for themorrow, I heard someone prowling around the room, and now andagain a whisper. I could only wonder who it was and try to guesswhat he was about. I recalled the bottle of wine that Anoos wassupposed to have, and it occurred to me that he might be giving aparty, but the voices were too subdued to bear out that theory.Finally I heard a muffled cry, a noise that sounded like a briefscuffle, and then silence again fell upon the chamber.

Morning came at last, and the hatch was removed, letting alittle light in to dissipate the gloom of our prison. A sailorlowered a basket containing the food for our meager breakfast. Wegathered about it and each took his share, and moved away to eatit, when suddenly there was a cry from the far side of theroom.

X. — MUTINY

Yes, Anoos had been murdered, and there was agreat hue and cry, much more of a hue and cry, it seemed to me,than the death of an ordinary prisoner should have aroused.Officers and soldiers swarmed in our quarters. They found Anoosstretched out on his back, a bottle of wine at his side. Histhroat was discolored where powerful fingers had crushed it.Anoos had been choked to death.

Soon they herded us on deck, where we were searched forweapons following an order from the captain of the ship, who hadcome forward to conduct an investigation. He was angry andexcited and, I believe, somewhat frightened. One by one, hequestioned us. When it was my turn to be questioned, I did nottell him what I had heard during the night; I told him that I hadslept all night on the far side of the room from where Anoos'sbody was discovered.

"But you are very well acquainted with some of them," he saidrather pointedly, I thought. "Have you ever spoken with theman?"

I knew that he was trying to pump me to discover if I harboredany suspicions concerning the actual status of Anoos, but he wasnot clever enough to succeed. "I certainly would never hadsuspected it from his conversation," I replied. "If he were aThorist, he must have been a traitor to his country, for hecontinually sought to enlist my interest in a plan to seize theship and murder all her officers. I think he approached others,also." I spoke in a tone loud enough to be heard by all, for Iwanted the Soldiers of Liberty to take the cue from me. If enoughof us told the same story it might convince the officers thatAnoos's tale of a conspiracy was hatched in his own brain andworked up by his own efforts in an attempt to reap commendationand reward from his superiors, a trick by no means foreign to theethics of spies.

"Did he succeed in persuading any of the prisoners to joinhim?" asked the captain.

As he questioned the other men along similar lines, I waspleased to discover that nearly every one of the Soldiers ofLiberty had been approached by the perfidious Anoos, whosetraitorous overtures they had virtuously repulsed. Zog said thathe had never talked with the man, which, to the best of myknowledge, was the truth.

When the captain finished his investigation, he was fartherfrom the truth than when he commenced it, for I am certain thathe went aft convinced that there had been no truth in the talesthat Anoos had carried to him.

I had been considerably worried at the time we were beingsearched, for fear that the key to the armory would be discoveredon Kiron, but it had not been, and later he told me that he hadhidden it in his hair the night before as a precaution againstjust such an eventuality as had occurred.

The Amtorian day consists of 26 hours, 56 minutes, 4 secondsof earth time, which the Amtorians divide into twenty equalperiods called te, which, for clarity, I shall translate into itsnearest earthly equivalent, hour, although it contains 80.895earth minutes. On shipboard, the hours are sounded by atrumpeter, there being a distinguishing bar of music for eachhour of the day. The first hour, or one o'clock, corresponds tomean sunrise. It is then that the prisoners are awakened andgiven food; forty minutes later they start work, which continuesuntil the tenth hour, with a short recess for food in the middleof the day. Occasionally we were allowed to quit work at theninth and even the eighth hour, according to the caprices of ourmasters.

On this day the Soldiers of Liberty congregated during themidday rest period, and, my mind being definitely determined onimmediate action, I passed the word around that we would strikeduring the afternoon at the moment the trumpeter sounded theseventh hour. As many of us as were working aft near the armorywere to make a dash for it with Kiron, who would unlock it in theevent that it were locked. The remainder were to attack thesoldiers nearest them with anything that they could use asweapons, or with their bare hands if they had no weapons, andtake the soldiers' pistols and swords from them. Five of us wereto account for the officers. Half of our number was to constantlyshout our battle cry, "For liberty!" The other half wasinstructed to urge the remaining prisoners and the soldiers tojoin us.

The seventh hour was chosen because at that time the officerswere nearly all congregated in the wardroom, where a light mealand wine were served them daily. We should have preferredlaunching our plan at night, but we feared a continuation of thepractice of locking us below deck would prevent, and ourexperience with Anoos had taught us that we might expect thewhole conspiracy to be divulged by another spy at any time;therefore we dared not wait.

I must confess to a feeling of increasing excitement as thehour approached. As, from time to time, I glanced at the othermembers of our little band, I thought that I could note signs ofnervousness in some of them, while others worked on as placidlyas though nothing unusual was about to occur. Zog was one ofthese. He was working near me. He never glanced toward the towerdeck from which the trumpeter would presently sound the fatefulnotes, though it was with difficulty that I kept my eyes from itat all. No one would have thought that Zog was planning to attackthe soldier lolling near him, nor have imagined that the nightbefore he had murdered a man. He was humming a tune, as hepolished the barrel of the big gun on which he was working.

Gamfor and, fortunately, Kiron were working aft, scrubbing thedeck, and I saw that Kiron kept scrubbing closer and closer tothe door of the armory. How I wished for Kamlot as the crucialmoment approached! He could have done so much to insure thesuccess of ourcoup, and yet he did not even know thatsuch a stroke was contemplated, much less that it was so soon tobe launched.

As I glanced about, I met Zog's gaze. Very solemnly he closedhis left eye. At last he had given a sign that he was alert andready. It was a little thing, but it put new heart into me. Forsome reason, during the past half hour I had felt very muchalone.

The time was approaching the zero hour. I moved closer to myguard, so that I stood directly in front of him with my backtoward him. I knew precisely what I was going to do, and I knewthat it would be successful. Little did the man behind me dreamthat in a minute, or perhaps a few seconds, he would be lyingsenseless on the deck, or that the man he guarded would becarrying his sword, his dagger, and his pistol as the last notesof the seventh hour floated sweetly out across the calm waters ofthis Amtorian sea.

My back was now toward the deck houses. I could not see thetrumpeter when he emerged from the tower to sound the hour, but Iknew that it could not be long now before he stepped out onto thetower deck. Yet when the first note sounded I was as startled asthough I had expected it never to sound. I presume it was thereaction after the long period of nervous tension.

My nervousness, however, was all mental; it did not affect myphysical reactions to the needs of the moment. As the first notecame softly down to my awaiting ears, I pivoted on a heel andswung my right for the chin of my unsuspecting guard. It was oneof those blows that is often described as a haymaker, and it madehay. The fellow dropped in his tracks. As I stooped to recoverhis arms, pandemonium broke loose upon the deck. There wereshrieks and groans and curses, and above all rose the war cry ofthe Soldiers of Liberty—my band had struck, and it hadstruck hard.

For the first time now, I heard the weird staccato hiss ofAmtorian firearms. You have heard an X-ray machine in operation?It was like that, but louder and more sinister. I had wrenchedthe sword and pistol from the scabbard and holster of my fallenguard, not taking the time to remove his belt. Now I faced thescene for which I had so long waited. I saw the powerful Zogwrest the weapons from a soldier, and then lift the man's bodyabove his head and cast it overboard. Evidently Zog had no timefor proselyting.

At the door to the armory a battle was being waged; men weretrying to enter, and soldiers were shooting them down. I ran inthat direction. A soldier leaped in front of me, and I heard thehiss of the death rays that must have passed close to my body, ashe tried to stop me. He must have been either nervous or a verypoor shot, for he missed me. I turned my own weapon upon him andpressed the lever. The man slumped to the deck with a hole in hischest, and I ran on.

The fight at the door of the armory was hand to hand withswords, daggers, and fists, for by now the members of the twofactions were so intermingled that none dared use a firearm forfear of injuring a comrade. Into this mêlée I leaped. Tucking thepistol into the band of my G string, I ran my sword through agreat brute who was about to knife Honan; then I grabbed anotherby the hair and dragged him from the door, shouting to Honan tofinish him—it took too long to run a sword into a man andthen pull it out again. What I wanted was to get into the armoryto Kiron's side and help him.

All the time I could hear my men shouting, "For liberty!" orurging the soldiers to join us—as far as I had been able tojudge, all the prisoners had already done so. Now another soldierbarred my way. His back was toward me, and I was about to seizehim and hurl him back to Honan and the others who were fightingat his side, when I saw him slip his dagger into the heart of asoldier in front of him and, as he did so, cry, "For liberty!"Here was one convert at least. I did not know it then, but atthat time there were already many such.

When I finally got into the armory, I found Kiron issuing armsas fast as he could pass them out. Many of the mutineers werecrawling through the windows of the room to get weapons, and toeach of these Kiron passed several swords and pistols, directingthe men to distribute them on deck.

Seeing that all was right here, I gathered a handful of menand started up the companionway to the upper decks, from whichthe officers were firing down upon the mutineers and, I may say,upon their own men as well. In fact, it was this heartless andstupid procedure that swung many of the soldiers to our side.Almost the first man I saw as I leaped to the level of the seconddeck was Kamlot. He had a sword in one hand and a pistol in theother, and he was firing rapidly at a group of officers who wereevidently attempting to reach the main deck to take command ofthe loyal soldiers there.

You may be assured that it did my heart good to see my friendagain, and as I ran to his side and opened fire on the officers,he flashed me a quick smile of recognition.

Three of the five officers opposing us had fallen, and now theremaining two turned and fled up the companionway to the topdeck. Behind us were twenty or more mutineers eager to reach thehighest deck, where all the surviving officers had now takenrefuge, and I could see more mutineers crowding up thecompanionway from the main deck to join their fellows. Kamlot andI led the way to the next deck, but at the head of thecompanionway the surging mob of howling, cursing mutineersbrushed past us to hurl themselves upon the officers.

The men were absolutely out of control, and as there were butfew of my original little band of Soldiers of Liberty among them,the majority of them knew no leader, with the result that it wasevery man for himself. I wished to protect the officers, and ithad been my intention to do so; but I was helpless to avert thebloody orgy that ensued with a resulting loss of life entirelydisproportionate to the needs of the occasion.

The officers, fighting for their lives with their backsagainst a wall, took heavy toll of the mutineers, but they wereeventually overwhelmed by superior numbers. Each of the commonsoldiers and sailors appeared to have a special grudge to settleeither with some individual officer or with them all as a classand for the time all were transformed into maniacal furies, astime and again they charged the last fortress of authority, theoval tower on the upper deck.

Each officer that fell, either killed or wounded, was hurledover the rail to the deck below, where willing hands cast thebody to the main deck from which, in turn, it was thrown into thesea. And then, at last, the mutineers gained access to the tower,from which they dragged the remaining officers, butchering themon the upper deck or hurling them to their shrieking fellowsbelow.

The captain was the last to be dragged out. They had found himhiding in a cupboard in his cabin. At sight of him arose such ascream of hate and rage as I hope never to hear again. Kamlot andI were standing at one side, helpless witnesses of this holocaustof hate. We saw them literally tear the captain to pieces andcast him into the sea.

With the death of the captain the battle was over, the shipwas ours. My plan had succeeded, but the thought suddenlyassailed me that I had created a terrible power that it might bebeyond me to control. I touched Kamlot on the arm. "Follow me," Idirected and started for the main deck.

"Who is at the bottom of this?" asked Kamlot as we forced ourway among the excited mutineers.

"The mutiny was my plan, but not the massacre," I replied."Now we must attempt to restore order out of chaos."

As I made my way toward the main deck, I collected as many ofthe original band of Soldiers of Liberty as we passed, and when Ifinally reached my destination, I gathered most of them about me.Among the mutineers I had discovered the trumpeter who hadunknowingly sounded the signal for the outbreak, and him I causedto sound the call that should assemble all hands on the maindeck. Whether or not the notes of the trumpet would be obeyed, Idid not know, but so strong is the habit of discipline amongtrained men that immediately the call sounded the men began topour onto the deck from all parts of the vessel.

I mounted the breech of one of the guns, and, surrounded by myfaithful band, I announced that the Soldiers of Liberty had takenover the ship, that those who wished to accompany us must obeythe vookor of the band; the others would be put ashore.

"Who is vookor?" demanded a soldier whom I recognized as oneof those who had been most violent in the attack upon theofficers.

"Carson planned the mutiny and carried it to success," shoutedKiron. "Carson is vookor."

From the throats of all my original band and from a hundrednew recruits rose a cheer of approval, but there were many whoremained silent or spoke in grumbling undertones to those nearestthem. Among these was Kodj, the soldier who had objected to myleadership, and I saw that already a faction was gathering abouthim.

"It is necessary," I said, "that all men return at once totheir duties, for the ship must be handled, no matter whocommands. If there is any question about leadership, that can besettled later. In the meantime, I am in command; Kamlot, Gamfor,Kiron, Zog, and Honan are my lieutenants; with me, they willofficer the ship. All weapons must be turned over immediately toKiron at the armory, except those carried by men regularlydetailed by him for guard duty."

"No one is going to disarm me," blustered Kodj. "I have asmuch right to carry weapons as anyone. We are all free men now. Itake orders from no one."

Zog, who had edged closer to him as he spoke, seized him bythe throat with one of his huge hands and with the other tore thebelt from about his hips. "You take orders from the new vookor oryou go overboard," he growled, as he released the man and handedhis weapons to Kiron.

For a moment there was silence, and there was a tenseness inthe situation that boded ill; then some one laughed and cried,"No one is going to disarm me," mimicking Kodj. That brought ageneral laugh, and I knew that for the time being the danger wasover. Kiron, sensing that the moment was ripe, ordered the men tocome to the armory and turn in their weapons, and the remainderof the original band herded them aft in his wake.

It was an hour before even a semblance of order or routine hadbeen reëstablished. Kamlot, Gamfor, and I were gathered in thechart room in the tower. Our consort was hull down below thehorizon, and we were discussing the means that should be adoptedto capture her without bloodshed and rescue Duare and the otherVepajan prisoners aboard her. The idea had been in my mind fromthe very inception of the plan to seize our own ship, and it hadbeen the first subject that Kamlot had broached after we hadsucceeded in quieting the men and restoring order; but Gamfor wasfrankly dubious concerning the feasibility of the project.

"The men are not interested in the welfare of Vepajans," hereminded us, "and they may resent the idea of endangering theirlives and risking their new-found liberty in a venture that meansnothing whatever to them."

"I am under your orders," he replied; "I will do anything thatyou command, but I am only one—you have two hundred whosewishes you must consult."

"I shall consult only my officers," I replied; "to the others,I shall issue orders."

"Inform the other officers that we shall attack theSovong at daybreak," I instructed them.

"But we dare not fire on her," protested Kamlot, "lest weendanger the life of Duare."

"I intend boarding her," I replied. "There will be no one butthe watch on deck at that hour. On two other occasions the shipshave been brought close together on a calm sea; so our approachwill arouse no suspicion. The boarding party will consist of ahundred men who will remain concealed until the command to boardis given when the ships are alongside one another. At that hourin the morning the sea is usually calm; if it is not calmtomorrow morning we shall have to postpone the attack untilanother morning.

"Issue strict orders that there is to be no slaughter; no oneis to be killed who does not resist. We shall remove all of theSovong's small arms and the bulk of her provisions, aswell as the Vepajan prisoners, to theSofal."

"I am coming to that," I replied, "but first I wish toascertain the temper of the men aboard theSofal. You andKamlot will inform the other officers of my plans insofar as Ihave explained them; then assemble the original members of theSoldiers of Liberty and explain my intentions to them. When thishas been done, instruct them to disseminate the information amongthe remainder of the ship's company, reporting to you the namesof all those who do not receive the plan with favor. These weshall leave aboard theSovong with any others who mayelect to transfer to her. At the eleventh hour muster the men onthe main deck. At that time I will explain my plans indetail."

After Kamlot and Gamfor had departed to carry out my orders, Ireturned to the chart room. TheSofal, moving ahead atincreased speed, was slowly overhauling theSovong, thoughnot at a rate that might suggest pursuit. I was certain that theSovong knew nothing of what had transpired upon her sistership, for the Amtorians are unacquainted with wirelesscommunication, and there had been no time for the officers of theSofal to signal their fellows aboard theSovong, sosuddenly had the mutiny broken and so quickly had it been carriedto a conclusion.

As the eleventh hour approached, I noticed little groups ofmen congregated in different parts of the ship, evidentlydiscussing the information that the Soldiers of Liberty hadspread among them. One group, larger than the others, was beingviolently harangued by a loud-mouthed orator whom I recognized asKodj. It had been apparent from the first that the fellow was atrouble maker. Just how much influence he had, I did not know;but I felt that whatever it was, it would be used against me. Ihoped to be rid of him after we had taken theSovong.

The men congregated rapidly as the trumpeter sounded the hour,and I came down the companionway to address them. I stood justabove them, on one of the lower steps, where I could overlookthem and be seen by all. Most of them were quiet and appearedattentive. There was one small group muttering andwhispering—Kodj was its center.

"At daybreak we shall board and take theSovong," Icommenced. "You will receive your orders from your immediateofficers, but I wish to emphasize one in particular—thereis to be no unnecessary killing. After we have taken the ship weshall transfer to theSofal such provisions, weapons, andprisoners as we wish to take with us. At this time, also, weshall transfer from theSofal to theSovong all ofyou who do not wish to remain on this ship under my command, aswell as those whom I do not care to take with me," and as I saidthis, I looked straight at Kodj and the malcontents surroundinghim.

"I shall explain what I have in mind for the future, so thateach of you may be able to determine between now and daybreakwhether he cares to become a member of my company. Those who dowill be required to obey orders; but they will share in theprofits of the cruise, if there are profits. The purposes of theexpedition are twofold: To prey on Thorist shipping and toexplore the unknown portions of Amtor after we have returned theVepajan prisoners to their own country.

"There will be excitement and adventure; there will be danger,too; and I want no cowards along, nor any trouble makers. Thereshould be profits, for I am assured that richly laden Thoristships constantly ply the known seas of Amtor; and I am informedthat we can always find a ready market for such spoils of war asfall into our hands—and war it shall be, with the Soldiersof Liberty fighting the oppression and tyranny of Thorism.

"Return to your quarters now, and be prepared to give a goodaccount of yourselves at daybreak."

XI. — DUARE

I got little sleep that night. My officers wereconstantly coming to me with reports. From these I learned, whatwas of the greatest importance to me, the temper of the crew.None was averse to taking theSovong, but there was adivergence of opinion as to what we should do thereafter. A fewwanted to be landed on Thoran soil, so that they could make theirway back to their homes; the majority was enthusiastic aboutplundering merchant ships; the idea of exploring the unknownwaters of Amtor filled most of them with fear; some were averseto restoring the Vepajan prisoners to their own country; andthere was an active and extremely vocal minority that insistedthat the command of the vessel should be placed in the hands ofThorans. In this I could see the hand of Kodj even before theytold me that the suggestion had come from the coterie that formedhis following.

"But there are fully a hundred," said Gamfor, "upon whoseloyalty you may depend. These have accepted you as their leader,and they will follow you and obey your commands."

"Arm these," I directed, "and place all others below deckuntil after we have taken theSovong. How about theklangan? They took no part in the mutiny. Are they for us oragainst us?"

Kiron laughed. "They received no orders one way or the other,"he explained. "They have no initiative. Unless they are motivatedby such primitive instincts as hunger, love, or hate, they donothing without orders from a superior."

"And they don't care who their master is," interjected Zog."They serve loyally enough until their master dies, or sellsthem, or gives them away, or is overthrown; then they transferthe same loyalty to a new master."

"They have been told that you are their new master," saidKamlot, "and they will obey you."

As there were only five of the birdmen aboard theSofal, I had not been greatly exercised about their stand;but I was glad to learn that they would not be antagonistic.

At the twentieth hour I ordered the hundred upon whom we coulddepend assembled and held in the lower deck house, the othershaving all been confined below earlier in the night, in theaccomplishment of which a second mutiny was averted only by thefact that all the men had been previously disarmed except theloyal Soldiers of Liberty.

All during the night we had been gradually gaining upon theunsuspectingSovong until now we were scarcely a hundredyards astern of her, slightly aport. Across our starboard bow Icould see her looming darkly in the mysterious nocturnal glow ofthe moonless Amtorian night, her lanterns white and coloredpoints of light, her watch dimly visible upon her decks.

Closer and closer theSofal crept toward her prey. ASoldier of Liberty, who had once been an officer in the Thorannavy, was at the wheel; no one was on deck but the members of thewatch; in the lower deck house a hundred men were huddled waitingfor the command to board; I stood beside Honan in the chart room(he was to command theSofal while I led the boardingparty), my eyes upon the strange Amtorian chronometer. I spoke aword to him and he moved a lever. TheSofal crept a littlecloser to theSovong. Then Honan whispered an order to thehelmsman and we closed in upon our prey.

I hastened down the companionway to the main deck and gave thesignal to Kamlot standing in the doorway of the deck house. Thetwo ships were close now and almost abreast. The sea was calm;only a gentle swell raised and lowered the softly gliding ships.Now we were so close that a man could step across the interveningspace from the deck of one ship to that of the other.

The officer of the watch aboard theSovong hailed us."What are you about?" he demanded. "Sheer off, there!"

For answer I ran across the deck of theSofal andleaped aboard the other ship, a hundred silent men following inmy wake. There was no shouting and little noise—only theshuffling of sandalled feet and the subdued clank of arms.

Behind us the grappling hooks were thrown over the rail of theSovong. Every man had been instructed as to the part hewas to play. Leaving Kamlot in command on the main deck, I ran tothe tower deck with a dozen men, while Kiron led a score offighting men to the second deck where most of the officers werequartered.

Before the officer of the watch could gather his scatteredwits, I had him covered with a pistol. "Keep quiet," I whispered,"and you will not be harmed." My plan was to take as many of themas possible before a general alarm could be sounded and thusminimize the necessity for bloodshed; therefore, the need forsilence. I turned him over to one of my men after disarming him;and then I sought the captain, while two of my detachmentattended to the helmsman.

I found the officer for whom I sought reaching for hisweapons. He had been awakened by the unavoidable noise of theboarding party, and, suspecting that something was amiss, hadseized his weapons as he arose and uncovered the lights in hiscabin.

I was upon him as he raised his pistol, and struck it from hishand before he could fire; but he stepped back with his sword onguard, and thus we stood facing one another for a moment.

"I was a prisoner on board theSofal," I replied, "butnow I command her. If you wish to avoid bloodshed, come out ondeck with me and give the command to surrender."

"If you want to stop it, get out there and give the command tosurrender," I replied.

"I don't believe you," he cried. "It's a trick," and he cameat me with his sword.

I did not wish to shoot him down in cold blood, and so I methis attack with my own blade. The advantage was on his side inthe matter of skill, for I had not yet fully accustomed myself tothe use of the Amtorian sword; but I had an advantage in strengthand reach and in some tricks of German swordplay that I hadlearned while I was in Germany.

The Amtorian sword is primarily a cutting weapon, its weightnear the tip making it particularly effective for this method ofattack, though it lessens its effectiveness in parrying thrusts,rendering it a rather sluggish defensive weapon. I thereforefound myself facing a savage cutting attack against which I haddifficulty in defending myself. The officer was an active man andskillful with the sword. Being experienced, it did not take himlong to discover I was a novice, with the result that he pressedhis advantage viciously, so that I soon regretted my magnanimityin not resorting to my pistol before the encounter began; but itwas too late now—the fellow kept me so busy that I had noopportunity to draw the weapon.

He forced me back and around the room until he stood betweenme and the doorway, and then, having me where no chance forescape remained, he set to work to finish me with dispatch. Theduel, as far as I was concerned, was fought wholly on thedefensive. So swift and persistent was his attack that I couldonly defend myself, and not once in the first two minutes of theencounter did I aim a single blow at him.

I wondered what had become of the men who had accompanied me;but pride would not permit me to call upon them for help nor didI learn until later that it would have availed me nothing, sincethey were having all that they could attend to in repelling theattack of several officers who had run up from below immediatelybehind them.

The teeth of my antagonist were bared in a grim and ferocioussmile, as he battered relentlessly at my guard, as though healready sensed victory and was gloating in anticipation. Theclanging of steel on steel now drowned all sounds from beyond thefour walls of the cabin where we fought; I could not tell iffighting were continuing in other parts of the ship, nor, if itwere, whether it were going in our favor or against us. Irealized that Imust know these things, that I wasresponsible for whatever took place aboard theSovong, andthat I must get out of that cabin and lead my men either invictory or defeat.

Such thoughts made my position even more impossible than asthough only my life were at stake and drove me to attempt heroicmeasures for releasing myself from my predicament and my peril. Imust destroy my adversary, and I must do so at once!

He had me now with my back almost against the wall. Alreadyhis point had touched me upon the cheek once and twice upon thebody, and though the wounds were but scratches, I was coveredwith blood. Now he leaped upon me in a frenzy of determination tohave done with me instantly, but this time I did not fall back. Iparried his cut, so that his sword passed to the right of my bodywhich was now close to his; and then I drew back my point, and,before he could recover himself, drove it through his heart.

As he sagged to the floor, I jerked my sword from his body andran from his cabin. The entire episode had required but a fewminutes, though it had seemed much longer to me, yet in thatbrief time much had occurred on the decks and in the cabins oftheSovong. The upper decks were cleared of livingenemies; one of my own men was at the wheel, another at thecontrols; there was still fighting on the main deck where some oftheSovong's officers were making a desperate last standwith a handful of their men. But by the time I reached the sceneof the battle, it was over; the officers, assured by Kamlot thattheir lives would be spared, had surrendered—theSovong was ours. TheSofal had taken her firstprize!

As I sprang into the midst of the excited warriors on the maindeck, I must have presented a sorry spectacle, bleeding, as Iwas, from my three wounds; but my men greeted me with loudcheers. I learned later that my absence from the fighting on themain deck had been noticed and had made a poor impression on mymen, but when they saw me return bearing the scars of combat, myplace in their esteem was secured. Those three little scratchesproved of great value to me, but they were as nothing incomparison with the psychological effect produced by the whollydisproportionate amount of blood they had spilled upon my nakedhide.

We now quickly rounded up our prisoners and disarmed them.Kamlot took a detachment of men and released the Vepajan captiveswhom he transferred at once to theSofal. They were nearlyall women, but I did not see them as they were taken from theship, being engaged with other matters. I could imagine, though,the joy in the hearts of Kamlot and Duare at this reunion, whichthe latter at least had probably never even dared to hopefor.

Rapidly we transferred all of the small arms of theSovong to theSofal, leaving only sufficient toequip the officers of the ill-starred vessel. This work wasintrusted to Kiron and was carried out by our own men, whileGamfor, with a contingent of our new-made prisoners, carried allof theSovong's surplus provisions aboard our own ship.This done, I ordered all theSovong's guns thrownoverboard—by that much at least I would cripple the powerof Thora. The last act in this drama of the sea was to march ourone hundred imprisoned malcontents from theSofal to theSovong and present them to the latters' new commander withmy compliments. He did not seem greatly pleased, however, norcould I blame him. Neither were the prisoners pleased. Many ofthem begged me to take them back aboard theSofal; but Ialready had more men than I felt were needed to navigate anddefend the ship; and each of the prisoners had been reported ashaving expressed disapproval of some part or all of our plan; sothat I, who must have absolute loyalty and coöperation,considered them valueless to me.

Kodj, strange to say, was the most persistent. He almost wenton his knees as he pleaded with me to permit him to remain withtheSofal, and he promised me such loyalty as man hadnever known before; but I had had enough of Kodj and told him so.Then, when he found that I could not be moved, he turned upon me,swearing by all his ancestors that he would get even with me yet,even though it took a thousand years.

Returning to the deck of theSofal, I ordered thegrappling hooks cast off; and presently the two ships were underway again, theSovong proceeding toward the Thoran portthat was her destination, theSofal back toward Vepaja.Now, for the first time, I had opportunity to inquire into ourlosses and found that we had suffered four killed and twenty-onewounded, the casualties among the crew of theSovonghaving been much higher.

For the greater part of the remainder of the day I was busywith my officers organizing the personnel of theSofal andsystematizing the activities of this new and unfamiliar venture,in which work Kiron and Gamfor were of inestimable value; and itwas not until late in the afternoon that I had an opportunity toinquire into the welfare of the rescued Vepajan captives. When Iasked Kamlot about them, he said that they were none the worsefor their captivity aboard theSovong.

"You see, these raiding parties have orders to bring the womento Thora unharmed and in good condition," he explained. "They aredestined for more important persons than ships' officers, andthat is their safeguard.

"However, Duare said that notwithstanding this, the captainmade advances to her. I wish I might have known it while I wasstill aboard theSovong, that I might have killed him forhis presumption." Kamlot's tone was bitter and he showed signs ofunusual excitement.

He clapped a hand upon my shoulder, his eyes alight withpleasure. "Again you have won the undying gratitude of Vepaja,"he cried. "I wish that it might have been my good fortune to havekilled the beast and thus wiped out the insult upon Vepaja, butif I could not be the one, then I am glad that it was you,Carson, rather than another."

I thought that he took the matter rather seriously and wasplacing too much importance upon the action of theSovong's captain, since it had resulted in no harm to thegirl; but then, of course, I realized that love plays strangetricks upon a man's mental processes, so that an affront to amistress might be magnified to the proportions of a nationalcalamity.

"Well, it is all over now," I said, "and your sweetheart hasbeen returned to you safe and sound."

At that he looked horrified. "My sweetheart!" he exclaimed."In the name of the ancestors of all the jongs! Do you mean totell me that you do not know who Duare is?"

"I thought of course that she was the girl you loved," Iconfessed. "Who is she?"

"Of course I love her," he explained; "all Vepaja lovesher—she is the virgin daughter of a Vepajan jong!"

Had he been announcing the presence of a goddess on shipboard,his tone could have been no more reverential and awed. Iendeavored to appear more impressed than I was, lest I offendhim.

"Had she been the woman of your choice," I said, "I shouldhave been even more pleased to have had a part in her rescue thanhad she been the daughter of a dozen jongs."

"That is nice of you," he replied, "but do not let otherVepajans hear you say such things. You have told me of thedivinities of that strange world from which you come; the personsof the jong and his children are similarly sacred to us."

"By the way, I have word for you that should pleaseyou—a Vepajan would consider it a high honor. Duare desiresto see you, that she may thank you personally. It is irregular,of course; but then circumstances have rendered strict adherenceto the etiquette and customs of our country impracticable, if notimpossible. Several hundred men already have looked upon her,many have spoken to her, and nearly all of them were enemies; soit can do no harm if she sees and speaks with her defenders andher friends."

I did not understand what he was driving at, but I assented towhat he had said and told him that I would pay my respects to theprincess before the day was over.

I was very busy; and, if the truth must be told, I was notparticularly excited about visiting the princess. In fact, Irather dreaded it, for I am not particularly keen about fawningand kotowing to royalty or anything else; but I decided that outof respect for Kamlot's feelings I must get the thing over assoon as possible, and after he had left to attend to some duty, Imade my way to the quarters allotted to Duare on the seconddeck.

The Amtorians do not knock on a door—they whistle. It israther an improvement, I think, upon our custom. One has one'sown distinctive whistle. Some of them are quite elaborate airs.One soon learns to recognize the signals of one's friends. Aknock merely informs you that some one wishes to enter; a whistletells you the same thing and also reveals the identity of yourcaller.

My signal, which is very simple, consists of two short lownotes followed by a higher longer note; and as I stood before thedoor of Duare and sounded this, my mind was not upon the princesswithin but upon another girl far away in the tree city of Kooaad,in Vepaja. She was often in my mind—the girl whom I hadglimpsed but twice, to whom I had spoken but once and that timeto avow a love that had enveloped me as completely,spontaneously, and irrevocably as would death upon some futureday.

In response to my signal a soft, feminine voice bade me enter.I stepped into the room and faced Duare. At sight of me her eyeswent wide and a quick flush mounted her cheeks. "You!" sheexclaimed.

XII. — "A SHIP!"

What a strangecontretemps! Itssuddenness left me temporarily speechless; the embarrassment ofDuare was only too obvious. Yet it was that unusual paradox, ahappycontretemps—for me at least.

I advanced toward her, and there must have been a great dealmore in my eyes than I realized, for she shrank back, flushingeven more deeply than before.

That question seemed to bring her confidence. She shook herhead. "No," she admitted, "you never have—physically. Isent for you to thank you for the service you have alreadyrendered me; but I did not know it wasyou. I did not knowthat the Carson they spoke of was the man who—" She stoppedthere and looked at me appealingly.

"The man who told you in the garden of the jong that he lovedyou," I prompted her.

"Don't!" she cried. "Can it be that you do not realize theoffensiveness, the criminality of such a declaration?"

"Then I am a confirmed criminal," I replied, "for I cannothelp telling you that I love you, whenever I see you."

"If that is the case, you must not see me again, for you mustnever again speak those words to me," she said decisively."Because of the service you have rendered me, I forgive you yourpast offenses; but do not repeat them."

"You must help it," she stated seriously; "it is a matter oflife and death to you."

"Kamlot, Honan, any of the Vepajans aboard this ship wouldkill you if they knew," she replied. "The jong, my father, wouldhave you destroyed upon our return to Vepaja—it would alldepend upon whom I told first."

I came a little closer to her and looked straight into hereyes. "You would never tell," I whispered.

"Why not? What makes you think that?" she demanded, but hervoice quavered a little.

She stamped her foot angrily. "You are beyond reason orforbearance or decency!" she exclaimed. "Leave my cabin at once;I do not wish ever to see you again."

Her bosom was heaving, her beautiful eyes were flashing, shewas very close to me, and an impulse seized me to take her in myarms. I wanted to crush her body to mine, I wanted to cover herlips with kisses; but more than all else I wanted her love, andso I restrained myself, for fear that I might go too far and losethe chance to win the love that I felt was hovering just belowthe threshold of her consciousness. I do not know why I was sosure of that, but I was. I could not have brought myself to forcemy attentions upon a woman to whom they were repugnant, but fromthe first moment that I had seen this girl watching me from thegarden in Vepaja, I had been impressed by an inner consciousnessof her interest in me, her more than simple interest. It was justone of those things that are the children of old Chand Kabi'straining, a training that has made me infinitely more intuitivethan a woman.

"I am sorry that you are sending me away into virtual exile,"I said. "I do not feel that I deserve that, but of course thestandards of your world are not the standards of mine. There, awoman is not dishonored by the love of a man, or by its avowal,unless she is already married to another," and then of a sudden athought occurred to me that should have occurred before."Do you already belong to some man?" I demanded, chilled bythe thought.

"Of course not!" she snapped. "I am not yet nineteen." Iwondered that it had never before occurred to me that the girl inthe garden of the jong might be already married.

I did not know what that had to do with it, but I was glad tolearn that she was not seven hundred years old. I had oftenwondered about her age, though after all it could have made nodifference, since on Venus, if anywhere in the universe, peopleare really no older than they look—I mean, as far as theirattractiveness is concerned.

"Are you going?" she demanded, "or shall I have to call one ofthe Vepajans and tell them that you have affronted me?"

"And have me killed?" I asked. "No, you cannot make me believethat you would ever do that."

"ThenI shall leave," she stated, "and remember thatyou are never to see me or speak to me again."

With that parting and far from cheering ultimatum she quit theroom, going into another of her suite. That appeared to end theinterview; I could not very well follow her, and so I turned andmade my way disconsolately to the captain's cabin in thetower.

As I thought the matter over, it became obvious to me that Inot only had not made much progress in my suit, but that therewas little likelihood that I ever should. There seemed to be someinsuperable barrier between us, though what it was I could notimagine. I could not believe that she was entirely indifferent tome; but perhaps that was just a reflection of my egotism, for Ihad to admit that she had certainly made it plain enough both bywords and acts that she wished to have nothing to do with me. Iwas unquestionablypersona non grata.

Notwithstanding all this, or maybe because of it, I realizedthat this second and longer interview had but served to raise mypassion to still greater heat, leaving me in a fine state ofdespair. Her near presence on board theSofal wasconstantly provocative, while her interdiction of any relationsbetween us only tended to make me more anxious to be with her. Iwas most unhappy, and the monotony of the now uneventful voyageback toward Vepaja offered no means of distraction. I wished thatwe might sight another vessel, for any ship that we sighted wouldbe an enemy ship. We were outlaws, we of theSofal—pirates, buccaneers, privateers. I ratherleaned toward the last and most polite definition of our status.Of course we had not as yet been commissioned by Mintep to raidshipping for Vepaja, but we were striking at Vepaja's enemies,and so I felt that we had some claim upon the dubiousrespectability of privateerism. However, either of the other twotitles would not have greatly depressed me. Buccaneer has adevil-may-care ring to it that appeals to my fancy; it has atrifle morehaut ton than pirate.

There is much in a name. I had liked the name of theSofal from the first. Perhaps it was the psychology ofthat name that suggested the career upon which I was nowlaunched. It means killer. The verb meaning kill isfal.The prefixso has the same value as the suffixerin English; so sofal means killer.Vong is the Amtorianword for defend; therefore,Sovong, the name of our firstprize, means defender; but theSovong had not lived up toher name.

I was still meditating on names in an effort to forget Duare,when Kamlot joined me, and I decided to take the opportunity toask him some questions concerning certain Amtorian customs thatregulated the social intercourse between men and maids. He openeda way to the subject by asking me if I had seen Duare since shesent for me.

"I saw her," I replied, "but I do not understand her attitude,which suggested that it was almost a crime for me to look ather."

"It would be under ordinary circumstances," he told me, "butof course, as I explained to you before, what she and we havepassed through has temporarily at least minimized the importanceof certain time-honored Vepajan laws and customs.

"Vepajan girls attain their majority at the age of twenty;prior to that they may not form a union with a man. The custom,which has almost the force of a law, places even greaterrestrictions upon the daughters of a jong. They may not even seeor speak to any man other than their blood relatives and a fewwell-chosen retainers until after they have reached theirtwentieth birthday. Should they transgress, it would meandisgrace for them and death for the man."

"What a fool law!" I ejaculated, but I realized at last howheinous my transgression must have appeared in the eyes ofDuare.

Kamlot shrugged. "It may be a fool law," he said, "but it isstill the law; and in the case of Duare its enforcement meansmuch to Vepaja, for she is the hope of Vepaja."

I had heard that title conferred upon her before, but it wasmeaningless to me. "Just what do you mean by saying that she isthe hope of Vepaja?" I asked.

"She is Mintep's only child. He has never had a son, though ahundred women have sought to bear him one. The life of thedynasty ends if Duare bears no son; and if she is to bear a son,then it is essential that the father of that son be one fitted tobe the father of a jong."

"Of course not," replied Kamlot. "The matter will not even bebroached until after Duare has passed her twentiethbirthday."

"No," agreed Kamlot, eyeing me closely, "but you act as thoughthat fact were of importance to you."

Kamlot leaped to his feet and whipped out his sword. It wasthe first time that I had ever seen him show marked excitement. Ithought he was going to kill me on the spot.

The point of Kamlot's sword dropped slowly toward the floor."I do not wish to kill you," he said rather sadly, all thenervous excitement gone from his manner. "You are my friend, youhave saved my life—no, I would rather die myself than killyou, but the thing you have just said demands it."

I shrugged my shoulders; the thing was inexplicable to me."What did I say that demands death?" I demanded.

"In my world," I told him, "men are killed for saying thatthey donot intend marrying some girl." I had been sittingat the desk in my cabin at the time that Kamlot had threatenedme, and I had not arisen; now I stood up and faced him."You had better kill me, Kamlot," I said, "for I spoke thetruth."

He hesitated for a moment, standing there looking at me; thenhe returned his sword to its scabbard. "I cannot," he saidhuskily. "May my ancestors forgive me! I cannot kill myfriend.

"Perhaps," he added, seeking some extenuating circumstance,"you should not be held accountable to customs of which you hadno knowledge. I often forget that you are of another world thanours. But tell me, now that I have made myself a party to yourcrime by excusing it, what leads you to believe that you willmarry Duare? I can incriminate myself no more by listening to youfurther."

"I intend to marry her, because I know that I love her andbelieve that she already half loves me."

At this Kamlot appeared shocked and horrified again. "That isimpossible," he cried. "She never saw you before; she cannotdream what is in your heart or your mad brain."

"On the contrary, she has seen me before; and she knows quitewell what is in my 'mad brain,'" I assured him. "I told her inKooaad; I told her again today."

"She was shocked," I admitted, "but she listened; then sheupbraided me and ordered me from her presence."

Kamlot breathed a sigh of relief. "At leastshe has notgone mad. I cannot understand on what you base your belief thatshe may return your love."

"Her eyes betrayed her; and, what may be more convincing, shedid not expose my perfidy and thus send me to my death."

He pondered that and shook his head. "It is all madness," hesaid; "I can make nothing of it. You say that you talked with herin Kooaad, but that would have been impossible. But if you hadever even seen her before, why did you show so little interest inher fate when you knew that she was a prisoner aboard theSovong? Why did you say that you thought that she was mysweetheart?"

"I did not know until a few minutes ago," I explained, "thatthe girl I saw and talked with in the garden at Kooaad was Duare,the daughter of the jong."

A few days later I was again talking with Kamlot in my cabinwhen we were interrupted by a whistle at the door; and when Ibade him do so, one of the Vepajan prisoners that we had rescuedfrom theSovong entered. He was not from Kooaad but fromanother city of Vepaja, and therefore none of the other Vepajansaboard knew anything concerning him. His name was Vilor, and heappeared to be a decent sort of fellow, though rather inclined totaciturnity. He had manifested considerable interest in theklangans and was with them often, but had explained thisidiosyncrasy on the grounds that he was a scholar and wished tostudy the birdmen, specimens of which he had never beforeseen.

"I have come," he explained in response to my inquiry, "to askyou to appoint me an officer. I should like to join your companyand share in the work and responsibilities of theexpedition."

"We are well officered now," I explained, "and have all themen we need. Furthermore," I added frankly, "I do not know youwell enough to be sure of your qualifications. By the time wereach Vepaja, we shall be better acquainted; and if I need youthen, I will tell you."

"Well, I should like to do something," he insisted. "May Iguard the janjong until we reach Vepaja?"

He referred to Duare, whose title, compounded of the two wordsdaughter and king, is synonymous to princess. I thought that Inoticed just a trace of excitement in his voice as he made therequest.

"But I should like to do it," he insisted. "It would be aservice of love and loyalty for my jong. I could stand the nightguard; no one likes that detail ordinarily."

"In addition to the regular watch, we consider one man enough;she has no enemies aboard theSofal." These people werecertainly solicitous of the welfare and safety of their royalty,I thought; and, it seemed to me, unnecessarily so. But finallyVilor gave up and departed, after begging me to give his requestfurther thought.

"He seems even more concerned about the welfare of Duare thanyou," I remarked to Kamlot after Vilor had gone.

"There is no one more concerned about her than I," I said,"but I cannot see that any further precautions arenecessary."

We had dropped Vilor from our minds and were discussing othermatters, when we heard the voice of the lookout in the crow'snest shouting, "Voo notar!" ("A ship!") Running to the towerdeck, we got the bearings of the stranger as the lookoutannounced them the second time, and, sure enough, almost directlyabeam on the starboard side we discerned the superstructure of aship on the horizon.

For some reason which I do not clearly understand, thevisibility on Venus is usually exceptionally good. Low fogs andhaze are rare, notwithstanding the humidity of the atmosphere.This condition may be due to the mysterious radiation from thatstrange element in the planet's structure which illuminates hermoonless nights; I do not know.

At any rate, we could see a ship, and almost immediately allwas excitement aboard theSofal. Here was another prize,and the men were eager to be at her. As we changed our course andheaded for our victim, a cheer rose from the men on deck. Weaponswere issued, the bow gun and the two tower guns were elevated tofiring positions. TheSofal forged ahead at fullspeed.

As we approached our quarry, we saw that it was a ship ofabout the same size as theSofal and bearing the insigniaof Thora. Closer inspection revealed it to be an armedmerchantman.

I now ordered all but the gunners into the lower deck house,as I planned on boarding this vessel as I had theSovongand did not wish her to see our deck filled with armed men beforewe came alongside. As before, explicit orders were issued; everyman knew what was expected of him; all were cautioned againstneedless killing. If I were to be a pirate, I was going to be ashumane a pirate as possible. I would not spill bloodneedlessly.

I had questioned Kiron, Gamfor, and many another Thoran in mycompany relative to the customs and practices of Thoran ships ofwar until I felt reasonably familiar with them. I knew forinstance that a warship might search a merchantman. It was uponthis that I based my hope of getting our grappling hooks over theside of our victim before he could suspect our true design.

When we were within hailing distance of the ship, I directedKiron to order her to shut down her engines, as we wished toboard and search her; and right then we ran into our firstobstacle. It came in the form of a pennant suddenly hoisted atthe bow of our intended victim. It meant nothing to me, but itdid to Kiron and the other Thorans aboard theSofal.

"We'll not board her so easily after all," said Kiron. "Shehas an ongyan on board, and that exempts her from search. Itprobably also indicates that she carries a larger complement ofsoldiers than a merchantman ordinarily does."

"Whose friend?" I asked, "Yours?" for ongyan means greatfriend, in the sense of eminent or exalted.

Kiron smiled. "It is a title. There are a hundred klongyan inthe oligarchy; one of them is aboard that ship. They are greatfriends unquestionably, great friends of themselves; they ruleThora more tyrannically than any jong and for themselvesalone."

"How will the men feel about attacking a ship bearing soexalted a personage?" I inquired.

"They will fight among themselves to be the first aboard andto run a sword through him."

"They will be hard to control once they are in the thick of afight," Kiron assured me; "I have yet to see the officer who cando it. In the old days, in the days of the jongs, there wereorder and discipline; but not now."

"There will be aboard theSofal," I averred. "Come withme; I am going to speak to the men."

Together we entered the lower deck house where the majority ofthe ship's company was massed, waiting for the command to attack.There were nearly a hundred rough and burly fighting men, nearlyall of whom were ignorant and brutal. We had been together ascommander and crew for too short a time for me to gauge theirsentiments toward me; but I realized that there must be noquestion in any mind as to who was captain of the ship, no matterwhat they thought of me.

Kiron had called them to attention as we entered, and nowevery eye was on me as I started to speak. "We are about to takeanother ship," I began, "on board which is one whom Kiron tellsme you will want to kill. He is an ongyan. I have come here totell you that he must not be killed." Growls of disapprovalgreeted this statement, but, ignoring them, I continued, "I havecome here to tell you something else, because I have beeninformed that no officer can control you after you enter battle.There are reasons why it will be better for us to hold this manprisoner than to kill him, but these have nothing to do with thequestion; what you must understand is that my orders and theorders of your other officers must be obeyed.

"We are embarked upon an enterprise that can succeed only ifdiscipline be enforced. I expect the enterprise to succeed. Iwill enforce discipline. Insubordination or disobedience will bepunishable by death. That is all."

As I left the room, I left behind me nearly a hundred silentmen. There was nothing to indicate what their reaction had been.Purposely, I took Kiron out with me; I wanted the men to have anopportunity to discuss the matter among themselves withoutinterference by an officer. I knew that I had no real authorityover them, and that eventually they must decide for themselveswhether they would obey me; the sooner that decision was reachedthe better for all of us.

Amtorian ships employ only the most primitive means ofintercommunication. There is a crude and cumbersome handsignalling system in which flags are employed; then there is astandardized system of trumpet calls which covers a fairly widerange of conventional messages, but the most satisfactory mediumand the one most used is the human voice.

Since our quarry had displayed the pennant of the ongyan, wehad held a course parallel to hers and a little distance astern.On her main deck a company of armed men was congregated. Shemounted four guns, which had been elevated into firing position.She was ready, but I think that as yet she suspected nothingwrong in our intentions.

Now I gave orders that caused theSofal to close inupon the other ship, and as the distance between them lessened Isaw indications of increasing excitement on the decks of ourintended victim.

"What are you about?" shouted an officer from her tower deck."Stand off there! There is an ongyan aboard us."

As no reply was made him, and as theSofal continued todraw nearer, his excitement waxed. He gesticulated rapidly as heconversed with a fat man standing at his side; then he screamed,"Stand off! or some one will suffer for this"; but theSofal only moved steadily closer. "Stand off, or I'llfire!" shouted the captain.

For answer I caused all our starboard guns to be elevated intofiring position. I knew he would not dare fire now, for a singlebroadside from theSofal would have sunk him in less thana minute, a contingency which I wished to avoid as much ashe.

"This is revolution! This is treason!" shouted the fat man atthe captain's side. "I order you to stand off and leave us alone.I am the ongyan, Moosko," and then to the soldiers on the maindeck he screamed, "Repel them! Kill any man who sets foot uponthat deck!"

XIII. — CATASTROPHE

At the same moment that the ongyan, Moosko,ordered his soldiers to repel any attempt to board his ship, hercaptain ordered full speed ahead and threw her helm to starboard.She veered away from us and leaped ahead in an effort to escape.Of course I could have sunk her, but her loot would have been ofno value to me at the bottom of the sea; instead I directed thetrumpeter at my side to sound full speed ahead to the officer inthe tower, and the chase was on.

TheYan, whose name was now discernible across herstern, was much faster than Kiron had led me to believe; but theSofal was exceptionally speedy, and it soon became obviousto all that the other ship could not escape her. Slowly weregained the distance that we had lost in the first, unexpectedspurt of theYan; slowly but surely we were closing up onher. Then the captain of theYan did just what I shouldhave done had I been in his place; he kept theSofalalways directly astern of him and opened fire on us with hisafter tower gun and with a gun similarly placed in the stern onthe lower deck. The maneuver was tactically faultless, since itgreatly reduced the number of guns that we could bring into playwithout changing our course, and was the only one that mightoffer him any hope of escape.

There was something eery in the sound of that first heavyAmtorian gun that I had heard. I saw nothing, neither smoke norflame; there was only a loud staccato roar more reminiscent ofmachine gun fire than of any other sound. At first there was noother effect; then I saw a piece of our starboard rail go and twoof my men fall to the deck.

By this time our bow gun was in action. We were in the swellof theYan's wake, which made accurate firing difficult.The two ships were racing ahead at full speed; the prow of theSofal was throwing white water and spume far to eitherside; the sea in the wake of theYan was boiling, and aheavy swell that we were quartering kept the ships rolling. Thethrill of the chase and of battle was in our blood, and above allwas the venomous rattle of the big guns.

I ran to the bow to direct the fire of the gun there, and amoment later we had the satisfaction of seeing the crew of one oftheYan's guns crumple to the deck man by man, as ourgunner got his sights on them and mowed them down.

TheSofal was gaining rapidly upon theYan, andour guns were concentrating on the tower gun and the tower of theenemy. The ongyan had long since disappeared from the upper deck,having doubtlessly sought safety in a less exposed part of theship, and in fact there were only two men left alive upon thetower deck where he had stood beside the captain; these were twoof the crew of the gun that was giving us most trouble.

I did not understand at the time why the guns of neither shipwere more effective. I knew that the T-ray was supposedly highlydestructive, and so I could not understand why neither ship hadbeen demolished or sunk; but that was because I had not yetlearned that all the vital parts of the ships were protected by athin armor of the same metal of which the large guns werecomposed, the only substance at all impervious to the T-ray. Hadthis not been true, our fire would have long since put theYan out of commission, as our T-rays, directed upon herafter tower gun, would have passed on through the tower, killingthe men at the controls and destroying the controls themselves.Eventually this would have happened, but it would have beennecessary first to have destroyed the protective armor of thetower.

At last we succeeded in silencing the remaining gun, but if wewere to draw up alongside theYan we must expose ourselvesto the fire of other guns located on her main deck and theforward end of the tower. We had already suffered some losses,and I knew that we must certainly expect a great many more if weput ourselves in range of those other guns; but there seemed noother alternative than to abandon the chase entirely, and that Ihad no mind to do.

Giving orders to draw up along her port side, I directed thefire of the bow gun along her rail where it would rake her portguns one by one as we moved up on her, and gave orders that eachof our starboard guns in succession should open fire similarly asthey came within range of theYan's guns. Thus we kept asteady and continuous fire streaming upon the unhappy craft as wedrew alongside her and closed up the distance between us.

We had suffered a number of casualties, but our losses werenothing compared to those of theYan, whose decks were nowstrewn with dead and dying men. Her plight was hopeless, and hercommander must at last have realized it, for now he gave thesignal of surrender and stopped his engines. A few minutes laterwe were alongside and our boarding party had clambered over herrail.

As Kamlot and I stood watching these men who were being led byKiron to take possession of the prize and bring certain prisonersaboard theSofal, I could not but speculate upon whattheir answer was to be to my challenge for leadership. I knewthat their freedom from the constant menace of their tyrannicalmasters was so new to them that they might well be expected tocommit excesses, and I dreaded the result, for I had determinedto make an example of any men who disobeyed me, though I fell inthe attempt. I saw the majority of them spread over the deckunder the command of the great Zog, while Kiron led a smallerdetachment to the upper decks in search of the captain and theongyan.

Fully five minutes must have elapsed before I saw mylieutenant emerge from the tower of theYan with his twoprisoners. He conducted them down the companionway and across themain deck toward theSofal, while a hundred members of mypirate band watched them in silence. Not a hand was raisedagainst them as they passed.

Kamlot breathed a sigh of relief as the two men clambered overthe rail of theSofal and approached us. "I think that ourlives hung in the balance then, quite as much as theirs," hesaid, and I agreed with him, for if my men had started killingaboard theYan in defiance of my orders, they would havehad to kill me and those loyal to me to protect their ownlives.

The ongyan was still blustering when they were halted in frontof me, but the captain was awed. There was something about thewhole incident that mystified him, and when he got close enoughto me to see the color of my hair and eyes, I could see that hewas dumfounded.

"This is an outrage," shouted Moosko, the ongyan. "I will seethat every last man of you is destroyed for this." He wastrembling, and purple with rage.

"See that he does not speak again unless he is spoken to," Iinstructed Kiron, and then I turned to the captain. "As soon aswe have taken what we wish from your ship," I told him, "you willbe free to continue your voyage. I am sorry that you did not seefit to obey me when I ordered you to stop for boarding; it wouldhave saved many lives. The next time you are ordered to lay to bytheSofal, do so; and when you return to your country,advise other shipmasters that theSofal is abroad and thatshe is to be obeyed."

"For the moment I am a Vepajan," I replied, "but we sail underour own flag. No country is responsible for what we do, nor arewe responsible to any country."

Pressing the crew of theYan into service, Kamlot,Kiron, Gamfor, and Zog had all her weapons, such of herprovisions as we wished, and the most valuable and least bulkyportion of her cargo transferred to theSofal before dark.We then threw her guns overboard and let her proceed upon herway.

Moosko I retained as a hostage in the event that we shouldever need one; he was being held under guard on the main deckuntil I could determine just what to do with him. TheVepajan women captives we had rescued from theSovong, together with our own officers who were alsoquartered on the second deck, left me no vacant cabin in which toput Moosko, and I did not wish to confine him below deck in thehole reserved for common prisoners.

I chanced to mention the matter to Kamlot in the presence ofVilor, when the latter immediately suggested that he would sharehis own small cabin with Moosko and be responsible for him. Asthis seemed an easy solution of the problem, I ordered Mooskoturned over to Vilor, who took him at once to his cabin.

The pursuit of theYan had taken us off our course, andnow, as we headed once more toward Vepaja, a dark land mass wasdimly visible to starboard. I could not but wonder what mysterieslay beyond that shadowy coast line, what strange beasts and meninhabited thatterra incognita that stretched away intoStrabol and the unexplored equatorial regions of Venus. Topartially satisfy my curiosity, I went to the chart room, andafter determining our position as accurately as I could by deadreckoning, I discovered that we were off the shore of Noobol. Iremembered having heard Danus mention this country, but I couldnot recall what he had told me about it.

Lured by imaginings, I went out onto the tower deck and stoodalone, looking out across the faintly illuminated nocturnalwaters of Amtor toward mysterious Noobol. The wind had risen toalmost the proportions of a gale, the first that I hadencountered since my coming to the Shepherd's Star; heavy seaswere commencing to run, but I had every confidence in the shipand in the ability of my officers to navigate her under anycircumstances; so I was not perturbed by the increasing violenceof the storm. It occurred to me though that the women aboardmight be frightened, and my thoughts, which were seldom absentfrom her for long, returned to Duare. Perhaps she wasfrightened!

Even no excuse is a good excuse to the man who wishes to seethe object of his infatuation; but now I prided myself that I hada real reason for seeing her and one that she herself mustappreciate, since it was prompted by solicitude for her welfare.And so I went down the companionway to the second deck with theintention of whistling before the door of Duare; but as I had topass directly by Vilor's cabin, I thought that I would take theopportunity to look in on my prisoner.

There was a moment's silence following my signal, and thenVilor bade me enter. As I stepped into the cabin, I was surprisedto see an angan sitting there with Moosko and Vilor. Vilor'sembarrassment was obvious; Moosko appeared ill at ease and thebirdman frightened. That they were disconcerted did not surpriseme, for it is not customary for members of the superior race tofraternize with klangan socially. But if they were embarrassed, Iwas not. I was more inclined to be angry. The position of theVepajans aboard theSofal was a delicate one. We were fewin numbers, and our ascendency depended wholly upon the respectwe engendered and maintained in the minds of the Thorans, whoconstituted the majority of our company, and who looked up to theVepajans as their superiors despite the efforts of their leadersto convince them of the equality of all men.

"It is not his fault," said Vilor, as the birdman rose toleave the cabin. "Moosko, strange as it may seem, had never seenan angan; and I fetched this fellow here merely to satisfy hiscuriosity. I am sorry if I did wrong."

"Of course," I said, "that puts a slightly different aspect onthe matter, but I think it will be better if the prisonerinspects the klangan on deck where they belong. He has mypermission to do so tomorrow."

The angan departed, I exchanged a few more words with Vilor,and then I left him with his prisoner and turned toward the aftercabin where Duare was quartered, the episode that had justoccurred fading from my mind almost immediately, to be replacedby far more pleasant thoughts.

There was a light in Duare's cabin as I whistled before herdoor, wondering if she would invite me in or ignore my presence.For a time there was no response to my signal, and I had aboutdetermined that she would not see me, when I heard her soft, lowvoice inviting me to enter.

"You are persistent," she said, but there was less anger inher voice than when last she had spoken to me.

"I came to ask if the storm has frightened you and to assureyou that there is no danger."

It sounded very much like a dismissal. "No," I assured her,"nor did I come solely for the purpose of saying it."

She raised her eyebrows. "What else could you have to say tome—that you have not already said?"

I came closer to her. "Look at me, Duare; look me in the eyesand tell me that you do not like to hear me tell you that I loveyou!"

Her eyes fell. "I must not listen!" she whispered and rose asthough to leave the room.

I was mad with love for her; her near presence sent the hotblood boiling through my veins; I seized her in my arms and drewher to me; before she could prevent it, I covered her lips withmine. Then she partially tore away from me, and I saw a daggergleaming in her hand.

"You are right," I said. "Strike! I have done an unforgivablething. My only excuse is my great love for you; it swept awayreason and honor."

Her dagger hand dropped to her side. "I cannot," she sobbed,and, turning, fled from the room.

I went back to my own cabin, cursing myself for a beast and acad. I could not understand how it had been possible for me tohave committed such an unpardonable act. I reviled myself, and atthe same time the memory of that soft body crushed against mineand those perfect lips against my lips suffused me with a warmglow of contentment that seemed far removed from repentance.

I lay awake for a long time after I went to bed, thinking ofDuare, recalling all that had ever passed between us. I found ahidden meaning in her cry, "I must not listen!" I rejoiced in thefacts that once she had refused to consign me to death at thehands of others and that again she had refused to kill meherself. Her "I cannot" rang in my ears almost like an avowal oflove. My better judgment told that I was quite mad, but I foundjoy in hugging my madness to me.

The storm increased to such terrific fury during the nightthat the screeching of the wind and the wild plunging of theSofal awakened me just before dawn. Arising immediately, Iwent on deck, where the wind almost carried me away. Great waveslifted theSofal on high, only to plunge her the nextmoment into watery abysses. The ship was pitching violently;occasionally a huge wave broke across her bow and flooded themain deck; across her starboard quarter loomed a great land massthat seemed perilously close. The situation appeared fraught withdanger.

I entered the control room and found both Honan and Gamforwith the helmsman. They were worried because of our proximity toland. Should either the engines or the steering device fail, wemust inevitably be driven ashore. I told them to remain wherethey were, and then I went down to the second deck house toarouse Kiron, Kamlot, and Zog.

As I turned aft from the foot of the companionway on thesecond deck, I noticed that the door of Vilor's cabin wasswinging open and closing again with each roll of the vessel; butI gave the matter no particular thought at the time and passed onto awaken my other lieutenants. Having done so, I kept on toDuare's cabin, fearing that, if awake, she might be frightened bythe rolling of the ship and the shrieking of the wind. To mysurprise, I found her door swinging on its hinges.

Something, I do not know what, aroused my suspicion that allwas not right far more definitely than the rather unimportantfact that the door to her outer cabin was unlatched. Steppingquickly inside, I uncovered the light and glanced quickly aboutthe room. There was nothing amiss except, perhaps, the fact thatthe door to the inner cabin where she slept was also open andswinging on its hinges. I was sure that no one could be sleepingin there while both those doors were swinging and banging. It waspossible, of course, that Duare was too frightened to get up andclose them.

I stepped to the inner doorway and called her name aloud.There was no reply. I called again, louder; again, silence was myonly answer. Now I was definitely perturbed. Stepping into theroom, I uncovered the light and looked at the bed. It wasempty—Duare was not there! But in the far corner of thecabin lay the body of the man who had stood guard outside herdoor.

Throwing conventions overboard, I hastened to each of theadjoining cabins where the rest of the Vepajan women werequartered. All were there except Duare. They had not seen her;they did not know where she was. Frantic from apprehension, I ranback to Kamlot's cabin and acquainted him with my tragicdiscovery. He was stunned.

"I know shemust be," I replied, "but something tellsme she is not. We must search the ship at once—from stem tostern."

Zog and Kiron were emerging from their cabins as I came fromKamlot's. I told them of my discovery and ordered the searchcommenced; then I hailed a member of the watch and sent him tothe crow's nest to question the lookout. I wanted to know whetherhe had seen anything unusual transpiring on the ship during hiswatch, for from his lofty perch he could overlook the entirevessel.

"Muster every man," I told Kamlot; "account for every humanbeing on board; search every inch of the ship."

As the men left to obey my instructions, I recalled thecoincidence of the two cabin doors swinging wide—Duare'sand Vilor's. I could not imagine what relation either fact had tothe other, but I was investigating everything, whether it was ofa suspicious nature or not; so I ran quickly to Vilor's cabin,and the moment that I uncovered the light I saw that both Vilorand Moosko were missing. But where were they? No man could haveleft theSofal in that storm and lived, even could he havelaunched a boat, which would have been impossible ofaccomplishment, even in fair weather, without detection.

Coming from Vilor's cabin, I summoned a sailor and dispatchedhim to inform Kamlot that Vilor and Moosko were missing fromtheir cabin and direct him to send them to me as soon as helocated them; then I returned to the quarters of the Vepajanwomen for the purpose of questioning them more carefully.

I was puzzled by the disappearance of Moosko and Vilor, which,taken in conjunction with the absence of Duare from her cabin,constituted a mystery of major proportions; and I was trying todiscover some link of circumstance that might point a connectionbetween the two occurrences, when I suddenly recalled Vilor'sinsistence that he be permitted to guard Duare. Here was thefirst, faint suggestion of a connecting link. However, it seemedto lead nowhere. These three people had disappeared from theircabins, yet reason assured me that they would be found in a shorttime, since it was impossible for them to leave the ship,unless—

It was that little word "unless" that terrified me most ofall. Since I had discovered that Duare was not in her cabin, anumbing fear had assailed me that, considering herself dishonoredby my avowal of love, she had hurled herself overboard. Of whatvalue now the fact that I constantly upbraided myself for my lackof consideration and control? Of what weight my vain regrets?

Yet now I saw a tiny ray of hope. If the absence of Vilor andMoosko from their cabin and Duare from hers were more than acoincidence, then it were safe to assume that they were togetherand ridiculous to believe that all three had leapedoverboard.

With these conflicting fears and hopes whirling through mybrain, I came to the quarters of the Vepajan women, which I wasabout to enter when the sailor I had sent to question the lookoutin the crow's nest came running toward me in a state of evidentexcitement.

"Well," I demanded, as, breathless, he halted before me, "whatdid the lookout have to say?"

"Nothing, my captain," replied the man, his speech retarded byexcitement and exertion.

"A sword had been run through his body—from behind, Ithink. He lay upon his face."

"Go at once and inform Kamlot; tell him to replace the lookoutand investigate his death, then to report to me."

Shaken by this ominous news, I entered the quarters of thewomen. They were huddled together in one cabin, pale andfrightened, but outwardly calm.

"No," I replied, "but I have discovered anothermystery—the ongyan, Moosko, is missing and with him theVepajan, Vilor."

"Vepajan!" exclaimed Byea, the woman who had questioned meconcerning Duare. "Vilor is no Vepajan."

"He is a Thoran spy," she replied. "He was sent to Vepaja longago to steal the secret of the longevity serum, and when we werecaptured the klangan took him, also, by mistake. We learned this,little by little, aboard theSovong."

"We supposed that everyone knew it," explained Byea, "andthought that Vilor was transferred to theSofal as aprisoner."

Another link in the chain of accumulating evidence! Yet I wasas far as ever from knowing where either end of the chainlay.

XIV. — STORM

After questioning the women, I went to the maindeck, too impatient to await the reports of my lieutenants in thetower where I belonged. I found that they had searched the shipand were just coming to me with their report. None of thosepreviously discovered missing had been found, but the search hadrevealed another astounding fact—the five klangan also weremissing!

Searching certain portions of the ship had been ratherdangerous work, as she was rolling heavily, and the deck wasstill occasionally swept by the larger seas; but it had beenaccomplished without mishap, and the men were now congregated ina large room in the main deck house. Kamlot, Gamfor, Kiron, Zog,and I had also entered this same room, where we were discussingthe whole mysterious affair. Honan was in the control room of thetower.

I told them that I had just discovered that Vilor was notVepajan but a Thoran spy, and had reminded Kamlot of the man'srequest that he be allowed to guard the janjong. "I learnedsomething else from Byea while I was questioning the women," Iadded. "During their captivity aboard theSovong, Vilorpersisted in annoying Duare with his attentions; he wasinfatuated with her."

"I think that gives us the last bit of evidence we need toenable us to reconstruct the hitherto seemingly inexplicablehappenings of the past night," said Gamfor. "Vilor wished topossess Duare; Moosko wished to escape from captivity. The formerhad fraternized with the klangan and made friends of them; thatwas known to everyone aboard theSofal. Moosko was anongyan; during all their lives, doubtless, the klangan havelooked upon the klongyan as the fountain heads of supremeauthority. They would believe his promises, and they would obeyhis commands.

"Doubtless Vilor and Moosko worked out the details of the plottogether. They dispatched an angan to kill the lookout, lesttheir movements arouse suspicion and be reported before theycould carry their plan to a successful conclusion. The lookoutdisposed of, the other klangan congregated in Vilor's cabin; thenVilor, probably accompanied by Moosko, went to the cabin ofDuare, where they killed the guard and seized her in her sleep,silenced her with a gag, and carried her to the gangway outside,where the klangan were waiting.

"A gale was blowing, it is true, but it was blowing towardland which lay but a short distance to starboard; and the klanganare powerful fliers.

"There you have what I believe to be a true picture of whathappened aboard theSofal while we slept."

"And you believe that the klangan carried these three peopleto the shores of Noobol?" I asked.

"Then there is but one thing to do," I announced. "We mustturn back and land a searching party on Noobol."

"The storm will not last forever," I reminded him. "We shalllie off the shore until it abates. I am going up to the tower; Iwish you men would remain here and question the crew; it ispossible that there may be some one among them who has overheardsomething that will cast new light on the subject. The klanganare great talkers, and they may have dropped some remark thatwill suggest the ultimate destination Vilor and Moosko had inmind."

As I stepped out onto the main deck, theSofal roseupon the crest of a great wave and then plunged nose downwardinto the watery abyss beyond, tilting the deck forward at anangle of almost forty-five degrees. The wet and slippery boardsbeneath my feet gave them no hold, and I slid helplessly forwardalmost fifty feet before I could check my descent. Then the shipburied her nose in a mountainous wave and a great wall of waterswept the deck from stem to stern, picking me up and whirling mehelplessly upon its crest.

For a moment I was submerged, and then a vagary of the Titanthat had seized me brought my head above the water, and I saw theSofal rolling and pitching fifty feet away.

Even in the immensity of interstellar space I had never feltmore helpless nor more hopeless than I did at that moment on thestorm-lashed sea of an unknown world, surrounded by darkness andchaos and what terrible creatures of this mysterious deep I couldnot even guess. I was lost! Even if my comrades knew of thedisaster that had overwhelmed me, they were helpless to give meaid. No boat could live in that sea, as Kiron had truly remindedus, and no swimmer could breast the terrific onslaught of thoseracing, wind-driven mountains of water that might no longer bedescribed by so puny a word as wave.

Hopeless! I should not have said that; I am never withouthope. If I could not swim against the sea, perhaps I might swimwith it; and at no great distance lay land. I am an experienceddistance swimmer and a powerful man. If any man could survive insuch a sea, I knew that I could; but if I could not, I wasdetermined that I should at least have the satisfaction of dyingfighting.

I was hampered by no clothes, as one could scarcely dignifythe Amtorian loincloth with the name of clothing; my onlyimpediment was my weapons; and these I hesitated to discard,knowing that my chances for survival on that unfriendly shorewould be slight were I unarmed. Neither the belt, nor the pistol,nor the dagger inconvenienced me, and their weight wasnegligible; but the sword was a different matter. If you havenever tried swimming with a sword dangling from your middle, donot attempt it in a heavy sea. You might think that it would hangstraight down and not get in the way, but mine did not. The greatwaves hurled me about mercilessly, twisting and turning me; andnow my sword was buffeting me in some tender spot, and now it wasgetting between my legs, and once, when a wave turned mecompletely over, it came down on top of me and struck me on thehead; yet I would not discard it.

After the first few minutes of battling with the sea, Iconcluded that I was in no immediate danger of being drowned. Icould keep my head above the waves often enough and long enoughto insure sufficient air for my lungs; and, the water being warm,I was in no danger of being chilled to exhaustion, as so oftenoccurs when men are thrown into cold seas. Therefore, as closelyas I could anticipate any contingency in this unfamiliar world,there remained but two major and immediate threats against mylife. The first lay in the possibility of attack by someferocious monster of the Amtorian deeps; the second, and by farthe more serious, the storm-lashed shore upon which I mustpresently attempt to make a safe landing.

This in itself should have been sufficient to dishearten me,for I had seen seas breaking upon too many shores to lightlyignore the menace of those incalculable tons of hurtling waterspounding, crashing, crushing, tearing their way even into therocky heart of the eternal hills.

I swam slowly in the direction of the shore, which,fortunately for me, was in the direction that the storm wascarrying me. I had no mind to sap my strength by unnecessarilyoverexerting myself; and so, as I took it easily, content to keepafloat as I moved slowly shoreward, daylight came; and as eachsucceeding wave lifted me to its summit, I saw the shore withincreasing clearness. It lay about a mile from me, and its aspectwas most forbidding. Huge combers were breaking upon a rockycoast line, throwing boiling fountains of white spume high inair; above the howling of the tempest, the thunder of the surfrolled menacingly across that mile of angry sea to warn me thatdeath lay waiting to embrace me at the threshold of safety.

I was in a quandary. Death lay all about me; it remained butfor me to choose the place and manner of the assignation; I coulddrown where I was, or I could permit myself to be dashed topieces on the rocks. Neither eventuality aroused any considerableenthusiasm in my breast. As a mistress, death seemed sadlylacking in many essentials. Therefore, I decided not to die.

Thoughts may be, as has been said, things; but they are noteverything. No matter how favorably I thought of living, I knewthat I must also do something about it. My present situationoffered me no chance of salvation; the shore alone could give melife; so I struck out for the shore. As I drew nearer it, manythings, some of them quite irrelevant, passed through my mind;but some were relevant, among them the Burial Service. It was nota nice time to think of this, but then we cannot always controlour thoughts; however, "In the midst of life we are in death"seemed wholly appropriate to my situation. By twisting it a bit,I achieved something that contained the germ of hope—in themidst of death there is life. Perhaps—

The tall waves, lifting me high, afforded me for briefinstants vantage points from which I could view the death aheadin the midst of which I sought for life. The shore line wasbecoming, at closer range, something more than an unbroken lineof jagged rocks and white water; but details were yet lacking,for each time I was allowed but a brief glimpse before beingdropped once more to the bottom of a watery chasm.

My own efforts, coupled with the fury of the gale driving meshoreward, brought me rapidly to the point where I shouldpresently be seized by the infuriated seas and hurled upon thebombarded rocks that reared their jagged heads bleakly above theswirling waters of each receding comber.

A great wave lifted me upon its crest and carried meforward—the end had come! With the speed of a race horse itswept me toward my doom; a welter of spume engulfed my head; Iwas twisted and turned as a cork in a whirlpool; yet I struggledto lift my mouth above the surface for an occasional gasp of air;I fought to live for a brief moment longer, that I might not bedead when I was dashed by the merciless sea against the mercilessrocks—thus dominating is the urge to live.

I was carried on; moments seemed an eternity! Where were therocks? I almost yearned for them now to end the bitterness of myfutile struggle. I thought of my mother and of Duare. I evencontemplated, with something akin to philosophic calm, thestrangeness of my end. In that other world that I had leftforever no creature would ever have knowledge of my fate. Thusspoke the eternal egotism of man, who, even in death, desires anaudience.

Now I caught a brief glimpse of rocks. They were upon my left!when they should have been in front of me. It wasincomprehensible. The wave tore on, carrying me with it; andstill I lived, and there was only water against my nakedflesh.

Now the fury of the sea abated, I rose to the crest of adiminishing comber to look with astonishment upon thecomparatively still waters of an inlet. I had been carriedthrough the rocky gateway of a landlocked cove, and before me Isaw a sandy crescent beach. I had escaped the black fingers ofdeath; I had been the beneficiary of a miracle!

The sea gave me a final fillip that rolled me high upon thesands to mingle with the wrack and flotsam she had discarded. Istood up and looked about me. A more devout man would have giventhanks, but I felt that as yet I had little for which to givethanks. I had been spared temporarily, but Duare was still inperil.

The cove into which I had been swept was formed by the mouthof a canyon that ran inland between low hills, the sides andsummits of which were dotted with small trees. Nowhere did I seeany such giants as grow in Vepaja; but perhaps, I mused, what Isee here are not trees on Venus but only underbrush. However, Ishall call them trees, since many of them were from fifty toeighty feet in height.

A little river tumbled down the canyon's bottom to empty intothe cove; pale violet grass, starred with blue and purpleflowers, bordered it and clothed the hills. There were trees withred boles, smooth and glossy as lacquer. There were trees withazure boles. Whipping in the gale was the same weird foliage ofheliotrope and lavender and violet that had rendered the forestsof Vepaja so unearthly to my eyes. But beautiful and unusual aswas the scene, it could not claim my undivided attention. Astrange freak of fate had thrown me upon this shore to which, Ihad reason to believe, Duare must undoubtedly have been carried;and now my only thought was to take advantage of this fortunatecircumstance and attempt to find and succor her.

I could only assume that in the event her abductors hadbrought her to this shore their landing must have been madefarther along the coast to my right, which was the direction fromwhich theSofal had been moving. With only this slight andunsatisfactory clue, I started immediately to scale the side ofthe canyon and commence my search.

At the summit I paused a moment to survey the surroundingcountry and get my bearings. Before me stretched a rolling table-land, tree-dotted and lush with grass, and beyond that, inland,rose a range of mountains, vague and mysterious along the distanthorizon. My course lay to the east, along the coast (I shall usethe earthly references to points of compass); the mountains werenorthward, toward the equator. I am assuming of course that I amin the southern hemisphere of the planet. The sea was south ofme. I glanced in that direction, looking for theSofal;there she was, far out and moving toward the east. Evidently myorders were being carried out, and theSofal was lying offshore waiting for calm weather that would permit a landing.

Now I turned my steps toward the east. At each elevation Istopped and scanned the tableland in all directions, searchingfor some sign of those I sought. I saw signs of life, but not ofhuman life. Herbivorous animals grazed in large numbers upon theflower-starred violet plain. Many that were close enough to beseen plainly appeared similar in form to earthly animals, butthere was none exactly like anything I had ever seen on earth.Their extreme wariness and the suggestion of speed and agility intheir conformations suggested that they had enemies; thewariness, that among these enemies was man; the speed andagility, that swift and ferocious carnivores preyed uponthem.

These observations served to warn me that I must be constantlyon the alert for similar dangers that might threaten me, and Iwas glad that the table-land was well supplied with trees growingat convenient intervals. I had not forgotten the ferocious bastothat Kamlot and I had encountered in Vepaja, and, though I hadseen nothing quite so formidable as yet among the nearer beasts,there were some creatures grazing at a considerable distance fromme whose lines suggested a too great similarity to thosebisonlike omnivores to insure ease of mind.

I moved rather rapidly, as I was beset by fears for Duare'ssafety and felt that if I did not come upon some clue this firstday my search might prove fruitless. The klangan, I believed,must have alighted near the coast, where they would have remainedat least until daylight, and my hope was that they might havetarried longer. If they had winged away immediately, my chancesof locating them were slight; and now my only hope lay in theslender possibility that I might come across them before theytook up their flight for the day.

The table-land was cut by gullies and ravines running down tothe sea. Nearly all of these carried streams varying in size fromtiny rivulets to those which might be dignified by theappellation of river, but none that I encountered offered anyserious obstacle to my advance, though upon one or two occasionsI was forced to swim the deeper channels. If these rivers wereinhabited by dangerous reptiles, I saw nothing of them, though Iadmit that they were constantly on my mind as I made my way frombank to bank.

Once, upon the table-land, I saw a large, cat-like creature ata distance, apparently stalking a herd of what appeared to be aspecies of antelope; but either it did not see me or was moreinterested in its natural prey, for although I was in plainsight, it paid no attention to me.

Shortly thereafter I dropped into a small gully, and when Ihad regained the higher ground upon the opposite side the beastwas no longer in sight; but even had it been, it would have beendriven from my thoughts by faint sounds that came to me out ofthe distance far ahead. There were what sounded like the shoutsof men and the unmistakable hum of Amtorian pistol fire.

Though I searched diligently with my eyes to the far horizon,I could see no sign of the authors of these noises; but it wasenough for me to know that there were human beings ahead and thatthere was fighting there. Being only human, I naturally picturedthe woman I loved in the center of overwhelming dangers, eventhough my better judgment told me that the encounterreverberating in the distance might have no connection with heror her abductors.

Reason aside, however, I broke into a run; and as I advancedthe sounds waxed louder. They led me finally to the rim of aconsiderable canyon, the bottom of which formed a level valley ofentrancing loveliness, through which wound a river far largerthan any I had yet encountered.

But neither the beauty of the valley nor the magnitude of theriver held my attention for but an instant. Down there upon thefloor of that nameless canyon was a scene that gripped myundivided interest and left me cold with apprehension. Partiallyprotected by an outcropping of rock at the river's edge, sixfigures crouched or lay. Five of them were klangan, the sixth awoman. It was Duare!

Facing them, hiding behind trees and rocks, were a dozenhairy, manlike creatures hurling rocks from slings at thebeleaguered six or loosing crude arrows from still cruder bows.The savages and the klangan were hurling taunts and insults atone another, as well as missiles; it was these sounds that I hadheard from a distance blending with the staccato hum of theklangan's pistols.

Three of the klangan lay motionless upon the turf behind theirbarrier, apparently dead. The remaining klangan and Duarecrouched with pistols in their hands, defending their positionand their lives. The savages cast their stone missiles directlyat the three whenever one of them showed any part of his bodyabove the rocky breastwork, but the arrows they discharged intothe air so that they fell behind the barrier.

Scattered about among the trees and behind rocks were thebodies of fully a dozen hairy savages who had fallen before thefire of the klangan, but, while Duare's defenders had taken heavytoll of the enemy, the outcome of the unequal battle could havebeen only the total destruction of the klangan and Duare had itlasted much longer.

The details which have taken long in the telling I took in ata single glance, nor did I waste precious time in pondering thebest course of action. At any moment one of those crude arrowsmight pierce the girl I loved; and so my first thought was todivert the attention of the savages, and perhaps their fire, fromtheir intended victims to me.

I was slightly behind their position, which gave me anadvantage, as also did the fact that I was above them. Yellinglike a Comanche, I leaped down the steep side of the canyon,firing my pistol as I charged. Instantly the scene below mechanged. The savages, taken partially from the rear andunexpectedly menaced by a new enemy, leaped to their feet inmomentary bewilderment; and simultaneously the two remainingklangan, recognizing me and realizing that succor was at hand,sprang from the shelter of their barrier and ran forward tocomplete the demoralization of the savages.

Together we shot down six of the enemy before the rest finallyturned and fled, but they were not routed before one of theklangan was struck full between the eyes by a jagged bit of rock.I saw him fall, and when we were no longer menaced by a foe Iwent to him, thinking that he was only stunned; but at that timeI had no conception of the force with which these primitive,apelike men cast the missiles from their slings. The fellow'sskull was crushed, and a portion of the missile had punctured hisbrain. He was quite dead when I reached him.

Then I hastened to Duare. She was standing with a pistol inher hand, tired and dishevelled, but otherwise apparently littleworse for the harrowing experiences through which she had passed.I think that she was glad to see me, for she certainly must havepreferred me to the hairy apemen from which I had beeninstrumental in rescuing her; yet a trace of fear was reflectedin her eyes, as though she were not quite sure of the nature ofthe treatment she might expect from me. To my shame, her fearswere justified by my past behavior; but I was determined that sheshould never again have cause to complain of me. I would win herconfidence and trust, hoping that love might follow in theirwake.

There was no light of welcome in her eyes as I approached her,and that hurt me more than I can express. Her countenancereflected more a pathetic resignation to whatever new trials mypresence might portend.

"Quite," she replied. Her eyes passed beyond me, searching thesummit of the canyon wall down which I had charged upon thesavages. "Where are the others?" she asked in puzzled andslightly troubled tones.

Her countenance assumed an even deeper gloom at thisannouncement. "Why did you come alone?" she asked fearfully.

"To be honest with you, it was through no fault of my own thatI came at all at this time," I explained. "After we missed youfrom theSofal, I gave orders to stand by off the coastuntil the storm abated and we could land a searching party.Immediately thereafter I was swept overboard, a most fortunatecircumstance as it turned out; and naturally when I found myselfsafely ashore my first thought was of you. I was searching foryou when I heard the shouts of the savages and the sound ofpistol fire."

"You came in time to save me from them," she said, "but forwhat? What are you going to do with me now?"

"I am going to take you to the coast as quickly as possible,"I replied, "and there we will signal theSofal. She willsend a boat to take us off."

Duare appeared slightly relieved at this recital of my plans."You will win the undying gratitude of the jong, my father, ifyou return me to Vepaja unharmed," she said.

"To have served his daughter shall be reward enough for me," Ireplied, "even though I succeed in winning not even hergratitude."

"That you already have for what you have just done at the riskof your life," she assured me, and there was more graciousness inher voice than before.

"They swam the river and ran away in that direction." Shepointed toward the east.

"They were told to protect me. They know little else than toobey their superiors, and, too, they like to fight. Having littleintelligence and no imagination, they are splendid fighters."

"I cannot understand why they did not fly away from danger andtake you with them when they saw that defeat was certain. Thatwould have insured the safety of all."

"By the time they were assured of that, it was too late," sheexplained. "They could not have risen from behind our protectionwithout being destroyed by the missiles of the kloonobargan."

This word, by way of parenthesis, is an interesting example ofthe derivation of an Amtorian substantive. Broadly, it meanssavages; literally, it means hairy men. In the singular, it isnobargan.Gan is man;bar is hair.No is acontraction ofnot (with), and is used as a prefix withthe same value that the suffixy has in English; thereforenobar means hairy,nobargan, hairy man. The prefixkloo forms the plural, and we havekloonobargan(hairy men), savages.

After determining that the four klangan were dead, Duare, theremaining angan, and I started down the river toward the ocean.On the way Duare told me what had occurred on board theSofal the preceding night, and I discovered that it hadbeen almost precisely as Gamfor had pictured it.

"How did they expect to survive in a wild country like this?"I asked. "Did they know where they were?"

"They said that they thought that the country was Noobol," shereplied, "but they were not positive. The Thorans have agents inNoobol who are fomenting discord in an attempt to overthrow thegovernment. There are several of these in a city on the coast,and it was Moosko's intention to search for this city, where hewas certain that he would find friends who would be able toarrange transportation for himself, Vilor, and me to Thora."

We walked on in silence for some time. I was just ahead ofDuare, and the angan brought up the rear. He was crestfallen anddejected. His head and tail feathers drooped. The klangan areordinarily so vociferous that this preternatural silenceattracted my attention, and, thinking that he might have beeninjured in the fight, I questioned him.

"Then what is the matter with you? Are you sad because of thedeaths of your comrades?"

"It is not that," he replied; "there are plenty more wherethey came from. It is because of my own death that I am sad."

"When I return to the ship, they will kill me for what I didlast night. If I do not return, I shall be killed here. No onecould live alone for long in such a country as this."

"If you serve me well and obey me, you will not be killed ifwe succeed in the reaching theSofal again," I assuredhim.

At that he brightened perceptibly. "I shall serve you well andobey you, my captain," he promised, and presently he was smilingand singing again as though he had not a single care in the worldand there was no such thing as death.

On several occasions, when I had glanced back at mycompanions, I had discovered Duare's eyes upon me, and in eachinstance she had turned them away quickly, as though I hadsurprised and embarrassed her in some questionable act. I hadspoken to her only when necessary, for I had determined to atonefor my previous conduct by maintaining a purely official attitudetoward her that would reassure her and give her no cause forapprehension as to my intentions.

This was a difficult rôle for me to play while I yearned totake her into my arms and tell her again of the great love thatwas consuming me; but I had succeeded so far in controllingmyself and saw no reason to believe that I should not be able tocontinue to do so, at least as long as Duare continued to give meno encouragement. The very idea that she might give meencouragement caused me to smile in spite of myself.

Presently, much to my surprise, she said, "You are very quiet.What is the matter?"

It was the first time that Duare had ever opened aconversation with me or given me any reason to believe that Iexisted for her as a personality; I might have been a clod ofearth or a piece of furniture, for all the interest she hadseemed to take in me since those two occasions upon which I hadsurprised her as she watched me from the concealing foliage ofher garden.

"There is nothing the matter with me," I assured her. "I amonly concerned with your welfare and the necessity for gettingyou back to theSofal as quickly as possible."

"You do not talk any more," she complained. "Formerly, when Isaw you, you used to talk a great deal."

"Probably altogether too much," I admitted, "but you see, nowI am trying not to annoy you."

Her eyes fell to the ground. "It would not annoy me," she saidalmost inaudibly, but now that I was invited to do the very thingthat I had been longing to do, I became dumb; I could think ofnothing to say. "You see," she continued in her normal voice,"conditions are very different now from any that I have everbefore encountered. The rules and restrictions under which I havelived among my own people cannot, I now realize, be expected toapply to situations so unusual or to people and places so foreignto those whose lives they were intended to govern.

"I have been thinking a great deal about many things—andyou. I commenced to think these strange thoughts after I saw youthe first time in the garden at Kooaad. I have thought thatperhaps it might be nice to talk to other men than those I ampermitted to see in the house of my father, the jong. I becametired of talking to these same men and to my women, but customhad made a slave and a coward of me. I did not dare do the thingsI most wished to do. I always wanted to talk to you, and now forthe brief time before we shall be again aboard theSofal,where I must again be governed by the laws of Vepaja, I am goingto be free; I am going to do what I wish; I am going to talk toyou."

This naïve declaration revealed a new Duare, one in thepresence of whom it was going to be most difficult to maintain anaustere Platonicism; yet I continued to steel myself to thecarrying out of my resolve.

"Why do you not talk to me?" she demanded when I made noimmediate comment on her confession.

"I do not know what to talk about," I admitted, "unless I talkabout the one thing that is uppermost in my mind."

She was silent for a moment, her brows knit in thought, andthen she asked with seeming innocence, "What is that?"

Her lids dropped and her lips trembled. "No!" she exclaimed."We must not talk of that; it is wrong; it is wicked."

"No, no; I do not mean that," she hastened to deny; "but it iswrong to speak to me of love until after I am twenty."

She shook her head, a little sadly I thought. "No, not eventhen," she answered. "You may never speak to me of love, withoutsinning, nor may I listen without sinning, for I am the daughterof a jong."

"Oh, yes, let us talk," she begged. "Tell me about the strangeworld you are supposed to come from."

To amuse her, I did as she requested; and walking beside her Idevoured her with my eyes until at last we came to the ocean. Farout I saw theSofal, and now came the necessity fordevising a scheme by which we might signal her.

On either side of the canyon, through which the river emptiedinto the ocean, were lofty cliffs. That on the west side, andnearer us, was the higher, and to this I made my way, accompaniedby Duare and the angan. The ascent was steep, and most of the wayI found it, or made it, necessary to assist Duare, so that oftenI had my arm about her as I half carried her upward.

At first I feared that she might object to this close contact;but she did not, and in some places where it was quite level andshe needed no help, though I still kept my arm about her, she didnot draw away nor seem to resent the familiarity.

At the summit of the cliff I hastily gathered dead wood andleaves with the assistance of the angan, and presently we had asignal fire sending a smoke column into the air. The wind hadabated, and the smoke rose far above the cliff before it wasdissipated. I was positive that it would be seen aboard theSofal, but whether it would be correctly interpreted, Icould not know.

A high sea was still running that would have precluded thelanding of a small boat, but we had the angan, and if theSofal were to draw in more closely to shore, he couldeasily transport us to her deck one at a time. However, Ihesitated to risk Duare in the attempt while the ship was at itspresent considerable distance from shore, as what wind there waswould have been directly in the face of the angan.

From the summit of this cliff we could overlook the cliff onthe east side of the canyon, and presently the angan called myattention to something in that direction. "Men are coming," hesaid.

I saw them immediately, but they were still too far away forme to be able to identify them, though even at a distance I wassure that they were not of the same race as the savages which hadattacked Duare and the klangan.

Now indeed it became imperative that we attract the attentionof theSofal immediately, and to that end I built two morefires at intervals from the first, so that it might be obvious toanyone aboard the ship that this was in fact a signal rather thanan accidental fire or a camp fire.

Whether or not theSofal had seen our signal, it wasevident that the party of men approaching must have; and I couldnot but believe that, attracted by it, they were coming toinvestigate. Constantly they were drawing nearer, and as theminutes passed we saw that they were armed men of the same raceas the Vepajans.

They were still some distance away when we saw theSofal change her course and point her bow toward shore.Our signal had been seen, and our comrades were coming toinvestigate; but would they be in time? For us it was a thrillingrace. The wind had sprung up again and the sea was rising oncemore. I asked the angan if he could breast the gale, for I haddetermined to send Duare off at once if I received a favorablereply.

We watched theSofal plunging and wallowing in therising sea as it forged steadily closer, and we watched the mendrawing near with equal certainty. There was no doubt in my mindas to which would reach us first; my only hope now was that theSofal could lessen the distance in the meantimesufficiently so that it would be safe for the angan to attempt tocarry Duare to her.

Now the men had reached the summit of the cliff on theopposite side of the canyon, and here they halted and observed uswhile carrying on a discussion of some nature.

Down the canyon side they came now. We watched them swim theriver and cross to the foot of the cliff where we were standing.We watched theSofal creeping slowly shoreward. I went tothe edge of the cliff and looked down upon the ascending men.They were half way up now. Then I returned to Duare and theangan.

"We can wait no longer," I said, and then to the angan, "Takethe janjong and fly to the ship. She is closer now; you can makeit; youmust make it!"

He started to obey, but Duare drew away from him. "I will notgo," she said quietly. "I will not leave you here alone!"

For those words I would gladly have laid down my life. Hereagain was still another Duare. I had expected nothing like this,for I did not feel that she owed me any such loyalty. It was notas though she had loved me; one might expect such self-sacrificeon the part of a woman for the man she loves. I was sweptcompletely from my feet, but only for an instant. The enemy, ifsuch it were, must by now be almost to the summit of the cliff,in a moment they would be upon us, and even as the thoughttouched my mind, I saw the first of them running toward us.

He reached for her, but she attempted to elude him; and then Icaught her, and as I touched her, all my good resolutions wereswept away, as I felt her in my arms. I pressed her to me for aninstant; I kissed her, and then I gave her over to thebirdman.

Spreading his powerful wings, he rose from the ground, whileDuare stretched her hands toward me. "Do not send me away fromyou, Carson! Do not send me away! I love you!"

But it was too late; I would not have called her back could Ihave done so, for the armed men were upon me.

Thus I went into captivity in the land of Noobol, an adventurethat is no part of this story; but I went with the knowledge thatthe woman I loved, loved me, and I was happy.

"Pirates of Venus," The Bodley Head, London, 1935

Movatterモバイル変換

Pirates of Venus

by

Edgar Rice Burroughs

BOOK 1 IN THE AMTOR SERIES

Serialized inArgosy Weekly, September 17-October 22, 1932
First US book edition: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., 1934
First UK book edition: The Bodley Head, London, 1935

This e-book edition: Project Gutenberg Australia, 2018

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

I. — CARSON NAPIER

II. — OFF FOR MARS

III. — RUSHING TOWARD VENUS

IV. — TO THE HOUSE OF THE KING

V. — THE GIRL IN THE GARDEN

VI. — GATHERING TAREL

VII. — BY KAMLOT'S GRAVE

VIII. — ON BOARD THE SOFAL

IX. — SOLDIERS OF LIBERTY

X. — MUTINY

XI. — DUARE

XII. — "A SHIP!"

XIII. — CATASTROPHE

XIV. — STORM

THE END

Movatterモバイル変換

Pirates of Venus

by

Edgar Rice Burroughs

BOOK 1 IN THE AMTOR SERIES

Serialized inArgosy Weekly, September 17-October 22, 1932 First US book edition: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., 1934 First UK book edition: The Bodley Head, London, 1935 This e-book edition: Project Gutenberg Australia, 2018

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

THE END

Serialized inArgosy Weekly, September 17-October 22, 1932
First US book edition: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Inc., 1934
First UK book edition: The Bodley Head, London, 1935

This e-book edition: Project Gutenberg Australia, 2018