"Just as I thought," I said. "That, honey, is the rock known as
parabolite. The toughest, most impervious substance in the solar
system. Nothing marks it, scratches it, or even budges it. We couldn't
get past here with an intercontinental size collapser!"
"But Jery, look!" Snow cried, pointing at the wall. I looked. The flat
wall of parabolite, the impervious mineral, was going slowly concave in
the center. I took hold of Snow by the shoulders, and pulled her back
from that rapidly deepening hemisphere, expecting--I don't know _what_
I was expecting. But I was scared speechless.
The thing bulged back away from us until its diameter was equal to that
of the tunnel itself, and then, before my hypnotized gaze, the deepest
section of the ruddy mineral gaped, like a hole suddenly pricked in the
side of a bubble. The remainder of the parabolite wrenched violently
away from the opening, leaving us a clear gateway into--
Into a vast chamber of eye-disturbing metal, that shifted and shimmered
in some mind-chilling fashion that made me want to turn and run with
Snow back down that black tunnel behind us.
"Come in, Jery Delvin," said the voice of an _ancient Martian_.
15
Snow and I stepped into the great gleaming chamber. I was very much
disconcerted when the wall behind us contracted suddenly back into
place. Wherever we were, we were there until the Ancients decided to
let us out.
"Who is the person with you?" said a voice. It had a frowning note to
it, but I could not discern the source of the words anywhere in that
silver-white blur of metal universe that spread away from us in all
directions.
"She--" I said as boldly as possible, feeling like an escapee from
Fenimore Cooper "--she is my woman!"