_The Crater Gnomes_
It seemed to Sarka, as he moved down the inner slope of the crater,
that the cubes were somehow making sport of him, laughing at him,
though no hint of laughter or anything resembling laughter emanated
from them.
But, shutting his lips grimly, holding fast to Jaska's hand, he
proceeded on, reached the lower portion of the inner slope, where it
dropped off into a seeming black abyss, and dropped, keeping to a safe
speed because of the fact that both he and Jaska were attired for
movement in the air--though their manner of aerial transportation
could scarcely be called flying.
The anti-gravitational ovoids simply rendered ineffectual the law of
gravity.
Down they dropped, endlessly it seemed, while all about them, growing
gradually, a bluish glow began to make itself manifest. Sarka turned
and looked at the face of Jaska and noted that it--all her being--was
glowing with this strange radiance.
He smiled at her, and she smiled back.
Looking down now, to what seemed still a vast depth, they could see
figures moving, tiny, almost infinitesimal, about a great circular
cone, out of the depths of which came that strange bluish column whose
outer tip touched the Earth.
* * * * *
Some inner sense warned Sarka not to touch that column, or to permit
Jaska to do so. They dropped down beside it, while Sarka, for no
reason that he could assign, once more took his ray director in his
free hand and held it in readiness. It seemed so tiny and futile--so
foolish for two people, one of them a woman--to go into the very heart
of an alien world, against an unknown enemy, armed with such a tiny
weapon. Two people against unguessed myriads, whose very nature was an
enigma, even to Sarka.
Closer now appeared the bottom of the crater, whose floor seemed to be
covered with something that looked like blue sand, or rock. From this
bluish substance the glow which bathed the two Earthlings seemed to
emanate.
The funnel of the crater had now given away to the immensities of
space, in all directions, and the cold of outside was being replaced
by a warmth which promised soon to be even uncomfortable.
Then, without a jar, the two landed at the bottom of the crater, side
by side, close enough almost to that great cone to touch it. Out of
the cone came that bluish column, to shoot up through the funnel down
which the two had lightly dropped ... and the motion of the--whatever
it was--was accompanied by a muted moaning sound, like that of a
distant waterfall.
They paused there, in amazement, taking stock of their surroundings.
Huge tunnels, whose roofs were lost to invisibility in the bluish
haze, whose extremities could only be guessed at, reached off in all
directions. As far as the two could tell they were the only living
souls within the crater, though both knew better.
Sarka had the feeling, and he knew Jaska shared it with him, that
innumerable eyes were studying them, innumerable intellects were
cataloguing them. And somehow he sensed the presence, somewhere near,
of the traitor Dalis!
* * * * *
Then that discordant sound again, breaking so swiftly that it fell
upon the eardrums of Sarka and Jaska like the crack of doom. Out of
the many tunnels, from all directions, came hordes of beings which
would have made the nightmares of Paracelsus--first of the scientists
of Earth--pale to insignificance.
Paracelsus had written and illustrated his nightmares. Had hinted of
strange acts of flesh-grafting--as the grafting of legs on the head of
man. He had spoken, and written about, ghastly operations, from which
men came forth as part men, part spiders; part men, part scorpions,
dogs, cats, crocodiles....
Sarka thought, as his mind went back to those ancient books of his
people in which still remained vestiges of the theories of Paracelsus,
that somehow, in his dreams, Paracelsus must have visited the craters
of the Moon.
These people ... if they could be called people....
They had heads like the heads of Earthlings, broad-domed of brow,
lacking eyelashes or lids, so that their eyes were perpetually
staring. They possessed no bodies at all, and their legs, thin and
attenuated to the size of the wrists of average men, seemed to support
the massive heads with difficulty!
From all directions they came, looking like spiders such as Sarka the
First had described to Sarka, when Sarka had been a mere boy. They
came on the floor, out of the tunnels; they dropped from the walls of
the tunnels, and down from the invisible roofs, landing on the floor
as lightly as feathers--and all converged on Jaska and Sarka.
They seemed to have no fear at all, but only a vast curiosity.
Closer and closer they came.
* * * * *
Jaska's grip tightened on the hand of Sarka, for one of the creatures,
with a spiderish leap, had jumped upon her, fastening its legs in her
tight-fitting costume, where he hung, his face within an inch or two
of hers. His lidless eyes, unblinking, stared deeply into hers.
Others jumped up beside the first, and still others clambered over
Sarka, until both Sarka and Jaska were covered by them like beetles
attacked by ants. But these strange gnomelike creatures, who did not
fear these strangers, apparently meant them no harm.
Then, after a thorough scrutiny, began the strangest talking Sarka had
ever heard. The crater-Gnomes seemed to communicate by making strange
clucking sounds with their tongues, sounds which were unmusical and
discordant, and which, as the Gnomes who stood back from them, because
already the two were covered until no more could cling to Jaska or
Sarka, joined in the speech--mounted in the cavern to a vast crescendo
of sound.
Sarka knew then that this was the sound which had come out to them
while they crouched at the crater rim. These were people of the Moon:
but if these were Moon-men, what, or who, were those gleaming cubes?
"Stand perfectly still," Sarka mentally admonished Jaska, "they
apparently mean us no harm!"
He had not spoken aloud, had not allowed his thought to reach any but
Jaska; yet instantly the discordant clucking ceased, and the Gnomes
were quiet, as though they politely listened to someone who had
interrupted them, yet whose interruption they resented, or were
curious about.
* * * * *
Wondering how the creature would regard his action, Sarka reached
forth and plucked away the first Gnome which had jumped upon Jaska,
and placed him gently on the ground. The thing merely stared at Sarka
with his lidless eyes, as though wondering at Sarka's meaning. Then
his lips, which were triangular, rather than straight as those of
Earthlings, began again that strange clucking.
Immediately the Gnomes which clung to Jaska and Sarka dropped away,
and scuttled into the midst of the myriads that stood and watched.
They did not understand the speech of these Earthlings, but they were
unusually clever in comprehending the meaning of gestures.
"Hold fast to me, Jaska," thought Sarka toward her--and wondered anew
as the Gnomes instantly ceased their clucking sounds--"for I am going
to try an experiment."
Holding her hand still, he turned and strode straight toward the huge
cone out of which rose the bluish column.
Instantly the Gnomes broke into a frightful clucking of tongues, a
sound that mounted to ear-drum-breaking intensity, and in a trice,
climbing over one another to get into position, they moved in between
Sarka and the cone. So eager were they to bar his further progress
that they stood atop one another, until the depth of them was as tall
as Sarka standing upright.
Yet, though they plainly said to Sarka: "You must not approach the
cone," they did not seem to be angry with their visitors, but only
curious. Sarka looked at Jaska, noted how wanly she smiled.
Then he turned, and headed for the nearest of the monster tunnels.
* * * * *
Instantly he detected a surprising eagerness in the renewed clucking
of tongues, while the Gnomes raced ahead, behind, all about the two,
capering like pet animals, showing these strangers the way into the
tunnel.
As they entered it, Sarka tried to discover whence came the bluish
glow. The floor seemed to be of bluish sandstone, though its color,
too, might have been caused by the glow. It was warm, too, so warm
that perspiration was breaking out on the cheeks of Sarka.
Whence came the glow? Apparently from the very walls of the tunnel, or
its roof; but surely from somewhere, surely from some secret place,
whence it was diffused all over.
"And Jaska," said Sarka, "the Moon, according to my father's
researches, is literally honeycombed with craters like this one!"
Again, as he thought, that strange, sudden cessation of the clucking
of the Gnomes. Whither were they leading them? It was plain to be seen
that the Gnomes were heading for some destination, almost herding
Sarka and Jaska toward it. Capering creatures, who behaved witlessly,
yet were far from witless. If Sarka were not sadly mistaken, these
were Moon-men--and women, too, perhaps, since he could not tell the
sex of them--and those gleaming cubes were their outer guards, perhaps
slaves.
If the cubes were really of metal--they had felt warm to Sarka's
touch--then these Moon-men had gone further in science than
Earthlings, as they had imbued at least some metals, or stones, with
intelligence sufficiently advanced for them to perform actions
independently of their masters' wills.
* * * * *
Sarka, too, was remembering another thing: that he had touched one of
these Gnomes, to remove it from Jaska--and had felt a distinct shock
that was patently electrical!
The bluish glow was increasing, becoming more soft and mellow, shading
gradually into golden, as they advanced--shading still as they
preceded until it was almost white, almost blinding, in its radiance.
Then, of a sudden, the clucking of the Gnomes ended, and the creatures
ceased their capering, fell into something that might have been an
ordered military formation, and with Jaska and Sarka in the midst of
them, moved straight toward a broad expanse of the tunnel wall, in the
face of which appeared three long lines, deeply cut in the shape of a
triangle.
The Gnome who had first leaped upon Jaska advanced to the wall, paused
with his face almost against the lower line of the triangle, and
remained there, intently staring, while the other Gnomes remained
mute and unmoving.
Stronger and stronger appeared the blinding light. Slowly the inner
portion of the triangle began to give inward, like a door. And out of
the opening came that blinding radiance.
As the triangular door stood entirely open, Sarka and Jaska stood in
thunderstruck silence, staring like people bereft of their senses. For
there, standing in the opening, the now white radiance itself a mantle
to cover her, was a woman, unclothed save for the radiance, who might
have been of the Earth, save that she was more beautiful than any
woman of Earth.
Beside her the radiant beauty of Jaska paled, became wan and sickly.
But Sarka noted immediately her eyes, whose depths bewildered, amazed
him. For in them he could see no expression, no feeling, but only
abysmal cruelty. That she was Sarka's master, and Jaska's master, and
master of all these Gnomes, became instantly apparent for
telepathically she addressed Sarka.
"I am busy now. The Moon-people will hold you prisoners in the Place
of the Blue light, until I am ready to give you to the Cone!"