Still side by side, George and Dee rode back toward Anglese City. It was
further than George had thought; then he realized that the girl had
turned into a different road. He shouted a question at her.
"A shorter way to the cavern," she explained.
The wind whistling past them made conversation difficult. George
understood that they were skirting the city to where the cavern stood on
the other side. They were still in the open country; a road of white
sand, palm lined, with a forest jungle all around, and only an
occasional house.
George's mind was in a turmoil. Toroh taking the other plane into time!
Memory came to him of all those greater civilizations he and Rogers had
seen though the centuries they had passed. Toroh was going back to those
civilizations to secure weapons! The thought turned George cold all
over. With the weapons from former, greater ages, Toroh and his army of
Noths would be invincible.
Words in the wind sweeping by startled George into sudden alertness.
"_Death to disloyal Bas!_"
It seemed as though some tiny voice had whispered it to him.
Dee had checked both the dogs abruptly.
"What's that?" George demanded.
It came again:
"_Death to disloyal Bas! Death to disloyal Bas!_"
The air was whispering it, then calling it; a myriad voices echoed it
everywhere.
"Look there!" cried Dee.
Ahead of them, a mile or so away, a blue light was standing up into the
sky. There was a house near at hand, a Bas shack. From it a woman and
two naked children came running out into the moonlight, panic-stricken
at the dread words with which the air resounded.
And then the words changed:
"_Bas women will not be exiled! Bas children will be free!_"
The woman in front of the shack clutched her children, listening,
rejoicing--almost unbelieving.
Dee had started the dogs forward again. Swiftly she explained to George
what she thought it might mean--a radio proclamation from Fahn. In a few
moments the light over the cavern had vanished; the voices in the air
died away.
George's mind reverted to their own situation; the incident had given
him an idea.
"Dee, where are Azeela and Toroh now?"
She thought an instant; momentarily the mental bond with her sister had
been broken.
"Very near Orleen, she thinks. They have heard the voices. Toroh is very
angry. He had hoped much that the Bas would rebel. It would have helped
him."
"Near Orleen!" George echoed. "Can't we get to the Anglese Cavern
first?"
"I think so." She had started Rotan into a run, but George called her to
stop. Even at the risk of losing more precious time, he questioned her.
"Dee, listen. Are the caverns of Orleen and Anglese City connected by
radio?"
"Yes," she said.
"Then listen. We'll get to Anglese City first and tell them to inform
the guards at Orleen. When Toroh and Azeela arrive they can seize
them--if we warn them ahead."
She nodded with instant comprehension.
"All radio isn't broadcast audibly, is it?" he added.
"No," she said. The dogs were running faster. She called back over her
shoulder. "We'll do that. I'll tell Azeela."
They swept forward, the dogs settling low to the ground as they ran.
A great weight seemed to have lifted from George. It would be simple
enough, after all--merely notify the Orleen Cavern by radio, and Toroh
would be seized when he presented himself with Azeela.
George contemplated the outcome. With Toroh in their hands, the Noth
attack would collapse. There would be no war.
It was a race then; the only thing that could go wrong would be if Toroh
got to the other cavern first. Rotan and Dee were ahead; the girl's
slight figure clinging to the dog showed in the moonlight. George
whispered to Atal, thumped the dog's flank with his hand.
As they caught up with Dee, he shouted, "Where's Azeela now? Will we
make it?"
"Yes," she answered. "I think so."
The mountain that housed the cavern loomed ahead through the palms;
houses lay to the right, the outskirts of Anglese City. Half a mile more
and they would be there.
Atal's upflung head brought George out of another reverie. The dog,
still running at full speed, was sniffing the air. George heard Rotan
growl, and Dee's sharp command for silence.
Another command from the girl, and both dogs stopped; Atal slid on his
haunches, checking himself so abruptly that George was flung to the
sand.
He was unhurt. He picked himself up to find Dee beside him.
"Someone is coming," she said sharply. "Someone the dogs know is not a
friend."
She spoke to the dog, and pulled George to the side of the road where a
cluster of banana trees cast an inky shadow. Together they stood there
in silence. Atal and Rotan had disappeared. The road was a white ribbon
in the moonlight. George listened, but could hear nothing. He tried to
question Dee, but she silenced him.
Presently there came the thud of running feet; from the direction of
Anglese City two running dogs with riders swept into view. The riders
were men, black cloaked and wearing masks. Arans, from the festival,
George thought.
They would have passed without seeing the lurking figures under the
banana trees had not Atal and Rotan, in spite of Dee's command, suddenly
charged them from the shadows across the road.
The two men, shouting in anger and alarm, tumbled from their mounts. The
four dogs tangled in a snarling, biting mass.
Still George and Dee were unseen in the shadows. One of the men in the
road had lost his cloak and mask; the moonlight showed his face.
"One of Toroh's brothers," Dee breathed into George's ear. In the
dimness he could see she was raising the small, crescent-shaped weapon.
Some noise that she or George made must have alarmed the men, who were
no more than ten feet away. They looked sharply across the road, and
then, evidently seeing nothing, they turned back to where the dogs were
still fighting with a deadly fury.
Sparks leaped suddenly from Dee's outstretched hand. The men turned. One
of them cried out in terror, but they both stood stiff and motionless.
"We've got 'em!" George shouted. "Good work, Dee!"
He would have leaped forward, but her free hand gripped him.
"_Quick! The globe!_"
One of the men, supposedly stricken beyond the power to move, was, by
some superhuman effort of will, slowly raising his hand; his fingers
clutched a tiny black globe. It came up very slowly, as his almost
paralyzed muscles struggled with its weight.
But George recovered his wits. He snatched his own globe from his
pocket, pointed it, pulled the trigger.
The night was split by a flash, a tiny, sizzling snap of thunder; the
globe recoiled in George's hand. Across the road the bodies of the two
men lay motionless on the sand.
Dee was leaning against a banana trunk panting. Her face had gone white,
but she smiled as George turned to her.
"They almost got us," she said.
George himself was trembling, but he would not let her see it.
"Almost, Dee. Next time I'll be ready. I didn't realize..."
Among the trees across the road the dogs were still fighting. One of the
Noth dogs lay motionless, torn and bleeding. Atal and Rotan together
were attacking the other--the three rolling and tumbling as they bit and
tore at each other, their huge bodies trampling down the banana trees as
they fought.
"Dee, could I use the thunderbolt on them?"