Sandra touched his hand, smiling wanly. "It's no use pretending, Larry.
We're caught in a trap, you and I. Fate has destroyed us; thrust us
forward into a Time when man is without mercy. Humanity is dead. All
that remains is a race of grinning, scientific demons."
"That," interrupted Larry feverishly, "is where you're wrong,
youngster! I haven't been sitting around twiddling my thumbs while you
were gone. I've had a visitor."
"A--a visitor?"
Larry told her, then, of the silver-haired giant who had forced
entrance into the cell. "His name was Sert. He was a man and a friend.
He was one of the Underlings."
"The Underlings?" repeated Sandra.
"Yes. This world we are in is not peopled only by cold-blooded
creatures like Harg. There are two mutant races of humanity. One tall
and strong, as we always dreamed the future-man might be; the other
spindling, puny, and viciously intelligent.
"These latter, Harg and his fellows, are the descendants of those
men whose brains, for some reason more receptive to the stimulus of
ultra-short wave radiation, were spurred to great heights during the
period of the Great Catastrophe.
"The cosmic bombardment had three types of result. Either it killed
outright--and Sert tells me that millions died--or it damaged the brain
and did not harm the body, or it impaired the physique and stimulated
the brain. During the era of chaos which preceded the building of the
_impervite_ domes, the highly activated dwarfs seized the reins of
leadership. They have held them ever since. The Underlings are their
workers, their slaves, their servants."
Sandra said despairingly, "But I don't see how it can profit us to join
forces with dull-witted slaves--"
"Slaves, yes! But they are dull-witted no longer. Generations have
erased the madness from the Underlings' brains. The Masters hold them
in subjection now only because they have superior armament. The golden
force-ray, for one thing.
"But rebellion is stirring amongst the Underlings. Sert is one of the
leaders of a secret rebel party. He was stealing through the building,
seeking new converts, when he accidentally entered our cell."
Some of Larry's excitement communicated itself to the girl. She said,
"But what are we going to do?"
"Sert," Larry told her, "taught me how to open the doors around this
joint. It's not hard when you get the hang of it. Every wall has a
door-lock. The locks work on a network of selenium cells imbedded
in the metal; these are controlled automatically by body-radiation
emanating from the fingertips. Ever hear of anything like that before?"