As the others came sliding down into the room, Larry gave each one a
formal introduction to Diana. The glow in the girl's eyes showed that
she enjoyed their utter amazement. For a girl who had been born on the
Moon, even though of Earthly parents, Diana Staunton had a great deal
of poise and self-possession.
"I am only a Goddess to the sluggish minds of the Insect-men," she
explained in answer to Ripon's question. "To our own people of the Lost
Caverns I am simply the daughter of one of the nobles."
"I knew your father thirty years ago," Ripon said.
"He has always told me that other men from Earth would come some day."
"Your father can tell me most of the things I want to know, but I am
wondering how you managed to survive up there on the surface where
there is little or no air and it is always so cold."
"I could not stay very long." From a fold in her loin cloth the girl
drew out a tightly closed glass bottle that held some white tablets.
"These contain oxygen mixed with some gases unknown on Earth, the whole
very strongly compressed into solid form. Ten minutes after I swallow
one, it is safe for me to go out on the surface. The effect lasts for
about fifteen minutes."
"Pretty risky if anything delays you," Larry said. Diana shrugged, and
her blue eyes grew somber.
"Someone has to do it. The loyalty of the Insect-men is our greatest
protection against the evil Lords of Gral-Thala. This is the first time
there has ever been anything like a revolt among the Insect-men. I do
not know what lies behind it, but it probably means trouble for us of
the Lost Caverns."
Colton was the last to come down the rocky shaft. Larry noticed that
the second officer was ill at ease, disinclined to meet his eyes, and
wondered if Colton was ashamed of either his late entry into the fight
or his fear of coming down into the Moon's interior. Hardly likely!
From what he knew of Gerald Colton, the man was not likely to be
ashamed of anything he did.
They went through a maze of gray walled passages, still trending
downward. Once or twice Larry thought he heard stealthy footsteps
behind them, but there was no one in sight when he looked back. On
several occasions they passed sentries wearing a makeshift armor, who
saluted Diana with long bladed swords. Sometimes they spoke to her in
English with a peculiar soft accent, sometimes in that strange tongue
that Diana had first used.
Larry noticed that these Lunarians looked only slightly different from
the peoples of Earth. They had larger eyes, and a greater delicacy of
feature. The principle distinguishing feature was their very thin legs.
Often they had wide shoulders and deep chests, but since they did not
need strong supporting muscles in view of the Moon's slight gravity
their legs were thin and narrow.
The sentries stared curiously at the Earth-men in their bulky space
suits, but the fact that the newcomers were with Diana Staunton seemed
to be sufficient passport. They began to pass a greater number of
people in the corridors, and finally they stepped through a heavily
guarded gate and came to a vast cavern.
The place was huge, extending for a good mile ahead of them and with a
lofty roof lost in the shadows overhead. Some of the gigantic columns
that supported the roof were made of heavy stone blocks. Others were
natural rock that had been smoothed and polished. All over the floor of
the cavern were narrow streets, and small cottages built of some queer
composition that came in a rainbow of different colors, and little
patches of some sort of green grass. A golden and rather misty light
pervaded the whole cavern. Square shafts of a brighter radiance darted
down from above at irregular intervals, and wherever one of them
struck the floor of the cavern there was a small patch of cultivated
ground with long-leafed plants.
"Agriculture by chemical control!" Ripon whispered in Larry's ear.
Diana glanced back at them over her shoulder.
"This is Chotan, largest of the Lost Caverns," she said. "The Council
of Elders is now in session, and it will be best that we go direct to
them."
"Why do you call these the Lost Caverns?" Larry asked.
"Because we who live here are outlaws, and the location of these vast
caves is not known to the Lords of Gral-Thala who rule the other side
of the Moon."
"Apparently not all the inhabitants of the Moon are so friendly," Ripon
said.
"If you came into the hands of the Lords of Gral-Thala," she said
grimly, "they would tear the skin from your bodies and use it to lace
their scented golden boots!"
Large-eyed Lunarians stared curiously at the Earth-men as they hurried
through the streets of the underground village. Diana led them direct
to a broad-beamed, red-roofed building that stood by itself in the
center of the cavern. A dozen elderly men sat behind a long table
of carved wood that was black and cracked with age. It was, Larry
realized, the first wooden thing he had seen since he landed on the
Moon. At either side of the chamber stood a squad of armored warriors.
Larry was staring at a curious device that was carved in the center
of the table, and carried on a banner hung above the heads of the
council, and inlaid in a white metal on the bluish steel shields of
the guards. And then he recognized it! It was the crescent Earth, the
profile of the mother planet as seen from the Moon when the Americas
were still in sunlight and the shadows of night were creeping across
the Atlantic. The sight of it made him home-sick. The crescent moon had
been a religious symbol to many of the ancient races of Earth, and it
was fitting that the crescent earth should hold a similar place on this
isolated satellite.
It seemed to Larry that Diana was a trifle nervous over something. She
had entered the council chamber with an air of confidence, lifting one
arm in a stately gesture of greeting and asking the Elders to accept
the men from Earth as friends and guests, but he sensed a degree of
uncertainty behind her manner. In hasty phrases she told the council of
the revolt of part of the Insect-men, and of the timely arrival of the
strangers from the mother planet.
"And so I request that you accept these men into the Brotherhood of the
Caverns!" she finished. The graybeards behind the long table nodded
gravely, but before they could speak another voice rang but in a sharp
challenge.
"And I, O Elders of Chotan, demand that these interlopers be put to
death in accordance with the ancient law of the Caverns concerning
unwanted strangers!"
X
The speaker was a fair-haired young man in a green cloak. He looked
more like an Earthling than a Lunarian, with his sturdy legs and small
eyes. He pointed an accusing finger straight at Larry in a dramatic
gesture, and Diana wheeled to face him with anger in her voice.
"You talk very loudly of the ancient laws, Xylon, for a newcomer only
recently taken into the Brotherhood because you fled as an outlaw from
the Lords of Gral-Thala!"
"I did not make the laws!" Xylon retorted.
"The death penalty for strangers has not been strictly enforced for
many years--or _you_ would not now be alive! It is up to the decision
of the Elders!"
The council chamber was in an uproar, with shouted phrases flung back
and forth. Larry laid a hand on the butt of his ray-gun. A keen-eyed
officer of the guards caught the gesture, and instantly Larry found a
pair of rifles directed at his chest. At least, they looked like some
sort of compressed air rifles. They had fiber stocks, and long barrels,
and a cylindrical magazine beneath the barrel. Then a deep voice
dominated the tumult as a red-haired man in full armor forced his way
through to the forefront of the crowd.
"The girl is right, O Elders and members of the Brotherhood!" he
boomed. "Xylon talks like a fool. I, Pyatt of Kagan, urge that the
strangers from Earth be accepted. Let Xylon remain among us for a
little while longer before he attempts to dominate our councils!"
Larry could sense the swing of sentiment in their favor, could feel
the lessening of the tension. The man called Xylon shrugged and turned
away. Then the council took a formal vote, waving the ancient death
penalty and allowing the strangers the freedom of the Caverns. One of
the Elders near the end of the table rose to his feet. He wore the
typical black robes of the Council, but as Larry looked closely at the
man's lined face he saw the resemblance to Diana and knew that he was
looking at Lester Staunton.
"Since these men are from what was once my own land," Staunton said, "I
will make them comfortable in my house for the duration of their stay
here."
As the crowd began to stream out of the council-chamber, the red-headed
man pushed his way through to Ripon and Larry. He was unusually burly
and big-thewed for a Lunarian, and though his face was marred by a pair
of old scars he had a wide and cheerful smile.
"Welcome to the Cavern of Chotan!" he boomed. "I am Pyatt of Kagan,
military commander of all the armed forces of the Caverns. Later I
will want to talk to you about that revolt of the Insect-men, which is
something that has not happened before. Also, we will drink a goblet of
wine together."
"Then you have wines on the Moon?" Ripon asked, visibly brightening.
"Aye, wines of many sorts. Though my own taste runs more to the
strong-waters that fire the blood and set a man's head to spinning."
"I can see that you and I have a lot in common!" Ripon grinned.
* * * * *
Just before they left, Xylon came up to shake hands with Larry.
"No hard feelings, Earthling!" he said. "It is just that the safety and
liberties of the Caverns are very precious to one like myself, who has
so recently become an outlaw, and I did not think that we should take
any chances."
"That's all right," Larry said shortly. Now that he saw Xylon at really
close range, he realized that the man was older than he had thought.
His appearance of youth vanished when you saw the many fine wrinkles
in his face and the weariness around his eyes. He had a dissolute
appearance. Xylon might be sincere in his bid for friendship, but Larry
felt that there was something serpentine and evil about the man.
With Diana and her father and a few others, they walked along one of
the many winding paths of Chotan. Larry noticed that the chemically
grown plants had no scent at all. The motionless, warm air was suffused
with a misty and golden light. Small, neat houses built in various
bright colors stood amid their plots of grass. It was a strange scene
to Earthly eyes, that cavern far below the Moon's chill surface, but it
was a pleasant spot in its way.
The women they passed along the walks were dressed like Diana, in a
gayly colored loin-cloth with a narrow band across the breasts. Most of
the men wore a loose, colored cloak in addition to the single garment.
Only a few were armed.
Larry had taken off the right mitten of his space suit to shake hands
with Pyatt and Xylon in the council chamber. Several times he had
started to replace the mitten, but something had always distracted him
and he was still carrying it in his left hand. Now, as he happened to
give the mitten a shake, a small insect of a blood-red color fell out
and landed on the walk. It looked something like a miniature scorpion.
Larry had only a hasty glimpse before Pyatt of Kagan leaped forward and
crushed the crawling thing with the heavy sole of his sandal.
"That was a _spanto_!" he said. "Their bite means death within ten
seconds. I wonder how it came to be in your glove!"
"I wonder myself!" Larry said grimly, looking across the field at the
green-cloaked figure of Xylon, who had turned off on another of the
branching walks. It would not have been hard for Xylon to have dropped
the insect in his glove! As if in answer to his thought, Diana spoke
quietly:
"I do not trust Xylon any farther than I can see him, friend Larry!
There is something unclean in his eyes when he looks at me."
"If he looks at you too much while I'm here I'll break his jaw!" Larry
said. The girl looked up at him with a sudden smile that was also a
challenge.
"I begin to understand why my father has always said that I would like
the men from Earth better than the Lunarians!"