_O'Malley Investigates_
Spud O'Malley's twinkling Irish eyes had seen strange sights in his
years of piloting an Intercolonial freighter; he had touched at odd
corners of the Earth. But never had he seen such creatures as confronted
him now.
Sheltered behind a jagged ridge of volcanic rock in the inner crater of
the great ring of Hercules, he stared in utter horror at the figures
that approached. For to Spud, with all his inherited ancestral faith in
gnomes and pixies, these bat-winged things were nothing less than people
of the under world--demons from some purgatory of the Moon--devils,
living and breathing, spewed out from that buried hell for a moment of
relaxation from their horrid work.
And, coming directly toward him across a level lava bed, three of the
things, with leather wings trailing, were approaching. Spud was
unmoving; his feet might have been one with the volcanic rock on which
he stood for any ability of his to raise them. Only his eyes turned
slowly in their sockets to stare wildly at the three who drew near; who
glimpsed his awe-stricken eyes behind his helmet glass; and who uttered
shrill, screaming cries that brought the rest of the unholy crew leaping
and flapping across the rocks.
And, within that helmet, Spud's lips moved unconsciously to repeat
prayers he would have sworn were forgotten these many years. There was a
pistol at his belt where his hand was resting; another hung at his other
side. But the man made no move to defend himself; he was struck numb and
nerveless, not through fear, but through that horror which comes with
seeing one's most gruesome superstitions come true. Spud O'Malley, who
would have laughed at devils and believed in them while he laughed, knew
now that they were real. They had captured Chet; they were about to take
him, too, to the hell that was their home.
* * * * *
And still he did not move while the demon figures pressed closer, while
their wild, shrieking cries echoed within his helmet; while they lashed
their scaly tails, and at last leaped in unison upon the helpless man.
And then, with that first touch, Spud O'Malley, who had not only seen
strange creatures but had fought with them, came to himself--and the
hand that rested upon a detonite pistol moved like the head of a
striking snake.
The roar of detonite was strained and thin in the light atmosphere of
this globe; it seemed futile compared with its usual thunderous report.
But its effects were the same as might have been expected on Earth!
Spud was hurled to the rocky floor, as much by the closeness of the
exploding shells as by the weight of the bodies that came upon him. He
fell free of the first leaping things that went to fragments in mid-air
as his pistol checked them. And he made no effort to arise, but lay
prostrate, while he swung that slender tube of death about him and saw
the winged beasts shattered and torn--until there were but five who ran
wildly with frantic, flapping wings; and these the tiny shells from
Spud's gun caught as they ran when the Irishman sprang to his feet and
took careful aim across the jagged rocks.
"Saints be praised!" the pilot was saying over and over. "Saints be
thanked!--even the Devil's imps can't stand up to detonite shells! And
Chet, the poor lad!--his gun must have been knocked from his hand; he
was fightin' in the dark, too! And they took him down there, they
did!--down where I'm goin' to see if the lad is still livin'."
And Spud O'Malley, though he believed fully in the demoniac nature of
these opponents and never for an instant thought but that he was
descending into an inferno of the Moon, strode with steady steps toward
the portal of that Plutonic region and lowered himself within.
* * * * *
That ring of metal, huge and accurately formed, made Spud pause in
thought; the massive metal door that came up from below to fit that ring
snugly--that, too, looked more like the work of human hands than of
demons. The pilot was frankly puzzled as he tentatively moved a lever
down below that door and saw the huge metal mass swing shut.
About him the walls were glowing. He saw, in the floor, another circular
door, but found no lever with which to operate it. Nor did he search for
one, since he could have no way of knowing that here was where Chet had
gone. But, from the corridor where he stood other lighted passages led;
and one slanted more steeply than the rest.
"That's the way I'm goin'," announced Spud. "I know that, and it's all I
do know; I'm goin' down till I find some place where the devils live and
where Chet may be."
The passage took him smoothly down. It turned at times, and smaller
branches split off, but he followed the main corridor that he had
selected for his route. And he paused, at last, beside a metal frame in
the rock wall, where the door that fitted so tightly in the frame was
not like the others he had seen. For the first ones, though cleverly
fashioned and machined, were of iron, rusted red with the ages; while
this one that was before him now was paneled and decorated with sweeping
scrolls. And, above this portal that seemed hermetically sealed, was a
white figure such as Chet had seen.
* * * * *
Spud's gaze traveled up to it slowly, and his knees were trembling as
they had not done when facing the black-winged ones. "'Tis an angel," he
whispered, "or the statue of one! And that explains it all. 'Tis them
that has done all this--these passages, and the sweet-fittin' doors. And
do they live here? I wonder. Heaven help me if I meet them, for never
could I shoot at one of them, the pretty things!"
He was still gazing in rapt wonder that was near to worship when the
great door began to move. He saw the first hair-line crack, and the thin
line of light was like a hot wire across his eyes, so quickly did he
respond. Beyond, where he had not yet gone, was a branching passage. All
the walls glowed softly with light--no shelter of darkness was his--but
Spud leaped for the little passage and raced down it until a turn
screened him from sight.
"That's movin'!" he congratulated himself. "What an athlete I'm
becomin'!" And it was fortunate for the pilot that the ceiling was high,
for his tremendous Earth-strength propelled him in unbelievable bounds.
He still moved on silently, for far ahead in the corridor something had
caught his eyes. And he stopped finally beside a little car; then saw
that he had been following a single rail, buried under the dust of ages
on the corridor floor.
The monorail car lay on its side. At one end of it was a motor. Not a
motor such as men had built, Spud confessed, but an electric motor none
the less. And beyond this, where the passage ended, was a wall veined
thickly with gold.
* * * * *
Ropy strands of the metal shone reddish-yellow in the soft light of the
walls; detached pieces lay on the floor and in the car itself. Spud
regarded it with amazement, but the wealth he was witnessing left him
cold; another thought was forcing itself into his brain.
That thought took more definite form when another corridor took him to
rooms where great metal cases were neatly stacked; other adjoining rooms
held strange machinery and appliances on metal stands.
"Lab'ratories!" said the amazed man explosively. "And storehouses, too!
Neither angels nor devils did this; 'tis the work of men--and I know how
to get along with men. I'll go find them. Belike they have saved the
lad, Chet, and he'll be waitin' to see me."
He raced back along the corridor, but stopped short at its end, where he
had taken flight from the larger passage. There was sound of shrieking
voices, and Spud dropped to the floor to present as small a view as
possible to the half-human things that trailed their black wings past
the metal entrance; then he crept cautiously to peer around the corner,
when the last one had gone.
They were waiting out beyond; Spud watched them intently. They had great
nets of rope in which were living things that struggled and writhed.
He saw one of the creatures stoop to break off a protruding end of
pinkish, nameless substance; the thing seemed to struggle in his hands
while he took it to his mouth and munched on it. Even when Spud realized
that this living food was vegetation of some sort, he was still sickened
with the sight of its being taken alive into the bodies of these
Moon-beasts.
* * * * *
One of the ugly figures raised a black-clawed hand to seize a lever let
flush into the wall. It had been concealed. Spud saw the door open; saw
the waiting horde troop through, dragging their loaded nets; and he saw
the door close silently, while the actuating lever moved back to its
former position.
And Spud, speaking half aloud, counted slowly to a hundred, then another
hundred, as a gage of the time while he waited for those beyond the door
to move on. But at the count of two hundred his eager hands were upon
the lever, while his eyes were hungry to stare beyond the opening door.
They found nothing but emptiness when the door swung wide. Another room
of luminous walls; another door in the farther wall. The man moved
slowly through the doorway one cautious step at a time and stared about.
He found a lever like the others, moved it--and saw the door close
silently behind him. Another lever was near the second door; he pulled
carefully, steadily, upon it.
There was no movement of the door, but something had occurred as he
knew by the hissing sound that came from above his head. Its source he
could not find; its result was most startling. For, where before his
suit had bulged out roundly with the inner pressure of one atmosphere,
it now became less taut--and it hung loosely about him when the hissing
ceased.
"An air-lock," said Spud joyfully, "or I'm a rat-tailed imp myself! That
means a heavier air-pressure inside. And now I know 'tis men folks I'm
goin' to see!"
* * * * *
The lever moved easily now, and the second door swung open and closed
behind him as before. Spud tore recklessly at the fastening of his suit,
regardless of the fact that an increased pressure might still come from
some gas that would mean death to a human. But, like Chet, he found the
air fragrant and pure, and he rid himself of the encumbering suit,
strapped the pistols at his waist, rolled the suit to a bundle he could
sling over one shoulder, and moved carefully as a cat as he went forward
through a corridor that led down and still down.
As he went the empty labyrinth of halls filled him with a horrible
depression; yet there was beauty everywhere--beauty whose delicacy of
curve and color filled even the untrained mind of Spud O'Malley with a
thrill of delight.
There were halls and vast rooms without number; there were carvings that
glowed with a light of their own--figures so filled with the very spirit
of livingness that they seemed stepping out from the cold walls to greet
him; there were more celestial hosts of purest white poised apparently
in mid-flight.
There were marvelous, rioting waves of color that pulsed and throbbed
through the walls and the very air of some rooms; and there were
articles of furniture--carved tables, chairs--objects whose purpose
Spud could not guess. But, except for the occasional sound of shrill,
squeaking voices in the distance, there was no sign of the presence of
the builders, the men Spud had hoped to find.
And he knew at last that his quest was hopeless. The dust of uncounted
centuries that lay thickly upon all was evidence as convincing as it was
mute.
"There's naught but the devils!" Spud despaired. "The others--saints be
helpin' of them!--have been gone for more years than a man dares think
of. So, the devils it is; I'll follow them--I'll go where they are. But
I'm not so sure at all of findin' the lad now."
* * * * *
That high-pitched chattering that had come to him at times was his only
guide now. It seemed echoing in greater volume from one passage that
slanted down more sharply than the rest. Spud followed it, clinging with
hands and feet to the steep-pitched floor; but some sudden impulse
seized him and compelled him to stop at intervals while he drew a pistol
from his belt. Its grip was of steelite that rang sharply as a bell when
he struck it upon the walls. And he tapped out the general call of the
Service time after time; then strained his faculties in eager listening
until he went hopelessly on.
But he repeated the call. "For the lad may hear it and be heartened," he
argued. "And if he's free to do it he'll answer--though I think I'd
break down and cry with joy did I hear an answerin' rap."
And still the chattering grew louder, while the watching, creeping man
moved stealthily on. A wave of gas came to him once and set him choking,
while far ahead he saw a reflected glow more red than the pale, lucent
shimmering of the walls.
He stopped dead still as once more there flooded through him a thousand
unnamed fears of this domain of the Evil One where he would trespass.
But he forced his feet to carry him on until he could peer down through
a rift in the rock floor to behold another room whose walls glowed redly
with the light of fires far down in hot-throated pits.
* * * * *
There were figures whose white bodies shone as redly in that
glow--figures that floated on outspread leather wings of dead black.
Small wonder that the mind of Spud O'Malley found here the confirmation
of his worst fears; small wonder that his trembling lips whispered:
"'Tis Hell! 'Tis Hell, at last!"
But there was that which froze his quivering nerves to cold quiet, which
set his lips into a grim, straight line and held him motionless above
the opening from which he saw the room below--as, from a flurry of
bodies against one far side, he saw a girl emerge.
She was in the hands of the black-winged beasts who carried her into the
air then swung out toward the fiery pit. And Spud's incredulous: "Oh,
the poor, beautiful darlin'!" rose unconsciously to his lips to die away
in a quick-drawn breath. For, from the mass of bodies, another figure
was tossed up into the air to be gripped by black, waiting claws--and
Spud knew that he was seeing Chet Bullard, fighting, struggling, in the
grasp of these demons from the Pit.
* * * * *
The fumes from that inferno rose straight up. They passed out at another
funnel-shaped throat except for an occasional eddy that whirled back
toward the watching man. But Spud O'Malley, hanging precariously from
that opening above, knew nothing of the sulphurous fumes or of the
tight band they clamped about his throat. He was taking careful aim at
the first of the flying beasts, found Chet in his line of fire, and
snapped forward his pistol to fire at the lip of the pit instead. And he
slipped forward the continuous discharge lever that caused the pistol to
shake in his hand as it emptied its capacious magazine in a furious rain
of bullets whose every end was tipped with the deadliest explosive of
Earth.
The floor rose up toward him in a spouting volcano of fire, while Spud
glared wildly through glazed and blinded eyes and swung his pistol to
rake the flying horde where he knew Chet was not.
He saw, through the haze that was sweeping before him, Chet's sprawled
body on the floor; he saw him leap to his feet and rush to the rescue of
the girl. Then the empty pistol slipped from Spud's nerveless hand; and
his other, that had clung with unshakable grip to a sharp edge of rock,
relaxed, while he plunged headlong toward the floor below.