Despite the mighty bounds with which Ted Dustin pursued the hideous
flying reptile which was carrying off Maza of the Moon, the star-like
gleam of her head lamp quickly grew more dim, showing that he was being
rapidly outdistanced.
Presently it twinkled and went out, but he continued his pace, unabated,
in the same direction.
As he hurried on, huge herbivorous dinosaurs, disturbed at their
feeding, raised their massive heads from time to time to contemptuously
snort fiery vapor at the queer and insignificant creature that bounded
past them. Mighty reptilian carnivores, their bloody feasts interrupted,
were more hostile, snarling or roaring hideously when he passed close to
them, but he paid no heed to either.
Once his path was barred by a great, quill covered creature resembling a
tiger, with the exception of the tail, which was a short, thick,
spine-covered stub. It was larger than a draft horse, and presented a
most fearsome appearance. With gleaming tusks bared, and sickle-like
claws unsheathed, it sprang for him.
He halted, digging his toes into the ground for an instant to stop his
forward momentum—then leaped backward, alighting fully fifty feet behind
the spot on which he had stood. Before the creature could spring again
he brought both pistol degravitors into play, and although the invisible
beams played for but a moment across the huge breast of the beast, it
was as if a giant scythe had suddenly cut through it, dividing the
dorsal part of the body from the ventral. The claws and belly,
apparently impelled by something akin to reflex action, leaped weakly
forward, but the head and upper part of the body slipped off and fell to
the ground behind them.
Without pausing to view the unusual sight of four massive legs wabbling
disjointedly about carrying a great, sagging belly, Ted again pressed
forward.
Presently the character of the country he was crossing changed. At first
the shimmering, undulating surface of the savanna was broken by
occasional outcroppings of white stone, mostly conical in form, but as
he progressed, the vegetation grew more and more sparse until it
disappeared altogether. He was in a forest of white columns, cones and
pyramids—mighty stalagmites that dwarfed to insignificance anything of
which he had ever heard or read, reaching upward toward equally huge
stalactites, depending from the vaulted roof above. The ground beneath
his feet was completely covered by rock fragments, varying in bulk from
mere white powder to huge boulders weighing thousands of tons—evidently
the remains of both stalactites and stalagmites dislodged by seismic
disturbances.
His pace was slackened by these constant obstructions, and by the fact
that the light gradually diminished in intensity as he drew away from
the luminous vegetation. As he penetrated further and further into the
deepening gloom that shrouded the ghostly columns there came to him the
conviction that his quest was well nigh hopeless. There came, also, in
the dark moment, the realization that the girl he had known for so short
a time had come to mean far more to him than a mere companion in
adventure—that if she were dead, life would have little to offer him.
Tired and dejected, he sat down on a boulder to rest and to think.
Automatically he reached in his pocket for his black briar. As he did
so, a tiny pebble suddenly fell at his feet. Several more followed as he
quickly glanced upward.
Just behind him the huge stump of a broken stalagmite, fully a hundred
feet in diameter and forty feet to where it had been cracked off, reared
its shattered head. Turning his gaze toward it, he saw the tip of a huge
pinion brushing back and forth across the edge as if its owner were
engaged in a struggle. But most important of all, he noticed that the
end of the wing as well as the broken edges of the stalagmite were
bathed in a white radiance which differed in color and appearance from
the phosphorescent luminosity of the lunar flora and fauna. Was it from
the head lamp of Maza?
Bounding to his feet, he looked in vain for a place to climb the
stalactite. Then, remembering the advantage his earthly muscles gave
him, he backed up for a few paces, took a running start, and sprang into
the air.
He had hoped to be able to catch hold of the rim of the broken top, but
to his surprise, he passed completely over it, alighting in a cup-like
depression about twenty feet in diameter which housed two of the
homeliest looking creatures on which he had ever set eyes. They were
scrawny, long legged, goggle eyed caricatures of the flying reptile
which had carried off his companion some time before. Standing on the
edge of the rim, dangling the girl by one leg in its huge mandibles and
balancing itself with outspread wings, was the reptile itself,
apparently trying to feed her to its young. That they had been unable,
thus far, to do more than strip some of the wool from her armor, was
evinced by the condition of their saw-edged bills, which both were
shaking for the evident purpose of trying to rid them of the annoying
fuzz.
All this, Ted saw at a glance, and no sooner saw than he acted. Whipping
out a degravitor, he completely severed the great, arched neck of the
reptile with a single sweep of its deadly ray—then caught the girl in
his arms as she fell head-long, and was himself knocked to the floor by
the falling, hissing head of the monster, while its giant body fluttered
and toppled backward to crash to the ground a moment later. Partly
stunned though he was by the blow from that huge head, he quickly
dispatched the two hideous young ones with his degravitors—then turned
his attention to the girl who lay across his lap.
Her eyes were closed and her head hung limply against the side of her
glass helmet. Quickly opening her visor, he chafed her cheeks and
forehead and blew on her eyelids, the faint flutter of which presently
notified him that her consciousness was returning.
“Ted—Ted Dustin,” she murmured, and snuggled more closely to him.
He held her thus for a few moments, his heart beats registering an
acceleration that could not possibly have been due to his recent
exertions. Then she opened her great blue eyes, looked up into his, and
said:
“_Kari na Ultu._”
This, he interpreted to mean: “Go to Ultu,” so he, not having sufficient
lunar vocabulary to ask her in what direction, managed to convey his
question by signs.
She sat up, looked at the instrument strapped to her wrist for a moment,
then pointed in the direction in which they had been traveling.
“Ultu,” she said.
For answer, he rose, still holding her in his arms, walked to the edge
of the stalagmite, and stepped off, alighting at the end of the forty
foot fall with no more of a jar than a similar step from a height of
seven feet would have caused on earth.
Her little exclamation of alarm as they fell was changed to a cry of
surprise and delight when she saw they had reached the ground unhurt.
Then she signed that she wished to be put down.
He gently lowered her to her feet, and together they pressed on into the
deepening gloom—their way now made easier by the light of the girl’s
head lamp, reflected with many weird effects by the spectral white
columns.
For many miles they traveled through murk so black that it seemed almost
to have solidity, their range of vision limited to the small area
lighted by Maza’s head lamp. Then a faint phosphorescent twilight
tempered the thick darkness, and scattered tufts of luminous vegetation
led into a mighty, tangled jungle, as well lighted by its own flora as
the first one they had crossed.
Before they entered it, Ted unholstered one of his degravitors and,
handing it to his companion, showed her how to fire it by pressing the
trigger. She tested it, first on a clump of luminous toadstools and then
on a small flying reptile, and he was delighted to see that her
marksmanship was excellent, due, no doubt, to her proficiency with a red
ray projector.
Then she extinguished her head lamp, and together they plunged into the
riotous medley of sound and color, of strange smells and stranger sights
that constituted a lunar subterranean forest.
After more than an hour of travel through the jungle without molestation
from any of its queer creatures, they arrived at the bank of a swiftly
flowing stream about sixty feet across.
The girl took a small drinking cup from a pocket of her armor, dipped it
in the stream, and offered it to Ted, but he gallantly shook his head,
indicating that she should drink first. She did so, sipping the water
slowly as if it had been the last glass of some priceless wine of rare
and ancient vintage. Ted filled his canteen in the meanwhile, and drank
a deep draught, finding the water slightly alkaline, but quite
palatable.
Having drunk her water, Maza opened two clasps which loosed her glass
helmet, and lifted it from her head. Then she sat down on a low
toadstool and began a minute examination of the fine wires on the crest
which constituted the antennae of her radio set. She worked with them
for some time, her white brow often wrinkled in puzzlement, but
presently gave up with a shrug of disappointment.
Then Ted, who had been watching her intently, took the helmet from her
hands and closely examined the broken head-set himself. His knowledge of
radio, combined with his extraordinary inventive genius, stood him in
such good stead that it was not long before he had located the source of
the trouble.
While he set rapidly to work to repair the damage with tools from his
pocket kit, his companion gathered some dried and broken ribs of tree
fronds that had fallen nearby and ignited them with a tiny red ray from
a small lighter she carried. Then, taking Ted’s hunting knife from its
sheath, she cut several slabs from a pear shaped mushroom that grew near
the water’s edge, spitted them on a green frond, and grilled them over
the fire.
By the time Ted had finished his work of repairing her small radio set,
she had spread the top of a toadstool with large flat leaves in lieu of
a table cover, and placed thereon tastily grilled slabs of mushrooms,
together with several varieties of small fruits which grew in abundance
all around them.
Returning her helmet to her, Ted showed his admiration of her lunar
woodcraft and culinary skill by seating himself opposite her and
heartily falling to. The mushroom slabs were delicious, and the odd
fruits exceptionally palatable.
When they had finished, Maza pressed the signal button connected to her
head-set, there was an answering voice, and she immediately began a
conversation which lasted several minutes, but which Ted was, of course,
unable to understand. Once he saw her glance at the instrument on her
wrist, and judged that she was telling someone their location. Presently
she ceased talking, walked to a bed of moss beneath some long,
overhanging fronds, and lay down as if to sleep, motioning Ted to do
likewise.
Tired as he was, Ted could not bring himself to even think of closing
his eyes in so insecure a spot, so he sat down on the moss beside her,
unholstered his degravitor, and patting it, indicated that he would
guard her while she slept. She closed her eyes without protest, and
presently the regular rise and fall of her small, shapely bosom
indicated that she was asleep.
For several hours Ted amused himself by watching the strange creatures
of the earth, air and water. Giant saurians, with necks gracefully
arched, paddled lazily past, sometimes darting their heads with
lightning like rapidity into the water, and usually bringing up fish or
small amphibians in their powerful jaws. Small flying reptiles, soaring
low, sometimes descended to the surface of the water, sometimes dived
beneath it, triumphantly emerging with living, wriggling food morsels
which they usually swallowed as they flew, with little or no
mastication.
But tired nature gradually asserted itself, and Ted finally caught
himself nodding. He shook himself awake, but eventually nodded again,
and thinking to close his eyes for but a moment, slept.
His awakening, he knew not how long thereafter, was rude and startling,
for a warrior clad in glittering silver armor was kneeling on his chest,
holding the point of a keen sword to his throat while two others,
similarly accoutred, held his arms against the ground. His first thought
was for the safety of his girl companion, but a glance showed him that
she was completely surrounded by a ring of the armored soldiers.