With Tzien Khan and his four painted torturers confronting him in his
dungeon cell, Ted Dustin tried frantically to reach his pistol
degravitor through the hole he had scraped in his insulating armor, but
his efforts were of no avail. The hole was too small. He quickly dropped
his hand to his side in order that his attempt to reach the weapon might
not be detected.
Tzien Khan took a key from his belt pouch, and said:
“Bend down your head, O spawn of a maggot, that I may remove your
collar. And if you have a god, pray to him, for you have but a short
time to live.”
Ted bent over as directed, and as he did so he heard a tearing sound
that filled his heart with hope. While Tzien Khan fumbled with his
collar lock his hand stole to his right hip and confirmed his hopes. The
act of stooping over had completed the work of the past few days, and
his fingers closed over the butt of his degravitor.
As the collar dropped from about his neck, Tzien Khan ordered him to
straighten up. He obeyed, but as he did so, whipped out his degravitor,
pressed the trigger, and swung it in a narrow arc. The Khan and his four
torturers were wiped out before one of them had an opportunity to use a
weapon.
“Well done, Ted Dustin!” called Shen Ho from the opposite cell. “I had
given you up for dead.”
With the aid of his degravitor, Ted quickly got rid of his clumsy suit
of insulating armor and appeared before the astonished Shen Ho in the
rich garments of black and gold he had worn in Maza’s court. Then he
released his fellow prisoner by the simple expedient of flashing the
degravitor rays for an instant on the collar lock.
As soon as he was freed from his metal collar, Shen Ho armed himself
with the weapons of Tzien Khan, belting the richly jeweled sword and ray
projector about his waist. Then he took the weapons of the others, made
them into a bundle bound together with one of the belts, and strapping
the head lamp of Tzien Khan to his forehead, said:
“Come, Ted Dustin. Help me release my brothers, and I will help you
find, and, if the great Lord Sun wills, to slay the cruel tyrant who
disgraces the great name of P’an-ku.”
“If you will help me to find and destroy the big green ray he is going
to use against the earth I’ll go anywhere with you,” answered Ted.
“That I promise to do, also, or give my life in the attempt,” replied
Shen Ho as they hurried along the passageway.
When they arrived in the circular room at the base of the spiral ramp,
Shen Ho turned into the first passageway at his right. Other than bones
and dead bodies, he found only four half dead wretches, none of whom he
recognized.
Hurrying out of this passageway, he entered the next, and to his delight
found Fen Ho, his youngest brother, alive and able to travel. After the
young inventor of the projectiles and firing mechanism had been released
and armed, the three men hurried out to the central room and back to the
other passageways, one at a time, to search for Wen Ho. They found the
inventor of the flying globe in the last passageway, sick, and barely
able to talk. Shen Ho took a small phial of medicine from the belt pouch
of Tzien Khan, a little of which he dropped on his brother’s tongue. Fen
Ho, meanwhile, busied himself with cutting the collar from his brother’s
neck with his green ray projector, and belting a sword and projector
about his waist.
The medicine, it appeared, had marvelous stimulating qualities, for Wen
Ho quickly recovered his strength, and not only was able to travel with
sword and projector belted to him, but insisted on carrying one of the
long spears with a buzz saw-like head, which the torturers of Tzien Khan
had dropped, and which Shen Ho had brought in his bundle.
“Now,” said Shen Ho, “we must pass through the torture chambers in order
to get to the upper rooms of the palace. Every man must have his weapons
ready as the torturers of Tzien Khan are armed, and quick to draw.”
Ted, with a degravitor in each hand, now insisted on taking the lead as
they mounted the spiral ramp. On the way up, he met a guard, whose head
instantly vanished from the man’s neck before a leveled degravitor, and
whose weapons were appropriated by the Ho brothers.
Shen Ho extinguished his head lamp, now no longer necessary because of
the yellow rays from small globes of luminous liquid, and enjoined
absolute silence. As they mounted higher, however, this precaution was
made unnecessary by the agonized shrieks of the tortured victims above
them.
When they reached the door of the torture chamber, Ted, with both
degravitors ready for action, led a quick rush into the room. Twenty
painted torturers, taken by surprise, reached for their weapons, but not
one reached in time. Then Ted and Fen Ho plunged into the series of
smaller chambers on the right, while Shen Ho and Wen Ho took those on
the left.
One after another, painted torturers went down before the degravitors of
Ted or the green ray projectors of Fen Ho. Presently they reached the
last chamber of the series and found no torturer present. It was
occupied by but one victim, and Ted cried out in surprise as he
recognized him.
“Professor Ederson!” he exclaimed, “and I thought you safe in Chicago!”
A flash of his degravitor cut the heavy cable which held the cylinder of
water that was straining the professor’s neck cords, and it crashed to
the floor. Then, while Fen Ho swiftly released the savant’s hands and
feet, Ted removed the helmet and chin clamp.
The professor attempted to speak, but his voice failed him, and he
suddenly fainted, toppling into the arms of his young friend.
“I’ll carry him to the main torture chamber,” said Ted. “You find Shen
Ho and get that little bottle of medicine that revived Wen Ho. It may
work on my friend.”
“It will,” replied Fen Ho, speeding away.
When Ted reached the central chamber with the slight form of the
professor drooping in his arms, he found the three Ho brothers awaiting
him.
“Every torturer has been slain,” said Shen Ho as he dropped some
medicine on the tongue of the professor, “and no alarm has been given as
yet, but we must work swiftly.”
The professor regained consciousness and the power of speech with
remarkable speed, while Fen Ho and Wen Ho busied themselves with
releasing such torture victims as were not yet mortally injured and
mercifully dispatching the others. These men were armed with the weapons
of the torturers and instructed to hold the chambers against all comers.
“Thank you, Ted,” said the professor, “and these friends of yours for
saving my life. I had reached the end of my rope both literally and
figuratively. A few more drops of water in that cylinder would have
snapped my cervical vertebrae.”
Ted introduced the three brothers to his old friend, and in a few
moments the professor declared himself able not only to walk unaided,
but to bear weapons. He declined one of the pistol degravitors when it
was preferred him, but took a green ray projector, sword, and buzz-saw
spear.
“Now for that big projector of P’an-ku’s,” said Ted.
“It will be in the second peak,” answered Shen Ho. “Follow me, and I’ll
get you there in the shortest possible time.”
He led them along a narrow, winding passageway in which two palace
attendants were met and summarily dispatched, to the base of a
cylindrical shaft in which there was a diamond-shaped door. Shen Ho
pulled once, then twice, then once again, on a tasselled cord that hung
down from the center door, and the clang of a gong within answered each
pull. Then there was a humming sound from behind the door, and it slid
upward, revealing the interior of a large, bullet-shaped car with a lone
operator who was attired in armor of brown metal and wore a sword and
ray projector in his belt.
No sooner did he see the five men in the passageway, than he reached for
the control lever with one hand and his ray projector with the other. He
had no chance to use either, however, for Wen Ho, anticipating this,
swiftly thrust with his buzz-saw spear for the neck of the operator. As
he thrust, he pressed a button in the side of the shaft which started
the blade whirling and Ted, for the first time, saw the terrible
efficiency of this weapon, the teeth of which cut through the armor
plate as if it had been cheese, instantly shearing the head of the guard
from his body.
Then body and head were tossed from the car, and the five men, with Shen
Ho at the controls, shot upward.
Through the small diamond-shaped windows of the car, Ted saw that they
presently shot above the roof of the palace, swiftly climbing a slender
cable which extended up into the stalactite covered vault above. Just
beyond the distant city walls, in every direction, he could see the
flashing of green and red rays which told him that Maza was attacking
the city, though he did not suspect that she had been taken prisoner.
The car continued to travel upward on the slender cable until it entered
an enormous, cone-shaped shaft more than a mile in diameter at the base,
and slanting upward toward a glassed in opening at the top which was
about five hundred feet across, and admitted a considerable amount of
light to which there was a queer, greenish cast.
Shen Ho, also looking upward, said:
“See, Ted Dustin. Already they are using the great ray against your
world.”
“I hope and pray that we will be able to prevent them from using it much
longer,” replied Ted.
“Amen,” said the professor fervently.
Although the car was traveling upward in the shaft, which was plainly a
volcanic crater, at a terrific rate of speed, Ted chafed impatiently
until Shen Ho moved the control lever, gradually bringing it to a stop.
He moved another lever and the diamond-shaped door slid upward,
revealing a railed landing platform fastened to the side of the crater.
Ted was the first to step out, and as he did so, he saw a party of
people not more than fifty feet away on the same platform. Instantly he
recognized the slender figure of Maza, still in her shining armor, being
dragged along between two burly warriors while P’an-ku walked ahead.
They had just stepped out of a car similar to the one in which he and
his companions had come up, and P’an-ku, one foot on a winding stairway
which led up into the rock, was saying:
“So now, little white Princess, I will show you the conquest of a world,
after which you will perhaps not think so ill of me as a prospective
husband. At the head of these stairs is my—”
He did not finish the sentence, for Ted, at this instant, blasted the
heads from both the warriors who held Maza, with his degravitors, and
the sound of their armored bodies clattering to the floor interrupted
him.
He whirled, whipping out a green ray projector, but before he could
level it, Ted had destroyed it with a flash from one of his degravitors.
He could as easily have destroyed his arch enemy then and there, but
preferred to take him prisoner.
“Halt!” he commanded, “or—”
The sentence remained unfinished, for P’an-ku, with an alacrity which
was astounding for one of his weight and years, had suddenly turned and
darted up the winding stairway, disappearing beyond a curve in the wall.
In the meantime, the professor and the three Ho brothers had stepped out
on the platform and were gazing at Ted, the Princess, and the two fallen
warriors in an effort to understand just what had taken place.
“Guard the Princess,” Ted called to them. “I’m going after P’an-ku.”
With one terrific leap he landed at the foot of the stairway, then
bounded up taking ten steps at a time with ease, momentarily expecting
to overtake the yellow monarch around each curve. But P’an-ku had had a
good start, and evidently was climbing with a speed far greater than
that of which he appeared capable.
At length Ted sighted him, climbing a metal ladder which led upward from
a platform at the head of the stairway to a room above which was filled
with an intricate array of machinery worked by more than a score of
armed men and guarded by an equal number. Just above it the giant green
ray flashed out horizontally.
This time it was no part of Ted’s intention to waste words on P’an-ku.
Deliberately he raised a degravitor and sighted for the bullet head of
the monarch.
But before he could press the trigger there was a blinding flash of
light, and the monarch, ladder, men, machinery and projector—all
disappeared from view as completely as if they had never existed. Then
there hove into view the prow of a flying vessel on which was inscribed
the word “Luna,” and Ted shouted for joy, waving frantically at two
figures in the control cabin whom he recognized as Roger and Bevans.
The air where he stood was being rapidly vitiated by its sudden contact
with the tenuous atmosphere of the outer surface, but Ted stayed long
enough to gesture toward the glazed top of the shaft, patted his
degravitor, and then pointed one finger downward. Roger nodded as if he
understood, and the Luna started for the glazed opening. Then the young
scientist, gasping for breath, plunged down the stairway to the platform
where Maza, the professor, and the Ho brothers awaited him.
The Luna had already cut through the glazed top when he arrived, and was
descending toward the little group on the platform. She drew alongside,
opened a door and admitted them before there was any notable change in
the quality of the air.
In the happy reunion that followed, Ted, with his arm around his radiant
little Princess, presented each of his friends in turn. Then he said:
“We still have work to do. The army of the Princess is storming the city
and, I’m afraid, fighting a losing battle against the globes of
P’an-ku.”
“We can settle those globes in short order,” replied Roger. “After ’em,
Bevans! You should have seen what we did to the fleet sent against
Ultu.”
“What did you do to them?”
“Cleaned ’em out to the last globe,” replied Roger.
“Then you saved my city!” exclaimed Maza. “How can I thank you?”
“Don’t thank me,” replied Roger, “thank Ted. Besides, he’s in a better
position to collect a reward than I am. Excuse me, please, while I
direct the degravitor fire.”
Protected by her degravitor barrage, the Luna first descended to a
position just above the great docks of P’an-ku, where she made short
work of the reserve fleet. Then she rose and circled the city, safe from
the menace of either red or green rays, leveling the walls with her keel
degravitors while the gunners in the turrets picked off the globes.
Quickly recognizing a friend in the strange and seemingly indestructible
craft, the hosts of Ultu cheered, and went into the battle with
redoubled vigor. In less than twenty minutes after the Luna had come on
the scene, the last globe was destroyed and the city was in the hands of
Maza’s army.
The Luna stopped in the palace courtyard for several hours, during which
time Maza proclaimed Shen Ho Viceroy of Peilong—then proceeded to Ultu,
where Ted and his Princess were married in regal magnificence, according
to the ancient rites and customs of Maza’s people.
OTIS ADELBERT KLINE has been described by the founder of The Burroughs
Bibliophiles as “the only author to be compared with Edgar Rice
Burroughs, but whose work is as original as Burroughs’ own.” A
contemporary of the author of Tarzan, Kline wrote his own series of
novels of interplanetary adventures, all of which have become classics
of science-fiction. Available from Ace Books are the following:
THE SWORDSMAN OF MARS (D-516)
THE OUTLAWS OF MARS (D-531)
PLANET OF PERIL (F-211)
PRINCE OF PERIL (F-259)
THE PORT OF PERIL (F-294)
and another story of “The Planet of Peril” is included in the anthology
SWORDSMEN IN THE SKY (F-311).
[Illustration: Maza of the Moon]