Astounding Stories of Super-Science, May, 1930 Read online

  The Atom-Smasher

  _By Victor Rousseau_

  _It was sublime and terrible, and on the result of thatconflict depended--what?_]

  [Sidenote: Four destinies rocket through the strange Time-Space of theFourth Dimension in Tode's marvelous Atom-Smasher.]

  CHAPTER I

  _The "Vanishing Place"_

  "Look at that plane! That fellow's crazy! Took off with the windbehind him! He'll nose dive before he clears the clubhouse! He'llcrash into those trees along the edge of the golf course!"

  The group on the field at Westbury, Long Island, held their breaths asthey watched James Dent take off in the wildest, most erratic flightthat they had ever seen. Under lowering storm clouds, with the windroaring half a hurricane behind him, Dent spiraled upward as ifunconscious of the laws of Earthly gravity.

  "I told you so! You ought to have stopped him, even if it is hisprivate plane! A feller's got no business trying to break his neck!Look there! He's cleared those trees after all!"

  James Dent had cleared them, and the clubhouse too, and was alreadydisappearing across the Hempstead Plains, looking like a leaf whirlingup in a winter storm. At a height of five hundred feet he spedeastward.

  "Didn't tell you where he was going?"

  "Nope, acted like a crazy man. Something on his mind sure. Whereverhe's bound for, he'll never get there!"

  * * * * *

  But James Dent was already out of sight, and the little groupdispersed. And Dent, winging his way due east, over the oak barrens ofcentral Long Island, was conscious neither of the storm that howledabout him nor of the excitement that his rash take-off had occasioned.

  The rain lashed him in the open cockpit, the ground fog swirled abouthim, and, though it was still afternoon, there brooded a sombertwilight over the wastes. But in his mind Dent was alreadyanticipating his descent at the "Vanishing Place," as the nativescalled it near Peconic Bay.

  The "Vanishing Place" was so called because of the terrible andinexplicable catastrophe that had occurred there five yearspreviously. In the two-century-old farmhouse, Miles Parrish, theworld's greatest authority on physical chemistry, had been conductinginvestigations into the structure of the atom.

  James Dent and Lucius Tode had been associated with old Parrish inthis work, which, carried to a successful issue, would revolutionizethe social organization of the world. The energy locked up in the atomis so stupendous that, as Eddington indicated, a thimbleful of coal,disintegrated, would carry the _Mauretania_ from England to Americaand back again. To unlock this energy would be to set man free frombondage, to restore the pristine leisure and happiness of Eden.

  * * * * *

  And because the three men were playing with deadly forces, ofincalculable power, this deserted spot had been selected for thecarrying on of the investigations. The old farmhouse had beenconverted into a laboratory. For days together the three had bent overtheir tubes and laboratory apparatus, hardly eating or sleeping. Andthe day had come when success had seemed almost within their grasp.

  Dent had received six months' leave of absence from his duties atColumbia University in order to prosecute the experiments. As theweeks went by, and the blind track that the three were followingopened into a clear road, a sort of madness settled upon every one ofthem.

  The Planck-Bohr quantum theory that the energy of a body cannot varycontinuously, but only by a certain finite amount, or exact multiplesof this amount, had been the key that unlocked the door. But always ithad been Lucius Tode who led the way. Tode was a graduate of theUniversity of Virginia, and accounted one of the most brilliant mindsof his generation. At thirty, he stood head and shoulders above hiscontemporaries.

  Dark, handsome, fearless, with a will power that nothing seemed ableto subdue, he had taken the leadership away from old Miles Parrish,who eagerly and without thought of his own reputation followed in hisassistant's footsteps.

  There were the three men--and there was the girl, Lucille Parrish, thechild of Miles's old age. Seventeen, when the catastrophe occurred,she had come out to the deserted spot sometimes of a Sunday from herboarding school at Garden City.

  And Tode had found time to make love to her when he rushed her back toher school in his high-powered foreign car!

  Jim Dent had known nothing of that until after the catastrophe.Lucille had been afraid of him, afraid to open her mouth upon thesubject even to her father. And she had been fascinated too, as ayoung girl may well be, when a fascinating man of thirty uses his artsto win her.

  * * * * *

  It was only by chance that Jim had failed to be involved in thehideous catastrophe that had stamped the old farmhouse with the nameof "Vanishing Place" whenever the natives spoke of it.

  "Two Killed in Laboratory Explosion!" was the heading in the nextmorning's paper which gave Jim his first intimation of the accident.He had been to Columbia overnight to look up a new publication thatcontained an article on the hydrogen spectrum.

  It was only a long paragraph, and the names of Parrish and Tode meantnothing to the man who had written it. But Jim had taken train toHempstead, taxied to the flying fields, and essayed his first planeride to Peconic Bay, in the charge of a pilot.

  A group of natives, three newspaper men and a Suffolk County policemanwere near the spot where the farmhouse had been--near the spot, not onit.

  For where the farmhouse had been was a great pool of stagnant water,black as ink, covering an expanse of perhaps three-quarters of anacre.

  "No, sir, there was no explosion," said the officer. "At least, noneof these fellows heard anything. Just a--you tell the Professor, Mr.Lumm."

  "It was about half-past eight last night, Mr. Dent," said Andrew Lumm,who kept the village store a mile away. "Ground seemed to rock.Earthquake, I says to myself, holdin' on to the door. But it wasn't noearthquake. Too gentle for that. Nothin' broke, not even a plate. ThenI says to Mrs. Lumm, 'They're gone, poor fellers, and I allus knowedit would be that way. It's lucky young Mr. Dent went out last night onthe 7.15.'

  "We hurried here, but there wasn't no sign of the place, jest a holeon the ground with a sort of sticky mud in it. Water's been fillin' insince then, but I guess it's reached its level now. They jest blowedthemselves to bits, Mr. Dent."

  "Tell him about the vi'let light, Andy," put in one of thebystanders.

  "Yeah, like a pillar of vi'let fire that were, Mr. Dent. We seed itthrough the trees, but by the time we got here it was 'most gone.Gosh, that throwed a scare into some of us!"

  "It was Mr. Tode's soul a-burnin'," squeaked Granpop Dawes. "I allussaid that feller'd come to no good end."

  The group shook their heads and remained silent. It was clear that, ifthey did not share Granpop Dawes's opinion, at least they consideredit not without the bounds of plausibility. Lucius Tode had created abad impression among the natives.

  * * * * *

  Jim Dent stooped and picked up something lying imbedded in the mud atthe edge of the black pool, and slipped it into his pocket. He hadbeen present at the inquest and had gone back to Columbia. That hadbeen five years before.

  Professor McDowd, the palaeontologist, had identified the object Jimhad found as the milk molar of _merychippus insignis_, the miocenerepresentative of the modern horse. And that had made Jim Dent thinkfuriously.

  The catastrophe must have been a gigantic one to have flung up thatfossil tooth from strata far beneath the level of the earth's surface.More, there were even traces of archaean deposits around the bordersof the pool, whose depth, in the center, was ascertained to be 164feet.

  Black, silent, uninhabited, unstirred save by a passing breeze, thepool had remained those five years past. The spot was shunned ashaunted or accursed by the superstitious country folks. Denseunderbrush had grown up around it.

  Periodically, Jim had gone out to visit it. That was how he had cometo invest in a private plane. It was only an hour to t
heflying-fields, and less than an hour from there to Peconic Bay. Whathe expected to achieve he did not know. In the back of his mind wasthe belief that some day he would light upon some clue that wouldtell something of the unusual catastrophe.

  And then that afternoon he had been shaken to the depths when amessage came to him in Lucille's voice over the telephone:

  "I've heard from dad!"

  * * * * *

  Winging his way eastward through the storm, Jim Dent was mentallyreconstructing all that had led up to the present moment.

  Lucille had finished her high school course and gone into businesslife. Jim had found a position for her as secretary to a small groupof physicists, who were conducting private investigations, a positionfor which her training well fitted her. She had done well. He had keptin touch with her.

  Six months before, their relations had altered. They had realized thatthey were in love with each other. In the months that followed theyhad discovered all sorts of things about each other that neither hadsuspected, which might be summed up by saying that they had become allin all to each other.

  It was so amazing, this transformation of ordinary friendship intoradiant love, that they were still bewildered over it. They were to bemarried at the end of the year.

  It was then that Lucille had first told Jim about Lucius's wooing, andher fear of the man. Apart from that, both had refrained, by tacitagreement, from making reference to the past.

  And then, that afternoon, there sounded Lucille's voice over thetelephone, "I've heard from dad!"

  "From--your father? You're mistaken, dear!"

  "No, Jim, I'm not mistaken. He called me on the 'phone two hours ago.I couldn't mistake his voice, and, besides, he called me "Lucy," likehe used to do. He told me to come at once to the Vanishing Place, butnot to tell a soul unless I wished to do him a great evil. Then herang off."

  "Where are you now?" asked Jim.

  "I'm 'phoning from Amityville. I took the train immediately, but Iwas so frightened, and--and at last I decide I must tell you. I didn'tthink dad would have minded my telling you. So I got out. There'sanother train in a few minutes, and I shall go on to Hampton Bays andwalk the two miles to the Vanishing Place. I--I'll meet you there."

  "Lucille, wait! Can't you meet me somewhere else, and we'll go ontogether. I'll get my plane and--"

  "Oh, I just can't wait, Jim! I'm in such terror that I won't find dadwhen I get there. And he told me to tell nobody. I--I'll meet you atthe Vanishing Place, Jim."

  And so great had been her agitation that with that arrangement Jim hadhad to rest content. He had taken a taxi out to the flying fields atonce.

  * * * * *

  In half an hour he would know what had happened. And he was obsessedby the terror that he would not find Lucille or anything except thelonely pool.

  That was why he opened the throttle and drove on wildly through thescurrying wraiths of mist, pierced by the tops of trees that at timesrose dangerously near the spreading wings.

  That gap in the trees was Lake Ronkokoma. Not far now! Jim would knowsoon. But as he flew, vague fears that had beset his mind since he hadreceived Lucille's message began to crystallize into the single fearof Tode. If Parrish was really alive--why not Tode too?

  Beneath the polish and the surface comradeship, Jim had always beenconscious of some _diablerie_ about the man, of some inner life ofwhich he knew nothing. Something unscrupulous and relentless,something infinitely cruel--as when he had tested the Atom Smasher ona stray cur that had run into the laboratory, not for experimentation,but in mere ruthless savagery, converting the living beast instantlyinto a shapeless mass of flesh and bone.

  And Tode had known more about the Atom Smasher--as they affectionatelycalled the mechanism for releasing atomic energy--than old Parrish andhe together. Suppose Lucille's story were true! Suppose old Parrishwere actually alive, suppose Tode were responsible for some designedscheme which would, in the end place Lucille in his power!

  Wild thoughts and fears--but Jim would soon know. And with throttlestretched to the limit he went roaring over the scrub oak towardPeconic Bay.

  * * * * *

  It was beginning to grow dark, almost too dark for landing. But nowJim could feel the tang of the salt wind upon his face. He sloweddown. The fog was as thick as ever, but the scrub oak had given placeto more open country. In a minute or two he ought to sight somelandmark. Yes, he had overshot his mark, for suddenly, through a gapin the mists, he saw the line of breakers forming a white ridge uponthe sand.

  A mile southward! Jim knew where he was now, for he knew every curveof that shore. He banked and turned. And then he saw something thatfor an instant chilled his blood.

  Not far away, and not far beneath him, a ghostly violet haze wasspreading through the fog, and the fog itself was coiling back from ituntil it formed a dense white wall.

  For a moment Jim's hand was paralysed upon the stick. The next, hisdecision was made. He closed his throttle and went down in a slowdescent right toward the heart of that column of lavender smoke thatseemed to be springing straight up out of the ground. "A pillar ofviolet fire!" It could not have been described better.

  The plane dived through the dense wall of fog, which for a moment shutout the violet fire completely. Then Jim was through, and almostimmediately beneath him lay the black and glassy surface of the pool.Out of the very heart of it rose the fire, burning like some infernalflame that consumed nothing, and between it and the fog was a space ofalmost translucent air, extending to the borders of the pool.

  Jim began to circle the pool to find a landing-place. But as he lookeddown, the surface of the pool began to change its aspect.

  * * * * *

  In place of the unruffled calm, it began to work with some devil'syeast all around the central pillar of flame, until its depths seemedto be churned up in frothy masses and the movement extended almost tothe circumference. Then the whole surface of the water began to tiltand sway with a slow, shimmering, undulatory movement, as if it was agiant roulette wheel in rotation.

  And something was materializing out of the heart of the violet flameitself.

  It was a face--a human face, with bestial features, distorted andenormously magnified through the substance in which it was. Such aface as might look back upon an observer out of one of thosedistorting mirrors at Coney Island, or some other place of popularamusement, but twisted and enlarged beyond conception, so that itcovered half the area of a city block.

  Curiously blurred, too, as if each atom of that face was in isolatedmotion on its own account. And beneath the face appeared the vagueoutlines of a hand, apparently manipulating some sort of infernalmechanism.

  And that face, enlarged as it was out of all proportion, filled Jim'sheart with greater horror than any face he had ever known.

  For it was the visage of Lucius Tode, and on those huge and distortedfeatures was something that looked like a diabolical smile.

  * * * * *

  Everything vanished. Jim was back in the surrounding wall of fog.Instinctively he banked again. He strove to drive the horror from hisbrain. He must circle, circle incessantly, in the hope of findingLucille. She must have already arrived. But if she had not falleninto Tode's power, she would hear the roaring of the plane and manageto signal him.

  He circled back into the clear space between the white and the violet,and now he saw that the effect upon the pool was still morepronounced. The waters were rising up in a rim all around, and yet notoverflowing. They were standing up like a bowl of clay upon thepotter's wheel, and down in the depths Jim could see the head andshoulders of Tode, much less magnified, more natural in appearance,and less blurred. And Tode was looking up at him and pointing thatinfernal mechanism at him--something that looked like the tube of atelescope.

  Suddenly the plane shivered and stood still. The motor died abruptly.The stick went
dead. And yet the plane did not fall. As if upheld bythe same repulsive force that drove back the white fog, it simply hungsuspended three hundred feet above the heart of the violet flame.

  Then--there was no longer any plane. The stick had melted in Jim'shand, the wings dissolved like wreaths of mist. The entire body haddisintegrated into nothingness. Jim sat suspended in the void, andfelt himself very slowly descending into the violet column.

  Down into the vortex of that bubbling pool, which rimmed him on allsides ... down into the central aperture out of which emerged theleering face of Tode! And as he dropped Jim heard, thin, faint, andvery far away, the despairing cry of Lucille....

  CHAPTER II

  _Old Friends--and Foes_

  Jim must have lapsed into unconsciousness, for when he opened his eyesthere was a gap in his consciousness of the passage of time, thoughnone in his memory. He opened his eyes, and instantly he rememberedeverything.

  Only a brief interval could have elapsed, for it was not quite dark.The fog and the violet flame had cleared away. Overhead a few starstwinkled. Jim was lying on his side, half-buried in the black, slimymud of the dried up pool.

  There was nothing but the smooth, shelving mud basin, with the scruboak surrounding it. Tode and the machine had vanished.

  Jim pulled himself with an effort out of the sucking mud, and, heavilyclogged with it, began to make his way toward the margin.

  Stumbling, struggling through the viscid ooze, he shouted Lucille'sname despairingly. But no answer came, and his cries only made theutter silence all about him seem more fearsome.

  Exhausted by his efforts, he gained the edge of the pool at last, andstopped, trying to orientate himself. As he did so, he saw a humanface peering at him out of a clump of scrub oak.

  It was the face of an aged man, with a long white beard and rags ofclothes that were festooned about him. Jim took a step toward it,shouting a challenge. Next moment it had hurled itself out of itsshelter toward him, and two skeletonlike arms were twined about hisshoulders, while the fingers worked upward toward his throat.

  The face was that of a madman, crazed by fear. And Jim recognized it.It was the face of Professor Parrish.

  Parrish, the trim, immaculate, clean-shaven, urbane old man, whoselectures, imbued with wit and scholarship, had always been the delightof his classes--Parrish reduced to this gibbering maniac! And yetParrish himself, returned to the site of their experiments after fiveyears!

  * * * * *

  So fierce was the old man's onset, so desperate his clutch, that for ahalf-minute or more Jim was reduced to fighting for his life. Theclawing fingers, armed with long nails, furrowed Jim's throat, therewas a terrific strength in the body, wasted though it was almost to askeleton.

  But it was only for a half-minute that old Parrish's endurance lasted.Suddenly the old man went limp and tottered forward, dropped upon theground. Jim bent over him.

  "Parrish, you know me! I'm Jim Dent!" he cried. "I came here to saveyou."

  Parrish was muttering something. Jim caught the words "Tode," and "Godhelp Lucille!"

  "Parrish, I'm Jim Dent!" Jim cried again, and the old man, shuddering,opened his eyes and recognized him.

  "Jim!" he muttered. "Jim Dent! Then where is she? I got away from thatdevil, found farmhouse empty, got telephone book, found her and'phoned her. Told her to come. Save--Lucille!"

  He fell back, his eyes closed. Jim crouched over the unconscious oldman. He was in a state of utter perplexity. He could not quite gatherwhat Parrish had been trying to tell him, and it was with difficultythat he could focus his mind upon the situation, so great had been theshock of finding his former chief in that condition.

  What had become of his plane, and where was Lucille? Jim was positivethat he had heard her cry for help out of the vortex in the water.

  But there was no water, only the circle of black mud extended in thestarlight.

  Again and again Jim shouted Lucille's name, and his cries went echoingaway through the scrub without result.

  Jim looked down at the unconscious old man beside him. He must getParrish away, get him to Andy Lumm's. He bent over him again andraised him in his arms.

  * * * * *

  Suddenly he heard two familiar sounds behind him, two dull thumps thatsounded less like explosions than echoes, long drawn out, and recedinginto infinity. There was no other sound quite like them that he hadever heard.

  They were the snap of the electrical discharge as the Atom Smasherbegan to operate, and why the snap had sounded like a heavy bodyfalling a long distance away, was not known.

  Tode had said one day, with what Jim had taken for sarcasm, that theyrepresented the wave series of a single sound extended in time to makefour-dimensional action, but Jim had never considered the explanationseriously.

  That sound, bringing back all Jim's memories of their experiments,brought him to his feet sharply. He swung around. The surface of thepool was a bubbling, seething mass of mud and water. And over itssurface that faint violet haze was beginning to spread.

  In the center where the light was thickest, something like a gyroscopeappeared to be revolving. Out of the gyroscope something was beginningto project--that infernal tube of Lucius Tode. And Jim knew that inthe heart of the flame that enormous, distorted face of Lucius Todewould again be visible.

  The human nervous system can only endure a certain amount of impact.The sight of that ghastly flame, already condensing into a violetpillar, was more than Jim could stand. He dragged old Parrish to hisfeet and started off with him into the thickest part of theundergrowth.

  A fearful scream behind him stopped him at the very edge of the scrub.He looked back, still supporting the half-conscious old man in hisarms. The violet flame was shooting up in a straight pillar, the wholecentral portion of the pool was dry, and the waters were heaped up allaround it.

  From the slightly elevated spot where Jim stood, he could see Todeholding Lucille in his arms in the very heart of the fire, which threwa pale, fluorescent light over their faces. Tode was wearing a spottedskin, like that of a leopard, and Lucille was in the blue frock thatshe had worn when Jim and she had dinner together two eveningsbefore.

  Jim dropped old Parrish, shouted in answer, and dashed back like amadman down the slope into the solid wall of water.

  * * * * *

  He fought his way desperately through that wall, which seemed of theconsistency of soft rubber or treacle, as if some subtle change hadtaken place in its molecular isomers. It adhered to him withoutwetting him, and he plunged through it, hearing Lucille cry out again,and yet again.

  And now he was through, and once more struggling over the viscidsurface of the pond. Behind him he heard old Parrish blundering, andscreeching at the top of his voice, but he paid no attention to him.

  He could see Lucille more clearly, and the large, hazy outlines ofTode's features were beginning to assume the proper proportions. Therewas a diabolical leer upon Tode's face, unchanged during the fiveyears since Jim had seen him last, except that it had become moreevil, more powerful. The enormous and distorted face that Jim had seenhad been simply due to the presence of some refracting medium.

  The pillar of violet light was thinning, spreading out over the pool,but Jim could now see the scene more clearly than before, even as herushed onward.

  The machine was inside what looked like a flat boat, but more circularthan a boat, and apparently was made of some metal resemblingaluminum. Either from the metal hull or from the mechanism inside itthere was emitted a pungent odor resembling chlorine.

  The mechanism itself bore some resemblance to the old Atom Smasher offive years before, but it appeared to be immensely more complicated.Wheels of various sizes were set at every conceivable angle around thecentral tube, from which the violet light was emanating, and all wererotating and gyrating so fast that they looked like discs of light.The boat itself was trembling, and this movement appeared
to becommunicated to the boiling mud in the central part of the pool.

  * * * * *

  As Jim tried to leap down through the sucking mud to snatch Lucillefrom Tode, the latter stopped, straightened himself, and pointed ashort tube at Jim's heart.

  Jim felt as if an enormous, invisible force had struck him in thechest. It was apparently the same repulsive force that had driven backthe waters. The shock was not a violent one. It did not throw him offhis feet. It merely pushed him slowly and irresistibly backward.

  And the whole picture was beginning to fade. Etched sharply in theviolet light one moment, it now looked like a drawing that had beencovered with tissue paper.

  The outlines were dissolving into a haze--or, rather, each line seemedreproduced an infinite number of times, as the edge of a vibrating sawshows an infinitude of edges. The violet fire was becoming still morediffused. It hovered over the waters, a pale, flickering glow. Andsimultaneously the walls of water began to break and come surgingforward.

  Jim saw Lucille stretching out her arms toward him, and tried tostruggle forward, but in vain. She cried out his name, and he put allhis strength into that desperate futile struggle to reach her. But hewas being borne backward by the invisible power in the tube. Therushing torrent was surging about his knees; grew waist deep: inanother moment Jim was swimming for his life against the furiousflood.

  Suddenly, however, the tremendous pressure on his chest was relaxed.Tode had turned the tube away from him. He was leaning forward out ofthe boat and grasped old Parrish, who had been flung violently againstit by the dissolving waters.

  The same flood carried Jim to the boat's side. Here, however, theflood was only knee deep, owing to the repulsion still being exercisedby the violet light, which was glimmering feebly. Jim found his feetand leaped into the craft. He grasped Lucille in his arms.

  * * * * *

  He turned to confront Tode, who had just dragged old Parrish over theside. The three men confronted one another.

  "Turn that tube on me, and I'll jump into your damn machinery and bustit!" Jim shouted.

  An ironical expression came on Tode's face. It was clear that he stillconsidered himself master of the situation. "At the immediate moment,Dent, the lives of all of us depend upon your keeping absolutelystill," he answered. "Take my advice and sit down!"

  Jim saw Lucille's face, ghastly in the faint violet light that playedabout it. The girl had fainted. She was lying unconscious, her feetagainst the circular metal plate that protected the machinery, herhead upon the rail that ran around the boat's upper edge. Tode,without waiting for Jim's answer, stepped over the plate and took hisseat at a sort of instrument board with control levers and thumbscrews that apparently controlled the needles on four dials. Hetouched a button, and instantly the violet light disappeared.

  With its vanishing, the waves came surging forward, and lappedviolently against the hull, as if about to overwhelm the vessel,which, however, seemed immovable. It simply rose higher in the water.

  Jim understood the cause of this. Those gyroscopes would retain thehull in the same position against anything but a mechanical forcestrong enough to ruin it. He watched Tode as he sat at the instrumentboard, which was illuminated by two tiny lights of what looked likemercury-vapor. His face, handsome and cruel as ever, was tense as hemanipulated the thumb screws. Beside him lay Parrish, faintlywhimpering. The old man had evidently abandoned all hope of effectinghis escape, or of rescuing his daughter.

  It was unbearable to have to sit there, knowing that the three ofthem were absolutely at Tode's mercy, and yet there was nothing elseto do.

  * * * * *

  Tode looked up with a saturnine smile. "It's a delicate operation toblur the present without shooting out a hundred years or so in time,"he said, "but my micrometer's pretty accurate, Dent. Don't move, Icaution you!" He smiled again. "Yes, Dent, time is something like thefourth dimension of space, as we believed in the old days, and I'veproved it."

  Jim saw Tode touch the screw that controlled the fourth dial, andinstantly it was borne in on him that each of the dials controlled onespatial dimension. This fourth, then, was the time dimension!

  Could it be true that Tode had solved the practical problem oftraveling in time, theoretically implied since the discoveries ofEinstein?

  He had known in the old days that the Atom Smasher might be adapted tothis purpose, but neither Parrish nor he had dreamed of turning asidefrom their endeavor to utilize it for the purpose of releasing atomicenergy.

  Thump! Thump! The familiar old sound, rushing back into memory afterall those years, the release of the electrical discharge, echoingthrough infinity! The scrub around the pool blurred and was gone. Avast gray panorama extended itself on either side of them.

  They were travelling--in space--and time too. Jim no longer doubted.And, chilled with horror, he sat there, his arm about Lucille'sunconscious form.

  CHAPTER III

  _Into the Infinite_

  How long he sat there he did not know. Minutes or hours seemed all thesame to him. Nothing but that gray monochrome, of neither light nordarkness, that endless panorama of miles and years, blended togetherinto this chaos!

  But suddenly there came a shout from Tode. The blur ceased, the lightsflickered. Again there sounded the two thumps of the electricaldischarge. The vibrating mechanism grew steady. Above them, out of thegrayness, a moon disclosed itself, then the pin-points of stars. Allabout them was an immense, sandy waste.

  "Know where we are, Dent?" came Tode's chuckle.

  Jim was not sufficiently master of himself to attempt to answer.

  "We are on what will be the Russian steppes some fifty thousand yearsahead of us in time," grinned Tode. "This is an interlude between twoice ages. Observe how pleasantly warm the climate is, for Russia.Unfortunately the receding glaciers carried off the top-soil, whichaccounts for the barrenness of the district, but in another centurythis country will be overgrown with ferns, and inhabited by themastodon and wild horse, and a few enterprising palaeolithic hunters,who will come in to track them down and destroy them with their stoneaxes."

  * * * * *

  "I think you're the same sort of damn liar you always were, Tode,"answered Jim--but without conviction. There was something terrificabout that desolation. Nothing within a thousand miles of Long Islandcorresponded to it.

  "You'll be convinced pretty quickly, when you see my specimen,"answered Tode. "I let him off here on the way to the pool. He's notexactly presentable, and when I got the idea of picking up Lucille andtaking her back with me, I thought it best not to let her see him. Hedidn't want to be let off. Was afraid I wouldn't pick him up again,and I'll admit it was a matter of pretty careful reckoning. But thisis the place, almost to the yard.

  "Yes, I've done some close reckoning, Dent, but the cleverest part ofthe business was letting old Parrish think he'd got away from me. Iknew he'd telephone Lucille. You know, I always had the brains of theoutfit, Dent," he continued, with a smirk of self-satisfaction.

  He looked out of the boat. "And here, if I'm not mistaken, comes myspecimen," he added.

  * * * * *

  Something was running across the steppes toward them. It came nearer,took human form. It was human! A man--but such a man as Jim had neverseen before outside the covers of a book. And he recognised the raceimmediately.

  It was a Neanderthal man, one of the race that co-existed with thehighly developed Cro-Magnons some thirty thousand years ago. Man andnot ape, though the face was bestial, and there were huge ridges abovethe eyebrows.

  And if Jim had needed conviction, the sight of this gibberingcreature, now climbing into the boat and fawning upon Tode, convincedhim. For the Neanderthal man vanished from the scene long before thebeginning of recorded history.

  For a few moments a deathly faintness overcame him ... his eyesclosed, he felt unconsciousne
ss rushing in upon him like a blackcloud.

  "It's all right, Dent--don't look so scared!" came Tode's mockingvoice.

  Jim opened his eyes, shook off that cloud of darkness with an immenseeffort. The boat was throbbing violently as the wheels gyrated, theviolet light had become a pillar as thick as a man, and shot straightup to a height of fifty feet, before it rolled away. Lucille was lyingwhere she had been, her eyes still staring up unseeing at the stars.Old Parrish was whining and whimpering as he crouched in his place.

  And at Tode's feet crouched the Neanderthal man, repulsive, bestial,even though hardly formidable, and filling the last vacant spot insidethe boat. He was gibbering and mouthing as he fawned upon Tode andpressed his hand to his hairy face. He continued to crouch and lookedup at his master with doglike eyes.

  * * * * *

  Repulsive, and yet man, not ape. Distinctly human, perhaps a littlelower than the Australian aborigine, the Neanderthal showed by hisreverence that the human faculty of worship existed in him.

  "Meet Cain, one of my Drilgoes," said Tode, with a grin. "A faithfulservant. I left him here to wait for me on the return journey. Cain'sjust my pet name for him because he subsists on the fruits of theearth, don't you, Cain?"

  The Drilgo grunted, and pressed Tode's hand to his repulsive lips,which were fringed with a reddish beard. Suddenly Tode began to laughuproariously. "Feel anything wrong with your head, Dent?" he asked.

  Dent put up his hand and pulled away a quantity of charred hair. Hisforehead began to itch, and, rubbing his finger across it, he realizedthat his eyebrows were gone. Tode laughed still louder.

  "You've kept your teeth by about two seconds' grace, Dent, but Ishouldn't be surprised if you needed dental attention shortly," hesaid. "What a pity dentists won't be invented for another forty orfifty thousand years."

  "You're a devil!" cried Jim.

  "You see, the human body is very resistant to the Ray," Tode went on."It almost seems as if there is an organizing principle within it.Even the animal tissues are resistant, though not to the same extentas the human ones. It takes about twenty seconds for the organizedhuman form to be disintegrated. But hair and beaks and claws, beingsuperficial matter, vanish almost as soon as the Ray is turned onthem. Ten seconds more, and you'd have been obliterated, Dent, just asyour plane was.

  "Yes, rub your head. Your hair will probably grow again--if I decideto let you live. It rather depends upon what impression you make uponLucille as a bald-headed hero. After all, I didn't invite you toaccompany us. It's your own lookout."

  * * * * *

  Jim could find nothing to say to that. He was discovering more andmore that they were all helpless in Tode's hands.

  "Sit back!" snarled Tode suddenly. He gave the Drilgo a push that senthim sprawling into the bottom of the boat. "Dent, your life dependsupon your absolute acquiescence to my proposals. I didn't like youparticularly in the old days, any more than you liked me. I thoughtyou were a fool. On the other hand, I've no active reason to hate you,at present. It may be that I can use you.

  "Meanwhile we've got a longish journey before us, ten thousand yearsmore, multiplied by the fourth power of two thousand miles. Seemssimple? Well, I had to invent the mathematical process for it. Reckonin the gravitational attraction of the planets, and you'll begin toget an idea of the complexity of it. So, in vulgar parlance, we're notlikely to arrive till morning."

  He glanced at Lucille, who was still lying unconscious with Jim's armabout her. Then his eyes rose to meet Jim's, and a sneering smileplayed about his lips. That smile was the acknowledgment of theirrivalry for the girl's affections. And it was more--it was achallenge.

  Tode welcomed that rivalry because, Jim could see, he meant to keephim alive under conditions of servitude, to demonstrate to Lucille hissuperiority.

  Tode turned his thumbscrews, and the two thuds resounded. The violetcolumn sank down, the boat vibrated, the level stretch of land becamea blur again. The moon and stars vanished. Once more the four were offon that terrific journey.

  * * * * *

  At first they seemed to be traversing space that was shot through byalternate light and darkness, so that at times Jim could see the otheroccupants of the boat clearly, while at other times there was onlyTode visible at the instrument board, with the dark outlines of theDrilgo, Cain, sprawled at his feet. But soon these streaks seemed tocome closer and closer together, until the duration of each was only afraction of a second. And closer, until light and darkness blendedinto a universal gray. These, Jim knew, were the alternations of nightand day.

  They were traveling--incredible as it was--in time as well as space,though whether backward or forward Jim could not know. From thepresence of the Neanderthal man, however, Jim was convinced that Todewas taking them back more thousands of years, into the beginnings ofhumanity.

  A fearful journey! A madder journey than Jim could have conceived of,had he not been a participant in it. He was losing all sense ofreality. He was hardly convinced that he would not awaken in New York,to discover that the whole episode had been a dream.

  Was this Lucille, the girl he loved ... with whom he had dined in NewYork only a day or two before ... this unconscious form, stretched outon the deck of the weird ship that was rushing through eternity? Or,rather, it was they who were rushing through space and time upon astationary ship! What was reality, and what was dream, then?

  Tode called "Come over here, Dent! I want to talk to you!"

  * * * * *

  Jim picked his way over the metal floor of the round boat, came up toTode, and sat down beside him above the sprawling form of the Drilgo,Cain.

  "You were a fool to come here, Dent." Tode turned with a malicioussmile from his seat at the instrument board. "You didn't have to come.I take it that you are in love with Lucille, you poor imbecile, andstill cherish dreams of winning her. We'll take up that matter in duecourse.

  "Do you think I've been idle during these five years of my exile? I'vebeen too busy even to come back for the woman I was in love with. Anddo you know what I've been doing during all this hellish period?Charting courses, Dent! Mapping out all the planetary movements backfor uncounted ages--roughly, crudely, of course, but the best I wasable to. These are difficult seas to navigate, though they may notseem so. You fool," he added savagely, "why didn't you come in with mein the old days? I told you that the Atom Smasher could be used totravel through time, and you mocked at me as a dreamer.

  "I chose my hour. When everything was ready, I set forth on the mostdesperate journey ever attempted by man. Talk of Columbus!--he hadnothing on me. I tell you, Dent, I've been back to the Archaean Age,back to the time when nothing but crawling worms moved on the face ofthe earth. And I've been forward to the time when an errant planetwill disrupt the earth into a shower of lava--and I nearly wrecked theboat. Dent.

  "I've won, Dent! I've won! I've solved the problem that gives manimmortality! All the epochs that have existed since God first formedthe world are mine to play with! I have seen myself as a pulinginfant, and as a greybeard. I have made myself immortal, because, withthis machine, I can set back the clock of time. I have found a landwhere I am worshipped as a god."

  * * * * *

  Tode's eyes glittered with maniacal fires. He went on in a voice ofindescribable triumph:

  "I'm a god there, Dent. Do you want to know where that land is? It isAtlantis, sunk beneath the waves nine thousand years before recordedhistory opened. It is Atlantis, from which the Cro-Magnons fled intheir ships, to land on the coasts of Spain and France, and become theancestors of modern man.

  "In old Atlantis, still not wholly submerged, I have made myself agod. I have mastered the savage Drilgoes whom the Atlanteansoppressed. All the spoils of their ruined cities are at my disposal.And I came back to get Lucille, whom I had never ceased to love.Together Lucille and I will rule like god and goddes
s.

  "Join me, Dent. I'm a god in Atlantis--a god, I tell you. The lesserraces fear me as a supernatural being. Only the city remainsuncaptured, but it is mine whenever I choose to take it. A god--agod--a god!"

  Jim saw now what he had not realized before, that Tode was insane. Itwould, indeed, have been a miracle if he had been able to retain hissanity under such circumstances as he had described. His voice roseinto a wild scream. Yes, Tode was mad--just such a madman as any ofthe old Roman emperors, drunk with power, each in his turn the soleruler of the world.

  "The Earth is mine!" Tode screamed. "Before the modern world wasdreamed of, before the nations were created, Atlantis was the solepower that held dominion over the scattered tribes of mankind. And sheis in my hand whenever I strike.

  "Wealth incalculable, treasures such as man has never since seen,marvels of scientific discovery, flying machines that would make ourslook foolish, paintings grander than have since been executed--allthese things exist in the proud city that will shortly be at mycommand. And I have my Drilgoes, the inferior race, to serve me. Theyworship me because they know I am a god. Join me, Dent, and taste thejoys of being one of the supreme rulers of the world."

  * * * * *

  In spite of his undoubted madness, there was such power in Tode'svoice that Jim could not help believe what he had said.

  "Well," snarled Tode. "You hesitate to give me your answer, Dent?"

  "Lucille and I are engaged to be married," answered Jim, and the wordswere drawn from his lips almost against his will. "We love each other.I am not going to lie to you and then betray you, Tode."

  The expression on Tode's face was demoniacal. He snatched up thedeadly tube that contained the violet fire and turned it upon Jim.Again Jim felt that repulsive force pushing him back. He gasped forbreath, and tensed his whole body in supreme resistance, while hetried to grapple with Tode in vain.

  But suddenly Tode dropped the tube, and a roar of laughter broke fromhis lips.

  "You fool!" he shouted. "I tell you I am a god, the one god, supremeabove all. Do you think to match your puny will against my own? I tellyou Lucille is mine. And for ever, Dent. Whenever we two have reachedold age, all that will be necessary for us to do will be to turn thisscrew a hair's breadth back into the past, and we are both youngagain. By holding this vessel steady in four-dimensional space, I canachieve immortality."

  "Yes, Tode," answered Jim, "but, you see, that's the one thing thatyou haven't been able to work out yet."

  The words seemed to come automatically from Jim's lips. It was onlyafter he had spoken them that he realized they were true. For a momentTode glared at him; then suddenly, with a shriek of insane rage, heleaped from the instrument board and swung the ray tube with all hismight.

  Jim felt the blow descend with stunning force upon his head. Hereeled, flung out his arms, and toppled forward, unconscious....

  CHAPTER IV

  _Escape_

  An intolerably bright light that seemed to sear his eyeballs was thefirst thing of which Jim was conscious. Then he became aware of hisaching head, of a sense of utter lassitude, as if he had been bruisedall over in some machine that had caught him up and held him in itsgrip for endless aeons.

  At last, despite the pain in his eyes, he managed to get his eyelidsopen. He tried to struggle to his feet, only to discover that he wasfirmly bound with what appeared to be tough creepers, pliant as ropes.

  After the lapse of a few minutes, during which he struggled with thereceding waves of unconsciousness, he came to a realization of hissurroundings. That light that had so distressed him--though theeffects were now beginning to pass off--was a pillar of smoke andflame, shooting out of the crater of a volcano about a mile away,across a valley.

  He was lying in the entrance to a cave, pegged out on his back, andbound by the tough creepers to the stakes driven into the ground. Upto the mouth of the cave grew huge tree-ferns, cattails, cycads, andsuch growths as existed in earlier ages in the warm, moist regions ofthe world.

  Beneath the level of the cave a heavy white fog completely shroudedthe valley, extending up to within a short distance of the volcanoopposite. But on the upper slopes of the volcano the sunlight played,making its crater a sheen of glassy lava, intolerably bright.

  Beyond the volcano Jim could see what looked like an expanse of ocean.

  * * * * *

  He groaned, and at the sound a creature came shambling forward,carrying what looked like a huge melon in either hand. Jim recognizedthe Drilgo, Cain.

  Chattering and mumbling, Cain placed one of the fruits to Jim's mouth.It was a sort of bread-fruit, but he was too nauseated to eat, andrejected it with disgust. Cain offered him the second fruit.

  It was a hollow gourd, the interior filled with a clear fluid. Jimdrank greedily as the Drilgo put it to his lips. The contents werelike water, but slightly acid. Jim felt refreshed. He looked abouthim.

  The Drilgo uttered a chattering call, and immediately a host of thesavages swarmed into the cave. Men--undoubtedly men, in spite of thebrow ridges and the receding foreheads, carrying long spears,consisting of chipped and pointed heads of stone, with holes bored inthem, through which long bands of creepers passed, fastening themfirmly to the shaft.

  Chattering and gesticulating, the Drilgoes surrounded Jim as he layhelpless on the ground. Their savage faces, their rolling eyes, thethreatening gestures that they made with their spears, convinced Jimthat his end was a foregone conclusion.

  But suddenly a distant rumbling sound was heard, increasing rapidly involume. The floor of the cave vibrated; masses of rock dropped fromthe walls. The light of the volcano across the valley was suddenlyobscured in an immense cloud of black smoke. The twilight within thecave was succeeded by almost impenetrable darkness.

  Shrieking in terror, the Drilgoes bolted, while Jim lay straining athis ropes, expecting each moment to be crushed by the masses of rockthat were falling all about him.

  Suddenly a soft whisper came to Jim through the darkness: "Jim! Areyou safe! Where are you? I can't see you! Speak to me!"

  It was Lucille's voice, and Jim called back, husky and tremulous inthe sheer joy that had succeeded his anticipation of instant death.

  * * * * *

  Then he felt the girl kneeling at his side, and heard her hacking athis bonds. A whole minute passed before the stone knife was able tosever the last of the stout withes, however.

  Then Jim was swaying on his feet, and Lucille's arms were about him,and for a few moments their fears were forgotten in the renewal oftheir love.

  "I heard what that devil said to you last night," the girl said. "Hemeans to kill you with awful tortures. He is away now, on some task orother, but he'll be back at any moment. We must get away at once--wethree. Dad's in another cave not far away, and his guards bolted afterthe earthquake."

  The earth was still rumbling, and the cavern still vibrating, but itwas clear that there was no time to lose. As soon as the quakesubsided the Drilgoes would return. Guided by Lucille, Jim groped hisway through the cavern. The girl called softly at intervals, andpresently Jim heard old Parrish's answering call. Then the old man'sform appeared in silhouette against the dark.

  "I've got Jim," Lucille whispered. "Are you ready, dad?"

  "Yes, yes, I'm ready," chattered the old man. "Now's our chance. Iknow a place where we can hide in the thick forests, where the Ray ofthe Atlanteans cannot penetrate the mists. Let's go! Let's go!"

  Gripping hands, the three started back toward the point where a faintpatch of darkness showed out the entrance to the cavern. They werenearing it when another and more violent shock flung them upon theirfaces.

  Huge masses of rock came hurtling down from the roof and sides of thecavern, and again the three seemed to escape by a miracle.

  * * * * *

  Suddenly a huge shaft of fire shot from the crater opposite, evolvinginto an inverted con
e that made the whole land dazzlingly bright. Itpierced the mists in the valley underneath, and by that light Jimcould see a great wave of lava streaming down the mountain sides, likesoup spilled out of a bowl.

  A gush of black smoke followed, and the light went out.

  "Now!" gasped Parrish, and, clinging to one another, the three dartedout of the cavern's entrance. Another terrific shock sent themstumbling and reeling and sprawling down the side of the mountain. Jimheard old Parrish wailing, and, as the shock subsided, groped his wayto his side.

  "You hurt?" he shouted.

  "Lucille, Lucille," moaned the old man. "She's dead! A big rockcrushed her. I wish I was dead too."

  Jim called Lucille's name frantically, and to his immense reliefheard her crying faintly out of the darkness. He rushed to her sideand held her in his arms.

  "Where are you hit, darling?"

  "I'm--all right," she panted. "I was stunned for a moment. I--can--goon now."

  But she went limp in Jim's arms, and Jim picked her up and stoodirresolute, until he heard Parrish shambling toward him over theheaving ground.

  "She's not hurt, I think, only fainted," said Jim. "Which way,Parrish? You lead us."

  "Down the slope," panted Parrish. "We'll be in the ferns in a minute.We can hide there for a while, till she's able to walk. God help usall! And I was once Professor of Physical Chemistry at Columbia!"

  The outcry might have seemed comical under other circumstances; as itwas, Jim heartily re-echoed old Parrish's sentiments in his heart.

  The last shock was subsiding in faint earth tremors. The two menplunged down into the heavy fog, which quickly covered them, Jimcarrying Lucille in his arms. He felt the ferny undergrowth all abouthim, the thick boles of tree-ferns emerged out of the mist.

  "We can stop here for a while," panted Parrish. "Crouch down! They'llnever find us in this fog, and in a few minutes, when Lucille'sbetter, we can go on."

  * * * * *

  "You must tell me where we are and what our chances are," said Jim,after again ascertaining that Lucille was unharmed.

  "I'll tell you, Dent, as quick as I can. It's the place where I'vespent five years of hell as the slave of that devil, Tode. I neverdreamed, when we were working on the old Atom Smasher, that he hadadapted it to travel in the fourth dimension. He's taken us backtwelve thousand years or so to the island of Atlantis. History hasn'tbegun yet. Atlantis is the only civilization in the world. The restare Drilgoes, Neanderthal men, wandering in the forests, and still intheir stone age.

  "It's true, Dent, what old Plato learned from the Egyptian priests.Atlantis has been slowly sinking for thousands of years, and allthat's left now is the one great island that we're on. Nearly all theAtlanteans, the Cro-Magnon men, have perished, except for a few whohave crossed in ships to the coasts of France and Spain. They'll bethe founders of modern Europe--Basques and Iberians, and Bretons andWelshmen. Our ancestors! It makes my brain reel to think of it!"

  "Go on! Go on!" said Jim.

  "There's a great city on the island, known as Atlantis too. As big asLondon or New York. With flying-machines and temples and art galleriesand big ships that they're building to carry them away when the nextsubsidence comes. They know they're doomed, for every few days there'san eruption now.

  "Tode means to make himself master of Atlantis, and transport it intoanother epoch by means of the Atom Smasher. But he's never managed toenter. He's made himself a god in the eyes of the Drilgoes, thesavages who inhabit these forests. He's planning to lead them againstthe city, and he's got an army of thousands from all parts of theinterior, who worship him as divine.

  * * * * *

  "The Atlanteans are unwarlike. They've forgotten how to fight in theirthousands of years of peace. But they've got a Ray ten times as strongas Tode's, that brings instant death to everything it touches. Itshrivels it up. It's a different principle. I don't understand it, butit's this Ray that keeps the Drilgoes from capturing the city.

  "Tode's got a laboratory inside the cave, fitted up with apparatusthat he brought from Chicago, the world capital of the year 3000 A.D., after disintegrating the atoms and recombining them. But he hasn'tsucceeded altogether. He hasn't learned everything. The future isn'tquite clear, like the past. There's a dark cloud moves across thespectral lines and blurs them. I think it's the element of freewill--or God!"

  "I know," Jim answered. "He can't hold that boat steady infour-dimensional space, as he pretends he can. If he could, it wouldmean that man was wholly master of his destiny. He can't and he neverwill.

  "There's an unknown quantity comes in, Parrish. It is God, and that'swhat's going to beat him in the end."

  "I've not been as idle as Tode thinks," said Parrish, with a senileleer. "I know more about the Atom Smasher than he dreams of. He thinksme just an old fool, the remnants of whose brains are useful to him inhis laboratory. That's why he's kept me alive so far. He'll find outhis mistake," he chuckled. "I have something Tode doesn't dream of."

  Suddenly Parrish's air of intense seriousness vanished. He chuckledand fumbled in his rags. Jim felt a small object like a lever pressedinto his hand and then withdrawn.

  "It's death, Dent," chuckled old Parrish. "The concentrated essence ofthe destructive principle. It's a lever I fitted into a concealedgroove in the Atom Smasher unknown to Tode. This lever has a universaljoint and connects with a hidden chamber, and when pulled willcatapult the annihilated components of a small quantity of uranium inany direction we desire. The release of the slumbering energy of thisuranium will produce an explosion of proportions beyond the wildestdreams of engineers--perhaps, one great enough to throw the Earth outof its orbit!"

  "Uranium!... Breaking up its components!" gasped Jim. "You mean youcan actually do that?"

  "Yes!" chuckled Parrish. "I'm keeping it for the day when Tode becomesa god. When he's steadied the boat in time-space and halted the marchof the past, and when he's got Lucille--then, Dent, I shall so pullthe lever that it will release the energy straight at Tode--anddestroy the Atom-Smasher, ourselves, and even, perhaps, the wholeEarth!"

  And he burst into a peal of such wild laughter that Jim realized theold man's wits were gone.

  * * * * *

  Was it true, that amazing story? It was difficult to know, and yetanything seemed possible in this amazing world into which Jim hadsuddenly been thrown.

  The vast pall of smoke cast out by the volcano was beginning tosubside. Slowly a spectral light began to filter through the valley.Through the fog Jim could see glimpses of the ferny undergrowth, thegiant tree-ferns and cycads that towered aloft. It was like a pictureof the earth when the mastodons, the grass-eaters and the meat-eatersdisputed for its supremacy.

  Jim bent over Lucille. He saw her stir, he heard her murmur his name.Suddenly she sat up, fixed her eyes on his, and shuddered.

  "I'm all right, Jim. Let's go," she said. "I can walk now."

  She staggered to her feet. Jim put out his hand to support her, butshe shook her head. Jim touched old Parrish on the arm. He started anduttered a wild screech; then seemed to come to himself and rose.

  But that screech of his was re-echoed from the mountainside above.Other voices took up the echoes. Lucille clutched at Jim in a frenzyof fear.

  "The Drilgoes!" she whispered. "They're on our trail!"

  Seizing old Parrish by the arm, Jim started to drag him into therecesses of the fern forest. Suddenly the bestial face of a Drilgoappeared.

  A yell broke from the man's throat. The hairy arm shot back. Jim sawthe stone tip of the long spear poised overhead. He leaped forward,delivering a blow in the man's midriff with all the strength of hisright arm.

  * * * * *

  The Drilgo grunted and doubled forward, the spear falling from hishand. The heavy head of stone embedded itself in the soft ground, sothat the spear remained upright. As the man collapsed he yelled at thetop of his voice. />
  "This way! This way!" gibbered old Parrish, suddenly alert.

  But now the undergrowth all about them was alive with Drilgoes. Thethree dodged and doubled like hunted hares. High overhead somethingbegan to clack with a sound like that made by a woodpecker drilling atree, but infinitely louder.

  And out of the void above came Tode's voice, shouting commands to theDrilgoes in their own language.

  Suddenly a column of fire shot up from the volcano, infusing the whitemists with a reddish glare. Overhead the three could see Tode. He wasflying with a pair of mechanical wings strapped to his shoulders, notmore than two hundred feet above them. With a shout of triumph heswooped down. In his hand was a small cylinder, about the mouth ofwhich a phosphorescent violet light was beginning to play.

  "I've got you, Dent," he screamed in triumph, hovering above thethree, while the wings drummed and vibrated till they seemed the mereplay of light and shadow about Tode's shoulders. "Halt, or I'll blastyour body and soul to hell! Halt, or I'll kill _her_!"

  The deadly tube was pointing steadily at Lucille's body as Todehovered ten feet overhead, perfectly still save for the whirringwings. The three stopped dead, and Tode, with a shout of triumph,began calling the Drilgoes, who swarmed forward out of theundergrowth.

  Huge brown bodies, nude save for their skins of jungle-cat or serpent,they emerged, quickly forming a ring about the three prisoners. Todefluttered to the ground.

  "Fools, did you think you could escape that way?" he asked. "As for you,Dent. I'm going to convince you of the reality of four-dimensional spaceas you would not be convinced in the old days. Do you know what I'm goingto do with you? I'm going to strip the skin from you with the ray, andtake you into the anatomical room at Columbia University and leave youthere as an exhibit, Dent!"

  Tode grinned like a madman. But Jim was looking past him, at somethingthat had suddenly appeared upon the far horizon.

  * * * * *

  It was a round disc of bluish white, a disc like the moon, butslightly smaller, a disc that flickered as if it had an eyelid thatwas being winked repeatedly. Simultaneously screams broke from thethroats of all the Drilgoes. They stampeded.

  Tode whirled about and saw. With a curse he leaped into the air andwhirred away.

  Out of that disc a slender, blue-white beam shot suddenly, driving apathway through the fog, and disclosing the dark depths of the valley.

  "The Eye! The Eye!" screeched Parrish. "Down on the ground! Down!Down!"

  He dropped, and Jim caught Lucille and flung himself headlong withher. To and fro overhead, but only a few feet above them, moved thesearchlight. Shrieks broke from the Drilgoes' throats as theyscattered through the jungle.

  Everywhere that ray moved, trees and undergrowth simply disappeared. Abunch of Drilgoes, caught by it, were obliterated in an instant. Greatgaps were left through the undergrowth as the ray passed.

  It faded as quickly as it had come, and instantly old Parrish was onhis feet, dragging at his daughter.

  "Now! Now!" he babbled, heading along one of the burned tracks throughthe undergrowth.

  Jim seized Lucille and the two raced in the wake of old Parrish.Behind them they could hear the Drilgoes shouting, but a dense,impenetrable darkness was already beginning to settle down over thevalley. They lost the track and went crashing through the ferns, onand on until all was silence about them.

  Suddenly Parrish went down like a log. He lay breathing heavily,completely exhausted. When Jim spoke to him a feeble muttering was theonly answer. Jim and Lucille dropped to the ground exhausted besidehim.

  CHAPTER V

  _The Eye of Atlantis_

  For perhaps half an hour the three lay there, hearing nothing. Itseemed to be night, for the darkness was impenetrable, save for thelurid flashes of fire from the volcano. Parrish, who was slowlyrecovering his strength, was mumbling incessantly. It was withdifficulty that Jim recalled him to a realization of his surroundings.

  "Where is the city of Atlantis?" he asked him.

  "Over there," mumbled Parrish. "Behind the volcano. Why do you askme?"

  "I'm thinking of going there."

  "Eh? Going there? You're mad. The Eye will see you, the Eye that cansee for a hundred miles. They'll turn the Ray on you. Nothing is toosmall for the Eye. And they watch night and day."

  "The Eye is off now."

  "It's never off. The Eye is dark. It grows white only when they areabout to use the Ray. Perhaps the Eye is watching us now."

  "Nevertheless," said Jim, "I think we would do well to try to enterthe city. We can't live here in the jungle at the mercy of theseDrilgoes."

  "It is impossible to enter. All strangers are killed by theAtlanteans."

  "Dad," interposed Lucille, "I think we'd better do what Jim suggests.One of us must decide."

  "My idea is that you take us to some place where we can get a view ofthe city," said Jim. "Then we can make up our minds what to do. We'vegot to get somewhere out of this jungle."

  * * * * *

  Parrish rose to his feet, mumbling. "If we go round the base of thevolcano we can see Atlantis," he said. "It's always light there. Inthe daytime they drive away the fogs by some means they've got, and atnight they have an artificial sun. But we'll be killed, we'll all bekilled."

  Mumbling and muttering, he began groping his way through theundergrowth in the direction of the volcano, whose flashes were againbecoming more frequent, affording a means of directing their route.Obscure rumblings were again beginning to shake the earth. For an hourthe three picked their way steadily upward through the ferns, untilthe ground became more open.

  They were approaching the base of the volcano, whose side now toweredabove them, the upper part glassy with vitreous lava.

  Suddenly Parrish, who was still leading, stopped and began to tremblewith fear. Stepping to his side, Jim heard the low muttering of voicesnot far away.

  Very cautiously he moved forward through the thin fern scrub, untilthe glow of burning embers caught his sight. He stopped, hearing thevoices more distinctly, and again moved forward.

  Three Drilgoes, huge, bestial men, and evidently an outpost, weresquatting around the ashes, devouring something with noisy gusto.

  Softly as Jim had moved, their acute ears had caught the sound of hisfootsteps. They rose, still holding what they were eating in theirhands, and, grasping their stone spears, moved in three separate waystoward the edge of the clearing.

  The man nearest Jim uttered a guttural exclamation and, after sniffinga moment, began to lope in his direction. Suddenly he stopped short,petrified with astonishment and fear at the sight of a man who,instinct told him, was neither Atlantean nor of his own kind.

  * * * * *

  Jim leaped, tackling him about the knees, and brought him heavily tothe ground. As the Drilgo fell, the spear clattered from his hand, butfrom his snakeskin girdle he pulled a long, curved knife of chippedobsidian, sharp as a razor.

  Jim grasped the Drilgo's wrist, but in a moment he saw that he was nomatch for the creature in strength. He drew back his right arm anddelivered a punch to the solar plexus with all his strength.

  As the Drilgo's hand grew limp he snatched away the knife. There wasno helping what he did for the two others were close upon him.

  A thrust, a slashing blow, and the Drilgo was weltering in hislife-blood. A backward leap, and Jim evaded the flung spear by ahair's breadth.

  Knife in hand he leaped forward, and, dodging in beneath the longshaft of the weapon, got in a slash that almost cut the Drilgo's bodyin two.

  The third Drilgo, seeing his two companions in their death-throes,flung away his spear and fled with loud howls into the jungle.

  Jim stepped back. Lucille and her father were already almost at hisheels. "It's all right," he called. "Come this way!" He led themthrough the ferny growth in such a manner that they should not see thetwo dead bodies. Nevertheless, he felt that Lucille knew. />
  "Let's see what they were cooking," he said.

  But again he turned quickly. He could not know for sure what fleshthat was, roasting and scorching on the embers, and he had no desireto know. It might have been monkey, but ... he turned away, and as hedid so, Parrish picked up several round objects that were lying alittle distance away.

  "These are good to eat," he said. "A sort of bread-fruit. I've livedon it for five years," he added with a sort of grotesque pathos.

  They munched the fruit as they proceeded up the mountain, and found itsatisfying. Parrish seemed more himself again, though he stillmuttered at intervals. Lucille clung closely to Jim as they proceeded.

  * * * * *

  They were treading on lava now, vitreous, and smooth as glass. It wasimpossible to proceed further in that direction. They turned theirsteps around the base in the direction of the sea.

  After another hour, during which their way was lit by almostcontinuous lurid flashes from the crater, a patch of illumination,apparently out at sea, began to become visible. A half hour more, andthey were rounding the volcano's base, and suddenly it burst uponthem, a stupendous spectacle that drew an exclamation of amazementfrom Jim's lips.

  That low, flat background was the sea, the sound of whose breakers wasfaintly audible. Between sea and land ran a narrow, slender causeway,perhaps a mile in length. And beyond that, set on a small island, wasthe most splendid city that Jim could have imagined.

  Like New York--very like New York, with its mighty towers, but moresymmetrical, sloping upward from the sea toward a towering rampart atthe heart of it, crowned with huge domes and minarets and serpentineramps and mighty blocks of stone that must have sheltered as manyoccupants as New York's highest skyscrapers.

  The whole was snow-white, and gleamed softly in an artificial lightdispensed from an enormous artificial planet that seemed to hoverabove the ramparts.

  "God!" whispered Jim in awe as he gazed at the great city.

  "You cannot cross that causeway," whimpered old Parrish. "It's deathto try. One sweep of the Ray will blot out every living thing."

  "Hush! Listen!" came from Lucille's lips. "Something's moving downthere!"

  * * * * *

  The distant murmur of voices, the indescribable "feel" of theproximity of other human beings told Jim that they were in imminentdanger. He glanced about him. A little overhead was an outcrop ofenormous boulders, standing up like a little fortress above the smoothlava.

  "Get behind there!" Jim whispered.

  They turned and ran, slipping and stumbling up the smooth slope.Reaching the boulders, they ensconced themselves hastily behind them.Jim peered out through a crevice between two of the largest stones.The sound of moving things became more audible.

  Then, as a flash of flame shot from the crater overhead, Jim saw ablack human horde creeping like an array of ants around the base ofthe mountain not far beneath.

  Just like an army of warrior ants it seemed to flow onward, in perfectorder. And in the midst of it a faint violet light began to bevisible.

  Parrish seized Jim's arm, shaking with terror. "You know what that is,Dent?" he whimpered.

  "It's Tode's Drilgoes, moving for a night attack upon Atlantis,"answered Jim. "And that thing in the middle is the Atom Smasher."

  * * * * *

  It seemed hours before the last of the serried ranks of Drilgoes hadpassed. By the light of a lurid flash from the volcano Jim could seethe column winding toward the causeway. Then all was shrouded inimpenetrable darkness, save for the snow-soft city upon the island.

  "What are we going to do?" chattered old Parrish. "I wish I was backin Tode's cave. He gave me food and let me help with his worksometimes. I'll die here. We'll never get away. We'll never getanywhere."

  "We're safer here than anywhere else," answered Jim. "We'll have tostay till morning, or--God, look at that!"

  Out of the ramparts of the city the round, blue-white disc of the Eyehad suddenly disclosed itself. And simultaneously a violet flare shotup above the moving hosts of the Drilgoes in the middle of thecauseway.

  Out of the center of the Eye that blinding searchlight streamed. Andthe pillar of violet fire rose up to counter it, clove it in two, as aman cuts off the tentacle of a cuttlefish, and left it gropinghelplessly above the heads of the Drilgoes.

  * * * * *

  To and fro wavered the blue-white beam, and like a protective wall theviolet column spread and extended, till the air was interlaced withthe play of the two colors. Streaks of white shot through streaks ofpurple and black neutral clouds twirled, swirling in ghostlike forms.It was a scene inconceivably beautiful, and it was impossible torealize what must be happening out there.

  Men must be dying, withering like stubble in the blue-white flames,whenever they caught them. And yet, under that play of colors, Jimcould see the vast host crawling forward to the assault.

  * * * * *

  He held his breath. It was sublime and terrible, and on the result ofthat conflict depended--what? What difference, when all this wasforgotten history, antedating the written records of the human race?

  Then of a sudden the blue-white rays were seen to win. They werebeating down the violet light. Like living fingers they pierced thatprotective wall, flinging it back, until only the tall central pillarremained. And then for the first time the sound of combat becameaudible.

  A groan of despair, of defeat, of hopelessness. The black stream wasrecoiling, turning upon itself. In the vivid glare of the white lightit could be seen dissolving, breaking into a thousand pieces,streaming back toward the land. And, as it broke, the blue-white lightpursued, eating its way and blasting all it met. Atlantis hadtriumphed.

  Another sound was audible. From the city it came, a whirring as ofinnumerable grasshoppers, increasing till it sounded once more likethe tapping of innumerable woodpeckers. Suddenly the night broke intowhirling balls of fire.

  Lucille cried out. Jim leaped to his feet to see more clearly.

  "It's men with wings," he cried. "Scores of them. They're hurlingsomething at the Drilgoes!"

  * * * * *

  The clacking of the wing mechanism filled the air. Now the fugitivesfrom the Drilgo host were streaming along the base of the mountainunderneath, seeking the safety of the jungles, and over them, ridingthem, harrying them, flew the Atlantean birdmen, hurling their fieryballs. And where the balls fell, conflagrations of cold fire seemed tostart and run like mercury, and shrivel up everything they touched.

  But the birdmen were not without casualties of their own. Here andthere one could be seen to drop, and then the massed Drilgoes wouldturn savagely upon him with their stone-pointed spears. The fight wascoming very close now. The savage cries of the Drilgoes filled thenight.

  A ball of fire broke hardly fifty yards away from where the three werecrouching. A birdman fluttered down like a wounded hawk and laya-sprawl just underneath the rampart of boulders. Jim surmounted them,ran down the slope of the mountainside, and bent over the dying man.He was hideously wounded by the thrust of a Drilgo spear--whetherbecause the mechanism had failed, or because he had swooped too low,Jim could not determine. As Jim bent over him he looked up at him.

  A youth in his teens, with the face and build of a Greek warrior, aworthy ancestor of European man. Jim looked at him and shuddered. "Mygrandfather four hundred generations removed," he thought.

  Seeing that this was no Drilgo, with eyes widened by the anticipationof death, the Atlantean smiled, and died.

  Jim detached the straps that held the wings to his shoulders andexamined them. They were multi-hinged, built of innumerable layers oflaminated wood, which seemed to have been subjected to some specialtreatment. In the base of each, just where it fitted to the curve ofthe shoulder-blade, a tiny light was burning.

  * * * * *

&n
bsp; Jim looped the straps about his arms and walked back to the rampart.Old Parrish saw him and screamed. Lucille cried out.

  "I'm going to try to get the Atom Smasher," said Jim, pointing to thethin spire of violet flame that was still visible in the center of thecauseway. "It's our only chance. You must stay here. If I live, I'llreturn. If I don't return--"

  But he knew that he must return. Nothing could kill him, becauseLucille would be waiting for him behind that rampart of stones uponthe bare, vitreous mountainside.

  "I'm going to get the Atom Smasher," Jim repeated. "In these wingsI'll be taken for Atlantean. I'll--bring it back." He spoke withfaltering conviction. And yet there was nothing else to do. Everythingdepended upon his being able to bring back the Atom Smasher and takeLucille and her father away.

  "I think you're right, Jim," answered Lucille. "We'll--wait here tillyou--come--back."

  Her voice died away in a sob. Jim bent and kissed her. Then he beganexamining the mechanism of the wings. It did not appear difficult. Aleather strap fastened around the body. Through this strap ran cordsoperated by levers upon the breast, and there was a knob in a groovethat looked as if it controlled the starting of the mechanism.

  "I'll be back," said Jim.

  And suddenly the Eye appeared again, and with it there sounded oncemore the whir of wings.

  "Down!" shouted Jim.

  * * * * *

  He was too late. A score of birdmen shot out of the dark and hoveredover them. Next moment they had descended to the ground. Lucille andParrish were seized, and Jim, struggling furiously, quickly foundhimself equally helpless in their grasp.

  The accents of the Atlanteans as they spoke to one another were softand liquid, their faces were refined and gentle, but their strengthwas that of athletes. Jim saw Lucille and Parrish lifted into the air;next moment he himself was raised in the arms of one of the birdmen,who shot upward like an arrow and headed a course back toward thecity, carrying Jim as if he had been as light as a child.

  CHAPTER VI

  _Human Sacrifice_

  In a great open space, flanked by temples and colonnades, the flighthad come to rest. There, under the soft artificial light that made thewhole city as bright as day, Jim, Lucille, and her father were setdown before a sort of rostrum, on which were gathered the dignitariesof the city.

  Jim's hopes were rising fast, for between the Atlanteans and thesavage Drilgoes there was as much difference as between a modernAmerican and a blackfellow from the Australian bush. These men werecivilized to a degree that even modern America has not attained.

  Nowhere was there a speck of dirt to be seen. Vehicles movedsoundlessly along the wide streets on either side of this centralmeeting-place, and the whole city was roofed with glass, through whichcould be seen the brilliant moon and stars--invisible from themist-filled valley without.

  * * * * *

  Soft garments of white wool clothed men and women alike, fashionedsomething like togas, but cut short at the knee, leaving the lowerpart of the leg bare and disclosing the sandaled feet. The hair waslong and flowed about the shoulders. But what struck Jim most forciblywas the look of utter gentleness and benignity upon these faces.

  "I guess we've fallen into pretty good hands after all," he whisperedto Parrish.

  But one of the dignitaries upon the platform, an elderly man with aface reminiscent of William Jennings Bryan in his inspired moments,was leaning forward out of his curved chair and addressing the oldman, and, to Jim's astonishment, Parrish was answering.

  But these were not the liquid accents of the Atlanteans. The wordsresembled the barking of a dog, and across Jim's brain there suddenlyflashed the explanation. The dignitary was speaking in the tongue ofthe Drilgoes, which Parrish, of course, would have learned in his fiveyears of captivity.

  Suddenly Parrish turned to Jim. "He wants to know where we come from,"he said. "I've told him from a far country. He thinks we'reambassadors from some of the parts of Europe that the Atlanteans whosailed away some years ago landed at. It's no use trying toexplain--they don't seem to have succeeded in inventing an AtomSmasher for themselves."

  Jim nodded, and the colloquy went on and on, while the Atlanteanslistened with languid interest, their kind and smiling faces seemingto exude benignity. At length the session seemed to have ended.

  Parrish wore a wide grin. "Everything's coming right, dear," he toldLucille. "The old chap says we are to be the guests of the city eitherfor a night or for a week. It's something to do with the moon, andthere seems to be a full moon to-night. Some quaint superstition orother. And then I guess we'll have a chance to get away in the AtomSmasher. I've learned something of the mechanism, and it won't be hardto operate it. We've fallen into good hands."

  * * * * *

  A squad of four soldiers or policemen, with shorter robes and whatlooked like truncheons in their hands, made signs to the three toaccompany them. Amid mutual bows, the city's guests filled into asmall court-way, closed at the further end, on which a number ofAtlanteans were standing.

  While Jim was wondering what the next move was to be, to hisastonishment the whole courtyard began to rise slowly up the walls ofthe tall buildings on either side.

  "An elevator!" gasped Lucille. "Now I do feel that everything iscoming out all right, Jim, dear."

  Jim did not question the psychology of this. He pressed her handtenderly. Already Tode and the past were becoming a bad dream.

  "Did you say anything about the Atom Smasher, Parrish?" he asked.

  "No, I thought it better not to," replied the old scientist. "You see,they know it only as a force that neutralizes the blue-white ray. Bestnot to let them know we're sailing for home in it."

  "I think that was wise," answered Jim, and just then the risingcourt-way came to a stop level with the top story of the greatbuilding at one side.

  Smiling courteously, the guards invited the three to precede theminside an enormous hall, supported on pillars of gleaming stoneresembling alabaster. In the center was a small, low table, triangularin shape, with three of the low, curved chairs. The guards invited thethree to be seated.

  Almost immediately smiling servitors brought in fruits on platters ofporcelain, dishes of cooked vegetables, somewhat like the modern ones,but seasoned and flavored with delicious herbs. The staple dish wassomething like an oval banana, but infinitely more succulent. Thethree fell to and made a hearty meal, which was washed down with finewines.

  "We've certainly fallen into good hands," said Jim. "All we've got todo is to lie low, and look pleasant, and it won't be long before weget an opportunity to get hold of the Atom Smasher."

  * * * * *

  The guards, seeing that they had finished their meal, smilinglyinvited them to accompany them through a huge bronze door at one endof the hall. It swung back, disclosing complete darkness.

  Jim felt Lucille's hand upon his arm. The girl was hesitating, and fora moment Jim hesitated too, half afraid of a fall into emptiness. Thenhe heard the footsteps of the guards ahead, and went on.

  It was eery, moving there with the sound of feet in front of them,and, apart from that, utter silence. Then Lucille uttered a littlecry.

  "Jim, do you feel something pushing you?" she asked.

  "There is something--" Jim swung around, but some invisible forcecontinued to propel him forward. He moved sidewise, and the forcegently corrected him. The sound of footsteps had ceased.

  "What is it, Jim?" cried the girl. "Help me! Something's got hold ofme!"

  Old Parrish was struggling close beside them. Jim panted as hewrestled with the force, but his efforts were absolutely futile.Slowly, as if slid on wires, he was propelled forward, until a cushionof air seemed to block his further progress.

  Dark as it was, and silent, Jim had the consciousness of other humanbeings about him, of a vast, unseen multitude that was watching him.

  Suddenly the droning of
a chant began to fill the place, as if apriest were intoning hymns. As that chant rose and fell, voices allabout took up the echoing refrain. Jim tried to reach Lucille, but hecould move his arm only a few inches against that resilient forcepressing in on all sides of him.

  Then, in an instant, a blinding, stabbing light shot through hiseyeballs. He heard Lucille scream, old Parrish yelp, and, with eyelidsscrewed tight against the intolerable glare, fought once moredesperately and ineffectively to reach Lucille's side.

  * * * * *

  Slowly Jim managed to unscrew his eyes. He began to realize that hewas standing in what appeared to be an enormous amphitheatre. But highup, upon a narrow tongue of flooring that ran like a bridge from oneend to the other, with Lucille on his right and Parrish on his left.Nothing visible seemed to be restraining them, and yet they were assecurely held as if fastened with tight chains.

  Jim's brain reeled as he looked down. Imagine a bridge about half-wayup an amphitheatre of a hundred stories, the ground beneath packedwith human beings no larger than ants, the whole of the vast interiorlined with them, tier above tier, faces and forms increasing frompismire size below to the dimensions of the human form upon a level,and, again, fading almost to pin-points at the summit of the vastbuilding, where the soft glow of the artificial light filtered throughthe glass of the roof.

  He clutched at the air, felt the soft pressure of the force that wasrestraining him, looked at Lucille, and saw her half-unconscious withfear, leaning against it, leaning against that soft, resilient,cushionlike, invisible substance; looked at Parrish, whom the shockhad thrown into a sort of semi-catalepsy--Parrish, mouthing andstaring!

  He looked forward to where the tongue of flooring ended. Here, upon astage, flanked with huge carven figures, a group was gathered. Atfirst he was unable to discern what was being enacted there, sobrilliant was the light that glared overhead.

  It was the Eye, a round disc perhaps ten feet in diameter, thatall-seeing Eye of Atlantis that guarded the great city, but how itworked Jim was totally unable to discover. He saw, however, that itwas blinking rapidly, the alternations being so swift that it was onlyjust possible to be conscious of them. Perhaps the Eye was opening andclosing ten times a second.

  Jim strained his eyes to see what was taking place on the stage at theend of the tongue on which he stood. What was it? What were they doingthere? And was that the captured Atom Smasher standing between whatlooked like grinning idols? A group of captured Drilgoes near it?

  A shrill scream from Lucille echoed through the vast amphitheatre. Hereye had seen what Jim's had not yet seen--something that had shockedher into complete unconsciousness.

  A marble figure, she stood leaning against the invisible force thatkept her on her feet, and in those open, staring eyes was a look ofineffable horror.

  * * * * *

  Jim could see clearly now, for the light from the Eye was slowlydiminishing in brilliancy, or else his own eyes were growing moreaccustomed to it. Those carven figures, forming a semi-circle upon theplatform were figures of gods, squat, huge forms seeming to emerge outof the blocks of rock from which they had been fashioned.

  Hideous, gruesome carvings they were, resembling some futuristicsculpture of to-day, for the artist who had fashioned them had givenhardly more than a hint of the finished representation. It was ratheras if the masses of rock that had been transported there had becomevitalized, foreshadowing the dim yet awful beings that were some dayto emerge from them.

  Only the arms were clearly sculptured, and each of the half-dozenfigures squatting upon its haunches in that semi-circle had four ofthem. Arms that protruded so as to form an interlacing network, andthe fingers were long claws fashioned of some metal. Over the arms theshapeless heads beat down with a leering look, and from each mouthprotruded a curved tongue.

  A masterpiece of horror, that group, like the great stone figures ofthe Aztecs, or some of the hideous Indian gods. Seen under the glareof the Eye, they formed a background of horrible omen. In a flash itdawned upon Jim that these hideous figures might be gods of bloodysacrifice.

  "That's why these people seem so gentle," he heard himself saying."It's the--the contrast."

  He pulled himself together. Again he tried to move towards Lucille,and again that invisible force restrained him.

  Yes, it was the captured Atom Smasher upon the platform, and thoseforms grouped in front of the dignitaries were captured Drilgoes, adozen or so of them. And the concealed priest was droning a chantagain. Every other sound was hushed, but from each square foot of thegreat amphitheatre a pair of eyes was watching.

  A myriad of eyes turned upon the platform! What was going to happennext?

  * * * * *

  Suddenly the priest's voice died away, and simultaneously the threedignitaries, who seemed to be officiating priests, from their solemngestures, stepped backward, passing beneath the protruding arms of theidols. There sounded the deep whir of some mechanism somewhere, andthe same invisible force that had Jim and his two companions in itscontrol suddenly began to agitate the captive Drilgoes.

  _It was shuffling them!_ It was forcing them into line, pushing hereand pulling there, in spite of the Drilgoes' terrified struggles. Theywrithed and twisted, groaning and clicking in abject terror as theywrestled with that unseen power, and all in vain. Slowly the foremostof the Drilgoes was propelled forward, inch by inch, until he stoodimmediately beneath the interlacing arms.

  And what happened next filled Jim with sick horror and loathing. Forof a sudden the arms began to move, the iron claws cut through theair--a shriek of terror and anguish broke from the Drilgo's mouth ...and he was no longer a man, but a clawed and pulped mass of humanflesh!

  "Aiah! Aiah! Aiah!" broke from the throats of the assembled multitude.

  The weaving arms had stopped. From behind them an attendant wasgathering up what had been the Drilgo in a basket. Then the mechanismhad begun again, and again that shrill cry of the spectators wasringing in Jim's ears.

  Louder still rose the shriek of old Parrish as he understood. Jim putforth all his strength in a mad effort to break free. A child wouldhave had more chance in the grip of a giant. And each time the arms ofthe gods revolved, the unseen force pushed Jim, Lucille, and Parrishnearer the platform.

  Now Jim understood. This horrible sacrifice was a part of the religionof the Atlanteans, and he, Lucille, and Parrish, were being reservedfor the final spectacle.

  And at the sight of Lucille beside him, stonily unconscious, and yetstanding, and moving like a mechanical doll, in little forwardjerks--at the sight of the girl, hardly six feet distant, and yetutterly beyond the touch of his finger-tips, Jim went mad. He wouldnot shout; he closed his lips in pride of race, pride of thatcivilization that he had left twelve thousand years ahead of him. Notlike the shrieking Drilgoes on the platform, howling as each of themin turn was forced into that maze of revolving knives. But he foughtas a madman fights. He hammered at the resilient air, while the sweatran down his face, he braced his feet upon the wooden tongue, andsought to stay his forward progress. And all the while that infernalforce moved him steadily onward.

  * * * * *

  He was on the platform now. He was traveling the same route that theDrilgoes had taken. The unseen force was shuffling him, Lucille, andParrish, pushing and pulling them. And, despite Jim's efforts, it wasLucille who was first of the three ... and Jim second ... and oldParrish third....

  Jim heard Parrish's hoarse whisper behind him, "Death! Death! Theuranium!" He was fumbling at his breast, but the significance of thewords and gestures escaped him. He was staring ahead. Only threeliving Drilgoes of the whole number of prisoners remained alive, andsuddenly it was borne in upon Jim that he knew the last of the three.

  It was the Drilgo, Cain, who had been their companion in the AtomSmasher--there, not a dozen feet distant. Cain, his bestial face, withthe ridged eyebrows and great jaw
s convulsed with terror and drippingsweat. Cain, immediately in front of Lucille.

  "God, let her not wake! Let her never know!" Jim breathed. The agonywould be but momentary. And there was nothing a man could not endureif he must. He could even endure to see Lucille become--what theDrilgoes had become. It would soon be over now.

  The Eye was blinking overhead. The hideous stone faces of theAtlantean gods looked down in leering mockery. Another of the Drilgoeshad gone the same route as the others. Cain was the second now,Lucille the third victim, and he, Jim, would be the fourth.

  Gritting his teeth, Jim saw the next Drilgo propelled forward into thewhirling knives. He saw the man fling up his arms, as if to shield hishead--and then he was a man no longer, and the horrible knivesrevolved, and "Aiah! Aiah! Aiah!" cried the multitude.

  Once more the mechanism whirred.... Once more the arms revolved. Ahowl of terror broke from Cain's lips as he was propelled onward....

  Then suddenly the whirring stopped. The arms of the stone gods, withtheir hooked, razorlike claws, to which clung particles of flesh, werearrested in mid-air. Cain, unharmed, was leaning backward, hisfeatures set in a mask of awful fear.

  Simultaneously Jim knew that the force which had held him in thrallwas gone. He flung his arms out. He was free. He grasped Lucille, heldher tightly against his breast, stood there drawing great, laboredbreaths, waiting--for what?

  * * * * *

  A film was creeping over his eyes, but he was aware that the Eye hadsuddenly gone out. And out of the dark the priest was chanting.

  Then came a deep-drawn sigh from the spectators, followed by a ringingshout. In place of the Eye the full moon appeared, sailing overhead.And, holding off that deathly weakness, Jim understood. The sacrificehad ended; a new month had begun....

  CHAPTER VII

  _Back to Long Island_

  Jim, seated beside Lucille, was listening to Cain's gruntings andchucklings as he expounded the situation to old Parrish.

  It was the day following the scene in the amphitheatre. The four hadbeen escorted back along the tongue of flooring into a hall with wallsof fretted stone and sumptuous colorings. The floor was strewn withrich rugs woven of some vegetable fibre. There were divans and lowchairs. At brief intervals, servitors, always smiling, passed carryingtrays with wines and foods. And in the corridors were always glimpsesof the guards.

  "It was the rising of the full moon saved our lives, Dent," Parrishexplained. "It appears they have this sacrifice at each of the moon'sphases. The victims, captives or criminals, are eaten by the priests.We've got a week's respite, Dent, and then--God help us."

  Jim's arm tightened about Lucille, but the girl turned and smiled intohis face. There was no longer any fear there. And Jim swore to himselfthat he would yet find some way of outwitting their devilish captors.

  "What the devil are we supposed to be, criminals or what?" he askedher father. "Why do they smile at us all the time in that confoundedway?"

  Parrish questioned the Drilgo, but apparently he was unable to explainhimself to him. "Maybe they think it an honor for us, Dent," heanswered, "or maybe it's their idea of etiquette. Anyway, we four areto head the list when the moon's at the three-quarters. God, if onlywe could reach the Atom Smasher, I'm certain I could find out how itworks!"

  * * * * *

  Jim had tried more than once to reach it. Through the colonnades atthe end of the hall he could see the mechanism standing on theplatform, always being inspected by half a dozen or so of thedignitaries of Atlantis. But all his attempts to cross that tongue offlooring had been vetoed by the guards.

  They had presented their hands to him, palms outward, and on the palmswere fine steel points, about two inches long, set into leathergauntlets. It had been impossible to try conclusions with them.

  Two days went by. Once a group of dignitaries had entered the halland, with smiles and profuse bows, inspected the prisoners. Then theyhad departed. And Jim had paced the floor, to and fro, thinkingdesperately.

  There was no sort of weapon with which to hazard an attack. Jim knewthat they were under the closest observation. He could only wait andhope. And if all else failed, he meant to hurl himself, with Lucillein his arms, off the tongue of floor into the depths below when theirtime came.

  On the third morning, after a troubled sleep induced by veryweariness, Jim was awakened by one of the guards, and started up tosee one of the bowing dignitaries before him, and Parrish and Lucillesitting up among their rugs.

  Bowing repeatedly, the smiling old man addressed some words to Jim,and then turned to Parrish.

  "He says he wants you to show him the way the Atom Smasher works,"said Parrish. "Now's our chance, Dent. He thinks it's simply anapparatus for neutralizing the blue-white ray. Don't let him guess--"

  "I won't let him guess," Jim answered. "Tell him we'll go and showhim--"

  "I've told him, and he says only you are to go. He's suspicious. Saysomething quickly, Dent."

  "Tell him," said Jim, "that I must have my two assistants and thelady. Tell him I may also need the help of some of his people. Itrequires many men to operate the machine."

  * * * * *

  Parrish translated, speaking in the Drilgo tongue, which was theironly means of communication. The Atlantean considered. Then he spokeagain.

  "He says that we three men may go, but Lucille must be left behind,"groaned Parrish.

  "The answer is no," said Jim.

  The old dignitary, who seemed somewhat crestfallen, departed with anexpressive gesture. Jim and Parrish looked at each other.

  "That's our end," groaned Parrish.

  "No, he'll bite," answered Jim, with the first grin that had appearedon his countenance since their arrival. "Let's make our plans quickly.We must contrive to get Lucille inside the machine, under the pretenseof assisting with the mechanism. And Cain, of course," he added,glancing at the goggly-eyed Drilgo. "You do your best to locate thestarting mechanism, Parrish, and signal me the moment you're ready.We'll both leap in, and the four of us will sail--God, I don't carewhere we sail to, so long as we get away from here! Into eternity, ifneed be. But I hope it's Long Island!"

  Back came the dignitary with two of the guards. Smiling at Jim, heindicated by signs that the three others might accompany him. TheAtlanteans had bitten, as Jim had forecast.

  The four proceeded along the hall and over the tongue of flooring.This time the force that had previously controlled their movements wasnot in action. At the farther end of the bridge they saw the group ofdignitaries gathered about the Atom Smasher, examining it curiously.Over their heads the hooked arms of the hideous gods were raised. TheEye was darkened, as if with a curtain, and through the glass roof,high overhead, the sunlight streamed down upon the empty amphitheatre.

  * * * * *

  In spite of their smiles, the dignitaries of Atlantis were very muchon the alert, as their tense attitudes denoted. Two more guards hadappeared, and Jim saw that they were uncovering some apparatus at thebase of the Eye. They were swinging a camera-like object toward him,its lens focused upon the Atom Smasher. It was not difficult tounderstand what was in the minds of the Atlanteans. The dignitarieswere uneasy and mistrustful, and at the first suspicion of treacherythey meant to loose the blue-white Ray contained in the apparatus, andblow the Atom Smasher and the group about it to destruction.

  Jim intercepted a sign from Parrish, indicating that he was to makepretense of assisting him. He bent over the machine, Lucille besidehim. Parrish was busily examining the wheels and levers. He wasadjusting the thumbscrews, moving the needles along the dials.

  One of the Atlanteans spoke, and Cain translated into "Drilgo" forParrish's benefit. Parrish answered. Then, without raising his head,the old man said quietly, "I've located the starting lever, Dent. Youand Lucille get inside quickly and pretend you're doing something tothe machinery."

  They stepped over the bo
w of the boat and stood beside Parrish, whocontinued examining the wheels. "We mustn't forget Cain," whisperedthe girl to her father. "Oh, I hope he understands!"

  But there was no direct evidence that Cain did understand, and Parrishdared not warn him in "Drilgo," for fear one of the Atlanteans mightunderstand the language. Cain was standing close beside the boat. Buthe was not in the boat.

  Again one of the Atlanteans shot a question at Parrish. Parrishbeckoned to Cain, and awaited the translation. He answered.

  Each moment was growing tenser. It was impossible that the Atlanteanscould fail to understand what was being planned. The only savingchance was that they did not realize the possibilities of escape thatthe vessel offered. A full minute went by.

  * * * * *

  Suddenly Parrish raised his head. "I've got it fixed, I think, Dent,"he said. "I'm going to count. When I reach 'three,' seize Cain andpull him aboard."

  Jim nodded. The uneasiness was increasing. The guards at thecamera-like object were each holding some sort of mechanical accessoryin their hands. It looked like a small sphere of glass, and itconnected with the apparatus by means of a hollow tube of fibre. Jimguessed that in an instant the Ray could be made to dart out of thelens. It would be quick work--as nearly as possible instantaneouswork.

  "Ready, Dent?" asked Parrish in an even voice. In this crisis the oldman had become astonishingly calm. He seemed the calmest of the lot."One!"

  Jim beckoned to Cain, who came toward him, his eyes goggling ininquiry.

  "Two!"

  Jim reached out and took Cain by the arm. There was a sharp questionfrom the Atlantean who had spoken before.

  "Three!"

  With all his force Jim yanked Cain over the edge of the boat. TheDrilgo stumbled and fell headlong with a howl of terror. Butheadlong--inside.

  What happened was practically instantaneous. A sudden whir of themechanism, a violet glow from the funnel, the smell of chlorine--aflash of blinding blue-white light. The Atlantean guards had fired--aquarter-second too late!

  The thump, thump of the electrical discharge died away. The four werein the boat, whirling away through space. Cain was rising to hisknees, a woe-begone expression on his face. And there was a clean cut,with charred, black edges along one side of the boat, showing how nearthe Atlanteans had come to success.

  * * * * *

  The relief, after the hideous suspense of the past days, was almosttoo much for the three white people. "We're free, we're going backhome!" cried Jim exultantly, as he caught Lucille in his arms. And shesurrendered her lips to his, while the tears streamed down her checks.Old Parrish, at the instrument board, looked up, smiling andchuckling. Even Cain, understanding that they were not to be hacked tobits with knives, gurgled and grinned all over his black face.

  "How long will it take us to get back?" Jim asked Parrish after awhile.

  "I--I'm not quite sure, my boy," the old man replied. "You see--Ihaven't quite familiarized myself with the machine as yet."

  "But we'll get back all right?" asked Jim.

  "Well, we--we're headed in the right direction," answered Parrish."You see, my boy, it's rather an intricate table of logarithmiccalculations that that scoundrel has pasted on this board. The greatdanger appears to be that of coming within the orbit of the giantplanet Jupiter. Of course, I'm trying to keep within the orbit of theEarth, but there is a danger of being deflected onto Pallas, Ceres, orone of the smaller asteroids, and finding ourselves upon a rock inspace."

  Jim and Lucille looked at Parrish in consternation. "But you don'thave to leave the Earth, do you?" Jim asked.

  "Unfortunately, it's pretty hard sticking to the Earth, my lad," saidParrish. "You see, Earth has moved a good many million miles throughspace since the time of Atlantis."

  But both Jim and Lucille noticed that Parrish was already speaking ofAtlantis as if it was in the past. They drew a hopeful augury fromthat. And then there was nothing to do but resign themselves to thatuniversal greyness--and to hope.

  * * * * *

  They noticed that Cain seemed to be watching Parrish's movements withunusual interest. The Neanderthal man seemed fascinated by the play ofthe dials, the whir of the wheels and gyroscopes.

  "Are you setting a course, dad?" asked Lucille presently. "I mean, doyou know just where we are?"

  "To tell you the truth, my dear," answered her father, "I don't. I'mrelying on some markings that Tode made on the chart--certaincombinations of figures. God only knows where they'll take us to. ButI'm hoping that by following them we shall find ourselves back on LongIsland in the year 1930.

  "No, that rascal could hardly have written down those figures to nopurpose. They seem to me to comprise a course, both going andreturning. But the calculations are very intricate, especially in the_time_ dimension. I've nearly reached the last row now. Then, we shallhave arrived, or--we sha'n't."

  Jim and Lucille sat down again. There was nothing that they could do.But somehow their hopes of reaching Long Island in the year of grace1930 had grown exceedingly slim. Everything depended upon whether ornot Tode had meant those figures to represent the course back to thestarting point or not.

  A desperate hope--that was all that remained to them. They watchedParrish as his eyes wandered along the rows of figures, while hisfingers moved the micrometer screws. And then he looked up.

  "We're reaching the end of our course," he said. "We're going to landsomewhere. God knows where it will be. We must hope--that's all that'sleft us."

  His hands dropped from the dials. He pressed a lever. The blur ofnights and days began to slow. A column of vivid violet light shotfrom the funnel.

  "Grip tight!" shouted Parrish.

  Thump, thump! The Atom Smasher was vibrating violently. A jar threwJim against Lucille. It was coming to a standstill. Trees appeared.Jim uttered a shout. He stepped across to Parrish and wrung his hand.He put his arms about Lucille and kissed her.

  They were back at the Vanishing Place, and all their sufferings seemedto be of the past....

  CHAPTER VIII

  _A Fruitless Journey_

  "Why don't you stop the boat, Parrish?"

  "I'm trying to, lad!"

  The Atom Smasher was still vibrating, even more violently than before.A column of violet light was pouring from her funnel. The pool, themud, the walls of heaped up water were discernible, but all quiveringand reproduced, line after line, to infinity. It was like looking intothe rear-view mirror of a car that is vibrating rapidly. It was likeone of those Cubist paintings of a woman descending the stairs, whereone had to puzzle out which is the woman and which is the stairs.

  A dreadful thought shot through Jim's mind. He remembered what he hadsaid to Tode: "You can't hold the boat still in four-dimensionalspace."

  This was not quite the same. By stopping the infernal mechanism, onere-entered three-dimensional space, and landed. Certainly the AtomSmasher could land. They were not like the motorcyclist who got on amachine for the first time, and rode to the admiration of all who sawhim, except that he couldn't find out how to stop.

  Yet there was Parrish still fumbling with the controls, and the boatwas still vibrating at a terrific rate of speed. It is impossible todream of leaping out, for there was no solidity, no continuity in thescenery outside.

  It was not like attempting to leap from a moving train, for instance.In that case one knows that there is solid earth beneath, however hardone lands. Here everything was distorted, a sort of mirror reflection.And Jim noticed a strange thing that had never occurred to him before.Everything was reversed, as in a mirror picture. That clump of trees,for instance, which should have been on the right, was on the left.

  Parrish looked up. "There's some means of stopping her, of course," hesaid. "There must be a lever--but I don't know where to look for it inall this mess." He pointed to the revolving wheels. No, it might be amatter of days of experimenting in order to discover the elusiveswitch
.

  "It may be a combination of switches," said Parrish. "I don't knowwhat we're going to do."

  "Suppose I jumped and chanced it," Jim suggested.

  Lucille caught his arm with a little cry. Parrish shook his head.

  "That devil--Listen: there was a Drilgo he disliked. He threw him outof the boat just before she landed at the cave. Everything was inplain sight, plainer than things are here. But he was never seenagain. For God's sake, lad, sit still. I'll try--"

  * * * * *

  Hours later Parrish was still trying. And gradually Jim and Lucillehad ceased to hope.

  Side by side they had sat, watching that glimmering scene about them.Sometimes everything receded into a blur, across which sunlight andshadow, and then moonlight raced, at others the surroundings were soclear that it almost seemed as if, by steadying the boat, they couldleap ashore. And once there happened something that sent a thrill ofcold fear through both of them.

  For where the pool had been there appeared suddenly a hut--and Tode,standing in the doorway, looking about him, a malicious sneer curvinghis lips.

  Jim leaped to his feet, and old Parrish, who had seen Tode too, sprangup in wild excitement.

  "Sit down, lad," he shouted. "It's nothing. I--I turned the micrometerscrew a trifle hard. I got us back to five years ago, when we wereliving here with Tode. That's just a picture--out of the past, Jim!"

  Jim understood, but he sank down again with cold sweat bathing hisforehead. The terrific powers of the Atom Smasher were unveilingthemselves more and more each moment. Jim felt Lucille's hand on hisarm. He looked into her face.

  "Jim, darling, what's going to happen to us if dad can't find how towork the machine?"

  "I don't know, dear. I've thought that we might all jump out andchance it. If we held each other tight, we'd probably land in the sameplace--"

  * * * * *

  Old Parrish stood up. "I can't work it, Jim," he said. "Tode's got usbeat. There's only one thing for us to do. You can guess what it is."

  "I think I can," said Jim, glancing askance at Lucille. Yes, he knew,but he lacked the heart to tell her. "If we were all to jump out,tied together--don't you think we might land--somewhere near where wewant to land?" he asked.

  "Jim, do you realize what each vibration of this boat means?" askedParrish. "There's a table on the instrument-board. It's a wave lengthof four thousand miles in space and nineteen years in time."

  "You mean we're moving to London or San Francisco and back--"

  "Further than that, every infinite fraction of a second," answeredParrish. "No, Jim, we--we wouldn't land. So we must just go back towhere we came from, and--"

  He had been speaking in a low voice, calculated not to reach Lucille'sears. The girl had been leaning back, her eyes closed, as if halfasleep. Now she rose and stepped up to her father and lover. "You cantell me the truth," she said. "I'm not afraid."

  "We've got to go back, Lucille," answered her father. "It's our onlychance. By following the course in reverse we can expect to makeAtlantis again--"

  "Back to that horrible place?"

  "No, my dear. The chart will lead us, obviously, back to the cavewhere Tode has his headquarters. We must try to surprise him, andforce him to bring us back to Long Island."

  "And then?" asked Lucille.

  Parrish shrugged his shoulders. "We'll face that problem when we cometo it," he answered.

  "But how do you expect to be able to land at the other end any morethan this?" asked Jim. "Suppose the machine continues to vibrateinstead of coming to a standstill?"

  "I think," said Parrish, "that we'll be able to strike a bargain withTode. Obviously he will be willing to bring the machine to astandstill in order to parley with us. We'll make terms--the best wecan. After all, he can't afford to remain marooned on the isle ofAtlantis without the Atom Smasher."

  "I hate the idea of bargaining with that wretch," said Lucille.

  "So do we all, dear," answered Jim. "But there's nothing else that wecan do. It's just a matter of give and take. And I'd be glad toconsent to any terms that would bring us three safe back to earth,with all this business behind us."

  "I'll start back, then," said Parrish, turning back to the instrumentboard.

  And, to the familiar thump, thump of the electrical discharge, theAtom Smasher took up its backward journey once more.

  * * * * *

  A long time passed. With her head resting against Jim's breast,Lucille rested. Jim bent over her, trying to discover whether she wasasleep or not. Her eyes were closed, her breathing so soft that shehardly seemed alive. An infinite pity for the girl filled Jim's heart,and, mingled with it, the intense determination to overcome the madmanwho had subjected her to these perils. He glanced across at Parrish,fingering his screws. Old Parrish looked up and nodded. There was anew determination in the old man's face that made him a differentperson from the crazed old man whom Jim had encountered at theVanishing Place.

  "We can beat him, Parrish!" Jim called, and Parrish looked back andnodded again. "We're nearly back to the top of the column," heanswered.

  Not long afterward Parrish looked up once more. "Stand by, Jim!" hecalled. "And be ready. Tode will be aware of our approach by means ofthe sensitive instruments he keeps in his laboratory. But don't harmhim. We want him aboard, and we want him badly. He won't be able toplay any more tricks with us. I've learned too much about the AtomSmasher."

  He pressed a lever, and the greyness dissolved into its componentparts of light and darkness. A jar. Thump, thump! The violet light!Lucille looked up, raised herself, uttered a low cry and caught atJim's arm, trembling.

  They had run their course truly. The Atom Smasher was vibratingoutside the entrance to Tode's cave. And that was Tode, standingthere, watching them, that devilish grin of his accentuated to theutmost. A blurred figure that appeared and vanished, and a surroundingcrowd of Drilgoes--how many it was impossible to guess, for theylooked like a crowd of apes in motion.

  Suddenly Tode disappeared, and a moment later Lucille uttered aterrified cry as his voice spoke in her ear:

  "I thought you'd be back. I knew you'd got away from Atlantis when myrecorder showed the waves of electrical energy proceeding from thecity. You were clever, Dent, but you see, you had to come back to meto get my help."

  "Don't be afraid, dear," said Jim, trying to soothe the girl. "That'sa wireless receiving apparatus." He pointed to a sort of cabinetenclosed among the rotating wheels, and then it was evident thatTode's voice was proceeding from it.

  * * * * *

  Tode's figure appeared again, dancing through a haze of lines andpatches. He was holding something in his hand which Jim made out to bethe mouthpiece of a microphone. The voice inside the Atom Smasherspoke again:

  "Turn all the micrometer screws until the needles register zero,Parrish. Then turn Dial D to point 3, Dial C to 5, Dial B to 1, andDial A to 2. I'll repeat.... Now press the starting lever, Parrish,and you'll find yourself on firm ground again."

  A few moments later the Atom Smasher was pouring out an immense columnof the violet light, and slowly the vibration ceased. The blurredforms of Tode, of the Drilgoes grew clear. They had arrived.

  Tode stepped over the rail. "And now, my friends, we'll have a talk,"he said.

  "No tricks, Tode," Jim warned him, "You've probably got a number ofdeviltries up your sleeve--"

  "One or two, Dent," grinned Tode.

  "We're willing to negotiate."

  "Of course you are. You see, I hold the trumps, Dent. Those dialdeflections, which are inevitable in the construction of any piece ofmechanism, are not the same for Earth in 1920. Don't think you can usethe same figures to land with. You must remember that there has been aprecession of the equinoxes since the time of Atlantis, with aconsequent shift in the earth's axis. No, Dent, I've got you very muchwhere I want you. But I'm willing to discuss terms with you. First o
fall, let's get rid of this useless cargo. I don't believe inoverburdening a ship," he grinned.

  He picked up Cain bodily and heaved the astonished Drilgo over theside before he knew what was happening to him. Cain picked himself upand rubbed his sides, whimpering mournfully. The Drilgoes crowdedcloser, their faces agape with astonishment. Tode spoke a commandsharply, and they scattered.

  * * * * *

  "Before we come to terms, Dent, I'll give you a piece of news that mayinterest you," said Tode. "Much has happened during the time you'vebeen away. Ambassadors have been out to see me from Atlantis. With theaid of a Drilgo interpreter, they conveyed to me that they had beengreatly impressed by the disappearance of the Atom Smasher. They havenothing like it, of course, and they think I'm a Number One magician.

  "The upshot is, they want me to accept the supreme rule of the city,and use my arts to restore the lost territory that has sunk beneaththe waves. They swore on an image of their god, Cruk, that they weresincere. I told them that I'd sent the Atom Smasher away on a journey,but that it would be back shortly, and that I'd then give them theiranswer.

  "Now, Dent"--Tode's face took on that look of fanaticism that Jim hadseen on it before--"I'm going to repeat the proposition I made to youbefore. Join me. I'll make you my chief subordinate, and I'll load youand Parrish down with honors. Everything that a human being can desireshall be yours. And in a year or two, when we're tired of being gods,we'll take the Atom Smasher back to Earth and destroy it, and with ourwealth we'll become the supreme rulers of Earth too. I need you, Dent.You don't realize how lonely life can be when one is worshiped as agod. As for Lucille, there are a thousand maidens more beautiful thanshe is, in Atlantis. Come, Dent, your answer! Your last chance, Dent!Don't throw it away!"

  He read the answer before Jim could speak it. Jim saw Tode's faceflicker, and hurled himself upon him. Lucille screamed. The two menwrestled together in the narrow confines of the circular boat. Jimstruck Tode a blow that sent him reeling against the rail. Then hefelt himself seized from behind. A giant Drilgo had him in his arms.He lifted him over the side and flung him to the earth. In an instantthe chattering Drilgoes were crowding down upon him.

  Struggling madly, Jim saw Tode fell old Parrish with a blow, push backLucille as she sprang at him, and quickly press the starting lever.The column of violet fire faded, there came the whir of themechanism--the Atom Smasher vanished....

  CHAPTER IX

  _The Blinded Eye_

  Jim fought with all his strength; he managed to shake off hisassailants and regain his feet. Then one of the Drilgoes poised hisstone-tipped spear, ready to hurl it through his body.

  But the spear never left the Drilgo's hand in Jim's direction. Like agreat black ape, Cain leaped upon the fellow and bore him to theground, his feet twined around his shoulders, his hands gripping histhroat. Not until the Drilgo had been reduced to a heaving,half-strangled hulk did Cain leave him.

  Then Cain, bending until his stomach almost touched the ground, cameworming toward Jim, making signs of obeisance.

  What had happened that Jim had won the Drilgo's faith? Why did Cainnow look upon him, apparently, as his master? It was impossible togauge the processes of the black man's mind, and at the moment Jim wasin no mood to wonder. The stunning disaster that had overtaken himmonopolized his thoughts.

  Lucille and Parrish were once more in Tode's power. That was thedominating fact. The only gleam of comfort in the situation was thatTode had given him the clue to his movements.

  Beyond a doubt Tode had taken his captives into Atlantis with him. Itwas impossible to disbelieve Tode's statement that he had been offeredthe supreme power in the city. Tode's egotism would have compelled himto blurt out that fact. Besides, Tode had certainly not gone back toearth.

  Jim must force his way into Atlantis. He would find and rescue the twoprisoners or die there.

  He turned away from the groveling Cain and the chattering Drilgoes,who, inspired by Cain's example, now seemed animated by the sameinstinct to obey him, and went into the cave. But at the entrance heturned for a moment and looked back.

  * * * * *

  It was night. The valley was swathed in mists, the volcano oppositewas spouting a shaft of lurid fire. On the water was a path ofmoonlight, where the clouds had been dispersed by the Atlanteans. Jimtook in the scene, he raised one arm and shook his fist. Then, withouta word, he passed inside.

  There was a soft light in the cave, streaming out from an innerchamber, access to which was through a narrow orifice in the rock.Jim passed through, and found himself in Tode's laboratory.

  He was astonished at its completeness, still more so at the existenceof numerous pieces of apparatus whose purpose it was difficult tounderstand. There was a radio transmitter and receiver, but improvedout of all recognition from those in use in the prosaic year 1930.Three or four tiny dynamos, little more than toys in appearance, weregenerating as much voltage, from the indicators, as a modern powerstation. And overhead was a dial, with two series of figures in blackand red, and two needles, both of which were swinging briskly,indicating that there was an intense electrical disturbance in thevicinity.

  The Atom Smasher! Jim took heart. Tode could not be far away! Helooked about him, subconsciously trying to discover some implementthat would prove of service to him, but there was nothing that hecould see, not even one of the ray tubes. He looked about uneasily.

  Then his eyes fell upon something so singularly out of place that itlooked, for the moment, like some pre-historic weapon. It was the lastthing Jim would have expected to find there--nothing more nor lessthan a sporting rifle!

  Deer shooting had been one of Tode's pastimes in the old days, andmore than one fat buck had been surreptitiously shot for the benefitof the larder at the Vanishing Place. There was something almostpathetic in the sight of that rifle and the fifty cartridges in theircardboard carton. Perhaps Tode had pictured himself shooting big gamein Atlantis at some period or other. It was a human weakness that foran instant lessened Jim's hate and horror of the man. It brought himto a saner view of the situation. Jim had been on the point of losinghis powers of reason. The sight of the rifle restored them.

  * * * * *

  He turned sharply as he heard a sound in the entrance. Cain was comingtoward him, with many genuflexions, and much stomach wriggling. Hestopped, straightened himself. There was a look of singularintelligence on the Drilgo's face.

  He began chattering, pointing in the direction of Atlantis. Jim couldmake nothing of what he was trying to convey.

  "Yes, they're there," he said bitterly, "but I don't see how that'sgoing to help me."

  "Oh my poor Lucille!" said Cain unexpectedly.

  The words were like a parrot's speech, the intonation so remarkable acopy of old Parrish's that Jim was flabbergasted. Nevertheless it wasevident that Cain knew he was referring to Lucille.

  With a strange, slinking motion he crossed the laboratory and bentbeneath a huge slab of stone, resting on two great hewn rocks. Heemerged, holding in his arms two curious contrivances. He laid them atJim's feet.

  Jim stared at them, and suddenly understood what they were. They weretwo pairs of wings, of the kind the Atlanteans had used when they madetheir aerial sortie against the Drilgoes.

  Cain picked up one pair and began adjusting it about his body. He madefluttering movements with his arms.

  "You mean that you've learned how to fly, you black imp of Satan?"shouted Jim.

  And Cain, as if understanding, nodded and beamed all over his blackface.

  With that Jim's idea was born. If the Drilgoes would follow him, hewould lead them against Atlantis. And, before the assault began, hewould fly to the great Eye that guarded it, and blind it.

  * * * * *

  He thought afterward that it was like a supernatural revelation, thisscheme, that leaped full-fledged into his brain. And Cain haddeveloped extraor
dinary executive ability. Outside the cave, throughrifts in the swirls of fog, Jim could see innumerable Drilgoes massingin the valley, as if they understood Jim's purpose. From Cain'sgesticulations, and the number of times he rubbed his stomach, it wasevident that he counted upon sacking Atlantis and was imagininginnumerable meals of fat captives.

  Each flash of lurid light from the volcano disclosed further masses ofDrilgoes, armed with their stone spears, apparently assembling for theattack. Whether Tode had summoned them before the Atlanteans offeredhim the rulership of the city, or whether Jim's own plan had beencommunicated to them by some telepathic process, it was impossible toguess, but there was not the least doubt but that they were preparedto follow him.

  Cain nudged Jim and began strapping the other pair of wings about hisbody. Jim saw that the energy was supplied by two tiny, lights burningin the base, cold fire, stored energy whose strength he did not guess.For, when Cain took him by the hand, and motioned to him to slide theknob in the groove, he was hurled skyward like a rocket.

  There followed a delirious hour. Tossing and tumbling like a pigeon ina gale, Jim by degrees acquired mastery over the apparatus. At the endof the hour he could fly almost as well as Cain, who, like a blackguardian angel kept beside him, reaching out a hand when heoverbalanced, and pulling him out of aerial side-slips.

  * * * * *

  Suddenly Cain motioned toward the volcano, and started toward it in arocketlike swoop. Jim understood. The Drilgoes were ready for theattack upon Atlantis.

  Jim dropped to earth, ran back into the cave, and picked up the rifleand the carton of ammunition. He filled the magazine, and, with therifle on his arm, rose into the air again. Cain was circling back,uttering weird cries of distress at finding his master absent.

  "It's all right, Cain," said Jim. "I'm here."

  Side by side they flew steadily toward the base of the great cone,which was pouring out a fan-shaped stream of fire. Rumblings shook theearth; it was evident that another upheaval was in course ofpreparation. The long column of the Drilgoes could be seen, extendingaround the flank of the mountain.

  Then of a sudden the Eye opened. And across the causeway came theblue-white Ray, carrying death and destruction.

  The Drilgoes, who had learned wisdom, remained concealed out of theRay's path, and escaped, but a great dinosaur, fifty or sixty feet inlength, startled by the light, came blundering out of the ferns,uttered a bellow, and melted into an amorphous mass. Birds droppedfrom their roosting places with a sound like that of falling hail.Black paths were cloven through the midst of the jungle.

  Rifle in hand, Jim soared into the air, and shot forward, high abovethe causeway toward the glowing Eye.

  He had noticed that the blue-white ray appeared in cycles of about twominutes, and had made his plans accordingly. Two minutes in which toaccomplish his task, or take the chance of a hideous death. Somethirty seconds carried him right into the glowing heart of the winkingEye: he hovered and raised his rifle.

  Underneath him the breakers thundered: round the Eye a myriadsea-birds fluttered, dashing themselves against it, falling into thewaves. Huge and high the great city towered into the skies, lit by itssoft incandescence. Jim could see the throngs in the streets, thetraffic. But what was happening in the other side of the Eye?

  * * * * *

  Suddenly he saw the moon in her third quarter sailing through theskies, and a hideous fear overcame him. Suppose Tode had met withtreachery; suppose that this very night Lucille were doomed to besacrificed to the terrible god Cruk!

  Suppose that even at that moment her tender flesh were beingsacrificed by the awful hooks!

  He drew a bead upon the Eye and fired--and missed. The bullet wentwide. But even if it struck, what guarantee had he that it wouldshatter the glass, or whatever substance it was that covered the orb?

  He lost position, and knew that the two-minute interval was drawing toa close. He soared and fired again. The Eye still glowed.

  Then of a sudden a blinding ray shot forth from it, so dazzling thatit seemed to sear Jim's eyeballs. The interval was ended.

  It shot beneath him, but no more than a few feet, and turning his eyesshoreward, Jim saw it sweep along the causeway and tear a black paththrough the forest. Frantically he soared, and circled around thetemple.

  The ray went out. Two minutes more. And now the temporary panic hadpassed; Jim's nerves grew steady as a rock. He eased the controls andfloated in toward the glowing orb. Sea-mews, screaming, dashedthemselves against it and fell, wounded and broken, into the breakingseas below. They fluttered past Jim's face, one impacted against hischest with a thud that rocked him where he hovered.

  But Jim knew that he could not fail. At a distance of fifty feet hedrew a bead upon the centre of the Eye and pressed the trigger.

  And instantly the light went out....

  CHAPTER X

  _The Fight in the Dark_

  He dropped down softly to the causeway. Within the city he heard asound such as he had never heard before, as if some ancient prophecyof doom had been fulfilled, a wailing "Aiah! Aiah! Aiah!" that wascaught up from throat to throat and rose upon the wind in a clamorwild and mournful as that of the sea-birds around the broken Eye. Itwas the death-keening of proud Atlantis, Queen of the Atlantic forfifty thousand years. She was dying in darkness.

  For, with the blinding of the Eye, all the soft lights within the cityhad gone out. Dense, utter, impenetrable darkness reigned, and eventhe gibbous moon, floating overhead, seemed to give no light.

  Jim dropped to the causeway and began running in the direction of thecity. But, feeling the drag of his wings, he unbuckled the strap andflung them away. He might need them, but his one thought was to get toLucille, if she were still alive. And he felt that each moment lostmight mean that he would be too late.

  Through the blackness he raced forward, hearing that sobbing ululationwithin the walls. But behind him he heard another sound, and shudderedat it, all his hopes suddenly reversed. For that sound was theshouting of the Drilgoes as they rushed forward to conquest. And nowit seemed a monstrous thing that proud Atlantis should be at the mercyof these hordes. He had let loose destruction upon the world. But itwas to save Lucille.

  That was his consolation. Yet he hardly checked the racing thoughtswithin his mind even for a moment, to meditate on what he had done.Those thoughts were all of Lucille. He must get to her before theDrilgoes entered. And he ran faster, panting, gasping, till of asudden the portals loomed before him, and he saw a crowd of frenziedAtlanteans struggling to pass through, and a file of soldiersstruggling to keep them back.

  * * * * *

  He could distinguish nothing more than the confused struggle. Hehurled himself into the midst of the crowd and swept it back. He waswithin the walls now, and struggling to pass through the mob of peoplethat was swarming like homeless bees.

  He fought them with flailing fists, he clove a pathway through them,until he found himself in a great shadowy space that he recognized asthe central assembly of the city. More by instinct than design he hitupon the narrow court that was the elevator. But the court was filledwith another mob of struggling people, and in the darkness there wasno possibility of discovering the secret of raising it.

  He blundered about, raging, forcing a path now here, now there. He raninto blind alleys, into small threading streets about the court, whichled him back into the central place of assembly. It was like anightmare, that blind search under the pale three-quarter moon and theblack, star-blotched sky.

  Suddenly Jim found himself wedged by the pressure of the crowd into asort of recess leading off the elevator court. So strong was thepressure here that he was unable to move an inch. Wedged bolt upright,he could only wait and let the frenzied mob stream past him. Andlouder above the sound of wailing came the roars of the Drilgoesswarming along the causeway.

  Suddenly something gave behind him--a door, as it seemed, broken of
fits hinges by the mob pressure. Jim was hurled backward, and fellheavily down a flight of stone stairs, bringing up against a stonebalustrade. He got up, unconscious of his bruises, ran to the top ofthe flight, and saw the dim square of palest twilight where the doorhad been.

  But over him he could faintly see the stairs and the balustrade,winding away to what seemed immeasurable height. That stairway mustlead to the top of the building, and thence there should be someaccess to the amphitheatre. Jim turned toward it.

  * * * * *

  Suddenly a tremendous uproar filled the streets, yells, the clickinggrunts of the Drilgoes, the screams of the panic-stricken populace.The invaders had arrived, and they were sweeping all before them. Nochance of recognition in that darkness. Lucille! Shouting her name,Jim began to ascend the stairs in leaps of three at a time.

  But long before he reached the top he was ascending one by one, withstraining limbs and laboring breath. Red slaughter down below, a veryinferno of sound; above, that shadowy stairway, still extending almostto the heavens. Step after step, flight beyond flight!

  Jim's lungs were bursting, and his heart hammering as if it wouldbreak his chest. One flight more! One more! Another! Suddenly herealized that his task was ended. In place of the stairs stood a vasthall, and beyond that another hall, dim in the faint light thatfiltered through the glass above.

  Jim thought he remembered where he was. Beyond that next hall thereshould be the tongue of flooring, crossing the amphitheatre andjoining the platform of the idols. But he stopped suddenly as heemerged, not upon the tongue, but upon still another stairway.

  He had gone astray, and out of his bursting lungs a cry of rage anddespair went up. For a moment he stood still. What use to proceedfurther?

  And then, amazingly, there came what might have been a sign fromheaven. Down through a small, square opening overhead, no larger thana ventilator, it came ... a glimmer of violet flame!

  And Jim hurled himself like a madman against the stairs, andsurmounted them with two bounds. There were no more. Instead, Jimfound himself looking down into the amphitheatre.

  The thick walls had cut off all sound from his ears, save a confusedmurmur, but now a hideous uproar assailed them. The whole floor of theamphitheatre was a mass of moving shadows, of slayers and slain.

  The Drilgoes had broken in and trapped the multitudes that had takenrefuge there. Their fearful stone-tipped spears thrust in and out, tothe accompaniment of their savage howls and the screams of the dying.

  * * * * *

  Never has such a shadow-play been seen, perhaps, as that below, wheredeath stalked in dense darkness, and the slayer did not even see hisvictim. Only the thrust of spears, the soft, yielding flesh that theyencountered, the scream, the wrench of stone from tissue, and theblended howl of triumph and scream of despair.

  Yet only for a moment did Jim turn his eyes upon that sight. For heknew where he was now. He had emerged upon the other side of theamphitheatre, upon the platform where he had seen the priests anddignitaries gathered when he was led forward to be sacrificed.

  There, in the rear, were the hideous, shadowy gods, looming up out ofthe darkness, their outstretched arms interlaced. And there upon theplatform was the Atom Smasher, a little thread of violet light seepingout of the central tube.

  Beside it stood a group of figures, impossible to distinguish in thedarkness, but of a sudden Lucille's scream rang out above the dinbelow.

  With three leaps Jim was at her side. He saw the girl, Tode, andParrish, struggling in the grasp of a dozen priests. They weredragging them toward the idols, and Jim understood what that sceneportended.

  In despair at the irruption of the Drilgoes, the priests were seekingto propitiate their gods by sacrificing the three strangers whom theyheld responsible for all their woes.

  Jim caught Lucille in his arms, shouting her name. She knew him,turned toward him. Then one of the priests, armed with a greatstone-headed club--for no metal is permitted within the precincts ofthe god Cruk--struck at him furiously.

  Jim leaped aside, letting the club descend harmlessly upon the floor.He shot out his right with all his strength behind it, catching thepriest upon the jaw, and the man crumpled.

  * * * * *

  Whirling the club around his head, he fought back the fanatics, allthe while shouting to Tode to start the Atom Smasher. In such a momenthe only remembered that Tode was a white man, and of his owngeneration.

  He struck down three of the priests; then he was seized around theknees from behind, and fell heavily. The club was wrenched from hishand. In another moment Jim found himself helpless in the grasp of theAtlanteans.

  As he stopped struggling for a moment, to gather his strength for asupreme effort, he heard a whir overhead, and saw the arms of thestone gods begin their horrible revolution. The priests had startedthe machinery. And high above the din below rang out the wild chant ofthe high priest.

  Jim saw him now, a figure poised upon a platform behind the arms, hisown arms raised heavenward.

  "Aiah! Aiah! Aiah!"

  Jim was being dragged forward, with Lucille beside him, old Parrishfollowing, still making a futile struggle for life, while pitifulscreeches issued from his mouth.

  Jim saw the revolving arms descend within a foot of his head. One morefight--one more, the last.

  Suddenly, with loud yells, a band of Drilgoes leaped forward from thehead of the stairs and rushed upon the struggling priests and victims.And, dark as it was, Jim recognized their leader--Cain.

  And Cain knew Lucille. As the priests rallied for a desperateresistance, Cain hurled his great body through the air, landingsquarely upon the shoulders of the priest nearest the revolving arms,and knocking him flat.

  Then the arms caught priest and Drilgo, and the steel hooks dug deepinto their flesh. A screech of terror, a howl that reverberatedthrough the amphitheatre, and nothing remained of either but a heapof macerated flesh.

  But in that instant Jim had fought free again. He caught Lucille anddragged her back toward the Atom Smasher.

  * * * * *

  Tode had already broken from his captors and was working at itfrantically.

  "Hold on!" screeched old Parrish. "Hold on!"

  They had a moment's leeway. The Drilgoes had driven the priests backinto the hooks. With awful shrieks the fanatics were yielding up theirlives, in the place of their selected victims.

  But more Drilgoes were pouring up the stairs. A moment's leeway, andno more, before the savage band would impale the four upon theirstone-pointed spears. There was not the slightest chance that theywould be able to make their identity known.

  "For God's sake hurry!" Jim yelled in Tode's ear.

  The wheels were revolving, a stream of violet light, leaping out ofthe central tunnel, cast a lurid illumination upon the scene.

  But it was too late. A score of Drilgoes, with leveled spears, wererushing on the four.

  "Hold tight!" screeched Parrish. He thrust his arm into his breast,and pulled out a little lever. Jim recognized it and remembered. Itwas the instrument of universal death--the uranium release of untoldforces of cataclysmic depredation.

  "Take that!" screamed the old man, inserting the lever into the secretgroove in the Atom Smasher and jerking it in the direction of thepriests.

  CHAPTER XI

  _Tode's Last Gamble_

  A roar that seemed to rend the heavens followed. Roar upon roar, asthe infinite momentum of the disintegrating uranium struck obstacleafter obstacle. The Drilgoes vanished, the amphitheatre melted away,walls and roof.... Overhead were the moon and stars.

  And proud Atlantis was sinking into the depths of the sea.... Not as aship sinks, but piecemeal, her walls and towers crumbling and topplingas a child's sand-castle crumbles under the attack of the lappingwaves. Down they crashed, carrying their freight of black, clinging,human ants, while from the sea's depths a wave, a mile high,
rose andbattered the fragments to destruction. From the crater of the volcanoa huge wave of fire fanned forward, and where fire and water met acloud of steam rose up.

  A boiling chaos in which water and earth and fire were blended, spreadover land and sea. And then suddenly it was ended. Where the lastisland of the Atlantean continent had been, only the ocean was to beseen, placid beneath the stars.

  The Atom Smasher was vibrating at tremendous speed. Jim, with one armround Lucille, faced Tode at the instrument board. Near by satParrish, watching him too.

  "That took a whole year," said Tode. "That pretty little scene ofdestruction we've just witnessed. The good old Atom Smasher has beendoing some lively stunts, or we'd have been engulfed too. We're notlikely to see anything so pretty in history again, unless we go towatch the destruction of Herculaneum and Pompeii by lava fromVesuvius. But that would be quite tame in comparison with this."

  * * * * *

  Tode's jeering tone grated on Jim's ears immeasurably.

  "I don't think any of us are craving any more experiments, Tode," hesaid, trying to keep his voice steady. "Suppose you take us back toPeconic Bay. We'll dump the Atom Smasher into the pond, and try toforget that we've had anything except a bad nightmare."

  "Don't trust him, Jim," whispered Lucille.

  Tode heard. "Thank you," he answered, scowling. "But seriously, Dent,we can't go back with nothing to show for all our trouble. Those foolstried to betray me, and then the Eye went out. Perhaps I have you tothank for that performance? However, the sensible thing is to letbygones be bygones. But we must make a little excursion. How aboutpicking up a little treasure from the hoards of Solomon or GenghisKhan? A few pounds of precious stones would make a world of differencein our social status when we reach Long Island."

  Jim felt a cold fury permeating him. Tode saw his grim look andlaughed malignantly.

  "Well, Dent, I'm ready to be frank with you," he said. "The game'sstill in my hands. I want Lucille. I'm willing to take you and Parrishback, provided you agree she shall be mine. I'll have to trust you,but I shall have means of evening up if you play crooked."

  "Why don't you ask my girl herself?" piped old Parrish.

  "He needn't trouble. He knows the answer!" cried Lucille scornfully.

  "There's your answer," said Jim. "Now, what's the alternative?"

  "The alternative is, that I have already set the dial to eternity,Dent," grinned Tode. "Eternity in the fifth dimension. Didn't know I'dworked that out, did you? A pleasant little surprise. No, don't try tomove. My hand is on the lever. I have only to press it, and we'rethere."

  * * * * *

  Jim stood stock still in horror. Tode's voice rang true. He believedTode had the power he claimed.

  "Yes, the fifth dimension, and eternity," said Tode, "where time andspace reel into functionlessness. Don't ask me what it's like there.I've never been there. But my impression of it is that it's a fairlygood representation of the place popularly known as hell.

  "You fool, Dent," Tode's voice rang out with vicious, snarlingemphasis, "I gave you your chance to come in with me. Together we'dhave made ourselves masters of Atlantis and brought back her plunderto our Twentieth Century world. You refused because of a girl--a girl,Dent, who loved me long before you came upon the scene."

  "That's a lie, Lucius," answered Lucille steadily. "And you can doyour worst. There's one factor you haven't reckoned in yourcalculations, and that's called God."

  "The dark blur on the spectral lines," old Parrish muttered.

  Tode laughed uproariously. "Come, make your choice, Dent," he mocked."It's merely to press this lever. You'll find yourself--well, we won'tgo into that. I don't know where you'll find yourself. You'lldisappear. So shall I. But I'm desperate. I must have Lucille.Choose!" His voice rang out in maniac tones. "Choose, all of you!"

  "Lucille has answered you," Jim retorted.

  "And how about you, old man?" called Tode to Parrish.

  Parrish leased forward, making a swift movement with his hand. "Go toyour own hell, you dev--"

  A blinding light, a frantic oscillation of the Atom Smasher, a senseof death, awful and indescribable--and stark unconsciousness rushedover Jim. His last thought was that Lucille's arms were about him, andthat he was holding her. Nothing mattered, therefore, even though theytwo were plunged into that awful nothingness of the fifth dimension,where neither space nor time recognizably exists. Love could existthere.

  CHAPTER XII

  _Solid Earth_

  "He's coming around, Lucille. Thank God for it!"

  Jim opened his eyes. For a few moments he looked about him withoutunderstanding. Then the outlines of a room etched themselves againstthe clouded background. And in the foreground Lucille's face. The girlwas bending over Jim, one hand soothing his forehead.

  "Where am I?" Jim muttered.

  "Back on earth, Jim, the good old earth, never again to leave it,"answered Lucille, with a catch in her voice. With an effort shecomposed herself. "You mustn't talk," she said.

  "But what place is this?"

  "It's Andy Lumm's house. Now rest, and I'll explain everything later."

  But the first explanation came from Andy Lumm. "Well, Mr. Dent, mywife and me sure were glad to be on the spot when you and Miss Parrishgot bogged on the edge of the Black Pool," he said. "Mean, treacherousplace it is. Thar was a cow got mired thar last month, up to herbelly. If us hadn't found her, and dragged her out with ropes, she'dhave gone clear under. Granpop Dawes says thar's underground springsaround the edge, and that it runs straight down to hell, though thatseems sorter far-fetched to me.

  "Yessir, and if I hadn't heard WNYC giving Miss Parrish on the list ofmissing persons, and as having been seen near here, I reckon I'd neverhave found you. Made me and my wife uneasy, that did. 'Andy,' shesays. 'I got an inkling you oughter go to the Vanishing Place and seeif she ain't there.' And there I found you two, mired to the waist,and Mr. Parrish dancing around and fretting, and his clothes burned tocinders.

  "It sure seems strange to me, to think Mr. Parrish got away safe afterthat explosion five years ago, and of his wandering around with lossof memory, till you found him, and brung him back here to restore it,but thar's strange things in the world--yes, sir, thar surely is!"

  In the happiness of being back on Earth once more, Jim was content tolet further explanations go. The return of Parrish had been dulychronicled in the newspapers, and had provoked a mild interest, butfortunately the public mind was so occupied at the moment with thetrial of a night club hostess that, after the first rush of newspapermen, the three were left alone.

  * * * * *

  Day after day, in the brilliant autumn weather, Jim and Lucille wouldroam the tinted woods, recharging themselves with the feel of Earth,until the memory of those dread experiences grew dim.

  "Well, Jim, I reckon I'd better tell you and get it over," said oldParrish one morning--Parrish, quite his old, jaunty self again. "Todehad got the dials pointing to the fifth dimension--eternity, he calledit, though actually I believe it's nothing more than annihilation, agrand smash. Well, he pressed that lever. But something had gonewrong.

  "You remember how poor Cain seemed to take great interest in the AtomSmasher. There's no way of telling what had been going on in thatbrain of his, but it looks to me like he'd known that that lever meantdeath. It was sealed up in wax, and Tode had got it free on the wayout of Atlantis.

  "Well--this it what I made out from examining the thing afterward.Cain had been monkeying with the lever. He'd pried loose one of thewires that hooked to the transformer, and short-circuited it, notknowing, of course, just what he was doing. The result was that whenTode pressed that lever, instead of blowing the whole contraption topieces, he got a couple of billion volts of electricity through hisbody, combined with a larger amperage than has ever been imagined. Itburned him to a few grease spots. He simply--vanished. You don'tremember what you did at the m
oment, boy?"

  "I don't seem to remember anything," said Jim.

  "Well, your response was an automatic one. You jumped him. Luckilyyou were too late, for Tode vanished like that!" Old Parrish snappedhis fingers. "But you must have got into the field of magneticforce--any way, you were almost electrocuted. Lucille and I thoughtyou were dead for hours.

  "We laid you down and set a course for home. I used those dialnumberings Tode had given me. He'd said they wouldn't work, but he'dlied. They did work. They brought us back to the Vanishing Place.

  "We carried you out, and then I saw your eyelid twitch. We worked overyou with artificial respiration till it looked as if there was achance for you. Then I shut off the power and let the waters rush inover the Atom Smasher, and swam ashore. And there it lies at thebottom of the pool, and may it lie there till the Judgment Day."

  * * * * *

  "Tode was a genius," said Jim, "but he never understood that charactercounts for more than genius."

  "Let's think no more about him," said Lucille. She had come up tothem, and the two looked at each other and smiled. Love isself-centred; other things it forgets very quickly.

  "To-morrow we go back to New York," said Jim. "You think you're ableto face the world and take up life again?"

  "I think so, Jim," said Lucille.

  "You're not remembering him after all?"

  "No, Jim. I was thinking of poor Cain. He died for me."

  "But that was twelve thousand years ago, my dear, and to-day'sto-day," said Jim. "And to-morrow a new life begins for you and me."

  He drew her closer to him. No, he would never quite forget, but thatwas twelve thousand years ago ... and to-morrow was his wedding day.