TERRIFIC EXPLOSION NEAR LONDON! MAY BE DUSTIN PROJECTILE RETURNED TO

EARTH At four thirty this morning a huge missile fell into the Thames River near Gravesend. It exploded with terrible force, killing more than fourteen hundred people, and injuring thousands. The shock of the explosion was felt all over the British Isles as well as on continental Europe, and was registered by seismographs all over the world.

Scientists have calculated that the projectile fired by the inventor, Theodore Dustin, would return to the earth in thirty days, but they now believe it must have traveled in a larger orbit than they estimated, and that this is the missile of Dustin returning later than predicted.

Ted pushed the paper aside wearily.

"The 'I told you so' boys are at it again, Roger," he said. "They make me sick. In order to prove a pet theory, they're trying to make a wholesale murderer of me in the eyes of the world. I'm weary of it all." Then a voice suddenly issued from the radiovisiphone. It was the operator.

"Mr. Dustin." "Yes."

"Station WNB-437 announces that it is about to broadcast important international news. Shall I tune it in for you?"

"Please."

A picture instantly flashed on the disc of the radiovisiphone--the announcer for the World News Broadcasters, standing in the station at Washington, D.C. He held a paper in one hand, and a watch in the other, evidently waiting for the exact second to begin his announcement. Presently he cleared his throat and looked up.

"We have just received a communication from Paris, France," he announced. "A projectile similar to that which fell in the Thames near Gravesend has fallen into the heart of Paris. The city is in ruins and there has been a terrific loss of life, unestimated at this time. This shock, like the one which came a few hours ago, has been recorded by seismographs all over the world. Scientists who hold that the previous explosion was caused by the Dustin projectile have issued no statements regarding this one. No one we have consulted can offer any explanation of this singular and terrible occurrence." The announcer paused, then turned to receive a new sheet of paper from a messenger.

"The situation with regard to these projectiles is becoming more serious every minute," he said. "I have here a radio message from New York City. A third missile has just fallen into New York Harbor, sinking or destroying all shipping in the vicinity, killing and maiming thousands of people, and shattering glass in the windows for miles around. Two Broadway skyscrapers are reported to have toppled to the street, adding to the shambles as panic-stricken people scurrying for shelter were crushed in the ruins." Again the announcer paused to receive a new sheet of paper.

"A message from Professor Fowler of the Yerkes Observatory states that he was looking at the moon this morning between the hours of one and four o'clock, and that during that period he saw five distinct and quite brilliant flashes of light in the region of the crater, Ptolemy. He has just learned of the explosions at London, Paris and New York, and thinks that they may have some connection with what he saw on the moon early this morning. It is his theory that the moon is suffering from a bombardment similar to that which the earth is undergoing."

The picture of the announcer suddenly disappeared from the disc and that of Dustin's operator appeared.

"I had to tune out WNB-437, sir," she apologized. "The President of the United States is calling."

"Tune him in," replied Dustin.

Instantly there flashed on the disc the familiar countenance of President Whitmore. He looked worried, and his voice trembled slightly as he asked:

"Mr. Dustin, have you any explanation of the calamities that have overtaken the world in the last few hours?"

"I have no facts for you at present, Mr. President," replied Dustin, "but I have a theory."

"And what is that?"

"It is my belief that the moon is bombarding the earth. She reached an advantageous firing position last night, and Professor Fowler saw five flashes between one and four o'clock this morning. According to my theory she left five huge interplanetary mines in the path of the earth and we have already run afoul of three of them. Moreover, they were aimed and timed with such accuracy that one of our chief cities has been destroyed and two more came near to meeting the same fate."

"You have stated that your projectile struck the moon. Do you believe that our satellite is inhabited, and that the explosions we have experienced were mines or missiles, fired in reprisal by the lunar inhabitants?"

"That is my belief, Mr. President."

"Then, Mr. Dustin, you are jointly responsible with the Associated Governments of the Earth for this horrible and unexpected catastrophe, and we shall look to you to see that the bombardment is stopped."

"I'm sorry, Mr. President, but I am without funds, and my company is to be taken from me by my creditors in a few days."

"This, Mr. Dustin," replied the President, "is an international emergency, and must be met with every ounce of power at our command. We need you--the world needs you and your organization. Draw on the government for such funds as you require at once, and I will issue an order on the treasury for sufficient funds to satisfy every one of your creditors.

"At present I can only promise you the cooperation of our own government, but I am calling a meeting of the Associated Governments today, and I feel sure they will be with us. Do all you can, as quickly as you can, and spare no expense to carry the thing through as swiftly as possible."

"I'll do my best, Mr. President," replied Ted.

The picture of the President faded from the disc, and Roger rose from his seat, his face aglow with enthusiasm for this new undertaking.

"Atta boy, Ted!" he said. "When do we start? And how?"

IV. MOON PEOPLE

ON THE following day the factory of Theodore Dustin, Inc., hummed with an activity it had not known for weeks.

The fact that Ted's prediction regarding the other two missiles from the moon had come true shortly after he had uttered them, solidified public confidence in him to a degree even greater than that he had enjoyed before the firing of his own projectile and his subsequent condemnation by the official observers. The last two missiles to strike the earth had apparently not been aimed so accurately as the others, but the intent of those who fired them had been just as evident, for one had plumped into the middle of Lake Michigan, not far from Chicago, and the other had alighted in the Tyrrhenian Sea near Rome, both causing tidal waves and some damage to shipping, but without the large number of fatalities which attended the falls of the others.

There were people, of course, who condemned Ted for having fired his projectile to the moon and thus having brought about the bombardment in reprisal--a bombardment which, for all they knew, might take place every month at the time the moon was in a favorable firing position.

None there were, however, who condemned the youthful scientist so thoroughly as he condemned himself. Not that he spent his time, or any part of it, in self-reproach. There was, in fact, no time for anything but work, with the busy program he had set for himself and his men.

Two major projects, both being carried on at once, claimed every minute of his waking time. One was the building of a gigantic radio station, with which he hoped to get into communication with the inhabitants of the moon. The other, the construction of an interplanetary vehicle driven by atomotors, in which he hoped to reach the moon in person. The radio, he expected to have ready for service in two weeks, but the vehicle, because the manufacture of many of its delicate and intricate parts could only be entrusted to a few of his best men, would take six weeks to complete at the very least.

During the first three days and nights he worked without sleep. Then outraged nature asserted itself, and he was compelled to rest. From then until the day of the completion of the radio station, he put himself on a sleep ration of four hours a day.

On May 19th, just two weeks after the projectiles from the moon had struck the earth, and nearly two months from the day Dustin's projectile had exploded on the moon, there was a large and august assemblage in the general office of Theodore Dustin, Inc.

Forty of the world's leading linguists, representing every race and color on the globe, talked excitedly in a multiplicity of tongues. Nor were modern languages solely represented, for there was a small group of men whose life studies had been the forgotten languages of the past-men who had wrested from crypts, pyramids, monuments, caves, and the ruins of ancient cities, temples and fortresses, the secrets of the speech of the ancients.

Nor were these all. A still smaller group consisted of the greatest men of science, sent by the leading nations of the earth.

From time to time, they glanced expectantly at the door of Dustin's private office. Presently the door opened and Dustin stepped out, accompanied by President Whitmore of the United States.

Instantly the buzz of conversation ceased, as Ted held his hand aloft for silence.

"We are ready, gentlemen," he announced. "Follow me to the elevators." Three trips of the elevators landed everyone on the roof. In the center was a building containing the sending and receiving apparatus. Overhead were stretched the wires of the gigantic aerial. Ted conducted his party to the doorway of the building and into a small auditorium with seats and desks arranged in a semicircle. Here Sanders met them and assisted Ted in showing each man to the desk which had been provided for him.

When all were seated, Ted and Roger pulled back two sliding doors which disclosed a small stage and a radiovisiphone with a disc ten feet in diameter, which faced the gathering.

"Now, Mr. President," said Ted, "if you will do us the honor of pressing the button on the desk before you, you will close the circuit of the set through which we hope to establish communication with the inhabitants of the moon. The zero hour has arrived. In accordance with the orders of the Associated Governments of the Earth, every broadcasting station in the world has ceased to function." The President smiled and pressed the button. A terrific crackling roar from the radiovisiphone followed his action.

Ted speedily adjusted a set of dials on the desk before him, and the roar subsided. Then he stepped before the radiovisiphone.

"People of the Moon," he said, "we know not in what language to address you, so we are about to speak to you in all the known languages of the earth. Our mission is one of peace--our purpose to make apology for having wronged you--a people of whom we know nothing, and whose very existence we did not suspect. Will you answer us, People of the Moon?"

The young inventor evidently did not expect a reply--not so soon, at least. He turned, and beckoned to the German linguist to take his place. It was his purpose to have the speech repeated in each language in turn. About to step down from the platform, he was startled by sudden cries of amazement from the men facing him.

"Look, Ted! Look quickly, behind you!" he heard Roger shout.

As he faced the radiovisiphone once more, it was his turn to gasp in astonishment not unmingled with awe, for revealed in the pellucid depths of the ten foot disk, and apparently not five feet from him, stood a woman--a glorious vision of feminine beauty that held him entranced.

She was not large--a scant five feet in height, he judged--but there was a certain dignity in her bearing which somehow made her appear taller. The golden glory that was her hair, dressed in a style new and strange to the inventor, was held by a band of platinum-like metal powdered with glistening jewels. Her clothing, if judged by earthly standards, was not clothing at all. Gleaming meshes of white metal, woven closely together, formed a light, shimmering garment that covered though it revealed the lines of her shapely breasts, slender waist, and lissom hips, leaving arms, shoulders and legs bare. A jeweled dagger hung from a chain-like belt about her waist, and a huge ruby blazed on the index finger of her left hand. On her feet were sandals, apparently constructed from the white metal.

Behind the young lady whose appearance had so amazed the distinguished gathering of scientists, stood two men, each well over six feet tall. They appeared to be guards, for each leaned on the hilt of a huge, broad-bladed, scimitar-like weapon that reached from the floor to the level of his breast, and both wore shining plate armor and helmets of strange design.

The girl smiled, revealing at the same time, a set of small, even white teeth, and a most adorable pair of dimples. Then she spoke. Ted stood like one bewitched, listening to the clear, flute-like tones, but Roger had the presence of mind to turn on the recorder.

She had not spoken more than a dozen words, however, when the image in the disc blurred and her voice was drowned by a confusion of discordant sounds.

"What's wrong?" asked the President of the United States, anxiously.

"Another station cutting in, damn it!" replied Ted, frantically turning his wave-trap dial with one hand and the selector dials with the other.

While he labored with the dials an image seemed slowly to be forming in the disc, taking the place of the one which had just disappeared. For a time, two voices were heard, one unmistakably that of the girl, growing fainter and fainter, the other, the coarse tones of a man, constantly increasing in intensity. As the new image cleared, it proved to be that of a man of remarkable dimensions-with a body that was almost globular, to which were attached incongruously slender arms and legs. Although he could not have been more than five feet tall, his round head was nearly twice as large as that of the average earth man of six feet. His nose was fiat, and his eyes slanted toward his temples above exceptionally prominent cheek bones. As he spoke in sing-song monosyllables, he disclosed rat-like teeth, set far apart, and wobbled a long, thin moustache, the two ends of which drooped from the corners of his mouth to his breast. On his head was a tall pointed helmet of gleaming yellow metal, built up in tiers like a pagoda and ending in a sharp spike. His body was encased in scale-like armor of the same yellow metal, and his breast was crossed by two purple sashes, fastened at their intersection by a golden medallion on which was emblazoned a scarlet dragon. From one of these depended a sword with a small, round guard, and a hilt nearly a foot in length, and from the other, a weapon which slightly resembled an automatic pistol. Behind him stood a semicircle of smaller beings of similar rotund shape, whose helmets were shorter and of copper-colored metal, as were their suits of armor. They wore brown sashes and copper medallions emblazoned with green dragons, and in addition to weapons similar to those of the larger man, carried tall poles surmounted by sharp discs that slightly resembled buzzsaws with exceptionally long teeth. The appearance of the girl had created a stir in the room, but when these grotesque creatures became plainly visible on the disc, animated whispers turned to an uproar, and Ted was forced to call for silence. Scarcely had the confusion abated, ere an aged Chinese doctor arose and came up beside Ted.

"What is it, Dr. Wu?" asked the young scientist, his hands busy with the dials. "Can you understand him?"

"A word, here and there, seems intelligible--something like the language of my revered ancestors." At sight of Dr. Wu, the speaker in the disc paused and nodded. It was as if he had recognized someone racially akin to him. The doctor bowed and smiled in return, and said something in a monosyllabic tongue. Its phonetic similarity to that which had come from the globular being was striking, as was the fact that there was a slight facial resemblance between Dr. Wu and the lunar speaker.

The Lunite pursed his lips and knit his brows as if endeavoring to understand. He turned to the semicircle of men behind him. They all appeared puzzled. Then he dispatched one of them, who disappeared from the disc, and facing Dr. Wu once more, uttered a short sentence.

It was the doctor's turn to knit his brows and shake his head. Again he essayed speech with the armored man. Apparently he was not understood. The process was repeated several more times with the same result. It seemed that the two were on the verge of understanding each other, yet could not quite make themselves intelligible.

Then the man who had disappeared from the disc a few minutes before reappeared with another, a bent figure who hung on his arm for support. His face was wrinkled and toothless, his sparse moustache was gray, and his limbs were more spindly than those of the others. Instead of armor he wore a garment of quilted black cloth over his emaciated form.

The man in the gold armor looked at Dr. Wu, then pointed to the old man and uttered a few words. The doctor nodded, and addressed him. The old fellow pondered for a moment, then shook his head. Again Dr. Wu spoke to him. He shook his head once more, and reaching beneath his robe, drew forth a scroll and writing brush. After rapidly tracing a number of characters on the scroll, he held it up. The writing bore a striking resemblance to Chinese.

Seizing Ted's sleeve, the doctor spoke excitedly.

"Is the photo-recorder on?"

"Yes."

"Good. I believe I can translate that writing, given time."

Facing the old man in the disc, Dr. Wu again nodded and smiled. Then he pointed skyward and said:

"T'ien."

The old man nodded, smiled, and repeated excitedly: "T'ien! T'ien!" then bowed as if in devotion. The doctor also made the devotional obeisance and said:

"Shang Ti."

The old man shook his head, signifying that he could not understand. Then he pointed to the man in the golden armor, and said:

"Pan-ku."

"Pan-ku!" repeated the doctor with a look of astonishment on his face, and made obeisance to the golden one.

That individual, with a look of annoyance, suddenly turned on the old man and released a volley of monosyllables. The old fellow groveled before him and shook his head.

Then he of the golden armor made a sign with his hand, whereupon the disc suddenly became blank.

"Guess the interview is over," said Ted, shutting off the radio. "Now how can we find out what it was all about?"

"I can explain the last three words," said Dr. Wu. "'T'ien,' is the oldest word in our language which has the meaning of 'The Heavens' or 'God.' This word was understood. 'Shang Ti,' a later word for 'God'

was unintelligible. The old man pointed to the one who was evidently the ruler, and said: 'Pan-ku.'

According to our traditions, 'Pan-ku was the first human being, corresponding to the 'Adam' of your Bible."

"From which one might deduce," said Ted, "that the people we have just interviewed are remotely related to your earliest ancestors." "So it seems. If you will let me have the phonetic and written records, and a fast electroplane, I believe that by consulting our ancient writings I may be able to render a translation in a few days." "Splendid!" replied Ted. "Both will be ready within an hour." V. ULTIMATUM OF P'AN-KU

THREE DAYS later Ted received a radiogram from Peiping, reading as follows:

Honorable Sir: I avail myself of the privilege of submitting below the result of my poor efforts at deciphering the written characters of the Moon People. The spoken language was, with the exception of a few scattered words which cannot be put together to make sense, wholly unintelligible to me. Here follows my sorry translation: Why have you destroyed Ur? You, the people of Du Gong have thrown to us, the Imperial Government of P'an-ku, mightiest emperor of Ma Gong, the tcha-tsi (meaning unknown to translator) of war. We are greater and wiser than you, and can crush you with ease. You have demonstrated that you are not fit to govern yourselves-that you are a menace to the people of the great Lord Sun, his eight apostles and their children. The Imperial Government of P'an-ku will send a viceroy to rule over you. Submit, and you will live happily, the subjects of P'an-ku. Resist, and you will be destroyed.

In my humble and unworthy opinion, the word, "tcha-tsi," means either some instrument of war or perhaps a challenge to war, and has the same symbolical significance as does the gauntlet in English. DR. WU.

The contents of this message were immediately transmitted to the President of the United States, and he lost no time in calling a council of the Associated Governments of the Earth by radiovisiphone. Ted Dustin was a party to the conference, and assisted in drafting a placatory note to P'an-ku. The note, which was sent to Dr. Wu for translation into the Lunite language, was as follows: To the Imperial Government of P'an-ku: Greeting: The Associated Governments of the Earth regret the destruction of Ur, and are willing to do all in their power to make amends.

The destruction was unintentional, as the Associated Governments of the Earth were unaware that Ma Gong was inhabited.

The Associated Governments of the Earth make full apology for having wronged the people of Ur, and stand willing to pay a reasonable indemnity in treasure, food, raw materials, or manufactured products, but are united in the purpose to resist and retaliate for any attempt at conquest. After the note had been drafted and dispatched it was unanimously decided at the meeting that Ted was entitled to the million dollar reward, there being now no longer any doubt that his projectile had struck the moon. The treasurer of the association was, accordingly, ordered to pay him that amount. It was late in the evening when Ted called Roger into his private office.

"Get that translation from Dr. Wu, yet?" he asked.

"Yes. I had it painted in large white letters on a black placard and mounted on an easel in front of the big disc."

"Good. We'll go up now. Everything will be ordered off the air in five minutes, and we'll try to get it through."

They took the elevator to the tower room, where the linguists, scientists, and representatives of the associated powers were assembled as before. President Whitmore was not present, however, because of urgent business in Washington. His place was taken by the Secretary of State. Dr. Wu, who was also unable to be present, was represented by Dr. Fang, a Chinese scholar of almost equal repute. At ten o'clock, the zero hour, Ted promptly pressed the button and began manipulating the dials. This time he was instantly rewarded by the appearance of the dazzlingly beautiful girl who had faded from his vision on the occasion of his last attempt at communication. She was attended by two armed guards as before, and in addition by a bent, graybearded man who wore a richly embroidered robe of dark blue, and sandals.

Both glanced at the writing on the placard which Ted held up. Eagerly watching their faces, he saw that they registered amazement and horror. Wondering what there could be about this pacific message to cause such a reaction, he called Dr. Fang and asked him to write the query: "What is wrong?" The doctor, a thin, rat-faced Manchu, came forward, but said he did not know the symbols for the words.

The girl, meanwhile, had a scroll and writing brush brought forward by a female attendant. The latter held the scroll aloft so its surface was fully visible, and the girl began rapidly writing two sets of characters thereon. One set was similar to those which had been used in the previous communication. The other was totally unlike it and bore no resemblance to any known earthly characters. Her purpose, however, was quite evident. The two sets of characters were written in alternating perpendicular line side by side, in order that the former language might be used as a key to the latter.

Quick to grasp her idea, Ted called for the photo-record of the message from the Imperial Government of P'an-ku. Beside it, he wrote the English translation, using Roman capital letters for the sake of simplicity. Then beside the placarded note to the Government of P'an-ku, he wrote the original of that note, also in Roman capitals. In addition, he pointed out and distinctly pronounced the English words, one by one.

The girl nodded, smiled, and pointed questioningly at him.

"Ted Dustin," he said.

She pointed to herself and said:

"Maza an Ma Gong."

He repeated the name after her, and pointed to the scroll she had written. She was pronouncing and pointing out each word when she was suddenly crowded out as before by the appearance of P'an-ku and his attendants.

The rotund and imperious P'an-ku read the message on the placard, then turned to the old man who stood beside him and smiled. Ted thought there was a trace of a sneer in his smile. He ordered the old fellow to write his reply, then turned and stalked majestically out of the range of vision. The old man held his message aloft for a few moments as if fully aware that it was being recorded. Then he let his arm fall to his side, and the disc became blank.

After supplying Dr. Fang with a set of photo-records of the messages, and dispatching another to Dr. Wu, Ted and Roger went to the private office of the former for a conference.

"It seems to me," said Ted, after he had his briar going, "that there's something putrid in Denmark. Did you notice the expression of horror on the faces of the girl and the graybearded man when they read our messages?"

"Queer, wasn't it?" replied Roger. "Must have been something in that message that was quite a shock to them. Wonder what it could have been."

"That's precisely what I've been wondering--and it has led to a rather unpleasant thought. I wouldn't mention it to anyone in the world but you--not at present, anyhow but it looks to me as if Dr. Wu may have double crossed us."

"How?"

"By writing a message of his own in the place of the one we asked him to translate for us."

"But what message of his own could he possibly have written?"

"That," said Ted, "is what I propose to try to find out just as soon as I possibly can. Just before we came up here I sent Bevans to Peiping in the 800. He has orders to bring Professor Ederson back with him. We can bank on the professor to shoot square, and it's quite possible that he can check up on Wu's message. At any rate, he's probably the best versed white man in the world on the ancient writings of China and Tibet. Has made a life-time study of them, I'm told."

"What about the learned Manchu, Dr. Fang?"

"I think he was bluffing. If there's mischief afoot, you can safely bet he's in on it, and knows how to play his part. He's not so ignorant as he pretends to be. Did you notice the expression on the face of the man in the golden armor? He smiled when he read our message, but the smile was half a sneer."

"It was a mean smile, all right," agreed Roger. "More like the snarl of an animal than the smile of a human being."

"I'd rather have a person frown at me than smile that way," said Ted. Shortly after midnight a radiogram from Professor Fowler of the Yerkes Observatory arrived. He stated that he had seen five flashes on the moon, coming from the region of the lunar crater, Stadius. In the wee, small hours of the morning, Chicago was shaken by a terrific detonation. VI. TREACHERY

IT was after five o'clock when all the reports were in. Five projectiles, larger than the former, and each destructive over a fifty mile radius, had struck the earth. The one which had so shaken Chicago had struck at Rochelle, Illinois, completely destroying that city and spreading death and destruction up to the very suburbs of Chicago on one side and across the Mississippi into Iowa on the other. The second projectile had demolished Cincinnati, Covington and surrounding cities and hamlets with terrific loss of life. The third had struck squarely in the center of Birmingham, England, destroying, killing and maiming as far as Stafford, Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Worcester and Rugby. The fourth, alighting in the harbor of Tunis, had sunk and destroyed shipping, and created a tidal wave which had drowned many people on shore. The fifth had laid waste to Quito, Ecuador and the surrounding territory. At five thirty, a report from Peiping stated that Khobr and nearby towns had been destroyed or suffered terrific casualties from a sixth projectile.

Leaving Roger in charge, Ted promptly took a super-electroplane to Washington. While he was closeted that morning in conference with the President, fifty aerial fleets of army engineers left the Capital, flying in various directions, but with their destinations kept secret.

During the day, representatives of various nations were called into the conference. Each representative, as he left the President's office, was seen to speed away in a fast electroplane. Not one representative of a Mongoloid Asiatic nation was asked into conference.

After a busy day, Ted rushed back to his office where he found Roger up to his eyebrows in work, endeavoring to placate his wife for his tardiness to dinner, over his wrist radiophone.

"Listen, Leah," he was saying. "I simply can't get away now. I'm trying to manage things alone, you know, and hello! Ted's here now. Be home, toot sweet, honey. Bye bye."

"You married men--" began Ted.

"Have got it all over you single ones in many ways," interrupted Roger. "Get things going in Washington?"

"Pretty well. I've organized our defense force, and have warned every nation that we have reason to believe is friendly. Before the moon gets into favorable firing position again we'll have enough powerful magnetic poles set up to take care of the United States, and if the other countries keep on their toes they'll be ready, too."

"How do you know the poles will work?"

"Fragments of the lunar projectiles show that they contain large quantities of steel. We've divided the country into fifty zones, in each of which a powerful electro-magnet will be erected. Having erected these in the least populated districts of each zone, and warned the inhabitants to leave the danger area, our sole remaining problem is to make them powerful enough to attract the projectiles, which we can easily do with the resources at our command. Our power plants will be far enough from the magnetic poles to keep them from injury, and as soon as one pole is destroyed another can be quickly erected."

"You sure have some head on you, Ted. What about the Mongoloid Asiatics? Find out anything?"

"Nothing definite. For the present we're sitting tight and saying nothing. Professor Ederson will, no doubt, be able to check up on them. If they haven't double crossed us there will still be plenty of time to explain my plan of defense to them."

Professor Ederson did not arrive until late the following afternoon. Roger met him on the roof, and immediately escorted him to Ted's private office. He was a little, wizened man, with a grizzled Van Dyke, a thin, aquiline nose, and huge, thick-Tensed glasses which gave him an owl-like expression.

"I've been studying the translation of Dr. Wu while Bevans, your admirable pilot, conducted me here," said the professor when greetings were over. "It seems to me to be quite accurate."

"What about the message he wrote for me?" asked Ted.

"I cannot, for the life of me, understand why you sent so belligerent a message," replied the professor.

"Belligerent? What do you mean?"

Ted quickly produced an English copy of the message which he has asked Dr. Wu to translate into the Lunite language for him.

"Why," said the professor, scanning it in surprise, "this is nothing like the message I have translated."

"Let me have your translation," requested Ted.

The professor produced a sheaf of papers from his inside coat pocket, selected one, and handed it to Ted.

The latter read it aloud:

To the Imperial Government of P'an-ku: Greeting:

The Associated Governments of the Earth have found cause for much mirth in the note of the Imperial Government of P'an-ku.

It is the intention of the Associated Governments of the Earth to quickly and completely destroy Ma Gong (The Moon) if its inhabitants refuse to submit to the viceroys which the Associated Governments of the Earth are preparing to send to rule over them.

The Imperial Government of P'an-ku has complained of the destruction of Ur. This is only a minute sample of the destruction which will be wrought on Ma Gong if there are any further acts of hostility on the part of the Imperial Government of P'an-ku.

"Whew!" exclaimed Roger. "No wonder the girl and the old man looked horrified."

"And it's no wonder the imperious and belligerent P'an-ku sneered," said Ted. "Looks as if we're in for it, sure enough, now."

"What about having Professor Ederson fix up a new note, right away, explaining everything and trying to patch things up?" asked Roger.

"We'll try it," replied Ted, "but I can't bring myself to feel very sanguine as to the result."

"Before we draft the note," said the professor, "there are two things I should like to bring to your attention. First, a gigantic radio station has been set up in Peiping. Second, despite the fact that China reported the destruction of Khobr and nearby towns, I flew over Khobr and vicinity and could see no sign that there had been a disturbance there of any kind."

"Professor Fowler only saw five flashes, all of which were accounted for," said Ted. "The destruction of Khobr would have meant a sixth projectile, which left the moon without a telltale flash. As always, two and two continue to make four. There can only be one reason why Dr. Wu miswrote our pacific message-only one reason why the government of China lied about Khobr."

"And the reason?" asked the professor.

"A secret alliance projected-perhaps even perfected by now--between the Chinese royalists and the Imperial Government of P'an-ku."

"Precisely my theory," said Professor Ederson. "The Chinese and racially allied peoples revere their ancestors to the point of actual worship. Small wonder, then, if they should have reverence for the living representative of their supposed first earthly ancestor, P'an-ku, and cast their lot with him and his people. Why man, the thing was inevitable."

"And terrible to contemplate," said Ted, dejectedly. "A united world could have fought off a dozen moons, but a divided world will have a slim chance. And the whole damnable affair is my fault."

"Millions of sparks fall harmlessly, but here and there one starts a huge conflagration," said the professor.

"No earthly being could have foreseen the far-reaching effect of your apparently harmless spark, and you certainly are not morally responsible."

"I hold myself so," said Ted, "and it would be a small thing to me, could I but forfeit my own life to end the conflict. I have a plan, but I may not speak of it yet."

"I hope you are not contemplating any foolhardy personal risks," said the professor. "The world needs you more thar any other living man, at present. We have thousands of scientists, but only one Ted Dustin."

"Who has proven himself the greatest calamity yet born to the earth," replied Ted. "But let's prepare that message."

A half hour elapsed before a message, satisfactory to all, had been drafted for the Imperial Government of P'an-ku. It took the professor an hour more to put it in the language of the Lunites. Then the air was cleared, and the three men went aloft to the gigantic radio tower.

While the professor held the message on a placard, Ted worked at the dials and Roger managed the recorder.

Their first efforts were rewarded by the faint sound of a woman's voice and a dim vision of the beautiful girl seen on two previous occasions. Almost as soon as it began to appear, the image was blotted from the disc, and from then on until early morning, when the three tired men relinquished their unsuccessful attempt, they were rewarded only by blackness and a faint rumbling sound which greatly resembled distant thunder.

"Looks as if P'an-ku bad severed diplomatic relations," said Roger, rising from his seat at the recorder and stretching his cramped limbs.

"I'm afraid you are right," replied the professor, leaning his placard against a chair.

"We'll try again, and keep on trying," said Ted. "The Lunites should be amenable to reason if we can get the message through."

Try they did, the following night, and each night thereafter for nearly two weeks. The results were only darkness, and the distant thunderous rumbling. Even the image of the girl had failed to appear for so much as a fraction of a second.

When the efforts of the last night had proved unavailing, Ted threw off the switch and rose with a look of grim determination.

"We must face the facts," he said. "War is inevitable unless P'an-ku can be reached and influenced by a specific message. It will take two more weeks at the very least, to complete our large interplanetary vehicle. By that time the war will undoubtedly be in full progress."

"What do you propose to do about it?" asked the professor.

"I will take the message in person," replied Ted.

"How?" chorused his two surprised companions in unison.

"Come with me and I'll show you, but you must preserve absolute secrecy." VII. PERILOUS JOURNEY

TED LED Roger and the professor through a side door, and out onto the roof, which was illuminated by the silvery glory of the moon. A watchman challenged them, then saluted respectfully as he recognized his employer.

As they passed the hangars of Ted's fleet of electroplanes, more watchmen challenged and saluted. Beyond this, they came to a square shed of steel, the heavy metal door of which Ted unlocked with a key taken from his pocket. As his two companions entered he closed the door after them, then pressed a light switch.

"Here is my secret," he said. "Isn't she a little beauty?"

"I'll say she is!" exclaimed Roger, looking admiringly at a craft of silver gray metal about sixteen feet in length, gracefully shaped, and decked over like an Esquimauan kayak, but with a centrally located turret which projected above and below the hull. This turret was of glass braced with the same silver-gray metal which formed the hull, and within it could be seen a bewildering array of buttons and levers which fronted a revolving upholstered seat. Projecting from the upper half of the turret, pointing fore, aft, and to each side, were four tubes, each of which ended in a glass lens. The lower turret was similarly equipped. The hull itself was provided with four searchlights, set to sweep in all directions. Ted opened a heavily-gasketed door in the side of the upper turret, and said:

"Look her over if you want to, while I put on my driving suit."

"You've been keeping something from me, Ted," said Roger reproachfully while he and the professor admired the snug interior of the craft.

The young inventor laughed, as he opened a drawer and produced there-from a costume and helmet greatly resembling those worn by deep sea divers.

"Wanted to surprise you," he said, stepping into the one-piece suit and screwing down the clamps which closed the front. "Besides, you had too much on your mind as it was."

"But what is the purpose of the thing?" asked the professor, still peering into the interior. "You don't mean to tell me this craft will fly without planes, rudder or propeller."

"I think so," replied Ted, "although if it does, this will be its maiden flight."

"But how?" persisted the professor.

"Atomotor," said Ted, shortly, attaching his helmet to an affair which slightly resembled a knapsack. "It will fly in the same manner as my projectile flew to the moon, but more slowly, because I don't dare give it the terrific start imparted to my projectile."

"Hardly," smiled Roger. "It would be burned to a cinder. How far are you going tonight?"

"Don't know exactly;" replied Ted, "but if luck is with me I hope to land on the moon before the middle of this week."

"What!" gasped Roger. "You expect to go to the moon alone and unarmed?"

"Alone," grinned Ted, "but not unarmed." He had donned the helmet and opened a glass slide in front for conversational purposes. After adjusting the straps of the thing which resembled a knapsack, he took a belt from the drawer and buckled it about his waist. Attached to the belt were two holsters from which pistol-like handles projected.

"Do you expect to defend yourself against super-intelligences as seem to exist on the moon, with a couple of pistols?" asked the professor.

"Hardly," replied Ted. "The things you think are pistols are not pistols at all, but pistol degravitors. They operate on the same principle as the eight degravitors on my craft, but on a smaller scale."

"You mean those eight tubes sticking out of the turret?" asked Roger.

"Exactly," replied Ted.

"What deadly substance do they shoot?"

"They don't shoot," Ted answered with a smile. "They radiate--and when their rays strike matter it disintegrates."

"But how--"

"I can only take a minute to explain, as time is pressing," replied Ted, "but I'll give you a demonstration very shortly. All matter is composed of atoms which are, in turn, composed of protons and electrons, always in motion, the latter whirling around the former as the planets whirl around the sun. The force, therefore, which holds them in their orbits is analogous to the force of gravity, hence I have applied the word until a better one can be found. When I press the firing button of the degravitor, it immediately releases two sets of invisible rays, cathode and anode, both of which when properly pointed, strike the same object at the same time, but at slightly different angles. The positively charged protons are instantly torn from their atoms by the cathode rays, while the negatively charged electrons are taken up by the anode rays. As the two types of rays diverge, they are torn apart, and the matter which they form immediately disintegrates and disappears."

"Remarkable!" exclaimed the professor.

"Good head!" said Roger. "But how on earth did you manage to make all these things without my knowing it?"

"Easily," replied Ted. "I had the parts made separately in the shop and assembled them here, myself. The hull is supposed to be the fuselage of a new type of electroplane, to which the wings have not yet been attached. The atomotor is assumed to be a model. I fitted it into the hull, myself. As for the degravitors, I had the parts made, assembled them, and fitted the larger ones into the turret, working nights in this room.

"I might add that I have put through an order for ten thousand of the small and a hundred thousand of the large degravitors. Directions for assembling and firing them are in the safe, and you, Roger, will see to it that our soldiers and combat planes are equipped with them as soon as possible.

"But enough of explanations. I must go. If I do not return, you, Roger, will know where to find all of my plans, including those for the degravitors. Use them, and arrange for the defense as best you can, without me."

He entered the turret and switched on a tiny, inner light.

"I have your valuable translations, professor," said Ted, "and hope that I may be able to use them to advantage. Goodbye."

"Goodbye, and good luck," echoed both men as he closed the front of his helmet and slammed and fastened the door of the turret.

They watched him as he slowly elevated the upper forward degravitor. When he pressed the button no visible rays shot forth, but in the metal roof toward which it was aimed there suddenly appeared a clean cut hole which was rapidly widened by circumscribing it with the degravitor rays. The metal did not glow as if burned away, but simply disappeared with a quick, scintillating flash wherever the rays touched it. When the hole had been enlarged sufficiently, Ted waved a last adieu. Then his craft rose gracefully, hung for a moment at a point about a thousand feet above the roof, and disappeared with a burst of terrific speed, traveling in a direction which might be reckoned about 80 degrees to the east of the moon in the plane of the ecliptic.

VIII. DEATH RAYS

A WEEK ELAPSED, after the departure of the young inventor, with no word from Ted. During this time, Roger, busy with the duties of the chief executive, ate and slept in the office of his employer. Professor Ederson had meanwhile tried nightly to get into communication with the Lunites, but without success.

It was on this, the seventh night, that a terrific storm struck Chicago. Unable to sleep because of the howling wind and terrific peals of thunder, Roger switched on the lights and was about to step to the window when his name was called from the disc of the radiovisiphone.

"Mr. Sanders."

He hurried to the instrument and saw the face of the night operator.

"Yes."

"The President of the United States is calling Mr. Dustin. What shall I do?"

"Mr. Dustin is not in," said Roger, who had shared the secret of his employer's absence only with Professor Ederson. "Let me talk to him."

In an instant the face of President Whitmore appeared on the disc. To his intense surprise, Roger noticed that he wore a fur cap and a great fur coat with the collar turned up. That he was in an intensely cold place was indicated by the visibility of his breath as he spoke and exhaled.

"Where is Mr. Dustin?" were his first words on seeing Roger instead of the man he had called.

"He is not here," replied Roger. "As his assistant, can I be of service to you?"

"You have not answered my question," persisted the President. "Where is Mr. Dustin?"

"I--I promised not to tell," answered Roger. "He left here a week ago in the interests of our country and our allies."

The President frowned.

"You forget, Mr. Sanders," he said, "that this is a war emergency, that the country is on a military basis, and that I am Mr. Dustin's superior officer as well as yours. I demand to know where he is." Roger was nonplussed. He had told everyone that Ted had gone away on business for the country, leaving them to assume what they pleased in the matter. People had, of course, assumed that he had gone to some other city, and would be back shortly. But the President was within his. rights in demanding to know where he was. Ted, himself, would not have had the right to refuse this demand.

"He left for the moon a week ago," said Roger, "and I have heard nothing from him since."

"What!"

The President appeared dumfounded.

"How did he go? Who went with him?"

"He went alone in a small interplanetary vehicle of his own invention, knowing that the war would be in full swing before his larger vehicle could be completed.

"Well I'll be damned!" exploded the President. "This is a pretty how d'ye do. Gone just when we need him most."

"I'm sorry," answered Roger, "but he hoped to be able to stop the war by this trip. If there's anything I can do-"

"Maybe there is," said the President, with forced calmness. "Perhaps you can explain some things that I had hoped he could explain. For instance, what is the cause of this intensely cold weather in the middle of the summer, and why does the moonlight appear green?"

"We can't see the moon from here," replied Roger, "and it's not cold. There is a terrific storm raging, plenty of lightning rain and wind, but no cold."

"A devastating cold wave has spread over this part of the country, affecting Washington and Baltimore, and extending as far south as Richmond," said the President. "The Potomac is frozen solid, and although we have our heating plants going to the utmost capacity, it is impossible to keep warm. Thousands of people, caught unexpectedly, have perished from the intense cold. My thermometer here in the White House registers 10 degrees above zero. Outside, I am told the thermometers have dropped under 60

degrees below zero, Fahrenheit."

"And you say the moon looks green?"

"As green as grass. The country is bathed in a weird, green light at this moment."

"Must be some connection," mused Roger, "I mean between the green light and the intense cold localized around Washington. Wish Mr. Dustin were here."

"But he isn't," snapped the President, "so see what you can find out, and report back, either by radiovisiphone or in person at your earliest convenience. Off!"

As the face of the President disappeared from the disc, Roger slumped down in his chair and lighted a cigarette. What should he do? What could he do?

There was a tap at the door.

"Come in," he said, listlessly.

Professor Ederson entered.

"No use to try to use the radio tonight," he said. "With the unknown interference we have been getting lately and this storm, it would be useless to try to communicate with the moon. I had our operator notify all stations that we wouldn't attempt it tonight."

"Hear about the cold snap in the east?" asked Roger.

"Yes. Got it on the small set just before I came down. Terrible thing, isn't it?"

"And about the green moonlight?"

"Yes. Some new wrinkle of the Lunites, I fancy. They are clever and resourceful and, for all we know, a thousand years ahead of us in scientific knowledge."

"What do you suppose it is?"

"I don't know. An observation might be made from here, seeing that this part of the country is unaffected, if it were not for the raging storm. But it would be suicidal to go up in an electroplane just now."

"If I thought there were anything to be learned, I'd go up," said Roger, "danger or no danger."

"I mentioned it only as a possibility," replied the professor. "The probability is, that if you did learn anything, it would be of no material value, even if you were to be so extremely fortunate as to get back alive with it"

"Nevertheless," replied Roger, "I'm going up, just on the strength of that possibility."

"Don't be an utter fool," warned the professor, but Roger was already calling Bevans.

"Have the Blettendorf 800 ready in five minutes," he said. "I'll be up in a jiffy." He dressed rapidly while the professor remonstrated with him.

"No use," said Roger, "I'm going."

"Very well," replied the professor. "If you must go I'll go with you. Perhaps the two of us can bring back some information of value--if we get back."

They took the elevator to the top, stepped out on the roof, and battled their way through the driving rain, in which there was beginning to be a hint of sleet, to the electroplane. Eight men held it, just outside the hangar, while Bevans, in the pilot's seat, tested the motor.

The two men entered and took their seats. Then Roger gave the order to ascend. Came a roar from the helicopter blades, and they were off.

As they rose above the skyscrapers of Chicago, their craft tossing and careening like a leaf in a gale, Roger took two parcels from beneath the seat, one of which he handed to the professor.

"Folding parachutes," he said. "Bevans is wearing one. Watch how I strap mine on, and do likewise. We may need them."

The wind swept them out over Lake Michigan--then they plunged into a swirling, blinding snowstorm, and everything below, even the powerful guide-lights of Chicago's great landing fields, vanished. With propeller and helicopter blades roaring, Bevans drove the plane higher and higher, until they at length emerged above the seething, moon-silvered clouds.

"No green moonlight here," said the professor.

"But look--look to the southeast!" exclaimed Roger.

The professor looked, and saw a green band of light, wide at the bottom, but narrowing as it extended upward straight toward the gibbous moon.

"The moon looks green from Washington," said the professor, "because the inhabitants had to look through the green lights to see it."

Roger shouted an order through the speaking tube.

"Hover."

As the big plane, now riding in comparatively calm air, hung smoothly suspended by its helicopter blades, he turned a pair of powerful binoculars on the moon. He focused them, looked for a moment longer, then handed them to the professor.

"It's coming from the ring-mountain, Copernicus," he said. "Looks as if a beam from an enormous green searchlight were coming directly from the center of the crater."

"So it is," said the professor, after a careful scrutiny. "From the very center of the crater." Then, before he had lowered the glasses, the green light winked out. So sudden was the transformation, and so calm and natural did the moon appear, that it seemed to both observers that the thing had not really been--that it was a figment of their imaginations.

Came a call from Bevans:

"Three strange craft on the starboard quarter, sir. They seem to be coming this way." The professor trained the binoculars in the direction indicated.

"My word, what odd looking craft," he exclaimed. "They are globular in form--globes, to each of which two whirling discs are attached."

"An International Patrol Plane is coming from the port quarter," called Bevans. "It's signaling the three strange craft, but they do not respond. They are running without lights."

"Ascend," called Roger, "and turn off all lights."

There was an answering roar as the Blettendorf shot upward.

"Too late for that," said the professor. "We must have been seen." As the two men watched the one sided aerial parley below, they saw two more Patrol Planes emerge from the upper cloud stratum and take places behind the first.

"That makes the numbers even, at least," said Roger.

The two squadrons drew together without sign or signal from the strange craft, until the two leaders were within two thousand feet of each other. Then a narrow green ray suddenly shot out from the foremost globe, striking the first patrol plane. For a moment the plane seemed to shrink-to draw together as if crushed in from all sides. Then it crumbled asunder, and the pieces fell into the swirling clouds beneath. The forward turret guns of the two remaining planes immediately went into action, concentrating their fire on the foremost globe, but with no apparent effect. Green rays shot out from the two other globes simultaneously, and the planes shared the fate of their leader.

Then a green ray from the first globe sailed upward.

"Jump!" shouted Roger. "It's our only chance. They'll find us in a minute." The professor tore the door open and jumped first. His parachute opened just as Roger leaped after him followed by Bevans.

Roger could not see upward because of the parachute spread above him, but fragments of the shattered Blettendorf began falling around him before he had dropped far, and he was thankful that they had leaped in time.

Looking downward to see how it fared with the professor, he saw to his horror that the linguist was falling directly onto one of the globes.

Then he shot past the same globe himself, heard the hum of its rapidly whirling discs, and dropped into the enveloping grayness of the raging storm clouds beneath.

IX. VICIOUS PLANT

ON LEAVING the metal shed which had housed his one-man vehicle, Ted Dustin hovered for a moment to get his bearings--then shot away from the earth at such speed that his exterior thermometer registered a terrific heat from the shell of his craft before five seconds had elapsed. Forced to slacken his speed because of the danger of crippling his machine, he proceeded at a more leisurely pace until his instruments told him he was entirely out of the earth's atmosphere.

Once assured of this, he set his meteoroid detector--an extremely sensitive magnetic instrument which registered the approach of all meteoric masses, automatically repelling the smaller ones by blasts from the exhaust of the atomotor, and driving the craft away from those of greater mass. He next set his automatic course corrector, which was designed to throw the machine back on its course after each forced deviation. Then he set the motor for full speed ahead.

To his surprise and satisfaction he found, on glancing at the magnetic speedometer, that the little untested motor was driving the craft almost twice as fast as he had anticipated. He would thus, barring accidents, be able to reach the moon in a day and a half instead of the three days he had previously allowed himself for the undertaking. This necessitated the setting of a new course, as he would otherwise have arrived at the moon's path just a day and a half ahead of that satellite.

Having made his calculations and adjusted his instruments accordingly, he opened his visor, swallowed a concentrated food pellet, drank a cup of hot coffee from the thermos tank, and lighted his black briar. Finding the cabin uncomfortably cold with his visor open, he drew up an extra set of glass panels all around and turned on his atomic heater. Then he studied the translations of the professor, hoping that he might thus learn enough of the Lunite writing to form a basis for intelligent communication. When the first hour had elapsed he looked back at the earth, which appeared as an enormous, semi-luminous globe set in a black sky, its seas and continents faintly defined by the light of the full moon. The disc of the sun remained hidden behind the earth, but other heavenly bodies were far brighter in appearance, shining from this black sky, than he had ever seen them appear from on earth. As the hours passed and the apparent size of the earth grew less while that of the moon grew correspondingly greater, he was surprised at not having encountered a single meteor. Presently, after about twelve hours of travel, one caused the craft to swerve, and he noticed with satisfaction that the automatic course corrector functioned perfectly.

He swallowed another food pellet, sipped his coffee, and tried to sleep, but despite the fact that he had trained himself to take rest or go without it as the occasion required, he found sleep out of the question. The excitement of his thrilling race with the earth's satellite was too much for that. He could scarcely bear to close his eyes for a moment, for looking and wondering.

Before he realized it, twenty-four hours had slipped by. The shrinking shape of the earth was now on his left--the silver disc of the moon, with craters, hills and valleys, was now plainly visible to the naked eye, on his right. He was traveling with his keel in the plane of the ecliptic. As he progressed, the prow leaned more and more toward the moon's north pole.

The last twelve hours were packed with wonders, thrills, and dangers. Previously he had encountered only a relatively few meteoroids. Now, he found they traveled in swarms in and near the neutral gravity point between moon and earth. His craft swerved this way and that--dropped--or shot suddenly upward, as huge masses of meteoric matter hurtled dangerously near it. He caught fleeting glimpses of these desultory travelers, some of them almost perfectly spherical, others jagged lumps of rock and metal--grim remnants of some planetary or planetoidal tragedy of the past.

With the neutral gravity point well past and the moon directly beneath his keel, the danger from meteoroids was considerably lessened. The delays were more than compensated for by the increasing pull of the moon itself.

His goal almost realized, Ted's next problem was to decide where to land. Copernicus, plainly visible to the north east with its brilliant yellow ray system, and Tycho, to the south, with its still more dazzling white rays branching out in all directions, were the two most conspicuous objects on the lung landscape. Although his purpose was to find the belligerent ruler, P'an-ku, his only hint as to his whereabouts was the probability that the crater, Hipparchus, was somewhere within the limits of that worth's empire, which might be as extensive as the moon itself, or confined to a relatively small area. The thing to do, he decided, was to land at Hipparchus and investigate.

As he approached the great ring-mountain, Ted saw no signs of life. The damage wrought by his projectile, however, was evident--for in the center of the huge, enclosed plain, gaped a jagged black hole fully five miles in diameter, while the interior of the crater was strewn with jagged rock debris, some of the larger fragments the size of a terrestrial city block. Of the city of Ur, mentioned in the radio message, he saw no sign whatever. Greatly puzzled, he slowly circled the crater, then crossed the rim and set out in a widening spiral, flying only a few thousand feet above the ground, looking for some sign of a human being or habitation.

Although there had been no sign of vegetation in the enormous crater which had been laid waste by his projectile, Ted now began to notice signs of lunar forests and meadows. Flying slowly at an altitude of two hundred feet, he passed over level areas covered with velvety stretches of gray vegetation that resembled mosses and lichens, and over hills and valleys clothed with forests of weird, grotesque growths.

There were fungi shaped like saucers, umbrellas, cones, spearheads, and even upraised hands, all rusty black in color. There were black stalks, fully fifty feet in height, topped by five-pointed purple stars, huge gray pear-shaped growths from which there curled sinuous branches that resembled the tentacles of cuttle fish, and black trees, some of which were a hundred feet in height, with branches that unrolled like the leaves of sword-ferns.

Disposed to view some of these wonders at closer range, Ted lowered his craft to the ground. A glance at his exterior thermometer showed the outside temperature to be 210 degrees above zero, Fahrenheit, almost the boiling point of water at sea level on earth! He accordingly closed his visor and turned on the valve of his insulated compressed air tank before opening the door of his turret. Slamming this quickly behind him, he stepped down from his craft, sinking ankle deep in the soft, gray moss that coated the forest floor.

As the suit he wore protected him from either extreme heat or cold he was able to maintain a normal body temperature, but the comparatively slight gravitational pull of the earth's satellite gave him an uncanny freedom of motion. His first incautious step shot him ten feet in the air and landed him, with startling suddenness, face downward in a tangle of black creepers fully twenty feet from where he had started. Instinctively he scrambled erect and was as suddenly precipitated on his back at a distance of fifteen feet in the opposite direction. This time he arose slowly, stepped forward with great care, and found himself able to progress after a somewhat jerky fashion.

Having thus, to a degree, mastered the art of walking on the moon, he took the opportunity to observe the queer vegetation around him. To his intense surprise, he saw that it was growing visibly! Although the rates of growth varied in different plants, he could see that all were swelling and elongating with amazing rapidity. Watching an umbrella shaped fungus which was on a level with his eyes, he calculated that it was growing taller at the rate of a foot an hour! The black, fern-like branches of a great tree unrolled and enlarged before his eyes. Spore pods beneath the leaves, swelled and burst, scattering tiny dust-like particles which floated about, or settled on the surrounding vegetation, rocks and soil. A tall, black and gray fungus opened its gills, releasing a cloud of silver spores that glittered in the sunlight like mica dust. Ted was attracted by the movements of the tentacles of an octopus-like plant a short distance ahead of him, and walked toward it. They writhed and twisted like the snakey locks of a Medusa, yet the roots which held the pear-shaped trunk showed the vegetable nature of the monstrosity. Prompted by a rash curiosity, he had no sooner arrived beside the grotesque anomaly than he grasped one of the slithering branches, expecting, from its slimy appearance, to find it soft and yielding. To his surprise and dismay it suddenly coiled around his forearm with a grip as firm and unyielding as the loops of a steel cable. He was jerked off his feet, straight toward a black, horny lipped opening of triangular shape, which yawned at the top of the pear-shaped body.

Instinctively, he reached with his free hand for his pistol degravitor, but too late. A score or more of tough, unyielding tentacles bound his arms to his sides and circled his body with such force that his bones would have been instantly crushed and his flesh reduced to pulp had it not been for the metal plates of his protective armor. Even these creaked, and seemed about to give way, as he was drawn, head downward, into the yawning, spike-toothed opening.

X. ABDUCTION

AS HE plunged into the awful death trap, Ted noticed that, for a moment, the sun was darkened above him and there was a sound which resembled the whistling of giant pinions. Then came the click of enormous teeth against the armor which covered his thighs, and blackness.

The powerful tentacles had released their hold on his arms and the upper part of his body, but their place was instantly supplanted by the walls of the huge, vegetable craw which exerted even greater pressure. He wondered if the digestive juices of the plant would be corrosive enough to quickly penetrate his protective suit, or if a long, lingering death awaited him--a death which, even though the suit held, was bound to come as soon as his supply of air gave out.

Hanging there in stygian solitude, unable to move a finger, Ted was suddenly startled at sight of a brilliant ray of red light which cut the darkness near his face. It blinded him temporarily, but when he could use his eyes once more he was astonished to see that the lower wall of his vegetable tomb had practically disappeared, while the bright, red ray, flashing intermittently, consumed the blackened edges still further with puffs of smoke and flame.

Here, he judged, was some human agency. Here was hope of rescue, for the red ray, thus far, had not touched him. He could now move his head and shoulders, but dared not do so for fear of intercepting the red ray with disastrous results. The ray ate its way slowly upward beside one of his arms. It was free. A moment, and the other was loosed. Then the jaws relaxed their hold on his thighs and he slid down into the charred, jelly-like remains of the oval body, of which now only half the wall was standing. Two arms were slipped beneath his own, helping him to rise. Then he turned and faced his rescuer. Prepared as he was for almost any sight, Ted gasped in amazement when he beheld the person who had saved his life, for standing before him in a suit of soft, clinging white fur resembling astrachan, her head encased in a helmet of bell-shaped glass, was the gloriously beautiful girl he had seen in the disc of the radiovisiphone--the girl who had called herself "Maza an Ma Gong." In her right hand was a short, tubular instrument which greatly resembled a flashlight, and which he judged was the weapon that had compassed his freedom.

As he could not speak to her he was trying to think of a way to express his gratitude for his unexpected rescue while she smiled encouragingly, when he suddenly noticed a most fearful creature behind her. It resembled nothing living that he had ever seen or heard of, but was strikingly like pictures he had seen of winged dragons--pictures he had always previously imagined were due solely to the imagination of medieval artists.

Believing the girl in dire peril, he whipped out both pistol degravitors and was about to destroy the beast when she struck down his weapons with a look of alarm. Then, beckoning the thing with her hand she stood, unafraid, while the hideous creature stretched forth its scrawny, scaly neck and laid its ugly, armor-plated muzzle on her shoulder. She fondled it for a moment, scratching its horny nose while it closed its eyes and laid back its short ears as if greatly pleased by these attentions. Then she pushed the head away and turned once more to the amazed young scientist.

As she stood there beside him he noticed for the first time that what he had taken for a plume, resembling an aigrette and protruding through the top of her glass helmet was, in reality, a group of fine, metallic radio antennae. The small set which they operated was evidently attached just beneath them--shaped like and no larger than his own wrist radiophone.

He wished that he had had the foresight to attach a similar contrivance to his own outfit, but since he had not, he found it necessary to resort to more primitive means for making himself heard. Taking the girl lightly by the shoulders, and thereby eliciting a look of startled surprise from her, he bent over and placed the glass of his helmet against hers, an expedient which had been much in use among deep sea divers for making themselves intelligible to each other before the advent of under water radio sets.

"Thank you, Maza an Ma Gong, for saving my life," he said.

She smiled 'and replied:

"Di tcha-tsi, Ted Dustin."

Recalling that "tcha-tsi" had something to do with a challenge to war, he was somewhat puzzled, yet her attitude was quite peaceful. She continued to smile, and pointed toward the great hulking beast behind her.

"Nak-kar," she said, then pointed to herself and continued: "Uma nak-kar." The beast, at this moment, lowered its head to crop some moss, and let its wings, which had been folded across its back, droop slightly, displaying a most comfortable looking, highbacked seat strapped to its back. He judged, therefore, that the lady was telling him this was her palfrey-truly a most hideous one. He led her to the spot where he had cached his interplanetary vehicle, while the great beast lumbered meekly after her, pointed to the craft and, with his helmet against hers, said:

"Ship." Then, pointing to himself: "My ship."

When she seemed not to understand, he said: "Uma nak-kar."

She nodded understandingly, and both laughed.

He opened the door and helped her into the small cab. Then stepping in himself and sharing the revolving seat with her, he closed it and took her for a short ride above the trees--or the growths which answered for trees on that weird landscape. She was as excited as a child, and clapped her hands with glee as they soared, and did several stunts, finally landing as lightly as a feather.

As he helped her from the cab she stood on tiptoes so her helmet touched his, and said: "Um nak-kari na Ultu." As she spoke she pointed first to her mount, then toward the east. Then: "Ted Dustin nak-kari na Ultu."

Although he did not know the meaning of all her words, he felt that he understood what she wanted. She seemed to take it for granted that he did, for springing lightly into her saddle she struck the shoulder of the great winged monster with her gloved palm, whereupon it ran, sprawling clumsily for fifty feet or so with wings outspread, then took to the air in which it seemed quite at home and flapped lazily eastward. He hurried to his vehicle as he did not want to lose sight of her, entered, closed the door, and pressed the starter lever. To his surprise and alarm it did not respond. He pressed it again with the same negative result. Then he remembered that he had carelessly left the door open for several minutes. The interior of the cab had thus been exposed to the terrific heat of the lunar surface. Unscrewing the top of the starter he instantly saw the cause of his trouble. A connection, on which he had hastily used wax instead of solder and tape, had melted breaking the circuit. Several minutes elapsed before he could make the temporary repair, using his temperature equalizer, meanwhile, to cool the cab. Once more he pressed the starter, the atomotor responded, and he rose high in the air in order that he might quickly locate the girl and her strange steed. He saw her instantly, about a mile east of his position. Her mount, he noticed, was flapping forward with greater speed than before, and high above it was a globe circled by two transverse belts, and to which were fastened two whirling discs, oppositely placed. Suddenly the globe swooped downward like a falcon on its prey.

As he darted forward he saw a tiny red ray shoot upward from the hand of the girl. It struck one of the belts of the descending craft, and sparks and smoke flew out from the spot. Then a green ray shot out from the globe, crossing the red ray. At the point where they crossed both rays disappeared and the sparks and smoke from the craft ceased. Then another green ray flashed out from the globe, striking one of the wings of the monster. The wing seemed to shrivel--then broke in pieces, and the beast fell, fluttering wildly with its remaining wing until it crashed with its rider into a tall forest of black-stemmed purple star plants.

While he watched this unequal battle, which lasted only a few seconds, Ted had been hurtling forward at terrific speed. Just as the girl fell, he shot between her and the attacking globe, narrowly missing one of the green rays which still extended downward. Bringing his vehicle about, he trained his forward degravitor on the descending globe and pressed the button.

Although no visible ray leaped out, the effect on the globe was readily apparent, for it flashed where it had struck, then gaped wide as the degravitor rays cut a tunnel through it.

A green ray instantly flashed back in retaliation, striking Ted's prow and breaking it into fragments. His craft then did a nose dive which he was powerless to prevent, the forward exhaust pipes of the atomotor having been cut away. It buried itself in a cluster of the huge purple star plants, so thick that they shut out the light of day.

As he had not strapped himself to his seat, Ted landed on his instrument board when the craft struck, and laid there for several moments in a semi-stupor, the breath knocked from his body. Presently, his breath returning in short gasps, he found himself able to rise and force the door part way open. A black stem of one of the star-like plants blocked it, but he cut this away at the base with his pistol degravitor, waited until it crashed among its fellows, and then stepped out to freedom, this time remembering to close the door after him.

After leaping to the ground, he looked about him, trying to orient himself in the darkness. Here and there faint glimmers of light showed between black trunks, but there was nothing to give him even a hint of directions. He started for the light spot directly ahead of him as it looked the brightest and probably issued from the largest open space.

Treading noiselessly over the soft gray moss which grew between the closely packed black trunks, he presently reached the clearing from which the light had issued. It was but a small opening in the forest, and it seemed to him that something more than chance had directed his footsteps as he saw the girl standing at bay with her red ray projector in her hand before a short, round-bodied individual clad in yellow fur and wearing a glass and copper helmet shaped, at the top, like a pagoda. The two were fencing, but not with blades of steel. They fenced with something infinitely more destructive, for as the girl sought to reach her antagonist with the red ray he warded it off with a green ray from a small projector which he held in his hand, and in turn, menaced her with his weapon while she parried with the red ray.

Near her lay the remains of her huge mount, now a mere hulk of flesh, with head, neck and one wing gone.

Drawing a pistol degravitor, Ted leveled it at the wielder of the green ray and pulled the trigger. It was aimed at his head, which instantly disappeared, the torso slipping to the ground with the green ray projector still clasped in the lifeless hand. The ray struck the base of a giant star-tree, which shriveled at the bottom, then crashed to the ground. Another and another instantly shared its fate, falling only a second or two apart, but in these Ted was not interested.

He was about to disclose himself to the astonished girl when two long, lean arms clad in yellow fur suddenly reached out from the clump of fern like growths behind her and jerked her backward. Her red ray winked once, then went out, and Ted leaped forward to her assistance. He managed to follow by means of the trail of trampled and broken vegetation left by her abductors. Presently he reached another clearing just in time to see her hustled aboard the globe which had attacked her some time before, by two yellow-clad Lunites.

The globe, he now saw, was of yellow metal. The two transverse belts he had seen from a distance proved to be combination ladders and bridges. A man could walk around the one which happened to be horizontal, or climb the one which happened to be vertical, using the supporting bars of the railing for ladder rounds.

Projecting from the two points where these belts crossed were shaft housings, on the end of each of which were the discs he had previously noticed. The faces of both discs resembled brightly polished mirrors, one convex, the other concave.

Just above and below the lines traced by the bridges were rows of diamond shaped, glassed openings which he judged answered as port holes. There was a diamond shaped door on the side of the craft nearest him, and it was into this that the girl was thrust by her two captors, while Ted stood helpless, unable to use his weapons for fear of harming her.

One of the men closed the door after them. Then both discs started whirling. The craft began to rise, and Ted bounded forward, just in time to grasp a round of one of the ladders as it cleared the ground. Climbing quickly up beneath the whirling concave disc, he stepped onto the bridge and crouched there, to be out of sight from the port holes and to plan his next move.

There were only two ways for him to enter the craft. He must either cut a hole with his pistol degravitor or go in through the hole which he had cut with his large degravitor before his craft fell. This hole was high up in the shell of the globe and could only be reached by climbing the belt ladder, then sliding down the smooth shell until the hole was reached. It was a hazardous undertaking in more ways than one, with scant hope of success. First, he stood little chance of being able to climb the ladder without being seen from one of the ports. That he had reached his present position undetected was little short of a miracle. Then, should he be able to reach the proper position unseen, sliding down the shell was a most uncertain and perilous thing to do. There was nothing to cling to, and the chances were ten to one that he would miss the hole he was striving to reach.

But assuming that he should reach the hole, there was every probability still against him. Undoubtedly, a dozen green ray projectors would instantly be turned on him, ending his career without accomplishing his purpose.

True, he might cut his way into the craft with his pistol degravitor, but this would endanger the girl. For all he knew, she might, at that very moment, be separated from him only by the shell of the craft which he had thought of cutting, and an inch or two of air. She might be at any point in the craft through which he should elect to cut his way.

Looking through the bars of the railing, he saw that they were sailing swiftly over the very spot where he had come near to losing his life to the flesh-eating plant only a short time before, and were headed eastward. A moment more and they passed over the rugged rim of the great ring-mountain, Hipparchus. The craft dipped as they passed over the barren, debris-strewn inner plain. Were they headed for the destroyed city of Ur? And would others of their kind be there to meet them? If so, he must act quickly. Abandoning all caution, he sprang up the ladder. He expected, at every step, that a green ray would shoot out from one of the port holes and destroy him, and was surprised when he found himself sitting on top of the craft, alive and unharmed. On his right, about ten feet below him, was the hole through which his degravitor ray had come out. On his left, approximately eighteen feet below him, was the hole where it had entered, cutting a slanting tunnel through the globe. Just above this hole was a jagged streak of partly cut metal caused by his quick, unconscious elevation of the degravitor gun just before his craft fell. This streak reached almost to where he clung to the ladder, and looked as if it might afford a means of descent. It was, at least, less slippery than the smooth, coppery sides of the globe, the metal having been honeycombed in the path of the ray as if eaten by acid.

Stretching himself prone, Ted sought and found holds for his gloved fingers in the pitted metal and began the descent, head first. He had covered a third of the distance when he suddenly noticed a dark wall looming beside him. Looking around, he saw that the craft had plunged into the great black hole which had been torn in the crater floor of Hipparchus by his interplanetary projectile. As the wall hurtled past him he caught glimpses here and there of tunnel-like openings, some quite large, all partly choked with debris. There came the realization that he must act quickly, as a landing would probably be made here, so he turned resolutely to his task of reaching the hole. His fingers had barely gripped the edge of the opening by which he expected to enter, when the globe slowed down and came to an abrupt stop. He slipped from his position, but caught one arm over the edge of the opening and managed to keep from falling. Quickly drawing himself up, he crawled inside the craft. He was in a small upper chamber lighted by the diamond shaped port holes above. It had been abandoned.

On the floor lay the partly destroyed bodies which had been struck by his degravitor ray. He found a trap door and opening it, discovered a ladder which led to a room below. He judged, from the array of levers and buttons, that it was the pilot's room, but found it also untenanted. Opening a diamond shaped door in the rear of this room, he suddenly came upon a score of Lunites who were passing, single file, out of a side door. All were armed with their deadly ray projectors, but they were as much taken by surprise as he. Drawing both pistol degravitors with lightning quickness, he raked the line from both ends toward the middle before a single green ray projector could be brought to bear on him.

One Lunite only, quicker than the others, escaped by leaping through the door. The others fell, a huddled heap of human remains.

Quickly bounding to the door, Ted stepped out on the bridge, then ducked just in time to avoid a green flash. Aiming through the bars of the railing he destroyed the man who had projected it. The craft had landed before the explosion-scarred remains of an immense edifice, the portico of which was supported by gigantic human figures cut from brown stone. In lieu of steps leading into the building there was an inclined ramp, the beautiful tile pattern of which showed here and there between heaps and fragments of debris.

Hurrying up this ramp were three figures, and he saw that the one in the center who was being dragged forward by the others, was Maza an Ma Gong. Not daring to use his weapons for fear of striking the girl, he leaped from the bridge to the ground, then started out in pursuit just as the three disappeared inside the building.

XI. CAVERNS OF THE MOON

IT ONLY took Ted a moment to reach the huge diamond shaped door through which the girl and her two abductors had disappeared, but when he entered it there was no one in sight. He found himself in an immense room, the ceiling of which was supported by carved figures scarcely less colossal than the ones which held up the portico. They represented huge, bandy-legged, round-bodied Lunites, with enormous heads and scrawny arms. The walls were shelved clear to the top, and the shelves were piled high with thousands of metal cylinders, varying in their diameters from two to about eight inches, but uniformly about fifteen inches in length. A few ornate ladders, the gilded sides of which represented lean-bodied dragons, stood against the walls, but many had fallen to the floor as had a number of the cylinders.

Great cracks and breaches here and there in the walls showed the devastating effects of the explosion of his projectile, as did a considerable quantity of fallen plaster--and stone.

The place was lighted by an indirect yellow radiance which came from the tops of the heads of the colossi, and was reflected by the glossy ceiling.

Sprawled and huddled here and there on the floor were a great number of bodies of fallen Lunites. They were surrounded by great swarms of insects, and he judged from the appearance of those nearest him that they were in an advanced state of putrefaction. As he glanced around, he saw a huge gray creature, rat-like in appearance, but as large as a full grown Shetland pony, dart through one of the breaches in the wall, seize a body, and quickly carry it back whence it had come.

The bodies, he noticed, were clothed in loose-fitting garments which slightly resembled pajamas, and the massive heads were not covered with glass helmets as had been those of the Lunites in the spherical craft he had just quitted. Evidently these were the bodies of a few of the people of Ur who had been slain by the explosion of his projectile.

Ted gave slight heed to all these sights as he looked this way and that in the hope of seeing Maza an Ma Gong and her abductors. That they could not have traversed the length of the great hall in so short a time was obvious. They might, however, have been able to slip through the nearest breach in the wall before he reached the doorway.

As he bounded forward to investigate this possibility, his path led him past one of the colossi. Without warning, a deadly green ray suddenly flashed from behind one of the gigantic limbs. As it struck the helmet of the young scientist he instinctively pointed and fired a pistol degravitor in the direction whence it had come. There was a flash of brilliant green light, a terrific pain in his head, and he crashed to the floor, the glass of his helmet tinkling on the hard tiles. Then came oblivion.

How long he lay unconscious on the floor of the huge, subterranean building, Ted had no means of estimating. He awoke with a dull headache and the feeling that something was crushing him-bearing down on his body and limbs with terrific force.

Raising his head to investigate, he cut his chin on the jagged remnant of his shattered glass visor before he was able to see what was lying across him--a number of pieces of what appeared to be broken plaster. After considerable effort he managed to work his arms free and unscrew the now useless collar of his helmet, with its menacing glass fragments.

The air of the place, he noticed, was fairly cool and practically as dense as the atmosphere of the earth--a condition far different from that on the surface of the moon, where the atmosphere was extremely tenuous and the heat of the lunar mid-day far too great for the existence of unprotected men. It was good, he thought, to be able to breathe outside a glass helmet once more, even though the air was laden with unpleasant charnel odors.

Five minutes of exhausting labor freed his body and lower limbs from the heavy fragments which pinned them to the floor. When he rose to survey the scene the cause of the fall of plaster was immediately apparent. His degravitator ray, fired in the direction from which the green ray, which bad destroyed the top of his helmet, bad come, had cut away the base of the supporting colossus behind which his assailant had been concealed, and this had crashed to the floor, carrying with it a considerable portion of the plastered ceiling which it had supported.

Beside a leg of the image he saw the remains of a Lunite, partly destroyed by his degravitor ray--probably his attacker. Beneath the leg was the crushed, dead body of another Lunite, but of Maza an Ma Gong he saw no sign. Had she escaped, leaving him for dead beneath the heap of plaster? Or did her slender body lie crushed and bleeding under the fallen statue?

Filled with apprehension, he walked clear around the prostrate image without seeing a sign of her whom he sought. Then he was startled to hear his name called: "Ted Dustin. Ted Dustin." It was the voice of Maza, and seemed to issue from the colossus. He leaped astride the giant body, seeking some hollow which might explain the enigma, but it was not until he had stepped out on one of the huge thighs that he saw the girl. She was imprisoned on the floor in the hollow between the two enormous knees. Drawing a pistol degravitor, he found it but the work of a moment to cut away enough of one of the huge legs to free the girl.

The fact that she was unhurt, he judged little short of miraculous, but whether it was due to chance or to her own dexterity he had no means of finding out. She had the front of her helmet open, and he noticed that the antennae of her miniature radiophone were smashed.

As soon as she was free she picked up a green ray projector which one of the Lunites had dropped, and started for the door, beckoning him to follow. They had barely reached the ramp when Ted heard a great clatter behind them and the sound of running feet. Turning, he saw a horde of armed men rushing through an archway in the rear of the building. Instead of glass helmets and furry clothing, these men wore metal helmets and plate armor, and carried, in addition to their ray projectors, long swords, and spears with heads like long-toothed buzz saws.

With his degravitors leveled in two lethal arcs, Ted cut down the foremost ranks of the attackers and gave the others pause. Evidently they were dumfounded at the sight of weapons that fired invisible rays. While they hesitated he caught up his companion, and turning, bounded down the tiled ramp with mighty fifty foot leaps that amazed them still more, crossed a circular plaza over which were scattered indiscriminately, rock debris, fallen and broken statuary, and dead bodies, many of which were partly devoured, and dodged in among the remains of a fallen colossus.

The clank of arms and accoutrements became increasingly audible, and Ted turned to see if any of their pursuers were in sight. At that moment his foot encountered empty air, and he fell, dragging his companion with him, into a steeply slanting tunnel which was about four feet in diameter at the mouth. Sliding and tumbling, the two at length brought up against the wall of a transverse passageway which slanted downward to their left.

A shout and the clatter of weapons from the ground above brought Ted quickly to his feet. Helping his companion to arise, he took her hand and the two hurried down the inclined ramp. They had not covered more than a hundred feet before the way grew dark and the tunnel tortuous, so they were forced to proceed with the utmost caution. They felt their way along in the inky blackness for some time. Presently all sounds save those of their own footsteps ceased. Then Ted was suddenly and temporarily blinded by a glare of light. When his eyes had become accustomed to it, he saw that it came from a small lens fastened in his companion's helmet just above her forehead. Evidently she had not turned it on before for the sake of caution.

Then it was the girl who became the leader in their flight. As they encountered a labyrinth of passageways, she would turn now to the right, now to the left, always following the ramps which slanted downward, and Ted saw her glance from time to time at queer Lunite symbols painted on the walls, which evidently marked the way.

Presently she switched off her light, and Ted noticed that there was a strange, phosphorescent luminescence in the passageway ahead of them. Its source became apparent when they suddenly emerged from the end of the tunnel into a wide lane which wound through a thick grove of tall straight plants that appeared to Ted like gigantic shoots of asparagus painted with phosphorus. They varied from a thickness of six inches to well over three feet at the base, and some of the tallest towered fully seventy feet into the air. The light they gave off was quite as brilliant as the full moon appears from the earth, and was reflected by myriads of gleaming, white stalactites depending from an arched vault far above them. Stalagmites, also, gleamed here and there among the shining plants, and the lane or road which they were following was evidently made from the same white material crushed into small fragments and rolled smooth.

Suddenly the girl grasped Ted's arm, and pulling him in among the tall, luminous trunks, secreted herself behind one of the larger ones and motioned him to do likewise.

Scarcely had he followed her example, ere there came to his ears a cracking, rumbling sound. Then, from around the bend in the lane, there waddled a huge, hulking creature of most fearsome aspect. Ted had seen pictures of wingless Chinese dragons, and this ugly vision, now less than fifty feet from him, was one of those pictures immensely magnified--for it was as tall as a camel and three times as long. Just in front of its spiny crest and behind its relatively small ears, a round bodied Lunite was perched on its massive head. Luminous vapor issued from its nostrils at intervals of a few seconds, and the myriad scales that covered its long, twisting body, as well as its thousands of sharp dorsal spines, reflected the phosphorescent light of the forest that bordered the lane.

This ugly monster straddled a long pole with its four bowed legs, the front end of which was attached to a U shaped collar that circled its scaly neck, and the rear end of which was fastened to a long chain of creaking, bumping carts, fastened together by hooks and rings. Each of these carts traveled on two large rollers in lieu of wheels, and contained many metal cylinders which jolted and banged together as the vehicle lumbered along.

Walking beside the cart on each side was a long row of Lunites clad in sandals and coarse, loose fitting tunics that reached to the knees. The long black hair of these workmen was twisted up in a pointed, pagoda-like effect on top of the head. Each man carried a two handled metal urn, a short tube pointed at one end like a quill, and a small mallet.

Behind the first dragon came two others, similarly harnessed and attended, and Ted, noticing that the last dragon snatched from time to time at the shoots of the luminous plants which grew by the roadside, munching each phosphorescent mouthful with apparent relish, saw the reason these creatures appeared to breathe fire. It was some time later that he learned this was a crew of sap gatherers, returning with a supply of cylinders filled with the luminous fluid with which the Lunite chemists made the yellow, light-emitting liquid which, suspended in transparent containers, lighted their underground cities. When the cavalcade had passed out of sight down the road the girl motioned him to rise, and together they resumed their flight. They passed many cross-lanes in the luminous forest, unmolested. Then the one on which they were traveling carne to an end.

The cultivated area now gave way to an immense tangle of luminous and non-luminous plants of various hues and shades--a tremendous hodge podge of winding creepers, low fungi of every conceivable shape, and tall trunks, jointed, smooth, and spiny-some topped like mushrooms, spears, stars or globes, others with long waving fronts like palms or ferns.

Most of the non-luminous plants were white, although some were gray or black. Here and there among the common phosphorescent types of luminous plants were scattered groups and individuals which gave off red, green, pink, violet or yellow light. Some of them emitted two or three shades of one color, or even several colors of light. The whole scene was a vast, weird, fairyland of color and shade-at once, beautiful and forbidding.

Into this tangle the girl plunged without the slightest hesitation. Ted followed, a pistol degravitor in his hand ready for instant action.

As they progressed further and further into this subterranean wilderness the fauna of the place became more and more in evidence, indicating to Ted that, if one might judge from the conduct of the wild things, they were gradually receding from the haunts of man.

From the shadows many pairs of burning eyes glared out at them. Small animals, sensing their approach, scurried hastily from their pathway. Featherless birds, or winged reptiles--Ted did not know which to call them--flitted among the branches above their heads. Larger ones, some of them appearing huge enough to have flown off with elephants, soared far up near the vaulted roof or flapped lazily back and forth above the tree-tops, evidently in search of prey. Some of them had luminous body areas which gleamed dully as they flew, but flashed from time to time from crests, throats, or wing-tips like the display of a swarm of fireflies magnified ten thousand fold.

There were luminous insects and worms, also, of various shades--and luminous serpents coiled on boles and branches, some of them flashing crests or tail-tips when disturbed as if to warn an intruder of their dangerous presence.

The air was filled with a cacophonous medley of roars, bellows, croaks, shrieks, growls and hisses, sometimes interspersed with more melodious warbling, whistling or bell-like tones. At times huge monsters, most of them dragon-like dinosaurs, crashed fearlessly through the jungle, pausing now and again to crop herbage or devour huge mouthfuls of luminous fungus, and exhaling great clouds of phosphorescent vapor that hung like wraiths in the still air above their enormous heads. And everywhere was a dank, musty odor as if mold and matches had been mixed with stagnant water and brewed in a cauldron over a slow fire.

Presently they emerged from the jungle into a broad savanna of white, jointed grass with luminous tips, that reached to Ted's shoulders. They walked side by side, now, and Ted noticed that the girl often glanced at a small instrument clamped on her wrist-evidently a compass.

For a moment his attention was distracted by a pair of enormous creatures, each well over fifty feet in height, browsing leisurely not more than a quarter of a mile to his right. Then a fearful thing happened. Ted's first intimation of it was the whistle of giant pinions just behind him. Then something struck the back of his head, knocking him flat on his face.

He scrambled to his feet and quickly brought up his pistol degravitor as he saw the girl, already far above the ground, struggling in the talons of a mighty flying reptile. His finger trembled on the trigger yet he did not pull it, for there suddenly came to him the realization that to destroy the monster would be to as surely kill the girl. A fall from that great height would have crushed her frail body to a pulp. The creature flew with terrific speed, and in a moment, had disappeared from view with its prey. Dejectedly, Ted holstered his degravitor. His downward glance fell on the green ray projector which the girl had carried--evidently knocked from her hand by the swoop of her captor. He was about to pick it up, when suddenly far off in the dim mistiness toward which she had been carried, he saw a brilliant, star-like light, moving rapidly. It was unlike the phosphorescent gleam of the light carrying flyers, and he instantly recognized its import. Maza had lighted her brilliant head lamp in a last, desperate effort to guide him to her rescue.

With mighty bounds which, on earth, would have been phenomenal, but on the moon were quite normal leaps for his earth-trained muscles, he set out in swift pursuit.

XII. AERIAL BATTLE

As ROGER SANDERS plunged downward from the sky, the fragments of Ted's shattered Blettendorf dropping around him, the three strange globes that had wrought such swift destruction with their green rays in so short a time, disappeared from view in a blinding whirl of cloud and snow. His parachute was whipped about by the force of the wind until he feared the lashings would be torn loose, but they held, and he presently landed, waist deep, in a snow drift.

He was floundering about, endeavoring to extricate himself from the clutches of the wet, sticky mess, when suddenly he heard his name called:

"Mr. Sanders."

He answered, and a moment later a figure shuffled toward him and helped him from the drift. It was Bevans.

"Didn't fall in as deeply as you, sir," he said. "Landed in the middle of the road, while you went in the ditch. I've been walking along, calling your name in the hope of locating you."

"Did you notice where the professor fell?"

"Yes, sir. He leaped before I did, and I saw him fall on the bridge of that strange globe. He tried to jump off again, but one of those diamond-shaped port holes opened, and he was dragged inside. I suppose they slaughtered him. A horrible ending for one of the greatest minds of the century."

"Awful," replied Roger. "Ted will be broken up when he hears it--that is if he lives to hear it. But we can't help things any by crying about them. Any idea where we are?"

"I should say we're somewhere in Indiana, sir, and not far from a flying field. Have you noticed the flashes of light and dark in the snow above us at regular intervals? Must be from a beacon."

"Well, let's see if we can find out."

Guided by the dimly seen flashes, the two at length found themselves at the airdrome of the South Bend Flying Field a government training station for student aviators since the advent of planes equipped to rise or descend vertically, and the consequent ability of experienced pilots to land "on a dime": Ridding themselves of a considerable weight of sticky snow by brushing each other, they entered the building, where a watchman, with a huge, foul-smelling cob pipe in his mouth, was playing a game of solitaire.

Spying a radiovisiphone, Roger was hurrying toward it to make his report while Bevans explained things to the watchman, when the figure of a man in military uniform suddenly appeared in the disc. He read from a sheet of paper held in his hand:

M. O. 318,246

Three flying globes sighted by U. S. S. P's 347, 1098 and 221. 347 destroyed by strange green ray from one of the globes. 1098 and 221 shelling them without apparent effect when their radios were silenced. All combat planes in Zone 36 are ordered to report, fully manned, to division headquarters, and stand by for orders.

General J. Q. Marshall.

"Oh, boy! There'll be some scrap, now!" said Roger, "but I'm afraid our planes won't stand much chance against those green rays. I'd like to be in on it, though."

"I, too, sir," said Bevans.

Roger rapidly whirled the dials of the radiovisiphone, presently obtaining direct communication with President Whitmore, to whom he made his report. He was ordered back to Chicago at once, a plane being requisitioned from the flying field for the purpose.

As he and Bevans were about to take off they noticed six combat planes, manned and waiting orders. These rose only a few seconds after they did.

The air was now much warmer, the snow having been replaced by a faint drizzle of rain. This, too, subsided before they had flown half way to their destination, but a heavy fog, following the swift melting of the snow, made the visibility exceedingly low.

Despite this handicap, however, the skillful Bevans landed his plane neatly on the roof of the Dustin Building, turning it over to another of Ted's pilots to be returned immediately to the flying field. The cold weather had passed as quickly as it had come, and this fact added to the evidence that it had been directly produced by the giant green ray from the moon.

Back in his office, Roger quickly communicated with his wife by wrist radiophone--then waded into the mass of work which had accumulated during his absence. According to the shop reports the great interplanetary vehicle would soon be ready for launching. But fully as important as this, he found that ten thousand pistol degravitors and a thousand large degravitors for use on combat planes were completed and ready to be loaded with the special anode-cathode ray batteries in process in another division. Turning to the report of the superintendent of the battery division, he found that a hundred of the large and five hundred of the small batteries were ready for use.

Going to the safe, he took out the directions for assembling and firing which Ted had left, and after giving them a careful reading, ordered ten of the large and a hundred of the small weapons and an equal number of suitable anode-cathode batteries sent up to his office.

Morning came before he had completed his work of assembling them. Then, carrying a large and a small degravitor to the roof, he tested them on the remains of Ted's metal hangar and found that they worked satisfactorily.

Hurrying back to his office he set the safety catch on every weapon =then ordered them packed and loaded into one of Ted's freight-carrying electroplanes. And hour later, with Bevans as pilot, he was on his way to Washington.

As he neared the capital he used his binoculars on the surrounding territory, and noticed the havoc wrought by the green rays. At points where the effects of the rays had ended, rivers and creeks were blocked by ice gorges, overflowing the surrounding territory. The vegetation was wilted and lifeless, as if blighted by a heavy frost. In the villages and towns, Red Cross workers were going from house to house, relieving the sufferings of the survivors, followed by undertakers' cars and large trucks, loaded with the canvas-wrapped remains of those who would suffer no more.

On his arrival at the Capitol he sought and gained an immediate interview with the President. The chief executive of the country looked up from the stack of papers on his desk as Roger entered, and greeted him with:

"Now, what the devil are you doing here? I thought I ordered you back to Chicago last night. Who is going to look after your plant and radio station with both you and Dustin away?"

"Important business," replied Roger. "I'll be leaving for Chicago again within the hour, but I've something to show you that, for the present, I don't dare make public over the air."

"What about your code? Afraid someone will figure them out?"

"Not at all, but this is something you will have to be shown. I have some new weapons invented by Mr. Dustin, a few of which have been manufactured in his plant under my direction during his absence--weapons with which I believe we can successfully combat the green rays of the moon men."

"Where are they?"

"In one of our freight carriers, now on the roof of the Lincoln Hotel under guard." Without waiting to hear more, President Whitmore seized his hat and said:

"We'll have a look at them right now."

On the way out he gave orders that Secretary of War Jamison and General Marshall meet him on the roof of the Lincoln in fifteen minutes. Once out of the Capitol, they were quickly transported to the hotel roof in the President's private helicopter limousine.

Roger brought out one of the pistol degravitors, unwrapped it, and explained its use to the chief executive. Then he had an old propeller blade suspended on a wire, and proceeded to demolish it before the eyes of the astonished President.

At this moment Secretary Jamison and General Marshall arrived, and another old blade was disintegrated for their benefit.

Secretary Jamison, a newly appointed civilian, showed wonder and amazement, but General Marshall seemed unconvinced.

"What is the effective range of this weapon?" he asked.

"The theoretical range of this one," replied Roger, "as worked out by Mr. Dustin, is one mile. In other words, it is supposed to completely disintegrate any known matter of any possible hardness or tensile strength, up to that distance. Beyond that distance, however, it would be deadly to man or animals, even though it should not completely destroy their bodies, up to a distance of perhaps two miles. I have with me, also, weapons constructed on the same principle, but much larger, with a theoretical range of twenty-five miles."

"Have the weapons been tested at the ranges you name?"

"Not to my knowledge, but when Mr. Dustin figures something out it is usually right."

"I would respectfully suggest, Mr. President," said the General, stiffly, "that they be so tested."

"And I was about to suggest the same thing," rejoined Roger.

"We'll make the tests at once," decided the President. "While the General is arranging for the aerial targets you may get out one of the larger weapons, Mr. Sanders."

Fifteen minutes later, Roger and the President were hovering on the shore of Chesapeake Bay in the latter's helicopter limousine. Several hundred feet above the General and the Secretary of War hovered in a government plane, while one of their men directed the four aerial targets, miniature helicopter planes controlled by radio.

When one of them had flown a distance of a mile out over the bay the General signaled Roger who promptly brought it down with his pistol degravitor. A second, placed two miles away, presently crumpled and fell, although it withstood about five minutes' exposure to the rays of the small weapon at that distance.

Then Roger mounted his large degravitor on a tripod, and with the assistance of his powerful field glasses, brought down one of the targets which meanwhile bad been stationed at a distance of twenty-five miles up the bay. The fourth target, placed thirty-five miles away, which was as far as he could see it with his glasses, suffered a similar fate after only a few seconds exposure to the rays.

"Marvellous!" commented the President, as they winged their way back to the Capitol. "How many of these degravitors are ready for use?"

"I brought ten of the large and a hundred of the small ones with me," replied Roger. "Within the week I can send you ninety more of the large and four hundred of the small."

"And how fast can you turn them out after that?"

"We are equipped to turn out five hundred small and one hundred large a week. If more are required we can enlarge our capacity at any time."

"Let the order stand on the weekly basis you mention, then," said the President as they got out of the limousine, "unless I send you word to increase it."

They returned once more to the President's office, where he was immediately signaled by the radiovisiphone operator.

"World News Broadcasters on the air will announce important tidings from China in one minute. Shall I tune them in, sir?"

"Yes," replied the President, seating himself at his desk and watching the disc. A picture of the World News Announcer quickly flashed on the screen, and he stood looking at them for a moment, holding his chronometer in one hand and a sheet of paper in the other. Then he said:

"Our correspondent in Peiping announces that the three strange globes from the moon, which destroyed three scout planes with their green rays last night and then disappeared, arrived in Peiping this morning.

"A dozen of the queer, round-bodied men immediately went into conference with the Chinese president and his cabinet. As soon, however, as the odd visitors had been described to the Chinese people, and, of course, seen by many of them, and it became generally known that the government purposed submitting to the rule of the moon government and assisting the lunar emperor to conquer the earth, a revolution was fomented and the Capitol attacked.

"The Chinese president and the members of his cabinet were all slain in the battle that followed, as were the twelve moon men closeted with them. After laying waste the greater part of the city, and killing hundreds of thousands with their green rays, the globes then departed, flying eastward. They were last sighted flying high over southern Japan with terrific speed, apparently bound for the United States.

"General Fu Yen, the revolutionary leader and new provisional president, announces his intention to stand by the other nations of the world in the war with the moon, and will shortly send official messages to the other powers to that effect. It is believed that he is supported in this decision by at least ninety percent of the Chinese people.

"One of his first official acts was to place Dr. Fang, the Manchu, under arrest as an instigator of the plot to sell out the nation to the moon monarch, Dr. Wu, his co-conspirator, having been slain with the former president and cabinet members during the attack on the Capitol."

"Interesting, and vastly relieving, if true," commented the President, "so far as the Chinese are concerned. But we still have those flying globes to contend with. They are on their way over here now, and nobody knows how fast they can travel. I think you brought out the new weapons in the nick of time, Mr. Sanders. Would you care to direct a combat squadron sent out to meet our belligerent visitors?"

"I'd be delighted with the honor," replied Roger.

"Very well. Hurry over and get your weapons unlimbered. I'll have ten expert gunners over at the hotel roof in as many minutes, and while you are explaining the weapons to them, five combat planes will be made ready."

Five minutes later, Roger, with the help of Bevans, was hastily unloading the large degravitors from the freighter, when an air alarm siren sounded below them, followed by another and another until the city was in an uproar.

In a moment a fleet of combat planes left the ground and headed westward. Using his glasses, Roger saw the reason. The three huge lunar globes which had, only a few minutes before, been reported on the way to the United States, were flying swiftly toward the Capitol, raking the ground beneath them with their deadly green rays, more than a dozen of which shone from each globe--and occasionally destroying aircraft that approached them.

Standing on the hotel roof beside Ted's aerial freighter was the helicopter limousine of the President. Its chauffeur was idly leaning against a wing, watching the fast disappearing squadron which had just risen.

"Quick, Bevans!" said Roger. "It's you and me for it! Grab those controls and I'll bring a degravitor!" They rose, a moment later, with helicopters roaring, while the President's pilot, who had lost his prop and his balance, scrambled to his feet and gaped after them. The plane was a swift one, and in a few minutes Bevans had brought it close behind the aerial squadron.

"Straight up, now," ordered Roger, "and make it snappy."

As they began their assent the battle started with the rattle of machine guns and the boom of rapid fire turret guns. Then the globes, apparently unharmed by the gunfire, began systematically wiping out the defense squadron with their green rays. One by one, huge combat planes were crumpling and crashing to the ground, when Roger brought his degravitor to bear on the foremost globe. His invisible ray cut a round hole about four feet in diameter clear through the center of the lunar vehicle, with no apparent effect on its progress or lethal ray projectors. But be had only to lower, then slightly elevate his weapon, and the globe was divided as neatly as a knife divides an apple, both halves crashing instantly to the ground.

Swinging his degravitor into line on another globe, Roger proceeded to halve it as he had the first, but before he could turn it on the third globe, the latter, its commander apparently fearing the fate of the first two, elevated its forward disc and shot straight up into the air with such appalling speed that it disappeared completely in a moment.

Roger clapped his binoculars to his eyes, but even they failed to reveal the swiftly flying globe.

"No use to follow that bird, Bevans," he said. "He's well on his way to the moon by this time. Let's go and have a look at the ones we brought down."

They descended, but a half dozen of the government combat planes were ahead of them, and the men were dragging the bodies of stunned and dead Lunites from the wrecks when they arrived. Forty dazed prisoners, most of whom had fractured limbs, were taken from the wrecks, and twenty-six bodies. Roger's great fear was that he might find the body of Professor Ederson in the wrecks, but there was no sign of it. Either he had been completely destroyed by the degravitor rays, or was in the globe which had escaped.

Only thirty of the squadron of fifty combat planes which had flown out to meet the foe accompanied Roger back to the Capitol. The others, together with their crews, had been utterly destroyed by the green rays.

Back in the President's office, Roger received the commendation of the chief executive with a deprecatory shrug.

"It was nothing," he said. "Easier than breaking clay pigeons with a trap gun."

"I don't believe the General will ask for any more demonstrations," smiled the President. "From now on, he'll be crying night and day for degravitors."

At this moment the President's radiovisiphone operator appeared in the disc and said:

"Chicago is calling Mr. Sanders, Sir."

"Tune them in," said the President.

There instantly appeared in the disc, the face of Ted's day operator, Miss Whitley.

"Mr. Stanley, in charge of the big radiovisiphone, thinks the moon people are trying to get in touch with us," she said.

"Tell him to hold them, if he can, until we can silence all broadcasting stations," replied Roger. "Then connect me with him."

XIII. FLYING REPTILES

DESPITE THE mighty bounds with which Ted Dustin pursued the hideous flying reptile which was carrying off Maza of the Moon, the star-like gleam of her head lamp quickly grew more dim, showing that he was being rapidly outdistanced.

Presently it twinkled and went out, but he continued his pace, unabated, in the same direction. As he hurried on, huge herbivorous dinosaurs, disturbed at their feeding, raised their massive heads from time to time to contemptuously snort fiery vapor at the queer and insignificant creature that bounded past them. Mighty reptilian carnivores, their bloody feasts interrupted, were more hostile, snarling or roaring hideously when he passed close to them, but he paid no heed to either.

Once his path was barred by a great, quill covered creature resembling a tiger, with the exception of the tail, which was a short, thick, spine-covered stub. It was larger than a draft horse, and presented a most fearsome appearance. With gleaming tusks bared, and sickle-like claws unsheathed, it sprang for him. He halted, digging his toes into the ground for an instant to stop his forward momentum--then leaped backward, alighting fully fifty feet behind the spot on which he had stood. Before the creature could spring again he brought both pistol degravitors into play, and although the invisible beams played for but a moment across the huge breast of the beast, it was as if a giant scythe had suddenly cut through it, dividing the dorsal part of the body from the ventral. The claws and belly, apparently impelled by something akin to reflex action, leaped weakly forward, but the head and upper part of the body slipped off and fell to the ground behind them.

Without pausing to view the unusual sight of four massive legs wobbling disjointedly about carrying a great, sagging belly, Ted again pressed forward.

Presently the character of the country he was crossing changed. At first the shimmering, undulating surface of the savanna was broken by occasional outcroppings of white stone, mostly conical in form, but as he progressed, the vegetation grew more and more sparse until it disappeared altogether. He was in a forest of white columns, cones and pyramids--mighty stalagmites that dwarfed to insignificance anything of which he had ever heard or read, reaching up ward toward equally huge stalactites, depending from the vaulted roof above. The ground beneath his feet was completely covered by rock fragments, varying in bulk from mere white powder to huge boulders weighing thousands of tons evidently the remains of both stalactites and stalagmites dislodged by seismic disturbances.

His pace was slackened by these constant obstructions, and by the fact that the light gradually diminished in intensity as he drew away from the luminous vegetation. As he penetrated further and further into the deepening gloom that shrouded the ghostly columns there came to him the conviction that his quest was well nigh hopeless. There came, also, in the dark moment, the realization that the girl he had known for so short a time had come to mean far more to him than a mere companion in adventure--that if she were dead, life would have little to offer him.

Tired and dejected, he sat down on a boulder to rest and to think. Automatically he reached in his pocket for his black briar. As he did so, a tiny pebble suddenly fell at his feet. Several more followed as he quickly glanced upward.

Just behind him the huge stump of a broken stalagmite, fully a hundred feet in diameter and forty feet to where it had been cracked off, reared its shattered head. Turning his gaze toward it, he saw the tip of a huge pinion brushing back and forth across the edge as if its owner were engaged in a struggle. But most important of all, he noticed that the end of the wing as well as the broken edges of the stalagmite were bathed in a white radiance which differed in color and appearance from the phosphorescent luminosity of the lunar flora and fauna. Was it from the head lamp of Maza?

Bounding to his feet, he looked in vain for a place to climb the stalactite. Then, remembering the advantage his earthly muscles gave him, he backed up for a few paces, took a running start, and sprang into the air.

He had hoped to be able to catch hold of the rim of the broken top, but to his surprise, he passed completely over it, alighting in a cup-like depression about twenty feet in diameter which housed two of the homeliest looking creatures on which he had ever set eyes. They were scrawny, long legged, goggle eyed caricatures of the flying reptile which had carried off his companion some time before. Standing on the edge of the rim, dangling the girl by one leg in its huge mandibles and balancing itself with outspread wings, was the reptile itself, apparently trying to feed her to its young. That they had been unable, thus far, to do more than strip some of the wool from her armor, was evinced by the condition of their saw-edged bills, which both were shaking for the evident purpose of trying to rid them of the annoying fuzz.

All this, Ted saw at a glance, and no sooner saw than he acted. Whipping out a degravitor, he completely severed the great, arched neck of the reptile with a single sweep of its deadly ray-then caught the girl in his arms as she fell headlong, and was himself knocked to the floor by the falling, hissing head of the monster, while its giant body fluttered and toppled backward to crash to the ground a moment later. Partly stunned though he was by the blow from that huge head, he quickly dispatched the two hideous young ones with his degravitors--then turned his attention to the girl who lay across his lap. Her eyes were closed and her head hung limply against the side of her glass helmet. Quickly opening her visor, he chafed her cheeks and forehead and blew on her eyelids, the faint flutter of which presently notified him that her consciousness was returning.

"Ted--Ted Dustin," she murmured, and snuggled more closely to him.

He held her thus for a few moments, his heart beats registering an acceleration that could not possibly have been due to his recent exertions. Then she opened her great blue eyes, looked up into his, and said:

"Karl na Ultu."

This, he interpreted to mean: "Go to Ultu," so he, not having sufficient lunar vocabulary to ask her in what direction, managed to convey his question by signs.

She sat up, looked at the instrument strapped to her wrist for a moment, then pointed in the direction in which they had been traveling.

"Ultu," she said.

For answer, he rose, still holding her in his arms, walked to the edge of the stalagmite, and stepped off, alighting at the end of the forty foot fall with no more of a jar than a similar step from a height of seven feet would have caused on earth.

Her little exclamation of alarm as they fell was changed to a cry of surprise and delight when she saw they had reached the ground unhurt. Then she signed that she wished to be put down. He gently lowered her to her feet, and together they pressed on into the deepening gloom--their way now made easier by the light of the girl's head lamp, reflected with many weird effects by the spectral white columns.

For many miles they traveled through murk so black that it seemed almost to have solidity, their range of vision limited to the small area lighted by Maza's head lamp. Then a faint phosphorescent twilight tempered the thick darkness, and scattered tufts of luminous vegetation led into a mighty, tangled jungle, as well lighted by its own flora as the first one they had crossed.

Before they entered it, Ted unholstered one of his degravitors and, handing it to his companion, showed her how to fire it by pressing the trigger. She tested it, first on a clump of luminous toadstools and then on a small flying reptile, and he was delighted to see that her marksmanship was excellent, due, no doubt, to her proficiency with a red ray projector.

Then she extinguished her head lamp, and together they plunged into the riotous medley of sound and color, of strange smells and stranger sights that constituted a lunar subterranean forest. After more than an hour of travel through the jungle without molestation from any of its queer creatures, they arrived at the bank of a swiftly flowing stream about sixty feet across. The girl took a small drinking cup from a pocket of her armor, dipped it in the stream, and offered it to Ted, but he gallantly shook his head, indicating that she should drink first. She did so, sipping the water slowly as if it had been the last glass of some priceless wine of rare and ancient vintage. Ted filled his canteen in the meanwhile, and drank a deep draught, finding the water slightly alkaline, but quite palatable.

Having drunk her water, Maza opened two clasps which loosed her glass helmet, and lifted it from her head. Then she sat down on a low toadstool and began a minute examination of the fine wires on the crest which constituted the antennae of her radio set. She worked with them for some time, her white brow often wrinkled in puzzlement, but presently gave up with a shrug of disappointment. Then Ted, who had been watching her intently, took the helmet from her hands and closely examined the broken head-set himself. His knowledge of radio, combined with his extraordinary inventive genius, stood him in such good stead that it was not long before he had located the source of the trouble. While he set rapidly to work to repair the damage with tools from his pocket kit, his companion gathered some dried and broken ribs of tree fronds that had fallen nearby and ignited them with a tiny red ray from a small lighter she carried. Then, taking Ted's hunting knife from its sheath, she cut several slabs from a pear shaped mushroom that grew near the water's edge, spitted them on a green frond, and grilled them over the fire.

By the time Ted had finished his work of repairing her small radio set, she had spread the top of a toadstool with large flat leaves in lieu of a table cover, and placed thereon tastily grilled slabs of mushrooms, together with several varieties of small fruits which grew in abundance all around them. Returning her helmet to her, Ted showed his admiration of her lunar woodcraft and culinary skill by seating himself opposite her and heartily falling to. The mushroom slabs were delicious, and the odd fruits exceptionally palatable.

When they had finished, Maza pressed the signal button connected to her head set, there was an answering voice, and she immediately began a conversation which lasted several minutes, but which Ted was, of course, unable to understand. Once he saw her glance at the instrument on her wrist, and judged that she was telling someone their location. Presently she ceased talking, walked to a bed of moss beneath some long, overhanging fronds, and lay down as if to sleep, motioning Ted to do likewise. Tired as he was, Ted could not bring himself to even think of closing his eyes in so insecure a spot, so he sat down on the moss beside her, unholstered his degravitor, and patting it, indicated that he would guard her while she slept. She closed her eyes without protest, and presently the regular rise and fall of her small, shapely bosom indicated that she was asleep.

For several hours Ted amused himself by watching the strange creatures of the earth, air and water. Giant saurians, with necks gracefully arched, paddled lazily past, sometimes darting their heads with lightning like rapidity into the water, and usually bringing up fish or small amphibians in their powerful jaws. Small flying reptiles, soaring low, sometimes descended to the surface of the water, sometimes dived beneath it, triumphantly emerging with living, wriggling food morsels which they usually swallowed as they flew, with little or no mastication.