EVIL EARTHS, page 34
She lifted her arms; her red lips parted. From them came
again that dreadful cry
Alien, summoning!
Summoning--what?
The priest shrilled, "Slay her! Slay her!"
The others streamed down from the pyramid's summit,
racing toward Yana, save for two who still held Mason
motionless. The priestess cried again that strange call.
In Zol's face Mason read something that made him look
out across the lake. A few ripples troubled the black surface.
That was all.
No. There was more. Something was moving toward the
shore, a dark and tremendous bulk that glided through the
waters with unhurried smoothness. Something that could
never exist in a sane world ....
And now Mason rememberd Yana's words: "I have
learned much--the words of power that call the
Thun
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derer from the lake. Once before it was done, ages ago,
and the Dweller rose from the depths ....
The god of the Curupuri had answered the summoning
of his priestess. Through the dark inky waters the thing
glided, and a black, shining bulk arose in the moonlight, a
fiat and serpentine head and a long, undulating columu of
neck ....
Zol's face was a Gorgon mask of horror abysmal. The
natives were almost at the lake's shore--and they shrank
back. Yana screamed her weird call--and the cry turned
into a shriek as the monster was upon her.
The giant head swooped, lifted with the girl's body
dangling from immense jaws. Cold, reptilian eyes surveyed
the village. As the girl vanished into the thing's maw the
creature lumbered up onto the beach.
Desperately Mason tried to rationalize his fear. Some
prehistoric survival--an aquatic reptile that had dwelt for
ages in this secret crater, untouched by the changes of
evolution. It was possible, he knew. Always there had
been tales of such monsters filtering through the jungles,
gigantic beasts that dwelt in the Patagonian swamps and
the hidden fastnesses of the Andes. Yet he could not control
the cold horror that crept over him at sight of the
thing that was emerging from the lake.
Its body was over fifty feet long, torpedo-shaped, with
great flippers that propelled it slowly forward. The snakelike
head and neck writhed, curved. All over its shining,
reticulated body grew algae; shells clung to the armoured
hide. It came plunging up into the village, and the
Curupuri went stampeding in a frenzied panic that made
them easy prey for their god.
The two natives holding Mason went with the rest. Only
Zol stood his ground, glaring around, bruised lips working
silently. He saw Mason. He sprang forward, knife upraised.
This time Mason was ready. Grinning unpleasantly, he
dived at the priest, tackled him viciously. Zol stabbed
down with his knife, sending a white-hot streak of agony
along Mason's ribs.
The white man clutched his enemy's wrist, held it motionless.
Yelling rage, Zol bent his head, tried to sink his
teeth in Mason's throat.
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The screams of the fleeing Curupuri came up from below.
And a cry-claser, nearerl Alasal
"Kentl The devil-god--it's coming here "
The sweating, bloody face of Zol was a gargoyle mask;
the man's breath was foul in Masons nostrils as the priest
tried to reach his enemy's throat with his teeth. Beyond,
a gargantuan shadow in the moonlight, Mason saw the
head of the monster---coming closerl
Mason let go of the other's knife-wrist. Zol was not expecting
that move. Before he could recover, the white man
had gripped the priest by neck and crotch, hurled him up
in mid-air. Mason's muscles cracked under the strain. He
spun about swiftly, staggering.
The priest tried to stab down, missed. He had no other
chance.
Out of the flight came rushing the devil-god, silent and
menacing. The hu.e head was not twelve feet from the
pyramid's summit when Mason let go of his captive.
Sent Zol hurtling straight for the monsterI
His aim was true. The jaws dipped slightly, and gripped
the priest. One agonized shriek Zol gave, and then his
bones and flesh were ground into pulp between remorseless
fangs.
Mason waited to see no more. There was no time to free
the girl; he leaped to the throne, picked up her bound,
nude form, and slung it over his shoulder, hoping that
Alasa would suffer no injury by such treatment. But it
was that or death, for already the monster's head was
snaking out as Mason leaped down the pyramid's side,
keeping his balance with difficulty. He was trying to reach
the passage that led into the structure, and he succeeded
just as the giant reptile's jaws clicked closer than Mason
cared to guess.
But they were safe, for the monster could not reach
them in the narrow tunnel. Mason retreated further into
the darkness, warily trying to pierce the gloom. Other
Curupuri might have retreated here. Perhaps, though,
their panic fear had driven all thought but instant flight
from their minds. ù
Later Mason realized that this was indeed the ease. But
at present he was busy freeing Alasa, comforting her hysterical
tears as well as he could. There was no sound from
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outside; either matters had quieted down, or it was difficult
to hear within the pyramid. Mason drew Alasa close,
and she, too frightened and exhausted to resist, relaxed in
the man's arms, and, presently, slept. Mason did not
arouse her. Though his position was cramped, he endured
it, fearing that any movement on his part would waken
the girl.
When an hour or more had passed, he judged it time to
move,
"Alasa," he whispered. She stirred.
"Kent? What's wrong?"
"Nothing," ho told her. "But we'd better be moving."
The girl arose and followed Mason to the portal. Peer-hag
out into the moonlit night, they could see nothing of
tho Curupuri, though a distant commotion in the jungle
hinted of the monster's activity. Mason was quick to act.
Seizing Alasa's hand, he hurried around the pyramid's
base and slipped through the village, keeping carefully in
the shadows. Once the girl paused to pick up a discarded
length of cloth and wrap it about her nude body. Both of
them, shivering in the cooi night air, would have been glad
to search for warmer clothing, but they dared not spare
the time.
They headed for the pass in the crater's walls. "You can
reach it in the fourth part of a day," the priestess had said.
If anything, she had overestimated the distance. Presently
Alasa and Mason reached the gap, having seen nothing of
either the Curupuri or the monster.
Below them lay a broad stretch of moonlit jungle, slant-hag
down to a distant horizon. Far, far beyond that horizon,
Mason guessed, lay the Atlantic Ocean, the Ocean
Sea of a pre-Columbian Europe. For a moment a queer
thought was strong in his mind; he would like to visit that
lost, strange world, dim in the forgotten past. How odd it
would be to see and speak with the legendary figures of
historyl
He saw the time-ship. Half a mile away, it lay in a little
clearing in the forest, the moonrays reflecting from it in a
blaze of cold brilliance. Mason wished he had brought a
weapon. There might be jaguars--perhaps even the prehistoric
giant sloth lumbered through this teeming jungle.
Night-prowlers were abroad, but they did not menace
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the two humans. Once some beast stalked them for a
while; they could hear it 'rustling in the underbrush. But
it gave up presently and disappeared. And once a jewel-bright
macaw fluttered sleepily across their path, screaming
its harsh cry.
But they came to the ship and without hindrance. The
Curupuri had apparently feared to enter it, for Mason
found nothing amiss within the craft. He felt oddly relieved
when he had closed the port, locking Alasa and
himself within.
. 'I hope nothing was wrecked When w.e crashed," he
told the girl. "It wouldn't be-pleasant."
Mason set to work examining the instruments. For more
than an hour he puzzled over the intricate dials and
gauges. Something he had learned from Greddar Klon,
and more from Murdach. So, after a time, he felt that it
might be possible to return to the future-world from which
they had come.
"This dial," he said slowly, "indicates our time-rate, I
think. Each time we stop, a permanent record of that halt
is marked on the dial--those red spots, see? This one, at
zero, is your own world, I imagine, where the ship was
built. This dot, further up, is right under the needle. That's
where we are now. And the third dot is where we left
Murdach and Erech. If I can set the controls to that
time
sector
"
It was another half-hour before Mason was satisfied.
He tested the mechanism, lifted the ship fifty feet into the
air. The atomic power worked smoothly enough. With a
grim not at Alasa, Mason threw the time-switch.
Blackness. A second, an hour, or an eon--a brief eternity
in which there was no consciousness of time. Then
light came again.
The tower of the giant ants sprang into visibility nearby.
They had reached their destination. The amazingly
curate controls of the craft had brought them back to the
lost world of the future. But something was wrong.
From the tower's summit a horde of giant winged ants
were pouring down, racing toward the ship. On the
ground below lay the crushed form of another monster.
But of Murdach and Erech there was no trace!
Instantly Mason guessed the reason. They had come
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too far--a few moments, or a few hours. No longer, certainly.
His famiharity with the instruments helped him
now. He made a quick adjustment and again moved the
time-control.
Blackness--and light. The ship had apparently not
moved. Only the Sun was in a different position in the sky,
and the horde of ants had gone. Looking down, for a brief
incredible moment Mason saw a replica of the time-ship,
with two figures in it, rushing forward, colliding in mid-air
with a huge ant. And as he watched--the ship vanishedl
It was gone--back, Mason knew, to the pre-Columbian
South American jungle. The ant, crushed, was falling toward
the ground--toward two figures, missing them by a
few feet. Erech and Murdach[
They waved tiny hands upwards, gesticulating. Mason
sent the ship down, grounded it, flung open the port. Toward
the craft raced the two men, eyes wide with hope
they had long abandoned.
Erech pushed Murdach aboard, sprang after him. "By
El-lill" he swore. "You come in time, Ma-zhon! Let's get
out of here, quick!"
Murdach was fumbling with the controls. The time-ship
lifted, lanced across the desolate plain.
At last the four were reunited. Now--now, Mason
thought triumphantly, they could seek Greddar Klon. Seek
the Master--and slay him!
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CHAPTER XII
Strange Quest
The ship hung above the leaden sea, safe from attack,
while the four talked, and Murdach and Mason planned.
Murdach's tattered leather uniform was hanging in rags.
His hawk-face was gaunt and tired; his red hair dark with
grime. But .Erech seemed unchanged. His pale eyes
watched coldly above the beak of a ,nose; the thin lips
were g .rim as ever.
"What I can't understand," Mason observed, "is how
I got from Arabia--Al Bekr--to South America, a continent
on .the other side of the globe. I was moving in
time, not in space."
"Globe?" murmured Alasa, p-led. "Surely the Earth
is fiat, surrounded by an abyss?"
Murdach said, "You travelled in space, too. In a million
years, or more or less, the world travels with the
Sun, naturally, along its orbit. But the gravitational drag
keeps the ship bound to Earth, which is lucky or we
might find ourselves in space, light-years from any Solar
System. The ship's bound but not too tightly. The Earth
revolves, the time-ship lags; and so you found yourself
once in Al Bekr, once in--what did you say?--South
America, and once here. But all three places are near the
equator."
He turned to pages of calculations. "I've located Gred-dar
Klon, I think. But nothing's certain. We cannot stay
here, though, or we'll starve to death soon enough. Shall
we---?" He read the answer in the other's eyes. Without
speaking he sent the ship into time.
The light failed, and grew again. They hung above a
craggy mountain range, gigantic, towering to the sky. The
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Sun was warmer, closer and larger. Earth was green
again, lacking the dead, leaden grimness of the ultimate
future.
'øThis is before my own time, and after yours, Mason,"
Murdach said. "About 2150."
"2150 A.D.? That was Nirvor's time-sector," Mason
said, remembering the words of the silver priestess. He
went on, as a sudden thought came to him, "Hadn't we
better find weapons first? In my time I can dig up a few
--machine-guns, bombs--and you probably have better
ones in your time, Murdach."
The other looked at him oddly, a curious expression in
his eyes. "My time---I do not wish to return to it. Not yet,
at least. As for weapons, the Master will not be expecting
us. And we can perhaps find arms on our way. The
needle points to the east, and we must /o there. We'll
watch as we travel."
Mason was not satisfied, but said no more. He scanned
the barren mountains and plains, the teeming jungles,
the lakes and broad sea over which they fled. Once he
saw a gleaming globe on a mountaintop, and pointed it
out to Murdach. The other brought the ship down.
A transparent globe, miles in diameter, hanging in
empty air. Within it, as they hovered, Mason could see
unfamiliar-looking machines, rows upon rows of long cylinders
of glass. Within the cylinders were human beings,
men and women, dead or asleep.
Murdach landed the ship, and they tried to find some
way of entering the giant globe, but in vain. There were
