Page:Amazing Stories Volume 01 Number 07.djvu/22



''HE hero of the story, Edmund Stonewall, has discovered how to utilize atomic energy. He constructs a car that can traverse interplanetary space, actuated by this energy, and with two friends starts on a trip to the planet Venus, not disclosing to them his intention at first. He reaches a rather desolate part of the planet, where daylight never appears, sees the almost ape-like inhabitants, cave dwellers, who wish to sacrifice one of them to the gods, and they rescue the proposed victim only by killing the High Priest. They get in among the valleys in a mountain of ice, on the edge of the dark face of the planet, taking with them some of the cave dwellers on sleds. The car with sleds fastened alongside and all but one of the cave-dwellers upon them, is carried now along a sort of glacial stream, but soon sleds and the unfortunate occupants disappear, and our travellers are left with only one of the ape-like cave dwellers, Juba, as company. Now they reach the warm regions of Venus, where there is perpetual day, and there find a highly developed race who communicate with each other by a species of telepathy, and our travelers are enchanted by the beautiful appearance of the beings, who are superior in every way to terrestrial mankind.''

''As they fly, a terrible catastrophe is narrowly averted, Edmund shooting the steersman on a threatening aeroplane. A beautiful woman, Ala, the heroine of the story, saves them from the wrath of the mob by her influence; she and Edmund fall in love with each other. Edmund has a rival, Ingra, in his claims on Ala, and the plotting and deeds of Ingra are directed to getting rid of the earthly visitors. They explore the country, are threatened by a huge monster, and at last get into a true Eden on the planet. The story leaves them with Ingra and his party in the midst of an attack upon the earthly visitors and upon Ala's escort.''

UR assailants retreated into the bashes as we threatened them with the pistols, but Edmund would not allow Ingra to escape with the others. The fellow was completely cowed, knowing the deadly power of our pistols, and he obeyed Edmund's commands with a dejected air, occasionally glancing at Ala, who disdained to return his look.

Edmund backed him into the open door of the car, and we all entered, after hunting up the maid who, half scared to death, had concealed herself in the bushes. Then Edmund closed the door and turned to the machinery, leaving to us the care of guarding our prisoner.

The latter sat quietly enough on a bench, Jack on one side of him and I on the other, while Ala placed herself as far from him as she could get.

I wondered at the fellow's audacity. Surely no man in his senses would have thought of winning a woman's heart by violence, but evidently his passionate nature had overcome all scruples of reason, and as for conscience, he had none.

Ala's detestation of him was written on her every feature.

After we had got out of the wild tangle of branches, vines, and flowers, the car rose to a considerable elevation, and Edmund circled about to get his bearings. Then Ala went to his side.

Conversing together, they looked out of the windows, and she indicated the direction that we were to pursue. First we darted high in the air, and then set off at a great rate. It now became evident at what a vast distance from the capital, and from the inhabited lands of Venus, we had landed in our wild descent from the cloud-dome.

But for Ala's topographical knowledge, we should have been long in finding the proper route.

HE way once pointed out, however, we never swerved aside, and Edmund worked up the speed to as high a point as he deemed safe in that dense atmosphere, which seemed to flow in translucent waves about the sides of the rushing car. At last I asked Edmund what he intended to do with the prisoner.

"I'll put him behind bars." he replied grimly, "if I have to construct them myself."

Notwithstanding our great speed, the journey was a long one. We kept at an elevation of several miles, in order to command a wide view, and the scene was magnificent. The wilderness we were leaving behind was in a tropical zone, on the borders of that savage region where we had encountered the saurian monster, and a vast roll of strangely glowing clouds lay upon the far horizon.

But beneath us the country continually improved in aspect, signs of cultivation making their appearance, until at length we began to pass over villages, and then over small cities, each of which, in imita-