Page:Amazing Stories Volume 15 Number 10.djvu/48

48 sagely. "I remember now. We musta took a cab to the Turkish baths. Best thing in the world for a hangover." And he fell back again in his bed and rolled over.

Pyteles and Murra had climbed up to join their chief.

"The journey through the dimensional divider has confused them," said Lito. "It has been helped by the fact that we look so much like them, and that our world is so like their own, at least superficially. We must be patient."

But Pyteles shook his head in doubt.

"There is no time for patience," he said. "We have little more than the barest minimum of time before the ma- chine must return them. And I cannot understand what they say. Their words bring only vague, unpleasant images."

The sound of the conversation seemed to penetrate to Mike Tracy. He peered out from under the pillows, then sat up on the sagging springs of the couch and looked down to where other Quennians stood. There were dozens there now. He rubbed his eyes, managed to walk unsteadily to Sammy's bed, where he plopped down and whispered something. Sammy opened his eyes and smiled lazily. Then, for the first time, he too became aware of the presence of the others. He got out of bed quickly.

Suddenly Sammy cried in alarm.

"Thizzizz a lynching! See all them white sheets? Thazz a secret organization!"

"Must be friends of the guy next door," Mike said, fearfully.

Lito smiled warmly at them.

"Come with us," he said. "We must hurry, for the High Priest of Quenna awaits us." The two men yielded to the gentle pressure of his hands and followed him down the jade altar, down to where Kora-san stood with Seydi among the others who had appeared after the machine had stopped.

"Had us on a scaffold already," Mike muttered. "These—" But he stopped speaking as Seydi made a sign and pointed to a red disc that seemed to lay on the floor. Suddenly the red disc began to grow larger, spreading like the flow of a liquid, until its area had encompassed the place where Mike and Sammy stood among the first five scientists. Then, all at once—the hall disappeared and they were standing in a brilliant, jeweled chamber!

UST that way it had happened. One moment the disc had been moving, the next—The astonishing transformation, or transference, or whatever it had been, had its effect on Sammy and Mike, but only the former expressed it. For the moment he was oblivious of everything else in the chamber. He winked one eye and observed:

"Say, thazz a damned good trick," and the way his feet began to slide apart, he would have sprawled backwards if Kora-san hadn't caught him.

There must have been hundreds of people in the chamber who had witnessed the entire episode, and a ripple of wonder went through them. They were all magnificent specimens, beautifully built, the men handsome, the women soft and lovely, dressed in variously colored robes and tunics. But of all of them, only one wore the silver circlet which the five scientists had put on their foreheads. He was a bearded man, clad in a robe of pale blue, and he rose from the dais where he had been seated at the head of the room.

"Travelers from the world beyond the divider," he said, solemnly. "You have come to us after generations of hope and work. Your mission will be honored as long as there is life in both our worlds. According to the teachings of the prophet Tallu, who more than five hundred rthus—"