Page:Amazing Stories Volume 15 Number 10.djvu/76

76 "Quiet!" growled the apes. They were able to talk in a fragmentary, indistinct fashion.

She was bundled into her own waiting sphere, and apish hands fumbled clumsily at the controls, which were very simple. The sphere raced along the one-way traffic tunnels in a dangerous fashion, ignoring signals at the forks. It seemed that the brutes did not understand the method of traffic control at all.

Wimpolo hoped for a collision, even one that would kill her and her foul captors together, but luck was with the apes. After some miles the sphere stopped, and she was hauled into the opening of a natural cave. A Martian in an unfamiliar uniform stood there, and she called to him for help.

"It's no use struggling, Princess Wimpolo," this Martian said. "Be sensible, and you will not be hurt."

She understood then that human beings had sent these apes to capture her. It was another revolt against her father. She was lowered with ropes down the steep cavern, then carried through the larger cavern until they reached the city of Selketh. At Selketh she saw the looting of the city, and the driving of the people aboard the submarines. She was taken to what she saw were staterooms on board the largest of the subs. A tall, lean Martian awaited her there, smiling sardonically. He wearing the insignia of overlord of Mars.

The lean Martian stood up.

"Power to Princess Wimpolo," he said with stiff courtesy.

She faced him with a bitter sneer on her lips.

"Rebel dog," she said.

He frowned.

"Not many speak to me like that and live. Princess," he said. "I will overlook it this once, but be careful. Do you know who I am?"

"Your forged epaulets and badges would tell me that," she said. "You are in revolt against my father, and you seem to think that you have already won."

"So you mean to be awkward, eh?" he said. "A pity. I had planned a future for you that would not have been so very unpleasant, provided you had been reasonable and accepted the inevitable. My name is Bommelsmeth. Already I rule more of Mars than your father does. Am I not entitled to the rank of overlord, more so than he?"

"You won it by treachery and the massacre of helpless people," she said. "You rule an empty desert."

RONG, Princess, quite wrong," he answered, smiling in sardonic triumph. "My subjects are more numerous than those of your father. For my ape-men must be counted. They are human, and very useful they are, too. Your father's best troops are a long way from being such fanatical fighters as my apes. And they have given ample proof of their ability to travel through unexplored caverns and attack in overwhelming force at undefended spots. Why, it is really my will that decides, even in Usulor's own country. I might have your whole country in chaos, but I have been very patient and restrained. I warn you, my patience will not last much longer. I shall demand my rights, and ail who oppose me will be crushed, mercilessly.

"Have I not shown my power? Have I not plucked out of the middle of her father's palace the best-guarded lady in Mars? My spies brought me complete plans of your secret exit long ago. In the same way I have learned all other secrets of your father's, many of which have long been forgotten by your father and his generals themselves."

"How could you learn of my tunnel?"