Page:Amazing Stories Volume 15 Number 10.djvu/92

92 ture in a darkened room as in a lighted one, and Bommelsmeth had the advantage of knowing his way around it.

Now the giant seemed to be trying to climb over the fallen furniture in the middle of the room. Don tried to judge where he was to get in a thrust with his sword.

Bommelsmeth's huge hand gripped Don by the shoulder. In the darkness he had taken it for a table-leg or chair-leg. For a fraction of an instant both were too amazed to move. Then Don thrust with his sword at the same instant as Bommelsmeth, letting go, struck downward with some heavy object.

Both blows were stopped by the table. Don's sword struck the underside, and Bommelsmeth's club, or whatever it was, struck a leg.

Both leaped backward.

Don dared not turn on his headlamp. If he did Bommelsmeth would almost certainly see him first, and throw something. And a heavy object thrown by the giant Martian would mean curtains for the Earthling if it struck him.

He heard Wimpolo knocking on the door and calling. She had heard the noise, but dared not use a threadray pistol on the door for fear of hitting Don as well.

Don made sure that the table-top was above him, and called out, "Go the other way!" Something hit the top of the table with splintering violence. He thrust where he judged that the giant was. He felt a slight resistance to his sword, and felt blood on the point. But a glancing blow on the shoulder made him dizzy.

He thought he heard Bommelsmeth open a door. He heard Vans calling. A door opened behind him. He staggered out.

"Bommelsmeth's in there," he gasped. "I heard him open a cupboard. I think he got a ray machine of some sort out."

A dozen men entered. The cabin was flooded with light.

It was empty.

HE cupboard door was open, and blood was on the floor. Another door gave onto a passage. There was blood on the floor of the passage.

Outside a splash sounded.

"He's got away," Vans decided. "Start up the engines before the other subs turn their rays on us."

The sub churned out to sea. Don played the big deathray in the control tower over the water in the hope of catching Bommelsmeth with it. But as they were getting clear of the harbor a sub that had lain near them in the dock suddenly swiveled a large threadray projector towards them. For an instant or so it was touch and go, but Don, at the ray controls, silenced it.

Now the other subs were turning to attack. Bommelsmeth had plainly got out of the water and was directing them. Rays blazed. The big sub had the advantage that it was away from the lights and moving, while the others were stationary and well lit.

Don thought he had sunk several of them, but could never be sure. The big sub reached deep water and submerged. An hour they ran under water, then were able to breathe freely again. They had got away.

"I'll end Bommelsmeth's capers for ever," Don said. In the deep sea, far from sight of land, he set the big threadray projector working. It was aimed upward, at an angle. Up above terrific clouds of smoke arose as the cohesion-neutralizing ray turned stone into gas or fluid and then let it turn back into dust again. Tremendous masses of stone, no longer supported, fell into the sea with such splashes that the sub was nearly overwhelmed. A gigantic hole