Page:Amazing Stories Volume 15 Number 12.djvu/50

50 better than anyone else. Perhaps you begin to see, now, why it was important that you remained on Earth."

Dane frowned.

"We'll start by searching the Government House," he decided. "They probably ran their defense from there. I don't think they had time to escape after we gassed the city. If we don't find them, we'll block all roads and and subways and ground all ships—and then pray."

Vanz, Cabot, Tolek Serj, and a score of others, Dane led off into a wide avenue lined with the vast honeycombs of bureaucracy; Telepathy House, Physics House, Chemistry House, and any number of others. Several of these buildings were in flames; others had spilled their polished marble and granite bricks into the street in heaps of wreckage. At the far end of the street they hurried up the broad steps of Government House.

In the street before it, and all the way into the magnificent central room, they waded through battalions of sleeping guards. Lying across their guns, snoring softly, The Hundred's private army raised not a finger to stop them. Dane knew the lay of the various floors from previous visits to Government House. He hurried to the elevators.

High above the paralyzed city, they ran down the hall to the private chambers. With his gun jutting low before him, Dane rushed into the long room. An exclamation of dismay broke from his lips.

"We've lost them!" he groaned. "And yet look—! They were here just a while ago. Their television screens are still trained on the sky and the telephones are off the stands. They must have seen the last of the battle!"

Tolek Serj, chin whiskers bristling, pointed at the floor, where the red glow from a burning Biology Station illuminated it fitfully.

"Something's been dragged from the table to that door!" he cried. "One of them must have escaped the gas and dragged the others out." In the thin veneer of dust on the floor, wide swaths had been brushed in several places.

Dane's eyes widened. His glance snapped to Nile Vanz's face. The shadow-man's translucent features seemed to shine with angry, ominous light. He was thinking the same thing as Dane.

Dane crossed the floor swiftly, to wrench open the opposite door. It gave onto a small elevator. But only the gaping shaft met his eyes. He pivoted, fighting a nervous urge to shout.

"They must be in the streets now! It we work fast—"

HEY crowded through the door and raced for the elevator. But when they pushed "Down" nothing happened. Dane tried the other unavailingly. Desperately, they went down the line of elevators and found them all lifeless. Finally, Dane stood back, his face burning with the wrath that boiled him.

"A fine bunch of sleuths!" he snarled. "Ninety-six floors from the city and nothing but stairs to get us there. Our gas-proof friend has pulled the master switch. We may as well start walking. If we hurry, we'll be down in less than an hour."

Winded and nearly exhausted, they emerged on the street in a half hour, but by that time it was useless to search for the missing men. The troops lying prone in the street were beginning to stir. Ionian soldiers hastened to dis-