Page:Amazing Stories Volume 21 Number 06.djvu/50

50 and mechanics I shall bring from the surface will make all my work easier than his, for he had to train every one of his men, while I can get trained men from a dozen sources.

"Gold lies by the ton in these vaults, and the sheathing of many of these abandoned machines is of gold, and of alloys even more precious to the upper world, did they but have them to know the value. I shall build such a trade with the surface as the underworld has not had since Sathanas drew his last earthly breath and lifted again into the night skies in his vast ship. For men, I shall give gold; for slaves, jewels; and for information, I shall barter crumbs of technical information from the vast store represented by these machines. Yes, the surface shall staff my palaces with slaves, my armies with well paid soldiery, my laboratories and workshops with willing workers. You will not live to see it, too sad to tell."

do not blame you for ambition, Zigor. Every man is ambitious, but why did your father thwart your ambition? He is not a fool, your father."

"He fears that because I am a Mephisto everything I do will turn into blood and war and death, as it did for all our ancestors. He does not know that great things cannot be done without a little bickering, and eggs cannot be eaten without cracking a shell or two. And I fear yours will be one of the first to crack.

"Why should you wish to do us harm? We have nothing whatever to do with you or your aims."

"It so happens that the tools I must use right now require some sating in blood and torment; it is their nature, as you may have observed if you have lived long in the caverns. To use them, I must pander to their appetites. So, to make my omelet, I must begin by breaking eggs."

"It would seem wiser to begin your career with tools more amenable to the hand, than things that cannot be controlled without pandering to their every whim. For instance, ourselves here are valuable, and know much of these things you must know to get far on your chosen path."

"It might seem so to you, but they will serve. I have a method of doing what I intend to do—to grow great and powerful, to build myself a machine of these available men and weapons—a tool for the acquisition of all those things in life which may be enjoyed. To you, of the surface people, enjoyment of life is not so much a goal as with those who know about such things, here in the caverns. For money and power may bring you better food and more women, but cannot really greatly enhance any of yours pleasures—and any poor man with a beautiful wife gets more of the goodness of life, than a rich man with an ugly wife and the gout in his feet by far.

"Down here, that is not true. For power can bring a man a multiplicity of the pleasure machines, of variant stim rays, of which there are in the endless caverns a store never touched by latter-day men since the Elder race abandoned earth. Power and money can bring a man beneficial rays and health machines which vastly increase his life span, his health, his ability to withstand the pleasures of dissipation. Growth rays can build vast strength within the body, strength that among other things increase his ability to enjoy women and stim rays. These things you do not fully understand, though you may have seen somewhat of them. You do not fully understand all the intricacies of their influence upon our life. This is what my father was depriving me of—and what no man is going to deprive me of. Do you hear! No man shall stand between me and my will to have the endless pleasures of those ancient Gods!"

"Well, I see little to stop you except your own fumbling ineptness. Why think that we oppose you, except insofar as you are a danger to our existence? Why make enemies of us when we wish nothing but to go our way in peace. It has always seemed to me that ambitious men defeat themselves chiefly by their habit of making enemies where none existed, and of fearing what would not happen did they not fear it, and so move against it and make of a nothing a combat. Is that not your chief trouble, the enemies that stand between you and your will?"

"There is truth in what you say, but my method will automatically eliminate error. I intend to take those records you have been so studious as to examine under my father's eye, hook them up in a ro-mech, and run the whole outfit from that ro-mech at full aug. Do you understand?"

"No, I don't understand. What is a ro-mech?"