Page:Amazing Stories Volume 21 Number 06.djvu/77

77 croaking and get back to your work, and remember that it had better be cleaner work than usual. If I did not need you, Nueces, your skill in some matters, I would bid you the dark and lonesome trail for these croakings of yours."

Tanil's voice stopped, I heard Nueces coming toward me, had a glimpse of his face, turned from Tanil to hide his murderous rage at her warning words. I knew he was an enemy to her, and somehow her stock rose with me, at the same time a knowledge that she was not the master of diplomacy that she might be—else she would have handled this knife-in-the-back Panot differently to minimize his opposition.

As the man shuffled past me, his white robes gave him a corpselike air in the dim light; a shudder at him passed over me. As soon as he was out of hearing, I stepped from the shadow, spoke to Tanil.

"Time for a word with me?"

"Come in, Kent." Her voice was still angry.

"I was passing. Just got up. I heard you talk."

"Eavesdropping, eh?" Tanil's voice was mocking. "I can't say I blame you. I'd eavesdrop a little, too, were I in your position. What did you want, anything in particular?"

"I couldn't help trying to warn you against that fellow. He had murder on his face as he went out."

"He'll get murder, the fool! If I didn't need him, I would have rid myself of him long ago. But he knows things, the ways and the whereabouts of certain people of the caverns, the locations of things that are hidden in the winding ways of this planet's under-earth; much that I can learn from no one else at hand. But to have to use a traitor and a sneak day after day as though he were a friend, becomes impossible to me.

"These cavern people of Earth are loyal to old traditions, and those traditions are secrecy, not wisdom, I'll tell you. But their blind secrecy and a loyalty even to an evil and foolish master? They have had many generations of very bad bringing-up, here on earth. So it is that I need him for a guide; and he takes a lot of humoring, for he is trying to build his own power beyond my own and so become my master. Always he tries to lead me, to tell me what to do—and always I must do the opposite, for he is evil, and would lead only into trouble. He tells me everyone but himself is my enemy, and verily he is the only real enemy I have except never mind. He is transparent as a glass snake. I have to listen and humor him, and I cannot play that game well. I am very tired of such things. Amuse me, Tom Kent!"

After all, I did wish an excuse to talk with her further.

I entered, sat down, said:

"Tanil, over and over I have heard mention of the "caverns," the "underworld," and other phrases I cannot understand. Can't you enlighten me a little? Too, I have heard you are from another planet. Is this a commonplace thing, that you do not make capital of it? Is it that I know nothing of my own world?"

HAT is the truth, Tom Kent." Tanil smiled wearily as though the question were one she had heard too often. "You people of the surface are sure you know all about life and its history on this earth. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

"Long ago a vast race of great technical knowledge lived on Earth—not on the surface but in a tremendous series of deep cavern cities that stretched then and still do so stretch over the whole globe. Those caverns and those machines they left are duplicated in every other planet I have been on—three of them beside Earth. And those caverns have been inhabited since the earliest days here on Earth. But, here on Earth, unlike other planets, they have been kept secret from the people of the surface by a clique of hereditary monopolizers of the secret—few but powerful. The machines, the vast powers of the ancient work, and the endless living space within the empty caverns they consider their private property. It is those we mean when we speak of the 'Hidden Ones' with fear.

"There is regular commerce between this cavern worlds' people and the other planets. Infrequent trips occur between all planets, from the farthest one the knowledge may reach. One learns this is true in space—men know of the Elder race and use their machines everywhere except on Earth, and on Earth the Elder race has become a secret kept from common people by custom since early times.

"It is the greatest secret of earth, and your ignorance of this secret is what makes