Page:Amazing Stories Volume 21 Number 06.djvu/84

84 of these days."

Tanil came out of her thoughtful abstraction to speak to me in a voice the cabby couldn't hear.

"I was hurrying to a certain member of the 'Old Covenant,' a man who has some of the Elder mech up here on the surface. But now, I don't think so much of the idea. For I do not trust him; he might kill us, or imprison us. He does not agree with my ideas of expansion. He fears we will betray the ancient secret which has given him life of luxury and monopoly. He fears competition. I had thought that in the emergency he would help in order to eliminate Nueces, but now I realize that he would also eliminate me did he have me at his mercy so completely. So it is best that I find my way out of this difficulty myself instead of getting in hotter water by calling in tools that might turn in my hand. I will construct what I need with your tools, which I have seen you use so dexterously when I watched you making your harness of strength." She paused, looked musingly at Kyra's face, who was sleepily snuggled against my shoulder. Then she added:

"It will not be long before Nueces makes another attempt upon us. We must protect ourselves while we prepare for an attempt to re-enter our cavern. We will have to go to your workshop while we prepare certain devices which will shield us from the mental flows which are used for control. We must hurry."

T SEEMED very strange to return to my rooms after the time that had elapsed; time that had changed my life so completely. To enter those black, weary doors, to go up those time-eaten stairs and smell that queer musty odor that only an old rooming house ever acquires so richly. But once in my diggings and unlocking the door of my workshop, I felt at home again.

I showed the place to Tanil, explained the machinery. I stepped back, for the reason that I wanted to observe her every move carefully. I appreciated fully the fact that I was going to see a scientist from another planet in action; in action that would be all the more fascinating because it was an emergency. Her life depended on using all she knew quickly to defeat Nueces' next attempt to kill us from the distance. That he had other weapons than the dolls' peculiar telepathic control I did not know. I surmised he did.

That Tanil was equal to the sudden test put upon her knowledge and skill I sincerely hoped. But while my workshop was well equipped for such an experimental electrician as myself, still I did not see how from the limited materials she could construct a device that would protect us from a ray that passed through all that rock. But she did! And though I asked her questions and watched her every move in spite of my resolve not to get in her way or distract her, I could not understand her work fully.

"It is a 'doraytelmacini, she said. Which was Greek to me. It was a device which was going to make us safe from Nueces, was all I really understood.

It consisted of a generator, tuning coils of great complexity and several simple controls, topped by spiderweb coils of large size, heavy—on swivels. She turned the power into the webs, and swiveled the webs about till an indicator at the base read zero. She explained:

"It generates a neutralizing flow of energy that damps the 'tenol' energy of the control rays from the mech Nueces is using. When it is in use, he cannot control us. Now we have to put it into a truck, and with the truck, return to the cavern. But some other things we will need for protection, such as as a gun or two."

Tanil was more conversant with the city than perhaps many of its oldest residents, from her watching of its life day after day on her screens, and from reading the minds of its citizens. She went to the phone, called a number, and within minutes there was waiting at the curb an unmarked, closed body truck, a moving van. Coming up the stairs were two large-bodied, ungainly and somewhat sinister appearing individuals. I took them to be furniture movers, but when they opened the bags they carried and showed Tanil what they contained, I surmised the better word for them would be "torpedoes," as the bags contained each a pair of M 3's, as well as plenty of ammunition. They pulled out the extension stocks, attached the barrels, and between us we had a fire power at our disposal not to be sneezed at.

They carried, with our assistance, the "doraytelmacini"—which I called a "damper" to save my tongue from cramps, down the stairs in sections, set it up inside the truck, and Tanil got in and set the thing in operation. One of the torpedoes got inside with Tanil, as did myself, but Kyra