Page:Weird Tales Volume 23 Issue 5 (1934 05).djvu/25

 men of the Legion, hidden away as they are in an ice-bound, airless crater thousands of miles from Earth on the furthermost outpost of civilization.

Many dangerous and thrill-crowded events have taken place on the dead surface of the moon, but the Legion's encounter with the mind-vampires of the inner world is perhaps strangest of all.

APTAIN RICHARD STARR, A. M. P., captain in charge of moon headquarters, settled himself in his swivel-chair. He removed his cap, tossing it onto the top of his roomy desk, disclosing by this action a head of neatly combed black hair, threated with a few tinges of gray at the temples.

Clenching his pipe between white, even teeth and narrowing his steel-gray eyes dreamily, he sat tranquilly motionless for a few moments. Then he sighed and prepared to work.

After unbuttoning his scarlet tunic, he removed his broad white girdle that was his weapon-belt, and reached for his report blanks. He had just finished making his third inspection of the Period and would be occupied for several hours with the making out of his papers.

Busily he set about dictating to his mechanical stenographer. The machine's whir and click seemed very loud in the tiny offices of the Moon station, but it was a rather cheery sound and on that Starr liked.

Suddenly Starr frowned. The corridor outside was echoing with the rapid thumpings of running footsteps. Starr glances out of his doorway to see what was causing the commotion. the look of annoyance on his face vanished, to be replaced by one of surprize. Quickly he shut off the dictating-machine and tossed his notes into his desk. He was alert and

ready for the news he was about to received.

For down the hallway was racing a white-faced Jerry Smith, lieutenant in charge of communications. A second later he burst into the room. Dispensing with the formality of a salute he began shouting excited words to his commanding officer.

"Captain!" he yelled wildly. "Captain! Another of our ships has disappeared!"

Starr was on his feet in an instant.

"What!" he shrieked. Without stopping to grab his cap he dashed out of the room after his already fleeing junior officer.

Breathless, the pair arrived at the communications room, Smith gasping unintelligible phrases at his anxious superior.

"Never mind! Let's hear it from the tape," Starr commanded as he threw himself into a chair near a large speaker. Panting from his exertions, Smith turned to a complicated apparatus and brought forth from its interior a roll of heavy tape. On this coil was trapped every message that had come in during the past twenty-four hours, all messages thus being automatically preserved for future reference.

With the roll in his hand the lieutenant sprinted across to the speaker in front