The man who mastered time

in the moonlight. George listened, but could hear nothing. He tried to question Dee, but she silenced him. Presently there came the thud of running feet; from the direction of Anglese City two running dogs with riders swept into view. The riders were men, black cloaked and wearing masks. Arans, from the festival, George thought. They would have passed without seeing the lurking figures under the banana trees had not Atal and Rotan, in spite of Dee's command, suddenly charged them from the shadows across the road. The two men, shouting in anger and alarm, tumbled from their mounts. The four dogs tangled in a snarling, biting mass. Still George and Dee were unseen in the shadows. One of the men in the road had lost his cloak and mask; the moonlight showed his face. "One of Toroh's brothers," Dee breathed into George's ear. In the dimness he could see she was raising the small, crescent-shaped weapon. Some noise that she or George made must have alarmed the men, who were no more than ten feet away. They looked sharply across the road, and then, evidently seeing nothing, they turned back to where the dogs were still fighting with a deadly fury. Sparks leaped suddenly from Dee's outstretched hand. The men turned. One of them cried out in terror, but they both stood stiff and motionless. "We've got 'em!" George shouted. "Good work, Dee!" He would have leaped forward, but her free hand gripped him. "_Quick! The globe!_" One of the men, supposedly stricken beyond the power to move, was, by some superhuman effort of will, slowly raising his hand; his fingers clutched a tiny black globe. It came up very slowly, as his almost paralyzed muscles struggled with its weight. But George recovered his wits. He snatched his own globe from his pocket, pointed it, pulled the trigger. The night was split by a flash, a tiny, sizzling snap of thunder; the globe recoiled in George's hand. Across the road the bodies of the two men lay motionless on the sand. Dee was leaning against a banana trunk panting. Her face had gone white, but she smiled as George turned to her. "They almost got us," she said. George himself was trembling, but he would not let her see it. "Almost, Dee. Next time I'll be ready. I didn't realize..." Among the trees across the road the dogs were still fighting. One of the Noth dogs lay motionless, torn and bleeding. Atal and Rotan together were attacking the other--the three rolling and tumbling as they bit and tore at each other, their huge bodies trampling down the banana trees as they fought. "Dee, could I use the thunderbolt on them?" She shook her head. "Wait." It lasted only a moment more; the second Noth dog was down, with Atal's fangs buried in its throat. The two dogs came leaping back to their mistress, their bodies torn, and matted with dirt and blood. Dee patted them affectionately as they stood licking their wounds. "But you should have minded me," she said. George had taken one look at the two charred figures lying in the road; he drew the girl away. "Come on. I wouldn't look over there. We must hurry, Dee." They mounted the dogs and started forward, more slowly this time, for the animals carried them with difficulty. Again George remembered. Toroh would be at the Orleen Cavern by this time. They had lost! This delay had been the one unexpected thing that could defeat them. "Dee--" But the girl had anticipated him. "They are in the plane." She half whispered the words. "Azeela has been trying to tell me for a long time. Toroh had a spy at the cavern entrance, a man whom we trust as a Scientist. He let them in--Azeela had no chance to make an outcry. They are in the plane now. Azeela telling Toroh she cannot operate it. Wait! Now he's trying the proton switch himself." A silence. "Dee! What is it?" George pleaded. She shook her head. "Nothing comes. Nothing!" The connection was broken! Azeela was carried back into time. Had something stopped her message? Would her thought-bond with her sister hold across the centuries that now separated them? George could only ask himself these questions with a sinking heart. If the bond would not hold, then Azeela was lost to them forever. Lost to Loto, who loved her. And Toroh would get his weapons and win the war--_inevitably_. "Nothing yet, Dee?" "No." They rode slowly onward. At last Dee gave a cry of joy. "It comes again! She is all right, George! _All right!_" Her voice rose in triumph and thankfulness. George thumped Atal to urge the dog forward. "Then we must hurry, Dee. They're going back into time?" "Yes. Azeela is looking at the dials. Twenty-five years back now. She tells us to hurry. She will watch the dials and let me know where they are. Toroh does not suspect anything. He is gloating. He thinks he has won everything." At last they were ascending the slope to the mouth of the cavern. The yawning hole showed black in the face of the cliff. On the small platform above the mouth, a single light disclosed the figures of three guards sitting there. In the moonlight the guards saw them coming. A bolt of lightning flashed downward across the black hole; a peal of thunder rolled out. They stopped, and Dee called to the guards. One of them descended from the platform, down a narrow flight of steps cut in the cliff face. He came forward in the moonlight, a black robed figure. Dee spoke with him, and, recognizing a daughter of Fahn, he saluted respectfully. There followed a brief colloquy, then the guard stood aside. A moment later they were in the cavern. The huge tunnel was dark and dank, but blue-white lights glimmered ahead in the darkness. The place was silent, seemingly deserted. Down the length of the main tunnel they hurried. The plane stood there in the open space, in the glare of blue-white light. They stood before it. "Dee, shall we send for your father?" She hesitated. "Where is he?" George persisted. "Did you ask the guard?" "Yes. He and Loto and Loto's father are at the palace. There has been rebellion and murder--the murder of Helene, Mme. Voluptua." She recounted succinctly the events of the night in Anglese City as the guard had told them to her. George whistled. "They've got their hands full. Dee, are you still in communication with Azeela?" "Yes. They are beyond fifty years." "Going how fast?" "Azeela says as fast as they can--the twentieth intensity." George made his decision. "Dee, we mustn't wait, mustn't stop for anything. You're willing to go?" "Yes," she declared soberly. She reached toward the platform. George locked his hands, and she put her small foot into them. He lifted her--she seemed no heavier than a child--and she swung herself up gracefully and easily to the platform. George followed and closed the cabin door after them. "Did you tell the guard what we were going to do?" "Yes," she said. "I told him to tell father later tonight when things were more quiet at the palace." "Good girl. Dee, have you ever been back into time?" "No. Azeela has. Just a little way--with Loto. He taught her to operate the plane." "How fast are they going, Dee? The twentieth intensity?" "Yes." George's hand was on the proton switch. He took a last look around. "Sit down, Dee. Hold the arms of your chair. Don't be frightened." The cabin was dark; through its windows the blue-white glare outside showed the jagged brown walls of the cavern. The twentieth intensity! _Toroh was going as fast as he possibly could!_ George pulled the switch. There was a soundless clap in his head; a plunge, headlong into some bottomless abyss, falling for hours--an eternity. * * * * * Fahn's proclamation to the Bas had far-reaching effects. All over the island that night and the next day there was rejoicing. The radio proclaimed a national holiday, which the Bas gave over to festivities. The murder of Mme. Voluptua was forgotten; the rebellion in Anglese City was a thing of the past. The work of Toroh's spies was completely undone; everywhere they presented themselves they were seized by the Bas and delivered to the authorities, until by mid-morning none dared show himself. They remained in hiding in the mountains, and the following night fled the island. Fahn's object had been attained. Everywhere, enthusiasm for the war soon mounted to a patriotic frenzy. But it was not all smooth sailing for Fahn. Within an hour after the first radio proclamation--just before dawn that day--the king called the Scientist to his audience room and demanded that it be retracted. For the first time within generations, a Scientist defied his king. Fahn gravely refused. The king, with his councilors--brave now since the mob before the palace had dispersed--clustered around him, vigorously tried to overawe the Scientist. But Fahn was obdurate; respectful to the majesty of royalty--but obdurate nevertheless. The king was powerless, and he knew it. He raged, threatened, but to no avail. That afternoon the king's council met. The Scientists were declared outlaws; a call was issued for the Aran police, who were scattered throughout the island, to come at once to the Anglese City to defend their sovereign. It was a monarch struggling against all reason to defend what he considered his birthright. Royalty outraged! But the Aran police did not come. Worse than that, those near at hand in Anglese City prudently vanished. That same afternoon the Scientists met in Anglese City. Fahn's action was upheld, and from other cities came similar decisions. The government was taken over by the Scientists for the period of the war. Laws ratifying the new status of the Bas women and children were hurriedly passed, and made permanent. All that day the radio audibly proclaimed events as they transpired. The Arans were not to be molested; their relations with the Bas were to proceed as always, and the royal family was to be treated with the outward respect to which its birth and position entitled it. Three days passed--days that for those in Anglese City were full of activity and anxiety. The Arans kept sullenly to themselves; the king and his councilors shut themselves in the palace; the Bas went about their accustomed tasks feverishly, abstractedly, waiting for the call to war. The Scientists, trusting nothing to chance, sought out all the Aran police and disarmed them. All weapons were kept in the caverns, where the manufacturing and assembling went steadily forward. Fahn, Loto, and Rogers, during these three days, stayed at Fahn's home. Nothing had been heard from George and the two girls. They were days full of anxiety--almost despair--for the three men. The guards at the two caverns reported what had happened. Fahn cursed his inefficiency in allowing a Toroh spy to remain unsuspected in the League. The man who had given Toroh the plane was located and put to death, but that helped matters little. In the brief interims of inactivity, the three men discussed what George and Dee might be doing--what the outcome would be. The discussions were futile; there was nothing to do but wait. The character of the two Frazia planes, the identity of the visitors, had never been made public. Only Fahn, his two companions and a few of the Scientist leaders were aware of the momentous outcome for which they were so helplessly waiting. On the afternoon of the third day, Fahn took Loto and his father through the cavern. Loto was pale and tight-lipped, but he seldom mentioned Azeela, and never once had he given vent to his feelings. Rogers was curious to see the cavern; older, more philosophical than Loto, he could better withstand his anxiety over George and the girls. Yet he, too, was