The planet of peril
the way toward this opening, hoping it would offer an avenue of escape.
When they were within a short distance of it, he went ahead alone to
reconnoiter. A moment later he returned, enjoining the utmost silence
to his companion, and together they tiptoed forward.
They were at the rear door of a cave similar to the one through which
they had entered the mountain, but considerably larger. For the
first time Vernia saw a grampite family in repose. There were twelve
individuals in the family group, the huge male, his mate, six tiny
specimens on which the down had just begun to appear, and four about
half grown, all hanging upside down by their sharp, curved toenails,
which were hooked in crevices in the wall. The father of the family
hung near the cave mouth, the mother depended from one side with
the six members of her latest litter beside her, and the half grown
offsprings occupied positions on the opposite wall.
It was a most singular sight, even in this land of weird creatures, but
Grandon and Vernia had no time for leisurely sight-seeing. Already the
sounds of pursuit were growing louder behind them.
"Come," he whispered. "I believe we can get out without disturbing
them. If they waken I will use the tork."
Very quietly, they made their way toward the cave mouth. When they
reached the center of the floor the male grampite stirred uneasily, and
Grandon held his weapon in readiness, but the creature merely stretched
one wing a bit, then folded it and resumed his slumber. A moment later
they stood on the topmost ledge with fifteen feet of steep crater wall
to negotiate before they could reach the rim.
They succeeded in clambering to the top, unobserved, and to his
inestimable relief, Grandon sighted the glistening dome of the Olban
airship only a hundred yards from where they emerged.
Vernia's eyes were wide with amazement as he opened the door of the cab
and seated her on the cushions.
"An Olban airship!" she gasped. "Where did you get it? Why, I thought
only trained Olban officers could run them."
While she spoke they were mounting high in the air. She turned and
looked him squarely in the eyes.
"Grandon of Terra," she exclaimed, "have you deceived me? Are you of
Olba?"
He related how he had acquired the airship, and she shuddered as he
told of the death of the two officers who had brought it thither.
"As for deceiving you, my princess," he concluded, "I should sooner
tear out my right eye."
She laid her hand gently on his arm.
"It makes me very happy to hear you say that," she whispered.
He thrilled at her touch and words, but did not turn his head. Had he
seen her eyes at that moment--But he didn't. There was grim purpose in
his glance as he examined the mattorks. The craft was now poised far
above the glowing crater.
"What are you going to do?" she asked.
"I'm going to teach those devils a lesson they will not soon forget,"
he replied. "The ship of the two men they murdered will now wreak
vengeance on them."
They descended swiftly until the airship was on a level with the
topmost ledge. Grandon pulled the cab control lever, until both
mattorks were trained over the side, then circled the crater and
poured a deadly fusillade among the bewildered grampites. Soon the air
was black with the creatures, dozens of whom attacked the craft, but
without success. They struck at it again and again with their sharp
claws and, finding this attempt unavailing, a number of them swarmed on
the deck and endeavored to get at the inmates of the cab.
"Give me your tork," said Vernia.
He unbuckled his belt and handed her the weapon. She opened the door a
little way and soon cleared the deck of enemies. Then, while Grandon
raked ledge after ledge with the death-dealing fire of the mattorks,
she shot down those of the flying attackers who came within range. Most
of them fell into the fiery lake, and soon the air was filled with the
sickening stench of scorched flesh and hair.
* * * * *
For more than an hour they circled the crater, at the end of which
time not a living grampite was in sight. The ledges were strewn with
thousands of carcasses, and the lake of lava was sending up black
clouds of nauseating smoke as it consumed those brought down by the
tork. Grandon estimated that at least two-thirds of the hideous
population of that crater had been exterminated. The others had been
driven to cover, and would probably not emerge while the airship was in
sight.
The avenging craft again rose high above the mountain.
"Now to return you to Reabon," said Grandon. "Can you tell me which way
it lies from here?"
"As I recall it, this place lies across the Azpok ocean, directly south
of Reabon. If you will steer due north, we should be able to arrive on
ground that will be familiar to me, and we can then easily make our way
to the capital."
Grandon examined the Olban compass, which hung suspended by a tiny wire
in the front of the cab.
"I presume that, as in my own world, the compass always points toward
the north," he said.
"It should," replied Vernia, "unless deflected by some counter magnetic
attraction."
Grandon set his course accordingly, traveling swiftly at a height of
approximately two thousand feet.
They would probably have landed safely in Reabon had it not been for
one fact, of which neither was cognizant. In his haste to be off,
Grandon did not notice that the compass pointed continually toward
the front of the craft. The counter-attraction of which Vernia had
hinted was an actuality, for the mechanism which moved the airship was
highly magnetic. A powerful magnet had been placed behind the cab to
offset the pull of the mechanism in front, but this had been broken
off during the battle with the grampites. As the ship happened to be
pointed to the west when Grandon set his course, they were traveling in
that direction in the belief that they should reach Reabon by morning,
blissfully ignorant of the dangers which lay ahead of them.
The ship was amply stored with provisions and water, and they ate their
first food in nearly twenty-four hours while hurtling through space at
a terrific rate of speed.
"Try to go to sleep now," said Grandon, gently, when they had finished.
"In a few hours you will be safely home in your imperial palace, and I
will return to my faithful mountaineers. Then we can continue our war
whenever it pleases you to move against Uxpo."
"What if I should not choose to move against Uxpo?"
"You would save the useless waste of thousands of human lives, and
thereby place me eternally in your debt."
"You have already put me under an obligation to you for which my entire
empire would not be sufficient recompense. Since you will not accept
the second highest office in Zarovia, I have decided to free Uxpo. We
shall be neighbors and, I hope, friends."
"In the name of the people of Uxpo I thank you for your generous
decision, and--"
He was interrupted by a series of rude shocks and a rending crash as
they came to a complete standstill. Both were thrown violently against
the front of the cab. Grandon struck his head on the butt of a mattork
and lost consciousness. Vernia was more fortunate, as she fell feet
foremost, although her ankle received a bad wrench.
When she saw Grandon's face, pale as death, and the blood flowing from
an ugly cut on his forehead, an agonized cry came from her lips. She
flung herself down beside him and took his head in her lap. To her
utter relief, she heard the beating of his heart when she placed her
ear to his breast. Opening one of the provision drawers, she extracted
a flask of water therefrom and bathed his face.
Presently he opened his eyes.
"What happened?" he asked. "What struck us?"
"I do not know," she replied. "Lie quietly while I dress your wound.
Then we will investigate."
CHAPTER XIV.
A MONSTER IN ARMOR.
Grandon protested that the jagged wound in his forehead was a mere
scratch, but Vernia insisted on binding it for him, and did so with
adroitness.
When she had finished, he rose dizzily and opened the door of the cab,
whereupon a pungent odor assailed their nostrils, an odor similar to
that produced by pouring sulphuric acid on copper.
He switched on the forward searchlight, which revealed the shattered
front of their craft jammed against an enormous tree-trunk. The keel
rested in a forked branch, which kept them from falling. A thin column
of vapor curled upward from the shattered hull, emitting the stifling
odor that had greeted them when he opened the door.
"I guess we are done with flying," said Grandon, eying the wreck
askance. "At least, we will fly no more with this airship."
"Is it so badly broken?"
"The power mechanism is destroyed. An Olban once told me that a phial
of acid was placed within each mechanism in such fashion that it
would instantly destroy it if tampered with. Evidently the shock of
our encounter with the tree-trunk broke the phial, for the fumes are
unmistakably those of acid on metal. We are fortunate in the fact that
our velocity was retarded by the smaller limbs of this tree before we
struck the trunk, as we were traveling at a tremendous speed, and would
have been crushed to pulp but for the timely interposition of those
branches."
Grandon flashed the searchlight about them in an effort to ascertain
where they were, but above, below and around them on every side
they could see only branches and leaves. And such leaves! They were
spatulate in shape, and a dark glossy green in color, varying between
fifteen and twenty feet in length, while the stems were from eight to
twelve inches thick. Each twig would have made a good sized fern tree,
while the trunk against which their craft had jammed was a full fifty
feet in thickness, even at the great height they knew themselves to be
from the ground.
"Not much use to do any exploring before morning, I guess," said
Grandon. "This is a giant of a tree. In what part of Reabon do these
trees grow, and what do you call them?"
"There are no trees like this in Reabon," replied Vernia, "nor was I
aware that there were such trees anywhere on Zarovia. Are you positive
that we have been traveling due north?"
Grandon glanced at the compass. He noted with surprise that it pointed
to his right.
"Strange," he said. "Just a moment before we struck, the needle pointed
in the direction in which we were traveling. Now it points at right
angles to the keel. There must be something wrong with it. I'm afraid
we'll have to wait until the sun rises to get our bearings."
"We can at least be positive of two things. That we are not in Reabon,
and that we are in some unexplored part of Zarovia."
At dawn, Grandon made his way down the tree trunk, clinging to the
rough, curling bark with fingers and toes. It was a long, perilous
descent, a matter of at least a thousand feet, and he guessed half an
hour must have elapsed before he stood on the ground.
* * * * *
The forest giant under which he stood was more than a hundred feet in
diameter at the base. All about him, as far as he could see, were many
more like it. He noticed that all of the trees were connected by broad
surface roots, and this fact, together with the total absence of spores
or seeds, apprised him of the reason why these trees were, in all
probability, confined to a single locality.
They must have begun and evolved on this part of the planet without
developing other means of propagation than that of sending out surface
roots to form new plants at some distance from the parent trees.
Consequently their spread would be regulated, not only by the number