Tarrano the Conqueror | Page 9

was quietly voicing my thoughts.
"It seems obvious, Jac, that this Tarrano at least suspects that I have
made some such discovery as this. That he would withhold it from
mankind, for the benefit of his own race, seems also obvious. That he is
about to make an attempt to get it from me, I am convinced."
I remembered the wording of the message of warning from the Central
State. "Your Dr. Brende, in Eurasia." I mentioned it.
"Our main laboratory is there," Georg said. "In Northern
Siberia--isolated from people so far as possible, and in a climate
advantageous for the work."
Elza spoke for the first time in many minutes.
"We have guards there, Jac--eight of our assistants.... Father, I called
Robins a while ago. He said everything was all right. But don't you
think we should call him again?"
The doctor had drifted into deep thought. "What? Oh, yes, Elza. I was
thinking we should go there. My notes--descriptions of how to build a
larger apparatus--larger than the small model I have installed there--my
notes are all there, and I want them. And I don't think, at such a time, I
should trust Robins to bring them."
"What shall I send to Headquarters?" Georg asked. "They wanted an
answer, you remember."

"I'm going there to the Potomac--tell them that. Tell them we will come
there for safety. But first I must get my notes, and the model."
As Georg went to the door, something in his attitude made us all start
to our feet and follow him. No alarm from the insulator had come, yet
for myself I had not forgotten that Venus girl outside.
Georg was at the door, tense as though to spring forward as soon as he
opened it. I was close behind him.
"What----"
"Wait, Jac! Quiet! I just want to see--in case she is doing something."
He jerked open the door suddenly and bounded through, with me after
him.
The corridor was empty. But there was a whirring coming from the
instrument room.
We leaped across the padded corridor. In the instrument room, Ahla the
maid sat at the table with a head-piece clasped to her ears. She was
talking softly but swiftly into the transmitter. In the mirror beside her I
caught a glimpse of the place to which she was talking. A sort of
cave--flickering lights--a crowd of dark figures of Venus men,
seemingly armed.
She must have heard us coming. A sweep of her white arm dashed the
mirror to the floor, smashing it. Then she cast off the head-piece, and
leaping to her feet, faced us, blazing and defiant.
CHAPTER IV
To the North Pole
"You stand back! You do not touch me!"
The Venus girl fairly hissed the words. Her eyes were dilated; her white

hair hung in a tumbling, wavy mass over her shoulders. She stood
tense--a frail, girlish figure in a short, grey-cloth mantle, with long grey
stockings beneath.
We were startled. Georg stopped momentarily; then he jumped at her. It
was a false move, for before we could reach her, with a piercing cry,
she was tearing at the instruments on the table; her fingers, with burns
unheeded, ripping the delicate wires, smashing the small mirrors,
flinging everything to the floor.
A few seconds only, but it was enough. She was panting when Georg
caught her by the wrists, and we others gathered around them.
"Ahla!" Elza cried in horror.
I can appreciate the shock to Elza, who had trusted, even loved this girl.
Dr. Brende stood in confused astonishment, staring at the wreck of the
instrument table. From a naked wire a little black coil of smoke was
coming up. I fumbled about and switched the current out of everything.
We were cut off from all communication with the world. It gave me a
queer feeling--made the small island we were on seem so remote.
Georg was shaking the girl, demanding with whom she had been
talking and why. But she fell into sullen silence, and nothing we could
do would make her break it. It infuriated me, that stubbornness; it was
all I could do to keep from harming her in my efforts to make her talk.
Georg, at last, pulled me away; he led the girl to a couch and sternly
bade her sit there without moving. She seemed willing enough to do
that; she still had not spoken, but her eyes were watching us closely.
Dr. Brende was examining the smashed instruments. "Ruined. We
cannot use them. Those messages--we must send them. I must talk to
Robins----"
We went into the corridor, out of earshot of the girl, but where we

could watch her. That we were in immediate danger was obvious, and
we all realized it. Ahla had told some of her people