Tarrano the Conqueror | Page 9

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 that we were here on the island; doubtless was planning to have them come here at once and seize us.
How far away from us were they? I had seen in the mirror the interior of a cave-like room. Where was it? Might it not be near at hand--over on the mainland? Might not these enemies arrive on the island at any moment?
Georg suggested that we send our messages from the aeros. We had my own car--and a larger car of the Brendes. More than ever now, Dr. Brende was worried over the safety of his Siberian laboratory; but from the aero we could talk to Robins.
We went to the landing stage. I wanted to tie up Ahla, but as Georg said, she could do nothing now that the instrument room was out of commission. We admonished her sternly to stay where she was, and left the house.
On the open landing stage my small aero was lying where I had left it; but a moment's glance showed us it was wrecked--its instruments and its driving mechanism demolished!
There was no doubt about it now; Ahla had planned to keep us on the island while her people came and seized us. Fortunately the Brende car was well housed and barred. We saw that the gates had been tampered with, but with the limited time Ahla had to work in, she had been unable to force them. We swung them wide, and to our infinite relief found the car unharmed.
At once Dr. Brende called Robins. But the laboratory did not answer!
"It may be your sending apparatus," I suggested. "Send