Triplanetary | Page 9

could act, however, her body was clamped inflexibly, as
though in a vise, and she struggled, motionless.
"It is useless to attempt to escape, or to do anything except what Roger
wishes," the guide informed her somberly, snapping off the instrument
in her hand and thus restoring to the thoroughly cowed girl her freedom
of motion.
"His lightest wish is law," she continued as they walked down a long
corridor. "The sooner you realize that you must do exactly as he pleases,
in all things, the easier your life will be."
"But I wouldn't want to keep on living!" Clio declared, with a flash of
spirit. "And I can always die, you know."
"You will find that you cannot," the passionless creature returned,
monotonously. "If you do not yield, you will long and pray for death,
but you will not die unless Roger wills it. I was like you once. I also
struggled, and I became what I am now--whatever it is. Here is your
apartment. You will stay here until Roger gives further orders
concerning you."
The living automaton opened a door and stood silent and impassive,

while Clio, staring at her in unutterable horror, shrank past her and into
the sumptuously furnished suite. The door closed soundlessly and utter
silence descended as a pall. Not an ordinary silence, but the
indescribable perfection of the absolute, complete absence of all sound.
In that silence Clio stood motionless. Tense and rigid, hopeless,
despairing, she stood there in that magnificent room, fighting an almost
overwhelming impulse to scream. Suddenly she heard the cold voice of
Roger, speaking from the empty air.
"You are over-wrought, Miss Marsden. You can be of no use to
yourself or to me in that condition. I command you to rest; and, to
insure that rest, you may pull that cord, which will establish about this
room an ether wall: a wall cutting off even this my voice...."
The voice ceased as she pulled the cord savagely and threw herself
upon a divan in a torrent of gasping, strangling, but rebellious sobs.
Then again came a voice, but not to her ears. Deep within her,
pervading every bone and muscle, it made itself felt rather than heard.
"Clio?" it asked. "Don't talk yet...."
"Conway!" she gasped in relief, every fiber of her being thrilled into
new hope at the deep, well-remembered voice of Conway Costigan.
"Keep still!" he snapped. "Don't act so happy! He may have a spy-ray
on you. He can't hear me, but he may be able to hear you. When he was
talking to you you must have noticed a sort of rough, sandpapery
feeling under that necklace I gave you? Since he's got an ether-wall
around you the beads are dead now. If you feel anything like that under
the wrist-watch, breathe deeply, twice. If you don't feel anything there,
it's safe for you to talk, as loud as you please.
"I don't feel a thing, Conway!" she rejoiced. Tears forgotten, she was
her old, buoyant self again. "So that wall is real, after all? I only about
half believed it."
"Don't trust it too much, because he can cut it off from the outside any
time he wants to. Remember what I told you: that necklace will warn

you of any spy-ray in the ether, and the watch will detect anything
below the level of the ether. It's dead now, of course, since our three
phones are direct-connected; I'm in touch with Bradley, too. Don't be
too scared; we've got a lot better chance that I thought we had."
"What? You don't mean it!"
"Absolutely. I'm beginning to think that maybe we've got something he
doesn't know exists--our ultra-wave. Of course I wasn't surprised when
his searchers failed to find our instruments, but it never occurred to me
that I might have a clear field to use them in! I can't quite believe it yet,
but I haven't been able to find any indication that he can even detect the
bands we are using. I'm going to look around over there with my
spy-ray ... I'm looking at you now--feel it?"
"Yes, the watch feels that way, now."
"Fine! Not a sign of interference over here, either. I can't find a trace of
ultra-wave--anything below ether-level, you know--anywhere in the
whole place. He's got so much stuff that we've never heard of that I
supposed of course he'd have ultra-wave, too; but if he hasn't, that gives
us the edge. Well, Bradley and I've got a lot of work to do.... Wait a
minute, I just had a thought. I'll be back in about a second."
There was a brief pause, then the soundless, but clear voice went on:
"Good hunting! That woman that gave you the blue willies isn't
alive--she's full of the