5
A single moment the other stared at him, unspeaking, a haggard, unshaven figure utterly different from the trim little scientist Rowan remembered, and then he came across the room, hands outstretched.
“Rowan!” he cried, hoarsely. “Good God, you here, Rowan!” Then his thoughts shifted, lightning-like. “They’ve gone out, Rowan?” he asked. “These things—these creatures—they’ve started their attack?”
“Yes,” said the assistant. “Over Brinton, hours ago. I came—when you disappeared there in the swamp.” Swiftly he spoke of the attack on Brinton, of his own crazed flight into the swamp, his own trip down the shaft and capture, and when he had finished Morton was silent, his face a mask. When at last he spoke it was in a whisper.
“They’ve started,” he whispered. “Over Brinton—and over all earth, now. And I who might have warned, captured——”
“You were captured by them there in the swamp?” asked Rowan, quickly, and the other inclined his head.
“Taken there by them, without a chance to escape. And taken down here....
“You know, Rowan, why I came to Brinton, to the swamp, to investigate the rumors we had heard of great bones and skeletons existing in the slime of that swamp. And in the week I spent investigating the morass I found that the rumors had spoken truly, for here and there inside the edges of the morass I found great bone-fragments which could only come from dinosaur skeletons. Then, a week after I had begun my search, the thing happened.
“I was working with my probing-rod, perhaps a mile inside the swamp, when there was a sudden distant crashing of trees and I saw a gigantic, slate-colored bulk rolling across the forest toward me. Before I could recover from my amazement the thing was on me, a great brontosaur ridden by one of the lizard-men—a gigantic dinosaur out of the Mesozoic age, crashing through an Illinois swamp! Before I could gather my stunned wits another had crashed toward me from beyond it, and in an instant I was the prisoner of the lizard-creatures, who fettered my hands and feet, crashed back on the great brontosaurs with me toward that mound at the swamp’s center, where there yawned the opening of the great shaft. Up and down that shaft moves the great disk-platform, endlessly, and on it they brought me down to this cavern world, down to this gray city of theirs and into this building. And here, first, I was examined by three of their number who seemed to hold positions of authority among them.
“For hours the three examined me, striving to converse with me in their rasping tones, endeavoring to make plain to me the elementary word-sounds of their strange language. That language, I found, is a phonetic one, but aided by gestures and written diagrams we were able to attain to a rough exchange of ideas. And partly through their own questions, partly through what I had seen in the great cavern outside, I came to understand who and what these enigmatic creatures were, and where they had originated.
“They were beings of an age dead for hundreds of millions of years, I learnt, creatures of the Mesozoic age, that period of the earth’s history which we call the age of reptiles. For in that age the races of mammals had hardly begun to arise, and the great and smaller reptiles and lizard-races were the rulers of all earth. And just as man, the creature of dominant intelligence, was to develop later from the races of mammals, so had these lizard-men, the dominant intelligence of their own age, developed from the races of reptiles. They had spread out in great numbers over what is now North America, the most habitable portion of earth during the Mesozoic age. They had built strange cities, had developed their knowledge and science in myriad ways, and had learned how to conquer and subjugate the great reptilian creatures who swarmed then on earth, to make servants of them. The great brontosaurs, more tractable than the rest, they used as mounts and beasts of burden; the fiercer tyrannosaurs and allosaurs were their beasts of war; and on the mighty pterodactyls they soared into the upper air and flitted across earth’s surface. Great indeed was their power, and through that power and through their terrible, giant servants they ruled all the habitable parts of earth unquestioningly.
“At last, though, there came that great convulsion of earth which was to mark the end of the Mesozoic age, that vast world-cataclysm in which continents sank beneath the seas and new lands rose from the oceans’ depths. In such convulsions and mighty quakes the cities of the lizard-men were shaken down and annihilated, and across all their world was wild confusion. They knew, then, that they must find some other place of refuge or perish, and so they hit upon the plan of descending to one of the great cavernous spaces which lie scores of miles down in earth’s interior. They had discovered long before that such great caverns exist inside earth’s crust, and so they pierced a shaft down to one of them and descended into it to investigate.
“They found it a place large enough to hold all their numbers, and one quite habitable. It was lit perpetually with crimson light, too, since the molten fires of earth’s heart had pressed up close to the walls of the cavern, and through an opening in those walls there poured down eternally a raging Niagara of molten rock and flame, that titanic fall of living fire whose blazing radiance illuminates all this cavern-world. So beneath this fall of fire the lizard-men constructed a canal which conducted it into a great stone basin which lay directly beneath the opening of their shaft in the cavern’s roof, and from this basin the molten fires were able to seep gradually into crevices beneath the cavern.
“Naturally, however, an intensely powerful gale of heated air roared up from this molten lake, and by setting a ring of current-projectors around the lake they were able to concentrate the cyclonic power of those winds into a single concentrated air-current roaring straight up and through the shaft, and capable of lifting titanic weights up that shaft, just as a cyclone, which is concentrated wind, will lift and whirl about great buildings. And this terrific, upward-thrusting current they used to lift their great disk-platform up the shaft, arranging the projectors beneath so that the force of the current automatically lessened when the disk reached the top, and allowed it to sink again to the cavern’s floor, to the fiery lake, whence it traveled up again, and so on ceaselessly, an automatic, never-stopping lift or platform on which the throngs of the lizard-people and their dinosaur-beasts were able to move down into this cavern world.
“Only a portion of their dinosaur servants did they bring with them, leaving the rest to perish above, whose bones, indeed, I had found in the swamp. When this had been done they closed tightly the opening of the great shaft, above, and dismantled the great ascending and descending disk for which they no longer had need. Then their hordes set to work to build up their cities anew in their new cavern home. Far above them the surface of earth writhed and twisted gigantically, annihilating all the hordes of dinosaurs above, but the cavern world of the lizard-men remained unchanged, as they had foreseen, and in it they lived serenely on.
“When at last the surface of earth quieted once more they could have quitted their underworld and gone back up, but they did not do so, since by then their city was established in the safe, warm world of the mighty cavern and they had no desire to leave it. So in that cavern they lived on, while on the world above the races of mammals rose to replace the great reptiles; until with the passing of ages man rose to dominance over all those races and set his cities where those of the lizard-men had once stood. The mouth of the shaft was hidden and covered by the great swamp, and on all earth none suspected the races who dwelt beneath them.
“So ages passed, and might have continued so to pass until the end of time, had not necessity pressed once more upon the lizard-people in their cavern world. As I have said, the interior fires of earth’s heart had pressed up close against the walls of their cavern, bursting forth in one place in that fall of flame which lighted their world; and now the molten fires began to press with more and more force against the walls, forced up by convulsions far beneath, and it was only a question of time until they would burst through those walls and sweep over all the cavern world in a great cataclysm of annihilating fire, instantly wiping out all life in the cavern. They must leave it, they knew, before that happened, so they decided to venture back once more to earth’s surface. So they again placed the great disk-platform in position, and as it again swept ceaselessly up and down a party of them rose on it and opened the mouth of the shaft, in the swamp far above. It was that party, exploring the swamp on their great brontosaurs, who had captured me, and brought me down here to examine me. They had observed that intelligent creatures, men, now were established on earth’s surface, that one of their cities stood near the swamp itself, and so they planned to send up first a striking force which would annihilate that city, annihilate Brinton, to prevent any possible interference from it. Then that first attacking force would return down the shaft, leaving guards at its mouth, and all the lizard-people and their dinosaur hordes would gather and assemble to pour up the shaft on the great disk and sweep out upon earth to conquer and annihilate the world we know. Besides their dinosaurs they had their own heat-beam projectors, those white globes in which they could condense and concentrate heat-vibrations, holding those vibrations static and releasing them at will in a concentrated ray.
“So they poured up the shaft to attack Brinton, and now that that attack has been made, their first striking force will return down here, gathering together all their hordes for the last attack on earth itself. Within hours, I think, that attack will take place, their hordes will swarm up the shaft and out over earth. Up at the shaft’s mouth they have placed a great switch which will be turned on when all of them have left this cavern and are safely above, and which will release concentrated rays down here that will blast the cavern’s walls and allow the floods of fire that press against them to burst into the cavern. For they fear that if they do not do so the imprisoned fires will burst forth in some mighty cataclysm that will wreck all earth. To loose the fires upon the cavern while they are in it would be to annihilate themselves, of course, but if it is done through the switch above after all of them have gained earth’s surface there will be no harm to themselves.
“So all their plan has been carried out, so far, and within hours now their hordes will be sweeping up the shaft and out over earth. And what then? What will the forces of man avail him? What troops could stand against the thundering, gigantic dinosaurs? What guns against the deadly heat-beams? What airplanes could ever battle with the hordes of circling, swooping pterodactyls and the rays of their lizard-riders? For man, and for the world of man, there looms swift annihilation only, when the hordes of the lizard-men and their giant beasts sweep terribly upon him.”
Morton’s voice ceased, and he sat motionless, staring across the dusky little room with strange eyes. From the great corridor outside came the rasping voices of passing lizard-men, and the thundering tramp now and then of one of the great dinosaurs, but in the room itself was silence, as the two men regarded each other. Finally, with an effort, Rowan spoke.
“And so they plan to sweep out over all earth,” he repeated, “plan to annihilate the world we know. And no chance of escape, for us, no chance to get back up to earth’s surface——”
Morton raised his head, a sudden eagerness on his face. “There is still a chance,” he said. “If we could get out of here—could get to that disk and back up the shaft! And we must, soon; for soon, I know, their hordes will be sweeping up that shaft, and when all are gone they will loose from above the fires upon this cavern, annihilating us unless we are slain by them before. Soon, I think, they will come to take you for questioning, also; since had they not intended to do so they would have slain you outright. And when they come—here is my plan——”
Swiftly he unfolded his scheme to Rowan, and wild as it seemed the other agreed to try it, as their only chance. Then they sat silent, for a time, in the darkness. It was a silence and a darkness torturing to Rowan. On earth above, he knew, the news of the terrible attack on Brinton would be flashing out, would be spreading terror and panic over all the world. And soon, now, would come the outward, resistless sweep of the lizard-men and their dinosaur hordes from this cavern world. Unless they escaped——
Hours fled by as they sat there, while from outside came the unceasing hurrying of lizard-men and dinosaurs through the giant corridor. Then from the distance came a loud bellowing and chorus of rasping cries, and a thunder of many gigantic feet passing the building where they lay imprisoned.
“The first attackers!” whispered Morton. “They’ve come back, from Brinton—they’ll be assembling now beyond the city there, making ready for all to go——”
Outside in the corridor the sounds had lessened, almost ceased. It would be sunset, by then, in the world above, Rowan thought, and he wondered, momentarily, whether the desperate scheme which he and Morton had agreed on was to be of no avail. Then, as though in answer to his thoughts, there came a sound of footsteps down the great hall outside, and a fumbling with the bolts.
Instantly the two were on their feet, and at once they put into action their plan. Leaping toward each other they locked instantly in battle, gripping and striking at each other furiously, swaying about the room, smiting and kicking. Rowan glimpsed the door slide down and open, saw two of the lizard-men entering with white globes held toward them, but he paid no attention to them, nor did Morton, the two men staggering about the room as though locked in a death-combat, twisting and swaying in assumed fury.
There was a rasping command from the lizard-men, but they heeded it not, still intent upon getting at each other’s throat. Another command was given which they ignored also, and then that which they had hoped for happened, since the foremost of the lizard-men came toward them, gripping Rowan’s arm with a taloned claw and pulling him back from Morton. And as he did so Rowan turned instantly and before he could raise the deadly white globe had leapt upon him.
As he leapt he saw Morton springing upon the other of the two creatures; then all else vanished as he whirled blindly about the little room with the reptilian creature in his grasp. He held in his left hand the claw which gripped the white globe, preventing the creature from raising it, but as they spun dizzily about he felt his own strength beaten down by the lizard-man, since the power of the muscles under its scaled hide was tremendous. With a last effort he clung to the creature, to the claw that held the globe, and then heard a cry from Morton, saw the other of the two scaled shapes hurl his friend to the room’s floor and leap toward the door. The next moment his own hold was torn loose as his opponent wrenched free and leapt in turn toward the door with his fellow.
A single moment Rowan glimpsed them as he staggered back, and then he became aware of something round in his hand, the white globe which his frantic grip had torn from his opponent’s grasp. With a last instinctive action he raised it and threw it at the two at the door. It struck the wall beside them, the white globe seeming to smash under the impact; then there was a great flash of pallid light there, a gust of intensely heated air scorched over Rowan, and then the two lizard-things lay upon the floor as two charred, shapeless heaps. The smashing of the globe and the release of its condensed heat-vibrations had annihilated them.
Instantly Morton was on his feet and the two were staggering out of the room, into the immense, dusky corridor outside. Down it they ran, for a moment, then suddenly stopped. For from ahead had come the sound of immense steps, while some vast black bulk had suddenly blotted out the great square of crimson light at the corridor’s open end, ahead. Then, as it came on, they saw the great thing clearly—a gigantic brontosaur that had halted momentarily a hundred feet down the corridor from them. A moment it surveyed them with small, glaring reptilian eyes, then raised its mighty neck and head with a vast, hoarse bellow and thundered straight down upon them.