The Winged Men of Orcon: A Complete Novelette Read online

  CHAPTER III

  _In the Grip of Ludwig Leider_

  Once we were below, LeConte joined us from the radio room. After takinga swift look at our prisoner, and listening to our account of what hadhappened above, he reported that the radio had been put out ofcommission by the crash but could be repaired. All of us then held ahasty conference and decided that since no one was badly in need ofrest, LeConte would return to his sending set, Koto would keep a deckwatch, and Captain Crane and I would see what we could learn from theprisoner.

  From the start it had been certain that the Orconite's strength was notto be compared to our earthly powers. Therefore I made no attempt tobind him, but simply shoved him into a seat in the main cabin of theflier--the room in which Forbes' body still lay--and began to try tomake him talk.

  I knew that Leider must have some way of communicating with his allies,and I was determined that if he could, I could. But it was uphill work.The creature closed his mouth, assumed a sullen look, and sat tight. Heknew what I was after--that I could tell by the expression of hisface--but he met with stolid silence all of my attempts to address himin such languages as I knew of Earth and our allied planets. I gotnowhere, until, in a manner as sudden as it was unexpected, somethinghappened which ended the deadlock.

  * * * * *

  The way it happened was this. As LeConte, working in the radio roomclose off the main saloon, completed a connection which had been broken,he called to us that he was making progress, and a moment later we heardthe click of his sending key and the shrill squeal of a powerfulelectric arc breaking across the transmission points of his set. Irealized at once that this did not mean that the set was wholly inorder, for the pitch of the squealing arc was too high and too sharp,but I did know that there was hope of establishing communication withEarth soon. And, too, I realized another thing.

  The moment that shrill, squealing sound impinged upon the Orconite'sears, he jumped and uttered a cry of pain. There was something about hisnervous organism that could not stand these sounds!

  "LeConte," I shouted, "close your key again!"

  After that the battle was won. By the time I had explained to LeContewhy I had given him the order, and he had filled the cabin two or threetimes with the screech, the Orconite was ready to speak. He trembled inhis seat. His mouth twisted with pain, and a look of agony seared hiseyes. He burst into fluent Orconese speech. Then he made a swift passwith one hand at the black box on his chest, touched a switch there, andbegan to rattle his Orconese into the mouthpiece.

  The result--well, one might have known that Leider would have found someingenious means of making the difficult speech of Orcon easy. Out of thesmall instrument into which our prisoner spoke his hard, rattling words,came a flood of pure German.

  An instrument for translating spoken Orconese into spoken German. Thatwas what the little box was.

  "Shut the accursed transmission set off!" came from the box in a clearGerman which I understood readily. "I will talk. Ask what you want toknow. I cannot stand this!"

  * * * * *

  His face still contorted, the Orconese touched a second switch on thebox, and indicated that I was to speak at the instrument. I did so, inGerman. The result was an instant translation into the prisoner's owntongue.

  The rest was easy.

  "What is your name?" was my first question.

  "Hargrib."

  "What were you and your people trying to do to us with the cable youhitched to our stern?" I asked next.

  "Destroy you."

  The whole story was this: In a power house on an island only a fewhundred yards off the beach was kept a magnetic cable which Leider hadbeen using in connection with some deep sea dredging apparatus he keptthere. When our ship crashed, the order had come from headquarters thatthe cable be fastened to us and the ship drawn into the sea. I concludedthat we had missed an unpleasant fate by a narrow margin.

  Quickly Hargrib confirmed our belief that it was Leider who had wreckedour ship while it was still approaching Orcon through space. A ray whichhad crippled the magnogravitos had been used. So great was Leider'spower that, after disabling us, he had even been able to direct ourcourse so that we had crashed on the beach close to the headquarters hehad set up for himself deep in the wilderness, away from the cities ofOrcon.

  The Orconite's free mention of Leider's name and his open admissionthat the man was king and god in Orcon, made direct inquiry about himeasy. Also it was plain that Hargrib, now he had been cornered, wouldhold nothing back because he believed we would never live long enough tomake trouble, regardless of what information we gained.

  * * * * *

  To state the rest of it briefly, we learned that Leider had come toOrcon immediately after his defeat at Calypsus. He had found readyallies here, on the crazy, distant planet which had been too remote totempt explorers from Earth until necessity had forced our voyage. Thepeople of Orcon knew science and machinery, and were advanced in everyrespect. From communication which they had had with other peoples intheir own zone of the Universe, they had even heard of Earth and itsallied planets. They had lent themselves readily to Leider's fierceplans to make trouble for Earth.

  As to what Leider's plan of war was, Hargrib could not tell us much, forhis duties kept him absorbed in other work, not connected with thecampaign. He stated definitely, however, that Leider had almostcompleted the development of apparatus which would enable him to strikehis blow without ever leaving Orcon. The whole work was being carriedforward in tremendous subterranean laboratories and power rooms whichhad been established in a series of natural caverns only a few milesdistant from the desolate beach on which we were lying at that moment.Hargrib said that with the coming of daylight, we would be able to seethe mountains in which the caverns were concealed, just as we would beable to sight the nearby island whence had been shot the cable which hadso nearly done for us.

  At this point my natural curiosity as a scientist made me desire greatlyto ask a thousand questions about the planet itself, with its bubblingchemical seas and its erratic orbit, and I did ask a few things. Theanswers I received confirmed the theory I had already formed that Orcondid not revolve regularly, but had days and nights which might lastanywhere from a few hours to a month. I was told--what I had alreadyguessed--that the bubbling fluid which composed the seas changed theorbit of the planet as the nature of the fluid's chemical elementschanged.

  Also I was told flatly and calmly, as though there were nothing at allremarkable about the fact, that Leider had penetrated so deeply into thechemical secrets of Orcon that he was able to control the coming of dayand night. Finally I was told that the planet had a hot, moist climateinstead of the frigid one to be expected when any sun was so remote,because of the continued warmth-giving chemical action of its seas.

  * * * * *

  I could have gone on seeking information for hours. Captain Crane,however, showed impatience at even the few questions I did ask, and Iknew that she was justified. It was my duty to think about the positionwe were in and the task we had in hand.

  I asked Hargrib sharply what was to be expected from Leider now that hiscable party against us had failed. And he told me.

  The sum of it was that Leider was working eagerly to complete hispreparations for the attack on Earth. Although it was he who had sentword from headquarters that we were to be destroyed, he had not pausedto attend to the matter himself. Hargrib thought, however, that thefailure of the cable party might change this attitude, and expressedthe belief that Leider would interview us now before he put us out ofthe way. He swore, and I believed, that he did not know when or howLeider would come to us or have us brought to him. Also he did not knowwhen or how we would finally be exterminated.

  I now asked a series of indirect questions which led me to believe thatneither Hargrib nor his master knew of the thing I had been cons
cious offrom the start--that we had aboard the ship an amount of high explosivesufficient to do ghastly damage not only to this section of the coastbut to the whole planet of Orcon. I gathered, however, that Leidersuspected we were armed against him in some way, and would watch uscarefully.

  * * * * *

  By now daylight had begun to peer in through the ports, a greenishdaylight which grew out of the north, and with its coming I resolved ona plan of action.

  "I am done with Hargrib," I said suddenly to Captain Crane. "We'll lockhim up in one of the staterooms, and after that we'll see if we can'tget busy with something that will at least help Earth, even if itdoesn't help us."

  Hargrib, still terrified by those radio sounds he could not stand, madeno protest when I ordered him into the stateroom which had belonged tothe ship's second officer, and we were rid of him in a moment.

  I now called LeConte from the radio room and Koto in from the deck, andafter Captain Crane and I had told them what we had learned, I made myproposal.

  The plan was simply that LeConte should continue to work on his sendingapparatus until he reached Earth, while Koto, Captain Crane and I setout on a reconnaissance. I said that I hoped to be able to locateLeider's headquarters and learn what method of attack he intended to useagainst Earth; and that I hoped further that at least one of us would beable to bring word back to LeConte, who could send it to Earth. FinallyI indicated that we would see what could be done with our two tons ofkotomite as soon as we had made the attempt to send information home. Itold LeConte, who would stay with the ship, to fire the explosivehimself if anything happened to make him believe that we had been killedwhile scouting.

  I did not fail to point out that since our atomic guns were uselessagainst the Orconites and Leider, we should have to go unarmed on ourexpedition, and I did not fail to state that the whole effort seemedfutile. But the opportunity offered by Leider's present withdrawal wasone we could not afford to miss. We were drowning people, I said, and wemust clutch at straws. And my friends were good enough to agree.

  * * * * *

  As soon as the conference was ended, therefore, we disposed of our sixdead by the simple process of disintegrating them with one of the atomicguns, and then LeConte returned to the radio, and Koto, Captain Craneand I went on deck to have our first look at Orcon by daylight.

  The first thing we saw was the small, rocky islet just off the shorewhence had come the cable. It seemed a harmless place now, with only onesquat building of stone and no Orconites about, but we were glad enoughto turn away from it and look toward the dark and ragged range ofmountains which loomed up some five miles inland--the mountains ofLeider's headquarters. Not that the sight inspired us with greaterconfidence. It didn't. But it was good to look at the mountains,because the fact that we were going there meant that at least we shouldbe acting instead of idling.

  No Orconite was visible anywhere.

  With the coming of daylight--the greenish daylight of Orcon--the seabehind us had calmed until its surface was disturbed only by giganticlazy bubbles which broke with muffled, thudding explosions. The airsmelled of chlorine, iodine, and sulphurated hydrogen, but wasbreathable. I saw that the principal characteristic of life on Orcon wasan organic ability to thrive under almost any climatic conditions. Manyof the huge, crystal clear boulders which covered the beach and thecoastal plain which led to the hills, were covered with leafless flowerswhich had immense, leathery petals and sharp, fang-like spines. Otherevidences of swift growing life showed on every hand. Ugly, jelly-likecreatures oozed about the ship and everywhere else. In places the veryrocks seemed ready to come to life.

  * * * * *

  After one good look about, I issued the order to start. As we clambereddown the ship's ladder to the beach and set out resolutely toward thehills, I made myself try to hope, and for a time did muster up a littlecheer.

  I did not keep it, though. In less than ten minutes something happenedwhich ended our expedition in a terrible manner.

  What began it was a long shout which came echoing from LeConte back onthe ship. The instant I heard the cry I knew, somehow, that trouble hadstarted. Leider had kept off us as long as we had remained quiet, but atour first move he had gone into action.

  While LeConte's cry still echoed in my ears, I swung to face the shipand saw him waving frantically from the deck. At that moment I also hada queer impression that the sunlight was growing brighter on all theglittering rocks, and that some new feeling was creeping into the air.

  "Doctor Weeks!" LeConte cried across the distance between us. "Come atonce!"

  Terror had laid hold of the man. Captain Crane, Koto and I began to runto him.

  "What is it?" I shouted.

  "I don't know," came the thin answer. "I almost had Earth when my wholeset went to pieces. Come, quickly!"

  "We will, if we're able," I muttered to myself, and said aloud as I ranin the gigantic bounds possible on Orcon: "Koto, Captain, do you feelanything queer in the air as if--as if--"

  I never finished. Suddenly Captain Crane screamed and flung out her armsto me with the gesture of one about to fall.

  "Doctor Weeks!" she gasped. "Frederick, help me!"

  * * * * *

  And that was all. Before she could choke out another word, before Icould do more than clutch at her, she had been caught up by an invisiblepower, caught up straight into the now dazzlingly brilliant green air,and swept away from us as if she were a feather in a tornado.

  It was over before realization could sink in. Nor was her departure all.From the ship came a ringing yell, and as LeConte, in the distance,clutched a stanchion as if for dear life, the whole battered, glimmeringgray shape of the flier moved, shivered, and in a flash was caught upand whisked away as easily as had been Virginia Crane!

  "He's got us!" I sputtered as I turned to Koto. "He was only waitinguntil we started to march against him."

  "God, yes. Horrible!" he muttered.

  Then _his_ kindly yellow face went white. Even while I stood looking athim, he, too, was swept away into space.

  When my turn came, it was as if implacable fingers took hold of mywrists, the front of my coat, my shoes. I distinctly remember thinkingthat after all the peace we'd had, something as astounding as this wasalmost bound to have happened. The glittering boulders of the coastalplain fell away, and I felt myself being whirled through space. Thespeed was taking my breath away. A ringing came into my ears, spotsfloated before my eyes, a nauseating light-headedness swept me, and Ilapsed into unconsciousness.