The Greatest Works of Otis Adelbert Kline - 18 Books in One Edition. Otis Adelbert Kline
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are wearing one attached to your belt.”
Vangal explained the use of the oblong instrument at my side. It was about two feet long and shaped like a carpenter’s level. A rivet passed completely through it, about eight inches from the top, fastening it to the belt in such a way that it could be tilted at any angle or pointed in any direction by moving the body.
He pressed a small lever on the side and removed two clips, explaining that one was a gas clip containing a thousand rounds of condensed explosive gas, while the other was a bullet clip which held a thousand rounds of needle- like glass projectiles. These projectiles, he said, were filled with a poison that would paralyze man or beast almost instantly, though the paralysis was only temporary. Other projectiles, he explained, were filled with deadly poison, and still others with explosives. The effective range, he stated, was equal to about ten Earth-miles.
He led me to a window which was open.
“I have prepared a target for you,” he said. “You will need to practice with the tork if you are to be able to defend yourself on this planet. Do you see that large white plate against the wall at the other end of the garden?”
Yes.”
“I had it erected for your use. It is coated with a substance that will combine with the poison in your tork bullets, emitting a green gas. If you see a green spot appear momentarily on the target you will know that you have registered a hit.”
I was eager to try this new weapon, and Vangal, smiling at my eagerness, loaded it for me and showed me how to hold it when pressing the button which fired the gas in the chamber by means of an electric spark. It fed new bullets automatically, he explained.
I confidently fired at the target and waited for a green spot to appear. It remained white. Again I fired with the same result.
“You will need considerable practice,” said Vangal. “I am not accounted much of a marksman, but watch.”
He fired his tork and a green spot appeared in the center of the target. Then, with no apparent effort, he planted a ring of green spots around it.
When the spots had disappeared I tried again, and managed to hit the target once out of five shots.
“Now let me see what you can do with the scarbo,” Vangal said.
“The what?”
“That cutting instrument at your side.”
“Oh ho, friend Vangal!” I thought. “You won’t find me utterly helpless with this weapon.”
He drew his scarbo and I mine. Thinking to best me as easily as he had with the tork, he made as if he would lay my head open.
I parried the blow with ease, then whirled his blade on mine with a movement so sudden that, strong as he was, it flew from his grasp and flashing over his head, clanked in the corner behind him.
“Body of Thorth!” he exclaimed. “That is a marvelous trick!”
I recovered his weapon and handed it to him laughingly.
“On Mars I was raised on a diet of swords,” I replied.
“Then I suggest that you confine your efforts to target practice and a mastery of Patoa,” said Vangal. “I must leave you now to go to the assistance of Grandon. My flyer is on the roof. Would you care to see me off?”
“Assuredly.”
I followed him into the elevator.
Chapter 2
The elevator stopped at the floor of the top segment, and we mounted thence to the roof by a spiral stairway. Two guards armed with torks, scarbos and broad-bladed spears, saluted when we appeared. The roof was made of the same material as the walls, and the slabs of black marble were fitted together so cunningly that the joints were all but concealed. It was circled by a four foot wall perforated on the floor level at intervals to carry off the heavy Zarovian rains.
There were four Olban airships on the roof. I examined the nearest one with interest. It was shaped like a small metal duck-boat about ten feet in length and three in the beam. The cockpit was covered with a glass dome in the back of which was a small door. Within this dome I could see an assortment of levers, buttons and knobs, and the cushioned seat for the driver. The thing that amazed me the most was the fact that it was not equipped with planes, rudder or propeller.
Vangal turned to me. “You seem astonished at our airships.”
“They certainly do not resemble any aircraft I have previously seen.”
“We have no need of planes, propellers or rudders for this type of flyer,” he went on. “As I told you, it is raised, lowered, turned, or moved in any desired direction by amplified mindpower. The amplifying mechanism is under the round bump on the forward deck. The small lids that you see fore and aft conceal safety parachutes. That rectangular protuberance from the front of the cab is a mattork, a weapon operated on the same principle as a tork, but with a greater range and firing much heavier projectiles.”
“You told me that the Olban government alone possessed the secret for manufacturing these flying mechanisms,” I said. “Suppose one should be forced to land in hostile territory. The craft would then, in all probability, fall into the hands of your enemies, and they could thus easily take the mechanism apart and duplicate it.”
“That danger has been foreseen. A vial of powerful acid has been placed in the mechanism of each Olban craft in such a way that it will be immediately broken if tampered with. The acid thus released in the secret mechanism will instantly destroy it.”
“Certainly a far-sighted provision,” I remarked.
“It has kept us at peace with our neighbors for many centuries,” replied Vangal. “I dislike leaving you thus precipitately, but the time has come for departure.”
So saying, he opened the door in the back of the cab and entered. After a hurried examination of the control levers and the cannon-like mattork, he said: “Farewell. Study diligently, practice assiduously, and be ever on your guard against assassins.”
“If I catch any prowling about I’ll practice on them instead of the target. Farewell, and a safe and pleasant journey to you.”
The little craft rose slowly at first, then, gradually gathering momentum, it shot to a height of a half mile or more, sped away with amazing rapidity, and was soon lost to view.
I walked to the edge of the wall and looked over. The roof was at least six hundred feet from the ground, though the drop from battlement to battlement was only about sixty feet. Far to the northward I descried a city of circular buildings, in the center of which towered an immense red structure similar in design to the one on which I stood, but at least twice as tall.
This must be the Red Tower of which Vorn Vangal had spoken—the Imperial Palace of Olba. The city walls formed a circle, broken at each point of the compass by a tower which evidently covered a gate.
The countryside, as far as I could see, was divided into well-kept farms on each of which was a round building, probably the home of the owner. People were working in the fields, and here and there I saw men driving huge, grotesque beasts hitched to plows or cultivators.
The animals, which I afterward learned were called thirpeds, were great hairless pachyderms; they stood about eight feet at the shoulder, and weighed four to five tons apiece when full grown. They had huge heads and mouths, sharp- pointed long ears, and relatively thin necks almost half as long as their bodies. They moved with a lumbering gait that reminded me of elephants.
The plants under cultivation were fungi of various kinds, and several varieties of bush-ferns.
A smoothly paved road, straight as an arrow, led from the south gate of