Tarrano the Conqueror Part 11

"No," Georg declared. "But my father's work was for the people. I'm not talking patriotism--only humanitarianism. The strife, suffering in our worlds--you would avoid it yourself--and gloat while others bore it.

You----"

"Youth!" Tarrano interrupted. "Altruism! It is very pretty in theory--but quite nonsensical. Man lifts himself--the individual must look out for himself--not for others. Each man to his destiny--and the weak go down and the strong go up. It is the way of all life--animal and human. It always has been--and it always will be. The way of the universe. You are very young, Georg Brende."

"Perhaps," Georg said, and fell silent.

Tarrano abruptly rose to his feet. "Calm thought is better than argument. You have imagination--you can picture what I offer. Think it over. And if youth is your trouble----" His eyes were twinkling. "I shall have to wait until you grow up. We have a long road to travel--empires cannot be built in a day."

He paused before Elza with a grave, dignified bow. "Goodnight, Lady Elza."

"Goodnight," she said.

He left us. We stood listening to his footsteps as he quietly descended the tower incline. At his summons, the barrage was lifted. He went out.

From the balcony we saw him cross the spider bridge, with Argo at his heels. As they vanished into the yawning mouth of an arcade beyond the bridge, again came that rose-glow in the other tower. We saw again the girl with flowing white hair standing there. And now she was waving us back.

"She wants us inside, where we can't be seen," Georg murmured. We drew back into the room, standing where we still could see the girl. I wondered then--and we had discussed it several times these last hours--if the interior of our tower were under observation by some distant guard. We felt that probably it was, visibly and audibly; and we had been very careful of what we said aloud.

But now, if we were watched, we could not help it; we would have to take the chance. The figure of the girl showed plainly down there through the other cas.e.m.e.nt. And again, with slow-moving white arms she began to semaph.o.r.e. A queer application of the Secondary Code, which always is used officially with coral-light beams over considerable distances. But it sufficed in this emergency. Slowly she spelled out the letters, words, phrases.

_"I am Princess Maida----"_

Georg whispered to us: "Hereditary ruler of the Central State----"

I nodded. "Watch, Georg----"

_"Prisoner----"_ came next: _"Like yourselves, and we must escape."_

She paused a moment, letting her arms drop to her sides, shaking the glorious waves of her white hair with a toss of her head. Then, at a gesture from Georg that he understood, she began again:

_"Escape tonight----"_

I half expected that any moment Tarrano or one of his men would burst in to stop this. But the signals continued.

_"I am sending you a friend--tonight--soon--he will come to you. With plans for our escape. A good friend----"_

Her tower abruptly went dark. Cautiously I gazed down from our balcony.

Argo had appeared on the spider bridge; he was pacing back and forth.

Did he suspect anything? We could not tell, but it seemed not. It was the midnight hour; a brilliant white flash swept the city to mark it.

In a low corner of the balcony, behind the glow of our barrage, we crouched together, whispering excitedly. But cautiously, for we knew that the microphonic ears of a jailor might be upon us. The Princess Maida--here in Tarrano's hands! She was sending us a friend--tonight--soon; a friend who would help us all to escape.

"By the code!" Georg exclaimed. "If we could get to Was.h.i.+ngton--if I could be there now in this crisis--with my knowledge of the Brende light----"

Far above our personal safety, our lives, lay the importance of Georg's knowledge. With the Brende secret--through him--in the hands of the Earth Council, Tarrano's greatest lever to power would be broken. Our Earth public would sway back to patriotic loyalty. The Little People of Mars unquestionably would remain friendly with us, with the Brende light to be developed on Earth and shared with them. They would see Tarrano perhaps, for what he was--a dangerous, unscrupulous enemy.... If only Georg could escape....

An hour went by with murmured thoughts like these. A friend coming to help us? How could he reach us? And how help us to escape?

We crouched there, waiting. Argo--obviously on night guard--still paced the bridge. The city was comparatively dark and silent; yet even so, there seemed more activity than we felt was normal. Occasional beams flashed across the narrow segment of our sky. The crescent terraces, visible through a shallow canyon of buildings to the left, were a blaze of colored lights with the dark figures of people thronging them. The mingled hum of instruments was in the night air; sometimes the snap of an aerial; and the steady, clicking whir of the night escalators on the city street levels and inclines.

It seemed hours that we waited. The green flash of the second hour past midnight bathed the city in its split-second lurid glare. Elza had fallen asleep, beside us on the feathered ha.s.sock of our balcony corner.

But Georg and I were fully alert--waiting for this unknown friend. Georg had smoked innumerable arrant-leaf cylinders. Through the insulated tube, from a public cookery occasional hot dishes were pa.s.sing our dining room for us to take if we wished. But we had touched none of them. From the food stock on hand, Elza had cooked our two simple meals.

But now, with Elza asleep, Georg left me and returned in a moment with steaming cups of taro. We drank it silently, still waiting. Argo still paced the bridge on guard. Presently we saw the figure of Wolfgar join him. The two spoke together a moment; then Argo disappeared; Wolfgar paced back and forth on guard in his place.

At 2:30 the Inter-Allied announcer--for half an hour past quite silent--brought us to our feet, his monotone droning from the disc in our instrument room:

_"Greater New York, Inter-Allied Unofficial 2:27 A. M. Tarrano replies to the Earth Council Ultimatum...."_

Our start woke up Elza. Together we rushed into the instrument room.

_"With many hours yet before the Earth Council Ultimatum expires, it is unofficially reported that Tarrano has sent his note in answer. Its text, we are reliably informed, is now in the hands of our Governments at Great London, Greater New York, Tokyohama and Mombozo. Helios of it also have been sent to Tarrano's own government of Venus and to the Little People of Mars. We have as yet no further details...."_

A buzz came as he ended, with only the click of the tape continuing as it printed his words. A period of silence, then again his voice:

_"Official 2:32 A. M. Inter-Allied News: Tarrano rejects Ultimatum. His note to Earth Council complete defiance. Official text follows...."_

We listened, dumb with amazement and awe. Tarrano's note was indeed, complete defiance. He would not yield up the Brende light. Nor would he deliver himself in Was.h.i.+ngton for trial. In the suave, courteous language of diplomacy, he deplored the unreasonable att.i.tude of the Earth leaders. Ironically, he suggested that they declare war. He would be overwhelmed in Venia, of course. He had no means of defending himself against their aggression. But at the first flash of hostile rays, the Brende model would be destroyed forever. And Georg Brende--the only living person who had the knowledge to replace the model--would die instantly. The Brende secret would be lost irrevocably. It was unfortunate that humanity on Earth, Venus and Mars, should be denied their chance for immortality. Unfortunate that the Earth leaders were so headstrong. They were enemies, in reality, of their own people--and enemies of the peoples of Venus and Mars. But if the Earth Council wished war with Tarrano--then war let it be.

"A bluff," I exclaimed. "He would lose everything himself. It's suicide--"

"Not suicide," Georg said soberly. "Propaganda. Can't you see it? He knows the Earth Council will make no move until the ultimatum time has expired. Hours yet. And in those hours, he is working upon the publics of the three worlds."

The announcer was silent again. Below us, in our tower, we heard a footstep. The barrage had been lifted to admit someone, then thrown on again. Measured footsteps were coming up our incline. We stood motionless, breathless. A moment; then into the room came Wolfgar. He did not speak. Advancing close to us as we stood transfixed, he jerked an instrument from his belt. It whirred and hummed in his hand. The room around us went black--a barrage of blackness and silence, with ourselves and Wolfgar in a pale glow standing within it as in a cylinder. The isolation-barrage. I had never been within one before, though upon drastic occasion they were in official use.

Wolfgar said swiftly: "We cannot be seen or heard. I have been in charge of the mirror observing you--I have thrown it out of use. The Princess Maida--"

"You are--the friend?" Georg whispered tensely. Elza was trembling and I put my arm about her.

Wolfgar's face lightened with a brief smile; then went intensely serious. "Yes. A spy, trusted by Tarrano for years--but my heart is with the Princess Maida. We must escape--all of us--now, or it will be too late."

He stopped abruptly, and a look of consternation came to him. The black silence enveloping us had without warning begun to crackle. The metal cone in Wolfgar's hand glowed red with interference-heat--but he clung to it, though it burned him. Sparks were snapping in the blackness around us. Our isolation was dissolving. Someone--something--was breaking it down, struggling to get at us!

CHAPTER IX

_Paralyzed!_

The isolation barrage which Wolfgar had flung around us was dissolving.

Someone--something--was in the room, breaking down the barrage, struggling to get at us. We stood huddled together; Elza clinging to me, Georg beside us, and Wolfgar, gripping the small cylinder which was glowing red in his hand from intense heat.

Georg muttered something; the snapping sparks of the barrage blurred his words. But I heard Wolfgar say swiftly:

"We're trapped! _You_, of all of us--you Georg Brende, must escape."

The rest of his words to Georg I did not catch. He was thrusting a weapon into Georg's hands; and giving hurried advice and explanations.