The Return of the Tripeds

By Neil R. Jones

A Sequel to "The Planet of the Double Sun"

Illustrated by MOREY

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Amazing Stories May 1932.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]

Inimical powers seemed to wield uncanny powers which caused numberless beings visiting the Planet of the Double Sun to commit suicide and homicide among themselves under obviously irresistible hypnotic influence. Now our famous and much-liked Professor Jameson, whose metal-encased brain alone is able to resist this "suggestion," has found the means of discovering the secret of this power and has the author tell us, in graphic pictures, the explanation of the mysterious, wholesale destruction.

Prologue

It was Professor Jameson's theory that all isolated material within the vacuum of space between worlds, whether organic or inorganic, endured forever. With this idea in mind, he built a special funeral rocket for himself, leaving orders after his death to the effect that his body be placed within the rocket and shot into space. Upon his death in 1950, his nephew, Douglas Jameson, secretly executed the order in the will. Cast into the depths of space, the rocket became a satellite of the earth.

Forty million years later, when all life has become extinct upon the earth, and the atmosphere has nearly wasted away, a space expedition from Zor, a far off planet of the universe, discovers the professor's rocket containing his dead body. Professor Jameson's corpse is found perfectly preserved.

The members of the expedition are machine men, creatures who ages ago achieved immortality by removing their brains from flesh and blood bodies to machine counterparts. Their general appearance is a metal cubed body upheld by four jointed, metal legs. Their upper appendages consist of six metal tentacles while their cubic bodies are surmounted by metal heads. These heads are equipped with a complete circle of mechanical eyes, a supplementary eye looking straight upward from the peak of the head. They converse by means of a high system of mental telepathy.

The machine men remove Professor Jameson's brain from his body, stimulating it into activity once again and placing it in one of their machines. In this manner, Professor Jameson is recalled to life, and he becomes a Zorome, an immortal machine man. He embarks with the expedition upon a life of eternal exploration and adventure among the suns and worlds of cosmic space.

In their travels, they come upon the planet of a double sun, one of four such planets belonging to the system. One sun is blue; the other one, orange. Weird, birdlike, phantom creatures upon this mysterious world wiped out by hypnotic suggestion all of the Zoromes except Professor Jameson. His mind is impregnable to their subconscious urgings. Professor Jameson, alone in the space ship, passes through the upflung residue of a gigantic volcano. The space craft is thrown out into space beyond the planet's nearer attraction, its mechanism disabled. It becomes a satellite of the double suns.

Professor Jameson, the immortal machine man, is destined to a perpetual existence of undying loneliness. He is left to meditate upon the strange suicides of his fellow Zoromes, and to ruminate upon the strange bones of an extinct race of Triped creatures found upon the planet of the double sun.

CHAPTER I

A Derelict of Space

Years passed down the hallways of time and into the dim, eternal past. The wrecked space ship containing its lone, immortal passenger still pursued its lonesome orbit around the bi-luminaries between the first and second of the four planets of the double sun. It had been upon the first world, the planet nearest the double sun, where the lamentable extinction of Professor Jameson's companions had occurred.

Three diversions were left the professor to furnish him occupation. He mulled over the past, he contemplated the future, and his third, and perhaps most entertaining, diversion was the use of the powerful telescopes with which the space ship was equipped. The telescopes represented a boon to him. With their lens he examined all four of the planets, the supermagnifiers bringing into life-size semblance all details upon the first two worlds. The telescopes served to pass the time more quickly, and the professor was less mentally irked by the centuries of solitude he was forced to endure than might have been the case.

Time and again Professor Jameson had attempted the futile task of repairing the wrecked machinery of the interplanetary craft. It was to no avail. The mechanism was wrecked, broken, and beyond repair. The masters who had created it were dead, victims of the evil phantoms, driven to suicide and murder by hypnotic promptings of an irresistible, insidious nature.

Sleep the professor knew not. Sleep would have been a blessing, freeing temporarily his mind from the monotony of existence—the ceaseless existence which was his. But the machine men were not capable of sleep, however, and the professor was denied this respite. The machine men required no food. They had only to live and live and live. When a part of their metal body wore out, it was replaced.

If the professor was denied the oblivion of sleep, he was somewhat compensated by one of his three principal occupations which served as a substitute for sleep, deep introspective recollection. Clearly the professor's past life stood out before him—even to that initial life when he had been an earthman, a flesh and blood creature. Recollection of the past was to him a soothing tonic, relaxing his mind into a coma, its nearest possible approach to sleep. Contemplation of the future, requiring more of a mental effort, seemed not so restive. But to dwell in the past—that was different.

Often the professor's thoughts would wander back to his old home in the little village of Grenville where he had been a studious scientist of meteorology. He had also experimented with radium, conducting his experiments in conjunction with his interest in rockets. The latter hobby had been responsible for his present condition. Otherwise his bones would have moldered to dust some forty millions of years past.

How uncanny it all seemed. Here in the wrecked space ship of the Zoromes, many millions of light years from his planet Earth, now a dying world, Professor Jameson looked back with amazing clarity upon the scenes of some forty million years ago. But then—most of that time he had been dead—his memories impressed indelibly upon his brain.

Within the remote chambers of his memory the professor once more lived over his earthly existence. He forgot his deplorable situation, forgetting that he was a machine man—immortal—known among his fellow Zoromes as 21MM392. Once more he was in a gay, throbbing world, his ears attuned to the laughter of sentient beings. He became oblivious to his solitude.

And so Professor Jameson dreamed away the centuries of his loneliness within the wrecked space ship when he was not gazing through one of the telescopes. The latter were extremely invaluable to him. With them, he learned many things which served to render his position and future a lighter one in prospect.

An examination of the second planet had brought forth a startling discovery which careful watching later verified. The second planet was inhabited by the Tripeds. They represented a vast population living upon all sections of the globe. There were other creatures on this second planet, but the Tripeds dominated. The third and fourth planets were much too far away for minute details to be distinguished by means of the telescopes, and the professor was not certain as to their being inhabited.

Professor Jameson often pondered the inevitable question which had manifested itself on his discovery of the Tripeds. When he, 25X-987, and others of the machine men had found the Tripeds' bones in the canyon of the first planet, they had believed them to be the remains of the inhabitants of that world. There had been literally thousands of the bleached skeletons scattered in every direction. Then too, there had been the writing and pictures upon the canyon walls.

To which world did the Tripeds belong? Obviously they had made their trip across space in some interplanetary vehicle. This was another mystery which intrigued the professor. He was puzzled by the fact that he saw no space ships upon the second planet. What other reason could there be except interplanetary navigation to explain the presence of the Tripeds' bones on the first planet and living Tripeds on the second? The professor discarded the idea as utterly impossible that two similar races could have sprung up on two separate worlds. His travels among the planets of the universe with the Zoromes had taught him that such an occurrence represented the wildest and most remote possibility. Then why were there no space ships? The professor merely shook his metal head and wondered.

By their magnificent cities, which Professor Jameson viewed through his telescopes, it was evident that the Tripeds were highly civilized and cultured. Two theories were entertained by the professor. One: the Tripeds' original home had been upon the first planet, but because of the menace of the phantoms they had journeyed to the second world; two: the bones in the canyon of the first planet represented a colonizing expedition from the second planet. The professor was a bit inclined to favor the latter supposition.

Unknown to the Tripeds, the machine man watched them from far out in space. He also watched the shadowy forms flit about the first planet during the double sun's eclipses. How well he remembered the eclipse he had witnessed upon the first world. It had been a nightmare of horror, the phantoms driving his companions to suicide and death, robbing them of all reason so that they had wilfully smashed one another's metal heads, the only death blow a machine man knows.

Hope

The professor had come to measure time by means of the space ship's revolutions around its orbit which circled the double suns midway between the first two planets. Each revolution he counted as a year. His year was a bit longer than that of the first planet. The second world's year was still longer than his own. Since the space ship had been hurled up and away from the planet by the volcano, there had passed five hundred and seventy-one revolutions of his space craft around the double sun. Year in and year out, the professor watched the Tripeds and their civilization, a silent witness to all manner of events transpiring upon their world.

Occasionally he examined the first planet, the scene of his last adventures, but there was little to interest him on this world. The bones still lay in the canyon, the great volcano still erupted, and when the blue sun shone by itself upon any section of the first planet's oceans the water animals came out upon the rocks to voice their dismal wails.

Professor Jameson was not destined to remain in his lonely seclusion until his machine parts wore out and left him incapable of movement. Fate held a more active future for him. Of this the professor himself was positive, especially so when one day upon the second planet he described with his telescope an object for which he had vainly looked these many years. He saw a space ship.

Had his machine body been possessed of a heart it would have beaten wildly. He watched the commotion and excitement about the huge object which he saw towed from a large building. That it was a space craft the professor was certain. It was no airship.

Shifting the telescope's view to other sections of the planet, Professor Jameson saw similar space craft preparing for flight. Questions assailed him. Where were they bound? To the first planet—the third—or the fourth? Perhaps their telescopes had picked out his lonely, disabled space ship? Why had he never seen these space ships before in his telescopic travels over the second planet?

Enigma after enigma piled itself up within the professor's mind. All sorts of solutions presented themselves in a rapid whirl of conflicting possibilities. He must wait and watch; in the meanwhile, conjecture.

Closely and constantly he watched the semi-circle of light which marked the rotating globe. The region where he had seen the space ships passed out of his sight, and as there seemed to be no activity upon the antipode which would point to an interplanetary venture, it was with a bit of impatience that Professor Jameson waited for the great ball to slowly turn upon its axis in a complete rotation.

When the second planet had once more rolled around into a position where his telescope disclosed the landscape he had viewed the previous day, he saw with surprise that the space ships, with the exceptions of one, had gone. There had been eight; only one remained. Seven of the interplanetary ships had obviously embarked into space.

The professor sought them in the black, velvety depths of the cosmic void. They were doubtless in the vicinity of the second world of the double suns. After much searching with the powerful telescopes, using first one and then the other, he discovered several tiny dots of light. The observing telescope, under the manipulation of the machine man, brought them to large size, revealing the sunlit sides of seven ships of space. He studied their route of travel. They were coming his way. Would they discover him?

But then, the first planet also lay in his general direction too, and it was to this world they were probably bound.

The Return of the Tripeds

The seven elongated cosmic flyers were apparently headed for the first planet. Unceasingly the professor watched them, and saw the space craft approach nearer and nearer as many rotations of the second world transpired. They had been many days upon their journey already. How slow their progress in comparison to the speed of a space ship of Zor. As they came nearer, his hopes and fears rose. Would they discover his ship and release him from his plight? Were they possessed of sufficiently powerful telescopes to pick out his disabled space craft?

The supreme moment upon which the professor had gambled his hopes finally came. The Triped interstellar expedition was now at a point which would designate whether their attentions were focussed upon the first planet or his helpless space ship. Anxiously he waited and watched. His anxiety gradually resolved itself into apprehension, and from apprehension to dismay. At several thousand miles distance, they passed him and continued on in the direction of the first planet.

Relaxing his patient vigil, he left the telescope in disappointment. He held one consolation, however. Sooner or later, he believed, they would find him. It seemed inevitable now that they had taken to space navigation. For a long time he gloomily contemplated the wrecked mechanism in the control room. After a while the professor turned once again to the telescope to note the position of the space ships from the second world. He was surprised. Where there had been seven he now saw only six. Where was the other one? He looked sharper. Perhaps it lay behind one of the others. No, he concluded, after a more careful examination, there were but six. Where was the seventh? He swung the telescope slowly about in search of it. A magnified space ship presently engulfed his field of vision, surprising him with its sudden appearance. It was the missing craft, and loomed up large in his sight. It was headed straight for his wrecked ship!

So they had seen the derelict of space after all. And they were coming to satisfy their curiosity. Not all of them. Only one came to investigate, intent on joining its companions later.

For the first time since that far gone day when he had been vomited from out of the volcano's lake of fire in the wildly careening space ship, Professor Jameson experienced a bit of excitement. The Tripeds were coming to investigate his mysterious craft, now a satellite of the double sun! What would they do? Especially when they learned that the mysterious craft held an equally mysterious occupant? What would be their attitude and conduct toward him? The machine man wondered, fully alert to cope with any situation which might arise. He hoped for the best.

The longest moments of his life were those consumed between the moment he discovered the solitary ship of the Tripeds approaching him and its arrival alongside the derelict of the Zoromes. Time does not exist except as an invention of civilization, being merely a plane along which consciousness moves. Professor Jameson recollected how his death period of some forty million years had seemed to him but a few brief moments.

Certain sections of the disabled space ship were transparent, and the machine man walked before these full in sight of the other craft to reveal to the Tripeds that the derelict held a living creature. How could he communicate with them, he wondered, now that they knew him to be within the lonely space craft? He pondered the question a moment before reaching a decision. He would try mental telepathy. He was uncertain concerning the receptive abilities of the Tripeds, but he could try. He knew they used a sound speech, for he had often watched them talk while viewing the second planet through one of his telescopes. He put forth a strong mental suggestion.

"Do you get my message? Do you understand?" He paused "If so, let me know by maneuvering your space ship to the other side of mine."

Professor Jameson waited patiently and expectantly for some sign which would reveal success in his efforts at communication. For a moment nothing occurred. The professor became doubtful. Then the Triped ship swung around in front of the derelict. They had received and understood his telepathic request. He waited for an answer. Hearing none, he realized the Tripeds' inability to respond by thought projection. He believed that were he to see them, he might read their minds.

CHAPTER II

Rescued from Eternity

"My ship's mechanism is destroyed," he told them. "Tow me to the planet where you are going."

The professor had no idea as to how they would accomplish this, but left the details to their ingenuity. He was surprised to witness the alacrity and capability with which they handled the situation. The Tripeds shifted their space craft back and forth before the cosmic derelict until finally they appeared satisfied with the relative positions of the two. From the ship of the Tripeds there projected a long cylinder ending in a broad metal ring. It touched the side of the wrecked space ship and clung. The Triped craft moved away with the salvaged derelict which was locked into contact with the cylindrical shaft by magnetism.

The Tripeds' space flyers had been equipped with these appliances in the event of an emergency. They were capable of exerting a strong, magnetic attraction, and were for the relief of one of their space craft should it become disabled, necessitating its being towed.

Exultation possessed Professor Jameson as he felt the Tripeds' space ship tear his wrecked craft from the orbit to which it had clung so long, carrying it towards the six distant space flyers which continued on their way to the first planet at a reduced speed. They rapidly overtook the six space ships. Curious eyes watched the strange machine man who stood in plain view behind the transparent facing of his craft. Little did they guess that for many generations this weird metal man from another world and a far gone past had watched them and their ancestors.

Once more the bevy of space craft swept onward through the dark, cosmic void towards the first planet of the bi-colored suns. Bright lights from the seven ships of the Tripeds shone full upon the wrecked craft, which one of their number towed behind it. The black of space was replaced by a soft suffusion of glow which gradually grew brighter as they penetrated the ocean of atmosphere surrounding the planet.

Once more the bevy of space craft swept onward through the innermost planet of the double sun. Before, it had carried fifty-one machine men where now there was but one. Once more Professor Jameson gazed upon the unrivalled splendor of beauty limned in double colors of harmonizing blue and orange. But the machine man knew this elegance to be but a mockery. A sinister influence lurked invisible upon this strange world, ready to wreak havoc with all living creatures, threatening death and disaster. The indescribable beauty of the planet represented a veritable siren of death.

Professor Jameson was anxious to communicate with the Tripeds. The space ship had no more than landed, when he opened the door and sprang out. He felt he must warn them at once of the frightful menace of the phantoms who would exercise their insidious powers when the orange sun sank below the horizon, leaving its blue contemporary to shine alone. Perhaps they already knew of the phantoms. He would soon find out, he hoped.

Slowly the door in one of the space ships opened, and a strange, three-legged creature walked out. Professor Jameson obtained his first view of a living Triped at close range. The creature possessed three legs and three arms. The spherical body was surmounted by an oblong head equipped with three eyes arranged in triangular fashion. The general color of the Triped was red.

As Triped and Zorome surveyed one another in surprise and curious regard, the Triped being the more amazed of the two, the rest of the Tripeds emerged from their space ships. To Professor Jameson's mechanical senses of hearing there came a low, gibbering chant of syllables as the Tripeds conversed among themselves. The machine man watched them closely, finding to his satisfaction that he could read their thoughts easily.

This was instantly answered by a concerted bedlam of sound as the conversation waxed hot. One of the Tripeds, evidently a leader, stepped forward. Like the rest of the Tripeds, he was without clothing of any sort, but around his neck the red color of his rough skin was marked with green spots. He jabbered for a moment at the machine man, pointing upward occasionally to the two solar spheres. The professor paid no attention to his words. They were incomprehensible. He studied the Triped's mind. It was a bit confusing. The thoughts of the three-legged creature were a whirling chaos. Evidently he was explaining something—perhaps asking questions too.

The Tale of Glrg

If the Triped would only cease talking and concentrate upon whatever he wished the machine man to know, he would be understood, Professor Jameson believed. He told him as much.

The Triped resorted to this medium of exchange of thoughts, his efforts met with success. Translated to words, their conversation would have run like this:

"I came with a space expedition from a far off planet of another sun. We landed upon this planet. When the blue sun shone alone, strange hummings and wailings drove my fifty comrades to kill one another and commit suicide. What are you here for? What relation do you bear to the bones we found scattered about the planet? They resemble your people."

"They are our people," replied the Triped. "They were killed even as your comrades died."

"No. The bones you saw were those of a colonizing expedition. For a long time the members of the expedition resisted the phantoms, but they finally succumbed one by one. The second planet is our original home. Seven hundred years have passed since the great catastrophe occurred upon this world."

"It has been well over four hundred of your years since we visited this world, and nearly eight hundred of this planet's years. My friends were all killed."

"As long ago as that?" the Triped queried, plainly astounded by the machine man's statement. "Don't you ever die?"

"Machine men never die unless their brains are injured or destroyed," replied Professor Jameson. "Otherwise, we machine men are immortal."

"Your space ship was discovered a hundred and fifty years ago by one of our astronomers. At first it was overlooked as merely a large meteor, and no attention was paid to it. What happened to your ship?"

The professor then told his entire story, beginning with his departure from the earth in a rocket containing his dead body. He told of the Zoromes, and how he had become one of them himself, explaining that once he too had been a flesh and blood creature like the Tripeds, though dissimilar to them in form. He elucidated to them the manner in which his companions had all met their deaths, and how he had narrowly escaped a fiery finish in the tremendous holocaust of the great volcano, his wrecked space ship being thrown out between the two worlds to become a satellite of the double sun.

The entire group of creatures sat silent, taking in the thought transmissions of Professor Jameson.

"Why did you wait seven hundred years before returning?" asked the professor. "Didn't you use space craft during all that time?"

"That is a story by itself," explained the Triped, whose name the professor later learned was Glrg. "Briefly it is this: Our expedition to this planet was the second of our initial trips following our conquest of space and a realization of the ability to journey to other planets in our system. Living on the second planet (here the Triped gave voice to a name which sounded to the professor like Grvdlen), we first of all explored our moons and the nearer planets. We found the third planet (Uzblt) devoid of all life. Here upon Trulfk we found, even as you machine men discovered, a beautiful world. We have never been to the fourth and last world of our system, Klpfud."

During the discourse, Glrg constantly referred to the Tripeds as Grvdlens. We shall, however, continue to call them the Tripeds.

"This fourth world is far out in space, I observe," commented the professor. "You dared not journey that far?"

"Not until we felt we were more experienced," continued Glrg. "As our planet was overcrowded, and this one offered such an enticing existence, we decided to move a large fraction of our population here. We did. What you found in that canyon represents a good example of what happened. As I say, for a long time we resisted these hypnotic promptings, putting up a hard, determined fight. It was no use. We finally discovered these malignant creatures to be within a different dimension and out of our reach. What remnant of our forces there were left flew back across space once more to Grvdlen."

In rapt attention, the professor followed the story of Glrg, the Triped. Now he interrupted.

"Yes," replied Glrg. "Even as strange as it may seem, this is the first time in seven hundred years we have made a venture into space."

"Because when our forces came back from Trulfk they found the home world in a chaos of civil war. The space ships were destroyed by the radicals along with other public equipment. The radicals were triumphant, but their reign ended in anarchy, ruin and disorder. Our scientific progress degenerated. Only lately have we built up our civilization to a standard where we rediscovered the principles of space navigation and built space craft once more."

An Oath of Vengeance

"I watched through many long years your gradual rebuilding of civilization," stated Professor Jameson. "Of course, I did not understand a great deal of what I saw."

"The space ship of the Zoromes is equipped with powerful telescopes. For more than five hundred years I have watched your progress."

"Though lonely," added the machine man. "Until I saw your thriving world and associated your people with the bones in the canyon, I believed myself doomed to eternal solitude within my wrecked space flyer. When I saw your civilization upon the second planet, I believed that some time you would come and find me."

"Your beliefs were not ill founded," said Glrg. "For a long time we have seen through our telescopes your space ship traveling upon an orbit beyond ours, but we scarcely believed it to contain anything living."

"I have not yet asked you why you have come back to this first planet," said Professor Jameson. "Don't you fear the phantoms?"

"Not to us now," spoke Glrg with confidence. "We are going to rid this planet of their hideous presence. Then we shall colonize it once more."

"But how can you come into actual grips with them?" asked the professor. "Our destroying ray did no good in achieving that purpose, and our ray will disintegrate any known element."

"But what of their hypnotic powers? Will they not kill you off even as those who came before you died?"

"We have provided against that," stated Glrg. He turned to a subordinate and spoke a few words, and again addressed the machine man. "I shall demonstrate to you."

The subordinate returned with a queer headgear which Glrg placed upon his head. A strap went in under his chin. From the top of the strange looking hat projected four glistening knobs coated with an iridescent metal.

"We are all equipped with these hypnotic nullifiers, or mind protectors," said Glrg, "and the hypnotic forces of the phantoms (here Glrg gave voice to a sound which described the phantom bird folk of the invisible dimension as 'Emkls') will have no effect upon us whatever. We have equipment which will send us into the Emkls' dimension, and then we shall kill them off."

"But it will be an unknown world," argued Professor Jameson, "and you know not what dangers may beset your path."

"Nevertheless, we'll chance it!" stated Glrg adamantly. "We shall have revenge upon these accursed devils, and rid this otherwise beautiful world of their evil scourge!"

Some of the fires of Glrg's vengeful feelings reached Professor Jameson. He visualized, as he had visualized many times during his solitude within the space ship, his friends, the Zoromes, succumbing to the vicious lure of the Emkls. Once again he saw his companion, 25X-987, taking the fatal leap; he remembered how 149Z-24 had frantically sought to kill him; he recollected how many more of the Zoromes had either taken off their heads and smashed them down into the canyons or else leaped into the chasms head first. Now that it lay within his power, he, too, was inspired with revenge, a cold, calculating revenge, however.

"Good," stated the machine man. "I, too, have a personal score to settle with these Emkls."

"You will soon have an opportunity to test your hypnotic nullifiers," he informed the Tripeds. "Look."

The three-legged inhabitants of Grvdlen followed the direction of the machine man's waving tentacle with their triangular arranged eyes. The orange sun neared the sky line. It would soon vanish beneath the horizon.

The Hypnotic Nullifiers

The reign of the blue sun would usher in a dismal period of horror in which there would come melancholy hummings and wailings from an invisible world about them. Strange, terrible promptings of an insidious nature would attempt breaking the morale of living beings, bending their will to involuntary suicide and murder. The creators of these abominable manifestations were invisible except at a time when the orange sun eclipsed its blue contemporary. At such a time they became partially discernible to their prey.

Professor Jameson now listened to the excited conversations of the Tripeds which he did not understand. In and out of the space craft they scurried, donning the mind protectors which would render them impregnable to the irresistible urgings of the hellish creatures they were unable to see. The orange sun's burnished disc sank out of sight beyond the distant hills. In the deep blue light there now stole over the group a depressing mood of ill-omened fatalism.

"We have no paraphernalia to protect you," stated Glrg to Professor Jameson. "I shall be glad to protect you by locking you in one of the space ships with several of the crew, however."

"I need no protection," replied the machine man. "In brain structure I am as unlike the Zoromes as they were unlike you. The Emkls do not represent a menace to me no matter how hard they try. That has been proved."

A low humming drone sang upon the air. The Tripeds commenced to chatter among themselves excitedly.

The humming grew in volume. Now it was punctuated by a sad, drawn-out wail. The Tripeds and the machine man waited, watching one another to see whether or not any hypnotic effect was registered among them.

"We must make this a thorough test," said Glrg. "Free your minds of any resistance. Leave them open to suggestion. We must be assured of our headgear's invulnerability."

The rest of the Tripeds immediately complied with their leader's suggestion, patiently waiting. The humming became more intense and sustained, the wails shrieking down among the expedition from Grvdlen, the weird calls becoming more insistent.

"I wonder if they see us?" queried Professor Jameson. "I've often wondered whether or not they possessed this faculty during the sole reign of the blue sun."

"I believe they do," opined Glrg. "It is handed down among the Tripeds that the Emkls really do see this dimension during the period of blue sunlight, though no one ever knew for sure."

All during the reign of the blue sun up until the shroud of darkness settled over Trulfk the Tripeds sat and waited patiently to discover the qualities of their mind protectors. Glrg appeared satisfied.

Professor Jameson was taken into the various space ships and shown the equipment which the Tripeds had brought from their world to carry into combat against the Emkls.

"Are you sure the Tripeds will be able to return from the dimension of the Emkls as easily as they go?"

"Yes," replied Glrg. "All that is necessary to effect a return is to reverse the action of the mechanism in our transition cube. Half of us will remain here. The rest will enter into the world of the Emkls."

For several days Professor Jameson roamed the planet of the double sun with his new found acquaintances, the Tripeds. Once more they viewed the mute bones of their three-legged predecessors. They also found wrecked and twisted parts of metal belonging to the Zoromes. During this time, the Tripeds made their plans and prepared for an entrance into the other dimension, the habitat of the sinister Emkls. The day finally arrived when all preparations were completed.

Professor Jameson, with his three-legged companions, stood before a huge, cubic compartment of transparent material through which the two suns spread their blue and orange rays.

By this time, the professor had learned the rudiments of their speech, and was enabled to understand them both from mental and physical standpoints.

"Are you still insistent in your desire to accompany half of our expedition into the other dimension?" inquired Glrg of the machine man.

"I am," replied Professor Jameson. "I shall do everything within my power to further your ends and aid those who go with me."

The machine man and forty-two of the Tripeds entered the compartment's air lock. The Tripeds all wore atmosphere masks supplied with the vital gases of respiration from small tanks worn on their backs. Professor Jameson, whose metal body required no air for bodily sustenance, was without this equipment. He carried, however, one of the ray guns from the wrecked space ship of Zor. This, he believed, would come in handy.

The Tripeds all wore atmosphere masks, supplied with the vital gases of respiration from small tanks worn on their backs.

CHAPTER III

The Transition Cube

The air was withdrawn from the air lock, leaving the machine man and his three-legged allies in a vacuum. Through the transparent sides of the hollow cube they saw the balance of the Tripeds watching them in anticipation of their disappearance into the invisible dimension.

From several discs at the far end of the chamber, weird lights of a blue-green intensity were thrown over the assemblage within the cube. To the eyes of those about to be transported to another world, the forms of those outside became vaguer and less sharp of outline and detail. The Tripeds about the professor seemed to assume vivid green hues of varying shades. The sides of the cube were no longer transparent—in fact they were no longer visible. They had become lost in the heavy, blue-green haze. The transition to the other dimension was having a curious and alarming effect upon the Tripeds, the machine man observed. They were staggering about wildly and falling over one another, slumping downward out of sight to rise no more. He lost sight of them in the heavy, impenetrable, green luminescence. He saw them disappearing around him one by one. It was not a case of fading from sight. They merely dropped out of sight below the level of his feet somewhere as if the bottom of the cube had opened to swallow them.

He dropped downward, reaching—ever reaching. His metal tentacles encountered the glazed surface of the cube's interior. For what seemed a long time, the professor stood there in this manner. The Tripeds who had accompanied him within the cube had all disappeared. Where were they? What had become of them?

Had he been transported to the world of the Emkls, leaving his three-legged companions behind—or was he the one who had been left behind? As he ruminated upon the question, one of his roving metal tentacles brushed in contact with an object which rattled and scraped against the floor on which he stood. He brought it forth from out of the green haze to discern its identity. Within the curls of his tentacles he saw the object to be a Triped's air mask.

The machine man took several steps in the direction where he knew the nearest wall lay. His metal limbs stumbled over several more objects. He picked them up, finding more air masks, mind protectors and other articles either worn or else carried by the Tripeds on their expedition into the dimension of the Emkls.

Suddenly, without warning, the blue-green haze disappeared, and the professor found himself gazing through the transparent sides of the cube once more. Outside thronged the Tripeds, those of the expedition who had been left behind. Within the cube, Professor Jameson found himself alone, alone except for the variety of objects scattered about the floor of the transition cube. His forty-two companions were gone. They were obviously in the other dimension. Why had the cube failed to send him with them?

Gazing in stupefaction at the array of articles upon the floor, the solution of the mystery presented itself to him. The articles left behind by the Tripeds in their transition into the invisible dimension included everything of metal which they had either worn or else carried. There were metal weapons, air masks, hypnotic nullifiers, trappings and ornaments. The machine man even saw a metal ring which he recollected as having seen around the neck of a Triped.

Meanwhile, as he watched the surprised Tripeds crowding about outside the metal cube and staring in at him, he heard the hiss of air as it entered the chamber. The door was opened and he walked out through the air lock. Instantly he was assailed by a multitude of queries from the excited Tripeds who jostled about him in intense excitement and fearful anticipation.

Glrg came to his rescue, silencing the Tripeds and commanding order. When comparative quiet reigned, Professor Jameson essayed an explanation. The Tripeds strained their mental faculties to receive his rapid telepathic thoughts as he related the occurrence within the cube.

"The green haze spread over us—the walls became invisible—we could see you no longer! My companions began dropping out of sight into the floor one by one! Vrazr, at my elbow, was the first to go! Then they were all gone, leaving everything of metal, including myself!"

"Unarmed and without air masks!" cried Glrg in anxiety, realizing the danger in which his departed companions stood.

"Perhaps the atmosphere of the other world is like that of this dimension!" offered the professor.

"The metal!" shouted Brlx, chief operator of the transition cube. "Why didn't the metal enter the other world with them?"

"Because it is apparent your machine is not capable of transferring metal to the other dimension," stated the machine man. "Inorganic material does not respond to its forces."

"May I suggest that we did not use a sufficient intensity of the rays? Metal is a great deal denser than material born of organic origin."

The machine man re-entered the cube. The air was once more pumped out, and as before the blue-green rays sprang from out of the several discs to envelop the machine man in a heavy haze. This time it increased to such an intensity as to make invisible the machine man's tentacle before his very eyes.

Into the Blue Dimension

Professor Jameson's senses reeled, and desperately, but in vain, he attempted to maintain a hold over his faculties. His brain rolled into oblivion, and his final thought was a truly terrifying one. It suddenly occurred to him that he stood in danger of being deprived of his brain, which, after all, was of organic origin, leaving his useless metal body in one dimension while his equally helpless brain progressed to another. With fear clutching at him, the professor knew no more.

When his senses returned, they were accompanied by the sensation of a short fall. His metal body appeared racked by a severe jolt. The intense, blue-green mist had now faded to a blue translucence through which the professor commenced to dimly perceive objects which fell at his feet with distinct thuds. The machine man instinctively guessed that he was now in the dimension of the phantom bird folk. As his senses became clearer, he saw that the objects which had apparently materialized about his head and had fallen to his feet were the metal accoutrements of the Tripeds which they had previously left behind them.

The professor looked about him. He stood on a hillside. Above, a blue sun beat down its azure rays. The orange sun was nowhere in sight, evidently invisible to this blue dimension. He looked for his friends. Their recumbent forms twisted in various poses upon the sward rested where they had fallen. Instantly the phenomenon of the Tripeds dropping through the floor of the cube, his own experience of falling a short distance, and the materialization and fall of the metal equipment were all solved. The surface of the blue dimension at this point was slightly lower than that of the other world.

It was a contingence which neither the Tripeds nor Professor Jameson had anticipated. The machine man disliked dwelling upon the possibilities offered had the surface of the blue dimension been far enough below that of the orange and blue dimension to have incurred a destructive fall. On the other hand, had the conditions been vice versa, in all probabilities he would have found himself buried beneath tons of the planet's strata.

The professor was aroused from his meditations regarding the dissimilarities of these respective spheres of existence by a horrible sight which met his wandering gaze. A hideous monster on two stilt-like legs was carrying off the body of a Triped. Others of the tall creatures were approaching from out of the distance in long strides. The long legs were surmounted by grotesque, fuzzy bodies all out of proportion to the long, thin legs which upheld them. The body resembled a spider's except that it had no visible head. Indeed, the machine man could see no eyes—only two waving antennae which sprang upward from the fuzzy, round body. Two long claws situated midway between the walking appendages clutched the senseless, perhaps dead, Triped in a firm embrace.

Swiftly the machine man raced after the weird creature only to meet with sudden, startling reversement. On coming close beneath the animal which, though smaller of body, towered over him, a well directed kick of the creature's long leg bowled him over. The fuzzy monster then attempted an escape but with amazing alacrity the machine man wrapped a tentacle about one of the stilt-like legs. It was a firm hold which his adversary could not break, and Professor Jameson felt himself dragged across the ground. Two more of the monstrosities joined the first. Evidently they were coming to reinforce their companion, but the professor feared them not. He appreciated the invulnerable qualities of the machine body which was his, and realized that it would take many more than three of the strange animals to subdue him. What he did fear, however, was the possibility of their getting away with their prey, Snrpd, the Triped.

The Menacing Stilt Walkers

As the two newcomers joined their companion, a surprising occurrence took place. Professor Jameson looked for some sort of an attack. There was none. Instead, the machine man witnessed as unexpected a situation as had ever occurred in his long life of adventure and exploration with the machine men of Zor.

The long legs of the creature to which he clung dropped off as the fuzzy animal transferred his inert burden to one companion and leaped upon the back of another. The machine man held within his grasp the elongated limb of the creature as he watched the three scurry off in long strides toward a distant forest, his late adversary clinging to the back of a companion. The third creature carried the helpless Snrpd.

Professor Jameson wasted no time, but hastily returned to the spot where he had first seen the light of this blue dimension. He sought for and found the object he desired. It was the ray gun. Swiftly he raised it, pressing the butt. From it there leaped through the blue sunlight a dull red glow. Cautiously, so as not to touch the Triped, he directed the destroying light upon Snrpd's abductors. The one bearing Snrpd fell in his tracks, releasing the unfortunate Triped. The one bearing the other on his back had his legs cut from under him. As before, the creature immediately abandoned the stumps, and the one on his back released its hold. Each one attempted scurrying off at a slow, awkward gait. Professor Jameson relentlessly dispatched them, hurrying forward to where they lay.

To his increasing surprise, he found that the long limbs from which the fuzzy animals became independent at will were not a part of the creature at all. They were artificial limbs employed as stilts. Evidently the creatures were of some intelligence.

He hastened to the side of Snrpd, examining him carefully. Professor Jameson was glad to find the Triped alive, though unconscious. If he lived, then of course the rest did. Upon the heels of this thought came a hail from behind the professor. Turning, he found Clbg rising weakly to his feet and calling to the machine man. Others of the Tripeds were stirring and attempting to rise to their three legs, evidently experiencing some difficulty in doing so.

"How do your lungs react to the air here?" inquired the machine man anxiously. "Can you continue to breathe this atmosphere safely?"

"My lungs appear to be functioning without any added effort," replied the Triped. "The air has a vague, sweet odor. It is strange. My limbs seem cramped as if I had fallen."

"From the other world." And the professor went on to explain the slight difference in elevations of the two dimensions at this point.

The remainder of the Tripeds collected around Clbg and Professor Jameson. Soon, Snrpd, unaware of the recent tragedy enacted, in which he was a principal figure, came limping over to the group. In turn, the machine man questioned them all concerning physical reactions following the transition to the blue dimension. He then related to them how it had taken two attempts on the part of Brlx to send him and the Triped's metal accoutrements into the world of azure sunlight. He also pointed to the remains of the three fuzzy stilt walkers some distance away, relating the episode concerning the capture of Snrpd.

A humming drone broke in upon their conversation. There followed a piercing wail.

"Your hypnotic nullifiers!" shouted the professor above the rising tide of excitement. "Put them on!"

In mad haste the Tripeds donned their protective paraphernalia which lay scattered over the nearby turf, and which had entered the blue dimension with the machine man. From the headgear of each Triped there glistened four knobs of oddly changing colors.

Turning the Tables

The Tripeds gripped their strange weapons which the machine man had seen them use so effectively time and again within the last few days prior to their entrance into the blue dimension. The guns used charges of energy as ammunition. When one of these charges hit an object, the latter exploded.

From down out of the sky there soared fully a score of the huge, birdlike creatures on their leathern wings. They reminded Professor Jameson of bats. They resembled them somewhat in certain particulars.

"Don't shoot at them until they fly low about us," admonished the machine man. "Then we'll get them all."

Patiently they waited. The phantom creatures were no longer phantoms. They represented grim reality. Their figures showed up clear and black against the azure sky. With dismal wails and a constant humming, they circled the group of explorers and avengers from the world of the orange and blue suns. Within their cryptic wails, Professor Jameson sensed vaguely the insistent urging they were exerting upon these bold invaders who had so rashly penetrated the fastness of their hitherto inaccessible domain.

The Emkls flew lower and lower, apparently surprised at the futility of their initial efforts at breaking the morale of these three-legged animals and their metal companion. The hypnotic promptings were failing to accomplish their object. The insidious Emkls circled lower, their great wings flapping dismally upon the air. Still Professor Jameson abstained from giving the command to annihilate these malignant creatures.

Finally, one of their number separated itself from the group and swooped downward over their heads. With a terrifying wail bordering upon a scream, it passed above them a short distance. Another and still another of the Emkls followed the initiative of the first. Clearly the professor discerned the blank, staring eyes set in the hideous, round heads. The entire horde of some twenty Emkls now flapped downward about the heads of the Tripeds. Professor Jameson gave the order to attack.

From the weapons of the Tripeds there burst forth a series of shots into the onrushing Emkls. Pandemonium reigned as the shots took effect. The wails and humming turned to screeches of pain and rage which were silenced as explosion after explosion exterminated the Emkls. They were literally blown to pieces. The few survivors strove to escape the devastating weapons of the Tripeds.

Previously, the Emkls had been all-triumphant. Secure in their own dimension, intangible to the creatures of the other dimension, they destroyed the latter at will by hypnotism. They had come to take their strange powers and invulnerability for granted. Safe from attack, lords of all living beings in their own world, they had never dreamed of danger to themselves. Now it had come to them. They were no longer inaccessible to their enemies.

Four Emkls, rising ever higher in the air, wailed and screeched their way on wing above the invaders. From Professor Jameson's ray gun there shot a lurid glare which settled upon the lowest of the four escaping Emkls. Without another cry, half destroyed by the disintegrating qualities of the machine man's weapon, the creature plunged to the ground. The three remaining Emkls were now beyond range of the deadly weapons employed by both the machine man and the Tripeds. Their faint cries now dwindled away, and their specks became lost below the horizon.

"And bring back two airships," added Professor Jameson. "There is room for two within the cube if one side is opened for their entrance. Two will be sufficient for our needs at present."

Ravlt, in joint command with the machine man, picked two of the Tripeds to enter back into the dimension of the other world to report their condition and bring back aircraft with which to carry on the fighting against the Emkls.

"We shall soon receive a signal from Brlx," stated the professor. "Prepare to send our messengers back at once."

"A platform must be built," informed Professor Jameson, "so that Dlb and Ldgz will be upon a level with the cube."

The platform was soon built, and the two Tripeds mounted it, waiting for the return to their own dimension. It had been previously arranged with Glrg and Brlx that at regular intervals the action of the transition cube would be reversed so as to afford periodic returns to the blue and orange dimension.

At the predetermined time, the invaders of the blue dimension witnessed a startling transformation about the two Tripeds who waited patiently upon the platform. The intense green hue of the cube surrounded them, gradually rendering their shapes fainter in outline until eventually they disappeared. Only a thick, green haze of cubic dimension remained. Suddenly this, too, disappeared, leaving only the empty platform the Tripeds had built.

CHAPTER IV

Air Raiders

The Tripeds and machine man saw no more of the Emkls or the fuzzy animals who employed stilts in their perambulations. In fact, none of the inhabitants of the blue dimension were seen since the departure of the Emkls to the time the blue sun sank to rest below the horizon.

Night reigned. Strange groups of stars which Professor Jameson had never seen before came out to set the sky atwinkle. No nocturnal sounds disturbed the tranquillity. All was silence.

In the midst of the darkness there suddenly shone a green cube whose brilliant hue increased, presenting an opaque wall of green against the night sky. The Tripeds jabbered excitedly. The professor knew that it heralded the return of Dlb and Ldgz with the aircraft. As the green light disappeared, there hung above them in the air two long, pointed airships ready for flight. The two Tripeds, Ldgz and Dlb, brought the ships gently to the ground.

The machine man and his three-legged companions waited patiently for the dawn. They would then cruise over this strange world to which they had been transported by the scientific sorcery of the transition cube. At last they had come to grips with the Emkls, those wraiths who had spread their hypnotic scourge across the portals separating two dimensions, the blue from the orange and blue.

"We are certain that one of our previous theories has been exploded," said Professor Jameson.

"The world of Trulfk from where we just came is not visible to us from this dimension as we had supposed."

"True," agreed the machine man. "The Emkls must be possessed of an occult sight akin to their hypnotic qualities which would enable them to look into the other dimension when the blue sun shines alone."

Dawn came with a blue, luminous flush of light. Then up above the skyline there rose the azure orb visible to both dimensions. Professor Jameson wondered whether or not the orange sun had risen. There was no way of telling, in view of the fact that the orange sun was invisible in this dimension.

"Divide the forces, and man the ships," counselled Professor Jameson. "It is best that we be off at once. Let the two ships remain together. We must not take the chances of becoming separated."

The final preparations were made and the two airships arose into the blue sky. The machine man stood in command of one while Ravlt commanded the other. Together, the two ships cruised out over the planet of the blue dimension. They signalled back and forth in regard to their route of travel, outstanding features of topography, the lighter density of the atmosphere in comparison to the air of Trulfk, and other topics.

The terrain over which they flew at a high altitude underwent no appreciable changes as they progressed. There were the same forests, hills, dales and occasional waterways. No life was visible. Not once did they see either of the two types of animals they knew to exist upon this world. Of course, they were unable to perceive what the dark, thick forests cloaked.

The machine man, peering far ahead of their course with a telescope, caught sight of a queer arrangement of dark mounds a considerable distance to the right of the course they were pursuing. He quickly notified Ravlt, and both ships swung in that direction, picking up an increased speed.

As they approached nearer, dark specks were visible flying about over the dark domes which arose to quite a towering height.

"There, Snrpd, are the kind of creatures into whose hands you fell," informed the machine man.

Snrpd was appalled. About the avenues laid between the black mounds walked the round, fuzzy animals on their stilts. Some of them ambled along awkwardly without the walking poles.

Professor Jameson saw that this was true as he noticed several of the Emkls emerge from apertures in the sides of the black mounds. At his side, Snrpd offered a plausible observation.

Hell Breaks Loose

The Emkls now perceived the two airships heading toward their city, and with excited cries and wails drew the attention of those below on the ground. From every one of the high mounds, and there were several thousand of them, there poured forth a black, flapping horde of the repulsive Emkls rising upward with cries in which were blended curiosity, suspicion and animosity. Their concert of wails and continuous humming arose like a veritable bedlam about the ears of the invaders. Straight for the two oncoming airships they flew.

Explosion after explosion rocked the air as the two ships threw a steady barrage into the overwhelming ranks! A steady stream of Emkls arose from all sections of the city! For every one shot down, five were ready to assume its place! The rapid fire did not check their approach! On they came!

"Rise to a higher strata of the atmosphere!" ordered Professor Jameson, taking a quick grasp of the situation. "Quick! Before they are upon us!"

The operators of the two ships were quick to follow the suggestion. Up they shot, skyward! In that moment, the Emkls, like a destructive mantle, were all about the two airships so that the blue sunlight took on the semblance of twilight. The guns of both ships kept spitting continuously, their silent messengers of death lodging in some portion of an Emkl where their silence was soon broken by dull explosions. The torn and mutilated bodies of the creatures then hurtled to the ground. During the terrible massacre, the black domes of the city were literally bathed in the blood of their owners.

The Emkls, it was apparent, lacked not for courage. They rushed fearlessly to the center of the conflict in unbelievable, overwhelming numbers, their screaming, buzzing ranks soaring and flapping about the two ships of the Tripeds which were now being guided up and out of the living, flying, wailing horde.

Ravlt's craft was slightly above that of the machine man's. Both were rising through the almost solid mass of Emkls with the utmost difficulty. The wailing and humming of the loathsome, bird creatures became a screeching roar in the ears of the Tripeds. Well might they be glad of the mind protectors they wore.

Professor Jameson had now lost sight of Ravlt's ship, hidden as it was by the flitting forms of the Emkls. There rang in his ears a cry which at once increased his anxieties and fears.

The three-legged gunners fired into the clinging swarm of Emkls which hung tenaciously to the airship. The latter were bringing it down rapidly. Many of them were blown to bits, but always there were more to take the place of those killed.

With a terrific impact the airship struck. The mingled sound of rending bones and crushed flesh came to the ears of the Tripeds as those of the Emkls hanging to the bottom of the airship were smashed flat.

There were also casualties among the Tripeds. With the exceptions of a bent leg, Professor Jameson found himself intact. The Tripeds arose drunkenly, many of them having sustained several injuries. Two were dead. The rest took themselves alongside the machine man, ready to repel the attacks of the fierce creatures into whose city they had fallen.

The Emkls labored desperately to enlarge a gaping hole in the side of the ship. With his disintegrating ray, Professor Jameson, machine man of Zor, burnt a hole through their ranks. With a cheer, the Tripeds saw the Emkls drop swiftly back. But the respite was only for a moment. They renewed their efforts to enter through the jagged hole which had resulted from the crash in spite of the terrible ray. Such an attempt represented rank suicide, for they were destroyed instantly.

A muffled explosion within the airship caused the professor to turn suddenly about. Snrpd had blown to bits an Emkl about to spring upon the machine man.

"They are coming in through the front of the ship!" howled Snrpd as another of the winged devils closed upon him.

It was the last word Snrpd ever uttered. His head was immediately snapped off by the Emkl which sprang upon him. More of the winged inhabitants of the blue dimension were pouring in behind their companion. Professor Jameson saw the swift assault which terminated Snrpd's career, but he dared not leave his post. The Emkls were crowding about outside the hole, waiting for a chance to enter, no matter how desperate the chance. They seemed to hold no fear of death.

Death's Feast

The remaining Tripeds leaped forward to the attack, hurling back for a brief moment the Emkls who, with folded wings, strode down upon them menacingly. The airship was filled with a humming and wailing as the Tripeds and Emkls closed with one another in mortal combat, the Tripeds going down beneath the greater physical violence of the overpowering number of Emkls. They were surging into the ship from the forward deck so rapidly that the machine man recognized the futility of holding the other entrance longer against invasion.

Dropping the ray gun, he sprang among the fighting Emkls and Tripeds, working his way to a position where the winged attackers were the most numerous. Six metal tentacles whipped themselves about six Emkls, crushing them slowly in a terrible embrace.

Professor Jameson experienced a keen satisfaction in the act as there sprang to his mind the memory of 25X-987, 149Z-24, 69B-496, 8B-52 and many more of the machine men of Zor. They had all died at the hands of these damnable creatures who were now tasting the revenge of a Zorome.

The Tripeds, spattered with the blood of their fierce fighting adversaries, now panted in exhaustion as Professor Jameson squeezed the life from the six wretched Emkls he held within his powerful tentacles, strategically blocking the passage from any further inroad of the dread monsters. The latter howled their rage and beat frantically upon their dying comrades in an effort to shove past.

Only three of the Tripeds were left. The crashing of the airship and the subsequent battle had taken toll of the rest.

"We are lost!" shouted Dlb. "See!" He pointed to the hole in the airship's side where the machine man had recently repulsed an attack from this quarter so effectively with the ray gun. Through the enlarged opening there came an Emkl, followed by another and another. At their backs surged a countless throng of the fierce combatants.

"Fight to the death!" shouted Rmk, resolutely throwing himself into the attack. He blew up two of the hideous, winged monsters before his weapon was wrested from him and he was forced to close with the overwhelming horde.

The machine man released the six dead Emkls and came to grips with new arrivals, seeking new victims. Into the airship there rushed another stream of the insidious inhabitants of the blue dimensions. In reckless abandon they stumbled over the corpses of their fallen compatriots. Professor Jameson found plenty of work for his tentacles. The three Tripeds had gone down almost immediately following the last, defiant cry of Rmk. As he had urged them, so had they done. They had all died as brave Tripeds, fighting to the last.

Professor Jameson, seeing that his companions had all been killed, hunted for his ray gun. He could not find it. The weapon lay somewhere beneath the pack of dead Tripeds and Emkls. Knowing that little could be accomplished here, and that the airship had become a concentration point of attack, he immediately jumped through the torn side of the airship and into the vast assemblage of the Emkls waiting outside.

They were all around him. Leaping upon him, they bore him down ere he had taken more than five steps from the wrecked craft. He snapped shut his mechanical eye shutters as he felt strong jaws rasping effectively against his metal head. One of his metal tentacles was wrenched from his body. With the remaining five he threshed about him wildly, and many an Emkl was knocked over with a crushed skull or other mortal injury. The machine man was seized by many of them, and even his unparalleled strength was insufficient to prevail against their overwhelming numbers.

The airship had fallen in an open space among several of the black domes. In fact, it had grazed one of the buildings in its descent, leaving a great scar from summit to base. Far above him, Professor Jameson saw the ship of Ravlt's command as a tiny dot upon the sky. The Emkls had abandoned the attack upon it, and the ship now rode solitary and unhampered far above the city.

Through the wailing, surging, threatening mass of Emkls the professor was borne. He perceived many of the fuzzy creatures among the crowd, some of them on their stilts and others without them.

Ravlt's ship was now dropping small objects from its position above the Emkl city. They loomed larger as with a swift momentum they fell upon the towering, black domes, exploding and casting their contents in all directions. The city was being bombed. The explosives fell thick and fast, some in the streets between the domes while others exploded upon the tops of those structures which they chanced to hit. The Emkls appeared but little perturbed by this offense tactic. A few circled upward toward the airship of the Tripeds which was now on high and well out of the possibility of another mass attack. Those of the Emkls who were so fearless and reckless as to venture near were promptly blown out of the sky.

Victory

The machine man was borne onward towards the center of the city. Suddenly he felt his captors' steps falter as their wailings took on a different note. The Emkls passed through three stages of emotional attitude. They became curious—then frightened—finally frantic. Releasing the professor, they rushed about pell mell as if seeking escape from some unseen demon. Professor Jameson was dropped abruptly to the street from which he picked himself up to gaze bewildered at this new turn of affairs. He sought the cause of it.

All over the city the Emkls had turned riotous, panic stricken and abandoned to chaos. The machine man wondered if the bombs had occasioned it. As a faint, smoky haze drifted before him upon the atmosphere, he became aware instantly of the reason for the Emkls' strange behavior. The bombs had released a poison gas! The Emkls were falling like stalks of corn before a gale! In thin wisps the almost invisible vapor curled upward to assail those of the insidious creatures upon the wing, choking them and causing them to reel downward to death.

In the streets the choking, destroying vapor hung like a pall, reaching into the black, high-domed domiciles of the Emkls, searching out each innermost corner for victims. Every living creature that breathed fell before the onrush of the deadly gas.

Professor Jameson, the machine man, strode through the city of death, unmolested by the terrible bird monsters into whose hands he had fallen. The streets were now packed with the corpses of his enemies. Among them were to be seen the dead bodies of the round, fuzzy animals as well. One of the latter Professor Jameson saw posed in a grotesque position of death. With great long stilts sprawled apart like props, he lay dead up against the side of a black dome. The machine man gave one of the stilts a kick, bringing down the lifeless body into the dust.

Above him the airship soared in the upper air lanes, keeping well above the heavy, poisonous gas. A few of the surviving Emkls who had been fortunate enough in flying above the gas were winging their way toward the horizon, having seen their comrades die by the thousands. The machine man realized that Ravlt would never dare bring the airship down and pick him up while the deadly vapor spread by the bombs lay like a shroud over the city. He also had no idea concerning the length of time it would take for the dissipation of the gas.

He decided to leave the city, seeking an open spot beyond where he might be picked up by the Tripeds. Through the city streets he made his way, stumbling over the scattered piles of dead Emkls, wishing he possessed his mechanical wings at that moment. He had not brought them with him. They were left behind in the orange and blue dimension, reposing in the wrecked space ship.

Passing the last cluster of dark mounds, he found himself upon the outskirts of the city. He now put a good distance between himself and the silent assemblage of black domes, noting with satisfaction that those in the airship had divined his intentions and were following him, the airship hovering lower. Finally, having cleared the vicinity of the life destroying gas, the Tripeds descended and picked him up.

"One tentacle missing is all," replied the machine man. "The rest of my ship's company were wiped out."

"So we saw before we let fly with the gas bombs," said Ravlt. "You're lucky to be a machine man. Otherwise the Emkls would have done for you just as easily."

"The bombs did their work well," commended the professor. "The entire city's population is wiped out. The streets are literally choked with the dead."

"We should have resorted to the gas bombs in the first place," spoke Ravlt in self-reproach. "Then we should not have lost half of our forces."

"The price of over confidence and curiosity," stated the machine man. "It is a lesson we shall not forget."

"What terrible fighters they were!" exclaimed Kvsb as the ship gained altitude. "How cheaply they held life, and how ferociously they attacked."

"I believe the best thing to do is return to our own dimensions and come back reinforced to attack the other Emkl strongholds we may find," advised Ravlt.

And so they headed back across the world of the blue dimension toward the spot where they had entered it. The sun was now at its zenith. They cruised low in order to scan the topography. Once on the far horizon they perceived the black domes of an Emkl city.

CHAPTER V

Ghosts of the Past

They were returning to their starting point by a different route than the one they had taken on coming to the city of the Emkls, and now they gazed upon physiographical peculiarities which they had not seen before. The land took a sudden, deep drop into a broad basin whose other rim lay beyond the horizon.

"Drop lower," directed Ravlt to the pilot. "Our route extends across the edge of this depression."

"It looks lonesome," commented Professor Jameson, his eyes scanning the great valley whose other rim lay out of sight.

"Perhaps it is a gouge taken out of the planet by collision with another cosmic body," ventured Ravlt.

Far ahead of them, a little to the right of their course, there lay another deep drop within the vast valley of mystery.

"As if a great chunk had been cut from the bottom of the basin," said Ravlt to the professor.

The latter was gazing down into the huge pit with one of the airship's telescopes. Some of the Tripeds were doing likewise.

"Yes! It is!" affirmed Ravlt, confirming Stn's discovery. "The blue is changing color near the center of the sun!"

"An eclipse!" shouted Stn in realization of the actual truth. "It is an eclipse upon the other world! The orange sun is crossing before the blue one!"

Professor Jameson had paid but little attention to the excited discourse of the Tripeds. Something had gripped his attention within the depths of the pit. He gazed fascinated at something upon its bottom.

The mental faculties of the Tripeds were diverted from their contemplation of the vague change the blue sun was undergoing as the machine man cast an excited thought transference into the group.

The professor's excitement grew. The Tripeds had never seen him evidence excitement before. Those at the telescopes followed his pointing tentacles with their instruments.

"There's something down in there moving around!" exclaimed Plmk. "You can hardly see it—so ghostly looking—I would say, transparent!"

"Fly the airship down into the pit!" directed the machine man, an eye still glued to the telescope.

The ship of the Tripeds slowly sank into the depths of the great depression, Ravlt a bit wary for some sort of an attack by strange, unknown monsters of the blue dimension. As they drifted toward the floor of the pit, those of the Tripeds who were not equipped with telescopes were enabled to discern moving objects of vague, dim shape, barely perceptible.

Ravlt muffled a cry of surprise. He caught sight of a shadowy, fleeting form, recognizing it for what it really was. He stared in sheer astonishment. The Triped's speech faltered, then he stammered in unbounded amazement.

He pointed a shaking arm at the professor who was silently gazing at the ghostly forms flitting about on the floor of the deep pit.

The machine man's thoughts were not for the three-legged creatures which surrounded him. The amazing discovery had for the moment rendered him entirely oblivious to their presence. His thoughts flew in rapid communication with the dim, elusive figures grouped about the pit's bottom, waiting for the airship to come to rest.

As the ship bumped gently to the floor of the chasm, it was apparent that the shadowy figures were machine men like the professor himself. The blue sunlight had been supplanted by a yellow haze which appeared to envelop the pit. Weird, gliding forms unlike those of the machine men floated below, above and on all sides of the airship, entering in and out through the solid sides of the craft at ease.

The Tripeds talked in awed tones among themselves. It was evident that the professor was holding communication with these strange, phantom, machine men so much like him, yet so transparent and unreal.

"You can see through them!" spoke Ravlt. "They are not tangible! See how they walk right through the sides of the ship!"

"You mean that they are in the other world?" queried Ravlt. "The world where our companions await us?"

As if in afterthought, Ravlt added: "Why didn't we find them on the planet? They cannot be there. Professor Jameson would have seen them with his telescopes long before this—before we found his wrecked space ship!"

The Tripeds shook their heads in perplexity and awaited an explanation from the professor. They were not capable of attuning their thoughts to the telepathic conversation between Professor Jameson and the semi-visible machine men of Zor.

The professor, at sight of his long lost companions in the garb of phantom beings of another world, had been laid by the heels, figuratively speaking, by the sudden, unexpected discovery. In turn, on seeing 21MM392, the Zoromes were no less astonished than the professor himself.

An Amazing Revelation

Professor Jameson saw before him 41C-98, 744U-21, 6W-438, 29G-75, 56F-450 and many others among the ghosts of the pit.

"At the bottom of the ocean! And you—are you really in the world of the phantom birds?"

"Yes!" The professor's surprise was beyond description. "Why don't you emerge from the ocean?"

6W-438, principal spokesman of the group, pointed in mute reply to the question. His waving tentacle took in the lofty, towering walls about his companions and himself.

"We number a full fifteen in this pit of the ocean," explained 6W-438. "If you remember, we were part of the crew detailed by 25X-987 to stay with the space ship. Compelled by the hypnotic suggestion of those damnable bird phantoms, we were driven to what they believed would be our deaths. When we emerged from our trance we found ourselves here. That was quite a long time ago."

"Over seven hundred revolutions of this planet about the double suns," interjected the professor.

"It is a long story," replied Professor Jameson. "I'll get you out of the sea first; then I'll tell you."

Quickly the professor turned to his three-legged allies and briefly explained the situation to them. While he did so, one of the Tripeds gave a sudden exclamation of surprise.

It was true. The machine men had disappeared. So had the yellow haze with its ghostly marine life. The eclipse had passed.

On the planet of the double sun, in the blue and orange dimension, the Tripeds waited anxiously for the return of their companions, who with the machine man, had ventured into the dimension of the Emkls. At regular intervals they set the transition cube's mechanism working. Since Dlb and Ldgz had returned and gone once more with the airships, relating the story of their initial skirmishes with the stilt walkers and the Emkls, there had been no communication or manifestation from the expedition. The Tripeds were becoming a bit impatient, and had nearly decided on sending a new force into the blue dimension to ascertain the reason for the protracted absence of those under Ravlt and Professor Jameson.

Brlx interrupted the plans by calling their attention skyward. "The suns are nearing one another! There will be an eclipse!"

"Don your hypnotic nullifiers!" ordered Glrg. "We'll now be able to see into this other world!"

Above them, the Emkls materialized out of mere nothingness, and with dismal wails and incessant humming flew about over their heads. The Tripeds looked in vain for their friends but could see no trace of them. The eclipse lasted but a short time, and the ghostly shapes of the Emkls became faint, then disappeared. Their dismal wails also became stilled.

Brlx announced that it was time for the transparent cube to be filled with its green glow of light, giving their friends in the blue dimension an opportunity to return to their own world.

Back to Trulfk

Eagerly they watched the cube of green light, seeking the forms of their comrades or the machine man. The emerald luminescence paled a bit. Strange forms commenced to materialize within the cube.

The yells of triumph turned to shouts of surprise and dismay as the forms within the green cube took on definite, distinguishable shape. No three-legged Tripeds or metal machine man occupied the cube's interior. It was literally packed with kicking, struggling Emkls!

"Let them out!" shouted Glrg. "Stand ready to kill them as fast as they emerge!"

Glrg pondered the question which was solved by the outcries of the other Tripeds, all of them brandishing their weapons and demanding the blood of the Emkls.

"Open up!" ordered Glrg. "Let them out! Stand by to destroy each and every one!"

The cube's entrances were both opened at once, the air rushing in with a loud report, throwing the leathern winged Emkls into a conglomerate heap, dazed and bewildered. The Tripeds lined up outside. As the Emkls either flew or walked out one by one, the careful aim of the Tripeds blew them to pieces. The Tripeds were enjoying the sport immensely, especially after their long wait and restricted activity. As the last of the Emkls flew out of the cube and disappeared in several loud reports, there arose a cry for more of the hereditary enemies of the Tripeds.

The cube was immediately emptied of the air which had been admitted, and once more the discs at one end filled the huge compartment with the green glow which so effectually hid everything it encompassed.

Impatiently the Tripeds waited for more victims, their appetite for massacre whetted by this initial onslaught. The green glow was allowed to suffuse the cubic chamber for the allotted time before Brlx ordered it to be dispersed. Gradually the green mists cleared to reveal a huge, bulky object which filled nearly half of the transition cube. It was one of the two airships which Dlb and Ldgz had taken with them into the blue dimension.

"Perhaps it is waiting to come through afterward," suggested Glrg hopefully, attempting to dispel the anxiety he felt. "They might not have had sufficient time to maneuver both into place."

One entire side of the transition cube was lowered to allow the egress of the craft. Professor Jameson was the first one to emerge from the airship as it swung out of the cube.

Then tersely he related their adventures in the blue dimension with a full account of their discovery of his companions, the machine men, imprisoned in the depths of an unscalable pit at the bottom of the ocean.

"When we came back here to the transition cube, we found the Emkls flying in and out of its green haze. The——"

"Yes!" interrupted Glrg. "Some of them came through into this world! We killed them all!"

"The Emkls were so thick that we had to fight our way through them to place the airship within the green light," concluded the machine man.

"These Zoromes—the survivors—your friends!" spoke Glrg in his excitement. "Where do you say they are?"

"At the bottom of the ocean!" stated the professor. "I know the exact spot! We must bring them out!"

The Tripeds' eagerness to bring forth the long lost machine men from the depths of their watery prison was surpassed only by the professor's zeal.

"We had best make the journey in one of the space ships," advised Glrg. "It will float on the water, and we can lower lines to your friends."

"I'm going to descend into the sea on one of the lines," announced Professor Jameson.

They were soon floating in the space ship of the Tripeds above the spot where the professor knew his fellow machine men to be.

"Only a machine man could do that," mused Ravlt in a remark to Glrg as the metal head of Professor Jameson disappeared beneath the surface in a swirl of bubbles.

"He was invincible in the combat with the Emkls," stated another of the Tripeds. "They overpowered him by superior numbers after he had killed many of them."

The Ocean's Secret

Down, ever down, sank the machine man through the yellow, misty waters whose color deepened the lower he went. All the time, the Tripeds above unreeled the line which was sending him to the floor of the watery pit. A yellow phosphorescence replaced the filtered daylight as the machine man plumbed the lower depths of the sea. Soon, he saw the high wall of the pit slide upward and away.

He felt his metal legs bump against the ocean floor, and he gave several yanks on the line to announce his arrival to those above. Instantly he radiated a mental call to the machine men of Zor. He peered through the murky yellowness for a sight of his comrades whom he had supposed dead. Had his metal anatomy been possessed of a heart, it is needless to say that it would have beaten excitedly.

Through the suffused twilight of the yellow gloom there walked slowly toward him four metal forms, seaweed clinging to the waving tentacles. Approaching him were 41C-98, 744U-21, 6W-438 and 29G-75. It was truly amazing! Here in this living grave of the sea's yellow depth these machine men had survived for more than seven hundred years!

"Where are the others?" asked Professor Jameson. "You said there were fifteen survivors."

"Come," stated 6W-438. "We shall go to our underground rendezvous. You will meet the rest—what there is left of them."

Together the five machine men made their way to a cave dug in the side of the pit's wall. At its entrance stood two more of the long lost Zoromes. Professor Jameson noticed in surprise that one of them was possessed of but two tentacles, while his companion limped about on three legs and possessed four tentacles. A greater surprise was in store for the professor as he entered the cavern.

On one side were ranged nine metal heads in a row. The metal eye shutters opened at his approach. Across from the heads, on the other side of the cave, was a conglomeration of worn out metal bodies, legs and tentacles.

"You see," explained 6W-438, "during the time we've been down in this hole, many of our parts have worn out. They wear out many times faster in the water than any place else. Among the fifteen of us we have enough parts left to fully equip four with enough left over to partially outfit two others. We take turns in wearing the tentacles and legs which, of course, have worn out quickest."

"Not that I know of," replied the professor. "Until I found you, I had thought myself the only survivor. How was it that the Emkls did not drive you to death down here?"

"Their hypnotic powers are of no avail to any living creature in the water. That is why the water animals who came out on the islets to wail at the blue sun were rendered immune to the phantoms you call Emkls. Sometimes during an eclipse we see the Emkls flying down here, even as we saw you."

"What about yourself?" queried 20R-654, one of the nine heads ranged in a row upon the cavern floor. "How did you escape the lure of the phantoms?"

"Wait!" begged the professor. "When we are all safely out of here you shall be given a complete, detailed account of everything. It is a long story. The Tripeds are waiting to haul us out of here."

Picking up the nine metal heads, the seven Zoromes made their way to the spot where the professor had descended.

"Within our space ship there are plenty of tentacles, bodies and legs for you," Professor Jameson promised the nine heads.

When they reached the place where Professor Jameson had left the hanging line they found more lines, some of them terminating in large baskets. They could all make the ascent in one trip.

The professor gave the signal to pull up, and this was followed by the rise to the surface. The rescued machine men gave a last, farewell wave of tentacles to the various forms of marine life which curiously regarded their departure.

Upon the surface of the ocean the long lost Zoromes made the acquaintance of the Tripeds. Professor Jameson then narrated an account of all that had taken place since over five hundred years before when 25X-987 had left them in command of the space ship.

Within the wrecked space ship of the machine men, in which the Tripeds had discovered Professor Jameson, the Zoromes reconditioned themselves with the large supply of metal legs, tentacles and cubed bodies. The space craft had even been supplied with a few empty heads.

"How are we to get back to Zor?" asked 744U-21 contemplating the wrecked mechanism of the space ship with a wave of his tentacles. "The space ships of the Tripeds are much too slow for interstellar travel."

"Bring it to our planet of Grvdlen," advised Glrg. "There you will possess the facilities to repair or rebuild your ship of space."

"The blue dimension is infested by countless millions, perhaps billions, of the Emkls. At a later date, more of the Tripeds will return to the first planet and wipe them out systematically and scientifically, now that our successful pioneering expedition has paved the way."

The sixteen Zoromes resided upon the second planet of the double sun for nearly four years, rebuilding their space ship. When they left for the general direction of distant Zor, their number was increased to twenty. Four of the Tripeds had become machine men, having had their brains removed to the metal heads of the machines. Glrg, Ravlt, Jbf and Brlx were no longer counted among the ranks of the Tripeds.

Manned by the twenty Zoromes, the space ship left the solar system of the double sun, speeding rapidly toward the far off stars and new adventures.