understand," said Sylvaunsteadily with the speech-light receiver at her ear.
* * * * *
Flash--flash--flash.... Thorn kept on grimly. The canteen top wasslightly convex, so the sunlight-beam would spread. Accuracy was notneeded, therefore. He covered and uncovered it, and covered anduncovered it....
"They answered!" said Sylva eagerly. "They said 'Thorn Hard report atonce!'"
There was a hissing, roaring noise over the hillside, where the redrocket-ship lay. Thorn paid no attention. He began to spell out, ingrim satisfaction:
"R-o-c-k-e-t s-h-i-p i-s--"
"Look out!" gasped Sylva. "They say look out, Thorn!"
Then she screamed. As Thorn swung his head around, he saw a dense massof white vapor rushing over the hillside toward them. He picked Sylvaup in his arms and ran madly....
The white vapor tugged at his knees. It was a variation of avortex-stream. He fought his way savagely toward higher ground. Thewhite vapor reached his waist.... It reached his shoulders.... Heslung Sylva upon his shoulder and fought more madly still to get outof the wide white current.... It submerged him in its stinging, bitterflood.... As he felt himself collapsing his last conscious thought wasthe bitter realization that the bulbous white tower had upheldtelevision lenses at its top, which had watched his approach andinspection of the rocket-ship, and had enabled those in the redmonster to accurately direct their spurt of gas.
His next sensation was that of pain in his lungs. Something thatsmarted intolerably was being forced into his nostrils, and he battledagainst the agony it produced. And then he heard someone chuckleamusedly and felt the curious furry sensation of electric anesthesiabeginning....
* * * * *
When he came to himself again a machine was clicking erratically andthere was the soft whine of machinery going somewhere. He opened hiseyes and saw red all about him. He stirred, and he was free.Painfully, he sat up and blinked about him with streaming,gas-irritated eyes. He had been lying on a couch. He was in a roomperhaps fifteen feet by twenty, of which the floor was slightlyoff-level. And everything in the room was red. Floor and walls andceiling, the couch he had lain on and the furniture itself. There wasa monstrous bulk of a man sitting comfortably in a chair on the otherside of the room, pecking at a device resembling a writing-machine.
Thorn sat still for an instant, gaining strength. Then he flunghimself desperately across the room, his fingers curved into talons.
Five feet, ten, with the slant of the floor giving him addedimpetus.... Then his muscles tightened convulsively. A wave of pureagony went through his body. He dropped and lay writhing on the floor,while the high-frequency currents of an induction-screen had their waywith him. He was doubled into a knot by his muscles responding to theelectric stimulus instead of his will. Sheer anguish twisted him. Andthe room filled with a hearty bellow of laughter. The monstrouswhiskered man had turned about and was shaking with merriment.
He picked up a pocket-gun from beside him and turned off a switch athis elbow. Thorn's muscles were freed.
"Go back, my friendt," boomed the same voice that had come from aspeaker the night before. "Go to der couch. You amuse me and you haffalready been useful, but I shall haff no hesitation in killing you.You are Thorn Hardt. My name is Kreynborg. How do you do?"
"Where's my friend?" demanded Thorn savagely. "Where is she?"
"Der lady friendt? There!" The whiskered man pointed negligently withthe pocket-gun. "I gafe her a bunk to slumber in."
* * * * *
There was a niche in the wall, which Thorn had not seen. Sylva wasthere, sleeping the same heavy, dreamless sleep from which Thornhimself had just awakened. He went to her swiftly. She was breathingnaturally, though tears from the irritating gas still streaked herface and her skin seemed to be pinkened a little from the same cause.
Thorn swung around. His weapons were gone, of course. The huge mansnapped on the induction-screen switch again and put down his weapon.With that screen separating the room into two halves, no living thingcould cross it without either such muscular paralysis as Thorn hadjust experienced, or death. Coils in the floor induced alternatingcurrents in the flesh itself, very like those currents used forsupposed medical effects in "medical batteries," and "shockers."
"Be calm!" said Kreynborg, chuckling. "I am pleased to haff company.This is der loneliest spot in der Rockies. It was chosen for thatreason. But I shall be here for maybe months, and now I shall not belonely. We of der Com-Pubs haff scientific resources such as yourfools haff nefer dreamed of, but there is no scientific substitute fora pretty woman."
He turned again to the writing device. It clicked half a dozen timesmore, and he stopped. A strip of paper came out of it. He inserted itinto the slot of another mechanism and switched on a standard G.C.phone as the paper began to feed. In seconds the room was filled withunearthly hoots and wails and whistles. They came from the device intowhich the paper was feeding, and they poured into the G.C.transmitter. They went on for nearly a minute, and ceased. Kreynborgshut off the transmitter.
"My code," he observed comfortably, "gifing der good news toStalingrad. Everything is going along beautifully. I roused der fairSylva and kissed her a few times to make her scream into a record, andI interpolated her screamings into der last code transmission. Yourwise men think der Martians haff vivisected her. They areconcentrating der entire fighting force of der United Nations outsideder dome of force. And all for a few kisses!"
* * * * *
Thorn was white with rage. His eyes burned with a terrible fury. Hishands shook. Kreynborg chuckled again.
"Oh, she is unharmed--so far. I haff not much time now. Presently dertwo of you will while away der time. But not now."
He switched on the G.C. receiver and the room filled with a multitudeof messages. Thorn sat beside Sylva, watching, watching, watching,while invisible machinery whined softly and Kreynborg listenedintently to the crisp, curt official reports that came through on theFighting Force band. Three combat-squadrons were on the spot now;One, Three and Eight. Four more were coming at fast cruisingspeed--four hundred miles an hour. One combat-squadron of the wholefleet alone would be left to cope with all other emergencies thatmight arise.... A television screen lighted up and Thorn could seewhere the lenses on the bulbous tower showed the air all about filledwith fighting-planes, hovering about the dome of force like mothsbeating their wings against a screen. The strongest fighting-force inthe world, helpless against a field of electric energy!
"It is amusing," chuckled Kreynborg, looking at the screencomplacently. "Der dome of force is a new infention. It is aheterodyning of one frequency upon another at a predetermineddistance. It has all der properties of matter except mass and a limitof strength. There is no limit to its strength! But it cannot be madeexcept in a sphere, so at first it seemed only a defensif weapon. Withit, we could defy der United Nations to attack us. But we wished to domore. So I proposed a plan, and I haff der honor of carrying it out.If I fail, Krassin disavows me. But I shall not fail, and I shall endas Commissar for der continent of North America!"
* * * * *
He looked wisely at Thorn, who sat motionless.
"You keep quiet, eh, and wait for me to say something indiscreet?Ferry well, I tell you. We are in a sort of gold-fish globe ofelectric force. Your air fleet cannot break in. You know that! Also,if they were in they could not break out again. So I wait, ferypatiently pretending to be a Martian until all your Fighting Force hasgathered around in readiness to fight me. But I shall not fight. Ishall simply make a new and larger gold-fish globe, outside of thisone. And then I go out and make faces at der Fighting Force of derUnited Nations imprisoned between der two of them--and then derCom-Pub fleet comes ofer!"
He stood up and put his hand on a door-knob.
"Is it not pretty?" he asked blandly. "In two weeks der air fleet willbegin to starfe. In three, th
ere will be cannibalism, unless derCom-Pubs accept der surrender. Imagine...." He laughed. "But do notfear, my friendt! I haff profisions for a year. If you are amusing, Ifeed you. In any case I exchange food for kisses with der charmingSylva. It will be amusing to change her from a woman who screams as Ikiss her, to one who weeps for joy. If I do not haff to kill you, youshall witness it!"
He vanished through a doorway on the farther side of the room.Instantly Thorn was on his feet. The dead slumber in which Sylva wassunk was wholly familiar. Electric anesthesia, used not only forsurgery, but to enforce complete rest at any chosen moment. He draggedher from that couch to his own. He saw her stir, and her eyes wereinstantly wide with terror. But Thorn was tearing the couch to pieces.Cover, pneumatic mattress.... He ripped out a loosely-fittingframe-piece of steel.
"Quick, now," he