by the tiers of glowing things, one of the men started slowlyforward with a hand outstretched as though to touch one of the cells.His advance aroused Layroh to swift action. The bronze-faced giantwhirled and swung the nozzles of the black ray projector into line withthe man.
"Back, _yaharigan_, back!" he ordered imperiously. "The Shining Oneshave slumbered, undisturbed for a thousand centuries. They shall notawake from their long sleep to find the filthy fingers of a _yaharigan_defiling their crystal cells. Back!"
Panic-stricken at the threat of the black ray, the man stumbled backwardto join his fellows. Layroh's startling statement of the incredible ageof the shining things in the cases erased all thought of theexpedition's code of rules from Foster's mind.
"You mean that those--those _things_--moved and lived in the outsideworld a hundred thousand years ago?" he asked dazedly. "But there is noindication of there ever having been any such creatures among Earth'searly forms of life."
* * * * *
"Fool!" There was angry disdain in Layroh's resonant voice. "They whoslumber here are a race born far from this planet. They are the ShiningOnes of Rikor. Rikor is a tiny planet circling a wandering sun whoseorbit is an ellipse so vast that only once in a hundred thousand yearsdoes it approach your solar system. Rikor's sun was nearly dead and theShining Ones had to find a new home soon or else perish. Then theirplanet swung near the Earth, and their scouts returned with the newsthat Earth was ideally suited for their purpose. There were barely fivehundred of the Shining Ones all told, and they migrated to Earth in abody."
"And they've been in this cavern ever since, sealed up like tadpoles infish bowls?" The question came from Garrigan, a strapping sandy-hairedIrishman whose first blind panic at the black ray's menace was swiftlygiving way to curiosity.
"It was your ancestors who drove the Shining Ones into their retreathere," Layroh answered grimly. "When the Shining Ones arrived upon Earththey found the planet already in the possession of a race of humanbeings whose science was so far advanced that it compared favorably evenwith the science of Rikor. This race was comparatively few in numbers,and was concentrated upon a small island-continent known as Atlantis.Shining Ones and Atlanteans met in a war of titans, with a planet as thestake. The Shining Ones were vanquished in that first battle. They losta fifth of their number and barely half a dozen of their smallest spaceships escaped destruction.
* * * * *
"Planning a new and decisive assault, the Shining Ones planted atomicmines throughout the foundations of Atlantis. But the Atlanteans struckfirst by a matter of hours. At a set moment every volcanic vent on theEarth's surface belched forth colossal volumes of a green gas. Thoughthat gas was harmless to creatures of Earth, it meant slow but certaindeath to all Rikorians. Furiously the Shining Ones struck their ownblow, setting off the cataclysmic explosion that sank Atlantis foreverbeneath the waters of the Atlantic. Scarcely a handful of Atlanteansescaped, but Rikor's victory was a hollow one. Earth's air was sothoroughly poisoned that it would require centuries of slow ionizationby sunlight to again make it fit for Rikorian breathing. The ShiningOnes had at most three months before the slow poison would weaken theirbodies to the danger point."
"Why didn't they go back to their own planet, then, where theybelonged?" broke in the truculent voice of Garrigan again.
"That was impossible," Layroh answered impatiently. "The few space shipsthey had left would carry barely a score, and Rikor's sun was already sofar advanced in its swing away from Earth that there would be time foronly one trip. There was only one chance for survival remaining to them.They knew of a process of suspended animation in which their bodiescould survive almost indefinitely without being harmed by the Atlanteangas. They would require outside aid to be awakened from that dormantstate, so a small group of them must remain active and embark for Rikor,to try to survive there until Rikor returned near enough to the Earthfor them to again cross the void.
* * * * *
"The dormant ones must have a retreat so well hidden that they would notbe disturbed during the thousand centuries that must elapse before theycould be awakened. The Shining Ones sped back to their base on the NorthAmerican continent and in the three months remaining to them theyprepared this cavern here in the heart of the mountain. Radium bulbssupplied its light. For the unfailing source of electrical energy neededto course through the dormant bodies and keep them alive they tapped themagnetic field of the planet itself, the force produced as the Earthrotates in the sun's electrical field like an armature spinning withinthe coils of a dynamo."
It was Foster who broke in with the question that was in the thoughts ofthe entire party. "Just where do _you_ come in on all this?" he askedbluntly. "And what was your reason for bringing us here?"
There was blazing contempt in Layroh's rich voice as he turned towardFoster. "_Yaharigan_ of Earth!" he jeered. "Your brain is as stupid asthe feeble brains of those true _yaharigans_ of Rikor whose physicalstructure your human bodies so closely resemble. Have you not guessedyet that I am no contemptible creature of Earth--that this human shell Iwear is nothing but a cleverly contrived disguise? Look, _yaharigans_,look upon the real face of the one who has come to restore the Earth toits rightful masters!"
With a single swift movement, Layroh snatched the colored goggles fromhis face and flung them aside. There was a smothered gasp of horror fromthe group. They saw now why Layroh had always worn those concealinglenses. There were no eyes in that bronzed face, nothing but two emptysockets. And from deep within the skull there glowed through thosegaping sockets a seething pool of lurid red--the nucleus spot of aShining One!
* * * * *
Reeling backward with the rest of the men from the horror of the glowingthing within the skull, Foster dazedly heard Layroh's resonant voicering exultantly on: "My ancestors were among the twenty Shining Ones whoremained active. After placing their comrades in their long sleep thosetwenty survivors set up signal apparatus in the cavern so that it couldbe found again no matter how much the outside terrain might change. Thenthey filled in the entrance tunnel with synthetic rock and embarked forRikor.
"There upon that dying planet generations passed. When the time camethat Rikor's sun again neared Earth, so rigorous had life become uponRikor that only six Rikorians remained alive. In order to increase ourchances of winning through on the perilous trip to Earth, each of ustraveled in a separate space ship. The precaution was well taken. Weencountered a dense cloud of meteors near Alpha Centauri and I was theonly survivor."
Layroh gestured briefly toward the rows of many-armed metal engines."There are the normal vehicles for a Shining One's body--armoredmachines powered by sub-atomic motors and with appendages equipped forevery task of peace or war. This synthetic human figure which I now wearwas donned only in order that I might have no difficulty in minglingwith Earthmen while I sought the cavern. It is an exact replica of thebody of an Atlantean, including artificial vocal chords. Even thecolored goggles necessary to hide the glowing red of my nucleus aresimilar to those worn by Atlantean scientists while working with theirray machines--"
* * * * *
Layroh was abruptly interrupted by a scream of maniacal fury from Olsen,a shambling Swede who stood near the edge of the group. Ever sinceLayroh's unmasking the Swede had been staring at him with eyes rigidlywide in terror like those of a bird confronting a snake. The steadycontemplation of the horror of the blaring red thing behind Layroh'sempty eye-sockets had apparently at last driven the Swede completelyinsane. He snatched a revolver from his belt as he leaped forward, andfired once. His shot struck Layroh in the forehead.
The bullet ripped through the surface of Layroh's face, then glancedharmlessly aside as it struck metal underneath. Layroh never evenstaggered from the impact. The black ray from the projector caught Olsenbefore he could fire again. There was a searing flash of flame, then aswiftly melting cloud of blu
e-white radiance, and the Swede was gone.
Layroh swung the projector back to menace the others. "I had forgottenthat _yaharigans_ of Earth have weapons that might be annoying," he saidevenly. "Two more of you have pistols--Garrigan and Ransome. Toss themaway from you at once. Hesitate--and the black ray speaks again."
Sullenly the two men obeyed his order.
"Good," commended Layroh. "In the pits where you are going you will havelittle use for pistols. When I again take you from those pits you willquickly learn why I brought you with me. _Yaharigans_, I have calledyou, and _yaharigans_ you shall be--Earthly counterparts of thosemiserable beasts of Rikor who have for ages been bred only for the onepurpose of supplying food for the Shining Ones. I knew that