eyes were as cold as the wintry seas, Gerry Nortonwaited the onrush of the three Venusians.
There were a few seconds of clashing steel. The reptile men were goodswordsmen, but they were no match for the speed and strength of the Manfrom Earth. Two of them were stretched on the ground with cloven skulls,and then the last survivor turned and ran. Gerry could have caught himeasily, for the webbed feet of the Venusian did not make for greatspeed, but he was content to let him go.
When the scaly tail of the fleeing creature had vanished in theunderbrush, Gerry thrust his sword upright in the ground--where it wouldbe handy if he needed it again in a hurry--and freed the golden-hairedgirl from her bonds.
"I wonder where _you_ fit into this picture, Bright Eyes!" he muttered,knowing she would not understand.
There was certainly nothing of the shrinking violet about this girl!When her hands were free she faced Gerry without any sign of either fearor even much gratitude, standing erect with her hands on her hips andher eyes nearly on a level with his own.
"_Jaro quimtar_--who are you?" she asked in Martian.
* * * * *
Gerry stared at her in startled surprise. The girl had unquestionablyspoken in Martian. It was a very old and antique form of the languagethat she used, a dialect that had not been heard on Mars itself forcountless generations, but it was possible for Gerry to understand it.The last thing he had expected to find on this planet of Venus wasanyone who spoke one of the tongues common on the Outer Planets!
"I'm Gerry Norton," he said.
"Geree!" the girl repeated. "You talk funny."
"Same to you, sister," Gerry grinned. "And just who are you, anyway?"
"I am Closana, of course, the daughter of Rupin-Sang!" the girl saidhaughtily. "Don't you see the Golden Arrow?"
She touched a small golden arrow that hung from a light chain about herneck. It seemed to be some kind of an insignia of rank. Her deep blueeyes were looking at him thoughtfully.
"You wear queer clothes, Geree," she said at last. "Where do you comefrom?"
"From Earth."
She frowned.
"Where is that? Is it one of the lands beyond the Great Sea?"
"Much farther away than that. It's another planet, far off in outerspace."
"You lie," she said. "Such a thing is not possible."
"Okay, sister," Gerry snapped, "we won't argue about that right now.Who were your unpleasant friends here? What do we do next?"
Closana walked across to take the sword of one of the slain Reptilians.She tested its balance, seemed satisfied, and then belted the scabbardabout her own waist. She handled the long blade with the experiencedease of a warrior, and for the first time Gerry noticed the play ofcorded muscles beneath the smooth and tawny skin of her arms andshoulders. Closana, daughter of Rupin-Sang, was feminine enough butthere was nothing of the clinging vine about her! She threw her longhair back over her shoulders and faced Gerry with the sword in her hand.
"You should have killed the last of the Scaly Ones," she said, "insteadof letting him get away. Now he will bring the whole raiding party downon us."
"Who are they, those things you call the Scaly Ones?"
"Their region lies beyond the frontier of our land of Savissa," the girlexplained. "We are near the boundaries now. There is constant warfarebetween ourselves and the Scaly Ones. Now and then their raiding partiesbreak through our ring of barrier forts, and it was a group of fivehundred such raiders that captured me this morning. That one who escapedwill bring the rest back with him."
"Then I guess we'll need help!" Gerry said grimly.
* * * * *
There was a two-way, short-wave radio set built into his helmet. Hereached up to adjust the switch, then flashed the alarm signal. A fewseconds later he heard the answering voice of Portok the Martian, whowas in command of the nearest of the _Viking's_ exploring parties.
"Jumping ray-blasts, Chief, we were wondering what had happened to you!"
"Guide on my transmitter and get here as soon as you can!" Gerrysnapped. "Hurry!"
A few minutes later they saw a glint of armor through the trees, andthen the half dozen members of the exploring party emerged into theclearing. Their eyes were wide with surprise as they saw Closanastanding beside Gerry.
"Who's your yellow-haired friend, Chief?" Portok asked with a broadgrin. He had spoken in Martian, the two tongues being practicallyinterchangeable with the men of the Interplanetary Fleet. Closana's eyesflashed fire.
"Speak of me with more respect, little Red-face!" she snapped. Portok'sjaw sagged open, but before he could say anything further the underbrushon the far side of the clearing suddenly vomited a yelling horde of theScaly Ones.
They came in close-packed masses, yelping shrilly. Their scaly skins andthe blades of their swords gleamed in the subdued yellow light.Evidently bent on capture of the small group of strangers, they were notusing their gas-guns.
"Keep together! Fall back toward the ship!" Gerry roared, drawing thesword he had captured earlier in the day.
There was a sharp crackle of ray-blasts as the Earth-men fell backbefore the charging horde of the Scaly Ones. The short hand-tubes weresoon exhausted, but the heavy ray-guns carried by two of the men firedsteadily. Murky light continually played about their stubby muzzles.Dozens of the Scaly Ones dropped, twitching, in the tall grass beforethe deadly blast of the rays, but the shouting hordes came on unchecked.And then a bugle sounded somewhere off on the flank!
"Now, you scaly devils!" Closana screamed, facing about and waving thesword high above her head, "The frontier guards have arrived!"
Long lines of warriors charged out through the bushes to take thereptile men on the flank. The front line of skirmishers carried heavybows and had quivers of arrows slung on their backs, the ranks behindwere armed with shields and spears. Rank by rank and company by companythey came, nearly a thousand strong, the ringing clamor of brazentrumpets urging them onward. Gerry Norton stared at them blankly,scarcely able to believe what he saw. All the warriors were women!
They were tall and clean-limbed, with long golden hair that streamedbehind them as they ran. Like Closana, they wore bright-colored loincloths and had round gold plates fastened across their breasts. Themight of the Golden Amazons of Venus swept forward like a giant wave,with a spray of tossing spear points above it. Then the trumpetssounded again, and the arrow storm began.
The front ranks loosed their long shafts swiftly, and the air becamefull of the twang of bow-strings and hiss of speeding arrows. A shoutingofficer of the Scaly Ones went down with a pair of shafts feathered inhis chest. His men were dropping all about him as the gold-tipped arrowsstruck home.
* * * * *
The reptile men were using their gas-guns now. The sharp hiss of thedischarges rose above the twang of the bow-strings, the snap of theexploding bullets was like a crackle of old-fashioned musketry. Theprojectiles ripped holes in the front ranks of the Amazons, but theystill came bounding forward. Then the sharp reports of the explodingbullets died away, for the gas-guns were cumbersome things to re-chargeand there was no time. The two lines met with a clash of steel.
Gerry Norton had thrown his armoured Earth-men and Martians as a guardaround Closana when she ran toward the center of the Amazon line. On twooccasions small parties of the Scaly Ones cut their way through theguarding spears to reach them, and each time the blast of the heavyray-guns mowed them down. The clatter of meeting blades was like thenoise of a thousand smithies, the shrill yelping of the reptile men wasdrowned out by the triumphant blast of the Amazon trumpets. The ScalyOnes were giving back all along the line, under pressure of superiornumbers and the greater agility of the lithe Amazons.
Gerry fought with the long, blue-bladed sword in his hand and the shieldof a fallen Amazon on his left arm. With the greater strength of hisearthly muscles, he raged through the fighting while his heavy bladewrought deadly execution. And then it was ov
er! The Scaly Ones broke upinto scores of fleeing groups and fresh companies of Amazons bounded inpursuit with their long bows twanging. Closana leaned on her drippingblade and held out her hand.
"It was a good fight, Geree. I think I will take you for my husband."
"I think," Gerry said, "We'll just leave that idea for discussion someother time."
* * * * *
The fleeing survivors of the Scaly Ones had gone, with companies oflight armed Amazons in hot pursuit. The others were tending the woundedand gathering up the dead, picking up fallen weapons, doing all theroutine tasks that are the aftermath of battle. Closana was nowsurrounded by a body-guard of tall, blonde Amazons whose loin-clothsbore the same design of a golden arrow-head as her own.
"I think," she said to Gerry, "that you should come to see my fatherRupin-Sang, who is ruler of this land."
Quite a thinker, decided Gerry.
"We can take you there in the ship if you show us the way," he saidshortly.
A horde of Amazons thronged around the big blue-and-silver hull of the_Viking_ where she lay in the knee-high grass. As the members of thelanding party filed on board and turned their ray-tubes in to theOrdnance Officer to be recharged, the other members of the crew came outto stare at the visitors. Angus McTavish stood on the steps of theladder with his big fists on his hips.
"Will ye look at all the bonny lassies!" he said, "This may not be sucha bad planet after all."
The feminine warriors of Venus saw McTavish then, and a sudden murmurswept over the throng. An instant later a hundred blades flashed in theair in salute, and then all the Amazons dropped down on one knee.
"Now what the devil...?" muttered Steve Brent who had come out of theship just behind McTavish.
"Just a proper tribute to my outstanding personality, lad!" the big Scotmuttered aside. Closana read the surprise in Gerry Norton's eyes.
"There are few men in this land of Savissa," she explained, "And thewearing of a beard is the sign of a noble of the highest rank."
"Wonder how long it will take me to grow a good crop of whiskers!" Stevesaid.
Closana and a dozen of her body-guard came aboard, looking curiouslyabout them. As the Venusian princess walked into the control room shecame face to face with Olga Stark. For a long moment the two womenstood looking at each other, their clashing glances hard and intent. Thegolden Venusian and the dark haired Earthling. Then Closana shrugged andturned away.
"I do not like her," she said calmly. A slow flush spread over OlgaStark's face, and her eyes smoldered, but she did not answer.
With helicopters spinning, the _Viking_ rose a thousand feet in the air.Then she moved ahead at minimum cruising speed. Closana stood at one ofthe control room windows to point the way.
* * * * *
It was a strange land that they saw moving past below them, though apleasant one. There were rolling uplands, and patches of forest, andoccasional villages surrounded by broad tilled fields. Except for theyellowish tinge to the vegetation, and the odd shapes of the trees, itmight have been an Earthly countryside. Then Gerry noticed anotherthing! Though it was broad daylight, as bright as it could become onthis planet, there were no shadows at all. The diffusing effect of theeternal cloud barrier kept the light equal on all sides.
"The Land of No Shadow!" he said aloud. For the first time in this busyday he thought of the fact that they were forty million miles from home.If anything happened to the _Viking_, they would spend the rest of theirlives here.
They passed some of the barrier forts, square and stone walled buildingsreminiscent of medieval castles on Earth. In the misty hills beyond,Closana told Gerry, lay the country of the Scaly Ones.
"What is it like?" he asked. She shrugged, but her eyes were shadowed.
"All I know about it is legend, the sort of tales that old women tell inthe evenings. Many of our people have been taken there as prisoners inraids, but none has ever returned alive."
Leaving Steve Brent in command in the control room for the moment, Gerrywent aft to his quarters where he had a compact Tri-dimensional-cinemaoutfit. He was passing along one of the corridors on B-deck when heabruptly halted. A faint humming was coming from behind the closed doorof the radio room!
The _Viking's_ sending outfit was not strong enough to bridge thevastness of interplanetary space. Such outfits existed, of course, butonly a small set had been installed on the space-ship because of theextra weight involved. The radio room had been closed and locked weeksago. No one was supposed to have access to it except Steve Brent andGerry himself. And yet--the unmistakable hum of a generator was comingfrom behind the closed door!
Gerry cautiously tested the knob of the door. It gave under his hand. Ashe opened the portal a crack, he clearly heard the sharp murmur of thesending apparatus. Then he swung the door wide on its noiseless and welloiled hinges. A dim light gleamed across the room! A dark figure wascrouched tensely over the table that held the sending set. At the momentGerry could not see who it was.
Two steps Gerry took into the room. Three steps. The rubberoid soles ofhis shoes made no sound. Then a crushing weight descended on top of hishead! In the half second before he lost consciousness, he realized thatthere had been a second interloper in the radio room. Someone who hadbeen crouching against the wall by the door, and who had slugged him ashe passed.
* * * * *
When consciousness returned to Gerry Norton, he was lying alone on thefloor of the darkened radio room. He sat up, and rubbed his aching head,and swore softly. There was no sign of the interlopers, nor any clue totheir identity.
The whole incident puzzled him. His assailants must have been from amongthe _Viking's_ crew. That was surprising enough in itself, but there wasalso the problem of motive. Why would anybody be sending a secretmessage when there was no receiving set within millions of miles? Thething just didn't make sense.
Closing the radio room behind him Gerry went back to the control-roomand drew Steve Brent aside.
"Look here, Steve! I just found someone sending a secret message outover the radio, and got knocked on the head before I could see who itwas."
"You must have been reading some of those funny old Twentieth Centurygangster yarns of evil deeds!" Steve grinned.
"I'm serious. That really happened." Gerry snapped. The grin faded fromBrent's freckled face.
"Then it must have been Chester Sand," he said promptly.
"Why do you say that?"
Brent shrugged.
"Because he's the only man aboard that I don't know too well tosuspect."
"Interesting logic," Gerry grunted, "But we can't lock a man up on suchnegative grounds. Keep your eyes open. I'm going to try to sweat someinformation out of someone as soon as we get through this ceremony ofvisiting the king of this place."
* * * * *
Women working in the fields looked up as the _Viking_ passed, lifting ahand to shade their eyes as they stared aloft at the soaring space-ship.Other women drove small carts along the white roads that wound throughthe fields. There did not seem to be any men in this land at all. Then,along the far horizon ahead, there began to lift the domes and towersand minarets of a mighty city. Closana proudly lifted her arm.
"The Golden City of Larr!" she said, "Capitol of our land of Savissa.None but our own people have ever penetrated those walls except asprisoners of war."
The walled city of Larr dominated the plain in all its towered splendor.Its walls of polished yellow stone were more than a hundred feet high.The serrated battlements at the top were faced with plates of thin gold.Domes of blue and scarlet gleamed within the walls. Slender minaretslifted their lattices high in the air. In the center was a massive roundtower whose top was shaped like the point of a golden arrow.
"But surely your people never built this place!" he gasped. Closanashook her head.
"The city was not built by my people as they are now. L
arr, the GoldenCity, is very ancient. It was built by the Old Ones--they who lived herelong ago, in the dim dawn of time. I have forgotten most of the tale butmy father can tell you."
As they passed over the outer walls, Gerry saw some long steel tubesmounted on swivels above the battlements. They were protected bygleaming metal shields. He touched Closana's arm.
"What are those things that look like giant ray-guns?"
"Those are the defences of the walls," the girl answered, "We also havethem at the barrier forts. In some way they send out rays of heat thatburn and shrivel all things within reach. I do not know much about them,but my father can tell you."
"Looks like he's going to tell me a lot of things," Gerry said. Closanashook back her long hair and looked at him thoughtfully for a moment.
"Yes, Geree. He will also tell you why you had better marry me as Isuggested."
"I told you we'd have to let that subject wait till later!" he saidgrimly. Steve Brent prodded him gently in the ribs.
"Persistent souls, these Golden Amazons!" he said in English.
* * * * *
The appearance of the _Viking_ in the air over Larr created a mountingexcitement among the citizens of the city. Through the open windows ofthe control room Gerry could hear the brazen clamor of many trumpets,sounding the alarm. Crowds appeared on the roofs. Arrows streaked up atthe space-ship, futile shafts that fell short of the mark. As theyneared the central tower, gun crews swarmed about two of the ray-tubes.Knowing the resisting power of the _Viking's_ duralite hull, Gerry