the face of a cliff, they saw the answer to a mysterythat had puzzled the civilized world for two years.
It was the wreck of the space-ship _Stardust_. She lay at the foot of acliff across the valley, her steel and duralite hull still gleamingbrightly through the thick green creepers that had grown up around it.Even from this distance Gerry could see the hopelessly crumpledrocket-tubes at the stern, and the gaping holes where plates had beenripped away to make the submarine that had brought them out of the cityof Larr.
"So that was the end of the _Stardust_!" Gerry muttered. "I wonder whathappened to her crew!"
"We'll probably find out soon enough!" McTavish replied grimly. "I'llbet all the gold in Savissa against an empty rocket-oil tin that we'reheaded for the same fate right now."
"Poor devils--I suppose the Scaly Ones did get them. I never likedWalter Lansing, as you know, but I could have wished him better luckthan this!"
At last they crossed the hills and saw a broad valley before them. Dimand snow-capped mountains notched the yellow sky on the far side of theValley. A river wound through the plain, and on the shore of the saffronwaters of a mighty lake they saw the gray walls of a city. Toll, thereptilian captain, pointed across the valley.
"Yonder lies the city of Vaaka-hausen. Soon you will stand before theLord Lansa, and then," he added with a grim and ghoulish humor, "neitherI nor anybody else will be bothered with you any more."
The countryside immediately around the city of the Scaly Ones was betterkept and more cultivated than what they had seen of the rest ofGiri-Vaaka. There were a number of small villages. Then they passed inthrough the walls, gray stone ramparts that seemed to be very old andwere in poor repair. The muzzles of heavy caliber gas-guns peered overthe battlements here and there.
The crowds in the streets stared curiously as Toll led his prisonerstoward the center of the city. Tall reptile men swaggered through thecrowds with their swords slung on their hips, but the shorter Green Menwere in the great majority. Most of them, men and women alike, stared atthe captives without any particular sign of emotion. This gray andcrowded city of Vaaka-hausen had none of the atmosphere of pleasantfriendliness that Gerry had noticed in Larr. It seemed a place of fearand oppression.
* * * * *
The palace of the ruler of the Scaly Ones was a squat gray building inthe center of the city. An arm of the river swept along beneath onewall, with the muddy waters lapping at the aged gray stones. An irongate swung aside to let the newcomers into the courtyard. Men who woreblack metal breast-plates over their scales took over the prisoners fromToll, leading them down a long flight of stairs into the dungeonsbeneath the palace. They waited in a vaulted chamber where the onlylight was a shaft of yellow radiance that came from a narrow slit highup near the ceiling.
"It won't be long now!" Gerry muttered.
Then a gong sounded somewhere nearby. It was a very resonant anddeep-throated gong, and instantly the rock-walled chamber became filledwith a green light. It had no visible source, seeming to come from thewalls or from the very air itself. Again the gong rolled.
"The Lord Lansa comes!" barked the captain of the guards, "the overlordof Venus is at hand. Down on your knees, captives and slaves."
Closana went to her knees, though otherwise holding herself proudlyerect with her hands tied behind her back. In the greenish light herlong blonde hair looked like molten gold. Angus McTavish mutteredsavagely in his beard and stayed on his feet. Instantly one of thereptile guards drew his sword and held the blade horizontally behind theScot's knees.
"Kneel--or I cut the tendons!" he snapped.
"Come down, you stiff-necked idiot!" Gerry growled. With a muttered oathAngus dropped to his knees, and the guard stepped back into line.
Then the door opened, and three men came slowly into the room. Two weregray-scaled guards who carried their gas-guns cocked and ready. Thethird was a tall man in a loose green robe. His head was hooded, so thatnothing of his face could be seen at all, his hands were tucked in thesleeves of his robe. There was something deadly and almost grotesqueabout that silent figure. Gerry knew that at last he was in the presenceof Lansa, Lord of the Scaly Ones and ruler of Giri-Vaaka, self-styledOverlord of all Venus!
* * * * *
The seconds passed in silence. The guards were frozen motionless atattention. At last Lansa spoke, his voice coming hollowly from theshadows of his hood.
"Take them to the cells. Their doom shall be decided when the SerpentGods have spoken. I have ordered it!"
The tyrant of Venus gestured sharply, and the guards closed in about theprisoners. For a fleeting instant Gerry had a glimpse of a thin greenhand, a hand where the finger was missing at the second joint. ThenLansa went out and the door closed behind him. The deeply resonant gongsounded again, and the pulsating green light instantly vanished so thatthere was again no light except for the thin trickle of yellow radiancethat came in the single high window. The prisoners were pulled to theirfeet.
There was no chance to speak to Angus or Closana again. Gerry's guardsled him down a narrow corridor, past the steel doors of cells. It wasvery dim and silent. From some of the cells he heard a faint rattle ofchains, from others a low groaning. Otherwise there was no sound buttheir own footfalls. At last the guards opened the door of a cell,pushed Gerry inside, and cut the ropes that bound his arms. As theyslammed the heavy steel door behind them he heard the rasp of bolts.Then the slapping tread of the guards' webbed feet died away and he wasleft alone.
Dim as the light in the corridor had been, that in the cell was so muchless that Gerry had to wait half a minute before he could see at all.Then he made out the outlines of a small, bare cell with a bunk made ofa light and flexible metal at one side. There was nothing else in theplace. Gerry rubbed his wrists a moment to restore circulation, then satdown on the edge of the bunk and dropped his head in his hands.
He seemed to be about at the end of his trail. Well--that was fate. Hedid not mind so much for himself and Angus. You knew you were takingrisks when you signed up for interplanetary travel in the first place!But he was sorry that Closana had been dragged into it.
Gerry had now lost all hope of rescue by the _Viking_. He did not doubtthat her duralite hull could withstand the explosive bullets of even theheaviest caliber gas-guns, nor that her three-inch ray-tubes could blasta way into these underground dungeons in a few minutes. If only SteveBrent knew where to come! That was the rub. There was now no way forBrent to learn where the prisoners were being held, and he could notsearch all the land of Giri-Vaaka.
Something small and furtive was moving about on the floor a few feetaway. Gerry scuffed his feet on the stones, and the creature scamperedquickly away. Probably a rat! It seemed that he was going to havepleasant company during his stay in this place.
Restless and gloomy, Gerry stood up again. He started to walk up anddown the few feet that the length of his cell allowed him. Then he frozemotionless! A faint tapping was sounding from somewhere to his left.Someone was knocking lightly on the wall of the adjoining cell. Then avoice spoke softly in Martian.
"You there! You in the next cell! Can you hear me?"
* * * * *
Gerry knelt down on the damp floor and put his head close to the base ofthe wall. Now he could hear the man more clearly, could even hear hisheavy breathing. Gerry's groping fingers found a place between two ofthe stones where the mortar had been picked away to leave a small airspace.
"Yes, I hear you!" he called softly. He heard a dry chuckle.
"Good! I have been waiting a long time for them to put someone in thenext cell. Some of the stones are loose. I will come in."
There was a soft rattle of falling mortar, and a scrape of slidingstones. Gerry saw the head and shoulders of a man thrust through theopening, and then the man crawled laboriously into the cell.
"Who are you?" he whispered. "Your accent is not like that of the GreenMen of Giri. Wait, I have a ligh
t here."
A small flashlight clicked on. Its beam pointed up into Gerry's face.Then the man gasped.
"Good Lord!" he whispered. "It ... it's Gerry Norton!"
Then the man swung the light so that it swung on himself. Gerry saw atall, gaunt man in the tattered remains of a blue and silver uniform. Itwas Major Walter Lansing, once of the Interplanetary Fleet, who hadcommanded the ill-fated _Stardust_ when she set out on her voyage intospace!
"Norton!" he gasped in a hoarse whisper. "Man, I never expected to seeanyone from Earth again!"
"We thought you were dead."
"I might as well be!" Lansing said grimly. "But tell me how you come tobe here."
As they squatted there in the darkened cell, Gerry whispered the storyof the _Viking's_ expedition and of his own capture. Lansing told himhow the _Stardust_ had