CHAPTER XXIII
Sons of The Great Selina
With grunts of satisfaction the pigmies rose to their feet, punchedthem slyly in the ribs with their sharp-pointed spears, and indicatedthat they must get up and march. It was not to be a very long march.
Hidden away in a deep recess of mountains they saw a large buildingconstructed with a stupendous round tube pointing at the sky where theearth was now shining with soft, refulgent splendor. In front of thebuilding were many stone steps, arranged artistically, and forming along stairway that led upward to an opening supported by large whitepillars, ostentatiously decorated with painting and signs. Surroundedby an armed bodyguard they were marched up these steps, and into a biground chamber.
Their guards marched them up to a large, glittering disk in the centerof the chamber, and stopped. Beyond the disk were twenty seats; infront of the seats there was a long, narrow platform. As they came toa stop the disk in front of them began to whirl. At first it wasnoiseless motion; then there came a slight scratching sound; followedby a voice.
“Glory be!” Billy shouted. “A good old American is talking.”
But when he heard the words his enthusiasm faded.
“This is KFI, Los Angeles, California,” the disk declared. “We willnow hear from Professor Ainslee, who will talk to us on the conditionof the moon.”
The next second, Epworth’s old college classmate stepped on the disk,looked into the microphone, and began to talk in a perfectly naturaltone.
“They’ve got the old earth skinned a city block,” Billy asserted indisgust. “Look at that, will you. They not only hear but they see.”
The disk stopped sharply, Ainslee disappeared. The disk started againand the City of Los Angeles, silent and still flashed on the disk.Again it stopped, and for several seconds they stared at nothing. Thena slight noise on their left attracted their attention. When theyglanced around twenty pigmies were filing into the room and seatingthemselves in the chairs behind the platform.
They were different in appearance to any they had yet seen. While theTaunan soldiers had large heads—entirely too large for theirbodies—these men had great round bulbous balls stuck on stringy necks,and slender, ghastly bodies, showing that they were of a differentrace.
“Sons of the Great Selina,” Moawha whispered in awe. “They are thesmartest and greatest men on our sphere. It is said that there areonly one hundred of them in their race.”
For some time the twenty bulbous-headed men sat gazing at theAmericans in silence. Their gaze was penetrating, far-reaching,cutting.
“You are earth men,” the leader finally remarked in slow, manufacturedEnglish. “We saw you coming in the disk, and placed a trap for you.How did you get here?”
“We came in a flying machine,” Epworth answered, determined to put ona bold front in the hope that they had not heard of Toplinsky andwould release them. “Who are you?”
The pigmy frowned. It was an ugly, dangerous contraction of a peculiarround face, and it made him look fiendish.
“We compose the council of Lunar,” he said softly, his eyebrowsstretching across his moon-shaped face like a rainbow. “We are thebrains of this world. We make the laws, we furnish the thought, we arethe scientists who visualized the great world out in space and broughtits language to our people; we rule through Carza, our queen, who wastaught from childhood to obey our slightest command. Just as soon aswe capture the Land of the Selinites we shall be complete rulers ofthe world.”
“You are quite an honorable and distinguished body,” Epworth agreed,bowing courteously, “but I fear that you are not destined to rule thisworld much longer.”
The leader glanced at him inquiringly, and when he saw that Epworthwas not making a military move against him, smiled gently.
“I am afraid that you will have very little to say about it,” hesuggested mildly.
“You need not worry about me,” Epworth added with another bow. “Justwait until Toplinsky gets his hooks in.”
“Toplinsky?”
The leader thought over this for some time, and then consulted hiscompanions. Turning to the soldiers he issued a sharp command. Thesoldiers responded by seizing Epworth, pushing him close to the leaderof the council, and dropping a metal cap over his head. This cap theyconnected by wires with one the leader placed on his own head.
“This little cap,” the councilman explained, “is a thoughttransferring device. It will keep you from lying, and enable me toread all your thoughts. Now tell me about this Toplinsky.”
“Have you not heard of him? I should think by this time his connectionwith your queen would be known everywhere in your land. Your queen hasmade him her king, and together they expect to conquer the Selinites.”
“I had heard that the queen had taken a consort but——”
“A great giant, and a scientist of mighty ability. He is the man whostarted your world to turning around.”
“Started our world to turn—a man?”
Very calmly Epworth told Toplinsky’s story, permitting his mind torevert back to the camp in the Arctic Circle, and the manner in whichToplinsky had shot water at the moon in a great projectile, andfollowed it in fifteen minutes with another projectile of liquid airto prevent the immediate evaporation of the water and in order tobuild up an atmosphere on the moon. The council leader saw it allflashing through the American’s brain, and in turn Epworth saw fear,dread, hate, envy, creep into the bulbous brain in front of him—a fearthat this giant scientist from the earth would gain supreme controlover the Taunans, and eliminate the council of the Sons of the GreatSelina.
“You have reason to fear him,” Epworth remarked quickly. “I do notlike Toplinsky, I am constantly at war with him, but I hand it to himas being the biggest thing in the way of science I ever read about. Inhis scheme to make the moon inhabitable he shot the rarest vegetableand fruit seed from the earth, he planned a rotation of your littleplanet that would give it a Garden of Eden climate, he timed hisprojectiles absolutely accurately to prevent the evaporation of thewater he sent up, and he sent nitrates and fertilizer to assure thegrowth of his vegetation. When he was selected by Queen Carza as herconsort he boasted to me that he would soon be the absolute monarch ofthis world.”
The councilman removed his head gear, and motioned to the soldiers toremove the cap over Epworth’s head. Before this was done howeverEpworth saw the thought flash through the pigmy’s brain that he mustdo something to rid himself of Toplinsky’s power.
“You will have to act quickly,” the young American said slyly.“Toplinsky is a fast worker.”
“What are your intentions?” the pigmy demanded angrily. “Why are yousneaking around our country?”
Epworth made no effort to disguise the purpose. He realized that itwould be useless with the thought exposer again on the councilman’shead.
“I intend to keep him from conquering your world. I am now on the wayto help Moawha and her army keep the crickets out of the Land of theSelinites.”
“Just what can you do against this great scientist?”
The pigmy did not attempt to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.Epworth shook his head.
“I do not know. I can only hope for the best.”
The cap was removed from the American’s head, and the councilmanleaned forward nonchalantly.
“You are a fool—straight out in the open with your thoughts, and Idoubt if you get anywhere but we will try to see what your giantfriend is doing at this moment, and then compare notes.”
He stood up, drew aside a curtain, and exposed to view a brightsilvered sheet of metal about four feet square. In front of this hadbeen placed a peculiar machine with a projecting orifice connectingwith the sheet with numerous wires made of glittering copper. With aslight movement of his hand the pigmy pushed a switch and a cylinderbegan to revolve inside of the machine shooting pictures on the silversquare. These pictures were entirely lunar, and showed houses, land,people.
“By this machine,” the pigmy ex
plained, “we discovered that you wereapproaching our retreat. Now watch for the giant.”
The interior of a large house flashed in front of his eyes. Thousandsof pigmies with large heads and small bodies were running to and fromworking industriously. Among them, towering almost to the roof, wasToplinsky. On his shoulders, with her copper legs locked around hisneck, was Queen Carza. She was playing with his coarse red hair andbending over frequently to caress him with her cheek.
As his figure came prominently into view the giant stooped and droppeda soft vegetable fabric into a large vat. Then he called to severalpigmies, and instructed him to follow his example. The pigmies hungback timidly for a moment, and the queen shouted at them angrily. Theyobeyed her quickly.
“She has decided control over them,” Epworth remarked gently, “andToplinsky, if I mistake not, has complete mastery of the queen. Whenhe desires to be nice that giant can make a post believe he is in lovewith it.”
The councilman frowned.
“It seems so,” he admitted. “What is the mighty giant doing?”
“He is putting a soft vegetable fabric into a vat full of nitric andsulphuric acid.”
“I can see that, of course. But why?”
“He is making gun cotton—a high explosive that can be used in theplace of gun powder. He contemplates blowing up Moawha’s people, andall their cities.”
“With that stuff?”
Toplinsky was removing some of the gun cotton from the vat at themoment.
“Yes, with that stuff he can blow off the side of a mountain.”
Epworth spoke quietly but he was greatly excited. Toplinsky was makingrapid strides. It had been only three days since they had escaped fromthe crickets, and during that time the giant had put enough men towork to make guns and manufacture a goodly supply of gun cotton andpowder. If he expected to aid Moawha’s people he would have to hurry.And how could he hurry when he was a prisoner?
The big-headed pigmy shut off the pictures, and turned soberly to theother members of the council, speaking to them rapidly in an unknowntongue. As one man they acquiesced in his conclusions.
“Free them!” the leader commanded, pointing at Epworth and hiscompanions. “We wish to form an alliance with you. We have heard thatyou destroyed a ramph, and rescued one of our men from his jaws. Thatwas a kind deed, and I am especially grateful because the man rescuedwas my son. But it is not gratitude that prompts me to this act. Wewant to see this man Toplinsky defeated in his purposes. We wouldrather leave things as they are than fall into the power of a mightymonster like this. Hence we are going to free you, and aid you to getacross the light gap to the Land of the Selinites.”
He led them to a secret corner of the chamber, pushed aside a largestone, and showed them four cricket shells.
“Get into them,” he commanded. “They have been prepared for disguises,and if you use caution they will hide you from the soldiers. My son,the man you rescued from the ramph, will guide you.”
The four greatly harassed adventurers obeyed, and soon four crickets,guided by a pigmy soldier, left the Observatory of the Sons of theGreat Selina, and somewhat clumsily made their way toward the borderland, avoiding traffic and observation as much as possible.