Show 0 elebee ago 44 0 so i TH arm DE D E ILA P L tf 9 by VICTOR 11 copyright by W G chapman i 9 0 r 0 1 so ft CHAPTER continued 18 tin im conr master I 1 do you know it now lie demanded she did not answer him ile he looked nt at the red markis marke left by ills fingers on her check and the sight aroused in him a fresh demon demoniac lac passion he raved ile he shouted nil all the secrets of ills his life to her lie the thief the outlaw had bad conquered the world I 1 why should lie ho fulfill his bla compact to keep tho the monsters within the bounds of skjold fjord lie he had nt at first intended to ile he had abandoned under the sway away of his passion for the iho girl ills his dreams of world conquest with idas love lie be had ev even en indi aged in tho the ide idea m of becoming g an ordinary man lie ile had meant to take lier her to america and lose his identity there in somo some pence peaceful ful existence lie he had recognized that it Is this mine jaine impulse winch which fills filli the world with oxen for men patient beasts who might uil glit with single wearied purpose become lords of their fate but he be had wished weighed his new hopes with the pasta aind found them heavier then tho the girls gills coldness her indifference had convinced him that winning love was quite different from inventing scientific apparatus and discovering new laws during tile long voyage to norway he had fiad real tze that lie he could never win her ier he roubil embrace ollya only a cold form whose it 1 eart was an others and with the a awakening W from his dream ream the worst in the man if one ii allty was worse than another had acma to the top he meant to keep ida and still achieve ills his purpose donalds runn maneuver euver in id bringing the lierd berd to norway by the submarine method had completely deceived mae mac icord beard ile he had thought all along that vie monsters had followed ills his motorboat in obedience to his tuning timing fork ri be had not heard the call of the cl been because its swift vibrations were audible as sound only for a very 11 limited ml ted distance in spite of their effect udon the tha men of the now lie resolved to lead the herd i buck to the european s shores hores and complete his work of destruction he had scattered the obsolete navy that was sent out against him he would go on w no idea of mercy he would annihilate humanity he would make sole master of mankind and ida should be his mate but dl athis equal as chehad he had planned ile he nv ild vent his rage on her he would teach adith her ills his powers when he be was me only other human being existent existent men perhaps she would begin to understand der stand he shouted all this to her he be overwhelmed her with sarcasm and rhetoric ida however missed the keenness of the points he made she saw only a roadman foaming at the mouthy nd she took pride in her sacrifice she looked back toward donald she saw him between the two other figures upon the shore very little and very far away aw ay Mac Beard saw the look and understood he raised his hand again to strike her but he refrained instead lie he reached into the cabin of the motorboat and took his tuning timing forks from under the seat and bythan by that act of treachery he be wrote the last page of his history ile he slung them about his neck a and nd taking the rod he sound sounded edthe the 6 note J to call the swarm together the note rang true across the waters exhausted by their efforts the monsters were incapable any longer of condensing the hydrogen but bu i the impulse to reply remained from every part of the inland sea they swarmed toward him the spa sea rose into a choppy surge the motorboat riding the waves like a cork heaved and pitched ida saw Mac Beard his eyes alight with voth triumph his face blazing with hatred j now above her and now below as he eat in the pitching stern but the death of the queen I 1 lad ad been the death call of the swarm instinctively the they y we were aware of it and the single purpose that bad anicat animated e d the herd was 4 gone Ana anarchy richy had replaced order the swarm had become mere blind mechanism and devoid of purpose anarchy anarchy possessed them and it was furious as everywhere so it Is inthe in the state when it obtains power so in the human body when the cells rebel and org organized life flares out the rho swarm camo came on a mere dis discordant multitude seated in reit felt five sharp pricks upon pheband annd that dangled toward the water he drew it bock back hurriedly ile he imagined that some insect had stun stung g him then a flipper lashed him across the face v tivo vo more bruor a seized him about the body an instant later and he be was out of the ie boat which released leased r from his freight anal from the sea devils righted ted belf elf again t then he began the at rug e for he had always ayed red the nightmare that thai had brood ver over his bis byams hod at last como coma e the monsters had bud ed the hean thoi 0 3 the call I 1 mung gunwale n wal e calling U lebearn te heard idas screams i for taint aid ir r Imp tilse was to tosa save ve that was wai as an bitter CA tile the physical torment perhaps some inkling of a higher baw di did dreach reach his mind before the end but if it did it IE was only a momentary flash of insight ile he felt the cold embra embrace cc of tho the leathery bodies ile heard the snapping jaws ile he was torn from ills his hold shrieking and tossed into theater the irom beast to beast ills his cries erles were a so frenzied that they the even reached the ears of those who watched on the shore he keld and fought but lie he had ns as much chance for life as primitive man eau caught by a herd of dinosaurs dinosaur as for a few moments his bobbing body was waa visible grotesquely sprawled upon the the reddening waves then atvas it was rent limb from limb it disappeared and fighting over their prey the sea devils played the last act of their own drama they fell upon each other it was the tragedy of the lie alv hive the ahmu annual al massacre re of the drones only they were all drones nature had no more them now that their queen was gone never had such a spectacle been seen by man before the entire face of the inland illana sea was a tumult of fighting monsters the dead greib grew into visibility as they became th thicker leker the floating patches of white almost ob scared the waves and still the fight fight became more f frenzied ren they tore each other and themselves se e they lashed the waves into foai animal debris floated from end to end of the fjord As the dead drifted toward the shore the struggle became more furious in the heart of the sea gradually it subsided the last of the herd was gone the battle that was as to decide the fate of the world ald had been a dill civil one and fought out without mans agency the lash of the waves drove the light motorboat toward the C cliffs it stranded not five hundred feet from where donald and his friends awe struck had watched the progress of the titanic conflict conkli C t they ran toward it and pulled ida from the thwarts it had seemed incredible that she could have survived for h long time she lay motionless drenched with the brackish water her im your basterl do you know it now hair unbound she 6 seemed to sleep in donalds arms while he and davies worked frantically to revive her davies raised his head at last and looked at donald fixedly donald refused to meet m beet his gize gaze they set to work again for two hours longer they went through the movements of the resuscitation of th the a drowned they stopped at last exhausted davies laid hi his hand shand on donalds shoulder this time it was he who could not meet his friends look suddenly they heard clouts clonts shouting mad with joy look sirl sir I 1 mr mi dadles look I 1 he screamed they swung around the girls eyes had ol opened ened and there in them Sh she drew edrew the first faint t breath he her r weak arms stole round donalds neck and in the universal joy nobody d y minded cleouls clouts mouth organ as he blew home sweet home hooray I 1 he yelled tossing up his espat cap at the finale mr dadles sir its just as I 1 told you it weve brought her bac back k to life and now mow were vei e going to wake up ourselves what do you mean mead clouts clonts Cl outs asked davies why sir air dont you ild sec just bein been picked up and landed from the beotha and weve been all sorts of deliriums about sea xuha kioa stera ster a and nd suchlike if I 1 i night might be allowed 1 pvc sir air ill put it to captain pavel aint we just been rescued after to lot t the crul cruiser seri sir air lie he asked aint the bhole thing a dream donald looked up 1 I dont know clouts clonts all he said 1 I think you may b be right but its a happy one davies da vies looked 1 at him in dismay do you really mean that donald he hb do you honestly think that we have dr ad all this a T its us as plausible as any other ex tf plan atlon donald replied ill 1 I cant gea aee why we have its too preposterous all that about the sea devits devils and that harmless crank mae mac beard who used to have newspaper r rows owa with poor old masterman As aa likely as not well see him haunting the inventors club when we get back quite ignorant of the part lie he has pi played ayed in our lives you know dreams do do that they put inconsequential people into absurdly important positions but hang it donald how does miss kennedy happen to be here why slie she on board the be otla donald replied at any rate if its ull all true what have we got to fill show ow for it he had placed his arm across his breast and at ai that moment lie he felt tile the crinkle of dampened paper in his inner pocket he pulled out the two pages of Master Mastern mans ians letter donald unfolded it it was quite legI legible lAle in spite of the stains of sea water but now for the first time lie he realized that lie he held not one page but two to they had become stuck together in some manner and donald had not perused the second page it was in the form of a postscript a and nd was tile the last sheet of the original manuscript which masterman Master mao in his characteristic way had inserted after the first he had written but thank god donald my boy man w will ill triumph after all I 1 thought the monsters were invulnerable that nothing could oppose them but the lord knew what he was doing when he be made them there will be only three weeks of 0 suffering tor for man donald three week feehs for the c creatures r live for their queen they can hardly be said bald to have independent life they are sterile like ilice the bees and anc I 1 the queen has bits a life span of three weeks alone when she dies the old swarm destroys itself it if the queen peen can be captured all will be well the queen has three weeks in which to grow to maturity fulfil fulfill the purpose of lier ber existence and die le what a tragedy trag edyl ot of course tame may seem longer to tier her but we deem our seventy years all too short we are saved donald the letter r rambled ambled on but donald without finishing it handed it to davies who read it and gave it back it if Mac Beard had known that he began i 1 I think that if Is the rock on which he foundered answered donald he worked out everything mathematically but he ignored the larger purpose of the creator aye aye interpolated tan sava clouts clonts feeling in his pocket if excuse me air that motorboat seems seema wreck proof and id like to see cheth er its still in good enough order to take us homo home which proved to be the case THE END |