Show co LZ by edwin balmer and philip wylie copyright 1331 1934 by edwin balmer ar and philip billip wylle service SYNOPSIS OF PRECEDING CHAPTERS under the leadership of cole cola hendren noted american scientist over persons persona escape in two mo space ships just jast before a cosmic collision that wiped out the earth and land on bronson beta soon after r their arrival thousands of slant giant meteors hurtle through the sky but no one Is 13 hurt the meteors are fragments of the destroyed moon A river bottom green with vegetation Is discovered and great forests of dead trees preserved by the absolute cold of space the appearance at night of what looks like nn an airplane and which disappears almost almos t immediately without making an attempt to communicate with the refugee eeg leanes a feeling of alarm they realize they are not alone on the new planet and that their visitors may bo be enemies tony drake draka and eliot james on an exploration airplane flight bight come upon a wondrous city enclosed under tinder what seems like halt half an iridescent glass bubble six miles wide and halt half a mile high at its center CHAPTER IV continued 6 inside under the mighty glass dome they vere nere confronted by a stupendous spectacle straight through the heart of the circular city ran a highway along the edge of which were two rails so that by leaning over they ascertained a moment later that underneath this top street were other thoroughfares at lower levels on both sides of the street which was wider than the main avenue of any of the earths cities towered colossal buildings the tallest of them in the center of the city must have been more than halt a mile in height and they were made of materials which took brilliant colors which gave back in the sunlight myriad glittering hues exquisitely suspended bridges connected these buildings which rose at intervals of approximately a quarter of a mile from their airplane the city had looked like dikea in spangled toy town but from its own streets it looked like the royal city of titans there ther e was no sound bound in it not a murmur not a throb not a tinkle of a pulsation just silence nothing moved where are they tony eliot james whispered lie ile in meant cant not where are living beings be lOgS F for or he knew the people who built this city must be dead but he expected at least their bodies tony too had failed to drive away such expectation it if not living where chere were the dead ile he could not help expecting the streets to be somehow like those of after the debris and ash asb of vesuvius was cleared away lie he could not help expecting to see bones of the beings being gs fallen in flight from their city but conditions here had been the opposite of those in pompeii there it was sudden destruction by fiery cery blasts find and burial from volcanic ash that had overwhelmed the people and caught and burled them nere instead of sudden consuming heat had bad come slow creeping cold cold and darkness of the coming of which they had boon been warned for generations such a death could have caught no one unprepared on the streets of the city where are they tony eliot james whispered again as his senses reminded him of the situation where did they go to diet die did they stay in their homes do you think will we find them in these buildings 1 I dont think so tony tried to say bay steadily improving his tone above a whisper where will we find them then we wont ond find them any of them berei I 1 think tony said why what did they do what would such people do tony returned such people as could build this city what would they do a against annihilation which r they could see coming for a century they eliminated themselves of course they ceased to reproduce themselves they ceased to have et children that said tony seems certainly the in logical teal thing to do and these people appear to have been logical but there must hai have e been tome gome group who nho were the last they could scarcely hae bate burled themselves after they died somewhere we will find somebody its marvelous said elliot james how they left this city shall we move on all light agreed tony and ended their paralysis of amazement this street he be said bald might have been swept yesterday they swept it before they left or died in here elliot replied it they drew their gat gates and shut J out the wind after they left or died what else could disturb it but lut my G d they were neat no rubbish no litter and everything locked tony said bald having halted to try a door the order of everything and the utter stillness was getting his nerves again eliot james had run ahead ita ta als 1 lip ho cried tables and chairs this tbt was a resta restaurant it rant III als nose dose was pressed against the 4 glass find and buny swiftly joined him within stood rows of metal tables and what were unquestionably chairs of metal all bare and all of course empty the place looked immaculate as if put in order an hour ago and then deserted where are they eliot james appealed again oh tony where did they go what were they tony countered what I 1 want to know were they huge ants were they human brained reptiles were they they sat in chairs said eliot james they ate at tables they ran a car that steered by pedals and a wheel their equipment would fit us their floors and steps are on our scale lets break in here lie ile tried the door which was fitted with a handle but this did not turn or budge however pulled or pressed there was no do keyhole no locking device was anywhere apparent but the door was to be moved no more than those that they had tried before tony looked about A shudder convulsed him A thousand windows looked down on this stretch of the silent street a thousand pairs of eyes once had looked down it seemed to tony that they must they must do it again eyes of what huge sentient intelligent insect reptiles of some strange semi human sort what lay dead by the tens of thousands in those silent rooms overhead tony waa wa pulling at his pistol somehow it reassured him to hold it in his hand ne ile reversed it and beat the butt on the great glass pane behind which stood the strange metal tables and chairs the glass did not give way it twanged twan ged not like glass but like sheet metal metal utterly transparent tony caught the butt in his palm and pulled the trigger the shot roared andre and re echoed cut the metal pane was not pierced the bullet he be had died lay attonis at tonys feet hysterically teri cally he emptied his pistol with the last shot lie he jerked about again and stared up at the rows W of windows did something up there ali ere stir eliot james jumped and pointed and tony stiffened as he stared something fluttered a hundred yards oNe overhead and farther down the street something light like a cloth or a papery papers one way now another it fluttered as it fell on the still air of that strange sealed city it reached to the street and lay there chere well go eo see what that Is tony said to eliot james wetting his dry lips so lie be could speak cut but before they gained the object they forgot it A window evidently the of a gallery of art confronted them within the glass was a portrait tony and eliot ilot saw it they stopped as it they were struck and their breath left them breath of relief and wonder 1 they looked at the likeness of a domant woman I 1 she w was is a young woman strange and fascinating she was not fair nor was she dark of shin BUD II 11 ner er hair and brows were black hair arranged with an air that might be individual but which these discoverers 0 of her felt was racial and of what race not tho the caucasian not the mongolian not the ethiopian surely not the indian she was of no race upon earth but she was human so said eliot james who first succeeded in speaking so they were human 1 ry by G d you von feel like ilke to know her tony relaxed his hands which had clenched whore where did she live do you suppose eliot did she live up behind one of these windows lets go on why go on demanded eliot james weve were got to get into one of these windows somewhere we might ag well begin here bore so together they attacked the door which like ilke those they had pushed and pulled at before showed no lock yet was secure the door evidently was designed to lift it should rise and slip into the metal wall overhanging it but no pushing or straining at it no hammering and pounding ng could cause it to budge and the glass in it the panel of transparent metal was not to be broken weary and sweating from their straining at it tony and eliot stepped back then as the two men from earth stood side by side staring about them the slightest of sounds reached them and a door not the door at which they had pushed and an pounded but a door some twenty steps beyond began rising up up steadily slowly the metal door was lifted counterbalanced exclaimed tony to his companion but his voice was husky it aris counterbalanced of course I 1 our pounding affected some mechanism inside 1 see an thing theres nobody there argued ello eliot t with himself ns as much as with IT ith his comrade they all died they all died a million years year sago ago 11 yes res agreed tony the door was ceasing to rise it had reached its limit and stopped leaving tile the way into the great metal building open they approached the open doorway together and together neither in advance or in the roar of 0 the other they entered it pistols in hands bands that was wholly irrational and both knew it but neither could help himself so side by side revolvers ready they entered the door of the mil III lion years dead the walls of the hall in which they found themselves were vermillon vermilion there was no furniture no covering upon the floor door perhaps there never had been one the floor was smooth and even and of agreeable texture it was not wood nor metal but of some composition an open doorway invited to an apartment beyond and side by side but with their pistols less at alert eliot and tony stepped into this but this room also was empty tony and eliot james went on now do you feel demanded tony after they had bad entered the fifth great room in gay colors with marclous nia man nelous clous decoration but empty feel repeated eliot it feels to me that were in a building that never was used into which they never moved perhaps said tony that goes for the whole city too soon to say much too soon to say how do you go up ayou suppose elevators behind one ot of tit these ese doors probably no sign of stairs how do you open the doors door 9 how about the one we opened said eliot Is it still up op ayou suppose lower it what lifted it returned eliot ill go back and look want to go with me no ill stay here and try some ot of these but he had bad accomplished nothing with any of them when eliot came back ahat that closed tony he reported soberly tony started you close it no all right tony almost yelled go ahead say say what what youre thinking remote control of some sort somebody 7 saw us ua opened the door let us walk in ID closed it again Some somebody bodyl 1 said eliot lets be sensible tony all right said tony jittering jitt ering you be bel I 1 D n it look tit at that door look at itt opening bowl now I 1 for a door at the farther edge of this room now dow slowly was rising were you working at it eliot whispered yes then rhen it you started another counterbalance working sure said tony sure they stepped to the opening utter darkness dropped below them there was a shaft thero them a shaft which under other circumstances I 1 might have showed machinery now it was empty tony and ellot eliot james knelt side I 1 by side nt at its edge they shouted and no voice came back to them tony took a cart cartridge cartriel and dropped it for so BO ions iong did it fall silently that they were sure aa they listened that it must have struck something which gave no sound then they heard it strike tony drop dropped pd another and they timed it one more they timed isalt a mile below 1 said eliot they stepped back from the shafts threshold carefully theres some control to these d 1 n doors said tony that probably made it easy to operate them when everything was working you maybe merely had to stand before them and some electric gadget would work jammed now because the power on these doors cant all be shafts about fifteen minutes later they had opened another that exposed a circular passage loading leading both upward and downward ah said eliot this Is tile the stuff shiff no machinery they probably had it for emergencies tony awakening stretched rubbed its ills eyes and gazed up at the belling ile de still ibid did not fully recollect cibere where he was but he realized that he be was lying on a couch of soft agreeable material then he saw eliot james in trousers and shirt but without his coat seated at a table writing and tory tony remembered eliot and he were in the sealed city the amazing stupendous metropolis tro polis polls of the other people the people a million years dead the amazement of their two days of exploration passed through tonys mind like reviewing a dream but they remained reality for instead of becoming dimmer and dimmer as he be sought to recall them they became only sharper and clearer moreover here before him in a heap upon one of the tables of the other people were the objects some of them understandable more of them utterly jg ag Z il I 1 ta I 1 V Z IN 7 IV 4 rill they stopped as if they were struck and their breath left them breath of relief and wonder they looked at the likeness of a she was a young woman strange and fascinating hen sible as to their purpose or utility which they had bad collected to carry with them back to cole 11 aien dron and the camp eliot was writing so intently and absorbedly that lie he did not know that tony was awake and tony lay quiet watching his companion attempting to deal through words with the wonders they had encountered eliot halted his writing anti and arose and glancing at tony TODY saw he be was awake hello hello ello now flow ion long yon been up quite a while you tou would be complained tony admiringly it had been late in the long iong night and both had been utterly exhausted when they lay down to sleep its the third day it we ought to go back now yes agreed eliot 1 I suppose so but bt how can we tony was sitting up now can we ive leave he agreed but it also Is how can we stay without letting cole cendron and the rest of them know we can come back of course eliot james reluctantly assented or we may find another city or something else by something else do you yon mean the place whore where they all went tony G d tony it get youa you where did they go not one of them nor the bones of one of them I 1 and all this loft left in order ne ile stood at the table and sifted in his fingers the kernels of a strange grain not wheat nor corn not rice nor barley nor rye but a starchy kernel hernel they both had tasted it TO BE CONT CONTINUED MI ED |