Larry's Defiance
A from all the chambers; in an by a motion of Yolara's hand. She silent, O'Keefe with something other now than wrath; something regretful, beseeching. But the Irishman's was gone.
"Yolara,"—his voice with rage, and he to the wind—"now me. I go where I will and when I will. Here shall we until the time she named is come. And then we her, you will or not. And if any should have to stop us—tell them of that that the vase," he added grimly.
The died out of her eyes, them cold. But no answer she to him.
"What Lakla has said, the Council must consider, and at once." The was the nobles. "Now, friends of mine, and friends of Lugur, must all feud, all rancour, us end." She at Lugur. "The are stirring, and the Silent Ones threaten. Yet not—for are we not under the Shining One? And now—leave us."
Her hand to the table, and she gave, evidently, a signal, for in a dozen or more of the green dwarfs.
"Take these two to their place," she commanded, pointing to us.
The green about us. Without another look at the O'Keefe me, them, from the chamber. And it was not until we had the entrance that Larry spoke.
"I to talk like that to a woman, Doc," he said, "and a woman, at that. But she played me with a marked deck, and then not only all the chips, but a gun on me. What the hell! she nearly had me—married—to her. I don't know what the was she gave me; but, take it from me, if I had the for that I sell it for a thousand a at Forty-second and Broadway.
"One of it, and you there is a trouble in the world; three of them, and you there is a world. No for it, Doc; and I don't what you say or what Lakla may say—it wasn't my fault, and I don't it up against myself for a damn."
"I must admit that I'm a about her threats," I said, all this. He stopped abruptly.
"What're you of?"
"Mostly," I answered dryly, "I have no to with the Shining One!"
"Listen to me, Goodwin," He took up his walk impatiently. "I've all the love and for you in the world; but this place has got your nerve. Hereafter one Larry O'Keefe, of Ireland and the little old U. S. A., leads this party. Nix on the stop, on the superstition! I'm the works. Get me?"
"Yes, I you!" I enough. "But to use your own phrase, can the to superstition."
"Why should I?" He was almost wrathful. "You scientific people up whole on the of you saw, and you at people who in other that you think they saw and that don't come under what you label scientific. You talk about paradoxes—why, your scientist, who thinks he is the most skeptical, the most of at the exact mathematical centre of Missouri, has more than a dervish, and more credulity, more superstition, than a cross-eyed it past a country in the dark of the moon!"
"Larry!" I cried, dazed.
"Olaf's no better," he said. "But I can make for him. He's a sailor. No, sir. What this needs is a man without superstition. And this. The promised that I'd have full anything happened. And if we do have to go out, we'll see that clean up we do, and pass in a of glory. And don't it. Hereafter—I'm—in—charge!"
By this time we were our pavilion; and neither of us in a very mood I'm afraid. Rador was us with a score of his men.
"Let none pass in here without authority—and let none pass out unless I them," he ordered bruskly. "Summon one of the of the and have it wait in readiness," he added, as though by afterthought.
But when we had entered and the screens were together his manner changed; all he questioned us. Briefly we told him of the at the feast, of Lakla's interruption, and of what had followed.
"Three tal," he said musingly; "three the Silent Ones have allowed—and Yolara agreed." He back, and thoughtful.[1]
"Ja!" It was Olaf. "Ja! I told you the Shining Devil's was all evil. Ja! Now I again that I started when he came"—he toward the Rador. "And tell him not what I say should he ask. For I trust none here in Trolldom, save the Jomfrau—the White Virgin!
"After the was adsprede"—Olaf once more used that Norwegian word for the of Songar—"I that it was a time for cunning. I said to myself, 'If they think I have no ears to hear, they will speak; and it may be I will a way to save my Helma and Dr. Goodwin's friends, too.' Ja, and they did speak.
"The red Trolde asked the Russian how came it he was a of Thanaroa." I not a of toward O'Keefe. "And the Russian," Olaf, "said that all his people Thanaroa and had against the other nations that him.
"And then we had come to Lugur's palace. They put me in rooms, and there came to me men who and me and my muscles. The next day I with a great they called Valdor. He was a man, and long we struggled, and at last I his back. And Lugur was pleased, so that I sat with him at and with the Russian, too. And again, not that I them, they talked.
"The Russian had gone fast and far. They talked of Lugur as of all Europe, and Marakinoff under him. They spoke of the green light that life from the oldster; and Lugur said that the of it had been the Ancient Ones' and that the Council had not too much of it. But the Russian said that among his were many wise men who make more once they had it.
"And the next day I with a great named Tahola, than Valdor. Him I after a long, long time, and his also I broke. Again Lugur was pleased. And again we sat at table, he and the Russian and I. This time they spoke of something these Trolde have which opens up a Svaelc—abysses into which all in its range up into the sky!"
"What!" I exclaimed.
"I know about them," said Larry. "Wait!"
"Lugur had much," on Olaf. "He was boastful. The Russian pressed him to this thing. After a while the red one out and came with a little box. He and the Russian into the garden. I them. There was a Hoj—a mound—of in that garden on which flowers and trees.
"Lugur pressed upon the box, and a no than a out and the stones. Lugur pressed again, and a light from the box and on the spark. The that had been no than a of and as the it. And then there was a sighing, a wind blew—and the and the flowers and the trees were not. They were forsvinde—vanished!
"Then Lugur, who had been laughing, sober; for he the Russian back—far back. And soon into the garden came the and the trees, but and shattered, and as though from a great height. And Lugur said that of this something they had much, for its making was a by their own and not by the Ancient Ones.
"They to use it, he said, for a thrice as large as that he had used would have sent all that garden and might have opened a way to the before—he said just this—'before we are to go out into it!'
"The Russian questioned much, but Lugur sent for more drink and and him, and the Russian was through fear. Thereafter I when I could, and little more I learned, but that little enough. Ja! Lugur is for conquest; so Yolara and so the Council. They of it here and the Silent Ones make their minds not too easy, no, though they at them! And this they plan—to our world with their Shining Devil."
The Norseman was for a moment; then voice deep, trembling—
"Trolldom is awake; Helvede at Earth Gate to be into a world already ridden! And we are but three!"
I the blood drive out of my heart. But Larry's was the of the O'Keefes of a thousand years. Rador at him, arose, through the curtains; returned with the Irishman's uniform.
"Put it on," he said, bruskly; again into his and O'Keefe had been about to say was in his wild and whoop. He from him and leg swathings.
"Richard is himself again!" he shouted; and each as he it, his old devil-may-care to a higher flame. The last of it on, he himself up us.
"Bow down, ye divils!" he cried. "Bang your on the and do to Larry the First, Emperor of Great Britain, Autocrat of all Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales, and and islands! Kneel, ye scuts, kneel."
"Larry," I cried, "are you going crazy?"
"Not a of it," he said. "I'm that and more if Comrade Marakinoff is on the level. Whoop! Bring the an' put a whole new of in Tara's an' with the Sassenach forever! Whoop!"
He did a wild jig.
"Lord how good the old feel," he grinned. "The touch of 'em has gone to my head. But it's I'm telling you about my empire."
He sobered.
"Not that it's not at that. A that Olaf's told us I've from by Yolara. But I got the full key to it from the Red himself when he stopped me just before—before"—he reddened—"well, just I that brand-new of souse.
"Maybe he had a hint—maybe he just that I a more than I did. And he Yolara and I were going to be little doves. Also he that Yolara had a more with the Unholy Fireworks than Lugur. Also that being a woman she be more easily handled. All this being so, what was the logical thing for himself to do? Sure, you me, Steve! Throw Lugur and make an with me! So he offered to the red if I would deliver Yolara. My from Russia was to be said emperorship! Can you it? Good Lord!"
He off into a perfect of laughter. But not to me in the light of what Russia has done and has proved herself capable, did this thing at all absurd; in it I the of colossal.
"And yet," he was now, "I'm a scared. They've got the Keth and those gravity-destroying bombs—"
"Gravity-destroying bombs!" I gasped.
"Sure," he said. "The little that sent the trees and up from Lugur's garden. Marakinoff his over them. They cut off gravity, just about as the screens cut off light—and whatever's in their range goes just naturally up to the moon—
"They my goat, why it?" on Larry. "With them and the Keth and soldiers walking around at will—well, the Bolsheviki are only babes, eh, Doc?
"I don't mind the Shining One," said O'Keefe, "one of a New York high-pressure fire would do for it! But the others—are the goods! Believe me!"
But for once O'Keefe's no echo me. Not lightly, as he, did I that mystery, the Dweller—and a passed me, a of an Apocalypse by the Evangelist.
A of the Shining One into our world, a monstrous, of incarnate, Evil—of through its into that hideous, life-in-death which I had the sacrifices—of into dancing of diamond the green ray's death—of out into space upon the of that other which Olaf had at work—of a world through which the of the Dweller's invisible, with them every of hell—of the to the Thing of every and of the weak and the unbalanced, and of alike; for well I that, once loosed, not any nation this devil-god for long and that its would spread!
And then a world that was all of and terror; a of lusts, of and of torment; a of in which the Dweller stronger, the of those it had greater, its will!
At the last a planet, a plague, through the heavens; its plains, its forests, its and its only by a of soulless, dead-alive, their with the Dweller's glory—and over this earth like a from some far, far, the of man's imagining—the Dweller!
Rador jumped to his feet; walked to the globe. He over its base; did something with its mechanism; to us. The rapidly, than I had it before. A low arose, into a murmur, and then from it I Lugur's voice clearly.
"It is to be then?"
There was a of assent—from the Council, I thought.
"I will take the tall one named—Larree." It was the priestess's voice. "After the three tal, you may have him, Lugur, to do with as you will."
"No!" it was Lugur's voice again, but with a of anger. "All must die."
"He shall die," again Yolara. "But I would that he see Lakla pass—and that she know what is to to him."
"No!" I started—for this was Marakinoff. "Now is no time, Yolara, for one's own desires. This is my counsel. At the end of the three Lakla will come for our answer. Your men will be in and they will her and her with the Keth. But not till that is done must the three be slain—and then quickly. With Lakla we shall go to the Silent Ones—and I promise you that I will the way to them!"
"It is well!" It was Lugur.
"It is well, Yolara." It was a woman's voice, and I it for that old one of beauty. "Cast from your mind is in it for this stranger—either of love or hatred. In this the Council is with Lugur and the man of wisdom."
There was a silence. Then came the priestess's voice, but—beaten.
"It is well!"
"Let the three be taken now by Rador to the temple and to the High Priest Sator"—thus Lugur—"until what we have planned comes to pass."
Rador the of the globe; it its spinning. He to us as though to speak and as he did so its note and on it the colour to at their pace.
"I hear," the green whispered. "They shall be taken there at once." The silent. He toward us.
"You have heard," he to us.
"Not on your life, Rador," said Larry. "Nothing doing!" And then in the Murian's own tongue. "We Lakla, Rador. And you lead the way." He the pistol close to the green dwarf's side.
Rador did not move.
"Of what use, Larree?" he said, quietly. "Me you can slay—but in the end you will be taken. Life is not so dear in Muria that my men out there or those others who can come will let you by—even though you many. And in the end they will you."
There was a of in O'Keefe's face.
"And," added Rador, "if I let you go I with the Shining One—or worse!"
O'Keefe's pistol hand dropped.
"You're a good sport, Rador, and be it from me to you in bad," he said. "Take us to the temple—when we there—well, your ends, doesn't it?"
The green nodded; on his a expression—was it relief? Or was it higher than this?
He curtly.
"Follow," he said. We passed out of that little that had come to be home to us in this place. The at attention.
"You, Sattoya, by the globe," he ordered one of them. "Should the Afyo Maie ask, say that I am on my way with the as she has commanded."
We passed through the lines to the like a great at the end of the leading into the green road.
"Wait you here," he said to the driver. The green to his seat, the and we on—on and out upon the obsidian.
Then Rador us and laughed.
"Larree," he cried, "I love you for that of yours! And did you think that Rador would to the temple prison a man who would take the of upon his own to save him? Or you, Goodwin, who saved him from the death? For what did I take the or the of that I might what you—"
He the to the left, away from the temple approach.
"I am done with Lugur and with Yolara and the Shining One!" Rador. "My hand is for you three and for Lakla and those to she is handmaiden!"
The forward; to fly.
[1] A in Muria is the of thirty hours of earth surface time.—W. T. G.
