Chapter III

They were away early the next morning, speeding ahead of a graying dawn. Wessel was wrong, the ice no longer shifted beneath them; but the biting sun had not yet risen. Now Jim noticed that Wessel constantly consulted the device at his waist, which registered the proximity of any radite. Apparently, however, he was satisfied with the route Kaarji was taking.

It was about noon when the terrain began to surge gently again as though with a life of its own, and the mosaic pattern of cracks re-appeared. But this was not enough, as yet, to stop them. What did stop them was Wessel, who called a halt a few hours later.

"Must be some Floaters near here," he told Conley. "I can tell by the way this thing's acting." He tapped the radite-finder, whose needle was gyrating erratically.

"Floaters?" Jim asked. "What are they?"

"Trouble," Conley groaned. "More denizens for you to get acquainted with. You'll see before long."

"There they come now," Wessel pointed. "We may as well wait here, and get rid of them once and for all."

A long line of tiny dots had appeared low on the horizon. They came rapidly nearer and proved to be perfect spheres about a foot in diameter, apparently with an uncanny power of levitation! There were several dozens of them. Hovering in the air, they circled around the men. A few of them darted in close, experimentally.

Jim threw up a hand instinctively as one zoomed too near his head. His fist contacted the taut, metallic skin of the thing. He felt a slight but inconsequential electric shock. The Floater bounced back lightly as a feather. It hovered there, took on a shimmering, greenish iridescence as though it were glaring at the Earthman. Jim felt an uncanny chill across his brain. He was sure these things were intelligent! Again it zoomed in, but again Jim shoved it back easily.

"That's it," Conley said in general to the men who were staving off the pesky things. "Make them keep their distance. They're really not dangerous, if we keep them away from the metal sleds. That's what they want."

The Floaters at last seemed to call a council of war. They gathered in a group behind the men. Conley took advantage of this, and gave the order to move again. But the Floaters followed slowly, longingly. A few of them made tentative darting attempts, but the men were too wary. Suddenly then, _en masse_, the Floaters launched their real attack.

They came from all sides and the men were overwhelmed. A few of the spheres alighted on a sled. The metal began to crumble. Cursing, Conley knocked them away; but others alighted.

"Protect the sleds!" Conley yelled.

The men were trying to. A sphere attached itself to the metal fastenings of a pack, and clung there voraciously. The metal crumbled, disappeared, and the pack spewed its contents over the ice. Instantly the Floater darted to the contents, seeking more metal. Lewis drew his electro-pistol, but immediately a Floater attached itself to it; the weapon dissolved, disappeared, as the creature took on a rosy radiance of heat-energy.

"Holy Hannah!" Lewis gasped.

Conley was cursing volubly now, but he was suddenly cool.

"All right, you men, let 'em have it--all at once! Blast 'em out of the air."

They threw themselves flat on the ice and swept their weapons around in a solid, crackling barrage. That was the beginning of the end for the Floaters. They exploded in corruscating riots of bluish sparks wherever the electro-beams touched. Soon the ice was littered with their lifeless, deflated husks. The remaining ones sped far away out of danger, and they did not return.

"I hated to do that," Conley sighed, "'cause I kind of like those creatures. They have intelligence of a sort. They're harmless enough ordinarily, except for their voracious appetites for metal!"

"The damn things sometimes visit our mines to the south," Wessel said, "but I'm kind of surprised to find 'em away up _here_. That can only mean one thing, though. We're on the right track! The radite must stem from one huge central deposit somewhere up here!" His eyes gleamed at the thought.

To Jim it meant even more. The converging radite veins, Kaarji's story of the perpetual lure that tormented him, and most of all that mysterious bit of strange metal--all this pointed to one thing, a secret somewhere to the north. And that secret was M'Tonak. Jim was sure of it now. He was sure they would reach it, that they were _meant_ to reach it.

The thought surged within him, made him restless and foreboding. So that when, late that day, the car came--the silent mysterious vehicle from out of the north, just as Kaarji had described--Jim was not surprised.

He had been almost expecting it.

* * * * *

It was while they were making camp. They were rolling out the fabricoid mats and setting up the little atomo-stoves. Jim missed Kaarji, looked around and saw the Martian at the crest of the long, smooth rise at the foot of which they had stopped.

Jim drew his coat of Praaka fur closer around him and walked out to where Kaarji stood. Not until he had gained the crest of the slight ascent did he see that the Martian was in his strange mood again, standing quite still, staring out to the north.

Jim approached very silently. He stood unmoving by Kaarji's side. Now he almost felt it too, an eerie feeling as though ghostly, insistent fingers were tugging at his brain. Almost, a fascinating wisp of a voice created an urgency within him. But that was imagination! He knew it, even as he drew back.

For a full minute they stood there in silence. Then Kaarji, without even glancing at him, spoke in his curiously clipped monnotone:

"So you feel it too, Jim Landor."

"I--I thought I felt something."

"The same thing that I have felt. But I have felt it stronger."

Stretching out below was a long gentle decline, and beyond were the familiar vastnesses of the Polar wastes. Now Jim found himself scanning the far horizon. He felt on the very verge of something strange--and momentous.

Kaarji leaned tensely, suddenly forward. Not the slightest show of emotion was in his voice as he stated:

"It is coming. I know it. It will be here very soon."

Jim did not ask what was coming. He knew. He had known all the time. He stared outward, following Kaarji's gaze, but could see nothing. He waited impatiently as the Martian never once removed his eyes from the horizon. Minutes passed.

* * * * *

Then ... much nearer and so clear that even Jim could not mistake it, a dot of light flashed across their vision. Immediately it was gone, hugging the terrain closely as though it had dipped behind an ice dune. It appeared again in the near distance, moving swiftly, unerringly toward them. It resolved itself into a penetrant beam of bluish light, the forward light on a speeding ghostly vehicle.

Abruptly it slowed. It crept silently to the very foot of the slight slope below them. Breathless with wonderment, Jim waited for something to happen. Nothing happened except that the bluish light blinked abruptly off. No door opened. No one nor nothing emerged. Even at this close distance the conveyance was discernible only as a grayish, ghostly shape.

Then Kaarji was running down toward it. Jim was suddenly torn between two desires. He stared after Kaarji and then back at the camp. He shouted to Conley and the others, and saw them look up and start toward him; then he was dashing madly after Kaarji who had almost reached the ghostly conveyance now.

When Jim reached there, Kaarji was staring at a dark, narrow entrance in the metal hull. "It was already open," the Martian murmured. Then, as though it were expected of him, he stepped unhesitatingly inside.

Jim waited for a single instant during which he surveyed the hull of the vessel. It was not any type of sled, as he had thought; indeed it did not touch the surface at all, but hovered a full foot above the ground. He heard a gentle humming as though of ionization beams. He followed Kaarji inside.

There were no sort of controls that he could see; only a long row of seats filled the entire space. Kaarji had found a button that turned on some overhead lights. Still nothing happened.

By this time the other men had reached there. Conley was stammering, "Jim, we--we can't leave the supplies! The sleds!"

"Sleds be damned!" Jim exclaimed in an ecstasy of excitement. "This is better than a hundred sleds! Do you want to find your radite or don't you? Are you going to M'Tonak or not!"

Hesitantly, Conley entered the strange craft. The others glanced nervously, then quickly followed, as though not wishing to be left alone.

"I--" Conley began doubtfully.

That seemed to be a signal. Instantly a well-oiled metal door slid shut behind them. Motors began to purr gently beneath their feet. The car swung around in a great circle, and they were heading into the north.

From one of the comfortable pneumatic seats Jim watched the white unending landscape flashing past. He felt strangely exhilarated now that he was on the very threshold of his quest; for that they were being taken to the long-hidden, legendary city of M'Tonak, he did not for a moment doubt.

It had not yet occurred to him to wonder why they were being taken.

But of one thing he was sure. He said, turning to Conley:

"Why do you suppose they sent the car for us? It must be that they _know_ whenever anyone is approaching M'Tonak! Always! Other expeditions must have reached here in the same manner, else why were they never found by the men who came later?"

Conley nodded soberly. "And that must mean that, once inside M'Tonak, men are unable to leave."