Chapter VI

His mind came surging slowly back up from the dark depths of nightmare. His head ached unbearably. He had thought an insistent, warning voice was crying out at him. He opened his eyes. This was no nightmare, for memory came back in a rushing flood, and he still heard the voice, low and warning and very close to his ear.

"Do not move, Jim Landor. Do not say anything, just listen. This is Kaarji, I am here close by you."

Kaarji! Jim had almost forgotten about Kaarji. Then he took the warning and tried not even to think, he just listened, in a detached manner.

"We are in a room off the corridor. That Dim-Ing thing is only a few hundred feet away. I hope it has not contacted your mind again, for I have something important to tell you. It is a good thing you followed me here so closely, for the Dim-Ing withdrew its concentration from me and centered it on you. Thus I was able to slip past this place, and I explored a little. Jim Landor, below these corridors I have discovered a huge room full of machinery. I cannot understand it all, for I have not a scientific mind; but I thought if we could escape from here, and I could take you to this place--"

Slowly, Jim allowed his mind to relax. He felt no more of the probing mental fingers in his brain.

"It's all right, Kaarji, we can speak freely now. I suppose that's where Bhruulo caught you, in that secret room?"

"Yes. It seems to be his living quarters as well."

"I think I know what that machinery is, Kaarji. It's vital to the existence of M'Tonak. If only we can get back there--"

Jim rose to his feet and looked about the room. It was small and empty, the walls were of marble. He walked over to the single door leading to the corridor. He tried it, and to his surprise it opened easily!

* * * * *

But he staggered back as from a violent physical blow, as the radiations from the Dim-Ing lashed against him.

"Hum, our little playmate again." Jim rubbed his half-blinded eyes. "Clever devil, that Bhruulo. He knows that no man could escape through _that_. He was so sure of it that he didn't even remove my electro-pistol from me."

As the pain passed from his eyes, he removed his pistol and felt the comfortable weight of it in his hand; but he thrust it back into his belt again, knowing it was useless against the Dim-Ing. Then an idea struck him like a thunderbolt.

"Kaarji, we may walk from this room yet! I have one weapon that Bhruulo hasn't counted on, and that is--the Dim-Ing's hatred of Bhruulo!"

Hurrying to the door again, he opened it infinitesimally. And he leaped back to the furthermost confines of the room as the Dim-Ing's thought-emanations came flooding inside, in a gentle greenish haze.

Jim centered all of his mind, now, on the one all-important thought. "Bhruulo! I shall kill him! He thinks he will keep me here and feed my mind to the Dim-Ing--but somehow I'll escape from here and kill Bhruulo. I swear it!" He strove to arouse an overwhelming hatred in his mind for the ages-old little Martian.

The Dim-Ing's power surged anew.

He felt the alien entity's mental fingers grab hold of his mind again. He stifled the rising exultance and reiterated his resolution to kill Bhruulo. Now he noticed that the Dim-Ing's mental presence was expanding through the very marble walls themselves. As never before, he began to appreciate the potential power of the thing. But with an effort he repeated his oath to kill Bhruulo; it became now not so much an oath as a promise, for he knew the Dim-Ing had tightly grasped his mind and was listening.

It was easy. So ridiculously easy that Jim should have been suspicious, but was not.

"If you mean it," the Dim-Ing spoke to Jim's mind at last. "If I thought you really would--"

"I mean it!" Jim flashed the thought fervently. "Let me out of here and I will rid you of Bhruulo, once and for all!"

He almost laughed aloud.

Slowly, hesitantly the thing's mental barrier was fading away. Jim stepped to the door and opened it widely. Nothing beat him back now. He motioned to Kaarji, who followed him almost frightenedly out into the corridor. There the mental power of the Dim-Ing was a little more in evidence, but not enough to stop them. It was as though it were watching....

"This way," Kaarji breathed at last. He led Jim in the opposite direction from the Dim-Ing, then into a cross-corridor that extended interminably. At last they reached a door that opened onto stone steps leading downward.

"Careful," Kaarji warned as he led the way slowly.

He didn't need to warn Jim. The latter was wary as never before, and he kept a hand always near his electro-pistol. Something was vaguely wrong about all this but he didn't know what. For one thing it seemed too easy.

At the bottom of the steps was another sliding door. Kaarji paused before it and whispered, "This is the room!"

* * * * *

Jim stood still, listening. There was no sound from beyond that door. The silence was a vast womb about them, menacing. Jim slid the door noiselessly open; they stepped inside and stared around.

They saw huge circling tiers of peculiarly constructed dynamos. They were in operation, Jim knew that, for he could feel a certain surge of power even though there was no sound. A bewildering network of cables led from the dynamos to a central, predominating machine that towered fan-like above them all. It was this electronic tower, he knew, that created the swirling pillars of strength that surged upward and outward to support the vast cavern roof overhead.

Then they saw Bhruulo. He was in a little glassite room at the foot of the electronic tower. Tiny wheels and dials were banked around him, and he was busy making delicate adjustments. So busy that he didn't see them standing just inside the door.

Now Jim heard the insistent voice of the Dim-Ing in his mind again: "Kill him! Do it at once! Do as you promised...."

Jim didn't need the prompting voice, but he wasn't going to ray a man down from behind; besides, he doubted if his beam would penetrate that glassite cage. He stepped quickly to one of the dynamo stanchions, and drew Kaarji down beside him.

He waited, despite the Dim-Ing's impatience that he could feel seething within him. Bhruulo finished his adjustments at last, and stepped out of the cage. He was still a good fifty feet from Jim. He turned, to go deeper into the maze of machinery.

Jim arose and said quietly: "Bhruulo!"

The aged Martian whirled with amazing agility. Jim saw the look of incredulity that leaped into his eyes. Bhruulo leaned heavily forward, his two hands gnarling about his cane. Then his lips quirked into a toothless smile, and he started to say something.

That was to throw Jim off guard. Simultaneous with his speech he lifted his hands lightning-like, and the cane levelled. But Jim was expecting that. With a single sinuous movement his pistol was in his hand, its bluish beam was pencilling out. It caught Bhruulo squarely in the chest before he could press the button on his own weapon. He staggered forward, his cane-weapon sagged; he tried to level it again but could not. Still he staggered forward, hatred mingled with horror in his eyes. With amazing strength his spindly legs carried him across the room, as he mouthed unintelligible Martian words.

Jim fell back a step. He hoped Bhruulo would not find strength in his arms. Would that damned Martian never die? Jim knew his beam had bored a hole clear through the creature's chest; he could see the blackish blood oozing from it. Jim felt a cold horror gnawing at the pit of his stomach even as he aimed carefully and the electro-beam flashed out three more times. He saw three more holes rake across the Martian's chest.

Bhruulo fell with a crash right at Jim's feet, and the cane clattered from his fingers. Even the mask of death could not erase the hate from those ebon eyes as Bhruulo stared lifelessly up at him.

Jim shuddered once, then reached out with his foot and turned Bhruulo over so that he lay face downward.

* * * * *

He was aware of Kaarji standing beside him, and Kaarji saying quickly, tensely: "Jim Landor! You remember when I said that this time I should not return from the Polar wastes? This is what I meant, I know now what I must do. But you must hurry, get back and tell the other men, or none of you will ever leave M'Tonak!"

Jim stared at him uncomprehendingly, trying to listen at the same time to Kaarji and to the jubilant voice of the Dim-Ing that was surging in him again.

"Kaarji--what do you mean?"

"I mean, Jim Landor, that I know the intentions of the Dim-Ing! I know at last what has happened to my race and what might happen to Earth. But it shall not happen!"

Kaarji leaped toward the glassite cage at the foot of the electronic tower. In a few strides he was there, had hurled himself within it and barred the door behind him. His eyes were glowing and purposeful, as he stared out at Jim who came running.

"You had better hurry, Jim Landor, and warn the others. Do not try to stop me, for I have a feeling this cage is impregnable. In a very short time I can wreck these controls, the electronic zones will cease and the entire cavern roof will collapse under the pressure of millions of tons! Get back to the others and escape from M'Tonak."

He turned deliberately and examined the controls banked around him. He reached to his pouch of _tsith_ stems, and placed a few of them in his mouth before he continued.

"I suggest you try to distract the Dim-Ing's thought as much as possible, so it won't center on me here. I will try to hold out for half an hour at least, longer if possible. But hurry!"

Conflicting emotions swept across Jim like a flood, but were beaten down by the cold realization that Kaarji intended to carry this thing through without compromise. The Martian would destroy all of M'Tonak, including the Dim-Ing and himself, in an endeavor to save Earth from the thing that had happened so subtly on Mars.

Jim whirled, started to race away but turned back. "All right, Kaarji. Thanks seems a pretty feeble word for what you are doing, but if I get back to Earth I shall see that you are never forgotten for this. Now give me the rest of those _tsith_ stems--I have an idea!"

Without question Kaarji opened the glassite door, and tossed out the pouch of stems. Jim snatched it up and raced away without a backward glance. He hurried from the room and up the stone stairs to the corridors again.

* * * * *

There the Dim-Ing's power struck more forcefully into his mind. It seemed somehow diabolically gleeful now. But Jim hurried on, hurried _toward_ the evil entity. Finally he stood at the foot of the towering well, and saw the spinning globular shape descend upon its coalescing pillar of light.

"You did it well," the thought came flashing. "You kept your promise. The thing I have dreamed of for ages has happened, Bhruulo is out of my way and I have a free hand! Yes, Earthman, now I see in your mind everything that Bhruulo told you. There are other Earthmen here, completing a huge ship by which to go back to your planet. _That_ is what Bhruulo was counting on, _that_ is what he would not tell me. He had planned to take me to Earth and there keep me under his control, as he has here. But now that you have so kindly removed Bhruulo, I can do this by myself! I need only wait until the men have completed their ship, then blast their minds to annihilation!"

This Dim-Ing was the ultimate evil, not Bhruulo! Jim had known it all along, and now he realized how he had played into its hands! A momentary panic seized him. He could picture the thing landing the spaceship on Earth's northern or southern polar ice, or in the unexplored depths of Brazilian jungle. Hidden from the sight and knowledge of men for years, it would carry on the subtle destruction of Earthian minds as it had Martian; and now, unhampered by Bhruulo, it would grow in size and potency until who could say what the end would be! Perhaps there would be no end; there were other planets besides Mars and Earth....

"Thank you, Earthman, that is a thought I will remember. But your mental pictures of the terrain of Earth were rather vague. Show me more clearly."

Jim felt the agonizing mental fingers tearing the tissues of his brain apart.

At the base of the well he saw the obscure little door Bhruulo had opened to manipulate the pale, pencilling beams. Instantly, Jim was on his knees, had wrenched it open. He did not try to work the beams, knowing the Dim-Ing could have stopped him in an instant; he merely tossed the pouch of _tsith_ stems out into the center floor of the well, and rose quickly.

"There's an offering for you! I kept my promise and killed Bhruulo, now you keep yours and let me go!"

The entity had made no such promise and Jim knew it. But he whirled and raced down the corridor unheeded. It was only the element of surprise that would carry him through now, surprise and utter wildness. He even laughed wildly aloud as he ran on. And nothing stopped him!

Nothing stopped him until he was halfway to the outer door leading to the street. Then he felt a terrific impact, he stumbled, fell to his knees and toppled forward on his face. He arose against a tremendous physical pressure and staggered on. Again he felt that impact, as he was battered against the marble corridor walls. But with a fierce tenacity he kept his feet, and kept going.

He reached the street. His legs were heavy as if he were fighting against a hundred gravities. He felt that the Dim-Ing was merely toying with him, as a cat with a mouse. As Jim hurried on, or tried to hurry, to the place where he would find Conley and Spurlin and the score of other men, he knew that one man could not hope to stand against that awful power. But perhaps many men, in perfect mental accord....

Again he felt the strange, fierce tingling in every fiber of his being until he thought he was walking in a sluggish sea of fire. It seemed hours later when he reached the familiar building and hurried along the metal-lined tunnel where the Dim-Ing's radiations seemed a little less intense. It was with a feeling of profound gratitude that he pushed through a final door, and sank down into a soothing oblivion. But not before he glimpsed many men rushing toward him, with surprised shouts. Among them he saw Conley.