Chapter VIII

Six Lyrian months had passed since Standish and Ga-Marr had escaped from the unknown planet. During those months the fame of the _Phantom_ had spread fast as light. From the constellation Cygnus to the twelfth and fifteenth magnitude stars, the name of Captain Ether, behind which Standish hid his identity swept through the interplanetary lanes. Transports from powerful and peaceful Alpha Centauri moved with extra convoys, ready for instant action. No one knew when the _Phantom_ would strike. No one knew from what planet it came to attack like a black meteor without warning.

Yet Standish challenged no ship but those of Sirius. Haunting the lanes between Sirius and Earth, he seized enemy prison ships and troop transports alike with daring regularity.

The city of Calthedra was filled to overflowing with Sirian prisoners. But the man Standish wanted most, Drum Faggard, was never on a captured ship.

Desire to capture Faggard became almost an obsession as the Earthman went on. Through the powerful radio which he had built on Lyra, he learned of the situation on Earth, day by day.

The news was black. Canada, Mexico and Central America were now a part of the armed camp of the invaders. The Greater United States alone had managed to remain independent. Breastworks a quarter of a mile high had been erected on the Canadian and Mexican frontiers.

The only bright spot was the fact that Faggard's "big push" had failed. Often Standish smiled as he listened in on radio messages between the Sirian government and Drum Faggard at his Frisco base.

"The _Phantom_ has been sighted, lurking near Ganymede. Dispatch five cruisers to that satellite immediately."

And again: "The _Phantom_, it is learned on definite authority, comes from some point in future time. It is able to maintain a speed in excess of light, violating the Fitzgerald contraction, riding the fourth dimensional continuum."

To which Drum Faggard always snarled the same reply. "Whoever Captain Ether is, I'll get him. Give me time."

* * * * *

It was the day of his return from his most successful raid; and Standish and Thalia were walking arm in arm through the palace garden on Lyra. Flowers were in the full bloom of the planet's early summer, and the sun glowed upon them warmly.

"The _Phantom_ is not enough," the Earthman said. "Powerful as she is, she can only plague the Sirians like a single hornet. With all my efforts, I have not halted the war against Earth one iota."

Thalia shook her head. "You've done all one person possibly could do."

"I need an army and a fleet," Standish said. "Yet on all Lyra there will not be sufficiently trained men to furnish either for a long time."

The girl stood there, idly plucking the petals of a flower. Abruptly she turned.

"The Sirian prisoners! Even the private soldiers are equipped with scientific knowledge. Why not use them?"

But Standish shook his head. "They would refuse. We could force them to do physical work, of course. But that's all ... I ..."

"Listen." Excitement suddenly entered Thalia's voice. "In the laboratories in the lower levels there is a machine built by the early Lyrians long ago. No one understands its operation now. But its some kind of an electro-hypnotic machine. Couldn't you use it on the Sirians and make them _want_ to help us?"

A glitter in his eyes, Standish considered a moment, then leaped to his feet.

"Let's have a look," he said.

They left the garden, crossed the square and entered the ancient tunnel that led to the old laboratories. In the first level the Earthman found nothing that answered the girl's description. But in a storage room far back in the second tier he came upon two of the strange machines, dust covered, in places red with rust.

Mounted on wheels, the instruments consisted of a small cart with twin panels and a confusing array of dials. Above each machine was a helix of tightly wound silver wire. At the bottom was a transparent globe still half-filled with a thick greenish liquid.

"According to Ga-Marr," Thalia said, "these machines were used by the early Sirians for medical purposes. They found in the principal of applied hypnosis a cure for a great many ills."

Standish nodded. Without further word, he took up a small wrench and removed the panel from one of the instruments, carefully examining the revealed wiring.

"They seemed to be constructed for use on ordinary electric power. But not the power supplied by Calthedra's dynamoes. I'll have to step up the frequency."

He opened a wall switchboard and quickly connected two wires to the machine. On a table he found a transformer. Thalia stood by in silence while he hooked up wires, condensers, and a small loading coil. Presently he looked up with a nod.

"We'll give her a try and see what happens."

"Stand over there in front of the helix," Standish said. "I don't think there's any danger. Unless I'm wrong, the thing simply places the patient in an electro magnetic field and transmits an alternating vibration to the human brain."

He played with the dials a long time, twisted a rheostat experimentally.

"Notice anything?"

"Yes, I ..." The Earth girl's voice died off. A vacant look entered her eyes. "What is your wish?" she asked suddenly.

Standish made a quick adjustment to the controls. "Sit down," he commanded.

Obediently, Thalia moved across to a chair and sat stiffly erect.

"You have studied some mathematics," Standish said then. "Tell me, what is the principal of the algebraic curve?"

Without hesitation Thalia replied, "A curve, the equation of which contains no transcendental quantities; a figure the intercepted diameters of which bear always the same proportion to their respective ordinates."

Standish uttered a low cry of triumph and threw over the reverse lever of the machine. An instant later Thalia stared at him in bewilderment.

"What happened?"

"It worked," Standish replied. "With that device and a hundred more like it I will build, I can control every last Sirian prisoner. I can make them help us build an entire fleet, using all their scientific knowledge."

Thalia's eyes glowed. "We'll be fighting them with their own people," she said.