Argosy All-Story Weekly, February 18, 1928 — page 79: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

BEYOND THE STARS. Jed to the ground. A broadly oval main doorway to the castle was near there. Be- low it, a wide crescent staircase of stone led down a hundred-foot terrace to the main gardens along the water. They were spreading gardens of beds of flowers, wind- ing paths, and stretches of a firm, gray-blue sward, like closely clipped grass. The castle was accessible at the front, down this hundred-foot staircase. But to the sides, and the rear, the descent to the surrounding city streets was walled with a sheer hundred-foot drop. “Below the stone wall was an encircling street, beyond which were the city houses. Sonya guided our flying platform in a wide circle over the castle. The yellow moonlight flooded the scene. The back street down there was empty, except for a few people hastening along it to reach the front, where all the crowd was gathered. We swept lower, with another turn. The girls were landing in the lower front gar- dens, beneath the terrace, by the river. A throng of them was there. As the plat- forms came down, I could see the crowd of people scattering, a crowd from the city, mostly men. They scattered and then surged toward the steps of the main stair- case, but none of them mounted it. The stone staircase was empty. On the level stone area at its top, some fifty police were standing, guarding the main doorway. On the front, second-floor balcony, at the head of the steep metal stairway there, a few other guards were loitering. The castle was lighted from within. A few lights showed at its upper oval windows, but I could see no sign of activity. On the roof-top, near the mound-inclosure, a group of old men were sitting, the king’s counsellors. Some of them were up, pacing back and forth, terrified, I had no doubt, at what they realized was an impending crisis, con- fused to know what they should do. A mound was over the head of the interior stairs to the roof. As we passed close above it, a man came suddenly up from below. 1 could see his frightened gesture. The others crowded around him. . We swept on, heading now for the front garden where we would land. 877 The news that Jim and Lupe were cap- tured by those unknown menacing things which now I realized must be lurking ey- erywhere, had changed my whole attitude. In that moment of bitter realization of the plight into which we had fallen, I would gladly, had it been possible, have gathered our little band together and re- turned to the earth. But it was not possible, and now upon me alone, our safety depended. I must decide—and decide at once—upon a course of action. Whatever I did, must be done alone. I knew it. In this sudden crisis—the strife between the sexes—even Alice and Dolores turned from me to Sonya. I was silent during that brief return flight from the Virgins’ Island. Only once I moved close to Sonya. We were then over the castle. “Is the king dead, Sonya?” “No. I do not think so.” I waited a moment. “ Sonya, you girls are not armed?’ She said impulsively: “‘ No. But in the underground rooms of the castle, the sci- ence weapons are stored. Once we get control of them—” She checked herself; but she had told me what I wanted to know. An arsenal under the castle! The weapons of a half-forgotten science of this decadent race, stored there! If the girls got control of it— The thought made my heart sink. Well- meaning, but inexperienced girls, struggling grimly for whatever just cause, had no business with weapons like those! I shuddered at the visions*which surged to my imagination. Here in the city— fatuous, frightened old men controlling a government now menaced by crusading young girls! This was our condition, piti- able indeed, to oppose a savage, outside enemy! Yet what was I to do? I pondered it until a vague possibility came to me. It gripped me. It seemed feasible. I be- lieved I could accomplish it. With swift- ness of action—power, dominance—I could carry it through. A grim exultation was upon me. A man, to play a man’s part— We landed with a swoop upon the moon- lit garden sward. The girls crowded around Gomichooks (E(@)