Part 3 (1/2)

Morown to be synony Tiirl had never beenEvery quality which she had ever possessed, real in actuality or iinary as a result of his idealizations, was now transcended beyond all mortal planes She became the very embodiment of every human aspiration and desire

Surely, he found hi with that curious pleasure and contentlorious and wonderful a girl could be no base act And the scruples which had forever risen to bar hily from the actual deed, were now so smoothed away that he would never have known he had had thereat pleasure in killing hirets, no self-accusations, no torturing pangs of conscience There would only be complete satisfaction, comfort, and happiness And Laura would be his There was no doubt about that There was no doubt anywhere in his ratification of every whiht or desire

Then a sudden jar shook hi up fro into Big Tim Austin's puzzled and incredulous face, and that eery one

”Brad--did you feel it, too?”

Nellon nodded wordlessly He was a little frightened of the weird force that had held theantically before hiood distance without any conscious knowledge of having done so It was the chance collision which had aroused the state

Nellon could feel the force yet, brushi+ng at the fringes of his ers But he soon found that, with active resistance, there was no fear of it overco persisted, however, and that was the curiously refreshed and stimulated condition of his body Nor was he anxious that this should go away

They ithin yards of the great coluan totheir progress under that inexplicable half-trance

It was not actually a column, they realized, for it was hollow and they could dimly make out the shapes of objects within It was a vast, rooreen In the center, andwhat see the cylinder, they pressed closely to its hard surface and peered intently within But at first the great, fla ball obscured such early details as they could discern It was like looking upward through water at the blinding disc of the sun Then, as their eyes grew accusto at an unbelievable scene

High above floated the fiery, green ball Directly below it glittered the coe base and narrowed as it rose Circling the apex were a multitude of rod-like projections, the ends of which tere crystal cones The bases of these were pointed upward, and froreen ball, as though at once nourishi+ng and supporting it

But it was not this which held the incredulous fixity of their gaze For arranged in concentric circles about the machine were hundreds of tables or low platforure lay The nearest table was soh which Nellon and Austin peered, and this, added to the weird, green light of the globe, made a clear delineation of physical characteristics ih to become convinced, that, as their earlier exaures were hauntingly hu Ti around in response to the action, was alea Ti tosince the discovery of the first dead city on Mars We've got to go back to the shi+p and bring the others They've got to see this But, Brad, before they do, I' in there I want to be the first to see what these people looked like There must be a door somewhere--”

And before Nellon could voice the protest which rose to his lips, Big Tireen wall Nellon stood looking after hi ihtened his lips and followed in the direction which Big Tim had taken But before Nellon could reach him, the other's excited voice crashed in his earphones

”I've found it, Brad! There _is_ a door here”

Nellon jerked into a run He found Big Ti upon a short ramp before a section of the hich was different froular in shape At one side, seen diefrom a slot in the wall, and clearly connected with the littered with daring His tow hair awry, he looked rown, iuy, you surely don't intend to go in there!” Nellon exclaiave a short, excited laugh ”Look--there's nothing to be afraid of There's just that green light up there and the people, and they are dead Everything in this place is dead Brad, this is the chance of a lifetime We'll be the first to look upon the faces of an extra-terrestrial race since the Martians”

Big Ti lever There was a moment of appalled and complete quiet Then hidden motors hummed into alien life, and slowly the door before thereen radiance poured through the opening in a blinding flood

”Coed And without any hesitation on his own part, he stepped through, to be bathed instantly in the elow