Lords of the Stratosphere Page 9

  CHAPTER IX

  _A Scheme Is Described_

  The hands of the two wayfarers into the stratosphere dropped to theirweapons as the men came through that door which masked the inner mysteryof the white globe.

  One of the men grinned. There was a threat in his grin--and a promise.

  "I wouldn't use my weapons if I were in your place, gentlemen," he said."Come this way, please. Sitsumi and The Three wish to see you at once."

  Jeter and Eyer exchanged glances. Would it do any good to start a fightwith these people? They seemed to be unarmed, but there were many ofthem. And probably there were many more beyond that door. Certainly thisstrange globe was capable of holding a small army at least.

  Jeter shrugged. Eyer answered it with an eloquent gesture--and the twofell in with those who had come to meet them.

  "How about our plane?" said Jeter.

  "You need concern yourself with it no longer," replied one. "Its finaldisposal is in the hands of Sitsumi and The Three."

  A cold chill ran along Jeter's spine. There was something too finalabout the guide's calm reply. Both adventurers remembered again, mostpoignantly, the fate of Kress.

  The leaders stepped through the door. A flight of steps led downward.

  Several of the swarthy-skinned folk walked behind Jeter and Eyer. Therewas no gainsaying the fact that they were prisoners.

  Jeter and Eyer gasped a little as they looked into the interior of thewhite globe. It was of unusual extent, Jeter estimated, a completeglobe; but this one was bisected by a floor at its center, of somesubstance that might, for its apparent lightness, have been aluminum.Plainly it was the dwelling place of these strange conquerors of thestratosphere. It might have been a vast room designed as the dwellingplace of people accustomed to all sorts of personal comforts.

  On the "floor" were several buildings, of the same material as thefloor. It remained to be seen what these buildings were for, but Jetercould guess, he believed, with fair accuracy. The large building in thecenter would be the central control room housing whatever apparatus ofany kind was needed in the working of this space ship. There weresmaller buildings, most of them conical, looking oddly like beehives,which doubtless housed the denizens of the globe.

  * * * * *

  The atmosphere was much like that of New York in early autumn. It was ofequable temperature. There was no discomfort in walking, no difficultyin breathing. Jeter surmised that at least one of those buildings,perhaps the central one, housed some sort of oxygen renewer. Such adevice at this height was naturally essential.

  The stairs ended. The prisoners and their guards stopped at floor level.

  Jeter paused to look about him. His scientific eyes were studying theconstruction of the globe. The idea of escape from the predicament intowhich he and Eyer were plunged would never be out of his head formoment.

  "Come along, you!"

  Jeter started, stung by the savagery which suddenly edged the voice ofthe man who had first greeted him. There was contempt in it--and anassumption of personal superiority which galled the independent Jeter.

  He grinned a little, looked at Eyer.

  "I wonder if we have to take it," he said softly.

  "It seems we might expect a little respect, at least," Eyer grinned inanswer.

  The guard suddenly caught Jeter by the shoulder.

  "I said to come along!"

  If the man had been intending to provoke a fight he couldn't have goneabout it in any better way. Jeter suddenly, without a change ofexpression, sent a right fist crashing to the fellow's jaw.

  "Don't use your gat, Eyer," he called to his partner. "We may kill akey man who may be necessary to our well-being later on. But black eyesand broken noses should be no bar to efficiency."

  Without any fuss or hullabaloo, the dozen or so denizens of the globewho had met the partners closed on them. They came on with a rush. Jeterand Eyer stood back to back and slugged. They were young, with youthfuljoy in battle. They were trained to the minute. As fliers they tookpride in their physical condition. They were out-numbered, but it wasalso a matter of pride with them to demand respect wherever they went.It was also a matter of pride to down as many of the attackers aspossible before they themselves were downed.

  * * * * *

  It became plain that, though the denizens of the globe were armed withknives, they were not to be used. And it didn't seem they would beneeded. The fighters were all muscular, well-trained fighters. But forthe most part they fought in the manner of Chinese ta chaen, or Japaneseju-jutsu men. They used holds that were bone-breaking and it taxed thepair to the utmost to keep from being maimed by their killing strength.

  The swarthy men were men of courage, no doubt about that. They foughtwith silent ferocity. They blinked when struck, but came back to takeyet other blows with the tenacity of so many bulldogs. There was nogainsaying them, it seemed. They were here for the purpose of subduingtheir visitors and nothing short of death would stop them.

  It wasn't courtesy, either, that failure to use knives, for Jeter sawmurder looking out of more than one pair of eyes as their two pairs offists landed on brown faces, smashed noses askew, and started eyes toclosing.

  "Their leader has them under absolute control--and that's a point forthe enemy," Jeter panted to himself, as the strain of battle began totell on him. "They've been instructed, no matter what we do, to bring usto their master or masters alive."

  For a moment he toyed with the idea of drawing his weapon and firingpointblank into the enemy. He knew they would be compelled to take livesto escape--and that the lives of all these people were forfeit anywaybecause of the havoc which had descended upon New York City.

  But he didn't make a move for his weapon. It would be sure death if hedid, for the others were armed.

  Brown men fell before the smashing of their fists. But the end of thefight was a foregone conclusion. Jeter had a bruised jaw. Eyer's nosewas bleeding and one eye was closed when the reception committee finallycame to close quarters, smothered them by sheer weight of numbers, andmade them prisoners. Jeter's right wrist was manacled to Eyer's leftwith a pair of ordinary steel handcuffs. Their weapons were taken awayfrom them now.

  The leader of the committee, panting, but apparently unconcerned overwhat had happened, motioned the two men to lead the way. He pointed tothe large building in the center of the "floor."

  "That way," he said, "and I hope Sitsumi and The Three give uspermission to throw you out without parachutes or high altitude suits."

  "Pleasant cuss, aren't you?" said Eyer. "I don't think you like us."

  The man would have struck Eyer for his grinning levity; but at thatmoment a door opened in the side of the large building and a man inOriental robes stood there.

  "Bring then here at once, Naka!" he said.

  * * * * *

  The man called Naka, the leader whom Jeter had first struck, bowed low,with deep respect, to the man in the doorway.

  "Yes, O Sitsumi!" he said. As he spoke he sucked in his breath with thatsnakelike hissing sound which is the acme of politeness, in Japan--"thatmy humble breath may not blow upon you"--and spread wide his hands."They are extremely low persons and dared lay hands upon youremissaries."

  Eyer grinned again.

  "I think," he called, "there transpired what might be called a generallaying on of hands by all hands."

  "I deeply deplore your inclination to levity, Tema Eyer," said the manin the doorway. "It is not seemly in one whose intelligence entitles himto a place in our counsels."

  Eyer looked at Jeter. What was the meaning of Sitsumi's crypticutterance?

  "Bring them in," snapped Sitsumi.

  Jeter studied the man with interest. He knew instantly who he was andunderstood why Sitsumi had refused to answer his radio messages toJapan. He couldn't very well have done so in the circumstances. Here,under the broad dome of Sitsumi was probably the greatest scientificbra
in of the century. Jeter saw cruelty in his eyes too; ruthlessness,and determination.

  The prisoners were marched into the room behind Sitsumi, who steppedaside, looking curiously at Jeter and Eyer as they passed him. Insidethe door, pausing only a moment to glance over the big room'sappointments, Jeter turned on Sitsumi.

  "Just what do you intend doing with us, Sitsumi?" he asked. "I supposeit's useless to ask you, also, what the meaning of all this is?"

  "I shall answer both your questions, Jeter," said Sitsumi. "Step thisway, please. The Three should hear our conference."

  They were conducted into a smaller room. Its floors were covered withskins. There were easy chairs and divans. It might have been their ownluxuriously appointed rooms at Mineola. At a long table three men--allOrientals--were deeply immersed in some activity which bent their headsabsorbedly over the very center of the table. It might have been athree-sided chess game, by their attitudes.

  "Gentlemen!" said Sitsumi.

  The three men turned.

  "My colleagues, Wang Li, Liao Wu and Yung Chan," Sitsumi introducedthem. "Without them our great work would have been impossible."

  * * * * *

  Here were the three missing Chinese scientists. Jeter and Eyer had seenmany pictures of them. Jeter wondered whether their adherence to Sitsumiwere voluntary or forced. But it was voluntary, of course. The threebrains of these brilliant men could easily have outwitted Sitsumi hadthey been unwilling to associate themselves with him. The threeOrientals bowed.

  Jeter and Eyer were bidden to take chairs side by side. The guards drewback a little but never took their eyes off the two. Sitsumi rangedhimself beside his colleagues at the table.

  "I'll answer your questions now, gentlemen, in the presence of mycolleagues so that you shall know that we are together in what wepropose. We wish you to join us. The only alternative is ... well, yourecall what happened to your countryman, Kress? The same, or a similarfate, will be yours if you don't ally yourselves with us."

  Jeter and Eyer exchanged glances.

  "Just what _are_ you doing?" asked Jeter. "I've seen some of the resultsof your activities, but I can see no reason for them. I would pronounceeverything you have done so far to be the acts of madmen."

  "We are not mad," said Sitsumi. "We are simply a group of people ofmixed blood who deplore the barriers of racial prejudice, for one thing.We are advocates of a deliberately contrived super-race, produced by theamalgamation of the best minds and the best bodies of all races. Weourselves are what the world calls Eurasians. In our youth peoplepatronised us. In Asia we were shunned. We were shunned everywhere byboth races from which we trace our ancestry. We are not trying to beavenged upon the world because we have been pariahs. We are not sopetty. But by striving until we have become the world's four greatestscientists we have proved to our own satisfaction that a mixture ofblood is a wholesome thing. This expedition of ours, and its effect sofar on New York City, is the result of our years of planning."

  "I see no need for wholesale murder. Lecture platforms are open to allcreeds, all races...."

  Something suggestive of a sneer creased Sitsumi's lips. The Three didnot change expression in the least.

  * * * * *

  "People do not listen to reason. They listen to force. We will use forceto make them listen, in the end, to reason--backed in turn by force, ifyou like. We have settled on New York from which to begin our conquestof the world because it is the world's largest, richest, mostrepresentative city. If we control New York we control the wealth of theNorth American continent, and therefore the continent itself. Ourdestruction of buildings in New York City serves a twofold purpose. Itprepares the inhabitants to listen to us later because, seeing what weare capable of doing, they will be afraid not to. Our efficiency isfurther shown in our destruction of the old out-of-date buildings,chosen for destruction simply because they are obsolete. The New YorkCity of our schemes will be a magic city...."

  "But what is your purpose, in a few words?" insisted Jeter.

  "The foundation of a world government; the destruction of the mentallydeficient; the scientific production of a mixed race of intellectuals,comparable to, but greater than, that of ancient Greece, which was greatbecause it was a human melting pot."

  "How are you going to do it--after you've finished your grandstandplays?" said Eyer.

  Sitsumi stared at Eyer, his eyes narrowing. Eyer was making his dislikeentirely too plain. Jeter nudged him, but the question had been asked.

  "With this space ship--and others which are building," replied Sitsumi."Haven't you guessed at any of our methods?"

  "Yes," said Jeter, "I know you are the rumored inventor of a substancewhich is invisible because light rays are bent around it instead ofpassing through, yet the result is as though they actually passedthrough. I judge that the shell, or skin, of this stratosphere ship iscomposed of this substance, whose formula of construction is yoursecret. Light rays passing around it would render it invisible, yetwould make the beholding eye seem to see in a straight line as usual,disregarding refraction."

  Sitsumi nodded. The Three nodded with him, like puppets. But their eyeswere glowingly alive.

  "You are right. Are you further interested? If you have no interest inour theories there is little need to pursue our plans further, where youare concerned."

  "We are interested, of course," said Jeter. "We are interested in yourtheories, without committing ourselves to acceptance of them; and we arenaturally interested in saving our lives. Let us say then, for themoment, that we do not refuse to join you."