[Illustration: _Blake made a lightning snatch at a tentacle with bothhands. _] Zehru of Xollar By Hal K. Wells Three Earthlings are whisked on an inter-dimensional journey to the den of the Scientist Zehru. When the rolling thunder of infra-bass first came to their ears, RobertBlake and Helen Lawton were standing on the platform of a New Yorksubway station waiting for the arrival of an uptown express to bear themto their homes. They made a strikingly attractive couple as they stood there. New Yorkhad not had time as yet to remove the bronze tan of an outdoor life fromBlake's ruggedly good-looking face. His tall athletic figure was stillconspicuous for the lithe strength that had made him an All-Westerntackle less than two years ago. Standing beside Blake's husky figure, Helen Lawton looked like a tiny, very perfect, blonde doll, with an exquisitely molded face framed incurly bobbed hair that was the clear golden-amber hue of orange honey. There was a diamond sparkling on the ring finger of the girl's slim lefthand, placed there by Blake. It was well after midnight, and the only other passenger waiting on thestation was a burly chap leaning against one of the white pillars on theother side of the platform. After a casual glance at the fellow, withhis derby hat shoved far back from a low forehead, his blatantlyconspicuous clothing, and the suspicious bulge under one arm-pit, Blakehad mentally set him down as a minor gangster, probably a strong-arm manfor some beer mob. Blake and Helen had been standing there but a few minutes when thestrange sound first became audible. For a moment Blake thought it wasmerely the rumbling roar of an express approaching far down the tunnel. Then he realized that no subway train could possibly produce a soundeffect so oddly disturbing and strangely alien. It was like no sound that Blake had ever heard before. Vibrant withcolossal power, it suggested a sustained note struck from a giant organ, a note so low in pitch that it seemed a full octave below the lowestbass note ever struck. Whatever it was, the thundering vibration ofinfra-bass was coming nearer with startling swiftness. * * * * * It was impossible to locate the source of the mighty pulsing note. Itseemed to be coming simultaneously from all directions, like a greathollow sphere of invisible sound waves closing in with the stationplatform as its central focal point. Helen's face was white with dread as she shrank closer into Blake'sembrace. Blake noted that the gangster across the platform was standingtensely at bay with his back against the pillar and his right handthrust under his coat as he stared wildly about him in an effort todiscover the cause of the disturbance. The rolling thunder closed in upon them with a final rush that broughtit so near that their very bodies seemed to vibrate in harmony with thatmighty note of shuddering bass. Then with startling abruptness the greennet came. Out from the walls and down from the roof spurted scores of quiveringribbons of blinding green flame. Swiftly the radiant tendrils rushed inupon the shrinking three from every side, while the infra-bass thunderedin mighty crescendo. Blake instinctively swept Helen close within the shelter of his arms inan effort to protect her with his own body against the searing menace ofthose onrushing green flames. The next moment the fiery ribbons wereupon them, lashing about their bodies, crossing and crisscrossing in theair above and around them in a great tangled web of interlacing lines offlame that filled the entire platform. * * * * * With a shock of relief Blake found that there was no heat in thosestrange flames, but his relief was short-lived as the next secondbrought him realization of the real menace of the radiant ribbons. Therewas a solidity and strength in those glowing streamers that held them ashelplessly captive as though they were gripped in ribbons of steel. Dazed and helpless, the three struggled for a moment in the meshes ofthe weird net of flame like fish caught in the strands of some giantcosmic seine. The trembling thunder of infra-bass abruptly changed to a thin whiningnote so high in pitch that it seemed the nearly soundless ghost of ametallic scream. With the change in sound Blake became aware of a newand astounding change in his surroundings. The walls and roof of the station seemed closing in upon him as thoughhe were growing in size at an incredible rate. The next moment he shotthrough the roof, hurtling on and upward with the velocity of a rocket. The sensation was one that his reeling brain could not even grasp. Hisbody seemed to be inside every stone, iron bar, and lump of earth, yetat the same time every exterior object seemed _within_ his body. It wasan eery chaos of a dozen different dimensions blending to form a Spacein which there was no known dimension. As they flashed on out to the surface Blake had one hazy glimpse ofManhattan's glowing lights spread all about them. Then the speed oftheir progress leaped into a new and terrible acceleration that blottedout every tangible sensation from Blake's brain. Time and Space alike seemed to vanish as their hurtling flight sent themrocketing on for distances inconceivably vast through a bleak andappalling Nothingness, where neither sight nor sound existed. Then abruptly the speed of their flight seemed to be lessening. Sensation returned to Blake. He again heard the thin high-pitchedmetallic wail, now swiftly deepening to the familiar growl of rollingbass. He again noted the presence of the glowing green ribbons of thenet that still encircled them. * * * * * A blindingly brilliant purple mist was now closing in upon them fromevery direction, bringing with it a nameless and agonizing force thatseemed to be shaking the very atoms in Blake's body asunder. Then theydropped swiftly down out of the purple mists, and the strange agony atonce vanished. Blake felt their downward progress come to an end withthe gentle arrival of his feet upon firm ground. The encircling net of green flame glowed dazzlingly brighter for a briefmoment, then swiftly vanished into thin air, while the mutter of bassvibrations simultaneously died away into silence. Blake staggered andnearly fell as the sudden release from the net's strands again left hisbody free. He looked down at Helen as she stood huddled close beside him, still inthe shelter of his arms. The girl's face was white with terror as shelooked back up at him. "Bob, what happened--and where on earth are we?" Her voice trembled alittle in spite of her plucky effort to keep it steady. Blake's bewildered gaze was already roving around them trying tocomprehend the incredible details of their surroundings. "I've no ideawhat happened, dear, " he answered slowly. "As to where we are now, I'mvery much afraid it's nowhere on Earth!" "Then where is this hopped-up layout anyway, fellah, if it ain't onEarth?" broke in a voice with a decided East Side twang. Blake quicklyturned and saw that the gangster had remained with them in that eeryflight in the green net. There was an expression of dumfounded amazementupon the man's heavy face, and he was obviously anxious to be friendlywith the two who now represented the only link with the familiar worldhe had known. "Gee, for a minute I thought they had me on the spot in some new way, sure!" he chattered excitedly as he came quickly over to join Helen andBlake. "There's plenty of guys wantin' to turn the heat on me there inthe Big Town. I'm Gil Mapes, see? But this ain't no frame-up like any Iever heard of. What happened anyway, fellah?" * * * * * For the moment Blake did not answer. The three of them were silent asthey stared about them with eyes that were dazed by the startlinglyunfamiliar aspect of every detail in their surroundings. From the twin purple suns that blazed down through the tenuous mistsoverhead to the barren blue-gray ground underfoot, there was not asingle object familiar to Earthly eyes. The huge enclosure in which thethree of them stood was obviously the work of intelligent beings of somekind, but its mechanical details were products of a science differentfrom any known to Blake. The purpose of the enclosure seemed to be to maintain an area of clearair in the midst of the swirling purple vapors that pressed in againstit from the top and from every side. In shape it was a great oblongcell, some fifty feet high, two hundred yards long, and about onehundred yards wide. The three captives stood near the center. Fencing in the enclosure at twenty-yard intervals and reaching upward tothe ceiling were slender posts of some lusterless black metal. Betweenthese posts streamed unbroken, nearly transparent sheets of some unknownforce, the only visible sign of which was the presence of countlessmillions of tiny shimmering golden flecks which danced like dust motesin a ray of sunlight. It was obviously this thin sheet of unknown forcethat was keeping the purple mists at bay, for fan-like antennae at thetop of each post spread a similar shimmering sheet that formed a ceilingfor the clear-aired area. * * * * * The three Earthlings were facing one of the side walls of the bigenclosures. The purple mists outside made it hard to see clearly forany distance, but Blake had an impression that the surrounding terrainwas featured by the same barren, nearly desert bleakness thatcharacterized the interior of the enclosure, where scattered clumps ofdead, spiky black branches of shrub-like vegetation were the only signof plant life. Just within the distant end wall at their right there was a low platformsurmounted by a wide arch some ten feet in height, both constructed ofsilver-colored metal. There was nothing between them and the end wall totheir left, but they could see that the ground sloped sharply upwardfrom the barrier-sheet, and on the crest of the ridge a giganticcone-shaped structure of solid black could be seen dimly through theintervening mists. The cone-building seemed to be the source of the power that kept theenclosure intact. Slender cables of black metal ran down the slope fromit into the clear-aired space, spreading out over the dusty gray-blueground to the base of each of the tall posts, with a heaviercopper-colored cable running on the silver arch. From within thewindowless interior of the cone there was audible a low hum as oftremendous power being generated there. "Gee, what a rummy joint this place is!" There was frank awe in thegangster's voice as he at last broke the silence. "That guy with thegreen net sure took us for one sweet ride. Mebbe we're on the Moon now, or on Mars, huh?" Blake shook his head. "No, we're completely out of our entire solarsystem. Those twin purple suns up there prove that. We may even be inanother universe, or another dimension from our own. A piece ofapparatus that could whisk us up through fifty feet of earth and masonryas that green net did obviously works in dimensions of which we'venever dreamed. The only thing we're sure of is that we were brought tothis purple world deliberately and intentionally by an intelligent beingof some kind, scooped up like tadpoles from a mud-puddle and dumped herein this elaborate enclosure It had already prepared for us. " * * * * * Blake nodded to where the black cone-building loomed through the purplemists outside the end wall. "Whoever or whatever the thing was thatbrought us here, I have a hunch It's there in that power-house watchingus. I'd suggest that we walk down toward that end of the enclosure for acloser look. We may at least find out whether we're guests orprisoners. " "Listens good to me, fellah, " agreed Mapes, sliding a hand up to hisshoulder holster and bringing out a squat black automatic pistol ofheavy caliber. "We'll do a prowl, over that way, and if His Nibs triesany more funny business mebbe a few slugs outta this rod will change hismind for him. " "Better go easy with the gun, Mapes, " advised Blake as the three of themstarted slowly toward the cone-building. "From what we've already seen, there must be weapons in this world that would make your pistol looklike a kid's pop-gun. We'd better go easy till--wait, what's that?" The thin high-pitched whine, followed promptly by the familiar growlingthunder of infra-bass, had again become audible. At the same moment along pencil-like beam of green light glowed into visibility, extendingfrom the tip of the cone to a point high within the enclosure just backof them. As they halted abruptly and watched, they saw the interlacingmeshes of the green flame-net materialize suddenly at the end of thebeam. The beam curved into an arc that dropped the net swiftly to the groundsome thirty yards from them. Its meshes were packed nearly full of dark, writhing figures. "Looks like some more tadpoles arriving for our pond!" Mapes exclaimed. "I wonder what part of N' Yawk His Nibs yanked these babies from?" * * * * * Blake's answer died on his lips as the net and beam glowed blindinglybrighter for a brief second, then disappeared, leaving the dark figuresin full view. Helen choked back a gasp of horror. Mapes swore inconsternation and hurriedly swung his pistol into line with thosewrithing shapes. The net's latest captives were not from New York, nor were they from anyother part of the planet Earth. Hideous spawn of some unknown world outin the black void of Space, they writhed for a moment in a nightmarechaos of countless brown-furred bodies, then swiftly disentangledthemselves before the staring eyes of the three Earthlings. The things were apparently too low in the mental scale to have anyreaction to their situation other than a blind instinct to attack anyother living being within reach, for they promptly headed for the threecaptives from Earth. As the creatures came shambling rapidly forward on powerful bowed legs, and with the tips of their long hairy arms brushing the ground, theylooked like grotesquely distorted apes. The crowning horror of thoseshambling figures, however, lay in the fact that they were completelyheadless! Even when the things approached to a distance of less than ten feetbefore halting in momentary indecision, Blake could detect no sign ofany normal skull in the blunt space at the top of the powerful hairytorso. There was a furry-lipped mouth opening of some kind in the hollowbetween the bulging shoulders, but of eyes, ears, nose, or brain cavitythere was no discernible trace. For a long moment the headless ape-things and the three human beingsstood silently facing each other. Mapes' pistol was leveled pointblankat the nearest of the creatures, but their overwhelming numbers made thegangster hold his fire. There were two distinct groups of the things. At least twenty members ofeach group were in the crowd facing the Earthlings. To the rear of theseattackers two oddly repulsive objects were carried and carefullyshielded by picked guards of four unusually large and powerfulape-things. * * * * * The nature of those two guarded objects puzzled Blake. They looked likelarge eggs of dirty-gray jelly, about a yard in length. They wereobviously alive, for their gelatinous masses quivered and trembled inconstant activity. Blake noted that there seemed to be a curiousconnection between the ebb and flow of pulsations in the egg-masses andthe movements of the ape-things. His attention was abruptly recalled to the headless things in front ofhim as they suddenly began shambling forward again. There was nopossible mistaking the intention of those advancing horrors. They weremoving to the attack. They reached barely to Blake's shoulders, but he realized that theirenormous numbers and hook-taloned hands would make the result of thebattle almost a foregone conclusion. The fact that the headless thingswere without eyes was no handicap to them. The swift certainty of theirmovements proved that they had a sense of sight of some kind that was inevery way as efficient as eyesight. Blake looked hurriedly around him, seeking a place where they might beat the best possible advantage in the impending battle. There was asmall dense thicket of the spiky dead branches half a dozen yards totheir right. At Blake's low command, the three made a dash for thethicket. Arriving there, they ranged themselves against it, with theirbacks at least partially protected from attack. * * * * * The maneuver seemed to puzzle the ape-things for a moment. They stoodpassively watching the retreat of the three until they had reached thethicket. Then the creatures again began slowly closing in upon them. Blake snatched up a dead branch from the ground near the thicket, andwas delighted to find that its weight and tough fiber made it anexcellent club. He stripped off his topcoat and passed it back to Helen. Its toughfabric, heavily rubberized for proof against rain, might guard her headand face at least momentarily from those ripping talons if the headlessattackers came to close quarters. With Helen safely behind them, Blakeand Mapes turned grimly to face the enemy. The attack was prompt in coming. Moving with the perfect synchronizationof a single unit, one of the main groups came shambling in, followed aninstant later by the other group. Mapes' pistol sent a bullet crashingsquarely into the nearest attacker. The creature staggered momentarily, then came lurching on again, apparently not even crippled. Blake swunghis heavy club in a whistling arc that sent two of his adversariesbroken and writhing to the ground. He heard Mapes' pistol bark four times more as the things closed in. Then the gun was knocked from the gangster's grip by a gropingtalon-armed hand. Mapes tried to batter back his assailants with hisnaked fists, but the flailing arms of the horde knocked him from hisfeet. His limp body was promptly tramped into unconsciousness by themilling feet of the close-packed group. Blake lashed the heavy club about him with a burst of savage fury thatfor the moment sent the furred horrors reeling backward. Their retreatended after a scant two yards. Reforming their ranks, they again begancautiously shambling forward in a new attack that Blake realized wouldprobably mean the end. * * * * * It was easy enough to batter the things to ground, but it seemedimpossible to seriously hurt them. Their incredible vitality and theiroverwhelming numbers made them almost invincible. Grimly Blake sethimself to battle as long as he could in that last desperate effort tokeep the hordes at bay. He noticed idly that the two groups still kept their oddly separatedformation. Behind them the two egg-masses of jelly were now seething innew activity after a brief lessening of their gruesome shivering. Blakenow saw that there was a direct and unmistakable connection between theactivity of the jelly and the corresponding activity of the ape-things. Realization of the fact sent a sudden flash of inspiration flamingthrough Blake's weary brain, correlating the real significance of adozen different things he had been subconsciously noting ever since thefirst appearance of the weird beasts. Those attacking things were not hordes of individual animals. They weremerely two complete organisms, with the members of each organismcontrolled by its nucleus through invisible lines of nervous force asthe various individual cells of the human body are linked by nervefibers. No wonder the creatures themselves were blind. The egg-mass thatwas the nucleus of each of the two groups was eyes, brain, and seat oflife for every ape-thing in the group. With a swift surge of hope Blake realized the way to conquer the things. If he could only shatter those flaccid masses of jelly, he would destroythe swarming dozens of beasts at the same time. Reaching the jelly ovoids seemed at first consideration to be animpossible task. They were carefully guarded far in the rear of theattacking groups. Blake knew that he had scarcely a chance in a hundredof battering his way through the intervening ape-things. * * * * * Then he remembered the gangster's pistol. His searching eyes found itimmediately, there on the ground nearly under the feet of the ape-thingsas they again shambled forward to the attack. Blake staked everything upon a last desperate sortie against theadvancing things. With his club whistling around his head in crashingblows that wrought murderous havoc in the close-packed hordes, he drovethem back for one breathless moment that gave him time to leap forwardand snatch up the pistol. The ape-things were already springing back upon him as he swung thepistol into line with one of the jelly-masses. He barely pressed thetrigger before the charging brutes knocked him from his feet. As he went down he flung his arms over his head to protect his face fromthe expected attack of those hooked talons, but none came. A bodythudded down upon him, then slid limply off again without making anymove to attack. Blake scrambled to his feet. Writhing upon the ground all around him were ape-things in their deathagonies. On the ground beyond them, quivering and broken in the midst ofits dying guards, was a viscid mass of loathsome gray jelly. Blake'sshot had apparently struck home squarely in the center of thatvulnerable blob. Even as he watched, the gelatinous mass shuddered in alast convulsion, then became quite still. At the same instant the lastsign of life vanished from the writhing ape-things on the ground. A good half of the attacking creatures were included in the dead bodies. The other half, Blake now saw, had retreated to cluster in wild panicabout the remaining blob of jelly. Realizing exultantly that his singleshot had slain one of the two weirdly disassociated organisms, Blakewith pistol in hand advanced toward the other, trying to get a clearshot at the jelly through the furry bodies clustering around it. * * * * * The group promptly turned and fled in blind panic. Blake sent thepistol's last shot crashing into the mass without any appreciableeffect. Then the things' stampede carried them hurtling on through oneof the gold-flecked side walls out into the swirling purple mists. The gold-flecked sheet flowed together again so swiftly behind thethings that a fraction of a second later there was not even theslightest indication in its shimmering unbroken surface to show that ithad ever been pierced. For thirty yards the fleeing ape-things sped on into the purple vapors. Then disaster struck them with bewildering swiftness. They stopped infull flight, shuddered for a moment, then slumped to the ground withtheir limbs writhing in agony. In their center the jelly ovoid quiveredmadly in the same strange torture. Tiny patches of vivid purple appeared at a hundred different points uponthe dying creatures. The patches spread and merged with lightningrapidity until a solid sheet of livid purple covered the writhing mass. Swiftly that mass lost both movement and shape as it melted down into apool of turgid purple slime. Then the slime vaporized into purple miststhat blended into the surrounding vapors, and all trace of theape-things and their jelly nucleus had vanished. Stunned by the incredible speed of this general dissolution, Blakerealized for the first time the real reason for the presence of thegold-flecked walls of force. Without those shimmering walls the captiveswould not have lived for a minute in the deadly purple atmosphere ofthis weird world beneath the twin suns. The gold-flecked walls were boththeir protection and their prison. The swirling purple mists outsidethose walls held the Earthlings as effectively and hopelessly prisonersin their enclosure as gold-fish in a bowl of water. * * * * * Blake turned back to the thicket to see how Helen and Mapes had fared inthat terrific battle with the headless things. He was relieved to seethat the girl had apparently escaped without even a scratch. She waskneeling beside Mapes' prone figure, doing what she could to revive him. The gangster was badly battered, but he seemed to have no seriousinjuries. He was already beginning to stir weakly and show signs ofreturning life. Blake started to step over to the two. Then he stopped abruptly as heheard a sharp metallic clang from the cone-building out in the purplemists beyond the end wall. He looked quickly up and saw that an ovalwindow had opened in the structure near its tip. Framed in the openingwas what seemed to be a large concave mirror. At one side of the mirrorwas a living being of some kind, but the intervening mists preventedBlake from making out any details beyond a hazy glimpse of a cluster ofwhat seemed to be long slender snake-like black tentacles. The next moment there spurted from the mirror a broad and swiftlyspreading beam of red light so brilliant that it glowed clearly even inthe bright purple rays of the twin suns. Before Blake could shout awarning to Helen the racing flood of ruddy radiance was upon them. Thescene reeled in a blurred kaleidoscope of flaming colors before Blake'seyes for a brief second, then complete oblivion swept over him. * * * * * After an interval that seemed hours, consciousness returned to him assuddenly as it had left him. His first bewildered look around himdisclosed the fact that startling changes had occurred in hissurroundings during the period while he was under the anesthesia of thered ray. His first effort at movement brought realization that he was in the gripof a strange paralysis. His head and neck seemed quite normal in everyway, but from the throat downward his body was completely dead as far asany power of voluntary movement was concerned. He twisted his head stiffly to one side, and saw that Helen was standingthere beside him. Just beyond her was the motionless figure of GilMapes. Both the gangster and the girl were in the grip of the samestrange paralysis. Like Blake, they were standing there rigidlymotionless, facing the gold-flecked barrier wall just in front of them. A moment's painful scrutiny of their position showed Blake that theposts forming the wall of the enclosure at the end toward the cone hadbeen brought in nearly a hundred yards toward them while they slept. Theshimmering barrier sheet was now scarcely a yard from their faces, yetthey still stood near the thicket where they had battled the headlesshorrors. Blake saw his coat half-buried in the blue-gray dust near hisfeet where Helen had discarded the garment to minister to Mapes. Their unseen captor had obviously made definite preparations forwhatever his next purpose with them was to be, for a long wheeledplatform had been brought to a position opposite them just outside theshimmering gold-flecked sheet. Blake noted the shattered remains ofMapes' pistol on the ground at one side of the platform. It hadapparently been fished from the enclosure and rendered harmless aftertheir captor had seen the weapon's efficient use against the headlessape-things. Clustered upon the wheeled platform was an assemblage of intricatelywinding coils, glowing tubes, and other apparatus that conveyed no moremeaning to Blake's bewildered gaze than a sight of the interior of ametropolitan power-house would to a Congo savage. * * * * * There was only one piece of the apparatus regarding whose probablefunction Blake could even guess. This was a pair of long slender armsthat projected through the shimmering walls into the enclosure, supporting at their end a large thin metal plate located just over theheads of the three Earthlings. Blake was willing to wager that it wasthis overhead plate that was responsible for the odd paralysis that heldthem helpless. Then a figure came slowly into view from where it had been concealed bythe apparatus, and Blake forgot all thought of the strange mechanisms ashe watched the monstrous thing clamber stiffly from the platform andhalt squarely in front of the captives to stare at them through thetransparency of the intervening force sheet. The thing was a curious blending of human and bestial features. It stoodbarely five feet in height, yet its great scale-armored skull was atleast three times as large as that of a grown man. There was colossalmental power and nameless evil glowing in the dark depths of the twoabnormally large eyes that stared fixedly out from under the heavyforehead. The thing had no nose. The mouth opening, surrounded by arosette of flabby gray skin, was a mere slit. The entire skull and facewere covered with small, closely overlapping scales of lusterless gray. The head merged directly into a short black torso nearly as wide as theskull itself. From this trunk there writhed a score of long blacksnake-like tentacles, each terminating in a flexible three-fingered"hand. " The trunk was supported by two short thick legs, armored withgray scales, and ending in broad three-toed feet. "Greetings, Earthlings!" The voice that emanated from the grotesquemouth was surprisingly resonant in tone. "Allow me to present myself. Iam Zehru, imperial scientist of Xollar. " * * * * * The monstrosity seemed amused at the expressions of blank surprise uponthe faces of his captives. "I learned your crude language from yourbrain cells while you slept under the red ray, " he explained. "Also Ilearned many other things regarding your planet, Earth. I am glad tofind your world so well adapted to my purpose. Within a few years aftermy arrival there I shall be its unquestioned ruler. " Blake started to voice the many questions that were surging through hismind, but an imperious gesture of an outflung tentacle stopped him. "Silence, Earthling!" There was tolerant contempt in Zehru's ringingvoice. "I will explain some of the things that puzzle you. There is noreason why I should trouble myself to do so, yet it may while away thetedium of the short wait yet remaining before my apparatus becomescharged to the required point. Listen carefully, Earthling, for at bestyou will find many of my thoughts beyond the feeble limits of the wordforms with which you have provided me. "The world of Xollar, where you now are, is a planet in the islanduniverse known to your astronomers as the Great Nebula of Andromeda. Until a short time ago I was one of its ruling scientists. Then Isinned, and so grave was my sin according to the laws of this planetthat the Council of Three decreed my death. That death sentence uponXollar is irrevocable, and no man has yet escaped it no matter whereupon the planet he may be when the appointed time for his executioncomes. I was given the usual period of grace in which to put my affairsin order. Instead, I have labored unceasingly here in my laboratory, andmy labors have borne fruit. I am the first man in Xollarian history tofind a means of escaping the dread death penalty. "Briefly, I discovered a way by which I can flee to your far-distantuniverse, where not even the powers of the Council of Three can followme. That way lies through the door of inter-dimensional Space. In Spaceas you know it, the almost unthinkable distance of a million light yearsseparates Xollar from the dwarf star you call your Sun. Yet, traveling_between_ Space, the two planets nearly touch each other. The samesituation of being near neighbors in inter-dimensional Space holds truewith Xollar and at least seven other planets located in widely separatedparts of your universe. * * * * * "Let me try to illustrate what I mean by traveling between Space. Wewill assume a nearly two-dimensional universe in the form of a circularpiece of paper three feet in diameter. There is a dot in the exactcenter of each side of this paper. To a two-dimensional creature, forcedto travel only on the surface of the paper, the distance between thetwo dots can never be less than thirty-six inches. Yet by cutting_between_ the two surfaces and going directly through the paper the dotsare less than one-hundredth of an inch apart. "Such is the case with Xollar and the planets in your universe which areour immediate neighbors in inter-dimensional Space. In order to reachthose planets I had only to develop a method of using sufficient forceto cut _between_ the three dimensions of intervening Space. In solvingthis problem I developed both an inter-dimensional net to bring beingsfrom your universe to mine, and an inter-dimensional gate to permitbeings to pass from here back to worlds in your galaxy. "You have already seen the workings of the net. It was the device ofgreen fire that brought you here. The use of the net was a vital part ofmy plans, for without the use of a physical body from some world in youruniverse I could not hope to live longer than a few minutes afterleaving Xollar via the inter-dimensional gate. The inherentcharacteristics and basic elements of your galaxy and the Andromedanuniverse are so different in every way that an inhabitant of eitherstar-group cannot exist in the other. Xollar's purple atmosphere ischaracteristic of Andromedan worlds. Your oxygen-saturated air istypical of worlds in your galaxy. Just as Xollar's purple mists would beimmediately fatal to you, so would your clear oxygen-tainted air bequickly fatal to me. * * * * * "Accordingly, my only chance of surviving in one of your worlds is tofirst transfer my Intelligence to the body of one of the dwellers uponthat planet. Of the seven planets within reach of my net I found onlytwo that promised to be at all suitable. One was your Earth, the othera minor planet circling the star you call Vega. I brought both you and anet-load of Vegans here to this oxygen-filled enclosure I had alreadyprepared. "The Vegans were the headless things with the jelly nuclei. I watchedyour battle with them, and waited to choose as my vehicle the planetarytype that proved the stronger. You vanquished the Vegans, so it is inthe body of an Earthling that I shall leave Xollar, and it is to theplanet Earth that I shall be hurtled through the inter-dimensional gate. "Aside from the slight difficulty caused by having to keep my body andyours each in its proper element during the operation, the matter oftransfer into one of your bodies is a simple one. It involves none ofthe clumsy brain surgery of your Earthly science. We of Xollar havefound that the real Intelligence of a being is an invisible force not atall dependent for existence upon the protoplasm through which itmanifests. My Intelligence can function quite as well in your braincells as in my own. "I require no assistant in the transfer. " Zehru indicated an intricatepiece of apparatus on the platform behind him. It was a massive cylinderof fluorescent metal, with two long metallic cables running from itscenter, each cable ending in a saucer-shaped disk. * * * * * "I have only to thrust one cable through the force-wall into yourenclosure and place its disk upon one of your heads, then place theother disk upon my own head. The apparatus is entirely automatic. Threeseconds after both disks are in place my Intelligence will course intothe Earthling brain, driving out his Intelligence and destroying it asmine enters. "I will, of course, remove the selected body from under the paralyzingplate before I attach the disks. Then when I am safely transferred tothe Earthling body I will have only to walk on through the enclosure tothe silver arch at the far end and leave Xollar forever. "That silver arch is the inter-dimensional gate to your Earth. Itsoperation is slightly different from that of the net. Where the net wascapable of reaching under the surface of your planet, a proceeding Itried when two attempts upon the surface proved fruitless, the gate isso adjusted that it will place its passenger exactly upon the surface ofyour world. It requires no cooperation from this end. When I step underthe arch I merely close a black lever there. Inter-dimensional forceimmediately catapults me to your Earth. Then the automatic mechanism ofthe gate will within half a minute of my departure release an explosionthat will shatter everything within a radius of a mile here, and soprevent the Council of Three from even guessing the method of myescape. " "But what of the two of us whose bodies you do not need?" Blakeprotested. "Can you not at least take them through the arch-gate withyou back to their home world?" "Why should I do anything so foolish as that?" Zehru answered callously. "They might easily be a menace to my first attempts to establish myselfupon your planet. Far better to leave them here in their present stateof paralysis to be safely destroyed in the explosion of the gate. " * * * * * Zehru now thrust three of his tentacles into a vat of milky fluid, andwithdrew them coated with a silver sheen on the black flesh. The silverglaze seemed to be an insulation against both the oxygen of theenclosure and the paralyzing force of the overhead disk, for theXollarian promptly thrust the three silver-coated arms through the walland began handling the bodies of Mapes and Blake in a painstakingprocess of examination. Again Blake noted that the shimmering gold-flecked wall closed quicklyin and kept its surface unbroken no matter how often objects were thrustthrough it. Completely ignoring Helen, Zehru lifted first Mapes, then Blake, histentacles probing, fingering, exploring. There was enormous power in theXollarian's grotesque body. He lifted the men as though they were woodendolls, bringing them close to the shimmering wall to peer at them, thensetting them carefully down again on their feet under the disk. Blakewondered idly why their stiff bodies did not topple over when they wereleft unsupported, then decided that the paralyzing force of the diskprobably left the automatic muscular balancing movements unimpaired, affecting only the powers of voluntary movement. * * * * * Then, as Zehru set him down after one of the periods of examination, Blake noticed a new and startling change the moment his feet touched theground. His right leg and right arm were no longer dead! He hurriedly glanced down at the ground at his feet, and promptly foundwhat seemed to be the reason for his partial freedom from the paralysis. In setting his body down the last time Zehru had moved Blake slightly. His right foot now rested upon a corner of the discarded topcoat lyinghalf-buried there in the blue-gray dust. The heavily rubberized cloth apparently acted as an insulating sheetthat prevented the effective grounding of the paralyzing force thatstreamed down through Blake's body from the overhead disk. Consequentlyall portions of his body between the coat and the disk were free fromthe paralysis. For a moment Blake wondered at Zehru's carelessness. Thenhe realized that the insulating qualities of rubber would naturally beunknown to a Xollarian. Noting that Zehru was busy at the moment with his work upon Mapes, Blakequickly grasped at the faint chance the presence of the rubberized clothoffered him. Working with infinite slowness and caution, he edged hisright foot over an inch at a time, dragging the rest of his body withit. Luck was with him. Zehru continued, absorbed in his work upon Mapes. TheXollarian's telepathic powers apparently functioned only with the aid ofthe red ray, for he remained oblivious of Blake's actions. One finalcautious dragging movement, and Blake's entire body was upon the cloth, with every muscle again vibrantly alive. * * * * * Blake stood there motionless, faking paralysis, while his brain raced inan effort to figure the best use to make of his present advantage. Hewas still trapped, not daring to reach even a hand beyond the protectionof the cloth underfoot. The first essential of any effort at escapewould have to be a lunge of sufficient power to take him safely beyondthe area of the disk's influence. Blake's first thought was to hurl himself through the barrier wall uponZehru, trusting to sheer surprise to overwhelm the Xollarian, but hequickly dismissed that plan. It left too many elements in Zehru's favor. There was a tube-like weapon thrust in a belt around Zehru's middle andthere were probably a dozen other different weapons lying handy to hisreach among the apparatus on the platform. The deadly purple mistsbeyond the wall would alone in all probability overcome Blake before hecould batter Zehru down. By far the best plan was to stage the battle inside the enclosure whereBlake would be in his own native element. If he could yank Zehru insidethe wall he would have him away from contact with his mechanical weaponsand battling in an atmosphere inherently poisonous to him. Under thosecircumstances, Blake felt that he might have an even chance in ahand-to-hand combat with the powerful but slow-footed Xollarian. Once Zehru was eliminated, escape back to Earth should be a simplematter. The silver gate, with its automatic mechanism needing only theclosing of a lever, was ready and waiting there in the enclosure behindthem. * * * * * For long tense minutes Blake forced himself to remain rigidly motionlesswhile Zehru labored over Mapes. Then finally the Xollarian turned hisattention briefly back to Blake, and thrust two tentacles in to grip hisbody. No sooner had the tentacles crossed above the border of the cloththan Zehru realized that something was wrong. He tried to whip his armsback again but too late. Blake made a lightning snatch at a tentacle with both hands, and in thesame lithe movement turned from the barrier wall and flung himselfheadlong toward the center of the enclosure. Zehru had no time to bracehimself. He was jerked bodily through the shimmering wall and on afterBlake's lunging body. One of the Xollarian's waving tentacles grasped wildly at the overheaddisk in an effort to stay his flight. The only result was to bring theentire disk and its supports crashing in ruins to the ground upon thestruggling figures of Blake and himself. Blake was upon his feet again instantly. Snatching up a yard-long scrapof metal from the wreckage of the disk, he flung himself upon Zehru. The Xollarian seemed for the moment too dazed by his fall to fight back. With tentacles raised to guard his head, he staggered backward inretreat, every step taking him farther away from the wall and the purplemists. Blake was vaguely aware that Helen and Mapes, freed by the wrecking ofthe disk, were scrambling to their feet. Mapes was already runningtoward the combatants. Blake was glad at the prospect of an ally. Zehru's dazed condition was swiftly passing. He had now stopped hisretreat and was already fumbling a tentacle toward the tube-weapon inhis belt. Blake flung himself upon Zehru in another effort to beat him down beforehe could draw that weapon, but his metal club glanced harmlessly off thetentacles Zehru raised to shield his head. Then beyond Zehru Blake sawsomething that made him stop his assault. * * * * * It was Mapes, sprinting toward the silver arch-gate at the other end ofthe enclosure. Blake's heart sank as he realized the gangster'streachery. If he once reached that arch he could send himself safelyhurtling back to Earth, while Blake and Helen would be left to perishwith Zehru in the explosion that would immediately follow. It was toolate for Blake to head the gangster off. He had already covered half thedistance to the arch. Zehru noted Mapes' fleeing figure almost as quickly as did Blake. Swiftly the Xollarian swung his tube-weapon into line with the fleeinggangster. A thin pencil of dull yellow light of a peculiar densityspurted from the tube toward Mapes. There was a flash of blinding flameas the light beam met the gangster's body; then Mapes' figure seemed toliterally explode, as though blasted by dynamite from within. Sodevastating was the force of that explosion that nothing remained ofMapes' body beyond a few scattered fragments of shoes and clothing. Blake was still dazed at the cataclysmic suddenness of Mapes' death asZehru swung the tube around to train it upon him. Only a last-minutedesperate effort upon Blake's part saved him. His wildly thrown metalclub made a lucky hit on the tube itself, knocking it, shattered anduseless, out of Zehru's grasp. Unarmed, Zehru faced Blake with his face contorting in agony. For amoment the Xollarian swayed there, apparently trying to gather hisfailing strength for the next move. The deadly air of the enclosure wasalready taking hideous toll. The scaly flesh of his head and face wasdissolving like melting butter. Zehru's strength was ebbing too swiftly for him to have any chance ofgaining safety through either of the distant side walls. His only hopeof fighting back to the purple mists was to pass Blake and go throughthe nearby end wall through which he had originally been drawn. He came lunging forward in an attack whose sheer fury made Blake giveground before the menace of the lashing tentacles. * * * * * Blake took another backward step, then staggered as his foot struck arough spot in the ground. Zehru's tentacles were upon him before hecould recover himself. His club was jerked from his fingers and senthurtling far out of reach. Half a dozen of the tentacle-arms lashedaround his throat in a strangling grip. He clawed wildly at the choking coils, but they failed to loosen even afraction of an inch. Desperately Blake sent his fists smashing into thegray face. The scale armor of Zehru's skull, fast weakening in theliquefying influence of the oxygen, gave way beneath that batteringattack. He staggered, and his coiling tentacles relaxed slightly. Blake tore himself free. A final smashing blow, with every ounce of hisone hundred and ninety pounds behind it, sent Zehru crashing to theground. The Xollarian tried to rise, then feebly slumped back, hisstrength spent. Blake leaped forward to finish his opponent, but stoppedas he saw that his efforts were not needed. The deadly air of the enclosure was now overwhelming Zehru with swiftand hideous death. He was literally rotting before Blake's horrifiedeyes, the gray-scaled skin sloughing off in streaming rivulets of pallidooze, and the entire body contorting in what was obviously a deathagony. Sickened, Blake stepped back a pace or two. Zehru's tentacles feeblybeat the ground around him, then suddenly one of the writhing armsblundered upon a thin cable running along the ground. Before Blake couldspring forward to stop him, Zehru with a last surge of power ripped thefragile metal strand completely in two. It was the Xollarian's dying effort. He slumped in a motionless, nearlyliquescent heap. But that last blind blow at the Earthlings threatenedto be a deadly one. The severed cable led to one of the black postssurrounding the enclosure. With the cable's parting an entire section ofone of the gold-flecked barrier walls vanished. Xollar's deadly purplemists were already surging in. * * * * * Speed was the Earthlings' only chance now. Helen was as quick to realizethe danger as was Blake. Side by side they started their mad race towardwhere the silver arch-gate loomed nearly a hundred yards away. They had covered barely half the distance when the air around thembegan to show a definite tinge of purple. With the appearance of thepurple hue there came a strange and swiftly increasing agony, atorturing vibration that seemed to be tearing every atom in their bodiesasunder. They were within ten yards of the arch when Helen fell. Blake grabbedher up in his arms and stumbled on. There was no longer enough oxygen inthe air to even breathe. Blake's lungs were on fire. Every cell in hisbody seemed vibrating in unbearable torment. It was all that he could do to struggle up on the low platform. Hestaggered across the space and under the arch. It took the last shred ofstrength in his tortured body for him to lift his hand and pull theblack lever down into place. Its action was instantaneous. The agony of the purple mists was blottedout in a surging wave of mighty force that swept Blake and Helen up andaway through a Spaceless universe where black chaos reigned awesomelysupreme. There was a long terrible moment of hurtling through distancesinconceivably vast. Blake's brain reeled in nausea. Then suddenly all motion ceased and everything was normal again. Therewas firm grassy ground under his feet and a cool breeze was blowing inhis face. He opened his eyes and saw the gray half-light of early dawn. After thefirst swift look around him he sighed in mighty relief. To his left wasthe familiar skyline of Fifth Avenue. To his right was Central ParkWest. They were somewhere in Central Park, safe again in their ownworld. And somewhere in that other world beneath the twin purple suns, the timemechanism of the silver gate should even now be releasing the explosivethat would forever blot out all trace of the evil handiwork of Zehru, cosmic fisher of Xollar. Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from _Astounding Stories_ February 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U. S. Copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and typographical errors have been corrected without note.