"Yes. I--have it recorded that he said--they were going to the Time-cage--overhead in the laboratory. He said--they--he and the girl were leaving forever!" CHAPTER XXII _The Chase to the End of the World_ The giant mechanism, fashioned in the guise of a man, lay dying. Yet not that, for it never had had life. It lay deranged; out of order; its intricate cycle was still operating, but faintly, laboriously. Jangling out of tune. Every moment its internal energy was lessening. It seemed to want to talk. The beams of its eyes rolled wildly. It said: "Tugh--did this--to me. I came back here frightened because I knew that Tugh still controlled me. You--hear me...." There was a muffled, rumbling blur, then its voice clicked on again. "When Tugh came I opened the door to him, even though the girl tried to stop me.... And I was humble before Tugh.... But he was angry because I had released you. He--deranged me. I tried to fight him, and he ripped open my side porte...." I thought the mechanism had gone inert. From within it was complete silence. Larry murmured, "Good Lord, this is gruesome!" Then the faint, rasping voice started again. "Deranged me.... And about Tugh, he--" A blur. Then again, "Tugh--he is--Tugh, he is--" It went into a dull repetition of the three words, ending in a rumble which died into complete silence. The red radiance from the eye-sockets faded and vanished. The thing we had called Migul seemed gone. There was only this metal shell, cast to represent a giant human figure, lying here with its operating mechanisms out of order--smashed. * * * * * I stood up. "That's the end of it. Mary Atwood's gone--" "With Tugh in the Time-cage!" Larry exclaimed. "Tina, can't we--" "Follow them?" Tina interrupted. "Come on! No--you two wait here. I will go upstairs and verify if the Time-cage is gone." She came back in a moment. The laboratory overhead was fortunately deserted of Robots: Larry and I had not thought of that. "The cage is gone!" Tina exclaimed. "Migul told us the truth!" We hastened back through the tunnel, past the guard, up into the palace and into the garden. My heart pounded in my throat for fear that Tina's Time-cage would have vanished. But it stood, dimly glowing under the foliage where she had left it. A young man rushed up to us and said, "Princess Tina, look there!" A great row of colored lights sailed slowly past overhead. The _Micrad_ was here, circling over the city. The storm had abated; it had rained only for a brief time.[6] The crazy winds were subsiding. The _Micrad_ was using its deranging ray: we could hear the thrum of it. It sent out vibrations which threw the internal mechanisms of the Robots out of adjustment, and they were dropping in their tracks all over the city. [Footnote 6: It was afterward found that many of the Robots, heedless of the rain as they ran about the city intent upon their murderous work, had exploded by getting too wet.]