I had left the castle behind me, and turned, somewhat dubiously, into
another street. I was sure if I could get to Sonya’s house, where so
recently we had been, I could retrace my way from there. I had planned
this while on the flying platform as we circled over the castle. I had
been able then to locate Sonya’s home, and to gauge the lay of the
streets in between. I turned another corner. The street was brighter.
Another corner. I saw and recognized Sonya’s house. From there, my way
was sure. Within twenty minutes after leaving the castle grounds, I was
groping in the darkness back of the house where Dr. Weatherby’s body
lay.
It was near here that the Nameless Horrors had caught Jim and Ren. But I
saw no signs of them now. The viaduct connecting the two buildings was a
dark thin line against the stars. The building I was hoping to enter was
wholly dark. A two-story structure: the viaduct extended from its upper
floor.
I prowled around. The lower window openings were all barred. The door
oval was barred. A stairway led up from the ground to the viaduct. From
the viaduct’s platform I saw a cornice, too high for a normal man to
reach. But I leaped for it, pulled myself up upon the dome-shaped roof
of a turret.
A leap from here and I was upon the main flat roof. There should be a
door under a mound cover; most of the buildings had them. I located it,
wrenched at its bar. It yielded. I went down a curving metal ladder,
into the house.
In a moment I had located the laboratory room. Our vehicle in its full
normal size lay here, dead white, an end of it tinged yellow by a shaft
of moonlight.
I stepped within it, went to Jim’s cupboard, lighting a tiny battery
light overhead. The Frazier weapon I sought was here. Its _copite_ cone,
with smooth glistening bone handle, _copite_ headband, the tiny pulse
motor, the wires; it was all complete.
A triumph swept me. I was unarmed no longer. Playing a lone hand, here
in this strange world, a man, comparatively of giant strength and
physical power. But I was more than that now. I had a mental weapon, and
the mental strength to use it.
I did not stop to adjust the apparatus. I wound it up in its wire, and
hastily retreated. I reached the street, with the weapon under my cloak.
I hurried back to the castle over the same route; I did not want to
chance losing my way.
But as I advanced, I had more than memory of the streets to guide me.
From the direction of the castle, a blur of cries was audible, a hum, a
murmur, which as I progressed resolved itself into shouts. The shouting
of a mob: heavy, angry voices of men, shrill cries of girls, a single,
long, agonized scream of a girl.
I was on a lower street that fronted the water. A side entrance to the
castle grounds was before me. Through the trees I could see the frowning
turreted walls of the castle. I stopped to adjust my weapon.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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