Quickly bounding to the door, Ted stepped out on the bridge, then ducked
just in time to avoid a green flash. Aiming through the bars of the
railing he destroyed the man who had projected it.
The craft had landed before the explosion-scarred remains of an immense
edifice, the portico of which was supported by gigantic human figures
cut from brown stone. In lieu of steps leading into the building there
was an inclined ramp, the beautiful tile pattern of which showed here
and there between heaps and fragments of debris.
Hurrying up this ramp were three figures, and he saw that the one in the
center who was being dragged forward by the others, was Maza an Ma Gong.
Not daring to use his weapons for fear of striking the girl, he leaped
from the bridge to the ground, then started out in pursuit just as the
three disappeared inside the building.
XI. CAVERNS OF THE MOON
It only took Ted a moment to reach the huge diamond-shaped door through
which the girl and her two abductors had disappeared, but when he
entered it there was no one in sight.
He found himself in an immense room, the ceiling of which was supported
by carved figures scarcely less colossal than the ones which held up the
portico. They represented huge, bandy-legged, round-bodied Lunites, with
enormous heads and scrawny arms. The walls were shelved clear to the
top, and the shelves were piled high with thousands of metal cylinders,
varying in their diameters from two to about eight inches, but uniformly
about fifteen inches in length. A few ornate ladders, the gilded sides
of which represented lean-bodied dragons, stood against the walls, but
many had fallen to the floor as had a number of the cylinders.
Great cracks and breaches here and there in the walls showed the
devastating effects of the explosion of his projectile, as did a
considerable quantity of fallen plaster and stone.
The place was lighted by an indirect yellow radiance which came from the
tops of the heads of the colossi, and was reflected by the glossy
ceiling.
Sprawled and huddled here and there on the floor were a great number of
bodies of fallen Lunites. They were surrounded by great swarms of
insects, and he judged from the appearance of those nearest him that
they were in an advanced state of putrefaction. As he glanced around, he
saw a huge gray creature, rat-like in appearance, but as large as a full
grown Shetland pony, dart through one of the breaches in the wall, seize
a body, and quickly carry it back whence it had come.
The bodies, he noticed, were clothed in loose-fitting garments which
slightly resembled pajamas, and the massive heads were not covered with
glass helmets as had been those of the Lunites in the spherical craft he
had just quitted. Evidently these were the bodies of a few of the people
of Ur who had been slain by the explosion of his projectile.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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