Trapped
: The Raid On The TermitesOn along the tunnel they went. And as they progressed, Dennis got the
answer to something that had troubled him a great deal before their
entrance here--a problem which had been solved, rather amazingly, of
itself.
Termitaries, as far as the entomologist knew, were pitch-black places
which no ray of light ever entered. He had been afraid he would be
forced to stumble blindly in unlit depths, able to see n
on a par with the blind creatures among whom he moved. Yet he and Jim
could see in this subterranean labyrinth.
He observed now the reason for that. The walls on all sides, made of
half-digested cellulose, had rotted just enough through long years to be
faintly phosphorescent. And that simple natural fact was probably going
to mean all the difference between life and death: it gave the two men
at least the advantage of sight over the eyeless savage creatures among
whom, helped by the termite-smell given by the paste, they hoped to
glide unnoticed.
However, even the termite-paste, and the fact that the termitary
citizens were blind, didn't seem enough to account for the immunity
granted the two men as they began to come presently to more crowded
passages and tunnels near the center of the mound.
On every side of them now, requiring the utmost in agility to keep from
actually brushing against them, were hordes of the worker termites, and
dozens of the frightful soldiers. Yet on the two men moved, ever more
slowly, without one of the monsters attempting to touch them. It was
odd--almost uncanny.
"Surely the noise of our walking, tiptoe as we may, must be heard by
them--and noted as different from theirs," whispered Dennis. "Yet they
pay no attention to us. If it is due to the paste, I must say it's
wonderful stuff!"
Jim nodded in a puzzled way. "It's almost as if they wanted to make our
inward path easy. I wonder--if it's going to be different when we try to
get out again!"
Dennis was wondering that, too. It seemed absurd to suspect the things
of being intelligent enough to lay traps. But it did look almost as
though they were encouraging their two unheard-of visitors from another
world to go on deeper and deeper into the heart of the eerie city (all
the tunnels sloped down now), there perhaps to meet with some ghastly
imprisonment.
He gave it up. Sufficient for the moment that they were unmolested, and
that he had a chance at first hand to make observations more complete
than the world of entomology had ever dreamed of.
* * * * *
They stumbled onto what seemed a death struggle between one of the giant
soldiers and an inoffensive-looking worker. The drab, comparatively
feeble body of the worker was wriggling right in the center of the great
claws which, with a twitch, could have sliced it in two endwise. Yet the
jaws did not twitch; and in a few moments the worker drew unconcernedly
out and moved away.
"The soldier was getting his meal," whispered Denny, enthralled. "Their
mandibles are enlarged so enormously that they can't feed themselves.
The workers, who digest food for the whole tribe, feed them regularly.
Then if a soldier gets in the least rebellious, he can simply be starved
to death at any time."
"Ugh!" Jim whispered back. "Fancy being official stomach to three or
four other people! More of your wonderful 'organization,' I suppose."
They went on, down and down, till Denny calculated they had at last
reached nearly to the center of the vast city. And now they stumbled
into something weird and wonderful indeed. Rather, they half fell into
it, for it lay down a few feet and came as a complete surprise in the
dimness; and not till they had recovered from their near fall and looked
around for a few seconds did they realize where their last few
steps--the last few steps of freedom they were to have in the grim
underground kingdom--had taken them.
They were in a chamber so huge that it made the largest of man-made
domes shrink to insignificance by comparison.
* * * * *
A hundred yards or more in every direction, it extended. And far
overhead, lost in distance, reared the arched roof. A twenty-story
building could have been placed under that roof without trouble.
Lost in awe, Dennis gazed about him; and he saw on the floor, laid in
orderly rows in countless thousands, that which gave further cause for
wonderment: new-hatched larvae about the size of pumpkins but a sickly
white in color--feeble, helpless blobs of life that one day develop into
soldiers and workers, winged rulers or police. The termite nursery.
"Whew!" gasped Jim, wiping his face. "From the heat in here you'd think
we were getting close to the real, old-fashioned hell instead of an
artificial, insect-made one. What are all these nauseating-looking blobs
of lard lying about here, anyway?"
Denny told him. "Which is the reason for the heat," he concluded. "Jim,
it's twenty degrees warmer in here than it is outdoors. How--how--can
these insects regulate the temperature like that? The work of the ruling
brain again? But where, and what, can that brain be?"
"Maybe we'll find out before we leave this place," said Jim, more
prophetically than he knew. "Hello--we can't get out through the door we
entered. We'll have to find another exit. Look."
Dennis looked. In the doorway they had just come through was a
soldier--a giant even among giants. Its ten-foot jaws, like a questing,
gigantic vise, were opening and closing regularly and rapidly across the
opening of the portal. It made no attempt to enter the great nursery,
just stood where it was and sliced the air rhythmically with its jaws.
"We haven't a chance of walking through that exit!" Dennis agreed.
"Let's try the other side."
* * * * *
But before they could half cross the great room--walking between rows of
life that weakly stirred like protoplasmic mud on either side of
them--a soldier appeared at that door, too. Like the first, it stationed
itself there, and began the same regular, swift slicing movements of
jaws that compassed the doorway from side to side and halfway from top
to bottom.
"We might possibly be able to run through that giant's nut-cracker
before it smashed shut on us," said Jim dubiously. "But I'd hate to try
it. There's a door at the end, too."
They made for this, running now. But a third soldier appeared to block
the way out with those deadly, clashing mandibles.
"You're sure they can't see?" demanded Jim, clutching his spear while
he hesitated whether to try an attack on the fearful guard or to turn
tail again. "Because they certainly act as if they did!"
"Direct commands from the ruling brain," Denny surmised soberly.
"Somewhere, perhaps half a mile down in the earth, Something is able to
see us through solid walls, read in our minds our intentions of what
we're to do next, and send out wordless commands to these soldiers to
execute countermoves."
"Rot!" said Jim testily. "These things are bugs, not supermen. And the
fact that they're now bigger than we are, and much better armed, doesn't
keep them from being just bugs. There's no real brain-power in evidence
here."
But an instant later he changed his mind. They approached the fourth and
last exit from the giant chamber. And here there was no guard. They were
able to race out of it without interference. The oddity of that was
glaring.
"Denny," gasped Jim, "we're being herded! Driven in a certain
direction, and for a certain reason, by these damned things! Do you
realize that?"
Dennis did realize it. And a moment later, when he glanced behind, he
realized it more.
* * * * *
Behind them, marching in orderly twos that filled the tunnel from side
to side, moved a body of the soldiers. As the men moved, they moved;
never coming nearer and never dropping behind.
Experimentally, Dennis stopped. The grim soldiers stopped, too. Dennis
walked back toward them a step or two, spear held ready.
The monsters did not try to attack. On the other hand they did not give
ground, either; and as Denny got to within a few yards of them, one in
the front line suddenly opened and shut his ponderous jaws.
They clashed together a matter of inches from Denny's torso--a clear
warning to get on back in the direction he had come.
Jim came and stood beside him, heavy shoulder muscles bunched into
knots, standing on the balls of his feet as a boxer stands before
flashing in at an opponent.
"Shall we have it out with them here and now?" said Jim, his jaws set.
"We wouldn't have a chance--but I'm beginning to get awfully doubtful
about the fate these things have in store for us. I can't even guess at
what it may be--but I've an idea it may be a lot worse than a quick,
easy death!"
Denny shook his head. "Let's see it through," he muttered, looking at
the nightmare jaws of their guard. Two sweeps of those jaws and he and
Jim would lie in halves.
* * * * *
They started back down the corridor, the monstrous shepherds moving as
they did. The way descended so steeply now that it was difficult for
them to keep their footing. Then, yards below the level of the horrible
nursery, the tunnel narrowed--and widened again into a chamber which had
no other opening save the one they were being herded into. A blind end
to the passageway.
"The bug Bastille," said Jim with a mirthless grin. "Here, I guess,
we're going to wait for the powers-that-be to judge us and give us our
sentence."
The giant soldiers halted. Two of them stood in the narrowed part of the
tunnel, one behind the other, blocking it with a double, living barrier.
Their jaws commenced moving regularly, savagely back and forth, open and
closed. Blind these guards might be; but no living thing, even though it
bristled with eyes, could creep out unscathed through the animated
threshing machine those jaws made of that doorway. The two men were more
securely held in their prison cell than they would have been by two-inch
doors of nickel-steel. They could only wait there, helpless prisoners,
to learn the intentions of the unknown Something that ruled the great
city, and that held them so easily in its grasp.
More
-
The Woking Mystery
She knew all. Then she was a murderess--or in sympathy with murderers. My arms fell from her. I drew back shuddering. I dared not look in her lying eyes, which cried pity when her base heart knew no mercy. Surely now I had solved the maddening puz... The Wombflash Forest
He awoke to his third day on Tormance. His limbs ached. He lay on his side, looking stupidly at his surroundings. The forest was like night, but that period of the night when the grey dawn is about to break and objects begin to be guessed at, rather... The Wonders Of Terrestrial Depths
At eight in the morning a ray of daylight came to wake us up. The thousand shining surfaces of lava on the walls received it on its passage, and scattered it like a shower of sparks. There was light enough to distinguish surrounding objects. "W... The Wooing Of Lakla
I had slept soundly and dreamlessly; I wakened quietly in the great chamber into which Rador had ushered O'Keefe and myself after that culminating experience of crowded, nerve-racking hours--the facing of the Three. Now, lying gazing upward at th... The Work Of Fifteen Days
For some time I stood tottering on the mound regardless of my safety. Within that noisome den from which I had emerged I had thought with a narrow intensity only of our immediate security. I had not realised what had been happening to the w... The World At The Feet Of Doctor Jones
The following morning our friends were up be-times and were soon engaged in the busiest day of their lives. The wind was still unfavorable for their passage to Washington, and they abandoned themselves to the numerous duties that pressed upon them... The Wrong Road!
Next day, our departure took place at a very early hour. There was no time for the least delay. According to my account, we had five days' hard work to get back to the place where the galleries divided. I can never tell all the sufferings we end... The Young Russian Captain Of Dragoons
The news of Edith's kidnapping--for, in Heideck's opinion, this was the only explanation, because she would otherwise have left a message for him--fell upon Heideck as a crushing blow. He remembered the terrible cruelties narrated of the period ... The Zone Of Force Is Tested
Seaton strode into the control room with a small oblong box in his hand. Crane was seated at the desk, poring over an abstruse mathematical treatise in Science. Margaret was working upon a bit of embroidery. Dorothy, seated upon a cushion on the f... Their Place Of Shelter
This curious but certainly correct explanation once given, the three friends returned to their slumbers. Could they have found a calmer or more peaceful spot to sleep in? On the earth, houses, towns, cottages, and country feel every shock given ... They Make Themselves At Home And Feel Quite Comfortable
This curious explanation given, and its soundness immediately recognized, the three friends were soon fast wrapped in the arms of Morpheus. Where in fact could they have found a spot more favorable for undisturbed repose? On land, where the dwelli... Things Material And Spiritual
The wind continued all night as last noted, and Silver Cloud, without a tremor or swaying motion of any kind, was scurrying across the barren wastes of the Arctics at marvelous speed. At noon upon the second day from the Pole, Professor Gray took ... This Earth Shall Die
My memory does not serve me well in the scenes which immediately preceded the closing of the drama in which Brande was chief actor. It is doubtless the transcendental interest of the final situation which blunts my recollection of what occurred sh... Three Days
Lincoln awaited Graham in an apartment beneath the flying stages. He seemed curious to learn all that had happened, pleased to hear of the extraordinary delight and interest which Graham took in flying Graham was in a mood of enthusiasm. "I must... Through Carnage To Joy
Sometime later Tars Tarkas and Kantos Kan returned to report that Zodanga had been completely reduced. Her forces were entirely destroyed or captured, and no further resistance was to be expected from within. Several battleships had escaped, but... Through Flood And Flame
Yersted's information convinced me that there was no time to be lost. I must reach the Temple of Issus secretly before the forces under Tars Tarkas assaulted at dawn. Once within its hated walls I was positive that I could overcome the guards of ... Through Space Into The Carboniferous
Seaton opened his eyes and gazed about him wonderingly. Only half conscious, bruised and sore in every part of his body, he could not at first realize what had happened. Instinctively drawing a deep breath, he coughed and choked as the undiluted o... Through The Carrion Caves
Straight toward the north, day and night, our destination compass led us after the fleeing flier upon which it had remained set since I first attuned it after leaving the thern fortress. Early in the second night we noticed the air becoming perc... Thuvia
It was the sound of conflict that aroused me once more to the realities of life. For a moment I could neither place my surroundings nor locate the sounds which had aroused me. And then from beyond the blank wall beside which I lay I heard the sh... Thyma Castle
Soon afterwards the hollow sound of the warden's horn, from the watch over the gate of the wall, proclaimed the hour of noon, and they all assembled for dinner in the banqueting chamber. The apartment was on the ground floor, and separated from th... Tight Squeeze
He knew the theory of repairing the gizmo all right. He had that nicely taped. But there was the little matter of threading a wire through a too-small hole while under zero-g, and working in a spacesuit! ... Tinker's Dam
There is something very fundamental indeed about the ancient showman's trick--divert their attention from the thing you're really doing ... Illustrated by Schoenherr The call on the TV-phone came right in the middle of my shaving. ... To Kill!
The Rajah Muda Saffir, tiring of the excuses and delays which Bududreen interposed to postpone the fulfillment of his agreement with the former, whereby he was to deliver into the hands of the rajah a certain beautiful maiden, decided at last to a... To Save Dusar
Thuvia of Ptarth, battling for more than life against the lust of Jav, cast a quick glance over her shoulder toward the forest from which had rumbled the fierce growl. Jav looked, too. What they saw filled each with apprehension. It was Komal,... To Save The World
Two days later Alan and Miela were quietly married in Bay Head. She still wore the long cloak, and no one could have suspected she was other than a beautiful stranger in the little community. When we got back home Alan immediately made her take of... To The Unknown
WHEN, with elaborate genuflections and vows of allegiance, the governors of the six principal provinces of the mystic Kingdom had taken leave of Omar, we remained in consultation with the old sage for upwards of another hour. He told us many horri... Tom Bowcock Pitman
Lennard found himself standing outside the Trinity Street Station at Bolton a few minutes after six that evening. Of course it was raining. Rain and fine-spun cotton thread are Bolton's specialities, the two chief pillars of her fame and prosper... Tom Is Imprisoned
"Well, I must say he's a cool one," remarked Tom, as the echoes of Mr. Berg's steps died away. "The idea of thinking his boat better than ours! I don't like that man, dad. I'm suspicious of him. Do you think he came here to steal some of our ideas... Tony
St. Thomas, August 2571-February 2572 During the first week after Team Azrael reported to Middletown, Cortin got her men assigned quarters and the personal vehicles they were authorized, then made arrangements for them to have unlimited acces... Too Late
For a moment the two stood in silence; Bulan tortured by thoughts of the bitter humiliation that he must suffer when the girl should learn his identity; Virginia wondering at the sad lines that had come into the young man's face, and at his silenc... Too Many Warnings
For a moment, neither of the boys could say anything at all. From the time they had learned to talk, they had heard stories and tales that the miners and prospectors told about the Big Strike, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the wonde... Torres Straits
During the night of the 27th or 28th of December, the Nautilus left the shores of Vanikoro with great speed. Her course was south-westerly, and in three days she had gone over the 750 leagues that separated it from La Perouse's group and the south-... Toward The Eternal Fires
I WAS BORN IN CONNECTICUT ABOUT THIRTY YEARS ago. My name is David Innes. My father was a wealthy mine owner. When I was nineteen he died. All his property was to be mine when I had attained my majority--provided that I had devoted the two yea... Toy Shop
Because there were few adults in the crowd, and Colonel "Biff" Hawton stood over six feet tall, he could see every detail of the demonstration. The children--and most of the parents--gaped in wide-eyed wonder. Biff Hawton was too sophisticated to be... Transformation
Odeon was right; he didn't get any sleep. He'd left Medart as soon as a messenger from the ship delivered the materials the Ranger had ordered, and spent the next few hours comparing the Traditional Catholic Bible with the one he knew so well, ... Transformation
"You must make yourself over again," Ernest wrote to me. "You must cease to be. You must become another woman--and not merely in the clothes you wear, but inside your skin under the clothes. You must make yourself over again so that even I would n... Trapped
On along the tunnel they went. And as they progressed, Dennis got the answer to something that had troubled him a great deal before their entrance here--a problem which had been solved, rather amazingly, of itself. Termitaries, as far as the en... Traveling In Iceland
It ought, one would have thought, to have been night, even in the sixty-fifth parallel of latitude; but still the nocturnal illumination did not surprise me. For in Iceland, during the months of June and July, the sun never sets. The temperatur... Traveling With Terror
We made camp there beside the peaceful river. There Perry told me all that had befallen him since I had departed for the outer crust. It seemed that Hooja had made it appear that I had intentionally left Dian behind, and that I did not purpose ev... Treachery
The day following the coming of Vas Kor to the palace of the Prince of Helium great excitement reigned throughout the twin cities, reaching its climax in the palace of Carthoris. Word had come of the abduction of Thuvia of Ptarth from her father'... Treason
On their return to camp after her rescue Virginia talked a great deal to von Horn about the young giant who had rescued her, until the man feared that she was more interested in him than seemed good for his own plans. He had now cast from him t... Treasure And Treason
AT Omar's request a few days later I accompanied him alone through a private exit of the palace, and ere long we found ourselves unnoticed beyond the ponderous city walls, where two horses, held by a slave, were awaiting us. Mounting, we rode stra... Trial Of The Submarine
Tom felt such a relief at hearing of Captain Weston's ruse that his appetite, sharpened by an early breakfast and the sea air, came to him with a rush, and he had a second morning meal with the odd sea captain, who chuckled heartily when he though... Tricks Of Refraction
The doctor figured out that we should be quite insensible to any weight when we were seventy-five thousand miles from the Earth. At fifty thousand miles I would still weigh a pound, and when we had finished the first million miles, the entire proj... Trouble Times Two
The sun was glowing dull red as it slipped down behind the curving horizon of Mars, but Gregory Hunter was not able to see it. There was no viewscreen in the ship's cabin; it was too tiny for that. Greg twisted around in the cockpit that had bee... Troy Town
Constans awoke just as the footsteps died away; he listened, but again the stillness was profound. He felt his way to the secret door; the wainscot screen stood ajar. It was plain that some one had come to the Rat's-Hole only to discover that the ... Turjun The Panthan
The face of Carthoris of Helium gave no token of the emotions that convulsed him inwardly as he heard from the lips of Hal Vas that Helium was at war with Dusar, and that fate had thrown him into the service of the enemy. That he might utilize ... Turning The Tables
When the young inventor informed his father what he had overheard Mr. Berg saying, the aged inventor was not as much worried as his son anticipated. "All we'll have to do, Tom," he said, "is to keep quiet about where we are going. Once we have ... Twenty Minutes Past Ten To Forty-seven Minutes Past Ten P M
As ten o'clock struck, Michel Ardan, Barbicane, and Nicholl, took leave of the numerous friends they were leaving on the earth. The two dogs, destined to propagate the canine race on the lunar continents, were already shut up in the projectile. T... Two Men Resolve To Go Picnicking
One afternoon, the Doctor being at leisure, he and Denison talked long and earnestly of their never-failing theme, the aluminum globe. Denison finally said: "You know, Doctor, that I never go into anything without due consideration. I have stud... Tycho
It was now exactly six o'clock in the evening. The Sun, completely clear of all contact with the lunar disc, steeped the whole Projectile in his golden rays. The travellers, vertically over the Moon's south pole, were, as Barbican soon ascertained... Tycho
At six in the evening the projectile passed the south pole at less than forty miles off, a distance equal to that already reached at the north pole. The elliptical curve was being rigidly carried out. At this moment the travelers once more ent... Tydomin
Oceaxe sat down carelessly on the couch of mosses, and began eating the plums. "You see, you had to kill him, Maskull," she said, in a rather quizzical voice. He came away from the corpse and regarded her--still red, and still breathing hard. ... Under Arrest
As Carthoris, Xodar, Tars Tarkas, and I stood gazing at the magnificent vessel which meant so much to all of us, we saw a second and then a third top the summit of the hills and glide gracefully after their sister. Now a score of one-man air sc... Under Foot
In the first book I have wandered so much from my own adventures to tell of the experiences of my brother that all through the last two chapters I and the curate have been lurking in the empty house at Halliford whither we fled to escape the ... Under The Mountains
As we advanced up the river which winds beneath the Golden Cliffs out of the bowels of the Mountains of Otz to mingle its dark waters with the grim and mysterious Iss the faint glow which had appeared before us grew gradually into an all-envelopin... Under The Ocean
By the next day we had nearly forgotten our past sufferings. The first sensation I experienced was surprise at not being thirsty, and I actually asked myself the reason. The running stream, which flowed in rippling wavelets at my feet, was the sat... Under The Vampire's Wing
WHEN our dazzled gaze grew accustomed to the garish blaze of lights we found ourselves standing in an enormous cavern. Around us were glowing fires and shining torches innumerable; the smoke from them half choked us, while above there seemed an ... Unthinkable
If Nature suddenly began to behave differently, what we consider obvious and elementary today might become--unthinkable. In the story THE DESPOILERS in the October 1947 Amazing Stories I raised the question, "Is there anything abso... Upstarts
Earth was being bet on to break her blockade ... but what was the purse ... and who was to collect? The sight of an Earthman on Vega III, where it was impossible for an outlander to be, brought angry crowds to surround John Crow... Urbi Et Orbi
The astronomical, mechanical, and topographical difficulties resolved, finally came the question of finance. The sum required was far too great for any individual, or even any single State, to provide the requisite millions. President Barbican... Vanikoro
This terrible spectacle was the forerunner of the series of maritime catastrophes that the Nautilus was destined to meet with in its route. As long as it went through more frequented waters, we often saw the hulls of shipwrecked vessels that were ro... Venus In Perilous Proximity
The light of the returning sun soon extinguished the glory of the stars, and rendered it necessary for the captain to postpone his observations. He had sought in vain for further trace of the huge disc that had so excited his wonder on the 1st, an... Vertical Descent
Now began our real journey. Hitherto our toil had overcome all difficulties, now difficulties would spring up at every step. I had not yet ventured to look down the bottomless pit into which I was about to take a plunge The supreme hour had come. ... Victory
It seemed Earth was a rich, and undefended planet in a warring, hating galaxy. Things can be deceptive though; children playing can be quite rough--but that ain't war, friend! I From above came the sound of men singing. Captain Duke O'Nei... Victory
I had gone five miles, and had paused for a moment, half way up the slope of the valley to get my bearings, when a figure came hurtling through the air from behind, and landed lightly at my side. It was Wilma. "I put Bill Hearn in command and f... Victory And Defeat
"John Carter, John Carter," she sobbed, with her dear head upon my shoulder; "even now I can scarce believe the witness of my own eyes. When the girl, Thuvia, told me that you had returned to Barsoom, I listened, but I could not understand, for it... Vigo Bay
The Atlantic! a vast sheet of water whose superficial area covers twenty-five millions of square miles, the length of which is nine thousand miles, with a mean breadth of two thousand seven hundred--an ocean whose parallel winding shores embrace an ... Vigorish
If it "takes a thief to catch a thief" ... what does it take to catch a psi-gifted thief? What do you hate and fear the most? I know a girl who gags and throws up at the mere sight of a bird. Poor kid, when she was a bar... Vital Ingredient
"Champ, what's with ya lately?" Benny asked the question as they lay on the beach. "Nothing," Frankie answered. "Just fight-nite miseries, I guess." "No it ain't, Frankie. It's something else. You losin' confidence in Milt? That it? Can't you... Vortex Blaster
Author of "The Skylark," "Skylark Three," "The Skylark of Valeron," the Lensman stories, etc. Safety devices that do not protect. The "unsinkable" ships that, before the days of Bergenholm and of atomic and cosmic ener... Voyaging To Another World
During each waking period, Barrow spent many hours in the room with the miniature domes. They were beautiful models, which could be opened or moved as desired, by small levers on the foundation. Wires as fine as hairs were strung from one spot to ...