Tarrano the Conqueror

ew Mu

t at my feet. I was quite certain then that the Venus man at my elbow was the murderer. I don't know why, call it intuition if you will. The Venus

ower. He was no more than a few hundred feet above me, well within direct earshot. Around him on all sides were the electric megaphones which carried his voice to all parts of the audience. Behind me, a thousand feet overhead, the main aerials were scattering it throughout the city, I suppose five million people were listening to the voice of the President at that moment. He had

ught it; and it hung there inert. The slanting rays of the sun fell full upon the ruffled wh

clearly what was happening on the balcony. The form of the murdered President was hanging there against the rail; a score of government officials were rushing

Shouts, excited questions; the wail of children almost trampled under foot; the screams of women. And over it all, the e

d whirled away. With a hundred other spectators near me I was shoved to a sidewalk moving south along the Tenth Level. It was going some four miles an hour. But they would not let me stay ther

g. The park there had already been cleared of spectators, I kn

man beside me. "Mur

ws-mirror, brightly illumined. On all the stairways and balconies here a local crowd had gathered, watching the mirror. It was reporting the present scene at Park Sixty. As we sped past the tower I could see in the silver surface of the mirror the image of the now empty park from w

the mirror

xt to me repeated. "Th

e was. Then he eyed me-my cap, which

bitterly. "The last word he s

ecessary. It was unfortunate t

landing stage near us. A south-bound flyer had overtaken us and was landing.

reater New York. There was pandemonium in there that evening. My supper came up in

anetary importance tumbled over each other as they came to us through the air from the Official Information Stations. And we

ife of so high an official been wilfully taken. But it was only the first. At 6:15 word came from Tokyohama,[2] that the ruler of Allied Mongolia was dead-mur

tarily was with

a duplicating mirror from Headquarters, I could see that at the palace of Mombozo a throng of terrified b

ne of panic. Black and yellow men-on opposite sides of the Earth. And between them our white races in

e arrival of the Venus mail. Don't overlook it ... By the

I had forgotte

onder if it

al Announcer it was a Venus plot. He laughed at me. Those Great Londoners can't

ssions of the Venus man who was b

image of the inter-planetary landing stage, at which the Venus mail was due to arrive. I could see the blaz

e answered my call. He

hey may be coming down that way.... Sure I'll let you

, had no word of the mail. Then I caught the Yukon Station. The mail fly

ould even begin to handle my section of it, was far overshadowed. Venus, now at 8:44 was calling us by helio. T

st incoherent message. The murder of the ruler, at a time

arrano, beware Tarrano ...

-lights of the Venus Central State go dark suddenly. Our own station flashed its call, but there was no answer. Venus-evening st

enus Central State-friendly to us in spite of the

w