Tarrano the Conqueror

son

the lower bridge and reached the main doorway, Wolfgar unsealed a black fuse-box which stood there, and pulled the relief-switch. The current, barring passage through every door and window of the tower, was thrown off. We entered. My mind was al

partment cut into the half-segment of a circle. Georg, at my elbow, w

d smiled. "You will be quite secure here-do not think of escape." His

le of balcony. The current rises only from its rail." He smiled and

t was intended that Elza could prepare our meals; and two bath-apartments, one of them fairly luxurious, with

ng to be cheerful, but my heart was heavy with foreboding neverthele

Elza-alone down there in the garden with Tarrano-a

view the garden we had just left. This strange Tarrano, giving Georg the visible proof that he would keep his word and not harm Elza. We could see in this mirror the image of the scene down ther

arred arches and casements. But to pass through one of them, the barring current struck you like a wall, with darting sparks when it was touched. As Wolfgar had said, we had access to the uppe

d spider bridges a hundred feet or so above us; the lower levels beneath, and through a canyon

the viaducts. At night it was beautiful with its romantic spreading lights of soft rose and vi

r momentous events while we were forced there to helpless idleness. All sending apparatus of our instrument room was permanently disconnected. But the news came in to us from a hu

that we were ourselves isolated from communication, we were in touch with everything. A wh

ieced it together. Underlying it all, Tarrano's dream of universal conquest was plain. In the Venus Cold Country he had started his wide-flu

rrano officials had already set up their new government. With notification to the Earth and Mars that they demanded recognition, they were sending the usual routine helio dis

gnition, and asked for our proclamation of friendliness in answer to their own. The present Ambassadors of the Venus Central State to the Earth-there were three of them, one each in Great London, Tokyoh

assassinated. The responsibility for the assassinations was placed by the Council upon Tarrano. But this-from his headquarters here in Venia-he blandly refused to accept, denying all knowledge of the murders. Venia was the principal Venus immigrant colony of Earth's Western Hemisphere. It had already

ognize the Tarrano government of Venus. We would hold to our treaty of friendship with the Central State. We would remain neutral for a time. But Tarrano himself we decl

diate attack upon Venia. It was the same proposition which our War Director had previously made unoffic

r as we sat listening to the announc

e leader of all this-is here. Within the hour those vessels of

red laboratory has been found, of course. No station up there is near enough to have eavesdropped upon our capture, but the whole thing m

the workings of that model? Could y

n Washington. I could build another. But they k

p the secret for himself--" I did not say it aloud, for Elza's sake

ts amid the tumultuous news of these hours showed us that. For months, throughout Venus, Tarrano had spread the insidious propa

paganda was being sent to the Earth. Murmurs from our own Earth public were beginning to be heard. The ignorant lower classes seemed ready

new ruler to take the place of him who had been assassinated. The Council there put the assassination to unknown causes. Tarrano was held blameless. The Little People declared thems

r own to fight at this rate. Can't you see what Tarrano is doing? Working everywhere with

ld Tarrano do with this ultimatum? Either he must yield himself and the Brende secr

glow was the full-length figure of a girl. We could see her plainly, though a small image at that distance with the naked eye, and our personal vision instruments had been taken from us. A slender, imperial figure-a young girl seemingly about Elza's age. Dressed in a shimmering blue kirtle, short after the Venus fashion, wi

nd then, with one white arm, she began to semaphore. One arm, and then with both. Georg and I recog

tower casement was dark. On a lower spider bridge Tarrano had appeared. He was crossing it on foo

o replaced the barrage, lingered an instant, gazing upward at us with his

n our lounging apart