Page:Amazing Stories Volume 01 Number 06.djvu/23

We went from mine to mine, with the same result. Finally we reached the silver mines, and Edmund's hopes brightened. At last he uttered a great shout of joy.

"Here's pitchblende," he said. "All I want now is an electric furnace."

I felt a load fall from my shoulders, because we had already learned that chemistry was no unknown science here. There must be laboratories at the capital, if not in the neighborhood of the mines themselves. This latter conjecture proved to be correct, and the fact saved us a great deal of trouble; otherwise we should have been forced to transport tons of the pitchblende to the capital in order to extract uranium from it.

But there was another result which we did not anticipate—it gave our enemies an opportunity to plot our destruction.

Close by the mines there was a laboratory provided with an excellent electric furnace. When Edmund saw it he expressed his surprise that chemists so able and enterprising had not yet discovered the property of radio-activity possessed by uranium and its compounds. But they knew nothing about it, and we did; and that gave us a great advantage.

Edmund set to work at once, Ala's authority placing everything that he desired in his hands. He shut everybody out of the laboratory except Juba, whom he found useful in various ways. As for us, he said, laughing, that we knew just enough to be stupid and useless.

I think we must have been more than a week there when a terrible thing occurred.

We were accustomed to take our recreation by long walks amid the delightful scenery in the neighborhood of the mines. Although we were among the foot-hills, the elevation was not very great, and the temperature was most agreeable. Nature was at her best. The slopes and valley-bottoms were clothed with vegetation of tropical luxuriance and beauty.

Never have I seen such trees! I did not recognize a single variety known to me at home, and yet they were in no sense grotesque. Many of them were more graceful in form and foliage than any species of palm; others were as massive as oaks; and some as tall and stately as Sequoias. Festoons of flowering vines hung everywhere—and the flowers!

One could never have believed it possible for such hues, such shapes, and such perfumes to exist together outside of a hothouse. To walk through these scenes was like a stroll through paradise.

In one of our walks, Edmund being with us, and Ala and her maids also, we ascended an eminence overlooking the charming valley of a little stream, two or three miles from the mines. There we sat down, at the foot of a lofty tree, to enjoy the view. The air was deliciously soothing; and in a little while Edmund, tired by his long exertions—for he had been at work without rest for forty-eight hours—fell asleep, with his head on a flowery bank, and Ala sitting beside him.

Suddenly a shadow, deeper than that of the foliage, fell around us, and a large airplane swiftly descended in front of the bank.

In an instant twenty men had leaped from it and seized Edmund, Jack, Henry, and myself.

Edmund was dazed with sleep, and the rest of us were paralyzed with surprise, so that—before any effectual resistance could be offered—we found ourselves on the airplane and rapidly ascending through the air. Ala had sprung to her feet and was gesticulating wildly, her maids were overcome with terror, and Juba, who had not been touched by the abductors, remained seated on the ground, apparently dumfounded, and without an idea in his shaggy head.

None of them could have done anything. We rose So rapidly, flying toward the mountains, that in ten minutes even the tree under which we had sat was last to sight.

I glanced about among our captors, expecting to see Ingra. He was not visible; but a few minutes later he appeared, with a derisive smile on his face. Evidently, he had kept out of sight in order not to confront Ala.

Oh! the detestation with which I beheld him! If it had been in my power, I would have ground him to powder! My look, I know, expressed my fury; but he stared at me with that maddening grin of successful cunning which turns an intelligent and handsome face, when it screens a wicked heart, into the crudest devil's image.

He gloated over Edmund, also; but Edmund never even looked at him. It was the second time that we had been taken like foolish mice in a trap, and I raged at the thought.

Edmund was perfectly cool. As for Jack, his face showed that he felt as I did; but he said nothing, and Henry, who at best seldom spoke, was as silent and as pale as a ghost.

We were allowed to stand, though our arms were bound behind us, and even to walk about the deck. The thought flashed upon me that Ingra would be delighted if we should jump overboard, for that would save him the trouble of putting an end to us. Several times he strode by, and tried to catch Edmund's eye; but Edmund ignored him as completely as if he had not existed.

As the great airplane swept on at terrific speed, my thoughts turned back to Ala. What would she do? What could she do? She could not follow—at least, not until after a fatal delay—for she would have to return afoot to the mines, three miles away, before she could find aid.

By that time we would be far out of sight among the mountains, leaving no track in the air. I fairly groaned at the thought of the absolute hopelessness of our situation. But, in thinking that Ala could do nothing for us, I underrated her abilities and the inspiring power of love.

Fortunately, after we had lost sight of the tree, the airplane slowed up and came almost to rest. We circled about for a while, and Ingra consulted with his co-conspirators.

Their gestures indicated that they were debating as to their course. They pointed this way and that, and finally drove the airplane to a great height to reconnoiter ahead. The delay was providential.