United States or Bulgaria ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
He ran forward, swung up at Georg the paralyzing vibrations which Tarrano at that instant was using upon Wolfgar and me. Georg felt them. He was ten feet, perhaps, above the lower platform; and as he felt the numbness strike him, he lost his hold upon the tube-pipe. But he had presence of mind enough to kick himself outward with a last effort. His body fell upon the onrushing Argo.
Like a smothered fire smouldering, lacking only a breath of vital gas to explode it into flame, the sentiment for Tarrano spread about the Earth. Public opinion is fickle. It sways instinctively not always, but often to the winning side. Here in Venus we knew we must defeat Tarrano.
To Skylan, as the Mountain Station was popularly called, Georg and Maida were taken in official aero under heavy convoy. Yet, even then, at their very elbows, spies of Tarrano must have been lurking. The official flyer landed them on the broad stage amid deep, soft snow. It was night a brief trip from the late afternoon, through dinner and they were there.
Brende had mentioned to me, and a former one. It was upon this first trip Elza had met Tarrano. He was an under-officer then, in the Army of the Central State his name then was Taro. She herself no more than a slip of a girl at that time remembered him as a queerly silent young man insignificant in physique and manner.
It was all of that; but oh! it was more than that as well. My Elza, raising her tear-stained face and kissing me. Murmuring, "Jac, I love you!" Murmuring her love: "Jac dear, you're safe! I've wanted so long to be with you again I've been so frightened so frightened " Giving me back my kisses unreserved; holding me with eager arms ... Tarrano? The memory of him came to me.
Did he realize he was defeated in this passage with a girl? Was he trying to cover from us the knowledge of his defeat? And then again the bigness of him made itself manifest. He acknowledged soberly: "You have bested me, Lady Elza. And you've made me realize that I Tarrano have almost lowered myself to admit this Jac Hallen my rival." He laughed harshly. "Not so! A rival? Pah!
Industriana, greatest commercial and manufacturing center of Venus, had been given over momentarily to the preparations for war. The Rhaals had at last turned from industry to the conquest of Tarrano. Preparations were almost completed; our armies were to start within a very few times of sleep. I had had no experience in warfare; but the history of our Earth had told me much of it.
The Princess Maida as before hereditary honored ruler; with Tarrano guiding the business affairs of State, as on Earth our Presidents and their Councils rule the legendary Kings and Queens. The one ruling in fact; the other, an affair of pretty sentiment. It was this condition which Tarrano now desired to bring about. Myself the irony of it!
As they came out, with Maida all unsuspecting, from the shadows a group of men pounced upon them dragged Maida away. Tarrano laughed. "Enough!... Show me Georg Brende again.... Hurry!" We saw Georg waver and leap through the window, fall into the snow, where, from the shadows of the building, other men rushed out upon him ... hurried him away after the captive Maida....
It turns me cold when I think how orders like this could have come from the Great City these bombs which had they found their mark would have killed Tarrano, but at the expense of the life of Elza. They did not find their mark. Tarrano continually changed the curve of his beam. The image of the boat shifted.
Word Of The Day