Shadow Gold by Ray Cummings Read online

  uncontrolled frenzy. Her onslaught knocked

  great cone whose central bottom point, Johnny

  Johnny away from Anne. He fell sideward; he

  judged, was a full hundred and fifty feet below

  saw Anne fighting the older woman’s clutch,

  him.

  and a knife blade glint in the yellow light. He

  Metal handrails on the cone’s inner

  shouted wildly.

  surface were strung between the vats and

  “Anne! Look out—her knife—” In that

  conduits. But Johnny saw no men down there.

  second Johnny gripped a handrail, and with a

  He leaned toward Taro.

  pull of his arm, flung himself at Rua. He saw

  “Where do you control this?”

  the black glinting blade over Anne’s breast; he

  Taro answered the question readily. caught Rua’s wrist; twisted it; the knife fell—

  The control house was up on the island and they sank in a struggling heap.

  surface. Fifty men were there; and all the

  others were spread at various points along the

  AND in that second, the commotion had

  channel bluff, manning the island’s defense

  spread. Taro came lunging upon Rua. Johnny

  weapons.

  glimpsed his face, distorted by a wild fury. He

  “The gold—” Taro added; and he had a knife, and with a sweep plunged it into gestured down toward the bottom of the pit,

  the whiteness of Rua’s breast and left it there.

  where the conduits led to smaller vats and

  Johnny jerked free of the mêlée; his hand had

  converged at last into one. And there, the gold

  snatched Rua’s knife from the floor. He

  Thrilling Wonder Stories

  14

  gained his feet, holding Anne under his arm.

  men guarding them. And Taro himself darted

  But in that second half a dozen bodies struck

  away to take command of the island’s

  him. He saw knives coming at Anne; he defenses.

  warded them off, and suddenly yielded.

  What a different scene was here now!

  He relinquished Anne as Taro drew

  The great forked funnel still belched its foul

  her upright. Rua’s body lay inert on the ledge.

  cloud into the dimly golden sky. A haze was

  Limp, dead thing, stained now with crimson.

  off toward Bhana, blurring now the great fiery

  Sensuous, heavy face, beautiful once, but now

  crescent which marked the line of distant

  with staring eyes and fallen jaw.

  oncoming vessels. They were flying high; still

  On Taro’s face was a cold contempt.

  many miles away. To Johnny it seemed that

  “The end—for her.” He steadied himself on

  there must be a hundred or more of them.

  his feet; he lifted Rua’s body and heaved it

  But Hall and Jeoh had tricked Taro

  violently upward past his head. It rose above

  with a surprise. Ahead of this main squadron a

  the nearby vats, sailed upward and outward.

  smaller fleet had secretly come and landed in

  An eddy of wind caught it; then an

  the nearby forest. The ships were hidden, but

  outgoing circular rush. It was sucked up; the men from them had already sallied forth to dwindled by distance—a little oblong blob.

  the attack.

  The draperies waved; the head and long hair

  Across the channel there was a

  dangled. It was sucked up; dwindled by radiance of light a mile away. The nearer distance, whirling end over end. Then it forest was dark; and from the darkness on the lunged into the upper gale of rushing wind—a

  opposite river bank, human figures were

  dot, and it was gone.

  rising, like human birds in this realm of so

  Taro was smiling. He turned his grim

  little gravitational force. A few came at first;

  smile upon Johnny. “She was right when she

  then a flock of them. Men impelled

  think you and Anne are lovers. Not so? individually by small rocket engines. They Well—she is out of my way, now.”

  lunged up into the wind. They were flung

  And, for the same motive as Rua’s,

  away by crazy wind eddies; but struggling,

  would he not dispose of Johnny? The thought

  they mounted over the channel.

  was knocked from Johnny’s mind. There came

  Taro’s little forts were in action now.

  a distant shout from Taro’s men overhead.

  From some, small golden projectiles mounted,

  Sudden, startling news; so startling and burst among the fluttering aerial figures.

  that it rang with a turmoil over all the fortified Puffs of intense golden glare illumined the

  little island. From off in the direction of night. The sizzling little thunder cracks Bhana, the fluorescent comet tails of mingled with the roar of the wind and the oncoming flying ships were visible—a great

  humming throb from the cone pit. The rising,

  luminous crescent across the golden sky!

  struggling figures were blown and scattered

  by the raking bombs. But some survived,

  struggled higher, got above the channel, then

  CHAPTER IV

  over the island and were fluttering down.

  Combat in the Giant Cone

  From the dark forest, every instant,

  more were rising. And the crescent of Bhana

  ships swept nearer, sank to the forest to

  ANNE and Johnny were being shoved upward

  reinforce the others which were already there.

  from the cone interior. Taro left them clinging

  A desperate, frenzied attack. From one

  to the upper railing with a group of goggled

  of Taro’s forts, a jet of black goldless air was

  Shadow Gold

  15

  now hissing up into the struggling enemy

  Then a mailed, goggled figure was

  figures. It swung back and forth. It seemed to

  struggling with him. One of Taro’s guards. He

  cut a swath through them, so that hundreds of

  fought. He called, “Anne! Anne, where are

  them, limp like dead birds, were hurled away

  you?”

  by the wind. But there were too many now.

  “Johnny!” This man he was fighting,

  They began landing upon the island; murmured, “Johnny! Wait! Don’t—”

  floundering down, mailed men with glinting

  Not fighting him! Holding him—

  swords, fluttering to the island surface. trying to ward off Johnny’s blows. His Scrambling; gaining their feet; struggling antagonist’s goggles came off. “Johnny—I toward the forts where in a moment hand-to-could not get to you. Only just now—”

  hand fighting was in progress.

  A familiar voice. The voice through

  The goldless air jet came down, the ventilator. The glare now showed Nido’s wavered and for a moment raked the island

  face—Nido, the young man whom Johnny had

  surface. Johnny caught a stifling whiff of its

  so liked in Bhana.

  fumes, which the wind tore away. Then the jet

  “Your father was so worried over you,

  went up into the air again. A bomb, badly

  Johnny. You and Anne—and Rua’s boat gone.

  directed, burst near at hand.

  Always, we have suspected Rua. So I came

  A hundred or more men of the Bhana

  here—landed in the river.
I got down here,

  forces seemed to be on the island now.

  killed a guard—”

  And still more every moment were

  Johnny gasped, “Anne is gone! Anne

  dropping from the cloud of them overhead.

  and Taro—”

  The bombs from Taro’s forts were wavering.

  “Yes. I saw them. Into the cone, just a

  The interiors of many of the little stone minute ago.” He pulled at Johnny. “This way; buildings now were engulfed by hand-to-hand

  watch that the wind does not blow you.”

  combat. There was a low squat building a

  They drew themselves from the island

  hundred feet away. Johnny thought it perhaps

  surface. It was only a few steps to the glowing

  the control room of the giant absorbers. The

  cone rim. They plunged down into it. There

  Bhana men were massing in front of it, but

  seemed no following figures. The invaders

  horizontal air jets were tossing them back,

  were all assailing Taro’s forts and the control

  frustrating their attempts. Then Taro again house.

  was here. He came between Johnny and Anne.

  Nido plunged ahead, with Johnny after

  The golden glare painted his face and there

  him. They passed the metal ledge where

  was no mistaking its grimness. He said, “I had

  before Johnny had gazed down into the cone.

  no thought they would attack with suicide

  No one here. They scrambled down a metal

  desperation like this. I kill ten to every one

  stair incline. They were on the steep inner

  who lands here—”

  surface now, sliding, floundering, clinging to

  the metal handrails.

  YET more were steadily coming. A little

  Johnny gripped his companion. “The

  group of them fluttered down and caught a

  transition mechanisms—he would keep them

  railing near at hand. A tiny gold bomb flung

  by the gold. Take her to Earth—”

  horizontally, burst and scattered them. Its air

  Taro’s

  getaway.

  Abandoning

  pressure tore at Johnny; its light dazzled him.

  everything—escaping with Anne.

  He turned confused, and his heart leaped

  Nido was panting: “The gold—near

  wildly. He was alone here! Taro and Anne

  the bottom. Let me lead you.”

  were gone!

  The confusion, the dazzling glare, the

  Thrilling Wonder Stories

  16

  plucking wind, made it difficult for them to

  Taro’s fingers clutched at his throat, then

  keep their feet. They were sliding, half falling

  shifted, gouging at his eyes, knocking away

  down the narrow railed pathways between the

  the goggles.

  vats. It was eerie here.

  “No you don’t!” Johnny panted. “Give

  Then Johnny found that they were by

  me that!” Taro was now clutching from his

  the open vat of the gold mineral. There was

  belt a strangely fashioned cylinder weapon.

  less wind here, and less glare. A great pile of

  They struggled for possession of it. Johnny

  yellow sand, and the trickle from the metal

  was the stronger. He found himself with the

  chute steadily adding to it. He felt Nido thrust

  heavy, sharp pointed cylinder in his hand. He

  a long metal bar into his hands; and saw Nido

  had no idea how to use it, save to stab with its

  scramble and wrench another from the point.

  apparatus nearby.

  Taro was wildly squirming, lunging

  Then they saw Taro! He was perched

  his body, twisting his head. Johnny saw that

  on a ledge partly behind a nearby vat. Taro

  his grin had faded, and a wild terror was in his

  and Anne. He had already forced her to don

  eyes. The stabbing cylinder struck his

  one of the transition mechanisms. He was

  forehead. There was a sizzling flash that

  starting to put one on himself. His clothes

  seared Johnny’s hand. Taro’s forehead had

  were bulging, bloated with the gold sand cracked like the shell of an egg. The cylinder which he had stuffed into pockets and pouches

  had exploded.

  of a garment in which now he was robed.

  There was only a gruesome headless

  Anne was crouching, terrified. Then she saw

  thing writhing in Johnny’s arms. He cast it

  Johnny and Nido come plunging.

  away. He lunged for Anne. “You wait,

  She lunged, but Taro caught her; Anne—I’ll be back in a moment.”

  cuffed her face. He was reaching for the

  A frenzy was on Johnny. He

  transition switch at her belt. Then suddenly he

  remembered that iron bar which Nido had

  must have realized his own peril. Anne was

  thrust at him—and Nido’s purpose then had

  desperately fighting him; and abruptly he been to smash all this damnable mechanism.

  seized a knife from his belt. Its blade flashed

  The bar was where Johnny had

  over Anne’s breast.

  dropped it. He seized it; whirled and plunged

  All in a second or two. Nido was in

  for a great, coiling pipe which was white with

  advance of Johnny as they hurtled their bodies

  snow and ice congealed upon it. The coil

  through the air. And Nido, more skillful, was

  smashed under his blows. It seemed that all

  plunging with truer aim. His body struck the world here was bursting into light. Then he between Anne and Taro, and twisting, he was pounding a vat, with a vast hissing roar caught the knife in his own breast and sank

  and glare engulfing him. The vat exploded

  down, partly on top of Anne, still trying to

  with a great upflung sheet of yellow light; and

  shield her.

  Johnny staggered back, crouched and leaped

  again to his task.

  TARO was erect, swaying, fumbling for

  But soon he saw his efforts were not

  another weapon to meet Johnny’s plunge. needed. Deranged mechanism. The Johnny struck him. They rolled and bounced

  derangement now was spreading of its own

  on the ledge, kicking, scrambling. Taro had

  momentum. The broken icy coil hissed with

  another knife in his hand; it slashed Johnny’s

  yellow vapor. Another vat went up into a sheet

  shoulder and then was gone—knocked away

  of flame. The pythonlike conduits were

  in the struggle though Johnny tried to catch it.

  bursting. The heat momentarily was blistering,

  Shadow Gold

  17

  but the wind sucked it away.

  lessened pressure which continued to suck up

  Black smoke swirled, turgid, rushing

  the fumes. Lights and sounds were

  upward in the wind, and Johnny still could

  distinguishable up there now. A blurred

  breathe. There was an instant when he saw the

  turmoil.

  headless body of Taro sucked upward into the

  And presently they climbed

  maelstrom, ironically following Rua, a dark

  laboriously through the tangled smoking

  blob; then it vanished.

  wreckage to the isl
and surface. The golden

  Through the chaos of electric glare night was brighter now; the giant branching Johnny fought his way back to Anne. She was

  funnels were still standing, but only a normal

  bending over the body of Nido; she seemed

  breeze was passing through them. The island

  oblivious to the inferno around her. She top, no longer gale swept, was a turmoil of gasped:

  lights and men, with a last remnant of the

  “He’s alive, Johnny, but he’s—”

  fighting still in progress, so that Johnny and

  Nido’s glazing eyes saw Johnny; his

  Anne crouched in hiding, fearful that the

  bloodless lips parted into a faint smile. His

  victorious Bhana forces might kill them before

  faint words were audible as Johnny and Anne

  they could proclaim their identity.

  bent low over him.

  Bhana ships had landed here on the

  “You did it, Johnny. Saved my island now, disgorging fighting men.

  world—that’s good. And I saved Anne for

  Overhead, others were circling, zooming past

  you. She is—she is very beautiful.”

  with the glare of golden rocket tails.

  His gaze clung to Anne’s face—the

  Then the fight was over. The strewn

  last thing he wanted to see as the eternal

  bodies everywhere here were mute evidence

  darkness closed in upon him.

  of its brief but savage fury. One last spurt of

  Anne and Johnny crouched together,

  goldless air jet leaped from the nearby control

  over the shell of what had been Nido, with the

  building where a last remnant of Taro’s men

  chaos of glare and roaring, blasting tumult of

  still were fighting; and then the Bhana

  sound bursting around them. Then the glare