The Emancipatrix | Page 9

Smith's.
That is to say, he soon came to feel that his agent was not what is
commonly called human. It was all too different. However, he found
himself enjoying a field of view which was a decided improvement
upon Smith's. Instead of a range which began and ended just above the
horizon, his agent possessed the power of looking almost straight
ahead.
This told the geologist that his unsuspecting Sanusian was located in an
aircraft much like the other. The same tremendous noise of the engine,
the same inexplicable wing action, together with the same total lack of
the usual indications of human occupancy, all argued that the two men
had hit upon the same type of agent. In Van Emmon's case, however,
he could occasionally glimpse two loose parts of the machine, flapping
and swaying oddly from time to time within the range of the observer,
and at the front. Nothing was done about it. Van Emmon came to the
same conclusion as Smith; the operator was looking into something like
a periscope. Perhaps he himself did not do the driving.
From what the geologist could see of the country below, it was quite
certainly cultivated. In no other way could the even rows and uniform
growth be explained; even though Van Emmon could not say whether
the vegetation were tree, shrub, or plant, it was certainly the work of
man --or something mightily like man.
Shortly he experienced an abrupt downward dive, such as upset his
senses somewhat. When he recovered, he had time for only the swiftest
glance at what, he thought rather vaguely, was a great green-clad
mountain. Then his agent brought the craft to one of those
nerve-racking stops; once more came a swimming of the brain, and
then the geologist saw something that challenged his understanding.
The craft had landed on the rim of a deep pit, or what would have been
called a pit if it had not been so extraordinary. Mainly the strangeness
was a matter of color; the slope was of a brilliant orange, and
seemingly covered with frost, for it sparkled so brightly in the sun as to
actually hurt the eyes. In fact, the geologist's first thought was "A
glacier," although he could not conceive of ice or snow of that tint.

Running down the sides of the pit were a number of dark-brown streaks,
about a yard wide; Van Emmon could make them out, more or less
clearly, on the other side of the pit as well. From the irregular way in
which the walls were formed, he quickly decided that the pit was a
natural one. The streaks, he thought, might have been due to lava flow.
His agent proceeded to drive straight over the rim and down the slope
into the pit. His engine was quite stopped; like Smith, the geologist
wondered just how the craft's wheels were operated. Next he was
holding his breath as the machine reached so steep a point in the slope
that, most surely, no brakes could hold it. Simultaneously he heard the
hiss and whine which seemed to indicate the suction device.
"It was a whole lot like going down into a placer mine," the geologist
afterward said; and in view of what next met his eyes, he was justified
in his guess.
Down crept the machine until it was "standing on its nose." The sun
was shining almost straight down into the slope, and Van Emmon
forgot his uneasiness about the craft in his interest in what he saw.
The bottom of the pit was perhaps twenty feet in diameter, and roughly
hemispherical. Standing up from its bottom were half a dozen slim
formations, like idealized stalagmites; they were made of some
semitransparent rock, apparently, the tint being a reddish yellow.
Finally, perched on the top of each of these was a stone; and
surrounding these six "landmarks," as Van Emmon called them, was
the most prodigious display of wealth imaginable.
For the whole queer place was simply sprinkled with gold. Gold--gold
everywhere; large nuggets of it, as big as one's fist! Not embedded in
rock, not scattered through sand, but lying LOOSE upon the surface of
that unbelievable orange snow! It was overwhelming.
The mysterious Sanusian lost no time. Operating some unseen
machinery, he caused three shovel-like devices to project from the front
of his machine; and these instantly proceeded, so swiftly that Van
Emmon could not possibly watch their action, to pick up nuggets and

stow them away out of sight in what must have been compartments in
the hull. All this was done without any sound beyond the occasional
thud of a nugget dropped in the scramble.
Suddenly the Sanusian wheeled his machine about and started hurriedly
up the slope. Van Emmon judged that the chap had