The Winged Men of Orcon | Page 8

instrument. I did so, in
German. The result was an instant translation into the prisoner's own
tongue.
The rest was easy.
"What is your name?" was my first question.
"Hargrib."
"What were you and your people trying to do to us with the cable you
hitched to our stern?" I asked next.
"Destroy you."
The whole story was this: In a power house on an island only a few
hundred yards off the beach was kept a magnetic cable which Leider
had been using in connection with some deep sea dredging apparatus he
kept there. When our ship crashed, the order had come from
headquarters that the cable be fastened to us and the ship drawn into the
sea. I concluded that we had missed an unpleasant fate by a narrow
margin.
Quickly Hargrib confirmed our belief that it was Leider who had
wrecked our ship while it was still approaching Orcon through space. A

ray which had crippled the magnogravitos had been used. So great was
Leider's power that, after disabling us, he had even been able to direct
our course so that we had crashed on the beach close to the
headquarters he had set up for himself deep in the wilderness, away
from the cities of Orcon.
The Orconite's free mention of Leider's name and his open admission
that the man was king and god in Orcon, made direct inquiry about him
easy. Also it was plain that Hargrib, now he had been cornered, would
hold nothing back because he believed we would never live long
enough to make trouble, regardless of what information we gained.
* * * * *
To state the rest of it briefly, we learned that Leider had come to Orcon
immediately after his defeat at Calypsus. He had found ready allies
here, on the crazy, distant planet which had been too remote to tempt
explorers from Earth until necessity had forced our voyage. The people
of Orcon knew science and machinery, and were advanced in every
respect. From communication which they had had with other peoples in
their own zone of the Universe, they had even heard of Earth and its
allied planets. They had lent themselves readily to Leider's fierce plans
to make trouble for Earth.
As to what Leider's plan of war was, Hargrib could not tell us much, for
his duties kept him absorbed in other work, not connected with the
campaign. He stated definitely, however, that Leider had almost
completed the development of apparatus which would enable him to
strike his blow without ever leaving Orcon. The whole work was being
carried forward in tremendous subterranean laboratories and power
rooms which had been established in a series of natural caverns only a
few miles distant from the desolate beach on which we were lying at
that moment. Hargrib said that with the coming of daylight, we would
be able to see the mountains in which the caverns were concealed, just
as we would be able to sight the nearby island whence had been shot
the cable which had so nearly done for us.
At this point my natural curiosity as a scientist made me desire greatly

to ask a thousand questions about the planet itself, with its bubbling
chemical seas and its erratic orbit, and I did ask a few things. The
answers I received confirmed the theory I had already formed that
Orcon did not revolve regularly, but had days and nights which might
last anywhere from a few hours to a month. I was told--what I had
already guessed--that the bubbling fluid which composed the seas
changed the orbit of the planet as the nature of the fluid's chemical
elements changed.
Also I was told flatly and calmly, as though there were nothing at all
remarkable about the fact, that Leider had penetrated so deeply into the
chemical secrets of Orcon that he was able to control the coming of day
and night. Finally I was told that the planet had a hot, moist climate
instead of the frigid one to be expected when any sun was so remote,
because of the continued warmth-giving chemical action of its seas.
* * * * *
I could have gone on seeking information for hours. Captain Crane,
however, showed impatience at even the few questions I did ask, and I
knew that she was justified. It was my duty to think about the position
we were in and the task we had in hand.
I asked Hargrib sharply what was to be expected from Leider now that
his cable party against us had failed. And he told me.
The sum of it was that Leider was working eagerly to complete his
preparations for the attack on Earth. Although it was he who had sent
word from headquarters that we