“It—it—is a chamber of horrors,” Joan gasped. “I know there is a ghost in this place or some living thing. I can feel it; I can hear a slight movement.”

Epworth strained his eyes in every direction. All was murky darkness, Cimmerian gloom. If there was anything living near, the darkness wrapped it in an envelop impossible to penetrate.

“You are certainly mistaken,” he soothed. “There is no living thing here. It couldn’t——”

He paused. There came the suspicion of a sound to his ear. It was very soft. A rat could not move with less noise; a cat in stepping would have sounded like a cannon exploding. What could it be? Noiseless crickets—a nest of young crickets expecting a mother? The cavern seemed large and the air seemed pure but that animals or things could live in such a place seemed impossible. He voiced his thoughts.

“It is strange that there is air in here,” Joan admitted, “and stranger yet that I should think that there is life here. But this is a strange world. We never saw a Thing on earth like these moon crickets. Nor is there a pigmy on earth like the pigmies that rode on the crickets; nor are there great hollows in the earth where the air has congealed and left the outside cold and airless. It is a different creation entirely. Mercy! I see—I see—eyes staring at me from out the darkness. Holy angels, protect me! There are three of them, and they are running me crazy to look at them.”

Her teeth chattered until Epworth could hear them, and she buried her head in the young man’s shirt front. Now he also saw the eyes. There were three—great red lights that flared in the darkness. Two on a level, and one in the center. The center eye was enormous and terrifying to the extreme. Brave as he was he shivered with terror. There was something so ghostly, uncanny, about the Thing that his nerves washed out.

Then it flashed by. A nasty-smelling Thing shot out of the gloom; a Thing with a lizard-like, scaly body, long legs and antennas; a Thing that carried a phosphorus glow that plainly disclosed its proportions. It went by them like a railroad train, an enormous whirling, gliding animal that chilled them unto death.

Joan screamed at the top of her voice, and fell limp. Epworth stumbled and fell forward on his face. Each second they expected the Thing to pounce on them, and mash them flat.

Then oblivion fell on both.

It seemed hours later that the two returned to consciousness. They were on the same level, rocky floor, lying side by side, and Epworth was holding his gun in his hand. It had not been discharged.

When he made this discovery he rose quickly to his feet. His first thought was of the evil-smelling Thing that had appeared out of the darkness. Where was it? Were there others back in this chamber of horrors? Was the one he saw preparing another attack on them?

He looked around with fearful eyes. He could not see any signs of the animal. That did not mean that it was not near. He thought that the Thing could move with less noise than a cat, and with the swiftness of an eel.

“W-w-what was it?” Joan stammered.

“I hope to high heaven I never find out,” Epworth breathed fervently. “It was the most gosh-awful horror that ever stirred my nerves. It has probably crawled back in its hole, which must be down this chamber. I hope it dies before I see it again. At least I am going to go in the direction directly opposite from that taken by the Thing—and I am going as fast as my slow feet will let me.”

He sprang up, caught her hand, and ran hurriedly down the chamber, stumbling over big rocks, and against the sides of the tunnel in his desperate effort to leave the spot.

He had no idea where he was going. For all he knew he was going back the way he came. He was getting away from that chamber of horrors as speedily as possible.

They wandered on for an hour—two hours. There was no end to the dark tunnel but they were moving and getting farther and farther away from that hidden monster; and they were going swiftly, without thinking of falling into another chasm. In fact any kind of a hole would have been preferable to this, and they dared not stop.

Finally Joan looked ahead and saw a streak of light.

“Thank heavens,” she breathed. “At last we are coming to the end of this horrible tunnel.”

Epworth did not reply. He was not so sure. On the contrary he could not, by his greatest scientific legerdemain, figure how they would ever get out of this crater.

The end came abruptly—butting up against a pile of large stones. There were large cracks between the stones, and it was patent that intelligent hands had placed them and not Nature. Some being or some intelligent Thing had blocked up the passage purposely with loose stones, to keep out the enormous reptiles.

But the light was streaming through the cracks, and the two were crazy to get to light again. If this darkness enveloped them many hours longer they would lose their minds. Both fell on the rocks with one thought, and began to tear them aside.

When a crack large enough to see through was made they drew back dismayed. The walls of the chamber ahead were lighted by a stream of fiery lava, and there seemed no prospect of escaping from their cavern prison. However the dim light was preferable to the intense gloom that pervaded the passage they were in, and Epworth decided to dig in.

He attempted to survey the interior of the other chamber but his view was shut off by the narrowness of the opening, and again he fell to removing the loose stones. Soon he had an opening large enough to push through.

When they stepped into the chamber their hearts jumped with surprise. Billy Sand and Herman Toplinsky were lying on the floor near where they entered with their hands bound, and their faces against the floor. On a stone couch near them was a beautiful little woman, no larger than a ten-year old girl. She was splendidly formed, and her blonde hair was wrapped around her body in a braid and fell almost to her feet. She also was bound hand and foot.

With a leap Epworth was by Billy’s side, slashing the cords that bound him. When Billy was free Epworth released Toplinsky and the girl on the couch in the same manner. When freed Toplinsky sat up lazily and stretched his arms and legs.

“Ah, ha, the beautiful Joan—the lady who hates me,” he greeted amiably. “Pleased to meet you—truly am—but before we make merry let us hurriedly get away by the passage through which you entered. I fear that we have very little time to lose. In fact——”

He was interrupted by a noise at the far end of the chamber. Glancing in the direction they saw a large stone rolled away, and thirty crickets, marching in military formation, came in, stepping carefully over the stream of lava. They carried sharp steel-pronged spears, and it was apparent that their intentions were not friendly.

They were led by five men and a woman. And such a woman! Like the blonde girl on the couch she was no larger than a ten-year old child but she was bewilderingly beautiful although her flesh was copper colored. Her hair, a deep blue black, was twisted around her waist over a richly colored red breech cloth. Otherwise she was naked. Her eyes, slightly oblique, were slothful at times and at other times full of fire, transforming her into a menacing dictator. She was ornamented like a barbarous queen with bracelets on her arms, and a crown of jewels on her head.

The men who led the crickets were also copper colored, and small in stature, well-formed except their heads, which were just a trifle large for their bodies. When Joan looked into their faces she closed her eyes. The lines of the faces were badly wrinkled, the mouths were contorted and there was a smirk of evil stamped over them. That they were highly intelligent, however, she was soon to learn.

The woman, whose head was better formed, spoke, to their surprise, in broken English with a peculiar pronunciation that caused them to bend their ears attentively to comprehend.

“I am Carza, the queen of the moon.” She drew her form proudly erect and stared arrogantly at the little blonde girl on the couch. “You are aware of that now, Moawha,” she continued addressing the girl. “From this on you are my slave. Perhaps, a little later I shall slay you, and be rid of your pretensions forever.”

She paused, shrugged her shoulders, and smiled softly. It was not an angelic expression but it exhibited her even, white teeth, and proved exceedingly attractive to Toplinsky, and the others thought that she was quite exquisite.

“You are earth men.” She turned imperiously to Toplinsky. “You are wondering how I am able to speak to you in your own language? It is simple. For years our scientists have been getting peculiar words out of the air, and recording them on their space records. For a long time they could make little out of the noises from space but in time they concluded that they were hearing the people on the great world around which our smaller planet revolves every twenty-eight days. Were they correct in their surmise?”

She looked inquiringly at Toplinsky. He nodded in the affirmative, and with the grace of a courtier.

“Ah, ha, it is so, your most gracious majesty. We are charmed to meet a lady of such distinction.”

Carza knitted her eyebrows slightly, and then smiled sweetly at the giant.

“So they put their intellects to work, and gradually worked out an understanding of things that you call earthly as well as an ability to talk in your language.”

“Wonderful! Wonderful!” Toplinsky added. “Did they also discover a way of sending to the earth?”

She shook her head.

“Our instruments, it seemed, are not of a character that will put us into direct communication. We can hear but not send. However I do not understand how you gained your liberty. I was told that you were bound hand and foot, and that my people only waited word from me to slay you.”

One of the copper leaders approached deferentially, dropped to his knees, and began to speak to her in an unknown tongue.

“So, so,” she mused when he had completed his explanation, “there were only two men and Moawha when you were left here as prisoners, and you have been hatching a man and woman.” She smiled artfully, and the smile was more disagreeable than a threat. “Some of your friends have been able to follow and have broken in to help you escape. Seize them!”

She thundered the command shrilly, and drew back to lean against the wall. The copper men, followed by the crickets, sprang forward giving the cricket chirp of command.

“Keep them off!” Epworth commanded harshly. “They must not undertake to touch us.”

“Must not,” sneered Queen Garza. “A bold word, Sir Earth Man. We shall see. Have at them, Noble Tauran.”

The copper men and the crickets rushed in a body. Epworth knocked down the leader with the butt of his gun, and Toplinsky, seizing a large cricket by its rear legs, swung the insect around his head, and charged, knocking the copper men and crickets around like marbles.

Queen Carza leaned negligently against the wall, and dropped her chin nonchalantly into the palm of her hand. These men had been reported to her to be great fighters, and she loved fighters. She watched with keen interest. Frequently she nodded her head as if well satisfied.

Joan could not understand this satisfaction. The crickets and the pigmy men were obviously unable to do harm to the three earthmen. But the queen was only waiting. When she discovered that her body guard was facing inevitable defeat she chirped through her teeth.

It was the musical chirp of the crickets, calling them to battle. They came, swarming through the door and surrounding Toplinsky and the two Americans like locusts. Billy, because of his small stature (he was only five five) went down quickly; Epworth fought aggressively for several moments but his long, fast and strenuous efforts in the cave without water had weakened him temporarily, and finally he gave way, his feet slipped, and a hundred crickets had him pinned to the floor.

“Ah, ha, ho, ho! The bantam fighter is down,” Toplinsky roared with a laugh that sounded like a fiend. “It is sad indeed. Some day we will renew that interesting contest for Lady Joan’s favor. At present however——”

He backed against the wall, and began to use his arms like a windmill, pushing the crickets and pigmies around like chaff. It seemed to the onlookers as if flesh and blood could not battle in this manner. With his pale blue eyes flashing fire, his long, shaggy hair whirled back over the crown of his head, and his heavy red beard twisting from right to left with each movement of his head, he looked like a fiend.

Epworth, Joan and Billy, and the girl called Moawha, by the queen, were bound and placed with their backs to the wall, and still Toplinsky fought. If his strength held out it seemed as if he would be able to stand off a nation of crickets.

“Hold!”

The command came from the queen, and was accompanied by a cricket chirp. Instantly her cohorts ceased fighting, and Toplinsky, smiling as if in the face of death, extended his hand, jerked a toga off of one of the pigmies, and wiped the blood from his forehead where he had been hit by a spear.

Pushing aside the crickets and soldiers Carza strode fearlessly up to the giant, and stopped to gaze into his face fascinated.

“You are a great fighter,” she said abruptly.

“I am,” Toplinsky agreed without modesty. “I am the greatest fighter you ever saw, or ever will see.”

“Bend your head,” she commanded.

With a smile that displayed his huge teeth disagreeably Toplinsky obeyed. The queen took the cloth from his hands, cleaned the blood from his face, and thrust the bloody rag into her waist band.

“I have been looking for a man of mighty valor—a man like you. Yes, you have been the search of my life. Come! Together we will go far. You will aid me in destroying my enemies, and increase my power over the whole world.”

“But how about me?” Toplinsky objected. “What do I get?”

“You will become the husband of the queen, and if I find that I love you as I think I shall, you will become the leader above me.”

Toplinsky picked her up in his left hand, kissed her, and put her back on the floor.

“It shall be as you say.”

“If you take that woman for your queen you must slay thousands of innocent people,” Moawha broke out passionately. “They are gentle, kind-hearted, and constantly warred upon by these abominable crickets—who eat them.”

Moawha also spoke in broken English but her words were not as clear as those pronounced by the queen.

“I shall have your feet toasted in that nice little stream of fire,” Carza said coldly, turning malevolently on Moawha. “You are not interested in this.”

Her black eyes were flashing fiercely as she spoke but they cleared instantly when she turned to Toplinsky.

“Yes, it pleases me. I shall make you king.”

“Ho, comrades!” Toplinsky called out to the little men. “See that these Americans do not escape. Also look after this strange little woman. Presently we shall slay the two men but not the earth woman. Ha! ha!”

He laughed uproariously.

“Be sure to guard Moawha well,” the queen commanded, recognizing as official the authority Toplinsky was grasping. “She shall die during the crowning ceremonies.”