Suddenly Townshend said, "Say, we might get to know what's in these little balls—and the big one too for that matter—by X-ray. If it will penetrate anilum, and there's no reason why not, we might be able to get a photograph of what's going on. Guess I'll go to work on that angle."
He departed actively, but in two minutes he returned suddenly. His face, usually so ruddy, had gone pale.
"Come and take a look . . ." he whispered.
CHAPTER III
More Death Traps
AT the words Cliff stopped pacing and raised a haggard face. He moved immediately with the others at his side. Outside the cavern entrance leading to the elevator shaft they stopped appalled. The workmen who had left, and Benson, were lying stretched motionless in a jumble of human figures not ten yards from the elevator.
His heart pounding, Cliff went warily forward in case the same fate overtook him. Nothing happened, however . . .
He needed only to look at Benson's ashy, contorted visage to know the condition of the others. They were dead, every man of them. Cliff turned bitter eyes up to the walls and ceilings, and though he could see nothing unusual he could guess the cause of the annihilation. From somewhere a clockwork sniping ray had done its deadly work.[1]
"We'll go up and fetch the explosives down for ourselves," he stated quietly. "Only way to be rid of the bodies is to incinerate them. Seems brutal, but there's no time for sentiment . . . We'll be next if we don't act fast. Let's go."
The six of them, all that remained except the radio operator above, moved charily toward the elevator and clambered inside. Cliff threw the switches, then as the cage began to rise, he gave a sudden shout. A blinding ray winked momentarily from the opposite wall of the cavern. A resonant twang caused him to glance up just in time to see the steel hawser split through four of its six strands.
"Look out!" he yelled hoarsely, and jammed the switch out of contact. The next instant the remaining strands parted and the cage dropped down the hundred foot length to the floor. Thanks to the lesser gravity the impact was lessened slightly, but just the same it was mighty enough to smash the bottom of the cage through.
Edwards and Saunders vanished in a smother of splintering timber and crumbling elevator walls. Cliff found himself thrown clear with Val on top of him. Townshend, Morton, and Gilby scrambled out with nothing worse than cuts and bruises.
Immediately they turned to help their buried colleagues, hurling aside timber and metal supports. Half way through the task Cliff called a halt.
"No use, boys; we're only wasting time. Take a look . . ."
He indicated the two hands unearthed from the wreckage. There were no indications of pulse beats on either wrist.
Cliff switched on his wrist radio and hooked the tiny phone in his ear. He half expected a dead silence from Sparks as he gave the call signal, but Sparks' voice answered at once.
- ↑ It is evident that in different parts of this underworld there were switches which, either when blocked by photoelectric cell system or else when trodden on, completed a circuit which hit directly on the person or object causing the circuit, just as antiaircraft guns automatically sight and hit an enemy plane. As regards the elevator, Benson and his men obviously completed another circuit with their deaths which was intercepted in the elevator. A system of progressive circuits, each one causing more to come into operation.—Ed.
