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Astounding Stories of Super-Science, August 1930
·
Various
157
And,
holding
her
hand
tightly,
he
rose
to
his
feet
and
strode
boldly
down
the
inner
slope
of
the
vast
crater.
CHAPTER
XIV
The
Crater
Gnomes
It
seemed
to
Sarka,
as
he
moved
down
the
inner
slope
of
the
crater,
that
the
cubes
were
somehow
making
sport
of
him,
laughing
at
him,
though
no
hint
of
laughter
or
anything
resembling
laughter
emanated
from
them.
But,
shutting
his
lips
grimly,
holding
fast
to
Jaska's
hand,
he
proceeded
on,
reached
the
lower
portion
of
the
inner
slope,
where
it
dropped
off
into
a
seeming
black
abyss,
and
dropped,
keeping
to
a
safe
speed
because
of
the
fact
that
both
he
and
Jaska
were
attired
for
movement
in
the
air--though
their
manner
of
aerial
transportation
could
scarcely
be
called
flying.
The
anti-gravitational
ovoids
simply
rendered
ineffectual
the
law
of
gravity.
Down
they
dropped,
endlessly
it
seemed,
while
all
about
them,
growing
gradually,
a
bluish
glow
began
to
make
itself
manifest.
Sarka
turned
and
looked
at
the
face
of
Jaska
and
noted
that
it--all
her
being--was
glowing
with
this
strange
radiance.
He
smiled
at
her,
and
she
smiled
back.
Looking
down
now,
to
what
seemed
still
a
vast
depth,
they
could
see
figures
moving,
tiny,
almost
infinitesimal,
about
a
great
circular
cone,
out
of
the
depths
of
which
came
that
strange
bluish
column
whose
outer
tip
touched
the
Earth.
Some
inner
sense
warned
Sarka
not
to
touch
that
column,
or
to
permit
Jaska
to
do
so.
They
dropped
down
beside
it,
while
Sarka,
for
no
reason
that
he
could
assign,
once
more
took
his
ray
director
in
his
free
hand
and
held
it
in
readiness.
It
seemed
so
tiny
and
futile--so
foolish
for
two
people,
one
of
them
a
woman--to
go
into
the
very
heart
of
an
alien
world,
against
an
unknown
enemy,
armed
with
such
a
tiny
weapon.
Two
people
against
unguessed
myriads,
whose
very
nature
was
an
enigma,
even
to
Sarka.
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