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289
Astounding Stories of Super-Science, August 1930
·
Various
39
One
by
one,
Nat
last,
the
crew
filed
down
the
ladder
onto
the
landing-stage,
gasping
and
choking
in
the
rarefied
air
that
lay
like
a
blanket
at
the
bottom
of
the
crater.
And
the
reason
for
this
was
only
too
apparent
to
Nat
as
soon
as
he
was
on
the
level
stage.
Overhead,
at
an
altitude
of
about
a
mile,
the
black
ship
hung,
and
from
its
bow
a
stupendous
searchlight
played
to
and
fro
over
the
bottom
of
the
crater,
making
it
as
light
as
day.
And
where
had
been
the
mining
machinery,
the
great
buildings
that
had
housed
convicts
and
Moon
people,
and
the
huge
edifice
that
contained
the
pumping
station,
there
was--nothing.
The
devilish
ray
of
Axelson
had
not
merely
destroyed
them,
it
had
obliterated
all
traces
of
them,
and
the
crew
of
the
liner
were
breathing
the
remnants
of
the
atmosphere
that
still
lay
at
the
bottom
of
the
Crater
of
Pytho.
But
beside
the
twin
landing-stages,
constructed
by
the
World
Federation,
another
building
arose,
with
an
open
front.
And
that
front
was
a
huge
mirror,
now
scintillating
under
the
searchlight
from
the
black
ship.
"That's
it,
Sir!"
shouted
Brent.
"That's
what?"
snapped
Nat.
"The
deflecting
mirror
I
was
speaking
of.
That's
what
deflected
the
ray
that
wiped
out
China.
The
ray
didn't
come
from
the
Moon.
And
that's
the
mirror
that
deflects
the
teleradio
waves,
the
super-Hertzian
rays
that
carry
the
sound."
Nat
did
not
answer.
Sick
at
heart
at
the
failure
of
his
mission,
he
was
watching
the
swarm
of
Moon
men
who
were
at
work
upon
the
landing-stage,
turning
the
steel
clamps
and
regulating
the
mechanism
that
controlled
the
apparatus.
Dwarfed,
apish
creature,
with
tiny
limbs,
and
chests
that
stood
out
like
barrels,
they
bustled
about,
chattering
in
shrill
voices
that
seemed
like
the
piping
of
birds.
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