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289
Astounding Stories of Super-Science, August 1930
·
Various
42
Nat
had
cried
out
in
horror
at
the
sight,
and
tried
to
tear
himself
free
from
the
grasp
of
the
Moon
dwarfs
who
held
him.
So
had
the
rest.
Never
was
struggle
so
futile.
Despite
their
short
arms
and
legs,
the
Moon
dwarfs
held
them
in
an
unshakable
grip,
chattering
and
squealing
as
they
compressed
them
against
their
barrel-like
chests
until
the
breath
was
all
but
crushed
out
of
their
bodies.
"Devil!"
cried
Nat
furiously,
as
Axelson
came
up
to
him.
"Why
don't
you
kill
us,
too?"
And
he
hurled
furious
taunts
and
abuse
at
him,
in
the
hope
of
goading
him
into
making
the
same
comparatively
merciless
end
of
his
prisoners.
Axelson
looked
at
him
calmly,
but
made
no
reply.
He
looked
at
Madge
again,
and
his
features
were
convulsed
with
some
emotion
that
gave
him
the
aspect
of
a
fiend.
And
then
only
did
Nat
realize
that
it
was
Madge
who
was
responsible
for
the
Black
Caesar's
madness.
Axelson
spoke
again,
and
the
prisoners
were
hustled
up
the
ladder
and
on
board
the
black
vessel.
"The
Kommandant-Kommissar
will
see
you!"
The
door
of
their
prison
had
opened,
letting
in
a
shaft
of
light,
and
disclosing
one
of
the
graybeards,
who
stood
there,
pointing
at
Nat.
"The--who?"
Nat
demanded.
"The
Kommandant-Kommissar,
Comrade
Axelson,"
snarled
the
graybeard.
Nat
knew
what
that
strange
jargon
meant.
He
had
read
books
about
the
political
sect
known
as
Socialists
who
flourished
in
the
Nineteenth
and
Twentieth
Centuries,
and,
indeed,
were
even
yet
not
everywhere
extinct.
And
with
that
a
flash
of
intuition
explained
the
presence
of
these
old
men
on
board.
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