The Gate to Xoran - Basil Eugene Wells

Listen Ad Free https://www.solgoodmedia.com - Listen to hundreds of audiobooks, thousands of short stories, and ambient sounds all ad free!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
That gate to Zoran by hal k Wells. He sat
in a small, half darkened booth well over in the
corner the man with the strangely glowing blue green eyes.
The booth was one of a score that circled the
walls of the Maori Hut, a popular nightclub in the
San Fernando Valley, some five miles over the hills from Hollywood.
It was nearly midnight. Half a dozen couples danced lazily

(00:22):
in the central dancing space. Other couples remained tete a
tete in the secluded booths. In the entire room, only
two men were dining alone. One was a slender, gray
haired little man with the weirdly glowing eyes. The other
was Blair Gordon, a highly successful young attorney of Los Angeles.
Both men had the unmistakable air of waiting for someone.

(00:43):
Blair Gordon's college days were not so far distant that
he had yet lost any of the splendid physique that
had made him in an All American tackle. In any
physical combat with the slight, gray haired stranger, or knew
that he should be able to break the other in
two with one hand. Yet, as he studied the stranger
from behind the palms that screened his own booth. Gordon
was amazed to find himself slowly being overcome by an

(01:04):
emotion of dread so intense that it verged upon sheer fear.
Was something indescribably alien, an utterly sinister, in that dimly
seen figure in the corner booth. The faint, eerie light
that gluedened the stranger's deep set eyes was not the
lambent flame seen in the chatoyant orbs of some night
prowling jungle beast. Rather, it was a blue green glow

(01:26):
of phosphorescent witch light that flickers and dances in the
night mists of streaming tropical swamps. The stranger's face was
as classically perfect in its rugged outline as that of
a Roman war god. Yet those perfect features seemed utterly lifeless.
In the twenty minutes that he had been intently watching

(01:47):
the stranger, Gordon would have sworn that the other's face
had not moved by so much of the twitch of
an eyelash. Then a new couple entered the Maori Hut,
and Gordon promptly forgot all thought of the puzzlingly alien
figure in the corner. The new arrivals were a vibrant,
beautiful blonde girl and a plump, sallow faced man in
the early forties. The girl was Leah Keith, Hollowed's latest

(02:11):
screen sensation. The man was Dave Redding, her director, A
waiter seated Lyda and her escort in a booth directly
across the room from that of Gordon. It was a
maneuver for which Gordon had tipped lavishly When he first
came to the hut. A week ago, Leah Keith's engagement
to Blair Gordon had been abruptly ended by a trivial
little quarrel that two volatile temperaments had fanned into flames,

(02:33):
which apparently made reconciliation impossible. A miserably lonely week had
finally ended in Gordon's present trip to the Maori Hut.
He knew that Leah often came there, and he had
an overwhelming longing to at least see her again, even
though his pride forced him to remain unseen. Now, as
he stared gloomily at Leah through the palms that effectively

(02:54):
screened his own booth, Gordon heartily regretted they had ever
come the sight of Leah's clear, fresh beauty merely made
him realize what a fully had been to let that
ridiculous little quarrel come between them. Then, with a sudden,
tingling thrill, Gordon realized that he was not the only
one in the room who was interested in Leah and
her escort. Over in the half darkened corner booth, the

(03:14):
eerie stranger was staring at the girl with an intentness
that made his weird eyes glow like miniature pools of
shimmering blue green fire. Again, Gordon felt that vague impression
of dread, as though he were in the presence of
something utterly alien to all human experience. Gordon turned his
gaze back to Leah and caught his breast sharply in
sudden amaze. The necklace about Leah's throat was beginning to

(03:37):
glow with the same uncanny blue green light that shone
in the stranger's eyes. Faint yet unmistakable. The shimmering radiance
pulse from the necklace in an aura of nameless evil.
And with the coming of that aura of weird lighted
her throat. A strange chance was swiftly sweeping over Leah.
She sat there now as rigidly motionless as some exquisite

(03:59):
statue of ivory and jet. Gordon stared at her in
stark bewilderment. He knew the history of Leah's necklace was
merely an oddity and nothing more, a freak piece of
costume jewelry made from fragments of an Arizona meteorite. Leah
had warned the necklace a dozen times before, without any
trace of the weird phenomena that were now occurring. Dancers

(04:21):
again thronged to the floorid to the blaring jazz of
the Negro Orchestra. While Gordon was still trying to force
his whirling brain into a decision. He was certain that
Leah was in deadly peril of some kind, Yet the
nature of that peril was too bizarre for his mind
to imagine. Then the stranger with the glowing eyes took
matters into his own hands. He left his booth and
began threading his way through the dancers towards Leah. As

(04:44):
he watched the progress of that slight, great hair figure,
Gordon refused to believe the evidence of his own eyes.
The thing was too utterly absurd. Yet Gordon was positive
that the strong oak floor of the dancing space was
visibly swaying and creaking beneath the stranger's mincing tread. The
stranger paused at Lea's booth only long enough to utter

(05:06):
a brief, low voiced command. Then Leah, still in the
grip of that strange trance, rose obediently from her seat
to accompany him. Dave Redding rose angrily to intercept her.
The stranger seemed to barely brush the irate director with
his fingertips, yet writing real back as though struck by
a pile driver. Lee and the stranger started for the door.

(05:28):
Reading scrambled to his feet again and hurried after them.
It was then that Gordon finally shook off the stupor
of utter bewilderment that had held him. Springing from his booth,
he rushed after the trio. The dancers in his way
delayed Gordon momentarily, Lea and the stranger were already gone.
When he reached the door. The narrow little entrance hallway
to the hut was deserted save for a figure. Sprawled

(05:50):
there on the floor near the outer door was the
body of Dad Reading. Gordon shuddered as he glanced briefly
down at the huddled figure. A single mighty blow from
some un own weapon had crumpled the director's entire face
in like the shattered shell of a broken egg. Gordon
charged out through the outer door just as a heavy
sedan came careening out of the parking lot. He had

(06:12):
a flashing glimpse of Leah and the Stranger in the
front seat of the big car. Gordon raced for his
own machine, a powerful, low slung roadster. A single vicious
jab at the starting button, and the big motor leaped
into roaring life. Gordon shot out from the parking lot
onto the main bolevard. One hundred yards away. The sedan

(06:32):
was fleeing toward Hollywood. Gordon tramped hard on the accelerator.
His engine snarved with the unloosed fury of a hundred horsepower.
The gap between the two cars swiftly lessened. Then the
stranger seemed to become aware for the first time that
it was being followed. The next second, the big sedan
accelerated with the hurtling speed of a flying bullet. Gordon

(06:54):
sent his own foot nearly to the floor. The roadster
jumped to eighty miles an hour the sedan continued to
leave it remorselessly behind. The two cars started up the
northern slope of the Cahuenga Pass, the sedan nearly two
hundred yards ahead and gaining all the time. Gordon wondered
briefly if they were to flash down the other side

(07:15):
of the pass and on into Hollywood at their present
matt speed. Then at the summit of the pass, the
sedan swerved abruptly to the right and fled west along
the Moullholland Highway. Gordon's tires screamed as he swerved the
roadster in hot pursuit. The dark, winding Mountain Highway was
nearly deserted at that hour of the night, save for

(07:37):
an occasional auto a bill that swerred frantically to the
side of the road to dodge the roaring onslaught of
the racing cars, Gordon and the stranger had the road
to themselves. The stranger seemed to no longer be trying
to leave his pursuer hopelessly behind. He allowed Gordon to
come within one hundred yards of him, but that was
as near as Gordon could get in spite of the

(07:57):
roadsters' best efforts. Half a dozen times, Gordon trod savagely
upon his accelerator in a desperate attempt to close the gap,
but each time the sedan fled with the swift grace
of a scudding phantom. Finally, Gordon had to content himself
with merely keeping his distance behind the glowing red tail
light of the car ahead. It passed Laurel Canyon, and

(08:18):
still the big sedan bored onto the west, and finally,
half a dozen miles beyond the Laurel Canyon, the stranger
abruptly left the main highway and starred up a narrow
private road the crest of one of the lonely hills.
Gordon slowly gained in the next two miles. When the
road ended in a winding gravel driveway into the grounds
of woods, apparently a private estate, the roadster was scarcely

(08:40):
a dozen yards behind the stranger's feature. As he stood there,
stiffly erect in the vivid glare of the roadster's headlight,
were still as devoid of all expression as ever, the
only things that really seemed alive in that mask of
a face were the two eyes, glowing eerie blue green,
fire like twin entities of alien evil. Gordon wasted no

(09:01):
time in verbal sparring emotionally briefly to leachis rigid form
in the front seat of the sedan. Miss Keith is
returning to Hollywood with me, he said curtly, Will you
let her go peacefully? Or shall I? He left the
question unfinished, but its threat was obvious. Or shall you
do what? Asked the stranger quietly. There was an oddly

(09:22):
metallic ring in his low even tones. His words were
so precisely clipped that they suggested some origin more mechanical
than human. Or Shall I take miss Keith with me
by force? Gordon flared angrily. You can try to take
the lady by force if you wish. There was an
unmistakable jeering note in the metallic tones. Le taunt was

(09:47):
the last thing needed to unleash Gordon's volatile temper. He
stepped forward and swung a hard left hook for that
expressionless mask of a face, but the blow never landed.
The stranger dodged with uncanny swiftness. His answering gesture seemed
merely the gentlest possible push with an outstretched hand. Yet
Gordon was sent reeling backward a full dozen steps by

(10:09):
the terrible force of that apparently gentle blow. Recovering himself,
Gordon grimly returned to the attack. The stranger again flung
out one hand in contemptuous gesture which one would brush
away a tremblesome fly, But this time Gordon was more cautious.
He neatly dodged the stranger's blow and then swung a
vicious right squarely for his adversary's unprotected jaw. The blue

(10:35):
smashed solidly home, with all of Gordon's way behind it.
The stranger's jaw buckled and gaped beneath that shattering impact,
then abruptly, his entire face crumpled into distorted room. Gordon
staggered back a step in sheer horror at the gruesome
result of his blow. The stranger flung a hand up
to his shattered features. When his hand came away again,
the whole face came away with it. Gordon had one

(10:59):
horror stricken glimpse of a featureless blob of revery bluish
gray flesh in which fiendish eyes of green blue fire
blazed in malignant fury. Then the stranger fumbled at his collar,
ripping the linen swiftly away. Something lashed out from beneath
his throat a lowsome, snakelike object, slender and forked at
the end. One ghastly moment, as the writhing tentacle swung

(11:23):
into line with him, Gordon saw its forked ends glow
strange fire, one a vivid blue, the other a sparkling green.
Then the world was abruptly blotted out for Blair Gordon.
Consciousness returned to Gordon as swiftly and painlessly as it

(11:44):
had left him. For a moment, he blinked stupidly in
a dazed effort to comprehend the incredible scene before him.
It was seated in a chair over near the wall
of a large room that was flooded with livid red
light from a single globe overhead. Beside it, said Leah Keith,
also staring with dazed eyes in an effort to comprehend
her surroundings. Directly in front of them stood a figure

(12:07):
of stark nightmare horror. The weirdly glowing eyes identified the
figures that of the stranger at the Maori Hut, But
there every point of resemblance ceased. Only the cleverest of
facial mask and body patting could have ever enabled this
monstrosity to pass unnoticed in a world of normal human beings.

(12:27):
Now that his disguise was completely stripped away, his slight
frame was revealed as a grotesque parody of that of
a human being, with arms and legs like pipe stems,
a bald oval head that merged with necklace rigidity directly
into a heavy shouldered body that tapered onto an almost
wasp like slenderness at the waist. It was naked, safe
for a cloying cloth of some metallic fabric. His bluish

(12:50):
gray skin had a dull, oily sheen strangely suggested a
fine grain, flexible metal. The creature's face was hideously unlike anything.
Beneath the glowing eyes was a small circular mouth orifice
with a cluster of gill like appendages on either side
of it. Patches of lighter colored skin on either side
of the head seemed to serve as ears. From a

(13:12):
point just under the head, where the throat of a
human being would have been dangled a foot and a
half long tentacle whose forked tip had sent Gordon into oblivion.
Behind the creature, Gordon was dimly aware of a maze
of complicated and utterly unfamiliar apparatus ranged along the opposite wall,
giving the room appearance of being a laboratory of some kind.
Gordon's obvious bewilderment seemed to amuse the bluish gray monstrosity.

(13:35):
May I introduce myself, he asked, with a mocking note
in his metallic voice. I am Arlock of Zoron. I
am an explorer of space, and more particularly an opener
of gates. My home is upon Zoron, which is one
of the eleven major planets that circle about the giant,
blue white Sun. The ire astrologers called Rigel. I'm here
to open the gate between your world and mine. Gordon

(13:59):
reached a re assuring hand over the leah. All memory
of their coral was obliterated. In the face of their
present peril, he filter slender fingers twined firmly with his.
The warm contact gave them both new courage. We of
Zoran need your planet and intend to take possession of it.
Our lot continued, But the vast distance which separates Rigel

(14:20):
from your solar system makes it impractical to transport any
considerable number of our people here in space cars. For
though our space cars travel with practically the speed of light.
It requires over five hundred and forty years for them
to cross that great foid. So I was sent as
a lone pioneer to your Earth to do the work
necessary here in order to open the gate that will

(14:41):
enable zorand across the barrier in less than a minute
of your time. That gate is one through the fourth dimension.
For Zoran and your planet in a four dimensional universe
are almost touching each other in spite of the great
distance separating them. In a three dimensional universe, we have
Zoron being three dimensional creatures like you or Earthlings cannot

(15:01):
exist on a four dimensional plane, but we can, by
the use of the apparatus, to open a gate, pass
through a thin sector of the fourth dimension and emerge
in a far distant part of our three dimensional universe.
The situation of our two worlds our Lot continued, is
somewhat like that of two dots on opposite ends of
the long strip of paper that is curved almost into

(15:23):
a circle. To two dimensional beings capable only of realizing
and traveling along the two dimensions of the paper itself,
those dots might be many feet apart, yet in the
three dimension, straight across free space, they might be separated
by only the thousandth part of an inch. In order
to take that short cut across the third dimension, the

(15:43):
two dimensional creatures of the paper would have only to
transform a small strip of the intervening space into a
two dimensional surface like their paper. They could do this,
of course, by the use of proper vibration creating machinery.
For all things in a material universe are merely a
matter of vibration. We have Zoran planned across the barrier
of the fourth dimension by creating a narrow strip of

(16:04):
vibrations powerful enough to exactly match and nullify those of
the fourth dimension itself. The result will be that this
narrow strip will temporarily become an area of three dimensions only,
an area over which we can safely pass from our
world to years. Our lock indicated one of the pieces

(16:24):
of apparatus along the opposite wall of the room. It
was an intricate arrangement of finely wound coils with wires
leading to scores of needle like points which constantly shimmered
and crackled with tiny blue white flames. That cables ran
to a bank of concave reflectors of some gleaming grayish material.
There is the apparatus which will supply the enormous power

(16:45):
necessary to nullify the vibrations of the fourth dimensional barrier.
Our lock explained, is a condenser, an adapter of the
cosmic force that you called a milliken race, and Zoran
a similar apparatus is already set up and finished. But
the caate can only be opened by a simultaneous actions
from both sides of the barrier. That is why I

(17:05):
was sent on my long journey through space to do
the necessary work. Here I am now nearly finished. A
very few hours more we'll see the final opening of
the gate. Then the fighting hordes of Zoran can sweep
through the barrier and overwhelm your planet. When the gate
from Zorin to a new planet is first opened, Our
a lot continued. Our scientists always like to have at
least one pair of specimens of the new world's inhabitants

(17:28):
sent through to them for experimental use. So tonight, while
waiting for one of my final castings to cool, I
improve the time by making a brief rate upon the
place that you call the Maori Hut. The lady here
seemed an excellent type of your earthling women and a
meteoric iron in her necklace made a perfect focus for
electric hypnosis. Riskart was too inferior a specimen to Bee

(17:50):
value me, so it killed him when he attempted to interfere.
When you gave chase, I alured you on until I
could see whether you might be usable. You proved an
excellence specimen, so I merely stunned you. Very soon I
shall be ready to send the two of you through
the gate to our scientists. In Zoran, cold wave of
sheer horse wept over Gordon. It was impossible to doubt

(18:11):
the stark and deadly menace promised in the plan of
this grim visitor from an alien universe, a menace that
loomed not only for Gordon and Leah, but for the
teeming millions of a doomed and defenseless world. Let me
show you zoran Our Locke offered, Then you may be
better able to understand. He turned his back carelessly upon
his two captives and strode over the apparatus along the

(18:33):
opposite wall. Gordon longed to hurl himself upon the unprotected
back of the retreating Zoranian, but he knew that any
attempt of that kind would be suicidal. Ourlock's deadly tentacle
would strike him down before he was halfway across the room.
He searched his surroundings with desperate eyes for anything that
might serve as a weapon, and his pulse quickened with
a sudden hope. There on a small table near Leah

(18:56):
was the familiar bulk of a forty five caliber revolver,
loaded and ready for use. It was included in a
miscellaneous collection of other small earthly tools and objects that
Arlock had apparently collected for study. There was an excellent
chance that Lea might be able to secure the gun unobserved.
Gordon pressed her fingers in a swift attempest signaling, then
jerked his head ever so slightly toward the table. A

(19:18):
moment later, the quick answering pressure of Leah's fingers told
him that she had understood his message. From the corner
of his eye, Gordon saw Lea's other hand begin cautiously
groping behind her for the revolver. Then both Gordon and
Leah frozen sudden immobility as Arlock faced them again from
beside an apparatus slightly reminiscent of an earthly radio set
Arlock threw a switch, and a small bank of tubes

(19:40):
glowed pale green. A yard square plate, a bluish gray
metal on the wall above the apparatus glowed with milky fluorescence.
It is easy to penetrate the barrier with light waves,
Arlock explained. That is a gate that could be readily
opened from either side. It was through it that we
first discovered your earth, Arlock. Through rheostat on to more power.

(20:02):
The luminous plate cleared swiftly, and their earthlings is Zoran,
Arlock said, proudly. The and Gordon Gaspman sheer a maze
as the glowing plate became a veritable window into another world,
world of utter and alien terror. The livid light of
giant red sun blaced mercifully down on a landscape from
which every vestige of animal and plant life had apparently

(20:24):
been stripped. Naked rocks and barren soil stretched illimitedly to
the far horizon in a vast monotony of utter desolation.
Barlock twirled the knob of the ad apparatus, and another
scene flashed into view. And this scene great gleaming squares
and cones of metal, rows and towering clusters from the
starkly barren land. Words of creatures like Arlock swarmed in

(20:45):
and around the metal buildings. Giant machines, world countless wheels,
and strange tasks from a thousand great needle like projections
on the buildings spurted shimmering sheets of crackling flame, bathing
the entire scene in a whirling mist of fiery vapors.
Gordon realized dimly that he must be looking into one
of the cities of Zorian, but every detail of the

(21:06):
chaotic world of activity was too utterly unfamiliar to carry
any real significance to his bewildered brain. He was as
hopelessly overwhelmed as an African savage would be of transported
suddenly into the heart of Times Square, Burlock again twirled
the knob. The scene shifted, apparently to another planet. This
world was still alive, with rich virdue and swarming millions

(21:29):
of people strangely like those of Earth, but it was
a doomed world. The dreadgate to Zorin had already been opened. There,
legions of bluish Gray's Iranians were attacking the planet's inhabitants.
In the attack of those metallic hoasts was irresistible. The
slight bodies of those Zoranians seemed as impervious to bullets
and missiles as though armour plated. The frantic defense of

(21:51):
the beleaguered people of the doomed planet caused hardly a
casualty in the Zaranian ranks. The attacks of the Zaranians
was hideously effective. Clouds of dense yellow fog belched from
countless projectors in the hands of the bluish gray hosts,
and beneath that deadly miasma, all animal and plant life
on the dune planet was crumbling, dying, and rotting into

(22:13):
a liquid slime. Then even the slime was swiftly obliterated,
and the Geranians were left triumphant upon a world starkly desolate.
That was one of the minor planets in the swarm
that make up the Solar system of the Sun that
your astronomers call Canopus. Our lock explained, our first task
in conquering a world is the ridded of the unclean

(22:33):
surface scum of animal and plant life. When this noxis
surface mold is eliminated, the planet is then ready to
furnish a sustenance for Rhezeranians live directly upon the metallic
elements of the planet itself. Our bodies are of a
substance of which your scientists have never even dreamed, deathless, invincible,
living metal. Our Lock again twirled the control of the

(22:55):
apparatus and the scene was shifted back to the planet
of Zoran, this time to the interior. Was apparently a
vast laboratory. Here scores of his rany and scientists were
working upon captives who were pathetically like human beings of
Earth itself, working with lethal gases and deadly liquids as
human scientists might experiment upon noxious pests. But details of

(23:16):
the scene were so utterly revolting, the torches that were
being inflicted so starkly horrible, that Lee and Gordon sank
back in their chairs, sick and shaken. Barlock snapped off
a switch in the green blue light, and the tubes died.
That last scene was the laboratory to which I will
send you two presently, he said callously, as he started

(23:38):
back across the room toward them. Gordon lurched to his feet,
his brain a seething whirl of hate in which all
thought of caution was gone, and as he tensed his
muscles to hurl himself upon that grim monstrosity from the
bleak and desolate realm of Zoran. Then he felt Leah
tugging surreptitiously at his right hand. The next moment, the
bulk of something cold and hard his fingers. It was

(24:01):
the revolver. Lee had secured it while Arlock was busy
with this interdimensional televisor. Arloc was rapidly approaching them. Gordon
hoped against hope that the menace of the deadly tentacle
might be diverted for the fraction of a second necessary
for him to get in a crippling shot. Lea seemed
to divine his thought. She suddenly screamed hysterically and flung

(24:25):
herself on the floor, almost at Arlock's feet. Arlock stopped
in obvious wonder and bent overly. Gordon took instant advantage
of the Ziranian's diverted attention. He whipped the revolver from
behind him and fired point blank at Arlock's unprotected head.
The bullet struck squarely, but Arlock was not even staggered.

(24:47):
A tiny spot of the bluish gray skin upon his
oval skull gleamed faintly for a moment under the bullet's impact.
Then the heavy pellet of lead, as thoroughly flattened as
though it had struck the triple armor of a battle shipped, dropped,
spent and harmless, to the floor. Barlock straightened swiftly. For
the moment, he seemed to have no thought of retaliating

(25:09):
with his deadly tentacle. He merely stood there quite still,
with one thin arm thrown up to guard his glowing eyes.
Gordon sent the remainder of the revolver's bullet crashing home
as fast as his finger could press the trigger. At
that murderously short range, the smashing rain of lead should
have dropped a charging gorilla, But for all the effect

(25:32):
Gordon's shots had had upon the ziranium, his ammutation might
as well have been pellets of paper. Barlock's glossy hide
merely glowed momentarily in tiny patches as the bullet struck
and flat and harmlessly, And that was all his last
cartridge fired. Gordon flung the empty weapon squarely at the
blue monstrosity's hideous face. Arlock made no attempt to dodge.

(25:57):
The heavy revolver struck him high on the forehead and
bounded harmlessly to the floor. Arlock paid no more attention
to the blow than a man would do the casual
touch of a wind blown feather. Gordon desperately flung himself
forward upon the zaranium, one last mad effort to overwhelm him.
Arlock dodged Gordon's wild blows, then gently swept the earth

(26:17):
Man into the embrace of his thin arms. For one
helpless moment. Gordon since the incredible strength and adamantine hardness
of the Aranian slender figure, together with an overwhelming impression
of colossal weight in that deceptively slight body. Then Arloc
contemptuously flung Gordon away from him. As Gordon staggered backwards,

(26:37):
Arlock's tentacle lashed upward and leveled upon him. Its twin
lips again glowed brilliantly green and livid blue. Instantly, every
muscle on Gordon's body was paralyzed. He stood there as
rigid as a statue, his body completely deadened from the
neck down. Beside him stood Leah, also frozen motionless in
that same weird power earth thing. You are beginning to

(27:01):
try my patience, are Lock snapped? Can you not realize
that I am utterly invincible in any combat with you.
The living metal of my body weighs over sixteen hundred
pounds as you measure weight. The strength inherent in that
metal is sufficient to tear a hundred of your earthmen
too shreds. But I do not even have to touch

(27:22):
you to vanquish you. The electrical content of my bodily
structure is so infinitely superior to yours that with this
tentaical organ of mine, I can instantly short circuit the
feeble currents of your nerve impulses, and bring either paralysis
or death, as I choose. But enough of this, Our
lock broke off abruptly. My materials are now ready, and

(27:45):
it is time that I finished my work. I shall
put you out of my way for a few hours
until I am ready to send you through a gate
to the laboratories of Zoran. The green and blue fire
of the tentacle's tips flamed to dazzling brightness of Gordon's body,
swept swiftly over his brain. Black oblivion engulfed him. When

(28:10):
Gordon again recovered consciousness, he found that he was lying
on the floor of what was apparently a narrow hall
near the foot of a stairway. His hands were lashed
tightly behind him, and his feet and legs were so
firmly pinioned together that he could scarcely move beside him.
Lay Leah, also tightly bound. A short distance down the
hall was the closed door of Arlock's workroom, recognizable by

(28:33):
the thin line of red light gleaming beneath it. Moonlight
through a window at the rear of the hall made
objects around Gordon faintly clear. He looked at Lea and
saw tears glistening on her long lashes. Oh, Blair, I
was afraid you'd never waken again. The girl sobbed. I
thought our fiend had killed you. Her voice broke hysterically.

(28:55):
Steady darling, Gordon said, soothingly. We simply can't give up now,
you know, if that monstrosity ever opens, that a cursed
gate of us, our entire world is doomed. There must
be some way to stop him. We've got to find
that way and try it, even if it seems only
one forlorn chance in a million. Gordon shook his head

(29:18):
to cleared the numbness still lingering from the effect of
Arlock's tentacle. This raniance seemed unable to produce a paralysis
of any great duration with his weird natural weapon. Accordingly,
he had been forced to bind this captus like two
trusted fowls while he had returned to his labors. Lying
close together as they were, it was a comparatively easy

(29:39):
matter for them to get their bound hands within reach
of each other. But after fifteen minutes of vain work,
Gordon realized that any attempt of untying the ropes was useless.
Arlock's prodigious strength had drawn the knots so tight that
no human power could ever loosen them. Then Gordon suddenly
thought of one thing in his pockets that might help them.
It was a tiny cigarette li of the spring trigger type,

(30:02):
was in his vest pocket, completely out of reach of
his bound hands. But there was a way out of
that difficulty. Gordon and Leah twisted and rolled their bodies
like two contortionists until they succeeded in getting into such
a position that Leah was able to get her teeth
in the clod of the vest pocket's edge. A moment
of desperate tugging, and the fabric gave way. The lighter

(30:25):
dropped from the torn pocket to the floor, where Leah
retrieved it. Then they twisted their bodies back to back.
Leah managed to get the lighter flaming in her bound hands.
Gordon groped in an effort to guide the ropes on
his wrists over the tiny, flickering flame. Then there came
the faint, welcome odor of smoldering rope as the lighter's
tiny flame bit into the bonds. Gordon bit his lips

(30:48):
to suppress a cry of pain as the flame seered
into his skin as well. The flame bit deeper into
the rope, A single strand snapped, then another strand gave
away to Gordon. The process seemed endless as the flame
scorched rope and flesh alike a long minute of lancing
agony that seemed hours. Then Gordon could stand no more.

(31:10):
He tensed his muscles on one mighty agonized effort in
the torture of a flame. The weakened rope gave way
completely beneath that pain maddened lunge. Gordon's hands were free.
It was an easy matter now to use a lighter
to finish freeing himself and Leah. They made their way
swiftly back to the window at the rear of the hall,

(31:31):
it slid silently upward. A moment later they were out
in the brilliant moonlight. Free, they made their way around
to the front of the house. Behind the drawn shades
of one of the front rooms, an eerie glow of
red light marked the location of Arlock's work room. They
heard the occasional clink of tools inside the room as
his arany and diligently worked to complete his apparatus. They

(31:56):
crept stealthily up to where one of the French windows
of our's workrooms swung slightly ajar Through the narrow crevice,
they could see Arlock's grotesque back as he labored over
the complex assembly of apparatus against the wall. A heavy
stone flung through the window would probably wreck that delicate
mechanism completely. Yet, as the two watchers knew that such

(32:18):
a respite would be only a temporary one as long
as Arlock remained alive on this planet to build other
gates to Zoran, Earth's eventual doom was certain. Complete destruction
of Arlock himself was Earth's only hope of salvation. The
Zeraniums seemed to be nearing the end of his labors.
He left the apparatus momentarily and walked over to a

(32:40):
work bench, where he picked up a slender rod like tool.
Dotting a heavy glove to shield his left hand, he
selected a small plate of bluish gray metal, then pressed
a switch in the handle of the tool. In his
right hand. A blade of blinding white flame, seemingly as
solid as a blade of metal, spurted for the length

(33:01):
of a foot from the tool's tip. Arlock began cutting
the plate with the flame, the blade shearing through the
heavy metal as easily as a hot knife shears through butter.
The sight brought a sudden surge of exultant hope to Gordon.
He swiftly drew Lea away from the window, far enough
to decide that their low voiced conversation could not be

(33:21):
heard from inside the workroom. Leah theres our one chance,
he explained, excitedly, that Blue Fiend is vulnerable, and that
flame tool of his is the weapon to reach his vulnerability.
Did you notice how careful he was to shield his
other hand with a glove before he turned the tool on.
He can be hurt by that blade of flame, and

(33:43):
probably hurt badly. Leah nodded in quick understanding, if I
could lure him out of the room for just a moment,
you could slip into the window and get that flame
tool Blair, She suggested eagerly. That might work. Gordon agreed reluctantly.
But Leah, don't run any more risk than you absolutely
have to. He picked up a small rock. Here, take

(34:05):
this with you. Open the door into the hall, and
attract Arlock's attention by throwing the rock at his precious apparatus.
Then the minute he sees you try to escape out
through the hall again, he'll leave his work to follow you.
When he returns to his rookroom, I'll be in there
waiting for him, and I'll be waiting with a weapon
that can stab through even that armored, plated height of his.

(34:28):
They separated, Leah to enter the house, Gordon to return
to the window. Arlock was back over in front of
his apparatus, fitting into place the piece of metal he
had just cut. The flame tool, its switched now turned off,
was still on the work bench. Gordon's heart pounded with
excitement as he crouched there with his eyes fixed upon
the closed hall door. The minute seemed to drag interminably,

(34:52):
then suddenly Gordon's muscles tensed the knob of the hall door.
It turned ever so slightly. Leah was at her post.
The next moment, the door was flung open with a
violence that sent it slamming back against the wall. The
slender figure of Lea stood framed in the opening, her
dark eyes blazing as she flung one hand up to

(35:12):
hurl or missile. Arlock whirled just as Lea threw the
rock straight at the intricate gate opening apparatus with the
speed of thought. The Zaranium flung his own body over
to shield his fragile instruments. The rock thuddered harmlessly against
his metallic chest. Then Arlock's tentacle flung out like a
striking cobra, its forked tip flaming blue and green fire

(35:34):
as it focused upon the open door. But Leah was
already gone. Gordon heard her flying footsteps as she raced
down the hall. Arlock promptly sped after her and swift pursuit.
As Arlock passed through the door in the hall, Gordon
flung himself into the room and sped straight for the
work bench. He snatched the flame tool up, then darted

(35:57):
over the wall by the door. He was not a
second too soon. The heavy tread of Arlock's return was
already audible in the hall just outside. Gordon prepared to
stick everything upon this one slim chance of disabling that
fearful tentacle before Arlock could bring it into action. He
pressed the tiny switch and the flame tool's handle just
as Arlock came through the door. Arlock, startled by the

(36:21):
glare the flame tool's blazing blade, worled toward Gordon, but
too late. That thin, searing shaft of vivid flame had
already struck squarely at the base of the zaranians tentacle.
A seething spray of hissing sparks marked the place where
the flame bit deeply home. Arlock screamed a ghastly metallic

(36:44):
note of anguish, like nothing human. The Zaranian's powerful hands
clutched at Gordon, but he leaped lightly backward out of
their leech. Then Gordon again attacked the flame tools, shining
blade licking in and out like a rapier. The seething

(37:04):
flame swept across one of Arlock's arms, and the Ziranian winced,
and the blade stepped swiftly at Arlock's waist. Are like
half doubled as he flinched back, Gordon shifted his aim
with lightning speed and sent the blade of flame lashing
in one accurate, terrible stroke that caught Arlock squarely in
the eyes. Again. Arlock screamed an intolerable agony as that

(37:28):
tearing flame darkened forever his glowing eyes. In berserker fury,
the tortured geranium charged blindly toward Gordon. Gordon rarely dodged
to one side. Arlock, sightless and with his tentacle crippled,
still had enough power in that mighty metallic body of
his to tear a hundred earthmen to pieces. Gordon stung

(37:52):
Arlock's shoulder with the flame, then desperately leaped to one side,
just in time to dodge a flailing blow that would
have made pulp of his body had it landed. Arlock
went stark wild in his frenzied efforts to come to
grips with his unseen adversary. Furniture crashed and splintered to
kindlingwood beneath his threshing feet. Even the stout walls of

(38:15):
the room shivered and cracked as the incredible weight of
Arlock's body carmed against them. Gordon circled lithely around the
crippled blue monstrosity, like a timberwolf circling a wounded moose.
He began concentrating his attack upon Arloc's left leg, half
a dozen deep slashes with the searing flame. Then suddenly

(38:36):
the thin leg crumpled and broke. Arlock crashed helplessly to
the floor. Gordon was now able to shift his attack
to Arlock's head, Dodging the blindly flailing arms of the ziranium,
He stabbed again and again that oval shaped skull. The
searing thrust began to have their effects. Arlock's convulsive movements

(38:59):
became slow and weaker. Gordon sent the flame stabbing in
a long final thrust in an attempt to pierce through
that alien metal brain. With startling suddenness, the flame burned
its way home to some unknown center of life force
in the oval skull. There was a brief but appalling

(39:20):
gush of bright purple flame from Arlock's eye sockets and
mouth orifice. Then his twitching body stiffened. His bluish gray
high darkened with incredible swiftness to a dull black. Arlock
was dead. Gordon sickened at the grizzly ending of the battle,
snapped off the flame tool and turned to search for Leah.

(39:42):
He found her already standing in the hall door, alive
and unhurt. I escaped through the window at the end
of the hall, she explained. Arlock quit following me as
soon as he saw that you too were gone from
where he had left us. Tide, she shuddered as she
looked down at his Ranian's maingled body. I saw most
of your fight with him, Blair. It was terrible, awful,

(40:05):
But Blair, we've won, yes, and now we'll make sure
the fruits of our victory, Gordon said, grimly, starting over
toward the gate opening apparatus with the flame tool in
his hand. At very few minutes, work with the sharing
blade of the flame reduced the intricate apparatus to a
mirrored tangle pile of twisted metal. Barlock gate opener of

(40:29):
Zoran was dead, and the gate to that grim planet
was now irrevocably closed. Blair, do you feel it too,
that eerie feeling of countless eyes still watching us from Zoran?
There was frank Ah and Leah's half whispered question, you know,
Arlock said that they had watched us for centuries from
their side of the barrier. I'm sure they're watching us now.

(40:53):
Will they send another opener of gates to take up
the work where Arlock failed? Gordon took Leah into his arms.
I don't know, dear, he admitted gravely. They may send
another messenger, but I doubt it. This world of ours
has had its warning, and it will heed it. The
watchers on Zoran must know that in the five hundred
and forty years it would take their next messenger to

(41:14):
get here, the Earth will have had more than enough
time to prepare an adequate defense for even Joran's menace.
I doubt if there will ever again be an attempt
to me to open the gate to Zoran. End of
the Gate to Zoran.