Tarrano the Conqueror

n the

ling, no windows, and but one small, heavy door thro

de exclaimed. "Now

ied. "That girl, Ahl

r, sometimes one recognizes it least; with Ahla in this house

e in the corridor. Am I talking wild? Perhaps I am. But she seemed

began

rk Sixty, I felt that a Venus man had done it. These other murde

untry," El

n assassination on Mars, and three here on Earth-all simultaneously. It's one

. "I'll see if the room

sulator is intact. I set the a

e is

be. I told her we would eat in an

a little overwrought-though with reason, no doubt. Sit down

hecked me. "I have much to say, Jac. I think I understand these events, perhaps bet

emembrance; a

rebellion in the Cold Country. They would not let the Cold Country people into

?" I asked. "They were trying to k

ld Country is a poor place to live in-and on a whole its inhabitants are miserable people. Villainous, too, I should say. The Centr

Country is governed by it-or was until tonight. Thus, you see, we have been in the position of having to receiv

terially. Last week, as you also know, in Triple Conference, our three races decided to allow at each I

ff its undesirables on us-knows it is in the wrong. And fundamentally,

ve spoken, but h

. Mars was drawn into the affair. To extricate ourselves, we offered to admit-under temporary guard-all Venus immigrants who

aded, in Mars,"

uggestion with a law excluding Venus immigrants entirely. It was this, I think, that pre

rrano-"

nde. "He was at that time a lower official in the

truth. Tarrano, leading the Cold Country, has risen to open rebel

t this evening

h reports would only injure the Central State's inter-planetary position. That's obvious, isn't it? Then tonight, when things were desperate, the Cen

ded. "And what abo

oubt. For revenge, because of the Ma

"At least, not on that line. They warned you personall

lm-I knew he did not want unduly to alarm Elza; but I coul

ntral State, I told them there what I hoped to accomplish. There were no grave inter-planetary proble

ntry living in their household! Truly, human

hat could easily happen-prisoners captured from Tarrano's forces, for

as the only one in the room who did not know i

His face went even more so

ipated what has now befallen. Danger specifically

ar him say that; and to see

-you are young. Yet you are w

would have told him how

t, rather than a question. "I should say, mine and Geor

cians. It was he who discovered the light vibrations which had banished forever the drea

ls every bacillus harmful to man. There is nothing new in the idea-I have been working at it all my life. Sunlight! Altered and modified in several particul

ly recognize the tiny purplish, horned rods which cause what we popularly call cancer-just would not die. No form of light or other vibration I could devise, seemed to hu

jest, but his face rema

ve learned how to kill, or at least arrest, the bacillus of old age. It is a bacillus, you know. We grow old because every day we live beyond the age of thir

wly, the import of

mea

ut we can keep your body from aging. Not permanently, doubtless-but with the span of

he existence of which Tarr

was quietly voi

covery as this. That he would withhold it from mankind, for the benefit of his own race, s

of warning from the Central State. "Your

rthern Siberia-isolated from people so far as poss

the first time

ther, I called Robins a while ago. He said everything was

s-descriptions of how to build a larger apparatus-larger than the small model I have installed there-my no

rters?" Georg asked. "They wa

t. Tell them we will come there for safety. B

start to our feet and follow him. No alarm from the insulator had

ugh to spring forward as soon as he

ha

st want to see-in case

suddenly and bounded thr

there was a whirring comin

to her ears. She was talking softly but swiftly into the transmitter. In the mirror beside her I caught a glimpse of th

the mirror to the floor, smashing it. Then she cast off the hea