Tarrano the Conqueror

To Hugo Gernsback, scientist, author and publisher, whose constant efforts in behalf of scientific fiction have contributed so largely to its present popularity, this tale is gratefully dedicated.

FOREWORD

_In "Tarrano the Conqueror" is presented a tale of the year 2430 A.D.--a time somewhat farther beyond our present-day era than we are beyond Columbus' discovery of America. My desire has been to create for you the impression that you have suddenly been plunged forward into that time--to give you the feeling Columbus might have had could he have read a novel of our present-day life.

To this end I have conceived myself a writer of that future time, addressing his contemporary public. You are to imagine yourself reading a present day translation of my original text--a translation so free that a thousand little colloquialisms will have crept into it that could not possibly have their counterparts in the year 2430.

Apart from the text, you will occasionally find brief explanatory footnotes. Conceive them as having been put there by the translator.

If you find parts of this tale unusual or bizarre, please remember that we are living now in a comparatively ignorant day. The tale is not intended to be fantastic or full of new and strange ideas. I have used nothing but those developments of our present-day civilization to which we are all looking forward as logical probabilities--woven them into a picture of what life in America very probably will be five hundred years from now. To that extent, the tale itself is intended to be only a love story of adventure and romance--written, not for you, but for that future audience._

RAY CUMMINGS.

CONTENTS

I. The New Murders

II. Warning

III. Spy in the House

IV. To the North Pole

V. Outlawed Flight

VI. Man of Destiny

VII. Prisoners

VIII. Unknown Friend

IX. Paralyzed!

X. Georg Escapes

XI. Recaptured

XII. Tara

XIII. Love--and Hate

XIV. Defying Worlds

XV. Escape

XVI. Playground of Venus

XVII. Violet Beam of Death

XVIII. Passing of a Friend

XIX. Waters of Eternal Peace

XX. Unseen Menace

XXI. Love, Music--and a Warning

XXII. Revolution!

XXIII. First Retreat

XXIV. Attack on the Palace

XXV. Immortal Terror

XXVI. Black Cloud of Death

XXVII. Tarrano The Man

XXVIII. Thing in the Forest

XXIX. A Woman's Scream

XXX. The Monster

XXXI. Industriana

XXXII. Departure

XXXIII. First Assault

XXXIV. Invisible Assailants

XXXV. Attack on the Power House

XXXVI. City of Ice Besieged

XXXVII. Battle

TARRANO THE CONQUEROR

CHAPTER I

The New Murders

I was standing fairly close to the President of the Anglo-Saxon Republic when the first of the new murders was committed. The President fell almost at my feet. I was quite certain then that the Venus man at my elbow was the murderer. I don't know why, call it intuition if you will. The Venus man did not make a move; he merely stood beside me in the press of the throng, seemingly as absorbed as all of us in what the President was saying.

It was late afternoon. The sun was setting behind the cliffs across the river. There were perhaps a hundred and fifty thousand people within sight of the President, listening raptly to his words. It was at Park Sixty, and I was standing on the Tenth Level.[1] The crowd packed all twelve of the levels; the park was black with people. The President stood on a balcony of the park tower. He was no more than a few hundred feet above me, well within direct earshot. Around him on all sides were the electric megaphones which carried his voice to all parts of the audience. Behind me, a thousand feet overhead, the main aerials were scattering it throughout the city, I suppose five million people were listening to the voice of the President at that moment. He had just said that we must remain friendly with Venus; that in our enlightened age controversies were inevitable, but that they should be settled with sober thought--around the council table. This talk of war was ridiculous. He was denouncing the public news-broadcasters; moulders of public opinion, who every day--every hour--must offer a new sensation to their millions of subscribers.