“a martian city!” ted echoed. “wouldn’t dad like to be in on this!”
“i don’t care about an old city!” jill complained. “i just want to get out of here!”
“maybe we can find a way to the top from in there,” ted proposed. “there’s no other place we can go.”
the three walked up to the towering gates and began tugging on them. at first the gates would not budge, but after much struggling, the children got one open wide enough on its creaking hinges so that they could squeeze through. once inside, they began walking along a rocky avenue lined with small buildings and statues. the high dome of the city gleamed with a light of its own, illuminating the entire grand underground area like brilliant moonlight.
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“the glow has probably been burning for thousands of years,” randy remarked, “ever since the first martians built the city.”
“it’ll probably be thousands of years more before it’ll go out,” ted added. “it seems to have the natural light that mr. garland said some of the martian caves have.”
they paused before a statue, and all three of them felt chills race up their backs as they realized they were the first earth humans ever to gaze on the true likeness of a martian. the man was not very different from earthmen. he had the usual number of arms and legs, but he was short and spindly and his head was bald. if the color of the statue was correct, the extinct martians had light-green skins.
“dad and the other scientists will sure have the time of their lives with this place!” ted said. “it may even hold the answer to the biggest riddle about what caused the martians to disappear.”
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“father won’t find out anything about it if we don’t get out of here!” jill said anxiously.
“there must be a way to the top of the ground somewhere,” randy answered. “i don’t see how the martians could have walked up that steep incline we slid down.”
“maybe the dirt has covered it over during the years,” ted said. “maybe there are steps underneath. but i don’t see how we could expect to uncover them. let’s go on.”
(uncaptioned)
237
they moved along, searching the uneven rocky streets. it was not a large city, and the three had no trouble keeping their bearings. a check on their air supply showed only an hour and a half of oxygen left in each of their suits. there would be even less were they to hurry and so breathe faster. this time they had no spare cartridges. if they did not find their way topside by that time, they were surely doomed.
after covering part of the city, the children found that the end of it fanned out into five separate narrow streets.
“one of these streets may lead to ground level,” ted said.
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“the only thing to do is try them,” randy came back.
“we’ll save time if each of us takes a different way,” ted suggested.
but jill would have none of this plan. she had no desire to follow a lonely underground avenue by herself. they finally decided that ted and jill would go together and randy agreed to go alone.
“we’ve got to watch out that we don’t get lost,” ted cautioned. “don’t go off down any alleyways, randy. we won’t either.”
“we ought to set a time when we both meet back here,” randy said.
“i’ve got it,” ted said. “we’ll count off ten minutes and then start heading back whether we’ve found anything or not. if neither of us has found anything, we’ll try the other streets the same way.”
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ted and jill took their leave of randy and set off down the thorofare. they had to hurry because of their dwindling time, and yet they dared not go so fast that they were breathing heavily. the way they followed carried them quite a distance down the deserted street, on both sides of which were crumbling buildings of plaster set close together. by the time the ten minutes was up, ted and jill had come to a dead end against a stone wall.
“this way certainly can’t help us,” ted muttered. “let’s go back to randy.”
when they got back and randy had not returned, ted became worried. time was fleeting steadily, and they still were no better off than they had been before. finally ted heard a scuffling along the street and saw randy hurrying his way.
“no luck!” he gasped. “i got sidetracked on the way back. then i had to run to get here in time.”
“you shouldn’t have done that,” ted told him. “now you’ve got less air than we have. what does your gauge show?”
“fifty-six minutes,” randy answered, after checking.
ted examined his own and asked jill about hers. “we’ve got an hour and five,” ted said.
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“we’ll have to hurry if we’re going to search the other three streets,” randy pointed out.
this time jill agreed to help by going alone so as to save time. they agreed to cut the search period to five minutes, at which time they would come back to their meeting place. ted had been gone about a minute when he heard someone calling. his heart stirred with hope, and he hustled back at moderate speed to the place from where they had started.
“i think i’ve found a way out!” jill was crying excitedly.
fortunately they were able to catch randy before he got very far, and the two boys followed jill down the street where she had made her discovery. after a hundred feet or so they came into a big open area and at one side of it there rose a huge stone staircase leading upward.
“there!” jill cried happily.
“let’s go up!” ted urged.
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they started up the steps that slowly turned in a half spiral as they ascended. after a long climb, the children found themselves in a large gallery. in spite of their hurry, the three became as hypnotized by the sight of many stone tables or altars arranged in orderly fashion throughout the place. lying on top of the altars were long oblong cases, fancily decorated.
“these must be coffins!” randy burst out.
“let’s get out of here!” jill pleaded.
ted’s gaze had turned from the altars to the smooth, rounded walls of the room that were covered with paintings from one end to the other.
“look!” he exclaimed, running over to the wall. “the martians had a michelangelo too! those pictures seem to tell a story! say, do you suppose this mural shows the history of the martian race and what happened to them?”
“i don’t care what they show, ted!” jill retorted. “all i want to do is get out of here before our air is gone!”
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ted saw the wisdom of her remark and gave up an impulse to look over the exciting story in pictures. another flight of stairs was the only way out of the shrine, and without delay the three hurried up. they made a final turn on the stairs and then the subdued glare of martian sunlight struck their faces. they were finally above ground.
they appeared to have walked into a sporting arena which was surrounded by tiers of stone seats, much in the manner of the ancient roman coliseum. as the three of them crossed it through deep powdery dust, they found bones of strange animals scattered over the whole area. there were also the remains of curved swords and scarred shields.
“ugh!” jill shuddered. “there’s no telling what terrible things took place on this very spot we’re walking over!”
“there’s an opening over there on the other side,” randy indicated.
“let’s go to it,” ted suggested. “i can’t wait to get off this gruesome field either!”
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they moved across the arena briskly, yet not too fast. they headed directly for the opening in the high stone wall that encircled the ancient field of contest. when they reached the entranceway, they passed through and found themselves at the fringe of a forest. a few dozen paces carried them through green corkscrew trees to an open plain.
“i guess the trees around here kept this place from being discovered before now,” ted said.
“which way do we go now?” jill moaned. “we’ve got to find that cave where our air tanks are!”
ted made a quick orientation of their position in relation to the arena and underground city. “my guess is the cave ought to be in that direction,” he said, pointing southward around the bend of the arena. “what do you think, randy?”
“it sounds right,” randy agreed. “let’s get started.”
they had no more than set out again when ted suddenly pulled up sharply in his tracks, nearly toppling over backward in the motion.
“gee! look what i almost stepped on!” he shouted, pointing in the dust ahead of him.
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it was a matlike object, lying flat in the red dust, with rows and rows of fine hairs vibrating over its surface. ted remembered the deadly carpet plant from his study of martian botany in school.
“ted!” jill screamed, as she saw the danger.
to study the action of the plant for himself, ted picked up a broken shard of pottery and tossed it onto the plant. instantly the voracious plant rolled up tightly, enveloping the shard in its sucking folds.
“that’s what would have happened to your foot if you’d stepped on it, ted,” randy said in a shivery voice.
they carefully skirted the carpet plant and hurried on, bearing southward in the direction they hoped would bring them to the mouth of the cave that had been the original cause of their trouble.
“how much air time, randy?” ted asked, beginning to pant a little.
“eighteen minutes,” randy answered, and ted could hear a nervous whimper from jill.
“you sure this is right, ted?” randy asked worriedly, a few minutes later. “if you’re wrong we’ll die. i’ve only got seven minutes of air left now. it’s really going fast with us hurrying so!”
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ted sighed heavily and felt a clutch of dread in his heart as he studied jill’s pinched, anxious expression. they had to be headed right! they just couldn’t lose the battle after being so close to salvation.
at last they rounded a huge face of rock that ted thought he remembered. the cave should be only a few feet away beyond that clump of vegetation, he told himself. they pushed through the curling, tubelike leaves. to their left lay the cave entrance!
randy gave a cry of relief and dashed into the cave. ted and his sister entered more slowly; they had a little more time to waste than randy. when they entered, they found randy hastily discarding his old oxygen cartridge and replacing it with a new one. when he was through, he helped jill with hers while ted attended to his own.
when they were done, they sat down on the floor of the cave and drank in deep, refreshing draughts of the precious gas they had feared they would never breathe again.
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“isn’t this great?” ted remarked. “just like a cold drink on a hot day!”
“speaking of food, i could use some,” jill said. “i’m starved after all that!”
“let’s go back and get it,” randy proposed. “we dropped the food case when the elephant ant was chasing us.”
“do you think it’s safe?” jill asked.
“if it’s the ant you’re afraid of, they do most of their hunting at night,” randy reassured her. “i don’t think there’s much chance of meeting it.”
they started out over the trail they had followed in such haste the night before. after a while they found their food case where they had dropped it. all made a run for it at the same time. the sight of food settled their nerves, and they ate nearly all of the supply in the case. when they were through, randy happened to look up into the distance and jabbed ted in the ribs.
“look!” he exclaimed. “somebody’s coming!”
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ted and jill leaped to their feet. they shaded their eyes with their gloved hands in order to see better.
“it’s the search party!” ted burst out.
“father’s with them!” jill said joyfully.
“i can see pops too!” came from randy.
ted uttered a deep, long sigh. their frightening adventure was over at last.
