Tarrano the Conqueror

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                                TARRANO

                             THE CONQUEROR

                            BY RAY CUMMINGS




COPYRIGHT, 1930, BY
A. C. McCLURG & CO.
CHICAGO

IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THE BRITISH EMPIRE AND THE PAN AMERICAN
UNION.

Printed in the United States of America




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.

[Footnote 1: New York City, about where Yonkers now stands.]

He had reached this point when without warning his body pitched forward.
The balcony rail caught it; and it hung there inert.