"What? You mean Pablo—" Dr. Vernon cried, his face turning white.
"Pablo Ysan, your servant. Exactly. But I must have the thorium. I need a huge quantity. I am coming for it tomorrow. You need fear nothing for yourself or your daughter—I came to warn you so that you might feel no alarm. In fact, it would flatter me to have you as my guests. But remember that I am coming—in force!"
"You damn lu-lu-lu-lunatic!" the Doctor choked.
"No. Not a madman, begging your pardon. The future king of the world! Of two worlds, to be exact! But I must leave you. Remember! And hasta luego, as our friend Pablo would say."
Laughing strangely again, the little man hurried back and got in the machine. It left the ground at once, with the great propellers whirling slowly. The motors were oddly silent. I thought the red wings were somehow unfolded, or lengthened out a little.
As it rose, I glimpsed the pilot of the machine.
It was not a man!
It was a queer, gleaming purple shape, with many tentacles!
With strange horror grasping at my heart, I looked quickly at the others, but it seemed that they had not seen it. Then I remembered the Doctor's words of "creatures of the upper air" and I thought of what Ellen had said of the thing that had risen from the wrecked ship.
"That was Herman Vars," Ellen whispered to me. "We met him at the University. He had a warped mind—tinkered with radio and claimed he was getting in touch with beings of a plane above the earth. Then—once—" she paused, flushing a little, "—well, he came to me and told me that he was going to conquer the earth, and that he wanted me to—to go with him. That was why we left Austin. I thought he was only insane—but this!"