Ross nodded. "I was thinking of Horta," he admitted grimly. He had never forgotten Horta, Lord of the Moon Caverns, the darkly hostile savant who had held out so long at that fateful conference when the Council of Seven, rulers of the Earth, had made their all-or-nothing flight to the Moon, there to lay the question of peace or war before Magnus, the Moon King, and his lords. The Seven had won Horta over finally by offering him all the Earth secrets of the red rays that had made Earth-Moon travel possible. They had even set up a ray reservoir in Horta's great cavern, and had shown him how the harnessed rays could provide power for ships and explosive for sky-torpedoes. Yet Horta had never succeeded in building any but tiny ships that could barely circle the Moon, and he had denied any success with the torpedoes. Only on the ray-type and the ray-phone, essential to Earth-Moon intercourse, had he followed instructions with real results.
"Blue rays, then?" muttered Ross, staring at Moore. He turned as Jorgens appeared hesitantly. "Well?"
"Garbled message by ray-phone from our Earth station, sir. From Censor Trowbridge, apparently." Jorgens handed over a sheet of paper. "We put it down as we heard it."
Ross and Moore bent over it eagerly. "... trouble ... Moon ... Four ... Magnus killed...." It ended with "... bridge."
Ross wheeled on Jorgens. "Magnus—killed? Is that what you heard?"
Jorgens shook his head. "That's what it sounded like," he insisted. He flicked a hand at the ray-phone. "And that's all we got. She went dead on us. But," he added hopefully, "the ray-type seems to be coming to life."
"Good! Work on it, Jorgens. And try for the Peak One Moon station, or Peak Four." Ross watched Jorgens join the little group of signalmen toiling over the ray-type machine, and shook his head. "Did you get that, Harry? Magnus killed."
Moore blinked inquiringly. "Do we go on?"
"Go on?" Ross hesitated. He read the mangled dispatch, then squared his shoulders. "Nothing here about turning back. So on we go. Heaven knows what we'll find."