But his plea dangled unfinished. For at that moment a miracle transpired before his eyes. Dr. Kang, who should ere now have been dead, with some supernal effort had not only raised his head ... but was slowly, laboriously, rising to his feet. He stood there for a moment, swaying dangerously, his knees half buckled beneath him, his eyes already glazed. And again his lips parted in that thick and blood-spumed mumble.
"Borisu, turn off ... that ... gun!"
"The doctor," mocked Borisu, "is hardy! The doctor is courageous. But the doctor is also a fool. Stop this gun? Never! Not until your world has met the oblivion it deserves. Not until—Wait! Stand back there you fool! Stand back! Aaah!"
The raygun in his hand gushed a livid flame as Kang, tightening his worn, exhausted body for one final effort, pitched forward convulsively. The random shot missed the old man, and Borisu screamed a cry like that of a stricken animal, as in a last futile moment he realized Kang's intention.
Kang, already living on borrowed time, was yet the scientist. He alone, of all in the room, had seen what could and must be done. He alone, of all those who stood helplessly trapped, was close enough to do it.
Three strides he stumbled forward ... then Borisu's second blast caught him squarely in the chest. If he should have been dead before, he was surely so now. But it did not matter. Understanding had come too late to the mad-man of Magog. For sheer impetus carried Kang's body forward to that which Kang had planned. His body plunged full length and sprawling upon the gleaming busbars of the wave cannon. There burst from Borisu's lips a last and frightful scream. The atmosphere crackled. For a moment the biting odor of ozone was horribly mingled with the charnel stench of searing flesh.
"Down!" roared Gary. "Down on the floor, for God's sake! Short circuit—!"
As one, the watching four fell flat on their faces just as the gigantic machine before them, quivering and trembling to its very roots, rocked itself from its moorings ... and in a roaring fountain of flame exploded into a million fragments!
CHAPTER XXI
"Journey's End...."