“Take it calmly,” Joan advised. She was sitting by him in a dejected attitude. “We’re prisoners, and——”
“Where are we?” he demanded impatiently.
She placed her finger on her lips, and pointed at an open door. The only thing the young man could see through the door was another plastered room tinted blue, and a radio receiving set.
“This is KFI, Los Angeles, California,” he heard come over the radio. “We are now going to hear from Professor Ainslee, the distinguished astronomer of Mount Wilson Observatory. He is going to tell you something about the things that are going on in the moon.”
There was a brief delay, and then Prof. Ainslee’s well-known voice came over the air.
“Greetings, ladies and gentlemen of Radio Land: Continuing my short talks about the marvelous growth on our satellite, I will state that the newly discovered lake in the extreme western part of the Sea of Vapours is rapidly getting larger. I should say that it is about a mile in diameter at this time. Of course it cannot be water as water cannot exist on the moon. The heat of the sun, shining steadily for fourteen days, would dry it up as there is no air on the moon to give the water protection. As all readers are aware air forms a blanket over water, and prevents its gradual evaporation. But there is certainly a dark spot at the point indicated, and the scientific world is studying it thoughtfully. The spectroscopic investigation states absolutely that it is water. This increases the mystery.”
“Ah, ha,” a shrill voice broke out in the adjoining room, “I, the greatest and mightiest scientist in the world, am the only man who can answer this mystery. Bring in the prisoners, Kosloff, and let them hear the rest of this astronomical lecture. Perhaps they may be interested to discover how ignorant their scientists are.”
The speaker had hardly finished when the door was pushed open, and four men sprang into the green-tinted room, covering Epworth and Joan with their guns.
“Come,” one of the men commanded in broken English, “the general wishes to speak to you.”
Epworth got up from the bed, and followed by Joan passed through the door guarded by the gunmen. Their captors stopped them in front of a large mahogany desk. Seated behind this desk was an enormous giant. Epworth instantly recognized him as the man who had prevented the get-away in the Greyhound with a machine gun.