‘I have here,’ went on the Sorcerer, ‘enough gas and sufficiently powerful death-ray machines to destroy all the living things on this earth. A man invented me. I have invented these. The time is close at hand. Already I have fifty million mechanicos to people the earth, when every living thing is gone.’
‘Then what do you want Cassie and me for?’ asked Raphael, frightened by the terrible seriousness of the Sorcerer.
Mechanus smiled. ‘There are still a few imperfections in our mechanicos. There are certain qualities possessed by man with which we wish to equip our mechanical men. When we kill the living, we shall lose our useful models unless precautions are taken. This is the reason I stole your sister—to study her. This is also why I haven’t killed you. You have been a nuisance, but now I think I have rather clipped your wings, eh?’
Raphael shuddered. Mechanus would wipe out every living thing: Aunt Mary, Uniontown, the animals. Cassandra began to cry.
‘You had better join me and the mechanicos,’ said the Sorcerer slowly. ‘Together we shall rule the world.’
CHAPTER XIII
TO SAVE THE WORLD
That night Raphael lay in bed and thought for a long time. Mechanicos. The Sorcerer was building over ten thousand a day. Already he had built fifty million. More than Raphael could imagine. When he had many more, he would spread the poison gas and shoot the death-ray round the world. Raphael, Cassie, Aunt Mary, and all mankind would be killed. There would be no living thing upon the earth.
‘There are still a few imperfections in our mechanical men,’ the Sorcerer had said; ‘that is the reason I stole your sister—to study her. You had better join me and the mechanicos. Together we shall rule the world.’
Raphael was sick of mechanical life. He was afraid. He remembered the animals waiting patiently outside the city. They had trusted him and he had failed them.