ll tell you. The Selom are a very old and highly civilized people.
For ages they have possessed scientific knowledge for which the
upper-world scientists are now blindly groping. Among other things,
they have a perfect knowledge of the workings of the brain. If they
operate they will remove from your brain every speck of memory you
have of past events, leaving only those things that will be useful to
Saranoff. You will be his complete slave. In that condition you will
be taught to fly a plane. When the time comes, you will fly one with
no remembrance of anything which happened prior to the operation and
with no will but his. It will be easier to teach you flying in your
natural state if you are willing. You will be willing."

"If you wish it, Doctor."

* * * * *

"I do wish it, most decidedly," Dr. Bird went on. "Obey every order
they give you. You will find that the Selom are an enlightened and
civilized race. They are very kindly and would willingly harm no one."

"Then why have they taken up with Saranoff?"

"He is the first man with whom they have come into contact. He has
told them a horrible tale of conditions on the surface, and they have
swallowed it, hook, line and sinker. They believe that he is going to
establish a new order of happiness and plenty for all with the aid of
his gang of cutthroats from Russia. If they had the slightest inkling
of the true state of affairs, they would turn on him in an instant."

"Why don't you tell them?"

"Remember that I am a stranger here and he has poisoned their minds
against me. Although the mind of an ordinary men is an open book to
them, they cannot read Saranoff's secret thoughts against his will.
They can't read mine either, for that matter. I am working in the
laboratory and I will pick up a great deal. When the time comes, we
will strike for our liberty and for the safety of the world."

"Did you learn Saranoff's plans?"

"Yes. He is gathering planes and pilots in the underground caverns of
the Selom. When he gets enough, he will bring men from Russia to man
the planes. What could the United States, or the world for that
matter, do against a fleet of hundreds, possibly thousands, of the
best planes equipped with deadly weapons unknown to their science?
That menace confronts us and we must remove it. To give you some idea
of the power of the Selom, this afternoon Saranoff and I with one
assistant opened a cavern in the solid ro