ose out
there--stick 'em on the ends of pikes, carry 'em through the streets
with torches to show 'em off! Kill every globe you can reach, send the
corpses out for the ruck to see! There's our banner, our fiery cross--a
dead god on a pike!"

CHAPTER XII

The gods have looked upon the Mink,
And felt his mighty hand;
They've sought him through the mines and towns,
And in the forest land.

All-wise, all-powerful though they be,
The Mink they cannot find;
Afar he's wandering o'er the earth,
At war for all mankind.

--Ruck's Ballad of the Mink

"Read it again," said Revel, bending his scarred face beside the girl's
sleek one, staring hard at the printing as if by concentration on it he
could learn to read right there, and drag the hidden meaning from the
words. "Read slowly. Rack, you're no slouch at thought, even though you
have been in the toils of the false gods. Give this your best brainwork.
Jerran, concentrate! You three men, try to cull the sense from these
words. Begin!"

In the light of half a dozen lanterns she began to read. The Mink
strained all his brains.

"_Man of the 21st century: John R. Klapham, atomic physicist and leader
of the Ninth Expedition against the Tartarian Forces in the year 2054.
Held in suspended animation._"

"Ha! I thought that's where you got the phrase," said Revel. "I believe
it means that in this chest, and thank Orbs it was too heavy for the
gentry to move today, in this very chest lies a man of the Ancient
Kingdom, who still lives, though he sleeps!"

The woman looked up excitedly, then began to read again. Most of the
words were strange. "Placed here 10-5-2084, aged 64 years; this done
voluntarily and as a public service to the men of the future, as part of
the program of living interments inaugurated in 2067."

"Living interments," repeated Rack heavily. "Buried alive. But you think
he still lives?"

"I think so. Don't ask me why I simply do. The words burn my brain."

"What are the numbers?" asked a miner. "2067, the year 2054--what are
they?"

"I don't know. Go on, Nirea."

"Instructions for opening the casket: spring back the locks along each
bottom edge." She felt the chest where it rested on six legs on the
floor. "Here are odd-shaped things--ooh!" She jerked her hand away.
"They leap at me!"

Revel felt impatiently, said, "Those are the locks." He unsnapped
fourteen altogether. "What next?"

"Run a kn