t, for the sun would wink on and off as though it were getting ready to
give up.

"For a week we heard from Zol. He gave the ruby capsule to Maya. She sleeps
and will continue to sleep for twenty years unless the antidote which looks
like curdled yellow flame is given to her. I have it. Grim Hagen may kill
her or cast her adrift in space, but he cannot awaken her. That hound of
hell can taunt her no more. She sleeps, until Gunnar stands by her side.

"Then Zol sent us his last message. Maya was sleeping. He was barricaded in
one of the rooms of the Tower, and Grim Hagen and his men were battering
down the door. From what we heard in the next few minutes, I suppose that
the door gave way and Zol died. Then Grim Hagen's voice came to us,
screaming in rage. He had all that he wanted. Even though our princess
slept, he would take her into space with him. And she would awaken some day
with the smoke of plundered worlds in her nostrils. Yes, she would
awaken--to be his slave, even as he had promised us that night in Maya's
home when we fought. And I wish I had killed the beast then. But Zol was
dead and there was no sense in listening to this man's ravings, so we
turned off our radio. And that is the last we ever heard from Grim Hagen.

"It was the next day when he opened the sea-gates and trundled the ship out
upon the floor of the sea. We had done all that we could to be prepared.
But it was not enough.

"The water came pouring in upon Opal. Half of the people died. Many had
taken refuge in ships, and I doubt if a single ship survived that night.
Yes, just as the water came flooding in, our little sun went out. We
fought. The waters flooded both Valla and the Scientists' City. Here it
rose nearly to the top of the Tower. There were only a few forests and
meadows in the land that were not flooded. These were high up against the
walls. As for the creatures of the deep, the reptiles and amphibians, most
of them were dead. Many crawled into the ancient caves and fled upward.
Most of them died.

"That is nearly all. We know now that Grim Hagen and his ship, with all his
prisoners and loot, took off from the bed of the sea with a flourish which
was just like Grim Hagen.

"Meanwhile, Ato and his crews got the gates closed and started the
pumps. Only a few men of that crew are alive today, for the tunnel
was radio-active at that time. It was weeks before the pumps could
force the water back into the Gulf. Most of our plants we