merica very probably will be five hundred years
from now. To that extent, the tale itself is intended to be only a love
story of adventure and romance--written, not for you, but for that
future audience._

RAY CUMMINGS.

CONTENTS

I. The New Murders

II. Warning

III. Spy in the House

IV. To the North Pole

V. Outlawed Flight

VI. Man of Destiny

VII. Prisoners

VIII. Unknown Friend

IX. Paralyzed!

X. Georg Escapes

XI. Recaptured

XII. Tara

XIII. Love--and Hate

XIV. Defying Worlds

XV. Escape

XVI. Playground of Venus

XVII. Violet Beam of Death

XVIII. Passing of a Friend

XIX. Waters of Eternal Peace

XX. Unseen Menace

XXI. Love, Music--and a Warning

XXII. Revolution!

XXIII. First Retreat

XXIV. Attack on the Palace

XXV. Immortal Terror

XXVI. Black Cloud of Death

XXVII. Tarrano The Man

XXVIII. Thing in the Forest

XXIX. A Woman's Scream

XXX. The Monster

XXXI. Industriana

XXXII. Departure

XXXIII. First Assault

XXXIV. Invisible Assailants

XXXV. Attack on the Power House

XXXVI. City of Ice Besieged

XXXVII. Battle

TARRANO THE CONQUEROR

CHAPTER I

_The New Murders_

I was standing fairly close to the President of the Anglo-Saxon Republic
when the first of the new murders was committed. The President fell
almost at my feet. I was quite certain then that the Venus man at my
elbow was the murderer. I don't know why, call it intuition if you will.
The Venus man did not make a move; he merely stood beside me in the
press of the throng, seemingly as absorbed as all of us in what the
President was saying.

It was late afternoon. The sun was setting behind the cliffs across the
river. There were perhaps a hundred and fifty thousand people within
sight of the President, listening raptly to his words. It was at Park
Sixty, and I was standing on the Tenth Level.[1] The crowd packed all
twelve of the levels; the park was black with people. The President
stood on a balcony of the park tower. He was no more than a few hundred
feet above me, well within direct earshot. Around him on all sides were
the electric megaphones which carried his voice to all parts of the
audience. Behind me, a thousand feet overhead, the main aerials were
scattering it throughout the c