Free The Metal Monster by Otis Adelbert Kline

groundward, burying itself in the soft muck of the swamp.
    DOLORES straightened our course once more Ahead of us lay the metal city to which we had first been brought—the capital of the nether world. And about five miles to our right was a great cone of lava nearly two miles high. Above this cone was the gleaming mouth of a metal shaft which thousands of globes were constantly entering and leaving.
    “Steer for the shaft,” I said. “Perhaps we can bluff our way through to the outer world. They can’t tell who is in this globe, can they?”
    “Not unless they use the penetrating rays,” she replied, “and they can only do that at close range. I don’t think we can make our way through. However, Zet will expect us to try, and will be prepared.”
    “Then we’ll try another way,” I said.
    A moment later we plunged into the shaft—shot swiftly upward. The speed of the globe was terrific. I had no means of computing it. And because of this, I had no idea how many miles of shaft we had traversed when we suddenly shot up beneath the huge metal dome that covered Coseguina.
    Dolores brought the globe almost to a stop—hovering uncertainly.
    “Now where?” she asked.
    I recalled my two visions of this dome—the first when it was in the process of building—the second after it was completed.
    “Not the ports,” I said. “They’ll surely catch us there. Fly close to the wall.”
    She instantly brought the globe to within ten feet of the arching wall.
    “Open the door.”
    As the door flew open I hurled my flask of salt water at the wall. The flask shattered, spreading the brine over an area about ten feet in diameter.
    Another globe, apparently noting our strange actions, shot upward toward us to investigate. Dolores saw it, closed the door, and flew away, circling the huge dome. A second globe rose to cut us off. Then a third and a fourth. Dolores managed, somehow, to dodge all of them. Soon the dome swarmed with flying globes, all of which looked alike. We were darting in and out among the others, and I doubt whether more than one or two of their pilots had any idea which globe we were in. Several globes collided, bouncing apart like billiard balls, but undented and apparently unharmed.
    Twice we flew past the rapidly widening hole in the dome where I had hurled the salt water, but each time it was too small for us to squeeze through. Then we were herded away from it by the other globes for several minutes. By dint of much skillful manipulation on the part of Dolores, we managed to get back to it. This time there was room to spare.
    “At last!” I cried, as we shot out into the sunlight which we had not seen for more than two months.
    “Beautiful, isn’t it?” said Dolores. “Now where shall we go?”
    “Get some altitude,” I replied. “Then we’ll look around. We must find a place to hide, first of all.”
    Far out on the Pacific, I saw a rain storm coming.
    “Quick!” I said. “Into that storm!”
    A long trail of globes was after us, and more were continually emerging from the dome like a cloud of angry wasps. We plunged toward the storm. In less than two minutes we were in it. At least a thousand globes were on our trail by that time, but once we got into the thick clouds, they could not see us, nor we them. We veered off sharply to the right, traveling at tremendous speed. Presently our globe popped out of the clouds into the sunlight once more.
    Coseguina had been left at least a hundred miles behind, and we were traveling toward the northwest, near the coast of Salvador.
    Looking downward, I suddenly spied beneath the water, the slender, shadowy forms of a fleet of submarines—about twenty in number.
    “If I only had my wrist-radiophone,” I said.
    “I managed to keep mine,” said Dolores, and reaching into the coils of her dark hair, she extracted it and handed it to me. “I thought it might be useful in an emergency” she added.
    “It certainly will,” I responded, working the