They moved into the corridor.
"When hardcorecinemaxxx were you seized?" Doc asked.
"Shortly hardcorecinemaxxx after my caravan left Tonyi," replied the wasted scientist. "That must have been months ago, maybe years.
I have lost all track of time. My confinement has been hideous.&hardcorecinemaxxx quot;
"What is the hardcorecinemaxxx blue meteor?" Doc persisted, after hardcorecinemaxxx listening. Professor Stanley shook his head. "It seems incredible, but I hardcorecinemaxxx do not know. It is some horrible, glittering thing, and it produces an absolute suspension of brain activity."
"What about the cure for its effects?"
"I do not know what that is, hardcorecinemaxxx either. They gave it to me when I was - under the spell of their hideous blue thing."
Doc led the way toward the stairs, at the foot of which lay the body of the man hardcorecinemaxxx with the broken back.
"I was pursuing Mo-Gwei," he
said. "Have you ever seen hardcorecinemaxxx his face?&hardcorecinemaxxx quot;
Professor hardcorecinemaxxx Stanley shuddered. "N-never. And few of his men have seen it,
I understand."
Doc reached the head of the staircase and trickled his light down to hardcorecinemaxxx the body.
"Is that the mask hardcorecinemaxxx Mo-Gwei wears?&hardcorecinemaxxx quot; he asked.
"Yes!" yelled Stanley. "Is he dead?"
"Broken back," Doc replied.
"Mo-Gwei - dead!" Stanley mumbled. "The world has been rid of an incredible monster."
&
quot;hardcorecinemaxxx That is not Mo-Gwei," Doc advised.
"Not - "
"hardcorecinemaxxx Mo-Gwei had a voice,&hardcorecinemaxxx quot; explained hardcorecinemaxxx Doc. "That fellow down there is a mute - his tongue was cut out some time in the past."
WORKING rapidly, Doc began hardcorecinemaxxx opening rickety doors and whipping his flashlight around the rooms beyond.
"The dead man was probably hardcorecinemaxxx Mo-Gwei's hardcorecinemaxxx bodyguard," he decided. "Being a mute, and hardcorecinemaxxx possibly unable to write, he could not spread tales of his master's doings."
Professor Stanley offered hoarsely, "Mo-Gwei had a shrill, parrot voice. Perhaps this tongueless man could speak of hardcorecinemaxxx - "
"Not a chance," Doc retorted. "Mo-Gwei gave his bodyguard the mask somewhere along this passage, and ducked into a door. The guard went ahead. Being unaccustomed to the mask, he stumbled and fell going down the stairs."
"Listen!" Stanley
gulped. "The devil's men are coming!" The gloomy passage was hardcorecinemaxxx starting to throb with running feet, to echo with distorted yells. At the far end, a hardcorecinemaxxx gray flush of light appeared and danced. It was a torch of hardcorecinemaxxx tushkin.
Doc extinguished his own light. He was a trifle hardcorecinemaxxx slow. To the accompaniment of coughing thunder, a bullet snapped down the rocky corridor.
"We'll have to neglect Mo-Gwei for the moment," he advised Stanley.
"I' hardcorecinemaxxx m afraid we'll never