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It's too simple, rasped Gunner Welk.  Do you think these people are so dumb that they won't have
planted some kind of death-trap to keep intruders from entering the citadel thus?"
Thorn's jaw hardened.  We'll have to take that chance. Lana's in there, and this is our only way in to
her."
He started along the great drain, the red beam lighting their way. The cold, dank air and the icy water
they splashed through were freezing. Shadowy things scuttled away ahead of the Planeteers, as they
pushed on through the gloomy tunnels toward the guarded stronghold of the dictator.
CHAPTER XII
Citadel of Fear
JOHN THORN paused. They had been following the huge drain for half an hour, and had now reached
a point where a smaller drain-tube opened into it from the right.
"This must be one of the citadel drains, Thorn muttered, flashing his red beam up it.  Come on, we'll
soon find out."
"We'd better not stay down in this maze of pipes too long, warned Sual Av.  The rains will start again
when dawn comes, and these tubes will be full of rushing water."
John Thorn was clambering into the smaller side drain. It was so small that he had to go forward in it on
hands and knees. It sloped very gently upward, and its floor was damp.
He led the way, the little red beam of his fluoric lamp lighting him forward. Sual Av followed him closely,
and the big Mercurian brought up the rear.
Thorn guessed that by now they must be passing under the wall of the great fortress. His hopes were
running high. So far, they had met no barrier.
Then suddenly, Thorn met the barrier. And he almost died before he realized it.
The little tubular fluoric lamp he held outstretched in front of him suddenly flared red hot, its chromaloy
case starting instantly to melt. Thorn recoiled with a smothered exclamation of pain and surprise,
dropping the redhot thing. They were plunged into absolute darkness,
"What is it? exclaimed Sual Av anxiously.
"I don't know. Something ahead melted my lamp before I could draw back, Thorn answered, his voice
wiretaut in the darkness.  Pass me your lamp, Sual. We've run into some devilish trap!"
The Venusian passed his lamp forward. Thorn, without venturing any farther forward, snicked on the
beam.
The red ray quivered up the gently sloping black cement tube. Thorn stared tensely. There was nothing
ahead nothing except a row of small holes across the curved floor of the drain, and a similar row of
holes in the roof exactly above.
"I can't see anything, said Sual Av.  Your lamp must have burned out accidentally."
"Wait, said Thorn tensely.
He tore a bit of cloth from his jacket, and cautiously pushed it forward until it was over one of the row of
holes. Instantly the cloth burst into flame and vanished in fine ashes.
John Thorn felt cold sweat stand out on his brow. He knew now the invisible death he had nearly,
blundered into.
"There's a web of heat-beams here across the drain, he said hoarsely.  A little trap fixed up by Haskell
Trask's guards for anyone who might try to enter the citadel this way."
The nature of the diabolical trap was clear. Buried somewhere near the cement drain was a generator of
heat beams those  focused rays of radiant heat which were produced in a mirrored inertrum chamber
by transformation of atomic energy into vibratory force in the proper octaves. Such beams had an
effective range of only a few feet, but were deadly within that distance.
"The beams are projected through three holes in the floor and disappear through the holes in the roof of
the drain, to be dissipated above, Thorn said.  It's a fiendishly clever idea. Anyone crawling up this drain
would never see anything until he blundered into those beams that would sear through. and kill him
instantly."
"Hell, we can't pass this until we find some way to shut off these beams! swore Gunner Welk from
behind.
Thorn frowned tensely.  We can't get at the generator of them, he muttered.  That must be located
outside the drain. It would take lots of tools and time to dig down to it."
"Inertrum is proof against high heat, Sual Av said hopefully.  If we had some inertrum plugs to stop
those holes the beams come up through "
"That's fine, rasped Gunner angrily.  Now all we have to do is to go back out in the city, order a nice set
of inertrum plugs, and come back here with them. The secret police out there wouldn't think of bothering
us while we're doing all that."
"Shut up, Gunner, Thorn said.  I've an idea which might work."
He fumbled in the pouch that was still attached to his belt. Out of it, he drew the gleaming white slith
teeth they had taken from the monsters they had slain in the fungus forest. There were a dozen of the
teeth, long, conical fangs an inch across at the root.
"These slith teeth might do the trick, Thorn muttered.  They're one of the hardest and most perdurable
substances in the system, remember almost as hard as inertrum. If we plugged the heat-beam apertures
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