The Valley of Creation

'Only when the thought is projected by an effort of will,' the Humanite assured. 'You can't pick up a man's inner mental reverie.'

'These crowns must be amplifiers-telepathic amplifiers,' Nelson muttered. 'The scientists say telepathy is a transmission of electric thought-waves and I suppose the right instrument could set up the power. But how did these people get such instruments?'

'The things are platinum!' said Nick Sloan avidly in English. 'The first platinum we've seen here. Try to find out where they keep the stuff, Nelson!'

That Shan Kar heard Sloan's thought was proved by his quick answer. 'We shall talk later of the metal you want. Now I want you to speak to Tark.'

The great green eyes of the wolf had a cold flare in them as they steadily met Nelson's gaze. Here was no blind brute fury, but unmistakable intelligence, poise and hatred.

Yet this was a wolf. The white fangs behind those half-drawn lips had almost had his throat out that night in Yen Shi. The great body, crouched on the chain, was the hairy body of a wild beast.

'Tell him,' said Shan Kar to Nelson, 'how many guns you've brought. He knows their power. He saw them in action in the outworld.'

Again, it took Nelson a moment to realize that Shan Kar had spoken telepathically and not vocally.

The green wolf-eyes flashed from Nelson to Shan Kar, and back again. Then Nelson heard the oddly fibred, oddly husky mental voice of Tark, as he had heard it in sleep that first night weeks ago.

'I am your prisoner,' was the wolf's thought. 'You're going to kill me. Why try to impress me now?'

'Because,' Shan Kar answered quickly, 'we may not kill you, Tark.'

'Mercy from a Humanite?' jeered Tark. 'Ice from the sun, warmth from the snow, good hunting from the storm!'

Nelson's skin crawled, with an uncanny feeling that matched the horror in Li Kin's gasping exclamation behind him. The wolf was speaking, was jeering, even though those mighty jaws did not part. Brain speaking to brain, wolf brain to human brain, without need of the medium of vocal sound!

'We have you and Kree's son,' Shan Kar reminded. 'But you both might live. We could make a bargain, Tark.'

'A bargain?' cried Tark's thought. 'Such a bargain as you've offered these ignorant outlanders, promising them pay you can't give?'

'What's that?' cried Sloan, aloud. The man instantly forgot the incredulous amazement that had held him speechless till now and spoke directly to the wolf. 'What do you mean he can't pay us?'

'Keep silent!' flared Shan Kar to the animal. 'Hoik, have the guard take Tark out!'

'Just a minute,' said Eric Nelson sharply. 'What he says concerns us. I intend to know what he means.'

A soundless burst of snarling lupine mirth broke upon Nelson's mind. Tark's green eyes flared with pure pleasure. 'You overreached yourself when you had them put the thought-crowns on, Shan Kar!' he taunted. 'You forgot that then I could hear their meaning too — and overhear that you'd promised them the gray metal!'

Shan Kar's hand gripped the hilt of his sword as he rose and glared in rage at the wolf.

Nelson, all thought of the scene's strangeness swept away by sudden suspicion, spoke directly to Tark.

'You mean — there is no gray metal here?'

Tark's eyes flickered. 'There is gray metal here. But it is all in one place where you can't reach it — the Cavern of Creation.'

'What's that?' demanded Nick Sloan, eyes narrowed.

'It is a forbidden place of our Brotherhood,' Tark answered. 'It is the place whence intelligent life first issued onto the face of Earth, long ago. And it lies at the northern end of the valley L'Lan.'

Eric Nelson instantly caught at the salient point in the answer. 'At the northern end of the valley? Then it's beyond Vruun?'

The wolfs thought answered like a snap of jaws. 'It is. Which means you can't reach it!'

Chapter VI DARING PLAN

Nick Sloan, his eyes flaring with suspicion, swung around on Shan Kar. 'Is that true?'

Shan Kar shrugged. 'It's true that the platinum is all at the north end of L'Lan.'

'You said you had platinum here, and would give us all we wanted for our help!' accused Sloan harshly.

'I said there was plenty of it in L'Lan and there is,' retorted the Humanite. 'But you can't get near it until the Brotherhood is conquered. When we win you'll get your pay.'

'A nice neat little double-cross,' raged Sloan.

'Only in case you planned to deceive us' answered Shan Kar pointedly.

Eric Nelson realized the other's cleverness. Shan Kar, obviously mistrusting their motives, had a foolproof defense. They had to win his fight before they could even reach the platinum reward.

Nelson spoke curtly. 'Take it easy, Sloan. If the stuff is here we can get it after the job is done.'

The oddly husky thought of the wolf Tark interrupted, startling them. The wolf had crouched, listening intently.

'You're still being deceived, outlanders! Not only the clans of the Brotherhood bar the way to the Cavern of Creation. Inside it is the terrible barrier of the cold fire, which you can never pass!'

'Cold fire? What does he mean by that?' Nelson demanded.

'Do not listen to Tark!' Shan Kar flashed. He swung toward the warrior-guards. 'Take the Hairy One back to his prison!'

Deftly one of the warriors looped another chain around Tark's throat. Then, with swords drawn, they led him out of the hall. The wolf went quietly but with a backward glance of blazing green eyes.

'It's time for a showdown,' Eric Nelson said sharply to Shan Kar. 'We've got to have the facts if we're to fight for you.'

'You shall have them,' Shan Kar answered coolly. 'But you have been so incredulous that I had to prove to you first that the higher animals of this valley are intelligent races. You'll grant that now?'

Nelson reluctantly nodded. 'There doesn't seem much doubt of that any more.'

'But how can they be intelligent?' Nick Sloan demanded. 'It just doesn't make sense.'

Shan Kar motioned them to the massive chairs around the table. Hoik and the other two Humanite leaders also sat but Shan Kar himself remained standing as he talked.

'Legend is all we have of the remote past here in L'Lan. Legend says that the ancients, our forefathers, were far greater than we, that we lost all their knowledge except for a few relics like the thought-crowns.

'Now we Humanites believe that our forefathers, the ancients, had such knowledge and power that they were able somehow to develop the animals of this valley into intelligent thinking beasts!'

'It does seem the only possible explanation, fantastic as it is,' Nelson muttered.

'However it was done,' Shan Kar went on, 'the fact remains that in this valley the four higher beast-races, the wolf and tiger and horse and eagle, are in some ways the mental equals of man. And those four clans claim their intelligence entitles them to absolute equality with the human race.

'In fact, they even claim that their races and the human race were created equal in intelligence, that in the dawn of time they issued equally from the Cavern of Creation!'

Nick Sloan said sharply, 'This Cavern of Creation is where the platinum is?'

Shan Kar nodded somberly. 'It's in the extreme north end of the valley. We know it contains metal relics left by the ancients. But it's difficult to enter because of certain strange dangers. Only the hereditary Guardian of the Brotherhood knows how to enter it safely.

'All the past Guardians, like Kree, the present one, have woven myth around that cavern. They've claimed that in it, long ago, both the human and the higher beast-races were created equal. And they've claimed to be