nd, dark as it was, Jim recognized their leader--Cain.

And Cain knew Lucille. As the priests rallied for a desperate
resistance, Cain hurled his great body through the air, landing
squarely upon the shoulders of the priest nearest the revolving arms,
and knocking him flat.

Then the arms caught priest and Drilgo, and the steel hooks dug deep
into their flesh. A screech of terror, a howl that reverberated
through the amphitheatre, and nothing remained of either but a heap
of macerated flesh.

But in that instant Jim had fought free again. He caught Lucille and
dragged her back toward the Atom Smasher.

* * * * *

Tode had already broken from his captors and was working at it
frantically.

"Hold on!" screeched old Parrish. "Hold on!"

They had a moment's leeway. The Drilgoes had driven the priests back
into the hooks. With awful shrieks the fanatics were yielding up their
lives, in the place of their selected victims.

But more Drilgoes were pouring up the stairs. A moment's leeway, and
no more, before the savage band would impale the four upon their
stone-pointed spears. There was not the slightest chance that they
would be able to make their identity known.

"For God's sake hurry!" Jim yelled in Tode's ear.

The wheels were revolving, a stream of violet light, leaping out of
the central tunnel, cast a lurid illumination upon the scene.

But it was too late. A score of Drilgoes, with leveled spears, were
rushing on the four.

"Hold tight!" screeched Parrish. He thrust his arm into his breast,
and pulled out a little lever. Jim recognized it and remembered. It
was the instrument of universal death--the uranium release of untold
forces of cataclysmic depredation.

"Take that!" screamed the old man, inserting the lever into the secret
groove in the Atom Smasher and jerking it in the direction of the
priests.

CHAPTER XI

_Tode's Last Gamble_

A roar that seemed to rend the heavens followed. Roar upon roar, as
the infinite momentum of the disintegrating uranium struck obstacle
after obstacle. The Drilgoes vanished, the amphitheatre melted away,
walls and roof.... Overhead were the moon and stars.

And proud Atlantis was sinking into the depths of the sea.... Not as a
ship sinks, but piecemeal, her walls and towers crumbling and toppling
as a child's sand-castle crumbles under the attack of the lapping
waves. Down they crashed, carrying their freight of black, clinging,