n his outstretched
right hand struck the cable squarely with all the force of his hurtling
body behind it.

There was a searing flash of blue flame as the last thread of the cable
snapped, and a tearing flood of agony that blotted all consciousness
from Foster's brain as his falling body hurtled on toward the cavern
floor.

* * * * *

He struggled slowly back to consciousness to find Garrigan and another
of the men working over him. There was the stabbing pain of broken bones
in his left ankle. With the men helping him, he sat up and looked
around.

The scene was one of utter chaos and destruction. The falling cable had
obviously found its mark on Layroh's machine-body and in its last
furious convulsions the metal colossus had completely wrecked the great
glass case in the center of the cavern floor.

The machine itself was now nothing more than a tangled heap of twisted
metal. In its shattered crystal compartment was a torn blob of swiftly
blackening gelatin--all that remained of Layroh, the Shining One. Other
shredded figures of dead flesh marked where the ten half-awakened slugs
had died in the wreckage of the glass-walled case.

And in the many tiers of small cells along the cavern's back wall were
more figures of death. The severed cable had been the source of the
energy that had kept those dormant figures alive. When that energy
ceased death had come quickly. Those figures in the cells were no longer
Shining Ones. Their bodies were already swiftly darkening in decay.

Foster smiled grimly as he looked around the cavern. There were
scientific treasures here that would revolutionize a world. It was a
fitting retribution for the Shining Ones. When they had destroyed
Atlantis they had robbed Earth of countless centuries of scientific
knowledge and progress. Now, here in the cavern that had at last become
their tomb, they were leaving a legacy of science that would go far
toward repaying that ancient debt.

Transcriber's Note:

This etext was produced from _Astounding Stories_ November 1932.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and
typographical errors have been corrected without note.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Cavern of the Shining Ones, by Hal K. Wells

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAVERN OF THE SHINING ONES ***

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