Project Gutenberg's Brood of the Dark Moon, by Charles Willard Diffin

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: Brood of the Dark Moon

Author: Charles Willard Diffin

Release Date: May 16, 2010 [EBook #32398]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BROOD OF THE DARK MOON ***

Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

Brood of the Dark Moon

(_A Sequel to "Dark Moon"_)

_By Charles Willard Diffin_

[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Stories
August, September, October and November 1931. Extensive research did not
uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was
renewed.]

List of Illustrations

_He landed one blow on the nearest face._

_One, swifter than the rest, dashed upon him._

_The inky waters were ablaze with fire._

_With the free hand he shot over a blow._

CHAPTER I

_The Message_

[Sidenote: Once more Chet, Walt and Diane are united in a wild ride to
the Dark Moon--but this time they go as prisoners of their deadly enemy
Schwartzmann.]

In a hospital in Vienna, in a room where sunlight flooded through
ultraviolet permeable crystal, the warm rays struck upon smooth walls
the color of which changed from hot reds to cool yellow or gray or to
soothing green, as the Directing Surgeon might order. An elusive
blending of tones now seemed pulsing with life; surely even a flickering
flame of vitality would be blown into warm livingness in such a place.

Even the chart case in the wall glittered with the same clean, brilliant
hues from its glass and metal door. The usual revolving paper disks
showed white beyond the glass. They were moving; and the ink lines grew
to tell a story of temperature and respiration and of every heart-beat.

On the identification-plate a name appeared and a date: "Chet
Bullard--23 years. Admitted: August 10, 1973." And below that the
ever-changing present ticked into the past in silent minutes: "August
15, 1973; World Standard Time: 10:38--10:39--10:40--"

For five days the minutes had trickled into a rivulet of time that
flowed past a bandaged figure i