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diff --git a/23568.txt b/23568.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7feb194 --- /dev/null +++ b/23568.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1173 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mississippi Saucer, by Frank Belknap Long + +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: The Mississippi Saucer + +Author: Frank Belknap Long + +Release Date: November 20, 2007 [EBook #23568] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MISSISSIPPI SAUCER *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Joel Schlosberg and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +[Transcriber's Note: +This eBook was produced from _Weird Tales_, March 1951, pp. 26-36. +Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright +on this publication was renewed.] + + + + +_Something of the wonder that must have come to men +seeking magic in the sky in days long vanished._ + + + + +The Mississippi Saucer + + + + +[Illustration] + +*Heading by Jon Arfstrom* + + + + +_By Frank Belknap Long_ + + +Jimmy watched the _Natchez Belle_ draw near, a shining eagerness in his +stare. He stood on the deck of the shantyboat, his toes sticking out of +his socks, his heart knocking against his ribs. Straight down the river +the big packet boat came, purpling the water with its shadow, its +smokestacks belching soot. + +Jimmy had a wild talent for collecting things. He knew exactly how to +infuriate the captains without sticking out his neck. Up and down the +Father of Waters, from the bayous of Louisiana to the Great Sandy other +little shantyboat boys envied Jimmy and tried hard to imitate him. + +But Jimmy had a very special gift, a genius for pantomime. He'd wait +until there was a glimmer of red flame on the river and small objects +stood out with a startling clarity. Then he'd go into his act. + +Nothing upset the captains quite so much as Jimmy's habit of holding a +big, croaking bullfrog up by its legs as the riverboats went steaming +past. It was a surefire way of reminding the captains that men and frogs +were brothers under the skin. The puffed-out throat of the frog told the +captains exactly what Jimmy thought of their cheek. + +Jimmy refrained from making faces, or sticking out his tongue at the +grinning roustabouts. It was the frog that did the trick. + +In the still dawn things came sailing Jimmy's way, hurled by captains +with a twinkle of repressed merriment dancing in eyes that were kindlier +and more tolerant than Jimmy dreamed. + +Just because shantyboat folk had no right to insult the riverboats Jimmy +had collected forty empty tobacco tins, a down-at-heels shoe, a Sears +Roebuck catalogue and--more rolled up newspapers than Jimmy could ever +read. + +Jimmy could read, of course. No matter how badly Uncle Al needed a new +pair of shoes, Jimmy's education came first. So Jimmy had spent six +winters ashore in a first-class grammar school, his books paid for out +of Uncle Al's "New Orleans" money. + +Uncle Al, blowing on a vinegar jug and making sweet music, the holes in +his socks much bigger than the holes in Jimmy's socks. Uncle Al shaking +his head and saying sadly, "Some day, young fella, I ain't gonna sit +here harmonizing. No siree! I'm gonna buy myself a brand new store suit, +trade in this here jig jug for a big round banjo, and hie myself off to +the Mardi Gras. Ain't too old thataway to git a little fun out of life, +young fella!" + +Poor old Uncle Al. The money he'd saved up for the Mardi Gras never +seemed to stretch far enough. There was enough kindness in him to +stretch like a rainbow over the bayous and the river forests of sweet, +rustling pine for as far as the eye could see. Enough kindness to wrap +all of Jimmy's life in a glow, and the life of Jimmy's sister as well. + +Jimmy's parents had died of winter pneumonia too soon to appreciate +Uncle Al. But up and down the river everyone knew that Uncle Al was a +great man. + + * * * * * + +Enemies? Well, sure, all great men made enemies, didn't they? + +The Harmon brothers were downright sinful about carrying their feuding +meanness right up to the doorstep of Uncle Al, if it could be said that +a man living in a shantyboat had a doorstep. + +Uncle Al made big catches and the Harmon brothers never seemed to have +any luck. So, long before Jimmy was old enough to understand how +corrosive envy could be the Harmon brothers had started feuding with +Uncle Al. + +"Jimmy, here comes the _Natchez Belle_! Uncle Al says for you to get him +a newspaper. The newspaper you got him yesterday he couldn't read +no-ways. It was soaking wet!" + +Jimmy turned to glower at his sister. Up and down the river Pigtail Anne +was known as a tomboy, but she wasn't--no-ways. She was Jimmy's little +sister. That meant Jimmy was the man in the family, and wore the pants, +and nothing Pigtail said or did could change that for one minute. + +"Don't yell at me!" Jimmy complained. "How can I get Captain Simmons mad +if you get me mad first? Have a heart, will you?" + +But Pigtail Anne refused to budge. Even when the _Natchez Belle_ loomed +so close to the shantyboat that it blotted out the sky she continued to +crowd her brother, preventing him from holding up the frog and making +Captain Simmons squirm. + +But Jimmy got the newspaper anyway. Captain Simmons had a keen insight +into tomboy psychology, and from the bridge of the _Natchez Belle_ he +could see that Pigtail was making life miserable for Jimmy. + +True--Jimmy had no respect for packet boats and deserved a good +trouncing. But what a scrapper the lad was! Never let it be said that in +a struggle between the sexes the men of the river did not stand shoulder +to shoulder. + +The paper came sailing over the shining brown water like a white-bellied +buffalo cat shot from a sling. + +Pigtail grabbed it before Jimmy could give her a shove. Calmly she +unwrapped it, her chin tilted in bellicose defiance. + +As the _Natchez Belle_ dwindled around a lazy, cypress-shadowed bend +Pigtail Anne became a superior being, wrapped in a cosmopolitan aura. A +wide-eyed little girl on a swaying deck, the great outside world rushing +straight toward her from all directions. + +Pigtail could take that world in her stride. She liked the fashion page +best, but she was not above clicking her tongue at everything in the +paper. + +"Kidnap plot linked to airliner crash killing fifty," she read. "Red Sox +blank Yanks! Congress sits today, vowing vengeance! Million dollar +heiress elopes with a clerk! Court lets dog pick owner! Girl of eight +kills her brother in accidental shooting!" + +"I ought to push your face right down in the mud," Jimmy muttered. + +"Don't you dare! I've a right to see what's going on in the world!" + +"You said the paper was for Uncle Al!" + +"It is--when I get finished with it." + +Jimmy started to take hold of his sister's wrist and pry the paper from +her clasp. Only started--for as Pigtail wriggled back sunlight fell on a +shadowed part of the paper which drew Jimmy's gaze as sunlight draws +dew. + +_Exciting_ wasn't the word for the headline. It seemed to blaze out of +the page at Jimmy as he stared, his chin nudging Pigtail's shoulder. + + + NEW FLYING MONSTER REPORTED + BLAZING GULF STATE SKIES + + +Jimmy snatched the paper and backed away from Pigtail, his eyes glued to +the headline. + + * * * * * + +He was kind to his sister, however. He read the news item aloud, if an +account so startling could be called an item. To Jimmy it seemed more +like a dazzling burst of light in the sky. + +"A New Orleans resident reported today that he saw a big bright object +'roundish like a disk' flying north, against the wind. 'It was all +lighted up from inside!' the observer stated. 'As far as I could tell +there were no signs of life aboard the thing. It was much bigger than +any of the flying saucers previously reported!'" + +"People keep seeing them!" Jimmy muttered, after a pause. "Nobody knows +where they come from! Saucers flying through the sky, high up at night. +In the daytime, too! Maybe we're being _watched_, Pigtail!" + +"Watched? Jimmy, what do you mean? What you talking about?" + +Jimmy stared at his sister, the paper jiggling in his clasp. "It's way +over your head, Pigtail!" he said sympathetically. "I'll prove it! +What's a planet?" + +"A star in the sky, you dope!" Pigtail almost screamed. "Wait'll Uncle +Al hears what a meanie you are. If I wasn't your sister you wouldn't +dare grab a paper that doesn't belong to you." + +Jimmy refused to be enraged. "A planet's not a star, Pigtail," he said +patiently. "A star's a big ball of fire like the sun. A planet is small +and cool, like the Earth. Some of the planets may even have people on +them. Not people like us, but people all the same. Maybe we're just +frogs to them!" + +"You're crazy, Jimmy! Crazy, crazy, you hear?" + +Jimmy started to reply, then shut his mouth tight. Big waves were +nothing new in the wake of steamboats, but the shantyboat wasn't just +riding a swell. It was swaying and rocking like a floating barrel in the +kind of blow Shantyboaters dreaded worse than the thought of dying. + +Jimmy knew that a big blow could come up fast. Straight down from the +sky in gusts, from all directions, banging against the boat like a +drunken roustabout, slamming doors, tearing away mooring planks. + + * * * * * + +The river could rise fast too. Under the lashing of a hurricane blowing +up from the gulf the river could lift a shantyboat right out of the +water, and smash it to smithereens against a tree. + +But now the blow was coming from just one part of the sky. A funnel of +wind was churning the river into a white froth and raising big swells +directly offshore. But the river wasn't rising and the sun was shining +in a clear sky. + +Jimmy knew a dangerous floodwater storm when he saw one. The sky had to +be dark with rain, and you had to feel scared, in fear of drowning. + +Jimmy was scared, all right. That part of it rang true. But a hollow, +sick feeling in his chest couldn't mean anything by itself, he told +himself fiercely. + +Pigtail Anne saw the disk before Jimmy did. She screamed and pointed +skyward, her twin braids standing straight out in the wind like the +ropes on a bale of cotton, when smokestacks collapse and a savage +howling sends the river ghosts scurrying for cover. + +Straight down out of the sky the disk swooped, a huge, spinning shape +as flat as a buckwheat cake swimming in a golden haze of butterfat. + +But the disk didn't remind Jimmy of a buckwheat cake. It made him think +instead of a slowly turning wheel in the pilot house of a rotting old +riverboat, a big, ghostly wheel manned by a steersman a century dead, +his eye sockets filled with flickering swamp lights. + +It made Jimmy want to run and hide. Almost it made him want to cling to +his sister, content to let her wear the pants if only he could be spared +the horror. + +For there was something so chilling about the downsweeping disk that +Jimmy's heart began leaping like a vinegar jug bobbing about in the wake +of a capsizing fishboat. + +Lower and lower the disk swept, trailing plumes of white smoke, lashing +the water with a fearful blow. Straight down over the cypress wilderness +that fringed the opposite bank, and then out across the river with a +long-drawn whistling sound, louder than the air-sucking death gasps of a +thousand buffalo cats. + +Jimmy didn't see the disk strike the shining broad shoulders of the +Father of Waters, for the bend around which the _Natchez Belle_ had +steamed so proudly hid the sky monster from view. But Jimmy did see the +waterspout, spiraling skyward like the atom bomb explosion he'd goggled +at in the pages of an old _Life_ magazine, all smudged now with oily +thumbprints. + +Just a roaring for an instant--and a big white mushroom shooting +straight up into the sky. Then, slowly, the mushroom decayed and fell +back, and an awful stillness settled down over the river. + + * * * * * + +The stillness was broken by a shrill cry from Pigtail Anne. "It was a +flying saucer! Jimmy, we've seen one! We've seen one! We've--" + +"Shut your mouth, Pigtail!" + +Jimmy shaded his eyes and stared out across the river, his chest a +throbbing ache. + +He was still staring when a door creaked behind him. + +Jimmy trembled. A tingling fear went through him, for he found it hard +to realize that the disk had swept around the bend out of sight. To his +overheated imagination it continued to fill all of the sky above him, +overshadowing the shantyboat, making every sound a threat. + +Sucking the still air deep into his lungs, Jimmy swung about. + +Uncle Al was standing on the deck in a little pool of sunlight, his +gaunt, hollow-cheeked face set in harsh lines. Uncle Al was shading his +eyes too. But he was staring up the river, not down. + +"Trouble, young fella," he grunted. "Sure as I'm a-standin' here. A +barrelful o' trouble--headin' straight for us!" + +Jimmy gulped and gestured wildly toward the bend. "It came down _over +there_, Uncle Al!" he got out. "Pigtail saw it, too! A big, flying--" + +"The Harmons are a-comin', young fella," Uncle Al drawled, silencing +Jimmy with a wave of his hand. "Yesterday I rowed over a Harmon jug line +without meanin' to. Now Jed Harmon's tellin' everybody I stole his +fish!" + +Very calmly Uncle Al cut himself a slice of the strongest tobacco on the +river and packed it carefully in his pipe, wadding it down with his +thumb. + +He started to put the pipe between his teeth, then thought better of it. + +"I can bone-feel the Harmon boat a-comin', young fella," he said, using +the pipe to gesture with. "Smooth and quiet over the river like a +moccasin snake." + +Jimmy turned pale. He forgot about the disk and the mushrooming water +spout. When he shut his eyes he saw only a red haze overhanging the +river, and a shantyboat nosing out of the cypresses, its windows +spitting death. + + * * * * * + +Jimmy knew that the Harmons had waited a long time for an excuse. The +Harmons were law-respecting river rats with sharp teeth. Feuding wasn't +lawful, but murder could be made lawful by whittling down a lie until it +looked as sharp as the truth. + +The Harmon brothers would do their whittling down with double-barreled +shotguns. It was easy enough to make murder look like a lawful crime if +you could point to a body covered by a blanket and say, "We caught him +stealing our fish! He was a-goin' to kill us--so we got him first." + +No one would think of lifting the blanket and asking Uncle Al about it. +A man lying stiff and still under a blanket could no more make himself +heard than a river cat frozen in the ice. + +"Git inside, young 'uns. _Here they come!_" + +Jimmy's heart skipped a beat. Down the river in the sunlight a +shantyboat was drifting. Jimmy could see the Harmon brothers crouching +on the deck, their faces livid with hate, sunlight glinting on their +arm-cradled shotguns. + +The Harmon brothers were not in the least alike. Jed Harmon was tall and +gaunt, his right cheek puckered by a knife scar, his cruel, thin-lipped +mouth snagged by his teeth. Joe Harmon was small and stout, a little +round man with bushy eyebrows and the flabby face of a cottonmouth +snake. + +"Go inside, Pigtail," Jimmy said, calmly. "I'm a-going to stay and +fight!" + + * * * * * + +Uncle Al grabbed Jimmy's arm and swung him around. "You heard what I +said, young fella. Now git!" + +"I want to stay here and fight with you, Uncle Al," Jimmy said. + +"Have you got a gun? Do you want to be blown apart, young fella?" + +"I'm not scared, Uncle Al," Jimmy pleaded. "You might get wounded. I +know how to shoot straight, Uncle Al. If you get hurt I'll go right on +fighting!" + +"No you won't, young fella! Take Pigtail inside. You hear me? You want +me to take you across my knee and beat the livin' stuffings out of you?" + +Silence. + +Deep in his uncle's face Jimmy saw an anger he couldn't buck. Grabbing +Pigtail Anne by the arm, he propelled her across the deck and into the +dismal front room of the shantyboat. + +The instant he released her she glared at him and stamped her foot. "If +Uncle Al gets shot it'll be your fault," she said cruelly. Then +Pigtail's anger really flared up. + +"The Harmons wouldn't dare shoot us 'cause we're children!" + +For an instant brief as a dropped heartbeat Jimmy stared at his sister +with unconcealed admiration. + +"You can be right smart when you've got nothing else on your mind, +Pigtail," he said. "If they kill me they'll hang sure as shooting!" + +Jimmy was out in the sunlight again before Pigtail could make a grab for +him. + +Out on the deck and running along the deck toward Uncle Al. He was still +running when the first blast came. + + * * * * * + +It didn't sound like a shotgun blast. The deck shook and a big swirl of +smoke floated straight toward Jimmy, half blinding him and blotting +Uncle Al from view. + +When the smoke cleared Jimmy could see the Harmon shantyboat. It was +less than thirty feet away now, drifting straight past and rocking with +the tide like a topheavy flatbarge. + +On the deck Jed Harmon was crouching down, his gaunt face split in a +triumphant smirk. Beside him Joe Harmon stood quivering like a mound of +jelly, a stick of dynamite in his hand, his flabby face looking almost +gentle in the slanting sunlight. + +There was a little square box at Jed Harmon's feet. As Joe pitched Jed +reached into the box for another dynamite stick. Jed was passing the +sticks along to his brother, depending on wad dynamite to silence Uncle +Al forever. + +Wildly Jimmy told himself that the guns had been just a trick to mix +Uncle Al up, and keep him from shooting until they had him where they +wanted him. + +Uncle Al was shooting now, his face as grim as death. His big heavy gun +was leaping about like mad, almost hurling him to the deck. + +Jimmy saw the second dynamite stick spinning through the air, but he +never saw it come down. All he could see was the smoke and the +shantyboat rocking, and another terrible splintering crash as he went +plunging into the river from the end of a rising plank, a sob strangling +in his throat. + +Jimmy struggled up from the river with the long leg-thrusts of a +terrified bullfrog, his head a throbbing ache. As he swam shoreward he +could see the cypresses on the opposite bank, dark against the sun, and +something that looked like the roof of a house with water washing over +it. + +Then, with mud sucking at his heels, Jimmy was clinging to a slippery +bank and staring out across the river, shading his eyes against the +glare. + +Jimmy thought, "I'm dreaming! I'll wake up and see Uncle Joe blowing on +a vinegar jug. I'll see Pigtail, too. Uncle Al will be sitting on the +deck, taking it easy!" + +But Uncle Al wasn't sitting on the deck. There was no deck for Uncle Al +to sit upon. Just the top of the shantyboat, sinking lower and lower, +and Uncle Al swimming. + +Uncle Al had his arm around Pigtail, and Jimmy could see Pigtail's white +face bobbing up and down as Uncle Al breasted the tide with his strong +right arm. + +Closer to the bend was the Harmon shantyboat. The Harmons were using +their shotguns now, blasting fiercely away at Uncle Al and Pigtail. +Jimmy could see the smoke curling up from the leaping guns and the water +jumping up and down in little spurts all about Uncle Al. + +There was an awful hollow agony in Jimmy's chest as he stared, a fear +that was partly a soundless screaming and partly a vision of Uncle Al +sinking down through the dark water and turning it red. + +It was strange, though. Something was happening to Jimmy, nibbling away +at the outer edges of the fear like a big, hungry river cat. Making the +fear seem less swollen and awful, shredding it away in little flakes. + +There was a white core of anger in Jimmy which seemed suddenly to blaze +up. + +He shut his eyes tight. + +In his mind's gaze Jimmy saw himself holding the Harmon brothers up by +their long, mottled legs. The Harmon brothers were frogs. Not friendly, +good natured frogs like Uncle Al, but snake frogs. Cottonmouth frogs. + +All flannel red were their mouths, and they had long evil fangs which +dripped poison in the sunlight. But Jimmy wasn't afraid of them no-ways. +Not any more. He had too firm a grip on their legs. + +"Don't let anything happen to Uncle Al and Pigtail!" Jimmy whispered, as +though he were talking to himself. No--not exactly to himself. To +someone like himself, only larger. Very close to Jimmy, but larger, more +powerful. + +"Catch them before they harm Uncle Al! Hurry! _Hurry!_" + +There was a strange lifting sensation in Jimmy's chest now. As though he +could shake the river if he tried hard enough, tilt it, send it swirling +in great thunderous white surges clear down to Lake Pontchartrain. + + * * * * * + +But Jimmy didn't want to tilt the river. Not with Uncle Al on it and +Pigtail, and all those people in New Orleans who would disappear right +off the streets. They were frogs too, maybe, but good frogs. Not like +the Harmon brothers. + +Jimmy had a funny picture of himself much younger than he was. Jimmy saw +himself as a great husky baby, standing in the middle of the river and +blowing on it with all his might. The waves rose and rose, and Jimmy's +cheeks swelled out and the river kept getting angrier. + +No--he must fight that. + +"Save Uncle Al!" he whispered fiercely. "Just save him--and Pigtail!" + +It began to happen the instant Jimmy opened his eyes. Around the bend in +the sunlight came a great spinning disk, wrapped in a fiery glow. + +Straight toward the Harmon shantyboat the disk swept, water spurting up +all about it, its bottom fifty feet wide. There was no collision. Only a +brightness for one awful instant where the shantyboat was twisting and +turning in the current, a brightness that outshone the rising sun. + +Just like a camera flashbulb going off, but bigger, brighter. So big and +bright that Jimmy could see the faces of the Harmon brothers fifty times +as large as life, shriveling and disappearing in a magnifying burst of +flame high above the cypress trees. Just as though a giant in the sky +had trained a big burning glass on the Harmon brothers and whipped it +back quick. + +Whipped it straight up, so that the faces would grow huge before +dissolving as a warning to all snakes. There was an evil anguish in the +dissolving faces which made Jimmy's blood run cold. Then the disk was +alone in the middle of the river, spinning around and around, the +shantyboat swallowed up. + +And Uncle Al was still swimming, fearfully close to it. + +The net came swirling out of the disk over Uncle Al like a great, +dew-drenched gossamer web. It enmeshed him as he swam, so gently that he +hardly seemed to struggle or even to be aware of what was happening to +him. + +Pigtail didn't resist, either. She simply stopped thrashing in Uncle +Al's arms, as though a great wonder had come upon her. + +Slowly Uncle Al and Pigtail were drawn into the disk. Jimmy could see +Uncle Al reclining in the web, with Pigtail in the crook of his arm, his +long, angular body as quiet as a butterfly in its deep winter sleep +inside a swaying glass cocoon. + +Uncle Al and Pigtail, being drawn together into the disk as Jimmy +stared, a dull pounding in his chest. After a moment the pounding +subsided and a silence settled down over the river. + +Jimmy sucked in his breath. The voices began quietly, as though they had +been waiting for a long time to speak to Jimmy deep inside his head, and +didn't want to frighten him in any way. + +"Take it easy, Jimmy! Stay where you are. We're just going to have a +friendly little talk with Uncle Al." + +"A t-talk?" Jimmy heard himself stammering. + +"We knew we'd find you where life flows simply and serenely, Jimmy. +Your parents took care of that before they left you with Uncle Al. + +"You see, Jimmy, we wanted you to study the Earth people on a great, +wide flowing river, far from the cruel, twisted places. To grow up with +them, Jimmy--and to understand them. Especially the Uncle Als. For Uncle +Al is unspoiled, Jimmy. If there's any hope at all for Earth as we guide +and watch it, that hope burns most brightly in the Uncle Als!" + +The voice paused, then went on quickly. "You see, Jimmy, you're not +human in the same way that your sister is human--or Uncle Al. But you're +still young enough to feel human, and we want you to feel human, Jimmy." + +"W--Who are you?" Jimmy gasped. + +"We are the Shining Ones, Jimmy! For wide wastes of years we have +cruised Earth's skies, almost unnoticed by the Earth people. When +darkness wraps the Earth in a great, spinning shroud we hide our ships +close to the cities, and glide through the silent streets in search of +our young. You see, Jimmy, we must watch and protect the young of our +race until sturdiness comes upon them, and they are ready for the Great +Change." + + * * * * * + +For an instant there was a strange, humming sound deep inside Jimmy's +head, like the drowsy murmur of bees in a dew-drenched clover patch. +Then the voice droned on. "The Earth people are frightened by our ships +now, for their cruel wars have put a great fear of death in their +hearts. They watch the skies with sharper eyes, and their minds have +groped closer to the truth. + +"To the Earth people our ships are no longer the fireballs of mysterious +legend, haunted will-o'-the-wisps, marsh flickerings and the even more +illusive distortions of the sick in mind. It is a long bold step from +fireballs to flying saucers, Jimmy. A day will come when the Earth +people will be wise enough to put aside fear. Then we can show ourselves +to them as we really are, and help them openly." + +The voice seemed to take more complete possession of Jimmy's thoughts +then, growing louder and more eager, echoing through his mind with the +persuasiveness of muted chimes. + +"Jimmy, close your eyes tight. We're going to take you across wide gulfs +of space to the bright and shining land of your birth." + +Jimmy obeyed. + +It was a city, and yet it wasn't like New York or Chicago or any of the +other cities Jimmy had seen illustrations of in the newspapers and +picture magazines. + +The buildings were white and domed and shining, and they seemed to tower +straight up into the sky. There were streets, too, weaving in and out +between the domes like rainbow-colored spider webs in a forest of +mushrooms. + + * * * * * + +There were no people in the city, but down the aerial streets shining +objects swirled with the swift easy gliding of flat stones skimming an +edge of running water. + +Then as Jimmy stared into the depths of the strange glow behind his +eyelids the city dwindled and fell away, and he saw a huge circular disk +looming in a wilderness of shadows. Straight toward the disk a shining +object moved, bearing aloft on filaments of flame a much smaller object +that struggled and mewed and reached out little white arms. + +Closer and closer the shining object came, until Jimmy could see that it +was carrying a human infant that stared straight at Jimmy out of wide, +dark eyes. But before he could get a really good look at the shining +object it pierced the shadows and passed into the disk. + +There was a sudden, blinding burst of light, and the disk was gone. + +Jimmy opened his eyes. + +"You were once like that baby, Jimmy!" the voice said. "You were carried +by your parents into a waiting ship, and then out across wide gulfs of +space to Earth. + +"You see, Jimmy, our race was once entirely human. But as we grew to +maturity we left the warm little worlds where our infancy was spent, +and boldly sought the stars, shedding our humanness as sunlight sheds +the dew, or a bright, soaring moth of the night its ugly pupa case. + +"We grew great and wise, Jimmy, but not quite wise enough to shed our +human heritage of love and joy and heartbreak. In our childhood we must +return to the scenes of our past, to take root again in familiar soil, +to grow in power and wisdom slowly and sturdily, like a seed dropped +back into the loam which nourished the great flowering mother plant. + +"Or like the eel of Earth's seas, Jimmy, that must be spawned in the +depths of the great cold ocean, and swim slowly back to the bright +highlands and the shining rivers of Earth. Young eels do not resemble +their parents, Jimmy. They're white and thin and transparent and have to +struggle hard to survive and grow up. + +"Jimmy, you were planted here by your parents to grow wise and strong. +Deep in your mind you knew that we had come to seek you out, for we are +all born human, and are bound one to another by that knowledge, and that +secret trust. + +"You knew that we would watch over you and see that no harm would come +to you. You called out to us, Jimmy, with all the strength of your mind +and heart. Your Uncle Al was in danger and you sensed our nearness. + +"It was partly your knowledge that saved him, Jimmy. But it took courage +too, and a willingness to believe that you were more than human, and +armed with the great proud strength and wisdom of the Shining Ones." + + * * * * * + +The voice grew suddenly gentle, like a caressing wind. + +"You're not old enough yet to go home, Jimmy! Or wise enough. We'll take +you home when the time comes. Now we just want to have a talk with Uncle +Al, to find out how you're getting along." + +Jimmy looked down into the river and then up into the sky. Deep down +under the dark, swirling water he could see life taking shape in a +thousand forms. Caddis flies building bright, shining new nests, and +dragonfly nymphs crawling up toward the sunlight, and pollywogs growing +sturdy hindlimbs to conquer the land. + +But there were cottonmouths down there too, with death behind their +fangs, and no love for the life that was crawling upward. When Jimmy +looked up into the sky he could see all the blazing stars of space, with +cottonmouths on every planet of every sun. + +Uncle Al was like a bright caddis fly building a fine new nest, thatched +with kindness, denying himself bright little Mardi Gras pleasures so +that Jimmy could go to school and grow wiser than Uncle Al. + +"That's right, Jimmy. You're growing up--we can see that! Uncle Al says +he told you to bide from the cottonmouths. But you were ready to give +your life for your sister and Uncle Al." + +"Shucks, it was nothing!" Jimmy heard himself protesting. + +"Uncle Al doesn't think so. And neither do we!" + + * * * * * + +A long silence while the river mists seemed to weave a bright cocoon of +radiance about Jimmy clinging to the bank, and the great circular disk +that had swallowed up Uncle Al. + +Then the voices began again. "No reason why Uncle Al shouldn't have a +little fun out of life, Jimmy. Gold's easy to make and we'll make some +right now. A big lump of gold in Uncle Al's hand won't hurt him in any +way." + +"Whenever he gets any spending money he gives it away!" Jimmy gulped. + +"I know, Jimmy. But he'll listen to you. Tell him you want to go to New +Orleans, too!" + +Jimmy looked up quickly then. In his heart was something of the wonder +he'd felt when he'd seen his first riverboat and waited for he knew not +what. Something of the wonder that must have come to men seeking magic +in the sky, the rainmakers of ancient tribes and of days long vanished. + +Only to Jimmy the wonder came now with a white burst of remembrance and +recognition. + +It was as though he could sense something of himself in the two towering +spheres that rose straight up out of the water behind the disk. Still +and white and beautiful they were, like bubbles floating on a rainbow +sea with all the stars of space behind them. + +Staring at them, Jimmy saw himself as he would be, and knew himself for +what he was. It was not a glory to be long endured. + +"Now you must forget again, Jimmy! Forget as Uncle Al will forget--until +we come for you. Be a little shantyboat boy! You are safe on the wide +bosom of the Father of Waters. Your parents planted you in a rich and +kindly loam, and in all the finite universes you will find no cosier +nook, for life flows here with a diversity that is infinite +and--_Pigtail_! She gets on your nerves at times, doesn't she, Jimmy?" + +"She sure does," Jimmy admitted. + +"Be patient with her, Jimmy. She's the only human sister you'll ever +have on Earth." + +"I--I'll try!" Jimmy muttered. + + * * * * * + +Uncle Al and Pigtail came out of the disk in an amazingly simple way. +They just seemed to float out, in the glimmering web. Then, suddenly, +there wasn't any disk on the river at all--just a dull flickering where +the sky had opened like a great, blazing furnace to swallow it up. + +"I was just swimmin' along with Pigtail, not worryin' too much, 'cause +there's no sense in worryin' when death is starin' you in the face," +Uncle Al muttered, a few minutes later. + +Uncle Al sat on the riverbank beside Jimmy, staring down at his palm, +his vision misted a little by a furious blinking. + +"It's gold, Uncle Al!" Pigtail shrilled. "A big lump of solid gold--" + +"I just felt my hand get heavy and there it was, young fella, nestling +there in my palm!" + +Jimmy didn't seem to be able to say anything. + +"High school books don't cost no more than grammar school books, young +fella," Uncle Al said, his face a sudden shining. "Next winter you'll be +a-goin' to high school, sure as I'm a-sittin' here!" + +For a moment the sunlight seemed to blaze so brightly about Uncle Al +that Jimmy couldn't even see the holes in his socks. + +Then Uncle Al made a wry face. "Someday, young fella, when your books +are all paid for, I'm gonna buy myself a brand new store suit, and hie +myself off to the Mardi Gras. Ain't too old thataway to git a little fun +out of life, young fella!" + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors in the original +text have been corrected in this eBook: + +Page 31: "sunilght" changed to "sunlight" + +Page 32: "tie" changed to "tide" + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Mississippi Saucer, by Frank Belknap Long + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MISSISSIPPI SAUCER *** + +***** This file should be named 23568.txt or 23568.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/3/5/6/23568/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Joel Schlosberg and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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