diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29059-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 191815 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29059-h/29059-h.htm | 3477 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29059-h/images/illo.jpg | bin | 0 -> 152117 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29059.txt | 2035 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 29059.zip | bin | 0 -> 36243 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
8 files changed, 5528 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/29059-h.zip b/29059-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3523b2a --- /dev/null +++ b/29059-h.zip diff --git a/29059-h/29059-h.htm b/29059-h/29059-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..75d4001 --- /dev/null +++ b/29059-h/29059-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3477 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The World Beyond, by Ray Cummings. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 15%; + margin-right: 15%; + max-width: 40em; +} + + h1,h2 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + padding-top: 2em; + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.center { + text-align: center; +} + +.centersubhd { + text-align: center; + padding-bottom: 2em; +} + +/* Images */ + +img { border: thin solid black; padding: 1px; } + +.caption { font-weight: bold; font-size: 90%; } + +.figcenter { + padding: 1em; + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + + +/* Page Numbers */ + +.pagenum { + position: absolute; + left: 5%; + font-size: 90%; + font-weight: bold; + font-style: normal; + text-align: center; + width: 1.5em; + color: silver; + padding-top: 0.1em; + padding-bottom: 0.1em; + } + + +/* Transcriber's Note and Corrections */ + +.tnote { + border: dashed 1px; + padding: 1em; + margin-top: 3em; + margin-right: 0%; + margin-bottom: 3em; + margin-left: 0%; + page-break-after: always; +} + +.tnote p { text-indent: 0em; margin-left: 2em; margin-top: .5em; font-size: 90%; } + +.tnote h3 { text-indent: 0em; margin-left: 0em; text-align: left; font-size: 100%; + font-style: normal; font-weight: bold; } + + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The World Beyond, by Raymond King Cummings + +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 World Beyond + +Author: Raymond King Cummings + +Release Date: June 7, 2009 [EBook #29059] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD BEYOND *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, adhere and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<div class="tnote"> + +<h3 class="center">Transcriber's Note</h3> + +<p>This etext was produced from Amazing Stories July 1942. Extensive +research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this +publication was renewed.</p> +</div> + + +<p><i>Out of nowhere came these grim, +cold, black-clad men, to kidnap +three Earth people and carry +them to a weird and terrible +world where a man could be a +giant at will.</i></p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 460px;"> + +<img src="images/illo.jpg" width="460" height="650" alt="" /> + +<span class="caption">Lee Anthony crouched and set himself to<br /> +resist the attack of the robed men.</span> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_WORLD_BEYOND" id="THE_WORLD_BEYOND"></a>THE WORLD BEYOND</h2> + +<p class="center">By RAY CUMMINGS</p> + + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[107]</a></span> +The old woman was dying. +There could be no doubt of +it now. Surely she would not last +through the night. In the dim +quiet bedroom he sat watching +her, his young face grim and +awed. Pathetic business, this +ending of earthly life, this passing +on. In the silence, from the +living room downstairs the gay +laughter of the young people at +the birthday party came floating +up. His birthday—Lee Anthony, +twenty-one years old today. He +had thought he would feel very +different, becoming—legally—a +man. But the only difference +now, was that old Anna Green +who had been always so good to +him, who had taken care of him +almost all his life, now was dying.</p> + +<p>Terrible business. But old age +is queer. Anna knew what was +happening. The doctor, who had +given Lee the medicines and said +he would be back in the morning, +hadn't fooled her. And she +had only smiled.</p> + +<p>Lee tensed as he saw that she +was smiling now; and she opened +her eyes. His hand went to +hers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[108]</a></span> +where it lay, so white, blue-veined +on the white bedspread.</p> + +<p>"I'm here, Anna. Feel better?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. I'm all right." Her +faint voice, gently tired, mingled +with the sounds from the party +downstairs. She heard the laughter. +"You should be down there, +Lee. I'm all right."</p> + +<p>"I should have postponed it," +he said. "And what you did, preparing +for it—"</p> + +<p>She interrupted him, raising +her thin arm, which must have +seemed so heavy that at once she +let it fall again. "Lee—I guess +I am glad you're here—want to +talk to you—and I guess it better +be now."</p> + +<p>"Tomorrow—you're too tired +now—"</p> + +<p>"For me," she said with her +gentle smile, "there may not be +any tomorrow—not here. Your +grandfather, Lee—you really +don't remember him?"</p> + +<p>"I was only four or five."</p> + +<p>"Yes. That was when your +father and mother died in the +aero accident and your grandfather +brought you to me."</p> + +<p>Very vaguely he could remember +it. He had always understood +that Anna Green had loved his +grandfather, who had died that +same year.</p> + +<p>"What I want to tell you, Lee—" +She seemed summoning all +her last remaining strength. +"Your grandfather didn't die. +He just went away. What you've +never known—he was a scientist. +But he was a lot more than that. +He had—dreams. Dreams of +what we mortals might be—what +we ought to be—but are +not. And so he—went away."</p> + +<p>This dying old woman; her +mind was wandering?...</p> + +<p>"Oh—yes," Lee said. "But +you're much too tired now, Anna +dear—"</p> + +<p>"Please let me tell you. He +had—some scientific apparatus. I +didn't see it—I don't know where +he went. I think he didn't know +either, where he was going. But +he was a very good man, Lee. +I think he had an intuition—an +inspiration. Yes, it must have +been that. A man—inspired. And +so he went. I've never seen or +heard from him since. Yet—what +he promised me—if he +could accomplish it—tonight—almost +now, Lee, would be the +time—"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Just a desperately sick old +woman whose blurred mind was +seeing visions. The thin wrinkled +face, like crumpled white +parchment, was transfigured as +though by a vision. Her sunken +eyes were bright with it. A wonderment +stirred within Lee Anthony. +Why was his heart +pounding? It seemed suddenly as +though he must be sharing this +unknown thing of science—and +mysticism. As though something +within him—his grandfather's +blood perhaps—was responding.... +He felt suddenly wildly excited.</p> + +<p>"Tonight?" he murmured.</p> + +<p>"Your grandfather was a very +good man, Lee—"</p> + +<p>"And you, Anna—all my life +I have known how good you are. +Not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[109]</a></span> +like most women—you're +just all gentleness—just kindness—"</p> + +<p>"That was maybe—just an inspiration +from him." Her face +was bright with it. "I've tried to +bring you up—the way he told +me. And what I must tell you +now—about tonight, I mean—because +I may not live to see +it—"</p> + +<p>Her breath gave out so that +her faint tired voice trailed +away.</p> + +<p>"What?" he urged. "What is +it, Anna? About tonight—"</p> + +<p>What a tumult of weird excitement +was within him! Surely +this was something momentous. +His twenty-first birthday. Different, +surely, for Lee Anthony +than any similar event had ever +been for anyone else.</p> + +<p>"He promised me—when you +were twenty-one—just then—at +this time, if he could manage +it—that he would come back—"</p> + +<p>"Come back, Anna? Here?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. To you and me. Because +you would be a man—brought +up, the best I could do to make +you be—like him—because you +would be a man who would know +the value of love—and kindness—those +things that ought to rule +this world—but really do not."</p> + +<p>This wild, unreasoning excitement +within him...! "You think +he will come—tonight, Anna?"</p> + +<p>"I really do. I want to live to +see him. But now—I don't +know—"</p> + +<p>He could only sit in silence, +gripping her hand. And again +the gay voices of his guests +downstairs came up like a roar +of intrusion. They didn't know +that she was more than indisposed. +She had made him promise +not to tell them.</p> + +<p>Her eyes had closed, and now +she opened them again. "They're +having a good time, aren't they, +Lee? That's what I wanted—for +you and them both. You see, I've +had to be careful—not to isolate +you from life—life as it is. Because +your grandfather wanted +you to be normal—a healthy, +happy—regular young man. Not +queer—even though I've tried to +show you—"</p> + +<p>"If he—he's coming tonight, +Anna—we shouldn't have guests +here."</p> + +<p>"When they have had their +fun—"</p> + +<p>"They have. We're about finished +down there. I'll get rid of +them—tell them you're not very +well—"</p> + +<p>She nodded. "Perhaps that's +best—now—"</p> + +<p>He was hardly aware of how +he broke up the party and sent +them away. Then in the sudden +heavy silence of the little cottage, +here in the grove of trees +near the edge of the town, he +went quietly back upstairs.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Her eyes were closed. Her +white face was placid. Her faint +breath was barely discernible. +Failing fast now. Quietly he sat +beside her. There was nothing +that he could do. The doctor +had said that very probably she +could not live through the night. +Poor old Anna. His mind rehearsed +the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[110]</a></span> +life that she had +given him. Always she had been +so gentle, so wise, ruling him +with kindness.</p> + +<p>He remembered some of the +things she had reiterated so often +that his childish mind had +come to realize their inevitable +truth. The greatest instinctive +desire of every living creature +is happiness. And the way to +get it was not by depriving others +of it. It seemed now as +though this old woman had had +something of goodness inherent +to her—as though she were inspired? +And tonight she had +said, with her gentle smile as +she lay dying, that if that were +so—it had been an inspiration +from his grandfather.</p> + +<p>Something of science which +his grandfather had devised, and +which had enabled him to—go +away. What could that mean? Go +where? And why had he gone? +To seek an ideal? Because he +was dissatisfied with life here? +Her half incoherent words had +seemed to imply that. And now, +because Lee was twenty-one—a +man—his grandfather was coming +back. Because he had thought +that Lee would be able to help +him?... Help him to do—what?</p> + +<p>He stirred in his chair. It +was nearly midnight now. The +little cottage—this little second +floor bedroom where death was +hovering—was heavy with +brooding silence. It was awesome; +almost frightening. He +bent closer to the bed. Was she +dead? No, there was still a faint +fluttering breath, but it seemed +now that there would be no +strength for her to speak to him +again.</p> + +<p>Mysterious business, this +passing on. Her eyelids were +closed, a symbol of drawn blinds +of the crumbling old house in +which she had lived for so long. +It was almost a tenantless house +now. And yet she was somewhere +down there behind those +drawn blinds. Reluctant perhaps +to leave, still she lingered, with +the fires going out so that it +must be cold ... cold and silent +where she huddled. Or was she +hearing now the great organ of +the Beyond with its sweep of +harmonies summoning her to +come—welcoming her....</p> + +<p>A shiver ran through young +Lee Anthony as he saw that the +pallid bloodless lips of the white +wrinkled face had stirred into +a smile. Down there somewhere +her spirit—awed and a little +frightened doubtless—had opened +some door to let the sound +of the organ in—and to let in +the great riot of color which +must have been outside.... And +then she had not been frightened, +but eager....</p> + +<p>He realized suddenly that he +was staring at an empty shell +and that old Anna Green had +gone....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>A sound abruptly brought Lee +out of his awed thoughts. It +was outside the house—the +crunching of wheels in the gravel +of the driveway—the squeal of +grinding brakes. A car had +stopped.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[111]</a></span> +He sat erect in his chair, +stiffened, listening, with his +heart pounding so that the beat +of it seemed to shake his tense +body. His grandfather—returning?</p> + +<p>An automobile horn honked. +Footsteps sounded on the verandah. +The front doorbell rang.</p> + +<p>There were voices outside as +he crossed the living room—a +man's voice, and then a girl's +laugh. He flung open the door. It +was a young man in dinner +clothes and a tall blonde girl. +Tom Franklin, and a vivid, theatrical-looking +girl, whom Lee had +never seen before. She was +inches taller than her companion. +She stood clinging to his arm; +her beautiful face, with beaded +lashes and heavily rouged lips, +was laughing. She was swaying; +her companion steadied her, but +he was swaying himself.</p> + +<p>"Easy, Viv," he warned. "We +made it—tol' you we would.... +Hello there, Lee ol' man—your +birthday—think I'd forget a +thing like that, not on your life. +So we come t'celebrate—meet +Vivian Lamotte—frien' o' mine. +Nice kid, Viv—you'll like her."</p> + +<p>"Hello," the girl said. She +stared up at Lee. He towered +above her, and beside him the +undersized and stoop-shouldered +Franklin was swaying happily. +Admiration leaped into the girl's +eyes.</p> + +<p>"Say," she murmured, "you +sure are a swell looker for a +fact. He said you were—but my +Gawd—"</p> + +<p>"And his birthday too," +Frank agreed, "so we're gonna +celebrate—" His slack-jawed, +weak-chinned face radiated happiness +and triumph. "Came fas' +to get here in time. I tol' Viv +I could make it—we never hit a +thing—"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes—come in," Lee +agreed awkwardly. He had only +met young Tom Franklin once +or twice, a year ago now, and +Lee had completely forgotten it. +The son of a rich man, with +more money than was good for +him.... With old Anna lying +there upstairs—surely he did not +want these happy inebriated +guests here now....</p> + +<p>He stood with them just inside +the threshold. "I—I'm awfully +sorry," he began. "My birthday—yes, +but you see—old Mrs. +Green—my guardian—just all +the family I've got—she died, +just a few minutes ago—upstairs +here—I've been here alone with +her—"</p> + +<p>It sobered them. They stared +blankly. "Say, my Gawd, that's +tough," the girl murmured. +"Your birthday too. Tommy listen, +we gotta get goin'—can't +celebrate—"</p> + +<p>It seemed that there was just +a shadow out on the dark verandah. +A tall figure in a dark +cloak.</p> + +<p>"Why—what the hell," Franklin +muttered.</p> + +<p>A group of gliding soundless +figures were out there in the +darkness. And across the living +room the window sash went up +with a thump. A black shape +was there, huddled in a great +loose<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[112]</a></span> +cloak which was over the +head so that the thing inside was +shapeless.</p> + +<p>For an instant Lee and his +two companions stood stricken. +The shapes seemed babbling +with weird unintelligible words. +Then from the window came +words of English:</p> + +<p>"<i>We—want—</i>" Slow words, +strangely intoned. Young Tom +Franklin broke in on them.</p> + +<p>"Say—what the devil—who +do you people think you are, +comin' in here—" He took a +swaying step over the threshold. +There was a sudden sharp command +from one of the shapes. +Lee jumped in front of the girl. +On the verandah the gliding figures +were engulfing Franklin; +he had fallen.</p> + +<p>Lee went through the door +with a leap, his fist driving at +the cowled head of one of the +figures—a solid shape that staggered +backward from his blow. +But the others were on him, +dropping down before his rush, +gripping his legs and ankles. He +went down, fighting. And then +something struck his face—something +that was like a hand, +or a paw with claws that scratched +him. His head suddenly was +reeling; his senses fading....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>How long he fought Lee did +not know. He was aware that the +girl was screaming—and that he +was hurling clutching figures +away—figures that came pouncing +back. Then the roaring in his +head was a vast uproar. The +fighting, scrambling dark shapes +all seemed dwindling until they +were tiny points of white light—like +stars in the great abyss of +nothingness....</p> + +<p>He knew—as though it were +a blurred dream—that he was +lying inert on the verandah, +with Franklin and the girl lying +beside him.... The house was +being searched.... Then the +muttering shapes were standing +here. Lee felt himself being +picked up. And then he was +carried silently out into the +darkness. The motion seemed to +waft him off so that he knew +nothing more.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<p class="centersubhd"><i>The Flight Into Size and Space</i></p> + + +<p>Lee came back to consciousness +with the feeling that +some great length of time must +have elapsed. He was on a couch +in a small, weird-looking metal +room—metal of a dull, grey-white +substance like nothing he +had ever seen before. With his +head still swimming he got up +dizzily on one elbow, trying to +remember what had happened to +him. That fingernail, or claw, +had scratched his face. He had +been drugged. It seemed obvious. +He could remember his roaring +senses as he had tried to fight, +with the drug gradually overcoming +him....</p> + +<p>The room had a small door, +and a single round window, like +a bullseye pane of thick lens. +Outside there was darkness, with +points of stars. His head was +still<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</a></span> +humming from the remaining +effect of the drug. Or was +the humming an outside noise? +He was aware as he got to his +feet and staggered to the door, +that the humming was distantly +outside the room. The door was +locked; its lever resisted his +efforts to turn it.</p> + +<p>There he saw the inert figures +of the girl, and Tom Franklin. +They were lying uninjured on +two other small couches against +the room's metal wall. The girl +stirred a little as he touched her +dank forehead. Her dyed blonde +hair had fallen disheveled to her +shoulders. Franklin lay sprawled, +his stiff white shirt bosom dirty +and rumpled, his thin sandy hair +dangling over his flushed face. +His slack mouth was open. He +was breathing heavily.</p> + +<p>At the lens-window Lee stood +gasping, his mind still confused +and blurred, trying to encompass +what was out there. This +was a spaceship! A small globular +thing of white metal. He +could see a rim of it, like a flat +ring some ten feet beneath him. +A spaceship, and obviously it +had left the Earth! There was a +black firmament—dead-black +monstrous abyss with white +blazing points of stars. And +then, down below and to one side +there was just an edge of a great +globe visible. The Earth, with +the sunlight edging its sweeping +crescent limb—the Earth, down +there with a familiar coastline +and a huge spread of ocean like +a giant map in monochrome.</p> + +<p>Back on the couch Lee sat +numbed. There was the sound of +scraping metal; a doorslide in +the wall opened. A face was +there—a man with a blur of opalescent +light behind him.</p> + +<p>"You are all right now?" a +voice said.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I guess so. Let me out +of here—"</p> + +<p>Let him out of here? To do +what? To make them head this +thing back to Earth.... To Lee +Anthony as he sat confused, the +very thoughts were a fantasy.... +Off the Earth! Out in Space! +So often he had read of it, as a +future scientific possibility—but +with this actuality now his mind +seemed hardly to grasp it....</p> + +<p>The man's voice said gently, +"We cannot trust you. There +must be no fighting—"</p> + +<p>"I won't fight. What good +could it do me?"</p> + +<p>"You did fight. That was bad—that +was frightening. We must +not harm you—"</p> + +<p>"Where are we going?" Lee +murmured. "Why in the devil +are you—"</p> + +<p>"We think now it is best to +say nothing. We will give you +food through here. And over +there—behind you—a little doorslide +to another room. You and +these other two can be comfortable—"</p> + +<p>"For how long?" Lee demanded.</p> + +<p>"It should not seem many +days. Soon we shall go fast. +Please watch it at the window—he +would want that. You have +been taught some science?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I guess so."</p> + +<p>To<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</a></span> +Lee it was a weird, unnatural +exchange between captor +and captive. The voice, intoning +the English words so slowly, so +carefully, seemed gentle, concerned +with his welfare ... and +afraid of him.</p> + +<p>Abruptly the doorslide closed +again, and then at once it reopened.</p> + +<p>"He would want you to understand +what you see," the man +said. "You will find it very wonderful—we +did, coming down +here. This was his room—so long +ago when he used it. His dials +are there—you can watch them +and try to understand. Dials to +mark our distance and our size. +The size-change will start soon."</p> + +<p>Size-change? Lee's numbed +mind turned over the words and +found them almost meaningless.</p> + +<p>"From the window there—what +you can see will be very +wonderful," the man said again. +"He would want you to study it. +Please do that."</p> + +<p>The doorslide closed....</p> + +<p>What you can see from the +window will be very wonderful. +No one, during the days that followed +could adequately describe +what Lee Anthony and Thomas +Franklin and Vivian saw +through that lens-window. A +vast panorama in monochrome ... +a soundless drama of the stars, +so immense, so awesome that the +human mind could grasp only an +infinitesimal fragment of its +wonders....</p> + +<p>They found the little door +which led into another apartment. +There were tables and +chairs of earth-style, quaintly +old-fashioned. Food and drink +were shoved through the doorslide; +the necessities of life and +a fair comfort of living were +provided. But their questions, +even as the time passed and +lengthened into what on Earth +might have been a week or more, +remained unanswered. There +was only that gentle but firm +negation:</p> + +<p>"We have decided that he +would want us to say nothing. +We do not know about this girl +and this smaller man. We +brought them so that they could +not remain on Earth to talk of +having seen us. We are sorry +about that. He probably won't +like it."</p> + +<p>"He? Who the devil are you +talking about?" Franklin demanded. +"See here, if I had you +fellows back on Earth now I'd +slam you into jail. Damned brigands. +You can't do this to me! +My—my father's one of the most +important men in New York—"</p> + +<p>But now the doorslide quietly +closed.</p> + +<p>A week? It could have been +that, or more. In a wall recess of +the room Lee found a line of tiny +dials with moving pointers. +Miles—thousands of miles. A +million; ten millions; a hundred +million. A light-year; tens, thousands. +And, for the size-change, +a normal diameter, Unit 1—and +then up into thousands.</p> + +<p>For hours at a time, silent, +awed beyond what he had ever +conceived the emotion of awe +could mean, he sat at the +lens-window,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</a></span> +staring out and trying +to understand.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The globe-ship was some five-hundred +thousand miles out from +Earth when the size-change of +the weird little vehicle began. It +came to Lee with a sudden shock +to his senses, his head reeling, +and a tingling within him as +though every fibre of his being +were suddenly stimulated into a +new activity.</p> + +<p>"Well, my Gawd," Vivian +gasped. "What're they doin' to us +now?"</p> + +<p>The three of them had been +warned by a voice through the +doorslide, so that they sat together +on one of the couches, +waiting for what would happen.</p> + +<p>"This—I wish they wouldn't +do it," Franklin muttered. +"Damn them—I want to get out +of here."</p> + +<p>Fear seemed to be Franklin's +chief emotion now—fear and a +petty sense of personal outrage +that all this could be done to him +against his will. Often, when Lee +and the girl were at the window, +Franklin had sat brooding, staring +at his feet.</p> + +<p>"Easy," Lee said. "It evidently +won't hurt us. We're started +in size-change. The globe, and +everything in it, is getting larger."</p> + +<p>Weird. The grey metal walls +of the room were glowing now +with some strange current which +suffused them. The starlight +from the window-lens mingled +with an opalescent sheen from +the glowing walls. It was like an +aura, bathing the room—an aura +which seemed to penetrate every +smallest cell-particle of Lee's +body—stimulating it....</p> + +<p>Size-change! Vaguely, Lee +could fathom how it was accomplished; +his mind went back to +many scientific articles he had +read on the theory of it—only +theory, those imaginative scientific +pedants had considered it; +and now it was a reality upon +him! He recalled the learned +phrases the writers had used.... +The <i>state of matter</i>. In all +the Universe, the inherent factors +which govern the state of +matter yield most readily to a +change. An electronic charge—a +current perhaps akin to, but +certainly not identical with electricity, +would change the state +of all organic and inorganic substances +... a rapid duplication +of the fundamental entities +within the electrons—and electrons +themselves, so unsubstantial—mere +whirlpools of nothingness!</p> + +<p>A rapid duplication of the +fundamental whirlpools—that +would add size. The complete +substance—with shape unaltered—would +grow larger.</p> + +<p>All just theory, but here, now, +it was brought to an accomplished +fact. Within himself, Lee +could feel it. But as yet, he +could not see it. The glowing +room and everything in it was so +weirdly luminous, there was no +alteration in shape. These objects, +the figure of Vivian beside +him, and the pallid frightened +Franklin, relative to each other +they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[116]</a></span> +were no different from before. +And the vast panorama of +starry Universe beyond the lens-window, +the immense distances +out there, made any size-change +as yet unperceivable.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>But the size-change had begun, +there was no question of it. +With his senses steadying, Lee +crossed the room. A weird feeling +of lightness was upon him; +he swayed as he stood before the +little line of dials in the wall-recess. +Five hundred thousand +miles from Earth. More than +twice the distance of the Moon. +The globe had gone that far with +accelerating velocity so that now +the pointers marked a hundred +thousand miles an hour—out beyond +the Moon, heading for the +orbit-line of Mars. Now the size-change +pointers were stirring. +Unit One, the size this globe had +been as it rested on Earth, fifty +feet in height, and some thirty +feet at its mid-section bulge. Already +that unit was two, a globe—which, +if it were on Earth, +would be a hundred feet high. +And Lee himself? He would be +a giant more than twelve feet +tall now.... He stood staring +at the dials for a moment or +two. That little pointer of the +first of the size-change dials was +creeping around. An acceleration! +Another moment and it had +touched Unit four. A two hundred +foot globe. And Lee, if he +had been on Earth, would already +be a towering human nearly +twenty-five feet in height!</p> + +<p>Behind him, he heard Franklin +suddenly muttering, "If only +I could change without everything +else changing! Damn them +all—what I could do—"</p> + +<p>"You're nuts," Vivian said. "I +don't see anything growing bigger—everything +here—jus' the +same." Her laugh was abruptly +hysterical. "This room—you two—you +look like ghosts. Say, maybe +we're all dead an' don't know +it."</p> + +<p>Queerly her words sent a shiver +through Lee. He turned, stared +blankly at her. This weird +thing! The electronic light +streaming from these walls had +a stroboscopic quality. The girl's +face was greenish, putty-colored, +and her teeth shone phosphorescent.</p> + +<p>Maybe we're all dead and don't +know it.... Lee knew that this +thing was a matter of cold, precise, +logical science.... Yet +who shall say but what mysticism +is not mingled with science? +A thing, which if we understood +it thoroughly, would be +as logical, as precise as the mathematics +of science itself? Death? +Who shall say what, of actuality, +Death may be. A leaving of the +mortal shell? A departure from +earthly substance? A new state +of being? Surely some of those +elements were here now. And, +logically, why could there not +be a state of being not all Death, +but only with some of its elements?</p> + +<p>"I—I don't like this," Franklin +suddenly squealed. On the +couch he sat hunched, trembling. +"Something wrong here—Lee—damn<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[117]</a></span> +you Lee—don't you feel +it?"</p> + +<p>Lee tried to smile calmly. +"Feel what?"</p> + +<p>"We're not—not alone here," +Franklin stammered. "Not just +you and Vivian and me—something +else is here—something +you can't see, but you can almost +feel. An' I don't like it—"</p> + +<p>A presence. Was there indeed +something else here, of which +now in this new state of being +they were vaguely aware? Something—like +a fellow voyager—making +this weird journey with +them? Lee's heart was so wildly +beating that it seemed smothering +him.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Unit Ten ... Twenty ... a +Hundred.... With steady acceleration, +the lowest size-change +pointer was whirling, and the +one above it was moving. The +globe was five thousand feet high +now. And on Earth Lee would +have been a monstrous Titan +over six hundred feet tall. A +globe, and humans in that tremendous +size—the very weight +of them—in a moment more of +this growth—would disarrange +the rotation of the Earth on its +axis!...</p> + +<p>And then abruptly Lee found +himself envisaging the monstrous +globe out here in Space. +A thing to disarrange the mechanics +of all the Celestial Universe! +In an hour or two, with +this acceleration of growth, the +globe would be a huge meteorite—then +an asteroid....</p> + +<p>He stared at the distance dials. +With the growth had come an +immense augmentation of velocity. +A hundred thousand miles +an hour—that had been accelerated +a hundred fold now. Ten +million miles an hour.... +Through the window-lens Lee +gazed, mute with awe. The size-change +was beginning to show! +Far down, and to one side the +crescent Earth was dwindling +... Mars was far away in another +portion of its orbit—the +Moon was behind the Earth. +There were just the myriad +blazing giant worlds of the stars—infinitely +remote, with vast +distances of inky void between +them. And now there was a visible +movement to the stars! A +sort of shifting movement....</p> + +<p>An hour.... A day.... A +week.... Who shall try and describe +what Lee Anthony beheld +during that weird outward journey?... +For a brief time, after +they swept past the orbit of +Mars, the great planets of Jupiter +and Saturn were almost in +a line ahead of the plunging, +expanding globe. A monstrous +thing now—with electronically +charged gravity-plates so that it +plunged onward by its own repellant +force—the repellant force +of the great star-field beneath +it.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Lee stared at Jupiter, a lead-colored +world with its red spot +like a monster's single glaring +eye. With the speed of light +Jupiter was advancing, swinging +off to one side with a visible flow +of movement, and dropping down +into<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[118]</a></span> +the lower void as the globe +went past it. Yet, as it approached, +visually it had not grown +larger. Instead, there was only a +steady dwindling. A dwindling of +great Saturn, with its gorgeous, +luminous rings came next. These +approaching planets, seeming to +shrink! Because, with Lee's expanding +viewpoint, everything in +the vast scene was shrinking! +Great distances here, in relation +to the giant globe, were dwindling! +These millions of miles +between Saturn and Jupiter had +shrunk into thousands. And then +were shrinking to hundreds.</p> + +<p>Abruptly, with a startled +shock to his senses, Lee's viewpoint +changed. Always before he +had instinctively conceived himself +to be his normal six foot +earthly size. The starry Universe +was vast beyond his conception. +And in a second now, that +abruptly was altered. He conceived +the vehicle as of actuality +it was—a globe as large as the +ball of Saturn itself! And simultaneously +he envisaged the present +reality of Saturn. Out in the +inky blackness it hung—not a +giant ringed world millions of +miles away, but only a little +ringed ball no bigger than the +spaceship—a ringed ball only +eight or ten times as big as Lee +himself. It hung there for an instant +beside them—only a mile +or so away perhaps. And as it +went past, with both distance +and size-change combining now, +it shrank with amazing rapidity! +A ball only as big as this room.... +Then no larger than Lee it +hung, still seemingly no further +away than before. And then in +a few minutes more, a mile out +there in the shrinking distance, +it was a tiny luminous point, +vanishing beyond his vision.</p> + +<p>Uranus, little Neptune—Pluto, +almost too far away in its orbit +to be seen—all of them presently +were dwindled and gone. Lee had +a glimpse of the Solar system, +a mere bunch of lights. The Sun +was a tiny spot of light, holding +its little family of tiny planets—a +mother hen with her brood. It +was gone in a moment, lost like +a speck of star-dust among the +giant starry worlds.</p> + +<p>Another day—that is a day as +it would have been on Earth. +But here was merely a progressing +of human existence—a +streaming forward of human +consciousness. The Light-year +dial pointers were all in movement. +By Earth standards of size +and velocity, long since had the +globe's velocity reached and +passed the speed of light. Lee +had been taught—his book-learning +colored by the Einstein postulates—that +there could be no +speed greater than the speed of +light—by Earth standards—perhaps, +yes. The globe—by comparison +with its original fifty-foot +earth-size—might still be +traveling no more than a few +hundred thousand miles an hour. +But this monster—a thing now +as big as the whole Solar System +doubtless—was speeding +through a light-year in a moment!</p> + +<p>Futile figures! The human +mind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[119]</a></span> +can grasp nothing of the +vastness of inter-stellar space. +To Lee it was only a shrinking +inky void—an emptiness crowded +with whirling little worlds all +dwindling.... This crowded +space! Often little points of star-dust +had come whirling at the +globe—colliding, bursting into +pin-points of fire. Each of them +might have been bigger than the +Earth.</p> + +<p>There was a time when it +seemed that beneath the globe all +the tiny stars were shrinking into +one lens-shaped cluster. The +Inter-stellar Universe—all congealed +down there into a blob, +and everywhere else there was +just nothingness.... But then +little distant glowing nebulae +were visible—luminous, floating +rings, alone in the emptiness.... +Distant? One of them drifted +past, seemingly only a few hundred +feet away—a luminous little +ring of star-dust. The passage +of the monstrous globe +seemed to hurl it so that like +a blown smoke ring it went into +chaos, lost its shape, and vanished.</p> + +<p>Then at last all the blobs—each +of them, to Earth-size conception, +a monstrous Universe—all +were dwindled into one blob +down to one side of Lee's window. +And then they were +gone....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Just darkness now. Darkness +and soundless emptiness. But as +he stared at intervals through +another long night of his human +consciousness, Lee seemed to +feel that the emptiness out there +was dwindling—a finite emptiness. +He noticed, presently, that +the size-change pointers had +stopped their movement; the +ultimate size of the globe had +been reached. The figures of the +Light-year dials were meaningless +to his comprehension. The +velocity was meaningless. And +now another little set of dials +were in operation. A thousand—something—of +distance. There +was a meaningless word which +named the unit. A thousand +Earth-miles, if he had been in +his former size? The pointer +marked nine hundred in a moment. +Was it, perhaps, the distance +now from their destination?</p> + +<p>Vivian was beside him. "Lee, +what's gonna happen to us? +Won't this come to an end some +time? Lee—you won't let anybody +hurt me?"</p> + +<p>She was like a child, almost +always clinging to him now. And +suddenly she said a very strange +thing. "Lee, I been thinkin'—back +there on Earth I was doin' +a lot of things that maybe were +pretty rotten—anglin' for his +money for instance—an' not +carin' much what I had to do to +get it." She gestured at the sullen +Franklin who was sitting on +the couch. "You know—things +like that. An' I been thinkin'—you +suppose, when we get where +we're goin' now, that'll be held +against me?"</p> + +<p>What a queer thing to say! +She was like a child—and so often +a child has an insight into +that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[120]</a></span> +which is hidden from those +more mature!</p> + +<p>"I—don't know," Lee muttered.</p> + +<p>From the couch, Franklin +looked up moodily. "Whispering +about me again? I know you +are—damn you both. You and +everybody else here."</p> + +<p>"We're not interested in you," +Vivian said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're not? Well you +were, back on Earth. I'm not +good enough for you now, eh? +He's better—because he's big—big +and strong—that the idea? +Well if I ever had the chance—"</p> + +<p>"Don't be silly," Lee said.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The sullen Franklin was working +himself into a rage. Lee +seemed to understand Franklin +better now. A weakling. Inherently, +with a complex of inferiority, +the vague consciousness of it +lashing him into baffled anger.</p> + +<p>"You, Anthony," Franklin +burst out, "don't think you've +been fooling me. You can put it +over that fool girl, but not me. +I'm onto you."</p> + +<p>"Put what over?" Lee said +mildly.</p> + +<p>"That you don't know anything +about this affair or these +men who've got us—you don't +know who they are, do you?"</p> + +<p>"No. Do you?" Lee asked.</p> + +<p>Franklin jumped to his feet. +"Don't fence with me. By God, +if I was bigger I'd smash your +head in. They abducted us, because +they wanted you. That fellow +said as much near the start +of this damned trip. They won't +talk—afraid I'll find out. And +you can't guess what it's all +about! The hell you can't."</p> + +<p>Lee said nothing. But there +was a little truth in what Franklin +was saying, of course.... +Those things that the dying old +Anna Green had told him—surely +this weird voyage had +some connection.</p> + +<p>He turned away; went back +to the window. There was a +sheen now. A vague outline of +something vast, as though the +darkness were ending at a great +wall that glowed a little.</p> + +<p>It seemed, during the next +time-interval, as though the +globe might have turned over, so +that now it was dropping down +upon something tangible. Dropping—floating +down—with +steadily decreasing velocity, descending +to a Surface. The sheen +of glow had expanded until now +it filled all the lower hemisphere +of darkness—a great spread of +surface visually coming up. Then +there were things to see, illumined +by a faint half-light to +which color was coming; a faint, +pastel color that seemed a rose-glow.</p> + +<p>"Why—why," Vivian murmured, +"say, it's beautiful, ain't +it? It looks like fairyland—or +Heaven. It does—don't it, Lee?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," Lee murmured. "Like—like—"</p> + +<p>The wall-slide rasped. The +voice of one of their captors +said, "We will arrive soon. We +can trust you—there must be no +fighting?"</p> + +<p>"You can trust us," Lee said.</p> + +<p>It<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[121]</a></span> +was dark in the little curving +corridor of the globe, where +with silent robed figures around +them, they stood while the globe +gently landed. Then they were +pushed forward, out through the +exit port.</p> + +<p>The new realm. The World Beyond. +What was it? To Lee Anthony +then came the feeling that +there was a precise scientific explanation +of it, of course. And +yet, beyond all that pedantry of +science, he seemed to know that +it was something else, perhaps +a place that a man might mould +by his dreams. A place that +would be what a man made of it, +from that which was within himself.</p> + +<p>Solemn with awe he went with +his companions slowly down the +incline.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<p class="centersubhd"><i>Realm of Mystery</i></p> + + +<p>"We wish nothing of you," +the man said, "save that +you accept from us what we have +to offer. You are hungry. You +will let us bring you food."</p> + +<p>It was a simple rustic room +to which they had been brought—a +room in a house seemingly +of plaited straw. Crude furnishings +were here—table and chairs +of Earth fashion, padded with +stuffed mats. Woven matting +was on the floor. Through a +broad latticed window the faint +rose-light outside—like a soft +pastel twilight—filtered in, tinting +the room with a gentle glow. +Thin drapes at the window stirred +in a breath of breeze—a +warm wind from the hills, scented +with the vivid blooms which +were everywhere.</p> + +<p>It had been a brief walk from +the space-globe. Lee had seen +what seemed a little village +stretching off among the trees. +There had been people crowding +to see the strangers—men, women +and children, in simple crude +peasant garb—brief garments +that revealed their pink-white +bodies. They babbled with strange +unintelligible words, crowding +forward until the robed men +from the globe shoved them +away.</p> + +<p>It was a pastoral, peaceful +scene—a little country-side +drowsing in the warm rosy twilight. +Out by the river there +were fields where men stood at +their simple agricultural implements—stood +at rest, staring +curiously at the commotion in +the village.</p> + +<p>And still Lee's captors would +say nothing, merely drew them +forward, into this room. Then +all of them left, save one. He had +doffed his robe now. He was an +old man, with long grey-white +hair to the base of his neck. He +stood smiling. His voice, with +the English words queerly pronounced, +was gentle, but with a +firm finality of command.</p> + +<p>"My name is Arkoh," he said. +"I am to see that you are made +comfortable. This house is yours. +There are several rooms, so that +you may do in them as you +wish."</p> + +<p>"Thank<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[122]</a></span> +you," Lee said. "But +you can certainly understand—I +have asked many questions and +never had any answers. If you +wish to talk to me alone—"</p> + +<p>"That will come presently. +There is no reason for you to +be worried—"</p> + +<p>"We're not worried," Franklin +burst out. "We're fed up with +this highhanded stuff. You'll +answer questions now. What I +demand to know is why—"</p> + +<p>"Take it easy," Lee warned.</p> + +<p>Franklin had jumped to his +feet. He flung off Lee's hand. +"Don't make me laugh. I know +you're one of them—everything +about you is a fake. You got us +into this—"</p> + +<p>"So? You would bring strife +here from your Earth?" Arkoh's +voice cut in, like a knife-blade +cleaving through Franklin's +bluster. "That is not permissible. +Please do not make it necessary +that there should be violence +here." He stood motionless. +But before his gaze Franklin relaxed +into an incoherent muttering.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," Arkoh said. "I +shall send you the food." He +turned and left the room.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Vivian collapsed into a chair. +She was trembling. "Well—my +Gawd—what is all this? Lee—that +old man with his gentle +voice—he looked like if you +crossed him you'd be dead. Not +that he'd hurt you—it would be—would +be something else—"</p> + +<p>"You talk like an ass," Franklin +said. "You've gone crazy—and +I don't blame you—this +damned weird thing. For all that +old man's smooth talk, we're just +prisoners here. Look outside that +window—"</p> + +<p>It was a little garden, drowsing +in the twilight. A man stood +watching the window. And as +Lee went to the lattice, he could +see others, like guards outside.</p> + +<p>The man who brought their +simple food was a stalwart fellow +in a draped garment of +brown plaited fibre. His black +hair hung thick about his ears. +He laid out the food in silence.</p> + +<p>"What's <i>your</i> name?" Franklin +demanded.</p> + +<p>"I am Groff."</p> + +<p>"And you won't talk either, +I suppose? Look here, I can make +it worth your while to talk."</p> + +<p>"Everyone has all he needs +here. There is nothing that you +need give us."</p> + +<p>"Isn't there? You just give me +a chance and I'll show you. No +one has all he needs—or all he +wants."</p> + +<p>Groff did not answer. But as +he finished placing the food, and +left the room, it seemed to Lee +that he shot a queer look back +at Franklin. A look so utterly +incongruous that it was startling. +Franklin saw it and +chuckled.</p> + +<p>"Well, at least there's one person +here who's not so damn +weird that it gives you the +creeps."</p> + +<p>"You don't know what you're +talking about," Lee said. With +sudden impulse he lowered his +voice. "Franklin, listen—there +are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[123]</a></span> +a few things that perhaps I +can tell you. Things that I can +guess—that Vivian senses—"</p> + +<p>"I don't want to hear your explanation. +It would be just a lot +of damn lies anyway."</p> + +<p>"All right. Perhaps it would. +We'll soon know, I imagine."</p> + +<p>"Let's eat," Vivian said. "I'm +hungry, even if I am scared."</p> + +<p>To Lee it seemed that the +weird mystery here was crowding +upon them. As though, here +in this dim room, momentous +things were waiting to reveal +themselves. A strange emotion +was upon Lee Anthony. A sort of +tense eagerness. Certainly it was +not fear. Certainly it seemed impossible +that there could be anything +here of which he should be +afraid. Again his mind went +back to old Anna Green and what +she had told him of his grandfather. +How far away—how long +ago that had been.... And yet, +was Anna Green far away now? +Something of her had seemed +always to be with him on that +long, weird voyage, from the infinite +smallness and pettiness of +Earth to this realm out beyond +the stars. And more than ever +now, somehow Lee seemed aware +of her presence here in this +quiet room. Occultism? He had +always told himself that surely +he was no mystic. A practical +fellow, who could understand +science when it was taught him, +but certainly never could give +credence to mysticism. The dead +are dead, and the living are +alive; and between them is a gulf—an +abyss of nothingness.</p> + +<p>Now he found himself wondering. +Were all those people on +Earth who claimed to feel the +presence of dead loved ones near +them? Were those people just +straining their fancy—just comforting +themselves with what +they wished to believe? Or was +the scoffer himself the fool? And +if that could be so, on Earth, +why could not this strange realm +be of such a quality that an +awareness of those who have +passed from life would be the +normal thing? Who shall say +that the mysteries of life and +death are unscientific? Was it +not rather that they embraced +those gaps of science not yet understood? +Mysteries which, if +only we could understand them, +would be mysteries no longer?</p> + +<p>Lee had left the table and +again was standing at the latticed +window, beyond which the +drowsing little garden lay silent, +and empty now. The guard who +had been out here had moved +further away; his figure was a +blob near a flowered thicket at +the house corner. And suddenly +Lee was aware of another figure. +There was a little splashing +fountain near the garden's center—a +rill of water which came +down a little embankment and +splashed into a pool where the +rose light shimmered on the ripples.</p> + +<p>The figure was sitting at the +edge of the pool—a slim young +girl in a brief dress like a drape +upon her. She sat, half reclining +on the bank by the shimmering +water, with her long hair flowing +down<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[124]</a></span> +over her shoulders and +a lock of it trailing in the pool. +For a moment he thought that +she was gazing into the water. +Then as the light which tinted +her graceful form seemed to intensify, +he saw that she was +staring at him.</p> + +<p>It seemed as though both of +them, for that moment, were +breathless with a strange emotion +awakened in them by the +sight of each other. And then +slowly the girl rose to her feet. +Still gazing at Lee, she came +slowly forward with her hair +dangling, framing her small oval +face. The glow in the night-air +tinted her features. It was a +face of girlhood, almost mature—a +face with wonderment on +it now.</p> + +<p>He knew that he was smiling; +then, a few feet from the window +she stopped and said shyly:</p> + +<p>"You are Lee Anthony?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"I am Aura. When you have +finished eating, I am to take you +to him."</p> + +<p>"To him?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. The One of Our Guidance. +He bade me bring you." +Her soft voice was musical; to +her, quite obviously, the English +was a foreign tongue.</p> + +<p>"I'm ready," Lee said. "I'm +finished."</p> + +<p>One of her slim bare arms +went up with a gesture. From +the corner of the little house the +guard there turned, came inside. +Lee turned to the room. +The guard entered. "You are to +come," he said.</p> + +<p>"So we just stay here, prisoners," +Franklin muttered. He +and Vivian were blankly staring +as Lee was led away.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Then in a moment he was +alone beside the girl who had +come for him. Silently they walked +out into the glowing twilight, +along a little woodland path with +the staring people and the rustic, +nestling dwellings blurring in +the distance behind them. A +little line of wooded hills lay +ahead. The sky was like a dark +vault—empty. The pastel light +on the ground seemed inherent to +the trees and the rocks; it +streamed out like a faint radiation +from everywhere. And then, +as Lee gazed up into the abyss +of the heavens, suddenly it +seemed as though very faintly he +could make out a tiny patch of +stars. Just one small cluster, +high overhead.</p> + +<p>"The Universe you came +from," Aura said.</p> + +<p>"Yes." The crown of her tresses +as she walked beside him +was at his shoulder. He gazed +down at her. "To whom are you +taking me? It seems that I +could guess—"</p> + +<p>"I was told not to talk of +that."</p> + +<p>"Well, all right. Is it far?"</p> + +<p>"No. A little walk—just to +that nearest hill."</p> + +<p>Again they were silent. "My +Earth," he said presently, "do +you know much about it?"</p> + +<p>"A little. I have been told."</p> + +<p>"It seems so far away to me +now."</p> + +<p>She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[125]</a></span> +gazed up at him. She was +smiling. "Is it? To me it seems +quite close." She gestured. "Just +up there. It seemed far to you, +I suppose—that was because you +were so small, for so long, coming +here."</p> + +<p>Like a man the size of an ant, +trying to walk ten miles. Of +course, it would be a monstrous +trip. But if that man were steadily +to grow larger, as he progressed +he would cover the distance +very quickly.</p> + +<p>"Well," Lee said, "I suppose I +can understand that. You were +born here, Aura?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Of course."</p> + +<p>"Your world here—what is it +like?"</p> + +<p>She gazed up at him as though +surprised. "You have seen it. It +is just a simple little place. We +have not so many people here in +the village, and about that many +more—those who live in the hills +close around here."</p> + +<p>"You mean that's all? Just +this village? Just a few thousand +people?"</p> + +<p>"Oh there are others, of +course. Other groups—like ours, +I guess—out in the forests—everywhere +in all the forests, maybe." +Her gesture toward the distant, +glowing, wooded horizons +was vague. "We have never tried +to find out. Why should we? +Wherever they are, they have all +that they need or want. So have +we."</p> + +<p>The thing was so utterly simple. +He pondered it. "And you—you're +very happy here?"</p> + +<p>Her wide eyes were childlike. +"Why yes. Of course. Why not? +Why should not everyone be happy?"</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, "there are +things—"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I have heard of them. +Things on your Earth—which +the humans create for themselves—but +that is very silly. We +do not have them here."</p> + +<p>Surely he could think of no +retort to such childlike faith. +Her faith. How horribly criminal +it would be to destroy it. A priceless +thing—human happiness to +be created out of the faith that it +was the normal thing. He realized +that his heart was pounding, +as though now things which +had been dormant within him all +his life were coming out—clamoring +now for recognition.</p> + +<p>And then, out of another silence +he murmured, "Aura—you're +taking me to my grandfather, +aren't you? He came +here from Earth—and then he +sent back there to get me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she admitted. "So you +know it? But I was instructed +to—"</p> + +<p>"All right. We won't talk of +it. And he's told you about me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she agreed shyly. She +caught her breath as she added, +"I have been—waiting for you—a +long time." Shyly she gazed +up at him. The night-breeze had +blown her hair partly over her +face. Her hand brushed it away +so that her gaze met his. "I +hoped you would be, well, like +you are," she added.</p> + +<p>"Oh," he said awkwardly. +"Well—thanks."</p> + +<p>"And<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[126]</a></span> +you," she murmured out +of another little silence, "you—I +hope I haven't disappointed +you. I am the way you want—like +you wished—"</p> + +<p>What a weird thing to say! +He smiled. "Not ever having +heard of you, Aura, I can't +exactly say that I—"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>He checked himself. Was she +what he had wished? Why yes—surely +he had been thinking of +her—in his dreams, all his life +vaguely picturing something like +this for Lee Anthony....</p> + +<p>"I guess I have been thinking +of you," he agreed. "No, you +haven't disappointed me, Aura. +You—you are—"</p> + +<p>He could find no words to say +it. "We are almost there," she +said. "He will be very happy to +have you come. He is a very good +man, Lee. The one, we think, of +the most goodness—and wiseness, +to guide us all—"</p> + +<p>The path had led them up a +rocky defile, with gnarled little +trees growing between the crags. +Ahead, the hillside rose up in a +broken, rocky cliff. There was a +door, like a small tunnel entrance. +A woman in a long white +robe was by the door.</p> + +<p>"He is here," Aura said. +"Young Anthony."</p> + +<p>"You go in."</p> + +<p>Silently they passed her. The +tunnel entrance glowed with the +pastel radiance from the rocks. +The radiance was a soft blob of +color ahead of them.</p> + +<p>"You will find that he cannot +move now," Aura whispered. +"You will sit by his bed. And +talk softly."</p> + +<p>"You mean—he's ill?"</p> + +<p>"Well—what you would call +paralysis. He cannot move. Only +his lips—his eyes. He will be +gone from us soon, so that then +he can only be unseen. A Visitor—"</p> + +<p>Her whisper trailed off. Lee's +heart was pounding, seeming to +thump in his throat as Aura led +him silently forward. It was a +draped, cave-like little room. +Breathless, Lee stared at a couch—a +thin old figure lying there—a +frail man with white hair that +framed his wrinkled face. It was +a face that was smiling, its sunken, +burning eyes glowing with a +new intensity. The lips moved; +a faint old voice murmured:</p> + +<p>"And you—you are Lee?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—grandfather—"</p> + +<p>He went slowly forward and +sat on the bedside.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<p class="centersubhd"><i>Mad Giant</i></p> + + +<p>To Lee, after a moment, his +grandfather seemed not +awe-inspiring, but just a frail +old man, paralyzed into almost +complete immobility, lying here +almost pathetically happy to have +his grandson at last with him. +An old man, with nothing of the +mystic about him—an old man +who had been—unknown to the +savants of his Earth—perhaps +the greatest scientist among +them. Quietly, with pride welling +in him, Lee held the wasted, +numbed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[127]</a></span> +hand of his grandfather +and listened....</p> + +<p>Phineas Anthony, the scientist. +After many years of research, +spending his own private +fortune, he had evolved the secret +of size-change—solved the +intricate problems of anti-gravitational +spaceflight; and combining +the two, had produced that +little vehicle.</p> + +<p>A man of science; and perhaps +more than that. As old Anna +Green had said, perhaps he was +a man inspired—a man, following +his dreams, his convictions, +convinced that somewhere in +God's great creation of things +that are, there must be an existence +freed of those things by +which Man himself so often +makes human life a tortured +hell.</p> + +<p>"And Something led me here, +Lee," the gentle old voice was +saying. "Perhaps not such a coincidence. +On this great Inner +Surface of gentle light and gentle +warmth—with Nature offering +nothing against which one +must strive—there must be +many groups of simple people +like these. They have no thought +of evil—there is nothing—no +one, to teach it to them. If I had +not landed here, I think I would +have found much the same thing +almost anywhere else on the Inner +Surface."</p> + +<p>"The Inner Surface? I don't +understand, grandfather."</p> + +<p>A conception—a reality here—that +was numbing in its vastness. +This was the concave, inner +surface, doubtless deep within +the atom of some material substance. +A little empty Space here, +surrounded by solidity.</p> + +<p>"And that—" Lee murmured, +"then that little space is our Inter-Stellar +abyss?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Of course. The stars, +as we call them—from here you +could call them tiny particles—like +electrons whirling. All of +them in this little void. With +good eyesight, you can sometimes +see them there—"</p> + +<p>"I did."</p> + +<p>And to this viewpoint which +Lee had now—so gigantic, compared +to Earth—all the Inter-Stellar +universe was a void here +of what old Anthony considered +would be perhaps eight or ten +thousand miles. A void, to Lee +now, was itself of no greater +volume than the Earth had been +to him before!</p> + +<p>Silently he pondered it. This +Inner Surface—not much bigger, +to him now, than the surface +of the Earth is to its humans.... +Suddenly he felt small—infinitely +tiny. Out here beyond +the stars, he was only within +the atom of something larger, a +human, partly on his way—emerging—outward—</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>It gave him a new vague conception. +As though now, because +he was partly emerged, the all-wise +Creator was giving him a +new insight. Surely in this simple +form of existence humans +were totally unaware of what +evil could be. Was not this a +higher form of life than down +there on his tiny Earth?</p> + +<p>The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[128]</a></span> +conception numbed him +with awe....</p> + +<p>"You see, Lee, I have been +looking forward to having you +become a man—to having you +here," old Anthony was saying. +As he lay, so utterly motionless, +only his voice, his face, his eyes, +seemed alive. It was an amazingly +expressive old face, radiant, +transfigured. "I shall not be +here long. You see? And when +I have—gone on—when I can +only come back here as a Visitor—like +Anna Green, you have +been aware of her, Lee?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, grandfather. Yes, I +think I have."</p> + +<p>"The awareness is more acute, +here, than it was back on Earth. +A very comforting thing, Lee. I +was saying—I want you here. +These people, so simple—you +might almost think them childlike—they +need someone to guide +them. The one who did that—just +as I came, was dying. Maybe—maybe +that is what led me +here. So now I need you."</p> + +<p>It welled in Lee with an awe, +and a feeling suddenly of humbleness—and +of his own inadequacy, +so that he murmured,</p> + +<p>"But grandfather—I would do +my best—but surely—"</p> + +<p>"I think it will be given you—the +ability—and I've been +thinking, Lee, if only some time +it might be possible to show +them on Earth—"</p> + +<p>Lee had been aware that he +and old Anthony were alone here. +When Lee entered, Aura had at +once withdrawn. Now, interrupting +his grandfather's faint, gentle +voice there was a commotion +outside the underground apartment. +The sound of women's +startled cries, and Aura's voice.</p> + +<p>Then Aura burst in, breathless, +pale, with her hair flying +and on her face and in her eyes +a terror so incongruous that +Lee's heart went cold.</p> + +<p>He gasped, "Aura! Aura, what +is it?"</p> + +<p>"This terrible thing—that +man who came with you—that +man, Franklin—he talked with +Groff. Some evil spell to put +upon Groff—it could only have +been that—"</p> + +<p>Lee seized her. "What do you +mean? Talk slower. Groff? The +man who served us that meal—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Groff. And two of the +men who were to guard there. +What that man said to them—did +to them—and when old Arkoh +found it out he opposed +them—" Her voice was drab with +stark horror—so new an emotion +that it must have confused +her, so that now she just stood +trembling.</p> + +<p>"Child, come here—come here +over to me—" Old Anthony's +voice summoned her. "Now—talk +more slowly—try and think +what you want to tell us.... +What happened?"</p> + +<p>"Oh—I saw old Arkoh—him +whom I love so much—who always +has been so good to me—to +us all—I saw him lying there +on the floor—"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Words so unnatural here that +they seemed to reverberate +through the little cave-room +with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[129]</a></span> +echoes that jostled and muttered +like alien, menacing things +which had no right here—and +yet, were here.</p> + +<p>"You saw him—lying there?" +Lee prompted.</p> + +<p>"Yes. His throat, with red +blood running out of it where +they had cut him—and he was +dying—he died while I stood +there—"</p> + +<p>The first murder. A thing so +unnatural. Old Anthony stared +for an instant mute at the girl +who now had covered her face +with her hands as she trembled +against Lee.</p> + +<p>"Killed him?" Lee murmured.</p> + +<p>On Anthony's face there was +wonderment—disillusion, and +then bitterness. "So? This is +what comes to us, from Earth?"</p> + +<p>Lying so helpless, old Anthony +could only murmur that now Lee +must do what he could.</p> + +<p>"Your own judgement, my +son—do what you can to meet +this." The sunken, burning eyes +of the old man flashed. "If there +must be violence here, let it be +so. Violence for that which is +right."</p> + +<p>"Grandfather—yes! That miserable +cowardly murderer—"</p> + +<p>To meet force, with force. +Surely, even in a world of ideals, +there is no other way.</p> + +<p>With his fists clenched, Lee +ran from the cave-room. Frightened +women scattered before him +at its entrance. Where had +Franklin gone? That fellow +Groff, and two or three of the +guards had gone with him. Cynicism +swept Lee; he remembered +the look Groff had flung at +Franklin. Even here in this +realm—because it was peopled +by humans—evil passions could +brood. Groff indeed must have +been planning something, and he +had seen in Franklin a ready +helper—a man from Earth, +whom Groff very well may have +thought would be more resourceful, +more experienced in +the ways of violence than himself.</p> + +<p>This realm where everyone +had all of happiness that he +could want! Human perfection +of existence. A savage laugh of +irony was within Lee as he +thought of it. No one had ever +held out the offer of more than +perfection to these people. But +Franklin evidently had done it—playing +upon the evil which +must lie within every living +thing, no matter how latent it +may be. Awakening in those +guards the passion of cupidity—desire +for something better than +they had now.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>What had happened to Vivian? +Out in the rose-light dimness, a +little way down the path, Lee +found himself staring off toward +the forest where the village lay +nestled. Voices of the frightened +people came wafting through the +night silence.</p> + +<p>"Lee—Lee—"</p> + +<p>It was Aura behind him, running +after him. "Lee—wait—I +belong with you. You know +that—"</p> + +<p>He gripped her. "That girl +from Earth—that Vivian—she +was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[130]</a></span> +with Franklin. What happened +to her?"</p> + +<p>"She went. He took her—"</p> + +<p>"She went—voluntarily?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. The people saw her running +out with Franklin, and +Groff and the other men. Oh, +Lee—what—what are you going +to do?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know." He stood for +a moment dazed, confused—panting, +his fingers twitching. +If only he could get a grip on +Franklin's throat. And so Vivian +went too! That was a laugh—girl +of the streets, pretty worthless, +on Earth. But here—she +had seemed to sense what this +realm could mean.</p> + +<p>"Aura, where would Groff be +likely to go?"</p> + +<p>"Go? Why—why I do remember, +Groff often went up into the +hills. He never said why?"</p> + +<p>"Would they have any weapons?"</p> + +<p>"Weapons?" Her eyes widened +as though for a second she did +not comprehend. "Weapons? You +mean—instruments with which +to kill people? No—how could +there be? But a knife can kill. +A knife cut old Arkoh's throat. +We have knives—in the houses—and +knives that are used for +the harvests—"</p> + +<p>She had turned to gaze out toward +the glowing hills.... "Oh, +Lee—look—"</p> + +<p>Numbed, with their breath +catching in their throats, they +stared. Out by the hills a man's +figure rose up—monstrous, gigantic +figure.</p> + +<p>Franklin! He stood beside the +little hill, with a hand on its top, +his huge bulk dwarfing it! +Franklin, a titan, his head and +shoulders looming monstrously +against the inky blackness of +the sky!</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<p class="centersubhd"><i>Combat of Titans</i></p> + + +<p>"Aura, you think you know +where Groff may have +gone—those times he went out +into the hills?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I think so. Lee—that +giant, I think now I understand +what must have happened."</p> + +<p>The giant shape of Franklin, +a mile or two from them, had +stood for a moment and then had +receded, vanished momentarily +as he moved backward behind the +hills. Lee and Aura, stunned, still +stood beside the little rocky path. +Lee's mind was a turmoil of confusion, +with only the knowledge +that he must do something now, +quickly. There were no weapons +here in this peaceful little realm. +Four or five of these madmen +villains—what need had they of +weapons? The monstrous power +of size. The thought of it struck +at Lee with a chill that seemed +turning his blood to ice. The +monster that Franklin had become—with +a size like that he +could scatter death with his +naked hands.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>"I remember now," Aura was +gasping. "There was a time +when your grandfather was +working on his science. Groff was +helping<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[131]</a></span> +him then. Your grandfather +taught Groff much."</p> + +<p>"Working at what?"</p> + +<p>"It was never said. Then your +grandfather gave it up—he had +decided it would not be wise +here."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Some individual apparatus, +with the size-change principle of +the space-globe? And Groff had +gotten the secret. An abnormality +here—Groff with the power +of evil latent within him, tempted +by this opportunity. What +could he have hoped to accomplish? +Of what use to him would +it be to devastate this little +realm? Bitter irony swept Lee. +Of what use was vast personal +power to anyone? Those madmen +of Earth's history, with their +lust for conquest—of what use +could the conquest be to them? +And yet they had plunged on.</p> + +<p>He realized that with Groff +there could have been a wider +field of conquest. Groff had heard +much of Earth. With the power +of size here, he could master this +realm; then seize the space-globe. +Go with it to Earth. Why, +in a gigantic size there, he and +a few villainous companions +could master the Earth-world. A +mad dream indeed, but Lee knew +it was a lustful possibility +matched by many in Earth's history.</p> + +<p>And then Franklin had come +here. Franklin, with his knowledge +of Earth which Groff would +need. Franklin, with his inherent +feeling of inferiority—his groping +desire for the strength and +power of size. What an opportunity +for Franklin!</p> + +<p>Lee heard himself saying out +of the turmoil of his thoughts: +"Then, Aura—out there in the +hills they've got some apparatus, +of course, which—"</p> + +<p>His words were stricken away. +From somewhere in the glowing +dimness near at hand there was +a groan. A gasping, choking +groan; and the sound of something +falling.</p> + +<p>"Lee—over there—" Aura's +whispered words were drab with +horror.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>A figure which had been staggering +among the rocks near +them, had fallen. They rushed to +it. Vivian! She was trying to +drag herself forward. Her hair, +streaming down in a sodden +mass, was matted with blood. +Her pallid face was blood-smeared. +Her neck and throat were a +welter of crimson horror. Beside +her on the ground lay a strange-looking +apparatus of grids and +wires—a metal belt—a skeleton +helmet.... She was gripping it +with a blood-smeared hand, dragging +it with her.</p> + +<p>"Vivian—Vivian—"</p> + +<p>"Oh—you, Lee? Thank Gawd +I got to you—"</p> + +<p>Her elbows gave way; her +head and shoulders sank to the +rock. Faintly gasping, with +blood-foam at her livid lips, she +lay motionless. But her glazing +eyes gazed up at Lee, and she +was trying to smile.</p> + +<p>"I went with them—that +damned Franklin—he thought I +was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[132]</a></span> +as bad as him—" Her faint +words were barely audible as he +bent down to her. "Just want +to tell you, Lee—you're perfectly +swell—I guess I fell for you, +didn't I? That's over now—just +wanted you to know it anyway. +There's one of the damned mechanisms +they've got—"</p> + +<p>"Where are they, Vivian?"</p> + +<p>"A cave, not very far from +here—down that little ravine—just +ahead—they're in there—four +or five of them, getting +ready to—" Blood was rattling +in her throat, choking her. She +tried, horribly, to cough. And +then she gasped:</p> + +<p>"I stole this mechanism. He—Franklin—he +caught me—slashed +me. He thought I was dead, I +guess—but—when he had gone, +I got this mechanism—trying to +get to you—"</p> + +<p>Her choking, rattling breath +again gave out. For a moment +she lay with a paroxysm of death +twitching her. And then, very +faintly she gasped:</p> + +<p>"Sort of nice—I was able to +do one good thing—anyhow. I'm +glad of that—"</p> + +<p>The paroxysm ended in a moment. +Her white lips were still +trying to smile as the light went +out of her eyes and she was +gone. Trembling, Lee stood up, +with the mute, white-faced Aura +clinging to him. It was fairly +obvious how the weird mechanism +should be adjusted—anklets, +the skeleton helmet of electrodes, +the belt around his waist, +with its grids, tiny dials and +curved battery box. In a moment +he stood with the wires strung +from his head, to wrist, ankles +and waist. There seemed but one +little control switch that would +slide over a metal arc of intensity +contacts.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Lee—what—what are +you going to do—?" Aura stood +white with terror.</p> + +<p>"She said—four or five of +them in a cave near here—perhaps +they haven't yet gotten +large—"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Down in a little ravine Lee +found himself running forward +in the luminous darkness. He +called back, "Aura—you stay +where you are—you hide, until +it's over—"</p> + +<p>Then, in the turmoil of his +mind, there was no thought of +the girl. There was only the vision +of old Anthony lying back +there so helpless—his burning +eyes bitter with this thing which +had so horribly come to his little +realm. To meet force with force +was the only answer.</p> + +<p>It was not Lee's plan to increase +his size for a moment +now. By doing that, almost at +once he would be discovered. And +perhaps there were still four or +five of the murderers, still not +giants, in a cave nearby.</p> + +<p>The dim rocky ravine, heavy +with shadows, led downward. He +came to a tunnel opening, advancing +more cautiously now. +And then, as he turned an angle +ahead of him, down a little subterranean +declivity a luminous +cave was visible. Groff's hideout. +At one of its entrances here Lee +stood<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[133]</a></span> +for an instant gasping. +The five men were here—Groff +and four of his villainous companions.</p> + +<p>The five bodies lay strewn—horribly +mangled. And the +wreckage of their size-change +mechanisms was strewn among +them.</p> + +<p>So obvious, what had happened! +Franklin had been the first +to get large. And at once he had +turned on them. Franklin, the +weakling who dared not have any +rivalry! And now Franklin was +outside, out in the hills, a raging, +murderous monster. For a +moment, in the grisly shambles +of the little cave Lee stood transfixed. +Then his hand was fumbling +at his belt. He shoved the +small switch-lever.</p> + +<p>There was a shock—a humming—a +reeling of his senses. It +was akin to what he had felt on +the space-globe, but stronger, +more intense now. For an instant +he staggered, confused. The wires +strung on him were glowing; he +could feel their heat. Weird +luminous opalescence streamed +from them—it bathed him—strange +electrolite radiance that +permeated every minute fibre of +his being.</p> + +<p>With his head steadying, Lee +suddenly was aware of movement +all about him. The dim outlines +of the cave-room were +shrinking with a creeping, crawling +movement. Cave-walls and +roof all shrinking, dwindling, +drawing down upon him. Under +his feet the rocky ground seemed +hitching forward.</p> + +<p>This little cave! In a moment +while he stood shocked into immobility, +the cave was a tiny +cell. Down by his feet the gruesome +mangled corpses were the +size of children. The cave-roof +bumped his head. He must get +out of here! The realization +stabbed him. Why, in another +moment or two these dark walls +would close upon him! Then +with instant changing viewpoint +he saw the true actuality. He +was a growing giant, crouching +here underground—a giant who +would be crushed, mangled by +his own monstrous growth.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Lee turned, staggered into the +little tunnel, shoved his way out. +The walls pressed him; they +seemed in a moment to close after +him as he gained the outer +glowing darkness.... There was +only a narrow slit in the dwindling +cliff to mark the tunnel entrance. +Lee had the wits to +crouch in a fairly open space as +he stared at the dwindling trees, +the little hills, all shrinking. +Franklin must be around here +somewhere. Franklin doubtless +would see him in a moment.</p> + +<p>And then as Lee rose up, +Franklin saw him. Lee put a +hand on one of the little hills at +his waist, vaulted it so that he +faced Franklin with what seemed +no more than a hundred feet +between them. For that second +Franklin was transfixed. Amazement +swept his face. His muttering +was audible:</p> + +<p>"Why—why—what's this—"</p> + +<p>An adversary had come to +challenge<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[134]</a></span> +his power. As Lee +bounded forward, on Franklin's +face while he stood transfixed, +there was wonderment—disappointment—sudden +instinctive +fear—and then wild rage. He +stooped; seized a boulder, hurled +it at the oncoming Lee. It +missed; and then Lee was on +him, seizing him.</p> + +<p>Franklin's body had not been +enlarging, but as he saw Lee +coming, his hand had flung his +switch. They gripped each other +now, swaying, locked together, +staggering. Franklin still was +more than head and shoulders +above Lee. His huge arms, with +amazing power in them, bent Lee +backward. He stumbled, went +down with Franklin on him. +"Got you! Damn you," he said.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>His giant hands gripped Lee's +throat, but Lee was aware that +his own body was enlarging faster +than Franklin's, upon which +the size-current had only now +started to act. If Lee could only +resist—just a little bit longer! +His groping hands beside him +on the ground seized a rock. +Monstrous strangling fingers +were at this throat—his breath +was gone, his head roaring. Then +he was aware that he had seized +a rock and struck it up into +Franklin's face. For a second the +hands at Lee's throat relaxed. +He gulped in air, desperately +broke free and staggered to his +feet.</p> + +<p>But Franklin was up as quickly. +The tiny forest trees crackled +under Lee's tread as again he +hurled himself viciously on his +antagonist....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>At the head of the distant ravine, +the numbed Aura crouched +alone, staring out at the hills +with mute horror—staring at the +two monstrous giants slugging it +out. Franklin was the larger. +She saw Lee rise up, and with a +hand on one of the hills, vault +over it. Giants that loomed +against the sky as they fronted +each other and then crashed together, +went down.</p> + +<p>Lee was underneath! Dear +God—</p> + +<p>Two monstrous bodies—Lee +was lying with a ridge of crags +under his shoulders.... Franklin's +voice was a blurred roar of +triumph in the distance. Then +she saw Lee's groping hand come +up with a monstrous fifty foot +boulder. He crashed it home.</p> + +<p>They were up again. Their +giant staggering lunges had carried +them five miles from her. +They were almost the size of +fighting titans. The blurred distant +shapes of them were silhouettes +against the glow of the sky. +The forest out there was crackling +under their tread ... a +blurred roar of breaking, mangled +trees....</p> + +<p>It was just a few seconds +while Aura stared, but each second +was an eternity of horror. +Then one of the monstrous figures +was toppling. A great boulder +had crashed on Franklin's +head; he had broken loose, staggering +while Lee jumped backward +and crouched.</p> + +<p>For<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[135]</a></span> +just a second the towering +shape of the stricken Franklin +loomed up in the sky. And then +it fell crashing forward. A swift-flowing +stream was there, and +the body fell across it—blocking +the water which dammed up, then +turned aside and went roaring +off through the mangled forest.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Lee, again in his former size, +sat at old Anthony's bedside, +with Aura behind him. The news +of the combat out there against +the sky had come to Anthony—the +excitement of it, too much +for his faltering old heart....</p> + +<p>"But you will be all right, +grandfather. The thing is over +now."</p> + +<p>"Yes. All right—of course, +Lee. Just a visitor here—and you +will take my place—"</p> + +<p>He lay now—as old Anna +Green had been that night—just +on the brink. "Lee, listen to me—those +mechanisms—the space-globe—Lee, +I realize now there +is no possibility that we could +help Earth—and surely it could +only bring us evil here. What we +have found here—don't you see, +back on Earth each man must +create it for himself. Within +himself: He could do that, if +he chose. And so you—you +must disconnect us—forever—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, grandfather—"</p> + +<p>"And I—guess that is all—"</p> + +<p>For some time he seemed to +hover on the brink, while Lee +and Aura, sitting hand in hand, +silently watched him. And then +he was gone.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The last of the mechanisms +irrevocably was smashed. The +little line of vacuums and tubes +of the space-globe's mechanisms +went up into a burst of opalescent +light under Lee's grim +smashing blows.</p> + +<p>Then silently he went outside +and joined Aura. Behind them, +down the declivity toward the +village, the people were gathering. +He was silent, his heart +pounding with emotion, as he +faced them from a little eminence—faced +them and heard +their shouts, and saw their arms +go up to welcome him.</p> + +<p>Slowly he and Aura walked +down the slope toward his waiting +people. And with her by his +side, her hand in his, Lee Anthony +knew then that he had found +fulfillment—the attainment of +that which is within every man's +heart—man's heritage—those +things for which he must never +cease to strive.</p> + + +<p class="center" style="font-weight: bold; padding-top: 2em">THE END</p> + + +<div class="tnote"> + +<h3 class="center">Transcriber's Note</h3> + +<p>Minor corrections of spelling and punctuation have been made without +comment. Variations in spelling, capitalization, and hyphenation have +been retained to match the original document.</p> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The World Beyond, by Raymond King Cummings + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD BEYOND *** + +***** This file should be named 29059-h.htm or 29059-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/0/5/29059/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, adhere and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/29059-h/images/illo.jpg b/29059-h/images/illo.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..928353f --- /dev/null +++ b/29059-h/images/illo.jpg diff --git a/29059.txt b/29059.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5fb9630 --- /dev/null +++ b/29059.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2035 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The World Beyond, by Raymond King Cummings + +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 World Beyond + +Author: Raymond King Cummings + +Release Date: June 7, 2009 [EBook #29059] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD BEYOND *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, adhere and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +This etext was produced from Amazing Stories July 1942. Extensive +research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this +publication was renewed. + + + + +_Out of nowhere came these grim, cold, black-clad men, to kidnap three +Earth people and carry them to a weird and terrible world where a man +could be a giant at will._ + + +[Illustration: Lee Anthony crouched and set himself to resist the +attack of the robed men.] + + + + +THE WORLD BEYOND + +By RAY CUMMINGS + + +The old woman was dying. There could be no doubt of it now. Surely she +would not last through the night. In the dim quiet bedroom he sat +watching her, his young face grim and awed. Pathetic business, this +ending of earthly life, this passing on. In the silence, from the living +room downstairs the gay laughter of the young people at the birthday +party came floating up. His birthday--Lee Anthony, twenty-one years old +today. He had thought he would feel very different, becoming--legally--a +man. But the only difference now, was that old Anna Green who had been +always so good to him, who had taken care of him almost all his life, +now was dying. + +Terrible business. But old age is queer. Anna knew what was happening. +The doctor, who had given Lee the medicines and said he would be back in +the morning, hadn't fooled her. And she had only smiled. + +Lee tensed as he saw that she was smiling now; and she opened her eyes. +His hand went to hers where it lay, so white, blue-veined on the white +bedspread. + +"I'm here, Anna. Feel better?" + +"Oh, yes. I'm all right." Her faint voice, gently tired, mingled with +the sounds from the party downstairs. She heard the laughter. "You +should be down there, Lee. I'm all right." + +"I should have postponed it," he said. "And what you did, preparing for +it--" + +She interrupted him, raising her thin arm, which must have seemed so +heavy that at once she let it fall again. "Lee--I guess I am glad you're +here--want to talk to you--and I guess it better be now." + +"Tomorrow--you're too tired now--" + +"For me," she said with her gentle smile, "there may not be any +tomorrow--not here. Your grandfather, Lee--you really don't remember +him?" + +"I was only four or five." + +"Yes. That was when your father and mother died in the aero accident and +your grandfather brought you to me." + +Very vaguely he could remember it. He had always understood that Anna +Green had loved his grandfather, who had died that same year. + +"What I want to tell you, Lee--" She seemed summoning all her last +remaining strength. "Your grandfather didn't die. He just went away. +What you've never known--he was a scientist. But he was a lot more than +that. He had--dreams. Dreams of what we mortals might be--what we ought +to be--but are not. And so he--went away." + +This dying old woman; her mind was wandering?... + +"Oh--yes," Lee said. "But you're much too tired now, Anna dear--" + +"Please let me tell you. He had--some scientific apparatus. I didn't see +it--I don't know where he went. I think he didn't know either, where he +was going. But he was a very good man, Lee. I think he had an +intuition--an inspiration. Yes, it must have been that. A man--inspired. +And so he went. I've never seen or heard from him since. Yet--what he +promised me--if he could accomplish it--tonight--almost now, Lee, would +be the time--" + + * * * * * + +Just a desperately sick old woman whose blurred mind was seeing visions. +The thin wrinkled face, like crumpled white parchment, was transfigured +as though by a vision. Her sunken eyes were bright with it. A wonderment +stirred within Lee Anthony. Why was his heart pounding? It seemed +suddenly as though he must be sharing this unknown thing of science--and +mysticism. As though something within him--his grandfather's blood +perhaps--was responding.... He felt suddenly wildly excited. + +"Tonight?" he murmured. + +"Your grandfather was a very good man, Lee--" + +"And you, Anna--all my life I have known how good you are. Not like most +women--you're just all gentleness--just kindness--" + +"That was maybe--just an inspiration from him." Her face was bright with +it. "I've tried to bring you up--the way he told me. And what I must +tell you now--about tonight, I mean--because I may not live to see it--" + +Her breath gave out so that her faint tired voice trailed away. + +"What?" he urged. "What is it, Anna? About tonight--" + +What a tumult of weird excitement was within him! Surely this was +something momentous. His twenty-first birthday. Different, surely, for +Lee Anthony than any similar event had ever been for anyone else. + +"He promised me--when you were twenty-one--just then--at this time, if +he could manage it--that he would come back--" + +"Come back, Anna? Here?" + +"Yes. To you and me. Because you would be a man--brought up, the best I +could do to make you be--like him--because you would be a man who would +know the value of love--and kindness--those things that ought to rule +this world--but really do not." + +This wild, unreasoning excitement within him...! "You think he will +come--tonight, Anna?" + +"I really do. I want to live to see him. But now--I don't know--" + +He could only sit in silence, gripping her hand. And again the gay +voices of his guests downstairs came up like a roar of intrusion. They +didn't know that she was more than indisposed. She had made him promise +not to tell them. + +Her eyes had closed, and now she opened them again. "They're having a +good time, aren't they, Lee? That's what I wanted--for you and them +both. You see, I've had to be careful--not to isolate you from +life--life as it is. Because your grandfather wanted you to be normal--a +healthy, happy--regular young man. Not queer--even though I've tried to +show you--" + +"If he--he's coming tonight, Anna--we shouldn't have guests here." + +"When they have had their fun--" + +"They have. We're about finished down there. I'll get rid of them--tell +them you're not very well--" + +She nodded. "Perhaps that's best--now--" + +He was hardly aware of how he broke up the party and sent them away. +Then in the sudden heavy silence of the little cottage, here in the +grove of trees near the edge of the town, he went quietly back upstairs. + + * * * * * + +Her eyes were closed. Her white face was placid. Her faint breath was +barely discernible. Failing fast now. Quietly he sat beside her. There +was nothing that he could do. The doctor had said that very probably she +could not live through the night. Poor old Anna. His mind rehearsed the +life that she had given him. Always she had been so gentle, so wise, +ruling him with kindness. + +He remembered some of the things she had reiterated so often that his +childish mind had come to realize their inevitable truth. The greatest +instinctive desire of every living creature is happiness. And the way to +get it was not by depriving others of it. It seemed now as though this +old woman had had something of goodness inherent to her--as though she +were inspired? And tonight she had said, with her gentle smile as she +lay dying, that if that were so--it had been an inspiration from his +grandfather. + +Something of science which his grandfather had devised, and which had +enabled him to--go away. What could that mean? Go where? And why had he +gone? To seek an ideal? Because he was dissatisfied with life here? Her +half incoherent words had seemed to imply that. And now, because Lee was +twenty-one--a man--his grandfather was coming back. Because he had +thought that Lee would be able to help him?... Help him to do--what? + +He stirred in his chair. It was nearly midnight now. The little +cottage--this little second floor bedroom where death was hovering--was +heavy with brooding silence. It was awesome; almost frightening. He bent +closer to the bed. Was she dead? No, there was still a faint fluttering +breath, but it seemed now that there would be no strength for her to +speak to him again. + +Mysterious business, this passing on. Her eyelids were closed, a symbol +of drawn blinds of the crumbling old house in which she had lived for so +long. It was almost a tenantless house now. And yet she was somewhere +down there behind those drawn blinds. Reluctant perhaps to leave, still +she lingered, with the fires going out so that it must be cold ... cold +and silent where she huddled. Or was she hearing now the great organ of +the Beyond with its sweep of harmonies summoning her to come--welcoming +her.... + +A shiver ran through young Lee Anthony as he saw that the pallid +bloodless lips of the white wrinkled face had stirred into a smile. Down +there somewhere her spirit--awed and a little frightened doubtless--had +opened some door to let the sound of the organ in--and to let in the +great riot of color which must have been outside.... And then she had +not been frightened, but eager.... + +He realized suddenly that he was staring at an empty shell and that old +Anna Green had gone.... + + * * * * * + +A sound abruptly brought Lee out of his awed thoughts. It was outside +the house--the crunching of wheels in the gravel of the driveway--the +squeal of grinding brakes. A car had stopped. He sat erect in his chair, +stiffened, listening, with his heart pounding so that the beat of it +seemed to shake his tense body. His grandfather--returning? + +An automobile horn honked. Footsteps sounded on the verandah. The front +doorbell rang. + +There were voices outside as he crossed the living room--a man's voice, +and then a girl's laugh. He flung open the door. It was a young man in +dinner clothes and a tall blonde girl. Tom Franklin, and a vivid, +theatrical-looking girl, whom Lee had never seen before. She was inches +taller than her companion. She stood clinging to his arm; her beautiful +face, with beaded lashes and heavily rouged lips, was laughing. She was +swaying; her companion steadied her, but he was swaying himself. + +"Easy, Viv," he warned. "We made it--tol' you we would.... Hello there, +Lee ol' man--your birthday--think I'd forget a thing like that, not on +your life. So we come t'celebrate--meet Vivian Lamotte--frien' o' mine. +Nice kid, Viv--you'll like her." + +"Hello," the girl said. She stared up at Lee. He towered above her, and +beside him the undersized and stoop-shouldered Franklin was swaying +happily. Admiration leaped into the girl's eyes. + +"Say," she murmured, "you sure are a swell looker for a fact. He said +you were--but my Gawd--" + +"And his birthday too," Frank agreed, "so we're gonna celebrate--" His +slack-jawed, weak-chinned face radiated happiness and triumph. "Came +fas' to get here in time. I tol' Viv I could make it--we never hit a +thing--" + +"Why, yes--come in," Lee agreed awkwardly. He had only met young Tom +Franklin once or twice, a year ago now, and Lee had completely forgotten +it. The son of a rich man, with more money than was good for him.... +With old Anna lying there upstairs--surely he did not want these happy +inebriated guests here now.... + +He stood with them just inside the threshold. "I--I'm awfully sorry," he +began. "My birthday--yes, but you see--old Mrs. Green--my guardian--just +all the family I've got--she died, just a few minutes ago--upstairs +here--I've been here alone with her--" + +It sobered them. They stared blankly. "Say, my Gawd, that's tough," the +girl murmured. "Your birthday too. Tommy listen, we gotta get +goin'--can't celebrate--" + +It seemed that there was just a shadow out on the dark verandah. A tall +figure in a dark cloak. + +"Why--what the hell," Franklin muttered. + +A group of gliding soundless figures were out there in the darkness. And +across the living room the window sash went up with a thump. A black +shape was there, huddled in a great loose cloak which was over the head +so that the thing inside was shapeless. + +For an instant Lee and his two companions stood stricken. The shapes +seemed babbling with weird unintelligible words. Then from the window +came words of English: + +"_We--want--_" Slow words, strangely intoned. Young Tom Franklin broke +in on them. + +"Say--what the devil--who do you people think you are, comin' in here--" +He took a swaying step over the threshold. There was a sudden sharp +command from one of the shapes. Lee jumped in front of the girl. On the +verandah the gliding figures were engulfing Franklin; he had fallen. + +Lee went through the door with a leap, his fist driving at the cowled +head of one of the figures--a solid shape that staggered backward from +his blow. But the others were on him, dropping down before his rush, +gripping his legs and ankles. He went down, fighting. And then something +struck his face--something that was like a hand, or a paw with claws +that scratched him. His head suddenly was reeling; his senses fading.... + + * * * * * + +How long he fought Lee did not know. He was aware that the girl was +screaming--and that he was hurling clutching figures away--figures that +came pouncing back. Then the roaring in his head was a vast uproar. The +fighting, scrambling dark shapes all seemed dwindling until they were +tiny points of white light--like stars in the great abyss of +nothingness.... + +He knew--as though it were a blurred dream--that he was lying inert on +the verandah, with Franklin and the girl lying beside him.... The house +was being searched.... Then the muttering shapes were standing here. Lee +felt himself being picked up. And then he was carried silently out into +the darkness. The motion seemed to waft him off so that he knew nothing +more. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_The Flight Into Size and Space_ + + +Lee came back to consciousness with the feeling that some great length +of time must have elapsed. He was on a couch in a small, weird-looking +metal room--metal of a dull, grey-white substance like nothing he had +ever seen before. With his head still swimming he got up dizzily on one +elbow, trying to remember what had happened to him. That fingernail, or +claw, had scratched his face. He had been drugged. It seemed obvious. He +could remember his roaring senses as he had tried to fight, with the +drug gradually overcoming him.... + +The room had a small door, and a single round window, like a bullseye +pane of thick lens. Outside there was darkness, with points of stars. +His head was still humming from the remaining effect of the drug. Or was +the humming an outside noise? He was aware as he got to his feet and +staggered to the door, that the humming was distantly outside the room. +The door was locked; its lever resisted his efforts to turn it. + +There he saw the inert figures of the girl, and Tom Franklin. They were +lying uninjured on two other small couches against the room's metal +wall. The girl stirred a little as he touched her dank forehead. Her +dyed blonde hair had fallen disheveled to her shoulders. Franklin lay +sprawled, his stiff white shirt bosom dirty and rumpled, his thin sandy +hair dangling over his flushed face. His slack mouth was open. He was +breathing heavily. + +At the lens-window Lee stood gasping, his mind still confused and +blurred, trying to encompass what was out there. This was a spaceship! A +small globular thing of white metal. He could see a rim of it, like a +flat ring some ten feet beneath him. A spaceship, and obviously it had +left the Earth! There was a black firmament--dead-black monstrous abyss +with white blazing points of stars. And then, down below and to one side +there was just an edge of a great globe visible. The Earth, with the +sunlight edging its sweeping crescent limb--the Earth, down there with a +familiar coastline and a huge spread of ocean like a giant map in +monochrome. + +Back on the couch Lee sat numbed. There was the sound of scraping metal; +a doorslide in the wall opened. A face was there--a man with a blur of +opalescent light behind him. + +"You are all right now?" a voice said. + +"Yes. I guess so. Let me out of here--" + +Let him out of here? To do what? To make them head this thing back to +Earth.... To Lee Anthony as he sat confused, the very thoughts were a +fantasy.... Off the Earth! Out in Space! So often he had read of it, as +a future scientific possibility--but with this actuality now his mind +seemed hardly to grasp it.... + +The man's voice said gently, "We cannot trust you. There must be no +fighting--" + +"I won't fight. What good could it do me?" + +"You did fight. That was bad--that was frightening. We must not harm +you--" + +"Where are we going?" Lee murmured. "Why in the devil are you--" + +"We think now it is best to say nothing. We will give you food through +here. And over there--behind you--a little doorslide to another room. +You and these other two can be comfortable--" + +"For how long?" Lee demanded. + +"It should not seem many days. Soon we shall go fast. Please watch it at +the window--he would want that. You have been taught some science?" + +"Yes. I guess so." + +To Lee it was a weird, unnatural exchange between captor and captive. +The voice, intoning the English words so slowly, so carefully, seemed +gentle, concerned with his welfare ... and afraid of him. + +Abruptly the doorslide closed again, and then at once it reopened. + +"He would want you to understand what you see," the man said. "You will +find it very wonderful--we did, coming down here. This was his room--so +long ago when he used it. His dials are there--you can watch them and +try to understand. Dials to mark our distance and our size. The +size-change will start soon." + +Size-change? Lee's numbed mind turned over the words and found them +almost meaningless. + +"From the window there--what you can see will be very wonderful," the +man said again. "He would want you to study it. Please do that." + +The doorslide closed.... + +What you can see from the window will be very wonderful. No one, during +the days that followed could adequately describe what Lee Anthony and +Thomas Franklin and Vivian saw through that lens-window. A vast panorama +in monochrome ... a soundless drama of the stars, so immense, so awesome +that the human mind could grasp only an infinitesimal fragment of its +wonders.... + +They found the little door which led into another apartment. There were +tables and chairs of earth-style, quaintly old-fashioned. Food and drink +were shoved through the doorslide; the necessities of life and a fair +comfort of living were provided. But their questions, even as the time +passed and lengthened into what on Earth might have been a week or more, +remained unanswered. There was only that gentle but firm negation: + +"We have decided that he would want us to say nothing. We do not know +about this girl and this smaller man. We brought them so that they could +not remain on Earth to talk of having seen us. We are sorry about that. +He probably won't like it." + +"He? Who the devil are you talking about?" Franklin demanded. "See here, +if I had you fellows back on Earth now I'd slam you into jail. Damned +brigands. You can't do this to me! My--my father's one of the most +important men in New York--" + +But now the doorslide quietly closed. + +A week? It could have been that, or more. In a wall recess of the room +Lee found a line of tiny dials with moving pointers. Miles--thousands of +miles. A million; ten millions; a hundred million. A light-year; tens, +thousands. And, for the size-change, a normal diameter, Unit 1--and then +up into thousands. + +For hours at a time, silent, awed beyond what he had ever conceived the +emotion of awe could mean, he sat at the lens-window, staring out and +trying to understand. + + * * * * * + +The globe-ship was some five-hundred thousand miles out from Earth when +the size-change of the weird little vehicle began. It came to Lee with a +sudden shock to his senses, his head reeling, and a tingling within him +as though every fibre of his being were suddenly stimulated into a new +activity. + +"Well, my Gawd," Vivian gasped. "What're they doin' to us now?" + +The three of them had been warned by a voice through the doorslide, so +that they sat together on one of the couches, waiting for what would +happen. + +"This--I wish they wouldn't do it," Franklin muttered. "Damn them--I +want to get out of here." + +Fear seemed to be Franklin's chief emotion now--fear and a petty sense +of personal outrage that all this could be done to him against his will. +Often, when Lee and the girl were at the window, Franklin had sat +brooding, staring at his feet. + +"Easy," Lee said. "It evidently won't hurt us. We're started in +size-change. The globe, and everything in it, is getting larger." + +Weird. The grey metal walls of the room were glowing now with some +strange current which suffused them. The starlight from the window-lens +mingled with an opalescent sheen from the glowing walls. It was like an +aura, bathing the room--an aura which seemed to penetrate every smallest +cell-particle of Lee's body--stimulating it.... + +Size-change! Vaguely, Lee could fathom how it was accomplished; his mind +went back to many scientific articles he had read on the theory of +it--only theory, those imaginative scientific pedants had considered it; +and now it was a reality upon him! He recalled the learned phrases the +writers had used.... The _state of matter_. In all the Universe, the +inherent factors which govern the state of matter yield most readily to +a change. An electronic charge--a current perhaps akin to, but certainly +not identical with electricity, would change the state of all organic +and inorganic substances ... a rapid duplication of the fundamental +entities within the electrons--and electrons themselves, so +unsubstantial--mere whirlpools of nothingness! + +A rapid duplication of the fundamental whirlpools--that would add size. +The complete substance--with shape unaltered--would grow larger. + +All just theory, but here, now, it was brought to an accomplished fact. +Within himself, Lee could feel it. But as yet, he could not see it. The +glowing room and everything in it was so weirdly luminous, there was no +alteration in shape. These objects, the figure of Vivian beside him, and +the pallid frightened Franklin, relative to each other they were no +different from before. And the vast panorama of starry Universe beyond +the lens-window, the immense distances out there, made any size-change +as yet unperceivable. + + * * * * * + +But the size-change had begun, there was no question of it. With his +senses steadying, Lee crossed the room. A weird feeling of lightness was +upon him; he swayed as he stood before the little line of dials in the +wall-recess. Five hundred thousand miles from Earth. More than twice the +distance of the Moon. The globe had gone that far with accelerating +velocity so that now the pointers marked a hundred thousand miles an +hour--out beyond the Moon, heading for the orbit-line of Mars. Now the +size-change pointers were stirring. Unit One, the size this globe had +been as it rested on Earth, fifty feet in height, and some thirty feet +at its mid-section bulge. Already that unit was two, a globe--which, if +it were on Earth, would be a hundred feet high. And Lee himself? He +would be a giant more than twelve feet tall now.... He stood staring at +the dials for a moment or two. That little pointer of the first of the +size-change dials was creeping around. An acceleration! Another moment +and it had touched Unit four. A two hundred foot globe. And Lee, if he +had been on Earth, would already be a towering human nearly twenty-five +feet in height! + +Behind him, he heard Franklin suddenly muttering, "If only I could +change without everything else changing! Damn them all--what I could +do--" + +"You're nuts," Vivian said. "I don't see anything growing +bigger--everything here--jus' the same." Her laugh was abruptly +hysterical. "This room--you two--you look like ghosts. Say, maybe we're +all dead an' don't know it." + +Queerly her words sent a shiver through Lee. He turned, stared blankly +at her. This weird thing! The electronic light streaming from these +walls had a stroboscopic quality. The girl's face was greenish, +putty-colored, and her teeth shone phosphorescent. + +Maybe we're all dead and don't know it.... Lee knew that this thing was +a matter of cold, precise, logical science.... Yet who shall say but +what mysticism is not mingled with science? A thing, which if we +understood it thoroughly, would be as logical, as precise as the +mathematics of science itself? Death? Who shall say what, of actuality, +Death may be. A leaving of the mortal shell? A departure from earthly +substance? A new state of being? Surely some of those elements were here +now. And, logically, why could there not be a state of being not all +Death, but only with some of its elements? + +"I--I don't like this," Franklin suddenly squealed. On the couch he sat +hunched, trembling. "Something wrong here--Lee--damn you Lee--don't you +feel it?" + +Lee tried to smile calmly. "Feel what?" + +"We're not--not alone here," Franklin stammered. "Not just you and +Vivian and me--something else is here--something you can't see, but you +can almost feel. An' I don't like it--" + +A presence. Was there indeed something else here, of which now in this +new state of being they were vaguely aware? Something--like a fellow +voyager--making this weird journey with them? Lee's heart was so wildly +beating that it seemed smothering him. + + * * * * * + +Unit Ten ... Twenty ... a Hundred.... With steady acceleration, the +lowest size-change pointer was whirling, and the one above it was +moving. The globe was five thousand feet high now. And on Earth Lee +would have been a monstrous Titan over six hundred feet tall. A globe, +and humans in that tremendous size--the very weight of them--in a moment +more of this growth--would disarrange the rotation of the Earth on its +axis!... + +And then abruptly Lee found himself envisaging the monstrous globe out +here in Space. A thing to disarrange the mechanics of all the Celestial +Universe! In an hour or two, with this acceleration of growth, the globe +would be a huge meteorite--then an asteroid.... + +He stared at the distance dials. With the growth had come an immense +augmentation of velocity. A hundred thousand miles an hour--that had +been accelerated a hundred fold now. Ten million miles an hour.... +Through the window-lens Lee gazed, mute with awe. The size-change was +beginning to show! Far down, and to one side the crescent Earth was +dwindling ... Mars was far away in another portion of its orbit--the +Moon was behind the Earth. There were just the myriad blazing giant +worlds of the stars--infinitely remote, with vast distances of inky void +between them. And now there was a visible movement to the stars! A sort +of shifting movement.... + +An hour.... A day.... A week.... Who shall try and describe what Lee +Anthony beheld during that weird outward journey?... For a brief time, +after they swept past the orbit of Mars, the great planets of Jupiter +and Saturn were almost in a line ahead of the plunging, expanding globe. +A monstrous thing now--with electronically charged gravity-plates so +that it plunged onward by its own repellant force--the repellant force +of the great star-field beneath it. + + * * * * * + +Lee stared at Jupiter, a lead-colored world with its red spot like a +monster's single glaring eye. With the speed of light Jupiter was +advancing, swinging off to one side with a visible flow of movement, and +dropping down into the lower void as the globe went past it. Yet, as it +approached, visually it had not grown larger. Instead, there was only a +steady dwindling. A dwindling of great Saturn, with its gorgeous, +luminous rings came next. These approaching planets, seeming to shrink! +Because, with Lee's expanding viewpoint, everything in the vast scene +was shrinking! Great distances here, in relation to the giant globe, +were dwindling! These millions of miles between Saturn and Jupiter had +shrunk into thousands. And then were shrinking to hundreds. + +Abruptly, with a startled shock to his senses, Lee's viewpoint changed. +Always before he had instinctively conceived himself to be his normal +six foot earthly size. The starry Universe was vast beyond his +conception. And in a second now, that abruptly was altered. He conceived +the vehicle as of actuality it was--a globe as large as the ball of +Saturn itself! And simultaneously he envisaged the present reality of +Saturn. Out in the inky blackness it hung--not a giant ringed world +millions of miles away, but only a little ringed ball no bigger than the +spaceship--a ringed ball only eight or ten times as big as Lee himself. +It hung there for an instant beside them--only a mile or so away +perhaps. And as it went past, with both distance and size-change +combining now, it shrank with amazing rapidity! A ball only as big as +this room.... Then no larger than Lee it hung, still seemingly no +further away than before. And then in a few minutes more, a mile out +there in the shrinking distance, it was a tiny luminous point, vanishing +beyond his vision. + +Uranus, little Neptune--Pluto, almost too far away in its orbit to be +seen--all of them presently were dwindled and gone. Lee had a glimpse of +the Solar system, a mere bunch of lights. The Sun was a tiny spot of +light, holding its little family of tiny planets--a mother hen with her +brood. It was gone in a moment, lost like a speck of star-dust among the +giant starry worlds. + +Another day--that is a day as it would have been on Earth. But here was +merely a progressing of human existence--a streaming forward of human +consciousness. The Light-year dial pointers were all in movement. By +Earth standards of size and velocity, long since had the globe's +velocity reached and passed the speed of light. Lee had been taught--his +book-learning colored by the Einstein postulates--that there could be no +speed greater than the speed of light--by Earth standards--perhaps, yes. +The globe--by comparison with its original fifty-foot earth-size--might +still be traveling no more than a few hundred thousand miles an hour. +But this monster--a thing now as big as the whole Solar System +doubtless--was speeding through a light-year in a moment! + +Futile figures! The human mind can grasp nothing of the vastness of +inter-stellar space. To Lee it was only a shrinking inky void--an +emptiness crowded with whirling little worlds all dwindling.... This +crowded space! Often little points of star-dust had come whirling at the +globe--colliding, bursting into pin-points of fire. Each of them might +have been bigger than the Earth. + +There was a time when it seemed that beneath the globe all the tiny +stars were shrinking into one lens-shaped cluster. The Inter-stellar +Universe--all congealed down there into a blob, and everywhere else +there was just nothingness.... But then little distant glowing nebulae +were visible--luminous, floating rings, alone in the emptiness.... +Distant? One of them drifted past, seemingly only a few hundred feet +away--a luminous little ring of star-dust. The passage of the monstrous +globe seemed to hurl it so that like a blown smoke ring it went into +chaos, lost its shape, and vanished. + +Then at last all the blobs--each of them, to Earth-size conception, a +monstrous Universe--all were dwindled into one blob down to one side of +Lee's window. And then they were gone.... + + * * * * * + +Just darkness now. Darkness and soundless emptiness. But as he stared at +intervals through another long night of his human consciousness, Lee +seemed to feel that the emptiness out there was dwindling--a finite +emptiness. He noticed, presently, that the size-change pointers had +stopped their movement; the ultimate size of the globe had been reached. +The figures of the Light-year dials were meaningless to his +comprehension. The velocity was meaningless. And now another little set +of dials were in operation. A thousand--something--of distance. There +was a meaningless word which named the unit. A thousand Earth-miles, if +he had been in his former size? The pointer marked nine hundred in a +moment. Was it, perhaps, the distance now from their destination? + +Vivian was beside him. "Lee, what's gonna happen to us? Won't this come +to an end some time? Lee--you won't let anybody hurt me?" + +She was like a child, almost always clinging to him now. And suddenly +she said a very strange thing. "Lee, I been thinkin'--back there on +Earth I was doin' a lot of things that maybe were pretty rotten--anglin' +for his money for instance--an' not carin' much what I had to do to get +it." She gestured at the sullen Franklin who was sitting on the couch. +"You know--things like that. An' I been thinkin'--you suppose, when we +get where we're goin' now, that'll be held against me?" + +What a queer thing to say! She was like a child--and so often a child +has an insight into that which is hidden from those more mature! + +"I--don't know," Lee muttered. + +From the couch, Franklin looked up moodily. "Whispering about me again? +I know you are--damn you both. You and everybody else here." + +"We're not interested in you," Vivian said. + +"Oh, you're not? Well you were, back on Earth. I'm not good enough for +you now, eh? He's better--because he's big--big and strong--that the +idea? Well if I ever had the chance--" + +"Don't be silly," Lee said. + + * * * * * + +The sullen Franklin was working himself into a rage. Lee seemed to +understand Franklin better now. A weakling. Inherently, with a complex +of inferiority, the vague consciousness of it lashing him into baffled +anger. + +"You, Anthony," Franklin burst out, "don't think you've been fooling me. +You can put it over that fool girl, but not me. I'm onto you." + +"Put what over?" Lee said mildly. + +"That you don't know anything about this affair or these men who've got +us--you don't know who they are, do you?" + +"No. Do you?" Lee asked. + +Franklin jumped to his feet. "Don't fence with me. By God, if I was +bigger I'd smash your head in. They abducted us, because they wanted +you. That fellow said as much near the start of this damned trip. They +won't talk--afraid I'll find out. And you can't guess what it's all +about! The hell you can't." + +Lee said nothing. But there was a little truth in what Franklin was +saying, of course.... Those things that the dying old Anna Green had +told him--surely this weird voyage had some connection. + +He turned away; went back to the window. There was a sheen now. A vague +outline of something vast, as though the darkness were ending at a great +wall that glowed a little. + +It seemed, during the next time-interval, as though the globe might have +turned over, so that now it was dropping down upon something tangible. +Dropping--floating down--with steadily decreasing velocity, descending +to a Surface. The sheen of glow had expanded until now it filled all the +lower hemisphere of darkness--a great spread of surface visually coming +up. Then there were things to see, illumined by a faint half-light to +which color was coming; a faint, pastel color that seemed a rose-glow. + +"Why--why," Vivian murmured, "say, it's beautiful, ain't it? It looks +like fairyland--or Heaven. It does--don't it, Lee?" + +"Yes," Lee murmured. "Like--like--" + +The wall-slide rasped. The voice of one of their captors said, "We will +arrive soon. We can trust you--there must be no fighting?" + +"You can trust us," Lee said. + +It was dark in the little curving corridor of the globe, where with +silent robed figures around them, they stood while the globe gently +landed. Then they were pushed forward, out through the exit port. + +The new realm. The World Beyond. What was it? To Lee Anthony then came +the feeling that there was a precise scientific explanation of it, of +course. And yet, beyond all that pedantry of science, he seemed to know +that it was something else, perhaps a place that a man might mould by +his dreams. A place that would be what a man made of it, from that which +was within himself. + +Solemn with awe he went with his companions slowly down the incline. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_Realm of Mystery_ + + +"We wish nothing of you," the man said, "save that you accept from us +what we have to offer. You are hungry. You will let us bring you food." + +It was a simple rustic room to which they had been brought--a room in a +house seemingly of plaited straw. Crude furnishings were here--table and +chairs of Earth fashion, padded with stuffed mats. Woven matting was on +the floor. Through a broad latticed window the faint rose-light +outside--like a soft pastel twilight--filtered in, tinting the room with +a gentle glow. Thin drapes at the window stirred in a breath of +breeze--a warm wind from the hills, scented with the vivid blooms which +were everywhere. + +It had been a brief walk from the space-globe. Lee had seen what seemed +a little village stretching off among the trees. There had been people +crowding to see the strangers--men, women and children, in simple crude +peasant garb--brief garments that revealed their pink-white bodies. They +babbled with strange unintelligible words, crowding forward until the +robed men from the globe shoved them away. + +It was a pastoral, peaceful scene--a little country-side drowsing in the +warm rosy twilight. Out by the river there were fields where men stood +at their simple agricultural implements--stood at rest, staring +curiously at the commotion in the village. + +And still Lee's captors would say nothing, merely drew them forward, +into this room. Then all of them left, save one. He had doffed his robe +now. He was an old man, with long grey-white hair to the base of his +neck. He stood smiling. His voice, with the English words queerly +pronounced, was gentle, but with a firm finality of command. + +"My name is Arkoh," he said. "I am to see that you are made comfortable. +This house is yours. There are several rooms, so that you may do in them +as you wish." + +"Thank you," Lee said. "But you can certainly understand--I have asked +many questions and never had any answers. If you wish to talk to me +alone--" + +"That will come presently. There is no reason for you to be worried--" + +"We're not worried," Franklin burst out. "We're fed up with this +highhanded stuff. You'll answer questions now. What I demand to know is +why--" + +"Take it easy," Lee warned. + +Franklin had jumped to his feet. He flung off Lee's hand. "Don't make me +laugh. I know you're one of them--everything about you is a fake. You +got us into this--" + +"So? You would bring strife here from your Earth?" Arkoh's voice cut in, +like a knife-blade cleaving through Franklin's bluster. "That is not +permissible. Please do not make it necessary that there should be +violence here." He stood motionless. But before his gaze Franklin +relaxed into an incoherent muttering. + +"Thank you," Arkoh said. "I shall send you the food." He turned and left +the room. + + * * * * * + +Vivian collapsed into a chair. She was trembling. "Well--my Gawd--what +is all this? Lee--that old man with his gentle voice--he looked like if +you crossed him you'd be dead. Not that he'd hurt you--it would +be--would be something else--" + +"You talk like an ass," Franklin said. "You've gone crazy--and I don't +blame you--this damned weird thing. For all that old man's smooth talk, +we're just prisoners here. Look outside that window--" + +It was a little garden, drowsing in the twilight. A man stood watching +the window. And as Lee went to the lattice, he could see others, like +guards outside. + +The man who brought their simple food was a stalwart fellow in a draped +garment of brown plaited fibre. His black hair hung thick about his +ears. He laid out the food in silence. + +"What's _your_ name?" Franklin demanded. + +"I am Groff." + +"And you won't talk either, I suppose? Look here, I can make it worth +your while to talk." + +"Everyone has all he needs here. There is nothing that you need give +us." + +"Isn't there? You just give me a chance and I'll show you. No one has +all he needs--or all he wants." + +Groff did not answer. But as he finished placing the food, and left the +room, it seemed to Lee that he shot a queer look back at Franklin. A +look so utterly incongruous that it was startling. Franklin saw it and +chuckled. + +"Well, at least there's one person here who's not so damn weird that it +gives you the creeps." + +"You don't know what you're talking about," Lee said. With sudden +impulse he lowered his voice. "Franklin, listen--there are a few things +that perhaps I can tell you. Things that I can guess--that Vivian +senses--" + +"I don't want to hear your explanation. It would be just a lot of damn +lies anyway." + +"All right. Perhaps it would. We'll soon know, I imagine." + +"Let's eat," Vivian said. "I'm hungry, even if I am scared." + +To Lee it seemed that the weird mystery here was crowding upon them. As +though, here in this dim room, momentous things were waiting to reveal +themselves. A strange emotion was upon Lee Anthony. A sort of tense +eagerness. Certainly it was not fear. Certainly it seemed impossible +that there could be anything here of which he should be afraid. Again +his mind went back to old Anna Green and what she had told him of his +grandfather. How far away--how long ago that had been.... And yet, was +Anna Green far away now? Something of her had seemed always to be with +him on that long, weird voyage, from the infinite smallness and +pettiness of Earth to this realm out beyond the stars. And more than +ever now, somehow Lee seemed aware of her presence here in this quiet +room. Occultism? He had always told himself that surely he was no +mystic. A practical fellow, who could understand science when it was +taught him, but certainly never could give credence to mysticism. The +dead are dead, and the living are alive; and between them is a gulf--an +abyss of nothingness. + +Now he found himself wondering. Were all those people on Earth who +claimed to feel the presence of dead loved ones near them? Were those +people just straining their fancy--just comforting themselves with what +they wished to believe? Or was the scoffer himself the fool? And if that +could be so, on Earth, why could not this strange realm be of such a +quality that an awareness of those who have passed from life would be +the normal thing? Who shall say that the mysteries of life and death are +unscientific? Was it not rather that they embraced those gaps of science +not yet understood? Mysteries which, if only we could understand them, +would be mysteries no longer? + +Lee had left the table and again was standing at the latticed window, +beyond which the drowsing little garden lay silent, and empty now. The +guard who had been out here had moved further away; his figure was a +blob near a flowered thicket at the house corner. And suddenly Lee was +aware of another figure. There was a little splashing fountain near the +garden's center--a rill of water which came down a little embankment and +splashed into a pool where the rose light shimmered on the ripples. + +The figure was sitting at the edge of the pool--a slim young girl in a +brief dress like a drape upon her. She sat, half reclining on the bank +by the shimmering water, with her long hair flowing down over her +shoulders and a lock of it trailing in the pool. For a moment he thought +that she was gazing into the water. Then as the light which tinted her +graceful form seemed to intensify, he saw that she was staring at him. + +It seemed as though both of them, for that moment, were breathless with +a strange emotion awakened in them by the sight of each other. And then +slowly the girl rose to her feet. Still gazing at Lee, she came slowly +forward with her hair dangling, framing her small oval face. The glow in +the night-air tinted her features. It was a face of girlhood, almost +mature--a face with wonderment on it now. + +He knew that he was smiling; then, a few feet from the window she +stopped and said shyly: + +"You are Lee Anthony?" + +"Yes." + +"I am Aura. When you have finished eating, I am to take you to him." + +"To him?" + +"Yes. The One of Our Guidance. He bade me bring you." Her soft voice was +musical; to her, quite obviously, the English was a foreign tongue. + +"I'm ready," Lee said. "I'm finished." + +One of her slim bare arms went up with a gesture. From the corner of the +little house the guard there turned, came inside. Lee turned to the +room. The guard entered. "You are to come," he said. + +"So we just stay here, prisoners," Franklin muttered. He and Vivian +were blankly staring as Lee was led away. + + * * * * * + +Then in a moment he was alone beside the girl who had come for him. +Silently they walked out into the glowing twilight, along a little +woodland path with the staring people and the rustic, nestling dwellings +blurring in the distance behind them. A little line of wooded hills lay +ahead. The sky was like a dark vault--empty. The pastel light on the +ground seemed inherent to the trees and the rocks; it streamed out like +a faint radiation from everywhere. And then, as Lee gazed up into the +abyss of the heavens, suddenly it seemed as though very faintly he could +make out a tiny patch of stars. Just one small cluster, high overhead. + +"The Universe you came from," Aura said. + +"Yes." The crown of her tresses as she walked beside him was at his +shoulder. He gazed down at her. "To whom are you taking me? It seems +that I could guess--" + +"I was told not to talk of that." + +"Well, all right. Is it far?" + +"No. A little walk--just to that nearest hill." + +Again they were silent. "My Earth," he said presently, "do you know much +about it?" + +"A little. I have been told." + +"It seems so far away to me now." + +She gazed up at him. She was smiling. "Is it? To me it seems quite +close." She gestured. "Just up there. It seemed far to you, I +suppose--that was because you were so small, for so long, coming here." + +Like a man the size of an ant, trying to walk ten miles. Of course, it +would be a monstrous trip. But if that man were steadily to grow larger, +as he progressed he would cover the distance very quickly. + +"Well," Lee said, "I suppose I can understand that. You were born here, +Aura?" + +"Yes. Of course." + +"Your world here--what is it like?" + +She gazed up at him as though surprised. "You have seen it. It is just a +simple little place. We have not so many people here in the village, and +about that many more--those who live in the hills close around here." + +"You mean that's all? Just this village? Just a few thousand people?" + +"Oh there are others, of course. Other groups--like ours, I guess--out +in the forests--everywhere in all the forests, maybe." Her gesture +toward the distant, glowing, wooded horizons was vague. "We have never +tried to find out. Why should we? Wherever they are, they have all that +they need or want. So have we." + +The thing was so utterly simple. He pondered it. "And you--you're very +happy here?" + +Her wide eyes were childlike. "Why yes. Of course. Why not? Why should +not everyone be happy?" + +"Well," he said, "there are things--" + +"Yes. I have heard of them. Things on your Earth--which the humans +create for themselves--but that is very silly. We do not have them +here." + +Surely he could think of no retort to such childlike faith. Her faith. +How horribly criminal it would be to destroy it. A priceless +thing--human happiness to be created out of the faith that it was the +normal thing. He realized that his heart was pounding, as though now +things which had been dormant within him all his life were coming +out--clamoring now for recognition. + +And then, out of another silence he murmured, "Aura--you're taking me to +my grandfather, aren't you? He came here from Earth--and then he sent +back there to get me?" + +"Yes," she admitted. "So you know it? But I was instructed to--" + +"All right. We won't talk of it. And he's told you about me?" + +"Yes," she agreed shyly. She caught her breath as she added, "I have +been--waiting for you--a long time." Shyly she gazed up at him. The +night-breeze had blown her hair partly over her face. Her hand brushed +it away so that her gaze met his. "I hoped you would be, well, like you +are," she added. + +"Oh," he said awkwardly. "Well--thanks." + +"And you," she murmured out of another little silence, "you--I hope I +haven't disappointed you. I am the way you want--like you wished--" + +What a weird thing to say! He smiled. "Not ever having heard of you, +Aura, I can't exactly say that I--" + + * * * * * + +He checked himself. Was she what he had wished? Why yes--surely he had +been thinking of her--in his dreams, all his life vaguely picturing +something like this for Lee Anthony.... + +"I guess I have been thinking of you," he agreed. "No, you haven't +disappointed me, Aura. You--you are--" + +He could find no words to say it. "We are almost there," she said. "He +will be very happy to have you come. He is a very good man, Lee. The +one, we think, of the most goodness--and wiseness, to guide us all--" + +The path had led them up a rocky defile, with gnarled little trees +growing between the crags. Ahead, the hillside rose up in a broken, +rocky cliff. There was a door, like a small tunnel entrance. A woman in +a long white robe was by the door. + +"He is here," Aura said. "Young Anthony." + +"You go in." + +Silently they passed her. The tunnel entrance glowed with the pastel +radiance from the rocks. The radiance was a soft blob of color ahead of +them. + +"You will find that he cannot move now," Aura whispered. "You will sit +by his bed. And talk softly." + +"You mean--he's ill?" + +"Well--what you would call paralysis. He cannot move. Only his lips--his +eyes. He will be gone from us soon, so that then he can only be unseen. +A Visitor--" + +Her whisper trailed off. Lee's heart was pounding, seeming to thump in +his throat as Aura led him silently forward. It was a draped, cave-like +little room. Breathless, Lee stared at a couch--a thin old figure lying +there--a frail man with white hair that framed his wrinkled face. It was +a face that was smiling, its sunken, burning eyes glowing with a new +intensity. The lips moved; a faint old voice murmured: + +"And you--you are Lee?" + +"Yes--grandfather--" + +He went slowly forward and sat on the bedside. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_Mad Giant_ + + +To Lee, after a moment, his grandfather seemed not awe-inspiring, but +just a frail old man, paralyzed into almost complete immobility, lying +here almost pathetically happy to have his grandson at last with him. An +old man, with nothing of the mystic about him--an old man who had +been--unknown to the savants of his Earth--perhaps the greatest +scientist among them. Quietly, with pride welling in him, Lee held the +wasted, numbed hand of his grandfather and listened.... + +Phineas Anthony, the scientist. After many years of research, +spending his own private fortune, he had evolved the secret of +size-change--solved the intricate problems of anti-gravitational +spaceflight; and combining the two, had produced that little vehicle. + +A man of science; and perhaps more than that. As old Anna Green had +said, perhaps he was a man inspired--a man, following his dreams, his +convictions, convinced that somewhere in God's great creation of things +that are, there must be an existence freed of those things by which Man +himself so often makes human life a tortured hell. + +"And Something led me here, Lee," the gentle old voice was saying. +"Perhaps not such a coincidence. On this great Inner Surface of gentle +light and gentle warmth--with Nature offering nothing against which one +must strive--there must be many groups of simple people like these. They +have no thought of evil--there is nothing--no one, to teach it to them. +If I had not landed here, I think I would have found much the same thing +almost anywhere else on the Inner Surface." + +"The Inner Surface? I don't understand, grandfather." + +A conception--a reality here--that was numbing in its vastness. This was +the concave, inner surface, doubtless deep within the atom of some +material substance. A little empty Space here, surrounded by solidity. + +"And that--" Lee murmured, "then that little space is our Inter-Stellar +abyss?" + +"Yes. Of course. The stars, as we call them--from here you could call +them tiny particles--like electrons whirling. All of them in this little +void. With good eyesight, you can sometimes see them there--" + +"I did." + +And to this viewpoint which Lee had now--so gigantic, compared to +Earth--all the Inter-Stellar universe was a void here of what old +Anthony considered would be perhaps eight or ten thousand miles. A void, +to Lee now, was itself of no greater volume than the Earth had been to +him before! + +Silently he pondered it. This Inner Surface--not much bigger, to him +now, than the surface of the Earth is to its humans.... Suddenly +he felt small--infinitely tiny. Out here beyond the stars, he was +only within the atom of something larger, a human, partly on his +way--emerging--outward-- + + * * * * * + +It gave him a new vague conception. As though now, because he was partly +emerged, the all-wise Creator was giving him a new insight. Surely in +this simple form of existence humans were totally unaware of what evil +could be. Was not this a higher form of life than down there on his tiny +Earth? + +The conception numbed him with awe.... + +"You see, Lee, I have been looking forward to having you become a +man--to having you here," old Anthony was saying. As he lay, so utterly +motionless, only his voice, his face, his eyes, seemed alive. It was an +amazingly expressive old face, radiant, transfigured. "I shall not be +here long. You see? And when I have--gone on--when I can only come back +here as a Visitor--like Anna Green, you have been aware of her, Lee?" + +"Yes, grandfather. Yes, I think I have." + +"The awareness is more acute, here, than it was back on Earth. A very +comforting thing, Lee. I was saying--I want you here. These people, so +simple--you might almost think them childlike--they need someone to +guide them. The one who did that--just as I came, was dying. +Maybe--maybe that is what led me here. So now I need you." + +It welled in Lee with an awe, and a feeling suddenly of humbleness--and +of his own inadequacy, so that he murmured, + +"But grandfather--I would do my best--but surely--" + +"I think it will be given you--the ability--and I've been thinking, Lee, +if only some time it might be possible to show them on Earth--" + +Lee had been aware that he and old Anthony were alone here. When Lee +entered, Aura had at once withdrawn. Now, interrupting his grandfather's +faint, gentle voice there was a commotion outside the underground +apartment. The sound of women's startled cries, and Aura's voice. + +Then Aura burst in, breathless, pale, with her hair flying and on her +face and in her eyes a terror so incongruous that Lee's heart went cold. + +He gasped, "Aura! Aura, what is it?" + +"This terrible thing--that man who came with you--that man, Franklin--he +talked with Groff. Some evil spell to put upon Groff--it could only have +been that--" + +Lee seized her. "What do you mean? Talk slower. Groff? The man who +served us that meal--" + +"Yes, Groff. And two of the men who were to guard there. What that man +said to them--did to them--and when old Arkoh found it out he opposed +them--" Her voice was drab with stark horror--so new an emotion that it +must have confused her, so that now she just stood trembling. + +"Child, come here--come here over to me--" Old Anthony's voice summoned +her. "Now--talk more slowly--try and think what you want to tell us.... +What happened?" + +"Oh--I saw old Arkoh--him whom I love so much--who always has been so +good to me--to us all--I saw him lying there on the floor--" + + * * * * * + +Words so unnatural here that they seemed to reverberate through the +little cave-room with echoes that jostled and muttered like alien, +menacing things which had no right here--and yet, were here. + +"You saw him--lying there?" Lee prompted. + +"Yes. His throat, with red blood running out of it where they had cut +him--and he was dying--he died while I stood there--" + +The first murder. A thing so unnatural. Old Anthony stared for an +instant mute at the girl who now had covered her face with her hands as +she trembled against Lee. + +"Killed him?" Lee murmured. + +On Anthony's face there was wonderment--disillusion, and then +bitterness. "So? This is what comes to us, from Earth?" + +Lying so helpless, old Anthony could only murmur that now Lee must do +what he could. + +"Your own judgement, my son--do what you can to meet this." The sunken, +burning eyes of the old man flashed. "If there must be violence here, +let it be so. Violence for that which is right." + +"Grandfather--yes! That miserable cowardly murderer--" + +To meet force, with force. Surely, even in a world of ideals, there is +no other way. + +With his fists clenched, Lee ran from the cave-room. Frightened women +scattered before him at its entrance. Where had Franklin gone? That +fellow Groff, and two or three of the guards had gone with him. Cynicism +swept Lee; he remembered the look Groff had flung at Franklin. Even here +in this realm--because it was peopled by humans--evil passions could +brood. Groff indeed must have been planning something, and he had seen +in Franklin a ready helper--a man from Earth, whom Groff very well may +have thought would be more resourceful, more experienced in the ways of +violence than himself. + +This realm where everyone had all of happiness that he could want! Human +perfection of existence. A savage laugh of irony was within Lee as he +thought of it. No one had ever held out the offer of more than +perfection to these people. But Franklin evidently had done it--playing +upon the evil which must lie within every living thing, no matter how +latent it may be. Awakening in those guards the passion of +cupidity--desire for something better than they had now. + + * * * * * + +What had happened to Vivian? Out in the rose-light dimness, a little way +down the path, Lee found himself staring off toward the forest where the +village lay nestled. Voices of the frightened people came wafting +through the night silence. + +"Lee--Lee--" + +It was Aura behind him, running after him. "Lee--wait--I belong with +you. You know that--" + +He gripped her. "That girl from Earth--that Vivian--she was with +Franklin. What happened to her?" + +"She went. He took her--" + +"She went--voluntarily?" + +"Yes. The people saw her running out with Franklin, and Groff and the +other men. Oh, Lee--what--what are you going to do?" + +"I don't know." He stood for a moment dazed, confused--panting, his +fingers twitching. If only he could get a grip on Franklin's throat. And +so Vivian went too! That was a laugh--girl of the streets, pretty +worthless, on Earth. But here--she had seemed to sense what this realm +could mean. + +"Aura, where would Groff be likely to go?" + +"Go? Why--why I do remember, Groff often went up into the hills. He +never said why?" + +"Would they have any weapons?" + +"Weapons?" Her eyes widened as though for a second she did not +comprehend. "Weapons? You mean--instruments with which to kill people? +No--how could there be? But a knife can kill. A knife cut old Arkoh's +throat. We have knives--in the houses--and knives that are used for the +harvests--" + +She had turned to gaze out toward the glowing hills.... "Oh, +Lee--look--" + +Numbed, with their breath catching in their throats, they stared. Out by +the hills a man's figure rose up--monstrous, gigantic figure. + +Franklin! He stood beside the little hill, with a hand on its top, his +huge bulk dwarfing it! Franklin, a titan, his head and shoulders looming +monstrously against the inky blackness of the sky! + + + + +CHAPTER V + +_Combat of Titans_ + + +"Aura, you think you know where Groff may have gone--those times he went +out into the hills?" + +"Yes. I think so. Lee--that giant, I think now I understand what must +have happened." + +The giant shape of Franklin, a mile or two from them, had stood for a +moment and then had receded, vanished momentarily as he moved backward +behind the hills. Lee and Aura, stunned, still stood beside the little +rocky path. Lee's mind was a turmoil of confusion, with only the +knowledge that he must do something now, quickly. There were no weapons +here in this peaceful little realm. Four or five of these madmen +villains--what need had they of weapons? The monstrous power of size. +The thought of it struck at Lee with a chill that seemed turning his +blood to ice. The monster that Franklin had become--with a size like +that he could scatter death with his naked hands. + + * * * * * + +"I remember now," Aura was gasping. "There was a time when your +grandfather was working on his science. Groff was helping him then. Your +grandfather taught Groff much." + +"Working at what?" + +"It was never said. Then your grandfather gave it up--he had decided it +would not be wise here." + + * * * * * + +Some individual apparatus, with the size-change principle of the +space-globe? And Groff had gotten the secret. An abnormality here--Groff +with the power of evil latent within him, tempted by this opportunity. +What could he have hoped to accomplish? Of what use to him would it be +to devastate this little realm? Bitter irony swept Lee. Of what use was +vast personal power to anyone? Those madmen of Earth's history, with +their lust for conquest--of what use could the conquest be to them? And +yet they had plunged on. + +He realized that with Groff there could have been a wider field of +conquest. Groff had heard much of Earth. With the power of size here, he +could master this realm; then seize the space-globe. Go with it to +Earth. Why, in a gigantic size there, he and a few villainous companions +could master the Earth-world. A mad dream indeed, but Lee knew it was a +lustful possibility matched by many in Earth's history. + +And then Franklin had come here. Franklin, with his knowledge of Earth +which Groff would need. Franklin, with his inherent feeling of +inferiority--his groping desire for the strength and power of size. What +an opportunity for Franklin! + +Lee heard himself saying out of the turmoil of his thoughts: "Then, +Aura--out there in the hills they've got some apparatus, of course, +which--" + +His words were stricken away. From somewhere in the glowing dimness near +at hand there was a groan. A gasping, choking groan; and the sound of +something falling. + +"Lee--over there--" Aura's whispered words were drab with horror. + + * * * * * + +A figure which had been staggering among the rocks near them, had +fallen. They rushed to it. Vivian! She was trying to drag herself +forward. Her hair, streaming down in a sodden mass, was matted with +blood. Her pallid face was blood-smeared. Her neck and throat were a +welter of crimson horror. Beside her on the ground lay a strange-looking +apparatus of grids and wires--a metal belt--a skeleton helmet.... She +was gripping it with a blood-smeared hand, dragging it with her. + +"Vivian--Vivian--" + +"Oh--you, Lee? Thank Gawd I got to you--" + +Her elbows gave way; her head and shoulders sank to the rock. Faintly +gasping, with blood-foam at her livid lips, she lay motionless. But her +glazing eyes gazed up at Lee, and she was trying to smile. + +"I went with them--that damned Franklin--he thought I was as bad as +him--" Her faint words were barely audible as he bent down to her. "Just +want to tell you, Lee--you're perfectly swell--I guess I fell for you, +didn't I? That's over now--just wanted you to know it anyway. There's +one of the damned mechanisms they've got--" + +"Where are they, Vivian?" + +"A cave, not very far from here--down that little ravine--just +ahead--they're in there--four or five of them, getting ready to--" Blood +was rattling in her throat, choking her. She tried, horribly, to cough. +And then she gasped: + +"I stole this mechanism. He--Franklin--he caught me--slashed me. He +thought I was dead, I guess--but--when he had gone, I got this +mechanism--trying to get to you--" + +Her choking, rattling breath again gave out. For a moment she lay with a +paroxysm of death twitching her. And then, very faintly she gasped: + +"Sort of nice--I was able to do one good thing--anyhow. I'm glad of +that--" + +The paroxysm ended in a moment. Her white lips were still trying to +smile as the light went out of her eyes and she was gone. Trembling, Lee +stood up, with the mute, white-faced Aura clinging to him. It was fairly +obvious how the weird mechanism should be adjusted--anklets, the +skeleton helmet of electrodes, the belt around his waist, with its +grids, tiny dials and curved battery box. In a moment he stood with the +wires strung from his head, to wrist, ankles and waist. There seemed but +one little control switch that would slide over a metal arc of intensity +contacts. + +"Oh, Lee--what--what are you going to do--?" Aura stood white with +terror. + +"She said--four or five of them in a cave near here--perhaps they +haven't yet gotten large--" + + * * * * * + +Down in a little ravine Lee found himself running forward in the +luminous darkness. He called back, "Aura--you stay where you are--you +hide, until it's over--" + +Then, in the turmoil of his mind, there was no thought of the girl. +There was only the vision of old Anthony lying back there so +helpless--his burning eyes bitter with this thing which had so horribly +come to his little realm. To meet force with force was the only answer. + +It was not Lee's plan to increase his size for a moment now. By doing +that, almost at once he would be discovered. And perhaps there were +still four or five of the murderers, still not giants, in a cave nearby. + +The dim rocky ravine, heavy with shadows, led downward. He came to a +tunnel opening, advancing more cautiously now. And then, as he turned an +angle ahead of him, down a little subterranean declivity a luminous cave +was visible. Groff's hideout. At one of its entrances here Lee stood for +an instant gasping. The five men were here--Groff and four of his +villainous companions. + +The five bodies lay strewn--horribly mangled. And the wreckage of their +size-change mechanisms was strewn among them. + +So obvious, what had happened! Franklin had been the first to get large. +And at once he had turned on them. Franklin, the weakling who dared not +have any rivalry! And now Franklin was outside, out in the hills, a +raging, murderous monster. For a moment, in the grisly shambles of the +little cave Lee stood transfixed. Then his hand was fumbling at his +belt. He shoved the small switch-lever. + +There was a shock--a humming--a reeling of his senses. It was akin to +what he had felt on the space-globe, but stronger, more intense now. For +an instant he staggered, confused. The wires strung on him were glowing; +he could feel their heat. Weird luminous opalescence streamed from +them--it bathed him--strange electrolite radiance that permeated every +minute fibre of his being. + +With his head steadying, Lee suddenly was aware of movement all about +him. The dim outlines of the cave-room were shrinking with a creeping, +crawling movement. Cave-walls and roof all shrinking, dwindling, drawing +down upon him. Under his feet the rocky ground seemed hitching forward. + +This little cave! In a moment while he stood shocked into immobility, +the cave was a tiny cell. Down by his feet the gruesome mangled corpses +were the size of children. The cave-roof bumped his head. He must get +out of here! The realization stabbed him. Why, in another moment or two +these dark walls would close upon him! Then with instant changing +viewpoint he saw the true actuality. He was a growing giant, crouching +here underground--a giant who would be crushed, mangled by his own +monstrous growth. + + * * * * * + +Lee turned, staggered into the little tunnel, shoved his way out. The +walls pressed him; they seemed in a moment to close after him as he +gained the outer glowing darkness.... There was only a narrow slit in +the dwindling cliff to mark the tunnel entrance. Lee had the wits to +crouch in a fairly open space as he stared at the dwindling trees, the +little hills, all shrinking. Franklin must be around here somewhere. +Franklin doubtless would see him in a moment. + +And then as Lee rose up, Franklin saw him. Lee put a hand on one of the +little hills at his waist, vaulted it so that he faced Franklin with +what seemed no more than a hundred feet between them. For that second +Franklin was transfixed. Amazement swept his face. His muttering was +audible: + +"Why--why--what's this--" + +An adversary had come to challenge his power. As Lee bounded +forward, on Franklin's face while he stood transfixed, there was +wonderment--disappointment--sudden instinctive fear--and then wild rage. +He stooped; seized a boulder, hurled it at the oncoming Lee. It missed; +and then Lee was on him, seizing him. + +Franklin's body had not been enlarging, but as he saw Lee coming, his +hand had flung his switch. They gripped each other now, swaying, locked +together, staggering. Franklin still was more than head and shoulders +above Lee. His huge arms, with amazing power in them, bent Lee backward. +He stumbled, went down with Franklin on him. "Got you! Damn you," he +said. + + * * * * * + +His giant hands gripped Lee's throat, but Lee was aware that his own +body was enlarging faster than Franklin's, upon which the size-current +had only now started to act. If Lee could only resist--just a little bit +longer! His groping hands beside him on the ground seized a rock. +Monstrous strangling fingers were at this throat--his breath was gone, +his head roaring. Then he was aware that he had seized a rock and struck +it up into Franklin's face. For a second the hands at Lee's throat +relaxed. He gulped in air, desperately broke free and staggered to his +feet. + +But Franklin was up as quickly. The tiny forest trees crackled under +Lee's tread as again he hurled himself viciously on his antagonist.... + + * * * * * + +At the head of the distant ravine, the numbed Aura crouched alone, +staring out at the hills with mute horror--staring at the two monstrous +giants slugging it out. Franklin was the larger. She saw Lee rise up, +and with a hand on one of the hills, vault over it. Giants that loomed +against the sky as they fronted each other and then crashed together, +went down. + +Lee was underneath! Dear God-- + +Two monstrous bodies--Lee was lying with a ridge of crags under his +shoulders.... Franklin's voice was a blurred roar of triumph in the +distance. Then she saw Lee's groping hand come up with a monstrous fifty +foot boulder. He crashed it home. + +They were up again. Their giant staggering lunges had carried them five +miles from her. They were almost the size of fighting titans. The +blurred distant shapes of them were silhouettes against the glow of the +sky. The forest out there was crackling under their tread ... a blurred +roar of breaking, mangled trees.... + +It was just a few seconds while Aura stared, but each second was an +eternity of horror. Then one of the monstrous figures was toppling. A +great boulder had crashed on Franklin's head; he had broken loose, +staggering while Lee jumped backward and crouched. + +For just a second the towering shape of the stricken Franklin loomed up +in the sky. And then it fell crashing forward. A swift-flowing stream +was there, and the body fell across it--blocking the water which dammed +up, then turned aside and went roaring off through the mangled forest. + + * * * * * + +Lee, again in his former size, sat at old Anthony's bedside, with Aura +behind him. The news of the combat out there against the sky had come to +Anthony--the excitement of it, too much for his faltering old heart.... + +"But you will be all right, grandfather. The thing is over now." + +"Yes. All right--of course, Lee. Just a visitor here--and you will take +my place--" + +He lay now--as old Anna Green had been that night--just on the brink. +"Lee, listen to me--those mechanisms--the space-globe--Lee, I realize +now there is no possibility that we could help Earth--and surely it +could only bring us evil here. What we have found here--don't you see, +back on Earth each man must create it for himself. Within himself: He +could do that, if he chose. And so you--you must disconnect +us--forever--" + +"Yes, grandfather--" + +"And I--guess that is all--" + +For some time he seemed to hover on the brink, while Lee and Aura, +sitting hand in hand, silently watched him. And then he was gone. + + * * * * * + +The last of the mechanisms irrevocably was smashed. The little line of +vacuums and tubes of the space-globe's mechanisms went up into a burst +of opalescent light under Lee's grim smashing blows. + +Then silently he went outside and joined Aura. Behind them, down the +declivity toward the village, the people were gathering. He was silent, +his heart pounding with emotion, as he faced them from a little +eminence--faced them and heard their shouts, and saw their arms go up to +welcome him. + +Slowly he and Aura walked down the slope toward his waiting people. And +with her by his side, her hand in his, Lee Anthony knew then that he had +found fulfillment--the attainment of that which is within every man's +heart--man's heritage--those things for which he must never cease to +strive. + + +THE END + + + + +Transcriber's Note + +Minor corrections of spelling and punctuation have been made without +comment. Variations in spelling, capitalization, and hyphenation have +been retained to match the original document. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The World Beyond, by Raymond King Cummings + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE WORLD BEYOND *** + +***** This file should be named 29059.txt or 29059.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/0/5/29059/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, adhere and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/29059.zip b/29059.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e22c267 --- /dev/null +++ b/29059.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5221558 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #29059 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29059) |
