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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. 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