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diff --git a/41481-0.txt b/41481-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a7760c --- /dev/null +++ b/41481-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9427 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41481 *** + + ASTOUNDING STORIES OF SUPER-SCIENCE + + VOL. I No. 1 JANUARY, 1930 + + W. M. CLAYTON, Publisher + + HARRY BATES, Editor + + DOUGLAS M. DOLD, Consulting Editor + + COVER DESIGN + H. W. WESSOLOWSKI + _Painted in Water-colors from a Scene in "The Beetle Horde."_ + + _On Sale the First Thursday of Each Month_ + + The Clayton Standard on a Magazine Guarantees: + + _That_ the stories therein are clean, interesting, vivid; by leading + writers of the day and purchased under conditions approved by the + Authors' League of America; + + _That_ such magazines are manufactured in Union shops by American + workmen; + + _That_ each newsdealer and agent is insured a fair profit; + + _That_ an intelligent censorship guards their advertising pages. + + _The other Clayton magazines are:_ + + ACE-HIGH MAGAZINE, RANCH ROMANCES, COWBOY STORIES, CLUES, + FIVE-NOVELS MONTHLY, WIDE WORLD ADVENTURES, ALL STAR DETECTIVE + STORIES, FLYERS, RANGELAND LOVE STORY MAGAZINE, WESTERN NOVEL + MAGAZINE, BIG STORY MAGAZINE, MISS 1930, _and_ FOREST AND STREAM + + _More Than Two Million Copies Required to Supply the Monthly Demand + for Clayton Magazines._ + + Issued monthly by Publishers' Fiscal Corporation, 80 Lafayette St., + New York, N. Y. W. M. Clayton, President; Nathan Goldmann, + Secretary. Application for entry as second-class mail pending at the + Post Office at New York, under Act of March 3, 1879. Application for + registration of title as Trade Mark pending in the U.S. Patent + Office. Member Newsstand Group--Men's List. For advertising rates + address E. R. Crowe & Co., Inc., 25 Vanderbilt Ave., New York; or + 225 North Michigan Ave., Chicago. + + + + + CONTENTS + + + EDITORIAL THE EDITOR 7 + _An Introduction to a New and Unique Magazine._ + + THE BEETLE HORDE VICTOR ROUSSEAU 8 + _Only Two Young Explorers Stand in the Way of the Mad Bram's + Horrible Revenge--the Releasing of His Trillions of Man-sized + Beetles upon an Utterly Defenseless World._ (Part One of a Two-part + Novel.) + + THE CAVE OF HORROR CAPTAIN S. P. MEEK 32 + _Screaming, the Guardsman Was Jerked Through the Air. An Unearthly + Screech Rang Through the Cavern. The Unseen Horror of Mammoth Cave + Had Struck Again!_ + + PHANTOMS OF REALITY RAY CUMMINGS 46 + _Red Sensua's Knife Came up Dripping--and the Two Adventurers Knew + that Chaos and Bloody Revolution Had Been Unleashed in that Shadowy + Kingdom of the Fourth Dimension._ (A Complete Novel.) + + THE STOLEN MIND M. L. STALEY 75 + _What Would You Do, If, Like Quest, You Were Tricked, and Your Very + Mind and Will Stolen from Your Body?_ + + COMPENSATION C. V. TENCH 92 + _Professor Wroxton Had Disappeared--But in the Bottom of the + Mysterious Crystal Cage Lay the Diamond from His Ring!_ + + TANKS MURRAY LEINSTER 100 + _Two Miles of American Front Had Gone Dead. And on Two Lone + Infantrymen, Lost in the Menace of the Fog-gas and the Tanks, + Depended the Outcome of the War of 1932._ + + INVISIBLE DEATH ANTHONY PELCHER 118 + _On Lees' Quick and Clever Action Depended the Life of "Old Perk" + Ferguson, the Millionaire Manufacturer Threatened by the Uncanny, + Invisible Killer._ + + + +_Introducing_-- + +ASTOUNDING STORIES + + +What _are_ "astounding" stories? + +Well, if you lived in Europe in 1490, and someone told you the earth was +round and moved around the sun--that would have been an "astounding" +story. + +Or if you lived in 1840, and were told that some day men a thousand +miles apart would be able to talk to each other through a little +wire--or without any wire at all--that would have been another. + +Or if, in 1900, they predicted ocean-crossing airplanes and submarines, +world-girdling Zeppelins, sixty-story buildings, radio, metal that can +be made to resist gravity and float in the air--these would have been +other "astounding" stories. + +To-day, time has gone by, and all these things are commonplace. That is +the only real difference between the astounding and the +commonplace--Time. + +To-morrow, more astounding things are going to happen. Your children--or +their children--are going to take a trip to the moon. They will be able +to render themselves invisible--a problem that has already been partly +solved. They will be able to disintegrate their bodies in New York and +reintegrate them in China--and in a matter of seconds. + +Astounding? Indeed, yes. + +Impossible? Well--television would have been impossible, almost +unthinkable, ten years ago. + +Now you will see the kind of magazine that it is our pleasure to offer +you beginning with this, the first number of ASTOUNDING STORIES. + +It is a magazine whose stories will anticipate the super-scientific +achievements of To-morrow--whose stories will not only be strictly +accurate in their science but will be vividly, dramatically and +thrillingly told. + +Already we have secured stories by some of the finest writers of fantasy +in the world--men such as Ray Cummings, Murray Leinster, Captain S. P. +Meek, Harl Vincent, R. F. Starzl and Victor Rousseau. + +So--order your next month's copy of ASTOUNDING STORIES in advance! + +--_The Editor._ + + + + +The Beetle Horde + +A TWO-PART NOVEL + +_By Victor Rousseau_ + + +[Illustration: _Dodd and Tommy realised that they were powerless against +the monstrous beetles._] + +[Sidenote: Only two young explorers stand in the way of the mad Bram's +horrible revenge--the releasing of his trillions of man-sized beetles +upon an utterly defenseless world.] + + + + +CHAPTER I + +_Dodd's Discovery_ + + +Out of the south the biplane came winging back toward the camp, a black +speck against the dazzling white of the vast ice-fields that extended +unbroken to the horizon on every side. + +It came out of the south, and yet, a hundred miles further back along +the course on which it flew, it could not have proceeded in any +direction except northward. For a hundred miles south lay the south +pole, the goal toward which the Travers Expeditions had been pressing +for the better part of that year. + +Not that they could not have reached it sooner. As a matter of fact, +the pole had been crossed and re-crossed, according to the estimate of +Tommy Travers, aviator, and nephew of the old millionaire who stood +fairy uncle to the expedition. But one of the things that was being +sought was the exact site of the pole. Not within a couple of miles or +so, but within the fraction of an inch. + +It had something to do with Einstein, and something to do with +terrestrial magnetism, and the variations of the south magnetic pole, +and the reason therefore, and something to do with parallaxes and the +precession of the equinoxes and other things, this search for the pole's +exact location. But all that was principally the affair of the +astronomer of the party. Tommy Travers, who was now evidently on his way +back, didn't give a whoop for Einstein, or any of the rest of the stuff. +He had been enjoying himself after his fashion during a year of +frostbites and hard rations, and he was beginning to anticipate the +delights of the return to Broadway. + +Captain Storm, in charge of the expedition, together with the five +others of the advance camp, watched the plane maneuver up to the tents. +She came down neatly on the smooth snow, skidded on her runners like an +expert skater, and came to a stop almost immediately in front of the +marquee. + +Tommy Travers leaped out of the enclosed cockpit, which, shut off by +glass from the cabin, was something like the front seat of a limousine. + +"Well, Captain, we followed that break for a hundred miles, and there's +no ground cleft, as you expected," he said. "But Jim Dodd and I picked +up something, and Jim seems to have gone crazy." + + * * * * * + +Through the windows of the cabin, Jim Dodd, the young archaeologist of +the party, could be seen apparently wrestling with something that looked +like a suit of armor. By the time Captain Storm, Jimmy, and the other +members of the party had reached the cabin door, Dodd had got it open +and flung himself out backward, still hugging what he had found, and +maneuvering so that he managed to fall on his back and sustain its +weight. + +"Say, what the--what--what's that?" gasped Storm. + +Even the least scientific minded of the party gasped in amazement at +what Dodd had. It resembled nothing so much as an enormous beetle. As a +matter of fact, it was an insect, for it had the three sections that +characterize this class, but it was merely the shell of one. Between +four and five feet in height, when Dodd stood it on end, it could now be +seen to consist of the hard exterior substance of some huge, unknown +coleopter. + +This substance, which was fully three inches thick over the thorax, +looked as hard as plate armor. + +"What is it?" gasped Storm again. + + * * * * * + +Tommy Travers made answer, for James Dodd was evidently incapable of +speech, more from emotion than from the force with which he had landed +backward in the snow. + +"We found it at the pole, Captain," he said. "At least, pretty near +where the pole ought to be. We ran into a current of warm air or +something. The snow had melted in places, and there were patches of bare +rock. This thing was lying in a hollow among them." + +"If I didn't see it before my eyes, I'd think you crazy, Tommy," said +Storm with some asperity. "What is it, a crab?" + +"Crab be damned!" shouted Jim Dodd, suddenly recovering his faculties. +"My God, Captain Storm, don't you know the difference between an insect +and a crustacean? This is a fossil beetle. Don't you see the +distinguishing mark of the coleoptera, those two elytra, or wing-covers, +which meet in the median dorsal line? A beetle, but with the shell of a +crustacean instead of mere chitin. That's what led you astray, I expect. +God, what a tale we'll have to tell when we get back to New York! We'll +drop everything else, and spend years, if need be, looking for other +specimens." + +"Like fun you will!" shouted Higby, the astronomer of the party. "Lemme +tell you right here, Dodd, nobody outside the Museum of Natural History +is going to care a damn about your old fossils. What we're going to do +is to march straight to the true pole, and spend a year taking +observations and parallaxes. If Einstein's brochure, in which he links +up gravitation with magnetism, is correct--" + +"Fossil beetles!" Jim Dodd burst out, ignoring the astronomer. "That +means that in the Tertiary Era, probably, there existed forms of life in +the antarctic continent that have never been found elsewhere. Imagine a +world in which the insect reached a size proportionate to the great +saurians, Captain Storm! I'll wager poor Bram discovered this. That's +why he stayed behind when the Greystoke Expedition came within a hundred +miles of the pole. I'll wager he's left a cairn somewhere with full +details inside it. We've got to find it. We--" + + * * * * * + +But Jim Dodd, suddenly realizing that the rest of the party could hardly +be said to share his enthusiasm in any marked degree, broke off and +looked sulky. + +"You say you found this thing pretty nearly upon the site of the true +pole?" Captain Storm asked Tommy. + +"Within five miles, I'd say, Captain. The fog was so bad that we +couldn't get our directions very well." + +"Well, then, there's going to be no difficulty," answered Storm. "If +this fair weather lasts, we'll be at the pole in another week, and we'll +start making our permanent camp. Plenty of opportunity for all you +gentlemen. As for me, I'm merely a sailor, and I'm trying to be +impartial. + +"And please remember, gentlemen, that we're well into March now, and +likely to have the first storms of autumn on us any day. So let's drop +the argument and remember that we've got to pull together!" + + * * * * * + +Tommy Travers was the only skilled aviator of the expedition, which had +brought two planes with it. It was a queer friendship that had sprung up +between him and Jim Dodd. Tommy, the blasé ex-Harvard man, who was known +along Broadway, and had never been able to settle down, seemed as +different as possible from the spectacled, scholarly Dodd, ten years his +senior, red-haired, irascible, and living, as Tommy put it, in the Age +of Old Red Sandstone, instead of in the year 1930 A. D. + +It was generally known--though the story had been officially +denied--that there had been trouble in the Greystoke Expedition of three +years before. Captain Greystoke had taken the brilliant, erratic Bram, +of the Carnegie Archaeological Institute, with him, and Bram's history +was a long record of trouble. + +It was Bram who had exploded the faked neolithic finds at Mannheim, +thereby earning the undying enmity of certain European savants, but +brilliantly demolishing them when he smashed the so-called Mannheim +stone pitcher (valued at a hundred thousand dollars) with a pocket-axe, +and caustically inquired whether neolithic man used babbit metal rivets +to fasten on his jug handles. + + * * * * * + +Bram's brilliant work in the investigation of the origin of the negrito +Asiatic races had been awarded one of the Nobel prizes, and Bram had +declined it in an insulting letter because he disapproved of the year's +prize award for literature. + +He had been a storm center for years, embittered by long opposition, +when he joined the Greystoke Expedition for the purpose of investigating +the marine fauna of the antarctic continent. + +And it was known that his presence had nearly brought the Greystoke +Expedition to the point of civil war. Rumor said he had been +deliberately abandoned. His enemies hoped he had. The facts seemed to +be, however, that in an outburst of temper he had walked out of camp in +a furious snowstorm and perished. For days his body had been sought in +vain. + +Jimmy Dodd had run foul of Bram some years before, when Bram had +published a criticism of one of Dodd's addresses dealing with fossil +monotremes, or egg-laying mammals. In his inimitable way, Bram had +suggested that the problem which came first, the egg or the chicken, was +now seen to be linked up with the Darwinian theory, and solved in the +person of Dodd. + +Nevertheless, Jimmy Dodd entertained a devoted admiration for the memory +of the dead scientist. He believed that Bram must have left records of +inestimable importance in a cairn before he died. He wanted to find that +cairn. + +And he knew, what a number of Bram's enemies knew, that the dead +scientist had been a morphine addict. He believed that he had wandered +out into the snow under the influence of the drug. + + * * * * * + +Dodd, who shared a tent with Tommy, had raved the greater part of the +night about the find. + +"Well, but see here, Jimmy, suppose these beetles did inhabit the +antarctic continent a few million years ago, why get excited?" Tommy had +asked. + +"Excited?" bellowed Dodd. "It opens one of the biggest problems that +science has to face. Why haven't they survived into historic times? Why +didn't they cross into Australia, like the opossum, by the land bridge +then existent between that continent and South America? Beetles five +feet in length, and practically invulnerable! What killed them off? Why +didn't they win the supremacy over man?" + +Jimmy Dodd had muttered till he went to sleep, and he had muttered +worse in his dreams. Tommy was glad that Captain Storm had given them +permission to return to the same spot next morning and look for further +fossils, though his own interest in them was of the slightest. + +The dogs were being harnessed next morning when the two men hopped into +the plane. The thermometer was unusually high for the season, for in the +south polar regions the short summer is usually at an end by March. +Tommy was sweating in his furs in a temperature well above the freezing +point. The snow was crusted hard, the sky overcast with clouds, and a +wind was blowing hard out of the south, and increasing in velocity +hourly. + +"A bad day for starting," said Captain Storm. "Looks like one of the +autumn storms was blowing up. If I were you, I'd watch the weather, +Tommy." + + * * * * * + +Tommy glanced at Dodd, who was huddled in the rear cockpit, fuming at +the delay, and grinned whimsically. "I guess I can handle her, Captain," +he answered. "It's only an hour's flight to where he found that fossil." + +"Just as you please," said Storm curtly. He knew that Tommy's judgment +as a pilot could always be relied upon. "You'll find us here when you +return," he added. "I've counter-manded the order to march. I don't like +the look of the weather at all." + +Tommy grinned again and pressed the starter. The engine caught and +warmed up. One of the men kicked away the blocks of ice that had been +placed under the skids to serve as chocks. The plane taxied over the +crusted snow, and took off into the south. + + * * * * * + +The camp was situated in a hollow among the ice-mountains that rose to a +height of two or three thousand feet all around. Tommy had not dreamed +how strongly the gale was blowing until he was over the top of them. +Then he realized that he was facing a tougher proposition than he had +calculated on. The storm struck the biplane with full force. + +A snowstorm was driving up rapidly, blackening the sky. The sun, which +only appeared for a brief interval every day, was practically touching +the horizon as it rose to make its minute arc in the sky. A star was +visible through a rift in the clouds overhead, and the pale daylight in +which they had started had already become twilight. + +Tommy was tempted to turn back, but it was only a hundred miles, and +Jimmy Dodd would give him no peace if he did so. So he put the plane's +nose resolutely into the wind, watching his speed indicator drop from a +hundred miles per hour to eighty, sixty, forty--less. + +The storm was beating up furiously. Of a sudden the clouds broke into a +deluge of whirling snow. + +In a moment the windshield was a frozen, opaque mass. Tommy opened it, +and peered out into the biting air. He could see nothing.... The plane, +caught in the fearful cross-currents that swirl about the southern roof +of the world, was fluttering like a leaf in the wind. The altimeter was +dropping dangerously. + +Tommy opened the throttle to the limit, zooming, and, like a spurred +horse, the biplane shot forward and upward. She touched five thousand, +six, seven--and that, for her, was ceiling under those conditions, for a +sudden tremendous shock of wind, coming in a fierce cross-current, swung +her round, tossed her to and fro in the enveloping white cloud. And +Tommy knew that he had the fight of his life upon his hands. + + * * * * * + +The compasses, which required considerable daily adjusting to be of use +so near to the pole, had now gone out of use altogether. The air speed +indicator had apparently gone west, for it was oscillating between zero +and twenty. The turn and bank indicator was performing a kind of tango +round the dial. Even the eight-day clock had ceased to function, but +that might have been due to the fact that Tommy had neglected to wind +it. And the oil pressure gauge presented a still more startling sight, +for a glance showed that either there was a leak or else the oil had +frozen. + +Tommy looked around at Dodd and pointed downward. Dodd responded with a +vicious forward wave of his hand. + +Tommy shook his head, and Dodd started forward along the cabin, +apparently with the intention of committing assault and battery upon +him. Instead, the archaeologist collapsed upon the floor as the plane +spun completely around under the impact of a blast that was like a +giant's slap. + +The plane was no longer controllable. True, she responded in some sort +to the controls, but all Tommy was able to do was to keep her from going +into a crazy sideslip or nose dive as he fought with the elements. And +those elements were like a devil unchained. One moment he was dropping +like a plummet, the next he was shooting up like a rocket as a vertical +blast of air caught the plane and tossed her like a cork into the +invisible heavens. Then she was revolving, as if in a maelstrom, and by +degrees this rotary movement began to predominate. + +Round and round went the plane, in circles that gradually narrowed, and +it was all Tommy could do to swing the stick so as to keep her from +skidding or sideslipping. And as he worked desperately at his task Tommy +began to realize something that made him wonder if he was not dreaming. + + * * * * * + +The snow was no longer snow, but rain--mist, rather, warm mist that had +already cleared the windshield and covered it with tiny drops. + +And that white, opaque world into which he was looking was no longer +snow but fog--the densest fog that Tommy had ever encountered. + +Fog like white wool, drifting past him in fleecy flakes that looked as +if they had solid substance. Warm fog that was like balm upon his frozen +skin, but of a warmth that was impossible within a few miles of the +frozen pole. + +Then there came a momentary break in it, and Tommy looked down and +uttered a cry of fear. Fear, because he knew that he must be dreaming. + +Not more than a thousand feet beneath him he saw patches of snow, and +patches of--green grass, the brightest and most verdant green that he +had ever seen in his life. + +He turned round at a touch on his shoulder. Dodd was leaning over him, +one hand pointing menacingly upward and onward. + +"You fool," Tommy bellowed in his ear, "d'you think the south pole lies +over there? It's here! Yeah, don't you get it, Jimmy? Look down! This +valley--God, Jimmy, the south pole's a hole in the ground!" + +And as he spoke he remembered vaguely some crank who had once insisted +that the two poles were hollow because--what was the fellow's reasoning? +Tommy could not remember it. + +But there was no longer any doubt but that they were dropping into a +hole. Not more than a mile around, which explained why neither Scott nor +Amundsen had found it when they approximated to the site of the pole. A +hole--a warm hole, up which a current of warm air was rushing, forming +the white mist that now gradually thinned as the plane descended. The +plateau with its covering of eternal snows loomed in a white circle high +overhead. Underneath was green grass now--grass and trees! + + * * * * * + +The fog was nearly gone. The plane responded to the controls again. +Tommy pushed the stick forward and came round in a tighter circle. + +And then something happened that he had not in the least expected. One +moment he seemed to be traveling in a complete calm, a sort of clear +funnel with a ring of swirling fog outside it--the next he was dropping +into a void! + +There was no air resistance--there seemed hardly any air, for he felt a +choking in his throat, and a tearing at his lungs as he strove to +breathe. He heard a strangled cry from Dodd, and saw that he was +clutching with both hands at his throat, and his face was turning +purple. + +The controls went limp in Tommy's hands. The plane, gyrating more +slowly, suddenly nosed down, hung for a moment in that void, and then +plunged toward the green earth, two hundred feet below, with appalling +swiftness. + +Tommy realized that a crash was inevitable. He threw his goggles up over +his forehead, turned and waved to Dodd in ironic farewell. He saw the +earth rush up at him--then came the shattering crash, and then oblivion! + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_Beetles and Humans_ + + +How long he had remained unconscious, Tommy had no means of determining. +Of a sudden he found himself lying on the ground beside the shattered +plane, with his eyes wide open. + +He stared at it, and stared about him, without understanding where he +was, or what had happened to him. His first idea was that he had crashed +on the golf links near Mitchell Field, Long Island, for all about him +were stretches of verdant grass and small shrubby plants. Then, when he +remembered the expedition, he was convinced that he had been dreaming. + +What brought him to a saner view was the discovery that he was enveloped +in furs which were insufferably hot. He half raised himself and +succeeded in unfastening his fur coat, and thus discovered that +apparently none of his bones was broken. + +But the plane must have fallen from a considerable height to have been +smashed so badly. Then Tommy discovered that he was lying upon an +extensive mound of sand, thrown up as by some gigantic mole, for burrow +tracks ran through it in every direction. It was this that had saved his +life. + +Something was moving at his side. It was half-submerged in the +sand-pile, and it was moving parallel to him with great rapidity. + +A grayish body, half-covered with grains of sand emerged, waving two +enormously long tentacles. It was a shrimp, but fully three feet in +length, and Tommy had never before had any idea what an unpleasant +object a shrimp is. + +Tommy staggered to his feet and dropped nearer the plane, eyeing the +shrimp with horror. But he was soon relieved as he discovered that it +was apparently harmless. It slithered away and once more buried itself +in the pile of sand. + +Now Tommy was beginning to remember. He looked into the wreckage of the +plane. Jim Dodd was not there. He called his name repeatedly, and there +was no response, except a dull echo from the ice-mountains behind the +veil of fog. + + * * * * * + +He went to the other side of the plane, he scanned the ground all about +him. Jimmy had disappeared. It was evident that he was nowhere near, for +Tommy could see the whole of the lower scope of the bowl on every side +of him. He had walked away--or he had been carried away! Tommy thought +of the shrimp, and shuddered. What other fearsome monsters might inhabit +that extraordinary valley? + +He sat down, leaning against the wreck of the fuselage, and tried to +adjust his mind, tried to keep himself from going mad. He knew now that +the flight had been no dream, that he was a member of his uncle's +expedition, that he had flown with Jim toward the pole, had crashed in a +vacuum. But where was Jim? And how were they going to get out of the +damn place? + +Something like a heap of stones not far away attracted Tommy's +attention. Perhaps Jim Dodd was lying behind that. Once more Tommy got +upon his feet and began walking toward it. On the way, he stumbled +against the sharp edge of something that protruded from the ground. + +It cut his leg sharply, and, with a curse, he began rubbing his shin and +looking at the thing. Then he saw that it was another of the fossil +shells, half-buried in the marshy ooze on which he was treading. The +ground in this lower part of the valley was a swamp, on account of the +very fine mist falling from the fog clouds that surrounded it +impenetrably on every side. + +Then Tommy came upon another shell, and then another. And now he saw +that there were piles of what he had taken to be rock everywhere, and +that this was not rock but great heaps of the shells, all equally +intact. + +Hundreds of thousands of the prehistoric beetles must have died in that +valley, perhaps overcome by some cataclysm. + + * * * * * + +Tommy examined the heap near which he stood; he yelled Dodd's name, but +again no answer came. + +Instead, something began to stir among the heaps of shells. For a moment +Tommy hoped against hope that it was Dodd, but it wasn't Dodd. + +_It was a living beetle!_ + +A beetle fully five feet high as it stood erect, a pair of enormous +wings outspread. And the head, which was larger than a man's, was the +most frightful object Tommy had ever seen. + +Jim Dodd would have said at once that this was one of the Curculionidae, +or snout beetles, for a prolongation of the head between the eyes formed +a sort of beak a foot in length. The mouth, which opened downward, was +armed with terrific mandibles, while the huge, compound eyes looked like +enormous crystals of cut glass. Immediately in front of the eyes were +two mandibles as long as a man's arms, with feathery processes at the +ends. In addition to these there were three pairs of legs, the front +pair as long as a man's, the hind pair almost as long as a horse's. + + * * * * * + +Paralyzed with horror, Tommy watched the monster, which had apparently +been disturbed by the vibrations of his voice, extract itself from among +the shells. Then, with a bound that covered fifteen feet, it had +lessened the distance between them by half. + +And then a still more amazing thing happened. For of a sudden the hard +shell slipped from the thorax, the wing-cases dropped off, the whole of +the bony parts slipped to the ground with a clang, and a soft, +defenseless thing went slithering away among the rocks. + +The beetle had moulted! + +Tommy dropped to the ground in the throes of violent nausea. + +Then, looking up again, he saw the girl! + + * * * * * + +She was about a hundred yards away from him, very close to the fallen +plane, and she must have emerged from a large hole in the ground which +Tommy could now see under a ledge of overhanging rock. + +She seemed to be dressed in a single garment which fell to her knees, +and appeared to fit tightly about her body, but as she came nearer, +Tommy, watching her, petrified by this latest apparition, discovered +that it was woven of her own hair, which must have been of immense +length, for it fell naturally to her shoulders, and thence was woven +into this close-fitting material, a fringe an inch or two in length +extending beneath the selvage. + +She was about six feet tall, and apparently made after the normal human +pattern. She moved with a slow, majestic swing, and if ever any female +had seemed to Tommy to have the appearance of an angel, this unknown +woman did. + +She was so fair, in that flossy, flaxen covering, she moved with such +easy grace, that Tommy, gaping, gradually crept nearer to her. She did +not seem to see him. She was stooping over the very sand heap into which +he had fallen. Suddenly, with lightning-like rapidity, her arms shot +out, her hands began tunneling in the sand. With a cry of triumph she +pulled out the shrimp Tommy had seen, or another like it, and, stripping +it off the shell, began devouring it with evident relish. + +In the midst of her meal the girl raised her head and looked at Tommy. +He saw that her eyes were filmed, vacant, dead. Then of a sudden a third +membrane was drawn back across the pupils, and she saw him. + +She let the shrimp drop to the ground, uttered a cry, and moved toward +him with a tottering gait. She groped toward him with outstretched arms. +And then she was blind again, for the membrane once more covered her +pupils. It was as if her eyes were unable to endure even the dim light +of the valley, through whose surrounding mists the low sun, setting just +above the horizon, was unable to diffuse itself save as a brightening of +the fog curtain. + + * * * * * + +Tommy stepped toward the girl. His outstretched hand touched hers. It +was unquestionably a woman's hand he held, delicately warm, with +exquisitely moulded fingers, in whose touch there seemed to be, for the +girl, some tactile impression of him. + +Again that membrane was drawn back from the girl's pupils for a fleeting +flash. Tommy saw two eyes of intense black, their color contrasting +curiously with the flaxen color of her hair and her white skin, almost +the tint of an albino's. Those eyes had surveyed him, and appeared +satisfied that he was one of her kind. She could not have seen very much +in that almost instantaneous flash of vision. Queer, that membrane--as +if she had been used to living in the dark, as if the full light of the +day was unbearable! + +She drew her hand away. Soft vocals came from her lips. Suddenly she +turned swiftly. She could not have seen, but before Tommy had seen, she +had sensed the presence of the old man who was creeping out of the hole +in the mountainside. + +He moved forward craftily, and then pounced upon the sand pile, and in a +moment had pulled out another of the big shrimps, which he proceeded to +devour with greedy relish. The girl, leaving Tommy's side, joined him in +that unpleasant feast. + +And in the midst of it a flood came pouring from the hole--a flood of +living beetles, covering the ground in fifteen-foot leaps as they dashed +at the two. + +To his horror, Tommy saw Jimmy Dodd among them, wrapped in his fur coat +like a mummy, and being pushed and rolled forward like a football. + +For a moment Tommy hesitated, torn between his solicitude for Jim Dodd +and that for the girl. Then, as the foremost of the monsters bounded to +her side, he ran between them. The vicious jaws snapped within six +inches of Tommy's face, with a force that would have carried away an +ear, or shredded the cheek, if they had met. + + * * * * * + +Tommy struck out with all his might, and his fist clanged on the +resounding shell so that the blood spurted from his bruised knuckles. He +had struck the monster squarely upon the thorax, and he had not +discommoded it in the least. It turned on him, its glassy, many-faceted +eyes glaring with a cold, infernal light. Tommy struck out again with +his left hand, this time upon the pulpy flesh of the downward-opening +mouth. + +An inch higher, and he would have impaled his hand upon the beak, with a +point like a needle, and evidently used for purposes of attack, since it +was not connected with the mandibles. The blow appeared to fall in the +only vulnerable place. The monster dropped upon its back and lay there, +unable to reverse itself, its antenna and forelegs waving in the air, +and the rear legs rasping together in a shrill, strident shriek. + +Instantly, as Tommy darted out of the way, the swarm fell upon the +helpless monster and began devouring it, tearing strips of flesh from +the lower shell, which in the space of a half-minute was reduced simply +to bone. The most horrible feature of this act of cannibalism was the +complete silence with which it was performed, except for the rasping of +the dying monster's legs. It was evident that the huge beetles had no +vocal apparatus. + +For the moment left unguarded, Jim Dodd flung down the collar of his fur +coat, stared about him, and recognized Tommy. + +"My God, it's you!" he yelled. "Well, can you--?" + +He had no time to finish his sentence. A pair of antenna went round his +neck from behind. At the same instant Tommy, the old man, and the girl +were gripped by the monsters, which, forming a solid phalanx about them, +began hustling them in the direction of the hole. Resistance was utterly +impossible. Tommy felt as if he was being pushed along by a moving wall +of stone. + +Inside the opening it was completely dark. Tommy shouted to Dodd, but +the strident sounds of the moving legs drowned his cries. He was being +pushed forward into the unknown. + + * * * * * + +Suddenly the ground seemed to fall away beneath his feet. He struggled, +cried out, and felt himself descending through the air. + +For a full half-minute he went downward at a speed that constricted his +throat so that he could hardly draw breath. Then, just as he had nerved +himself for the imminent crash, the speed of his descent was checked. In +another moment he found that he was slowing to a standstill in mid-air. + +He was beginning to float backward--upward. But the wall of moving +shells, pushing against him, forced him on, downward, and yet apparently +against the force of gravitation. + +Then of a sudden Tommy was aware of a dim light all about him. His feet +touched earth and grass as softly as a thistledown alighting. + +He found himself seated in the same dim light upon red grass, and +staring into Jimmy's face. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_Ten Miles Underground_ + + +"What I was going to say when we were interrupted, was, 'Can you beat +it?'" Jimmy Dodd observed, with admirable sang-froid. + +They were still seated on the red grass, gazing about them at what +looked like an illimitable plain, and upward into depths of darkness. It +was warm, and the light, furnished by what appeared to be luminous +vegetation, was about that of twilight. + +On every side were clumps of trees and shrubs, which formed centers of +phosphorescent illumination, but for the most part the land was open, +and here and there human figures appeared, moving with head down and +arms hanging earthward. + +"No, I'm damned if I can," said Tommy. "What happened to you after we +crashed?" + +"Why, first thing I knew, I found myself riding on the back of a fossil +beetle, apparently one of the _curculionidae_," said Dodd. + +"Never, mind being so precise, Jimmy. Let's call it a beetle. Go on." + +"They set me down inside the hole and seemed to be investigating me, +the whole swarm of them. Of course, I thought I was dead, and come to +my just reward, especially when I saw those beaks. Then one of them +began tickling my face with its antenna, and I drew up my fur collar. +They didn't seem to like the feel of the fur, and after a while the +whole gang started hustling me back again, like a nest of ants carrying +something they don't want outside their hill. And then you bobbed up." + +"Well, my opinion is you saved your life by pulling up your collar," +said Tommy. "Looks to me as if it's a case of the survival of the +fittest, said fittest being the insect, and the human race taking second +place. You know what the humans here live on, don't you?" + +"No, what?" + +"Shrimps as big as poodles. If you'd seen that girl and the old man +getting outside them, you'd realize that there seems to be a food +shortage in this part of the world. Say, where in thunder are we, +Jimmy?" + +"Haven't you guessed yet, Travers?" asked Dodd, a spice of malice in his +voice. + +"I suppose this is some sort of big hole on the site of the south pole, +with warm vapors coming up. Maybe a great fissure in the earth, or +something." + + * * * * * + +Jimmy Dodd's grin, seen in the half-light, was rather disconcerting. +"How far do you think we dropped just now?" Dodd asked. + +"Why, I'd say several hundred yards," replied Tommy. "What's your +estimate?" + +"Just about ten miles," answered Dodd. + +"What? You're still crazy! Why, we slowed up!" + +"Yeah," grinned Dodd, "we slowed up. We're inside the crust of the +world. That's the long and short of it. The earth we've known is just a +shell over our heads." + +"Yeah? Walking head downward, are we? Then why don't we drop to the +center of the earth, you damn fool?" + +"Because, my dear fellow, you can swing a pailful of water round your +head without spilling any of it. In other words, our old friend, +centrifugal force. The speed with which the earth is rotating, keeps us +on our feet, head downward. To be precise, the center of the earth's +gravity lies in the middle of the hollow sphere, of course, but the +counteraction of centrifugal force throws it outward to the middle of +the ten-mile crust. That's why we slowed down after we were half-way +through. We were moving against gravity." + +"And what's up there, or down there, or whatever you call it?" asked +Tommy, pointing to what ought to have been the sky. + +"Nothing. It's the center of the tennis ball, though I imagine it's +pretty near a vacuum when you get up a mile or so, owing to the speed of +the earth's rotation, which forces the heat into the shell." + +"You mean to say you actually believe that stuff you've been handing +me?" asked Tommy, after a pause. "Then how did human beings get here, +and those damn beetles? And why's the grass red?" + + * * * * * + +"The grass is red because there's no sunlight to produce chlorophyll. +The inhabitants of the deep sea are red or black, almost invariably. In +the case of the humans, they've become bleached. My belief is that that +man and woman we saw, and those"--he pointed to the vague forms of human +beings, who moved across the grass, gathering something--"are survivors +of the primitive race that still exists as the Australians. Undoubtedly +one of the branches of the human stock originated in antarctica at a +time when it enjoyed a tropical temperature, and was the land bridge +between Australia and South America." + +"And the--beetles?" asked Tommy. + +"Ah, they go back to the days when nature was in a more grandiose +mood!" replied the archaeologist enthusiastically. "That's the most +wonderful discovery of the ages. The world will go crazy over them when +we bring back the first living specimens to the zoological parks of the +great cities. + +"But," Dodd went on, speaking with still more enthusiasm, "of course, +this is only the beginning, Tommy. There are ten million species of +insects, according to Riley, and it is inevitable that there must be +hundreds of thousands of other survivals from the age of the great +saurians, perhaps even some of the saurians themselves. Who knows but +that we may discover the ancestor of the extinct monotremes, the +rhynchocephalia, the pterodactyls, hatch a brood of aepyornis eggs--" + +"And," said Tommy tartly, "how are we going to get them back, apart from +the little problem of getting out of here ourselves?" + +"Don't let's worry about that now," answered Dodd. "It will take ten +years of the hardest kind of labor even to begin a classification of the +inhabitants of this inner world. I could sit down for ever, and--" + +But Jimmy Dodd rose to his feet as a pair of antenna whipped round his +neck and jerked him bodily upward. + + * * * * * + +One of the monster beetles was standing upright behind them, and by its +gestures it evidently meant that Dodd and Tommy were to join the crowd +of humans in the offing. As Dodd turned upon it with an indignant show +of fists, one of the antennae whipped off his fur coat and stung him +painfully with the bristle-like attachment at the end. + +It was a painful moment when Dodd and Tommy realized that they were +powerless against the monstrous beetles. Tommy tried the uppercut with +which he had knocked out the deceased monster, but the quick jerks of +the present beetle's head were infinitely faster than the movements of +his fists, while the antenna had a whiplike quality about them that +speedily convinced him that discretion was the card to play. + +Under the threat of the curling antenna, Tommy and Dodd moved in the +direction of the slowly circulating humans. Numerous tiny rodents, which +evidently kept the red grass short, scampered away under their feet. The +beetles made no further effort to force them on, but now they could see +that a number of the monsters were stationed at intervals around a wide +circle, keeping the humans in a single body. + +"Good Lord!" ejaculated Tommy, stopping. "See what they're doing, Dodd? +They're herding us, like cowboys herd steers. Look at that!" + + * * * * * + +One of the herd, a male with a long beard, suddenly broke from the herd, +bawling, and flung himself upon a beetle guard. The antenna shot forth, +coiled around his neck, and hurled him a dozen feet to the ground, where +he lay stunned for a moment before arising and rejoining his companions. + +"But what are they looking for?" demanded Dodd. + +Tommy had not heard him. He had stopped in front of one of the luminous +trees and was plucking a fruit from it. + +"Jimmy, ever see an apple before?" he asked. "If this isn't an apple, +I'll eat my head." + +It certainly was an apple, and one of the largest and juiciest that +Tommy had ever tasted. It was the reddest apple he had ever seen, and +would have won the first prize at any agricultural fair. + +"And look at this!" shouted Tommy, plucking an enormous luminous peach +from another tree. + +They began munching slowly, then, seeing one of the beetle guards +approaching them, they moved into the midst of the crowd. + +"Did you notice anything strange about those fruit trees?" inquired +Dodd, as he munched. "I'll swear they were monocotyledonous, which, +after all, is what one would expect. Still, to think that the +monocotyledons evolved the familiar drupes, or stone fruits, on a +parallel line to the dicotyledons is--amazing!" + +A box on the ear like the kick of a mule's hoof jerked the last word +from his lips as he went sprawling. He got up, to see the girl standing +before him, intense disgust and anger on her face. + +She snatched the fruits from the hands of the two Americans and hurled +them away. It was evident from her manner that she considered such diet +in the highest degree unclean and disgusting; also that she considered +herself charged with the duty of superintending Tommy's and Dodd's +education, but especially Dodd's. + + * * * * * + +Taking him by the arm, she propelled him into the midst of the groping +humans. She released him, stooped, and suddenly stood up, a shrimp about +eighteen inches long in her hand. + +Towering over Dodd by six inches, she took his face in her hands and +began caressing him; then, seizing his jaws in her strong fingers, she +pried them apart, and popped the tail end of the shrimp into his mouth. + +Dodd let out a yelp, and spat out the love-gift, to be rewarded with +another box on the ear by the young Amazon, while Tommy stood by, +convulsed with laughter, and yet in considerable trepidation, for fear +of being forced to share Dodd's fate. + +For the girl was again holding out the tail end of the crustacean, and +Jim Dodd's jaws were slowly and reluctantly approaching it. + +But suddenly there came an intervention as the strident rasping of +beetle legs was heard in the distance. Panic seized the human herd, +grovelling for shrimps in the sandy soil with its tufts of red grasses. +Milling in an uneasy mob, they cowered under the lashes of the antenna +of the beetle guards, which sacrificed their backs through their hair +garments whenever any of them tried to bolt. + +Nearer and nearer came the beetles, louder and more penetrating the +shriek of their rasping legs. Now the swarm came into sight, rank after +rank of the shell-clad monsters, leaping fifteen feet at a bound with +perfect precision, until they had formed a solid phalanx all around the +humans. + + * * * * * + +Tommy heard sighs of despair, he heard muttering, and then he realized, +with deep thankfulness, that these human beings, degraded though they +were, had a speech of their own. + +In the middle of the front line appeared a beetle a foot taller than the +rest. That it was either a king or queen was evident from the respect +paid it by the rest of the swarm. At its every movement a bodyguard of +beetles moved in unison, forming themselves in a group before it and on +either side. + +There would have been something ludicrous about these movements, but for +the impression of horror that the swarm made upon Tommy and Jim Dodd. +Hitherto both had supposed that the hideous insects acted by blind +instinct, but now there could no longer be any doubt that they were +possessed of an organized intelligence. + + * * * * * + +The strident sounds grew louder. Already Tommy was beginning to discover +certain variations in them. It was dawning upon him that they formed a +language--and a perfectly intelligible one. For, as the note changed +about a half-semitone, two of the monsters left the side of their ruler +and reached the two men with three successive leaps. + +Their movements left no doubt in either Tommy's or Dodd's mind what was +required. The two strode hastily toward the assemblage, and stopped as +the antenna of their guards came down in menacing fashion. + +It was light enough for Tommy to see the face of the ruler of the +hellish swarm. And it required all his powers of will to keep from +collapsing from sheer horror at what he saw. + +For, despite the close-fitting shell, the face of the beetle king was +the face of a man--a white man! + +Jim Dodd's shriek rang out above the shrilling of the beetle-legs, +"Bram! It's you, it's you! My God, it's you, Bram!" + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_Bram's Story_ + + +A sneering chuckle broke from Bram's lips. "Yes, it's me, James Dodd," +he answered. "I'm a little surprised to see you here, Dodd, but I'm +mighty glad. Still insane upon the subject of fossil monotremes, I +suppose?" + +The words came haltingly from Bram's lips, as from those of a man who +had lost the habit of easy speech. And Tommy, looking on, and trying to +keep in possession of his faculties, had already come to the conclusion +that the sounds were inaudible to the beetles. Probably their hearing +apparatus was not attuned to such slow vibrations of the human voice. + +Also he had discovered that Bram was wearing the discarded shell of one +of the monsters: he had not grown the shell himself. It was fastened +about his body by a band of the hair-cloth, fastened to the two +protuberances of the elytra, or wing-cases, on either side of the dorsal +surface. + +The discovery at least robbed the situation of one aspect of terror. +Bram, however he had obtained control of the swarm, was still only a +man. + +"Yes, still insane," answered Dodd bitterly. "Insane enough to go on +believing that the polyprotodontia and the dasyuridae, which includes +the peramelidae, or bandicoots, and the banded ant-eaters, or +myrmecobidae, are not to be found in fossil form, for the excellent +reason that they were not represented before the Upper Cretaceous +period." + +"You lie! You lie!" screamed Bram. "I have shown to all the world that +phascalotherium, amphitherium, amblotherium, spalacotherium, and many +other orders are to be found in the Upper Jurassic rocks of England, +Wyoming, and other places. You--you are the man who denied the existence +of the nototherium, of the marsupial lion, in pleistocene deposits! You +denied that the dasyuridae can be traced back beyond the pleistocene. +And you stand there and lie to me, when you are at my mercy!" + +"For God's sake don't aggravate him," whispered Tommy to Dodd. "Don't +you see that he's insane? Humor him, or we'll be dead men. Think what +the world will lose, if you are never able to go back with your +specimens," he added craftily. + + * * * * * + +But Dodd, whose eyes were glaring, said a sublime thing: "I have given +my life to science, and I will never deny my master!" + +With a screech, which, however, was evidently inaudible to the beetles, +Bram leaped at Dodd and seized him by the throat. The two men fell to +the ground, the ponderous beetle-shell completely covering them. +Underneath it they could be seen to be struggling desperately. All the +while the beetle horde remained perfectly motionless. Tommy thought +afterward that in this fact lay their brightest chances of escape, if +Bram's immediate vengeance did not fall on them. + +Either because Bram was not himself a beetle, or because in some other +way the swarm instinct was not stirred, the monsters watched the +struggle with complete indifference. + +At the moment, however, Tommy was only concerned with saving Dodd from +the madman. He got his foot beneath the shell, then inserted his leg; +using his whole body as a lever, he succeeded in turning Bram over on +his back. + +Then, and only then, the swarm rushed in upon them. Then Tommy realized +that he had touched one of the triggers that regulated the beetle's +automatism. In another instant Bram would have been torn to pieces. The +needle-beaks were darting through the air, the hideous jaws were +snapping. Bram's yells rang through the cavern. + + * * * * * + +Dodging beneath the avalanche of the monsters, Tommy got Bram upon his +feet again. The beetles stopped, every movement arrested. Bram's hand +went to the pocket of his tattered coat, there came a snap, a flash. +Bram had ignited an automatic cigarette-lighter! + +Instantly the monsters went scurrying away into the distance. And Tommy +had another clue. The beetles, living in the dimness of the underworld, +could not stand light or fire! + +He ran to where Jimmy was lying, face upward, on the ground. His face +was badly scarred by Bram's nails, and the blood was spurting from a +long gash in his throat, made by the sharp flint that was lying beside +him. + +He had some time before discarded his fur coat. Now he pulled off his +coat, and, tearing off the tail of his shirt, he made a pad and a +bandage, with which he attempted to staunch the blood and bind the +wound. It must have taken ten minutes before the failing heart force +enabled him to get the bleeding under control. Dodd had nearly bled to +death, his face was drawn and waxen, but, because the pulsation was so +feeble, the artery had ceased to spurt. + +Then only did Tommy take notice of Bram. He had been squatting near, and +Tommy realized that he had unconsciously observed Bram put some sort of +pellets into his mouth. Now he realized that Bram was a drug fiend. That +was what had made him walk out of the Greystoke camp in the storm. + +Bram got up and came toward them. "Is he dead?" he whispered hoarsely. +"I--I lost my temper. You two--I don't intend to kill you. +There--there's room for the three of us. I've got--plans of the utmost +importance to humanity." + +"I don't think much of the way you've started to carry them out," +answered Tommy bitterly. "No, he's not dead yet, but I wouldn't give +much for his chances, even in the best hospital. The best thing you can +do now is to go to hell, and take your beetles with you," he added. + + * * * * * + +Bram, without replying, raised his head and emitted from his throat the +shrillest whistle that Tommy had ever heard. The response was amazing. + +Rasping out of the darkness came eight beetles in pairs. Instead of +leaping from an upright position, they trotted in the manner of horses, +on all fours, their shells, which touched at the edges, forming a solid +surface, gently rounded in the center so that a man's body could lie +there and fit snugly into the groove. + +"Help me get him up," said Bram. "Trust me! I'll do my best for him. If +we leave him here they may kill and eat him. I can't trust all those +beetle guards." + +Tommy hesitated a moment, then decided to follow Bram's suggestion. +Together they raised the unconscious man to the beetle-shell couch. Bram +seated himself upon the boss of one of the beetle-shells in front, and +Tommy jumped up behind. + +Next moment, to his amazement, the trained steeds were flying smoothly +through the air, at a rate that could not have been less than +seventy-five to eighty miles an hour. + +Tommy's shell seat was not a bed of roses, but he hardly noticed that. +He was thinking that if Dodd lived they should be able to turn the +tables. + +For, unknown to Bram, he was in possession of the cigarette-lighter +which he had picked up, and which Bram, in his agitation, had +forgotten. It was full of petrol, or some other fluid of a similar +nature, which Bram must have obtained from some natural source within +the earth. And, in an emergency, Tommy knew that he had the means of +keeping the beetles at bay. + + * * * * * + +They had traveled for perhaps an hour when a faint light began to glow +in the distance. It grew brighter, and a roaring sound became audible. A +turn of the track that they were traversing, and the light became a +glare. A terrific sight met Tommy's eyes. + +Out of the bowels of the earth--actually out of the crust beneath their +feet--there shot a pillar of roaring flame, of intense white color, and +radiating a heat that was perceptible even at a distance of several +hundred yards. The beetle steeds dropped gently to the ground; they +halted. Bram got down, grinning. + +"Nicely trained horses, what?" he asked. "By the way, you have the +advantage of me in names. Who and what are you?" + +Tommy told him. + +"Well, Travers, it looks as if we're going to be companions for some +time to come, and I quite admit you saved my life back there. So we +don't want to start with secrets. This is a natural petrol spring, which +has probably been burning undiminished for ages. My trained beetles are +blind--you didn't happen to notice I'd cut off their antenna? But the +rest of the swarm daren't come near it. So that makes me their master. + +"Pretty trick, what, Travers? I'm the Lord of the Flame down here, and +I'm using my advantage. But don't get the idea of supplanting me. There +are lots of other tricks you don't know anything about, and I'll have to +trust you better before--" + +He broke off and slipped another pellet into his mouth. + +"Help me get Dodd down, if this is our destination," answered Tommy. + +They lifted Dodd to the ground. He was conscious now, and moaning for +water. The two men carried him into a sort of large cavern, at the +farther end of which the fire was roaring. Bram went to a spring that +trickled down one side, filled something that looked like a petrified +lily calyx, and brought it to Dodd, who drained it. + + * * * * * + +Tommy looked about him. He was astonished to see that the place was, in +a way, furnished. Bram had carved out a very creditable couch, and +several low chairs, evidently with a stone ax, for by the light of the +fire, which cast a fair illumination even at that distance, Tommy could +see the marks of the implement, rough and irregular, in the wood. + +On the ground were thick rugs, woven of hair, and two or three more rugs +of the same material lay on the couch. It was evident that the human +herd was expected to furnish textile materials as well as meat. + +"Sit down, and make yourself comfortable," said Bram, when they had +raised Dodd to the couch. "We'll have dinner, and then we'll talk. I can +give you a fine vegetarian meal. Those dirty shrimp-eating savages look +on me as a cannibal because I eat the fruits of the trees." He grinned. +"There's a bad shortage of food in Submundia, as I've named this part of +the world," he went on, "for until I came the beetles simply devoured +the humans wholesale, instead of breeding them, like I taught them. And +there's another of the hundred-and-fifty year swarms due to hatch out +soon. However, we'll talk about that later. And all those fine fruits +going to waste! Excuse me, Travers." + + * * * * * + +He disappeared, and returned in a minute or two with a small table, +piled high with luscious fruits unknown to Tommy, though among them were +some that looked like loaves of natural bread. + +Tommy, whose appetite never failed him even in the worst circumstances, +fell to with a will. He was enjoying his meal when he happened to look +up, and saw that the penumbra at the edge of the lighted zone was dense +with beetles. + +Thousands--perhaps millions, for they stretched away as far as the eye +could see, were packed together, their antenna waving in unison, their +heads, beneath the shells, directed toward the fire. + +Bram saw Tommy's look of disgust, and laughed. "The fire seems to +intoxicate them, Travers," he said. "They always throng the entrance +when I'm here. It's as far as they dare go. They're quite blind in the +least light. Care to smoke? I've learned the art of making some quite +decent cigars." He produced a handful. "Oh, by the way, you didn't see +my lighter anywhere, did you?" he went on, with a pretense of +carelessness. + +"No," lied Tommy. "I was surprised you--" + +"Oh, there's a supply of petrol in the rocks. No matter," answered Bram +carelessly. "Your friend looks bad," he added, glancing at Dodd, who had +fallen asleep. "Travers, I'm sorry I lost my temper. The--the shock of +meeting men from the upper world, you know." + + * * * * * + +Dodd opened his eyes and tried to whisper. Tommy bent over him and +listened. + +"He wants to know whether he can have that girl to take care of him," he +said. + +"What, the one I saw you with? Why, she's a cull, Travers." + +"What d'you mean?" asked Tommy. + +"Why--useless, you know. There's several of them running loose, and +waiting to be rounded up. We raise two breeds, one for replenishing the +stock, and one for meat. She's just a cull, a reversion, no use for +either purpose. I'll have her brought by all means. I--I like Dodd. I +want to get him to like me," Bram went on, with a sort of penitence +that had a pathetic touch. "Our little differences--quite absurd, and I +can prove he's wrong in his ideas. + +"Make yourself comfortable as long as you're here, Travers, and don't +mind me. Only, don't try to escape. The beetles will get you if you do, +and there's no way out of here--none that you'll find. And don't try to +follow me. But you're a sensible man, and we'll all get along famously, +I'm sure, as soon as Dodd recovers." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +_Doomed!_ + + +There were no means known to Tommy of reckoning time in that strange +place of twilight. His watch had been broken in the airplane fall; and +Dodd never remembered to wind his, but they estimated that about two +weeks had passed, judging from the number of times they had slept and +eaten. + +In those two weeks they had gradually begun to grow accustomed to their +surroundings. Haidia, the girl, had arrived on beetle-back within an +hour after Bram's departure, apparently into a cleft of the rocks--how +he had communicated his order to the beetle steeds Tommy had no idea. +And under the girl's ministrations Dodd was making good progress toward +recovery. + +That Haidia was in love with Dodd in quite a human way was evident. To +please the girl, both Dodd and Tommy had learned to eat the raw shrimps, +which, being bloodless, were really no worse than oysters, and had a +flavor half-way between shrimp and crawfish. To please the men, Haidia +tried not to shudder when she saw them devouring the breadfruit and +nectarines of which Bram always had a plentiful supply. Bram was +solicitous in his inquiries for Dodd's health. + +"Jim, I've been thinking about our chances of getting away," said Tommy +one morning. "It's evident Bram's only waiting for your recovery to put +some proposition up to us. Suppose you were to feign paralysis." + +"How d'you mean? What for?" demanded Dodd. + +"If he thinks you're helpless, he'll be less on his guard. You haven't +walked about in his presence." That was true, for the activities of the +two had been nocturnal, when Bram had vanished. "Let him think a nerve's +been severed in your neck, or something of the sort. If it doesn't work, +you can always get better." + + * * * * * + +Dodd's realistic portrayal of a man with a partly paralyzed right side +brought cries of horror from Bram next morning. Solicitously he helped +Dodd back to the couch. Bram, when not under the influence of his drug, +had moments of human feeling. + +"Can't you move that arm and leg at all, Dodd?" he asked. "No feeling in +them?" + +"There's plenty of feeling," growled Dodd, "but they don't seem to work, +that's all." + +"You'll get better," said Bram eagerly. "You must get better. I need +you, Dodd, in spite of our differences. There's work for all of us, +wonderful work. A new humanity, waiting to be born, Dodd, not of the +miserable ape race, but of--of--" + +He checked himself, and a cunning look came over his face. He turned +away abruptly. + +At the end of two weeks or so, an amazing thing happened. One day +Haidia, with a look of triumph in her eyes, addressed Dodd with a few +English words! + +Her brain, which had probably developed certain faculties in different +proportions from those of the upper human race, had registered every +word that either of the two men had ever spoken, and remembered it. As +soon as Dodd ascertained this, he began to instruct her, and, with her +abnormal faculties of memory, it was not long before she could talk +quite intelligently. The obstacle that had stood between them was swept +away. She became one of themselves. + +In the days that followed the girl told them brokenly something of the +history of her race, of the legend of the universal flood that had +driven them down into the bowels of the earth, of the centuries-long +struggle with the beetles, and of the insects' gradual conquest of +humanity, and the final reduction of the human race to a miserable, +helpless remnant. + + * * * * * + +Everywhere, Haidia told them, were beetle swarms, everywhere humanity +had been reduced to a few handfuls. Bram, by breeding mankind from +prolific strains, and using the new-born progeny for food, had +temporarily averted universal starvation. But a new swarm of beetles was +due to hatch out shortly, and then-- + +The girl, with a shudder, put her hand to her bosom, and brought out a +little bright-eyed lizard. + +"The old man you saw with me, who is one of our wise elders, has told +our people that these things feed upon the beetle larvae," she said. "We +are putting them secretly into the nests. But what can a few lizards do +against millions." She looked up. "In the earth above us, the beetle +larvae extend for miles, in a solid mass," she said. "When they come out +as beetles, it will be the end of all of us." + +Bram had grown less suspicious as the time passed. His sudden visits to +the cavern had ceased. Dodd and Tommy knew that he spent the nights--if +they could be termed nights--lying in a drugged slumber somewhere among +the rocks. They had asked Haidia whether there was any way of escape +into the upper world. + +"There are two ways from here," answered the girl. "One is the way you +came, but it is impossible to pass the beetle guards without being torn +to pieces. The other--" + +She shuddered, and for an instant drew back the film from across her +pupils, then uttered a little cry of pain at the light, dim though it +was. + +"There is a bridge across that terrible monster that devours all it +touches," she said, shuddering, meaning the fire. + +Suddenly Dodd had an inspiration. He still had the fur coat that he had +worn, and, reaching into a pocket he drew out a pair of snow goggles, +which he adjusted over Haidia's nose. + +"Now look!" he said. + +Haidia looked, blinked and, with an effort kept her eyes open. She gazed +at Dodd in amazement. Dodd laughed, and pulled her toward him. He kissed +her, and Haidia's eyes closed. + +"What is this?" she murmured. "First you give me medicine that opens my +eyes, and then you give me medicine that closes them." + +"That's nothing," grinned Dodd. "Wait till you understand me better." + + * * * * * + +Bram's eyes were preternaturally bright. It was evident that he had been +increasing his dose of late, and that he was fully under the influence +of it now. + +"Well, gentlemen, the time has come for us to be frank with one +another," he said, as the three were gathered about the little table, +while Haidia crouched in a far corner of the cave. "I want you to work +for me in my plans for the regeneration of humanity. The time for which +I have long labored is almost at hand. Any day now the new swarm of +beetles may emerge from the pupal stage. But before I speak further, +come and see them, gentlemen!" + +He rose, and Dodd and Tommy rose too, Tommy supporting Dodd, who let his +arm and leg trail awkwardly as he moved. + +Bram led the way into the cleft among the rocks into which he had been +in the habit of passing. Beyond this opening the two men saw another +smaller cavern, with a beetle guard standing on either side, antenna +waving. + +Bram shrilled a sound, and the antenna dropped. The three passed +through. Tommy saw a hair-cloth pallet set against the rocks, a table, +and a chair. Beyond was a sloping ramp of earth. Overhead was a rock +ceiling. + +Bram led the way up the ramp, and the three stepped through a gap in the +rocks and found themselves on an extensive prairie. But in place of the +red grass there was a vast sea of mud. + +By the light cast by the petrol fire, which roared up in the distance, a +veritable fiery fountain, the two Americans could see that the mud was +filled with huge encysted forms, grubs three or four feet long, +motionless in the soil. + + * * * * * + +Bram scooped up one of them and tossed it into the air. It thudded to +their feet and remained motionless. + +"As far as you can see, and for miles beyond, these pupae of the beetles +lie buried in the decaying vegetation in which the eggs were hatched," +said Bram. "Every century and a half, so far as I have been able to +judge from comparative anatomy, a fresh swarm emerges. See!" + +He pointed to the pupa he had unearthed, which, as if stirred into +activity by his handling, was now beginning to move. Or, rather, +something was moving inside the cocoon. + +The shell broke, and the hideous head and folded antenna of a beetle +appeared. With a convulsive writhing, the monster threw off the covering +and stepped out. It extended its wings, glistening, with moisture, from +the still soft and pliant carapace, or shell, and suddenly zoomed off +into the distance. + + * * * * * + +Tommy shuddered as the boom of its flight grew softer and subsided. + +"Any day now the entire swarm will emerge," cried Bram. "How many +moultings they undergo before they undergo the finished state, I do not +know, but already, as you see, they are prepared for the battle of +life. They emerge ravenous. That beetle will fall upon the man-herds and +devour a full grown man, unless the guards destroy it." + +He raised his arms with the gesture of an ancient prophet. "Woe to the +human race," he cried, "the wretched ape spawn that has cast out its +teachers and persecuted those who sought to raise it to higher things!" + + * * * * * + +Tommy knew that Bram was referring to himself. Bram turned fiercely upon +Dodd. + +"When I joined the Greystoke expedition," he cried, "it was with the +express intention of refuting your miserable theories as to the fossil +monotremes. I could not sleep or eat, so deeply was I affronted by them. +For, if they were true, the dasyuridae are an innovation in the great +scheme of nature, and man, instead of being a mere afterthought, a jest +of the Creative Force, came to earth with a purpose. + +"That I deny," he yelled. "Man is a joke. Nature made him when she was +tired, as the architect of a cathedral fashions a gargoyle in a sportive +moment. It is the insect, not man, who is the predestined lord of the +ages!" + +And for once in his life, perhaps because at this point Tommy dug him +violently in the ribs, Dodd had the sense to remain silent. Bram led the +way swiftly back into the larger cave. + +"When this swarm hatches out," he said, "I calculate that there will be +a trillion beetles seeking food. There is no food for a tithe of them +here underneath the earth. What then? Do you realize their stupendous +power, their invincibility? + +"No, you don't realize it, because your minds, through long habit, are +only attuned to think in terms of man. All man's long history of +slaughter of the so-called lower creatures obsesses you, blinds your +understanding. A beetle? Something to be trodden underfoot, crushed in +sport! But I tell you, gentlemen, that nature--God, if you will--has +designed to supplant the man-ape by the beetle. + +"He has resolved to throw down the wretched so-called intelligence of +your kind and mine, and supplant it by the divine instinct of the +beetle, an instinct that is infinitely superior, because it arrives at +results instantaneously. It knows where man infers. Attuned closely to +nature, it alone is able to fulfil the divine plan of Creation." + + * * * * * + +Bram was certainly under the influence of his drug; nevertheless, so +violent were his gestures, so inspired was his utterance, that Tommy and +Dodd listened almost in awe. + +"They are invincible," Bram went on. "Their fecundity is such that when +the new swarm is hatched out their numbers alone will make them +irresistible. They do not know fear. They shrink from nothing. And they +will follow me, their leader--I, who know the means of controlling them. +How, then, can puny man hope to stand against them? + +"Join me, gentlemen," Bram went on. "And beware how you decide rashly. +For this is the supreme moment, not only of your own lives, but for all +humanity and beetledom. Upon your decision hangs the future of the +world. + +"For, irresistible as the beetles are, there is one thing they lack. That +is the sense of historic continuity. If they destroy man, they will know +nothing of man's achievements, poor though these are. My own work on the +fossil monotremes--" + +"Which is a tissue of inaccuracies and half-baked deductions!" shouted +Dodd. + +Bram started as if a whip had lashed him. "Liar!" he bawled. "Do you +think that I, who left the Greystoke expedition in a howling blizzard +because I knew that here, in the inner earth, I could refute your +miserable impostures--do you think that I am in the mood to listen to +your wretched farrago of impossibilities?" + +"Listen to me," bawled Dodd, advancing with waving arms. "Once and for +all, let me tell you that your deductions are all based upon fallacious +premises. No, I will not shut up, Tom Travers! You want me to aid your +damned beetles in the destruction of humanity! I tell you that your +phascalotherium, amphitherium, and all the rest of them, including the +marsupial lion, are degenerate developments of the age following the +pleistocene. I say the whole insect world was made to fertilize the +plant world, so that it should bear fruit for human food. Man is the +summit of the scale of evolution, and I will never join in any infamous +scheme for his destruction." + +Bram glared at Dodd like a madman. Three times he opened his mouth to +speak, but only inarticulate sounds came from his throat. And when at +last he did speak, he said something that neither Dodd nor Tommy had +anticipated. + +"It looks as if you're not so paralysed as you made out," he sneered. +"You'll change your mind within what used to be called a day, Dodd. +You'll crawl to my feet and beg for pardon. And you'll recant your lying +theories about the fossil monotremes, or you die--the pair of you--you +die!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +_Escape!_ + + +"I heard what he said. You shall not die. We shall go away to your +place, where there are no beetles to eat us, even if"--Haidia +shuddered--"even if we have to cross the bridge of fire, beyond which, +they tell me, lies freedom." + +High over and a little to one side of the petrol flame Dodd and Tommy +had seen the slender arch of rock leading into another cleft in the +rocks. They had investigated it several times, but always the fierce +heat had driven them back. + +Both Dodd and Tommy had noticed, however, that at times the fire seemed +to shrink in volume and intensity. Observation had shown them that these +times were periodical, recurring about every twelve hours. + +"I think I've got the clue, Tommy," said Dodd, as the three watched the +fiery fountain and speculated on the possibility of escape. "That flow +of petrol is controlled, like the tides on earth, by the pull of the +moon. Just now it is at its height. I've noticed that it loses pretty +nearly half its volume at its alternating phase. If I'm right, we'll +make the attempt in about twelve hours." + +"Bram's given us twenty-four," said Tommy. "But how about getting Haidia +across?" + +"I go where you go," said Haidia, sidling up to Dodd and looking down +upon him lovingly. "I do not afraid of the fire. If it burn me up, I go +to the good place." + +"Where's that, Haidia?" asked Dodd. + +"When we die, we go to a place where it is always dark and there are no +beetles, and the ground is full of shrimps. We leave our bodies behind, +like the beetles, and fly about happy for ever." + +"Not a bad sort of place," said Dodd, squeezing Haidia's arm. "If you +think you're ready to try to cross the bridge, we'll start as soon as +the fire gets lower." + +"I'll be on the job," answered Haidia, unconsciously reproducing a +phrase of Tommy's. + + * * * * * + +The girl glided away, and disappeared through the thick of the beetle +crowd clustered about the entrance to the cavern. Tommy and Dodd had +already discovered that it was through her ability to reproduce a +certain beetle sound meaning "not good to eat" that the girl could come +and go. They had once tried it on their own account, and had narrowly +escaped the lashing tentacles. + +After that there was nothing to do but wait. Three or four hours must +have passed when Bram returned from his inner cave. + +"Well, Dodd, have you experienced a change of heart?" he sneered. "If +you knew what's in store for you, maybe you'd come to the conclusion +that you've been too cocksure about the monotremes. We're slaughtering +in the morning." + +"That so?" asked Dodd. + +"That's so," shouted Bram. "The beetles are beginning to emerge from the +pupae, and they'll need food if they're to be kept quiet. We're rounding +up about threescore of the culls--your friend Haidia will be among them. +We've got some caged ichneumon flies, pretty little things only a foot +long, which will sting them in certain nerve centers, rendering them +powerless to move. Then we shall bury them, standing up, in the +vegetable mould, for the beetles to devour alive, as soon as they come +out of the shells. You'll feel pretty, Dodd, standing there unable to +move, with the new born beetles biting chunks out of you." + + * * * * * + +Tommy shuddered, despite his hopes of their escaping. Bram, for a +scientist, had a grim and picturesque imagination. + +"Dodd, there is no personal quarrel between us," Bram went on. Again +that note of pathetic pleading came into his voice. "Give up your mad +ideas. Admit that the banded ant-eater, at least, existed before the +pleistocene epoch, and everything can be settled. When you see what my +beetles are going to do to humanity, you'll be proud to join us. Only +make a beginning. You remember the point I made in my paper, about +spalacotherium in the Upper Jurassic rocks. It would convince anybody +but a hardened fanatic." + +"I read your paper, and I saw your so-called spalacotherium, +reconstructed from what you called a jaw-bone," shouted Dodd. "That +so-called jaw-bone was a lump of chalk, made porous by water, and the +rest was in your imagination. Do your worst, Bram, I'll never crucify +truth to save my life. And I'll laugh at your spalacotherium when your +beetles are eating me." + +Bram yelled and shrieked, he stamped up and down the cavern, shaking his +fists at Dodd. At last, with a final torrent of objurgation, he +disappeared. + +"A pleasant customer," said Tommy. "We'll have to make that bridge, Jim, +no question about it, even if it means death in the petrol fire." + +"Fire's dying down fast," answered Dodd. "Haidia ought to be here soon." + +"If Bram hasn't got her." + +"Bram got--that girl? If Bram harms a hair of her head I'll kill him +with worse tortures than he's ever dreamed of," answered Dodd, leaping +up, white with rage. + +"You mean you--?" Tommy began. + +"Love her? Yes, I love her," shouted Dodd. "She's a girl in a million. +Just the sort of helpmate I need to assist me in my work when we get +back. I tell you, Tommy, I didn't know what love meant before I saw +Haidia. I laughed at it as a romantic notion. 'Oh lyric love, half angel +and half bird!'" he quoted, beginning to stride up and down the cavern, +while Tommy watched him in amazement. + +And at this moment a complete beetle entered the cave. Complete, because +it had a plastron, or breast-shell, as well as a back-shell, or +carapace. + + * * * * * + +A double breast-shell! A new species of beetle? An executioner beetle, +sent by Bram to summon them to the torture? Tommy shuddered, but Dodd, +lost in his love ecstasy, was ignorant of the creature's advent. + +"'Oh lyric love--'" he shouted again, as he twirled on his heel, to run +smack into the monster. The crack of Dodd's head against the +beetle-shell re-echoed through the cave. + +The double plastron dropped, the carapace fell down: Haidia stood +revealed. The lovers, folded in each other's arms, passed momentarily +into a trance. + +It was Tommy who separated them. "We'll have to make a move," he said. +"I think the fire's as low as it ever gets. Why did you bring the +shells, Haidia?" + +"To save us all from the beetles," answered the girl. "When they see us +in the shells, they will not know we are human. That is what makes it so +hard to have to be eaten by those beetles, when they are such +dumb-bells," she added, reproducing another of Tommy's words. + +"Come," she continued bravely, "let us see if we can pass the fire." + + * * * * * + +The roaring fountain made the air a veritable inferno. Overhead the +rocks were red-hot. A cascade of sparks tumbled in a fiery shower from +the rock roof. Dodd, holding Haidia in his arms, to protect her, +staggered ahead, with Tommy in the rear. Only the beetle-shells, which +acted as non-conductors of the heat, made that fiery passage possible. + +There was one moment when it seemed to Tommy as if he must let go, and +drop into that raging furnace underneath. He heard Dodd bawling hoarsely +in front of him, he nerved himself to a last effort, beating fiercely at +his blazing hair--and then the heat was past, and he had dropped +unconscious upon a bed of cool earth beside a rushing river. + +He was vaguely aware of being carried in Dodd's arms, but a long time +seemed to have passed before he grew conscious again. He opened his eyes +in utter darkness. Dodd was whispering in his ear. + +"Tommy, old man, how are you feeling now?" Dodd asked. + +"All--right," Tommy muttered. "How's Haidia?" + +"Still unconscious, poor girl. We've got to get out of here. I heard +Bram yelling in the distance. He's discovered our flight. There may be +another way out of the cave, and, if so, he'll stop at nothing to get +us. See if you can stand, but keep your head low. There's a low roof of +rock above us." + +"There's water," said Tommy, listening to the roar of a torrent that +seemed to be rushing past them. + +"It's a stream, and I believe these shells will float and bear our +weight. We've got to try. We've got to put everything to the touch now, +Tommy. I'm going to lay Haidia on one of the shells, poor girl, and +start her off. Then I'll follow, and you can bring up the rear." + +"I'm with you," said Tommy, getting upon his feet, and uttering an +exclamation of pain as, forgetful of Dodd's injunction, he let his head +strike the rock roof overhead. + + * * * * * + +In the darkness he felt the outlines of his beetle-shell lying beside +the torrent. He could hear Dodd in front of him, grunting as he raised +Haidia's unconscious form in his arms and deposited her in her shell. +Tommy got his own shell into the stream, and held it there as the waters +swirled around it. + +"Ready?" he heard Dodd call. + +Before he could answer, there sounded from not far away, yet strangely +muffled by the rocks, Bram's bellow of fury. Bram was evidently fully +drugged and beside himself. Inarticulate threats came floating through +the rocky chamber. + +"Bram seems to have lost his head temporarily," called Dodd, laughing. +"A madman, Tommy. He insists that the marsupial lion--" + +"Yes, I heard you telling him about it," answered Tommy. "You handed it +to him straight. However, more about the marsupial lion later. I'm +ready." + +"Then let 'er go," called Dodd, and his words were swallowed up by the +sound of the hollow shell striking against the rocky bank as he launched +his strange craft into the water. + +Tommy set one foot into the hollow of his shell, and let himself go. + +Instantly the shell shot forward with fearful velocity. It was all Tommy +could do to balance himself, for it seemed more unstable than a canoe. +Once or twice he thought he heard Dodd shouting ahead of him, but his +cries were drowned in the rush of the torrent. + + * * * * * + +Suddenly a light appeared in the distance. Tommy thought it was another +of the petroleum fountains, and his heart seemed to stand still. But +then he gave a gasp of relief. It was a cluster of luminous fungi, ten +or twelve feet tall, emitting a glow equal to that of a dozen 40-watt +electric bulbs. + +By that infernal light Tommy could see that the stream curved sharply. +It was about fifty feet in width, and the low rock roof had receded to +some fifteen feet overhead. Instead of a tunnel, there was nothing on +either side of them but a vast tract of marshy ground thinly coated with +the red grass. + +As Tommy looked, he saw the shell that carried the unconscious body of +Haidia strike the bank beside the phosphorescent growth. He could see +the girl lying in the hollow of the shell, as pale as death, her eyes +closed. Dodd was close behind. As the swirl of the current caught his +shell, he turned to shout a warning to Tommy. + +And Tommy noticed a singular thing, of which his sense of balance had +already warned him, though he had hardly given conscious thought to the +matter. _The river was running up-hill!_ + +Of course it was, since the center of gravity was in the shell of the +earth, and not in the center! + +But, again, the shell of the earth was under their feet! + +Then Tommy hit on the solution to the problem. If the river was running +up-hill, that meant that they must be near the exterior of the earth. In +other words, they had passed the center of gravity: they must be within +a mile or so of the exit from Submundia! + + * * * * * + +Tommy was about to shout his discovery to Dodd when his shell grounded +beside the two others, at the base of the clump of fungi. + +Huge, straight, hollow stems they were, with mushroom caps, and, like +all fungi, fly-blown, for Tommy could see worms nearly a foot in length +crawling in and out of the porous stalks. The stench from the growth was +nauseating and overpowering, utterly sickening. + +"Push off and let's get out of here!" Tommy called to Dodd, who was +balancing his shell against the bank, and trying to peer into Haidia's +face. + +At that moment he caught sight of something that made his blood turn +cold! + +It was an insect fully fifteen feet in height, three times that of a +beetle, lurking among the fungi. He saw a hugely elongated neck, a +three-cornered head with a pair of tentacles, and two pairs of legs as +long as a giraffe's. But what gave the added touch of horror was that +the monster, balancing itself on its hind legs, had its forelegs +extended in the attitude of one holding a prayer-book! + +That attitude of devotion was so terrible that Tommy uttered a wild cry +of terror. At the same time another cry broke from Dodd's lips. + +"God, a praying mantis!" he shouted, struggling madly to push off his +shell and Haidia's. + +The next moment, as if shot from a catapult, the hideous monster +launched itself into the air straight toward them. + +(_To be concluded in the February Number._) + + + + +The Cave of Horror + +_By Captain S. P. Meek_ + +[Illustration: "_Suddenly, for no apparent reason at all, one of the men +on guard was jerked into the air feet upwards._"] + +[Sidenote: Screaming, the guardsman was jerked through the air. An +unearthly screech rang through the cavern. The unseen horror of Mammoth +Cave had struck again.] + + +Dr. Bird looked up impatiently as the door of his private laboratory in +the Bureau of Standards swung open, but the frown on his face changed to +a smile as he saw the form of Operative Carnes of the United States +Secret Service framed in the doorway. + +"Hello, Carnes," he called cheerfully. "Take a seat and make yourself at +home for a few minutes. I'll be with you as soon as I finish getting +this weight." + +Carnes sat on the edge of a bench and watched with admiration the long +nervous hands and the slim tapering fingers of the famous scientist. Dr. +Bird stood well over six feet and weighed two hundred and six pounds +stripped: his massive shoulders and heavy shock of unruly black hair +combined to give him the appearance of a prize-fighter--until one looked +at his hands. Acid stains and scars could not hide the beauty of those +mobile hands, the hands of an artist and a dreamer. An artist Dr. Bird +was, albeit his artistry expressed itself in the most delicate and +complicated experiments in the realms of pure and applied science that +the world has ever seen, rather than in the commoner forms of art. + +The doctor finished his task of weighing a porcelain crucible, set it +carefully into a dessicator, and turned to his friend. + +"What's on your mind, Carnes?" he asked. "You look worried. Is there +another counterfeit on the market?" + +The operative shook his head. + +"Have you been reading those stories that the papers have been carrying +about Mammoth Cave?" he asked. + +Dr. Bird emitted a snort of disgust. + +"I read the first one of them part way through on the strength of its +being an Associated Press dispatch," he replied, "but that was enough. +It didn't exactly impress me with its veracity, and, from a viewpoint of +literature, the thing was impossible. I have no time to pore over the +lucubrations of an inspired press agent." + +"So you dismissed them as mere press agent work?" + +"Certainly. What else could they be? Things like that don't happen +fortuitously just as the tourist season is about to open. I suppose that +those yarns will bring flocks of the curious to Kentucky though: the +public always responds well to sea serpent yarns." + +"Mammoth Cave has been closed to visitors for the season," said Carnes +quietly. + +"What?" cried the doctor in surprise. "Was there really something to +those wild yarns?" + + * * * * * + +"There was, and what is more to the point, there still is. At least +there is enough to it that I am leaving for Kentucky this evening, and I +came here for the express purpose of asking you whether you wanted to +come along. Bolton suggested that I ask you: he said that the whole +thing sounded to him like magic and that magic was more in your line +than in ours. He made out a request for your services and I have it in +my pocket now. Are you interested?" + +"How does the secret service cut in on it?" asked the doctor. "It seems +to me that it is a state matter. Mammoth Cave isn't a National Park." + +"Apparently you haven't followed the papers. It _was_ a state matter +until the Governor asked for federal troops. Whenever the regulars get +into trouble, the federal government is rather apt to take a hand." + +"I didn't know that regulars had been sent there. Tell me about the +case." + +"Will you come along?" + +Dr. Bird shook his head slowly. + +"I really don't see how I can spare the time, Carnes," he said. "I am in +the midst of some work of the utmost importance and it hasn't reached +the stage where I can turn it over to an assistant." + +"Then I won't bother you with the details," replied Carnes as he rose. + +"Sit down, confound you!" cried the doctor. "You know better than to try +to pull that on me. Tell me your case, and then I'll tell you whether +I'll go or not. I can't spare the time, but, on the other hand, if it +sounds interesting enough...." + + * * * * * + +Carnes laughed. + +"All right, Doctor," he said, "I'll take enough time to tell you about +it even if you can't go. Do you know anything about it?" + +"No. I read the first story half way through and then stopped. Start at +the beginning and tell me the whole thing." + +"Have you ever been to Mammoth Cave?" + +"No." + +"It, or rather they, for while it is called Mammoth Cave it is really a +series of caves, are located in Edmonson County in Central Kentucky, on +a spur railroad from Glasgow Junction on the Louisville and Nashville +Railroad. They are natural limestone caverns with the customary +stalactite and stalagmite formation, but are unusually large and very +beautiful. The caves are quite extensive and they are on different +levels, so that a guide is necessary if one wants to enter them and be +at all sure of finding the way out. Visitors are taken over a regular +route and are seldom allowed to visit portions of the cave off these +routes. Large parts of the cave have never been thoroughly explored or +mapped. So much for the scene. + +"About a month ago a party from Philadelphia who were motoring through +Kentucky, entered the cave with a regular guide. The party consisted of +a man and his wife and their two children, a boy of fourteen and a girl +of twelve. They went quite a distance back into the caves and then, as +the mother was feeling tired, she and her husband sat down, intending to +wait until the guide showed the children some sights which lay just +ahead and then return to them. The guide and the children never +returned." + +"What happened?" + +"No one knows. All that is known is the bare fact that they have not +been seen since." + +"A kidnapping case?" + +"Apparently not, in the light of later happenings, although that was at +first thought to be the explanation. The parents waited for some time. +The mother says that she heard faint screams in the distance some ten +minutes after the guide and the children left, but they were very far +away and she isn't sure that she heard them at all. At any rate, they +didn't impress her at the time. + + * * * * * + +"When half an hour had passed they began to feel anxious, and the father +took a torch and started out to hunt for them. The usual thing happened; +he got lost. When _he_ failed to return, the mother, now thoroughly +alarmed, made her way, by some uncanny sense of direction, to the +entrance and gave the alarm. In half an hour a dozen search parties were +on their way into the cave. The father was soon located, not far from +the beaten trail, but despite three days of constant search, the +children were not located. The only trace of them that was found was a +bracelet which the mother identified. It was found in the cavern some +distance from the beaten path and was broken, as though by violence. +There were no other signs of a struggle. + +"When the bracelet was found, the kidnapping theory gained vogue, for +John Harrel, the missing guide, knew the cave well and natives of the +vicinity scouted the idea that he might be lost. Inspired by the large +reward offered by the father, fresh parties began to explore the unknown +portions of the cave. And then came the second tragedy. Two of the +searchers failed to return. This time there seemed to be little doubt of +violence, for screams and a pistol shot were faintly heard by other +searchers, together with a peculiar 'screaming howl,' as it was +described by those who heard it. A search was at once made toward the +spot where the bracelet had been picked up, and the gun of one of the +missing men was found within fifty yards of the spot where the bracelet +had been discovered. One cylinder of the revolver had been discharged." + +"Were there any signs on the floor?" + +"The searchers said that the floor appeared to be rather more moist and +slimy than usual, but that was all. They also spoke of a very faint +smell of musk, but this observation was not confirmed by others who +arrived a few moments later." + +"What happened next?" + + * * * * * + +"The Governor was appealed to and a company of the National Guard was +sent from Louisville to Mammoth Cave. They took up camp at the mouth of +the cave and prevented everyone from entering. Soldiers armed with +service rifles penetrated the caverns, but found nothing. Visitors were +excluded, and the guardsmen established regular patrols and sentry posts +in the cave with the result that one night, when time came for a relief, +the only trace that could be found of one of the guards was his rifle. +It had not been fired. Double guards were then posted, and nothing +happened for several days--and then another sentry disappeared. His +companion came rushing out of the cave screaming. When he recovered, he +admitted that both he and the missing man had gone to sleep and that he +awoke to find his comrade gone. He called, and he says that the answer +he received was a peculiar whistling noise which raised all the hair on +the back of his neck. He flashed his electric torch all around, but +could see nothing. He swears, however, that he heard a slipping, sliding +noise approaching him, and he felt that some one was looking at him. He +stood it as long as he could and then threw down his rifle and ran for +his life." + +"Had he been drinking?" + +"No. It wasn't delirium either, as was shown by the fact that a patrol +found his gun where he had thrown it, but no trace of the other sentry. +After this second experience, the guardsmen weren't very eager to enter +the cave, and the Governor asked for regulars. A company of infantry was +ordered down from Fort Thomas to relieve the guardsmen, but they fared +worse than their predecessors. They lost two men the first night of +their guard. The regulars weren't caught napping, for the main guard +heard five shots fired. They rushed a patrol to the scene and found both +of the rifles which had been fired, but the men were gone. + +"The officer of the day made a thorough search of the vicinity and +found, some two hundred yards from the spot where the sentries had been +posted, a crack in the wall through which the body of a man could be +forced. This bodycrack had fresh blood on each side of it. Several of +his men volunteered to enter the hole and search, but the lieutenant +would not allow it. Instead, he armed himself with a couple of +hand-grenades and an electric torch and entered himself. That was last +Tuesday, and he has not returned." + +"Was there any disturbance heard from the crack?" + +"None at all. A guard was posted with two machine-guns pointed at the +crack in the wall, and a guard of eight men and a sergeant stationed +there. Last night, about six o'clock, while the guard were sitting +around their guns, a faint smell of musk became evident. No one paid a +great deal of attention to it, but suddenly for no apparent reason at +all one of the men on guard was jerked into the air feet upwards. He +gave a scream of fear, and an unearthly screech answered him. The guard, +with the exception of one man, turned tail and ran. One man stuck by his +gun and poured a stream of bullets into the crack. The retreating men +could hear the rattle of the gun for a few moments and then there was a +choking scream, followed by silence. When the officer of the day got +back with a patrol, there was a heavy smell of musk in the air, and a +good deal of blood was splashed around. The machine-guns were both +there, although one of them was twisted up until it looked like it had +been through an explosion. + +"The Officer commanding the company investigated the place, ordered all +men out of the cave, and communicated with the War Department. The +Secretary of War found it too tough a nut to crack and he asked for +help, so Bolton is sending me down there. Do you think, in view of this +yarn, that your experiments can wait?" + + * * * * * + +The creases on Dr. Bird's high forehead had grown deeper and deeper as +Carnes had told his story, but now they suddenly disappeared, and he +jumped to his feet with a boyish grin. + +"How soon are we leaving?" he asked. + +"In two hours, Doctor. A car is waiting for us downstairs and I have +reservations booked for both of us on the Southern to-night. I knew that +you were coming; in fact, the request for your services had been +approved before I came here to see you." + +Dr. Bird rapidly divested himself of his laboratory smock and took his +coat and hat from a cupboard. + +"I hope you realize, Carnsey, old dear," he said as he followed the +operative out of the building, "that I have a real fondness for your +worthless old carcass. I am leaving the results of two weeks of patient +work alone and unattended in order to keep you out of trouble, and I +know that it will be ruined when I get back. I wonder whether you are +worth it?" + +"Bosh!" retorted Carnes. "I'm mighty glad to have you along, but you +needn't rub it in by pretending that it is affection for me that is +dragging you reluctantly into this mess. With an adventure like this +ahead of you, leg-irons and handcuffs wouldn't keep you away from +Mammoth Cave, whether I was going or not." + +It was late afternoon before Dr. Bird and Carnes dismounted from the +special train which had carried them from Glasgow Junction to Mammoth +Cave. They introduced themselves to the major commanding the guard +battalion which had been ordered down to reinforce the single company +which had borne the first brunt of the affair, and then interviewed the +guards who had been routed by the unseen horror which was haunting the +famous cave. Nothing was learned which differed in any great degree from +the tale which Carnes had related to the doctor in Washington, except +that the officer of the day who had investigated the last attack failed +to entirely corroborate the smell of musk which had been reported by the +other observers. + +"It might have been musk, but to me it smelled differently," he said. +"Were you ever near a rattlesnake den in the west?" + + * * * * * + +Dr. Bird nodded. + +"Then you know the peculiar reptilian odor which such a place gives off. +Well, this smell was somewhat similar, although not the same by any +manner of means. It was musky all right, but it was more snake than musk +to me. I rather like musk, but this smell gave me the horrors." + +"Did you hear any noises?" + +"None at all. The men describe some rather peculiar noises and Sergeant +Jervis is an old file and pretty apt to get things straight, but they +may have been made by the men who were in trouble. I saw a man caught by +a boa in South America once, and the noises he made might very well have +been described in almost the same words as Jervis used." + +"Thanks, Lieutenant," replied the Doctor. "I'll remember what you have +told me. Now I think that we'll go into the cave." + +"My orders are to allow no one to enter, Doctor." + +"I beg your pardon. Carnes, where is that letter from the Secretary of +War?" + +Carnes produced the document. The lieutenant examined it and excused +himself. He returned in a few moments with the commanding officer. + +"In the face of that letter, Dr. Bird," said the major, "I have no +alternative to allowing you to enter the cave, but I will warn you that +it is at your own peril. I'll give you an escort, if you wish." + +"If Lieutenant Pearce will come with me as a guide, that will be all +that I need." + +The lieutenant paled slightly, but threw back his shoulders. + +"Do you wish to start at once, sir?" he asked. + +"In a few moments. What is the floor of the cave like where we are +going?" + +"Quite wet and slimy, sir." + +"Very slippery?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"In that case before we go in we want to put on baseball shoes with +cleats on them, so that we can run if we have to. Can you get us +anything like that?" + +"In a few moments, sir." + +"Good! As soon as we can get them we'll start. In the meantime, may I +look at that gun that was found?" + + * * * * * + +The Browning machine-gun was laid before the doctor. He looked it over +critically and sniffed delicately at it. He took from his pocket a phial +of liquid, moistened a portion of the water-jacket of the weapon, and +then rubbed the moistened part briskly with his hand. He sniffed again. +He looked disappointed, and again examined the gun closely. + +"Carnes," he said at length, "do you see anything on this gun that looks +like tooth marks?" + +"Nothing, Doctor." + +"Neither do I. There are some marks here which might quite conceivably +be finger-prints of a forty-foot giant, and those two parallel grooves +look like the result of severe squeezing, but there are no tooth marks. +Strange. There is no persistent odor on the gun, which is also strange. +Well, there's no use in theorizing: we are confronted by a condition and +not a theory, as someone once said. Let's put on those baseball shoes +and see what we can find out." + +Dr. Bird led the way into the cave, Carnes and the lieutenant following +closely with electric torches. In each hand Dr. Bird carried a +phosphorus hand-grenade. No other weapons were visible, although the +doctor knew that Carnes carried a caliber .45 automatic pistol strapped +under his left armpit. As they passed into the cave the lieutenant +stepped forward to lead the way. + +"I'm going first," said the doctor. "Follow me and indicate the turns by +pressure on my shoulder. Don't speak after we have started, and be ready +for instant flight. Let's go." + +Forward into the interior of the cave they made their way. The iron +cleats of the baseball shoes rang on the floor and the noise echoed back +and forth between the walls, dying out in little eerie whispers of sound +that made Carnes' hair rise. Ever forward they pressed, the lieutenant +guiding the doctor by silent pressure on his shoulder and Carnes +following closely. For half a mile they went on until a restrainable +pressure brought the doctor to a halt. The lieutenant pointed silently +toward a crack in the wall before them. Carnes started forward to +examine it, but a warning gesture from the doctor stopped him. + + * * * * * + +Slowly, an inch at a time, the doctor crept forward, hand-grenades in +readiness. Presently he reached the crack and, shifting one of the +grenades into his pocket, he drew forth an electric torch and sent a +beam of light through the crack into the dark interior of the earth. + +For a moment he stood thus, and then suddenly snapped off his torch and +straightened up in an attitude of listening. The straining ears of +Carnes and Lieutenant Pearce could hear a faint slithering noise coming +toward them, not from the direction of the crack, but from the interior +of the cave. Simultaneously a faint, musky, reptilian odor became +apparent. + +"Run!" shouted the doctor. "Run like hell! It's loose in the cave!" + +The lieutenant turned and fled at top speed toward the distant entrance +to the cave, Carnes at his heels. Dr. Bird paused for an instant, +straining his ears, and then threw a grenade. A blinding flash came from +the point where the missile struck and a white cloud rose in the air. +The doctor turned and fled after his companions. Not for nothing had Dr. +Bird been an athlete of note in his college days. Despite the best +efforts of his companions, who were literally running for their lives, +he soon caught up with them. As he did so a weird, blood-curdling +screech rose from the darkness behind them. Higher and higher in pitch +the note rose until it ended suddenly in a gurgling grunt, as though the +breath which uttered it had been suddenly cut off. The slithering, +rustling noise became louder on their trail. + +"Faster!" gasped the doctor, as he put his hand on Carnes' shoulder and +pushed him forward. + + * * * * * + +The noise of pursuit gained slightly on them, and a sound as of intense +breathing became audible. Dr. Bird paused and turned and faced the +oncoming horror. His electric torch revealed nothing, but he listened +for a moment, and then threw his second grenade. Keenly he watched its +flight. It flew through the air for thirty yards and then struck an +invisible obstruction and bounded toward the ground. Before it struck +the downward motion ceased, and it rose in the air. As it rose it burst +with a sharp report, and a wild scream of pain filled the cavern with a +deafening roar. The doctor fled again after his companions. + +By the time he overtook them the entrance of the cave loomed before +them. With sobs of relief they burst out into the open. The guards +sprang forward with raised rifles, but Dr. Bird waved them back. + +"There's nothing after us, men," he panted. "We got chased a little way, +but I tossed our pursuer a handful of phosphorus and it must have burned +his fingers a little, judging from the racket he made. At any rate, it +stopped the pursuit." + +The major hurried up. + +"Did you see it, Doctor?" he asked. + +"No, I didn't. No one has ever seen it or anything like it. I heard it +and, from its voice, I think it has a bad cold. At least, it sounded +hoarse, so I gave it a little white phosphorus to make a poultice for +its throat, but I didn't get a glimpse of it." + +"For God's sake, Doctor, what is it?" + +"I can't tell you yet, Major. So far I can tell, it is something new to +science and I am not sure just what it looks like. However, I hope to be +able to show it to you shortly. Is there a telegraph office here?" + +"No, but we have a Signal Corps detachment with us, and they have a +portable radio set which will put us in touch with the army net." + +"Good! Can you place a tent at my disposal?" + +"Certainly, Doctor." + +"All right, I'll go there, and I would appreciate it if you would send +the radio operator to me. I want to send a message to the Bureau of +Standards to forward me some apparatus which I need." + +"I'll attend to it, Doctor. Have you any special advice to give me about +the guarding?" + +"Yes. Have you, or can you get, any live stock?" + +"Live stock?" + +"Yes. Cattle preferred, although hogs or sheep will do at a pinch. Sheep +will do quite well." + +"I'll see what I can do, Doctor." + +"Get them by all means, if it is possible to do so. Don't worry about +paying for them: secret service funds are not subject to the same audit +that army funds get. If you can locate them, drive a couple of cattle or +half a dozen sheep well into the cave and tether them there. If you +don't get them, have your sentries posted well away from the cave mouth, +and if any disturbance occurs during the night, tell them to break and +run. I hope it won't come out, but I can't tell." + + * * * * * + +A herd of cattle was soon located and two of the beasts driven into the +cave. Two hours later a series of horrible screams and bellowings were +heard in the cave. Following their orders the sentries abandoned their +posts and scattered, but the noise came no nearer the mouth, and in a +few minutes silence again reigned. + +"I hope that will be all that will be needed for a couple of days," said +the doctor to the commanding officer, "but you had better have a couple +more cattle driven in in the morning. We want to keep the brute well +fed. Is there a tank stationed at Fort Thomas?" + +"No, there isn't." + +"Then radio Washington that I want the fastest three-man tank that the +army has sent here at once. Don't bother with military channels, radio +direct to the Adjutant General, quoting the Secretary of the Treasury as +authority. Tell him that it's a rush matter, and sign the message 'Bird' +if you are afraid of getting your tail twisted." + +Twice more before the apparatus which the doctor had ordered from +Washington arrived cattle were driven into the depths of the cave, and +twice were the screams and bellowings from the cave repeated. Each time +searching parties found the cattle gone in the morning. A week after the +doctor's arrival, a special train came up, carrying four mechanics from +the Bureau of Standards, together with a dozen huge packing cases. Under +the direction of the doctor the cases were unpacked and the apparatus +put together. Before the assembly had been completed the tank which had +been requested arrived from Camp Meade, and the Bureau mechanics began +to install some of the assembled units in it. + +The first apparatus which was installed in the tank consisted of an +electric generator of peculiar design which was geared to the tank +motor. The electromotive force thus generated was led across a spark gap +with points of a metallic substance. The light produced was concentrated +by a series of parabolic reflectors, directed against a large quartz +prism, and thence through a lens which was designed to throw a slightly +divergent beam. + +"This apparatus," Dr. Bird explained to the Signal Corps officer, who +was an interested observer, "is one which was designed at the Bureau for +the large scale production of ultra-violet light. There is nothing +special about the generator except that it is highly efficient and gives +an almost constant electromotive force. The current thus produced is +led across these points, which are composed of magnalloy, a development +of the Bureau. We found on investigation that a spark gave out a light +which was peculiarly rich in ultra-violet rays when it was passed +between magnesium points. However, such points could not be used for the +handling of a steady current because of lack of durability and ease of +fusion, so a mixture of graphite, alundum and metallic magnesium was +pressed together with a binder which will stand the heat. Thus we get +the triple advantages of ultra-violet light production, durability, and +high resistance. + + * * * * * + +"The system of reflectors catches all of the light thus produced except +the relatively small portion which goes initially in the right +direction, and directs it on this quartz prism where, due to the +refractive powers of the prism, the light is broken up into its +component parts. The infra-red rays and that portion of the spectrum +which lies in the visible range, that is, from red to violet inclusive, +are absorbed by a black body, leaving only the ultra-violet portion free +to send a beam through this quartz lens." + +"I thought that a lens would absorb ultra-violet light," objected the +signal officer. + +"A lens made of glass will, but this lens is made of rock crystal, which +is readily permeable to ultra-violet. The net result of this apparatus +is that we can direct before us as we move in the tank a beam of light +which is composed solely of the ultra-violet portion of the spectrum." + +"In other words, an invisible light?" + +"Yes. That is, invisible to the human eye. The effect of this beam of +ultra-violet light in the form of severe sunburn would be readily +apparent if you exposed your skin to it for any length of time, and the +effects on your eyesight of continued gazing would be apt to be +disastrous. It would produce a severe opthalmia and temporary +impairment of the vision, somewhat the same symptoms as are observed in +snow blindness." + +"I see. May I ask what is the object of the whole thing?" + +"Surely. Before we can successfully combat this peculiar visitant from +another world, it is necessary that we gain some idea of the size and +appearance of it. Nothing of the sort has before made its appearance, so +far as the annals of science go, and so I am forced to make some rather +wild guesses at the nature of the animal. You are probably aware of the +fact that the property of penetration possessed by all waves is a +function of their frequency, or, perhaps I should say, of their +wave-length?" + + * * * * * + +"Certainly." + +"The longer rays of visible light will not penetrate as deeply into a +given substance as the shorter ultra-violet rays. This visitor is +evidently from some unexplored and, indeed, unknown cavern in the depths +of the earth where visible light has never penetrated. Apparently in +this cavern the color of the inhabitants is ultra-violet, and hence +invisible to us." + +"You are beyond my depth, Doctor." + +"Pardon me. You understand, of course, what color is? When sunlight, +which is a mixture of all colors from infra-red to ultra-violet +inclusive, falls on an object, certain rays are reflected and certain +others are absorbed. If the red rays are reflected and all others +absorbed, the object appears red to our eyes. If all the rays are +reflected, the object appears white, and if all are absorbed, it appears +black." + +"I understand that." + +"The human eye cannot detect ultra-violet. Suppose then, that we have an +object, either animate or inanimate, the surface of which reflects only +ultra-violet light, what will be the result? The object will be +invisible." + +"I should think it would be black if all the rays except the +ultra-violet were absorbed." + +"It would, but mark, I did not say the others were absorbed. Are you +familiar with fluorescein?" + +"No." + +"I think you are. It is the dye used in making changeable silk. If we +fill a glass container with a fluorescein solution and look at it by +reflected light it appears green. If we look at it by transmitted light, +that is, light which has traversed the solution, it appears red. In +other words, this is a substance which reflects green light, allows a +free passage to red light, and absorbs all other light. This creature we +are after, if my theory is correct, is composed of a substance which +allows free passage to all of the visible light rays and at the same +time reflects ultra-violet light. Do I make this clear?" + + * * * * * + +"Perfectly." + +"Very well, then. My apparatus will project forward a beam of +ultra-violet light which will be in much greater concentration than +exists in an incandescent electric light. It is my hope that this light +will be reflected by the body of the creature to a sufficient to allow +me to make a photograph of it." + +"But won't your lens prevent the ultra-violet light from reaching your +plate?" + +"An ordinary lens made of optical glass would do so, but I have a camera +here equipped with a rock crystal lens, which will allow ultra-violet +light to pass through it practically unhindered, and with very slight +distortion. When I add that I will have my camera charged with X-ray +film, a film which is peculiarly sensitive to the shorter wave-lengths, +you will see that I will have a fair chance of success." + +"It sounds logical. Would you allow me to accompany you when you make +your attempt?" + +"I will be glad of your company, if you can drive a tank. I want to take +Carnes with me, and the tank will only hold two besides the driver." + +"I can drive a tractor." + +"In that case you should master the tricks of tank driving in short +order. Get familiar with it and we'll appoint you as driver. We'll be +ready to go in to-night, but I am going to wait a day. Our friend was +fed last night, and there is less chance he'll be about." + + * * * * * + +The early part of the next evening was marked by howls and screams +coming from the mouth of the cave. As the night wore on the noises were +quite evidently coming nearer and the sentries watched the cave mouth +nervously, ready to bolt and scatter according to their orders at the +first alarm. About two A. M. the doctor and Carnes climbed into the tank +beside Lieutenant Leffingwell, and the machine moved slowly into the +cave. A search-light on the front of the tank lighted the way for them +and, attached to a frame which held it some distance ahead of them, was +a luckless sheep. + +"Keep your eye on the mutton, Carnes," cautioned the doctor. "As soon as +anything happens to it, shut off the search-light and let me try to get +a picture. As soon as I have made my exposures I'll tell you, and you +can snap it on again. Lieutenant, when the picture is made, turn your +tank and make for the entrance to the cave. If we are lucky, we'll get +out." + +Forward the tank crawled, the sheep bleating and trying to break loose +from the bonds which held it. It was impossible to hear much over the +roar of the motor, but presently Dr. Bird leaned forward, his eyes +shining. + +"I smell musk," he announced. "Get ready for action." + +Even as he spoke the sheep was suddenly lifted into the air. It gave a +final bleat of terror, and then its head was torn from its body. + +"Quick, Carnes!" shouted the doctor. + +The search-light went out, and Carnes and the lieutenant could hear the +slide of the ultra-violet light which Dr. Bird was manipulating open. +For two or three minutes the doctor worked with his apparatus. + +"All right!" he cried suddenly. "Lights on and get out of here!" + +Carnes snapped on the search-light and Lieutenant Leffingwell swung the +tank around and headed for the cave mouth. For a few feet their progress +was unhindered and then the tank ceased its forward motion, although the +motor still roared and the track slid on the cave floor. Carnes watched +with horror as one side of the tank bent slowly in toward him. There was +a rending sound, and a portion of the heavy steel fabric was torn away. +Dr. Bird bent over something on the floor of the tank. Presently he +straightened up and threw a small object into the darkness. There was a +flash of light, and bits of flaming phosphorus flew in every direction. +The anchor which held the tank was suddenly loosed and the machine +crawled forward at full speed, while a roar as of escaping air mingled +with a bellowing shriek burdened the smoke-laden air. + +"Faster!" cried the doctor, as he threw another grenade. + + * * * * * + +Lieutenant Leffingwell got the last bit of speed possible out of the +tank and they reached the cave mouth without further molestation. + +"I had an idea that our friend wouldn't care to pass through a +phosphorus screen," said Dr. Bird with a chuckle as he climbed out of +the tank. "He must have been rather severely burned the other day, and +once burned is usually twice shy. Where is Major Brown?" + +The commanding officer stepped forward. + +"Drive a couple of cattle into the cave, Major," directed Dr. Bird. "I +want to fill that brute up and keep him quiet for a while. I'm going to +develop my films." + +Lieutenant Leffingwell and Carnes peered over the doctor's shoulders as +he manipulated his films in a developing bath. Gradually vague lines and +blotches made their appearance on one of the films, but the form was +indistinct. Dr. Bird dropped the films in a fixing tank and straightened +up. + +"We have something, gentlemen," he announced, "but I can't tell yet how +clear it is. It will take those films fifteen minutes to fix, and then +we'll know." + +In a quarter of an hour he lifted the first film from the tank and held +it to the light. The film showed a blank. With an exclamation of +disappointment he lifted a second and third film from the tank, with the +same result He raised the fourth one. + +"Good Lord!" gasped Carnes. + + * * * * * + +In the plate could be plainly seen the hind quarters of the sheep held +in the grasp of such a monster as even the drug-laden brain of an opium +smoker never pictured. Judging from the sheep, the monster stood about +twenty feet tall, and its frame was surmounted by a head resembling an +overgrown frog. Enormous jaws were opened to seize the sheep but, to the +amazement of the three observers, the jaws were entirely toothless. +Where teeth were to be expected, long parallel ridges of what looked +like bare bone, appeared, without even a rudimentary segregation into +teeth. The body of the monster was long and snakelike, and was borne on +long, heavy legs ending in feet with three long toes, armed with vicious +claws. The crowning horror of the creature was its forelegs. There were +of enormous length, thin and attenuated looking, and ended in huge +misshapen hands, knobby and blotched, which grasped the sheep in the +same manner as human hands. The eyes were as large as dinner plates, and +they were glaring at the camera with an expression of fiendish +malevolence which made Carnes shudder. + +"How does that huge thing ever get through that crack we examined?" +demanded the lieutenant. + +Dr. Bird rubbed his head thoughtfully. + +"It's not an amphibian," he muttered, "as is plainly shown by the shape +of the limbs and the lack of a tail, and yet it appears to have scales +of the true fish type. It corresponds to no recovered fossil, and I am +inclined to believe it is unique. The nervous organisation must be very +low, judging from the lack of forehead and the general conformation. It +has enormous strength, and yet the arms look feeble." + +"It can't get through that crack," insisted the lieutenant. + +"Apparently not," replied the doctor. "Wait a moment, though. Look at +this!" + +He pointed to the great disproportion between the length and diameter of +the forelegs, and then to the hind legs. + +"Either this is grave distortion or there is something mighty queer +about that conformation. No animal could be constructed like that." + + * * * * * + +He turned the film so that an oblique light fell on it. As he did so he +gave a cry of astonishment. + +"Look here!" he said sharply. "It does get through that crack! Look at +those arms and hands! There is the answer. This creature is tall and +broad, but from front to rear it can measure only a few inches. The same +must be true of the froglike head. That animal has been developed to +live and move in a low roofed cavern, and to pass through openings only +a few inches wide. Its bulk is all in two dimensions!" + +"I believe you're right," said Carnes as he studied the film. + +"There is no doubt of it," answered the doctor. "Look at those paws, +too, Carnes. That substance isn't bone, it's gum. The thing is so young +and helpless that it hasn't cut its teeth yet. It must be a baby, and +that is the reason why it made its way into the cave when no other of +its kind ever has." + +"How large are full grown ones if this is a baby?" asked the +lieutenant. + +"The Lord alone knows," replied Dr. Bird. "I hope that I never have to +face one and find out. Well, now that we know what we are fighting, we +ought to be able to settle its hash." + +"High explosive?" suggested the lieutenant. + +"I don't think so. With such a low nervous organization, we would have +to tear it practically to pieces to kill it, and I am anxious to keep it +from mutilation for scientific study. I have an idea, but I'll have to +study a while before I am sure of the details. Send me the radio +operator." + +The next day the Bureau mechanics began to dismount the apparatus from +the tank and to assemble another elaborate contrivance. Before they had +made an end of the work additional equipment arrived from Washington, +which was incorporated in the new set-up. At length Dr. Bird pronounced +himself ready for the attempt. + + * * * * * + +Under his direction, three cattle were driven into the cave and there +tethered. They were there the next morning unharmed, but the second +night the now familiar bellowing and howling came from the depths of the +cave and in the morning two of the cattle were gone. + +"That will keep him quiet for a day or two," said the doctor, "and now +to work!" + +The tank made its way into the cave, dragging after it two huge cables +which led to an engine-driven generator outside the cave. These cables +were attached to the terminals of a large motor which was set up in the +cave near the place where the cattle were customarily tethered. This +motor was the actuating force which turned two generators, one large and +one small. The smaller one was mounted on a platform on wheels, which +also contained the spark gaps, the reflectors and other apparatus which +produced the beam of ultra-violet light which had been used to +photograph the monster. + +From the larger generator led two copper bars. One of these was +connected to a huge copper plate which was laid flat on the floor of the +cave. The other led to a platform which was erected on huge porcelain +insulators some fifteen feet above the floor. Huge condensers were set +up on this platform, and Dr. Bird announced himself in readiness. + +A steer was dragged into the cave and up a temporary runway which led to +the platform containing the condensers, and there tied with the copper +bus bar from the larger generator fastened to three flexible copper +straps which led around the animal's body. When this had been completed, +everyone except the doctor, Carnes, and Lieutenant Leffingwell left the +cave. These three crouched behind the search-light which sent a mild +beam of ultra-violet onto the platform where the steer was held. The +engine outside the cave was started, and the three men waited with tense +nerves. + +For several hours nothing happened. The steer tried from time to time to +move and, finding it impossible, set up plaintive bellows for liberty. + +"I wish something would happen," muttered the lieutenant. "This is +getting on my nerves. + +"Something is about to happen," replied Dr. Bird grimly. "Listen to that +steer." + + * * * * * + +The bellowing of the steer had suddenly increased in volume and, added +to the note of discontent, was a note of fright which had previously +been absent. Dr. Bird bent over his ultra-violet search-light and made +some adjustments. He handed a helmetlike arrangement to each of his +companions and slipped one on over his head. + +"I can't see a thing, Doctor," said Carnes in a muffled voice. + +"The objects at which you are looking absorb rather than reflect +ultra-violet light," said the doctor. "This is a sort of a fluoroscope +arrangement, and it isn't perfect at all. However, when the monster +comes along, I am pretty sure that you will be able to see it. You may +see a little more as your eyes get accustomed to it." + +"I can see very dimly," announced the lieutenant in a moment. + +Dimly the walls of the cave and the platform before them began to take +vague shape. The three stared intently down the beam of ultra-violet +light which the doctor directed down the passageway leading deeper into +the cave. + +"Good Lord!" ejaculated Carnes suddenly. + +Slowly into the field of vision came the hideous figure they had seen on +the film. As it moved forward a rustling, slithering sound could be +heard, even over the bellowing of the steer and the hum of the +apparatus. The odor of musk became evident. + +Along the floor toward them the thing slid. Presently it reared up on +its hind legs and its enormous bulk became evident. It turned somewhat +sideways and the correctness of Dr. Bird's hypothesis as to its peculiar +shape was proved. All of the bulk of the creature was in two dimensions. +Forward it moved, and the horrible human hands stretched forward, while +the mouth split in a wide, toothless grin. Nearer the doomed steer the +creature approached, and then the reaching hands closed on the animal. + +There was a blinding flash, and the monster was hurled backward as +though struck by a thunderbolt, while a horrible smell of musk and +burned flesh filled the air. + +"After it! Quick!" cried the doctor as he sprang forward. + + * * * * * + +Before he could reach the prostrate creature it moved and then, slowly +at first, but with rapidly gaining speed, it slithered over the floor in +retreat. Dr. Bird's hand swung through an arc, and there was a deafening +crash as a hand-grenade exploded on the back of the fleeing monster. + +An unearthly scream came from the creature, and its motion changed from +a steady forward glide to a series of convulsive jerks. Leffingwell and +Carnes threw grenades, but they went wide of their mark, and the monster +began to again increase its speed. Another volley of grenades was thrown +and one hit scored, which slowed the monster somewhat but did not arrest +the steady forward movement. + +"Any more bombs?" demanded the doctor. + +"Damn!" he cried as he received negative answers. "The current wasn't +strong enough. It's going to get away." + +Carnes jerked his automatic from under his armpit and poured a stream of +bullets into the fleeing monster. Slower and slower the motion of the +creature became, and its movements again became jerky and convulsive. + +"Keep it in sight!" cried the doctor. "We may get it yet!" + +Cautiously the three men followed the retreating horror, Leffingwell +pushing before him the platform holding the ultra-violet ray apparatus. +The chase led them over familiar ground. + +"There is the crack!" cried the lieutenant. + +"Too late!" replied the doctor. + +He rushed forward and seized the lower limb of the monster and tried +with all his strength to arrest its flight, but despite all that he +could do it slid sideways through the crack in the wall and disappeared. +A final backward kick of its leg threw the doctor twenty feet against +the far wall of the cave. + +"Are you hurt, Doctor?" cried Carnes. + +"No, I'm all right. Put on your masks and start the gas! Quick! That may +stop it before it gets in far!" + + * * * * * + +The three adjusted gas masks and thrust the mouths of two gas cylinders +which were on the light truck into the crack, and opened the valves. The +hissing of the gas was accompanied by a thrashing, writhing sound from +the bowels of the earth for a few minutes, but the sound retreated and +finally died away into an utter silence. + +"And that's that!" cried the doctor half an hour later as they took off +their gas masks outside the cave. "It got away from us. Carnes, how soon +can we get a train back to Washington?" + +"What kind of a report are you going to make to the Bureau, Doctor?" +asked Carnes as they sat in the smoker of a southern train, headed for +the capital. + +"I'm not going to put in any report, Carnes," replied the doctor. "I +haven't got the creature or any part of it to show, and no one would +believe me. I am going to maintain a discreet silence about the whole +matter." + +"But you have your photograph to show, Doctor, and you have my evidence +and Lieutenant Leffingwell's." + +"The photograph might have been faked and I might have doped both of +you. In any case, your words are no better than mine. No, indeed, +Carnes, when I failed to make the current strong enough to kill it +outright I made the first of the moves which bind me to silence, +although I thought that two hundred thousand volts would be enough. + +"The second failure I made was when I missed him with my second grenade, +although I doubt if all six would have stopped him. My third failure was +when we failed to get a sufficient concentration of cyanide gas into +that hole in a hurry. The thing is so badly crippled that it will die, +but it may take hours, or even days, for it to do so. It has already +made its way so far into the earth that we couldn't reach it by blasting +without danger of bringing the whole place down on our heads. Even if we +could blast our way into the place it came from I wouldn't dare open a +path which would allow Lord only knows what terrible monsters to invade +the earth. When the soldiers have finished stopping that crack with ten +feet of solid masonry, I think the barrier will hold, even against that +critter's papa and mamma and all its relatives. Then Mammoth Cave will +be safe for visitors again. That latter fact is the only report which I +will make." + +"It is a dandy story to go to waste," said Carnes soberly. + +"Tell it then, if you wish, and get laughed at for your pains. No, +Carnes, you must learn one thing. A man like Bolton, for instance, will +implicitly believe that a four leaf clover in his watch-charm will bring +him good luck, and that carrying a buckeye keeps rheumatism away from +him; but tell him a bit of sober fact like this, attested by three +reliable witnesses and a good photograph, and you'll just get laughed at +for your pains. I'm going to keep my mouth shut." + +"So be it, then!" replied Carnes with a sigh. + + + + +Phantoms of Reality + +A COMPLETE NOVEL + +_By Ray Cummings_ + +[Illustration: _The office room faded.... I was lying on another +floor.... New walls sprang around me._] + +[Sidenote: Red Sensua's knife came up dripping--and the two adventurers +knew that chaos and bloody revolution had been unleashed in that shadowy +kingdom of the fourth dimension.] + + + + +CHAPTER I + +_Wall Street--or the Open Road?_ + + +When I was some fifteen years old, I once made the remark, "Why, that's +impossible." + +The man to whom I spoke was a scientist. He replied gently, "My boy, +when you are grown older and wiser you will realize that nothing is +impossible." + +Somehow, that statement stayed with me. In our swift-moving wonderful +world I have seen it proven many times. They once thought it impossible +to tell what lay across the broad, unknown Atlantic Ocean. They thought +the vault of the heavens revolved around the earth. It was impossible +for it to do anything else, because they could see it revolve. It was +impossible, too, for anything to be alive and yet be so small that one +might not see it. But the microscope proved the contrary. Or again, to +talk beyond the normal range of the human voice was impossible, until +the telephone came to show how simply and easily it might be done. + +I never forgot that physician's remark. And it was repeated to me some +ten years later by my friend, Captain Derek Mason, on that memorable +June night of 1929. + +My name is Charles Wilson. I was twenty-five that June of 1929. Although +I had lived all of my adult life in New York City, I had no relatives +there and few friends. + + * * * * * + +I had known Captain Mason for several years. Like myself, he seemed one +who walked alone in life. He was an English gentleman, perhaps thirty +years old. He had been stationed in the Bermudas, I understood, though +he seldom spoke of it. + +I always felt that I had never seen so attractive a figure of a man as +this Derek Mason. An English aristocrat, he was, straight and tall and +dark, and rather rakish, with a military swagger. He affected a small, +black mustache. A handsome, debonair fellow, with an easy grace of +manner: a modern d'Artagnan. In an earlier, less civilized age, he would +have been expert with sword and stick, I could not doubt. A man who +could capture the hearts of women with a look. He had always been to me +a romantic figure, and a mystery that seemed to shroud him made him no +less so. + +A friendship had sprung up between Derek Mason and me, perhaps because +we were such opposite types! I am an American, of medium height, and +medium build. Ruddy, with sandy hair. Derek Mason was as meticulous of +his clothes, his swagger uniforms, as the most perfect Beau Brummel. Not +so myself. I am careless of dress and speech. + +I had not seen Derek Mason for at least a month when, one June +afternoon, a note came from him. I went to his apartment at eight +o'clock the same evening. Even about his home there seemed a mystery. He +lived alone with one man servant. He had taken quarters in a high-class +bachelor apartment building near lower Fifth Avenue, at the edge of +Greenwich Village. + +All of which no doubt was rational enough, but in this building he had +chosen the lower apartment at the ground-floor level. It adjoined the +cellar. It was built for the janitor, but Derek had taken it and fixed +it up in luxurious fashion. Near it, in a corner of the cellar, he had +boarded off a square space into a room. I understood vaguely that it was +a chemical laboratory. He had never discussed it, nor had I ever been +shown inside it. Unusual, mysterious enough, and that a captain of the +British military should be an experimental scientist was even more +unusual. Yet I had always believed that for a year or two Derek had been +engaged in some sort of chemical or physical experiment. With all his +military swagger he had the precise, careful mode of thought +characteristic of the man of scientific mind. + + * * * * * + +I recall that when I got his note with its few sentences bidding me come +to see him, I had a premonition that it marked the beginning of +something strange. As though the portals of a mystery were opening to +me! + +Nothing is impossible! Nevertheless I record these events into which I +was plunged that June evening with a very natural reluctance. I expect +no credibility. If this were the year 2000, my narrative doubtless would +be tame enough. Yet in 1929 it can only be called a fantasy. Let it go +at that. The fantasy of to-day is the sober truth of to-morrow. And by +the day after, it is a mere platitude. Our world moves swiftly. + +Derek received me in his living-room. He admitted me himself. He told me +that his man servant was out. It was a small room, with leather-covered +easy chairs, rugs on its hardwood floor, and sober brown portieres at +its door and windows. A brown parchment shade shrouded the electrolier +on the table. It was the only light in the room. It cast its mellow +sheen upon Derek's lean graceful figure as he flung himself down and +produced cigarettes. + +He said, "Charlie, I want a little talk with you. I've something to tell +you--something to offer you." + +He held his lighter out to me, with its tiny blue alcohol flame under my +cigarette. And I saw that his hand was trembling. + + * * * * * + +"But I don't understand what you mean," I protested. + +He retorted, "I'm suggesting that you might be tired of being a clerk in +a brokerage office. Tired of this humdrum world that we call +civilization. Tired of Wall Street." + +"I am, Derek. Heavens, that's true enough." + +His eyes held me. He was smiling half whimsically: his voice was only +half serious. Yet I could see, in the smoldering depths of those +luminous dark eyes, a deadly seriousness that belied his smiling lips +and his gay tone. + +He interrupted me with, "And I offer you a chance for deeds of high +adventuring. The romance of danger, of pitting your wits against +villainy to make right triumph over wrong, and to win for yourself power +and riches--and perhaps a fair lady...." + +"Derek, you talk like a swashbuckler of the middle ages." + +I thought he would grin, but he turned suddenly solemn. + +"I'm offering to make you henchman to a king, Charlie." + +"King of what? Where?" + +He spread his lean brown hands with a gesture. He shrugged. "What +matter? If you seek adventure, you can find it--somewhere. If you feel +the lure of romance--it will come to you." + +I said, "Henchman to a king?" + +But still he would not smile. "Yes. If I were king. I'm serious. +Absolutely. In all this world there is no one who cares a damn about me. +Not in this world, but...." + +He checked himself. He went on, "You are the same. You have no +relatives?" + +"No. None that ever think of me." + +"Nor a sweetheart. Or have you?" + +"No," I smiled. "Not yet. Maybe never." + +"But you are too interested in Wall Street to leave it for the open +road?" He was sarcastic now. "Or do you fear deeds of daring? Do you +want to right a great wrong? Rescue an oppressed people, overturn the +tyranny of an evil monarch, and put your friend and the girl he loves +upon the throne? Or do you want to go down to work as usual in the +subway to-morrow morning? Are you afraid that in this process of +becoming henchman to a king you may perchance get killed?" + +I matched his caustic tone. "Let's hear it, Derek." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +_The Challenge of the Unknown_ + + +Incredible! Impossible! I did not say it, though my thoughts were +written on my face, no doubt. + +Derek said quietly, "Difficult to believe, Charlie? Yes! But it happens +to be true. The girl I love is not of this world, but she lives +nevertheless. I have seen her, talked with her. A slim little +thing--beautiful...." + +He sat staring. "This is nothing supernatural, Charlie. Only +the ignorant savages of our past called the unknown--the +unusual--supernatural. We know better now." + +I said, "This girl--" + +He gestured. "As I told you, I have for years been working on the theory +that there is another world, existing here in this same space with us. +The Fourth Dimension! Call it that it you like. I have found it, proved +its existence! And this girl--her name is Hope--lives in it. Let me tell +you about her and her people. Shall I?" + +My heart was pounding so that it almost smothered me. "Yes, Derek." + +"She lives here, in this Space we call New York City. She and her people +use this same Space at the same time that we use it. A different world +from ours, existing here now with us! Unseen by us. And we are unseen by +them! + +"A different form of matter, Charlie. As tangible to the people of the +other realm as we are to our own world. Humans like ourselves." + +He paused, but I could find no words to fill the gap. And presently he +went on: + +"Hope's world, co-existing here with us, is dependent upon us. They +speak what we call English. They shadow us." + +I murmured, "Phantoms of reality." + +"Yes. A world very like ours. But primitive, where ours is civilized." + + * * * * * + +He paused again. His eyes were staring past me as though he could see +through the walls of the cellar room into great reaches of the unknown. +What a strange mixture was this Derek Mason! What a strange compound of +the cold reality of the scientist and the fancy of the romantic dreamer! +Yet I wonder if that is not what science is. There is no romantic lover +gawping at the moon who could have more romance in his soul, or see in +the moonlit eyes of his loved one more romance than the scientist finds +in the wonders of his laboratory. + +Derek went on slowly: + +"A primitive world, primitive nation, primitive passions! As I see it +now, Charlie--as I know it to be--it seems as though perhaps Hope's +world is merely a replica of ours, stripped to the primitive. As though +it might be the naked soul of our modern New York, ourselves as we +really are, not as we pretend to be." + +He roused himself from his reverie. + +"Hope's nation is ruled by a king. An emperor, if you like. A monarch, +beset with the evils of luxury and ease, and wine and women. He is +surrounded by his nobles, the idle aristocracy, by virtue of their birth +proclaiming themselves of too fine a clay to work. The crimson nobles, +they are called. Because they affect crimson cloaks, and their beautiful +women, voluptuous, sex-mad, are wont to bedeck themselves in veils and +robes of crimson. + +"And there are workers, toilers they call them. Oppressed, down-trodden +toilers, with hate for the nobles and the king smoldering within them. +In France there was such a condition, and the bloody revolution came of +it. It exists here now. Hope was born in the ranks of these toilers, but +has risen by her grace and beauty to a position in the court of this +graceless monarch." + + * * * * * + +He leaped from his chair and began pacing the room. I sat silent, +staring at him. So strange a thing! Impossible? I could not say that. I +could only say, incredible to me. And as I framed the thought I knew its +incredibility was the very measure of my limited intelligence, my lack +of knowledge. The vast unknown of nature, so vast that everything which +was real to me, understandable to me, was a mere drop in the ocean of +the existing unknown. + +"Don't you understand me now?" Derek added vehemently. "I'm not talking +fantasy. Cold reality! I've found a way to transport myself--and +you--into this different state of matter, into this other world! I've +already made a test. I went there and stayed just for a few moments, a +night or so ago." + +It made my heart leap wildly. He went on:-- + +"There is chaos there. Smoldering revolution which at any time--to-night +perhaps--may burst into conflagration and destroy this wanton ruling +class." He laughed harshly. "In Hope's world the workers are a primitive, +ignorant people. Superstitious. Like the peons of Mexico, they're all +primed and ready to shout for any leader who sets himself up. My +chance--our chance--" + +He suddenly stopped his pacing and stood before me. "Don't you feel the +lure of it? The open road? 'The road is straight before me and the Red +Gods call for me!' I'm going, Charlie. Going to-night--and I want you to +go with me! Will you?" + +Would I go? The thing leaped like a menacing shadow risen solidly to +confront me. Would I go? + +Suddenly there was before me the face of a girl. White. Apprehensive. It +seemed almost pleading. A face beautiful, with a mouth of parted red +lips. A face framed in long, pale-golden hair with big staring blue +eyes. Wistful eyes, wan with starlight--eyes that seemed to plead. + +I thought, "Why, this is madness!" I was not seeing this face with my +eyes. There was nothing, no one here in the room with me but Derek. I +knew it. The shadows about us were empty. I was conjuring the face only +from Derek's words, making real that which existed only in my +imagination. + +Yet I knew that in another realm, with my thoughts now bridging the gap, +the girl was real. Would I go into the unknown? + +The quest of the unknown. The gauntlet of the unknown flung down now +before me, as it was flung down before the ancient explorers who picked +up its challenge and mounted the swaying decks of their little galleons +and said, "We'll go and see what lies off there in the unknown." + +That same lure was on me now. I heard my voice saying, "Why yes, I guess +I'll go, Derek." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +_Into the Unknown_ + + +We stood in the boarded room which was Derek's laboratory. Our +preparations had been simple: Derek had made them all in advance. There +was little left to do. The laboratory was a small room of board walls, +board ceiling and floor. Windowless, with a single door opening into the +cellar of the apartment house. + +Derek had locked the door after us as we entered. He said, "I have sent +my man servant away for a week. The people in the house here think I +have gone away on a vacation. No one will miss us, Charlie--not for a +time, anyway." + +No one would miss me, save my employers, and to them I would no doubt be +small loss. + +We had put out the light in Derek's apartment and locked it carefully +after us. This journey! I own that I was trembling, and frightened. Yet +a strange eagerness was on me. + +The cellar room was comfortably furnished. Rugs were on its floor. +Whatever apparatus of a research laboratory had been here was removed +now. But the evidence of it remained--Derek's long search for this +secret which now he was about to use. A row of board shelves at one +side of the room showed where bottles and chemical apparatus had stood. +A box of electrical tools and odds and ends of wire still lay discarded +in a corner of the room. There was a tank of running water, and gas +connections, where no doubt bunsen burners had been. + + * * * * * + +Derek produced his apparatus. I sat on a small low couch against the +wall and watched him as he stripped himself of his clothes. Around his +waist he adjusted a wide, flat, wire-woven belt. A small box was +fastened to it in the middle of the back--a wide, flat thing of metal, a +quarter of an inch thick, and curved to fit his body. It was a storage +battery of the vibratory current he was using. From the battery, tiny +threads of wire ran up his back to a wire necklace flat against his +throat. Other wires extended down his arms to the wrists. Still others +down his legs to the ankles. A flat electrode was connected to the top +of his head like a helmet. I was reminded as he stood there, of medical +charts of the human body with the arterial system outlined. But when he +dressed again and put on his jaunty captain's uniform, only the +electrode clamped to his head and the thin wires dangling from it in the +back were visible to disclose that there was anything unusual about him. + +He said smilingly, "Don't stare at me like that." + +I took a grip on myself. This thing was frightening, now that I actually +was embarked on it. Derek had explained to me briefly the workings of +his apparatus. A vibratory electronic current, for which as yet he had +no name, was stored in the small battery. He had said: + +"There's nothing incomprehensible about this, Charlie. It's merely a +changing of the vibration rate of the basic substance out of which our +bodies are made. Vibration is the governing factor of all states of +matter. In its essence what we call substance is wholly intangible. That +is already proven. A vortex! A whirlpool of nothingness! It creates a +pseudo-substance which is the only material in the universe. And from +this, by vibration, is built the complicated structure of things as we +see and feel them to be, all dependent upon vibration. Everything is +altered, directly as the vibratory rate is changed. From the most +tenuous gas, to fluids to solids--throughout all the different states of +matter the only fundamental difference is the rate of vibration." + + * * * * * + +I understood the basic principle of this that he was explaining--that +now when this electronic current which he had captured and controlled +was applied to our physical body, the vibration rate of every smallest +and most minute particle of our physical being was altered. There is so +little in the vast scale of natural phenomena of which our human senses +are cognisant! Our eyes see the colors of the spectrum, from red to +violet. But a vast invisible world of color lies below the red of the +rainbow! Physicists call it the infra-red. And beyond the violet, +another realm--the ultra-violet. With sound it is the same. Our audible +range of sound is very small. There are sounds with too slow a vibratory +rate for us to hear, and others too rapid. The differing vibratory rate +from most tenuous gas to most substantial solid is all that we can +perceive in this physical world of ours. Yet of the whole, it is so very +little! This other realm to which we were now going lay in the higher, +more rapid vibratory scale. To us, by comparison, a more tenuous world, +a shadow realm. + +I listened to Derek's words, but my mind was on the practicality of what +lay ahead. An explorer, standing upon his ship, may watch his men +bending the sails, raising the anchor, but his mind flings out to the +journey's end.... + + * * * * * + +We were soon ready. Derek wore his jaunty uniform, I wore my ordinary +business suit. A magnetic field would be about us, so that in the +transition anything in fairly close contact with our bodies was affected +by the current. + +Derek said, "I will go first, Charlie." + +"But, Derek--" A fear, greater than the trembling I had felt before, +leaped at me. Left here alone, with no one on whom to depend! + +He spoke with careful casualness, but his eyes were burning me. "Just +sit there, and watch. When I am gone, turn on the current as I showed +you and come after me. I'll wait for you." + +"Where?" I stammered. + +He smiled faintly. "Here. Right here. I'm not going away! Not going to +move. I'll be here on the couch waiting for you." + +Terrifying words! He had lowered the couch, bending out its short legs +until the frame of it rested on the board floor. He drew a chair up +before it and seated me. He sat down on the couch. + +He said, "Oh, one other thing. Just before you start, put out the light. +We can't tell how long it will be before we return." + +Terrifying words! + +His right hand was on his left wrist where the tiny switch was placed. +He smiled again. "Good luck to us, Charlie!" + +Good luck to us! The open road, the unknown! + +I sat there staring. He was partly in shadow. The room was very silent. +Derek lay propped up on one elbow. His hand threw the tiny switch. + +There was a breathless moment. Derek's face was set and white, but no +whiter than my own, I was sure. His eyes were fixed on me. I saw him +suddenly quiver and twitch a little. + +I murmured, "Derek--" + +At once he spoke, to reassure me. "I'm all right, Charlie. That was just +the first feel of it." + + * * * * * + +There was a faint quivering throb in the room, like a tiny distant +dynamo throbbing. The current was surging over Derek; his legs +twitched. + +A moment. The faint throbbing intensified. No louder, but rapid, +infinitely more rapid. A tiny throb, an aerial whine, faint as the +whirring wings of a humming bird. It went up the scale, ascending in +pitch, until presently it was screaming with an aerial microscopic +voice. + +But there seemed no change in Derek. His uniform was glowing a trifle, +that was all. His face was composed now; he smiled, but did not speak. +His eyes roved away from me, as though now he were seeing things that I +could not see. + +Another moment. No change. + +Why, what was this? I blinked, gasped. There was a change! My gaze was +fastened upon Derek's white face. White? It was more than white now! A +silver sheen seemed to be coming to his skin! + +I think no more than a minute had passed. His face was glowing, +shimmering. A transparent look was coming to it, a thinness, a sudden +unsubstantiality! He dropped his elbow and lay on the couch, stretched +at full length at my feet. His eyes were staring. + +And suddenly I realized that the face that held those staring eyes was +erased! A shimmering apparition of Derek was stretched here before me. I +could see through it now! Beneath the shimmering, blurred outlines of +his body I could see the solid folds of the couch cover. A ghost of +Derek here. An apparition--fading--dissipating! + +A gossamer outline of him, imponderable, intangible. + +I leaped to my feet, staring down over him. + +"Derek!" + +The shape of him did not move. Every instant it was more vaporous, more +unreal. + +I thought, "He's gone!" + +No! He was still there. A white mist of his form on the couch. Melting, +dissipating in the light like a fog before sunshine. A wisp of it left, +like a breath, and then there was nothing. + + * * * * * + +I sat on the couch. I had put out the light. Around me the room was +black. My fingers found the small switch at my wrist. I pressed it +across its tiny arc. + +The first shock was slight, but infinitely strange. A shuddering, +twitching sensation ran all over me. It made my head reel, swept a wave +of nausea over me, a giddiness, a feeling that I was falling through +darkness. I lay on the couch, bracing myself. The current was whining up +its tiny scale. I could feel it now. A tiny throbbing, communicating +itself to my physical being. + +And then in a moment I realized that my body was throbbing. The +vibration of the current was communicating itself to the most minute +cells of my body. An indescribable tiny quivering within me. Strange, +frightening, sickening at first. But the sickness passed, and in a +moment I found it almost pleasant. + +I could see nothing. The room was wholly dark. I lay on my side on the +couch, my eyes staring into the blackness around me. I could hear the +humming of the current, and then it seemed to fade. Abruptly I felt a +sense of lightness. My body, lying on the couch, pressed less heavily. + +I gripped my arm. I was solid, substantial as before. I touched the +couch. It was the couch which was changing, not I! The couch cover +queerly seemed to melt under my hand! + +The sense of my own lightness grew upon me. A lightness, a freedom, +pressed me, as though chains and shackles which all my life had +encompassed me were falling away. A wild, queer freedom. + +I wondered where Derek was. Had I arrived in the other realm? Was he +here? I had no idea how much time had passed: a minute or two, perhaps. + +Or was I still in Derek's laboratory? The darkness was as solid, +impenetrable as ever. No, not quite dark! I saw something now. A +glowing, misty outline around me. Then I saw that it was not the new, +unknown realm, but still Derek's room. A shadowy, spectral room, and the +light, which dimly illumined it, was from outside. + + * * * * * + +I lay puzzling, my own situation forgotten for the moment. The light +came from overhead, in another room of the apartment house. I stared. +Around me now was a dim vista of distance, and vague, blurred, misty +outlines of the apartment building above me. The shadowy world I had +left now lay bare. There was a moment when I thought I could see far +away across a spectral city street. The shadows of the great city were +around me. They glowed, and then were gone. + +A hand gripped my arm in a solid grip. Derek's voice sounded. + +"Are you all right?" + +"Yes," I murmured. The couch had faded. I was conscious that I had +floated or drifted down a few inches, to a new level. The level of the +cellar floor beneath the couch. Cellar floor! It was not that now. Yet +there was something solid here, a solid ground, and I was lying upon it, +with Derek sitting beside me. + +I murmured again, "Yes, I'm all right." + +My groping hand felt the ground. It was soil, with a growth of +vegetation like a grass sward on it. Were we outdoors? It suddenly +seemed so. I could feel soft, warm air on my face and had a sense of +open distance around me. A light was growing, a vague, diffused light, +as though day were swiftly coming upon us. + +I felt Derek fumbling at my wrist. "That's all, Charlie." + +There was a slight shock. Derek was pulling me up beside him. I found +myself on my feet, with light around me. I stood wavering, gripping +Derek. It was as though I had closed my eyes, and now they were suddenly +open. I was aware of daylight, color, and movement. A world of normality +here, normal to me now because I was part of it. The realm of the +unknown! + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +_"Hope, I Came...."_ + + +I think I was first conscious of a queer calmness which had settled upon +me, as though now I had withdrawn contact with the turmoil of our world! +Something was gone, and in its place came a calmness. But that was a +mere transition. It had passed in a moment. I stood trembling with +eagerness, as I know Derek was trembling. + +A radiant effulgence of light was around us, clarifying, growing. There +was ground beneath our feet, and sky overhead. A rational landscape, +strangely familiar. A physical world like my own, but, it seemed, with a +new glory upon it. Nature, calmly serene. + +I had thought we were standing in daylight. I saw now it was bright +starlight. An evening, such as the evening we had just left in our own +world. The starlight showed everything clearly. I could see a fair +distance. + +We stood at the top of a slight rise. I saw gentle, slightly undulating +country. A brook nearby wound through a grove of trees and lost itself. +Suddenly, with a shock, I realized how familiar this was! We stood +facing what in New York City we call West. The contour of this land was +familiar enough for me to identify it. A mile or so ahead lay a river; +it shimmered in its valley, with cliffs on its further side. Near at +hand the open country was dotted with trees and checkered with round +patches of cultivated fields. And there were occasional habitations, +low, oval houses of green thatch. + +The faint flush of a recent sunset lay upon the landscape, mingled with +the starlight. A road--a white ribbon in the starlight--wound over the +countryside toward the river. Animals, strange of aspect, were slowly +dragging carts. There were distant figures working in the fields. + +A city lay ahead of us, set along this nearer bank of the river. A city! +It seemed a primitive village. All was primitive, as though here might +be some lost Indian tribe of our early ages. The people were +picturesque, the field workers garbed in vivid colors. The flat little +carts, slow moving, with broad-horned oxen. + + * * * * * + +This quiet village, drowsing beside the calm-flowing river, seemed all +very normal. I could fancy that it was just after sundown of a quiet +workday. There was a faint flush of pink upon everything: the glory of +the sun just set. And as though to further my fancy, in the village by +the river, like an angelus, a faint-toned bell was chiming. + +We stood for a moment gazing silently. I felt wholly normal. A warm, +pleasant wind fanned my hot face. The sense of lightness was gone. This +was normality to me. + +Derek murmured, "Hope was to meet me here." + +And then we both saw her. She was coming toward us along the road. A +slight, girlish figure, clothed in queerly vivid garments: a short +jacket of blue cloth with wide-flowing sleeves, knee-length pantaloons +of red, with tassels dangling from them, and a wide red sash about her +waist. Pale golden hair was piled in a coil upon her head.... + +She was coming toward us along the edge of the road, from the direction +of the city. She was only a few hundred feet from us when we first saw +her, coming swiftly, furtively it seemed. A low pike fence bordered the +road. She seemed to be shielding herself in the shadows beside it. + +We stood waiting in the starlight. The nearest figures in the field and +on the road were too far away to notice us. The girl advanced. Her white +arm went up in a gesture, and Derek answered. She left the road, +crossing the field toward us. As she came closer, I saw how very +beautiful she was. A girl of eighteen, perhaps, a fantastic little +figure with her vivid garments. The starlight illumined her white face, +anxious, apprehensive, but eager. + +"Derek!" + +He said, "Hope, I came...." + +I stood silently watching. Derek's arms went out, and the girl, with a +little cry, came running forward and threw herself into them. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +_Intrigue_ + + +"Am I in time, Hope?" + +"Yes, but the festival is to-night. In an hour or two now. Oh Derek, if +the king holds this festival, the toilers will revolt. They won't stand +it--" + +"To-night! It mustn't be held to-night! It doesn't give me time, time to +plan." + +I stood listening to their vehement, half-whispered words. For a moment +or two, absorbed, they ignored me. + +"The king will make his choice to-night, Derek. He has announced it. +Blanca or Sensua for his queen. And if he chooses the Crimson Sensua--" +She stammered, then she went on: + +"If he does--there will be bloodshed. The toilers are waiting, just to +learn his choice." + +Derek exclaimed, "But to-night is too soon! I've got to plan. Hope, +where does Rohbar stand in this?" + +Strange intrigue! I pieced it together now, from their words, and from +what presently they briefly told me. A festival was about to be held, an +orgy of feasting and merrymaking, of music and dancing. And during it, +this young King Leonto was to choose his queen. There were two +possibilities. The Crimson Sensua, a profligate, debauched woman who, as +queen, would further oppress the workers. And Blanca, a white beauty, +risen from the toilers to be a favorite at the Court. Hope was her +handmaiden. + +If Blanca were chosen, the toilers would be appeased. She was one of +them. She would lead this king from his profligate ways, would win from +him justice for the workers. + +But Derek and Hope both knew that the pure and gentle Blanca would +never be the king's choice. And to-night the toilers would definitely +know it, and the smoldering revolt would burst into flame. + + * * * * * + +And there was this Rohbar. Derek said, "He is the king's henchman, +Charlie." + +I stood here in the starlight, listening to them. This strange primitive +realm. There were no modern weapons here. We had brought none. The +current used in our transition would have exploded the cartridges of a +revolver. I had a dirk which Hope now gave me, and that was all. + +Primitive intrigue. I envisaged this chaotic nation, with its toilers +ignorant as the oppressed Mexican peons at their worst. Striving to +better themselves, yet, not knowing how. Ready to shout for any leader +who might with vainglorious words set himself up as a patriot. + +This Rohbar, perhaps, was planning to do just that. + +And so was Derek! He said, "Hope, if you could persuade the king to +postpone the festival--if Blanca would help persuade him--just until +to-morrow night...." + +"I can try, Derek. But the festival is planned for an hour or two from +now." + +"Where is the king?" + +"In his palace, near the festival gardens." + +She gestured to the south. My mind went back to New York City. This +hillock, where we were standing in the starlight beside a tree, was in +my world about Fifth Avenue and Sixteenth Street. The king's palace--the +festival gardens--stood down at the Battery, where the rivers met in the +broad water of the harbor. + + * * * * * + +Derek was saying, "We haven't much time: can you get us to the palace?" + +"Yes. I have a cart down there on the road." + +"And the cloaks for Charlie and me?" + +"Yes." + +"Good!" said Derek. "We'll go with you. It's a long chance; he probably +won't postpone it. If he does not, we'll be among the audience. And when +he chooses the Red Sensua--" + +She shuddered, "Oh, Derek--" And I thought I heard her whisper, "Oh, +Alexandre--" and I saw his finger go to his lips. + +His arm went around her. She huddled, small as a child against his tall, +muscular body. + +He said gently, "Don't be afraid, little Hope." + +His face was grim, his eyes were gleaming. I saw him suddenly as an +instinctive military adventurer. An anachronism in our modern New York +City. Born in a wrong age. But here in this primitive realm he was at +home. + +I plucked at him. "How can you--how can we dare plunge into this thing? +Hidden with cloaks, yes. But you talk of leading these toilers." + +He cast Hope away and confronted me. "I can do it! You'll see, Charlie." +He was very strangely smiling. "You'll see. But I don't want to come +into the open right away. Not to-night. But if we can only postpone this +accursed festival." + +We had been talking perhaps five minutes. We were ready now to start +away. Derek said: + +"Whatever comes, Charlie, I want you to take care of Hope. Guard her for +me, will you?" + +I said, "Yes, I will try to." + +Hope smiled as she held out her hand to me. "I will not be afraid, with +Derek's friend." + + * * * * * + +Her English was of different intonation from our own, but it was her +native language, I could not doubt. + +I took her cold, slightly trembling hand. "Thank you, Hope." + +Her eyes were misty with starlight. Tender eyes, but the tenderness was +not for me. + +"Yes," I repeated. "You can depend upon me, Derek." + +We left the hillock. A food-laden cart came along the road. The driver, +a boy vivid in jacket and wide trousers of red and blue, bravely worn +but tattered, ran alongside guiding the oxen. When they had passed we +followed, and presently we came to the cloaks Hope had hidden. Derek and +I donned them. They were long crimson cloaks with hoods. + +Hope said, "Many are gathering for the festival shrouded like that. You +will not be noticed now." + +Further along the road we reached a little eminence. I saw the river +ahead of us, and a river behind us. And a few miles to the south, an +open spread of water where the rivers joined. Familiar contours! The +Hudson River! The East River. And down at the end of the island, New +York Harbor. + +Hope gestured that way. "The king's palace is there." + +We were soon passing occasional houses, primitive thatched dwellings. I +saw inside one. Workers were seated over their frugal evening meal. +Always the same vivid garments, jaunty but tattered. We passed one old +fellow in a field, working late in the starlight. A man bent with age, +but still a tiller of the soil. Hope waved to him and he responded, but +the look he gave us as we hurried by shrouded in our crimson cloaks was +sullenly hostile. + +We came to an open cart. It stood by the roadside. An ox with shaggy +coat and spreading horns was fastened to the fence. It was a small cart +with small rollers like wheels. Seats were in it and a vivid canopy over +it. We climbed in and rumbled away. + + * * * * * + +And this starlit road in our own world was Broadway! We were presently +passing close to the river's edge. This quiet, peaceful, starlit river! +Why, in our world it was massed with docks! Great ocean liners, huge +funneled, with storied decks lay here! Under this river, tunnels with +endless passing vehicles! Tubes, with speeding trains crowded with +people! + +The reality here was so different! Behind us what seemed an upper city +was strung along the river. Ahead of us also there were streets and +houses, the city of the workers. A bell was tolling. Along all the roads +now we could see the moving yellow spots of lights on the holiday carts +headed for the festival. And there were spots of yellow torchlight from +boats on the river. + +We soon were entering the city streets. Narrow dirt streets they were, +with primitive shacks to the sides. Women came to the doorways to stare +at our little cart rumbling hastily past. I was conscious of my crimson +cloak, and conscious of the sullen glances of hate which were flung at +it from every side, here in this squalid, forlorn section where the +workers lived. + +Along every street now the carts were passing, converging to the south. +They were filled, most of them, with young men and girls, all in gaudy +costumes. Some of them, like ourselves, were shrouded in crimson cloaks. +The carts occasionally were piled with flowers. As one larger than us, +and moving faster rumbled by, a girl in it stood up and pelted me with +blossoms. She wore a crimson robe, but it had fallen from her shoulders. +I caught a glimpse of her face, framed in flowing dark hair, and of eyes +with laughter in them, mocking me, alluring. + +We came at last to the end of the island. There seemed to be a thousand +or more people arriving, or here already. The tip of the island had an +esplanade with a broad canopy behind it. Burning torches of wood gave +flames of yellow, red and blue fire. A throng of gay young people +promenaded the walk, watching the arriving boats. + + * * * * * + +And here, behind the walk at the water's edge, was a garden of trees and +lawn, shrubs and beds of tall vivid flowers. Nooks were here to shelter +lovers, pools of water glinted red and green with the reflected +torchlight. In one of the pools I saw a group of girls bathing, +sportive as dolphins. + +To one side at a little distance up the river, banked against the water, +was a broad, low building: the palace of the king. About it were broad +gardens, with shrubs and flowers. The whole was surrounded by a high +metal fence, spiked on top. + +The main gate was near at hand; we left our cart. Close to the gate was +a guard standing alert, a jaunty fellow in leather pantaloons and +leather jacket, with a spiked helmet, and in his hand a huge, +sharp-pointed lance. The gardens of the palace, what we could see of +them, seemed empty--none but the favored few might enter here. But as I +climbed from the cart, I got the impression that just inside the fence a +figure was lurking. It started away as we approached the gate. The guard +had not seen it--the drab figure of a man in what seemed to be dripping +garments, as though perhaps he had swum in from the water. + +And Derek saw him. He muttered, "They are everywhere." + +Hope led us to the gate. The guard recognized her. At her imperious +gesture he stood aside. We passed within. I saw the palace now as a long +winged structure of timber and stone, with a high tower at the end of +one wing. The building fronted the river, but here on the garden side +there was a broad doorway up an incline, twenty feet up and over a small +bridge, spanning what seemed a dry moat. Beyond it, a small platform, +then an oval archway, the main entrance to the building. + +Derek and I, shrouded in our crimson cloaks with hoods covering us to +the eyes, followed Hope into the palace. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +_The King's Henchman_ + + +The long room was bathed in colored lights. There was an ornate tiled +floor. Barbaric draperies of heavy fabric shrouded the archways and +windows. It was a totally barbaric apartment. It might have been the +audience chamber of some fabled Eastern Prince of our early ages. Yet +not quite that either. There was a primitive modernity here. I could not +define it, could not tell why I felt this strangeness. Perhaps it was +the aspect of the people. The room was crowded with men and gay laughing +girls in fancy dress costumes. Half of them at least were shrouded in +crimson cloaks, but most of the hoods were back. They moved about, +laughing and talking, evidently waiting for the time to come for them to +go to the festival. We pushed our way through them. + +Derek murmured, "Keep your hood up, Charlie." + +A girl plucked at me. "Handsome man, let me see." She thrust her painted +lips up to mine as though daring me to kiss them. Hope shoved her away. +Her parted cloak showed her white, beautiful body with the dark tresses +of her hair shrouding it. Exotically lovely she was, with primitive, +unrestrained passions--typical of the land in which she lived. + +"This way," whispered Hope. "Keep close together. Do not speak!" + +We moved forward and stood quietly against the wall of the room, where +great curtains hid us partly from view. Under a canopy, at a table on a +raised platform near one end of the apartment, sat the youthful monarch. +I saw him as a man of perhaps thirty. He was in holiday garb, robed in +silken hose of red and white, a strangely fashioned doublet, and a +close-fitting shirt. Bare-headed, with thick black hair, long to the +base of his neck. + +He sat at the table with a calm dignity. But he relaxed here in the +presence of his favored courtiers. He was evidently in a high good humor +this night, giving directions for the staging of the spectacle, +despatching messengers. I stood gazing at him. A very kingly fellow +this. There was about him, that strange mingled look of barbarism and +modernity. + + * * * * * + +Hope approached him and knelt. Derek and I could hear their voices, +although the babble of the crowd went on. + +"My little Hope, what is it? Stand up, child." + +She said, "Your Highness, a message from Blanca." + +He laughed. "Say no more! I know it already! She does not want this +festival. The workers,"--what a world of sardonic contempt he put into +that one word!--"the workers will be offended because we take pleasure +to-night. Bah!" But he was still laughing. "Say no more, little Hope. +Tell Blanca to dance and sing her best this night. I am making my +choice. Did you know that?" + +Hope was silent. He repeated, "Did you know that?" + +"Yes, Your Highness," she murmured. + +"I choose our queen to-night, child. Blanca or Sensua." He sighed. "Both +are very beautiful. Do you know which one I am going to choose?" + +"No," she said. + +"Nor do I, little Hope. Nor do I." + +He dismissed her. "Go now. Don't bother me." + +She parted her lips as though to make another protest, but his eyes +suddenly flashed. + +"I would not have you annoy me again. Do you understand?" + +She turned away, back toward where Derek and I were lurking. The +chattering crowd in the room had paid no attention to Hope, but before +she could reach us a man detached himself from a nearby group and +accosted her. A commanding figure, he was, I think, quite the largest +man in the room. An inch or two taller than Derek, at the least. He wore +his red cloak with the hood thrown back upon his wide heavy shoulders. A +bullet-head with close-clipped black hair. A man of about the king's +age, he had a face of heavy features, and flashing dark eyes. A +scoundrel adventurer, this king's henchman. + +Hope said, "What is it, Rohbar?" + +"You will join our party, little Hope?" He laid a heavy hand on her +white arm. His face was turned toward me. I could not miss the gleaming +look in his eyes as he regarded her. + +"No," she said. + + * * * * * + +It seemed that he twitched at her, but she broke away from him. + +Anger crossed his face, but the desirous look in his eyes remained. + +"You are very bold, Hope, to spurn me like this." He had lowered his +voice as though fearful that the king might hear him. + +"Let me alone!" she said. + +She darted away from him, but before she joined us she stood waiting +until he turned away. + +"No use," Hope whispered. "There is nothing we can do here. You heard +what the king said--and the festival is already begun." + +Derek stood a moment, lost in thought. He was gazing across the room to +where Rohbar was standing with a group of girls. He said at last: + +"Come on, Charlie. We'll watch this festival. This damn fool king will +choose the Red Sensua." He shrugged. "There will be chaos...." + +We shoved our way from the room, went out of the main doorway and +hurried through the gardens of the palace. The red-cloaked figures were +leaving the building now for the festival grounds. We waited for a group +of them to pass so that we might walk alone. As we neared the gate, +passing through the shadows of high flowered shrubs, a vague feeling +that we were being followed shot through me. In a moment there was so +much to see that I forgot it, but I held my hand on my dirk and moved +closer to Hope. + +We reached the entrance to the canopy. A group of girls, red-cloaked, +were just coming out. They rushed past us. They ran, discarding their +cloaks. Their white bodies gleamed under the colored lights as they +rushed to the pool and dove. + +We were just in time. Hope whispered, "The king will be here any +moment." + + * * * * * + +Beneath the canopy was a broad arena of seats. A platform, like a stage, +was at one end. It was brilliantly illuminated with colored torches held +aloft by girls in flowing robes, each standing like a statue with her +light held high. The place was crowded. In the gloom of the darkened +auditorium we found seats off to one side, near the open edge of the +canopy. We sat, with Hope between us. + +Derek whispered, "Shakespeare might have staged a play in a fashion like +this." + +A primitive theatrical performance. There was no curtain for interlude +between what might have been the acts of a vaudeville. The torch girls, +like pages, ranged themselves in a line across the front of the stage. +They were standing there as we took our seats. The vivid glare of their +torches concealed the stage behind them. + +There was a few moments wait, then, amid hushed silence, the king with +his retinue came in. He sat in a canopied box off to one side. When he +was seated, he raised his arm and the buzz of conversation in the +audience began again. + +Presently the page girls moved aside from the stage. The buzz of the +audience was stilted. The performance, destined to end so soon in +tragedy, now began. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +_The Crimson Murderess_ + + +Hope murmured. "The three-part music comes first. There will first be +the spiritual." + +An orchestra was seated on the stage in a semi-circle. It was composed +of men and women musicians, and there seemed to be over a hundred of +them. They sat in three groups; the center group was about to play. In a +solemn hush the leaderless choirs, with all its players garbed in +white, began its first faint note. I craned to get a clear view of the +stage. This white choir seemed almost all wood-wind. There were tiny +pipes in little series such as Pan might have used. Flutes, and +flageolets; and round-bellied little instruments of clay, like ocarinas. +And pitch-pipes, long and slender as a marsh reed. + +In a moment I was lost in the music. It began softly, with single muted +notes from a single instrument, echoed by the others, running about the +choir like a will-o'-the-wisp. It was faint, as though very far away, +made more sweet by distance. And then it swelled, came nearer. + +I had never heard such music as this. Primitive! It was not that. Nor +barbaric! Nothing like the music of our ancient world. Nor was it what I +might conceive to be the music of our future. A thing apart, unworldly, +ethereal. It swept me, carried me off; it was an exaltation of the +spirit lifting me. It was triumphant now. It surged, but there was in +its rhythm, the beat of its every instrument, nothing but the soul of +purity. And then it shimmered into distance again, faint and exquisite +music of a dream. Crooning, pleading, the speech of whispering angels. + +It ceased. There was a storm of applause. + +I breathed again. Why, this was what music might be in our world but was +not. I thought of our blaring jazz. + +Hope said, "Now they play the physical music. Then Sensua will dance +with Blanca. We will see then which one the king chooses." + + * * * * * + +On the stage all the torches were extinguished save those which were +red. The arena was darker than before. The stage was bathed with a deep +crimson. Music of the physical senses! It was, indeed, no more like the +other choir than is the body to the spirit. + +There were stringed instruments playing now; deep-toned, singing +zithers, and instruments of rounded, swelling bodies, like great viols +with sensuous, throbbing voices. Music with a swift rhythm, marked by +the thump of hollow gourds. It rose with its voluptuous swell into a +paean of abandonment, and upon the tide of it, the crimson Sensua flung +herself upon the stage. She stood motionless for a moment that all might +regard her. The crimson torchlight bathed her, stained crimson the white +flush of her limbs, her heavy shoulders, her full, rounded throat. + +A woman in her late twenties. Voluptuous of figure, with crimson veils +half-hiding, half-revealing it. A face of coarse, sensuous beauty. A +face wholly evil, and it seemed to me wholly debauched. Dark eyes with +beaded lashes. Heavy lips painted scarlet. A pagan woman of the streets. +One might have encountered such a woman swaggering in some ancient +street of some ancient city, flaunting the finery given her by a rich +and profligate eastern prince. + +She stood a moment with smoldering, passion-filled eyes, gazing from +beneath her lowered lids. Her glance went to the king's canopy, and +flashed a look of confidence, of triumph. The king answered it with a +smile. He leaned forward over his railing, watching her intently. + +With the surge of the music she moved into her dance. Slowly she began, +quite slowly. A posturing and swaying of hips like a nautch girl. She +made the rounds of the musicians, leering at them. She stood in the +whirl of the music, almost ignoring it, stood at the front of the stage +with a gaze of slumberous, insolent passion flung at the king. A knife +was in her hand now. She held it aloft. The red torchlight caught its +naked blade. With shuddering fancy I seemed to see it dripping crimson. +She frowned, and struck it at a phantom lover. She backed away. She +stooped and knelt. She knelt and seemed with her empty arms to be +caressing a murdered lover's head. She kissed him, rained upon his dead +lips her macabre kisses. + +And then she was up on her bare feet, again circling the stage. Her +anklets clanked as she moved with the tread of a tigress. The musicians +shrank from her waving blade. + + * * * * * + +A girl in white veils was suddenly disclosed standing at the back of the +stage. + +Derek whispered, "Is that Blanca?" + +"Yes," whispered Hope. + +Blanca stood watching her rival. The crimson Sensua passed her, took her +suddenly by the wrist, drew her forward. For an instant I thought it +might have been rehearsed. I saw Blanca as a slim, gentle girl in white, +with a white head-dress. A dancer who could symbolize purity, now in the +grip of red passion. + +An instant, and then horror struck us. And I could feel it surge over +the audience. A gasp of horror. The frightened girl in white tried to +escape. The musicians wavered and broke. I stared, stricken, with +freezing blood. Upon the stage the knife went swiftly up; it came down; +then up again. The red Sensua stood gloating. The knife she waved aloft +was truly dripping crimson now. + +With a choked, gasping scream the white girl of the toilers crumpled and +fell.... She lay motionless, at the feet of the crimson murderess. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +_"Why, This Is Treason!"_ + + +There was a gasp. The audience sat frozen. On the stage, with no one +lifting a hand to stop her, the crimson murderess made a leap and +vanished. A moment, and then the spell broke. A girl in the audience +screamed. Some one moved to stand up and overturned a seat with a crash. + +The amphitheater under the canopy broke into a pandemonium. Screams and +shouts, crashing of seats, screaming, frightened people struggling to +get out of the darkness. The torches on the stage were dropped and +extinguished. The darkness leaped upon us. + +Derek and I were gripping Hope. We were struck by a bench flung backward +from in front. People were rushing at us. We were swept along in the +panic of the crowd. + +I heard Derek shout, "We must keep together!" + +We fought, but we were swept backward. We found ourselves outside the +canopy. Torchlight was here. It glimmered on the pool of water. People +were everywhere rushing past us, some one way, some another. Aimless, +with the shock of terror upon them. Under the canopy they were still +screaming. + +I was momentarily separated from Derek and Hope. I very nearly stumbled +into the pool. A girl was here, crouched on the stone bank. Her wet +crimson veils clung to her white body. Her long, wet hair lay on her. I +stumbled against her. She raised her face. Eyes, wide with terror. Mute, +painted red lips.... + +I heard Derek calling again, "Charlie!" I shoved my way back to him. The +crowd was thinning out around us. Girls were climbing from the pool, +rushing off in terror, to mingle with the milling throng. Among the +crowd now, down by the edge of the bay, I saw the sinister figures of +men come running. The toilers, miraculously appearing everywhere! I saw, +across the pool, a terrified girl crouching. A huge man in a black cloak +came leaping. The colored lights in the trees glittered on his upraised +knife blade as it descended. The girl fell with a shuddering scream. The +murderer turned and whirled away into the crowd. + +"Charlie!" + +I was back with Derek and Hope. Hope stood trembling, with her hand +pressed against her mouth. Derek gripped me. + +"That cloak, get it off!" He ripped his crimson cloak from him and +tossed it away. He jerked mine off. "Too dangerous! That's the crimson +badge of death to-night." + +We stood revealed in the clothes of our own world. My business suit, in +which that day I had worked in Wall Street. Derek in his swagger +uniform. He stood drawn to his full height, a powerful figure. The wires +of our mechanism showed at his wrists. They dangled at the back of his +neck, mounting to that strangely fashioned electrode clamped to his +head. Strange, awe-inspiring figure of a man! + +We were momentarily alone under the colored lights of the trees. Hope +murmured, "But they will see us--see you...." + +Derek's face was grim, but at her words he laughed harshly. "See us! +What matter?" He swung on me. "It forces our hand; we've got to come out +in the open now! This murder--this king! My God, what a fool to let +himself get into such a condition as this! His people--this chaos--what +a fool!" + +He had drawn his dirk. I realized that I was holding mine. Near us the +body of a crimson noble was lying under a tree. A sword was there on the +ground. Derek sprang for it, waved it aloft. + +I think that no more than a minute or two had passed since the murder. +Down by the water the boats were hastily loading and leaving the dock. +One of them overturned. There were screams everywhere. Red forms lay +inert upon the ground where they had been trampled, or stabbed. But the +prowling figures of the toilers now seemed to have vanished. + +Derek gestured. "Look at the palace! The garden!" + +Beyond the canopy I could see the dim gardens surrounding the palace. I +glimpsed the high fence, and the gateway in front. A mob of toilers was +there. The guard at the gate had fled. The mob was surging through. Men +and women in the vivid garments of the fields, armed with sticks and +clubs and stones and the implements of agriculture. They milled at the +gate; rushed through; scattered over the garden. Their shouts floated +back to us in a blended murmur. + +We were standing only a dozen feet from the edge of the pavilion. No one +seemed yet to have noticed us. A few straggling lights had come on under +the canopy. I could see the dead lying there in the wreckage of +overturned seats. + +Derek said, "We can't help it--it's done. Look at them! They're +attacking the palace!" + +This mob springing miraculously into existence! I realized that the +toilers had planned that if Sensua were chosen they would attack the +festival. The murder of Blanca had come as big a surprise to them as to +us.... + +"Come on! Can you get into the palace, Hope? The king must have gotten +back there. Get your wits, girl!" Derek stood gripping her, shaking her. + +"Yea, there's an underground passage. He probably went that way." + +From the palace gardens the shouts of the mob sounded louder now. And +from within the building there was an alarm bell tumultuously clanging. + +Hope gasped, "This way." + +She led us back into the pavilion. We clambered over its broken seats, +past its grewsome huddled figures. Some were still moving.... We went to +a small door under the platform. A dim room was here, deserted now. +Against the wall was a large wardrobe closet; stage costumes were +hanging in it. The closet was fully twenty feet deep. We pushed our way +through the hanging garments. Hope fumbled at the blank board wall in +the rear. Her groping fingers found a secret panel. A door swung aside +and a rush of dank cool air came at us. The dark outlines of a tunnel +stretched ahead. + +"In, Charlie!" + +I crouched and stepped through the door. Hope closed it behind us. The +tunnel passage was black, but soon we began to see its vague outlines. +Derek, sword in hand, led us. I clutched my dirk. We went perhaps five +hundred feet. Down at first, then up again. I figured we were under the +palace gardens now, as the tunnel was winding to the left. There were +occasional small lights. + +Derek whispered to Hope, "The toilers don't know of this?" + +"No." + +"Where does it bring us out?" I whispered. + +"Into the lower floor of the castle. The king must have gone this way. +There might be a guard, Derek. What will you do?" + +He laughed. "I can handle this mob. Disperse it! You'll see! And handle +the king." He laughed again grimly. "There is no Blanca to choose now." + +The tunnel went round a sharp angle and began steeply ascending. Derek +stopped. + +"How much further, Hope?" + +"Not far," she whispered. + +We crept forward. The tunnel was more like a small corridor now. Beyond +Derek's crouching figure, in the dimness I could see a doorway. Derek +turned and gestured to us to keep back. A palace guard was standing +there. His pike went up. + +"Who are you?" + +"A friend." + +But the man lunged with his pike. Derek leaped aside. His sword flashed; +the flat of it struck the fellow in the face. Derek, with incredible +swiftness, was upon him. They went down together and before the man +could shout, Derek had struck him on the head with the sword hilt. The +guard lay motionless. Derek climbed up as we ran forward to join him. + +I noticed now, for the first time, that in his left hand Derek held a +small metal cylinder. A weapon, strange to me, which he had brought with +him. He had not mentioned it. He had produced it, when menaced by this +guard. Then he evidently decided not to use it. + +He shoved it back in his pocket. He whirled on us, panting. "Hurry! +Close that door!" + +We closed the door of the tunnel. + +"Charlie, help me move him!" + +We dragged the prostrate figure of the unconscious guard aside into a +shadow of the wall. We were in a lower room of the palace. It seemed +momentarily unoccupied. Overhead we could hear the footsteps of running +people. A confusion in the palace, and outside in the garden the shouts +of the menacing throng of toilers. And above it all, the wild clanging +of the alarm bell from the palace tower. + +Derek said swiftly, "Get us to the king!" + +Hope led us through the castle corridors, and up a flight of steps to +the main floor. The rooms here were thronged with terrified +people--crimson nobles in their bedraggled finery of the festival. In +all the chaos no one seemed to notice us. + +We mounted another staircase. We found a vacant room; through its +windows we looked a moment, gazing into the garden. It was jammed with a +menacing mob, which milled about, leaderless, waving crude weapons, +shouting imprecations at the palace. At the foot of the main steps the +throng stood packed, but none dared to mount. A group of the palace +guards stood on the platform over the moat. + +Derek turned away impatiently. "Let's get to the king." + +We mounted to the upper story. The castle occupants stared at Derek and +me as we passed them. A group of girls at the head of the staircase fled +before us. + +"The king," Derek demanded, "Which is his apartment? Hurry, Hope, we've +no time now!" + +We found the frightened king seated on a couch with his counsellors +around him. It was a small room in this top story of the castle, with +long windows to the floor. I saw that they gave onto a balcony which +overlooked the gardens. There were perhaps twenty or thirty people +huddled in the room. A confusion existed here as everywhere else--no one +knowing what to do in this crisis. And that cursed alarm bell wildly +adding to the turmoil. We paused at the doorway. + +"Now," whispered Derek. He drew himself to his full height. His eyes +were flashing. It was a Derek I had not seen before; he wore an air of +mastery. As though he, and not the frightened, trembling monarch on the +couch, were master here. And as I stared at him that instant in this +primitive chaotic environment, the power of him swept me. A conqueror. +The strange electrode clamped to his head gave him an aspect miraculous, +awe inspiring. + +He strode forward across the apartment. The king was just giving some +futile, vague command to be transmitted to his guards down below. A hush +fell over the room at our appearance. The king half stood up, then sank +back. + +"Why--why--who--" + +I saw Rohbar here. His long crimson cloak hung from his shoulders, with +its hood thrown back. Beneath it, as it parted in front, his leather +uniform was visible. A sword was strapped to his waist. He was striding +back and forth with folded arms, frowning, but his gaze was very keen. +Rohbar was not frightened. He seemed rather to be gauging the situation, +pondering how he might turn it to his own ends. He stopped short and +swung about to face us. His jaw dropped with surprise, amazement, at our +strangeness. + +Derek confronted him. His bulk, and huge weight towered even over Derek. +The king gasped and sat helplessly staring. + +Rohbar spoke first. "Who are you?" + +"This mob must be dispersed. Don't stand looking at me like that, man!" + +Derek spoke in friendly fashion, but vehemently. "This is no time for +explanations." + +They were menacing each other. Rohbar's heavy hand fell to his sword, +but Derek boldly pushed him away. He faced the king. + +"Your Majesty...." + +The king stared blankly at him. The title was no doubt strange to this +realm, but no stranger than Derek's aspect. + +"Your Majesty...." + +But the noise from the garden, the confusion which now broke out in the +room, and that damnable clattering bell, drowned his words. + +The king found his voice. "Be quiet, all of you!" He was on his feet. He +demanded of Derek again, "Who are you?" + +Derek said swiftly, "I'll show you. I can disperse this mob! Charlie, +come." + +It seemed as though the gaze of everyone in the room went to me. I drew +myself up and flashed defiance back at them. And I followed Derek to one +of the balcony windows. He went through it, with me after him. I stood +at the threshold, watchful of the room behind us. Rohbar was standing +aside, and I saw now the woman Sensua with him. They were whispering, +staring at me and Derek. + +I had been wondering why, when Sensua must have known that the king +would choose her--why she had dared to murder her rival. I thought +now--as I saw her with Rohbar--that I could guess the reason. She loved +Rohbar, not the king. Rohbar was plotting to put himself on the throne, +using Sensua as a lover to that end. He had doubtless persuaded her to +this murder, knowing it would arouse the toilers, precipitate this chaos +which was what he wanted. Scheming scoundrel! I could not forget the +look of desire on his face as he had accosted Hope.... + +And now Derek appeared, to add an unknown element to Rohbar's plans. +There was no way he could guess who or what we were. I saw that he was +puzzled, was whispering to Sensua about us, doubtless wondering how to +handle us. + +I saw too, that there were half a dozen crimson cloaked men here who +were not frightened. They had gathered in a group. They stood with hands +upon their swords, eyeing me, and watching Rohbar--as though at a sign +from him they would rush me. + +On the balcony Derek stood with the light from the room upon him. The +crowd saw him. The main gateway of the palace was just under his +balcony. The crowd had now started up the steps to where the guards were +standing at the top. At the sight of Derek the mob let out a roar, and +those on the steps retreated down again. + +Derek stood at the balcony rail, silent, with upraised arms, gazing down +upon the menacing throng. There was a moment of startled silence as he +appeared. Then the shout broke out louder than before. The crowd was +milling and pushing, but still leaderless. An aimless activity. Someone +threw a stone. It came hurtling up. It missed Derek and struck the +castle wall, falling almost at my feet. + +Derek did not move. He stood calmly gazing down; stood like an orator +waiting for the confusion to die before he would speak. + +From the platform, just beneath Derek, the guards were staring +wonderingly up, awed, startled. To the right a wing of the building +turned an angle. The castle tower was there: it rose perhaps a hundred +feet higher than our balcony. On the railed platform-balcony girding its +top I saw the figures of other guards standing, gazing down at Derek. +The clanging bell up there was suddenly stilled. + +I became aware of the king close behind me. His voice rang out: "What +are you doing? How dare you?" + +Derek whirled, "You fool! To what a pass you have come! Your people in +arms against you...." + +His violent words brought the king's anger. "How dare you! This is +treason!" + +I stood alert, with my hand upon my dirk. + +There would be conflict here, I felt that we could not hold it off more +than a moment longer. My mind leaped to that metal cylinder Derek had +concealed. A weapon? Then why did he not have it out now? His eyes were +flashing. The aspect of power, of confidence, upon him was unmistakable. +It heartened me. I took a step toward him. + +He smiled faintly. "Wait, Charlie." + +The king gasped again. "How dare you? Why, this is treason! Rohbar, +seize him!" + +Hope was beside me, her eyes watching the room. Rohbar came striding +forward. Derek rasped, "You perhaps have some sense! Lead His Majesty +away. Take care of him until this is over." + +They stood with crossing glances. And upon Rohbar's face a look, queerly +sinister, had come. A smile, sardonic. + +He said abruptly to the king, "I think we should let him have his way. +What harm?" + +He gestured and Sensua came forward. The crimson murderess! Her +voluptuous figure was shrouded in a crimson cloak. Her heavy painted +lips smiled at the King. Her rounded white arms went over his shoulders. + +"Leonto, do as Rohbar says. Let this stranger try. It can do no harm." + +The king yielded to her; I watched as she and Rohbar urged him through +an archway that gave into the adjoining apartment. + +No wonder Rohbar was sardonically smiling! Derek had played into his +hand. We did not know it then, but we were soon to find it out. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +_"Alexandre--"_ + + +Derek turned back to the balcony. It had been a brief interlude. The mob +in the garden, the soldiers at the top of the stairway, and the other +guards high on the bridge of the tower were all standing gazing. Shouts +again arose as Derek appeared. Again he raised his arms. This time his +voice rang out. + +"Silence all of you! I am a friend! Silence!" + +At first they did not heed him; then someone shouted: + +"Quiet! Listen to him! Let him talk!" + +The crowd was bellowing, and then they ceased. The bell was still. In +the hush came Derek's voice: + +"I am a friend. I come from foreign lands, from distant lands of strange +people and strange magic." + +For answer the crowd shouted and milled in confusion. A stone came up +and then another. Derek stood immovable, like a statue gazing down at +them. + +"I command you to disperse. You will not? Then look at me! Look at me, +all of you. My will is law beyond this king--beyond these palace +soldiers--beyond any power you have ever known." + +Then I knew a part of Derek's purpose! He had pressed the mechanism at +his wrist. He stood imperious with upraised arms. The garden was in a +tumult, but in a moment it died. A wave of horror swept the crowd. A +freezing, incredulous horror. They stood staring, incredulous, silent, +swept with a widening wave of horror. + +The figure of Derek on the balcony was fading, turning luminous. A +wraith, a ghost of his menacing shape standing there. It faded until it +was almost gone, and then, as he reversed the mechanism, it materialized +again. A moment passed, then he stood again solid before them. + +His voice rang out, "Will you obey me now? I am a friend of the +toilers!" + +They were prostrate before him. There is no fear more terrible than the +fear of the supernatural. In all of history there has been in our world +no worship more abject than the worship and fear of a primitive people +for its supernatural God. On the platform beneath the balcony, the +palace soldiers stared up, horrified. Then they too were prostrate +before Derek's threatening gestures and commanding voice. + +I stood watching, listening. And suddenly, from the prostrate crowd, a +man leaped up. In the silence his amazed voice carried over the garden. + +"Alexandre! It is our Prince Alexandre! Our lost prince!" + +He stood staring at Derek, his arms gesturing to his comrade around him. +He shouted it again: + +"Our rightful king, come back to us! Don't you recognize him? _I_ saw +him go! He went like that--fading into a ghost. Ten years ago, when +Leonto killed his father and would have killed him had he not escaped!" + +The crowd was standing up now. They recognized Derek! There was no doubt +of it. The garden was ringing with the tumultuous shouts, + +"Alexandre! Our lost prince has come back to us!" + +My head was whirling with it. Derek, prince of this realm? I could see +that it was true. Escaped from here as a young lad, when his throne was +usurped. Returning now, a man, to claim his own. + +And suddenly he turned and flashed me his smile. + +The din from the garden drowned his words. The crowd was shouting: +"Alexandre! Our lost prince!" + +The king's guards on the lower platform stood sullen, confused. I heard +footsteps behind me. I whirled around. + +From the room, the group of Rohbar's crimson nobles were rushing toward +me! Their swords were out. One of them shouted, "Kill them now! We must +kill them and have done!" + +There were five or six men in the group. They were no more than ten feet +away from me. They came leaping. + +I stood in the window opening, with only my dirk to oppose them. I +shouted, "Derek! Derek!" + +I think I took a step backward. I was out on the balcony. It flashed +over me--Derek and I were caught out here! + +The first of the red cloaked figures came hurtling through the doorway. +I leaped to avoid his sword. I saw the others crowding behind him. + +Then I felt Derek shove me violently aside. I half fell, but recovered +myself at the balcony rail. Five of the crimson nobles were on the +balcony. Derek confronted them. His aspect made them pause. They stood, +with outstretched swords. The garden was silent; the crowd stared up. +And in the silence Derek roared, + +"Get back! All of you, go back inside! Back, or I'll kill you!" + +In Derek's right hand he held the cylinder outstretched, leveled at the +menacing nobles. + +"Back, I say!" + +But instead they rushed him. There was a flash. From the cylinder it +seemed that a ray spat out, a flash of silver light. It caught the three +men who were in advance of the others. Their swords dropped with a +clatter to the balcony floor. They stood, transfixed. + +An instant. Derek's silver ray played upon them. Their red cloaks were +painted with its silver sheen. + +They were shimmering! I gasped, staring. The other nobles, beyond the +ray, had fallen back. And they too stood staring in horror. + +Another instant The three figures wavered. I saw the face of one of +them, with the shock of incredulous horror still upon it. A face turning +luminous! A face, erased, with only the staring eyes to mark where it +had been! + +There was a moment when the three stricken men stood like shimmering +ghosts, with Derek's deadly ray upon them. Then they were gone! It +seemed, just as they vanished, that they were falling through the +balcony floor.... + +Derek snapped off his ray. He rasped, "Back into that room, I tell you!" + +The remaining nobles fled before him. He turned again to the balcony +rail. + +"My people--yes, I am Alexandre--I had not thought you would recognize +me so soon. But you are right--the time has come for me to claim my +inheritance. And I will rule you justly." + +His cylinder was still in his hand; he swept a watchful glance behind +him. I thought of Rohbar. He was in the next room, with the king. Had +they seen this attack upon Derek? They must have heard the crowd +shouting, "Alexandre!" It seemed strange they did not appear. + +I recall now, as I look back to this moment on the balcony, that I +suddenly thought of Hope. She had been beside me just before the nobles +attacked. I did not see her now. I was startled, but thought of her was +driven from my mind. From within the palace a scream sounded. A girl +screaming. + +But it was not Hope's voice. A girl, screaming, and then shouting: + +"The king is dead!" + +Derek came rushing at me. "Charlie, that--" + +We heard it again. "The king is dead!" + +We hurried into the adjoining room. There was no one to stop us--no one +up here now who dared oppose Derek. The terrified nobles in the room +fell cringing before him. + +"Alexandre--spare us! We are loyal to you!" + +He strode past them. In the adjacent apartment we found the king lying +upon the floor. A wound in his throat welled crimson. He had evidently +been lying here alone, and had just now been found by a girl who had +entered. He was not quite dead. Derek bent over him. He opened his eyes. + +He gasped faintly: "Rohbar--killed me. Rohbar and that--accursed crimson +Sensua...." + +His voice trailed away. The light went out of his staring eyes. Derek +laid him gently back on the floor. + +And as though already the news of his death had miraculously spread, the +bell in the castle tower began tolling. Not clanging now. Tolling, with +slow, solemn accent. The crowd evidently recognized it. We could hear +the shouts: "Death! Death has come!" + +Derek's eyes ware blazing as he stood up. "The end, Charlie! I would not +have planned this, and yet...." + +He did not finish. He whirled, rushed back to the other room and to the +balcony. The scene was again in confusion the crowd milling, voices +shouting: + +"The king is dead!" + +At the edge of the garden a woman's shrill, hysterical laughter rose +over the din. + +Derek called, "Yes, the king is dead!" He paused. Then he added, "If you +want me--if I have your loyalty--I will claim my throne." + +A tumult interrupted him. "Alexandre! King Alexandre!" + +He spread his arms, but he could not silence them. + +"The king is dead. Long live King Alexandre!" + +A wave of it swept over the garden, engulfing the castle. At the main +entrance Leonto's soldiers stood sullen, listening to it. + +Derek stood triumphant. His hands were outstretched, palms down. But up +on the circular bridge at the top of the tower there was a sudden +commotion. The soldiers up there had vanished, moved back within the +tower to make room for other figures. I stared amazed, transfixed. A +huge man in leather garments was there, with a sword stuck in his wide +belt. A man with a bullet head, a heavy face, gazing down.... + +Rohbar! + +And held in front of him the slender figure of a girl. Hope! He clutched +her, his thick arm encircling her breast. With sinking heart I realized +what had happened. Hope had moved away from me. Every one in the room +had been intent upon Derek. Rohbar had come quietly in, after murdering +the king, had seized Hope, stifled her outcry, and had taken her up into +the tower. + +And I had promised Derek that I would shield this girl from harm! The +horror of it--the self-condemnation of it--swept me, froze me to +numbness. I could not think; I could only stand and stare. Rohbar held +Hope like a shield before him. The low railing hardly reached her knees. +A sheer drop to the garden beneath. He held her tightly, and in his free +hand I saw his dirk come up menacingly against her white throat. His +voice called: + +"Silent, down there! Alexandre, you traitor! Silence!" + +Derek stared up. The triumph faded from him. He stared, stricken. The +crowd stared. The soldiers on the lower platform ceased their shouting +and gazed up at these new actors, come so unexpectedly upon the stage. +Again Rohbar called, to the guards this time: + +"I represent your King Leonto. This Alexandre is a traitor to us all. +And he cannot harm me! I defy him. Look at him! I defy him to use his +evil weapon upon me!" + +Derek was silent. A single adverse move and Rohbar's knife would stab +into Hope's throat. Derek's ray was powerless. A flash from it would +have killed Hope, not Rohbar. + +The king's soldiers saw Derek's indecision. One of them shouted, "He +cannot harm us! Look, he is frightened!" + +The crowd recognized Hope. They began calling her name. And calling, +"Master Rohbar, do not harm our Hope!" + +"I will not harm her! Not if you do what I tell you! Leave the +garden--go quietly! I will deal with this traitor!" + +He added to the guards, "Go up and seize him! He cannot hurt you! +Traitor! Seize him! If he does not yield--if any of this crowd attacks +you--then I will kill Hope." + +Derek stood clinging to the balcony rail. With Rohbar's watchful gaze +upon him he did not dare turn or move. I was standing back from the +balcony, behind Derek and partly in the room. No one thought of me. No +one from outside could see me. And I, who had played no part in this, +save that one I had neglected, suddenly saw my role. My cue was +sounding. My role to play, here upon this tumultuous stage. + +I turned back into the dim room. A few frightened men and girls were +here. They were all crowding forward, gazing through the windows at the +scene outside. No one noticed me, but I saw, with sudden realization, my +role to play. + +I darted across the room, out into the dim, deserted corridor of the +castle. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +_My Role to Play_ + + +I slipped like a shadow through the almost empty corridors. Down on the +lower floor I found that many of the soldiers were on the inside, +standing about the corridors in groups, waiting for word from their +comrades on the platform to indicate what action they should take. My +time was short; I knew that within a few minutes they would be rushing +up to overpower Derek. + +I stood unseen against the wall near the main entrance. I could not get +outside. There were too many soldiers there. + +I tried to keep my sense of direction. The wing upon which the tower +stood was about two hundred feet from me here. If I could not get +outside I would have to try the inside, along this corridor. I prayed +that I might not make an error. I tried to gauge exactly where the tower +would be. + +The hallway was almost dark and in this wing there chanced to be no one +at the moment. I came to the angle and turned it to the left. I was +unarmed save my dirk. I drew it. But I encountered no one. I passed the +doors of many empty rooms. The windows were all barred on this lower +floor. I could hear the shouts of the crowd outside. + +I came at last to the end of the wing. A staircase here led upward. I +guessed that I was directly under the tower now, and that this staircase +undoubtedly led upward into it. I mounted a few steps to verify what I +was sure would be the condition. It was as I thought. Rohbar had won +over the soldiers who were here. He had sent them down from the tower +bridge. They were guarding this staircase. + +I crept up another few steps, very cautiously. I could hear their voices +on the stairs. A light was up there. I could see the legs of some of +them as they crowded the stairs. I softly retreated. + +There was no way of getting up into the tower here. Alone and armed only +with my dirk, I could not mount these stairs and assail a dozen armed +men standing above me; especially when, if I raised an alarm, Rohbar +overhead might be startled into killing Hope. + +I stood another moment, thinking, planning my actions. I was trembling. +Everything depended upon me now. I must get up into the tower. And, +above everything, haste was necessary. + +I retreated back to the lower floor. I was still some twenty feet above +the ground, I judged. That was too far. A dozen paces along the hall I +saw a stairway leading downward into the ground level cellar of the +castle. I marked in my mind exactly in which direction I turned, and how +far. I went down the stairs. + +There was an empty lower room. It was pitch black. I lay down on its +earthen floor. Above me, a few paces off to one side I could visualize +the tower. A hundred and fifty feet above me, at least, up to that +bridge balcony, where Rohbar stood with Hope. I kept my mind on it and +prayed that I might not be making an error, a miscalculation. + +I prayed, too, that luck would be with me. A desperate chance, yet I +thought I knew what was here, or about here, in New York City. I lay on +my side, alone in the blackness, and pressed the switch at my wrist.... + +The familiar sensation of the transition began. The darkness grew +luminous. Around me shadows were taking form. My body was humming, +thrilling with the vibrations within it. I could feel the ground under +me seeming to melt. My head was reeling. Nausea swept me, but with it +all I tried to keep my wits. I must watch this new Space into which I +was going. Space? I prayed that here on this spot in New York City there +would be empty space! If not, at the first warning, I was prepared to +stop my mechanism. + +The shadows grew around me. There was a moment or two when I felt as +though I were floating. Weightless. The sense of my body hovering in a +void, intangible, imponderable, with only my struggling mentality +holding it together.... + +And then I felt myself materializing. Around me walls were taking form. +I floated down a foot or two and came to rest upon a new floor. My hand +brushed it. My physical senses were returning. I could feel a floor of +concrete. A vague, shimmering light was near me. It seemed to outline +the rectangle of a window. All around was darkness. Empty darkness. +Soundless, with only the throbbing hum of the mechanism.... + +I was indoors, in a room. I felt suddenly almost normal, except for the +whirring vibration. I flung the switch again. There was a shock. A +whirling of my senses. Then I sat up; my head steadied. The nausea +passed. + +I was back in my own world, in New York City. This was night: I tried to +calculate the time. Derek and I had departed about midnight. This would +be, then some time before dawn. I was in a cellar room, lying on its +cement floor. There was a window, with a faint light outside it. A +window up near the ceiling. A straggling illumination showed me a bin, a +few barrels, a door leading into another room which looked as though it +might be a machine shop. + +I sat up, calculating. I was a thousand feet perhaps from the Battery +wall, two hundred feet from the Hudson River. This was an office +building, and I was in one of its cellar rooms, at the ground level. + +Near dawn? I tried to calculate what might be overhead. A deserted +office building. Too early yet for the scrub-women. The elevator would +not be running. I laughed to myself. Of what use to me an elevator, if +it had been running? How could I, a midnight prowler, appear from the +cellar of this building, and demand to be taken upstairs! There would be +no elevator, but there would be watchmen. I would avoid them. + +I found a door. My heart leaped with a sudden fear that it would be +locked, but it was not. I went through it into a passage and found the +staircase. I made two turns. I tried again to keep my mind on this Space +here. I stood, carefully thinking. I had it clear. I had made no move +without careful thought. The tower with Rohbar was still to my left, and +about directly above me. + +I went up the short stone staircase, opened another door carefully. I +was in the dim lower hall of the office building. I found myself beside +the deserted elevator shaft. A light was burning on the night +attendant's table in an alcove, on the other side of the shaft. He sat +there with his back to me. I closed the door soundlessly. + +The stairway upward beside the elevator was here. I watched my chance. I +darted around the angle and went up. I met no one. The concrete +staircase had a light at each floor. Four floors up. No, not enough! I +opened the fourth floor door. The marble hall of the office building was +empty and silent. Rows of locked office doors with their gold-leaf names +and numbers. A single dim light to illumine the silent emptiness.... + +I retreated into the staircase shaft and mounted higher. My dirk was in +my hand. Charlie Wilson, the Wall Street brokerage clerk, prowling +here! And upon what a strange adventure! + +I came to what I thought was the proper floor. In the hall I selected a +room. The door was securely locked. I had no way of breaking the lock, +but the panel was of opaque glass. I would have to chance the noise. I +rushed the length of the hall, to where a red fire-ax hung in a bracket. +I came back with it. I smashed the glass panel of the door. + +Would a watchman hear me? I did not wait to find out. With the ax I +scraped away the splinters of glass. I climbed through the opening. My +hand was cut, but I did not heed it. + +I was in a dim, silent office, with rugs on the floor, desks standing +about, filing cases, a water-cooler, and a safe in the corner. I rushed +to one of the windows. It looked over Battery Park and the upper bay. +The stars were shining, but to the east over Brooklyn I could see them +paling with the coming dawn. I gazed down to try and calculate my +height. Yes, this would be about right. And my position. I could see the +outline of the shore, the trees of Battery Park, the busy harbor, even +at this hour before dawn, thronged with the moving lights of its boats. + +I saw all this with my eyes, but with my mind I saw the wrecked, +deserted pavilion, and the gardens of Leonto's castle. The threatening +mob would be below me. The palace entrance would be here to my left, +down in the street where those taxis were parked. There was a commotion +down there by the office building entrance. I know now what caused it, +but at the time I did not notice. The wing of the castle was under me. +This would be the tower. Its upper room, or the balcony, just about +where I was standing. I prayed that it might be so. I seemed with my +mind to see it all. + +I lay down on the floor by the window. Out in the office building +hallway I heard heavy footsteps come running. One of the night watchmen +had evidently heard the glass crashed. + +I laughed. I pressed the switch at my wrist.... + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +_The Fight on the Tower Balcony_ + + +The sensations swept me again. The room faded. Whether the watchmen came +in to see a ghost of me lying there on the floor I did not know, nor did +I care. I whirled into the shadows. And came in a moment out of the +black silence. The office room was gone. I seemed to have fallen or +floated down--how far I do not know. A triumph swept me. I was lying on +another floor. I could see a doorway materializing. I was not upon the +balcony as I had calculated, but within the tower room. New walls sprang +around me. + +I did not heed it, this time, the sensation, of the transition. I was +too alert to what new situation might come upon me. The tower room. I +could see it. I could see its oval windows close at hand. The doorway to +its balcony. Sounds flooded me, mingled with the humming within me. +Familiar sounds. The crowd shouting. And a single voice--the voice of +Rohbar. Vague and blurred, but as I materialized it became clearer. + +I was suddenly aware that there was a man beside me. One of the palace +soldiers. He saw me materialize. He leaped backward in horror. I flung +my switch. I was on my feet, swaying, and then I leaped upon him. My +dirk plunged downward into his chest. + +The thing made me shudder. I reeled with the sickness of it, but as he +fell I clung to the dirk and ripped it out of him. It was dripping with +his blood. + +I stood trembling. The small tower room had no other occupants. I turned +toward the door. I could see a patch of stars, paling with the coming +dawn. I crouched in the small doorway which gave onto the balcony, +staring, swiftly calculating. The scene had scarcely changed. But, some +of the soldiers had left the entrance platform, gone, no doubt, into the +castle on their way upstairs to seize Derek. + +On this upper balcony, no more than ten feet before me, Rohbar still +stood gripping Hope. She was in front of him. His back was to me. A +sudden jump, and I could plunge my dagger into his back. + +Rohbar was shouting, "King Leonto is dead. If you should want me to +succeed him, I will take this girl Hope for my queen. You all love +her...." + +I was tense to spring. Then out in the balcony, to one side, I saw +Sensua crouching. Her crimson robe fell away to bare her white limbs. +Her hand fumbled in her robe. She had been Rohbar's dupe, and now she +knew it. Her knife was in her hand. Frenzied with jealousy and rage she +sprang upon Rohbar's back, trying to stab at Hope. + +Perhaps he sensed her coming, heard her; or perhaps she was unskilful. +Her knife only grazed Hope's shoulder. He released Hope. He roared. He +turned and gripped his murderous assailant. A second or two while I +stood watching. He caught Sensua's wrist, twisted the knife from it and +plunged the knife into her breast. She sank with a scream at his feet, +and as he straightened he saw me. + +But I had leaped. I was upon him. His own knife had remained in Sensua's +breast. As I raised mine in my leap, he caught at my wrist; twisted it, +but I flung the knife away before he could get it. The knife fell over +the balcony rail. The weight of my hurtling body flung him backward, but +the rail caught him. His arms went around me. Powerful arms, crushing +me. I gripped at his throat. + +There was an instant when I thought that we would both topple over the +railing. I felt Hope beside us. I heard her scream. We did not go over +the rail, for Rohbar lurched and flung us back. We dropped to the +balcony floor, rolling, locked together. He was far stronger and +heavier than I. He came uppermost. He lunged and broke my hold upon his +throat, but I was agile: I squirmed from under him. I almost regained my +feet. He got up on one knee. He was trying to draw his sword. Then again +I bore into him, kicking and tearing. He roared like a bull. And +ignoring my plucking fingers, my flailing fists, he lunged to his feet +with me gripping again at his throat. + +His huge height swung me off the ground. I was aware that he had drawn +his sword, but I was too close for him to use it. He swayed drunkenly +with my weight; he was confused. I felt the rail behind us. We lunged +again into it. Again I heard Hope scream in terror, and saw her leap at +us. Rohbar stooped, trying to clutch the low rail. His bending down +brought my feet to the balcony floor. With a last despairing effort I +shoved him backward. And as he toppled at the rail, I fought to break +his hold upon me. I felt us going and then I felt Hope reach me. Her +arms flung about my waist. Her hold tore me loose. Rohbar's huge body +fell away.... + +For an instant Rohbar seemed balanced upon the rail; then he went over. +He gave a last long, agonized scream as he fell. I did not look down. I +crouched by the rail. The crowd in the garden; Derek standing on the +other balcony; the soldiers who now had appeared behind him--all were +silent, and in the silence I heard the horrible thud of Rohbar's body as +it struck.... + +I clung to Hope for an instant, and she shuddered against me. The scene +broke again into chaos. I cast Hope away and leaped up. I stood at the +balcony rail. My arms went up and gestured to Derek. Amazement was on +his face, but he answered my gesture. Behind him the soldiers who had +come to seize him were standing in a group, stricken at this new +tragedy. + +Derek swung on them. He was not powerless now! "Away with you!" + +His cylinder menaced them, and they fell back in terror before him. + +He darted past them and disappeared into the castle. + +I felt Hope plucking at me. "I want to talk to the people." + +She stood beside me, leaning over the rail. Gentle little figure. +Familiar figure to them all. Their beloved Hope. Her voice rang out +clearly through the hush. + +"My people, we all want our beloved Alexandre--he has come back to us. +He is our rightful king." + +"King Alexandre! Long live King Alexandre!" + +Derek in a moment appeared behind us. "My God, Charlie, I can't +understand--" + +I told him how I had done it. He gripped me. "I'll never be able to +repay you for this!" + +I pushed him forward and he joined Hope at the rail. Held her, and her +arms went around his neck as she returned his kisses. The crowd gaped, +then cheered. + +I shouted, "Hope will be your queen--The reign of the crimson nobles is +at an end!" + +The wild cheering of the people, in which now the castle guards were +joining, surged up to mingle with my words. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +_One Tumultuous Night_ + + +I come now with very little more to record. + +I returned to my own world. And Derek stayed in his. Each to his own; +one may rail at this allotted portion--but he does not lightly give it +up. + +The scientists who have examined the mechanism with which I returned +very naturally are skeptical of me. Derek feared a further communication +between his world, and mine. He smiled his quiet smile. + +"Your modern world is very aggressive, Charlie. I would not want to +chance having my mechanism duplicated--a conquering army coming in +here." + +And so he adjusted the apparatus to carry me back and then go dead. I +have wires and electrodes to show in support of my narrative. But since +they will not operate I cannot blame my hearers for smiling in derision. + +Yet there is some contributing evidence. Derek Mason has vanished. A +watchman in an office building near Battery Park reports that at dawn of +that June morning he heard splintering glass. He found the office door +with its broken panel, and the ax lying on the hall floor. He even +thinks he saw a ghost stretched out by the window. But he is laughed at +for saying it. + +And there is still another circumstance. If you will trouble to examine +the newspaper files of that time, you will find an occurrence headed +"Inexplicable Tragedy at Battery Park." You will read that near dawn +that morning, the bodies of three men in crimson cloaks came hurtling +down through the air and fell in the street near where several taxis +were parked. Strange, unidentified men. Of extraordinary aspect. The +flesh burned, perhaps. All three were dead; the bodies were mangled by +falling some considerable height. + +An inexplicable tragedy. Why should anyone believe that they were the +three crimson nobles whom Derek attacked with his strange ray? + +I am only Charles Wilson, clerk in a Wall Street brokerage office. If +you met me, you would find me a very average, prosaic sort of fellow. +You would never think that deeds of daring were in my line at all. Yet I +have lived this one strange tumultuous night, and I shall always cherish +the memory. + + + + +The Stolen Mind + +By M. L. Staley + +[Illustration: _The structure, pivoting downward, plunged Quest to his +waist in the osmotic solution._] + +[Sidenote: What would you do, if, like Quest, you were tricked, and your +very Mind and Will stolen from your body?] + + +"What caused you to answer our advertisement?" Owen Quest felt the steel +of the quick gray eyes that jabbed like gimlets across the office table. + +"Why does any man apply for a job?" he bristled. + +Keane Clason gave an impatient smile. + +"Come!" he said. "I'm not trying to snare you. But there were unusual +features to my ad, and they were put there to attract an unusual type of +man. To judge your qualifications, I must know just why this proposition +appeals to you." + +"I can tell you that," nodded Quest, "but there's nothing unusual about +it. In the first place, I knew that the Clason Research Corporation is +the leading concern of its kind in the country. In the second place, +this seemed to offer a way to obtain a substantial sum of money +quickly." + +"Good," said Clason. "And you feel that you have all the necessary +qualifications?" + +"Decidedly. I am 24 years old, athletic, and of an earnest and +determined nature. Moreover, I have no family ties, and I'm willing to +run any reasonable risk in order to improve the condition of my fellow +men." + +Clason smiled his approval. + +"You say you need money. How much immediately?" + +Quest was unprepared for the question. + +"A thousand dollars," he ventured. + +Without hesitation Clason counted out ten one-hundred-dollar notes from +his wallet and laid them on the table. + +"There's your advance fee. You're ready to go to work immediately, I +hope?" + +"Certainly," stammered Quest. + +Stunned by the swiftness of the transaction, he sat staring at the money +that lay untouched before him. + +To accept it would be like signing an unread contract. But he had asked +for it; to refuse it was impossible. Even to delay about picking it up +might arouse Clason's suspicion. Already the latter had turned away and +was opening the door of a steel cabinet. Quest had one second in which +to reach a decision.... He crammed the currency into his pocket. + + * * * * * + +With delicate care Clason set two objects on the table. One looked to +Quest like a miniature broadcasting tower or a mooring mast for lighter +than air craft. The other was a circular vat of some black material, +probably carbon. Within it a series of concentric tissues were suspended +from metal rings, and in a trough outside ranged four stoppered flasks +containing liquids of as many different colors. + +"Look at these models carefully," said Clason. "They represent two of +the most remarkable discoveries of all time. The one on your left is the +most _de_structive weapon known to man. The other I consider the most +_con_structive discovery in the history of science. It may even lead to +an understanding of the nature of life, and of the future of the spirit +after death. + +"Both of these were developed by my brother Philip and me together--but +we have disagreed about the use to which they shall be put. + +"Philip"--the inventor dropped his voice to a whisper--"wants to sell +the secret of the Death Projector--the tower, there--as an instrument of +war. If I should permit him to do that, it might lead to the destruction +of whole nations!" + +"How?" demanded Quest "I've heard of a device called the Death Ray. Is +this it?" + +"No, no," said Clason contemptuously. "Even in a perfected state the Ray +would be a child's toy compared to the Projector. This is based on our +discovery that invisible light rays of a certain wave-length, if highly +concentrated, destroy life--and our additional discovery that if these +are synchronized with short radio waves the effect is absolutely +devastating. + +"We obtain the desired concentration of invisible light by using a +tellurium current-filter under the influence of alternate flashes of red +and blue light. The projector can literally blanket vast areas with +death, up to a top range of at least five hundred miles. + +"Just picture to yourself what this means! In a space of ten minutes two +men can lay down a circle of destruction a thousand miles in diameter; +or they can cut a swath five hundred miles long in any desired +direction." + + * * * * * + +"Have you ever proved it?" demanded Quest skeptically. + +"Yes, young man, we have," snapped Clason. "Right here in the +laboratory--but on a minute scale, of course. However, there's no time +to demonstrate now. The point is that my brother is determined to sell +if he can obtain his price for the invention. He argues that instead of +bringing disaster upon the world, this machine will forever discourage +war by making it too terrible for any civilized nation to consider. In +spite of my opposition he has opened negotiations with an ambitious +Balkan power. He may actually close the sale at any moment! + +"However," Clason drew a deep breath "you see this other device? Simple +as it appears, it is the key to the whole situation. We can use it--you +and I--to overcome Philip's will and prevent this unthinkable +transaction. The two of us can do it. Alone I would be virtually +helpless." + +"Why not have the Projector confiscated or destroyed by our own +Government?" suggested Quest. "That seems to me the only safe and sure +way out of the difficulty." + +"You simply do not understand," frowned Clason impatiently. "Philip is +selling the plans and descriptions of the machine, not the machine +itself. Even if this model and the larger test machine that we have +built were destroyed--even if I were willing to have Philip sent to +Leavenworth for life--he could still sell the Projector. + +"But this other invention, our Osmotic Liberator, makes it possible for +me to gain control of Philip and actually _change his mind_, through the +medium of an agent. I have hired you to act as my Agent, Quest, because +I can see that you are a young man of unusual character and vitality. +And by way of reward I can promise you both money and a brilliant +future." + + * * * * * + +The inventor poised in a tense attitude on the edge of his chair as +though his body were charged with electricity. His eyes seemed to dart +out emanations that set Quest's blood to tingling. Then for a moment the +latter lost consciousness of his physical self. It was as though he had +opened a door and found himself suddenly on the brink of a new and +totally strange world. He dispelled this fancy by a quick effort of the +will, for he knew that he had a delicate problem on his hands and that +it must be solved within a very few minutes. However he proceeded, he +must act without disloyalty to his Government, and at the same time +without injustice to Keane Clason. + +"Tell me," he said in a husky voice, "how do you intend to use me? I do +not believe in Spiritualism. I would be a poor medium." + +Clason gave a short laugh. + +"You are not to be a medium in that sense at all. Spiritualism as +practiced is just a blind sort of groping and hoping. Osmotic +Liberation, on the other hand, is an exact and opposite physico-chemical +science. Here--I will show you." + +Into the outer cell of the Liberator he emptied the purple vial, and so +on to the innermost, which he filled with a golden-green liquid like old +Chartreuse. + +"The separating membranes, you understand, are permeable by these +complicated solutions. Each liquid has a different osmotic pressure and +therefore should, under normal conditions, interchange with the others +through the membranes until all pressures are equalized. I prevent such +interchange, however, by maintaining an anti-electrolysis which retards +ionization and thus builds up what might be called osmotic potential. + + * * * * * + +"Now if an Agent--yourself for instance--submerges himself in the +central cell, at the same time maintaining a physical contact with his +Control at the surface of the liquid, and if then the osmotic potential +is suddenly released by throwing the electrolytic switch, the host of +ions thus turned loose in the outer compartments make one grand rush for +the center solution, which contains the cathode. + +"Under these conditions your body becomes a sort of sixth cell, and your +skin another membrane in the series. Properly speaking, however, you are +not a part of the electrolytic circuit but are merely present in the +action. Your body acts as a catalyser, hastening the chemical action +without itself being affected in any way. Physically you undergo no +change whatever; but in some strange way which is, like life, beyond +analysis, your mind flows out into the solution, while your unaltered +body remains at the bottom of the tank in a state of suspended +animation. + +"If no Control is present, all that is needed to return your mind into +your body is a throw of the electrolytic switch back to negative, +whereupon you emerge from the tank exactly as you entered it. But with +your Control present and in contact with your submerged body, your mind, +instead of remaining suspended in the solution, flows instantly into his +body and resides there subject to his will. + +"This can not be done, however, unless the wills of Control and Agent +have first been brought into accord. To accomplish that, we clasp +hands"--Quest grasped Clason's extended hand--"and look steadily into +each other's eyes. + +"Now, it is well known that the vibrations of an individual's will are +as distinctive as the sworls of his finger-prints. What is not so well +known is that the frequency of vibration in one person can be brought +into accord with that in another. + + * * * * * + +"You consciously retract your will by concentrating your mind upon the +thing which you know I wish to accomplish. Gradually while we continue +in this position your vibrations speed up or slow down until they +acquire exactly the same frequency as my own. We are then in accord, and +when your mind is liberated in the tank it is in a state which admits +absorption into my body. And it is subject to my will because you have +purposely attuned it to my peculiar frequency. Immediately after the +transfer there will be a brief conflict, due to the instinctive desire +of your will to obtain the ascendancy. But of course mine will gain the +upper hand at once, since both wills will be in my frequency." + +Quest felt, rather than saw, a wall of alarm closing in on him. He tried +to avert his eyes, to withdraw his hand from Clason's grasp. With a +nostalgic pang in the pit of his stomach he suddenly realized that he +could not do so. He had gone too far--farther than any man in his +position had a right to go. Having deliberately weakened his will, it +seemed now to have deserted him entirely. A prickling sensation coursed +up his spine, his extended arm went numb, his hand trembled violently. + +"Splendid!" said Clason, suddenly releasing both eye and hand. "Just as +I foresaw, you will be able to attune yourself to my vibration-frequency +with hardly an effort. Now please remain seated; I'll be back in a +moment." + + * * * * * + +For a second after the door closed, Quest remained slumped in his chair. +Then he was on his feet, shaking himself like a wet dog to free himself +from the spell under which he had fallen. Something about Clason +attracted and at the same time repelled him, fraying his nerves like an +irritant drug and confusing his mind at the moment when he needed the +full alertness of every faculty. + +Invisible light--disembodied minds--will vibrations! Nothing there to +get hold of. Were these things real or imaginary? Was Keane Clason a +great inventor, or a madman? Would Philip prove to be a real or an +imaginary scoundrel? Should he summon help, or go on alone? + +Professional pride said: wait, don't be an alarmist! With his knuckles +Quest tapped the table, half expecting it to melt under his fingers. The +feeling and sound of the contact gave him a peculiar start. On the +farther end of the table stood a letter-box--an invitation. From his +pocket Quest snatched a slip of paper, and wrote: + + 6 stroke 4--9:45A--Hired. If no report in 48 hours, clamp down + hard. + +To address a stamped envelope and slip it in with the outgoing mail was +the work of seconds. But he was none too quick. He had just dropped back +into a lounging attitude when the door burst open and Clason flew into +the room? + +"We must act instantly," hissed the inventor. "Philip plans to close the +transaction within a day." + +In spite of himself, Quest jumped upright in his chair. Clason tapped +him on the shoulder reassuringly. + +"It's all right," he smiled, "I'm ready for him. We'll make our move +this afternoon and beat him by eighteen hours. + +"Let's see." He paused. "Oh! yes. I was about to explain to you that as +soon as the will of the Agent enters the body of his Control, the latter +can again transfer it into the body of still another person. + +"Now you understand why I advertised for a man of exceptional character? +As my Agent, I want you to enter the body of Philip, and your will must +be strong enough to conquer his in the battle for mastery which will +begin the instant you intrude into his body. You will still be under my +control, but your will must be strong enough on its own merits to +overcome his. I can direct you, but your strength must be your own. +That's clear, isn't it?" + + * * * * * + +"I think so," said Quest slowly. "But what becomes of me after you have +frustrated Philip's plot?" + +"That's the easy part of the process," smiled Clason; "but naturally you +feel some anxiety about it. I simply withdraw your will from Philip, +return it to your own body, and pay you a reward of ten thousand +dollars." + +"You're sure you can?" + +"Perfectly. I have merely to touch Philip's hand to recapture your will. +Then I immerse myself in the tank with the switch at plus. The osmotic +action will extract both wills momentarily from my body. But the +presence of two bodies and two wills in the solution together forces a +balance, and each will seeks out and enters its own body. Then you and +I climb out of the tank exactly as we are this minute." + +"If it weren't for my belief that anything is possible," Quest shook his +head, "I'd say that your claims for this invention were ridiculous." + +"And you couldn't be blamed," admitted Clason readily. "This toy of a +model is hardly convincing. But come along with me and I'll show you how +the Liberator looks in actual operation." + + * * * * * + +The office rug concealed a trap door which gave upon a spiral stair. +Below, Clason unlocked another door and led the way through a narrow and +tremendously long passage lighted at intervals by small electric bulbs. +Presently another door yielded to the inventor's deft touch and closed +behind them with a portentous chug. Here the darkness was so utter and +intense that Quest imagined he could feel the weight of it on his +shoulders. From the slope of the passageway and the muffled beat of +machinery that had come to his ears on the way along, he guessed that he +was below ground in some chamber at the rear of the factory. + +He gave a low exclamation as Clason switched on the toplight. No wonder +the darkness had seemed of almost supernatural quality! Even the hard +white glare of the daylight arc was grisly. Its rays rebounded from the +liquids of the great circular tank in a blinding dazzle of color, while +the dull black walls and ceiling were so perfectly absorptive that +beyond arm's length they became to all effects invisible. Even the ledge +on which he stood--the shoulder of the vat--gave Quest the feeling that +to move would be to step off into a bottomless pit. + +But Clason took his attention at once, pointing here and there in his +quick, nervous way to indicate how faithfully the Liberator had been +reproduced from the model. In all respects the arrangements were the +same, with the addition that here a long plank like a spring-board +extended out from a wall-mount as far as the central compartment of the +tank, and that from its end a narrow ladder hung down to the surface of +the Chartreuse liquid. A double-throw switch fixed to the wall above the +base of the plank was evidently the source of electrolytic control. + +"When you throw the switch to plus," said Clason, pointing to the +chalk-marked sign above, "you produce the violent electrolytic action +needed to bring about a liberation. All the rest of the time it should +be closed at minus, in order to maintain the anti-action which I +explained to you. + +"Now let's rehearse, so that when the time for the real performance +arrives we can be sure of running it off without a hitch." + +"All right, sir," nodded Quest, so dazed by the glittering light that he +was hardly conscious of what he said. + + * * * * * + +"First," said Clason, running lightly up the steps to the plank, "you +walk out to the end, like this, and start down the ladder. Then you +lower yourself into the tank. The liquid is at body temperature; it's +neither strongly acid nor caustic; it will cause you no injury or +discomfort whatever. + +"Meanwhile I keep in contact with your hand until the instant that you +become submerged. Now your mind is in me, see?--ready for transfer into +Philip, where it will act as my Agent. That's how simple it is! Come on +up and we'll go through the motions." + +Quest experienced a shiver as he mounted the bridge. Annoyed with +himself, he shrugged the feeling off. There was no risk here. Moreover, +it was a part of his daily work to take chances; he had done so a +hundred times without hesitation. Now he moved all the more quickly, as +if to belie the squeamishness that possessed him in spite of himself. + +Swinging past Clason on the plank, he lowered himself without a pause +to the bottom rung of the ladder, while the inventor, hanging head +down, maintained contact with him. + +"No need to stay here," he said in sudden irritation. "I understand +perfectly what I am to do." + +"I'm testing my own acrobatic ability," grunted Clason amiably. "Just a +minute now." + +He wriggled as if trying to adjust himself to a better balance, but in +reality to mask the motion of his free hand with which he reached up and +pressed a button in the side of the plank. Instantly the structure, +pivoting downward on its wall-socket, plunged Quest to his waist in the +osmotic solution. + +"For God's sake get out of the way!" he shouted, trying to wrench his +hand out of Clason's sinewy grip. "Let go, I tell you!" + +But Clason clung like a leech, his teeth gritted under the strain. Again +the plank lurched downward, and with a violent splash Quest vanished +below the surface. + +Quick as a cat, Clason scrambled up the ladder and back to the base of +the plank, where he erased and interchanged the chalk-marked signs with +which he had misled Quest. Then with a sinister twist of a smile he +threw the switch to minus, and turned to watch as the plank slowly +righted itself and the vacant ladder came clear of the liquid. + +For some time he stood staring at the gleaming colored rings of his +dissociation-vat like some witch over her cauldron, his lips working, +his hands clasping and unclasping like the tentacles of some sub-sea +monster. Then, as if the spell had suddenly broken, he turned on his +heel and switched off the light. As he hastened down the passageway +toward his office, the airlock sucked the door against its jamb with an +ominous whistle. + + * * * * * + +In a twinkling, as Quest's shackled spirit writhed in its new housing, +he knew that he was in bondage to a scoundrel. Formless and voiceless, +he still fought madly for the freedom which the instinct of ten +thousand generations made necessary to him. + +At the same time he was furious at himself for having been tricked like +an innocent schoolboy. The plank socket, the button which had tripped +the supporting spring, the fake rehearsal, the tuning of his will to +that of Clason--step by step the whole cunning scheme unfolded itself to +him now. + +But what could be the purpose behind this villainy? Only one answer +seemed possible. Keane must be the one bent on selling the Death +Projector, Philip the one who wished to frustrate the fiendish +transaction! And Quest of the Secret Service--he was to be the tool to +force the sale. + +With the soundless scream of rage Quest's will hurled itself against +Keane's. The two met like infuriated bulls, and for an instant too brief +to be pictured as a lapse of time they poised immovable. But two wills +can not exist on equal terms in a single body, and in this case the +vibration of both was that of Clason. Quest had challenged the Master +Will. He could do no more. It hurled him back, crushed him like foam, +compressed him to the proportions of an atom in the background of his +consciousness. So brief and unequal was the conflict that in the next +breath Clason had all but forgotten the presence of the stolen will +within him. When he was ready to use his Agent, that would be time +enough to summon him! + +Despite this suppression, Quest began to see dimly through strange eyes, +and to hear vaguely with ears that were not his own. Feelers, tentacles, +some intangible kind of conduits carried thought impulses to him from +the Master Will. He received these impressions vividly, but those which +he gave off in return were so weak, due to the subjection of his will, +that Clason was entirely unconscious of any response. Quest was not +enough of a scientist to be astonished at the ability of a disembodied +mind to experience sense impressions in the body of another. He was +only glad that the darkness and silence were growing less. Very, very +slowly he was awakening to a new kind of consciousness--the +consciousness of another person's Self. He hated and loathed that Self, +yet it was better than the awful blankness that had gone before. + + * * * * * + +Suddenly, as light grew brighter and sound more clear and definite, a +new element entered--the element of hope. At first it was feeble: its +only suggestion was that sometime, somehow, he might escape this prison. +But it was like water to a parched plant. It caused his will to expand, +to extend its feelers, to press up a little more bravely against the +crushing pile of the Master Will. + +Now another surprise sprang upon him. He was moving! That is, Clason's +body was moving in some kind of a conveyance, which was threading its +way through crowded streets. Stores, buildings, buses, people--Quest +remembered them all distantly as things he had known thousands of years +ago. The driver turned his head, and his profile seemed vaguely +familiar. + +Now a rush of foreign thoughts drowned out his own. They were a sort of +overflow from the mind of Clason. They thronged along the conduits that +bound the two wills together, but only Quest was conscious of the +movement. + +Keane's mind was on his brother Philip: that much was particularly +clear. And there was something about a telephone call. Yes, Keane had +telephoned to the police, disguising his voice, refusing to divulge his +name. He had said that a man by the name of Philip Clason was in trouble +and had told them where to find him. Then the police had telephoned the +factory, and Keane had pretended astonishment and alarm at the news. +That's why he was here now--he was on the way to confer with the police. +And he was chuckling--chuckling because he had fooled Quest and the +police, and because now the hundred million dollars was almost in his +grasp. + +Cutting in close, the car turned a corner and drew up before one of a +row of loft buildings in a section of the city which Quest failed to +recognize. As Clason stepped to the sidewalk, Quest was more painfully +aware than ever of his powerlessness to influence by so much as the +twitch of a muscle the behavior of this hostile body in which he had +permitted himself to be trapped. In his weakness he felt himself +shrinking, contracting almost to nothingness under the careless pressure +of the Master Will. + + * * * * * + +Clason glanced casually at his watch, and three men converged toward him +from as many directions. There was nothing to distinguish them from +anyone else in the street, but along the conduits it came to Quest that +they were detectives and that they were there by appointment with Keane +Clason. + +"What floor?" asked the latter, with an excitement which Quest felt +instantly was pure pretense. "Are you sure they haven't spirited him +away?" + +"Don't worry," replied the leader of the detectives. "The alley and roof +are covered. We'll take care of the rest ourselves." + +On tiptoe they climbed three long flights of stairs in the half-light. +Clason held back as if in fear. He was a good actor, and Quest felt the +shrinking and hesitation of his body as he crouched and slunk along in +the wake of the detectives, pretending terror at what was about to +happen, though he knew--and Quest knew he knew--that there would be no +resistance up there--that Philip would be found alone exactly as he had +been left by Keane's hired thugs. + +On the top landing Burke, the leader, paused to count the doors from +front to rear. + +"This is it," he whispered to the bull-necked fellow just behind him. + +The other nodded, and crouched back against the opposite wall while his +companions placed themselves in position to cross-fire into the room the +moment the door gave way. + + * * * * * + +Quest longed for the power to kick his hypocrite of a master as he still +held back, cowering on the stairs, playing his fake to the limit. Then +the door flew in with a splintering shriek under the charge of the human +battering ram, and across it hurtled the other two detectives in a cloud +of ancient dust. + +"Here he is!" someone shouted. + +"Phil! Phil!" Keane Clason's voice fairly quavered with sham emotion as +he ran into the room and threw himself at a man tightly bound to an +upholstered chair, which in turn was wedged in among other articles of +stored furniture. + +But Philip was too securely gagged to reply, and as Burke slashed the +ropes from across his chest he dropped forward in a state of collapse. +Stretched on a couch, he soon gave signs of response as a brisk massage +began to restore the circulation to his cramped limbs. Suddenly he sat +up and thrust his rescuers aside. + +"What time is it?" he demanded with an air of alarm. + +"One o'clock," replied Keane before anyone else could answer, patting +his brother affectionately on the shoulder while within him Quest +writhed with indignation. "By Jove! Phil, it's wonderful that we got to +you in time. Really, how--you're not injured?" + +"No," grunted Philip, "just lamed up. I'll be as fit as ever by +to-morrow." + +"If you feel equal to it," suggested Burke, "I wish you'd tell me +briefly how you arrived here. Do you know the motive behind this affair? +Did you recognize any of the body-snatchers?" + + * * * * * + +Philip frowned and shook his head. + +"Yesterday noon," he said slowly, "I took the eight-passenger Airline +Express to Cleveland on business. There were three other passengers in +the cabin--two men and a woman. Right away I got out a correspondence +file and was running over some letters. The next thing I knew I was +approaching the ground in the strangest state of mind I ever +experienced. My head was splitting, and everything looked unreal to me. +Seemed as if I was coming down on some new planet." + +"You mean the ship was gliding down to land?" + +"No, no. I was dangling from a parachute.... By the way, where am I +now?" + +"In a Munson Avenue loft." + +"In Chicago?" + +Burke nodded. + +"I guessed as much," frowned Philip. "You see, I came down in a field, +and then before I could free myself from my trappings I was pounced +on--trussed up and blindfolded--by a gang of men. I knew they had taken +me a long distance by automobile, but I saw nothing more until they tore +the blindfold from my eyes when they left me here." + +"And they were all strangers to you?" + +"Yes--those that I saw." + +"Isn't this enough for just now, Burke?" interrupted Keane, and Quest +received an impression of uneasiness that was not apparent in the +inventor's tone. "After a good rest he's sure to recall things that +escape him now." + +"Just one minute," nodded the detective, turning back to Philip. "Can +you think of no plausible reason for this attack? Is there no one who +might possibly benefit by putting you temporarily out of the way?" + +Philip gave a frightened start. Then he was on his feet, clutching at +his brother's arm. + +"Keane!" he pleaded, "Keane! What's happened? I know, I know! It's the +Projector." + +"Water!" roared Keane, and Quest felt the panic that coursed through him +as he tried to drown out his brother. "Somebody bring water! He needs +it!" + +At the same time he snatched up Philip's hand in a grip of steel. +Instantly the latter's wild eyes became calm, the flush passed from his +relaxing face, and he slumped down weakly on the couch. + + * * * * * + +In that fleeting moment Quest surged into the body of Philip and +confronted his will with a fierce and triumphant ardor. For now his will +would have command of a body with which to fight his fiend of a Control. + +With a sensation of contempt he met Philip's resistance and buffeted him +ruthlessly backward, crushed down and compressed his feebly struggling +will. And as Philip yielded, Quest felt his own will expanding to +normal, taking possession of the borrowed body with hungry greed, and +flashing from its faded eyes the spark of youth. + +Burke stared in amazement at the kaleidoscopic rapidity of the changes +in the rescued man's expression. Strange lights and shadows continued to +flit across Philip's face as Quest's invasion of him proceeded, but with +a diminishing frequency which soon assured Keane that his Agent was +tightening his command. + +The younger of Burke's aides stood fascinated, his mouth agape. The +other spoke guardedly to his superior: + +"Dope, eh!" + +"Nah!" replied Burke, shrugging himself out of his trance. "Shock." + +The actual duration of the conflict in Philip was something less than +three seconds. It would have been more brief if Quest had exerted +himself to the utmost. But his sensations as he first surged into this +new habitat under Keane's propulsion were so weird and unearthly that +for the moment he was lost in the wonder of the experience. For that +short time, therefore, Philip was able to fight back against the onrush +of the invading will. + +In the next second Quest became conscious of the resistance. Urged on by +his Control, he must push Philip back and quell him; but his sympathy +for his opponent and his hatred of Keane roused him to sudden revolt. He +wanted to disobey the Master Will, retreat, leave Philip in command of +himself. But he could only go on, unwillingly thrusting back Philip's +will despite the indescribable torment and confusion in his own. Then, +with the feeling that he was ten times worse than the most inhuman +ghoul, he took full possession of his borrowed body. + +"I'll take him home now," said Keane composedly to Burke. "As you see, +he needs a little extra sleep. Meanwhile, if you have any occasion to +call me, I will be at the factory." + + * * * * * + +To the youthful mind of the Agent, used to the lightness of an athletic +physique, the body in which it moved down the stairs to the limousine +seemed strangely heavy and awkward. + +"I'm badly done up, Keane," he said with Philip's lips as the car got +under way. + +"Bah!" snorted Keane, "you've had a scare, that's all. Go to bed when +you get home and sleep till nine this evening. At ten a man named Dr. +Nukharin will call for you. He will drive you to a garage, leave the +car, and transfer to another one a few blocks away. + +"Out near Marbleton you will find an airplane staked in an open field. +Nukharin is a capable pilot. He will fly back southeast along the +lakeshore to the meeting place. You should arrive about twelve-thirty. +The test is set for one o'clock." + +Quest listened in a state of abject rage. Lacking the power to resist +his Control, he could only boil away in Philip's body like a wild +creature hemmed in by bars of steel. + +"Bring with you," continued Keane venomously, "the set of papers that +you took from the safe in my office. Hold the other set in readiness to +deliver to Nukharin to-morrow, after he has studied the results of the +test and has notified Paris to release a hundred million dollars in +cash for delivery at your Loop office at 3 p. m." + +The murderous greed of the man maddened Quest. He tried to revolt, his +will squirming like a physical thing, threshing the ether like a wounded +shark in the sea. For a moment he felt that he was about to burst the +bonds that his demon of a Control had woven around him. So violently did +he resist that the immured and sporelike will of Philip forged up +fitfully out of the blackness and joined his in the hopeless struggle. +But along the attenuated conduits that still chained Quest to the Master +Will Keane caught the impulse of the mutiny, and his eyes darted flame +as he countered with a will-shock that paralyzed his unruly Agent. + +"Listen! you whimpering dog," he snarled. "Think as I tell you--and +nothing more! You are going to apologize to Dr. Nukharin for your +previous unwillingness to sell the Projector. You are going to tell him +that I am at fault--that I held out--but that you found a way to force +my compliance. You understand?" + +Quest could find no words. With Philip's head he nodded meekly. Just +then the car stopped and the chauffeur threw open the door. + + * * * * * + +Dr. Nukharin flew high despite the masses of cumulus cloud which +frequently reduced visibility to zero. He had merely to follow the rim +of the lake to his destination, and an occasional glimpse of the water +was sufficient to hold him on his course. + +In the back seat hunched Philip, his body crumbling under the weight of +Quest's despair. For hours the latter had gone on vaguely, hoping +somehow to thwart this horrible transaction that was rushing the world +to its doom, thinking he might grow strong enough to wrench himself free +and so liberate Philip from the dominance of his conscienceless brother. +Even though such a move should leave his own will forever separate from +his body, he was ready and anxious to make the sacrifice. + +Suddenly the crash of the motor ceased and Nukharin banked the ship up +in a spiral glide. Quest had never been in the air before, and the long +whirl down into the darkness on this devil's errand was to him as eery +as a ride to perdition in a white-hot projectile. + +His mind seemed to trail out in a great nebular helix behind the +descending ship. He felt that he had suddenly crossed some cosmic +meridian into a new plane of existence, where he was changed to a gas, +yet continued capable of thought. But even here his obsession remained +the same. Keane Clason--trickster, traitor, arch-criminal--must be +destroyed! + +"I'll get him!" vowed Quest in words that were no less real for being +soundless. "I'll trail him to the end of space and bring him to +account!" + + * * * * * + +Then wheels touched earth and the cold, bare facts of his destiny rushed +in on him with redoubled force. He felt the nearness of his Control +seconds before he perceived him through the eyes of Philip. With a +sensation like a stab he realized that now he must speak, play his part, +be any bloodless hypocrite that Keane Clason chose to make him. The +silent order surged down the conduits promptly enough; he responded as +an automaton obeys the pressure of a button. + +"Well, Doctor," chuckled Philip with a cunning leer, "here's the magic +tower, just as I promised you. We'll run it up in a jiffy. This test is +going to be so vivid and conclusive that not even a hard-headed skeptic +like you can raise a question." + +"You misunderstand me," returned Nukharin in an injured tone. "So far as +I am concerned this procedure is only a formality, but it is none the +less necessary. Suppose that I should spend a hundred million of my +government's money and the purchase prove worthless? You may guess that +my folly would cost me dear." + +Keane Clason was waiting on the platform of a giant truck, the motor of +which was idling. All the apparatus was in readiness except that the +three demountable sections of the tower had yet to be run up into +position. + +"One of the beauties of the D. P.," said Philip gleefully to the Doctor, +while Keane smiled slyly to himself, "is that this pint-size dynamo +provides all the current needed for the test. We pick the power for our +radio right out of the air by means of a wave trap and mensurator +invented by this bright little brother of mine," and he clapped Keane +patronizingly on the back. + +"Yes, ah--Dr. Nukharin," ventured Keane timidly, and at that moment +Quest experienced the raging red hatred that causes men to murder. +"Philip has promised me that you will employ this device only as a +threat to hold the ambitions of the larger powers in check." + +"Of course, of course!" replied the Doctor heartily. "But now let's have +the test. Even at night I'm not too fond of these open-air +performances." + + * * * * * + +The height of the tower as they ran the upper sections into place was +forty feet. When all connections had been inspected, first by Keane, +then by Philip, the former led Nukharin aloft. + +As the climax of his plot approached, Keane's excitement bordered on a +cataleptic state, hints of which came confusedly through the conduits to +Quest. With a peculiar satisfaction he felt that Keane was suffering. +The inventor's jaws became rigid, as though his blood had changed to +liquid air and frozen him, and he had difficulty in controlling the +movements of his arms. + +Now he was afraid! Genuinely afraid, this time. Quest caught the impulse +too clearly to doubt its meaning. This was no sham! Keane was doubting +his own machine, fearing that in the crisis some element in the finely +calculated mechanism might fail to operate, thus cheating him of the +blood-money on which his heart was set. Then he was speaking, and even +Nukharin noticed the tremor in his voice: + +"These nine tubes, which look like a row of gun barrels, are molded from +silicon paste. Each shoots a beam of invisible light and a radio dart of +precisely the same wave length. The destructive effect depends chiefly +upon this exactness of synchronization." + +"A question occurs to me," said the Doctor: "will others be able to +manipulate the machine as successfully as you can?" + +"It's fool-proof," chattered Keane, almost losing control of his voice, +"absolutely fool-proof. Surely you have scientists in your country who +can follow written directions! Nothing more is necessary." + +"Very well," shrugged Nukharin. "I only want to be sure that no +unforeseen difficulties may arise in an emergency." + +"See this range-setter?" continued Keane. "The thread on the vertical +shaft enables us not only to limit the range by angling the beams into +the ground, but it can also be disengaged and the Projector revolved in +a flat circle for maximum ranges." + +"And is there no danger of the machine going wrong--of destroying itself +and us?" suggested Nukharin. + +"None whatever, Doctor. There is no explosive force and no great +electrical voltage involved. As long as we stand back of the muzzles we +have nothing to fear. + +"Now look. I have set the micrometer at three hundred yards, which will +just about cover the stretch between ourselves and the lake. I will cut +a swath for you--and every bush, every blade of grass, every insect in +this swath will be withered to ash in the twinkling of an eye. The +destruction will be absolute." + +"Please proceed," said Nukharin grimly. + +Keane pulled a lever in its slot, then pressed it down into its lock as +his projection battery swung lakeward at the desired angle. Then with +one hand poised on another lever, he pressed an electric button. + +At the controls below, a bulb flashed on and off. The signal was +superfluous, for already Quest had received his silent command from the +Master Will. An icy dread fastened on him. He must obey the unspoken +command; he had no will of his own with which to resist. The test would +be a success; the Projector would be sold; the world would be turned +into a shambles. And he, Owen Quest, would be the destroyer, the +murderer, the weak fool who made this horror possible. + +All this flashed through the Agent's mind in the fraction of a second +that it took him to extend Philip's hand, close the switch of the +dynamo, and snap on the alternating lights in the housing over the +tellurium filter. + +For an interminable five seconds he waited, in a ferment of revolt which +the paralysis of his will made it impossible to put into action. Then +again the command pulsed within him, the signal bulb flashed, and he +reversed his motions of the moment before. + +Cold sweat cascaded down Philip's face as Quest felt the ladder +vibrating under descending feet. He longed for the power to hurl Keane +Clason to the ground and turn the Projector upon him. But with an awful +irony the Master Will forced him to his feet, and to speak in a tone +that withered the manhood within him. + +"Come," said Philip in a triumphant tone to Nukharin, "and I will show +you that Clason inventions perform as well as they sound." + +Flashlight in hand, he started toward the lake with Nukharin and his +brother close behind him. Twenty paces, and the long meadow grass +suddenly vanished from beneath their feet. + +"See that!" whispered Philip excitedly, waving the light from side to +side to show the forty-foot swath that stretched away before them. "Not +a trace of life left, not a blade of grass--nothing but dust!" + +The only response was a gurgling sound that issued from Nukharin's +throat. + +"Look!" Quest formed the word with Philip's lips under the urge of the +Master Will. "Here was a tall bush. What do you see now? Just a +teaspoonful of ash. When you examine the remains by daylight, you will +find that even the root has disintegrated to a depth of two feet." + +"Enough of this," croaked Nukharin in horror. "The deal is closed." + +His face was convulsed with fear. Without another word he whirled about +and fled toward his airplane. Philip gave a start as if to follow. + +"Halt! you slob," growled Keane, whose composure had returned with the +successful outcome of the test. "I have use for your company, even +though you are as great a coward as our Slavic friend." + +Coward! The epithet stung Quest like a flaming goad. One of the fine, +intangible lines that bound him under the will of Keane Clason severed, +and his own will exploded into action like a thunderbolt. With startling +agility he whirled Philip about, the flashlight clubbed in his hand. But +Keane was quicker still. A clip on the wrist sent the weapon flying. +Then Philip reeled backward from a kick in the stomach, and his +clutching hands beat the air as he sank unconscious in the dust. + + * * * * * + +With a violent tug, Quest lifted Philip's body to a sitting posture. The +phone was ringing, and by the pull on the will-fibers he knew that Keane +was at the other end of the wire. Philip's body was failing under the +strain of the part it was forced to play, and the blow of the night +before had further weakened it. Now he sat rocking his head painfully +between his hands. But Quest lifted him to his feet by sheer will, and +he staggered across the room. + +"Hello!", he said in a hoarse voice. + +"Get the hell out here to the factory!" rasped Keane, and the crash of +the receiver emphasized the command. + +It was one o'clock as Philip whirled his sedan into Olmstead Avenue. At +three, reflected Quest as the car scorched over the pavements, he must +be at the downtown office to deliver the papers and receive the money. + +Then he was face to face with Keane, reeling dizzily at the hatred that +blazed from the latter's accusing eyes. + +"Double-crossed me, eh!" The voice was a low snarl, and as he spoke +Keane thumped the extra outspread on his desk. "But you're not going to +get away with it--neither of you!" + +Dismay, hope, dread, wonder robbed Quest of the power to speak. But he +whirled around behind the desk with such unexpected violence that Keane +staggered back in alarm. Then he was devouring the screaming headlines +of the newspaper. Three seconds, like a slow exposure, and every word of +the Record's great scoop was etched upon his mind as if with caustic: + + DOOM LAUNCH ADRIFT ON LAKE + + Physician Baffled by Condition of Five Bodies Found in Craft + + Blighted Area on Shore Said to Have Bearing on Tragedy + + THAW HARBOR, IND., June 6.--Five Chicago sportsmen, most of them + prominent in business and society, perished in the early hours this + morning while returning in the launch of A. Gaston Andrews from a + weekend camping party near Hook Spit on the Michigan shore. + + The boat was towed into this port at daybreak by the Interlake Tug + Mordecai after being found adrift less than a mile off shore. + According to Captain Goff of the Mordecai the death craft carried + no lights and he barely avoided running her down. The weather along + the Indiana shore was perfect throughout the night and there is + nothing to indicate that the launch was in trouble at any time. The + bodies are unmarked, and this little community is agog with rumors + ranging all the way from murder and suicide to the supernatural. + + Dr. J. M. Addis of Thaw Harbor, the first physician to examine the + bodies, says that they appear to have suffered some violent + electro-chemical action the nature of which cannot be determined at + the moment. This statement is considered significant in view of the + reported discovery ashore of a large blighted area almost directly + opposite the point where the launch was found. Joseph Sleichert, a + farmer who lives in that vicinity, reports that this patch of + ground extending back from the lakeshore was completely stripped of + vegetation overnight. He ascribes the damage to some unknown insect + pest. Others say that the condition of the ground indicates that it + has been burned at incinerator temperatures. Nothing is left of the + soil but a blue powder. + +Philip faced his brother with eyes that were dull with agony. + +"You have made me a murderer!" Quest forced out the words in painful +gasps. + +But Keane snapped back at him like a rabid dog. + +"You did it--you did it yourself! You tampered with the Projector. You +tried to spoil the test. You changed the range. You tried to kill me, +and instead you killed these others. And you're going to pay--both of +you. You hear me?--you're going to pay!" + +His voice mounted the scale to a scream. It was a wail of unreasoning +terror, of the dread of exposure, of the fear that he would fail to +collect the fortune now so nearly in his grasp. The accident that had +jarred his well-laid plans had unnerved him. + + * * * * * + +Frantically Quest strove to answer him, to explain his utter subjection, +as Agent, to say that if he had possessed the will to oppose or trick +him he would have turned him over to the police, or might even have +killed him, at the very outset. But in his frenzy, Keane had so +tightened his control that Quest was speechless. Now he tried to +substitute gesture for words, but Philip was rooted to the spot like a +statue; even his hands were immovable. + +He might have remained in this state indefinitely had not Keane's fears +withdrawn his mind from his immediate surroundings. Momentarily he +forgot Quest, Philip--everything but himself and his predicament. And in +the instant that his vigilance relaxed, Quest's enslaved will +experienced a sudden lease of strength and hope. Independently of his +Control, he found that he could move Philip's hand, could take a +faltering step. + +But now, what to do? How might he fan this feeble spark of volition to +sufficient strength for decisive resistance? The idea came to him: if +only he could place distance between himself and Keane, perhaps with one +titanic effort he might launch himself against the Master Will, take him +by surprise, crush him down, and reverse him to the status of Agent +instead of Control. + +With infinite effort Quest forced Philip's body step by step across the +room. He must reach that window, get a signal of distress to someone in +the street. + +But Keane began to sense a mutiny. He followed. He crossed the floor +with slinking, tigerish steps and snaking body. His wet lips writhed +back over his teeth, and his contorted features wove the leer of the +abyss. Now as his Control drew physically near, Quest felt his mite of +strength ebbing fast. Slowly Keane reached up with his clawed fingers +and grasped his Agent by the arm. + +"Remember!" he hissed, "if these deaths are traced to us, you break +down--you confess--you take the blame--you paint me lily white--you +describe the cowardly means by which you moulded me to your will--you +plead only for a quick trial and the full penalty of the law. You +understand?" + +Quest made no reply, but he understood all too well the hideous +intention of his betrayer. What a fool he had been to imagine that Keane +Clason would ever restore him to his body! Philip to the chair, Quest a +homeless spirit wandering in space, and for the body at the bottom of +the tank, the brief regrets of the Department! + + * * * * * + +A sudden rushing sound filled the air with a sense of action and alarm. + +Two--three--four speeding automobiles swung in recklessly to the curb +and shrieked to a standstill under smoking brakes. Men leaped out and +deployed on the run to surround the factory. Keane darted to the door +and twisted the key. + +"Come on!" he spat at Philip as he snatched back the rug and threw open +the trap door. + +The command galvanized Quest to action. In two bounds he had Philip on +the stairs. A heavy impact rattled the office door just as he dropped +the trap into place over his head. Then, infected with Keane's panic, he +was running down the passageway like mad. + +Inside the tank chamber the brilliantly colored rings of liquid flashed +back the rays of the arclight. Half crazed with anxiety, Keane danced on +the black ledge like a monkey on a griddle. His face was ashen, drool +ran from his twisted mouth, his eyes were two black pools of terror. + +Again Quest experienced the peculiar sensation which came with the +slackening of control. New hope sprang up in his agonized being as heavy +blows boomed against the air-locked door. Great waves of fear poured +along the conduits, betraying to the Agent the state of mind of his +Control. Now what would Keane do? What could he do? Why, of all places, +had he fled down into this blind burrow? + +Thud, thud! Then came a series of sharp reports. Outside, they were +trying to shoot away the deep-sunk disk hinges. + +Still the door stood fast, but the fury of the assault on it whipped the +faltering Keane to action. In a bound he was on the platform. With a +lightning hand he threw the switch to plus, starting electrolytic action +in the tank. Then he pressed a button concealed under the edge of the +switch-mount and a panel slid silently aside in the wall, revealing a +narrow outlet. + + * * * * * + +To Quest everything went a flaming red. He might have known that this +fox would have something in reserve--a way of escape when danger +threatened! + +But his Control gave him no time for independent thought. He forced +Quest to turn Philip's eyes up to his own. Without disconnecting that +grip of his glittering eyes, Keane leaped back to the ledge. Quest felt +the silent order: + +"Get up on that plank! Dive into the tank! Get back into your own body, +let Philip have his! Then come up--the two of you--and face the music. +For I'll be gone, and your story will sound like the ravings of a +maniac." + +Quest took an obedient step toward the platform. But at the same instant +a tremendous crash shivered the door. It seemed to unnerve Keane Clason. +With a gasp he sank down upon the steps, his body doubled in pain, his +hand clutching at his heart. Another crash followed, and he shuddered +and cried out. + +Instantly Quest felt an expansion of the will. Keane's sudden physical +weakness had loosened his control. Philip's lips worked painfully as +Quest forced him to pause, to disobey the command of the Master Will. In +a spasm of will he fought to wrench himself free from the countless +clinging tentacles of his Control. In great surges, Quest's reviving +volition pounded against the walls of his borrowed body. Now he sought +to force this sluggish body back to the wall, so that he might release +the airlock and spring the door. But Philip seemed to ossify, every cord +and muscle of his body frozen to stone by the conflict that raged within +him. + +Braced against the wall, Keane was rising slowly to his feet. His +seizure was easing, and so he was able to exert a better pressure upon +his rebellious Agent. + +"Come!" he gasped, realizing that he lacked the strength to escape alone +and must therefore change his plan. "Lift me--quick! Carry me out! Slide +the panel back into place. We will escape together!" + + * * * * * + +The spoken command turned the balance against Quest. His will yielded to +the master. At the same instant Philip's body relaxed like an object +relieved of a great excess of electrical potential. Suddenly strong and +supple, he lifted the trembling Keane and tossed him across his +shoulder. + +For a moment there had been a lull in the assault on the door. Now the +battering resumed with a fury that jarred the whole chamber and sent +ripples dancing across the varicolored liquids in the osmotic tank. + +"Quick!" gasped Keane. "Move! I say. Carry me out." + +But he was in a fainting condition. Crash after crash rocked the +chamber, and with every blow Quest's will felt a stimulation that +enabled him to stand off the commands of his Control. Then a wave of +nausea swept over him and left him reeling. It seemed that Philip's +blood had turned to boiling oil. A dazzling mist swallowed him up, and +with a weird sense of inflation he felt full strength returning to his +will. + +A booming blow that bulged the door inward acted upon him like a stage +player's cue. He leaped to the platform. The gurgling sound of +remonstrance rattled from Keane's throat. But Quest paid no heed. Philip +was walking the plank--away from the open panel--out over the tank. + +Rapidly he dropped down the ladder to the bottom rung, snatched Keane's +wrist in a gorillalike grip, and hurled him down into the vat. + +Then Philip was clinging desperately to the ladder, his strength gone, +his body shivering as if with ague. + +"Go on up!" came a strange, impatient voice from below him. "For +heaven's sake let me out of here!" + + * * * * * + +A downward glance, and with a shout of alarm Philip was scrambling up +the ladder, for there was a head down there, and a pair of naked +shoulders, and the face of a man he had never seen before. Hand over +hand Quest followed. Philip had collapsed and lay prone on the plank. +Quest lifted him to his feet and shook him anxiously. + +"Philip!" he urged. "Philip! Can you walk?" + +The tattoo on the battered door helped to revive the older man. + +"Quick!" whispered Quest, kneading Philip's arms. "There's barely an +hour left. Get to your office. Burn the papers. Refuse the money. Do you +hear me?" + +Philip nodded dazedly. + +"Hurry!" puffed Quest, thrusting him through the opening that Keane had +reserved for his own escape, and sliding the panel back into place. + +Quest was himself now--young, strong, free. Instantly he threw the +electrolytic switch to minus. For Keane had failed to emerge from the +tank, and since he was submerged alone, he could not escape until +electrolysis was halted. + +Just as Quest leaped from the platform to release the airlock, the door +burst in and three men with drawn guns rushed into the chamber. + +The leader stopped with a startled oath and stood blinking his +unbelieving eyes. Quest was poised like a statue, his naked body +gleaming an unearthly white against the lusterless black of the wall. + +"Quest," came from the three in chorus. Then a rush of questions: +"What's the matter? What's happened to you? Where are the Clasons?" + +Quest turned toward the platform, expecting to see Keane. + +"Something's wrong!" he shouted. "Quick! Somebody get Philip. He's gone +to his Loop office. Keane Clason's at the bottom of this tank. I'm not +sure how this thing works, but Philip can get him out! I'm sure of it!" + + * * * * * + +Despite the confident predictions of both Quest and Philip Clason, +osmotic association failed to restore Keane to life, and at last the +coroner ordered the removal of the body. The autopsy revealed heart +disease as the cause of his death. + +For reasons best understood at Washington, the cause of the five launch +deaths was withheld from the public. Quest's punishment for his part in +the crime consisted of a promotion and a warm personal letter from the +President of the United States. + + + + +Compensation + +By C. V. Tench + +[Illustration: _Good God! Was I going mad? Surely this was some awful +nightmare!_] + +[Sidenote: Professor Wroxton had disappeared--but in the bottom of the +mysterious crystal cage lay the diamond from his ring.] + + +"Why, John!" Involuntarily I halted at the entrance to my snug bachelor +quarters as the flood of light my turning of the switch produced +revealed a huddled figure slumped in an easy chair. + +"Aye, sir, 'tis me." The man got to his feet, gnarled hands rubbing at +his eyes. "An' 'tis all day that I've been waiting for you, sir. The +caretaker said you'd be back soon so let me in. I must have fell asleep, +an' no wonder, what with the strain an' no sleep or rest all last +night." + +"Strain? No rest?" I stared my bewilderment, trying at the same time to +conceal the vague apprehensions occasioned by the fact that the trusted +servitor of my friend, Professor Wroxton, should wait all day for me. + +Hastily shedding my outer things, I bade him again be seated, sat down +facing him, and asked him to explain. + +"'Tis the professor, sir." The old chap peered at me with anxious, +wrinkled eyes. "'Tis common enough for him to send me here on messages, +sir, but to-day I've come on my own, because, sir," answering the +question in my eyes, "I haven't seen sight of him since last night." + +"Why--" I began. + +"That's just it, sir." John took the words out of my mouth. "For twenty +years my wife an' me have looked after the professor at The Grange. In +all that time he's never been away at night. Whenever he had to come to +town he'd tell us. Most times I'd drive him myself in the old car. But +that was very seldom, sir, for Professor Wroxton had few interests +outside." + + * * * * * + +"But, John," I protested "is there no other reason for your agitation? +He might have had an urgent call, or gone out for a walk or drive by +himself." + +"No, sir. If you'll pardon me, sir, you're wrong. The professor was +fixed in his habits. He would not go away without tellin' me. Think +back, sir, you know the professor as well as me. Better, because you are +his friend and I am only a servant. Although, sir," this proudly, "he +always treated me as a friend." + +"Go on," I urged, seeing he was not finished. + +"Well, sir, a few minutes back you asked me if there was no other reason +for my being upset like. There is, sir. You know, sir, that for more'n +twenty years the professor has led a retired sort of life; the life of +a--a--" + +"Recluse," I suggested. + +"That's it, sir. He only left The Grange when he had to. He was all +wrapped up in some weird-like thing he was inventing. In all those +years, sir, you were the only visitor who ever went into his laboratory, +or stayed at The Grange for a night or more. That is, sir, until three +days ago." + +"Go on," I again urged, some of his perturbation communicating itself to +me. + +"The Grange, sir, lying as it does, fifteen miles from town an' back in +its own grounds away from the road, isn't noted by many. When strangers +do get into the grounds I usually gets 'em out again in short order. +Three days ago, sir, a stranger drove up to the door in a fine car. He +told me he was wantin' to purchase a country home. I told him The Grange +was not for sale an' turned 'im away. He was turning his car to leave +when my master came out. To my surprise, sir, he invited the stranger +in. An' I'm sure, sir, because he looked so taken aback like, that the +stranger had never seen the professor before." + +"And after that?" I asked, now feeling decidedly uneasy. + +"The stranger, sir--a Mr. Lathom he called himself--stayed on. He was in +the study with the master last night. This morning there was no trace of +either of them." + +"But--good God, John!" I jerked to my feet, a fresh dread clutching at +my heart. "What are you trying to get at? The professor and Mr. Lathom +might possibly have driven away somewhere last night." + +"Both cars, sir," the servant answered, "are in the garage. I bolt all +the doors in the house myself every night. They were still fastened this +morning. My wife an' me searched the house from cellar to garret an' +hunted all over the grounds. We couldn't find a trace of the master or +his guest." + +"You mean to suggest then," I shot at him, "that two full grown men have +completely vanished? It's absurd, John, absurd!" + + * * * * * + +I paced the floor thinking desperately for a few minutes, conscious of +the ancient's anxious eyes. I half smiled. The thing was too ridiculous +for anything. Old John had grown morbid from living away from the outer +world. Also, I had to admit that the atmosphere of The Grange, +impregnated as it was with the lethal scientific dabblings of my friend, +was exactly suited to the conjuring up of unhealthy forebodings in +uneducated minds. I'd drive out to the home of my friend at once. No +doubt I'd find him fit and well. He had refused to install a phone, so +drive it had to be. + +"John." I stopped my pacing and patted him on the shoulder. "I'm coming +out to The Grange at once." His face showed his thankfulness. "I am +sure," I went on as I struggled into my coat, "that we shall find the +professor and his guest awaiting us. Anyway, it's time you got back to +your wife and had some food." + +"I hope to Heaven, sir, that you're right." With that we left the +building and entered my car. + +Although I had tried to dispel my fears, although I had tried to banter +John out of his dread, I drove that evening as I had never driven before +or since. Barely fifteen minutes later I halted my roadster at the short +flight of steps leading to the main door of The Grange. Even as we +stepped from the machine the door flung open and an agitated woman +hurried towards us. She was Mary, John's wife. + +"Sir!" She gripped my arm and stared anxiously into my face. "'Tis glad +I am that you've come. The Grange is a house of death." + +In spite of myself a chill shook my whole body. Gently handing her to +John, I strode up the steps. + +At the open doorway I halted, the aged couple crowding on my heels, the +woman still babbling about death. I couldn't blame her. All day she had +been alone in that gloomy, rambling old building, wondering, no doubt, +why John and I had not returned sooner. + + * * * * * + +And gloomy the house was. Always, even when staying there at the +professor's request, I had found it to be somber and depressing, as if +there lurked within its walls the shadowy wings of the years-old tragedy +that had caused my friend to retire to such a God-forsaken place, and +there become absorbed in his scientific experiments. + +Even now, as I gazed into the dimly-lighted hallway, the air seemed +charged with that same malignant something I cannot describe. + +Pulling myself together I strode quickly along the corridor, and flung +open the study door. The lights being full on, one glance sufficed to +show me that my friend was not there. Swinging on my heel, the horror I +saw in the eyes of the servants, honest, healthy folks not easily +frightened, conveyed itself to me. Somehow, the sight of that room, +lights on, chairs drawn up to the burnt-out fire, brought home to me the +fact that something serious was amiss. I chided myself for thinking John +had been unduly agitated. + +For a moment I stood, trying to conceal the chill coursing through my +veins, puzzling what to do next. I decided to search the house +thoroughly. If I found no sign of the professor or his guest, I would +call in the police. + +Fearfully yet willingly the aged couple led me from room to room, from +attic to basement, until but one place remained--the laboratory. I +hesitated for several seconds at the closed door of my friend's +workroom. Not that I had never entered the--to a layman's +eyes--weirdly-appointed place. I had been in many times with the +professor. But this time I dreaded what I might find. + + * * * * * + +Pulling myself together, I gently tried the door. To my horror it +yielded to my touch. Alive, the professor always kept it locked. A new +dread assailed me, as, flinging the door wide open, I blinked in the +sudden glare of powerful globes. Someone had left the lights full on! + +Horrified I stood and stared, knowing by their heavy breathing that the +aged couple were also staring with fright-widened eyes. Afraid of what? +I did not know. I only knew that the atmosphere had become even more +sinister. I knew that something dreadful had taken place in that room. + +Trembling with consternation I forced myself to take a few steps +forward, then I again stared about me. At one end of the large room +something shone brightly in the glow of the lights. Slowly I walked +across to examine it: it appeared to be a glass case, almost like a +show-case, about eight feet square and seven feet in height. With the +mechanical actions of the mentally distraught I walked all around it. +Not the slightest sign of an entrance could I see. The fact intrigued +me. I tapped lightly on the highly polished surface with my fingers. It +rang to my touch like cut glass. + +Through the transparent surface I could see John and his wife. They were +watching me furtively, wondering, no doubt, why I lingered. As I looked +at them John suddenly lumbered up to the case on the opposite side. +Dropping to his knees, he stared. Turning an imploring gaze to me, he +pointed. His lips moved soundlessly. I followed the pointing finger with +my eyes; gasped at what I saw. + +Near the center of the cage, on the floor constructed of the same +crystalline substance, something glittered, its brilliance almost +dazzling as the light rays struck it. My face pressed close to the cold +outer surface of the structure, my shocked intelligence gradually +realized what that small sparkling object was. It was a magnificent +diamond--and the professor had always worn a diamond ring! + + * * * * * + +In a sudden frenzy of horror I pawed my way around the cage to where +John still knelt. As I reached him he jerked his head in a numb way as +he croaked, "It's a diamond, sir! The professor's!" + +"But how?" I implored. "How can it be? There's no way into this thing. +Perhaps he was working here, and the stone came loose from its setting. +He couldn't have dropped it after the cage was completed." + +"It's his diamond, sir," intoned the old man, dully. "I know it is." + +Then a sudden unreasoning terror filled me. I shrank away from that +shining box. It seemed to be mocking me, gloatingly, malevolently. + +"Quickly!" I threw at the aged couple. "Let us get out of here! Now! At +once!" They needed no second urging. I knew that they felt as I felt: +the laboratory was a sepulcher! + +Five minutes later I was guiding my car over the narrow road to town. I +did not pause until I drew up at police headquarters. I suppose my +appearance was distraught, for I was ushered into the presence of the +chief without delay. In a few moments I had poured out my story. He +listened with a polite calmness I found almost maddening. Leaning back +in his chair, he reviewed, audibly, the facts. + +"Some twenty-odd years ago your friend, Professor Wroxton, married. He +was so absorbed in the pursuit of some weird invention that he neglected +his bride. She ran away with another man. This man deserted her, and +disappeared. The professor found her many months later, in desperate +health. Shortly afterwards she died. Your friend tried to trail the man, +but failed. Shocked and saddened beyond measure, he retired to a place +known as The Grange." + + * * * * * + +He suddenly straightened up in his seat, and pointed at me a thick +forefinger. + +"How long have you known Professor Wroxton?" + +"About ten years," I answered. + +"What was he trying to invent?" + +"I don't know," I replied. + +"And yet you had his confidence in other matters?" + +"But what has all this to do with finding out what has become of my +friend?" I blurted out. "Perhaps every moment counts." + +"A lot." The chief eyed me in a way I did not like. "Solely because your +friend has not been seen by his servants for nearly twenty-four hours, +merely because you saw what you believe to be his diamond in some kind +of a glass compartment in his laboratory, you come here as distraught as +a man who has something terrible on his mind. Why?" + +"I can't say." I shifted uneasily under that direct stare. "Somehow I +_feel_ that something dreadful has happened to my friend." + +"We do not go by _feelings_." The chief got to his feet. "But you have +told me enough to warrant action. I want you to guide me and a couple of +men to this house. Please wait here until I return." He left the room. + +Sitting there awaiting his return, I tried to ponder the matter +reasonably. After all, perhaps the chief was right. Merely because the +professor had been absent for a few hours and I had seen what I thought +to be his diamond in the laboratory, I had worked myself into a perfect +fever of anxiety. I almost smiled to myself. In that businesslike office +the whole affair did seem absurd. After all the professor did not have +to answer to his servants for his actions. + +Heavy footsteps, announcing the chief's return, caused me to rise to my +feet. A few minutes later, in company with the three officers, I was +driving again towards The Grange. + + * * * * * + +We made the return journey in almost complete silence. Occasionally the +chief would shoot a question at me; but, the night air cooling my +fevered brain, my replies were guarded. He realized that fact, for I +felt his eyes upon me all the way. What was going on behind that broad +forehead, I wondered. + +Then we reached The Grange. As we mounted the steps, John, his wife +herding behind him, flung wide the door. He answered the question in my +eyes with a negative shake of his head, and the words, "Nothing fresh, +sir." + +The chief eyed him keenly, then curtly bade him lead the way to the +laboratory. John hung back, his face blanched. "I can't, sir," he +faltered. The chief turned to me, and, although I wanted to follow +John's example, although the atmosphere of the house had again filled me +with an unshakable dread, I led the way, standing back at the door to +allow the officers to enter first. + +With calculating gaze the chief slowly took in every detail of the stone +apartment. He turned to me. + +"What is there here to be afraid of?" I pointed hesitatingly towards the +crystalline cage. The chief and his men strode across to it. + +"You don't know how to open this?" the chief shot at me after a brief +examination. + +"No," I replied. "It was not here on my last visit." + +"When was that?" + +"Some two or three months ago", I answered. "My work occasions much +traveling on my part." + + * * * * * + +The chief and his men turned again to the cage, talking in undertones. +He turned again to me. + +"You notice that this thing is built in sections. One of them must be +movable. Perhaps--" He paused as his eyes fell upon some wires and tubes +that trailed across the floor from underneath the cage to a switchboard +fastened to the wall. + +"Perhaps," he repeated, "it is worked from that board." He crossed over, +stared thoughtfully at the shining levers for some seconds, and moved +one slightly. The result was astounding. All four of us stared with +unbelieving eyes as slowly, without the faintest sound, a section of one +wall slid inwards, as if guided by invisible tracks on floor and +ceiling. + +"Guess that's enough for now." With the words the chief backed away, +almost timidly, I thought, from the switchboard, and walked to the cage. +For a moment he hesitated, but he entered, and emerged with the +sparkling object in his hand. + +"It's the professor's," I choked, crowding close to him. + +"How'd you know?" he shot back. "All unset stones look pretty much +alike." + +"I just know," was all I could falter. + +"You 'just know'." The chief sat down on a stool and regarded me +searchingly. "Mr. Thornton, when I started out with you, I thought I was +on a wild goose chase or the trail of a confession. You looked exactly +like a man who had either committed a serious crime, or was getting over +a bad drunk. I feel sure now"--he again regarded the diamond--"that your +story was not the product of an alcohol-crazed brain. Come on!" He +lurched to his feet, and grasped me by the shoulder. "Come through!" + + * * * * * + +Without answering, I wrenched myself free. Over my shoulder I saw one of +the policemen at the door. In the hand of the other a revolver suddenly +appeared. Good God! I glared in bewilderment from one to another. Was I +going mad? Surely this was some awful nightmare! What had I said to make +them suspect me of having committed a revolting crime? + +"Sit down!" The command came from the chief. Mechanically I found a +stool, and obeyed him. "Hold your stations, boys, and listen carefully," +he ordered his men. Then he turned to me. + +"Professor Wroxton was a wealthy man without kith or kin?" + +"Yes." + +"Do you know the nature of his will?" + +"Yes." Chilled to the heart, I felt the circumstantial net tightening. + +"What is its nature?" + +"This house and an annuity to John and his wife," I explained. "The +residue of his wealth to me." + +"Humph!" The chief stared at me piercingly. "And how has business been +with you lately?" + +Damn the man! What right had he to put me through the third degree? I +felt my state of dazed horror slowly giving way to anger. I glanced +around. The pistol still menaced; the man at the door had not moved. It +was useless to try and evade the questions. + +"For the past year," I replied, "business has been very poor. In fact, +the professor advanced me some money." + +"Humph!" Again that irritating, non-committal grunt. + + * * * * * + +The chief turned in his seat and stared thoughtfully at the crystalline +cage. + +"And you don't know what the professor was trying to invent?" + +"Only its nature," I began. + +"Ah! That's better. Why didn't you tell me that before?" The chief +leaned forward. + +"Well," I explained, "the whole thing seems so absurd. When the +professor told me how his married life had been broken up, he told me +that at that time he reached the utmost depths of human suffering. +Absolute zero, he called it." + +"Ah!" + +"The experiments he indulged in," I continued, trying to hide the shiver +pimpling my flesh, "were to produce an actual state of absolute zero. It +is years since he told me this. I had almost forgotten it." + +"And exactly what is an absolute zero?" The chief's eyes never left +mine. + +"Well," I protested, "please understand that I also am a layman in these +matters. According to my friend, an absolute zero has been the dream of +scientists for ages. Once upon a time it was attained, but the secret +became lost." + +"And exactly what is an absolute zero?" + +Curse the man! I could have struck him down for the chilling level of +his tone. I forced myself to go on, realizing that I was damning myself +at every step. + +"An absolute zero is a cold so intense it will destroy flesh, bone and +tissue. Remove them," my voice rose in spite of myself, "leaving +absolutely no trace." + + * * * * * + +No trace! Something attracted my eyes. The chief had opened his hand. +The diamond there flashed and sparkled as if mocking me. I pulled myself +together, and went on. + +"It all comes back to me now. One day I came out here and found the +professor terribly distraught. He told me that, with the aid of electric +currents he had been able to invent the absolute zero, but he could not +invent a _container_." + +"Why?" Those eyes continued to bore into mine. + +"Because--remember it is years since he told me this--there was +difficulty in controlling the power. Besides destroying living things, +it would destroy bricks and mortar, stone and iron. Only one substance +it could not wipe out--crystalline of diamond hardness. + +"I know, now!" I jumped to my feet and grabbed the chief's arm. "I know +now what he meant. Fool, fool! Why did I not think of it before? This--" +I swung towards the cage--"is compensation." Almost panting in my +eagerness I went on: + +"My friend told me that the law of compensation would atone to him for +the tragedy of his youth. Absolute zero in suffering would be atoned for +by a real state of absolute zero. Chief!" I whirled on him. "Don't you +understand? This is the perfected dream of my friend. It is the absolute +zero." + +"Humph! Plausible but not convincing." I slumped back at the officer's +words. "That does not explain the professor's disappearance. Even if it +did, what about Mr. Lathom? And don't forget this contrivance is worked +from outside. We found the diamond inside. Of course, he might have +placed it there himself to test the machine," he concluded. + +"Of course, that's it," I commenced. But I regretted the words when I +saw suspicion flicker again in the chief's eyes. Lamely I finished, "And +he has probably rushed off, in an ecstasy of triumph, to acquaint +professional colleagues." + +"Without unlocking any doors or taking a car, eh? + +"Mr. Thornton." The chief stood up and regarded me sternly. "As a +sensible man, don't you think yourself that your story is a bit thin? +The professor has disappeared. Here is a strange-looking case which you +say is an absolute zero container. Whether you know, or are just jumping +at conclusions, remains to be proved. But even if it is, do you think +that, after perfecting such a tremendous invention, the professor would +commit suicide?" + +"On the contrary," I gasped, "my friend was a man of gentle, kindly +disposition, but strong purpose. I should think his first action on +attaining his life's ambition would be to notify me, his closest +friend." + +"And he didn't." Every word condemned me, and roused me to retaliate. + +"Chief, I know enough of the law to know that, before you can try a man +for murder, you must prove that murder has been committed." I grinned +savagely. "You must have the corpus delicti. Go ahead! Find my friend or +his remains, or else withdraw your charges." I grinned again, with +shocked mirthlessness. + + * * * * * + +Then I buried my head in my hands. I had called in the police to help +find the professor, and they had only blundered around and asked a lot +of stupid questions. The chief had practically accused me of +murder--something I knew he could not prove, yet feared he might. +Because I had told the chief of the locked doors and unused cars, he had +confined his investigations to the house itself. + +He interrupted my thoughts. + +"Mr. Thornton, I am going back to town. You will remain here with my +men. I advise you to get some sleep, as I shall not be able to carry out +certain investigations until the morning. One of my men will spend his +time searching the house and patrolling the grounds, the other one will +stay here with you." + +He turned away, whispered some instructions to his men, and, followed by +one of them, silently left the laboratory. I started to protest, tried +to follow him; the man at the door stopped me. Silently, almost grimly, +he indicated a narrow cot at one end of the room. For a moment I +hesitated, feeling the man's eyes upon me. + +Sleep on my dead--I felt sure he was dead--friend's cot! Sleep in that +fearful place! My whole being crawled with horror. I turned again to the +man. His features were unyielding. Perhaps this was more third degree. +Limp with weakness and weariness, I dragged my lagging feet towards the +cot. + + * * * * * + +As long as I live I shall never forget my awakening. A uniformed figure, +the chief, shaking me by the shoulder. Two other uniformed men silently +watching. I sat up and gazed about me, dazedly. Bright sunlight streamed +through the windows. A stray gleam struck the cage. I shrank back, +trembling. And yet I had slept soundly. + +"Mr. Thornton," the chief said, "I have serious news for you. I have +positive proof your friend is dead." + +"Dear God!" The exclamation was wrung from me as recollection returned +with a rush. "Where? You can't have!" + +"Here." He thrust a bundle of letters into my hands. "You acted so +strangely last night you caused me to suspect you of a serious crime. +Also, you overlooked several important points. You got back from a trip +only last night." + +Last night! Surely it was years. + +"You had left instructions to have your mail forwarded," the level voice +went on. "These letters were evidently one day behind you. I picked them +up at your rooms this morning. I took the liberty of opening them. Read +this one." He selected it. + + * * * * * + +With trembling fingers I extracted from the envelope a single written +page. I recognized the handwriting as the professor's. I read with +feverish intensity, each single word burning itself into my +consciousness: + + Dear Thornton: + + I am writing this in anticipation. I will see that it is mailed + when my plans are completed. Too late, dear friend, for you to + attempt, with the best intentions in the world, to frustrate them. + + You will, perhaps, recall that many years ago, when I gave you my + full confidence, I told you that I felt sure that the law of + compensation would atone in some measure for my loss. Thornton, old + friend, I believe that, in more ways than one, my hour has arrived. + Two days ago I completed the absolute zero. But even better! + + A man called here to-day. Although he did not recognize me, I saw + through the veneer of added years with ease. Fate, call it what you + will, my visitor is the man who wrecked my happiness. + + Under pretext I shall detain him. I shall induce him to enter the + crystalline cage. I have already arranged a dual control which the + power will destroy when I apply it from _the inside of the cage_. + + Please destroy the cage. It will have brought compensation to me + before you read this. + + Good-by, dear friend! + + Wroxton. + +"I apologize, Mr. Thornton." The chief offered a hand which I clutched +in mingled sorrow and relief. The world had lost a genius. I had lost a +dear friend. But he was right. It was compensation. + + + + +Tanks + +_By Murray Leinster_ + + ... The deciding battle of the War of 1932 was the first in which + the use of infantry was practically discontinued ... + + --History of the U.S., 1920-1945 (Gregg-Harley). + + +[Illustration: _Row after row of the monsters roared by, going greedily +with hungry guns into battle._] + +[Sidenote: Two miles of American front had gone dead. And on two lone +infantrymen, lost in the menace of the fog-gas and the tanks, depended +the outcome of the war of 1932.] + + +The persistent, oily smell of fog-gas was everywhere, even in the little +pill-box. Outside, all the world was blotted out by the thick gray mist +that went rolling slowly across country with the breeze. The noises that +came through it were curiously muted--fog-gas mutes all noises +somewhat--but somewhere to the right artillery was pounding something +with H E shell, and there were those little spitting under-current +explosions that told of tanks in action. To the right there was a +distant rolling of machine-gun fire. In between was an utter, solemn +silence. + +Sergeant Coffee, disreputable to look at and disrespectful of mien, was +sprawling over one of the gunners' seats and talking into a field +telephone while mud dripped from him. Corporal Wallis, equally muddy and +still more disreputable, was painstakingly manufacturing one complete +cigarette from the pinched-out butts of four others. Both were +rifle-infantry. Neither had any right or reason to be occupying a +definitely machine-gun-section post. The fact that the machine-gun crew +was all dead did not seem to make much difference to sector H.Q. at the +other end of the telephone wire, judging from the questions that were +being asked. + +"I tell you," drawled Sergeant Coffee, "they're dead.... Yeah, all dead. +Just as dead as when I told you the firs' time, maybe even deader.... +Gas, o'course. I don't know what kind.... Yeh. They got their masks +on." + +He waited, looking speculatively at the cigarette Corporal Wallis had in +manufacture. It began to look imposing. Corporal Wallis regarded it +affectionately. Sergeant Coffee put his hand over the mouthpiece, and +looked intently at his companion. + +"Gimme a drag o' that, Pete," he suggested. "I'll slip y' some butts in +a minute." + + * * * * * + +Corporal Wallis nodded, and proceeded to light the cigarette with +infinite artistry. He puffed delicately upon it, inhaled it with the +care a man learns when he has just so much tobacco and never expects to +get any more, and reluctantly handed it to Sergeant Coffee. + +Sergeant Coffee emptied his lungs in a sigh of anticipation. He put the +cigarette to his lips. It burned brightly as he drew upon it. Its tip +became brighter and brighter until it was white-hot, and the paper +crackled as the line of fire crept up the tube. + +"Hey!" said Corporal Wallis in alarm. + +Sergeant Coffee waved him aside, and his chest expanded to the fullest +limit of his blouse. When his lungs could hold no more he ceased to +draw, grandly returned about one-fourth of the cigarette to Corporal +Wallis, and blew out a cloud of smoke in small driblets until he had to +gasp for breath. + +"When y' ain't got much time," said Sergeant Coffee amiably, "that's a +quick smoke." + +Corporal Wallis regarded the ruins of his cigarette with a woeful air. + +"Hell!" said Corporal Wallis gloomily. But he smoked what was left. + +"Yeah," said Sergeant Coffee suddenly, into the field telephone, "I'm +still here, an' they're still dead.... Listen, Mr. Officer, I got me a +black eye an' numerous contusions. Also my gas-mask is busted. I called +y'up to do y' a favor. I aim to head for distant parts.... Hell's bells! +Ain't there anybody else in the army--" He stopped, and resentment died +out in wide-eyed amazement. "Yeh.... Yeh.... Yeh.... I gotcha, Loot. +A'right, I'll see what I c'n do. Yeh.... Wish y'd see my insurance gets +paid. Yeh." + +He hung up, gloomily, and turned to Corporal Wallis. + +"We' got to be heroes," he announced bitterly. "Sit out here in th' +stinkin' fog an' wait for a tank t' come along an' wipe us out. We' the +only listenin' post in two miles of front. That new gas o' theirs wiped +out all the rest without report." + +He surveyed the crumpled figures, which had been the original occupants +of the pill-box. They wore the same uniform as himself and when he took +the gas-mask off of one of them the man's face was strangely peaceful. + +"Hell of a war," said Sergeant Coffee bitterly. "Here our gang gets +wiped out by a helicopter. I ain't seen sunlight in a week, an' I got +just four butts left. Lucky I started savin' 'em." He rummaged shrewdly. +"This guy's got half a sack o' makin's. Say, that was Loot'n't Madison +on the line, then. Transferred from our gang a coupla months back. They +cut him in the line to listen in on me an' make sure I was who I said I +was. He recognized my voice." + + * * * * * + +Corporal Wallis, after smoking to the last and ultimate puff, pinched +out his cigarette and put the fragments of a butt back in his pocket. + +"What we got to do?" he asked, watching as Sergeant Coffee divided the +treasure-trove into two scrupulously exact portions. + +"Nothin'," said Coffee bitterly, "except find out how this gang got +wiped out, an' a few little things like that. Half th' front line is in +th' air, the planes can't see anything, o'course, an' nobody dares cut +th' fog-gas to look. He didn't say much, but he said for Gawd's sake +find out somethin'." + +Corporal Wallis gloated over one-fourth of a sack of tobacco and stowed +it away. + +"Th' infantry always gets th' dirty end of the stick," he said gloomily. +"I'm goin' to roll me a whole one, pre-war, an' smoke it, presently." + +"Hell yes," said Coffee. He examined his gas-mask from force of habit +before stepping out into the fog once more, then contemptuously threw it +aside. "Gas-masks, hell! Ain't worth havin'. Come on." + +Corporal Wallis followed as he emerged from the little round cone of +the pill-box. + +The gray mist that was fog-gas hung over everything. There was a +definite breeze blowing, but the mist was so dense that it did not seem +to move. It was far enough from the fog-flares for the last least trace +of striation to have vanished. Fifteen miles to the north the fog-flares +were placed, ranged by hundreds and by thousands, burning one after +another as the fog service set them off, and sending out their +incredible masses of thick gray vapor in long threads that spread out +before the wind, coalesced, and made a smoke-screen to which the puny +efforts of the last war--the war that was to make the world safe for +democracy--were as nothing. + +Here, fifteen miles down wind from the flares, it was possible to see +clearly in a circle approximately five feet in diameter. At the edge of +that circle outlines began to blur. At ten feet all shapes were the +faintest of bulks, the dimmest of outlines. At fifteen feet all was +invisible, hidden behind a screen of mist. + +"Cast around," said Coffee gloomily. "Maybe we'll find a shell, or +tracks of a tank or somethin' that chucked the gas here." + + * * * * * + +It was rather ludicrous to go searching for anything in that mass of +vapor. At three yards distance they could make each other out as dim +outlines, no more. But it did not even occur to them to deplore the +mist. The war which had already been christened, by the politicians at +home, the last war, was always fought in a mist. Infantry could not +stand against tanks, tanks could not live under aircraft-directed +artillery fire--not when forty guns fired salvos for the aircraft to +spot--and neither artillery nor aircraft could take any advantage of a +victory which either, under special conditions, might win. The general +staffs of both the United States and the prominent nation--let us say +the Yellow Empire--at war with it had come to a single conclusion. +Tanks or infantry were needed for the use of victories. Infantry could +be destroyed by tanks. But tanks could be hidden from aerial spotters by +smoke-screens. + +The result was fog-gas, which was being used by both sides in the most +modern fashion when, their own unit wiped out and themselves wandering +aimlessly in the general direction of the American rear, Sergeant Coffee +and Corporal Wallis stumbled upon an American pill-box with its small +garrison lying dead. For forty miles in one direction and perhaps thirty +in the other, the vapor lay upon the earth. It was being blown by the +wind, of course, but it was sufficiently heavier than air to cling to +the ground level, and the industries of two nations were straining every +nerve to supply the demands of their respective armies for its material. + +The fog-bank was nowhere less than a hundred feet thick--a cloud of +impalpable particles impenetrable to any eye or any camera, however +shrewdly filtered. And under that mattress of pale opacity the tanks +crawled heavily. They lurched and rumbled upon their deadly errands, +uncouth and barbarous, listening for each other by a myriad of devices, +locked in desperate, short-range conflict when they came upon each +other, and emitting clouds of deadly vapor, against which gas-masks were +no protection, when they came upon opposing infantry. + + * * * * * + +The infantrymen, though, were few. Their principal purpose was the +reporting of the approach or passage of tanks, and trenches were of no +service to them. They occupied unarmed little listening-posts with field +telephones, small wireless or ground buzzer sets for reporting the enemy +before he overwhelmed them. They held small pill-boxes, fitted with +anti-tank guns which sometimes--if rarely--managed to get home a shell, +aimed largely by sound, before the tank rolled over gun and gunners +alike. + +And now Sergeant Coffee and Corporal Wallis groped about in that +blinding mist. There had been two systems of listening-posts hidden in +it, each of admittedly little fighting value, but each one deep and +composed of an infinity of little pin-point posts where two or three men +were stationed. The American posts, by their reports, had assured the +command that all enemy tanks were on the other side of a certain +definite line. Their own tanks, receiving recognition signals, passed +and repassed among them, prowling in quest of invaders. The enemy tanks +crawled upon the same grisly patrol on their own side. + +But two miles of the American front had suddenly gone silent. A hundred +telephones had ceased to make reports along the line nearest the enemy. +As Coffee and Wallis stumbled about the little pill-box, looking for +some inkling of the way in which the original occupants of the small +strong-point had been wiped out, the second line of observation-posts +began to go dead. + +Now one, now another abruptly ceased to communicate. Half a dozen were +in actual conversation with their sector headquarters, and broke off +between words. The wires remained intact. But in fifteen nerve-racking +minutes a second hundred posts ceased to make reports and ceased to +answer the inquiry-signal. G.H.Q. was demanding explanations in crisp +accents that told the matter was being taken very seriously indeed. And +then, as the officer in command of the second-line sector headquarters +was explaining frenziedly that he was doing all any man could do, he +stopped short between two words and thereafter he, also, ceased to +communicate. + +Front-line sector headquarters seemed inexplicably to have escaped +whatever fate had overtaken all its posts, but it could only report that +they had apparently gone out of existence without warning. American +tanks, prowling in the area that had gone dead, announced that no enemy +tanks had been seen. G-81, stumbling on a pill-box no more than ten +minutes after it had gone silent, offered to investigate. A member of +her crew, in a gas-mask, stepped out of the port doorway. Immediately +thereafter G-81's wireless reports stopped coming in. + + * * * * * + +The situation was clearly shown in the huge tank that had been built to +serve as G.H.Q. That tank was seventy feet long, and lay hidden in the +mist with a brood of other, smaller tanks clustered near it, from each +of which a cable ran to the telephones and instruments of the greater +monster. Farther off in the fog, of course, were other tanks, hundreds +of them, fighting machines all, silent and motionless now, but +infinitely ready to protect the brain of the army. + +The G.H.Q. maneuver-board showed the battle as no single observer could +ever have seen it. A map lay spread out on a monster board, under a +pitiless white light. It was a map of the whole battlefield. Tiny sparks +crawled here and there under the map, and there were hundreds of little +pins with different-colored heads to mark the position of this thing and +that. The crawling sparks were the reported positions of American tanks, +made visible as positions of moving trains had been made visible for +years on the electric charts of railroads in dispatcher's offices. Where +the tiny bulbs glowed under the map, there a tank crawled under the fog. +As the tank moved, the first bulb went out and another flashed into +light. + +The general watched broodingly as the crawling sparks moved from this +place to that place, as varicolored lights flashed up and vanished, as a +steady hand reached down to shift tiny pins and place new ones. The +general moved rarely, and spoke hardly at all. His whole air was that of +a man absorbed in a game of chess--a game on which the fate of a nation +depended. + +He was thus absorbed. The great board, illuminated from above by the +glaring bulb, and speckled with little white sparks from below by the +tiny bulbs beneath, showed the situation clearly at every instant. The +crawling white sparks were his own tanks, each in its present position. +Flashing blue sparks noted the last report of enemy tanks. Two staff +officers stood behind the general, and each spoke from time to time into +a strapped-on telephone transmitter. They were giving routine orders, +heading the nearest American patrol-tanks toward the location of the +latest reported enemies. + + * * * * * + +The general reached out his hand suddenly and marked off an area with +his fingers. They were long fingers, and slender ones: an artist's +fingers. + +"Our outposts are dead in this space," he observed meditatively. The use +of the word "outposts" dated him many years back as a soldier, back to +the old days of open warfare, which had only now come about again. +"Penetration of two miles--" + +"Tank, sir," said the man of the steady fingers, putting a black pin in +position within that area, "let a man out in a gas-mask to examine a +pill-box. The tank does not report or reply, sir." + +"Gas," said the general, noting the spot. "Their new gas, of course. It +must go through masks or sag-paste, or both." + +He looked up to one of a row of officers seated opposite him, each man +with headphones strapped to his ears and a transmitter before his lips, +and each man with a map-pad on his knees, on which from time to time he +made notations and shifted pins absorbedly. + +"Captain Harvey," said the general, "you are sure that dead spot has not +been bombarded with gas-shells?" + +"Yes, General. There has been no artillery fire heavy enough to put more +than a fraction of those posts out of action, and all that fire, sir, +has been accounted for elsewhere." + +The officer looked up, saw the general's eyes shift, and bent to his map +again, on which he was marking areas from which spotting aircraft +reported flashes as of heavy guns beneath the mist. + +"Their aircraft have not been dropping bombs, positively?" + +A second officer glanced up from his own map. + +"Our planes cover all that space, sir, and have for some time." + +"They either have a noiseless tank," observed the general meditatively, +"or...." + +The steady fingers placed a red pin at a certain spot. + +"One observation-post, sir, has reopened communication. Two infantrymen, +separated from their command, came upon it and found the machine-gun +crew dead, with gas-masks adjusted. No tanks or tracks. They are +identified, sir, and are now looking for tank tracks or shells." + +The general nodded emotionlessly. + +"Let me know immediately." + + * * * * * + +He fell back to the ceaseless study of the board with its crawling +sparks and sudden flashes of light. Over at the left, there were four +white sparks crawling toward a spot where a blue flash had showed a +little while since. A red light glowed suddenly where one of the white +sparks crawled. One of the two officers behind the general spoke +crisply. Instantly, it seemed, the other three white sparks changed +their direction of movement. They swung toward the red flash--the point +where a wireless from the tank represented by the first white flash had +reported, contact with the enemy. + +"Enemy tank destroyed here, sir," said the voice above the steady +fingers. + +"Wiped out three of our observation posts," murmured the general, "His +side knows it. That's an opportunity. Have those posts reoccupied." + +"Orders given, sir," said a staff officer from behind. "No reports as +yet." + +The general's eyes went back to the space two miles wide and two miles +deep in which there was only a single observation-post functioning, and +that in charge of two strayed infantrymen. The battle in the fog was in +a formative stage, now, and the general himself had to watch the whole, +because it was by small and trivial indications that the enemy's plans +would be disclosed. The dead area was no triviality, however. Half a +dozen tanks were crawling through it, reporting monotonously that no +sign of the enemy could be found. One of the little sparks representing +those tanks abruptly went out. + +"Tank here, sir, no longer reports." + +The general watched with lack-luster eyes, his mind withdrawn in +thought. + +"Send four helicopters," he said slowly, "to sweep that space. We'll see +what the enemy does." + +One of the seated officers opposite him spoke swiftly. Far away a +roaring set up and was stilled. The helicopters were taking off. + + * * * * * + +They would rush across the blanket of fog, their vertical propellers +sending blasts of air straight downward. For most of their sweep they +would keep a good height, but above the questionable ground they would +swoop down to barely above the fog-blanket. There their monstrous screws +would blow holes in the fog until the ground below was visible. If any +tanks crawled there, in the spaces the helicopters swept clear, they +would be visible at once and would be shelled by batteries miles away, +batteries invisible under the artificial cloud-bank. + +No other noises came through the walls of the monster tank. There was a +faint, monotonous murmur of the electric generator. There were the +quiet, crisp orders of the officers behind the general, giving the +routine commands that kept the fighting a stalemate. + +The aircraft officer lifted his head, pressing his headphones tightly +against his ears, as if to hear mores clearly. + +"The enemy, sir, has sent sixty fighting machines to attack our +helicopters. We sent forty single-seaters as escort." + +"Let them fight enough," said the general absently, "to cause the enemy +to think us desperate for information. Then draw them off." + +There was silence again. The steady fingers put pins here and there. An +enemy tank destroyed here. An American tank encountered an enemy and +ceased to report further. The enemy sent four helicopters in a wide +sweep behind the American lines, escorted by fifty fighting planes. They +uncovered a squadron of four tanks, which scattered like insects +disturbed by the overturning of a stone. Instantly after their +disclosure a hundred and fifty guns, four miles away, were pouring +shells about the place where they had been seen. Two of the tanks ceased +to report. + +The general's attention was called to a telephone instrument with its +call-light glowing. + +"Ah," said the general absently. "They want publicity matter." + +The telephone was connected to the rear, and from there to the Capital. +A much-worried cabinet waited for news, and arrangements were made and +had been used, to broadcast suitably arranged reports from the front, +the voice of the commander-in-chief in the field going to every +workshop, every gathering-place, and even being bellowed by +loud-speakers in the city streets. + + * * * * * + +The general took the phone. The President of the United States was at +the other end of the wire, this time. + +"General?" + +"Still in a preliminary stage, sir," said the general, without haste. +"The enemy is preparing a break-through effort, possibly aimed at our +machine-shops and supplies. Of course, if he gets them we will have to +retreat. An hour ago he paralyzed our radios, not being aware, I +suppose, of our tuned earth-induction wireless sets. I daresay he is +puzzled that our communications have not fallen to pieces." + +"But what are our chances?" The voice of the President was steady, but +it was strained. + +"His tanks outnumber ours two to one, of course, sir," said the general +calmly. "Unless we can divide his fleet and destroy a part of it, of +course we will be crushed in a general combat. But we are naturally +trying to make sure that any such action will take place within +point-blank range of our artillery, which may help a little. We will cut +the fog to secure that help, risking everything, if a general engagement +occurs." + +There was silence. + +The President's voice, when it came, was more strained still. + +"Will you speak to the public, General?" + +"Three sentences. I have no time for more." + +There were little clickings on the line, while the general's eyes +returned to the board that was the battlefield in miniature. He +indicated a spot with his finger. + +"Concentrate our reserve-tanks here," he said meditatively. "Our +fighting aircraft here. At once." + +The two spots were at nearly opposite ends of the battle field. The +chief of staff, checking the general's judgment with the alert suspicion +that was the latest addition to his duties, protested sharply. + +"But sir, our tanks will have no protection against helicopters!" + +"I am quite aware of it," said the general mildly. + +He turned to the transmitter. A thin voice had just announced at the +other end of the wire, "The commander-in-chief of the army in the field +will make a statement." + + * * * * * + +The general spoke unhurriedly. + +"We are in contact with the enemy, have been for some hours. We have +lost forty tanks and the enemy, we think, sixty or more. No general +engagement has yet taken place, but we think decisive action on the +enemy's part will be attempted within two hours. The tanks in the field +need now, as always, ammunition, spare tanks, and the special supplies +for modern warfare. In particular, we require ever-increasing quantities +of fog-gas. I appeal to your patriotism for reinforcements of material +and men." + +He hung up the receiver and returned to his survey of the board. + +"Those three listening-posts," he said abruptly, indicating a place near +where an enemy tank had been destroyed. "Have they been reoccupied?" + +"Yes, sir. Just reported. The tank they reported rolled over them, +destroying the placement. They are digging in." + +"Tell me," said the general, "when they cease to report again. They +will." + +He watched the board again and without lifting his eyes from it, spoke +again. + +"That listening-post in the dead sector, with the two strayed +infantrymen in it. Was it reported?" + +"Not yet, sir." + +"Tell me immediately it does." + +The general leaned back in his chair and deliberately relaxed. He +lighted a cigar and puffed at it, his hands quite steady. Other +officers, scenting the smoke, glanced up enviously. But the general was +the only man who might smoke. The enemy's gases, like the American ones, +could go through any gas-mask if in sufficient concentration. The tanks +were sealed like so many submarines, and opened their interiors to the +outer air only after that air had been thoroughly tested and proven +safe. Only the general might use up more than a man's allowance for +breathing. + + * * * * * + +The general gazed about him, letting his mind rest from its intense +strain against the greater strain that would come on it in a few +minutes. He looked at a tall blond man who was surveying the board +intently, moving away, and returning again, his forehead creased in +thought. + +The general smiled quizzically. That man was the officer appointed to I. +I. duty--interpretative intelligence--chosen from a thousand officers +because the most exhaustive psychological tests had proven that his +brain worked as nearly as possible like that of the enemy commander. His +task was to take the place of the enemy commander, to reconstruct from +the enemy movements reported and the enemy movements known as nearly as +possible the enemy plans. + +"Well, Harlin," said the general, "Where will he strike?" + +"He's tricky, sir," said Harlin. "That gap in our listening-posts looks, +of course, like preparation for a massing of his tanks inside our lines. +And it would be logical that he fought off our helicopters to keep them +from discovering his tanks massing in that area." + +The general nodded. + +"Quite true," he admitted. "Quite true." + +"But," said Harlin eagerly. "He'd know we could figure that out. And he +may have wiped out listening posts to make us think he was planning just +so. He may have fought off our helicopters, not to keep them from +discovering his tanks in there, but to keep them from discovering that +there were no tanks in there!" + +"My own idea exactly," said the general meditatively. "But again, it +looks so much like a feint that it may be a serious blow. I dare not +risk assuming it to be a feint only." + +He turned back to the board. + +"Have those two strayed infantrymen reported yet?" he asked sharply. + +"Not yet, sir." + + * * * * * + +The general drummed on the table. There were four red flashes glowing at +different points of the board--four points where American tanks or +groups of tanks were locked in conflict with the enemy. Somewhere off +in the enveloping fog that made all the world a gray chaos, lumbering, +crawling monsters rammed and battered at each other at infinitely short +range. They fought blindly, their guns swinging menacingly and belching +lurid flames into the semi-darkness, while from all about them dropped +the liquids that meant death to any man who breathed their vapor. Those +gases penetrated any gas-mask, and would even strike through the +sag-pastes that had made the vesicatory gases of 1918 futile. + +With tanks by thousands hidden in the fog, four small combats were kept +up, four only. Battles fought with tanks as the main arm are necessarily +battles of movement, more nearly akin to cavalry battles than any other +unless it be fleet actions. When the main bodies come into contact, the +issue is decided quickly. There can be no long drawn-out stalemates such +as infantry trenches produced in years past. The fighting that had +taken place so far, both under the fog and aloft in the air, was +outpost skirmishing only. When the main body of the enemy came into +action it would be like a whirlwind, and the battle would be won or lost +in a matter of minutes only. + +The general paid no attention to those four conflicts, or their possible +meaning. + +"I want to hear from those two strayed infantrymen," he said quietly, "I +must base my orders on what they report. The whole battle, I believe, +hinges on what they have to say." + +He fell silent, watching the board without the tense preoccupation he +had shown before. He knew the moves he had to make in any of three +eventualities. He watched the board to make sure he would not have to +make those moves before he was ready. His whole air was that of waiting: +the commander-in-chief of the army of the United States, waiting to hear +what he would be told by two strayed infantrymen, lost in the fog that +covered a battlefield. + + * * * * * + +The fog was neither more dense nor any lighter where Corporal Wallis +paused to roll his pre-war cigarette. The tobacco came from the gassed +machine-gunner in the pill-box a few yards off. Sergeant Coffee, three +yards distant, was a blurred figure. Corporal Wallis put his cigarette +into his mouth, struck his match, and puffed delicately. + +"Ah!" said Corporal Wallis, and cheered considerably. He thought he saw +Sergeant Coffee moving toward him and ungenerously hid his cigarette's +glow. + +Overhead, a machine-gun suddenly burst into a rattling roar, the sound +sweeping above them with incredible speed. Another gun answered it. +Abruptly, the whole sky above them was an inferno of such tearing noises +and immediately after they began a multitudinous bellowing set up. +Airplanes on patrol ordinarily kept their engines muffled, in hopes of +locating a tank below them by its noise. But in actual fighting there +was too much power to be gained by cutting out the muffler for any minor +motive to take effect. A hundred aircraft above the heads of the two +strayed infantrymen were fighting madly about five helicopters. Two +hundred yards away, one fell to the earth with a crash, and immediately +afterward there was a hollow boom. For an instant even the mist was +tinged with yellow from the exploded gasoline tank. But the roaring +above continued--not mounting, as in a battle between opposing patrols +of fighting planes, when each side finds height a decisive advantage, +but keeping nearly to the same level, little above the bank of cloud. + +Something came down, roaring, and struck the earth no more than fifty +yards away. The impact was terrific, but after it there was dead silence +while the thunder above kept on. + +Sergeant Coffee came leaping to Corporal Wallis' side. + +"Helicopters!" he barked. "Huntin' tanks an' pill-boxes! Lay down!" + +He flung himself down to the earth. + +Wind beat on them suddenly, then an outrageous blast of icy air from +above. For an instant the sky lightened. They saw a hole in the mist, +saw the little pill-box clearly, saw a huge framework of supporting +screws sweeping swiftly overhead with figures in it watching the ground +through wind-angle glasses, and machine-gunners firing madly at dancing +things in the air. Then it was gone. + +"One o' ours," shouted Coffee in Wallis' ear. "They' tryin' to find th' +Yellows' tanks!" + + * * * * * + +The center of the roaring seemed to shift, perhaps to the north. Then a +roaring drowned out all the other roarings. This one was lower down and +approaching in a rush. Something swooped from the south, a dark blotch +in the lighter mist above. It was an airplane flying in the mist, a +plane that had dived into the fog as into oblivion. It appeared, was +gone--and there was a terrific crash. A shattering roar drowned out even +the droning tumult of a hundred aircraft engines. A sheet of flame +flashed up, and a thunderous detonation. + +"Hit a tree," panted Coffee, scrambling to his feet again. "Suicide +club, aimin' for our helicopter." + +Corporal Wallis was pointing, his lips drawn back in a snarl. + +"Shut up!" he whispered. "I saw a shadow against that flash! Yeller +infantryman! Le's get 'im!" + +"Y'crazy," said Sergeant Coffee, but he strained his eyes and more +especially his ears. + +It was Coffee who clutched Corporal Wallis' wrist and pointed. Wallis +could see nothing, but he followed as Coffee moved silently through the +gray mist. Presently he too, straining his eyes, saw an indistinct +movement. + +The roaring of motors died away suddenly. The fighting had stopped, a +long way off, apparently because the helicopters had been withdrawn. +Except for the booming of artillery a very long distance away, firing +unseen at an unseen target, there was no noise at all. + +"Aimin' for our pill-box," whispered Coffee. + +They saw the dim shape, moving noiselessly, halt. The dim figure seemed +to be casting about for something. It went down on hands and knees and +crawled forward. The two infantrymen crept after it. It stopped, and +turned around. The two dodged to one side in haste. The enemy +infantryman crawled off in another direction, the two Americans +following him as closely as they dared. + +He halted once more, a dim and grotesque figure in the fog. They saw him +fumbling in his belt. He threw something, suddenly. There was a little +tap as of a fountain pen dropped upon concrete. Then a hissing sound. +That was all, but the enemy infantryman waited, as if listening.... + + * * * * * + +The two Americans fell upon him as one individual. They bore him to the +earth and Coffee dragged at his gas-mask, good tactics in a battle where +every man carries gas-grenades. He gasped and fought desperately, in a +seeming frenzy of terror. + +They squatted over him, finally, having taken away his automatics, and +Coffee worked painstakingly to get off his gas-mask while Wallis went +poking about in quest of tobacco. + +"Dawggone!" said Coffee. "This mask is intricate." + +"He ain't got any pockets," mourned Wallis. + +Then they examined him more closely. + +"It's a whole suit," explained Coffee. "H-m.... He don't have to bother +with sag-paste. He's got him on a land diving-suit." + +"S-s-say," gasped the prisoner, his language utterly colloquial in spite +of the beady eyes and coarse black hair that marked him racially as of +the enemy, "say, don't take off my mask! Don't take off my mask!" + +"He talks an' everything," observed Coffee in mild amazement. He +inspected the mask again and painstakingly smashed the goggles. "Now, +big boy, you take your chance with th' rest of us. What' you doin' +around here?" + +The prisoner set his teeth, though deathly pale, and did not reply. + +"H'm-m...." said Coffee meditatively. "Let's take him in the pill-box +an' let Loot'n't Madison tell us what to do with him." + +They picked him up. + +"No! No! For Gawd's sake, no!" cried the prisoner shrilly. "I just +gassed it!" + + * * * * * + +The two halted. Coffee scratched his nose. + +"Reckon he's lyin', Pete?" he asked. + +Corporal Wallis shrugged gloomily. + +"He ain't got any tobacco," he said morosely. "Let's chuck him in first +an' see." + +The prisoner wriggled until Coffee put his own automatic in the small of +his back. + +"How long does that gas last?" he asked, frowning. "Loot'n't Madison +wants us to report. There's some fellers in there, all gassed up, but we +were in there a while back an' it didn't hurt us. How long does it +last?" + +"Fur-fifteen minutes, maybe twenty," chattered the prisoner. "Don't put +me in there!" + +Coffee scratched his nose again and looked at his wrist-watch. + +"A'right," he conceded, "we give you twenty minutes. Then we chuck you +down inside. That is, if you act real agreeable until then. Got anything +to smoke?" + +The prisoner agonizedly opened a zipper slip in his costume and brought +out tobacco, even tailor-made cigarettes. Coffee pounced on them one +second before Wallis. Then he divided them with absorbed and scrupulous +fairness. + +"Right," said Sergeant Coffee comfortably. He lighted up. "Say, you, if +y' want to smoke, here's one o' your pills. Let's see the gas stuff. +How' y' use it?" + +Wallis had stripped off a heavy belt about the prisoner's waist and it +was trailing over his arm. He inspected it now. There were twenty or +thirty little sticks in it, each one barely larger than a lead pencil, +of dirty gray color, and each one securely nested in a tube of +flannel-lined papier-mache. + +"These things?" asked Wallis contentedly. He was inhaling deeply with +that luxurious enjoyment a tailor-made cigarette can give a man who had +been remaking butts into smokes for days past. + +"Don't touch 'em," warned the prisoner nervously. "You broke my goggles. +You throw 'em, and they light and catch fire, and that scatters the +gas." + + * * * * * + +Coffee touched the prisoner, indicating the ground, and sat down, +comfortably smoking one of the prisoner's cigarettes. By his air, he +began to approve of his captive. + +"Say, you," he said curiously, "you talk English pretty good. How'd you +learn it?" + +"I was a waiter," the prisoner explained. "New York. Corner Forty-eighth +and Sixth." + +"My Gawd!" said Coffee. "Me, I used to be a movie operator along there. +Forty-ninth. Projection room stuff, you know. Say, you know Heine's +place?" + +"Sure," said the prisoner. "I used to buy Scotch from that blond feller +in the back room. With a benzine label for a prescription?" + +Coffee lay back and slapped his knee. + +"Ain't it a small world?" he demanded. "Pete, here, he ain't never been +in any town bigger than Chicago. Ever in Chicago?" + +"Hell," said Wallis, morose yet comfortable with a tailor-made +cigarette. "If you guys want to start a extra war, go to knockin' +Chicago. That's all." + +Coffee looked at his wrist-watch again. + +"Got ten minutes yet," he observed. "Say, you must know Pete Hanfry--" + +"Sure I know him," said the enemy prisoner, scornfully. "I waited on +him. One day, just before us reserves were called back home...." + +In the monster tank that was headquarters the general tapped his fingers +on his knees. The pale white light flickered a little as it shone on the +board where the bright sparks crawled. White sparks were American tanks. +Blue flashes were for enemy tanks sighted and reported, usually in the +three-second interval between their identification and the annihilation +of the observation-post that had reported them. Red glows showed +encounters between American and enemy tanks. There were a dozen red +glows visible, with from one to a dozen white sparks hovering about +them. It seemed as if the whole front line were about to burst into a +glare of red, were about to become one long lane of conflicts in +impenetrable obscurity, where metal monsters roared and rumbled and +clanked one against the other, bellowing and belching flame and ramming +each other savagely, while from them dripped the liquids that made their +breath mean death. There were nightmarish conflicts in progress under +the blanket of fog, unparalleled save perhaps in the undersea battles +between submarines in the previous European war. + + * * * * * + +The chief of staff looked up; his face drawn. + +"General," he said harshly, "it looks like a frontal attack all along +our line." + +The general's cigar had gone out. He was pale, but calm with an iron +composure. + +"Yes," he conceded. "But you forget that blank spot in our line. We do +not know what is happening there." + +"I am not forgetting it. But the enemy outnumbers us two to one--" + +"I am waiting," said the general, "to hear from those two infantrymen +who reported some time ago from a listen-post in the dead area." + +The chief of staff pointed to the outline formed by the red glows where +tanks were battling. + +"Those fights are keeping up too long!" he said sharply. "General, don't +you see, they're driving back our line, but they aren't driving it back +as fast as if they were throwing their whole weight on it! If they were +making a frontal attack there, they'd wipe out the tanks we have facing +them; they'd roll right over them! That's a feint! They're concentrating +in the dead space--" + +"I am waiting," said the general softly, "to hear from those two +infantrymen." He looked at the board again and said quietly, "Have the +call-signal sent them. They may answer." + +He struck a match to relight his dead cigar. His fingers barely quivered +as they held the match. It might have been excitement--but it might have +been foreboding, too. + +"By the way," he said, holding the match clear, "have our machine-shops +and supply-tanks ready to move. Every plane is, of course, ready to take +the air on signal. But get the aircraft ground personnel in their +traveling tanks immediately." + +Voices began to murmur orders as the general puffed. He watched the +board steadily. + +"Let me know if anything is heard from these infantrymen...." + + * * * * * + +There was a definite air of strain within the tank that was +headquarters. It was a sort of tensity that seemed to emanate from the +general himself. + +Where Coffee and Wallis and the prisoner squatted on the ground, +however, there was no sign of strain at all. There was a steady gabble +of voices. + +"What kinda rations they give you?" asked Coffee interestedly. + +The enemy prisoner listed them, with profane side-comments. + +"Hell," said Wallis gloomily. "Y'ought to see what we get! Las' week +they fed us worse'n dogs. An' th' canteen stuff--" + +"Your tank men, they get treated fancy?" asked the prisoner. + +Coffee made a reply consisting almost exclusively of high powered +expletives. + +"--and the infantry gets it in the neck every time," he finished +savagely. "We do the work--" + +Guns began to boom, far away. Wallis cocked his ears. + +"Tanks gettin' together," he judged, gloomily. "If they'd all blow each +other to hell an' let us infantry fight this battle--" + +"Damn the tanks!" said the enemy prisoner viciously. "Look here, you +fellers. Look at me. They sent a battalion of us out, in two waves. We +hike along by compass through the fog, supposed to be five paces apart. +We come on a pill-box or listenin' post, we gas it an' go on. We try not +to make a noise. We try not to get seen before we use our gas. We go on, +deep in your lines as we can. We hear one of your tanks, we dodge it if +we can, so we don't get seen at all. O'course we give it a dose of gas +in passing, just in case. But we don't get any orders about how far to +go or how to come back. We ask for recognition signals for our own +tanks, an' they grin an' say we won't see none of our tanks till the +battle's over. They say 'Re-form an' march back when the fog is out.' +Ain't that pretty for you?" + +"You second wave?" asked Coffee, with interest. + +The prisoner nodded. + +"Mopping up," he said bitterly, "what the first wave left. No fun in +that! We go along gassin' dead men, an' all the time your tanks is +ravin' around to find out what's happenin' to their listenin'-posts. +They run into us--" + +Coffee nodded sympathetically. + +"The infantry always gets the dirty end of the stick," said Wallis +morosely. + + * * * * * + +Somewhere, something blew up with a violent explosion. The noise of +battle in the distance became heavier and heavier. + +"Goin' it strong," said the prisoner, listening. + +"Yeh," said Coffee. He looked at his wrist-watch. "Say, that twenty +minutes is up. You go down in there first, big boy." + +They stood beside the little pill-box. The prisoner's knees shook. + +"Say, fellers," he said pleadingly, "they told us that stuff would +scatter in twenty minutes, but you busted my mask. Yours ain't any good +against this gas. I'll have to go down in there if you fellers make me, +but--" + +Coffee lighted another of the prisoner's tailor-made cigarettes. + +"Give you five minutes more," he said graciously. "I don't suppose it'll +ruin the war." + +They sat down relievedly again, while the fog-gas made all the earth +invisible behind a pall of grayness, a grayness from which the noises of +battle came. + +In the tank that was headquarters, the air of strain was pronounced. The +maneuver-board showed the situation as close to desperation, now. The +reserve-tank positions had been switched on the board, dim orange glows, +massed in curiously precise blocks. And little squares of green showed +there that the supply and machine-shop tanks were massed. They were +moving slowly across the maneuver-board. But the principal change lay in +the front-line indications. + +The red glows that showed where tank battles were in progress formed an +irregularly curved line, now. There were twenty or more such isolated +battles in progress, varying from single combats between single tanks to +greater conflicts where twenty to thirty tanks to a side were engaged. +And the positions of those conflicts were changing constantly, and +invariably the American tanks were being pushed back. + + * * * * * + +The two staff officers behind the general were nearly silent. There were +few sparks crawling within the American lines now. Nearly every one had +been diverted into the front-line battles. The two men watched the board +with feverish intensity, watching the red glows moving back, and +back.... + +The chief of staff was shaking like a leaf, watching the American line +stretched, and stretched.... + +The general looked at him with a twisted smile. + +"I know my opponent," he said suddenly. "I had lunch with him once in +Vienna. We were attending a disarmament conference." He seemed to be +amused at the ironic statement. "We talked war and battles, of course. +And he showed me, drawing on the tablecloth, the tactical scheme that +should have been used at Cambrai, back in 1917. It was a singularly +perfect plan. It was a beautiful one." + +"General," burst out one of the two staff officers behind him. "I need +twenty tanks from the reserves." + +"Take them," said the general. He went on, addressing his chief of +staff. "It was an utterly flawless plan. I talked to other men. We were +all pretty busy estimating each other there, we soldiers. We discussed +each other with some freedom, I may say. And I formed the opinion that +the man who is in command of the enemy is an artist: a soldier with the +spirit of an amateur. He's a very skilful fencer, by the way. Doesn't +that suggest anything?" + +The chief of staff had his eyes glued to the board. + +"That is a feint, sir. A strong feint, yes, but he has his force +concentrated in the dead area." + +"You are not listening, sir," said the general, reprovingly. "I am +saying that my opponent is an artist, an amateur, the sort of person who +delights in the delicate work of fencing. I, sir, would thank God for +the chance to defeat my enemy. He has twice my force, but he will not +be content merely to defeat me. He will want to defeat me by a plan of +consummate artistry, which will arouse admiration among soldiers for +years to come." + +"But General, every minute, every second--" + +"We are losing men, of whom we have plenty, and tanks, of which we have +not enough. True, very true," conceded the general. "But I am waiting to +hear from two strayed infantrymen. When they report, I will speak to +them myself." + +"But, sir," cried the chief of staff, withheld only by the iron habit of +discipline from violent action and the taking over of command himself, +"they may be dead! You can't risk this battle waiting for them! You +can't risk it, sir! You can't!" + +"They are not dead," said the general coolly. "They cannot be dead. +Sometimes, sir, we must obey the motto on our coins. Our country needs +this battle to be won. We have got to win it, sir! And the only way to +win it--" + + * * * * * + +The signal-light at his telephone glowed. The general snatched it up, +his hands quivering. But his voice, was steady and deliberate as he +spoke. + +"Hello, Sergeant--Sergeant Coffee, is it?... Very well, Sergeant. Tell +me what you've found out.... Your prisoner objects to his rations, eh? +Very well, go on.... How did he gas our listening-posts?... He did, eh? +He got turned around and you caught him wandering about?... Oh, he was +second wave! They weren't taking any chances on any of our +listening-posts reporting their tanks, eh?... Say that again, Sergeant +Coffee!" The general's tone had changed indescribably. "Your prisoner +has no recognition signals for his own tanks? They told him he wouldn't +see any of them until the battle was over?... Thank you, Sergeant. One +of our tanks will stop for you. This is the commanding general +speaking." + +He rang off, his eyes blazing. Relaxation was gone. He was a dynamo, +snapping orders. + +"Supply tanks, machine-shop tanks, ground forces of the air service, +concentrate here!" His finger rested on a spot in the middle of the dead +area. "Reserve tanks take position behind them. Draw off every tank +we've got--take 'em out of action!--and mass them in front, on a line +with our former first line of outposts. Every airplane and helicopter +take the air and engage in general combat with the enemy, wherever the +enemy may be found and in whatever force. And our tanks move straight +through here!" + +Orders were snapping into telephone transmitters. The commands had been +relayed before their import was fully realized. Then there was a gasp. + +"General!" cried the chief of staff. "If the enemy is massed there, +he'll destroy our forces in detail as they take position!" + +"He isn't massed there," said the general, his eyes blazing. "The +infantrymen who were gassing our listening-posts were given no +recognition signals for their tanks. Sergeant Coffee's prisoner has his +gas-mask broken and is in deadly fear. The enemy commander is foolish in +many ways, perhaps, but not foolish enough to break down morale by +refusing recognition signals to his own men who will need them. And look +at the beautiful plan he's got." + + * * * * * + +He sketched half a dozen lines with his fingers, moving them in +lightning gestures as his orders took effect. + +"His main force is here, behind those skirmishes that look like a feint. +As fast as we reinforce our skirmishing-line, he reinforces his--just +enough to drive our tanks back slowly. It looks like a strong feint, but +it's a trap! This dead space is empty. He thinks we are concentrating to +face it. When he is sure of it--his helicopters will sweep across any +minute, now, to see--he'll throw his whole force on our front line. +It'll crumple up. His whole fighting force will smash through to take +us, facing the dead space, in the rear! With twice our numbers, he'll +drive us before him." + +"But general! You're ordering a concentration there! You're falling in +with his plans!" + +The general laughed. + +"I had lunch with the general in command over there, once upon a time. +He is an artist. He won't be content with a defeat like that! He'll want +to make his battle a masterpiece, a work of art! There's just one touch +he can add. He has to have reserves to protect his supply-tanks and +machine-shops. They're fixed. The ideal touch, the perfect tactical +fillip, will be--Here! Look. He expects to smash in our rear, here. The +heaviest blow will fall here. He will swing around our right wing, drive +us out of the dead area into his own lines--and drive us on his +reserves! Do you see it? He'll use every tank he's got in one beautiful +final blow. We'll be outwitted, out-numbered, out-flanked and finally +caught between his main body and his reserves and pounded to bits. It is +a perfect, a masterly bit of work!" + +He watched the board, hawklike. + +"We'll concentrate, but our machine-shops and supplies will concentrate +with us. Before he has time to take us in rear we'll drive ahead, in +just the line he plans for us! We don't wait to be driven into his +reserves. We roll into them and over them! We smash his supplies! We +destroy his shops! And then we can advance along his line of +communication and destroy it, our own depots being blown up--give the +orders when necessary--and leaving him stranded with motor-driven tanks, +motorized artillery, and nothing to run his motors with! He'll be +marooned beyond help in the middle of our country, and we will have him +at our mercy when his tanks run out of fuel. As a matter of fact, I +shall expect him to surrender in three days." + + * * * * * + +The little blocks of green and yellow that had showed the position of +the reserve and supply-tanks, changed abruptly to white, and began to +crawl across the maneuver-board. Other little white sparks turned about. +Every white spark upon the maneuver-board suddenly took to itself a new +direction. + +"Disconnect cables," said the general, crisply. "We move with our tanks, +in the lead!" + +The monotonous humming of the electric generator was drowned out in a +thunderous uproar that was muffled as an air-tight door was shut +abruptly. Fifteen seconds later there was a violent lurch, and the +colossal tank was on the move in the midst of a crawling, thundering +horde of metal monsters whose lumbering progress shook the earth. + +Sergeant Coffee, still blinking his amazement, absent-mindedly lighted +the last of his share of the cigarettes looted from the prisoner. + +"The big guy himself!" he said, still stunned. "My Gawd! The big guy +himself!" + +A distant thunder began, a deep-toned rumbling that seemed to come from +the rear. It came nearer and grew louder. A peculiar quivering seemed to +set up in the earth. The noise was tanks moving through the fog, not one +tank or two tanks, or twenty tanks, but all the tanks in creation +rumbling and lurching at their topmost speed in serried array. + +Corporal Wallis heard, and turned pale. The prisoner heard, and his +knees caved in. + +"Hell," said Corporal Wallis dispairingly. "They can't see us, an' they +couldn't dodge us if they did!" + +The prisoner wailed, and slumped to the floor. + +Coffee picked him up by the collar and jerked him out of the pill-box. + +"C'mon Pete," he ordered briefly. "They ain't givin' us a infantryman's +chance, but maybe we can do some dodgin'!" + + * * * * * + +Then the roar of engines, of metal treads crushing upon earth and +clinking upon their joints, drowned out all possible other sounds. +Before the three men beside the pill-box could have moved a muscle, +monster shapes loomed up, rushing, rolling, lurching, squeaking. They +thundered past, and the hot fumes of their exhausts enveloped the trio. + +Coffee growled and put himself in a position of defiance, his feet +braced against the concrete of the pill-box dome. His expression was +snarling and angry but, surreptitiously, he crossed himself. He heard +the fellows of the two tanks that had roared by him, thundering along in +alignment to right and left. A twenty-yard space, and a second row of +the monsters came hurtling on, gun muzzles gaping, gas-tubes elevated, +spitting smoke from their exhausts that was even thicker than the fog. A +third row, a fourth, a fifth.... + +The universe was a monster uproar. One could not think in this volume of +sound. It seemed that there was fighting overhead. Crackling noises came +feebly through the reverberating uproar that was the army of the United +States in full charge. Something came whirling down through the +overhanging mist and exploded in a lurid flare that for a second or two +cast the grotesque shadows of a row of tanks clearly before the trio of +shaken infantrymen. + +Still the tanks came on and roared past. Twenty tanks, twenty-one ... +twenty-two.... Coffee lost count, dazed and almost stunned by the sheer +noise. It rose from the earth and seemed to be echoed back from the +topmost limit of the skies. It was a colossal din, an incredible uproar, +a sustained thunder that beat at the eardrums like the reiterated +concussions of a thousand guns that fired without ceasing. There was no +intermission, no cessation of the tumult. Row after row after row of the +monsters roared by, beaked and armed, going greedily with hungry guns +into battle. + + * * * * * + +And then, for a space of seconds, no tanks passed. Through the +pandemonium of their going, however, the sound of firing somehow seemed +to creep. It was gunfire of incredible intensity, and it came from the +direction in which the front-rank tanks were heading. + +"Forty-eight, forty-nine, forty-ten, forty-'leven," muttered Coffee +dazedly, his senses beaten down almost to unconsciousness by the ordeal +of sound. "Gawd! The whole army went by!" + +The roaring of the fighting-tanks was less, but it was still a monstrous +din. Through it, however, came now a series of concussions that were so +close together that they were inseparable, and so violent that they were +like slaps upon the chest. + +Then came other noises, louder only because nearer. These were different +noises, too, from those the fighting-tanks had made. Lighter noises. The +curious, misshapen service tanks began to rush by, of all sizes and all +shapes. Fuel-carrier tanks. Machine-shop tanks, huge ones, these. +Commissary tanks.... + +Something enormous and glistening stopped short. A door opened. A voice +roared an order. The three men, beaten and whipped by noise, stared +dumbly. + +"Sergeant Coffee!" roared the voice. "Bring your men! Quick!" + +Coffee dragged himself back to a semblance of life. Corporal Wallis +moved forward, sagging. The two of them loaded their prisoner into the +door and tumbled in. They were instantly sent into a heap as the tank +took up its progress again with a sudden sharp leap. + +"Good man," grinned a sooty-faced officer, clinging to a handhold. "The +general sent special orders you were to be picked up. Said you'd won the +battle. It isn't finished yet, but when the general says that--" + +"Battle?" said Coffee dully. "This ain't my battle. It's a parade of a +lot of damn tanks!" + +There was a howl of joy from somewhere above. Discipline in the +machine-shop tanks was strict enough, but vastly different in kind from +the formality of the fighting-machines. + +"Contact!" roared the voice again. "General wireless is going again! Our +fellows have rolled over their reserves and are smashing their +machine-shops and supplies!" + +Yells reverberated deafeningly inside the steel walls, already filled +with tumult from the running motors and rumbling treads. + +"Smashed 'em up!" shrieked the voice above, insane with joy. "Smashed +'em! Smashed 'em! Smashed 'em! We've wiped out their whole reserve +and--" A series of detonations came through even the steel shell of the +lurching tank. Detonations so violent, so monstrous, that even through +the springs and treads of the tank the earth-concussion could be felt. +"There goes their ammunition! We set off all their dumps!" + +There was sheer pandemonium inside the service-tank, speeding behind the +fighting force with only a thin skin of reserve-tanks between it and a +panic-stricken, mechanically pursuing enemy. + +"Yell, you birds!" screamed the voice. "The general says we've won the +battle! Thanks to the fighting force! We're to go on and wipe out the +enemy line of communications, letting him chase us till his gas gives +out! Then we come back and pound him to bits! Our tanks have wiped him +out!" + + * * * * * + +Coffee managed to find something to hold on to. He struggled to his +feet. Corporal Wallis, recovering from the certainty of death and the +torture of sound, was being very sea-sick from the tank's motion. The +prisoner moved away from him on the steel floor. He looked gloomily up +at Coffee. + +"Listen to 'em," said Coffee bitterly. "Tanks! Tanks! Tanks! Hell! If +they'd given us infantry a chance--" + +"You said it," said the prisoner savagely. "This is a hell of a way to +fight a war." + +Corporal Wallis turned a greenish face to them. + +"The infantry always gets the dirty end of the stick," he gasped. "Now +they--now they' makin' infantry ride in tanks! Hell!" + + + + +Invisible Death + +_By Anthony Pelcher_ + +[Illustration: _Wildly racing through the night, missing other cars by a +breath, the visible car continued its pursuit of--what?_] + +[Sidenote: On Lees' quick and clever action depended the life of "Old +Perk" Ferguson, the millionaire manufacturer threatened by the uncanny, +invisible killer.] + + +The inquest into the mysterious death of Darius Darrow, savant, +inventor, recluse and eccentric, resembled a scientific convention. Men +and women of high scientific attainment, and, in some instances, world +fame, attended to hear first hand the strange, uncanny, unbelievable +circumstances as hinted by the newspapers. + +Mrs. Susan Darrow, the widow, was the paramount witness. She appeared a +quaint figure as she took the stand. Tearful, yet alert, this little +woman betrayed the intelligence that had made her one of the world's +foremost chemists. She gave her age as fifty-eight, but if it had not +been for her snowy hair she would have looked much younger. She was +small but not frail, and had expressive blue eyes. She had a firm little +nose and chin, and was garbed in black silk garments of a fashion +evidently dating back a decade. + +Although not modern in dress, her answers to questions regarding +scientific and business affairs involved in the mysterious case, proved +she was thoroughly abreast of the times in all other particulars. + +"You believe your husband was murdered?" bluntly asked the examiner at +one stage. + +"That is my opinion," she said, then added: "It might have been some +scientific accident, the nature of which I cannot fathom. We were +confidential in all matters except my husband's work. He reserved the +right to be secretive about the scientific problems on which he was +working." + +"Can you throw any light on a motive for such a crime?" + +"The motive seems self-evident. He was working on an invention that he +said would do away with war and would make the owner of the device a +practical world dictator, should he choose to exercise such power. The +device was completed. The murderer killed him to secure his device. That +all seems plain enough." + +"Was anything else of value taken?" + +"We had nothing else of value about the place. I was never given to +jewelry. The furnishings and equipment were undisturbed. It is quite +evident, I think, that the thief was no ordinary petty burglar." + + * * * * * + +The attorney interposed: "I believe we had better let Mrs. Darrow tell +this story from the beginning in her own way. There are only two really +important witnesses. Whatever she can remember to recite might be of +value to the authorities. Now, Mrs. Darrow, how long had you lived at +Brooknook? Begin there and just let your story unfold. Try to control +your nerves and emotions." + +"I am not emotional. I am not nervous," said the quaint little woman, +bravely. "My heart hurts, that is all. + +"The place was named by my father. We inherited it at his death, thirty +years ago, and moved in. My two children were born and died there. At +first we kept the servants and maintained all of the thirty-two rooms. +But after the children were gone, we both gave ourselves over to study +and we began to close one room after another, releasing the servants one +by one." + +"How many rooms do you occupy now?" + +"We lived in three, a living-room, kitchen and bedroom. The two big +parlors were turned into a laboratory. We both worked there. It was +there my husband met his death at his work. Sometimes we worked +together, sometimes independently. I did all my own housework, except +the laundry, which I sent out. We had no visitors. We lived for each +other and our work." + +"Tell us about the rooms that were not occupied." + +"We left them just as they always had been. I have not been in any of +these rooms for twenty years. Once I looked into the little girl's +room--my daughter's room. It was dusty and cobwebby, but undisturbed by +human hand. My husband peered in over my shoulder. I closed the door. We +turned away in each other's arms." + + * * * * * + +Here the little old woman fell to weeping softly into her lace +handkerchief. Minutes lapsed as the court waited, respecting her grief. + +"Were these rooms locked?" asked the attorney finally. + +"No," said the widow, recovering, as she dabbed at her eyes. "We feared +no one. All the rooms were closed, but not locked. The outside doors +were seldom locked. We lived in our own world. For appearance sake we +kept up the grounds. Peck, the gardener, kept the grounds, as you know. +He called in outside help when necessary. This was his affair. We never +bothered him. He lived probably a half mile up the road. The first of +each month he would come for his pay. He was practically our only +visitor. + +"When it was necessary to see our attorney or other connections, Peck +would drive us. At first he used to drive our horses. Ten years ago we +pastured the horses for life and bought the small car. We seldom went +out. We have no close friends and no relatives nearer than the Pacific +coast. They are distant cousins. You see, we were rather alone in the +world since the children went away--we never spoke of them as being +dead." + +Again the court was hushed. The coroner and the attorney took occasion +to blow their noses rather violently. + +"On May 27th, the day your husband died, what happened, as you +re-remember it?" asked the attorney. + +"We arose and had breakfast as usual. I was puttering about the rooms. +My husband kissed me and started for the laboratory. I was in the +kitchen. It was about ten o'clock when I finished in the kitchen and +went into the living room which adjoins the laboratory. I had been +rather fretted, something unusual for me. It seemed I dimly sensed the +presence of someone near me, someone I did not know, an outsider. I +thought it was foolish of me and buckled up. + +"But when I went into the living room, it seemed as if some invisible +presence were following me. I could hear the low hum of my husband's +device. The door of the laboratory was open. He called to me and said: + +"'Sue dear, it seems strange, but I made two models of this set and now +I can find only one. You could not have misplaced the other by any +chance, could you?' + +"I assured him I knew nothing of it and he said, 'Hum-m, that's funny.' +Then he went back into the library and closed the door. The humming +continued. I was more annoyed than ever, but I did not want to bother my +husband. Then a queer thing happened. I saw the door of the laboratory +open and close, but I did not see anyone. The next instant, I heard my +husband's outcry. It was more a groan than a scream. + + * * * * * + +"I rushed into the laboratory. My husband was lying by his slate-topped +table. The device, I noticed, was gone. It was no bigger than a +coffee-mill, I thought, as I bent over my husband. Strange how such a +thought could have crowded in at such a time. + +"My husband's head was bleeding. It was cut, a long gash over the ear, +just below the bald spot. It must have been a frightful blow. I looked +in his eyes. My nurse's and pharmaceutical course gave me knowledge +which sent a chill to my heart. He was dead. I must have fainted. + +"When I recovered I ran for Peck. I found him near the house, coming my +way and holding his right eye. + +"'Something struck me,' he said. Then, seeing me so pale, he said, 'My +God! Mrs. Darrow, what has happened?' + +"'Run for the doctor,' I said. When the doctor came he called the police +and coroner. They told me not to disturb the body. Later they took it +away, and the gardener told me--" + +"Never mind what Peck told you," interrupted the attorney. "We will let +him tell it. Is that all you can tell us about the death itself?" + +But the widow was weeping now, so violently that the court ordered her +excused. + + * * * * * + +The gardener was called and took the stand displaying a big, black eye, +which offered comedy relief to a pathetic situation. + +"On the main road to the east," he began after preliminary questioning, +"was a small car which had been parked there all morning. I noticed it +because it had no license plates. It was visible from the inside of the +grounds, but was hidden from the road by a hedge. It made me wonder +because it was just inside our grounds. + +"I had some very special red flags which I planted as a border back of +pink geraniums. They were doing fine. I got them from the Fabrish seed +house. There are no plants like Fabrish's--I wouldn't give a snap of my +finger for all the other--" + +"Just a minute," interrupted the attorney. He told the gardener to never +mind the geraniums and flags, but to tell just what happened. + +"Well, I was bending over the border bed when I heard sounds like +someone running along the gravel path towards me. I heard a humming like +a bumble bee and I jumped to my feet. Just then something hit me in the +eye and knocked me down. Yes sir, knocked me plumb down, and--" + +"Then what happened? Never mind the asides, the extras--tell us just the +simple facts," instructed the attorney. + +"Well, you won't believe it, but I heard the footsteps leave the road. +The geraniums were badly trampled. I looked at the parked automobile and +could hear the hum coming from there. + +"The machine started and turned into the road--" + +"Did you notice anyone at the wheel?" + +"That's what you're not going to believe. There wasn't anybody in that +auto at all. I didn't see anyone at any time. The auto started itself, +and what is more, that auto only went about a hundred yards when it +disappeared altogether--like that--like a flash." + +"Did it turn off the road?" + +"I didn't turn anywhere. It was in the middle of the road. It just +disappeared right in the middle of the road. It started without a +driver, it turned north without a driver, and went on by itself for +about a hundred yards. Then it vanished in the middle of the road. Just +dropped out of sight." + +The court-room was hushed. The audience and court attaches were awe +stricken and looked their incredulity. + +"Do you mean to tell us that auto drove itself?" asked the court +sternly. + + * * * * * + +The witness was completely confused. The attorney came to his rescue, +looked at the court, and said: + +"He has told that same story a hundred times, and he will stick to it. +It seems impossible, but has not Mrs. Darrow told us she heard this +humming and saw nothing? With the purely perfunctory recitals of the +doctor and the constabulary this court and the jury have heard all there +is to hear. We have no more witnesses. That is all there is. + +"The jury will have to decide from the evidence whether this case is +accident or murder. The doctor and two experts have reported that the +wound appeared to have been made by some blunt instrument, swung +powerfully. The skull under the wound and back of the ear was simply +crushed. Death was instantaneous. It all happened in broad daylight." + +After an hour's deliberation the jury decided the savant came to his +death in his laboratory from a blow on the skull received in some manner +unknown. + +The crowd filed out, spiritedly discussing the unusual crime. In the +crowd was Perkins Ferguson, known as "Old Perk," head of the Schefert +Engineering Corporation, who paid royalty on some of the Darrow patents. +With him was Damon Farnsworth, his first vice-president. + +"Well, what do you think of it?" asked Farnsworth, biting into a black +cigar. + +"Damned weird, isn't it?" replied "Old Perk." "I have my own theory, +however," he added, "but I am going to know a whole lot more about this +case before I venture it." The pair climbed into Ferguson's car +discussing the Darrow death case with furrowed brows. + + * * * * * + +What might be termed an extraordinary meeting of the directors of the +Schefert Engineering Corporation, was held a few days later in a big +building in the financial district. + +The rich furnishings of the directors' room indicated, better than +Bradstreet's, the great wealth of the corporation. Uniformed pages stood +at attention at each end of the long, mahogany table at which were +seated the fourteen directors of the company. All were men of wealth, +standing and engineering knowledge. The departed Darrow often had been +summoned to such meetings, and at this one there was a hush because of +his recent demise. + +After a batch of preliminary business had been transacted, Ferguson +arose and cleared his throat. The directors leaned forward in their +chairs expectantly. The page boys lost their mechanical attitude for the +instant and fairly craned their necks around the bulks of the forms in +front of them. + +"The Darrow case has taken a sudden and sinister turn," said the +president. "I have a letter. I will read it: + + "Old Perk: Get wise to yourself. We are in a position to destroy + you and all the pot-bellies in the Wall Street crowd. If you want + to die of old age, remember what happened to Darrow and begin + declaring us in on Wall Street dividends. If you do not you will + follow Darrow in the same way. + + "Our first demand is for $100,000. Leave this amount in hundreds + and fifties in the rubbish can at the corner of 50th Street and + Broadway at 10 A. M. next Thursday. If you fail we will break your + damned neck. Bring the police with you if you like. + + Invisible Death. + + * * * * * + +Ferguson passed the letter around for inspection. It was painstakingly +printed, evidently from the type in a rubber stamp set such as is sold +in toy stores. + +"I have decided," said Perkins at length, "to give this case to Walter +Lees. He has never failed us in mechanical, chemical, or any form of +scientific problem. I hope he will not fail in this. He will work +independently of the police, who have requested that we keep the +appointment at 50th Street and Broadway at the hour named. We will +deposit a roll of newspapers, around which has been wrapped a fifty +dollar bill and then we will stand by while the awaiting detectives do +their duty." + +"You do not think anyone is going to call for any supposed package of +money at one of the most congested corners in the world in broad +daylight?" asked a director at the end of the table. + +"Why not?" asked Ferguson. "A seedy individual could pick a package from +a rubbish bin at that corner without attracting the least attention." + +"I guess you're right," agreed the doubting one. + +"I know I'm right," said the president. And he usually was. + +"I have already arranged to have Lees instructed in his work," Ferguson +volunteered as a pause came in the buzz of conversation about the table. +"Lees is young, but he is capable." There was general discussion of the +strange case of Darius Darrow; the room filled with the blue haze of +many cigars. + +Suddenly a low, humming sound was heard in the room. + +Papers on the directors' table were bunched as if by unseen hands, and +thrown to the ceiling, from which they descended like flakes of snow and +scattered about the room. + +A book of minutes was torn from the hands of a secretary. It was raised +and brought down on vice-president Farnsworth's head. A chair was pulled +out from under another direction and he was deposited in an undignified +heap on the floor. + +Another director acted as though he had been tripped, and he fell on top +of Farnsworth. Two big vases crashed to the floor in bits. Other +decorative objects were scattered about. + +The directors who had been hurtled to the floor stood up with +expressions of comical surprise on their features. Their chairs +catapulted into a far corner of the room, one after the other. + +Startled expressions resounded from the group. + +A small bookcase fell on its front with a crash of glass. Ferguson's +cane jumped in the air and crashed a window pane. + +The humming ceased suddenly. + + * * * * * + +The room was a wreck. The assembled men stood aghast. They were simply +nonplussed. Finally they phoned for the police. + +After hearing the strange recital from so many highly reputable +witnesses, a detective sergeant, who had responded to the call with +others, reported to headquarters. + +A uniformed police guard was sent to the place with instructions to +remain on duty until relieved. + +Ferguson sent for Walter Lees, the young engineer of whom he had spoken +to the directorate. Assigned to the task of unraveling the Darrow death +mystery, Lees ran true to form by getting busy at once. This was at +midnight of the day of the surprising directors' meeting. Lees owned a +big car; he piled into it and started for the scene of the crime. + +Daybreak found him examining every inch of the road around the Darrow +estate. Then he searched the hedge along the east road, where the +phantom auto had disappeared after the crime. The brush along the +opposite side of the thoroughfare was also gone over. + +Passing autos had stopped to ask the meaning of his flashlight. Lees +explained he had lost a pocketbook. It was as good an excuse as any and +served to keep him from drawing a crowd. He found nothing to reward his +long and painstaking efforts. + +At seven A. M. he decided to interview the Darrow widow, and found her +already up and about her kitchen, weeping softly as she worked. + +She bade him be seated in the living room. + +"No, I am not afraid to stay here alone," she said in reply to Lees' +first question. "Whoever killed my husband did so to get possession of +his second model. They had already stolen the first. I have thought +since that they were afraid that the finding of the second model after +his death would aid in their detection. For some reason they had to have +both models." + +She agreed to tell all she knew of the case. Lees listened to the long +recital as already recorded at the coroner's inquest. By adroit +questioning Lees gained just one new fact. Mrs. Darrow remembered that +she had called her husband, just before he retired to his laboratory, to +fix a towel hanger in the kitchen. "He found the pivot needed oiling," +explained the widow. "That was all. He oiled it and went into the +laboratory." + + * * * * * + +The idea of one of the world's greatest mechanical engineers stopping +his work to oil a towel hanger caused Lees to smile, but Mrs. Darrow did +not smile. + +"My husband was a genius at repairing about the house," she said, in all +seriousness. + +"I can imagine so," agreed Lees. + +The conversation ceased. Lees sat for a few minutes with his head in his +hands, thinking deeply. Finally he said: + +"I am convinced that someone who was well aware of your husband's habits +committed this crime. Do you believe, positively, that the gardener is +above suspicion?" + +"Oh, it couldn't have been Peck," insisted Mrs. Darrow. "I had seen him +down near the gate from the window. He was too far from the house, and +besides, he was devoted to us both." + +"Then it was somebody from the neighborhood," said Lees. + +"Maybe so," replied Mrs. Darrow, noncommittally. + +"Who lives in the next house south?" + +"That is towards the city," mused the widow. "There are no houses south +on either side of the road for a little further than a mile, when you +reach the town limits of Farsdale. The town line is about half-way +between, and marks the southern end of this estate." + +"Who lives in the first house to the north?" + +"That is the cottage of Peck, the gardener." + +"How near is the next house?" + +"That was the parcel my father sold. It is about three acres, and in the +center, or about the center, is the house built by Adolph Jouret, who +bought the land. He lives there with his daughter. They built a +magnificent place. The brook that traverses our grounds rises at a +spring back of his house. Save for two West Indian servants, they are +alone. The servants live in Farsdale and motor back and forth." + + * * * * * + +"What do you know of this--what's his name?" queried Lees, who had +assumed the role of examiner. + +"Jouret? Very little. He is some sort of a circus man or showman, or was +before he retired. He once had wealth, but my husband, some weeks ago, +said that because of ill-advised investments he was not so well rated as +formerly. I had the feeling that he might be forced to give up the +place. I just felt that. I never heard it. I am so sorry because of the +daughter. She is a beautiful girl, and seemed kindly, the one time I saw +her. She was about twelve then. I do not like to say it, but she seemed +a little dazed or slow witted, but really beautiful." Mrs. Darrow fell +to smoothing out the folds in her house apron as Lees asked: + +"When was the only time you saw her?" + +"Ten years ago, about. Just after my father's death. They called on us. +We did not care to continue the friendship, as Jouret seemed a little +flamboyant--his circus nature, I suppose. Anyway, we were quiet folks, +and there was no need of close association with neighbors. + +"I remember," continued the widow, after a pause, "that Jouret, when he +heard my husband was a scientist, simulated an interest in science. He +did have a smattering knowledge of science, but he was plainly affected, +so we decided to just let him drop. No ill-feeling. We just--well, we +were not interested." + +"You do not approve of circus people?" + +"It is not that. Any honest work is honorable. It seems commendable to +furnish amusement for the public. I know little about people of his +profession but I am sure they are perfectly all right. It was Jouret, +personally. He seemed noisy and insincere. The girl was nice. I loved +her." + +"That is all you know of the Jourets?" + +"That is all." + +"Mrs. Darrow, I wish to go through this house from attic to basement. +Have you any objections?" + +"None whatever. Make yourself free, but do not attach any significance +to what appears to be a secret passageway and cave. My father was a +biological chemist. He used to experiment much with small animals. He +had a cave where he stored chemicals, and I believe you will find old +chemicals stored down there now. I disturbed nothing." + +The widow forced a smile to her lips. "Will you excuse me?" she +concluded. "I am trying to carry on." + + * * * * * + +Lees, carrying a flashlight, began a systematic search of the premises. +He made his way up a winding staircase, through dust and cobwebs to the +attic. He found the top story filled with trunks and bits of furniture +of a previous generation. All was in order, but dust-covered and +cobwebby. + +"Someone has been here before me," he said to himself, brushing a mist +of cobwebs from his coat sleeves. "There is a path brushed through the +spiderwebs." Turning his flashlight on the floor, he exclaimed: + +"And here are footprints in the dust. Well I'll be--!" + +Then, after some study, he mused: + +"Of course there has been someone here. The killer of Darrow probably +has been here to see what he could see. It was no great task. The doors +were never locked. The footprints are of no value except to give me the +size of his shoes." + +He measured the footprints carefully. Then he went downstairs and phoned +the measurements to a local shoe dealer, asking him to give him the +trade size of shoes which would make such prints. + +"They are number nines," decided the shoe dealer. + +Lees then returned to resume his search in the rooms and corridors. + +"Wonder if Jouret wears nines," he questioned himself. "But what if he +does? I couldn't convict him on that score. However, it might help." + +Then he fell to searching through the old trunks. He found old +photographs, articles of apparel, knicknacks--grandmother's and +grandfather's belongings all of them, and some children's clothes of the +days when little boys wore ruffles about their necks and little girls' +pantalettes reached to their ankles. + +Carefully each article was replaced. He made his way down to the third +and then the second floor. Through cobwebby corridors and bedchambers he +searched, but found nothing further to aid his case. + +In the unused rooms on the first floor he found an old spinning-wheel, +candle moulds and utensils used in cooking in the days when housewives +cooked over an open fire. + + * * * * * + +He did not find the "secret" passageway until Mrs. Darrow came to his +aid. Leading from the basement was a coal chute. This shoot was formed +in a triangle with the point under a trap. It was man-high at the cellar +opening and its floor was a slide for fuel. It had been in use, +evidently, quite recently. + +At the cellar wall of this chute, Mrs. Darrow pressed what appeared to +be a knot in the old timber and pushed open a door. + +A dank odor issued forth as the door was opened. Lees entered the +passage and Mrs. Darrow returned upstairs. + +Following the underground passageway, Lees came onto a cave about 14 by +14 feet in size with a ceiling and walls of arched brick. It had +evidently been built before the days of cement construction. + +A long bench and shelves with carboys and jars of chemicals were the +only furnishings. Lees sounded all the walls, but found nothing further +to interest him. + +Lees returned to town at the urgent call of "Old Perk," who had arranged +with great care to keep the appointment at 50th street and Broadway, +where the decoy package was to be left. He had snipers in nearby +windows. He had detectives, dressed in the gay garb of the habitues of +the neighborhood, patrolling the corner, and he and his own guard parked +an automobile, against all traffic rule, at the curb near the rubbish +can. + +An office boy sauntered up to the rubbish can, threw in the decoy +package, and sauntered away. + +A second later there was a low humming sound. The decoy package fairly +jumped out of the rubbish can and disappeared in thin air. + +The humming sound seemed to round the corner into 50th Street. +Detectives followed on the jump. The humming approached an auto at the +curb and the auto's self starter began to function. As the police stood +near by, enough to have jumped into the auto, the whole machine, a big +touring car, actually disappeared before their eyes. + +Consternation is a mild word when used to describe the result. + + * * * * * + +All forces set to trap the extortionists gathered in a group, and in +their surprise and disappointment began discussing the queer case in +loud tones. A crowd was gathering which was blocking traffic. + +"Old Perk" was the first to recover from his surprise. + +"Get the hell out of this neighborhood," he yelled to his working +forces. "All of you get down to my office!" + +The working force dissolved and "Old Perk" drove away. + +At "Old Perk's" office shortly afterward a conference of the defeated +forces of the law and of science was held. + +"Old Perk" stormed and raged and the detective captain in charge fumed +and fussed, but nothing came of it all. One was as powerless as another. +Finally the conference adjourned. + +The next morning in the mail, Perkins Ferguson, president of Schefert +Engineering Corporation, received a letter carefully printed in rubber +type. It read: + + Thanks for the $50 bill. You cheated us by $99,950. This will never + do. Don't be like that. You poor fools, you make us increase our + demand. We double it. Leave $200,000 for us on your desk and leave + the desk unlocked. We will get it. Every time you ignore one of our + demands, one of your number will die. Better take this matter + seriously. Last warning. + + Invisible Death. + +"Not another dime will they get out of me," mused Ferguson. + +He started opening the rest of his mail. + +A clerk entered and handed him a telegram. It read: + + "Damon Farnsworth struck down at breakfast table. Family heard + humming sound as he fell from his chair. Removed to Medical Center. + Skull reported fractured. May die. + + "William Devins, Chief of Police, Larchmont." + +Ferguson wildly seized the telephone. "Get me Farnsworth's house at +Larchmont!" he shouted to his operator. + + * * * * * + +The phone was answered by Jones, the butler. + +"This is Ferguson." + +An agitated voice replied: + +"'Ow sir, yes sir. It's true, sir. 'E was bleeding at the 'ead, sir. +Something 'it 'im." + +"Let me talk to Mrs. Farnsworth." + +"They are at the 'ospital, sir." + +"One of the boys." + +"Both are at the 'ospital, sir." + +"Do you think he will live?" + +"An' 'ow could I say, sir?" + +Ferguson called the Medical Center. They permitted him to talk to a +doctor and a nurse. The nurse referred him to the doctor, who said: + +"He is unconscious. There is a wicked fracture at the base of the brain. +He was struck from the back--a club, I believe. He may die without +regaining consciousness. I am hoping he will rally and that he will be +all right." + +Ferguson ordered his car and, with Lees at his heels, jumped in the +tonneau. He heard a humming sound back of him. He looked back and saw +nothing. Both he and Lees were too impressed for words. + +"Step on it," Ferguson ordered the chauffeur. "Drive us to the Medical +Center." + +At the world's largest group of hospitals, Ferguson's worst fears were +confirmed. The patient was reported sinking. + + * * * * * + +Ferguson, giant of Wall Street, was a low spirited man as he drove back +down town to his office. With Lees he passed through the outer offices, +buzzing with business and the click of typewriters. Not a head was +raised from a desk or machine. It was a well-drilled force. + +Into his private sanctum he walked or rather dragged himself, and +wearily he sat down. He pushed a pile of papers from him and ran his +hand over his hot brow. + +Blood pounded at his temples. + +For the first time in his life he faced a situation which was too deep +for his understanding. + +Over and over again he reviewed the uncanny events as Lees sat awaiting +orders. + +"I cannot have them killing off my friends like that," he mused finally. + +He called a clerk. + +"Go to the bank and get $200,000 in fifties and one hundreds," he +commanded. + +When the clerk returned with the money he laid the package on his desk +and left the desk open. "This might appear cowardly, but it will give us +time," he said. Lees did not offer an opinion. + +Ferguson drew a personal note for $200,000 and sent it to the Schefert +Corporation's attorneys. This amount represented a large part of +Ferguson's personal assets, not involved with any company with which he +was connected. He told Lees to go about his further investigations. Then +he left the office and started for his home. "I'll bank my life Lees +will have those crooks lined up within a week," he assured himself as he +lolled in his auto, bound homeward. But his voice sounded hollow, and +the blood still pounded at his temples. + + * * * * * + +Reaching home, he found a call from the western plant, at Chicago. He +phoned the superintendent with a foreboding that all was not well. + +"This you, Perk?" sounded the voice on the wire. + +"Yes, what's up?" + +"I had not intended bothering you with this, but in the light of all +that has happened I guess you had better know that one of our engineers +went stark mad out here about three weeks ago. He was a very brainy man +but his reason snapped. He first appeared queer when he began talking of +anarchy and cursing capitalists. Then one afternoon he struck a shop +foreman down with a heavy wrench and rushed out of the plant. We have +not seen him since. The police have been looking for him, but he is +still at large." + +"That explains a lot of things," said "Old Perk." "Tell the police to +keep after him. We'll look for him here. File me a complete detailed +report of the incident by telegraph," he instructed. Then he asked: + +"How is the foreman? Badly hurt?" + +"He dodged; it was a glancing blow. The foreman was back to work in a +week. But he is nervous and has armed himself. We have put on extra +guards." + +"Good," commended Ferguson. "Don't hesitate to spend tolls to keep me +advised of any developments." + +An hour and a half later, Ferguson phoned the chief clerk in his +offices: + +"Go into my private office," he ordered, "and see if there is a package +on my desk. It is a bank package." + +The clerk returned in a few moments. + +"There is no package on your desk, Mr. Ferguson." + +"That is all I wanted to know," said Ferguson, and hung up the receiver. + +Then Ferguson called up the Darrow home and tried to get in touch with +Lees, but was unable to do so, as Mrs. Darrow said she had not seen him +since he had been called back to the office. + + * * * * * + +The reason Ferguson could not reach Lees was because Lees had decided to +learn once and for all if Jouret wore number nine shoes. He had started +for Jouret's in his own car. It was a beautiful country he was +traversing, but he had no time to note that the tree branches almost met +over his head and that his way was bordered with a profusion of wild +flowers, displaying a rainbow of colors. + +The house of Jouret, the retired circus performer, sat back far from the +road, against the side of a beautiful hill, and was surrounded by +poplars. The landscape was wilder and more natural than that of the +Darrow place adjoining. + +The door was opened by a Porto Rican boy. Lees lost no time. He said +bluntly: + +"Tell your master that a gentleman is here to see him on very particular +business." + +Jouret, himself, came back with the boy. + +"What is it?" he asked, smiling a welcome. + +"I am working on the case of the death of Mr. Darrow, your neighbor. I +believed you might have seen something. I thought you might aid me." + + * * * * * + +Jouret betrayed no surprise. + +"Come in," he said. He led the way to a large reception room and asked +his visitor to be seated. He was the soul of affability. Short, husky +and florid. His eyes large, black and staring. His hair black, quite +long and curling upward at the ears. He was dressed in black, and he had +the appearance of a big, fat crow. + +"I am glad you came," he greeted his guest, "for I have far too few +callers." He switched on a big electric bunch-light in the center of the +room, for it was dusk. + +"We have been told that you are a retired circus man," said Lees, in his +usual frank manner. + +"Not exactly," said Jouret. "I traveled on the continent, finally +journeying to Australia and then to the States. I crossed the country +from San Francisco and settled down here. I was known as 'Elias, the +Great.' I had my own company and property. It was a magic show. It was +not a circus, although we did carry two elephants, three camels, some +ponies, snakes, and birds and smaller animals. That's where the circus +report came from. + +"When I retired I sold my stock to a circus. The newspapers regarded it +as funny, and one of them printed a half page story with pictures about +the public sale. It was very much exaggerated. They mentioned giraffes, +hyenas, and a lot of other animals I never possessed. Odd, wasn't it, +getting so much publicity after I was through needing it? However I +never, in those days, dodged the limelight." Jouret ended his speech +with a loud and hearty guffaw. + +"I will call my daughter," Jouret appended. "She will be glad to meet +you." He left the room. + +Lees had taken occasion to note the size of Jouret's feet. They were +small, almost effeminate. More likely fives or sixes than nines. + +Soon Jouret returned with a girl in her early twenties. She was blond +and radiantly beautiful. + + * * * * * + +Doris Jouret bowed and smiled in a perfectly friendly manner. Lees noted +that there was something about her eyes that made her appear dazed. + +Jouret monopolized the conversation, giving no one a chance to edge in a +word. + +"This gentleman desires information in connection with the death of our +neighbor Mr., or is it Dr., Darrow? I want you to assure him, as I will, +that we have seen or noted nothing that could possibly throw light on +the strange case." + +The girl nodded, it seemed a little wearily, and Jouret was off on +another conversational flight: + +"I too am a man of scientific attainments," he chattered. "I am a +biologist, toxicologist, doctor of medicine, a geologist, metalurgist, +mineralogist, and somewhat of a mechanic and electrician. I have given +long hours to the study of strange sciences in meta-physics, to which +you men give too little attention. There are sciences which transcend +any of this sphere. There is a higher astronomy. I neglected to say that +I am an astronomer." + +"Yes?" drawled Lees. + +"Yes!" said Jouret emphatically. + +The girl had adopted rather a theatrical pose, which disclosed +considerable of her nether charms, and said nothing at all. + +"When you find your man," volunteered Jouret, "you will find a madman." +He said this ponderously and with a gesture meant evidently to be +impressive. + +"You believe a madman did it?" asked Lees, as Jouret paused, expecting a +question. + +"Undoubtedly. It was a paranoic with delusions of money, grandeur and a +strongly developed homicidal mania. To me, that is the only sensible +solution. I am quite sure that I am correct." + +Lees arose to go and Jouret did not urge him to stay. He bowed Lees out +and Doris bowed with him. + +"She is a beautiful girl," mused Lees once he was outside. + +Lees ran over in his mind the circumstances of his visit to Jouret. +There was no doubt in his mind that Jouret's shoes were too small to be +number nines, and he reasoned that that fact might tend to eliminate +Jouret. But he was not satisfied. + +"I am going to get some gas," he told himself, "and then I am going to +get two private detectives to assist me, for I'm going right back there. +For the first time in my life I am going to be a Peeping Tom. + +"There is no moon. The poplars will give us a view of all three floors +of that house, if they leave their blinds up enough, and three of us can +watch all three floors at once." + +He phoned Ferguson that he might be busy for days, joined his pair of +operatives from the detective agency and for some time the three +operated on a well conceived plan. + + * * * * * + +It was probably a week later that Lees rendered a report to Perkins +Ferguson, which for a time proved one of the strangest documents in the +weird case. It read: + +"You will probably think I am crazy, and for this reason I am having +this report subscribed and sworn to, jointly and severally. With my two +detectives I have seen Miss Jouret, the girl I told you about over the +phone, in three places at one and the same time. Not once but twice this +has happened. + +"Looking through the windows of the Jouret place at night, we saw the +girl on the first, second and third floor of the house. We believed this +due to a clever arrangement of mirrors. But figure this out: + +"The next day she drove a car to town. We followed. She got out at one +theater and entered. She did not come back, that we could see, but the +car drove off. There was no chauffeur, and we thought we had discovered +the driverless auto, until we looked and saw Miss Jouret still at the +wheel. + +"She got out and entered another theater. She did not come back, but the +car drove off with her still at the wheel. She entered a third theater +after parking the car and this time the driver's seat and the tonneau +was empty. + +"Reverse the reel and you will see her coming out of three theaters and +driving home. That is what happened. There must be three of her, all +identical, but only one shows at a time. If it's some of Jouret's +far-famed magic, I'll say he's some conjurer. The explanation is not yet +forthcoming. We want to shadow Jouret, but he never goes anywhere. The +girl has only been out the one time when she attended three matinees as +described. Believe it or not. + +"The next night we each--the two detectives and I--tried to steal a +march on one another and called her up and asked her to go out. To our +individual surprise, she agreed in each case. To our collective +surprise, she kept all three dates on the same night. She walked +through the trees in this vicinity with me. She also drove down the road +in the auto with one of my detectives, and she went dancing with the +other. She was in three places miles apart at one and the same time. + +"We each brought her home within a half hour of the other and we are +swearing to that. Either we are all hypnotized or else there are three +identical Misses Jouret. + +"Jouret himself treats us all wonderfully, gives us the run of the +house, and tries to talk us to death." + + * * * * * + +The strange document was subscribed by Lees and the two detectives and +was held by Ferguson pending developments. + +The next report from Lees read: + +"I had a chance to prowl around the Jouret house a little while waiting +for Miss Jouret to dress. I met her twice in my ramblings and a few +minutes later she met me again, this time in a different costume. + +"I got a chance to search the woods back of Jouret's house in the +evening. I found a spot where the earth had been disturbed, and dug up a +pair of shoes. They were number nines." + +A fourth report from him read: + +"We found the body of the crazed engineer. He had drowned himself in a +lake. This eliminates him as a murder suspect." + + * * * * * + +Two weeks passed with no new developments in the "Invisible Death" case +except for the arrival of a letter demanding $1,000,000 and threatening +the life of Perkins Ferguson if the demand was ignored. It was ignored, +and only served to spur Lees and his detectives on to decisive action. + +They decided to rush the Jouret house and kidnap Jouret with the idea of +holding him until he agreed to explain the presence of the number nine +shoes buried back of his house. + +A low moon hung over the poplars when Lees rang the Jouret front door +bell. One detective was guarding a side door and the other a back door. + +Suddenly Jouret was seen to jump from a second-story window. As he did, +a car driven by one of his Porto Ricans came along the drive and he +leaped into it. Lees, first to see Jouret, called his detectives. They +came running. Their car was waiting in the road. + +The Porto Rican was seen to jump from the Jouret car just as it started +south towards New York. + +Lees took up the race. Both cars had plenty of power, but the Jouret car +suddenly disappeared as a low humming noise began to break the stillness +of the night. + +One of the detectives was at the wheel. Lees, as usual, was giving +orders: + +"Keep close to that hum. Never mind that you cannot _see_ the car. It is +there all right. If you can gain on it enough, drive right into it." + +"Righto!" shouted the detective. "We're wise to him now." + +The humming noise was taking on speed with every second. So was Lees' +car. Soon Lees' car was making sixty miles an hour with the hum just +ahead and barely audible. + +Past traffic lights, over bridges and grade crossings the mad chase of +the phantom continued. + +Wildly racing through the night, missing other cars by a breath, the +big, visible auto continued its pursuit of--what? + +Careening, Lees' car rounded a curve, and, above the hum just ahead, +they heard the shouted curses of their quarry. But he could not be seen. +Lees could only see the road marked by his lights. + +Mile after mile the wild, uncanny chase of the phantom continued. + + * * * * * + +Soon the lights of New York could be seen in the distance. The cars were +forced to slow down somewhat. Suddenly there was a thundering crash +ahead. A car was twisted in a mass of tangled wreckage. + +Feminine and masculine shrieks blended as Lees' car piled up on the +wrecked heap. A third car, becoming suddenly visible, rolled over and +brought up at the edge of the road. From this car emerged the limping, +cursing form of Jouret. + +From the wreckage three painfully injured young men dragged and tore +themselves. Then they leaped--ignoring their hurts--at the limping +figure. + +The fight was on. Jouret was heavy and powerful and proved an obstinate +fighter, for he knew he was fighting for his life. He bit and clawed. He +kicked with one uninjured leg and butted with his massive head. + +Lees and his detectives were fighting with no respect for the rules. +Lees managed to get his two hands on the bull-neck of Jouret just as one +detective connected a duet of blows to the man's wind. + +Lees' hands closed in a steely grip, and soon Jouret was limp and +helpless. + +They held him there. An ambulance arrived. A few minutes later a police +auto with reserves came on the scene. The police shackled Jouret. + +The car that had been hit by the phantom was a light sedan. It was +occupied by two women. Their bodies were drawn from the wreckage. Both +were dead--innocents sacrificed to the blood madness of a maniac. + +Jouret was right about himself. He was a paranoic with a strongly +developed homicidal mania. + +In the wreckage was found a package containing $200,000 and also two +twisted and broken mechanisms. One of these was about the size of an +ordinary kitchen coffee-mill, and the other slightly larger. + + * * * * * + +Regarding these machines, Lees wrote in a report: + +"While making a fourth search of Darrow's laboratory, I found the +equations, specifications and what I believe to be the full plans for +the last invention of the ingenious Darius Darrow. + +"Many of the most astounding inventions and discoveries have resulted +from theories which were laughed to scorn at the time they were +advanced. Roebling's plans for the Brooklyn Bridge resulted in a meeting +of the foremost engineers of the day. All agreed that the plans were +built on a false premise. They argued that the bridge would fall of its +own weight. Then they all had a good laugh. The bridge still stands. + +"Watching smoke float over a hill from army camp fires caused an early +French scientist to dream of filling a bag full of smoke and riding with +it over the hill. The first balloon was the answer to this dream. + +"James Watt is said to have gotten his idea for a steam engine from +watching a lid on a tea-kettle dance under steam pressure. + +"When Langley was flying his man-carrying kites the Wright brothers +dreamed of hitching an engine and a propeller to a giant kite. The +airplane was the result of these experiments. + + * * * * * + +"Darrow got his idea from watching a rapidly revolving wheel. He noticed +that the spokes and rim blended into a blurred disc when a certain speed +was reached. The entire wheel was practically invisible, under certain +lighting conditions, when a higher speed was attained. + +"Darrow went further and reached the conclusion that there was a rate of +vibration that would produce invisibility. This was accepted in +practically all engineering research plants, long before it was +perfected by Darrow. + +"The facts are that any rapidly vibrating object becomes more and more +difficult to outline as its rate of vibration increases. All that was +left for Darrow was to arrive at the exact mathematical time, tone, or +rate of vibration producing invisibility and to construct a vibrator +tuned to produce this condition. + +"His first machine produced the vibrations of invisibility in a field +with a three-foot radius in all directions. That is, it caused every +solid object, within this atmospheric field, to vibrate at the rate, +tone, or speed of invisibility. This machine was in no sense rotary. It +departed from the original example of a revolving wheel and entered +instead into general vibration in a given or measured field. + +"The pulsations or vibrations of an ordinary automobile engine will +cause every ounce of metal, or solid, in the automobile--including the +driver--to vibrate at the same rate or momentum. This is a known fact, +and it provided the basis for Darrow's experiments. + + * * * * * + +"Darrow built two machines. The first had a field with a radius of three +feet on all sides. This was used by the killer in his murders. Jouret +stole this machine first, thus paving his way for the second robbery. + +"With the first machine in his possession, Jouret was able to commit the +Darrow murder without being seen. He had to have the second and larger +machine, however, to make his auto disappear. He stole the larger +machine at the time of the Darrow murder, and with it he had his auto +vanish, as the gardener testified. + +"Both machines were hopelessly smashed in the wreck, but with Darrow's +documents at hand, we might be able to construct another and a larger +model. A machine built on the proper scale will make a plane or a +battleship invisible and should, as Darrow said, make war against this +country impossible. + + * * * * * + +"Digging into Jouret's history we found that the 'Misses Jouret' were +one-cell triplets. Their mother, Mrs. Doris Nettleton, an English woman, +was a member of Jouret's troupe, as was the father. + +"The mother died at the birth of the triplets. The father died a few +years later. The company was touring Australia at the time. Jouret and +the father had the birth of only one baby recorded. She was named Doris, +after the mother. The other girls also used this one name. They now have +only one name among them until the court gives them individual names. + +"Jouret never let but one girl be seen at a time. The reason was that he +and the father had planned to use the girls, when grown, to create a +surprising stage illusion. In this illusion, one girl was to act as the +earthly body and the other girls as the astral bodies of the same +purported individual. + +"The father died, and Jouret retired before he ever got around to +staging the illusion. Jouret continued the deception, however, because +it appealed to his showman's nature. + +"The girls, at all times, were under the hypnotic control of Jouret, +and, of course, knew nothing of his crazed intellect or crimes. Upon his +arrest Jouret released the girls from the spell of years. + +"The Misses Nettleton say that Jouret was always kind to them and was an +ethical showman until his mind gave way. + +"I told the triplets that I might find them employment with our concern, +but they prefer to follow in the footsteps of their mother and father, +and return to the stage." + +Ferguson, quite his normal self once more, since Farnsworth was +recovering slowly, twitted Lees about being in love with one of the +triplets. Lees admitted they were most gorgeous blondes, but insisted he +preferred one brunette. + +"Then another thing," added Lees. "Any man who falls in love with one of +the Nettleton triplets will never be sure just which one he fell in love +with." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Astounding Stories of Super-Science +January 1930, by Various. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41481 *** |