October 1930 Read online

  Then he was aware of Fredegonde Valmy lying with a white face under ashrub. Her eyes were open, and turned toward him.

  He heard Luke Evans's voice. The old man hobbled round from Dick'sback, one arm in a bandage.

  "She's hurt rather bad, Rennell, but we won't know how bad till we canget her away," he said. "You've been lying here about an hour, sincewe crashed. President Hargreaves made them take him to the fleet inthe other motorboat to see what he could do. He's assumed command.

  "You see, Rennell, that damn gas caught the fleet and put pretty nearevery man out of commission for good. But these fellows wasn't goingto give up. So, since all their officers were gone, they took two ofthe boats and their arms and equipment, and came ashore to settleaccounts. And they won't believe there's anybody on the island or anybuildings. And I can't make 'em believe it. God, Rennell, thoseinvisible devils may attack us at any moment. I don't understand whatthey're waiting for."

  Gotch spoke: "We know you're Captain Rennell, sir. And this gentleman,we know him too, but he seems a bit queer in his head. Talking of theInvisible Emperor's headquarters on this island, a mile or so inland.The only invisible thing we've found is that piece of a garment wepulled off you."

  "I broke my watch ray machine in the fall, and I can't make thembelieve, Rennell," almost wept old Evans. "Tell them I'm not crazy."

  Dick got upon his feet with an effort, staggered a little, then madehis way to Fredegonde. He kneeled down beside the girl. She wasconscious, and smiled faintly, but she could not speak. He pressed herhand, rose, and came back. "Mr. Evans is not crazy," he said. "Theheadquarters of the gang is over there." He pointed. "Didn't PresidentHargreaves tell you?"

  "He was kind of incoherent, sir." The marines looked at one another,wondering. Was Captain Rennell crazy too?

  "We've had scouts out through the jungle, sir. There's nothing withinfive miles of here. They had a clear view through to the sea from thetop of a hill."

  "I've been there." Dick spoke with conviction. "I must tell youthey've got devices that make them practically irresistible. That gasand other things. And they're invisible. But if you boys are willingto follow me, I'll lead you. It means death. I don't know what they'rewaiting for. But--are you willing to follow me?"

  "We'll follow you, sir"--after a pause, during which Dick read intheir eyes the desire to humor a crazy man. "We'll follow to hell,sir--if that gang's really there."

  "Take your arms, then!" Dick pointed to the stacked rifles.

  A minute later the twenty-odd Marines, forming an open line thatextended from one side of the clearing to the other, were on their waytoward the headquarters of the gang. And Dick, leading them, thoughhis head was reeling, felt as if his own reason was slipping from him.Had he only dreamed all this? Was it possible that the headquarters ofthe Invisible Emperor existed on this desolate prairie? If it wastrue, why had they suddenly become silent, inert? Why had they notlong ago wiped out these few Marines? And the gale--was it nowsweeping northward on its mission of destruction?

  * * * * *

  Half an hour passed. Then the brown patches of the foundations cameinto view upon the open ground. Here were the hangers, here was thecentral building with the Emperor's headquarters. And nothing wasvisible, nothing stirred, yet at any moment Dick expected the rattleof machine-gun bullets or some more terrific method of destruction.

  "Halt!" The line stood still. "I am going forward ahead or you. You'llfollow at a distance of twenty paces. When you see me stop, feel forthe door in the wall, and if I disappear, follow me. You understand?"

  The Marines assented cheerfully. No harm in humoring this poor devilof an officer who had crashed and lost his wits. Like Luke Evans,shambling up through the line to Dick's side. Dick advanced. At anymoment now the concentrated fire of the Emperor's men should blastthem all to smithereens. Nothing happened.

  And it was no dream, for Dick's outstretched hand encountered theexterior wall of the building. He had gauged his way accurately, too,for a step or two brought him to the door. He stepped inside. He wasinside the private door that led to the Emperor's quarters, throughwhich he had passed with Fredegonde, Hargreaves, and Luke Evans intheir flight. It had been broken down, contrary to the girl'spredictions, and the deserted passage within was perfectly visible tothem all.

  Stupefied, the Marines bumped and jostled with each other as theycrowded in. If they had been anything but Marines, their own headsmight have been turned at the discovery of this sudden materializationof a building out of nothingness.

  Being Marines, they only grinned sheepishly, and followed along thecorridor.

  * * * * *

  The first human being they saw was one of the guards, in a blacktunic. He was leaning against a wall, and he was a human being nolonger. He looked as if he was asleep, but he was stone dead, with aplacid look on his face.

  Two more dead guards lay across each other, with smiles on theirfaces: and there was a workman in a blue blouse who had been in atremendous hurry to get somewhere, from his appearance, and had nevergot there. He had fallen asleep instead, and never wakened.

  Dick found a stairway and led the way up. He thought it ran up to thelaboratory, but, instead, the room into which he emerged was theante-room of the Invisible Emperor's audience hall. Six dead guardslay in a heap in front of the curtain, and they had died asunconcerned as their fellows, to judge by the pacific expressions ontheir faces.

  Dick passed through into the throne room. The Marines, behind him, forthe first time uttered exclamations of awe--of pity.

  The terrific scene that met Dick's eyes would be burned into his braintill his last day.

  Upon his throne, head flung back, sat the Invisible Emperor, hisfeatures set in a sardonic leer of death. And all about him, somesitting, some lying, supporting one another, were his court, officersin black uniforms with the silver braid, and women in court dress. Andall were dead too. But they had not known they had died. They hadfallen asleep--upon the instant that their own volatile gas reachedthem.

  * * * * *

  "I guess that's the explanation, sir," said old Luke Evans. "Thosedevils made the whirlwind and charged it with the gas. But when youreversed that lever, you reversed the process. Instead of projectingthe force outwardly, you made a suction, and every atom of the gasthat hadn't travelled beyond the radius came rushing back and filledthe building. If we'd entered a half-hour later, we'd have been deadones ourselves, but the gas was volatile enough to disperse throughthe chinks and crannies. Anyway, it's all over now."

  Yes, it was all over, Dick thought, as he sat in his deck chair uponthe cruiser that was bearing him northward. The menace to worldgovernment had been destroyed and with it all who had been behind it.There would be a new order in the world, a new and kindliergovernment. Men would feel closer to one another than in the past.Half the personnel of the fleet had escaped the invisible death, andonly one cruiser and the dirigible had been lost in the confusion.There would be a great reception when they put into Charleston.

  Dick bent over Fredegonde, who was asleep in her chair beside him. Theship's surgeon had promised recovery for her. She shouldn't suffer forher half-voluntary part in the business, Dick said to himself. It wasgoing to be his task to help her to forget.

  Prisoners on the Electron

  By Robert H. Leitfred

  [Sidenote: Fate throws two young Earthians into desperate conflictwith the primeval monsters of an electron's savage jungles.]

  The blood-red glow of a slanting sun bathed the towers of New York'sserrated skyline, then dropped into a molten sea beyond the winterhorizon. Friday, the last day of Jupiter, the thirteenth month of theearth's new calendar, had drawn to a close. In a few hours the year of1999 would end--at midnight, to be exact.

  Far below the towers stretched well lighted canyons teeming withhumanity. At an upper level where once the elevated trains had roaredand rumbled in an antiquated period long past, an orderly mass ofworkers and shoppers was borne at an incredible speed from lowerMan
hattan to towering apartments that stretched northward toPeekskill. The northbound traffic was heaviest at this hour and themoving sidewalk bands were jammed to their capacity.

  Street cars, now obsolete, had vanished from the streets under the neworder of things as had also passenger cars, taxis and trucks. Speedpredominated. Noise had practically been eliminated. Except for thegentle throb of giant motors far underground, the city was cloaked insilence.

  At regular intervals along the four-speed moving bands that formed thetransportation of the great metropolis, huge circular shafts of steelmounted upward beyond the roofs of the tallest buildings. Within theseshafts, swift elevators carried passengers who lived in the outlyingdistricts to the level of the station platforms of the interstateoperating transport planes.

  * * * * *

  Close to the entrance of one of the steel shafts stood a young man alittle above medium height. His deep-sunken eyes were those of adreamer, a searcher. They were the eyes of a man who had seen strangeand startling things. At present they were staring into the pulsingwave of humanity flowing northward on the endless steel bands beyondthe platform.

  Quite suddenly they lighted with pleasure as a man and a girl detachedthemselves from the swift moving river of people and hurried to thespot where he stood.

  "Think we were never coming?" Karl Danzig's eyes were much like thoseof Aaron Carruthers. Just now they sparkled with suppressedexcitement.

  Aaron Carruthers smiled in turn. "No, Karl. Any man but you. Icouldn't imagine you being late." He turned his attention to the slim,dark haired girl. "Nanette," he murmured, extending his hand, "Ididn't think you'd come."

  Dazzling white teeth caught the glow of the blue-white incandescentsalong the platform, and became under the bow of her red lips a stringof priceless pearls.

  "I had to come, Aaron. Karl has done nothing but talk of your amazingdiscovery. The experiment fairly frightens me at times especially whenI recall the sad fate of your friend, the missing Professor Dahlgren.I wish you boys would give up the idea--"

  "Nan, be still," broke in Karl, with brotherly rudeness. Turning toCarruthers. "Everything all ready, Aaron?" he asked.

  * * * * *

  Carruthers nodded. "As far as humanly possible. The element of erroris always present. I've checked and re-checked my calculations. I'veaugmented the vacuum tubes by installing three super-dimensionalinverse power tubes." He clasped the girl's arm. "The street is noplace to talk. Let's go to the laboratory."

  They crossed the moving bands by an overhead bridge and cut down anarrow canyon to the entrance of a crosstown series of bands. Theystepped onto the first band. The speed was moderate. From there theymoved over to the second. Carruthers was in a hurry. He guided thegirl and her brother across the third to the fourth band of movingsteel.

  Buildings slid past them like wraiths in the electric light. They feltno winter chill, for the streets and platforms were heated by aconstant flow of warm air from slots ingeniously arranged in the bandof swift moving metal upon which they stood. Within a few minutes theyhad arrived at their destination. Quickly they reversed their pathacross the moving bands until they reached the disembarking platform.A short distance from the station they came to the entrance of a hugetower building.

  Carruthers nodded to the doorman and they were admitted into a marblehallway. A silent, unattended lift bore them swiftly to theseventy-fifth floor. Down a deep carpeted hallway they moved.Carruthers touched his door. It opened. He stood to one side as theother two entered.

  * * * * *

  Nanette cried with delight at the luxurious splendor of the place."Why, Aaron, I never dreamed the night view could be quite sodelightful! I do believe that if the horrid government had not takendown that little Statue of Liberty and substituted the Shaft Triumphin its place, that I could easily see her fingers clasping the torchshe was reputed to hold.

  "Progress, dear girl," shrugged Carruthers, holding out his hands forher cape. "By the way, have you folks eaten?"

  "Not in a week," said Karl.

  "Von Sternberger's food tablets," informed the girl.

  Carruthers nodded. His deep-set eyes regarded them appraisingly. "Anyill effects?"

  "None whatever," spoke Danzig. "Neither of us have the slightestcraving for food."

  "Good. Did you bring any with you?"

  "A whole carton."

  "Then I guess we're already to make the experiment. You're sure.Nanette, that you're not afraid of...."

  "Don't be silly, Aaron. I haven't grown up with Karl for nothing. He'salways used me for the disagreeable end of his crazy experiments. Andbesides," she smiled on both men. "I have a woman's curiosity for theunknown."

  "Very well," said Carruthers gravely. From his waistcoat pocket hetook a ring of keys and inserted one of them into the lock of animmense steel door. "Our laboratory," he announced, swinging the doorwide.

  * * * * *

  Nanette's eyes opened wide at the paneled whiteness of the room. Mostof the far side was taken up with electrical machines, dynamos,generators and glass enclosed motors of an advanced type. Overhead,concealed lights made the room as light as day. A heavy glass railingshielded a square spot in the exact center of the room.

  "What's that for?" asked the girl.

  Danzig and Carruthers both regarded it with troubled eyes. It wasCarruthers who spoke.

  "That railing marks the spot where Professor Dahlgren stood when therays of our atomic machine struck him."

  "You mean," breathed the girl, "that he never moved from that spotafter the rays touched his body? What happened?"

  Karl had already divested himself of his coat and was checking thecopper cables leading into a strange machine.

  "It was rather curious," remarked Carruthers. "The moment the raytouched him his body began to dwindle. But evidently he suffered nopain. As a matter of fact his mind remained quite clear."

  "How did you know?"

  "As he dwindled in size," continued Carruthers, "he shouted warninglythat the rays had become confused and for us to cut the switch. Butthe warning came a fraction of a second too late. Even as my fingersopened the contact, his body dwindled to a mere speck and disappearedentirely from sight."

  * * * * *

  Nanette gazed with staring eyes at the ill-fated spot. Her face hadgrown steadily paler. "Oh, Aaron! It's awful! What do you supposehappened?"

  Carruthers eyes glowed strangely. "I didn't exactly know at the time,Nanette. I'm not sure that I know even now. But I've got a theory andKarl has helped me to build a second machine to flash a restoring rayon the square spot. What will take place I cannot even conjecture."

  "Let's get on with the experiment," interrupted Karl. "Nanette can beshown later what she is to do."

  Carruthers turned to Danzig. "All right. Karl. Draw up a chair to yourmachine. And you, Nanette, sit close to this switch. It's off now. Toturn it on, simply push it forward until the copper plates slide intoeach other. To turn the current off, you pull sharply out. However, wearen't quite ready."

  He shifted his position until he stood before a third machineslightly smaller than the other two. His fingers clicked a switch. Thedial of the instrument glowed whitely.

  "It's important," continued Carruthers, "that we first locate ourinterference. We have here, Nanette, a common television receivingapparatus capable of picking up news and pictures from any corner ofthe globe. Ready, Karl?"

  Danzig clicked on the switch before his own machine and turned one ofthe many dials mounted on the panel in front of him. A faint humfilled the room as the generator settled to its task.

  * * * * *

  Carruthers reached up and dimmed the overhead lights. A screen of whatlooked like frosted glass set in the wall glowed luminously. Theinterior of a famous broadcasting studio became mirrored in the glassscreen. Into it stepped the master of ceremonies. He spoke briefly ofthe New Year's activities that would soon take place when thetwenty-eighth day of Jupiter ended at midnight.

  "Boston," said Carru
thers. "Too near."

  "Try Frisco," suggested Karl. "The tubes ought to be sufficientlyheated by this time."

  The dial whirled beneath Carruthers slender fingers. The picturesframed in the frosted panel faded. Another took its place. SanFrancisco--an afternoon concert. Carruthers saw and listened for amoment, then moved thousands of miles out to sea.

  Shanghai drifted into the panel, announcing in sing-song accents theweather reports. Following this came reports of various uprisingsalong the Manchurian border.

  While yet the three listeners and watchers bent their heads toward thepanel in the wall, a strange thing occurred. The silver frostiness ofthe screen became violently agitated with what looked like tiny sparksdarting in and about each other like miniature solar systems.Shanghai faded from the picture. All that remained visible now was thejumbled mass of needle-pointed sparks of luminosity.

  "Careful," warned Carruthers. "Slow up the speed of your reflector,Karl. There, that's better. Watch the meter reading. I'm going to stepup the power of the dimensional tubes. Steady!"

  * * * * *

  From an invisible reproducer came a sharp, metallic crackling likemachine-gun bullets rattling on a tin roof. The sparks on the screenbecame violently agitated, pushing around in erratic circles andellipses. They glowed constantly in shades of bright green through theblues into the deep violets of the color scale.

  "What do you read?" asked Carruthers.

  "Point seven six nine," answered Karl.

  "Shift it back towards the blue, about two points lower on the scale."

  Danzig twisted two dials at the same time with minute exactness."Point seven six eleven," he intoned.

  "Hold it," ordered Carruthers. "Blue should predominate." He turnedhis eyes on the dancing sparks on the screen. They glowed now a deepindigo blue. "Lock your dials against accidental turning. We're tunedto the vanishing point."

  Danzig rose to his feet. "What will we use?"