Spawn of the Comet

  Produced by Greg Weeks, Barbara Tozier and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  This etext was produced from ?Astounding Stories? November 1931.Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyrighton this publication was renewed.

  Professor Wentworth swung his cannon ray upon thatadvancing horde.]

  A swarm of huge, fiery ants, brood of a mystery comet, burst from their shells to threaten the unsuspecting world.

  Spawn of the Comet

  By H. Thompson Rich

  Tokyo, June 10 (AP).--A number of the meteors that pelted Japan last night, as the earth passed through the tail of the Mystery Comet have been found and are puzzling astronomers everywhere.

  About the size of baseballs, orange in color, they appear to be of some unknown metal. So far, due to their extreme hardness, all attempts to analyze them have failed.

  Their uniformity of size and marking gives rise to the popular belief that they are seeds, and, fantastic though this conception is, it finds support in certain scientific quarters here.

  Jim Carter read the news dispatch thoughtfully and handed it back tohis chief without comment.

  "Well, what do you make of it?"

  Miles Overton, city editor of _The New York Press_, shoved his greeneye-shade far back on his bald head and glanced up irritably from hislittered desk.

  "I don't know," said Jim.

  "You don't know!" Overton snorted, biting his dead cigar impatiently."And I suppose you don't know they're finding the damn things righthere in New York, not to mention Chicago, London, Rio and a few otherplaces," he added.

  "Yes, I know about New York. It's a regular egg hunt."

  "Egg hunt is right! But why tell me all this now? I didn't see anymention of 'em in your report of last night's proceedings. Did you seeany?"

  "No, but I saw a lot of shooting stars!" said Jim, recalling thatweird experience he and the rest of humanity had passed through sorecently.

  "Yeah, I'll say!" Overton lit his wrecked cigar and dragged on itsoothingly. "Now then, getting back to cases--what are these damnthings, anyway? That's what I'd like to know."

  "So would I," said Jim. "Maybe they _are_ seeds?"

  Overton frowned. He was a solid man, not given to fancies. He had apaper to get out every day and that taxed his imagination to thelimit. There was no gray matter left for any such idle musings as Jimsuggested. What he wanted was facts, and he wanted them right away.

  "Eggs will do!" he said. "Go out and get one--and find out what'sinside it."

  "Okay, Chief," said Jim, but he knew it was a large order. "I'll haveone on your desk for breakfast!"

  Then, with a grave face that denied his light words, he stepped fromthe city room on that fantastic assignment.

  * * * * *

  It was the television broadcast hour and crowds thronged the upperlevel of Radio Plaza, gazing, intently at the bulletin screen, as JimCarter emerged from the Press tower.

  News from the ends of the earth, in audio-picture form, flashed beforetheir view; but only the reports on the strange meteors from the tailof 1947, IV--so designated by astronomers because it was the fourthcomet discovered that year--held their interest. Nothing since thegreat Antarctic gold rush of '33 had so gripped the public as thedramatic arrival and startling behavior of this mysterious visitantfrom outer space.

  Jim paused a moment, halfway across the Plaza, to take a look at thescreen himself.

  The substance of the Tokyo dispatch, supplemented by pictures ofJapanese scientists working over the baffling orange spheres, had justgone off. Now came a flash from Berlin, in which a celebrated Germanchemist was seen directing an effort to cut into one of them with anacid drill. It failed and the scientist turned to declare to the worldthat the substance seemed more like crystal than metal and was harderthan diamond.

  Jim tarried no longer. He knew where he was going. It was still earlyand Joan would be up--Joan Wentworth, daughter of Professor StephenWentworth, who held the chair of astro-lithology at HartfordUniversity. It was as their guest at the observatory last night thathe had seen 1947, IV at close range, as the earth passed through hergolden train with that awesome, unparalleled display of fireworks.

  Now he'd have the pleasure of seeing Joan again, and at the same timeget the low-down from her father on those confounded seeds--or eggs,rather. If anyone could crack one of them, he'd bet ProfessorWentworth could.

  So, hastening toward the base of Plaza Airport, he took an elevator toramp-level 118, where his auto-plane was parked, and five minuteslater was winging his way to Hartford.

  * * * * *

  Throttle wide, Jim did the eighty miles to the Connecticut capital ina quarter of an hour.

  Then, banking down through the warm June night onto the Universitylanding field, he retracted the wings of his swift little bus andmotored to the foot of Observatory Hill.

  Parking outside the Wentworth home, he mounted the steps and rang thebell.

  It was answered by a slim, appealing girl of perhaps twenty-two. Herswas a wistful, oval face, with a small, upturned nose; and her clearhazel eyes were the sort that always seem to be enjoying some amusingsecret of their own. Her hair was a soft brown, worn loose to theshoulders, after the style then in vogue.

  "Joan!" blurted Jim.

  "What brings you here at such an hour, Jimmy Carter?" she asked withmock severity.

  "You!"

  "I don't believe you."

  "What then have I come for?"

  "You've come to interview father about those meteorites."

  "Nonsense! That's purely incidental--a mere by-product, you mightsay."

  "Yes, you might--but I wouldn't advise you to say it to father."

  "All right, I won't," he promised, as she led him into the library.

  Professor Wentworth rose as they entered and laid aside somescientific book he had been reading.

  A man of medium height and build, he had the same twinkling hazel eyesas his daughter, though somewhat dimmed from peering at too many starsfor too many years.

  "Good evening, Jim," he said. "I've rather been expecting you. What ison your mind?"

  "Seeds! Eggs! Baseballs!" was the reply, "I don't know what. You'veseen the latest television reports, I suppose?" said Jim, noting thatthe panel on the receiving cabinet across the room was still lit.

  "I've seen some of them. Joan has been keeping an eye on the screenmostly, however, while I refreshed my mind on the known chemistry ofmeteorites. You see, I have a few of those eggs myself, up at theobservatory."

  "You have?" cried Jim.

  He was certainly on the right track!

  "Yes. One of my assistants brought them in this afternoon. Would youlike to see them?"

  "I'll say I would!"

  "I rather thought you might," the professor smiled. "Come along,then."

  And as Jim turned, he shot a look at Joan, and added:

  "You may come too, my dear, if you want."

  * * * * *

  They went out and up the hill to where the great white dome glistenedunder the stars, and once inside, Jim Carter of _The New York Press_was privileged to see two of those strange objects that had turned theworld topsy-turvy.

  As the Tokyo dispatch and the Berlin television flash had indicated,they were orange in color, about the size of baseballs.

  "Weird looking eggs, all right!" said Jim. "What are they made of,anyway?"

  "Some element unknown on earth," replied Professor Wentworth.

  "But I thought there were only ninety-two elements in the universe andwe'd discovered them all."

  "So we ha
ve. But don't forget this. We are still trying to split theatom, which nature has done many times and will doubtless do manytimes again. It is merely a matter of altering the valence of theatoms in an old element; whereupon it shifts its position in theperiodic scale and becomes a new element. Nature accomplishes thisalchemy by means of great heat, which is certainly to be found in ameteor."

  "Particularly when it hits the earth's atmosphere!"

  "Yes. And now then, I'd like to have you examine more closely thispair I have here."

  Jim lifted one and noted its peculiar smoothness, its remarkableweight for its size; he noted, too, that it was veined with concentricmarkings, like a series of arabesques or fleurs-de-lis.

  The professor lifted the other, calling attention to the fact that