Thrilling Wonder Stories, October, 1936
CHAPTER I
fluorescent beams of light converging on a
The Unknown
little screen. Then the screen had turned into a
dim yellow vista of darkness; and then things
were to be seen. As though from a height, he
OHNNY HALL sat alone, and with had gazed far down upon a placid landscape, trembling fingers opened the letter. alive with shimmering yellow water.
J Nearly a hundred pages were here in this A glimpse into another realm. But his communication from his dead father which
father never would explain it. And then, a
had been lying in the Trust Company for week later, that horrible scene of his father’s fifteen years. He scanned the top page.
death.
Weird, Incredible message! So many
Johnny, six years old then, had
things of mystery in his own boyhood awakened in the night; had sneaked into the memories of his father now were being laboratory room to find his father. Sight most explained. That night, for instance, when as a
horrible! His father was lying on a couch. He
little boy he had joined his father in the was wearing some kind of headgear; a sort of mysterious workshop. Three milky, bathing suit; and there were wires running
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2
down his arms and legs. Not dead; his eyes
laboratory room, with a board table and chairs.
were open, and one of his hands was fumbling
He worked almost entirely at night studying
at his chest. His whole figure was dissolving.
his father’s technical instructions.
A ghost shimmering there. It seemed drifting
Then came the last night. Ten o’clock.
slowly down through the bed. And then it was
Johnny was ready; he sat waiting for
gone!
midnight. There was only one person here on
Weird, never explained mystery. But
Earth, whom Johnny was leaving with any
this letter was explaining it now:
pang of regret. Anne Johnson. He had just
come back from saying good by to Anne.
When you read this, Johnny, I will
Swearing her to secrecy, he had told her what
have been gone into a new Time-
he was about to do. His six-foot bulk had
realm, for what of your life will be
towered over her as she stood suddenly
fifteen years—a different state of
matter, because it has a different
shrinking against him. Then she was crying—
Time-dimension. The same Space as
and he had torn away and run from her home.
that which our own world occupies,
A knock sounded at the front door of
but held separate by that mysterious
the house! It startled Johnny so that he sat
stream we call Time. The two
transfixed, frozen. It came again; insistent.
realms—ours and this Unknown—are
swept close together now. It is my
Johnny padded into the dark front hall. He
opportunity. Another such proximity
called gruffly through the barred door:
will come shortly after your twenty-
“Who is it? What you want?”
first birthday. If I am not back with
“Johnny! Johnny, dear—”
you before then I may have perished.
Anne’s voice! He flung open the door.
Or I may be alive—but unable to
return.
She scurried in like a dark little shadow, and
I want you to come and join
he banged the door closed and barred it again.
me, Johnny. The trust fund will give
“I was so afraid I’d be too late—”
you four thousand dollars. In a vault
She was breathless, pallid, tense;
at the bank you will find, and now
beautiful little dark-haired girl—but she was
must claim, a small metal casket. No
one but us two know what is in it.
disheveled, wildly excited now. She held a
Take it to a place as near the couch in
small bundle under her arm, enveloped by her
the laboratory of our old home as you
blue cloak.
can manage. The casket contains two
“I came—to go with you, Johnny.”
transition mechanisms. At midnight
“Anne, you’re crazy—” But the thing
of the tenth day after your birthday,
from this designated place, I want
set his heart pounding.
you to come after me. I will have kept
He said at last, “All right—you win. You go in
track of your Earth Time-flow if I
there. Put on one of the suits. Call me when
possibly can—and if I am still alive I
you’re ready.”
will meet you. Come to me, son. A
He stood waiting.
great adventure....
“All ready, Johnny.”
THERE followed ten busy days for Johnny.
She stood in a sleek black bathing suit;
The old frame house of his boyhood was still
her clothes lay in a little heap at her feet.
standing; empty of furniture now, shabby and
Admiration for her swept him. Slim, sleek
decrepit. He got a temporary rental of the
little Diana. She shivered a little as he buckled premises. By night he brought in the metal,
the heavy wire mesh belt around her slim
coffinlike box. He put it in his father’s waist. The adjustable headgear slipped over her coiled black hair and strapped under the
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3
chin. Wires connected it with a flexible breathing.
necklace; wires were strung down her arms to
“Move your switch—just a little—”
bracelets; and others down her legs, fastened
She did it. He heard the hum of the
at the knees and ankles.
circulating current, her gasp, and in the
His own equipment was similar. And
darkness he saw the silvery glow of her
then they sat down to wait until midnight.
mechanism. Instantly he moved his own
Johnny found himself queerly breathless. switch.
Soon he and Anne would be gone from this
A tingling thrill shot through him. His
room. Vanished. Yet, scientifically, senses reeled.
mathematically, they would still be here. The
same dimensions of length, breadth and IN a moment Johnny’s senses steadied. The thickness. But a different factor of Time. No
network of wires on him tingled his flesh.
two material bodies may occupy the same
They were vibrating with an oscillation, tiny,
Space at the same Time—
infinitely rapid. It seemed, all in that instant, He thought, “We’re explorers of the
that the vibration communicated to his body.
shadows—” It was like dying. He shook off
It brought a thrill. A sense of excitement. But
the thought. This was a scientific thing; a
it was more than that. His whole being seemed
change of bod
ily density—a different quality
tingling. It was a physical vibration, so that
of Matter, altered by the mysterious electronic
every tiny cell within him seemed quivering.
current of the mechanism. A change of Time-
They were drifting downward. It was a
flow. Not a change of time, like yesterday
sensation utterly strange. Weightless bodies
compared with today or tomorrow. An hovering in a soundless void. The world above alteration of the flow of Time—so that his
was gone now. The outlines of the room had
human existence would move forward to its
flickered, tenuous as a wisp of smoke above
destination of death at a different rate.
them—and vanished.
A factor so fundamental, so vital, that
its alteration altered every quality of Matter
higher intensities of the current. Ready now!
itself, to create another realm of existence. A
We must keep together. Second! Third!
scientific thing—frightening to do only Fourth!”
because he had never done it before.
It swept them into an intensification of
Midnight. Johnny shook himself into
all the weird sensations. The humming within
alertness. Anne’s face was pale and grim; her
them increased.
dark eyes stared at him.
An interval of Time passed. Time? A
“Over there on the floor—lie down
blurred, queer interval—Time of a new
there,” he said. He gestured. “That’s where
quality—a new rate of flow, coming into their
father’s couch stood. He started from there.
being now. Johnny saw clouds whirling
I’ll blow the light out now.”
toward them—imponderable clouds through
He lay down beside her. It seemed that
which they passed and could feel nothing. It
with the puffing out of the light they had cut
was a grey scene, not empty now but filled
themselves off from the world. She was with shadowed shapes, blurred and indefinite.
clinging to his hand. He said, “I’ll tell you
A monochrome of grey. Then presently a little
when to throw the switch on your belt. To the
color was coming to it. A distant yellow glow.
first intensity only—we’ve got to start
He remembered his father’s detailed
slowly—avoid any great shock. Understand?”
directions. The first color would be yellow. A
“Yes.” He could hear her quickened
golden tinge. “We’ve got to slow down,” he
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4
said. “Third ... Second ... First! Stop there!”
arms and legs in a glide through the air toward
They were no longer in a void of him.
emptiness. Distant shapes were taking form.
The faint golden light was a blur overhead, but
beneath them now were shapes of apparent
CHAPTER II
solidity.
Strange New World
Off to one side, something solid—
huge as a great golden mountain—reared itself
up. And things were moving here in the air.
“NIGHT had come. Through the big oval
Was that a slowly swaying human shape, off
open windows of the Government Castle
there not far away? He heard Anne suck In her
where they were having their first meal in this
breath as she saw it. The thing was a blob,
strange new world, Johnny could see the
with swaying arms and legs. It was human. A
golden daylight fading into a golden twilight;
man. The daylight gleamed golden upon him.
and then into night.
The surface was steadily rising. It was
A dozen people of this world sat with
only fifty feet under them now as they wafted
Johnny and Anne and Hall senior. Some of
gently down. Off in the distance there was a
them spoke English, which Hall had taught
broad spread of water, rippled by a breeze., A
them. And Johnny listened to his father’s
mile or so away was a golden glowing city, set
account of this adjacent realm, to Earth, and
back from the lake shore.
the strange menace impending here. This was
From the ground came a dim, red not the convex surface of a globe, but the beam. The signal! His father’s letter had concave inner surface of a void. A small arranged it.
realm. A void no more than a hundred or so
Johnny cried, “He’s alive, Anne! Earth miles in diameter, with a thin layer of We’re arrived! Normality!”
They turned their switches. Normal the concave surface. The light was inherent to now to this new environment. They had the air—like a phosphorescence, yet waxing arrived in the new realm. It was day. Not
and waning to give an alternating day and
sunlight. The sky everywhere was flooded night somewhat longer than the corresponding with a bright but diffused golden light. The
Earth interval.
red signal beam was extinguished. The figures
Only one race of people were here—
by the fern clump scattered as Johnny and
and this, the city of Bhana, was their largest
Anne drifted down. Solid ground touched settlement. A scientific realm, perhaps the Johnny’s feet. He scrambled, clutched at equal of Earth, yet so different that there could Anne, and they stood erect, swaying.
be no basis of comparison.
Strange, weightless bodies! It struck
Tenuous, giant structures loomed
Johnny with a sudden mental shock. Gravity
upward, so that the city seemed as high as it
was hardly apparent here. He stood balancing,
was wide and long. Giant flowers and trees
swaying as though the gentle breeze would
growing in gardens on the rooftops. Weird
waft him away. His body weighed hardly lack of gravity! The whole city was a tangled more than a few pounds.
metal maze of trellises, balconies, rooms,
“Johnny! Thank God you’re safe!”
windows, doorways.
His father’s voice. Familiar timbre, out
Johnny stared around the dinner table
of the memories of his childhood. And he saw
now. Strange food; strange people. He saw his
a man’s figure come with rhythmic swaying
father no older. But he was thinner, almost ill
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5
looking. His thin figure now was encased in a
glistening mailed garment that could have SHADOW Gold! “Yellow gaslight,” Johnny’s been woven blue metal.
father called it. And in this air it was as vital New world to Johnny. But the same
to human life as oxygen is in the air of Earth.
jealousy, greed and the lust for gain It held, indeed, a very similar position, for characterized it. Johnny sat tense, eagerly without the gold gas this air was vitiated; the listening.
yellow glow was gone; and all living
Some twenty years ago—before Hall
organisms, breathing such air, would die.
arrived—it was decided here in Bhana not to
For the first few years after Hall’s
jail but to banish all important men criminals.
arrival this had been, as always, a very
A city in the distant forest was established for
peaceful realm. He had voluntarily stayed;
them. Hall was saying:
studying it. He saw very clearly that only
“There is a colony out there now. harm could come from any close connection Several hundred. No one from here had ever
between it and Earth. So he had said that his
tried to visit it—until recently. And now we
transition mechanism was broken. He was
find that it’s fortified! Some unknown leader,
marooned here—but there would be a time
with a ghastly, diabolical plot—we have not
when his son would come.
enough gold gas available to combat it—”
Someone of this realm must have
Taro said, “Your father must tell you
stolen the mechanism—for it vanished after a
the science of our world—”
year or two. The plot of this unknown villain
This Taro was a young scientist. must have had its inception then; and Hardly young, perhaps, for though his face
possession of the transition mechanism made
was unlined, his bearing and poise of manner
his plan possible of fruition.
gave him the aspect of a man nearly forty. His
Of them all at this dinner it was a
position undoubtedly was important; Johnny
youth named Nido who most had engaged
could not miss the note of command about
Johnny’s attention. A slim, graceful figure—a
him. Like these other men, his skin was young man certainly of not over twenty. His bronzed. A hawklike face, with high bridged
single clinging garment covered him from
nose, a wide, firm mouth, and a queerly shoulders to knees. His skin was smooth and pointed chin. His eyes were dark under heavy