The Infra-Medians, Page 2

them for Hope; tell her I'll scramble out somehow--that _we_ will, if you decide to try your luck.

  Vic

  Underneath, in Hope's clear, purposeful hand, was this:

  Peter dear:

  Not knowing when you'll arrive, I'm going on ahead. We must give Vic a hand--mustn't we?

  H.

  * * * * *

  Naturally, I didn't understand Vic's jargon about frequencies andlight-rays, for I thought more about football than physics in college,but two things were clear to me. One was that Vic had plunged into somesort of wild experiment, and the other was that Hope had followed him.The rest didn't matter very much.

  "Perrin! Mr. Butler and Miss Hope are safe. Everything is explained inthis note. You and Mrs. Perrin are to leave me here, and not disturbanything. Do nothing at all for at least a week. If we aren't all backhere before that time ... take any action you see fit. Understand?"

  "No-no, sir. Where--"

  "You understand the orders, anyway. That's all that's necessary. Closethe door--and keep it closed at least a week!" I glared at him, andPerrin closed the door.

  The apparatus Vic had mentioned was my first thought. It consistedprimarily of four tall, slim posts, set in the form of a square, about ayard apart, and supported by heavy copper brackets mounted on a thickbase of insulating material, and each post bore at its top, like a stalkwith a single drooping flower, a deep, highly polished reflector,pointing inward and downward. The whole effect was not unlike theskeleton of a miniature skyscraper.

  I strode between two of the high, slim black pillars and glanced upward.All four of the reflectors seemed pointed directly at my face, and Icould see that each held, not the bulb I had expected, but a crudelyshaped blob of fused quartz.

  * * * * *

  There was nothing to be gained by examining the peculiar machine, andtherefore the one quick glance sufficed. If Vic and Hope had gone thisroute, I was anxious to follow. I glanced down at the papers in myhand, and slowly turned the first dial on the little instrument board,narrowly watching the hand of the meter beside it, as Vic hadinstructed.

  The hand moved slowly, like the hand of an oil-gauge in which thepressure is gradually built up. Twenty-one ... twenty-five ...twenty-six ... _twenty-seven_.

  I waited a moment, conscious only of the faint hum of a generator at theother end of the room, and the quivering hand of the meter. I turned thedial back an imperceptible degree, and the hand steadied down exactlyupon the numerals "2700." Then I touched the next dial.

  This second dial was no more than a thin disk of hard rubber orbakelite, with a red scratch-mark on one side. On the panel itself, farto the right of the dial's zero point, was the red scratch-mark thatmatched it. When the two coincided--well, something happened.

  I was conscious of a faint glow from above as I moved the dial slowly,so that its red mark approached the stationary one upon the panel. Iglanced up swiftly.

  * * * * *

  Each of the little blobs of quartz was glowing; each with a light ofdifferent color. One was a rich amber, one a pale green, one a vivid,electric blue, and one was fiery red. The intensity of the lightincreased steadily as I moved the dial.

  I could not only see the light; I could feel it. It beat upon my body;throbbed all around me. I had a feeling that the mingling rays of lightconflicted with each other.

  It seemed to me for a moment that I was growing as light as air; that myfeet were drifting off the floor, and then, as the red line of the dialcame closer to the indicated point, the feeling left, and I suddenlyseemed very heavy. I could hardly support my own weight; my legs weretrembling with the burden; sweat broke out over my whole body; the raysof light beat down upon me fiercely, overpoweringly....

  Desperately, I quickly turned the dial until the two red markscoincided. A great weight, soft and enveloping, seemed to drop upon me.The senses of sight and hearing and feeling all left me. I could onlythink--and my thoughts were horrible.

  Then, suddenly, there was a terrific crash of sound, and my sensesreturned.

  I looked around. It seemed that an instant before I had been standingthere in Vic's laboratory, slowly turning the second of the two dials,while the four lights beat down upon my body. And now ... and now I wasstanding in the open, on another world. A nightmare world that wordsseem inadequate to describe.

  * * * * *

  The sky was an angry, sulphurous green, pressing low upon a countryutterly flat and nearly barren. The only sign of vegetation I couldperceive were strange growths that remotely resembled trees--invertedtrees, with wide-spreading branches hungrily nursing the black andbarren soil, and gnarled, brief roots reaching out tortured arms towardthe forbidding sky.

  To my left, and some distance away, a vast number of blunt and uglytowers rose against the sinister skyline, but no form of animal lifeseemed in evidence. Wonderingly, my head whirling, whether from mystrange experience or from the shock of finding myself in what wasobviously another world, I do not know, I turned toward the city. And asI took my first step, there materialized suddenly out of the thin andill-smelling air, the figures of perhaps a dozen monstrous creatures.

  They were, in effect, men. That is, they had a head, a torso, two armsand two legs apiece. But they were not human. Those huge round eyes,unblinking and browless, were not human, nor were their slitted, sunkenmouths. They were not human beings; they were images of despair.

  Their thin legs seemed to buckle at the knees, their arms drooped fromtheir shoulders, their mouths sagged at the corners, even their hugeears hung down like a hound's. Their round, dark eyes, deeply recessed,were caverns of despair.

  * * * * *

  They were clothed in some coarse, black stuff that bristled as thoughloosely woven of stiff hair, and yet which was not a true fabric, for itseemed to move within itself, and scintillate, as though composed ofbillions of restless motes. And as the strange creatures closed inquickly, I saw that theirs was not solid flesh, but, like the clothingthat partially covered them, an attenuated substance that was not quitereal.

  Have you ever sat close to the screen in a motion picture theatre, sothat the graininess of the moving film was visible? These creatures werelike such shadows, seen in three dimensions.

  I retreated two or three swift steps, jerking the revolver from mypocket.

  "Back!" I warned, hoping they would understand the tone of voice if notthe words. "Back--or I'll pot a couple of you!"

  They glanced at each other, swiftly, almost as though they understood.It seemed to me that their mouths lifted; that they almost smiled. Thenthey rushed at me.

  I had only one box of cartridges, besides those in the cylinder of mygun. I didn't know what might be in store for me, and I took no chances.

  My first shot sent one of the creatures spinning to the ground. Two morewere almost upon me before I could level the weapon and pull the triggeragain. I got them both.

  The rest of that unholy crew were grinning, and their eyes were shiningwith anticipation. They closed in upon me eagerly, each apparently doingeverything in his power to invite my attention. It was bewildering, andI watched them warily, suspecting a trick. There were only three morecartridges left in my gun, and I did not dare replace the fired shellsfor fear they would rush me when the action was open and the gunmomentarily useless.

  * * * * *

  I was just about to risk one more cartridge when another figurematerialized in the ranks of the enemy; a taller, commanding figure,with a shining jewel, perhaps a mark of authority, dangling from hiscorded brown throat.

  The others fell back instantly, and the newcomer approached me swiftly,holding out his hands as though in supplication.

  So I was to receive a cordial welcome after all!
I breathed a sigh ofrelief, and pocketed the weapon--and instantly the dark eyes flashedangrily. I held out both hands, to show that they were empty, trying toexpress my willingness to be friends.

  He hesitated, and then uttered a high-pitched sound that I presumed tobe a word of command. Before I could free the gun again, the creatureshad me, and while their flesh looked more unnatural and unreal thanever, at close range, their long fingers gripped me like talons ofsteel. The being which had uttered the command disappeared, and mycaptors led me, struggling and protesting, toward the black, uglytowers of the city.

  Over the barren, rocky ground we hurried; past the wretched hovels onthe outskirts of the city, and through crooked, dismal streets, towardthe center of the city.

  A great crowd of creatures similar to my captors hemmed us in. Beforeus, they thinned into nothingness as we approached, only to swarm intobeing in some other spot. It was terrifying; an unbelievable experiencethat made me question my sanity. The only vestige of comfort left me wasthe hope that