Niki was an early bird; he always took a walk round the castle grounds
long before the rest of the household was up. His walk that morning had
taken him along the water-front. On the beach, about a mile from our
private dock, he had discovered a strange-looking object, something
that resembled a huge sky-rocket, as he described it to me afterwards.
On close inspection, he thought he heard a tapping sound inside the
metal tube, as though some one was imprisoned there. This had alarmed
him greatly, and he had taken it on the run back to the castle.
I was only partly awake when I admitted him to my room after his
violent knocking at my door. His usual Oriental calm had disappeared
entirely, and I gazed at him wonderingly as he stood, gesturing and
talking wildly, as though he had lost his senses. I kept shaking my
head dubiously.
"But Meester Livingston!" he cried. "I am telling you the truth. I am
telling you."
"You're still dreaming, Niki," I said; "you haven't waked up yet.
You'll drag me down to the beach, and what will we find there? Nothing."
"But I've seen it, touched it with my hands, Meester Livingston," he
went on excitedly. "There is something inside of it--alive."
"Inside of what?" I asked, suppressing a yawn.
"Inside the big fire-cracker," he replied. "It is big enough to put
an elephant inside--maybe not so big--" he stretched both arms full
length; "maybe, this long. Maybe, it is that ship from the stars,
Meester Henry was talking about on the radio last night. If it is,
maybe, I will get the $25,000 reward for finding it."
"Ship? A rocket?" Then I blew up. "Why, you little Filipino jackass,
why didn't you tell me so before?"
"I have been telling you," he replied, shaking his head, as if in pity
for my lack of comprehension.
I sent him off in haste to waken McGinity. By the time I was
half-dressed, McGinity joined me, fully dressed. In less than ten
minutes, we dashed out of the castle, and made a break for the beach.
When Niki had pointed out the strange object to us, lying on the sand,
I sent him back to rouse Henry.
Before we reached the queer-looking thing, I had made up my mind that
whatever it was, it might be mysterious but nothing more. Not by the
wildest stretch of the imagination could I see a projectile from
another planet landing on this earth, even if it had wings. But when we
got up to it, and I heard a sound inside, as Niki had first reported,
as though some one was tapping against the metal, like men trapped
in a submarine, signaling to their rescuers, and logical connection
was established in my mind between the Martian radio message and the
landing of this strange rocket from the sky, the only real brain-storm
I ever had in my life was right there.
I judged the object to be about ten feet in length, and about ten
feet in circumference at its widest part. The outer shell looked like
copper. It had a cone-shaped nose, which seemed to have been embedded
deep in the sand when it fell from space, but the weight of the
body had tipped it over, so that it now rested in a semi-horizontal
position. I noted at once that its metal surface was pitted, and had a
fused crust, like the varnish-like coating of a meteorite, no doubt due
to the action of the heat generated by its rapid passage through the
earth's atmosphere.
What McGinity's thoughts were, during our hurried inspection, I did not
know. He appeared to have been awed into silence. Presently, he said,
in a very serious tone:
"This is the ship, or rocket, from Mars, all right. Nothing was ever
manufactured on this earth that looks anything like it. As for that
tapping sound--" he stopped, and leaned over, with his ear pressed
against the projectile. "Something is alive in there, sure as faith. We
must act quickly, or it'll be suffocated." He made a rapid examination
of the rocket's exterior. "I don't see any way of opening the darned
thing. Do you?"
I joined him in his inspection. "It seems to be hermetically sealed," I
said. "Looks like a Chinese puzzle to me."
Hearing voices approaching, I wheeled round, to see Henry coming on the
run--bareheaded, and wearing only his trousers and shirt and bedroom
slippers. Niki was running some steps ahead of him. He was almost
breathless when he came up to us. He gave the rocket one searching
glance, and then he went plain crazy. Here it was, the "ship" from
Mars, with all its potentialities.
"My God!" was all he said.
I don't suppose I'll ever remember exactly what happened after Henry's
arrival on the scene. Revelations, weird and foreboding, crowded the
ensuing half hour so quickly, one upon the other, I became dazed and
dizzy. I know we all worked heroically, and swiftly, to free the
living thing inside the rocket. We were assisted in the operation by a
dozen, strong-armed men-servants. Already, we had quite a gallery of
spectators; all of the servants practically on the estate, but no one
from outside. Jane and Pat stood on a sod embankment, fringed with
willows, some yards away; even at this distance, I could discern that
Pat was wildly excited but was being held in check by Jane.
Henry was handy with tools, but McGinity proved himself more capable
when it came to the actual opening of the rocket. Henry, however, was
privileged to be the first one to look inside. He gasped, and stepped
back like one stunned. Then McGinity took a look. "Great Scott!" he
exclaimed.
"What is it?" I asked, as I stepped forward, tremulous and excited, to
take my turn.
"That's what it is," he replied, cryptically. "Looks like Barnum's
'What Is It?'"
To my dying day, I shall never forget the strange and surprising sight
that greeted my eyes as I peered through the opening. I could only
describe the huge, revolting-looking creature inside the rocket, at
first glance, as a man-ape.
Whatever it was, Henry gave orders for its quick release. "This
creature," he said, as we prepared to carry out his orders, "greatly
resembles the hairy, primitive man of Mars, inhabiting the jungles
of the planet, described in the Martian radio message last night. It
was probably captured and placed inside the rocket while in a restive
state, like a protoplasm, so that life could be retained during the
long and perilous flight through space. It seems, at present, to be in
a semi-conscious state. Probably revived to some extent by the effect
of the earth's atmosphere."
He stopped, and then, after taking another look inside, continued.
"Yes; the creature's eyes are open; he stared wonderingly at me. In his
right hand, he's clutching what appears to be a metal bar. Evidently,
he's worked it loose from some part of the rocket, and has been
hammering with it on the sides, to attract attention."
"Which shows that he's got sense," supplemented McGinity.
Henry turned to me. "See here," he said, quietly; "you go and explain
matters to Jane and Pat, and send them back to the house. Send all
the women servants back. The sight of this thing may send them into
hysterics--Jane especially."
After I had carried out his instructions, and returned to the spot,
Henry took McGinity and me by the arms, and walked us away for some
distance before he brought us to a stop.
"Now," he said, "we can take one thing as a fact: this ship, or
pear-shaped metal rocket, fell out of the sky last night, and was
embedded here in the sand. In view of the radio message registered from
Mars last night in Radio Center, are you both willing and ready to
accept this rocket, and the strange creature inside of it, as coming
from Mars?"
"I imagine that's the real answer," McGinity said. "This rocket
plunged from the sky, that's certain. Of course, I look at it from the
newspaper story angle. But I'm willing to stand by you, Mr. Royce.
Whatever you say, goes with me."
"And you, Livingston?" Henry looked at me.
"Well--er--it is not quite clear to me, Henry," I replied. "Your belief
that it came from Mars may be good enough in theory, perhaps--"
"You must remember, Livingston," Henry interrupted, "that the Martians
may be centuries in advance of us in many ways. Granting that they
are, may we not assume that they could invent a gun of some unusual,
or unknown style, that could shoot a rocket into space, beyond the
gravitational pull of their planet, which is not so strong as ours?"
"Anyway, that's one way we can theorize," I said, "whether it's true or
not."
"Grant anything or not," McGinity said to me, "you heard that radio
message from Mars last night, announcing that such a rocket, or 'ship,'
had been launched earthwards, and later, you saw the explosion in the
sky right over this spot, which undoubtedly marked the fall of this
rocket."
I nodded. "Yes; and it's absurd on the face of things, I'll admit, not
to believe my ears and eyes." And then I committed myself. "I'm darned
if I know what this thing is--or where it came from," I asserted, "but
here it is, and I'll agree to anything you and Henry say."
"All right--good!" said Henry, slapping me on the back. "Now, we are
all agreed on this. We are three witnesses, then, on whose testimony
will hang the credulity of the world."
"Anyway, nobody can accuse me of cooking up a story," McGinity
remarked, as we retraced our steps.