"No. Listen. It's the queerest growth you ever saw. Not like vegetation
at all. More like twisted metal...."
But now the city began to seethe with excitement. Farmers and their
families flocked in from the Seep Springs district, and from Jayhnes,
telling weird tales of drifting globes and encroaching jungle. The
Southern Pacific announced that traffic northward was disrupted. Extras
appeared on the streets with shrieking headlines. Everything was in
confusion.
A flyer from the local airport flew over Oracle and announced on his
return that he could see no signs of the town, that its immediate
vicinity was buried under an incredibly tall and tangled mass of
vegetation. "From the air it looks like giant stalks of spaghetti,
twisted, fantastic," was his description. He went on to say that he
noticed quite a few drifting globes and large birds with black,
glistening wings, but these offered no hindrance to his flight.
Now the wires hummed with the startling news. All the world was
informed of the tragedy. The great cities of the nation stood aghast.
An aroused Washington dispatched orders for the aerial forces of the
country to proceed to Arizona without delay. The governor of Arizona
mobilized the state militia. All border patrol officers proceeded to
the area affected. And yet in the face of what was happening they were
powerless to do a thing.
At two o'clock of the day following the wiping out of Oracle, the first
black globes approached Tucson. They floated down from the north,
skirting the granite ridges and foothills of the Catalinas, and were
met with a withering hail of lead from anti-aircraft guns, and burst,
scattering wide their contents. When some three hours later the first
squadron of the air fleet came to earth on the landing field a few
miles south of the city, the northern environs of Tucson, all the area
the other side of Speedway, and running east and west as far as the eye
could see, was a monstrous jungle a hundred or more feet tall--and
still growing.
Terrified residents fled before the uncanny invasion. People congested
the streets. Thousands fled from the city in automobiles, and thousands
of others thronged the railroad station and bus-line offices seeking
for transportation. Rumors ran from lip to lip that Russia was
attacking the United States with a newly invented and deadly method of
warfare; that it wasn't Russia but Japan, China, England, Germany, a
coalition of European and Asiatic powers.
Frantically, the city officials wired railroad companies to send in
emergency trains. The mayor appealed to the citizens to be quiet and
orderly, not to give way to panic, that everything was being done to
insure their safety. Hastily deputized bodies of men were set to
patrolling streets and guarding property. Later, martial law was
established. The south side of Speedway rapidly assumed the appearance
of an armed camp. At the landing field Flight Commander Burns refueled
his ships and interviewed the flyer who had flown over Oracle. That
worthy shook his head.
"You're going out to fight, Commander," he said, "but God knows what.
So far we have been unable to detect any human agency back of those
globes. They just drift in, irrespective of how the wind is blowing. So
far our only defense has been to shoot them down, but that does little
good; it only helps to broadcast their seed. Then, too, the globes shot
down have never been examined. Why? Because where they hit a jungle
springs up. Sometimes they burst of their own accord. One or two of
them got by us in the darkness last night, despite our searchlights,
and overwhelmed a company of National Guards."
The flight commander was puzzled.
"Look here," he said, "those globes don't just materialize out of thin
air. There must be a base from which they operate. Undoubtedly an enemy
is lurking in those mountains." He got up decisively. "If it is humanly
possible to locate and destroy that enemy, we shall do it."
Flying in perfect formation, the bombing squadron clove the air.
Looking down, the observers could see the gigantic and mysterious
jungle which covered many square miles of country. Like sinuous coils
of spaghetti, it looked, and also curiously like vast up-pointed
girders of steel and iron. The rays of the late afternoon sun glinted
on this jungle and threw back spears of intense light. Over the iron
ridges of the Catalinas the fleet swept at an elevation of several
thousand feet. Westward, numerous huge globes could be seen drifting
south. The commander signaled a half dozen of his ships to pursue and
shoot them down.
In the mountains themselves, there was surprisingly little of the
uncanny vegetation. Mile after mile of billowing hills were quartered,
but without anything of a suspicious nature being noted. Here and there
the observers saw signs of life. Men and women waved at them from
isolated homesteads and shacks. At Mount Lemmon the summer colonists
appeared unharmed, but in such rugged country it was impossible to
think of landing. Oracle, and for a dozen miles around its vicinity,
was deserted.
Though the commander searched the landscape thoroughly with his
glasses, he could detect the headquarters of no enemies; and yet the
existence of the drifting globes would seem to presuppose a sizable
base from which they operated. Mystified, he nevertheless subjected the
Oracle area to a thorough bombing, and it was while engaged in doing so
that he and his men observed a startling phenomenon.
High in the heavens, seemingly out of nothing, the mysterious globes
grew. The aviators stared, rubbed their eyes in amazement, doubted the
truth of what they saw. Their commander recollected his own words,
"Those globes don't just materialize out of thin air." But that
actually seemed to be what they were doing. Out of empty space they
leaped, appearing first as black spots, and in a moment swelling to
their huge proportions.
One pilot made the mistake of ramming a globe, which burst, and he
hurtled to earth in a shower of seed, seed which seemed to root and
grow and cover his craft with a mass of foliage even as it fell.
Horrified, ammunition and explosives exhausted, the amazed commander
ordered his ships back to Tucson. What he had to tell caused a
sensation.
"No," he said, finishing his report to the high military official who
had arrived with federal forces, "I saw nothing--aside from the
globes--that could possibly account for the attack. Nothing."
But none the less the attack went on. Though hundreds of planes scoured
the sky, though great guns bellowed day and night and thousands of
soldiers, state and federal, were under arms, still the incredible
globes continued to advance, still more and more of the countryside
came under the sway of the nightmarish jungle. And this losing battle
was not waged without loss of human life. Sometimes bodies of artillery
were cut off by globes getting beyond their lines in the darkness and
hemming them in. Then they had literally to hack their way out or
perish; and hundreds of them perished. One company sergeant told of a
thrilling race with three globes.
"It was a close thing," he said, scratching his head, "and only a third
of us made it."
Fear gripped the hearts of the most courageous of men. It was terrifying
and nerve-racking to face such an _unhuman_ foe--weird, drifting globes
and invading jungles whose very source was shrouded in mystery. Against
this enemy no weapons seemed to prevail. All the paraphernalia of
modern warfare was proving useless. And looking at each other with
white faces--not alone in Arizona, but in New York, Chicago, Los
Angeles--men asked themselves these questions, and the newspapers posed
them:
"What if this thing can't be stopped?"
"What if it keeps on and on and invades every city and state?"
"It is only starting now, but what will it be like a month from
now, a year?"
The whole nation awoke to a realization of its danger. The Administration
at Washington solemnly addressed itself to the capitals of the world.
"If some power, jealous of the greatness of America, has perfected
a new and barbarous weapon of warfare, and without due warning and
declaration of hostilities has launched it against us, not only do
we denounce such uncivilized procedure, but demand that such a
power speak out and reveal to us and the world who our enemy is."
But the powers of the world, as one, united in disclaiming any hand
in the monstrous attack being made on the United States. As for that
attack, it proceeded inexorably. On the fourth day Tucson was evacuated.
Then Winkleman awoke one morning to find that the drifting globes had
reached the river. The town was abandoned. California mobilized citizen
forces in cooperation with Nevada. The great physicist Miller was said
to be frantically at work on a chemical designed to destroy the
gigantic growths, specimens of which had been sent him. Such was the
condition of affairs when, at Washington, Milton Baxter, the young
student, told his incredible story to a still more incredulous Senate.
The Senate had been sitting in anxious session for five days, and was
little inclined to give ear to the stories of cranks. Fortunately for
the world, young Baxter came of an influential family and had taken the
precaution of having himself introduced by two prominent financiers,
who demanded that he be heard.
"Gentlemen," he said earnestly, "contrary to current opinion, America
is not being assailed by a foreign power. No! Listen to me a moment and
I shall tell you what is attacking America."
He paused and held the assemblage with compelling eyes.
"But first let me explain how I know what I am going to tell you. I was
in London when I read of what is occurring in Arizona. Before the wire
went dead on him, didn't the unfortunate constable of Oracle say
something about birds?"
The senators were silent. "Yes," said a press correspondent at length.
"If I remember correctly, he said, 'And there are the birds--b-i-r-d-s,
birds.'"
"Well," exclaimed Senator Huffy, "the man was pretty well excited and
his words may have been misunderstood. What the devil have birds to do
with those globes and jungles?"
"More than you think," replied Baxter. "Listen!" He fixed their
attention with uplifted hand. "The thing I have to reveal is of such
paramount importance that I must not be interrupted. You must bear with
me while I go back some months and even years in time to make myself
understood.
"You all remember the mysterious disappearance of Professor Reubens.
Yes, I see that you do. It caused a sensation. He was the foremost
scientist in the country--it would not be exaggerating too much to say
in the world. His name was not as well known among the masses as that
of Miller and Dean; in fact, outside of an exclusive circle it wasn't
known at all, but ask any scientist about Reubens. He was a tall, dour
man of sixty, with Scotch blood in his veins, and was content to teach
a class in a college because of the leisure it afforded him for his own
research work. That was at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
"The faculty of the college was proud to have him on its staff and
provided him with a wooden building back of the campus, for a private
laboratory and workshop. I understand that the Rockefeller Institute
contributed funds towards Professor Reubens' experiments, but I am not
certain.
"At any rate he had a wonderfully well equipped place. I was a pupil at
the University and attended his class in physics. A strong friendship
grew up between us. How can I explain that friendship? I was not a
particularly brilliant student, but he had few friends and perhaps my
boyish admiration pleased him. I think, too, that he was lonely,
heart-hungry for affection. His wife was dead, and his own boy.... But
I won't go into that.
"Suffice it to say that I believe he bestowed on me some of the
affection he had felt for his dead son. Indeed I am sure he did. Be
that as it may, I often visited him in his laboratory and watched,
fascinated, as he pored over some of his intricate apparatus. In a
vague way, I knew that he was seeking to delve more deeply into the
atom.
"'Before Leeuwenhoek invented the microscope,' the Professor once said,
'who ever dreamed of the life in a drop of water? What is needed now is
a super-microscope to view the atom.'
"The idea thrilled me.
"'Do you believe, sir, that an instrument will ever be invented that
will do that?'
"'Yes. Why not? I am working on some such device myself. Of course the
whole thing has to be radically different. The present, method of
deducing the atom by indirection is very unsatisfactory. We can know
nothing for certain until direct observation is possible. The atomic
theory that likens the atom to our solar system, with planets revolving
round a central nucleus, is very interesting. But I shall never be
content, for one, until I can see such an atomic system in operation.'
"Now I had every admiration for the capacity and genius of my teacher,
but I couldn't forebear exclaiming:
"'Is that possible?'
"'Of course it's possible,' he cried irritably. 'Do you think I should
be pursuing my experiments if I didn't think it possible? Only
numbskulls think anything impossible!'
"I felt rather hurt at his retort and a certain coolness sprang up
between us. The summer holidays came and I went away without bidding
him good-by. But returning for the new semester, my first act was to
hurry to the laboratory. He greeted me as if there had never been any
difference between us.
"'Come,' he cried; 'you must see what I have accomplished. It is
marvelous, marvelous.'
"In his workshop stood a mechanism perhaps three feet square and four
feet high. It was made of polished steel and looked not unlike an
Edison music box.
"'You are the first I have shown it to,' he said excitedly. 'Here, look
into this.'
"Stooping over the top of the box I peered into the eye-piece
indicated. It was so fashioned that it fitted the contour of the face
snugly.
"'Now hold steady,' warned the Professor. 'This machine makes quite a
noise, but it won't harm you at all.'
"I sensed that he was fingering and arranging dials and levers on the
side of the contrivance. Suddenly an engine in the box began to throb
with a steady rhythm. This gradually increased in tempo until the
vibration of it shook the room.
"'Don't move,' shouted the Professor.
"At first I could see nothing. Everything was intensely dark. Then the
darkness began to clarify. Or rather I should say it seemed as if the
darkness increased to such a pitch that it became--oh, I can't describe
it! But of a sudden I had the sensation of looking into the utter
bleakness and desolation of interstellar space. Coldness,
emptiness--that was the feeling. And in this coldness and emptiness
flamed a distant sun, around which twelve darker bodies the size of
peas revolved. They revolved in various ellipses. And far off--millions
of light years away (the thought came to me involuntarily at the
time)--I could glimpse infinitesimal specks of light, a myriad of them.
With a cry I jerked back my head.
"'That,' shouted the Professor in my ear, 'was an atomic universe.'
"It never entered my head to doubt him. The realness, the vividness,
the overwhelming loneliness and vastness of the sight I had seen--yes,
and the suggestion of cosmic grandeur and aloofness that was
conveyed--banished any other feeling but that of belief.
"'Inside that box,' said Professor Reubens quietly, 'and directly
underneath the special crystal-ray medium I have perfected, is a piece
of matter no larger than a pin-head. But viewed through the magnifying
medium of the crystal-ray that insignificant piece of matter becomes as
vast and as empty as all space, and in that space you saw--an atomic
system.'
"An atomic system! Imagine my emotions. The tremendousness of the
assertion took away my breath. I could only seize the Professor's hand
and hold to it tightly.
"'Softly, my boy, softly,' he said, smiling at my emotion. 'What you
have seen is but the least part of the invention. There is more to it
than that.'
"'More?'
"'Yes. Did you think I would be content with merely viewing at a
distance? No. Consider that revolving round a central nucleus similar
to our sun are twelve planets, any one of which may be inhabited by
intelligent creatures.'
"I stared at him dumbly.
"'You mean--'
"'Why not? Size is only relative. Besides in this case I can
demonstrate. Please look again.'
"Not without trepidation, I did as he bade. Once more I saw the black
emptiness of atomic space, saw the blazing nucleus with its whirling
satellites. Above the roaring noise of the machine came Professor
Reubens' voice. 'I am now intensifying the magnifying medium and
focusing it on one of the planets you see. The magnifying crystal-ray
is mounted on a revolving device which follows this particular planet
in its orbit. Now ... now....'
"I gazed, enthralled. Only one atomic planet--the size of a pea and
seemingly motionless in space--now lay in my field of vision. And this
planet began to grow, to expand, until beneath my staring eyes it
looked like the full moon in all its glory.
"'I am gradually increasing the magnifying power of the crystal-ray,'
came the voice of the Professor.
"The huge mass of the planet filled the sub-atomic sky. My hands
gripped the rim of the box with excitement. On its surface began to
form continents, seas. Good God! was all this really materializing from
a speck of matter under the lens of a super-microscope? I was looking
down from an immense height upon an ever clarifying panorama. Mountains
began to unfold, plains, and suddenly beneath me appeared a mighty
city. I was too far away to see it distinctly, but it was no city such
as we have on earth. And yet it was magnificent; it was like gazing at
a strange civilization.
"Dimly I could see great machines laboring and sending forth glowing
streamers of light. Strange buildings rose. It was all bizarre,
bewildering, unbelievably weird. What creatures dwelt in this place? I
strained my eyes, strove to press forward, and in that very moment the
things at which I gazed seemed to rise swiftly to meet my descending
head. The illusion was that of plunging earthward at breakneck speed.
With a stifled cry, I recoiled, rubbed my blinking eyes, and found
myself staring stupidly into the face of Professor Reubens. He shut off
the machine and regarded me thoughtfully.
"'In that atomic universe, on a planet swinging round a sub-atomic sun,
the all of which lies somewhere in a speck of our matter, intelligent
creatures dwell and have created a great machine civilization. And
Baxter,' he leaned forward and fixed me with eyes that gleamed from
under heavy brows, 'not only has my super-atomic-microscope revealed
somewhat of that world and its marvels to human vision, but it has
opened up another, a more wonderful possibility.'
"He did not tell me what this wonderful possibility was, and a few
minutes later I left the laboratory, intending to return after a late
class. But a telegram from Phoenix was at my rooms, calling me home. My
father was seriously ill. It was June before he recovered his health.
Consequently I had to forego college until the next season.
"'Old Reubens is going dotty,' said one of my classmates to me. Rather
disturbed, I sought him out. I saw that there were dark circles of
sleeplessness under his eyes and that his face had grown thinner.
Somewhat diffidently I questioned him about his experiments. He
answered slowly:
"'You will recollect my telling you that the super-atomic-microscope
had opened up another wonderful possibility?'
"I nodded, sharply curious now.
"'Look.'
"He led the way into his workshop. The super-atomic-microscope, I
noticed, had been altered almost out of recognition. It is hopeless for
me to attempt describing those changes, but midway along one side of
its length projected a flat surface like a desk, with a large
funnel-shaped device resting on it. The big end of this funnel pointed
towards a square screen set against the wall, a curious screen
superimposed on what appeared to be a background of frosted glass.
"'This,' said the Professor, laying one hand on the funnel and
indicating the screen with the other, 'is part of the arrangement with
which I have established communication with the world in the atom.
"'No,' he said, rightly interpreting my exclamation, 'I am not crazy.
For months I have been exchanging messages with the inhabitants of that
world. You know the wave and corpuscular theories of light? Both are
correct, but in a higher synthesis--But I won't go into that. Suffice
it to say that I broke through the seemingly insuperable barrier
hemming in the atomic world and made myself known. But I see that you
still doubt my assertion. Very well, I will give you a demonstration.
Keep your eyes on the screen--so----'
"Adjusting what seemed a radio headpiece to my ears, he seated himself
at a complicated control-board. Motors purred, lights flashed, every
filament of the screen became alive with strange fires. The frosted
glass melted into an infinity of rose-colored distance. Far off, in the
exact center of this rosy distance appeared a black spot. Despite the
headpiece, I could hear the Professor talking to himself, manipulating
dials and levers. The black spot grew, it advanced, it took on form and
substance; and then I stared, I gasped, for suddenly I was gazing into
a vast laboratory, but depicted on a miniature scale.
"But it wasn't this laboratory which riveted my attention. No. It was
the unexpected creature that perched in the midst of it and seemed to
look into my face with unwinking eyes of gold set in a flat reptilian
head. This creature moved; its feathers gleamed metallically; I saw its
bill open and shut. Distinctly through the ear-phones came a harsh
sound, a sound I can only describe by the words _toc-toc, toc-toc_.
Then, just as the picture had appeared, it faded, the lights went out,
the purring of the motors ceased.
"'Yes,' said the Professor, stepping to my side and removing the
headpiece, 'the inhabitants of the sub-atomic planet are birds.'
"I could only stare at him dumbly.
"'I see that astounds you. You are thinking that they lack hands and
other characteristics of the _genus homo_. But perhaps certain
faculties of manipulation take their place. At any rate those birds are
intelligent beings; in some respects, further advanced in science than
are we ourselves. Perhaps it would be more exact to say that their
scientific investigations and achievements have been along slightly
different lines. If such messages I sent them had come to our world
from another planet or dimension, how readily they might have been
misconstrued, ridiculed or ignored.' The Professor shrugged his
shoulders. 'But the beings in this sub-atomic world interpreted my
communications without difficulty.
"In no time we were conversing with one another through means of a
simplified code. I was soon given to understand that their scientists
and philosophers had long recognized the fact that their universe was
but an atom in an immeasurably greater dimension of existence; yes, and
had long been trying to establish contact with it.' The Professor's
voice fell. 'And not that alone: they were eager to cooperate with me
in perfecting a method of passing from their world to ours!
"'Yes,' he cried, 'much of what I have accomplished has been under
their advice and guidance; and they on their part have labored; until
now'--his eyes suddenly blazed into my fascinated face--'until now,
after months of intensive work and experiment, success is nigh, and any
day may see the door opened and one of them come through!'
"Gentlemen!" cried Milton Baxter, "what more is there to say? I
staggered from Professor Reubens' laboratory that afternoon, my head in
a whirl. That was on a Monday.
"'Come back Thursday,' he said.
"But as you know, Professor Reubens disappeared on a Wednesday night
before; and stranger still, his machines disappeared with him. In his
laboratory were signs of a struggle, and bloodstains were found. The
police suspected me of a guilty knowledge of his whereabouts, in short
of having made away with my friend. When I told somewhat of the
experiments he had been engaged in, spoke of the missing inventions,
they thought I was lying. Horrified at the suspicion leveled at myself,
I finally left Tucson and went abroad. Months passed; and during all
those months I pondered the mystery of the Professor's fate, and the
fate of his machines. But my fevered brain could offer no solution
until I read of what was happening in Arizona; then, then...."
Milton Baxter leaned forward, his voice broke.
"Then," he cried, "then I understood! Professor Reubens had succeeded
in his last experiment. He had opened the door to earth for the bird
intelligences from the atom and they had come through and slain him and
spirited away his machines and established them in a secret place!
"God help us," cried Milton Baxter, "there can be but one conclusion to
draw. They are waging war against us with their own hideous methods of
warfare; they have set out to conquer earth!"
Such was the amazing story Milton Baxter told the Senate, but that body
placed little credence in it. In times of stress and disaster cranks
and men of vivid imaginations and little mental stability inevitably
spring up. But the Washington correspondents wired the story to their
papers and the Associated Press broadcast it to the four winds.
Talbot had just returned to Phoenix from New Mexico. He had been out of
touch with civilization and newspapers and it was with a feeling of
stunned amazement that he learned of the evacuation of Tucson and
Winkleman and the wiping out of Oracle. Reading Milton Baxter's
incredible story he leapt to his feet with an oath. Toc-toc! Why, that
was the sound the strange birds had uttered in the hills back of
Oracle. And there was the noise of machinery coming from the old shaft.
Full of excitement he lost no time in seeking an interview with the
military commander whose headquarters were located in Phoenix and
related to him what Manuel and himself had witnessed and heard that day
at the abandoned mine. Manuel corroborated his tale. The commander was
more than troubled and doubtful.
"God knows we cannot afford to pass up an opportunity of wiping out the
enemy. If you will indicate on a map where the old shaft is we will
bomb it from the air."
But Talbot shook his head.
"Your planes would have a tough job hitting a spot as small as that
from the air. Besides, a direct hit might only close up the shaft and
not destroy the workings underground. If the enemy be the creatures
Milton Baxter says they are, what is to prevent them from digging their
way out and resuming the attack?"
"Then we will land troops in there somehow and overwhelm them with----"
Talbot interrupted. "Pardon me, General, but the enemy would have no
difficulty in spotting such a maneuver. What chance would your soldiers
have against a shower of jungle seed? You would only be sending them to
destruction. No, the only way is for someone familiar with those old
underground diggings to enter them, locate the birds and the machines
and blow them up."
"But who----"
"Myself. Listen. This is the plan. About five years ago my company
mined for copper and other ores about a half mile above the Wiley
claim. I was in charge of operations. That is how I know the ground so
well. One of our northern leads broke through into a tunnel of the
abandoned mine. When copper prices were shot to hell in the depression
of 1930 we quit taking out ore; but when I went through the place
eighteen months ago it was still possible to crawl from one mine to
another. Of course earth and rock may have fallen since then, but I
don't believe the way is yet blocked. If I were dropped in that
vicinity at night with another man and the necessary tools and
explosives...."
The general thought swiftly.
"An auto-gyroscope could land you all right. There's one here now. But
what about the second man to accompany you?"