Secretly Smith hoped he might find an agent who also was an
engineer. He had this in mind all the while he was repeating the
Venusian formula, the sequence of thought-images which was
necessary to bring on the required state of mind. The formula had
the effect of closing his mind to all save telepathic energy, and
opening wide the channels through which it controlled the brain.
No sooner had he repeated the words, meanwhile concentrating with
all the force of his newly trained will upon the single idea of
seeing and hearing what was happening on the unknown, yet quite
knowable planet--no sooner had his head sunk on his chest than he
became aware of a strange sound.
On all sides unseen apparatus gave forth a medley of subdued jars
and clankings. A variety of hissing sounds also were distinguishable.
And meanwhile Smith was staring hard, with the eyes he had borrowed
along with the ears, at a pair of human hands.
These hands were manipulating a group of highly polished levers and
hand-wheels. So long as his borrowed sight was fixed upon that group
Smith was entirely ignorant of the surroundings. All he could
surmise was that his agents operated some sort of machinery.
Then the agent glanced up; and Smith got his first shock. For he now
saw a cluster of indicating dials, such as one may see on the
instrument board of any automobile; but the trained engineer found
himself absolutely unable to interpret one of them. They were marked
with unknown figures!
Nevertheless, the engineer received an unmistakable impression,
quite as vivid as though something had been said aloud. "Progress;
all safe," was the thought-image that came to him.
He listened closely in hope of hearing a spoken word. Also, he tried
his best to make his agent look around the place. Other people might
be within sight. However, for a couple of minutes the oddly familiar
hands kept manipulating the unfamiliar instruments.
Then, somewhere quite close at hand, a deep-toned gong sounded a
single stroke. Instantly the agent looked up; and Smith saw that he
was inspecting the interior of a large engine-room. He had time to
note the huge bulk of a horizontal cylinder, perhaps fifty feet in
diameter, in the immediate background; also a variety of other
mechanisms, more like immensely enlarged editions of laboratory
apparatus than ordinary engines. Smith looked in vain for the
compact form of a dynamo or motor, and listened in vain for the
sound of either. Then, in swift succession, came two strokes on the
unseen gong, followed by a shrill whistle.
Smith's borrowed eyes became fixed upon that group of dials again.
Their indicators began to shift, some rapidly, some slowly. Once the
agent gave a swift glance through a round window--the place seemed
to be lighted by ordinary daylight--and Smith saw something
unrecognizable flit by.
A little further progress, and then came three strokes on the gong,
followed by a low thrumming. In response to these, the agent
deliberately picked out two levers, and pulled them down. When his
glance returned to the dials, one of them showed immense
acceleration.
By and by came another triple clanging, another pair of levers was
pulled down, and instantly the jarring and clanking gave way to a
decided rumble, low and distinct, but so powerful that it shook the
air. At the same time the agent quit his post and went over to the
giant horizontal cylinder.
Now Smith could see that this vast structure was merely part of an
engine whose dimensions were quite beyond any former experience. It
was a simple affair, being merely a reciprocal machine like the most
elementary form of steam engine. But, instead of being operated by
steam, it was a chemical machine; Smith's trained eyes told him that
the cylinder was really an enormous retort. And he noted with
further perplexity that the prodigious piston-rod not only moved
with terrific speed, but in a strictly back-and-forth motion; its
far end did not revolve.
The agent seemed satisfied with it all. He turned about and
walked--so far as Smith could sense in the usual manner of earth's
humans--back to the dials again. Just then a door opened a short
distance away and another man entered.
Smith would have mistaken him for the employee of some garage. He
was dressed in a suit of greasy blue overalls; and as he advanced
toward the eyes Smith was using, he looked about the room with
practiced glance. He merely nodded to Smith's man, who returned the
nod just as silently; and such was the extreme brevity of it all,
Smith was afterward unable to describe the man.
His agent, thus relieved of his duty temporarily, strolled out
another door, which took him through a narrow corridor and another
door, opening on to some sort of a balcony, or deck. Smith fully
expected to look upon an ocean.
Instead, he found himself gazing into a sea of clouds. He was in
some sort of aircraft!
Next moment, quite as though it had all been prearranged, a large
sky-cruiser hove into sight perhaps a quarter of a mile away. It
seemed to materialize out of the clouds, and rapidly bore down upon
the craft in which the agent stood.
But the practical man of the earth was eying the air-ship in
increasing amazement. For it was truly a ship; a huge vessel
wonderfully like one of the old-fashioned freighters which used to
sail the seas of the earth. What was more, it had four tall, sloping
masts, each spread with something remarkably like canvas; and that
whole incredible hulk was actually swinging in mid air!
Looking closer, Smith saw that the masts were exceedingly tall; they
held enough canvas to propel ten ships. And each stick sloped back
at so sharp an angle--much sharper than forty-five degrees--that the
wind not only blew the craft along in its course, but actually
supported it as well.
It meant a wind which would make a hurricane seem tame. Either that,
or air with greater density than any Smith knew about.
Suddenly the cruiser came about into the wind, and at the same
instant it began to take in sail, all the sheets furling in unison.
Simultaneously great finlike wings shot out of slits in the sides of
the hull; and immediately they began to beat the air, back and
forth, back and forth, with the speed and motion of swallows.
So this was the meaning of the giant reciprocal engine! Instead of
the screw propeller which characterized earth's aircraft, these
vessels employed the true bird principle, combining it with the
simple methods of primitive sailing craft.
As soon as the ship stopped its wind-driven rush and began to employ
its wings, the speed straightway slackened; and the ships began to
descend. About the same time the figures of several people appeared
on what might be called the bridge; and assuming that these people
were as large as the man whom Smith had seen enter the engine-room--a
chap of average height--then that ship, in proportion, was all of a
mile long!
But Smith's awe was not shared by his agent, who turned
indifferently away and looked about the sky as though in search of
other sights. In doing so, he leaned over the deck's railing; and
Smith saw the sheer sides of the giant ship, extending fore and aft
almost indefinitely; while far overhead billowed vast clouds of
white cloth. The vessel was now under sail.
About a mile higher up, and almost that distance to one side, the
agent's eyes made out two tiny specks. He watched them closely for a
moment as they pitched and tossed queerly about; then darted into
the engine-room, secured a pair of binoculars of an old, squat
pattern, and swiftly focused upon the nearer of the two.
Smith instantly sensed a disaster. The object was a small air-craft,
of a sort entirely strange to the engineer; yet he knew that it was
disabled. One of its queer wings was broken and fluttering, as the
little machine dropped, tumbling and twisting erratically, in an
inexplicably slow fashion toward the unseen ground. Smith glimpsed a
single figure, presumably strapped in the seat.
Then the focus changed to cover the other machine. It was of the
same type; and Smith saw that it was swooping in a steep spiral, its
driver leaning over in his seat, looking down.
Next moment the two were in focus together. Every second they
dropped closer and closer to Smith's borrowed eyes. And in less time
than it takes to tell it, they had come so close that when the
occupant of the disabled craft lurched heavily to one side, Smith
could plainly make out the long, flying hair of a woman.
She was unconscious, and strapped in!
Her craft capsized. At the same time the other driver--a
man--maneuvered so as to spiral exactly around the wreck as it fell.
When it came right side up again--now only a half a mile away--he
drove down so close that his machine nearly grazed the woman's head.
As he did so, he leaned over and tried to unfasten her. But the
unsteadiness of her craft prevented this.
He made a second try. This time his own machine narrowly escaped
injury; he steered it hastily away from that damaged wing. And then
he made a supreme effort.
Bringing his machine directly across the top of the other as it once
more righted itself, he touched one of his controls, so that his own
flier's spiral increased in steepness. Straightening up, he poised
himself while he coolly measured the distance; and then he calmly
leaped a matter of ten or twelve feet, over and down to the top of
the other craft.
The shock of his landing steadied it. Clinging fast with one hand,
the man bent and unbuckled the woman's strap. Next instant he had
lifted her, a dead weight, into his arms and then over his
shoulders.
His own machine was still scooting downward, its speed even greater
than that of the broken flier. When the man saw it swinging past and
below him, he instantly clambered, burden and all, to the edge of
the cockpit. For a second he stood, balancing precariously; and
then, half jumping, half diving, he plunged once more.
Man and woman landed in a heap in the sound machine. In a flash the
rescuer snatched his controls, and tried with all his might to
"straighten out." But it began to skid; and Smith saw, despite the
shakiness with which his excited agent held the binoculars, that the
craft was hopelessly out of control. Next instant the man caught
sight of the ship, not a hundred yards away; and steered straight
for her.
Smith's agent rushed back to the engine-room, where he immediately
located a new group of instruments. Smith recognized a telephone and
some wireless apparatus; then found himself staring into some sort
of a compound mirror system. Probably it was an illuminated tunnel
affair, opening into a long white cabin. Seemingly the place was an
emergency-ward.
A moment later the unconscious forms of the two aviators were
brought within perhaps twenty feet. Smith could hear nothing; the
apparatus seemed made for looking only. But he saw the doctors hurry
in, saw restoratives administered, and saw both people revive.
The man was first to become conscious. He looked around, seemed to
take in the situation at a glance, and swiftly got to his feet. The
doctors laid restraining hands upon him, but he shook them off with
a laugh.
He was a powerfully built man, considerably taller than normal and
very deep in the chest. He was decidedly blond, and good looking in
a cheerful, reckless sort of way.
His concern was for the woman. She regained her senses in half a
minute, and shortly was sitting up and looking around. And Smith,
ordinarily unobservant of the other sex, found himself staring with
all his eyes.
She was young; for that matter, the man was under thirty, also. And
the white bandage on her forehead only emphasized the dark eyes and
vivid coloring of her face. Smith was half angry that he could not
see her more distinctly. He decided that every feature was
exquisitely modeled, that he had never seen such delicate lines, nor
eyes as large, as appealing and as soft.
Then he was watching the man again. He approached the woman and took
her outstretched hand. He was laughing easily; she, smiling
tremulously and gratefully. They looked into one another's eyes
quite as though there were no one else in the cabin to be looked at.
Next second one of the doctors stepped up bruskly, and Smith saw a
swift blush come to the girl's cheeks. The man reddened, too, and
turned away laughing to hide his confusion.
Smith's connection with his agent ended right there. When he
reported to the other three, later on, he had to admit that, so far
as he knew, the man and the girl were still holding hands.