_Tako, the Mysterious_
The fellow towered head and shoulders over Don, and almost that over
me. He stared down at us, his jaw dropping with surprise. My heart
was pounding; to me there was no doubt about it now; this
heavy-featured handsome, but evil face was the face of the
apparition at whom Don had fired as it hung in the air over the Fort
Beach path. But this was a man. His arm, as I clutched it, was
muscularly solid beneath the sleeve of his flannel jacket.
"I say," Don panted. "Just a minute."
With a sweep of his arms the stranger angrily flung off our hold.
"What do you want?"
I saw, within twenty feet of us, a policeman standing in the street
intersection.
"I beg your pardon," Don stammered. We had had no time to plan
anything. I put in:
"We thought you were a friend of ours. This night--so much
excitement--let's get back to the curb."
We drew the man to the sidewalk as a physician's little automobile
with two soldiers in it waded its way slowly through the crowd.
The man laughed. "It is an exciting night. I never have seen Bermuda
like this before."
Swift impressions flooded me. The fellow surely must recognize us as
we did him. He was pretending friendliness. I noticed that though he
seemed not over forty, his close-clipped hair beneath the white
linen cap was silver white. His face had a strange pallor, not the
pallor of ill health, but seemingly a natural lack of color. And his
voice, speaking good English, nevertheless marked him for a
foreigner--though of what nation certainly I could not say.
"We're mistaken," said Don. "But you look like someone we know."
"Do I, indeed? That is interesting."
"Only you're taller," I said. "You're not a Bermudian, are you?"
His eyes, beneath the heavy black brows shot me a look. "No. I am a
stranger; a visitor. My name----"
* * * * *
He hesitated briefly; then he smiled with what seemed an amused
irony. "My name is Tako. Robert Tako. I am living at the Hamiltonia
Hotel. Does that satisfy you?"
I could think of nothing to say. Nor could Don. The fellow added,
"Bermuda is like a little ship. I understand your inquisitiveness--one
must know everyone else. And who are you?"
Don told him.
"Ah, yes," he smiled. "And so you are a native Bermudian?"
"Yes."
"And you," he said to me, "you are American?"
"From New York, yes."
"That is more interesting. Never have I known an American. You are
familiar with New York City?"
"Of course. I was born there."
His contemplative gaze made me shiver. I wondered what Don was
planning as an outcome to this. The fellow seemed wholly at ease
now. He was lounging against the drug store window with us before
him. My eyes were level with the negligee collar of his blue linen
shirt, and abruptly I was galvanized into alertness. Just above the
soft collar where his movements had crushed it down I saw
unmistakably the loop of a tiny black thread of wire projecting
upward! Conclusive proof! This was one of the mysterious enemies!
One of the apparitions which had thrown all Bermuda into a turmoil
stood materialized here before us.
I think that Don had already seen the wire. The fellow was saying
nonchalantly,
"And you, Mr. Livingston--are you also familiar with New York City?"
"Yes," said Don. He had gone pale and tight-lipped. I caught his
warning glance to me. "Yes," he repeated. "I lived there several
years."
"I would like to know you two better. Much better--but not tonight."
He moved as though to take his leave of us. Then he added to Don,
"That most beautiful young lady with you in the restaurant--did I
not see you there? Is that your sister?"
Don made his decision. He said abruptly, "That's none of your
business."
It took the fellow wholly by surprise. "But listen--"
"I've had enough of your insolence," Don shouted.
The man's hand made an instinctive movement toward his belt, but I
seized his wrist. And I added my loud voice to Don's. "No, you
don't!"
* * * * *
A group of onlookers was at once collecting around us. The giant
tried to cast me off, but I clung to him with all my strength. And
suddenly we were struggling to keep the fellow from breaking away
from us. He muttered a strange-sounding oath.
"Let me go! You fools!"
"Not such fools," Don shouted. "Officer! I say--officer!"
Don's revolver was in his hand; people were pressing around us, but
when they saw the revolver they began scattering. The giant made a
lunge and broke away from us, heedless that Don might have shot him.
"What's all this? I say, you three, what are you up to?"
The policeman came on a run. A group of soldiers passing on
bicycles, flung the machines aside and came dashing at us. The giant
stood suddenly docile.
"Officer, these young men attacked me."
"He's a liar!" Don shouted. "Watch him! He might be armed--don't let
him get away from you!"
The law surrounded us. "Here's my weapon," said Don. "Bob, give up
your revolver."
In the turmoil Don plucked the policeman aside.
"I'm nephew of the Honorable Arthur Dorrance. Take us to your chief.
I made that uproar to catch that big fellow."
The name of the Honorable Arthur Dorrance was magic. The policeman
stared at our giant captive who now was surrounded by the soldiers.
"But I say--"
"Take us all in and send for Mr. Dorrance. He's at the Government
House."
"But I say--That big blighter--"
"We think he's one of the ghosts!" Don whispered.
"Oh, my Gawd!"
With the crowd following us we were hurried away to the police
station nearby.
* * * * *
The sergeant said, "The Chief will be here in a few minutes. And
we've sent for Mr. Dorrance."
"Good enough, Brown." It chanced that Don knew this sergeant very
well. "Did you search the fellow?"
"Yes. No weapon in his clothes."
I whispered, "I saw a wire under his collar."
"Sh! No use telling that now, Bob."
I realized it. These policemen were frightened enough at our
captive. Don added, "Before my uncle and the Chief arrive, let me
have a talk with that fellow, will you?"
They had locked him up; and in the excitement of our arrival at the
station both Don and I had completely forgotten the wire we had seen
at his collar. But we remembered it now, and the same thought
occurred to both of us. We had locked up this mysterious enemy, but
would the prison bars hold him?
"Good Lord!" Don exclaimed. "Bob, those wires--Sergeant, we
shouldn't have left that fellow alone! Is he alone! Come on!"
With the frightened mystified sergeant leading us we dashed along
the little white corridor to the windowless cell in which the giant
was confined. At the cell-door a group of soldiers lounged in the
corridor.
"Smooth talker, that fellow."
"Gor blime me, who is he?"
We arrived with a rush. "Is he in there?" Don shouted. "Open the
door, you fellows! See here, you watch him--we've got to get his
clothes off. He's got some mechanism--wires and things underneath
his clothes!"
"Get out of the way!" ordered the sergeant. "I'll open it!"
There was silence from behind the door. The prisoner had been in the
cell no more than a minute or two.
* * * * *
We burst open the door. The cell was dimly illumined. The figure of
the giant stood backed in its further corner. But at the sight of
him we all stood transfixed with horror. His shoes, trousers, shirt,
jacket and cap lay in a little pile at his feet. He stood revealed
in the short tight-fitting silvery garments. The wires were looped
about his arms and legs and he had pulled a mesh of them over his
head in lieu of a helmet.
He stood regarding us sardonically. And in that instant while we
were stricken with the shock of it, I saw that the figure was
fading. It was a solid human form no longer! A silvery cast had come
upon it. Another second passed; it was visibly growing tenuous,
wraithlike! It was melting while we stared at it, until in that
breathless instant I realized that the wall behind it was showing
through.
A wraith! An apparition! The vision of a ghost standing there,
leering at us!
The soldiers had retreated back into the corridor behind us. The
sergeant gripped me, and his other hand, wavering with fright,
clutched a revolver.
"But it's--it's going!"
Don gasped, "Too late! Sergeant, give me that gun!"
"Wait!" I shouted. "Don't shoot at it!"
The shimmering glowing white figure was slowly moving downward as
though floating through the cell-floor. Its own invisible surface
was evidently not here but lower down, and it was beginning to drop.
I don't know what frenzied courage--if courage it could be
called--was inspiring me. I was wholly confused, but nevertheless I
struck Don and the sergeant aside and rushed at the thing.
* * * * *
It was a sensation most horrible. From the waist up it was still
above the floor of the cell. My wildly flailing arms went through
the chest! But I felt nothing. It was not even like waving aside a
mist. There was nothing. I saw my solid fist plunge through the
leering ghostly face. I fought wildly, with a panic upon me, against
the glowing phosphorescent nothingness of the apparition. My feet
were stamping on its chest and shoulders. Then, as it sank lower,
only the grinning face was down there.
Panting, and with the cold sweat of horror upon me, I felt Don
shoving me aside.
"Too late!"
And then the sergeant's shot rang out. The bullet clattered against
the solid stone floor of the cell. The acrid smoke of the powder
rolled over us; and cleared in a moment to show us the apparition
several feet below the floor level. It seemed to strike its solidity
of ground. I saw it fall the last little distance with a rush; land,
and pick itself up. And with a last sardonic grin upward at us, the
dim white figure ran. Dwindling smaller, dimmer, until in a moment
it was gone into the Unknown.
As though a light had struck upon me came the realization.
"Don, this is rational, this thing! Some strange science!"
All day we had been vaguely realizing it. Intangible, but rational
enemies were stealing white girls of Bermuda. Invaders from another
planet? We had thought it might be that. Certainly it was nothing
supernatural. These was not ghosts.
But now came a new realization. "Don! That's another world down
there! Another realm! The fourth dimension--that's what it is! These
things everybody's calling ghosts--it's the fourth dimension, Don!
People of the fourth dimension coming out to attack us!"
And already the real menace had come! At that moment, half a mile
away across the harbor on the slope of the little hill in Paget, an
army of the White Invaders suddenly materialized, with dull,
phosphorescent-green light-beams flashing around the countryside,
melting trees and vegetation and people into nothingness!
The attack upon Bermuda had begun!