THE THING IN THE LABORATORY.
After dinner the professor and I returned to his laboratory. He had
called the War Department, and supplied them with such information as
he had.
We found the caged medusa more than doubled in size, floating about
as if searching for more prey. The cecropias had all been devoured.
The punctures made by the professor's scalpel had disappeared, and
the cells which he had deflated were not only increased in size
proportionately to the animal's growth, but completely filled out with
gas once more.
While I watched it moving about, the professor tested the gas which he
had confined in the tube. Presently he called to me:
"I've found it, Dick. It's helium. How the creature obtains it so
rapidly is a mystery to me, as there are only four parts to every
million parts of air, and the proportions in its organic food must
be very slight. But it is unmistakably helium, so fire will only be
effective against it in such local areas as it can reach directly."
"But what about explosive shells?" I asked.
"The monsters could be blown into fragments, of course," he replied,
"but remember, each fragment would become a new monster. Fighting these
giant medusæ of the skies with shells would simply mean multiplying
them."
"Then what can we do?" I asked.
"That," he replied, "is what we must find out as quickly as possible.
In order to do this we must take some risks. We must experiment and
observe until we can find the weak spot in this creature's defense. I
am about to sacrifice to-morrow's roast for the good of the cause."
So saying, he went out, and I heard him talking to the cook in the
kitchen. A moment later he returned with a raw leg of lamb which he
thrust into the cage.
The medusa, evidently attracted by the movement, soared downward,
tentacles extended, as we had previously seen it do when attracted by
the motion of organic matter. A tentacle touched the raw meat and in a
moment the creature had settled down over the roast to feed.
The professor sighed.
"My favorite food," he said, "but it is going in a good cause. And we
have, so the cook tells me, a smoked ham which will go well with some
fresh eggs."
The medusa fed noiselessly, but with apparent voracity. As the meat
dwindled in bulk, the body of the medusa increased in size, its
tentacles lengthened proportionately.
Almost before we realized it, the body of the creature was more than a
foot in diameter, while the tentacles had reached a length of nearly
eighteen inches, yet the roast was not more than half consumed. Then
a queer thing happened. The cage began to fill with vapor--silvery
white like a cirrus cloud on which the sun is shining. And I began to
grow increasingly conscious of a sickening, musty odor like that I had
noticed at the wreck of Jackson's plane.
The professor, alert scientist that he was, seized a glass tube and a
rubber plug for each end. Then he rushed out into the kitchen. A few
moments later he returned with the tube packed full of crushed ice. He
wiped it thoroughly with a towel, then opened the door of the cage and
thrust the tube into the densest part of the vapor. When he withdrew it
it was covered with large drops of moisture.
These he scraped into a test tube which he held up to the light for a
moment, shaking it slightly as if to note its viscosity. Then he went
to the table, put it in a test tube rack, and quickly prepared a number
of solutions in other tubes. Into each of these he dropped a minute
quantity of the liquid he had collected--pausing in each instance to
note the result.
* * * * *
In watching him I had forgotten to keep an eye on the cage. Presently I
thought of it once more and turned to look at it. To my surprise I saw
that it was completely hidden by a dense cloud of vapor--a disk-shaped
cloud that was a perfect miniature copy of that into which Pilot
Jackson had plunged, never to emerge.
The professor looked up from his experiments.
"Water, Dick," he said, "nothing but water. The mystery is, how is it
able to collect and hold a cloud symmetrically around it? I rather
suspect--"
He paused in amazement as he suddenly noticed how large and dense the
cloud had become around the cage.
"Why this is astounding, Dick," he said. "I had no idea it could grow
so huge on a few pounds of meat. Perhaps we had better--"
He was interrupted this time by a rending crash, which came from the
interior of the cloud. Then it rose toward the ceiling, and on the
table our startled eyes saw the remains of the cage with its four sides
bulged out, its top tilted back, and its frame splintered. Lying on the
bottom of the cage, as white as if it had been kiln-dried, was the leg
bone which had been in the roast.
The disk-shaped cloud, now nearly four feet in diameter, was floating
around the edges of the ceiling, evidently looking for a means of
egress from the room. Beneath it trailed more than a hundred squirming,
wriggling tentacles, partly concealed by several little ragged
streamers of vapor.
"Don't move, Dick," said the professor softly. "We are both in deadly
peril. I have a plan."
Slowly, cautiously, he reached beneath the table. He groped there for
a moment, then brought out a gasoline blowtorch. Turning a valve, he
filled the generator. Then he struck a match and ignited it. I noticed
that, when he made the quick motion necessary for lighting the match,
the tentacles of the creature floating above us suddenly extended
toward him as if attracted by the movement.
The professor noted this, also, and worked the air pump of the torch
slowly and carefully, while he kept an eye on the medusa. The creature
had halted, its tentacles still extended toward him, as if undecided
whether to attack or not. Presently it began to float slowly in his
direction.
Knowing that he would be unable to get his torch going in time to use
it effectively, I looked about for a weapon. Across the room, at a
distance of about ten feet from me, was the professor's golf bag. The
driver and brassie reared their heads invitingly above the other clubs.
If I could but get one of them!
The medusa drew nearer and nearer to the professor, who coolly
continued to work the pressure pump. The torch began to roar, but I
knew it would not be in operation for at least another half minute, and
the exploring tentacles were now less than a foot from the scientist.
Had I been content to move slowly, I might have averted that which
followed. But I arose with rash haste and leaped toward the golf clubs.
Before I could make a second move, with a suddenness that was
appalling, the monster pounced on me. At the first touch of those wiry
tentacles I felt a terrific shock, as if a powerful electric current
had passed through my body. Every muscle was numbed, stiffened. I was
unable to move a finger.
[Illustration: _Stinging, wirelike tentacles whipped about him._]
A second shock followed--a third. There was a roaring in my ears; there
rose a penetrating stench like that of burning feathers. I could feel
the wiry tentacles biting into my flesh, yet the numbing waves that
came from them rendered the wounds almost painless.
The roaring sound increased. I heard a horrible, wailing shriek. Then
things went black before my eyes and I lost consciousness.