[Illustration: EDMOND HAMILTON]
_Illustration by Paul_
_Just as we look upon fish as inhabitants of the ocean, so some
beings from outer space may look upon us as being inhabitants at
the bottom of an atmospheric ocean._
_Such beings, possibly gigantic in size and power, coming in
the vicinity of our earth, may, for purposes of curiosity or
exploration, decide to discover what we queer beings are, and what
this little planet is that we inhabit._
_That such beings may have actually come near the earth, is
asserted forcibly by Charles Fort in his amazing book, "The Book of
the Damned," in which he brings forward evidence to show that over
a period of the past 150 years there has been evidence of strange
extra-terrestrial activity, presumably from sentient beings._
_As Mr. Hamilton so truthfully points out, we beings of the
earth are not at all isolated. Any day we may have plunged upon
us an enemy from space that would have no more regard for our
civilization than we have for those of the ants and other insects._
_How we may combat such enemies, Mr. Hamilton shows in quite a
remarkable story._
[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from
Air Wonder Stories March 1930.
Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that
the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]
Because Dr. Howard has asked me to prepare a concise account of the
coming of the space-visitors, I, Stanley Ransome, have tried to write
a simple record of my own contacts with them. Such a record will
necessarily have errors enough; but it seems to me that the facts can
be most clearly presented in such a fashion.
It was late in June that I first learned of the affair, through
Dr. Howard himself. Dr. Jason Howard was holder of the chair of
Aeronautical Science in Gotham University, and his contributions to the
progress of aerial navigation had made him renowned in both scientific
and commercial circles. For two years I had been an instructor and
assistant in his department of the university.
Toward the end of that particular June afternoon he came into the
laboratory where I was testing the tensile strength of a new alloy, and
handed me a folded newspaper.
"You haven't seen this, Ransome?" he questioned. "They're shouting them
all over the city."
"I hope you haven't ruined a completely good test to call my attention
to the latest murder," I jested, as I unfolded the paper. But when my
eyes took in the import of its black headlines my smile vanished. They
shrieked their message in the tallest available type:
HUNDREDS SLAIN IN IOWA VILLAGE BY
CATACLYSM! MANNLERTOWN SCENE
OF MYSTERIOUS HORROR!
The story below the headlines described what was then known of
the catastrophe which had occurred just before dawn on that day.
Mannlertown, an agricultural center of considerable size in eastern
Iowa, had been awakened a short hour before daylight by a colossal
grinding and roaring sound coming from the east.
Before the startled, half-awakened people had been able to leap
from their beds, however, the thing was upon them. It was horror,
earthquake, annihilation, all in one, driving across the town with
immense speed. A terrific crashing of shattered buildings spread
through the community, and for an instant the gigantic grinding roar
seemed receding westward. Then it had stopped completely.
It was several minutes before anyone in the stunned city ventured
out into the streets, half-curious and half-terrified. But those
who finally did so were paralyzed by astonishment and terror. For a
colossal path of destruction had been cut straight across the city's
northern section.
It was like a gigantic trench or canal gouged out by a superhuman
instrument, being over a quarter of a mile in width and almost as great
in depth. It began in an open field three miles east of Mannlertown and
ended in a thinly-settled suburban section a mile westward.
Houses, people, trees, fences, roads--everything that had lain in the
track of the unknown destroyer had vanished as though it had been
whirled into space, and there lay open to the sun nothing but this vast
wound in the earth's surface! Hundreds of people, it was estimated, had
gone to death in the moment of the unparalleled cataclysm.