CHAPTER VI

_Escape!_

"I heard what he said. You shall not die. We shall go away to your

place, where there are no beetles to eat us, even if"--Haidia

shuddered--"even if we have to cross the bridge of fire, beyond which,

they tell me, lies freedom."

High over and a little to one side of the petrol flame Dodd and Tommy

had seen the slender arch of rock leading into another cleft in the

rocks. They had investigated it several times, but always the fierce

heat had driven them back.

Both Dodd and Tommy had noticed, however, that at times the fire seemed

to shrink in volume and intensity. Observation had shown them that these

times were periodical, recurring about every twelve hours.

"I think I've got the clue, Tommy," said Dodd, as the three watched the

fiery fountain and speculated on the possibility of escape. "That flow

of petrol is controlled, like the tides on earth, by the pull of the

moon. Just now it is at its height. I've noticed that it loses pretty

nearly half its volume at its alternating phase. If I'm right, we'll

make the attempt in about twelve hours."

"Bram's given us twenty-four," said Tommy. "But how about getting Haidia

across?"

"I go where you go," said Haidia, sidling up to Dodd and looking down

upon him lovingly. "I do not afraid of the fire. If it burn me up, I go

to the good place."

"Where's that, Haidia?" asked Dodd.

"When we die, we go to a place where it is always dark and there are no

beetles, and the ground is full of shrimps. We leave our bodies behind,

like the beetles, and fly about happy for ever."

"Not a bad sort of place," said Dodd, squeezing Haidia's arm. "If you

think you're ready to try to cross the bridge, we'll start as soon as

the fire gets lower."

"I'll be on the job," answered Haidia, unconsciously reproducing a

phrase of Tommy's.

* * * * *

The girl glided away, and disappeared through the thick of the beetle

crowd clustered about the entrance to the cavern. Tommy and Dodd had

already discovered that it was through her ability to reproduce a

certain beetle sound meaning "not good to eat" that the girl could come

and go. They had once tried it on their own account, and had narrowly

escaped the lashing tentacles.

After that there was nothing to do but wait. Three or four hours must

have passed when Bram returned from his inner cave.

"Well, Dodd, have you experienced a change of heart?" he sneered. "If

you knew what's in store for you, maybe you'd come to the conclusion

that you've been too cocksure about the monotremes. We're slaughtering

in the morning."

"That so?" asked Dodd.

"That's so," shouted Bram. "The beetles are beginning to emerge from the

pupae, and they'll need food if they're to be kept quiet. We're rounding

up about threescore of the culls--your friend Haidia will be among them.

We've got some caged ichneumon flies, pretty little things only a foot

long, which will sting them in certain nerve centers, rendering them

powerless to move. Then we shall bury them, standing up, in the

vegetable mould, for the beetles to devour alive, as soon as they come

out of the shells. You'll feel pretty, Dodd, standing there unable to

move, with the new born beetles biting chunks out of you."

* * * * *

Tommy shuddered, despite his hopes of their escaping. Bram, for a

scientist, had a grim and picturesque imagination.

"Dodd, there is no personal quarrel between us," Bram went on. Again

that note of pathetic pleading came into his voice. "Give up your mad

ideas. Admit that the banded ant-eater, at least, existed before the

pleistocene epoch, and everything can be settled. When you see what my

beetles are going to do to humanity, you'll be proud to join us. Only

make a beginning. You remember the point I made in my paper, about

spalacotherium in the Upper Jurassic rocks. It would convince anybody

but a hardened fanatic."

"I read your paper, and I saw your so-called spalacotherium,

reconstructed from what you called a jaw-bone," shouted Dodd. "That

so-called jaw-bone was a lump of chalk, made porous by water, and the

rest was in your imagination. Do your worst, Bram, I'll never crucify

truth to save my life. And I'll laugh at your spalacotherium when your

beetles are eating me."

Bram yelled and shrieked, he stamped up and down the cavern, shaking his

fists at Dodd. At last, with a final torrent of objurgation, he

disappeared.

"A pleasant customer," said Tommy. "We'll have to make that bridge, Jim,

no question about it, even if it means death in the petrol fire."

"Fire's dying down fast," answered Dodd. "Haidia ought to be here soon."

"If Bram hasn't got her."

"Bram got--that girl? If Bram harms a hair of her head I'll kill him

with worse tortures than he's ever dreamed of," answered Dodd, leaping

up, white with rage.

"You mean you--?" Tommy began.

"Love her? Yes, I love her," shouted Dodd. "She's a girl in a million.

Just the sort of helpmate I need to assist me in my work when we get

back. I tell you, Tommy, I didn't know what love meant before I saw

Haidia. I laughed at it as a romantic notion. 'Oh lyric love, half angel

and half bird!'" he quoted, beginning to stride up and down the cavern,

while Tommy watched him in amazement.

And at this moment a complete beetle entered the cave. Complete, because

it had a plastron, or breast-shell, as well as a back-shell, or

carapace.

* * * * *

A double breast-shell! A new species of beetle? An executioner beetle,

sent by Bram to summon them to the torture? Tommy shuddered, but Dodd,

lost in his love ecstasy, was ignorant of the creature's advent.

"'Oh lyric love--'" he shouted again, as he twirled on his heel, to run

smack into the monster. The crack of Dodd's head against the

beetle-shell re-echoed through the cave.

The double plastron dropped, the carapace fell down: Haidia stood

revealed. The lovers, folded in each other's arms, passed momentarily

into a trance.

It was Tommy who separated them. "We'll have to make a move," he said.

"I think the fire's as low as it ever gets. Why did you bring the

shells, Haidia?"

"To save us all from the beetles," answered the girl. "When they see us

in the shells, they will not know we are human. That is what makes it so

hard to have to be eaten by those beetles, when they are such

dumb-bells," she added, reproducing another of Tommy's words.

"Come," she continued bravely, "let us see if we can pass the fire."

* * * * *

The roaring fountain made the air a veritable inferno. Overhead the

rocks were red-hot. A cascade of sparks tumbled in a fiery shower from

the rock roof. Dodd, holding Haidia in his arms, to protect her,

staggered ahead, with Tommy in the rear. Only the beetle-shells, which

acted as non-conductors of the heat, made that fiery passage possible.

There was one moment when it seemed to Tommy as if he must let go, and

drop into that raging furnace underneath. He heard Dodd bawling hoarsely

in front of him, he nerved himself to a last effort, beating fiercely at

his blazing hair--and then the heat was past, and he had dropped

unconscious upon a bed of cool earth beside a rushing river.

He was vaguely aware of being carried in Dodd's arms, but a long time

seemed to have passed before he grew conscious again. He opened his eyes

in utter darkness. Dodd was whispering in his ear.

"Tommy, old man, how are you feeling now?" Dodd asked.

"All--right," Tommy muttered. "How's Haidia?"

"Still unconscious, poor girl. We've got to get out of here. I heard

Bram yelling in the distance. He's discovered our flight. There may be

another way out of the cave, and, if so, he'll stop at nothing to get

us. See if you can stand, but keep your head low. There's a low roof of

rock above us."

"There's water," said Tommy, listening to the roar of a torrent that

seemed to be rushing past them.

"It's a stream, and I believe these shells will float and bear our

weight. We've got to try. We've got to put everything to the touch now,

Tommy. I'm going to lay Haidia on one of the shells, poor girl, and

start her off. Then I'll follow, and you can bring up the rear."

"I'm with you," said Tommy, getting upon his feet, and uttering an

exclamation of pain as, forgetful of Dodd's injunction, he let his head

strike the rock roof overhead.

* * * * *

In the darkness he felt the outlines of his beetle-shell lying beside

the torrent. He could hear Dodd in front of him, grunting as he raised

Haidia's unconscious form in his arms and deposited her in her shell.

Tommy got his own shell into the stream, and held it there as the waters

swirled around it.

"Ready?" he heard Dodd call.

Before he could answer, there sounded from not far away, yet strangely

muffled by the rocks, Bram's bellow of fury. Bram was evidently fully

drugged and beside himself. Inarticulate threats came floating through

the rocky chamber.

"Bram seems to have lost his head temporarily," called Dodd, laughing.

"A madman, Tommy. He insists that the marsupial lion--"

"Yes, I heard you telling him about it," answered Tommy. "You handed it

to him straight. However, more about the marsupial lion later. I'm

ready."

"Then let 'er go," called Dodd, and his words were swallowed up by the

sound of the hollow shell striking against the rocky bank as he launched

his strange craft into the water.

Tommy set one foot into the hollow of his shell, and let himself go.

Instantly the shell shot forward with fearful velocity. It was all Tommy

could do to balance himself, for it seemed more unstable than a canoe.

Once or twice he thought he heard Dodd shouting ahead of him, but his

cries were drowned in the rush of the torrent.

* * * * *

Suddenly a light appeared in the distance. Tommy thought it was another

of the petroleum fountains, and his heart seemed to stand still. But

then he gave a gasp of relief. It was a cluster of luminous fungi, ten

or twelve feet tall, emitting a glow equal to that of a dozen 40-watt

electric bulbs.

By that infernal light Tommy could see that the stream curved sharply.

It was about fifty feet in width, and the low rock roof had receded to

some fifteen feet overhead. Instead of a tunnel, there was nothing on

either side of them but a vast tract of marshy ground thinly coated with

the red grass.

As Tommy looked, he saw the shell that carried the unconscious body of

Haidia strike the bank beside the phosphorescent growth. He could see

the girl lying in the hollow of the shell, as pale as death, her eyes

closed. Dodd was close behind. As the swirl of the current caught his

shell, he turned to shout a warning to Tommy.

And Tommy noticed a singular thing, of which his sense of balance had

already warned him, though he had hardly given conscious thought to the

matter. _The river was running up-hill!_

Of course it was, since the center of gravity was in the shell of the

earth, and not in the center!

But, again, the shell of the earth was under their feet!

Then Tommy hit on the solution to the problem. If the river was running

up-hill, that meant that they must be near the exterior of the earth. In

other words, they had passed the center of gravity: they must be within

a mile or so of the exit from Submundia!

* * * * *

Tommy was about to shout his discovery to Dodd when his shell grounded

beside the two others, at the base of the clump of fungi.

Huge, straight, hollow stems they were, with mushroom caps, and, like

all fungi, fly-blown, for Tommy could see worms nearly a foot in length

crawling in and out of the porous stalks. The stench from the growth was

nauseating and overpowering, utterly sickening.

"Push off and let's get out of here!" Tommy called to Dodd, who was

balancing his shell against the bank, and trying to peer into Haidia's

face.

At that moment he caught sight of something that made his blood turn

cold!

It was an insect fully fifteen feet in height, three times that of a

beetle, lurking among the fungi. He saw a hugely elongated neck, a

three-cornered head with a pair of tentacles, and two pairs of legs as

long as a giraffe's. But what gave the added touch of horror was that

the monster, balancing itself on its hind legs, had its forelegs

extended in the attitude of one holding a prayer-book!

That attitude of devotion was so terrible that Tommy uttered a wild cry

of terror. At the same time another cry broke from Dodd's lips.

"God, a praying mantis!" he shouted, struggling madly to push off his

shell and Haidia's.

The next moment, as if shot from a catapult, the hideous monster

launched itself into the air straight toward them.

(_To be concluded in the February Number._)

The Cave of Horror

_By Captain S. P. Meek_

[Illustration: "_Suddenly, for no apparent reason at all, one of the men

on guard was jerked into the air feet upwards._"]

[Sidenote: Screaming, the guardsman was jerked through the air. An

unearthly screech rang through the cavern. The unseen horror of Mammoth

Cave had struck again.]

Dr. Bird looked up impatiently as the door of his private laboratory in

the Bureau of Standards swung open, but the frown on his face changed to

a smile as he saw the form of Operative Carnes of the United States

Secret Service framed in the doorway.

"Hello, Carnes," he called cheerfully. "Take a seat and make yourself at

home for a few minutes. I'll be with you as soon as I finish getting

this weight."

Carnes sat on the edge of a bench and watched with admiration the long

nervous hands and the slim tapering fingers of the famous scientist. Dr.

Bird stood well over six feet and weighed two hundred and six pounds

stripped: his massive shoulders and heavy shock of unruly black hair

combined to give him the appearance of a prize-fighter--until one looked

at his hands. Acid stains and scars could not hide the beauty of those

mobile hands, the hands of an artist and a dreamer. An artist Dr. Bird

was, albeit his artistry expressed itself in the most delicate and

complicated experiments in the realms of pure and applied science that

the world has ever seen, rather than in the commoner forms of art.

The doctor finished his task of weighing a porcelain crucible, set it

carefully into a dessicator, and turned to his friend.

"What's on your mind, Carnes?" he asked. "You look worried. Is there

another counterfeit on the market?"

The operative shook his head.

"Have you been reading those stories that the papers have been carrying

about Mammoth Cave?" he asked.

Dr. Bird emitted a snort of disgust.

"I read the first one of them part way through on the strength of its

being an Associated Press dispatch," he replied, "but that was enough.

It didn't exactly impress me with its veracity, and, from a viewpoint of

literature, the thing was impossible. I have no time to pore over the

lucubrations of an inspired press agent."

"So you dismissed them as mere press agent work?"

"Certainly. What else could they be? Things like that don't happen

fortuitously just as the tourist season is about to open. I suppose that

those yarns will bring flocks of the curious to Kentucky though: the

public always responds well to sea serpent yarns."

"Mammoth Cave has been closed to visitors for the season," said Carnes

quietly.

"What?" cried the doctor in surprise. "Was there really something to

those wild yarns?"

* * * * *

"There was, and what is more to the point, there still is. At least

there is enough to it that I am leaving for Kentucky this evening, and I

came here for the express purpose of asking you whether you wanted to

come along. Bolton suggested that I ask you: he said that the whole

thing sounded to him like magic and that magic was more in your line

than in ours. He made out a request for your services and I have it in

my pocket now. Are you interested?"

"How does the secret service cut in on it?" asked the doctor. "It seems

to me that it is a state matter. Mammoth Cave isn't a National Park."

"Apparently you haven't followed the papers. It _was_ a state matter

until the Governor asked for federal troops. Whenever the regulars get

into trouble, the federal government is rather apt to take a hand."

"I didn't know that regulars had been sent there. Tell me about the

case."

"Will you come along?"

Dr. Bird shook his head slowly.

"I really don't see how I can spare the time, Carnes," he said. "I am in

the midst of some work of the utmost importance and it hasn't reached

the stage where I can turn it over to an assistant."

"Then I won't bother you with the details," replied Carnes as he rose.

"Sit down, confound you!" cried the doctor. "You know better than to try

to pull that on me. Tell me your case, and then I'll tell you whether

I'll go or not. I can't spare the time, but, on the other hand, if it

sounds interesting enough...."

* * * * *

Carnes laughed.

"All right, Doctor," he said, "I'll take enough time to tell you about

it even if you can't go. Do you know anything about it?"

"No. I read the first story half way through and then stopped. Start at

the beginning and tell me the whole thing."

"Have you ever been to Mammoth Cave?"

"No."

"It, or rather they, for while it is called Mammoth Cave it is really a

series of caves, are located in Edmonson County in Central Kentucky, on

a spur railroad from Glasgow Junction on the Louisville and Nashville

Railroad. They are natural limestone caverns with the customary

stalactite and stalagmite formation, but are unusually large and very

beautiful. The caves are quite extensive and they are on different

levels, so that a guide is necessary if one wants to enter them and be

at all sure of finding the way out. Visitors are taken over a regular

route and are seldom allowed to visit portions of the cave off these

routes. Large parts of the cave have never been thoroughly explored or

mapped. So much for the scene.

"About a month ago a party from Philadelphia who were motoring through

Kentucky, entered the cave with a regular guide. The party consisted of

a man and his wife and their two children, a boy of fourteen and a girl

of twelve. They went quite a distance back into the caves and then, as

the mother was feeling tired, she and her husband sat down, intending to

wait until the guide showed the children some sights which lay just

ahead and then return to them. The guide and the children never

returned."

"What happened?"

"No one knows. All that is known is the bare fact that they have not

been seen since."

"A kidnapping case?"

"Apparently not, in the light of later happenings, although that was at

first thought to be the explanation. The parents waited for some time.

The mother says that she heard faint screams in the distance some ten

minutes after the guide and the children left, but they were very far

away and she isn't sure that she heard them at all. At any rate, they

didn't impress her at the time.

* * * * *

"When half an hour had passed they began to feel anxious, and the father

took a torch and started out to hunt for them. The usual thing happened;

he got lost. When _he_ failed to return, the mother, now thoroughly

alarmed, made her way, by some uncanny sense of direction, to the

entrance and gave the alarm. In half an hour a dozen search parties were

on their way into the cave. The father was soon located, not far from

the beaten trail, but despite three days of constant search, the

children were not located. The only trace of them that was found was a

bracelet which the mother identified. It was found in the cavern some

distance from the beaten path and was broken, as though by violence.

There were no other signs of a struggle.

"When the bracelet was found, the kidnapping theory gained vogue, for

John Harrel, the missing guide, knew the cave well and natives of the

vicinity scouted the idea that he might be lost. Inspired by the large

reward offered by the father, fresh parties began to explore the unknown

portions of the cave. And then came the second tragedy. Two of the

searchers failed to return. This time there seemed to be little doubt of

violence, for screams and a pistol shot were faintly heard by other

searchers, together with a peculiar 'screaming howl,' as it was

described by those who heard it. A search was at once made toward the

spot where the bracelet had been picked up, and the gun of one of the

missing men was found within fifty yards of the spot where the bracelet

had been discovered. One cylinder of the revolver had been discharged."

"Were there any signs on the floor?"

"The searchers said that the floor appeared to be rather more moist and

slimy than usual, but that was all. They also spoke of a very faint

smell of musk, but this observation was not confirmed by others who

arrived a few moments later."

"What happened next?"

* * * * *

"The Governor was appealed to and a company of the National Guard was

sent from Louisville to Mammoth Cave. They took up camp at the mouth of

the cave and prevented everyone from entering. Soldiers armed with

service rifles penetrated the caverns, but found nothing. Visitors were

excluded, and the guardsmen established regular patrols and sentry posts

in the cave with the result that one night, when time came for a relief,

the only trace that could be found of one of the guards was his rifle.

It had not been fired. Double guards were then posted, and nothing

happened for several days--and then another sentry disappeared. His

companion came rushing out of the cave screaming. When he recovered, he

admitted that both he and the missing man had gone to sleep and that he

awoke to find his comrade gone. He called, and he says that the answer

he received was a peculiar whistling noise which raised all the hair on

the back of his neck. He flashed his electric torch all around, but

could see nothing. He swears, however, that he heard a slipping, sliding

noise approaching him, and he felt that some one was looking at him. He

stood it as long as he could and then threw down his rifle and ran for

his life."

"Had he been drinking?"

"No. It wasn't delirium either, as was shown by the fact that a patrol

found his gun where he had thrown it, but no trace of the other sentry.

After this second experience, the guardsmen weren't very eager to enter

the cave, and the Governor asked for regulars. A company of infantry was

ordered down from Fort Thomas to relieve the guardsmen, but they fared

worse than their predecessors. They lost two men the first night of

their guard. The regulars weren't caught napping, for the main guard

heard five shots fired. They rushed a patrol to the scene and found both

of the rifles which had been fired, but the men were gone.

"The officer of the day made a thorough search of the vicinity and

found, some two hundred yards from the spot where the sentries had been

posted, a crack in the wall through which the body of a man could be

forced. This bodycrack had fresh blood on each side of it. Several of

his men volunteered to enter the hole and search, but the lieutenant

would not allow it. Instead, he armed himself with a couple of

hand-grenades and an electric torch and entered himself. That was last

Tuesday, and he has not returned."

"Was there any disturbance heard from the crack?"

"None at all. A guard was posted with two machine-guns pointed at the

crack in the wall, and a guard of eight men and a sergeant stationed

there. Last night, about six o'clock, while the guard were sitting

around their guns, a faint smell of musk became evident. No one paid a

great deal of attention to it, but suddenly for no apparent reason at

all one of the men on guard was jerked into the air feet upwards. He

gave a scream of fear, and an unearthly screech answered him. The guard,

with the exception of one man, turned tail and ran. One man stuck by his

gun and poured a stream of bullets into the crack. The retreating men

could hear the rattle of the gun for a few moments and then there was a

choking scream, followed by silence. When the officer of the day got

back with a patrol, there was a heavy smell of musk in the air, and a

good deal of blood was splashed around. The machine-guns were both

there, although one of them was twisted up until it looked like it had

been through an explosion.

"The Officer commanding the company investigated the place, ordered all

men out of the cave, and communicated with the War Department. The

Secretary of War found it too tough a nut to crack and he asked for

help, so Bolton is sending me down there. Do you think, in view of this

yarn, that your experiments can wait?"

* * * * *

The creases on Dr. Bird's high forehead had grown deeper and deeper as

Carnes had told his story, but now they suddenly disappeared, and he

jumped to his feet with a boyish grin.

"How soon are we leaving?" he asked.

"In two hours, Doctor. A car is waiting for us downstairs and I have

reservations booked for both of us on the Southern to-night. I knew that

you were coming; in fact, the request for your services had been

approved before I came here to see you."

Dr. Bird rapidly divested himself of his laboratory smock and took his

coat and hat from a cupboard.

"I hope you realize, Carnsey, old dear," he said as he followed the

operative out of the building, "that I have a real fondness for your

worthless old carcass. I am leaving the results of two weeks of patient

work alone and unattended in order to keep you out of trouble, and I

know that it will be ruined when I get back. I wonder whether you are

worth it?"

"Bosh!" retorted Carnes. "I'm mighty glad to have you along, but you

needn't rub it in by pretending that it is affection for me that is

dragging you reluctantly into this mess. With an adventure like this

ahead of you, leg-irons and handcuffs wouldn't keep you away from

Mammoth Cave, whether I was going or not."

It was late afternoon before Dr. Bird and Carnes dismounted from the

special train which had carried them from Glasgow Junction to Mammoth

Cave. They introduced themselves to the major commanding the guard

battalion which had been ordered down to reinforce the single company

which had borne the first brunt of the affair, and then interviewed the

guards who had been routed by the unseen horror which was haunting the

famous cave. Nothing was learned which differed in any great degree from

the tale which Carnes had related to the doctor in Washington, except

that the officer of the day who had investigated the last attack failed

to entirely corroborate the smell of musk which had been reported by the

other observers.

"It might have been musk, but to me it smelled differently," he said.

"Were you ever near a rattlesnake den in the west?"

* * * * *

Dr. Bird nodded.

"Then you know the peculiar reptilian odor which such a place gives off.

Well, this smell was somewhat similar, although not the same by any

manner of means. It was musky all right, but it was more snake than musk

to me. I rather like musk, but this smell gave me the horrors."

"Did you hear any noises?"

"None at all. The men describe some rather peculiar noises and Sergeant

Jervis is an old file and pretty apt to get things straight, but they

may have been made by the men who were in trouble. I saw a man caught by

a boa in South America once, and the noises he made might very well have

been described in almost the same words as Jervis used."

"Thanks, Lieutenant," replied the Doctor. "I'll remember what you have

told me. Now I think that we'll go into the cave."

"My orders are to allow no one to enter, Doctor."

"I beg your pardon. Carnes, where is that letter from the Secretary of

War?"

Carnes produced the document. The lieutenant examined it and excused

himself. He returned in a few moments with the commanding officer.

"In the face of that letter, Dr. Bird," said the major, "I have no

alternative to allowing you to enter the cave, but I will warn you that

it is at your own peril. I'll give you an escort, if you wish."

"If Lieutenant Pearce will come with me as a guide, that will be all

that I need."

The lieutenant paled slightly, but threw back his shoulders.

"Do you wish to start at once, sir?" he asked.

"In a few moments. What is the floor of the cave like where we are

going?"

"Quite wet and slimy, sir."

"Very slippery?"

"Yes, sir."

"In that case before we go in we want to put on baseball shoes with

cleats on them, so that we can run if we have to. Can you get us

anything like that?"

"In a few moments, sir."

"Good! As soon as we can get them we'll start. In the meantime, may I

look at that gun that was found?"

* * * * *

The Browning machine-gun was laid before the doctor. He looked it over

critically and sniffed delicately at it. He took from his pocket a phial

of liquid, moistened a portion of the water-jacket of the weapon, and

then rubbed the moistened part briskly with his hand. He sniffed again.

He looked disappointed, and again examined the gun closely.

"Carnes," he said at length, "do you see anything on this gun that looks

like tooth marks?"

"Nothing, Doctor."

"Neither do I. There are some marks here which might quite conceivably

be finger-prints of a forty-foot giant, and those two parallel grooves

look like the result of severe squeezing, but there are no tooth marks.

Strange. There is no persistent odor on the gun, which is also strange.

Well, there's no use in theorizing: we are confronted by a condition and

not a theory, as someone once said. Let's put on those baseball shoes

and see what we can find out."

Dr. Bird led the way into the cave, Carnes and the lieutenant following

closely with electric torches. In each hand Dr. Bird carried a

phosphorus hand-grenade. No other weapons were visible, although the

doctor knew that Carnes carried a caliber .45 automatic pistol strapped

under his left armpit. As they passed into the cave the lieutenant

stepped forward to lead the way.

"I'm going first," said the doctor. "Follow me and indicate the turns by

pressure on my shoulder. Don't speak after we have started, and be ready

for instant flight. Let's go."

Forward into the interior of the cave they made their way. The iron

cleats of the baseball shoes rang on the floor and the noise echoed back

and forth between the walls, dying out in little eerie whispers of sound

that made Carnes' hair rise. Ever forward they pressed, the lieutenant

guiding the doctor by silent pressure on his shoulder and Carnes

following closely. For half a mile they went on until a restrainable

pressure brought the doctor to a halt. The lieutenant pointed silently

toward a crack in the wall before them. Carnes started forward to

examine it, but a warning gesture from the doctor stopped him.

* * * * *

Slowly, an inch at a time, the doctor crept forward, hand-grenades in

readiness. Presently he reached the crack and, shifting one of the

grenades into his pocket, he drew forth an electric torch and sent a

beam of light through the crack into the dark interior of the earth.

For a moment he stood thus, and then suddenly snapped off his torch and

straightened up in an attitude of listening. The straining ears of

Carnes and Lieutenant Pearce could hear a faint slithering noise coming

toward them, not from the direction of the crack, but from the interior

of the cave. Simultaneously a faint, musky, reptilian odor became

apparent.

"Run!" shouted the doctor. "Run like hell! It's loose in the cave!"

The lieutenant turned and fled at top speed toward the distant entrance

to the cave, Carnes at his heels. Dr. Bird paused for an instant,

straining his ears, and then threw a grenade. A blinding flash came from

the point where the missile struck and a white cloud rose in the air.

The doctor turned and fled after his companions. Not for nothing had Dr.

Bird been an athlete of note in his college days. Despite the best

efforts of his companions, who were literally running for their lives,

he soon caught up with them. As he did so a weird, blood-curdling

screech rose from the darkness behind them. Higher and higher in pitch

the note rose until it ended suddenly in a gurgling grunt, as though the

breath which uttered it had been suddenly cut off. The slithering,

rustling noise became louder on their trail.

"Faster!" gasped the doctor, as he put his hand on Carnes' shoulder and

pushed him forward.

* * * * *

The noise of pursuit gained slightly on them, and a sound as of intense

breathing became audible. Dr. Bird paused and turned and faced the

oncoming horror. His electric torch revealed nothing, but he listened

for a moment, and then threw his second grenade. Keenly he watched its

flight. It flew through the air for thirty yards and then struck an

invisible obstruction and bounded toward the ground. Before it struck

the downward motion ceased, and it rose in the air. As it rose it burst

with a sharp report, and a wild scream of pain filled the cavern with a

deafening roar. The doctor fled again after his companions.

By the time he overtook them the entrance of the cave loomed before

them. With sobs of relief they burst out into the open. The guards

sprang forward with raised rifles, but Dr. Bird waved them back.

"There's nothing after us, men," he panted. "We got chased a little way,

but I tossed our pursuer a handful of phosphorus and it must have burned

his fingers a little, judging from the racket he made. At any rate, it

stopped the pursuit."

The major hurried up.

"Did you see it, Doctor?" he asked.

"No, I didn't. No one has ever seen it or anything like it. I heard it

and, from its voice, I think it has a bad cold. At least, it sounded

hoarse, so I gave it a little white phosphorus to make a poultice for

its throat, but I didn't get a glimpse of it."

"For God's sake, Doctor, what is it?"

"I can't tell you yet, Major. So far I can tell, it is something new to

science and I am not sure just what it looks like. However, I hope to be

able to show it to you shortly. Is there a telegraph office here?"

"No, but we have a Signal Corps detachment with us, and they have a

portable radio set which will put us in touch with the army net."

"Good! Can you place a tent at my disposal?"

"Certainly, Doctor."

"All right, I'll go there, and I would appreciate it if you would send

the radio operator to me. I want to send a message to the Bureau of

Standards to forward me some apparatus which I need."

"I'll attend to it, Doctor. Have you any special advice to give me about

the guarding?"

"Yes. Have you, or can you get, any live stock?"

"Live stock?"

"Yes. Cattle preferred, although hogs or sheep will do at a pinch. Sheep

will do quite well."

"I'll see what I can do, Doctor."

"Get them by all means, if it is possible to do so. Don't worry about

paying for them: secret service funds are not subject to the same audit

that army funds get. If you can locate them, drive a couple of cattle or

half a dozen sheep well into the cave and tether them there. If you

don't get them, have your sentries posted well away from the cave mouth,

and if any disturbance occurs during the night, tell them to break and

run. I hope it won't come out, but I can't tell."

* * * * *

A herd of cattle was soon located and two of the beasts driven into the

cave. Two hours later a series of horrible screams and bellowings were

heard in the cave. Following their orders the sentries abandoned their

posts and scattered, but the noise came no nearer the mouth, and in a

few minutes silence again reigned.

"I hope that will be all that will be needed for a couple of days," said

the doctor to the commanding officer, "but you had better have a couple

more cattle driven in in the morning. We want to keep the brute well

fed. Is there a tank stationed at Fort Thomas?"

"No, there isn't."

"Then radio Washington that I want the fastest three-man tank that the

army has sent here at once. Don't bother with military channels, radio

direct to the Adjutant General, quoting the Secretary of the Treasury as

authority. Tell him that it's a rush matter, and sign the message 'Bird'

if you are afraid of getting your tail twisted."

Twice more before the apparatus which the doctor had ordered from

Washington arrived cattle were driven into the depths of the cave, and

twice were the screams and bellowings from the cave repeated. Each time

searching parties found the cattle gone in the morning. A week after the

doctor's arrival, a special train came up, carrying four mechanics from

the Bureau of Standards, together with a dozen huge packing cases. Under

the direction of the doctor the cases were unpacked and the apparatus

put together. Before the assembly had been completed the tank which had

been requested arrived from Camp Meade, and the Bureau mechanics began

to install some of the assembled units in it.

The first apparatus which was installed in the tank consisted of an

electric generator of peculiar design which was geared to the tank

motor. The electromotive force thus generated was led across a spark gap

with points of a metallic substance. The light produced was concentrated

by a series of parabolic reflectors, directed against a large quartz

prism, and thence through a lens which was designed to throw a slightly

divergent beam.

"This apparatus," Dr. Bird explained to the Signal Corps officer, who

was an interested observer, "is one which was designed at the Bureau for

the large scale production of ultra-violet light. There is nothing

special about the generator except that it is highly efficient and gives

an almost constant electromotive force. The current thus produced is

led across these points, which are composed of magnalloy, a development

of the Bureau. We found on investigation that a spark gave out a light

which was peculiarly rich in ultra-violet rays when it was passed

between magnesium points. However, such points could not be used for the

handling of a steady current because of lack of durability and ease of

fusion, so a mixture of graphite, alundum and metallic magnesium was

pressed together with a binder which will stand the heat. Thus we get

the triple advantages of ultra-violet light production, durability, and

high resistance.

* * * * *

"The system of reflectors catches all of the light thus produced except

the relatively small portion which goes initially in the right

direction, and directs it on this quartz prism where, due to the

refractive powers of the prism, the light is broken up into its

component parts. The infra-red rays and that portion of the spectrum

which lies in the visible range, that is, from red to violet inclusive,

are absorbed by a black body, leaving only the ultra-violet portion free

to send a beam through this quartz lens."

"I thought that a lens would absorb ultra-violet light," objected the

signal officer.

"A lens made of glass will, but this lens is made of rock crystal, which

is readily permeable to ultra-violet. The net result of this apparatus

is that we can direct before us as we move in the tank a beam of light

which is composed solely of the ultra-violet portion of the spectrum."

"In other words, an invisible light?"

"Yes. That is, invisible to the human eye. The effect of this beam of

ultra-violet light in the form of severe sunburn would be readily

apparent if you exposed your skin to it for any length of time, and the

effects on your eyesight of continued gazing would be apt to be

disastrous. It would produce a severe opthalmia and temporary

impairment of the vision, somewhat the same symptoms as are observed in

snow blindness."

"I see. May I ask what is the object of the whole thing?"

"Surely. Before we can successfully combat this peculiar visitant from

another world, it is necessary that we gain some idea of the size and

appearance of it. Nothing of the sort has before made its appearance, so

far as the annals of science go, and so I am forced to make some rather

wild guesses at the nature of the animal. You are probably aware of the

fact that the property of penetration possessed by all waves is a

function of their frequency, or, perhaps I should say, of their

wave-length?"

* * * * *

"Certainly."

"The longer rays of visible light will not penetrate as deeply into a

given substance as the shorter ultra-violet rays. This visitor is

evidently from some unexplored and, indeed, unknown cavern in the depths

of the earth where visible light has never penetrated. Apparently in

this cavern the color of the inhabitants is ultra-violet, and hence

invisible to us."

"You are beyond my depth, Doctor."

"Pardon me. You understand, of course, what color is? When sunlight,

which is a mixture of all colors from infra-red to ultra-violet

inclusive, falls on an object, certain rays are reflected and certain

others are absorbed. If the red rays are reflected and all others

absorbed, the object appears red to our eyes. If all the rays are

reflected, the object appears white, and if all are absorbed, it appears

black."

"I understand that."

"The human eye cannot detect ultra-violet. Suppose then, that we have an

object, either animate or inanimate, the surface of which reflects only

ultra-violet light, what will be the result? The object will be

invisible."

"I should think it would be black if all the rays except the

ultra-violet were absorbed."

"It would, but mark, I did not say the others were absorbed. Are you

familiar with fluorescein?"

"No."

"I think you are. It is the dye used in making changeable silk. If we

fill a glass container with a fluorescein solution and look at it by

reflected light it appears green. If we look at it by transmitted light,

that is, light which has traversed the solution, it appears red. In

other words, this is a substance which reflects green light, allows a

free passage to red light, and absorbs all other light. This creature we

are after, if my theory is correct, is composed of a substance which

allows free passage to all of the visible light rays and at the same

time reflects ultra-violet light. Do I make this clear?"

* * * * *

"Perfectly."

"Very well, then. My apparatus will project forward a beam of

ultra-violet light which will be in much greater concentration than

exists in an incandescent electric light. It is my hope that this light

will be reflected by the body of the creature to a sufficient to allow

me to make a photograph of it."

"But won't your lens prevent the ultra-violet light from reaching your

plate?"

"An ordinary lens made of optical glass would do so, but I have a camera

here equipped with a rock crystal lens, which will allow ultra-violet

light to pass through it practically unhindered, and with very slight

distortion. When I add that I will have my camera charged with X-ray

film, a film which is peculiarly sensitive to the shorter wave-lengths,

you will see that I will have a fair chance of success."

"It sounds logical. Would you allow me to accompany you when you make

your attempt?"

"I will be glad of your company, if you can drive a tank. I want to take

Carnes with me, and the tank will only hold two besides the driver."

"I can drive a tractor."

"In that case you should master the tricks of tank driving in short

order. Get familiar with it and we'll appoint you as driver. We'll be

ready to go in to-night, but I am going to wait a day. Our friend was

fed last night, and there is less chance he'll be about."

* * * * *

The early part of the next evening was marked by howls and screams

coming from the mouth of the cave. As the night wore on the noises were

quite evidently coming nearer and the sentries watched the cave mouth

nervously, ready to bolt and scatter according to their orders at the

first alarm. About two A. M. the doctor and Carnes climbed into the tank

beside Lieutenant Leffingwell, and the machine moved slowly into the

cave. A search-light on the front of the tank lighted the way for them

and, attached to a frame which held it some distance ahead of them, was

a luckless sheep.

"Keep your eye on the mutton, Carnes," cautioned the doctor. "As soon as

anything happens to it, shut off the search-light and let me try to get

a picture. As soon as I have made my exposures I'll tell you, and you

can snap it on again. Lieutenant, when the picture is made, turn your

tank and make for the entrance to the cave. If we are lucky, we'll get

out."

Forward the tank crawled, the sheep bleating and trying to break loose

from the bonds which held it. It was impossible to hear much over the

roar of the motor, but presently Dr. Bird leaned forward, his eyes

shining.

"I smell musk," he announced. "Get ready for action."

Even as he spoke the sheep was suddenly lifted into the air. It gave a

final bleat of terror, and then its head was torn from its body.

"Quick, Carnes!" shouted the doctor.

The search-light went out, and Carnes and the lieutenant could hear the

slide of the ultra-violet light which Dr. Bird was manipulating open.

For two or three minutes the doctor worked with his apparatus.

"All right!" he cried suddenly. "Lights on and get out of here!"

Carnes snapped on the search-light and Lieutenant Leffingwell swung the

tank around and headed for the cave mouth. For a few feet their progress

was unhindered and then the tank ceased its forward motion, although the

motor still roared and the track slid on the cave floor. Carnes watched

with horror as one side of the tank bent slowly in toward him. There was

a rending sound, and a portion of the heavy steel fabric was torn away.

Dr. Bird bent over something on the floor of the tank. Presently he

straightened up and threw a small object into the darkness. There was a

flash of light, and bits of flaming phosphorus flew in every direction.

The anchor which held the tank was suddenly loosed and the machine

crawled forward at full speed, while a roar as of escaping air mingled

with a bellowing shriek burdened the smoke-laden air.

"Faster!" cried the doctor, as he threw another grenade.

* * * * *

Lieutenant Leffingwell got the last bit of speed possible out of the

tank and they reached the cave mouth without further molestation.

"I had an idea that our friend wouldn't care to pass through a

phosphorus screen," said Dr. Bird with a chuckle as he climbed out of

the tank. "He must have been rather severely burned the other day, and

once burned is usually twice shy. Where is Major Brown?"

The commanding officer stepped forward.

"Drive a couple of cattle into the cave, Major," directed Dr. Bird. "I

want to fill that brute up and keep him quiet for a while. I'm going to

develop my films."

Lieutenant Leffingwell and Carnes peered over the doctor's shoulders as

he manipulated his films in a developing bath. Gradually vague lines and

blotches made their appearance on one of the films, but the form was

indistinct. Dr. Bird dropped the films in a fixing tank and straightened

up.

"We have something, gentlemen," he announced, "but I can't tell yet how

clear it is. It will take those films fifteen minutes to fix, and then

we'll know."

In a quarter of an hour he lifted the first film from the tank and held

it to the light. The film showed a blank. With an exclamation of

disappointment he lifted a second and third film from the tank, with the

same result He raised the fourth one.

"Good Lord!" gasped Carnes.

* * * * *

In the plate could be plainly seen the hind quarters of the sheep held

in the grasp of such a monster as even the drug-laden brain of an opium

smoker never pictured. Judging from the sheep, the monster stood about

twenty feet tall, and its frame was surmounted by a head resembling an

overgrown frog. Enormous jaws were opened to seize the sheep but, to the

amazement of the three observers, the jaws were entirely toothless.

Where teeth were to be expected, long parallel ridges of what looked

like bare bone, appeared, without even a rudimentary segregation into

teeth. The body of the monster was long and snakelike, and was borne on

long, heavy legs ending in feet with three long toes, armed with vicious

claws. The crowning horror of the creature was its forelegs. There were

of enormous length, thin and attenuated looking, and ended in huge

misshapen hands, knobby and blotched, which grasped the sheep in the

same manner as human hands. The eyes were as large as dinner plates, and

they were glaring at the camera with an expression of fiendish

malevolence which made Carnes shudder.

"How does that huge thing ever get through that crack we examined?"

demanded the lieutenant.

Dr. Bird rubbed his head thoughtfully.

"It's not an amphibian," he muttered, "as is plainly shown by the shape

of the limbs and the lack of a tail, and yet it appears to have scales

of the true fish type. It corresponds to no recovered fossil, and I am

inclined to believe it is unique. The nervous organisation must be very

low, judging from the lack of forehead and the general conformation. It

has enormous strength, and yet the arms look feeble."

"It can't get through that crack," insisted the lieutenant.

"Apparently not," replied the doctor. "Wait a moment, though. Look at

this!"

He pointed to the great disproportion between the length and diameter of

the forelegs, and then to the hind legs.

"Either this is grave distortion or there is something mighty queer

about that conformation. No animal could be constructed like that."

* * * * *

He turned the film so that an oblique light fell on it. As he did so he

gave a cry of astonishment.

"Look here!" he said sharply. "It does get through that crack! Look at

those arms and hands! There is the answer. This creature is tall and

broad, but from front to rear it can measure only a few inches. The same

must be true of the froglike head. That animal has been developed to

live and move in a low roofed cavern, and to pass through openings only

a few inches wide. Its bulk is all in two dimensions!"

"I believe you're right," said Carnes as he studied the film.

"There is no doubt of it," answered the doctor. "Look at those paws,

too, Carnes. That substance isn't bone, it's gum. The thing is so young

and helpless that it hasn't cut its teeth yet. It must be a baby, and

that is the reason why it made its way into the cave when no other of

its kind ever has."

"How large are full grown ones if this is a baby?" asked the

lieutenant.

"The Lord alone knows," replied Dr. Bird. "I hope that I never have to

face one and find out. Well, now that we know what we are fighting, we

ought to be able to settle its hash."

"High explosive?" suggested the lieutenant.

"I don't think so. With such a low nervous organization, we would have

to tear it practically to pieces to kill it, and I am anxious to keep it

from mutilation for scientific study. I have an idea, but I'll have to

study a while before I am sure of the details. Send me the radio

operator."

The next day the Bureau mechanics began to dismount the apparatus from

the tank and to assemble another elaborate contrivance. Before they had

made an end of the work additional equipment arrived from Washington,

which was incorporated in the new set-up. At length Dr. Bird pronounced

himself ready for the attempt.

* * * * *

Under his direction, three cattle were driven into the cave and there

tethered. They were there the next morning unharmed, but the second

night the now familiar bellowing and howling came from the depths of the

cave and in the morning two of the cattle were gone.

"That will keep him quiet for a day or two," said the doctor, "and now

to work!"

The tank made its way into the cave, dragging after it two huge cables

which led to an engine-driven generator outside the cave. These cables

were attached to the terminals of a large motor which was set up in the

cave near the place where the cattle were customarily tethered. This

motor was the actuating force which turned two generators, one large and

one small. The smaller one was mounted on a platform on wheels, which

also contained the spark gaps, the reflectors and other apparatus which

produced the beam of ultra-violet light which had been used to

photograph the monster.

From the larger generator led two copper bars. One of these was

connected to a huge copper plate which was laid flat on the floor of the

cave. The other led to a platform which was erected on huge porcelain

insulators some fifteen feet above the floor. Huge condensers were set

up on this platform, and Dr. Bird announced himself in readiness.

A steer was dragged into the cave and up a temporary runway which led to

the platform containing the condensers, and there tied with the copper

bus bar from the larger generator fastened to three flexible copper

straps which led around the animal's body. When this had been completed,

everyone except the doctor, Carnes, and Lieutenant Leffingwell left the

cave. These three crouched behind the search-light which sent a mild

beam of ultra-violet onto the platform where the steer was held. The

engine outside the cave was started, and the three men waited with tense

nerves.

For several hours nothing happened. The steer tried from time to time to

move and, finding it impossible, set up plaintive bellows for liberty.

"I wish something would happen," muttered the lieutenant. "This is

getting on my nerves.

"Something is about to happen," replied Dr. Bird grimly. "Listen to that

steer."

* * * * *

The bellowing of the steer had suddenly increased in volume and, added

to the note of discontent, was a note of fright which had previously

been absent. Dr. Bird bent over his ultra-violet search-light and made

some adjustments. He handed a helmetlike arrangement to each of his

companions and slipped one on over his head.

"I can't see a thing, Doctor," said Carnes in a muffled voice.

"The objects at which you are looking absorb rather than reflect

ultra-violet light," said the doctor. "This is a sort of a fluoroscope

arrangement, and it isn't perfect at all. However, when the monster

comes along, I am pretty sure that you will be able to see it. You may

see a little more as your eyes get accustomed to it."

"I can see very dimly," announced the lieutenant in a moment.

Dimly the walls of the cave and the platform before them began to take

vague shape. The three stared intently down the beam of ultra-violet

light which the doctor directed down the passageway leading deeper into

the cave.

"Good Lord!" ejaculated Carnes suddenly.

Slowly into the field of vision came the hideous figure they had seen on

the film. As it moved forward a rustling, slithering sound could be

heard, even over the bellowing of the steer and the hum of the

apparatus. The odor of musk became evident.

Along the floor toward them the thing slid. Presently it reared up on

its hind legs and its enormous bulk became evident. It turned somewhat

sideways and the correctness of Dr. Bird's hypothesis as to its peculiar

shape was proved. All of the bulk of the creature was in two dimensions.

Forward it moved, and the horrible human hands stretched forward, while

the mouth split in a wide, toothless grin. Nearer the doomed steer the

creature approached, and then the reaching hands closed on the animal.

There was a blinding flash, and the monster was hurled backward as

though struck by a thunderbolt, while a horrible smell of musk and

burned flesh filled the air.

"After it! Quick!" cried the doctor as he sprang forward.

* * * * *

Before he could reach the prostrate creature it moved and then, slowly

at first, but with rapidly gaining speed, it slithered over the floor in

retreat. Dr. Bird's hand swung through an arc, and there was a deafening

crash as a hand-grenade exploded on the back of the fleeing monster.

An unearthly scream came from the creature, and its motion changed from

a steady forward glide to a series of convulsive jerks. Leffingwell and

Carnes threw grenades, but they went wide of their mark, and the monster

began to again increase its speed. Another volley of grenades was thrown

and one hit scored, which slowed the monster somewhat but did not arrest

the steady forward movement.

"Any more bombs?" demanded the doctor.

"Damn!" he cried as he received negative answers. "The current wasn't

strong enough. It's going to get away."

Carnes jerked his automatic from under his armpit and poured a stream of

bullets into the fleeing monster. Slower and slower the motion of the

creature became, and its movements again became jerky and convulsive.

"Keep it in sight!" cried the doctor. "We may get it yet!"

Cautiously the three men followed the retreating horror, Leffingwell

pushing before him the platform holding the ultra-violet ray apparatus.

The chase led them over familiar ground.

"There is the crack!" cried the lieutenant.

"Too late!" replied the doctor.

He rushed forward and seized the lower limb of the monster and tried

with all his strength to arrest its flight, but despite all that he

could do it slid sideways through the crack in the wall and disappeared.

A final backward kick of its leg threw the doctor twenty feet against

the far wall of the cave.

"Are you hurt, Doctor?" cried Carnes.

"No, I'm all right. Put on your masks and start the gas! Quick! That may

stop it before it gets in far!"

* * * * *

The three adjusted gas masks and thrust the mouths of two gas cylinders

which were on the light truck into the crack, and opened the valves. The

hissing of the gas was accompanied by a thrashing, writhing sound from

the bowels of the earth for a few minutes, but the sound retreated and

finally died away into an utter silence.

"And that's that!" cried the doctor half an hour later as they took off

their gas masks outside the cave. "It got away from us. Carnes, how soon

can we get a train back to Washington?"

"What kind of a report are you going to make to the Bureau, Doctor?"

asked Carnes as they sat in the smoker of a southern train, headed for

the capital.

"I'm not going to put in any report, Carnes," replied the doctor. "I

haven't got the creature or any part of it to show, and no one would

believe me. I am going to maintain a discreet silence about the whole

matter."

"But you have your photograph to show, Doctor, and you have my evidence

and Lieutenant Leffingwell's."

"The photograph might have been faked and I might have doped both of

you. In any case, your words are no better than mine. No, indeed,

Carnes, when I failed to make the current strong enough to kill it

outright I made the first of the moves which bind me to silence,

although I thought that two hundred thousand volts would be enough.

"The second failure I made was when I missed him with my second grenade,

although I doubt if all six would have stopped him. My third failure was

when we failed to get a sufficient concentration of cyanide gas into

that hole in a hurry. The thing is so badly crippled that it will die,

but it may take hours, or even days, for it to do so. It has already

made its way so far into the earth that we couldn't reach it by blasting

without danger of bringing the whole place down on our heads. Even if we

could blast our way into the place it came from I wouldn't dare open a

path which would allow Lord only knows what terrible monsters to invade

the earth. When the soldiers have finished stopping that crack with ten

feet of solid masonry, I think the barrier will hold, even against that

critter's papa and mamma and all its relatives. Then Mammoth Cave will

be safe for visitors again. That latter fact is the only report which I

will make."

"It is a dandy story to go to waste," said Carnes soberly.

"Tell it then, if you wish, and get laughed at for your pains. No,

Carnes, you must learn one thing. A man like Bolton, for instance, will

implicitly believe that a four leaf clover in his watch-charm will bring

him good luck, and that carrying a buckeye keeps rheumatism away from

him; but tell him a bit of sober fact like this, attested by three

reliable witnesses and a good photograph, and you'll just get laughed at

for your pains. I'm going to keep my mouth shut."

"So be it, then!" replied Carnes with a sigh.

Phantoms of Reality

A COMPLETE NOVEL

_By Ray Cummings_

[Illustration: _The office room faded.... I was lying on another

floor.... New walls sprang around me._]

[Sidenote: Red Sensua's knife came up dripping--and the two adventurers

knew that chaos and bloody revolution had been unleashed in that shadowy

kingdom of the fourth dimension.]