 This etext was produced from "Astounding Stories" December 1931. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U. S. Copyright on this publication was renewed. 

[Illustration]

The White Invaders

_A Complete Novelette_

By Ray Cummings

|----------------------------------------|| Out of their unknown fourth || dimensional realm materializes a || horde of White Invaders with || power invincible. ||----------------------------------------|

CHAPTER I

_A White Shape in the Moonlight_

The colored boy gazed at Don and me with a look of terror. 

"But I tell you I seen it!" he insisted. "An' it's down there now. Aghost! It's all white an' shinin'!"

"Nonsense, Willie, " Don turned to me. "I say, Bob, what do you makeof this?"

"I seen it, I tell you, " the boy broke in. "It ain't a mile fromhere if you want to go look at it. "

Don gripped the colored boy whose coffee complexion had taken on agreenish cast with his terror. 

[Illustration: _I fired at an oncoming white figure. _]

"Stop saying that, Willie. That's absolute rot. There's no suchthing as a ghost. "

"But I seen--"

"Where?"

"Over on the north shore. Not far. "

"What did you see?" Don shook him. "Tell us exactly. "

"A man! I seen a man. He was up on a cliff just by the golf coursewhen I first seen him. I was comin' along the path down by the FortBeach an' I looked up an' there he was, shinin' all white in themoonlight. An' then before I could run, he came floatin' down atme. "

"Floating?"

"Yes. He didn't walk. He came down through the rocks. I could seethe rocks of the cliff right through him. "

Don laughed at that. But neither he nor I could set this down asutter nonsense, for within the past week there had been many wildstories of ghosts among the colored people of Bermuda. The Negroesof Bermuda are not unduly superstitious, and certainly they are moreintelligent, better educated than most of their race. But the littleislands, this past week, were echoing with whispered tales ofstrange things seen at night. It had been mostly down at the lowerend of the comparatively inaccessible Somerset; but now here it wasin our own neighborhood. 

"You've got the fever, Willie, " Don laughed. "I say, who told youyou saw a man walking through rock?"

"Nobody told me. I seen him. It ain't far if you--"

"You think he's still there?"

"Maybe so. Mr. Don, he was standin' still, with his arms folded. Iran, an'--"

"Let's go see if he's there, " I suggested. "I'd like to have a lookat one of these ghosts. "

 * * * * *

But even as I lightly said it, a queer thrill of fear shot throughme. No one can contemplate an encounter with the supernaturalwithout a shudder. 

"Right you are, " Don exclaimed. "What's the use of theory? Can youlead us to where you saw him, Willie?"

"Ye-es, of course. "

The sixteen-year-old Willie was shaking again. "W-what's that for, Mr. Don?"

Don had picked up a shotgun which was standing in a corner of theroom. 

"Ain't no--no use of that, Mr. Don. "

"We'll take it anyway, Willie. Ready, Bob?"

A step sounded behind us. "Where are you going?"

It was Jane Dorrance, Don's cousin. She stood in the doorway. Herlong, filmy white summer dress fell nearly to her ankles. Her blackhair was coiled on her head. In her bodice was a single redpoinsettia blossom. As she stood motionless, her small slight figureframed against the dark background of the hall, she could have beena painting of an English beauty save for the black hair suggestingthe tropics. Her blue-eyed gaze went from Don to me, and then to thegun. 

"Where are you going?"

"Willie saw a ghost. " Don grinned. "They've come from Somerset, Jane. I say, one of them seems to be right here. "

"Where?"

"Willie saw it down by the Fort Beach. "

"To-night?"

"Yes. Just now. So he says, though it's all rot, of course. "

"Oh, " said Jane, and she became silent. 

 * * * * *

She appeared to be barring our way. It seemed to me, too, that thecolor had left her face, and I wondered vaguely why she was takingit so seriously. That was not like Jane: she was a level-headedgirl, not at all the sort to be frightened by Negroes talking ofghosts. 

She turned suddenly on Willie. The colored boy had been employed inthe Dorrance household since childhood. Jane herself was onlyseventeen, and she had known Willie here in this same big whitestone house, almost from infancy. 

"Willie, what you saw, was it a--a man?"

"Yes, " said the boy eagerly. "A man. A great big man. All white an'shinin'. "

"A man with a hood? Or a helmet? Something like a queer-looking haton his head, Willie?"

"Jane!" expostulated Don. "What do you mean?"

"I saw him--saw it, " said Jane nervously. 

"Good Lord!" I exclaimed. "You did? When? Why didn't you tell us?"

"I saw it last night. " She smiled faintly. "I didn't want to add tothese wild tales. I thought it was my imagination. I had beenasleep--I fancy I was dreaming of ghosts anyway. "

"You saw it--" Don prompted. 

"Outside my bedroom window. Some time in the middle of the night. The moon was out and the--the man was all white and shining, just asWillie says. "

"But your bedroom, " I protested. "Good Lord, your bedroom is on theupper floor. "

But Jane continued soberly, with a sudden queer hush to her voice, "It was standing in the air outside my window. I think it had beenlooking in. When I sat up--I think I had cried out, though none ofyou heard me evidently--when I sat up, it moved away; walked away. When I got to the window, there was nothing to see. " She smiledagain. "I decided it was all part of my dream. This morning--well, Iwas afraid to tell you because I knew you'd laugh at me. So manygirls down in Somerset have been imagining things like that. "

 * * * * *

To me, this was certainly a new light on the matter. I think thatboth Don and I, and certainly the police, had vaguely been of theopinion that some very human trickster was at the bottom of allthis. Someone, criminal or otherwise, against whom our shotgun wouldbe efficacious. But here was level-headed Jane telling us of a manstanding in mid-air peering into her second-floor bedroom, and thenwalking away. No trickster could accomplish that. 

"Ain't we goin'?" Willie demanded. "I seen it, but it'll be gone. "

"Right enough, " Don exclaimed grimly. "Come on, Willie. "

He disregarded Jane as he walked to the door, but she clung to him. 

"I'm coming, " she said obstinately, and snatched a white lace scarffrom the hall rack and flung it over her head like a mantilla. "Don, may I come?" she added coaxingly. 

He gazed at me dubiously. "Why, I suppose so, " he said finally. Thenhe grinned. "Certainly no harm is going to come to us from a ghost. Might frighten us to death, but that's about all a ghost can do, isn't it?"

We left the house. The only other member of the Dorrance householdwas Jane's father--the Hon. Arthur Dorrance, M. P. He had been inHamilton all day, and had not yet returned. It was about nineo'clock of an evening in mid-May. The huge moon rode high in afleecy sky, illumining the island with a light so bright one couldalmost read by it. 

"We'll walk, " said Don. "No use riding, Willie. "

"No. It's shorter over the hill. It ain't far. "

 * * * * *

We left our bicycles standing against the front veranda, and, withWillie and Don leading us, we plunged off along the little dirt roadof the Dorrance estate. The poinsettia blooms were thick on bothsides of us. A lily field, which a month before had been solid whitewith blossoms, still added its redolence to the perfumed night air. Through the branches of the squat cedar trees, in almost everydirection there was water visible--deep purple this night, with arippled sheen of silver upon it. 

We reached the main road, a twisting white ribbon in the moonlight. We followed it for a little distance, around a corkscrew turn, across a tiny causeway where the moonlit water of an inlet lappedagainst the base of the road and the sea-breeze fanned us. Acarriage, heading into the nearby town of St. Georges, passed uswith the thud of horses' hoofs pounding on the hard smooth stone ofthe road. Under its jaunty canopy an American man reclined with agirl on each side of him. He waved us a jovial greeting as theypassed. 

Then Willie turned us off the road. We climbed the ramp of an opengrassy field, with a little cedar woods to one side, and up ahead, half a mile to the right, the dark crumbling ramparts of a littleancient fort which once was for the defense of the island. 

Jane and I were together, with Willie and Don in advance of us, andDon carrying the shotgun. 

"You really saw it, Jane?"

"Oh, I don't know. I thought I did. Then I thought that I didn't. "

"Well, I hope we see it now. And if it's human--which it must be ifthere's anything to it at all--we'll march it back to St. Georgesand lock it up. "

She turned and smiled at me, but it was a queer smile, and I mustadmit my own feelings were queer. 

"Don't you think you're talking nonsense, Bob?"

"Yes, I do, " I admitted. "I guess maybe the whole thing is nonsense. But it's got the police quite worried. You knew that, didn't you?All this wild talk--there must be some basis for it. "

Don was saying, "Take the lower path, Willie. Take the same routeyou were taking when you saw it. "

 * * * * *

We climbed down a steep declivity, shadowed by cedar trees, andreached the edge of a tiny, almost landlocked, lagoon. It was nomore than a few hundred feet in diameter. The jagged, porousgray-black rocks rose like an upstanding crater rim to mark itsten-foot entrance to the sea. A little white house stood here withits back against the fifty-foot cliff. It was dark, its coloredoccupants probably already asleep. Two rowboats floated in thelagoon, moored near the shore. And on the narrow strip of stonybeach, nets were spread to dry. 

"This way, Mister Don. I was comin' along here, toward the Fort. "Willie was again shaking with excitement. "Just past that bend. "

"You keep behind me. " Don led us now, with his gun half raised. "Don't talk when we get further along, and walk as quietly as youcan. "

The narrow path followed the bottom of the cliff. We presently hadthe open sea before us, with a line of reefs a few hundred yards outagainst which the lazy ground swell was breaking in a line of white. The moonlit water lapped gently at our feet. The cliff rose to ourright, a mass of gray-black rock, pitted and broken, fantasticallyindented, unreal in the moonlight. 

"I seen it--just about there, " Willie whispered. 

Before us, a little rock headland jutted out into the water. Donhalted us, and we stood silent, gazing. I think that there is hardlyany place more fantastic than a Bermuda shorefront in the moonlight. In these little eroded recesses, caves and grottoes one might expectto see crooked-legged gnomes, scampering to peer at the humanintruder. Gnarled cedars, hanging precariously, might hide pixiesand elves. A child's dream of fairyland, this reality of a Bermudashorefront. 

"There it is!"

 * * * * *

Willie's sibilant whisper dispelled my roaming fancy. We all turnedto stare behind us in the direction of Willie's unsteady finger. Andwe all saw it--the white shape of a man down near the winding pathwe had just traversed. A wild thrill of fear, excitement, revulsion--call it what you will--surged over me. The thing had beenfollowing us!

We stood frozen, transfixed. The shape was almost at the waterlevel, a hundred feet or so away. It had stopped its advance; to allappearances it was a man standing there, calmly regarding us. Donand I swung around to face it, shoving Jane and Willie behind us. 

Willie had started off in terror, but Jane gripped him. 

"Quiet, Willie!"

"There it is! See it--"

"Of course we see it, " Don whispered. "Don't talk. We'll wait; seewhat it does. "

We stood a moment. The thing was motionless. It was in a patch ofshadow, but, as though gleaming with moonlight, it seemed to shine. Its glow was silvery, with a greenish cast almost phosphorescent. Was it standing on the path? I could not tell. It was too far away;too much in shadow. But I plainly saw that it had the shape of aman. Wraith, or substance? That also, was not yet apparent. 

Then suddenly it was moving! Coming toward us. But not floating, forI could see the legs moving, the arms swaying. With measured treadit was walking slowly toward us!

Don's shotgun went up. "Bob, we'll hold our ground. Is it--is hearmed, can you see?"

"No! Can't tell. "

Armed! What nonsense! How could this wraith, this apparition, do usphysical injury!

"If--if he gets too close, Bob, by God, I'll shoot. But if he'shuman, I wouldn't want to kill him. "

 * * * * *

The shape had stopped again. It was fifty feet from us now, and wecould clearly see that it was a man, taller than normal. He stoodnow with folded arms--a man strangely garbed in what seemed a white, tight-fitting jacket and short trunks. On his head was a black skullcap surmounted by a helmet of strange design. 

Don's voice suddenly echoed across the rocks. 

"Who are you?"

The white figure gave no answer. It did not move. 

"We see you. What do you want?" Don repeated. 

Then it moved again. Partly toward us and partly sidewise, away fromthe sea. The swing of the legs was obvious. It was walking. But notupon the path, nor upon the solid surface of these Bermuda rocks! Asurge of horror went through me at the realization. This was nothinghuman! It was walking on some other surface, invisible to us, butsomething solid beneath its own tread. 

"Look!" Jane whispered. "It's walking--_into the cliff_!"

There was no doubt about it now. Within thirty feet of us, it wasslowly walking up what must have been a steep ascent. Already it wasten feet or more above our level. And it was behind the rocks of thecliff! Shining in there as though the rocks themselves weretransparent!

Or were my senses tricking me? I whispered, "Is it back of therocks? Or is there a cave over there? An opening?"

"Let's go see. " Don took a step forward; and called again:

"You--we see you. Stand still! Do you want me to fire at you?"

The figure turned and again stood regarding us with folded arms. Obviously not Don's voice, but his movement, had stopped it. We leftthe path and climbed about ten feet up the broken cliff-side. Thefigure was at our level now, but it was within the rocks. We wereclose enough now to see other details: a man's white face, withheavy black brows, heavy features; a stalwart, giant figure, six anda half feet at the least. The white garment could have been of wovenmetal. I saw black, thread-like wires looped along the arms, overthe shoulders, down the sides of the muscular naked legs. Thereseemed, at the waist, a dial-face, with wires running into it. 

The details were so clear that they seemed substantial, real. Yetthe figure was so devoid of color that it could have been alight-image projected here upon these rocks. And the contour of thecliff was plainly visible in front of it. 

 * * * * *

We stood gazing at the thing, and it stared back at us. 

"Can you hear us?" Don called. 

Evidently it could not. Then a sardonic smile spread over the faceof the apparition. The lips moved. It said something to us, but weheard no sound. 

It was a wraith--this thing so visibly real! It was apparently closeto us, yet there was a limitless, intervening void of the unknown. 

It stood still with folded arms across the brawny chest, sardonically regarding us. The face was strangely featured, yetwholly of human cast. And, above all, its aspect was strangely evil. Its gaze suddenly turned on Jane with a look that made my heart leapinto my throat and made me fling up my arms as though to protecther. 

Then seemingly it had contemplated us enough; the folded arms swungdown; it turned away from us, slowly stalking off. 

"Stop!" Don called. 

"See!" I whispered. "It's coming out in the open!"

The invisible surface upon which it walked led it out from thecliff. The figure was stalking away from us in mid-air, and itseemed to fade slowly in the moonlight. 

"It's going!" I exclaimed. "Don, it's getting away!"

Impulsively I started scrambling over the rocks; unreasoningly, forwho can chase and capture a ghost?

Don stopped me. "Wait!" His shotgun went to his shoulders. The whiteshape was now again about fifty feet away. The gun blazed into themoonlight. The buckshot tore through the stalking white figure; themoonlit shorefront echoed with the shot. 

When the smoke cleared away, we saw the apparition still walkingquietly forward. Up over the sea now, up and out into the moonlitnight, growing smaller and dimmer in the distance, until presentlyit was faded and gone. 

A ghost?

We thought so then. 

CHAPTER II

_The Face at the Window_

This was our first encounter with the white invaders. It was tooreal to ignore or treat lightly. One may hear tales of a ghost, eventhe recounting by a most reliable eye-witness, and smileskeptically. But to see one yourself--as we had seen this thing inthe moonlight of that Bermuda shorefront--that is a far differentmatter. 

We told our adventure to Jane's father when he drove in fromHamilton about eleven o'clock that same evening. But he, whopersonally had seen no ghost, could only look perturbed that weshould be so deluded. Some trickster--or some trick of themoonlight, and the shadowed rocks aiding our own sharpenedimaginations. He could think of no other explanation. But Don hadfired pointblank into the thing and had not harmed it. 

Arthur Dorrance, member of the Bermuda Parliament, was a gray-hairedgentleman in his fifties, a typical British Colonial, the presenthead of this old Bermuda family. The tales or the ghosts, whatevertheir origin, already had forced themselves upon Governmentalattention. All this evening, in Hamilton, Mr. Dorrance had been inconference trying to determine what to do about it. Tales of terrorin little Bermuda had a bad enough local effect, but to have themspread abroad, to influence adversely the tourist trade upon whichBermuda's very existence depended--that presaged economiccatastrophe. 

"And the tales are spreading, " he told us. "Look here, you youngcubs, it's horribly disconcerting to have you of all people tellingme a thing like this. "

Even now he could not believe us. But he sat staring at us, eyeglasses in hand, with his untouched drink before him. 

"We'll have to report it, of course. I've been all evening with thesteamship officials. They're having cancellations. " He smiledfaintly at me. "We can't get along without you Americans, Bob. "

I have not mentioned that I am an American. I was on vacation frommy job as radio technician in New York. Don Livingston, who isEnglish and three years my senior, was in a similar line of work--atthis time he was technician in the small Bermuda broadcastingstation located in the nearby town of St. Georges. 

 * * * * *

We talked until nearly midnight. Then the telephone rang. It was thePolice Chief in Hamilton. Ghosts had been seen in that vicinity thisevening. There were a dozen complaints of ghostly marauders prowlingaround homes. This time from both white and colored families. 

And there was one outstanding fact, frightening, indeed, though atfirst we could not believe that it meant very much, or that it hadany connection with this weird affair. In the residential suburb ofPaget, across the harbor from Hamilton, a young white girl, namedMiss Arton, had vanished. Mr. Dorrance turned from the telephoneafter listening to the details and faced us with white face andtrembling hands, his expression more perturbed and solemn than everbefore. 

"It means nothing, of course. It cannot mean anything. "

"What, father?" Jane demanded. "Something about Eunice?"

"Yes. You know her, Bob--you played tennis down there with her lastweek. Eunice Arton. "

I remembered her. A Bermuda girl; a beauty, second to none in theislands, save perhaps Jane herself. Jane and Don had known her foryears. 

"She's missing, " Mr. Dorrance added. He flashed us a queer look andwe stared at him blankly. "It means nothing, of course, " he added. "She's been gone only an hour. "

But we all knew that it did mean something. For myself I recall achill of inward horror; a revulsion as though around me werepressing unknown things; unseeable, imponderable things menacing usall. 

"Eunice missing! But father, how missing?"

He put his arm around Jane. "Don't look so frightened, my dearchild. "

He held her against him. If only all of us could have anticipatedthe events of the next few days. If only we could have held Jane, guarded her, as her father was affectionately holding her now!

 * * * * *

Don exclaimed, "But the Chief of Police gave you details?"

"There weren't many to give. " He lighted a cigarette and smiled athis trembling hands. "I don't know why I should feel this way, but Ido. I suppose--well, it's what you have told me to-night. I don'tunderstand it--I can't think it was all your imagination. "

"But that girl, Eunice, " I protested. 

"Nothing--except she isn't at home where she should be. At eleveno'clock she told her parents she was going to retire. Presumably shewent to her room. At eleven-thirty her mother passed her door. Itwas ajar and a bedroom light was lighted. Mrs. Arton opened the doorto say good night to Eunice. But the girl was not there. "

He stared at us. "That's all. There is so much hysteria in the airnow, that Mr. Arton was frightened and called upon the police atonce. The Artons have been telephoning to everyone they know. Itisn't like Eunice to slip out at night--or is it, Jane?"

"No, " said Jane soberly. "And she's gone? They didn't hear any soundfrom her?" A strange, frightened hush came upon Jane's voice. "Shedidn't--scream from her bedroom? Anything like that?"

"No, he said not. Jane, dear, you're thinking more horrible things. She'll be found in the morning, visiting some neighbor or somethingof the kind. "

But she was not found. Bermuda is a small place. The islands are sonarrow that the ocean on both sides is visible from almosteverywhere. It is only some twelve miles from St. Georges toHamilton, and another twelve miles puts one in remote Somerset. Bynoon of the next day it was obvious that Eunice Arton was quitedefinitely missing. 

 * * * * *

This next day was May 15th--the first of the real terror brought bythe White Invaders. But we did not call them that yet; they werestill the "ghosts. " Bermuda was seething with terror. Every policestation was deluged with reports of the ghostly apparitions. Thewhite figures of men--in many instances, several figurestogether--had been seen during the night in every part of theislands. A little band of wraiths had marched down the deserted mainstreet of Hamilton. It was nearly dawn. A few colored men, three orfour roistering visitors, and two policemen had seen them. They hadappeared down at the docks and had marched up the slope of the mainstreet. 

The stories of eye-witnesses to any strange event always arecontradictory. Some said this band of ghostly men marched on thestreet level; others said they were below it, walking with onlytheir heads above the road surface and gradually descending. In anyevent the frightened group of onlookers scattered and shouted untilthe whole little street was aroused. But by then the ghosts hadvanished. 

There were tales of prowlers around houses. Dogs barked in thenight, frantic with excitement, and then shivered with terror, fearful of what they could sense but not see. 

In Hamilton harbor, moored at its dock, was a liner ready to leavefor New York. The deck watch saw ghosts walking apparently inmid-air over the moonlit bay, and claimed that he saw the whitefigure of a man pass through the solid hull-plates of the ship. Atthe Gibbs Hill Lighthouse other apparitions were seen; and the St. David Islanders saw a group of distant figures seemingly a hundredfeet or more beneath the beach--a group, heedless of being observed;busy with some activity; dragging some apparatus, it seemed. Theypulled and tugged at it, moving it along with them until they werelost to sight, faded in the arriving dawn and blurred by the whiteline of breakers on the beach over them. 

The tales differed materially in details. But nearly all mentionedthe dark helmets of strange design, the white, tightly fittinggarments, and many described the dark thread-like wires looped alongthe arms and legs, running up into the helmet, and back across thechest to converge at the belt where there was a clock-likedial-face. 

 * * * * *

The ghostly visitors seemed not aggressive. But Eunice Arton wasmissing; and by noon of May 15th it was apparent that several otherwhite girls had also vanished. All of them were under twenty, all ofprominent Bermuda families, and all of exceptional beauty. 

By this time the little government was in chaos. The newspapers, bygovernment order, were suppressed. The cable station voluntarilyrefused to send press dispatches to the outside world. Don, Jane andI, through Mr. Dorrance's prominence, had all the reports; but tothe public it was only known by whispered, garbled rumor. A panicwas impending. The New York liner, that morning of May 15th, wasbooked beyond capacity. An English ship, anchored out in the openchannel outside Hamilton harbor, received passengers up to its limitand sailed. 

The shops of St. Georges and Hamilton did not open that morning ofMay 15th. People gathered in the streets--groups of whites andblacks--trying to learn what they could, and each adding his ownreal or fancied narrative to the chaos. 

Although there had seemed so far no aggression from the ghosts--ourown encounter with the apparition being typical of them all--shortlyafter noon of the 15th we learned of an event which changed thewhole aspect of the affair; an event sinister beyond any which hadgone before. It had occurred in one of the hotels near Hamilton theprevious night and had been suppressed until now. 

A young woman tourist, living alone in the hotel, had occupied abedroom on the lower floor. The storm blinds and windows were open. During the night she had screamed. Guests in nearby rooms heard hercries, and they were also conscious of a turmoil in the woman'sroom. Her door was locked on the inside, and when the night clerkfinally arrived with a pass-key and they entered, they found theroom disordered, a wicker chair and table overturned, and the youngwoman gone, presumably out of the window. She had been a woman ofabout twenty-five, a widow, exceptionally attractive. 

 * * * * *

Stolen by the ghosts? We could think of nothing else. Was that whathad happened to Eunice Arton? Did that explain the reporteddisappearances of the several other girls? Did this ghostly activityhave some rational purpose--the stealing of young white women, allof them of unusual beauty? The conclusion was forced upon us, andwith it the whole affair took on a complexion shudderingly sinister. It was not a mere panic of the people with which Bermuda now had tocope--not merely an unexplainable supernatural visitation, harmlessenough, save that it was terrorizing. This was a menace. Somethingwhich had to be met with action. 

It would be futile for me to attempt detailing the events of thatchaotic day. We had all ridden over to Hamilton and spent the daythere, with the little town in a turmoil and events seething aroundus--a seemingly endless stream of reports of what had happened thenight before. By daylight no apparitions were seen. But anothernight was coming. I recall with an inward sinking of heart I saw theafternoon sun lowering, the sky-blue waters of the bay deepeninginto purple and the chalk-white little stone houses taking on thegray cast of twilight. Another night was coming. 

The government was making the best preparations it could. Everypoliceman of the island force was armed and ready to patrol throughthe night. The few soldiers of the garrisons at St. Georges andHamilton were armed and ready. The police with bicycles were readyto ride all the roads. The half dozen garbage trucks--low-gearedmotor trucks--were given over to the soldiers for patrol use. Theonly other automobiles on the islands were those few permitted forthe use of the physicians, and there were a few ambulance cars. Allof these were turned over to the troops and the police for patrol. 

 * * * * *

In the late afternoon an American newspaper hydroplane arrived fromNew York. It landed in the waters of Hamilton harbor and prepared toencircle the islands throughout the night. And the three or foursteamship tenders and the little duty boat which supplied thegovernment dockyards with daily provisions all had steam up, readyto patrol the island waters. 

Yet it all seemed so futile against this unknown enemy. Ghosts? Wecould hardly think of them now as that. Throughout the chaotic day Irecall so many wild things I had heard others say, and had myselfthought. The dead come to life as living wraiths? A ghost could notmaterialize and kidnap a girl of flesh and blood. Or could it?Hysterical speculation! Or were these invaders from another planet?

Whatever their nature, they were enemies. That much we knew. 

Night fell upon the crowded turmoil of the little city of Hamilton. The streets were thronged with excited, frightened people. Thepublic park was jammed. The hotels and the restaurants were crowded. Groups of soldiers and police on bicycles with electric torchesfastened to their handlebars were passing at intervals. Overhead theairplane, flying low, roared past every twenty minutes or so. 

The night promised to be clear. The moon would rise, just beyond thefull, a few hours after sunset. It was a warm and breathless night, with less wind than usual. Most of the people crowding the streetsand the restaurants were in white linen--themselves suggesting thewhite and ghostly enemy. 

 * * * * *

Mr. Dorrance was occupied at the Government House. Jane, Don and Ihad supper in a restaurant on Queen Street. It was nearly eighto'clock and the crowd in the restaurant was thinning out. We wereseated near the street entrance where large plate-glass windowsdisplayed a variety of bakery products and confections. Jane had herback to the street, but Don and I were facing it. Crowds wereconstantly passing. It was near the end of our meal. I was gazingidly through one of the windows, watching the passing people whensuddenly I became aware of a man standing out there gazing in at me. I think I have never had so startling a realization. It was a man inwhite doeskin trousers and blue blazer jacket, with a jaunty linencap on his head. An abnormally tall, muscular man. And hissmooth-shaven, black-browed face with the reflection from therestaurant window lights upon it, reminded me of the apparition wehad seen the night before!

"Don! Don't look up! Don't move! Jane, don't look around!" Iwhispered, almost frantically. 

I must have gone white for Don and Jane gaped at me in astonishment. 

"Don't do that!" I murmured. "Someone outside, watching us!" I triedto smile. "Hot night, isn't it? Did you get a check, Don?" I lookedaround vaguely for the waitress, but out of the tail of my eyes Icould see the fellow out there still peering in and staring intentlyat us. 

"What is it?" Don whispered. 

"Man watching us! See him out there--the right-hand window! Jane, don't look around!"

"Good Lord!" murmured Don. 

"Looks like him, doesn't it?"

"Good Lord! But I say--"

"What is it?" murmured Jane. "What is it?"

"Waitress!" I called. "Check, please. There's a man out there, Jane--we're crazy, but he does look like that ghost we saw on theFort Beach. "

If the fellow knew that we had spotted him he gave no sign. He wasstill apparently regarding the bakery display in the window, butwatching us nevertheless. I was sure of that. 

The waitress gave us our check. "Nine and six, " Don smiled. "Thankyou. But didn't you forget that last coffee?"

The colored girl added the extra sixpence, and left us. 

"You think that's the same--I say, good Lord--"

 * * * * *

Don was speechless. Jane had gone white. The fellow moved to theother window, and Jane had a swift look at him. We all recognizedhim, or thought we did. What necromancy was this? Had one of theapparitions materialized? Was that ghost we saw, this giganticfellow in doeskins and blazer who looked like a tourist standing outthere at the window? Were these ghosts merely human enemies afterall?

The idea was at once terrifying, and yet reassuring. This was a manwith whom we could cope with normal tactics. My hand went to thepocket of my blazer where I had a little revolver. Both Don and Iwere armed--permits for the carrying of concealed weapons had beenissued to us this same day. 

I murmured, "Jane! There are the Blakinsons over there. Go jointhem. We'll be back presently. "

"What are you going to do?" Don demanded. 

"Go out and tackle him--shall we? Have a talk. Find out who he is. "

"No!" Jane protested. 

"Why not? Don't you worry, Jane. Right here in the publicstreet--and we're both armed. He's only a man. "

But was he only a man?

"We'll have a go at it, " said Don abruptly. He rose from his seat. "Come on, Jane, I'll take you to the Blakinsons. "

"Hurry it up!" I said. "He's leaving! We'll lose him!"

The fellow seemed about to wander on along the street. Don broughtJane over to the Blakinsons' table which was at the back of therestaurant. We left our check with her and dashed for the street. 

"Where is he? Do you see him?" Don demanded. 

He had gone. But in a moment we saw him, his white cap toweringabove the crowd down by the drugstore at the corner. 

"Come on, Don! There he is!"

We half ran through the crowd. We caught the fellow as he wasdiagonally crossing the street. We rushed up, one on each side ofhim, and seized him by the arms. 

CHAPTER III

_Tako, the Mysterious_

The fellow towered head and shoulders over Don, and almost that overme. He stared down at us, his jaw dropping with surprise. My heartwas pounding; to me there was no doubt about it now; thisheavy-featured handsome, but evil face was the face of theapparition at whom Don had fired as it hung in the air over the FortBeach path. But this was a man. His arm, as I clutched it, wasmuscularly 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 streetintersection. 

"I beg your pardon, " Don stammered. We had had no time to plananything. I put in:

"We thought you were a friend of ours. This night--so muchexcitement--let's get back to the curb. "

We drew the man to the sidewalk as a physician's little automobilewith two soldiers in it waded its way slowly through the crowd. 

The man laughed. "It is an exciting night. I never have seen Bermudalike this before. "

Swift impressions flooded me. The fellow surely must recognize us aswe did him. He was pretending friendliness. I noticed that though heseemed not over forty, his close-clipped hair beneath the whitelinen cap was silver white. His face had a strange pallor, not thepallor of ill health, but seemingly a natural lack of color. And hisvoice, speaking good English, nevertheless marked him for aforeigner--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 astranger; a visitor. My name----"

 * * * * *

He hesitated briefly; then he smiled with what seemed an amusedirony. "My name is Tako. Robert Tako. I am living at the HamiltoniaHotel. 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--onemust 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 arefamiliar with New York City?"

"Of course. I was born there. "

His contemplative gaze made me shiver. I wondered what Don wasplanning as an outcome to this. The fellow seemed wholly at easenow. He was lounging against the drug store window with us beforehim. My eyes were level with the negligee collar of his blue linenshirt, and abruptly I was galvanized into alertness. Just above thesoft collar where his movements had crushed it down I sawunmistakably the loop of a tiny black thread of wire projectingupward! Conclusive proof! This was one of the mysterious enemies!One of the apparitions which had thrown all Bermuda into a turmoilstood materialized here before us. 

I think that Don had already seen the wire. The fellow was sayingnonchalantly, "And you, Mr. Livingston--are you also familiar with New York City?"

"Yes, " said Don. He had gone pale and tight-lipped. I caught hiswarning glance to me. "Yes, " he repeated. "I lived there severalyears. "

"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 Inot see you there? Is that your sister?"

Don made his decision. He said abruptly, "That's none of yourbusiness. "

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 Iseized his wrist. And I added my loud voice to Don's. "No, youdon't!"

 * * * * *

A group of onlookers was at once collecting around us. The gianttried to cast me off, but I clung to him with all my strength. Andsuddenly we were struggling to keep the fellow from breaking awayfrom 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, butwhen they saw the revolver they began scattering. The giant made alunge 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 onbicycles, flung the machines aside and came dashing at us. The giantstood suddenly docile. 

"Officer, these young men attacked me. "

"He's a liar!" Don shouted. "Watch him! He might be armed--don't lethim get away from you!"

The law surrounded us. "Here's my weapon, " said Don. "Bob, give upyour 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 policemanstared 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 GovernmentHouse. "

"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 policestation nearby. 

 * * * * *

The sergeant said, "The Chief will be here in a few minutes. Andwe've sent for Mr. Dorrance. "

"Good enough, Brown. " It chanced that Don knew this sergeant verywell. "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 ourcaptive. Don added, "Before my uncle and the Chief arrive, let mehave a talk with that fellow, will you?"

They had locked him up; and in the excitement of our arrival at thestation both Don and I had completely forgotten the wire we had seenat his collar. But we remembered it now, and the same thoughtoccurred to both of us. We had locked up this mysterious enemy, butwould the prison bars hold him?

"Good Lord!" Don exclaimed. "Bob, those wires--Sergeant, weshouldn't have left that fellow alone! Is he alone! Come on!"

With the frightened mystified sergeant leading us we dashed alongthe little white corridor to the windowless cell in which the giantwas confined. At the cell-door a group of soldiers lounged in thecorridor. 

"Smooth talker, that fellow. "

"Gor blime me, who is he?"

We arrived with a rush. "Is he in there?" Don shouted. "Open thedoor, you fellows! See here, you watch him--we've got to get hisclothes off. He's got some mechanism--wires and things underneathhis 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 thecell no more than a minute or two. 

 * * * * *

We burst open the door. The cell was dimly illumined. The figure ofthe giant stood backed in its further corner. But at the sight ofhim we all stood transfixed with horror. His shoes, trousers, shirt, jacket and cap lay in a little pile at his feet. He stood revealedin the short tight-fitting silvery garments. The wires were loopedabout his arms and legs and he had pulled a mesh of them over hishead in lieu of a helmet. 

He stood regarding us sardonically. And in that instant while wewere stricken with the shock of it, I saw that the figure wasfading. It was a solid human form no longer! A silvery cast had comeupon it. Another second passed; it was visibly growing tenuous, wraithlike! It was melting while we stared at it, until in thatbreathless instant I realized that the wall behind it was showingthrough. 

A wraith! An apparition! The vision of a ghost standing there, leering at us!

The soldiers had retreated back into the corridor behind us. Thesergeant 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 asthough floating through the cell-floor. Its own invisible surfacewas evidently not here but lower down, and it was beginning to drop. I don't know what frenzied courage--if courage it could becalled--was inspiring me. I was wholly confused, but nevertheless Istruck Don and the sergeant aside and rushed at the thing. 

 * * * * *

It was a sensation most horrible. From the waist up it was stillabove the floor of the cell. My wildly flailing arms went throughthe chest! But I felt nothing. It was not even like waving aside amist. There was nothing. I saw my solid fist plunge through theleering ghostly face. I fought wildly, with a panic upon me, againstthe glowing phosphorescent nothingness of the apparition. My feetwere 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 Donshoving me aside. 

"Too late!"

And then the sergeant's shot rang out. The bullet clattered againstthe solid stone floor of the cell. The acrid smoke of the powderrolled over us; and cleared in a moment to show us the apparitionseveral feet below the floor level. It seemed to strike its solidityof 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, thedim white figure ran. Dwindling smaller, dimmer, until in a momentit 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 rationalenemies were stealing white girls of Bermuda. Invaders from anotherplanet? We had thought it might be that. Certainly it was nothingsupernatural. These was not ghosts. 

But now came a new realization. "Don! That's another world downthere! Another realm! The fourth dimension--that's what it is! Thesethings 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 mileaway across the harbor on the slope of the little hill in Paget, anarmy 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!

CHAPTER IV

_Ambushed!_

The events which I have now to describe are world history, and havebeen written in many forms and by many observers. I must, however, sketch them in broadest outline for the continuity of this personalnarrative of the parts played by my friends and myself in the direand astounding affair which was soon to bring chaos, not only tolittle Bermuda but to the great United States as well, and a nearpanic everywhere in the world. 

On this evening of May 15th, 1938, the White Invaders showedthemselves for the first time as rational human enemies. Theresidential suburb of Paget lies across the little harbor from thecity of Hamilton. It is a mile or so by road around the bay, and afew minutes across the water by ferry. The island in the Pagetsection is a mere strip of land less than half a mile wide in mostplaces, with the sheltered waters of the harbor on one side, and theopen Atlantic with a magnificent pink-white beach on the other. Thetwo are divided by a razor-back ridge--a line of little hills ahundred feet or so high, with narrow white roads and white stoneresidences set on the hill-slopes amid spacious lawns and tropicalgardens; and with several lavish hotels on the bay shore, and othersover the ridge, fronting the beach. 

The invaders landed on the top of the ridge. It seemed that, withoutwarning, a group of white-clad men were in a cedar grove up there. They spread out, running along the roads. They seemed carrying smallhand-weapons from which phosphorescent-green light-beams flashedinto the night. 

The first reports were chaotic. A few survivors appeared in Hamiltonwho claimed to have been very close to the enemy. But for the mostpart the descriptions came from those who had fled when still a mileor more away. The news spread as though upon the wings of a gale. Within an hour the hotels were emptied; the houses all along theshore and the bayside hill-slope were deserted by their occupants. Boats over there brought the excited people into Hamilton until nomore boats were available. Others came madly driving around theharbor road, on bicycles, and on foot--and still others escapedtoward distant Somerset. 

 * * * * *

A thousand people or more came in within that hour. But there wereothers who did not come--those who were living in the score or twoof houses up on the ridge in the immediate neighborhood of where theinvaders appeared.... 

Don and I met Mr. Dorrance at the police station within a fewminutes after the news of the Paget attack reached us. We hurriedback to the restaurant and found Jane still there with theBlakinsons. Ten minutes later we were all in the Government House, receiving the most authentic reports available. 

From the windows of the second floor room where Mr. Dorrance satwith a number of the officials, Don, Jane, and I could see acrossthe harbor and to the ridge where the enemy was operating. It wasnot much over two miles from us. The huge, slightly flattened moonhad risen. The bay and the distant little hills were flooded withits light. We could see, off on the ridge-top, the tiny flashinggreen beams. But there was no sound save the turmoil of the excitedlittle city around us. 

"They don't seem to be moving, " Don murmured. "They're right wherethey were first reported. "

It seemed as though the small group of light-beams, darting back andforth, nevertheless originated from one unshifting place. The beams, we realized, must be extremely intense to be visible even these twomiles or so, for we could see that they were very small and of veryshort range--more like a hand-flashlight than anything else. Howmany of the enemy were there? They were men, we understood: solid, human men garbed in the fashion of the apparitions which had been sowidely seen. 

The patrolling airplane, connected with us here by wirelesstelephone, gave us further details. There seemed to be some fifty ofthe invaders. They stood in a group in what had been a small cedargrove. It was a barren field now; the trees had melted and vanishedbefore the silent blasts of the green light-beams. They had, thesebeams, seemingly a range of under a hundred feet. The invaders had, at first, run with them along the nearby roads and attacked thenearest houses. Part of those houses were still standing, save forthe wooden portion of them which had vanished into nothingness asthe green light touched it. The people, too, were annihilated. Theairplane pilot had seen a man running near the field trying toescape. The light touched him, clung to him for a moment. There wasan instant as he fell that he seemed melting into a ghostly figure;and then he was gone. 

 * * * * *

Fifty invaders. But they were human; they could be attacked. Whenthey first appeared, the nature of them still unrealized, aphysician's automobile, manned by three soldiers, had been comingalong the bay road at the foot of the ridge. The soldiers turned itinto a cross road and mounted the hill. Two of them left it, scouting to see what was happening; the other stayed in the car. Oneof the enemy suddenly appeared. His ray struck the car. Its tires, its woodwork, and fabric and cushions melted and vanished, and theman within it likewise disappeared. Everything organic vanishedunder the assailing green beam. The other two soldiers fired at theattacker. He was human. He fell as their bullets struck him. Thenothers of his fellows came running. The two soldiers were drivenaway, but they escaped to tell of the encounter. 

The airplane pilot, half an hour later, flew low and fired down intothe group of enemy figures. He thought that one of them fell. Healso thought he was out of range of their beams. But a pencil-pointof the green light thinned and lengthened out. It darted up to hishundred-and-fifty-foot altitude and caught one of his wings. Theplane fell disabled into the bay near the city docks, but the pilotswam safely ashore. 

I need not detail the confusion and panic of the governmentofficials who were gathered here in the room where Don, Jane and Istood watching and listening to the excitement of the incomingreports. For quiet little Bermuda the unprecedented situation wasdoubly frightening. An attack would have to be made upon theinvaders. There were only fifty of the enemy; the soldiers and thepolice could in a few hours be mobilized to rush them and kill themall. 

But could that be done? The thing had so many weird aspects, theinvaders still seemed so much in the nature of the supernatural, that Mr. Dorrance advised caution. The enemy was now--this was aboutten o'clock in the evening--quietly gathered in the little field onthe ridge-top. They seemed, with their first attack over, no longeroffensive. But, if assailed, who could say what they would do?

 * * * * *

And a thousand unprecedented things to do were pressing upon theharassed officials. Panic-stricken crowds now surged out of allcontrol in the Hamilton streets. Refugees were coming in, homeless, needing care. The soldiers and the police were scattered throughoutthe islands, without orders of what to do to meet these newconditions. 

And new, ever more frightening reports poured in. The telephoneservice, which links as a local call nearly every house throughoutthe islands, was flooded with frantic activity. From nearly everyparish came reports of half-materialized ghosts. Fifty invaders?There were that many gathered on the Paget hill, but it seemed thatthere must be a thousand watching apparitions scattered throughoutthe islands. Harmless, merely frightening, wraiths. But if thatlittle group in Paget were assailed, this other thousand might in amoment cease to be harmless "ghosts. "

The astounded Bermuda officials were forced now to accept therealization that this was solid science. Incredible, fantastic, unbelievable--yet here it was upon us. Some unknown, invisible realmco-existed here in this same space. Its inhabitants had found a wayto come out. 

The government wireless, and the Canadian cables, could no longerwithhold such news as this. Bermuda appealed now to Washington andto London for help. Warships would be coming shortly. Passengerliners on the high seas bringing holiday visitors, were turnedaside. The ships in the port of New York would not sail for Bermudatomorrow. 

I think that the outside world would have had jeering publics amusedat little Bermuda hysterical over a fancied attack from the fabledfourth dimension. But by midnight this night, the United States atleast was in no mood for jeering. A message came--reaching us soonafter eleven o'clock, Bermuda time--by cable, through Halifax fromWashington. The thing already had passed beyond the scope of theBermudas. White apparitions were seen on the Atlantic seaboard nearSavannah. And then at Charleston; and throughout the night atseveral other points farther north. None materialized into solidity. But the "ghosts" were seen, appearing, vanishing, and reappearingalways farther north. 

It was a world menace!

 * * * * *

At about midnight Mr. Dorrance joined Jane, Don and me where westood by the Government House windows watching the distantmotionless group of enemy lights. He was pale and harassed. 

"No use for you to stay here, " he told us. "Don, you and Bob takeJane home. It's the safest place now. "

The reports seemed to indicate that of all the parishes, St. Georgeswas now most free of the apparitions. 

"Go home, " he insisted. "You and Bob stay with Jane. Take care ofher, lads. " He smiled grimly. "We--all the government--may be movingto St. Georges by morning. "

"But, father, " Jane protested, "what will you do? Stay here?"

"For a while. I'll drive over by daybreak. I'll keep the Victoria. You have your cycles; you three ride over. Be careful, lads. Youhave your revolvers?"

"Yes, " said Don. 

We had no time for leave-taking. He was at once called away from us. 

We left the Government House shortly after that, got our bicyclesand started for the north shore road. Government Hill, where theroad climbed through a deep cut in the solid rock, was thronged withcarriages, and with cyclists walking up the hill. Most of thetraffic was going in one direction--refugees leaving this proximityto the enemy. 

We reached the top of the hill, mounted and began the long coastdown. In an hour and a half or less we would be home.... Ah, if onecould only lift the veil which hides even the immediate future, uponthe brink of which we must always stand unseeing!

The north-shore road had the rocky seacoast upon our left--calmmoonlit ocean across which in this direction lay the Carolinas someseven hundred miles away. We had gone, perhaps three miles fromHamilton. The road was less crowded here. A group of apparitions hadbeen seen in the neighborhood of the Aquarium, which was ahead ofus, and most of the refugees were taking the middle road alongHarrington Sound in the center of the island. 

But we decided to continue straight on. It was shorter. 

"And there will be more police along here, " Don reasoned. 

Heaven knows we did not feel in immediate danger. Cycling soldierspassed us at frequent intervals, giving us the news of what layahead. And we both had revolvers. 

 * * * * *

We came presently to the bottom of one of the many steep littlehills up which it is difficult to ride. We were walking up thegrade, pushing our machines with Jane between us. A group ofsoldiers came coasting down the hill, but when we were half-way upthey had passed out of sight. It chanced at the moment that we werealone on the road. No house was near us. The ocean to our left layat the bottom of a fifty-foot rocky cliff; to the right was a thickline of oleander trees, heavy with bloom. 

Ahead of us, to the right within the line of oleanders, the glowingwhite figure of an apparition was visible. We stopped, out of breathfrom the climb, and stood by the roadside. 

"See it there?" Don murmured. "Let's wait and watch it a moment. "

One may get used to anything. We were not frightened. The figure, nomore than twenty feet ahead of us, stood partly within a tree-trunk. It could not materialize there. It was the figure of a man, withhelmet and looped wires. 

"Not that fellow who called himself Tako, " I whispered. 

This one was smaller, no larger than Jane, perhaps. He raised hisarms as though warning us to stop. We stood gazing at him, undecidedwhether to retreat or advance. An omnibus carriage coming from St. Georges stopped at the brow of the hill. Its occupants climbed outand began shouting at the apparition, at the same time flingingstones, one of which came bounding past us. 

"Hi!" I called. "Stop that! No sense to that!"

 * * * * *

Suddenly I heard a rustling of the oleanders at my side. We had nowarning; our attention was wholly upon the apparition and the men bythe carriage on the brow of the hill flinging stones. There was arustling; the shadowed oleanders parted and figures leaped upon us!

I recall hearing Don shout, and Jane cry out. Our cycles clatteredto the road. I fired at an oncoming white figure, but missed. Thesolid form of a man struck me and I went down, tangled in my wheel. There was an instant when I was conscious of fighting madly with ahuman antagonist. I was conscious of Don fighting, too. Jane stood, gripped by a man. Four or five of them had leaped upon us. 

I had many instant impressions; then as I fought something struck myhead and I faded into insensibility. I must have recovered within amoment. I was lying on the ground, partly upon a bicycle. 

Don was lying near me. White figures of men with Jane in their midstwere standing off the road, partly behind the bushes. They wereholding her, and one of them was swiftly adjusting a network ofwires upon her. Then, as I revived further, I heard shouts; peoplewere arriving from down the hill. I tried to struggle to my feet, but fell back. 

In the bushes the figures--and the figure of Jane--were turningsilvery; fading into wraiths. They drifted down into the ground. They were gone. 

CHAPTER V

_Into the Enemy Camp_

"But Bob, I won't go back to Government House, " Don whispered. "Lord, we can't do that--get in for theories and questions and plansto gather a police squad. Every minute counts. "

"What can we do?"

"Break away from these fellows--send Uncle Arthur amessage--anything at all; and say we'll be back in half an hour. Itell you, Jane is gone--they've got her. You saw them take her. Bynow probably, they've got her off there in Paget among them. We'vegot to do something drastic, and do it now. If the policeattacked--suppose Jane is in that Paget group--the first thingthey'd do when the police came at them would be to kill her. Wecan't go at it that way, I tell you. "

We were trudging back up Government Hill with a group of soldiersaround us. I had revived to find myself not seriously injured; alump was on my head and a scalp wound where something had struck me. Don had regained consciousness a moment later and was whollyunharmed. His experience had been different from mine. Two men hadseized him. He was aware of a sudden puff of an acrid gas in hisface, and his senses had faded. But when they returned he had hisfull strength almost at once. 

We realized what had happened. Half a dozen of the enemy were lyingin ambush there on the roadside. It was young white girls they wereafter, and when we appeared with Jane, one of the invaders showedhimself as an apparition to stop us, and then the others, fullymaterialized and hiding in the oleanders, had leaped upon us. Theyhad had only time to escape with Jane, ignoring Don and me where wehad fallen. They seemed also not aware of the nature of our weaponsfor they had not taken our revolvers. 

 * * * * *

Had they gone now with Jane into the other realm of the Unknown? Orwas she with them, over in Paget now in the little enemy camp therewhich was defying Bermuda? We thought very possibly it was thelatter. The giant who had called himself Tako, who had escaped us inthe Police Station, had been driven from our minds by all theexcitement which followed. Was that Tako the leader of theseinvaders? Had he, for some time perhaps, been living as he said inthe Hamiltonia Hotel? Scouting around Bermuda, selecting the younggirls whom his cohorts were to abduct?

The thoughts made us shudder. He had noticed Jane. He it was, doubtless, who as an apparition had prowled outside Jane's room thenight before last. And last night he had followed us to the FortBeach. And again to-night in the restaurant he had been watchingJane. These men who had captured Jane now might very well carry herto Paget and hand her over to their leader, this giant Tako. 

A frenzy of desperation was upon Don and me at the thought. 

"But what shall we do?" I whispered. 

"Get away from these soldiers, Bob. We've got our revolvers. We'llride over there to Paget--just the two of us. It's our best chancethat way. Creep up and see what's over there. And if Jane is there, we've got to get her, Bob--get her some way, somehow. "

We could plan no further than that. But to return to GovernmentHouse, to face Jane's father with the tale of what had happened, andthen become involved in an official attempt to attack with openhostilities the enemy in Paget--that was unthinkable. 

 * * * * *

At the foot of Government Hill, with a trumped-up excuse, Don got usaway from our escort. The night was far darker now; a gray-whitemass of clouds had come up to obscure the moon. We cycled throughthe outskirts of Hamilton to the harbor road and followed it aroundthe marshy end of the bay and into Paget. There had been at firstmany vehicles coming in from the beach, but when we passed theintersection and nothing lay ahead of us but the Paget ridge wefound the road deserted. 

We had had our handle-bar flash-lights turned on, but now we shutthem off, riding slowly into the darkness. Don presently dismounted. 

"Better leave our wheels here. "

"Yes. "

We laid them on the ground in a little roadside banana patch. Wewere no more than a quarter of a mile from the enemy now; the glowof their green beams standing up into the air showed on theridge-top ahead of us. 

"We'll take the uproad, " Don whispered. "Shall we? And when we getto the top, follow some path, instead of a road. "

"All right, " I agreed. 

We started on foot up the steep side road which led from the bayshore to the summit of the ridge. The houses here were all dark anddeserted, their occupants long since having fled to Hamilton. It wasenemy country here now. 

We reached the summit and plunged into a cedar grove which had afootpath through it. The green light-beams seemed very close; wecould see them in a little group standing motionless up into thedarkness of the sky. 

"Can't plan, " Don whispered. "But we must keep together. Get up asclose as we can and see what conditions are. "

And see if Jane were here.... It echoed through my head, and I knewit was also Don's guiding thought. 

 * * * * *

Another ten minutes. We were advancing with the utmost caution. Thecedar grove was almost black. Then we came to the end of it. Therewas a winding road and two white houses a hundred feet or so apart. And beyond the houses was a stretch of open field, strangely denudedof vegetation. 

"There they are, Bob!" Don sank to the ground with me beside him. Wecrouched, revolvers in hand, gazing at the strange scene. The fieldhad been a cedar grove, but all the vegetation now was gone, leavingonly the thin layer of soil and the outcropping patches of Bermuda'sfamous blue-gray rock. The houses, too, had been blasted. One was onthis side of the field, quite near us. Its walls and roof hadpartially fallen; its windows and door rectangles yawned black andempty, with the hurricane shutters and the wooden window casementsgone and the panes shattered into a litter of broken glass. 

But the house held our attention only a moment. Across thetwo-hundred-foot field we could plainly see the invaders--forty orfifty men's figures dispersed in a little group. It seemed a sort ofencampment. The green light beams seemed emanating from small handprojectors resting now on the ground. The sheen from them gave adull lurid-green cast to the scene. The men were sitting about insmall groups. And some were moving around, seemingly assemblinglarger apparatus. We saw a projector, a cylindrical affair, whichhalf a dozen of them were dragging. 

"Bob! Can you make out--back by the banana grove--captives? Look!"

 * * * * *

The encampment was at the further corner of the naked field. Alittle banana grove joined it. We could see where the enemy lighthad struck, partially melting off some of the trees so that now theystood leprous. In the grove were other figures of men, and it seemedthat among them were some girls. Was Jane there among thosecaptives?

"We've got to get closer, " I whispered. "Don, that second house--ifwe could circle around and get there. From the corner of it, we'd behidden. "

"We'll try it. "

The farther house was also in ruins. It stood near the back edge ofthe naked field and was within fifty feet of the banana grove. Wecircled back, and within ten minutes more were up against the brokenfront veranda of the house. 

"No one here, " Don whispered. 

"No, evidently not. "

"Let's try getting around the back and see them from the backcorner. "

We were close enough now to hear the voices in the banana grove. Thehalf-wrecked house against which we crouched was a litter of stonesand broken glass. It was black and silent inside. 

"Don, look!"

Sidewise across the broken veranda the group of figures in the fieldwere partly visible. We saw ghostly wraiths now among them--apparitionsthree or four feet above the ground. They solidified and dropped toearth, with their comrades gathering over them. The babble of voicesin a strange tongue reached us. New arrivals materializing!

But was Jane here? And Tako, the giant? We had seen nothing ofeither of them. These men seemed all undersized rather thangigantic. We were about to start around the corner of the verandafor a closer view of the figures in the grove, when a sound near athand froze us. A murmur of voices! Men within the house!

 * * * * *

I pulled Don flat to the ground against the stone steps of theporch. We heard voices; then footsteps. A little green glow of lightappeared. We could see over the porch floor into the black yawningdoor rectangle. Two men were moving around in the lower front room, and the radiation from their green lights showed them plainly. Theywere small fellows in white, tight-fitting garments, with the blackhelmet and the looped wires. 

"Don, when they come out--" I murmured it against his ear. "If wecould strike them down without raising an alarm, and get thosesuits--"

"Quiet! They're coming!"

They extinguished their light. They came down the front steps, andas they reached the ground and turned aside Don and I rose up in theshadows and struck at them desperately with the handles of ourrevolvers. Don's man fell silently. Mine was able to ward off theblow; he whirled and flashed on his little light. But the beammissed me as I bent under it and seized him around the middle, reaching up with a hand for his mouth. Then Don came at us, andunder his silent blow my antagonist wilted. 

We had made only a slight noise; there seemed no alarm. 

"Get them into the house, " Don murmured. "Inside; someone may comeany minute. "

We dragged them into the dark and littered lower room. We still hadour revolvers, and now I had the small hand-projector of the greenlight-beam. It was a strangely weightless little cylinder, with afiring mechanism which I had no idea how to operate. 

In a moment we had stripped our unconscious captives of their whitewoven garments. In the darkness we were hopelessly ruining themechanism of wires and dials. But we did not know how to operate themechanism in any event; and our plan was only to garb ourselves likethe enemy. Thus disguised, with the helmets on our heads, we couldget closer, creep among them and perhaps find Jane.... 

The woven garments which I had thought metal, stretched like rubberand were curiously light in weight. I got the impression now thatthe garments, these wires and disks, the helmet and the belt withits dial-face--all this strange mechanism and even the green-rayprojector weapon--all of it was organic substance. And thisafterward proved to be the fact. [1]

 [1] As we later learned, the scientific mechanism by which the transition was made from the realm of the fourth dimension to our own earthly world and back again, was only effective to transport organic substances. The green light-beam was of similar limitation. An organic substance of our world upon which it struck was changed in vibration rate and space-time co-ordinates to coincide with the characteristics with which the light-current was endowed. Thus the invaders used their beams as a weapon. The light flung whatever it touched of organic material with horrible speed of transition away into the Unknown--to the fourth, fifth, or perhaps still other realms. In effect--annihilation. 

 The mechanism of wires and dials (and small disks which were storage batteries of the strange current) was of slower, more controllable operation. Thus it could be used for transportation--for space-time traveling, as Earth scientists later came to call it. The invaders, wearing this mechanism, materialized at will into the state of matter existing in our world--and by a reversal of the co-ordinates of the current, dematerialized into the more tenuous state of their own realm. 

We were soon disrobed and garbed in the white suits of our enemies. The jacket and trunks stretched like rubber to fit us. 

"Can't hope to get the wires right, " Don whispered. "Got yourhelmet?"

"Yes. The belt fastens behind, Don. "

"I know. These accursed little disks, what are they?"

We did not know them for storage batteries as yet. They were thinflat circles of flexible material with a cut in them so that wecould spring the edges apart and clasp them like bracelets atintervals on our arms and legs. The wires connected them, looped upto the helmet, and down to the broad belt where there was anindicator-dial in the middle of the front. [2]

 [2] We were soon to learn also that they were bringing into our world weapons, food, clothing and a variety of equipment by encasing the articles in containers operated by these same mechanisms of wires carrying the transition current. The transportation was possible because all the articles they brought with them were of organic substance. 

 * * * * *

We worked swiftly and got the apparatus on somehow. The wires, broken and awry, would not be noticed in the darkness. 

"Ready, Don?"

"Yes. I--I guess so. "

"I've got this light cylinder, but we don't know how to work it. "

"Carry it openly in your hand. It adds to the disguise. " There was anote of triumph in Don's voice. "It's dark out there--only the greenglow. We'll pass for them, Bob, at a little distance anyway. Comeon. "

We started out of the room. "You can hide your revolver in thebelt--there seems to be a pouch. "

"Yes. "

We passed noiselessly to the veranda. Over our bare feet we werewearing a sort of woven buskin which fastened with wires to theankle disks. 

"Keep together, " Don whispered. "Take it slowly, but walk openly--nohesitation. "

My heart was pounding, seemingly in my throat, half-smothering me. "Around the back corner of the house, " I whispered. "Then into thebanana grove. Straighten. "

"Yes. But not right among them. A little off to one side, passing byas though we were on some errand. "

"If they spot us?"

"Open fire. Cut and run for it. All we can do, Bob. "

Side by side we walked slowly along the edge of the house. At theback corner, the small banana grove opened before us. Twenty feetaway, under the spreading green leaves of the trees a dozen or somen were working over apparatus. And in their center a group ofcaptive girls sat huddled on the ground. Men were passing back andforth. At the edge of the trees, by the naked field, men seemedpreparing to serve a meal. There was a bustle of activityeverywhere; a babble of strange, subdued voices. 

 * * * * *

We were well under the trees now. Don, choosing our route, wasleading us to pass within ten or fifteen feet of where the girlswere sitting. It was dark here in the grove; the litter of rottedleaves on the soft ground scrunched and swished under our tread. 

There was light over by the girls. I stared at their huddled forms;their white, terrified faces. Girls of Bermuda, all of them young, all exceptionally pretty. I thought I recognized Eunice Arton. Butstill it seemed that Jane was not here.... And I saw men seatedwatchfully near them--men with cylinder weapons in their hands. 

Don occasionally would stoop, poking at the ground as though lookingfor something. He was heading us in a wide curve through the groveso that we were skirting the seated figures. We had already beenseen, of course, but as yet no one heeded us. But every moment weexpected the alarm to come. My revolver was in the pouch of my beltwhere I could quickly jerk it out. I brandished the useless lightcylinder ostentatiously. 

"Don!" I gripped him. We stopped under a banana tree, half hidden inits drooping leaves. "Don--more of them coming!"

Out in the empty field, apparitions of men were materializing. Thenwe heard a tread near us, and stiffened. I thought that we werediscovered. A man passed close to us, heading in toward the girls. He saw us; he raised a hand palm outward with a gesture of greetingand we answered it. 

 * * * * *

For another two or three minutes we stood there, peering, searchingfor some sign of Jane.... Men were distributing food to the girlsnow. 

And then we saw Jane! She was seated alone with her back against abanana tree, a little apart from the others. And near her was aseated man's figure, guarding her. 

"Don! There she is! We can get near her! Keep on the way we weregoing. We must go in a wide curve to come up behind her. "

We started forward again. We were both wildly excited; Jane was atthe edge of the lighted area. We could come up behind her; shoot herguard; seize her and dash off.... I saw that the mesh of wires, disks and a helmet were on Jane.... 

Don suddenly stumbled over something on the ground. A man who hadbeen lying there, asleep perhaps, rose up. We went sidewise, andpassed him. 

But his voice followed us. Unintelligible, angry words. 

"Keep on!" I murmured. "Don't turn!"

It was a tense moment. The loud words brought attention to us. Thenthere came what seemed a question from someone over by the girls. Wecould not answer it. Then two or three other men shouted at us. 

Don stopped, undecided. 

"No!" I whispered. "Go ahead! Faster Don! It's darker ahead. "

We started again. It seemed that all the camp was looking our way. Voices were shouting. Someone called a jibe and there was a burst oflaughter. And from behind us came a man's voice, vaguely familiar, with a sharp imperative command. 

Should we run? Could we escape now, or would a darting green beamstrike us? And we were losing our chance for Jane. 

Desperation was on me. "Faster, Don!"

The voice behind us grew more imperative. Then from nearby, two mencame running at us. An uproar was beginning. We were discovered!

 * * * * *

Don's revolver was out. It seemed suddenly that men were all aroundus. From behind a tree-trunk squarely ahead a figure appeared withleveled cylinder. The ground leaves were swishing behind us withswiftly advancing footsteps. 

"Easy, Bob!"

Don found his wits. If he had not at that moment we would doubtlesshave been annihilated in another few seconds. "Bob, we'recaught--don't shoot!"

I had flung away the cylinder and drawn my revolver; but Don shoveddown my extended hand and held up his own hand. 

"We're caught!" He shouted aloud. "Don't kill us! Don't kill us!"

It seemed that everywhere we looked was a leveled cylinder. I halfturned at the running footsteps behind us. A man's voice called inEnglish. 

"Throw down your weapons! Down!"

Don cast his revolver away, and mine followed. I was aware that Janehad recognized Don's voice, and that she was on her feet staring inour direction with horrified eyes. 

The man from behind pounced upon us. It was the giant, Tako. 

"Well, my friends of the restaurant! The American who knows New YorkCity so well! And the Bermudian! This is very much to my liking. Youthought your jail would imprison me, did you not?"

He stood regarding us with his sardonic smile, while our captorssurrounded us, searching our belts for other weapons. And he added, "I was garbed like you when we last met. Now you are garbed like me. How is that?"

 * * * * *

They led us into the lighted area of the grove. "The American whoknows New York City so well, " Tako added. "And the Bermudian says heknows it also. It is what you would call an affair of luck, havingyou here. "

He seemed highly pleased. He gazed at us smilingly. We stood silentwhile the men roughly stripped the broken wires and disks from us. They recognized the equipment. There was a jargon of argument intheir strange guttural language. Then at Tako's command three ofthem started for the house. 

Jane had cried out at sight of us. Her captor had ordered her backto her seat by the tree. 

"So?" Tako commented. "You think silence is best? You are wise. I amglad you did not make us kill you just now. I am going to New Yorkand you shall go with me; what you know of the city may be of help. We are through with Bermuda. There are not many girls here. But inthe great United States I understand there are very many. You shallhelp us capture them. "

Don began, "The girl over there----"

"Your sister? Your wife? Perhaps she knows something of New York andits girls also. We will keep her close with us. If you three chooseto help me, you need have no fear of harm. " He waved aside the menwith imperious commands. "Come, we will join this girl of yours. Sheis very pretty, is she not? And like you--not cowardly. I have notbeen able to make her talk at all. "

The dawn of this momentous night was at hand when, with the networksof wires and disks properly adjusted upon us, Tako took Jane, Donand me with him into the Fourth Dimension. 

Strange transition! Strange and diabolical plot which now wasunfolded to us! Strangely fantastic, weird journey from this Bermudahilltop through the Unknown to the city of New York!

CHAPTER VI

_The Attack upon New York_

I must sketch now the main events following this night of May 15thand 16th as the outside world saw them. The frantic reports fromBermuda were forced into credibility by the appearance ofapparitions at many points along the Atlantic seaboard of thesouthern States. They were sporadic appearances that night. Noattacks were reported. But in all, at least a thousand wraithlikefigures of men must have been seen. The visitations began atmidnight and ended with dawn. To anyone, reading in the morningpapers or hearing from the newscasters that "ghosts" were seen atSavannah, the thing had no significance. But in Washington, whereofficials took a summary of all the reports and attempted ananalysis of them, one fact seemed clear. The wraiths were travelingnorthward. It could almost be fancied that this was an army, traveling in the borderland of the Unknown. Appearing momentarily asthough coming out to scout around and see the contour and thecharacteristics of our realm; disappearing again into invisibility, to show themselves in an hour or so many miles farther north. 

The reports indicated also that it was not one group of the enemy, but several--and all of them traveling northward. The most northerlygroup of them by dawn showed itself up near Cape Hatteras. 

The news, when it was fully disseminated that next day, brought amingling of derision and terror from the public. The world rang withthe affair. Remote nations, feeling safe since nothing of the kindseemed menacing them, were amused that distant America, supposedlyso scientifically modern, should be yielding to superstition worthyonly of the Middle Ages. The accounts from Bermuda were moredifficult to explain. And England, with Bermuda involved, was notskeptical; as a matter of fact, the British authorities wereastonished. Warships were starting for Bermuda; and that morning ofMay 16th, with the passenger lines in New York not sailing forBermuda, American warships were ordered to Hamilton. The menace, whatever it was, would soon be ended. 

 * * * * *

That was May 16th. Another night passed, and on May 17th the worldrang with startled horror and a growing terror. Panics werebeginning in all the towns and cities of the American seaboard northof Cape Hatteras. It was no longer a matter of merely seeing"ghosts. " There had been real attacks the previous night. 

There had been a variety of incidents, extraordinarilyhorrifying--so diverse, so unexpected that they could not have beenguarded against. It was a dark night, an area of low pressure withleaden storm-clouds over all the Atlantic coastal region, fromCharleston north to the Virginia Capes. A coastal passenger ship offHatteras sent out a frantic radio distress call. The apparitions ofmen had suddenly been seen in mid-air directly in the ship's course. The message was incoherent; the vessel's wireless operator waslocked in his room at the transmitter, wildly describing an attackupon the ships. 

The white apparitions--a group of twenty or thirty men--had beenmarching in mid-air when the ship sighted them directly over itsbow. In the darkness of the night they were only a hundred feetahead when the lookout saw them. In a moment the vessel was underthem, and they began materializing.... The account grew increasinglyincoherent. The figures materialized and fell to the deck, pickedthemselves up and began running about the ship, attacking withlittle green light-beams. The ship's passengers and crew vanished, obliterated; annihilated. It seemed that young women among thepassengers were being spared. The ship was melting--the woodendecks, all the wooden super-structure melting.... A few moments offantastic horror, then the distress call died into silence asdoubtless the green light-beams struck the operator's little cabin. 

 * * * * *

That vessel was found the next day, grounded on the shoals offHatteras. The sea was oily and calm. It lay like a gruesome shell, as though some fire had swept all its interior. Yet not fire either, for there were no embers, no ashes. Diseased, leprous, gruesomelyweird with parts of its interior intact and other parts obliterated. And no living soul was upon it save one steward crouching in a lowercabin laughing with madness which the shock of what he had seenbrought upon him. 

On land, a railroad train in Virginia had been wrecked, struckapparently by a greenish ray. And also in Virginia, during the earlyevening in a village, an outdoor festival at which there were manyyoung girls was attacked by apparitions suddenly coming intosolidity. The report said that thirty or more young girls weremissing. The little town was in chaos. 

And the chaos, that next day, spread everywhere. It was obvious nowthat the enemy was advancing northward. In Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, panics were beginning. New York City was seething withexcitement. People were leaving all the towns and cities of thearea. An exodus north and westward. In New York, every steamship, airplane and railroad train was crowded with departing people. Theroads to Canada and to the west were thronged with outgoingautomobiles. 

But it was only a small part of the millions who remained. And thetransportation systems were at once thrown into turmoil, with thesudden frantic demands threatening to break them down. And then anew menace came to New York. Incoming food supplies for its millionscrowded into that teeming area around Manhattan, were jeopardized. The army of men engaged in all the myriad activities by which thegreat city sustained itself were as terrified as anyone else. Theybegan deserting their posts. And local communication systems wentawry. The telephones, the lights, local transportation--all of thembegan limping, threatening to break. 

 * * * * *

Tremendous, intricate human machine by whose constant activity somany millions are enabled to live so close together! No one couldrealize how vastly interwoven are a million activities which makelife in a great city comfortable and safe until something goeswrong! And one wrong thing so swiftly affects another! As though ina vastly intricate mechanism little cogs were breaking, and thebreaks spreading until presently the giant fly-wheels could nolonger turn. 

If the startled Federal and State officials could have foreseen eventhe events of the next forty-eight hours they would have wanted NewYork City deserted of the population. But that was impossible. Evenif everyone could have been frightened into leaving, the chaos ofitself would have brought death to untold thousands. 

As it was, May 17th and 18th showed New York in a growing chaos. Officials now were wildly trying to stem the panics, trying to keeporganized the great machines of city life. 

It is no part of my plan for this narrative to try and detail theevents in New York City as the apparitions advanced upon it. Thecrowded bridges and tunnels; the traffic and transportationaccidents; the failure of the lights and telephones and broadcastingsystems; the impending food shortage; the breaking out of diseasefrom a score of causes; the crushed bodies lying in the streetswhere frantic mobs had trampled them and no one was available totake them away. The scenes beggar description. 

 * * * * *

And in all this the enemy had played no part save that of causingterror. Warships gathered in New York harbor were impotent. Statetroops massed in New Jersey, across the Hudson from New York, and inPutnam and Westchester Counties, were powerless to do more than tryand help the escaping people since there was no enemy of tangiblesubstance to attack. Patrolling airplanes, armed with bombs, werehelpless. The white apparitions were gathering everywhere in theneighborhood of New York City. But they remained only apparitions, imponderable wraiths, non-existent save that they could be dimlyseen. And even had they materialized, no warships could shell thecity, for millions of desperate people were still within it tryingto get away. 

The news from little Bermuda was submerged, unheeded, in thisgreater catastrophe. But on the night of May 17th when the Americanwarships arrived off Hamilton, the Paget invaders were gone. 

The menace in Bermuda was over; it was the great New York City whichwas menaced now. The apparitions which had advanced from the southwere suddenly joined by a much more numerous army. On the night ofMay 19th it had reached New York. Two or three thousand glowingwhite shapes were apparent, with yet other thousands perhapshovering just beyond visibility. They made no attack. They stoodencamped on the borderland of the Unknown realm to which theybelonged. Busy with their preparations for battle and watching thestricken city to which already mere terror had brought the horror ofdisease and death. 

It seemed now that this Fourth Dimension terrain co-existing withinin the space of New York City, must be a tumbled, mountainous regionof crags and spires, and yawning pits, ravines and valley depths. Jagged and precipitous indeed, for there were apparitions encampedin the air above Manhattan and harbor--higher in altitude than theChrysler or the Empire State towers. Other wraiths showed in a dozenplaces lower down--some within the city buildings themselves. Andyet others were below ground, within the river waters, or groupedseemingly a hundred feet beneath the street levels. 

Fantastic army of wraiths! In the daylight they almost faded, but atnight they glowed clearly. Busy assembling their weapons of war. Vanishing and reappearing at different points. Climbing ordescending the steep cliffs and crags of their terrain to new pointsof vantage; and every hour with their numbers augmenting. And all sosilent! So grimly purposeful, and yet so ghastly silent!

It was near midnight of May 19th when the wraiths beganmaterializing and the attack upon New York City began!

CHAPTER VII

_The Invisible World_

Tako showed us how to operate the transition mechanism. The littlebanana grove on the Bermuda hilltop began fading. There was amomentary shock; a reeling of my head; a sudden sense of vibrationwithin me. And then a feeling of lightness, weightlessness; andfreedom, as though all my earthly life I had been shackled, but nowwas free. 

The thing was at first terrifying, gruesome; but in a moment thosefeelings passed and the weightless freedom brought an exuberance ofspirit. 

Don and I were sitting with Jane between us, and the figure of Takofronting us. I recall that we clung together, terrified. I closed myeyes when the first shock came, but opened them again to find myhead steadying. Surprising vista! I had vaguely fancied that Tako, Jane and Don would be sitting here dissolving into apparitions. Butmy hands on Jane's arm felt it as solid as before. I stared into herface. It was frightened, white and set, but smiling at me. 

"You all right, Bob? It's not so difficult, is it?"

She had endured this before. She reached out her hands, one to Donand one to me. 

"We're dropping. I don't think it's far down, but be careful. Straighten your legs under you. "

We seemed unchanged; Don and Jane were the same in aspect as before, save the color of their garments seemed to have faded to a gray. Itwas the Bermuda hilltop which to our vision was changing. The grovewas melting, turning from green and brown to a shimmering silver. Wenow looked upon ghostly, shadowy trees; fading outlines of thenearby house; the nearby figures of Tako's men and the group ofcaptive girls--all shadowy apparitions. The voices were fading; asilence was falling upon us with only the hum of the mechanismsounding in my ears. 

 * * * * *

I felt with a shock of surprise that I was no longer seated on theground. I seemed, for an instant floating, suspended as thoughperhaps immersed in water. The sweep of the ground level was a vagueshadowy line of gray, but my legs had dropped beneath it. I wasdrifting down, sinking, with only Jane's hand to steady me. 

"Thrust your feet down, " she murmured. "A little fall. We want toland on our feet. "

The imponderable ground of the banana grove was rising. We dropped, as though we were sinking in water. But we gathered speed; we felt aweight coming to our bodies. At last we fell; my feet struck a solidsurface with a solid impact. Don and I lost our balance, but Janesteadied us. We were standing upon a dark rock slope, steeplyinclined. 

"Off with the current!" came Tako's voice. "The belt switch--throwit back!"

I found the little lever. The current went off. There had been amoment when the spectral shadows of my own world showed in the airabove me. But we passed their visible limits and they faded out ofsight. 

We were in the realm of the Fourth Dimension. Outdoors, in a regionof glowing, phosphorescent night.... 

 * * * * *

"This way, " said Tako. "It is not far. We will walk. Just a moment, you three. I would not have you escape me. "

Our revolvers were gone. Being metal, they could not, of actuality, be carried into the transition. We had no light-beam cylinders, nordid we as yet know how to use them. Tako stood before us; he reachedto the operating mechanisms under the dial-face at our belts, makingsome disconnections which we did not understand. 

His smile in the semi-darkness showed with its familiar irony. "Youmight have the urge to try some escaping transition. It would loseyou in the Unknown. That would be death! I do not want that. "

I protested, "We are not fools. I told you if you would spare us, return us safely to Bermuda when this is over--"

"That you might be of help to me, " he finished. "Well, perhaps youwill. I hope so. You will do what you can to help, willingly orotherwise; that I know. " His voice was grimly menacing. And helaughed sardonically. "You are no fools, as you say. And Jane--" Hisglance went to her. "Perhaps, before we are through with this, youmay even like me, Jane. "

Whatever was in his mind, it seemed to amuse him. 

"Perhaps, " said Jane. 

We three had had only a moment to talk together. There had been nopossibility of escape. It was obvious to us that Tako was the leaderof these invaders; and, whatever they were planning, our best chanceto frustrate it was to appear docile. Safety for us--the possibilityof later escaping--all of that seemed to lie in a course ofdocility. We would pretend friendliness; willingness to help. 

Tako was not deceived. We knew that. Don, in those two or threehours we were with Tako before starting upon the transition, hadsaid:

"But suppose we do help you in your scheme, whatever it is? Theremight be some reward for us, eh? If you plan a conquest, richesperhaps--"

Tako had laughed with genuine amusement. "So? You bargain? We are tobe real friends--fellow conquerors? And you expect me to believethat?"

 * * * * *

Yet now he seemed half to like us. And there was Jane's safety forwhich we were scheming. Tako had been interested in Jane. We knewthat. Yet she was at first little more to him than one of the girlcaptives. He might have left her with those others. But she was withus now, to stay with us upon this journey, and it was farpreferable. 

"This way, " said Tako. "We will walk. It is not far to my encampmentwhere they are preparing for the trip. "

It seemed that a vast open country was around us. A rocky, almostbarren waste; a mountainous region of steep gray defiles, gorges andbroken tumbled ravines. A void of darkness hung overhead. There wereno stars, no moon, no light from above. Yet I seemed presently tosee a great distance through the glowing deep twilight. The glow wasinherent to the rocks themselves; and to the spare, stunted, gray-blue vegetation. It was a queerly penetrating, diffused, yetvague light everywhere. One could see a considerable distance by it. Dim colors were apparent. 

We trod the rocks with a feeling of almost normal body weight. Theair was softly warm like a night in the tropics, with a faint breezeagainst our faces. It seemed a trackless waste here. We mounted anascending ramp, topped a rise with an undulating plateau ahead ofus. 

Tako stood a moment for us to get our breath. The air seemedrarefied; we were panting, with our cheeks tingling. 

"My abode is there. " He gestured to the distant lowland regionbehind us. We were standing upon a gray hilltop. The ground wentdown a tumbled broken area to what seemed a lowland plain. Ten milesaway--it may have been that, or twice that--I saw the dim outline ofa great castle or a fortress. A building of gigantic size, it seemedstrangely fashioned with round-shaped domes heaped in a circlearound a tower looming in the center. A wall, or a hedge of gianttrees, I could not tell, but it seemed as gigantic as the wall ofChina, and was strung over the landscape in an irregular circle toenclose an area of several square miles, with the castle-fortress inits center. A little city was there, nestled around the fortress--ahundred or two small brown and gray mounds to mark the dwellings. Itsuggested a little feudal town of the Middle Ages of our own Earth, set here in this trackless waste. 

 * * * * *

And I saw, down on the plain, a shining ribbon of river with thickvegetation along its banks. And within the enclosing wall there, wasthe silvery sheen of a lake near the town; patches of trees, andbrownish oval areas which seemed to be fields under cultivation. 

"My domain, " Tako repeated. There was a touch of pride in his voice. "I rule it. You shall see it--when we are finished with New York. "

Again his gaze went to Jane, curiously contemplative. We startedwalking over the upper plateau level, seemingly with nothing inadvance of us save empty luminous darkness. A walk of an hour. Perhaps it was that long. Time here had faded with our Earthlyworld. It was difficult to gauge the passing minutes--as difficultas to guess at the miles of this luminous distance. 

As though the sight of his fortress--his tiny principality, whoseinhabitants he ruled with absolute sway--had awakened in Tako newemotions, he put Jane beside him and began talking to us withapparent complete frankness. It must have been an hour, during whichhe explained this world of his, of which we were destined to have sobrief a glimpse, and told us upon what diabolical errand he and hisfellows were embarked. I recall that as he talked Jane gripped me inhorror. But she managed to smile when Tako smiled at her. He wasnaively earnest as he told us of his coming conquest. And Jane, withwoman's intuition knew before Don and I realized it, that it was toherself, a beautiful girl of Earth, he was talking, seeking heradmiration for his prowess. 

Tako was what in Europe of the Middle Ages would have amounted to afeudal prince. He was one of many here in this realm; each had hislittle domain, with his retainers cultivating his land, paying feesto him so that the overlord lived in princely idleness. 

 * * * * *

Scattered at considerable distances, one from the other, theserulers of their little principalities were loosely bound into ageneral government; but at home each was a law unto himself. Theylived in princely fashion, these lords of the castle, as they werecalled. Among the retainers, monogamy was practiced. The workers hadtheir little families--husband, wife and children. But for therulers, more than one wife was the rule. Within each castle was aharem of beauties, drawn perforce from the common people. The mostbeautiful girls of each settlement were trained from childhood toanticipate the honor of being selected by the master for a life inthe castle. 

They were connoisseurs of woman's beauty, these overlords. By thesize of his harem and the beauty and talent of its inmates was anoverlord judged by his fellows. 

Out of this had grown the principal cause for war in the history ofthe realm. Beautiful girls were scarce. Raids were made by one lordupon the village and harem of another. 

Then had come to Tako the discovery of the great world of our Earth, occupying much of this same space in another state of matter. 

"I discovered it, " he said with his gaze upon Jane. 

"How?" Don demanded. 

"It came, " he said, "out of our scientific method of transportation, which very soon I will show you. We are a scientific people. Hah!"He laughed ironically. "The workers say that we princes areprofligate--that we think only of women and music. But that is notso. Once, many generations ago, we were a tremendous nation, andskilled in science far beyond your own world--and with a populationa hundred times what we have now. The land everywhere must have beenrich and fertile. There were big cities--the ruins of them are stillto be seen. 

 * * * * *

"And then our climate changed. There was, for us, a worldcatastrophe, the cause and the details of which no one now knowsvery clearly. It sent our cities, our great civilizations intoruins. It left us with this barren waste with only occasionallowland fertile spots which now by heredity we rulers control, eachto possess his own. 

"But that past civilization gave us a scientific knowledge. Much ofit is lost--we are going down hill. But we have some of it left, andwe profligate rulers, as the workers call us, cherish it. But whatis the use of teaching it to the common people? We do very little ofthat. And our weapons of war we keep to ourselves--except when thereis a raid and our loyal retainers go forth with us to do battle. "

"So you discovered how to get into our Earth world?" Don repeated. 

"Yes. Some years ago, and it was quite by chance. At first Iexperimented alone--and then I took with me a young girl. "

Again he smiled at Jane. "Tolla is her name. She is here in our campwhere our army is now, starting for New York. You will meet herpresently. She loves me very much, so she says. She wants some dayto lead my harem. I took her with me into the Unknown--into thatplace you call Bermuda. I have been there off and on for nearly ayear of your Earth time, making my plans for what now is at lastcoming to pass. "

"So that's how you learned our language?" I said. 

"Yes. It came easy to me and Tolla. That--and we were taught by twogirls whom a year ago I took from Bermuda and brought in here. "

"And what became of them?" Jane put in quietly. 

"Oh--why, I gave them away, " he replied calmly. "A prince whosefavor I desired, wanted them and I gave them to him. Your Earthgirls are well liked by the men of my world. Their fame has alreadyspread. "

 * * * * *

He added contemplatively, "I often have thought how strange it isthat your great world and mine should lie right here together--theone invisible to the other. Two or three minutes of time--we havejust made the transition. Yet what a void!"

"The scientists of your past civilization, " I said, "strange thatthey did not learn to cross it. "

"Do you know that they did not?" he demanded. "Perhaps with secretvisitations--"

It brought to us a new flood of ideas. We had thought, up there inSt. Georges, that this Tako was a ghost. How could one say but thatall or most manifestations of the occult were not something likethis. The history of our Earth abounds with superstition. Ghosts--things unexplained. How can one tell but that all occultismis merely unknown science? Doubtless it is. I can fancy now that inthe centuries of the past many scientists of this realm of theFourth Dimension ventured forth a little way toward our world. Andseeing them, we called them ghosts. 

What an intrepid explorer was this Tako! An enterprising scoundrel, fired with a lust for power. He told us now, chuckling with thetriumph of it, how carefully he had studied our world. Appearingthere, timidly at first, then with his growing knowledge of English, boldly living in Hamilton. 

His fame in his own world, among his fellow rulers, rapidly grew. The few Earth girls he produced were eagerly seized. The fame oftheir beauty spread. The desire, the competition for them becamekeen. And Tako gradually conceived his great plan. A hundred or moreof the overlords, each with his hundred retainers, were bandedtogether for the enterprise under Tako's leadership. An army wasorganized; weapons and equipment were assembled. 

Earth girls were to be captured in large numbers. The most desirableof them would go into the harems of the princes. The others would begiven to the workers. The desire for them was growing rapidly, incited by the talk of the overlords. The common man could have morethan one wife--two, even three perhaps--supported by the princelymaster. And Tako was dreaming of a new Empire; increased population;some of the desert reclaimed; a hundred principalities bandedtogether into a new nation, with himself as its supreme leader. 

 * * * * *

And then the attack upon Earth had begun. A few Earth girls werestolen; then more, until very quickly it was obvious that a wider areathan Bermuda was needed. Tako's mind flung to New York--greatestcenter of population within striking distance of him. [3] The forayinto Bermuda--the materialization of that little band on the Pagethilltop was more in the nature of an experiment than a real attack. Tako learned a great deal of the nature of this coming warfare, orthought he did. 

 [3] The extent of the Fourth Dimensional world was never made wholly clear to us. Its rugged surface was coincident with the surface of our earth at Bermuda, at New York City, and at many points along the Atlantic seaboard of the United States. For the rest, there is no data upon which one may even guess. 

As a matter of actuality, in spite of his dominating force, thecapacity for leadership which radiated from him, there was a verynaive, fatuous quality to this strange ruler. Or at least, Don and Ithought so now. As the details of his plot against our Earth worldunfolded to us, what we could do to circumvent him ran like anundercurrent across the background of our consciousness. He knewnothing, or almost nothing of our Earth weapons. What conditionswould govern this unprecedented warfare into which he wasplunging--of all that he was totally ignorant. 

 * * * * *

But, we were speedily to learn that he was not as fatuous as he atfirst seemed. These two worlds--occupying the same space andinvisible to each other--would be plunged into war. And Takorealized that no one, however astute, of either world could predictwhat might happen. He was plunging ahead, quite conscious of hisignorance. And he realized that there was a vast detailed knowledgeof the Earth world which we had and he did not. He would use us asthe occasion arose to explain what might not be understandable tohim. 

I could envisage now so many things of such a character. The rangeof warships and artillery. The weapons a plane might use. Thetopography of New York City and its environs.... And the more Takoneeded us, the less we had to fear from him personally. We wouldhave the power to protect Jane from him--if we could sufficientlypersuade him he needed our good will. Ultimately we might plunge hisenterprise into disaster, and with Jane escape from him--that too Icould envisage as a possibility. 

The mind flings far afield very rapidly! But I recall that itoccurred to me also that I might be displaying many of the fatuousqualities I was crediting to Tako, by thinking such thoughts!

I have no more than briefly summarized the many things Tako told usduring that hour while we strode across the dim rocky uplands towardhis mobilized army awaiting its departure for the scene of the mainattack. Some of his forces had already gone ahead. Several bands ofmen were making visual contact with the seacoast of the southernUnited States. It was all experimentation. They were heading for NewYork. They would wait there, and not materialize until this mainarmy had joined them. 

We saw presently, in the distance ahead of us, a dim green sheen oflight below the horizon. Then it disclosed itself to be quitenear--the reflection of green light from a bowl-like depression ofthis rocky plateau. 

We reached the rim of the bowl. The encampment of Tako's main armylay spread before us. 

CHAPTER VIII

_The Flight through the Fourth Dimension_

"This is the girl, Tolla, " said Tako quietly. "She will take care ofyou, Jane, and make you comfortable on this trip. "

In the dull green sheen which enveloped the encampment, this girl ofthe Fourth Dimension stood before us. She had greeted Tako quietlyin their own language, but as she gazed up into his face it seemedthat the anxiety for his welfare turned to joy at having him safelyarrive. She was a small girl; as small as Jane, and probably noolder. Her slim figure stood revealed, garbed in the same whitewoven garments as those worn by the men. At a little distance shemight have been a boy of Earth, save that her silvery white hair waswound in a high conical pile on her head, and there were tasseledornaments on her legs and arms. 

Her small oval face, as it lighted with pleasure at seeing Tako, wasbeautiful. It was delicate of feature; the eyes pale blue; the lipscurving and red. Yet it was a curious face, by Earth standards. Itseemed that there was an Oriental slant to the eyes; the nose washigh-bridged; the eyebrows were thin pencil lines snow-white, andabove each of them was another thin line of black, which evidentlyshe had placed there to enhance her beauty. 

Strange little creature! She was the only girl of this world we weredestined to meet; she stood beside Jane, seemingly so different, andyet, we were to learn, so humanly very much the same. Her quiet gazebarely touched Don and me; but it clung to Jane and becameinscrutable. 

"We will travel together, " Tako said. "You make her comfortable, Tolla. "

"I will do my best, " she said; her voice was soft, curiously limpid. "Shall I take her now to our carrier?"

"Yes. "

It gave me a pang to see Jane leave with her; Don shot me a sharp, questioning glance but we thought it best to raise no objection. 

"Come, " said Tako. "Stay close by me. We will be in the carrierpresently. "

 * * * * *

There was an area here in the bowl-like depression of at least halfa mile square upon which an assemblage of some five thousand or moremen were encamped. It was dark, though an expanse of shiftingshadows and dull green light mingled with the vague phosphorescentsheen from the rocks. The place when we arrived was a babble ofvoices, a confusion of activity. The encampment, which obviously wastemporary--perhaps a mobilization place--rang with the last minutepreparations for departure. Whatever habitations had been here nowwere packed and gone. 

Tako led us past groups of men who were busy assembling and carryingwhat seemed equipment of war toward a distant line of oblong objectsinto which men were now marching. 

"The carriers, " said Tako. He greeted numbers of his friends, talking to them briefly, and then hurried us on. All these men weredressed similarly to Tako, but I saw none so tall, nor so commandingof aspect. They all stared at Don and me hostilely, and once ortwice a few of them gathered around us menacingly. But Tako wavedthem away. It brought me a shudder to think of Jane crossing thiscamp. But we had watched Tolla and Jane starting and Tolla hadpermitted none to approach them. 

"Keep your eyes open, " Don whispered. "Learn what you can. We've gotto watch our chance--" We became aware that Tako was listening. Donquickly added, "I say, Bob, what does he mean--carriers?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Ask him. "

We would have to be more careful; it was obvious that Tako's hearingwas far keener than our own. He was fifteen feet away, but he turnedhis head at once. 

"A carrier you would call in Bermuda a tram. Or a train, let ussay. " He was smiling ironically at our surprise that he hadoverheard us. He gestured to the distant oblong objects. "We travelin them. Come, there is really nothing for me to do; all is inreadiness here. "

 * * * * *

The vehicles stood on a level rocky space at the farther edge of thecamp. I think, of everything I had seen in this unknown realm, thesight of these vehicles brought the most surprise. The glimpse wehad had of Tako's feudal castle seemed to suggest primitiveness. 

But here was modernity--super-modernity. The vehicles--there wereperhaps two dozen of them--were all apparently of similar character, differing only in size. 

They were long, low oblongs. Some were much the size and shape of asingle railway car; others twice as long; and several were like avery long train, not of single joined cars, but all one structure. They lay like white serpents on the ground--dull aluminum in colorwith mound-shaped roofs slightly darker. Rows of windows in theirsides with the interior greenish lights, stared like round gogglingeyes into the night. 

When we approached closer I saw that the vehicles were not of solidstructure, but that the sides seemingly woven of wire-mesh--or wovenof thick fabric strands. [4]

 [4] The vehicles were constructed of a material allied in character to that used for garments by the people of this realm. It was not metal, but an organic vegetable substance. 

The army of white figures crowded around the vehicles. Boxes, whitewoven cases, projectors and a variety of disks and dials and wiremechanisms were being loaded aboard. And the men were marching in totake their places for the journey. 

Tako gestured. "There is our carrier. "

It was one of the smallest vehicles--low and streamlined, so that itsuggested a fat-bellied cigar, white-wrapped. It stood alone, alittle apart from the others, with no confusion around it. Thegreen-lighted windows in its sides goggled at us. 

 * * * * *

We entered a small porte at its forward pointed end. The controlroom was here, a small cubby of levers and banks of dial-faces. Three men, evidently the operators, sat within. They were dressedlike Tako save that they each had a great round lens like a monocleon the left eye, with dangling wires from it leading to dialsfastened to the belt. 

Tako greeted them with a gesture and a gruff word and pushed us pastthem into the car. We entered a low narrow white corridor with dimgreen lights in its vaulted room. Sliding doors to compartmentsopened from one side of it. Two were closed; one was partly open. Aswe passed, Tako called softly:

"All is well with you, Tolla?"

"Yes, " came the girl's soft voice. 

I met Don's gaze. I stopped short and called:

"Are you all right, Jane?"

I was immensely relieved as she answered, "Yes, Bob. "

Tako shoved me roughly. "You presume too much. "

The corridor opened into one main room occupying the full ten-footwidth of the vehicle and its twenty-foot middle section. Low softcouch seats were here, and a small table with food and drink uponit; and on another table low to the floor, with a mat-seat besideit, a litter of small mechanical devices had been deposited. I sawamong them two or three of the green-light hand weapons. 

Tako followed my gaze and laughed. "You are transparent. If you knewhow to use those weapons, do you think I would leave them near you?"

We were still garbed in the white garments, but the disks and wiresand helmet had been taken from us. 

"I say, you needn't be so suspicious, " Don protested. "We're not soabsolutely foolish. But if you want any advice from us on how toattack New York, you've got to explain how your weapons are used. "

 * * * * *

Tako seated us. "All in good time. We shall have opportunity now totalk. "

"About the trip--" I said. "Are we going to New York City?"

"Yes. "

"How long will it take?"

"Long? That is difficult to say. Have you not noticed that time inmy world has little to do with yours?"

"How long will it seem?" I persisted. 

He shrugged. "That is according to your mood. We shall eat once ortwice, and get a little sleep. "

One of the window openings was beside us with a loosely woven meshof wires across it. Outside I could see the shifting lights. Menwere embarking in the other vehicles; and the blended noise fromthem floated in to us. 

Questions flooded me. This strange journey, what would it be like? Icould envisage the invisible little Bermuda in the void of darknessover us now; or here in this same space around us. No, we hadclimbed from where we landed in the space close under the Pagethilltop. And we had walked forward for perhaps an hour. The space ofBermuda would be behind us and lower down. This then was the openocean. I gazed at the solid rocky surface outside our window. Nearlyseven hundred miles away must be New York City. We were going there. How? Would it be called flying? Or following this rocky surface?

As though to answer my thoughts Tako gestured to the window. "See. The first carrier starts away. "

The carrier lay like a stiff white reptile on the ground. Its doorswere closed, and watching men stood back from it. 

Don gasped, "Why--it's fading! A transition!"

 * * * * *

It glowed along all its length and grew tenuous of aspect, until ina moment that solid thing which had been solidly resting there on arock was a wraith of vehicle. A great oblong apparition--the ghostof a reptile with round green spots on its sides. A fading wraith. But it did not quite disappear. Hovering just within visibility, itslowly, silently slid forward. It seemed, without changing itslevel, to pass partly through an upstanding crag which stood in itspath. Distance dimmed it, dwindled it; and in a moment it was goneinto the night. 

"We will start, " said Tako abruptly. "Sit where you are. There willbe a little shock, much like the transition coming in from yourworld. " He called, "Tolla, we start. "

A signal-dial was on the room wall near him. He rose and pressed itslever. There was a moment of silence. Then the current went on. Itpermeated every strand of the material of which the vehicle wasconstructed. It contacted with our bodies. I felt the tingle of it;felt it running like fire through my veins. The whole interior washumming. There was a shock to my senses, swiftly passing, followedby a sense of weightless freedom. But that lightness was anillusion, a comparison with externals only, for the seat to which Iclung remained solid, and my body pressed upon it with a feeling ofnormal weight. 

Outside the window, the dark scene of rocks and vehicles and men wasfading; turning ghostly, shadowy, spectral. But it did not quitevanish; it held its wraithlike outlines, and in a moment begansliding silently backward. It seemed that we also passed through alittle butte of rocks. Then we emerged again into the open; and, aswe gathered speed, the vague spectral outlines of a rocky landscapeslid past us in a bewildering panorama. 

We were away upon the journey. [5]

 [5] What we learned of the science of the invisible realm was perforce picked piecemeal by us from all that we saw, experienced, and what several different times Tako was willing to explain to us. And it was later studied by the scientists of our world, whose additional theories I can incorporate into my own knowledge. Yet much of it remains obscure. And it is so intricate a subject that even if I understood it fully I could do no more than summarize here its fundamental principles. 

 The space-transition of these vehicles, Tako had already told us, was closely allied to the transition from his world to ours. And the weapons were of the same principles. The science of space-transition, limited to travel from one portion of the realm to another, quite evidently came first. The weapons, the forcible, abrupt transition of material objects out of the realm into other dimensions--into the Unknown--this principle was developed from the traveling. And from them both Tako himself evolved the safe and controlled transition from his world to ours. 

 Concerning the operation of these vehicles: Motion, in our Earth-world or any other, is the progressive change of a material object in relation to its time and space. It is here now, but it _was there_. Both space and time undergo a simultaneous change; the object itself remains unaltered, save in its _position_. 

 In the case of the vehicles, the current I have already mentioned (used in the mechanism for the transition from Earth to the other realm) that current, circulating in the organic material of which the vehicle was composed, altered the state of matter of the carrier and everything within the aura of the current's field. The vehicle and all its contents, with altered inherent vibratory rate of its molecules, atoms and electrons, was in effect projected into another world. A new dimension was added to it. It became an imponderable wraith, resting dimly visible in a sort of borderland upon the fringe of its own world. 

 Yet it had not changed _position_. It still remained quiescent. Then the current was further altered, and the time and space co-ordinates set into new combinations. This change of the current was a _progressive_ change. Controlled and carefully calculated by what intricate theoretic principles and practical mechanisms no scientist of our world can yet say. 

 It is clear, however, that as this progressive change in space-time characteristics began, the vehicle perforce must move slightly in space and time to reconcile itself to the change. 

 There never has been a seemingly more abstruse subject for the human mind to grasp than the theories involving a true conception of space-time. Yet, doubtless, to those of Tako's realm, inheriting, let me say, the consciousness of its reality, there was nothing abstruse about it. 

 An analogy may make it clearer. The vehicle, hovering in the borderland, might be called in a visible but gaseous state. A solid can be turned to gas merely by the alteration of the vibratory rate of its molecules. 

 This unmoving (gaseous) vehicle, is now further altered in space-time characteristics. Suppose we say it is very slightly thrown out of tune with its _spatial_ surroundings at the time which is its _present_. Nature will allow no such disorganization. The vehicle, as a second of _time_ passes, is impelled by the force of nature to be in a _different place_. This involves motion. A small change in the first second. Then the current alters it progressively faster. The change, of necessity, is progressively greater, the motion more rapid. 

 And this, controlled as to direction, became transportation. The determination of direction at first thought seems amazingly intricate. In effect, that was not so. With space-time factors set as a destination, i. E. , the place where the vehicle must end its change at a certain time, all the intermediate changes become automatic. With every passing second it must be at a reconcilable place--the direction of its passage perforce being the shortest path between the two. 

 With this in mind, the transition from one world to another becomes more readily understandable. No _natural_ change of space is involved, merely the change of the state of matter. It was the same change as that which carried the vehicles into a shadowy borderland, and then pushed further into new dimensional realms. 

 The green light-beam weapons were merely another application of the same principle. The characteristics of the green light current, touching organic matter, altered the vibratory rate of what was struck to coincide with the light. A solid cake of ice under a blow-torch becomes steam by the same principle. The light-beams were swift and violent in their action. The change in them was progressive also--but it was so swiftly violent a change that nothing living could survive the shock of the enforced transition. 

 * * * * *

There was little to see during this strange flight. Outside ourwindows gray shadows drifted swiftly past--a shadowy, ghostlylandscape of gray rocks. Sometimes it was below us, so that weseemed in an airship winging above it. Then abruptly it would riseover us and we plunged into it as though it were a mere light-image, a mirage. 

Hours passed. For the most part the shadowy void seemed a jaggedmountainous terrain, a barren waste. There were great plateauuplands, one of which rose seemingly thousands of feet over us. Andthere was perhaps an hour of time when the surface of the world haddropped far away, so far down that it was gone in the distance. Likea projectile we sped level, unswerving. And at last the shadows ofthe landscape came up again. And occasionally we saw shadowyinhabited domains--enclosing walls around water and vegetation, witha frowning castle and its brood of mound-shaped little houses likebaby chicks clustered around the mother hen. 

Tako served us with a meal; it was strange food, but our hunger madeit palatable. Jane and Tolla remained in their nearby cabin. We didnot see them, but occasionally Don or I, ignoring Tako's frown, called out to Jane, and received her ready answer. 

Occasionally also, we had an opportunity to question Tako. He hadbegun tell us the general outline of his plans. The important factwas that the army would mobilize just within visibility of New York. 

"Nothing can touch us then, " Tako said. "You will have to explainwhat weapons will be used against me. Particularly the long-rangeweapons are interesting. But you have no weapons which couldpenetrate into the shadows of the borderland, have you?"

"No, " said Don. "But your weapons--" He tried not to seem toointent. "Look here, Tako, I don't just understand how you intend toconquer New York. "

"Devastate it, " Tako interrupted. "Smash it up, and then we canmaterialize and take possession of it. My object is to capture agreat number of young women--beautiful young women. "

"How?" I demanded. "By smashing up New York? There are thousands ofyoung women there, but you would kill them in the process. Now ifyou would try some other locality. For instance, I could direct youto open country--"

 * * * * *

He understood my motive. "I ask not that kind of advice. I willcapture New York; devastate it. I think then your rulers will bewilling voluntarily to yield all the captives I demand. Or, if not, then we will plan to seize them out of other localities. "

Don said, "Suppose you tell us more clearly just how you expect tosmash New York, as you call it. First, you will gather, notmaterialized, but only visible to the city. "

"Exactly. That will cause much excitement, will it not?Panics--terror. And if we are only wraiths, no weapons of your worldcan attack us. "

"Nor can yours attack the city. Can they?"

He did not at first answer that; and then he smiled. "Our handlight-projectors could not penetrate out from the borderland withoutlosing their force. But we have bombs. You shall see. [6] The bombsalone will devastate New York, if we choose to use them. I have alsoa long-range projector of the green light-beam. It is my idea, whenthe city is abandoned by the enemy that we can take possession ofsome prominent point of vantage. A tall building, perhaps. " Hesmiled again his quiet grim smile. "We will select one and becareful to leave it standing. I will materialize with our giantprojector, dominate all the region and then we can barter with yourauthorities. It is your long-range guns I most fear. When theprojector is materialized--and we are ready to bargain--then yourairplanes, warships lying far away perhaps, might attack. Supposenow you explain those weapons to me. "

 [6] Materialization bombs, we afterward called them; they played a diabolical part in the coming events. They were of many sizes and shapes, but most of them were small in size and shape, like a foot-long wedged-shaped brick, or the head of an ax. They were constructed of organic material, with a wire mesh of the transition mechanism encasing them, and an automatic operating device like the firing fuse of a bomb. 

 * * * * *

For an hour or more he questioned us. He was no fool, this fellow;he knew far more of the conditions ahead of him than we realized. Irecall that once I said:

"You have never been in New York?"

"No. Not materialized. But I have observed it very carefully. "

As a lurking ghost!

"We have calculated, " he went on, "the space co-ordinates with greatprecision. That is how we have been able to select the destinationfor this carrier now. You cannot travel upon impulse by this method. Our engineers, as you might call them, must go in advance withrecording apparatus. Nothing can be done blindly. "

It brought to my mind the three pilots now operating our vehicle. Imentioned the lens on their left eyes like a monocle. 

"With that they can see ahead of us a great distance. It flings thevision--like gazing along a beam of light--to space-time factors inadvance of our present position. In effect, a telescope. "

 * * * * *

There were a few hours of the journey when Don and I slept, exhausted by what we had been through. Tako was with us when wedozed off, and I recall that he was there when we awakened. How muchtime passed we could not tell. 

"You are refreshed?" he said smilingly. "And hungry again, no doubt. We will eat and drink--and soon we will arrive at the predestinedtime and place. "

We were indeed hungry again. And while we were eating Tako gesturedto the window. "Look there. Your world seems visible a little. "

Just before we slept it had seemed that mingled with the shadows ofTako's world was the gray outline of an ocean surface beneath us. Igazed out at the dim void now. Our flight was far slower thanbefore. We were slackening speed for the coming halt. And I saw nowthat the shadows outside were the mingled wraiths of two spectralworlds, with us drifting forward between and among them. The terrainof Tako's world was bleaker, more desolate and more steeplymountainous than ever. There were pits and ravines and gullies withjagged mountain spires, cliffs and towering gray masses of rock. 

And mingled with it, in a general way coincidental with it in theplane of the same space, we could see now the tenuous shapes of ourown world. Vague, but familiar outlines! We had passed Sandy Hook!The ocean lay behind us. A hundred feet or so beneath us was thelevel water of the Lower Bay. 

"Don!" I murmured. "Look there! Long Island off there! And that'sStaten Island ahead of us!"

"Almost at our destination, " Tako observed. And in a moment hegestured again. "There is your city. Have a good look at your dearNew York. "

 * * * * *

Diagonally ahead through the window we saw the spectres of the greatpile of masonry on lower and mid-Manhattan. Spectres of the giantbuildings; the familiar skyline, and mingled with it the ghostlygray outlines of the mountains and valley depths of Tako's world. All intermingled! The mountain peaks rose far higher than thetallest of New York's skyscrapers; and the pits and ravines werelower than the waters of the harbor and rivers, lower than thesubways and the tubes and the tunnels. 

"Another carrier!" Don said abruptly. "See it off there!"

It showed like a great gray projectile coming in level with us. Andthen we saw two others in the distance behind us. Fantastic, ghostlyarrival of the enemy! Weird mobilization here within the space ofthe doomed New York. 

"Can they see us?" I murmured. "Tako, the people down there onStaten Island--can they see us?"

"Yes, " he smiled. "Don't you think so? Look! Are not those ships ofwar? Hah! Gathered already--awaiting our coming!"

I have already given a brief summary of the events of the days andnights just past here in New York. The terror at the influx ofapparitions. The panic of the city's teeming millions struggling tooeagerly to escape. 

It was night now--the night of May 19th. The city was in chaos, butnone of the details were apparent to us as we arrived. But we couldsee, as we drifted with slow motion above the waters of the harbor, that there were warships anchored here, and in the Hudson River. They showed as little spectral dots of gray. And in the air, levelwith us at times, the wraiths of encircling airplanes were visible. 

"They see us, " Tako repeated. 

They did indeed. A puff of light and up-rolling smoke came from oneof the ships. A silent shot. Perhaps it screamed through us, but wewere not aware of it. 

Tako chuckled. "They get excited, do they not? We strike terror--arethey going to fight like excited children?"

 * * * * *

We were under sudden bombardment. Fort Wadsworth was firing; puffsshowed from several of the warships; and abruptly a group of ghostlymonoplanes dove at us like birds. They went through us, emerged andsped away. And in a moment the shots were discontinued. 

"That is better, " said Tako. "What a waste of ammunition. "

Our direction was carrying us from mid-Manhattan. The bridges toBrooklyn were visible. Beyond them, over New York, mingled withteeming buildings was a mountain slope of Tako's realm. I saw one ofour carriers lying on a ledge of it. 

A sudden commotion in our car brought our attention from the sceneoutside. The voices of girls raised in anger. Tolla's voice andJane's! Then came the sound of a scuffle!

"By what gods!" Tako exclaimed. 

We all leaped to our feet. Tako rushed for the door of thecompartment with us after him. We burst in upon the girls. They werestanding in the center of the little room. One of the chairs wasoverturned. Jane stood gripping Tolla by the wrists, and withgreater strength was forcibly holding her. 

As we appeared, Jane abruptly released her, and Tolla sank to thefloor and burst into wild sobs. Jane faced us, red and white offace, and herself almost in tears. 

"What's the matter?" Don demanded. "What is it?"

But against all our questionings both girls held to a stubbornsilence. 

CHAPTER IX

_A Woman Scorned_

Jane afterward told us just what happened in that compartment of thecarrier, and I think that for the continuity of my narration I hadbest relate it now. 

The cubby room was small, not much over six feet wide, and twelvefeet long. There was a single small door to the corridor, and twosmall windows. A couch stood by them; there were two low chairs, anda small bench-like table. 

Tolla made Jane as comfortable as possible. Food was at hand; Tolla, after an hour or two served it at the little table, eating the mealwith Jane, and sitting with her on the couch where they could gazethrough the windows. 

To Jane this girl of another world was at once interesting, surprising and baffling. Jane could only look upon her as an enemy. In Jane's mind there was no thought save that we must escape, andfrustrate Tako's attack upon New York; and she was impulsive, youthful enough to think something might be contrived. 

At all events, she saw Tolla in the light of an enemy who might betricked into giving information. 

Jane admits that her ideas were quite as vague as our own when itcame to planning anything definite. 

She at first studied Tolla, who seemed as young as herself andperhaps in her own world, was as beautiful. And within an hour ortwo she was surprised at Tolla's friendliness. They had dinedtogether, gazed through the windows at the speeding shadows of thestrange world sliding past; they had dozed together on the couch. During all this they could have been schoolgirl friends. Not captorand captive upon these strange weird circumstances of actuality, butfriends of one world. And in outward aspect Tolla could fairly wellhave been a cultured girl of our Orient. 

 * * * * *

Then Jane got a shock. She tried careful questions. And Tollaskillfully avoided everything that touched in any way upon Tako'sfuture plans. Yet her apparent friendliness, and a certain girlishvolubility continued. 

And then, at one point, Tolla asked:

"Are you beautiful in Bermuda?"

"Why, yes, " said Jane. "I guess so. "

"I am beautiful in my world. Tako has said so. "

"You love him, don't you?" Jane said abruptly. 

"Yes. That is true. " There was no hint of embarrassment. Her paleblue eyes stared at Jane, and she smiled a little quizzically. "Doesit show so quickly upon my face that you saw it at once? I am calledTolla because I am pledged soon to enter Tako's harem. "

Upon impulse Jane put her arm around the other girl as they sat onthe couch. "I think he is very nice. "

But she saw it was an error. The shadow of a frown came upon Tolla'sface; a glint of fire clouded her pale, serene eyes. 

"He will be the greatest man of his world, " she said quietly. 

 * * * * *

There was an awkward silence. "The harem, I am told, " Jane saidpresently, "is one of your customs. " She took a plunge. "And Takotold us why they want our Earth girls. There was one of my friendsstolen from Bermuda--"

"And yet you call him very nice, " Tolla interrupted with suddenirony. "Girls are frank in our world. But you are not. What did youmean by that?"

"I was trying to be friendly, " said Jane calmly. "You had just saidyou loved him. "

"But you do not love him?"

It took Jane wholly back. "Good Heavens, no!"

"But he--might readily love you?"

"I hope not!" Jane tried to laugh, but the idea itself was sofrightening to her that the laugh sounded hollow. She gathered herwits. This girl was jealous. Could she play upon that jealousy?Would Tolla perhaps soon want her to escape? The idea grew. Tollamight even some time soon come to the point of helping her escape. 

Jane said carefully, "I suppose I was captured with the idea ofgoing into someone's harem. Was that the idea?"

"I am no judge of men's motives, " said Tolla curtly. 

"Tako said as much as that, " Jane persisted. "But not necessarilyinto his harem. But if it should be his, why would you care? Yourmen divide their love--"

"I would care because Tako may give up his harem, " Tolla interruptedvehemently. "He goes into this conquest for power--for wealth--becausesoon he expects to rule all our world and band it together into anation. He has always told me that I might be his only wife--someday--"

 * * * * *

She checked herself abruptly and fell into a stolid silence. It madeJane realize that under the lash of emotion Tolla would talk freely. But Jane could create no further opportunity then, for Tako suddenlyappeared at their door. The girls had been together now some hours. Don and I were at this time asleep. 

He stood now at the girl's door. "Tolla, will you go outside amoment? I want to talk to this prisoner alone. " And, interpretingthe look which both girls flung at him, he added, "The door remainsopen. If she wants you back, Tolla, she will call. "

Without a word Tolla left the compartment. But Jane saw on her faceagain a flood of jealousy. 

Tako seated himself amiably. "She has made you comfortable?"

"Yes. "

"I am glad. "

He passed a moment of silence. "Have you been interested in thescene outside the window?" he added. 

"Yes. Very. "

"A strange sight. It must seem very strange to you. This travelingthrough my world--"

"Did you come to tell me that?" she interrupted. 

He smiled. "I came for nothing in particular. Let us say I came toget acquainted with you. My little prisoner--you do not like me, doyou?"

She tried to meet his gaze calmly. This was the first time Jane hadhad opportunity to regard Tako closely. She saw now the aspect ofpower which was upon him. His gigantic stature was not clumsy, forthere was a lean, lithe grace in his movements. His face washandsome in a strange foreign fashion. He was smiling now; but inthe set of his jaw, his wide mouth, there was an undeniable cruelty, a ruthless dominance of purpose. And suddenly she saw theanimal-like aspect of him; a thinking, reasoning, but ruthless, animal. 

"You do not like me, do you?" he repeated. 

 * * * * *

She forced herself to reply calmly, "Why should I? You abduct myfriends. There is a girl named Eunice Arton whom you have stolen. Where is she?"[7]

 [7] Neither Eunice Arton, nor any of the stolen girls, have ever been heard from since. Like the thousands of men, women and children who met their death in the attack upon New York, Eunice Arton was a victim of these tragic events. 

He shrugged. "You could call that the fortunes of war. This iswar--"

"And you, " she said, "are my enemy. "

"Oh, I would not go so far as to say that. Rather would I callmyself your friend. "

"So that you will return me safely? And also Bob Rivers, and mycousin, Don--you will return us safely as you promised?"

"Did I promise? Are you not prompting words from my lips?"

Jane was breathless from fear, but she tried not to show it. 

"What are you going to do with us?" she demanded. There is no womanwho lacks feminine guile in dealing with a man; and in spite of herterror Jane summoned it to her aid. 

"You want me to like you, Tako?"

"Of course I do. You interest me strangely. Your beauty--yourcourage--"

"Then if you would be sincere with me--"

"I am; most certainly I am. "

"You are not. You have plans for me. I told Tolla I supposed I wasdestined for someone's harem. Yours?"

It startled him. "Why--" He recovered himself and laughed. "Youspeak with directness. " He suddenly turned solemn. He bent towardher and lowered his voice; his hand would have touched her arm, butshe drew away. 

"In very truth, ideas are coming to me, Jane. I will be, some daysoon, the greatest man of my world. Does that attract you?"

"N-no, " she said, stammering. 

"I wish that it would, " he said earnestly. "I do of reality wishthat it would. I will speak plainly, and it is in a way that Takonever spoke to woman before. I have found myself, these last hours, caring very much for your good opinion of me. That is surprising. "

 * * * * *

She stared at him with sudden fascination mingled with her fear. Heseemed for this moment wholly earnest and sincere. An attractivesort of villain, this handsome giant, turned suddenly boyish andnaive. 

"That is surprising, " Tako repeated. 

"Is it?"

"Very. That I should care what any woman thinks of me, particularlya captive girl--but I do. And I realize, Jane, that our marriagesystem is very different from yours. Repugnant to you, perhaps. Isit?"

"Yes, " she murmured. His gaze held her; she tried to shake it off, but it held her. 

"Then I will tell you this: I have always felt that the glitteringluxury of a large harem is in truth a very empty measure of man'sgreatness. For Tako there will be more manly things. The power ofleadership--the power to rule my world. When I got that idea, itoccurred to me also that for a man like me there might be some onewoman--to stand alone by my side and rule our world. "

His hand touched her arm, and though she shuddered, she left itthere. Tako added with a soft vibrant tenseness. "I am beginning tothink that you are that woman. "

There was a sound in the corridor outside the door--enough to causeTako momentarily to swing his gaze. It broke the spell for Jane;with a shock she realized that like a snake he had been holding herfascinated. His gaze came back at once, but now she shook off hishand from her arm. 

"Tolla told me you--you said something like that to her, " Jane saidwith an ironic smile. 

It angered him. The earnestness dropped from him like a mask. "Oh, did she? And you have been mocking me, you two girls?"

 * * * * *

He stood up, his giant length bringing his head almost to thevaulted ceiling of the little compartment. "What degradation forTako that women should discuss his heart. "

His frowning face gazed down at Jane; there was on it now nothing tofascinate her; instead, his gaze inspired terror. 

"We--we said nothing else, " she stammered. 

"Say what you like. What is it to me? I am a man, and the clatter ofwomen's tongues is no concern of mine. "

He strode to the door. From over his shoulder he said, "What I shalldo with you I have not yet decided. If Tolla is interested, tell herthat. "

"Tako, let me--I mean you do not understand--"

But he was gone. Jane sat trembling. A sense of defeat was on her. Worse than that, she felt that she had done us all immeasurableharm. Tako's anger might react upon Don and me. As a matter of fact, if it did he concealed it, for we saw no change in his attitude. 

Tolla rejoined Jane within a moment. If Tako spoke to her outsideJane did not know it. But she was at once aware that the other girlhad been listening; Tolla's face was white and grim. She came in, busied herself silently about the room. 

Jane turned from the window. "You heard us, Tolla?"

"Yes, I heard you! You with your crooked look staring at him--"

"Why, Tolla, I did not!"

"I saw you! Staring at him so that he would think you beautiful!Asking him, with a boldness beyond that of any woman I could everimagine--asking him if he planned you for his harem!"

 * * * * *

She stood over Jane, staring down with blazing eyes. "Oh, I heardyou! And I heard him telling you how noble are his motives! Onewoman, just for him!"

"But, Tolla--"

"Do not lie to me! I heard him sneering at me--telling you of thisone woman just for him! And you are that woman! Hah! He thinks thatnow, does he? He thinks he will make you love him as I love him. AsI love him! And what does he know of that! What woman's love canmean!"

"Tolla! Don't be foolish. I didn't--I never had any desire to--"

"What do your desires concern me? He thinks he will win you withtales of his conquests! A great man, this Tako, because he willdevastate New York!"

This was the fury of a woman scorned. She was wholly beside herself, her words tumbling, incoherent, beyond her will, beyond herrealization of what she was saying. 

"A great conquest to make you love him! With his giant projector hewill subdue New York! Hah! What a triumph! But it is the weapon'spower, not his! He and all his army--these great brave and warlikemen--why I alone with that weapon could turn--"

She stopped abruptly. The red flush of frenzied anger drained fromher cheeks. 

Jane leaped to her feet. "What do you mean? With that giantprojector--"

But Tolla was standing frozen, with all her anger gone and horror atwhat she had said flooding her. 

"What do you mean, Tolla?" insisted Jane, seizing her. "What couldyou do with that giant projector?"

"Let me go!" Tolla tried to jerk away. 

"I won't let you go! Tell me what you were going to say!"

"Let me go!" Tolla got one hand loose and struck Jane in the face. But Jane again seized the wrist. In the scuffle they overturned achair. 

"I won't let you go until you--"

And then Tako, Don and I, hearing the uproar, burst in upon them. Jane let go her hold, and Tolla broke into sobs, and sank to thefloor. 

And both of them were sullen and silent under our questioning. 

CHAPTER X

_Weird Battleground!_

"We have it going very well, " said Tako, chuckling. "Don't you thinkso? Sit here by me. We will stay here for a time now. "

Tako had a small flat rock for a table. On it he had spread hisparaphernalia for this battle--if battle it could be called. Weirdcontest! Opposing forces, each imponderable to the other so that nophysical contact had yet been made. Tako sat at his rock; givingorders to his leaders who came hurrying up and were away at hiscommand; or speaking orders into his sound apparatus; or consultinghis charts and co-ordinates, questioning Don and me at times overthe meaning of shadowy things we could see taking place about us. 

A little field headquarters our post here might have been termed. [8]

 [8] The detailed nature of the scientific devices Tako used in the handling of his army during the attack never has been disclosed. I saw him using one of the eye-telescopes. There was also a telephonic device and occasionally he would discharge a silent signal radiance--a curious intermittent green flare of light. His charts of the topography of New York City were to me incomprehensible hieroglyphics--mathematical formula, no doubt; the co-ordinates of altitudes and contours of our world-space in its relation to the mountainous terrain of his world which stood mingled here with the New York City buildings. 

We were grouped now around Tako on a small level ledge of rock. Itlay on a broken, steeply ascending ramp of a mountainside. Themountain terraces towered back and above us. In front, two hundredfeet down, was a valley of pits and craters; and to the sides atumbled region of alternating precipitous cliffs and valley depths. 

Upon every point of vantage, for two or three miles around us, Tako's men were dispersed. To us, they were solid gray blobs in theluminous darkness. The carriers, all arrived now, stood about a milefrom us, and save for their guards, the men had all left them. Theweapons were being taken out and carried to various points over themountains and in the valley depths. Small groups of men--some twohundred in a group--were gathered at many different points, assembling their weapons, and waiting for Tako's orders. Messengerstoiled on foot between them, climbing, white figures. Signalsflashed. 

Fantastic, barbaric scene--it seemed hardly modern. Mountain defileswere swarming with white invaders, making ready, but not yetattacking. 

 * * * * *

We had had as yet no opportunity of talking alone with Jane since weleft the carrier. The incident with Tolla was to us whollyinexplicable. But that it was significant of something, we knew--byJane's tense white face and the furtive glances she gave us. Don andI were ready to seize the first opportunity to question her. 

Tolla, by the command of Tako, stayed close by Jane, and the twogirls were always within sight of us. They were here now, seated onthe rocks twenty feet from us. And the two guards, whom Tako hadappointed at the carrier, sat near us with alert weapons, watchingJane and us closely. [9]

 [9] There was a thing which puzzled me before we arrived in the carrier, and surprised me when we left it; and though I did not, and still do not wholly understand it, I think I should mention it here. Traveling in the carrier we were suspended in a condition of matter which might be termed mid way between Tako's realm and our Earth-world. Both, in shadowy form, were visible to us; and to an observer on either world we also were visible. 

 Then, as the carrier landed, it receded from this sort of borderland as I have termed it, contacted with its own realm and landed. At once I saw that the shadowy outlines of New York were gone. And, to New York observers, the carriers as they landed, were invisible. The mountains--all this tumbled barren wilderness of Tako's world--were invisible to observers in New York. 

 But I knew now how very close were the two worlds--a very fraction of visible "distance, " one from the other. 

 Then, with wires, disks and helmets--all the transition mechanism worn now by us and all of Tako's forces--we drew ourselves a very small fraction of the way toward the Earth-world state. Enough and no more than to bring it to most tenuous, most wraithlike visibility, so that we could see the shadows of it and know our location in relation to it, which was necessary to Tako's operations. 

 In this state, New York City was a wraith to us--and we were shadowy, dimly visible apparitions to New York observers. But in this slight transition, we did not wholly disconnect with the terrain of Tako's world. There was undoubtedly--if the term could be called scientific--a depth of field to the solidity of these mountains. By that I mean, their tangibility persisted for a certain distance toward other dimensions. Perhaps it was a greater "depth of field" than the solidity of our world possesses. As to that, I do not know. 

 But I do know, since I experienced it, that as we sat now encamped upon this ledge, the ground under us felt only a trifle different from when we had full contact with it. There was a lightness upon us--an abnormal feeling of weight-loss--a feeling of indefinable abnormality to the rocks. Yet, to observers in New York, we were faintly to be seen, and the rocks upon which we sat were not. 

There was just once after we left the carrier, toiling over therocks with Tako's little cortege to this vantage point on the ledge, that Jane found an opportunity of communicating secretly with us. 

"Tolla told me something about the giant projector! Something abouthow it--"

She could say almost nothing but that. "The projector, Bob, if youcan only learn how it--"

Tolla was upon us, calling to attract Tako's attention, and Janemoved away. 

 * * * * *

The giant projector! We had it with us now; a dozen men hadlaboriously carried it up here. Not yet assembled, it stood here onthe ledge--a rectangular gray box about the size and shape of acoffin, encased now in the mesh of transition mechanism. Takointended to materialize us and that box into the city when the timecame, unpack and erect the projector, and with its long rangedominate all the surrounding country. 

Tolla had almost told Jane something about it! Jane was trying tolearn that secret. Or she thought we might learn it from Tako. Butof what use if we did? We were helpless, every moment under the eyesof guards whose little hand-beams could in a second annihilate us. When, leaving the carrier, Jane had appeared garbed like the rest ofus and we had all been equipped with the transition mechanism whichwe knew well how to use now, the thought came to me of trying toescape. But it was futile. I could set the switches at my belt tomaterialize me into New York. But as I faded, the weapons of theguards would have been quick enough to catch me. How could Jane, Donand I simultaneously try a thing like that. 

"Impossible!" Don whispered. "Don't do anything wrong. Some chancemay come, later. "

But with that slight transition over, Tako at once removed from ourbelts a vital part of the mechanism in order to make it impotent. 

An hour passed, here on the ledge, with most of the activity ofTako's men incomprehensible to us. 

"You shall see very soon, " he chuckled grimly, "I can give thesignal to attack--all at once. Look there! They grow very bold, these New York soldiers. They have come to inspect us. "

 * * * * *

It was night in New York City--about two A. M. Of the night of May19th and 20th. Our mountain ledge was within a store on the eastside of Fifth Avenue at 36th Street. We seemed to be but one storyabove the pavement. The shadowy outlines of a large rectangular roomwith great lines of show-cases dividing it into wide aisles. Irecognized it at once--a jewelry store, one of the best known in theworld. A gigantic fortune in jewelry was here, some of it hastilypacked in great steel safes nearby, and some of it abandoned inthese show-cases when the panic swept the city a few dayspreviously. 

But the jewelry of our world was nothing to these White Invaders. Tako never even glanced at the cases, or knew or cared what sort ofa store this was. 

The shadowy street of Fifth Avenue showed just below us. It wasempty now of vehicles and people, but along it a line of soldierswere gathered. Other stores and ghostly structures lay along FifthAvenue. And five hundred feet away, diagonally across the avenue, the great Empire State Building, the tallest structure in the entireworld, towered like a ghostly Titan into the void above us. 

This ghostly city! We could see few details. The people had alldeserted this mid-Manhattan now. The stores and hotels and officebuildings were empty. 

A group of soldiers came into the jewelry store and stood within afew feet of us, peering at us. Yet so great was the void between usthat Tako barely glanced at them. He was giving orders constantlynow. For miles around us his men on the mountains and in the valleyswere feverishly active. 

 * * * * *

But doing what? Don and I could only wonder. A tenseness had grippedupon Tako. The time for his attack was nearing. 

"Very presently now, " he repeated. He gestured toward the greatapparition of the Empire State Building so near us. 

"I am sparing that. A good place for us to mount the projector--upthere in that tall tower. You see where our mountain slope cutsthrough that building? We can materialize with the projector at thatpoint. "

The steep ramp of the mountainside upon which we were perched slopedup and cut midway through the Empire State Building. The building'supper portion was free of the mountain whose peaks towered to thewest. We could climb from our ledge up the ramp to the small areawhere it intersected the Empire State at the building's sixtieth toseventieth stories. 

The apparitions of New York's soldiers stood in the jewelry storewith futile leveled weapons. 

"They are wondering what we are doing!" Tako chuckled. 

A dozen of Tako's men, unheeding the apparitions, were now busywithin a few hundred feet of us down the rocky slope. We saw atclose view, what Tako's army was busy doing everywhere. The men hadlittle wedge-shaped objects of a gray material. The materializationbombs! They were placing them carefully at selected points on therocks, and adjusting the firing mechanisms. This group near us, which Don and I watched with a fascinated horror, were down in thebasement of the jewelry store, among its foundations. There for amoment; then moving out under Fifth Avenue, peering carefully at thespectral outlines of the cellars of other structures. 

Then presently Tako called an order. He stood for a moment on theledge with arms outstretched so that his men, and Don and I andJane, and the wondering apparitions of the gathered soldiers and NewYork Police could see him. His moment of triumph! It marked his facewith an expression which was utterly Satanic. 

Then he dropped his arms for the signal to attack. 

CHAPTER XI

_The Devastation of New York_

That night of May 19th and 20th in New York City will go down inhistory as the strangest, most terrible ever recorded. The panicscaused by the gathering apparitions of the previous days were nearlyover now. The city was under martial law, most of it deserted bycivilians, save for the dead who still lay strewn on the streets. 

Lower and mid-Manhattan were an empty shell of deserted structures, and silent, littered streets, which at night were dark, and throughwhich criminals prowled, braving the unknown terror to fatten uponthis opportunity. 

Soldiers and police patrolled as best they could all of Manhattan, trying to clear the streets of the crushed and trampled bodies;seeking in the deserted buildings those who might still be there, trapped or ill, or hurt so that they could not escape; protectingproperty from the criminals who en masse had broken jail and werelurking here. 

Warships lay in the harbor and the rivers. The forts on StatenIsland and at Sandy Hook were ready with their artillery to attackanything tangible. Airplanes sped back and forth overhead. Troopswere marching from outlying points--lines of them coming in over allthe bridges. 

By midnight of May 19th and 20th there were groups of ghosts visibleeverywhere about the city. They lurked in the buildings, permeatingthe solid walls, stalking through them, or down through thefoundations; they wandered upon invisible slopes of their own world, climbing up to gather in groups and hanging in mid-air over the cityrooftops. In the Hudson River off Grant's Tomb two or three hundredof the apparitions were seemingly encamped at a level below theriver's surface. And others were in the air over the waters of theupper bay. 

 * * * * *

Toward midnight, from the open ocean beyond Sandy Hook spectralvehicles came winging for the city. Rapidly decreasing what had atfirst seemed a swift flight, they floated like ghostly dirigiblesover the bay, heading for Manhattan. The forts fired upon them;airplanes darted at them, through them. But the wraiths came onunheeding. And then, gathering over Manhattan at about WashingtonSquare, they faded and vanished. 

Within thirty minutes, though the vehicles never reappeared, it wasseen that the spectral invaders were now tremendously augmented innumbers. A line of shapes marched diagonally beneath the citystreets. Patrolling soldiers in the now deserted subways saw themmarching past. The group in the air over the harbor was augmented. In Harlem they were very near the street levels, a mass of athousand or more strung over an area of forty blocks. 

In mid-Manhattan soldiers saw that Tiffany's jewelry store housedthe lurking shapes. Some were lower, others higher; in this sectionaround Fifth Avenue and Thirty-fourth Street the apparitions were attremendously diverse levels. There were some perched high in the airmore than half way up the gigantic Empire State Building; and stillothers off to the west were in the air fifteen hundred feet or moreabove the Pennsylvania Station. 

 * * * * *

At Tiffany's--as indeed in many other places--the soldiers madeclose visual contact with the apparitions. A patrolling group ofsoldiers entered Tiffany's and went to the second floor. Theyreported a seated group of "ghosts, " with numbers of white shapesworking near them at a lower level which brought them into Tiffany'sbasement. 

The soldiers thought that what was seated here might be a leader. Apparitions rushed up to him, and away. And here the soldiers sawwhat seemed the wraiths of two girls, seated quietly together, helmeted and garbed like the men. And men seemed watching them. 

By one-thirty there was great activity, constant movement of theapparitions everywhere. Doing what? No one could say. The attack, soclosely impending now, was presaged by nothing which could beunderstood. 

There was one soldier who at about one-thirty A. M. Was watching thespectres which lurked seemingly in the foundations of Tiffany's. Hewas called to distant Westchester where the harried Army officialshad their temporary headquarters this night. He sped there on hismotorcycle and so by chance he was left alive to tell what he hadseen. The wraiths under Tiffany's were placing little wedge-shapedghostly bricks very carefully at different points. It occurred tothis soldier that they were putting them in spaces coincidental withthe building's foundations. 

And then came the attack. The materialization bombs--as we knew themto be--were fired. Progressively over a few minutes, at a thousanddifferent points. The area seemed to be from the Battery toSeventy-second Street. Observers in circling airplanes saw itbest--there were few others left alive to tell of it. 

 * * * * *

The whole thing lasted ten minutes. Perhaps it was not even so long. It began at Washington Square. The little ghostly wedges which hadbeen placed within the bricks of the arch at the foot of FifthAvenue began materializing; turning solid. From imponderability theygrew tangible; demanded free empty space of their own. Wedged andpushed with solidifying molecules and atoms, each demanding itslittle space and finding none. Encountering other solidity. 

Outraged nature! No two material bodies can occupy the same space atthe same time!

The Washington Arch very queerly seemed to burst apart by astrangely silent explosion. The upper portion toppled and fell witha clatter of masonry littering the avenue and park. 

Then a house nearby went down; then another. Everything seemed to becrumbling, falling. That was the beginning. Within a minute thechaos spread, running over the city like fire on strewn gasoline. Buildings everywhere came crashing down. The street heaved up, cracking apart in long jagged lines of opening rifts as though anearthquake were splitting them. The subways and tubes and tunnelsyawned like black fantastic chasms crossed and littered by brokengirders. 

The river waters heaved with waves lashed white as the great bridgesfell into them; and sucked down and closed again with tumultuouswhirlpools where the water had rushed into the cracked tunnels ofthe river bed. 

 * * * * *

Of the towering skyscrapers the Woolworth was the first to crumble;it split into sections as it fell across the wreckage which alreadylittered City Hall. Then the Bank of Manhattan Building, crumbling, partly falling sidewise, partly slumping upon the ruins of itself. Simultaneously the Chrysler Building toppled. For a second or two itseemed perilously to sway. Breathless, awesome seconds. It swayedover, lurched back like a great tree in a wind. Then very slowly itswayed again and did not come back. Falling to the east, its wholegiant length came down in a great arc. The descent grew faster, until, in one great swoop it crashed upon the wreckage of the GrandCentral Station. The roar of it surged over the city. The crash ofmasonry; the clatter of its myriad windows, the din of its rending, breaking girders. 

The giant buildings were everywhere tumbling like falling giants;like Titans stricken by invisible tumors implanted in their vitals. It lasted ten minutes. What infinitude of horror came to proud andlordly Manhattan Island in those momentous ten minutes!

Ten thousand patrolling soldiers and police, bands of lurkingcriminals, and men, women and children who still had not left thecity, went down to death in those ten minutes. Yet no observer couldhave seen them. Their little bodies, so small amid these Titans oftheir own creation, went into oblivion unnoticed in the chaos. 

 * * * * *

The little solidifying bombs of the White Invaders did their worksilently. But what a roar surged up into the moonlit night from thestricken city! What tumult of mingled sounds! What a myriad ofsplintering, reverberating crashes, bursting upward into the night;echoing away, renewed again and again so that it all was a vastpulsing throb of terrible sound. And under it, inaudible, what faintlittle sounds must have been the agonized screams of the humans whowere entombed!

Then the pulse of the great roaring sound began slowing. Soon itbecame a dying roar. A last building was toppling here and there. The silence of death was spreading over the mangled litter of thestrewn city. Dying chaos of sound; but now it was a chaos of color. Up-rolling clouds of plaster dust; and then darker, heavier cloudsof smoke. Lurid yellow spots showed through the smoke clouds whereeverywhere fires were breaking up. 

And under it, within it all, the vague white shapes of the enemyapparitions stood untouched, still peering curious, awed triumphantat what they had done. 

Another ten minutes passed; then half an hour, perhaps. Theapparitions were moving now. The many little groups were gatheringinto fewer, larger groups. One marched high in the air, with faintlurid green beams slanting down at the ruins of the city; not asweapons this time, but as beams of faint light, seemingly toilluminate the scene, or perhaps as signals to the ghostly army. 

The warships in the Hudson were steaming slowly toward the Batteryto escape. Searchlights from them, from the other ships hoveringimpotent in the bay, and from a group of encircling planes, flashedtheir white beams over the night to mingle with the glare of thefires and the black pall of smoke which was spreading now like ashroud. 

 * * * * *

There were two young men in a monoplane which had helplessly circledover mid-Manhattan. They saw the city fall, and noticed the lurkingwraiths untouched amid the ruins and in the air overhead. And theysaw, when it was over, that one great building very strangely hadescaped. The Empire State, rearing its tower high into the serenemoonlight above the wreckage and the rising layers of smoke, stoodunscathed in the very heart of Manhattan. The lone survivor, standing there with the moonlight shining upon its top, and thesmoke gathering black around its spreading base. 

The two observers in the airplane, stricken with horror at what theyhad seen, flew mechanically back and forth. Once they passed withina few hundred feet of the standing giant. They saw its two hundredfoot mooring mast for dirigibles rising above the eighty-fivestories of the main structure. They saw the little observatory roomup there in the mooring mast top, with its circular observationplatform, a balcony around it. But they did not notice the figureson that balcony. 

Then, from the top of the Empire State Building--from the circularobservation platform--a single, horribly intense green light-beamslanted out into the night! A new attack! As though all which hadgone before were not enough destruction, now came a new assault. Thespectral enemies were tangible now!

 * * * * *

The single green light-beam was very narrow. But the moonlight couldnot fade it; over miles of distance it held visible. It struck firsta passing airplane. The two observers in the monoplane were at thistime down near the Battery. They saw the giant beam hit theairplane. A moment it clung, and parts of the plane faded. The planewavered, and then, like a plummet, fell. 

The beam swung. It struck a warship lying in the upper bay. Explosions sounded. Puffs of light flared. The ship, with all itspassengers vanished and gone, lay gutted and empty. 

The source of the light moved rapidly around the circular balcony. The light darted to every distant point of the compass. Thesurprised distant ships and forts, realizing that here for the firsttime was a tangible assailant, screamed shots into the night. Butthe green beam struck the ships and forts and instantly silencedthem. 

Now the realization of this tangible enemy spread very far. Within afew minutes, planes and radio communication had carried the news. From distant points which the light could not or did not reach, long-range guns were firing at the Empire State. A moment or twoonly. The base of the building was struck. 

Then, frantically, observing planes sent out the warning to stopfiring. The green beam had for a minute or two vanished. But now itflashed on again. What was this? The spectral wraiths of tenthousand of the enemy were staring. The observers in the planesstared and gasped. What fantasy! What new weird sight was this, stranger than all that had preceded it!

CHAPTER XII

_On the Tower Balcony_

Upon the little observatory balcony at the top of the Empire Statesome twelve hundred feet above the stricken city, Don and I werewith Tako as he erected the giant projector. In the midst of thesilent shadowy outline of the stricken city falling around us, wehad carried the projector up the mountain slope. The spectre of theEmpire State Building was presently around us; we were in a hallwayof one of the upper stories. Slowly, we materialized with ourburden. I recall, as the dark empty corridor of the office buildingcame to solidity around me, with what surprise I heard for the firsttime the muffled reverberations from the crumbling city.... 

We climbed the dark and empty stairs, upward into the mooring mast. Don and I toiled with the box, under the weapons of our two guards. 

It was only a few minutes while Tako assembled and mounted theweapon. It stood a trifle higher than the parapet top. It rolledfreely upon a little carriage mounted with wheels. Don and I peeredat it. We hovered close to Tako with only one thought in our minds, Jane's murmured words--if we could learn something about thisprojector.... 

 * * * * *

Then the horror dulled us. We obeyed orders mechanically, as thoughall of it were a terrible dream, with only a vague undercurrent ofreiterated thought: some chance must come--some fated little chancecoming our way. 

I recall, during those last terrible minutes when Tako flung theprojector beam to send all his distant enemies hurtling intoannihilation, that I stood in a daze by the parapet. Don had ceasedto look. Tako was rolling the projector from one point to anotheraround the circular balcony. Sometimes he was out of sight on theother side, with the observatory room in the mast hiding him. 

We had been ordered not to move. The two guards stood with handweapons turned on so that the faint green beams slanted downward bytheir feet, instantly ready, either for Don or me. 

And I clung to the balcony rail, staring down at the broken city. Itlay strewn and flattened as though, not ten minutes, but tenthousand years of time had crumbled it into ruins. 

Then shots from the distant warships began screaming at us. With agrim smile, Tako silenced them. There was a momentary lull. 

And then came our chance! Fate, bringing just one unforeseen littlething to link the chain, to turn the undercurrent of existingcircumstances--and to give us our chance. Or perhaps Jane, guided byfate, created the opportunity. She does not know. She too was dazed, numb--but there was within her also the memory of what Tolla hadalmost said. And Tolla's frenzy of jealousy.... 

 * * * * *

Tako appeared from around the balcony, rolling the projector. Itsbeam was off. He flung a glance of warning at the two guards towatch us. He left the projector, flushed, triumphant, all his sensesperhaps reeling with the realization of what he had done. He saw thetwo girls huddled in the moonlight of the balcony floor. He stoopedand pushed Tolla roughly away. 

"Jane! Jane, did you see it? My triumph! Tako, master of everything!Even of you--is it not so?"

Did some instinct impel her not to repulse him? Some intuitiongiving her strength to flash him a single alluring moonlit glance?

But suddenly he had enwrapped her in his arms. Kissing her, murmuring love and lust.... 

This was our chance. But we did not know it then. A very chaos ofdiverse action so suddenly was precipitated upon this balcony!

Don and I cried out and heedlessly leaped forward. The tiny beams ofthe guards swung up. But they did not reach us, for the guardsthemselves were stricken into horror. The shot from a far-distantwarship screamed past. But that went almost unheeded. Tako hadshouted, and the guards impulsively turned so that their beamsmissed Don and me. 

Tolla had flung herself upon Tako and Jane. Screaming, she tore atthem and all in an instant rose to her feet. Tako's cylinder, whichshe had snatched, was in her hand. She flashed it on as Don and Ireached her. 

 * * * * *

The guards for that instant could not fire for we were allintermingled. Don stumbled in his rush and fell upon Tako and Jane, and in a moment rose as the giant Tako lifted him and tried to casthim off. 

My rush flung me against Tolla. She was babbling, mouthing frenziedlaughs of hysteria. Her beam pointed downward, but as she reeledfrom the impact of my rush, the beam swung up; missed me, narrowlymissed the swaying bodies of Tako and Don, and struck one of theguards who was standing, undecided what to do. It clung to him for asecond or two, and then swung to the other guard. 

The guards in a puff of spectral light were gone. Tolla stoodwavering; then swung her light toward Tako and Don. But I was uponher. 

"Tolla! Good God--"

"Get back from me! Back, I tell you. "

I heard Jane's agonized warning from the floor. "Bob!"

Tolla's light missed my shoulder. Tako had cast Don off and stoodalone as he turned toward us. Then Tolla's light-beam swung on him. I heard her eery maddened laugh as it struck him. 

A wraith of Tako was there, stricken as though numbed bysurprise.... Then nothingness.... 

Shots from the distant warships were screaming around us. One struckthe base of the building. 

I clung to my scattering senses. I gripped Tolla. 

"That projector--what was it you almost told Jane?"

 * * * * *

She stood stupidly babbling. "Told Jane? That projector--"

She laughed wildly, and like a tigress, cast me off. "Fools of men!Tako--the fool!"

She swung into a frenzy of her own language. And then back intoEnglish. "I will show you--Tako, the fool! All those fools out thereunder the ground and in the sky. I will show them!"

She stooped over the projector and fumbled with the mechanism. 

Don gasped, "Those apparitions--is that what you're going toattack?"

"Yes--attack them!"

The beam flashed on. But it was a different beam now. Fainter, moretenuous; the hum from it was different. 

It leaped into the ground. It was a spreading beam this time. Itbathed the white apparitions who were peering up at the city. 

Why, what was this? Weird, fantastic sight! There was a moment ofTolla's frenzied madness; then she staggered away from theprojector. But Don and I had caught the secret. We took her place. We carried it on. 

We were hardly aware that the far-off warships had ceased firing. Wehardly realized that Tolla had rushed for the parapet; climbed, screaming and laughing--and that Jane tried to stop her. 

"Oh, Tolla, don't--"

But Tolla toppled and fell.... Her body was almost not recognizedwhen it was later found down in the ruins. 

Don and I flung this new beam into the night. We rolled theprojector around the platform, hurling the beam in every directionat the white apparitions.... 

 * * * * *

It had caught first that group which lurked in the ground near thebase of the Empire State. Tolla had turned the beam to the reverseco-ordinates from those Tako used. It penetrated into theborderland, reached the apparitions and forcibly materialized them!A second or two it clung to that group of white men's shapes in theground. They grew solid; ponderable. But the space they now claimedwas not empty! Solid rock was here, yielding no space to anything!Like the little materialization bombs, this was nature outraged. Theground and the solid rock heaved up, broken and torn, invisiblypermeated and strewn with the infinitesimal atomic particles of whata moment before had been the bodies of living men. 

We caught with the beam that marching line of apparitions beneaththe ground surface--a section of Tako's army which was advancingupon Westchester. The city streets over them surged upward. And somewe caught under the rivers and within the waters of the bay, and thewaters heaved and lashed into turmoil. 

Then we turned the beam into the air. The apparitions lost contactwith their invisible mountain peaks. And with sudden solidity, thegravity of our world pulled at them. They fell. Solid men's bodies, falling with the moonlight on them. Dark blobs turning end over end;plunging into the rivers and the harbor with little splashes ofwhite to mark their fall; and yet others whirling down, crashinginto the wreckage of masonry, into the pall of smoke and the luridyellow flames of the burning city. 

The attack of the White Invaders was over. 

 * * * * *

A year has passed. There has been no further menace; perhaps therenever will be. And again, the invisible realm of which Don, Jane andI were vouchsafed so strange a glimpse, lies across a voidimpenetrable. Earth scientists have the projector, with its currentbatteries apparently almost exhausted. And they have the transitionmechanism which we three were wearing. But of those, the vitalelement had been removed by Tako--and was gone with him. Many otherswere found on the bodies, and upon the body of poor Tolla. But allwere wrecked by their fall. 

Perhaps it is just as well. Yet, often I ponder on that other realm. What strange customs and science and civilization I glimpsed. 

Out of such thoughts one always looms upon me: a contemplation ofthe vastness of things to be known. 

And the kindred thought: what a very small part of it we reallyunderstand!