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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/29177-h.zip b/29177-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..adaaf4e --- /dev/null +++ b/29177-h.zip diff --git a/29177-h/29177-h.htm b/29177-h/29177-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d4a92c1 --- /dev/null +++ b/29177-h/29177-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1765 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Pygmy Planet, by Jack Williamson + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; background-color: #FFFFFF; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} + + +.f2 { font-size:x-large; font-weight:bold; } + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + +.caption { + font-weight: bold; + margin-left: 25%; +} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: -0.5em; + margin-top: 0em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; + font-style: normal; +} + +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pygmy Planet, by John Stewart Williamson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pygmy Planet + +Author: John Stewart Williamson + +Release Date: June 20, 2009 [EBook #29177] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PYGMY PLANET *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p class="center">This etext was produced from Astounding Stories February 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. </p></div> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/image_001.jpg" alt="Cover page" width="370" height="528" /></div> +<h1>The Pygmy Planet</h1> + +<h2>By Jack Williamson</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="sidenote">Down into the infinitely small goes Larry on his mission to +the Pygmy Planet.</div> + +<p><span class="f2">"N</span>othing ever happens to me!" Larry Manahan grumbled under his breath, +sitting behind his desk at the advertising agency which employed his +services in return for the consideration of fifty a week. "All the +adventure I know is what I see in the movies, or read about in +magazines. What wouldn't I give for a slice of real life!"</p> + +<div class="figright"><img src="images/image_002_01.jpg" alt="Illustration" width="285" height="417" /></div> +<div class="figright"><img src="images/image_002_02.jpg" alt="Illustration" width="573" height="533" /> + +<p><span class="caption"><i>It paused, seeming to regard them with malevolent +eyes.</i></span></p></div> + +<p>Unconsciously, he tensed the muscles of his six feet of lean, hard +body. His crisp, flame-colored hair seemed to bristle; his blue eyes +blazed. He clenched a brown hammer of a fist.</p> + +<p>Larry felt himself an energetic, red-blooded square peg, badly +afflicted with the urge for adventure, miserably wedged in a round +hole. It is one of the misfortunes of our civilization that a young +man who, for example, might have been an excellent pirate a couple of +centuries ago, must be kept chained to a desk. And that seemed to be +Larry's fate.</p> + +<p>"Things happen to other people," he muttered. "Why couldn't an +adventure come to me?"</p> + +<p>He sat, staring wistfully at a picture of a majestic mountain +landscape, soon to be used in the advertising of a railway company +whose publicity was handled by his agency, when the jangle of the +telephone roused him with a start.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Larry—" came a breathless, quivering voice.</p> + +<p>Then, with a click, the connection was broken.</p> + +<p>The voice had been feminine and had carried a familiar ring. Larry +tried to place it, as he listened at the receiver and attempted to get +the broken connection restored.</p> + +<p>"Your party hung up, and won't answer," the operator informed him.</p> + +<p>He replaced the receiver on the hook, still seeking to follow the thin +thread of memory given him by the familiar note in that eager excited +voice. If only the girl had spoken a few more words!</p> +<p> </p> +<p><span class="f2">T</span>hen it came to him.</p> + +<p>"Agnes Sterling!" he exclaimed aloud.</p> + +<p>Agnes Sterling was a slender, elfish, dark-haired girl—lovely, he had +thought her, on the occasions of their few brief meetings. Larry knew +her as the secretary and laboratory assistant of Dr. Travis Whiting, a +retired college professor known for his work on the structure of the +atom. Larry had called at the home-laboratory of the savant, months +before, to check certain statistics to be used for advertising +purposes and had met the girl there. Only a few times since had he +seen her.</p> + +<p>Now she had called him in a voice that fairly trembled with +excitement—and, he thought, dread! And she had been interrupted +before she had time to give him any message.</p> + +<p>For a few seconds Larry stared at the telephone. Then he rose abruptly +to his feet, crammed his hat on his head, and started for the door.</p> + +<p>"The way to find adventure is to go after it," he murmured. "And this +is the invitation!"</p> + +<p>It was not many minutes later that he sprang out of a taxi at the +front of the building in which Dr. Travis Whiting made his home and +maintained a private experimental laboratory. It was a two-story +stucco house, rather out of date, set well back from the sidewalk, +with a scrap of lawn and a few straggling shrubs before it. The door +was closed, the windows curtained blankly. The place seemed deserted +and forbidding.</p> + +<p>Larry ran up the uneven brick walk to the door and rang the bell. +Impatiently, he waited a few moments. No sound came from within. He +felt something ominous, fateful, about the silent mystery that seemed +to shroud the old house. For the first time, it occurred to him that +Agnes might be in physical danger, as a result of some incautious +experiment on the part of Dr. Whiting.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">I</span>nstinctively, his hand sought the door knob. To his surprise, the +door was unlocked. It swung open before him. For a moment he stared, +hesitating, into the dark hall revealed beyond. Then, driven by the +thought that Agnes might be in danger, he advanced impulsively.</p> + +<p>The several doors opening into the hall were closed. The one at the +back, he knew, gave admittance to the laboratory. Impelled by some +vague premonition, he hastened toward it down the long hall and threw +it open.</p> + +<p>As he stepped inside the room, his foot slipped on a spot of something +red. Recovering his balance with difficulty, he peered about.</p> + +<p>Bending down, Larry briefly examined the red spot on which he had +slipped. It was a pool of fresh blood which had not yet darkened. +Lying beside it, crimson-splashed, was a revolver. As he picked up the +weapon, he cried out in astonishment.</p> + +<p>Something had happened to the gun. The trigger guard was torn from it, +and the cylinder crushed as if in some resistless grasp; the stock was +twisted, and the barrel bent almost into a circle. The revolver had +been crumpled by some terrific force—as a soft clay model of it might +have been broken by the pressure of a man's hand.</p> + +<p>"Crimson shades of Caesar!" he muttered, and dropped the crushed +weapon to the floor again.</p> + +<p>His eyes swept the silent laboratory.</p> + +<p>It was a huge room, taking up all the rear part of the house, from the +first floor to the roof. Gray daylight streamed through a sky-light, +twenty feet overhead. The ends of the vast room were cluttered with +electrical and chemical apparatus; but Larry's eye was caught at once +by a strange and complex device, which loomed across from him, in the +center of the floor.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>wo pillars of intense light, a ray of crimson flame and another of +deeply violet radiance, beat straight down from a complicated array of +enormous, oddly shaped electron tubes, of mirrors and lenses and +prisms, of coils and whirling disks, which reached almost to the roof. +Upright, a yard in diameter and almost a yard apart, the strange +columns of light were sharp-edged as two transparent cylinders filled +with liquid light of ruby and of amethyst. Each ray poured down upon a +circular platform of glass or polished crystal.</p> + +<p>Hanging between those motionless cylinders of red and violet light was +a strange-looking, greenish globe. A round ball, nearly a yard in +diameter, hung between the rays, almost touching them. Its surface was +oddly splotched with darker and lighter areas. It was spinning +steadily, at a low rate of speed. Larry did not see what held it up; +it seemed hanging free, several feet above the crystal platforms.</p> + +<p>Reluctantly he withdrew his eyes from the mysterious sphere and looked +about the room once more. No, the laboratory was vacant of human +occupants. No one was hidden among the benches that were cluttered +with beakers and test tubes and stills, or among the dynamos and +transformers in the other end of the room.</p> + +<p>A confusion of questions beat through Larry's brain.</p> + +<p>What danger could be haunting this quiet laboratory? Was this the +blood of Agnes Sterling or the scientist who employed her that was now +clotting on the floor? What terrific force had crumpled up the +revolver? What had become of Agnes and Dr. Whiting? And of whatever +had attacked them? Had Agnes called him after the attack, or before?</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">D</span>espite himself, his attention was drawn back to the little globe +spinning so regularly, floating in the air between the pillars of red +and violet flame. Floating alone, like a little world in space, +without a visible support, it might be held up by magnetic attraction, +he thought.</p> + +<p>A tiny planet!</p> + +<p>His mind quickened at the idea, and he half forgot the weird mystery +gathering about him. He stepped nearer the sphere. It was curiously +like a miniature world. The irregular bluish areas would be seas; the +green and the brown spaces land. In some parts, the surface appeared +mistily obscured—perhaps, by masses of cloud.</p> + +<p>Larry saw an odd-looking lamp, set perhaps ten feet behind the slowly +spinning, floating ball, throwing upon it a bright ray of vividly blue +light. Half the strange sphere was brilliantly illuminated by it; the +rest was in comparative darkness. That blue lamp, it came to Larry, +lit the sphere as the sun lights the earth.</p> + +<p>"Nonsense!" he muttered. "It's impossible!"</p> + +<p>Aroused by the seeming wonder of it, he was drawn nearer the ball. It +spun rather slowly, Larry noted, and each rotation consumed several +seconds. He could distinguish green patches that might be forests, and +thin, silvery lines that looked like rivers, and broad, red-brown +areas that must be deserts, and the broad blue stretches that +suggested oceans.</p> + +<p>"A toy world!" he cried. "A laboratory planet! What an experiment—"</p> + +<p>Then his eyes, looking up, caught the glistening, polished lens of a +powerful magnifying glass which hung by a black ribbon from a hook on +one of the heavy steel beams which supported the huge mass of silently +whirring apparatus.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">E</span>agerly, he unfastened the magnifier. Holding it before his eyes, he +bent toward the strange sphere spinning steadily in the air.</p> + +<p>"Suffering shades of Caesar!" he ejaculated.</p> + +<p>Beneath the lens a world was racing. He could see masses of vividly +green forest; vast expanses of bare, cracked, ocherous desert; wastes +of smooth blue ocean.</p> + +<p>Then he was gazing at—a city?</p> + +<p>Larry could not be sure that he had seen correctly. It had slipped +very swiftly beneath his lens. But he had a momentary impression of +tiny, fantastic buildings, clustered in an elflike city.</p> + +<p>A pygmy planet, spinning in the laboratory like a world in the gulf of +space! What could it mean? Could it be connected with the strange call +from Agnes, with the blood on the floor, with the strange and ominous +silence that shrouded the deserted room?</p> + +<p>"Oh, Larry!" a clear, familiar voice rang suddenly from the door. "You +came!"</p> + +<p>Startled, Larry leaped back from the tiny, whirling globe and turned +to the door. A girl had come silently into the room. It was Agnes +Sterling. Her dark hair was tangled. Her small face was flushed, and +her brown eyes were wide with fear! In a white hand, which shook a +little, she carried a small, gold-plated automatic pistol.</p> + +<p>She ran nervously across the wide floor to Larry, with relief dawning +in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"I'm so glad you came!" she gasped, panting with excitement. "I +started to call you on the phone, but then I was afraid it would kill +you if you came! Please be careful! It may come back, any minute! +You'd better go away! It just took Dr. Whiting!"</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute," Larry put in. "Just one thing at a time. Let's get +this straight. To begin with, what is it that might kill me, and that +got the doctor?"</p> + +<p>"It's terrible!" she gasped, trembling. "A monster! You must go away +before it comes back!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">L</span>arry drew a tall stool from beside one of the crowded tables and +placed it beside her.</p> + +<p>"Don't get excited," he urged. "I'm sure everything will be all +right. Just sit down, and tell me about it. The whole story. Just what +is going on here, and what happened to Dr. Whiting."</p> + +<p>He helped her upon the stool. She looked up at him gratefully, and +began to speak in a rapid voice.</p> + +<p>"You see that little planet? The monster came from that and carried +the doctor back there. And I know it will soon be back for another +victim—for sacrifice!"</p> + +<p>She had pointed across the great room, toward the strange little globe +which hung between the pillars of red and violet light.</p> + +<p>"Please go slow!" Larry broke in. "You're too fast for me. Are you +trying to tell me that that spinning ball is really a planet?"</p> + +<p>Agnes seemed a little more composed, though she was still flushed and +breathing rapidly. Her small hand still gripped the bright automatic.</p> + +<p>"Yes, it is a planet. The Pygmy Planet, Dr. Whiting called it. He said +it was the great experiment of the century. You see, he was testing +evolution. We began with the planet, young and hot, and watched it +until it is now almost as old as Mars. We watched the change and +development of life upon it. And the rise and decay of a strange +civilization. Until now its people are strange things, with human +brains in mechanical bodies, worshiping a rusty machine like a god—"</p> + +<p>"Go slow!" Larry pleaded again. "I don't see—Did the doctor +build—create—that planet himself?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. It began with his work on atomic structure. He discovered that +certain frequencies of the X-ray—so powerful that they are almost +akin to the cosmic ray—have the power of altering electronic orbits. +Every atom, you know, is a sort of solar system, with electrons +revolving about a proton.</p> + +<p>"And these rays would cause the electrons to fall into incredibly +smaller orbits, causing vast reduction in the size of the atoms, and +in the size of any object which the atoms formed. They would cause +anything, living or dead, to shrink to inconceivably microscopic +dimensions—or restore it to its former size, depending upon the exact +wave-length used.</p> + +<p>"And time passes far more swiftly for the tiny objects—probably +because the electrons move faster in their smaller orbits. That is +what suggested to Dr. Whiting that he would be able to watch the +entire life of a planet, in the laboratory. And so, at first, we +experimented merely with solitary specimens or colonies of animals.</p> + +<p>"But on the Pygmy Planet, we have watched the life of a world—the +whole panorama of evolution—"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">"I</span>t seems too wonderful!" Larry muttered. "Could Dr. Whiting actually +decrease his size and become a dwarf?"</p> + +<p>"No trick at all," Agnes assured him. "All you have to do is stand in +the violet beam, to shrink. And move over in the red one, when you +want to grow. I have been several times with Dr. Whiting to the Pygmy +Planet."</p> + +<p>"Been—" Larry stopped, breathless with astonishment.</p> + +<p>"See the little airplane," Agnes said, pointing under the table.</p> + +<p>Larry gasped.</p> + +<p>Beneath the table stood a toy airplane. The spread of its glistening, +perfect wings was hardly three feet. A wonderful, delicate toy, +accurate in every detail of propeller, motor and landing gear, of +brace and rudder and aileron. Then he realized that it was no toy at +all, but a faithful miniature of a commercial plane. A complete, tiny +copy of one of the latest single-motor, cabin monoplane models.</p> + +<p>"It looks like it would fly," he said "a friend of mine his a big +one, just like it! Taught me to fly it, last summer vacation. This is +the very image of it!"</p> + +<p>"It will fly!" Agnes assured him, now composed enough to smile at his +amazement. "I have been with the doctor to the Pygmy Planet in it.</p> + +<p>"You stand in the violet ray until you're about three inches high," +she explained, "and then get into the plane. Then you fly up and into +the violet ray at the point where it touches the planet, and remain +there while you grow smaller. When you are the right size, all you +have to do is drop to the surface, and land. To come away, you rise +into the red ray and stay in it till you grow to proper size, when you +come down and land."</p> + +<p>"You—you've actually done that?" he gasped. "It sounds like a fairy +story!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">"Y</span>es, I've done it," she assured him. Then she shuddered +apprehensively. "And the things—the machine-monsters, Dr. Whiting +called them—have learned to do it, too. One of them came down the red +ray, and attacked him. The doctor had a gun—but what could he do +against one of those?" She shivered.</p> + +<p>"It carried him back up the violet beam. Just a few minutes ago, I +started to phone you. Then I was afraid you would be hurt—"</p> + +<p>"Me, hurt?" Larry burst out. "What about you, here alone?"</p> + +<p>"It was my business. Dr. Whiting told me there might be danger, when +he hired me."</p> + +<p>"And now, what can we do?" Larry demanded.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," she said slowly. "I'm afraid one of the monsters will +be back after a new victim. We could smash the apparatus, but it is +too wonderful to be destroyed. And besides, Dr. Whiting may have +escaped. He may be alive there, in the deserts!"</p> + +<p>"We might fly up, in the little plane," Larry proposed, doubtfully. "I +think I could pilot it. If you want—"</p> + +<p>The girl's body stiffened. Her brown eyes widened with sudden dread, +and her small face went pale. She slipped quickly from the stool, +drawing in her breath with a sort of gasp. The hand that gripped the +automatic trembled a little.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" Larry cried.</p> + +<p>"I thought—" she gasped, "I think I see something in the ray! The +machine-monster is coming back!"</p> + +<p>Her lips tightened. She lifted the little automatic and began to shoot +into the pillar of crimson fire beside the tiny, spinning globe.</p> + +<p>Larry, watching tensely, saw a curious, bird-like something fluttering +about in the red ray, <i>swiftly growing larger</i>!</p> + +<p>Deliberately, and pausing to aim carefully for each shot, the girl +emptied the little gun at the figure. Her body was rigid, her small +face was firmly set, though she was breathing very fast.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">A</span> curious numbness had come over Larry. His only physical sensations +were the quick hammering of his heart, and a parching dryness in his +throat. Terror stiffened him. Though he would not have admitted it, he +was paralyzed with fear.</p> + +<p>The glittering thing that fluttered about in the crimson ray was not +an easy target. When the gun was empty, it seemed still unharmed. And +its wings had increased to a span of a foot.</p> + +<p>"Too late!" Agnes gasped. "Why didn't we do <i>something</i>?"</p> + +<p>Trembling, horror-stricken, she shrank toward Larry.</p> + +<p>He was staring at the thing in the pillar of scarlet light.</p> + +<p>It had dropped to the crystal disk upon which the red ray fell from +the huge, glowing tube above. It stood there, motionless except for +the swift increase of its size.</p> + +<p>Larry gazed at it, lost in fear and wonder. It was like nothing he had +ever seen. What was it that Agnes had said, of machine-monsters, of +human brains in mechanical bodies? His brain reeled. He strained his +eyes to distinguish the monstrosity more clearly. It was veiled in +crimson flame; he could not see it distinctly.</p> + +<p>But suddenly, when it was as tall as himself, it sprang out into the +room, toward Larry and the shuddering girl. Just off the crystal disk, +beyond the scarlet pillar of fire, it paused for long seconds, seeming +to regard them with malevolent eyes.</p> + +<p>For the first time, Larry could see it plainly.</p> + +<p>Its body, or its central part, was a tube of transparent crystal; an +upright cylinder, rounded at upper and lower ends. It was nearly a +foot in diameter, and four feet long. It seemed filled with a +luminous, purple liquid.</p> + +<p>About the cylinder were three bands of greenish, glistening metal. +Attached to the lower band were four jointed legs of the same bright +green metal, upon which the strange thing stood.</p> + +<p>Set in the middle band were two glittering, polished lenses, which +seemed to serve as eyes, and Larry felt that they were gazing at him +with malevolent menace. Behind the eyes, two wings sprang from the +green band. Ingenious, folding wings, of thin plates and bars of green +metal.</p> + +<p>And from the upper band sprang four slender, glistening, whip-like +tentacles, metallic and brilliantly green, two yards in length. They +writhed with strange life!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">I</span>t seemed a long time to Larry that the thing stood, motionless, +seeming to stare evilly at them with eye-like lenses. Then, lurching +forward a little, it moved toward them upon legs of green metal. And +now Larry saw another amazing thing about it.</p> + +<p>Floating in the brilliant violet liquid that filled the crystal tube +was a gray mass, wrinkled and corrugated. This was divided by deep +clefts into right and left hemispheres, which, in turn were separated +into larger upper and smaller lower segments. White filaments ran +through the violet liquid from its base toward the three rings or +bands of green metal that encircled the cylinder.</p> + +<p>In an instant, Larry realized that the gray mass was a human brain. +The larger, upper part the cerebrum, the smaller mass at the back the +cerebellum. And the white filaments were nerves, by means of which +this brain controlled its astounding, mechanical body!</p> + +<p>A brain in a machine!</p> + +<p>The violet liquid, it came to Larry in his trance of wonder, must take +the place of blood, feeding the brain-cells, absorbing waste.</p> + +<p>An eternal mind, within a machine! Free from the ills and weaknesses +of the body. And devoid, too, of any pity, of any tender feelings. A +cold and selfish mind, without emotion—unless it might worship itself +or its mechanical body.</p> + +<p>It was this monster that had spilt the pool of blood drying on the +floor, near the door. And it was these glistening, green, snake-like +tentacles that had crumpled the revolver into a broken mass of steel!</p> + +<p>Abruptly the machine-monster darted forward, running swiftly upon its +four legs of green metal. Slender tentacles reached out toward the +shuddering girl at Larry's shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Run!" Agnes gasped to him, quickly. "It will kill you!"</p> + +<p>The girl tried to push him back.</p> + +<p>As she touched him, Larry recovered from his daze of wondering fear. +Agnes was in frightful danger, and facing it with quiet courage. He +must find a weapon!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">W</span>ildly, he looked about him. His eyes fell upon the tall, heavy wooden +stool, upon which Agnes had been sitting.</p> + +<p>"Get back!" he shouted to her.</p> + +<p>He snatched up the stool, and, swinging it over his head, sprang +toward the machine of violet-filled crystal and glittering green +metal.</p> + +<p>"Stop!" Agnes screamed, in a terrified voice. "You can't—"</p> + +<p>She had run before him. He seized her arm and swung her back behind +him. Then he advanced warily toward the machine-monster, which had +paused and seemed to be regarding him with sinister intentness, +through its glistening crystal eye-lenses.</p> + +<p>With all his strength, Larry struck at the crystal cylinder, swinging +the stool like an ax. A slender, metallic green tentacle whipped out, +tore the stool from his hands, and sent it crashing across the room, +to splinter into fragments on the opposite wall.</p> + +<p>Larry, sent off his balance, staggered toward the glittering machine. +As he stumbled against the transparent tube that contained the brain, +he clenched his fist to strike futilely at it.</p> + +<p>A snake-like metal tentacle wrapped itself about him; he was hurled to +the floor, to sprawl grotesquely among broken apparatus.</p> + +<p>His head came against the leg of a bench. For a few moments he was +dazed. But it seemed only a few seconds to him before he had staggered +to his feet, rubbing his bruised head. Anxiously, he peered about the +room.</p> + +<p>The machine-monster and Agnes were gone!</p> + +<p>He stumbled back to the mass of apparatus in the center of the huge +laboratory. Intently, he gazed into the upright pillar of crimson +flame. Nothing was visible there.</p> + +<p>"No, the other!" he gasped. "The violet is the way they went."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">H</span>e turned to the companion ray of violet radiance that beat straight +down on the opposite side of the tiny, whirling planet. And in that +motionless torrent of chill violet flame he saw them.</p> + +<p>Tiny, already, and swiftly dwindling!</p> + +<p>With green wings outspread, the machine-monster was beating swiftly +upward through the pillar of purple-blue flame. And close against the +crystal tube that contained its brain, was Agnes, held fast by the +whip-like tentacles of glistening green metal.</p> + +<p>Larry moved to spring after them, into the torrent of violet light. +But sudden caution restrained him.</p> + +<p>"I'd shrink, too!" he muttered. "And then where would I be? I'd be +standing on the glass platform, I guess. And the thing flying off over +my head!"</p> + +<p>He gazed at the rapidly dwindling forms of Agnes Sterling and her +amazing abductor. As it grew smaller, the machine-monster flew higher +in the violet beam, until it was opposite the tiny, spinning planet.</p> + +<p>The distance between the red and the violet rays was just slightly +more than the diameter of the pygmy world. The sphere hung between +them, one side of it a fraction of an inch from the red, the other as +near the violet.</p> + +<p>Opposite the elfin planet, the monster ceased to climb. It hung there +in the violet ray, an inch from the surface of the little world.</p> + +<p>And still it swiftly dwindled. It was no larger than a fly, and Larry +could barely distinguish the form of the girl, helpless in the green +tentacles.</p> + +<p>Soon she and the monster became a mere greenish speck.... Suddenly +they were gone.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">F</span>or a little time he stood watching the point where they had vanished, +watching the red and the violet rays that poured straight down upon +the crystal disks, watching the tiny, green-blue planet spinning so +steadily between the bright rays.</p> + +<p>Abruptly, he recovered from his fascination of wonder.</p> + +<p>"What did she say?" he muttered. "Something about the monsters +carrying off people to sacrifice to a rusty machine that they worship +as a god! It took her—for that!"</p> + +<p>He clenched his fists; his lips became a straight line of +determination.</p> + +<p>"Then I guess we try a voyage in the little plane. A slim chance, +maybe. But decidedly better than none!"</p> + +<p>He returned to the table, dropped on his knees, inspected the tiny +airplane. A perfect miniature, delicately beautiful; its slim, small +wings were bright as silver foil. Carefully, he opened the door and +peered into the diminutive cabin. Two minute rifles, several +Lilliputian pistols, and boxes of ammunition to match, lay on the rear +seat of the plane.</p> + +<p>"So we are prepared for war," he remarked, grinning in satisfaction. +"And the next trick, I suppose, is to get shrunk to fit the plane. +About three inches, she said. Lord, it's a queer thing to think +about!"</p> + +<p>He got to his feet, walked back to the machine in the center of the +room, with its twin pillars of red and violet flame, and the tiny +world floating between them. He started to step into the violet ray, +then hesitated, shivering involuntarily, like a swimmer about to dive +into icy cold water.</p> + +<p>Turning back to one of the benches, he picked up a wooden funnel-rack, +and tossed it to the crystal disk beneath the violet ray. Slowly it +decreased in size, until it had vanished from sight.</p> + +<p>"Safe, I suppose," he muttered. "But how do I know when I'm small +enough?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">A</span>fter a moment he picked up a glass bottle which measured about three +inches in height, set it on the floor, beside the crystal disk.</p> + +<p>"I dive out when I get to be the size of the bottle," he murmured.</p> + +<p>With that, he leaped into the violet beam.</p> + +<p>He felt no unusual sensation, except one of pleasant, tingling warmth, +as if the direct rays of the sun were bearing down upon him. For a +moment he feared that his size was not being affected. Then he +noticed, not that he appeared to become smaller, but that the +laboratory seemed to be growing immensely larger.</p> + +<p>The walls seemed to race away from him. The green-blue sphere of the +tiny planet which he proposed to visit expanded and drew away above +his head.</p> + +<p>Abruptly fearful, alarmed at the hugeness of the room, he turned to +look at the bottle he had placed to serve as a standard of size. It +had grown with everything else, until it seemed to be about three feet +high.</p> + +<p>And it was swiftly expanding. It reached to the level of his shoulder. +And higher!</p> + +<p>He ran to the edge of the crystal disk, which now seemed a floor many +yards across, and leaped from its edge. It was a dozen steps to where +he had left the bottle. And it was as tall as himself!</p> + +<p>He started across the floor of the laboratory toward the table under +which the toy plane stood. The incredible immensity of his +surroundings awed him strangely. The walls of the room seemed distant, +Cyclopean cliffs; the roof was like a sky. Table legs towered up like +enormous columns.</p> + +<p>It seemed a hundred yards across the strangely rough floor to the +plane. As he drew near it, it gave him huge satisfaction to see that +it was of normal size, correctly proportioned to his own dimensions.</p> + +<p>"Great luck," he muttered, "that I can fly!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">H</span>e paused, as he reached the cabin's open door, to wonder at the +astounding fact that a little while ago he had opened that door with a +hand larger than his entire body now was.</p> + +<p>"I guess this is my day of wonders!" he muttered. "Allah knows I had +to wait long enough for it!"</p> + +<p>First he examined the weapons in the cabin. There were two heavy +sporting rifles and two .45 automatics. There were also two smaller +automatics, which, he supposed, had been intended for Agnes' use. And +there was abundant ammunition.</p> + +<p>Then he inspected the plane. It looked to be in excellent condition in +every way. The gasoline and oil tanks were full.</p> + +<p>He set about starting the motor, using the plane's inertia starter, +which was driven by an electric motor. Soon the engine coughed, +sputtered, and gave rise to a roaring, rhythmic note that Larry found +musical.</p> + +<p>When the motor was warm, he opened the throttle and taxied out from +beneath the colossal table, and across the laboratory floor toward the +Titanic mechanism in the center of the room. The disk of crystal was +set almost flush with the floor, its edge beveled. The plane rolled +easily upon it, and out into the Cyclopean pillar of violet flame.</p> + +<p>Once more, Larry felt the sensation that everything about him except +the plane itself, was expanding inconceivably in size. Soon the +laboratory's walls and roof were lost in hazy blue distance. He could +distinguish only the broad, bright field formed by the surface of the +crystal disk, with the floor stretching away beyond it like a vast +plain. And above, the green-blue sphere of the tiny planet, bright on +one side and dark on the other, so that it looked like a half-moon, +immensely far-off.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">A</span>s he waited, he noticed a curious little dial, in a lower corner of +the instrument board, which he had not seen at first. One end of its +graduated scale was marked, "Earth Normal," the other, "Pygmy Planet +Normal." A tiny black needle was creeping slowly across the scale, +toward "Pygmy Planet Normal."</p> + +<p>"That's how we tell what size we are without having to look at a +bottle," he muttered.</p> + +<p>When the area of the crystal platform appeared to be about half a +square mile, he decided that he would now have sufficient space to +spiral up the violet ray toward the planet. If he waited too long to +start, the distance would become impossibly great.</p> + +<p>He gave the little plane the gun. The motor thundered a throbbing +song; the ship rolled smoothly forward over the polished surface, +gained flying speed and took the air without a shock.</p> + +<p>"Feels good to hold the stick again!" Larry murmured.</p> + +<p>Making small circles to keep within the upright pillar of violet +radiance, he climbed steadily and as rapidly as possible, keeping his +eyes upon the brilliant half-moon of the Pygmy Planet.</p> + +<p>The strangest flight in the annals of aviation! He was flying toward +a goal that, a few minutes before, he could have touched. Toward a +goal that, at the beginning of his flight, was only a few lengths of +his plane away. And his size dwindled so rapidly as he flew that the +planet seemed to swell and draw away from him.</p> + +<p>As Larry and the plane grew smaller, the relative size of the violet +ray increased, so there was no longer much danger of flying out of it. +It seemed that he flew through a world of violet flame.</p> + +<p>He met a curious problem in time. It is evident that time passes +faster for a small animal than for a large one, because nerve currents +require a shorter time in transit, and all thought and action is +consequently speeded up. It took a hundred-foot dinosaur nearly a +second to know that his tail had been pinched. A fly can get under way +in time to escape a descending swatter. The Pygmy Planet rotated in a +few seconds of earth time; one of its inhabitants might have lived, +aged, and died in the duration of a single day in our larger world.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">S</span>o Larry found that time seemed to pass more rapidly, or rather that +the time of the world he had left appeared to move more slowly, as he +adventured into smallness. He had been flying, it seemed to him, +nearly an hour when he reached the level of the planet's equator.</p> + +<p>Now it seemed a vast world, filling half the visible universe. He flew +toward it steadily, until he knew, by the fading before him of the +violet flame which now seemed to fill all space, that he was near the +edge of the ray. And as he flew, he watched the little scale, upon +which the black needle was now nearing the line marked, "Pygmy Planet +Normal."</p> + +<p>Circling slowly, keeping always on the level of the planet's equator, +and near the edge of the violet ray, so as to be as close as possible +to his landing place when he reached the proper size, he watched the +creeping black needle.</p> + +<p>Too, he scanned with eager eyes the planet floating before him. Bare, +red deserts; narrow strips of green vegetation; shrunken, blue oceans; +silvery lines of rivers, passed in fascinating panorama beneath his +eyes. The rate of the planet's spinning seemed continually to lessen, +with the changing of his own sense of time.</p> + +<p>Agnes! Larry thought of her with a curious, eager pain in his heart. +She was somewhere on that strange, ancient world, a prisoner of weird +machine-monsters! Intended victim of a grotesque sacrificial ceremony!</p> + +<p>Could he find her, in the vastness of an unfamiliar world? And having +found her, would there be a chance to rescue her from her hideous +captors? The project seemed insane. But Larry felt a queer, unfamiliar +urge, which, he knew, would drive him on until he had discovered and +saved her—or until he was dead.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">A</span>t last, when it seemed to Larry nearly three hours since he had begun +this amazing flight, the crawling ebon needle reached the mark, "Pygmy +Planet Normal."</p> + +<p>He flew out of the wall of violet flame toward the planet's surface. +Before, the distance between the planet and the ray's edge had seemed +only the fraction of an inch. Now it appeared to be many miles.</p> + +<p>Abruptly the Pygmy Planet, which had seemed to be <i>beside</i> him, +appeared to swing about, so that it was <i>beneath</i> him. He knew that it +was a change merely in his sensations. He was feeling the gravitation +of the new world. It was pulling him toward it!</p> + +<p>He cut the throttle, and settled the plane into a long glide, a glide +that was to end upon the surface of a new planet!</p> + +<p>In what seemed half an hour more, Larry had made a safe landing upon +the Pygmy Planet. He had come down upon a stretch of fairly smooth, +red, sandy desert, which seemed to stretch illimitably toward the +rising sun, which direction Larry instinctively termed "east."</p> + +<p>To the "west" was a line of dull green—evidently the vegetation along +a stream. The ocher desert was scattered with sparse clumps of +reddish, spiky scrub. Larry taxied the plane into one of those +thickets. Finding canvas and rope in the cabin, he staked down the +machine, and muffled the motor.</p> + +<p>Then, selecting a rifle and a heavy automatic from the weapons in the +cabin, and filling his pockets with extra ammunition, he left the +plane and set out with brisk steps toward the green line of +vegetation.</p> + +<p>"I'll follow along the river," he reasoned. "It may lead me somewhere +and it will show the way back to the plane. I may come across +something in the way of a clue. Can't go exploring by air, or I'll +burn up all the gas and be stranded here!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>o his surprise, the water course proved to be an ancient canal, +walled with crumbling masonry. Its channel was choked with mud and +thorny, thick-leaved desert shrubs of unfamiliar variety; but a feeble +current still flowed along it.</p> + +<p>After some reflection, Larry set out along the banks of the canal.</p> + +<p>He followed it for two days.</p> + +<p>Curious straight bars of light were visible across the sky—a band of +violet in the morning; one of crimson at evening. Their apparent +motion was in the same direction as that of the sun. The bars of +light puzzled him considerably before it occurred to him that they +must be the red and violet rays.</p> + +<p>"So you wait till evening, and then fly up into the red ray, to go +home," he muttered. "But I may not need that information," he added +grimly. "Seems to be a pretty big job to search a planet on foot, for +one person. And I'm not going back without Agnes!"</p> + +<p>In the afternoon of the second day, he came within view of a city. He +could discern vast, imposing walls and towers of dark stone. It stood +in the barren red desert, far back from the green line of the old +canal. Larry left the canal and started wearily across toward it. He +had covered several miles of the distance before he saw that the lofty +towers were falling, the magnificent walls crumbling. The city was +ruined, dead, deserted!</p> + +<p>The realization brought him a great flood of despair. He had hoped to +find people—friends, from whom he might get food, and information +about this unfamiliar planet. But the city was dead.</p> + +<p>Larry was standing there, in the midst of the vast red plain between +ruined city and ruined canal. Tired, hungry, lonely and hopeless. He +was looking up at the white "sun," trying to comfort himself with the +thought that the brilliant luminary was merely a queer blue lamp, that +he was upon a tiny experimental world in a laboratory. But the thought +brought him no relief; only confusion and a sense of incredulity.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>hen he saw the machine-monster.</p> + +<p>A glittering, winged thing of crystal and green metal, identical with +the one he had encountered in the laboratory. It must already have +seen him, for it was dropping swiftly toward him.</p> + +<p>Larry started to run, took a few staggering steps. Then he recalled +the heavy rifle slung over his shoulder. Moving with desperate haste, +he got it into his hands and raised it just as the monster dropped to +the red sand a dozen yards away from him.</p> + +<p>Steadily he covered the crystal cylinder within which the thing's +brain floated in luminous violet liquid. His finger tightened on the +trigger, ready to send a heavy bullet crashing into it. Then he +paused, swore softly, lowered the gun.</p> + +<p>"If I kill it," he murmured, "I may never find Agnes. And if I let it +carry me off, it may take me where she is."</p> + +<p>He walked toward the monster, across the red sand.</p> + +<p>It stood uncertainly upon green metal legs, seeming to stare at him +strangely with eye-like lenses. Its wings of thin green metal plates, +were folded; its four green tentacles were twitching oddly.</p> + +<p>Abruptly, it sprang upon him.</p> + +<p>A green tentacle seized the rifle and snatched it from his hands. He +felt the automatic pistol and the ammunition being removed from his +pockets.</p> + +<p>Then, firmly held in the flexible arms of green metal, he was lifted +against the cylinder of violet liquid. The monster spread its broad +emerald wings, and Larry was swiftly borne into the air.</p> + +<p>In a few moments the wide ruins of the ancient city were spread below, +with the green line of the choked canal cutting the infinite red waste +of the desert beyond it.</p> + +<p>The monster flew westward.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">F</span>or a considerable time, nothing save barren, ocherous desert was in +view. Then Larry's weird captor flew near a strange city. A city of +green metal. The buildings were most fantastic—pyramids of green, +crowned with enormous, glistening spheres of emerald metal. An +impassable wall surrounding the city.</p> + +<p>Larry had expected the monster to drop into the city. But it carried +him on, and finally settled to the ground several miles beyond. The +green tentacles released him, as the thing landed, and he sprawled +beside it, dizzy after his strange flight.</p> + +<p>As Larry staggered uncertainly to his feet, he saw that the monster +had released him in an open pen. It was a square area, nearly fifty +yards on each side, and fenced with thin posts or rods of green metal, +perhaps twenty feet high. Set very close together, and sharply pointed +at the top, they formed a barrier apparently insurmountable.</p> + +<p>In the center of the pen was a huge and strange machine, built of +green metal. It looked very worn and ancient; it was covered with +patches of bluish rust or corrosion. At first it looked quite strange +to Larry; then he was struck by a vaguely familiar quality about it. +Looking closer, he realized that it was a colossal steam hammer!</p> + +<p>Its design, of course, was unfamiliar. But in the vast, corroded frame +he quickly picked out a steam chest, cylinder, and the great hammer, +weighing many tons.</p> + +<p>He gasped when his eyes went to the anvil.</p> + +<p>A man was chained across it.</p> + +<p>A man in torn, grimy clothing, fastened with fetters of green metal +upon wrists and ankles, so that his body was stretched beneath the +massive hammer. He seemed to be unconscious; upon his head, which was +turned toward Larry, was a red and swollen bruise.</p> + +<p>The monster which had dropped Larry within the pen rose again into the +air. And Larry started forward, trying to remember just what Agnes had +told him of a machine to which the monsters sacrificed.</p> + +<p>This must be the machine—this ancient steam hammer!</p> + +<p>As he moved forward, Agnes came into view.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">S</span>he walked around the massive base of the great machine, carrying a +bowl filled with a fragrant brown liquid. She stopped at sight of +Larry, and uttered a little cry. The bowl fell from her hands, and the +fragrant liquid splashed out on the ground. Her brown eyes went wide +with delighted surprise; then a look of pain came into them.</p> + +<p>"Larry, Larry!" she cried. "Why did you come?"</p> + +<p>"To get you," he answered, trying to speak as lightly as he could. +"And the best way I knew to find you was to let one of the monsters +bring me. Cheer up!" But even to himself, his voice had a tone of +discouragement.</p> + +<p>She smiled wanly. "I don't see anything to be cheerful about." Her +small face was set and a little white. "Dr. Whiting is going to be +smashed under the hammer of this dreadful machine, whenever the steam +is up. Then it is my turn. And yours. That's nothing to laugh about."</p> + +<p>"But we aren't smashed yet!" Larry insisted.</p> + +<p>"By the way, what was that in the bowl?" he went on, glancing down. "I +forgot to bring lunch." He grinned.</p> + +<p>She looked down, startled.</p> + +<p>"Oh. Dr. Whiting's soup. Poor fellow, I'm afraid he'll never awake to +eat it. There's plenty more. Come around here."</p> + +<p>She picked up the bowl and led him around the base of the machine; +then she filled the bowl again with the fragrant, red-brown liquid, +from a tall urn of green metal. Larry took the dish eagerly and gulped +down the rather insipid and tasteless food.</p> + +<p>"And the monsters worship this old steam hammer?" he inquired, when +his hunger was appeased.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I think the thing is worked by steam generated by volcanic heat. +Anyhow, there isn't any boiler, and the steam pipe comes up out of the +ground. You can see that. So it runs on, without any attention—though +I guess the heat is dying down, since it is several days between blows +of the hammer.</p> + +<p>"And I guess the monsters have forgotten how they used to rule +machines. They seem to have depended upon machines, even giving up +their own bodies for mechanical ones, until the machine rules them.</p> + +<p>"And when this old hammer kept pounding on through the ages, using +volcanic steam, I guess they got to considering it alive. They began +to regard it as a sort of god. And when they got the idea of giving it +sacrifices, it was natural enough to place the victims under the +hammer."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>hey went back to Dr. Whiting who was chained across the anvil. He was +still breathing, but unconscious. He had been injured in a struggle +with the monsters, and his body was much emaciated. Agnes explained +that he had been a prisoner in the pen for many months of the time of +this world, waiting his turn to die; she said that the monsters had +just completed the extermination of another race upon the Pygmy +Planet, and were just turning to the greater world for victims.</p> + +<p>Larry noticed that the great hammer was slowly rising in its guides, +as the pressure of the steam from the planet's interior increased. In +a few hours—just at sunset—it reached the top of its stroke.</p> + +<p>The air above the pen was suddenly filled with glittering swarms of +the green-winged monsters, sweeping slowly about, in measured flight, +with strange order in their masses. They had come to witness the +sacrifice!</p> + +<p>With an explosive rush of steam, the hammer came down!</p> + +<p>The ground trembled beneath the terrific blow; the roaring of escaping +steam and the crash of the impact were almost deafening. A heavy white +cloud shrouded the corroded green machine.</p> + +<p>When the hammer slowly lifted, only a red smear was left....</p> + +<p>Agnes had shrunk, trembling, against Larry's shoulder. He had put his +arms about her and was holding her almost fiercely.</p> + +<p>"My turn next," she whispered. "And don't try to fight them. It will +only make them hurt you!"</p> + +<p>"I can't let them take you, Agnes!" Larry cried, in an agonized tone. +And the words seemed to leap out, of themselves, "Because I love you!"</p> + +<p>"You do?" Agnes cried, in a thin, choking voice, pressing herself +against him. "Ever since the first time you came to the laboratory—"</p> + +<p>A score of the monster forms of violet-filled crystal and gleaming +green metal had dropped into the pen. They tore Agnes from Larry's +arms, hurling him roughly to the ground, at the bottom of the green +metal fence. For some time he was unconscious.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">W</span>hen he had staggered painfully to his feet, it was night. The +monsters were gone; the starless sky was black and empty. Calling out +weakly, and stumbling about the pen, he found Agnes. She was chained +where Dr. Whiting had been.</p> + +<p>She was conscious, unharmed. For a time they talked a little, +exchanging broken, incoherent phrases. Then they went to sleep, lying +on the anvil, beneath that mighty hammer that was slowly lifting to +strike another fearful blow.</p> + +<p>When the "sun" had risen again, Larry brought Agnes some of the brown +soup from the metal urn, which had been filled again. Then, when he +had satisfied himself, he started clambering up the massive frame of +the hammer.</p> + +<p>If he could put it out of commission!</p> + +<p>It was a difficult task. He slipped back many times, and finally had +to choose another place to make the ascent. Twice he slipped and +almost fell from a considerable height. But finally he reached the +massive wheel of the valve which seemed to control the admission of +steam into the cylinder above the hammer.</p> + +<p>If he could but close that, the steam would be confined in the chest +below. And when the pressure reached a certain point, something should +happen!</p> + +<p>The valve was not easy to turn; it seemed fixed with the corrosion of +ages. For hours Larry wrestled with it. Then he left it, realizing +that he must find something to use for a hammer. A vigorous search of +the pen's hard earth floor failed to reveal any stone that would do. +He turned his attention to the machine, and presently saw a slender +projecting lever, high up on the side of the vast frame, which looked +as if it had been weakened by corrosion. After a perilous climb, he +reached the bar of green metal and swung his weight upon it. It broke, +and he plunged to the ground with the bar in his hands.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">C</span>lambering up once more to the great valve, he hammered it until the +rust that stiffened it was loosened. Then he struggled with the valve +until it was closed.</p> + +<p>"We'll see what happens!" he muttered.</p> + +<p>Returning to the ground, he set to work to break the green metal +fetters upon Agnes' wrists and ankles, using the broken lever as +hammer and file.</p> + +<p>For the greater part of six days he toiled at that task, while the +great hammer rose slowly. But the green metal seemed very hard. One +arm was free at the end of the second day, the other on the fourth. He +had one ankle loose on the morning of the sixth day. But as evening +came on, and the great hammer reached the top of its stroke, the +fourth chain still defied him.</p> + +<p>Before sunset, a swarm of the monsters appeared, wheeling on green +wings. He was forced to leave the work, hiding his improvised file.</p> + +<p>Agnes still lay across the anvil, to conceal from the monsters the +fact that the chains were broken. Larry sat close beside her, nursing +hands that were blistered and sore from his days of filing at the +chains.</p> + +<p>A sudden clatter came from the huge mechanism above them, and a sharp +hiss of steam, which became louder.</p> + +<p>"It works!" Larry whispered to Agnes. "The old valve held, and the +steam can't get into the cylinder to smash us! But Allah knows what +will happen when the pressure rises in that old steam chest!"</p> + +<p>Darkness came. Dusk swallowed the wheeling machine-monsters. All night +Larry and Agnes waited silently, together on the great anvil, +listening to the hissing of steam from above, which was slowly +becoming a shrill monotonous scream; monotonous, always higher, +shriller.</p> + +<p>The "sun" rose again. Still the green-winged monsters wheeled about. +They came in glittering swarms, thousands of them. They came nearer +the machine now, and flew about more swiftly, is if excited.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">T</span>hen it happened.</p> + +<p>There was a roar like thunder, and a colossal, bellowing explosion. +The air was filled suddenly with scalding steam, and with screaming +fragments of the bursting steam chest. In the midst of it all, Larry +felt a crushing blow upon the head. And a blanket of darkness fell +upon him....</p> + +<p>"The monsters are all gone, darling," Agnes' voice reached him. "As +though they were very much frightened. And a piece of the old hammer +hit the fence and knocked a hole in it. You must go. Leave me—"</p> + +<p>"Leave you?" Larry groaned, struggling to sit up. "Not a bit of it!" +He touched his head gingerly, felt a swollen bruise.</p> + +<p>Collecting a few fragments of the wrecked machine, to serve as tools, +he fell to work again upon Agnes' remaining chain. Already he had cut +a deep groove in it. Two hours later, it was broken.</p> + +<p>Carrying the metal urn of brownish liquid, they crept out through the +hole in the fence, which had been torn by the flying fragment of a +broken casting of green metal. They left the wreck of the machine +which a strange race had worshiped as a bloody god and hurried +furtively into the desert of red sand.</p> + +<p>Making a wide circuit about the fantastic city of green metal, which +Larry had seen from the air, they struck out eastward across the +desolate ocherous waste. The food in the urn, eaten sparingly, lasted +until the end of the eighth day.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the ninth, they came in view of the green line of +the ancient canal. It was hours later that they staggered weakly over +its wall of crumbling masonry, clambered down into the muddy, +weed-grown channel, and drank thirstily of green, tepid water.</p> + +<p>Larry found his old trail, beyond the canal. They followed it back. In +the middle of the afternoon they stumbled up to the thicket of spiky +desert growth, in which Larry had hidden the plane.</p> + +<p>The machine was undamaged.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">B</span>efore sunset, Larry had removed the stake ropes, slipped the canvas +cover from the motor, turned the plane around, inspected it, and +examined the strip of smooth, hard red sand upon which he had landed.</p> + +<p>Agnes pointed out the dim band of crimson across the sky, from north +to south, slowly rising toward the zenith.</p> + +<p>"That's the red ray," she said. "We fly into it."</p> + +<p>"And a happy moment when we do," Larry rejoined.</p> + +<p>He roused the motor to life.</p> + +<p>As the bar of crimson light neared the zenith, the plane rolled +forward across the sand and took off. Climbing steeply, Larry +anxiously watched the approach of the red band. The gravitation of the +Pygmy Planet seemed to diminish as he gained altitude, until presently +he could fly vertically from it, without circling at all. He set the +bow toward the scarlet bar across the sky before him.</p> + +<p>And suddenly he was flying through ruby flame.</p> + +<p>His eyes went to the little scale at the corner of the instrument +board. He saw the little ebon needle waver, leave the mark designated +"Pygmy Planet Normal" and start toward "Earth Normal."</p> + +<p>For what seemed a long time, he was wheeling down the crimson ray. A +few times he looked back at Agnes, in the rear seat. She had gone to +sleep.</p> + +<p>Then a vast, circular field was below—the crystal platform.</p> + +<p>Larry landed the plane upon it, taxied to the center and stopped +there, with the motor idling. The laboratory, taking shape in the blue +abyss about him, seemed to contract swiftly.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p><span class="f2">P</span>resently the plane covered most of the crystal disk. He taxied +quickly off, stopped on the floor nearby, and cut the ignition. Agnes +woke. Together they clambered from the plane's cabin and walked back +into the crimson ray.</p> + +<p>Once more the vast spaces of the room seemed to shrink, until it +looked familiar once more. The Pygmy Planet, and the huge machine +looming ever them, dwindled to natural size.</p> + +<p>Agnes, watching a scale on the frame of the mechanism, which Larry had +not noticed, leaped suddenly from the red ray, drawing him with her.</p> + +<p>"We don't want to be giants!" she laughed.</p> + +<p>Larry drew a deep breath, and looked about him. Once more he was in +his own world, and surveying it in his normal size. He became aware of +Agnes standing close against him. He suddenly took her in his arms and +kissed her.</p> + +<p>"Wait a minute," she objected, slipping quickly from his arms. "What +are we going to do about the Pygmy Planet? Those monsters might come +again, even if you did wreck their god. And Dr. Whiting, poor +fellow—But we mustn't let those monsters come back!"</p> + +<p>Larry doubled up a brown fist and drove it with all his strength +against the little globe that spun so steadily between the twin, +upright cylinders of crimson and of violet flame. His hand went deep +into it. And it swung from its position, hung unsteadily a moment, and +then crashed to the laboratory floor. It was crushed like a ball of +soft brown mud. It spattered.</p> + +<p>"Now I guess they won't come back," Agnes said. "A pity to spoil all +Dr. Whiting's work, though."</p> + +<p>Larry was standing motionless, holding up his fist and looking at it +oddly. "I smashed a planet! Think of it. I smashed a planet! Just the +other—why it was just this evening, at the office, I was wishing for +something to happen!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Pygmy Planet, by John Stewart Williamson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PYGMY PLANET *** + +***** This file should be named 29177-h.htm or 29177-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/1/7/29177/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Pygmy Planet + +Author: John Stewart Williamson + +Release Date: June 20, 2009 [EBook #29177] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PYGMY PLANET *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from Astounding Stories February 1932. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + The Pygmy Planet + + By Jack Williamson + + + + +[Sidenote: Down into the infinitely small goes Larry on his mission to +the Pygmy Planet.] + +[Illustration: _It paused, seeming to regard them with malevolent +eyes._] + +"Nothing ever happens to me!" Larry Manahan grumbled under his breath, +sitting behind his desk at the advertising agency which employed his +services in return for the consideration of fifty a week. "All the +adventure I know is what I see in the movies, or read about in +magazines. What wouldn't I give for a slice of real life!" + +Unconsciously, he tensed the muscles of his six feet of lean, hard +body. His crisp, flame-colored hair seemed to bristle; his blue eyes +blazed. He clenched a brown hammer of a fist. + +Larry felt himself an energetic, red-blooded square peg, badly +afflicted with the urge for adventure, miserably wedged in a round +hole. It is one of the misfortunes of our civilization that a young +man who, for example, might have been an excellent pirate a couple of +centuries ago, must be kept chained to a desk. And that seemed to be +Larry's fate. + +"Things happen to other people," he muttered. "Why couldn't an +adventure come to me?" + +He sat, staring wistfully at a picture of a majestic mountain +landscape, soon to be used in the advertising of a railway company +whose publicity was handled by his agency, when the jangle of the +telephone roused him with a start. + +"Oh, Larry--" came a breathless, quivering voice. + +Then, with a click, the connection was broken. + +The voice had been feminine and had carried a familiar ring. Larry +tried to place it, as he listened at the receiver and attempted to get +the broken connection restored. + +"Your party hung up, and won't answer," the operator informed him. + +He replaced the receiver on the hook, still seeking to follow the thin +thread of memory given him by the familiar note in that eager excited +voice. If only the girl had spoken a few more words! + + * * * * * + +Then it came to him. + +"Agnes Sterling!" he exclaimed aloud. + +Agnes Sterling was a slender, elfish, dark-haired girl--lovely, he had +thought her, on the occasions of their few brief meetings. Larry knew +her as the secretary and laboratory assistant of Dr. Travis Whiting, a +retired college professor known for his work on the structure of the +atom. Larry had called at the home-laboratory of the savant, months +before, to check certain statistics to be used for advertising +purposes and had met the girl there. Only a few times since had he +seen her. + +Now she had called him in a voice that fairly trembled with +excitement--and, he thought, dread! And she had been interrupted +before she had time to give him any message. + +For a few seconds Larry stared at the telephone. Then he rose abruptly +to his feet, crammed his hat on his head, and started for the door. + +"The way to find adventure is to go after it," he murmured. "And this +is the invitation!" + +It was not many minutes later that he sprang out of a taxi at the +front of the building in which Dr. Travis Whiting made his home and +maintained a private experimental laboratory. It was a two-story +stucco house, rather out of date, set well back from the sidewalk, +with a scrap of lawn and a few straggling shrubs before it. The door +was closed, the windows curtained blankly. The place seemed deserted +and forbidding. + +Larry ran up the uneven brick walk to the door and rang the bell. +Impatiently, he waited a few moments. No sound came from within. He +felt something ominous, fateful, about the silent mystery that seemed +to shroud the old house. For the first time, it occurred to him that +Agnes might be in physical danger, as a result of some incautious +experiment on the part of Dr. Whiting. + + * * * * * + +Instinctively, his hand sought the door knob. To his surprise, the +door was unlocked. It swung open before him. For a moment he stared, +hesitating, into the dark hall revealed beyond. Then, driven by the +thought that Agnes might be in danger, he advanced impulsively. + +The several doors opening into the hall were closed. The one at the +back, he knew, gave admittance to the laboratory. Impelled by some +vague premonition, he hastened toward it down the long hall and threw +it open. + +As he stepped inside the room, his foot slipped on a spot of something +red. Recovering his balance with difficulty, he peered about. + +Bending down, Larry briefly examined the red spot on which he had +slipped. It was a pool of fresh blood which had not yet darkened. +Lying beside it, crimson-splashed, was a revolver. As he picked up the +weapon, he cried out in astonishment. + +Something had happened to the gun. The trigger guard was torn from it, +and the cylinder crushed as if in some resistless grasp; the stock was +twisted, and the barrel bent almost into a circle. The revolver had +been crumpled by some terrific force--as a soft clay model of it might +have been broken by the pressure of a man's hand. + +"Crimson shades of Caesar!" he muttered, and dropped the crushed +weapon to the floor again. + +His eyes swept the silent laboratory. + +It was a huge room, taking up all the rear part of the house, from the +first floor to the roof. Gray daylight streamed through a sky-light, +twenty feet overhead. The ends of the vast room were cluttered with +electrical and chemical apparatus; but Larry's eye was caught at once +by a strange and complex device, which loomed across from him, in the +center of the floor. + + * * * * * + +Two pillars of intense light, a ray of crimson flame and another of +deeply violet radiance, beat straight down from a complicated array of +enormous, oddly shaped electron tubes, of mirrors and lenses and +prisms, of coils and whirling disks, which reached almost to the roof. +Upright, a yard in diameter and almost a yard apart, the strange +columns of light were sharp-edged as two transparent cylinders filled +with liquid light of ruby and of amethyst. Each ray poured down upon a +circular platform of glass or polished crystal. + +Hanging between those motionless cylinders of red and violet light was +a strange-looking, greenish globe. A round ball, nearly a yard in +diameter, hung between the rays, almost touching them. Its surface was +oddly splotched with darker and lighter areas. It was spinning +steadily, at a low rate of speed. Larry did not see what held it up; +it seemed hanging free, several feet above the crystal platforms. + +Reluctantly he withdrew his eyes from the mysterious sphere and looked +about the room once more. No, the laboratory was vacant of human +occupants. No one was hidden among the benches that were cluttered +with beakers and test tubes and stills, or among the dynamos and +transformers in the other end of the room. + +A confusion of questions beat through Larry's brain. + +What danger could be haunting this quiet laboratory? Was this the +blood of Agnes Sterling or the scientist who employed her that was now +clotting on the floor? What terrific force had crumpled up the +revolver? What had become of Agnes and Dr. Whiting? And of whatever +had attacked them? Had Agnes called him after the attack, or before? + + * * * * * + +Despite himself, his attention was drawn back to the little globe +spinning so regularly, floating in the air between the pillars of red +and violet flame. Floating alone, like a little world in space, +without a visible support, it might be held up by magnetic attraction, +he thought. + +A tiny planet! + +His mind quickened at the idea, and he half forgot the weird mystery +gathering about him. He stepped nearer the sphere. It was curiously +like a miniature world. The irregular bluish areas would be seas; the +green and the brown spaces land. In some parts, the surface appeared +mistily obscured--perhaps, by masses of cloud. + +Larry saw an odd-looking lamp, set perhaps ten feet behind the slowly +spinning, floating ball, throwing upon it a bright ray of vividly blue +light. Half the strange sphere was brilliantly illuminated by it; the +rest was in comparative darkness. That blue lamp, it came to Larry, +lit the sphere as the sun lights the earth. + +"Nonsense!" he muttered. "It's impossible!" + +Aroused by the seeming wonder of it, he was drawn nearer the ball. It +spun rather slowly, Larry noted, and each rotation consumed several +seconds. He could distinguish green patches that might be forests, and +thin, silvery lines that looked like rivers, and broad, red-brown +areas that must be deserts, and the broad blue stretches that +suggested oceans. + +"A toy world!" he cried. "A laboratory planet! What an experiment--" + +Then his eyes, looking up, caught the glistening, polished lens of a +powerful magnifying glass which hung by a black ribbon from a hook on +one of the heavy steel beams which supported the huge mass of silently +whirring apparatus. + + * * * * * + +Eagerly, he unfastened the magnifier. Holding it before his eyes, he +bent toward the strange sphere spinning steadily in the air. + +"Suffering shades of Caesar!" he ejaculated. + +Beneath the lens a world was racing. He could see masses of vividly +green forest; vast expanses of bare, cracked, ocherous desert; wastes +of smooth blue ocean. + +Then he was gazing at--a city? + +Larry could not be sure that he had seen correctly. It had slipped +very swiftly beneath his lens. But he had a momentary impression of +tiny, fantastic buildings, clustered in an elflike city. + +A pygmy planet, spinning in the laboratory like a world in the gulf of +space! What could it mean? Could it be connected with the strange call +from Agnes, with the blood on the floor, with the strange and ominous +silence that shrouded the deserted room? + +"Oh, Larry!" a clear, familiar voice rang suddenly from the door. "You +came!" + +Startled, Larry leaped back from the tiny, whirling globe and turned +to the door. A girl had come silently into the room. It was Agnes +Sterling. Her dark hair was tangled. Her small face was flushed, and +her brown eyes were wide with fear! In a white hand, which shook a +little, she carried a small, gold-plated automatic pistol. + +She ran nervously across the wide floor to Larry, with relief dawning +in her eyes. + +"I'm so glad you came!" she gasped, panting with excitement. "I +started to call you on the phone, but then I was afraid it would kill +you if you came! Please be careful! It may come back, any minute! +You'd better go away! It just took Dr. Whiting!" + +"Wait a minute," Larry put in. "Just one thing at a time. Let's get +this straight. To begin with, what is it that might kill me, and that +got the doctor?" + +"It's terrible!" she gasped, trembling. "A monster! You must go away +before it comes back!" + + * * * * * + +Larry drew a tall stool from beside one of the crowded tables and +placed it beside her. + +"Don't get excited," he urged. "I'm sure everything will be all +right. Just sit down, and tell me about it. The whole story. Just what +is going on here, and what happened to Dr. Whiting." + +He helped her upon the stool. She looked up at him gratefully, and +began to speak in a rapid voice. + +"You see that little planet? The monster came from that and carried +the doctor back there. And I know it will soon be back for another +victim--for sacrifice!" + +She had pointed across the great room, toward the strange little globe +which hung between the pillars of red and violet light. + +"Please go slow!" Larry broke in. "You're too fast for me. Are you +trying to tell me that that spinning ball is really a planet?" + +Agnes seemed a little more composed, though she was still flushed and +breathing rapidly. Her small hand still gripped the bright automatic. + +"Yes, it is a planet. The Pygmy Planet, Dr. Whiting called it. He said +it was the great experiment of the century. You see, he was testing +evolution. We began with the planet, young and hot, and watched it +until it is now almost as old as Mars. We watched the change and +development of life upon it. And the rise and decay of a strange +civilization. Until now its people are strange things, with human +brains in mechanical bodies, worshiping a rusty machine like a god--" + +"Go slow!" Larry pleaded again. "I don't see--Did the doctor +build--create--that planet himself?" + +"Yes. It began with his work on atomic structure. He discovered that +certain frequencies of the X-ray--so powerful that they are almost +akin to the cosmic ray--have the power of altering electronic orbits. +Every atom, you know, is a sort of solar system, with electrons +revolving about a proton. + +"And these rays would cause the electrons to fall into incredibly +smaller orbits, causing vast reduction in the size of the atoms, and +in the size of any object which the atoms formed. They would cause +anything, living or dead, to shrink to inconceivably microscopic +dimensions--or restore it to its former size, depending upon the exact +wave-length used. + +"And time passes far more swiftly for the tiny objects--probably +because the electrons move faster in their smaller orbits. That is +what suggested to Dr. Whiting that he would be able to watch the +entire life of a planet, in the laboratory. And so, at first, we +experimented merely with solitary specimens or colonies of animals. + +"But on the Pygmy Planet, we have watched the life of a world--the +whole panorama of evolution--" + + * * * * * + +"It seems too wonderful!" Larry muttered. "Could Dr. Whiting actually +decrease his size and become a dwarf?" + +"No trick at all," Agnes assured him. "All you have to do is stand in +the violet beam, to shrink. And move over in the red one, when you +want to grow. I have been several times with Dr. Whiting to the Pygmy +Planet." + +"Been--" Larry stopped, breathless with astonishment. + +"See the little airplane," Agnes said, pointing under the table. + +Larry gasped. + +Beneath the table stood a toy airplane. The spread of its glistening, +perfect wings was hardly three feet. A wonderful, delicate toy, +accurate in every detail of propeller, motor and landing gear, of +brace and rudder and aileron. Then he realized that it was no toy at +all, but a faithful miniature of a commercial plane. A complete, tiny +copy of one of the latest single-motor, cabin monoplane models. + +"It looks like it would fly," he said "a friend of mine his a big +one, just like it! Taught me to fly it, last summer vacation. This is +the very image of it!" + +"It will fly!" Agnes assured him, now composed enough to smile at his +amazement. "I have been with the doctor to the Pygmy Planet in it. + +"You stand in the violet ray until you're about three inches high," +she explained, "and then get into the plane. Then you fly up and into +the violet ray at the point where it touches the planet, and remain +there while you grow smaller. When you are the right size, all you +have to do is drop to the surface, and land. To come away, you rise +into the red ray and stay in it till you grow to proper size, when you +come down and land." + +"You--you've actually done that?" he gasped. "It sounds like a fairy +story!" + + * * * * * + +"Yes, I've done it," she assured him. Then she shuddered +apprehensively. "And the things--the machine-monsters, Dr. Whiting +called them--have learned to do it, too. One of them came down the red +ray, and attacked him. The doctor had a gun--but what could he do +against one of those?" She shivered. + +"It carried him back up the violet beam. Just a few minutes ago, I +started to phone you. Then I was afraid you would be hurt--" + +"Me, hurt?" Larry burst out. "What about you, here alone?" + +"It was my business. Dr. Whiting told me there might be danger, when +he hired me." + +"And now, what can we do?" Larry demanded. + +"I don't know," she said slowly. "I'm afraid one of the monsters will +be back after a new victim. We could smash the apparatus, but it is +too wonderful to be destroyed. And besides, Dr. Whiting may have +escaped. He may be alive there, in the deserts!" + +"We might fly up, in the little plane," Larry proposed, doubtfully. "I +think I could pilot it. If you want--" + +The girl's body stiffened. Her brown eyes widened with sudden dread, +and her small face went pale. She slipped quickly from the stool, +drawing in her breath with a sort of gasp. The hand that gripped the +automatic trembled a little. + +"What's the matter?" Larry cried. + +"I thought--" she gasped, "I think I see something in the ray! The +machine-monster is coming back!" + +Her lips tightened. She lifted the little automatic and began to shoot +into the pillar of crimson fire beside the tiny, spinning globe. + +Larry, watching tensely, saw a curious, bird-like something fluttering +about in the red ray, _swiftly growing larger_! + +Deliberately, and pausing to aim carefully for each shot, the girl +emptied the little gun at the figure. Her body was rigid, her small +face was firmly set, though she was breathing very fast. + + * * * * * + +A curious numbness had come over Larry. His only physical sensations +were the quick hammering of his heart, and a parching dryness in his +throat. Terror stiffened him. Though he would not have admitted it, he +was paralyzed with fear. + +The glittering thing that fluttered about in the crimson ray was not +an easy target. When the gun was empty, it seemed still unharmed. And +its wings had increased to a span of a foot. + +"Too late!" Agnes gasped. "Why didn't we do _something_?" + +Trembling, horror-stricken, she shrank toward Larry. + +He was staring at the thing in the pillar of scarlet light. + +It had dropped to the crystal disk upon which the red ray fell from +the huge, glowing tube above. It stood there, motionless except for +the swift increase of its size. + +Larry gazed at it, lost in fear and wonder. It was like nothing he had +ever seen. What was it that Agnes had said, of machine-monsters, of +human brains in mechanical bodies? His brain reeled. He strained his +eyes to distinguish the monstrosity more clearly. It was veiled in +crimson flame; he could not see it distinctly. + +But suddenly, when it was as tall as himself, it sprang out into the +room, toward Larry and the shuddering girl. Just off the crystal disk, +beyond the scarlet pillar of fire, it paused for long seconds, seeming +to regard them with malevolent eyes. + +For the first time, Larry could see it plainly. + +Its body, or its central part, was a tube of transparent crystal; an +upright cylinder, rounded at upper and lower ends. It was nearly a +foot in diameter, and four feet long. It seemed filled with a +luminous, purple liquid. + +About the cylinder were three bands of greenish, glistening metal. +Attached to the lower band were four jointed legs of the same bright +green metal, upon which the strange thing stood. + +Set in the middle band were two glittering, polished lenses, which +seemed to serve as eyes, and Larry felt that they were gazing at him +with malevolent menace. Behind the eyes, two wings sprang from the +green band. Ingenious, folding wings, of thin plates and bars of green +metal. + +And from the upper band sprang four slender, glistening, whip-like +tentacles, metallic and brilliantly green, two yards in length. They +writhed with strange life! + + * * * * * + +It seemed a long time to Larry that the thing stood, motionless, +seeming to stare evilly at them with eye-like lenses. Then, lurching +forward a little, it moved toward them upon legs of green metal. And +now Larry saw another amazing thing about it. + +Floating in the brilliant violet liquid that filled the crystal tube +was a gray mass, wrinkled and corrugated. This was divided by deep +clefts into right and left hemispheres, which, in turn were separated +into larger upper and smaller lower segments. White filaments ran +through the violet liquid from its base toward the three rings or +bands of green metal that encircled the cylinder. + +In an instant, Larry realized that the gray mass was a human brain. +The larger, upper part the cerebrum, the smaller mass at the back the +cerebellum. And the white filaments were nerves, by means of which +this brain controlled its astounding, mechanical body! + +A brain in a machine! + +The violet liquid, it came to Larry in his trance of wonder, must take +the place of blood, feeding the brain-cells, absorbing waste. + +An eternal mind, within a machine! Free from the ills and weaknesses +of the body. And devoid, too, of any pity, of any tender feelings. A +cold and selfish mind, without emotion--unless it might worship itself +or its mechanical body. + +It was this monster that had spilt the pool of blood drying on the +floor, near the door. And it was these glistening, green, snake-like +tentacles that had crumpled the revolver into a broken mass of steel! + +Abruptly the machine-monster darted forward, running swiftly upon its +four legs of green metal. Slender tentacles reached out toward the +shuddering girl at Larry's shoulder. + +"Run!" Agnes gasped to him, quickly. "It will kill you!" + +The girl tried to push him back. + +As she touched him, Larry recovered from his daze of wondering fear. +Agnes was in frightful danger, and facing it with quiet courage. He +must find a weapon! + + * * * * * + +Wildly, he looked about him. His eyes fell upon the tall, heavy wooden +stool, upon which Agnes had been sitting. + +"Get back!" he shouted to her. + +He snatched up the stool, and, swinging it over his head, sprang +toward the machine of violet-filled crystal and glittering green +metal. + +"Stop!" Agnes screamed, in a terrified voice. "You can't--" + +She had run before him. He seized her arm and swung her back behind +him. Then he advanced warily toward the machine-monster, which had +paused and seemed to be regarding him with sinister intentness, +through its glistening crystal eye-lenses. + +With all his strength, Larry struck at the crystal cylinder, swinging +the stool like an ax. A slender, metallic green tentacle whipped out, +tore the stool from his hands, and sent it crashing across the room, +to splinter into fragments on the opposite wall. + +Larry, sent off his balance, staggered toward the glittering machine. +As he stumbled against the transparent tube that contained the brain, +he clenched his fist to strike futilely at it. + +A snake-like metal tentacle wrapped itself about him; he was hurled to +the floor, to sprawl grotesquely among broken apparatus. + +His head came against the leg of a bench. For a few moments he was +dazed. But it seemed only a few seconds to him before he had staggered +to his feet, rubbing his bruised head. Anxiously, he peered about the +room. + +The machine-monster and Agnes were gone! + +He stumbled back to the mass of apparatus in the center of the huge +laboratory. Intently, he gazed into the upright pillar of crimson +flame. Nothing was visible there. + +"No, the other!" he gasped. "The violet is the way they went." + + * * * * * + +He turned to the companion ray of violet radiance that beat straight +down on the opposite side of the tiny, whirling planet. And in that +motionless torrent of chill violet flame he saw them. + +Tiny, already, and swiftly dwindling! + +With green wings outspread, the machine-monster was beating swiftly +upward through the pillar of purple-blue flame. And close against the +crystal tube that contained its brain, was Agnes, held fast by the +whip-like tentacles of glistening green metal. + +Larry moved to spring after them, into the torrent of violet light. +But sudden caution restrained him. + +"I'd shrink, too!" he muttered. "And then where would I be? I'd be +standing on the glass platform, I guess. And the thing flying off over +my head!" + +He gazed at the rapidly dwindling forms of Agnes Sterling and her +amazing abductor. As it grew smaller, the machine-monster flew higher +in the violet beam, until it was opposite the tiny, spinning planet. + +The distance between the red and the violet rays was just slightly +more than the diameter of the pygmy world. The sphere hung between +them, one side of it a fraction of an inch from the red, the other as +near the violet. + +Opposite the elfin planet, the monster ceased to climb. It hung there +in the violet ray, an inch from the surface of the little world. + +And still it swiftly dwindled. It was no larger than a fly, and Larry +could barely distinguish the form of the girl, helpless in the green +tentacles. + +Soon she and the monster became a mere greenish speck.... Suddenly +they were gone. + + * * * * * + +For a little time he stood watching the point where they had vanished, +watching the red and the violet rays that poured straight down upon +the crystal disks, watching the tiny, green-blue planet spinning so +steadily between the bright rays. + +Abruptly, he recovered from his fascination of wonder. + +"What did she say?" he muttered. "Something about the monsters +carrying off people to sacrifice to a rusty machine that they worship +as a god! It took her--for that!" + +He clenched his fists; his lips became a straight line of +determination. + +"Then I guess we try a voyage in the little plane. A slim chance, +maybe. But decidedly better than none!" + +He returned to the table, dropped on his knees, inspected the tiny +airplane. A perfect miniature, delicately beautiful; its slim, small +wings were bright as silver foil. Carefully, he opened the door and +peered into the diminutive cabin. Two minute rifles, several +Lilliputian pistols, and boxes of ammunition to match, lay on the rear +seat of the plane. + +"So we are prepared for war," he remarked, grinning in satisfaction. +"And the next trick, I suppose, is to get shrunk to fit the plane. +About three inches, she said. Lord, it's a queer thing to think +about!" + +He got to his feet, walked back to the machine in the center of the +room, with its twin pillars of red and violet flame, and the tiny +world floating between them. He started to step into the violet ray, +then hesitated, shivering involuntarily, like a swimmer about to dive +into icy cold water. + +Turning back to one of the benches, he picked up a wooden funnel-rack, +and tossed it to the crystal disk beneath the violet ray. Slowly it +decreased in size, until it had vanished from sight. + +"Safe, I suppose," he muttered. "But how do I know when I'm small +enough?" + + * * * * * + +After a moment he picked up a glass bottle which measured about three +inches in height, set it on the floor, beside the crystal disk. + +"I dive out when I get to be the size of the bottle," he murmured. + +With that, he leaped into the violet beam. + +He felt no unusual sensation, except one of pleasant, tingling warmth, +as if the direct rays of the sun were bearing down upon him. For a +moment he feared that his size was not being affected. Then he +noticed, not that he appeared to become smaller, but that the +laboratory seemed to be growing immensely larger. + +The walls seemed to race away from him. The green-blue sphere of the +tiny planet which he proposed to visit expanded and drew away above +his head. + +Abruptly fearful, alarmed at the hugeness of the room, he turned to +look at the bottle he had placed to serve as a standard of size. It +had grown with everything else, until it seemed to be about three feet +high. + +And it was swiftly expanding. It reached to the level of his shoulder. +And higher! + +He ran to the edge of the crystal disk, which now seemed a floor many +yards across, and leaped from its edge. It was a dozen steps to where +he had left the bottle. And it was as tall as himself! + +He started across the floor of the laboratory toward the table under +which the toy plane stood. The incredible immensity of his +surroundings awed him strangely. The walls of the room seemed distant, +Cyclopean cliffs; the roof was like a sky. Table legs towered up like +enormous columns. + +It seemed a hundred yards across the strangely rough floor to the +plane. As he drew near it, it gave him huge satisfaction to see that +it was of normal size, correctly proportioned to his own dimensions. + +"Great luck," he muttered, "that I can fly!" + + * * * * * + +He paused, as he reached the cabin's open door, to wonder at the +astounding fact that a little while ago he had opened that door with a +hand larger than his entire body now was. + +"I guess this is my day of wonders!" he muttered. "Allah knows I had +to wait long enough for it!" + +First he examined the weapons in the cabin. There were two heavy +sporting rifles and two .45 automatics. There were also two smaller +automatics, which, he supposed, had been intended for Agnes' use. And +there was abundant ammunition. + +Then he inspected the plane. It looked to be in excellent condition in +every way. The gasoline and oil tanks were full. + +He set about starting the motor, using the plane's inertia starter, +which was driven by an electric motor. Soon the engine coughed, +sputtered, and gave rise to a roaring, rhythmic note that Larry found +musical. + +When the motor was warm, he opened the throttle and taxied out from +beneath the colossal table, and across the laboratory floor toward the +Titanic mechanism in the center of the room. The disk of crystal was +set almost flush with the floor, its edge beveled. The plane rolled +easily upon it, and out into the Cyclopean pillar of violet flame. + +Once more, Larry felt the sensation that everything about him except +the plane itself, was expanding inconceivably in size. Soon the +laboratory's walls and roof were lost in hazy blue distance. He could +distinguish only the broad, bright field formed by the surface of the +crystal disk, with the floor stretching away beyond it like a vast +plain. And above, the green-blue sphere of the tiny planet, bright on +one side and dark on the other, so that it looked like a half-moon, +immensely far-off. + + * * * * * + +As he waited, he noticed a curious little dial, in a lower corner of +the instrument board, which he had not seen at first. One end of its +graduated scale was marked, "Earth Normal," the other, "Pygmy Planet +Normal." A tiny black needle was creeping slowly across the scale, +toward "Pygmy Planet Normal." + +"That's how we tell what size we are without having to look at a +bottle," he muttered. + +When the area of the crystal platform appeared to be about half a +square mile, he decided that he would now have sufficient space to +spiral up the violet ray toward the planet. If he waited too long to +start, the distance would become impossibly great. + +He gave the little plane the gun. The motor thundered a throbbing +song; the ship rolled smoothly forward over the polished surface, +gained flying speed and took the air without a shock. + +"Feels good to hold the stick again!" Larry murmured. + +Making small circles to keep within the upright pillar of violet +radiance, he climbed steadily and as rapidly as possible, keeping his +eyes upon the brilliant half-moon of the Pygmy Planet. + +The strangest flight in the annals of aviation! He was flying toward +a goal that, a few minutes before, he could have touched. Toward a +goal that, at the beginning of his flight, was only a few lengths of +his plane away. And his size dwindled so rapidly as he flew that the +planet seemed to swell and draw away from him. + +As Larry and the plane grew smaller, the relative size of the violet +ray increased, so there was no longer much danger of flying out of it. +It seemed that he flew through a world of violet flame. + +He met a curious problem in time. It is evident that time passes +faster for a small animal than for a large one, because nerve currents +require a shorter time in transit, and all thought and action is +consequently speeded up. It took a hundred-foot dinosaur nearly a +second to know that his tail had been pinched. A fly can get under way +in time to escape a descending swatter. The Pygmy Planet rotated in a +few seconds of earth time; one of its inhabitants might have lived, +aged, and died in the duration of a single day in our larger world. + + * * * * * + +So Larry found that time seemed to pass more rapidly, or rather that +the time of the world he had left appeared to move more slowly, as he +adventured into smallness. He had been flying, it seemed to him, +nearly an hour when he reached the level of the planet's equator. + +Now it seemed a vast world, filling half the visible universe. He flew +toward it steadily, until he knew, by the fading before him of the +violet flame which now seemed to fill all space, that he was near the +edge of the ray. And as he flew, he watched the little scale, upon +which the black needle was now nearing the line marked, "Pygmy Planet +Normal." + +Circling slowly, keeping always on the level of the planet's equator, +and near the edge of the violet ray, so as to be as close as possible +to his landing place when he reached the proper size, he watched the +creeping black needle. + +Too, he scanned with eager eyes the planet floating before him. Bare, +red deserts; narrow strips of green vegetation; shrunken, blue oceans; +silvery lines of rivers, passed in fascinating panorama beneath his +eyes. The rate of the planet's spinning seemed continually to lessen, +with the changing of his own sense of time. + +Agnes! Larry thought of her with a curious, eager pain in his heart. +She was somewhere on that strange, ancient world, a prisoner of weird +machine-monsters! Intended victim of a grotesque sacrificial ceremony! + +Could he find her, in the vastness of an unfamiliar world? And having +found her, would there be a chance to rescue her from her hideous +captors? The project seemed insane. But Larry felt a queer, unfamiliar +urge, which, he knew, would drive him on until he had discovered and +saved her--or until he was dead. + + * * * * * + +At last, when it seemed to Larry nearly three hours since he had begun +this amazing flight, the crawling ebon needle reached the mark, "Pygmy +Planet Normal." + +He flew out of the wall of violet flame toward the planet's surface. +Before, the distance between the planet and the ray's edge had seemed +only the fraction of an inch. Now it appeared to be many miles. + +Abruptly the Pygmy Planet, which had seemed to be _beside_ him, +appeared to swing about, so that it was _beneath_ him. He knew that it +was a change merely in his sensations. He was feeling the gravitation +of the new world. It was pulling him toward it! + +He cut the throttle, and settled the plane into a long glide, a glide +that was to end upon the surface of a new planet! + +In what seemed half an hour more, Larry had made a safe landing upon +the Pygmy Planet. He had come down upon a stretch of fairly smooth, +red, sandy desert, which seemed to stretch illimitably toward the +rising sun, which direction Larry instinctively termed "east." + +To the "west" was a line of dull green--evidently the vegetation along +a stream. The ocher desert was scattered with sparse clumps of +reddish, spiky scrub. Larry taxied the plane into one of those +thickets. Finding canvas and rope in the cabin, he staked down the +machine, and muffled the motor. + +Then, selecting a rifle and a heavy automatic from the weapons in the +cabin, and filling his pockets with extra ammunition, he left the +plane and set out with brisk steps toward the green line of +vegetation. + +"I'll follow along the river," he reasoned. "It may lead me somewhere +and it will show the way back to the plane. I may come across +something in the way of a clue. Can't go exploring by air, or I'll +burn up all the gas and be stranded here!" + + * * * * * + +To his surprise, the water course proved to be an ancient canal, +walled with crumbling masonry. Its channel was choked with mud and +thorny, thick-leaved desert shrubs of unfamiliar variety; but a feeble +current still flowed along it. + +After some reflection, Larry set out along the banks of the canal. + +He followed it for two days. + +Curious straight bars of light were visible across the sky--a band of +violet in the morning; one of crimson at evening. Their apparent +motion was in the same direction as that of the sun. The bars of +light puzzled him considerably before it occurred to him that they +must be the red and violet rays. + +"So you wait till evening, and then fly up into the red ray, to go +home," he muttered. "But I may not need that information," he added +grimly. "Seems to be a pretty big job to search a planet on foot, for +one person. And I'm not going back without Agnes!" + +In the afternoon of the second day, he came within view of a city. He +could discern vast, imposing walls and towers of dark stone. It stood +in the barren red desert, far back from the green line of the old +canal. Larry left the canal and started wearily across toward it. He +had covered several miles of the distance before he saw that the lofty +towers were falling, the magnificent walls crumbling. The city was +ruined, dead, deserted! + +The realization brought him a great flood of despair. He had hoped to +find people--friends, from whom he might get food, and information +about this unfamiliar planet. But the city was dead. + +Larry was standing there, in the midst of the vast red plain between +ruined city and ruined canal. Tired, hungry, lonely and hopeless. He +was looking up at the white "sun," trying to comfort himself with the +thought that the brilliant luminary was merely a queer blue lamp, that +he was upon a tiny experimental world in a laboratory. But the thought +brought him no relief; only confusion and a sense of incredulity. + + * * * * * + +Then he saw the machine-monster. + +A glittering, winged thing of crystal and green metal, identical with +the one he had encountered in the laboratory. It must already have +seen him, for it was dropping swiftly toward him. + +Larry started to run, took a few staggering steps. Then he recalled +the heavy rifle slung over his shoulder. Moving with desperate haste, +he got it into his hands and raised it just as the monster dropped to +the red sand a dozen yards away from him. + +Steadily he covered the crystal cylinder within which the thing's +brain floated in luminous violet liquid. His finger tightened on the +trigger, ready to send a heavy bullet crashing into it. Then he +paused, swore softly, lowered the gun. + +"If I kill it," he murmured, "I may never find Agnes. And if I let it +carry me off, it may take me where she is." + +He walked toward the monster, across the red sand. + +It stood uncertainly upon green metal legs, seeming to stare at him +strangely with eye-like lenses. Its wings of thin green metal plates, +were folded; its four green tentacles were twitching oddly. + +Abruptly, it sprang upon him. + +A green tentacle seized the rifle and snatched it from his hands. He +felt the automatic pistol and the ammunition being removed from his +pockets. + +Then, firmly held in the flexible arms of green metal, he was lifted +against the cylinder of violet liquid. The monster spread its broad +emerald wings, and Larry was swiftly borne into the air. + +In a few moments the wide ruins of the ancient city were spread below, +with the green line of the choked canal cutting the infinite red waste +of the desert beyond it. + +The monster flew westward. + + * * * * * + +For a considerable time, nothing save barren, ocherous desert was in +view. Then Larry's weird captor flew near a strange city. A city of +green metal. The buildings were most fantastic--pyramids of green, +crowned with enormous, glistening spheres of emerald metal. An +impassable wall surrounding the city. + +Larry had expected the monster to drop into the city. But it carried +him on, and finally settled to the ground several miles beyond. The +green tentacles released him, as the thing landed, and he sprawled +beside it, dizzy after his strange flight. + +As Larry staggered uncertainly to his feet, he saw that the monster +had released him in an open pen. It was a square area, nearly fifty +yards on each side, and fenced with thin posts or rods of green metal, +perhaps twenty feet high. Set very close together, and sharply pointed +at the top, they formed a barrier apparently insurmountable. + +In the center of the pen was a huge and strange machine, built of +green metal. It looked very worn and ancient; it was covered with +patches of bluish rust or corrosion. At first it looked quite strange +to Larry; then he was struck by a vaguely familiar quality about it. +Looking closer, he realized that it was a colossal steam hammer! + +Its design, of course, was unfamiliar. But in the vast, corroded frame +he quickly picked out a steam chest, cylinder, and the great hammer, +weighing many tons. + +He gasped when his eyes went to the anvil. + +A man was chained across it. + +A man in torn, grimy clothing, fastened with fetters of green metal +upon wrists and ankles, so that his body was stretched beneath the +massive hammer. He seemed to be unconscious; upon his head, which was +turned toward Larry, was a red and swollen bruise. + +The monster which had dropped Larry within the pen rose again into the +air. And Larry started forward, trying to remember just what Agnes had +told him of a machine to which the monsters sacrificed. + +This must be the machine--this ancient steam hammer! + +As he moved forward, Agnes came into view. + + * * * * * + +She walked around the massive base of the great machine, carrying a +bowl filled with a fragrant brown liquid. She stopped at sight of +Larry, and uttered a little cry. The bowl fell from her hands, and the +fragrant liquid splashed out on the ground. Her brown eyes went wide +with delighted surprise; then a look of pain came into them. + +"Larry, Larry!" she cried. "Why did you come?" + +"To get you," he answered, trying to speak as lightly as he could. +"And the best way I knew to find you was to let one of the monsters +bring me. Cheer up!" But even to himself, his voice had a tone of +discouragement. + +She smiled wanly. "I don't see anything to be cheerful about." Her +small face was set and a little white. "Dr. Whiting is going to be +smashed under the hammer of this dreadful machine, whenever the steam +is up. Then it is my turn. And yours. That's nothing to laugh about." + +"But we aren't smashed yet!" Larry insisted. + +"By the way, what was that in the bowl?" he went on, glancing down. "I +forgot to bring lunch." He grinned. + +She looked down, startled. + +"Oh. Dr. Whiting's soup. Poor fellow, I'm afraid he'll never awake to +eat it. There's plenty more. Come around here." + +She picked up the bowl and led him around the base of the machine; +then she filled the bowl again with the fragrant, red-brown liquid, +from a tall urn of green metal. Larry took the dish eagerly and gulped +down the rather insipid and tasteless food. + +"And the monsters worship this old steam hammer?" he inquired, when +his hunger was appeased. + +"Yes. I think the thing is worked by steam generated by volcanic heat. +Anyhow, there isn't any boiler, and the steam pipe comes up out of the +ground. You can see that. So it runs on, without any attention--though +I guess the heat is dying down, since it is several days between blows +of the hammer. + +"And I guess the monsters have forgotten how they used to rule +machines. They seem to have depended upon machines, even giving up +their own bodies for mechanical ones, until the machine rules them. + +"And when this old hammer kept pounding on through the ages, using +volcanic steam, I guess they got to considering it alive. They began +to regard it as a sort of god. And when they got the idea of giving it +sacrifices, it was natural enough to place the victims under the +hammer." + + * * * * * + +They went back to Dr. Whiting who was chained across the anvil. He was +still breathing, but unconscious. He had been injured in a struggle +with the monsters, and his body was much emaciated. Agnes explained +that he had been a prisoner in the pen for many months of the time of +this world, waiting his turn to die; she said that the monsters had +just completed the extermination of another race upon the Pygmy +Planet, and were just turning to the greater world for victims. + +Larry noticed that the great hammer was slowly rising in its guides, +as the pressure of the steam from the planet's interior increased. In +a few hours--just at sunset--it reached the top of its stroke. + +The air above the pen was suddenly filled with glittering swarms of +the green-winged monsters, sweeping slowly about, in measured flight, +with strange order in their masses. They had come to witness the +sacrifice! + +With an explosive rush of steam, the hammer came down! + +The ground trembled beneath the terrific blow; the roaring of escaping +steam and the crash of the impact were almost deafening. A heavy white +cloud shrouded the corroded green machine. + +When the hammer slowly lifted, only a red smear was left.... + +Agnes had shrunk, trembling, against Larry's shoulder. He had put his +arms about her and was holding her almost fiercely. + +"My turn next," she whispered. "And don't try to fight them. It will +only make them hurt you!" + +"I can't let them take you, Agnes!" Larry cried, in an agonized tone. +And the words seemed to leap out, of themselves, "Because I love you!" + +"You do?" Agnes cried, in a thin, choking voice, pressing herself +against him. "Ever since the first time you came to the laboratory--" + +A score of the monster forms of violet-filled crystal and gleaming +green metal had dropped into the pen. They tore Agnes from Larry's +arms, hurling him roughly to the ground, at the bottom of the green +metal fence. For some time he was unconscious. + + * * * * * + +When he had staggered painfully to his feet, it was night. The +monsters were gone; the starless sky was black and empty. Calling out +weakly, and stumbling about the pen, he found Agnes. She was chained +where Dr. Whiting had been. + +She was conscious, unharmed. For a time they talked a little, +exchanging broken, incoherent phrases. Then they went to sleep, lying +on the anvil, beneath that mighty hammer that was slowly lifting to +strike another fearful blow. + +When the "sun" had risen again, Larry brought Agnes some of the brown +soup from the metal urn, which had been filled again. Then, when he +had satisfied himself, he started clambering up the massive frame of +the hammer. + +If he could put it out of commission! + +It was a difficult task. He slipped back many times, and finally had +to choose another place to make the ascent. Twice he slipped and +almost fell from a considerable height. But finally he reached the +massive wheel of the valve which seemed to control the admission of +steam into the cylinder above the hammer. + +If he could but close that, the steam would be confined in the chest +below. And when the pressure reached a certain point, something should +happen! + +The valve was not easy to turn; it seemed fixed with the corrosion of +ages. For hours Larry wrestled with it. Then he left it, realizing +that he must find something to use for a hammer. A vigorous search of +the pen's hard earth floor failed to reveal any stone that would do. +He turned his attention to the machine, and presently saw a slender +projecting lever, high up on the side of the vast frame, which looked +as if it had been weakened by corrosion. After a perilous climb, he +reached the bar of green metal and swung his weight upon it. It broke, +and he plunged to the ground with the bar in his hands. + + * * * * * + +Clambering up once more to the great valve, he hammered it until the +rust that stiffened it was loosened. Then he struggled with the valve +until it was closed. + +"We'll see what happens!" he muttered. + +Returning to the ground, he set to work to break the green metal +fetters upon Agnes' wrists and ankles, using the broken lever as +hammer and file. + +For the greater part of six days he toiled at that task, while the +great hammer rose slowly. But the green metal seemed very hard. One +arm was free at the end of the second day, the other on the fourth. He +had one ankle loose on the morning of the sixth day. But as evening +came on, and the great hammer reached the top of its stroke, the +fourth chain still defied him. + +Before sunset, a swarm of the monsters appeared, wheeling on green +wings. He was forced to leave the work, hiding his improvised file. + +Agnes still lay across the anvil, to conceal from the monsters the +fact that the chains were broken. Larry sat close beside her, nursing +hands that were blistered and sore from his days of filing at the +chains. + +A sudden clatter came from the huge mechanism above them, and a sharp +hiss of steam, which became louder. + +"It works!" Larry whispered to Agnes. "The old valve held, and the +steam can't get into the cylinder to smash us! But Allah knows what +will happen when the pressure rises in that old steam chest!" + +Darkness came. Dusk swallowed the wheeling machine-monsters. All night +Larry and Agnes waited silently, together on the great anvil, +listening to the hissing of steam from above, which was slowly +becoming a shrill monotonous scream; monotonous, always higher, +shriller. + +The "sun" rose again. Still the green-winged monsters wheeled about. +They came in glittering swarms, thousands of them. They came nearer +the machine now, and flew about more swiftly, is if excited. + + * * * * * + +Then it happened. + +There was a roar like thunder, and a colossal, bellowing explosion. +The air was filled suddenly with scalding steam, and with screaming +fragments of the bursting steam chest. In the midst of it all, Larry +felt a crushing blow upon the head. And a blanket of darkness fell +upon him.... + +"The monsters are all gone, darling," Agnes' voice reached him. "As +though they were very much frightened. And a piece of the old hammer +hit the fence and knocked a hole in it. You must go. Leave me--" + +"Leave you?" Larry groaned, struggling to sit up. "Not a bit of it!" +He touched his head gingerly, felt a swollen bruise. + +Collecting a few fragments of the wrecked machine, to serve as tools, +he fell to work again upon Agnes' remaining chain. Already he had cut +a deep groove in it. Two hours later, it was broken. + +Carrying the metal urn of brownish liquid, they crept out through the +hole in the fence, which had been torn by the flying fragment of a +broken casting of green metal. They left the wreck of the machine +which a strange race had worshiped as a bloody god and hurried +furtively into the desert of red sand. + +Making a wide circuit about the fantastic city of green metal, which +Larry had seen from the air, they struck out eastward across the +desolate ocherous waste. The food in the urn, eaten sparingly, lasted +until the end of the eighth day. + +On the morning of the ninth, they came in view of the green line of +the ancient canal. It was hours later that they staggered weakly over +its wall of crumbling masonry, clambered down into the muddy, +weed-grown channel, and drank thirstily of green, tepid water. + +Larry found his old trail, beyond the canal. They followed it back. In +the middle of the afternoon they stumbled up to the thicket of spiky +desert growth, in which Larry had hidden the plane. + +The machine was undamaged. + + * * * * * + +Before sunset, Larry had removed the stake ropes, slipped the canvas +cover from the motor, turned the plane around, inspected it, and +examined the strip of smooth, hard red sand upon which he had landed. + +Agnes pointed out the dim band of crimson across the sky, from north +to south, slowly rising toward the zenith. + +"That's the red ray," she said. "We fly into it." + +"And a happy moment when we do," Larry rejoined. + +He roused the motor to life. + +As the bar of crimson light neared the zenith, the plane rolled +forward across the sand and took off. Climbing steeply, Larry +anxiously watched the approach of the red band. The gravitation of the +Pygmy Planet seemed to diminish as he gained altitude, until presently +he could fly vertically from it, without circling at all. He set the +bow toward the scarlet bar across the sky before him. + +And suddenly he was flying through ruby flame. + +His eyes went to the little scale at the corner of the instrument +board. He saw the little ebon needle waver, leave the mark designated +"Pygmy Planet Normal" and start toward "Earth Normal." + +For what seemed a long time, he was wheeling down the crimson ray. A +few times he looked back at Agnes, in the rear seat. She had gone to +sleep. + +Then a vast, circular field was below--the crystal platform. + +Larry landed the plane upon it, taxied to the center and stopped +there, with the motor idling. The laboratory, taking shape in the blue +abyss about him, seemed to contract swiftly. + + * * * * * + +Presently the plane covered most of the crystal disk. He taxied +quickly off, stopped on the floor nearby, and cut the ignition. Agnes +woke. Together they clambered from the plane's cabin and walked back +into the crimson ray. + +Once more the vast spaces of the room seemed to shrink, until it +looked familiar once more. The Pygmy Planet, and the huge machine +looming ever them, dwindled to natural size. + +Agnes, watching a scale on the frame of the mechanism, which Larry had +not noticed, leaped suddenly from the red ray, drawing him with her. + +"We don't want to be giants!" she laughed. + +Larry drew a deep breath, and looked about him. Once more he was in +his own world, and surveying it in his normal size. He became aware of +Agnes standing close against him. He suddenly took her in his arms and +kissed her. + +"Wait a minute," she objected, slipping quickly from his arms. "What +are we going to do about the Pygmy Planet? Those monsters might come +again, even if you did wreck their god. And Dr. Whiting, poor +fellow--But we mustn't let those monsters come back!" + +Larry doubled up a brown fist and drove it with all his strength +against the little globe that spun so steadily between the twin, +upright cylinders of crimson and of violet flame. His hand went deep +into it. And it swung from its position, hung unsteadily a moment, and +then crashed to the laboratory floor. It was crushed like a ball of +soft brown mud. It spattered. + +"Now I guess they won't come back," Agnes said. "A pity to spoil all +Dr. Whiting's work, though." + +Larry was standing motionless, holding up his fist and looking at it +oddly. "I smashed a planet! Think of it. I smashed a planet! Just the +other--why it was just this evening, at the office, I was wishing for +something to happen!" + + * * * * * + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Pygmy Planet, by John Stewart Williamson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE PYGMY PLANET *** + +***** This file should be named 29177.txt or 29177.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/1/7/29177/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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