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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b50eac9 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #69350 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/69350) diff --git a/old/69350-0.txt b/old/69350-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 23ac996..0000000 --- a/old/69350-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1808 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The vanishers, by Arthur J. Burks - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The vanishers - -Author: Arthur J. Burks - -Release Date: November 14, 2022 [eBook #69350] - -Language: English - -Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed - Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VANISHERS *** - - - - - - THE VANISHERS - - A Novelette by ARTHUR J. BURKS - - _Trapped, facing an incredible shadow - army, whose lightest touch meant instant - dissolution--the last fighters of invaded - Earth made their bitter choice--victory - beyond death's portals--or oblivion!_ - - [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from - Super Science Stories May 1950. - Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that - the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] - - - - - CHAPTER ONE - - The Invisible Wall - - -My men were in battle dress for the landing--steel helmets painted -green, dirty green jackets, pants, cartridge belts, heavy field shoes. -The Caribbean was so deep blue it hurt the eyes. You could look -straight down into it until it made you dizzy. Sharks, some of them -monsters, congregated from all directions. - -Marines waiting to debark shouted derisively at the sharks; but it was -noticeable that they didn't pull any funny business on the slings, -and they didn't let go of the slings until their feet were firmly -planted in the bottom of the landing craft. The landing craft scarcely -rose and fell. The Caribbean was as smooth as an inland lake. I think, -now that I look back, that all of us had a strange feeling that -something unusual was going to happen, and that it had nothing to do -with the sharks. - -I was first aboard a landing craft. I moved to the outboard side of -my craft and looked toward the half-moon beach where the Yataritas -empties into the Caribbean. The river's mouth was hidden by the sandy -beach. To my right the coast of Cuba, rugged, dirty coral cliffs ten -to fifty feet high, led away eastward, bulging out gradually a mile -south of the white-sandy beach. To my left there were broken cliffs of -rotting coral, and slopes leading up gradually from the shore to cactus -and spined-brush-covered hills so round they cast no shadows. - -Captain Ross Haggerty crawled down into the second LCVP, First -Lieutenant Peter Hoose into the third. There were twenty-four men with -each of us, some veterans of two wars, some recruits who'd been too -young for World War II. - -We were going in with Haggerty to my right rear, Hoose to my left rear. -We were equipped with the latest in ship-shore-landing-craft-airplane -communications. Four jet planes did fancy stuff over us, over the -beach, and behind the beach, while we got into our places. I could talk -with anybody in any LCVP, aboard the _Odyssey_ or in any one of the -jets. Our headsets made us look like men from Mars. - -Every man who was participating in this maneuver wore one of the sets, -for experience had taught that any marine, at any time, might find -himself running the show. - -There were flecks of foam about the reefs which flanked the half-moon -beach when all three LCVP's rose on their steps like amphibians ready -to take off, and headed north for the beach, so white it dazzled the -eyes. Behind the beach lay the spined brush wherein, theoretically, -enemy troops were lying in wait to rip us apart. - -I always thrilled to a landing, even a make-believe one. So did the -men, boring though peacetime soldiering was. The APD was dropping dud -shells ashore. The jets were diving on us, just to make a noise, and -our three motors sounded like the crack of doom. The men kept down -because that was the rule, but occasionally I pulled myself up and -looked ahead over the ramp--which would come crashing down when we -rammed our nose into the sand. Out over that ramp the marines would -charge, to race for cover and swing into position to give our new -weapons a workout. - -We'd be in in five minutes. The boat-handlers were talking to the ship -and the jets. I just listened in. I didn't see or hear a thing out of -the ordinary. - -"Stand by!" came the cry. "We're smacking in a coupla seconds!" - -The jets were having fun right over the beach and for a moment I envied -their pilots. When we got ashore it was going to be like sitting atop -a burning galley stove, on that sand. It would be even worse under the -brush on the land beyond that rose to the hills and the coral cliffs -which crowned them. - -The other two LCVP's had drawn abreast now. We hit the beach nearly -together. I heard the rasping of the chains as the ramps went down, -hitting the sand. There was knee-deep water over the outer ends of the -ramps. The marines dashed ashore. The first odd thing happened then; -one instant there was water over the ends of the ramps, then there was -none. - -As a matter of habit every marine did his job. Without command, -they sprayed out to right and left, getting unbunched as quickly as -possible, just in case a theoretical enemy projectile should land among -them. - -But their deployment slowed and came to a halt. I think they, like -myself, must instantly have missed the racketing of the jets. I looked -up. The sky, a pale blue, with slowly moving clouds in which I was -aware of greenish tints, was utterly empty of the four jets which were -supposed to support our maneuver. - -I whirled and looked back. Where the Caribbean had been there was a -huge sprawl of desert, blinding in the midday sun, stretching away -southward to a semicircle of brooding hills. I judged their crests to -be at least four thousand feet high. And where those crests were, five -minutes before, the Caribbean had been--fully a mile deep under the -stern of the _Odyssey_! Where the _Odyssey_ might now be I hadn't the -slightest idea. - -Just before we hit the beach there had been thickets of broad-leaved -squatty trees behind the ridges of sand, into which the marines had -been headed for concealment. Now there was nothing of the kind. There -was nothing but sand and silence--silence so deep that even breathing -broke it into brittle bits. - -The three LCVP's were still with us, high and dry on the sand in the -middle of the desert. Each was manned by a coxswain and a radioman. -These six men--they were sailors, of course--were now sitting in their -positions aboard the three crafts, like statues; as if they had been -fossilized by the suddenness of whatever had happened. - -At first I thought something was wrong with me. Then the marines became -uncertain, and when marines are uncertain the situation is definitely -out of hand. If I was seeing things that weren't there, so were -seventy-four other marines and six sailors. - -Captain Haggerty was giving the "assemble" signal and pointing to me. -Even before he gave it the marines were walking slowly toward me, their -weapons at ready, their eyes taking in all there was to see. I moved -back to the central landing craft. - -"My radio is dead," I called. "How about yours?" - -"Nothing, sir. They couldn't be deader on Judgment Day!" - -I leaned against a corner of the LCVP and waited for the men to -assemble. Nobody said anything. They just looked at me. I felt -helpless. - -"First," I said, "let's make a check. I want to be sure I haven't gone -completely daft! If what I say is true, say 'Aye, aye!' Got it?" - -"Aye, aye, sir!" - -"This is not the Yataritas Beach we all know--apparently!" - -"Aye, aye, sir!" the voices were low, hesitant, yet sure. - -"The Caribbean has disappeared!" - -"Aye, aye, sir!" - -"No jets! No APD! No _anything_ we know--except sand!" - -"Aye, aye, sir!" - -"And we have no communication with anything, anywhere. I've no idea -what we ran into, but it happened just as we hit the beach." I looked -at my watch. "And one more thing. We landed about ten minutes ago, at -nine hundred. The sun says it's nearly thirteen hundred. My watch says -it's oh-nine-twelve exactly." - -Officers and men looked at their wrist-watches. - -"Aye, aye, sir!" They all agreed to that. - -"The sailors are inside the--area--whatever it is, or they would be -gone like everything else except the LCVP's. Somewhere behind the -LCVP's, then, should be--" - -But I couldn't say it. Everybody could see that behind the LCVP's was -the unknown desert leading away south to the brooding ancient mountains. - -Sergeant Eckstrom strode quickly to the rear of the LCVP's. That took -guts, for he might have disappeared; but he didn't. He walked out onto -the hot desert for twenty yards, turned and came back. That ended that. -We were seeing what actually was there. - -"We'll send out scouts," I said, "to the four cardinal points of the -compass. We'll split each quadrant with another scout. That's eight -scouts. Make it sixteen, scout in pairs. Don't get out of sight of the -landing craft. No telling what you may run into." - -We officers split the horizon into thirds, set out to reconnoiter. - -The sailors flatly refused to leave the LCVP's further than the almost -non-existent shade they cast. It was their way of grasping at something -they could understand. I didn't blame them or argue with them. The -skipper of the APD was their immediate superior. Where _was_ he, anyway? - -What had snatched us into this unbelievable Limbo? - -How had it been done? What was going to happen to us? - - * * * * * - -I traveled about four points north of the northeast group. I am a fast -walker; even through sand I can travel faster than most men. I was -slightly ahead of all the other groups when suddenly I could go no -further. I could feel nothing, yet when I put out my foot to set it -down in a new place, it struck an invisible something, dropped back, -and my impetus carried me forward to involve my face in something much -finer than cobwebs. - -I jumped back, swearing, for I could see nothing except the hot waste -of glistening sand. There were dunes, hummocks with strange grasses and -brush sticking up through them like beards; but I had struck the limit -of my trek and could not reach any of those visible spots beyond. - -I pushed against it with my hands. It gave, but only as a taut wire net -might give, then press back against the hands; it was a strain to make -the thing bulge. The counterpressure was strong. I could not advance. -I turned to the right and saw that the nearest patrol had stopped. The -two men were fumbling in the air like blind men. They were raising -and lowering their feet as if they felt for steps above an abyss. -They, too, had come to the end of possible advance. They had come into -contact with invisibility also--invisibility that was inflexibly tough -beyond a certain brief limit. - -The two men turned now and looked at me. I gave the halt signal and -started toward them. I ran into something and caromed off, falling -to my knees. The horrible thought struck me that each group might -have stumbled inside some hideous globe and become separated from all -other groups. But it wasn't so. I got to my feet, put my left hand out -against the invisible wall--which felt warm to the touch, as if it were -a living thing--and started toward the northeast group. - -The surface of that strange substance was undulant; it zig-zagged, like -the weaving walk of a drunken man. - -I reached the first patrol, Corporal Hoge Ziegler and Private First -Class Barry Preble. Their faces were white. I wouldn't say they were -scared but they were definitely concerned. - -"Well, at least we've discovered what it was we ran through at the -moment we hit the beach," I offered. "All we need to do is find a way -through it, and go on with our maneuver." - -Ziegler shook his head. "No, sir, I don't see it like that. We can see -through this stuff, or seem to, but we can't see back the way we came, -astern of the landing craft." - -"Right, corporal; what do you think it is, then?" - -"I'm no scientist, sir. I'd say it is a net of some kind, in which we -have been caught, landing craft and all, like so many fish. But by -whom? By what? For what reason? It has me stopped." - -"I wonder--" began Preble, then stopped, staring at the place where he -and Ziegler had come to a dead stop. Preble stepped back. In his arms -he cradled one of the latest automatic weapons. - -Preble stepped back, lifted the muzzle of the weapon, held down the -trigger for a few squirts. The weapon acted naturally enough. There was -no question that the bullets left the muzzle of the fast-firer. But we -didn't hear them hit the invisible screen; nor, looking beyond it, did -we see where the bullets kicked up sand. The bullets simply plunked -into nothingness as bullets of an obsolete day vanished into soap or -sand during firing tests. - -A few seconds passed. Then there were soft sounds in the sand at the -very spot where the two marines had hit the wall. All three of us -looked down. The flattened, steel-jacketed bullets lay in a small group -in the sand, within a couple of inches of the invisible wall--on our -side of it. - -"Caught the bullets, like a baseball catcher!" said Preble, his voice -high-pitched with threatened hysteria. "Then just dropped 'em! Took -them in, killed their speed, then slowly discarded them! And I saw the -wall do it!" - -Ziegler and I had not seen this phenomenon, but we were not directly -behind the weapon, as Preble was. - -I lifted my binoculars for the first time and looked around at the -other patrols, all of which I could see easily. All except those which -followed a southerly direction had come to the wall and were just as -puzzled by it as we. None of us had anything to offer; we were even -afraid to think lest we question our own sanity. - -We held our ground until all patrols had come up against the invisible -wall. Then we had some idea of the extent of our prison. That brooding -mountain to the south, it appeared, was forbidden to us. - -How high did the wall reach? Was it domed? - -"Preble, fire as nearly straight up as you can," I told the private. -"Then we'll duck away fifty or sixty yards, just in case, and listen." - -Ziegler and I stepped well back. Preble took careful aim. He squirted a -few score slugs, then ran to join us. We were so silent we could not -even hear each other's breathing. Shortly we heard the bullets drop -into the sand, and stepped forward. - -Theoretically a bullet fired straight up strikes the ground with -the same speed at which it was fired--so the slugs would have been -flattened anyway. But we had noticed a thin film of some substance -unknown to us around the slugs which had been first fired into the wall. - -That same substance was clinging to the several slugs we managed to -sift up from the sand. Our wall of invisible tension was a dome! - -"I feel like a bug!" said Preble. "I feel like a bug must feel when a -scientist wants to study it. The scientist keeps covering it with a -glass tumbler when it tries to walk or fly away!" - -"Do you suppose our own authorities," said Ziegler, "would be trying -out a new interdiction weapon on us? Major, they wouldn't do it without -at least telling you, sir, would they?" - -"They might," I said. "There are secret weapons only the highest high -brass knows about. But if your hunch is right, corporal, we've sure -got ourselves something, haven't we? Wouldn't it be something if we -could throw an invisible net over every dive bomber of an enemy, every -warship, every man, and nullify the attack before it got started?" - -"It would make them all feel pretty silly," said Preble. "But suppose -an enemy had such a 'net'? Suppose it could reach out from anywhere in -the world--" - -Slowly we all walked back to the LCVP's. - -"Something else funny," said Ziegler. "It's noon now, by our time. The -sun says it's about four in the afternoon or thereabouts. But we're -still ordinary marines, aren't we? Maybe I'm different from the rest of -you, but doesn't it strike you as off--" - -"I'm not hungry," said Preble. "Nor thirsty! By this time of the -day, when we had breakfast at oh-six-hundred at Guantanamo, I'd be -starving." Preble was the company chow-hound. "But I'm not hungry, or -thirsty. You, corporal?" - -Ziegler shook his head. He was by way of being a hearty eater himself, -while I confess I came as close to being a glutton as an officer and a -gentleman dares allow himself to be. - -We had hiked for several hours under a blazing sun. Moreover, all of -us had sweated away a lot of moisture. Each of us carried a canteen of -water, so water was not yet a problem; but the point is, none of us had -taken a drink! - -When we got back to the LCVP's it was to find that nobody else was -either hungry or thirsty.... - -"We're prisoners," said Captain Haggerty, "that's clear. And according -to the laws of war, prisoners are fed. If we've been fed, and given -water without eating or drinking, _how_?" - -"Through our pores!" said Preble impetuously. - -There was a long moment of silence which somebody had to break pretty -soon. - -Lieutenant Hoose broke it. - -"Personally, I don't want to be sprinkled by something invisible, even -if I'm dying of thirst. And if food is being somehow rubbed into us, -I'd just as soon nobody rubbed it in! I'm not too lazy to chew for -myself!" - -It brought the first laugh. Hoose had a drawling manner of speech which -sometimes caused the men in ranks some discomfort to keep their faces -straight. We were more relaxed than we had been, for we appeared to -be in no danger. Besides, we were extremely well armed. If anybody -attacked us--but I refused to think too much about that. I had a -sneaking hunch that our top-secret weapons were, in this place, just so -much metal, value zero. - - * * * * * - -Now and again, during a comfortable afternoon, I sent out patrols to -check on the invisible wall. They always found it. Either it was there -continuously, or it was dropped when nobody was near and hurriedly -restored when a patrol went out to check. - -The feeling that everything we did or said was noted and heard began -to make us wary of movement and speech. We tried to pick out vantage -points from which we could be seen. Any one of the dunes outside our -prison might have hidden something. But discussing it, none of us felt -that this was up to the standard of behavior of whatever it was that -held us. - -That's about as far as we got before the sun went down with startling -suddenness and darkness settled over our Limbo. The darkness was -impenetrable. It lasted perhaps an hour. Then a sort of haze seemed to -withdraw in all directions, inwardly and outwardly--and the wondrous -tropical sky, studded with stars that hung down almost within reach of -human hands, bathed our upturned faces. - -In silence we all watched. There was an unusual coolness in the air, -too, for several minutes, Cuba, at that time of the year, was almost -never cool, even late at night; but some of the men were shivering. -Sweat had not dried on all of us, and sweat is bad when you are -motionless, at night. I was about to order the men to exercise a -little, when I realized something that Hoose put into words first: - -"Now," he said, "they're feeding us warmth, just as they feed and water -us! And we've been here for hours and don't have any idea, even, who or -what they are!" - -Nobody else said anything. All the rest of us were studying the sky. - -"I don't see the Big Dipper!" said Sergeant Eckstrom. - -"Nor the North Star!" somebody added. - -"Nor Venus, nor Lyra!" said someone else. "I've been studying our books -on constellations, and I don't recognize a one! _Where are we?_ We're -not even in Cuba! Not even in the Northern Hemisphere! Not even--" - -"Not even on the Earth--?" said Hoose. - -It was just here that the whispering began in our walkie-talkies; -whispering like nothing we had ever heard. We could make out nothing -that sounded at all like human words. The sounds were mechanical, yet -not-mechanical. I've called them whispers only because that comes -closest to describing the eerie sounds which every last one of us was -now hearing in his walkie-talkie. - -"It's vibration on our wavelength," said one of the gobs. "But that's -the best I can say of it." - -"Morse? International?" I asked. - -But nobody could offer an answer. - -Right after that we saw the Shadow Men, inside the dome. Something of -that which held us at last became visible. - - - - - CHAPTER TWO - - The Destroying Shadows - - -It looked like something new in shadow-play, or motion pictures. The -shadows looked like men falling in in close formation, save that there -was an uncanny shapelessness about them. We could tell that they walked -like other men, for we could see the swinging of their legs. But for -the rest of their bodies, well, somebody had worked out a great system -of camouflage. Heads were just black blobs rising out of shoulders that -were stooped and round. We could not tell whether the group had formed -facing us or with their backs to us. - -A chill crept over and through the dome as the formations fell in. The -sounds in our walkie-talkies grew in volume. I think we all sensed -menace in the words that were not human words, in tones that were not -human tones. We could sense growing menace, and intonations of command. - -We could make out nothing resembling any weapons we knew, but never -once did we doubt that the shadows were forming against us. We forgot, -while the shadows closed ranks, that we had been fed, watered, kept -warm. This was no friendly demonstration. - -The Shadow Men started closing in. I gave the command for which my men -had been waiting, and for the first time the sailors came out of the -landing craft to take part. - -A vast circle of shadows closed in on us as we formed for defense. -Old-timers remembered the ancient "Form for Bolo Attack" as we arranged -ourselves in concentric circles, the automatic weapons outside, -riflemen behind them with bayonets fixed. There was a rifle and bayonet -for each man, including the automatic weaponers, for use if the -automatics went out of action. - -"No firing until I give the word," I said. "Music!" - -"Music," in the Navy, of which the Marine Corps is a proud part, -designates a trumpeter or drummer or bugler--whoever beats to quarters -or blows the bugle-calls. - -"Here, sir," said Trumpeter Krane. - -"Blow something," I said, "It doesn't matter what. I'm just curious -about what effect it will have." - -"How about 'Boots and Saddles', sir?" he asked. There was a snicker, -the suggestion of laughter from the marines. - -Trumpeter Krane did a good job with "Boots and Saddles". It was a brave -sound, but it had no effect whatever on the advancing Shadow Men. As -the big circle contracted, every other Shadow Man dropped back, forming -an outer circle. One thing that seemed to make clear to us: the Shadow -Men had mass. They occupied space. Bullets, then, should have some -effect on them. - -"Preble!" - -"Aye, aye, sir!" - -"Scatter some bullets ahead of those things, far enough ahead so that -they'll ricochet over them." - -Preble stood up and let go with his ultramodern fast-firer. For a few -seconds, as he played the weapon's muzzle like a hose, the Shadow Men -were obscured by the cloud of kicked-up sand. The sand fell at once, of -course--and the Shadow Men were coming directly on! Moreover, there was -a grimmer note in our walkie-talkies. - -"One fast-firer at each cardinal point of the compass," I said. - -Marines in action are something to see. In a split second the Shadow -Men from all sides were being warned by bullets. But they came right on. - -"No other choice," I said quietly. "Shoot into them. Fire at will!" - -Thousands of steel-jacketed slugs poured into the Shadow Men. But not -one fell, and not for so much as an instant did they hesitate in their -advance. Now other men had fallen back so that four concentric circles -of Shadow Men closed in on us. They were quite close when they halted. -I was just preparing to order our new explosives to be hurled among -them, when, directly in front of me, a shadow detached itself from -other shadows. It strode forward a few paces and halted. The clumsy -arms seemed to gesticulate. The sounds of whispering came louder in -our walkie-talkies. I think we all felt that in some way we were being -challenged. - -"Someone is to go forward," I said. "I don't know what it wants, -but--Hold your fire, now--not that it seems to be worth much!" - -I rose and started forward, conscious that there wasn't a movement -among the marines, nor among the Shadow Men. I wondered as I -approached the foremost shadow, how we would make ourselves understood -to each other. The other entity must have some idea or there would be -no suggestion of a parley. - -I must have been halfway there when I was aware of running footfalls -behind me. I didn't turn--and by failing to turn I saved my own life at -the expense of PFC Yount's. The footfalls were right behind me, but I -wasn't expecting what happened. Arms went around my legs in as neat a -tackle as ever a leatherneck footballer pulled. I was thrown on my face -so hard I couldn't breathe. I don't remember when I've been downed so -hard. - -By the time I got to my knees Yount was almost in contact with the -detached shadow. He had a trench knife in his hand; drew it right after -tackling me. I could see everything that happened. - -PFC Yount flung himself straight at the shadow. I saw him disappear -_into_ the shadow, emerge on the other side. But there was a -difference: _he went in a marine in full battle dress; he came out a -completely articulated skeleton_. He had been stripped of clothes, -shoes, weapons, skin, flesh and life--so quickly that his forward -impetus carried his skeleton on through the shadow. - -[Illustration: He went in a Marine in full battle dress; he came out a -skeleton....] - -Now four marines were beside me. A growl rose from the others. I had to -yell at them, over my shoulder: "Stand fast! Do you want the same thing -to happen to you?" - -The four men beside me--I didn't look to see who they were--simply -waited. - -"Okay, just be careful not to touch any of the shadows," I said. -"Apparently that's where the danger is." - -Not a shadow moved, not even the one through which Yount had gone -to his death. The five of us then, rose and moved straight forward. -As we came close I could smell something in the shadows, a vague, -pestilential odor, like nothing I had ever experienced. - -"I smelled its like, sir," said one, Haggerty, I think, "where men lay -too long unburied. This is just a far hint, but it's like it, some way." - -We went around the detached shadow. There was no sound, even in our -walkie-talkies, now. It was almost as if, honoring an ancient military -custom, the Shadow Men were allowing us to collect our dead. I could -not see into or through the shadow. It was still so shapeless, even -when I was close enough to touch it, that I could not tell anything of -its true nature, or whether it, or any of the Shadow Men behind it, -were armed. I could see the result of too much impetuosity, however, in -the skeleton--snow-white, as if it were that of a man long dead in the -burning desert sands--of PFC Yount. I tried to remember, as the others -carefully gathered up the skeleton--Haggerty later said it was still -warm!--whether Yount had uttered any sound, but could not remember. - -Some men said later they were sure they heard a muffled scream, the -scream of a man in mortal agony, but I doubt it. - -I think it was an afterthought, strictly imagination. - -No attempt was made to keep us from retiring with the skeleton of -Yount. As soon as we were back, and had placed it against a side of -one of the LCVP's for burial later, the Shadow Men again began their -inexorable march. - -"Sailors!" I called. "Break out the flame-throwers." - -We surrounded ourselves with a sheet of flame, hot beyond anything used -in World War II. We sprayed the stuff into the faces of the advancing -Shadow Men; we blotted them out. - -They were erased as if they had never been. - -At my command the flames stopped--and the Shadow Men were still coming -on. - - * * * * * - -Not very hopefully, I gave the command to use the flames again. We -still had tricks in the bag, but if they proved no more effective than -what we had so far used--I shouted my next command: - -"Stand by to charge! Hang onto weapons! Go between them! Don't touch -one of the shadows! _CHARGE!_" - -I didn't tell the marines to face in any given direction. I merely -wanted as many of them as possible to get through the closing cordon. - -With a wild, defiant yell the leathernecks charged. As I ran I looked -for some opening through the concentric circles. If flesh or skin, -clothing or equipment, touched one of the shadows-- - -It was the queerest ducking and darting game I had ever played. We must -not run into one another, we marines, or we might push one another into -the shadows--and we knew what had happened to Yount, would never forget -it. - -It was like trying to dash out through a crowded theater, save that in -a theater you didn't lose your life if you happened to touch anything. - -I got through, out behind the last circle of Shadow Men. As soon as I -was clear, in the cool, starlit waste beyond, I turned and looked back. -The circles were still closing, with the LCVP's in their approximate -center. To my right and left other marines were emerging from among the -Shadow Men. - -I looked, and looked away. Some of my own marines were a sight to turn -the stomach. It's hell to see an apparently healthy marine standing, -stupidly staring at the skeleton of his arm, to the shoulder.... I saw -no skeletons in the sand after the marines came through and the Shadows -went on. I breathed a sigh of relief. A marine could get along with one -arm, and even the skeleton of the other might have possibilities; but a -dead marine was dead and done. - -I turned and looked back at the closing circles of Shadow Men. As the -strange platoon closed in, more and more shadows stepped out of the -circles, to form still more concentric circles. - -The middle LCVP happened to be the center of the closing circles. The -first Shadow Man reached it and stopped, right in the LCVP. Others -closed in there--and merged with the first. The Shadow Men were piling -themselves into a black heap within the landing craft. - -Still the Shadow Men marched inward, converging on that central spot. -The heap of blackness in the center did not grow larger. It was as -if there were some sort of hole there, into which the shadows were -pouring, like water into a funnel. - -The last ring of Shadow Men stepped into the LCVP--and vanished. - -Well outside the place of disappearance, looking as if they were -participants in a nightmare, were the marines. Every last officer and -man, with most of our weapons, had got through the cordon of Shadow Men. - -It could have been a dream, but for the skeleton of Yount, there by the -LCVP, and the fact that several men had touched the shadows and been -severely injured. Four hands were missing--save for the bones. One man -had lost an ear, but he laughed. "It could have been my whole head!" he -said. "What's an ear?" - -"We got through with extraordinarily good luck, sir," said Haggerty. -"What do we do now, sir?" - -"What can we do, except wait and see what happens next, Captain?" He -had no answer for that. - -Automatically, we buried the skeleton of Yount. First his closest -friends went back to the spot where his body had disappeared, and -hunted for remnants. They didn't find so much as a button of his -uniform or a screw from his weapons, or any part even of the steel -blade of his trench knife. The detached shadow had absorbed everything -of Yount save his bones. - -The shadows were, in some fashion, chemical, that seemed clear enough. -But beyond that we were all stuck. They were not human. They were -maneuverable, plainly; but not _self_-maneuverable. Who, then, or what, -controlled and manipulated the Shadow Men? - -The Shadow Men, it gave us a shiver to note, left no footprints. Nor -had they in any way affected the landing craft. - -After the starlit funeral, we re-formed as we had been before the -sudden appearance of the Shadow Men. - -"Mother of God!" cried Krane, the trumpeter. "It's starting again. But -this time it's different!" - -We all whirled to look. Coming out of the northwest was a group of -scarecrow figures. They didn't look like our Shadow Men. I didn't -recognize them at first, though I could hear their hoarse panting, -their rasped words. They staggered like men far gone in hunger and -thirst. One of them fell on his face, struggled to his knees, came on. - -"Japs!" cried Haggerty. "Japs! Attacking, too, and this is nineteen -forty-nine!" - -It couldn't be true, yet it was. There were rusty rifles in the hands -of the Japanese, rifles that plainly would not work. As if to emphasize -this, they began to throw them away. - -One of them called out to us, in English: - -"Water! Food! We surrender! We surrender!" - -Japs? Surrendering? In Cuba--or thereabouts!--in 1949? I was tempted -to laugh, until I remembered something that was absolutely no comfort -whatever: in other parts of the world, a long way from Cuba, Japs -still were holding out against patrols that hunted them down, Japs who -somehow hadn't got the word that the war was over, or else refused to -believe it. - - * * * * * - -I was proud of the marines when the Japs asked for food and water. Not -one of them spoke up and said, "You don't need either one here." I knew -then that every marine regarded it as at least _possible_ that what was -happening to us was a top-brass secret, or series of secrets, of our -own government. I doubted it because of what happened to Yount. The -government doesn't risk human lives on a whim. But the possibility was -there. I hadn't expected Yount to tackle me, either, or to hurl himself -into the shadow which slew him. - -We all had canteens, none of which had been emptied. And no landing -would have been properly simulated without food. We let the Japs come -among us, then Hoose, who spoke some Japanese, and Matzuku, a Jap -corporal who spoke some English, got together. - -The Japanese were seated with their backs against an LCVP and canteens -were passed to them, together with our special rations. They drank as -if they had forgotten the glory of water, ate as if they had forgotten -how. I gave them a little time. We did not pull in our defensive rings, -even though it could be seen that they were not especially useful. When -the Japs seemed more or less sated, I got Matzuku and Hoose together -and began asking questions. - -KING: "Where have you been for the past four years?" - -MATZUKU: "Hiding out in the hills. What place is this? I know the whole -island, but I don't remember this desert area." - -KING: "_What_ island?" - -MATZUKU: "Guam, of course, as you Americans call it." - -I pondered the matter a few minutes. It wasn't possible that these -Japanese had finally decided to surrender, had started hunting marines -to whom to turn in their rusty weapons--then walked through the -invisible dome, out of the hinterland of Guam into the midst of what -we fondly believed to be Cuba. Yet here they were, flesh-and-blood men, -and here were we, also flesh-and-blood men--or so we thought. - -Of course, Matzuku and his men were as much prisoners as we were. They -were not only prisoners of whatever manipulated the dome, but they were -our prisoners as well. There was nothing they could do, nowhere they -could go with any secrets filched from us; but I decided not to tell -them anything. - -Matzuku, I noticed, was studying the sky. I watched his brown face as -he struggled with some idea that plainly had him buffaloed. He looked -at me quickly, then looked away. He knew something, but was afraid to -say what it was. I could at least make it clear to him that he was not -crazy, need not be afraid to say what was in his mind. - -"You are amazed, corporal," I said, "to discover that you can't -possibly be on Guam. I see that you know something of astronomy. It -won't be taken amiss if you hazard a guess as to where you are, and how -you got here." - -"I should like to do that, sir," said the Jap corporal, "but it does -not seem possible that we should merely have seen a marine patrol, -scouting the jungles of Guam, approached them to surrender, and found -ourselves in the Kalahari Desert! It isn't possible, therefore I must -not know the stars as well as I had thought. And yet, sir, I _do_ know -the stars. Unless this is delirium induced by fever, lack of water and -food over the years, we _are_ somewhere in the Kalahari Desert!" - -"Let's go have a look, Matzuku," I said. "You, too, Hoose. Haggerty, -you'd better stay with the command." - -Matzuku, Hoose and I started back the way the Japs had come. Matzuku -seemed to have forgotten his fatigue, the fact that he had been -practically a walking dead man when he approached the "patrol" to -surrender. Ten sets of footprints led in a wavering line back to the -invisible dome which hemmed us in. Hoose and I hung back to let Matzuku -go on ahead of us. He came to the invisible wall and halted, looking -foolish as a fore-thrust foot slid down what appeared to be nothingness. - -The footprints all ended against the invisible wall. Moonlight shed -its brilliance over everything, and we could see far out beyond the -invisible wall, into the eerie area of sand dunes, stunted brush, to a -horizon which offered no hope whatever. - -"We couldn't have come from out there!" said Matzuku wonderingly. "We -came out of the Guamian jungles, but our footprints don't start until -we reach this invisible barricade." Matzuku turned on me. "I have no -right to ask, but what kind of a concentration camp _is_ this? We -Japanese have much experience in camps, but we use barbed wire, high -rock walls with broken glass embedded in their tops, or dungeons and -caves." - -I grinned at the little corporal. - -"You don't use energy domes, then," I said, "or compress invisibility -into a solid?" - -"No," said Matzuku, "_do you?_" - -He had guessed we were prisoners also. I didn't explain. After all, -how could I? We three went back to the LCVP. I ordered the Japanese -into the LCVP on our right flank, placed a guard over them, not because -we had any fear of them, but so they would not hear our discussion. -They showed no interest whatever. They sprawled out on the deck of the -LCVP and were asleep, and raucously snoring, before we met in plenary -session--save for the single guard over the Japanese--near the grave of -Yount's skeleton. - -"Could we really be in the Kalahari Desert?" asked Haggerty. - -"We could," I said. "The Japs could also be decoys, deliberately sent -to us to make us believe whatever we're supposed to believe. I'm only -sure of one thing: we're not on Yataritas Beach, Cuba!" - -"Are we really sure of _that_, even?" asked Captain Haggerty. I had to -admit that we were sure of nothing. - -"We seem to be unmolested for the time being," I said. "But we can't -just sit here and brood. Those of you who want to sleep, turn in -wherever you like. Those who want to help figure out what has happened -to us, assemble here with me and we'll see if we can get anywhere." - -"You don't suppose, sir," said Krane diffidently, "that we're -all--dead, or something? With all those fancy explosives we brought -along--" - -Nobody laughed. Nobody snickered. And nobody drew away to hit the sack. - -"I don't believe we're dead, Music," I said, "but I could be wrong -about that, too. I think your 'or something' comes about as close to an -answer as anything we have. Now, I'm open to suggestions as to how we -find out what ails us, where we are, how we get out; what, in general, -it all seems to be about." - -"The Shadow Men," said Ziegler, "what were they?" - -Nobody knew. - -There was something in the shadows. A smell, and something else. Why -didn't the stuff, whatever it was, destroy bones as well? Had we really -heard Yount scream inside the shadow? - -We recapitulated everything we could remember. As if we could forget -anything! And it all added up to a nightmare. - -"The walkie-talkies," said Haggerty. "We've got eighty-odd of them. -They can all be adjusted to different wavelengths. I suggest we -estimate how many, and then each of us take his share of them, and -start sending, not only in Morse and International codes, but in every -language we know, down to Greek and Latin!" - -It was long past midnight by the time we had worked out charts of -wavelengths for the walkie-talkies, and divided them among us. Then we -scattered, first stripping off our jackets and laying our fast-fire -weapons on them to keep the weapons from being fouled by sand. We -needed our hands free. - -"The first whisper anybody gets, he'll sing out," I instructed officers -and men. - -Marines acquire a lot of miscellaneous information--and plenty of -misinformation. Among seventy-five or eighty one would find a dozen -European languages, Gaelic probably, three or four Chinese dialects, a -smattering of Congo jabbering, a spot of Latin, a touch of Greek. If -someone asked me, anywhere, anytime, in the presence of as few as a -dozen marines, if any of them knew Sanskrit I would hesitate to say no. - -We turned all that mess loose on our walkie-talkies. If anybody ever -really "shot the moon," it was us. - - - - - CHAPTER THREE - - Alien Voices - - -Each man had his message pad on his knee, or on the sand beside him, -opened up. The moon was so brilliant we had scarcely any need of the -illuminated pages with which each book was equipped. - -Within fifteen minutes our walkie-talkies were going wild. Every last -one received first, the eerie whispering. Then the men began to report -shouts, weeping, wordless screams, unearthly music, wind instruments, -drums, tom-toms--just about every noise-making agency of which any of -us had ever heard. - -Was all this in answer to our attempts to communicate? How could we -make contact that would also make sense? - -So far, the sounds were no more informative than static. But it was -something, when we had been hearing nothing at all, so we kept at it. - -We kept it up for three days and nights. - -The Shadow Men did not return during that time. The Japanese gradually -mingled with us. They realized that we knew no more of our situation -than they did, possibly less, and joined with us in trying to work it -out. - -It was midnight, the fourth night of our disappearance, when we got a -break. - -Ziegler brought me a message which said: "You are wasting your time. -Contact like this is forbidden." - -I looked at Ziegler. - -"You got this in English?" I asked. - -"No, sir. It's Mangbetu, an African dialect. I did some work among -those people, some years ago. It's difficult. I could be mistaken, but -I don't think so." - -"Did you answer this?" - -"No, sir." - -"Go ahead," I said, "confirm! We'll see what happens." - -He chattered something into his walkie-talkie. Instantly all sound died -out of every last walkie-talkie. - -We'd accomplished--what? Only something remotely confirming Matzuku, -the Japanese who had located us in the Kalahari Desert of Africa. - -We slept by fits and starts. The Shadow Men did not return. Silence -held sway in our walkie-talkie receivers, though we kept on sending. -Ziegler gave us Mangbetu words to use, but nothing came of it. That -line of investigation was clearly ended. - -We began working on the inner wall of the dome with our entrenching -tools. That started something! - - * * * * * - -It was now clear that if we ever got out of wherever we were, we would -have to do it on our own. - -First, to establish the exact circumference of the dome, I formed all -hands, sailors, marines and Japanese, in a single column and we did -the circle. I wanted everybody whose lot was our lot, to know every -detail that might later prove valuable. The area under our feet, -available to us within the dome, we estimated at ten acres. That gave -us considerable inner surface of wall and dome to be studied. We could -not see the dome, we only knew it was there. We had small radar and -sonar sets, but the dome registered on neither. Nothing we shouted was -echoed back to us, nor did the chattering of the fast-firers cause -reverberations. With those fast-firers, the ultimate in small arms, -we searched out every quadrant of the dome, to see if there were any -opening. In the same way we searched out every yard of the wall; -there was no way out, at least of any size, for I'd have wagered, so -carefully was this job done, that if one bullet fired into dome or wall -had fallen outside, some one of us would have spotted it. - -We used up a lot of steel-jacketed bullets, but we found not a single -aperture in the wall or dome. - -Next we worked on our super-grenades, of which we had a fairly good -supply. This was dangerous work; we had to dig trenches from which -to heave them. Even the rifle grenades were dangerous because of our -limited escape area. - -The grenades did nothing to the wall; nothing whatever. - -The flame-throwers accomplished little more. There was danger with -these, too, for the flame bathed the wall--we could see it strike and -blossom up and down--and backfired so that it was a wonder all who -stood behind the machines were not wiped out. And even the flames did -not affect the wall. - -We even, so help me, tried to _talk_ a hole through the wall! Yes, -Krane thought of it, Trumpeter Krane. - -"Maybe we could find the key sound of the dome," he said, "and shatter -it with sound. You know, like marching steps shaking down a bridge." - -Well, we tried, but got nowhere. - -"Shovels, then," I said. "Entrenching tools! Maybe we can go under." - -All hands groaned. There is nothing a marine or sailor dislikes more -than digging in--even when bullets are flying thick and fast. - -I think we were all a little mad then. It was bad enough to dig down -into sand that poured into a hole faster than one could dig, but to -accomplish nothing by doing it was heartbreaking. By day we perspired -like hippos, rubbed the skin off our palms, got raw and bleeding where -our clothes chafed. Water and food were no problem, for our mysterious -source of supply never for a moment ceased or abated. - -We fought that wall for days and nights on end, as a mob, in shifts, -and singly. We got nowhere. There were times when the sand inside the -dome looked as if a huge animal had been rooting, or a crowd digging -for treasure. But when we stopped for a few moments to rest we could -hear the sand whispering with glee as it slid back into the pits we had -dug--leveling off the area again. - -We managed in some places to get down ten feet or so into the sand, and -to witness a strange phenomenon. We never got under the wall, nor were -we able to penetrate it anywhere, yet when sand poured back into the -pits we dug--_it poured back from beyond the wall, too_, as if there -were no obstruction! It poured in, apparently through the very wall we -were trying to breach. - -Naturally we wondered, if we had been digging on the outside, trying -to get in, if the sand would have poured outward into the holes, too. -We all remembered how we had got into the dome so easily, yet we could -find no way, shape, form or manner to get out. - -The Shadow Men, however, had escaped.... - -Yes, we studied that LCVP that had seemed to be a funnel by which the -Shadow Men coalesced into one shadow and vanished, but could find no -key to the means or manner of their strange escape. - -We were resting one afternoon, and Haggerty had just said this was the -most unsatisfactory duty he had ever performed in twenty-some years -of landing with the marines around the world, while Hoose suggested -we ought to have a name for this nameless area, and Trumpeter Krane -offered "Outpost Zero" as the most appropriate--when Preble erupted: -"My God! Look!" - -He was pointing up through the dome. Spinning down toward us from an -empty sky was a ball of something that looked like metal--or perhaps -crystal. It glistened and shone in the sun. It almost hurt the eyes. - -Nobody said anything as that ball came closer and closer. I think we -all knew what it was, though none of us had been at Hiroshima that -fatal day. - -We saw the A-bomb disintegrate, almost lazily, directly above our dome. - -No one who has seen the Hiroshima pictures needs a further explanation -of what we all saw. Only, this A-bomb was far more powerful than the -first one. Only one nation, we all thought, could have it. - -Why would our own people be so intent on wiping us out? - -In a split second we were in the midst of the cloud, in the heart of -the explosion, each one of us trying to convince himself, by pinching, -that he was actually going through an A-bomb explosion--absolutely -unscathed. Not even a sound came through. - -We were sitting in the middle of the perfect defense against the -A-bomb, but we didn't know what it was or who had made it--and we -couldn't get out of it! - -There was comfort in the knowledge that _someone_ knew, else how did it -happen that the A-bomb made what would have been a direct hit on the -dome if it hadn't been detonated about a thousand feet above? There was -design here, all right--but _whose_? - -Nobody could imagine our own government addressing us in Mangbetu! - - * * * * * - -We thought we were all dead men. We had all seen pictures of survivors -of Hiroshima, with their skin burned off their bones. - -The Japs had not seen. They had been in the Guamian jungles and had not -even heard of Hiroshima. I told them. They looked at one another in -amazement. All this time we cowered in the heart of the explosion, and -for the first time we could see the shape and extent of the dome which -imprisoned us. It was outlined in smoke through which shot tongues of -blue, green, and salmon pink. In the cloud which surrounded us we could -see all the prisms play--and inter-flashing of lights of all colors -that was unbelievably awesome. Yet we heard no sound. There was an -eerie glow on the sand around us which must have come from the light, -but if it had any ill effect on our bodies we have not yet become aware -of it. - -We had kept our watches wound and synchronized, so we timed the -duration of the blast. The cloud about us lasted for two hours. Then it -began slowly to disintegrate. - -"Out to the walls, now," I said. "We'll move out from the center as -skirmishers. Then, at my signal, when we're against the wall, we'll -circle to the right until we have examined every inch we can reach or -see." - -Far above the dome we saw the great snowy mushroom of the blast's -residue, with lights playing through it. We looked out through the wall -at the sand beyond--and there _was_ no sand. Only a landscape shaped -as it had been when it had been sand; but now it was a smooth, rolling -expanse of light green! The blast had been a vast primordial glazier, -and the sand was not sand now, but green glass--right up to the outside -of our still invisible dome! We marched out and looked through. We -did the natural things, like putting our hands up beside faces that we -pressed nose-flat against the invisible. The wall felt warm, but no -warmer than it had felt before the blast. Our dome had withstood every -possible destructive effect of the A-bomb blast! - -I stood there, staring out. I looked around, and the marines, sailors -and Japanese were standing in the same manner--looking out and through -like children looking through a zoo fence. - -We must all have realized it at the same time. I noticed, first, that -there was suddenly a space between the outside of the wall and the sea -of green glass. I noticed that it ran away to right and left, a border -between the glass and our sand, which became a little wider even as I -stared. Then I felt pressure against the toes of my field shoes. Then -I was being pushed bodily back, and the sand border outside was a foot -wide! - -I whirled this time, back against the wall, to stare at the others. -They were all facing inboard, too. It was clear that all had noticed -the widening border, that each knew the fact: our dome was closing in -on us, all around. - -Probably most of us had read Poe's "Pit and the Pendulum" and enjoyed -the spine-tingling horror of the walls closing in to crush the hapless -victim. - -Just now it was far from thrilling. - -From all sides the wall closed in. We looked away to the south. The -entire mountain there had become greenish, as if it, too, had turned to -glass. - -"No one blast," said Haggerty grimly, "did that. Not even the best we -have in A-bombs could have done so much. That mountain is ten, fifteen -miles away, at least. There must have been more A-bombs...." - -"And maybe more domes," said Hoose. "How do we know that this whole -desert isn't dotted with them?" - -"Each one with its bugs under it for scientific study," said Haggerty -wryly. - -My mind went around and around. The Shadow Men ... Mangbetu ... the -blast ... the desert ... the betrayal by the very sky itself ... the -Japanese.... - -I had to turn it off or go crazy. Besides, the closing wall wasn't -giving us much time. Faster and faster it advanced. - -It was clear that we were being pushed deliberately inward on the -LCVP's. Within a few minutes we were practically on the LCVP ramps. - -"Grab all weapons!" I yelled. "Don't risk finding them on the pay roll!" - -Marines who lose weapons have to pay for them. That's what I meant, -silly as it seems in the circumstances. - -Just as we were falling in at the sand-covered ramps of the three -LCVP's, Krane cried out: "Where are the Japs?" - -It gave me a chill. There was no escaping a peculiar fact: that even -while the invisible was herding us, assembling us before our LCVP's, -something of it, or about it, had snatched away the Japanese. They had -simply vanished. - -The walls were not circular now, but oval, roughly encompassing the -LCVP's. Haggerty assembled his men before his LCVP. Hoose did the same. -Mine assembled about me on the central ramp. - -Then, when we were inside, in position as he had been when we landed, -with only one man missing--Yount--the wall ceased closing in. For ten -minutes we wondered about this. Then I had a hunch. - -"Can we raise the ramps without the motors?" - -We couldn't, not all the way, but we could, with two men at each outer -corner, raise them about four feet, catch and hold them with their -rattling chains. - -When we figured this out we did it by the numbers-- - -And we almost left twelve men on the beach! - -No sooner had we raised the ramps than the Caribbean was tugging at -our LCVP's, the waves trying to take them back to sea. Our ramp men -jumped up on their ramps, rolled crazily into the LCVP's, and the ramps -raised all the way, clicking into place to become the prows of the -unwieldy landing craft. - -Cries of glee rose from our boat-handlers. Motors caught on the first -try, exactly as if they had not been idle for two weeks, and the LCVP's -were backing away from Yataritas Beach, turning, heading out to sea. I -whirled and looked out into the deep blue. I think all of us expected -to find the _Odyssey_ still standing off, waiting for us. But it wasn't -there. - -"Can we make it back to Guantanamo Bay?" I asked the motorman. "Never -mind answering; we're going to!" A cheer rose from the marines and -sailors as we rounded the point we had never expected to see again, and -started west, in deep blue water, along the coast. - -LCVP's aren't good travelers. They roll like eggs on a hill, but this -time nobody got seasick. - -"Outpost Zero," said someone, looking back at Yataritas Beach. "If I -never even _hear_ of it again it will be too soon!" - - * * * * * - -We kept in close formation as we approached Escondido Bay, outside the -Reservation. There a cruising plane picked us up, dipped wings over us, -looped and headed full speed back to Guantanamo. - -We all crawled up our starboard sides, tilting the LCVP's far over, and -not caring a bit, to pick out landmarks ashore that we knew--Kittery -Beach, Windmill, Cuzco, Blind, Blue and Cable Beaches. Every one looked -like home--and the marine hadn't lived, up to that moment, who regarded -Guantanamo as home! - -There were many planes out, including some of our jets, by the time we -reached the mouth of Guantanamo Bay. Luckily the long run was made in -fairly smooth water. - -We crossed the shelf where the deep blue water of the Caribbean becomes -the green-dirty water of the Bay, and were as good as home. - -I planned on making it to the Marine Boat House, but the Admiral's -launch came out, with a staff officer aboard, with instructions to land -at the Admiral's own dock. - -I guess it didn't matter much where we docked, for the point of land on -which the Admiral had his quarters was covered with uniforms. Marines -and sailors were kept back by MP's. - -The Chief Staff Officer placed me formally under arrest, "for absence -over-leave," he said--though there was a suggestion of excitement in -his voice that made me suspect subterfuge. One thing was certain, an -officer under arrest kept his mouth shut. I couldn't tell anybody -anything. The same thing, or something like it, happened to every one -of us. We were all completely muzzled by being placed under arrest. -Whatever else we might be, we were "hot." - -Then it was that we worked together as even marines did not always work -together--and the six gobs pitched in, too. - -I made out this report, with the understanding that it would be seen -by every leatherneck and sailor, and not submitted until all were -satisfied with its accuracy. - -I told what seemed to have happened to us. As commanding officer I was -requested also to express an opinion. I had none to offer, except that -two news bulletins, received over the radio the next day after our -return, gave me something to think about. - -One of the bulletins explained in somewhat guarded language, that new -A-bomb experiments were being made--not in mid-Pacific, in Bikini, but -in the heart of the Kalahari Desert! So careful were the brass hats in -this important series of tests, that no words in any civilized tongue -were allowed to be spoken even on intercom sets! The report didn't -mention Mangbetu, but it did say "little known African dialects." This -wasn't an unusual procedure, by the way--Comanche Indians had been so -employed in World War II. - -And what were those people testing, besides the newest thing in A-bombs? - -"Part of the test," said the voice of the announcer, "involves an -amazing above-ground bomb-shelter! This shelter, of secret manufacture, -is believed to be proof against anything except the explosion of -the planet itself. Not only is each such shelter capable of great -extension, thus to handle large groups of people, but built into it -is something new in provisioning. People who are forced into these -shelters by sudden attack, are automatically provided with food, water -and equable temperature, by a process which provides these necessities -as separate exudations from the inner walls of the bombproofs! - -"Some fear was expressed, in the midst of the tests," said the -announcer, "that there were traitors even among the carefully screened -technicians--for despite orders, for a period of three days not only -English but many other languages, including the secret dialect used by -the technicians, were heard in their intercoms!" - -I shivered at that, remembering how, for three days, we had tried every -tongue of which we could think. Gradually a picture was beginning to -emerge. - -"It was feared for some time that some potential aggressor nation had -managed somehow to get past the Kalahari guards and ferret out secret -information--or else that there was already a fifth column among the -technicians!" - -No mention anywhere, of the Shadow Men! - -I was scared stiff when I realized this. For those Shadow Men, it now -seemed, had accomplished something the A-bomb had not been able to do; -they had got inside the bombproof, killed Yount--and could easily have -killed us all--and got out again. - -"The experiments," said the announcer, "were of course carried out -by the United Nations Security Council. The results have not been -announced in every detail, but the world _has_ been informed that -complete security against the A-Bomb has been produced and will be -available if ever there is another world war!" - -_But what about the Shadow Men?_ What good was the best bombproof if it -could be entered so easily, and everybody inside it destroyed? - -On the next day after our return I picked up a brief broadcast which I -could easily have missed. - -"It appears that there are still Japanese soldiers, hiding out on Guam, -who do not know that the war is over. Ten Japanese, led by a Corporal -Matzuku, surrendered yesterday to Guamian authorities! How they -survived for almost four years is a mystery. They appear well fed." - -I got this far and realized that I knew a great deal of _what_ had -happened, but not _how_. How we and the Guamian Japanese had been -netted under the same bombproof, for instance--they on Guam, ourselves -on Yataritas Beach, Cuba. - -I had no explanation for the Shadow Men--except that nobody but the -"vanishers", ourselves and the Japanese, so much as mentioned them. -They were, I felt sure, outside the knowledge of the Security Council. - -The Shadow Men were some manifestation--chemicals, or instantaneously -acting disease germs?--of a potential enemy fifth column which had -horned in on the Kalahari experiments. - -I can do no more. This report is respectfully submitted for -transmission via official channels. - - * * * * * - - FIRST ENDORSEMENT - -From: Commanding Officer, Guantanamo Marines. - -To: Senior Officer Present, Naval Base. - -Subject: Yataritas Beach Case. - -1. But for the fact that eighty men concur in the attached report I -would request that Major Rafe King be ordered to Saint Elizabeth's for -observation. - - * * * * * - - SECOND ENDORSEMENT - -From: Senior Officer Present, Naval Base. - -To: Chief of Naval Operations. - -Subject: Cuba-Yataritas Beach Case. - -1. I am not inclined to treat this report lightly, or to suggest that -it be so treated elsewhere. Knowing how our marines, sailors, equipment -and LCVP's were plucked up and transported to Kalahari, together with -the Japanese, I am still in complete ignorance of the meaning of the -"Shadow Men." If Operations has any additional information it is felt -that this base should be made aware of it. - - * * * * * - - THIRD ENDORSEMENT - -From: Chief of Naval Operations. - -To: Commanding General of the Marines. - -Subject: Cuba-Yataritas Beach Case. - -1. This activity is aware of all details except the so-called "Shadow -Men." If the Commanding General of Marines has any information, include -it herewith and forward to Chairman, Security Council, United Nations. - - * * * * * - - FOURTH ENDORSEMENT - -From: Chairman, Security Council, United Nations. - -To: Major Rafe King, via all above channels. - -Subject: The Kalahari Tests. - -1. Returned for amplification. It is deemed advisable, in view of -publicity attendant on the Cuba-Yataritas angle of the Kalahari Desert -tests, to make public the following facts. First, best protection -against the A-Bomb is worldwide observation by special television; the -Council has it. Second necessity is ability to make the bombproofs, -provided by the Security Council, available to anybody, anywhere -in the world, who is threatened by attack. Bombproofs are capable -of instant transmission to any spot on the face of the globe--and -removal of bombproof _and occupants_ to anywhere else in the world--as -Cuba-to-Kalahari-to-Guam. - -2. Amplification on the "Shadow Men" is required. Every nation in the -world, on the honor of its chief executive, has denied all knowledge -of the "Shadow Men." Any Fifth Column from "Outside" is considered -fantastic beyond all possibility. - - * * * * * - -Well, there it is. The high brass all along the way has spoken. Now -it's up to me. I checked to find that every nation in the world _had_ -denied knowledge of the Shadow Men--except our own United States. But -without asking for volunteers, our most ruthless high brass would not -have sent us to face those shadows, wherein someone was almost certain -to die horribly. - -So, some nation has lied! We, the United Nations, have the perfect -A-bomb-proof, capable of instant transmission to anywhere it is needed. -We can also see where it is needed, through our World Visual Section. - -But, as usual, for every attack weapon, there is a defense. For every -defensive weapon there is, eventually, a weapon which will crack it. We -have the best defensive gadget ever constructed, but somebody has the -grim, black answer to it! - -WHAT NATION? - -When the next bombs begin to fall, the name of that nation will be -written into the murderous heart of every bomb. _Then_ will tongues be -freely loosed which now dare not give offense to any "friendly" nation! - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VANISHERS *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part -of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project -Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm -concept and trademark. 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Burks. - </title> - <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> - - <style type="text/css"> - -body { - margin-left: 10%; - margin-right: 10%; -} - - h1,h2 { - text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ - clear: both; -} - -p { - margin-top: .51em; - text-align: justify; - margin-bottom: .49em; -} - -hr { - width: 33%; - margin-top: 2em; - margin-bottom: 2em; - margin-left: 33.5%; - margin-right: 33.5%; - clear: both; -} - -hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} -hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} - -.center {text-align: center;} - -.right {text-align: right;} - -/* Images */ -.figcenter { - margin: auto; - text-align: center; -} - -.caption p -{ - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0; - margin: 0.25em 0; - font-weight: bold; -} - -div.titlepage { - text-align: center; - page-break-before: always; - page-break-after: always; -} - -div.titlepage p { - text-align: center; - text-indent: 0em; - font-weight: bold; - line-height: 1.5; - margin-top: 3em; -} - -.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } -.ph1 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } - - </style> - </head> -<body> -<p style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The vanishers, by Arthur J. Burks</p> -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world 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 <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you -are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the -country where you are located before using this eBook. -</div> - -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The vanishers</p> -<p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Arthur J. Burks</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: November 14, 2022 [eBook #69350]</p> -<p style='display:block; text-indent:0; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</p> - <p style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:0; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em; text-align:left'>Produced by: Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net</p> -<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VANISHERS ***</div> - -<div class="titlepage"> - -<h1>THE VANISHERS</h1> - -<h2>A Novelette by ARTHUR J. BURKS</h2> - -<p><i>Trapped, facing an incredible shadow<br /> -army, whose lightest touch meant instant<br /> -dissolution—the last fighters of invaded<br /> -Earth made their bitter choice—victory<br /> -beyond death's portals—or oblivion!</i></p> - -<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from<br /> -Super Science Stories May 1950.<br /> -Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that<br /> -the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> - -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER ONE</p> - -<p class="ph1">The Invisible Wall</p> - - -<p>My men were in battle dress for the landing—steel helmets painted -green, dirty green jackets, pants, cartridge belts, heavy field shoes. -The Caribbean was so deep blue it hurt the eyes. You could look -straight down into it until it made you dizzy. Sharks, some of them -monsters, congregated from all directions.</p> - -<p>Marines waiting to debark shouted derisively at the sharks; but it was -noticeable that they didn't pull any funny business on the slings, -and they didn't let go of the slings until their feet were firmly -planted in the bottom of the landing craft. The landing craft scarcely -rose and fell. The Caribbean was as smooth as an inland lake. I think, -now that I look back, that all of us had a strange feeling that -something unusual was going to happen, and that it had nothing to do -with the sharks.</p> - -<p>I was first aboard a landing craft. I moved to the outboard side of -my craft and looked toward the half-moon beach where the Yataritas -empties into the Caribbean. The river's mouth was hidden by the sandy -beach. To my right the coast of Cuba, rugged, dirty coral cliffs ten -to fifty feet high, led away eastward, bulging out gradually a mile -south of the white-sandy beach. To my left there were broken cliffs of -rotting coral, and slopes leading up gradually from the shore to cactus -and spined-brush-covered hills so round they cast no shadows.</p> - -<p>Captain Ross Haggerty crawled down into the second LCVP, First -Lieutenant Peter Hoose into the third. There were twenty-four men with -each of us, some veterans of two wars, some recruits who'd been too -young for World War II.</p> - -<p>We were going in with Haggerty to my right rear, Hoose to my left rear. -We were equipped with the latest in ship-shore-landing-craft-airplane -communications. Four jet planes did fancy stuff over us, over the -beach, and behind the beach, while we got into our places. I could talk -with anybody in any LCVP, aboard the <i>Odyssey</i> or in any one of the -jets. Our headsets made us look like men from Mars.</p> - -<p>Every man who was participating in this maneuver wore one of the sets, -for experience had taught that any marine, at any time, might find -himself running the show.</p> - -<p>There were flecks of foam about the reefs which flanked the half-moon -beach when all three LCVP's rose on their steps like amphibians ready -to take off, and headed north for the beach, so white it dazzled the -eyes. Behind the beach lay the spined brush wherein, theoretically, -enemy troops were lying in wait to rip us apart.</p> - -<p>I always thrilled to a landing, even a make-believe one. So did the -men, boring though peacetime soldiering was. The APD was dropping dud -shells ashore. The jets were diving on us, just to make a noise, and -our three motors sounded like the crack of doom. The men kept down -because that was the rule, but occasionally I pulled myself up and -looked ahead over the ramp—which would come crashing down when we -rammed our nose into the sand. Out over that ramp the marines would -charge, to race for cover and swing into position to give our new -weapons a workout.</p> - -<p>We'd be in in five minutes. The boat-handlers were talking to the ship -and the jets. I just listened in. I didn't see or hear a thing out of -the ordinary.</p> - -<p>"Stand by!" came the cry. "We're smacking in a coupla seconds!"</p> - -<p>The jets were having fun right over the beach and for a moment I envied -their pilots. When we got ashore it was going to be like sitting atop -a burning galley stove, on that sand. It would be even worse under the -brush on the land beyond that rose to the hills and the coral cliffs -which crowned them.</p> - -<p>The other two LCVP's had drawn abreast now. We hit the beach nearly -together. I heard the rasping of the chains as the ramps went down, -hitting the sand. There was knee-deep water over the outer ends of the -ramps. The marines dashed ashore. The first odd thing happened then; -one instant there was water over the ends of the ramps, then there was -none.</p> - -<p>As a matter of habit every marine did his job. Without command, -they sprayed out to right and left, getting unbunched as quickly as -possible, just in case a theoretical enemy projectile should land among -them.</p> - -<p>But their deployment slowed and came to a halt. I think they, like -myself, must instantly have missed the racketing of the jets. I looked -up. The sky, a pale blue, with slowly moving clouds in which I was -aware of greenish tints, was utterly empty of the four jets which were -supposed to support our maneuver.</p> - -<p>I whirled and looked back. Where the Caribbean had been there was a -huge sprawl of desert, blinding in the midday sun, stretching away -southward to a semicircle of brooding hills. I judged their crests to -be at least four thousand feet high. And where those crests were, five -minutes before, the Caribbean had been—fully a mile deep under the -stern of the <i>Odyssey</i>! Where the <i>Odyssey</i> might now be I hadn't the -slightest idea.</p> - -<p>Just before we hit the beach there had been thickets of broad-leaved -squatty trees behind the ridges of sand, into which the marines had -been headed for concealment. Now there was nothing of the kind. There -was nothing but sand and silence—silence so deep that even breathing -broke it into brittle bits.</p> - -<p>The three LCVP's were still with us, high and dry on the sand in the -middle of the desert. Each was manned by a coxswain and a radioman. -These six men—they were sailors, of course—were now sitting in their -positions aboard the three crafts, like statues; as if they had been -fossilized by the suddenness of whatever had happened.</p> - -<p>At first I thought something was wrong with me. Then the marines became -uncertain, and when marines are uncertain the situation is definitely -out of hand. If I was seeing things that weren't there, so were -seventy-four other marines and six sailors.</p> - -<p>Captain Haggerty was giving the "assemble" signal and pointing to me. -Even before he gave it the marines were walking slowly toward me, their -weapons at ready, their eyes taking in all there was to see. I moved -back to the central landing craft.</p> - -<p>"My radio is dead," I called. "How about yours?"</p> - -<p>"Nothing, sir. They couldn't be deader on Judgment Day!"</p> - -<p>I leaned against a corner of the LCVP and waited for the men to -assemble. Nobody said anything. They just looked at me. I felt -helpless.</p> - -<p>"First," I said, "let's make a check. I want to be sure I haven't gone -completely daft! If what I say is true, say 'Aye, aye!' Got it?"</p> - -<p>"Aye, aye, sir!"</p> - -<p>"This is not the Yataritas Beach we all know—apparently!"</p> - -<p>"Aye, aye, sir!" the voices were low, hesitant, yet sure.</p> - -<p>"The Caribbean has disappeared!"</p> - -<p>"Aye, aye, sir!"</p> - -<p>"No jets! No APD! No <i>anything</i> we know—except sand!"</p> - -<p>"Aye, aye, sir!"</p> - -<p>"And we have no communication with anything, anywhere. I've no idea -what we ran into, but it happened just as we hit the beach." I looked -at my watch. "And one more thing. We landed about ten minutes ago, at -nine hundred. The sun says it's nearly thirteen hundred. My watch says -it's oh-nine-twelve exactly."</p> - -<p>Officers and men looked at their wrist-watches.</p> - -<p>"Aye, aye, sir!" They all agreed to that.</p> - -<p>"The sailors are inside the—area—whatever it is, or they would be -gone like everything else except the LCVP's. Somewhere behind the -LCVP's, then, should be—"</p> - -<p>But I couldn't say it. Everybody could see that behind the LCVP's was -the unknown desert leading away south to the brooding ancient mountains.</p> - -<p>Sergeant Eckstrom strode quickly to the rear of the LCVP's. That took -guts, for he might have disappeared; but he didn't. He walked out onto -the hot desert for twenty yards, turned and came back. That ended that. -We were seeing what actually was there.</p> - -<p>"We'll send out scouts," I said, "to the four cardinal points of the -compass. We'll split each quadrant with another scout. That's eight -scouts. Make it sixteen, scout in pairs. Don't get out of sight of the -landing craft. No telling what you may run into."</p> - -<p>We officers split the horizon into thirds, set out to reconnoiter.</p> - -<p>The sailors flatly refused to leave the LCVP's further than the almost -non-existent shade they cast. It was their way of grasping at something -they could understand. I didn't blame them or argue with them. The -skipper of the APD was their immediate superior. Where <i>was</i> he, anyway?</p> - -<p>What had snatched us into this unbelievable Limbo?</p> - -<p>How had it been done? What was going to happen to us?</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I traveled about four points north of the northeast group. I am a fast -walker; even through sand I can travel faster than most men. I was -slightly ahead of all the other groups when suddenly I could go no -further. I could feel nothing, yet when I put out my foot to set it -down in a new place, it struck an invisible something, dropped back, -and my impetus carried me forward to involve my face in something much -finer than cobwebs.</p> - -<p>I jumped back, swearing, for I could see nothing except the hot waste -of glistening sand. There were dunes, hummocks with strange grasses and -brush sticking up through them like beards; but I had struck the limit -of my trek and could not reach any of those visible spots beyond.</p> - -<p>I pushed against it with my hands. It gave, but only as a taut wire net -might give, then press back against the hands; it was a strain to make -the thing bulge. The counterpressure was strong. I could not advance. -I turned to the right and saw that the nearest patrol had stopped. The -two men were fumbling in the air like blind men. They were raising -and lowering their feet as if they felt for steps above an abyss. -They, too, had come to the end of possible advance. They had come into -contact with invisibility also—invisibility that was inflexibly tough -beyond a certain brief limit.</p> - -<p>The two men turned now and looked at me. I gave the halt signal and -started toward them. I ran into something and caromed off, falling -to my knees. The horrible thought struck me that each group might -have stumbled inside some hideous globe and become separated from all -other groups. But it wasn't so. I got to my feet, put my left hand out -against the invisible wall—which felt warm to the touch, as if it were -a living thing—and started toward the northeast group.</p> - -<p>The surface of that strange substance was undulant; it zig-zagged, like -the weaving walk of a drunken man.</p> - -<p>I reached the first patrol, Corporal Hoge Ziegler and Private First -Class Barry Preble. Their faces were white. I wouldn't say they were -scared but they were definitely concerned.</p> - -<p>"Well, at least we've discovered what it was we ran through at the -moment we hit the beach," I offered. "All we need to do is find a way -through it, and go on with our maneuver."</p> - -<p>Ziegler shook his head. "No, sir, I don't see it like that. We can see -through this stuff, or seem to, but we can't see back the way we came, -astern of the landing craft."</p> - -<p>"Right, corporal; what do you think it is, then?"</p> - -<p>"I'm no scientist, sir. I'd say it is a net of some kind, in which we -have been caught, landing craft and all, like so many fish. But by -whom? By what? For what reason? It has me stopped."</p> - -<p>"I wonder—" began Preble, then stopped, staring at the place where he -and Ziegler had come to a dead stop. Preble stepped back. In his arms -he cradled one of the latest automatic weapons.</p> - -<p>Preble stepped back, lifted the muzzle of the weapon, held down the -trigger for a few squirts. The weapon acted naturally enough. There was -no question that the bullets left the muzzle of the fast-firer. But we -didn't hear them hit the invisible screen; nor, looking beyond it, did -we see where the bullets kicked up sand. The bullets simply plunked -into nothingness as bullets of an obsolete day vanished into soap or -sand during firing tests.</p> - -<p>A few seconds passed. Then there were soft sounds in the sand at the -very spot where the two marines had hit the wall. All three of us -looked down. The flattened, steel-jacketed bullets lay in a small group -in the sand, within a couple of inches of the invisible wall—on our -side of it.</p> - -<p>"Caught the bullets, like a baseball catcher!" said Preble, his voice -high-pitched with threatened hysteria. "Then just dropped 'em! Took -them in, killed their speed, then slowly discarded them! And I saw the -wall do it!"</p> - -<p>Ziegler and I had not seen this phenomenon, but we were not directly -behind the weapon, as Preble was.</p> - -<p>I lifted my binoculars for the first time and looked around at the -other patrols, all of which I could see easily. All except those which -followed a southerly direction had come to the wall and were just as -puzzled by it as we. None of us had anything to offer; we were even -afraid to think lest we question our own sanity.</p> - -<p>We held our ground until all patrols had come up against the invisible -wall. Then we had some idea of the extent of our prison. That brooding -mountain to the south, it appeared, was forbidden to us.</p> - -<p>How high did the wall reach? Was it domed?</p> - -<p>"Preble, fire as nearly straight up as you can," I told the private. -"Then we'll duck away fifty or sixty yards, just in case, and listen."</p> - -<p>Ziegler and I stepped well back. Preble took careful aim. He squirted a -few score slugs, then ran to join us. We were so silent we could not -even hear each other's breathing. Shortly we heard the bullets drop -into the sand, and stepped forward.</p> - -<p>Theoretically a bullet fired straight up strikes the ground with -the same speed at which it was fired—so the slugs would have been -flattened anyway. But we had noticed a thin film of some substance -unknown to us around the slugs which had been first fired into the wall.</p> - -<p>That same substance was clinging to the several slugs we managed to -sift up from the sand. Our wall of invisible tension was a dome!</p> - -<p>"I feel like a bug!" said Preble. "I feel like a bug must feel when a -scientist wants to study it. The scientist keeps covering it with a -glass tumbler when it tries to walk or fly away!"</p> - -<p>"Do you suppose our own authorities," said Ziegler, "would be trying -out a new interdiction weapon on us? Major, they wouldn't do it without -at least telling you, sir, would they?"</p> - -<p>"They might," I said. "There are secret weapons only the highest high -brass knows about. But if your hunch is right, corporal, we've sure -got ourselves something, haven't we? Wouldn't it be something if we -could throw an invisible net over every dive bomber of an enemy, every -warship, every man, and nullify the attack before it got started?"</p> - -<p>"It would make them all feel pretty silly," said Preble. "But suppose -an enemy had such a 'net'? Suppose it could reach out from anywhere in -the world—"</p> - -<p>Slowly we all walked back to the LCVP's.</p> - -<p>"Something else funny," said Ziegler. "It's noon now, by our time. The -sun says it's about four in the afternoon or thereabouts. But we're -still ordinary marines, aren't we? Maybe I'm different from the rest of -you, but doesn't it strike you as off—"</p> - -<p>"I'm not hungry," said Preble. "Nor thirsty! By this time of the -day, when we had breakfast at oh-six-hundred at Guantanamo, I'd be -starving." Preble was the company chow-hound. "But I'm not hungry, or -thirsty. You, corporal?"</p> - -<p>Ziegler shook his head. He was by way of being a hearty eater himself, -while I confess I came as close to being a glutton as an officer and a -gentleman dares allow himself to be.</p> - -<p>We had hiked for several hours under a blazing sun. Moreover, all of -us had sweated away a lot of moisture. Each of us carried a canteen of -water, so water was not yet a problem; but the point is, none of us had -taken a drink!</p> - -<p>When we got back to the LCVP's it was to find that nobody else was -either hungry or thirsty....</p> - -<p>"We're prisoners," said Captain Haggerty, "that's clear. And according -to the laws of war, prisoners are fed. If we've been fed, and given -water without eating or drinking, <i>how</i>?"</p> - -<p>"Through our pores!" said Preble impetuously.</p> - -<p>There was a long moment of silence which somebody had to break pretty -soon.</p> - -<p>Lieutenant Hoose broke it.</p> - -<p>"Personally, I don't want to be sprinkled by something invisible, even -if I'm dying of thirst. And if food is being somehow rubbed into us, -I'd just as soon nobody rubbed it in! I'm not too lazy to chew for -myself!"</p> - -<p>It brought the first laugh. Hoose had a drawling manner of speech which -sometimes caused the men in ranks some discomfort to keep their faces -straight. We were more relaxed than we had been, for we appeared to -be in no danger. Besides, we were extremely well armed. If anybody -attacked us—but I refused to think too much about that. I had a -sneaking hunch that our top-secret weapons were, in this place, just so -much metal, value zero.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Now and again, during a comfortable afternoon, I sent out patrols to -check on the invisible wall. They always found it. Either it was there -continuously, or it was dropped when nobody was near and hurriedly -restored when a patrol went out to check.</p> - -<p>The feeling that everything we did or said was noted and heard began -to make us wary of movement and speech. We tried to pick out vantage -points from which we could be seen. Any one of the dunes outside our -prison might have hidden something. But discussing it, none of us felt -that this was up to the standard of behavior of whatever it was that -held us.</p> - -<p>That's about as far as we got before the sun went down with startling -suddenness and darkness settled over our Limbo. The darkness was -impenetrable. It lasted perhaps an hour. Then a sort of haze seemed to -withdraw in all directions, inwardly and outwardly—and the wondrous -tropical sky, studded with stars that hung down almost within reach of -human hands, bathed our upturned faces.</p> - -<p>In silence we all watched. There was an unusual coolness in the air, -too, for several minutes, Cuba, at that time of the year, was almost -never cool, even late at night; but some of the men were shivering. -Sweat had not dried on all of us, and sweat is bad when you are -motionless, at night. I was about to order the men to exercise a -little, when I realized something that Hoose put into words first:</p> - -<p>"Now," he said, "they're feeding us warmth, just as they feed and water -us! And we've been here for hours and don't have any idea, even, who or -what they are!"</p> - -<p>Nobody else said anything. All the rest of us were studying the sky.</p> - -<p>"I don't see the Big Dipper!" said Sergeant Eckstrom.</p> - -<p>"Nor the North Star!" somebody added.</p> - -<p>"Nor Venus, nor Lyra!" said someone else. "I've been studying our books -on constellations, and I don't recognize a one! <i>Where are we?</i> We're -not even in Cuba! Not even in the Northern Hemisphere! Not even—"</p> - -<p>"Not even on the Earth—?" said Hoose.</p> - -<p>It was just here that the whispering began in our walkie-talkies; -whispering like nothing we had ever heard. We could make out nothing -that sounded at all like human words. The sounds were mechanical, yet -not-mechanical. I've called them whispers only because that comes -closest to describing the eerie sounds which every last one of us was -now hearing in his walkie-talkie.</p> - -<p>"It's vibration on our wavelength," said one of the gobs. "But that's -the best I can say of it."</p> - -<p>"Morse? International?" I asked.</p> - -<p>But nobody could offer an answer.</p> - -<p>Right after that we saw the Shadow Men, inside the dome. Something of -that which held us at last became visible.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER TWO</p> - -<p class="ph1">The Destroying Shadows</p> - - -<p>It looked like something new in shadow-play, or motion pictures. The -shadows looked like men falling in in close formation, save that there -was an uncanny shapelessness about them. We could tell that they walked -like other men, for we could see the swinging of their legs. But for -the rest of their bodies, well, somebody had worked out a great system -of camouflage. Heads were just black blobs rising out of shoulders that -were stooped and round. We could not tell whether the group had formed -facing us or with their backs to us.</p> - -<p>A chill crept over and through the dome as the formations fell in. The -sounds in our walkie-talkies grew in volume. I think we all sensed -menace in the words that were not human words, in tones that were not -human tones. We could sense growing menace, and intonations of command.</p> - -<p>We could make out nothing resembling any weapons we knew, but never -once did we doubt that the shadows were forming against us. We forgot, -while the shadows closed ranks, that we had been fed, watered, kept -warm. This was no friendly demonstration.</p> - -<p>The Shadow Men started closing in. I gave the command for which my men -had been waiting, and for the first time the sailors came out of the -landing craft to take part.</p> - -<p>A vast circle of shadows closed in on us as we formed for defense. -Old-timers remembered the ancient "Form for Bolo Attack" as we arranged -ourselves in concentric circles, the automatic weapons outside, -riflemen behind them with bayonets fixed. There was a rifle and bayonet -for each man, including the automatic weaponers, for use if the -automatics went out of action.</p> - -<p>"No firing until I give the word," I said. "Music!"</p> - -<p>"Music," in the Navy, of which the Marine Corps is a proud part, -designates a trumpeter or drummer or bugler—whoever beats to quarters -or blows the bugle-calls.</p> - -<p>"Here, sir," said Trumpeter Krane.</p> - -<p>"Blow something," I said, "It doesn't matter what. I'm just curious -about what effect it will have."</p> - -<p>"How about 'Boots and Saddles', sir?" he asked. There was a snicker, -the suggestion of laughter from the marines.</p> - -<p>Trumpeter Krane did a good job with "Boots and Saddles". It was a brave -sound, but it had no effect whatever on the advancing Shadow Men. As -the big circle contracted, every other Shadow Man dropped back, forming -an outer circle. One thing that seemed to make clear to us: the Shadow -Men had mass. They occupied space. Bullets, then, should have some -effect on them.</p> - -<p>"Preble!"</p> - -<p>"Aye, aye, sir!"</p> - -<p>"Scatter some bullets ahead of those things, far enough ahead so that -they'll ricochet over them."</p> - -<p>Preble stood up and let go with his ultramodern fast-firer. For a few -seconds, as he played the weapon's muzzle like a hose, the Shadow Men -were obscured by the cloud of kicked-up sand. The sand fell at once, of -course—and the Shadow Men were coming directly on! Moreover, there was -a grimmer note in our walkie-talkies.</p> - -<p>"One fast-firer at each cardinal point of the compass," I said.</p> - -<p>Marines in action are something to see. In a split second the Shadow -Men from all sides were being warned by bullets. But they came right on.</p> - -<p>"No other choice," I said quietly. "Shoot into them. Fire at will!"</p> - -<p>Thousands of steel-jacketed slugs poured into the Shadow Men. But not -one fell, and not for so much as an instant did they hesitate in their -advance. Now other men had fallen back so that four concentric circles -of Shadow Men closed in on us. They were quite close when they halted. -I was just preparing to order our new explosives to be hurled among -them, when, directly in front of me, a shadow detached itself from -other shadows. It strode forward a few paces and halted. The clumsy -arms seemed to gesticulate. The sounds of whispering came louder in -our walkie-talkies. I think we all felt that in some way we were being -challenged.</p> - -<p>"Someone is to go forward," I said. "I don't know what it wants, -but—Hold your fire, now—not that it seems to be worth much!"</p> - -<p>I rose and started forward, conscious that there wasn't a movement -among the marines, nor among the Shadow Men. I wondered as I -approached the foremost shadow, how we would make ourselves understood -to each other. The other entity must have some idea or there would be -no suggestion of a parley.</p> - -<p>I must have been halfway there when I was aware of running footfalls -behind me. I didn't turn—and by failing to turn I saved my own life at -the expense of PFC Yount's. The footfalls were right behind me, but I -wasn't expecting what happened. Arms went around my legs in as neat a -tackle as ever a leatherneck footballer pulled. I was thrown on my face -so hard I couldn't breathe. I don't remember when I've been downed so -hard.</p> - -<p>By the time I got to my knees Yount was almost in contact with the -detached shadow. He had a trench knife in his hand; drew it right after -tackling me. I could see everything that happened.</p> - -<p>PFC Yount flung himself straight at the shadow. I saw him disappear -<i>into</i> the shadow, emerge on the other side. But there was a -difference: <i>he went in a marine in full battle dress; he came out a -completely articulated skeleton</i>. He had been stripped of clothes, -shoes, weapons, skin, flesh and life—so quickly that his forward -impetus carried his skeleton on through the shadow.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="figcenter"> - <img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> - <div class="caption"> - <p>He went in a Marine in full battle dress; he came out a skeleton....</p> - </div> -</div> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p>Now four marines were beside me. A growl rose from the others. I had to -yell at them, over my shoulder: "Stand fast! Do you want the same thing -to happen to you?"</p> - -<p>The four men beside me—I didn't look to see who they were—simply -waited.</p> - -<p>"Okay, just be careful not to touch any of the shadows," I said. -"Apparently that's where the danger is."</p> - -<p>Not a shadow moved, not even the one through which Yount had gone -to his death. The five of us then, rose and moved straight forward. -As we came close I could smell something in the shadows, a vague, -pestilential odor, like nothing I had ever experienced.</p> - -<p>"I smelled its like, sir," said one, Haggerty, I think, "where men lay -too long unburied. This is just a far hint, but it's like it, some way."</p> - -<p>We went around the detached shadow. There was no sound, even in our -walkie-talkies, now. It was almost as if, honoring an ancient military -custom, the Shadow Men were allowing us to collect our dead. I could -not see into or through the shadow. It was still so shapeless, even -when I was close enough to touch it, that I could not tell anything of -its true nature, or whether it, or any of the Shadow Men behind it, -were armed. I could see the result of too much impetuosity, however, in -the skeleton—snow-white, as if it were that of a man long dead in the -burning desert sands—of PFC Yount. I tried to remember, as the others -carefully gathered up the skeleton—Haggerty later said it was still -warm!—whether Yount had uttered any sound, but could not remember.</p> - -<p>Some men said later they were sure they heard a muffled scream, the -scream of a man in mortal agony, but I doubt it.</p> - -<p>I think it was an afterthought, strictly imagination.</p> - -<p>No attempt was made to keep us from retiring with the skeleton of -Yount. As soon as we were back, and had placed it against a side of -one of the LCVP's for burial later, the Shadow Men again began their -inexorable march.</p> - -<p>"Sailors!" I called. "Break out the flame-throwers."</p> - -<p>We surrounded ourselves with a sheet of flame, hot beyond anything used -in World War II. We sprayed the stuff into the faces of the advancing -Shadow Men; we blotted them out.</p> - -<p>They were erased as if they had never been.</p> - -<p>At my command the flames stopped—and the Shadow Men were still coming -on.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Not very hopefully, I gave the command to use the flames again. We -still had tricks in the bag, but if they proved no more effective than -what we had so far used—I shouted my next command:</p> - -<p>"Stand by to charge! Hang onto weapons! Go between them! Don't touch -one of the shadows! <i>CHARGE!</i>"</p> - -<p>I didn't tell the marines to face in any given direction. I merely -wanted as many of them as possible to get through the closing cordon.</p> - -<p>With a wild, defiant yell the leathernecks charged. As I ran I looked -for some opening through the concentric circles. If flesh or skin, -clothing or equipment, touched one of the shadows—</p> - -<p>It was the queerest ducking and darting game I had ever played. We must -not run into one another, we marines, or we might push one another into -the shadows—and we knew what had happened to Yount, would never forget -it.</p> - -<p>It was like trying to dash out through a crowded theater, save that in -a theater you didn't lose your life if you happened to touch anything.</p> - -<p>I got through, out behind the last circle of Shadow Men. As soon as I -was clear, in the cool, starlit waste beyond, I turned and looked back. -The circles were still closing, with the LCVP's in their approximate -center. To my right and left other marines were emerging from among the -Shadow Men.</p> - -<p>I looked, and looked away. Some of my own marines were a sight to turn -the stomach. It's hell to see an apparently healthy marine standing, -stupidly staring at the skeleton of his arm, to the shoulder.... I saw -no skeletons in the sand after the marines came through and the Shadows -went on. I breathed a sigh of relief. A marine could get along with one -arm, and even the skeleton of the other might have possibilities; but a -dead marine was dead and done.</p> - -<p>I turned and looked back at the closing circles of Shadow Men. As the -strange platoon closed in, more and more shadows stepped out of the -circles, to form still more concentric circles.</p> - -<p>The middle LCVP happened to be the center of the closing circles. The -first Shadow Man reached it and stopped, right in the LCVP. Others -closed in there—and merged with the first. The Shadow Men were piling -themselves into a black heap within the landing craft.</p> - -<p>Still the Shadow Men marched inward, converging on that central spot. -The heap of blackness in the center did not grow larger. It was as -if there were some sort of hole there, into which the shadows were -pouring, like water into a funnel.</p> - -<p>The last ring of Shadow Men stepped into the LCVP—and vanished.</p> - -<p>Well outside the place of disappearance, looking as if they were -participants in a nightmare, were the marines. Every last officer and -man, with most of our weapons, had got through the cordon of Shadow Men.</p> - -<p>It could have been a dream, but for the skeleton of Yount, there by the -LCVP, and the fact that several men had touched the shadows and been -severely injured. Four hands were missing—save for the bones. One man -had lost an ear, but he laughed. "It could have been my whole head!" he -said. "What's an ear?"</p> - -<p>"We got through with extraordinarily good luck, sir," said Haggerty. -"What do we do now, sir?"</p> - -<p>"What can we do, except wait and see what happens next, Captain?" He -had no answer for that.</p> - -<p>Automatically, we buried the skeleton of Yount. First his closest -friends went back to the spot where his body had disappeared, and -hunted for remnants. They didn't find so much as a button of his -uniform or a screw from his weapons, or any part even of the steel -blade of his trench knife. The detached shadow had absorbed everything -of Yount save his bones.</p> - -<p>The shadows were, in some fashion, chemical, that seemed clear enough. -But beyond that we were all stuck. They were not human. They were -maneuverable, plainly; but not <i>self</i>-maneuverable. Who, then, or what, -controlled and manipulated the Shadow Men?</p> - -<p>The Shadow Men, it gave us a shiver to note, left no footprints. Nor -had they in any way affected the landing craft.</p> - -<p>After the starlit funeral, we re-formed as we had been before the -sudden appearance of the Shadow Men.</p> - -<p>"Mother of God!" cried Krane, the trumpeter. "It's starting again. But -this time it's different!"</p> - -<p>We all whirled to look. Coming out of the northwest was a group of -scarecrow figures. They didn't look like our Shadow Men. I didn't -recognize them at first, though I could hear their hoarse panting, -their rasped words. They staggered like men far gone in hunger and -thirst. One of them fell on his face, struggled to his knees, came on.</p> - -<p>"Japs!" cried Haggerty. "Japs! Attacking, too, and this is nineteen -forty-nine!"</p> - -<p>It couldn't be true, yet it was. There were rusty rifles in the hands -of the Japanese, rifles that plainly would not work. As if to emphasize -this, they began to throw them away.</p> - -<p>One of them called out to us, in English:</p> - -<p>"Water! Food! We surrender! We surrender!"</p> - -<p>Japs? Surrendering? In Cuba—or thereabouts!—in 1949? I was tempted -to laugh, until I remembered something that was absolutely no comfort -whatever: in other parts of the world, a long way from Cuba, Japs -still were holding out against patrols that hunted them down, Japs who -somehow hadn't got the word that the war was over, or else refused to -believe it.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>I was proud of the marines when the Japs asked for food and water. Not -one of them spoke up and said, "You don't need either one here." I knew -then that every marine regarded it as at least <i>possible</i> that what was -happening to us was a top-brass secret, or series of secrets, of our -own government. I doubted it because of what happened to Yount. The -government doesn't risk human lives on a whim. But the possibility was -there. I hadn't expected Yount to tackle me, either, or to hurl himself -into the shadow which slew him.</p> - -<p>We all had canteens, none of which had been emptied. And no landing -would have been properly simulated without food. We let the Japs come -among us, then Hoose, who spoke some Japanese, and Matzuku, a Jap -corporal who spoke some English, got together.</p> - -<p>The Japanese were seated with their backs against an LCVP and canteens -were passed to them, together with our special rations. They drank as -if they had forgotten the glory of water, ate as if they had forgotten -how. I gave them a little time. We did not pull in our defensive rings, -even though it could be seen that they were not especially useful. When -the Japs seemed more or less sated, I got Matzuku and Hoose together -and began asking questions.</p> - -<p>KING: "Where have you been for the past four years?"</p> - -<p>MATZUKU: "Hiding out in the hills. What place is this? I know the whole -island, but I don't remember this desert area."</p> - -<p>KING: "<i>What</i> island?"</p> - -<p>MATZUKU: "Guam, of course, as you Americans call it."</p> - -<p>I pondered the matter a few minutes. It wasn't possible that these -Japanese had finally decided to surrender, had started hunting marines -to whom to turn in their rusty weapons—then walked through the -invisible dome, out of the hinterland of Guam into the midst of what -we fondly believed to be Cuba. Yet here they were, flesh-and-blood men, -and here were we, also flesh-and-blood men—or so we thought.</p> - -<p>Of course, Matzuku and his men were as much prisoners as we were. They -were not only prisoners of whatever manipulated the dome, but they were -our prisoners as well. There was nothing they could do, nowhere they -could go with any secrets filched from us; but I decided not to tell -them anything.</p> - -<p>Matzuku, I noticed, was studying the sky. I watched his brown face as -he struggled with some idea that plainly had him buffaloed. He looked -at me quickly, then looked away. He knew something, but was afraid to -say what it was. I could at least make it clear to him that he was not -crazy, need not be afraid to say what was in his mind.</p> - -<p>"You are amazed, corporal," I said, "to discover that you can't -possibly be on Guam. I see that you know something of astronomy. It -won't be taken amiss if you hazard a guess as to where you are, and how -you got here."</p> - -<p>"I should like to do that, sir," said the Jap corporal, "but it does -not seem possible that we should merely have seen a marine patrol, -scouting the jungles of Guam, approached them to surrender, and found -ourselves in the Kalahari Desert! It isn't possible, therefore I must -not know the stars as well as I had thought. And yet, sir, I <i>do</i> know -the stars. Unless this is delirium induced by fever, lack of water and -food over the years, we <i>are</i> somewhere in the Kalahari Desert!"</p> - -<p>"Let's go have a look, Matzuku," I said. "You, too, Hoose. Haggerty, -you'd better stay with the command."</p> - -<p>Matzuku, Hoose and I started back the way the Japs had come. Matzuku -seemed to have forgotten his fatigue, the fact that he had been -practically a walking dead man when he approached the "patrol" to -surrender. Ten sets of footprints led in a wavering line back to the -invisible dome which hemmed us in. Hoose and I hung back to let Matzuku -go on ahead of us. He came to the invisible wall and halted, looking -foolish as a fore-thrust foot slid down what appeared to be nothingness.</p> - -<p>The footprints all ended against the invisible wall. Moonlight shed -its brilliance over everything, and we could see far out beyond the -invisible wall, into the eerie area of sand dunes, stunted brush, to a -horizon which offered no hope whatever.</p> - -<p>"We couldn't have come from out there!" said Matzuku wonderingly. "We -came out of the Guamian jungles, but our footprints don't start until -we reach this invisible barricade." Matzuku turned on me. "I have no -right to ask, but what kind of a concentration camp <i>is</i> this? We -Japanese have much experience in camps, but we use barbed wire, high -rock walls with broken glass embedded in their tops, or dungeons and -caves."</p> - -<p>I grinned at the little corporal.</p> - -<p>"You don't use energy domes, then," I said, "or compress invisibility -into a solid?"</p> - -<p>"No," said Matzuku, "<i>do you?</i>"</p> - -<p>He had guessed we were prisoners also. I didn't explain. After all, -how could I? We three went back to the LCVP. I ordered the Japanese -into the LCVP on our right flank, placed a guard over them, not because -we had any fear of them, but so they would not hear our discussion. -They showed no interest whatever. They sprawled out on the deck of the -LCVP and were asleep, and raucously snoring, before we met in plenary -session—save for the single guard over the Japanese—near the grave of -Yount's skeleton.</p> - -<p>"Could we really be in the Kalahari Desert?" asked Haggerty.</p> - -<p>"We could," I said. "The Japs could also be decoys, deliberately sent -to us to make us believe whatever we're supposed to believe. I'm only -sure of one thing: we're not on Yataritas Beach, Cuba!"</p> - -<p>"Are we really sure of <i>that</i>, even?" asked Captain Haggerty. I had to -admit that we were sure of nothing.</p> - -<p>"We seem to be unmolested for the time being," I said. "But we can't -just sit here and brood. Those of you who want to sleep, turn in -wherever you like. Those who want to help figure out what has happened -to us, assemble here with me and we'll see if we can get anywhere."</p> - -<p>"You don't suppose, sir," said Krane diffidently, "that we're -all—dead, or something? With all those fancy explosives we brought -along—"</p> - -<p>Nobody laughed. Nobody snickered. And nobody drew away to hit the sack.</p> - -<p>"I don't believe we're dead, Music," I said, "but I could be wrong -about that, too. I think your 'or something' comes about as close to an -answer as anything we have. Now, I'm open to suggestions as to how we -find out what ails us, where we are, how we get out; what, in general, -it all seems to be about."</p> - -<p>"The Shadow Men," said Ziegler, "what were they?"</p> - -<p>Nobody knew.</p> - -<p>There was something in the shadows. A smell, and something else. Why -didn't the stuff, whatever it was, destroy bones as well? Had we really -heard Yount scream inside the shadow?</p> - -<p>We recapitulated everything we could remember. As if we could forget -anything! And it all added up to a nightmare.</p> - -<p>"The walkie-talkies," said Haggerty. "We've got eighty-odd of them. -They can all be adjusted to different wavelengths. I suggest we -estimate how many, and then each of us take his share of them, and -start sending, not only in Morse and International codes, but in every -language we know, down to Greek and Latin!"</p> - -<p>It was long past midnight by the time we had worked out charts of -wavelengths for the walkie-talkies, and divided them among us. Then we -scattered, first stripping off our jackets and laying our fast-fire -weapons on them to keep the weapons from being fouled by sand. We -needed our hands free.</p> - -<p>"The first whisper anybody gets, he'll sing out," I instructed officers -and men.</p> - -<p>Marines acquire a lot of miscellaneous information—and plenty of -misinformation. Among seventy-five or eighty one would find a dozen -European languages, Gaelic probably, three or four Chinese dialects, a -smattering of Congo jabbering, a spot of Latin, a touch of Greek. If -someone asked me, anywhere, anytime, in the presence of as few as a -dozen marines, if any of them knew Sanskrit I would hesitate to say no.</p> - -<p>We turned all that mess loose on our walkie-talkies. If anybody ever -really "shot the moon," it was us.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<p class="ph1">CHAPTER THREE</p> - -<p class="ph1">Alien Voices</p> - - -<p>Each man had his message pad on his knee, or on the sand beside him, -opened up. The moon was so brilliant we had scarcely any need of the -illuminated pages with which each book was equipped.</p> - -<p>Within fifteen minutes our walkie-talkies were going wild. Every last -one received first, the eerie whispering. Then the men began to report -shouts, weeping, wordless screams, unearthly music, wind instruments, -drums, tom-toms—just about every noise-making agency of which any of -us had ever heard.</p> - -<p>Was all this in answer to our attempts to communicate? How could we -make contact that would also make sense?</p> - -<p>So far, the sounds were no more informative than static. But it was -something, when we had been hearing nothing at all, so we kept at it.</p> - -<p>We kept it up for three days and nights.</p> - -<p>The Shadow Men did not return during that time. The Japanese gradually -mingled with us. They realized that we knew no more of our situation -than they did, possibly less, and joined with us in trying to work it -out.</p> - -<p>It was midnight, the fourth night of our disappearance, when we got a -break.</p> - -<p>Ziegler brought me a message which said: "You are wasting your time. -Contact like this is forbidden."</p> - -<p>I looked at Ziegler.</p> - -<p>"You got this in English?" I asked.</p> - -<p>"No, sir. It's Mangbetu, an African dialect. I did some work among -those people, some years ago. It's difficult. I could be mistaken, but -I don't think so."</p> - -<p>"Did you answer this?"</p> - -<p>"No, sir."</p> - -<p>"Go ahead," I said, "confirm! We'll see what happens."</p> - -<p>He chattered something into his walkie-talkie. Instantly all sound died -out of every last walkie-talkie.</p> - -<p>We'd accomplished—what? Only something remotely confirming Matzuku, -the Japanese who had located us in the Kalahari Desert of Africa.</p> - -<p>We slept by fits and starts. The Shadow Men did not return. Silence -held sway in our walkie-talkie receivers, though we kept on sending. -Ziegler gave us Mangbetu words to use, but nothing came of it. That -line of investigation was clearly ended.</p> - -<p>We began working on the inner wall of the dome with our entrenching -tools. That started something!</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>It was now clear that if we ever got out of wherever we were, we would -have to do it on our own.</p> - -<p>First, to establish the exact circumference of the dome, I formed all -hands, sailors, marines and Japanese, in a single column and we did -the circle. I wanted everybody whose lot was our lot, to know every -detail that might later prove valuable. The area under our feet, -available to us within the dome, we estimated at ten acres. That gave -us considerable inner surface of wall and dome to be studied. We could -not see the dome, we only knew it was there. We had small radar and -sonar sets, but the dome registered on neither. Nothing we shouted was -echoed back to us, nor did the chattering of the fast-firers cause -reverberations. With those fast-firers, the ultimate in small arms, -we searched out every quadrant of the dome, to see if there were any -opening. In the same way we searched out every yard of the wall; -there was no way out, at least of any size, for I'd have wagered, so -carefully was this job done, that if one bullet fired into dome or wall -had fallen outside, some one of us would have spotted it.</p> - -<p>We used up a lot of steel-jacketed bullets, but we found not a single -aperture in the wall or dome.</p> - -<p>Next we worked on our super-grenades, of which we had a fairly good -supply. This was dangerous work; we had to dig trenches from which -to heave them. Even the rifle grenades were dangerous because of our -limited escape area.</p> - -<p>The grenades did nothing to the wall; nothing whatever.</p> - -<p>The flame-throwers accomplished little more. There was danger with -these, too, for the flame bathed the wall—we could see it strike and -blossom up and down—and backfired so that it was a wonder all who -stood behind the machines were not wiped out. And even the flames did -not affect the wall.</p> - -<p>We even, so help me, tried to <i>talk</i> a hole through the wall! Yes, -Krane thought of it, Trumpeter Krane.</p> - -<p>"Maybe we could find the key sound of the dome," he said, "and shatter -it with sound. You know, like marching steps shaking down a bridge."</p> - -<p>Well, we tried, but got nowhere.</p> - -<p>"Shovels, then," I said. "Entrenching tools! Maybe we can go under."</p> - -<p>All hands groaned. There is nothing a marine or sailor dislikes more -than digging in—even when bullets are flying thick and fast.</p> - -<p>I think we were all a little mad then. It was bad enough to dig down -into sand that poured into a hole faster than one could dig, but to -accomplish nothing by doing it was heartbreaking. By day we perspired -like hippos, rubbed the skin off our palms, got raw and bleeding where -our clothes chafed. Water and food were no problem, for our mysterious -source of supply never for a moment ceased or abated.</p> - -<p>We fought that wall for days and nights on end, as a mob, in shifts, -and singly. We got nowhere. There were times when the sand inside the -dome looked as if a huge animal had been rooting, or a crowd digging -for treasure. But when we stopped for a few moments to rest we could -hear the sand whispering with glee as it slid back into the pits we had -dug—leveling off the area again.</p> - -<p>We managed in some places to get down ten feet or so into the sand, and -to witness a strange phenomenon. We never got under the wall, nor were -we able to penetrate it anywhere, yet when sand poured back into the -pits we dug—<i>it poured back from beyond the wall, too</i>, as if there -were no obstruction! It poured in, apparently through the very wall we -were trying to breach.</p> - -<p>Naturally we wondered, if we had been digging on the outside, trying -to get in, if the sand would have poured outward into the holes, too. -We all remembered how we had got into the dome so easily, yet we could -find no way, shape, form or manner to get out.</p> - -<p>The Shadow Men, however, had escaped....</p> - -<p>Yes, we studied that LCVP that had seemed to be a funnel by which the -Shadow Men coalesced into one shadow and vanished, but could find no -key to the means or manner of their strange escape.</p> - -<p>We were resting one afternoon, and Haggerty had just said this was the -most unsatisfactory duty he had ever performed in twenty-some years -of landing with the marines around the world, while Hoose suggested -we ought to have a name for this nameless area, and Trumpeter Krane -offered "Outpost Zero" as the most appropriate—when Preble erupted: -"My God! Look!"</p> - -<p>He was pointing up through the dome. Spinning down toward us from an -empty sky was a ball of something that looked like metal—or perhaps -crystal. It glistened and shone in the sun. It almost hurt the eyes.</p> - -<p>Nobody said anything as that ball came closer and closer. I think we -all knew what it was, though none of us had been at Hiroshima that -fatal day.</p> - -<p>We saw the A-bomb disintegrate, almost lazily, directly above our dome.</p> - -<p>No one who has seen the Hiroshima pictures needs a further explanation -of what we all saw. Only, this A-bomb was far more powerful than the -first one. Only one nation, we all thought, could have it.</p> - -<p>Why would our own people be so intent on wiping us out?</p> - -<p>In a split second we were in the midst of the cloud, in the heart of -the explosion, each one of us trying to convince himself, by pinching, -that he was actually going through an A-bomb explosion—absolutely -unscathed. Not even a sound came through.</p> - -<p>We were sitting in the middle of the perfect defense against the -A-bomb, but we didn't know what it was or who had made it—and we -couldn't get out of it!</p> - -<p>There was comfort in the knowledge that <i>someone</i> knew, else how did it -happen that the A-bomb made what would have been a direct hit on the -dome if it hadn't been detonated about a thousand feet above? There was -design here, all right—but <i>whose</i>?</p> - -<p>Nobody could imagine our own government addressing us in Mangbetu!</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>We thought we were all dead men. We had all seen pictures of survivors -of Hiroshima, with their skin burned off their bones.</p> - -<p>The Japs had not seen. They had been in the Guamian jungles and had not -even heard of Hiroshima. I told them. They looked at one another in -amazement. All this time we cowered in the heart of the explosion, and -for the first time we could see the shape and extent of the dome which -imprisoned us. It was outlined in smoke through which shot tongues of -blue, green, and salmon pink. In the cloud which surrounded us we could -see all the prisms play—and inter-flashing of lights of all colors -that was unbelievably awesome. Yet we heard no sound. There was an -eerie glow on the sand around us which must have come from the light, -but if it had any ill effect on our bodies we have not yet become aware -of it.</p> - -<p>We had kept our watches wound and synchronized, so we timed the -duration of the blast. The cloud about us lasted for two hours. Then it -began slowly to disintegrate.</p> - -<p>"Out to the walls, now," I said. "We'll move out from the center as -skirmishers. Then, at my signal, when we're against the wall, we'll -circle to the right until we have examined every inch we can reach or -see."</p> - -<p>Far above the dome we saw the great snowy mushroom of the blast's -residue, with lights playing through it. We looked out through the wall -at the sand beyond—and there <i>was</i> no sand. Only a landscape shaped -as it had been when it had been sand; but now it was a smooth, rolling -expanse of light green! The blast had been a vast primordial glazier, -and the sand was not sand now, but green glass—right up to the outside -of our still invisible dome! We marched out and looked through. We -did the natural things, like putting our hands up beside faces that we -pressed nose-flat against the invisible. The wall felt warm, but no -warmer than it had felt before the blast. Our dome had withstood every -possible destructive effect of the A-bomb blast!</p> - -<p>I stood there, staring out. I looked around, and the marines, sailors -and Japanese were standing in the same manner—looking out and through -like children looking through a zoo fence.</p> - -<p>We must all have realized it at the same time. I noticed, first, that -there was suddenly a space between the outside of the wall and the sea -of green glass. I noticed that it ran away to right and left, a border -between the glass and our sand, which became a little wider even as I -stared. Then I felt pressure against the toes of my field shoes. Then -I was being pushed bodily back, and the sand border outside was a foot -wide!</p> - -<p>I whirled this time, back against the wall, to stare at the others. -They were all facing inboard, too. It was clear that all had noticed -the widening border, that each knew the fact: our dome was closing in -on us, all around.</p> - -<p>Probably most of us had read Poe's "Pit and the Pendulum" and enjoyed -the spine-tingling horror of the walls closing in to crush the hapless -victim.</p> - -<p>Just now it was far from thrilling.</p> - -<p>From all sides the wall closed in. We looked away to the south. The -entire mountain there had become greenish, as if it, too, had turned to -glass.</p> - -<p>"No one blast," said Haggerty grimly, "did that. Not even the best we -have in A-bombs could have done so much. That mountain is ten, fifteen -miles away, at least. There must have been more A-bombs...."</p> - -<p>"And maybe more domes," said Hoose. "How do we know that this whole -desert isn't dotted with them?"</p> - -<p>"Each one with its bugs under it for scientific study," said Haggerty -wryly.</p> - -<p>My mind went around and around. The Shadow Men ... Mangbetu ... the -blast ... the desert ... the betrayal by the very sky itself ... the -Japanese....</p> - -<p>I had to turn it off or go crazy. Besides, the closing wall wasn't -giving us much time. Faster and faster it advanced.</p> - -<p>It was clear that we were being pushed deliberately inward on the -LCVP's. Within a few minutes we were practically on the LCVP ramps.</p> - -<p>"Grab all weapons!" I yelled. "Don't risk finding them on the pay roll!"</p> - -<p>Marines who lose weapons have to pay for them. That's what I meant, -silly as it seems in the circumstances.</p> - -<p>Just as we were falling in at the sand-covered ramps of the three -LCVP's, Krane cried out: "Where are the Japs?"</p> - -<p>It gave me a chill. There was no escaping a peculiar fact: that even -while the invisible was herding us, assembling us before our LCVP's, -something of it, or about it, had snatched away the Japanese. They had -simply vanished.</p> - -<p>The walls were not circular now, but oval, roughly encompassing the -LCVP's. Haggerty assembled his men before his LCVP. Hoose did the same. -Mine assembled about me on the central ramp.</p> - -<p>Then, when we were inside, in position as he had been when we landed, -with only one man missing—Yount—the wall ceased closing in. For ten -minutes we wondered about this. Then I had a hunch.</p> - -<p>"Can we raise the ramps without the motors?"</p> - -<p>We couldn't, not all the way, but we could, with two men at each outer -corner, raise them about four feet, catch and hold them with their -rattling chains.</p> - -<p>When we figured this out we did it by the numbers—</p> - -<p>And we almost left twelve men on the beach!</p> - -<p>No sooner had we raised the ramps than the Caribbean was tugging at -our LCVP's, the waves trying to take them back to sea. Our ramp men -jumped up on their ramps, rolled crazily into the LCVP's, and the ramps -raised all the way, clicking into place to become the prows of the -unwieldy landing craft.</p> - -<p>Cries of glee rose from our boat-handlers. Motors caught on the first -try, exactly as if they had not been idle for two weeks, and the LCVP's -were backing away from Yataritas Beach, turning, heading out to sea. I -whirled and looked out into the deep blue. I think all of us expected -to find the <i>Odyssey</i> still standing off, waiting for us. But it wasn't -there.</p> - -<p>"Can we make it back to Guantanamo Bay?" I asked the motorman. "Never -mind answering; we're going to!" A cheer rose from the marines and -sailors as we rounded the point we had never expected to see again, and -started west, in deep blue water, along the coast.</p> - -<p>LCVP's aren't good travelers. They roll like eggs on a hill, but this -time nobody got seasick.</p> - -<p>"Outpost Zero," said someone, looking back at Yataritas Beach. "If I -never even <i>hear</i> of it again it will be too soon!"</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>We kept in close formation as we approached Escondido Bay, outside the -Reservation. There a cruising plane picked us up, dipped wings over us, -looped and headed full speed back to Guantanamo.</p> - -<p>We all crawled up our starboard sides, tilting the LCVP's far over, and -not caring a bit, to pick out landmarks ashore that we knew—Kittery -Beach, Windmill, Cuzco, Blind, Blue and Cable Beaches. Every one looked -like home—and the marine hadn't lived, up to that moment, who regarded -Guantanamo as home!</p> - -<p>There were many planes out, including some of our jets, by the time we -reached the mouth of Guantanamo Bay. Luckily the long run was made in -fairly smooth water.</p> - -<p>We crossed the shelf where the deep blue water of the Caribbean becomes -the green-dirty water of the Bay, and were as good as home.</p> - -<p>I planned on making it to the Marine Boat House, but the Admiral's -launch came out, with a staff officer aboard, with instructions to land -at the Admiral's own dock.</p> - -<p>I guess it didn't matter much where we docked, for the point of land on -which the Admiral had his quarters was covered with uniforms. Marines -and sailors were kept back by MP's.</p> - -<p>The Chief Staff Officer placed me formally under arrest, "for absence -over-leave," he said—though there was a suggestion of excitement in -his voice that made me suspect subterfuge. One thing was certain, an -officer under arrest kept his mouth shut. I couldn't tell anybody -anything. The same thing, or something like it, happened to every one -of us. We were all completely muzzled by being placed under arrest. -Whatever else we might be, we were "hot."</p> - -<p>Then it was that we worked together as even marines did not always work -together—and the six gobs pitched in, too.</p> - -<p>I made out this report, with the understanding that it would be seen -by every leatherneck and sailor, and not submitted until all were -satisfied with its accuracy.</p> - -<p>I told what seemed to have happened to us. As commanding officer I was -requested also to express an opinion. I had none to offer, except that -two news bulletins, received over the radio the next day after our -return, gave me something to think about.</p> - -<p>One of the bulletins explained in somewhat guarded language, that new -A-bomb experiments were being made—not in mid-Pacific, in Bikini, but -in the heart of the Kalahari Desert! So careful were the brass hats in -this important series of tests, that no words in any civilized tongue -were allowed to be spoken even on intercom sets! The report didn't -mention Mangbetu, but it did say "little known African dialects." This -wasn't an unusual procedure, by the way—Comanche Indians had been so -employed in World War II.</p> - -<p>And what were those people testing, besides the newest thing in A-bombs?</p> - -<p>"Part of the test," said the voice of the announcer, "involves an -amazing above-ground bomb-shelter! This shelter, of secret manufacture, -is believed to be proof against anything except the explosion of -the planet itself. Not only is each such shelter capable of great -extension, thus to handle large groups of people, but built into it -is something new in provisioning. People who are forced into these -shelters by sudden attack, are automatically provided with food, water -and equable temperature, by a process which provides these necessities -as separate exudations from the inner walls of the bombproofs!</p> - -<p>"Some fear was expressed, in the midst of the tests," said the -announcer, "that there were traitors even among the carefully screened -technicians—for despite orders, for a period of three days not only -English but many other languages, including the secret dialect used by -the technicians, were heard in their intercoms!"</p> - -<p>I shivered at that, remembering how, for three days, we had tried every -tongue of which we could think. Gradually a picture was beginning to -emerge.</p> - -<p>"It was feared for some time that some potential aggressor nation had -managed somehow to get past the Kalahari guards and ferret out secret -information—or else that there was already a fifth column among the -technicians!"</p> - -<p>No mention anywhere, of the Shadow Men!</p> - -<p>I was scared stiff when I realized this. For those Shadow Men, it now -seemed, had accomplished something the A-bomb had not been able to do; -they had got inside the bombproof, killed Yount—and could easily have -killed us all—and got out again.</p> - -<p>"The experiments," said the announcer, "were of course carried out -by the United Nations Security Council. The results have not been -announced in every detail, but the world <i>has</i> been informed that -complete security against the A-Bomb has been produced and will be -available if ever there is another world war!"</p> - -<p><i>But what about the Shadow Men?</i> What good was the best bombproof if it -could be entered so easily, and everybody inside it destroyed?</p> - -<p>On the next day after our return I picked up a brief broadcast which I -could easily have missed.</p> - -<p>"It appears that there are still Japanese soldiers, hiding out on Guam, -who do not know that the war is over. Ten Japanese, led by a Corporal -Matzuku, surrendered yesterday to Guamian authorities! How they -survived for almost four years is a mystery. They appear well fed."</p> - -<p>I got this far and realized that I knew a great deal of <i>what</i> had -happened, but not <i>how</i>. How we and the Guamian Japanese had been -netted under the same bombproof, for instance—they on Guam, ourselves -on Yataritas Beach, Cuba.</p> - -<p>I had no explanation for the Shadow Men—except that nobody but the -"vanishers", ourselves and the Japanese, so much as mentioned them. -They were, I felt sure, outside the knowledge of the Security Council.</p> - -<p>The Shadow Men were some manifestation—chemicals, or instantaneously -acting disease germs?—of a potential enemy fifth column which had -horned in on the Kalahari experiments.</p> - -<p>I can do no more. This report is respectfully submitted for -transmission via official channels.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="ph1">FIRST ENDORSEMENT</p> - -<p>From: Commanding Officer, Guantanamo Marines.</p> - -<p>To: Senior Officer Present, Naval Base.</p> - -<p>Subject: Yataritas Beach Case.</p> - -<p>1. But for the fact that eighty men concur in the attached report I -would request that Major Rafe King be ordered to Saint Elizabeth's for -observation.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="ph1">SECOND ENDORSEMENT</p> - -<p>From: Senior Officer Present, Naval Base.</p> - -<p>To: Chief of Naval Operations.</p> - -<p>Subject: Cuba-Yataritas Beach Case.</p> - -<p>1. I am not inclined to treat this report lightly, or to suggest that -it be so treated elsewhere. Knowing how our marines, sailors, equipment -and LCVP's were plucked up and transported to Kalahari, together with -the Japanese, I am still in complete ignorance of the meaning of the -"Shadow Men." If Operations has any additional information it is felt -that this base should be made aware of it.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="ph1">THIRD ENDORSEMENT</p> - -<p>From: Chief of Naval Operations.</p> - -<p>To: Commanding General of the Marines.</p> - -<p>Subject: Cuba-Yataritas Beach Case.</p> - -<p>1. This activity is aware of all details except the so-called "Shadow -Men." If the Commanding General of Marines has any information, include -it herewith and forward to Chairman, Security Council, United Nations.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p class="ph1">FOURTH ENDORSEMENT</p> - -<p>From: Chairman, Security Council, United Nations.</p> - -<p>To: Major Rafe King, via all above channels.</p> - -<p>Subject: The Kalahari Tests.</p> - -<p>1. Returned for amplification. It is deemed advisable, in view of -publicity attendant on the Cuba-Yataritas angle of the Kalahari Desert -tests, to make public the following facts. First, best protection -against the A-Bomb is worldwide observation by special television; the -Council has it. Second necessity is ability to make the bombproofs, -provided by the Security Council, available to anybody, anywhere -in the world, who is threatened by attack. Bombproofs are capable -of instant transmission to any spot on the face of the globe—and -removal of bombproof <i>and occupants</i> to anywhere else in the world—as -Cuba-to-Kalahari-to-Guam.</p> - -<p>2. Amplification on the "Shadow Men" is required. Every nation in the -world, on the honor of its chief executive, has denied all knowledge -of the "Shadow Men." Any Fifth Column from "Outside" is considered -fantastic beyond all possibility.</p> - -<hr class="tb" /> - -<p>Well, there it is. The high brass all along the way has spoken. Now -it's up to me. I checked to find that every nation in the world <i>had</i> -denied knowledge of the Shadow Men—except our own United States. But -without asking for volunteers, our most ruthless high brass would not -have sent us to face those shadows, wherein someone was almost certain -to die horribly.</p> - -<p>So, some nation has lied! We, the United Nations, have the perfect -A-bomb-proof, capable of instant transmission to anywhere it is needed. -We can also see where it is needed, through our World Visual Section.</p> - -<p>But, as usual, for every attack weapon, there is a defense. For every -defensive weapon there is, eventually, a weapon which will crack it. We -have the best defensive gadget ever constructed, but somebody has the -grim, black answer to it!</p> - -<p>WHAT NATION?</p> - -<p>When the next bombs begin to fall, the name of that nation will be -written into the murderous heart of every bomb. <i>Then</i> will tongues be -freely loosed which now dare not give offense to any "friendly" nation!</p> - -<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE VANISHERS ***</div> -<div style='text-align:left'> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will -be renamed. -</div> - -<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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