by Various
The Lake of Light
_By Jack Williamson_
_The monster emanated power, sinister, malevolentpower._]
[Sidenote: In the frozen wastes at the bottom of the world twoexplorers find a strange pool of white fire--and have a strangeadventure.]
The roar of the motor rang loud in the frosty air above a desert ofice. The sky above us was a deep purple-blue; the red sun hung like acrimson eye low in the north. Three thousand feet below, through ahazy blue mist of wind-whipped, frozen vapor, was the ruggedwilderness of black ice-peaks and blizzard-carved hummocks of snow--agrim, undulating waste, black and yellow, splotched with crystalwhite. The icy wind howled dismally through the struts. We were flyingabove the weird ice-mountains of the Enderby quadrant of Antarctica.
That was a perilous flight, across the blizzard-whipped bottom of theworld. In all the years of polar exploration by air, since Byrd'smemorable flights, this area had never been crossed. The intrepidBritisher, Major Meriden, with the daring American aviatrix whom theworld had known as Mildred Cross before she married him, had flowninto it nineteen years before--and like many others they had neverreturned.
Faintly, above the purring drone of the motor, I heard Ray Summers'shout. I drew my gaze from the desolate plateau of ice below andleaned forward. His lean, fur-hooded face was turned back toward me. Amittened hand was pointing, and thin lips moved in words that I didnot hear above the roar of the engine and the scream of the wind.
I turned and looked out to the right, past the shimmering silver diskof the propeller. Under the blue haze of ice-crystals in the air, theice lay away in a vast undulating plain of black and yellow, brokenwith splotches of prismatic whiteness, lying away in frozen desolationto the rim of the cold violet sky. Rising against that sky I saw acurious thing.
It was a mountain of fire!
Beyond the desert of ice, a great conical peak pointed straight intothe amethystine gloom of the polar heavens. It was brilliantly white,a finger of milky fire, a sharp cone of pure light. It shone withwhite radiance. It was brighter, far brighter, than is the sacred coneof Fujiyama in the vivid day of Japan.
* * * * *
For many minutes I stared in wonder at it. Far away it was; it lookedvery small. It was like a little heap of light poured from the hand ofa fire-god. What it might be, I could not imagine. At first sight, Iimagined it might be a volcano with streams of incandescent lavaflowing down the side. I knew that this continent of mystery boastedMt. Erebus and other active craters. But there was none of the smokeor lurid yellow flame which accompanies volcanic eruptions.
I was still watching it, and wondering, when the catastrophe tookplace--the catastrophe which hurled us into a mad extravaganza ofamazing adventure.
Our little two-place amphibian was flying smoothly, through airunusually good for this continent of storms. The twelve cylinders ofthe motor had been firing regularly since we took off from Byrd's oldstation at Little America fifteen hours before. We had crossed thepole in safety. It looked as if we might succeed in this attempt topenetrate the last white spot on the map. Then it Happened.
A sudden crack of snapping metal rang out sharp as a pistol report. Abright blade of metal flashed past the wing-struts, to fall in aflashing arc. The motor broke abruptly into a mad, deep-voiced roar.Terrific vibration shook the ship, until I feared that it would go topieces.
Ray Summers, with his usual quick efficiency, cut the throttle.Quickly the motor slowed to idling speed; the vibration stopped. Alast cough of the engine, and there was no sound save the shrillscreaming of the wind in the gloomy twilight of this unknown landbeyond the pole.
"What in the devil!" I exclaimed.
"The prop! See!" Ray pointed ahead.
I looked, and the dreadful truth flashed upon me. The steel propellerwas gone, or half of it at least. One blade was broken off at a jaggedline just above the hub.
* * * * *
"The propeller! What made it break? I've never heard--"
"Search me!" Ray grinned. "The important thing is that it did. It wasall-metal, of course, tested and guaranteed. The guarantee isn't worthmuch here. A flaw in the forging, perhaps, that escaped detection.And this low temperature. Makes metal as brittle as glass. And thething may have been crystallized by the vibration."
The plane was coming down in a shallow glide. I looked out at the grimexpanse of black ice-crags and glistening snow below us, and it wasfar from a comforting prospect. But I had a huge amount of confidencein Ray Summers. I have known him since the day he appeared, from hisfather's great Arizona ranch, to be a freshman in the School of Minesat El Paso, where I was then an instructor in geology. We have knockedabout queer corners of the world together for a good many years. Buthe is still but a great boy, with the bluff, simple manners of theWest.
"Do you think we can land?" I asked.
"Looks like we've got to," he said, grimly.
"And what after that?"
"How should I know? We have the sledge, tent, furs. Food, and fuel forthe primus to last a week. There's the rifle, but it must be athousand miles to anything to shoot. We can do our best."
"We should have had an extra prop."
"Of course. But it was so many pounds, when every pound counted. Andwho knew the thing would break?"
"We'll never get out on a week's provisions."
"Not a shot! Too bad to disappoint Captain Harper." Ray grinned wanly."He ought to have the _Albatross_ around there by this time, waitingfor us." The _Albatross_ was the ship which had left us at LittleAmerica a few months before, to steam around and pick us up at ourdestination beyond Enderby Land. "We're in the same boat with MajorMeriden and his wife--and all those others. Lost without a trace."
"You've read Scott's diary--that he wrote after he visited the pole in1912--the one they found with the bodies?"
"Yes. Not altogether cheerful. But we won't be trying to get out. Nouse of that." He looked at me suddenly, grinning again. "Say, Jim, whynot try for that shining mountain we saw? It looks queer enough to beinteresting. We ought to make it in a week."
"I'm with you," I said.
* * * * *
I did not speak again, for the jagged ice-peaks were coming rathernear. I held my breath as the little plane veered around a slenderblack spire and dropped toward a tiny scrap of smooth snow among theice-hummocks. I might have spared my anxiety. Under Ray's consumatelyskilful piloting, the skids struck the snow with hardly a shock. Weglided swiftly over the ice and came to rest just short of a yawningcrevasse.
"Suppose," said Ray, "that we spend the first night in the plane. Weare tired already. We can keep warm here, and sleep. We've plenty ofice to melt for water. Then we're off for the shining mountain."
I agreed: Ray Summers is usually right. We got out the sledge, packedit, took our bearings, and made all preparations for a start to theluminous mountain, which was about a hundred miles away. Thethermometer stood at twenty below, but we were comfortable enough inour furs as we ate a scanty supper and went to sleep in the cabin ofthe plane.
We started promptly the next morning, after draining the last of thehot chocolate from our vacuum bottles, which we left behind. We had alight but powerful sporting rifle, with telescopic sights, and severalhundred rounds of ammunition. Ray put them in the pack, though Iinsisted that we would never need them, unless a quick way out of ourpredicament.
"No, Jim," he said. "We take 'em along. We don't know what we're goingto find at the shining mountain."
The air was bitterly cold as we set out: it was twenty-five below anda sharp wind was blowing. Only our toiling at the sledge kept us warm.We covered eighteen miles that day, and made a good camp in the leeof a bare stone ridge.
That night there was a slight fall of snow. When we went on it wasnearly thirty-five degrees below zero. The layer of fresh snowconcealed irregularities in the ice, making our pulling very hard.After an exhausting day we had made h
ardly fifteen miles.
* * * * *
On the following day the sky was covered with gray clouds, and abitterly cold wind blew. We should have remained in the tent, but theshortage of food made it imperative that we keep moving. We feltimmensely better after a reckless, generous fill of hot pemmican stew;but the next morning my feet were so painful from frost-bite that Icould hardly get on my fur boots.
Walking was very painful to me that day, but we made a good distance,having come to smoother ice. Ray was very kind in caring for me. Ibecame discouraged about going on at all: it was very painful, and Iknew there was no hope of getting out. I tried to get some of ourmorphine tablets, but Ray had them, and refused to be convinced thathe ought to go on without me.
On the next march we came in sight of the luminous mountain, whichcheered me considerably. It was a curious thing, indeed. Astraight-sided cone of light it was, rather steeper than the averagevolcano. Its point was sharp, its sides smooth as if cut with amammoth plane. And it shone with a pure white light, with a steady andunchanging milky radiance. It rose out of the black and dull yellow ofthe ice wilderness like a white finger of hope.
The next morning it was a little warmer. Ray had been caring for myfeet very attentively, but it took me nearly two hours to get on myfootgear. Again I tried to get him to leave me, but he refused.
We arrived at the base of the shining mountain in three more marches.On the last night the fuel for the primus was all gone, having beenused up during the very cold weather, and we were unable to melt waterto drink. We munched the last of our pemmican dry.
* * * * *
A few minutes after we had started on the last morning, Ray stoppedsuddenly.
"Look at that!" he cried.
I saw what he had seen--the wreck of an airplane, the wings crumpledup and blackened with fire. We limped up to it.
"A Harley biplane!" Ray exclaimed. "That is Major Meriden's ship! Andlook at that wing! It looks like it's been in an electric furnace!"
I examined the metal wing; saw that it had been blackened with heat.The metal was fused and twisted.
"I've seen a good many wrecks, Jim. I've seen planes that burned asthey fell. But nothing like that. The fuselage and engines were noteven afire. Jim, something struck out from that shining mountain andbrought them down!"
"Are they--" I began.
Ray was poking about in the snow in the cockpits.
"No. Not here. Probably would have been better for them if they hadbeen killed in the plane. Quick and merciful."
He examined the engines and propellers.
"No. Seems to be nothing wrong. Something struck them down!"
Soon we went on.
The shining mountain rose before us like a great cone of fire. It musthave been three thousand feet high, and about that in diameter at thebottom. Its walls were as smooth and straight as though turned frommilky rock crystal in a gigantic lathe. It shone with a steady,brilliantly white radiance.
"That's no natural hill!" Ray grunted beside me as we limped on.
We were less than a mile from the foot of the cone of fire. Soon weobserved another remarkable thing about it. It seemed that a straightband of silvery metal rose from the snow about its foot.
"Has it a wall around it?" I exclaimed.
"Evidently," said Ray. "Looks as if it's built on a round metalplatform. But by whom? When? Why?"
* * * * *
We approached the curious wall. It was of a white metal, apparentlyaluminum, or a silvery alloy of that metal. In places it wastwenty-five feet high, but more usually the snow and ice was bankedhigh against it. The smooth white wall of the gleaming mountain stoodseveral hundred yards back from the wall.
"Let's have a look over it." Ray suggested. "We can get up on thathummock, against it. You know, this place must have been built bymen!"
We clambered up over the ice, as he suggested, until our heads cameabove the top of the wall.
"A lake of fire!" cried Ray.
Indeed, a lake of liquid fire lay before us. The white aluminum wallwas hardly a foot thick. It formed a great circular tank, nearly amile across, with the cone of white fire rising in the center. And thetank was filled, to within a foot of the top, with shimmeringlybrilliant white fluid, bright and luminous as the cone--liquid light!
Ray dipped a hand into it. The hand came up with fingers of fire,radiant, gleaming, with shining drops falling from them. With aspasmodic effort, he flung off the luminous drops, rubbed his hand onhis garments, and got it back into its fur mitten.
"Gee, it's cold!" he muttered. "Freeze the horns off a brassbilly-goat!"
"Cold light!" I exclaimed. "What wouldn't a bottle of that stuff beworth to a chemist back in the States!"
"That cone must be a factory to make the stuff." Ray suggested,hugging his hand. "They might pump the liquid up to the top, and thenlet it trickle down over the sides: that would explain why the cone isso bright. The stuff might absorb sunlight, like barium sulphide. Andthere could be chemical action with the air, under the actinic rays."
"Well, if somebody's making cold light, where does he use it?"
"I'd like to find out, and strike him for a hot meal," Ray said,grinning. "It's too cold to live on top of the ground around here.They must run it down in a cave."
"Then let's find the hole."
"You know it's possible we won't be welcome. This mountain of lightmay be connected with the vanishing of all the aviators. We'd bettertake along the rifle."
* * * * *
We set off around just outside the white metal wall. The snow and icewas irregularly banked against it, but the wall itself was smooth andunbroken. We had limped along for some two miles, or more than halfwayaround the amazing lake of light. I had begun to doubt that we wouldfind anything.
Then we came to a square metal tower, ten feet on a side, that rosejust outside the silvery wall, to a level with its top. The ice waslow here; the tower rose twenty feet above its unequal surface. Wefound metal flanges riveted to its side, like the steps of a ladder.They were most inconveniently placed, nearly four feet apart; but wewere able to climb them, and to look down the shaft.
It was a straight-sided pit, evidently some hundreds of feet deep. Wecould see a tiny square of light at the bottom, very far away. Theflanges ran down the side forming the rungs of a ladder that gaveaccess to whatever lay at the bottom.
Without hesitation, Ray climbed over the side and started down. Ifollowed him, feeling a great relief in getting out of the freezingwind. Ray had the rifle and ammunition strapped to his back, alongwith a few other articles; and I had a small pack. We had abandonedthe sledge, with the useless stove and the most of our instruments.Our food was all gone.
The metal flanges were fully four feet apart, and it was not easy toscramble down from one to another; certainly not easy for one who wascold, hungry, thirsty, worn out with a week of exhausting marches, andsuffering the torture of frozen feet.
"You know, this thing was not built by men," Ray observed.
"Not built by men? What do you mean?"
"Men would have put the steps closer together. Jim, I'm afraid we areup against something--well--that we aren't used to."
"If men didn't build this, what did?" I was astounded.
"Search me! This continent has been cut off from the rest of the worldfor geologic ages. Such life as has been found here is not common tothe rest of the earth. It is not impossible that some form of life,isolated here, has developed intelligence and acquired the power toerect that cone of light--and to burn the wing off a metal airplane."
My thoughts whirled madly as we clambered down the shaft.
* * * * *
It must have taken us an hour to reach the bottom. I did not count thesteps, but it must have been at least a thousand feet. The air grewrapidly warmer as we descended. We both took off most of our heav
y furgarments, and left them hanging on the rungs.
I was rather nervous. I felt the nearness of an intelligent, hostilepower. I had a great fear that the owners of those steps would usethem to find us, and then crush us ruthlessly as they had brought downMeriden's plane.
The little square of white light below grew larger. Finally I saw Rayswing off and stand on his feet in a flood of white radiance below me.The air was warm, moist, laden with a subtle unfamiliar fragrance thatsuggested growing things. Then I stood beside Ray.
We stood on the bare stone floor of a huge cavern. It must have beenof volcanic origin. The walls glistened with the sparkling smoothnessof volcanic glass. It was a huge space. The black roof was a hundredfeet high, or more; the cave was some hundreds of feet wide. And itsloped away from us into dim distance as though leading into hugercavities below.
The light that shone upon us came from an amazing thing--a fall ofliquid fire. From the roof plunged a sheer torrent of whitebrilliantly luminous fluid, falling a hundred feet into a shimmeringpool of moon-flame. Shining opalescent mists swirled about it, and theceaseless roar of it filled the cave with sound. It seemed that astream of the phosphorescent stuff ran off down the cave from thepool, to light the lower caverns.
"Very clever!" said Ray. "They make the stuff up there at the cone andrun it in here to see by."
"This warm air feels mighty good," I remarked, pulling off anothergarment.
Ray sniffed the air. "A curious odor. Smells like something growing.Where anything is growing there ought to be something to eat. Let'ssee what we can find."
Only black obsidian covered the floor about us. Cautiously we skirtedthe overflowing pool of white fire, and followed down the stream of itthat flowed toward the inner cavern. We had gone but a few hundredyards when suddenly Ray stopped me with a hand on my arm.
"Lie flat!" he hissed. "Quick!"
He dived behind a huge mass of fire-born granite. I flung myself downbeside him.
"Something is coming up the trail by the shining river. And it isn't aman! It's between us and the light; we should be able to see it."
* * * * *
Soon I heard a curious scraping sound, and a little tinkle of metal. Icaught a whiff of a powerful odor--a strange, fishy odor--so strongthat it almost knocked me down.
The thing that made the scraping and the tinkle and the smell cameinto view. The sight of it sickened me with horror.
It was far larger than a man; its body was heavy as a horse's, butnearer the ground. In form it suggested a huge crab, though it was notvery much like any crustacean I had ever seen. It was mostly red incolor, and covered with a huge scarlet shell. It had five pairs oflimbs. The two forward pairs had pinchers, seemingly used as hands; itscraped along on the other three pairs. Yard-long antennae, slenderand luminously green, wavered above a grotesque head. The many facetsof compound eyes stood on the end of foot-long stalks.
The amazing crab-thing wore a metal harness. Bands of silvery aluminumwere fastened about its shell, with little cases of white metaldangling to them. In one of its uplifted claws it carried what seemedto be an aluminum bar, two feet long and an inch thick.
It scraped lumberingly past, between us and the racing stream of whitefire. It passed less than a dozen feet from us. The curious fishysmell of it was overpowering, disgusting.
Sweat of horror chilled my limbs. The monster emanated power,sinister, malevolent power, power intelligent, alien and hostile toman.
I trembled with the fear that it would see us, but it scrambledgrotesquely on. When it was twenty yards past, Ray picked up a blockof black lava that lay beneath his hand and hurled it silently andswiftly. It crashed splinteringly on the rocks far beyond thecreature, on the other side of the stream of light.
In fascination I watched the monster as it paused as if astonished.The glittering compound eyes twisted about on their stalks, and thelong shining green tentacles wavered questioningly. Then the knobbedlimbs snapped the white metal tube to a level position. A metallicclick came from it.
And a ray of red light, vivid and intense, burst from the tube. Itflashed across the river of fire. With a dull, thudding burst itstruck the rocks where the stone had fallen. It must have been a rayof concentrated heat. Rocks beneath it flashed into suddenincandescence, splintered and cracked, flowed in molten streams.
* * * * *
In a moment the intensely brilliant ruby ray flashed off. The rocks inthe circle where it had struck faded to a dull red and then toblackness, still cracking and crumbling.
To my intense relief, the monstrous crab lumbered on.
"That," Ray whispered, "is what got Major Meriden's airplane wing."
When we could hear its scraping progress no longer, we climbed up frombehind our boulder and continued cautiously down the cavern, besidethe rushing luminous river. In half a mile we came to a bend. Roundingit, we gazed upon a remarkable sight.
We looked into a huge cavity in the heart of the earth. A vastunderground plain lay before us, with the black lava of the roofarching above it. It must have been miles across, though we had no wayto measure it, and it stretched down into dim hazy distance. Its levelwas hundreds of feet below us.
At our feet the glistening river of fire plunged down again in amagnificent flaming fall. Below, its luminous liquid was spread out inrivers and lakes and canals, over all the vast plain. The channels ranthrough an amazing jungle. It was a forest of fungus, of mushroomthings with great fleshy stalks and spreading circular tops. But theywere not the sickly white and yellow of ordinary mushrooms, but wereof brilliant colors, bright green, flaming scarlet, gold andpurple-blue. Huge brilliant yellow stalks, fringed with crimson andblack, lifted mauve tops thirty feet or more. It was a veritableforest of flame-bright fungus.
In the center of this weirdly forested subterranean plain was a greatlake, filled, not with the flaming liquid, but with dark crystalwater. And on the bottom of that lake, clearly visible from theelevation upon which we stood, was a city!
* * * * *
A city below the water! The buildings were upright cylinders in groupsof two or three, of dozens, even of hundreds. For miles, the bottom ofthe great lake was covered with them. They were all of crystal,azure-blue, brilliant as cylinders turned from immense sapphires. Theywere vividly visible beneath the transparent water. Not one of thembroke the surface.
Through the clear black water we saw moving hundreds, thousands of thegiant crabs. The crawled over the hard, pebbled bottom of the lake, orswam between the crystal cylinders of the city. They were huge as theone we had seen, with red shells, great ominous looking stalked eyes,luminous green tentacular antennae and knobbed claws on forelimbs.
"Looks as if we've run on something to write home about," Ray mutteredin amazement.
"A whole city of them! A whole world! No wonder they could build thatcone-mountain for a lighting plant!"
"When they got to knocking down airplanes with that heat-ray," hespeculated, "they were probably surprised to find that other animalshad developed intelligence."
"Do you suppose those mushroom things are good to eat?"
"We can try and see--if the crabs don't get us first with a heat-ray.I'm hungry enough to try anything!"
Again we cautiously advanced. The river of light fell over a sheerprecipice, but we found a metal ladder spiked to the rock, with rungsas inconveniently far apart as those in the shaft. It was five hundredfeet, I suppose, to the bottom; it took us many minutes to descend.
At last we stepped off in a little rocky clearing. The forest ofbrilliant mushrooms rose about us, great fleshy stalks of gold andgraceful fringes of black and scarlet about them, with flattened headsof purple.
We started eagerly across toward the fungoid forest. I had visions oftearing off great pieces of soft, golden flesh and filling my achingstomach with it.
We were stopped by a sharp, poignantly eager human cry.
A hum
an being, a girl, darted from among the mushroom stalks and ranacross to us. Sobbing out great incoherent cries, she dropped at Ray'sfeet, wrapped her arms about his knees and clung to him, while herslender body was wracked with sobbing cries.
* * * * *
My first impression was that she was very beautiful--and thatimpression I was never called upon to revise. About her lithe youngbody she had the merest scrap of some curious green fabric--ample inthe warm air of the great cavern. Luxuriant brown hair fell looseabout her white shoulders. She was not quite twenty years old, Isupposed; her body was superbly formed, with the graceful curves andthe free, smooth movements of a wild thing.
Ray stood motionless for a moment, thunder-struck as I was, while thesobbing girl clung to his knees. Then the astonishment on his facegave place to pity.
"Poor kid!" he murmured.
He bent, took her tenderly by the shoulder, helped her to her feet.
Her beauty burst upon us like a great light. Smoothly white, her skinwas, perfect. Wide blue eyes, now appealing, even piteous, lookedfrom beneath a wealth of golden brown hair. White teeth, straight andeven, flashed behind the natural crimson of her lips.
She stood staring at Ray, in a sort of enchantment of wonder. An eagerlight of incredible joy flamed in her amazing eyes; red lips wereparted in an unconscious smile of joy. She looked like the troubledprincess in the fairy tale, when the prince of her dreams appeared inthe flesh.
"God, but you're beautiful!" Ray's words slipped out as if he werehardly conscious of them. He flushed quickly, stepped back a little.
The girl's lips opened. She voiced a curious cry. It was deep toned,pealing with a wonderful timbre. A happy burst of sound, like a babymakes. But strong, ringing, musically golden. And pathetically eager,pitifully glad, so that it brought tears to my eyes, cynical old manthat I am.
I saw Ray wipe his eyes.
"Can you talk?" Ray put the question in a clear, deliberate voice,with great kindness ringing in it.
"Talk?" The chiming, golden voice was slow, uncertain. "Talk? Yes. Italked--with mother. But for long--I have had no need to talk."
"Where is your mother?" Ray's voice was gentle.
"She is gone. She was here when I was little." The clear, silveryvoice was more certain now. "Once, when I was almost as big asshe--she was still. She was cold. She did not move when I called her.The Things took her away. She was dead. She told me that sometime shewould be dead."
* * * * *
Bright tears came in the wide blue eyes, trickled down over theperfect face. A pathetic catch was in the deliberate, halting voice. Iturned away, and Ray put a handkerchief to his face.
"What is your name? Who are you?" Ray spoke kindly.
"I am Mildred. Mildred Meriden."
"Meriden!" Ray turned to me. "I bet this is a daughter of the majorand his wife!"
"Father was the major," the girl said slowly. "He and mother came in amachine that flew, from a far land. The Things burned the machine withthe red fire. They came here and the Things kept them. They mademother sing over the water. They killed father. I never saw him."
"I know," Ray, said gently. "We came from the same land. We saw yourfather's machine above."
"You came from outside! And you are going back? Oh, take me with you!Take me!" Piteous pleading was in her voice. "It is so--lonely sincethe Things took Mother away. Mother told me that sometime men wouldcome, and take me away to see the people and the outside that she toldme of. Oh, please take me!"
"Don't worry! You go along whenever we leave--if we can get out."
"Oh, I am so glad! You are very good!"
Impulsively, she threw her arms around Ray's neck. Gently, hedisengaged himself, flushing a little. I noticed, however, that he didnot seem particularly displeased.
"But can we get out?"
"Mother and I tried. We could never get out. The Things watch. Theymake me come to the water to sing, when the great bell rings."
"Are these things goods to eat?" I motioned to the brilliant fungalforest. I had begun to fear that Ray would never get to this veryimportant topic.
Blue eyes regarded me. "Eat? Oh, you are hungry! Come! I have food."
* * * * *
Like a child, she grasped Ray's hand, pulled him toward the mushroomjungle. I followed, and we slipped in between the brilliantly golden,fleshy stalks. They rose to the tangle of bright feathery fringesabove, huge and substantial as the trunks of trees.
In a few minutes we came to a wide, shallow canal, metal-walled,through which a slow current of the opalescent, luminous liquid wasflowing. We crossed this on a narrow metal foot-bridge, and went onthrough the brilliant forest.
Suddenly we emerged into a little clearing, with the black waters ofthe great lake visible beyond it, across a quarter-mile of rockybeach. In the middle of the open space, rose three straight cylindersof azure crystal, side by side. Each must have been twenty feet indiameter, and forty high. They shone with a clear blue light, like thecylindrical buildings we had seen in the strange city of thecrab-creatures below the great lake.
Mildred Meriden, the strangely beautiful girl who had known no otherworld than this amazing cavern empire where giant crabs reigned,beckoned us with unconscious queenly grace to enter the arched door inthe blue sapphire wall of her remarkable abode of clustered cylinders.
The crystal of the walls seemed luminous, the lofty cylinders werefilled with a liquid, azure radiance. The high round room we enteredwas strangely furnished. There was a silken couch, a bathing pool ofblue crystal filled with sparkling water, a curious chest of drawersmade of bright aluminum with a mirror of polished crystal, its topbearing odd combs and other articles. The furnishings must have beendone by the giant crabs, under human direction.
Mildred led us quickly across the room, through an arched opening intoanother. A round aluminum table stood in the center of the room, withtwo curious metal chairs beside it. Odd metal cabinets stood about theshining blue walls. The girl made us sit down, and put dishes beforeus.
She gave us each a bowl of thick, sweetish soup, darkly red; placedbefore us a dish piled high with little circular cakes, crisp andbrown, which had a tantalizing fragrance; poured for each of us atransparent crystal goblet full of clear amber drink.
We fell to with enthusiasm and abandon.
"The Things made this place for father," the girl told us, as shewatched us eat, attentively replenishing the red soup in the greatblue crystal bowl, or the little cakes, or the fragrant amber drink."They would give him anything he wanted. But he tried to go away withmother, and they killed him."
"We must get out of here," Ray declared when at last we had done. "Wemust get together a lot of food, and enough clothing for all of us. Weought to be able to make it to the edge of the ice-pack. We've got togive these crab-things the slip; we ought to get off before they knowwe're here--unless they already do."
Mildred was eagerly attentive: she was so unused to human speech thatit took the best of her efforts to understand us, though it seems thather mother had given her quite a wide education. She promised thatthere would be no difficulty about the food.
"Mother taught me how to fix food," she said. "She always said thatsometime men would come, with weapons of fire and great noise thatwould tear and kill the Things. I have food ready, in bags--more thanwe can carry. I have, too, the furs that mother and father wore."
She ran into another room and returned with a great pile of furgarments, which we examined and found to be in good condition.
"Now is the time," Ray said. "I'd like to know more about the bigcrabs, but there'll be a chance for that, later. Mildred is theimportant thing, now. We must get her out. Then we can tell the worldabout this place and come back with a bigger expedition."
"You think we can reach the coast?"
"I think so. It might be hard on Mildred. But we will have food; wecan probably find fuel for the stove in Meri
den's plane, if the tankswere well sealed. And Captain Harper should have a relief party landedand sent to meet us. We should have only three or four hundred milesto go alone."
"Three or four hundred miles, over country like we've been crossing inthe last week, with a girl! Ray, we'd never make it!"
"It's the only chance."
I said nothing more. I knew that I could stand no such march on myfrozen feet, but I resolved to say nothing about it. I would help themas far as I could, and then walk out of camp some night. Men have donejust that.
Mildred brought out sacks of the little cakes, and of a red powderthat seemed to be the dried and ground flesh of a crimson mushroom. Wemade a pack for each of us, as heavy as we could carry.
* * * * *
Just before we were ready to start Ray took off my footgear andtreated my feet from his medicine kit. I had feared gangrene, but heassured me that there was no danger if they were well cared for.Walking was still exquisitely painful to me as we slipped out throughthe arched door and into the fungoid forest beyond the three bluecylinders.
As rapidly and silently as possible we hastened through the brilliantfungous forest, across the river of opalescent liquid, to the foot ofthe fall of fire. A weird and splendid sight was that sheer arc ofshimmering white flame, roaring into a pool of opal light, andsurrounded with a mist of moon-flame.
We reached the foot of the metal ladder spiked to the rocks beside thefall and started up immediately. The going was not easy. The packs offood, heavy enough when we were on level ground, were difficult indeedto lift when one was scrambling up over rungs four feet apart.
Ray climbed ahead, with a piece of rope fastened from his waist toMildred's, so that he could help her if she slipped. I was below thegirl. We were halfway up the rock when suddenly a glare of red lightshone upon me, casting my shadow sharply on the cliff. I looked upand saw the broad, intensely red beam of a heat-ray like that we hadseen the giant crab use.
The ray came, evidently, from the shore of the great lake with itssubmerged city of blue cylinders. It fell upon the face of the cliffjust above us. Quickly the ladder was heated to cherry red. The faceof the rock grew incandescent, cracked. Hot sparks rained down uponus.
Slowly the ray moved down, toward us.
"Guess we'd better call it off," said Ray. "They have the advantageright now. Better get to climbing down, Jim. This ladder is going tobe burning my hands pretty soon."
* * * * *
I climbed down. Mildred and Ray scrambled down behind me.
The ray followed us, keeping the metal at a cherry red just aboveRay's hands.
I looked down and saw a dozen of the giant crabs lumbering up out ofthe fungoid jungle from the direction of the great lake. Hideousthings they were, with staring, stalked eyes, shining green antennae,polished red shells, claw-armed limbs. Like the one that had passed usin the upper cavern, they wore glistening white metal accoutrements.
We clambered down, with the red ray following.
I dropped to the ground among them, wet with the sweat of horror. Ireeled in nausea from the intolerable odor of the crab-things; it wasindescribable, overpowering.
Curious rasping stridulations came from them, sounds which seemed toserve as means of communication, and which Mildred evidentlyunderstood.
"They say that you will not be harmed, but that you must not go out,"she called down.
I was seized by the pincher-like claws, held writhing in anunbreakable grasp, while the glittering eyes twisted about, looked atme, and the shining green tentacles wavered questioningly over me. Mystomach revolted at the horrible odor.
The crabs tore off my pack, even my clothing. Ray was similarlytreated as soon as he reached the ground. Though they took Mildred'spack, they treated her with a curious respect.
In a few minutes they released us. They had taken the packs, the rifleand ammunition, our medicine kit and the few instruments we hadbrought with us down the shaft, even our clothing. They turned usloose stark naked. Ray's face and neck went beet-red when he sawMildred standing by him.
The rasping sound came from one of them again.
"It says you may stay with me," Mildred said. "They will not harm youunless you try again to get away. If you do, you die--as father did.They will keep what they took from you."
* * * * *
Several of the creatures went scraping off, carrying the articles theyhad taken from us either in their claws or in the metal cases theywore. Several waited, staring at us with the stalked compound eyes,and waving the green antennae as if they were organs of some specialsense.
Two of the creatures waited at the foot of the metal ladder, holdingthe long slender white tubes of the heat-ray in their claws.
"They say we can go now," Mildred said.
She led the way toward the edge of the brilliant jungle. She seemed tobe without false modesty, for I saw her glancing with evidentadmiration at Ray's lithe and powerful white-skinned figure. Wefollowed her into the giant mushrooms, glad to escape the overpoweringstench of the crabs.
In a few minutes we arrived again at the strange building of the threeblue cylinders. Mildred, noticing our discomfort, produced for each ofus a piece of white silken fabric with which we draped ourselves.
She had noticed my difficulty in walking on bare feet. She had mebathe them, then dressed them with a soothing yellow oil, and bandagedthem skilfully.
"Anyhow," she said later, "it is good to have both of you here withme. I am sorry indeed for you that you may never see your countryagain. But it is good fortune for me. I was so lonely."
"These damned crabs don't know me!" Ray Summers muttered. "They thinkI'll play around like a pet kitten, for the rest of my life! They'llget their eyes opened. We'll spend the winter on Palm Beach yet!"
"It seems to me that we're rather outnumbered." I said. "And it'srather more pleasant in here than outside."
"I'm going to get that rifle," Ray declared, "and give these big crabsa little respect for humanity!"
"Let's rest up a while first, anyhow," I urged.
* * * * *
Presently Mildred noticed how tired we were. She went into the thirdof the connected cylinders of blue crystal, was busy a few minutes andcalled us to the couches she had prepared there.
"You may sleep," she told us. "The Things never come here. And theysaid they would not harm you, if you did not try to go out."
We lay down on the silken beds. In a few minutes I was sleep. I awoketo feel a curious unease, a sense of impending catastrophe. Ray wasbending over me, his face drawn with anxiety.
"Something's happened!" he whispered. "She's gone!"
I sat up, staring into the liquid blue vastness of the tall cylinderabove us.
"Listen! What's that?"
A deep bell-note sounded out, brazen, clanging. Sonorous, throbbing,mighty, it rang through the cylindered rooms. Slowly it died; faded tosilence with a last ringing pulse. Tense minutes of silence passed.Again it boomed out, throbbed, and died. After more long minutes therewas yet a third.
"Outside, somewhere!"
Ray started; ran to the arched door. We looked out upon the denseforest of gold and crimson mushrooms that grew below the black cavernroof. Before us, across a few hundred yards of bare rocky beach, wasthe edge of the crystal lake with the city of blue cylinders upon itsfloor.
"God! What's that?" Ray gripped my arm crushingly.
A thin wailing scream came across the beach from the black lake. Apiteous sound it was, plaintive, pleading. Higher and higher it rose,until it was a piercing silver note. Clear and sweet it was, butinexpressibly lonely, sorrowful, mournful. It sank slowly, died away.Again it rose and fell, and again.
"It's Mildred!" I gasped. "Didn't she say something about singing tothe crabs?"
"Yes! I think she did. Well, if that's singing, it's wonderful! Had mefeeling like I'd never see another human. But liste
n--"
* * * * *
Liquid, trilling notes were rising, pealing out in a queer, swiftrhythm. It was happy, joyous, carefree. The rippling golden tones mademe think of the caroling of birds on a spring morning. Swiftly it roseand fell, pure and clear as the tinkle of a mountain brook.
Mildred sang not words but notes of pure music.
The gay song died.
And the strong clear voice rose again with the force and challenge ofbugle notes, with a swift marching time beating through it. Itthrobbed to a rhythm strange to me. It set my feet tingling to move;it set my heart to pulsing faster. It was a challenge to action, tobattle.
Unconsciously obeying the suggestion of the song, Ray whispered,"Let's get over and see what's going on."
We leaped through the door and ran across four hundred yards of rockybeach to the edge of the lake. We stepped on a granite bluff a fewyards above the water, to gaze upon as strange a sight as men eversaw.
The black water lay before us, a transparent crystal sheet. On itsrocky bottom we could see the innumerable clusters of upright azurecylinders that were the city of the crabs. The blue cylinders seemedto bend and waver in the water.
A hundred yards away from us, over the dark water, was Mildred. Shestood on a slender azure cylinder that came just to the surface. Tall,slender, superbly graceful, with only the scant bodice of green silkenstuff about her, she looked like the statue of a goddess in whitemarble. Her head was thrown up, golden-brown hair fell behind hershoulders, and the pure notes of her song rang over the water.
Beyond her, all about her, were thousands upon thousands of the giantcrabs, swimming at the surface of the water. Their green antenna roseabove the water, a curious forest of luminous tentacles, flexing,wavering. Green coils moved and swung in time to the strange rhythm ofher song.
The last note died. Her white arms fell in a gesture of finality. Thethousands of twisting green antennae vanished below the water, and thegiant red crabs swam swiftly back to the tall blue cylinders of theirsubmerged city.
* * * * *
The white goddess turned and saw us.
Her voice rang out in a golden shout of welcome. With a clean dive sheslipped into the water and came swimming swiftly toward us. Her slimwhite body glided through the crystal water as smoothly as a fish.Reaching the shore she sprang to her feet and ran to meet Ray.
"The Things come together when the giant bell rings, to listen to mysong," she said. "They like my singing, as they liked mother's. Butfor that, they would not let us live. That is the reason they wouldnot let us go."
"I like your singing, too," Ray informed her. "Though at first youmade me cry. It was so lonely."
"The song was lonely because I have been lonely. Did you hear the gladsong I sang because you have come?"
"Sure! Great stuff! Made me feel like a kid at Christmas!"
"Come," she said. "We will eat."
Like a child, she took Ray's hand again, smiling naively up at him asshe led the way toward the three sapphire cylinders.
Back in the blue-vaulted dining room, Ray made Mildred sit with me atthe little metal table while he served the little brown cakes and thedark-red soup and the fragrant amber drink. Mildred got up and broughta great metal bowl filled with tiny purple fruits that had adelicious, piquant tang.
Ray was deeply thoughtful as he ate. Suddenly he sat back and criedout:
"I've got it!"
"Got what?" I demanded.
"I want that rifle! Mildred can find out where it is. Then, when shesings, the crabs will all come. I'll get the gun, while she issinging, and hide it. Then when it comes time to get out, she willsing while you and I are getting our packs up the cliff. I can coverthem with the rifle while she gets up to us."
"Looks good enough," I agreed, "provided they all come to hear thesinging."
* * * * *
He explained the plan at greater length to the girl. She assured himthat the crabs all come when the bell-notes sound. She thought thatshe could make them return her furs, and find out where they had putthe gun.
My feet were much better than they had been, and Mildred dressed themagain with the yellow oil. Ray examined them, said that I should beable to walk as well as ever in a few days.
Considerable time went by. Since the crabs had taken our watches, wehad no very accurate way of counting days; but I think we slept abouta dozen times. Ray and Mildred spent a good deal of time together, andseemed not altogether to hate each other. By the end of the time myfeet were quite well; I did not even lose a toe.
We went over our plans for escape in great detail. The crabs hadconfiscated our clothing. Mildred managed to secure the return of herfurs, and, incidentally, while she was about it, learned where therifle was.
Fortunately, perhaps realizing that it would be ruined by water, thecrabs had not taken it to their submerged city. Being amphibious, theylived above water as easily as below, and much of their industrialequipment was above the surface. The great pumps which lifted thewhite phosphorescent liquid from the canals back to the cone above theground were located beyond the great lake. I did not see the place,but Ray tells me that they had great engines and a wealth of strangeand complex machinery there. It was at these pumps that they had leftour rifle and instruments, as Mildred found when she was recoveringher furs.
They had taken our food, and we prepared as much more as we couldcarry, arranged sacks for it, and made quilted garments for ourselves.
* * * * *
Then the three brazen notes clanged out, and Mildred ran across thebeach and swam out to the blue cylinder to sing. Ray slipped hurriedlyaway, while the green forest of antennae was still growing up from thewater about the girl.
I waited above the beach, enchanted by the haunting, wordless melodyof the gongs. It seemed that only a few minutes had passed, though itmay have been an hour or more, when Ray was by my side again. Heflourished the rifle.
"I've got it! In good shape, too. Hasn't even been fired, though itlooks like they have opened a box of cartridges, and cut open one ortwo. Maybe they didn't understand the outfit--or it may be such aprimitive weapon that they aren't interested in it."
We hurried up to the building of blue cylinders and carefully hid thegun and ammunition, as well as a sun compass, a pair of prismbinoculars, and a few other articles Ray had recovered.
In a few minutes Mildred, having seen Ray's return, finished her songand ran up to join us. We arranged our packs, and waited the next callof the throbbing brazen gong to make the attempt for freedom.
We slept twice again before the clang of the great gong. Ray andMildred were always together; I could not see that they were at allimpatient.
The bell note came, the awful brazen vibration of it ringing on theblack cavern roof. It came when we were eating, in the liquidturquoise radiance of the lofty cylinder. We sprang out. Ray gave hislast directions to Mildred.
"Give us time to get to the top of the cliff by the shining fall. Thenswim ashore and run. They may not notice. And if they do, we give 'ema taste of lead!"
I was not very much surprised when he took the girl in his arms andput a burning kiss on her red lips. She gasped, but her strugglessubsided very quickly; she clung to him as he freed her.
She paused a moment in the door, before she ran down across the beach.A radiant light of joy was burning in her great blue eyes, even thoughtears were glistening there.
* * * * *
Ray and I waited, to give time for the giant crabs that guarded theladder to get away. In about ten more minutes the second brazen gongsounded, and presently the third. We gathered up the heavy packs offood. Ray took the rifle and I the binoculars, and we slipped out intothe brilliant mushroom forest.
I stepped confidently out of the jungle into the clearing below thesplendid opalescent fall of fire--and threw myself backward intrembling panic. A fla
ming crimson ray cut hissing into the toweringmushrooms above my head.
Mildred's confidence that the crabs would all gather at the ringing ofthe gong had been mistaken. The two guards had been waiting at thefoot of the ladder, their flaming heat-rays ready for use.
As I dived back into the jungle, I heard two quick reports of therifle. I scrambled awkwardly to my feet, beneath the heavy pack. Raystood alert beside me, the smoking rifle in his hand. The giant crabshad collapsed by the foot of the ladder, in grotesque and hideousmetal-bound heaps of red shell and twisted limb. Blood was oozing froma ragged hole in the head of each.
"Glad they were here," Ray muttered. "I wanted to try the gun out on'em. They're soft enough beneath the shell; the bullet tears 'em upinside. Let's get a move on!"
He sprang past the revolting carcasses. I followed, holding my noseagainst their nauseating, charnel-house odor. We scrambled up themetal ladder.
As we climbed, I could hear the haunting melody of Mildred's wordlesssong coming faint across the distance. Once I glanced back for amoment, and glimpsed her tiny white figure above the black water, withthe thousands of green antennae rising in a luminous forest about her.
We reached the top of the cliff, where the opalescent river plungeddown in the flaming fall. Ray chose convenient boulders for shelterand quickly we flung ourselves flat. Ray replaced the fired cartridgesin the rifle and leveled it across the rock before him. I unslung thebinoculars and focussed them.
"Watch 'em close," Ray muttered. "And tell me when to shoot."
* * * * *
The black lake lay below us, with the weird city of sapphire cylinderson its floor. I got the glasses upon Mildred's white form. Soon shedived from the turquoise pedestal, swam swiftly ashore and vanished inthe vivid fungous jungle. The wavering green antennae vanished belowthe water; I watched the crabs swimming away. Some of them climbed outof the water and lumbered off in various directions.
In fifteen minutes the slender white form of Mildred appeared at thefoot of the ladder. She sprang over the dead crabs and scramblednimbly up. Soon she was halfway up the face of the cliff, and therehad been no sign of discovery. My hopes ran high.
I was sweeping the whole plain with the binoculars, while Ray peeredthrough the telescopic sights of the rifle. Suddenly I saw a giantcrab pause as he lumbered along the edge of the black lake. He roseupright; his shining green antennae wavered. Then I saw him reachingwith a knobbed claw for a slender silver tube slung to his harness.
"Quick! The one by the lake! To the right of that canal!"
I pointed quickly. Ray swung his gun about, aimed. A broad red beamflashed from the tube the thing carried, and fell upon the cliff. Thereport of Ray's rifle rang thunderously in my ears. The red ray wassnapped off abruptly, and the giant crab rolled over into the blackwater of the lake. Half a dozen of the huge crabs were in sight. Theyall took alarm, probably having seen the flash of the red ray. Theyraised grotesque heads, twisted stalked eyes and waved green antennae.Some of them began to raise the metal tubes of the heat-ray.
"Let's get all there are in sight!" Ray muttered.
He began firing regularly, with deliberate precision. A few times hehad to take two shots, but ordinarily one was enough to bring down agiant crab in a writhing red mass. Three times a red ray flashed out,once at the girl clambering up the ladder, twice at our position abovethe precipice. But the intense color of the ray announced its source,and Ray stopped each before it could be focussed to do damage.
I looked over at Mildred and saw that she was still climbing bravely,a little over a hundred feet below.
* * * * *
Then the great red crabs began to climb out of the water, heat-raytubes grasped in their claws. Ray fired as fast as he could load andaim. Still he shot with deliberate care, and almost every shot waseffective.
Intense, ruby-red rays flashed up from the lake shore. Twice, one ofthem beat scorchingly upon us for a moment. Once a rock beside us wasfused and cracked with the heat. But Ray fired rapidly, and the rayswinked out as fast as they were born.
He was powder-stained, black and grimy. The heat-ray had singed hisclothing. He was dripping perspiration. The gun was so hot that hecould hardly handle it. But still the angry bark of the rifle rangout, almost with a deliberate rhythm. Ray was a fine shot in his youthon his father's Arizona ranch, but his best shooting, I think, wasdone from above that cascade of liquid fire, at the hordes of monsterscarlet crabs.
Mildred scrambled over the edge, unharmed. Her breast was heaving, buther face was bright with joy.
"You are wonderful!" she gasped to Ray.
We seized the packs and beat a hurried retreat. A crimson forest ofthe heat-rays flashed up behind us, and flamed upon the black wallsand roof of the cavern until glistening lava became incandescent,cracked and fused.
We were below the line of the rays. Quickly we made the bend in thecavern and followed at a halting run up the path beside the shimmeringriver of opalescent light. Before us the torrent of fire fell in amagnificent flaming arc from the roof.
We rounded the pool of lambent milk of flame, passed the roaringtorrent of coruscating liquid radiance and reached the ladder in thesquare, metal shaft. "If we can get to the top before they can get uphere, we're safe," Ray said. "If we don't, this shaft will be achimney of fire."
In the haste of desperation, we attacked the thousand-foot climb. Iwent first, Mildred below me, and Ray, with the rifle, in the rear.Our heavy packs were a terrible impediment, but we dared not attemptto go on without them. The metal rungs were four feet apart; it was noeasy task to scramble from one to the next, again and again, forhundreds of times.
* * * * *
It must have taken us an hour to make it. We should have been caughtlong before we reached the top, but the giant crabs were slow in theirlumbering movements. Despite their evident intelligence, they seemedto lack anything like our railways and automobiles.
The cold gray light of the polar sky came about us; a dull,purple-blue square grew larger above. I clambered over the last rung,flung myself across the top of the metal shaft. Looking down at thetiny fleck of white light so far below, I saw a bit of red move in it.
"A crab!" I shouted. "Hurry!"
Mildred was just below me. I took her pack and helped her over theedge.
Red flame flared up the shaft.
We reached over, seized Ray's arms and fairly jerked him out of theruby ray.
The bitterly cold wind struck our hot, perspiring bodies as wescrambled down the rungs outside the square metal shaft. Mildredshivered in her thin attire.
"Out of the frying pan into the ice box!" Ray jested grimly as wedropped, to the frozen plain.
Quickly we tore open our packs. Ray and I snatched out clothing andwrapped up the trembling girl. In a few minutes we had her snuglydressed in the fur garments that had been Major Meriden's. Then we gotinto the quilted garments we had made for ourselves.
The intensely red heat-beam still flared up the shaft. Ray looked atit in satisfaction.
"They'll have it so hot they can't get up it for some time yet," heremarked hopefully.
We shouldered our packs and set out over the wilderness of snow,turning our backs upon the metal-bound lake of fire, with the tallcone of iridescent flame rising in its center.
The deep, purple-blue sky was clear, and, for a rarity, there was notmuch wind. I doubt that the temperature was twenty below. But it was aviolent change from the warm cavern. Mildred was blue and shivering.
* * * * *
In two hours the metal rim below the great white cone had vanishedbehind the black ice-crags. We passed near the wreck of MajorMeriden's plane and reached our last camp, where we had left the tentsledge, primus stove, and most of our instruments. The tent was stillstretched, though banked with snow. We got Mildred inside, chafed herhands, and soon had her comfortable.
Then Ray w
ent out and soon returned with a sealed tin of oil from thewrecked plane, with which he lit the primus stove. Soon the tent waswarm. We melted snow and cooked thick red soup. After the girl hadmade a meal of the scalding soup, with the little golden cakes, sheprofessed to be feeling as well as ever.
"We can fix our plane!" Ray said. "There's a perfectly good prop onMeriden's plane!"
We went back to the wreck, found the tools, and removed an undamagedpropeller. This we packed on the sledge, with a good supply of fuelfor the stove.
"I'm sure we're safe now, so far as the crab-things go," he said. "Idon't fancy they'd get around very well in the snow."
In an hour we broke camp, and made ten miles of the distance back tothe plane before we stopped. We were anxious about Mildred, but sheseemed to stand the journey admirably; she is a marvelous physicalspecimen. She seemed running over with gay vivacity of spirit; sheasked innumerable questions of the world which she had known only atsecond-hand from her mother's words.
* * * * *
The weather smiled on us during the march back to the plane as much asit had frowned on the terrible journey to the cone. We had anabundance of food and fuel, and we made it in eight easy stages. Oncethere was a light fall of snow, but the air was unusually warm andcalm for the season.
We found the plane safe. It was the work of but a short time to removethe broken propeller and replace it with the one we had brought fromthe wrecked ship. We warmed and started the engine, broke the skidsloose from the ice, turned the plane around, and took off safely fromthe tiny scrap of smooth ice.
Mildred seemed amazed and immensely delighted at the sensations of herfirst trip aloft.
A few hours later we were landing beside the _Albatross_, in theleaden blue sea beyond the ice barrier. Bluff Captain Harper greetedus in amazed delight as we climbed to the deck.
"You're just in time!" he said. "The relief expedition we landed cameback a week ago. We had no idea you could still be alive, with only aweek's provisions. We were sailing to-morrow. But tell us! Whathappened? Your passenger--"
"We just stopped to pick up my fiancee," Ray grinned. "Captain, may Ipresent Miss Mildred Meriden? We'll be wanting you to marry us rightaway."
THE MENACE OF THE INSECT
It is possible that future study may tell man enough about insects toenable him to eradicate them. This, however, is more than can bereasonably expected, for the more we cultivate the earth the better wemake conditions for these enemies. The insect thrives on the work ofman. And having made conditions ideal for the insect, with greatexpanses of cultivated food fitted to his needs, it is an optimist whocan believe that at the same time we can make other conditions whichwill be so unfavorable as to cause him to disappear completely. Thetwo things do not go together.
The insect is much better fitted for life than is man. He can survivelong periods of famine, he can survive extremes of heat and cold. Theinsect produces great numbers of young which have no long period ofinfancy requiring the attention of the parents over a large part oftheir life. Every function of the insect is directed toward thepropagation of the race and the use of minimum effort in every otherdirection.
It is even possible in some cases, the water flea, for example, forthe female to produce young without the necessity of fertilization bythe male. In order to perform the necessary work to insure foodsupplies for the winter other insects have developed highlyspecialized workers, especially fitted to do particular kinds oflabor. Ants and termites are in this class.
If we examine the organization of insects closely we shall find butone point at which they are vulnerable. This is in their lack ofability to reason. True, there is considerable evidence to support thebelief that some insects are capable of simple reasoning, but thedevelopment in this direction is only of the most elementary nature.As compared to man it is safe to say that they do not reason. They areguided by instinct.
This again is the most efficient way to organize their affairs. Itrequires no long period of training. They can begin performing alltheir useful functions as soon as their bodily development makes itpossible. No one need teach them how to catch their prey, how to buildtheir nests or shelters. Instinct takes care of this. But this,obviously the best system in a world wholly governed by instinct, isnot so desirable when the instinctively actuated insect encountersanother form of life, as man, which is capable of reason. Thereasoning individual can play all kinds of tricks on the individualwho is actuated by instinct.