The White Invaders

by Ray Cummings

  CHAPTER V

  _Into the Enemy Camp_

  "But Bob, I won't go back to Government House," Don whispered."Lord, we can't do that--get in for theories and questions and plansto gather a police squad. Every minute counts."

  "What can we do?"

  "Break away from these fellows--send Uncle Arthur amessage--anything at all; and say we'll be back in half an hour. Itell you, Jane is gone--they've got her. You saw them take her. Bynow probably, they've got her off there in Paget among them. We'vegot to do something drastic, and do it now. If the policeattacked--suppose Jane is in that Paget group--the first thingthey'd do when the police came at them would be to kill her. Wecan't go at it that way, I tell you."

  We were trudging back up Government Hill with a group of soldiersaround us. I had revived to find myself not seriously injured; alump was on my head and a scalp wound where something had struck me.Don had regained consciousness a moment later and was whollyunharmed. His experience had been different from mine. Two men hadseized him. He was aware of a sudden puff of an acrid gas in hisface, and his senses had faded. But when they returned he had hisfull strength almost at once.

  We realized what had happened. Half a dozen of the enemy were lyingin ambush there on the roadside. It was young white girls they wereafter, and when we appeared with Jane, one of the invaders showedhimself as an apparition to stop us, and then the others, fullymaterialized and hiding in the oleanders, had leaped upon us. Theyhad had only time to escape with Jane, ignoring Don and me where wehad fallen. They seemed also not aware of the nature of our weaponsfor they had not taken our revolvers.

  * * * * *

  Had they gone now with Jane into the other realm of the Unknown? Orwas she with them, over in Paget now in the little enemy camp therewhich was defying Bermuda? We thought very possibly it was thelatter. The giant who had called himself Tako, who had escaped us inthe Police Station, had been driven from our minds by all theexcitement which followed. Was that Tako the leader of theseinvaders? Had he, for some time perhaps, been living as he said inthe Hamiltonia Hotel? Scouting around Bermuda, selecting the younggirls whom his cohorts were to abduct?

  The thoughts made us shudder. He had noticed Jane. He it was,doubtless, who as an apparition had prowled outside Jane's room thenight before last. And last night he had followed us to the FortBeach. And again to-night in the restaurant he had been watchingJane. These men who had captured Jane now might very well carry herto Paget and hand her over to their leader, this giant Tako.

  A frenzy of desperation was upon Don and me at the thought.

  "But what shall we do?" I whispered.

  "Get away from these soldiers, Bob. We've got our revolvers. We'llride over there to Paget--just the two of us. It's our best chancethat way. Creep up and see what's over there. And if Jane is there,we've got to get her, Bob--get her some way, somehow."

  We could plan no further than that. But to return to GovernmentHouse, to face Jane's father with the tale of what had happened, andthen become involved in an official attempt to attack with openhostilities the enemy in Paget--that was unthinkable.

  * * * * *

  At the foot of Government Hill, with a trumped-up excuse, Don got usaway from our escort. The night was far darker now; a gray-whitemass of clouds had come up to obscure the moon. We cycled throughthe outskirts of Hamilton to the harbor road and followed it aroundthe marshy end of the bay and into Paget. There had been at firstmany vehicles coming in from the beach, but when we passed theintersection and nothing lay ahead of us but the Paget ridge wefound the road deserted.

  We had had our handle-bar flash-lights turned on, but now we shutthem off, riding slowly into the darkness. Don presently dismounted.

  "Better leave our wheels here."

  "Yes."

  We laid them on the ground in a little roadside banana patch. Wewere no more than a quarter of a mile from the enemy now; the glowof their green beams standing up into the air showed on theridge-top ahead of us.

  "We'll take the uproad," Don whispered. "Shall we? And when we getto the top, follow some path, instead of a road."

  "All right," I agreed.

  We started on foot up the steep side road which led from the bayshore to the summit of the ridge. The houses here were all dark anddeserted, their occupants long since having fled to Hamilton. It wasenemy country here now.

  We reached the summit and plunged into a cedar grove which had afootpath through it. The green light-beams seemed very close; wecould see them in a little group standing motionless up into thedarkness of the sky.

  "Can't plan," Don whispered. "But we must keep together. Get up asclose as we can and see what conditions are."

  And see if Jane were here.... It echoed through my head, and I knewit was also Don's guiding thought.

  * * * * *

  Another ten minutes. We were advancing with the utmost caution. Thecedar grove was almost black. Then we came to the end of it. Therewas a winding road and two white houses a hundred feet or so apart.And beyond the houses was a stretch of open field, strangely denudedof vegetation.

  "There they are, Bob!" Don sank to the ground with me beside him. Wecrouched, revolvers in hand, gazing at the strange scene. The fieldhad been a cedar grove, but all the vegetation now was gone, leavingonly the thin layer of soil and the outcropping patches of Bermuda'sfamous blue-gray rock. The houses, too, had been blasted. One was onthis side of the field, quite near us. Its walls and roof hadpartially fallen; its windows and door rectangles yawned black andempty, with the hurricane shutters and the wooden window casementsgone and the panes shattered into a litter of broken glass.

  But the house held our attention only a moment. Across thetwo-hundred-foot field we could plainly see the invaders--forty orfifty men's figures dispersed in a little group. It seemed a sort ofencampment. The green light beams seemed emanating from small handprojectors resting now on the ground. The sheen from them gave adull lurid-green cast to the scene. The men were sitting about insmall groups. And some were moving around, seemingly assemblinglarger apparatus. We saw a projector, a cylindrical affair, whichhalf a dozen of them were dragging.

  "Bob! Can you make out--back by the banana grove--captives? Look!"

  * * * * *

  The encampment was at the further corner of the naked field. Alittle banana grove joined it. We could see where the enemy lighthad struck, partially melting off some of the trees so that now theystood leprous. In the grove were other figures of men, and it seemedthat among them were some girls. Was Jane there among thosecaptives?

  "We've got to get closer," I whispered. "Don, that second house--ifwe could circle around and get there. From the corner of it, we'd behidden."

  "We'll try it."

  The farther house was also in ruins. It stood near the back edge ofthe naked field and was within fifty feet of the banana grove. Wecircled back, and within ten minutes more were up against the brokenfront veranda of the house.

  "No one here," Don whispered.

  "No, evidently not."

  "Let's try getting around the back and see them from the backcorner."

  We were close enough now to hear the voices in the banana grove. Thehalf-wrecked house against which we crouched was a litter of stonesand broken glass. It was black and silent inside.

  "Don, look!"

  Sidewise across the broken veranda the group of figures in the fieldwere partly visible. We saw ghostly wraiths now among them--apparitionsthree or four feet above the ground. They solidified and dropped toearth, with their comrades gathering over them. The babble of voicesin a strange tongue reached us. New arrivals materializing!

  But was Jane here? And Tako, the giant? We had seen nothing ofeither of them. These men seemed all undersized rather thangigantic. We were about to start around the corner of the verandafor a closer view of the figures in the grove, when a sound near athand froze us. A murmur of v
oices! Men within the house!

  * * * * *

  I pulled Don flat to the ground against the stone steps of theporch. We heard voices; then footsteps. A little green glow of lightappeared. We could see over the porch floor into the black yawningdoor rectangle. Two men were moving around in the lower front room,and the radiation from their green lights showed them plainly. Theywere small fellows in white, tight-fitting garments, with the blackhelmet and the looped wires.

  "Don, when they come out--" I murmured it against his ear. "If wecould strike them down without raising an alarm, and get thosesuits--"

  "Quiet! They're coming!"

  They extinguished their light. They came down the front steps, andas they reached the ground and turned aside Don and I rose up in theshadows and struck at them desperately with the handles of ourrevolvers. Don's man fell silently. Mine was able to ward off theblow; he whirled and flashed on his little light. But the beammissed me as I bent under it and seized him around the middle,reaching up with a hand for his mouth. Then Don came at us, andunder his silent blow my antagonist wilted.

  We had made only a slight noise; there seemed no alarm.

  "Get them into the house," Don murmured. "Inside; someone may comeany minute."

  We dragged them into the dark and littered lower room. We still hadour revolvers, and now I had the small hand-projector of the greenlight-beam. It was a strangely weightless little cylinder, with afiring mechanism which I had no idea how to operate.

  In a moment we had stripped our unconscious captives of their whitewoven garments. In the darkness we were hopelessly ruining themechanism of wires and dials. But we did not know how to operate themechanism in any event; and our plan was only to garb ourselves likethe enemy. Thus disguised, with the helmets on our heads, we couldget closer, creep among them and perhaps find Jane....

  The woven garments which I had thought metal, stretched like rubberand were curiously light in weight. I got the impression now thatthe garments, these wires and disks, the helmet and the belt withits dial-face--all this strange mechanism and even the green-rayprojector weapon--all of it was organic substance. And thisafterward proved to be the fact.[1]

  [1] As we later learned, the scientific mechanism by which the transition was made from the realm of the fourth dimension to our own earthly world and back again, was only effective to transport organic substances. The green light-beam was of similar limitation. An organic substance of our world upon which it struck was changed in vibration rate and space-time co-ordinates to coincide with the characteristics with which the light-current was endowed. Thus the invaders used their beams as a weapon. The light flung whatever it touched of organic material with horrible speed of transition away into the Unknown--to the fourth, fifth, or perhaps still other realms. In effect--annihilation.

  The mechanism of wires and dials (and small disks which were storage batteries of the strange current) was of slower, more controllable operation. Thus it could be used for transportation--for space-time traveling, as Earth scientists later came to call it. The invaders, wearing this mechanism, materialized at will into the state of matter existing in our world--and by a reversal of the co-ordinates of the current, dematerialized into the more tenuous state of their own realm.

  We were soon disrobed and garbed in the white suits of our enemies.The jacket and trunks stretched like rubber to fit us.

  "Can't hope to get the wires right," Don whispered. "Got yourhelmet?"

  "Yes. The belt fastens behind, Don."

  "I know. These accursed little disks, what are they?"

  We did not know them for storage batteries as yet. They were thinflat circles of flexible material with a cut in them so that wecould spring the edges apart and clasp them like bracelets atintervals on our arms and legs. The wires connected them, looped upto the helmet, and down to the broad belt where there was anindicator-dial in the middle of the front.[2]

  [2] We were soon to learn also that they were bringing into our world weapons, food, clothing and a variety of equipment by encasing the articles in containers operated by these same mechanisms of wires carrying the transition current. The transportation was possible because all the articles they brought with them were of organic substance.

  * * * * *

  We worked swiftly and got the apparatus on somehow. The wires,broken and awry, would not be noticed in the darkness.

  "Ready, Don?"

  "Yes. I--I guess so."

  "I've got this light cylinder, but we don't know how to work it."

  "Carry it openly in your hand. It adds to the disguise." There was anote of triumph in Don's voice. "It's dark out there--only the greenglow. We'll pass for them, Bob, at a little distance anyway. Comeon."

  We started out of the room. "You can hide your revolver in thebelt--there seems to be a pouch."

  "Yes."

  We passed noiselessly to the veranda. Over our bare feet we werewearing a sort of woven buskin which fastened with wires to theankle disks.

  "Keep together," Don whispered. "Take it slowly, but walk openly--nohesitation."

  My heart was pounding, seemingly in my throat, half-smothering me."Around the back corner of the house," I whispered. "Then into thebanana grove. Straighten."

  "Yes. But not right among them. A little off to one side, passing byas though we were on some errand."

  "If they spot us?"

  "Open fire. Cut and run for it. All we can do, Bob."

  Side by side we walked slowly along the edge of the house. At theback corner, the small banana grove opened before us. Twenty feetaway, under the spreading green leaves of the trees a dozen or somen were working over apparatus. And in their center a group ofcaptive girls sat huddled on the ground. Men were passing back andforth. At the edge of the trees, by the naked field, men seemedpreparing to serve a meal. There was a bustle of activityeverywhere; a babble of strange, subdued voices.

  * * * * *

  We were well under the trees now. Don, choosing our route, wasleading us to pass within ten or fifteen feet of where the girlswere sitting. It was dark here in the grove; the litter of rottedleaves on the soft ground scrunched and swished under our tread.

  There was light over by the girls. I stared at their huddled forms;their white, terrified faces. Girls of Bermuda, all of them young,all exceptionally pretty. I thought I recognized Eunice Arton. Butstill it seemed that Jane was not here.... And I saw men seatedwatchfully near them--men with cylinder weapons in their hands.

  Don occasionally would stoop, poking at the ground as though lookingfor something. He was heading us in a wide curve through the groveso that we were skirting the seated figures. We had already beenseen, of course, but as yet no one heeded us. But every moment weexpected the alarm to come. My revolver was in the pouch of my beltwhere I could quickly jerk it out. I brandished the useless lightcylinder ostentatiously.

  "Don!" I gripped him. We stopped under a banana tree, half hidden inits drooping leaves. "Don--more of them coming!"

  Out in the empty field, apparitions of men were materializing. Thenwe heard a tread near us, and stiffened. I thought that we werediscovered. A man passed close to us, heading in toward the girls.He saw us; he raised a hand palm outward with a gesture of greetingand we answered it.

  * * * * *

  For another two or three minutes we stood there, peering, searchingfor some sign of Jane.... Men were distributing food to the girlsnow.

  And then we saw Jane! She was seated alone with her back against abanana tree, a little apart from the others. And near her was aseated man's figure, guarding her.

  "Don! There she is! We can get near her! Keep on the way we weregoing. We must go in a wide curve to come up behind her."

  We started forward again. We were both wildly excited; Jane was atthe edge of the lighted area. We could come up
behind her; shoot herguard; seize her and dash off.... I saw that the mesh of wires,disks and a helmet were on Jane....

  Don suddenly stumbled over something on the ground. A man who hadbeen lying there, asleep perhaps, rose up. We went sidewise, andpassed him.

  But his voice followed us. Unintelligible, angry words.

  "Keep on!" I murmured. "Don't turn!"

  It was a tense moment. The loud words brought attention to us. Thenthere came what seemed a question from someone over by the girls. Wecould not answer it. Then two or three other men shouted at us.

  Don stopped, undecided.

  "No!" I whispered. "Go ahead! Faster Don! It's darker ahead."

  We started again. It seemed that all the camp was looking our way.Voices were shouting. Someone called a jibe and there was a burst oflaughter. And from behind us came a man's voice, vaguely familiar,with a sharp imperative command.

  Should we run? Could we escape now, or would a darting green beamstrike us? And we were losing our chance for Jane.

  Desperation was on me. "Faster, Don!"

  The voice behind us grew more imperative. Then from nearby, two mencame running at us. An uproar was beginning. We were discovered!

  * * * * *

  Don's revolver was out. It seemed suddenly that men were all aroundus. From behind a tree-trunk squarely ahead a figure appeared withleveled cylinder. The ground leaves were swishing behind us withswiftly advancing footsteps.

  "Easy, Bob!"

  Don found his wits. If he had not at that moment we would doubtlesshave been annihilated in another few seconds. "Bob, we'recaught--don't shoot!"

  I had flung away the cylinder and drawn my revolver; but Don shoveddown my extended hand and held up his own hand.

  "We're caught!" He shouted aloud. "Don't kill us! Don't kill us!"

  It seemed that everywhere we looked was a leveled cylinder. I halfturned at the running footsteps behind us. A man's voice called inEnglish.

  "Throw down your weapons! Down!"

  Don cast his revolver away, and mine followed. I was aware that Janehad recognized Don's voice, and that she was on her feet staring inour direction with horrified eyes.

  The man from behind pounced upon us. It was the giant, Tako.

  "Well, my friends of the restaurant! The American who knows New YorkCity so well! And the Bermudian! This is very much to my liking. Youthought your jail would imprison me, did you not?"

  He stood regarding us with his sardonic smile, while our captorssurrounded us, searching our belts for other weapons. And he added,"I was garbed like you when we last met. Now you are garbed like me.How is that?"

  * * * * *

  They led us into the lighted area of the grove. "The American whoknows New York City so well," Tako added. "And the Bermudian says heknows it also. It is what you would call an affair of luck, havingyou here."

  He seemed highly pleased. He gazed at us smilingly. We stood silentwhile the men roughly stripped the broken wires and disks from us.They recognized the equipment. There was a jargon of argument intheir strange guttural language. Then at Tako's command three ofthem started for the house.

  Jane had cried out at sight of us. Her captor had ordered her backto her seat by the tree.

  "So?" Tako commented. "You think silence is best? You are wise. I amglad you did not make us kill you just now. I am going to New Yorkand you shall go with me; what you know of the city may be of help.We are through with Bermuda. There are not many girls here. But inthe great United States I understand there are very many. You shallhelp us capture them."

  Don began, "The girl over there----"

  "Your sister? Your wife? Perhaps she knows something of New York andits girls also. We will keep her close with us. If you three chooseto help me, you need have no fear of harm." He waved aside the menwith imperious commands. "Come, we will join this girl of yours. Sheis very pretty, is she not? And like you--not cowardly. I have notbeen able to make her talk at all."

  The dawn of this momentous night was at hand when, with the networksof wires and disks properly adjusted upon us, Tako took Jane, Donand me with him into the Fourth Dimension.

  Strange transition! Strange and diabolical plot which now wasunfolded to us! Strangely fantastic, weird journey from this Bermudahilltop through the Unknown to the city of New York!