Astounding Stories, March, 1931

by Various

  Terrors Unseen

  _By Harl Vincent_

  _"Eddie!" Lisa screamed suddenly. "Look out!"_]

  [Sidenote: One after another the invisible robots escape Shelton'scontrol--and their trail leads straight to the gangster chiefCadorna.]

  Something about the lonely figure of the girl caused Edward Vail tobring his car to a sudden stop at the side of the road. When first hehad glimpsed her off there on that narrow strip of rock-bound coast hewas mildly surprised, for it was a desolate spot and seldom frequentedby bathers so late in the season. Now he was aroused to startledattention by the unnatural posture of the slender body that had justbeen erect and outlined sharply against the graying September sky. Heswitched off the ignition and sprang to the ground.

  Bent backward and twisted into the attitude of a contortionist, thelittle figure in the crimson bathing suit was a thing at which tomarvel. No human being could maintain that position without falling,yet the girl did not fall to the jagged stones that lay beneath her.She was rigid, straining. Then suddenly her arm waved wildly and shescreamed, a wild gasping cry that died in her throat on a note ofdespairing terror. It seemed that she struggled furiously with anunseen power for one horrible instant. Then the tortured body lurchedviolently and collapsed in a pitiful quivering heap among the stones.

  Eddie Vail was running now, miraculously picking his way over thetreacherous footing. The girl had fainted, no doubt of that, andsomething was seriously wrong with her.

  A mysterious mechanical something whizzed past; something that buzzedlike a thousand hornets and slithered over the rocks in a series ofmetallic clanks. Then it was gone--or so it seemed in the confusion ofEddie's mind; but he had seen nothing. Probably a fantasy of hisoverworked brain, or only the surf breaking against the sea wall. Heturned his attention to the girl.

  * * * * *

  She was moaning and tossing her head, returning painfully toconsciousness. He straightened her limbs and placed his folded coatunder the restless head, noting with alarm that vicious red weltsmarred the whiteness of her arms and shoulders. It was as if she hadbeen beaten cruelly; those marks could never have resulted from herfall. Poor kid. Subject to fits of some sort, he presumed. She was agood looker, too, and no mistake. He smoothed back the rumpled mass ofgolden hair and studied her features. They were vaguely familiar.

  Then she opened her eyes. Stark terror looked out from theirultra-marine depths, and her lips quivered as if she were about tocry. He raised her to a more comfortable position and supported herwith an encircling arm. She did cry a little, like a frightened child.Then, with startling abruptness, she sprang to her feet.

  "Where is it?" she demanded.

  "Where's what?" Eddie was on his feet, peering in all directions. Heremembered the queer sounds he had heard or imagined.

  "I--I don't know." The girl passed a trembling hand before her eyes asif to wipe away some horrifying vision. "Perhaps it's my imagination,but I felt--it was just as real--one of father's iron monsters.Beating me; bending me. I'd have snapped in a moment. But nothing wasthere. I--I'm afraid...."

  Eddie caught her as she swayed on her feet. "There now," he saidsoothingly, "you're all right, Miss Shelton. It's gone now, whateverit was." Iron monsters! In a flash it had come to him that this girlhe held in his arms was Lina Shelton, daughter of the robot wizard. Nowonder she was afflicted with hallucinations! But those bruises werereal, as was the forcible twisting of her lithe young body. And he_had_ heard something.

  * * * * *

  "You know me?" The girl was calmer now and faced him with a surprisedlook.

  "Yes, Miss Shelton. At least I recognize you from the pictures.Society page, you know. And I'm Edward Vail--Eddie for short--onvacation and at your service."

  The girl smiled wanly. "You know of father's break with UniversalElectric? Of his private experiments?"

  "I heard of the scrap and of how he walked out on the outfit, butnothing further." Eddie thought grimly of how nearly he had come tolosing his own job when David Shelton broke relations with hisemployers. He had been too enthusiastic in support of some of theolder man's claims.

  "It's been terrible," the girl whispered. She clung nervously to hisarm as he picked the way back to the road. "The loneliness, and all.No servants will stay out here now, and father spends all of his timein the laboratory. Then--this fear of the mechanical men--they hauntme. I--I guess they've got me a little goofy."

  Eddie laughed reassuringly. "Perhaps," he suggested, "you will let mehelp you. Your father, I believe, will remember me, and I'll be veryglad to--"

  "No, no!" The girl seemed frightened at the thought. "I'm sure hewouldn't welcome you. He's changed greatly of late and is suspiciousof everyone, even keeping things from me. But it's awfully nice of youto offer your assistance, and you've been a perfect peach to take careof me this way. I--I'd better go now."

  They had reached the road and Eddie looked uncertainly at hisroadster. He hated to think of leaving the girl in this lonely spot.She was obviously in a state of extreme nervous tension and, to him,seemed pathetically helpless, and afraid.

  "That the house?" he asked, pointing in the direction of the gloomyold mansion whose dilapidated gables were barely visible over the treetops.

  "Yes." The girl shivered and drew closer to him.

  The ensuing silence was broken by the slam of a door. His car! Eddielooked toward it in amazement; he was hearing things again. Thesprings sagged on the driver's side as under the weight of a veryheavy occupant, but the seat was empty. Then came the whine of thestarter and the motor purred into life. The gears clashed sickeninglyand the car was jerked into the road with a violence that should havestripped the differential. He pulled the girl aside just as it roaredpast and disappeared around the bend in a cloud of dust. The sound ofthe exhaust died away rapidly and left them staring into each other'seyes in awed silence.

  * * * * *

  David Shelton was prowling around in the shrubbery when theyapproached the house--a furtive, unkempt creature whom Eddie wouldhardly have recognized. He straightened up and peered at hisdaughter's companion with obvious disapproval.

  "Lina," he said severely, "I've told you we want no visitors."

  "Yes, Dad, I know, but Mr. Vail's car was stolen out in front andthere is no way for him to go on. We must look after him."

  "His car--stolen? Who stole it?" David Shelton drew close and glaredsuspiciously at his unwelcome visitor.

  "One of your monsters, I think," she replied shakily, "though we couldsee nothing. And the same thing attacked me and beat me. Look at mybruises!"

  Shelton was examining the marks, and his fingers trembled as hetouched his daughter's shoulder. He looked piteously into her eyes."Are you sure, Lina? Sure? Did you see it?"

  "No, no. But I felt and heard--the iron arms and the clamps and thebuzzing. Oh, it was horrible!" The girl's voice rose hysterically.

  "Oh, Lord! What have I done?" groaned Shelton. "It's true, then. Lina,listen: I've succeeded in making them invisible, and one got away thismorning. But I thought--I thought--" He looked at Eddie, rememberinghis presence suddenly. "But I'm talking too much. It seems to me Iremember having seen you before, young man."

  "You have, sir," Eddie stated. "In the research laboratory ofUniversal Electric. I work with Borden."

  "They've sent you to find me?" Shelton stiffened perceptibly.

  "Indeed, not, sir. I'm on vacation and was merely passing by when Isaw your daughter in danger, a danger I still do not understand."

  "Yes, and he helped me to the road," Lina interposed, "and then losthis car at the hands of--"

  "Silence!" the father thundered. But his eyes fell before the firethat instantly flashed in those of the girl.

  "Now, you listen to me!" she returned angrily, "I've stayed on herewith you until I'm nearly crazy with your everlasting puttering andexperimenting--hearing your uncanny machines walking around in t
hemiddle of the night--seeing impossible sights--then, this thing Icouldn't see but could feel. And you've gotten into such a state thatyou'll go crazy yourself, if you continue. Something's got to be done,I tell you. I can't stand it!"

  * * * * *

  Her voice broke on a choked sob.

  "But Lina--"

  "Don't but me, Father. I mean it. Mr. Vail discovered your hideoutquite by accident and he's been very nice to me. I tell you he meansno harm and I want him to stay. If you're not decent to him, if yousend him away, I swear I'll go too. I will--I will!"

  Shelton's eyes misted and something of the hardness left hisexpression. A look of haunting fear took its place and he staredpleadingly at Eddie.

  "Br-r! I'm cold!" Lina exclaimed irrelevantly. "And--and I believe I'mgoing to cry." She turned away and raced for the shelter of the gloomyold house without another word.

  Eddie turned inquiring eyes on his unwilling host.

  "Just like her mother before her," Shelton muttered softly. Then hefaced the younger man squarely and his shoulders straightened. "Mr.Vail," he said sheepishly, "I've been a fool and I ask your pardon.But Lina doesn't know. There's something tremendous behind all this,something that's gotten beyond me. I'll send her away for her ownsafety, but I must stay on. If--if only there was someone I couldtrust--"

  "You can trust me, sir," Eddie stated simply.

  The older man paced the ground nervously, and Eddie could see that hewas under a most severe mental strain. Several times he halted in histracks and peered anxiously at his guest. Then he seemed to make asudden decision.

  "Vail," he said sharply, "I need help badly. I want you to stay, ifyou will. You swear you'll not reveal what I am about to show you?"

  "I swear it, sir."

  "You'll not report to Universal?"

  "Never."

  * * * * *

  They surveyed each other appraisingly. Eddie was mystified by thehappenings of the day and was curious to learn more concerning thesemythical invisible creations. It was inconceivable that the scientisthad spoken truly of his accomplishment. Yet, he had done somemarvelous things with Universal and, maybe--well, anyway, there wasthe girl.

  "Come with me," Shelton was saying: "I believe you're a squareshooter, Vail." He was leading the way along the gravel path at theside of the house. Before them loomed the squat brick building thatwas the laboratory.

  The door crashed open before Shelton's hand had reached the knob, andone of those buzzing, unseen, monstrosities rushed clanking by,knocking the scientist from his feet in its passage. Ponderous,speeding footsteps crunched the gravel of the path, and then, with awild thrashing of the underbrush alongside, the thing was gone.

  Eddie bent over the prostrate man and saw that he was unconscious. Athin trickle of blood ran from a cut in the side of his head.

  "Lina! Lina!" called Eddie frantically. For the first time in his lifehe was genuinely frightened.

  * * * * *

  He half carried, half dragged the limp body through the door of thelaboratory and propped it in a chair. It required but a moment for himto see that Shelton's injury was inconsequential. He had only beenstunned and already showed signs of recovering.

  "What is it, Mr. Vail? What's happened?" came the voice of LinaShelton breathlessly. She was framed in the doorway, dressed now andpanting from her exertions in responding to his call. "Oh, it'sfather," she wailed, dropping to her knees at his side. "He's beenhurt. Badly, too."

  "No, not badly, Miss Shelton. He'll be around in a minute. I'm sorryto have excited you, but when I called I feared it was worse than itis." He was washing the blood from her father's small wound as hespoke.

  She took the basin from his hand, spilling some of the water in hereagerness. "Here, let me have that cloth," she demanded.

  Eddie admired her as her deft fingers took up the task. She was asexquisite in a simple sport outfit as she had been in her bathingsuit.

  The scientist opened his eyes after a moment. Remembrance came at onceand he sat erect in the chair, staring.

  "Lina!" he exclaimed, grasping her hand conclusively. "You're here,thank God! I dreamed--oh, it was horrible--I dreamed they had you." Heclung to her closely.

  "They?" she murmured inquiringly.

  "Yes. Two of them are loose now. It's danger for you, my dear. Youmust leave at once. No, no--I can't let you out of my sight until theyare captured or destroyed." He rose to his feet in his agitation andshook his head to clear it. He looked pleadingly at Eddie as ifexpecting him to offer a solution of the difficulty.

  "Vail!" he exploded, then, pointing a shaking forefinger at anelaborate short-wave radio transmitter which occupied a corner of thelarge room. "I ask you to bear witness. That is the source of energyfor these creations of mine and it's shut down. How on earth can theykeep going? I ask you."

  "Perhaps someone else, sir," Eddie suggested doubtfully. "Have you anyenemies who might be able to duplicate the impulses of thatapparatus?"

  "Bah! Enemies, yes--with Universal--but none who could duplicate thecomplicated frequencies I use. My secrets are my own. I've never evenput them on paper."

  * * * * *

  Eddie was examining the intricate apparatus. "You knew of the firstone's escape, didn't you?" he asked. "How did it happen?"

  Shelton again became the enthusiastic scientist. "Here," he said,"I'll show you and you can judge for yourself." He strode to thegleaming figure of a seven-foot robot of startlingly human-likeappearance.

  Lina let forth an exclamation of repugnance and fear.

  "No, Mr. Shelton," Eddie objected. "The same thing will occur again.Then there will be three."

  "We'll fix that, my boy." The scientist was removing cover plates fromthe hip joints of the mechanical man. "I'll disconnect the cables thatfeed the locomotors. He _can't_ walk then."

  Eddie was still doubtful but dared offer no further objection,especially since Lina Shelton was watching in wide-eyed silence. Heexamined the monster and saw that it was quite similar in outsideappearance to those supplied by Universal for heavy manual labor,excepting that this one was armed as were those used for prisonguards. There were the same articulated limbs and the various clampsand hooks for lifting and heavy hauling; the tentacles for grasping;machine guns front and back. Under the helical headpiece that was theantenna this robot seemed to have two eyes--a new feature--but closerexamination showed these to be the twin lenses of a stereoscopicmotion picture camera. This robot, then, could see. Or at least itcould record what the lenses saw for its masters.

  "There," Shelton grunted when he had finished his tinkering, "he'sparalyzed from the waist down. Let this one try and get away from us."

  "Guns aren't loaded, are they?" Eddie asked.

  "Lord, no! Never have any of them loaded. That _would_ be a foolstunt." Shelton had pulled the starting handle of a motor-generatorand its rising whine accompanied his words.

  * * * * *

  The vacuum tubes of the transmitter glowed into life and the scientistmanipulated the controls rapidly. Lina was watching the robot withfascinated awe. Its arms moved in obedience to the controls, tentacleswaved and coiled; the humming of its internal mechanisms filled theroom. The locomotion controls had no effect, as the scientist hadpredicted. Eddie drew a sigh of relief.

  "Now, Vail, watch," Shelton exulted. "I'll show you what I was doingwith the first one." He closed a switch that lighted another bank ofvacuum tubes behind the control panel.

  "You can make this one invisible?" Eddie asked incredulously.

  "Certainly--from the waist up. This ought to be good."

  "Mind telling me the principle?"

  "Not at all--now. I've your promise of secrecy. It's a simple matter,Vail, really. Just a problem of wave motions--light. Invisible light;the ultra-violet, you know. My robots are built of specially alloyedmetals which permit great freedom of mol
ecular vibration. Theinsulating materials and even the glass of the camera lenses arepossessed of the same property. Get it? I merely set up a wave motionin the atoms of the material that is in synchronism with the frequencyof ultra-violet light, which is invisible to the human eye. Allvisible colors are absorbed, or more accurately, none are reflectedexcepting the ultra-violet. Perfect transparency is obtained sincethere is neither refraction nor diffraction of the visible colors. Andthere you are!"

  Eddie stared at the upper half of the robot and saw that it waschanging color as Shelton tuned the transmitted wave. Then suddenly itwas gone. The entire upper portion of the mechanism had vanished; hadjust snuffed out like the flame of a candle. He could see down intothe tops of the thing's hollow legs. Shelton laughed at him as hestretched forth his hand and hesitatingly felt for the invisiblemid-section and upper body. It was there all right, unyielding andcold, that metal body. But no trace of it was visible to the eye. Hedrew back his fingers as if they had touched a hot stove. The thingwas positively uncanny.

  "Dad! Turn it off--please," Lina begged. "It's getting on my nerves.Please!"

  Obligingly, Shelton pulled the switch. "Now you'll see," he said toEddie, "whether the same thing happens. Watch."

  * * * * *

  Mistily at first, the outlines of the monster's torso and arms cameinto view, semi-transparent but clouding rapidly to opacity. Then itglinted with the barely visible violet, a solid once more, rigid andmotionless. It was a lifeless mechanism, for the source of its energyhad been cut off. Eddie had an almost irresistible impulse to pinchhimself.

  Then he gasped audibly, as did Shelton, for the thing snuffed out ofsight again without warning, and the hum of its many motors resumed.There came a terrific clanking as it waved arms and tentacles andviolently threshed with its upper body. But the visible portion, itslegs, remained rooted to the floor of the laboratory. Lucky it wasthat the scientist had disconnected those wires; lucky too that themachine guns were empty of ammunition.

  "There now--see?" Shelton's voice rose excitedly. "It's been no faultof mine. The power is off but it moves--it moves. What on earth do yousuppose--"

  Eddie's shout interrupted him. He had seen something at the window: aface pressed against the pane and contorted with unutterable malice.Then it was gone. With the shout of warning still in his throat, Eddiebounded through the door in pursuit of the intruder. Lina's cry ofrecognition followed him into the twilight. "Carlos!" she had called.

  He saw a stocky figure slink around the corner of the laboratory andmake for the underbrush beyond. In a flash he was after him. No, hethought grimly, Shelton hadn't any enemy clever enough to duplicatehis transmitter! The hell he didn't! Who the devil was this fellowCarlos anyway? He tore savagely at the impeding branches as he plungeddeeper and deeper into the thicket.

  * * * * *

  It was a fruitless chase and Eddie soon retraced his steps to thelaboratory. Swell mess he'd gotten himself into! His car was gone:probably wrapped around a tree by this time. And here was a situationthat spelled real danger, a thing with which Shelton was utterlyunable to cope. As a matter of fact, he was so impractical--such avisionary cuss, after the fashion of all geniuses--that he'd never beconvinced of the seriousness of the matter until it was too late. Whatto do? The girl was a corker, though, and game as they made 'em. Justthe sort a fellow could tie to....

  Lina's firm clear voice came to him through the open door of thelaboratory. "Dad," she was saying, "why don't you give it up? Let's goback to New York where it is safe for you and for me. Let the thingsgo and forget about them. What do they amount to, after all? We'veplenty of money and you already have earned enough fame to last therest of your life. Come on now--please--for me."

  "What do they amount to?" Shelton reiterated, his voice risingquerulously. "Lina, it's the most tremendous thing I've ever done.Think for a moment of what my robots could accomplish in the next war.And there'll be a next war as sure as you're alive. Think of it! Nosending of our young manhood into the bloody fields of battle; nomanning of our air fleets with the cream of our youth; no bloodshed onour side whatsoever. Instead, these robots will fight the war. They'llfight other robots too, no doubt, but the property of invisibilitywill be an invincible weapon. It will be a war that will end war onceand for all. You can't--"

  "Nonsense, Father," the girl returned sharply. "You've let yourenthusiasm run away with your judgment. See what's happenedalready?--someone's figured it out before you've even perfected thething. An enemy of our country could do the same in wartime. Maybeit's a foreign spy who has done what's been done to-day."

  * * * * *

  Eddie walked into the laboratory. "Couldn't find him," he announcedbriefly.

  "No difference," said Shelton. "He doesn't count in this. We called toyou when you rushed out, but couldn't make you hear."

  "Who is he?" Eddie asked shortly. What he had overheard made him morethan ever impatient with the older man. So clever and yet so dense,Shelton was.

  Lina avoided his gaze.

  "Only Carlos--Carlos Savarino," said Shelton, carelessly, "a Chilean,I think. He worked for me for two months during the summer and I firedhim for getting fresh with Lina. Good mechanic, but dumb as an ox. Hadto tell him every little detail when he was doing something in theshop. I'd have saved time if I'd done it myself."

  The girl looked at Eddie squarely now. She was flushing hotly. "And Ihorsewhipped him," she added.

  "Yes," Shelton laughed; "it was rich. He sneaked away like a whippedpuppy, and this is the first time we've seen him since."

  Eddie whistled. "And you think he doesn't count in this?" he asked.

  "Of course not. Too dumb, I tell you. Doesn't know the firstprinciples of science. He thinks the only wave motion is that of theocean." Shelton chuckled over his own jest.

  "I wouldn't be too sure," Eddie snapped. "And I want to tell yousomething, Mr. Shelton. Through no fault of my own, I heard some ofyour conversation with Li--with your daughter, before I returned here.I was puzzled over your reasons for working so absorbedly on thisthing, but now I know them and I think you're wasting your time andkeeping your daughter in needless danger."

  "You dare talk to me like this!" Shelton roared.

  "I do, sir, and you'll thank me later." Eddie returned the older man'sglare with one equally savage.

  Lina's gurgle of laughter broke the tension. "He's right, Dad, and youknow it," she interposed. "Let him finish."

  Eddie needed no such encouragement, though it warmed his heart. AndShelton listened respectfully when he continued, "I'm into this now,sir, and I intend to see it through to the end. I'll keep your secret,too, though I doubt if it'll ever be of much value to you. Know what Ithink? I think this Carlos is a damn clever fellow instead of the assyou took him to be. He probably just pretended he was ignorant ofscience. Why shouldn't he? That way he got a liberal education fromyou in the very things he wanted to find out. Since you tied the canto him he's had plenty of chances to build a duplicate of your controlapparatus--with the aid of some foreign government, no doubt--and nowthey've stolen two of your machines to complete the job. Your secretalready is out and in the very hands you've tried to keep it from."

  * * * * *

  Shelton paled visibly as Eddie talked. "But--but how--" he stammered.

  "How should I know how they did it?" the younger man countered."Here--let's take a look around. I'll bet they've left their trailright here in this room."

  He walked from one end of the laboratory to the other, peering intocorners and under work benches as he passed. Shelton trailed him likea shadow, squinting through the square lenses of his spectacles.

  They carefully avoided the partially invisible robot, for the hummingof its upper motors continued and clanking sounds occasionally issuedfrom the unseen upper portion. The enemies of David Shelton were stillat work on their hidden controls.

  "Here
--what's this?" Eddie exclaimed suddenly, pointing out a glintingobject in a dark corner of the laboratory.

  Shelton examined it closely, looking over his shoulder. The object hehad located seemed to be a mounted and hooded lens, a highly polishedglass of about two inches diameter with its mounting attached rigidlyto the wall.

  "Never saw that before," Shelton stated with conviction. "And--why--itlooks like an objective such as those used in the latest automatictelevision transmitters."

  "Just what it is," Eddie grunted. He picked up a pinch bar from anearby tool rack and drove its end through the glass as he spoke thewords.

  A violent wrench tore the thing loose and broke away a section of thethin plastered wall. There, in the cleverly concealed cavity behind,was revealed the mechanism of the radio "eye." Somewhere, someone badbeen watching their every move. And abruptly the thrashings of therobot ceased and its upper portion again became visible.

  * * * * *

  "Well," said David Shelton. "Well! Looks as if you're right, youngman. I'm astonished." His watery eyes looked sheepishly over the rimsof his glasses.

  Lina watched their every move. She seemed to sense the seriousness ofthe situation far more than did her father.

  Then the lights went out. It had darkened to night outside and theblackness and silence in the laboratory was like that of a tomb.

  "They've cut the wires," Eddie whispered hoarsely. "Got any weaponshere, Shelton?"

  "Yes. A couple of automatics. I'll get them." The scientist was nocoward, anyway. His whispered words came calmly through the silence.

  Eddie heard him shuffle a few steps and fumble with a drawer of thedesk. In a moment the cold hard butt of a pistol was thrust into hishand. It had a comforting feel.

  "Stay here with Lina," he commanded. "I'll go out and see if I canfind them. This looks nasty to me."

  "No," came the girl's voice, "I'm going too."

  "You are not," Eddie hissed. "You'll stay here or I'll know thereason. It's dark as a pocket outside and my eyes are as good astheirs. I'll get 'em if they're around here. You hear me?"

  "Yes," she whispered meekly.

  Edward Vail, only that morning headed for rest and quiet, was now outin the night, stalking an unknown and vicious enemy. And--for what? Ashe asked himself the question, the smile of Lina seemed to answer himfrom the blackness. Cherchez la femme! He was getting dotty as heneared his thirties. Maybe it was the hard work that had affected hismind.

  * * * * *

  The black hulk of the old house loomed against the scarcely less darksky. There was no moon, and in only one tiny portion of the heavenswere the stars visible. Mighty few of them at that. The swish-swish ofthe surf came to his ears faintly. Or was it someone creeping alongthe wall of the house? He held his breath and waited.

  They wouldn't use the robots at night. Couldn't follow their movementsin the teleview, if such an attachment had been built into theircontrol transmitter. No, the devils would be here in person.

  A muttered Teutonic curse sounded close at hand. That wouldn't beCarlos. God! Were the heinies mixed up in this thing? Just like 'em tobe swiping a new war machine; but hadn't they gotten enough in 1944?Without warning he was catapulted from his feet by the impact of aheavy body. He struck the ground so violently that the pistol wasjarred from his hand. Disarmed before the fight had started!

  Then he was rolling over and over, battling desperately with anassailant who was much larger and heavier than himself. He was dazedand weakened from his initial dive to the hard ground. All rules ofboxing and wrestling were forgotten. Biting, kicking, gouging, allwere the same to this silent and powerful antagonist. It wascatch-as-catch-can in the darkness, and mostly the other fellow couldand did. He had a grip like the clamp of a robot. Trying to dig outone of his eyes? Eddie saw stars--and lashed out with all his might,his flying fists playing a tattoo on the others ribs. Short arm jabsthat brought grunts of agony from his big assailant. Try to blind him,would he?

  Eddie somehow managed to get on top; his clutching fingers found theother's collar. Then he let loose with terrific rights and lefts thatsmacked home to head and face. Those outlanders don't like the goodold American fist, and Eddie had room to bring them in from way back,now. The fellow had ceased struggling and Eddie's hands were gettingslippery. Blood! Must be, for the stuff was warm and sticky. He restedfor a moment, breathing heavily. The other was quiet beneathhim--knocked cold. He staggered to his feet triumphantly; wondered howmany more of them there were.

  * * * * *

  He looked around in the darkness, straining his eyes in vain to pierceits thick veil. There was a glimmer of light over there, through awindow. The laboratory! The light flickered a second and vanished. Acold fear gripped him and he stumbled through the grounds blindly,finally colliding painfully with the brick wall. He felt his waytoward the door, or where he thought it should be.

  He dared not call out for fear the others would hear. Where was thatdamned door? He rested again and listened. Not a sound was to beheard from within or without. He clawed his way frantically along theunsympathetic wall. It was a mile wide, that laboratory of Shelton's.Ah--at last! Weakly, he staggered within.

  "Lina!" he whispered, "Lina! Shelton!"

  There was no reply. He fumbled for a match. Funny how slowly his mindworked ... thoughts coming jerkily like a sound film running at quarterspeed ... fingers shaking so he could scarcely strike a light. The flareshowed the laboratory empty of human beings ... Lina gone ... that crazyrobot ... quiet now, and visible ... but grinning at him ... thendarkness....

  * * * * *

  What a headache! Eddie rolled over and groaned. Astounded by thehardness of his bed and the stiffness of his joints, he roused toinstant wakefulness; sat up and stared. Where the devil was he? Thelaboratory--Shelton's--Lina. He jumped to his feet. Dawn was breakingand its first faint radiance lighted the robot with eery shiftingcolors. He berated himself: he'd passed out.

  He dashed through the door and made a wild circuit of the grounds.Empty! No--there was his automatic, where it had fallen. Blood stainson the grass showed where the encounter had taken place last night.Must have smashed the Dutchman's nose. But he was gone. Everybody wasgone. He rushed into the house and from room to room, upstairs anddown. The place was deserted.

  This was something to think about. Not an automobile around, noneighbors, not even a telephone. When Shelton went into seclusion, hedid it thoroughly. Eddie returned to the laboratory and hunchedhimself in the scientist's chair. Maybe he could think better here.

  They had Shelton and his daughter, all right. Kidnapped them. Therewas probably some detail of his discovery they couldn't dope out, andhad decided to force him into telling them. The devils would useLina's safety as a threat to force him into anything. Horrible, thatthought. And Carlos already had made advances to her.

  Startled by a sharp click, he turned around. The robot was whirringinto life. Fast workers, whoever Shelton's enemies were, and up early!He found the pinch bar with which he had wrecked the televisionapparatus and, with a few mighty blows, destroyed the antenna andheadpiece of the mechanical man. They'd not pull off any devilmentwith this one, anyway.

  A wave meter on one of the benches attracted his attention and hetwirled its knob. It gave strong indication at one and a half meters.The wave length of their control transmitter! If only he couldfind--but there it was: a direction finder. Hastily, he lighted itstubes and tuned to the frequency shown by the meter. He rotated theloop over the compass dial and carefully noted maximum and minimumsignals. He had a line on the transmitter! And it must be close by,for the intensity of the carrier wave was tremendous.

  * * * * *

  Slipping the automatic into his pocket, he left the laboratory andstruck out through the underbrush in the direction Carlos had takenthe day before. Fighting his way through the tangled shrubbery, heke
pt his eyes constantly on the needle of the magnetic compass he hadwrenched from the direction finder. It was tough going through thethicket, and just as bad across a swampy clearing where he was miredto the knees before he got across. Up the hill and into the woods heforged, keeping doggedly to the direction he had determined. This wasrough country, less than a hundred miles from New York butuncultivated and unsettled excepting for the few summer places alongthe shore. He'd heard that these backwoods were infested withrum-runners and hijackers, a cutthroat gang.

  There was a cabin off there through the trees, almost on the line hewas following. Must be what he was looking for. He advancedcautiously, creeping stealthily from tree to tree.

  Voices came to his ears, and the throb of a motor-generator. It wasthe place, all right. He crept closer, and, circling the house, sawthat an almost impassable road led to it from the rear. A heavylimousine was parked there in the trees, and another car, a yellowroadster--his own. A feeling of grim satisfaction was quicklydispelled by the sound of a familiar humming. Within a foot of hisear, it seemed to be, and instinctively he ducked.

  Click! A powerful clamp had fastened itself to his wrist. One ofShelton's invisible robots! He struck blindly at the unseen monsterand was rewarded by a shooting pain up his wrist as one of hisknuckles was driven backward by the impact with the hard metal. Bandsof writhing metal encompassed his body, pinning his arms to his sideand lifting him bodily from the ground. There he hung, kicking andstruggling in mid-air, supported by nothing he could see. He closedhis eyes and felt of the thing that held him. Cold, hard metal itwas--implacable and unyielding.

  Clank, clank. The monster was walking with long, jerky strides. Thepressure against his ribs brought a gasp of agony from his lips. Eachjarring step was an individual and excruciating torture. His breathwas cut off by the relentless constriction of one of the tentacleswhich now encircled his neck. It wouldn't be long now.

  * * * * *

  Then, when everything had turned black and he had given up hope, hewas dumped unceremoniously on the hard floor of the cabin. A harshlaugh greeted him as he struggled weakly to his knees.

  "Thought you could put one over on Al Cadorna, did you?" a voicerasped.

  The room spun round as he tried to regain his feet. A mist swambefore his eyes. Al Cadorna! The most picturesque figure in gangland.Credited with a dozen killings and with ill-gotten wealth untold, thisleader of the underworld openly boasted that the police had nevergotten anything on him. And they hadn't. So it was a criminal who hadlaid hands on Shelton's robots, not a foreign spy. Worse and worse. Hethought of what they might be able to do with these invisiblemechanical things: make gunmen out of them; safe blowers; housebreakers. Why, society would be at their mercy; banks defenceless; themints, even--

  "Stand up on your pins, you worm! Let's have a look at you!" Themuzzle of an automatic was thrust in his abdomen, proddinginsistently. Things stabilized in the room and he looked up into thecruelest face he had ever seen, and recognizable from the manypictures which had appeared in the yellow press.

  Eddie took in the surroundings at a glance. He was in a low-ceilingedroom that was almost unfurnished. In one corner there was a replica ofShelton's robot control, teleview disc and all. Carlos had just pulledthe switch and the robot was taking visible form. The man who proddedhim with the automatic was Cadorna, no doubt of that. His evil leerand yellow eyes marked him at once. The other occupant of the room wasa big square-built man with a patch over one eye and strips ofadhesive tape across his nose--his antagonist of the night before.Must have sneaked off after he came to; it was safer to send one ofthe robots after the _verdammt Amerikaner_. Eddie restrained a chuckleat the thought.

  "Nothing to laugh at, kid!" Cadorna snarled. "You're goin' for a nicelong ride pretty quick. Know that?"

  Eddie's head was clearing rapidly, but he pretended to sway on hisfeet. Lina and her father were not in sight. If only he could spar fora little time.

  "What's the idea?" he asked. "Haven't you guys got enough?"

  "That's our business. We know what we're doin', and when you butted inyou just signed your own papers. Dead men don't talk, you know, kid!"

  * * * * *

  There was a door at the other side of the room. If only he could seewhether Lina was in there; whether she was alive.

  "Tie him up, Gus!" Cadorna kept the pistol pressed into the pit ofEddie's stomach as he gave the order. "Hands and feet--and make it agood job, you wiener."

  Eddie shouted then. "Lina!" Resistance was useless, but it would givehim some satisfaction to know she still lived even though Cadornapulled that trigger in the next instant. No reply came from beyondthat door.

  "So!" Cadorna grinned maliciously. "Another victim! Carlos first, thenyou, and now--Al Cadorna. If you're worrying about her, kid, youneedn't. She'll be perfectly safe with me."

  Eddie's roar of rage shook the rafters. Heedless of consequences, hebrought his knee up suddenly and violently. Cadorna sank to the floorwith a groan, his pistol clattering harmlessly on the rough planks. Ina flash Eddie retrieved it, dropping behind the prostrate form of thestricken gangster. Gus had fired and missed. Now he dared not shootfor fear of hitting his chief. Eddie's gun spat fire and the bigGerman clapped his hands over his heart, his good eye widening insurprise. Then he reeled and pitched forward on his face. A femininecry sounded from the adjoining room and Eddie's heart skipped a beatwhen he heard it.

  Carlos was padding across the floor, trying to get into a positionwhere he could fire without endangering Cadorna. Eddie swung hispistol around and pulled the trigger. A miss! He fired again, but toolate. Fingers of steel had gripped his wrist and the king of ganglandrolled over on him, twisting the gun from his hand. Clubbed now, thepistol was raised high over that distorted, malicious face. Eddietried to twist away from under the blow as it started its downwardswing, then a thousand steam hammers hit him all at once and ...blackness....

  * * * * *

  Something was pounding insistently at the doors of his consciousness.He must pull himself together! They'd left him for dead and hewas--almost. But voices as loud and raucous as those would waken thedead. He groaned with pain when he attempted to move his head.

  "That for you, you rat." It was Cadorna's voice. "Try to take mywoman, will you?"

  The pounding resolved itself into the angry barking of an automatic.Someone squealed with mortal agony. Eddie opened his eyes cautiouslyand saw that the room was full of people. The pungent odor of burnedpowder assailed his nostrils. There was Cadorna and Carlos, DavidShelton and Lina. An undersized, dapper youth stood over the body ofthe big German, his hands outstretched before his horror-strickenface. A moment he stood thus, like a statue. Then his knees gave waybeneath him and he crumpled into a grotesque heap beside the man whohad been called Gus. Such was the manner of Cadorna's dealing withthose who displeased him.

  The door to the adjoining room was open. Lina and her father had beenkept in there, with the little thug as their guard. Evidently Cadornahad caught him trying to force his attentions on the girl. Good thinghe'd killed him.

  Lina was sobbing and the sound brought increased agony to the helplessEddie. He lay still where they had placed him, beside the table whichsupported the robot control apparatus. His cheek was against the floorand he saw that a little pool of blood was forming there, blood drawnby the butt of Cadorna's pistol when it contacted with his skull. Hewas bound hand and foot. They hadn't thought him dead, after all.Keeping him for that ride and a watery grave. Couldn't afford to leavehis body around where it might be found.

  "What are you going to do with us?" Shelton was asking, his voicebravely defiant. Game old sport at that, he was.

  "Don't fret over your daughter. Al Cadorna's her protector now, andshe'll be taken care of better'n she's ever been. But you--that'ssomethin' else again. First off, you're goin' to give Carlos the dopeon these trick metals in your machines. He couldn't anal
yze 'em, orwhatever you call it. Then you're goin' to have a nice long ride withyour friend over there."

  "You'll go to the chair for this, Cadorna. And I'll never tell you thesecret of the alloys."

  "Tell him, Dad," Lina was crying. "He'll let us go if you do."

  "The hell I will, girlie. What I said, goes. We'll make him talkfirst, too," Cadorna snarled.

  "Never!" Shelton shouted.

  * * * * *

  Lina had seen Eddie and, with a little cry, she bounded across theroom. Carlos was after her like a panther.

  "Hands off that dame!" Cadorna yelled. "Let her cry over the boyfriend if she wants to. Won't do her any good. You get busy and setone of the tin soldiers goin'. Make the old buzzard talk."

  Carlos muttered sullenly as he started the motor-generator. Give him achance and he'd knife Cadorna in the back--for Lina.

  The girl was kneeling at Eddie's side now, examining his bleedingscalp. He opened one eye and gazed at her solemnly, pursing his lipsin a warning to silence. She caught her breath and nodded inunderstanding.

  Cadorna was shouting like a madman. "Keep the damn thing so I can seeit, you spig! They make me bug-house when you blink 'em off. Besides,I don't trust you."

  The bold Cadorna was afraid of something he couldn't see! An ideaflashed across Eddie's quickening mind. But he was helpless--bound sotightly that the cords cut his wrists.

  One of the robots was clanking across the room. Lina looked up inmomentary terror and Eddie saw her eyes stray over the table top whereCarlos was working.

  "Want to grab the old one?" the Chilean called.

  "Yes. Pick him up and squeeze him till his ribs crack. He'll talk."

  Lina let a little moan escape her lips. Eddie was watching as the ironmonster approached the scientist and flung its tentacles around hismadly struggling form. Lina was fussing with him, trying to turn himover. Cadorna's back was to them, his face thrust into that ofShelton, who was fighting desperately to avoid the crushing grip ofthe robot.

  "Give him a squeeze, Carlos."

  * * * * *

  Shelton's yell brought another low moan from the girl's set lips. Shewas working furiously at Eddie's bonds. Lord, she had a knife! Goodgirl! Must have found it on the table. His hands were free and hewriggled his fingers to bring them to life. Then his feet. He was ableto move. Lina whispered in his ear.

  "All right?" she asked anxiously.

  "Yes," he whispered. Somehow their lips touched and Eddie felt hisheart pound at his temples. New life came to him with a rush ofexaltation.

  Shelton was crying out in pain and Lina sprang to her feet. "Youbeast!" she shouted at Cadorna. "Let him go."

  Then she was across the room, tearing at the unyielding metal bandsthat pinioned her father and slowly crushed him. Cadorna laughedmirthlessly.

  "Tell him to give me the dope," he retorted. "Then I'll let himgo--for a while."

  Shelton's head hung on his chest, rolling weakly from side to side.Eddie doubted whether he could speak if he wished to. The Chilean wasworking at the controls, increasing the tension of those terribletentacles. Eddie raised himself to his knees, watching Cadornanarrowly. He fingered the knife Lina had used in freeing him. No, hecouldn't use that. The Chilean would cry out and queer everything. Helaid it on the floor, within easy reach.

  Cadorna was cursing now, first Shelton and then the girl. His rage wasmaniacal. "Another notch!" he bellowed.

  Eddie rose silently and clamped his fingers on the Chilean's windpipe.Lina's eyes widened as she saw. She did everything in her power tokeep Cadorna's attention occupied as Eddie sunk those fingers intoCarlos' throat. The Chilean's eyes popped from his head as hestruggled furiously to tear away the steel-sinewed hand that hadstopped off his breath. Death was staring him in the face, and hecould not cry out. His strength left suddenly as the fingers dug indeeper, and Eddie shook him as he would a rat. In a surprisingly shorttime he had slumped to the floor, and not until his squirmings ceaseddid Eddie loose that awful grip.

  "Another notch, you spiggoty!"

  * * * * *

  Eddie bent over the controls. Lina's pleadings mingled with the cursesof Cadorna. She was cajoling now--telling the brute she'd go with himgladly if only he'd free her father; promising anything, everything,in the desperate attempt to keep him from discovering that his lasthenchman was out of the picture. But her words served only to spurEddie to swifter action. He twirled the knobs of the dual control. Thesecond robot was fading from view. He'd give Cadorna a dose of thething he really feared. He eased off a little on the other control,releasing the pressure on poor Shelton's ribs as much as he dared.

  The position indicator of the second robot moved slightly as Eddiestarted the invisible monster toward the yelling gangster. He watchedthe screen closely. It was quite a trick, at that, controlling thesethings you couldn't see. All you had to go by were these sketchyrepresentations in the teleview; tiny flecks of light that outlinedthe various movable members of the robot.

  "Eddie!" Lina screamed suddenly. "Look out!"

  But he had seen Cadorna wheel around as he watched his image on thescreen. At that moment a tentacle was writhing its way around histhick neck. A bullet whistled past Eddie's ear and buried itselfharmlessly in the wall.

  Then from the blasphemous mouth of the king of gangland there came ashriek of awful fear. The tightening tentacle shut it off in a chokinggurgle. Cadorna was captured at last--by a monster he could not see, amonster that struck terror to his craven soul.

  It was the work of but a moment to free David Shelton from the grip ofthe other robot. The tortured man tottered into Lina's arms forsupport.

  Eddie played with Cadorna now, releasing the grip from his throat andpinioning his arms instead. With rapid fingers he manipulated thecontrols until the screaming gangster was raised high in the air bythe unseen arms of the robot.

  "Another notch, Al," he chortled.

  Cadorna yelled anew as the clamps tightened, "For God's sake, kid,quit it! Let me down. I'll do anything you say."

  "Yeah?" Eddie moved one of the rheostat knobs a trifle.

  The prince of racketeers was whimpering now, like a baby. The sharpsnap of a rib punctured his outcries.

  "Another notch," said Eddie grimly.

  But the king of the underworld had fainted.

  * * * * *

  An hour later Eddie Vail surveyed the scene complacently. Lina hadwashed the blood from his head and face and bandaged his wound.Luckily, Cardorna's blow had been a glancing one. The girl was fussingover her father, now, and the scientist was on the point of resentingher attentions; swore he could take care of himself; he wasn't a baby.Carlos and his chief were trussed up like mummies, and had beensnarling at each other ever since the Chilean recovered his senses,each blaming the other for their predicament. The robots stoodmotionless by the wall.

  This would be a big haul for the police. Plenty of evidence to sendCadorna to the chair now. The murder of Butch Collins, the undersizedthug, had been witnessed by three of them. No, four: Carlos wouldsqueal. He was that kind. There would be rejoicing in the underworldtoo, for Cadorna had many enemies. They'd be killing each other off indroves though, for the leaders of rival gangs would be battling forhis place.

  "Guess we'll have to dump them in the limousine," he remarked toShelton. "Drive them to the nearest town and turn them over to theauthorities."

  "Yes. Then they can come back for the bodies of the other two."Shelton grimaced as he contemplated the sprawled figures.

  "What about your robots?" Eddie asked.

  "Why, I'll go ahead with my original plans, of course." The scientistlooked surprised.

  "Dad!" Lina turned beseeching eyes on Eddie and his heart performedamazingly as he looked into their depths.

  "And why not?" asked her father dolefully. "They'll insure the peaceof the world. They'll--"

  "Listen, Mr. She
lton," Eddie interrupted. "If you'll think a littleyou'll realize that they'll do no such thing. Has any new and terribleengine of destruction ever accomplished that result? No--the enemyalways finds a way of combating the new weapon and of devising anotherstill more terrible. You've discovered a marvelous thing, but itsvalue is quite problematical."

  "How can they ever combat a thing they cannot see?"

  "Easily. Why, I could devise a teleview attachment in two days thatwould make them visible. Photo-electric cells are capable of detectingultra-violet light as you well know. Radium glows under its rays. Whynot coat a teleview screen with some radio-active material?"

  * * * * *

  Shelton frowned thoughtfully. "You're right. Vail," he said, after amoment of silence; "absolutely right. It was only a dream."

  With dragging feet he walked to the transmitter, his expression grimin the realization of failure. He started the motor-generator with agesture of finality.

  "What are you going to do?" Eddie asked fearfully.

  "Watch me! At least I can demonstrate another phase of the basicprinciple I have discovered."

  The motors of both robots whirred.

  "Don't!" Cadorna wailed. "For God's sake, don't blink 'em out!"

  Carlos cursed his chief for a coward.

  Shelton was talking rapidly as he manipulated the controls. Instead ofbuilding up the wave motion to the frequency of invisible light he wasreducing it. Past the other end of the spectrum and into theinfra-red. The heat ray! Both monsters were changing color as hemarched them through the door and into the open. But now they glowedwith a visible red that rapidly intensified to the dazzling whitenessof intense heat. Cadorna babbled in superstitious terror. Then, in aninstant, both mechanisms were reduced to shapeless blobs of moltenmetal. Lina clapped her hands gleefully.

  Shelton looked up with enthusiasm once more shining in his face."Vail, my boy," he said, "we can find some use for that in industry.Let the next war take care of itself."

  "You bet!" Eddie was lost in contemplation of the girl--the flush ofpleasure that came at her father's words; the shining eyes.

  "Then you'll leave the old place down here?" she asked eagerly.

  "Yes, as soon as we get rid of these crooks and the other robot. Vailis to spend the rest of his vacation with us, too--if he will."

  Would he? Eddie gazed at the girl in rapt admiration and with aninward thrill over his astounding good fortune. Her eyes droppedbefore the intensity in his and her flush heightened.

  David Shelton was wiping his glasses and peering at them with anunderstanding smile. Good sport, Shelton--and in some ways as wise asthey made them. Eddie waited breathlessly for the girl to speak.

  "Oh, that's wonderful, Dad," she approved; "and I'm sure that Mr. Vailwill agree."

  She turned those glorious eyes on Eddie once more and her inquiringsmile spoke volumes. He opened his mouth to accept the invitation butthe words would not come. He could only nod his head vigorously likean abashed schoolboy.

  Some vacation!

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