The Runaway Skyscraper

by Murray Leinster

  VII.

  Arthur stood at the window of his office and stared out toward thewest. The sun was setting, but upon what a scene!

  Where, from this same window Arthur had seen the sun setting behindthe Jersey hills, all edged with the angular roofs of factories,with their chimneys emitting columns of smoke, he now saw the samesun sinking redly behind a mass of luxuriant foliage. And wherehe was accustomed to look upon the tops of high buildings--eachentitled to the name of "skyscraper"--he now saw miles and milesof waving green branches.

  The wide Hudson flowed on placidly, all unruffled by the arrival ofthis strange monument upon its shores--the same Hudson Arthur knewas a busy thoroughfare of puffing steamers and chugging launches.Two or three small streams wandered unconcernedly across the landthat Arthur had known as the most closely built-up territory onearth. And far, far below him--Arthur had to lean well out of hiswindow to see it--stood a collection of tiny wigwams. Those smallbark structures represented the original metropolis of New York.

  His telephone rang. Van Deventer was on the wire. The exchange inthe building was still working. Van Deventer wanted Arthur to comedown to his private office. There were still a great many things tobe settled--the arrangements for commandeering offices for sleepingquarters for the women, and numberless other details. The men whoseemed to have best kept their heads were gathering there to settleupon a course of action.

  Arthur glanced out of the window again before going to theelevator. He saw a curiously compact dark cloud moving swiftlyacross the sky to the west.

  "Miss Woodward," he said sharply, "What is that?"

  Estelle came to the window and looked.

  "They are birds," she told him. "Birds flying in a group. I'veoften seen them in the country, though never as many as that."

  "How do you catch birds?" Arthur asked her. "I know about shootingthem, and so on, but we haven't guns enough to count. Could wecatch them in traps, do you think?"

  "I wouldn't be surprised," said Estelle thoughtfully. "But it wouldbe hard to catch many."

  "Come down-stairs," directed Arthur. "You know as much as any ofthe men here, and more than most, apparently. We're going to makeyou show us how to catch things."

  Estelle smiled, a trifle wanly. Arthur led the way to theelevator. In the car he noticed that she looked distressed.

  "What's the matter?" he asked. "You aren't really frightened,are you?"

  "No," she answered shakily, "but--I'm rather upset about thisthing. It's so--so terrible, somehow, to be back here, thousandsof miles, or years, away from all one's friends and everybody."

  "Please"--Arthur smiled encouragingly at her--"please count me yourfriend, won't you?"

  She nodded, but blinked back some tears. Arthur would have tried tohearten her further, but the elevator stopped at their floor. Theywalked into the room where the meeting of cool heads was to takeplace.

  No more than a dozen men were in there talking earnestly butdispiritedly. When Arthur and Estelle entered Van Deventer cameover to greet them.

  "We've got to do something," he said in a low voice. "A wave ofhomesickness has swept over the whole place. Look at those men. Everyone is thinking about his family and contrasting his cozy firesidewith all that wilderness outside."

  "You don't seem to be worried," Arthur observed with a smile.

  Van Deventer's eyes twinkled.

  "I'm a bachelor," he said cheerfully, "and I live in a hotel. I'vebeen longing for a chance to see some real excitement for thirtyyears. Business has kept me from it up to now, but I'm enjoyingmyself hugely."

  Estelle looked at the group of dispirited men.

  "We'll simply have to do something," she said with a shaky smile. "Ifeel just as they do. This morning I hated the thought of havingto go back to my boarding-house to-night, but right now I feel asif the odor of cabbage in the hallway would seem like heaven."

  Arthur led the way to the flat-topped desk in the middle of the room.

  "Let's settle a few of the more important matters," he said ina businesslike tone. "None of us has any authority to act forthe rest of the people in the tower, but so many of us are in astate of blue funk that those who are here must have charge for awhile. Anybody any suggestions?"

  "Housing," answered Van Deventer promptly. "I suggest that we drafta gang of men to haul all the upholstered settees and rugs thatare to be found to one floor, for the women to sleep on."

  "M--m. Yes. That's a good idea. Anybody a better plan?"

  No one spoke. They all still looked much too homesick to take anygreat interest in anything, but they began to listen more or lesshalf-heartedly.

  "I've been thinking about coal," said Arthur. "There's undoubtedlya supply in the basement, but I wonder if it wouldn't be well tocut the lights off most of the floors, only lighting up the oneswe're using."

  "That might be a good idea later," Estelle said quietly, "but lightis cheering, somehow, and every one feels so blue that I wouldn'tdo it to-night. To-morrow they'll begin to get up their resolutionagain, and you can ask them to do things."

  "If we're going to starve to death," one of the other men saidgloomily, "we might as well have plenty of light to do it by."

  "We aren't going to starve to death," retorted Arthur sharply. "Justbefore I came down I saw a great cloud of birds, greater than Ihad ever seen before. When we get at those birds--"

  "When," echoed the gloomy one.

  "They were pigeons," Estelle explained. "They shouldn't be hardto snare or trap."

  "I usually have my dinner before now," the gloomy one protested,"and I'm told I won't get anything to-night."

  The other men began to straighten their shoulders. The peevishnessof one of their number seemed to bring out their latent courage.

  "Well, we've got to stand it for the present," one of them saidalmost philosophically. "What I'm most anxious about is gettingback. Have we any chance?"

  Arthur nodded emphatically.

  "I think so. I have a sort of idea as to the cause of our sinkinginto the Fourth Dimension, and when that is verified, a correctivecan be looked for and applied."

  "How long will that take?"

  "Can't say," Arthur replied frankly. "I don't know what tools,what materials, or what workmen we have, and what's rather more tothe point, I don't even know what work will have to be done. Thepressing problem is food."

  "Oh, bother the food," some one protested impatiently. "I don'tcare about myself. I can go hungry to-night. I want to get back tomy family."

  "That's all that really matters," a chorus of voices echoed.

  "We'd better not bother about anything else unless we find wecan't get back. Concentrate on getting back," one man stated moreexplicitly.

  "Look here," said Arthur incisively. "You've a family, and so have agreat many of the others in the tower, but your family and everybodyelse's family has got to wait. As an inside limit, we can hope tobegin to work on the problem of getting back when we're sure there'snothing else going to happen. I tell you quite honestly that I thinkI know what is the direct cause of this catastrophe. And I'll tellyou even more honestly that I think I'm the only man among us whocan put this tower back where it started from. And I'll tell youmost honestly of all that any attempt to meddle at this present timewith the forces that let us down here will result in a catastropheconsiderably greater than the one that happened to-day."

  "Well, if you're sure--" some one began reluctantly.

  "I am so sure that I'm going to keep to myself the knowledge of whatwill start those forces to work again," Arthur said quietly. "Idon't want any impatient meddling. If we start them too soon Godonly knows what will happen."