by Unknown
Carruthers looked hastily around the room. "Most anything will do."His eyes rested on a glass test tube. Quickly he rose to his feet andremoved it from the wall rack. Then bending over the glass railingthat enclosed the mysterious square he placed it on the floor. Heturned now to the girl.
"Quiet, now, Nanette, and don't under any condition leave the chair.The path of the ray should pass within two feet of you, having a widemargin of safety. All right, Karl. Set the dials of the inversedimensional tubes at point seven six eleven, and switch the power tothe Roentgen tube."
Through the dimly lighted laboratory came a spurt of bluish flame thattwisted and squirmed with slow undulations around the cathodeelectrode.
"Fine," enthused Carruthers, "The cathode emanations coincide exactlywith the interference chart. Watch your meter gauges, Karl, while Iswitch to the atomic ray."
* * * * *
His fingers closed over a switch. The indigo points of flame bathingthe electrode gathered themselves into a ring and began to revolvearound an invisible nucleus located near the electrode. Carruthersstudied the revolving flame for a moment, then switched off thetelevision machine. It was no longer needed.
Carefully, for the atomic ray was still a mysterious force toCarruthers, he opened a small door in the panel and drew out thefocusing machine. It was shaped very much like a camera except thatthe lens protruded several inches beyond the machine proper.
With infinite patience he made the final adjustments and moved awayfrom the front of the lens. "Ready?"
Danzig nodded and threw on the full power of the inverse dimensionaltubes. A low clear hum filled the quiet room of the laboratory. Fromthe lens of the focusing machine shot a pale, amber beam. It struckthe glass test tube squarely in the center and glowed against itssmooth sides.
Carruthers reached across his own machine and turned the final switch.The amber beam emanating from the lens increased in intensity. And asit increased it took on a deep violet color.
Nanette cried out in muffled alarm. But even as Vincent raised hisvoice to quiet her fears the test tube suddenly shrunk to nothingnessand vanished into the ether.
"Aaron!" whispered the girl, awesomely. "It ... it's gone!"
Carruthers nodded. Beads of sweat stood out upon his forehead. Wouldthe returning ray work? He had made the test tube follow the sameroute as that taken by Professor Dahlgren. Both were gone. He clickedoff the switch and the beam faded.
* * * * *
With a deliberate calmness that in no way matched the inner tumultbrought on by the experiment, he turned the dials of the machine heand Danzig had worked out together. A second switch clicked under hisfingers. From the lense of the focusing machine shot the reverseatomic beam. As it struck the center of the square it turned a brightvermilion. For several seconds it played upon empty space, then themiracle unfolded before their eyes.
Something like a glass sliver reflected the beam. It grew and enlargedunder their startled eyes until it had achieved its former size, thenthe power that had brought it back switched itself off automatically.
Together both men examined the test tube. It appeared in no wayharmed, nor did it feel either warm or cold from its trip through theelements.
"It works!" marveled Danzig. "Let's try it again with somethinglarger."
"I've got a better idea," said Carruthers, rising to his feet. Hecrossed the laboratory and went to another part of his rooms.Presently he returned holding a small pink rat in his hands. Therodent was young, having been born only a week before. "Now we'll seewhat happens."
"Oh, it's torture to the poor thing," burst out Nanette.
"It won't hurt it," growled Karl. "Aaron knows what he's doing."
Carruthers placed the little rat in the center of the square. It laythere, very quiet and unblinking. Again the switches clicked as thecontacts were closed.
Came once more the beam of amber colored light followed closely by theviolet. The rat dwindled to the size of an insect, then disappearedinto space. The three watchers held their breaths. Carruthers' handtrembled the least bit as he threw on the switch controlling theanimal's return to the world.
* * * * *
A vermilion shaft of light pierced the semi-darkened rooms. The animalhad been gone from sight not more than a minute. Abruptly somethinggrayish white unfolded in the reflector's beam. It rapidly expandedunder three pairs of bulging eyes--not the small, pinkish rat that haddisappeared but sixty seconds previous, but a full grown rat, scarredand tailless as if from innumerable battles with other rats.
As the current clicked off Aaron Carruthers bent forward. Too late.The rat scurried from the laboratory with a squeal of alarm.Carruthers returned to his seat before the atomic machine and satdown. His face was worried. Dark thoughts stormed his reason. The rathe had placed within the atomic ray had aged nearly two years duringthe minute it was out of mortal sight. Two years!
He pulled a pad from his pocket and calculated the time that hadelapsed since Professor Dahlgren had vanished from that same spot.Nearly forty hours. That would mean....
Nanette stirred in her chair. "What happened to the little rat,Aaron?"
Carruthers, busy making calculations, did not hear the question.
She turned to her brother. "Karl, what's the meaning of this? Thesecond experiment didn't turn out like the first one. What became ofthat little rat?"
"I don't know what happened, Nan," spoke Karl. "Now don't bother mewith your silly questions. You saw the same thing I did."
* * * * *
Carruthers raised his head and spoke quietly. "That rat you sawmaterialize under the atomic rays was the same rat you saw me placewithin the square."
"But it couldn't be," protested the girl.
"Nevertheless," shrugged Carruthers. "It was the same animal--only ithad aged nearly two years during the brief time interval it was offfrom our planet."
"It's preposterous," cried the girl.
"Nothing is preposterous nowadays, Nanette."
"That's the woman of it," spoke Karl. "Always doubting."
"You boys are playing tricks on me," retorted the girl sharply. "Ishouldn't have come to your old laboratory. Just because I'm agirl...."
"Don't," pleaded Carruthers, looking up from his pad of figures."We're trying to solve the mystery underlying the forces which we havecreated." He replaced the test tube within the center of the squareand returned to the atomic machine.
Through the twilight shadows of the room glowed the strange new ray.Faintly the generator hummed. Lights sparkled and twisted around thecathode in serpentine swirls.
"You needn't trouble to explain your silly experiment again," finishedNanette, rising abruptly to her feet. "I'm going home and dress forthe New Year's party."
"Watch your switch like I asked you to," spoke Carruthers.
"Sit down," added Karl. "Don't put the rest of us in danger!"
"Oh-h-h!" gasped the girl as she inadvertently stepped squarely intothe atomic ray of amber-colored light.
* * * * *
Carruthers leaped impatiently to his feet. An inarticulate cry ofhorror froze upon his lips. Forgetful that he himself was directly inline of the atomic ray he lunged forward, his mind centering on asingle act--to drag the protesting and now thoroughly frightened girlout of the path of the penetrating ray.
But even as he started forward Nanette tripped over the glass railingaround the square. Carruthers moved quickly. Yet his movements wereslow and ungainly as compared to the speed of the light ray. He sawthe figure of Nanette decrease in size before his eyes, heard themuffled expression of alarm and fear in Danzig's voice; then the roomsuddenly began to extend itself upward with the speed of a meteor.
What once had been walls and bare furniture resolved themselves into arange of hills, then mountains. The twilight gloom of the room becamea dark void of empty space that seemed to rush past his ears like amoaning wind.
He had the sensation of falling through infinite space as if he hadbeen propelled from the world and
hurled out into the vastness ofinterplanetary space. Something brushed against him--something softand fluttering. He grasped it like a drowning man would clutch astraw. "Nanette!"
The name echoed and re-echoed through his mind yet never seemed to getbeyond his tightly clenched lips. He felt something cool close overhis hand. Instinctively he grasped it. Her hand. Together they clungto each other as they felt themselves being hurled through endlessspace.
The twilight changed swiftly to black night that rushed past the twoclinging figures and enveloped them in a wall of silence. Then out ofthe mysterious fastness came the dull glow of what looked like adistant planet. It grew and enlarged till it reached the size of asilver dollar. Little pin-points of light soon began to appear on allsides of it, very much like stars.
* * * * *
Carruthers attempted to reassure Nanette that all was well, and theywere out on the streets of the great metropolis. But even as hewrenched his tightly locked lips apart he saw that the shining discfar out into space was not what he had first thought it was--theearth's moon.
He shook his head to clear it of the perplexing cobwebs. What was thematter with his mind? He couldn't think or reason. All he knew wasthat he had erred. This strange planet looming in the sky heldnothing familiar in markings nor in respect to its relations to thestars beyond it.
While yet he groped in the darkness for something tangible, his mindreverted to the girl at his side. She was clinging to him like afrightened child. He could feel the pressure of her body against hisand it thrilled him immeasurably. No longer was he the cold,calculating young man of science.
How long they remained in state of suspension while strange worlds andplanets flashed into a new sky before their startled eyes, AaronCarruthers didn't know. At times it seemed like hours, years, ages.And when he thought of the tender nearness of the girl he held sotightly within his arms, it seemed like a few minutes.
Gradually the sensation of speed and space falling began to wear off,as if they were nearing earth or some solid substance once more. Theair about them grew heavier. Then all movement through space ceased.
Carruthers was surprised to find what felt like earth beneath hisfeet. For long minutes he stood there, unmoving, still holdingpossessively to the girl.
"Aaron!" The name came out of the void like a faint caress.
"Nanette."
Reassured of each other's presence they stood perfectly still, lost inthe vast silence of their isolation.
* * * * *
Presently the girl spoke. "Oh, Aaron, I'm frightened!"
"There's nothing to be alarmed at, dearest." The endearing term camefor the first time from the man's lips. As long as he had knownNanette Danzig, love had never been mentioned between them. If it hadever existed, the feeling had not been expressed.
"You shouldn't call me that, Aaron."
His voice sounded curiously far-off when he answered. "I couldn't helpit, Nan. Our nearness, the strange darkness, and the fact that we arealone together brought strange emotions to my heart. At this momentyou are the dearest--"
Bump, thump! Bump, thump!
"What's that noise?" breathed Nanette.
Carruthers turned his head to listen. To his ears came the pound ofsome heavy object striking the ground at well-regulated intervals.
Nanette, who had started to free herself from Carruthers violentembrace, suddenly ceased to struggle. "Oh, what is it? What is it?"she whispered fearfully.
Carruthers sniffed the night air. A musky odor assailed his nostrils,strange and unfamiliar. "It's beyond me, Nanette. Let's move away fromthis spot. Perhaps we can find shelter for the rest of the night."
But the Stygian blackness successfully hid any form of shelter. Tiredfrom their search they sat down.
"We might build a fire," suggested Carruthers, "only there doesn'tseem to be any wood around. Nothing but bare rock."
"Perhaps it's just as well," spoke the girl. "The fumes might attractprowlers."
"Maybe you're right," agreed Carruthers.
* * * * *
A silence fell between them. After a long time Nanette spoke.
"I don't suppose, Aaron, that anything I can do or say will helpmatters any. I know that our being where we are is my own fault. I'msorry. Truly I am."
"The harm is done," said Carruthers. "Don't say anything more aboutit."
Nanette pointed at the disc of light shining high in the heavens."These stars are as strange to me, Aaron, as if I had never seen thembefore. Saturn is the evening star at this time of year. It isn'tvisible. Even the familiar craters and mountains of the moon lookdifferent. And it glows strangely."
"I'd rather not talk about it, Nan."
Nanette placed a hand upon his arm. "I'm not a child, Aaron. I'm agrown woman. Fear comes through not knowing. Tell me the truth."
"Let's sit down."
They sat upon the ground and both stared out at the night heavens thatarched into infinity above them. Presently Carruthers took the girl'shand from his arm and held it gently between his own. "You've guessedrightly, Nan. The orb shining upon us is not our moon. I'll try andmake it clear."
* * * * *
The girl smiled reassuringly in the darkness. "I'm waiting."
"Strange as it must seem," began Carruthers, "you and I are stillwithin the room of my laboratory. But we might as well be a millionmiles away for all the good it does us. Karl sits in his chair in thesame position as when we disappeared in the violet glow of the atomicray. His eyes are bulging with fear and horror. For days and dayshe'll continue to sit on that chair, his mind not yet attuned to whatactually took place. What has happened? He doesn't know yet, Nan."
"Oh, it's incredible," sobbed Nanette.
"I know, but it's so obviously true that I won't even trouble to checkmy calculations." He pointed at the silver disc hanging low in thestrange sky. "That, Nan, is not our moon. It is nothing more than aplanetary electron very much like the one we are on at the presentmoment. The firmament is filled with them. From where we sit we cansee but the half nearest to us. The glowing portion is illuminatedfrom distant light rays shot off from the nucleus of the atom itself.That atom is going to be our light and heat for weeks, months, perhapsyears to come. We're prisoners on an electron, and as such we aredestined to rush through infinite space for the remainder of our livesunless...."
"Unless what?"
Aaron Carruthers hesitated for a bare fraction of a second. "Karl!" hewhispered. "Our lives depend on him. Time flies fast for us, Nan.Already it is growing light. But not on our earth. Karl still sitsupon his chair staring incredulously at the miracle of ourdisappearing bodies. It will take weeks of time, as it affects us, forthe initial shock to travel along his nerves to the center of hisbrain."
* * * * *
His voice shook with emotion quite contrary to his usual calm nature."Oh, I know it's hard to understand, Nan. I was a fool to meddle withlaws of which I know so little compared to what there is yet to know."
"Then it's all true, Aaron. The little rat that came out from underthe ray as an old rat was one and the same animal."
Carruthers nodded. "Time has changed in proportion to our size. We'removing so much faster than the earth that we must of necessity bebound to the universe of which we are now an integral part."
For a long time they remained silent, each immersed in dark, troubledthoughts. Nanette broke the silence.
"You don't suppose, Aaron, by any chance that Professor Dahlgren isstill alive and on our planet?"
Carruthers shook his head negatively. "It's beyond human reason, Nan.He was lost in the ray for over forty hours. Translated into minuteshe's been gone twenty-four hundred minutes. Since the mouse we placedwithin the light ray aged approximately two years in the space of oneminute, Professor Dahlgren would, if he were alive, be about fourthousand, eight hundred years old."
Nanette rose abruptly to her feet. "Oh bother the figures. My head'sswimming with them. It's getting light now, and I'm hungry."
&nbs
p; "Eat one of your food tablets," suggested Carruthers.
"Please don't get funny," said Nanette. "Karl has them in his coatpocket."
"Hum-m-m!" coughed Carruthers, following her example by rising to hisfeet. "Looks as though we'd have to rustle our food. I've got nothingon my person but a knife, a pencil, a fountain pen and some pieces ofpaper. Nothing very promising in any of them."
* * * * *
At that moment the sky became fused with reddish light. Over thehorizon appeared a shining orb. Far-away hills and valleys leaped intosight. Then for the first time Carruthers noted the high plateau uponwhich he had spent the night. Had they ventured a hundred yardsfarther during the night they would have plunged into the rocky floorof a canyon a thousand feet below.
"Let's see if we can find a way down to the valley," he suggested. "Ifwe get anything to eat it will have to come from trees. This plateauis barren of any form of vegetable matter."
They found a winding descent leading downward. It looked like a paththat had been worn by the passage of many feet.
"Someone's been here before us," he exclaimed. "The ground is too wellworn to be accidental."
"Look! Look!" pointed Nanette. Her face had become pale from theexcitement of her discovery. "What is it, Aaron?"
Carruthers bent forward to examine the strange footprint. It wasnearly two feet across and divided in the center, as if the animalthat made it had but two toes.
"From the size of the tracks and the length of the animal's stride, Ishould say it was some form of an amphibious dinosaur long extinct inour own world."
"Are they dangerous?"
"It all depends upon the species. Some of them are pure vegetarians;others are carnivorous. The heavy tramping we heard during the nightevidently came from the beast who left these footprints."
* * * * *
They had come upon the footprints where the path made a turn, leadinginto a dense growth of trees and underbrush. And as Carruthers kneltbeside the path he heard a rustle as of something moving directlybehind him. Wonderingly, he turned his head to trace the disturbance.But the woods seemed empty. "Strange," he murmured. "Did you hearsomething moving in back of us, Nan?"
