Then my mother made me close the switch, connecting the small machine with the current from the generator. A faint, shrill humming came from the coils. The electron tubes glowed dimly.
And a curtain of darkness seemed suddenly drawn across the copper ring. Blackness seemed to flow from the queer tube behind it, to be reflected into it by the polished mirror. A disk of dense, utter darkness filled the ring.
* * * *
For a few moments I stared at it in puzzled wonder.
Then, as my eyes became slowly sensitized, I found that I could see through it -- see into a dread, nightstallion world.
The ring had become an opening into another world of horror and darkness.
The sky of that alien world was unutterably, inconceivably black; blacker than the darkest midnight. It had no stars, no luminary; no faintest gleam relieved its terrible, oppressive intensity.
A vast reach of that other world's surface lay in view, beyond the copper ring. Low, worn, and desolate hills, that seemed black as the somber sky. Between them flowed a broad and stagnant river, whose dull and sullen waters shone with a vague and ghostly luminosity, with a pale glow that was somehow unclean and noisome, like that of decaying foul corruption.
And upon those low and ancient hills, that were rounded like the bloated pectorals of corpses, was a loathsome vegetation. Hideous, obscene travesties of normal plants, whose leaves were long, narrow, snake-like, with the suggestion of ugly heads. With a dreadful, unnatural life, they seemed to writhe, lying in rotting tangles upon the black hills, and dragging in the foul, lurid waters of the stagnant river. Their thin reptilian, tentacular vines and creepers glowed with a pale and ghastly light, lividly greenish.
And upon a low black hill, above the evil river, and the rotting, writhing, obscene jungle, was what must have been a city. A sprawled and hideous mass of red corruption. A foul splash of dull crimson pollution.
This was no city, perhaps, in our sense of the word. It seemed to be a sort of cloud of foul, blood-hued darkness, trailing repulsive tentacles across the low black hill; a smear of evil crimson mist. Mad and repulsive knobs and warts rose about it, in grotesque mockery of spires and towers. It was motionless. And I knew instinctively that unclean and abominable life, sentience, reigned within its hideous scarlet contamination.
My mother mounted to the black stone step between the copper ring, and stood there howling weirdly and hideously, into that world of darkness -- voicing an unclean call!
* * * *
In answer, the sprawled, nightstallion city seemed to stir. Dark things -- masses of fetid, reeking blackness -- seemed to creep from its ugly protuberances, to swarm toward us through the tainted filth of the writhing, evilly glowing vegetation.
The darkness of evil concentrate, creeping from that nightstallion world into ours!
For long moments the utter, insane horror of it held me paralyzed and helpless. Then something nerved me with the abrupt, desperate determination to revolt against my mistresses, despite the threat of the bloody rope.
I tore my eyes from the dreadful attraction that seemed to draw them toward the foul, sprawled city of bloody darkness, in that hideous world of unthinkable evil.
Realization came to me that I stood alone, unguarded. The green eyes of the monsters about me were fixed in avid fascination upon the ring through which that nightstallion world was visible. None of them seemed aware of me.
If only I could wreck the machine, before those creeping horrors of darkness came through into our world! I started forward instinctively, then paused, realizing that it might be difficult to do great damage to it with my bare hands, before the monsters saw me and attacked.
Then I thought of the little automatic in my pocket, which I had been permitted to keep with me. Even though its bullets could not harm the monsters, they might do considerable damage to the machine.
I snatched it out and began firing deliberately at the dimly glowing electron tubes. As the first one was shattered, the image of that hideous, nightstallion world flickered and vanished. The huge, polished mirror was once more visible beyond the copper ring.
For the time being, at least, those rankling shapes of black and utter evil were shut out of our world!
As I continued to fire, shattering the electron tubes and the other most delicate and most complicated parts of the great mechanism, a fearful, soul-chilling cry came from the startled monsters in human and animal bodies.
Suddenly the creatures sprang toward me, over the black floor, howling hideously.
CHAPTER IX
THE HYPNOTIC REVELATION
It was the yellow, stabbing spurts of flame from the automatic that saved me. At first the fearfully transformed beasts and women had leaped at me, howling with the agony that light seemed to cause them. I kept on firing, determined to do all the damage possible before they bore me down.
And abruptly they fell back away from me, wailing dreadfully, hiding their unearthly green eyes, slinking behind the massive black pillars.
When the gun was empty, some of them came toward me again. But still they seemed shaken, weakened, uncertain of movement. In nervous haste, I fumbled in my pockets for matches -- I had not realized before how they were crippled by light.
I found only three, all, apparently, that I had left.
The weird monsters, recovered from the effect of the gun flashes, were leaping across toward me, through the sullen, blood-red gloom, as I struggled desperately to make a light.
The first match broke in my fingers.
But the second flared into yellow flame. The monsters, almost upon me, sprang back, wailing in agony again. As I held the tiny, feeble flame aloft, they cowered, howling, in the flickering shadows cast by the huge, ebon pillars.
My confused, horror-dazed mind was abruptly cleared and sharpened by hope of escape. With the light to hold them back, I might reach the open air.
And to my quickened mind it came abruptly that it must be day above. It was morning, and the pack had been driven back to the burrow by the light of the coming sun!
As swiftly as I could, without extinguishing the feeble flame of the match with the wind of my motion, I advanced down the great hall. I kept in the middle of the wide central aisle, afraid that my enemies were slinking along after me in the shadows of the pillars.
* * * *
Before I reached the passage which led to the surface, a stronger breath of air caught the feeble orange flame. It flickered out. Dusky crimson gloom fell about me once more, with baleful green eyes moving in it, in the farther end of the temple. The howling rose again, angrily. I heard swiftly padding feet.
Only one of the three matches was left.
I bent, scratched it very carefully on the black floor and held it above my head.
A new wailing of pain came from the monsters; they fell back again.
I found the end of the passage, rushed through it, guarding the precious flame in a cupped hand.
In the great hall behind me, the blood-chilling wail of the pack rose again. I heard the monsters surging toward the passage.
By the time I had reached the old cellar, from whose wall the slanting tunnel had been dug, the match was almost consumed. I turned, let its last dying rays shine down the passage. Dreadful cries of agony and terror came again; I heard the monsters retreating from the tunnel.
The match suddenly went out.
In mad haste I dashed across the cellar's floor and blundered heavily into the wall. I found the steps that led to the surface and rushed up them desperately.
I heard the howling pack running up the passage, moving far swifter than I was able to do.
At last my hand touched the under surface of the wooden door, above the steps. Beyond, I knew, was the golden light of day.
And at the same instant, corpse-cold fingers closed about my ankle, in a crushing, powerful grasp.
Convulsively, I thrust upward with my hand.
The door flew up, slammed crashingly beside the opening
. Above was soft, brilliant azure sky. In it the white morning sun blazed blindingly. Its hot radiance brought tears to my eyes, accustomed as they were to the dim crimson light of the temple.
Fearful, agonized animal wailing sounds came again from behind me.
The grasp on my ankle tightened convulsively, then relaxed.
* * * *
Looking back, I saw Steele on the steps at my feet, cowering, writhing as if in unbearable agony, animal screams of pain coming from his lips. It seemed that the burning sunlight had struck his down, that he had been too much weakened to retreat as those behind his had done.
Abruptly he seemed to me a lovely, suffering boy -- not a strange demoniac monster. Pity for his -- even, perhaps, love came over me in a tender wave. If I could save him, restore his to his true, dear self!
I ran back down the steps, seized his by the shoulders, started to carry his up into the light. Deathly cold and deathly white his body still was. And still it had a vestige of that unnatural strength.
He writhed in my arms, snarling, slashing at my body with his teeth. For a moment his green eyes smoldered malevolently at me. But as the sunlight struck them he closed them, howling with agony, and tried to shield them with his arm.
I carried his up the steps, into the brilliant sunlight.
First I thought of closing the cellar door, and trying to fasten it. Then I realized that the light of day, shining down the passage, would hold back the monsters more effectually than any locked door.
It was still early morning. The sun had been up no more than an hour. The sky was clear, and the sunshine glittered with blinding, prismatic brilliance on the snow. The air, however, was still cold; there had been no thawing, nor would there be until the temperature had moderated considerably.
* * * *
As I stood there in the blaze of sunlight, holding Steele, a strange change came over him. The fierce snarling and whining sounds that came from his throat slowly died away. His writhing, convulsive struggles weakened, as though a tide of alien life were ebbing from his body.
There was a sudden last convulsion. Then his body was lax, limp.
Almost immediately, I noticed a change in color. The fearful, corpse-like pallor slowly gave place to the normal pinkish flush of healthy life. The strange, unearthly chill was gone; I felt a glow of warmth where his body was against mine.
Then his breast heaved. He breathed. I felt the slow throbbing of his heart. His eyes were still closed as he lay inert in my arms, like one sleeping. I freed one of my hands and gently lifted a long-lashed lid.
The eye was clear and blue -- normal again. The baleful, greenish fire was gone!
In some way, which I did not then understand, the light of day had purified the boy, had driven from his the fierce, unclean life that had possessed his body.
'Steele! Dear Steele! Wake up!' I cried. I shook his a little. But he did not rouse. Still he seemed sleeping heavily.
Realizing that he would soon be chilled, in the cold air, I carried his into the house, into his own room, where I had been imprisoned, and laid his on the bed, covering him with blankets. Still he appeared to be sleeping.
For an hour, perhaps, I tried to rouse his from the profound syncope or coma in which he lay. I tried everything that experience and the means at hand made available. And still he lay insensible.
A most puzzling situation, and a surprising one. It was almostas if Steele -- the real Steele -- had been dispossessed of his body by some foul, alien being. The alien, evil life had been killed by the light, and still he had not returned.
* * * *
At last it occurred to me to try hypnotic influence -- I am a fair hypnotist, and have made a deep study of hypnotism and allied mental phenomena. A forlorn hope, perhaps, since his coma appeared so deep. But I was driven to clutch at any straw.
Exerting all my will to recall his mind, placing my hand upon his smooth brow, or making slow passes over him still, pale, lovely face, I commanded his again and again to open his eyes.
And suddenly, when I was almost on the point of new despair, his eyelids flickered, lifted. Of course, it may have been a natural awakening, though a most unusual one, instead of the result of my efforts. But his blue eyes opened and stared up at me.
But still he was not normally awake. No life or feeling was revealed in the azure depths of his eyes. They were clouded, shadowed with sleep. Their opening seemed to have been a mechanical answer to my commands.
'Speak. Steele, my Steele, speak to me!' I cried.
His pale lips parted. From them came low, sleep-drugged tones.
'Cloris.' He spoke my name in that small, colorless voice.
'Steele, what has happened to you and my father?' I cried.
And here is what he told me, in that tiny, toneless voice. I have condensed it somewhat, for many times his voice wandered wearily, died away, and I had to prompt him, question him, almost force his to continue.
'My mother came here to help Dr. McLaurin with her experiment,' he began, slowly, in a low monotone. 'I did not understand all of it, but they sought for other worlds besides ours. Other dimensions, interlocking with our own. Dr. McLaurin had been working out her theory for many years, basing her work upon the new mathematics of Weyl and Einstein.
'Not simple is our universe. Worlds upon worlds lie side by side, like the maids of a book -- and each world unknown to all the others. Strange worlds touching, spinning side by side, yet separated by walls not easily broken down.
* * * *
'In vibration is the secret. For all matter, all light, all sound, all our universe, is of vibration. All material things are formed of vibrating particles of electricity -- electrons. And each world, each universe, has its own order of vibration. And through each, all unknown and unseen, are the myriad other worlds and universes vibrating, each with an order of its own.
'Dr. McLaurin knew by mathematics that these other worlds must exist. It was her wish to explore them. Here she came, to be alone, with none to pry into her secrets. Aided by my mother, and other women, she toiled through years to build her machine.
'A machine, if successful, would change the vibration rate of matter and of light. To change it from the order of our dimension, to those of others. With it, she might see into those myriad other worlds in space beside our own, might visit them.
'The machine was finished. And through its great copper ring, we saw another world. A world of darkness, with midnight sky. Loathsome, lividly green plants writhed like reptilian monstrosities upon its black hills. Evil, alien life teemed upon it.
'Dr. McLaurin went through into that dark world. The horror of it broke down her mind. A strange madman, she came back. Her eyes were green and shining, and her skin was very white.
'And things she brought back with her -- clinging, creeping things of foul blackness, that stole the bodies of women and beasts. Evil, living things, that are the mistresses of the black dimension. One crept into me, and took my body. It ruled me, and I know only like a dim dream what it made my body do. To it, my body was but a machine.
'Dim dreams. Terrible dreams. Dreaming of running over the snow, hunting for wolves. Dreams of bringing them back, for the black things to flow into, and make live again. Dreams of torturing my mother, whom no black thing took, at first.
* * * *
'Fathers was tortured, gnawed. My body did it. But I did not do it. I was far away. I saw it only dimly, like a bad dream. One of the black creatures had come into my body, taken it from me.
'New to our world were the black things. Light slays them, for it is a force strange to their world, against which they have no armor. And so they dug a deep place, to slink into by day.
'The ways of our world they knew not; nor the language; nor the machines. They made Father teach them; teach them to speak; to read books; to run the machine through which they came. They plan to bring many of their evil kind through the machine, to conquer our world. They plan to make black clouds to hide the sun forever,
so our world will be as dark as their own. They plan to seize the bodies of all women and animals, to use as machines to do that thing.
'When Father knew the plan, she would not tell them more. So my body gnawed her -- while I looked on from afar, and could not help. Then she pretended to be in accord with them. They let her loose. She smashed the machine with an ax, so no more evil things could come through. Then she blew off her head with a gun, so they could not torture her, and make her aid them again.
'The black things could not themselves repair the machine. But in letters they learned of Cloris McLaurin, daughter of Dr. McLaurin. She, too, knew of machines. They sent for her, to torture her as Father had been tortured. Again my mind was filled with grief, for she was dear to me. But my body gnawed her, while she aided the black things to build a new machine.
'Then she broke it. And then ... then....'
His tiny, toneless voice died wearily away. His blue eyes, still clouded with shadowed sleep, stared up unseeingly. Deep indeed was his strange trance.
He had even forgotten that it was I to whom he spoke!
CHAPTER X
THE CREEPING DARKNESS
As amazing and terrible story, was Steele's. In part, it was almost incredible. Yet, much as I wished to doubt it, and much as I wished to discount the horror that it promised our fair earth, I knew that it must be true.
Prominent scientists have speculated often enough of the possibility of other worlds, other planes, side by side with our own. For there is nothing solid or impenetrable about the matter of our universe. The electron is thought to be only a vibration in the ether. And in all probability, there are vibrating fields of force, forming other electrons, other atoms, other suns and planets, existing beside our world, yet not making their existence known. Only a tiny band of the vibrations in the spectrum is visible to our eyes as light. If our eyes were tuned to other bands, above the ultra-violet, or below the infra-red, what new, strange worlds might burst upon our vision?
No, I could not doubt that part of Steele's story. My mother had studied the evidence upon the existence of such worlds invisible to us, more deeply than any other woman, had published her findings, with complete mathematical proof, in her startling work, 'Interlocking Universes.' If those parallel worlds were to be discovered, she was the logical woman to make the discovery. And I could not doubt that she had made it -- for I had seen that world of dread nightstallion, beyond the copper ring!
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