Astounding Stories of Super-Science July 1930 Read online

  Beyond the Heaviside Layer

  _By Capt S. P. Meek_

  McQuarrie, the City Editor, looked up as I entered his office.

  "Bond," he asked, "do you know Jim Carpenter?"

  [Sidenote: For eighty vertical miles Carpenter andBond blasted their way--only to betrapped by the extraordinary monstersof the heaviside layer.]

  "I know him slightly," I replied cautiously. "I have met him severaltimes and I interviewed him some years ago when he improved the Hadleyrocket motor. I can't claim a very extensive acquaintance with him."

  "I thought you knew him well. It is a surprise to me to find that thereis any prominent man who is not an especial friend of yours. At any rateyou know him as well as anyone of the staff, so I'll give you theassignment."

  "What's he up to now?" I asked.

  "He's going to try to punch a hole in the heaviside layer."

  "But that's impossible," I cried. "How can anyone...."

  My voice died away in silence. True enough, the idea of trying to make apermanent hole in a field of magnetic force was absurd, but even as Ispoke I remembered that Jim Carpenter had never agreed to the opinionalmost unanimously held by our scientists as to the true nature of theheaviside layer.

  "It may be impossible," replied McQuarrie dryly, "but you are not hiredby this paper as a scientific consultant. For some reason, God aloneknows why, the owner thinks that you are a reporter. Get down there andtry to prove he is right by digging up a few facts about Carpenter'sattempt. Wire your stuff in and Peavey will write it up. On this oneoccasion, please try to conceal your erudition and send in your story insimple words of one syllable which uneducated men like Peavey and me cancomprehend. That's all."

  * * * * *

  He turned again to his desk and I left the room. At one time I wouldhave come from such an interview with my face burning, but McQuarrie'svitriol slid off me like water off a duck's back. He didn't really meanhalf of what he said, and he knew as well as I did that his crack aboutmy holding my job with the Clarion as a matter of pull was grosslyunjust. It is true that I knew Trimble, the owner of the Clarion, fairlywell, but I got my job without any aid from him. McQuarrie himself hiredme and I held my job because he hadn't fired me, despite the causticremarks which he addressed to me. I had made the mistake when I firstgot on the paper of letting McQuarrie know that I was a graduateelectrical engineer from Leland University, and he had held it againstme from that day on. I don't know whether he really held it seriouslyagainst me or not, but what I have written above is a fair sample of hisusual manner toward me.

  In point of fact I had greatly minimized the extent of my acquaintancewith Jim Carpenter. I had been in Leland at the same time that he wasand had known him quite well. When I graduated, which was two yearsafter he did, I worked for about a year in his laboratory, and myknowledge of the improvement which had made the Hadley rocket motor apracticability came from first hand knowledge and not from an interview.That was several years before but I knew that he never forgot anacquaintance, let alone a friend, and while I had left him to take upother work our parting had been pleasant, and I looked forward with realpleasure to seeing him again.

  * * * * *

  Jim Carpenter, the stormy petrel of modern science! The eternaliconoclast: the perpetual opponent! He was probably as deeply versed inthe theory of electricity and physical chemistry as any man alive, butit pleased him to pose as a "practical" man who knew next to nothing oftheory and who despised the little he did know. His great delight was toexperimentally smash the most beautifully constructed theories whichwere advanced and taught in the colleges and universities of the world,and when he couldn't smash them by experimental evidence, to attack themfrom the standpoint of philosophical reasoning and to twist around thedata on which they were built and make it prove, or seem to prove, theexact opposite of what was generally accepted.

  No one questioned his ability. When the ill-fated Hadley had firstconstructed the rocket motor which bears his name it was Jim Carpenterwho made it practical. Hadley had tried to disintegrate lead in order toget his back thrust from the atomic energy which it contained and provedby apparently unimpeachable mathematics that lead was the only substancewhich could be used. Jim Carpenter had snorted through the pages of theelectrical journals and had turned out a modification of Hadley'sinvention which disintegrated aluminum. The main difference inperformance was that, while Hadley's original motor would not developenough power to lift itself from the ground, Carpenter's modificationproduced twenty times the horsepower per pound of weight of anypreviously known generator of power and changed the rocket ship from awild dream to an everyday commonplace.

  * * * * *

  When Hadley later constructed his space flyer and proposed to visit themoon, it was Jim Carpenter who ridiculed the idea of the attempt beingsuccessful. He proposed the novel and weird idea that the path to spacewas not open, but that the earth and the atmosphere were enclosed in ahollow sphere of impenetrable substance through which Hadley's spaceflyer could not pass. How accurate were his prognostications was soonknown to everyone. Hadley built and equipped his flyer and started offon what he hoped would be an epoch making flight. It was one, but not inthe way which he had hoped. His ship took off readily enough, beingpowered with four rocket motors working on Carpenter's principle, androse to a height of about fifty miles, gaining velocity rapidly. At thatpoint his velocity suddenly began to drop.

  He was in constant radio communication with the earth and he reportedhis difficulty. Carpenter advised him to turn back while he could, butHadley kept on. Slower and slower became his progress, and after he hadpenetrated ten miles into the substance which hindered him, his shipstuck fast. Instead of using his bow motors and trying to back out, hehad moved them to the rear, and with the combined force of his fourmotors he had penetrated for another two miles. There he insanely triedto force his motors to drive him on until his fuel was exhausted.

  He had lived for over a year in his space flyer, but all of his effortsdid not serve to materially change his position. He had tried, ofcourse, to go out through his air locks and explore space, but hisstrength, even although aided by powerful levers, could not open theouter doors of the locks against the force which was holding them shut.Careful observations were continuously made of the position of hisflyer and it was found that it was gradually returning toward the earth.Its motion was very slight, not enough to give any hope for theoccupant. Starting from a motion so slow that it could hardly bedetected, the velocity of return gradually accelerated; and three yearsafter Hadley's death, the flyer was suddenly released from the forcewhich held it, and it plunged to the earth, to be reduced by the forceof its fall to a twisted, pitiful mass of unrecognizable junk.

  * * * * *

  The remains were examined, and the iron steel parts were found to behighly magnetized. This fact was seized upon by the scientists of theworld and a theory was built up of a magnetic field of force surroundingthe earth through which nothing of a magnetic nature could pass. Thistheory received almost universal acceptance, Jim Carpenter alone of themore prominent men of learning refusing to admit the validity of it. Hegravely stated it as his belief that no magnetic field existed, but thatthe heaviside layer was composed of some liquid of high viscosity whosedensity and consequent resistance to the passage of a body through itincreased in the ratio of the square of the distance to which onepenetrated into it.

  There was a moment of stunned surprise when he announced his radicalidea, and then a burst of Jovian laughter shook the scientific press.Carpenter was in his glory. For months he waged a bitter controversy inthe scientific journals and when he failed to win converts by thismethod, he announced that he would prove it by blasting a way into spacethrough the heaviside layer, a thing which would be patently impossiblewere it a field of force. He had lapsed into silence for two years andhis curt note to the Associated Press to the
effect that he was nowready to demonstrate his experiment was the first intimation the worldhad received of his progress.

  * * * * *

  I drew expense money from the cashier and boarded the Lark for LosAngeles. When I arrived I went to a hotel and at once called Carpenteron the telephone.

  "Jim Carpenter speaking," came his voice presently.

  "Good evening, Mr. Carpenter," I replied, "this is Bond of the SanFrancisco Clarion."

  I would be ashamed to repeat the language which came over thattelephone. I was informed that all reporters were pests and that I was adoubly obnoxious specimen and that were I within reach I would bepromptly assaulted and that reporters would be received at nine the nextmorning and no earlier or later.

  "Just a minute, Mr. Carpenter," I cried as he neared the end of hisperoration and was, I fancied, about to slam up the receiver. "Don't youremember me? I was at Leland with you and used to work in yourlaboratory in the atomic disintegration section."

  "What's your name?" he demanded.

  "Bond, Mr. Carpenter."

  "Oh, First Mortgage! Certainly I remember you. Mighty glad to hear yourvoice. How are you?"

  "Fine, thank you, Mr. Carpenter. I would not have ventured to call youhad I not known you. I didn't mean to impose and I'll be glad to see youin the morning at nine."

  "Not by a long shot," he cried. "You'll come up right away. Where areyou staying?"

  "At the El Rey."

  "Well, check out and come right up here. There's lots of room for youhere at the plant and I'll be glad to have you. I want at least oneintelligent report of this experiment and you should be able to writeit. I'll look for you in an hour."

  "I don't want to impose--" I began; but he interrupted.

  "Nonsense, glad to have you. I needed someone like you badly and youhave come just in the nick of time. I'll expect you in an hour."

  * * * * *

  The receiver clicked and I hastened to follow his instructions. Aringside seat was just what I was looking for. It took my taxi a littleover an hour to get to the Carpenter laboratory and I chuckled when Ithought of how McQuarrie's face would look when he saw my expenseaccount. Presently we reached the edge of the grounds which surroundedthe Carpenter laboratory and were stopped at the high gate I rememberedso well.

  "Are you sure you'll get in, buddy?" asked my driver.

  "Certainly," I replied. "What made you ask?"

  "I've brought three chaps out here to-day and none of them got in," heanswered with a grin. "I'm glad you're so sure, but I'll just waitaround until you are inside before I drive away."

  I laughed and advanced to the gate. Tim, the old guard, was still there,and he remembered and welcomed me.

  "Me ordhers wuz t' let yez roight in, sor," he said as he greeted me."Jist lave ye'er bag here and Oi'll have ut sint roight up."

  I dropped my bag and trudged up the well remembered path to thelaboratory. It had been enlarged somewhat since I saw it last and, latethough the hour was, there was a bustle in the air and I could see anumber of men working in the building. From an area in the rear, whichwas lighted by huge flood lights, came the staccato tattoo of a riveter.I walked up to the front of the laboratory and entered. I knew the wayto Carpenter's office and I went directly there and knocked.

  "Hello, First Mortgage!" cried Jim Carpenter as I entered in response tohis call. "I'm glad to see you. Excuse the bruskness of my firstgreeting to you over the telephone, but the press have been deviling meall day, every man jack of them trying to steal a march on the rest. Iam going to open the whole shebang at nine to-morrow and give them allan equal chance to look things over before I turn the current on atnoon. As soon as we have a little chat, I'll show you over the works."

  * * * * *

  After half an hour's chat he rose. "Come along, First Mortgage," hesaid, "we'll go out and look the place over and I'll explain everything.If my ideas work out, you'll have no chance to go over it to-morrow, soI want you to see it now."

  I had no chance to ask him what he meant by this remark, for he walkedrapidly from the laboratory and I perforce followed him. He led the wayto the patch of lighted ground behind the building where the rivetingmachine was still beating out its monotonous cacaphony and paused by thefirst of a series of huge reflectors, which were arranged in a circle.

  "Here is the start of the thing," he said. "There are two hundred andfifty of these reflectors arranged in a circle four hundred yards indiameter. Each of them is an opened parabola of such spread that theirbeams will cover an area ten yards in diameter at fifty miles above theearth. If my calculations are correct they should penetrate through thelayer at an average speed of fifteen miles per hour per unit, and by twoo'clock to-morrow afternoon, the road to space should be open."

  "What is your power?" I asked.

  "Nothing but a concentration of infra-red rays. The heaviside layer, asyou doubtless know, is a liquid and, I think, an organic liquid. If I amright in that thought, the infra-red will cut through it like a knifethrough cheese."

  "If it is a liquid, how will you prevent it from flowing back into thehole you have opened?" I asked.

  "When the current is first turned on, each reflector will bear on thesame point. Notice that they are moveable. They are arranged so thatthey move together. As soon as the first hole is bored through, theywill move by clockwork, extending the opening until each pointsvertically upward and the hole is four hundred yards in diameter. I ampositive that there will be no rapid flow even after the current isturned off, for I believe that the liquid is about as mobile aspetroleum jelley. Should it close, however, it would take only a coupleof hours to open it again to allow the space flyer to return."

  "What space flyer?" I demanded quickly.

  "The one we are going to be on, First Mortgage," he replied with aslight chuckle.

  * * * * *

  "We?" I cried, aghast.

  "Certainly. We. You and I. You didn't think I was going to send youalone, did you?"

  "I didn't know that anyone was going."

  "Of course. Someone has to go; otherwise, how could I prove my point? Imight cut through a hundred holes and yet these stiff-necked oldfossils, seeing nothing, would not believe. No, First Mortgage, whenthose arcs start working to-morrow, you and I will be in a Hadley spaceship up at the bottom of the layer, and as soon as the road has beenopened, two of the lamps will cut off to allow us through. Then thebattery will hold the road open while we pass out into space andreturn."

  "Suppose we meet with Hadley's fate?" I demanded.

  "We won't. Even if I am wrong--which is very unlikely--we won't meetwith any such fate. We have two stern motors and four bow motors. Assoon as we meet with the slightest resistance to our forward progress wewill stop and have twice the power plus gravity to send us earthwards.There is no danger connected with the trip."

  "All the same--" I began.

  "All the same, you're going," he replied. "Man alive, think of thechance to make a world scoop for your paper! No other press man has theslightest inkling of my plan and even if they had, there isn't anotherspace flyer in the world that I know of. If you don't want to go, I'llgive some one else the chance, but I prefer you, for you know somethingof my work."

  * * * * *

  I thought rapidly for a moment. The chance was a unique one and one thathalf the press men in San Francisco would have given their shirts toget. I had had my doubts of the accuracy of Jim Carpenter's reasoningwhile I was away from him, but there was no resisting the dynamicpersonality of the man when in his presence.

  "You win," I said with a laugh. "Your threat of offering some of myhated rivals a chance settled it."

  "Good boy!" he exclaimed, pounding me on the back. "I knew you'd come. Ihad intended to take one of my assistants with me, but as soon as I knewyou were here I decided that you were the man. There really ought to bea
press representative along. Come with me and I'll show you our flyer."

  The flyer proved to be of the same general type as had been used byHadley. It was equipped with six rocket motors, four discharging to thebow and two to the stern. Any one of them, Carpenter said, was ample formotive power. Equilibrium was maintained by means of a heavy gyroscopewhich would prevent any turning of the axis of its rotation. The entireflyer shell could be revolved about the axis so that oblique motion withour bow and stern motors was readily possible. Direct lateral movementwas provided for by valves which would divert a portion of the dischargeof either a bow or stern motor out through side vents in any direction.The motive power, of course, was furnished by the atomic disintegrationof powdered aluminum. The whole interior, except for the portion of thewalls, roof and floor, which was taken up by vitriolene windows, washeavily padded.

  * * * * *

  At nine the next morning the gates to the enclosure were thrown open andthe representatives of the press admitted. Jim Carpenter mounted aplatform and explained briefly what he proposed to do and then broke thecrowd up into small groups and sent them over the works with guides.When all had been taken around they were reassembled and Carpenterannounced to them his intention of going up in a space flyer and prove,by going through the heaviside layer, that he had actually destroyed aportion of it. There was an immediate clamor of applications to go withhim. He laughingly announced that one reporter was all that he couldstand on the ship and that he was taking one of his former associateswith him. I could tell by the envious looks with which I was favoredthat any popularity I had ever had among my associates was gone forever.There was little time to think of such things, however, for the hour forour departure was approaching, and the photographers were clamoring forpictures of us and the flyer.

  We satisfied them at last, and I entered the flyer after Carpenter. Wesealed the car up, started the air conditioner, and were ready fordeparture.

  "Scared, Pete?" asked Carpenter, his hand on the starting lever.

  I gulped a little as I looked at him. He was perfectly calm to a casualinspection, but I knew him well enough to interpret the small spots ofred which appeared on his high cheekbones and the glitter in his eye. Hemay not have been as frightened as I was but he was laboring under anenormous nervous strain. The mere fact that he called me "Pete" insteadof his usual "First Mortgage" showed that he was feeling pretty serious.

  "Not exactly scared," I replied, "but rather uneasy, so to speak."

  * * * * *

  He laughed nervously.

  "Cheer up, old man! If anything goes wrong, we won't know it. Sit downand get comfortable; this thing will start with a jerk."

  He pulled the starting lever forward suddenly and I felt as though anintolerable weight were pressed against me, glueing me to my seat. Thefeeling lasted only for a moment, for he quickly eased up on the motor,and in a few moments I felt quite normal.

  "How fast are we going?" I asked.

  "Only two hundred miles an hour," he replied. "We will reach the layerin plenty of time at this rate and I don't want to jam into it. You canget up now."

  I rose, moved over to the observation glass in the floor, and lookeddown. We were already five or ten miles above the earth and wereascending rapidly. I could still detect the great circle of reflectorswith which our way was to be opened.

  "How can you tell where these heat beams are when they are turned on?" Iasked. "Infra-red rays are not visible, and we will soon be out of sightof the reflectors."

  "I forgot to mention that I am having a small portion of visible redrays mixed with the infra-red so that we can spot them. I have a radiotelephone here, working on my private wavelength, so that I can directoperations from here as well as from the ground--in fact, better. Ifyou're cold, turn on the heater."

  * * * * *

  The friction of the flyer against the air had so far made up for thedecreasing temperature of the air surrounding us, but a glance at theoutside thermometer warned me that his suggestion was a wise one. Iturned a valve which diverted a small portion of our exhaust through aheating coil in the flyer. It was hard to realize that I was actually ina rocket space ship, the second one to be flown and that, with theexception of the ill-fated Hadley, farther from the earth than any manhad been before. There was no sensation of movement in that hermeticallysealed flyer, and, after the first few moments, the steady drone of therocket motor failed to register on my senses. I was surprised to seethat there was no trail of detritus behind us.

  "You can see our trail at night," replied Carpenter when I asked himabout it, "but in daylight, there is nothing to see. The slightluminosity of the gasses is hidden by the sun's rays. We may be able tosee it when we get out in space beyond the layer, but I don't know. Wehave arrived at the bottom of the layer now, I believe. At any rate, weare losing velocity."

  * * * * *

  I moved over to the instrument board and looked. Our speed had droppedto one hundred and ten miles an hour and was steadily falling off.Carpenter pulled the control lever and reduced our power. Gradually theflyer came to a stop and hung poised in space. He shut off the power aninstant and at once our indicator showed that we were falling, althoughvery slowly. He promptly reapplied the power, and by careful adjustmentbrought us again to a dead stop.

  "Ready to go," he remarked looking at his watch, "and just on time, too.Take a glass and watch the ground. I am going to have the heat turnedon."

  I took the binoculars he indicated and turned them toward the groundwhile he gave a few crisp orders into his telephone. Presently from theground beneath us burst out a circle of red dots from which long beamsstabbed up into the heavens. The beams converged as they mounted untilat a point slightly below us, and a half-mile away they became one solidbeam of red. One peculiarity I noticed was that, while they were plainlyvisible near the ground, they faded out, and it was not until they werea few miles below us that they again became apparent. I followed theirpath upward into the heavens.

  "Look here, Jim!" I cried as I did so. "Something's happening!"

  He sprang to my side and glanced at the beam.

  "Hurrah!" he shouted, pounding me on the back. "I was right! Look! Andthe fools called it a magnetic field!"

  Upward the beam was boring its way, but it was almost concealed by arain of fine particles of black which were falling around it.

  "It's even more spectacular than I had hoped," he chortled. "I hadexpected to reduce the layer to such fluidity that we could penetrateit or even to vaporize it, but we are actually destroying it! That stuffis soot and is proof, if proof be needed, that the layer is an organicliquid."

  * * * * *

  He turned to his telephone and communicated the momentous news to theearth and then rejoined me at the window. For ten minutes we watched anda slight diminution of the black cloud became apparent.

  "They're through the layer," exclaimed Carpenter. "Now watch, and you'llsee something. I'm going to start spreading the beam."

  He turned again to his telephone, and presently the beam began to widenand spread out. As it did so the dark cloud became more dense than ithad been before. The earth below us was hidden and we could see the redonly as a dim murky glow through the falling soot. Carpenter inquired ofthe laboratory and found that we were completely invisible to theground, half the heavens being hidden by the black pall. For an hour thebeam worked its way toward us.

  "The hole is about four hundred yards in diameter right now," saidCarpenter as he turned from the telephone. "I have told them to stop themovement of the reflectors, and as soon as the air clears a little,we'll start through."

  It took another hour for the soot to clear enough that we could plainlydetect the ring of red light before us. Carpenter gave some orders tothe ground, and a gap thirty yards wide opened in the wall before us.Toward this gap the flyer moved slowly under the side thrus
t of thediverted motor discharge. The temperature rose rapidly as we neared thewall of red light before us. Nearer we drew until the light was on bothsides of us. Another few feet and the flyer shot forward with a jerkthat threw me sprawling on the floor. Carpenter fell too, but hemaintained his hold on the controls and tore at them desperately tocheck us.

  * * * * *

  I scrambled to my feet and watched. The red wall was alarmingly close.Nearer we drove and then came another jerk which threw me sprawlingagain. The wall retreated. In another moment we were standing still,with the red all around us at a distance of about two hundred yards.

  "We had a narrow escape from being cremated," said Carpenter with ashaky laugh. "I knew that our speed would increase as soon as we gotclear of the layer but it caught me by surprise just the same. I had noidea how great the holding effect of the stuff was. Well, FirstMortgage, the road to space is open for us. May I invite you to be myguest on a little week-end jaunt to the Moon?"

  "No thanks, Jim," I said with a wry smile. "I think a little trip to theedge of the layer will quite satisfy me."

  "Quitter," he laughed. "Well, say good-by to familiar things. Here wego!"

  He turned to the controls of the flyer, and presently we were movingagain, this time directly away from the earth. There was no jerk atstarting this time, merely a feeling as though the floor were pressingagainst my feet, a great deal like the feeling a person gets when theyrise rapidly in an express elevator. The indicator showed that we weretraveling only sixty miles an hour. For half an hour we continuedmonotonously on our way with nothing to divert us. Carpenter yawned.

  "Now that it's all over, I feel let down and sleepy," he announced. "Weare well beyond the point to which Hadley penetrated and so far we havemet with no resistance. We are probably nearly at the outer edge of thelayer. I think I'll shoot up a few miles more and then call it a day andgo home. We are about eighty miles from the earth now."

  * * * * *

  I looked down, but could see nothing below us but the dense cloud ofblack soot resulting from the destruction of the heaviside layer. LikeCarpenter, I felt sleepy, and I suppressed a yawn as I turned again tothe window.

  "Look here, Jim!" I cried suddenly. "What's that?"

  He moved in a leisurely manner to my side and looked out. As he did so Ifelt his hand tighten on my shoulder with a desperate grip. Down thewall of red which surrounded us was coming an object of some kind. Thething was fully seventy-five yards long and half as wide at its mainportion, while long irregular streams extended for a hundred yards oneach side of it. There seemed to be dozens of them.

  "What is it, Jim?" I asked in a voice which sounded high and unnaturalto me.

  "I don't know," he muttered, half to me and half to himself. "Good Lord,there's another of them!"

  He pointed. Not far from the first of the things came another, evenlarger than the first. They were moving sluggishly along the red light,seeming to flow rather than to crawl. I had a horrible feeling that theywere alive and malignant. Carpenter stepped back to the controls of theflyer and stopped our movement; we hung in space, watching them. Thethings were almost level with us, but their sluggish movement wasdownward toward the earth. In color, they were a brilliant crimson,deepening into purple near the center. Just as the first of them cameopposite us it paused, and slowly a portion of the mass extended itselffrom the main bulk; and then, like doors opening, four huge eyes, eachof them twenty feet in diameter, opened and stared at us.

  "It's alive, Jim," I quavered. I hardly knew my own voice as I spoke.

  * * * * *

  Jim stepped back to the controls with a white face, and slowly we movedcloser to the mass. As we approached I thought that I could detect afleeting passage of expression in those huge eyes. Then they disappearedand only a huge crimson and purple blob lay before us. Jim moved thecontrols again and the flyer came to a stop.

  Two long streamers moved out from the mass. Suddenly there was a jerk tothe ship which threw us both to the floor. It started upward at expresstrain speed. Jim staggered to his feet, grasped the controls and startedall four bow motors at full capacity, but even this enormous force hadnot the slightest effect in diminishing our speed.

  "Well, the thing's got us, whatever it is," said Jim as he pulled hiscontrols to neutral, shutting off all power. Now that the danger hadassumed a tangible form, he appeared as cool and collected as ever, tomy surprise, I found that I had recovered control of my muscle and of myvoice. I became aware that the shoulder which Jim had gripped was achingbadly, and I rubbed it absently.

  "What is it, Jim?" I asked for the third time.

  "I don't know," he replied. "It is some horrible inhabitant of space,something unknown to us on earth. From its appearance and actions, Ithink it must be a huge single-celled animal of the type of the earthlyamoeba. If an amoeba is that large here, what must an elephant looklike? However, I expect that we'll learn more about the matter laterbecause it's taking us with it, wherever it's going."

  * * * * *

  Suddenly the flyer became dark inside. I looked at the nearest window,but I could not even detect its outline. I reached for the light switch,but a sudden change in direction threw me against the wall. There was aninstant of intense heat in the flyer.

  "We have passed the heaviside layer," said Jim. "The brute has changeddirection, and we felt that heat when he took us through the infra-redwall."

  I reached again for the light switch, but before I could find it ourmotion ceased and an instant later the flyer was filled with glaringsunlight. We both turned to the window.

  We lay on a glistening plain of bluish hue which stretched without abreak as far as we could see. Not a thing broke the monotony of ourvision. We turned to the opposite window. How can I describe the sightwhich met our horrified gaze? On the plain before us lay a huge purplemonstrosity of gargantuan dimensions. The thing was a shapeless mass,only the four huge eyes standing out regarding us balefully. The masswas continually changing its outline and, as we watched, a long streamerextended itself from the body toward us. Over and around the flyer thefeeler went, while green and red colors played over first one and thenanother of the huge eyes before us. The feeler wrapped itself around theflyer and we were lifted into the air toward those horrible eyes. We hadalmost reached them when the thing dropped us. We fell to the plain witha crash. We staggered to our feet again and looked out. Our captor wasbattling for its life.

  * * * * *

  Its attacker was a smaller thing of a brilliant green hue, striped andmottled with blue and yellow. While our captor was almost formless, thenewcomer had a very definite shape. It resembled a cross between a birdand a lizard, its shape resembling a bird, as did tiny rudimentary wingsand a long beak, while the scaly covering and the fact that it had fourlegs instead of two bore out the idea that it might be a lizard. Itshuge birdlike beak was armed with three rows of long sharp teeth withwhich it was tearing at our captor. The purple amoeba was holding itsassailant with a dozen of its thrown out feelers which were wrappedabout the body and legs of the green horror. The whole battle wasconducted in absolute silence.

  "Now's our chance, Jim!" I cried. "Get away from here while that dragonhas the amoeba busy!"

  He jumped to the control levers of the flyer and pulled the startingswitch well forward. The shock of the sudden start hurled me to thefloor, but from where I fell I was able to watch the battle on theplain below us. It raged with uninterrupted fury and I felt certain ofour escape when, with a shock which hurled both Jim and me to theceiling, the flyer stopped. We fell back to the floor and I reflectedthat it was well for us that the interior of the flyer was so wellpadded. Had it not been, our bones would have been broken a dozen timesby the shocks to which we had been subjected.

  "What now?" I asked as I painfully struggled to my feet.

  "Another of those purple amoebas," rep
lied Jim from the vantage point ofa window. "He's looking us over as if he were trying to decide whetherwe are edible or not."

  * * * * *

  I joined him at the window. The thing which had us was a replica of themonster we had left below us engaged in battle with the green dragonwhich had attacked it. The same indefinite and ever changing outline wasevident, as well as the four huge eyes. The thing regarded us for amoment and slowly moved us up against its bulk until we touched it.Deeper and deeper into the mass of the body we penetrated until we werein a deep cavern with the light coming to us only from the entrance. Iwatched the entrance and horror possessed my soul.

  "The hole's closing. Jim!" I gasped. "The thing is swallowing us!"

  "I expected that," he replied grimly. "The amoeba has no mouth, youknow. Nourishment is passed into the body through the skin, which closesbehind it. We are a modern version of Jonah and the whale, FirstMortgage."

  "Well, Jonah got out," I ventured.

  "We'll try to," he replied. "When that critter swallowed us, he gotsomething that will prove pretty indigestible. Let's try to give him astomach ache. I don't suppose that a machine-gun will affect him, butwe'll try it."

  "I didn't know that you had any guns on board."

  "Oh yes, I've got two machine-guns. We'll turn one of them loose, but Idon't expect much effect from it."

  * * * * *

  He moved over to one of the guns and threw off the cover which hadhidden it from my gaze. He fed in a belt of ammunition and pulled histrigger. For half a minute he held it down, and two hundred and fiftycaliber thirty bullets tore their way into space. There was no evidenceof movement on the part of our host.

  "Just as I thought," remarked Jim as he threw aside the empty belt andcovered the gun again. "The thing has no nervous organization to speakof and probably never felt that. We'll have to rig up a disintegratingray for him."

  "What?" I gasped.

  "A disintegrating ray," he replied. "Oh yes, I know how to make thefabulous 'death ray' that you journalists are always raving about. Ihave never announced my discovery, for war is horrible enough withoutit, but I have generated it and used it in my work a number of times.Did it never occur to you that the rocket motor is built on adisintegrating ray principle?"

  "Of course it is, Jim. I never thought of it in that light before, butit must be. How can you use it? The discharge from the motors is aharmless stream of energy particles."

  "Instead of turning the ray into powdered aluminum and breaking it down,what is to prevent me from turning it against the body of our captor andblasting my way out?"

  "I don't know."

  "Well, nothing is. I'll have to modify one of the motors a little, butit's not a hard job. Get some wrenches from the tool box and we'llstart."

  * * * * *

  An hour of hard work enabled us to disconnect one of the reserve bowmotors and, after the modifications Jim had mentioned, turn the ray outthrough the port through which the products of disintegration were meantto go. When we had bolted it in place with an improvised coupling, Jimopened the vitriolene screen which held in our air and turned to hiscontrol board.

  "Here goes," he said.

  He pulled the lever to full power and with a roar which almost deafenedus in the small flyer, the ray leaped out to do its deadly work. Iwatched through a port beside the motor. There was a flash of intenselight for an instant and then the motor died away in silence. A path tofreedom lay open before us. Jim started one of the stern motors andslowly we forced our way through the hole torn in the living mass. Whenwe were almost at the surface, he threw in full power and we shot freefrom the amoeba and into the open. Again we were stopped in midair anddrawn back toward the huge bulk. The eyes looked at us and we wereturned around. As the ray swung into a position to point directly towardone of the eyes, Jim pulled the controlling lever. With the flash oflight which ensued, the eye and a portion of the surrounding tissuedisappeared. The amoeba writhed and changed shape rapidly, while flashesof brilliant crimson played over the remaining eyes. Again the ray wasbrought into play and another of the eyes disappeared. This wasevidently enough for our captor, for it suddenly released us andinstantly we started to fall. Jim caught the control levers and turnedon our power in time to halt us only a few feet above the plain towardwhich we were falling. We were close to the point whence we had startedup and we could see that the battle below us was still raging.

  * * * * *

  The green dragon was partially engulfed by the amoeba, but it stillrelentlessly tore off huge chunks and devoured them. The amoeba wasgreatly reduced in bulk but it still fought gamely. Even as weapproached the dragon was evidently satiated, for it slowly withdrewfrom the purple bulk and back away. Long feelers shot out from theamoeba's bulk toward the dragon but they were bitten off before theycould grasp their prey.

  "Let's get away from here, Jim," I cried, but I spoke too late. Even asthe words left my mouth the green dragon saw us and raised itself in theair, and with gaping jaws launched itself at us. It took Jim only amoment to shoot the flyer up into space, and the charge passedharmlessly beneath us. The dragon checked its headway and turned againtoward us.

  "Use the machine-gun, Pete!" cried Jim. "I've got to run the ship."

  I threw the cover off the gun and fed in a fresh belt of ammunition. Asthe green monster dashed toward us I hastily aligned the gun and pulledthe trigger. My aim was good and at least fifty of the bullets plowedthrough the approaching bulk before Jim dropped the ship and allowed itto pass above us. Again the dragon turned and charged, and again I metit with a hail of bullets. They had no apparent effect and Jim droppedthe ship again and let the huge bulk shoot by above us. Twice more thedragon rushed but the last rush was less violent than had been the firstthree.

  "The bullets are affecting him, Pete!" cried Jim as he shot the flyerupward. "Give him another dose!"

  I hastily fed in another belt, but it was not needed. The dragon rushedthe fifth time, but before it reached us its velocity fell off and itpassed harmlessly below us and fell on a long curve to the plain below.It fell near the purple amoeba which it had battled and a long feelershot out and grasped it. Straight into the purple mass it was drawn, andvanished into the huge bulk.

  Jim started one of the stern motors. In a few seconds we were far fromthe scene.

  "Have you any idea of which direction to go?" he asked. I shook my head.

  "Have you a radio beacon?" I asked.

  He withered me with a glance.

  "We're beyond the heaviside layer," he reminded me.

  * * * * *

  For a moment I was stunned.

  "We can't be very far from the hole," he said consolingly as he fumbledwith the controls. "But before we try to find it, we had betterdisconnect one of the stern motors and rig it as a disintegrating ray sothat we will have one bearing in each direction. We may meet moredenizens of space who like our looks, and we haven't much ammunitionleft."

  We landed on the plain and in an hour had a second disintegrating rayready for action. Thus armed, we rose from the blue plain and started atrandom on our way. For ten minutes we went forward. Then Jim stopped theflyer and turned back. We had gone only a short distance when I calledto him to stop.

  "What is it?" he demanded as he brought the flyer to a standstill.

  "There's another creature ahead of us," I replied. "A red one."

  "Red?" he asked excitedly as he joined me. About a mile ahead of us ahuge mass hung in the air. It resembled the amoeba which had attackedus, except that the newcomer was red. As we watched, it moved toward us.As it did so its color changed to purple.

  "Hurrah!" cried Jim. "Don't you remember, Pete, that the one whichcaptured us and took us out of the hole was red while in the hole andthen turned purple? That thing just came out of the hole!"

  "Then why can't we see the red beam?" I demande
d.

  "Because there's no air or anything to reflect it," he replied. "Wecan't see it until we are right in it."

  I devoutly hoped that he was right as he headed the ship toward thewaiting monster. As we approached the amoeba came rapidly to meet us anda long feeler shot out. As it did so there was a flash of intense lightahead of us as Jim turned loose the ray, and the feeler disappeared.Another and another met the same fate. Then Jim rotated the shipslightly and let out the full force of the ray toward the monster. Ahuge hole was torn in it, and as we approached with our ray blazing, theamoeba slowly retreated and our path was open before us. Again there wasan instant of intense heat as we passed through the red wall, and wewere again in the hole which Jim's lamps had blasted through the layer.Below us still lay the fog which had obscured the earth when we hadstarted on our upward trip.

  * * * * *

  Down toward the distant earth we dropped. We had gone about thirty milesbefore we saw on the side of the hole one of the huge amoeba which wereso thick above.

  "We might stop and pick that fellow off," said Jim, "but, on the whole,I think we'll experiment with him."

  He drove the ship nearer and turned it on its axis, holding it inposition by one of the auxiliary discharges. A flash came from ourforward ray and a portion of the amoeba disappeared. A long arm movedout toward us, but it moved slowly and sluggishly instead of with thelightninglike swiftness which had characterized the movements of theothers. Jimmy easily eluded it and dropped the ship a few yards. Thecreature pursued it, but it moved slowly. For a mile we kept ourdistance ahead of it, but we had to constantly decrease our speed tokeep from leaving it behind. Soon we were almost at a standstill, andJim reversed our direction and drew nearer. A feeler came slowly andfeebly out a few feet toward us and then stopped. We dropped the ship afew feet but the amoeba did not follow. Jim glanced at the altimeter.

  "Just as I thought," he exclaimed. "We are about forty-five miles abovethe earth and already the air is so dense that the thing cannot movelower. They are fashioned for existence in the regions of space and ineven the most rarified air they are helpless. There is no chance of oneever reaching the surface of the earth without years of gradualacclimation, and even if it did, it would be practically immobile. In afew years the layer will flow enough to plug the hole I have made, buteven so, I'll build a couple of space flyers equipped withdisintegrating rays as soon as we get down and station them alongsidethe hole to wipe out any of that space vermin which tries to comethrough. Let's go home. We've put in a good day's work."

  Hundreds of the purple amoeba have been destroyed by the guarding shipsduring the past five years. The hole is filling in as Jim predicted, andin another ten years the earth will be as securely walled in as it everwas. But in the mean time, no one knows what unrevealed horrors spaceholds, and the world will never rest entirely easy until the slowprocess of time again heals the broken protective layer.

  * * * * *

  Everyone Is Invited

  _To_ "_Come Over in_

  'THE READERS' CORNER'"!

  * * * * *

  _The men of Cleric were surrounding Jaska._]