The Seed of the Toc-Toc Birds Page 3

what I am going to tell you. I wasin London when I read of what is occurring in Arizona. Before the wirewent dead on him, didn't the unfortunate constable of Oracle saysomething about birds?"

  The senators were silent. "Yes," said a press correspondent at length."If I remember correctly, he said, 'And there are the birds--b-i-r-d-s,birds.'"

  "Well," exclaimed Senator Huffy, "the man was pretty well excited andhis words may have been misunderstood. What the devil have birds to dowith those globes and jungles?"

  "More than you think," replied Baxter. "Listen!" He fixed theirattention with uplifted hand. "The thing I have to reveal is of suchparamount importance that I must not be interrupted. You must bear withme while I go back some months and even years in time to make myselfunderstood.

  "You all remember the mysterious disappearance of Professor Reubens.Yes, I see that you do. It caused a sensation. He was the foremostscientist in the country--it would not be exaggerating too much to sayin the world. His name was not as well known among the masses as thatof Miller and Dean; in fact, outside of an exclusive circle it wasn'tknown at all, but ask any scientist about Reubens. He was a tall, dourman of sixty, with Scotch blood in his veins, and was content to teacha class in a college because of the leisure it afforded him for his ownresearch work. That was at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

  "The faculty of the college was proud to have him on its staff andprovided him with a wooden building back of the campus, for a privatelaboratory and workshop. I understand that the Rockefeller Institutecontributed funds towards Professor Reubens' experiments, but I am notcertain.

  "At any rate he had a wonderfully well equipped place. I was a pupil atthe University and attended his class in physics. A strong friendshipgrew up between us. How can I explain that friendship? I was not aparticularly brilliant student, but he had few friends and perhaps myboyish admiration pleased him. I think, too, that he was lonely,heart-hungry for affection. His wife was dead, and his own boy.... ButI won't go into that.

  "Suffice it to say that I believe he bestowed on me some of theaffection he had felt for his dead son. Indeed I am sure he did. Bethat as it may, I often visited him in his laboratory and watched,fascinated, as he pored over some of his intricate apparatus. In avague way, I knew that he was seeking to delve more deeply into theatom.

  "'Before Leeuwenhoek invented the microscope,' the Professor once said,'who ever dreamed of the life in a drop of water? What is needed now isa super-microscope to view the atom.'

  "The idea thrilled me.

  "'Do you believe, sir, that an instrument will ever be invented thatwill do that?'

  "'Yes. Why not? I am working on some such device myself. Of course thewhole thing has to be radically different. The present, method ofdeducing the atom by indirection is very unsatisfactory. We can knownothing for certain until direct observation is possible. The atomictheory that likens the atom to our solar system, with planets revolvinground a central nucleus, is very interesting. But I shall never becontent, for one, until I can see such an atomic system in operation.'

  "Now I had every admiration for the capacity and genius of my teacher,but I couldn't forebear exclaiming:

  "'Is that possible?'

  "'Of course it's possible,' he cried irritably. 'Do you think I shouldbe pursuing my experiments if I didn't think it possible? Onlynumbskulls think anything impossible!'

  "I felt rather hurt at his retort and a certain coolness sprang upbetween us. The summer holidays came and I went away without biddinghim good-by. But returning for the new semester, my first act was tohurry to the laboratory. He greeted me as if there had never been anydifference between us.

  "'Come,' he cried; 'you must see what I have accomplished. It ismarvelous, marvelous.'

  "In his workshop stood a mechanism perhaps three feet square and fourfeet high. It was made of polished steel and looked not unlike anEdison music box.

  "'You are the first I have shown it to,' he said excitedly. 'Here, lookinto this.'

  "Stooping over the top of the box I peered into the eye-pieceindicated. It was so fashioned that it fitted the contour of the facesnugly.

  "'Now hold steady,' warned the Professor. 'This machine makes quite anoise, but it won't harm you at all.'

  "I sensed that he was fingering and arranging dials and levers on theside of the contrivance. Suddenly an engine in the box began to throbwith a steady rhythm. This gradually increased in tempo until thevibration of it shook the room.

  "'Don't move,' shouted the Professor.

  "At first I could see nothing. Everything was intensely dark. Then thedarkness began to clarify. Or rather I should say it seemed as if thedarkness increased to such a pitch that it became--oh, I can't describeit! But of a sudden I had the sensation of looking into the utterbleakness and desolation of interstellar space. Coldness,emptiness--that was the feeling. And in this coldness and emptinessflamed a distant sun, around which twelve darker bodies the size ofpeas revolved. They revolved in various ellipses. And far off--millionsof light years away (the thought came to me involuntarily at thetime)--I could glimpse infinitesimal specks of light, a myriad of them.With a cry I jerked back my head.

  "'That,' shouted the Professor in my ear, 'was an atomic universe.'

  "It never entered my head to doubt him. The realness, the vividness,the overwhelming loneliness and vastness of the sight I had seen--yes,and the suggestion of cosmic grandeur and aloofness that wasconveyed--banished any other feeling but that of belief.

  "'Inside that box,' said Professor Reubens quietly, 'and directlyunderneath the special crystal-ray medium I have perfected, is a pieceof matter no larger than a pin-head. But viewed through the magnifyingmedium of the crystal-ray that insignificant piece of matter becomes asvast and as empty as all space, and in that space you saw--an atomicsystem.'

  "An atomic system! Imagine my emotions. The tremendousness of theassertion took away my breath. I could only seize the Professor's handand hold to it tightly.

  "'Softly, my boy, softly,' he said, smiling at my emotion. 'What youhave seen is but the least part of the invention. There is more to itthan that.'

  "'More?'

  "'Yes. Did you think I would be content with merely viewing at adistance? No. Consider that revolving round a central nucleus similarto our sun are twelve planets, any one of which may be inhabited byintelligent creatures.'

  "I stared at him dumbly.

  "'You mean--'

  "'Why not? Size is only relative. Besides in this case I candemonstrate. Please look again.'

  "Not without trepidation, I did as he bade. Once more I saw the blackemptiness of atomic space, saw the blazing nucleus with its whirlingsatellites. Above the roaring noise of the machine came ProfessorReubens' voice. 'I am now intensifying the magnifying medium andfocusing it on one of the planets you see. The magnifying crystal-rayis mounted on a revolving device which follows this particular planetin its orbit. Now ... now....'

  "I gazed, enthralled. Only one atomic planet--the size of a pea andseemingly motionless in space--now lay in my field of vision. And thisplanet began to grow, to expand, until beneath my staring eyes itlooked like the full moon in all its glory.

  "'I am gradually increasing the magnifying power of the crystal-ray,'came the voice of the Professor.

  "The huge mass of the planet filled the sub-atomic sky. My handsgripped the rim of the box with excitement. On its surface began toform continents, seas. Good God! was all this really materializing froma speck of matter under the lens of a super-microscope? I was lookingdown from an immense height upon an ever clarifying panorama. Mountainsbegan to unfold, plains, and suddenly beneath me appeared a mightycity. I was too far away to see it distinctly, but it was no city suchas we have on earth. And yet it was magnificent; it was like gazing ata strange civilization.

  "Dimly I could see great machines laboring and sending forth glowingstreamers of light. Strange buildings rose. It was all bizarre,bewildering, unbelievably weird. What creatures dwelt in this place? Istrained m
y eyes, strove to press forward, and in that very moment thethings at which I gazed seemed to rise swiftly to meet my descendinghead. The illusion was that of plunging earthward at breakneck speed.With a stifled cry, I recoiled, rubbed my blinking eyes, and foundmyself staring stupidly into the face of Professor Reubens. He shut offthe machine and regarded me thoughtfully.

  "'In that atomic universe, on a planet swinging round a sub-atomic sun,the all of which lies somewhere in a speck of our matter, intelligentcreatures dwell and have created a great machine civilization. AndBaxter,' he leaned forward and fixed me