The Seed of the Toc-Toc Birds Page 5

impenetrable jungle. From auniverse in a piece of matter no larger than a pin-head, from asub-atomic world, the weapons of an alien intelligence were ruthlesslybeing hurled against man, to conquer, to destroy him.

  And now it was made plain to him why the drifting globes had seemed tomaterialize out of thin air. Being infinitesimally small parts of anatom, these globes were released from the cabinet and soon assumed thesize of peas; they were guided across the crypt, up the old Wileyshaft, and high in the air, somewhere in space, enlarged to immenseproportions. How? Talbot could not guess. By some manipulation ofscience and machinery beyond that of earth.

  Engrossed, he moved an inch forward, craned his head, and in thatmoment it happened. Beneath his weight a section of earth and rockcrumbled, cracked, slid forward, and he plunged headlong to the floorbelow, striking his skull with stunning force!

  He came to himself, staring up into the dour-looking face of a tallman. He recollected pitching forward among the birds and the machines.But the birds and the machines had disappeared and he was lying in anodd room without windows but lit with a soft radiance. Bewildered, hesat up.

  "Who are you?" he demanded.

  The man's beard looked straggly, untrimmed.

  "My name," he said, "is Reubens--Professor Reubens."

  Professor Reubens! Talbot gasped. "Not the scientist who disappeared?"

  "Yes--as you've disappeared."

  "What!"

  "Through the machine."

  It was a moment before Talbot understood. "You mean...."

  "That you are a prisoner in a sub-atomic world."

  Talbot now realized with startling clearness what had happened to him.When he had fallen into the crypt the weird birds had directly placedhim in the cabinet and transported him to their own world. In otherwords, he and Reubens and everything he saw about him were infinitelysmall creatures in an atom-world. He and the Professor were trapped!And when Manuel blew up the only means of return....

  "How long have I been here?" Talbot asked hoarsely.

  "Five minutes at the most."

  Then, at the shortest, the way to earth would exist twenty minuteslonger. Twenty minutes.... Incoherently he told Reubens of what hadhappened in Arizona since his disappearance, of his own misadventure.

  "Aye," said the Professor, "I knew as much. Nor do these inhuman birdsintend stopping with the use of seed globes. More devilish weapons thanthat they plan using against earth. Oh, they are fiends, fiends!Already have they wiped out civilization and intelligent life on otherplanets in this sub-atomic system and introduced their own."

  He stopped, shuddering. "Nor is it to be wondered at that no birds wereseen after the first attack on Oracle," he went on. "They do not fightin person, as do we ourselves, but through proxy, directing machinesfrom centers of control. In powers of destruction, they areimmeasurably ahead of man. Thank God you discovered their headquartersin the deserted mine and have spread the gas for its destruction. Butthe rage of the birds at such a defeat will be terrible. They willundoubtedly torture me in an effort to make me reveal the basis of myinvention so that they can resume the attack on earth. So we mustescape."

  "But how--where?"

  "I have thought that out. It is one chance in a thousand. Undoubtedlywe will be killed. But that is better than being tortured or living inthis world. Look."

  He held up a pearl-handled pen-knife. "The birds are smart, all right,but they don't quite understand clothes, wearing none themselves. Theyfound your revolver, but overlooked this."

  "Of what good is it?"

  "To cut our way out of this cell."

  Talbot laughed incredulously. The walls of the room were smooth, andhard to the touch. "They're as solid as concrete," he said.

  "But cut like cheese under a steel blade. I found that out. Watch."

  To Talbot's amazement the point of the penknife sank into the wall andin a moment a section of it was gouged out. The professor said tensely,"I've been months in this place, been taken back and forth, and knowthe lay of the land. This room is in a great building that houses thelaboratory from which the attack against earth is being launched. Wouldyou believe it, only the great scientist who picked up my messages andhelped me perfect my invention, and a few of his assistants, areconcerned in that attack, and they will be congregated at the machines.Follow me, and whatever I command, do it promptly."

  The Professor had been working feverishly as he spoke, and now he andTalbot crawled through the hole he had made in the wall and foundthemselves in a long gloomy corridor. "Quick," Reubens whispered.

  They darted down the passageway. Talbot had only time to see that thegleaming sides of the corridor were beveled and etched with strangedesigns, before they came to its end and where a curious device like ahuge five-pointed star was revolving noiselessly, half sunk in a greathole in the floor. Without hesitation the Professor stepped onto one ofthe flat-tipped star-points as it came level with where they stood andTalbot did the same. Up, turned the star-point, to a dizzy height, andover, but the tip swung on ball-bearings, maintaining its passengers ina perpendicular position, and from its highest point of elevationdescended to another floor far below, where they disembarked.

  The huge revolving star-wheel was nothing but an ingenious movablestaircase. But the Professor gave Talbot no time to marvel, nor did thelatter try to linger. The corridor below was wider, more richly beveledand carved, and the statue of an heroic bird stood perched in thecenter of it. The lighting was soft and mellow, but Talbot couldperceive no windows or globes. Suddenly from an open doorway hopped abird. There was no chance to avoid it. Its wings were spread and fromits parted bill came a harsh cry, "Toc-toc, toc-toc!"

  Knife in one hand, the Professor hurled himself forward and caught thebird in the grip of the other. Instantly from the doorway sprang amonstrous mechanism on stilts, flexible tentacles of metal reaching outand wrapping themselves around the Professor. Talbot leaped to theProfessor's assistance. The mechanism fought like a live thing. In vainhe strove to wrench the tentacles free of the Professor. One of themlashed out and took him by the thighs in a crushing grasp. But theProfessor had the bird by the throat. Both of his hands were free.Back, he forced its head, back. The mechanism seemed to falter in theattack, as if bewildered. Across the exposed throat the Professor drewthe gleaming blade. Flesh, tendons and arteries gave, blood spurted,and in the same moment the tentacles fell away from Talbot and theProfessor and withdrew with a dull clang. The Professor released thebird and it dropped to the floor.

  "It is the birds' mentality that directs those mechanisms," said theProfessor, pointing to the now harmless machine.

  Apparently the brief but terrific battle had passed unnoticed, no alarmbeing given. Now the corridor twisted. The two men came to where a deepwell was sunk in the floor. To one side a star-wheel revolved smoothly.Out of the depths came the steady throb of machinery. Cautiouslypeering over the edge, Talbot saw a sight he would never forget.

  He did not need the Professor's whispered words to tell him that herewas the source of the deadly attack being waged against earth.Motionless birds perched in front of bizarre machines; lights waxed andwaned; a cannon-like device, or funnel, shot a column of light into ascreen, and through the column of light moved a steady procession ofround objects the size of plums.

  "The drifting globes being shot through to earth," whispered theProfessor, "and our only hope. Listen, the birds are intent on theirmachines, their backs to the star-wheel. We will descend, throwourselves into the column of light, seize hold of a globe, and...."

  He did not need to finish. Talbot understood in a flash. They would bedragged to their own world by the weapons hurled at it.

  "Of course that column of light may kill us," went on the Professortensely. "Or we may be blown up on the other side. Your Mexican friendhasn't touched off that explosive gas yet, because--But we've not amoment to lose. Follow me."

  The tip of the star-wheel went up, over, descended. The blood wasroaring in Talbot's ears. "Now!" hissed th
e Professor. "Now!" Togetherthey rushed forward. Talbot's foot slipped. The heart leaped into histhroat. He never remembered reaching the column of light; but suddenlyhe was in it, blinded, dazed. His clutching hands closed on somethingsmall and hard.

  The laboratory was a pinwheel going round and round. Through a sea ofdarkness he floated. A distant glow grew, expanded, became the crypt inthe old Wiley mine. A moment he glimpsed the gleaming pillars, thepulsing machines, the startled birds, and then--Oh, it was incredible,impossible, but the dark, crumbling walls of the old shaft were aroundhim; the globe in his hand no larger than a pea was lifting him towardslife and safety.

  He wanted to shout, to sing, but even as the pale stars fell athwarthis upturned face, even as the cool mountain air smote