Page:Weird Tales volume 30 number 06.djvu/76



YLMER CARSCADDEN, eminent American scientist, discovers and manufactures metal impervious to gravitation, and also under intense cold repelled by other substances. He is financed by Hugh Burgoyne. They construct a large shell, christened Neutralia, with which to explore beyond our planet's atmosphere. The two, with Jacob Flint, an old employee, set out for our satellite. After starting, two former employees, Kobloth and Whipps, discharged for spying, are found stowaways in the storeroom.

After some experiments in arresting the stupendous speed of the shell they arrive safely at the moon. Finding an atmosphere, though rarefied, capable of supporting life, they alight in the great crater of Copernicus. Moss and giant cacti are the sole vegetation; but gold and diamonds are found in large deposits.

While the scientist is inspecting these, Kobloth and Whipps suddenly attack Carscadden and Flint, stunning them with rocks. The treacherous pair instantly dash for the shell, hoping to make off with it and later return to exploit the vast wealth they have seen. Burgoyne, however, arrives on the scene and at point of his gun compels them to surrender.

Carscadden and Flint recovering, all return, and the prisoners are locked in the storeroom. Then the shell is headed for Mars. Traveling at a million miles an hour they arrive and alight. They find the surface is covered with a network of great cables. A curious carriage comes racing along a cable, and its occupant immediately attacks them with electrified wires. Other carriages arrive and join in the attack.

The story continues:

by its strangeness, the voyagers halted involuntarily, and instantly saw that along all the cables, converging toward the spot beneath which lay the Neutralia, hundreds of the spider-Martians were racing. The air was rent with their weird shrill cries, and throbbed with the drone of their powerful propelling mechanisms. In a few seconds the nearest would be directly above them!

"Quick, into the globe!" snapped Carscadden. "Give me a lift up and I'll throw out another ladder. I can find one at once. See that Kobloth and Whipps are the last to ascend. Quick! here come their wires!"

Instantly Burgoyne had the scientist on his shoulders, and the globe being a little tilted toward them Carscadden Rh