Page:Weird Tales volume 36 number 02.djvu/81

 cooling off. That much is apparent from the change in color. And judging from the dark line running from top to bottom, I'd say that it has already begun to crack up from the bombardment."

"The line is widening fast," said Carruthers. "We should know definitely what is happening in a short time."

As both men watched speechlessly, the black line began to widen. The Mass lost its roundness. Its sides began to expand until it assumed the form of a rubber ball that was being pressed from the top downward.

ARRUTHERS leaned forward, concentrated the directional beam on the dark path and stepped up the power so that he could see better what that darkness signified.

As the expanding dark line flowed into the screen, the outer edges of the Mass became invisible, for the screen wasn't large enough to produce the full image.

For a few minutes there was nothing visible. Then, as the powerful beam of the ether-vision machine penetrated the shadows, they saw a pin-point of light in the very center of the blackness. And suddenly the darkness rolled back. Through it shot a ball of what looked like cloudy vapor.

The heat of the Mass dissipated it slightly, but not altogether. It kept rolling outward with gathering momentum until it was no longer a part of the Mass. but separate from it and moving through space at a tremendous speed. So swiftly did it come forward that its size filled the magnetic screen with what seemed like glittering moisture.

Carruthers adjusted the beam at a different angle. When the cloud of vapor was visible again, it was far from the parent Mass.

"Look, Vignot!" he gasped. "The Mass has opened up and disgorged something, and it's breaking into two indefinite sections which are fading into dust. The Mass is disintegrating!"

"But the vapor cloud," breathed Vignot, also leaning forward. "Keep it in sight every minute. Better shut off the flow of neutrons. They won't be needed any longer."

Carruthers pulled the switch. The electro-carbonide rods cooled and turned black. When he reached the control panel of the ether-vision machine again, the vapor cloud had vanished.

He angled the directional beam for a long time before picking it up again. When he did finally overtake it, the cloud was really getting close to the earth. As they watched it, they saw a number of tiny bright specks slanting out of the vapor which by now was almost dissipated.

Light from the sun struck against them. They glittered like molten fire as they fell toward the earth.

"God!" breathed Vignot. "What are they?"

"Metal or glass cylinders at first glance," guessed Carruthers. "Too far away yet to know definitely. But they'll never reach the earth. They'll be burned up when they pass into the air barrier above our globe. I've counted them. There must be twenty in all." He cringed as a bright burst of flame enveloped the lowest of the cylinders.

"There goes the first one. Burned to nothing in the friction..."

"Wait a second, Aaron. You knew about the new additional magnetic attraction that's affecting compasses all over the world. Well, I think I've solved the mystery. Its this machine of yours. The magnetic field forms when the neutrons start shooting into space. Turn on your electro-carbonide rods again. But shoot the neutrons off to the east so they won't destroy those shining things falling to earth. And if they're made of metal as