Page:Weird Tales Volume 3 Number 4 (1923-04).djvu/36

An Aviator's Fatal Encounter
With the Monsters of the Air

"The wreckage of the 'plane has all been cleared away and disposed of according to orders, sir," continued Lieutenant Gorham, "It was undoubtedly Captain Rowell's 'plane, although this is a thousand miles from where the flight started; and it is very evident that he broke the altitude record as he had been trying so hard to do. Now, sir, if you will read this—" Lieutenant Gorham extended a small black notebook. "I found it in the breast pocket of his leather outside jacket. I can not imagine why the 'plane did not take fire in falling from such a terrific height. And you will perhaps be interested to know, sir—" he hesitated—"that that same queer odor you can still detect on the book was quite noticeable as we were clearing up."

The Major sniffed the book,

"Um—odd," he said. "All right, I'll look it over."

Lieutenant Gorham saluted and went out. The Major opened the little book and read, at first casually, then intently:

"I am writing this" [ran the words written in Captain Rowell's familiar, irregular handwriting] "in the hope that it may fall into the hands of human beings and reveal the things I have found up here. It now seems improbable I will be able to return and report personally my amazing experiences, "It is impossible to measure accurately the lapse of time, as my watch has stopped, but I broke the altitude record more easily than I had hoped for the continued mounting. The cold was intense, breathing became increasingly difficult. I must have become dizzy, for the next recollection I have is of a serisation of lightness, as if my body were about to rise out of the still mounting plane and soar ahead of it. I assume I had then reached a point so distant from the earth that the attraction of some other heavenly body about counterbalanced the earth's pull. My life belt, however, held me securely, and I lapsed again into unconsciousness.

"The next conscious moment found me lying prone on the softest, most restful substance I can conceive of: I had a sensation as of gentle zephyrs puffing into my face and I opened my eyes. There was an indefinite, shapeless mass above me. As I watched it, I became convinced that it was endowed with intelligence and that its actions were the source of the pleasant, revivifying puffs of air I felt.

"Observing more closely, the mass above me looked somewhat like a huge oyster about the size of a man and of a cloudy semitransparent substance. Its outline was not clearly defined. Imagine my sensations when I realized that it appeared able at will to put forth from any portion of itself streams of its substance which remained connected with the main body and performed the functions of arms! Think of it! An extra arm or two or three—any number of them projected at will from any part of the body! The unnaturalness of it, the slimy horror the formless gray mass induced made me shiver. Though its actions appeared friendly, though it made no effort to harm me, yet an icy sweat broke out all over my body as I gazed fascinated at the unearthly being.

"I found afterward that it transported itself from place to place without apparent bodily movement and by means of some interior energy instead of by the use of legs, of which in fact the creature had none. It was just as if an aeroplane could glide along without movement of the propeller, driven by sheer inner impetus of its engine.

"As my mind became clearer I realized that the strange creature was projecting a portion of itself into an apparently stationary object, and then gently waving the part so transported over me, thus puffing the currents of air which were reviving me. The eerie, creepy sensation this gave me is indescribable. I felt it must be part of some fantastic dream, and yet I knew all too well that I was awake, that no sudden, grateful earth noise would jar me back to the realm of familiar things.

"Somehow, by what strange trick of Fate or machinations of this pallid, semitransparent creature I know not, but while I sat unconscious; my swiftly mounting 'plane had passed from the realms of the known to this ghostlike region, the borderland between the earth and the moon, that thin portion of space where the gravity of the earth is almost exactly counterbalanced by that of the moon. And I, a human being, a dweller on old Mother Earth, was here in this unutterably strange place—and one of the beings who dwell in it was reviving me. Doubtless he recognized me as earthborn and knew my inability to live comfortably in the thin atmosphere of the place, hence he was pouring air in my face as a man on earth might pour water in the face of one who had fainted.

"As my senses revived my amazement knew no bounds. I sat up, very awkwardly to be sure, for the least effort moved me much farther than I anticipated.

"'How do you do?' I said, by way of showing I was ready for whatever might be in store.

"The creature emitted a queer, whistling noise, which I found afterward is the manner of speech of these creatures who inhabit the zone at the point and near where the gravity of the earth and that of the moon neutralize each other. On account of the small density of their bodies and the great power of their interior means of locomotion, which for lack of a better name I will call engines, these creatures can go a considerable distance on either side of the plane of neutrality and return, but are careful not to go far enough so that the gravity of either earth or moon can exercise on them a pulling power greater than their engines can resist. Later on I made an effort to find out if any had ever done so, but on account of the difficulty I had in making myself understood, I could, get no satisfactory information.

"They have great intelligence and have perfected antigravity screens, though I do not understand fully for what purpose they are used. I do know, however, that they are used as resting places for such as are disabled in any way, especially when trouble is experienced in their locomotive apparatus.