Mind Webs - The Metal Man

A surreal sci-fi series exploring speculative concepts, dreams, and philosophical what-ifs. Each episode is a cerebral journey into the mind’s deepest questions.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:13):
My Mind. Welcome to a half hour of mind Web

(00:57):
short stories from the worlds expect fiction. This is Michael
Hanson with a story, this time from the best of Amazing,

(01:18):
selected by Joseph Ross. It's a story that originally appeared
in Amazing magazine in nineteen twenty eight. It's written by
Jack Williamson and the title is The Metal Man. The
Metal Man stands in the dark, dusty corner of the
Tyburn College Museum. Just who is responsible for the figure

(01:43):
being moved there, or why it was done? I do
not know. To the casual eye, it looks to be
merely an ordinary life size statue. The visitor who gives
it a closer view marvels at the minute perfection of
the detail of hair and skin, at the violent tragedy
in the set, determined expression and poise, and at the

(02:05):
remarkable greenish cast of the metal of which it is composed,
but most of all, at the peculiar mark upon the chest.
It's a six sided blot of a deep crimson hue,
with a surface oddly granular and strange wavering lines radiating
from it, lines of a lighter shade of red. Of course,

(02:28):
it is generally known that the metal Man was once
Professor Thomas Kelvin of the Geology Department. There are current
many garbled and inaccurate accounts of the weird disaster that
befell him. I believe I am the only one to
whom he entrusted his story, and it is to put

(02:49):
these fantastic tales at rest that I have decided to
publish the narrative that Professor Kelvin sent me for some here.
He had been spending his summer vacations along the Pacific
coast of Mexico prospecting for radium. It was three months
since he had returned from his last expedition. Evidently he

(03:14):
had been successful beyond his wild dreams. He did not
come to Tyburn, but we heard stories of his selling
millions of dollars worth of salts of radium and giving
as much more to institutions employing radium treatment. And it
was said that he was sick of a strange disorder
that defied the world's best specialists, and that he was

(03:37):
pouring out his millions in the establishment of scholarships and
endowments as if he expected to die soon. One cold
stormy day, when the sea was running high on the
unprotected coast which the cottage overlooks. I saw a sail
out to the north. It rapidly drew nearer until I

(03:58):
could tell it. It was a small all sailing schooner
with auxiliary power. When the boat touched, four men sprang
out and rushed it up higher on the sand. As
a fifth tall man rose in the stern. The four
picked up a great chest and started up in my direction.
The fifth person followed leisurely, silently, and without invitation. The

(04:22):
men brought the chest up the beach into my yard
and set it down in front of the door. The
fifth man, a hard faced Yankee skipper, walked up to
me and said, I'm Captain mc andrew's. I was glad
to meet the captain, but wondered if there was some mistake.

(04:43):
He said, no, not at all. The man in that
chest was transferred to my ship from the liner Plutonia
three days ago. He has paid me for my services,
and I believe his instructions have been carried out. Good day, sir.
He turned on his heel and started away. A man

(05:03):
in the chest well. He walked on unheeding, and the
seamen followed. I stood and watched them walk down to
the boat and row back to the schooner. I gazed
at its sails until they were lost against the dull
blue of the clouds. Frankly, I feared to open the chest.

(05:24):
At last I nerved myself to do it. It was unlocked.
I threw back the lid, and, with a shock of
uncontrollable horror that left me half sick four hours, I
saw in it stark naked with a strange crimson march,
standing lividly out from the pale green of the breast,
the metal man, just as you may see him in

(05:45):
the museum. Of course, I knew at once that it
was Calvin. For a long time I bent, trembling and
staring at him. Then I saw an old canteen, purple stained,
lying by the head of the figure, and under it
a sheaf of manu stripped. I got the ladder out,

(06:06):
walked with shaken steps to the easy chair in the
house and read this story. Dear Russell, you are my best,
my only intimate friend. I've arranged to have my body
and the story brought to you. I just drank the
last of the wonderful purple liquid that has kept me
alive since I came back and I have scent time

(06:28):
to finish this necessarily brief account of my adventure. But
my affairs are in order, and I die in peace.
I had myself transferred to the schooner to day in
order to reach you as soon as could be and
to avoid possible complications. I trust Captain mc andrew's When
I left France, I hope to see you before the end,
but fate ruled otherwise. You know that the goal of

(06:51):
my expedition was the headwaters of Rio de la Sandre,
the River of Blood. It's a small stream whose strangely
red waters flow into the Pacific. On my trip last year,
I had discovered that its waters were powerfully radioactive. Water
has the power of absorbing radium emanations and emitting them
in turn, and I hoped to find radium bearing minerals

(07:14):
in the bed of the upper river. Twenty five miles
above the mouth the river emerges from the cordilleras, there
are a few miles of rapids, and back of them
that ever plunges down a magnificent waterfall. No exploring party
had ever been back of the falls. I had hired
an Indian guide and made a mule back journey to
their foot. At once I saw the futility of attempting

(07:36):
to climb the precipitous escarpment. But the water there was
even more powerfully radioactive than at the mouth. There was
nothing to do but return. This summer I bought a
small monoplane, and though it was comparatively slow in speed,
enable to spend only six hours aloft, its light weight

(07:56):
and the small area needed for landing made it the
only machine suitable for you some so rough a country.
The steamer left me again on the dock of the
little town of Vakamrena. With my stack of crates and
gasoline tins. I secured the use of an abandoned shed
for a hangar. I set about assembling the plain, and
in a fortnight I had completed the task. Then one

(08:19):
morning I started the engine and made a trial flight.
It flew smoothly, and in the afternoon I refilled the
tanks and set off for the Rio del a Sungle.
The stream looked like a red snake crawling out to sea.
There was something serpentine in its aspect. Flying high, I
followed it above the falls and into a region of

(08:39):
towering mountain peeks. The river disappeared beneath the mountain. For
a moment I thought of landing, and then it occurred
to me that it flowed subterraneously for only a few
miles and would reappear farther inland. I soared over the
cliffs and came over the crater, a great pool of
green fire. It was fully tank miles across to the

(09:01):
black ramparts on the farther side. The surface of the
green was so smooth that at first I thought it
was a lake, and then I knew that it must
be a pool of heavy gas. In the glory of
the evening sun, the snow capped summits about where brilliant
argent crowns dyed with crimson, tinged with purple and gold,

(09:23):
tinted with strange and incredibly beautiful hues. Amid this wild scenery,
Nature had placed her greatest treasure. I knew that in
the crater I would find the radium I sought. I
circled about the place, wrapt in wonder. As the sun
sank lower, A light silver mist gathered on the peaks,

(09:43):
half veiling their wonders, and flowed toward the crater. It
seemed drawn with a strange attraction, and then the center
of the green like rose in a shining peak. It
flowed up into a great hill of emerald fire. Something
was rising the green, carrying it up. Then the vapor
flowed back, revealing a strange object, still veiled faintly by

(10:07):
the green and silver clouds. It was a gigantic sphere
of deep red, marked with four huge oval spots of
dull black. Its surface was smooth, metallic, and thickly studded
with great spikes that seemed of yellow fire. It was
a machine inconceivably great in size. It spun slowly as

(10:31):
it rose on a vertical axis, moving with a deliberate,
purposeful motion. It came up to my own level, paused,
and seemed to spin faster, and the silver mist was
drawn to the yellow points, condensing, curtling, until the whole
globe was a ball of lambent argent. Or a moment,

(10:51):
it hung unbelievably glorious in the light of the setting sun,
and then it sank ever faster, until it dropped like
a plummet, to the sea of green, and with its fall,
a sinister darkness descended upon the desolate wilderness of the peaks,
and I was seized by a fear that had been
deadened by amazement, and realized that I had scant time

(11:13):
to reach Vakamarina before complete darkness fell. Immediately I put
the plane about in the direction of the town. According
to my recollections, I had at the time no very
definite idea of what it was I had seen, or
whether the weird exhibition had been caused by human or
natural agencies. I remember thinking that in such enormous quantities,

(11:36):
as undoubtedly the crater contained it, radium might possess qualities
unnoticed in small amounts, or again, that there might be
present radioactive minerals at present unknown. It occurred to me
also that perhaps some other scientists had already discovered the deposits,
and that what I had witnessed had been the trial
of an airship in which radium was utilized as a propellant.

(11:58):
And then I noticed that a pale, bluish luminosity was
gathering about the cowl of the cockpit, and at the
moment I saw that the whole machine and even my
own person was covered with it. It was somewhat like
Saint Elmo's fire, except that it covered all surfaces indiscriminately,
instead of being restricted to sharp points. All at once

(12:19):
I connected the phenomenon with the thing I had seen.
I felt no physical discomfort, and the motor continued to run.
But as the blue radiance continued to increase, I observed
that my body felt heavier, and that the machine was
being drawn downward. My mind was flooded with wonder and terror.

(12:39):
I thought to retain sufficient self possession to fly the ship.
My arms were soon so heavy that I could hold
them upon the controls only with difficulty, and I felt
a slight dizziness. Do no doubt to the bloods of
being drawn from my head. When I recovered, was already
almost upon the green Somehow, my gravitation had been increased,

(13:02):
and I was being drawn into the pit. It was
possible to keep the plane under control only by diving
and keeping at a high speed. I plunged into the
green pool. The gas was not suffocating as I had anticipated.
In fact, I noticed no change in the atmosphere, say
that my vision was limited to a few yards around

(13:24):
the wings of the plane were still distinctly discernible, And
suddenly a smooth, sandy plain was murkily revealed below and
I was able to level the ship off enough for
a safe landing. As I came to a stop, I
saw that the sand was slightly luminous, as the green
mist seemed to be and red. For a time I

(13:45):
was confined to the ship by my own weight, but
I noticed that the blue was slowly dissipating and with
it its effect. As soon as I was able, I
clambered over the side of the cockpit, carrying my canteen
a automatic, which were themselves immensely heavy. I was unable
to stand erect, but crawled off over the coarse, shining

(14:08):
red sand, stopping at frequent intervals to lie flat and rest.
I was in deathly fear of the force that had
brought me down. I was sure it had been directed
by intelligence. The floor was so smooth and level that
I supposed it to be the bottom of an ancient lake.
Sometimes I looked fearfully back, and when I was a

(14:28):
hundred yards away, I saw a score of lights floating
through the green toward the airplane. In the luminous murk,
each bright point was surrounded by a disk of paler blue.
I didn't move, but lay and watched them float to
the plane and wheel about it with a slow, heavy motion.
Closer and lower they came, until they reached the ground

(14:50):
about it. The mist was so thick as to obscure
that the tails of the scene. When I went to
resume my flight, I found my the excess of gravity
almost entirely gone. Though I went on hands and knees
for another hundred yards to escape possible observation. When I
got to my feet, the plane was lost to view.

(15:12):
I walked on for perhaps a quarter of a mile,
and suddenly realized that my sense of direction was altogether gone.
I was completely lost in the strange world inhabited by beings.
It was nature and disposition I could not even guess.
And then I realized that it was the height of
folly to walk about when any step might precipitate me

(15:35):
into a danger of which I could know nothing. I
had a peculiar, unpleasant feeling of helpless fear. The luminous
red sand and the shining green of the air lay
about in all directions, unbroken by a single solid object.
There was no life, no sound, no motion. The air

(15:55):
hung heavy and stagnant. The flat sand was like the
surface of a dead and desolate sea. I felt the
panic of utter isolation from humanity. The mist seemed to
come closer, the strange evil in it seemed to grow
more alert. Suddenly, a darting light passed meteor alike through

(16:15):
the green above, and in my alarm, I ran a
few blundering steps. My foot struck a light object that
rang like metal. It was a metal bird, an eagle
formed of metal, with the wings out spread, the talons gripping,
the first beak set open. The color was white tinged
with green. It weighed no more than the living bird.

(16:39):
At first I thought it was a cast muddle, and
then I saw that each feather was complete and flexible.
Somehow a real eagle had been turned to metal. It
seemed incredible, Yet here was the concrete proof. I wondered
if the radium deposits, which I had already used to
explain so much I, might account for this too. I

(17:02):
was struck with fright for my own safety. Might I
be changed a metal I looked to see if there
were other metal things about, and I found them in abundance.
I made a fearful examination of myself into my unutterable horror.
I perceived that the tips of my fingernails, and the
fine hairs upon my hands were already changed to light

(17:27):
green metal. The shakun nerved me completely. You cannot conceive
my horror. I screamed, a loud and agony of soul,
careless of the terrible foals that a sound might attract,
I ran off wildly. I was blind, unreasoning. I felt
no fatigue as I ran. Only stark terror, bright swift,

(17:52):
moving lights past above in the green, but I heeded
them not. Suddenly I came upon the great sphere that
I had seen above. It rested motionless in a cradle
of black metal. The yellow fire was gone from the spikes,
but the red surface shone with metallic luster. Lights floated
about it. They made little bright spots in the green,

(18:15):
like lanterns in a fog. I turned and ran again, desperately.
I took no note of direction, nor of the passage
of time. Then I came upon a bank of violet vegetation,
waist deep. It was grass like, with thick, narrow leaves,
dotted with clusters of small pink blooms and little purple berries.

(18:39):
And a score of yards beyond I saw a sluggish
red stream, a rio de la sungre here was cover
At last. I threw myself down in the violet growth
and lay sobbing with fatigue and terror. For a long time.
I was unable to stir or think. When I looked
again at my finger nails, the tips of metal had

(19:01):
doubled in width. I tried to control my agitation and
to think. Possibly the lights, whatever they were, would sleep
by day. If I could find the plane or scale
the walls, I might escape the fearful action of the
radioactive minerals. Before it was too late, I realized that
I was hungry. I plucked off a few of the

(19:24):
purple berries and tasted them. They had a salty, metallic taste,
and I thought they would be valueless for food. But
in pulling them, I had inadvertently squeezed the juice from
one upon my fingers, and when I wiped it off,
I saw, to my amazement, in my inexpressible joy, that
the rim of metal was gone from the finger nails

(19:45):
it had touched. I had discovered a means of safety.
I supposed the plants were able to exist there only
because they had been so developed and had produced compounds
counteracting the metal forming emanations. Probably their evolution began when
the action was far weaker than now, and only those
able to withstand the more intense radiations had survived. I

(20:10):
lost no time in eating a cluster of the berries,
and then I poured the water from my canteen and
filled it with their juice. I have analyzed the fluid
and corresponds in some ways with the standard formulas for
the neutralization of radium burns, and doubtless it saved me
from the terrible burns caused by the action of ordinary radium.

(20:32):
I had walked about two and a half miles along
by the violet plants when I came to an abrupt cliff.
I walked off north around the rim. I had no
very definite plan except to try to find a way
out over the cliffs. I went on until it must
have been noon, though my watch had stopped. Occasionally I

(20:52):
passed metal trees that had fallen from above, and once
a metallic body of a bear that had slipped off
a path above some time in the past. And there
were metal birds without number. They must have been accumulating
through geological ages all along. Up to this the cliff
had risen perpendicularly to the limit of my vision. But

(21:14):
now I saw a wide ledge with the sloping wall
beyond the dimly visible above. In an hour I came
upon it, a slender cylinder of black metal that towered
a hundred feet into the greenish mist and carried at
the top with mushroom shaped orange flame. It was a
strange thing. The fire was as big as a balloon,

(21:37):
bright and steady. It looked much like a great jet
of combustible gas burning as it streamed from the cylinder.
I stood petrified in amazement, wondering vaguely at the what
and why of the thing. And then I saw more
of them, back of the dimly scores of them, a
whole forest of flames. I crushed back against the cliff

(22:03):
while I considered. Here, I supposed was the city of
the lights. They were sleeping now, But still I had
not the courage to enter. According to my calculations, I
had gone about fifteen miles. Then I must be, I thought,
almost diametrically opposite the place where the Crimson River flowed
under the wall, with half of the rim unexplored. If

(22:27):
I wished to continue my journey, I must go around
the city, if I might call it that. So I
left the wall. Soon it was lost to view. I
tried to keep in view of the orange flames, but
abruptly they were gone in the midst I walked more
to the left, but I came upon nothing but the

(22:48):
wastes of red sand, with a green murk above. On
and on I wandered. Then the sand and the air
grew slowly brighter, and I knew that it had fallen.
The lights were soon passing to and fro. I had
seen lights the night before, but they traveled high and fast. These,

(23:09):
on the other hand, sailed low, and I felt that
they were searching. I knew that they were hunting for me.
I lay down. They would hollowing the sand vague mist veil.
Points of light came near and fast, and then one
stopped directly overhead. It descended, and the circle of rating

(23:32):
screw about it. I knew that it was useless to run,
and I could not have done so for my terror.
Down and down it came, and then I saw its form.
The thing was of a glittering, blazing crystal, a great
six sided upright prism of red a dozen feet in length.

(23:54):
It was with a six pointed structure like a snowflake,
about the center deep blue, with pointed blue flanges running
from the points of the star to angles of the prism.
Soft scarlet fire flowed from the points and on each
face of the prism. Above and below the star was
a purple cone that must have been an eye. Strange

(24:19):
pulsating lights flickered in the crystal. It was alive with light.
It fell straight toward me. It was a terribly utterly
alien form of life. It was not human, not animal,
not even life as we know it at all. And
yet it had intelligence. But it was strange and foreign

(24:42):
and devoid of feeling. It dropped until the gleaming lower
point of the prism was not a yard above me.
Then the scarlet fire reached out caressingly flowed over my body.
My weight grew less. I was lifted held against the point.
You may see its mark upon my chest. The thing

(25:05):
floated into the air, carrying me. Soon others were drifting about.
I was overcome with nausea. The scene grew black, and
I knew no more. I awoke, floating free in a
brilliant orange light. I touched no solid object. I writhed,

(25:25):
kicked about at nothingness. I could not move or turn
over because I could get a hold on nothing. My
memory of the last two days seemed a nightmare. I
had the sensation that a great space of time had passed.
It was a curious stiffness in my side. I examined

(25:47):
it and found the red scar. I believed those crystal
things had cut into me, and I found with a horror.
You cannot understand the mark upon my chest. Presently it
dawned upon me that I was floating, devoid of gravity
and free as an object in space, in the orange

(26:10):
flame at the top of one of the black cylinders.
The crystals knew the secret of gravity. It was vital
to them. And peering about, I discerned with infinite repulsion
a great flashing body a few yards away, But its
inner lights were dead. So I knew that it was

(26:32):
day and that the strange beings were sleeping. If I
was ever to escape, this was the opportunity. I kicked,
clawed desperately at the air, all in vain. I did
not move an inch. If they had chained me, I
could not have been more secure. I drew my automatic,

(26:53):
resolved on a desperate measure. They would not find me
again alive, and as I had it in my hand.
An idea came into my mind. I pointed the gun
to the side and fired six rapid shots, and the
recoil of each explosion sent me drifting faster, rocket wise

(27:13):
toward the edge. I shot out into the green. Had
my gravity been suddenly restored, I might have been killed
by the fall. But I descended slowly and felt a
curious lightness for several minutes, and to my surprise, when
I struck the ground, the airplane was right before me.

(27:34):
They had drawn it up by the base of the tower.
It seemed to be intact. I started the engine with
nervous haste and sprang into the cockpit. As I started,
another black tower loomed up abruptly before me, but I
veered around it and took off in safety. Soon I
had landed again at Vaccamarina. I had had enough of

(27:56):
radium ming on the beach where I landed, I sold
the plane to a rancher at his own price, and
told him to reserve a place for me on the
next steamer due in three days. Then I went to
the town single, inn ate and went to bed at noon.
The next day. When I got up, I found at
my shoes and the pockets of my clothes contained a

(28:20):
good bit of the red sand from the crater that
had been collected as I crawled about in flight from
the crystal lights. I saved some of it for curiosity alone.
But when I analyzed it, I found it a radiant compound,
so rich that the little handful was worth millions of dahlis.

(28:41):
But the fortune was of little value, for despite frequent
doses of the fluid from my canteen and the best
medical aid, I have suffered continually, and now that my
canteen is empty, I am doomed. Your friend, Thomas Kelvin,

(29:08):
if that's the manuscript ends. If you doubt the truth
of this letter, you may see the Metal Man in
the Tyburn Museum. That story is titled The Metal Man,
written by Jack Williamson. It first appeared in Amazing magazine

(29:31):
during nineteen twenty eight. It reappears in a collection edited
by Joseph Ross called The Best of Amazing. This is
Michael Hanson speaking technical production for Mindwebbs by Leslie Hilsenhoff.
Mindwebbs originates at w h A Radio in Madison, a
service of University of Wisconsin Extension. Yeah