The Doom from Planet 4 - Jack Williamson

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Doom from Planet four by Jack Williamson s O
S S O S S O S three short three
long three short. The flashes winked from the dark headland.
Dan mc nally, master and owner of the small and

(00:23):
ancient trading schooner of Virginia, caught the feeble flickering light
from the island as he strode across the fore deck.
He stopped stared at the looming black line of land
beneath the tropical stars. Again, light flashed from a point
of rock far above the dim white line of phosphorescent serf,
spelling out the signal of distress. Somebody been calling with

(00:46):
a flashlight. I think the big Swede Larsen rumbled from
the wheel. Dan thought suddenly of a reply. He rushed
into the chart house to return in a moment with
a lighted lantern and a copy of the nautical Almanac,
which would serve to hide the flame Between flashes. He
flashed in answer. Again, the pale light flickered from the

(01:08):
dark mass of land, spelling words out rather slowly, as
if the sender were uncertain in his knowledge of morse.
Surprised as Dan had been by the signal from an
island marked on the charts as uninhabited. He was astonished
at the message that now came to him. You are
in terrible danger, he read in the flashes, dreadful thing here,

(01:35):
hurry away radio for warships. I am The winking light
suddenly went out. Dan strained his eyes to watch the
point where it had been, and a few seconds later
he saw a curious thing. A darting, stabbing glance of
green fire flashed out across the barren rocky cliff, lighting

(01:57):
it fleetingly with pale green ratings. It leapt out and
was gone in an instant, leaving the shoulder of the
island dark as before. Dan watched for long minutes, but
he saw nothing more brilliant than the pale gleam of
phosphorescence where the waves dashed against the sheer granite wall
of the island. What do you think, Larson broke in

(02:21):
upon him, Dan started, then answered slowly, I don't know.
First I thought there must be a lunatic at large,
But that green light I didn't like it. He stared
again at the looming mass of the island. Davis Island
is one of the innumerable tiny islets that dot the

(02:41):
South Pacific merely the summit of a dead volcano projecting
above the sea. Nominally claimed by Great Britain. It is
marked on the charts as uninhabited radio for warships, eh,
he muttered. A wireless transmitter was one of many modern
innovations that the Virginia did not boast. She had been

(03:05):
gathering copra and shell among the islands long before such
things came into common use, though Dan had invested his
modest savings in her only a year before. What would
anyone want with warships on Davis Island? The name roused
a vague memory. Davis Island, he repeated, staring in concentration

(03:29):
at the Black Sea. Of course, it came to him
suddenly a newspaper article that he had read five years before,
at about the time he had abandoned college in the
middle of his junior year to follow the call of adventure.
The account had dealt with an eclipse of the Sun
visible only from certain points on the Pacific. One doctor Hunter,

(03:52):
under the auspices of a Western university, had sailed with
his instruments and assistance to Davis Island to study the
solar corona. During the few precious moments when the shadow
covered the sun, and to observe the displacement of certain
stars as a test of Einstein's theory of relativity. The
reporter had interviewed the party at San Francisco on the

(04:14):
eve of sailing. There had been photographs of the chartered vessel,
of doctor Hunter and his instruments, and of his daughter Helen,
who acted as his secretary. She looked not at all
like a scientist, Dan recalled. In fact, her face had
seemed rather pretty, even in the blurred newspaper half tone.

(04:35):
But the memory cast no light upon the present puzzle.
In the rambling years that had led him to this spot,
upon the old Virginia, he had lost touch with the
science that had interested him during his college days. He
had heard nothing of the results of the Hunter expedition,
but this island had been its destination. He turned decisively

(04:57):
to the man at the wheel, Larson. We'll stand well
off shore till daylight, he said. Then, unless we see
something unusual, we can sail in and land a boat
to The sentence was never finished. Through the corner of
his eye, Dan saw a ray of green light darting
toward them from the island. A line of green fire

(05:18):
seemed to reach out and strike him a physical blow.
Green flame flared around him, and somehow he was hurtled
from the bridge, clear of the rail and into the sea.
His impression of the incident was very confused. He seemed
to have struck the water with such force that his
breath was knocked out. He struggled back to the surface,

(05:39):
strangling and coughing the bitter brine from his lungs. It
was several minutes before he was comfortably dreading water and
able to see what had happened. The old schooner was
then a hundred yards away, careening crazily and drifting aimlessly
before the light breeze. The strange green fire had vanished.

(06:00):
Parts of the ship apparently had been carried away or
disintegrated by the ray of force, of which it was
a visible effect. The mainmast was down and was hanging
over the side in a tangle of rigging. Bright yellow
flames were dancing at a dozen points about the wreckage.
On the listing deck, a grotesque, broken thing, queerily eliminated

(06:22):
by the growing fires, was hanging over the wheel. The
body of Larsen. No living thing was visible, and Dan
after a second look at the wreck of the bow,
knew that he must be the sole survivor of the catastrophe.
Too bad about the boys, he muttered through teeth that chattered,
for the cold water had already chilled him and poor

(06:45):
old larsened. He thought again of the warning flashed from
the shore. Guess there must be something hellish a foot
after all, he muttered again. The flicker of green that
stopped the signals, and the green fire that got us.
What can they mean? He looked toward the looming black
shadow of the island and began divesting himself of his clinging,

(07:07):
sodden garments. I don't wonder somebody wanted battleships, but even
a battleship if that green ray headed. He drew a
deep breath and ducked his head while he unlaced his
shoes and kicked out of them. Then, with a final
look at the burning wreck of the Virginia, he tore
off the last bit of his underclothing and swam for

(07:28):
the shore in an easy crawl. The rocky ramparts of
Davis Island were three or four miles away, but there
was no wind. The Black sea was calm, save for
a long hardly perceptible swell. A strong swimmer and in
superb condition, Dan felt no anxiety about being able to
make the distance. There was danger, however, that a shark

(07:52):
would run across him, or that he could not find
a landing place upon the rocky shore. Four bells had
rung when he had seen the first flash. It had
been just ten o'clock, and it was some four hours
later that Dan touched bottom and waited wearily up a
bit of smooth, hard beach through palely glittering phosphorescent foam.

(08:14):
He rubbed the brine from his tired limbs and sat
down for a time in a spot where a fallen
boulder sheltered his naked body from the cool morning wind.
In a few moments, he rose, flexed his muscles and
peered through the starlit darkness for a way up the
cliff behind the beach. He found it impossible to distinguish anything.

(08:35):
Got to keep moving or find some clothes, he muttered.
And I may stumble onto what made the green light.
Darn lucky. I've been so far anyhow, Larson and the others,
but I shan't think of them. I wonder who was
flashing the signals from the island, and did the green
fire get him? He turned to look out over the

(08:57):
black plane of the sea. Far out, the Virginia lay
low in the water, a pillar of yellow flame rising
from her hull. As he watched, the flame flickered and vanished.
The old schooner he supposed had sunk. Then he noticed
a pale glow come into being among the stars on
the eastern horizon. Hello, he muttered again, So we're going

(09:21):
to have a moon in the last quarter. But still
it ought to light me up from this beach. A
moment later, the horns of the crescent had come above
the black rim of the sea. Dan waited, swinging his
arms and tramping up and down on the sand until
the silvery moon had cleared the horizon and illuminated the
rugged face of the cliff with pale white radiance. He

(09:44):
chose a path to the top of the cliff and
clambered up, emerging in a jungle like thicket of brush.
Picking his way with the greatest caution, yet scratching his
naked skin most painfully, He made his way for a
few yards through the brush to a point of vantage
from which he could look about. He was he perceived
in a narrow valley or ravine, with rugged black walls

(10:08):
rising sheer on either side. The silvery light of the
crescent moon fell upon the rank jungle that covered the
narrow floor of the canyon, which rose and dwindled as
it penetrated inland. Gazing up the canyon, Dan gasped in
amazement at what he saw. Mars. The red planet hung
bright and motionless, low in the western sky, gleaming with

(10:31):
deep bloody radiance. Directly beneath it, bathed in the white
light of the moon, was a bare, rocky peak that
seemed the highest point of the island. And upon that
highest pinnacle, that chance to be just below the rutty star,
was an astounding machine. Three slender towers of a white
metal that gleamed in the moonlight with the silvery luster

(10:53):
of aluminum rose from the rocky peak. They supported, in
a horizontal position an enormous metal ring. It must be
Dan reckoned swiftly, at least a hundred feet in diameter,
and held a hundred feet above the summit of the mountain.
The huge ring gleamed with a strange purple radiance, A
shimmering mist of red violet lights surrounded it. An unknown

(11:17):
force seemed to throb within the mighty ring, drawing the
mantle of purple haze about it, and suspended inside the
ring and below it was a long, slender needle of
dazzling white light. To Dan, from where he stood in
the canyon, it seemed a fine, sharp line, though he
knew it must be some kind of pointer, luminous. With

(11:38):
the strange force pulsing through it, the strange needle wavered
a little with quick, uncertain motions. The brilliance of its
light varied oddly. It seemed to throb with a queer,
irregular rhythm, and the gleaming needle pointed straight at the
planet Mars. Dan stood a long time watching the purple

(11:59):
ring upon the silver towers, with the shining white needle
hanging below it. He stared at Mars, glowing like a
red and sinister eye above the incredible mechanism. His mind
was in a wild storm of wonder, shot with fear.
What was the meaning of the gleaming ring and needle?
What connection did this great device have with the signal

(12:21):
of distress from the cliff and the green fire that
had destroyed the Virginia and why did the glowing needle
point at Mars. He did not know when he first
began to hear the sound. For a time it was
merely part of the strange mystery of the island, only
another element in the atmosphere of fear and wonder that

(12:41):
surrounded him. Then it rose a little, and he became
suddenly sharply conscious of it as an additional menace. The
sound was not loud, but deep and vibrant, a whir
or hum like that of a powerful muffled motor, but
deeper than the sound of any motor has ever made.

(13:01):
It came down the gorge from the direction of the
machine on the mountain. That deep, throbbing noise frightened Dan
as none of his previous experiences had done. Shivering from
fear as much as from cold, he crouched down beside
a huge boulder, in the edge of the tangle of
brush that covered the bottom of the ravine. His heart
pounded wildly. He was in the clutches of an unreasoning

(13:25):
fear that some terrible thing had seen him and was
about to seek him out. For a moment, he had
to use all his will to keep himself from panic.
Flight through the brush. The unknown is always terrible, and
he had invaded the domain of a force he could
not understand. In a moment, however, he recovered himself. He

(13:47):
would be as safe there in the jungle, he thought,
as anywhere on the island. He thought of starting a fire,
then realized that he had no matches, and that he
would not dare to make a light if he were able.
He pulled a few handfuls of dry grass to make
a sort of bed, upon which he huddled up, Thanking
his lucky stars that the island was in a semi

(14:08):
tropical latitude. His mind returned again to the riddles that
confronted him, the green flash and the strange mechanism on
the peak. He recalled fantastic stories he had read of
Hermit's scientists conducting amazing experiments in isolated parts of the world. Presently,
he decided that something of the kind must be on

(14:29):
foot here. The green flash is a sort of death ray,
he summed up aloud. And they shoot it from that
bright needle. The wonder they don't want to be bothered.
Somebody may be fixing to upset civilization, but it's queer
that the needle points at mars. Of this last fact,

(14:51):
which might have been a clue to the most reasonable
solution to the mystery, if a rather astounding one, he
was able to make nothing. In fact. Huddled up on
his pile of grass in some degree of comfort, he
presently went to sleep, still pondering in vain upon this
last clew. He was awakened by a soft, insistent, purring sound,

(15:13):
rather like that of a small electric motor run without
load at very high speed. Recollection of the knight's events
came abruptly to him, and he sprang to his feet
in alarm, finding his muscles sore and stiff from his
cramped position. From one side, Dan heard the rumble of thunder,
and glancing up, saw that the sky above the sea

(15:34):
was overcast with a rolling mass of dark menacing clouds.
There was a strange, portentous blackness about these storm clouds
that filled him with a nameless fear. Suddenly he was
struck with the thought that it was not thunder that
had wakened him. The noise he had heard had not
the rumbling or booming quality of thunder. As he stood there,

(15:56):
he again became conscious of the low, whirring sound behind him.
He whirled around to face it. The shock of what
he saw left him momentarily dizzy and trembling, though undoubtedly
his surroundings had much to do with its effect upon him.
The sound came from a glistening metal machine, which stood
half hidden in the brush a dozen yards away looking

(16:18):
at him. The thing was made of a lustrous, silvery metal,
which Dan afterwards supposed to be aluminum or some alloy
of that metal. Its gleaming case was shaped more like
a coffin or an Egyptian mummy case than any other
object with which he was familiar, though rather larger than either.
That is, it was an oblong metal box, tapering toward

(16:41):
the ends, with the greatest width forward of the middle.
Twin tubes projected from the end of it, lenses in
them glistening like eyes. Just below them sprang out steely,
glistening tentacles several feet long, writhing and twitching as if
they were alive. The tangle of green brush hid the
thing's legs so that Dan could not see them. Suddenly

(17:04):
it sprang toward him, rising ten feet high and covering
half the distance between them. It alighted easily upon the
two long jointed metal limbs upon which it had leapt,
and continued to keep the lens tubes turned toward Dan,
so he knew that the grotesque metal thing was watching him.
The limbs he observed were similar to the hind legs

(17:26):
of a grasshopper, both in shape and position, and evidently
the thing leaped upon them in about the same way.
Then he noticed another curious thing about it. Three little
bars of metal projected above the thickest part of its
case on the upper side. Their ends were joined by
a little ring three inches across. The tiny metal ring

(17:49):
glowed with purple luminosity. A purple haze seemed to cling
about it, as to the huge ring Dan had seen
on the towers above the peak. And inside this ring
was a tiny metal needle, shimmering with pulsating white fire.
On the back of this metal monster was a miniature
replica of the strange mechanism upon the pinnacle. The little

(18:13):
needle pointed up the canyon. A glance that way showed
Dan that it pointed at the great device upon the mountain,
which looked even more brilliant on this gloomy morning than
in the uncertain radiance of the moon. The colossal ring
was shrouded in a splendid mantle of purple flame, and
the long, slender needle, which seemed to have swung on

(18:34):
down to follow mars below. The horizon still throbbed with
scintillating white fire. For several minutes, the two stood there,
studying each other, a naked man tense and bewildered in
the presence of a mysterious force, and a grotesque machine
cased in gleaming white metal, whose parts seemed to duplicate

(18:55):
most of the functions of a living creature. Then one
of the writhing tentacles that shot from the head of
the machine reached back under the metal case and reappeared
grasping what appeared to be a flat disk of emerald,
two inches across and half an inch thick. This green
disk it held up with a flat side toward Dan.

(19:17):
There was no sound, but a flash of green light
came from it, cutting a wide swath into the jungle
and littering its path with smoking and flaming debris. But Dan,
expecting something of the kind, had flung himself sideways into
the shelter of the boulder beside which he had slept.
Behind it, he gathered his feet under him, picked up

(19:37):
a rock of convenient size for throwing, and waited, ready
and alert. He heard the soft humming sound on the
other side of the boulder. A glittering object flashed above him,
crashing through the brush. The metal monster came to earth
on the same side of the boulder with him, but
the metal thing had not turned in its flight. Consequently,

(19:59):
its rear end was toward Dan. As it began cumbersomely
to turn about. He hurled his rock with an accuracy
that came of a boyhood on the farm. Instinct had
made him try for the little ring and needle on
the back of the monster, apparently its most vulnerable part.
Whether by luck or skill, the rock struck the gleaming ring,

(20:20):
crushing it against the needle, and instant paralysis overtook the
metal thing. Its tentacles and limbs became fixed and rigid,
and it toppled over in the brush. Dan walked over
to it and examined it briefly. The green disk had
fallen on the ground, and he picked it up. It
was made of emerald crystal. It had a little knob

(20:41):
of glistening metal set in one side. Rather afraid of it,
Dan forbore to twist the knob, but he still clutched
it in his hand. A few moments later, when partly
for fear that others of his kind would come to
succor the fallen monster, and partly to secure shelter from
the threatening rain, he retired into the sh the shadows
of the tangled jungle. He spent perhaps half an hour

(21:04):
in creeping back to what he supposed a place of
comparative safety. For some time he lay there in the
cool gloom, brushing occasional insects off his bare skin, wishing
by turns that he had a cup of coffee and
a good beefsteak, and that he could puzzle out a
logical solution of all the astounding things he had met
in the island. After the encounter with the metal monster,

(21:27):
he felt his theory of the hermit scientists a bit inadequate. Presently,
his attention was attracted by the unmistakable mew of a kitten.
Then he heard the padding sound of cautious human footsteps
and a clear feminine voice calling Kitty Kitty in low tones.
The steps and the voice seemed coming toward him, since

(21:51):
there was no sound of crackling brush. He supposed there
was a trail which he had not found. Hello, he ventured,
when the voice seemed only a few yards away through
the green tangle. At the same instant, a gray kitten
appeared out of the underbrush and frisked trustfully across to him.
He put out a hand, caressed it, picked it up.

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In a moment, the feminine voice replied, hello yourself. Who
are you? A crackling sound came from the brush, as
if the speaker were starting toward him. Dan abruptly, conscious
of his lack of attire, said quickly, wait a minute,
I haven't anything on you. See Dan McNally, I owned
the schooner that something happened to off the island last night.

(22:36):
A delicious, trilling laugh greeted the panic of his first words.
Then the clear, sweet voice, serious again replied, so you
swamish sure from the boat? I signaled, yes, gee, but
I'm glad to find you, And you say you haven't
any clothes. I wonder what. The voice paused reflectively, then resumed,

(23:00):
here's a sheet that I got to signal with in
the daytime. If I had a chance, you might wrap
it around you until we find something better. The low
liquid laugh rang out again again. There was a rustling
in the brush, and presently an arm appeared holding a
rolled up sheet. All right, he called, throw it this way.

(23:20):
In a moment, with the sheet draped around him like
a Roman toga and the kitten on his arm, he
advanced to meet the owner of the beautiful voice. At
the trail, he met a trim, active looking young woman
clad in out of door attire with a canvas knapsack
on her back. Bare headed, she wore her brown hair
closely shingled. Her face Dan recognized from the photograph he

(23:43):
had seen five years before, though it was more lovely
than the splotched newspaper picture had hinted. Her brown eyes
were filled with laughter at his predicament and his present
unusual garb. He bowed with mock gravity and said, how
do you do, miss Helen Hunter? Brown eyes widened in surprise.

(24:05):
You know me, she asked, not half so well as
I hope to, he grinned. Then, handing her the kitten,
he spoke, seriously, what about this island? The green flashes,
the big machine on the mountain, the metal thing that
jumps about like a grasshopper. What's it all about? You?
Know anything about it. Yes, I know a good deal

(24:27):
about it, she told him soberly. It's rather a terrible story,
and one you may not believe. No, you've seen them,
but the kitten is hungry and you must be too
if you swam ashore. Well, yes, i am, Dan admitted.
The storm clouds were drifting out to sea. The sun
was beginning to assert itself, and it now lighted up

(24:49):
the scene with a cheerful brightness. She slung off her
pack and sat down cross legged at the side of
the trail. Dan sat down opposite her as she opened
the nap and produced a can of condensed milk, one
of sardines, a can opener, and half a loaf of bread.
I had to select my supplies rather at random, she said,

(25:11):
and you'll have to make the best of them. She
started to open the sardines. You'd better give it to me,
Dan advised. You might cut your hand. You think so,
she asked, deftly lifting the lid, fishing out a fish
for the kitten and presenting the can to Dan. Then,
with capable hands, she broke off a large chunk of bread,

(25:32):
which she handed him. Go ahead and finish this up,
she said, I've already had breakfast. She punched two holes
in the end of the milk can and poured some
of the thick yellow fluid into the palm of her
left hand, from which she let the kitten lap it.
And now for the mystery of this island, Dan demanded
forgetting bread and sardines. In his eagerness, the girl turned

(25:56):
to face him. I'm Helen Hunter, as you seem to know,
she began. I came here with my father five years
ago to observe an eclipse of the sun. When it
was all over and this ship called to take us off,
he decided to send the results of our observations by
one of the other men. He wanted to stay here
to carry on another experiment, the one that led to

(26:18):
that machine on the hill. Part of the other men
were willing to stay. The yacht left us here and
has been back from San Francisco every six months since
with mail and supplies. And what was the experiment? Dan
demanded eagerly. Have you ever looked at Mars through a
good telescope, she countered, then you must have seen the canals,

(26:41):
straight dark lines running from the white polar caps to
the equatorial zone, all scientists did not agree as to
what they were, but nobody could suggest a natural origin
for them. My father was one of those who thought
that the canals were fertile cultivated strips irrigated with water
brought down from the melting ice caps. Irrigation systems meant

(27:03):
intelligent life upon the planet, and his experiment was an
attempt to communicate with that intelligence, and he succeeded. Dan
was astounded. Yes, the means was simple enough, other men
had suggested it years before. In fact, any fairly bright
light on Mars, such as the beam of a searchlight
directed toward Earth, would be visible in a good telescope

(27:26):
when the planet is favorably situated. It follows that such
a light on Earth should be visible to an observer
with a similar instrument on Mars. It was possible, of course,
but unlikely, that Mars would have intelligent inhabitants still ignorant
of the telescope. It was also possible that their senses
would be different from Mars, that if they saw at all,

(27:49):
it would be with a different part of the spectrum.
Father took the chance, and he succeeded. The call was simple,
merely three flashes of light repeated again and again. We
used a portable search light mounted on a motor truck,
such as is used in the army. The three flashes
meant that we were on the third planet of the

(28:10):
Solar System. The answering call from the fourth planet should
be four flashes. Of course, for three nights we kept signaling.
One of the men watched the motor generator and I
operated the search light, swinging it on Mars and off
again to make the flashes. Dad kept his eyes screwed
to the telescope. Nothing happened, and he got discouraged. I

(28:34):
persuaded him to keep on for another night in case
they hadn't seen us at first or needed more time
to get their search light ready. And on the fourth night,
poor Dad came out of the observatory shouting that he
had seen four flashes. Dan gasped speechless with astonishment. Then
that machine with the needle pointing at Mars, and the

(28:56):
green flashes, and the thing that jumped at me. Helen
waved a white hand for silence. Just keep cool a minute,
I'm coming to them. The four flashes just began it.
In a few days, Dad and the Martians were communicating
by a sort of television process. He would mark off
a sheet of paper into squares, blackened some of the

(29:18):
squares to make a picture or design, then have me
send a flash for each black square, and miss an
interval for each white one, taking them in regular order.
The Martians seemed to catch on pretty soon. In a
few days, Dad was receiving pictures of the same sort.
Rather a slow way of communication, perhaps, but it worked

(29:40):
better than one might think at first. In a month
Dad had received instructions for building a small machine like
the big one on the hill. It is something like
a radio at least. It operates with vibrations in the ether,
but it's as much ahead of our radio as an
airplane is in advance of a fire balloon. I understand

(30:00):
a good bit about it, but I won't try to
explain it now. And in the next three years Dad
learned no end of things from the people on Mars.
One queer thing about it was that they never let
us see them on the television apparatus, no matter how
many of their scientific secrets they gave us. Dad and

(30:20):
I exhibited ourselves. But I don't know yet what the
Martians look like, though I have made a guess by
the end of the third year, they had showed Dad
how to make one of those metal things like that
one that jumped at me. Dan broke in with a shudder. Yes,
they seem almost alive, but they are machines like our robots,

(30:43):
and controlled by the radio apparatus. The eyes use photoelectric
cells and relay what is before them to the master intelligence.
The girls spoke these last words in a low tone,
shrinking involuntarily. She paused a moment, then shrugged and continued.
The first machine did not obey my father. It was

(31:06):
controlled by signals that came from Mars over the big
station on the hill, and it went to work making
more apparatus, building more machines, enlarging the receiving station. It
worked in obedience to the master intelligence on Mars. That
was a year ago. The last time the yachts called
my father and the other men still hoped to control

(31:26):
the machines. They let her go back without us. The
machines tolerated us awhile paid no attention to us. They
were busy working mines and building huge, strange things that
must be flying machines. The plateau on the other side
of the peak is crowded, with them, for the machines
are preparing to leave the island. They are going to

(31:48):
conquer the world for the master Intelligence on Mars. Months ago,
my father discovered this and realized that he had loosed
doom upon the earth. He and the three other men
planned to destroy that big station on the peak. All
the signals to the machines are relaid through that from Mars.
The machines seemed to pay no heed as they made

(32:08):
their preparations. Then one night, about three weeks ago, they
tried to dynamite the station. The girl's shoulder trembled. She
paused to brush a tear from her eye, then went
on hastily in a voice grown husky with emotion. Dan
felt an odd desire to take her slight form in
his arms and comfort her in her grief. The machines

(32:30):
had seemed heedless, but they were ready. They had those
disks that throw the green fire. We had not seen
them before, and well, all four of them were killed.
Dan handed her the disk of green crystal he had
taken from the thing that had attacked him. She examined
it silently, then went on, Dad had left me in bed,

(32:52):
but I heard an explosion. I think the bombs went off.
When the green fire struck them, I knew what had
happened and got out of the house just before the
machines arrived. They wrecked the place with their green flashes.
And for the last three weeks I've been hiding in
the jungle or watching for ships. Three times I've rated
the ruins of the house for something to eat. Fortunately

(33:14):
it didn't burn like your ship. And that's all I suppose,
except I'm awfully glad that you got assure. Thanks, Dan
said earnestly. And what are we going to do now?
I don't know, Helen answered in a troubled tone. I'm afraid,
afraid for all humanity. On the television, I've seen enough

(33:37):
of Mars to be sure that it is a world
of machines controlled by one master intelligence. And even that
may be a machine. We make machines that compute the
tides and carry out other computations that are almost beyond
the power of the human mind. Why couldn't a machine think?
The master intelligence of Mars plans to add the Earth
to his domain unless we can do something to stop it.

(34:00):
In a few years, the world will be overrun with
gigantic robot machines controlled by force from across the gulf
of space. Humanity cannot resist them. Imagine a battleship pitted
against that green annihilating ray, and all the other science
of an elder planet life is to be blotted out.
The master intelligence of Mars will rule two worlds of

(34:21):
mechanical monsters. Dan said, in a dazed, vishrror to come
until Helen straightened up, as if shaking off a mantle
of fear, and smiled heroically. If a bit wanely, now
you must eat your bread and sardines to give you
strength to fight for humanity, she cried, with a laugh
that she strived not too successfully to make cheerful and gay. Obediently,

(34:46):
he began to eat, finding an excellent appetite. It was
several minutes later that he fancied he heard a whirring
and crackling in the brush behind them. He sprang to
his feet in alarm. He can't be far back to
where I left the machine, he cried. Do you suppose
there's danger that the mechanical ears of the metal things
may have picked up the sound of his voice. But

(35:09):
in any event, green flame flashed about them on the instant.
Feeling a sudden protective impulse, Dan started toward Helen. That
was his last recollection before what seemed a terrific concussion
swept him into the abyss of unconsciousness. His first thought
when he awakened was of the girl, but he was
alone in the silence of the canyon. He sat up,

(35:32):
realizing that many hours had passed for the air was
growing cool again, and the sun was low behind the
peak at the head of the ravine. The huge, mysterious
machine of the purple ring and the vibrating white needle
were blazing splendidly. He took more detailed stock of his
immediate surroundings. The tangle of brush that had sheltered them

(35:53):
had been cut away by the green annihilating ray. Charred
stumps remained to show where it had fired bushes beyond
the trail. His own shoulder was blistered, a hole was
burned into the sheet wound about him, and the hair
was singed from the back of his head. Suddenly trembling
with horror, he looked about for anything to show that

(36:14):
Helen had perished by the ray. Discovering nothing, he breathed
a sigh of relief. She must still be alive anyhow,
he muttered, and I've had another lucky break. The ray
was too high to get me. They must have left
me for dead. Presently he became conscious of torturing thirst.
He retired through the brush along the rocky wall of

(36:35):
the canyon. By sunset, he came upon a little natural
basin in the rock, half full of rainwater. It was
none too clean, but he drank his fill of it
and felt relief. Looking up the canyon, he could see
the great mechanism on the peak, gleaming in the dusk.
Intensely glowing purple mist clung about the great metal ring,

(36:56):
and the slender, delicate needle swung below it, still vibrating,
still throbbing with brilliant white radiance. It pointed at the
red eye of Mars, which had just winked into view.
Dan stared at it a long time. It all sounds crazy,
he muttered, But it isn't. The master intelligence of Mars,

(37:16):
she said, is controlling the mechanical things through that. The
doom of the Earth is coming through that white needle.
If only I could smash it somehow. He looked down
at the white folds of the sheet that draped him
and clenched his hands impotently. No gun, not even a
pocket knife, nothing but my bare hands. He bit his lip. Still,

(37:39):
he stared challengingly at the gleaming mechanism on the peak.
An idea slowly took form in his mind. An exclamation
abruptly escaped him. Narrowly. He eyed the trusted girders of
the silver towers which supported the great ring, muttering to himself, Yes,
I can do it. If I don't get caught, I
can climb it well enough. The needle looks a bit frail.

(38:02):
I should be able to smash it. I'd like to
see Helen again, though. He gathered the sheet around him
and began picking a cautious way up the canyon, staying
always in the cover of boulders or brush. A few
times he disturbed a rock or snapped a twig beneath
his foot. Then he waited, out of sight for long minutes,

(38:22):
though he had no reason to believe that the metal
monsters were on the alert for him. I've got to
do it. The world depends on it, he kept saying,
again and again in his mind. The quick darkness of
the tropics had fallen almost before he started, but He
welcomed the night, for it made his own silent progress
more difficult. It reduced the hazard that he would be discovered.

(38:45):
Gaging the time by the slow wheeling of the diamond
like stars across the velvet sky, he thought that two
hours had passed when he reached the head of the canyon.
He stood up cautiously to survey the little plateau at
the summit of the hill. It was several acres in extent,
quite level, and almost clear of vegetation. At the farther

(39:06):
side was a pile of wreckage, which he supposed had
been the quarters of doctor Hunter's party before they had
been destroyed. Many huge machines stood about the plateau, vast
dark masses looming in the starlight. Mostly they were either
not running or very silent in operation, but a very deep,

(39:26):
vibrant humming sound came from one near him. Smaller shapes
were moving about them with long, easy leaps. These he
knew were the mechanical monsters, though it was too dark
to distinguish them. But by far the most prominent object
upon the plateau was the enormous gleaming thing that Helen
had said was the station, over which came the signals

(39:47):
from the Master intelligence on Mars. One of its three
towers sprang up not far from where he stood. The huge,
refulgent ring, swathed in its mist of purple fire, was
a full hundred feet above hi, and the slender needle,
pulsing with white flames swinging within and below the colossal ring,
was itself a hundred feet in length. The white needle,

(40:09):
for all its length, seemed hardly thicker than a man's finger.
It was mounted at the top of a curiously complex
and delicate looking device that spread broadly out between the
three towers below the center of the huge purple ring.
Dan looked at it and decided that his plan had
at least a chance of success, though he had no

(40:30):
hope that it would not be fatal to him. Quickly
and silently, he ran to the base of the mighty
silver towers nearest him and began to climb the side
toward the ravine, where the maze of girders would hide
him at least partially from any watcher's back on the plateau.
The starlight and the faint, weird radiance of the purple

(40:51):
ring above sufficed to guide him. The cross braces on
the girder he had chosen were spaced closely enough to
serve as the runks of a ladder. Dan climbed easily,
pausing twice for breath and to look down at the
dark plateau. The vast humming machines loomed up strangely in
the pale purple light that fell from the gleaming ring.

(41:13):
Once he looked across toward the other side of the island,
the surface there was more level. He glimpsed tiny moving
lights and huge stationary masses, apparently as large as ocean liners.
He had an impression of a vast amount of mechanical
activity proceeding in the darkness, very rapidly and in a
silent and orderly fashion, the expeditionary force of the master

(41:37):
intelligence of Mars, he thought, preparing to set out against humanity,
and what I can do is the only chance to
stop it. He climbed again with renewed energy. A few
yards more brought him to the colossal metal ring resting
upon the three towers. It was a circular band of
shining metal, a foot thick and as wide as a road.

(42:00):
The intense purple glow extended several feet from its surface,
Dan touched it tentatively. He felt a tangling electric shock,
and he thought he could feel a radiation coming from it,
giving him a curious sensation of cold. As he reached
his hands up and grasped the upper edge of the
great ring, he felt what seemed a physical current of cold.

(42:22):
Controlling his tendency to shiver, he climbed upon the last brace, and,
lifting his weight with his hands, threw himself face down
upon the flat upper surface of the vast ring. He
lay bathed in cold purple fire. He tingled with the
chill of it. A frozen current seemed to penetrate his body. Involuntarily,

(42:42):
he trembled, lost his grip and dangled precariously from the rim.
Only a frantic scrambling restored his hold. Then, fighting the
sensation of freezing cold that came from the mist of
purple flame, he drew himself forward and got to his
feet upon the broad surface of the metal ring. On
both sides, it curved away like a circular track. Red

(43:05):
violet fire shimmered about it, bathing him to the waist
in a chilling torrent. Through coruscating frozen flame, he waded
to the inner rim of the colossal ring. Below him
hung the needle, a mere straight line of white fire
a hundred feet in length. Eye dazzling radiance scintillated along it,

(43:25):
waxing and waning with a curious throbbing rhythm. The needle
vibrated a little, but it pointed directly at the red
point of Mars, now almost directly overhead. Repressing a shudder,
Dan looked down at the complex and delicate apparatus upon
which the slender needle was mounted. It was a light
frame of white metal bars with spidery coils and huge

(43:49):
glowing tubes and flimsy spinning discs mounted in it. The
gleaming needle was mounted much like a telescope at the
top of the device full fifty feet below. Looks flimsy enough,
Dan muttered, I'll go through it like a sixteen inch shell.
Who would have thought I'd end this way? He stepped

(44:10):
back for a moment and stood on the polished metal,
hidden to the waist in cold purple flame. Lest it
impede his movements, he tore the sheet from him and
threw it aside. He let his eyes sweep for a
last time over the familiar constellations blazing so splendidly in
the black sky above. He had a pang of heartache,
as if the stars were old friends. His glance roved

(44:33):
fondly over the dark, indistinct masses of the island and
across the black plain of the sea. Well, no good
in waiting, he muttered again. Sorry, I can't see Helen.
Hope she gets off all right. He backed to the
outer rim and drew a deep breath, like one about
to dive. Then, with set face, he sprinted forward. As

(44:56):
he did so, a blinding flash of green light flickered
up before him. He ducked his head and leaped from
the inner edge of the vast glowing ring. For long seconds,
it seemed he was plunging down through space feet first.
Air rushed screaming about his ears, but his mind was
quite calm and registered an astonishingly large series of impressions.

(45:19):
He saw the delicate, gleaming machines rushing up to meet him,
the shimmering white needle swung on its top. He took
in the silent, dark plateau, with the masses of the
great machines rising like ominous shadows here and there, and
the mechanical monsters leaping busily about it, almost invisible in
the dim, ghostly radiance that fell from the purple ring,

(45:43):
he saw a vivid flame of green reach up past
him from somewhere below. He knew, without emotion or alarm,
that he had been discovered, and that it was too
late for his discoverers to stop him. He found time
even for a fleeting thought of death. His mind framed
the question what will I be in a moment from now?

(46:05):
Then he had struck the great white needle and was
crashing into the delicate apparatus below it. Waves of pain
beat upon his mind like flashes of blinding light. But
his last mental image as he passed into oblivion was
a picture of Helen's face. Oddly, it was not her
face as he had last seen it, but a reproduction

(46:26):
of the old newspaper half tone, curiously retouched with life
and color. There is little more to tell. It was
some weeks later when Dan came back out of a
world of delirium and dreams to find himself lying on
his back in a tent, very much bandaged. He was
alone at the moment, and at first could not recall

(46:48):
that tremendous last day of his conscious life. Then he
heard a thrillingly familiar feminine voice calling kitty, Kitty, kitty.
He tried to move, A dull throbbed in his breast,
and a groan escaped him. In a moment, Helen appeared.
The gray kitten was forgotten. She looked very anxious and solicitous,

(47:09):
and also Dan thought, very beautiful. No, no, she cried,
you are going to be all right. Dad made me
learn a little elementary medicine before we came here, and
I know, but you mustn't speak, not for days yet.
I'll have to guess what you want, and you can
wink when I guess the right thing. Jeep. But I'm
glad you've come too. You'll be as well as ever

(47:32):
pretty soon. The kitten was lots of comfort. Still, Dan
attempted to move. She leaned over him, shifted his weight
and smoothed the sheet with strong capable hands. You want
to know about what happened to the machine monsters, he winked, Well,
you remember when they found us and shot the green

(47:53):
ray at us. They left you there, I thought you
were dead, and carried me up here on the hill.
Perhaps they wanted me for a laboratory subject to test
the green ray on or something of the kind. Anyhow,
they carried me into a big shed filled with strange machines.
They kept me there until that night. Then all of
a sudden they all stopped. They froze, they were dead.

(48:18):
The tentacles of one that was holding me were set
about me. But I worked free and got out of
the shed. It took all night, and when I came out,
just at sunrise, I saw that the purple fire was
gone from the great ring, The needle was knocked down,
and the apparatus smashed. I found you there in the wreckage.
You made a human bullet of yourself to smash it,

(48:40):
the greatest thing a man ever did. Though normally rather modest,
Dan felt a glow of pride at the honest admiration,
ringing in her clear voice and shining from her warm
brown eyes. So I gathered up what was left of you.
She went on and tried to put you back together again.

(49:00):
A good many bones were broken, and you had more
cuts and bruises than I could mention, But the apparatus
had broken the force of the fall, and you were
still alive. You are remarkably well put together, I should say,
and unusually lucky as well, and well, the machines and
apparatus are scattered about all over the island. Every one

(49:22):
of them stopped the instant you smashed the connection with
the directing intelligence on Mars. They'll be quite a stir
in the scientific world. I imagine in about three weeks
when the yacht comes and carries us back with a
lot of plans and specimens. We must send about a
thousand engineers back here to study what we leave behind us.
And do you want anything else? She bent over and

(49:45):
watched his bandaged face, looking up into her bright eyes.
Thrilling to the cool, comforting pressure of her hand on
his forehead, Dan reflected. Then he winked. Something you want
me to do? He winked, When right now no response?
After the ot comes, he winked, what is it? She

(50:10):
looked him in the eye, blushed a little and laughed,
You mean, Dan winked. And of the Doom from Planet
four by Jack Williamson