PAGE 11
The Infra-Medians
by
I glanced down at my watch. It lacked but a few seconds of the moment when the machine back in Vic’s laboratory would function–provided my watch was correct, and the equipment worked according to schedule.
Suddenly, Hope screamed, and I followed her eyes. A score or more of the strange beings had suddenly materialized but a few yards away, and they were closing in on us swiftly.
I tried to draw my gun. Hands reached out to grasp me; to grasp all three of us. Then darkness closed in swiftly; I was whisked upward, on and on, breathlessly. I was suddenly very heavy; I was dropping in the blackness … there was something solid beneath my feet … a glare of light in my eyes.
“Nicely timed, I’ll say that,” chuckled Vic. “How does our own material little old world look?”
“Great!” I stepped quickly away from the machine, drawing Hope with me. “Doesn’t it, Hope?”
She sighed, a long, shuddering sigh, and snuggled into my arms. Vic glanced towards us and grinned.
“Come to think of it,” he remarked, “I believe I’ll run along and see if I can find Mrs. Perrin. I haven’t had a thing to eat since noon yesterday, and I’ve just realized I’m hungry. Will you join me?”
“In a moment,” I nodded, and Vic, being the good scout he was, hurried away.
* * * * *
“And the machine?” I asked a few nights later. “Still experimenting with it?” I had really come out to see Hope, of course, but she was still upstairs, putting on the finishing touches.
Vic shook his head quite gravely.
“No, old son; I had enough. Off on another tangent now. Why–would you like to go back?”
“Not me! It doesn’t seem real now; more like a nightmare, but it was terrible enough at the time.”
“I can prove it wasn’t a nightmare,” chuckled Vic. “Come along, and I’ll show you something you missed.” He led the way to the laboratory, and unlocked a drawer, one of several, beneath the work table.
“I found this on the floor of the machine,” he said. “Didn’t notice it until later. The rays of the machine caught it and brought it back with us; made it solid matter, as we know it here. Do you recognize it?”
I nodded, shuddering. There was no possibility of mistake.
In a squat, clear bottle of alcohol that Vic had taken from the drawer was a sinister, claw-like brown hand, severed cleanly at the wrist.