- 1 week ago
Part 2 of the audiobook.
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00:00Gather round, boys and girls. You're listening to Astounding Stories of Sober Science.
00:00:13Out of the past comes the radio program that might have been but never was about the worlds
00:00:19that may yet still come to be, bringing to light the thrilling adventure stories of yesterday
00:00:25for the children of tomorrow. Tonight's episode, the thrilling conclusion to The Beetle Hoard by
00:00:33Victor Rossayu. Can Tommy Travers save the world from being consumed by giant insects? Will Jimmy
00:00:41Dodd marry the gigantic cavewoman of his dreams? Don't miss a second of tonight's thrilling episode,
00:00:48read for you by number one Marmaduke fan, America's most mysterious bespectacled cartoon dog.
00:00:55And now, our feature presentation.
00:00:59Bullets, shrapnel, shell, nothing can stop the trillions of famished, man-sized beetles which,
00:01:06led by a madman, sweep down over the human race.
00:01:10The Beetle Hoard by Victor Rossayu. Conclusion.
00:01:15Tommy Travers and James Dodd of the Travers Antarctic Expedition crash in their planes somewhere near the
00:01:21South Pole and are seized by a swarm of man-sized beetles. They are carried down to Submundia,
00:01:26a world under the Earth's crust, where the beetles have developed their civilization to an amazing
00:01:31point, using a wretched race of degenerated humans whom they breed as cattle for food.
00:01:37The insect horde is ruled by a human from the outside world, a drug-doped madman. Dodd recognizes this man
00:01:45as
00:01:45Brahm, the archaeologist who had been lost for years before at the Pole and given up for dead by a
00:01:50world he
00:01:51hated because it refused to accept his radical scientific theories. His fiendish mind now plans
00:01:57the horrible revenge of leading his unconquerable horde of monster insects forth to ravage the world,
00:02:03destroy the human race, and establish a new era, the era of the insect.
00:02:09The world has to be warned of the impending doom. The two, with Hydea, a girl of Submundia, escape,
00:02:15and pass through menacing dangers to within two miles of the exit. There, suddenly, Tommy sees
00:02:21towering over him a creature that turns his blood cold, a gigantic praying mantis. Before he has time
00:02:27to act, the monster springs at them. Chapter 7. Through the Inferno.
00:02:33Fortunately, the monster miscalculated its leap. The huge legs, whirling through the air,
00:02:38came within a few inches of Tommy's head, but passed over him, and the mantis plunged into the
00:02:43stream. Instantly, the water was alive with leaping things, with faces of such grotesque horror that
00:02:48Tommy sat paralyzed in his rocking shell, unable to avert his eyes. Things no more than a foot or two
00:02:54in length, to judge from the slender, eel-like bodies that leaped into the air. But things with
00:03:00catfish heads and tentacles and eyes waving on stalks. Things with claw-like appendages to their vertical
00:03:07fins and mouths that widened to fearful size, so that the whole head seemed to disappear above
00:03:13them, disclosing fangs like wolves. Instantly, the water was churned into phosphorescent fire,
00:03:19as they precipitated themselves upon the struggling mantis, whose enormous form, extending halfway from
00:03:24shore to shore, was covered with the river monsters, gnawing, rending, tearing. Luckily, the struggles of
00:03:31the dying monster carried it downstream instead of up. In a few moments, the immediate danger was passed,
00:03:36and suddenly, Hydea awoke, sat up.
00:03:39Where are we? she cried. Oh, I can see! I can see! Something has burned away from my eyes!
00:03:46I know this place. A wise man of my people once came here, and returned to tell of it. We
00:03:52must go on.
00:03:53Soon, we shall be safe on the wide river, but there is another way that leads to here.
00:03:58We must go on. We must go on.
00:04:01Even as she spoke, they heard the distant rasping of the beetle legs, and before the shells were well
00:04:06in mid-current, they saw the beetle horde coming round the bend. In the front of them, Brahm,
00:04:11reclining on his shell couch, and drawn by the eight trained beetles. Brahm saw the fugitives,
00:04:17and a roar of ironic mirth broke from his lips, resounding high above the strident rasping of the
00:04:22beetle legs, and roaring over the marshes. I've got you, Dodd and Trevors, he bellowed,
00:04:30as the trained beetles hovered above the shell canoes. You thought you were clever,
00:04:34but you're at my mercy. Now's your last chance, Dodd. I'll save you still if you submit to me,
00:04:40if you'll admit that there were fossil monotremes before the Pleistocene epic.
00:04:44Come, it's so simple. Say it after me, the marsupial lion. You go to hell, yelled Dodd,
00:04:52nearly upsetting his shell as he shook his fist at his enemy.
00:04:56High above the rasping sound came Brahm's shrill whistle. Just audible to human ears,
00:05:01though probably sounding like the roar of thunder to those of the beetles,
00:05:04there was no need to wonder what it was. It was the call to slaughter. Like a black cloud,
00:05:10the beetle shot forward. A serried phalanx covered the two men and the girl, hovering a few feet
00:05:15overhead, the long legs dangling to within arm's reach, and a terrible cry of fear broke from
00:05:20Hydea's lips. Suddenly, Tommy remembered Brahm's cigarette lighter. He pulled it from his pocket
00:05:25and ignited it. Small as the flame was, it was actinically much more powerful than the brighter
00:05:31phosphorescence of the fungi behind them. The beetle cloud overhead parted. The strident sound was
00:05:36broken into a confused buzzing as the terrified, blinded beetles plopped into the stream. None of
00:05:43them, fortunately, fell into either of the three shells, but the mass of struggling monsters in the
00:05:47water was hardly less formidable to the safety of the occupants than that menacing cloud overhead.
00:05:53Get clear! Tommy yelled to Dodd, trying to help the shell along with his hands. He heard Brahm's cry
00:06:00of baffled rage and, looking backward, could not refrain from a laugh of triumph. Brahm's trained
00:06:06steeds had taken fright and overset him. Brahm had fallen into the red mud beside the stream,
00:06:11from which he was struggling up, plastered from head to feet, and shaking his fists and evidently
00:06:16cursing, though his words could not be heard.
00:06:19How about your marsupial lion now, Brahm? yelled Dodd. No monotremes before the Pleistocene!
00:06:26Do you get that? That's my slogan now and forevermore!
00:06:30Brahm shrieked and raved, and seemed to be inciting the beetles to a renewed assault. The air was still
00:06:35thick with them, but Tommy was waving the cigarette lighter in a flaming arc, which cleared the way
00:06:40for them. Then suddenly came disaster. The flame went out. Tommy closed the lighter with a snap and
00:06:46opened it. In vain. In his excitement, he must have spilled all the contents, for it would not catch.
00:06:53Brahm saw and yelled derision. The beetle cloud was thickening. Tommy, now abreast of his companions on
00:07:00the widening stream, saw at the imminent end. And then, once more, fate intervened. For, leaping
00:07:07through the air out of the places where they had lain concealed, six mantises launched themselves at
00:07:12their beetle prey. Those awful bounds of the long-legged monsters, the scourges of the insect
00:07:18world, carried them clear from one bank to the other, fortunately for the occupants of the shells.
00:07:23In an instant, the beetle cloud dissolved, and it had all happened in a few seconds. Before Dodd or Tommy
00:07:30had quite taken in the situation, the mantises, each carrying a victim in its grooved legs, had vanished
00:07:36like the beetles. There was no sign of Brahm. The three were alone upon the face of the stream, which
00:07:42went
00:07:42swirling upward into renewed darkness. Tommy saw Dodd bend toward Hydea as she lay on her shell couch.
00:07:49He heard the sound of a noisy kiss, and he lay back in the hollow of his shell, with the
00:07:54feeling that
00:07:55nothing that could happen in the future could be worse than what they had passed through.
00:08:01Days went by. Days when the sense of dawning freedom filled their hearts with hope. Hydea told Dodd and
00:08:08Tommy that, according to the legends of her people, the river ran into the world from which they had been
00:08:14driven by the flood ages before. There had been no further signs of Brahm or the beetle horde,
00:08:20and Dodd and Tommy surmised that it had been disorganized by the attack of the mantises,
00:08:25and that Brahm was engaged in regaining his control over it. But neither of them believed that the
00:08:31respite would be a long one, and for that reason they rested ashore only for the briefest intervals,
00:08:37just long enough to snatch a little sleep, and to eat some of the shrimps that Hydea was adept at
00:08:41finding,
00:08:42or to pull some juicy fruit surreptitiously from a tree.
00:08:46Incidents there were, nevertheless, during those days. For hours, their shells were followed by a school
00:08:52of the luminous river monsters, which, nevertheless, made no attempt to attack them.
00:08:58And once, hearing a cry from Hydea as she was gathering shrimps, Dodd ran forward to see her battling
00:09:04furiously with a luminous scorpion, eight feet in length, that had sprung at her from its lurking place
00:09:11behind a pear shrub. Dodd succeeded in stunning and dispatching the monster without suffering any
00:09:16injury from it, but the strain of the period was beginning to tell on all of them. Worst of all,
00:09:22they seemed to have left all the luminous vegetation behind them, and were entering a region of almost
00:09:27total darkness, in which Hydea had to be their eyes. Something had happened to the girl's sight in
00:09:34the journey over the petrel spring. As a matter of fact, the third, or nictitating membrane,
00:09:40which the humans of Submundia possessed, in common with birds, had been burned away.
00:09:45Hydea could see as well as ever in the dark, but she could bear more light than formerly as well.
00:09:51Unobtrusively, she assumed command of the party. She anticipated their once, dug shrimps in the darkness,
00:09:57and fed Tommy and Dodd with her own hands. God, what a girl, breathed Dodd to his friend.
00:10:03I've always had the reputation of being a woman-hater, Tommy, but once I get that girl to
00:10:08civilization, I'm going to take her to the nearest little church around the corner in record time.
00:10:14I wish you luck, old man, I'm sure, answered Tommy. Dodd's words did not seem strange to him.
00:10:21Civilization was growing very remote to him, and Broadway seemed like a memory of some previous
00:10:26incarnation. The river was growing narrower again, and swifter, too. On the last day, or night, of
00:10:33their journey, though they did not know that it was to be their last, it swirled so fiercely that it
00:10:38threatened every moment to overset their beetle shells. Suddenly, Tommy began to feel giddy.
00:10:43He gripped the side of the shell with his hand.
00:10:46Tommy, we're going round, shouted Dodd in front of him. There was no longer any doubt of it.
00:10:51The shells were revolving in a vortex of rushing, foaming water.
00:10:56Hydea, they shouted. The girl's voice came back thickly across the roaring torrent.
00:11:01The circles grew smaller. Tommy knew that he was being sucked nearer and nearer to the edge of some
00:11:07terrific whirlpool in that inky blackness. Now he could no longer hear Dodd's shouts, and the shell
00:11:13was tipping so that he could feel the water rushing along the edge of it. But for the exercise of
00:11:18centrifugal force, he would have been flung from his perilous seat, for he was leaning inward at an
00:11:22angle of forty-five degrees. Then suddenly his progress was arrested. He felt the shell being
00:11:28drawn to the shore. He leaped out, and Hydea's strong hands dragged the shell out of the torrent,
00:11:33while Tommy sank down, gasping.
00:11:36What's the matter? he heard Dodd demanding.
00:11:39There is no more river, said Hydea calmly. It goes into a hole in the ground. So much I have
00:11:45heard from
00:11:45the wise men of my people. They say that it is near such a place that they fled from the
00:11:49flood
00:11:50in years gone by.
00:11:52Then we're near safety, shouted Tommy. That river must emerge as a stream somewhere in the upper
00:11:57world, Dodd. I wonder where the road lies.
00:12:00There is a road here, came Hydea's voice. Let us put on our shells again, since who knows whether
00:12:06they may not be beetles here.
00:12:08Did you ever see such a girl as that? demanded Dodd ecstatically. First she saves our lives,
00:12:15and then she thinks of everything. Good lord, she'll remember my meals, and to wind my watch
00:12:21for me, and, and...
00:12:23But Hydea's voice, some distance ahead, interrupted Dodd's soliloquy, and, hoisting the beetle
00:12:29shells upon their backs, they started along the rough trail that they could feel with their feet
00:12:33over the stony ground. It was still as dark as pitch, but soon they found themselves traveling
00:12:38up a sunken way that was evidently a dry water course, and now and again Hydea's reassuring
00:12:44voice would come from in front of them. The road grew steeper. There could no longer be any doubt
00:12:50that they were ascending toward the surface of the earth, but even the weight of the beetle shells
00:12:54and the steepness could not account for the feeling of intense weakness that took possession of them.
00:12:59Time and again they stopped, panting.
00:13:02We must be very near the surface, Dodd, said Tommy. We've surely passed the center of gravity.
00:13:08That's what makes it so difficult.
00:13:10Come on, Hydea said in her quiet voice, stretching out her hand through the darkness.
00:13:15And for very shame they had to follow her.
00:13:18On and on, hour after hour, up the steep ascent, resting only long enough to make them realize
00:13:25their utter fatigue. On because Hydea was leading them, and because, in the belief that they were
00:13:30about to leave that awful land behind them, their desires lent new strength to their limbs
00:13:35continuously. Suddenly, Hydea uttered a fearful cry. Her ears had caught what became apparent to
00:13:42Dodd and Jimmy several seconds later. Far down in the hollow of the earth, increased by the echoes
00:13:48that came rumbling up. They heard the distant, strident rasp of the beetle swarm.
00:13:53Then it was Dodd's turn to support Hydea and whisper consolation in her ears. No thought of
00:13:58resting now. If they were to be overwhelmed at last by the monsters, they meant to be overwhelmed
00:14:03in the upper air. It was growing insufferably hot. Blasts of air, as if from a furnace, began to rush
00:14:10up and down past them, and the trail was growing steeper still, and slippery as glass.
00:14:16What is it, Jim? Tommy panted, as Dodd, leaving Hydea for a moment, came back to him.
00:14:22I'd say lava, Dodd answered. If only one could see something. I don't know how she finds her way.
00:14:28My impression is that we're coming out through the interior of an extinct volcano.
00:14:33But where are there volcanoes in the South Polar regions? inquired Tommy. There are Mount Erebus
00:14:39and Mount Terror in South Victoria land, active volcanoes discovered by Sir James Ross in 1841,
00:14:45and again by Borskrivenk in 1899. If that's where we're coming out, well, Tommy, we're doomed,
00:14:51because it's the heart of the Polar Continent. We might as well turn back.
00:14:55But we won't turn back, said Tommy. I'm damned if we do.
00:14:58We're damned if we don't, said Dodd. Come along, please, sang Hydea's voice,
00:15:05high up the slope. They struggled on, and now a faint luminosity was beginning to penetrate that
00:15:11infernal darkness. The rasping of the beetle legs, too, was no longer audible. Perhaps they had thrown
00:15:17Brahm off their track. Perhaps in the darkness he had not known which way they had gone after leaving
00:15:22the whirlpool. That thought encouraged them to a last effort. They pushed their flagging limbs
00:15:28up, upward through an inferno of heated air. Suddenly, Dodd uttered a yell and pointed upward.
00:15:34God! ejaculated Tommy. Then he'd seized Dodd in his arms and nearly crushed him. For high above them,
00:15:41a pinpoint in the black void, they saw a star. They were almost at the earth's surface.
00:15:47One more effort, and suddenly the ground seemed to give beneath them. They breathed the outer air
00:15:53and went sliding down a chute of sand and stopped, half-buried, at the bottom.
00:15:59Chapter 8. Recaptured
00:16:03Where are we? each demanded of the other, as they staggered out. It was a moonless night,
00:16:10and the air was chill. But they were certainly nowhere near the polar regions, for there was no
00:16:15trace of snow to be seen anywhere. All about them was sand, with here and there a spiny shrub,
00:16:21standing up stiff and erect and solitary. When they had disengaged themselves from the
00:16:26climbing sand, they could see that they were apparently in the hollow of a vast crater
00:16:31that must have been half a mile in circumference. It was low and worn down to an elevation of not
00:16:37more than two or three hundred feet, and evidently the volcano that had thrown it up had been extinct
00:16:43for millennia. Water! gasped Dodd. They looked all about them. They could see no signs of a spring
00:16:49anywhere, and both were parched with thirst after their terrific climb.
00:16:53We must find water, Hydea, said Tommy. Why, what's the matter?
00:16:59Hydea was pointing upward at the starry heaven, and shivering with fear.
00:17:03Eyes! she cried. Big beetles waiting for us up there!
00:17:08No, no, Hydea, Dodd explained. Those are stars. They are worlds, places where people live.
00:17:17Will you take me up there? asked Hydea.
00:17:20No, this is our world, said Dodd. And by and by the sun will rise. That's a big ball of
00:17:27fire up
00:17:28there. He watches over the world and gives us light and warmth. Don't be afraid. I'll take care of you.
00:17:36Hydea is not afraid with Jimmy Dodd to take care of her, replied the girl with dignity.
00:17:41Hydea smells water! Over there! She pointed across one side of the crater.
00:17:46There we'd better hurry, said Tommy, because I can't hold out much longer.
00:17:51The three scrambled over the soft sand, which sucked in their feet to the ankle at every step.
00:17:57It was with great difficulty that they succeeded in reaching the crater's summit,
00:18:01low though it was. Then Dodd uttered a cry and pointed. In front of them extended a long pool of
00:18:07water, with a scrubby growth around the edges. The ground was firmer here, and they hurried toward
00:18:13it. Tommy was the first to reach it. He lay down on his face and drank eagerly. He had taken
00:18:19in a
00:18:20quart before he discovered that the water was saline. At the same time, Dodd uttered an exclamation of
00:18:26disgust. Hydea, too, after sipping a little of the fluid, had stood up, chattering excitedly in her
00:18:32own language. But she was not chattering about the water. She was pointing toward the scrub.
00:18:38Men there! She cried. Men like you and Tommy, Jimmy Dodd. Tommy and Dodd looked at each other.
00:18:44The water was already forgotten in their excitement at Hydea's information, which neither of them
00:18:48doubted. Brave as she was, the girl now hung back behind Dodd, letting the two men take precedence of
00:18:54her. The water, saline as it was, had partly quenched their thirst. They felt their strength reviving.
00:19:01And it was the growing light. In the east, the sky was already flecked with yellow-pink.
00:19:06They felt a thrill of intense excitement at the prospect of meeting others of their kind.
00:19:11Where do you think we are? asked Tommy. Dodd stopped to look at a shrub that was grown
00:19:17near the edge of the pool. I don't think. I know, Tommy, he answered. This is Wattle.
00:19:24Yes. We're somewhere in the interior regions of the Australian continent, and that's not going to
00:19:30help us much. Over there! Over there! panted Hydea. Hold me, Jimmy Dodd. I can't see. Ah! This is
00:19:38terrible light! She screwed her eyelids tightly together to shut out the pale light of dawn.
00:19:44The men had already discovered that the third membrane had been burned away.
00:19:49We must get her out of here! whispered Dodd to Tommy. Somewhere where it's dark before the sun
00:19:54rises. Let's go back to the entrance of the crater. But Hydea, her arm extended, persisted.
00:20:00Over there! Over there!
00:20:03Suddenly, a spear came whirling out of a growth of Wattle beside the pool.
00:20:07It whizzed past Tommy's face and dropped into the sand behind. Between the trunks of the Wattles,
00:20:12they could see the forms of a party of blackfellows, watching them intently.
00:20:17Tommy held up his arms and moved forward with a show of confidence that he was far from feeling.
00:20:22After what he had escaped in the underworld, he was in no mood to be massacred now.
00:20:27But the blacks were evidently not hostile. It was probable that the spear had not been aimed to
00:20:32kill. At the sight of the two white men and the white woman, they came forward doubtfully,
00:20:37then more fearlessly, shouting in their language. In another minute, Tommy and Dodd were the center of
00:20:44a group of wandering savages. Especially Hydea. Three or four djins, or black women,
00:20:51had crept out of the scrub, and were already examining her with guttural cries, and fingering
00:20:56the hair garment that she wore.
00:20:58Water! said Tommy, pointing to his throat, and then to the pool with a frown of disgust.
00:21:04The blackfellows grinned, and led the three a short distance to a place where a large hollow
00:21:09had been scooped in the sandy floor of the desert. It was full of water, perfectly sweet to the taste.
00:21:15The three drank gratefully. Suddenly the edge of the sun appeared above the horizon,
00:21:21gilding the sand with gold. The sunlight fell upon the three, and Hydea uttered a terrible cry of
00:21:27distress. She dropped upon the sand, her hands pressed to her eyes convulsively. Tommy and Dodd
00:21:33dragged her into the thickest part of the scrub, where she lay, moaning. They contrived bandages from
00:21:39the remnants of their clothing, and these, damped with cold water and bound over the girl's eyes,
00:21:44alleviated her suffering somewhat. Meanwhile, the blackfellows had prepared a meal of roast
00:21:50possum. After their long diet of shrimps, it tasted like ambrosia to the two men.
00:21:56Much to their surprise, Hydea seemed to enjoy it too. The three squatted in the scrub among the
00:22:01friendly blacks, discussing their situation.
00:22:04These fellows will save us, said Dodd. It may be that we're quite near the coast, but, anyway,
00:22:10they'll stick to us, even if only out of curiosity. They'll take us somewhere. But as soon as we get
00:22:16Hydea to safety, we'll have to go back along our trail. We mustn't lose our direction.
00:22:21Suppose I was to laugh that when I get back. Call the liar. I'll tell you, we've got to have
00:22:27something to show, to prove my statements, before I can persuade anybody to fit out an expedition
00:22:32into Submundia. Even those three beetle shells that we dropped in the crater won't be conclusive
00:22:37evidence for the type of mind that sits in the chairs of science today. And, speaking of that,
00:22:43we must get those blacks to carry those shells for us. I tell you, nobody will believe.
00:22:49What's that? cried Tommy sharply, as a rasping sound rose above the cries of the frightened blacks.
00:22:54But there was no need to ask. Out of the crater, two enormous beetles were winging their way toward
00:23:00them. Two beetles, larger than any that they had seen, fully seven feet in length, they were circling
00:23:06about each other, apparently engaged in a vicious battle. The fearful beaks stabbed at the flesh beneath
00:23:13the shells. And they alternately stabbed and drew back, all the while approaching the party,
00:23:18which watched them, petrified with terror. It was evident that the monsters had no conception of
00:23:23the presence of humans. Blinded by the sun, only one thing could have induced them to leave the dark
00:23:29depths of Submundia. That was the mating instinct. The beetles were evidently rival leaders of some swarm,
00:23:36engaged in a duel to the death. Round and round, they went in a dizzy maze,
00:23:41stabbing and thrusting, jaws closing on flesh, until they dropped, close locked in battle,
00:23:47not more than twenty feet from the little party of blacks and whites, both squirming in the agonies
00:23:52of death. I don't think that necessarily means that the swarm is on our trail, said Tommy, a little
00:23:58later, as the three stood beside the shells that they had discarded. Those two were strays,
00:24:02lost from the swarm and maddened by the mating instinct. Still, it might be as well to wear
00:24:07these things for a while, in case they do follow us. You're right, answered Dodd, as he placed one
00:24:13of the shells around Hydea. We've got to get this little lady to civilization, and we've got to protect
00:24:19our lives in order to give this great new knowledge to the world. If we are attacked, you must sacrifice
00:24:26your life for me, Tommy, so that I can carry back the news.
00:24:31Right-o, answered Tommy with alacrity. You bet I will, Jim.
00:24:35The glaring sun of mid-afternoon was shining down upon the desert, but Hydea was no longer in pain.
00:24:41It was evident that she was fast becoming accustomed to the sunlight, though she still kept her eyes
00:24:46screwed up tightly, and had to be helped along by Dodd and Jimmy. In high good humor, the three reached
00:24:52the encampment to find that the blacks were feasting on the dead beetles, while the two
00:24:56eldest members of the party had proudly donned the shells. It was near sunset before they finally
00:25:03started. Dodd and Tommy had managed to make it clear to them that they wished to reach civilization,
00:25:08but how near this there was, of course, no means of determining. They noted, however, that the party
00:25:15started in a southerly direction.
00:25:16I should say, said Dodd, that we are in South Australia, probably three or four hundred miles
00:25:22from the coast. We've got a long journey before us, but these blackfellows will know how to procure
00:25:27food for us. They certainly knew how to get water, for, just as it began to grow dark, when the
00:25:33three
00:25:33were already tormented by thirst, they stopped at what seemed a mere hollow among the stones and
00:25:38boulders that strewed the face of the desert, and scooped away the sand, leaving a hole which quickly
00:25:44filled with clear, cold water of excellent taste. After which, they made signs that they were to
00:25:50camp there for the night. The moon was riding high in the sky. As it grew dark, Hydea opened her
00:25:56eyes,
00:25:56saw the luminary, and uttered an exclamation, this time not of fear, but of wonder.
00:26:03Moon, said Dodd. That's all right, girl. She watches over the night, as the sun does over the day.
00:26:10Hydea likes the moon better than the sun, said the girl wistfully, but the moon not strong enough to
00:26:16keep away the beetles. If I was you, I'd forget about the beetles, Hydea, said Dodd. They won't
00:26:23come out of that hole in the ground. You'll never see them again. And, as he spoke, they heard a
00:26:28familiar rasping sound far in the distance. How the wind blows, said Tommy, desperately resolved not
00:26:36to believe his ears. I think a storm's coming up. But Hydea, with a scream of fear, was clinging to
00:26:42Dodd, and the blacks were on their feet, spears and boomerangs in their hands, looking northward.
00:26:48Out of that north, a little black cloud was gathering, a cloud that spread gradually as a
00:26:54thundercloud, until it covered a good part of the sky, and still more of the sky, and still more. All
00:27:02the
00:27:02while, that faint, distant rasping was audible, but it did not increase in volume. It was as if the
00:27:09beetles had halted until the full number of the swarm had come up out of the crater. Then the cloud,
00:27:16which by now covered half the sky, began to take geometric form. It grew square. Its ragged edges
00:27:22seemed to trim themselves away. Streaks of light shot through it at right angles, as if it was marshalling
00:27:28itself into companies. The doomed men and the girl stood perfectly still, staring at that phenomenon.
00:27:35They knew that only a miracle could save them. They did not even speak, but Hydea clung more tightly
00:27:41to Dodd's arm. Then suddenly the cloud spread upward and covered the face of the moon.
00:27:46Well, this is goodbye, Tommy, said Dodd, gripping his friend's hand. God, I wish I had a revolver,
00:27:53or a knife. He looked at Hydea. Suddenly the rasping became a whining shriek. A score of
00:28:00enormous beetles, the advance guards of the army, zoomed out of the darkness into a ray of straggling
00:28:05moonlight. Shrieking, the blacks, who had watched the approaching swarm perfectly immobile, threw away
00:28:11the two shells and bolted. Good lord, Dodd shouted. Did you see the color of their shells, Tommy?
00:28:17Tommy. Even in that moment, the scientific observer came uppermost in him. Those red edges,
00:28:23they must be young ones, Tommy. It's the new brood. No wonder Brom stayed behind. He was waiting for
00:28:29them to hatch. The new brood. We're doomed. Doomed. All my work wasted. The blackfellows did not get
00:28:36very far. A hundred yards from the place where they started to run, they dropped, their bodies hidden
00:28:42beneath the illustrating monsters. Their screams cut short as those frightful beaks sought their
00:28:47throats, and those jaws crunched through flesh and bone. Circling around Dodd, Tommy, and Hydea,
00:28:54as if puzzled by their appearance, the beetles kept up a continuous, furious droning that sounded like
00:29:00the roar of Niagara mixed with the shrieking of a thousand sirens. The moon was completely hidden,
00:29:06and only a dim, nebulous light showed the repulsive monsters as they flew within a few feet of the
00:29:12heads of the fugitives. The stench was overpowering. But suddenly a ray of white light shot through the
00:29:18darkness, and with a charged note just perceptible to the ears of the two men, but doubtless of the
00:29:24greatest significance to the beetles, the swarm fled apart to the right and left, clearing a clear line
00:29:29through which appeared Braum, reclining on his shell couch above his eight trained beetle steeds.
00:29:37Hovering overhead, the eight huge monsters dropped lightly to the ground beside the three.
00:29:43Braum sat up, a vicious grin upon his twisted face. In his hand he held a large electric bulb,
00:29:50its sides sheathed in a roughly carved wooden frame. The wire was attached to a battery behind him.
00:29:56Well met, my friends, he shouted exultantly. I owe you more thanks than I can express for having so
00:30:04providentially left the electrical equipment of your plane undamaged after you crashed at the entrance
00:30:10to Submundia. I had a hunch about it, and the hunch worked. He grinned more malevolently as he looked
00:30:18from one man to the other. You've run your race, he said, but I'm going to have a little fun
00:30:24with you
00:30:24before you die. I'm going to use you as an object lesson. You'll find out in a little while.
00:30:30Go ahead. Go ahead, Braum.
00:30:34Dodd grinned back at him.
00:30:36Just a few million years ago, and you were a speck of protoplasm in that pre-Pleistocene age
00:30:42swimming among the invertebrate crustaceans that characterized that epoch.
00:30:48Invertebrates and monotremes, Dodd, said Braum, almost wistfully. The mammals were already
00:30:55existence on the earth, as you know. Suddenly he broke off as he realized that Dodd was spoofing
00:31:02him. A yell of execration broke from his lips. He uttered a high whistle, and instantly the whip-like
00:31:09lashes of a hundred beetles whizzed through the darkness and remained poised over Dodd's head.
00:31:14Not even the marsupial lion, Braum, grinned Dodd, undismayed. Go ahead, but I'll not die with a lie
00:31:23upon my lips.
00:31:25Chapter 9. The Trail of Death
00:31:28There's sure some sort of hoodoo on these Antarctic expeditions, Wilson, said the city editor of the
00:31:34Daily Record to the star rewrite man. He glanced through the hastily typed report that had come
00:31:40through on the wireless set erected on the thirty-sixth story of the record building.
00:31:45Tommy Travers gone, eh? And James Dodd, too. They'll be woe and wailing along the great white
00:31:51way tonight. When this news gets out, they'll say that half the chorus girls in town consider
00:31:55themselves engaged to Tommy. Nice fella, too. Always did like him. Nice fellow, too. Always did like him.
00:32:03Queer. That curtain of fog that seems to lie on the actual side of the South Pole, he continued,
00:32:08glancing over the reports again. So Storm thinks that Tommy crashed in it and that it's a million
00:32:14to one against their ever finding his remains. What's this about beetles? Shells of enormous
00:32:20prehistoric beetles found by Tommy and Dodd? That'll make good copy, Wilson. Let's play that up. Hand it to
00:32:26Jones and tell him to scare up a catching headline or two. He beckoned the boy, who was hurrying toward
00:32:31his
00:32:31desk, a flimsy in his hand, glanced through it, and tossed it toward Wilson. What do they think
00:32:36this is, April Fool's Day? he asked. I'm surprised that the international press should fall for such
00:32:42stuff as that. Why, tomorrow is the first of April, exclaimed Wilson, tossing back the Cal
00:32:48Dispatch with a contemptuous laugh. Well, it won't do the IP much good to play those tricks on their
00:32:53subscribers, said the city editor testily. I'm surprised, to say the least. I guess their Adelaide
00:32:58correspondent has gone off his head or something. Using poor Travers' name, too. Of course that
00:33:03fellow didn't know he was dead, but still. That was how the Daily Record missed being the first to
00:33:08give out certain information that was to stagger the world. The Dispatch, which had evidently outrun
00:33:14an earlier one, was as follows. Adelaide, South Australia, March 31st. Further telegraphic
00:33:19communications arriving almost continuously from Settlers Station, signed by Thomas Travers, member of
00:33:25Travers' Antarctic Expedition, who claims to have penetrated Earth's interior at South Pole and to
00:33:30have come out near Victoria Desert. Travers states that swarm of prehistoric beetles, estimated at
00:33:35two trillion, and as large as men, with shells impenetrable by rifle bullets, now besieging
00:33:40Settlers Station, where he and Dodd and Hydea, woman of subterranean race whom they brought away,
00:33:45are shut up in telegraph office. Brahm, former member of Greystoke Expedition, said to be in charge of
00:33:50swarm, with intention of obliterating human race. Every living thing at Settlers Station destroyed,
00:33:55and swarm moving south. It was a small-town paper, a hundred miles from New York, that took a chance
00:34:00on publishing this report from the international press, in spite of frantic efforts on the parts of
00:34:05the head office to recall it after it had been transmitted. The paper published the account as an
00:34:10April Fool's Day joke, though it later took to itself the credit for having believed it. But by the time
00:34:15April Fool's Day dawned, all the world knew that the account was, if anything, an underestimate of the
00:34:21fearful things that were happening, down under. It was known now that the swarm of monsters had
00:34:27originated in the Great Victoria Desert, one of the worst stretches of desolation in the world,
00:34:33situated in the southeast corner of Western Australia. Their numbers were incalculable.
00:34:38Wimhush, the aviator, who was attempting to cross the continent from east to west, reported afterward
00:34:43that he had flown for four days, skirting the edge of the swarm, and that the whole of the time,
00:34:49they were moving in the same direction, a thick cloud that left a trail of dense darkness on earth
00:34:55beneath them, like the path of an eclipse. Wimhush escaped them only because he had a ceiling of
00:35:00twenty thousand feet, to which apparently the beetles could not soar. And this swarm was only
00:35:06about one-fourth of the whole number of the monsters. This was the swarm that was moving westward,
00:35:11and subsequently totally destroyed all living things in Calgary, Coolgardie, Perth, and all the
00:35:22coastal cities of Western Australia. Ships were found drifting in the Indian Ocean, totally destitute
00:35:28of crews and passengers. Not even their skeletons were found. And it was estimated that the voracious
00:35:34monsters had carried them away bodily, devoured them in the air, and dropped the remains into the
00:35:39water. All the world knows now how the sea elephant herd on Kurgulan Island was totally destroyed,
00:35:46and of the giant shells that were found lying everywhere on the deserted beaches,
00:35:51in positions that showed the monsters had in the end devoured one another.
00:35:55Mauritius was the most westerly point reached by a fraction of the swarm. A little over twenty
00:36:00thousand of the beetles reached that lovely island by count of the shells afterward. And all the world
00:36:06knows now of the desperate and successful fight that the inhabitants waged against them. Men and women,
00:36:12boys and girls, blacks and whites, finding that the devils were invulnerable against rifle fire,
00:36:18sallied forth bodily with knives and choppers, and laid down a life for a life. On the second day after
00:36:25their appearance, the main swarm, a trillion and a half strong, reached the line of the transcontinental
00:36:31railway, and moved eastward into South Australia, traveling, it was estimated, at the rate of two hundred
00:36:37miles an hour. By the next morning, they were in Adelaide, a city of nearly a quarter of a million
00:36:42people. By nightfall, every living thing in Adelaide and the suburbs had been eaten, except for a few who
00:36:48succeeded in hiding in walled-up cellars or in the surrounding marshes. That night, the swarm was on the
00:36:55borders of New South Wales and Victoria, and moving in two divisions toward Melbourne and Sydney. The
00:37:01northern half, it was quickly seen, was flying wild with no particular objective, moving in a solid
00:37:07cohort two hundred miles in length, and devouring game, stock, and humans indiscriminately. It was the
00:37:14southern division, numbering perhaps a trillion, that was under command of Brom, and aimed at destroying
00:37:19Melbourne as Adelaide had been destroyed. Brom, with his eight beetle steeds, was by this time known and
00:37:26execrated throughout the world. He was pictured as Antichrist, and the fulfillment of the prophecies of the
00:37:32Rock of Revelations. And all this while, or rather, until the telegraph wires were cut, broken, as it was
00:37:39discovered later, by purging beetles, Thomas Travers was sending out messages from his post at
00:37:45settler's station. Soon it was known that prodigious creatures were following in the wake of the
00:37:50devastating horde. Mantises, fifteen feet in height, winged things like pterodactyls, longer than bombing
00:37:57airplanes, followed, preying on the stragglers. But the main bodies never halted, and the inroads that
00:38:04the destroyers made on their numbers were insignificant. Before the swarm reached Adelaide, the Commonwealth
00:38:10government had taken action. Troops had been called out, and all the available airplanes in the
00:38:14country had been ordered to assemble at Broken Hill, New South Wales, a strategic point commanding the
00:38:20approaches to Sydney and Melbourne. Something like 400 airplanes were assembled, with several batteries
00:38:27of anti-aircraft guns that had been used in the Great War. Every amateur aviator in Australia was on the
00:38:33spot, with machines ranging from tiny moths to Hanley Pages, anything that could fly. Nocturnal though the
00:38:40beetles had been, they no longer feared the light of the sun. In fact, it was ascertained later that
00:38:45they were blind. An opacity had formed over the crystalline lenses of the eye. Blind, they were no
00:38:51less formidable than with their sight. They existed only to devour, and their numbers made them
00:38:57irresistible, no matter which way they turned. As soon as the vanguard of the dark cloud was sighted from
00:39:03Broken Hill, the airplanes went aloft. 400 planes, each armed with machine guns, dashed into the serried
00:39:09hosts, drumming out volleys of lead. In a long line, extending nearly to the limits of the beetle
00:39:14formation, thus giving each aviator all the room he needed, the planes gave battle. The first terror
00:39:21that fell upon the airmen was the discovery that, even at close range, the machine gun bullets failed
00:39:26to penetrate the shells. The force of the impact whirled the beetles around, drove them together in
00:39:31bunches, sent them groping with weaving tentacles through the air. But that was all. On the main
00:39:37body of the invaders, no impression was made, whatever. The second terror was the realization
00:39:43that the swarm, driven down here and there from the altitude of several hundred feet, merely resumed
00:39:48their progress upon the ground, in a succession of giant leaps. Within a few minutes, instead of
00:39:54presenting an inflexible barrier, the line of airplanes was badly broken, each plane surrounded by
00:40:00swarms of the monsters. Then Brom was seen, and that was the third terror, the sight of the famous
00:40:07beetle steeds, four pairs abreast, with Brom reclining like a Roman emperor upon the surface
00:40:12of the shells. It is true, Brom had no inclination to risk his own life in battle. At the first
00:40:19sight of
00:40:20the aviators, he dodged into the thick of the swarm, where no bullet could reach him. Brom managed to
00:40:25transmit an order, and the beetles drew together. Some thought afterward that it was by thought
00:40:31transference that he effected this maneuver, for instantly the beetles, which had hitherto flown
00:40:35in loose order, became a solid wall, a thousand feet in height, closing in on the planes. The
00:40:41propellers struck them and snapped short, and as the planes went weaving down, the hideous monsters
00:40:46leaped into the cockpits and began their abominable meal. Not a single plane came back. Planes and
00:40:54skeletons, and here and there a shell of a dead beetle, itself completely devoured, were all that
00:41:00was found afterward. The gunners stayed at their post till the last moment, firing round after round
00:41:05of shell and shrapnel, with insignificant results. Their skeletons were found, not twenty paces from
00:41:12their guns, where the gunner's monument now stands. Half an hour after the flight had first been sighted,
00:41:18the news was being radioed to Sydney, Melbourne, and all other Australian cities, advising instant
00:41:24flight to sea as the only chance of safety. The radio message was cut short, and men listened and
00:41:30shuddered. After that came the crowding aboard all crafts in the harbors. The tragedies of the Eustace,
00:41:36the All Australia, the Sepphoris, sunk at their moorings. The innumerable sea tragedies. The horde of
00:41:42fugitives that landed in New Zealand. The reign of terror when the mob got out of hand. The burning
00:41:48of Melbourne. The sack of Sydney. And south and eastward, like a resistless flood, the beetle swarm
00:41:55came pouring. Well had Brom boasted that he would make the earth a desert. A hundred miles of poisoned
00:42:03carcasses of sheep, extended outside of Sydney's suburbs, gave the first promise of success. Long
00:42:10mounds of beetle shells testified to the results. Moreover, the beetles that fed on the carcasses of
00:42:16their fellows were in turn poisoned and died. But this was only a drop in the bucket. What counted was
00:42:22that the swift advance was slowing down. As if exhausted by their efforts, or else satiated with
00:42:28food, the beetles were doing what the soldiers did. They were digging in. Twenty-four miles from Sydney,
00:42:3518 outside Melbourne, the advance was stayed. Volunteers who went out from those cities reported
00:42:41that the beetles seemed to be resting in long trenches that they had excavated, so that only
00:42:46their shells appeared above ground. Trees were covered with clinging beetles. Every wall, every house was
00:42:52invisible beneath the beetle armor. Australia had a respite. Perhaps only for a night or day. But still
00:42:59time to draw breath. Time to consider. Time for the shiploads of fugitives to get farther from the
00:43:05continent that had become a shambles. And then the cry went up, not only from Australia, but from all
00:43:12the world. Get Travers!
00:43:16Chapter 10. At Bay
00:43:20Brom put his fingers to his mouth and whistled, a shrill whistle, yet audible to Dodd, Tommy, and
00:43:26Hydea. Instantly, three pairs of beetles appeared out of the throng. Their tentacles went out, and the two
00:43:32men and the girl found themselves hoisted separately upon the backs of the pairs. Next moment, they were
00:43:38flying side by side, high in the air above the surrounding swarm. They could see one another, but it
00:43:43was impossible for them to make their voices heard above the rasping of the beetle's legs. Hours went
00:43:49by while the moon crossed the sky and dipped toward the horizon. Tommy knew that the moon would set about
00:43:55the hour of dawn, and the stars were already beginning to pale when he saw a line of telegraph poles,
00:44:01then two
00:44:02lines of shining metals, then a small settlement of stone and brick houses. Tommy was not familiar with the
00:44:08geography of Australia, but he knew this must be the transcontinental line. Whirling onward, the cloud of beetles
00:44:15suddenly swooped downward. For a moment, Tommy could see the frightened occupants of the settlement crowding into the
00:44:21single street. Then he shuddered with sick horror as he saw them obliterated by the swarm. There was no
00:44:28struggle, no attempt at flight or resistance. One moment those forty-odd men were there, the next minute
00:44:34they existed no longer. There was nothing but a swarm of beetles walking about like men with shells upon their
00:44:42backs. And now Tommy saw evidences of Brom's devilish control of the swarm. For out of the cloud dropped what
00:44:50seemed to be a phalanx of beetle guards, the military police of beetledom. And, lashing fiercely
00:44:56with their tentacles, they drove back all the swarm that sought to join their companions in their
00:45:01ghoulish feast. There was just so much food and no more. The rest must seek theirs further.
00:45:08But even beetles, it may be presumed, are not entirely under discipline at all times. The pair of beetles that
00:45:16bore Tommy suddenly swooped apart, ten or a dozen feet from the ground, and dashed into the thick of
00:45:22the struggling, frenzied mass, flinging their rider to earth. Tommy struck soft sand, sat up, half-dazed,
00:45:29saw his shell lying a few feet away from him, and retrieved it, just as a couple of the monsters
00:45:33came
00:45:34swooping down at him. He looked about him. Not far away stood Dodd and Hydea, with their shells on their
00:45:40backs. They recognized Tommy and ran toward him. Not more than twenty yards away stood the railroad
00:45:45station, with several crates of goods on the platform. Next to it was a substantial house of
00:45:51stone, with the front door open. Tommy pointed to it, and Dodd understood, and shouted something that
00:45:57was lost in the furious buzz of the beetle's wings as they devoured their prey. The three raced for the
00:46:02entrance, gained it unmolested, and closed the door. There was a key in the door, and it was light enough
00:46:08for them to see a chain, which Dodd pulled into position. There was only one story, and there were
00:46:14three rooms, apparently, with the kitchen. Tommy rushed to the kitchen door, locked it to, and,
00:46:20with almost superhuman efforts, dragged the large iron stove against it. He rushed to the window,
00:46:26but it was a mere loophole, not large enough to admit a child. Nevertheless, he stood the heavy table
00:46:32on end, so that it covered it. Then he ran back. Dodd had already barricaded the window of the larger
00:46:38room,
00:46:38which was a bed-sitting room, with a heavy wardrobe, and the wooden bedstead, jamming the two pieces
00:46:44sidewise against the wall, so that they could not be forced apart without being demolished. He was now
00:46:49busy in the smaller room, which seemed to be the station master's office, dragging an iron safe
00:46:55across the floor. But the window was crisscrossed with iron bars, and it was evident that the safe,
00:47:00which was locked, contained at times considerable money. For the window could hardly have been forced,
00:47:06saved by a charge of nitroglycerine, or dynamite. However, it was against the door that Dodd placed the
00:47:12safe, and he stood back, panting. Good, said Hydea, that will hold them. Then the two men looked at her
00:47:18doubtfully. Did Hydea know what she was talking about? The sun had risen. A long shaft shot into the room.
00:47:26Outside, the beetles were still buzzing as they turned over the vestiges of their prey.
00:47:30There were as yet no signs of attack. Suddenly, Tommy grasped Dodd's arm.
00:47:36Look, he shouted, pointing to a corner which had been in gloom a moment before.
00:47:40There was a table there, and on it, a telegraphic instrument. Telegraphy had been one of Tommy's
00:47:46hobbies in boyhood. In a moment, he was busy at the table. Dot, dash, dot, dash. Then suddenly,
00:47:53outside, a furious hum and the impact of beetle bodies against the front door.
00:47:57Tommy got up, grinning. That was the first interrupted message from Tommy that was received.
00:48:04Through the barred window, the three could see the furious efforts of the beetles to force an
00:48:08entrance. But the very tensile strength of the beetle shells, which rendered them impervious to
00:48:13bullets, required a laminate construction, which rendered them powerless against brick or stone.
00:48:20Desperately, the swarm dashed itself against the walls, until the ground outside was piled high
00:48:25with stunned beetles. Not the faintest impression was made on the defenses.
00:48:30Watch them, Jim, said Tom. I'll go see if the rear's secure.
00:48:34That thought of his seemed to have been anticipated by the beetles, for as Tommy reached the kitchen,
00:48:39the swarm came dashing against the door and window, always recoiling. Tommy came back,
00:48:44grinning all over his face.
00:48:46You were right, Hydea, he said. We've held them all right, and the tables are turned on Brom.
00:48:51Also, I got a message through, I think, he added to Dodd.
00:48:55Dash, dot, dash, dot, from the instrument.
00:48:59Tommy ran to the table again. Dash, dot, went back.
00:49:03For five minutes, Tommy labored, while the beetles hammered now on one door, now on another,
00:49:08now on the windows. Then Tommy got up.
00:49:10It was some station down the line, he said. I've told them, and they're sending a man up here to
00:49:15replace the telegraphist. Also, a couple of cops. They think I'm crazy. I told them again. That's
00:49:21the best I could do. Dodd, Travers, for the last time, let's talk. The cloud of beetles seemed to
00:49:29have thinned, for the sun was shining into the room. Brom's voice was perfectly audible, though he
00:49:35himself was invisible. Probably he thought it likely that the defenders had obtained firearms.
00:49:40Nothing to say to you, Brom, called Dodd. We've finished our discussion on the monotremes.
00:49:47I want you fellows to stand in with me, came Brom's plaintive tones. It's so lonesome all by
00:49:54oneself, Dodd. Ah, you're beginning to find that out, are you? Dodd could not resist answering.
00:50:01You'll be lonelier yet before you're through. Dodd, I didn't bring the swarm up here. I swear it.
00:50:07I've been trying to control them from the beginning. I saw what was coming. I believe
00:50:12I can avert this horror, drive them into the sea or something like that. Don't make me desperate,
00:50:17Dodd. And listen, old man, about those monotremes. Sensible men don't quarrel over things like that.
00:50:25Why can't we agree to differ? Ah, now you're talking, Brom, Dodd answered. Only you're too late.
00:50:32After what's happened today, we'll have no truck with you. That's final.
00:50:37Damn you, shrieked Brom. I'll batter down this house. I'll...
00:50:42You'll do nothing, Brom, because you can't, Dodd answered.
00:50:45Travers has wired full information about your devil horde, and likewise about you,
00:50:50and all Australia will be prepared to give you a warm reception when you arrive.
00:50:54I tell you, I'm invincible, Brom screamed. In three days, Australia will be a ruin,
00:51:02a depopulated desert. In a week, all southern Asia. In three weeks, Europe. In two months,
00:51:09America.
00:51:11You've been taking too many of those pellets, Brom, Dodd answered. Stand back now. Stand back
00:51:17wherever you are, or I'll open the door and throw the slops over you. Brom's screech rose high above
00:51:23the droning of the wings. In another moment, the interior of the room had grown as black as night.
00:51:28The rattle of the beetle shells against the four walls of the house was like the clattering of
00:51:32strange thunder. All through the darkness, Dodd could hear the unhurried clicking of the key.
00:51:38At last, the rattling ceased. The sun shone in again. The ground all around the house was packed
00:51:44with fallen beetles, six feet high, a writhing mass that creaked and clattered as it strove to
00:51:50disengage itself. Brom's voice once more.
00:51:54I'm leaving a guard, Dodd. They'll get you if you try to leave, but they won't eat you.
00:52:00I'm going to have you three sliced into little pieces. The thousand deaths of the Chinese.
00:52:07The beetles will eat the parts that are sliced away, and you'll live to watch them. I'll be back
00:52:13with a stick or two of dynamite tomorrow.
00:52:17Yeah, but listen, Brom, Dodd sang out. Listen, you old marsupial tiger. When those pipe dreams
00:52:24clear away, I'm going to build a gallows of beetle shells reaching to the moon to hang you on.
00:52:31Brom's screech of madness died away. The strident rasping of the beetle legs began again.
00:52:37For hours, the three heard it. It was not until nightfall that it died away.
00:52:42Brom had made good his threat, for all around the house, extending as far as they could see,
00:52:48was the host of beetle guards. To venture out, even with their shells about them,
00:52:53was clearly a hazardous undertaking. There was neither food nor water in the place.
00:52:58We'll just have to hold out, said Dodd, breaking one of the long periods of silence.
00:53:04Tommy did not answer. He did not hear him, for he was busy at the key. Suddenly he leaped to
00:53:10his feet.
00:53:10God, Jimmy, he cried. That devil's making good his threat. The swarms in South Australia,
00:53:16destroying every living thing, wiping out whole towns and villages. And they, they believe me now.
00:53:23He sank into a chair. For the first time, the strain of the awful past seemed to grip him.
00:53:30Hydea came to his side.
00:53:31The beetles are Finnish, she said in her soft voice.
00:53:36How do you know, Hydea? demanded Dodd.
00:53:40The beetles are Finnish, Hydea repeated quietly, and that was all that Dodd could get out of her.
00:53:46But again the key began to click, and Tommy staggered to the table.
00:53:50Dot, dash, dash, dot.
00:53:54Presently, he looked up once more.
00:53:56The swarm's halfway to Adelaide, he said.
00:53:58They want to know if I can help them.
00:54:00Help them, he burst into hysterical laughter.
00:54:04Toward evening, he came back after an hour at the key.
00:54:08Line must be broken, he said.
00:54:10I'm getting nothing.
00:54:12In the moonlight, they could see the huge compound eyes of the beetle guards,
00:54:17glistening like enormous diamonds outside.
00:54:19They had not been conscious of thirst during the day, but now, with the coming of the cool night,
00:54:25their desire for water became paramount.
00:54:28Tommy, there must be water in the station, said Dodd.
00:54:33I'm going to get a pitcher from the kitchen and risk it.
00:54:36Tommy, take care of Hydea if—he added.
00:54:41But Hydea laid her hand upon his arm.
00:54:44Do not go, Jimmy Dodd, she said.
00:54:46We can be thirsty to-night, and to-morrow the beetles will be finished.
00:54:52How do you know? asked Dodd again.
00:54:55But now he realized that Hydea had never learned the significance of an interrogation.
00:55:00She only repeated her statement, and again the two men had to remain content.
00:55:05The long night passed, outside many facets of the beetle eyes,
00:55:10inside the two men, desperate with anxiety, not for themselves, but for the fate of the world,
00:55:16snatching a few moments' sleep from time to time,
00:55:19then looking up to see those glaring eyes from the silent watchers.
00:55:23Then dawn came, stealing over the desert, and the two shook themselves free from sleep.
00:55:29And now the eyes were gone.
00:55:31But there was immense activity among the beetles.
00:55:34They were scurrying to and fro, and as they watched,
00:55:37Dodd and Tommy began to see some significance in their movements.
00:55:41Why, they're digging trenches, Tommy shouted.
00:55:44That's horrible, Jimmy.
00:55:46Are they intending to conduct sapping operations against us, like engineers, or what?
00:55:51Dodd did not reply, and Tommy hardly expected any answer.
00:55:55As the two men, now joined by Hydea, watched,
00:55:58they saw that the beetles were actually digging themselves into the sand.
00:56:02Within the space of an hour, by the time the first shafts of sunlight began to stream into the room,
00:56:08there was to be seen only the massive, rounded shells of the monsters, as they squatted in the sand.
00:56:14Now you may fetch water, said Hydea, smiling at her lover.
00:56:18No, you do not need the shells, she added.
00:56:21The beetles are finished.
00:56:23It is as the wise men of my people told me.
00:56:27Wondering, hesitating, Tommy and Dodd unlocked the front door.
00:56:30They stood upon the threshold, ready to bolt back again.
00:56:34But there was no stirring among the beetle hosts.
00:56:37Growing bolder, they advanced a few steps.
00:56:40Then, shamed by Hydea's courage, they followed her, still cautiously, to the station.
00:56:46Dodd shouted as he saw a water tank, and a receptacle above it with a water cock.
00:56:51They let Hydea drink, then followed suit,
00:56:53and for a few moments, as they appeased their thirst, the beetles were forgotten.
00:56:57Then they turned back.
00:56:59There had been no movement in that line of shells that glinted in the morning sunlight.
00:57:04Come, I shall show you, said Hydea confidently, advancing toward the trench.
00:57:10Dodd would have stopped her, but the girl moved forward quickly,
00:57:13eluded him with a graceful, mirthful gesture, and stooped down over the trench.
00:57:18She rose up, raising in her arms an empty beetle shell.
00:57:22Dodd, who had reached the trench before Tommy, turned round and yelled to him excitedly.
00:57:28Tommy ran forward, and then he understood.
00:57:31The shells were empty.
00:57:33The swarm, whose life cycle Brom had admitted he did not understand, had just molted.
00:57:40It had molted because the bodies, gorged with food, had grown too large for the shells.
00:57:45In time, if left alone, the monsters would grow larger shells, become invincible again.
00:57:52But just now, they were defenseless as newborn babes, and knew it.
00:57:58Deep underneath the empty shells, they had burrowed into the ground.
00:58:02Everywhere at the bottom of the deep trenches were the naked, bestial creatures,
00:58:06waving helpless tentacles and squirming over one another as they strove to find shelter and security.
00:58:12A sudden madness came over Tommy and Dodd.
00:58:16Dynamite! There must be dynamite! Dodd shouted as he ran back to the station.
00:58:21Something better than dynamite! shouted Tommy, holding up one of a score of drums of petrol.
00:58:28Chapter 11. The World Set Free
00:58:32They waited two days at Settler's station.
00:58:34To push along the line into the desert would have been useless,
00:58:38and both men were convinced that an airplane would arrive for them.
00:58:41But it was not until the second afternoon that the aviator arrived,
00:58:45half dead with thirst and fatigue, and almost incoherent.
00:58:49His was the last plane on the Australian continent.
00:58:52He brought the news of the destruction of Adelaide,
00:58:54and of the siege of Melbourne and Sydney, as he termed it.
00:58:58He told Dodd and Tommy that the two cities had been surrounded with trenches and barbed wire.
00:59:03Machine guns and artillery were bombarding the trenches in which the Beatles had taken shelter.
00:59:08Has anyone been out on reconnaissance? asked Tommy.
00:59:12Nobody had been permitted to pass through the barbed wire,
00:59:15though there had been volunteers.
00:59:17It meant certain death.
00:59:18But, unless the Beatles were sapping deep in the ground,
00:59:22what their purpose was, nobody knew.
00:59:25Tommy and Dodd led him to the piles of smoking, stinking debris, and told him.
00:59:30That was where the aviator fainted from sheer relief.
00:59:33The Commonwealth wants you to take supreme command against the Beatles, he told Tommy,
00:59:37when he had recovered.
00:59:39I'm to bring you back.
00:59:40Not that they expect me back, but, God, what a pace of news!
00:59:44Forgive me, my swearing.
00:59:45I used to be a parson.
00:59:46Still am, for the matter of that.
00:59:48How are you going to bring us three back in your plane? asked Tommy.
00:59:51I shall stay here with Jimmy Dodd, said Hydea, suavely.
00:59:55There is not the least danger any more.
00:59:57You must destroy the Beatles before their shells have grown again.
01:00:00That's all.
01:00:02Used to be a parson, you say.
01:00:04Still are, shouted Dodd excitedly.
01:00:07Thank God!
01:00:08I mean, I'm glad to hear it.
01:00:09Come inside and come quick.
01:00:11I want you too, Tommy!
01:00:13Then Tommy understood, and it seemed as if Hydea understood,
01:00:16by some instinct that belongs exclusively to women,
01:00:19for her cheeks were flushed, and she turned and smiled into Dodd's eyes.
01:00:24Ten minutes later, Tommy hopped into the biplane,
01:00:27leaving the happy, married couple at Settler Station.
01:00:30His eyes grew misty as the plane took the air,
01:00:33and he saw them waving to him from the ground.
01:00:36Dodd and Hydea and he had been through so many adventures,
01:00:38and had reached safety.
01:00:40He must not fail.
01:00:43He did not fail.
01:00:45He found himself at Sydney in command of 30,000 men,
01:00:48all enthusiastic for the fight for the human race,
01:00:51soldiers and volunteers, ready to fight until they dropped.
01:00:54When the news of the situation was made public,
01:00:57an immense wave of hope ran through the world.
01:00:59National differences were forgotten.
01:01:01Color and creed and race grew more tolerant of one another.
01:01:04A new day had dawned.
01:01:06The day of humanity's true liberation.
01:01:10Tommy's first act was to call out the fire companies,
01:01:13and have the Beatles' trenches saturated with petrol from the fire hoses.
01:01:17Then, incendiary bullets, shot from guns from a safe distance,
01:01:21quickly converted them into blazing infernos.
01:01:24But even so, only a tithe of the Beatle army had been destroyed.
01:01:29Two hundred planes had already been rushed from New Zealand,
01:01:32and their aviators went up and scoured the country far and wide.
01:01:36Everywhere they found trenches,
01:01:37and, where the soil was stony,
01:01:40millions of the Beatles clustered helplessly
01:01:42beneath great mounds of discarded shells.
01:01:44An army of black trackers had been brought in planes from all parts of the country,
01:01:49and they searched out the Beatle masses
01:01:51everywhere along the course that the invaders had taken.
01:01:54Then, incendiary bombs were dropped from above.
01:01:58Day after day, the Beatle massacre went on.
01:02:01By the end of a week,
01:02:03the survivors of the invasion began to take heart again.
01:02:05It was certain that the greater portion of the Horde had been destroyed.
01:02:10There was only one thing lacking.
01:02:11No trace of Brom had been seen since his appearance at the head of his Beatle army
01:02:16in front of Broken Hill.
01:02:19And louder and more insistent grew the world clamor that he should be found,
01:02:23and put to death in some way more horrible than any yet devised.
01:02:28The ingenuity of a million minds worked upon this problem.
01:02:32Newspapers all over the world offered prizes for the most suitable form of death.
01:02:37Ingenious oriental tortures were rediscovered.
01:02:40The only thing lacking was Brom.
01:02:43A spy craze ran through Australia.
01:02:45Five hundred Brahms were found,
01:02:47and all of them were in imminent danger of death
01:02:49before they were able to prove an alias.
01:02:52And, oddly enough,
01:02:54it was Tommy and Dodd who found Brom.
01:02:57For Dodd had been brought back east,
01:02:59together with his bride,
01:03:00and given an important command in the army of extermination.
01:03:04Dodd had joined Tommy not far from Broken Hill,
01:03:07where a swarm of a hundred thousand beetles had been found in a little-known valley.
01:03:12The monsters had begun to grow new shells,
01:03:15and the news had excited a fresh wave of apprehension.
01:03:19The airplanes had concentrated for an attack upon them,
01:03:22and Tommy and Dodd were riding together,
01:03:24Tommy at the controls,
01:03:25and Dodd observing.
01:03:27Dodd called through the tube to Tommy,
01:03:29and indicated a mass that was moving through the scrub,
01:03:32some fifty thousand beetles,
01:03:34executing short hops,
01:03:36and evidently regaining some vitality.
01:03:38Tommy nodded.
01:03:39He signaled,
01:03:40and the fleet of planes circled around,
01:03:42and began to drop their incendiary bombs.
01:03:45Within a few minutes,
01:03:46the beetles were ringed with a wall of fire.
01:03:49Presently, the whole terrain was a blazing furnace.
01:03:53Hours later,
01:03:54when the fires had died away,
01:03:56Tommy and Dodd went down to look at the destruction
01:03:58that had been wrought.
01:03:59The scene was horrible.
01:04:01Great masses of charred flesh and shell
01:04:04were piled up everywhere.
01:04:06I guess that's been a pretty thorough job,
01:04:08said Tommy.
01:04:09Let's get back, Jim.
01:04:11What's that?
01:04:12cried Dodd, pointing.
01:04:14Then,
01:04:14My God, Tommy!
01:04:16It's one of our men!
01:04:17It was a man,
01:04:19but it was not one of their men.
01:04:21That creeping,
01:04:22maimed,
01:04:23half-cinder,
01:04:24and half-human thing
01:04:25that was trying to crawl
01:04:27into the hollow of a rock.
01:04:29It was Brom,
01:04:30and recognition
01:04:31was mutual.
01:04:33Brom dropping,
01:04:35moaning.
01:04:35He was only the shell of a man,
01:04:37and it was incredible
01:04:38how he had managed to survive
01:04:40that ordeal of fire.
01:04:42The remainder of his life,
01:04:44which only his indomitable will
01:04:45had held in that shattered body,
01:04:48was evidently a matter of minutes,
01:04:50but he looked up at Dodd
01:04:51and laughed.
01:04:53So,
01:04:54you're
01:04:54here,
01:04:57damn you,
01:04:58he snarled,
01:04:59and
01:05:00you think
01:05:01you've won.
01:05:04I've
01:05:05another card,
01:05:07another invasion of the world,
01:05:09beside which
01:05:10this is child's play.
01:05:12It's an invasion.
01:05:14Brom was going,
01:05:15but he pulled himself together
01:05:16with a supreme effort.
01:05:18Invasion by
01:05:20new species of
01:05:22monotremes,
01:05:23he croaked,
01:05:25deep down in
01:05:26earth,
01:05:28was saving to
01:05:29prove you the liar you are.
01:05:33Monotremes,
01:05:35egg-laying platypus
01:05:36big as elephant,
01:05:38existent long before
01:05:40Pleistocene epic.
01:05:42Make you recant,
01:05:43you lying fool.
01:05:45Brom died,
01:05:47an outburst of bitter laughter
01:05:49on his lips.
01:05:51Dodd stood silently
01:05:52for a while,
01:05:53then reverently
01:05:54he removed his hat.
01:05:56He was a madman
01:05:57and a devil,
01:05:59but he had the potentialities
01:06:01of a god,
01:06:02Tommy,
01:06:03he said.
01:06:05The end.
01:06:07Oh,
01:06:08phew!
01:06:09Oh,
01:06:10no,
01:06:10no,
01:06:10discord.
01:06:12What are,
01:06:13what is this
01:06:141930s vocabulary?
01:06:15honorary?
01:06:15The end.
Comments