The Metal Monster [50]
face.
"Damn you!" I cried. "Stop that. Stop it and turn your back."
The corded muscles of the arms contracted, the claws of the slithering paws drew in as though he were about to clutch me; the ebon pools of eyes were covered with a frozen film of hate.
He could not have known what was this tube with which I menaced him, but its threat he certainly sensed and was afraid to meet. He squattered about, wrapped his arms around his knees, crouched with back toward us.
"What's the matter?" asked Drake drowsily.
"He tried to hypnotize us," I answered shortly. "And pretty nearly did."
"So that's what it was." He was now wide awake. "I watched those hands of his and got sleepier and sleepier --I guess we'd better tie Mr. Yuruk up." He jumped to his feet.
"No," I said, restraining him. "No. He's safe enough as long as we're on the alert. I don't want to use any force on him yet. Wait until we know we can get something worth while by doing it."
"All right," he nodded, grimly. "But when the time comes I'm telling you straight, Doc, I'm going the limit. There's something about that human spider that makes me itch to squash him--slowly."
"I'll have no compunction--when it's worth while," I answered as grimly.
We sank down again against the saddlebags; Drake brought out a black pipe, looked at it sorrowfully; at me appealingly.
"All mine was on that pony that bolted," I answered his wistfulness.
"All mine was on my beast, too," he sighed. "And I lost my pouch in that spurt from the ruins."
He sighed again, clamped white teeth down upon the stem.
"Of course," he said at last, "if Ventnor was right in that--that disembodied analysis of his, it's rather--well, terrifying, isn't it?"
"It's all of that," I replied, "and considerably more."
"Metal, he said," Drake mused. "Things of metal with brains of thinking crystal and their blood the lightnings. You accept that?"
"So far as my own observation has gone--yes," I said. "Metallic yet mobile. Inorganic but with all the quantities we have hitherto thought only those of the organic and with others added. Crystalline, of course, in structure and highly complex. Activated by magnetic-electric forces consciously exerted and as much a part of their life as brain energy and nerve currents are of our human life. Animate, moving, sentient combinations of metal and electric energy."
He said:
"The opening of the Disk from the globe and of the two blasting stars from the pyramids show the flexibility of the outer--plate would you call it? I couldn't help thinking of the armadillo after I had time to think at all."
"It may be"--I struggled against the conviction now strong upon me--"it may be that within that metallic shell is an organic body, something soft--animal, as there is within the horny carapace of the turtle, the nacreous valves of the oyster, the shells of the crustaceans --it may be that even their inner surface is organic--"
"No," he interrupted, "if there is a body--as we know a body--it must be between the outer surface and the inner, for the latter is crystal, jewel hard, impenetrable.
"Goodwin--Ventnor's bullets hit fair. I saw them strike. They did not ricochet--they dropped dead. Like flies dashed up against a rock--and the Thing was no more conscious of their striking than a rock would have been of those flies."
"Drake," I said, "my own conviction is that these creatures are absolutely metallic, entirely inorganic-- incredible, unknown forms. Let us go on that basis."
"I think so, too," he nodded; "but I wanted you to say it first. And yet--is it so incredible, Goodwin? What is the definition of vital intelligence--sentience?
"Haeckel's is the accepted one. Anything which can receive a stimulus, that can react to a stimulus and retains memory of a stimulus must be called an intelligent, conscious entity. The gap between what we have long called the organic and the inorganic is steadily decreasing. Do you know of the remarkable experiments of Lillie upon various metals?"
"Vaguely," I said.
"Lillie," he went
"Damn you!" I cried. "Stop that. Stop it and turn your back."
The corded muscles of the arms contracted, the claws of the slithering paws drew in as though he were about to clutch me; the ebon pools of eyes were covered with a frozen film of hate.
He could not have known what was this tube with which I menaced him, but its threat he certainly sensed and was afraid to meet. He squattered about, wrapped his arms around his knees, crouched with back toward us.
"What's the matter?" asked Drake drowsily.
"He tried to hypnotize us," I answered shortly. "And pretty nearly did."
"So that's what it was." He was now wide awake. "I watched those hands of his and got sleepier and sleepier --I guess we'd better tie Mr. Yuruk up." He jumped to his feet.
"No," I said, restraining him. "No. He's safe enough as long as we're on the alert. I don't want to use any force on him yet. Wait until we know we can get something worth while by doing it."
"All right," he nodded, grimly. "But when the time comes I'm telling you straight, Doc, I'm going the limit. There's something about that human spider that makes me itch to squash him--slowly."
"I'll have no compunction--when it's worth while," I answered as grimly.
We sank down again against the saddlebags; Drake brought out a black pipe, looked at it sorrowfully; at me appealingly.
"All mine was on that pony that bolted," I answered his wistfulness.
"All mine was on my beast, too," he sighed. "And I lost my pouch in that spurt from the ruins."
He sighed again, clamped white teeth down upon the stem.
"Of course," he said at last, "if Ventnor was right in that--that disembodied analysis of his, it's rather--well, terrifying, isn't it?"
"It's all of that," I replied, "and considerably more."
"Metal, he said," Drake mused. "Things of metal with brains of thinking crystal and their blood the lightnings. You accept that?"
"So far as my own observation has gone--yes," I said. "Metallic yet mobile. Inorganic but with all the quantities we have hitherto thought only those of the organic and with others added. Crystalline, of course, in structure and highly complex. Activated by magnetic-electric forces consciously exerted and as much a part of their life as brain energy and nerve currents are of our human life. Animate, moving, sentient combinations of metal and electric energy."
He said:
"The opening of the Disk from the globe and of the two blasting stars from the pyramids show the flexibility of the outer--plate would you call it? I couldn't help thinking of the armadillo after I had time to think at all."
"It may be"--I struggled against the conviction now strong upon me--"it may be that within that metallic shell is an organic body, something soft--animal, as there is within the horny carapace of the turtle, the nacreous valves of the oyster, the shells of the crustaceans --it may be that even their inner surface is organic--"
"No," he interrupted, "if there is a body--as we know a body--it must be between the outer surface and the inner, for the latter is crystal, jewel hard, impenetrable.
"Goodwin--Ventnor's bullets hit fair. I saw them strike. They did not ricochet--they dropped dead. Like flies dashed up against a rock--and the Thing was no more conscious of their striking than a rock would have been of those flies."
"Drake," I said, "my own conviction is that these creatures are absolutely metallic, entirely inorganic-- incredible, unknown forms. Let us go on that basis."
"I think so, too," he nodded; "but I wanted you to say it first. And yet--is it so incredible, Goodwin? What is the definition of vital intelligence--sentience?
"Haeckel's is the accepted one. Anything which can receive a stimulus, that can react to a stimulus and retains memory of a stimulus must be called an intelligent, conscious entity. The gap between what we have long called the organic and the inorganic is steadily decreasing. Do you know of the remarkable experiments of Lillie upon various metals?"
"Vaguely," I said.
"Lillie," he went