The Earth’s Cancer by Capt Read online

  which I will show you if you wish, flew

  “I expect that the markers are pretty

  directly toward the center. Almost over the

  well gone.”

  center the motor started to miss and it lost

  “Please have them fixed up at once.

  altitude. As it dropped, the motor became Here comes the truck, thank goodness. Carnes, more erratic and finally died and the plane

  stay here and help me get my apparatus

  crashed. A search party went in to look for it unpacked and set up.”

  and found the plane but not the pilot. Two of

  the search party strayed and did not return. It NIGHT had fallen by the time the Doctor and

  Amazing

  6

  Carnes had completed their task and Doctor lightly. “I beg your pardon, Dr.

  established an improvised laboratory. The Albright, I haven’t answered your questions. I Doctor cut sections from the vivid green plant don’t know what killed that bunch-grass, but it which Albright had given him and put the

  bears all the earmarks of having undergone a

  slides under his microscope. He compared very rapid deterioration of the rotting type.

  them with various plates in reference volumes

  Such a condition might be induced by a high

  and made drawings and photographs of some

  voltage electrical bombardment continued for

  of them. When he had completed his studies

  a long time. The fibres are torn apart as

  he examined the dead bunch-grass with equal

  though by high tension electricity.

  care. At last he shoved back his chair and rose

  “As for the rank green vegetation, it is

  from his instruments.

  nothing more than ordinary meadow grass.”

  “What did you find out, Doctor?”

  “But the size!” protested Dr. Albright.

  asked Albright.

  “I have seen it higher than my head!”

  Without replying, Dr. Bird walked to the door

  “Yet the cell formation is typical of

  of the building and stared out into the night.

  meadow grass with one exception. The cells

  Miles away a faint flickering of colored lights are enormous, over a hundred times the size of attracted his attention.

  normal plant cells. Something has enormously

  “Those lights? I don’t know what they

  stimulated the growth of those cells and had

  are,” said Albright as Dr. Bird called his produced giant grasses. Those knobs and attention to them. “I imagine it’s cither some excrescences on the plant are the result of still sort of an electrical disturbance or else further stimulation. They are typical ‘giant volcanic. It’s evidently close to Cinder Cone

  cells’ of the type which breaks down the

  and is directly over the center of the disease normal cell growth with putrefactive effect. In area.”

  other words, not only has that grass been

  “How long have they been going on?”

  forced to a giant growth, but it has also

  “Ever since the eruption of last June.

  contracted a form of plant cancer.”

  That is why I think they may be volcanic,

  “Plant cancer! I never heard of such a

  although they look a good deal like what I

  thing!”

  always fancied the aurora borealis would be.”

  “Neither did I, yet that is what that

  Dr. Bird picked up a pair of binoculars

  plant has. Further, it is a surface cancer and and studied the distant lights for some not a deep eating one; in other words, an minutes. Red, green, blue and purple, they

  epithelial cancer and not a carcinoma.”

  flared and flickered with a weird, eerie

  “But that is what the people here

  brilliance. Carnes felt prickles run up and have!” cried Carnes.

  clown his spine as he watched them and he

  “Exactly, old dear, and when we find

  felt a strong desire to seek them out and study what causes one, we will probably find what

  them at close range. As he watched his face

  causes the other. Note, too, Carnesy, that

  grew more and more rapt. Dr. Bird lowered

  where the grass grows tallest and thickest, the the glasses and watched his companion. cancer cases are the most numerous and the Carnes made a slow, hesitating step in the

  most virulent. This opens a new line of

  direction of the lights and Dr. Bird placed his thought for me and 1 expect that I will work

  hand lightly on the detective’s shoulder. most of the night. Doctor Albright, if you will Carnes looked around with a start as though

  examine the slides which I have prepared and

  he had been wakened from a sleep.

  compare them with the plates I have marked, I

  “Beautiful sight, aren’t they?” said the

  think that you will agree with my diagnosis of

  The Earth’s Cancer

  7

  the trouble. Meanwhile, Carnes, you had interfere with the mobility of the wearer, were better get to bed. I foresee a hard day ahead of thin lead plates.

  us tomorrow. And Carnes,” he went on as the

  Exaggerating his difficulty of

  detective started to leave the room, “if I were locomotion, Carnes walked slowly across the

  you, I would repeat the multiplication table or room, lifting each foot as though it taxed his do something of the sort tonight instead of

  strength to the utmost to do so and letting it staring at those lights.”

  fall to the floor with a thud. Dr. Bird grinned Far into the night Dr. Bird sat at his

  his appreciation of his companion’s antics and instruments smoking innumerable cigarettes,

  disappeared into the laboratory. He returned,

  yet in the morning he looked as fresh as carrying two helmets which were designed to though he had slept the night through. Carnes

  fit down over the heads of the wearers. They

  burst into laughter as the Doctor made his

  were made of thin sheet lead down to the

  appearance the next morning.

  shoulders with skirts of the lead cloth of

  “What are you laughing at, Carnes?”

  which the suits were designed attached so that demanded the Doctor. “My suit? I’ll admit

  they could be tucked down inside the suits.

  that it isn’t so good looking but it’s quite

  The front half of each helmet was made of

  comfortable. Yours is laid out on a chair in the thick, greenish, lead glass and at the back of laboratory. Go and put it on.”

  each was set a microphone, so that the wearer

  With another laugh Carnes walked into

  could readily hear and communicate with

  the laboratory and looked at the suit of another person so equipped. He slipped one of unionalls with gloves and shoes attached them down over his head and handed the other which lay on a chair. A glance at Dr. Bird

  to Carnes.

  showed him that the Doctor really meant that

  “Am I to wear that thing too?” asked

  he should don the garment and Carnes reached

  the bewildered detective. “Doctor, I’m no

  over to pick it up. He gave a cry of surprise as gorilla like you are. This outfit weighs a

  he touched it.

  hundred pounds and I can’t walk in it. Can’t I

  “What on earth is it made of?” he

  at least leave the headgear off?”

  demanded. “It weighs a ton.”

  “You’ll wear that helmet continually,

  “It only weighs seventy pounds,” Carnes,” said the Doctor posi
tively. “It will be retorted the Doctor. “Put it on.”

  as much as your life is worth to remove it

  “I can’t walk with that weight on me,”

  where we are going. As far as walking, I can

  protested Carnes, “it feels as if it was made of see by Albright’s map that a car will take us

  lead.”

  well into the affected area and you’ll only

  “That’s exactly what it is made of,”

  have to walk about three miles.”

  replied the Doctor. “Put it on.”

  “What about that plane we were going

  With a shrug of his shoulders, Carnes

  to use?” demanded Carnes.

  obeyed. The suit resembled a diver’s outfit

  “The plane idea is out. There probably

  except that it closed at the neck with a draw

  isn’t a decent landing place nearer than three string instead of having a collar to which a

  miles of the place we want to go and I don’t

  helmet could be screwed. He examined the

  care to make a forced landing on a lava bed.”

  material and found that it was woven of fine

  “Couldn’t we at least fly over and

  lead wires with silk thread reenforcements.

  observe?”

  The feet ended in shoes with lead soles and set

  “Not if my ideas are correct. That was

  into the suit on the chest, back, thighs, and

  tried once and failed.”

  every other place where they would not

  “But he had motor trouble.”

  Amazing

  8

  “So might we. No, Carnesy, old dear,

  the vividness of its green.

  well as I know your inherent laziness where

  “We must be getting near our stopping

  physical exertion is concerned, this time you

  place,” remarked Dr. Bird as he consulted the

  are going to get exercise and plenty of it. Let’s map. “What the dickens?”

  get breakfast and shove off.”

  His exclamation was caused by a

  After breakfast, Dr. Albright sudden miss in the motor of the Cadillac. He announced his intention of going with them,

  jiggled his spark and strove to restore the

  but Dr. Bird promptly overruled him.

  steady hum of the motor but the missing grew

  “I think that Carnes and I had better

  steadily worse until the car limped along with tackle it alone first, Doctor,” he said. “I don’t only half of its cylinders firing. Presently,

  doubt your devotion or courage, but Carnes

  without any evident reason, the car started to and I have worked together for years and each

  pick up and in two miles it was humming

  one knows just about what the other will do

  along steadily again. Dr. Bird stopped the car under given circumstances. Give us some and got out.

  pointers about the road and we’ll get going.”

  “Are we there?” asked Games.

  “We are a couple of miles beyond the

  DR. ALBRIGHT marked the road on a map

  place I was heading for,” answered the

  and Carnes and Dr. Bird climbed into the car

  Doctor, “but I want to make some tests here.”

  and drove off. Each of them wore one of the

  He took from the tonneau of the car a

  lead suits the Doctor had provided together

  long glass tube with a stopcock on each end.

  with a helmet, and each carried a heavy He opened the cocks and connected a rubber automatic pistol with belt and holster strapped bulb to one end of the tube and started

  about their waists. Dr. Bird had loaded a pumping air through it. When he was sure that number of pieces of apparatus into the back of he had replaced all of the original air with air the car and as they were starting, he handed

  from the neighborhood, he closed the cocks

  Carnes a canvas pouch designed to fit on his

  and wrote the time, date and location on the

  belt.

  tube. He replaced it in a carton and took out a

  “Hand grenades,” he said in answer to

  square box with a glass front. Through the

  the detective’s question. “I don’t know what

  cover of the box ran a rod which terminated in we will want with them, but they carry a

  a brass ball on the upper end and in two fine

  pretty good charge of radite, my new strips of yellow metal inside the box. He took explosive, and they may be useful. One can

  a hard rubber rod and rubbed it briskly with a never tell.”

  woolen rag and applied the end to the brass

  As they neared the affected area, the

  ball. The strips of metal inside the box

  change in vegetation began to be noticeable.

  separated into two parts which stood at right

  The grass, which at Lassen Monument, was

  angles to the rod. As they watched the two

  dried up and dead, began to show itself rank

  sheets began to slowly close together again.

  and luxuriant, despite the fact that the ground

  “An electroscope,” explained Dr. Bird.

  underfoot was powder dry. The grass was a

  “That metal is two sheets of gold leaf and

  very vivid brilliant green, which seemed to

  when I charge them with static electricity by

  hurt the eyes in the same manner as would a

  means of this rubber rod, they are repelled and brilliant light, instead of resting them as a

  stand apart. The rate at which they close

  greensward would ordinarily do. The nearer

  together is a measure of the rate of leakage of they got to Cinder Cone, the more rank-grew

  the electrical charge.”

  the vegetation and the more marked became

  He touched the ball with the rod again

  The Earth’s Cancer

  9

  and timed the instrument with a stop watch.

  he gasped. “The weight of this suit and the

  When he had recorded the time, he replaced

  heat and odor have about finished me.”

  the instrument in the car and turned the

  “We’re about half way there, I should

  machine around. A mile down the road, when

  judge. Stop here and I’ll go ahead and break a the motor began to miss again, he stopped and

  way. Sit down and rest for a few minutes.”

  repeated his tests. The electroscope lost its

  Carnes sank on a block of lava and Dr.

  charge more quickly than it had the first time.

  Bird crashed his way forward through the lush

  At the point where the motor missed the most

  vegetation. A few yards made him invisible to

  badly he made a third set of readings and

  Carnes but the detective could trace his route found that the pieces of gold leaf came by the movement of the grass which hid him.

  together in about half the time they had taken Carnes was sorely tempted to remove his

  on the first test.

  helmet to mop the sweat from his brow but the

  “Here is where we leave the car and go

  warning of Dr. Bird came back to him and he

  on foot,” he announced. Carnes groaned but

  resisted the impulse.

  climbed out of the car and prepared to

  Suddenly a wild aerie shriek brought

  accompany him. The grass was over knee high

  him to his feet with a jerk. The scream came

  here and when Dr. Bird stooped and examined

  from the direction in which the Doctor had />
  it, found that it was heavily encrusted with the gone and Carnes listened intently for a

  knobby little excrescences which he had repetition. It came in a moment, followed by pronounced a form of plant-cancer. As they

  the sound of a blow and a scuffle. Carnes ran

  moved forward and crushed the rank growth

  in the direction which Dr. Bird had taken,

  under foot, a sickening stench filled the air.

  drawing his pistol as he did so. The sharp bark

  “I wish I had a gas mask,” groaned

  of an automatic from the grass ahead of him

  Carnes.

  lent wings to his feet and he hurried forward at

  “So do I,” replied the Doctor, “but we

  a shambling run. Again, again and again came

  haven’t so we’ll just have to make the best of the bark of a gun mingled with more of the

  it. Keep your eyes open and don’t get caught

  wild shrieks which he had first heard.

  napping.”

  Suddenly the grass thinned before him and

  Forward through vegetation they Carnes stopped aghast at the sight which met tramped. A jack pine appeared before them

  his gaze. Pinioned on the ground by four men

  and Carnes turned to avoid it. Dr. Bird was Dr. Bird while three prone figures reached out and struck it and Carnes gave a

  testified to the accuracy with which he had

  cry of surprise as the tree fell and crumbled

  fired. About the group on the ground a score

  into powder as it struck the ground. The tufts of wild, almost naked figures danced in a

  of lifeless bunch-grass crumbled into dust frenzy of excitement, frothing at the mouth beneath their feet. Nothing seemed to grow in

  and howling weirdly. The most horrible thing

  this devastated area except the evil-smelling