The Face of Isis by Cyril G Read online

  crimson with the reflected light of the setting was crushing him was due to the swift

  sun; the lower half, the hazy green of the

  acceleration of their fall toward the moon.

  distant horizon. It struck Courtland that this

  He managed to turn his head to one side and

  semi-circle of green was perhaps his last saw the outline of the Professor’s body lying vision of the earth.

  where he had fallen.

  Suddenly the upper edge of the green

  “Hello, Professor! We seem to have

  was cut by a tiny dot of gleaming silver. It was started. Are you all right?”

  the moon, keeping her tryst with her would-be

  There was no answer. Courtland

  explorers. They would wait until the horizon

  struggled to pull himself along the floor but

  bisected the disk. Slowly the Face of Isis was

  finally gave up the attempt in exhaustion. He

  unveiled to the gaze of her modern felt no pain, but his entire body seemed worshipers.

  paralyzed.

  Sixty seconds more. The Professor

  The interior of the chariot was dark,

  turned and met Courtland in a long handclasp.

  save that a faint light filtered through the

  Then the two men grasped the handles. The

  portholes on one side. Courtland determined

  Professor’s left hand rested on the switch that he would make one mighty effort to raise which would release the acid and start them

  himself to the level of the nearest opening.

  on their flight. Courtland’s eyes were on the

  Bracing his muscles, he succeeded in getting

  swinging chronometer and he counted off the

  to his hands and knees. For a few seconds he

  seconds aloud.

  maintained this position. It was as though he

  “Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.

  were Atlas struggling to uphold the world on

  GO!”

  his shoulders. His brain swam with agony.

  There was a slight hissing as the

  Then his straining muscles gave way,

  The Face of Isis

  23

  and he was hurled forward once more into

  So their high hopes had ended in

  unconsciousness.

  failure. The magic powder in the golden

  casket was nothing but a huge fiasco, a

  WHEN he came to himself for the second

  practical joke brought to its conclusion after

  time, it was to hear the Professor giving voice three thousand years, on the first of April!

  to a most choice and unscholastic assortment

  And yet the powder must have possessed

  of profanity. The little man was stamping up

  some strange properties, after all. Something and down the floor of the chariot, cursing

  must have occurred when the acid mingled

  everything and everyone from Osrah the High

  with it in the trays. What was it that had

  Priest to the entire cosmic universe.

  hurled them into unconsciousness? What was

  Courtland sat up and stared at the it that had produced Courtland’s extraordinary Professor in amazement. The mysterious paralysis? What had uprooted those great trees paralysis had departed and so had the and flung them down upon the chariot?

  darkness. The little room was flooded with

  To these questions and many others

  sunlight and lurid with expletives.

  like them, they could find no answer.

  “Why, Professor, what on earth’s the

  Afterwards, when an analysis of the residue in

  matter?” stammered Courtland, “have we the trays revealed nothing more mysterious missed the moon or something?”

  than magnesium sulphate, they were no nearer

  “Matter? You may well ask what on

  a solution than before. The white, crystalline

  earth’s the matter!” raved the Professor, contents of the trays might serve mankind in furiously. “Everything on earth’s the matter!

  homely ways, but as an aid to the conquest of

  Missed the moon? No, we haven’t missed the

  the universe, were valueless.

  moon ! We’ve never had a chance to miss the

  Professor Wadsworth, crushed and

  confounded thing! We’ve never started!”

  crestfallen, buried himself in his studies of the

  “Never

  started!” yelled Courtland, Mexican Settlement. Courtland returned to jumping to his feet and rushing to the Boston and devoted himself to business. A porthole.

  year later Courtland received a heavy express

  He looked out, not on the empty abyss

  package, which on being opened, was found to

  of interplanetary space or the barren wastes of contain the golden casket. In the casket was a

  a frozen lunar landscape, but on the gracious

  thick manuscript and this letter:

  verdure of a New Hampshire hillside. The sun

  shone, the birds sang, the wind stirred My dear Courtland: amongst the leaves as it had done on the day

  To you, my favorite pupil and

  before. The chariot still rested on its rails at companion in adventure, I am sending the

  the summit of the hill! Everything was manuscript of my book, “A History of the unchanged.

  Egyptian Migration in the Fifth and Sixth

  No, not quite everything, for the clump

  Dynasties.” This work, the carefully thought-

  of trees which had surrounded and hidden the

  out result of my investigations and studies, I

  interplanetary vessel, was levelled to the beg that you will publish. I have placed a sum ground as though by a mighty hurricane. The

  at your disposal sufficient to cover the cost of chariot was almost buried by a tangled mass

  publication. Should any profits accrue from

  of trunks and branches. It was only due to the

  the sale of the book, you will place the same at staunch construction of laminated steel and

  the disposal of the Peabody Museum for the

  asbestos that the two adventurers had not been

  purpose of improving the Egyptian and

  crushed to death by the falling timber.

  Mexican collections. May I impose upon your

  Amazing Stories

  24

  friendship to do me this last favor?

  wood ashes and sea-weed.”

  I am sailing for Mexico tomorrow.

  With the Doctor’s words came a flood

  While there, I hope to find traces of the of enlightenment. I realized the cause of our landing of that expedition which, I firmly failure, and the reasons for the extraordinary believe, set sail from the Moroccan coast, phenomena which accompanied it. As you are ninety generations ago, leaving behind the fully aware, acids and alkalis are directly body of the High Priest to guard the temple

  opposite in their chemical reactions.

  whence their leader had departed on his ill-

  Presuming that the powder in the casket

  advised attempt to set his all-conquering foot

  acquired antigravitational properties by the

  upon the Face of Isis.

  addition of an alkali, what would take place as Do I still believe the truth of the the result of adding an acid?

  inscription on the casket, you ask? Yes, most

  Why, the area covered by the powder

  emphatically I do! My clear boy, I have a

  would become tremendously permeable to

  confession of weakness to make. Only two

  gravity, just as the presence of a piece of iron months after our miserable failure, I increases the pe
rmeability of a magnetic field.

  discovered the explanation of what took place.

  In simple words, the force of gravity would be

  It was I, I alone in my self-satisfied ignorance, many times multiplied. Our weight, increased

  who was responsible for casting away the from its normal value to, perhaps, half a ton or greatest opportunity ever vouchsafed to man.

  more, crushed us to the floor and rendered us

  But what is the use of crying over spilt milk?

  helpless. The trees which stretched their

  As I was saying, two months after we

  branches above the chariot were unable to

  parted, I was visiting Dr. John Plattmore in

  resist the strain of their own weight and came

  New York. Dr. Plattmore, as you know, is the

  crashing down upon us, rending their roots

  greatest living authority on Egyptian from the ground.

  hieroglyphics. One evening, while we were

  You will ask, my dear Courtland, why

  discussing the probable extent of chemical

  an analysis of the residue failed to reveal the knowledge in the Fifth Dynasty, I happened to

  presence of any strange substance. I have no

  mention solvents and particularly sulphuric doubt that the original powder was a acid.

  compound of magnesium with some unknown

  “But, my dear Professor,” exclaimed

  element. The latter, which should have been

  Plattmore, “the inorganic acids are a rendered opaque to gravity under the action of comparatively modern discovery. It is quite

  an alkali, passed off in gas by combination

  certain that nothing was known of them at the

  with the hydrogen of the acid. So long as the

  period we are discussing.”

  gas remained in the trays our weight was

  I drew the symbols which I had read as

  enormously increased, but during our period

  “sulphuric acid,” in translating the inscription of unconsciousness, this gas leaked away and

  on the casket and asked the Doctor how he

  its effect was destroyed.

  would interpret them.

  I should have told you this long ago,

  “Literally, of course, they mean ‘The

  but in my fallen pride, I was ashamed to admit

  fleshburner’ or ‘that which destroys the flesh,’

  that our failure was due to my unwillingness

  but there is no doubt that they refer to one of to consult a higher authority than myself.

  the caustic alkalies; the hydroxides of either

  Forgive me if you can, but believe me, my

  potassium or sodium. The Egyptian priests

  dear Courtland, your old friend and fellow

  must have been familiar with, these substances

  student,

  and the methods of extracting them from

  The Face of Isis

  25

  MYRON

  B.

  WADSWORTH.