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
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