Tales of Terror and Mystery
"It was about that time that I had a most extraordinary experience.
Something whizzed past me in a trail of smoke and exploded with a loud,
hissing sound, sending forth a cloud of steam. For the instant I could
not imagine what had happened. Then I remembered that the earth is for
ever being bombarded by meteor stones, and would be hardly inhabitable
were they not in nearly every case turned to vapour in the outer layers
of the atmosphere. Here is a new danger for the high-altitude man, for
two others passed me when I was nearing the forty-thousand-foot mark.
I cannot doubt that at the edge of the earth's envelope the risk would
be a very real one.
"My barograph needle marked forty-one thousand three hundred when I
became aware that I could go no farther. Physically, the strain was
not as yet greater than I could bear but my machine had reached its
limit. The attenuated air gave no firm support to the wings, and the
least tilt developed into side-slip, while she seemed sluggish on her
controls. Possibly, had the engine been at its best, another thousand
feet might have been within our capacity, but it was still misfiring,
and two out of the ten cylinders appeared to be out of action. If I
had not already reached the zone for which I was searching then I
should never see it upon this journey. But was it not possible that I
had attained it? Soaring in circles like a monstrous hawk upon the
forty-thousand-foot level I let the monoplane guide herself, and with
my Mannheim glass I made a careful observation of my surroundings. The
heavens were perfectly clear; there was no indication of those dangers
which I had imagined.
"I have said that I was soaring in circles. It struck me suddenly that
I would do well to take a wider sweep and open up a new airtract. If
the hunter entered an earth-jungle he would drive through it if he
wished to find his game. My reasoning had led me to believe that the
air-jungle which I had imagined lay somewhere over Wiltshire. This
should be to the south and west of me. I took my bearings from the
sun, for the compass was hopeless and no trace of earth was to be
seen--nothing but the distant, silver cloud-plain. However, I got my
direction as best I might and kept her head straight to the mark. I
reckoned that my petrol supply would not last for more than another
hour or so, but I could afford to use it to the last drop, since a
single magnificent vol-plane could at any time take me to the earth.
"Suddenly I was aware of something new. The air in front of me had
lost its crystal clearness. It was full of long, ragged wisps of
something which I can only compare to very fine cigarette smoke. It
hung about in wreaths and coils, turning and twisting slowly in the
sunlight. As the monoplane shot through it, I was aware of a faint
taste of oil upon my lips, and there was a greasy scum upon the
woodwork of the machine. Some infinitely fine organic matter appeared
to be suspended in the atmosphere. There was no life there. It was
inchoate and diffuse, extending for many square acres and then fringing
off into the void. No, it was not life. But might it not be the
remains of life? Above all, might it not be the food of life, of
monstrous life, even as the humble grease of the ocean is the food for
the mighty whale? The thought was in my mind when my eyes looked
upwards and I saw the most wonderful vision that ever man has seen.
Can I hope to convey it to you even as I saw it myself last Thursday?
"Conceive a jelly-fish such as sails in our summer seas, bell-shaped
and of enormous size--far larger, I should judge, than the dome of St.
Paul's. It was of a light pink colour veined with a delicate green,
but the whole huge fabric so tenuous that it was but a fairy outline
against the dark blue sky. It pulsated with a delicate and regular
rhythm. From it there depended two long, drooping, green tentacles,
which swayed slowly backwards and forwards. This gorgeous vision
passed gently with noiseless dignity over my head, as light and fragile
as a soap-bubble, and drifted upon its stately way.
"I had half-turned my monoplane, that I might look after this beautiful
creature, when, in a moment, I found myself amidst a perfect fleet of
them, of all sizes, but none so large as the first. Some were quite
small, but the majority about as big as an average balloon, and with
much the same curvature at the top. There was in them a delicacy of
texture and colouring which reminded me of the finest Venetian glass.
Pale shades of pink and green were the prevailing tints, but all had a
lovely iridescence where the sun shimmered through their dainty forms.
Some hundreds of them drifted past me, a wonderful fairy squadron of
strange unknown argosies of the sky--creatures whose forms and
substance were so attuned to these pure heights that one could not
conceive anything so delicate within actual sight or sound of earth.
"But soon my attention was drawn to a new phenomenon--the serpents of
the outer air. These were long, thin, fantastic coils of vapour-like
material, which turned and twisted with great speed, flying round and
round at such a pace that the eyes could hardly follow them. Some of
these ghost-like creatures were twenty or thirty feet long, but it was
difficult to tell their girth, for their outline was so hazy that it
seemed to fade away into the air around them. These air-snakes were of
a very light grey or smoke colour, with some darker lines within, which
gave the impression of a definite organism. One of them whisked past
my very face, and I was conscious of a cold, clammy contact, but their
composition was so unsubstantial that I could not connect them with any
thought of physical danger, any more than the beautiful bell-like
creatures which had preceded them. There was no more solidity in their
frames than in the floating spume from a broken wave.
"But a more terrible experience was in store for me. Floating
downwards from a great height there came a purplish patch of vapour,
small as I saw it first, but rapidly enlarging as it approached me,
until it appeared to be hundreds of square feet in size. Though
fashioned of some transparent, jelly-like substance, it was none the
less of much more definite outline and solid consistence than anything
which I had seen before. There were more traces, too, of a physical
organization, especially two vast, shadowy, circular plates upon either
side, which may have been eyes, and a perfectly solid white projection
between them which was as curved and cruel as the beak of a vulture.
"The whole aspect of this monster was formidable and threatening, and
it kept changing its colour from a very light mauve to a dark, angry
purple so thick that it cast a shadow as it drifted between my
monoplane and the sun. On the upper curve of its huge body there were
three great projections which I can only describe as enormous bubbles,
and I was convinced as I looked at them that they were charged with
some extremely light gas which served to buoy up the misshapen and
semi-solid mass in the rarefied air. The creature moved swiftly along,
keeping pace easily with the monoplane, and for twenty miles or more it
formed my horrible escort, hovering over me like a bird of prey which
is waiting to pounce. Its method of progression--done so swiftly that
it was not easy to follow--was to throw out a long, glutinous streamer
in front of it, which in turn seemed to draw forward the rest of the
writhing body. So elastic and gelatinous was it that never for two
successive minutes was it the same shape, and yet each change made it
more threatening and loathsome than the last.
"I knew that it meant mischief. Every purple flush of its hideous body
told me so. The vague, goggling eyes which were turned always upon me
were cold and merciless in their viscid hatred. I dipped the nose of
my monoplane downwards to escape it. As I did so, as quick as a flash
there shot out a long tentacle from this mass of floating blubber, and
it fell as light and sinuous as a whip-lash across the front of my
machine. There was a loud hiss as it lay for a moment across the hot
engine, and it whisked itself into the air again, while the huge, flat
body drew itself together as if in sudden pain. I dipped to a
vol-pique, but again a tentacle fell over the monoplane and was shorn
off by the propeller as easily as it might have cut through a smoke
wreath. A long, gliding, sticky, serpent-like coil came from behind and
caught me round the waist, dragging me out of the fuselage. I tore at
it, my fingers sinking into the smooth, glue-like surface, and for an
instant I disengaged myself, but only to be caught round the boot by
another coil, which gave me a jerk that tilted me almost on to my back.
"As I fell over I blazed off both barrels of my gun, though, indeed, it
was like attacking an elephant with a pea-shooter to imagine that any
human weapon could cripple that mighty bulk. And yet I aimed better
than I knew, for, with a loud report, one of the great blisters upon
the creature's back exploded with the puncture of the buck-shot. It
was very clear that my conjecture was right, and that these vast, clear
bladders were distended with some lifting gas, for in an instant the
huge, cloud-like body turned sideways, writhing desperately to find its
balance, while the white beak snapped and gaped in horrible fury. But
already I had shot away on the steepest glide that I dared to attempt,
my engine still full on, the flying propeller and the force of gravity
shooting me downwards like an aerolite. Far behind me I saw a dull,
purplish smudge growing swiftly smaller and merging into the blue sky
behind it. I was safe out of the deadly jungle of the outer air.
"Once out of danger I throttled my engine, for nothing tears a machine
to pieces quicker than running on full power from a height. It was a
glorious, spiral vol-plane from nearly eight miles of altitude--first,
to the level of the silver cloud-bank, then to that of the storm-cloud
beneath it, and finally, in beating rain, to the surface of the earth.
I saw the Bristol Channel beneath me as I broke from the clouds, but,
having still some petrol in my tank, I got twenty miles inland before I
found myself stranded in a field half a mile from the village of
Ashcombe. There I got three tins of petrol from a passing motor-car,
and at ten minutes past six that evening I alighted gently in my own
home meadow at Devizes, after such a journey as no mortal upon earth
has ever yet taken and lived to tell the tale. I have seen the beauty
and I have seen the horror of the heights--and greater beauty or
greater horror than that is not within the ken of man.
"And now it is my plan to go once again before I give my results to the
world. My reason for this is that I must surely have something to show
by way of proof before I lay such a tale before my fellow-men. It is
true that others will soon follow and will confirm what I have said,
and yet I should wish to carry conviction from the first. Those lovely
iridescent bubbles of the air should not be hard to capture. They
drift slowly upon their way, and the swift monoplane could intercept
their leisurely course. It is likely enough that they would dissolve
in the heavier layers of the atmosphere, and that some small heap of
amorphous jelly might be all that I should bring to earth with me. And
yet something there would surely be by which I could substantiate my
story. Yes, I will go, even if I run a risk by doing so. These purple
horrors would not seem to be numerous. It is probable that I shall not
see one. If I do I shall dive at once. At the worst there is always
the shot-gun and my knowledge of ..."