The Girl in the Golden Atom by Ray Cummings
CHAPTER XI
THE ESCAPE OF THE DRUG
For the next hour the four friends busily planned their preparations forthe journey. When they began to discuss the details of the trip, andfound themselves face to face with so hazardous an adventure, eachdiscovered a hundred things in his private life that needed attention.
The Doctor's phrase, "My patients can go to the devil," seemed torelieve his mind of all further responsibility towards his personalaffairs.
"That's all very well for you," said the Big Business Man, "I've toomany irons in the fire just to drop everything--there are too many otherpeople concerned. And I've got to plan as though I were never comingback, you know."
"Your troubles are easy," said the Very Young Man. "I've got a girl. Iwonder what she'll say. Oh, gosh, I can't tell her where I'm going, canI? I never thought of that." He scratched his head with a perplexed air."That's tough on her. Well, I'm glad I'm an orphan, anyway."
The actual necessities of the trip needed a little discussion, for whatthey could take with them amounted to practically nothing.
"As I understand it," said the Banker, "all I have to do is watch youstart, and then take the ring back to the Museum."
"Take it carefully," continued the Very Young Man. "Remember what it'sgot in it."
"You will give us about two hours to get well started down," said theDoctor. "After that it will be quite safe to move the ring. You can takeit back to the Society in that case I brought it here in."
"Be sure you take it yourself," put in the Very Young Man. "Don't trustit to anybody else. And how about having that wire rack fixed for it atthe Museum," he added. "Don't forget that."
"I'll have that done myself this week," said the Doctor.
They had been talking for perhaps an hour when the Banker got up fromhis chair to get a fresh cigar from a box that lay upon the desk. Hehappened to glance across the room and on the floor in the corner by theclosed door he saw a long, flat object that had not been there before.It was out of the circle of light and being brown against the polishedhardwood floor, he could not make it out clearly. But something about itfrightened him.
"What's that over there?" he asked, standing still and pointing.
The Big Business Man rose from his seat and took a few steps in thedirection of the Banker's outstretched hand. Then with a muttered oathhe jumped to the desk in a panic and picking up the heavy paper-weightflung it violently across the room. It struck the panelled wall with acrash and bounded back towards him. At the same instant there came ascuttling sound from the floor, and a brown shape slid down the edge ofthe room and stopped in the other corner.
All four men were on their feet in an instant, white-faced andtrembling.
"Good God," said the Big Business Man huskily, "that thing overthere--that----"
"Turn on the side lights--the side lights!" shouted the Doctor, runningacross the room.
In the glare of the unshaded globes on the wall the room was brightlylighted. On the floor in the corner the horrified men saw a cockroachnearly eighteen inches in length, with its head facing the angle ofwall, and scratching with its legs against the base board as thoughabout to climb up. For a moment the men stood silent with surprise andterror. Then, as they stared they saw the cockroach was getting larger.The Big Business Man laid his hand on the Doctor's arm with a grip thatmade the Doctor wince.
"Good God, man, look at it--it's growing," he said in a voice hardlyabove a whisper.
"It's growing," echoed the Very Young Man; "_it's growing_!"
And then the truth dawned upon them, and brought with it confusion,almost panic. The cockroach, fully two feet long now, had raised thefront end of its body a foot above the floor, and was reaching up thewall with its legs.
The Banker made a dash for the opposite door. "Let's get out of here.Come on!" he shouted.
The Doctor stopped him. Of the four men, he was the only one who hadretained his self-possession.
"Listen to me," he said. His voice trembled a little in spite of hisefforts to control it. "Listen to me. That--that--thing cannot harm usyet." He looked from one to the other of them and spoke swiftly. "It'sgruesome and--and loathsome, but it is not dangerous--yet. But we cannotrun from it. We must kill it--here, now, before it gets any larger."
The Banker tore himself loose and started again towards the door.
"You fool!" said the Doctor, with a withering look. "Don't you see, it'slife or death later. That--that thing will be as big as this house inhalf an hour. Don't you know that? As big as this house. We've got tokill it now--now."
The Big Business Man ran towards the paper-weight. "I'll hit it withthis," he said.
"You can't," said the Doctor, "you might miss. We haven't time. Look atit," he added.
The cockroach was noticeably larger now--considerably over two feet; ithad turned away from the wall to face them.
The Very Young Man had said nothing; only stood and stared withbloodless face and wide-open eyes. Then suddenly he stooped, and pickingup a small rug from the floor--a rug some six feet long and half aswide--advanced slowly towards the cockroach.
"That's the idea," encouraged the Doctor. "Get it under that. Here, giveme part of it." He grasped a corner of the rug. "You two go up the othersides"--he pointed with his free hand--"and head it off if it runs."
Slowly the four men crept forward. The cockroach, three feet long now,was a hideous, horrible object as it stood backed into the corner of theroom, the front part of its body swaying slowly from side to side.
"We'd better make a dash for it," whispered the Very Young Man; andjerking the rug loose from the Doctor's grasp, he leaped forward andflung himself headlong upon the floor, with the rug completely underhim.
"I've got the damned thing. I've got it!" he shouted. "Help--you. Help!"
The three men leaped with him upon the rug, holding it pinned to thefloor. The Very Young Man, as he lay, could feel the curve of the greatbody underneath, and could hear the scratch of its many legs upon thefloor.
"Hold down the edges of the rug!" he cried. "Don't let it out. Don't letit get out. I'll smash it." He raised himself on his hands and knees,and came down heavily. The rug gave under his thrust as the insectflattened out; then they could hear again the muffled scratching of itslegs upon the floor as it raised the rug up under the Very Young Man'sweight.
"We can't kill it," panted the Big Business Man. "Oh, we can't kill it.Good God, how big it is!"
The Very Young Man got to his feet and stood on the bulge of the rug.Then he jumped into the air and landed solidly on his heels. There was asharp crack as the shell of the insect broke under the sharpness of hisblow.
"That did it; that'll do it!" he shouted. Then he leaped again.
"Let me," said the Big Business Man. "I'm heavier"; and he, too, stampedupon the rug with his heels.
They could hear the huge shell of the insect's back smash under hisweight, and when he jumped again, the squash of its body as he mashed itdown.
"Wait," said the Doctor. "We've killed it."
They eased upon the rug a little, but there was no movement frombeneath.
"Jump on it harder," said the Very Young Man. "Don't let's take achance. Mash it good."
The Big Business Man continued stamping violently upon the rug; joinednow by the Very Young Man. The Doctor sat on the floor beside it,breathing heavily; the Banker lay in a heap at its foot in uttercollapse.
As they stamped, the rug continued to flatten down; it sank under theirtread with a horrible, sickening, squashing sound.
"Let's look," suggested the Very Young Man. "It must be dead"; and hethrew back a corner of the rug. The men turned sick and faint at whatthey saw.
Underneath the rug, mashed against the floor, lay a great, noisome,semi-liquid mass of brown and white. It covered nearly the entireunder-surface of the rug--a hundred pounds, perhaps, of loathsome pulpand shell, from which a stench arose that stopped their breathing.
With a muttered imprecation
"We killed it in time, thank God," he murmured and dropped into thechair, burying his face in his hands.
For a time silence fell upon the room, broken only by the laboredbreathing of the four men. Then the Big Business Man sat up suddenly."Oh, my God, what an experience!" he groaned, and got unsteadily to hisfeet.
The Very Young Man helped the Banker up and led him to a seat by thewindow, which he opened, letting in the fresh, cool air of the night.
"How did the drug get loose, do you suppose?" asked the Very Young Man,coming back to the center of the room. He had recovered his composuresomewhat, though he was still very pale. He lighted a cigarette and satdown beside the Doctor.
The Doctor raised his head wearily. "I suppose we must have spilled someof it on the floor," he said, "and the cockroach----" He stoppedabruptly and sprang to his feet.
"Good God!" he cried. "Suppose another one----"
On the bare floor beside the table they came upon a few drops of water.
"That must be it," said the Doctor. He pulled his handkerchief from hispocket; then he stopped in thought. "No, that won't do. What shall we dowith it?" he added. "We must destroy it absolutely. Good Lord, if thatdrug ever gets loose upon the world----"
The Big Business Man joined them.
"We must destroy it absolutely," repeated the Doctor. "We can't justwipe it up."
"Some acid," suggested the Big Business Man.
"Suppose something else has got at it already," the Very Young Man saidin a scared voice, and began hastily looking around the floor of theroom.
"You're right," agreed the Doctor. "We mustn't take any chance; we mustlook thoroughly."
Joined by the Banker, the four men began carefully going over the room.
"You'd better watch that nothing gets at it," the Very Young Man thoughtsuddenly to say. The Banker obediently sat down by the little pool ofwater on the floor.
"And I'll close the window," added the Very Young Man; "something mightget out."
They searched the room thoroughly, carefully scanning its walls andceiling, but could see nothing out of the ordinary.
"We'll never be quite sure," said the Doctor finally, "but I guess we'resafe. It's the best we can do now, at any rate."
He joined the Banker by the table. "I'll get some nitric acid," headded. "I don't know what else----"
"We'll have to get that out of here, too," said the Big Business Man,pointing to the rug. "God knows how we'll explain it."
The Doctor picked up one of the tin boxes of drugs and held it in hishand meditatively. Then he looked over towards the rug. From under oneside a brownish liquid was oozing; the Doctor shuddered.
"My friends," he said, holding up the box before them, "we can realizenow something of the terrible power we have created and imprisoned here.We must guard it carefully, gentlemen, for if it escapes--it willdestroy the world."