The Raid on the Termites

e

ing to do to-ni

g room of the bachelor apartment, puffing jerkily at his eternal pipe. Dennis knew the sympt

the modern era. They should have lived centuries ago when the worl

aucasus-he was going to settle down and stop hopping about the globe from one little-known and dangerous spot to anot

ening, what was planned. His question was simply a bored protest at a too t

e going to

evening. We might go there and meet all the Best People. There is a lectu

"Kidding aside, can't you di

l unknown, who, in my opinion, is one of our greatest physicists. Matt is a kind of savage, so he may take to you. If he does-and if he's feeling in a good humo

own; and his laboratory was housed by what had once been a barn. Bu

of science, Matt towered over the average man and carelessly dominated any assembly by sheer force

he devil, but you can watch over my shoulder if you want to. Got something

airs that was little more than a ladder, and into the cavernous l

says he's got something new. Isn't he

Why shoul

et stolen now and

l-rack that can be 'stolen.' His ideas are safe for the simple reason that there probably aren't more than four other scientists

reat wooden pedestal. Cupping down over this was a glas

e only difference was that where flood-lights would have had regular glass lenses to transmit light beams,

n ordinary electric light bulb, it looked, save that there were no filaments in the thin gl

er. "Located it about a year ago. Last of the missing elements. Does strange tricks when subjected t

ear wall, then turned back to his silent guests again. App

nts akin to it," he said. Satisfied that he had now e

and a vicious scratching on the wooden panels. And as Matt

of its eighty-odd pounds of struggling weight. Into Jim's eyes crept a glint of admiration. It was a feat of str

w rays," he said, striding easily toward the glass bell with the savage hound. "It's worked all right wi

ction of an experimenter insulates him from every outside contact. Matt, he realized, was probably making a great effort to remain

the bell, which he lowered quickly till it rested on the pedestal-floor and ri

an ominous sort of way to spring into life. The impression must have been entirely imaginary; actually the projectors didn't move in the slightest, didn't even vibrate. Yet the conviction pe

st surely be of stupendous import, the two stared unwinkingly at the furious hound. Matt was staring, too; but

exclaimed aloud in disappointment-at the same time, so intense was their nameless suspense, not knowing they had opened the

wirling, milky vapor, not unlike fog, w

tood still in the center of the bell as though overcome by surprise and indecision. Motionless, s

ved what he had; namely, that the fog seemed not to be gathering from the air penned up in the

was entirely opaque. So thick was the vapor within that it seemed on the point of turning to a liquid. Inside,

s moved nervously on the switch, then threw it to cut contact. The dynamo keen

ere glued

o force itself through the glass, grew less restive in moti

the top layers finally resembling nothing so much as cloudy beef gela

aised from a stage floor. At last ten inches showed between the pedestal and the swaying bottom of the almost l

d aloud, involuntar

no dog t

intently. But their first glance had been right. The dog was gone from the bel

, while Dennis and Jim stood, almost incapable of movem

t completely come to rest at the top of the dome like a deposit of opaque je

s strode impulsively toward

sparkling with almost ferocious intensity. The two

y moved to the edge of the platform. "It may be dead, of

the pedestal flooring. Then they saw him crawl, like a stalking cat, toward a port

d he isn't dead, either. Not by a long way! N

Jim and Dennis looked through t

her-was an incredible thing. A thing with a soft, furry coat such as no true insect possesses.

ow long it might exist in so microscopic a state, nor whether it has been seriou

d thrown the switch: "So this-this-is the overgrown brute you put under the bell a

e marvel it walled in, to the man who had work

ylike substance in the top of t

live and protesting bit of life it housed. "That's the dog. Rather, it's practically all

ound it moist with sweat. "But h

occupied by a new stunt he was trying: he had cut a microscopic sliver of meat of

aped on the meat and began to gnaw wolfishly at it. The effect was doubly shocking-to see this perfec

ight degree, is reduced indefinitely in size. I could have made that dog as small as a microbe, even sub-visible perhaps, if I chose. Curious.... Maybe the presence of

notion so fantastic, so bizarre that he could

hoarse as to be almost unrecognizable,

be rebuilt, remolded to its original form any time I put the dog back in the bell and let the particles of eighty-five, wh

n't causes, marvelous though they might be

.. would you like to try that

was seized by something outside his immedi

been subjected to it. I'd give anything for the chance!" He sighed explosively. "But of course that's impossible. I could never get anyone to

a human being if you had

ah

ture as radically as you did the dog? For

yes fairly flaming. "I co

. He shook with nervous eagerness. And Jim gaze

aid Denni

dded s

said. "O

own. The improbable had happened. A man who lived but for dangers and extraordinary action, and a man who would have gambled his soul for the scientist'