Spawn of the Comet

This etext was produced from “Astounding Stories” November 1931. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.
Professor Wentworth swung his cannon ray upon that advancing horde.
By H. Thompson Rich
A swarm of huge, fiery ants, brood of a mystery comet, burst from their shells to threaten the unsuspecting world.
Tokyo, June 10 (AP).—A number of the meteors that pelted Japan last night, as the earth passed through the tail of the Mystery Comet have been found and are puzzling astronomers everywhere. About the size of baseballs, orange in color, they appear to be of some unknown metal. So far, due to their extreme hardness, all attempts to analyze them have failed. Their uniformity of size and marking gives rise to the popular belief that they are seeds, and, fantastic though this conception is, it finds support in certain scientific quarters here.
Jim Carter read the news dispatch thoughtfully and handed it back to his chief without comment.
“Well, what do you make of it?”
Miles Overton, city editor of The New York Press , shoved his green eye-shade far back on his bald head and glanced up irritably from his littered desk.
“I don’t know,” said Jim.
“You don’t know!” Overton snorted, biting his dead cigar impatiently. “And I suppose you don’t know they’re finding the damn things right here in New York, not to mention Chicago, London, Rio and a few other places,” he added.
“Yes, I know about New York. It’s a regular egg hunt.”
“Egg hunt is right! But why tell me all this now? I didn’t see any mention of ’em in your report of last night’s proceedings. Did you see any?”