CHAPTER XVII
THE ATTACKING SPECTRES
I said to Brutar, "You asked my help. But you have let me do nothing to help you—and you explain nothing, so that I have no idea what is going on. Am I not enough your friend by now?"
Brutar smiled; I think he was fatuous enough to believe that he had won me over.
"You will be able to help me, Rob. We're going to place these weapons everywhere. There is a statue near here somewhere—a giant figure rising from water. I want you to lead us to it. Later—when we have finished with this great house."
"Weapons?" I echoed. "What sort of weapons?"
He continued to smile. "You called them bricks a while ago. That's what they are—inert material we brought with us. I had devised other things, but thought that these would suffice. Come here—I'll show you."
He took one of the bricks. As I stood with him to examine it, a score of the ghostly troopers came across the Subway tracks and fronted us.
It was a light substance, but quite ponderable. Solid, yet rather of the consistency of soft rubber; I seemed to be able to mould its shape slightly with my fingers. Blue-green of color or silver phosphorescence; and it glowed and shimmered in my hands.
I gave it back to Brutar. "You're going to place these—where?"
"Everywhere," he said. "You shall see. Let us go watch my men place them up there in the great house.... This fellow is very bold! He doesn't seem afraid of me!"
He strode vigorously at the intent and curious soldier—passed through him; but the soldier did not move.
"Come, Rob—let's go up and watch them."
We moved under the Woolworth Building, up to and through the bottoms of its great elevator shafts. And climbing—upon what I cannot say or guess—we passed upward and into the building. Through its walls; its skeleton framework of steel; floating back and forth through its many storied offices.... Roaming ghosts!
The ten ghosts of Brutar were floating silently about. We ourselves could be seen by those within the building—seen as spectres hovering, moving with what silent, sinister purpose they did not know.
Yet they tried to resist us. We came, for instance, upon one of Brutar's men, with the brick still in his hand.
"Shall I place it here?" he asked. "We have chosen this side—I thought this might be a good spot."
We were some four stories above ground. Before us was one of the great upright girders of the structure.
"I should think so," Brutar agreed.
The man held the glowing, oblong brick within the shadowy steel. He released it, and it floated gently downward—wafted down like a feather very slowly. But it kept within the outlines of the girder.
"You'd better follow it," said Brutar. "It will stop presently—and perhaps where you want it."
Inside the building the Earth-people had seen us—we three hovering there. Men and soldiers were running from room to room, and up and down the staircases trying to get near us. There was a room and a portion of a hallway close to where we now hovered. They were soon thronged with men, crowding against the walls, within which our white shapes were visible. But the walls, solid to them, stopped their advance. They stood regarding us; and now I could see fear upon their faces as their glances followed the downward floating brick. And as it descended a story, many of them rushed down, scrambling against the walls, striving to reach into the place where they saw it.
Did they divine its purpose? I thought so; for as presently it came to rest, lodged in the upright steel where cross girders were riveted, I saw men come rushing with crowbars and axes. Frantically they were tearing at the walls, ripping out the wood and plaster, striving to reach and perhaps to dislodge that shimmering thing lying there in the vitals of the building.
Brutar laughed. "You see, Rob? They're beginning to understand now—and they're frightened. It is materializing—that brick, as you call it, is materializing!"
Growing solid! In a surging torrent of horror complete realization rushed over me. I scarce heard Brutar's gloating words: "That inert matter, freed of physical contact with our Borderland bodies, tends slowly to change to the state of the thing nearest to it. As heat by contact communicates, so does the vibratory rate of all substances. That brick, lodged there, is materializing. Slowly now—but soon very fast. Presently it will be as solid as the steel girder itself—a brick resting there complete in your Earth-state—demanding space of its own, for its own existence!"
Space of its own! What diabolical force of Nature would this unleash! These molecules, atoms, electrons of the steel and brick thus intermingled! In a Space but half sufficient! A force created of unknown, unthinkable power—immeasurable as that proverbial irresistible force meeting an immovable body. Two solid bodies here, intermingled to their very essence, striving to occupy the same space at the same time!
Brutar was drawing at me. "Look at them, Rob! Trying to get at it! And up there—and down below—see them?"
The glowing bricks were lodged up and down the building—all seemingly on the one side. Down underground, lodged in the very foundations of the structure I could see three of them piled together. And frantic shapes of men digging for them through the walls of the cellars.
"Come further away, Rob. We can see it better from a distance. It should be very interesting."
We retreated, going back until again we were standing just beneath the level of City Hall Park. Brutar's men gathered around us—two hundred ghosts clustered there watching the fruit of their diabolical efforts. There were soldiers with machine guns in the park. The guns impotently, ridiculously, were trained upon us. And around the edge of the park a cordon of police kept back the crowds. I wondered what time of night it might be. Evening, possibly; and then I saw the spectral clock of the little tower of the squat City Hall. It was just before midnight.
Our march, perhaps not so much sinister as weird to the public, had drawn a jam of the morbidly curious to this part of the city. They were packed everywhere. And all the normal activities of the city were stopped. No traffic on the streets. Vehicles motionless.
The great Woolworth Building stood like the ghost of some grave giant, serene, majestic in the power of its size. Its summit up there in the gloom seemed lighted; spots of blurred light were everywhere within it.
The whole scene of shadows seemed unreal. Like a dream. But as I saw those frantic figures scrambling within the threatened building, hacking futilely at its foundations to try and remove in time those dim, glowing bricks materializing from another realm—the stark, strange reality of it all was forced upon me.
We waited. How long I cannot say. Spectators of two realms, each to the other mere ghosts, standing there watching and waiting. For a time nothing happened throughout all the scene. And then a change was apparent in the crowds about the park. No longer were they watching us, the ghosts, but they were eyeing now the Woolworth Building. At first curiously, incredulous to believe the news which was spreading about. Then restlessly, and then, as orders evidently were passed to the troops and to the policemen, these began pushing and shoving at the people. The crowd resisted at first; moved reluctantly. Then a fear seemed to surge over them—fear growing to panic. They began trying to run—waves of them everywhere surging in panic away from the doomed building.
Hundreds went down underfoot, trampled upon in the streets by their fellows, mad, insane now with fear. And from every nearby building its occupants came tumbling out like frightened rats; scurrying out to join the panic of the streets. A chaos everywhere....
And we ghosts stood quiet and serene in its midst.
Brutar murmured. "Watch the great house. They know it is doomed. See, they have stopped their efforts in there—now at the last, trying to save themselves."
The Woolworth Building was emptying.... Abandoned....
Breathlessly I stood and gazed upon the ghostly scene. The tremendous building towered there motionless. But presently I fancied it stirred; its graceful roof up there seemed swaying.... Shifting.... Or was it a trick of my straining vision? But then I saw it was not, for palpably the tower swayed.... Leaned. Further—leaning until all at once I knew it could not recover.... Poised, and then was toppling.
A breathless instant. Slowly at first, like a felled forest giant, the great structure was coming down. Slowly, then with a rush it fell to the south—fell in great shattering segments. Crashed with a soundless crash upon the several blocks of nearby buildings. Crashed and tore with the thousands of tons of its weight, smothering everything beneath its crashing masonry and steel.... A soundless chaotic scene of ruin and death over all those city blocks, with huge rising clouds of dirt and smoke mercifully to obscure it.