Shadow Gold by Ray Cummings Read online

  Thrilling Wonder Stories, October, 1936

  CHAPTER I

  fluorescent beams of light converging on a

  The Unknown

  little screen. Then the screen had turned into a

  dim yellow vista of darkness; and then things

  were to be seen. As though from a height, he

  OHNNY HALL sat alone, and with had gazed far down upon a placid landscape, trembling fingers opened the letter. alive with shimmering yellow water.

  J Nearly a hundred pages were here in this A glimpse into another realm. But his communication from his dead father which

  father never would explain it. And then, a

  had been lying in the Trust Company for week later, that horrible scene of his father’s fifteen years. He scanned the top page.

  death.

  Weird, Incredible message! So many

  Johnny, six years old then, had

  things of mystery in his own boyhood awakened in the night; had sneaked into the memories of his father now were being laboratory room to find his father. Sight most explained. That night, for instance, when as a

  horrible! His father was lying on a couch. He

  little boy he had joined his father in the was wearing some kind of headgear; a sort of mysterious workshop. Three milky, bathing suit; and there were wires running

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  2

  down his arms and legs. Not dead; his eyes

  laboratory room, with a board table and chairs.

  were open, and one of his hands was fumbling

  He worked almost entirely at night studying

  at his chest. His whole figure was dissolving.

  his father’s technical instructions.

  A ghost shimmering there. It seemed drifting

  Then came the last night. Ten o’clock.

  slowly down through the bed. And then it was

  Johnny was ready; he sat waiting for

  gone!

  midnight. There was only one person here on

  Weird, never explained mystery. But

  Earth, whom Johnny was leaving with any

  this letter was explaining it now:

  pang of regret. Anne Johnson. He had just

  come back from saying good by to Anne.

  When you read this, Johnny, I will

  Swearing her to secrecy, he had told her what

  have been gone into a new Time-

  he was about to do. His six-foot bulk had

  realm, for what of your life will be

  towered over her as she stood suddenly

  fifteen years—a different state of

  matter, because it has a different

  shrinking against him. Then she was crying—

  Time-dimension. The same Space as

  and he had torn away and run from her home.

  that which our own world occupies,

  A knock sounded at the front door of

  but held separate by that mysterious

  the house! It startled Johnny so that he sat

  stream we call Time. The two

  transfixed, frozen. It came again; insistent.

  realms—ours and this Unknown—are

  swept close together now. It is my

  Johnny padded into the dark front hall. He

  opportunity. Another such proximity

  called gruffly through the barred door:

  will come shortly after your twenty-

  “Who is it? What you want?”

  first birthday. If I am not back with

  “Johnny! Johnny, dear—”

  you before then I may have perished.

  Anne’s voice! He flung open the door.

  Or I may be alive—but unable to

  return.

  She scurried in like a dark little shadow, and

  I want you to come and join

  he banged the door closed and barred it again.

  me, Johnny. The trust fund will give

  “I was so afraid I’d be too late—”

  you four thousand dollars. In a vault

  She was breathless, pallid, tense;

  at the bank you will find, and now

  beautiful little dark-haired girl—but she was

  must claim, a small metal casket. No

  one but us two know what is in it.

  disheveled, wildly excited now. She held a

  Take it to a place as near the couch in

  small bundle under her arm, enveloped by her

  the laboratory of our old home as you

  blue cloak.

  can manage. The casket contains two

  “I came—to go with you, Johnny.”

  transition mechanisms. At midnight

  “Anne, you’re crazy—” But the thing

  of the tenth day after your birthday,

  from this designated place, I want

  set his heart pounding.

  you to come after me. I will have kept

  He said at last, “All right—you win. You go in

  track of your Earth Time-flow if I

  there. Put on one of the suits. Call me when

  possibly can—and if I am still alive I

  you’re ready.”

  will meet you. Come to me, son. A

  He stood waiting.

  great adventure....

  “All ready, Johnny.”

  THERE followed ten busy days for Johnny.

  She stood in a sleek black bathing suit;

  The old frame house of his boyhood was still

  her clothes lay in a little heap at her feet.

  standing; empty of furniture now, shabby and

  Admiration for her swept him. Slim, sleek

  decrepit. He got a temporary rental of the

  little Diana. She shivered a little as he buckled premises. By night he brought in the metal,

  the heavy wire mesh belt around her slim

  coffinlike box. He put it in his father’s waist. The adjustable headgear slipped over her coiled black hair and strapped under the

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  3

  chin. Wires connected it with a flexible breathing.

  necklace; wires were strung down her arms to

  “Move your switch—just a little—”

  bracelets; and others down her legs, fastened

  She did it. He heard the hum of the

  at the knees and ankles.

  circulating current, her gasp, and in the

  His own equipment was similar. And

  darkness he saw the silvery glow of her

  then they sat down to wait until midnight.

  mechanism. Instantly he moved his own

  Johnny found himself queerly breathless. switch.

  Soon he and Anne would be gone from this

  A tingling thrill shot through him. His

  room. Vanished. Yet, scientifically, senses reeled.

  mathematically, they would still be here. The

  same dimensions of length, breadth and IN a moment Johnny’s senses steadied. The thickness. But a different factor of Time. No

  network of wires on him tingled his flesh.

  two material bodies may occupy the same

  They were vibrating with an oscillation, tiny,

  Space at the same Time—

  infinitely rapid. It seemed, all in that instant, He thought, “We’re explorers of the

  that the vibration communicated to his body.

  shadows—” It was like dying. He shook off

  It brought a thrill. A sense of excitement. But

  the thought. This was a scientific thing; a

  it was more than that. His whole being seemed

  change of bod
ily density—a different quality

  tingling. It was a physical vibration, so that

  of Matter, altered by the mysterious electronic

  every tiny cell within him seemed quivering.

  current of the mechanism. A change of Time-

  They were drifting downward. It was a

  flow. Not a change of time, like yesterday

  sensation utterly strange. Weightless bodies

  compared with today or tomorrow. An hovering in a soundless void. The world above alteration of the flow of Time—so that his

  was gone now. The outlines of the room had

  human existence would move forward to its

  flickered, tenuous as a wisp of smoke above

  destination of death at a different rate.

  them—and vanished.

  A factor so fundamental, so vital, that

  He murmured, “We’d better try the

  its alteration altered every quality of Matter

  higher intensities of the current. Ready now!

  itself, to create another realm of existence. A

  We must keep together. Second! Third!

  scientific thing—frightening to do only Fourth!”

  because he had never done it before.

  It swept them into an intensification of

  Midnight. Johnny shook himself into

  all the weird sensations. The humming within

  alertness. Anne’s face was pale and grim; her

  them increased.

  dark eyes stared at him.

  An interval of Time passed. Time? A

  “Over there on the floor—lie down

  blurred, queer interval—Time of a new

  there,” he said. He gestured. “That’s where

  quality—a new rate of flow, coming into their

  father’s couch stood. He started from there.

  being now. Johnny saw clouds whirling

  I’ll blow the light out now.”

  toward them—imponderable clouds through

  He lay down beside her. It seemed that

  which they passed and could feel nothing. It

  with the puffing out of the light they had cut

  was a grey scene, not empty now but filled

  themselves off from the world. She was with shadowed shapes, blurred and indefinite.

  clinging to his hand. He said, “I’ll tell you

  A monochrome of grey. Then presently a little

  when to throw the switch on your belt. To the

  color was coming to it. A distant yellow glow.

  first intensity only—we’ve got to start

  He remembered his father’s detailed

  slowly—avoid any great shock. Understand?”

  directions. The first color would be yellow. A

  “Yes.” He could hear her quickened

  golden tinge. “We’ve got to slow down,” he

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  4

  said. “Third ... Second ... First! Stop there!”

  arms and legs in a glide through the air toward

  They were no longer in a void of him.

  emptiness. Distant shapes were taking form.

  The faint golden light was a blur overhead, but

  beneath them now were shapes of apparent

  CHAPTER II

  solidity.

  Strange New World

  Off to one side, something solid—

  huge as a great golden mountain—reared itself

  up. And things were moving here in the air.

  “NIGHT had come. Through the big oval

  Was that a slowly swaying human shape, off

  open windows of the Government Castle

  there not far away? He heard Anne suck In her

  where they were having their first meal in this

  breath as she saw it. The thing was a blob,

  strange new world, Johnny could see the

  with swaying arms and legs. It was human. A

  golden daylight fading into a golden twilight;

  man. The daylight gleamed golden upon him.

  and then into night.

  The surface was steadily rising. It was

  A dozen people of this world sat with

  only fifty feet under them now as they wafted

  Johnny and Anne and Hall senior. Some of

  gently down. Off in the distance there was a

  them spoke English, which Hall had taught

  broad spread of water, rippled by a breeze., A

  them. And Johnny listened to his father’s

  mile or so away was a golden glowing city, set

  account of this adjacent realm, to Earth, and

  back from the lake shore.

  the strange menace impending here. This was

  From the ground came a dim, red not the convex surface of a globe, but the beam. The signal! His father’s letter had concave inner surface of a void. A small arranged it.

  realm. A void no more than a hundred or so

  Johnny cried, “He’s alive, Anne! Earth miles in diameter, with a thin layer of We’re arrived! Normality!”

  atmosphere hardly a mile in depth clinging to

  They turned their switches. Normal the concave surface. The light was inherent to now to this new environment. They had the air—like a phosphorescence, yet waxing arrived in the new realm. It was day. Not

  and waning to give an alternating day and

  sunlight. The sky everywhere was flooded night somewhat longer than the corresponding with a bright but diffused golden light. The

  Earth interval.

  red signal beam was extinguished. The figures

  Only one race of people were here—

  by the fern clump scattered as Johnny and

  and this, the city of Bhana, was their largest

  Anne drifted down. Solid ground touched settlement. A scientific realm, perhaps the Johnny’s feet. He scrambled, clutched at equal of Earth, yet so different that there could Anne, and they stood erect, swaying.

  be no basis of comparison.

  Strange, weightless bodies! It struck

  Tenuous, giant structures loomed

  Johnny with a sudden mental shock. Gravity

  upward, so that the city seemed as high as it

  was hardly apparent here. He stood balancing,

  was wide and long. Giant flowers and trees

  swaying as though the gentle breeze would

  growing in gardens on the rooftops. Weird

  waft him away. His body weighed hardly lack of gravity! The whole city was a tangled more than a few pounds.

  metal maze of trellises, balconies, rooms,

  “Johnny! Thank God you’re safe!”

  windows, doorways.

  His father’s voice. Familiar timbre, out

  Johnny stared around the dinner table

  of the memories of his childhood. And he saw

  now. Strange food; strange people. He saw his

  a man’s figure come with rhythmic swaying

  father no older. But he was thinner, almost ill

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  5

  looking. His thin figure now was encased in a

  glistening mailed garment that could have SHADOW Gold! “Yellow gaslight,” Johnny’s been woven blue metal.

  father called it. And in this air it was as vital New world to Johnny. But the same

  to human life as oxygen is in the air of Earth.

  jealousy, greed and the lust for gain It held, indeed, a very similar position, for characterized it. Johnny sat tense, eagerly without the gold gas this air was vitiated; the listening.

  yellow glow was gone; and all living

  Some twenty years ago—before Hall

  organisms, breathing such air, would die.

  arrived—it was decided here in Bhana not to

  For the first few years after Hall’s

  jail but to banish all important men criminals.


  arrival this had been, as always, a very

  A city in the distant forest was established for

  peaceful realm. He had voluntarily stayed;

  them. Hall was saying:

  studying it. He saw very clearly that only

  “There is a colony out there now. harm could come from any close connection Several hundred. No one from here had ever

  between it and Earth. So he had said that his

  tried to visit it—until recently. And now we

  transition mechanism was broken. He was

  find that it’s fortified! Some unknown leader,

  marooned here—but there would be a time

  with a ghastly, diabolical plot—we have not

  when his son would come.

  enough gold gas available to combat it—”

  Someone of this realm must have

  Taro said, “Your father must tell you

  stolen the mechanism—for it vanished after a

  the science of our world—”

  year or two. The plot of this unknown villain

  This Taro was a young scientist. must have had its inception then; and Hardly young, perhaps, for though his face

  possession of the transition mechanism made

  was unlined, his bearing and poise of manner

  his plan possible of fruition.

  gave him the aspect of a man nearly forty. His

  Of them all at this dinner it was a

  position undoubtedly was important; Johnny

  youth named Nido who most had engaged

  could not miss the note of command about

  Johnny’s attention. A slim, graceful figure—a

  him. Like these other men, his skin was young man certainly of not over twenty. His bronzed. A hawklike face, with high bridged

  single clinging garment covered him from

  nose, a wide, firm mouth, and a queerly shoulders to knees. His skin was smooth and pointed chin. His eyes were dark under heavy