The Moon Magnet—III

Press, Volume LXXV, Issue 22851, 26 October 1939, Page 8 (Supplement)

The Moon Magnet —111

Progress on the shiny metal surface of tMe small orb was difficult. Phey were indeed like flies, and often drifted away into space to be attracted by the moon magnet. Eventually Phlatphace solved the iroblem by • attaching , magnetic ilates to their shoes, and soon they samt to walk rapidly on the wandering planet. They had not one very far towards one of the oles when a strange vibration took lace under their feet, and just 'Store then. ,the> noticed a hole. whispered Phlatphace arousb . the speaker tie carried 1 eheve this orb is hollow, and—fhat is more—inhabited.’!' “•Don’t be silly,” 1 replied. “How mid such a mountainless, riverless, iriep, sealess planet have any inamtants? There is nothing to suport life here.”

Don’t be too sure,” said Phlathace "but it will certainly be difErentfrom any life we have known n our own planet.” Hardly had he spoken when out ? “te hole we had noticed just of hs came a succession of— how can I describe them? m®?? ™gs on stilts, they looked r’ about the size of a baby ~ ee l- They must have sensed m f 1 some manner as they came surface of the planet, for seemed astounded and twisted 5_® s “ v 6s into fantastic curves and S s -... " And that,” said Phlat1S how they talk to each

skei ey can t see, surely?” I

3 0t With eyes such as ours,” he p ’ .“° u t—l° o k out, I do believe S mtend to attack us.” came at us in a body, and ,j a moments we were well i entangled and captured more or less than as I aptly expressed it. “a jOf twisted scrap iron.” i“, w ® did not put up any sort they could possibly term they soon disentangled *®wves and, reverting to their, b Ppose, normal shape rings on • formed two ranks and es- , us to the hole which proved it, . e °ne and only entrance Is j™tetior of the planet, ti f'Ulutphace had surmised, it hollow; and. to our ifoSfPt* illuminated as though 'tor k moonlight. There were u ‘ a on 8 never-ending rari from the hole, and a»j r pPtors encircled themW ringing themselves also rus hed inwards at a fearf aid ’ * ,it s all U P with As soon as the air is {taj-i®. our masks we’ll perish •* it-J- a few hours, yet. Jay," and added: fee al entities have intelliSdUsTV 1 somehow think we’ll ?s fw!? 1 * - . Hallo! What’s this?” Son' r- SUt *denlv pulled up at a s^inate^ Uppose- A building, all * meSr* - and obviously made ! Mlci came into view, and ■tm down on the plat-' of queer metallic soon as they saw us to grow very excited mono-rails seemed to big things like barthem. “Cars—by golly. InesiJgJputed into my speaker. ®to bSP Ca rs right enough, and f tljj'swC were escorted. Two in with us, and—“°ut|il* ponders—after twisting they produced eyes

(By J. J. Stroudj

like electric light bulbs and features of a sort, and seemed quite pleased with themselves -After a bit more twisting they produced hands, and feet seemed to grow out of the stilts. Of a sudden one of them pulled Phlat’s mask oft him. and I expected to see him choke for lack of air. Instead he laughed and the rings laughed “Great Scot . Air!” I exclaimed, and pulled off my mask.

Out of port holes in the rapldlv speeding barrel-like cars we gazed J in awe and admiration at 3 w"Orider- I /uJ counlztr- IWono-rails, lj3ce 3 ‘ giant spider web, stretched everywhere, and. a humming musical note, deep and of a rich tone, arose from the multitude of speeding cars rushing hither and thither. The air seemed lighter and gave one an exhilarating feeling. We wanted to laugh. We did laugh, and with us" the queer ring-like beings also laughed. . As we. grew nearer the centre,! suppose, of this strange little world, the bodies of our escort seemed to change and become more like ours; and in what must have been about three hours of earth, time, they seemed to have become almost as ourselves, only much smaller and still very metallic. ■ Suddenly we rushed out of the illuminated space through whicn we had been travelling into fields U am compelled to use the earth word) square patches of terra finna on which appeared trees (again the earth wordl. They would not have been called trees on our planet However, they were beautiful and. although distinctly metallic, bore' some kind of leaves and what must have been fruit. Even Phlat. grew excited. “Rivers. Jay,”-he shouted, “lakes, hills, valleys, people.” Our escort laughed and—yes, they had actually developed mouths and one spoke. Almost it was obvious what he meant, though his speech was unlike anything any human could ever conceive More like the tanning together of two dinner nlates than anything else I can think of. He waved a bunch of =hinine metallic fingers towards a porthole through which a shining citv appeared and into which we rushed with a diminishing hum and “tap-a-tap.” he said. “Home. Phlat..” T said “He means home.” „„ ~ . “And am I hungry?” said Phlatnhace as the car came gently to a stop at a magnificent platform on which appeared a veritable horde Of inhabitants all strangely humanlike but small and obviously metallic. The air resounded with the =trange tan-a-tan of their voices. Suddenly they formed a long lane down which marched a reeal proposciftfi heeded bv a band. Can you unotrine it’ A band nlayine strange instruments that gave off • sweet tones Almost harp-like. “Ting-a-tang-a-ting.^ Tang-a-ting-a-tang.” We were undoubtedly in a strange world. . , ' (To be continued.) Ribbon Fish The ribbon fish is a deep-sea fish, and derives its name from its rib-bon-like shape. Though many feet in length, it is only an inch or two thick. Because it keeps to the ocean depths, the ribbon fish is seldom seen.