Chapter XIII

Niki was an early bird; he always took a walk round the castle grounds long before the rest of the household was up. His walk that morning had taken him along the water-front. On the beach, about a mile from our private dock, he had discovered a strange-looking object, something that resembled a huge sky-rocket, as he described it to me afterwards. On close inspection, he thought he heard a tapping sound inside the metal tube, as though some one was imprisoned there. This had alarmed him greatly, and he had taken it on the run back to the castle.

I was only partly awake when I admitted him to my room after his violent knocking at my door. His usual Oriental calm had disappeared entirely, and I gazed at him wonderingly as he stood, gesturing and talking wildly, as though he had lost his senses. I kept shaking my head dubiously.

"But Meester Livingston!" he cried. "I am telling you the truth. I am telling you."

"You're still dreaming, Niki," I said; "you haven't waked up yet. You'll drag me down to the beach, and what will we find there? Nothing."

"But I've seen it, touched it with my hands, Meester Livingston," he went on excitedly. "There is something inside of it--alive."

"Inside of what?" I asked, suppressing a yawn.

"Inside the big fire-cracker," he replied. "It is big enough to put an elephant inside--maybe not so big--" he stretched both arms full length; "maybe, this long. Maybe, it is that ship from the stars, Meester Henry was talking about on the radio last night. If it is, maybe, I will get the $25,000 reward for finding it."

"Ship? A rocket?" Then I blew up. "Why, you little Filipino jackass, why didn't you tell me so before?"

"I have been telling you," he replied, shaking his head, as if in pity for my lack of comprehension.

I sent him off in haste to waken McGinity. By the time I was half-dressed, McGinity joined me, fully dressed. In less than ten minutes, we dashed out of the castle, and made a break for the beach. When Niki had pointed out the strange object to us, lying on the sand, I sent him back to rouse Henry.

Before we reached the queer-looking thing, I had made up my mind that whatever it was, it might be mysterious but nothing more. Not by the wildest stretch of the imagination could I see a projectile from another planet landing on this earth, even if it had wings. But when we got up to it, and I heard a sound inside, as Niki had first reported, as though some one was tapping against the metal, like men trapped in a submarine, signaling to their rescuers, and logical connection was established in my mind between the Martian radio message and the landing of this strange rocket from the sky, the only real brain-storm I ever had in my life was right there.

I judged the object to be about ten feet in length, and about ten feet in circumference at its widest part. The outer shell looked like copper. It had a cone-shaped nose, which seemed to have been embedded deep in the sand when it fell from space, but the weight of the body had tipped it over, so that it now rested in a semi-horizontal position. I noted at once that its metal surface was pitted, and had a fused crust, like the varnish-like coating of a meteorite, no doubt due to the action of the heat generated by its rapid passage through the earth's atmosphere.

What McGinity's thoughts were, during our hurried inspection, I did not know. He appeared to have been awed into silence. Presently, he said, in a very serious tone:

"This is the ship, or rocket, from Mars, all right. Nothing was ever manufactured on this earth that looks anything like it. As for that tapping sound--" he stopped, and leaned over, with his ear pressed against the projectile. "Something is alive in there, sure as faith. We must act quickly, or it'll be suffocated." He made a rapid examination of the rocket's exterior. "I don't see any way of opening the darned thing. Do you?"

I joined him in his inspection. "It seems to be hermetically sealed," I said. "Looks like a Chinese puzzle to me."

Hearing voices approaching, I wheeled round, to see Henry coming on the run--bareheaded, and wearing only his trousers and shirt and bedroom slippers. Niki was running some steps ahead of him. He was almost breathless when he came up to us. He gave the rocket one searching glance, and then he went plain crazy. Here it was, the "ship" from Mars, with all its potentialities.

"My God!" was all he said.

I don't suppose I'll ever remember exactly what happened after Henry's arrival on the scene. Revelations, weird and foreboding, crowded the ensuing half hour so quickly, one upon the other, I became dazed and dizzy. I know we all worked heroically, and swiftly, to free the living thing inside the rocket. We were assisted in the operation by a dozen, strong-armed men-servants. Already, we had quite a gallery of spectators; all of the servants practically on the estate, but no one from outside. Jane and Pat stood on a sod embankment, fringed with willows, some yards away; even at this distance, I could discern that Pat was wildly excited but was being held in check by Jane.

Henry was handy with tools, but McGinity proved himself more capable when it came to the actual opening of the rocket. Henry, however, was privileged to be the first one to look inside. He gasped, and stepped back like one stunned. Then McGinity took a look. "Great Scott!" he exclaimed.

"What is it?" I asked, as I stepped forward, tremulous and excited, to take my turn.

"That's what it is," he replied, cryptically. "Looks like Barnum's 'What Is It?'"

To my dying day, I shall never forget the strange and surprising sight that greeted my eyes as I peered through the opening. I could only describe the huge, revolting-looking creature inside the rocket, at first glance, as a man-ape.

Whatever it was, Henry gave orders for its quick release. "This creature," he said, as we prepared to carry out his orders, "greatly resembles the hairy, primitive man of Mars, inhabiting the jungles of the planet, described in the Martian radio message last night. It was probably captured and placed inside the rocket while in a restive state, like a protoplasm, so that life could be retained during the long and perilous flight through space. It seems, at present, to be in a semi-conscious state. Probably revived to some extent by the effect of the earth's atmosphere."

He stopped, and then, after taking another look inside, continued. "Yes; the creature's eyes are open; he stared wonderingly at me. In his right hand, he's clutching what appears to be a metal bar. Evidently, he's worked it loose from some part of the rocket, and has been hammering with it on the sides, to attract attention."

"Which shows that he's got sense," supplemented McGinity.

Henry turned to me. "See here," he said, quietly; "you go and explain matters to Jane and Pat, and send them back to the house. Send all the women servants back. The sight of this thing may send them into hysterics--Jane especially."

After I had carried out his instructions, and returned to the spot, Henry took McGinity and me by the arms, and walked us away for some distance before he brought us to a stop.

"Now," he said, "we can take one thing as a fact: this ship, or pear-shaped metal rocket, fell out of the sky last night, and was embedded here in the sand. In view of the radio message registered from Mars last night in Radio Center, are you both willing and ready to accept this rocket, and the strange creature inside of it, as coming from Mars?"

"I imagine that's the real answer," McGinity said. "This rocket plunged from the sky, that's certain. Of course, I look at it from the newspaper story angle. But I'm willing to stand by you, Mr. Royce. Whatever you say, goes with me."

"And you, Livingston?" Henry looked at me.

"Well--er--it is not quite clear to me, Henry," I replied. "Your belief that it came from Mars may be good enough in theory, perhaps--"

"You must remember, Livingston," Henry interrupted, "that the Martians may be centuries in advance of us in many ways. Granting that they are, may we not assume that they could invent a gun of some unusual, or unknown style, that could shoot a rocket into space, beyond the gravitational pull of their planet, which is not so strong as ours?"

"Anyway, that's one way we can theorize," I said, "whether it's true or not."

"Grant anything or not," McGinity said to me, "you heard that radio message from Mars last night, announcing that such a rocket, or 'ship,' had been launched earthwards, and later, you saw the explosion in the sky right over this spot, which undoubtedly marked the fall of this rocket."

I nodded. "Yes; and it's absurd on the face of things, I'll admit, not to believe my ears and eyes." And then I committed myself. "I'm darned if I know what this thing is--or where it came from," I asserted, "but here it is, and I'll agree to anything you and Henry say."

"All right--good!" said Henry, slapping me on the back. "Now, we are all agreed on this. We are three witnesses, then, on whose testimony will hang the credulity of the world."

"Anyway, nobody can accuse me of cooking up a story," McGinity remarked, as we retraced our steps.