The Ray Cummings MEGAPACK ®: 25 Golden Age Science Fiction and Mystery Tales. Ray Cummings

dazzled him with their brilliancy; its powerful glare made objects around as bright as though in daylight. After a moment the Big Business Man’s grip on his arm tightened.

      “God, it’s weird!” he said in a tense whisper. “Look!”

      Before them spread a great, level, shining expanse of black, with the ring in its center—a huge golden circle. Beyond the farther edge of the black they could see the feet of the banker, and the lower part of his legs stretching into the air far above them.

      The Very Young Man looked up still higher, and saw the Banker staring down at him, “Good-by, my boy,” said the Banker. His voice came from far away in a great roar to the Very Young Man’s ears.

      “Good-by, sir,” said the Very Young Man, and waved his hand.

      Several minutes passed, and still the Very Young Man stood holding to his companion, and watching the expanse of handkerchief widening out and the gleaming ring growing larger. Then he thought of the Doctor, and turned suddenly to look behind him. Across the wide, glistening surface of the floor stood the Doctor, leaning against the tremendous column that the Very Young Man knew was the leg of the center-table. And as the Very Young Man stood staring, he could see this distance between them growing steadily greater. A sudden fear possessed him, and he shouted to his friend.

      “Good Lord, suppose he can’t make it!” said the Big Business Man fearfully.

      “He’s coming,” answered the Very Young Man. “He’s got to make it.”

      The Doctor was running towards them now, and in a few moments he was beside them, breathing heavily.

      “Close call, Frank,” said the Big Business Man, shaking his head. “You were the one said we must keep together.” The Doctor was too much out of breath to answer.

      “This is worse,” said the Very Young Man. “Look where the ring is.”

      More than two hundred yards away across the black expanse of silk handkerchief lay the ring.

      “It’s almost as high as our waist now, and look how far it is!” added the Very Young Man excitedly.

      “It’s getting farther every minute,” said the Big Business Man. “Come on,” and he started to run towards the ring.

      “I can’t make it. It’s too far!” shouted the Doctor after him.

      The Big Business Man stopped short. “What’ll we do?” he asked. “We’ve got to get there.”

      “That ring will be a mile away in a few minutes, at the rate it’s going,” said the Very Young Man.

      “We’ll have to get him to move it over here,” decided the Doctor, looking up into the air, and pointing.

      “Gee, I never thought of that!” said the Very Young Man. “Oh, great Scott, look at him!”

      Out across the broad expanse of handkerchief they could see the huge white face of their friend looming four or five hundred feet in the air above them. It was the most astounding sight their eyes had ever beheld; yet so confused were they by the flood of new impressions to which they were being subjected that this colossal figure added little to their surprise.

      “We must make him move the ring over here,” repeated the Doctor.

      “You’ll never make him hear you,” said the Big Business Man, as the Very Young Man began shouting at the top of his voice.

      “We’ve got to,” said the Very Young Man breathlessly. “Look at that ring. We can’t get to it now. We’re stranded here. Good Lord! What’s the matter with him—can’t he see us?” he added, and began shouting again.

      “He’s getting up,” said the Doctor. They could see the figure of the Banker towering in the air a thousand feet above the ring, and then with a swoop of his enormous face come down to them as he knelt upon the floor.

      With his hands to his mouth, the Very Young Man shouted up: “It’s too far away. We can’t make it—we’re too small.” They waited. Suddenly, without warning, a great wooden oval bowl fifteen or twenty feet across came at them with tremendous speed. They scattered hastily in terror.

      “Not that—the ring!” shouted the Very Young Man, as he realized it was the spoon in the Banker’s hand that had frightened them.

      A moment more and the ring was before them, lying at the edge of the handkerchief—a circular pit of rough yellow rock breast high. They ran over to it and climbed upon its top.

      Another minute and the ring had grown until its top became a narrow curving path upon which they could stand. They got upon their feet and looked around curiously.

      “Well, we’re here,” remarked the Very Young Man. “Everything’s okay so far. Let’s get right around after that scratch.”

      “Keep together,” cautioned the Doctor, and they started off along the path, following its inner edge.

      As they progressed, the top of the ring steadily became broader; the surface underfoot became rougher. The Big Business Man, walking nearest the edge, pulled his companion towards him. “Look there!” he said. They stood cautiously at the edge and looked down.

      Beneath them the ring bulged out. Over the bulge they could see the black of the handkerchief—a sheer hundred-feet drop. The ring curved sharply to the left; they could follow its wall all the way around; it formed a circular pit some two hundred and fifty feet in diameter.

      A gentle breeze fanned their faces as they walked. The Very Young Man looked up into the gray of the distance overhead. A little behind, over his shoulder he saw above him in the sky a great, gleaming light many times bigger than the sun. It cast on the ground before him an opaque shadow, blurred about the edges.

      “Pretty good day, at that,” remarked the Very Young Man, throwing out his chest.

      The Doctor laughed. “It’s half-past eight at night,” he said. “And if you’ll remember half an hour ago, it’s a very stormy night, too.”

      The Big Business Man stopped short in his walk. “Just think,” he said pointing up into the gray of the sky, with a note of awe in his voice, “over there, not more than fifteen feet away, is a window, looking down towards the Gaiety Theater and Broadway.”

      The Very Young. Man looked bewildered. “That window’s a hundred miles away,” he said positively.

      “Fifteen feet,” said the Big Business Man. “Just beyond the table.”

      “It’s all in the viewpoint” said the Doctor, and laughed again.

      They had recovered their spirits by now, the Very Young Man especially seeming imbued with the enthusiasm of adventure.

      The path became constantly rougher as they advanced.

      The ground underfoot—a shaggy, yellow, metallic ore—was strewn now with pebbles. These pebbles grew larger farther on, becoming huge rocks and bowlders that greatly impeded their progress.

      They soon found it difficult to follow the brink of the precipice. The path had broadened now so that its other edge was out of sight, for they could see only a short distance amid the bowlders that everywhere tumbled about, and after a time they found themselves wandering along, lost in the barren waste.

      “How far is the scratch, do you suppose?” the Very Young Man wanted to know.

      They stopped and consulted a moment; then the Very Young Man clambered up to the top of a rock. “There’s a range of hills over there pretty close,” he called down to them. “That must be the way.”

      They had just started again in the direction of the hills when, almost without warning, and with a great whistle and roar, a gale of wind swept down upon them. They stood still and looked at each other with startled faces, bracing with their feet against its pressure.

      “Oh, golly, what’s this?” cried the Very