For two months he has been
my companion, but he cannot eat anything but meat and the supply of meat
upon the ship is getting low, and sooner or later he must succumb. And
the women, maddened at his escape from their clutches, though not yet
daring to approach too closely to me, are getting bolder. Some time, at
some unguarded moment, they will find the poor fellow alone and will
fall upon him. And in his terror, in an effort to buy his life, he will,
I know, reveal to them that I am but an ordinary mortal, a man who eats
and drinks and who survived the gas by mechanical and not supernatural
means. But I will not be taken alive by these fearful female cannibals. When the time comes, as I know it will, I will blow my brains out, and
though they may devour my body they will not rend me alive. No more
ships have been brought in here since the _McCracken_ was captured. But
this I know is due to the fact that all the energies of these creatures
are being devoted to building additional air machines. This work goes on
in a vast cavern beyond the city where tremendous forces, furnaces with
heat beyond human conception and machines of which we know nothing, are
controlled by the internal steam, the radiant energy and the magnetic
powers of the earth’s core. “And now, again let me implore any and all who may hear my words to give
close attention to what I say, for here again is a means by which
humanity may combat and destroy these ghastly, gigantic cannibals. The
spherical air-machines are helpless from above. Their magnetic or
electrical forces extend only downwards. The gasses they throw out are
heavier than air and descend but cannot ascend, and by means of swift
planes, huge bombs and machine guns, the things can be easily destroyed. And they cannot travel without throwing off the dazzling green light. Only when motionless are they dark. And so they will offer easy marks
and can be readily detected. So, I beseech you who may hear, that the
governments are notified and warned and that a fleet or many fleets of
airplanes properly equipped patrol the seas, and at first sight of one
of the green meteors rise above it and utterly destroy it without mercy. “Wait! I hear a terrified scream.... I am back again at the transmitter. It was the fellow who has been with me. Poor devil! He has met his fate,
but after all it was the custom of his people, and, moreover, he would
have starved to death in a few days. For that matter I, too, face
starvation. The ship’s stock is running low; all the food upon the
_McCracken_ was destroyed in cutting up that vessel, and unless another
ship is captured I will have no food after two weeks more. What a
strange thought! How terrible an idea! That the awful fate of hundreds
of my fellows would be my salvation! But I will never live to die from
hunger. I can hear the terrible screams of my late companion on the deck
outside. God! It is the end! The fellow must have told the enraged
females. His body has been torn to shreds. With bloody hands and reeking
lips they are rushing towards the upper deck where I sit. They are here! This is my last word! God grant that I have been heard! I am about
to----”

Crashing in our ears came the report of a pistol. The End


-----

[1] The message as it came in, was halting, and interrupted, with many
unintelligible words and repetitions, as if the sender were laboring
under an intense strain or was an amateur. For the sake of clarity and
continuity, the communication has been edited and filled in, but not
altered in any detail. [2] The metropolitan papers reported the meteor on the eighteenth and
stated it was observed by those on the _Chiriqui_ on the evening of the
seventeenth, but it must be remembered that the _Chiriqui_ was in the
western Pacific and hence had gained a day in time. [Transcriber’s Note: This story appeared in the July 1927 issue of