This is the ninth and last installment of "Terrors Unseen", a 1931 science fiction story by Harl Vincent, a prolific writers of the 1930s who has since fallen into obscurity. Since the story is now in the public domain, I have taken it upon myself to reprint it here on my blog, so that it will not be lost to posterity when the last copy of the March 1931 issue of Astounding Stories crumbles into dust. The first eight installments of the story can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. And now, on with the show . . .
* * *
An hour later Eddie Vail surveyed the scene complacently. Lina had washed the blood from his head and face and bandaged his wound. Luckily, Cadorna's blow had been a glancing one. The girl was fussing over her father, now, and the scientist was on the point of resenting her attentions; swore he could take care of himself; he wasn't a baby. Carlos and his chief were trussed up like mummies, and had been snarling at each other ever since the Chilean recovered his senses, each blaming the other for their predicament. The robots stood motionless by the wall.
This would be a big haul for the police. Plenty of evidence to send Cadorna to the chair now. The murder of Butch Collins, the undersized thug, had been witnessed by three of them. No, four: Carlos would squeal. He was that kind. There would be rejoicing in the underworld, too, for Cadorna had many enemies. They'd be killing each other off in droves, though, for the leaders of rival gangs would be battling for his place.
"Guess we'll have to dump them in the limousine," he remarked to Shelton. "Drive them to the nearest town and turn them over to the authorities."
"Yes. Then they can come back for the bodies of the other two." Shelton grimaced as he contemplated the sprawled figures.
"What about your robots?" Eddie asked.
"Why, I'll go ahead with my original plans, of course." The scientist looked surprised.
"Dad!" Lina turned beseeching eyes on Eddie and his heart performed amazingly as he looked into their depths.
"And why not?" asked her father dolefully. "They'll insure the peace of the world. They'll --"
"Listen, Mr. Shelton," Eddie interrupted. "If you think a little you'll realize that they'll do no such thing. Has any new and terrible engine of destruction ever accomplished that result? No -- the enemy always finds a way of combating the new weapon and of devising another still more terrible. You've discovered a marvelous thing, but its value is quite problematical."
"How can they ever combat a thing they cannot see?"
"Easily. Why, I could devise a teleview attachment in two days tht would make them visible. Photo-electric cells are capable of detecting ultra-violet light as you well know. Radium glows under its rays. Why not coat a teleview screen with some radio-active material?"
* * *
Shelton frowned thoughtfully. "You're right, Vail," he said, after a moment of silence; "absolutely right. It was only a dream."
With dragging feet he walked to the transmitter, his expression grim in the realization of failure. He started the motor-generator with a gesture of finality.
"What are you going to do?" Eddie asked fearfully.
"Watch me! At least I can demonstrate another phase of the basic principle I have discovered."
The motors of both robots whirred.
"Don't!" Cadorna wailed. "For God's sake, don't blink 'em out!"
Carlos cursed his chief for a coward.
Shelton was talking rapidly as he manipulated the controls. Instead of building up the wave motion to the frequency of invisible light he was reducing it. Past the other end of the spectrum and into the infra-red. The heat ray! Both monsters were changing color as he marched them through the door and into the open. But now they glowed with a visible red that rapidly intensified to the dazzling whiteness of intense heat. Cadorna babbled in superstitious terror. Then, in an instant, both mechanisms were reduced to shapeless blobs of molten metal. Lina clapped her hands gleefully.
Shelton looked up with enthusiasm once more shining in his face. "Vail, my boy," he said, "we can find some use for that in industry. Let the next war take care of itself."
"You bet!" Eddie was lost in contemplation of the girl -- the flush of pleasure that came at her father's words; the shining eyes.
"Then you'll leave the old place down here?" she asked eagerly.
"Yes, as soon as we get rid of these crooks and the other robot. Vail is to spend the rest of his vacation with us, too -- if he will."
Would he? Eddie gazed at the girl in rapt admiration and with an inward thrill over his astounding good fortune. Her eyes dropped before the intensity of his and her flush heightened.
David Shelton ws wiping his glasses and peering at them with an understanding smile. Good sport, Shelton -- and in some ways as wise as they made them. Eddie waited breathlessly for the girl to speak.
"Oh, that's wonderful, Dad," she approved; "And I'm sure that Mr. Vail will agree."
She turned those glorious eyes on Eddie once more, and her inquiring smile spoke volumes. He opened his mouth to accept the invitation but the words would not come. He could only nod his head vigorously like an abashed schoolboy.
Some vacation!
THE END
(continue on for "A Look at Terrors Unseen")
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