projection caught Harper's eye. Now heknew--the Being had somehow affixed it to the spot as a landmark,so It could locate the laboratory. It must have been thisprojection that had first attracted the Being's attention to thethree dimensional world, since, ordinarily, It would never havenoticed the presence of three dimensional life, any more thanhumans would notice the presence of two dimensional life if suchexisted!
Harper looked up at a bleat from Pillbot. Above them was a suddenfurious play of lights and shades. Vast masses seemed shifting incrazy juxtapositions, now descending rapidly toward them.
"Quick," Harper, now fully aroused, gasped to Pillbot. "Climbdown this projection!"
"Climb down it--?"
"Yes, there is a fluid condition of space where it penetratesbetween the two planes. By hugging its contours you will emergeinto the laboratory--I hope!"
Pillbot glanced overhead nervously, then experimentally slid afont down the projection. The foot vanished. With a cry ofrelief, Pillbot lowered himself until only head and shoulderswere visible. Then that too vanished.
Harper looked up. Some monstrous suggestion of Form was almostupon him. He grasped the projection and just as his head sank outof sight the Form seemed to smash down on him.
Pillbot helped Harper to his feet, from where he had sprawled atthe base of the statue, on the laboratory floor.
"Quick," he gasped. "The Creature will be infuriated now, by ourescape from Its realm. A maniacal spasm is sure to follow. Wemust get Gault back in some way, then leave the laboratory."
Even as they dashed over toward the abbreviated form of Gault,the laboratory shook. Invisible strains seemed to be bulging thewalls inward.
Harper rushed to the desk upon which still reposed the cutout, thesection between neck and waist still arched off the surface. As Harperreached toward the cutout to press it flat, Gault's eyes widened, hismouth opened in a soundless shout of opposition. Harper hesitated.
"Never mind him," yammered Pillbot. "Press the figure flat!"
Harper pressed it flat.
For an instant the laboratory stopped its ominous vibration. Thenthe figure of Gault flew through the air, came up against awall--but it was his complete figure.
"More signs of violence," cried Pillbot. "But that action won'tappease It--we must get out of here--"
Even as he spoke there was a thunderous crackling and roaring.Harper felt himself flying about, and for an instant of awfulvertigo he did not know up from down. Forces seemed to be tearingat him. He felt as though he were a piece of iron being attractedsimultaneously in several directions by powerful electro magnets.
There was a flare of colored lights, a deafening detonation--andhe felt himself knocked breathless against a wall.
He picked himself up, looked around.
* * * * *
On one side of him was the familiar south wall of the laboratory.To the north, east and west was--open air. He was standing on asection of laboratory flooring that jutted out over empty spacefrom the wall. His desk was a few feet away, right at the edge ofthe jutting floor. Gault and Pillbot were picking themselves upto one side of the desk.
The pair looked over the edge of the floor, then recoiled,frenziedly hugging the flooring under them.
Harper crawled over, looked over the edge, quickly backed away.Several hundred feet below, the traffic of the city roared!
Gault went over to the door in the one wall, opened it, thenstepped back quickly, his face pale.
"The laboratory has been turned inside out!" he shouted. "We areon the outside!"
"We must get away from here," squalled Pillbot. "Another spasm ofthe creature will precipitate us into the street!"
Gault forgot his apprehensions long enough to freeze Harper witha glance. "This is all your doing," he bawled. "You with yourabsurd doodling, which attracted the attention of some Being ofthe fourth dimension!" In his anger, he overlooked the fact thathe was contradicting his formerly held opinion.
"The laboratory wrecked," he continued, "and that isn't all!" Hestalked up to the cringing Harper, thrust his face toward him.
"Do you know," he yelled, "why I didn't want to be returnedhastily--why I didn't want you to bring me back by flattening outthe paper cutout? You dolt, did you ever try to get a crease outof a piece of paper?"
"I--I don't understand," murmured Harper.
"That paper doll was creased, wasn't it?" shouted Gault.
"Once a piece of paper is creased," he resumed heatedly, "itcan't be perfectly flattened out again. At the crease a thincross-section continues to bulge--into the third dimension in thecase of that paper cutout. Into the fourth dimension in my case!_I'm creased too_, at the line where I was bent into the fourthdimension! Surely you aren't blind?"
Harper staggered back as he saw it--a thin, horizontal line oflight shining through Gault's body--across his waistline, throughclothes and all.
"I shall have to go through life this way," Gault snarled, "dueto your imbecilic 'doodling', your meddling with what you don'tunderstand. Go about constantly with a slit of daylight showingthrough me. _You're fired!_"
"Gentlemen," cried Pillbot. "The entity--we must get away.Another spasm will surely follow--"
Harper didn't think so. A few feet away he had noticedsomething--his statue lying on its side. It was all there,including the portion that had been in the fourth dimension. TheEntity's "landmark" was gone. Harper didn't believe It wouldlocate this particular area of the third dimension again.
The scream of a fire siren rose up to them. As a ladder scrapedover the projecting floor, Harper fondly felt the pad in hispocket with the formula on it. He wasn't worried now about havingbeen fired. He was seeing visions of a small cottage withJudith....
Of course, he would have to be careful in the future with his"doodling"! He could not again risk attracting the attention ofsome four dimensional Being--not with Judith to think about!
* * * * *
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