Wanderer's power to prevent it. And thatis why I snatched you up from your friend's laboratory. That is why Ihave shown to you the--"
"Me, why me?" Bert exclaimed.
"Attend, O Earthling, and you shall hear."
The mysterious intangibilities of the cosmos whirled by unheeded byeither as the Wanderer's tale unfolded.
* * * * *
"When I returned," he said, "the gateway was closed forever. I couldnot reenter my own plane of existence. The metal monsters had takenpossession; they had found a better and richer land than their own,and when they had completed their migration they destroyed thegenerator of my force area. They had shut me out; but I could visitUrtraria--as an outsider, as a wraith--and I saw what they had done. Isaw the desolation and the blackness of my once fair land. I sawthat--that none of my own kind remained. All, all were gone.
"For a time my reason deserted me and I roamed infra-dimensional spacea madman, self-condemned to the outer realms where there is no realmaterial existence, no human companionship, no love, no comfort. Whenreason returned, I set myself to the task of visiting other planeswhere beings of my own kind might be found and I soon learned that itwas impossible to do this in the body. To these people I was a ghostlyvisitant, if they sensed my presence at all, for my roamings betweenplanes had altered the characteristics of atomic structure of mybeing. I could no longer adapt myself to material existence in theseplanes of the fifth dimension. The orbits of electrons in the atomscomprising my substance had become fixed in a new and outcastoscillation interval. I had remained away too long. I was an outcast,a wanderer--the Wanderer of Infinity."
There was silence in the sphere for a space, save only for the gentlewhirring of the motors. Then the Wanderer continued:
"Nevertheless, I roamed these planes as a nonexistent visitor in sofar as their peoples were concerned. I learned their languages andcame to think of them as my own, and I found that many of theirscientific workers were experimenting along lines similar to thosewhich had brought disaster to Urtraria. I swore a mighty oath to spendmy lifetime in warning them, in warding off a repetition of soterrible a mistake as I had made. On several occasions I havesucceeded.
"And then I found that my lifetime was to be for all eternity. In theouter realms time stands still, as I have told you, and in the planeof existence which was now mine--an extra-material plane--I had noprospect of aging or of death. My vow, therefore, is for so long asour universe may endure instead of for merely a lifetime. For this Iam duly thankful, for I shall miss nothing until the end of time.
"I visited planes where other monsters, as clever and as vicious asthe metal ones who devastated Urtraria, were bending every effort oftheir sciences toward obtaining actual contact with other planes ofthe fifth dimension. And I learned that such contact was utterlyimpossible of attainment without a gateway in the realm to which theywished to pass--a gateway such as I had provided for the metalmonsters and such as that which your friend Tom Parker has providedfor the Bardeks, or spider men, as you term them.
"In intra-dimensional space I saw the glow of Tom Parker's force areaand I made my way to your world quickly. But Tom could not get mywarning: he was too stubbornly and deeply engrossed in the work he wasengaged in. The girl Joan was slightly more susceptible, and I believeshe was beginning to sense my telepathic messages when she sent foryou. Still and all, I had begun to give up hope when you came on thescene. I took you away just as the spider men succeeded in capturingyour friends, and now my hope has revived. I feel sure that my warningshall not have been in vain."
"But," objected Bert, "you've warned _me_, not the scientist of myworld who is able to prevent the thing--"
"Yes, _you_," the Wanderer broke in. "It is better so. This Tom Parkeris a zealot even as was I--a man of science thinking only of his owndiscoveries. I am not sure he would discontinue his experiments evenwere he to receive my warning in all its horrible details. But you, OMan-Called-Bert, through your love of his sister and by your influenceover him, will be able to do what I can not do myself: bring about thedestruction of this apparatus of his; impress upon him the gravenecessity of discontinuing his investigations. You can do it, and youalone, now that you fully understand."
"Sa-ay! You're putting it up to me entirely?"
"Nearly so, and there is no alternative. I believe I have notmisjudged you; you will not fail, of that I am certain. For the sakeof your own kind, for the love of Joan Parker--you will not fail. Andfor me--for this small measure of atonement it is permitted that Imake or help to make possible--"
"No, I'll not fail. Take me to them, quick." Bert grinnedunderstandingly as the Wanderer straightened his broad shoulders andextended his hand.
There was no lack of substantiality in the mighty grip of thoseclosing fingers.
* * * * *
Again the sphere's invisible motors increased speed, and again thedizzying kaleidoscope of color swept past them more furiously.
"We will now overtake them--your friends," said the Wanderer, "in thevery act of passing between planes."
"Overtake them...." Bert mumbled. "I don't get it at all, this timetraveling. It's over my head a mile."
"It isn't time travel really," explained the Wanderer. "We are merelyclosing up the time-space interval, moving to the precise spot in theuniverse where your friend's laboratory existed at the moment ofcontact between planes with your world and that of the Bardeks. Weshall reach there a few seconds after the actual capture."
"No chance of missing?" Bert watched the Wanderer as he consulted hismathematical data and made new adjustments of the controls.
"Not the slightest; it is calculated to a nicety. We could, if wewished, stop just short of the exact time and would see there-occurrence of their capture. But only as unseen observers--you cannot enter the plane as a material being during your own actual past,for your entity would then be duplicated. Of course, I can not enterin any case. But, moving on to the instant after the event, as weshall do, you may enter either plane as a material being or movebetween the two planes at will by means of the gateway provided by TomParker's force area. Do you not now understand the manner in which youwill be enabled to carry out the required procedure?"
"H-hmm!" Bert wasn't sure at all. "But this moving through time," heasked helplessly, "and the change from one plane of oscillation toanother--they're all mixed up--what have they to do with each other?"
"All five dimensions of our universe are definitely interrelated anddependent one upon the other for the existence of matter in any formwhatsoever. You see--but here we are."
* * * * *
The motors slowed down and a titanic page seemed to turn over in thecosmos with a vanishing blaze of magnificence. Directly beneath themglowed the disk of blue-white light that was Tom's force area. Thesphere swooped down within its influence and came to rest.
"Make haste," the Wanderer said. "I shall be here in the gatewaythough you see me not. Bring them here, speedily."
On the one side Bert saw familiar objects in Tom's laboratory, on theother side the white cliff and the pitchy sea of the Bardek realm. Andthe cage of basket-weave between, with his friends inside strugglingwith the spider men. It was the instant after the capture.
"Joan! Tom!" Bert shouted.
A side of the sphere had opened and he plunged through and into theBardek plane--to the inky surface of the sea, fully expecting to sinkin its forbidding depths. But the stuff was an elastic solid, springyunder his feet and bearing him up as would an air-inflated cushion. Hethrew himself upon the cage and tore at it with his fingers.
The whimpering screams of the spider men were in his ears, and he sawfrom the corner of his eye that other of the tortoiselike mounds wererising up out of the viscid black depths, dozens of them, and thathundreds of the Bardeks were closing in on him from all directions.Weapons were in their hands, and a huge engine of warfare like acaterpillar tractor was skimming over the sea from
the cliff wall witha great grinding and clanking of its mechanisms.
But the cage was pulling apart in his clutches as if made of reeds.With Joan in one encircling arm he was battling the spider men,driving swift short-arm jabs into their soft bloated bodies withdevastating effect. And Tom, recovering from the first surprise of hiscapture, was doing a good job himself, his flailing arms scatteringthe Bardeks like ninepins. The Wanderer and his sphere, both doomed tomaterial existence only in infra-dimensional space, had vanished fromsight.
A bedlam rose up from the reinforcing hordes as they came in to enterthe force area. But Bert sensed the guiding touch of the Wanderer'sunseen hand, heard his placid voice urging him, and, in a single wildleap was inside the sphere with the