something he was trying
desperately to explain to himself.

Thunder rumbled once more, and Bert returned his eyes to the
instrument. Directly before him in the field of vision a group of the
spider men advanced over the pitchy sea with a curiously constructed
cage of woven transparent material which they set down at a point so
close by that it seemed he could touch it if he stretched out his
hand. The illusion of physical nearness was perfect. The evil eyes of
the creatures were fastened upon him; tentacle arms uncoiled and
reached forth as if to break down the barrier that separated them.

And then a scream penetrated his consciousness, wrenching him back to
consideration of his immediate surroundings. The laboratory door burst
open and Joan, pale and disheveled, dashed into the room.

* * * * *

Tom shouted, running forward to intercept her, and Bert saw what he
had not seen before, a ten-foot circle of blue-white metal set in the
floor and illuminated by a shaft of light from a reflector on the
ceiling above Tom's machine.

"Joan--the force area!" Tom was yelling. "Keep away!"

Tom had reached the distraught girl and was struggling with her over
on the far side of the disk.

There came a throbbing of the very air surrounding them, and Bert saw
Tom and Joan on the other side of the force area, their white faces
indistinct and wavering as if blurred by heat waves rising between.
The rumblings and cracklings overhead increased in intensity until the
old house swayed and creaked with the concussions. Hazy forms
materialized on the lighted disk--the cage of the transparent, woven
basket--dark spidery forms within. The creatures from that other
plane!

"Joan! Tom!" Bert's voice was soundless as he tried to shout, and his
muscles were paralyzed when he attempted to hurl himself across to
them. The blue-white light had spread and formed a huge bubble of
white brilliance, a transparent elastic solid that flung him back when
he attacked it in vain with his fists.

Within its confines he saw Joan and her brother scuffling with the
spider men, tearing at the tentacle arms that encircled them and drew
them relentlessly into the basket-weave cage. There was a tremendous
thump and the warping of the very universe about them all. Bert
Redmond, his body racked by insupportable tortures, was hurled into
the black abyss of infinity....

* * * * *

This was not