Weird Tales, Volume 1, Number 3, May, 1923: The unique magazine

3, MAY, 1923 ***

Transcriber’s Note: Stories that were originally split over pages, with adverts and/or other stories in between, have been recombined.

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WEIRD TALES

_The Unique Magazine_

EDWIN BAIRD, _Editor_

Published monthly by THE RURAL PUBLISHING CORPORATION, 325 N. Capitol Ave., Indianapolis, Ind. Application made for entry as second-class matter at the postoffice at Indianapolis, Indiana. Single copies, 25 cents. Subscription, $3.00 a year in the United States; $3.50 in Canada. The publishers are not responsible for manuscripts lost in transit. Address all manuscripts and other editorial matters to WEIRD TALES, 854 N. Clark St., Chicago, Ill. The contents of this magazine are fully protected by copyright and publishers are cautioned against using the same, either wholly or in part.

Copyright, 1923, by The Rural Publishing Corporation.

VOLUME 1 25 Cents NUMBER 3

_Contents for May, 1923_

_Nineteen Thrilling Short Stories_ _Two Complete Novelettes_ _Two Two-Part Stories_ _Interesting, Odd and Weird Happenings_

THE MOON TERROR A. G. BIRCH 5 _A Remarkable Novel_

THE SECRET FEAR BY KENNETH DUANE WHIPPLE 22 _A “Creepy” Detective Story_

JUNGLE BEASTS WILLIAM P. BARRON 23 _A Complete Novelette_

THE GOLDEN CAVERNS JULIAN KILMAN 30 _A Condensed Novel_

VIALS OF INSECTS PAUL ELLSWORTH TRIEM 39 _Short Story_

AN EYE FOR AN EYE G. W. CRANE 49 _Short Story_

THE FLOOR ABOVE M. HUMPHREYS 52 _A Short Story with a Horrifying Climax_

PENELOPE VINCENT STARRETT 57 _A Fantastic Tale_

THE PURPLE HEART HERMAN SISK 61 _The Story of a Haunted Cabin_

FELINE BRUCE GRANT 62 _A Whimsical Storiette_

TWO HOURS OF DEATH E. THAYLES EMMONS 64 _A Ghost Story_

MIDNIGHT BLACK HAMILTON CRAIGIE 67 _Short Story_

THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS BULWER LYTTON 70 _An Old Masterpiece_

THE WHISPERING THING LAURIE McCLINTOCK AND CULPEPER CHUNN 78 _The Conclusion of a Frightful Mystery Novel_

THE DEATH CELL F. K. MOSS 85 _A Weird Short Story_

THE DEVIL PLANT LYLE WILSON HOLDEN 89 _A Story of Ghastly Retribution_

THE THUNDER VOICE F. WALTER WILSON 92 _The Story of a Hairy Monster_

CASE NO. 27 MOLLIE FRANK ELLIS 96 _A Few Minutes in a Madhouse_

THE FINALE WILLIAM MERRIT 99 _A Short Story_

THE CLOSED CABINET 101 _A Story of the Eighteenth Century_

THE EYRIE BY THE EDITOR 113

For advertising space in this magazine apply to Young & Ward, 168 N. Michigan Blvd., Chicago, Ill.

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_The Unique Magazine_

WEIRD TALES

_Edited by Edwin Baird_

VOLUME ONE NUMBER THREE

25c a Copy

MAY, 1923

Subscription $3.00 A YEAR $3.50 IN CANADA

_The Astounding Events in This Remarkable Novel Leave the Reader Breathless with Amazement_

The Moon Terror

_By_ A. G. BIRCH

CHAPTER I.

THE DRUMS OF DOOM.

The first warning of the stupendous cataclysm that befell the earth in the third decade of the twentieth century was recorded simultaneously in several parts of America during a night in early June. But, so little was its awful significance suspected at the time, it passed almost without comment.

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I am certain that I entertained no forebodings; neither did the man who was destined to play the leading role in the mighty drama that followed—Dr. Ferdinand Gresham, the eminent American astronomer. For we were on a hunting and fishing trip in Labrador at the time, and were not even aware of the strange occurrence.

Anyway, the nature of this first herald of disaster was not such as to cause alarm.

At 12 minutes past 3 o’clock a. m., when there began a lull in the night’s aerial telegraph business, several of the larger wireless stations of the Western hemisphere simultaneously began picking up strange signals out of the ether. They were faint and ghostly, as if coming from a vast distance—equally far removed from New York and San Francisco, Juneau and Panama.

Exactly two minutes apart the calls were repeated, with clock-like regularity. But the code used—if it _were_ a code—was undecipherable.

Until near dawn the signals continued—indistinct, unintelligible, insistent.

Every station capable of transmitting messages over such great distances emphatically denied sending them. And no amateur apparatus was powerful enough to be the cause. As far as anyone could learn, the signals originated nowhere upon the earth. It was as if some phantom were whispering through the ether in the language of another planet.

Two nights later the calls were heard again, starting at almost the same instant when they had been distinguished on the first occasion. But this time they were precisely three minutes apart. And without the variation of a second they continued for more than an hour.

The next night they reappeared. And the next and the next. Now they began earlier than before—in fact, no one knew when they had started, for they were sounding when the night’s business died down sufficiently for them to be heard. But each night, it was noticed, the interval between the signals was exactly one minute longer than the night before.

Occasionally the weird whispers ceased for a night or two, but always they resumed with the same insistence, although with a newly-timed interval.

This continued until early in July, when the pause between the calls had attained more than thirty minutes’ duration.

Then the length of the lulls began to decrease erratically. One night the mysterious summons would be heard every nineteen and a quarter minutes; the next night, every ten and a half minutes; at other times, twelve and three-quarters minutes, or fourteen and a fifth, or fifteen and a third.

Still the signals could not be deciphered, and their message—if they contained one—remained a mystery.

Newspapers and scientific journals at last began to speculate upon the matter, advancing all manner of theories to account for the disturbances.

The only one of these conjectures attracting widespread attention, however, was that presented by Professor Howard Whiteman, the famous director of the United States naval observatory at Washington, D. C.

Professor Whiteman voiced the opinion that the planet Mars was trying to establish communication with the earth—the mysterious calls being wireless signals sent across space by the inhabitants of our neighboring world.

Our globe, moving through space much faster than Mars, and in a smaller orbit, overtakes its neighboring planet once in a little over two years. For some months Mars had been approaching the earth. At the beginning of June it had been approximately 40,000,000 miles away, and at that time, Professor Whiteman pointed out, the strange wireless calls had commenced. As the two worlds drew closer together the signals increased slightly in power.

The scientist urged that while Mars remained close to us the government should appropriate funds to enlarge one of the principal wireless stations in an effort to answer the overtures of our neighbors in space.

But when, after two more days, the ethereal signals ceased abruptly and week passed without their recurrence, Professor Whiteman’s theory began to be derided, and the whole thing was dismissed as some temporary phenomenon of the atmosphere.

It was something of a shock, therefore, when, on the eighth night after the cessation of the disturbances, the calls were suddenly resumed—much louder than before, as if the power creating their electrical impulses had been increased. Now wireless stations all over the world plainly heard the staccato, mystifying challenge coming out of the ether.

This time, too, the interval between the signals was of a new length—eleven minutes and six seconds.

The next day the matter took on still further importance.

Scientists all along the Pacific Coast of the United States reported that in the night their seismographs had recorded a series of light earthquakes; and it was noted that these tremors had occurred precisely eleven minutes and six seconds apart—simultaneously with the sounding of the mysterious wireless calls!

After that the aerial signals did not stop during any part of the twenty-four hours. And the earth shocks continued, gradually increasing in severity. They kept perfect time with the signals through the ether—a shock for every whisper, a rest for every pause. In the course of a couple of weeks the quakes attained such force that in many places they could be distinctly felt by anyone standing still upon solid ground.

Science now became fully aware of the existence of some new and sinister—or at least unfathomed—force in the world, and began to give the matter profound study.

However, both Dr. Ferdinand Gresham and myself remained in complete ignorance of these events; for, as I have said, we were in the interior of Labrador. We both possessed a keen love of the wilderness, where, in vigorous sports, we renewed our energy for the work to be done in the cities—the doctor’s as director of the great astronomical observatory at the National University; mine in the prosaic channels of business.