Cradle of the World

Another of the pulp fiction stories from Planet Comics, transcribed from the original JPEG fiche scans to make them easier to read and reformat. The two pages that this came from are included at the bottom.

Cradle of the World
by Lin Davies from Planet Comics #8, September 1940.

Fighting the power-drag of the time-warp, Captain Ames' space ship Discoverer is again smashed back to Earth -- this time in the dangerous days of the hard clouting Cave Men.

The space ship Discoverer hummed and groaned from the force of the shock. Half stunned, Captain Dexter Ames picked himself off the deck of the control cabin. Sprawled in the corner, Doctor Phillips, his second in command, was rising with a face distorted by alarm.

"It can't be a meteor!" cried Ames.

Phillips shook his head, as much to clear his thoughts as to answer the captain's question. "We weren't able to break out of the time warp," he muttered gloomily.

Ames set his teeth. "Let's see what the damage is." He leaned against the speaking aperture. "Morgan! Are the motors dead?"

"As a door-nail, sir," came the muffled voice of Morgan. "We're dropping, but slow -- the gravity resistors are still working."

"That's luck!" breathed Ames, and hurried to the great telescope. He peered down steadily, and gave a cry. "Doctor! It's Earth again -- or am I wrong?"

The little Scientist took his place and peeref through the great quartzite lenses. He blinked, "Yes, that's Europe -- and yet the land outlines don't seem just right! Do you know, Dexter, I have a feeling that we're journeying back into an older age!"

"Not the Ice Age, I hope," grinned Ames with a dubious grin.

"Decidedly not the Ice Age," reproved the scientist. "You should remember that in those times no such land configuration was possible.



Ames nodded. "Well whatever it is, we're stuck with it."

The Discoverer, battered and bent, sank into a long, narrow valley hedged in by snow-capped mountains. Engineer Morgan and his experts began there work at once.

Ames told off a scouting party, hoping to replenish the ship's dwindling food supply. "Remember," he warned, "keep together, and each man in communication by space-phone with the ship." The twenty, led by Gunner Hatch, trooped out the great door.

They climbed a gentle slope above a winding river. No man or beast appeared, and the scouts disappeared from Ames' view.

Two hours later a lookout cried out. Men of the scouting party had appeared on the brow of the hill. They were moving fast, as if in retreat. Another appeared, and then two who were helping an injured man. Hatch ran up as Ames stepped from the ship.

"We were attacked," he gasped. "By giants! Cave-men!"

Ames and Phillips exchanged a glance. "Centuries!" cried the scientist. "We've slipped past centuries of time."

Ames had been counting heads. "You're two mwn short," he rapped.

Hatch nodded. "And one man hurt. He was hit by a great rock thrown by a giant. The others are dead."

"How were they killed? Hit by rocks?"

Hatch's face bore a strange look as he spread his hands. "Nothing hit them. They just dropped after we shot one of the giants. Nothing hit them!"

"Nonsense!" cried Ames, but as he saw the stubborn lines in the Chief Gunner's face he wondered. "Come on Doctor, you and I will do a scout."

He picked six men of proved daring and discretion, and the eight followed the tracks of the food hunters. One man sighted a goat, but Ames shook his head. He wanted to see those bodies -- the two slain shipmates, and the giant -- if the had not been dragged away.

First they found the airmen. Doctor Phillips studied the unmarked still faces with pursed lips, then bade the men strip both. There was not a mark on them. The doctor, shuttling his hand through his thinning hair, said not a word.

A little farther away lay the giant. His death was no mystery. The ray of the ship man's pistol had caught him fairly in the face.

"We'll pick up our men on our way back," decided ames. "Now for food."

They had caught four goats before the giants appeared. One, the nearest, seemed to be a sort of leader. He carried a great club, swung on his shoulder above a craggy, scowling face framed with a mat of long hair. his only garmet was a bear hide hung off one shoulder and caught at the loins with a piece of bone. He came on slowly, teet bared, club balanced for a crushing blow.

Ames gripped his pistol. At that instant another giant leaped from the underbrush to make a flank attack on the party. The menaced ship man fired his ray-pistol. The giant's arms fell, the great body slumped.

And then a startling thing happened. The ship-man beside Ames gave a little sish and sank to the ground. Ames and Phillips knelt by him and saw that he awas dead.

"Ah!" cried the doctor, his face working, his eyes gleaming. "Captain, I --"

The leading giant had paused, astonished the sudden death of two men. His scowl left his face, and a thrill coursed through Ames' whole being. Why, this cave-man's face resembled his own! His pistol wavered from its target as he marveled.

Two giants forward from a fringe of woods. Three ray pistols spat, and they fell. And if by magnetism, three of Ames' party slumped and lay still.

"Ames!" cried the little scientist in anguish. "Stop them! Stop the firing! And don't shoot that big leader"

"Cease firing!" roared Ames. He turned wildly to the Doctor. "He looks like me, that Cave Man."



"Of Course," babbled the doctor. "Don't you see? The time-warp! These are the First Men! That's why our men died!"

Ames passed a hand over his brow, half lifting his pistol as the giants slowly advanced. "You mean --" he cried incredulously.

"Our men shot there own ancestors!" cried the doctor. "And so, without ancestors, how could they be alive? They died!"

"It's crazy!" cried Ames.

"It's the law of time!" retorted Phillips.

"And that big fellow --"

"Is your ancestor!"

Shuddering, Ames holstered his pistol. "Fall back!" he ordered his men. They paused only to lift their dead, and retreated towards the ship. Ames looked back. The big leader had stopped, and stood, leaning on his club, staring stupidly after Ames.


End.

From the original fiche scans of Planet Comics #9 at Golden Age Comics, uploaded there by Rolster.

The Lizard - Men of Alpha Astra

by Lin Davies. From Planet Comics #3, March 1940.

Piloted by Capt. Dexter Ames, 21,000 A.D. outward-space Columbus, the rocket-ship lands on the mystery-planet of Astra, only to be overwhelmed by the rodent-faced Lizard Men.

Captain Dexter Ames caught his breath. The swirling vapors, miles in depth, had blown clear, and through the magnifying transparent shield of the space ship's control room he could see the feared mystery planet straight ahead. He turned exultantly to the white-haired man beside him.

"There she is, Doctor! Just where the observatory plotted her!"

Doctor Phillips smiled wistfully. And you think we can succeed in finding the secret of Alpha Astra's control over the Sun?"

Ames clapped a hand affectionately on the old man's shoulder. "I hope so, for all our sakes." There was meaning in his voice, and unconsciously his gaze shifted to the slim figure of the girl who stood a few paces away, staring at the strange newly-discovered Alpha Astra, first of the stars.

"There may be great danger ahead -- dangers that we of Earth have never known," Dr. Phillips reminded the captain.

"We'll have to take our chances," said Ames soberly.

The doctor turned to join Ames in an avid survey of the great star whose form grew in size even though the space ship was coasting through the heavens. Now that they were getting close, young Captain Ames wished that Cara Phillips, the doctor's daughter, was back on Earth, for the landing on Alpha Astra bade fair to be a memorable one.

He sounded the alert. "Stations!" he called through the control tube. "Prepare to land!"

As he adjusted his ray pistol the girl moved to his side. "Good luck, Captain."

"And to you, Cara," Ames rejoined. "Stay with the ship."

She nodded, her eyes troubled. The Ames turned and took the controls himself for the landing. He shot the rocket ship into a narrow but straight canyon and set her down with hardly a jar.


The landing crew, led by engineer Sept Morgan and Gunner Hatch, waited tensely behind the triple doors. Morgan opened a valve, and held a mouse-cage up to the hissing vapor. The white mouse inside sniffed, but continued to cavort.

"Atmosphere looks safe, but keep the air hoods ready!" called Ames. "Follow me!" He stepped upon the soil of Alpha Astra.

The air was clean and pure. The canyon seemed sliced by a god's knife, and sloping ledges offered a way up to the top. He started up.

The ledge was wide, the slope was easy. As he led his party of explorers along the grey, vegetationless canyon, Ames began to plan a long search for the secret of the star -- the strange force that Earth's scientists argued could subdue or intensify the heat of the sun so as to lessen tropical heat and Arctic cold, and stop the series of earthquakes that were taking heavy toll of life on Earth. But at the top of the canyon, after one glance down at the ship, he gave up all plans of further exploration.

"Morgan! Hatch!" he yelled. The urgency in his voice made them run to the dizzy edge.

Far below, a strange horrible thing had happened. Even as the Earth-men watched, gliding shapes passed in and out of the space ship's doors.

"They've captured the ship!" cried Hatch.

"And look at them!" gasped Morgan. "What are they? Captain, what in heaven's name are they?"

Ames brushed his hand over his eyes, and stared. "They're saurians," he said huskily. "Lizards. But look -- they can walk upright! And -- ah! Look! They're dragging Cara Phillips off!" He leaped back, pulled his ray-pistol and dashed for the ledge. "Come on!" he cried.

Morgan and Hatch followed, and it was well for them. For behind them rose loud cries of terrible fear. Ames knew what had happened; some of his men had been seized by other bands of lizards.

But he dared not stop. His duty was to the ship. Like an avenging demon he hurtled down the slope and leveled his ray-gun. Point-blank, he fired at the nearest slinking lizard. It collapsed with a whimpering cry, and Ames shuddered in amazement as he saw its half-human face.



Then Morgan and Hatch opened up, and saurians fell in heaps. The doors yawned, and Ames burst in. He found a white-faced Doctor Phillips still in the control room.

"It was all so sudden!" whispered the ashy-faced doctor. I saw the take her -- that way --"

Morgan burst in, "Everybody safe but the girl!" he cried. "And the boys have captured a lizard-man!"

In a flash Ames adjusted the precious aura-cap, jealously guarded though-transference marvel of Earth-rulers and Earth-police. "Let's see him," he said grimly. "He may not talk, but it won't be necessary."

"The lizard was half-stunned, and crowded behind a welter of steel boxes and wedged bars. He whined when Ames spoke, cackling and muttering a weird gibberish. But Ames paid no heed. He adjusted the aura-cap to suck the thoughts of the scaly green head. Hardly was the aura-cap adjusted before he cried out in relief. "She's held prisoner, with the others! We can save them all!"

--

On the ground outside lay the still bodies of the lizard-men. Ames called for volunteers for the chase. For a moment they hung back. "Come on!" he cried. "A woman's life hangs in the balance!"

Quickly twenty men stepped forward. Ames laughed harshly. "Here we go! Doctor, guard that door. Now, let's give it to them!"

They caught the lizard-men in a great cave, seated on a circle, thousands of them, mumbling and grunting in a chorus, while green jaws gaped as a dozen guards held the struggling Cara Phillips and eleven of the space-ship's crew.

Ames fired. But no lizard-man fell. He tried again. His men began to lag. "Come on!" he cried savagely, and rushed at the screaming saurians. At ten paces he fired at the first attacking lizard, an this time the shot told. The beast writhed and fell. Behind him the crew took heart, and rushed the cave. Lizards dropped by twos and threes, and soon the girl and white-faced Earth-men were free.

The race back to the ship was touch and go, for the hoard of lizards slithered swiftly at their heels. But once safe behind those doors, Dexter Ames slipped an arm over Doctor Phillips' shoulders and another around the waist of a trembling girl, and said happily, "Well, we made it. And we haven't yet finished with the Lizard Men of Astra. Before we're finished we'll unbear the secret of their world."



The original pages from which this story was transcribed are below (via Golden Age Comics)






















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