Loual B. Sugarman

“ Like some unearthly animal. Just that one scream. My stick hindered me. I threw it away and ran.
"My blood was cold in my veins, but I felt not one twinge of pain in my foot. At last I came to the edge of the clearing. And there—God, it makes me sick even now to think of it."
THE SPEAKER paused; his face was chalky, and he shuddered and buried his face in his hands. I think he was crying.
Outside, the wind still howled, dully, monotonously, eerily. Sometimes it would shriek and scream. Then my friend's voice again—level, dead, cold.
"I looked out; I saw Sigmund standing on the sand. ”

“ The rain beat through the leafless branches outside with a monotonous, slithering swish and rattled like ghostly fingers against the windows.
"The light makes it hard to talk—of unbelievable things. One needs the darkness to hear of hell." ”

“ Und dot iss vat has safed us from—Gott only knows vot! I do not know what dot stuff vill eat, but I de know it vill not eat silicon, Vy? I do not know. Dot iss yet a mystery. So—it starts——ach, dot too, I do not know—but it starts somewhere. Und it eats und grows, und grows and eats, and eferyt'ing vot it touches it consumes—egcept sand. Sand stops it.
"'It eats out der stuff in der sand, but not der silica, und starves and dies. It is a miracle. If der sand vas not here—ach, Gott!—it vould keep on going until—vell—I do not know! I haf nefer seen dot before. ”

“ He touched—just barely touched the brim of the hat to the gray matter and held it up. Already a growth was moving up the linen. He nodded, then threw it away, onto the sand. Speechless, we watched it fade away under the merciless attack of that horrible stuff, and then, in turn, the gray fungoid growth wither and disappear.
"'Now do you understand? Do you see vat I meant? Vood, steel, linen—eferyt'ing vat it touches it eats. It grows fast—like flame in dry sticks. All-consuming. Aber—siest du—dot sand—ven it touched dot, it died. It starved. Und see! Look close—more closer still at dot sand. ”

“ The stick, for about twelve inches up, was a mass of gray!
"And as I watched, I saw, steadily growing before my eyes, that awful gray creep up and surround the wood. I'm not exaggerating; I tell you, in less time than it takes to tell, it had almost reached Von Housmann's hand. He threw it from him with an exclamation of horror.
"It fell in the gray growth and instantly vanished. It seemed to melt away."
"SIGMUND looked at me. He was pale. At last he sighed.
"'So-o-o! Ve learn. On vood it grows. I might haf guessed. Dot iss der reason dot no trees are here. ”

“ It destroys dem. But so schnell; ach, lige fire it growed. My frendt, I lige dot stuff lesser als before. It is not healt'y. But vat vill it not eat?'
"I handed him my rifle. He took it, and with the muzzle poked the growth. Man, my hair fairly stood on end! Do you know anything about fungi? No? Well, I have never known or heard of any vegetable growth that would attack blue steel. But that stuff, I tell you, that rifle barrel sprouted a crop of that gray mass as readily and as quickly as had the wood!
"I grabbed the gun and lifted it out of the patch. ”