A Voice from the Inner World

[Illustration: ... And it was evident that the others were equally afraid of me ... they stood regarding me with an odd mixture of wonder and terror on their huge faces.]

The Voice from the Inner World

by A. Hyatt Verrill

Author of “The Plague of the Living Dead,” “Through the Crater’s Rim,” etc.

The author of this story, well known to our readers, in submitting his prize story, adopts a treatment entirely different from that of practically all the rest of the winners. He has submitted a tale so characteristic and so original that it holds your interest by sheer strength. That there should be a cannibalistic race of females somewhere in our world is, after all, not impossible nor improbable. There are still cannibals at large, at the present writing, and probably will be for many generations to come. While the story has its gruesome moments, it also contains good science and Mr. Verrill certainly knows how to treat his subject and get the most from it. As a “different” sort of story, we highly recommend it to your attention.

On the eighteenth of October, the New York papers reported the appearance of a remarkable meteor which had been seen in mid-Pacific, and the far more startling announcement that it was feared that the amazing celestial visitor had struck and destroyed a steamship.

“At eleven-fifteen last evening,” read the account in the Herald, “the Panama-Hawaiian Line steamship Chiriqui reported by radio the appearance of an immense meteor which suddenly appeared above the horizon to the southeast, and which increased rapidly in size and brilliance. Within ten minutes from the time the phenomenon was first sighted, it appeared as a huge greenish sphere of dazzling brilliance high in the sky, and heading, apparently, directly for the Chiriqui. Almost at the same time as reported by the Chiriqui, several other ships, among them the Miners and Merchants Line Vulcan, and the Japanese liner Fujiama Maru also reported the meteorite, although they were more than one thousand miles apart and equidistant from the position of the Chiriqui.

“In the midst of a sentence describing the appearance of the rapidly approaching meteor, the Chiriqui’s wireless message came to an abrupt end, and all attempts to get into further communication with her operator failed. The other vessels reported that a scintillating flash, like an explosion, was followed by the meteor’s disappearance, and it is feared that the immense aerolite may have struck the Chiriqui, and utterly destroyed her with all on board. As no S O S has been received, and as the ship’s radio broke off with the words: ‘It is very close and the sea is as bright as day. Below the immense mass of green fire are two smaller spheres of intense red. It is so near we can hear it roaring like a terrific wind. It is headed--’ It is probable that the vessel, if struck, was instantly destroyed. It has been suggested, however, that it is possible that the meteor or meteors were accompanied by electrical phenomena which may have put the Chiriqui’s wireless apparatus out of commission and that the ship may be safe.”