The Mississippi Saucer Read online

dark against the sun, andsomething that looked like the roof of a house with water washing overit.

  Then, with mud sucking at his heels, Jimmy was clinging to a slipperybank and staring out across the river, shading his eyes against theglare.

  Jimmy thought, "I'm dreaming! I'll wake up and see Uncle Joe blowing ona vinegar jug. I'll see Pigtail, too. Uncle Al will be sitting on thedeck, taking it easy!"

  But Uncle Al wasn't sitting on the deck. There was no deck for Uncle Alto sit upon. Just the top of the shantyboat, sinking lower and lower,and Uncle Al swimming.

  Uncle Al had his arm around Pigtail, and Jimmy could see Pigtail's whiteface bobbing up and down as Uncle Al breasted the tide with his strongright arm.

  Closer to the bend was the Harmon shantyboat. The Harmons were usingtheir shotguns now, blasting fiercely away at Uncle Al and Pigtail.Jimmy could see the smoke curling up from the leaping guns and the waterjumping up and down in little spurts all about Uncle Al.

  There was an awful hollow agony in Jimmy's chest as he stared, a fearthat was partly a soundless screaming and partly a vision of Uncle Alsinking down through the dark water and turning it red.

  It was strange, though. Something was happening to Jimmy, nibbling awayat the outer edges of the fear like a big, hungry river cat. Making thefear seem less swollen and awful, shredding it away in little flakes.

  There was a white core of anger in Jimmy which seemed suddenly to blazeup.

  He shut his eyes tight.

  In his mind's gaze Jimmy saw himself holding the Harmon brothers up bytheir long, mottled legs. The Harmon brothers were frogs. Not friendly,good natured frogs like Uncle Al, but snake frogs. Cottonmouth frogs.

  All flannel red were their mouths, and they had long evil fangs whichdripped poison in the sunlight. But Jimmy wasn't afraid of them no-ways.Not any more. He had too firm a grip on their legs.

  "Don't let anything happen to Uncle Al and Pigtail!" Jimmy whispered, asthough he were talking to himself. No--not exactly to himself. Tosomeone like himself, only larger. Very close to Jimmy, but larger, morepowerful.

  "Catch them before they harm Uncle Al! Hurry! _Hurry!_"

  There was a strange lifting sensation in Jimmy's chest now. As though hecould shake the river if he tried hard enough, tilt it, send it swirlingin great thunderous white surges clear down to Lake Pontchartrain.

  * * * * *

  But Jimmy didn't want to tilt the river. Not with Uncle Al on it andPigtail, and all those people in New Orleans who would disappear rightoff the streets. They were frogs too, maybe, but good frogs. Not likethe Harmon brothers.

  Jimmy had a funny picture of himself much younger than he was. Jimmy sawhimself as a great husky baby, standing in the middle of the river andblowing on it with all his might. The waves rose and rose, and Jimmy'scheeks swelled out and the river kept getting angrier.

  No--he must fight that.

  "Save Uncle Al!" he whispered fiercely. "Just save him--and Pigtail!"

  It began to happen the instant Jimmy opened his eyes. Around the bend inthe sunlight came a great spinning disk, wrapped in a fiery glow.

  Straight toward the Harmon shantyboat the disk swept, water spurting upall about it, its bottom fifty feet wide. There was no collision. Only abrightness for one awful instant where the shantyboat was twisting andturning in the current, a brightness that outshone the rising sun.

  Just like a camera flashbulb going off, but bigger, brighter. So big andbright that Jimmy could see the faces of the Harmon brothers fifty timesas large as life, shriveling and disappearing in a magnifying burst offlame high above the cypress trees. Just as though a giant in the skyhad trained a big burning glass on the Harmon brothers and whipped itback quick.

  Whipped it straight up, so that the faces would grow huge beforedissolving as a warning to all snakes. There was an evil anguish in thedissolving faces which made Jimmy's blood run cold. Then the disk wasalone in the middle of the river, spinning around and around, theshantyboat swallowed up.

  And Uncle Al was still swimming, fearfully close to it.

  The net came swirling out of the disk over Uncle Al like a great,dew-drenched gossamer web. It enmeshed him as he swam, so gently that hehardly seemed to struggle or even to be aware of what was happening tohim.

  Pigtail didn't resist, either. She simply stopped thrashing in UncleAl's arms, as though a great wonder had come upon her.

  Slowly Uncle Al and Pigtail were drawn into the disk. Jimmy could seeUncle Al reclining in the web, with Pigtail in the crook of his arm, hislong, angular body as quiet as a butterfly in its deep winter sleepinside a swaying glass cocoon.

  Uncle Al and Pigtail, being drawn together into the disk as Jimmystared, a dull pounding in his chest. After a moment the poundingsubsided and a silence settled down over the river.

  Jimmy sucked in his breath. The voices began quietly, as though they hadbeen waiting for a long time to speak to Jimmy deep inside his head, anddidn't want to frighten him in any way.

  "Take it easy, Jimmy! Stay where you are. We're just going to have afriendly little talk with Uncle Al."

  "A t-talk?" Jimmy heard himself stammering.

  "We knew we'd find you where life flows simply and serenely, Jimmy.Your parents took care of that before they left you with Uncle Al.

  "You see, Jimmy, we wanted you to study the Earth people on a great,wide flowing river, far from the cruel, twisted places. To grow up withthem, Jimmy--and to understand them. Especially the Uncle Als. For UncleAl is unspoiled, Jimmy. If there's any hope at all for Earth as we guideand watch it, that hope burns most brightly in the Uncle Als!"

  The voice paused, then went on quickly. "You see, Jimmy, you're nothuman in the same way that your sister is human--or Uncle Al. But you'restill young enough to feel human, and we want you to feel human, Jimmy."

  "W--Who are you?" Jimmy gasped.

  "We are the Shining Ones, Jimmy! For wide wastes of years we havecruised Earth's skies, almost unnoticed by the Earth people. Whendarkness wraps the Earth in a great, spinning shroud we hide our shipsclose to the cities, and glide through the silent streets in search ofour young. You see, Jimmy, we must watch and protect the young of ourrace until sturdiness comes upon them, and they are ready for the GreatChange."

  * * * * *

  For an instant there was a strange, humming sound deep inside Jimmy'shead, like the drowsy murmur of bees in a dew-drenched clover patch.Then the voice droned on. "The Earth people are frightened by our shipsnow, for their cruel wars have put a great fear of death in theirhearts. They watch the skies with sharper eyes, and their minds havegroped closer to the truth.

  "To the Earth people our ships are no longer the fireballs of mysteriouslegend, haunted will-o'-the-wisps, marsh flickerings and the even moreillusive distortions of the sick in mind. It is a long bold step fromfireballs to flying saucers, Jimmy. A day will come when the Earthpeople will be wise enough to put aside fear. Then we can show ourselvesto them as we really are, and help them openly."

  The voice seemed to take more complete possession of Jimmy's thoughtsthen, growing louder and more eager, echoing through his mind with thepersuasiveness of muted chimes.

  "Jimmy, close your eyes tight. We're going to take you across wide gulfsof space to the bright and shining land of your birth."

  Jimmy obeyed.

  It was a city, and yet it wasn't like New York or Chicago or any of theother cities Jimmy had seen illustrations of in the newspapers andpicture magazines.

  The buildings were white and domed and shining, and they seemed to towerstraight up into the sky. There were streets, too, weaving in and outbetween the domes like rainbow-colored spider webs in a forest ofmushrooms.

  * * * * *

  There were no people in the city, but down the aerial streets shiningobjects swirled with the swift easy gliding of flat stones skimming anedge of running water.

  Then as Jimmy stared into the depths
of the strange glow behind hiseyelids the city dwindled and fell away, and he saw a huge circular disklooming in a wilderness of shadows. Straight toward the disk a shiningobject moved, bearing aloft on filaments of flame a much smaller objectthat struggled and mewed and reached out little white arms.

  Closer and closer the shining object came, until Jimmy could see that itwas carrying a human infant that stared straight at Jimmy out of wide,dark eyes. But before he could get a really good look at the shiningobject it pierced the shadows and passed into the disk.

  There was a sudden, blinding burst of light, and the disk was gone.

  Jimmy opened his eyes.

  "You were once like that baby, Jimmy!" the voice said. "You were carriedby your parents into a waiting ship, and then out across wide gulfs ofspace to Earth.

  "You see, Jimmy, our race was once entirely human. But as we grew tomaturity we left the warm little