Adventure Magazine Cover — page 155: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Fire Brat Occasions There was nothing for it, then, but for them to break line, which they did, racing for the nearest cracks and cover, as if the light, and not the heat, hurt them—all save one, and that the last one, the bully, who had simply come forward along the narrow spaces, and in so doing, probably almost un- consciously, had swept up a crowd before him. Now he found one before him, stand- ing like a steel and ruby and silver statue, who—would not be swept up. Instantly they fought. The fight lasted one-fifth of a second. You would want a micro-photographic plate, not an eye, to record what happened. After which fight, so-called, the visitor turned and went hack by the way he had come. He was not’in any hurry, but he did not stop. The greater part of one of his feelers—the off-side one—was missing, but it had been “all present and correct”? when he had arrived. Thermoby followed in more leisurely fashion later. This following of one another up and down cracks and crannies seemed to be part of the scheme of things with the fire brat folk, but Thermoby did not follow far. He turned back soon along another crack, which led toward the fire, heat, fierce heat at least some period of the twenty-four hours, being necessary to his being. He found that many of the fire brats of that neighborhood, which was the hearth— perhaps some one can explain how they first colonized the place at all, by the way— were gathered around the glare, but not visibly so. Most were hidden in crannies, and as he peered into each hiding place, or gingerly stepped past a silent, close-pressed, silvery steel form, he met everywhere wav- ing feelers to warn him off. It was like being under the sea among prawns and shrimps and such ilk. Anon he came to a group of middle-sized fire brats at business—feeding apparently— round some bread-crumbs. Anon, again, he came upon a big fire brat, all alone, feeding upon—not crumbs, but all that was left of the husk of a lesser fire brat. And it was noticeable here, as with Thermoby’s lapse of character, that the corpse of the victim was not in any way carved, but seemed almost invisibly to shrink from inside, the outer shell, the creature itself, remaining always, however much fed upon. Presently Thermoby, wandering devious in an aimless sort of way, and almost always 149 out of sight, appeared upon the hearthrug, where, as he turned, he gleamed like a new sixpence. Almost instantly an answering gleam flashed in front of him, and then, so quickly that it seemed like the shooting of light off the sides of very small, darting fish, came gleam upon gleam upon gleam.. No words of mine can express the rapidity of those silver flashes—here, there, over there—everywhere at once. Thermoby ‘‘froze”’ instantly into motion- lessness. Then, suddenly and prawn-like, began to retire backward. He knew the meaning of those lightning-flash gleams— who should, if not he?-—but he was too late to avoid the trouble that they spelled. It is unusual for fire brats to charge headlong into one another. As a rule, if they see no other way, they turn back and go different ways, or manage—warily, always warily—to slide over. Therefore, when an unknown fire brat, racing out of the shadows across the hearth- rug, barged full tilt into Thermoby, the latter was somewhat surprized. The reason may have been that the other had no feelers on the front end of him, and so nothing to warn him of impending collision. They come off easily, these feelers, but it looked suspiciously as if some foe must have got the ones in question. However, Thermoby had no time to note these, or any other matters. He had only time to shoot straight up on end, which the other did also, and execute a rather fine fling aside to avoid falling on his back, a thing most insects loathe doing. And it was just as well, this leap aside, for, even as he let the other by, he was con- scious of a dark and reddish thing, with waving feelers—antennz is more correct— a large flat face, and a smell which no one can mistake, shooting past him at the gallop. He felt, rather than saw, toothed jaws like scythes, snapping at him and everything else withjn reach, and he promptly turned himself into an electric spark let loose. He had no desire to end his life via cock- roach, which was what this vision was, and in about half a second he reached a crack between the floor boards and the hearth, and—was not. In other words, he was instantly as motionless as the dead. He was not alone, however. Several fire brats were gathered here, as a suitable “taking off” place for expeditions of adven- ture upon the hearthrug, where, one may COMmMiCcloooks Cc C@