MYSTERY RIVER
By ELWIN J. OWENS
PILOT WRIGHT NELSON was making his first long trip alone in his biplane. He had crossed the mountain range in western Washington and had left the snow-capped peaks far behind. The narrow neck of northern Idaho had been passed over with the same speed, and then he was over a fertile valley in Montana. How beautiful it did look to him. The vast fields of waving grain, from his height, appeared like a green sea with just enough breeze to fan its surface into gentle waves.
He slowed his machine and lowered his elevation so that he could get a better view. The closer he came to earth, the more absorbed his thoughts became in the beauty of the country.
Snap! Crack! Something broke. Pilot Nelson lost his head, so to speak. The machine was out of his control and started its plunge downward. "Five hundred feet to go! Can I make it safely? What will mother say?" These were the last sane thoughts that flashed through his mind. Everything turned black before his eyes. To him it seemed that his body was shrinking. He was dropping down through space a dead weight.
The earth seemed to open up. His falling body took on momentum. Into the opened chasm he fell. Down between its ragged sides, he glided, even faster than the plane. Faster, faster, faster he went. Suddenly he hit bottom with a thud that almost flattened him.
He realized himself alone in a strange world, surrounded by strange beings. More than that, he was in the middle of a milky river; and when he tried to right himself, he found that his body floated easily in an upright position with his head above the surface.
He surveyed the situation. At the source of the river, he observed huge propeller blades similar to the ones on his biplane, only a hundred times larger. They were fixed to stationary supports but were slowly rotating, forcing the liquid of the mysterious river from them. Turning his gaze in the opposite direction, he noted that beyond him lay monstrous mountains, such as he had never dreamed of seeing. More still became the mystery, the river was being forced to run up hill by the huge propellers.
Upon the bank, some distance from him, were nude persons. They came nearer to him. Such ponderous masses of human flesh, he had never seen. Large rolls of fat encircled their bodies, making them appear like human forms built up of odd sized automobile tires piled one upon the other. Their bodies were gigantic, but such small heads. No larger than his fist. And eyes no larger than those of small birds.
A crowd of them gathered on the bank. They conversed with each other by means of radio head-sets and used floating aerials. All seemed to be happy. All seemed to be looking in his direction. He tried to call to them. They paid no heed. But when he motioned that he was hungry, they laughed heartily and plucked straws from the ground. Through these straws they gorged themselves with the fluid of the river.
Having drunk their fill, they again laughed heartily, wiped their lips, motioned him to drink the same, and moved inland.
Pilot Nelson took a swallow from the river. It nauseated him for a few moments. Then he began to feel his flesh bulge out and his strength began to return. He plunged over on his side and tried to swim to the shore.
The contents of the river became thicker and thicker as he progressed. Soon he found it impossible to swim further. He tried to climb to the surface, but when upright he could only get his head above the milky matter that surrounded him.
Soon he saw the inhabitants moving in large processions in the direction of the huge propellers at the source of the river. They threw large tangled masses of wire high above their heads. These, too, floated in mid air and he discovered that they were aerials, very much similar to the ones used in conversation, only many times larger. They snatched electric current from the atmosphere. The propellers began to turn more rapidly. They began to spin. The contents of the river began to move more rapidly up the inclined bed and he was carried with it.
Besides being forced to flow up hill at a rapid rate, the river contained several whirlpools. Pilot Nelson floated into one of these. It spun him around like a top. He soon became dizzy. His vision was hazy. On and on the river carried him.
THE ATMOSPHERE became warmer and warmer the further up the hillside he floated. At last, the heat was torrid. Again his body began to shrink. Smaller and smaller, he became until, at length, he seemed no more than three feet high.
The river was changing color. He was out of the whirlpool. The current had slackened to a slowly moving mass. The color changed from white to cream, then to chocolate, finally becoming dark brown. And, as it changed color, it grew warmer and warmer until it was hot. His body was becoming seared. His clothing dropped off. His flesh was fast being dried out. Lighter and lighter he grew and, as he grew lighter, his body floated more and more above the surface. At last, he was fully emerged, nothing but a miniature of his former self.
A still stranger land confronted him. Great rocks stood out, the only landmarks in the vast expanse of seemingly barren waste. Far back, he saw pigmies of dark complexion floating about, their feet just skimming the surface. Close to them, from out of the fissures in the rocky bed, floated up gases of many colored hues.
He inhaled a deep breath and, to his surprise, he, too, floated across the surface. He was being carried by a gentle breeze in the direction of the pigmies. A great light of purple-white, so bright that it nearly blinded him at first, served as their sun.
The pigmies seemed very busy. They did not notice him. He observed them carefully. No hair, no ears, no nose, no mouth. Simply a dark ball for a head and a face form that resembled a small, old copper funnel. Through this funnel they drank freely of a boiling hot liquid. Their eyes were large and green. Their arms were nothing but bare bones and, at the end, were cupped hands with the fingers webbed together.
They were boiling metals and precious stones in the fissures of the rocks. Silently, he watched them. One would dip up diamonds in his cupped hands and sail away; another would dip platinum
