The 4-D Doodler | Page 6

you got here. How did you
induce it to bring you here?"
"Huh?" Harper looked up from his scribbling. "Oh." Harper explained
quickly how he had induced the Being to act on himself.
"That's it!" cried Pillbot hoarsely. "You switched the pattern of
imitation on It--tricked It into bringing you here. That's what made it
angry--"
"Angry?" Harper almost dropped his pad, clutched at Pillbot as there
was a sudden upheaval of the invisible tension-surface on which they
stood. A violent shake sprawled them on the "ground" and now Harper
saw the torso of Gault, a few feet away, apparently hovering above the
surface.
"Yes, angry!" Pillbot was pale. "As long as you merely gave it
something to imitate it was pacified. But now it recognizes opposition,
an effort to outwit it due to your switching the pattern of imitation. Its
condition is dangerous--it's bound to react violently. We have to get out
of here. You must know some way--"
Harper again scribbled some figures on his pad. "As soon as I've
worked out this formula--"
Pillbot shook him frantically. "Can't you understand! This Creature is a
mental patient of a violent type. We are in a fourth dimensional insane
asylum!" Pillbot gazed upward fearfully at a descending mass. "The
pattern of its action fits perfectly," he went on. "Some violent type of
insanity, combined with delusions of grandeur. Any slightest
opposition will cause a spasm of fury. It recognizes such opposition in
the way you tricked it into bringing you here. At first I thought it was a
primitive mentality, but now I know it is a highly evolved, but insane
creature, thinks it's Napoleon, wants to conquer the three dimensional
plane which its attention has been attracted to in some way--"
Harper looked up in surprise. "Does it know about Napoleon?"

"Of course not, you fool!" screamed Pillbot. "It has the Napoleonic
complex, identifies itself with some great conqueror of its own realm.
And now it's on the rampage. We have to get out of here--" He clutched
at Harper as another upheaval of the surface threw them down.
* * * * *
Rising, Harper put away his pad. His calculations were complete. He
could now show engineers how to build high buildings, taking
advantage of space stress instead of trying to fight the stress.
For the first time, the danger of their position seemed to penetrate to his
consciousness. He looked about--and his eyes rested on a strange
familiar projection rising from the invisible floor a few feet away. It
was the section of his clay statue that had vanished--vanished because
its peculiar shape had somehow caused it to be warped into the fourth
dimension!
Why hadn't he been able to move it--Professor Gault moved about
freely.
He and Pillbot went over to it, tried to move it. A slight filmy webwork
around the projection caught Harper's eye. Now he knew--the Being
had somehow affixed it to the spot as a landmark, so It could locate the
laboratory. It must have been this projection that had first attracted the
Being's attention to the three dimensional world, since, ordinarily, It
would never have noticed the presence of three dimensional life, any
more than humans would notice the presence of two dimensional life if
such existed!
Harper looked up at a bleat from Pillbot. Above them was a sudden
furious play of lights and shades. Vast masses seemed shifting in crazy
juxtapositions, now descending rapidly toward them.
"Quick," Harper, now fully aroused, gasped to Pillbot. "Climb down
this projection!"
"Climb down it--?"

"Yes, there is a fluid condition of space where it penetrates between the
two planes. By hugging its contours you will emerge into the
laboratory--I hope!"
Pillbot glanced overhead nervously, then experimentally slid a font
down the projection. The foot vanished. With a cry of relief, Pillbot
lowered himself until only head and shoulders were visible. Then that
too vanished.
Harper looked up. Some monstrous suggestion of Form was almost
upon him. He grasped the projection and just as his head sank out of
sight the Form seemed to smash down on him.
Pillbot helped Harper to his feet, from where he had sprawled at the
base of the statue, on the laboratory floor.
"Quick," he gasped. "The Creature will be infuriated now, by our
escape from Its realm. A maniacal spasm is sure to follow. We must get
Gault back in some way, then leave the laboratory."
Even as they dashed over toward the abbreviated form of Gault, the
laboratory shook. Invisible strains seemed to be bulging the walls
inward.
Harper rushed to the desk upon which still reposed the cutout, the
section between neck and waist still arched off the surface. As Harper
reached toward the cutout to press it flat, Gault's eyes widened, his
mouth