Project Gutenberg's The Seed of the Toc-Toc Birds, by Francis Flagg

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Title: The Seed of the Toc-Toc Birds

Author: Francis Flagg

Release Date: December 12, 2007 [EBook #23831]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Transcriber's Note: This e-text was produced from "Astounding Stories",
January, 1932. Extensive research did not reveal any evidence that the
U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.

[Illustration: _His clutching hands closed on something small and
hard._]

The Seed of the Toc-Toc Birds

By Francis Flagg

[Sidenote: Little did Prof. Reubens suspect what his atom-tampering
would set loose upon the world.]

Talbot had been working that day, far up in the Catalinas, looking over
some mining prospects for his company, and was returning to the
Mountain View Hotel in Oracle when, from the mouth of an abandoned
shaft some distance back of that town, he saw a strange object emerge.

"Hello," he said to Manuel, his young Mexican assistant, "what the
devil can that be?"

Manuel crossed himself swiftly.

"Dios!" he exclaimed, "but it is a queer bird, senor."

Queer, it certainly was, and of a species Talbot had never before laid
eyes on. The bird stood on the crumbling rim of the mining shaft and
regarded him with golden eyes. Its body was as large as that of a
buzzard, and its head had a flat, reptilian look, unpleasant to see.
Nor was that the only odd thing. The feathers glittered metallically,
like blued copper, and a streak of glistening silver outlined both
wings.

Marveling greatly, and deciding that the bird must be some rare kind
escaped from a zoo, or a stray from tropical lands much further south,
Talbot advanced cautiously, but the bird viewed his approach with
unconcern. Ten feet from it he stopped uneasily. The strange fowl's
intent look, its utter immobility, somewhat disconcerted him.

"Look out, senor," warned Manuel.

Involuntarily, Talbot stepped back. If he had possessed a rifle he
would have shot the bir