The Princess of the Atom by Ray Cummings

The first of the giants was reported by a small steamship out of Halifax, bound for Portland. The ship had rounded Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, during the night of March 20th. The sea was stormy; the night overcast with almost a gale from the north. The ship's lookout saw what at first looked like a huge dark rock looming out of the ocean where no rock should have been. It was well inshore from the ship; and though it was only a few miles away, it was not seen clearly.

The ship continued on her course. An hour later, the full moon broke through a rift in the clouds, painting the sullen sea with silver. To the north, where the southern headlands of the land were barely visible, a giant human figure was seen standing in the ocean. Every one on the ship saw it clearly. Incredible as the vision of a fabled sea monster, yet there it was, unmistakable, frightening -- it threw the ship's company into a panic of terror.

The thing seemed human. The giant figure of a man. He stood waist-deep in the ocean with the waves beating against his naked chest. How deep the water was, the master of the ship could not say. Ten fathoms perhaps, in the shallows where the giant stood -- sixty feet; and his torso towered another sixty above the surface. He stood watching the ship. Then, as it passed, he followed it; wading slowly along to keep abreast of it as doubtless he had been doing for an hour past. In the moonlight, details were plain. A bullet-headed giant. Some said that they could see his features -- human of cast, but brutish.

The figure kept its distance, regarding the ship, but making no effort to approach. The vessel turned in a moment off its course, and fled south. The moon was presently obscured. They saw no more of the giant.

This steamship carried wireless. But the master could see no rational way of sending such a wild report. But when hours later, the vessel docked in Portland, the tale was given out.

In these days of skeptical enlightened civilization one cannot claim to have seen a sea serpent and expect anything but laughter. And this was even more incredible. The ship's commander, within a few hours, even doubted the evidence of his own senses. But from the sailors the tale leaked out. And a whole ship's company cannot be insane, or all similarly drunk at once.

The newspapers caught at it, and spread it jocularly until the officials of the freight line cursed their captain and all the crew of the ship for arousing such ridicule.

But still there was some corroboration. From a village near Cape Sable came the report that a giant man had been seen wading in the ocean, seen by a few people during a brief period of moonlight, and then was gone.

Where the figure came from, or where it went, none could say. It was seen just this one night. The tale went around the world and caused a smile, and in a few days was forgotten.

That was the first of the giants.

I was at this time a pilot in the International Mail Service, flying a local plane from Boston up the coast to St. John, daytimes. Up one day with several stops along the route; and back the next day; and then a day off duty. Drake had become father's assistant. They had a laboratory in New York City, and were living now in our Westchester home. Our home on the Maine shore was closed for the winter.

Once a week I went to New York to be with father and Drake. I got there the day the giant was reported. It was of particular interest to me, since it was not far from my flying route.

Father said, "You keep your eyes open, Frank. And look here, if you see anything -- don't report it at once. Telephone me."

He was so solemn that I laughed. And Drake was solemn, too.

I demanded, "I say, you two -- you don't believe this fool thing, do you?"

"Perhaps," said Drake.

I think that even then they had some vague idea of what it might mean. I thought the yarn was absurd; still less could I have imagined our own connection with it. Never once did I link it with Dianne. It was nearly five years now since that day she had vanished.

I made my next northward flight with no sign of a giant. Nor did I see anything unusual upon the return. In a few days more, like the rest of the world, I had lost interest.

Then one day near the end of March when I was off duty in Boston, another giant was reported. It had been seen the preceding night. A giant man -- fifty feet tall, or three hundred, according to the differing, confused versions. The figure had appeared in the ocean, possibly near the mouth of the Penobscot River in northern Maine. Several coast villages and several ships reported seeing the figure, wading north a mile offshore. It was reported almost all the way to the Bay of Fundy. And then it vanished.

This was too obvious for disbelief. No damage had been done. The thing apparently had encountered no ships; it had nowhere come ashore. But the sea was calm this night; the waves of the wading figure had rolled in and pounded the coast to give tangible evidence that the thing was no vision.